28 — ¶ A Description of the Feast of the Birth of Christ, Commonly Called Christmas1
Chap. 26
1
Of Christ cometh Christmas, the name with the feast,
a time full of ioie to the greatest and least:
At Christmas was Christ (our Sauiour) borne,
the world through sinne altogether forlorne.
2
At Christmas the daies doo2 begin to take length,
of Christ doth religion cheefly3 take strength.
As Christmas is onely a figure or trope,
so onely in Christ is the strength of our hope.
3
At Christmas we banket, the rich with the poore,
who then (but the miser) but openeth [h]is doore?
At Christmas of Christ many Carols we sing,
and giue many gifts in the ioy of that King.
4.
At Christmas in Christ we reioice and be glad,
as onely of whom our comfort is had;E138
At Christmas we ioy altogether with mirth,
for his sake that ioyed vs all with his birth.
Notes
1 A description of Christmas. 1577.
2 the day doth. 1577.
3 Of Christ our faith doth begin, etc. 1577.