And if this service thus seems to mingle the merits of Christ, the merits of his blood and of his death, with {222} the merits of a mortal man, the immediate address to that mortal as the giver of good things temporal and spiritual, very awfully trespasses on that high, exclusive, and incommunicable prerogative of the one Lord God Omnipotent, which his Spirit hath proclaimed solemnly and repeatedly, and which he has fenced around against all invasion with so many warnings and denunciations. _Scripture._ _Service of Becket_ 1. O thou that hearest prayer, 1. For they sake, O Thomas, unto thee shall all flesh come.-- let the right hand of God embrace Ps. lxv. [vulg. lxiv.] 2. us. By prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.--Phil. iv. 6. 2. Lord, be thou my helper.-- 2. Send help to us, O Thomas; Ps. xxx. [xxix.] 10. 3. Thou shalt guide me by thy 3. Guide thou those who stand; counsel.--Ps. lxxiii. [lxxii.] 24. He, The Holy Spirit, shall guide you into all truth.--John xvi. 13. 4. The Lord upholdeth all that 4. Raise up those who fall; fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.--Psalm cxlv. [cxliv.] 14. 5. Create in me a clean heart, 5. Correct our morals, actions O God.--Ps. li. [l.] 10. and life; 6. The steps of a good man are 6. And guide us into the way ordered by the Lord. Though of peace. he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him.--Ps. xxxvii. [xxxvi.] 23. The day-spring from on high hath visited us, to guide our feet into the way of peace.--Luke i. 78, 79. And then again, in celebrating the praises of a mortal {223} man, recourse is had to language which can fitly be used only in our hymns and praises to the supreme Lord of our destinies, the eternal Creator, Redeemer, and Comforter, the only wise God our Saviour. _Address to Thomas._ _Language of Scripture._ 1. Hail, Thomas, Rod of Justice! 1. There shall come a rod out of the stem of Jesse. Ye denied the Holy One, and the Just--Isaiah xi. 1. Acts iii. 14. 2. The brightness of the world. 2. The brightness of his glory. I am the light of the world--Heb. i. 3. John viii. 12. 3. The strength of the Church. 3. I can do all things through Christ, that strengthened me. Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it.--Phil. iv. 13. Eph. v. 25.