John Skelton

To the Second Person

O BENIGN Jesu, my sovereign Lord and King,
The only Son of God by filiation,
The Second Person withouten beginning,
Both God and man our faith maketh plain relation,
Mary thy mother, by way of incarnation,
Whose glorious passion our soules doth revive!
Again all bodily and ghostly tribulation
Defend me with thy piteous woundes five.

O peerless Prince, pained to the death,
Ruefully rent, thy body wan and blo,
For my redemption gave up thy vital breath,
Was never sorrow like to thy deadly woe!
Grant me, out of this world when I shall go,
Thine endless mercy for my preservative:
Against the world, the flesh, the devil also,
Defend me with thy piteous woundes five.