_Incarnatio est maximum Dei donum._
Like as the fountain of all light created
Doth pour out streams of brightness undefin’d
Through all the conduits of transparent kind,
That heaven and air are both illuminated,
And yet his light is not thereby abated;
So God’s eternal bounty ever shin’d
The beams of being, moving, life, sense, mind;
And to all things himself communicated
But for the violent diffusive pleasure
Of goodness that left not till God had spent
Himself by giving us himself his treasure
In making man a God omnipotent.
How might this goodness draw ourselves above
Which drew down God with such attractive love!
JOSEPH BEAUMONT