These things considered, and because there be many who, through ignorance rather than obstinacy, have neglected the Church's ordinance in this point, here are added, to those Songs of the Church, which were either taken out of the Canonical Scripture or anciently in use, certain other spiritual Songs and Hymns, appropriated to those days and occasions, which are most observable throughout the year. And before each several Hymn is prefixed a brief preface, also to declare their use and the purpose of each commemoration; that such who have heretofore, through ignorance, contemned the Church's discipline therein, might behave themselves more reverently hereafter, and learn not to speak evil of those things they understand not.
WHEN Jesus Christ incarnate was,
To be our brother then came he;
When into us he comes by grace,
Then his beloved spouse are we;
When he from heav'n descends again
To be our judge, returns he then.
And then despair will those confound,
That his first coming nought regard,
And those who, till the trumpet sound,
Consume their leisures unprepared:
Curst be those pleasures, cry they may,
Which drove the thought of this away.
The Jews abjected yet remain,
That his first Advent heeded not;
And those five virgins knock'd in vain,
Who to provide them oil forgot;
But fair and blessed those men are,
Who for his comings do prepare.
O let us therefore watch and pray,
His time of visiting to know,
And live so furnish'd, that we may
With him unto his wedding go!
Yea, though at midnight he should call,
Let us be ready, lamps and all.
And so provide before that feast,
Which Christ his coming next doth mind,
That he to come, and be a guest
Within our hearts, may pleasure find;
And we bid welcome, with good cheer,
That coming, which so many fear.
O come, Lord Jesu! come away,
Yea, though the world it should deter,
O let thy kingdom come! we pray,
Whose coming most too much defer;
And grant us thereof such foresight,
It come not like a thief by night.
AS on the night before this blessed morn
A troop of angels unto shepherds told,
Where, in a stable, he was poorly born,
Whom nor the earth nor heav'n of heav'ns can hold;
Through Bethlem rung
This news at their return,
Yea, angels sung,
That God with us was born;
And they made mirth because we should not mourn,
His love therefore, O let us all confess,
And to the sons of men his work express!
This favour Christ vouchsafed for our sake:
To buy us thrones he in a manger lay;
Our weakness took, that we his strength might
And was disrob'd that he might us array;
Our flesh he wore,
Our sins to wear away;
Our curse he bore,
That we escape it may;
And wept for us, that we might sing for aye.
His love therefore, O let us all confess,
And to the sons of men his works express!
Another for Christmas Day.
A SONG of joy unto the Lord we sing,
And publish forth the favours he hath shewn ;
We sing his praise, from whom all joy doth spring,
And tell abroad the wonders he hath done,
For such were never since the world begun.
His love therefore, O let us all confess,
And to the sons of men his works express!
As on this day the Son of God was born,
The blessed Word was then incarnate made;
The Lord to be a servant held no scorn,
The Godhead was with human nature clad,
And flesh a throne above all angels had.
Our sin and sorrows on himself he took,
On us his bliss and goodness to bestow;
To visit earth, he heav'n awhile forsook,
And to advance us high, descended low;
But with the sinful angels dealt not so.
A maid conceiv'd, whom man had never known,
The fleece was moist'ned where no rain had been,
A virgin she remains that had a son :
The bush did flame, that still remained green;
And this befell, when God with us was seen.
For sinful men all this to pass was brought,
As long before the prophets had forespoke;
So, he that first our shame and ruin wrought,
Once bruis'd our heel, but now his head is broke;
And he hath made us whole, who gave that
stroke.
The lamb hath play'd devouring wolves among;
The morning-star of Jacob doth appear;
From Jesse's root our tree of life is sprung,
And all God's words in him fulfilled are;
Yet we are slack his praises to declare.
Circumcision, or New Year's Day.
THIS day thy flesh, O Christ! did bleed,
Mark'd by the circumcision-knife;
Because the law, for man's misdeed,
Requir'd that earnest of thy life.
Those drops divin'd that shower of blood,
Which in thine agony began;
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