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
were now dead And sending for the Centurion asked him If he were now dead And when he understood by the Centurion he gave the body to Joseph And Joseph buying sindon and taking him down wrapped him in the sindon and laid him in a monument that was hewed out of a rock And he rolled a stone to the door of the monument The OFFERTORY taken out of the 139th Psalm The Church teacheth us that when we beg of God to be freed from the persecution of our enemies to pray as our Saviour prayed that God's will and ours might be fulfilled KEep me O Lord from the hand of a sinner and from unjust men deliver me SUSCIPE SANCTE PATER until the Secret as before pag. 56 57 58. The SECRET The Church having taught us in the Gradual of this Mass to have recourse unto God by Fasting and Prayer in our afflictions and representing by the notice our Saviour gave his Disciples that the hour of his Passion approached though 't was himself and not his Disciples that was to suffer nevertheless it was not for himself that he said Watch and Pray but onely for them lest they should fall into temptation The Faithful must consider that if the Apostles were not secure even whilest our Saviour was suffering how much more ought they to fear failing whilest themselves are in affliction whereupon amongst the many tentations wherewith they are surrounded they beseech God to give them the grace to Fast and attend to Prayer in such manner that they may reap the benefit of our Saviour's Passion by vertue of the Sacrifice of the Altar which it represents unto them and by which its merits is applied unto them if their sins prevent not GRant O Lord we beseech thee that these Sacrifices which we celebrate with wholsome Fasting by an holy Institution may repair our nature Through our Lord c. Against the Persecutors of the Church Protege nos as before pag. 90. Or for the Pope Oblatis c. as before pag. 90. The Preface and Cnaon till the Communion as before pag. 60 to 79. The COMMUNION taken out of the 68th Psalm The Church instructs us that the Jews not seeing visibly our Saviour's deliverance as one sunk under the weight of their tyranny they being ignorant of his Passion and Resurrection understood not that by his passing hence to immortal glory he made a passage for us from the old to a new life he having never lived in sin was not in a captivity to quit what he was not guilty of THey spake against me that sate in the gate and they made songs against me who drank wine but I made my Prayer to thee O Lord it is a time of thy good pleasure O God in the multitude of thy mercy The POST-COMMUNION The Faithful pray to God that they may cast off the old and put on a new life by vertue of this Sacrament which represents unto us this happy change in the mystery of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ applying its merits unto us SAnctifie us Almighty God by thy Sacraments that we may receive a cure for our sins and life everlasting Through our Lord c. Against the Persecutors of the Church O Lord our God we beseech thee to preserve those from falling through humane frailties whom thou hast vouchsafed to a participation in this Holy Communion Through our Lord c. Or for the Pope PRotect O Lord we beseech thee by the participation of this Divine Sacrament and strengthen thy Servant N. whom thou hast advanced to be Chief Pastor of thy Church that he and the flock committed to his charge may attain Eternal Life Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. A Prayer over the People Let us Pray Humble your selves and bow down your heads to God LEt thy Mercy O Lord cleanse us from the corruption of the old man and give us a new spirit Through our Lord c. All the rest as before pag. 79. THE MASS FOR WEDNESDAY IN Holy Week The Station to St. Mary Major To teach us that the Son of God being impassible and immortal as to his divinity could not subject himself to sufferings and death but only according to that flesh which he took of the holy Virgin Mary The INROITT taken out of the 2d Chapter of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians and out of the 101st Psalm The Church instructs us with how much considence we ought to address our Prayers to God in the name of his Son Jesus Christ either in respect of his love for us having suffered death to redeem us or for his omnipotence being the same God with his Father whom all creatures ought to adore The Angels are thereunto obliged for though Christ died not for them yet mankind being thereby redeemed they reap some advantage being reconciled unto them after the enmity and separation which sin had caused between them and for that by this Redemption of man the loss and fall of the Angels was repaired The Devils are obliged by force being overcome and trodden under foot by him But mankind hath a singular obligation he having redeemed them to give them a Kingdom and most accomplisht felicity IN the Name of Jesus let every knee bow of things in Heaven of things in earth and of things under the earth because our Lord became obedient unto death even the death of the cross Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father PSALM CI. O Lord hear my Prayer and let my cry come unto thee KYRIE ELEISON c. as before pag. 36. Let us Pray V. Let us bend our knees R. Raise up your selves COLLECT The Faithful out of a pious confidence implore by their Prayers God's mercy through the Merits of his Son's Passion GRant we beseech thee O Almighty God that we who are incessantly afflicted through our excesses may be delivered by the Passion of thy only begotten Son who liveth and reigneth one God with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost world without end Amen The Lesson out of the 62d and 63d Chapter of the Prophet Isay The Church putting us in mind of Christ's Passion represents also unto us at the same time the Glory of his Resurrection to instruct us that his Divinity having never been separated from his Humanity he onely suffered because it was his will and that he made use of his sufferings to appear with the greater lustre in his Resurrection And thereupon in this Lesson his glorious Resurrection is set forth and his departure from Jerusalem the capital City of Judea which is compared for its infidelity to Bosra and Idumen carrying the marks of his Passion upon his Body wherewith his Divinity was clothed as in a Garment And under this figure of the defeat of the Idumeans and delivery of the people of Israel the Church represents to us the victory Jesus Christ gained over the World and the Devil 's securing his flock from their tyranny
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
together at that sight and saw the things that were done returned knocking their breasts And all his acquaintance stood afar off and the women that had followed him from Galilee seeing these things ANd behold a man named Joseph who was a Senator a good man and a just he had not consented to their council and doings of Arimathea a city of Jewry who also himself expected the Kingdom of God This man came to Pilate and asked the body of Jesus And taking it down wrapped it in sindon and laid him in a monument hewed of stone wherein never yet any man had been laid The OFFERTORY taken out of the 101st Psalm The Church represents unto us how our Saviour in his Passion became a figure of his Martyrs who desiring to be freed from death by humane instinct and as it were forsaken by him for a time in that he granted not that unto them whilst they suffered which they might seem to desire by their natural inclinations might repeat from the bottom of their hearts those words full of love and piety which our Saviour as an example of these generous champions spoke himself Father if it be possible let this cup of sufferings pass from me that I taste it not but let thy will be done not mine O Lord hear my prayer and let my cry come unto thee turn not thy face from me c. SUSCIPE SANCTE PATER till the Secret as before pag. 56 57 58. The SECRET The Faithful meditating upon our Saviour's Passion beseech God to grant them desires and resentments of love and duty and to excite us the rather we must confess our own sms and reflect that they were the cause of our Saviour's Crucifying Secondly We must consider the eternal torments which we have merited that so we may with consent undergo any torments in life Thirdly Let us contemplate that we shall have an eternal recompence whereunto we aspire by the grace of Jesus Christ and confess that all the afflictions of this life are not worthy to be compared to the future Glory Fourthly We must call to mind all the pains our Saviour indured for us having frequently in our thoughts how much his Divine Majesty suffered for us his unprofitable servants should not without confusion to our selves be unwilling to suffer but readily and cheerfully for our benefits undergo these temporal light pains ACcept O Lord we beseech thee this Offering and grant that we may receive with pious affections and resentments that which we celebrate in memory of the Passion of our Lord thy Son Through the same Jesus Christ c. Against the Persecutors of the Church Protege nos c. as before pag. 90. Or for the Pope Oblatus c. as before pag. 90. The Preface Canon c. till the Communion as before from 60 to 70. The COMMUNION out of the 101st Psalm The Church tells us that in receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which represents to us his Passion and as it were incorporates us with him we ought to imprint in our hearts a lively apprehension of this adorable Saviour who being presented upon the Cross with Gall and Vinegar to drink besought God his Father with abundance of tears and loud crys to grant us life everlasting in participation of his Sufferings and Resurrection I Mingled my drink with tears because lifting me up thou hast thrown me down and I withered away like grass but thou O Lord endurest for ever Thou rising up shalt have mercy on Sion because it is time to have mercy on it The POST-COMMUNION The Faithful beseech God to withdraw their irregular affections from these worldly fading goods and to make them apprehend how as they are Christians their happiness is not to be placed in this temporal life wherein God oftentimes delivers them up unto persecutions even unto death But that they are to regard Eternity to which the Name of Christian entitles them Therefore they are to consider that he whose Name they bear was so treated before them to teach them by his example to contemn this world and to aspire Celestial Blessings which he by the Merits of his Death and Passion hath opened unto them GRant O Almighty God we beseech thee that we may with a holy confidence believe that thou hast opened a passage for us to Eternal Life by the Temporal Death of thy Son represented in these Adorable Mysteries Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ Against the Persecutors of the Church Quaesumus Domine c. as before pag. 91. Or for the Pope Haec nos quaesumus as before pag. 91. Let us Pray Humble your selves and bow down your heads to God LOok down O Lord we beseech thee upon this thy Family for which our Lord Jesus Christ doubted not to be betrayed into the hands of the wicked and so undergo the torments of the Cross Who liveth and reigneth with thee c. All the rest as before pag. 79. 〈◊〉 Hollar focit UPON THURSDAY IN Holy Week AT PRIME Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. Credo c. Deus in adjutorium is not here said to mind us that Jesus Christ was abandoned by God the Father to sufferings and death Nor is any Hymn used to instruct us that the Jews had dishonoured God by putting his Son to death PSALM LIII In this Psalm the Church proposeth unto us a certain model of perfect Prayer First We ought to beg of God what may conduce to our salvation Secondly We ought to ask it in the Name of our Saviour Jesus Christ for there is no other Name given to men by which they can be saved Thirdly We must have a firm faith in God's omnipotence Fourthly We are to look upon God as our Judge who gives to every man according to his works and therefore the confidence wherewith we pray is grounded upon the testimony of our conscience that it is not guilty of any thing which may render us unworthy to present our selves before his Divine Majesty Fifthly We must place all our confidence in God's mercy in the verity of his promises and not in our merits Sixthly We are to beg the grace to love justice so that no persecution whatever may cause us to swerve from it Seventhly We must not desire punishment upon the wicked out of hatred or revenge but out of charity for their correction as long as there is hopes of their amendment and to the end that others by their chastisements may fear to imitate them and that the empire of sin being overcome God alone may reign in this world Eightly We ought to beg that the adversities and misfortunes of this life may not deject us nor prosperity charm our senses and affections but that we may rely upon God and glorifie him Ninthly And to glorifie God as we ought we must offer up our selves to him in the spirit of sacrifice and annihilation that is of Pennance Tenthly The service and duty we offer up to God must
be free not servile Eleventhly We must acknowledge our selves unable to make a voluntary and true offering of our selves if the grace God do not deliver us from our sins which we must pray for from our very hearts O God save me in thy Name and in thy strength judge me O God hear my prayer with thine ears receive the words of my mouth Because strangers have risen up against me and the strong have sought my soul and they have not set God before their eyes For behold God helped me and our Lord is the receiver of my soul Turn away the evils to mine enemies and in thy truth destroy them I will voluntarily sacrifice to thee and will confess to thy Name O Lord because it is good Because thou hast delivered me out of all tribulation and mine eye hath looked down upon mine enemies PSALM 118 or 119. The Royal Prophet teaches us in the first part of this 118th Psalm that mans true felicity consists in living free from sin and in keeping God's law for his love and because he so commands us Secondly He teacheth us that to observe the law of God as we ought we must ask his grace to learn it from our youth Thirdly How that knowing it we must praise his Majesty and beg his grace to observe it with a true heart void of fear or confusion Fourthly That to render us worthy of this grace of perseverance in the obedience of divine law we ought to meditate continually upon it it must be the object of our entertainment and we must have a greater care and pleasure to accomplish it than worldly covetous men have to get and preserve their perishing riches BLessed are the immaculate in the way which walk in the law of our Lord. Blessed are they that search his testimonies that seek after him with all their heart For they that work iniquity have not walked in his ways Thou hast very much commanded thy commandments to be kept Would God my ways might be directed to keep thy justifications Then shall I not be confounded when I shall look throughly in all thy commandments I will confess to the indirection of heart in that I have learned the judgments of thy justice I will keep thy justifications forsake me not wholly Wherein doth a young man correct his way in keeping thy words With my whole heart I have sought after thee repel me not from thy commandments In my heart I have hid thy words that I may not sin to thee Blessed art thou O Lord teach me thy justifications In my lips I have pronounced all the judgments of thy mouth I am delighted in the way of thy testimonies as in all riches I will be exercised in thy commandments and I will consider thy ways I will meditate in thy justifications I will not forget thy words In this second part of this 118 or 119 Psalm the Prophet David farther teacheth us the conduct which God is pleased to use to those who with a faithful heart intend the observing his Commandments 1. God brings to their knowledge that this life is but as death that so they may be brought to find out the true life which consists in knowing and loving him 2. He shews them that in this world men are intangled in sin and ignorance to the end to raise them to a desire to be enlightened by his grace 3. God inspires them with a consideration that this life is but a banishment that looking upon themselves as strangers and exiled persons surrounded with ambushes enemies and miseries they may thirst after their true country which is Heaven 4. God exercises the Faithful by persecutions and other traverses that so he may bring them to conform and submit to his will 5. He often permits them to be perplext and disquieted to humble and make them sensible of their own weakness and the want they have of God's continual assistance to the end they make their addresses unto him placing all their hopes in his mercy and not in their own strength 6. God frees them from sin and confirms them in vertue dilates and enlarges their hearts by filling them with his love that they may with exact diligence and fervent perseverance walk in his paths REnder to thy servant quicken me and I shall keep thy words Reveal mine eyes and I shall consider the marvellous things of thy law I am a sojourner in the land hide not thy commandments from me My soul hath coveted to desire thy justifications at all time Thou hast rebuked the proud cursed are they that decline from thy commandments Take from me reproach and contempt because I have sought after thy testimonies For princes sate and they spake against me but thy servant was exercised in thy justifications For both thy testimonies are my meditation and thy justifications my counsel My soul hath cleaved to the pavement quicken me according to thy word I have uttered my ways and thou hast heard me teach me thy justifications Instruct me the way of thy justifications and I shall be exercised in thy marvellous works My soul hath slumbered for tediousness confirm me in thy words Remove from me the way of iniquity and according to thy law have mercy on me I have chosen the way of truth I have not forgotten thy judgments I have cleaved to thy testimonies O Lord do not confound me I ran the way of thy commandments when thou didst dilate my heart CHrist became obedient unto death for us Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. Miserere mei Deus c. as before pag. 6. At the Third Hour Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. In this third part of the 118th or 119th Psalm the Prophet represents unto us the state of a soul which God hath dilated And first he shews us the need we have of an abundant and omnipotent grace to acquit our selves of our obligations 2. That we must stand vigilantly upon our guard lest the tempations arising from covetousness or other exteriour and sensible objects trespass upon our modesty temperance or chastity 3. That with resolution and courage we ought to repel and overcome the reproaches and persecutions of the wicked SEt me a law O Lord the way of thy justifications and I will seek after it always Give me understanding and I will search thy law and I will keep it with my whole heart Conduct me into the path of thy Commandments because I would it Incline my heart into thy testimonies and not into avarice Turn away mine eyes that they may see not vanity in thy way quicken me Establish thy Word to thy servant in thy fear Take away reproach which I have feared because thy judgments are pleasant Behold I have coveted thy Commandments in thy equity quicken me And let thy mercie come upon me Lord thy salvation according to thy Word And I shall answer a word to them that upbraid me because I have hoped in thy words And take not away out
of my mouth the word of truth utterly because I have much hoped in thy judgments And I will keep thy law always for ever and for ever and ever And I walked in largeness because I have sought after thy Commandments And I spake of thy testimonies in the fight of Kings and was not confounded And I meditated in thy commandments which I loved And I have lifted up my hands to thy Commandments which I loved and I was exercised in thy justifications In this fourth part of the 118 or 119 Psalm the Royal Prophet teaches us to renew our spiritual life and first he shews us the chief affliction of the Faithful being in their not enjoying Almighty God yet their hopes thereof is their onely joy and sole comfort in which hope their soul is much elevated towards Heaven that they descend not to take content in earthly pleasures 2. The Prophet shews us how to reject temptations that assault us when we see the wicked prosper and how to behave our selves in persecutions by considering the punishments threatned to the wicked and the reward promised to the just 3. We must raise in our selves a zeal and holy horror against the disorders the wicked commit in this life and beware lest by a vain compliance we partake with them 4. Being truly sensible of our abode here amongst the wicked it will be requisite that we truly and really desire to return into Heaven our proper Country 5. Since to observe Gods Commandments is the way to get securely thither we are to walk with great care and particular circumspection 6. That we may avoid the ambushes and snares which environ us whilst we are in this World we ought to have continual recourse to God by prayer and meditation of his Law by strictly examining our very thoughts by searching into the very bottom of our hearts left blinded with self-love we lose our selves 7. That we apply our selves and converse with good wise and knowing persons in a spiritual life by adhering to our Councils and imitating their prudence and vertue and by partaking in their necessities and sufferings 8. We must beware of too much confidence of our selves but always acknowledge that the good conduct of our life is a gift from Gods mercy BE mindful of thy word to thy servant wherein thou hast given me hope This hath comforted me in my humiliation because thy word hath quickned me The proud did unjustly exceedingly but I declined not from thy Law I have been mindful of thy judgments from everlasting O Lord and was comforted Fainting possessed me because of sinners forsaking thy Law Thy justifications were song by me in the place of thy peregrination I have been mindful in the night of thy name O Lord and have kept thy Law This was done to me because I sought after thy justifications My portion O Lord I say to keep thy Law I besought thy face with all my heart have mercy on me according to thy word I thought upon my ways and converted my feet unto thy testimonies I am prepared and am not troubled to keep thy Commandments The cords of sinners have wrapped me round about and I have not forgotten thy Law At midnight I rose to confess to thee for the judgments of thy justification I am partaker of all that fear thee and that keep thy Commandments The Earth O Lord is full of thy mercy teach me thy justifications In this fifth part of the 118th or 119th Psalm the Faithful who have received the Word of God with a firm faith are taught their obligation to beg of God the gift of knowledge and understanding to apprehend and tast heavenly things with submission to divine truths that understanding which gives them a gust and sense of things belonging to God first to the end they may be able with gladness to bear the afflictions of this World acknowledging they avail to amend our lives Secondly That they may prefer heavenly benefits which God hath promised in his Law before the fading goods of this life Thirdly That they may acknowledge that man was made to be just to preserve peace and unity in a holy conversation which they ought to have with one another to love God above all Creatures to serve him ardently through the whole course of this life humbly adoring the justice of his judgments Fourthly That finding more consent in Gods service than in any worldly pleasures they may in some manner comprehend the consolation and happiness they shall find hereafter by the comfort he offords his servants in their present afflictions Then the Royal Prophet teaching the Faithful that the wicked apprehend not these truths their hearts being besotted in wickedness which draws upon them their damnation he exhorts them to beseech God to purifie their hearts and elevate them above the things of this World and to dispose them to take consent onely in his honour and service and to place their onely joy desires pretentions and repose in him THou hast done bounty with thy servant O Lord according to thy Word Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge because I have believed thy Commandments Before I was humbled I offended therefore I have kept thy Word Thou art good and in thy goodness teach me thy justifications The iniquity of the proud is multiplied upon me but I in all my heart will search thy Commandments Their heart is curded together as milk but I have meditated thy Law It is good for me that thou hast humbled me that I may learn thy justifications The Law of thy mouth is good unto me above thousands of gold and silver Thy hands have made me and formed me give me understanding and I will learn thy Commandments They that fear thee shall see me and shall rejoyce because I have much hoped in thy words I know O Lord that thy judgments are equity and in thy truth thou hast humbled me Let thy mercy be done to comfort me according to thy word unto thy servant Let thy commiserations come to me and I shall live because thy Law is my meditation Let the proud be confounded because they have done unjustly toward me but I will be exercised in thy Commandments Let them be converted to me that fear thee and that know thy testimonies Let my heart be made immaculate in thy justifications that I be not confounded The Church having taught us how necessary Gods grace is for us to accomplish his Commandments that we may enjoy eternal bliss tells us farther that his grace is not given to men but by the merits of Jesus Christ and that to the same end he became man and suffered death for us V. Christ became obedient unto death for us Pater noster c. Miserere mei Deus c. as before pag 6. THE PRAYER Respice quaesumus c. as before pag 130. At the Sixth Hour Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. PSALM 118 or 119. The Prophet David in the sixth part of this
pronounce thy word because all thy Commandments are equity Let thy hand be to save me because I have chosen thy Commandments I have coveted thy salvation O Lord and thy law is my meditation My soul shall live and shall praise thee and thy judgments shall help me I have strayed as a sheep that is lost seek thy servant because I have not forgotten thy Commandments The Church teacheth us that it is by Jesus Christ God sought us even then when as yet we sought him not in following Jesus Christ his Son whom he hath established a Mediatour between himself and us we must therefore run in such manner as that we may attain to him we must observe the end of our progress and course where he hath fixed his which is to be obedient even unto death V. Christ become obedient for us even unto death Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. Miserere mei Deus c. as before p. 6. THE PRAYER Respice quaesumus c. as before pag. 130. The General Absolution Upon Holy Thursday in the Morning according to the good and laudable custom of France the General Absolution is given in the great Hall at the King's Court where his most Christian Majesty with many Princes and his whole Court are present First begins a Sermon the Bishop in his Robes accompanied with his Clergy gives the Absolution and all upon their knees sing the Miserere mei Deus with the Verses and Prayers following This Ceremony is a sign of the Sacramental Absolution which heretofore was given to those sinners who had done Penance in the Lent And this day is also called Absolution Thursday because Penitents are then absolved and admitted to participate of the Eucharist it being that day on which Jesus Christ instituted it and thereby the Church shews us that at present she inflicts not so severe Penances now as formerly yet she teaches them to do fruits worthy of Penance that they may be admitted to participate of this Holy Sacrament on this day whereon Christ our Saviour began by his Passion the Work of our Redemption to God his Father LOrd have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us Pater noster c. And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil Amen V. O Lord deal not with us according to our sins R. Nor yet reward us according to our iniquities V. O Lord remember not our past offences R. But let thy mercies soon prevent us V. Turn thy face towards us though a little R. And graciously hear thy servants V. O Lord save thy servants and thy handmaids R. Trusting in thee O my God V. Be unto them O Lord a Tower of strength R. Against the assaults of the enemy V. Send them O Lord thy help from thy holy place R. And out of Sion protect them 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 HEar O Lord our Supplications and graciously regard me who in the first place have need of thy mercy and as thou hast been pleased to chuse me by thy grace not for my merit to be thy Minister in this action Grant that I may faithfully acquit my self of the Charge comitted to me and co-operate by our ministring the effect of thy bounty Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who liveth and reigneth with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God for ever Amen Let us Pray WE beseech thee O Lord grant thy servants grace to do fruits worthy of penance that having obtained pardon for their sins they may be resetled pure and clean in thy Church from the integrity of which they have gone astray Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. Amen Let us Pray O Lord I beseech thy Majesty that out of thy bounty thou wilt be pleased to give thy pardon to these thy servants confessing their sins and offences and to loosen the bonds of their past crimes who didst carry upon thy shoulders the strayed sheep back to thy fold and hast graciously heard the prayers of the publican look down also favourably upon these penitents and incline unto their petitions that by their perseverance in confessing and tears they may obtain what they desire and being readmitted to a participation of thy holy Altar they may have fresh hopes of Eternal Glory Who livest and reignest c. Let us Pray O God who of thy goodness hast created and of thy mercy repaired mankind and by the blood of thine onely Son hast redeemed man deprived of eternal life through the malice of the Devil Grant a new life to these penitents thy servants whose death thou desirest not And as thou forsakest not even those who go astray receive those who return to repentance O Lord mercifully regard the tears and sighs of thy servants heal their wounds stretch forth thy helping hand to them cast down before thee to the end thy Church may not lose any part of its body lest thy flock be lessened lest the enemy insult over the loss of thy family lest those who have been regenerated by the wholsome water of baptism fall into a second death We therefore O Lord offer up unto thee our most humble Prayers we shed the tears of our hearts before thee in testimony of our regret Pardon those that confess unto thee to the end that through thy mercy they may escape condemnation at the last judgment Let them be ignorant of that which terrifies in darkness of torments in flames and grant that returning from their errours to the path of justice they may not hereafter receive new wounds but that they may remain entire and perpetual in that which thy Grace has conferred and thy Mercy restored By the same our Lord Jesus Christ c. Amen The Bishop then takes the Crosier and stretching his right hand over the People says Let us Pray OUr Lord Jesus Christ who by giving up himself and shedding his immaculate blood did vouchsafe to take away the sins of the whole world and who said to his Disciples and in them to their successours among whom thou art pleased to make me one though unworthy Whatsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven may he vouchsafe through this my Ministry by the intercession of the blessed Virgin Mary his Mother of St. Michael the Archangel of the Apostle St. Peter to whom the power of binding and loosing was given and of all Saints by vertue of his sacred blood shed for the remission of sins to grant you absolution of all your offences negligently committed in thought word or deed and that after you are quit from the bonds of sin he will please to restore you to the Kingdom of Heaven Who with God the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth for ever and ever Amen ALmighty God grant
the end for which we became Christians is not for this temporal life wherein God often delivers us up to persecutors who persecute us even to death but that the Name of Christian entitles us to an Eternal Life considering that he whose Name we bear was treated so for us PSALM XXI O God my God have respect unto me why hast thou forsaken me far from my salvation are the words of my sins My God I shall cry by day and thou wilt not hear and by night and not for folly unto me But thou dwellest in the holy place the praise of Israel In thee our fathers have hoped they hoped and thou didst deliver them They cried to thee and were saved they hoped in thee and were not confounded But I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and outcast of the people All that see me have scorned me they have spoken with lips and wagged the head He hoped in the Lord let him deliver him save him because he willeth him Because thou art he that hast drawn me out of the womb my hope from the breasts of my mother Upon thee I have been cast from the matrice from my mothers womb thou art my God depart not from me Because tribulation is very nigh because there is not that will help Many calves have compassed me fat bulls have besieged me They have opened their mouths upon me as a lyon ravening and roaring As water I am poured out and my bones are dispersed My heart is made as wax melting in the midst of my body My strength is withered as a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws and thou hast brought me down into the dust of death Because many dogs have compassed me the counsel of the maglignant hath besieged me They have digged my hands and my feet they have numbred all my bones But themselves have considered and beheld me they have divided my garments among them and upon my vesture they have cast lots But thou Lord prolong not thy help from me look toward my defence Deliver O God my soul from the sword and mine onely one from the hand of the dog Save me out of the lyon's mouth and my humility from the horns of unicorns I will declare thy Name to my brethren in the midst of the Church I will praise thee Ye that fear our Lord praise him all the seed of Jacob glorifie ye him Let all the seed of Israel fear him because he hath not contemned nor despised the petition of the poor Neither hath he turned away his face from me and when I cried to him he heard me With thee is my praise in the great Church I will render my vows in the sight of them that fear him The poor shall eat and shall be filled and they shall praise our Lord that seek after him their hearts shall live for ever and ever All the ends of the earth shall remember and be converted to our Lord. And all the families of the Gentiles shall adore in his sight Because the kingdom is our Lords and he shall have dominion over the Gentiles All the fat ones of the earth have eaten and adored in his sight shall all fall that descended into the earth And my soul shall live to him and my seed shall serve him The generation to come shall be shewed to our Lord and the heavens shall shew forth his justice to the people that shall be born whom our Lord hath made Ant. They have divided my garments among them and upon my vesture they have cast lots This Ceremony is very ancient For St. Gregory mentions it in his Book de Sacramentis and in the sixteenth and seventeenth Councils of Toledo held in the year 693 and 694. in the eighth Canon of the former and in the second of the latter and likewise in St. Eligius Bishop of Noyon who lived in the same Age and treats of it in his eighth Homily ON Good Friday At Prime As before Page 131. At the Third Hour As before Page 136. At the Sixth Hour As before Page 142. At the Ninth Hour As before Page 147. I. N.R.I MASS FOR Good Friday The station in the Church of the Holy Cross of Hierusalem To instruct us that Jesus Christ suffered death upon this day in Hierusalem To the end that this day's Office may be performed with profound humility the Prayers of the None being ended those that officiate come before the Altar and kneeling prostrate themselves on the ground The Acolyts rise and lay a Cloth upon the Altar to represent the Linnens wherein Christ's body was wrapped before he was put into the Sepulcher and also to mind us by this Ceremony of the last Duties paid to our Saviour's body by Joseph of Arimathea and Nichodemus Then the Reader sings the first Prophecy without a title to observe unto us the ignorance and blindness of the Jews who would not understand the truths revealed unto them by the Prophets You may observe also that this Office is begun by Lessons as was done in the Primitive times The LESSON taken out of the sixth Chapter of the Prophet Osee The Church by the words of this Prophet declares unto us the love which God always had for his people either by correcting them to make them return to their duty or by sending Prophets among them who exposed their lives to save them or by sending at last his onely Son who died and rose again the third day to expiate their sins to deliver them from everlasting death and to give them a new life and an eternal felicity THus said our Lord In their tribulation early they will rise up to me come and let us return to our Lord because he hath wounded and he will heal us he will strike and will cure us He will revive us after two days in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight We shall know and we shall follow that we may know our Lord. As the morning light is his coming forth prepared and he will come to us as a shower timely and late to the earth What shall I do to thee Ephraim What shall I do to thee Juda Your mercy as a morning cloud and as the dew passing away in the morning For this have I hewed in the Prophets I have killed them in the words of my mouth and thy judgments shall come forth as the light Because I would mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than Holocausts The TRACT taken out of the third Chapter of the Prophet Abacuc The Church in the foregoing Lesson having taught us how advantageous the coming of Christ was to us shews us in this Tract how painful it was to this Divine Saviour to be born in a manger between two beasts and to be put to death upon the cross between two thieves O Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid I considered thy works and trembled V. Thou wilt appear between two beasts
this Incense which thy Holy Church by its Ministers renders unto thee in the Solemn Oblation of this Wax Candle made of the work of Bees And now we acknowledge the praise-worthy Benefits of this Pillar lighted from the sparkling fire to the honour of God Then the Deacon lights the Candle with one of the three Cierges on the Cane to signifie that Jesus Christs Resurrection as also his Incarnation and Passion was the work of the whole Trinity whose works are inseparable though the only Person of the Son became Incarnate suffered Death and rose again communicating the glory of his Resurrection and Graces necessary to obtain it without the least diminution to himself to those who are regenerated and formed in his Church as this Wax which is employed to the Service of God WHich fire though it be divided yet loseth it not any thing in the communication of its light feeding it self from the melted Wax which the Bee hath produced to make the substance of this precious touch Here the Lamps and Tapers are all lighted with the new fire to represent the light and grace which Jesus Christ hath poured forth upon his Faithful in his Resurrection carrying away the spoils of Hell whereof the Egyptian spoils born away by the Children of Israel at their going forth of Egypt were a figure And the Deacon magnifying the benefits of Gods bounty beseeches his Majesty to bestow them upon all Orders which compose the body of his Church O Night truly blessed wherein the Egyptians were pillaged the Hebrews enricht with their spoils The night wherein celestial and terrestial divine and humane things were conjoyned We beseech thee therefore O Lord that this Candle consecrated to the honour of thy Name may without ceasing dissipate the darkness of this night and that its light ascending as an acceptable perfume may mix with the celestial lights Let the morning-star receive its flames that star I say which never sets and who being risen again and returned from Hell shined afresh upon mankind We beseech thee therefore O Lord that granting us peace in our days thou wilt vouchsafe amidst these Paschal-Feasts to lead us as thy servants to govern and protect us continually with thy whole Clergy and all thy Faithful our Holy Father the Pope and our Bishop Regard likewise our King N. and knowing the desires of his heart grant O God by the ineffable grace of thy bounty and mercy that he may enjoy a tranquillity of perpetual peace and together with his people a heavenly victory By the same our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who livest and reignest with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen The blessing of the Paschal Candle being ended the Prophesies and Canticles are read out of the Old Testament to instruct the Catechumens in Divine Mysteries who there present themselves to receive Baptism And these Lessons are read without any Title to observe unto us that the Catechumens are not as yet vers'd in Holy Writ The FIRST PROPHECY taken out of the 1st Chapter of Genesis In this Lesson the Catechumens are taught that all Creatures subsist by God alone who would in creating them give a Being to a Good that might proceed from him though he had no use of them to compleat himself by them his whole felicity being in himself though these his Creatures had never been or that they had remained in their imperfection then the Church represents how God made Man the most noble and perfect of all visible Creatures in raising him above all that is upon the Earth in making him according to his own Image in giving him Reason and Understanding and lastly making him capable of Eternal Felicity IN the beginning God created heaven and earth And the earth was void and vacant and darkness was upon the face of the depth And the spirit of God moved over the waters And God said Be light made And light was made And God saw the light that it was good and he divided the light from darkness And there was evening and morning that made one day God also said Be a firmament made amidst the waters And let it divide between waters and waters And God made a firmament and divided the waters that were under the firmament from those that were above the firmament And it was done so And God called the firmament heaven And there was evening and morning that made the second day God also said Let the waters that are under the heaven be gathered together in one place And let the dry land appear And it was so done And God called the dry land earth and the gathering of waters together he called seas And God saw that it was good And said Let the earth shout forth green herbs and such as may seed and fruit-trees yielding fruit after his kind such as may have seed in it self upon the earth And it was done so And the earth brought forth green herb such as seeds according to his kind and tree that beareth fruit having seed each one according to his kind And God saw that it was good And there was evening and morning that made the third day Again God said Be there lights made in the firmament of heaven to divide the day and night and let them be for signs and seasons and days and years to shine in the firmament of heaven and to give light upon the earth And it was done so And God made two great lights A greater light to govern the day and a lesser light to govern the night and stars And he set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth and to govern the day and the night and to divide the light and the darkness And God saw that it was good And there was evening and morning that made the fourth day God also said Let the waters bring forth creeping creature having life and flying foul over the earth under the firmament of heaven And God created huge whales and all living and moving creature that the waters brought forth according to each sort and all foul according to their kind And God saw that it was good And he blessed them saying Increase and multiply and replenish the waters of the sea and let the birds be multiplied upon the earth And there was evening and morning that made the fifth day God said moreover Let the earth bring forth living creature in his kind cattel and such that creep and beasts of the earth according to their kinds And it was so done And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and cattel and all that creepeth on the earth in his kind And God saw that it was good And he said Let us make man to our own image and likeness let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea and the fouls of the air and the beasts and the whole earth and all creeping creature that moveth upon the earth And God created man to his own
the temple on the right side Praise to God And all who were sprinkled with this water were saved and they shall say Praise to God praise to God The Priest begs of God that the Angel of his great Council our Saviour Jesus Christ who descends from Heaven by the Consecration of these Divine Mysteries will assist all those of his Church with his healing Grace that being purified they may worthily present themselves before his Majesty V. O Lord shew unto us thy mercy Praise be to God R. And give us thy salvation R. O Lord hear my Prayer And let my cry come unto thee V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us Pray VOuchsafe O Lord Holy Father Almighty and Everlasting God to hear us and send us from Heaven thy Holy Angel to defend sustain protect visit and guard us all that here inhabit Through Christ c. Amen ON EASTER-DAY At MASS The station in the Church of St. Mary Major At Rome the Station is this day at our Ladies Church to represent unto us that no Creature had so great a share in the Glory of our Saviour's Resurrection as the Blessed Virgin because the Body of this adorable Saviour risen again was formed in her Womb and as by her Faith she merited to be the Mother of our Saviour in his Incarnation so by the same Faith she merited to receive all those advantages due unto her as a Mother in the glorious Resurrection of her Son The INTROIT taken out of the 138th Psalm The Church teaches us that Christs Humanity was not separated from his Divinity neither in his Death nor Resurrection and that nothing happened in the marvellous work of our Redemption but by order of the Divine Providence whose Judgments are incomprehensible 'T was Gods will that his only Son should become Man suffer Death and rise again to the end that having by his death expiated the sins of Men which subjected them to death he gave them hopes of Resurrection by his own and of following him their Head and Leader into Glory whither he went before to establish them there with him I Am risen and yet I am with thee Praise God Thou hast put thy hand upon me Praise God Thy knowledge is wonderful Praise God praise God PSALM CXXXVIII In this Psalm the Church instructs us that there is not any Man so Holy who can represent himself before God at the Resurrection without trembling and dread of his Judgments That Christ was the only Person not apprehensive of them being absolutely assured that he was free from all that could be offensive to the Divine Eye that only knows perfectly all that is in Man LOrd thou hast proved me and hast known me thou hast known my sitting down and my rising up Kyrie eleison c. as before pag. 36. And as our Saviours Glorious Resurrection crowns the Mystery of his Incarnation The Faithful testifying their joy and acknowledgments by singing that Canticle which the Angels used when the Divine Word became Man to the end to praise God for this great work which gave to his Majesty a perfect Adorer and to Men a Sovereign Mediator who reconciles them by his Divine Grace unto him and settles Peace between Heaven and Earth which Sin had broken Gloria in Excelsis Deo c. as before pag. 167. The COLLECT The Faithful beg of God that as Christs Humanity being united to his Divine Person by an Hypostatick Union was never separated from his Divinity so that being united to Jesus Christ as to their Head by the Union of his Grace may never be divided from his Majesty but being freed from Death and Sin conquered by Christ they may follow him as their Guide into the state of Glory whither he is gone before them to establish them there with him Let us Pray O God who this day hast opened to us by thy only begotten Son the entrance to Eternity through his victory over death vouchsafe by thy mercy to grant those Petitions which thy preventing grace inspires Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ who with thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God for ever and ever Amen The Lesson out of the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians and Fifth Chapter The Church instructs us that we are to dye unto sin that so we may be capable of the benefit of Jesus Christs Resurrection That is to say that as Jesus Christ dyed and by dying destroyed that flesh which in appearance was Criminal and as he extinguished that sin which was not in him but because he would take it upon him to satisfie the Divine Justice so we must put off the Old Man which truly is a sinner and putting on the New destroy sin which is truly ours to live the life of Grace which the life of Glory will follow if we be united as perfectly with Jesus Christ as the condition of our Mortality permits To entertain us in this new life of Grace given us by the Merits of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ This Divine Saviour was pleased by an excess of love to give himself unto us for our Spiritual Nourishment figured by the Paschal Lamb. This Lamb immolated in the Ancient Law was the Jewish Pasch and Jesus immolated on the Cross is our Pasch The Jews were not to eat the Paschal Lamb but with unleavened Bread yet since it was but a figure of Jesus Christ who gives himself in the new Banquet whereunto he calls us far more excellent than their Pasch we ought to purifie our hearts from the old leaven that is from our former sins and instead of Malice and Iniquity we there must lodge Innocence and Truth being obliged to be as new Paste without Leven that is without sin BRethren purge the old leven that you may be a new paste as you are azyms for our Pasch Christ is immolated therefore let us feast not in old leven nor in the leven of malice and wickedness but in the azym of sincerity and truth The GRADUAL taken out of the 117th Psalm The Church representing unto us how Jesus Christ hath by his Death freed us from the Tyranny of the Devil and Servitude of Sin and how by his Resurrection hath given us here a new Life and Glory hereafter expressed her resentments and joy in the same words which the Royal Prophet used in expectation of this day revealed unto him by God according to St. Chrysostome in his Homily upon this day THis is the day which our Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it V. Confess ye unto the Lord for he is good because his mercy endureth for ever Alleluia Alleluia V. Jesus Christ who was our Pasch hath been immolated The Church by the following Prose tells us that our sins and the Devil being vanquished by Jesus Christ we have cause to sing Songs of Praise with more joy than the Israelites when they had passed
obedient unto death Here following they kneel and say Our Father c. Miserere mei Deus as before p. 65. A PRAYER To beg God's Mercy towards us for the Sufferings and Death of his Son Jesus Christ LOok down O Lord we beseech thee upon this thy Family for which our Lord Jesus Christ doubted not to be betrayed into the hands of the Wicked and so undergo the Torments of the Cross who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost world without end Amen By the Noise is represented the Commotion of the Jews in apprehending JESUS CHRIST After which the lighted Taper is taken from under the Altar to signifie the Resurrection of JESUS CHRIST According to the Custom of Paris the Anthymn of Benedictus being repeated they kneel down and two Clerks go behind the Altar where the lighted Taper was set which represented JESUS CHRIST the true Light of the World and there they sing with the rest of the Quire the following Versicles to express the Sighs and Moans of the Women that accompanied our Lord JESUS CHRIST to his Passion and to excite in our Hearts the Affections and Sentiments of Piety in meditating on the Sufferances of JESUS CHRIST The Clerks Lord have mercy on us The Quire Lord have mercy on us The Cl. Lord have mercy on us spare thy servants Christ our Lord became obedient unto death for us The Qu. Lord have mercy on us The Cl. Who camest into the world to suffer for us The Qu. Christ have mercy on us The Cl. Who hast said by the mouth of the prophet Osee chap. 13. I will be thy death O Death The Qu. Christ have mercy on us The Cl. Whose Hands being stretched on the Cross didst draw all the world unto thee The Qu. Christ have mercy on us The Cl. Meek Lamb to whom the Wolf gave a mortal Kiss The Qu. Lord have mercy on us The Cl. And thou wouldst thy self be bound to free us from the Bonds of Death The Qu. Jesus Christ have mercy on us The Cl. Life died on the Wood of the Cross and triumphed over Hell and Death The Qu. Lord have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us Spare thy servants Christ our Lord became obedient unto death for us The Cl. Even to the death of the Cross Miserere mei c. as before p. 65. THE PRAYER Respice Quaesumus c. as before p. 80. AT COMPLINE They neither say Jube Domne Benedicere nor give the Blessing to shew us that the Author of all Blessing is dead The Lesson is likewise omitted to represent unto us that the Preaching of the Gospel and the Voice of them who ought to instruct others to follow JESUS CHRIST did cease during his Passion Nor is our Lord's Prayer repeated to signifie the Trouble and Forgetfulness of the Disciples of our Saviour After the Confession and Absolution the Psalm Cum invocarem c. is said as before p. 14. But the Hymn is omitted at the end to declare that through the Impiety of the Jews the Honor due to God was violated The Chapter is not said to shew us that the Jews did not profit by the Instructions of the Prophets Nunc dimittis c. is said as before p. 20. to represent the Perfidiousness and Ingratitude of the Jews who were so blind and obstinate as not to acknowledge the Saviour of the World Then is said the following Versicle V. Christ became obedient unto death for us After this Versicle the Pater noster c. is repeated to instruct us in our Duty to pray and watch against all the Accidents of this Life Miserere mei Deus as before p. 65. Respice Quaesumus as before p. 80. THE NIGHT-OFFICE ON Holy-Thursday FOR THE FRIDAY AT MATTINS FIRST NOCTVRN PSALM 2. The Royal Prophet describes the Persecutions which the Jews and Gentiles raised against the Messias and his People 2. He describes the Eternal and Temporal Generation of the Messias and the Extent of his Dominion over the whole Earth what Obstacle soever the Persecutors could do against it 3. He represents the Punishments wherewith God threatens the Wicked For so the Apostle St. Peter explicates this Psalm in the Fourth Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles Ant. The kings of the earth stood up and the princes came together in one against our Lord and against his Christ WHy did the Gentiles rage and peoples meditate vain things The kings of the earth stood up and the princes came together in one against our Lord and against his Christ Let us break their bonds asunder and let us cast away their yoke from us He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh at them and our Lord shall scorn them Then shall he speak to them in his wrath and in his fury he shall trouble them But I am appointed king by him over Sion his holy hill preaching his precept The Lord said to me Thou art my Son I this day have begotten thee Ask of me and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance and thy possession the ends of the earth Thou shalt rule them in a rod of iron and as a potters vessel thou shalt break them in pieces And now ye kings understand take instruction you that judge the earth Serve our Lord in fear and rejoyce to him with trembling Apprehend discipline lest sometimes our Lord be wrath and you perish out of the just way When his wrath shall burn in short time blessed are all that trust in him Ant. The kings of the earth stood up and the princes came together in one against our Lord and his Christ PSALM 21. Our Lord JESUS CHRIST pronounced the first Words of this Psalm when he was fastned to the Cross and they contain the Prophecy of his bitter Passion And the Royal Prophet having represented the Pains and Sufferings of the Son of God then speaks of his Glory and Empire and at last shews us the Advantages that accrue unto the Faithful and for which they ought to render Thanks unto God This Divine Saviour who could not be guilty having put himself in our place incurred our Obligations contracted our Debts and satisfied for our Crimes Likewise this Psalm presents unto us That the Sins of Men wherewith he had loaded himself deserved that his Father should abandon him to all imaginable Misery that thereby he might satisfie the Rigor of his Justice in all things and if he addressed this Complaint My God my God Why hast thou forsaken me it was not in his own Person he spoke it but in the Person of this wretched Infirmity of the Flesh wherewith He was clothed 't was in the Person of the Members of his Mystical Body foreseeing the Desires and Demands they would offer to his Father and himself by an inclination of Nature and by a Human Motion of being delivered from Torments and Death For What did our Saviour desire to be delivered from Sufferings aad Death who came only to
Sufferings this Divine Saviour was to undergo to satisfie the Rigor of the Justice of his Father and that for the Sins of Man wherewith he had loaded himself Then having described his Burial he proposes to us the Prayer he was to offer to his Eternal Father to demand of him his Resurrection not only for himself for being equal with his Father he had no need of Prayers that he might not be left in the Power of Death who alone was free among the Dead and had power to leave his Soul and take her again but for us that he might make us Partners with him of his New Life and give us an Example of perfect Patience and Submission to the Will of God Then he shews us the Advantage we receive by the Resurrection of our Saviour making us acknowledge that our Faith had been fruitless if it had remained in the Sepulcher for then our Sins had not been taken away Death is the Effect of Sin so that if our Saviour had not conquered Death it might have been said he had not triumphed over Sin Ant. Thou hast made my familiars far from me I was delivered and came not forth O Lord the God of my salvation in the day have I cried and in the night before thee Let my prayer enter in thy sight incline thine ear to my petition Because my soul is replenished with evils and my life hath approached to hell I am accounted with them that descend into the lake I am become as a man without help free among the dead As the wounded sleeping in the sepulchers of whom thou art mindful no more and they are cast off from thy hand They have put me in the lower lake in the dark places and in the shadow of death Thy fury is confirmed upon me and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me Thou hast made my familiars far from me they have put me abomination to themselves I was delivered and came not forth mine eyes languished for poverty I cried to thee O Lord all the day I stretched out my hands to thee Wilt thou do merveils to the dead or shall physicians raise to life and they confess to thee Shall any in the sepulcher declare thy mercy and thy truth in perdition Shall thy merveilous works be known in darkness and thy justice in the land of oblivion And I O Lord have cried to thee and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Why dost thou O Lord reject my prayer turnest away thy face from me I am poor and in labors from my youth and being exalted humbled and troubled Thy wraths have passed upon me and thy terrors have troubled me They have compassed me as water all the day they compassed me together Thou hast made friend and neighbor far from me and my familiars because of misery Ant. Thou hast made my familiars far from me I was delivered and came not forth PSALM 93. In this Psalm we are taught neither to repine at the Prosperity of the Bad nor to be troubled at the Afflictions of the Just for God being Omnipotent and Sovereignly Good being the Creator and chief Master of all things would suffer no Ill in his Works were he not sufficiently Powerful and Good to extract some Good even from Evil it self He has thought fit that 't is better to draw Good from Bad than not to permit Evil. Wherefore since we can no more doubt of his Power than Bounty we must patiently support all Ills that befal us and believe that the Will of God is more beneficial for us than our own Will or Desires can be Let us then consider the Assistance he gives his faithful Servants and the Rewards he promises unto them and let us regard the Torments he prepares for the Wicked Ant. They will hunt after the soul of the just and will condemn innocent blood OUr Lord God of revenges the God of revenges hath done freely Be exalted thou that judgest the earth render retribution to the proud How long shall sinners O Lord how long shall sinners glory Shall they utter and speak iniquity shall all they speak that work injustice Thy people O Lord they have humbled and thine inheritance they have vexed The widow and the stranger they have slain and the pupils they have killed And they have said The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob understand Understand ye foolish in the people and ye fools be wise at sometime He that planted the ear shall he not hear or he that made the eye doth he not consider He that chastiseth nations shall he not rebuke he that teacheth man knowledge Our Lord knoweth the cogitations of men that they be vain Blessed is the man whom thou shalt instruct O Lord and shalt teach out of thy law That thou mayst give him quietness from the evil days till a pit be digged for the sinner Because our Lord will not reject his people and his inheritance he will not forsake Until justice be turned into judgment and they who are near it are all that are right of heart Who shall rise for me against the malignant or who shall stand with me against them that work iniquity But that our Lord hath holpen me within very little my soul had dwelt in hell If I said My foot is moved thy mercy O Lord did help me According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart thy consolations have made my soul joyful Doth the seat of iniquity cleave to thee which makest labor in precept They will hunt after the soul of the just and will condemn innocent blood And our Lord became my refuge and my God the help of my hope And he will repay them their iniquity and in their malice he will destroy them the Lord our God will destroy them Ant. They will hunt after the soul of the just and will condemn innocent blood VERSICLE taken out of Psalm 108. The Church having presented unto us in the precedent Psalm she Comfort we receive in our Sufferings by considering the Power and Goodness of God who created us preserves and assists us with his holy Protection She admonisheth us in these following Versicles to consider the great Love God had for us since he delivered his only Son to death for our Salvation So that by the Example of his Son our Saviour we might be more powerfully fortified in the Persecutions and Miseries of this Life V. They have spoken against me with deceitful tongue R. And with words of hatred they have compassed me and they have impugned me without cause VII LESSON Out of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews chap. 4. The Church teacheth us That the Reason why the Son of God would become Man and bear all our Infirmities even to die for us was that thereby he might open the Heavens to us and so enable us to enter into the Repose of eternal Tranquillity And to enjoy so great a Benefit we must live conformably
holy one merveilous our Lord will hear me when I shall cry to him Be ye angry and sin not the things that you say in your hearts in your chambers be you sorry for Sacrifice ye the sacrifice of justice and hope in our Lord. Many say Who sheweth us good things The light of thy countenance O Lord is signed upon us thou hast given gladness in my heart By the fruit of their corn and wine and oyl they are multiplied In peace in the self-same I will sleep and rest Because thou Lord hast singularly setled my hope Ant. In peace in the self-same I will sleep and rest PSALM 14. In this Psalm the Prophet teacheth us how the life of a Religious Christian that pretends to the Kingdom of Heaven consists in a strict observance of Gods Commandments and in keeping the Laws of Fraternal Charity Ant. He shall dwell in thy tabernacle and shall rest in thy holy hill LOrd who shall dwell in thy tabernacle who shall rest in thy holy hill He that walketh without spot and worketh justice He that speaketh truth in his heart that hath not done guile in his tongue Nor hath done evil to his neighbor and hath not taken reproach against his neighbor The malignant is brought to nothing in his sight but them that fear our Lord he glorifieth He that sweareth to his neighbor and deceiveth not that hath not given his money to usury and hath not taken gifts upon the innocent He that doth these things shall not be moved for ever Ant. He shall dwell in thy tabernacle and shall rest in thy holy hill PSALM 15. According as the Apostles have explicated this Psalm in the Second Chapter of their Acts it contains the Prayer which JESUS CHRIST made unto God his Father for the establishment and preservation of his Church as being our Head and according to his Humanity giving him thanks for the wonderful work of our Redemption which was to be effected by his Incarnation Preaching Passion Resurrection and Ascension It also makes us acknowledge that there could be no Creature so perfect as in any manner to be able to make a suitable return either by Deeds or Services for the favors they received from their Creator for he being Omnipotent and Infinite fully satisfies in himself And that 't is sufficient for a Creature loaded with such infinite benefits to promise to give unto God all Testimonies of a profound acknowledgment in all the instancesof this life Ant. My flesh shall rest in hope PReserve me O Lord because I have hoped in thee I have said to our Lord Thou art my God because thou needest not my goods To the saints that are in his land he hath made all my wills merveilous in them Their infirmities were multiplied afterward they made haste I will not assemble their conventicles of blood neither will I be mindful of their names by my lips Our Lord the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou art he that will restore mine inheritance unto me Cords are fallen to me in goodly places for mine inheritance is goodly unto me I will bless our Lord who hath given me understanding moreover also even till night my veins have rebuked me I soresaw our Lord in my sight always because he is at my right hand that I be not moved For this thing my heart hath been glad and my tongue hath rejoyced moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou give thy holy One to see corruption Tho hast made the ways of life known to me thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance delectations on thy right hand even to the end Ant. My flesh shall rest in hope The Church represents unto us that maugre all the Power of the Jews Yet JESUS CHRIST triumphed over that Death they had inflicted on him and raised himself from that Sepulcher wherein they had inclosed him confirming us in the Resurrection of our Bodies by the Example and Power of his own Resurrection V. In peace in the self-same R. I will sleep and rest LESSON I. Out of the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremy Chap. 3. The Prophet Jeremy shews us That in all our Miseries and Afflictions we must ever have recourse unto God with a true and hearty Repentance We must also support those Persecutions that befal us with all patience and submission to the Divine Will setting all our confidence and trust in his Mercy TETH THe mercies of our Lord that we are not consumed because his commiserations have not failed HETH New in the morning great is thy fidelity HETH Our Lord is my portion said my soul therefore will I expect him HETH Our Lord is good to them that hope in him to the soul that seeketh him TETH It is good to wait with silence for the salvation of God TETH It is good for a man when he beareth the yoke from his youth JOD He shall sit solitary and hold his peace because he hath lifted himself above himself JOD He shall put his mouth in the dust if perhaps there be hope JOD He shall give the cheek to him that striketh him he shall be filled with reproaches Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God RESP. The Church shews us That JESUS CHRIST has himself undergon out of his meer Love towards us whatever hath been taught us by his Prophet As a sheep he was led to slaughter and whilst they ill treated him he opened not his mouth he was delivered to death that he might give life to his people V. He delivered up his soul to death and was reputed among the wicked that he might give life to his people LESSON II. Taken out of the Fourth Chapter The Prophet describes unto us the destruction of the Temple and City of Jerusalem foretelling the Jews that the enormities of their Crimes should bring a Desolation on them ALEPH. HOw is the gold darkned the best colour changed the stones of the Sanctuary dispersed in the head of all streets BETH The noble children of Sion and they that were clothed with the principal gold how are they reputed as earthen vessels the work of the potters hands GHIMEL Yea even the Lamiaes have opened their breast they have given suck to their young the daughter of my people is cruel as the Ostrich in the desert DALETH The tongue of the suckling hath cloven to the roof of his mouth for thirst the little ones have asked bread and there was none that brake it unto them HE. They that fed voluptuously have died in the ways they that were brought up in scarlet have embraced the dung VAU And the iniquity of the daughter of my people is become greater than the sin of Sodom which was overthrown in a moment and hands took nothing in her Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God RESP. The Church represents to the Jews That the miseries which befel them was occasioned by their
putting to death the Redeemer of the World She also admonisheth them to acknowledge their Sins and to beg Gods pardon for them Jerusalem arise and put off thy garments of mirth cover thy self with ashes and haircloth For in thee is slain the Saviour of Israel V. Draw forth tears as a torrent day and night and let not the apple of thine eye besilent Because in thee was slain the Saviour of Israel LESSON III. Taken out of the Fifth Chapter The beginning of the Prayer of the Prophet JEREMY The Prophet prays unto God to have mercy on his People REmember O Lord what is fallen to us behold and regard our reproach Our inheritance is turned to aliens our houses to strangers We are made pupils without father our mothers are as it were widows Our water we have drunk for money our wood we have bought for a price We were led by our necks no rest was given to the weary We have given our hand to Egypt and to the Assyrians that we might be filled with bread Our fathers have sinned and they are not and we have born their iniquities Servants have ruled over us there was none that would redeem us out of their hand In peril of our lives did we fetch us bread at the face of the sword in the desert Our skin was burnt as an oven by reason of the tempests of famin They humbled the women in Sion and the Virgins in the cities of Juda. Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God VERSICLE taken out of the First Chapter of the Prophet Joel The Church having represented unto us the Prayer which the Prophet Jeremy offered unto God to endeavor to avert those Miseries which threatned the City of Jerusalem she likewise shews us in the following Versicles the admonition God gave unto the Jews to do Penance by the Month of the Prophet Joel that they might avoid those Miserie 's their Sins would draw upon them Mourn as a virgin my people girded with sackcloth upon the husband of her youth Because the day of our Lord is at hand a very great and bitter day V. Gird your selves and mourn ye priests howl ye ministers of the altar lie ye in sackcloth Because the great day of our Lord is at hand Mourn as a virgin c. SECOND NOCTVRN PSALM 23. The Church yearly commemorating on this Day the Sepulcher of JESUS CHRIST represents unto us That this Sovereign Lord and Creator of all things was that amiable Saviour who out of his Love to us voluntarily suffered Death and Burial that by his Death having delivered us from the Tyranny of the Devil and Slavery of Sin might also by his Resurrection and Ascension open Heaven unto those that lead a Vertuous Humble Innocent and Chast Life Ant. Be ye lifted up O eternal gates and the king of glory shall enter in THe earth is our Lords and the fulnest thereof the round world and all that dwell therein Because he hath founded it upon the seas and upon the rivers hath prepared it Who shall ascend into the mount of our Lord or who shall stand in his holy place The innocent of hands and of clean heart that hath not taken his soul in vain nor sworn to his neighbor in guile He shall receive blessing of our Lord and mercy of God his Saviour This is the generation of them that seek him of them that seek the face of the God of Jacob. Lift up your gates ye princes and be ye lifted up O eternal gates and the king of glory shall enter in Who is this king of glory Our Lord strong and mighty our Lord mighty in battel Lift up your gates ye princes and be ye lifted up O eternal gates and the king of glory shall enter in Who is this king of glory The Lord of powers he is the king of glory Ant. Be ye lifted up O eternal gates and the king of glory shall enter in PSALM 26. The Church declares unto us That we should not fear the Accidents and Miseries of this Life since God is our Safety and Salvation and what help are we nor to expect from him whose only Son was Sacrificed for us And what should we fear since by his Death he has overcome all things that might hurt us and since he has ascended into Heaven there to give us refuge and which now is open to us in all our Miseries and Afflictions since from his Throne of Glory he pours forth upon us his Graces to purifie us conduct us and make us surmount all difficulties and obstacles to our Salvation and to convert our Patience to the shame and confusion of our Enenlies Therefore let us be careful not to render our selves unworthy his Protection and take heed lest the fear of trouble make us commit unlawful Actions We must also most strictly observe his Commandments and wholly apply our selves to his service in hopes of attaining to that Eternal Felicity he has promised us Ant. I believe to see the good things of our Lord in the land of the living OUr Lord is my illumination and my salvation whom shall I fear Our Lord is the protector of my life of whom shall I he afraid Whilst the shameful approach upon me to eat my flesh Mine enemies that trouble me themselves are weakned and are fallen If camps stand together against me my heart shall not fear If battel rise up against me in this will I hope One thing I have asked of our Lord this will I seek for that I may dwell in the house of our Lord all the days of my life That I may see the pleasantness of our Lord and visit his temple Because he hath hid me in his tabernacle in the day of evils he hath protected me in the secret of his tabernacle In a rock he hath exalted me and now he hath exalted my head over mine enemies I have gone round about and have immolated in his tabernacle an host of jubilation I will sing and say a psalm to our Lord. Hear O Lord my voice wherewith I have cried to thee have mercy on me and hear me My heart hath said to thee my face hath sought thee 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 Give me a law 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. I believe to see the good things of our Lord in the land of the living PSALM 29. In this
RESP. By the following Versicles taken out of the Fifty seventh and Fifty third Chapter of the Prophet Isay the Church represents unto us That if the Jews were unhappy in having so ill treated and not acknowledged the Saviour of the World we who believe in him are not less faulty and unhappy unless we consider what this Divine Saviour suffered for us and thence draw some benefit to our selves Behold how the Just perisheth and there is none that considereth in his heart and men of mercy are gathered away because there is none that understandeth for at the face of malice is the Just gathered away V. 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 And his memory shall be in peace Behold how the just perisheth c. THIRD NOCTVRN PSALM 53. This Day the Church commermorating CHRIST in his Sepulcher makes the words in the Fifty third Psalm to express the Prayer this Divine Saviour made unto his Father as being our Chief and Mediator thereby begging of him a quick Resurrection to triumph over Death and destroy the Empire of Sin Ant. God helpeth me and our Lord is the receiver of my soul O God save me in thy name and in thy strength judge me O God hear my prayers with thine ears receive the words of my mouth Because strangers have risen up against me and the strong have sought my soul and they have not set God before their eyes For behold God helpeth me and our Lord is the receiver of my soul Turn away the evils to mine enemies and in thy truth destroy them I will voluntarily sacrifice to thee and will confess to thy name O Lord because it is good Because thou hast delivered me out of all tribulation and mine eye hath looked down upon mine enemies Ant. God helpeth me and our Lord is the receiver of my soul PSALM 75. The Church represents unto the Faithful who are figured by the People of Israel how JESUS CHRIST dying for us in Jerusalem was there buried there he arose again and there he established his Church calling thither all the Nations of the Earth to the knowledge of the true God and there reconciling us to his Eternal Father and uniting us by the tie of Charity that we might not be at Variance with any but in Peace with every one It is from thence that he began to enlighten us with the Light of his Grace to make us contemn the transitory Goods of this World which the Wicked enjoy but as in a Dream and which must vanish when they die The Church represents us this Divine Saviour triumphing over the Wicked and proposes unto us the severity of his Justice in the last Judgment when he shall come to judge the living and the dead with such Majesty and irresistible Power that all the Heavens and Elements shall be filled with horror and despair to the end that the terror of the threats of that last Judgment might not only prevent the stubbornness and boldness of Sinners and secure the innocency of the Just even amongst the Wicked but also that the Wicked fearing the Torments wherewith God punisheth Offences might at the same time as they dread the punishment for their Sins be restrain'd from sinning and by an internal motion be incited to call upon the goodness of God who changes their Mind and by an admirable effect of his powerful Grace cleanses the corruption and malice of their Will and reduces them not only to fear but also to love him Ant. And his place is made in peace and his habitation in Sion 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 tender 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. His place is made in peace and his habitation in Sion PSALM 87. This Psalm is a Prophecy of the Passion Burial and Resurrection of JESUS CHRIST wherein the Royal Prophet represents unto us the Sufferings which this Divine Saviour was to undergo to satisfie the rigor of the Justice of his Father and that for the Sins of Man wherewith he had loaded himself Then having described his Burial he proposes unto us the Prayer he was to offer to his Eternal Father to demand from him his Resurrection not only for himself for being equal to his Father he had no need of Prayers that he might not be left in the power of Death who alone was free among the Dead and had power to leave his Soul and take her again but for us that he might make us partners with him of his new Life and give us an Example of perfect patience and submission to the Will of God Moreover it shews us the advantage we receive from the Resurrection of our Saviour making us to acknowledge that our Faith had been fruitless if he had continued in his Sepulcher for then our Sins had not been taken away Death is an effect of Sin so that had not our Saviour vanquished Death it could not have been said he had triumphed over Sin Ant. I am become as a man without help free among the dead O Lord the God of my salvation in the day have I cried and in the night before thee Let my prayer enter in thy sight incline thine ear to my petition Because my soul is replenished with evils and my life hath approached to hell I am accounted with them that descend into the lake I am become as a man without help free among the dead As the wounded sleeping in the sepulchers of whom thou art mindful no more and they are cast off from thy hand They have put me in the lower lake in the dark places and in the shadow of death Thy fury is confirmed upon me and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me Thou hast made my familiars far from me they have put me abomination to themselves I was delivered and came not forth mine eyes languished for poverty I cried to thee O Lord all the day I stretched out my hands to thee Wilt thou do merveils to the
dead or shall physicians raise to life and they confess to thee Shall any in the sepulcher dâ—â—â—e thy mercy and thy truth in perdition Shall thy merveilous works be known in darkness and thy justice in the land of oblivion And I O Lord have cried to thee and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Why dost thou O Lord reject my prayer turnest away thy face from me I am poor and in labors from my youth and being exalted humbled and troubled Thy wraths have passed upon me and thy terrors have troubled me They have compassed me as water all the day they compassed me together Thou hast made friend and neighbor far from me and my familiar because of misery Ant. I am become as a man without help free among the dead V. His place is made in peace R. And his habitation in Sion LESSON VII Taken out of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews Chap. 9. The Church teacheth us by those words of the Apostle That the Mediator of the Old Testament who was the High-priest was not able to cleanse Mens Souls from their Sins nor to open Heaven for them either by the quality of his Priesthood of the Old Law or by the nature of the Sacrifice and Testament The High-Priest of 〈◊〉 was a Sinner like other Men he entred only into the maâ—â—â—â— Sanctuary and into a Tabernacle built by the Hands of Men he only offered Calves and other lawful Victims unto God and they could only receive from him Temporal Blessings It was therefore needful to have a Mediator of the New Testament and that was JESUS CHRIST who being both God and Man could not sin and was the Source and Fountain of all Sanctity Who by Sacrificing himself purified us by his one Blood with an Interior and Spiritual Purity delivering us from our Sins to make us in a condition to render God a truly faithful Service and entring into the true Sanctuary that is into Heaven and into the Bosom of God his Father he profered us to him and made us by his Will and Testament Partakers and Heirs of his Heavenly Inheritance CHrist assisting an high priest of the good things to come by a more ample and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand that is not of this creation neither by the blood of goats or of calves but by his own blood entred in once into the holies eternal redemption being found For if the blood of goats and of oxen and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled sanctifieth the polluted to the cleansing of the flesh How much more hath the blood of Christ who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God cleansed our conscience from dead works to serve the living God RESP. The Church minds to give thanks unto JESUS CHRIST for vouchsafing us his Mercy and Sacrificing himself on the Cross for our Salvation We must also abhor the Wickedness of the Jews who to satisfie their Malice put to Death this Divine Saviour R. The kings of the earth have risen up and the princes are assembled together against the Lord and against his Christ V. Why have the nations raged and the people meditated vain things Against the Lord and against his Christ LESSON VIII The Apostle instructs us That the Death which our Mediator was willing to suffer was to repair those Prevarications committed during the Old Testament and to render us capable of the effects of the Divine Promises of the New Testament and this founded on the natuere of the Testament For in the first place JESUS CHRIST being willing to give unto Man a New Testament it was also but requisit that it should be firm and unalterable the which to render it 't was necessary he should die for the Wills and Testaments of Men take no effect till after their Death for whilst they live they may either change or absolutely cancel them Secondly The New Testament was to correspond with the first neither was the Fire given without the effusion of Blood as appears in Exod. chap. 24. ANd therefore he is the mediator of the new testament that death being a mean unto the redemption of these prevarications which were under the former testament they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance For where there is a testament the death of the testator must of necessity come between for a testament is confirmed in the dead otherwise it is yet of no value whilst the testator liveth Whereupon neither was the first certes dedicated without blood RESP. The Faithful consider that the Jews put this Divine Testator to a most Ignominious Death who came to give them by his last Will and Testament a Heavenly Inheritance if by their Impiety and Ingratitude they had not made themselves unworthy it They likewise consider that as the Jews had no power to put our Saviour to Death but because he would himself so in voluntarily dying he triumphed over Death R. I am accounted with them that descend into the lake I am become as a man without help free among the dead V. They have put me in the lower lake in the dark places and in the shadow of death I am become as c. LESSON IX In this Lesson the Apostle represents unto us That in the Old Testament the Purifications were made by the shedding of Blood without which the Remission of Sins had not been given since it is that which is the confirmation of all Alliance FOr all the commandment of the law being read of Moyses to all the people he taking the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet-wooll and hyssop sprinkled the very book also it self and all the people saying This is the blood of the testament which God hath commanded unto you The tabernacle also and all the vessel of the ministery he in like manner sprinkled with blood And all things almost according to the law are cleansed with blood and without shedding of blood there is not remission RESP. In the Old Law in the Seventeenth Chapter of Leviticus God Commanded that the Blood of Victims should be covered to shew unto us that it was an effect of his Bounty that he vouchsafed to receive the lives of Innocent Beasts instead of that of Sinners But on the contrary the Jews instead of covering the Blood of JESUS CHRIST that is instead of acknowledging the excess of his Bounty wherewith God would that his Son who was the God of Man should die for them who deserved Death and that he should die on the Cross even for their Salvation who nailed him thereon But they instead of repenting themselves or being confounded for having put to Death their Saviour they moreover persecuted him even in his Sepulcher And this it is which the Faithful consider in the following Versicles R. Our Lord being buried his monument was sealed rolling a stone against the mouth of the monument setting soldiers who might guard it V. The chief priests came unto Pilate