As jonah, issuing from his three days’ tomb

As Jonah, issuing from his three days’ tomb,
At length was cast, uninjured, on the earth
So, from the virgin’s unpolluted womb
Th’incarnate Word, That dwelt there, had His birth:
For He, who knew no taint of mortal stain,
Willed that His mother spotless should remain.

Christ comes, incarnate God, amongst us now,
Begotten of the Father ere the day:
And He, to Whom the sinless legions bow,
Lies cradled, ’midst unconscious beasts on hay:
And, by His homely swaddling-bands girt in,
Looses the many fetters of our sin.

Now the new Child of Adam’s race draws nigh,
To us, the faithful, giv’n: This, this is He
That shall the Father of eternity,
The Angel of the Mighty Counsel, be:
This the eternal God, by Whose strong hands
The fabric of the world supported stands.