FESTIVAL HYMNS. I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. HYMNS CELEBRATING THE MYSTERIES AND CHIEF FESTIVALS OF THE YEAR, ACCORDING ΤΟ THE MANNER OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH; FITTED TO THE FANCY AND DEVOTION OF THE YOUNGER AND PIOUS PERSONS: APT FOR MEMORY, AND TO BE JOINED TO THEIR OTHER PRAYERS. Hymns for Advent, or the Weeks immediately before the Birth of our Blessed Saviour. I.. WHEN, Lord, O when, shall we Our dear salvation see? Arise, arise; Our fainting eyes Have long'd all night: and 'twas a long one too. Man never yet could say He saw more than one day, One day of Eden's seven : The guilty hours, there blasted with the breath Of sin and death, Have, ever since, worn a nocturnal hue. But thou hast given us hopes, that we, Wherein each vile neglected place, Shall be, like that, the porch and gate of heaven. How long, dear God, how long! Knit and combin'd Into one body, look for thee their head. Lord, we are vile and rude, Headless, and senseless, without thee, And thy bright self to this our body wed; Spruce, as the childhood of the year, When thou to it shalt so united be. - Amen. The second Hymn for Advent; or, Christ's coming to Jerusalem in triumph. LORD, come away; Why dost thou stay? Thy road is ready; and thy paths, made straight, The consecration of thy beauteous feet. Our lusts and proud wills in thy way. Hosannah! welcome to our hearts: Lord, here Nothing but thieves and robbers dwell therein, Enter, and chase them forth, and cleanse the floor; Crucify them, that they may never more Profane that holy place, Where thou hast chose to set thy face. And then if our stiff tongues shall be Mute in the praises of thy deity, The stones out of the temple-wall Shall cry aloud and call Hosannah! and thy glorious footsteps greet.-Amen. 78 Hymns for Christmas Day. I. MYSTERIOUs truth! that the self-same should be Whom first the shepherds knew, Shepherd of men and angels,-Lamb of God,- All glories be to th' glorious Deity. The second Hymn; being a Dialogue between three Shepherds. 1. WHERE is this blessed Babe, That hath made All the world so full of joy And expectation? That glorious boy, That crowns each nation With a triumphant wreath of blessedness? 2. Where should he be but in the throng, And among His angel-ministers, that sing And take wing Just as may echo to his voice, An ox, and mule, stand and behold,- That a stable should enfold Him, that can thunder. Chorus. O what a gracious God have we! How good, how great!-ev'n as our misery. The third Hymn: of Christ's Birth in an Inn. THE blessed Virgin travail'd without pain, A glorious star the sign, But of a greater guest than ever came that way;- That is the God of night and day, And over all the pow'rs of heaven doth reign. And then he comes, That pays all sums, Ev'n the whole price of lost humanity, And sets us free From the ungodly empery Of sin, and Satan, and of death. O make our hearts, blest God, thy lodging place; Which, to the world dispensed by his hand, Made it stand Fix'd in amazement to behold that light, From the throne of the Lamb, To invite Our wretched eyes (which nothing else could see To anticipate, by their ravish'd sight, Shall fall away, O let thy gracious hand conduct me up, May, with thy friend, in thy sweet bosom lie, Upon the Day of the Holy Innocents. MOURNFUL Judah shrieks and cries Of their babes, that cry More that they lose their paps, than that they die. Which now does ride Passing, from their fontinels of clay, And they to rest and glory fled; Lord, who wert pleas'd so many babes should fall, In innocence like them, in glory, Thee. Amen. |