13. Fiat misericordia tua Domine super nos quemadmodum speravimus in TE[6]: in TE Domine speravi, non confundar in aeternum[7]. [1] Isaiah ix. 6. [2] Isaiah vi. 3, cf. Rev. iv. 8. [3] Psalm xxviii. 9. [4] Psalm cxlv. 2. [5] Psalm cxxiii. 3. [6] Psalm xxxiii. 22. [7] Psalm xxxi. 1 and lxxi. 1. _Note_. Some readers will at first sight be afraid of the Latin form of the Te Deum. It is however so important to the clear understanding of this beautiful Hymn that we hope they will piece together the English words and their Latin equivalents. The task will not be really difficult, for most of the words are almost English already. It will not surprise them to find that _Tu_ is Thou, and _Te_ Thee, that _Tibi_ is To Thee, and _Dominum_ Lord, and so on. We think that most of the words will be understood by any one who is familiar with the English. _Aculeo_, in line 7, means _sting_, and _crederis esse venturus_ means _Thou-art-believed to-be about-to-come_. _To face_ p. 65] * * * * * * * * {65} CHAPTER VIII. PRAISE. IV. Te Deum laudamus. This ancient Latin Hymn of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ has in many Service-books been attributed to S. Ambrose and S. Augustine. One of the stories is that they sang it in alternate verses when the latter was baptized by the former, A.D. 386. We shall presently show that it is composed on a very elaborate plan, and is very far from being an extempore Hymn. Its earlier verses are founded on expressions in Isaiah (vi. 3, ix. 6). Its concluding part has not always been in the form which has become familiar to us: in its present shape it may be regarded as the survival of the best of the different forms. The verses of this part as they now stand are obviously taken chiefly from the Psalms (xxviii. 9, cxlv. 2, cxxiii. 3, xxxvi. 22, xxxi. 1 or lxxi. 1). The following lines of an early morning hymn, found in the Alexandrine MS. of the Bible, are very similar to the verses which we have numbered 11 and 12: "Day by day will I bless Thee and praise Thy name for ever, and for ever and ever. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin." {66} There is a sentence in S. Cyprian also (_De Mortalitate_, p. 166, ed. Fell) quoted in the notes in illustration of line 4, which must have been borrowed from the Te Deum, or lent to it. It is not easy to determine whether an elaborate composition of this description, designed evidently for worship, is more likely to lend or to borrow any particular phrase. The Psalm verses, and verses &c. from Isaiah, are evidently borrowed by the Hymn. Perhaps this suggests that the composer was likely to have borrowed, rather than lent, the other passages. On the other hand, a Hymn founded on Scripture, carefully composed, and well known in worship, is precisely the source most likely to be quoted in other Hymns and in books.