“The inspired historian makes it very clear That at earth's dawn the Father not alone Nor without Christ his new creation formed. "God fashioned man," he says, "and gave to him The face of God." What but to say that he Was not alone, that God stood by God's side When the Lord made man in image of the Lord?”
“As a sign that the flood had abated the dove is now bringing Back to the ark in her beak the budding green branch of an olive. For the raven, held captive by gluttony, clung to foul bodies, While the dove brought back the glad tidings of peace that was given.”
“A Nimrod, who goes round the world, made rough With deep ravines and wooden crags, and strives To waylay some by fraud and secret wiles, To vanquish others by his giant arms And spread his deadly triumphs far and wide.”
“This is the lodging place of the Lord, where an oak branch at Mamre Covered the pastoral roof of the ancient seer; in this hospice Sarah laughed at the joy of bearing a child in her old age And at the faith her venerable husband could have in the marvel. Abraham purchased a field wherein he might bury his wife's bones, Inasmuch as justice and faith on the earth dwell as strangers: This is the cave for which he expended a great sum of money, To prepare a fit resting place for his wife's holy ashes.”
“Thus Moses in a former age Escaped proud Pharaoh's foolish law, And as the savior of his race Prefigured Christ who was to come. A cruel edict had been passed Forbidding Hebrew mothers all, When sons were born to them, to rear These virile pledges of their love. Devoutly scornful of the king, A zealous midwife found a way To hide her charge and keep him safe For future glory and renown.”
“It was the Word, breathed from the Father's mouth, Who of the Virgin took a mortal frame. The human form that not yet in the flesh Appeared to Moses wore a brow like ours, Since God, who would by power of the Word Assume a body, made the face the same. Flames rose and seemed to burn the thorny bush. God moved amid the branches set with spines, And tresses of the flames swayed harmlessly, That he might shadow forth his Son's descent Into our thorny members sin infests With teeming briers and fills with bitter woes. For tainted at its root that noxious shrub Had sprouted from its baneful sap a crop Of evil shoots beset with many thorns. The sterile branches suddenly grew bright As God enkindled with his mighty power The leafy boughs, nor harmed the tangled briers. He touched the scarlet berries, blood-red fruits, And grazed the twigs that grew from deadly wood, Shed by the tortured bush with cruel pangs.”
“Also, twelve stones from Jordan's bed, Left dry when waters backward flowed, He raised and firmly set in place, The type of Christ's apostles twelve.”
“And Jericho had seen in her own ruin Our hand's control, when conquering Achan fell. Renowned for bloodshed, proud of leveling walls, He fell a victim to the enemy's gold When from the dust he gleaned the stuff accursed And snatched the mournful plunder from the ruins. His tribe did not avail, nor his descent From Judah, founder of the race of Christ And patriarch blessed in his noble scion. Let those who imitate his race accept A similar form of death and punishment.”
“Samson resistless because of his hair is attacked by a lion; When he killed the wild beast, from its mouth there flowed streams of honey, And from an ass's jawbone comes forth a fountain of water: Folly with water overflows and virtue with sweetness. Samson catches three hundred foxes and arms them with firebrands, Which he ties to their tails, and he lets them go into the cornfields Of the Philistines to burn their crops: thus the fox of false doctrine Cunningly scatters the flames of heresy over our vineyards.”
“After this war one work remains for us, O leaders, that which Solomon achieved, The peaceful scion and the unarmed heir Of a warlike realm, whose father's weary hand Was sullied by the ardent blood of kings. The blood effaced, a temple is upraised And golden altar, house sublime of Christ. Jerusalem then by its temple crowned, Received its God, now that the wandering ark On the marble altar found repose. In our camp let a sacred temple rise, that God may in its sanctuary dwell. What profits it to have repelled the hosts Of earthborn vices, if the Son of man From heaven descending, enter the body cleansed, But unadorned and not a temple fair? Thus far we have engaged in fierce conflict: Now let white-vestured Peace perform its tasks, And youth unarmed build up a sacred house.”
“From his Providence, humanity has received All that he grasps with imperious hand: All that the sky and the earth and the sea Yields from the air and the waves and the fields, This he subjects to me, me to himself.”
“Learn what our temple is, if you would know; It is one that no artisan has built, A structure not of riven fir or pine, Nor reared with blocks of quarried marble fair. Its massive weight no columns high support Beneath the arches of a gilded vault. By God's Word it was formed, not by his voice, But by the everlasting Word, the Word made flesh. This temple is eternal, without end, This you attacked with scourge and cross and gall. This temple was destroyed by bitter pains. Its form was fragile from the Mother's womb, But when brief death the Mother's part dissolved, The Father's might restored it in three days. You have beheld my saving temple rise On high, surrounded by an angel throng. The everlasting gates uphold its roof; Through lofty towers the glorious stairs arise, And at the top appears a shining path.”
“The majesty that with the Father dwelled, His spirit and thought, the way of his designs, Which made not by his hand or spoken word, Breathed from the Father's heart, declared his will.”
“Behold a stone is set for us, a stumbling block, Against which vanity may strike, A sign unto the faithful, scandal to the lax, The one it fells, the other guides. The blind one feels his way with slow uncertain step And runs into what'er he meets. The lamp of faith alone must shine before our feet, That footsteps may unswerving be. The foe assails and carries off the wanderers Who in the darkness go astray, A demon who devours the wheat speeds on the way For pilgrims passing to and fro, A thief who tampers with the fertile fields of Christ By sowing in them barren oats. A demon who devours the wheat spread on the way For pilgrims passing to and fro, A thief who tampers with the fertile fields of Christ By sowing in them barren oats.”
“The sky above, the earth and ocean's mightydepths, The orbs presiding over day and over night, The winds and tempests, lightnings, showers of rain and clouds, The polar stars, the star of evening, heat and snow, The fountains, hoarfrosts, precious veins of ore and streams, One in their might one both the Father and the Son, And that one splendor generated by one light With all the Godhead's plenitude of brightness shone. In God one undivided being operates, And by one power was created all that is, The rugged cliffs and level plains and mountain dells, Wild beasts, the fowl of air and reptiles, all that swim, The beasts of burden, cattle, oxen, mammoth brutes, The flowers and shrubs, the vines, the herbs and woodland groves, All plants that shed their fragrance, plants that food supply.”
“Sing his praises heights of heaven, all you angels sing his praise, Let the mighty hosts of heaven sing in joyous praise of God; Let no tongue of humanity be silent, let all voices join the hymn.”
“This Wisdom uttered made the sky, The sky and light and all besides; All by the Word's almighty power Were fashioned, for the Word was God.”
“"If you would," he says, "Ascend to heaven, banish cares of earth. For far as earth is distant from the sky And heaven from the world below, so far Are your vain thoughts from my eternal thoughts, Ill from good, sin from virtue, dark from light. I counsel you to shun all passing things And deem as nought all to corruption prone, For it is destined to return to nought. All earth brings forth and holds, at dawn of time I made; I decked with splendid ornaments The shining world and formed the elements, But willed that the enjoyment be confined Within due bounds, as far as mortal frame And fleeting human life may have the need, Not that humanity, by unbridled passion ruled, Should reckon good alone things sweet and vain, Which I have preordained to pass with time.”
“Such was the soul's first state. Created pure Through sordid union with the flesh it fell Into iniquity; stained by Adam's sin, It tainted all the race from him derived, And infant souls inherit at their birth The first man's sin; no one is sinless born.”
“Shall we stoop to say of mammon who have been reborn in Christ? Formed to God's eternal image, shall we serve the fleeting world? God forbid that celestial flame should be mingled with earth's mire.”
“When at the awful trumpet's sound The earth will be consumed by fire, And with a mighty rush the world Unhinged, will crash in dreadful ruin.”
“The winged messenger of day Sings loud, foretelling dawn's approach, And Christ in stirring accents calls Our slumbering souls to life with him. "Away," he cries, "with dull repose, The sleep of death and sinful sloth; With hearts now sober, just and pure, Keep watch, for I am very near."”
“That the dead might know salvation, who in limbo long had dwelt, Into hell with love he entered; to him yield the broken gates As the bolts and massive hinges fall asunder at his word. Now the door of ready entrance, but forbidding all return Outward swings as bars are loosened and sends forth the prisoned souls By reversal of the mandate, treading its threshold once more.”
“Who goes roaring around, raging madly As he seeks to entrap and devour us, When, O infinite God, we praise thee only!”
A richly-documented figure overflows with verbatim words and works; a sparsely-sourced one is handled honestly — what survives in the public domain, plainly shown, nothing padded.