| 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.
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