them to receive him worthily WE therefore Almighty God most humbly beseech thee to command these things to be represented to thy High Altar in presence of thy Divine Majesty by the hands of thy Holy Angel that all who participating of this Altar shall receive the Body and Blood of Christ may be replenished with thy Heavenly Grace and Blessing Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Commemoration for the Dead Memento c. As our Redeemer by his descent into Hell after his death by the Merits of his Sacrifice freed the Faithful from Limbus and Purgatory who there expected his coming and were in a condition of relief the Priest begs of God by the Merits of this Sacrifice which he offers in memory of his Son's death and descent into Hell that he will please to grant relief and rest to the Souls of the Faithful which they expect in Purgatory being there as in a dream of Peace either for that they are to come one day thence as out of a dream to enjoy a peaceable and happy life no longer subjected to the necessity of sleep or because the anguish of their pains troubles not the peace of their conscience in obedience and conformity to our Saviour's will being full of hope and confidence insomuch that we may say these transitory pains are but as a dream in comparison of those which are damned suffer in Hell for ever REmember also O Lord thy servants Men and Women N. and N. who have gone before us with the sign of Faith and now rest in Peace Here remember such particular persons as you best please WE humbly beseech O Lord to grant to these and to all those who rest in Christ a Place of Refreshment Light and Peace Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest striking his breast says Nobis quoque peccatoribus The Priest after he hath prayed to God for the Faithful both living and dead prays for himself and all other Priests that it may please his Divine Majesty by his mercy to supply their defects and grant him the grace to partake of the company of the Saints through the Merits of Jesus Christ VOuchsafe also to grant unto us sinners thy servants hoping from the multitude of thy mercies a part and society with thy Apostles and Martyrs John Stephen Matthias Barnaby Ignatius Alexander Marcellinus Peter Felicitas Perpetua Agatha Lucy Agnes Cecily Anastasia and with all Saints among whom we humbly beseech thee to admit us not esteeming our merit but mercifully granting thy pardon Through Christ our Lord. Amen Per quem haec omnia c. The Priest protests before God the Father that the Sacraments now upon the Altar with all the Benefits it contains proceeds from him through Jesus Christ by whom as by the Chief Priest he daily produces it by a kind of Creation and Consecration and life-giving Satisfaction replenished with all sorts of Blessings bestowing it upon us as a nourishment fit for our Souls that being enlivened by his Spirit we may render him all due Honour and Glory confessing that God the Father receives nothing by us but by with and in Jesus Christ By Jesus Christ as Mediator and Fountain of all good works with Jesus Christ for being but one and the same Divinity and Nature he communicates his Glory with him and the Holy Ghost in the bottom of his Divinity In Jesus Christ in the Unity of his Body and Members who make one person with him and it is in his Person incarnate that God is perfectly adored BY whom O Lord thou dost always create all these goods thou dost sanctifie quicken bless and bestow them on us by him and with him and in him O God the Father Almighty all Honour and Glory is due to thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost Per omnia saecula c. The Priest in a loud voice concludes his protestation That he comes to praise and adore God eternally and invites the Faithful to a consent saying World without end The Faithful consenting answer Amen Let us Pray Praeceptis c. After the Priest has declared that the Glory which we give to God the celestial nourishment of this Sacrament and all other Benefits are derived unto us from God the Father through Jesus Christ we beseech him in the same words which Christ commanded us to use wherein he encourageth us to call him our Father as he was pleased to become our Brother to make us worthy to acknowledge that we can want Nothing since we have a Father so omnipotent BEing taught by our Saviour's Commands and lead by Divine Institution we are bold to say Our Father which art in Heaven where thy glory appears in more splendour and whether thou wouldst have us raise up our thoughts Hallowed be thy Name Acknowledged and adored Thy Kingdom come The Empire of thy Grace in this world and of thy Bliss in the other Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread The precious Body and Blood of thy Son which is to day consecrated thy holy Grace and all things necessary unto us for the sustentation of this life And forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into Temptation The Faithful testifying that they pray with the Priest answer R. But deliver us from Evil. The Priest to shew that he said this Prayer in all our Names says Amen Libera c. The Priest considering there can be nothing more prejudicial to us nor which is more contrary to the communion of this Holy Sacrifice than that which disorders and troubles the Christian Peace and Union he beseeches God to deliver us from it by the Merits of Christ by the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin the Apostles and all Saints and to give us that Peace and Union which we ought to have with our Saviour and the Three Members of his Church which he signifies by dividing the Host into three parts That part which he puts on the Patine signifies the Faithful living that which he holds in his hands those in Purgatory that which he breaks off them from that the blessed in Heaven DEliver us from all Evil past present and to come and by the Intercession of the blessed and ever glorious Virgin Mary Mother of God of thy holy Apostles Peter and Paul St. Andrew and all Saints Grant propitiously unto us Peace in our days that through the assistance of thy mercy we may both be freed from sin and secured from all trouble Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost world without end Whereunto the Faithful joyn their Prayers and answer Amen Pax Domini c. The Priest makes thrice the sign of the Cross over the Chalice with that part of the Host which represents the Blessed to testifie that Christ rising again and ascending into Heaven hath left the Legacy of Peace
your selves which also in CHRIST JESUS who when he was in the form of God thought it no robbery himself to be equal to God but he exinanited himself taking the form of a servant made into the similitude of men and in shape found as a man R. Thanks be to God HYMN In remembrance of the Victory Christ obtained by his Cross A Broad the Regal Banners fly Now shines the Crosses Mystery Upon it Life did Death endure And yet by Death did Life procure Who wounded with a direful Spear Did purposely to wash us clear From stain of Sin pour out a Flood Of precious Water mixt with Blood Fully accomplish'd are the things David in faithful Meeter sings Where he to Nations do's attest God on a Tree his Reign possest O lovely and refulgent Tree Adorn'd with purple Majesty Cull'd from a worthy Stock to bear Those Limbs which sanctified were Blest Tree whose happy Branches bore The Wealth that did the World restore The Beam that did that Body weigh Which rais'd up Hells expected Prey Hail Cross of Hopes the most sublime Now in this mournful Passion-time Improve Religious Souls in Grace The Sins of Criminals efface Blest Trinity Salvations Spring May ev'ry Soul thy Praises sing To those thou grantest Conquest by The Holy Cross Rewards apply Amen THE SONG OF THE HOLY VIRGIN MARY Luke 1. The Church briefly represents unto us in this Canticle the Promises and Mysteries of our Salvation and shews us that the Son of God became Man to repair by his Humility what Man had lost through his own Pride and that it was his will to chuse the Holy Virgin to be his Mother out of his great Humility to accomplish this grand Work MY Soul doth magnifie our Lord. And my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me and holy is his Name And his mercy from generations unto generations to them that fear him He hath shewed might in his arm he hath dispersed the proud in the conceit of their heart He hath deposed the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble The hungry he hath filled with good things and the rich he hath sent away empty He hath received Israel his child being mindful of his mercy As he spake to our fathers to Abraham and his seed for ever Glory be to the Father c. Ant. For it is written I will strike the Pastor and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed but after I shall be risen again I will go before you into Galilee and there ye shall see me saith our Lord. At Paris the following Anthymn is said ALl the people which descended rejoyced and began to praise God exceedingly for the wonders they had seen saying Blessed is the King that comes in the name of our Lord Peace in heaven and glory in the highest THE PRAYER To beg God's Grace to imitate the Humility and Patience of our Saviour O Almighty Eternal God who hast caused our Saviour to take Flesh and be crucified for Mankind as an Example of Humility to be imitated Grant propitiously that we may partake both of the Instructions of his Patience and the Fellowship of his Resurrection Thro' the same our Lord c. AT COMPLINE The Reader says Vers REverend Father bless me THE BLESSING GRant us Omnipotent Lord a quiet Night and a happy End Resp Amen THE LESSON taken out of the First Epistle of the Apostle St. Peter chap. 5. BRethren be sober and watch because your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist ye strong in faith But thou O Lord have mercy on us R. Thanks be to God V. Our help is in the name of our Lord. R. Who made Heaven and Earth OUr Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from all evil Amen HAil Mary full of Grace our Lord is with thee Blessed art thou amongst Women and blessed is the Fruit of thy Womb JESUS Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us Sinners now and in the hour of our death Amen I Confess unto Almighty God to Blessed Mary ever Virgin to Blessed Michael the Archangel to Blessed John Baptist to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul to all Saints and to Thee Father That I have sinned exceedingly in Thought Word and Deed by my fault by my fault by my most grievous fault Therefore I beseech the Blessed Mary ever Virgin Blessed Michael the Archangel Blessed John Baptist the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul all Saints and Thee O Father to pray for me to our Lord God Almighty God have mercy on us and all our Sins being forgiven bring us unto everlasting Life R. Amen The Almighty and merciful Lord give unto us Pardon Absolution and Remission of all our Sins R. Amen Convert us O God our Saviour R. And avert thine Anger from us V. Incline unto my aid O God R. O Lord make haste to help me Glory be to the Father c. Ant. Have mercy on me PSALM 4. This Psalm shews us That 't is impossible to raise up our Thoughts to the Love of the true Goods whilst our Hearts are overcharged with the Cares of Worldly Affairs but that once being purified with the Grace of God we then in the secret of our Souls begin to contemn our selves and being touched with a true Compunction of Heart we offer to his Majesty a Sacrifice all our past Life with an intention by his assistance entirely to change it And from thence-forth our Lord begins to make us rellish his Sweets and Delights and to heap Joys upon us Then we find in that Sovereign Good another Grain another Wine and another Oyl than what here below so as we neither envy the Prosperity of the Wicked nor fear their Persecutions having placed all our Confidence in God WHen I invocated the God of my justice heard me in tribulation thou hast enlarged to me Have mercy on me and hear my prayer Ye sons of men how long are you of heavy heart why love you vanity and seek lying And know ye that our Lord hath made his Holy One marveilous 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 ye 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
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 then returning up to the Altar he kneels to the blessed Sacrament after that bowing himself with his hands joyned before the Altar he says WE present our selves O Lord before thee in the spirit of humility and repentance and therefore we beseech thee that this Sacrifice may be agreeably accomplisht by us this day The Priest kisseth the Altar and kneels down then turning to the People he desires them to joyn in Prayers with him to God that he will please to accept this Offering of Wine and Water in memory of the Bloud and Water which ran out of our Saviours side And this Offering is a kind of Sacrifice in that it is joyned with the Consecrated Hoast which represents the bloudy Sacrifice of Jesus Christ PRay Brethren that this my Sacrifice which is also yours may be acceptable to God the Father Almighty And to observe unto us that this Oblation is only a representation of the bloudy Sacrifice of Jesus Christ and that no unbloudy Sacrifice is celebrated this day Suscipiat Dominus is not answered And thereupon also there is no Consecration this day because the memory of Christs Passion is only celebrated as it actually had past Nevertheless that we may not be deprived of participating the fruit of his Passion being incorporated anew with him the Body of this our Divine Saviour is reserved the day before but not the Bloud for fear of Accidents Let us Pray PRAECEPTIS c. The faithful beg of God that they may be made worthy to reap the benefit of the Passion of his Son Jesus Christ in receiving his Body in the same Prayer which Christ himself taught us giving them confidence to call him our Father as he made himself our Brother to teach us that we cannot fail of any thing having an Omnipotent Father BEing taught by our Saviour's Commands and led by Divine Institution we are bold to say Our Father which art in Heaven where you shine in greater glory and whereunto thou art pleased that we should raise our thoughts Hallowed be thy Name Acknowledged and Adored Thy Kingdom come The Empire of thy Grace in this World and of the next Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread The precious Body and Blood of thy Son which is daily consecrated thy Grace and all things necessary for us in the course of this life And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors And lead us not into temptation The People to testifie their concurrence with the Priest in this Prayer answer But deliver us from evil From sin from the snares of this world the flesh and the devil And to shew that this Prayer is pronounc'd in the name of all it is answered Amen LIBERA c. The Priest considering that there is no greater evil nor more contrary to the Holy Communion than that which may trouble and destroy the Peace and Union of Christians beseeches God to deliver us by the Merits of Jesus Christ by the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin of the Apostles and all the Saints and to grant us that Peace and Union which we ought to have with our Saviour and with the other Members of his Church which he signifies by breaking the Hoast and dividing it into three parts That part which he puts upon the Patten signifies the faithful in this life that which he retains in his Hand the faithful that are in Purgatory and that which he breaks the blessed DEliver us O Lord we beseech thee from all evils past present and to come and grant us peace in these our Duties by the intercession of the ever-glorious Virgin Mary Mother of God of thy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul of St. Andrew and all the Saints that being assisted by thy gracious mercy we may be free from all sin and secure from all dangers Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth God with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever The faithful concurring with the Priest answer Amen No Incense is used at this Elevation to signifie that on this day the Jews refused all honour due to God nor are the Bells rung to mind us of the Disciples silence and astonishment After the Deacon hath uncovered the Chalice and the Priest divided the Hoast into three parts over the Chalice he puts the least particle into the Chalice which represents the Estate of the blessed and the other two parts upon the Patten without saying any thing or making the sign of the Cross omitting Pax Domini c. Haec commixtio c. Agnus Dei c. Domine Jesu Christe qui dixisti c. Domine Jesu Christe Pili Dei vivi c. to express unto us that the wholesom effect of Christs Passion and the reconciliation of Men with God was not compleated till after his Resurrection Nor is the Pax given about for the same reason as also to shew our aversion to Judas his traiterous kiss The Priest says the Prayer following to beg of God a disposition requisite for the worthy receiving of the Eucharist GRant O Lord Jesus Christ that this participation of thy body which now though unworthy I intend to receive may not turn to my judgment and condemnation but through thy mercy may be a protection and and a wholsom medicine to my soul and body Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost world without end Amen And having kneeled to adore the Sacrament taking the Hoast between his hands considering he is to receive his God he puts all his confidence in his mercy saying I Will take the Celestial Bread and will call upon the Name of our Lord. And calling to mind how acceptable the Centurion's humility was to the Son of God when he would have honoured him with a visit in imitation of him he protests himself unworthy so great a favour and knocking his breast useth the same words LOrd I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my soul shall be healed When he receives the Body of our Lord he makes the sign of the Cross with the Hoast calling to his mind that 't is that Body which Christ exposed to death to save us THe Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my Soul to Life Everlasting Amen The Priest having taken the Body of Christ the Deacon uncovering the Chalice drinks that piece of the Hoast put into the Chalice together with the Wine therein without saying any thing or making the sign of the Cross to signifie the Wine is not consecrated The Sub-deacon pours wine and water into the Chalice to wash his singers that so the least piece of the
Heavens and Earth are full of thy Glory Hosanna in the highest Blessed is he that comes in the Name of our Lord Hosanna in the highest The CANON to Communicants as before pag. 63. COMMVNICANTES The Priest by vertue of the Union between the Church Militant with the Triumphant and in memory of this Blessed Day whereon our Saviour rose again beseeches God to supply the defects of his Prayers whereby he begs his Protection by the Merits and Suffrages of the Blessed Virgin the Apostles Martyrs and of Saints PArtaking in the same Communion and celebrating the Solemnity of this blessed Day wherein our Lord Jesus Christ rose again according to the flesh and in the first place honouring the memory of the ever blessed Virgin Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul Andrew James John Thomas James Philip Bartholomew Matthew Simon and Thaddeus Linus Cletus Clement Xystus Cornelius Cyprian Lawrence Chrysogonus John and Paul Cosme and Damian and all the other Saints by whose Merits and Prayers vouchsafe to grant us the assistance of thy protection Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen HANC IGITVR OBLATIONEM c. The Priest spreads his hands over the Host and Chalice to testifie to God that he Offers and Sacrifices himself unto him joyntly therewith begging four things 1. That he will please to accept this Oblation 2. To grant us Peace 3. To deliver us from Hell 4. To admit us among the Blessed WE beseech thee therefore O Lord to accept this Oblation of our Duty and of thy whole Family which we offer up unto thee also for those whom thou hast vouchsafed to regenerate by Water and the Holy Ghost granting them pardon of all their sins and graciously to give Peace in our days and preserving us from Eternal Damnation to bring us among thy Elect Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen All the rest till the Communion as before pag. 79. The COMMUNION taken out of the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians Chapter 5. Wherein the Church as in the Epistle of this Mass represents unto us that Jesus Christ immolated on the Cross is our Pasch who gives himself unto us in this new Banquet whereunto he calls us far exceeding the Jewish Pasch That therefore we may worthily celebrate this Pasch we must purifie our Hearts from the old Leaven that is their former sins and plant Innocence and Truth there in lieu of Malice and Iniquity CHrist our Passover is sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the Feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia The POST-COMMUNION We beg Gods grace to celebrate this Divine Pasch worthily wherein Jesus Christ gives himself unto us for our Spiritual Food to the end we may be all united in him as inseparable Members of his Body INfuse O Lord into us the spirit of thy love that whom thou hast satiated with thy Paschal Sacraments thou of thy goodness unite in heart and will Through our Lord c. All the rest as before pag. 81 82. At the Sixth Hour Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. O God incline unto my aid O Lord make hast to help me Glory be to the Father c. Alleluia Defecit in salutare c. as before pag. 142. Quomodo dilexi c. as before pag. 144. Iniquos odio habui c. as before pag. 145. Haec dies c. as before pag. 318. Let us Pray Deus qui hodierna die c. as before pag. 312. At the Ninth Hour Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. O Lord incline unto my aid O Lord make hast to help me Glory be to the Father c. Alleluia Mirabilia testimonia tua c. as before pag. 147. Clamavi in toto corde meo c. as before pag. 149. Principes persecuti sunt me gratis c. as before pag. 151. Haec dies c. as before pag. 318. Let us Pray Deus qui hodierna die c. as before pag. 312 Thanks be to God ON Palm-Sunday AT EVEN-SONG Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. INcline unto my aid O God Resp O Lord make haste to help me Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost R. As it was in the beginning now is and ever shall be world without end Amen The ANTHYMN Our Lord said c. PSALM 109. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ is prophesied in this Psalm wherein the Royal Prophet describes First The State of his Glory in Heaven Secondly The Extent of his Empire from Jerusalem to all Parts of the Earth Thirdly He represents his Eternal and Human Generation Fourthly His holy Priesthood which he declares to be according to the Order of Melchisedeck by reason of the Forms of Bread and Wine under which Forms he was to institute the Sacrament and Sacrifice of his own Body and Blood Fifthly He foretells that he was to be the Sovereign Judge of the World and to recompense the Just and punish the Wicked Sixthly That he was to repair the Ruins of Human Nature thereby to supply the number of the Angels which were diminished by the Fall of Lucifer and his Complices Seventhly He teacheth us That by his Sufferings in this Life which cannot more aptly be compared than to the Waters of a Torrent he was to enter into his Glory OUr Lord said to my Lord Sit on my right hand Until I make thine enemies thy footstool Our Lord will send forth the rod of thy strength from Sion rule thou in the midst of thine enemies The beginning with thee in the day of thy strength in the brightness of the Saints from the womb before the day-star I begat thee Our Lord sware and it shall not repent him Thou art a Priest for ever according to the Order of Melchisedeck Our Lord on thy right hand hath broken Kings in the day of his wrath He shall judge in nations he shall fill ruins he shall crush the heads in the land of many Of the torrent in the way he shall drink therefore shall he exalt the head Glory be to the Father c. ANTHYMN Our Lord said to my Lord Sit on my right hand Ant. All his commandments are faithful PSALM 110. or 111. The Royal Prophet admonisheth the Faithful to give God thanks for the Blessings they heretofore received from his Divine Bounty and for the Benefits they are to expect from him when the Messias shall deliver them from the Servitude of Sin and give them a new Law in giving them his own Body to be their Food whereof their Deliverance from the Captivity of Egypt and the Law of Moyses and of the Manna were only Types and Figures I Will confess to thee O Lord with all my heart in the council of the just and the congregation The works of our Lord are great exquisite according to all his wills Confession and magnificence his work
THE Compleat Office OF THE Holy Week WITH NOTES and EXPLICATIONS Translated out of Latin and French Published with Allowance IHS LONDON Printed for Matthew Turner at the Lamb in High-Holborn 1687. TO THE QUEEN MADAM WITH all possible Respect and some Hopes it will not prove absolutely unwelcom I Humbly lay at Your Majesty's Feet a very good Book but a very ill-suited Present For Devout Ink and Paper to Your Majesty whose Life is it self a Book of Devotion is but a Link of Silver to a Chain of Gold And then a Translation is such a kind of Present to Your Majesty as a bad Copy to one who has an excellent Original 'T is true you are an absolute Mistress of our Language as well as Hearts but you would never Pray in an Vnknown Tongue though there were neither English nor Italian in the World and Translating is but telling you a Story for News which you know already and hear when you please much better told But since what is useless to Your Majesty may be beneficial to your Subjects and a Queen is neither the Greatest nor the most Glorious of your Titles I promise my self that your Charity will condescend to make an Alms of your Name and Patronage and by your countenance to Devotion allure a People fond of making their Court to you to make it in the way most pleasing to Your Majesty straining to follow afar off and be as Devout as they can since few can hope to be as Devout as you 'T is to be hoped this will be the Courtship in fashion now the Times are returned in which the Queens of England are Saints again and the Fruit infinitely great when People find the way to Heaven is the way to be well at Court I was Ambitious to make my Court this way but to my shame so poor a Courtier that I was forc'd to borrow a Present and to make it mine dress'd in a new Language as we alter the property of Plate by a new Fashion I know I have expos'd my unskilfulness in this Trade to the Eye in all England which will the soonest discern it But Your Majesty will have the goodness to reflect that no Translation can express the beauty and force of the Original to suffer the Argument to attone for all Faults and to have some Indulgence for the Passionate Zeal and Profound Respect with which I shall always be MADAM Your MAJESTY'S Most Humble most Faithful and most Dutiful Subject Walter Kirkham Blount THE OFFICE UPON Palm-Sunday Of Holy Water IT has been an Ancient Practice in the Church even among the Primitive Christians for the Priest before Mass at Easter and Whitsontide to sprinkle the People with Water out of the Font blest with the Prayers and Exorcisms the Eve of those Holy Days and there reserved till Holy Oyl was poured therein And to the end the Faithful should not esteem this sprinkling a second Baptism the Church has instituted particular Blessings and Exorcisms of Water and Salt for each Sunday through the Year to instruct us That by this sprinkling she gives us no second Baptism but that she applies her Prayers to obtain of God through the Merits of JESUS CHRIST if we our selves are not the obstacle the grace of true repentance for our sins and a guard from the assaults of the Devil that so we may preserve our selves in that state of innocence we received by Baptism By the Water the Church tells us she prays to God and that we are therein to concur with her to beseech him to purifie our Souls by his Grace as the Water cleanseth our Bodies And by the Salt she represents her Prayer to God wherein we ought also to joyn for obtaining his Grace to preserve our Souls from spiritual corruption as Salt preserves the Body from corporal And as Salt gives an agreeable tast to our Meat so his Grace renders our actions acceptable to his Majesty preserving us from falling into those sins wherewith the Devil might otherwise infect us whereby we may more worthily be assistant at the Holy Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of CHRIST and reap the benefit thereof Every Sunday Water and Salt is prepared in the Sacristy which the Priest blesseth being vested in his Albe or Surplice and with a Stoale The Exorcism and Benediction of the Salt OUr help is in the Name of the Lord. R. Who made Heaven and Earth V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Whereas by the Fall of Adam the Devil has usurpt an Empire over creatures so as to make use of them to the disadvantage of men he is deprived of them again by the Merits of our Redeemer who sanctifies them for our benefit I Exorcise thee O creature Salt by the living God the true God by the holy God by that God who commanded thee to be cast into the Water by the Prophet Elizaeus to cure its barrenness that by this Exorcism thou mayest be made beneficial to the Faithful healthful both to the Bodies and Souls of all that shall use thee and where ever thou art sprinkled thou mayest chase away all Illusions Malice Crafts and Surprises of the Devil and that all unclean Spirits be cast out of him who will come to judge the living and the dead and the World by fire Amen The PRAYER Let us Pray The Priest by signing with the Cross instructs us that the sanctifying of creatures and the graces which we receive thereby are only derived unto us from the merits of the death of Christ He makes the sign of the Cross twice upon the Salt to signifie unto us that the Church prays unto God to preserve us from corruption both of Soul and Body ALmighty and Everlasting God we humbly implore thy infinite clemency that thou wilt vouchsafe out of thy Piety to bless ✚ and sanctifie ✚ this thy creature Salt to the end that all such as make use of it may be sensible of health in Soul and Body and that what shall be either touch'd or sprinkled with it may be preserved from all uncleanness and assaults of the Devil Through our Lord c. The Exorcism and Benediction of the Water The Priest makes the sign of the Cross thrice in this Exorcism and once in the following Prayer to teach us that the Graces we receive by the Merits of Christ's Death are bestowed upon us by the three Divine Persons who are one only God I Exorcise thee O creature Water in the Name of God ✚ the Father Almighty in the Name of Jesus Christ ✚ our Lord his Son and in the Vertue of the Holy Ghost ✚ That by this Exorcism thou mayest dissipate all the Assaults of the Enemy and put the Enemy himself to flight with all his apostate Angels by the power of the same our Lord Jesus Christ who will come to judge the living and the dead and the World by fire Amen The PRAYER Let us Pray O God who for the health of Mankind hast
the Deacon saying Sequentia sancti Evangelii c. The sequence of the Gospel c. makes the sign of the Cross upon his Forehead his Mouth and Breast to signifie he publishes the Word of God with a good heart and will not be ashamed to confess it before men and taking the Thurible he incenseth the Book thrice in honour of the Blessed Trinity in whom we are taught to believe by the Gospel Whilest the Deacon reads the Gospel with an audible Voice the Priest stands on the Epistle side which represents the Jewish People to tell us that Christ preached the Gospel amongst them and that from Judea it should be carried to other Nations He stands upright uncovered as do the rest of the People to teach us that the Word of God is to be feared with reverence and to testifie our Faith in the Resurrection The sequence of the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew Chap. 21. In this Gospel the Church minds us of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem foretold by the Prophet Zacharias Chap. 9. where we are to observe that Eve and the Synagogue are figured by the She-Ass And by the Ass-Colt never yet used the Gentils are represented for before the coming of Christ none had ever called the Gentils to the true Faith The Village where these creatures were tied is a figure of the servitude of this World and the command which Christ gave to his Disciples to untye them is a presentation of that power which God hath given his Ministers to absolve men from their sins AT that time when Jesus drew nigh to Jerusalem and was come to Bethphage at the foot of Mount Olivet then he sent two of his Disciples saying to them Go ye into the Town that is against you and immediately you shall find an Ass tied and a Colt with her loose them and bring them to me and if any man shall say ought unto you say ye that our Lord hath need of them and forthwith he will let them go And this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying Say ye to the Daughter of Sion Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting upon an Ass and a Colt the Foal of her that is used to the Yoke And the Disciples going did as Jesus commanded them And they brought the Ass and the Colt and laid their Garments upon them and made him to sit thereon and a very great multitude spread their Garments in the way and others did cut their Boughs from the Trees and strewed them in the way and the multitudes that went before and that followed cried saying Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of our Lord. Hosanna in the highest After the Deacon hath read the Gospel he presents the Book to the Priest to kiss to signifie thereby the Union and Charity which the Faithful ought to have in the observance of God that so they may obtain pardon for their sins and thereupon he says May our Sins be forgiven by the vertue of the Holy Gospel The Deacon incenseth the Priest thrice thereby expressing our honour to Christ who hath freed us from our sins by our faith in the Gospel acknowledging him to be God and the Second Person of the Trinity Then the Palms are blest by which Ceremony the Church commemorating Christ's triumph applies her Prayers for us to obtain of God through the Merits of this Divine Saviour unless we render our selves uncapable the grace to reap the fruit of that Victory which he has obtained over the World and the Devil Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray O God increase the Faith of those that hope in thee and clemently hear the Prayers of thy Supplicants Let thy manifold Mercies come upon us bless these Boughs of Palms or Olives and as in the figure of the Church thou didst multiply Noah going forth of the Ark and Moses going out of Egypt with the Children of Israel so grant that we carrying these Branches of Palm and Olive may with the Fruits of our Good Works appear before Jesus Christ and by his Merits enjoy the Delights of Eternal Happiness who one God liveth and reigneth with thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen The PREFACE The Priest prepares the Faithful minding them to lift up their hearts to God to disengage their affections from worldly creatures to acknowledge the excess of the divine benefits Our Lord be with you And with thy Spirit Lift up your hearts R. We raise them up to our Lord. Then the Priest admonisheth the Faithful to reflect that 't is God who puts their hearts into that state and therefore that they give him publick thanks Let us give thanks to our Lord God The Faithful answer that it is just and reasonable and according do concur in publick with the Priest giving thanks and so in particular each man by his particular private resentments accompanies the Priest saying It is Just and becoming our Duty The Church representing unto us the Obedience which all created nature oweth unto God the Zeal wherewith the Saints and particularly the Martyrs have offered themselves to his Majesty as a Holocaust for the faith of Jesus Christ his Son the Homage which the Angels render him in Heaven and the Canticle of Praise which the Children sung in honour of our Saviour when he made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem exhorts us in imitation of them to give God thanks for so many benefits received of his bounty through the Merits of his Son acknowledging that in duty we are bound to endeavour the Zeal of Martyrs the Purity of Angels and Innocence of Children IT is truly meet and just right and necessary that we always and in all places give thanks to thee Holy Lord Omnipotent Father and Eternal God who art glorified in the Council of thy Saints For thy Creatures serve thee acknowledging thee their sole Author and God and all thy handy-works joyntly praise and thy holy ones bless thee freely confessing the Sacred Name of thy Son before the Kings and Princes of this World The Angels Archangels Thrones and Dominations observe thee with a Profound Reverence and with the whole Celestial Host sing a Hymn of thy Glory for ever saying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God of Hosts the Heavens and Earth are filled with thy Glory Hosanna in the Highest Blessed is he that comes in the Name of our Lord Hosanna in the Highest V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray The Faithful giving God thanks that besides the interiour and exteriour Graces wherewith he prevents and assists us and besides what he confers by his Sacraments upon us he yet further fortifies us by the Vertue of Sacred Things they joyn in Prayers with the Church which are applied unto them by this Benediction to the end they may obtain particular Benefits from God for the good
into Jerusalem and the Priest says Let us go on in peace The Quire answers In the Name of Christ Amen The Antiphon taken out of the 21st Chapter of St. Matthew WHen Jesus drew nigh unto Jerusalem he sent two of his Disciples saying Go ye into the Town that is against you and immediately you shall find an Ass tied and a Colt with her loose them and bring them to me and if any man shall say ought unto you say ye that our Lord hath need of them And they brought the Ass and the Colt and laid their Garments upon them and made him to sit thereon Others spread their Garments in the way others cut Boughs from the Trees and strewed them in the way and those that followed cryed Hosanna blessed is he who cometh in the Name of our Lord and blessed be the Kingdom of David our Father Hosanna in the highest O Son of David have mercy on us Another ANTIPHON THE People hearing that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem they took Palm-branches and went forth to meet him the Children crying aloud This is he who comes to save his People This is our Salvation and Redemption of Israel How great is he whom the Thrones and Dominations meet Fear not Daughter of Sion behold thy King comes unto thee sitting upon an Ass-Colt as it is written Hail King Maker of the World who art come to redeem us ANOTHER SIX Days before the Solemn Pasch our Lord coming to Jerusalem the Children went forth to meet him carrying Boughs of Palms and crying with a loud voice Hosanna in the highest Blessed art thou that comest in the multitude of thy Mercies Hosanna in the highest ANOTHER THE Multitude went with Flowers and Palms to meet the Redeemer and render him triumphant and victorious due honour The Gentils publish the greatness of the Son of God their voices thundring through the clouds the praise of Christ Hosanna in the highest ANOTHER GRant that we may be found faithful with the Angels and Children singing to the triumpher over death Hosanna in the highest ANOTHER A Great Multitude assembled to the Festival cryed out to our Lord saying Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of our Lord. Hosanna in the highest The Procession being come to the Church-Porch the following Hymn is sung in memory of Jesus Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem GLory to thee Eternal King On this great triumphant day Lo we a loud Hosanna sing And with our Garments strew the way Thou art the King of Israel Sprung from the Royal David 's stem Thou cam'st from Heaven with us to dwell Thy captive Subjects to redeem Glory to thee c. The holy Quires of Angels bow And in their Hymns thy Praise proclaim While we and all our world below Kneel and adore the same blest Name Glory to thee c. Thy Sion once with holy Palms Thee their Messias went to meet Behold we now with Prayers and Psalms Prostrate our glad hearts at thy feet Glory to thee c. They by their Songs prepar'd the way Vp to thy humble Throne the Cross While we a happier Ditty pray And in thy Victory rejoyce Glory to thee c. Great King of sweetest clemency Whom all sincere endeavours please As they accepted were may we Thy Favour gain thy Wrath appease Glory to thee c. Then the Priest with the foot of the Cross knocks at the Church-door which is shut to signifie that Jesus Christ through the merit of his Passion hath opened Heaven for us which besore was shut upon the account of our first Parents transgression And to express the sentiments of Joy and Admiration which the Angels had at our Saviour's entry into Heaven represented in the 23d Psalm the Church uses the same words with the Royal Prophet LIft up your Gates ye Princes and be ye lifted up O Eternal Gates and the King of glory shall enter in Those who are within the Church representing the Angels answer Who is this King of glory To whom the Priest knocking again replies 'T is our strong and mighty Lord 't is our Lord mighty in Battel Lift up your Gates ye Princes and be you lifted up O Eternal Gates and the King of glory shall enter in Those within the Church replies again Who is this King of glory The Priest knocking again says The Lord of Powers he is the King of Glory lift up your Gates c. Whereupon those within the Church representing the Angel open the doors saying Who is this King of glory And the Procession goes into the Church singing the following Antiphon to signifie that Christ's solemn entry into Jerusalem was a figure of his triumphant entry into Heaven OUr Lord entering into the Holy City the Hebrew Children foretelling the Resurrection unto Life with Olive-boughs cryed out Hosanna in the highest When the People heard that Christ was coming into Jerusalem they went to meet him with Palms THE MASS FOR Palm-Sunday The Priest coming to the foot of the Altar kneels and bowing makes the sign of the Cross saying Introibo ad altare Dei c. Psal 42. he acknowledgeth with humble respect in the name of the Faithful the Grace received of God through the Merits of Christ's Passion whereof the Sacrifice of the Mass is a representation and by the assistance of the Holy Ghost spiritually to regenerate them and establish them in the Rights of their Heavenly Inheritance which they had forfeited by Sin He seems to be renewed in spirit and in that takes confidence to approach the Altar which in as much as it stands Eastward according to the ancient Order of the Church is a figure of Paradise where God had placed Adam in the state of his Innocency In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen I Will enter unto the Altar of God The Church using the Psalm Judica me Deus c. in their Names who have received Baptism and preserved themselves in the state of Grace thereby received in testimony of the joy they apprehend in that they are become Children of God forbears it now in the beginning of Mass till Holy Saturday this being a time of Sorrow representing the Sufferings of Christ her Spouse and Head Our help is in the Name of our Lord. R. Who made Heaven and Earth Then the Priest confesses himself unworthy of so great a Benefit as well through Original as his Actual Sin and therefore admonisheth the Faithful on whose behalf he prays to joyn with him in repentance and acknowledge their own unworthiness before God I Confess unto Almighty God to the blessed Virgin S. Mary to the blessed S. Michael the Arch-angel to the blessed S. John Baptist to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul to all the Saints and you my Brethren that I have very much sinned in Thought Word and Deed through my Fault through my Fault through my most grievous Fault Therefore I beseech the blessed Virgin S. Mary the blessed S. Michael the
ALlmighty Everlasting God who hast caused our Saviour to take flesh and to be crucified for Mankind as an example of Humility to be imitated Grant propitiously that we may deserve to have both the Instruction of his Patience and Fellowship of his Resurrection Through the same our Lord c. The Lesson out of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Philippians Chap. 2. The Church represents the Cross unto us as the Ladder by which the Son of God descended from Heaven to the lowest degree of abatement on Earth and by which he ascended to the highest pitch of Glory and the Church teaches us by the example of Jesus Christ that we ought to be in the same disposition both in regard of him and of all man which he had in the work of our Redemption that is that we are to be ready and prepared to divest our selves of Honour Life and Goods for the love of Him and our Neighbours that as Christ was elevated above all Powers of Heaven Earth and Hell we may hope and expect a proportionable recompence after our humiliation BRethren for this think in your selves which also in Christ Jesus who when he was in the form of God thought it not robbery himself to be equal to God but he exinanited himself taking the form of a servant made into the similitude of men and in shape found as man he humbled himself made obedient unto death even the death of the Cross For the which God also hath exalted him and hath given him a Name which is above all Names That in the Name of Jesus every knee bow of the celestials terrestrials and infernals and every tongue confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father The GRADUAL taken out of 71st Psalm The Gradual is a Song wherein the Faithful being instructed by hearing the Epistle read at Mass raise themselves towards God in their holy desires as by certain spiritual degrees and prepare themselves to an attentive hearing of the Gospel and to profit by its Instructions Thus by the Gradual in the Mass the Faithful being taught by the Epistle preceding that by Afflictions and Sufferings in this Life they must gain Heaven according to our blessed Saviour's example they prepare themselves by raising their spirits to comprehend the Passion of our Saviour and to meditate that since the Grace of the New Testament appertains to Life Everlasting and not to this temporary one Christ as man being to declare it to the World ought not to draw a recommendation of it from terrestrial happiness And hence came his Humiliations incomprehensible hence his Passion his Sufferings his Scourgings wherewith he was so inhumanely torn the Spittings by which his Divine Face was so outragiously abused with all the other Injuries and Affronts he suffered 'T was in fine this brought him to the Cross this covered with Wounds his Sacred Body and at last delivered him to Death All those Marvels teach the Faithful what their Piety ought to hope and what recompence to beg of him whose children they are to the end they deceive not their selves in proposing terrestrial happiness as a reward for their Service to God And certainly 't is a signal providence of Grace and Bounty that God gives worldly happiness to the wicked to the end that good men may not place their content in the possession of it whereupon the 72d Psalm whence the Gradual of this Mass is extracted personates a man who repents that he had served God out of interest that not a right heart and expected temporal rewards and who seeing the wicked live in abundance and plenty was so far perplext as almost to think that God had no providence of humane affairs yet casting aside this sinful fancy by the authority of Saints who truly belong to God he is enforced to penetrate into so profound a secret which yet he could not discover with all his labour until he entred into the Sanctuary of God and knew their last end that is till having received the Holy Ghost and obtained the conduct of his Grace he considered the glory prepared by God for his faithful servants and learnt to desire it and understood what shall be the torment of the wicked after these contemptible and fading pleasures which they have enjoyed THou hast held thy right hand and in thy will thou hast conducted me and with glory thou hast received me V. How good is God to Israel to them that are of a right heart but my feet were almost moved my feet almost slipped because I have had zeal upon the wicked seeing the peace of sinners The TRACT taken out of the 21st Psalm This word expresseth it self the words being pronounced and sung in a low and languishing manner drawing the voice as groaning and lamenting whereby to incite us to bewail our sins and ask forgiveness of God Likewise in the Tract of this Mass the Church represents the reason why we ought to have an extream regret for our sins since they obliged our Saviour to suffer death to free and reconcile us by his humility to God his Father from whom we so unhappily estranged our selves by our pride Then the Church teaches us our obligation to give God thanks by these following Verses of the 21st Psalm disposing us to hear attentively the Passion of our Saviour whereof this Psalm prophetically makes mention wherein we ought to observe how our Saviour sometimes speaks in his own sometimes in the person of his members that which speaks of sins only relating to us that which speaks of sufferings only to him as our head who suffered for us Yet in suffering thus for us himself being blameless he put himself in our stead and took upon him our Obligations he made our Debts his own making satisfaction for our Transgression GOd my God have respect unto me why hast thou forsaken me V. Far from my salvation are the words of my sins V. My God I shall cry by day and thou wilt not hear and by night and not for folly unto me V. But thou dwellest in the Holy Place the praise of Israel V. In thee our Fathers have hoped they hoped and thou didst deliver them V. They cryed unto thee and were saved they hoped in thee and were not confounded V. But I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and outcast of the people V. All that saw me have scorned me they have spoken with the lips and wagged the head V. He hoped in the Lord let him deliver him let him save him because he afflicts him V. But themselves have considered and beheld me they have divided my garments amongst them and upon my vesture they have cast lots V. Save me from the Lions mouth and my humility from the horns of the Unicorns V. Ye that fear our Lord praise him all the seed of Jacob glorifie ye him V. The generation to come shall be shewed to our Lord and the heavens shall shew forth
they mocked him saying Hail King of the Jews and spitting upon him they took the reed and smote his head And after they had mocked him they took off the cloak from him and put on him his own garments and led him away to crucifie him And in going they found a man of Cyrene named Simon whom they forced to take up his Cross And they came into the place which is called Golgotha which is the place of Calvari And they gave him Wine to drink mingled with Gall. And when he tasted he would not drink And after they had crucified him they divided his garments casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken to the Prophet saying They divided my garments among them and upon my vesture they did cast lots And they sate and watched him And they put over his head his cause written This is Jesus the King of the Jews Then were crucified with him two thieves one on the right hand and one of the left And they passed by blaspheming him wagging their heads and saying Vah Thou that destroyest the Temple of God and in three days doest re-edifie it save thine own self if thou be the Son of God come down from the Cross In like manner also the Chief Priests with the Scribes and Ancients mocking said He saved others himself he cannot save if he be King of Israel let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe him He trusted in God let him now deliver him if he will for he said That I am the Son of God And the self-same thing the thieves also that were crucified with him reproached him withal And from the sixth hour there was darkness made upon the whole earth until the ninth hour Jesus cryed out with a mighty voice saying Eli Eli Lamasabacthani that is my God my God why hast thou forsaken me These words are spoken as out of humane frailty wherewith Christ was pleased to cloath himself to teach us that we must be deprived of the goods and comforts of this world whereby to elevate us to desire and hope of Eternal And certain that stood there and heard said He calleth Elias And incontinent one of them running took a spung and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink And others said Let be let us see whether Elias come to deliver him And Jesus again crying with a mighty voice yielded up the ghost Here the Faithful kneel or prostrate themselves a while upon the ground And behold the Veil of the Temple was rent in two pieces from the top even to the bottom It was a great piece of Hanging or Tapistry before the Sanctuary and this was done to signifie that the Old Law was taken away in Christ and the earth did quake and the rocks were rent and the graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints that had slept rose and they going forth out of the graves after his resurrection came into the holy city and appeared to many And the Centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus having seen the Earthquake and the things that were done were sore afraid saying Indeed this was the Son of God And there were many women afar off which had followed Jesus from Galilee ministring unto him among whom was Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the Sons of Zebedee And when it was evening there came a certain rich man of Aramithoea named Joseph who also himself was Disciple to Jesus He went to Pilate and asked the body of Jesus Then Pilate commanded that the body should be delivered And Joseph taking the body wrapt it in clean Syndon and laid it in his own new Monument which he had hewed in a rock And he rolled a great stone to the door of the Monument and went his way And there was there Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting over against the Sepulchre ANd the next day which is after the Parasceue the Chief Priests and the Pharisees came together to Pilate saying Sir we have remembred that the seducer said yet living After three days I will rise again Command therefore the Sepulchre to be kept until the third day lest perhaps his Disciples come and steal him and say to the people He is risen from the dead and the last errour shall be worse than the first Pilate said to them You have a guard go guard it as you know And they departing made the Sepulchre sure sealing up the stone with watchmen Then the Creed is said which is the sum of our Belief wherein we confess we believe what we heard in the Gospel I Believe in one God Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible And in our Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God and born of the Father before all Ages God of God light of light true God of the true God who was begotten not made consubstantial to the Father by whom all things were made Who descended from Heaven for us men and for our salvation and taking flesh of the Virgin Mary by the operation of the Holy Ghost became man He was also crucified for us under Pontius Pilate suffered and was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures He ascended into Heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father and will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead whose Kingdom will have no end I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son who spoke by the Prophets I believe one Holy Catholick Church I confess one Baptism for the remission of sins I expect the resurrection of the dead and life in the world to come Amen The Priest turning towards the Faithful prays to God for his grace that they may perform his Commandments and offer themselves worthily to his Majesty V. Our Lord be with you The Faithful ask the same grace of God for him R. And with thy Spirit The OFFERTORY taken out of the 68th Psalm The Church represents unto us that the most piercing grief our Saviour endured and whereof he could not have the least ease was his foresight of so great number of men as by their impiety would render themselves unworthy the fruit of his Passion which is Eternal Life and that instead of their acknowledgment for their salvation which he had purchased for them he should receive outrages more sharp and bitter than the Gall and Vinegar presented him upon the Cross MY heart hath looked for reproach and misery and I expected somebody that would be sorrowful with me and there was none I sought for a comforter and I found him not and they gave gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink After the Offertory the Priest takes the Patten and offers the Bread which is to be consecrated saying REceive O Holy Father Almighty and
Eternal God this immaculate Host which I thy unworthy servant offer to thee my living and true God for my innumerable sins offences and negligences for all here present and for all faithful Christians living and dead that it may avail me and them to life everlasting Amen Then the Priest puts the Wine and Water into the Chalice saying O God who as a wonderful effect of thy power hast created humane nature and restored it by a greater Miracle Grant us by the Mystery of this Wine and Water to partake of his Divinity who did vouchsafe upon him our humanity namely Jesus Christ our Lord thy Son who being God liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen The Priest offering the Chalice in the midst of the Altar says WE offer unto thee O Lord this Chalice of salvation beseeching thy clemency that it may ascend before thy Divine Majesty as a sweet perfume for our souls health and for the whole worlds Amen WE present our selves before thee with an humble and contrite spirit O Lord accept of us and grant that this sacrifice may be made agreeable this day unto thee O Lord God Blessing the Bread and Wine he offers then says COme Omnipotent Sanctifier and Eternal God and bless this sacrifice prepared for the glory of thy Holy Name Washing his hands and by that Ceremony testifying his care to cleanse his soul he says these following Versicles out of the 28th Psalm I Will wash my hands amongst Innocents And I will compass thy Altar O Lord. That I may hear the voice of praise and shew forth all thy marvellous works Lord I have loved the beauty of thy house and the place of the habitation of thy glory Destroy not O God my soul with the impious and my life with bloody men In whose hands are iniquities their right hand is replenished with gifts But I have walked in my innocency redeem me and have mercy on me My foot hath stood in the direct way In the Churches I will bless thee O Lord. Glory be to the Father c. The Priest having washt his hands bowing at the midst of the Altar silently makes an oblation of the Sacrifice which he is now about to present to the Holy Trinity in memory of the principal mysteries of Christ and in the honour of the chief Saints REceive O Holy Trinity this Oblation which we make unto thee in memory of the Passion Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ And in the honour of the ever blessed Virgin Mary St. John Baptist the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and of all Saints to their honour and our benefit that they whom we commemorate on earth will vouchsafe to make intercession for us in Heaven Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest turning towards the Faithful admonisheth them to joyn in Prayer with him that this their common Sacrifice which he is now about may be acceptable to God Pray Brethren that mine and your Sacrifice may be acceptable to God the Father Almighty The People answer O Lord receive this Sacrifice from thy hands to the honour and glory of his Name to our particular benefit and for the good of the whole Church The Priest says in a low voice Amen The SECRET The Faithful beg of God a solid piety and true sence of the Pains and Sufferings of his Son Jesus Christ whereby to be made capable of the benefit thereby obtained for us of life everlasting GRant we beseech thee O Lord that this Oblation made before thy Divine Majesty may obtain us the Grace of Piety and procure us Eternal Happiness Through our Lord c. THE PREFACE That is to say The Beginning of the Canon of the Mass and the General Preparation for the Sacrifice The Priest disposes the Faithful advising them to elevate their hearts to God to disengage them from all the solicitudes of Creatures to begin the Sacrifice with their hearts acknowledging the greatness of God's benefits and in particular those of his Incarnation and Passion of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit V. Lift up your hearts R. We have them lifted up to our Lord. The Priest bids them consider that 't is God alone who puts their hearts into that condition and that therefore they ought to give him publick thanks Let us give thanks to our Lord God The Faithful answer that 't is just and reasonable and according that they do give publick thanks by the Priest and particularly by their inward resentments heartily concurring in what the Priest says It is meet and just The Priest in the name of the Faithful acknowledges the obligation of giving God thanks always and every where for his goodness in vouchsafing that his Son should by the wood of the Cross save Mankind and destroy the Devil As this enemy of Mankind had made use of the Fruit of a Tree to establish his tyranny and ruine man and because we are not capable to make worthy acknowledgments for so inestimable a benefit the Priest joyns with this our Saviour through whom he gives praise to God as also with the Angels Cherubins and Seraphins who praise and adore God with an awful regard through Jesus Christ and unites himself to them in Christ as the common Father and Head of Men and Angels singing that Hymn which the blessed Spirits use in Heaven in honour of God Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus Holy Holy Holy and the Canticle which the Children sung at Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem Benedictus qui venit c. Blessed is he that comes c. to testifie the spiritual unity between Angels and Men in praising the Divine Majesty and to express that we ought to be as pure as Angels and innocent as Children to give God Almighty worthy and due praises IT is truly meet and just right and healthful that we always and in all places give thanks to thee O holy Lord Father Almighty Everlasting God who didst ordain the Salvation of Mankind in the Wood of the Cross that Life might be there restored whence Death arose and that he might be conquered by a Tree who had been conquered thereby through Christ our Lord. By whom the Angels praise thy Majesty the Dominations adore thee the Powers tremble the Heavens and the Heavenly Vertues and the blessed Seraphins in one common joy celebrate thy Name amongst whom we beseech thee that our humble Addresses may be admitted saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth The Heavens and Earth are full of thy glory Hosanna in the highest Blessed is he that comes in the Name of our Lord Hosanna in the highest C. Stella â—â—◠〈◊〉 sâ—â—â—â— THE CANON OF THE MASS OR The RULE and ORDER which the CHURCH observes in celebrating the Sacrifice The Priest in the name of the Faithful makes his address to God the Father and presents this Sacrifice by Jesus Christ his Son as by our
Mediator for the whole Church for the Pope for our Bishop for our King and for all faithful Catholicks WE therefore most merciful Father humbly beseech thee through thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord to accept and bless these ✚ Gifts these ✚ Presents these ✚ Immaculate Sacrifices which in the first we offer unto thee for thy Holy Catholick Church to which thou wilt please to grant peace and preserve and maintain in unity through the whole World with the Pope N. thy servant and our Prelate N. and our King N. with all Orthodox Believers of the Catholick Apostolick Faith Then the Priest makes a particular Commemoration of the living for whom he intends to offer his Sacrifice REmember O Lord all thy servants Men and Women Here he makes mention of those for whom he prays in particular And all such especially as are here present whose Faith and Devotion is known unto thee for whom we offer and who offer to thee for themselves or friends this Sacrifice of Praise for the Benefit of their Souls in hope of health and salvation and pay their vows unto thee the Eternal Living and True God The Priest by the vertue of the union of the Church militant with the triumphant in Jesus Christ beseeches God that he will please to supply the defect of his present Prayers imploring protection by the Merits and Suffrages of the most blessed Virgin of the Apostles Martyrs and all Saints PArticipating in the same Communion and Commemorating chiefly the ever glorious Virgin Mary Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ the blessed Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul Andrew James John Thomas James Philip Bartholomew Matthew Simon and Thadeus Linus Cletus Clement Xistus Cornelius Cyprian Laurence Chrysoganus John and Paul Cosmas and Damianus and of all Saints by whose Merits and Prayers be pleased to grant that in all things we may be protected by thee Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest spreads his hands over the Host and Chalice in testimony that he offers up himself to God together with this Sacrifice begging four things 1. That he will please to accept of this Offering 2. That he will grant us Peace 3. That he will deliver us from Everlasting Death 4. That he will place us amongst the blessed WE beseech thee O Lord therefore graciously to accept this oblation of our servitude as likewise of thy whole Family granting us Peace in our days and preserving us from Eternal Death place among thy Elect. Through Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest beseecheth God to receive and bless this Offering so as that he will please to accept of it and that it may become the Body and Blood of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ to expiate our sins and reconcile us to his Majesty WE beseech thee O God that thou wilt be pleased to make this Oblation blessed approved effectual reasonable and acceptable that it may be made unto us the Body and Blood of thy most beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ The Consecration After this Prayer the Priest comes to the principal action of the Sacrifice and commemorates all that Christ did or said when he instituted this Holy Sacrament and therefore after his example he blesseth and consecrateth the Bread in the same manner WHo the day before his Passion took the Bread into his holy and venerable hands and lifting his eyes towards heaven to thee his God and omnipotent Father to thee giving thanks he blessed broke and gave to his Disciples saying Take and eat ye all of this FOR THIS IS MY BODY The Elevation of the Host. Here the Priest after he hath upon his knees adored the Body of Jesus Christ he lifts it up to be seen and adored by the Faithful and to mind them that Christ's Body was elevated upon the Cross The Consecration of the Blood of Jesus Christ. He blesseth and consecrateth the Wine as Christ consecrated it turning the Wine into his Blood whereby he established and ratified his New Testament and signed the New Alliance he contracted with us to continue for ever IN like manner after he had supt taking this excellent Chalice into his holy and venerable hands giving thee also thanks he blessed it and gave it to his Disciples saying Take and drink ye all of this FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD OF THE NEW AND EVERLASTING TESTAMENT a Mystery of Faith WHICH SHALL BE SHED FOR YOU AND FOR MANY FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS This as often as you shall do you shall do in memory of me The Elevation of the Chalice And then adoring the Blood of our Saviour he elevates it for the same reason as he did the Body And as he offers this Holy Sacrifice in the Person of Christ in whose stead he hath celebrated this mysterious Consecration so is it done in the Name of the Church in honour of the three Mysteries of the Son of God viz. Of his Passion which we account from the Hour of his Conception till his Death of his Resurrection and Ascension The Signs of the Cross which the Priest makes over the Host after Consecration design unto us the particular manner of his immolation WHerefore O Lord we thy servants and the sanctified people also being mindful both of the blessed Passion of the same Christ thy Son our Lord and of his Resurrection as also of his glorious Ascension into Heaven we offer unto thy most excellent Majesty of thy Gifts bestowed upon us A pure Host a holy Host an immaculate Host the Holy Bread of Eternal Life and Chalice of Perpetual Salvation The Priest beseeches God to accept of this Sacrifice in memory of Abel's Sacrifice of Abraham's and Melchisedeck's which were only Figures of this WHich we beseech thee propitiously to regard and to receive this Holy Sacrifice and Immaculate Host as thou wert pleased to receive the Gifts of thy just Child Abel and the Sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham as likewise that which thy High Priest Melchisedeck offered unto thee Supplices te rogamus Jesus Christ communicates his Substance to the blessed in Heaven without Veil or Sacraments though he communicates himself sacramentally to men on earth and as the wicked are indifferently mixt with the just upon Earth it happens that the wicked receive the Communion in distinctly with the just but it is otherwise in Heaven where the Son of God communicates himself only to the Saints And hereupon the Priest on the behalf of the Faithful asks God's grace that Jesus Christ who in the Holy Scriptures is called the Angel of the Great Council and of the New Testament will give himself unto them under the shadow of this Holy Sacrament as he gives himself to the blessed without veil on the sublime and celestial Altar in the bosom of his Divinity that is to say that as all those are worthy who receive Christ in Heaven as being Saints so he would please to furnish all these with such his blessings and celestial gifts as may enable
to his Church And that this Peace is a reflection of that which he possesses infinitely in the Glory and Bosom of the Holy Trinity and which is fully communicated to the blessed The Priest begs this Peace for the Faithful and prays God that they may never fail of it THe Peace of our Lord abide always with you The People crave the same for him And with thy Spirit Haec Commixtio c. Then the Priest puts this part of the Host into the Chalice to signifie the happy state of the Church in our Saviour's Resurrection and glory after the union of his Body with his Blood and beseeches God to make us partakers of that happiness by vertue of this Sacrament LEt this Commixtion and Consecration of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ be unto me and to all that receive effectual to life everlasting Amen Agnus Dei c. As Sin is the onely Obstacle of this Divine Peace and our Bliss the Priest confessing in the name of the Faithful that we never are without sins in this life and that it is onely Christ who blots them out having been pleased to be sacrificed as an innocent Lamb for our attonement with God his Father and to settle this Peace between Heaven and Earth which sin had divided he implores mercy by this act of Adoration taught us by Saint John the fore-runner of our Saviour Behold the Lamb of God taketh away the sins of the world LAmb of God who takest away the sins of the World have mercy on us Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the World have mercy on us Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the World grant us peace In Masses for the Dead instead of saying Have Mercy on us Or Grant us Peace We say Grant them Rest Grant them Eternal Rest Because the dead being no longer in this World amongst us we have no occasion to beg peace with them and they being in a state of Grace where they are in peace and assurance of their salvation it would be in vain to ask God's grace to free them from sin and give them peace assuring them of their salvation we beseech God to deliver them from the pains they endure at present and grant them eternal rest which they expect Domine Jesu Christe qui dixisti c. Peace being the chief disposition of this Sacrament it being the Sacrament of Union and Charity the Priest begs it for the Faithful who are to receive this Holy Communion and acknowledging that he being a sinner deserves not that his Prayers should be heard he humbly beseeches his Majesty to have regard unto his own goodness who has vouchsafed to offer this Peace and to the Faith of the Church which demands it of him O Lord Jesus Christ who didst say unto thy Apostles Peace I leave unto you regard not my Sins but look upon the Faith of thy Church and according to thy pleasure give us Peace and Union Who livest and reignest God for ever and ever Amen At Solemn Mass the Priest having kissed the Altar to signifie that he receives peace from Jesus Christ gives it to the Deacon by a kiss to transmit it to the Faithful Peace be with you The Deacon receiving this Peace testifies his concurrence by his words And with thy Spirit At Masses for the Dead the Pax is not given to the Faithful nor is the foregoing Prayer said because the Faithful do not receive the Communion at those Masses and for other reasons before mentioned The Priest after he has prayed for the Faithful he prays for himself to obtain all requisite dispositions to receive the Holy Eucharist worthily O Lord Jesus Christ Son of the living God who according to thy Father's will the Holy Ghost co-operating by thy death didst give life to the World deliver me by this thy most holy Body and Blood from all my sins and from all evil and making me always obedient to thy commands grant that I be never separated from thee Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest c. GRant O Lord Jesus Christ that this participation of thy Body which I now however unworthy presume to receive be not to my Judgment and Condemnation but through thy mercy may avail to the safeguard of my Soul and Body and likewise as a wholsome remedy Who livest and reignest with God the Father c. Then with bending knee having adored the blessed Sacrament taking the Host in his hands and considering that he is to receive his Creator he puts his trust in his mercy saying I Will take this Heavenly Bread and call upon the Name of our Lord. And representing how acceptable the Centurians humility was to the Son of God where he was pleased to honour his house in imitation of him he professeth himself unworthy of so great a favour and striking his breast he repeats the same words thrice LOrd I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter into my house say but the word and my soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter into my house say but the word and my soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter into my house say but the word and my soul shall be healed In receiving the Body of our Saviour he makes the sign of the Cross with the Host to mind us that 't is the Body of Jesus Christ which hath been exposed to death for our salvation THe Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my soul to life everlasting Amen In taking the Chalice he gives God thanks for the Benefits he receives by the Communion of the Blood of Christ using these following words out of the 15th and 17th Psalm WHat shall I render to our Lord for all things that he hath given to me I will take the Chalice of Salvation and will Invocate the Name of our Lord. Praising I will Invocate our Lord and I shall be saved from my enemies In receiving the Blood of our Saviour he makes the sign of the Cross with the Chalice representing thereby that it is Christ's Blood which he shed to save us and says THe Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my soul to life everlasting Amen Then taking Wine into the Chalice to wash his mouth and fingers to the end that the least particle of the Sacrament may not remain thereon and to instruct us of the care we ought to have to preserve our selves in purity he says GRant O Lord what we have taken with our mouth we may receive with a pure mind and that of a temporal gift it may become to us an everlasting remedy In taking the second Lotion he says LEt thy Body which I have received O Lord and thy Blood which I have drank cleave unto my bowels and grant that no stain of sin may remain in me whom thy pure and holy Sacrament hath satiated Who livest and reignest for ever and ever Amen Then the Priest
unspeakable charity and the regard his Father had to his condition might easily obtain so just a request insomuch that he had onely a tast of death and the third day gloriously triumphed over it Though as the Son of God he was worthy to be heard without tears or cries and therefore should have been exempt from the least pains yet laying aside what he was he would by a transport worthy his love absolutely fulfil his Fathers will He took upon him all the evils wherewith he was charged to satisfie the rigour of his Justice To tast all sorts of grief and pains yielding himself a true Child as well as an obedient Disciple in all his sufferings He gave us a perfect example of patience and submission in all our afflictions O Lord hear my Prayer and let my cry come unto thee V. Turn not away thy face from me in what day soever I am in tribulation incline thy ear unto me V. In what day soever I shall invocate thee hear me speedily V. Because my days have vanished as smoke and my bones are withered as a dry burnt firebrand V. I am stricked as grass and my heart is withered because I have forgotten to eat my bread V. Thou rising up shalt have mercy on Sion because it is time to have mercy on it The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Luke chap. 22 23. AT that time the festival day of the Azymes approached which is called Pasche and the chief Priests and the Scribes sought how they might kill Jesus but they feared the people And Satan entred into Judas that was sirnamed Iscariot one of the twelve And he went and talked with the chief Priests and the Magistrates how he might betray him to them And they were glad and bargained to give him money And he promised And he sought opportunity to betray him apart from the multitudes And the day of the Azymes came wherein it was necessary that the Pasche should be killed And he sent Peter and John saying Go and prepare us the Pasche that we may eat But they said Where wilt thou that we prepare it And he said to them Behold as you enter into the City there shall meet you a man carrying a Pitcher of water follow him into the house into which he entereth and you shall say to the good man of the house The Master saith to thee Where is the Inn where I may eat the Pasche with my Disciples And he will shew you a great Refectory adorned and there prepare And they going found as he said to them and prepared the Pasche And when the hour was come he sate down and the twelve Apostles with him and he said to them With desire I have desired to eat this Pasche with you before I suffer For I say to you That from this time I will not eat it till it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God And taking the Chalice he gave thanks and said Take and divide among you for I say to you That I will not drink of the generation of the Vine till the Kingdom of God do come And taking Bread he gave thanks and brake and gave to them saying This is my Body which is given for you Do this for a commemoration of me In like manner the Chalice also after he had supped saying This is the Chalice of the New Testament in my Bloud which shall be shed for you But yet behold the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the Table And the Son of man indeed goeth according to that which is determined but yet wo to that man by whom he shall be betrayed And they began to question among themselves which of them it should be that should do this And there fell also a contention between them which of them seemed to be greater And he said unto them The Kings of the Gentiles over-rule them and they that have power upon them are called beneficial But you not so but he that is the greater among you let him become as the younger and he that is the leader as the waiter For which is greater he that sitteth at Table or he that ministreth Is not he that sitteth But I am in the midst of you as he that ministreth and you are they that have remained with me in my temptation And I dispose to you as my Father disposed to me a Kingdom that you may eat and drink upon my Table in my Kingdom and may sit upon Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And our Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan required to have you for to sift as Wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and thou once converted confirm thy Brethren Who said to him Lord with thee I am ready to go both into prison and unto death And he said I say unto thee Peter the Cock shall not crow to day till thou deny thrice thou knowest me And he said to them When I sent you without purse and skrip and shoes did you lack any thing But said Nothing He said therefore unto them But now he that hath a purse let him take it likewise also a skrip and he that hath not let him sell his coat and buy a sword For I say to you That yet this that is written must be fulfilled in me And with the wicked was he reputed For those things that are concerning me have an end But they said Lord lo two swords here But he said to them It is enough And going forth he went according to his custom into Mount Olivet and his Disciples also followed him And when he was come to the place he said to them Pray lest ye enter into temptation And he was pulled away from them a stones cast and kneeling he prayed saying Father if thou wilt transfer this Chalice from me But yet not my will but thine be done And there appeared to him an Angel from Heaven strengthening him and being in an agony he prayed the longer And his sweat became as drops of bloud trickling down upon the Earth And when he was risen up from prayer and was come to his Disciples he found them sleeping for pensiveness And he said to them Why sleep you Arise pray lest you enter into temptation As he was yet speaking behold a multitude and he that was called Judas one of the twelve went before them and approached to Jesus for to kiss him And Jesus said to him Judas with a kiss dost thou betray the Son of man And they that were about him seeing what would be said to him Lord shall we strike with the sword And one of them smote the servant of the High Priest and cut off his right ear But Jesus answering said Suffer ye thus far And when he had touched his ear he healed him And Jesus said to them that were come unto him the Chief Priests and Magistrates of the Temple and Ancients As it were to a thief are you come forth with swords
Psalm tells us how unalterable the just are in obeying the Law of God in the midst of persecutions considering the duty all creatures owe to God No brute beast will in the least resist his Creator's commands how much the more then are men obliged to obey him who are made after his own image and called to enjoy eternal bliss with him Secondly in considering how contemptible the goods of this life are and how inestimable those promised by Gods Law All perfections which these earthly goods have are finite and transitory and onely those which God promises his servants are infinite and eternal which alone can render us truly happy MY Soul hath fainted for thy salvation I have much hoped in thy Word My eyes have failed for thy word saying When wilt thou comfort me Because I am made as a bottle in the hoar frost I have not forgotten thy justifications How many are the days of thy servant when wilt thou do judgment on them that persecute me The unjust have told me fables but not as thy Law All thy Commandments are truth they have unjustly persecuted me help me They have well near made an end of me in the Earth but I have not forsaken thy Commandments According to thy mercy quicken me and I shall keep the testimonies of thy mouth For ever Lord thy Word is permanent in Heaven Thy truth in generation and generation thou hast founded the Earth and it is permanent By thy ordinance the day continueth because all things serve thee But that thy Law is my meditation I had then perhaps perished in my humiliation I will not forget thy justifications for ever because in them thou hast quickned me I am thine save me because I have sought out thy justifications Sinners have expected me to destroy me I understood thy testimonies Of all consummation I have seen the end thy Commandment is exceeding large In the seventh part of this 118 or 119 Psalm the Kingly Prophet instructs us that to obtain divine knowledge and wisdom we must earnestly demand it of God and we must restifie an ardent love to him and endeavour to keep his Commandments Secondly He teaches us that this divine wisdom renders us more knowing than our Masters when we love him more than they for our Masters are his Disciples as well as we It is a Master which not onely makes us know good but gives us also the will and power to do it Consequently the Prophet tells us the effect of this divine wisdom It makes us flie and hate sin and to delight in the Law of God By it we put on a firm resolution to keep the Commandments by it we order our lives well and all things relating to our soul and disposing our heart to be upright and sincere we do all things according to Justice and Equity It fortifies us against temptations and persecutions making us prefer the expected rewards for our good works before the vain pleasures and goods of this World HOw have I loved thy law O Lord all the day it is my meditation Above my enemies thou hast made me wise by thy Commandment because it is to me for ever Above all that taught me have I understood because thy testimonies are my meditation Above Ancients have I understood because I have sought thy Commandments I have stayed my feet from all evil way that I may keep thy words I have not declined from thy judgments because thou hast set me a law How sweet are thy words to my jaws more than honey to my mouth By thy Commandments I have understood therefore have I hated all the way of iniquitie Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths I swear and I have determined to keep the judgments of thy justice I am humbled exceedingly O Lord quicken me according to thy Word The voluntaries of my mouth make acceptable O Lord and teach me thy judgements My soul is in my hands always and I have not forgotten thy law Sinners laid a snare for me and I have not erred from thy commandments For inheritance I have purchased thy testimonies for ever because they are the joy of my heart I have inclined my heart to do thy justifications for reward In the Eighth Part of this Psalm the kingly Prophet teaches us that to the end a faithful soul may be made capable of divine wisdom she must divest her self of the maxims of humane prudence and that to preserve it she must be solicitous to avoid sin not so much in detestation of sin as for the content and pleasure she ought to take in just actions She must always endeavour to have a holy fear of losing that grace which has given her sentiments of joy in avoiding sin and by which as yet she hath a fear to be forsaken of God though he inflict not punishments upon her In fine she ought to have a great zeal for the service and glory of God I Have hated the unjust and I have loved thy law Thou art my helper and protector and upon thy word I have much hoped Depart from me ye malignant and I will search the Commandments of my God Receive me according to thy word and I shall live and confound me not of my expectation Help me and I shall be saved and I will always meditate in thy justifications Thou hast despised all that revolt from thy judgments because their cogitation is unjust All the sinners of the earth I have reputed prevaricaterers therefore have I loved thy testimonies Pierce my flesh with thy fear for I am afraid of thy judgments I have done judgment and justice deliver me not to them that calumniate me Receive thy servant unto good let not the proud calumniate me Mine eyes have failed after salvation and for the word of thy justice Do with thy servant according to thy mercy and teach me thy justifications I am thy servant give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies It is time to do O Lord they have dissipated thy law Therefore have I loved thy Commandments above Gold and Topazius Therefore was I directed to all thy Commandments all wicked way have I hated The Church tells us that this Divine Wisdom whereof the Royal Prophet speaks is not given to men by the merits of Christs Passion as no man can be saved but by faith in Jesus Christ V. Christ was made obedient for us even unto death Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. Miserere mei Deus c. as before pag. 6. The PRAYER Respice quaesumus c. as before pag. 130. At the Ninth Hour Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. PSALM 118 or 119. In the Ninth Part of this 118th or 119th Psalm the Holy Prophet teaches us by his example to honour the Law of God with profound Humility telling us that if we love it 't is God's gift He exhorts us to beseech his Majesty not to leave his gifts imperfect but that illuminating
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
unto you absolution and remission of all your sins space of true penance and amendment of life Amen Then the Bishop gives his solemn Benediction saying V. Blessed be the Name of our Lord. R. Now and for evermore V. Our help is in the Name of our Lord. R. Who made Heaven and Earth Almighty God Father Son and Holy Ghost bless you all Amen After the solemn Benediction is given the Deacon in his Dalmatique kneeling down to the Bishop asks his Blessing for the reading of the Gospel and having received it sings the Gospel out of that day's Mass Ante diem festum c. The Bishop setting aside his Mitre stands upright holding the Crosier in both his hands till the end of the Gospel to teach us to listen with respect to God's Holy Word and testifie our Faith of the Resurrection After the Deacon hath read the Gospel he presents the Book to the Bishop to kiss to testifie the Union and Charity which all Christians ought to have in the observation of the Word of God to obtain pardon for their sins and reconcile themselves to God The King washes the feet of thirteen poor people and attends on them at the Table in great ceremony in imitation of Christ's Humility who washed his Apostles feet who were thirteen comprehending St. Paul At Paris the Archbishop gives the same general Absolution on Wednesday-afternoon at our Lady's Church and on Thursday-morning at the Church-yard of the Holy Innocents For the Washing of the Feet The Church imitating the Example and Command which our blessed Saviour gave us celebrates this day the Ceremony of Washing Feet and teacheth us that he thereby hath recommended Humility and Charity among us and to be careful that we cleanse our selves from the least sins figured unto us by the filth that sticks to our feet 'T is that which the Church presents unto us by Antiphons by the Verses of the Psalms and by the Prayers sung in this Ceremony blessing God for the Graces bestowed on us through our Lord Jesus Christ where we must observe that he calls it a New Command wherein he obliged us to love one another for that the Old Command given unto Moses and engraven upon the Tables of the Law was to love ones Neighbour as ones self but Jesus Christ had made it a New Command by the extent he gave it requiring us to love our Neighbour more than our selves even as to this temporal life that is to say as Christ gave his life for us so we ought to offer up ours for our Neighbour upon certain occasions as if his salvation were in danger we ought to expose our life to preferve him The practice of this Day 's Ceremony is very ancient for St. Augustin in his Epistle and the Seventeenth Council of Toledo held in the Seventh Age in the Third Canon and St. Eligius Bishop of Noyon in the same Age in his Fourth and Eighth Homily of our Lord's Supper makes mention of it The Prelate or Superior in his Albe Amice Stole and Coap of a Violet colour with his Deacon and Subdeacon goes to the place prepared to wash the Feet the Deacon holding the Book of the Gospel between his Arms kneels to the Prelate or Superior and asks his Blessing to read the Gospel saying Sir Vouchsafe to Bless me and having received his Benediction puts the Book into the Subdeacons hands to testifie he declares nothing to the People but what he was ordered to do by the Prelate The Acolyts hold the Candles to signifie the joy which the people ought to have in that they are enlightened with the Gift of Faith Before the Deacon begins to read the Gospel he begs God's Grace for the Assembly to hear his Word worthily saying Our Lord be with you He Incenseth the Book to signifie that we adore Jesus Christ who redeemed us and freed us from our sins by faith in the Gospel acknowledging him to be God and the second Person of the Holy Trinity And then he reads the Gospel Ante diem Festum as before The Gospel being ended the Subdeacon presents the Book to the Prelate or Superior to kiss who thereby testifies the Unity and Charity which the Faithful ought to have in the observance of God's Word to the end to obtain pardon for their sins The Deacon incenseth after the usual manner Then the Prelate or Superior laying aside his Coap the Deacon and Subdeacon putting a Towel about him washeth the feet of those chosen for this Ceremony dries and kisses them whilest they sing I Give you a New Commandment that you love one another as I loved you saith our Lord. PSALM 118. BLessed are the immaculate in the way which walk in the law of our Lord. The Antiphon Mandatum novum c. and the other Antiphons out of the Psalms are repeated and onely the first Verse of each Psalm is said Ant. After our Lord was risen from Supper he put Water into a Bason and began to wash his Disciples feet to whom he left this example Psalm 47. Great is our Lord and to be praised exceedingly in the city of our God in his holy mount Ant. After our Lord Jesus had supt with his Disciples he washed their feet and said unto them Do you see what I your Lord and Master have done unto you I have given you an example that you also may do the like Psalm 84. O Lord thou hast blest thy land thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob Ant. Wilt thou O Lord wash my feet Jesus answered and said unto him If I wash not thy feet thou shalt have no part with me V. Jesus came unto Simon Peter and Peter said to him Here the Antiphon is repeated Wilt thou O Lord wash my feet Jesus answered and said unto him If I wash not thy feet thou shalt have no part with me V. What I do thou knowest not now but shalt know hereafter Then is repeated this Antiphon the third time O Lord dost thou wash my feet Jesus answered and said unto him If I wash not thy feet thou shalt have no part with me V. If I your Lord and Master have washt your feet how much more ought you to wash one anothers feet Psalm 116. All nations hear these things and all people understand them Ant. All men shall know you to be my disciples in that you love one another V. Said Jesus to his disciples Ant. Let faith hope and charity abide in you these three but the greatest of them is charity V. But now remain faith hope and charity these three but the greatest of them is charity Ant. Blessed be the Holy Trinity and Undivided Unity we will confess unto him because he hath dealt with us according to his mercy V. Let us bless the Father and Son with the Holy Ghost Psalm 83. How beloved are thy tabernacles O Lord of Hosts my soul coveteth and fainteth unto the courts of our Lord. Ant. Where charity and love is there
of this day wherein the Son of God was betrayed into the hands of the Jews to expiate our sins the Priest beseeches God that he will be pleased to supply the defect of the Prayers he makes to implore his protection by the merits and suffrages of the blessed Virgin the Apostles Martyrs and of all Saints PArticipating in the same Communion and Celebrating the Solemnity of this Blessed Day wherein our Saviour Jesus Christ was betrayed for us and in the first place honouring the memory of the ever glorious Virgin Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul Andrew James John Thomas James Philip Bartholomew Matthew Simon and Thaddaeus Linus Cletus Clement Xistus Cornelius Cyprian Laurence Chrysogonus John and Paul Cosme and Damian and all the other Saints Through whose Prayers and Merits vouchsafe to grant us in all things the help of thy protection by the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest executing the Command which Christ this day gave his Disciples and their Successours to celebrate these Holy Mysteries in memory of him spreads his hands over the Host and Chalice to testifie to God that he offers and sacrifices himself joyntly therewith begging four things 1. That he will please to accept of this Offering 2. To grant us Peace 3. To deliver us from Eternal Damnation 4. To place us amongst the Elect. WE beseech thee therefore graciously to accept this Oblation of our and of thy whole families Duty which we present unto thee in solemnizing this present day whereon our Lord Jesus Christ ordained his Disciples to celebrate the Mysteries of his Body and Blood beseeching thee to grant us Peace in these our days and preserving us from Eternal Damnation to seat us among thy Elect Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest begs of God that he will accept and so bless this Oblation that it may be found good reasonable and agreeable that it may become the Body and Blood of his Son our Lord to expiate our sins and reconcile us to his Majesty WHich Oblation O God we beseech thee to make in all things blessed allowed approved reasonable and acceptable that it may be made to us the Body and Blood of thy beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ The CONSECRATION After this Prayer the Priest comes to the principal Action of the Sacrifice and commemorates all that Christ did or said when he instituted this Holy Sacrament and following his example he blesseth and consecrateth in this manner WHo the day before his Passion for us and for the whole world that is this day took bread into his holy and venerable hands and lifting up his eyes towards heaven to the God his Father Almighty giving thee thanks he blessed brake and gave it unto his disciples saying Take eat ye all of this FOR THIS IS MY BODY All the rest till the Communion as before pag. 66 c. Thou must observe that the Kiss of Peace is not given at this time at this Day 's Mass to mind us of the horrid traiterous Kiss of Judas This Day the Priest consecrates two Hosts reserving one for the morrow when there is no consecration He reserves also some Particles for the sick in case of necessity and drinks up all the Blood and before the Ablution of his Fingers he puts the reserved Host into another Chalice which the Deacon covers with the Patten and Pall. Then he spreads the Veil over it placing it in the midst of the Altar and having given the Communion he finishes the rest of the Mast The COMMUNION taken out of the 13th Chapter of St. John The Church teacheth by the Example and Command of Jesus Christ to become humble and charitable to be pure and free from the least sins figured by the filth of our feet that so we may worthily receive the Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ OUr Lord Jesus after he had supped with his Disciples washt their feet and said unto them Know ye what I have done unto you bring your Lord and Master I have given you an example That you should do as I have done unto you The POST-COMMUNION As the participation of the Body and Blood of Christ is a kind of figure of our Eternal Bliss in that we are fed under the Veil of the Sacrament with the same Food which the blessed without Veil or Sacrament enjoy in Heaven we beg of God the grace to receive in Heaven that wholesom effect the mystery whereof we celebrate on Earth GRant we beseech thee O Lord our God that being refresht with thee life-giving food we may receive by thy grace in Everlasting Bliss that which we celebrate in this mortal life Through Christ our Lord. Amen All the rest as before pag. 175 c. except that Ita Missa est is said instead of Benedicamus Domino because that Gloria in Excelsis was said in this Mass This day a proper place is prepared in some Chappel or Altar of the Church to expose the Chalice and reserved Host as we said before pag. 175. Then Mass being ended the Tapers are lighted and Procession begun The Subdeacon vested carries the Cross The Priest that did celebrate putting off his Vestment puts on a white Coap and standing upright before the Altar he puts Incense into the two Thuribles without a Blessing Afterwards kneeling he incenseth the blessed Sacrament thrice and taking the Chalice with the blessed Sacrament from the hands of the Deacon which he covers with the ends of the Veil that hangs upon his shoulders he goes under the Canopy with the Deacon and Subdeacon The two Acolyts incense the blessed Sacrament till they come to the place provided singing this following Hymn during the Procession SIng O my Tongue devoutly sing The glorious Bodies mystery And of that precious Blood the King Of Nations poured forth to free The World from a disastrous doom O blessed fruit of noblest womb On us bestow'd for us thy birth He from a Virgin did proceed And be conversant on earth Till he had sowed the Gospel-seed The time of his prolonged stay He clos'd in an admirable way He on the final supper night Among his brethren taking seat And well observing the ancient rite Touching the laws prescribed mete Gave to the twelve his chosen band Himself for food with 's proper hand The Incarnate Word by words he said Turned into flesh substantial bread And wine the blood of Christ was made Though sense found nothing altered This to confirm in hearts sincere There needs no more if faith be there To this great Sacrament therefore Let 's give the prostrate Worship due And may the ancient Rite no more Take place but yield it to the new Let faith in Jesus Christ supply The senses insufficiency To Father and the Son let 's bring Triumphant praises let 's aspire Their honour power and bliss to sing While benedictions fill the Quire To him that from both is sprung Let equal
and when thy years shall be accomplished thou wilt make thy self known when the time shall come thou wilt be manifested V. And when my soul shall be troubled thou wilt remember thy mercy even in thy wrath V. God will come from Libanus and the Holy One from the shady and dark mountain V. His glory overspread the heavens and the earth was filled with his praise Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves The PRAYER The people considering on the one side that Judas having received so many testimonies of favour from Jesus Christ after he had been admitted to his Table was yet so blinded with covetousness that he betrayed his Master and God into the hands of the Jews who put him to death upon the Cross and transported with despair fell headlong into Hell on the other side the good thief made sensible by his pains repented himself of his sins and acknowledged our dying Saviour's divinity and put his whole hopes and confidence in him deserved to receive the fruit of his Death and Resurrection they beseech God that they may not approach his Table as Judas did but may obtain the same grace with the penitent thief that so they may reap the advantage of the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour O God who hast punished the sin of Judas and rewarded the confession of the repenting thief grant unto us the effect of thy mercy to the end that as our Lord Jesus Christ hath dispensed to each of them at his Passion according to their merit so having destroyed the old man in us the grace to have part with him in his glorious resurrection Who liveth and reigneth one God world without end The LESSON taken out of the twelfth Chapter of Exodus The Church proposes to us in this Lesson the Ceremony of the Jewish Passover thereby teaching us that Jesus Christ having accomplisht the Solemnity of the ancient Pasche celebrated in memory of the deliverance of the people of Israel out of the Egyptian servitude passed to a new Passover which he is pleased the Church should solemnize in memory of the Redemption which he brought unto the world by giving his body and blood instead of the flesh and blood of the Paschal Lamb. The entire and unspotted Paschal Lamb signified that he who as a sacrifice was one day to be immolated for us should be pure and free from all spot or sin The blood of this Lamb wherewith the Gates of the Israelites were sprinkled to prevent the destroying Angel from involving them in the same slaughter with the first-born of Egypt was a sign that the blood of Christ should be shed for the remission of the sins of God's people The injunction of not breaking a bone of the Paschal Lamb signified that not a bone of Christ should be broken upon the Cross to shew the force and power of his divinity As God instituted the Pasche and commanded the Israelites to eat the Paschal Lamb in memory of the Miracles he had done for them in Egypt so his Son Jesus Christ instituted the Sacrament of his body and blood in memory of what he had done for us in his Passion The Jews in eating the Paschal Lamb were in a posture of travellers to mind them that they were upon the point of flying out of Egypt into the land of Palestine and therefore they were standing upright having their shooes on with a staff in their hands and to eat it hastily With how much more diligence and activity ought we to eat the Divine Lamb of the New Law since we are to make a longer Voyage viz. from Earth to Heaven The Jews were not to eat the Paschal Lamb but with unleavened bread to teach us that we cannot eat as we ought our Paschal Lamb whereof theirs was but onely a figure unless we purisie our hearts from all filth becoming as a new paste without leaven that is without sin The Jews did eat the Paschal Lamb with wild Lettice to signifie the grief we ought to have for our sins and the bitterness we must conceive to expiate them whereby to pass hence to heaven The number of persons which the Jews were to call together to eat the Paschal Lamb was a figure of that charity we ought to bear to each other to the end we may worthily partake in this Sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ It was commanded not to eat any thing of this Lamb that was raw to teach us that we are not to eat the body of our Lord without the due preparation which God requires of us It was prohibited to be eaten boiled in water and onely to be eaten roasted to instruct us that our love of God ought to be pure in our hearts whereby to make us worthy to eat the flesh of this Divine Lamb without engaging our affections upon the transient pleasures of this life figured by water in the Holy Scripture The Jews did eat the head feet and entrails of the Paschal Lamb to tell us that we must sincerely and firmly believe not only the divinity of Christ figured by the head but his humanity figured by the feet and all the more hidden mysteries of our faith represented by the entrails The blood of this Paschal Lamb was sprinkled on the two side-posts and upon the upper door-post of the house in form of a cross to signifie that by the cross and blood of Christ we are delivered from the tyranny of the devil and servitude of sin And it was further to signifie that to receive worthily this Sacrament of the Passion of our Saviour we must not onely take it with our mouths but with our hearts designing to imitate him by the practice of good works In fine All that remained of this Paschal Lamb was cast into the fire and burnt to observe unto us that when we find our selves incapable of eating this Sacrifice entirely through weakness of spirit or doubting whether that which we see be the body of our Saviour which the Angels themselves are not able to behold we are not then to continue longer in that doubt but cast it into the fire of the holy spirit that it may be there consumed since our weakness is not able to overcome it If not then when we consider that the things that seem impossible unto us cease not to become possible by the vertue of the Holy Ghost IN those days our Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt This month shall be to you the beginning of months it shall be the first in the months of the year Speak ye to the whole assembly of the children of Israel and say to them The tenth day of this month let every man eat a lamb by their families and houses But if their number be less then may suffice to eat the lamb he shall take unto him his neighbour that joyneth to his house according to the number of souls which may suffice to the eating of
to the true living God and to his only Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Let us Pray Let us bend our knees R. Lift up your selves ALmighty and Everlasting God who willest not the death of sinners but rather that they should be converted and live graciously hear our Prayers and freeing them from their Idolatry admit them into thy holy Church for the honour and glory of thy Name Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The Adoration of the Cross This Adoration is not terminated in the wood of the Cross but in Jesus Christ fastened thereon The Ceremony is very ancient For besides that it is set forth in the Roman Order and in St. Gregory's Book of the Sacraments St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola the immortal Ornament and Native of Bourdeaux living in the Fourth Age mentions it in his 11 Epistle to Severus Sulpicius The publick Prayers being ended the Priest puts off his Casuble and takes the Cross to represent Jesus Christ naked and loaded with his Cross Then he uncovers it at three several times to shew us how the Gospel was spred first in a little corner of Judea and for that cause the Priest begins to unvail the Cross on the right side and beneath the Altar singing BEhold the Wood of the Cross And the Quire answers R. Come let us adore Secondly The Gospel was preached publickly to the Jews figured by the right side of the Altar and therefore the Priest coming to the right corner of the Altar uncovers the right arm and the head of the Crucifix saying again Behold the Wood of the Cross The Quire answering R. Come let us adore Thirdly The Gospel was preacht to the whole world and therefore the Priest goes to the middle of the Altar and uncovers the Crucifix entirely saying Behold the Wood of the Cross whereon the Saviour of the World is fastened The Quire answer again R. Come let us adore Then the Priest puts the Cross in a convenient place for the people he first beginning this Ceremony in three times kneeling according to the ancient custom in the Roman Order And after the Priest the rest of the Clergy and people follow in the same manner During the Ceremony the Trisagion is sung both in Latine and Greek being taken from the Grecians as you may read in the first Session of the Council of Chalcedon mentioned by Nicephorus in his 14th Book and 46th Chapter and by it the Church offers to our meditation that Christ dying for us according to his humanity is the living invincible and immortal God by his Natural and Divine Person Then the following Verses are sung taken out of the Prophets and particularly out of Michaeas which contain the just reproaches our Saviour made to the Jews for their ingratitude MY people what have I done to thee or in what have I molested thee Answer me V. Because I brought thee out of the land of Egypt thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour V. Agios O Theos Sanctus Deus O Holy God V. Agios Ischyros Sanctus fortis Holy and strong God V. Agios Athanatos Eleison imas Sanctus immortalis miserere nobis Holy and immortal God have mercy on us V. Because I led thee through the desart forty years and fed thee there with Manna and brought thee into a good soil thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour Agios O Theos c. as before V. What ought I to do more and have not done I have planted thee my most beautiful vine and thou art become very bitter unto me in my thirst thou gavest me vinegar to drink and with a launcet thou hast pierced thy Saviour's side Agios O Theos as before V. My people what have I done to thee or in what have I molested thee Answer me V. For thy sake I struck Egypt in their first-born and thou hast delivered me to be scourged My people c. I brought thee forth of Egypt having drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea and thou hast delivered me over to the princes of the priests My people c. V. For thee I opened the sea and with a launce thou hast pierced my side My people c. V. I went before thee in a pillar of the cloud and thou hast brought me to the palace of Pilate My people c. V. I nourished thee with Manna in the desart and thou hast struck me with bussets and whips My people c. V. I gave thee wholsom water to drink from the rock and thou hast given me to drink vinegar and gall My people c. V. For thy sake I have struck the kings of the Chananites and thou hast struck my head with a reed My people c. V. I gave thee a royal scepter and thou hast set upon my head a crown of thorns My people c. V. I have raised thee with great strength and thou fastened me on the cross The ANTIPHON The people by their adoring the Cross testifie their horrour of the Jews impiety and ingratitude and considering how Christ triumphed over death by his glorious Resurrection to make us partakers of his glory they render him thanks O Lord we adore thy Cross we praise and glorifie thy Holy Resurrection for by the Wood of the Crofs the whole World is filled with joy PSALM LXVI The Faithful beg of God that he will make them capable to receive the benefit of his Passion and Resurrection GOd have mercy upon us and bless us Illuminate his countenance upon us and have mercy on us Ant. O Lord we adore thy Cross c. After this Crux fidelis and the Hymn Pange lingua are sung HAil Holy Cross to thee we bow To whose blest fruit our lives we ow Our earth bears no such tree Dear are the nails and dear the wood On which our dear Lord shed his blood 'T was Heaven that planted thee Come then my soul and gladly sing The happy combate of our King Which on this Cross he sought Where he the all-victorious Lamb Sin Death and Hell it self o'recame And our full safely wrought V. Hail Holy Cross to thee we bow To whose blest fruit our lives we ow Our earth bears no such tree V. He saw with pity our sad fate When our first-parents rashly ate Of that unhappy tree He saw and markt the deadly wound And soon this sovereign Balsam found To save our souls by thee V. Dear are the nails and dear the wood On which our dear Lord shed his blood 'T was Heaven that planted thee V. This way our cure required as fit That Heaven 's high wisdom should out-wit The dire black art of hell And from the source of all our bane A powerful Antidote should be tane The poison to expell Hail Holy Cross c. V. When the blest time was fully come The Father from his glorious home Sent his Eternal Son He that created Heaven and Earth Of a poor Virgin took his Birth And our frail flesh put on V. Dear are the nails
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
image to the image of God he created him male and female he created them And God blessed them and saith Increase and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and rule over the fishes of the sea and fouls of the air and all living creatures that move upon the earth And God said Behold I have given you all manner of herb that seedeth upon the earth and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind to be your meat and to all beasts of the earth and to every foul of the air and to all that move upon the earth and wherein there is life that they may have to feed upon And it was so done And God saw all things that he had made and they were very good And there was evening and morning that made the sixth day The heavens therefore and the earth were fully finished and all the furniture of them And the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and rested the seventh day from all the work that he had done The Church having told us in the precedent Lesson whence we derive our Extraction to what a state of Glory God had raised the first Man having placed him in the midst of the delights of Paradise as in the shadow of Life from whence by an exact observance of God's Commandments he was to have been translated to a far more happy condition in this she tells us the cause of our fall and the excess of God's love to us that he sent his only Son to deliver us from eternal Damnation whereunto we were enslaved and to make us capable of Eternal Life And thereupon by the voice of the Deacon she exhorts us to bend our knees and render all due acknowledgments to the Divine Goodness Let us Pray Let us bend our knees The Church shewing us that our sins are exceeding great and numerous and that our state is very lamentable yet she assures us that the Remedy our Saviour brought us is far more effectual and powerful by the Sub-deacon's answering R. Lift up your selves The Faithful give God thanks by the Priest for his goodness in Creating and Redeeming them and considering that the Mortal Venom of sin seized upon Eve and Adam through their own Senses and thereby fell into that misery which was the Fountain of ours beseeches of his Majesty the Grace to subject their Senses to their Reason so as they may reap the wholsome effect of their Redemption O God who by an admirable effect of thy power hast created man and yet more powerfully hast redeemed him grant we beseech thee strength of our reason we may overcome all allurements to sin and at length enjoy eternal happiness Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The SECOND PROPHECY out of the 5th 6th 7th and 8th Chapters of Genesis In this second Lesson the Church teaches Catechumens that as in the Deluge all men perish'd except those that were in the Ark with Noe So to avoid damnation all Men must enter into the Ark that is into the Church of Christ out of which there is no Salvation NOE when he was five hundred years old begat Sem Cham and Japhet And after that men began to be multiplied upon the earth and procreation of daughters the sons of God seeing the daughters of men that they were fair took to themselves wives out of all which they had chosen And God said My spirit shall not remain with man for ever because he is flesh and his days shall be an hundred and twenty years And gyants were upon the earth in those days For after the sons of God did company with the daughters of men and they brought forth children these be the mighty of the old world famous men And God seeing the malice of men was much upon the earth and that all the cogitation of their hearts was bent to evil at all times it repented him that he had made man upon earth And touched inwardly with sorrow of heart I will saith he clean take away man whom I have created from the face of the earth from man even to beasts from that which creepeth even unto the fouls of the air For it repenteth me that I have made them But Noe found grace before our Lord. These are the generations of Noe. Noe was a a just and perfect man in his generations He did walk with God And he begat three sons Sem Cham and Japhet And the earth was corrupted before God and was replenished with iniquity And when God had perceived that the earth was corrupted for all flesh had corrupted his way upon earth he said to Noe The end of all flesh is come before me the earth is replenished with iniquity from the face of them and I will destroy them with the earth Make thee an ark of timber-plank cabinets shalt thou make in the earth and shalt pitch it within and without with Bitume And thus shalt thou make it The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits fifty cubits the breadth and thirty cubits the heighth of it Thou shalt make a window in the ark and in a cubit finish the top of it and the door of the ark shalt thou set at the side below middle chambers and third losts shalt thou make in it Behold I will bring the waters of a great flood upon the earth that I may destroy all flesh wherein there is breath of life under heaven All things that are in the earth shall be consumed And I will establish my covenant with thee and thou shalt enter into the ark thou and thy sons and thy wife and the wives of thy sons with thee And of all living creatures of all flesh thou shalt bring pairs into the ark that they may live with thee of the male sex and the female Of fouls according to their kind and of beasts in their kind and of all that creepeth on the earth according to their kind pairs of all sorts shall enter in with thee that they may live Thou shalt take therefore with thee of all meats that may be eaten and thou shalt lay them up with thee and they shall be meat for thee and them Noe therefore did all things which God commanded him And he was six hundred years old when the waters of the flood overflowed the earth Then all the fountains of the great depth were broken up and the flood-gates of heaven were opened and the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights In the very point of that day entred Noe and Sem Cham and Japhet his sons and his wife and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark they and every beast according to their kind and all cattel in their kind and all that moveth upon the earth according to their kind and all foul according to their kind Moreover the ark floted upon the waters And the waters prevailed out of measure upon the earth and all the high mountains under the whole
heaven were covered Fifteen cubits higher was the water above the mountains which it covered And all the flesh was consumed that moved upon the earth of fowl of cattel of beasts and of all creepers that creep upon the earth But only Noe remained and they that were with him in the ark And the waters held on above the earth an hundred and fifty days And God remembred Noe and all the beasts and all the cattel which were with him in the ark and brought a wind upon the earth and the waters decreased And the fountains of the depth and the flood-gates of heaven were shut up and the rain from heaven was staid And the waters returned from the earth going and coming and they began to decrease after an hundred and fifty days And after that forty days were passed Noe opened the window of the ark which he had made let forth a crow which went forth and did not return till the waters were dried upon the earth He sent forth also a dove after him to see if the waters were ceased yet upon the face of the earth which finding not where her foot might rest returned to him into the ark for the waters were upon the whole earth and stretched forth his hand and caught her and brought her into the ark And having expected yet seven more days again he let forth a dove out of the ark but she came to him at eventide carrying a bough of an olive tree that had green leaves in her mouth Noe therefore understood that the waters were ceased upon the earth And he expected nevertheless other seven days and he sent forth a dove which returned not any more to him And God spake to Noe saying Go forth of the ark thou and thy wife thy sons and the wives of thy sons with thee All cattel which are with thee of all flesh as well in fowls as in beasts and all creepers that creep upon earth bring out with thee and go ye upon the earth encrease and multiply upon it Noe therefore went forth and his sons his wife and the wives of his sons with him Yea and all cattel beasts and creepers that creep upon the earth according to their kind went forth out of the ark And Noe built an altar to our Lord and taking of all cattel and fowls that were clean offered holocausts upon the altar And our Lord smelled a sweet savour The Priest begs of God on the Peoples behalf that admitting them into his Church thereby securing them from the Deuge wherewith the World was overflowed by sin he would be pleased to restore them to that Innocency wherein they were Created Let us Pray Let us kneel R. Lift up your selves O God whose power is unchangeable and light eternal look favourably upon the mystical and wonderful body of thy whole Church and by the effect of thy continual conduct compleat tranquillity the salvation of mankind that all the world may experimentally see that thou hast raised what was fallen and renewed what was decayed and that all things are re-established by him from whom they had their beginning our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen The THIRD PROPHECY taken out of the 22d Chapter of Genesis The Church instructs the Catechumens that as Christ was tempted by the Devil after his Baptism so they must prepare for and fortifie themselves against the Temptations of this Enemy of our Salvation learning by his example to overcome them And as there is another sort of Temptation wherewith God sometimes tries his Servants the Church admonishes the Catechumens to be ready as Christ was to give Testimony of their Faith and Obedience And therefore Abraham is proposed as an Example whose Faith was more prevalent than his inclinations of Nature and caused him to Offer couragiously in Sacrifice his dear Son Isaac who had been given him beyond his expectation and by whom alone he could hope for his innumerable Posterity which God had promised unto him This was a strange Tryal nor could he have obeyed with such promptitude a Command so irksom but by the strength of Faith which made him firmly believe that God having drawn his Son from a Man half dead through Age he could also preserve him from the Tomb and Slaughter IN those days God tempted Abraham and said to him Abraham Abraham But he answered Here I am He said to him Take thy only begotten Son whom thou lovest Isaac and go into the land of vision and there thou shalt offer him for an holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will shew thee Therefore Abraham rising up in the night sadled his ass taking with him two young men and Isaac his son and when he had cut wood for the holocaust he went his way to the place which God had commanded him And the third day lifting up his eyes he saw the place afar off And he said to his young men Tarry you here with the ass I and the boy going with speed as far as yonder after we have adored will return to you He took also the wood of the holocaust and laid it upon Isaac his son and himself carried in his hand fire and a sword And as they went together Isaac said to his Father My father And he answered What wilt thou son Behold saith he fire and wood Where is the victim of the holocaust And Abraham said God will provide unto himself the victim of the holocaust my son They went therefore together and they came to the place which God had shewed him wherein he builded an altar and laid the wood in order upon it And when he had bound Isaac his son he laid him on the altar upon the pile of wood And stretched forth his hand and caught the sword for to sacrifice his son And behold an angel of our Lord from heaven cried saying Abraham Abraham who answered Here I am And he said to him Stretch not forth thy hand upon the boy neither do thou any thing to him Now I have known that thou fearest God and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw behind his back a ram amongst the briers sticking fast by the horns which he took and offered an holocaust instead of his son And he called the name of that place Our Lord seeth whereupon even to this day it is said in the mountain Our Lord will see And the angel of our Lord called Abraham the second time from heaven saying By my own self have I sworn saith our Lord because thou hast done this thing and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake I will bless thee and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is by the sea-shore thy seed shall posses the gates of his enemies And in this seed shall be blessed all the nations of the earth because thou hast obeyed my voice
he is bountiful to forgive for my cogitations are not your cogitations nor your ways my ways saith our Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth so are my ways exalted above your ways and my cogitations above your cogitations And as the shower cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth no more thither but inebriateth the earth and watereth it and maketh it to spring and giveth seed to the sower and bread to him that eateth so shall my word be which shall proceed from my mouth It shall not return to me void but it shall do what things soever I would and shall prosper in these things for which I sent it saith our Lord God Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves The Church begs of God an absolute Conversion of all the Nations of the Earth ALmighty and Eternal God multiply for the honour of thy Name that which thou hast promised to the faith of our forefathers and encrease by an holy adoption thy Church with new children to receive the effects of thy promises that so they may see that almost accomplished which the Saints formerly doubted not but would come to pass Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The SIXTH PROPHECY taken out of the 3d Chapter of Baruch In this Lesson the Church represents to us the excellency of Christian Religion which teaches us that Men of themselves are not able to make their Lives happy that all those who pretended themselves Authors of their own Happiness and believed they were only indebted to themselves for it who only have sought it for their own Vertue and in the fleeting Pleasures and Wealth of this Life who are persuaded that already they possess the Sovereign Good and that in fine to obtain it they sought not God nor placed their hopes in his infinite Goodness and Bounty but that they are lost in those vain and proud thoughts 'T is from God alone that hath made them and can make them blessed that can divert the evils of this Life or sweeten them or give courage to support them or absolutely free those that bow under the burthen And who can at last elevate Man to the true fruition of this Bliss where no evil is to be feared and where the sovereign goodness is not to be lost And unto this end God hath given Law unto Men wherein proposing and promising a recompence unto Pious Souls he teaches us not to spend this temporal and uncertain Life in its Vanities and Pleasures but to suffer all sorts of Afflictions and Torments rather than to violate his Commandments out of a strong confidence of the fidelity of his Promises and in hopes after death to enjoy Eternal Happiness And to enable us to observe the Law it was his Will that his Son should come into this World This Divine Saviour covering the Grandeur of his Divinity under the Weakness of our Nature hath taught us by the example of his Passion what Miseries we ought to suffer in this World and by his Resurrection what Blessings to hope for in the next giving us at the same time the grace to do and obtain that which he hath shewed us if by our sins we render not our selves unworthy HEar Israel the commandments of life hearken with your ears that you may know prudence What is the matter Israel that thou art in the land of the enemies Thou art waxed old in strange land thou art defiled with the dead thou art reputed with them that go into hell Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom For if thou hadst walked in the way of God thou hadst verily dwelt in peace everlasting Learn where wisdom is where understanding is that thou mayest know withal where is the long continuance of life and living where the light of the eyes and peace is who hath found the place thereof and who hath entred into the treasures thereof where are the princes of the Gentiles and they that rule over the beasts that are upon the earth that play with the birds of heaven that treasure up silver and gold wherein men have confidence and there is no end of their getting which fashion silver and are careful neither is there invention of their works They are destroyed and are gone down to hell and others are risen up in their place Young men saw the light and dwelt upon the earth but the way of discipline they knew not neither understood they the paths thereof neither have their children received it It is made far from their face It hath not been heard in the land of Canaan neither hath it been seen in Theman The children of Agar also that seek out the prudence that is of the earth merchants of Myrrh and of Theman and fablers and searchers of prudence and understanding But the way of wisdom they have not known neither have they remembred the paths thereof O Israel how great is the house of God and how great is the place of his possession It is great and hath no end high and unmeasurable There were the gyants those renowned that were from the beginning of big stature expert in war These did not our Lord chuse neither found they the way of discipline therefore did they perish And because they had not wisdom they perished through their folly Who hath ascended into heaven and taken her and brought her down from the clouds Who hath passed over the sea and found her and brought her above chosen gold There is none that can know her ways nor that can search out her paths but he that knoweth all things knoweth her and hath found her out by his prudence he that prepareth the earth in time everlasting and replenished it with cattel and four-footed beasts he that sendeth forth light and it goeth and hath called it and it obeyeth him with trembling And the stars have given light in their watches and rejoyced they were called and they said Here we are and they have shined to him with chearfulness that made them This is our God and there shall none other be esteemed against him He found out all the way of discipline and delivered it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved After these things he was seen upon the earth and was conversant with men The Church telling us that God not being contented to have taught Men by his Prophets but further he sent his only Son to instruct them by his Word and Example and to give them a new life by the Sacrament of Baptism beseeches his Majesty to make them worthy always to maintain the Grace they have received Let us Pray Let us bend our knees R. Lift up your selves O God who dost always multiply thy Church in the call of the Gentiles vouchsafe graciously thy continual protection to all those who shall be cleansed with the waters of baptism Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. The SEVENTH PROPHECY out of the 37th Chapter of Ezechiel The Prophet Ezekiel represents to us
the greatness of this Benefit and to preserve the memory of it God hath commanded that whereas before we reckoned the years from the Creation of the World from henceforth we should compute them from this deliverance to make us understand thereby that the delivery of Man from the Tyranny of the Devil and Slavery of Sin which the bringing of the Children of Israel out of the Egyptian Bondage was a figure of is not less considerable yea is more advantageous to us than our Creation IN those days our Lord said unto Moses and Aaron in the Land of Egypt this month shall be to you the beginning of months it shall be the first in the months of the year Speak ye to the whole assembly of the Children of Israel and say to them the tenth day of this month let every man take a Lamb by their Families and Houses But if the number be less than may suffice to eat the Lamb he shall take unto him his Neighbour that joyneth to his House according to the number of souls which may suffice to the eating of the Lamb. And it shall be a Lamb without spot a Male of a year old according also to which rite you shall take a Kid. And you shall keep him till the fourteenth day of this month and the whole multitude of the Children of Israel shall Sacrifice him at even And they shall take of the bloud thereof and put upon both the Posts of the Houses wherein they shall eat him And they shall eat the flesh that night rosted at the fire and unleavened bread with wild lettice You shall not eat thereof any thing raw nor boyled in water but only roasted at the fire the head with the feet and entrails thereof you shall devour and you shall not break one bone of him Neither shall there remain any thing of him until morning If there be any thing left you shall burn it with fire And thus you shall eat him You shall gird your reins and you shall have shooes on your feet holding staves in your hands and you shall eat speedily For it is the Phase that is the passage of our Lord. The Church begs of God the grace for us to reap the benefit of our Redemption and to concur with it in such sort that we may acknowledge it to crown all the other works of his Bounty either in creating or adding conveniences to our better Being or advantages for our conservation Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves ALmighty and Everlasting God who arâ— wonderful in the dispensation of all thy Works grant that those whom thou hast Redeemed may be sensible that the Creation of the World in the beginning of time was not a greater marvel than that which happened of later days in the immolation of Jesus Christ our true Pasch who being God liveth and reigneth for ever Amen The TENTH PROPHECY taken out of the 3d. Chapter of Jonas The Church by the example of the Ninivites instructs the Catechumens to fear God so soon as they have the happiness to know him and to reverence him as soon as they begin to contemplate him through Faith and that it avails them not to have known him if they continue the same affections they had before they knew him That the Catechumens and those who are baptized have the same Hopes the same Recompences the same fear of Judgment and the same necessity of Repentance For though it be certain that those who present themselves to be Baptized shall receive all the benefits of Gods Mercy that is an entire Absolution of all their sins they must nevertheless take care to dispose and make themselves worthy by a sincere Repentance Baptism is the accomplishment and seal of Faith and this Faith takes its beginning from that of Penance AND the word of the Lord was made to Jonas the Prophet the second time saying Arise and go to Ninive that I shall speak to thee And Jonas arose and went into Ninive according to the word of our Lord And Ninive was a great City of three days journey And Jonas began to enter into the City one days journey and he cryed and said as yet fourty days and Ninive shall be subverted And the men of Ninive believed in God and they proclaimed a Fast and were clothed with sackcloth from the greater to the lesser And the word came to the King of Ninive and he rose up out of his Throne and cast away his garment from him and was clothed with sackcloth and sate in ashes And he cried and said in Ninive from the mouth of the King and of his Princes saying Men and Beasts and Oxen and Cattel let them not tast any thing nor feed and let them not drink water And let Men and Beasts be covered with sackclothes and cry to our Lord in strength and let every man convert from his evil way and from the iniquity that is in their hands Who knoweth if God will convert and forgive and will return from the fury of his wrath and we shall not perish And God saw their works that they were converted from their evil way and our Lord had mercy on his people The Church beseeches God to give his grace to all her Members to have the same Faith and Piety as they have all the same Hope and the same Recompence in proportion to their Merits Let us Pray Let us kneel R. Lift up your selves O God who hast united several Nations in confession of thy Name give us both the will and power to do what thou commandest that thy People who are called to partake of thy Eternity may have the same faith of Spirit and Piety in their actions Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The ELEVENTH PROPHECY taken out of the 13th Chapter of Deuteronomy The Church exhorts the People to keep the Law of God so to avoid the evils threatned to those that break it IN those days Moses wrote the Canticle and taught it the Children of Israel And our Lord commanded Josue the son of Nun and said take courage and be strong for thou shalt bring the Children of Israel into the land which I have promised and I will be with thee Therefore after that Moses wrote the words of this law in a volume and finished it he commanded the Levites that carried the ark of the covenant of our Lord saying take this book and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of our Lord your God that it may be for a testimony against thee For I know thy contention and thy most stiff neck Whiles I yet live and go in with you you have done always contentiously against our Lord how much more when I shall be dead Gather to me all your ancients by your tribes and your doctors and I will speak these words in their hearing and will invocate against them heaven and earth For I know that after my death you will do wickedly and will decline quickly
from the way which I have commanded you and evils shall come upon you in the latter times when you shall do evil in the sight of our Lord to provoke him by the works of your hands Moses therefore spake in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel the words of this song and finished even to the end The TRACT taken out of the 32th Chapter of Deuteronomy Wherein the Church represents the benefits which we reap from the terror of the Menaces of Gods Law not only to this end that audacity to sin may be prevented and Innocency assured even among the wicked but also that the wicked terriffed with the pains wherewith God in his justice corrects sin so that the aversion which they have from Chastisement preventing them from sinning may be a kind of inward motion incited to invoke Gods bounty who changes their spirit and by an admirable effect of his Grace heal the corruption and malice of their Will and induces them both to fear and love him HEar you heavens what things I speak the earth hear the words of my mouth V. My doctrine grow together as rain my speech flow as the dew V. As it were a shower upon the grass because I will invocate the Name of our Lord. V. Give magnificence to our God the works of God be perfect and all his ways judgments V. God is faithful and without iniquity just and right The Church begs of God that the terror of the menaces in the Law may prevent the People from sin and make them fear and love his Majesty whereby they may obtain Eternal Salvation Let us Pray Let us kneel R. Lift up your selves O God who raisest the humble and givest courage to the just who wouldest by thy servant Moses teach this people by singing thy holy Canticle that the repetition of thy Law might be our instruction make thy power appear to all nations justified by thee and allaying their terrour by an holy joy grant that all their sins being effaced through thy mercy the terrour of those pains menaced by thee may turn to their good and salvation Through our Lord Jesus Christ The TWELFTH PROPHECY taken out of the 3d Chapter of Daniel The Church represents to the Catechumens and to the Faithful that by the example of the three young Hebrews they ought to give proof of their Faith and courage in being ready to suffer Martyrdom for the Glory and Honour of God and incessantly praise him in the midst of most violent Persecutions IN those days Nabuchodonosor the king made a statue of gold in height of sixty cubits in breadth of six cubits and he set it in the field of Dura of the province of Babylon Therefore Nabuchodonosor the king sent to call together the nobles the magistrates and judges dukes and tyrants and rulers and all the princes of the countreys that they should come together to the dedication of the statue which Nabuchodonosor the king had erected Then were the nobles gathered together the magistrates and judges the dukes and tyrants and the great men that were placed in the regiments and all the princes of the countrey to come together to the dedication of the statue which Nabuchodonosor the king had set up And the crier cried mightily to you people and tribes and tongues it is said in the hour that you shall hear the sound of the trumpet and pipe and harp of the dulcimer psaltery and and symphony and all kind of musical instruments falling adore ye the golden statue which Nabuchodonosor the king hath set up But if any man shall not adore prostrate he shall the self-same hour be cast into a furnace of burning fire After this therefore forthwith as all the people heard the sound of the trumpet the pipe and harp of the dulcimer and psaltery of the symphony and of all kind of musical instruments all the people tribes and tongues falling adored the golden statue which Nabuchodonosor had set up And forthwith in the very same time men of Chaldee coming accused the Jews and said to Nabuchodonosor the king King live for ever Thou O king hast made a decree that every man which shall hear the sound of the trumpet pipe and harp of the dulcimer and psaltery of the symphony and of all kind of musical instruments prostrate himself and adore the golden statue And if any man do not prostrate on the ground and adore that he be cast into a furnace of burning fire There are therefore men of Jewry whom thou didst appoint over the works of the province of Babylon Sidrach Misach and Abdenago these men O King have condemned thy decree thy God 's they worship not and the golden statue which thou hast erected they adore not Then Nabuchodonosor in fury and in wrath commanded that Sidrach Misach and Abdenago should be brought who immediately were brought before the king And Nabuchodonosor the king pronouncing said unto them Indeed Sidrach Misach and Abdenago do not you worship my gods and the golden statue that I have set up do not you adore Now therefore if you be ready in what hour soever you shall hear the sound of the trumpet the pipe the harp of the dulcimer and psaltery and symphony and of all kind of musical instruments prostrate your selves and adore the statue which I have made But if you adore not the self-same hour ye shall be cast into the furnace of burning fire and what God is there that shall deliver you out of my hand Sidrach Misach and Abdenago answering said to king Nabuchodonosor We must not answer thee concerning this thing For behold our God whom we worship can save us from the furnace of burning fire and out of thy hands O King deliver us But if he will not be it known to thee O king that we worship not thy gods and the golden statue which thou hast erected we adore not Then was Nabuchodonosor replenished with fury and the look of his face was altered upon Sidrach Misach and Abdenago and he commanded that the furnace should be heated seven times more than it had been accustomed to be heated And commanded the strongest men of his hosts to bind the feet of Sidrach Misach and Abdenago and to cast them into the furnace of burning fire And forthwith those men being bound with their breeches and head-attire and shooes and garments were cast into the furnace of burning fire For the commandment of the king did urge and the furnace was heated exceedingly Moreover the flame of the fire slew those men that had cast in Sidrach Misach and Abdenago But these three men Sidrach Misach and Abdenago fell in the mids of the furnace of burning fire bound together And they walked in the mids of the flame praising God and blessing our Lord. Flectamus genua is not said here to mind us that these three young Hebrews would not kneel before the Statue of Nabuchodonosor as Christians ought not to adore the vanities of this World Let us Pray
saying thrice Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia The Quire concurring with the Priest in like acknowledgments repeats Alleluia thrice also and enlarge their Praises by the following verse of the hundred seventeenth Psalm V. COnfess ye to our Lord because he is good because his Mercy continueth for ever Then the Tract is said out of the 116 Psalm Then the Tract is said taken out of the 116 Psalm To acknowledge with thanks the Obligation we have to God for calling us to the Heavenly Inheritance by the Resurrection of his Son and to testifie our desire of corresponding to our Vocation according to the instruction given us by St. Paul in the Epistle of this days Mass PRaise our Lord all ye Gentiles praise him all ye People V. Because his Mercy is confirmed unto us and his Truth remains for ever Munda cor meum c. as before pag. 14. No Tapers are carried when the Gospel is read to note unto us that Christs Resurrection who is the True Light of the World was not as yet manifested to men But Incense is used to represent the Perfumes prepared by the three Maries to anoint our Saviours Body The sequence of the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew Chap. 28. Wherein the Church teaches us how Jesus Christ manifested his Resurrection and with what Charity and Zeal we ought to celebrate the memory of it in imitation of those Holy Women whose Piety is proposed unto us in this Gospel IN the evening of Sabbath which dawneth upon the first of the Sabbath came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary to see the Sepulcher And behold there was made a great earthquake For the Angel of our Lord descended from Heaven and coming rolled back the stone and sate upon it And his countenance was as Lightning and his garment as Snow And for fear of him the watchmen were frighted and became as dead And the Angel answering said to the Women fear not you For I know that you seek Jesus that was crucified He is not here for he is risen as he said Come and see the place where our Lord was sate And going quickly tell ye his Disciples that he is risen and behold he goeth before you into Galilee there you shall see him Lo I have fore-told you The Credo is not said because the Neophytes came to recite it when they received their Baptism but the Priest says Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray Nor is the Offertory said because the Neophytes not being yet of the Fraternity did not as yet make any Oblations SUSCIPE SANCTE PATER c. until the Secret as before p. 56. The SECRET The Priest in the name of the Faithful begs Gods grace that he may worthily celebrate the Mysteries of the Resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ and thereby receive its wholsom effects REceive O Lord we beseech thee the Prayers of thy People with the Oblations of these Hoasts that the Paschal Mysteries which we celebrate being wholesom unto us may by thine assistance obtain us life everlasting Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Then the Priest in the name of the Faithful acknowledges their obligations to give God continual Thanks in that he raised Jesus Christ again whereby to revive and give us Life Everlasting And protesting himself unworthy to discharge this Duty he sings that Hymn which the Angels Thrones and Dominations use in Heaven to God's Honour Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus and the Canticle Benedictus qui venit c. which the Children sung at Christs Triumphant entry into Hierusalem to testifie the Spiritual Union of Angels and Men to praise the Divine Majesty and to confess that we ought to have the Purity of Angels and Innocence of Children to praise God as we ought IT is truly meet and just right and wholesom O Lord that at all times we set forth thy praises But more especially in this Night wherein Jesus Christ our Paschal Lamb was immolaâ—â—d For he is the true Lamb who hath taken away the sins of the World who by dying hath destroyed our death and by rising again hath restored life And therefore with Angels and Arch-angels with the Thrones and Dominations together with the Celestial Host we sing this Hymn of thy Glory without end saying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God of Sabbath The Heavens and Earth are full of thy Glory Hosanna in the highest Blessed is he that comes in the name of our Lord Hosanna in the highest The CANON to Communicantes as before pag. 63 c. The Priest by vertue of the Union of the Church Militant with the Triumphant and in memory of this Sacred Night wherein our Saviour rose again beseeches God to supply the defect of his Prayer he now makes for his Protection by the Merits and Suffrages of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Apostles Martyrs and of all the Saints PArtaking of the same Communion and celebrating the Solemnity of this blessed Night wherein our Saviour rose again according to the flesh and in the first place honouring the memory of the ever glorious Virgin Mary Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul Andrew James John Thomas James Philip Bartholomew Matthew Simon and Thaddeus Linus Cletus Clement Xystus Cornelius Cyprian Lawrence Chrysogonus John and Paul Cosme and Damian and of all thy Saints by whose Merits and Prayers grant that in all things we may be guarded with thy Holy Protection through the same our Lord Jesus Christ Amen HANC IGITVR OBLATIONEM The Priest spreads his hands over the Hoast and Chalice to testifie to God that he Offers up and Sacrificeth himself joyntly therewith begging four things First that he will please to accept this Oblation Secondly to grant us Peace Thirdly to deliver us from Eternal Damnation Fourthly to place us among the Elect. WE therefore beseech thee O Lord to receive graciously this Offering of our Servitude and of thy whole Family which we present unto thee also for those whom thou hast vouchsafed to regenerate by Water and the Holy Ghost granting them remission of all their sins giving us Peace in these our days and preserving us from Eternal Damnation to command us to be reckoned among thy Elect Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen All is said as before till you come to Agnus Dei. The Pax is not given nor Agnus Dei said which is wont to beg of God the wholsom effect of this Holy Kiss because the Neophytes not having as yet Communicated are not owned for Brethren and were not admitted to this Holy Kiss of Peace And because Peace is the principal disposition of this Sacrament which is the Sacrament of Union and Charity the Priest begs it of God for the Faithful who prepare themselves to receive the Holy Communion and acknowledging himself unworthy that his Prayers should be heard beseecheth his Majesty that he will have regard to his Goodness wherewith he presented Peace unto us in commanding us to seek
with thy spirit Let us Pray The Church begs of God the wholsom effect of the Passion and Resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ POur forth upon us O Lord the Spirit of thy Charity that those who are satiated with thy Paschal Sacraments through thy goodness may have but one heart and one will Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The Priest coming to the end of the Mass turns to the Faithful exhorting them not to render themselves unworthy of Gods Assistance saying Our Lord be with you The Faithful answer wishing him the like R. And with thy spirit Then the Priest tells the People that Mass being ended they may retire saying You may withdraw Mass is ended Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia The Faithful answer Thanks be to God Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia All the rest as before pag. 80 81 82. At EVEN-SONG Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia The Antiphon as before pag. 304. out of the 28th Chapter of St. Matthew The Canticle of the blessed Virgin out of the 2d Chapter of St. Luke As also the Antiphon in the end of the Sabbath c. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us Pray Spiritum nobis Domine c. as before p. 305. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us bless our Lord. Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Thanks be to God Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Pray for the Writer UPON THE SUNDAY OF THE RESURRECTION OF OUR Lord Jesus Christ AT PRIME Pater noster c. Ave Maria Credo c. INcline unto my aid O God R. O Lord make hast to help me Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning be now and ever world without end Amen Alleluia Deus in Nomine tuo as before 132. Beati immaculi c. as before 133. Retribue te as before 135. Then the following Antiphon is said This is the day which our Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us Pray O Lord God Almighty who hath caused us to come to the beginning of this day save us this day by thy power to the end that this day we fall into no sin but that our words may ever proceed and our thoughts and works may be directed to execute thy justice Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost world without end Amen Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit R. Let us bless our Lord. R. Thanks be to God In the Cathedrals and Collegiate Churches the Martyrology is read and then the Priest says V. Precious in the sight of our Lord. R. Is the death of his Saints The blessed Virgin Mary and all Saints make intercssion for us to our Lord that we may obtain to be assisted and saved by him who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever Amen V. Incline unto my aid O God R. O Lord make hast to help me Which is repeated three times and then is said Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost c. V. Lord have mercy on us R. Christ have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us V. Pater noster c. In a low voice until V. And lead us not into tempation R. But deliver us from evil V. O Lord look upon thy servants and upon thy works and guide their children R. And let the splendour of the Lord our God shine upon us and direct the works of our hands upon us and direct the work of our hands Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost c. Let us Pray VOuchsafe O Lord God King of Heaven and Earth this day to direct and sanctifie rule and govern our hearts and bodies our senses speeches and deeds in thy Law and in the works of thy Commandments that here and ever we may deserve to be safe and free by thy assistance O Saviour of the world Who livest and reignest world without end Amen V. Vouchsafe Father to bless R. Almighty God dispose our days and actions in thy holy peace This short Lesson is taken out of the Third Chapter of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians IF then ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God set your affections on things above not in things on earth But O Lord have mercy on us R. Thanks be to God V. Our help is in the Name of our Lord. R. Who made Heaven and Earth V. God bless us R. God bless us The BENEDICTION O Lord bless and defend us from all evil and bring us to Life Everlasting and make the Souls of the Faithful departed rest in peace At the Third Hour Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. Deus in adjutorium as before pag. 348. Alleluia Legem pone c. as before pag. 136. Memor esto c. as before p. 138. Bonitatem fecisti c. as before p. 140. Then this following Antiphon is said Ant. This day which our Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us Pray O God who this day opened unto 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 prevenient grace inspires Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with thee livest and reignest in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen At sprinkling Holy Water As formerly the Church was accustomed to Baptize the Catechumens upon the Eves of Easter and Whit-Sunday The Priest being to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar on Easter-day and Whit-Sunday did consider them ready to approach the Altar pure and holy all their sins being effaced by the Sacrament of Baptism And therefore he besprinkleth them with Water out of the Font as hath been said to admonish them to be careful to preserve themselves in that Innocence which they received by Baptism and to teach them that they have been entirely purified from all their sins which is not to be doubted with failing in our Faith The Ant. Asperges me is not said nor the Psalm Miserere which signifie the sins wherewith we are defiled and from which we ought to be cleared But instead of Asperges me he says the following Ant. Vidi Aquam which represents the Excellency of the Waters of Baptism which Jesus Christ instituted to wash away the sins of Men by vertue of the Bloud which he shed and this was signified to us by the Water which issued with Bloud from his side which he called his Temple in the 2d Chapter of St. John and was figured in the 38th and 47th Chapters of the Prophet Ezechiel I Saw waters issuing forth of
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
the Red Sea and beheld the Egyptians on all sides stretcht out upon the Sands and their Chariots drowned in the bottom of the Sea The PROSE BRing all ye dear-bought Nations bring Your richest Praises to your King That spotless Lamb who more than due Paid for his Sheep and those Sheep you That Innocent Son who wrought your peace And made his Father's anger cease Life and Death together fought Each to a strange extream were brought Life died but soon revived again And even by death's self has slain Say happy Magdalen O say What didst thou see these by the way I saw the Tomb of my dear Lord I saw himself and him ador'd I saw the Napkin and the Sheet That bound his Head and wrapt his Feet I heard the Angels witness bear Jesus is risen he 's not here Go tell his followers they shall see Thine and their hope in Galilee They Lord with faithful heart and chearful voice We on thy glorious rising day rejoyce O thou whose conquering pow'r o'recame the grave By thy victorious grace us sinners save Amen Alleluia Munda cor meum as before pag. 14. The Sequence of the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark Chap. 16. MUNDA COR MEUM c. as before pag. 14. Wherein the Church relating what happened at our Saviours Sepulcher at his Resurrection teacheth us what we ought to do to prepare our selves for the celebrating worthily this Solemnity and then proposes to us the advantages we reap 1. This Gospel teacheth us that the three Maries went early in the Morning with Perfumes to seck Jesus Christ in his Sepulcher The Example of these Holy Women tell us our obligation of going to seek for Christ in his Sepulcher as soon as we are enlightned with his grace That is in the Sacrament of Penance which is the figure of it there to bury our sins making a stock of Good Works signified by the Perfumes 2. These Holy Women had the happiness to see the Angels to teach us that the Souls which seek Christ with Holy desires and the Odour of Vertues have a particular assistance from the Blessed Spirits 3. The Angel appeared to these Holy Women in white as a token of Innocence and Joy to tell us with what purity and joy we are to solemnize the Resurrection of our Lord. This Joy is common to us with the Angels who rejoyce because the void places of their Hierarchies are replenished and we ought to rejoyce for that by its vertue we are raised in this World from the death of sin to a life of grace and we receive a pledge of happy Immortality whereunto we aspire 4. The Angel appeared sitting on the right hand which signifies that by Christs Resurrection we are called to possess Spiritual Blessings expressed in Holy Scripture by the right hand 5. These Holy Women were surprised with fear at their arrival but afterwards were emboldned by the Angel To teach us that Souls which seek God carefully and are toucht with a Holy fear which is the first gift of the Holy Ghost are confirmed with Celestial consolations 6. The Angel recommended to these Holy Women to publish our Saviours Resurrection namely to St. Peter to shew us the Providence which God hath for true Penitents and the hope he gives them to partake of the Glory of his Sons Resurrection AT that time Mary Magdalene and Mary of James and Salome brought spices that coming they might anoint Jesus And very early the first of the Sabboths they came to the monument the sun being now risen And they said one to another Who shall roul us back the stone from the door of the monument And looking they saw the stone rouled back for it was very great And entring into the monument they saw a young man sitting on the right hand covered with a white robe And they were astonished who said to them Be not dismayed You seek Jesus of Nazareth that was crucified he is risen he is not here behold the place where they laid him But go tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee there you shall see him as he told you CREDO as before pag. 54 55. The OFFERTORY taken out of the 75th Psalm The Church represents unto us that if the Earth trembled at Christs Resurrection and that all present were astonished at his going forth of his Tomb when he came in Mercy to men how much more cause have we to fear and tremble when we consider the severity of his Justice at his coming to examine us a Judge whose Judgments are so piercing that he sees into the most secret corner of our hearts yea what our selves cannot discover when at the general Resurrection he shall come to Judge the living and the dead in such Majesty and Power that the Heavens and all the Elements will be reduced to a condition of Horror and Terror This fear of Gods Judgment when it is joyned to the hope we have through his Mercy to reap the Fruit of our Saviours Resurrection makes our hopes the more beneficial THe earth trembled and was still when God arose in judgment Alleluia Suscipe Sancte Pater c. till the Secret as before pag. 56. The SECRET The Priest begs of God on the behalf of the Faithful to give them the grace to celebrate worthily the Mysteries of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ so that they may reap its wholsom effects ACcept O Lord we beseech thee the Prayers of thy People with the Oblation of these Hosts that these Paschal Mysteries which we celebrate may be wholesom and by thy assistance availing us to obtain Life Everlasting Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. The Preface till Vere dignum justum est c. as before pag. 60 c. The Priest in the name of the Faithful acknowledges the Obligation we have of giving continual thanks to God for Christs Resurrection whereby to raise us again to Life Everlasting and confessing that of himself he cannot worthily acquit this Duty he joyns with the Angels Thrones and Dominations and the rest of the Celestial Spirits who in Heaven sing incessantly Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus and the Canticle which the Children sung at Christ's Triumphant entry into Jerusalem Benedictus qui venit c. as a testimony of the Spiritual Union between Men and Angels in praising his Divine Majesty and to confess that the Purity of Angels and Innocence of Infants is required to praise God worthily IT is truly meet and just right and wholesom O Lord that at all times we set forth thy praises But more especially in this Night wherein Jesus Christ our Paschal Lamb was immolated who hath taken away the sins of the World who by dying hath destroyed our death and by rising again hath restored life And therefore with Angels and Archangels with the Thrones and Dominations together with the Celestial Host we sing this Hymn of thy Glory without end saying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God of Sabbath The
and his justice continueth for ever and ever He hath made a memory of his merveilous works a merciful and pitiful Lord he hath given Meat to them that fear him He will be mindful for ever of his testament the force of his works he will shew forth to his people To give them the inheritance of the Gentiles the works of his hands truth and judgment All his commandments are faithful confirmed for ever and ever made in truth and equity He sent redemption to his people he commanded his testament for ever Holy and terrible is his name The fear of our Lord is the beginning of wisdom Understanding is good to all that do it his praise remaineth for ever and ever Glory be to the Father c. Ant. All his commandments are faithful confirmed for ever and ever made in truth and equity Ant. He shall have great delight in his commandments c. PSALM 111. or 112. The Royal Prophet David shews us in this Psalm That none render themselves more worthy of Fame and Glory or leave more happy or longer-lasting Testimonies of themselves to Posterity than those that apply themselves entirely to the Service of God We must also observe That those Blessings which God promiseth to a wise and generous Man in the State of Grace are in this Psalm compared to such temporal Goods as he promised his People in the Old Testament BLessed is the man that feareth our Lord he shall have great delight in his commandments His seed shall be mighty in earth the generation of the righteous shall be blessed Glory and riches in his house and his justice abideth for ever and ever Light is risen up in darkness to the righteous he is merciful and pitiful and just Acceptable is the man that is merciful and lendeth that shall dispose his words in judgment because he shall not be moved for ever The just shall be in eternal memory he shall not fear at the hearing of evil His heart is ready to hope in our Lord his heart is confirmed he shall not be moved till he look over his enemies He distributed he gave to the poor his justice remaineth for ever and ever his horn shall be exalted in glory The sinner shall see and will be angry he shall gnash his teeth and pine away the desire of sinners shall perish Glory be to the Father c. Ant. He shall have great delight in his commandments Ant. The name of our Lord c. PSALM 112. or 113. This Psalm represents unto the Faithful of what Estate or Condition soever they be their Obligation they have to praise God whose Care extends it self over all Creatures according to the Order of his Providence PRaise our Lord ye children praise ye the name of our Lord. Be the name of our Lord blessed from henceforth now and for ever From the rising of the Sun unto the going down the name of our Lord is laudable Our Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens Who is as the Lord our God that dwelleth on high and beholdeth the low things in heaven and in earth Raising up the needy from the Earth and lifting up the poor out of the dung To place him with princes with the princes of his people Who maketh the barren woman to dwell in a house a joyful mother of children Glory be to the Father c. Ant. Be the name of our Lord blessed for ever Ant. But we that live c. PSALM 113. or 114. The Church represents unto the Faithful the Goodness and Mercy of God in having delivered them from the Tyranny of the Devil and by planting amongst them his Gospel and true Worship thereby to withdraw them from Idolatry and the Slavery of Sin She also exhorts them to praise God with as true and fervent a Zeal as the Israelites when he delivered them from the Bondage of Egypt gave them his Law and conducted them into the Land of Promise and there caused a Temple to be built to be therein adored IN the coming forth of Israel out of Egypt of the house of Jacob from the barbarous people Jewry was made his sanctification Israel his dominion The sea saw and fled Jordan was turned backward The mountains leaped as rams and the little hills as the lambs of sheep What aileth thee O sea that thou didst fly and thou O Jordan that thou wast turned backward Ye mountains leaped as rams and ye little hills as lambs of sheep At the face of our Lord the earth was moved at the face of the God of Jacob. Who turned the rock into pools of waters and stony hills into fountains of waters Not to us Lord not to us but to thy Name give the glory For thy mercy and thy truth lest at any time the Gentiles say Where is their God But our Lord is in heaven he hath done all things whatsoever he would The Idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold the works of mens hands They have mouths and shall not speak they have eyes and shall not see They have ears and shall not hear they have nostrils and shall not smell They have hands and shall not handle they have feet and shall not walk they shall not cry in their throat Let them that make them become like to them and all that have confidence in them The house of Israel hath hoped in our Lord he is their helper and their protector The house of Aaron hath hoped in our Lord he is their helper and their protector They that fear our Lord have hoped in our Lord he is their helper and their protector Our Lord hath been mindful of us and hath blessed us He hath blessed the house of Israel he hath blessed the House of Aaron He hath blessed all that fear our Lord the little with the great Our Lord add upon you upon you and upon your children Blessed be you of our Lord which made heaven and earth The heaven of heavens is to our Lord but the earth he hath given to the children of men The dead shall not praise thee O Lord nor all they that go down into hell But we that live do bless our Lord from this time and for ever Glory be to the Father c. Ant. We that live do bless our Lord. At Paris the Anthymn Occurrunt turbae c. is said to these five Psalms A Great number of people carrying flowers and olive-branches went before the Redeemer of the world victoriously and triumphing rendring him all due honour The Nations publish the Greatness of the Son of God crying out Hosanna in the highest The LITTLE CHAPTER taken out of the Epistle to the Philippians chap. 2. The Church shews us the greatness of God's Bounty who to save us was willing his only Son should be charged with all our Infirmities and Evils She farther represents unto us with how much Zeal we are to endeavor to please him thereby to work our Salvation BRethren for this think in
sleep and rest Because thou Lord hast singularly setled me in hope Glory be to the Father c. PSALM 30. This Psalm represents unto us how we ought to put all our Trust and Confidence in God's Justice and not in our own and that we must acknowledge we can neither be just or merit any thing of our selves or have any hope but through Gods holy Grace who hath given it unto us through the Merits of our Redeemer which also he hath declared to us by his Example And in this Confidence we must commit our Soul into the hands of God IN thee O Lord have I hoped let me not be confounded for ever in thy justice deliver me Incline thine ear to me make haste to deliver me Be unto me for a God protector and for a house of refuge that thou mayst save me Because thou art my strength and my refuge and for thy name thou wilt conduct me and wilt nourish me Thou wilt bring me out of the snare which they have hid for me because thou art my protector Into thy hands I commend my spirit thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth Glory be to the Father c. PSALM 90. or 91. This Psalm represents unto us the Temptations Dangers and Evils whereto we are subject in this Life whereof the least are compared to the Fear that surprises in the Night and to the Arrows flying in the Day And the most outragious and hazardous resemble those Enterprises which are undertaken in Darkness and in open invasion and in the Mid-day Devil Or they are like the infectious Air which spreads it self in darkness and like the Plague which rages at Mid-day We are environed with wicked Spirits which the Scripture terms fierce and venemous Beasts to represent unto us the several Employments they maliciously exercise over Men. By the Aspick who with all his force presses one of his Ears against the Ground and stops his other with his Tail to hinder his hearing the Enchantments of the Hunters she signifies such as are obstinate persisting in Evil and in the Love of earthly things By the Basilisk who carries his Venom in his Eyes is signified Envy and Vain-glory. By the Lion whose Roaring terrifies the other Beasts is signified Menaces and Persecutions By the Dragon who kills whatever he toucheth with his burning Breath is signified Anger Then the Royal Prophet shews us in this Psalm that in the Perils and Dangers we find our selves we must ever stand upon our guard God being ever ready and his Angels to protect and conduct us But to be worthy his Protection 't is necessary we confide wholly in him and give unto his Name the whole Glory of our Salvation HE that dwelleth in the help of the Highest shall abide in the protection of the God of heaven He shall say to our Lord Thou art my Protector and my refuge my God I will hope in him Because he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters and from the sharp word With his shoulders shall he overshadow thee and under his wings thou shalt hope With shield shall his truth compass thee thou shalt not be afraid of the fear in the night Of the Arrow flying in the day of business walking in darkness of invasion and the mid-day devil A thousand shall fall on thy side and ten thousand on thy right hand but to thee it shall not approach But thou shalt consider with thine eyes and shalt see the retribution of sinners Because thou O Lord art my hope thou hast made the Highest thy refuge There shall no evil come to thee and scourge shall not approach to thy tabernacle Because he hath given his Angels charge of thee that they keep thee in all thy ways In their hands they shall bear thee lest perhaps thou knock thy foot against a stone Upon the Asp and the Basilisk thou shalt walk and thou shalt tread upon the Lion and the Dragon Because he hath hoped in me I will deliver him I will protect him because he hath known my name He shall cry to me and I will hear him with him I am in tribulation I will deliver him and I will glorifie him With length of days I will replenish him and I will shew him my salvation Glory be to the Father c. PSALM 132. or 133. The Psalmist exhorts the Clergy to sing Praises to God whilst the People are asleep BEhold now bless our Lord all ye servants of our Lord. Which stand in the house of our Lord in the courts of the house of our God In the nights lift up your hands unto the holy places and bless ye our Lord. Our Lord out of Sion bless thee who made Heaven and earth Glory be to the Father c. Ant. Have mercy on me O Lord and hear my Prayer The HYMN for EVENING BEfore the closing of the Day Creator thee we humbly pray That for thy wonted Mercies sake Thou us into protection take May nothing in our Minds excite Vain Dreams and Fantomes of the Night Our Enemy repress that so Our Bodies no Uncleanness know To JESUS from a Virgin sprung Be Glory given and Praises sung The like to God the Father be And Holy Ghost eternally Amen CHAPTER taken out of the Fourteenth Chapter of the Prophet Jeremy BUt thou O Lord art in us and thy holy name is invocated upon us forsake us not O Lord our God R. Thanks be to God Pettit R. Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit Into thy hands O Lord I commend my Spirit V. Thou hast redeemed us O Lord God of truth R. Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit V. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost R. Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit V. Keep us O Lord as the apple of thy eye R. Protect us under the shadow of thy wings Ant. Save us THE SONG OF SIMEON Luke 1. NOw thou dost dismiss thy servant O Lord according to thy word in peace Because my eyes have seen thy Salvation Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people A light to the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel Ant. Save us O Lord waking and keep us sleeping that we may watch in Christ and rest in peace THE PRAYERS LOrd have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us Pater noster c. V. And lead us not into temptation R. But deliver us from evil I believe in God c. V. The Resurrection of the Flesh R. And Life everlasting Amen V. Thou art blessed Lord God of our Fathers R. And laudable and glorious for ever V. Let us bless the Father and the Son with the Holy Ghost R. Let us praise and super-exalt him for ever V. Blessed art thou Lord in the Firmament of Heaven R. And laudable and glorious and superexalted for ever V. The Almighty and Merciful Lord bless and keep us R. Amen V.
in my God They are multiplied above the hairs of my head that hate me without cause Mine enemies are made strong that have persecuted me unjustly then did I pay the things that I took not O God thou knowest my foolishness and mine offences are not hid from thee Let them not be ashamed upon me which expect thee O Lord Lord of hosts Let them not be confounded upon me that seek thee O God of Israel Because for thee have I sustained reproach confusion hath covered my face I am become a foreigner to my brethren and a stranger to the sons of my mother Because the zeal of thy house hath eaten me and the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me And I covered my soul in fasting and it was made a reproach to me And I put hair-cloth upon my garment and I became a parable to them They spake against me that sate in the gate and they sung against me that drank wine But I my prayer to thee O Lord a time of thy good pleasure O God In the multitude of thy mercy hear me in the truth of thy salvation Deliver me out of the mire that I stick not fast deliver me from them that hate me and from the depths of waters Let not the tempest of water drown me nor the depth swallow me neither let the pit shut his mouth upon me Hear me O Lord because thy mercy is benign according to the multitude of thy commiserations have respect to me And turn not away thy face from thy servant because I am in tribulation hear me speedily Attend to my soul and deliver it because of mine enemies deliver me Thou knowest my reproach and my confusion and my shame In thy sight are all they that afflict me my heart hath looked for reproach and misery And I expected somebody that would be sorry together with me and there was none and that would comfort me and I found not And they gave me gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vineger to drink Let their table be made a snare before them and for retributions and for a scandal Let their eyes be darkned that they see not and make their back crooked always Pour out thy wrath upon them and let the fury of thy wrath overtake them Let their habitation be made desert and in their tabernacles let there be none to dwell Because whom thou hast strucken they have persecuted and upon the sorrow of my wounds they have added Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity and let them not enter into thy justice Let them be put out of the book of the living and with the just let them not be written I am poor and sorrowful thy salvation O God hath received me I will praise the name of God with canticle and will magnifie him in praise And it shall please God more than a young calf that bringeth forth horns and hoofs Let the poor see and rejoyce seek ye God and your soul shall live Because our Lord hath heard the poor and he hath not despised his prisoners Let the heavens and earth praise him the sea and all the creeping beasts in them Because God will save Sion and the cities of Iuda shall be built up And they shall inhabit there and by inheritance they shall get it And the seed of his servants shall possess it and they that love his name shall dwell in it Ant. The zeal of thy house hath eaten me and the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me PSALM 69. In this and the following Psalm the Church represents unto us how that Jesus Christ when in his Passion he seemed to be overcome and conquered by his powerful Enemies that he then was delivered by his Resurrection from the Power of Death and gloriously ascended into Heaven Thereby shewing unto us partly the Pains the Wicked must endure after the contemptible and unconstant Happiness they have had in this World and partly shewing us what we ought to contemn in this Life and what we must hope for in the next Ant. Let them be turned away backward and blush for shame that will me evils INcline unto my aid O God O Lord make haste to help me Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek my soul Let them be turned away backward and blush for shame that will me evils Let them be turned away forthwith ashamed that say to me Well well Let all that seek thee rejoyce and be glad in thee and let them say always Our Lord be magnified who love thy salvation But I am needy and poor O God help me Thou art my helper and deliverer O Lord be not slack Ant. Let them be turned away backward and blush for shame that will me evils PSALM 70. Ant. My God deliver me out of the hand of the sinner IN thee O Lord I have hoped let me not be confounded for ever in thy justice deliver me and receive me Incline thy ear to me and save me Be unto me for a God protector and for a fenced place that thou maist save me Because thou art my firmament and my refuge My God deliver me out of the hand of a sinner and out of the hand of him that doth against the law and of the unjust Because thou art my patience O Lord O Lord my hope from my youth Upon thee have I been confirmed from the womb from my mothers belly thou art my protector In thee is my singing always I was made to many as a wonder and thou art a strong helper Let my mouth be filled with praise that I may sing thy glory all the day thy greatness Reject me not in the time of old age when my strength shall fail forsake me not Because mine enemies have said to me and they that watched my soul consulted together Saying God hath forsaken him pursue and take him because there is none to deliver O God be not far from me my God have respect to mine aid Let them be confounded and fail that detract from my soul let them be covered with confusion and shame that seek evils to me But I will always hope and will add upon all thy praise My mouth shall shew forth thy justice all the day thy salvation because I have not known learning I will enter into the powers of our Lord O Lord I will be mindful of thy justice only O God thou hast taught me from my youth and until now I will pronounce thy marvellous works And unto ancient age and old age O Lord forsake me not until I shew forth thy arm to all the generation that is to come Thy might and thy justice O God even to the highest great marvels which thou hast done O God who may be like to thee How great tribulations hast thou shewed me many and evil and turning thou hast quickned me and from the depths of the earth thou hast brought me back again Thou hast multiplied my magnificence and being turned thou hast
and hath taught me he hath spread a net for my feet he hath turned me backward he hath made me desolate all the day consumed with sorrow NUN The yoke of mine iniquities hath watched they are folded together in his hand and put upon my neck my strength is weakned our Lord hath given me into the hand from which I cannot rise Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God If the Jews deservedly suffered all those Miserie 's foretold by the Prophet Jeremy what Calamities do they not merit for putting to death the Saviour of the World who suffered Death only because he was charged with the Sins of Men and because he would satisfie for us the Rigor of the Justice of God his Father R. Behold we have seen him and there was no sightliness and we were desirous of him he hath born our infirmities and our sorrows he hath carried But he was wounded for our iniquities and with the weight of his stripe we are healed He surely hath born our infirmities and our sorrows he hath carried with the weight of whose stripe we are healed V. Behold we have seen him and there was no sightliness and we were desirous of him he hath born our infirmities and our sorrows he hath carried But he was wounded for our iniquities and with the weight of his stripe we are healed THE SECOND NOCTVRN PSALM 71. The Church represents us with the Reign of Solomon as being a Figure of the Reign of Jesus Christ shewing us with what Zeal King David desired the Reign of this Divine Saviour whom he acknowledged to be his Lord and King according to his Divinity as he ought to be his Son according to his Humanity Ant. Our Lord shall deliver the poor from the mighty and the poor which had no helper O God give thy judgment to the king and thy justice to the son of the king To judge thy people in justice and thy poor in judgment Let the mountains receive peace for the people and the little hills justice He shall judge the poor of the people and shall save the children of the poor and he shall humble the calumniator And he shall continue with the sun and before the moon in generation and generation He shall descend as rain upon a fleece and as drops distilling upon the earth There shall rise in his days justice and abundance of peace until the moon be taken away And he shall rule from sea unto sea and from the river even to the ends of the round world Before him shall the Ethiopians fall down and his enemies shall lick the earth The kings of Tharsis and the Islands shall offer presents the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts And all kings of the earth shall adore him all nations shall serve him Because he shall deliver the poor from the mighty and the poor which had no helper He shall spare the poor and needy and he shall save the souls of the poor From usuries and iniquities he shall redeem their souls and their name shall be honorable before him And he shall live and there shall be given him of the gold of Arabia and they shall adore it always all the day they shall bless him And there shall be a firmament in the earth in the tops of the mountains the fruit thereof shall be extolled far above Libanus and they shall flourish of the city as the grass of the earth Be his name blessed for ever before the sun his name is permanent And all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed in him all nations shall magnifie him Blessed be our Lord the God of Israel who doth only merveilous things And blessed be the name of his Majesty for ever and all the earth shall be filled with his Majesty Be it Be it Ant. Our Lord shall deliver the poor from the mighty and the poor which had no helper PSALM 72. The Church represents unto us by the example of the Sufferances of Jesus Christ the Grace of the New Testament which this adorable Saviour came to declare unto the World appertains to Life everlasting and not this transitory one which passes with the Time wherein God bestows even on the Wicked worldly Felicities to the end that the Rich and the Good should not propose to themselves a Reward of Happiness in this World for such Services they render God She likewise shews that this Truth was declared even to the Saints of the Old Testament She therefore proposes unto us the 72. Psalm wherein the Royal Prophet mentions a Man who repents himself for having served God out of Self-interest not having a just Heart but ever inclined it self to temporal Rewards seeing that the Wicked abounded in the Goods of the Earth and who was much troubled almost to despair thinking God took no care of Human Affairs But these criminal Thoughts being laid aside by the Authority of the Saints he is forced to penetrate into so profound a Secret as with all his Endeavors and Studies he can never discover until he is entred the Sanctuary of God and known his last End that is to say until he hath received the Holy Ghost who instructs him to desire better things and shews him what Pains the Wicked will suffer after they have enjoyed the fleeting and transitory Pleasures of this World Ant. The wicked have thought and have spoken wickedness they have spoken iniquity on high HOw good is God to Israel to them that are of a right heart But my feet were almost moved my steps almost slipped Because I have had zeal upon the wicked seeing the peace of sinners Because there is no respect to their death and stability in their plague In the labors of men they are not and with men they shall not be scourged Therefore hath pride held them they are covered with their iniquity and impiety Their iniquity hath proceeded as it were of far they have passed into the affection of the heart They have thought and have spoken wickedness they have spoken iniquity on high They have set their mouth unto heaven and their tongue hath passed in the earth Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found in them And they have said How doth God know and is there knowledge in the Highest Lo the sinners themselves and they that abound in the world have obtained riches And I said Then have I justified my heart without cause and have washed my hands amongst innocents And have been scourged all the day and my chastisings in the mornings If I said I shall speak this behold I reproved the nation of thy children I thought to know this thing it is labor before me Until I may enter into the sanctuary of God and may understand concerning their latter end But yet for guiles thou hast put it to them thou hast cast them down whilst they were elevated How are they brought into desolation they have failed suddenly they have perished for their iniquity
As the dream of them that rise O Lord in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing Because my heart is inflamed and my reins are changed And I am brought to nothing and know not As a beast am I become with thee and I always with thee Thou hast held my right hand and in thy will thou hast conducted me and with glory thou hast received me For what is to me in heaven and besides thee what would I upon earth My flesh hath fainted and my heart God of my heart and God my portion for ever For behold they that make themselves far from thee shall perish thou hast destroyed all that fornicate from thee But it is good for me to cleave to God to put my hope in our Lord God That I may shew forth all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion Ant. The wicked have thought and have spoken wickedness they have spoken iniquity on high PSALM 73. The Church represents unto us That as the Prophet David foretold the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Evils that were like to be fal the Jews and considering the Love God had heretofore for the Israelites and the Wonders he had done in their favour She demands their Conversion of his Divine Majesty thereby to preserve the rest from that imminent Danger they are in of being Shipwreck'd And that the Infidels might not rejoyce at the Miseries of that People on whom God had once heaped so many Blessings and that they might acknowledge that 't is a Chastisement wherewith God punisheth their Infidelity and Sins Ant. Arise O Lord and judge my cause WHy hast thou O God repelled for ever is thy fury wrath upon the sheep of thy pasture Be mindful of thy congregation which thou hast possessed from the beginning Thou hast redeemed the rod of thine inheritance mount Sion in which thou hast dwelt List up thy hands upon their prides for ever how great things hath the enemy done malignantly in the holy place And they that hate thee have gloried in the midst of their solemnity They have set their signs for signs and have not known as in the issue on high As in a wood of trees they have with axes cut out the gates thereof together in hatchet and chip-ax they have cast it down They have burnt thy sanctuary with fire they have polluted the tabernacle of thy name in the earth Their kindred together have said in their heart Let us make all the festival days of God to cease from the earth Our signs we have not seen there is now no prophet and he will know us no more How long O God shall the enemy upbraid the adversary provoke thy name for ever Why dost thou turn away thy hand and thy right hand out of the midst of thy bosom for ever But God our king before the worlds he hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth Thou in thy strength hast confirmed the sea thou hast crushed the head of dragons in the waters Thou hast broken the heads of the dragon thou hast given him for meat to the people of the Ethiopians Thou hast broken up fountains and torrents thou hast dried the rivers of Ethan The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast made the morning and the sun Thou hast made all the coasts of the earth the summer and the spring thou hast formed them Be mindful of this the enemy hath upbraided our Lord and a foolish people hath provoked thy name Deliver not to beasts the souls that confess to thee and the souls of thy poor forget not for ever Have respect unto thy testament because they that are obscure of the earth are filled with houses of iniquities Let not the humble be turned away being confounded the poor and needy shall praise thy name Arise God judge thy cause be mindful of those thy reproaches that are from the foolish man all the day Forget not the voices of thy enemies the pride of them that hate thee hath ascended always Ant. Arise Lord and judge my cause V. My God deliver me from the hand of the sinner R. And from the hand of the wicked doing against thy law IV. LESSON Taken out of St. Augustin on the Fifty fourth Psalm Wherein the Church shews us what we must consider on in the Treason of Judas figured unto us in the Prophecy expressed in the Fifty fourth Psalm under the Figure of Achitophel's Treason and reiterating in this Lesson the Question St. Augustin proposes on this Subject to wit Why God permits the Wicked to be And then again it shews us by that great Saints Answer That God suffers them to live either to give them time to repent and be converted or thereby to exercise the Vertues of the Just HEar my Prayer O God despise not my Petition Attend to me and hear me These are the words of one in tribulation who asks in the height of his Sufferings to be freed from Evil. Let us hear the Evil he complains of and when he shall have told it let us acknowledge our selves in the same Affliction that partaking of his Sufferings we may also joyn with him in Prayer I am made sorrowful in my exercise and am troubled Wherein was he troubled wherein was he made sorrowful In my Exercises saith he speaking of the Mischiefs the Wicked did him and calling them his Exercises Do not think the Wicked inhabit the earth to no purpose or that God works not some Good by them for he permits them to live either to amend their Lives or to exercise the Vertues of the Good The Church proposes unto us how Judas by his Treason tried our Saviour's Patience and how instead of making good use of the time God granted him to repent in he contrariwise hurried on by his Despair hung himself ending his Life as Achitophel finished his after he had betrayed David R. My friend betrayed me with the sign of a Kiss saying Whomsoever I shall kiss the same is he hold him fast he did this wicked Sign to compleat a Murder with a Kiss This unhappy returned the Price of Blood and in the end hanged himself V. It had been good for him if that Man had never been born This unhappy returned the Price of Blood and in the end hanged himself V. LESSON By St. Augustin the Church teacheth us That there are some Kvils which we may suffer and that we must not hate the Authors of our Misery but we ought to love them and to pray incessantly to God for them nor ever despair of their Conversion and Repentance WOuld to God those who now tried our Patience were converted and that with us theirs might be exercised yet as long as they do exercise us let us not hate them for we know not whether they 'l persevere in their Wickedness to the end And it often happens that when thou thinkest thou hatest thine Enemy thou hatest thy Brother tho' thou knowest it not 'T is only
of the Devil and his bad Angels Conversion we may despair of for Holy Writ shews us that they are destined to eternal Torments and Flames and against whom we sustain an invisible Conflict to which the Apostle encourageth us and arms us saying Our Combate is not against Flesh and Blood that is against Men whom we see but against the Princes Potentates and Rulers of the Darkness of this World lest when he had said of the World we should think that the Devils were the Rulers of Heaven and Earth He says not simply against the Princes and Powers of this World but adds which reign in Darkness By the World he means those that love the World by the World he means the Impious and Wicked He means by the World that World of which the Gospel speaks The World knew him not The Church shews us what Testimonies of Friendship Christ gave unto Judas even whilst he was compleating the Treason against him R. Judas a most wicked Merchant kissed our Lord and he as an innocent Lamb refused not the Kiss to Judas He delivered Christ unto the Jews for a few Pence V. It had been better he had never been born for some Pence he delivered Christ unto the Jews VI. LESSON The Church represents unto us the Good which Christ drew from the Wickedness and Cruelty of the Jews raising his Throne of Mercy on the Instruments of his Death FOr I have seen Iniquity and Strife in the City Behold the Glory of his Cross That Cross which was the Object of his Enemies Scorn is now placed on the Foreheads of Kings His Power appeared by the Effects for he governed the World not with Steel but Wood. The Wood of the Cross which seemed to his Enemies only to be worthy of their Scorn when before it they wagg'd their Heads saying If he be the Son of God let him come down from the Cross And he stretch'd forth his Hands to an unbelieving and factious People If therefore he be just that lives by Faith he that wants it is wicked Wherefore by Iniquity is understood Infidelity Our Lord therefore seeing the Iniquity and Disobedience which then reigned in the City stretched forth his Hands to the faithless and mutinous People and expecting them he said Father forgive them for they know not what they do The Church having here shewed us with what an excess of Love Jesus Christ prayed unto God his Father for the Conversion and Salvation of his Persecutors She likewise declares his Charity and Goodness by endeavouring to withdraw Judas from his Wickedness by shewing him his Goodness in admitting him to sit at his Table and permitting him to put his Hand with him into the Dish although he knew of his Design to betray him and represented unto him the Unhappiness he was ready to fall into Whereby 't is evident Judas cannot attribute his Damnation to any thing but his own Malice and Infidelity R. One of my Disciples shall this day betray me but wo unto him by whom I shall be betrayed It were better for him he had not been born V. He that dippeth his hand with me in the Dish he shall deliver me up into the hands of sinners It were better for him he had not been born R. One of my Disciples c. THIRD NOCTVRN PSALM 74. The Church represents unto us That with a firm Belief and true Acknowledgment we are to expect the Effects of Gods Promises in the Calamities and Traverses of this Life which Christ hath confirmed unto us not only by the sacred Oracle of his Blessed Mouth but also by the holy Mystery of his bitter Passion and glorious Resurrection Shewing us by his bitter Passion the Hardships we are to undergo in this Life and by his glorious Resurrection what we are to hope for in the next The Church also tells the Wicked how much they are to dread and apprehend the severe Judgment of God who leaves no Ill unpunish'd and prepares eternal Flames for such as die in their Iniquities which the Royal Prophet compares to a Chalice of Wine mixt with Bitterness She also exhorts us to repent and acknowledge that even the temporal Goods which they enjoy in this World are only from the Bounty of God and not the Effects of Fortune or their Industry and that they are only given to Man as conducing to his Salvation Ant. I said to the wicked Speak not iniquity against God WE will confess to thee G God we will confess and will invocate thy name We will tell thy marveilous works when I shall take a time I will judge justices The earth is melted and all that dwell in it I have confirmed the pillars thereof I said to the wicked Do not wickedly and to them that offend Exalt not the horn Exalt not your horn on high speak not iniquity against God For neither from the east nor from the west nor from the desert mountains because God is judge This man he humbleth and him he exalteth because there is a cup in the hand of our Lord of mere wine full of mixture And he hath poured it out of this into that but yet the dregs thereof are not emptied all the sinners of the earth shall drink But I will shew forth for ever I will sing to the God of Jacob. And I will break all the horns of sinners and the horns of the just shall be exalted Ant. I said to the wicked Speak not iniquity against God PSALM 75. The Church admonisheth the Faithful who are represented by the People of Israel to thank God for calling them to the Knowledge and Profession of his Holy Name by his Son our Lord Jesus Christ who reconciled us to his Father uniting us by the Tie of Charity that we might not be at variance with any but in peace with every one and who enlightens us from his Throne on high with the Light of his Grace to make us contemn the transitory and perishable Goods of this World which the Wicked enjoy as it were only in a Dream and which vanish at the Hour of Death The Church represents this Divine Saviour triumphing over the Wicked and proposes unto us the Rigor of his Justice at his last coming when he shall judge the Living and the Dead with so great a Majesty and such irresistible Power that even all the Heavens and Elements shall quake and tremble to the end that the Terror of the Threats of this Last Judgment might not only stop and prevent the Boldness and Rashness of Sinners and secure the Innocency of the Just even in the midst of the Wicked but also that the Wicked fearing the Torments wherewith God in his Justice punishes Offences might at the same time when they dread Chastisement be restrained from sinning and by an internal Motion be excited to invoke the Goodness of God which changes their Spirit and by an admirable Effect of his Grace cures the Corruption and Malice of their Will and transports them not only
to fear but also to love him Ant. The earth trembled and was quiet when God arose unto judgment GOd is known in Jewry in Israel his name is great And his place is made in peace and his habitation in Sion There he brake the powers of bows the shield the sword and the battel Thou dost illuminate merveilously from the eternal mountains all the foolish of heart were troubled They slept their sleep and all the men of riches found nothing in their hands At thy reprehension O God of Jacob they have slumbred that mounted on horses Thou art terrible and who shall resist thee from that time thy wrath From heaven thou hast made thy judgment heard the earth trembled and was quiet When God arose unto judgment that he might save all the meek of the earth Because the cogitation of man shall confess to thee and the remains of the cogitation shall keep festival-day to thee Vow ye and render to our Lord your God all ye that round about him bring gifts To the terrible and him that taketh away the spirit of princes terrible to the kings of the earth Ant. The earth trembled and was quiet when God arose unto judgment PSALM 76. The Church here shews us That if the Faithful of the Old Law acknowledg'd their Sufferings to be occasioned by their Sins and that they deserved the Torments they suffered and that they received no Comfort but by considering the Effects of Gods Bounty in the Conduct of his People whereof there had been great and many Examples given How much more ought the Faithful of the Law of Grace to be comforted in their Afflictions by the Example and Promises of the Son of God our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ considering that what they suffer is nothing if compared to what our Redeemer suffered to take away our Sins and make us happy Then it shews us the Assurance he gives us to obtain by his Merits of God his Father either to avert the Evils of this Life or at least to mitigate them or to enable them to support them or that he wholly frees them from those Calamities and afterwards he raises them to the enjoyment of that Happiness wherein there is no fear of Ill and wherein they cannot lose the Sovereign Good Ant. In the day of my tribulation I sought God with my hands WIth my voice I have cried to our Lord with my voice to God and he attended to me In the day of my tribulation I sought God with my hands in the night before him and I was not deceived My soul refused to be comforted I was mindful of God and was delighted and was exercised and my spirit fainted Mine eyes prevented the watch I was troubled and spake not I thought upon old days and the eternal years I had in my mind And I meditated in the night with my heart and I was exercised and I swept my spirit Why will God reject for ever or will he not add to be better pleased as yet Or will he cut off his mercy for ever from generation unto generation Or will God forget to have mercy or will he in his wrath keep in his mercies And I said Now have I begun this is the change of the right hand of the Highest I have been mindful of the works of our Lord because I will be mindful from the beginning of thy merveilous works And I will meditate in all thy works and in thy inventions I will be exercised O God in the holy is thy way What God is great as our God thou art the God that dost merveilous things Thou hast made thy power known amongst peoples thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people the children of Jacob and Joseph The waters saw thee O God the waters saw thee and they were afraid and the depths were troubled A multitude of the sounding of waters the clouds give a voice For indeed arrows do pass the voice of thy thunder in a wheel Thy lightnings shined to the round world the earth was moved and troubled Thy way in the sea and thy paths in many waters and thy steps shall not be known Thou hast conducted thy people as sheep in the hand of Moyses of Aaron Ant. In the day of tribulation I sought God with my hands V. Arise O Lord. R. And judge my cause VII LESSON Out of the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians chap. 2. The Church instructs us by the Words of the Apostle St. Paul how on that day Jesus Christ being to leave this World and go unto his Father and that having celebrated the Pasch with his Disciples he instituted at this last Supper he eat with them the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood as a perpetual Testimony of his Passion and the fulfilling of the Figures of the Old Law and as the greatest Miracle he ever did which he also left in his Church to comfort all the Faithful afflicted by his absence and to ingrave in their Hearts a deeper Impression of that Divine Love which he testified by dying for us In this Seventh Lesson the Apostle treating of the Agapes which were Feasts instituted among the Primitive Christians in imitation of the last Feast our Saviour Jesus Christ made with his Apostles to keep Union among the Faithful he speaks against the Rich who called not the Poor to their Table but came to the Eucharist full of Wine and Meat for according to the ancient Custom every one having taken a small Repast he then came unto those Holy Mysteries But the Council of Laodice held about the Year 364 forbad to celebrate in the Churches this Ceremony of the Agapes for the Irreverences that might be committed and soon after the Apostles time they never communicated but fasting as Tertullian witnesseth ANd this I command not praising it that you come together not to better but to worse First indeed when you come together into the Church I hear that there are schisms among you and in part I believe it For there must be heresies also that they also which are approved may be made manifest among you When you come therefore together in one it is not now to eat our Lords supper For every one taketh his own supper before to eat And one certes is an hungred and another is drunk Why have you not houses to eat and drink in or contemn you the church of God and confound them that have not What shall I say to you praise I you in this I do not praise you The Church represents unto us the Ingratitude and Wickedness of the Jews who endeavoured the Death of our Saviour whilst he even fed them with his own Flesh and gave them his own Blood to drink That also those by receiving it might have eternal Life She likewise admonisheth us to take care that â—e do not crucifie Christ in our own selves as the Jews crucified him on the Cross by profaning and defiling his precious Blood â—â—d by smothering in
habitation which thou hast wrought O Lord. Thy sanctuary Lord which thy hands have confirmed our Lord shall reign for ever and ever more For Pharao on horseback entred in with his chariots and horsemen into the sea and our Lord brought back upon them the waters of the sea But the children of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst thereof Ant. Lord thou hast exhorted thy people to put their trust in thee and thou hast comforted them with thy holy grace ANTIPHON taken out of the Fifty third Chapter of the Prophet Isaie The Church having represented unto us under the Figure of the Delivery of the Israelites from the Captivity of Egypt God's Bounty in freeing us from the Tyranny of the Devil and Slavery of Sin by the Merits of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ She now shews in this Antiphon after what manner he bought us to wit by voluntarily sacrificing himself for us Ant. He was offered because himself would and he carried our sins PSALM 148. The Church in the following Psalms shews us the Obligation we have to praise God and to give him Thanks that he has created us and redeemed us from the Slavery of Sin by his only Son and for the Care he has to preserve us and deliver us from the Temptations Persecutions and other Miscries of this Lise and for the Promise he has made us of Life everlasting PRaise ye our Lord from the heavens praise ye him in the high places Praise ye him all his angels praise ye him all his hosts Praise ye him sun and moon praise him all ye stars and lights Praise him ye heavens of heavens and the waters that are above the heavens let them praise the name of our Lord. Because he said and they were made he commanded and they were created He established them for ever and for ever and ever he put a precept and it shall not pass Praise our Lord from the earth ye dragons and all the depths Fire hail snow ice spirit of storms which do his word Mountains and all little hills trees that bear fruit and all cedars Beasts and all cattel serpents and feathered fowls Kings of the earth and all peoples princes and all judges of the earth Young men and virgins old with young let them praise the name of our Lord because the name of him alone is exalted The confession of him above heaven and earth and he hath exalted the horn of his people An hymn to all his saints to the children of Israel a people approaching unto him PSALM 149. SIng ye to our Lord a new song let his praiâ—â— be in the church of saints Lord â—â—â—el be joyful in him that made him and let the children of Sion rejoyce in their king Let them praise his name in quire on timbrel and psalter let them sing to him Because our Lord is well pleased in his people and he will exalt the meek unto salvation The saints shall rejoyce in glory they shall be joyful in their beds The exaltations of God in their throat and two-edged swords in their hands To do revenge in the nations chastisements among their peoples To bind their kings in fetters and their nobles in iron manacles That they may do in them the judgment that is written This glory is to all his saints PSALM 150. PRaise ye our Lord in his holies praife him in the firmament of his strength Praise ye him in his powers praise ye him according to the multitude of his greatness Praise ye him in the sound of trumpet praise ye him on psalter and harp Praise ye him on timbrel and quire praise ye him on strings and organ Praise ye him on well-sounded cymbals praise ye him on cymbals of jubilation Let every spirit praise our Lord. Ant. He was offered because himself would and he carried our sins The Chapter and Hymn are here omitted The Chapter is not here said to shew us that the Jews profited themselves nothing from the Instructions of the Prophets The Hymn is also here omitted to shew that the Honor due to God was violated through the Wickedness of the Jews and Persidiousness of Judas which the Fortieth Psalm represents unto us by the Treason of Achitophel V. The man whom I loved and in whom I confided R. Who did eat my bread betrayed me through great perfidiousness ANTHYMN taken out of the Twenty sixth Chapter of St. Matthew Ant. But the Traytor gave them a sign saying Whomsoever I shall kiss that is he hold him Canticle of Zachary taken out of the First Chapter of St. Luke The Church proposes unto us this Canticle of Sr. John Baptist's Father to represent unto us the greatness of Gods Bounty and the excessive Baseness of the Jews because God sent them not only his Prophets to declare unto them the Coming of his Son the Redeemer of the World but likewise his Forerunner to advertise them he was now come and to shew them him Yet were they so unhappy as to blind themselves and in stead of owning and acknowledging him they by a most persidious Treachery put him to death BLessed be our Lord God of Israel because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people And he hath erected the horn of salvation to us in the house of David his servant As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that are from the beginning Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us To work mercy with our fathers and to remember his holy testament The oath which he sware to Abraham our father that he would give to us That without fear being delivered from the hand of our enemies we may serve him In holiness and Justice before him all our days And thou child shalt be called the prophet of the Highest for thou shalt go before the face of our Lord to prepare his ways To give knowledge of salvation to his people unto remission of their sins Through the bowels of the mercy of our God in which the Orient from on high hath visited us To illuminate them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to direct our feet in the way of peace All the Tapers being extinguished saving one shews us that the Light of Faith wherewith the Prophets enlightned the Jews was extinguished in them by putting to death the Saviour of the World The Church also represents unto us by that one Taper left lighted during the singing of the foregoing Canticle that JESUS CHRIST whom St. John declared to be the true Light though he died according to his Humanity yet always lived according to his Divinity Ant. And the Traytor gave them a sign saying Whomsoever I shall kiss that is he hold him Here the lighted Taper is hid to shew that the Divinity of CHRIST was concealed in his Humanity according to which he suffered himself to be delivered into the Hands of the Jews by a most profound and incomprehensible Obedience V. Christ was made for us
are the punishments of our Sins and those of JESUS CHRIST are the effects of his Love towards us that thereby he might open Heaven for such as honor him with a sincere Heart as the good Thief did who beholding JESUS CHRIST hanging on the Cross all torn with stripes overwhelmed with shame and confusion drinking Gall covered with Spirtle and so outragiously scoffed at by all the People yet was he no ways scandaliz'd but on the contrary publickly acknowledged he was God he silenced his fellow Malefactor who cursed this Innocent he confessed his Sins he discoursed after a wonderful manner of the Resurrection and prayed JESUS CHRIST who expired on the Cross to be mindful of him when he came into his Kingdom Ant. The one thief said to the other We indeed justly receive worthy of our doings but what hath this man done Lord remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom The Psalm Deus Deus meus ad te de luce vigilo c. as before p. 69. CANTICLE OF HABACCUC Chap. 3. The Prophet Habaccuc represents unto us under the Figure of the deliverance of the Israelites from the Captivity of Babylon and Egypt the deliverance of the Faithful by our Saviour JESUS CHRIST from the slavery of Sin and tyranny of the Devil Ant. When my soul shall be troubled O Lord thou shalt be mindful of mercy LOrd I heard thy hearing and was afraid Lord thy work in the midst of years quicken it In the midst of years shalt thou make it known when thou art angry thou wilt remember mercy God will come from the south and the holy One from mount Paran His glory shall cover the heavens and the earth is full of his praise His brightness shall be as the light horns in his hands there is his strength hid Before his face shall death go and the devil shall go forth before his feet He stood and measured the earth he beheld and dissolved the Gentiles and the mountains of the world were broken The hills of the world were bowed by the ways of his eternity For iniquity I saw the tents of Ethiopia and the skins of the land of Median shall be troubled Why wast thou angry with the rivers O Lord or was thy fury in the rivers or thine indignation in the sea Who wilt mount upon thy horses and thy chariots salvation Raising thou wilt raise up thy bow the oath to the tribes which thou hast spoken Thou wilt cut the rivers of the earth The mountains saw thee and were sorry the gulf of water passed the depth gave his voice the height lifted up his hands The sun and the moon stood in their habitation in the light of thine arrows they shall go in the brightness of thy glittering spear In fretting thou wilt tread down the earth in fury thou wilt astonish the Gentiles Thou wentest forth the salvation of thy people salvation with thy Christ Thou struckest the head out of the house of the impious thou hast discovered the foundation even to the neck Thou hast cursed his scepters the head of his warriors them that came as a whirlwind to disperse me Their exultation as his that devoureth the poor in secret Thou madest a way in the sea for thy horses in the midst of many waters I heard and my belly was troubled at the voice my lips trembled Let rottenness enter in my bones and swarm under me That I may rest in the day of tribulation that I may ascend to our girded people For the fig-tree shall not flourish and there shall be no spring in the vines The work of the olive-tree shall deceive and the fields shall not yield meat The cattel shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls But I will joy in our Lord and will rejoyce in God my Jesus God our Lord is my strength and he will make my feet as of the harts And upon my high places he the conqueror will lead me singing in psalms Ant. When my soul shall be troubled O Lord thou shalt be mindful of mercy ANOTHER ANTHYMN The Church sets before us the Example of the good Thief that by his Example we must have recourse unto Christ in all afflictions and hope for Eternal Goods which by his Death he has merited for us Lord remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom PSALM Laudate Dominum de coelis c. as before p. 74. VERSICLE taken out of Psalm 142. The Church represents unto us the Blindness and Insolency of the Jews who having put JESUS CHRIST to death glorified therein as if they had vanquished him and destroyed his Power for they believed not he would triumph over Death by a speedy Resurrection He hath set me in obscure places R. As the dead of the world AT BENEDICTUS ANTHYMN The Church hath shewed us how Iniquity hath lied against it self for the Jews Maugre all their Power were enforced to publish JESUS CHRIST to be their true King and whereas they thought by the punishment of the Cross to have destroy'd his Kingdom they have thereby more powerfully established it They put over his head his cause written This is JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS The Canticle of Zachary Benedictus c. as before p. 78. V. Christ made himself for us obedient unto death even the death of the cross Pater noster c. Miserere c. as before p. 13. 65. THE PRAYER Respice Quoesumus as before p. 80. AT COMPLINE As before p. 82. V. Jesus Christ made himself for us obedient unto death even the death of the cross Pater noster c. Miserere mei Deus c. as before p. 13. 65. THE PRAYER Respice Quoesumus c. as before p. 80. THE NIGHT-OFFICE ON Holy-Friday FOR SATURDAY AT MATTINS FIRST NOCTVRN PSALM 4. This Psalm declares unto us that we cannot raise up our selves to love and seek after the true good whilst our Hearts are loaded with the weight and cares of this World and that being but once enlightened with the Grace of God we then begin to afflict our selves in the secret of our Soul and being touch'd to the very bottom of our Hearts we then offer to his Majesty all our past life and for the future resolve by his assistance entirely to change it Then our Lord begins to make us relish his Sweets ad Delights and to heap on us all Joys Then we find in that Sovereign Good another Wine and another Oyl than they below do so as we neither repine at the prosperity of the Wicked nor fear their Malice having all our confidence in God Ant. In peace in the self-same I will sleep and rest WHen I invocated the God of my justice heard me in tribulation thou hast enlarged to me Have mercy on me and hear my prayer Ye sons of men how long are you of heavy heart why love you vanity and seek lying And know ye that our Lord hath made his
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