under whose Politie the Psalms were penned and composed were a Typical people and Gods Oeconomie to them may be instructive to us not in a literal but spiritual sense what severity was required from them towards the Canaanites and other enemies of God the same should be transcribed by us in another way that is we should express our displeasure and revenge upon our lusts and sins as the greatest enemies of God or us and thus our indignation and zeal our imprecations and Anathema's may be seasonable enough if we continue them only in this sense but for the cursing of any other enemies it is hardly reconcilable to Christianity neither can it be warranted out of the Psalms or any other part of Scripture to be used as a Prayer but only as a prediction or denunciation and this may be done upon a design purely Christian and charitive enough And whereas many things in the Psalms may seem not to suit well with every mans condition at all times and so the Spirit of the Reciter may meet with a kind of contradiction forbidding to go along with the Spirit of the Psalmist as for instance how can a man overwhelmed with distress hâ—ve the lively vigorous Spirit of Praise or Eucharist or a man in a prosperous state have the true Spirit of devotion and humiliation yet this scruple may be easily removed thus That though the Psalms read may not suit so properly with our own condition yet they may suit with the condition of others to the best advantages and in our publick Services we are to put upon us publick Spirits and mind the state and condition of other men as well as of our selves we are to rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and to weep with them that weep and to be of the same mind one towards another Rom. 12.15 16. we are to remember those who are in bonds as bound with them and those who suffer adversity being our selves also in the body Febr. 13.3 Therefore do we pray for the sick when we our selves are in health give thanks for the deliverance of others when we our selves are not in their dangers This we do as Christians not as meer men nor as necessity urgeth us to it but as charity binds us whereby we shew that as Christ is the Head of the body so we are Members one of another This is truly Christian when we can zealously comprehend others within our Prayers or Praises either for what they stand in need of or have received And it will be a very hard matter for any one of us to mention any one of the Psalms which we may not have some propriety to in whatsoever condition we are In our greatest prosperity we may have cause enough to humble our selves in our greatest distress there may be good grounds for giving of thanks Job was summoned to bless God as well for his sufferings as for his enjoyments Job 1.21 and many holy and pious men have seen ground and cause enough for their humiliation in the midst of their greatest affluence and abundance And whereas some of the Psalms are advanced to that high pitch of devotion which ordinary men who are not of the Psalmists spirit and temper cannot possibly reach to yet these very Psalms should be made familiar and be of constant use if for no other reason yet for this to quicken our dull devotions to give some spirit and life to our dead and not enough vigorous performances in the Service of God and to make us see how much we fall short of those holy and divine Pen-men of the Psalms who as to their profession of Faith zeal love and obedience to God ought to be looked upon as worthy patterns for our imitation and by reproaching of us for our own defects may humble us before God because we cannot so vigorously pronounce these holy Hymns as we ought to do and may teach us to pray for more growth and spiritual proficiency in our constant Religious performances RUBRICK Then shall be read distinctly with an audible voice the First Lesson taken out of the Old Testament as is appointed in the Kalendar except there be proper Lessons assigned for that day he that readeth so standing and turning himself as he may best be heard of all such as are present And after that shall be said or sung in English the Hymn called Te Deum laudamus daily throughout the year Note that before every Lesson the Minister shall say Here beginneth such a Chapter or Verse of such a Chapter of such a Book And after every Lesson Here endeth the First or the Second Lesson EXPLANATION The reading of Lessons out of the Old and New Testament is in punctual imitation of the Ancient Church which Lessons are not left arbitrary but appointed some for ordinary days and some for Festival according to Primitive custom and practice As the Jews used to read some Lessons and portions of Scripture out of Moses and the other Prophets upon their Sabbaths and Festivals Act. 13.27 which they called Sections or Tractats of a good day Colos 2.16 so it was decreed and ordered in the Church Christian and in imitation so near as could be of what was practised in the Jewish Church that the first Lesson should be read out of the Old Testament and the second out of the New And it was so contrived that Hymns Lessons and Psalms should be used interchangably to take off something from the tediousness of the Service for as variety is pleasant to the body so is it also to the Soul therefore is the Service made so Mosaick and of so many pieces commodiously disposed to rescue each other from fastidiousness Neither do we read only the Canonical Scripture but some part also of the Apocryphal Books which appear to be most agreable to the Canonical in the doing of which we do not consider both under the same parity of honour and estimation for our Bibles have sufficiently made a distinction And though it cannot be denied that the Ancient model of Canonical and Apocryphal Books did pass under a complex notion of the Old Testament yet we read not the Apocryphal Books as we do Canonical Scripture to ground any Article of Faith upon only we read them for instruction in life and manners and upon the same account as the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians was wont to be read in Churches in Ancient times Neither are any Chapters or Lessons so prescribed out of the Apocryphal Books as that we should set aside the Canonical Scripture for the Minister is left to his discretion to make his choice as he thinks fit either of the one or of the other We read the Apocryphal Books because they are consonant to the Canonical because they were respected by the Ancients because they are instructive in their stile and some passages in them do explain the Canonical Scripture which they who most oppose them cannot honestly deny and why may they not be as well
all that we are or have is due to thee from whom all is received and therefore we do not impute any thing to our selves or our own acquisition In this Faith we pray and confide that what we pray for shall be granted RUBRICK Then likewise he shall say O Lord open thou our lips Answ And our mouth shall shew forth thy praise Psal 51.15 O God make speed to save us Psal 70.1 Answ O Lord make hast to help us Psal 40.13 RUBRICK Here all standing up the Priest shall say Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost Isa 42.8 1 Cor. 10.31 Rom. 11.36 Answ As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen Priest Praise ye the Lord Psal 146.1 Answ The Lords name be praised EXPLANATION The forementioned Versicles with the Responses are Canonical Scripture and taken most-what out of the Book of Psalms by which we acknowledge our dependance upon God and that we are unable of our selves to perform any Religious duty well unless God enable us They are used interchangably by Minister and People to testifie mutual Love to strengthen affection to stir up devotion to kindle and enflame it one in another to oblige us to greater attention and this praying by way of Response is grounded upon the Scripture and conformable to the practice of the earliest and purest times of Christianity And for the form of giving glory to God Father Son and Holy Ghost it is very ancient by which we avouch our Doctrine and Faith of the Trinity against all opposers as we have received from Christ and his Apostles so we baptize believe and give glory to God Father Son and Holy Ghost and this we do not without Scripture-warrant Mat. 28.19 Rom. 11.36 It is the Christians Hymn and shorter Creed some who professed Christianity had corrupted this form of giving glory to God and had framed up another form in favour of their own new opinions and perswasions in Religion differing from that of the Ancient Christians both in words and sense but the ancient form which was before and is still used was again restored upon the restauration of which those words were added As it was in the beginning c. that is in the first beginning of the true Religion professed and solemnly owned by the name of Christian Now certainly very meet it is that we should give glory to God because it is appropriate to God alone Psal 115.1 It is his peculiar right which he lays claim to Isa 42.8 for he is the King of Glory The Heavens declare it Psal 19.1 the Angels chant it Luk. 2.14 Seraphims resound it Isa 6.3 and man is no less obliged to it then those coelestial Spirits are No place on earth is more proper for it then God's house where every man should speak of his honour and there is no better posture to do it in then standing for by it we shew our chearful readiness to give glory to God and our pious resolution to stand fast in the Faith of the Holy Trinity And for those words Praise ye the Lord they are the same with Hallelujah set at the end of the five last Psalms in the Psalter and used in this place to be as an impression invitatory to the following Psalms and the following Response The Lords name be praised is according to what we find written Psal 106.48 RUBRICK Then shall be said or sung this Psalm following except on Easter-day upon which another Anthem is appointed and on the nineteenth day of every month it is not to be read here but in the ordinary course of the Psalms PSAL. 95. Ver. 1. O Come let us sing unto the Lord let us heartily rejoyce in the strength of our salvation 2. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and shew our selves glad in him with psalms 3. For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods 4. In his hand are all the corners of the earth and the strength of the hills is his also 5. The sea is his and he made it and his hands prepared the dry land 6. O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker 7. For he is the Lord our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand 8. 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 9. When your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works 10. Fourty 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 11. Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen EXPLANATION With this Psalm the ancient Church used to begin her Service it was the invitatory Psalm with which they usually began before the Congregation was well met together at the hearing of which all hastned to Church and it is very well appointed to be used in this place before all other Psalms because it is the fittest to conform us to the right use of all the rest and to furnish out Gods Service with all due reverence Glory be to the Father c. is added at the end of this and of every Psalm that we may reduce that to practice which is the scope of every Psalm that is Give Glory to God RUBRICK Then shall follow the Psalms in order as they are appointed And at the end of every Psalm throughout the year and likewise at the end of Benedicite Benedictus Magnificat and Nunc dimittis shall be repeated Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost Answ As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen EXPLANATION The Psalter was anciently divided into several portions called Nocturns by which division the Psalms were read every week and this was a custom peculiar only to the Latine Church for in the Syrian and Greek Churches the Psalter was read over every twenty days Our Church allows a months space for the reading over the Book of Psalms and her meaning is that they should be read in publick according to ancient practice by way of Response Now the reasons why the Psalms are so frequently read over and why in this manner I conceive to be these Because the Psalms do contain in them the choice and flower of all things profitable which may be met withall in the Holy Scriptures and do more movingly express them by reason of the Poetical form wherein they are written No part of Scripture doth more admirably set forth all the considerations and operations which belong to God nor so magnifie the Holy meditations and actions of Divine
read and approved of as our own Comments upon a Text of Scripture which it is to be presumed we would not have to be taken for Canonical Scripture They who are most against the reading of them cannot but confess our Sermons and Tractates to have as little of the Spirit of infallibility and Sanctification as the Apocryphal Books So far as they are consonant to the Word of God they are Canonical though not Proto-Canonical There is truth in them and we are to embrace truth wherever we meet with it for it is Gods whoever speaks it or writes it we read them not to confirm us in matters of Faith but to instruct us in life and manners because they contain in them many excellent moral precepts for the regulating of our lives and well ordering of our conversations Again some part of the Canonical is not enjoyned to be read publickly in the Congregation not because the Authority of it is undervalued but because it is not so useful for Edification nor so fitted to the understandings and capacities of the people as those portions of Scripture are which are enjoyned to be read those necessary parts of Scripture which God hath made easie the Church desires should be made familiar and frequently read to the people Therefore she orders the Psalms to be read over once every month most part of the Old Testament once a year the New thrice and hath so sorted the Lessons Prayers Psalms Epistles and Gospels for some Festivals that they edifie as much as any ordinary Sermons if people were but so wise as to consider the wise directions of the Church and to value her prudence as much as they do their own foolish humors Now the Lessons are taken one out of the Old another out of the New Testament that by frequent reading of them we may observe the Harmony of both for as the Cherubins of Glory looked each upon other and both closed with their wings over the Mercy-seat so the Two Testaments look each upon other both upon Christ who is the supplement of the one and the complement of the other in the one promised in the other exhibited the Law being an hidden Gospel and the Gospel a revealed Law The Patriarchs Prophets Evangelists Apostles wrote by the same Spirit pointed at the same Messias were saved by the same Faith and this may very much confirm us in the truth of the Scriptures when we read that exactly fulfilled in the New Testament which was so punctually foretold in the Old Besides it may be a means of converting the Jews as well as confirming us Christians for they may in time embrace Christ's Gospel with us when they see us embrace Moses and the Prophets together with them But in taking Lessons first out of the Old Testament and then out of the New the Church observes the method of the Holy Spirit who first published the Old then the New first the precepts of the Law then of the Gospel and by this method we are taught to go forward in our knowledge from smaller things to greater from the lowest to the highest for the Law is as a Paedagogue teaching the first Rudiments the Institutions of highest perfection are contained in the Gospel The Minister is to read the Lessons distinctly with a sober grave and audible voice and he is to turn himself towards the people when he reads because he is upon an office directed to them whereas in Prayer he looks another way towards the more eminent part of the Church where use to be placed the Symbols of God's more especial presence with whom the Minister in Prayer hath chiefly to do For the same reason we may suppose that the Christians in former times used to pray with their faces Eastward because in the Chancel which was the East part of the Church stood the Holy Table where the highest of Religious Services were usually performed and the Sacrament of Christ's body and bloud was administred which is the special sign of God's mysterious presence The Jews at the reading of the Law and other Scriptures looked toward the people but in Prayer toward the Mercy-seat or principal part of the Temple Psal 28.2 and Christians may in all probability do the like in imitation of the Jews for as their Mercy-seat was a type and figure of Christ so the Holy Table and the Sacred Mysteries there performed are representations of him in a more special manner Neither did the Jews nor do the Christians this out of any superstitious conceit that God cannot or will not hear our Prayers unless we look Eastward when we pray as the Jews looked toward the Oracle or Mercy-seat for we know God is Omnipresent every where present yet for all this Christ directed us by his form of prayer to look towards Heaven when we pray because it is the Throne of God Te Deum Laudamus WE praise thee O God we acknowledge thee to be the Lord Psal 67.3 Psal 99.34 Psal 148.1 All the Earth doth worship thee the Father everlasting To thee all Angels cry aloud the Heavens and all the Powers therein Psal 148.2 To thee Cherubin and Seraphin continually do cry Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Isa 6.3 Rev. 4.8 Isa 66.1 Jer. 23.24 The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee Rev. 4.10 11. The noble army of Martyrs praise thee Rev. 6.9 10. The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee Psal 67.2 The Father of an infinite Majesty Psal 93.1 Thine honourable true and onely Son Mat. 17.5 Luk. 1.32 Heb. 1.3 4 5. Also the Holy Ghost the Comforter John 14.26 Thou art the King of Glory O Christ Rev. 17.14 Psal 24.8 Luk. 19.38 Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father Rom. 1.4 Isa 9.6 Luk. 1.35 John 8.58 John 17.5 When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man thou didst not abhor the Virgins womb Philip. 2.6 7. Mat. 1.25 When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thou didst open the kingdom of Heaven to all believers John 14.2 3. John 17.24 Heb. 9.8 9 10 11. Heb. 10.19 20. Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father Act. 2.33 Heb. 10.12 Heb. 12.2 We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge Rom. 2.16 Act. 1.11 Act. 17.31 We therefore pray thee help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious bloud 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Psal 74.2 Make them to be numbred with thy Saints 〈◊〉 in glory everlasting Colos 1.12 John 17.22 O Lord save thy people and bless thine heritage Govern them and lift them up for ever Joel 2.17 Psal 28.9 Day by day we magnifie thee Psal 96 2◠Psal 145.2 And we worship thy Name ever world without end Psal 61.8 Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us this day without sin Psal 17.5 Gen. 20.6 O Lord have mercy upon us have mercy upon us Psal 123.3 O Lord
Priests of the Lord bless ye the Lord Psal 135.19 20. O ye servants of the Lord bless ye the Lord Psal 134.1 O ye spirits and souls of the righteous bless ye the Lord Heb. 12.23 O ye holy and humble men of heart bless ye the Lord Isa 57.15 O Ananias Azarias and Misael bless ye the Lord. Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. EXPLANATION This Song or Hymn commonly called the Song of the Three Children is word for word to be found in the Apocryphal Scripture and was used to be read by Christians in their publick Congregations as a Religious Formulary of pious thoughts confessions and prayers fit to be used in times of remarkable deliverances vouchsafed from great dangers The names of the Three Children mentioned in the close of this Hymn are to be met with in the Book of Daniel which is received for Canonical Dan. 1.6 and the occasion why this Psalm of Praise was at first composed Dan. 3.25 In the Apocryphal Book of Daniel this Hymn is set down word for word as is before noted which Apocryphal Books were anciently of very great esteem in the Church and were publickly read in the Congregations for instruction in life and manners However as appears by the forecited Texts this Hymn is exactly agreeable with Canonical Scripture and the Ancient Fathers did highly approve of it neither is there in it any thing liable to a just exception for it is only a methodical and full Compendium of the great and glorious Works of God and the whole scope of it is to shew that God is and will be magnified in all his Creatures We do not in it speak to the Creatures for to instruct them what they should do but we rather speak of them to teach our selves what is our duty that is to glorifie God together and therefore do we conclude it with Glory be to the Father that we may actually do it RUBRICK Then shall be read in like manner the second Lesson taken out of the New Testament And after that the Hymn following except when that shall happen to be read in the Chapter for the day or for the Gospel on St. John Baptists day Benedictus St. Luke 1.68 BLessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us in the house of his servant David As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began That we should be saved from our enemies and from the hands of all that hate us To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers and to remember his holy Covenant To perform the oath which he sware to our fore-father Abraham that he would give us That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life And thou Child shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways To give knowledge of salvation unto his people for the remission of their sins Through the tender mercy of our God whereby the Day-spring from on high hath visited us To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. RUBRICK Or this Psalm Jubilate Deo Psal 100. O Be joyful in the Lord all ye lands serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song Be ye sure that the Lord he is God it is he that hath made us and not we our selves we are his people and the sheep of his pasture 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 Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. EXPLANATION Let it be here noted once for all that the Benedictus of Zachary and Psalm the 100. for the Morning Service after the Second Lesson and the Magnificat of Mary Luk. 1.46 with Psalm the 98. after the First Lesson in the Evening Service and the Nunc Dimittis Luk. 2.29 and Psalm the 67. after the Second Lesson are ordered to be read as the Minister shall make his choice This or That and however these Hymns or Psalms were composed upon occasion of particular benefits yet are they always of singular use in the Church of God The forementioned Hymns are frequently used in our publick Service because they are the Hymns wherewith our blessed Saviour was joyfully received at his first entrance into this world and they do somewhat more concern us then Davids Psalms do because the Gospel and New Testament is of more concern to us then the Law and the Old These Hymns are proper only to Christianity whereas the Psalms are common to the Jews and Christians The Psalms are Prophesies and Predictions of Christ who was to come these Hymns are plain discoveries of Christ who is come They are the first gratulatory Hymns which welcomed into the world our born Saviour And though they were most seasonable then when they were first composed and sung yet we may profitably enough use them still as well as Hezekiah in publick Service commanded the Songs of David and Asaph to be used which were composed long time before 2 Chron. 29.30 For the promises and performances of God are not so restrained to particular persons but others also may go sharers in them in regard of the mystical union of all the faithful and however the particular occasion may cease yet the fountain of goodness and mercy is ever the same besides by frequent using of the praises of the Saints our minds may daily more and more be inured and enflamed with their affections And the Church hath very fitly appointed Hymns after Lessons for when we have heard God out of the Lessons speaking as it were from Heaven to our Souls how can we do less then rise up and praise him and with what Hymns can we praise him better for our Salvation then with those which were the first gratulations of our Saviour As for the Hymn and Benedictus of Zachary it was indeed composed by reason of Christ's birth and manifestation in our flesh which Zachary the Author of it Prophetically foresaw and therefore composed it for to entertain Christ withall Yet though the occasion of it was or rather was not particular we may convert it to a common use as well as the Epistles of St. Paul which were most of them written upon special occasions Neither can that occasion be indeed particular where the benefit is common for the birth of Christ as much concerns us as it did Zachary and therefore we