and from the servitude of sin THis saith our Lord Tell ye the Daughters of Sion Behold thy Saviour cometh behold his reward is with him and his work before him Who is this that cometh from Edom with died garments from Bosra this beautiful one in his Robe going in the multitude of his strength I that speak justice and am a desender to save Why then is thy clothing red and thy garments as theirs that tread in the Wine-press I have trodden the Press alone and of the Gentiles there is not a man with me I have trodden them in my fury and have trodden them down in my wrath and their bloud is sprinkled on my garments and I have stained all my raiment For the day of revenge is in my heart the year of my redemption is come I looked about and there was no helper I sought and there was none to aid and my arm hath saved and my indignation it self hath helped me And I have trodden down the people in my fury and have inebriated them in my indignation and have drawn their strength down to ground I will remember the mercies of our Lord the praise of our Lord for all things that our Lord hath rendred to us The GRADUAL out of the 68th Psalm The Church having represented our Saviour in the precedent Lesson triumphing over his enemies in his glorious Resurrection presents him unto us in this Gradual in the extremity of his Passion begging of his Father to be delivered from it To instruct us that he prays not for himself to be delivered from his pains and from death for how should he beg for himself to be freed from this hour wherein he should die for us since he came voluntarily upon Earth to that end being able by his own strength to rescue himself and give up his Soul to God and take it again But his Prayer was on our behalf to teach us in afflictions to have recourse to God to deliver us if it be his will or to give us strength to bear them patiently Likewise Jesus did not pray to be freed from his pains and death because he had a will to suffer but he askt to be delivered from the corruption of the Sepulchre by a speedy and glorious Resurrection To teach us by his Passion what we ought to contemn in the course of this life and by his resurrection what we ought to hope and pray for TUrn not away thy face from thy Servant Because I am in tribulation hear me speedily V. Save me O God because waters of affliction are entred into my Soul I stuck fast in the mire of the depth and there is no sure standing Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us pray The faithful beseech God that by the merits of his Son's Passion they may partake in the glory of his Resurrection O God who wert pleased that thy Son should suffer death for us upon the Cross that so the power of the enemy of mankind might be abated grant unto us thy servants that we may partake of his glorious Resurrection Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ c. Against the Persecutors of the Church Ecclesiae tuae c. as before pag. 84. Or for the Pope Deus omnium c. as before pag. 85. The Lesson out of the Prophet Isay ch 63. The Church teacheth us that the mystery of Gods Incarnation is so full of astonishment his Sufferings so outrageous and his Death so ignominious that the Prophet Isay durst not publish them lest men should not believe them After this Prophet hath foretold many of the torments to be endured by this man of God he teacheth us first that our sins were the cause of his sufferings by which he was to satisfie for us to his Fathers justice Secondly that he offered himself to these pains as a voluntary Victim for our salvation and would suffer death thereby to purchase life for us Thirdly that in compensation of this his humility and sufferings he is raised above all Creatures in Heaven sitting on the right hand of God his Father Fourthly that God his Father hath bestowed upon him all those for his children who are predestinated to glory as the precious off-spring of his bloud which he so freely shed that even he was pleased to wash those in it that put him to death according to the Prayer as he made even when he was nailed on the Cross between the two Thieves IN those days said Isaias Who hath believed our hearing and the arm of our Lord to whom is it revealed And he shall come up as a young Spring before him and as a Root from a thirsty ground There is no beauty in him nor comliness and we have seen him and there was no sightliness and we were desirous of him Despised and most abject of men a man of sorrows and knowing infirmity and his look as it were hid and despised whereupon neither have we esteemed him He surely hath born our infirmities and our sorrows he hath carried and we thought him as it were a Leper and strucken of God and humbled But he was wounded for our iniquities he was broken for our sins the discipline of our peace was upon him and with the wait of his stripes we are healed All we have strayed as Sheep every one hath declined into his own way and our Lord hath put upon him the iniquity of all us He was offered because himself would and opened not his mouth As a Sheep to slaughter was he led and as a Lamb before his Shearer he shall be dumb and shall not open his mouth From distress and from judgment he was taken up Who shall declare his Generation because he is cut out of the Land of the living For the wickedness of my people have I strucken him And he shall give the impious for his burial and the rich for his death Because he hath not done iniquity neither was their guile in his mouth And our Lord would break him in infirmity If he shall put away his Soul for sin he shall see seed of long age and the will of our Lord shall be directed in his hand for that his Soul hath laboured he shall see and be filled In his knowledge the same my just servant shall justifie many and he shall bear their iniquities Therefore will I distribute unto him very many and he shall divide the spoils of the strong for that he hath delivered his Soul unto death and was reputed with the wicked and he hath born the sin of many and hath prayed for the transgressiors The TRACT taken out of the 101st Psalm The Church tells us that Jesus Christ in the time of his Passion offered to God his Father most fervent Prayers with tears and groans beseeching him not to leave him under the power of death which he suffered onely for his love and for the salvation of the faithful signified by Sion His dignity his innocence this very act of
Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us R. This night without Sin V. Have mercy on us Lord. R. Have mercy on us V. Let thy mercy O Lord come on us R. Even as we have trusted in thee V. O Lord hear my Prayer R. And let my Cry come unto thee V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray VIsit we beseech thee O Lord this Habitation and repel far from it all Snares of the Enemy Let thy holy Angels dwell therein to preserve us in peace and thy Blessing be upon us for ever through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with thee liveth and Reigneth in the Unity of the Holy Ghost One God for ever and ever Amen V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit V. Let us bless our Lord. R. Thanks be to God THE BLESSING V. The Almighty and Merciful Lord the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost bless and keep us R. Amen THE ANTHYMN OF THE HOLY VIRGIN HAil Queen advanc'd to heavenly Reign Hail Lady of th' Angelick Train Hail Root hail Gate that did disclose The Light which to the World arose Virgin rejoyce whose Form divine All others Beauty do's out-shine Be ever bless'd thrice-beauteous Maid By thee let Christ be for us pray'd V. Vouchsafe that I praise thee O sacred Virgin R. Give me force against my Enemies Let us Pray GRant O merciful God defence unto our Frailty that we who make Commemoration of the Holy Mother of God may by the help of her Intercession arise from our Iniquities Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. R. Amen V. Let the Divine Help always remain with us R. Amen THE NIGHT-OFFICE ON WEDNESDAY IN Holy-Week FOR THVRSDAY at MATTINS ON this Day the Church represents unto us That Jesus Christ supped with his Apostles washed their Feet prayed in the Olive-Garden and that he was betrayed by Judas into the hands of the Jews These three following Days after having said Pater noster Ave Maria and Credo at Mattins and Prime without farther Ceremony they begin Mattins and Vespers with an Anthymn of the First Psalm and every Anthymn is repeated as on double Feasts Domine labia mea c. and Deus in Adjutorium are omitted to signifie that Jesus Christ was then abandoned by his Father to Torments and Death The Invitatory is likewise omitted Neither the Hymn nor Gloria Patri are said to shew us that the Honor due to the Blessed Trinity was violated by the excessive Wickedness and Infidelity of the Jews Fifteen Wax Tapers are lighted because there are recited two Canticles and thirteen Psalms in the Mattins and Laudes which are all sung under one and the same Anthymn Whereby are represented unto us the Light of the Faith which the Prophets in the Old Testament foretold unto the People And a Taper is extinguished at the end of each Psalm to declare that the Light of that Faith whereof the Prophets spoke unto the Jews was in them extinguished after they had crucified the Saviour of the World And at the end of the Canticle of Zachary the Father of St. John Baptist they put not out that Taper which represents Jesus Christ whom St. John Baptist declared to be the true Light of the World to shew that tho' Jesus Christ died according to his Humanity yet that he was always living according to his Divinity They also hide that Taper to signifie that the Divinity of Jesus Christ was hid under the Veil of his Humanity It likewise represents Jesus Christ in his Sepulcher Afterwards they shew the lighted Taper to represent his Resurrection AT THE FIRST NOCTVRN PSALM 68. That which the Royal Prophet foretold in this Psalm of the Mystery of the Passion of Jesus Christ the Church proposes unto us according to the Explication left us by the Apostles as well in the Book of their Acts and in their Epistles as in the Book of Gospels First She represents us with the Sufferings and Death of Jesus Christ which the Prophet compares to an overflowing of the Waters and to a Tempest and to a Wreck Secondly She presents us with the Prayer which our Saviour made to God his Father at the access of his Grief when in the condition of a Slave which our Infirmities occasion'd being in appearance forsaken of God his Father since in his Sufferings he denied him that which he desired through a propension of Humane Nature wherewith he was clothed drawing from the bottom of his Heart these Words full of Love and Piety My Father if it be possible let the Chalice of my Sufferances pass without my drinking it however thy will be done not mine That which he earnestly desired 't is that made his Innocency appear and that he voluntarily suffered those Pains for the Sins of Men and not for his own having never committed or been able to commit the least Sin And though his Passion seems ridiculous and is an Object of Scandal and Abomination in the judgment of the Jews and Gentiles yet the Faithful are not thereat troubled Thirdly The Church shews us that in this Psalm the Prophet foretells how our Saviour was to be betrayed by one of his Disciples and abandoned by his others and how many Outrages and Contempts the Jews would cast upon him Fourthly In this Psalm is declared the Zeal Jesus Christ had for the Honor of his Father his Resignation to his Father's Will his Submission to his Conduct and his Contempt of his own proper Interest For so the Apostle St. Paul in the fifteenth Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans explicates one part of this Psalm Fifthly According to St. Luke in the first Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and of St. Paul in the second Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans in this Psalm is described the Punishment which was prepared for the Traytor Judas and the other Persecutors of Jesus Christ wherewith this adorable Saviour threatens them not through any Hate or Revenge but through the Zeal of God's Justice considering the Reprobation of those Wretches in the Decrees of his Providence Sixthly We are instructed in this Psalm That Jesus Christ having by his Death repaired the Honor of God his Father he was also to rise again and build his Church which through Sin was lost and establish his Faithful in the possession of the Heavenly Inheritance signified by Jerusalem and lost by Sin Establishing on Earth a more agreeable Sacrifice than that of Calves which was offer'd him in the Old Law to wit the Sacrifice of his own Body and Blood Ant. The zeal of thy house hath eaten me and the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me SAve me O God because waters are entred into my Soul I stick fast in the mire of the depth and there is no sure standing I am come into the depth of the sea and a tempest hath overwhelmed me I have laboured crying my jaws are made hoarse my eyes have failed whilst I hope
unspeakable charity and the regard his Father had to his condition might easily obtain so just a request insomuch that he had onely a tast of death and the third day gloriously triumphed over it Though as the Son of God he was worthy to be heard without tears or cries and therefore should have been exempt from the least pains yet laying aside what he was he would by a transport worthy his love absolutely fulfil his Fathers will He took upon him all the evils wherewith he was charged to satisfie the rigour of his Justice To tast all sorts of grief and pains yielding himself a true Child as well as an obedient Disciple in all his sufferings He gave us a perfect example of patience and submission in all our afflictions O Lord hear my Prayer and let my cry come unto thee V. Turn not away thy face from me in what day soever I am in tribulation incline thy ear unto me V. In what day soever I shall invocate thee hear me speedily V. Because my days have vanished as smoke and my bones are withered as a dry burnt firebrand V. I am stricked as grass and my heart is withered because I have forgotten to eat my bread V. Thou rising up shalt have mercy on Sion because it is time to have mercy on it The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Luke chap. 22 23. AT that time the festival day of the Azymes approached which is called Pasche and the chief Priests and the Scribes sought how they might kill Jesus but they feared the people And Satan entred into Judas that was sirnamed Iscariot one of the twelve And he went and talked with the chief Priests and the Magistrates how he might betray him to them And they were glad and bargained to give him money And he promised And he sought opportunity to betray him apart from the multitudes And the day of the Azymes came wherein it was necessary that the Pasche should be killed And he sent Peter and John saying Go and prepare us the Pasche that we may eat But they said Where wilt thou that we prepare it And he said to them Behold as you enter into the City there shall meet you a man carrying a Pitcher of water follow him into the house into which he entereth and you shall say to the good man of the house The Master saith to thee Where is the Inn where I may eat the Pasche with my Disciples And he will shew you a great Refectory adorned and there prepare And they going found as he said to them and prepared the Pasche And when the hour was come he sate down and the twelve Apostles with him and he said to them With desire I have desired to eat this Pasche with you before I suffer For I say to you That from this time I will not eat it till it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God And taking the Chalice he gave thanks and said Take and divide among you for I say to you That I will not drink of the generation of the Vine till the Kingdom of God do come And taking Bread he gave thanks and brake and gave to them saying This is my Body which is given for you Do this for a commemoration of me In like manner the Chalice also after he had supped saying This is the Chalice of the New Testament in my Bloud which shall be shed for you But yet behold the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the Table And the Son of man indeed goeth according to that which is determined but yet wo to that man by whom he shall be betrayed And they began to question among themselves which of them it should be that should do this And there fell also a contention between them which of them seemed to be greater And he said unto them The Kings of the Gentiles over-rule them and they that have power upon them are called beneficial But you not so but he that is the greater among you let him become as the younger and he that is the leader as the waiter For which is greater he that sitteth at Table or he that ministreth Is not he that sitteth But I am in the midst of you as he that ministreth and you are they that have remained with me in my temptation And I dispose to you as my Father disposed to me a Kingdom that you may eat and drink upon my Table in my Kingdom and may sit upon Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And our Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan required to have you for to sift as Wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and thou once converted confirm thy Brethren Who said to him Lord with thee I am ready to go both into prison and unto death And he said I say unto thee Peter the Cock shall not crow to day till thou deny thrice thou knowest me And he said to them When I sent you without purse and skrip and shoes did you lack any thing But said Nothing He said therefore unto them But now he that hath a purse let him take it likewise also a skrip and he that hath not let him sell his coat and buy a sword For I say to you That yet this that is written must be fulfilled in me And with the wicked was he reputed For those things that are concerning me have an end But they said Lord lo two swords here But he said to them It is enough And going forth he went according to his custom into Mount Olivet and his Disciples also followed him And when he was come to the place he said to them Pray lest ye enter into temptation And he was pulled away from them a stones cast and kneeling he prayed saying Father if thou wilt transfer this Chalice from me But yet not my will but thine be done And there appeared to him an Angel from Heaven strengthening him and being in an agony he prayed the longer And his sweat became as drops of bloud trickling down upon the Earth And when he was risen up from prayer and was come to his Disciples he found them sleeping for pensiveness And he said to them Why sleep you Arise pray lest you enter into temptation As he was yet speaking behold a multitude and he that was called Judas one of the twelve went before them and approached to Jesus for to kiss him And Jesus said to him Judas with a kiss dost thou betray the Son of man And they that were about him seeing what would be said to him Lord shall we strike with the sword And one of them smote the servant of the High Priest and cut off his right ear But Jesus answering said Suffer ye thus far And when he had touched his ear he healed him And Jesus said to them that were come unto him the Chief Priests and Magistrates of the Temple and Ancients As it were to a thief are you come forth with swords