saying thrice Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia The Quire concurring with the Priest in like acknowledgments repeats Alleluia thrice also and enlarge their Praises by the following verse of the hundred seventeenth Psalm V. COnfess ye to our Lord because he is good because his Mercy continueth for ever Then the Tract is said out of the 116 Psalm Then the Tract is said taken out of the 116 Psalm To acknowledge with thanks the Obligation we have to God for calling us to the Heavenly Inheritance by the Resurrection of his Son and to testifie our desire of corresponding to our Vocation according to the instruction given us by St. Paul in the Epistle of this days Mass PRaise our Lord all ye Gentiles praise him all ye People V. Because his Mercy is confirmed unto us and his Truth remains for ever Munda cor meum c. as before pag. 14. No Tapers are carried when the Gospel is read to note unto us that Christs Resurrection who is the True Light of the World was not as yet manifested to men But Incense is used to represent the Perfumes prepared by the three Maries to anoint our Saviours Body The sequence of the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew Chap. 28. Wherein the Church teaches us how Jesus Christ manifested his Resurrection and with what Charity and Zeal we ought to celebrate the memory of it in imitation of those Holy Women whose Piety is proposed unto us in this Gospel IN the evening of Sabbath which dawneth upon the first of the Sabbath came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary to see the Sepulcher And behold there was made a great earthquake For the Angel of our Lord descended from Heaven and coming rolled back the stone and sate upon it And his countenance was as Lightning and his garment as Snow And for fear of him the watchmen were frighted and became as dead And the Angel answering said to the Women fear not you For I know that you seek Jesus that was crucified He is not here for he is risen as he said Come and see the place where our Lord was sate And going quickly tell ye his Disciples that he is risen and behold he goeth before you into Galilee there you shall see him Lo I have fore-told you The Credo is not said because the Neophytes came to recite it when they received their Baptism but the Priest says Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray Nor is the Offertory said because the Neophytes not being yet of the Fraternity did not as yet make any Oblations SUSCIPE SANCTE PATER c. until the Secret as before p. 56. The SECRET The Priest in the name of the Faithful begs Gods grace that he may worthily celebrate the Mysteries of the Resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ and thereby receive its wholsom effects REceive O Lord we beseech thee the Prayers of thy People with the Oblations of these Hoasts that the Paschal Mysteries which we celebrate being wholesom unto us may by thine assistance obtain us life everlasting Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Then the Priest in the name of the Faithful acknowledges their obligations to give God continual Thanks in that he raised Jesus Christ again whereby to revive and give us Life Everlasting And protesting himself unworthy to discharge this Duty he sings that Hymn which the Angels Thrones and Dominations use in Heaven to God's Honour Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus and the Canticle Benedictus qui venit c. which the Children sung at Christs Triumphant entry into Hierusalem to testifie the Spiritual Union of Angels and Men to praise the Divine Majesty and to confess that we ought to have the Purity of Angels and Innocence of Children to praise God as we ought IT is truly meet and just right and wholesom O Lord that at all times we set forth thy praises But more especially in this Night wherein Jesus Christ our Paschal Lamb was immolaâ—â—d For he is the true Lamb who hath taken away the sins of the World who by dying hath destroyed our death and by rising again hath restored life And therefore with Angels and Arch-angels with the Thrones and Dominations together with the Celestial Host we sing this Hymn of thy Glory without end saying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God of Sabbath The Heavens and Earth are full of thy Glory Hosanna in the highest Blessed is he that comes in the name of our Lord Hosanna in the highest The CANON to Communicantes as before pag. 63 c. The Priest by vertue of the Union of the Church Militant with the Triumphant and in memory of this Sacred Night wherein our Saviour rose again beseeches God to supply the defect of his Prayer he now makes for his Protection by the Merits and Suffrages of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Apostles Martyrs and of all the Saints PArtaking of the same Communion and celebrating the Solemnity of this blessed Night wherein our Saviour rose again according to the flesh and in the first place honouring the memory of the ever glorious Virgin Mary Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul Andrew James John Thomas James Philip Bartholomew Matthew Simon and Thaddeus Linus Cletus Clement Xystus Cornelius Cyprian Lawrence Chrysogonus John and Paul Cosme and Damian and of all thy Saints by whose Merits and Prayers grant that in all things we may be guarded with thy Holy Protection through the same our Lord Jesus Christ Amen HANC IGITVR OBLATIONEM The Priest spreads his hands over the Hoast and Chalice to testifie to God that he Offers up and Sacrificeth himself joyntly therewith begging four things First that he will please to accept this Oblation Secondly to grant us Peace Thirdly to deliver us from Eternal Damnation Fourthly to place us among the Elect. WE therefore beseech thee O Lord to receive graciously this Offering of our Servitude and of thy whole Family which we present unto thee also for those whom thou hast vouchsafed to regenerate by Water and the Holy Ghost granting them remission of all their sins giving us Peace in these our days and preserving us from Eternal Damnation to command us to be reckoned among thy Elect Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen All is said as before till you come to Agnus Dei. The Pax is not given nor Agnus Dei said which is wont to beg of God the wholsom effect of this Holy Kiss because the Neophytes not having as yet Communicated are not owned for Brethren and were not admitted to this Holy Kiss of Peace And because Peace is the principal disposition of this Sacrament which is the Sacrament of Union and Charity the Priest begs it of God for the Faithful who prepare themselves to receive the Holy Communion and acknowledging himself unworthy that his Prayers should be heard beseecheth his Majesty that he will have regard to his Goodness wherewith he presented Peace unto us in commanding us to seek
Heavens and Earth are full of thy Glory Hosanna in the highest Blessed is he that comes in the Name of our Lord Hosanna in the highest The CANON to Communicants as before pag. 63. COMMVNICANTES The Priest by vertue of the Union between the Church Militant with the Triumphant and in memory of this Blessed Day whereon our Saviour rose again beseeches God to supply the defects of his Prayers whereby he begs his Protection by the Merits and Suffrages of the Blessed Virgin the Apostles Martyrs and of Saints PArtaking in the same Communion and celebrating the Solemnity of this blessed Day wherein our Lord Jesus Christ rose again according to the flesh and in the first place honouring the memory of the ever blessed Virgin Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul Andrew James John Thomas James Philip Bartholomew Matthew Simon and Thaddeus Linus Cletus Clement Xystus Cornelius Cyprian Lawrence Chrysogonus John and Paul Cosme and Damian and all the other Saints by whose Merits and Prayers vouchsafe to grant us the assistance of thy protection Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen HANC IGITVR OBLATIONEM c. The Priest spreads his hands over the Host and Chalice to testifie to God that he Offers and Sacrifices himself unto him joyntly therewith begging four things 1. That he will please to accept this Oblation 2. To grant us Peace 3. To deliver us from Hell 4. To admit us among the Blessed WE beseech thee therefore O Lord to accept this Oblation of our Duty and of thy whole Family which we offer up unto thee also for those whom thou hast vouchsafed to regenerate by Water and the Holy Ghost granting them pardon of all their sins and graciously to give Peace in our days and preserving us from Eternal Damnation to bring us among thy Elect Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen All the rest till the Communion as before pag. 79. The COMMUNION taken out of the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians Chapter 5. Wherein the Church as in the Epistle of this Mass represents unto us that Jesus Christ immolated on the Cross is our Pasch who gives himself unto us in this new Banquet whereunto he calls us far exceeding the Jewish Pasch That therefore we may worthily celebrate this Pasch we must purifie our Hearts from the old Leaven that is their former sins and plant Innocence and Truth there in lieu of Malice and Iniquity CHrist our Passover is sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the Feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia The POST-COMMUNION We beg Gods grace to celebrate this Divine Pasch worthily wherein Jesus Christ gives himself unto us for our Spiritual Food to the end we may be all united in him as inseparable Members of his Body INfuse O Lord into us the spirit of thy love that whom thou hast satiated with thy Paschal Sacraments thou of thy goodness unite in heart and will Through our Lord c. All the rest as before pag. 81 82. At the Sixth Hour Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. O God incline unto my aid O Lord make hast to help me Glory be to the Father c. Alleluia Defecit in salutare c. as before pag. 142. Quomodo dilexi c. as before pag. 144. Iniquos odio habui c. as before pag. 145. Haec dies c. as before pag. 318. Let us Pray Deus qui hodierna die c. as before pag. 312. At the Ninth Hour Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. O Lord incline unto my aid O Lord make hast to help me Glory be to the Father c. Alleluia Mirabilia testimonia tua c. as before pag. 147. Clamavi in toto corde meo c. as before pag. 149. Principes persecuti sunt me gratis c. as before pag. 151. Haec dies c. as before pag. 318. Let us Pray Deus qui hodierna die c. as before pag. 312 Thanks be to God ON Palm-Sunday AT EVEN-SONG Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. INcline unto my aid O God Resp O Lord make haste to help me Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost R. As it was in the beginning now is and ever shall be world without end Amen The ANTHYMN Our Lord said c. PSALM 109. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ is prophesied in this Psalm wherein the Royal Prophet describes First The State of his Glory in Heaven Secondly The Extent of his Empire from Jerusalem to all Parts of the Earth Thirdly He represents his Eternal and Human Generation Fourthly His holy Priesthood which he declares to be according to the Order of Melchisedeck by reason of the Forms of Bread and Wine under which Forms he was to institute the Sacrament and Sacrifice of his own Body and Blood Fifthly He foretells that he was to be the Sovereign Judge of the World and to recompense the Just and punish the Wicked Sixthly That he was to repair the Ruins of Human Nature thereby to supply the number of the Angels which were diminished by the Fall of Lucifer and his Complices Seventhly He teacheth us That by his Sufferings in this Life which cannot more aptly be compared than to the Waters of a Torrent he was to enter into his Glory OUr Lord said to my Lord Sit on my right hand Until I make thine enemies thy footstool Our Lord will send forth the rod of thy strength from Sion rule thou in the midst of thine enemies The beginning with thee in the day of thy strength in the brightness of the Saints from the womb before the day-star I begat thee Our Lord sware and it shall not repent him Thou art a Priest for ever according to the Order of Melchisedeck Our Lord on thy right hand hath broken Kings in the day of his wrath He shall judge in nations he shall fill ruins he shall crush the heads in the land of many Of the torrent in the way he shall drink therefore shall he exalt the head Glory be to the Father c. ANTHYMN Our Lord said to my Lord Sit on my right hand Ant. All his commandments are faithful PSALM 110. or 111. The Royal Prophet admonisheth the Faithful to give God thanks for the Blessings they heretofore received from his Divine Bounty and for the Benefits they are to expect from him when the Messias shall deliver them from the Servitude of Sin and give them a new Law in giving them his own Body to be their Food whereof their Deliverance from the Captivity of Egypt and the Law of Moyses and of the Manna were only Types and Figures I Will confess to thee O Lord with all my heart in the council of the just and the congregation The works of our Lord are great exquisite according to all his wills Confession and magnificence his work
ALlmighty Everlasting God who hast caused our Saviour to take flesh and to be crucified for Mankind as an example of Humility to be imitated Grant propitiously that we may deserve to have both the Instruction of his Patience and Fellowship of his Resurrection Through the same our Lord c. The Lesson out of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Philippians Chap. 2. The Church represents the Cross unto us as the Ladder by which the Son of God descended from Heaven to the lowest degree of abatement on Earth and by which he ascended to the highest pitch of Glory and the Church teaches us by the example of Jesus Christ that we ought to be in the same disposition both in regard of him and of all man which he had in the work of our Redemption that is that we are to be ready and prepared to divest our selves of Honour Life and Goods for the love of Him and our Neighbours that as Christ was elevated above all Powers of Heaven Earth and Hell we may hope and expect a proportionable recompence after our humiliation BRethren for this think in your selves which also in Christ Jesus who when he was in the form of God thought it not robbery himself to be equal to God but he exinanited himself taking the form of a servant made into the similitude of men and in shape found as man he humbled himself made obedient unto death even the death of the Cross For the which God also hath exalted him and hath given him a Name which is above all Names That in the Name of Jesus every knee bow of the celestials terrestrials and infernals and every tongue confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father The GRADUAL taken out of 71st Psalm The Gradual is a Song wherein the Faithful being instructed by hearing the Epistle read at Mass raise themselves towards God in their holy desires as by certain spiritual degrees and prepare themselves to an attentive hearing of the Gospel and to profit by its Instructions Thus by the Gradual in the Mass the Faithful being taught by the Epistle preceding that by Afflictions and Sufferings in this Life they must gain Heaven according to our blessed Saviour's example they prepare themselves by raising their spirits to comprehend the Passion of our Saviour and to meditate that since the Grace of the New Testament appertains to Life Everlasting and not to this temporary one Christ as man being to declare it to the World ought not to draw a recommendation of it from terrestrial happiness And hence came his Humiliations incomprehensible hence his Passion his Sufferings his Scourgings wherewith he was so inhumanely torn the Spittings by which his Divine Face was so outragiously abused with all the other Injuries and Affronts he suffered 'T was in fine this brought him to the Cross this covered with Wounds his Sacred Body and at last delivered him to Death All those Marvels teach the Faithful what their Piety ought to hope and what recompence to beg of him whose children they are to the end they deceive not their selves in proposing terrestrial happiness as a reward for their Service to God And certainly 't is a signal providence of Grace and Bounty that God gives worldly happiness to the wicked to the end that good men may not place their content in the possession of it whereupon the 72d Psalm whence the Gradual of this Mass is extracted personates a man who repents that he had served God out of interest that not a right heart and expected temporal rewards and who seeing the wicked live in abundance and plenty was so far perplext as almost to think that God had no providence of humane affairs yet casting aside this sinful fancy by the authority of Saints who truly belong to God he is enforced to penetrate into so profound a secret which yet he could not discover with all his labour until he entred into the Sanctuary of God and knew their last end that is till having received the Holy Ghost and obtained the conduct of his Grace he considered the glory prepared by God for his faithful servants and learnt to desire it and understood what shall be the torment of the wicked after these contemptible and fading pleasures which they have enjoyed THou hast held thy right hand and in thy will thou hast conducted me and with glory thou hast received me V. How good is God to Israel to them that are of a right heart but my feet were almost moved my feet almost slipped because I have had zeal upon the wicked seeing the peace of sinners The TRACT taken out of the 21st Psalm This word expresseth it self the words being pronounced and sung in a low and languishing manner drawing the voice as groaning and lamenting whereby to incite us to bewail our sins and ask forgiveness of God Likewise in the Tract of this Mass the Church represents the reason why we ought to have an extream regret for our sins since they obliged our Saviour to suffer death to free and reconcile us by his humility to God his Father from whom we so unhappily estranged our selves by our pride Then the Church teaches us our obligation to give God thanks by these following Verses of the 21st Psalm disposing us to hear attentively the Passion of our Saviour whereof this Psalm prophetically makes mention wherein we ought to observe how our Saviour sometimes speaks in his own sometimes in the person of his members that which speaks of sins only relating to us that which speaks of sufferings only to him as our head who suffered for us Yet in suffering thus for us himself being blameless he put himself in our stead and took upon him our Obligations he made our Debts his own making satisfaction for our Transgression GOd my God have respect unto me why hast thou forsaken me V. Far from my salvation are the words of my sins V. My God I shall cry by day and thou wilt not hear and by night and not for folly unto me V. But thou dwellest in the Holy Place the praise of Israel V. In thee our Fathers have hoped they hoped and thou didst deliver them V. They cryed unto thee and were saved they hoped in thee and were not confounded V. But I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and outcast of the people V. All that saw me have scorned me they have spoken with the lips and wagged the head V. He hoped in the Lord let him deliver him let him save him because he afflicts him V. But themselves have considered and beheld me they have divided my garments amongst them and upon my vesture they have cast lots V. Save me from the Lions mouth and my humility from the horns of the Unicorns V. Ye that fear our Lord praise him all the seed of Jacob glorifie ye him V. The generation to come shall be shewed to our Lord and the heavens shall shew forth
Eternal God this immaculate Host which I thy unworthy servant offer to thee my living and true God for my innumerable sins offences and negligences for all here present and for all faithful Christians living and dead that it may avail me and them to life everlasting Amen Then the Priest puts the Wine and Water into the Chalice saying O God who as a wonderful effect of thy power hast created humane nature and restored it by a greater Miracle Grant us by the Mystery of this Wine and Water to partake of his Divinity who did vouchsafe upon him our humanity namely Jesus Christ our Lord thy Son who being God liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen The Priest offering the Chalice in the midst of the Altar says WE offer unto thee O Lord this Chalice of salvation beseeching thy clemency that it may ascend before thy Divine Majesty as a sweet perfume for our souls health and for the whole worlds Amen WE present our selves before thee with an humble and contrite spirit O Lord accept of us and grant that this sacrifice may be made agreeable this day unto thee O Lord God Blessing the Bread and Wine he offers then says COme Omnipotent Sanctifier and Eternal God and bless this sacrifice prepared for the glory of thy Holy Name Washing his hands and by that Ceremony testifying his care to cleanse his soul he says these following Versicles out of the 28th Psalm I Will wash my hands amongst Innocents And I will compass thy Altar O Lord. That I may hear the voice of praise and shew forth all thy marvellous works Lord I have loved the beauty of thy house and the place of the habitation of thy glory Destroy not O God my soul with the impious and my life with bloody men In whose hands are iniquities their right hand is replenished with gifts But I have walked in my innocency redeem me and have mercy on me My foot hath stood in the direct way In the Churches I will bless thee O Lord. Glory be to the Father c. The Priest having washt his hands bowing at the midst of the Altar silently makes an oblation of the Sacrifice which he is now about to present to the Holy Trinity in memory of the principal mysteries of Christ and in the honour of the chief Saints REceive O Holy Trinity this Oblation which we make unto thee in memory of the Passion Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ And in the honour of the ever blessed Virgin Mary St. John Baptist the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and of all Saints to their honour and our benefit that they whom we commemorate on earth will vouchsafe to make intercession for us in Heaven Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest turning towards the Faithful admonisheth them to joyn in Prayer with him that this their common Sacrifice which he is now about may be acceptable to God Pray Brethren that mine and your Sacrifice may be acceptable to God the Father Almighty The People answer O Lord receive this Sacrifice from thy hands to the honour and glory of his Name to our particular benefit and for the good of the whole Church The Priest says in a low voice Amen The SECRET The Faithful beg of God a solid piety and true sence of the Pains and Sufferings of his Son Jesus Christ whereby to be made capable of the benefit thereby obtained for us of life everlasting GRant we beseech thee O Lord that this Oblation made before thy Divine Majesty may obtain us the Grace of Piety and procure us Eternal Happiness Through our Lord c. THE PREFACE That is to say The Beginning of the Canon of the Mass and the General Preparation for the Sacrifice The Priest disposes the Faithful advising them to elevate their hearts to God to disengage them from all the solicitudes of Creatures to begin the Sacrifice with their hearts acknowledging the greatness of God's benefits and in particular those of his Incarnation and Passion of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit V. Lift up your hearts R. We have them lifted up to our Lord. The Priest bids them consider that 't is God alone who puts their hearts into that condition and that therefore they ought to give him publick thanks Let us give thanks to our Lord God The Faithful answer that 't is just and reasonable and according that they do give publick thanks by the Priest and particularly by their inward resentments heartily concurring in what the Priest says It is meet and just The Priest in the name of the Faithful acknowledges the obligation of giving God thanks always and every where for his goodness in vouchsafing that his Son should by the wood of the Cross save Mankind and destroy the Devil As this enemy of Mankind had made use of the Fruit of a Tree to establish his tyranny and ruine man and because we are not capable to make worthy acknowledgments for so inestimable a benefit the Priest joyns with this our Saviour through whom he gives praise to God as also with the Angels Cherubins and Seraphins who praise and adore God with an awful regard through Jesus Christ and unites himself to them in Christ as the common Father and Head of Men and Angels singing that Hymn which the blessed Spirits use in Heaven in honour of God Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus Holy Holy Holy and the Canticle which the Children sung at Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem Benedictus qui venit c. Blessed is he that comes c. to testifie the spiritual unity between Angels and Men in praising the Divine Majesty and to express that we ought to be as pure as Angels and innocent as Children to give God Almighty worthy and due praises IT is truly meet and just right and healthful that we always and in all places give thanks to thee O holy Lord Father Almighty Everlasting God who didst ordain the Salvation of Mankind in the Wood of the Cross that Life might be there restored whence Death arose and that he might be conquered by a Tree who had been conquered thereby through Christ our Lord. By whom the Angels praise thy Majesty the Dominations adore thee the Powers tremble the Heavens and the Heavenly Vertues and the blessed Seraphins in one common joy celebrate thy Name amongst whom we beseech thee that our humble Addresses may be admitted saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth The Heavens and Earth are full of thy glory Hosanna in the highest Blessed is he that comes in the Name of our Lord Hosanna in the highest C. Stella â—â—◠〈◊〉 sâ—â—â—â— THE CANON OF THE MASS OR The RULE and ORDER which the CHURCH observes in celebrating the Sacrifice The Priest in the name of the Faithful makes his address to God the Father and presents this Sacrifice by Jesus Christ his Son as by our
image to the image of God he created him male and female he created them And God blessed them and saith Increase and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and rule over the fishes of the sea and fouls of the air and all living creatures that move upon the earth And God said Behold I have given you all manner of herb that seedeth upon the earth and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind to be your meat and to all beasts of the earth and to every foul of the air and to all that move upon the earth and wherein there is life that they may have to feed upon And it was so done And God saw all things that he had made and they were very good And there was evening and morning that made the sixth day The heavens therefore and the earth were fully finished and all the furniture of them And the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and rested the seventh day from all the work that he had done The Church having told us in the precedent Lesson whence we derive our Extraction to what a state of Glory God had raised the first Man having placed him in the midst of the delights of Paradise as in the shadow of Life from whence by an exact observance of God's Commandments he was to have been translated to a far more happy condition in this she tells us the cause of our fall and the excess of God's love to us that he sent his only Son to deliver us from eternal Damnation whereunto we were enslaved and to make us capable of Eternal Life And thereupon by the voice of the Deacon she exhorts us to bend our knees and render all due acknowledgments to the Divine Goodness Let us Pray Let us bend our knees The Church shewing us that our sins are exceeding great and numerous and that our state is very lamentable yet she assures us that the Remedy our Saviour brought us is far more effectual and powerful by the Sub-deacon's answering R. Lift up your selves The Faithful give God thanks by the Priest for his goodness in Creating and Redeeming them and considering that the Mortal Venom of sin seized upon Eve and Adam through their own Senses and thereby fell into that misery which was the Fountain of ours beseeches of his Majesty the Grace to subject their Senses to their Reason so as they may reap the wholsome effect of their Redemption O God who by an admirable effect of thy power hast created man and yet more powerfully hast redeemed him grant we beseech thee strength of our reason we may overcome all allurements to sin and at length enjoy eternal happiness Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The SECOND PROPHECY out of the 5th 6th 7th and 8th Chapters of Genesis In this second Lesson the Church teaches Catechumens that as in the Deluge all men perish'd except those that were in the Ark with Noe So to avoid damnation all Men must enter into the Ark that is into the Church of Christ out of which there is no Salvation NOE when he was five hundred years old begat Sem Cham and Japhet And after that men began to be multiplied upon the earth and procreation of daughters the sons of God seeing the daughters of men that they were fair took to themselves wives out of all which they had chosen And God said My spirit shall not remain with man for ever because he is flesh and his days shall be an hundred and twenty years And gyants were upon the earth in those days For after the sons of God did company with the daughters of men and they brought forth children these be the mighty of the old world famous men And God seeing the malice of men was much upon the earth and that all the cogitation of their hearts was bent to evil at all times it repented him that he had made man upon earth And touched inwardly with sorrow of heart I will saith he clean take away man whom I have created from the face of the earth from man even to beasts from that which creepeth even unto the fouls of the air For it repenteth me that I have made them But Noe found grace before our Lord. These are the generations of Noe. Noe was a a just and perfect man in his generations He did walk with God And he begat three sons Sem Cham and Japhet And the earth was corrupted before God and was replenished with iniquity And when God had perceived that the earth was corrupted for all flesh had corrupted his way upon earth he said to Noe The end of all flesh is come before me the earth is replenished with iniquity from the face of them and I will destroy them with the earth Make thee an ark of timber-plank cabinets shalt thou make in the earth and shalt pitch it within and without with Bitume And thus shalt thou make it The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits fifty cubits the breadth and thirty cubits the heighth of it Thou shalt make a window in the ark and in a cubit finish the top of it and the door of the ark shalt thou set at the side below middle chambers and third losts shalt thou make in it Behold I will bring the waters of a great flood upon the earth that I may destroy all flesh wherein there is breath of life under heaven All things that are in the earth shall be consumed And I will establish my covenant with thee and thou shalt enter into the ark thou and thy sons and thy wife and the wives of thy sons with thee And of all living creatures of all flesh thou shalt bring pairs into the ark that they may live with thee of the male sex and the female Of fouls according to their kind and of beasts in their kind and of all that creepeth on the earth according to their kind pairs of all sorts shall enter in with thee that they may live Thou shalt take therefore with thee of all meats that may be eaten and thou shalt lay them up with thee and they shall be meat for thee and them Noe therefore did all things which God commanded him And he was six hundred years old when the waters of the flood overflowed the earth Then all the fountains of the great depth were broken up and the flood-gates of heaven were opened and the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights In the very point of that day entred Noe and Sem Cham and Japhet his sons and his wife and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark they and every beast according to their kind and all cattel in their kind and all that moveth upon the earth according to their kind and all foul according to their kind Moreover the ark floted upon the waters And the waters prevailed out of measure upon the earth and all the high mountains under the whole
habitation which thou hast wrought O Lord. Thy sanctuary Lord which thy hands have confirmed our Lord shall reign for ever and ever more For Pharao on horseback entred in with his chariots and horsemen into the sea and our Lord brought back upon them the waters of the sea But the children of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst thereof Ant. Lord thou hast exhorted thy people to put their trust in thee and thou hast comforted them with thy holy grace ANTIPHON taken out of the Fifty third Chapter of the Prophet Isaie The Church having represented unto us under the Figure of the Delivery of the Israelites from the Captivity of Egypt God's Bounty in freeing us from the Tyranny of the Devil and Slavery of Sin by the Merits of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ She now shews in this Antiphon after what manner he bought us to wit by voluntarily sacrificing himself for us Ant. He was offered because himself would and he carried our sins PSALM 148. The Church in the following Psalms shews us the Obligation we have to praise God and to give him Thanks that he has created us and redeemed us from the Slavery of Sin by his only Son and for the Care he has to preserve us and deliver us from the Temptations Persecutions and other Miscries of this Lise and for the Promise he has made us of Life everlasting PRaise ye our Lord from the heavens praise ye him in the high places Praise ye him all his angels praise ye him all his hosts Praise ye him sun and moon praise him all ye stars and lights Praise him ye heavens of heavens and the waters that are above the heavens let them praise the name of our Lord. Because he said and they were made he commanded and they were created He established them for ever and for ever and ever he put a precept and it shall not pass Praise our Lord from the earth ye dragons and all the depths Fire hail snow ice spirit of storms which do his word Mountains and all little hills trees that bear fruit and all cedars Beasts and all cattel serpents and feathered fowls Kings of the earth and all peoples princes and all judges of the earth Young men and virgins old with young let them praise the name of our Lord because the name of him alone is exalted The confession of him above heaven and earth and he hath exalted the horn of his people An hymn to all his saints to the children of Israel a people approaching unto him PSALM 149. SIng ye to our Lord a new song let his praiâ—â— be in the church of saints Lord â—â—â—el be joyful in him that made him and let the children of Sion rejoyce in their king Let them praise his name in quire on timbrel and psalter let them sing to him Because our Lord is well pleased in his people and he will exalt the meek unto salvation The saints shall rejoyce in glory they shall be joyful in their beds The exaltations of God in their throat and two-edged swords in their hands To do revenge in the nations chastisements among their peoples To bind their kings in fetters and their nobles in iron manacles That they may do in them the judgment that is written This glory is to all his saints PSALM 150. PRaise ye our Lord in his holies praife him in the firmament of his strength Praise ye him in his powers praise ye him according to the multitude of his greatness Praise ye him in the sound of trumpet praise ye him on psalter and harp Praise ye him on timbrel and quire praise ye him on strings and organ Praise ye him on well-sounded cymbals praise ye him on cymbals of jubilation Let every spirit praise our Lord. Ant. He was offered because himself would and he carried our sins The Chapter and Hymn are here omitted The Chapter is not here said to shew us that the Jews profited themselves nothing from the Instructions of the Prophets The Hymn is also here omitted to shew that the Honor due to God was violated through the Wickedness of the Jews and Persidiousness of Judas which the Fortieth Psalm represents unto us by the Treason of Achitophel V. The man whom I loved and in whom I confided R. Who did eat my bread betrayed me through great perfidiousness ANTHYMN taken out of the Twenty sixth Chapter of St. Matthew Ant. But the Traytor gave them a sign saying Whomsoever I shall kiss that is he hold him Canticle of Zachary taken out of the First Chapter of St. Luke The Church proposes unto us this Canticle of Sr. John Baptist's Father to represent unto us the greatness of Gods Bounty and the excessive Baseness of the Jews because God sent them not only his Prophets to declare unto them the Coming of his Son the Redeemer of the World but likewise his Forerunner to advertise them he was now come and to shew them him Yet were they so unhappy as to blind themselves and in stead of owning and acknowledging him they by a most persidious Treachery put him to death BLessed be our Lord God of Israel because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people And he hath erected the horn of salvation to us in the house of David his servant As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that are from the beginning Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us To work mercy with our fathers and to remember his holy testament The oath which he sware to Abraham our father that he would give to us That without fear being delivered from the hand of our enemies we may serve him In holiness and Justice before him all our days And thou child shalt be called the prophet of the Highest for thou shalt go before the face of our Lord to prepare his ways To give knowledge of salvation to his people unto remission of their sins Through the bowels of the mercy of our God in which the Orient from on high hath visited us To illuminate them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to direct our feet in the way of peace All the Tapers being extinguished saving one shews us that the Light of Faith wherewith the Prophets enlightned the Jews was extinguished in them by putting to death the Saviour of the World The Church also represents unto us by that one Taper left lighted during the singing of the foregoing Canticle that JESUS CHRIST whom St. John declared to be the true Light though he died according to his Humanity yet always lived according to his Divinity Ant. And the Traytor gave them a sign saying Whomsoever I shall kiss that is he hold him Here the lighted Taper is hid to shew that the Divinity of CHRIST was concealed in his Humanity according to which he suffered himself to be delivered into the Hands of the Jews by a most profound and incomprehensible Obedience V. Christ was made for us
both of Soul and Body WE beseech thee O Lord Holy Father Almighty and Everlasting God to bless and sanctifie this Olive thy creature which thou hast commanded to spring from Wood and which the Dove brought in his mouth returning to the Ark that whoever shall take of it may receive protection both for Soul and Body thou O Lord making it a Remedy for Health and a Sacrament of thy Grace Through our Lord c. Amen Let us Pray The Faithful considering that those blest Palms represent our Union with Christ being delivered from the Tyranny of the Devil and the intercession of the Church which is applied unto us by this Blessing joyn in Prayer with the Church and beg God's protection O God who gatherest together such things as are disperst and preservest what is so gathered together who didst bless the People going forth with Boughs to meet Jesus bless also these Palms and Olive-branches which thy People take in honour of thy Name that where-ever they shall be brought the Inhabitants may be sensible of thy Blessing and freed from all Adversity and thy Right-hand protect those whom Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord redeemed Who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen Let us Pray As by the sin of Adam the Devil hath usurpt an empire over creatures which he makes use of to the prejudice of men so is he deprived thereof through the Merits of Jesus Christ who sanctifies them for our benefit And therefore the Faithful considering that by these Branches which the Church blesseth and distributeth this day she represents the Victory which Christ gained over the Devil and our Divine Redeemer's triumph in his glorious Resurrection beseech God to make them able to vanquish the Devil and overcome all Obstacles of their Salvation through the Merits and Grace of our Redeemer with whom we are incorporated so that at last we may partake of his glory O God who through the wonderful order of thy Providence art pleased to make use of insensible creatures to instruct us in the way of our salvation Grant we beseech thee that the devout hearts of thy Faithful may healthfully understand what is mystically designed in the action of this day in which the multitude of Jews being illustrated with a heavenly light went to meet our Redeemer with Boughs of Palms and Olives which they cast under his feet The Palm-branches put us in mind of the Victory he gained over the Prince of Death and the Olive-boughs do in a sort proclaim that the Spiritual Unction is come to us For all that blessed Company understood that Ceremony to signifie that our Redeemer taking compassion of man's misery was to encounter the Prince of Death for the Life of the World and that he was to triumph by dying Therefore he fulfilling the Will of God performed all those things that we might thereby arrive to the knowledge of his Triumphs and unctuous plenitude of Mercy We also firmly believe Lord Holy Father Omnipotent and Eternal God that all hath been fulfilled that was signified And therefore most humbly beseech thee through the same our Lord Jesus Christ that in and by him we whom thou hast vouchsafed to become his members having obtained the victory over Death may also partake in his glorious Resurrection Who liveth and reigneth c. Let us Pray The Faithful beseech God that these hallowed Boughs representing the Happy Reconciliation obtained for us by Jesus Christ with his Divine Majesty may induce them to dispose themselves as worthily to receive the wholsome effects O God who by an Olive-branch didst command a Dove to publish Peace to the Earth vouchsafe we beseech thee to sanctifie with thy Celestial Benediction the salvation of all Through Christ our Lord c. Let us Pray The Faithful considering that by these Palm-boughs the Church represents the conquest we ought to endeavour to obtain over the Devil and by the Olive-branches the Works of Charity we are obliged to practice demand of God his Grace to accomplish what the Church teaches by this Ceremony BLess we beseech thee O Lord these Boughs of Palms or Olives and grant that thy People may testifie the zeal of their Piety by a pious performance of what this day they outwardly profess and triumphing over their Enemies may apply themselves zealously to the Works of Mercy Through our Lord c. Then the Priest sprinkles the Boughs with Holy Water to teach us that we ought to purisie our selves in receiving a Blessing from God and to practice what the Church designs by these Boughs Thou shalt sprinkle me with Hyssop and I shall be cleansed thou shalt wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow The Priest then incenseth the Boughs to instruct us that all the Blessing comes from God and that we ought to beg that our Prayers may ascend as Incense towards him The PRAYER Whereby we ask God's Grace to prepare our Ways to our Saviour by a lively Faith and good Works V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us pray O God who for our salvation didst send into this World thy only begotten Son that he humbling himself for us might regain us unto thee before whom at his entry into Jerusalem that the Scriptures might be fulfilled a multitude of People spread their Garments with a pious zeal and cast Palms in the way Grant we beseech thee that we may so prepare the way of Faith to him that the stone of offence and rock of scandal being removed our good works may flourish as the branches of a beautiful tree and therein imitate him Who with thee liveth and reigneth c. The Priest gives Palms to the Clergy and People whilst the Quire sing the following Antiphons and Canticle sung by the Children at Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem ANTIPHON THE Hebrew Children spread their Garments in the way and cryed out saying Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he who comes in the Name of our Lord. ANOTHER THE Hebrew Children spread their Garments in the way and cryed out saying Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he who comes in the Name of our Lord. The Antiphons are repeated till all the Palms are distributed then the Priest in the name of the Faithful beseeches God for his grace that in this Commemoration of his Son JESUS CHRIST'S triumphant entry into Jerusalem they may arrive to the Innocence and Piety of those who pay him all due honour V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray ALmighty Everlasting God who wast pleased that our Lord Jesus Christ should sit upon an Asses Colt and directedst the multitude to spread their Garments and Boughs in the way singing Hosanna in his honour Grant us the grace to imitate their Innocence and to partake of their Merit Through the same our Lord c. Then they go in Procession to represent JESUS CHRIST'S triumphant entry
Mediator for the whole Church for the Pope for our Bishop for our King and for all faithful Catholicks WE therefore most merciful Father humbly beseech thee through thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord to accept and bless these ✚ Gifts these ✚ Presents these ✚ Immaculate Sacrifices which in the first we offer unto thee for thy Holy Catholick Church to which thou wilt please to grant peace and preserve and maintain in unity through the whole World with the Pope N. thy servant and our Prelate N. and our King N. with all Orthodox Believers of the Catholick Apostolick Faith Then the Priest makes a particular Commemoration of the living for whom he intends to offer his Sacrifice REmember O Lord all thy servants Men and Women Here he makes mention of those for whom he prays in particular And all such especially as are here present whose Faith and Devotion is known unto thee for whom we offer and who offer to thee for themselves or friends this Sacrifice of Praise for the Benefit of their Souls in hope of health and salvation and pay their vows unto thee the Eternal Living and True God The Priest by the vertue of the union of the Church militant with the triumphant in Jesus Christ beseeches God that he will please to supply the defect of his present Prayers imploring protection by the Merits and Suffrages of the most blessed Virgin of the Apostles Martyrs and all Saints PArticipating in the same Communion and Commemorating chiefly the ever glorious Virgin Mary Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ the blessed Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul Andrew James John Thomas James Philip Bartholomew Matthew Simon and Thadeus Linus Cletus Clement Xistus Cornelius Cyprian Laurence Chrysoganus John and Paul Cosmas and Damianus and of all Saints by whose Merits and Prayers be pleased to grant that in all things we may be protected by thee Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest spreads his hands over the Host and Chalice in testimony that he offers up himself to God together with this Sacrifice begging four things 1. That he will please to accept of this Offering 2. That he will grant us Peace 3. That he will deliver us from Everlasting Death 4. That he will place us amongst the blessed WE beseech thee O Lord therefore graciously to accept this oblation of our servitude as likewise of thy whole Family granting us Peace in our days and preserving us from Eternal Death place among thy Elect. Through Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest beseecheth God to receive and bless this Offering so as that he will please to accept of it and that it may become the Body and Blood of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ to expiate our sins and reconcile us to his Majesty WE beseech thee O God that thou wilt be pleased to make this Oblation blessed approved effectual reasonable and acceptable that it may be made unto us the Body and Blood of thy most beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ The Consecration After this Prayer the Priest comes to the principal action of the Sacrifice and commemorates all that Christ did or said when he instituted this Holy Sacrament and therefore after his example he blesseth and consecrateth the Bread in the same manner WHo the day before his Passion took the Bread into his holy and venerable hands and lifting his eyes towards heaven to thee his God and omnipotent Father to thee giving thanks he blessed broke and gave to his Disciples saying Take and eat ye all of this FOR THIS IS MY BODY The Elevation of the Host. Here the Priest after he hath upon his knees adored the Body of Jesus Christ he lifts it up to be seen and adored by the Faithful and to mind them that Christ's Body was elevated upon the Cross The Consecration of the Blood of Jesus Christ. He blesseth and consecrateth the Wine as Christ consecrated it turning the Wine into his Blood whereby he established and ratified his New Testament and signed the New Alliance he contracted with us to continue for ever IN like manner after he had supt taking this excellent Chalice into his holy and venerable hands giving thee also thanks he blessed it and gave it to his Disciples saying Take and drink ye all of this FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD OF THE NEW AND EVERLASTING TESTAMENT a Mystery of Faith WHICH SHALL BE SHED FOR YOU AND FOR MANY FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS This as often as you shall do you shall do in memory of me The Elevation of the Chalice And then adoring the Blood of our Saviour he elevates it for the same reason as he did the Body And as he offers this Holy Sacrifice in the Person of Christ in whose stead he hath celebrated this mysterious Consecration so is it done in the Name of the Church in honour of the three Mysteries of the Son of God viz. Of his Passion which we account from the Hour of his Conception till his Death of his Resurrection and Ascension The Signs of the Cross which the Priest makes over the Host after Consecration design unto us the particular manner of his immolation WHerefore O Lord we thy servants and the sanctified people also being mindful both of the blessed Passion of the same Christ thy Son our Lord and of his Resurrection as also of his glorious Ascension into Heaven we offer unto thy most excellent Majesty of thy Gifts bestowed upon us A pure Host a holy Host an immaculate Host the Holy Bread of Eternal Life and Chalice of Perpetual Salvation The Priest beseeches God to accept of this Sacrifice in memory of Abel's Sacrifice of Abraham's and Melchisedeck's which were only Figures of this WHich we beseech thee propitiously to regard and to receive this Holy Sacrifice and Immaculate Host as thou wert pleased to receive the Gifts of thy just Child Abel and the Sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham as likewise that which thy High Priest Melchisedeck offered unto thee Supplices te rogamus Jesus Christ communicates his Substance to the blessed in Heaven without Veil or Sacraments though he communicates himself sacramentally to men on earth and as the wicked are indifferently mixt with the just upon Earth it happens that the wicked receive the Communion in distinctly with the just but it is otherwise in Heaven where the Son of God communicates himself only to the Saints And hereupon the Priest on the behalf of the Faithful asks God's grace that Jesus Christ who in the Holy Scriptures is called the Angel of the Great Council and of the New Testament will give himself unto them under the shadow of this Holy Sacrament as he gives himself to the blessed without veil on the sublime and celestial Altar in the bosom of his Divinity that is to say that as all those are worthy who receive Christ in Heaven as being Saints so he would please to furnish all these with such his blessings and celestial gifts as may enable
fixed in a triangle which he lights one after another to instruct us that the Light of the Gospel which Jesus Christ hath brought unto us is the work of the blessed Trinity to whom we are to render thanks And therefore advancing towards the Altar he thrice repeats Behold the light of Christ The Faithful answer R. Thanks be to God The Deacon disposing himself to receive Commission from the Priest to give God thanks for the favour done us in freeing us from the Tyranny of the Devil and the Slavery of Sin by the Death and Resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ whereof the Jewish Pasch was a figure asks his blessing Vouchsafe Father to bless The Priest blessing him saith OUr Lord be in thy lips that thou mayest worthily and competently declare the praises of his Pasch In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen Then the Deacon taking the Censor out of the Acolyts hands incenseth the Book thrice in honour of the Holy Trinity which the light of the Gospel revealed unto us as we are taught by Jesus Christ And inviting the Faithful to give God thanks for the Victory which his Son Christ Jesus gained over the Devil and for the favour done unto them by drawing them from darkness and servitude of sin by the light of the Gospel represents unto them that their joy ought to be common to them and to the Angels who rejoyce to see that their number lessened by the fall of Lucifer and his complices is filled up again by humane nature renewed and repaired by Jesus Christ Then the Deacon acknowledging his own unworthiness joyns in Prayer with the Church MAy the angelical troops now rejoyce may the divine mysteries be celebrated with a holy joy may the sound of a comfortable trumpet publish the victory of so great a King and may the whole earth be sensible of the blessing it had by the splendour of the the Eternal King who freed it from that darkness which overspread the whole World May our Mother the Church rejoyce also at the glympse of so resplendent light and may this place resound with the voices of this Congregation And therefore I beseech ye my beloved Brethren here present who enlightened with the admirable splendour of this holy light joyn with me and call upon our Merciful and Almighty God to the end that as he hath been pleased not through my merits to advance me to the number of his Levites so shedding the beams of his light upon me he will give me grace to perfect the praise of this Paschal Candle Through c. Amen The Benediction and Praise of the Paschal Candle is very ancient for this Ceremony is mentioned in Prudentius his Hymn who lived in the fourth Age and St. Gregory Nazianzenus and St. Ambrose Then the Deacon prepares the Faithful to celebrate this Ceremony worthily with him advising them to lift up their hearts to God and to quit all affections to Creatures acknowledging the grace they have received of God by the Light of his Gospel which is represented by the Candle Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit R. Lift up your hearts The Faithful being in the disposition he requires answers We have raised them towards our Lord. Then the Deacon bids the Faithful consider that God so disposed their hearts therefore that they should give publick thanks Let us give thanks to our Lord. The Faithful answer that it is just and reasonable and according they give publick thanks by the Deacon and particular resentments of their hearts by following in their minds the words which the Deacon uses R. It is meet and just The Deacon exhorts the Faithful to give God thanks for that in this Night by the glorious Resurrection of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Merits of his Death he had freed us from the Tyranny of the Devil and from the Bondage of Sin wherein our first Parent by his sin had involved us and for that by the light of his Gospel he had conducted us to the Kingdom of Heaven which he had promised to his faithful Servant as he delivered the Israelites out of the Captivity of Egypt causing a Pillar of Fire to lead them into the Land of Promise IT is truly meet and just that with all affections of our heart and soul and with the ministry of our voice we glorifie the invisible God Father Almighty and his onely Son our Lord Jesus Christ who hath paid Adam's death for us to his Eternal Father and by shedding his innocent blood hath blotted out the hand-writing of our old sins whereby we are subjected to death For these are the Paschal Feasts wherein the true Lamb is immolated and the gates of the Faithful consecrated by his blood This is that night wherein first thou madest our forefathers the Children of Israel to pass the Red Sea dry-foot This is that night which dissipated the darkness of sins by the light of a pillar of fire This is that night which separating through the whole World those that believe in Jesus Christ from the vices of this age and from the darkness wherein sinners are ingaged restores them to grace and associates them to sanctity This is that night wherein the chains of death being broken Christ ascended Conquerour from Hell For it would not have availed us to have been born unless Christ had been pleased to redeem us O God how admirable is thy bounty towards us how inestimable thy charity who didst deliver up thy Son to redeem thy slave O certain necessary sin of Adam to make us sensible of the excess of God's love towards us since it hath been effaced by the death of Jesus Christ O happy fault that merited to have such and so great a Redeemer O truly happy night which alone deserved'st to observe the time and moment of Christ his rising from the dead This is that night of which it is written in the 178th Psalm The night shall shine as the day and the night is my illumination in my delights therefore the sanctification of this night banisheth all crimes washeth away all offences restores to innocence those that had been lost makes glad the afflicted reconciles hatred and enmities restores peace and union and humbles empires Here the Deacon puts the five grains of blest Incense in form of a Cross into the Candle not yet lighted which signifies the dead Body of our Saviour teaching us how adorable the wounds were which he received on the Cross where he offered up himself a Sacrifice for us to God his Father whereof the Evening Sacrifice was a figure in the Old Law and the Sacrifice of the Altar is a representation of it in the Evangelical Law Then the Deacon lighting the Candle which then becomes a figure of Christs Body risen again acknowledges the advantage we have received by his Resurrection REceive then O Holy Father from us on this happy night the Evening-Sacrifice of
he is bountiful to forgive for my cogitations are not your cogitations nor your ways my ways saith our Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth so are my ways exalted above your ways and my cogitations above your cogitations And as the shower cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth no more thither but inebriateth the earth and watereth it and maketh it to spring and giveth seed to the sower and bread to him that eateth so shall my word be which shall proceed from my mouth It shall not return to me void but it shall do what things soever I would and shall prosper in these things for which I sent it saith our Lord God Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves The Church begs of God an absolute Conversion of all the Nations of the Earth ALmighty and Eternal God multiply for the honour of thy Name that which thou hast promised to the faith of our forefathers and encrease by an holy adoption thy Church with new children to receive the effects of thy promises that so they may see that almost accomplished which the Saints formerly doubted not but would come to pass Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The SIXTH PROPHECY taken out of the 3d Chapter of Baruch In this Lesson the Church represents to us the excellency of Christian Religion which teaches us that Men of themselves are not able to make their Lives happy that all those who pretended themselves Authors of their own Happiness and believed they were only indebted to themselves for it who only have sought it for their own Vertue and in the fleeting Pleasures and Wealth of this Life who are persuaded that already they possess the Sovereign Good and that in fine to obtain it they sought not God nor placed their hopes in his infinite Goodness and Bounty but that they are lost in those vain and proud thoughts 'T is from God alone that hath made them and can make them blessed that can divert the evils of this Life or sweeten them or give courage to support them or absolutely free those that bow under the burthen And who can at last elevate Man to the true fruition of this Bliss where no evil is to be feared and where the sovereign goodness is not to be lost And unto this end God hath given Law unto Men wherein proposing and promising a recompence unto Pious Souls he teaches us not to spend this temporal and uncertain Life in its Vanities and Pleasures but to suffer all sorts of Afflictions and Torments rather than to violate his Commandments out of a strong confidence of the fidelity of his Promises and in hopes after death to enjoy Eternal Happiness And to enable us to observe the Law it was his Will that his Son should come into this World This Divine Saviour covering the Grandeur of his Divinity under the Weakness of our Nature hath taught us by the example of his Passion what Miseries we ought to suffer in this World and by his Resurrection what Blessings to hope for in the next giving us at the same time the grace to do and obtain that which he hath shewed us if by our sins we render not our selves unworthy HEar Israel the commandments of life hearken with your ears that you may know prudence What is the matter Israel that thou art in the land of the enemies Thou art waxed old in strange land thou art defiled with the dead thou art reputed with them that go into hell Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom For if thou hadst walked in the way of God thou hadst verily dwelt in peace everlasting Learn where wisdom is where understanding is that thou mayest know withal where is the long continuance of life and living where the light of the eyes and peace is who hath found the place thereof and who hath entred into the treasures thereof where are the princes of the Gentiles and they that rule over the beasts that are upon the earth that play with the birds of heaven that treasure up silver and gold wherein men have confidence and there is no end of their getting which fashion silver and are careful neither is there invention of their works They are destroyed and are gone down to hell and others are risen up in their place Young men saw the light and dwelt upon the earth but the way of discipline they knew not neither understood they the paths thereof neither have their children received it It is made far from their face It hath not been heard in the land of Canaan neither hath it been seen in Theman The children of Agar also that seek out the prudence that is of the earth merchants of Myrrh and of Theman and fablers and searchers of prudence and understanding But the way of wisdom they have not known neither have they remembred the paths thereof O Israel how great is the house of God and how great is the place of his possession It is great and hath no end high and unmeasurable There were the gyants those renowned that were from the beginning of big stature expert in war These did not our Lord chuse neither found they the way of discipline therefore did they perish And because they had not wisdom they perished through their folly Who hath ascended into heaven and taken her and brought her down from the clouds Who hath passed over the sea and found her and brought her above chosen gold There is none that can know her ways nor that can search out her paths but he that knoweth all things knoweth her and hath found her out by his prudence he that prepareth the earth in time everlasting and replenished it with cattel and four-footed beasts he that sendeth forth light and it goeth and hath called it and it obeyeth him with trembling And the stars have given light in their watches and rejoyced they were called and they said Here we are and they have shined to him with chearfulness that made them This is our God and there shall none other be esteemed against him He found out all the way of discipline and delivered it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved After these things he was seen upon the earth and was conversant with men The Church telling us that God not being contented to have taught Men by his Prophets but further he sent his only Son to instruct them by his Word and Example and to give them a new life by the Sacrament of Baptism beseeches his Majesty to make them worthy always to maintain the Grace they have received Let us Pray Let us bend our knees R. Lift up your selves O God who dost always multiply thy Church in the call of the Gentiles vouchsafe graciously thy continual protection to all those who shall be cleansed with the waters of baptism Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. The SEVENTH PROPHECY out of the 37th Chapter of Ezechiel The Prophet Ezekiel represents to us
preserved in its purity May it be a fountain of life a regenerating water a purifying stream that all those who shall be washed in this wholsom bath may obtain the grace to be perfectly purified by operation and assistance of the Holy Ghost The Priest signs the Font thrice with the sign of the Cross to shew us that as the Holy Trinity was by visible Tokens present at Christs Baptism So these Three Persons by an invisible Presence are so assisting when the People are Baptized ANd therefore I bless thee O creature water by the living ✚ God by the true ✚ God by the holy ✚ God by that God who at the beginning of the world separated thee from the dry land by his word and whose spirit was carried upon thee The Priest divides the Water with his Hand and casts it towards the four parts of the World instructing us thereby that the grace of Baptism is poured forth through the whole Earth And the Church setting before our Eyes the Wonders wrought by God upon the Waters both in the Old and New Testament teacheth us that we are not to think it strange that this Element is made use of to make a Sacrament for our Regeneration and Sanctification GOD who made thee spring in Paradise and dividing thee into four rivers commanded thee to water the whole earth who changed thy bitterness in the desart and made the potable by an imprinted suavity and to issue out of a rock to quench his peoples thirst I bless thee also through our Lord Jesus Christ his only Son who in Cana Galilee changed thee into wine by a singular miracle of his omnipotency who walked dry-foot upon thee and was baptized in thee by St. John in Jordan who caused thee together with blood to issue out of his side and who commanded his disciples to baptize all those in thee who should believe in him saying Go ye and teach all nations and baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost The Priest invocates Gods assistance with a profound respect OMnipotent God mercifully assist us observing thy commandments and of thy goodness infuse thy spirit into us Then the Priest breaths upon the Waters in form of a Cross to teach us that Jesus Christ by the Merits of his Cross and Passion communicates his Holy Spirit to those that are Baptized as he communicated it to his Disciples by the breath of his Mouth BLess these simple waters with thy mouth that besides their natural quality of cleansing the body they may receive yet further vertue to purifie our souls The Priest dippeth the hallowed Candle into the Water to shew us that the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ represented by this Virgin-wax sanctified the Waters when he was Baptized in Jordan and that he gave them the virtue to regenerate and that as the Holy Ghost descended then upon Jesus Christ he also descends upon those that are new Baptized MAy the vertue of the Holy Ghost descend upon this water The Priest breaths three times upon the Water to instruct us that not only the Holy Ghost but the Father and Son also descend upon the Baptized as these three Persons visibly appear'd at our Saviours Baptism we are also taught by it that in this Sacrament of Regeneration we receive Faith Hope and Charity ANd make the whole substance of this water fruitful and capable to regenerate The Priest takes the Taper out of the Water to instruct us that by Baptism we are dis-engaged from sin re-established in grace admitted into a new life which entitles us by our good works to Eternal Glory MAy here all the stains of sin be blotted out may here nature created unto thy image being restored to its original dignity to the honour of its Authour be purified from all filth of the old man that all who receive this Sacrament of Regeneration may be born in true innocency of a new birth Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who shall come to judge the living and the dead and world by fire After this the Priest pours the Oyl for the Catechumens into the Water cross-wise to represent unto us the strength we receive by this Sacrament as Champions of Jesus Christ to persevere generously in the encounters of this World that so we may wear the Crown prepared for us in Everlasting Life And as the Oyl is drawn from Olives bruised in a Press this Liquor denotes unto us that grace and strength figured thereby is given us by the Passion of Jesus Christ MAy this Font be sanctified and made fruitful by this health-giving oyl for those who shall be regenerated therein unto life everlasting Amen Then the Priest pours into the Water Oyl of Chrism to teach us that Baptism is a Spiritual and Mystical Consecration by which being invisibly anointed with the grace of the Holy Ghost we partake of the Regality and Priesthood of Jesus Christ and thence we are called Christians that is anointed MAy this infusion of the Chrism of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost the comforter be done in the Name of the Holy Trinity Amen Lastly the Priest pours Oyl and Chrism together into the Water to put before us the advantages we reap by this Sacrament of Baptism and the Sollicitude we ought to use to conserve them The Water signifies that we are cleansed from all our sins The Oyl that we are anointed with the Holy Ghost as Champions of Christ to be guarded and fortified in all Encounters and Assaults that befal us in this Life as in all sorts of Temptations interior and exterior in Afflictions Persecutions and generally in all occasions which may hazard our loss of Faith and of the grace of God The Chrism represents unto us that we are consecrated unto God by the participation of the Regality and Priesthood of Jesus Christ MAy this commixture of the Chrism of Sanctification and the Oyl of Unction and of the Water of Baptism be made in the Name of the Father ✚ and of the Son ✚ and of the Holy Ghost ✚ Amen The blessing of the Font being ended the Priest accompanied with his Ministers goes before the Altar and upon his knees sings the Litanies to implore the Intercession of the Saints But in Churches where no Fonts are after the Sixth Prophecy is read and the Prayer following it Litanies are sung to implore the Intercession of the Saints LOrd have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us Christ hear us Christ graciously hear us God the Father of heaven have mercy on us God the Son Redeemer of the world have mercy on us God the Holy Ghost have mercy on us Holy Trinity one God have mercy on us Holy Mary pray for us Holy Mother of God pray for us Holy Virgin of Virgins pray for us St. Michael pray St. Gabriel pray St. Raphael pray All ye Holy Angels and Archangels pray for us All ye Holy Orders
and hath taught me he hath spread a net for my feet he hath turned me backward he hath made me desolate all the day consumed with sorrow NUN The yoke of mine iniquities hath watched they are folded together in his hand and put upon my neck my strength is weakned our Lord hath given me into the hand from which I cannot rise Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God If the Jews deservedly suffered all those Miserie 's foretold by the Prophet Jeremy what Calamities do they not merit for putting to death the Saviour of the World who suffered Death only because he was charged with the Sins of Men and because he would satisfie for us the Rigor of the Justice of God his Father R. Behold we have seen him and there was no sightliness and we were desirous of him he hath born our infirmities and our sorrows he hath carried But he was wounded for our iniquities and with the weight of his stripe we are healed He surely hath born our infirmities and our sorrows he hath carried with the weight of whose stripe we are healed V. Behold we have seen him and there was no sightliness and we were desirous of him he hath born our infirmities and our sorrows he hath carried But he was wounded for our iniquities and with the weight of his stripe we are healed THE SECOND NOCTVRN PSALM 71. The Church represents us with the Reign of Solomon as being a Figure of the Reign of Jesus Christ shewing us with what Zeal King David desired the Reign of this Divine Saviour whom he acknowledged to be his Lord and King according to his Divinity as he ought to be his Son according to his Humanity Ant. Our Lord shall deliver the poor from the mighty and the poor which had no helper O God give thy judgment to the king and thy justice to the son of the king To judge thy people in justice and thy poor in judgment Let the mountains receive peace for the people and the little hills justice He shall judge the poor of the people and shall save the children of the poor and he shall humble the calumniator And he shall continue with the sun and before the moon in generation and generation He shall descend as rain upon a fleece and as drops distilling upon the earth There shall rise in his days justice and abundance of peace until the moon be taken away And he shall rule from sea unto sea and from the river even to the ends of the round world Before him shall the Ethiopians fall down and his enemies shall lick the earth The kings of Tharsis and the Islands shall offer presents the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts And all kings of the earth shall adore him all nations shall serve him Because he shall deliver the poor from the mighty and the poor which had no helper He shall spare the poor and needy and he shall save the souls of the poor From usuries and iniquities he shall redeem their souls and their name shall be honorable before him And he shall live and there shall be given him of the gold of Arabia and they shall adore it always all the day they shall bless him And there shall be a firmament in the earth in the tops of the mountains the fruit thereof shall be extolled far above Libanus and they shall flourish of the city as the grass of the earth Be his name blessed for ever before the sun his name is permanent And all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed in him all nations shall magnifie him Blessed be our Lord the God of Israel who doth only merveilous things And blessed be the name of his Majesty for ever and all the earth shall be filled with his Majesty Be it Be it Ant. Our Lord shall deliver the poor from the mighty and the poor which had no helper PSALM 72. The Church represents unto us by the example of the Sufferances of Jesus Christ the Grace of the New Testament which this adorable Saviour came to declare unto the World appertains to Life everlasting and not this transitory one which passes with the Time wherein God bestows even on the Wicked worldly Felicities to the end that the Rich and the Good should not propose to themselves a Reward of Happiness in this World for such Services they render God She likewise shews that this Truth was declared even to the Saints of the Old Testament She therefore proposes unto us the 72. Psalm wherein the Royal Prophet mentions a Man who repents himself for having served God out of Self-interest not having a just Heart but ever inclined it self to temporal Rewards seeing that the Wicked abounded in the Goods of the Earth and who was much troubled almost to despair thinking God took no care of Human Affairs But these criminal Thoughts being laid aside by the Authority of the Saints he is forced to penetrate into so profound a Secret as with all his Endeavors and Studies he can never discover until he is entred the Sanctuary of God and known his last End that is to say until he hath received the Holy Ghost who instructs him to desire better things and shews him what Pains the Wicked will suffer after they have enjoyed the fleeting and transitory Pleasures of this World Ant. The wicked have thought and have spoken wickedness they have spoken iniquity on high HOw good is God to Israel to them that are of a right heart But my feet were almost moved my steps almost slipped Because I have had zeal upon the wicked seeing the peace of sinners Because there is no respect to their death and stability in their plague In the labors of men they are not and with men they shall not be scourged Therefore hath pride held them they are covered with their iniquity and impiety Their iniquity hath proceeded as it were of far they have passed into the affection of the heart They have thought and have spoken wickedness they have spoken iniquity on high They have set their mouth unto heaven and their tongue hath passed in the earth Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found in them And they have said How doth God know and is there knowledge in the Highest Lo the sinners themselves and they that abound in the world have obtained riches And I said Then have I justified my heart without cause and have washed my hands amongst innocents And have been scourged all the day and my chastisings in the mornings If I said I shall speak this behold I reproved the nation of thy children I thought to know this thing it is labor before me Until I may enter into the sanctuary of God and may understand concerning their latter end But yet for guiles thou hast put it to them thou hast cast them down whilst they were elevated How are they brought into desolation they have failed suddenly they have perished for their iniquity
As the dream of them that rise O Lord in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing Because my heart is inflamed and my reins are changed And I am brought to nothing and know not As a beast am I become with thee and I always with thee Thou hast held my right hand and in thy will thou hast conducted me and with glory thou hast received me For what is to me in heaven and besides thee what would I upon earth My flesh hath fainted and my heart God of my heart and God my portion for ever For behold they that make themselves far from thee shall perish thou hast destroyed all that fornicate from thee But it is good for me to cleave to God to put my hope in our Lord God That I may shew forth all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion Ant. The wicked have thought and have spoken wickedness they have spoken iniquity on high PSALM 73. The Church represents unto us That as the Prophet David foretold the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Evils that were like to be fal the Jews and considering the Love God had heretofore for the Israelites and the Wonders he had done in their favour She demands their Conversion of his Divine Majesty thereby to preserve the rest from that imminent Danger they are in of being Shipwreck'd And that the Infidels might not rejoyce at the Miseries of that People on whom God had once heaped so many Blessings and that they might acknowledge that 't is a Chastisement wherewith God punisheth their Infidelity and Sins Ant. Arise O Lord and judge my cause WHy hast thou O God repelled for ever is thy fury wrath upon the sheep of thy pasture Be mindful of thy congregation which thou hast possessed from the beginning Thou hast redeemed the rod of thine inheritance mount Sion in which thou hast dwelt List up thy hands upon their prides for ever how great things hath the enemy done malignantly in the holy place And they that hate thee have gloried in the midst of their solemnity They have set their signs for signs and have not known as in the issue on high As in a wood of trees they have with axes cut out the gates thereof together in hatchet and chip-ax they have cast it down They have burnt thy sanctuary with fire they have polluted the tabernacle of thy name in the earth Their kindred together have said in their heart Let us make all the festival days of God to cease from the earth Our signs we have not seen there is now no prophet and he will know us no more How long O God shall the enemy upbraid the adversary provoke thy name for ever Why dost thou turn away thy hand and thy right hand out of the midst of thy bosom for ever But God our king before the worlds he hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth Thou in thy strength hast confirmed the sea thou hast crushed the head of dragons in the waters Thou hast broken the heads of the dragon thou hast given him for meat to the people of the Ethiopians Thou hast broken up fountains and torrents thou hast dried the rivers of Ethan The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast made the morning and the sun Thou hast made all the coasts of the earth the summer and the spring thou hast formed them Be mindful of this the enemy hath upbraided our Lord and a foolish people hath provoked thy name Deliver not to beasts the souls that confess to thee and the souls of thy poor forget not for ever Have respect unto thy testament because they that are obscure of the earth are filled with houses of iniquities Let not the humble be turned away being confounded the poor and needy shall praise thy name Arise God judge thy cause be mindful of those thy reproaches that are from the foolish man all the day Forget not the voices of thy enemies the pride of them that hate thee hath ascended always Ant. Arise Lord and judge my cause V. My God deliver me from the hand of the sinner R. And from the hand of the wicked doing against thy law IV. LESSON Taken out of St. Augustin on the Fifty fourth Psalm Wherein the Church shews us what we must consider on in the Treason of Judas figured unto us in the Prophecy expressed in the Fifty fourth Psalm under the Figure of Achitophel's Treason and reiterating in this Lesson the Question St. Augustin proposes on this Subject to wit Why God permits the Wicked to be And then again it shews us by that great Saints Answer That God suffers them to live either to give them time to repent and be converted or thereby to exercise the Vertues of the Just HEar my Prayer O God despise not my Petition Attend to me and hear me These are the words of one in tribulation who asks in the height of his Sufferings to be freed from Evil. Let us hear the Evil he complains of and when he shall have told it let us acknowledge our selves in the same Affliction that partaking of his Sufferings we may also joyn with him in Prayer I am made sorrowful in my exercise and am troubled Wherein was he troubled wherein was he made sorrowful In my Exercises saith he speaking of the Mischiefs the Wicked did him and calling them his Exercises Do not think the Wicked inhabit the earth to no purpose or that God works not some Good by them for he permits them to live either to amend their Lives or to exercise the Vertues of the Good The Church proposes unto us how Judas by his Treason tried our Saviour's Patience and how instead of making good use of the time God granted him to repent in he contrariwise hurried on by his Despair hung himself ending his Life as Achitophel finished his after he had betrayed David R. My friend betrayed me with the sign of a Kiss saying Whomsoever I shall kiss the same is he hold him fast he did this wicked Sign to compleat a Murder with a Kiss This unhappy returned the Price of Blood and in the end hanged himself V. It had been good for him if that Man had never been born This unhappy returned the Price of Blood and in the end hanged himself V. LESSON By St. Augustin the Church teacheth us That there are some Kvils which we may suffer and that we must not hate the Authors of our Misery but we ought to love them and to pray incessantly to God for them nor ever despair of their Conversion and Repentance WOuld to God those who now tried our Patience were converted and that with us theirs might be exercised yet as long as they do exercise us let us not hate them for we know not whether they 'l persevere in their Wickedness to the end And it often happens that when thou thinkest thou hatest thine Enemy thou hatest thy Brother tho' thou knowest it not 'T is only
to fear but also to love him Ant. The earth trembled and was quiet when God arose unto judgment GOd is known in Jewry in Israel his name is great And his place is made in peace and his habitation in Sion There he brake the powers of bows the shield the sword and the battel Thou dost illuminate merveilously from the eternal mountains all the foolish of heart were troubled They slept their sleep and all the men of riches found nothing in their hands At thy reprehension O God of Jacob they have slumbred that mounted on horses Thou art terrible and who shall resist thee from that time thy wrath From heaven thou hast made thy judgment heard the earth trembled and was quiet When God arose unto judgment that he might save all the meek of the earth Because the cogitation of man shall confess to thee and the remains of the cogitation shall keep festival-day to thee Vow ye and render to our Lord your God all ye that round about him bring gifts To the terrible and him that taketh away the spirit of princes terrible to the kings of the earth Ant. The earth trembled and was quiet when God arose unto judgment PSALM 76. The Church here shews us That if the Faithful of the Old Law acknowledg'd their Sufferings to be occasioned by their Sins and that they deserved the Torments they suffered and that they received no Comfort but by considering the Effects of Gods Bounty in the Conduct of his People whereof there had been great and many Examples given How much more ought the Faithful of the Law of Grace to be comforted in their Afflictions by the Example and Promises of the Son of God our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ considering that what they suffer is nothing if compared to what our Redeemer suffered to take away our Sins and make us happy Then it shews us the Assurance he gives us to obtain by his Merits of God his Father either to avert the Evils of this Life or at least to mitigate them or to enable them to support them or that he wholly frees them from those Calamities and afterwards he raises them to the enjoyment of that Happiness wherein there is no fear of Ill and wherein they cannot lose the Sovereign Good Ant. In the day of my tribulation I sought God with my hands WIth my voice I have cried to our Lord with my voice to God and he attended to me In the day of my tribulation I sought God with my hands in the night before him and I was not deceived My soul refused to be comforted I was mindful of God and was delighted and was exercised and my spirit fainted Mine eyes prevented the watch I was troubled and spake not I thought upon old days and the eternal years I had in my mind And I meditated in the night with my heart and I was exercised and I swept my spirit Why will God reject for ever or will he not add to be better pleased as yet Or will he cut off his mercy for ever from generation unto generation Or will God forget to have mercy or will he in his wrath keep in his mercies And I said Now have I begun this is the change of the right hand of the Highest I have been mindful of the works of our Lord because I will be mindful from the beginning of thy merveilous works And I will meditate in all thy works and in thy inventions I will be exercised O God in the holy is thy way What God is great as our God thou art the God that dost merveilous things Thou hast made thy power known amongst peoples thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people the children of Jacob and Joseph The waters saw thee O God the waters saw thee and they were afraid and the depths were troubled A multitude of the sounding of waters the clouds give a voice For indeed arrows do pass the voice of thy thunder in a wheel Thy lightnings shined to the round world the earth was moved and troubled Thy way in the sea and thy paths in many waters and thy steps shall not be known Thou hast conducted thy people as sheep in the hand of Moyses of Aaron Ant. In the day of tribulation I sought God with my hands V. Arise O Lord. R. And judge my cause VII LESSON Out of the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians chap. 2. The Church instructs us by the Words of the Apostle St. Paul how on that day Jesus Christ being to leave this World and go unto his Father and that having celebrated the Pasch with his Disciples he instituted at this last Supper he eat with them the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood as a perpetual Testimony of his Passion and the fulfilling of the Figures of the Old Law and as the greatest Miracle he ever did which he also left in his Church to comfort all the Faithful afflicted by his absence and to ingrave in their Hearts a deeper Impression of that Divine Love which he testified by dying for us In this Seventh Lesson the Apostle treating of the Agapes which were Feasts instituted among the Primitive Christians in imitation of the last Feast our Saviour Jesus Christ made with his Apostles to keep Union among the Faithful he speaks against the Rich who called not the Poor to their Table but came to the Eucharist full of Wine and Meat for according to the ancient Custom every one having taken a small Repast he then came unto those Holy Mysteries But the Council of Laodice held about the Year 364 forbad to celebrate in the Churches this Ceremony of the Agapes for the Irreverences that might be committed and soon after the Apostles time they never communicated but fasting as Tertullian witnesseth ANd this I command not praising it that you come together not to better but to worse First indeed when you come together into the Church I hear that there are schisms among you and in part I believe it For there must be heresies also that they also which are approved may be made manifest among you When you come therefore together in one it is not now to eat our Lords supper For every one taketh his own supper before to eat And one certes is an hungred and another is drunk Why have you not houses to eat and drink in or contemn you the church of God and confound them that have not What shall I say to you praise I you in this I do not praise you The Church represents unto us the Ingratitude and Wickedness of the Jews who endeavoured the Death of our Saviour whilst he even fed them with his own Flesh and gave them his own Blood to drink That also those by receiving it might have eternal Life She likewise admonisheth us to take care that â—e do not crucifie Christ in our own selves as the Jews crucified him on the Cross by profaning and defiling his precious Blood â—â—d by smothering in
years and the more of them labor and sorrow Because mildness is come upon us and we shall be chastised Who knoweth the power of thy wrath and for fear to number thy wrath So make thy right hand known and men learned in heart in wisdom Turn O Lord how long and be entreated for thy servants We are replenished in the morning with thy mercy and we have rejoyced and are delighted all our days We have rejoyced for the days wherein thou hast humbled us the years wherein we have seen evils Look upon thy servants and upon thy works and direct their children And let the brightness of our Lord God be upon us and direct thou the works of our hands over us and the work of our hands do thou direct Ant. Our Lord was led like an innocent lamb to the slaughter and he opened not his mouth â—â—ALM 62. In one part the Church represents unto us in the Person of King David the Happiness of those who esteem this World but as a Wilderness and 〈◊〉 extreme Grief because they yet enjoy not God but who make their hopes of possessing and enjoying him their sole Joy and Comfort preferring the Delights they find in the Mercies of God before all the perishable Goods and transitory Pleasures of this World and who in their Afflictions and Persecutions put all their Confidence in God who makes them in the end victorious over their Persecutors On the other part the Church represents unto us the Misery and Unhappiness of the Wicked and such as are Enemies to the Just ANTHYMN The Church having in the precedent Psalm shewed unto us how terrible and irresistible Gods Anger is She now shews us in this Antiphon taken out of the Twenty third Chapter of the Prophet Jeremy that his Wrath is so terrible that the very Prophets themselves were not able to express and declare his Threats without trembling for fear Ant. My heart is broken in the midst of me all my bones have trembled O God my God to thee I watch from the morning light My soul hath thirsted to thee my flesh to thee very many ways In a desert land and inaccessible and without water so in the holy have I appeared to thee that I might see thy strength and thy glory Because thy mercy is better than lives my lips shall praise thee So will I bless thee in my life and in thy name I will lift up my hands As with marrow and fatness let my soul be filled and my mouth shall praise with lips of exultation I have been mindful of thee upon my bed in the morning I will meditate on thee because thou hast been my helper And in the covert of thy wings I will rejoyce my soul hath cleaved after thee thy right hand hath received me But they in vain have sought my soul they shall enter into the interior parts of the earth they shall be delivered into the hands of the sword they shall be the portion of foxes But the king shall rejoyce in God all shall be praised that swear by him because the mouth is stopped of them that speak wicked things PSALM 66. The Church represents unto us First With what Fervor and Ardency the Royal Prophet and the Saints of the Old Testament expected and covered the Coming of the Messias as being the Author of their Sanctification and Salvation Secondly With what a fervent Charity they desired the Conversion of Insidels to the end that God might be acknowledged and adored by all the Nations of the Earth O God have mercy upon us and bless us illuminate his countenance upon us and have mercy on us That we may know thy way on earth in all nations thy salvation Let peoples O God confess to thee let all peoples confess to thee Let nations be glad and rejoyce because thou judgest peoples in equity and the nations in the earth thou dost direct Let peoples O God confess to thee let all peoples confess to thee the earth hath yielded her fruit God our God bless us God bless us and let all the ends of the earth fear him Ant. My heart is broken in the midst of me all my bones have trembled THE CANTICLE OF MOYSES Taken out of the Fifteenth Chapter of Exodus The Church shewing the Faithful that the Deliverance of the People of Israel from the Captivity of Egypt is but a Figure of God's Goodness in delivering them by his Son Jesus Christ from the Tyranny of the Devil and Slavery of Sin She also shews them how much they are obliged to sing Canticles of Praise to the Glory of our Lord with much greater joy than did the Israelites when they were delivered from the Tyranny of Pharao and the Persecution of their Enemies ANTIPHON taken out of the Fourth Chapter of the Prophet Barach Lord thou hast exhorted thy people to put their trust in thee and thou hast comforted them with thy holy grace LEt us sing to our Lord for he is glorious gloriously magnified the horse and the rider he hath thrown into the sea My strength and my praise is our Lord and he is made unto me a salvation This is my God and I will glorifie him the God of my father and I will exalt him Our Lord is a man of war Omnipotent is his name Pharaos chariots and his army he hath cast into the sea His chosen princes are drowned in the red sea the depths have overwhelmed them they are sunk into the bottom like a stone Thy right hand O Lord is magnified in strength thy right hand O Lord hath stricken the enemy and in the multitude of thy glory thou hast put down thy adversaries Thou hast sent thy wrath which hath devoured them like stubble and in the spirit of thy fury were the waters gathered together The flowing water stood the depths were gathered together in the midst of the sea The enemy said I will pursue and overtake I will divide the spoils my soul shall have his fill I will draw forth my sword my hand shall kill them The Spirit blew and the sea overwhelmed them they sank as lead in the vehement waters Who is like to thee among the strong O Lord who is like to thee Glorious in sanctity terrible and laudable doing merveils Thou didst stretch forth thy hand and the earth devoured them thou hast in thy mercy been a guide to the people which thou hast redeemed And in thy strength thou hast carried them unto thy holy habitation Nations rose up and were angry sorrows possessed the inhabiters of Philisthiim Then were the princes of Edom troubled trembling seised on the sturdy of Moab all the inhabiters of Canaam were confounded Let fear and dread fall upon them in the greatness of thy arm Let them become unmovable as a stone until thy people O Lord shall pass until thy people shall pass this which thou hast possessed Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thy inheritance in thy most firm
out thy face O Lord I will seek Turn not away thy face from me decline not in wrath from thy servant Be thou my helper forsake me not neither despise me O God my Saviour Because my father and my mother have forsaken me but our Lord hath taken me Guide me O Lord in thy way and direct me in the right path because of mine enemies Deliver me not into the souls of them that trouble me because unjust witnesses have risen up against me and iniquity hath lied to it self I believe to see the good things of our Lord in the land of the living Expect our Lord do manfully and let thy heart take courage and expect thou our Lord Ant. Unjust witnesses have risen up against me and iniquity hath lied to it self VERSICLE taken out of the One and twentieth Psalm The Church shews us That the Prophets have with such exactness described every Particular of our Saviour's Passion that they have even mentioned the Division of his Garments amongst the Soldiers V. They have divided my garments among them R. And upon my vesture they have cast lot THE FIRST LESSON Taken out of the Second Chapter of the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremy HETH OUr Lord hath meant to destroy the wall of the daughter of Sion he hath stretched out his cord and hath not turned away his hand from the destruction and the fore-wall hath mourned and the wall is destroyed together TETH Her gates are fastned in the ground he hath destroyed and broken her bars her king and her princes in the Gentiles there is no law and her prophets have not found vision from our Lord. JOD The ancients of the daughter of Sion have sitten on the ground they have held their peace they have sprinkled their heads with dust they are girded with hair-cloth the virgins of Jerusalem have cast down their heads to the ground CAPH Mine eyes have failed for tears my bowels are troubled my liver is poured out on the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people when the little one and the sucking fainted in the streets of the town Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God RESP. The Church represents unto us That 't was through the just Judgment of God that those Calamities befel the Jews which were foretold by the Prophet Jeremy because they offered such Indignities to the Son of God our Lord JESUS CHRIST All my friends have forsaken me and those that laid snares for me have prevailed against me and looking furiously upon me gave me most cruel stripes and gave me vineger to drink He whom I loved hath betrayed me V. They threw me among the wicked and they spared not my soul And looking furiously on me c. II. LESSON LAMED THey said to their Mothers â—here is the wheat and wine 〈◊〉 they fainted as the wounded in the 〈◊〉 of the city when they yielded up the ghosts in the bosom of their mothers MEM. Whereto shall I compare thee or whereto shall I liken thee O daughter of Jerusalem Whereto shall I make thee equal and comfort thee O virgin daughter of Sion For great is thy destruction as the sea who shall heal thee NUN Thy prophets have seen false and foolish things for thee neither have they opened thy iniquity to provoke thee to penance but they have seen false burdens and banishments for thee SAMECH All that passed by the way have clapped their hands upon thee they have hiss'd and mov'd their head upon the daughter of Jerusalem saying Is this the city of perfect beauty the joy of all the earth Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God RESP. The Church declares unto us the Blindness and Obstinacy of the Jews who could not be brought to Repentance neither by the Exhortations of the Prophet Jeremy and other Prophets nor by the Admonition of Jesus Christ though accompanied by many Miracles nor by those Wonders done at his death that by Repentance they might have avoided those Miseries that threatned them Whereas a Malefactor and a Thief who had never seen Christ do any Miracles and whereof the Jews had been so often eye-witnesses yet persisted in their Wickedness of Crucifying him whilst the Thief considering the Wonders on the Cross publickly acknowledged he was God and confessed his Sins with a true Repentance R. The vail of the temple was rent and all the earth trembled The thief cried from the cross saying Be mindful of me O Lord when thou shalt come into thy kingdom V. The rocks were rent and the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints that slept rose And all the earth trembled III. LESSON Taken out of the Third Chapter ALEPH. I The man that see my poverty in the rod of his indignation ALEPH. He hath led me and brought me into darkness and not into light ALEPH. Only against me he hath turned and hath converted his hand all the day BETH He hath made my skin old and my flesh he hath broken my bones BETH He hath built round about me and he hath compassed me with gall and labor BETH In dark places he hath placed as the everlasting dead GHIMEL He hath built round about against me that I go not forth he hath aggravated my fetters GHIMEL Yea and when I shall cry and ask he hath excluded my prayer GHIMEL He hath shut up my ways with square stones he hath subverted my paths Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God RESP. The Church shews us That God being offended at the Ingratitude and Wickedness of the Jews on whom he had bestowed so many Testimonies of his Affection punished them according to their Crimes R. My chosen vine I have planted thee how art thou converted into bitterness that thou shouldst crucifie me and deliver Barabbas V. I have hedged thee and have picked the stones from thee and I have built a tower How art thou converted c. R. My vine c. SECOND NOCTVRN PSALM 37. In this Psalm the Royal Prophet presents us with the Duties of a true Penitent which consist First To be sensible of the noisomness of our Sins Secondly To acknowledge that in Justice we deserve all sorts of Punishments and Chastisements since our Sins are so great and so many Thirdly To deplore our Offences with so sensible a Grief that in comparison of that internal Sorrow which we bear in our Souls we contemn all outward Afflictions being prepared against all Adversities Fourthly That when these Troubles befal us we must suffer them patiently and with a quiet spirit Fifthly We must patiently undergo Injuries and Affronts from our Enemies by always keeping a guard on our Tongues and Ears that we may neither understand nor utter any thing passionately Sixthly We must beg of God that the Sufferings we undergo may not be the Effects of his Wrath but the Chastisments from his Father that is That what we suffer may serve for our Correction thereby to be freed from the Torments of Hell At
heaven were covered Fifteen cubits higher was the water above the mountains which it covered And all the flesh was consumed that moved upon the earth of fowl of cattel of beasts and of all creepers that creep upon the earth But only Noe remained and they that were with him in the ark And the waters held on above the earth an hundred and fifty days And God remembred Noe and all the beasts and all the cattel which were with him in the ark and brought a wind upon the earth and the waters decreased And the fountains of the depth and the flood-gates of heaven were shut up and the rain from heaven was staid And the waters returned from the earth going and coming and they began to decrease after an hundred and fifty days And after that forty days were passed Noe opened the window of the ark which he had made let forth a crow which went forth and did not return till the waters were dried upon the earth He sent forth also a dove after him to see if the waters were ceased yet upon the face of the earth which finding not where her foot might rest returned to him into the ark for the waters were upon the whole earth and stretched forth his hand and caught her and brought her into the ark And having expected yet seven more days again he let forth a dove out of the ark but she came to him at eventide carrying a bough of an olive tree that had green leaves in her mouth Noe therefore understood that the waters were ceased upon the earth And he expected nevertheless other seven days and he sent forth a dove which returned not any more to him And God spake to Noe saying Go forth of the ark thou and thy wife thy sons and the wives of thy sons with thee All cattel which are with thee of all flesh as well in fowls as in beasts and all creepers that creep upon earth bring out with thee and go ye upon the earth encrease and multiply upon it Noe therefore went forth and his sons his wife and the wives of his sons with him Yea and all cattel beasts and creepers that creep upon the earth according to their kind went forth out of the ark And Noe built an altar to our Lord and taking of all cattel and fowls that were clean offered holocausts upon the altar And our Lord smelled a sweet savour The Priest begs of God on the Peoples behalf that admitting them into his Church thereby securing them from the Deuge wherewith the World was overflowed by sin he would be pleased to restore them to that Innocency wherein they were Created Let us Pray Let us kneel R. Lift up your selves O God whose power is unchangeable and light eternal look favourably upon the mystical and wonderful body of thy whole Church and by the effect of thy continual conduct compleat tranquillity the salvation of mankind that all the world may experimentally see that thou hast raised what was fallen and renewed what was decayed and that all things are re-established by him from whom they had their beginning our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen The THIRD PROPHECY taken out of the 22d Chapter of Genesis The Church instructs the Catechumens that as Christ was tempted by the Devil after his Baptism so they must prepare for and fortifie themselves against the Temptations of this Enemy of our Salvation learning by his example to overcome them And as there is another sort of Temptation wherewith God sometimes tries his Servants the Church admonishes the Catechumens to be ready as Christ was to give Testimony of their Faith and Obedience And therefore Abraham is proposed as an Example whose Faith was more prevalent than his inclinations of Nature and caused him to Offer couragiously in Sacrifice his dear Son Isaac who had been given him beyond his expectation and by whom alone he could hope for his innumerable Posterity which God had promised unto him This was a strange Tryal nor could he have obeyed with such promptitude a Command so irksom but by the strength of Faith which made him firmly believe that God having drawn his Son from a Man half dead through Age he could also preserve him from the Tomb and Slaughter IN those days God tempted Abraham and said to him Abraham Abraham But he answered Here I am He said to him Take thy only begotten Son whom thou lovest Isaac and go into the land of vision and there thou shalt offer him for an holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will shew thee Therefore Abraham rising up in the night sadled his ass taking with him two young men and Isaac his son and when he had cut wood for the holocaust he went his way to the place which God had commanded him And the third day lifting up his eyes he saw the place afar off And he said to his young men Tarry you here with the ass I and the boy going with speed as far as yonder after we have adored will return to you He took also the wood of the holocaust and laid it upon Isaac his son and himself carried in his hand fire and a sword And as they went together Isaac said to his Father My father And he answered What wilt thou son Behold saith he fire and wood Where is the victim of the holocaust And Abraham said God will provide unto himself the victim of the holocaust my son They went therefore together and they came to the place which God had shewed him wherein he builded an altar and laid the wood in order upon it And when he had bound Isaac his son he laid him on the altar upon the pile of wood And stretched forth his hand and caught the sword for to sacrifice his son And behold an angel of our Lord from heaven cried saying Abraham Abraham who answered Here I am And he said to him Stretch not forth thy hand upon the boy neither do thou any thing to him Now I have known that thou fearest God and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw behind his back a ram amongst the briers sticking fast by the horns which he took and offered an holocaust instead of his son And he called the name of that place Our Lord seeth whereupon even to this day it is said in the mountain Our Lord will see And the angel of our Lord called Abraham the second time from heaven saying By my own self have I sworn saith our Lord because thou hast done this thing and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake I will bless thee and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is by the sea-shore thy seed shall posses the gates of his enemies And in this seed shall be blessed all the nations of the earth because thou hast obeyed my voice
Abraham returned to his young men and they went to Bersabee together and he dwelt there The Church considering that all descended from Abraham according to the Flesh are not true Israelites but only those who in Holy Scriptures are called his Seed that is those who imitate his Faith begs Gods Grace for all the Gentils to imitate the Faith of this great Patriarch so as to reap the effect of the Promises made to him and his Posterity Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves O God the sovereign Father of the Faithful who by the grace of adoption through the whole world multipliest the children of thy promise and by this Paschal Sacrament viz. by the sacrifice of thy Son whereof the Paschal Lamb and the sacrifice of Isaac was a figure makest thy servant Abraham in his stead the Father of all Nations according to thy promise grant that thy people may worthily enter into the grace of their vocation Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. The FOURTH PROPHECY out of the 14th Chapter of Exodus The Church tells the excellency of Baptism and its effects by the wonderful things done for the Israelites the Pillar of Fire which shined before them in the Night and the Cloud which sheltered them from the heat of the Sun in the Day represented the Holy Ghost and the graces which he poureth out upon us The passage through the Red Sea under Moses his Conduct was a figure of Baptism which we receive by the Priest in the Sacramental Water sanctified by Christ's Bloud Pharao represented the Devil and the Egyptians our sins The sudden return of the Waters drowning the Egyptians signifie that our sins are ingulfed in the Waters of Baptism and that coming out of the Font we ought to look upon them as the Children of Israel after they had passed the Red Sea did upon the Egyptians dead on all sides upon the Sands and as they sate upon their Chariots sunk to the Ground IN those days when the morning-watch was come behold our Lord looking upon the Egyptians camp through the pillar of the fire and the cloud slew their army and overthrew the wheels of their chariots and they were born in the depth The Egyptians therefore said Let us fly from Israel for the Lord fighteth for them against us And our Lord said to Moses Stretch forth thy hand upon the sea that the waters may return to the Egyptians upon their chariots and horsemen And when Moses had stretched forth his hand against the sea it returned in the first break of day to the former place and the Egyptians flying away the waters came upon them and our Lord enwrapt them in the midst of the waves And the waters returned and overwhelmed the chariots and the horsemen of all Pharo's army who following were entred into the sea neither did there so much as one of them remain But the children of Israel marched through the midst of the dry sea and the waters were unto them as instead of a wall on the right hand and on the left And our Lord delivered Israel in that day out of the hand of the Egyptians And they saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore and the mighty hand that our Lord had exercised against them And the people feared our Lord and they believed our Lord and Moses his servant Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song to our Lord and said The TRACT taken out of the Eighteenth Chapter of Exodus The Church representing to the Catechumens the Obligation they have being by Baptism freed from the Tyranny of the Devil and Slavery of Sin to sing Canticles of Praise and Thanksgiving to our Lord with much more joy than the Israelites did when they were led out of the Egyptian Servitude and from the Persecution of their Enemies LEt us sing unto the Lord for he triumphed gloriously The horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea He is made a helper and protector to me for salvation V. He is my God and I will honour him my fathers God and I will exalt him V. The Lord is a destroyer of war the Lord is his Name Let us Pray The Church considering that the People of Israel's delivery from the Egyptians Bondage and the promises which God made them was a figure of those Graces which they shall receive who imitating the Faith of Abraham shall become his Children or true Israelites by the Regeneration of Baptism beseeches God that all People may be Regenerated and have the grace of Faith that so they may receive the effects of his Promises Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves O God who makest us see even in our days the miracles wrought by thee in past ages that what thou didst in the delivery of one people from the power of Egypt thou wroughtest for the salvation of the Gentiles through the water of regeneration grant that all the nations of this world may become true children of Abraham and enter into the dignity of being children of Israel Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. The FIFTH PROPHECY taken out of the 54th and 55th Chapter of Isay Wherein the Church presents to us the Promise God made to the Gentiles through his gracious Mercy of the Health-giving Waters of his Word and grace of obtaining for them the heavenly Inheritance and eternal Felicity And first it tells us that if the Eternal Word did not pour forth these Divine Waters into our Souls they would not be able to produce the least Fruit of Justice but would be altogether barren Secondly it teaches us that the Word which issues from Gods mouth when it dilates it self in humane hearts makes no unprofitable return to him that sent it but that it breeds and fructifies abundantly in their hearts that receive it THis is the inheritance of the servants of our Lord and their justice with me saith our Lord. All ye that thirst come to the waters and you that have no silver make hast buy and eat come buy without silver and without any exchange wine and milk Why bestow your silver not for bread and your labour not for satiety Hearing hear ye me and eat that which is good and your soul shall be delighted in fatness Incline your ear and come to me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you the faithful mercies of David Behold I have given him for a witness unto the people for a prince and master to the Gentiles Behold thou shalt call the nation which thou knowest not and the nations that knew not thee shall return to thee because of the Lord thy God and the holy one of Israel because he hath glorified thee Seek ye the Lord whiles he may be found invocate him whiles he is near Let the impious forsake his way and the unjust man his cognitations and return to our Lord and he will have mercy on him And to our God because