New heaven, new warre - by Robert Southwell

Of Shepeherds he his muster makes. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

Come to your heaven yowe heavenly quires
Earth hath the heaven of your desires
Remove your dwellinge to your god
A stall is nowe his best aboade
Sith men their homage doe denye [5]
Come Angells all their fault supply

His chilling could doth heate require
Come Seraphins in liew of fire
This little ark no cover hath
Let Cherubs winges his body swath [10]
Come Raphiell this babe must eate
Provide our little Tobie meate.

Let Gabriell be nowe his groome
That first tooke upp his earthly roome
Let Michell stande in his defence [15]
Whom love hath link'd to feeble sence
Let graces rocke when he doth crye
And Angells sing his Lullybye

The same you saw in heavenly seate
Is he that now suckes Maryes teate [20]
Agnize your kinge a mortal wighte
His borrowed weede letts not your sight
Come kysse the maunger where he lies
That is your blisse above the Skyes

This little Babe so fewe daies olde [25]
Is come to ryfle Satans folde
All hell doth at his presence quake
Though he himselfe for cold doe shake
For in this weake unarmed wise
The gates of hell he will surprise [30]

With teares he fightes and wynnes the feild
His naked breste stands for a sheilde
His battering shot are babishe cryes
His Arrowes lookes of weepinge eyes
His Martiall ensignes cold and neede [35]
And feeble fleshe his warriers steede

His campe is pitched in a stall
Be His bulwarke but a broken wall
The Cribb his trench hay stalks his staks
Of Shepeherds he his muster makes [40]
And thus as sure his foe to Wounde
The Angells Trumpes alarum sounde.

My soule with Christ joyne thou in fighte
Sticke to the tents that he hath pight
Within his Cribb is surest warde [45]
This little Babe will be thy garde
If thou wilt foyle thy foes with joye
Then flit not from this heavenly boy.

Notes

Background: RS was a Jesuit, a member and priest of the Society of Jesus that was founded in 1534 by St Ignatius of Loyola. Ignacio had been a soldier and was seriously wounded. When he later founded the Society of Jesus, he called it the 'Compañía de Jesús', a company being a unit in the army. The Jesuits were to wage a war on behalf of Christ's Church against Satan and sin, seeking to rescue souls and lead them to Heaven. This theme permeates the poem but with a  particular emphasis on Christ, the Head of the Church Militant, viewed as a 'babe so fewe daies old'. The oppressive Elizabethan regime directed its power at waging war against the Catholic Church in order to eliminate it from England. Many Catholics were to offer their lives in this struggle.

[l1] yowe: you

[l7] could: cold

[ll11-12] Raphiell and Tobie: a reference to Raphael and Tobias, whose story appears in the Book Of Tobit (Tobias).  The archangel  Raphael ('God has healed') cares for the young Tobias on his journey to obtain ten talents of silver left in bond by his father. Tobias while bathing in the Tigris is attacked by a large fish, catches it, and, at the advice of Raphael, keeps its heart, liver, and gall. Tobias chooses Sara for his wife and by continence and using the odour of the burning liver of the fish and the aid of Raphael, he conquers the devil who had slain the seven previous husbands of Sara. Raphael cures the blindness of the elder Tobias, on the return of his son

[l13] Gabriell: the power or strength of God. groome: a serving-man; a man-servant; a male attendant. Obsolete exc. arch.

[l21] wight: man

[l22] borrowed weede: borrowed clothes. This may be reference to the flesh with which God, the Supreme Spirit, clothes Himself in the incarnation. letts: to let - to hinder, prevent, obstruct, stand in the way of (a person, thing, action, etc.). 1584   T. Cogan Hauen of Health ccxii. 189   'Much meate eaten at night, grieueth the stomacke, & letteth naturall rest.'

[l38] metre: There is an extra syllable in this line in the Waldegrave MS> In the printed edition, 'Be' is omitted. 

[l39] staks: stakes.

[l42] Trumpes: trumpets. trumpet n. 1. arch. and poet.a1530   W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon (1531) iii. f. CCxiiiiv   'The day of the sounde of the claryon & trumpe of god.' alarum: A signal calling upon people to arm themselves; a call to arms.

[l44] pight: 'pitched'. transitive. = pitch ; to set up; to fix. Obsolete (arch. and poet. in later use)
1586   W. Warner Albions Eng. ii. vii. 23   'And hauing in their sight the threatned Citie of the Foe, his Tents did Affer pight.'