ing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: be. hold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recom. pense he will come and save you.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.

Response 1. Blow the trumpet in Sion, summon the nations, proclaim to all people, and say: Behold, God our Saviour shall come.

Proclaim and make it heard; speak and cry aloud.
Behold, God our Saviour shall come.

Lesson 2. Isa. xxxv. 7-10. In the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up there. on; it shall not be found there: but the redeemed shall walk there.

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Response 2. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come: and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.

His eyes are redder than wine, and His teeth whiter than milk.
And unto Him shall, &c.

Lesson 3. Isa. xli. 1-4. Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.

Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stub. ble to his bow.

He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.

Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he. Response 3. I must decrease, but He must increase; he that cometh after

me, was in being before me: whose shoes' latchet I am not worthy to unloose.

I baptized you with water; but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

Whose shoes' latchet, &c.

Glory be to the Father, &c.

Whose shoes' latchet, &c.

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NOCTURN II.

(g) Antiphon. Rejoice greatly: O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy king cometh unto thee; O Sion, be not afraid, for thy salvation cometh quickly.

(h) Antiphon. Our king: shall come, even Christ, whom John proclaimed as the Lamb which was to come.

(i) Antiphon. Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every man according as his work shall be.

(j) Verse and Response. Send ye the Lamb to the Ruler of the land. From Sela to the wilderness, unto the Mount of the daughter of Sion.

SUNDAY 1.

Lesson 4. (from St. Leo.) Our Saviour, in His account of the coming of the kingdom of God and of the end of the world, addressed to His Apostles, and in them to the whole Church, bids them beware, lest, at any time, their hearts should be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life; which warning, beloved brethren, we know to belong to us specially, to whom the threatened day, though hidden, is certainly near.

Response 4. Hail, thou that art highly favoured; the Lord is with thee: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore that Holy Thing which shall be born of Thee shall be called the Son of God.

How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? and the angel answered and said to her,

The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, &c.

Lesson 5. For whose coming it is fitting that all mankind should make ready, lest it should surprise any in gluttony or worldly cares. For daily experience proves, my beloved, that the keen. ness of the mind is blunted by fulness of drink, and the vigour of the heart clouded by excess of meat; so that love of eating even does injury to our bodily health, unless a rule of temperance counteracts the seduction and refuses to indulgence what afterwards would be a burden.

Response 5. We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change this vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious. body.

Let us live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the Great God.

Who shall change, &c.

Lesson 6. For though the flesh hath no desires apart from the soul, and derives its senses from whence it gains animation, yet it is the part of the soul to deny some things to that body which is made subject to her, and by an inward discretion to hold back what is outward from mischief; that, being often at leisure from bodily desires, She may devote herself to divine wisdom in the palace of the mind, and while the noise of earthly cares is altogether hushed, may rejoice in holy meditations and everlasting pleasures. Response 6. O my Lord, send, I pray Thee, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt send: behold the affliction of Thy people: as Thou hast spoken, come: and deliver us.

Hear, O Thou Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadeth Joseph like a sheep, Thou that sittest between the cherubim.

As Thou hast spoken, come: and deliver us.

Glory be to the Father, &c.
And deliver us.

SUNDAY 2.

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(From St. Jerome.) And there shall go forth a rod out of the root of Jesse. As far as the beginning of the vision, or burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw, all this prophecy relates to Christ. Which I would explain by portions, lest if it be all set forth, and treated at once, it confuse the memory of the reader. The Jews understand our Lord by the rod and flower from the rod of Jesse, the rod signifying His power, the flower his comeliness. Response 4. Behold, the Lord shall come, our defender, the Holy One of Israel: with the crown of His kingdom upon Him.

And he shall reign from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

With the crown, &c.

Lesson 5. But we, by the rod from the root of Jessé, understand the holy Virgin Mary, who had no shrub belonging to her: of whom we read before, Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son. And by the flower is meant the Lord and Saviour, who says in the of songs, I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.

song

Response 5. As a mother comforteth her sons, so will I comfort you, saith the Lord and from Jerusalem, the city I have chosen, shall succour come to you and you shall see, and your heart shall rejoice.

I will give to Sion salvation, and to Jerusalem My glory.
And you shall see, &c.

Lesson 6. Therefore upon this flower, which shall suddenly spring up from the stem and root of Jesse by the Virgin Mary, the Spirit of the Lord shall rest; for in Him it hath seemed good that all the

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fulness of the godhead should dwell bodily; not by portions, as in the case of other Saints, but according to the Hebrew gospel of the Nazarenes, all the fountain of the Holy Spirit shall descend upon Him. But the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Response 6. O Jerusalem, thou shalt plant thy vine upon thy mountains. Leap for joy, for the day of the Lord shall come. Arise, O Sion, be turned unto the Lord thy God; rejoice and be glad, O Jacob: for thy Saviour shall come in the midst of the nations.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.

For thy Saviour shall come in the midst of the nations.

Glory be to the Father, &c.

For thy Saviour shall come, &c.

SUNDAY 3.

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Lesson 4. (From St. Leo.) The time of the year, and our own religious custom, leads me to proclaim to you, dearly beloved, with the anxiety of a pastor, the fast of the 10th month, in which for the completion of the gathering of all fruits, is poured out most suit. ably to the Lord their giver, the tribute of abstaining from them; for what can be more available than fasting? by observing which we draw near to God, and resisting the devil, overcome our plea. sant vices.

Response 4. Weep not, O Egypt, for thy Ruler shall come to thee, before whose coming the depths shall be moved: to deliver His people from the hand of power.

Behold the Lord of hosts shall come, thy God with great power.

To deliver, &c.

Lesson 5. For fasting has ever been the food of virtue. In a word, from abstinence proceed chaste thoughts, moderate wishes, sober purposes and by voluntary inflictions, the desires of the flesh are mortified, the graces of the spirit strengthened. But since, not by fasting only, the health of our souls is gained, let us make alms. giving the supplement of fasting. Let us give to active virtue, what we diminish from indulgence: Let the abstinence of the faster be the refreshment of the poor.

Response 5. Her time is well nigh come, and her days shall not be prolonged: The Lord shall have pity upon Jacob, and Israel shall be saved.

Return, O virgin of Israel, return into thy cities.

The Lord shall have pily, &c.

Lesson 6. Let us give attention to the defence of widows, the welfare of orphans, the consolation of mourners, the reconciliation of enemies. Befriend the foreigner, assist the oppressed, clothe the naked, nurse the sick that whoso of us by righteous labours

shall offer to God, the author of all good, such pious sacrifice, may receive in turn for the same the reward of His heavenly kingdom. Let us keep fast on Wednesdays and Fridays; let us keep Vigil on the Sabbath with the blessed Apostle Peter, whose deeds of grace working together with our prayers, we may obtain what we seek through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, world without end, Amen.

Response 6. The Lord shall descend as the rain into a fleece of wool; righteousness shall spring forth in His days, yea, and abundance of peace.

And all kings shall worship Him, all the heathen shall serve Him.

Righteousness shall spring forth, &c.

Glory be to the Father, &c.
Righteousness shall spring forth, &c.

SUNDAY 4.

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Lesson 4. (From St. Leo.) If we understand truly and wisely, dearly beloved, the history of our creation, we shall find that man was therefore formed after the likeness of God, that he might imitate the Creator; and that the natural dignity of our race consists in the image of divine kindness shining within us as in a mirror. To. wards which we are daily renewed by the grace of the Saviour, so that what fell in the first Adam, is raised again in the second. Response 4. Unto us a child is born, and He shall be called the mighty God: He shall sit upon the throne of David His Father and shall reign: and the dominion shall be upon His shoulder.

And in Him shall all tribes of the earth be blessed, and all na. tions shall serve Him.

He shall sit, &c.

Lesson 5. The sole cause of our recovery is the pitifulness of God, whom we should not love, unless He first loved us, and scattered the darkness of our ignorance with the light of His truth; which the Lord declaring by holy Isaiah saith, I will bring the blind by a way that they know not, and paths of which they were ignorant will I make them tread; I will make their darkness light, and their crooked straight. This will I do to them, and not forsake them. And again, I am found of them who sought me not, and I am manifested to them that asked not for me.

Response 5. Behold the fulness of time is now come, in which God sent forth His Son upon the earth, born of a virgin, made under the Law;

to redeem those that are under the Law.

For His great love wherewith He loved us, God sent forth His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.

To redeem those, &c.

Lesson 6. How this was fulfilled the Apostle John teaches, saying.