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O ye Seas and Floods, bless ye The LORD, praise Him, and magnify Him for Ever!

Ye mighty Monuments of your CREATOR's Power, and of Subjection to His Appointments-Instruments of His Goodness or Chastisement-Emblems of the Vast Unfathomable Depth of the Wisdom and Providence of GOD; having within you treasures of fruitfulness and healthfulness and of surpassing value to Man, both in civilization and culture, in your calm and gentle moods; but overwhelming in your fury, and laying the Haughty low at the Bidding of Him, Whose only Rule you obey; do ye, when thus piously contemplated as JEHOVAH's Ministers, concur to influence our hearts to bless and to praise Him, and to magnify Him for Ever!

O ye Whales, and All, that move in the Waters, bless ye The LORD, praise Him, and magnify Him for Ever!

Ye Prodigies of Animated Life, Sovereigns of the Ocean, and all your varied Subjects, from the Least up to the Greatest, exhibiting wondrously in the liquid Region of Matter the Glorious Works of GOD, Guided by the Instinct, which from Him ye derived, and ever observant of His Commandment, as in the instance of the reception and safe delivery of Jonah, the rush to the Apostle's net, and the tribute-bearer at the Word of The SON of GOD; contributing as ye still do to the support, the comfort and convenience of Man; do ye therefore stimulate him to bless The LORD, and to praise and magnify Him for Ever!

O all ye Fowls of the Air, bless ye The LORD, praise Him, and magnify Him for Ever!

Ye the Inhabitants of a lighter region around us, clothed with beauty or with strength, warbling your music to The GOD, Who Made you, and daily by His Providence Sustains you, affording in your turn much of nourishment and comfort unto Man, in thus being accessory to the manifold blessings Conferred on him by GOD; do ye influence Man to bless The LORD, and praise and magnify Him for Ever!

O all ye Beasts and Cattle, bless ye The LORD, praise Him, and magnify Him for Ever!

Ye mighty lords of the forest, and you, ye gentler tribes that crop in peaceful mood the pastures, equally in your turn living proofs of the Creative and Supportive Wisdom and Power and Goodness of GOD, and alike contributing in your several ways to Man's comfort and advantage; do ye in more than language call upon him to bless The LORD, and praise and magnify Him for Ever!

Oye Children of Men, bless ye The LORD, praise Him, and magnify Him for Ever!

Ye highly Favoured Race of Beings, Formed in the Very Image of your MAKER, with a Spirit of Understanding and Immortality; to whom so many Sources of Happiness in this Life have been Freely Opened; and for whom the Purest, most Perfect and Eternal Joys of the Next are as Freely Offered; do ye, from the bottom of your hearts, and with all your minds, and at all times as opportunity serveth, bless The LORD, and praise Him, and magnify Him for Ever!

O let Israel bless The LORD, praise Him, and magnify Him for Ever!

Ye Chosen Seed of the Spiritual Israel, ye Circumcised in heart, for whom the New Jerusalem is Preparing, bless ye The LORD, Whose KINGDOM is Advancing, and praise Him for His Peculiar Mercy towards you, and magnify Him as your CREATOR, REDEEMER, and SANCTIFIER, for Ever.

O ye Priests of The LORD, bless ye The LORD, praise Him, and magnify Him for Ever!

Ye Favoured Instruments of the dissemination of GOD's Holy Word, and of the Tidings of Eternal Salvation; do ye, in all humility and with the devoutest earnestness, fulfil the high Office Appointed you in all its sacred and social duties; and thus, in extending and promoting the worship of The ONE Only and True GOD, and JESUS CHRIST, The MEDIATOR of the Covenant of Eternal Salvation, concur most

Acceptably to bless That GOD, and to spread His Glory Everlastingly.

O ye Servants of The LORD, bless ye The LORD, praise Him, and magnify Him for Ever!

Ye who in heart and in act delight to do His Will, and rejoice in His Service, do ye, by the persevering dedication of your powers and privileges to His Honour, continue to shew forth your sense of The DIVINE Goodness and Mercy and Condescending Love; and do ye look with a single eye to What CHRIST hath Done for your Souls, and to the Hope, Which He hath Set before you, and so sustain the Eternal Swell of Harmony to The ALMIGHTY's Praise !

O ye Spirits and Souls of the Righteous, bless ye The LORD, praise Him, and magnify Him for Ever!

Ye Anticipators of Heavenly Peace and Holy Rest, having a foretaste of the unutterable Joys That Await the Pronouncing on the Day of Judgment That Soul-transporting Sentence, "Well done, thou good and faithful Servant, Enter thou into Thy MASTER's Joy, Prepared for you from the beginning of the World!' Ye are indeed, in Spirit and in truth, blessing and praising The LORD for His Unbounded Goodness Vouchsafed unto you. And may we therefore learn of you to bless and praise Him here on Earth for the hope we have, through CHRIST JESUS, our INTERCESSOR, of a Participation in the Same Heavenly Inheritance, Where we may, in Communion with you, praise Him for Ever and Ever!

O ye holy and humble Men of heart, bless ye The LORD, praise Him, and magnify Him for Ever!

Ye that are Gifted with true and Spiritual Wisdom, lowly as ye should be in your own eyes, when thinking of the Purity and Holiness, the Power and Goodness of your CREATOR; of All, That He has Done both for your Souls and Bodies; (when remembering your own shortcomings and demerits), more especially in that Hope and Assurance of Salvation unto Life and Peace and Joy Eternal, through the Interposing.

Merits and Mediation of The SON of GOD, to which this Life, through the Sustaining Influence of Faith, is the short and easy passage; bless ye The LORD by a continuance in well-doing according to His Holy Will and Pleasure, and so influence Others with a like spirit of humility and thankfulness to praise and magnify Him for Ever!

O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, bless ye The LORD, praise Him, and magnify Him for Ever!

These were the faithful and devoted Servants of The MOST HIGH, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; who, amidst the threat of Kingly displeasure, and the impending horror of fiery destruction, preserved their constancy and religious profession, as recorded by the Prophet Daniel in the 3rd chapter of his History and Prophecies.

Second Lesson.

Then shall be read the Second Lesson for the day, usually taken from The Gospel, Which, as It hath the Word of Eternal Life, should arrest our utmost attention, whilst It is declared to us, and which It should be with the deepest solemnity and impressiveness. And ever should we bear in mind the inestimable Value of That Mine of exhaustless Spiritual Riches. When the Life and Sufferings of The Incarnate SON of GOD are There Portrayed to us, Which are the Earnest of our faith in Him as A MEDIATOR, we should cherish the reflection, that from the Height of Heavenly Happiness, and the Perfection of Heavenly Purity He Descended, and not only for a time Relinquished Them, but Stooped to the rank of Poverty and Toil and Shame, Enduring moreover contumely and scorn, and the bitterness of SPIRITUAL Anguish and Bodily Agony for us, that we might be Rescued from the Pit of interminable desolation and despair, and be Advanced to a participation in the Glory of Saints and of Angels in His Heavenly KINGDOM. When the Beauty, the Lustre, and the Benevolence of His Matchless Character are thus Set before us, we should, as far as is practicable, adopt them as the most Righteous Objects for imitation as well as approbation, and strive with all fervency

and consistency to approach to a resemblance to Them. When the Precepts, Which He Poured forth, are read to us, we should regard Them as the truest Aliment of the Soul, and should both hunger and thirst after Them, and so fill our Spiritual senses with Them, that we may be secured against that direst of all calamities, a famine of the Word and Grace of GOD in our hearts. We should inhale their Odour as the Breath of Spiritual Life, knowing, that though the animal breath will depart from us, and leave the body to corruption, This will Sustain the Soul through both Time and Eternity.The Lesson ended, the People stand to join in either the beautiful Hymn uttered by Zacharias, the Father of the Infant Baptist, whom Zacharias Prophetically knew to be the Forerunner of MESSIAH, as taken from St. Luke i. 68 to 79; or the 100th Psalm.

Benedictus.

This Hymn of gratitude to The FATHER of the Universe from a Parent, whose bowels yearned over the Son of his old age, seeing, as in a vision, the Favour of HEAVEN so Peculiarly Extended towards him, as amongst the Thousands of Israel to be Chosen to prepare the Way, in the hearts of his Fellow-Creatures, for the reception of The KINGDOM of HEAVEN, is an excellent and judicious selection, to impress on us the Mercy of That our Heavenly FATHER, Who Gave His Only Begotten SON, that He might Die for us, to Restore us to our forfeited Inheritance in That KINGDOM of His SON; and should awaken in us the most lively gratitude, both in thought and act, for Such His Inestimable Condescension and Merciful Dispensations towards us. The Hymn opens with a beautiful burst of beatitude to GOD, as The GOD Peculiarly of Israel, for the Gracious Advent of MESSIAH, and for the Glorious Work of Redemption, Which Zacharias Prophetically saw Accomplished. All of which are set forth, and the knowledge and the Promises Thereof Extended to us by The Blessed Gospel; part of Which has been read before recourse is had to this Hymn. As an Israelite indeed

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