XXVII.

Praise Him, ye meek, and humble Train, I
Ye Saints, whom his Decrees ordain,AB.T
The boundless Blifs to hare
Oh! Praise Him, till you take your Way I
To Regions of eternal Daydrell win zisi¶
And reign for ever there, ovirus win?

XXVIII.

Let us, who now impaffive ftand,
Plac'd by the Tyrant's ftern Command
Amid the fiery Blaze,

(While thus we triumph in the Flame)
Rife, and our Maker's Love proclaim
In Hymns of endless Praife.

The Benedictus.

After the second Leffon at Morning-Service, we have the Choice of the Hymn called the BENEDICTUS, and the hundredth Pfalm. Though the latter is almost constantly used, I cannot imagine why the former should be laid afide. They are both equally [2 (XX indited

indited by the Holy Spirit, and both admirably calculated to affift the Devotion, and elevate the Affections of a Christian Congregation; and the Hymn, being placed first, feems to have been intended for more general Ufe than the Pfalm. Let us confider each in its Order, This Hymn is commonly called the Song of Zacharias; having been dictated to him by the Holy Spirit, on Occafion of the Birth of his Son, St. John the Baptift; and spoken by him immediately after his Circumcifion, For fo we read in the first Chapter of the Gospel by Saint Luke, that after the long Silence he had suffered, as a Punishment for his Disbelief of the Angel, when he foretold the miraculous Conception and Birth of his Son; bis Mouth was opened, and his Tongue loofed, and be spake, and praised God. Luke i. 64. And, being filled with the Holy Ghost, he brake forth into thefe rapturous Strains of Praife and Thanksgiving, faying, Bleffed be the Lord God of Ifrael, for He hath visited (and redeemed his People." The Birth of a Son to him in his old Age, when his Wife was well firicken in Years, and ac#cording

cording to the common Courfe of Nature could not conceive, was doubtless a great and miraculous Bleffing, that called for his moft devout Acknowledgments, and must have filled his Mind with an Extafy of Joy and Rapture. Yet he paffes over this, to praife God for a far greater Bleffing, vouchfafed not to himfelf alone, but to all Mankind, in the approaching Birth of the SAVIOUR of the World, of whom his Son was the Forerun ner, appointed to prepare the Way before Him. Often had the Lord God of Ifrael" vifited, and redeemed his People;" often had He gra ciously rescued and delivered them from their Captivity and Diftrefs: but now He was about to visit them in a far more wonderful Manner, and not them only, but the whole Race of Mankind, by taking their Nature upon Him, and dwelling in the Midst of them: now He was going to redeem them, not as heretofore, from the Bondage of earthly Tyrants, and from temporal Calami ties, but from the Slavery of Sin and Satan, and from fpiritual Evils, and eternal Mifery. For for the inspired Priest goes on “And hath raised up an Horn of Salvation

for

"

for us in the Houfe of his Servant David." He will now indeed, in the fulleft Senfe, vifit us with his SALVATION-He will now make the true Horn of David to bud ; and upon HIMSELF, upon the Son of David, fhall his Crown flourish. Pf.cxxxii. 17, 18. "As He 17,18.. promised by the Mouth of his holy Prophets, which have been fince the World began.' The Redemption of Mankind by the Seed of the Woman, promised to our firft Parents immediately after their Fall, has been ever fince the conftant Theme of the Prophets; the grand Subject of Faith and Hope to all fucceeding Generations The bleffed Days are now coming, which Mofes and all the Prophets foretold when the Lord will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and profper, and shall execute Judgment and Justice in the Earth. Jer. xxiii. 5.----"That we fhould be faved from our Enemies, and from the Hands of all that hate us" From the Enemies of our Souls; from our grand Adverfary, the Devil, and his Agents, who are continually plotting our Destruction, and endeavouring to bring us into that Lake of Fire, to which they are

doomed

doomed for their Difobedience. But vain is their Hatred, and fruitless all their Attempts, to the faithful Servants of God, who so loved the World, that he gave his only-begotten Son, to fave us from their Hands "to perform the Mercy promised to our Forefathers; and to remember his holy Covenant"-even that new and everlasting Covenant, fpoken of by the Prophet Jeremiah, a Covenant of Spiritual Mercies and Bleffings, promifed to our Forefathers, whereof their temporal Deliverances were but Types and Shadows" To perform the Oath, which He fware to our Forefather Abraham, that He would give us” (or that He would grant unto us") that we, being delivered out of the Hands of our Enemies, might ferve Him without Fear, ih Holiness and Righteousness before Him, all the Days of our Life."-The Oath, here alluded to, is that mentioned in the 22d Chapter of Genefis; where we read, that after Abraham had readily obeyed the divine Command, in offering up his Son Ifaac, (which was defigned to prefigure and reprefent the great Sacrifice of Chrift upon the Crofs, the true Lamb for the Burnt-offering)