148 REDEMPTION.
Whose voice the wilderness awoke, with that
Seraphic cry Behold the Lamb of God !
Transcending in his mission entheal,
The choir prophetic, and than those more bless'd ;
Fill'd with the Holy Ghost before his birth,
Endow'd to prophesy the Son of God,
And more than they, Him privileg'd to see.
Meeker than Moses, he before the Lord
Did stand, clothed in penitential garb,
On rudest fare, locust and honey fed,
His drink the limpid brook, his bed the lair
Of savage beasts; yet, greater than Elias,
Whom ravens fed at Carith, while he shut
The heav'ns, the truth of Israel's God to prove.
A.S he on Carmel stood, on Jordan's banks
The Baptist stands, and with loud voice proclaims
The axe laid to the root of every tree,
Which beareth not, with fire unquenchable
To be burnt up, unless to penance true,
Fruits worthy penance, they should now bring forth.
Him, at the ford of Jordan, Israel flock'd
To hear ; chief priests, and scribes, proud pharisees,
And lowliest of the poor; to hear, and feel
Its pure regenerating waters flow,
Pour'd by his hand, on their repentant heads.
To this voice crying, Jesus also came;
Not to be cleansed from sin, but typical,
Obedient to the law he came to teach,
To be baptized, who knew no sin himself,
Yet bore the sins of all ; sins then to be
Eluted, when blood and water freely flow'd
From out his sacred side. Him, John beheld
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