Behold, the great Creator makes

Although this gem of an Incarnation text has been in circulation for nearly 350 years, it has suffered comparative neglect which only recently has begun to be corrected, largely thanks to its inclusion in EH. Thomas Pestel published it, probably not long before his death, in Sermons and Devotions old and new. It was ‘Revived and publisht [sic] as an obligation of gratitude to all such of the nobility, gentry, and clergy as retain the noble conscience of having ministered to the weak condition of the Author, now aged 73 … by Thomas Pestel, the meanest among his late Majesties Chaplains …’, 1659. Like 352, this is part of a much longer poem beginning Fairest of Morning Lights appear; another similarity lies in its title, ‘A Psalm for Christmas Day morning’. Phrases revised from the original include those of 1.3 (for ‘virgin flesh’); 2.1 (for ‘Hark, hark!’); 3.3–4 (for ‘squadrons of spirits stood and gazed, then down in troops they came’). Undoubtedly, this and other small changes remove a certain vivid quaintness from the hymn, but as often there is a tension between the literary or historic attraction of the verse (what Dearmer called ‘a good 17th-century fragrance’), and the need to supply credible words for congregations to sing today.

The hymn has been set to KILMARNOCK (375), ST BERNARD (505), and more often to THIS ENDRIS NYGHT (763). The chosen tune here, as in CH, is GREEN HILL. A further tune-name with other but later claimants such as Noah Bruce and Robin Sheldon, Albert L Peace’s music comes 3 times in CH. It appeared first in the 1885 Scottish Hymnal for which it was composed and which he edited.

b ?Leicester 1584/5, d Leicester 1667 (1659?). Queen’s Coll Cambridge; he was then ordained and became Rector of Packington, nr Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leics, until handing over to his son, with whom (unusually) he worked as his curate. He became chaplain to the Earl of Essex and later to the king. In 1638 and also later some of his sermons were published. But in 1646 the Pestels were both charged with ‘observing ceremonies’ and removed by the Westminster Assembly. He was imprisoned several times for ecclesiastical offences. When his goods and cattle were stolen, he lived largely on the generosity of his friends. In 1659 he published Sermons and Devotions, Old and New, which contained his hymns, one of which has became a minor classic. The title page continues: ‘Revived and publisht as an obligation of gratitude to all such of the nobility, gentry and clergy as retain the noble conscience of having ministered to the weak condition of the Author, now aged 73…by Thomas Pestel, the meanest among his late Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary’. The date of his death remains uncertain; James Mearns in Julian tentatively places it soon after this publication. No.355.