5. Shew yourfelves joyful unto the Lord, all ye lands: fing, rejoice, and give thanks. 6. Praise the Lord upon the harp: fing to the harp with a pfalm of thanksgiving. 7. With trumpets alfo and fhawms: O fhew yourfelves joyful before the Lord the King. 8. Let the fea make a noife, and all that therein is the round world, and they that dwell therein. 9. Let the floods clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together before the Lord: for he cometh to judge the earth. 10. With righteousness fhall he judge the world: and the people with equity. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever fhall be: world without end. Amen. PARAPHRASE. 5. Therefore, O all ye heathen countries, fince you are to share of this incitimable bleffing, do you, in proof of your thankfulness to so gracious a God, join with us Jews in our praises to the Lord. 6. Do you, in conjunction with us, praife the Lord upon that most tuneful of inftruments the harp, and to this join vocal mufic, finging facred fongs, in gratitude to God, for fo great a bleffing. 7. To the facred concert let there be fuperadded the most harmonious mufic in ufe among us, trumpets and pipes, to raife our joy to the highest pitch, when we appear before the great Jehovah, who is King both of heaven and earth. up the 8. Let the waves of the fea, by their murmurs confpire to make harmony: let the whole planet of the earth, and all those who dwell apon it, come in for their parts in the general chorus.. 9. Let the confufion of waters in the rivers counterfeit the clapping of hands, in this general dance and rejoicing of nature: let the hills, by a pleafing verdure, appear to fimile and fing; fince the Almighty himfelf has condefcended to appear upon earth, in order to govern men by his laws. 10. He hall then govern mankind, not by the imperfect dictates of the light of nature, or by criminal inftitutions, but by new and divine law replete with equity and goodness. Then a Leon of the New Teftament, as it is appointed: And after that, Nunc dimittis, (or the Song of Simeon) in English, as folloreth: Nunc dimittis. St Luke ii. 29. 1. LORD, now lettest thou thy fervant depart in peace : L according to thy word. 2. For mine eyes have feen: thy falvation. 3. Which thou haft prepared: before the face of all people; 4. To be a light to lighten the Gentiles: and to be the glory of thy people Ifrael. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever fhall be: world without end. Amen. Or else this Pfalm; except it be on the Twelfth Day of the month. "G unto us. Deus mifereatur. Pfalm 67. OD be merciful unto us, and blefs us: and flew us the light of his countenance, and be merciful PARAPHRASE. 1. Lord, thou mayft now, if it be thy divine will, permit thy fervant to go down to the grave in peace, as thou haft fulfilled the promise made to me, that I should not fee death before I had seen the Lord Jesus. Luke ii. 26. 2. For now I have had the confolation to fee, not with the eye of faith only, as the patriarchs and other holy men did in former ages, but with these my own fleshly eyes, I have beheld the Saviour of the world. 3. Who will procure falvation, not only for the Jews, but for all people and nations of the earth, and whom they all wait for with joint expectations. 4. That he fhould be, as it were, a light held forth to the Gentiles, who where immerfed in the darkness of idolatry and fuperftition, to point out to them the way of true religion and moreover that he should confer great glory and honour upon the Jews; that the Meffiah, who was expected by all nations, fhould be born amongst them; that the gofpel fhould be first preached in their country; and that the natives of it fhould be the principal inftruments in conveying it to fo many diftant parts of the world. I feems probable that this pfalm, though afcribed to David in the Greek and Latin verfion, was compefed after the captivity, by Efdras, or fome other infpired acriter, and appears to be a prophecy of the propagation of the gospel. 2. That thy way may be known upon earth: thy faving health among all nations. 3. Let the people praise thee, O God: yea, let all the people praise thee. 4 O let the nations rejoice and be glad: for thou shalt judge the folk righteously, and govern the nations upon earth.' 5. Let the people praise thee, O God: yea, let all the people praise thee. 6. Then fhall the earth bring forth her increase: and God, even our own God, fhall give us his blefling. 7. God fhall bless us: and all the ends of the world fhall fear him. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever fhall be: world without end. Amen. PARAPHRASE 1. We intreat God, thro' his mercy and kindness, continually to bless and protect our nation; that he would not look upon us, as it were out of a cloud, as he formerly did in his anger; but that he would view us with a ferene and placid countenance, and, as it were, with the fun-fhine! of his favour. 2. To the end, that thy true religion may be propagated throughout the world, and that all the nations of the earth may receive the joyful tidings of their falvation. 3. Let not the praife and worship of thee, the true God, be confined to Judea alone, but, let people of all nations join with us in adoring thee. The heathen nations, indeed, have the ftrongest reasons to exult and triumph, and to praise the goodnefs of God, for he is coming to go. vern them by righteous and juft laws, tho' they were before under the dominion of Satan, and had nothing to guide them but natural instinct, or fome precepts of an old tradition, which are now almost totally forgot. 5. Let therefore all the heathens, on whom thou doft confer fo great a benefit, fing to thy praife; let every unenlightened people teftify their joy and gratitude in thanksgivings to thee. 6. We even feem to behold the bleffed time of the Meffiah's reign : the earth hath brought forth her increase, (according to the Hebrew parafe) fruitful feafons, and profperous years wait upon that glorious period: and God, who is our peculiar God, fhall diftinguish us by a parucular mark of his favour, fome time or other under his great and holy government. 7. God fhall favour us with extraordinary bleffings: and all the nations of the earth fhall adore him by exercifing the true religion. H 2 I make Then fhall be faid or fung the Apoftle's Creed by the minifter and the people, I flanding. Believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. And in Jefus Christ his only Son our Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Ghoft, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried; He defcended into hell; The third day he rofe again from the dead; He afcended into Heaven, and fitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. PARA PHRASE. On the CREED. I make this confeffion of my faith concerning thofe truths which have been revealed to me upon the teftimony of God himself. I believe that there is one only God. (Deut. vi. 35. 1 Cor. viii. 9.) That he, by the work of creation, is the Father of all men, (Matt. ii. 10.) by redemption, and adoption; but in a more particular manner the Father of our bleffed Lord by eternal generation. I believe likewife that this one God is omnipotent, and governs the univerfe according to his pleasure. That he was the Maker of heaven and earth and every thing therein contained. I believe alfo in Jefus Chrift, being convinced that he is the Saviour of the world, as his name Jefus imports. That he is. the Meffiah, whofe coming was predicted fo long beforehand by the prophets. That he is the only Son of God, as the Divine effence was communicated to him, and that, in a manner, different from all created beings, as he is moreover our Lord by being the true Jehovah or God, fince all things were fubjected to his dominion, and fince he redeemed us from the power of Satan, purchased us by his blood, and made us become his fervants and fcholars by baptifm. We believe likewife that Chrift, tho' truly man, was not produced according to the common courfe of nature, but by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghoft. That he was born of Mary, a poor maid of the race of David, who retained her virginity, notwithstanding that miraculous conception. That he suffered an ignominious death, according to the prediction of the prophet Ifaiah, when Pontius Pilate was imperial procurator of Judea. That he died upon a erofs, a punishment which the Romans inflicted only upon flaves; and was afterwards buried by a faithful difciple. That he defcended into hades or hell, the manfion of feparate fpirits. That he rofe again on the third day after his crucifixion, according to his own prediction, and after that gloriously afcended into heaven in the prefence of many credible witneffes; and was fhortly after advanced to a diftinguished honour never conferred upon any perfon before. That he was feated on the right hand of God, a place of the greateft dignity in heaven, where his fpiritual I believe in the Holy Ghoft; The holy Catholic Church: The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of Sins The Refurrection of the Body, And the Life everlasting. Amen. And after that thefe Prayers following, all devoutly kneeling, the Minifter firft pronouncing with a loud Voice, 1. The Lord be with you. Anfw. 2. And with thy fpirit. PARA PHRASE. kingdom begins, and where he tramples under foot the grand enemies of his jurifdiction, Sin, Satan, and Death. That, at the end of the world, he thall come in glorious triumph accompanied with the angels, and that power fhall be given to him to judge all who fhall then be alive, as well as thofe who arife from their graves.-I believe the Holy Ghoft to be God himself, the third Perfon of the bleffed Trinity, and not a virtue or grace as fome have vainly imagined. I likewife believe that there is a number of men feparated from the reft of the world by faith in Jefus Chrift, that have continued from the apoftolic age, and fhall do fo till the coming of Chrift, the affembly of thefe I call the Catholic Church, which is holy, on account of the holy profeffion to which they are called. It is moreover Catholic, because it has been univerfally diffufed through the world. I believe that there is a communion of the faints, and of God's elect with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghoft, and with all the faints in every church now upon earth, as alfo with all the faints that have departed this life. I believe likewife, that though by our fins we have incurred the divine difpleasure, we may, through the blood of Chrift who has expiated them, obtain forgiveness, not only by baptifm, but by a fincere repentance. I alfo believe the refurrection of the body, fince all things are poffible to God, and fince it was univerfally expected by the Jews. I believe that this refurrection fhall extend to wicked as well as virtuous men. Finally, I believe that wicked men fhall exift in eternal terments, and all good men in a state of felicity, which fprings from freedom from all pain, from beatifick vifions, and from the inconceivable jovs to which they fhall then be admitted. Amen. 1. My good people, I now commend you to God's bleffing, in a form of falvation generally received among holy people under the old law. 2. And we, O holy Paftor, in the words of St Paul, carneftly pray, that the Lord Jefus may be with your spirit. 3. I now give you notice to apply yourfelves to fervent devotion, after having made confeffion of your faith, and heard the feveral portions of God's holy word read to you. 4. Lord |