propitious to them Without all doubt the Evangelical Priest's prayers are more powerful especially when they are poured forth in such a Sacrifice which far surpasses all other Sacrifices and therefore supposing our Faith and Devotion he here offers this Sacrifice for us Q. Why for those who offer A. I have said formerly that all present do or may offer this Sacrifice and therefore although those who are present in some manner are partakers thereof and so satisfie the precept of the Church in days of Obligation yet they have not so effectually the spiritual and temporal effect thereof unless they devoutly offer it up with the Priest It was well said by St. Anthony the Abbot when one desired the Saint to pray for him How shall I pray for thee when thou doest not pray for thy self and how shall we expect to participate effectually of the Sacrifice if we do not when we may offer it for our selves Q. Why for their Friends A. Holy Job offered Holocaust for every one of his Children and for his Friends and according to the desire of the faithful present the Priest prayes for their Friends and Family making his purpose to offer this Sacrifice for them to the end that they may be partakers thereof Q Why for their Intentions A. The Priest supposing that our vows and intentions are to hear Masse in regard of our selves and those now mentioned prayes that this Sacrifice may be for the good of their Souls for encrease of their hope and spiritual and corporal safety Whilst the Priest makes this Memento which we know when the Priest joyns his hands before his breast as in a Meditation we may joyn our prayers to the same intentions specifying mentally the persons for whom either of Obligation Promise Duty or Charity we are to pray as for our Parents Benefactors or Friends we may also pray and offer up this Sacrifice for our Family or any other necessity for which we intend to pray at this time Q. What follows this Memento A. As soon as the Priest has said the Memento opening his hands he goes forward in the Sacred Action and as formerly he had called the Angels to his help and desired their presence in this holy Sacrifice so here he invocates the Blessed Virgin Apostles and Martyrs and all the Saints to help him in this his Action Q. Wherefore does the Priest here invocate the Saints A. In all ancient Liturgies or Masses it was so and the Church herein imitates the Prophet David and the Children in the Furnace who considering there is no possibility to reach praises due to God and knowing their own insufficiency did invite the Angels Saints and all faithful Believers yea all Creatures to praise our Lord in all his works So having formerly invited the Angels so here she invites all the Saints to praise God in this wonderful work of his love and goodness in coming unto us in the Eucharist I cannot but note here Three things which the Church commends unto us worthy to be observed to wit Communicants which presents unto us the Communion of Saints The Second is the venerable memory of the Saints The Third is the confidence we may have in their merits and prayers The Communion of Saints which we profess in our Creed wherein we believe that we have Communion not only with the faithful on Earth but also with the Saints in Heaven yea with the Angels In the Preface we had our Communion with the Angels here with the Saints that they may assist us in God's praises for here is the self-same object which they contemplate in Heaven and that they here with us may praise our common God that so the Church Militant United to the whole Church Triumphant may worthily receive their Lord and Master coming unto us in this holy Sacrifice We may piously believe that in this great action of the Consecration not only the Angels as is said before in the Preface are present but also the Saints accompanying their King For St. John saith They follow the Lamb whithersoever he shall go St. Hierome infers if the Lamb be there those who are with him are there Never more properly than in this Sacrifice where the Lamb Christ Jesus is offered hence it is that the Church here desires their Communion For as St. Cyril of Hierusalem sayes The Church by her Priests doth not offer this Sacrifice but in the Communion and Society of the Saints Many Expositers say we Communicate with the Saints in the Sacrament of the Altar for what they perceive in Vision that we frequent in the Sacramental species Secondly Odo and others do affirm that without this Communion of the faithful and veneration of the Saints there is no place of offering Sacrifice wherefore the Church in her Sacrifice Communicates in the memory of Saints St. Augustine in several places insists much in the memory of Saints as we erect no Temples Altar or Sacrifices to the Martyrs because not they but their God is our God we honour their memories as Gods Saints c. Who ever heard the Priest at the Altar that was built up in Gods honour and the Martyrs memories and a little after gives the reason That we at that Solemnity may both give thanks to God for their Victories and be encouraged to endeavour the attainment of such Crowns of Glory as they have already attained still invocating him at their memorials and in another place we offer only to him who is both their God and ours At which offering those Conquerours of the World as Men of God have each one his peculiar Commemoration which St. Chrysostome attributes to their honour for sayes he It is a great honour to be named in the presence of our Lord whilst we celebrate his death in this dreadful Sacrifice Thirdly The Priest here sayes that by the merits and prayers of the Saints we may obtain grace from God in this great action and craves their assistance and help in the performance thereof For as St. Augustine sayes We do not make mention or memory of the Martyrs at our Lord's Table as of others c. But rather to the end that they may pray for us and that we may imitate and follow them The self-same he has in another place styling it to be according to the Ecclesiastical Discipline to remember them at Gods Altar and that it were an injury to pray for Martyrs to whose prayers we ought to commend our selves We may joyn with the Priest in craving the assistance of the B. Virgin and Saints that we may Devoutly attend and be made worthy of Christ's presence and offer up to God what we are here to do by their merits and intercessions specifying if we will the Saint we are Devoted to or the Martyr whose Feast is celebrated as it was done in the Oriental Church 4. Of what follows before the Consecration Q. What prayer follows this we have now spoken of A. Next after the Invocation of the Saints confiding
hear the Instructions of the Apostles as a disposition to the light of the Gospel or as St. Justine Martyr sayes to the end that the Excellency of the Gospel may be better known Q. What is the Mystical signification thereof A. It signifies the written Law which went before that of Grace or the Preaching of St. John Baptist before the Preaching of our Saviour or the labours of the Apostles in Converting the Gentiles In this we may also consider our Vocation to the light of Faith and give thanks to God as the Apostle sayes for his inestimable gift in sending his Prophets Apostles and their Successours to teach us the way of Salvation that in the end we may with heart and affection say Deo gratias thanks be to God Which saying St. Augustine did so much esteem that he sayes what better thing can we bear in mind or utter from the mouth or express with Pen than Deo gratias nothing can be said more briefly nor heard more joyfully nothing understood that is greater or done more fruitfully than Deo gratias Thanks be to God who has enriched us with the true faith of Christ Jesus Q. Since the Epistle is for our Instruction why is it not in the vulgar Tongue A. Those who understand the Latin Tongue may piously attend to the Contents thereof Those who do not and can read may find them as also the Gospels in the latter end of the Rhemish Testament and do well to read them over night especially in the Eves of Sundayes and Holidayes or in the mornings before they come to Masse or if they please at Masse as I have seen some Catholicks to do There are also extant in our vulgar Language books containing expositions of the Epistles and Gospels of the whole year which read over night may much conduce to the encrease of Devotion and Piety Those who cannot read may learn of those who can instruct them and attend to Sermons which are commonly made for their explication however as I formerly have declared the understanding of either of them is not of necessity in order to the Sacrifice and therefore it suffices that they know the Mysteries thereof Where we may note the constancy of the Catholick Church in following the Primitive times when for the Cathecumens or the new Converts or for conversion of Infidels upon Solemn dayes some part of the Scripture was read and Psalms were used with expositions on them as is to be seen in the Homilies and Sermons made by the Holy Fathers for that end now there being no necessity of expositions in order to our faith and Devotion waxing cold the Church contents her self with the continuance of the substantial part remitting the expositions thereof to Sermons and Catechisms in more commodious time nevertheless in some places the Pastours or others for them in high Masses on Sundayes after the Gospel do make such under the name of Prones which our dangerous and fickle time will not permit Let it therefore suffice that we know by the Epistle the Vocation we have received from God to the true faith and fulfilling his Will and Commandements let us give thanks for that so great a benefit with purpose by Gods grace to persevere faithfully in Christ's Law making progress from vertue to vertue intimated by the Gradual which in the next shall be declared 12. Of what follows between the Epistle and the Gospel Q What follows the Epistle A. That which follows ordinarily is called Gradual which for the most part is One or Two verses of the Psalms agreeable to the Office of the day so called from the custome of the Church in Solemn Masses when some of the Quire do ascend to the steps of the Quire towards the Altar but is also properly called a Response or answer to the Epistle for generally speaking they have correspondence to the matter of the Epistle or to the Solemnity of the day if that be of joy the Response is so too if of sadness it is also of sadness Q. What doth the Gradual signifie A. As it is called Gradual it signifieth our ascent from vertue to vertue or our going up by degrees of Humility to higher perfection or rather the ascent we ought to make from the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles to the Doctrine of Christ Jesus It may also signifie the joy of the Church for the Conversion of Souls from Idolatry and Judaisme or to see the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles in the Conversion of Sinners to see the fruit of their Preaching whereof the Epistle is a Symbole and the Gradual of the fruit the Epistle is the Field sown with good Seed the Gradual the Harvest As a Response it puts us in mind that we ought in word and work to answer or correspond to those things which are propounded in the Epistle And signifies that after St. John Baptist's Preaching represented by the Epistle the Disciples did follow Christ in his Evangelical Doctrine or the Preaching of the Apostles after they were called by Christ in fine it serves as a Declaration of the fruit we receive from the Apostles Doctrine that is to follow Christ Q. What means Alleluja A. Our Devout St. Bernardine calls it Canticum honoris a Cantile of Honour which as it hath a hidden sence in the Hebrew so it was never Translated into any other Language for the Greek Latin Chaldean Syrian Arabian and all Nations of the Earth do retain it Whence St. Jerome and other Interpreters do very seldome Translate it but leave it as they find it in the Hebrew St. Augustine said that no Christian is ignorant that Alleluja is a voice of praise Indeed the word divided imports as much but as connexed together according to the use of the Hebrews it signifies not only praise but praise with joy and gladness beyond what can be expressed in voice in fine this Alleluja is a Sacred and Mystical word which the Church Militant useth in imitation of the Church Triumphant which is said to laud and praise God with Joy and Jubilation and sing Alleluja as we may read in Tobias Chap. 13. and in the Appocalips 19. Now the Church uses this Alleluja in the Masse as corresponding to the foresaid joy she hath in the conversion of the World or to manifest the joy that Christians take in the Solemn Mysteries which is redoubled in Easter time for joy of the Resurrection but from Septuagesima to Easter and some other times she omits it and for the most part has a Tract instead of it Q. What is that Tract A. It is certain verses of the Psalms appropriated to the times and is called a Tract because it is sung in Solemn Masse very leisurely with drawing the words and sillables Innocent 3. gives the reason thereof saying The Tract with the unpleasantness of the Tone and prolixity or drawing of the words does insinuate the miseries of our present time as others say it is a protracted voice of
joyn together that this may be done meetly and justly to receive the Eucharist And doest thou wonder that the people speak with the Priest when they sound out these Holy Hymns in common consent with the Cherubins and supernatural powers Finally St. Augustine thus explicates it This follows that for this so great a good of raised hearts we should not attribute the glory to our selves as of our own Forces but give thanks to our Lord for of this we are forthwith admonished because it is meet and just Which is the answer we are then to give to the Priest Dignum justum est It is meet and just meet because he is our Lord just because we are his people meet and just together that we his Servants together with the Priest give thanks to God from whom we have received all things Meet in respect of his manifold benefits Just in respect of our obliged gratitude for that we are partakers of the Treasures of his mercy in this holy Sacrifice I wish that each one for the comfort of their Souls would consider these words and learn them either in Latin or English that with heart and mouth they might answer to the Priest for if they did I am confident great Comfort and Devotion would arise thereby The words are short but full of Energie and Vertue 7. Of the Preface Q. What say you of the Preface A. Those who understand Latin may do well to attend to the Preface which savours of much Piety and yields abundant matter of Devotion for those who are ignorant thereof I will draw the most considerable motives for their Devotion and for this end I shall divide it into Five Considerations The First Consideration is that the Priest confirms the answer which we make concerning our giving thanks to God telling us verily it is Meet and Just Right and wholesome to do so Meet for the benefits here propounded and Just for God made Man by this Eucharist here communicates his goodness and mercy Right for its weight and merit wholesome as the cause of our Salvation or Meet because he is good Just because he is beneficient Right because he is merciful wholesome because he is our Souls Medicine Again Meet because out of his mercy and pleasure he has created us Just because out of pure goodness he has Redeemed us Right because he has freely and gratis justified us Wholesome because he has predestinated us to glory and he invites us alwayes to praise God by declaring that he is our Holy Lord Omnipotent Father and Eternal God for all Sanctity comes from him and by his power alone this Sacrifice was instituted whose fruit is Eternity and then tells the means to do it effectually by our Lord Jesus Christ The Second Consideration is that the Angels and all the whole Court of Heaven do adore and with mutual concord and consent by inflamed layes of Charity do celebrate God's praise and glory this the Church propounds unto us for imitation for if these Heavenly Spirits do continually praise God because they are alwayes in his presence The Church insinuates thereby the great Reverence Adoration and Honour we ought to give to our God in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist which if we do all these supernal Spirits will help us in this action that as they perpetually rejoyce in God by inflaming Love so we ought to rejoyce and exult with ardent love of him who has manifested his infinite love to us in this Holy Sacrament Thirdly We may consider that the Church Militant desires to joyn with the Church Triumphant to make one Quire and the faithful people present knowing their own frailty and indignity make humble supplication that God would give them Grace to make them worthy to make a part with the Heavenly Quire in this holy Sacrifice for as Florus sayes The Holy Church is to be associated to the Quires of Angels and with the Angels persist in the praises of God for ever and ever And now in this holy Sacrifice as St. Chrysostome teaches The Angels are ready to joyn with us at that time sayes he The Angels accompany the Priest and the whole Orders of Celestial powers cry out the whole place near the Altar in his honour who is there immolated is full of Angelical Quires Fourthly We may devoutly consider how the Church here specifies the Song or Canticle which the Angels continually sing in Heaven declared by the Prophet Isay and St. John Evangelist by the Greeks called Teisagion a thrice holy Canticle that is Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts all the Earth is full of thy glory St. Ambrose affirms that we cannot give to God a more precious Title or more sutable to his Glory than to call him Holy for it is to say in one word all the substantial and incomprehensible perfections of his Deity and by this term holy in this place we understand God to be the Abiss of Sanctity from whence Angels and Men participate all their Sanctity as the Sun beams receive light from the Sun As therefore the Seraphins and Angels do thrice repeat this Holy so ought we in this place for as St. Damascene sayes The Deity is thrice declared Holy and Glorified when Sanctus or Holy is said three times whence Procopius tells us that the Seraphins do not only once sing the praises of God but reiterate them often yea infinite times For by the number of three we may understand a multitude so that by saying that they sing holy three times we may take it all times for this is their continual song whereto we hope to add our parts with them in Heaven as they joyn with us in this holy Sacrifice wherefore it is added Lord God of Sabaoth which is one of the names the Israelites did give to God and is not Translated in the Latin Church for that the word Sabaoth is an exceeding expression in any other Language but by many it is interpreted Lord God of Hosts or Armies which is fitly said here for in these words both Angels and Men do make Homage to their God acknowledging him for their Lord with this Canticle wherein the Host or Army of the Celestial Spirits and the Host or Army of Christ's Church at this time made one makeing an Army of a Camp set in array do joyntly and in due order Praise Magnifie and adore God whence consequently it is said all the Earth is full of his Glory the Heavens are full of it already now it is fitting that the Earth also should be full of the same all Men on Earth ought to sing his Glory even as the Angels do in Heaven The Fifth consideration may be of the Hymn which St. Mathew relates when the multitude that went before and followed cryed saying Hosanna to the Son of David blessed is he that comes in the name of our Lord Hosanna in the Highest which are the same words the Priest sayes here now since Heaven and Earth are to be
Ceremonies and in Devotion joyn our selves with the blessed Maries in using all diligence to find Christ Jesus rising in our Souls 2. Of the Ceremonies in breaking the Holy Host Q. Why is the Host here broken A. The Church herein follows Christs institution who as the Evangelists do teach did break the Bread St. Luke expresses it with the usual Ceremonies of Consecration and it was so notorious a circumstance that the whole Sacrifice did carry the name of breaking Bread not that the body of Christ is broken or separated one peice from another no more then the Soul in man is broken or divided although the body be broken and divided the division therefore here is in the species or forms of Bread for that the fraction or breaking of the species brings not any division in Christs body in the venerable Sacrament of the Altar So that although the species be divided into parts yet Christ undivided and unparted is known and found to be in each divided part for it is as the Soul whole in the whole Host and whole in every part So the same body whole and entire without separation or division remains in all the Hosts over the whole World and in every part and parcel of every one of the Hosts after Consecration This was prefigured in the Sacrifice of fine Flower called Mincha whereof mention is made in Lev ticus The Bread or Cake as St. Thomas notes when it was Sacrificed to God was to be broken or divided into little pieces Q. Why does the Priest divide it first into two parts A. That is done according to the double state of the predestinate to wit of those who are in eternal glory and those who are in this vale of misery which is all one to say the one represents the Church Triumphant the other the Church militant The first part is laid on the Patten as being now in rest and peace Q. But why is this division made over the Chalice A. Besides the moral reason which is least the particles or fragmenrs which happen sometimes in the breaking of the Host might scatter abroad whereas in breaking them over the Chalice they are received therein there is another mystical reason to give us to understand that the gates of Heaven were opened unto us by our Saviours passion and Heaven bought by his blood Q. What means the other division A. That other part signifies the militant Church which is again divided whereof the one part represents those who are in purgatory with hope and assurance of being joyned to the Triumphant Church in sign whereof the Priest layes it down joyning it to the former part on the Patten Now the third part representing the militant Church on Earth is held over the Chalice whilst the Priest concludes his prayer according to the wonted manner saying per omnia saecula saeculorum for ever and ever whereto Amen is answered Now the prayer was for Christs peace which he brought into the World by his Resurrection whence the Priest making three Crosses on the Chalice denounceth that peace saying Pax Domini sit semper Vobiscum in the person of Christ as now rising saith The peace of our Lord be always with you which is the same with the Pax vobis Peace be with you which Christ gave to the Disciples when he appeared to them after his Resurrection St. Cyril of Alexandria says Peace be to you said Christ to his Disciples whence there is a certain Law delivered unto us by the Church for in all Congregations we salute one another in this manner the words are full of Love and Authority and the good tydings of the Resurrection of Christ in our Souls by the amiable and and full offer of peace to men of good will all impediments or obstacles of our Salvation are taken away and a glorious Trophy of victory over Death Sin and Hell is set up with this inscription of peace Q Why then does the Priest make three Crosses over the Chalice with the third part A. To intimate that Christs peace is not to be had but by the Cross planted in our hearts professed in our mouths and imitated in our actions or to signifie that Christs Resurrection was after that he had been three days in the Grave represented by the Chalice The Angel of the Schools explicates this Ceremony more mystically to our Salvation saying that three Crosses are in honour of the most holy Trinity who sent the Lamb to make peace by the Cross to Angels and Men. It may also signifie the threefold peace which Christ has brought by his passion to wit internal external and supernal The first is the interiour peace of the mind and Conscience which cannot be had but by Christ who said In me you may have peace St. Hierome affirms that this peace of the mind is so quiet and settled that it is not troubled with any passion for the holy Soul feeling it self free from the terrours of pain and punishment being in grace and friendship with God enjoys wonderful peace and tranquility The second peace is that which makes the union of mind and will with our Neighbours to this peace St. Paul invites us saying Have peace and the God of peace and love shall be with you and again he earnestly exhorts us thereunto advising us to be careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace for peace is a chain or cement which unites conjoyns and tyes together Christian hearts The Third peace is properly the peace of God which as the same St. Paul sayes passes all understanding and is the peace which the Soul has with God the perfection whereof we expect in the life to come So that we may well call Christ Jesus his rising our peace pacifying by the blood of the Cross whether the things on Earth or the things that are in Heaven Now to shew that this Triple peace comes to us by Christs blood the Priest immediately lets fall the particle into the Chalice of Christs blood In consideration of what has been said we may call to mind the words of St. Paul If we become complanted to the similitude of his death we shall also be of his Resurrection by Christs death which we have hitherto meditated we may come more easily to consider his Resurrection Secondly we may contemplate the Resurrection and with the holy Women raise acts of fear and joy for it is said they went forth quickly out of the Monument with fear and great joy A double affection sayes St. Hierome of fear and joy did possess the Womens minds one for the greatness of the Miracle the other from the vision of him that was risen or as Enthemius sayes with fear for the wonderful things they had seen with joy also for the joyful tydings which they heard let us with fear consider our unworthiness and with joy contemplate the Resurrection which assures us of our Resurrection To this end St. Paul sayes Christ was delivered up