Suffers; with sacred blood the earth grows moist.
265 That the old Adam’s dust may able be,
Commingled with Christ’s blood, to be upraised
By dripping water’s virtue. The “one ewe”
That is, which, during Sabbath-hours, alive
The Shepherd did resolve that He would draw
270 Out of th’ infernal pit. This was the cause
Why, on the Sabbaths, He was wont to cure
The prematurely dead limbs of all flesh;
Or perfected for sight the eyes of him
Blind from his birth—eyes which He had not erst
275 Given; or, in presence of the multitude,
Called, during Sabbath-hours, one wholly dead
To life, e’en from the sepulchre. Himself
The new man’s Maker, the Repairer good
Of th’ old, supplying what did lack, or else
280 Restoring what was lost. About to do—
When dawns “the holy day”—these works, for such
As hope in Him, in plenitude, (to keep
His plighted word,) He taught men thus His power
To do them.
What? If flesh dies, and no hope
285 Is given of salvation, say, what grounds
Christ had to feign Himself a man, and head
Men, or have care for flesh? If He recalls
Some few, why shall He not withal recall
All? Can corruption’s power liquefy
290 The body and undo it, and shall not
The virtue of the Lord be powerful
The undone to recall?
They, who believe
Their bodies are not loosed from death, do not
Believe the Lord, who wills to raise His own
295 Works sunken; or else say they that the Good
Wills not, and that the Potent hath not power,—
Ignorant from how great a crime they suck
Their milk, in daring to set things infirm
Above the Strong. In the grain lurks the tree;
300 And if this rot not, buried in the earth,
It yields not tree-graced fruits. Soon bound will be
The liquid waters: ’neath the whistling cold
They will become, and ever will be stones,
Unless a mighty power, by leading on
305 Soft-breathing warmth, undo them. The great bunch
Lurks in the tendril’s slender body: if