Is manna; in that He, true heavenly Bread,
220 Is, and hath by the Father been transfused
Into that bread which He hath to His saints
Assigned for a pledge: this Bread will He
Give perfectly to them who (of good works
The lovers ever) have the bonds of peace
225 Kept. And the double tablets of the law
Written all over, these, at the same time,
Signify that that Law was ever hid
In Christ, who mandate old and new fulfilled,
Ark of the Supreme Father as He is,
230 Through whom He, being rich, hath all things given.
The storax-rod, too, nut’s fruit bare itself;
(The virgin’s semblance this, who bare in blood
A body:) on the “wood” conjoined ’twill lull
Death’s bitter, which within sweet fruit doth lurk,
235 By virtue of the Holy Spirit’s grace:
Just as Isaiah did predict “a rod”
From Jesse’s seed—Mary—from which a flower
Issues into the orb.
The altar bright with gold
Denotes the heaven on high, whither ascend
240 Prayers holy, sent up without crime: the Lord
This “altar” spake of, where if one doth gifts
Offer, he must first reconciliate
Peace with his brother: thus at length his prayers
Can flame unto the stars. Christ, Victor sole
245 And foremost. Priest, thus offered incense born
Not of a tree, but prayers.
The cherubim
Being, with twice two countenances, one,
And are the one word through fourfold order led;
The hoped comforts of life’s mandate new,
250 Which in their plenitude Christ bare Himself
Unto us from the Father. But the wings
In number four times six, the heraldings
Of the old world denote, witnessing things
Which, we are taught, were after done. On these
255 The heavenly words fly through the orb: with these
Christ’s blood is likewise held context, so told
Obscurely by the seers’ presaging mouth.
The number of the wings doth set a seal
Upon the ancient volumes; teaching us
260 Those twenty-four have certainly enough
Which sang the Lord’s ways and the times of peace: