We must stir up ourselves to praise God with the consideration both of the reason and of the encouragement we have to praise him. › The goodness of his grace relating to our souls and the life that is to come.

5. For the many glorious instances of God’s favour to the Old Testament church.

We adore that wisdom, peace, and goodness with which thou broughtest the vine out of Egypt, didst cast out the heathen and plant it; thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. Ps 80:8, 9.

And they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them, but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour to them. Ps 44:3.

We bless thee that to the Jews were committed the oracles of God, that they had the adoption and the glory, and the covenants, the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; and that there did not fail one word of all thy good promise, which thou promisedst by the hand of Moses, thy servant. Rom 3:2; Rom 9:4. 1 Kgs 8:56.

We bless thee for all that, which thou didst, at sundry times and in divers manners, speak in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, those holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and prophesied of the grace that should come unto us, testifying beforehand the suffering of Christ, and the glory that should follow, and that not to themselves only, but to us they ministered those great things, things which the angels themselves desire to look into. Heb 1:1. 2 Pet 1:21.1 Pet 1:10–12.

And especially we bless thee, that thou hast provided some better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Heb 11:40.

‹ For the early and ancient indications of the gracious… · For the wonderful and mysterious incarnation of the Son of… ›

Pray now: a guided prayer in six parts, with the next heads each day.

Henry’s text is in the public domain. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, No. 265 Chestnut Street. Undated, about 1840 to 1860. The preface is dated Chester, March 25, 1710. From the Internet Archive scan. The KJV text is in the public domain.