I am not the lyght, but to beare testymonye
Of hymn am fent, that all men maye beleve,
That hys bloude he wyll for their redemptyon geve.
He is foch a lyght as all men doth illumyne,
That ever were here, or fhall be after thys.
All the worlde he made by hys myghtye power devyne,
And yet that rude worlde wyll not knowe what he is.
Hys owne he enterynge, is not regarded of hys.
They that receyve hym, are God's true chyldren playne,
In fprete regenerate, and all grace fhall attayne.
Manye do recken, that I Johan Baptyst am he,
Deceyved are they, and that wyll apere in space.
Though he come after, yet he was longe afore me.
We are weake veflels, he is the welle of grace,
Of hys great goodnefle all that we have we purchace.
By hym are we like to have a better increes
Than ever we had by the lawe of Mofes.
In Mofes' harde lawe we had not els but darkenes,
Fygure and fhaddowe. All was not els but nyght,
Ponnyfhment for fynne, much rygour, payne and roughnes.
An hygh change is there, where all is turned to lyght,
Grace and remyffyon anon wyll fhyne full bryght.
Never man lyved that ever fe God afore,
Whych now in our kynde mannys ruyne wyll restore.
Helpe me to geve thankes to that Lorde evermore,
Whych am unto Chrift a cryar's voyce in the defart,
To prepare the pathes and hygh wayes hym before,
For hys delyght is on the poore fymple hart.
That innocent lambe from foch wyll never depart,
As wyll faythfullye receyve hym with good mynde.
Lete our voyce then founde in fome fwete mufycall kynde.
Refona tunc voce Antipbonam incipit, O clavis David, quam profequetur chorus cum organis, ut prius.
Vel in Anglico fermone fic:
O perfyght keye of David, and hygh fcepture of the kyndied of Jacob, whych openeft and no man fpear
eth, thu fpeakeft and no man openeth; come and delyver thy fervaunt mankynde, bound in prifon, fytting in the darkneffe. of fynne and bytter dampnacyon.
HE matters are foch that we have uttered here,
As ought not to flyde from your memoryall.
For they have opened foch confortable gere,
As is to the helthe of thys kynde univerfall,
Graces of the Lorde and promyfes lyberall,
Whych he hath geven to man for every age,
To knytt hym to Chrift, and fo clere hym of bondage.
As Saynt Paule doth write unto the Corinthes playne,
Our fore fathers were undre the cloud of darkenes,
And unto Chrifte's dayes ded in the fhaddowe remayne:
Yet were they not left, for of hym they had promes,
All they receyved one fpirytuall fedynge doubtles.
They dronke of the rocke whych them to lyfe refreshed,
For one favynge helthe, in Chrift, all they confeffed.
* i. e. afketh, enquireth.
So Chaucer's Teftament of Crefeide.
"Who had been there, and liking for to here,
"His faconde tonge and termis exquifite,
"Of rethorike the practike he might lere.
"In brefe fermon a preignant sentence write;
"Before Cupide valing his cappe a lite
"Speris the cause of that vocacion,
"And he anon fhewde his entencion."
Again, Douglas's Virgil, B. iii. p. 72.
"The feik ground deny is frute and fudis,
"My fader exhortis us turn againe our studis
"To Delos, and Apollois anfuere fpere,
"Be feiking him of fuccours us to lere;"
"Ane uthir mache to him was focht and sperit."
In the woman's fede was Adam first justy fyed,
So was faythfull Noah; so was just Abraham.
The faythe in that fede in Mofes fourth multyplyed,
Lykewyfe in David and Efaye, that after cam.
And in Johan Baptyft, whych fhewed the very lam.
Though they fe afarre, yet all they had one juítyce,
One Maffe (as they call it) and in Christ one facryfyce.
A man can not here to God do better servyce,
Than on thys to grounde hys faythe and understandynge,
For all the worlde's fynne alone Chrift payed the pryce,
In hys onlye deathe was mannys lyfe alwayes reftynge,
And not in wyll workes, nor yet in mennys defervynge.
The lyght of our faythe make thys thynge evydent,
And not the practyfe of other experiment.
Where is now fre wyll, whom the hypocrytes comment ?
Whereby they report they maye at their owne pleasure
Do good of themselves, though grace and fayth be absent,
And have good intentes their madneffe with to measure.
The wyll of the fleshe is proved here small treasure,
And fo is mannys wyll, for the grace of God doth all.
More of thys matter conclude hereafter we shall.
Thus endeth thys Tragedy or Enterlude, many feftynge the chefe promyfes of God unto man by all ages in the olde lawe, from the fall of Adam, to the incarnacyon of the Lorde Jefus Chrift.
Compyled by Johan Bayle, Anno Domini 1538.
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