to be in the Midft of you, and bless his Ordinances to you, if use them as you ought. And what then is your Duty in such a Case?

you

you

There are many Things in the Leffons perhaps, that you do not understand: many, which, though you do understand them, yield you very little Inftruction or Benefit. But attend to them diligently, weigh them deliberately, think how you may profit by them, consult proper Persons, or Books if you can, about them and, by quick Degfees, you will both apprehend your Bible better, and esteem it more; and reap fuch Good from it, as probably you never imagined. At least will have done utmost and God will accept and reward you. I have given you Directions, at large, for the profitable Reading of Scripture, which may be applied, in a great Measure, to Hearing it, and must not now be repeated. But the principal Direction is, Receive the Seed of the Word into an honest and good Heart: and you will certainly bring forth Fruit, with Patience, unto everlasting Life'. Say within yourselves at the Beginning, with Samuel, Speak, Lord, for thy Servant heareth". Say of the

your

k Matt. xviii. 20.

I Sam. iii, 10.

Matt. xiii. 23. Luke viii. 15.

more

more difficult Parts, with David, Open mine Eyes, that I may fee the wondrous Things of thy Law". Say of thofe, that try your Faith, with the poor Man in the Gofpel, Lord, I believe: help thou mine Unbelief. Say of those, that direct your Practice, with the People of Ifrael, All that the Lord hath Spoken, we will And be affured of becoming, though not fkilful in curious, which St. Paul ftiles, foolish and unlearned, Questions and doubtful Difputations; yet, what is infinitely better, humble and pious, and wife unto Salvation.

do P.

To each Leffon fucceeds a Hymn or Pfalm: conformably to a Decree of the Council of Laodicea, 1400 Years ago, that the public Reading of God's Word fhould be mixed with repeating his Praises: a moft rational Combination, as well as refreshing Change.

The Hymn, called Te Deum, derives that Name from the first Words of it in the Latin: in which Language it was compofed, about the Middle of the fourth Century; and hath been ufed by the whole Western Church, at leaft 1200 Years in that of Rome, only on Sundays and Holydays, and not all those; but in ours

:

every Day, as the fingular Excellence of it well deferves. It begins with equal Majefty and Simplicity: We praife thee, O God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. And not we alone, but all the Earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting every Corner of it having retained fome Apprehenfions of a fupreme Ruler; on which is founded that of St. Paul to the Athenians, Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. But unfpeakably worthier Honours, than thofe of poor Mortals, are inceffantly paid him in Heaven by the holy Angels; mentioned in Scripture, and thence here, under the Names of Cherubin and Seraphin; the former denoting probably their unwearied -Diligence to ferve him, the latter their ardent Love to him: whofe Acclamations therefore we humbly prefume to adopt, as we find them recorded in that lofty Description of the Prophet. I faw the Lord, fitting upon the Throne, high and lifted up, and his Train filled the Temple. Above it food the Seraphims: and one cried unto another and faid, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God of Hofs: the whole Earth is full of his Glory". Where it must be observed, that for God of Hosts in the Prophet, is God of Sabaoth

t Acts xvii. 23.

u If. vi. 1, 2, 3.

of

1

baoth in the Hymn; the latter being the Hebrew Word for the former: which both the Greek and Latin of the Old and New Teftament having preserved, as comprehending more than could be well, expreffed by a fingle Term any other Language; it is preserved in the English alfo, both here, and in two Places of -the Epiftles". And it fignifies God to be the fovereign Lord, of the innumerable Company of Angels; of the Hoft of Heaven, which the Heathen worshipped, the Sun, Moon and Stars; of the Hofts and Armies of all Nations on Earth; particularly the Jewish People, whom he led forth to Battle; and laftly of the Chriftian Church: which the Old Teftament foretold fhould be terrible, as an Army with Banners; and the New defcribes, as furnished with Weapons of Warfare, mighty, through God, to the cafting down Imaginations and every high Thing that exalteth itself against the Knowledge of Him, and bringing into Captivity every Thought to the Obedience of Christ. This therefore the Phrafe, Lord God of Sabaoth, means: not, as many imagine, (though it be a Truth, but a very inferior one,) that God is peculiarly Lord

w Rom. ix. 29. James v. 4. y Cant. vi. 4, 10.

z 2 Cor. x. 4, 5.

* Heb. xii. 22.

A

a

of the Sabbath Day. For the Words are intirely different in the Original, though fomewhat alike in our Manner of writing them.

Nor are the Praifes of God fung in Heaven by the Angels alone, but by the Spirits alfo of juft Men made perfect; particularly, as we go on to specify, the Apostles, Prophets and Martyrs: with whom the holy Church yet militant throughout the World afpires to join, in cele·brating the Father of an infinite Majesty; his bonourable, true, and only Son, compared with whom, the highest of all created Beings is unworthy of that Name; alfo the holy Ghost, the Comforter of every pious Soul. Then returning to the Captain of our Salvation, we thankfully own, that when he took upon him to deliver Man from Sin and its Punishment, he did not abhor, and difdain, as beneath him, the Condefcenfion of exchanging the Glories of the Godhead for the Virgin's Womb; and when he had overcome the Sharpness of Death, for Us, by fuffering it himself, (which alludes to the Words, O Death, where is thy Sting?) he opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers. Not that we mean to fay, it was not open at

a Mark ii. 28. Luke vi. ii. 10. di Cor. xv. 55.

b Heb. xii. 23. 5.

< Heb.

all