Fifteen Hymns For the Feast of the Epiphany 4Hymn IV.

(Resp.--Blessed be He that blots out in water misdeeds that are without measure!)

1. Descend my sealed brethren, put ye on our Lord,--and be rejoined to His lineage, for He is son of a great lineage,--as He has said in His Word.

2. From on high is His Nature, and from beneath His Vesture.--Each that puts off his vesture, commingled is that vesture, with His Vesture forever.

3. Ye too in the water, receive from him the vesture,--that wastes not or is lost for it is the vesture that vests--them that are vested in it forever.

4. But the blessed Priest, is daysman between two:--the covenant shall be made before Him, He is daysman of his Lord,--and surety on our part.

5. The Godhead in the water, lo! has mingled His leaven;--for the creatures of dust, that leaven raises up,--and the Godhead joins them.

6. For it is the leaven of the Lord, that can glide into the bondman,--and raise him to freedom; it has joined the bondman to the lineage,--of Him the Lord of all.

7. For the bondman who has put on Him, Who makes all free in the waters,--though bondman he be on earth, is son of the free on high,--for freedom he has put on.

8. The freeman who has put on, that Angel in the waters,--is as the fellow of servants, that he may be made like to the Lord,--Who became bondman unto bondmen.

9. He Who enriches all came down, and put on poverty,--that He might divide to the poor, the stores that were hidden,--out of the treasure-house of the water.

10. The lowly one again that has put on, the Giver of all greatness, in the water,--even though he be base in the sight of fools, yet is great in the sight of the Watchers,--for that he is clad in greatness.

11. For like as He Who is great, Who became lowly in His love,--by the unbelievers was persecuted, and by the Watchers was worshipped,--was made lowly and makes the lowly great.

12. Thus let him be lowly who is great, that in him the lowly may be great:--Let us be like to Him Who is greater than all, Who became less than all:--He was made lowly, and makes all men great.

13. The meek man who has put on Him Who is great, in the water,--though humble be his countenance, very great is his discernment,--for He Who is exalted above all dwells in him.

14. For who could be found to despise the bush of thorn,--the despised and humble, wherein the Majesty in fire,--made its dwelling within?

15. Who again could be found, to despise Moses,--the meek and slow of speech,--when that excelling glory--dwelt upon his meekness?

16. They that despised him despised his Lord; the wicked that despised him--the earth swallowed up in anger; the Levites who scorned Him,--the fire devoured in fury.

17. Of Him Christ commanded, "Thou shalt not call him Raca," who is baptized and has put Him on; for whoso despises the despised, despises with him the Mighty.

18. In Eden and in the world, are parables of our Lord;--and what tongue can gather, the similitudes of His mysteries?--for He is figured all of Him in all things.

19. In the Scriptures He is written of; on Nature He is impressed;--His crown is figured in kings, in prophets His truth, His atonement in priests.

20. In the rod was He of Moses, and in the hyssops of Aaron,--and in the crown of David: to the prophets pertains His similitude, to the Apostles His Gospel.

21. Revelations beheld Thee, proverbs looked for Thee,--mysteries expected Thee, similitudes saluted Thee, parables showed types of Thee.

22. The Covenant of Moses looked forward to the Gospel:--all things of old time, flew on and alighted thereon, in the new Covenant.

23. Lo! the prophets have poured out on Him, their glorious mysteries;--the priests and kings have poured out upon Him, their wonderful types:--they all have poured them out on all of Him.

24. Christ overcame and surpassed, by His teachings the mysteries,--by His interpretations the parables; as the sea into its midst--receives all streams.

25. For Christ is the sea, and He can receive--the fountains and brooks, the rivers and streams, that flow from the midst of the Scriptures.