C great among the nations, and prin- the folemn feats and fabbaths to be cefs among the provinces, how is iorgotten in Zion, and hath defpifed fhe become tributary! n the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. She weepeth fore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks : Among all her lovers the hath none to comfort her, all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. She dwelleth among the heathen: fhe findeth no rest. The ways of Zion do mourn, becaufe none come to the folemn feafts: all her gates are defolate. Her priests figh, her virgins are afflicted and he is in bitterness. Her adverfaries are the chief, her enemies profper: for Jehovah hath afflicted her, for the multitude of her tranfgreffions. All her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pafture, and they are gone without ftrength before the purfuer. Jerufalem remembered in the days of her affliction, and of her mifery: all her pleafant things that fhe had in the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy: the adverfaries faw her, and did mock at her fab. baths. All that honoured her, defpife her, because they have feen her nakedness: yea, fhe figheth. How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger and caft down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Ifrael, and remembred not his footstool in the day of his anger! He hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden, he hath defroyed his places of the affembly: Jehovah hath caufed The Lord hath cut off his altar, he hath abhorred his fanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces: they have made a noile in the houfe of the Lord, as in the day of a folemn feaft. The elders of the daughter of Zion fit upon the ground, and keep filence: the virgins hang down their heads. What thing fhall I liken to thee? what fhall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daugh ter of Zion? for thy breach is great; who can heal thee? Thy prophets have feen vain and foolish things for thee: they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity. Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty: the joy of the whole earth? The Lord hath done that which he had devifed: he hath fulfilled his word. This I recal to my mind: therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD's mercies, that we are not confumed: because his compaffions fail not; they are new every morning, great is thy faithfulnefs. The Lord is my portion, faith my foul, therefore will I hope in him': Jehovah is good unto them that wait for him, to the foul that feeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the falvation of the Lord: for the Lord will not caft off for ever. But tho' he caufe grief, yet will he (9) multitude of his mercies: for he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zithee aon he will no more carry way into captivity. Thou, O Jehovah, remaineft for ever, thy throne from generation to generation : wherefore doft thou forget us for ever, and forfake us fo long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned renew our days as of old. venant him! 71. Daniel's Vigils. LORD, the great and dreadful God keeping the coand mercy to them that love We have finned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled: even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto thy fervants the prophets which fpake in thy name unto our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O LORD, righteoufnefs belongeth unto thee: but unto us confusion of faces; To us, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have finned to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveneffes, though we have rebelled against him, : Neither have we obeyed the voice of Jehovah, our God, to walk in his laws which he fet before us: yea, all Ifrael have tranfgreffed thy law, even by departing. Therefore the curfe is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Mofes the fervant of God: and he hath confirmed his words which he fpake against us, and against our judges, by bringing upon us a great evil; for under the whole heaven hath not been done, as hath been done upon Jerufalem. Yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us. For For Jehovah our God is righteons in all his works which he doth. And now, O Lord our God, that haft brought thy people forth with a mighty hand, and haft gotten thee renown as at this day: we have finned, we have done wickedly. O LORD, according to all thy righteoufnefs, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerufalem, thy holy mountain: because for our fins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerufalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy fervant, and his fupplications, and caufe thy face to fhine upon thy fanctuary that is defolate for the Lord's fake. For we do not prefent our fupplications before thee for our righteoufneffes but for thy great mercies. O LORD! hear, O Lord, forgive, O Lord, hearken and do, defer not, for thine own fake, O my God: The prophecy of Micah. HOU, Bethlehem Ephra for thy city and thy people are called (5) Tab; though thou be little by thy name. Be Numb. vi. 27. 72. Danicl's Pfalm. Leffed be the name of God for ever and ever for wisdom and might are his. : And he changeth the times and the feaíons, he removeth kings and fetteth up kings: he giveth wifdom to the wife, and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and fecret things he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. among the thousands of judah; Yet out of thee fhall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Ifrael: whofe goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that he which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren fhall return unto the children of Ifrael. And he fhall ftand and feed in the ftrength of the Lord, in the majefty of the name of the Lord his God: and they shall abide; for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. And the remnant of Jacob fhall be in the midft of many people: as a dew from the LORD, as the fhowers upon the grafs, that tarrieth not for men, nor waiteth for the fons of men. (3) 75. Habakkuk's Hymn. LORD, I have heard thy thy work in the midst of the years, in the midft of the years make known in wrath remember mercy. God came, the holy one: Selah! His glory covered the heavens: and the earth was full of his praife. His brightness was as the light, he had bright beams out of his fide: and there was the hiding of his ftrength. He flood and measured the earth, he beheld and drove asunder the nations: the everlasting mountains were fcattered, the perpetual hills did bow, his ways are everlasting. I faw the tents of Cufhan in affliction. The LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep filence before him Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my falvation: Jehovah is my strength, and he will make my feet like hind's feet, and will make me to walk upon mine high places. 76. Zephaniah's Hymn. In that day fhalt thou not be afhamed for all thy doings, wherein thou haft tranfgreffed against him: for then he will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty in his holy mountain. He will alfo leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people: the Lord. The remnant of Ifrael fhall not do iniquity, nor fpeak lies, neither fhall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: they fhall feed and lie down, and none fhall make them afraid. Sing, O daughter of Zion, fhout, Ifrael: be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath caft out thine enemy: the king of Ifrael, even the LORD is in the midft of thee, thou fhalt not fee evil any more. In that day it fhall be faid to Jerufalem, fear thou not: and to Zion, let not thine hand be flack. The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will fave; he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will reft in his love, he will rejoice over thee with finging. He will gather them that are forrowful for the folemn affembly, who are of thee to whom the reproach upon it was a burden. Behold, at that time he will undo all that afflict thee: and he will fave her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out, and he will get them praife and fame in every land, where they have been put to fhame. At that time will he bring you again: for he will make you a name and a praife among all people of the earth, earth, when he turneth back your captivity before your eyes. 77. The Prayer of Ezra. I afhamed Thou, even thou art LORD alone, thou haft made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their hoft, the earth and all things that are therein, the feas and all that is therein : and thou preferveft them all, and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. Thou art Jehovah the God: who (9) My God, tam atup my didit choofe Abram, and broughteft face to thee: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trefpafs is grown is grown up unto the heavens. And now for a little space, grace hath been fhewed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to efcape, and to give us a nail in his holy place: that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen, yet our God hath not forfaken us in our bondage but hath extended mercy unto us in the fight of kings, to give us a reviving, to fet up the house of our God, and to repair the defolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerufalem. And now, O our God, what shall we fay for we have forfaken thy commandments: thou our God haft punished us less than our iniquities deferve, and haft given us fuch deliverance as this. O LORD God of Ifrael, thou art righteous for we remain yet efcaped, as it is this day. 78. The Hymn of Nehemiah. and bless the Lord him forth, and gaveft him the name of Abraham, and foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madeft a covenant with him. Thou didst fee the affliction of our fathers, and heardest their cry: thou leddeft them in the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go. Thou cameft down alfo, and fpakeft with them from heaven: and gaveft them right judgments, and true laws, good ftatutes and commandments, and madeft known unto them thy holy fabbath. And gaveft them bread from heaven, and broughteft forth water for them out of the rock and promifedft them that they fhou'd go in to poffefs the land, which thou hadst fworn to give them. They refused to obey, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, flow to anger, and of great kindness, and forfookeft them not. The pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, neither the pillar of fire by night: thou gavest alfo thy good fpirit to inft.uct them. Forty years didft thou sustain them (9) Stand up and beefs and ever: in the wildernefs, fo that they lacked and bleffed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all bleffing and praise. nothing: their cioathes waxed not old, and their feet fwelled not. Nevertheless they were disobe |