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
comforted me For I also will confess to thee in the instruments of Psalm thy truth O God I will sing to thee on the Harp holy One of Israel My Lips shall rejoyce when I shall sing to thee and my soul which thou hast redeemed Yea and my tongue all the day shall meditate thy justice when they shall be confounded and ashamed that seek evils to me Ant. My God deliver me out of the hand of the sinner V. Let them be turned away backward and blush for shame that will me evils Pater noster c. THE BEGINNING OF THE LAMENTATIONS OF THE PROPHET JEREMY Jube Domine c. is omitted nor is the Blessing given before the reading of these Lamentations to shew that the Author of all Blessing is dead Under the Figure of the Sufferances of the Prophet Jeremy of the Ruine of Jerusalem and of the Captivity of the Israelites in Babylon for their Sins the Church represents us the Sufferings of Jesus Christ and the Evils the Jews drew on themselves by putting to death this Divine Saviour I. LESSON taken out of the First Chapter ALEPH. These Hebrew Letters of the Alphabet shew the beginning of each Verse the first Word beginning with one of these Letters And the Church proposes it to signifie unto us that these Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremy are the Alphabet of penitent Souls wherein they ought to learn how to meditate on the Sufferances of Jesus Christ and on those Pains which through their Sins they deserve HOw doth the city full of people sit solitary how is the lady of the Gentiles become as a widow the princess of provinces is made tributary BETH Weeping she hath wept in the night and her tears are on her cheeks there is none to comfort her of all her dear ones all her friends have despised her and are become her enemies GHIMEL Judas is gone into transmigration because of affliction and the multitude of bondage she hath dwelt among the Gentiles neither hath she found rest all her persecutors have apprehended her within the straits DALETH The ways of Sion mourn because there are none that come to the solemnity all her gates are destroyed her priests sighing her virgins loathsom and her self is oppressed with bitterness HE. Her adversaries are made in the head her enemies are enriched because our Lord hath spoken upon her for the multitude of her iniquities her little ones are led into captivity before the face of the afflicter Tu autem Domine c. is omitted to shew that the Jews through their own presumption are very far from the way of truth and that their cruel obstinacy has debarred them the way of Mercy because they killed him by whom Mankind was to obtain it but the following words are said By which the Church represents unto us That the Obstinacy of the Jews and their perseverance in Wickedness was the cause of those Evils which afterwards befel them And under the name of Jerusalem she exhorts us to convert our selves to God with our whole Heart lest we fall into the like Reprobation with the Jews Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God The Church having represented unto us the Complaints the Prophet Jeremy uttered from the very bottom of his Heart in the bitterness of his Grief she proposes unto us that Prayer Jesus Christ made unto God his Father in the heighth of his Affliction being charged with the Infirmities of Humane Nature and the Counsel he gave to his Disciples when the Hour of his Passion drew nigh to teach us first That if in the Traverses of this Life we find that we do not obtain the Effect of our Prayer and that any thing should happen contrary to what we beg of God however we ought to bear it patiently and give God thanks for all things and we must no ways doubt but that Gods Will is more for our Benefit than our own Desires Secondly That if our Life be so full of Tentation it self may well be termed a Tentation we then always watch with great care and pray continually with great fervor and assiduity to protect us from falling into Tentations ON mount Olivet Jesus prayed unto his Father saying Father if it may be let this Chalice pass from me for the spirit is quick but the flesh infirm Thy Will be done V. Watch ye and pray that you enter not into tentation The spirit indeed is prompt but the flesh is weak Thy Will be done II. LESSON VAU ANd from the daughter of Sion all her beauty is departed her princes are become rams not finding pastures and they are gone without strength before the face of the pursuer ZAIN Jerusalem hath remembred the days of her affliction and prevarication of all her things worthy to be desired which she had from the days of old when her people fell in the enemies hand and there was no helper the enemies have seen her and have scorned her sabbaths HECH Jerusalem hath sinned a sin therefore is she made unstable all that did glorifie her have despised her because they have seen her ignominy but she sighing is turned backward TETH Her filthiness is on her feet neither hath she remembred her end she is pulled down exceedingly not having a comforter See O Lord mine affliction because the enemy is exalted Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God The Church having declared unto us the Despair and Blindness of the Jews in their Afflictions She also proposes unto us the Counsel Jesus Christ gave to his Disciples when he grieved at the approaching of the Hour of his Passion to wit To watch and pray with him shewing us That it was not for him but for themselves that he commanded them to watch and pray She also teacheth us That if the Apostles shewed so much fear whilst our Saviour suffered how far greater reason have we to fear since we our selves are the cause of his Sufferings R. My soul is sorrowful even unto death stay here and watch with me ye shall now behold a multitude that will environ me Ye shall fly and I will go to be immolated for you V. Behold the hour approacheth and the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of sinners Ye shall fly away and I will go to be immolated for ye III. LESSON JOD THe enemy hath thrust his hand to all her things worthy to be desired because she hath seen the Gentiles enter into her sanctuary of whom thou gavest commandment that they should not enter into thy church CAPH All her people sighing and seeking bread they have given all precious things for meat to refresh the soul See O Lord and consider because I am become vile LAMED O all ye that pass by the way attend and see if there be sorrow like to my sorrow because he hath made vintage of me as our Lord hath spoken in the day of the wrath of his fury MEM. From on high he hath cast a sire into my bones
Sufferings this Divine Saviour was to undergo to satisfie the Rigor of the Justice of his Father and that for the Sins of Man wherewith he had loaded himself Then having described his Burial he proposes to us the Prayer he was to offer to his Eternal Father to demand of him his Resurrection not only for himself for being equal with his Father he had no need of Prayers that he might not be left in the Power of Death who alone was free among the Dead and had power to leave his Soul and take her again but for us that he might make us Partners with him of his New Life and give us an Example of perfect Patience and Submission to the Will of God Then he shews us the Advantage we receive by the Resurrection of our Saviour making us acknowledge that our Faith had been fruitless if it had remained in the Sepulcher for then our Sins had not been taken away Death is the Effect of Sin so that if our Saviour had not conquered Death it might have been said he had not triumphed over Sin Ant. Thou hast made my familiars far from me I was delivered and came not forth O Lord the God of my salvation in the day have I cried and in the night before thee Let my prayer enter in thy sight incline thine ear to my petition Because my soul is replenished with evils and my life hath approached to hell I am accounted with them that descend into the lake I am become as a man without help free among the dead As the wounded sleeping in the sepulchers of whom thou art mindful no more and they are cast off from thy hand They have put me in the lower lake in the dark places and in the shadow of death Thy fury is confirmed upon me and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me Thou hast made my familiars far from me they have put me abomination to themselves I was delivered and came not forth mine eyes languished for poverty I cried to thee O Lord all the day I stretched out my hands to thee Wilt thou do merveils to the dead or shall physicians raise to life and they confess to thee Shall any in the sepulcher declare thy mercy and thy truth in perdition Shall thy merveilous works be known in darkness and thy justice in the land of oblivion And I O Lord have cried to thee and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Why dost thou O Lord reject my prayer turnest away thy face from me I am poor and in labors from my youth and being exalted humbled and troubled Thy wraths have passed upon me and thy terrors have troubled me They have compassed me as water all the day they compassed me together Thou hast made friend and neighbor far from me and my familiars because of misery Ant. Thou hast made my familiars far from me I was delivered and came not forth PSALM 93. In this Psalm we are taught neither to repine at the Prosperity of the Bad nor to be troubled at the Afflictions of the Just for God being Omnipotent and Sovereignly Good being the Creator and chief Master of all things would suffer no Ill in his Works were he not sufficiently Powerful and Good to extract some Good even from Evil it self He has thought fit that 't is better to draw Good from Bad than not to permit Evil. Wherefore since we can no more doubt of his Power than Bounty we must patiently support all Ills that befal us and believe that the Will of God is more beneficial for us than our own Will or Desires can be Let us then consider the Assistance he gives his faithful Servants and the Rewards he promises unto them and let us regard the Torments he prepares for the Wicked Ant. They will hunt after the soul of the just and will condemn innocent blood OUr Lord God of revenges the God of revenges hath done freely Be exalted thou that judgest the earth render retribution to the proud How long shall sinners O Lord how long shall sinners glory Shall they utter and speak iniquity shall all they speak that work injustice Thy people O Lord they have humbled and thine inheritance they have vexed The widow and the stranger they have slain and the pupils they have killed And they have said The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob understand Understand ye foolish in the people and ye fools be wise at sometime He that planted the ear shall he not hear or he that made the eye doth he not consider He that chastiseth nations shall he not rebuke he that teacheth man knowledge Our Lord knoweth the cogitations of men that they be vain Blessed is the man whom thou shalt instruct O Lord and shalt teach out of thy law That thou mayst give him quietness from the evil days till a pit be digged for the sinner Because our Lord will not reject his people and his inheritance he will not forsake Until justice be turned into judgment and they who are near it are all that are right of heart Who shall rise for me against the malignant or who shall stand with me against them that work iniquity But that our Lord hath holpen me within very little my soul had dwelt in hell If I said My foot is moved thy mercy O Lord did help me According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart thy consolations have made my soul joyful Doth the seat of iniquity cleave to thee which makest labor in precept They will hunt after the soul of the just and will condemn innocent blood And our Lord became my refuge and my God the help of my hope And he will repay them their iniquity and in their malice he will destroy them the Lord our God will destroy them Ant. They will hunt after the soul of the just and will condemn innocent blood VERSICLE taken out of Psalm 108. The Church having presented unto us in the precedent Psalm she Comfort we receive in our Sufferings by considering the Power and Goodness of God who created us preserves and assists us with his holy Protection She admonisheth us in these following Versicles to consider the great Love God had for us since he delivered his only Son to death for our Salvation So that by the Example of his Son our Saviour we might be more powerfully fortified in the Persecutions and Miseries of this Life V. They have spoken against me with deceitful tongue R. And with words of hatred they have compassed me and they have impugned me without cause VII LESSON Out of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews chap. 4. The Church teacheth us That the Reason why the Son of God would become Man and bear all our Infirmities even to die for us was that thereby he might open the Heavens to us and so enable us to enter into the Repose of eternal Tranquillity And to enjoy so great a Benefit we must live conformably
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
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
Arch-angel the blessed S. John Baptist the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul all the Saints and you my Brethren to Pray to God for me R. ALmighty God have mercy upon thee and forgive thy sins and bring thee to life everlasting P. Amen I Confess unto Almighty God to the blessed Virgin S. Mary to the blessed S. Michael the Arch-angel to S. John Baptist to the Apostles Peter and Paul to all the Saints and to thee my Father 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 thee blessed Virgin S. Mary the blessed S. Michael the Arch-angel the blessed S. John Baptist Peter and Paul all the Saints and thee my Father to Pray to God for me P. ALmighty God have mercy on you forgive you your sins and bring you to life everlasting R. Amen P. ALmighty and merciful Lord grant us pardon absolution and remission of all our sins Amen This Confession being made the Priest and the Faithful encourage each other in the acknowledgement of God's mercy P. Thou being turned shalt quicken us O Lord. R. And thy people shall rejoyce in thee P. Shew us O Lord thy Mercy R. And give us thy Salvation P. O Lord hear my Prayer R. And let my cry come unto thee P. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit In this confidence the Priest ascends unto the Altar and says TAke away O Lord our Iniquities that so with a pure heart we may enter into the Holy of Holies Through Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest being at the Altar kisseth it in testimony of reconciliation with Christ and the Church triumphant for the Altar represents Christ crucified and the Reliques upon the Altar the Saints of the Church triumphant incorporated with Christ and says WE pray thee O Lord through the Merits of thy Saints whose Reliques are here and of all Saints that thou wilt please to pardon all my sins Amen After this preparation the Priest begins the Introit of the Mass THE MASS FOR Palm-Sunday The station in the Church of S. John Lateran As in the Old Law it was the custome to bring the Paschal Lamb into Jerusalem four days before the Feast so Jesus Christ of whom the Paschal Lamb was a figure was pleased to come into Jerusalem four days before the celebration of the Festival And therefore the Church representing this Mystery makes to day the station at Rome in the Church consecrated to God in honour of S. John Baptist because he declared unto us that our Saviour was the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the World The Introit taken out of the 21st Psalm As this Day 's Solemnity is a figure of the Victory which Christ gained over the World and the Devil by his Passion and Triumphant Resurrection the Church represents those Mysteries in the Introit of this Mass to teach us that the Resurrection of Christ in as much as it relates to his flesh was not delayed as that of other men but that he was exempted from corruption in the grave triumphing over death and the fury of his persecutors whom the Scriptures compare to Lions in respect of their cruelty to Dogs for their fury and to Unicorns for their pride For every proud and ambitious spirit would command all others as much as in him lies The wicked Jews thought they had done a grand work in that they were able to kill his Body yet had they not power to hurt his Soul they were able to take away a Mortal Life but could not prejudice his Eternal Life which is the onely and true Life and though as the Son of God he were worthy to be heard without Tears or Plaints yet to teach us our Duty by his example he would offer to God his Father most fervent Prayers with Tears and Crys beseeching him not to leave him dead in his grave The Dignity of his Condition the Reverence which he bore his Father whose Honour he repaired by his Death the incomparable Love wherewith his Father cherished him easily prevail for a concession of so just a Request O Lord prolong not thy help from me look towards my defence Save me out of the Lions mouth and my humility from horns of Unicorns PSALM XXI The Church represents unto us the Humility and Obedience wherewith Christ by a transport worthy his love would perfectly fulfil his Father's Will intimating unto us that the sins of men which he took upon him did require that he should be abandoned by his Father to all imaginable pains whereby to make rigorous satisfaction to his Justice yet that these words My God my God why hast thou forsaken me he speaks not in his own person but as in the unhappy infirmity of our flesh which he hath taken upon him and on the behalf of the members of his mystical body whose Groans and Prayers to his Father and himself he foresaw through a propension of humane nature desirous to be freed from Suffering and Death for who can believe our Saviour should desire to avoid Death and Sufferings since he came into the World to that end Or who can imagine he spake in such sort as if that which happened had been against his will who had power to give up his Soul to God and take it again though no man had power to bereave him of it These words then of this 21st Psalm are a figure of such Prayers as shall be addrest to God by men in their afflictions begging to be freed of them GOd my God have respect unto me why hast thou forsaken me far from my salvation are words of my sins O Lord prolong not thy help from me c. Gloria Patri c. is not now said because it is a publick Confession of Faith which the Church omits at this time when she represents the extreme impiety and infidelity of the Jews And Gloria in excelsis is for the same reason forborn The Priest in the name of the Faithful acknowledges the need we all have of the Grace of our Redeemer and repeats thrice the following words addrest to each Person of the Holy Trinity to express the great necessity we have of his assistance Lord have mercy on us R. Lord have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us R. Christ have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us R. Christ have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us R. Lord have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us The Priest turns towards the Faithful and beseeches God that he will be pleased to make them worthy of his presence and mercy V. Our Lord be with you The Faithful joyning Prayer with the Priest beg the like Grace for him R. And with thy Spirit The Collect. The Faithful beg of God Grace to imitate the Humility Obedience and Patience of Jesus Christ in all his Sufferings in this life that so they may partake with him in glory of his Resurrection
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
the end for which we became Christians is not for this temporal life wherein God often delivers us up to persecutors who persecute us even to death but that the Name of Christian entitles us to an Eternal Life considering that he whose Name we bear was treated so for us PSALM XXI O God my God have respect unto me why hast thou forsaken me far from my salvation are the words of my sins My God I shall cry by day and thou wilt not hear and by night and not for folly unto me But thou dwellest in the holy place the praise of Israel In thee our fathers have hoped they hoped and thou didst deliver them They cried to thee and were saved they hoped in thee and were not confounded But I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and outcast of the people All that see me have scorned me they have spoken with lips and wagged the head He hoped in the Lord let him deliver him save him because he willeth him Because thou art he that hast drawn me out of the womb my hope from the breasts of my mother Upon thee I have been cast from the matrice from my mothers womb thou art my God depart not from me Because tribulation is very nigh because there is not that will help Many calves have compassed me fat bulls have besieged me They have opened their mouths upon me as a lyon ravening and roaring As water I am poured out and my bones are dispersed My heart is made as wax melting in the midst of my body My strength is withered as a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws and thou hast brought me down into the dust of death Because many dogs have compassed me the counsel of the maglignant hath besieged me They have digged my hands and my feet they have numbred all my bones But themselves have considered and beheld me they have divided my garments among them and upon my vesture they have cast lots But thou Lord prolong not thy help from me look toward my defence Deliver O God my soul from the sword and mine onely one from the hand of the dog Save me out of the lyon's mouth and my humility from the horns of unicorns I will declare thy Name to my brethren in the midst of the Church I will praise thee Ye that fear our Lord praise him all the seed of Jacob glorifie ye him Let all the seed of Israel fear him because he hath not contemned nor despised the petition of the poor Neither hath he turned away his face from me and when I cried to him he heard me With thee is my praise in the great Church I will render my vows in the sight of them that fear him The poor shall eat and shall be filled and they shall praise our Lord that seek after him their hearts shall live for ever and ever All the ends of the earth shall remember and be converted to our Lord. And all the families of the Gentiles shall adore in his sight Because the kingdom is our Lords and he shall have dominion over the Gentiles All the fat ones of the earth have eaten and adored in his sight shall all fall that descended into the earth And my soul shall live to him and my seed shall serve him The generation to come shall be shewed to our Lord and the heavens shall shew forth his justice to the people that shall be born whom our Lord hath made Ant. They have divided my garments among them and upon my vesture they have cast lots This Ceremony is very ancient For St. Gregory mentions it in his Book de Sacramentis and in the sixteenth and seventeenth Councils of Toledo held in the year 693 and 694. in the eighth Canon of the former and in the second of the latter and likewise in St. Eligius Bishop of Noyon who lived in the same Age and treats of it in his eighth Homily ON Good Friday At Prime As before Page 131. At the Third Hour As before Page 136. At the Sixth Hour As before Page 142. At the Ninth Hour As before Page 147. I. N.R.I MASS FOR Good Friday The station in the Church of the Holy Cross of Hierusalem To instruct us that Jesus Christ suffered death upon this day in Hierusalem To the end that this day's Office may be performed with profound humility the Prayers of the None being ended those that officiate come before the Altar and kneeling prostrate themselves on the ground The Acolyts rise and lay a Cloth upon the Altar to represent the Linnens wherein Christ's body was wrapped before he was put into the Sepulcher and also to mind us by this Ceremony of the last Duties paid to our Saviour's body by Joseph of Arimathea and Nichodemus Then the Reader sings the first Prophecy without a title to observe unto us the ignorance and blindness of the Jews who would not understand the truths revealed unto them by the Prophets You may observe also that this Office is begun by Lessons as was done in the Primitive times The LESSON taken out of the sixth Chapter of the Prophet Osee The Church by the words of this Prophet declares unto us the love which God always had for his people either by correcting them to make them return to their duty or by sending Prophets among them who exposed their lives to save them or by sending at last his onely Son who died and rose again the third day to expiate their sins to deliver them from everlasting death and to give them a new life and an eternal felicity THus said our Lord In their tribulation early they will rise up to me come and let us return to our Lord because he hath wounded and he will heal us he will strike and will cure us He will revive us after two days in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight We shall know and we shall follow that we may know our Lord. As the morning light is his coming forth prepared and he will come to us as a shower timely and late to the earth What shall I do to thee Ephraim What shall I do to thee Juda Your mercy as a morning cloud and as the dew passing away in the morning For this have I hewed in the Prophets I have killed them in the words of my mouth and thy judgments shall come forth as the light Because I would mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than Holocausts The TRACT taken out of the third Chapter of the Prophet Abacuc The Church in the foregoing Lesson having taught us how advantageous the coming of Christ was to us shews us in this Tract how painful it was to this Divine Saviour to be born in a manger between two beasts and to be put to death upon the cross between two thieves O Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid I considered thy works and trembled V. Thou wilt appear between two beasts
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
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
of blessed Spirits pray for us St. John Baptist pray for us All ye Holy Patriarchs pray for us St. Peter pray for us St. Paul pray for us St. Andrew pray for us St. John pray for us All ye Holy Apostles and Evangelists pray for us All ye Holy Disciples of our Lord pray for us St. Stephen pray for us St. Laurence pray for us St. Vincent pray for us All ye Holy Martyrs pray for us St. Sylvester pray for us St. Gregory pray for us St. Augustine pray for us All ye Holy Bishops and Confessours pray for us All ye Holy Doctors pray for us St. Anthony pray for us St. Bennet pray for us St. Dominick pray for us St. Francis pray for us All ye Holy Priests and Levites pray for us All ye Holy Monks and Hermits pray for us St. Mary Magdalene pray for us St. Agnes pray for us St. Cecily pray for us St. Catherine pray for us St. Agatha pray for us St. Anastasia pray for us All ye Holy Virgins and Widows pray for us All ye Men and Women Saints of God make intercession for us Be merciful unto us spare us O Lord. Be merciful unto us graciously hear us O Lord. From all evil O Lord deliver us From all sin O Lord deliver us From everlasting death O Lord deliver us Through the mystery of thy holy Incarnation O Lord deliver us Through thy coming O Lord deliver us Through thy Nativity O Lord deliver us Through thy Baptism and Holy Fasting O Lord deliver us Through thy Cross and Passion O Lord deliver us Through thy Death and Burial O Lord deliver us Through thy Holy Resurrection O Lord deliver us Through thy admirable Ascension O Lord deliver us Through the coming of the Holy Ghost the comforter O Lord deliver us In the Day of Judgment O Lord deliver us We sinners do beseech thee to hear us Here the Priest with his Ministers accompanying him go into the Sacristy to vest themselves for the celebrating of Mass the Litanies in the mean time being continued by the Quire That thou spare us we beseech thee hear us That thou vouchsafe to govern and preserve thy Holy Church we beseech thee to hear us That thou vouchsafe to preserve our Apostolick Prelate and all Ecclesiastical Orders in Holy Religion we beseech thee to hear us That thou vouchsafe to humble the enemies of thy Holy Church we beseech thee hear us That thou vouchsafe to give Peace and true Concord to Christian Kings and Princes we beseech thee hear us That thou vouchsafe to comfort and keep us in thy Holy Service we beseech thee hear us That thou render eternal good things to our benefactors we beseech thee hear us That thou vouchsafe to give and preserve the fruits of the earth we beseech thee hear us That thou vouchsafe to give eternal rest to all Faithful departed we beseech thee hear us That thou vouchsafe graciously to hear us we beseech thee hear us Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world spare us O Lord. Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world hear us O Lord. Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world have mercy on us O Lord. Christ hear us Christ graciously hear us The Litanies being ended the Priest with his Attendance come to the foot of the Altar where he makes his Confession then he ascends the Altar and kissing it incenseth it as usually In the mean time Kyrie-Eleison is sung as before pag. 36. And as the Glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ crowned the Mystery of his Incarnation the People testifie their joy and acknowledgments in singing the Canticle which the Angels used when this Divine word became Man Gloria in Excelsis c. as before pag. 167. You are to observe that this days Mass belongs to the following Night for it was the custom formerly to celebrate this Service at Night and the People were wont to watch till Midnight expecting the hour in which our Saviour rose again And likewise that there is no introit said to intimate unto us that as yet Christs Resurrection was not manifested unto Men. Gloria in Excelsis is said to observe unto us the Joy conceived by the Angels the first Witnesses of Christs Resurrection wherefore they begin to ring out the Bells The COLLECT The Priest beseeches God that having made the new Baptized partakers of the Merit of his Resurrection by raising them from the death of sin he will please to preserve them in the Life they have new received Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us Pray O God who hast illustrated this Night by the glorious Resurrection of our Lord conserve the Spirit of Adoption given unto those new Children of thy Church that being renewed both in mind and body they may serve thee with a pure heart through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The Lesson of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Colossians Chap. 3. The Church instructs Christians to look upon themselves as Persons revived by Jesus Christ and in this quality they ought not to place their hopes and affections upon this World but that Heaven is their Country where they should converse and dwell in Spirit that they raise up themselves to the Right Hand of God where our Redeemer sits They must be as it were dead to the World and not live but to God alone The life of grace works in them what the Root does invisibly in Trees for as the Trees in Winter seem dead their life being only preserved in their Roots hid under ground but at Spring this hidden life makes them wax green again and resume all their beauties So during this life the Faithful are as in a state of death because they apply not themselves to the exterior attentions of this because they renounce the delights thereof the satisfactions of the flesh and all visible things their life is hid with Jesus Christ in God that is they live not but to God alone by the grace of Christ and what they must be appears not as yet till the Spring-time of Eternity shall succeed the Winter of this present Life that is when Jesus Christ shall come to judge all men Their life which was hidden in Jesus Christ as in their Root will make them flourish for all Eternity and all that was corruptible in them will become incorruptible and all that was mortal will put on immortality glory and splendor BRethren if you be risen with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God Mind the things that are above not the things that are upon the Earth For you are dead and your life is with Christ in God when Christ shall appear your life then you also shall appear with him in Glory The Priest invites the People to praise the Blessed Trinity for the graces poured upon them by the vertue of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ by
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
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