Here all fanding up, the Priest fall fay, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, &c. Anfw. The Lords Name be praised. Then fhall be faid or fung this Pfalm following: Except on EafterDay, upon which another Anthem is appointed: and on the Nine༔ teenth Day of every Month it is not to be read here, but in the ordinary course of the Pfalms. ተ Venite, exultemus Domino.. Pfalm 95. O Come, let us fing unter the Lord: let us heartily rejoice in the ftrength of falvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving: and fhew ourselves glad in him with pfalms. For the Lord is a great God: and a great King above all Gods. In his hands are all the corners of the earth: and the strength of the hills is his also. The fea is his, and he made it: and his hands prepared the dry land. come, let us worship, and fall down: and kneel before the Lord our Maker. For he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pafture, and the fheep of his hand. Paraphrafe on VENITE, EXULTEMUS. O come let us fing joyful Hymns of Praife to the Lord our Defender. Let us offer up to him the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving. For he is the God moft worthy to be praised, because he is fuperior to all that are called Gods. By him all Things confift, and are fupported in being. For by him they were all created. Come then let us alfo worship and pray to him as our Creator. For he is particularly our God: and we are under the continual protection of his Providence. Let us diligently This ninety-fifth Pfalm has been properly termed the invitatory Pfalm, because it is calculated to all the Offices of divine Worship, 1ft to Thanksgiving, O come let us fing unto the Lord, &c. 2dly, to Prayer, hearken to his Voice in the Holy Scriptures, wherein he exhorts us not to reject his instructions as the Ifraelites did in the Wilderness; when they murmured and rebelled against him notwithstanding the Miracles which he wrought in their favour. Forty years they provoked him by their Iniquities, infomuch that he declared they were fo obftinately hardened in Wickedness; that he abfolutely determined they fhould not enter into the Land of Canaan. All Glory and Praise be ascribed, &c. O come let us worship, &c. 3dly, hearing, to day if you will hear his voice, &c. It is therefore fitly placed before the Pfalms, which relate to all those. " To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness; When your fathers tempted me: proved me, and faw my works. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said: It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways: * Unto whom I fware in my wrath: that they should not enter into my reft. Glory be to the Father, &c. As it was in the beginning, &c. Then shall follow the Pfalms in order as they are appointed. And at the end of every Pfalm throughout the year, and likewife at the end of Benedicite, Benedictus, Magnificat, and Nunc dimittis, fhall be repeated, Glory be to the Father, &c. As it was in the beginning, &c. WE Then follows the First Leffon. Te Deum laudamus. E praise thee, O God: we acknowledge thee to be the All the earth doth worship thee: the Father everlasting. Paraphrafe on We praife, and confefs thee, O God, to be the only Lord of all Things-The whole Universe joins in acknowledging thee to be its eternal Creator-All Angels and heavenly Powers unite in loud Hallelujahs Unto whom I frvare, &c. This is a strong expreffion in the Eastern Language; which, tho' it may found harshly in an English Ear, fignifies only, that God fully determined that the Ifraelites, for their Wickedness, fhould not enter into Canaan. For as God is a Spirit, fo neither parts nor paffions can be afcribed to him, any otherwife than metaphorically. ↑ After the Pfalms follow the Leffons. For having (according to the Exhortation) fet forth God's most worthy Praife, we proceed to hear his most holy Word. And when the Soul has been exalted by acts of Praife, the TE DEUM. The highest Orders of celestial Beings continually celebrate thy infinite Purity, and proclaim thee Lord of Armies-Both Heaven and Earth are full of thy glorious Majefty-The choir of the Apostles exalt thy it is the more awakened to pious Meditation opened to us in the Scriptures: and when delighted with beholding the wondrous Things of God's Law, it eas gerly returns to Thanksgiving. Therefore after the firft Lesson, is properly appointed the Hymns Te Deum or the Benedicite. Thefe from their natural majefty and fublimity lift up the Mind, and fit it for attending to the higher Things revealed in the Gospel, which now in the fecond Lefon are read to the Congregation. To thee all Angels cry aloud: the Heavens, and all the Powers therein. + To thee Cherubin, and Seraphin: continually do cry, Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Sabaoth. Heaven and Earth are full of the Majefty of thy Glory. The holy Church throughout all the world: doth acknowledge thee. The Father of an infinite Majefty: Thou art the King of Glory: O Christ. Thou art the everlasting Son: of the Father. When thou tookeft upon thee to deliver Man: thou didft not abhor the Virgin's Womb. When thou haft overcome the sharpness of Death: thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers. Thou fitteft at the right Hand of God: in the Glory of the father. We believe that thou fhalt come: to be our Judge. Paraphrafe on praife, who fhine as the Stars for ever and ever-The graceful affembly of the Prophets hymn' forth thy Glory-The illuftrious body of Martyrs magnify thee, who in witneffing thy Truth have been faithful unto Death ---Christ's univerfal Church profeffeth her Faith in thee the Father, whofe greatnefs is unbounded; in thy only begotten Son who is true, and highly to be reverenced; and in the Holy Spirit, whom thou fendeft to be the Comforter of thy People.Thou art our glorious King, O Chrift-Thou art the Son of God the Father, whofe Throne is for ever and ever. Thou didst condefcend to be born of a poor Virgin, in order to our Redemption.-By thy Refurrection from Death thou hast given the affurance of eternal Life to all that truly believe in thee.-Thou art exalted to the right Hand of the Majefty on high, in the Glory which + To thee Cherubin, and Seraphin, &c. These are fuppofed to be the highest Orders of Angels. The TE DEUM. thou hadst with the Father before the World was-We Name of the first fignifics Fullness of Knowledge the fecond, Burning, or Fervency of Affection. We therefore pray thee help thy Servants: whom thou haft redeemed with thy precious Blood. Make them to be numbred with thySaints: in Glory everlasting. Day by Day we magnify thee; And we worship thy Name: ever World without end. O Lord, let thy Mercy lighten upon us as our Truft is in thee. O Lord, in thee have I trufted: let me never be confounded. Then shall be read in like Manner the Second Lesson, taken out of the New Teftament: And after that the Hymn following, &c. Benedictus. S. Luke i. 68. B Leffed be the Lord God of Ifrael: for he hath vifited, and 'redeemed his people; And hath raised up a mighty falvation for us: in the house of his Servant David; As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been fince the world began; That we fhould be faved from our enemies; and from the hands of all that hate us;. To perform the mercy promifed to our forefathers; and to remember his holy covenant; To perform the oath which he sware to our forefather Abraham: that he would give us; That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies: might ferve him without fear ; In holiness and righteousness before him: all the days of our life. And thou, Child, fhalt be called the Prophet of the Higheft: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of falvation unto his people: for the remiffion of their fins, Through the tender mercy of our God: whereby the § Dayfpring from on high hath visited us ; To give light to them that fit in darkness, and in the fhadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace. Glory be to the Father, &c. Or this Pfalm: Jubilate Deo. Pfalm 100. Be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands: ferve the Lord with gladnefs, and come before his presence with a fong. Be ye fure that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves, we are his people and the sheep of hispasture. O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and speak good of his Name. : For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth from generation to generation. Paraphrafe on the BENEDICTUS. thou shalt go forth before the Saviour of the World, to prepare the People for his Doctrine, by exciting them to Repentance; which is a proof of God's great Love to Mankind, who is thus pleafed to recall them from the Darkness of Sin into the marvellous Light of his Gofpel, the Way that leads to everlasting Peace.— All Glory and Praise, &c. The Day-spring from on high. Juftly doth this Title as well as that of the Sun of Righteoufnefs belong to our Saviour. For as the whole Creation after being hid in Darkness, is refreshed, and enlivened by the cheering Rays of the Morning Light; and as the Paraphrafe on the 100th PSALM. O all Nations fing joyful Hymns to Jehovah. For he most affuredly is our God: fince he alone hath created us, and continually fupports us by his Providence-Go therefore and publickly praife him, and acknowledge his goodness towards you in his holy Temple. For his kindness towards you never ceafeth: and his promises never fail to the most distant Generations. All Glory and Praife, &c. Traveller is thereby enabled to purfue his journey with fafety and certainty. So the World when buried in the Egyptian darknefs of Sin and Corruption was revived and enlightened by Jefus Chrift; and guided in the Path that leads to eternal Life. |