LOVE and CHARITY PRESENTED In a Copy of VERSES to his Worthy Masters in the WARD of St. Giles' Cripplegate without.  
By William Briscoe, Bellman within the Freedom.  

For Christmas Day.  
Y'Are welcome Masters all to Christmas Day,  
Of which God send you all spiritual joy;  
And fill your hearts with deep consideration  
Of the great benefit of Man's Salvation:  
So infinite the Sin of Adam was,  
That God must come thus to redeem the loss:  
Thus to be born, and afterwards to die;  
None but Himself Himself could satisfy.   

God's Love to the World.  
Such Love the Lord unto the World hath shown,  
In giving to us from his Bosom's Throne,  
His equal and only begotten Son,  
Th' assurer of Eternal Life to come;  
And Great Redeemer of the World from Sin,  
That none may perish that believe in him:  
For not to judge the World sent was He,  
But that the World by him might saved be.   

For Saint Stephen's Day.  
Saint Stephen to the Church's first renown,  
Of Martyrdom this day obtained the Crown,  
By murdering hands of the incensed Jews,  
Who did him falsely of Blasphemy accuse;  
With battering stones against his Angel's Face,  
His Soul flying glorious to her mansion place:  
But left behind the virtue of his Prayer  
Made for his heads-men, of which Paul had share.   

Saint Stephen's Charity for his Enemies.  
Christ's Charity was in his Sufferings much,  
And Stephen's was in imitation such:  
Father, saith Christ, forgive them of this fact,  
For verily they know not what they act:  
Like Charity inflamed the prayer of Stephen  
Made on his Knees to have them all forgiven  
That actors were and furtherers of his death,  
So the good Saint concluded his last breath.   

For Saint John's Day.  
Saint John above all other termed Divine,  
Having set forth his Gospel most sublime,  
In boiling Oil confirmed the truth he wrote,  
Anointed Martyr, but not hurt a jott:  
Thence banished, where he writ in Patmos Isle,  
Of the last Times in high Prophetic stile:  
Then what became of John, or how John died,  
I leave that for the Learned to decide.   

Saint John's Love.  
Christ who did love Saint John with love entire,  
Inflamed his heart with love's most holy fire:  
A Virgin love derived most pure and clean,  
When on his Breast John's head in love did lean:  
What time proceeding in Love's School Divine,  
His Sacred Writings savour love each line:  
And was in love by trial of the fire  
Crowned for his love a Martyr in desire.   

For Childermas Day.  
Now Herod Wars against the God of Hosts,  
In Bethlehem, and all throughout her Coasts;  
Where a loud voice was heard of lamentation;  
Rachel without regard to consolation,  
Was weeping for her Children. Cruel deed!  
To make so many innocent Infants bleed!  
But being for Christ, the sacred act and voice  
Made Abrams Bosom and all Heaven rejoice.   

Christ's Love to Children.  
Christ calling still, even in his Infancy,  
Suffer the little Ones to come to me,  
Confirms his love to little Children much,  
That would in special first make choice of such  
To bleed for him, and drink of his first Cup  
Which was in Circumcision offered up;  
Thousands in rage sent by th' incestuous Ram  
To be continual followers of the Lamb.   

For New-Years Day.  
On New-Year's Day was to the Virgin's Son  
Th' old Sacrament of Circumcision done;  
From whose divided Flesh did freely spring  
His Babes new Blood in Sacrifice for Sin:  
Th' unloading of whose Veins at eight days old,  
Man's promised full Redemption well foretold,  
How bounteous his Good-Friday's Gift would be,  
That in his New-Years Offering was so free.   

Christ's New-Years Gift in Love.  
A bounteous New-Years Gift it was indeed  
Which Christ this day out of his Veins did bleed;  
To which no Creature possible could move,  
But only Man the object of his Love:  
Christ nothing thought too precious nor too much  
T' engage for Man, his Love to Man was such:  
If Christ on Man so much enamoured bee,  
Base is Man's love of any less than He.   

For the Epiphany.  
The Twelfth day after the Nativity,  
Great was in bethlehem the Festivity  
Of the Three Kings, who after their long station,  
Arrived the birthplace of the World's Salvation:  
Whom though in meanest posture they behold,  
Their Saba's Incense, and Arabian Gold  
Offered with lively Faith, prostrate before him,  
They for their Liege-Lord God & Man, adore him.   

The Love of the Three Kings to Christ.  
And as their Faiths, their Loves to Christ was great,  
So far from their abode and Native seat,  
To travel with hard labour and expense,  
In a poor Child to seek Omnipotence:  
To secure him that shivering was with cold,  
Perfume his head, and load his hands with Gold:  
With many accommodations more beside,  
When bethlehem a poor Lodging him denied.   

For Candlemas Day.  
Th' unspotted Virgin Mary on this Tide,  
According to the Law was purified:  
A needless Remedy if we consider  
The Pureness of the Fruit she did deliver:  
But Marry of her Issue stood in awe,  
Who came in all things to fulfil the Law:  
By which Christ teacheth us this Inference,  
That Love is Mother of Obedience.   

Love Christ, love his Precept.  
He that by breach of Precept doth remove  
Himself from Christ, abides not in Christ's love:  
Christ's Precept is, That we love one another,  
Who can love Christ that loves not then his brother?  
Christ gave for us in love his precious Blood,  
As we ought also for our brethren's good:  
In this doth all Salvation consist,  
However men divert it as they list.   

Love and Charity the mark of a Christian.  
The proper mark of a true Christian,  
Is Charity and Love: the Wicked man  
May Baptism have and Gift of Prophecy,  
With Christian exercise he may comply;  
Yea and receive the Body of our Lord,  
And make the Name of Christ his usual word:  
But Charity peculiar is alone  
To the true Christian; wanting that, he's none.   

Charity the Soul's Convoy.  
Diviner comfort what to man can bring,  
Then mutual converse betwixt God and him:  
As when the Soul by prayer doth mounting fly  
To Heaven on wings of Love and Charity;  
And stands by contemplation in the sight  
Of God, who is the sphere of her delight:  
No Tongue can speak the comfort; for by this  
She knows God, and prepares her way to bliss.   

No virtue without Charity.  
So gracious in God's sight is Charity,  
That all good Works without it do miscarry;  
No Works performed of mercy at our door;  
Should we distribute all unto the Poor;  
Deliver up our bodies at the stake  
To be burned only for Religion's sake:  
All these do nothing profit nor avail,  
If love we want, if Charity doth fail.   

Love God, not the World.  
Who to this World doth his heart enthrall,  
Must into one of these two Sorrows fall;  
Either to love the thing he cannot gain,  
Or else to lose what he hath got with pain.  
Wherefore all Worldly affections, Man, resign,  
And place thy love on that which is Divine;  
Where love shall surely be for love returned,  
And Joys possessed never to be adjourned.   

Christ's Love to the Poor.  
As Christ into the World came poor indeed,  
So hath he left the Poor in his own steed,  
Of whom, his Favourites, pronounce did He,  
What's given to the Poor, is given to me.  
Can any Christian then deny for shame  
To give the poor that ask it in Christ's name:  
To give the Poor, for Christ's sake do not grudge,  
They are Christ's friends, and will not you be such?   

God's Love to the City.  
What can declare the Mercies of our God,  
More than the present sweetening of his Rod;  
To set up LONDON in a cordial state,  
After the Bitter Cup She drank of late;  
Not giving her a Mortal Overthrow,  
Although in Sin as much Gods mortal foe,  
As those he left forsaken in His Ire,  
To perish in the Torrent of the Fire,    

London, Printed Decemb. 24th, 1668.