1. Now, O good Shepherd, 1. Jesus saith, I am the good merciful Peter, Shepherd. John x. 11.
2. Accept the prayers of us 2. Whatsoever ye shall ask in who supplicate, my name, that will I do. That whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he may give it you. John xiv. 13; xv. 16.
3. And loose the bands of our 3. The blood of Jesus Christ sins, by the power committed to his Son cleanseth us from all sin. thee, 1 John i. 7.
4. By which thou shuttest 4. These things saith he that heaven against all by a word, is holy, he that is true, he that and openest it[98]. openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. Rev. iii. 7.
I am he that liveth and was dead, and am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death. Rev. i. 18.
[Footnote 98: This hymn is variously read. In the edition of Mr. Husenbeth (H. 497.) it is: "O Peter, blessed shepherd, of thy mercy receive the prayers of us who supplicate, and loose by thy word the bands of our sins, thou to whom is given the power of opening heaven to the earth, and of shutting it when open."--"Beate pastor, Petre, clemens accipe voces precantum, criminumque vincula verbo resolve, cui potestas tradita aperire terris coelum, apertum claudere." H. 497.]
Let it not be answered that many a Christian minister is now called a good shepherd. Let it not be said that the very words of our ordination imply the conveyance of the power of loosing and binding, of opening and shutting the gates of heaven. When prayer is contemplated, we can think only of One, HIM, who has appropriated the title of Good Shepherd to { 262} himself. And we must see that Peter cannot, by any latitude of interpretation, be reckoned now among those to whom the awful duty is assigned of binding and loosing upon earth.
The same unsatisfactory associations must be excited in the mind of every one who takes a similar view of Christian worship with myself, by the following supplication to various saints on St. John's day:
"Let the heaven exult with praises[99], Let the earth resound with joy; { 263} The sacred solemnities sing The glory of the Apostles. O ye Just Judges of the age, And true lights of the world, We pray you with the vows of our hearts, Hear the prayers of your suppliants. Ye who shut the heaven by a word, And loose its bars, Loose us by command, we beseech you, From all our sins. Ye to whose word is subject The health and weakness of all, Cure us who are diseased in morals, Restore us to virtues. So that when Christ shall come, The Judge at the end of the world, He may make us partakers Of eternal joy. To God the Father be Glory, And to his only Son, With the Spirit the Comforter, Now and for ever. Amen[100]."