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
they pierced Before the reading of the rest of the Gospel the Deacon says the Prayer Munda cor meum as before but asks not the Priest's Blessing to note unto us that the Author of all Blessings is dead Nor are the Candles lighted whereby to signifie that as the Eclipse of the Sun and Moon so likewise in the heavens all light was extinguished at the death of our Lord. Nor is the Book incensed to tell us that the fervour of the Disciples Prayers was also cool'd ANd after these things Joseph of Arimathea because he was a disciple of Jesus but secret for fear of the the Jews desired Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus And Pilate permitted He came therefore and took away the body of Jesus Nicodemus also came he that at the first came to Jesus by night bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes about an hundred pounds They took therefore the body of Jesus and bound it in linnen clothes with spices as the manner is with the Jews to bury And there was in the place where he was crucified a garden and in the garden a new monument wherein no man yet had been laid There therefore because of the Parasceve of the Jews they laid Jesus because the monument was hard by The Passion being ended Publick and Solemn Prayers are said not onely for the whole Church and all its Members but also for Infidels and all sorts of people in imitation of our Saviour who upon the Cross prayed even for his enemies and executioners to shew that he shed his blood for the whole world You are to observe that before each Prayer the Church minds the people to joyn in prayer with her wishing them to bow their knees to represent the respect and the humility wherewith we are to address unto God For the whole Church LEt us pray my beloved Brethren for the whole Church of God that our Lord God will vouchsafe to give it Peace maintain it in Union and preserve it through the whole Earth subjecting the Princes and Powers of this World unto it and that granting us the grace to lead this life in peace and tranquillity we may glorisie God the Father Almighty Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves ALmighty and Everlasting God who hast revealed thy glory in Jesus Christ to all Nations preserve the works of thy mercy that thy Church spred through the whole world may firmly persevere in the confession of thy Name Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Or for the Pope LEt us pray also for our Holy Father the Pope that our Lord God who hath elected and seated him in the Order of Episcopacy will give him health for the good of his Church and the benefit of his People Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves ALmighty and Everlasting God upon whose judgment all things are founded hear graciously our Prayers and in thy goodness preserve our Bishop whom thou hast appointed to guide us that the Christian people be governed by thy Authority may more and more encrease in faith under so great a Prelate Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen For the Orders of the Church LEt us pray also for Bishops Priests Deacons Subdeacons Acolyts Exorcists Readers Porters Confessors Virgins Widows and for all God's holy people Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves ALmighty and Everlasting God whose Spirit sanctifies and governs the whole Church hear the Prayers we address unto thee for all Orders that by the assistance of thy grace they may all serve thee faithfully Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen For the King LEt us pray also for our King Defender of the Faith that God will please to reduce all barbarous Nations to his command and grant us perpetual peace Let us Pray Let us bend our knees R. Lift up your selves ALmighty and Everlasting God in whose hands all Powers and Rights of Kingdoms are graciously look upon this Kingdom that those Nations who put confidence in their brutish fierceness may be supprest by the power of thy right hand Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen For the Catechumens LEt us pray also for the Catechumens that our Lord God will open the ears of their hearts and the gate of his mercy that having received remission of all their sins and being regenerated by Baptism they may be incorporated with us in our Lord Jesus Christ Let us Pray Let us bend our knees R. Lift up your selves ALmighty and Everlasting God who daily encreasest thy Church with new children encrease in our Catechumens faith and understanding that being regenerated in the waters of Baptism they may be entred into the society of thy adopted children Through c. Amen For all sorts of Necessities LEt us pray my beloved unto God the Father Almighty that he will please to cleanse the world from all sorts of Errors cure our Diseases divert Famine open Prisons dissolve the bonds of Captives grant a safe return to Pilgrims restore health to the sick and to sea-faring men a secure arrival to their haven Let us Pray Let us bend our knees R. Lift up your selves ALmighty and Everlasting God who art a comfort to the afflicted and a strength to those that labour grant that the Prayers of all those who shall call upon thee in affliction may be heard by thee that they may be sensible with gladness of the assistance of thy mercy in their necessities Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen For Hereticks and Schismaticks LEt us pray also for Hereticks and Schismaticks that our Lord God will deliver them from all error and vouchsafe to recall them into the bosom of our Holy Mother the Catholick Apostolick Church Let us pray Let us bend our knees R. Lift up your selves ALmighty and Everlasting God who savest the whole world and desirest not the death of a sinner regard those souls in mercy seduced by the deceit of the devil that all Hereticks and others going astray quitting all malice may rectifie their hearts and return to the unity of the truth Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen For the Jews LEt us pray also for the perfidious Jews that our Lord God will withdraw the vail from their hearts that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ We say not here Flectamus genua to signifie the horrour of the outrages committed upon our Saviour at his Passion kneeling unto him in derision but the following Prayer is said Let us Pray ALmighty and Everlasting God who refusest not thy mercy even to the perfidious Jews hear the Prayers we pour forth for the blindness of this people that they arriving to the light of thy truth which is Jesus Christ may be cleared from their darkness Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ Amen For the Pagans LEt us pray also for the Pagans that Almighty God will take away all wickedness from their hearts that quitting their Idolatry they may convert themselves
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
dead or shall physicians raise to life and they confess to thee Shall any in the sepulcher dâ—â—â—e thy mercy and thy truth in perdition Shall thy merveilous works be known in darkness and thy justice in the land of oblivion And I O Lord have cried to thee and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Why dost thou O Lord reject my prayer turnest away thy face from me I am poor and in labors from my youth and being exalted humbled and troubled Thy wraths have passed upon me and thy terrors have troubled me They have compassed me as water all the day they compassed me together Thou hast made friend and neighbor far from me and my familiar because of misery Ant. I am become as a man without help free among the dead V. His place is made in peace R. And his habitation in Sion LESSON VII Taken out of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews Chap. 9. The Church teacheth us by those words of the Apostle That the Mediator of the Old Testament who was the High-priest was not able to cleanse Mens Souls from their Sins nor to open Heaven for them either by the quality of his Priesthood of the Old Law or by the nature of the Sacrifice and Testament The High-Priest of 〈◊〉 was a Sinner like other Men he entred only into the maâ—â—â—â— Sanctuary and into a Tabernacle built by the Hands of Men he only offered Calves and other lawful Victims unto God and they could only receive from him Temporal Blessings It was therefore needful to have a Mediator of the New Testament and that was JESUS CHRIST who being both God and Man could not sin and was the Source and Fountain of all Sanctity Who by Sacrificing himself purified us by his one Blood with an Interior and Spiritual Purity delivering us from our Sins to make us in a condition to render God a truly faithful Service and entring into the true Sanctuary that is into Heaven and into the Bosom of God his Father he profered us to him and made us by his Will and Testament Partakers and Heirs of his Heavenly Inheritance CHrist assisting an high priest of the good things to come by a more ample and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand that is not of this creation neither by the blood of goats or of calves but by his own blood entred in once into the holies eternal redemption being found For if the blood of goats and of oxen and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled sanctifieth the polluted to the cleansing of the flesh How much more hath the blood of Christ who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God cleansed our conscience from dead works to serve the living God RESP. The Church minds to give thanks unto JESUS CHRIST for vouchsafing us his Mercy and Sacrificing himself on the Cross for our Salvation We must also abhor the Wickedness of the Jews who to satisfie their Malice put to Death this Divine Saviour R. The kings of the earth have risen up and the princes are assembled together against the Lord and against his Christ V. Why have the nations raged and the people meditated vain things Against the Lord and against his Christ LESSON VIII The Apostle instructs us That the Death which our Mediator was willing to suffer was to repair those Prevarications committed during the Old Testament and to render us capable of the effects of the Divine Promises of the New Testament and this founded on the natuere of the Testament For in the first place JESUS CHRIST being willing to give unto Man a New Testament it was also but requisit that it should be firm and unalterable the which to render it 't was necessary he should die for the Wills and Testaments of Men take no effect till after their Death for whilst they live they may either change or absolutely cancel them Secondly The New Testament was to correspond with the first neither was the Fire given without the effusion of Blood as appears in Exod. chap. 24. ANd therefore he is the mediator of the new testament that death being a mean unto the redemption of these prevarications which were under the former testament they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance For where there is a testament the death of the testator must of necessity come between for a testament is confirmed in the dead otherwise it is yet of no value whilst the testator liveth Whereupon neither was the first certes dedicated without blood RESP. The Faithful consider that the Jews put this Divine Testator to a most Ignominious Death who came to give them by his last Will and Testament a Heavenly Inheritance if by their Impiety and Ingratitude they had not made themselves unworthy it They likewise consider that as the Jews had no power to put our Saviour to Death but because he would himself so in voluntarily dying he triumphed over Death R. I am accounted with them that descend into the lake I am become as a man without help free among the dead V. They have put me in the lower lake in the dark places and in the shadow of death I am become as c. LESSON IX In this Lesson the Apostle represents unto us That in the Old Testament the Purifications were made by the shedding of Blood without which the Remission of Sins had not been given since it is that which is the confirmation of all Alliance FOr all the commandment of the law being read of Moyses to all the people he taking the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet-wooll and hyssop sprinkled the very book also it self and all the people saying This is the blood of the testament which God hath commanded unto you The tabernacle also and all the vessel of the ministery he in like manner sprinkled with blood And all things almost according to the law are cleansed with blood and without shedding of blood there is not remission RESP. In the Old Law in the Seventeenth Chapter of Leviticus God Commanded that the Blood of Victims should be covered to shew unto us that it was an effect of his Bounty that he vouchsafed to receive the lives of Innocent Beasts instead of that of Sinners But on the contrary the Jews instead of covering the Blood of JESUS CHRIST that is instead of acknowledging the excess of his Bounty wherewith God would that his Son who was the God of Man should die for them who deserved Death and that he should die on the Cross even for their Salvation who nailed him thereon But they instead of repenting themselves or being confounded for having put to Death their Saviour they moreover persecuted him even in his Sepulcher And this it is which the Faithful consider in the following Versicles R. Our Lord being buried his monument was sealed rolling a stone against the mouth of the monument setting soldiers who might guard it V. The chief priests came unto Pilate