kiss the rod
From a poem by a seventeenth-century poet known only as "Eliza,"
who writes throughout her collection of poems, Eliza's Babes:
or The Virgins-Offering (London, 1652), in the persona of
Christ's bride:
But why do I complain of thee?
'Cause thou'rt the Rod that scourgeth mee?
But if a good child I will bee,
I'le kiss the Rod, and honour thee.
