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
triumphant entry into Jerusalem which was a figure of his glorious Ascension to Heaven having vanquished the Devil and therefore the Church begins this Ceremony with the Canticle which the Hebrew Children sung on this day in honour of our Saviour where we are to observe that the Priest reads it with a low Voice without making the sign of the Cross to mind us that this Action preceded the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ HOsanna to the Son of David or save us we beseech thee O Son of David blessed is he who comes in the Name of our Lord O King of Israel Hosanna in the highest V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray The Faithful considering how God had opened the mouths of the Hebrew Children to sing a Canticle of Praise to the Honour of his Son Saviour of the World and how he had inspired the People of Jerusalem to go before him with Olive and Palm branches as a sign of those Graces he intended us by his Victory and Triumph over the World and the Devil beseech his Majesty to render us worthy of those Graces and that Salvation which he hath purchased for us by his victorious Death to the end we may reap the accomplishment thereof in eternal bliss by the vertue of his Resurrection O God whom it is justice to love multiply in us the Gists of thy ineffable Grace and as through the Death of thy Son thou hast made us hope for what we believe grant that we may arrive to Eternal Glory according to our desires through the resurrection of thy only Son who liveth and reigneth one God with thee in unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen The Lesson taken out of the 15th and 16th Chapter of Exodus The Church minds us that as the Israelites found refreshment in the desert under the shade of Palm-trees and in the Fountain of fresh Waters they murmured presently after against Moses their leader and notwithstanding God was pleased to surmount their ingratitude with his benefits by showring down Manna In like maner the Jews who would have found their salvation in the honour which they rendred this day to Jesus Christ if they had accompanied it with a lively faith did yet presently after conspire against him who nevertheless was pleased in his bounty to give them his own Body as Bread from Heaven for Food to their Souls which he soon after offered as a Sacrifice to God his Father to expiate the sins of men and heap upon them his Grace IN those days the Children of Israel came into Elim where there were twelve Fountains of Water and seventy Palm-trees and they camped beside the Waters And they set forward from Elim and all the multitude of the Children of Israel came into the desert Sin which is between Elim and Sinai the fifteenth day of the second Month after they came forth out of the land of Egypt And all the Assembly of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the Wilderness and the Children of Israel said to them Would to God we had died by the hand of our Lord in the land of Egypt when we sate over the Flesh-pots and did eat Bread our fill Why have you brought us into this desert that you may kill all the multitude with famine And our Lord said to Moses Behold I will rain you Bread from Heaven let the People go forth and gather that sufficeth for every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my Law or no. But the sixth day let them provide for to bring in and let it be double to that they were wont to gather every day And Moses and Aaron said to all the Children of Israel At Even you shall know that our Lord hath brought you forth out of the land of Egypt and in the Morning you shall see the glory of our Lord. The following Responsory is sung instead of the Gradual taken out of the Eleventh Chapter of St. John THe chief Priests therefore and Pharisees gathered a Council and said What do we for this Man doth many signs If we let him alone so all will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away our Place and Nation Vr. But one of them named Caiphas being the high Priest of that year said to them It is expedient for us that one man die for the people and the whole Nation perish not Therefore from that day they devised to kill him saying And the Romans c. Another Responsory taken out of the second Chaper of St. Matthew JEsus prayed unto his Father on Mount Olivet My Father if it be possible let this Chalice pass from me The spirit indeed is prompt but the flesh weak thy will be done Watch ye and pray that ye enter not tentation The spirit indeed is c. In the mean time the Deacon carries the Book of Gospels to the Altar to testifie that it contains the Word of God and presents Incense to the Priest to bless saying Reverend Father bless this Incense The Priest takes the Incense and putting into the Thurible blesseth it â—avowing by this Benediction that the Sacrifice of the Mass is offered to God alone humbly beseeching his Grace that his Prayers may ascend as this Incense towards him Be thou bless'd by him to whose honour thou shalt be burnt Then the Deacon upon his knees at the foot of the Altar prepares himself to receive commission from the Priest to publish the Gospel by this Prayer CLeanse O Almighty God my heart and lips who didst purifie with a fiery coal the lips of the Prophet Isaiah and vouchsafe so to purifie me for thy mercies sake that I may worthily declare thy holy Gospel Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. Amen Then taking the Book from the Altar he asks the Priest's Blessing Reverend Father bless me The Priest blesseth him OUr Lord be in thy heart and lips that thou mayest worthily publish his Gospel in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen The Deacon kisseth the Priest's hand to testifie that as in the Old Law a Seraphin did purifie the lips of the Prophet Isaiah with a coal of fire so in the New Law it is Jesus Christ represented by the Priest who purifies his mouth He goes to the place appointed for reading the Gospel with the Subdeacon Thurifer and two Acolyts who carry two Tapers lighted before him to signifie the Joy which the Faithful ought to have for this Great Blessing of the Light of Faith He turns towards the People that they may hear the Gospel the Subdeacon holding the Book before him to testifie that what he reads to the People is only what the Priest ordered him Before he reads the Gospel he beseeches God's blessing upon the Assembly to hear his Word worthily saying Our Lord be with you The Assembly reciprocally beseeching God to assist him with his Grace and that
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
to fear but also to love him Ant. The earth trembled and was quiet when God arose unto judgment GOd is known in Jewry in Israel his name is great And his place is made in peace and his habitation in Sion There he brake the powers of bows the shield the sword and the battel Thou dost illuminate merveilously from the eternal mountains all the foolish of heart were troubled They slept their sleep and all the men of riches found nothing in their hands At thy reprehension O God of Jacob they have slumbred that mounted on horses Thou art terrible and who shall resist thee from that time thy wrath From heaven thou hast made thy judgment heard the earth trembled and was quiet When God arose unto judgment that he might save all the meek of the earth Because the cogitation of man shall confess to thee and the remains of the cogitation shall keep festival-day to thee Vow ye and render to our Lord your God all ye that round about him bring gifts To the terrible and him that taketh away the spirit of princes terrible to the kings of the earth Ant. The earth trembled and was quiet when God arose unto judgment PSALM 76. The Church here shews us That if the Faithful of the Old Law acknowledg'd their Sufferings to be occasioned by their Sins and that they deserved the Torments they suffered and that they received no Comfort but by considering the Effects of Gods Bounty in the Conduct of his People whereof there had been great and many Examples given How much more ought the Faithful of the Law of Grace to be comforted in their Afflictions by the Example and Promises of the Son of God our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ considering that what they suffer is nothing if compared to what our Redeemer suffered to take away our Sins and make us happy Then it shews us the Assurance he gives us to obtain by his Merits of God his Father either to avert the Evils of this Life or at least to mitigate them or to enable them to support them or that he wholly frees them from those Calamities and afterwards he raises them to the enjoyment of that Happiness wherein there is no fear of Ill and wherein they cannot lose the Sovereign Good Ant. In the day of my tribulation I sought God with my hands WIth my voice I have cried to our Lord with my voice to God and he attended to me In the day of my tribulation I sought God with my hands in the night before him and I was not deceived My soul refused to be comforted I was mindful of God and was delighted and was exercised and my spirit fainted Mine eyes prevented the watch I was troubled and spake not I thought upon old days and the eternal years I had in my mind And I meditated in the night with my heart and I was exercised and I swept my spirit Why will God reject for ever or will he not add to be better pleased as yet Or will he cut off his mercy for ever from generation unto generation Or will God forget to have mercy or will he in his wrath keep in his mercies And I said Now have I begun this is the change of the right hand of the Highest I have been mindful of the works of our Lord because I will be mindful from the beginning of thy merveilous works And I will meditate in all thy works and in thy inventions I will be exercised O God in the holy is thy way What God is great as our God thou art the God that dost merveilous things Thou hast made thy power known amongst peoples thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people the children of Jacob and Joseph The waters saw thee O God the waters saw thee and they were afraid and the depths were troubled A multitude of the sounding of waters the clouds give a voice For indeed arrows do pass the voice of thy thunder in a wheel Thy lightnings shined to the round world the earth was moved and troubled Thy way in the sea and thy paths in many waters and thy steps shall not be known Thou hast conducted thy people as sheep in the hand of Moyses of Aaron Ant. In the day of tribulation I sought God with my hands V. Arise O Lord. R. And judge my cause VII LESSON Out of the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians chap. 2. The Church instructs us by the Words of the Apostle St. Paul how on that day Jesus Christ being to leave this World and go unto his Father and that having celebrated the Pasch with his Disciples he instituted at this last Supper he eat with them the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood as a perpetual Testimony of his Passion and the fulfilling of the Figures of the Old Law and as the greatest Miracle he ever did which he also left in his Church to comfort all the Faithful afflicted by his absence and to ingrave in their Hearts a deeper Impression of that Divine Love which he testified by dying for us In this Seventh Lesson the Apostle treating of the Agapes which were Feasts instituted among the Primitive Christians in imitation of the last Feast our Saviour Jesus Christ made with his Apostles to keep Union among the Faithful he speaks against the Rich who called not the Poor to their Table but came to the Eucharist full of Wine and Meat for according to the ancient Custom every one having taken a small Repast he then came unto those Holy Mysteries But the Council of Laodice held about the Year 364 forbad to celebrate in the Churches this Ceremony of the Agapes for the Irreverences that might be committed and soon after the Apostles time they never communicated but fasting as Tertullian witnesseth ANd this I command not praising it that you come together not to better but to worse First indeed when you come together into the Church I hear that there are schisms among you and in part I believe it For there must be heresies also that they also which are approved may be made manifest among you When you come therefore together in one it is not now to eat our Lords supper For every one taketh his own supper before to eat And one certes is an hungred and another is drunk Why have you not houses to eat and drink in or contemn you the church of God and confound them that have not What shall I say to you praise I you in this I do not praise you The Church represents unto us the Ingratitude and Wickedness of the Jews who endeavoured the Death of our Saviour whilst he even fed them with his own Flesh and gave them his own Blood to drink That also those by receiving it might have eternal Life She likewise admonisheth us to take care that â—e do not crucifie Christ in our own selves as the Jews crucified him on the Cross by profaning and defiling his precious Blood â—â—d by smothering in
years and the more of them labor and sorrow Because mildness is come upon us and we shall be chastised Who knoweth the power of thy wrath and for fear to number thy wrath So make thy right hand known and men learned in heart in wisdom Turn O Lord how long and be entreated for thy servants We are replenished in the morning with thy mercy and we have rejoyced and are delighted all our days We have rejoyced for the days wherein thou hast humbled us the years wherein we have seen evils Look upon thy servants and upon thy works and direct their children And let the brightness of our Lord God be upon us and direct thou the works of our hands over us and the work of our hands do thou direct Ant. Our Lord was led like an innocent lamb to the slaughter and he opened not his mouth â—â—ALM 62. In one part the Church represents unto us in the Person of King David the Happiness of those who esteem this World but as a Wilderness and 〈◊〉 extreme Grief because they yet enjoy not God but who make their hopes of possessing and enjoying him their sole Joy and Comfort preferring the Delights they find in the Mercies of God before all the perishable Goods and transitory Pleasures of this World and who in their Afflictions and Persecutions put all their Confidence in God who makes them in the end victorious over their Persecutors On the other part the Church represents unto us the Misery and Unhappiness of the Wicked and such as are Enemies to the Just ANTHYMN The Church having in the precedent Psalm shewed unto us how terrible and irresistible Gods Anger is She now shews us in this Antiphon taken out of the Twenty third Chapter of the Prophet Jeremy that his Wrath is so terrible that the very Prophets themselves were not able to express and declare his Threats without trembling for fear Ant. My heart is broken in the midst of me all my bones have trembled O God my God to thee I watch from the morning light My soul hath thirsted to thee my flesh to thee very many ways In a desert land and inaccessible and without water so in the holy have I appeared to thee that I might see thy strength and thy glory Because thy mercy is better than lives my lips shall praise thee So will I bless thee in my life and in thy name I will lift up my hands As with marrow and fatness let my soul be filled and my mouth shall praise with lips of exultation I have been mindful of thee upon my bed in the morning I will meditate on thee because thou hast been my helper And in the covert of thy wings I will rejoyce my soul hath cleaved after thee thy right hand hath received me But they in vain have sought my soul they shall enter into the interior parts of the earth they shall be delivered into the hands of the sword they shall be the portion of foxes But the king shall rejoyce in God all shall be praised that swear by him because the mouth is stopped of them that speak wicked things PSALM 66. The Church represents unto us First With what Fervor and Ardency the Royal Prophet and the Saints of the Old Testament expected and covered the Coming of the Messias as being the Author of their Sanctification and Salvation Secondly With what a fervent Charity they desired the Conversion of Insidels to the end that God might be acknowledged and adored by all the Nations of the Earth O God have mercy upon us and bless us illuminate his countenance upon us and have mercy on us That we may know thy way on earth in all nations thy salvation Let peoples O God confess to thee let all peoples confess to thee Let nations be glad and rejoyce because thou judgest peoples in equity and the nations in the earth thou dost direct Let peoples O God confess to thee let all peoples confess to thee the earth hath yielded her fruit God our God bless us God bless us and let all the ends of the earth fear him Ant. My heart is broken in the midst of me all my bones have trembled THE CANTICLE OF MOYSES Taken out of the Fifteenth Chapter of Exodus The Church shewing the Faithful that the Deliverance of the People of Israel from the Captivity of Egypt is but a Figure of God's Goodness in delivering them by his Son Jesus Christ from the Tyranny of the Devil and Slavery of Sin She also shews them how much they are obliged to sing Canticles of Praise to the Glory of our Lord with much greater joy than did the Israelites when they were delivered from the Tyranny of Pharao and the Persecution of their Enemies ANTIPHON taken out of the Fourth Chapter of the Prophet Barach Lord thou hast exhorted thy people to put their trust in thee and thou hast comforted them with thy holy grace LEt us sing to our Lord for he is glorious gloriously magnified the horse and the rider he hath thrown into the sea My strength and my praise is our Lord and he is made unto me a salvation This is my God and I will glorifie him the God of my father and I will exalt him Our Lord is a man of war Omnipotent is his name Pharaos chariots and his army he hath cast into the sea His chosen princes are drowned in the red sea the depths have overwhelmed them they are sunk into the bottom like a stone Thy right hand O Lord is magnified in strength thy right hand O Lord hath stricken the enemy and in the multitude of thy glory thou hast put down thy adversaries Thou hast sent thy wrath which hath devoured them like stubble and in the spirit of thy fury were the waters gathered together The flowing water stood the depths were gathered together in the midst of the sea The enemy said I will pursue and overtake I will divide the spoils my soul shall have his fill I will draw forth my sword my hand shall kill them The Spirit blew and the sea overwhelmed them they sank as lead in the vehement waters Who is like to thee among the strong O Lord who is like to thee Glorious in sanctity terrible and laudable doing merveils Thou didst stretch forth thy hand and the earth devoured them thou hast in thy mercy been a guide to the people which thou hast redeemed And in thy strength thou hast carried them unto thy holy habitation Nations rose up and were angry sorrows possessed the inhabiters of Philisthiim Then were the princes of Edom troubled trembling seised on the sturdy of Moab all the inhabiters of Canaam were confounded Let fear and dread fall upon them in the greatness of thy arm Let them become unmovable as a stone until thy people O Lord shall pass until thy people shall pass this which thou hast possessed Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thy inheritance in thy most firm
last we must put all our Hope and Trust in the Bounty and Goodness of God Ant. And they did violence which sought my soul LOrd rebuke me not in thy fury nor chastise me in thy wrath Because thy arrows are fast sticked in me and thou hast fastned thy hand upon me There is no health in my flesh at the face of my wrath my bones have no peace at the face of my sins Because mine iniquities are gone over my head and as a heavy burden are become heavy upon me My scars are putrified and corrupted because of my foolishness I am become miserable and am made crooked even to the end I went sorrowful all the day Because my loins are filled with illusions and there is no health in my flesh I am afflicted and am humbled exceedingly I roared for the groaning of my heart Lord before thee is all my desire and my groaning is not hid from thee My heart is troubled my strength hath forsaken me and the light of mine eyes and the same is not with me My friends and my neighbors have approached and stood against me And they that were neer me stood far off and they did violence which sought my soul And they that sought me evils spake vanities and meditated guiles all the day But I as one deaf did not hear and as one dumb not opening his mouth And I became as a man not hearing and not having reproofs in his mouth Because in thee O Lord have I hoped thou wilt hear me O Lord my God Because I said Lest sometimes my enemies rejoyce over me and whilst my feet are moved they speak great things upon me Because I am ready for scourges and my sorrow is in my sight always Because I will declare my iniquity and I will think for my sin But mine enemies live and are confirmed over me and they are multiplied that hate me unjustly They that repay evil things for good detracted from me because I followed goodness Forsake me not O Lord my God depart not from me Attend unto my help O Lord the God of my salvation Ant. And they did violence which sought my soul PSALM 39. The Church according to the Explication of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 10. do's represent to us in this Psalm with what Fervor and Confidence we ought to expect the Effects of God's Mercy considering that as he would render himself our Benefactor by all ways imaginable so he was not only contented to give us our Being and all things requisite to our Preservation but he would shew us how infinite his Goodness was by the Mystery of our Redemption whereof he made us Partakers by the Torments and Death of our Saviour our Lord JESUS CHRIST who fulfilled the Will of his Eternal Father came into the World and offered himself upon the Cross to satisfie for us to his Divine Justice and to clear us the way to our Justification and that we might give God the Honor of a Sacrifice which is due to him from every Creature as being the most perfect manner of Adoration and Acknowledgment of the Sovereignty of his Being and that which could not always be given him by Victim and other Legal Offerings too distant from his Dignity and that he only permitted them heretofore as Representatives of this Divine Victim of his dear Son who has abolish'd the first Sacrifice to establish this second And thereby we see First How much we are obliged to a Return for that Benefit both by Praises and Thanksgiving Secondly That JESUS CHRIST shews us that in resuming that Figure for us he acted not his own Will but that of his Father How much more then are we obliged to a just neglect of our own Will and to do the Will of God that we may be freed from that Confusion wherein the Wicked must be buried Thirdly By the Prayers which Christ made in his Sufferings he teacheth us That 't is needful to keep our selves always with wonderful vigilancy on our guard and to follow our Prayers with a fervent assiduity to prevent us from falling into Temptations during our Conflict in the continual Dangers of this Life Ant. Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek my soul to take it away Expecting I expected our Lord and he hath attended to me And he heard my prayers and brought me out of the lake of misery and from the mire of drags And hath set my feet upon a rock and hath directed my steps And he hath put a new canticle into my mouth a song to our God Many shall see and shall fear and they shall hope in our Lord. Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of our Lord and hath not had regard to vanities and false madness Thou hast done many merveilous things O Lord my God and in thy cogitations there is none that may be like to thee I have declared and have spoken they multiplied above number Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldst not but ears thou hast perfected to me Holocaust and for sin thou didst not require then said I Behold I come In the head of the book it is written of me that I should do thy will my God I would and thy law in the midst of my heart I have declared thy justice in the great church lo I will not stay my lips Lord thou hast known it Thy justice I have not hid in my heart thy truth and thy salvation I have spoken I have not hid thy mercy and thy truth from the great council But thou O Lord make not thy commiserations far from me thy mercy and thy truth have always received me Because evils have compassed me which have no number mine iniquities have overtaken me and I was not able to see They are multiplied above the hairs of my head and my heart hath forsaken me It may please thee O Lord to deliver me Lord have respect to help me Let them be confounded and ashamed together that seek my soul to take it away Let them be turned backward and be ashamed that will me evils Let them forthwith receive their confusion that say to me Well well Let all that seek thee rejoyce and be glad upon thee and let them that love thy salvation say always Our Lord be magnified But I am a begger and poor our Lord is careful of me Thou art my helper and my protector my God be not slack Ant. Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek my soul to take it away PSALM 53. The Church proposes unto us a Model of a most perfect Prayer First We must beg nothing of God but what tends to our Salvation Secondly We must beg of him in the Name of our Saviour JESUS CHRIST for there is no other Name given to Man whereby he can be saved Thirdly We must have a firm Faith not mistrusting the Omnipotency of God Fourthly We must regard God as our Judge who renders to every one according to his Actions Fifthly We