Mediator for the whole Church for the Pope for our Bishop for our King and for all faithful Catholicks WE therefore most merciful Father humbly beseech thee through thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord to accept and bless these ✚ Gifts these ✚ Presents these ✚ Immaculate Sacrifices which in the first we offer unto thee for thy Holy Catholick Church to which thou wilt please to grant peace and preserve and maintain in unity through the whole World with the Pope N. thy servant and our Prelate N. and our King N. with all Orthodox Believers of the Catholick Apostolick Faith Then the Priest makes a particular Commemoration of the living for whom he intends to offer his Sacrifice REmember O Lord all thy servants Men and Women Here he makes mention of those for whom he prays in particular And all such especially as are here present whose Faith and Devotion is known unto thee for whom we offer and who offer to thee for themselves or friends this Sacrifice of Praise for the Benefit of their Souls in hope of health and salvation and pay their vows unto thee the Eternal Living and True God The Priest by the vertue of the union of the Church militant with the triumphant in Jesus Christ beseeches God that he will please to supply the defect of his present Prayers imploring protection by the Merits and Suffrages of the most blessed Virgin of the Apostles Martyrs and all Saints PArticipating in the same Communion and Commemorating chiefly the ever glorious Virgin Mary Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ the blessed Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul Andrew James John Thomas James Philip Bartholomew Matthew Simon and Thadeus Linus Cletus Clement Xistus Cornelius Cyprian Laurence Chrysoganus John and Paul Cosmas and Damianus and of all Saints by whose Merits and Prayers be pleased to grant that in all things we may be protected by thee Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest spreads his hands over the Host and Chalice in testimony that he offers up himself to God together with this Sacrifice begging four things 1. That he will please to accept of this Offering 2. That he will grant us Peace 3. That he will deliver us from Everlasting Death 4. That he will place us amongst the blessed WE beseech thee O Lord therefore graciously to accept this oblation of our servitude as likewise of thy whole Family granting us Peace in our days and preserving us from Eternal Death place among thy Elect. Through Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest beseecheth God to receive and bless this Offering so as that he will please to accept of it and that it may become the Body and Blood of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ to expiate our sins and reconcile us to his Majesty WE beseech thee O God that thou wilt be pleased to make this Oblation blessed approved effectual reasonable and acceptable that it may be made unto us the Body and Blood of thy most beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ The Consecration After this Prayer the Priest comes to the principal action of the Sacrifice and commemorates all that Christ did or said when he instituted this Holy Sacrament and therefore after his example he blesseth and consecrateth the Bread in the same manner WHo the day before his Passion took the Bread into his holy and venerable hands and lifting his eyes towards heaven to thee his God and omnipotent Father to thee giving thanks he blessed broke and gave to his Disciples saying Take and eat ye all of this FOR THIS IS MY BODY The Elevation of the Host. Here the Priest after he hath upon his knees adored the Body of Jesus Christ he lifts it up to be seen and adored by the Faithful and to mind them that Christ's Body was elevated upon the Cross The Consecration of the Blood of Jesus Christ. He blesseth and consecrateth the Wine as Christ consecrated it turning the Wine into his Blood whereby he established and ratified his New Testament and signed the New Alliance he contracted with us to continue for ever IN like manner after he had supt taking this excellent Chalice into his holy and venerable hands giving thee also thanks he blessed it and gave it to his Disciples saying Take and drink ye all of this FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD OF THE NEW AND EVERLASTING TESTAMENT a Mystery of Faith WHICH SHALL BE SHED FOR YOU AND FOR MANY FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS This as often as you shall do you shall do in memory of me The Elevation of the Chalice And then adoring the Blood of our Saviour he elevates it for the same reason as he did the Body And as he offers this Holy Sacrifice in the Person of Christ in whose stead he hath celebrated this mysterious Consecration so is it done in the Name of the Church in honour of the three Mysteries of the Son of God viz. Of his Passion which we account from the Hour of his Conception till his Death of his Resurrection and Ascension The Signs of the Cross which the Priest makes over the Host after Consecration design unto us the particular manner of his immolation WHerefore O Lord we thy servants and the sanctified people also being mindful both of the blessed Passion of the same Christ thy Son our Lord and of his Resurrection as also of his glorious Ascension into Heaven we offer unto thy most excellent Majesty of thy Gifts bestowed upon us A pure Host a holy Host an immaculate Host the Holy Bread of Eternal Life and Chalice of Perpetual Salvation The Priest beseeches God to accept of this Sacrifice in memory of Abel's Sacrifice of Abraham's and Melchisedeck's which were only Figures of this WHich we beseech thee propitiously to regard and to receive this Holy Sacrifice and Immaculate Host as thou wert pleased to receive the Gifts of thy just Child Abel and the Sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham as likewise that which thy High Priest Melchisedeck offered unto thee Supplices te rogamus Jesus Christ communicates his Substance to the blessed in Heaven without Veil or Sacraments though he communicates himself sacramentally to men on earth and as the wicked are indifferently mixt with the just upon Earth it happens that the wicked receive the Communion in distinctly with the just but it is otherwise in Heaven where the Son of God communicates himself only to the Saints And hereupon the Priest on the behalf of the Faithful asks God's grace that Jesus Christ who in the Holy Scriptures is called the Angel of the Great Council and of the New Testament will give himself unto them under the shadow of this Holy Sacrament as he gives himself to the blessed without veil on the sublime and celestial Altar in the bosom of his Divinity that is to say that as all those are worthy who receive Christ in Heaven as being Saints so he would please to furnish all these with such his blessings and celestial gifts as may enable
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
unto you absolution and remission of all your sins space of true penance and amendment of life Amen Then the Bishop gives his solemn Benediction saying V. Blessed be the Name of our Lord. R. Now and for evermore V. Our help is in the Name of our Lord. R. Who made Heaven and Earth Almighty God Father Son and Holy Ghost bless you all Amen After the solemn Benediction is given the Deacon in his Dalmatique kneeling down to the Bishop asks his Blessing for the reading of the Gospel and having received it sings the Gospel out of that day's Mass Ante diem festum c. The Bishop setting aside his Mitre stands upright holding the Crosier in both his hands till the end of the Gospel to teach us to listen with respect to God's Holy Word and testifie our Faith of the Resurrection After the Deacon hath read the Gospel he presents the Book to the Bishop to kiss to testifie the Union and Charity which all Christians ought to have in the observation of the Word of God to obtain pardon for their sins and reconcile themselves to God The King washes the feet of thirteen poor people and attends on them at the Table in great ceremony in imitation of Christ's Humility who washed his Apostles feet who were thirteen comprehending St. Paul At Paris the Archbishop gives the same general Absolution on Wednesday-afternoon at our Lady's Church and on Thursday-morning at the Church-yard of the Holy Innocents For the Washing of the Feet The Church imitating the Example and Command which our blessed Saviour gave us celebrates this day the Ceremony of Washing Feet and teacheth us that he thereby hath recommended Humility and Charity among us and to be careful that we cleanse our selves from the least sins figured unto us by the filth that sticks to our feet 'T is that which the Church presents unto us by Antiphons by the Verses of the Psalms and by the Prayers sung in this Ceremony blessing God for the Graces bestowed on us through our Lord Jesus Christ where we must observe that he calls it a New Command wherein he obliged us to love one another for that the Old Command given unto Moses and engraven upon the Tables of the Law was to love ones Neighbour as ones self but Jesus Christ had made it a New Command by the extent he gave it requiring us to love our Neighbour more than our selves even as to this temporal life that is to say as Christ gave his life for us so we ought to offer up ours for our Neighbour upon certain occasions as if his salvation were in danger we ought to expose our life to preferve him The practice of this Day 's Ceremony is very ancient for St. Augustin in his Epistle and the Seventeenth Council of Toledo held in the Seventh Age in the Third Canon and St. Eligius Bishop of Noyon in the same Age in his Fourth and Eighth Homily of our Lord's Supper makes mention of it The Prelate or Superior in his Albe Amice Stole and Coap of a Violet colour with his Deacon and Subdeacon goes to the place prepared to wash the Feet the Deacon holding the Book of the Gospel between his Arms kneels to the Prelate or Superior and asks his Blessing to read the Gospel saying Sir Vouchsafe to Bless me and having received his Benediction puts the Book into the Subdeacons hands to testifie he declares nothing to the People but what he was ordered to do by the Prelate The Acolyts hold the Candles to signifie the joy which the people ought to have in that they are enlightened with the Gift of Faith Before the Deacon begins to read the Gospel he begs God's Grace for the Assembly to hear his Word worthily saying Our Lord be with you He Incenseth the Book to signifie that we adore Jesus Christ who redeemed us and freed us from our sins by faith in the Gospel acknowledging him to be God and the second Person of the Holy Trinity And then he reads the Gospel Ante diem Festum as before The Gospel being ended the Subdeacon presents the Book to the Prelate or Superior to kiss who thereby testifies the Unity and Charity which the Faithful ought to have in the observance of God's Word to the end to obtain pardon for their sins The Deacon incenseth after the usual manner Then the Prelate or Superior laying aside his Coap the Deacon and Subdeacon putting a Towel about him washeth the feet of those chosen for this Ceremony dries and kisses them whilest they sing I Give you a New Commandment that you love one another as I loved you saith our Lord. PSALM 118. BLessed are the immaculate in the way which walk in the law of our Lord. The Antiphon Mandatum novum c. and the other Antiphons out of the Psalms are repeated and onely the first Verse of each Psalm is said Ant. After our Lord was risen from Supper he put Water into a Bason and began to wash his Disciples feet to whom he left this example Psalm 47. Great is our Lord and to be praised exceedingly in the city of our God in his holy mount Ant. After our Lord Jesus had supt with his Disciples he washed their feet and said unto them Do you see what I your Lord and Master have done unto you I have given you an example that you also may do the like Psalm 84. O Lord thou hast blest thy land thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob Ant. Wilt thou O Lord wash my feet Jesus answered and said unto him If I wash not thy feet thou shalt have no part with me V. Jesus came unto Simon Peter and Peter said to him Here the Antiphon is repeated Wilt thou O Lord wash my feet Jesus answered and said unto him If I wash not thy feet thou shalt have no part with me V. What I do thou knowest not now but shalt know hereafter Then is repeated this Antiphon the third time O Lord dost thou wash my feet Jesus answered and said unto him If I wash not thy feet thou shalt have no part with me V. If I your Lord and Master have washt your feet how much more ought you to wash one anothers feet Psalm 116. All nations hear these things and all people understand them Ant. All men shall know you to be my disciples in that you love one another V. Said Jesus to his disciples Ant. Let faith hope and charity abide in you these three but the greatest of them is charity V. But now remain faith hope and charity these three but the greatest of them is charity Ant. Blessed be the Holy Trinity and Undivided Unity we will confess unto him because he hath dealt with us according to his mercy V. Let us bless the Father and Son with the Holy Ghost Psalm 83. How beloved are thy tabernacles O Lord of Hosts my soul coveteth and fainteth unto the courts of our Lord. Ant. Where charity and love is there
obedient unto death Here following they kneel and say Our Father c. Miserere mei Deus as before p. 65. A PRAYER To beg God's Mercy towards us for the Sufferings and Death of his Son Jesus Christ LOok down O Lord we beseech thee upon this thy Family for which our Lord Jesus Christ doubted not to be betrayed into the hands of the Wicked and so undergo the Torments of the Cross who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost world without end Amen By the Noise is represented the Commotion of the Jews in apprehending JESUS CHRIST After which the lighted Taper is taken from under the Altar to signifie the Resurrection of JESUS CHRIST According to the Custom of Paris the Anthymn of Benedictus being repeated they kneel down and two Clerks go behind the Altar where the lighted Taper was set which represented JESUS CHRIST the true Light of the World and there they sing with the rest of the Quire the following Versicles to express the Sighs and Moans of the Women that accompanied our Lord JESUS CHRIST to his Passion and to excite in our Hearts the Affections and Sentiments of Piety in meditating on the Sufferances of JESUS CHRIST The Clerks Lord have mercy on us The Quire Lord have mercy on us The Cl. Lord have mercy on us spare thy servants Christ our Lord became obedient unto death for us The Qu. Lord have mercy on us The Cl. Who camest into the world to suffer for us The Qu. Christ have mercy on us The Cl. Who hast said by the mouth of the prophet Osee chap. 13. I will be thy death O Death The Qu. Christ have mercy on us The Cl. Whose Hands being stretched on the Cross didst draw all the world unto thee The Qu. Christ have mercy on us The Cl. Meek Lamb to whom the Wolf gave a mortal Kiss The Qu. Lord have mercy on us The Cl. And thou wouldst thy self be bound to free us from the Bonds of Death The Qu. Jesus Christ have mercy on us The Cl. Life died on the Wood of the Cross and triumphed over Hell and Death The Qu. Lord have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us Spare thy servants Christ our Lord became obedient unto death for us The Cl. Even to the death of the Cross Miserere mei c. as before p. 65. THE PRAYER Respice Quaesumus c. as before p. 80. AT COMPLINE They neither say Jube Domne Benedicere nor give the Blessing to shew us that the Author of all Blessing is dead The Lesson is likewise omitted to represent unto us that the Preaching of the Gospel and the Voice of them who ought to instruct others to follow JESUS CHRIST did cease during his Passion Nor is our Lord's Prayer repeated to signifie the Trouble and Forgetfulness of the Disciples of our Saviour After the Confession and Absolution the Psalm Cum invocarem c. is said as before p. 14. But the Hymn is omitted at the end to declare that through the Impiety of the Jews the Honor due to God was violated The Chapter is not said to shew us that the Jews did not profit by the Instructions of the Prophets Nunc dimittis c. is said as before p. 20. to represent the Perfidiousness and Ingratitude of the Jews who were so blind and obstinate as not to acknowledge the Saviour of the World Then is said the following Versicle V. Christ became obedient unto death for us After this Versicle the Pater noster c. is repeated to instruct us in our Duty to pray and watch against all the Accidents of this Life Miserere mei Deus as before p. 65. Respice Quaesumus as before p. 80. THE NIGHT-OFFICE ON Holy-Thursday FOR THE FRIDAY AT MATTINS FIRST NOCTVRN PSALM 2. The Royal Prophet describes the Persecutions which the Jews and Gentiles raised against the Messias and his People 2. He describes the Eternal and Temporal Generation of the Messias and the Extent of his Dominion over the whole Earth what Obstacle soever the Persecutors could do against it 3. He represents the Punishments wherewith God threatens the Wicked For so the Apostle St. Peter explicates this Psalm in the Fourth Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles Ant. The kings of the earth stood up and the princes came together in one against our Lord and against his Christ WHy did the Gentiles rage and peoples meditate vain things The kings of the earth stood up and the princes came together in one against our Lord and against his Christ Let us break their bonds asunder and let us cast away their yoke from us He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh at them and our Lord shall scorn them Then shall he speak to them in his wrath and in his fury he shall trouble them But I am appointed king by him over Sion his holy hill preaching his precept The Lord said to me Thou art my Son I this day have begotten thee Ask of me and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance and thy possession the ends of the earth Thou shalt rule them in a rod of iron and as a potters vessel thou shalt break them in pieces And now ye kings understand take instruction you that judge the earth Serve our Lord in fear and rejoyce to him with trembling Apprehend discipline lest sometimes our Lord be wrath and you perish out of the just way When his wrath shall burn in short time blessed are all that trust in him Ant. The kings of the earth stood up and the princes came together in one against our Lord and his Christ PSALM 21. Our Lord JESUS CHRIST pronounced the first Words of this Psalm when he was fastned to the Cross and they contain the Prophecy of his bitter Passion And the Royal Prophet having represented the Pains and Sufferings of the Son of God then speaks of his Glory and Empire and at last shews us the Advantages that accrue unto the Faithful and for which they ought to render Thanks unto God This Divine Saviour who could not be guilty having put himself in our place incurred our Obligations contracted our Debts and satisfied for our Crimes Likewise this Psalm presents unto us That the Sins of Men wherewith he had loaded himself deserved that his Father should abandon him to all imaginable Misery that thereby he might satisfie the Rigor of his Justice in all things and if he addressed this Complaint My God my God Why hast thou forsaken me it was not in his own Person he spoke it but in the Person of this wretched Infirmity of the Flesh wherewith He was clothed 't was in the Person of the Members of his Mystical Body foreseeing the Desires and Demands they would offer to his Father and himself by an inclination of Nature and by a Human Motion of being delivered from Torments and Death For What did our Saviour desire to be delivered from Sufferings aad Death who came only to
they mocked him saying Hail King of the Jews and spitting upon him they took the reed and smote his head And after they had mocked him they took off the cloak from him and put on him his own garments and led him away to crucifie him And in going they found a man of Cyrene named Simon whom they forced to take up his Cross And they came into the place which is called Golgotha which is the place of Calvari And they gave him Wine to drink mingled with Gall. And when he tasted he would not drink And after they had crucified him they divided his garments casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken to the Prophet saying They divided my garments among them and upon my vesture they did cast lots And they sate and watched him And they put over his head his cause written This is Jesus the King of the Jews Then were crucified with him two thieves one on the right hand and one of the left And they passed by blaspheming him wagging their heads and saying Vah Thou that destroyest the Temple of God and in three days doest re-edifie it save thine own self if thou be the Son of God come down from the Cross In like manner also the Chief Priests with the Scribes and Ancients mocking said He saved others himself he cannot save if he be King of Israel let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe him He trusted in God let him now deliver him if he will for he said That I am the Son of God And the self-same thing the thieves also that were crucified with him reproached him withal And from the sixth hour there was darkness made upon the whole earth until the ninth hour Jesus cryed out with a mighty voice saying Eli Eli Lamasabacthani that is my God my God why hast thou forsaken me These words are spoken as out of humane frailty wherewith Christ was pleased to cloath himself to teach us that we must be deprived of the goods and comforts of this world whereby to elevate us to desire and hope of Eternal And certain that stood there and heard said He calleth Elias And incontinent one of them running took a spung and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink And others said Let be let us see whether Elias come to deliver him And Jesus again crying with a mighty voice yielded up the ghost Here the Faithful kneel or prostrate themselves a while upon the ground And behold the Veil of the Temple was rent in two pieces from the top even to the bottom It was a great piece of Hanging or Tapistry before the Sanctuary and this was done to signifie that the Old Law was taken away in Christ and the earth did quake and the rocks were rent and the graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints that had slept rose and they going forth out of the graves after his resurrection came into the holy city and appeared to many And the Centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus having seen the Earthquake and the things that were done were sore afraid saying Indeed this was the Son of God And there were many women afar off which had followed Jesus from Galilee ministring unto him among whom was Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the Sons of Zebedee And when it was evening there came a certain rich man of Aramithoea named Joseph who also himself was Disciple to Jesus He went to Pilate and asked the body of Jesus Then Pilate commanded that the body should be delivered And Joseph taking the body wrapt it in clean Syndon and laid it in his own new Monument which he had hewed in a rock And he rolled a great stone to the door of the Monument and went his way And there was there Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting over against the Sepulchre ANd the next day which is after the Parasceue the Chief Priests and the Pharisees came together to Pilate saying Sir we have remembred that the seducer said yet living After three days I will rise again Command therefore the Sepulchre to be kept until the third day lest perhaps his Disciples come and steal him and say to the people He is risen from the dead and the last errour shall be worse than the first Pilate said to them You have a guard go guard it as you know And they departing made the Sepulchre sure sealing up the stone with watchmen Then the Creed is said which is the sum of our Belief wherein we confess we believe what we heard in the Gospel I Believe in one God Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible And in our Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God and born of the Father before all Ages God of God light of light true God of the true God who was begotten not made consubstantial to the Father by whom all things were made Who descended from Heaven for us men and for our salvation and taking flesh of the Virgin Mary by the operation of the Holy Ghost became man He was also crucified for us under Pontius Pilate suffered and was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures He ascended into Heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father and will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead whose Kingdom will have no end I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son who spoke by the Prophets I believe one Holy Catholick Church I confess one Baptism for the remission of sins I expect the resurrection of the dead and life in the world to come Amen The Priest turning towards the Faithful prays to God for his grace that they may perform his Commandments and offer themselves worthily to his Majesty V. Our Lord be with you The Faithful ask the same grace of God for him R. And with thy Spirit The OFFERTORY taken out of the 68th Psalm The Church represents unto us that the most piercing grief our Saviour endured and whereof he could not have the least ease was his foresight of so great number of men as by their impiety would render themselves unworthy the fruit of his Passion which is Eternal Life and that instead of their acknowledgment for their salvation which he had purchased for them he should receive outrages more sharp and bitter than the Gall and Vinegar presented him upon the Cross MY heart hath looked for reproach and misery and I expected somebody that would be sorrowful with me and there was none I sought for a comforter and I found him not and they gave gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink After the Offertory the Priest takes the Patten and offers the Bread which is to be consecrated saying REceive O Holy Father Almighty and
Eternal God this immaculate Host which I thy unworthy servant offer to thee my living and true God for my innumerable sins offences and negligences for all here present and for all faithful Christians living and dead that it may avail me and them to life everlasting Amen Then the Priest puts the Wine and Water into the Chalice saying O God who as a wonderful effect of thy power hast created humane nature and restored it by a greater Miracle Grant us by the Mystery of this Wine and Water to partake of his Divinity who did vouchsafe upon him our humanity namely Jesus Christ our Lord thy Son who being God liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen The Priest offering the Chalice in the midst of the Altar says WE offer unto thee O Lord this Chalice of salvation beseeching thy clemency that it may ascend before thy Divine Majesty as a sweet perfume for our souls health and for the whole worlds Amen WE present our selves before thee with an humble and contrite spirit O Lord accept of us and grant that this sacrifice may be made agreeable this day unto thee O Lord God Blessing the Bread and Wine he offers then says COme Omnipotent Sanctifier and Eternal God and bless this sacrifice prepared for the glory of thy Holy Name Washing his hands and by that Ceremony testifying his care to cleanse his soul he says these following Versicles out of the 28th Psalm I Will wash my hands amongst Innocents And I will compass thy Altar O Lord. That I may hear the voice of praise and shew forth all thy marvellous works Lord I have loved the beauty of thy house and the place of the habitation of thy glory Destroy not O God my soul with the impious and my life with bloody men In whose hands are iniquities their right hand is replenished with gifts But I have walked in my innocency redeem me and have mercy on me My foot hath stood in the direct way In the Churches I will bless thee O Lord. Glory be to the Father c. The Priest having washt his hands bowing at the midst of the Altar silently makes an oblation of the Sacrifice which he is now about to present to the Holy Trinity in memory of the principal mysteries of Christ and in the honour of the chief Saints REceive O Holy Trinity this Oblation which we make unto thee in memory of the Passion Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ And in the honour of the ever blessed Virgin Mary St. John Baptist the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and of all Saints to their honour and our benefit that they whom we commemorate on earth will vouchsafe to make intercession for us in Heaven Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest turning towards the Faithful admonisheth them to joyn in Prayer with him that this their common Sacrifice which he is now about may be acceptable to God Pray Brethren that mine and your Sacrifice may be acceptable to God the Father Almighty The People answer O Lord receive this Sacrifice from thy hands to the honour and glory of his Name to our particular benefit and for the good of the whole Church The Priest says in a low voice Amen The SECRET The Faithful beg of God a solid piety and true sence of the Pains and Sufferings of his Son Jesus Christ whereby to be made capable of the benefit thereby obtained for us of life everlasting GRant we beseech thee O Lord that this Oblation made before thy Divine Majesty may obtain us the Grace of Piety and procure us Eternal Happiness Through our Lord c. THE PREFACE That is to say The Beginning of the Canon of the Mass and the General Preparation for the Sacrifice The Priest disposes the Faithful advising them to elevate their hearts to God to disengage them from all the solicitudes of Creatures to begin the Sacrifice with their hearts acknowledging the greatness of God's benefits and in particular those of his Incarnation and Passion of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit V. Lift up your hearts R. We have them lifted up to our Lord. The Priest bids them consider that 't is God alone who puts their hearts into that condition and that therefore they ought to give him publick thanks Let us give thanks to our Lord God The Faithful answer that 't is just and reasonable and according that they do give publick thanks by the Priest and particularly by their inward resentments heartily concurring in what the Priest says It is meet and just The Priest in the name of the Faithful acknowledges the obligation of giving God thanks always and every where for his goodness in vouchsafing that his Son should by the wood of the Cross save Mankind and destroy the Devil As this enemy of Mankind had made use of the Fruit of a Tree to establish his tyranny and ruine man and because we are not capable to make worthy acknowledgments for so inestimable a benefit the Priest joyns with this our Saviour through whom he gives praise to God as also with the Angels Cherubins and Seraphins who praise and adore God with an awful regard through Jesus Christ and unites himself to them in Christ as the common Father and Head of Men and Angels singing that Hymn which the blessed Spirits use in Heaven in honour of God Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus Holy Holy Holy and the Canticle which the Children sung at Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem Benedictus qui venit c. Blessed is he that comes c. to testifie the spiritual unity between Angels and Men in praising the Divine Majesty and to express that we ought to be as pure as Angels and innocent as Children to give God Almighty worthy and due praises IT is truly meet and just right and healthful that we always and in all places give thanks to thee O holy Lord Father Almighty Everlasting God who didst ordain the Salvation of Mankind in the Wood of the Cross that Life might be there restored whence Death arose and that he might be conquered by a Tree who had been conquered thereby through Christ our Lord. By whom the Angels praise thy Majesty the Dominations adore thee the Powers tremble the Heavens and the Heavenly Vertues and the blessed Seraphins in one common joy celebrate thy Name amongst whom we beseech thee that our humble Addresses may be admitted saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth The Heavens and Earth are full of thy glory Hosanna in the highest Blessed is he that comes in the Name of our Lord Hosanna in the highest C. Stella â—â—◠〈◊〉 sâ—â—â—â— THE CANON OF THE MASS OR The RULE and ORDER which the CHURCH observes in celebrating the Sacrifice The Priest in the name of the Faithful makes his address to God the Father and presents this Sacrifice by Jesus Christ his Son as by our
to the true living God and to his only Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Let us Pray Let us bend our knees R. Lift up your selves ALmighty and Everlasting God who willest not the death of sinners but rather that they should be converted and live graciously hear our Prayers and freeing them from their Idolatry admit them into thy holy Church for the honour and glory of thy Name Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The Adoration of the Cross This Adoration is not terminated in the wood of the Cross but in Jesus Christ fastened thereon The Ceremony is very ancient For besides that it is set forth in the Roman Order and in St. Gregory's Book of the Sacraments St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola the immortal Ornament and Native of Bourdeaux living in the Fourth Age mentions it in his 11 Epistle to Severus Sulpicius The publick Prayers being ended the Priest puts off his Casuble and takes the Cross to represent Jesus Christ naked and loaded with his Cross Then he uncovers it at three several times to shew us how the Gospel was spred first in a little corner of Judea and for that cause the Priest begins to unvail the Cross on the right side and beneath the Altar singing BEhold the Wood of the Cross And the Quire answers R. Come let us adore Secondly The Gospel was preached publickly to the Jews figured by the right side of the Altar and therefore the Priest coming to the right corner of the Altar uncovers the right arm and the head of the Crucifix saying again Behold the Wood of the Cross The Quire answering R. Come let us adore Thirdly The Gospel was preacht to the whole world and therefore the Priest goes to the middle of the Altar and uncovers the Crucifix entirely saying Behold the Wood of the Cross whereon the Saviour of the World is fastened The Quire answer again R. Come let us adore Then the Priest puts the Cross in a convenient place for the people he first beginning this Ceremony in three times kneeling according to the ancient custom in the Roman Order And after the Priest the rest of the Clergy and people follow in the same manner During the Ceremony the Trisagion is sung both in Latine and Greek being taken from the Grecians as you may read in the first Session of the Council of Chalcedon mentioned by Nicephorus in his 14th Book and 46th Chapter and by it the Church offers to our meditation that Christ dying for us according to his humanity is the living invincible and immortal God by his Natural and Divine Person Then the following Verses are sung taken out of the Prophets and particularly out of Michaeas which contain the just reproaches our Saviour made to the Jews for their ingratitude MY people what have I done to thee or in what have I molested thee Answer me V. Because I brought thee out of the land of Egypt thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour V. Agios O Theos Sanctus Deus O Holy God V. Agios Ischyros Sanctus fortis Holy and strong God V. Agios Athanatos Eleison imas Sanctus immortalis miserere nobis Holy and immortal God have mercy on us V. Because I led thee through the desart forty years and fed thee there with Manna and brought thee into a good soil thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour Agios O Theos c. as before V. What ought I to do more and have not done I have planted thee my most beautiful vine and thou art become very bitter unto me in my thirst thou gavest me vinegar to drink and with a launcet thou hast pierced thy Saviour's side Agios O Theos as before V. My people what have I done to thee or in what have I molested thee Answer me V. For thy sake I struck Egypt in their first-born and thou hast delivered me to be scourged My people c. I brought thee forth of Egypt having drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea and thou hast delivered me over to the princes of the priests My people c. V. For thee I opened the sea and with a launce thou hast pierced my side My people c. V. I went before thee in a pillar of the cloud and thou hast brought me to the palace of Pilate My people c. V. I nourished thee with Manna in the desart and thou hast struck me with bussets and whips My people c. V. I gave thee wholsom water to drink from the rock and thou hast given me to drink vinegar and gall My people c. V. For thy sake I have struck the kings of the Chananites and thou hast struck my head with a reed My people c. V. I gave thee a royal scepter and thou hast set upon my head a crown of thorns My people c. V. I have raised thee with great strength and thou fastened me on the cross The ANTIPHON The people by their adoring the Cross testifie their horrour of the Jews impiety and ingratitude and considering how Christ triumphed over death by his glorious Resurrection to make us partakers of his glory they render him thanks O Lord we adore thy Cross we praise and glorifie thy Holy Resurrection for by the Wood of the Crofs the whole World is filled with joy PSALM LXVI The Faithful beg of God that he will make them capable to receive the benefit of his Passion and Resurrection GOd have mercy upon us and bless us Illuminate his countenance upon us and have mercy on us Ant. O Lord we adore thy Cross c. After this Crux fidelis and the Hymn Pange lingua are sung HAil Holy Cross to thee we bow To whose blest fruit our lives we ow Our earth bears no such tree Dear are the nails and dear the wood On which our dear Lord shed his blood 'T was Heaven that planted thee Come then my soul and gladly sing The happy combate of our King Which on this Cross he sought Where he the all-victorious Lamb Sin Death and Hell it self o'recame And our full safely wrought V. Hail Holy Cross to thee we bow To whose blest fruit our lives we ow Our earth bears no such tree V. He saw with pity our sad fate When our first-parents rashly ate Of that unhappy tree He saw and markt the deadly wound And soon this sovereign Balsam found To save our souls by thee V. Dear are the nails and dear the wood On which our dear Lord shed his blood 'T was Heaven that planted thee V. This way our cure required as fit That Heaven 's high wisdom should out-wit The dire black art of hell And from the source of all our bane A powerful Antidote should be tane The poison to expell Hail Holy Cross c. V. When the blest time was fully come The Father from his glorious home Sent his Eternal Son He that created Heaven and Earth Of a poor Virgin took his Birth And our frail flesh put on V. Dear are the nails
and then returning up to the Altar he kneels to the blessed Sacrament after that bowing himself with his hands joyned before the Altar he says WE present our selves O Lord before thee in the spirit of humility and repentance and therefore we beseech thee that this Sacrifice may be agreeably accomplisht by us this day The Priest kisseth the Altar and kneels down then turning to the People he desires them to joyn in Prayers with him to God that he will please to accept this Offering of Wine and Water in memory of the Bloud and Water which ran out of our Saviours side And this Offering is a kind of Sacrifice in that it is joyned with the Consecrated Hoast which represents the bloudy Sacrifice of Jesus Christ PRay Brethren that this my Sacrifice which is also yours may be acceptable to God the Father Almighty And to observe unto us that this Oblation is only a representation of the bloudy Sacrifice of Jesus Christ and that no unbloudy Sacrifice is celebrated this day Suscipiat Dominus is not answered And thereupon also there is no Consecration this day because the memory of Christs Passion is only celebrated as it actually had past Nevertheless that we may not be deprived of participating the fruit of his Passion being incorporated anew with him the Body of this our Divine Saviour is reserved the day before but not the Bloud for fear of Accidents Let us Pray PRAECEPTIS c. The faithful beg of God that they may be made worthy to reap the benefit of the Passion of his Son Jesus Christ in receiving his Body in the same Prayer which Christ himself taught us giving them confidence to call him our Father as he made himself our Brother to teach us that we cannot fail of any thing having an Omnipotent Father BEing taught by our Saviour's Commands and led by Divine Institution we are bold to say Our Father which art in Heaven where you shine in greater glory and whereunto thou art pleased that we should raise our thoughts Hallowed be thy Name Acknowledged and Adored Thy Kingdom come The Empire of thy Grace in this World and of the next Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread The precious Body and Blood of thy Son which is daily consecrated thy Grace and all things necessary for us in the course of this life And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors And lead us not into temptation The People to testifie their concurrence with the Priest in this Prayer answer But deliver us from evil From sin from the snares of this world the flesh and the devil And to shew that this Prayer is pronounc'd in the name of all it is answered Amen LIBERA c. The Priest considering that there is no greater evil nor more contrary to the Holy Communion than that which may trouble and destroy the Peace and Union of Christians beseeches God to deliver us by the Merits of Jesus Christ by the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin of the Apostles and all the Saints and to grant us that Peace and Union which we ought to have with our Saviour and with the other Members of his Church which he signifies by breaking the Hoast and dividing it into three parts That part which he puts upon the Patten signifies the faithful in this life that which he retains in his Hand the faithful that are in Purgatory and that which he breaks the blessed DEliver us O Lord we beseech thee from all evils past present and to come and grant us peace in these our Duties by the intercession of the ever-glorious Virgin Mary Mother of God of thy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul of St. Andrew and all the Saints that being assisted by thy gracious mercy we may be free from all sin and secure from all dangers Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth God with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever The faithful concurring with the Priest answer Amen No Incense is used at this Elevation to signifie that on this day the Jews refused all honour due to God nor are the Bells rung to mind us of the Disciples silence and astonishment After the Deacon hath uncovered the Chalice and the Priest divided the Hoast into three parts over the Chalice he puts the least particle into the Chalice which represents the Estate of the blessed and the other two parts upon the Patten without saying any thing or making the sign of the Cross omitting Pax Domini c. Haec commixtio c. Agnus Dei c. Domine Jesu Christe qui dixisti c. Domine Jesu Christe Pili Dei vivi c. to express unto us that the wholesom effect of Christs Passion and the reconciliation of Men with God was not compleated till after his Resurrection Nor is the Pax given about for the same reason as also to shew our aversion to Judas his traiterous kiss The Priest says the Prayer following to beg of God a disposition requisite for the worthy receiving of the Eucharist GRant O Lord Jesus Christ that this participation of thy body which now though unworthy I intend to receive may not turn to my judgment and condemnation but through thy mercy may be a protection and and a wholsom medicine to my soul and body Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost world without end Amen And having kneeled to adore the Sacrament taking the Hoast between his hands considering he is to receive his God he puts all his confidence in his mercy saying I Will take the Celestial Bread and will call upon the Name of our Lord. And calling to mind how acceptable the Centurion's humility was to the Son of God when he would have honoured him with a visit in imitation of him he protests himself unworthy so great a favour and knocking his breast useth the same words LOrd I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my soul shall be healed When he receives the Body of our Lord he makes the sign of the Cross with the Hoast calling to his mind that 't is that Body which Christ exposed to death to save us THe Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my Soul to Life Everlasting Amen The Priest having taken the Body of Christ the Deacon uncovering the Chalice drinks that piece of the Hoast put into the Chalice together with the Wine therein without saying any thing or making the sign of the Cross to signifie the Wine is not consecrated The Sub-deacon pours wine and water into the Chalice to wash his singers that so the least piece of the
image to the image of God he created him male and female he created them And God blessed them and saith Increase and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and rule over the fishes of the sea and fouls of the air and all living creatures that move upon the earth And God said Behold I have given you all manner of herb that seedeth upon the earth and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind to be your meat and to all beasts of the earth and to every foul of the air and to all that move upon the earth and wherein there is life that they may have to feed upon And it was so done And God saw all things that he had made and they were very good And there was evening and morning that made the sixth day The heavens therefore and the earth were fully finished and all the furniture of them And the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and rested the seventh day from all the work that he had done The Church having told us in the precedent Lesson whence we derive our Extraction to what a state of Glory God had raised the first Man having placed him in the midst of the delights of Paradise as in the shadow of Life from whence by an exact observance of God's Commandments he was to have been translated to a far more happy condition in this she tells us the cause of our fall and the excess of God's love to us that he sent his only Son to deliver us from eternal Damnation whereunto we were enslaved and to make us capable of Eternal Life And thereupon by the voice of the Deacon she exhorts us to bend our knees and render all due acknowledgments to the Divine Goodness Let us Pray Let us bend our knees The Church shewing us that our sins are exceeding great and numerous and that our state is very lamentable yet she assures us that the Remedy our Saviour brought us is far more effectual and powerful by the Sub-deacon's answering R. Lift up your selves The Faithful give God thanks by the Priest for his goodness in Creating and Redeeming them and considering that the Mortal Venom of sin seized upon Eve and Adam through their own Senses and thereby fell into that misery which was the Fountain of ours beseeches of his Majesty the Grace to subject their Senses to their Reason so as they may reap the wholsome effect of their Redemption O God who by an admirable effect of thy power hast created man and yet more powerfully hast redeemed him grant we beseech thee strength of our reason we may overcome all allurements to sin and at length enjoy eternal happiness Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The SECOND PROPHECY out of the 5th 6th 7th and 8th Chapters of Genesis In this second Lesson the Church teaches Catechumens that as in the Deluge all men perish'd except those that were in the Ark with Noe So to avoid damnation all Men must enter into the Ark that is into the Church of Christ out of which there is no Salvation NOE when he was five hundred years old begat Sem Cham and Japhet And after that men began to be multiplied upon the earth and procreation of daughters the sons of God seeing the daughters of men that they were fair took to themselves wives out of all which they had chosen And God said My spirit shall not remain with man for ever because he is flesh and his days shall be an hundred and twenty years And gyants were upon the earth in those days For after the sons of God did company with the daughters of men and they brought forth children these be the mighty of the old world famous men And God seeing the malice of men was much upon the earth and that all the cogitation of their hearts was bent to evil at all times it repented him that he had made man upon earth And touched inwardly with sorrow of heart I will saith he clean take away man whom I have created from the face of the earth from man even to beasts from that which creepeth even unto the fouls of the air For it repenteth me that I have made them But Noe found grace before our Lord. These are the generations of Noe. Noe was a a just and perfect man in his generations He did walk with God And he begat three sons Sem Cham and Japhet And the earth was corrupted before God and was replenished with iniquity And when God had perceived that the earth was corrupted for all flesh had corrupted his way upon earth he said to Noe The end of all flesh is come before me the earth is replenished with iniquity from the face of them and I will destroy them with the earth Make thee an ark of timber-plank cabinets shalt thou make in the earth and shalt pitch it within and without with Bitume And thus shalt thou make it The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits fifty cubits the breadth and thirty cubits the heighth of it Thou shalt make a window in the ark and in a cubit finish the top of it and the door of the ark shalt thou set at the side below middle chambers and third losts shalt thou make in it Behold I will bring the waters of a great flood upon the earth that I may destroy all flesh wherein there is breath of life under heaven All things that are in the earth shall be consumed And I will establish my covenant with thee and thou shalt enter into the ark thou and thy sons and thy wife and the wives of thy sons with thee And of all living creatures of all flesh thou shalt bring pairs into the ark that they may live with thee of the male sex and the female Of fouls according to their kind and of beasts in their kind and of all that creepeth on the earth according to their kind pairs of all sorts shall enter in with thee that they may live Thou shalt take therefore with thee of all meats that may be eaten and thou shalt lay them up with thee and they shall be meat for thee and them Noe therefore did all things which God commanded him And he was six hundred years old when the waters of the flood overflowed the earth Then all the fountains of the great depth were broken up and the flood-gates of heaven were opened and the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights In the very point of that day entred Noe and Sem Cham and Japhet his sons and his wife and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark they and every beast according to their kind and all cattel in their kind and all that moveth upon the earth according to their kind and all foul according to their kind Moreover the ark floted upon the waters And the waters prevailed out of measure upon the earth and all the high mountains under the whole
heaven were covered Fifteen cubits higher was the water above the mountains which it covered And all the flesh was consumed that moved upon the earth of fowl of cattel of beasts and of all creepers that creep upon the earth But only Noe remained and they that were with him in the ark And the waters held on above the earth an hundred and fifty days And God remembred Noe and all the beasts and all the cattel which were with him in the ark and brought a wind upon the earth and the waters decreased And the fountains of the depth and the flood-gates of heaven were shut up and the rain from heaven was staid And the waters returned from the earth going and coming and they began to decrease after an hundred and fifty days And after that forty days were passed Noe opened the window of the ark which he had made let forth a crow which went forth and did not return till the waters were dried upon the earth He sent forth also a dove after him to see if the waters were ceased yet upon the face of the earth which finding not where her foot might rest returned to him into the ark for the waters were upon the whole earth and stretched forth his hand and caught her and brought her into the ark And having expected yet seven more days again he let forth a dove out of the ark but she came to him at eventide carrying a bough of an olive tree that had green leaves in her mouth Noe therefore understood that the waters were ceased upon the earth And he expected nevertheless other seven days and he sent forth a dove which returned not any more to him And God spake to Noe saying Go forth of the ark thou and thy wife thy sons and the wives of thy sons with thee All cattel which are with thee of all flesh as well in fowls as in beasts and all creepers that creep upon earth bring out with thee and go ye upon the earth encrease and multiply upon it Noe therefore went forth and his sons his wife and the wives of his sons with him Yea and all cattel beasts and creepers that creep upon the earth according to their kind went forth out of the ark And Noe built an altar to our Lord and taking of all cattel and fowls that were clean offered holocausts upon the altar And our Lord smelled a sweet savour The Priest begs of God on the Peoples behalf that admitting them into his Church thereby securing them from the Deuge wherewith the World was overflowed by sin he would be pleased to restore them to that Innocency wherein they were Created Let us Pray Let us kneel R. Lift up your selves O God whose power is unchangeable and light eternal look favourably upon the mystical and wonderful body of thy whole Church and by the effect of thy continual conduct compleat tranquillity the salvation of mankind that all the world may experimentally see that thou hast raised what was fallen and renewed what was decayed and that all things are re-established by him from whom they had their beginning our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen The THIRD PROPHECY taken out of the 22d Chapter of Genesis The Church instructs the Catechumens that as Christ was tempted by the Devil after his Baptism so they must prepare for and fortifie themselves against the Temptations of this Enemy of our Salvation learning by his example to overcome them And as there is another sort of Temptation wherewith God sometimes tries his Servants the Church admonishes the Catechumens to be ready as Christ was to give Testimony of their Faith and Obedience And therefore Abraham is proposed as an Example whose Faith was more prevalent than his inclinations of Nature and caused him to Offer couragiously in Sacrifice his dear Son Isaac who had been given him beyond his expectation and by whom alone he could hope for his innumerable Posterity which God had promised unto him This was a strange Tryal nor could he have obeyed with such promptitude a Command so irksom but by the strength of Faith which made him firmly believe that God having drawn his Son from a Man half dead through Age he could also preserve him from the Tomb and Slaughter IN those days God tempted Abraham and said to him Abraham Abraham But he answered Here I am He said to him Take thy only begotten Son whom thou lovest Isaac and go into the land of vision and there thou shalt offer him for an holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will shew thee Therefore Abraham rising up in the night sadled his ass taking with him two young men and Isaac his son and when he had cut wood for the holocaust he went his way to the place which God had commanded him And the third day lifting up his eyes he saw the place afar off And he said to his young men Tarry you here with the ass I and the boy going with speed as far as yonder after we have adored will return to you He took also the wood of the holocaust and laid it upon Isaac his son and himself carried in his hand fire and a sword And as they went together Isaac said to his Father My father And he answered What wilt thou son Behold saith he fire and wood Where is the victim of the holocaust And Abraham said God will provide unto himself the victim of the holocaust my son They went therefore together and they came to the place which God had shewed him wherein he builded an altar and laid the wood in order upon it And when he had bound Isaac his son he laid him on the altar upon the pile of wood And stretched forth his hand and caught the sword for to sacrifice his son And behold an angel of our Lord from heaven cried saying Abraham Abraham who answered Here I am And he said to him Stretch not forth thy hand upon the boy neither do thou any thing to him Now I have known that thou fearest God and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw behind his back a ram amongst the briers sticking fast by the horns which he took and offered an holocaust instead of his son And he called the name of that place Our Lord seeth whereupon even to this day it is said in the mountain Our Lord will see And the angel of our Lord called Abraham the second time from heaven saying By my own self have I sworn saith our Lord because thou hast done this thing and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake I will bless thee and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is by the sea-shore thy seed shall posses the gates of his enemies And in this seed shall be blessed all the nations of the earth because thou hast obeyed my voice
preserved in its purity May it be a fountain of life a regenerating water a purifying stream that all those who shall be washed in this wholsom bath may obtain the grace to be perfectly purified by operation and assistance of the Holy Ghost The Priest signs the Font thrice with the sign of the Cross to shew us that as the Holy Trinity was by visible Tokens present at Christs Baptism So these Three Persons by an invisible Presence are so assisting when the People are Baptized ANd therefore I bless thee O creature water by the living ✚ God by the true ✚ God by the holy ✚ God by that God who at the beginning of the world separated thee from the dry land by his word and whose spirit was carried upon thee The Priest divides the Water with his Hand and casts it towards the four parts of the World instructing us thereby that the grace of Baptism is poured forth through the whole Earth And the Church setting before our Eyes the Wonders wrought by God upon the Waters both in the Old and New Testament teacheth us that we are not to think it strange that this Element is made use of to make a Sacrament for our Regeneration and Sanctification GOD who made thee spring in Paradise and dividing thee into four rivers commanded thee to water the whole earth who changed thy bitterness in the desart and made the potable by an imprinted suavity and to issue out of a rock to quench his peoples thirst I bless thee also through our Lord Jesus Christ his only Son who in Cana Galilee changed thee into wine by a singular miracle of his omnipotency who walked dry-foot upon thee and was baptized in thee by St. John in Jordan who caused thee together with blood to issue out of his side and who commanded his disciples to baptize all those in thee who should believe in him saying Go ye and teach all nations and baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost The Priest invocates Gods assistance with a profound respect OMnipotent God mercifully assist us observing thy commandments and of thy goodness infuse thy spirit into us Then the Priest breaths upon the Waters in form of a Cross to teach us that Jesus Christ by the Merits of his Cross and Passion communicates his Holy Spirit to those that are Baptized as he communicated it to his Disciples by the breath of his Mouth BLess these simple waters with thy mouth that besides their natural quality of cleansing the body they may receive yet further vertue to purifie our souls The Priest dippeth the hallowed Candle into the Water to shew us that the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ represented by this Virgin-wax sanctified the Waters when he was Baptized in Jordan and that he gave them the virtue to regenerate and that as the Holy Ghost descended then upon Jesus Christ he also descends upon those that are new Baptized MAy the vertue of the Holy Ghost descend upon this water The Priest breaths three times upon the Water to instruct us that not only the Holy Ghost but the Father and Son also descend upon the Baptized as these three Persons visibly appear'd at our Saviours Baptism we are also taught by it that in this Sacrament of Regeneration we receive Faith Hope and Charity ANd make the whole substance of this water fruitful and capable to regenerate The Priest takes the Taper out of the Water to instruct us that by Baptism we are dis-engaged from sin re-established in grace admitted into a new life which entitles us by our good works to Eternal Glory MAy here all the stains of sin be blotted out may here nature created unto thy image being restored to its original dignity to the honour of its Authour be purified from all filth of the old man that all who receive this Sacrament of Regeneration may be born in true innocency of a new birth Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who shall come to judge the living and the dead and world by fire After this the Priest pours the Oyl for the Catechumens into the Water cross-wise to represent unto us the strength we receive by this Sacrament as Champions of Jesus Christ to persevere generously in the encounters of this World that so we may wear the Crown prepared for us in Everlasting Life And as the Oyl is drawn from Olives bruised in a Press this Liquor denotes unto us that grace and strength figured thereby is given us by the Passion of Jesus Christ MAy this Font be sanctified and made fruitful by this health-giving oyl for those who shall be regenerated therein unto life everlasting Amen Then the Priest pours into the Water Oyl of Chrism to teach us that Baptism is a Spiritual and Mystical Consecration by which being invisibly anointed with the grace of the Holy Ghost we partake of the Regality and Priesthood of Jesus Christ and thence we are called Christians that is anointed MAy this infusion of the Chrism of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost the comforter be done in the Name of the Holy Trinity Amen Lastly the Priest pours Oyl and Chrism together into the Water to put before us the advantages we reap by this Sacrament of Baptism and the Sollicitude we ought to use to conserve them The Water signifies that we are cleansed from all our sins The Oyl that we are anointed with the Holy Ghost as Champions of Christ to be guarded and fortified in all Encounters and Assaults that befal us in this Life as in all sorts of Temptations interior and exterior in Afflictions Persecutions and generally in all occasions which may hazard our loss of Faith and of the grace of God The Chrism represents unto us that we are consecrated unto God by the participation of the Regality and Priesthood of Jesus Christ MAy this commixture of the Chrism of Sanctification and the Oyl of Unction and of the Water of Baptism be made in the Name of the Father ✚ and of the Son ✚ and of the Holy Ghost ✚ Amen The blessing of the Font being ended the Priest accompanied with his Ministers goes before the Altar and upon his knees sings the Litanies to implore the Intercession of the Saints But in Churches where no Fonts are after the Sixth Prophecy is read and the Prayer following it Litanies are sung to implore the Intercession of the Saints LOrd have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us Christ hear us Christ graciously hear us God the Father of heaven have mercy on us God the Son Redeemer of the world have mercy on us God the Holy Ghost have mercy on us Holy Trinity one God have mercy on us Holy Mary pray for us Holy Mother of God pray for us Holy Virgin of Virgins pray for us St. Michael pray St. Gabriel pray St. Raphael pray All ye Holy Angels and Archangels pray for us All ye Holy Orders
the Deacon saying Sequentia sancti Evangelii c. The sequence of the Gospel c. makes the sign of the Cross upon his Forehead his Mouth and Breast to signifie he publishes the Word of God with a good heart and will not be ashamed to confess it before men and taking the Thurible he incenseth the Book thrice in honour of the Blessed Trinity in whom we are taught to believe by the Gospel Whilest the Deacon reads the Gospel with an audible Voice the Priest stands on the Epistle side which represents the Jewish People to tell us that Christ preached the Gospel amongst them and that from Judea it should be carried to other Nations He stands upright uncovered as do the rest of the People to teach us that the Word of God is to be feared with reverence and to testifie our Faith in the Resurrection The sequence of the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew Chap. 21. In this Gospel the Church minds us of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem foretold by the Prophet Zacharias Chap. 9. where we are to observe that Eve and the Synagogue are figured by the She-Ass And by the Ass-Colt never yet used the Gentils are represented for before the coming of Christ none had ever called the Gentils to the true Faith The Village where these creatures were tied is a figure of the servitude of this World and the command which Christ gave to his Disciples to untye them is a presentation of that power which God hath given his Ministers to absolve men from their sins AT that time when Jesus drew nigh to Jerusalem and was come to Bethphage at the foot of Mount Olivet then he sent two of his Disciples saying to them Go ye into the Town that is against you and immediately you shall find an Ass tied and a Colt with her loose them and bring them to me and if any man shall say ought unto you say ye that our Lord hath need of them and forthwith he will let them go And this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying Say ye to the Daughter of Sion Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting upon an Ass and a Colt the Foal of her that is used to the Yoke And the Disciples going did as Jesus commanded them And they brought the Ass and the Colt and laid their Garments upon them and made him to sit thereon and a very great multitude spread their Garments in the way and others did cut their Boughs from the Trees and strewed them in the way and the multitudes that went before and that followed cried saying Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of our Lord. Hosanna in the highest After the Deacon hath read the Gospel he presents the Book to the Priest to kiss to signifie thereby the Union and Charity which the Faithful ought to have in the observance of God that so they may obtain pardon for their sins and thereupon he says May our Sins be forgiven by the vertue of the Holy Gospel The Deacon incenseth the Priest thrice thereby expressing our honour to Christ who hath freed us from our sins by our faith in the Gospel acknowledging him to be God and the Second Person of the Trinity Then the Palms are blest by which Ceremony the Church commemorating Christ's triumph applies her Prayers for us to obtain of God through the Merits of this Divine Saviour unless we render our selves uncapable the grace to reap the fruit of that Victory which he has obtained over the World and the Devil Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray O God increase the Faith of those that hope in thee and clemently hear the Prayers of thy Supplicants Let thy manifold Mercies come upon us bless these Boughs of Palms or Olives and as in the figure of the Church thou didst multiply Noah going forth of the Ark and Moses going out of Egypt with the Children of Israel so grant that we carrying these Branches of Palm and Olive may with the Fruits of our Good Works appear before Jesus Christ and by his Merits enjoy the Delights of Eternal Happiness who one God liveth and reigneth with thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen The PREFACE The Priest prepares the Faithful minding them to lift up their hearts to God to disengage their affections from worldly creatures to acknowledge the excess of the divine benefits Our Lord be with you And with thy Spirit Lift up your hearts R. We raise them up to our Lord. Then the Priest admonisheth the Faithful to reflect that 't is God who puts their hearts into that state and therefore that they give him publick thanks Let us give thanks to our Lord God The Faithful answer that it is just and reasonable and according do concur in publick with the Priest giving thanks and so in particular each man by his particular private resentments accompanies the Priest saying It is Just and becoming our Duty The Church representing unto us the Obedience which all created nature oweth unto God the Zeal wherewith the Saints and particularly the Martyrs have offered themselves to his Majesty as a Holocaust for the faith of Jesus Christ his Son the Homage which the Angels render him in Heaven and the Canticle of Praise which the Children sung in honour of our Saviour when he made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem exhorts us in imitation of them to give God thanks for so many benefits received of his bounty through the Merits of his Son acknowledging that in duty we are bound to endeavour the Zeal of Martyrs the Purity of Angels and Innocence of Children IT is truly meet and just right and necessary that we always and in all places give thanks to thee Holy Lord Omnipotent Father and Eternal God who art glorified in the Council of thy Saints For thy Creatures serve thee acknowledging thee their sole Author and God and all thy handy-works joyntly praise and thy holy ones bless thee freely confessing the Sacred Name of thy Son before the Kings and Princes of this World The Angels Archangels Thrones and Dominations observe thee with a Profound Reverence and with the whole Celestial Host sing a Hymn of thy Glory for ever saying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God of Hosts the Heavens and Earth are filled with thy Glory Hosanna in the Highest Blessed is he that comes in the Name of our Lord Hosanna in the Highest V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray The Faithful giving God thanks that besides the interiour and exteriour Graces wherewith he prevents and assists us and besides what he confers by his Sacraments upon us he yet further fortifies us by the Vertue of Sacred Things they joyn in Prayers with the Church which are applied unto them by this Benediction to the end they may obtain particular Benefits from God for the good
his justice to the people that shall be born whom our Lord hath made V. And the justice by which he shall render them just shall be shewed to the people At Paris the Tract being ended the Deacon begs God's grace to read the Passion of his Son so effectually to the Faithful that they may receive wholesome effect thereby CLeanse my heart and lips O Almighty God who didst cleanse the lips of the Prophet Isaiah with a burning coal and vouchsafe through thy gracious mercy to purifie me that I may worthily pronounce thy Holy Gospel Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. Then he asks blessing of the Priest V. Reverend Father bless me The Priest blesseth him saying OUr Lord be in thy heart and in thy lips that thou mayest worthily and competently publish his Gospel Amen He incenseth the Book in acknowledgment that Christ is the true Son of God who voluntarily put on humane nature that by his death he might expiate our sins The Acolyts carry the lighted Tapers before the Deacon to signifie the light of Grace and Glory which Christ by his death had merited for the Faithful According to the Roman Directory the Deacon asks not the Priest blessing before his reading of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ nor says Munda cor meum c nor doth he incense the Book but performs all those Ceremonies afterwards Nor doth the Priest salute the People with Dominus vobiseum c. Our Lord be with you to observe unto us a detestation of perfidious Judas who betrayed our Saviour with a Salute Nor do the People answer Gloria tibi Domine c. Glory be to thee O Lord to express that they do not glorifie Jesus Christ in his Passion Neither are the lighted Tapers carried to signifie that as well upon Earth through the Eclipse of the Sun and Moon the light of the World was extinguished as in Heaven by the Death of our Saviour Lastly The Book is not incensed to mind us that the fervour of Christ's Disciples Prayers was then abated The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Matthew Chap. 26 27. AT that time Jesus said to his Disciples You know that after two days shall be Pasche and the Son of man shall be delivered to be crucified Then were gathered together the Chief Priests and Ancients of the People into the Court of the High Priest who was called Caiaphas And they consulted how they might by some guile apprehend Jesus and kill him But they said Not on the Festival-day lest perhaps there might be a tumult among the people And when Jesus was in Bethania in the house of Simon the leper there came to him a Woman having an Alabaster Box of Precious Oyntment and poured it out upon his Head as he sat at the Table And the Disciples seeing it had indignation saying Whereto is this waste for this might have been sold for much and given to the poor And Jesus knowing it said to them Why do you molest this Woman for she hath wrought a good work upon me for the poor you have always with you but me you have not always for she in pouring this Oyntment upon my Body hath done it to bury me Amen I say to you wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole World that also she hath done shall be reported for a memory of her Then went one of the twelve which was called Judas Iscariot to the Chief Priests and said to them what will you give me and I will deliver him unto you But they appointed unto him Thirty Pieces of Silver And from thenceforth he sought opportunity to betray him And the first day of the Azymes the Disciples cames to Jesus saying Where wilt thou that we prepare the Pasche But Jesus said Go into the City to a certain man and say to him the Master saith My time is at hand with thee do I make the Pasche with my Disciples And the Disciples did as Jesus appointed them and they prepared the Pasche But when it was even he sate down with his twelve Disciples And while they were eating he said Amen I say unto you That one of you shall betray me And they being very sad began every one to say Is it I Lord but he answering said He that dippeth his hand with me in the Dish he shall betray me The Son of man indeed goeth as it is written of him but wo be to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed it were good for him if that man had not been born And Judas that betrayed him said Is it I Rabbi he saith to him Thou hast said And whiles they were at Supper Jesus took Bread and blessed and brake and he gave to his Disciples and said Take ye and eat this is my Body And taking the Chalice he gave thanks and gave to them saying drink ye all of this for this is my Blood of the New Testament which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins And I say unto you I will not drink from henceforth of this fruit of the Wine until that day when I shall drink it with you new in the Kingdom of my Father And an Hymn being said they went forth unto Mount Olivet Then Jesus said to them All you shall be scandalized in me this night For it is written I will strike the Pastor and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed but after I shall be risen again I will go before you into Galilee And Peter answering said to him Although all shall be scandalized in thee I will never be scandalized Jesus said to him Amen I say to thee that in this night before the Cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice Peter said to him Yea though I should die with thee I will not deny thee Likewise also said all the Disciples Then Jesus cometh with them into a Village called Gethsemani and he said to his Disciples Sit you here while I go yonder and pray And taking to him Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee he began to wax sorrowful even unto death stay here and watch with me And being gone forward a little he fell upon his face praying and saying My Father if it be possible let this Chalice pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou And he cometh to his Disciples and findeth them sleeping and he saith to Peter Even so could you not watch one hour with me Watch ye and pray that ye enter not into temptation The spirit indeed is prompt but the flesh weak Again the second time he went and prayed saying My Father if this Chalice may not pass but I must drink it thy will be done And he cometh again and findeth them sleeping for their eyes were become heavy And leaving them he went again and he prayed the third time saying the self-same word Then he cometh to his Disciples and saith to them Sleep ye now and take rest behold the hour approacheth and
Psalm tells us how unalterable the just are in obeying the Law of God in the midst of persecutions considering the duty all creatures owe to God No brute beast will in the least resist his Creator's commands how much the more then are men obliged to obey him who are made after his own image and called to enjoy eternal bliss with him Secondly in considering how contemptible the goods of this life are and how inestimable those promised by Gods Law All perfections which these earthly goods have are finite and transitory and onely those which God promises his servants are infinite and eternal which alone can render us truly happy MY Soul hath fainted for thy salvation I have much hoped in thy Word My eyes have failed for thy word saying When wilt thou comfort me Because I am made as a bottle in the hoar frost I have not forgotten thy justifications How many are the days of thy servant when wilt thou do judgment on them that persecute me The unjust have told me fables but not as thy Law All thy Commandments are truth they have unjustly persecuted me help me They have well near made an end of me in the Earth but I have not forsaken thy Commandments According to thy mercy quicken me and I shall keep the testimonies of thy mouth For ever Lord thy Word is permanent in Heaven Thy truth in generation and generation thou hast founded the Earth and it is permanent By thy ordinance the day continueth because all things serve thee But that thy Law is my meditation I had then perhaps perished in my humiliation I will not forget thy justifications for ever because in them thou hast quickned me I am thine save me because I have sought out thy justifications Sinners have expected me to destroy me I understood thy testimonies Of all consummation I have seen the end thy Commandment is exceeding large In the seventh part of this 118 or 119 Psalm the Kingly Prophet instructs us that to obtain divine knowledge and wisdom we must earnestly demand it of God and we must restifie an ardent love to him and endeavour to keep his Commandments Secondly He teaches us that this divine wisdom renders us more knowing than our Masters when we love him more than they for our Masters are his Disciples as well as we It is a Master which not onely makes us know good but gives us also the will and power to do it Consequently the Prophet tells us the effect of this divine wisdom It makes us flie and hate sin and to delight in the Law of God By it we put on a firm resolution to keep the Commandments by it we order our lives well and all things relating to our soul and disposing our heart to be upright and sincere we do all things according to Justice and Equity It fortifies us against temptations and persecutions making us prefer the expected rewards for our good works before the vain pleasures and goods of this World HOw have I loved thy law O Lord all the day it is my meditation Above my enemies thou hast made me wise by thy Commandment because it is to me for ever Above all that taught me have I understood because thy testimonies are my meditation Above Ancients have I understood because I have sought thy Commandments I have stayed my feet from all evil way that I may keep thy words I have not declined from thy judgments because thou hast set me a law How sweet are thy words to my jaws more than honey to my mouth By thy Commandments I have understood therefore have I hated all the way of iniquitie Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths I swear and I have determined to keep the judgments of thy justice I am humbled exceedingly O Lord quicken me according to thy Word The voluntaries of my mouth make acceptable O Lord and teach me thy judgements My soul is in my hands always and I have not forgotten thy law Sinners laid a snare for me and I have not erred from thy commandments For inheritance I have purchased thy testimonies for ever because they are the joy of my heart I have inclined my heart to do thy justifications for reward In the Eighth Part of this Psalm the kingly Prophet teaches us that to the end a faithful soul may be made capable of divine wisdom she must divest her self of the maxims of humane prudence and that to preserve it she must be solicitous to avoid sin not so much in detestation of sin as for the content and pleasure she ought to take in just actions She must always endeavour to have a holy fear of losing that grace which has given her sentiments of joy in avoiding sin and by which as yet she hath a fear to be forsaken of God though he inflict not punishments upon her In fine she ought to have a great zeal for the service and glory of God I Have hated the unjust and I have loved thy law Thou art my helper and protector and upon thy word I have much hoped Depart from me ye malignant and I will search the Commandments of my God Receive me according to thy word and I shall live and confound me not of my expectation Help me and I shall be saved and I will always meditate in thy justifications Thou hast despised all that revolt from thy judgments because their cogitation is unjust All the sinners of the earth I have reputed prevaricaterers therefore have I loved thy testimonies Pierce my flesh with thy fear for I am afraid of thy judgments I have done judgment and justice deliver me not to them that calumniate me Receive thy servant unto good let not the proud calumniate me Mine eyes have failed after salvation and for the word of thy justice Do with thy servant according to thy mercy and teach me thy justifications I am thy servant give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies It is time to do O Lord they have dissipated thy law Therefore have I loved thy Commandments above Gold and Topazius Therefore was I directed to all thy Commandments all wicked way have I hated The Church tells us that this Divine Wisdom whereof the Royal Prophet speaks is not given to men by the merits of Christs Passion as no man can be saved but by faith in Jesus Christ V. Christ was made obedient for us even unto death Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. Miserere mei Deus c. as before pag. 6. The PRAYER Respice quaesumus c. as before pag. 130. At the Ninth Hour Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. PSALM 118 or 119. In the Ninth Part of this 118th or 119th Psalm the Holy Prophet teaches us by his example to honour the Law of God with profound Humility telling us that if we love it 't is God's gift He exhorts us to beseech his Majesty not to leave his gifts imperfect but that illuminating
pronounce thy word because all thy Commandments are equity Let thy hand be to save me because I have chosen thy Commandments I have coveted thy salvation O Lord and thy law is my meditation My soul shall live and shall praise thee and thy judgments shall help me I have strayed as a sheep that is lost seek thy servant because I have not forgotten thy Commandments The Church teacheth us that it is by Jesus Christ God sought us even then when as yet we sought him not in following Jesus Christ his Son whom he hath established a Mediatour between himself and us we must therefore run in such manner as that we may attain to him we must observe the end of our progress and course where he hath fixed his which is to be obedient even unto death V. Christ become obedient for us even unto death Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. Miserere mei Deus c. as before p. 6. THE PRAYER Respice quaesumus c. as before pag. 130. The General Absolution Upon Holy Thursday in the Morning according to the good and laudable custom of France the General Absolution is given in the great Hall at the King's Court where his most Christian Majesty with many Princes and his whole Court are present First begins a Sermon the Bishop in his Robes accompanied with his Clergy gives the Absolution and all upon their knees sing the Miserere mei Deus with the Verses and Prayers following This Ceremony is a sign of the Sacramental Absolution which heretofore was given to those sinners who had done Penance in the Lent And this day is also called Absolution Thursday because Penitents are then absolved and admitted to participate of the Eucharist it being that day on which Jesus Christ instituted it and thereby the Church shews us that at present she inflicts not so severe Penances now as formerly yet she teaches them to do fruits worthy of Penance that they may be admitted to participate of this Holy Sacrament on this day whereon Christ our Saviour began by his Passion the Work of our Redemption to God his Father LOrd have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us Pater noster c. And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil Amen V. O Lord deal not with us according to our sins R. Nor yet reward us according to our iniquities V. O Lord remember not our past offences R. But let thy mercies soon prevent us V. Turn thy face towards us though a little R. And graciously hear thy servants V. O Lord save thy servants and thy handmaids R. Trusting in thee O my God V. Be unto them O Lord a Tower of strength R. Against the assaults of the enemy V. Send them O Lord thy help from thy holy place R. And out of Sion protect them V. O Lord hear my Prayer R. And let my cry come unto thee V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray HEar O Lord our Supplications and graciously regard me who in the first place have need of thy mercy and as thou hast been pleased to chuse me by thy grace not for my merit to be thy Minister in this action Grant that I may faithfully acquit my self of the Charge comitted to me and co-operate by our ministring the effect of thy bounty Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who liveth and reigneth with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God for ever Amen Let us Pray WE beseech thee O Lord grant thy servants grace to do fruits worthy of penance that having obtained pardon for their sins they may be resetled pure and clean in thy Church from the integrity of which they have gone astray Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. Amen Let us Pray O Lord I beseech thy Majesty that out of thy bounty thou wilt be pleased to give thy pardon to these thy servants confessing their sins and offences and to loosen the bonds of their past crimes who didst carry upon thy shoulders the strayed sheep back to thy fold and hast graciously heard the prayers of the publican look down also favourably upon these penitents and incline unto their petitions that by their perseverance in confessing and tears they may obtain what they desire and being readmitted to a participation of thy holy Altar they may have fresh hopes of Eternal Glory Who livest and reignest c. Let us Pray O God who of thy goodness hast created and of thy mercy repaired mankind and by the blood of thine onely Son hast redeemed man deprived of eternal life through the malice of the Devil Grant a new life to these penitents thy servants whose death thou desirest not And as thou forsakest not even those who go astray receive those who return to repentance O Lord mercifully regard the tears and sighs of thy servants heal their wounds stretch forth thy helping hand to them cast down before thee to the end thy Church may not lose any part of its body lest thy flock be lessened lest the enemy insult over the loss of thy family lest those who have been regenerated by the wholsome water of baptism fall into a second death We therefore O Lord offer up unto thee our most humble Prayers we shed the tears of our hearts before thee in testimony of our regret Pardon those that confess unto thee to the end that through thy mercy they may escape condemnation at the last judgment Let them be ignorant of that which terrifies in darkness of torments in flames and grant that returning from their errours to the path of justice they may not hereafter receive new wounds but that they may remain entire and perpetual in that which thy Grace has conferred and thy Mercy restored By the same our Lord Jesus Christ c. Amen The Bishop then takes the Crosier and stretching his right hand over the People says Let us Pray OUr Lord Jesus Christ who by giving up himself and shedding his immaculate blood did vouchsafe to take away the sins of the whole world and who said to his Disciples and in them to their successours among whom thou art pleased to make me one though unworthy Whatsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven may he vouchsafe through this my Ministry by the intercession of the blessed Virgin Mary his Mother of St. Michael the Archangel of the Apostle St. Peter to whom the power of binding and loosing was given and of all Saints by vertue of his sacred blood shed for the remission of sins to grant you absolution of all your offences negligently committed in thought word or deed and that after you are quit from the bonds of sin he will please to restore you to the Kingdom of Heaven Who with God the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth for ever and ever Amen ALmighty God grant
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
and when thy years shall be accomplished thou wilt make thy self known when the time shall come thou wilt be manifested V. And when my soul shall be troubled thou wilt remember thy mercy even in thy wrath V. God will come from Libanus and the Holy One from the shady and dark mountain V. His glory overspread the heavens and the earth was filled with his praise Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves The PRAYER The people considering on the one side that Judas having received so many testimonies of favour from Jesus Christ after he had been admitted to his Table was yet so blinded with covetousness that he betrayed his Master and God into the hands of the Jews who put him to death upon the Cross and transported with despair fell headlong into Hell on the other side the good thief made sensible by his pains repented himself of his sins and acknowledged our dying Saviour's divinity and put his whole hopes and confidence in him deserved to receive the fruit of his Death and Resurrection they beseech God that they may not approach his Table as Judas did but may obtain the same grace with the penitent thief that so they may reap the advantage of the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour O God who hast punished the sin of Judas and rewarded the confession of the repenting thief grant unto us the effect of thy mercy to the end that as our Lord Jesus Christ hath dispensed to each of them at his Passion according to their merit so having destroyed the old man in us the grace to have part with him in his glorious resurrection Who liveth and reigneth one God world without end The LESSON taken out of the twelfth Chapter of Exodus The Church proposes to us in this Lesson the Ceremony of the Jewish Passover thereby teaching us that Jesus Christ having accomplisht the Solemnity of the ancient Pasche celebrated in memory of the deliverance of the people of Israel out of the Egyptian servitude passed to a new Passover which he is pleased the Church should solemnize in memory of the Redemption which he brought unto the world by giving his body and blood instead of the flesh and blood of the Paschal Lamb. The entire and unspotted Paschal Lamb signified that he who as a sacrifice was one day to be immolated for us should be pure and free from all spot or sin The blood of this Lamb wherewith the Gates of the Israelites were sprinkled to prevent the destroying Angel from involving them in the same slaughter with the first-born of Egypt was a sign that the blood of Christ should be shed for the remission of the sins of God's people The injunction of not breaking a bone of the Paschal Lamb signified that not a bone of Christ should be broken upon the Cross to shew the force and power of his divinity As God instituted the Pasche and commanded the Israelites to eat the Paschal Lamb in memory of the Miracles he had done for them in Egypt so his Son Jesus Christ instituted the Sacrament of his body and blood in memory of what he had done for us in his Passion The Jews in eating the Paschal Lamb were in a posture of travellers to mind them that they were upon the point of flying out of Egypt into the land of Palestine and therefore they were standing upright having their shooes on with a staff in their hands and to eat it hastily With how much more diligence and activity ought we to eat the Divine Lamb of the New Law since we are to make a longer Voyage viz. from Earth to Heaven The Jews were not to eat the Paschal Lamb but with unleavened bread to teach us that we cannot eat as we ought our Paschal Lamb whereof theirs was but onely a figure unless we purisie our hearts from all filth becoming as a new paste without leaven that is without sin The Jews did eat the Paschal Lamb with wild Lettice to signifie the grief we ought to have for our sins and the bitterness we must conceive to expiate them whereby to pass hence to heaven The number of persons which the Jews were to call together to eat the Paschal Lamb was a figure of that charity we ought to bear to each other to the end we may worthily partake in this Sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ It was commanded not to eat any thing of this Lamb that was raw to teach us that we are not to eat the body of our Lord without the due preparation which God requires of us It was prohibited to be eaten boiled in water and onely to be eaten roasted to instruct us that our love of God ought to be pure in our hearts whereby to make us worthy to eat the flesh of this Divine Lamb without engaging our affections upon the transient pleasures of this life figured by water in the Holy Scripture The Jews did eat the head feet and entrails of the Paschal Lamb to tell us that we must sincerely and firmly believe not only the divinity of Christ figured by the head but his humanity figured by the feet and all the more hidden mysteries of our faith represented by the entrails The blood of this Paschal Lamb was sprinkled on the two side-posts and upon the upper door-post of the house in form of a cross to signifie that by the cross and blood of Christ we are delivered from the tyranny of the devil and servitude of sin And it was further to signifie that to receive worthily this Sacrament of the Passion of our Saviour we must not onely take it with our mouths but with our hearts designing to imitate him by the practice of good works In fine All that remained of this Paschal Lamb was cast into the fire and burnt to observe unto us that when we find our selves incapable of eating this Sacrifice entirely through weakness of spirit or doubting whether that which we see be the body of our Saviour which the Angels themselves are not able to behold we are not then to continue longer in that doubt but cast it into the fire of the holy spirit that it may be there consumed since our weakness is not able to overcome it If not then when we consider that the things that seem impossible unto us cease not to become possible by the vertue of the Holy Ghost IN those days our Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt This month shall be to you the beginning of months it shall be the first in the months of the year Speak ye to the whole assembly of the children of Israel and say to them The tenth day of this month let every man eat a lamb by their families and houses But if their number be less then may suffice to eat the lamb he shall take unto him his neighbour that joyneth to his house according to the number of souls which may suffice to the eating of
this Incense which thy Holy Church by its Ministers renders unto thee in the Solemn Oblation of this Wax Candle made of the work of Bees And now we acknowledge the praise-worthy Benefits of this Pillar lighted from the sparkling fire to the honour of God Then the Deacon lights the Candle with one of the three Cierges on the Cane to signifie that Jesus Christs Resurrection as also his Incarnation and Passion was the work of the whole Trinity whose works are inseparable though the only Person of the Son became Incarnate suffered Death and rose again communicating the glory of his Resurrection and Graces necessary to obtain it without the least diminution to himself to those who are regenerated and formed in his Church as this Wax which is employed to the Service of God WHich fire though it be divided yet loseth it not any thing in the communication of its light feeding it self from the melted Wax which the Bee hath produced to make the substance of this precious touch Here the Lamps and Tapers are all lighted with the new fire to represent the light and grace which Jesus Christ hath poured forth upon his Faithful in his Resurrection carrying away the spoils of Hell whereof the Egyptian spoils born away by the Children of Israel at their going forth of Egypt were a figure And the Deacon magnifying the benefits of Gods bounty beseeches his Majesty to bestow them upon all Orders which compose the body of his Church O Night truly blessed wherein the Egyptians were pillaged the Hebrews enricht with their spoils The night wherein celestial and terrestial divine and humane things were conjoyned We beseech thee therefore O Lord that this Candle consecrated to the honour of thy Name may without ceasing dissipate the darkness of this night and that its light ascending as an acceptable perfume may mix with the celestial lights Let the morning-star receive its flames that star I say which never sets and who being risen again and returned from Hell shined afresh upon mankind We beseech thee therefore O Lord that granting us peace in our days thou wilt vouchsafe amidst these Paschal-Feasts to lead us as thy servants to govern and protect us continually with thy whole Clergy and all thy Faithful our Holy Father the Pope and our Bishop Regard likewise our King N. and knowing the desires of his heart grant O God by the ineffable grace of thy bounty and mercy that he may enjoy a tranquillity of perpetual peace and together with his people a heavenly victory By the same our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who livest and reignest with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen The blessing of the Paschal Candle being ended the Prophesies and Canticles are read out of the Old Testament to instruct the Catechumens in Divine Mysteries who there present themselves to receive Baptism And these Lessons are read without any Title to observe unto us that the Catechumens are not as yet vers'd in Holy Writ The FIRST PROPHECY taken out of the 1st Chapter of Genesis In this Lesson the Catechumens are taught that all Creatures subsist by God alone who would in creating them give a Being to a Good that might proceed from him though he had no use of them to compleat himself by them his whole felicity being in himself though these his Creatures had never been or that they had remained in their imperfection then the Church represents how God made Man the most noble and perfect of all visible Creatures in raising him above all that is upon the Earth in making him according to his own Image in giving him Reason and Understanding and lastly making him capable of Eternal Felicity IN the beginning God created heaven and earth And the earth was void and vacant and darkness was upon the face of the depth And the spirit of God moved over the waters And God said Be light made And light was made And God saw the light that it was good and he divided the light from darkness And there was evening and morning that made one day God also said Be a firmament made amidst the waters And let it divide between waters and waters And God made a firmament and divided the waters that were under the firmament from those that were above the firmament And it was done so And God called the firmament heaven And there was evening and morning that made the second day God also said Let the waters that are under the heaven be gathered together in one place And let the dry land appear And it was so done And God called the dry land earth and the gathering of waters together he called seas And God saw that it was good And said Let the earth shout forth green herbs and such as may seed and fruit-trees yielding fruit after his kind such as may have seed in it self upon the earth And it was done so And the earth brought forth green herb such as seeds according to his kind and tree that beareth fruit having seed each one according to his kind And God saw that it was good And there was evening and morning that made the third day Again God said Be there lights made in the firmament of heaven to divide the day and night and let them be for signs and seasons and days and years to shine in the firmament of heaven and to give light upon the earth And it was done so And God made two great lights A greater light to govern the day and a lesser light to govern the night and stars And he set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth and to govern the day and the night and to divide the light and the darkness And God saw that it was good And there was evening and morning that made the fourth day God also said Let the waters bring forth creeping creature having life and flying foul over the earth under the firmament of heaven And God created huge whales and all living and moving creature that the waters brought forth according to each sort and all foul according to their kind And God saw that it was good And he blessed them saying Increase and multiply and replenish the waters of the sea and let the birds be multiplied upon the earth And there was evening and morning that made the fifth day God said moreover Let the earth bring forth living creature in his kind cattel and such that creep and beasts of the earth according to their kinds And it was so done And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and cattel and all that creepeth on the earth in his kind And God saw that it was good And he said Let us make man to our own image and likeness let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea and the fouls of the air and the beasts and the whole earth and all creeping creature that moveth upon the earth And God created man to his own
he is bountiful to forgive for my cogitations are not your cogitations nor your ways my ways saith our Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth so are my ways exalted above your ways and my cogitations above your cogitations And as the shower cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth no more thither but inebriateth the earth and watereth it and maketh it to spring and giveth seed to the sower and bread to him that eateth so shall my word be which shall proceed from my mouth It shall not return to me void but it shall do what things soever I would and shall prosper in these things for which I sent it saith our Lord God Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves The Church begs of God an absolute Conversion of all the Nations of the Earth ALmighty and Eternal God multiply for the honour of thy Name that which thou hast promised to the faith of our forefathers and encrease by an holy adoption thy Church with new children to receive the effects of thy promises that so they may see that almost accomplished which the Saints formerly doubted not but would come to pass Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The SIXTH PROPHECY taken out of the 3d Chapter of Baruch In this Lesson the Church represents to us the excellency of Christian Religion which teaches us that Men of themselves are not able to make their Lives happy that all those who pretended themselves Authors of their own Happiness and believed they were only indebted to themselves for it who only have sought it for their own Vertue and in the fleeting Pleasures and Wealth of this Life who are persuaded that already they possess the Sovereign Good and that in fine to obtain it they sought not God nor placed their hopes in his infinite Goodness and Bounty but that they are lost in those vain and proud thoughts 'T is from God alone that hath made them and can make them blessed that can divert the evils of this Life or sweeten them or give courage to support them or absolutely free those that bow under the burthen And who can at last elevate Man to the true fruition of this Bliss where no evil is to be feared and where the sovereign goodness is not to be lost And unto this end God hath given Law unto Men wherein proposing and promising a recompence unto Pious Souls he teaches us not to spend this temporal and uncertain Life in its Vanities and Pleasures but to suffer all sorts of Afflictions and Torments rather than to violate his Commandments out of a strong confidence of the fidelity of his Promises and in hopes after death to enjoy Eternal Happiness And to enable us to observe the Law it was his Will that his Son should come into this World This Divine Saviour covering the Grandeur of his Divinity under the Weakness of our Nature hath taught us by the example of his Passion what Miseries we ought to suffer in this World and by his Resurrection what Blessings to hope for in the next giving us at the same time the grace to do and obtain that which he hath shewed us if by our sins we render not our selves unworthy HEar Israel the commandments of life hearken with your ears that you may know prudence What is the matter Israel that thou art in the land of the enemies Thou art waxed old in strange land thou art defiled with the dead thou art reputed with them that go into hell Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom For if thou hadst walked in the way of God thou hadst verily dwelt in peace everlasting Learn where wisdom is where understanding is that thou mayest know withal where is the long continuance of life and living where the light of the eyes and peace is who hath found the place thereof and who hath entred into the treasures thereof where are the princes of the Gentiles and they that rule over the beasts that are upon the earth that play with the birds of heaven that treasure up silver and gold wherein men have confidence and there is no end of their getting which fashion silver and are careful neither is there invention of their works They are destroyed and are gone down to hell and others are risen up in their place Young men saw the light and dwelt upon the earth but the way of discipline they knew not neither understood they the paths thereof neither have their children received it It is made far from their face It hath not been heard in the land of Canaan neither hath it been seen in Theman The children of Agar also that seek out the prudence that is of the earth merchants of Myrrh and of Theman and fablers and searchers of prudence and understanding But the way of wisdom they have not known neither have they remembred the paths thereof O Israel how great is the house of God and how great is the place of his possession It is great and hath no end high and unmeasurable There were the gyants those renowned that were from the beginning of big stature expert in war These did not our Lord chuse neither found they the way of discipline therefore did they perish And because they had not wisdom they perished through their folly Who hath ascended into heaven and taken her and brought her down from the clouds Who hath passed over the sea and found her and brought her above chosen gold There is none that can know her ways nor that can search out her paths but he that knoweth all things knoweth her and hath found her out by his prudence he that prepareth the earth in time everlasting and replenished it with cattel and four-footed beasts he that sendeth forth light and it goeth and hath called it and it obeyeth him with trembling And the stars have given light in their watches and rejoyced they were called and they said Here we are and they have shined to him with chearfulness that made them This is our God and there shall none other be esteemed against him He found out all the way of discipline and delivered it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved After these things he was seen upon the earth and was conversant with men The Church telling us that God not being contented to have taught Men by his Prophets but further he sent his only Son to instruct them by his Word and Example and to give them a new life by the Sacrament of Baptism beseeches his Majesty to make them worthy always to maintain the Grace they have received Let us Pray Let us bend our knees R. Lift up your selves O God who dost always multiply thy Church in the call of the Gentiles vouchsafe graciously thy continual protection to all those who shall be cleansed with the waters of baptism Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. The SEVENTH PROPHECY out of the 37th Chapter of Ezechiel The Prophet Ezekiel represents to us
it by the Faith of the Church which asks it O Lord Jesus Christ who didst say to thy Apostles Peace I leave unto you my Peace I give unto you regard not my sins but rather look upon the Faith of thy Church and grant it that Peace and Union which may be according to thy will who livest and reignest God for ever and ever Amen The Priest having prayed for the Faithful prays for himself to obtain a disposition requisite to receive the Eucharist worthily O Lord Jesus Christ Son of the living God who by thy Fathers Will and by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost by thy death hast given life to the whole World deliver me by this thy Holy Body and Bloud from all my sins and from all evil make me a true observer of thy Commandments and that I be never separated from thee who being God livest and reignest for ever Amen O Lord Jesus Christ let not this participation of thy Body which I though unworthy now presume to receive be to my Judgment and Damnation but through thy Mercy a wholesom Medicine to my Infirmities who being God livest and reignest with God the Father in the Unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen After he hath kneeled to adore the Blessed Sacrament taking the Host into his hands and considering that he is to receive his God he puts all his confidence in his Mercy saying I Will take the Bread of Heaven and will call upon the name of our Lord. And representing to himself how acceptable the Centurion's Humility was to the Son of God when he would have honoured him with a Visit in imitation of him he protests himself unworthy of so great a favour and striking his breast repeats the same words thrice LOrd I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my Soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my Soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my Soul shall be healed In receiving the Body of our Lord he makes the sign of the Cross with the Hoast calling to his memory that it is the Body which Jesus Christ exposed to death to save us THE Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my Soul to Life Everlasting Amen In taking the Chalice he gives God thanks for the advantages he receives by the Communion of the Bloud of Christ by those words of the 117 and 118 Psalm WHat shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits to me I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of our Lord. In singing his praises I will call upon our Lord and I shall be safe from mine enemies When he receives the Bloud of our Lord making on himself the sign of the Cross with the Chalice and meditating that it is the Bloud which Jesus Christ would shed to save us he says THe Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my Soul to Life Everlasting Amen Whilst he takes Wine in the Chalice to wash his mouth and fingers that so the least particle of the Sacrament may not remain there and to shew the care he must take to preserve himself in Purity he says this Prayer GRant O Lord that we may receive that with a pure heart which we have taken by our mouths and that of a Temporal Gift it may become an Eternal Remedy unto us In taking the second Absolution he says LEt thy Body O Lord which I have received and thy Bloud which I have drunk cleave unto my bowels and grant that the least spot of sin may not remain in me who have been satiated with thy pure and holy Sacraments who livest and reignest world without end Amen Neither Communion nor Post-Communion is said because the Neophytes did not receive at this Mass But the Priest to give God Thanks for the Benefits we have received by the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ uses that Thanksgiving which the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of our Saviour did for the whole Body of the Church Secondly to testifie that we ought not to be less sensible of the Benefits received from God by the Merits of his Son than the Saints of the Old Testament to whom God had revealed them the Church says the 116 Psalm Thirdly the Church teaches us that in commemorating the Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ we ought to present unto our Saviour the perfumes of our Prayers and Good works in imitation of the Charity and Zeal of those good Women who came to his Sepulcher at Day-break with their Persumes to pay him the Duty of their Piety And therefore the Antiphon is taken out of the 28th Chapter of St. Matthew Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia PSALM CXVI PRaise our Lord all ye Gentiles praise him all ye people Because his mercy is confirmed on us and his truth remains for ever Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning and now and ever and world without end Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Another ANTIPHON out of the 28th Chapter of St. Matthew IN the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn in the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to the Sepulcher Alleluia The Canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary Luke 2. The Church in this Canticle represents us with an Abridgment of the Promises and Mysteries of the Salvation and teaches us that as the Son of God became Man to repair by his Humility what Adam had lost by his Pride he was pleased to chuse the Blessed Virgin to be his Mother for the accomplishing this great work in regard of her Humility MY soul doth magnifie our Lord. And my spirit hath rejoyced in God my saviour Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me and holy is his Name And his mercy from generation unto generations to them that fear him He hath shewed might in his arm he hath dispersed the proud in the conceit of their heart He hath deposed the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble The hungry he hath filled with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away He hath received Israel his child being mindful of his mercy As he spake to our fathers to Abraham and his seed for ever Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning and now and ever world without end ANTIPHON In the end of the Sabbath as before pag. 304. The Incense puts us in mind of the Piety of these Holy Women who carried Perfumes to our Saviours Sepulcher And the Church beseeches God that our Prayers may ascend as this Incense unto him Our Lord be with you R. And
with thy spirit Let us Pray The Church begs of God the wholsom effect of the Passion and Resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ POur forth upon us O Lord the Spirit of thy Charity that those who are satiated with thy Paschal Sacraments through thy goodness may have but one heart and one will Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The Priest coming to the end of the Mass turns to the Faithful exhorting them not to render themselves unworthy of Gods Assistance saying Our Lord be with you The Faithful answer wishing him the like R. And with thy spirit Then the Priest tells the People that Mass being ended they may retire saying You may withdraw Mass is ended Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia The Faithful answer Thanks be to God Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia All the rest as before pag. 80 81 82. At EVEN-SONG Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia The Antiphon as before pag. 304. out of the 28th Chapter of St. Matthew The Canticle of the blessed Virgin out of the 2d Chapter of St. Luke As also the Antiphon in the end of the Sabbath c. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us Pray Spiritum nobis Domine c. as before p. 305. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us bless our Lord. Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Thanks be to God Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Pray for the Writer UPON THE SUNDAY OF THE RESURRECTION OF OUR Lord Jesus Christ AT PRIME Pater noster c. Ave Maria Credo c. INcline unto my aid O God R. O Lord make hast to help me Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning be now and ever world without end Amen Alleluia Deus in Nomine tuo as before 132. Beati immaculi c. as before 133. Retribue te as before 135. Then the following Antiphon is said This is the day which our Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us Pray O Lord God Almighty who hath caused us to come to the beginning of this day save us this day by thy power to the end that this day we fall into no sin but that our words may ever proceed and our thoughts and works may be directed to execute thy justice Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost world without end Amen Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit R. Let us bless our Lord. R. Thanks be to God In the Cathedrals and Collegiate Churches the Martyrology is read and then the Priest says V. Precious in the sight of our Lord. R. Is the death of his Saints The blessed Virgin Mary and all Saints make intercssion for us to our Lord that we may obtain to be assisted and saved by him who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever Amen V. Incline unto my aid O God R. O Lord make hast to help me Which is repeated three times and then is said Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost c. V. Lord have mercy on us R. Christ have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us V. Pater noster c. In a low voice until V. And lead us not into tempation R. But deliver us from evil V. O Lord look upon thy servants and upon thy works and guide their children R. And let the splendour of the Lord our God shine upon us and direct the works of our hands upon us and direct the work of our hands Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost c. Let us Pray VOuchsafe O Lord God King of Heaven and Earth this day to direct and sanctifie rule and govern our hearts and bodies our senses speeches and deeds in thy Law and in the works of thy Commandments that here and ever we may deserve to be safe and free by thy assistance O Saviour of the world Who livest and reignest world without end Amen V. Vouchsafe Father to bless R. Almighty God dispose our days and actions in thy holy peace This short Lesson is taken out of the Third Chapter of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians IF then ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God set your affections on things above not in things on earth But O Lord have mercy on us R. Thanks be to God V. Our help is in the Name of our Lord. R. Who made Heaven and Earth V. God bless us R. God bless us The BENEDICTION O Lord bless and defend us from all evil and bring us to Life Everlasting and make the Souls of the Faithful departed rest in peace At the Third Hour Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. Deus in adjutorium as before pag. 348. Alleluia Legem pone c. as before pag. 136. Memor esto c. as before p. 138. Bonitatem fecisti c. as before p. 140. Then this following Antiphon is said Ant. This day which our Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us Pray O God who this day opened unto us by thy only begotten Son the entrance to Eternity through his victory over death vouchsafe by thy mercy to grant those Petitions which thy prevenient grace inspires Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with thee livest and reignest in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen At sprinkling Holy Water As formerly the Church was accustomed to Baptize the Catechumens upon the Eves of Easter and Whit-Sunday The Priest being to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar on Easter-day and Whit-Sunday did consider them ready to approach the Altar pure and holy all their sins being effaced by the Sacrament of Baptism And therefore he besprinkleth them with Water out of the Font as hath been said to admonish them to be careful to preserve themselves in that Innocence which they received by Baptism and to teach them that they have been entirely purified from all their sins which is not to be doubted with failing in our Faith The Ant. Asperges me is not said nor the Psalm Miserere which signifie the sins wherewith we are defiled and from which we ought to be cleared But instead of Asperges me he says the following Ant. Vidi Aquam which represents the Excellency of the Waters of Baptism which Jesus Christ instituted to wash away the sins of Men by vertue of the Bloud which he shed and this was signified to us by the Water which issued with Bloud from his side which he called his Temple in the 2d Chapter of St. John and was figured in the 38th and 47th Chapters of the Prophet Ezechiel I Saw waters issuing forth of
and his justice continueth for ever and ever He hath made a memory of his merveilous works a merciful and pitiful Lord he hath given Meat to them that fear him He will be mindful for ever of his testament the force of his works he will shew forth to his people To give them the inheritance of the Gentiles the works of his hands truth and judgment All his commandments are faithful confirmed for ever and ever made in truth and equity He sent redemption to his people he commanded his testament for ever Holy and terrible is his name The fear of our Lord is the beginning of wisdom Understanding is good to all that do it his praise remaineth for ever and ever Glory be to the Father c. Ant. All his commandments are faithful confirmed for ever and ever made in truth and equity Ant. He shall have great delight in his commandments c. PSALM 111. or 112. The Royal Prophet David shews us in this Psalm That none render themselves more worthy of Fame and Glory or leave more happy or longer-lasting Testimonies of themselves to Posterity than those that apply themselves entirely to the Service of God We must also observe That those Blessings which God promiseth to a wise and generous Man in the State of Grace are in this Psalm compared to such temporal Goods as he promised his People in the Old Testament BLessed is the man that feareth our Lord he shall have great delight in his commandments His seed shall be mighty in earth the generation of the righteous shall be blessed Glory and riches in his house and his justice abideth for ever and ever Light is risen up in darkness to the righteous he is merciful and pitiful and just Acceptable is the man that is merciful and lendeth that shall dispose his words in judgment because he shall not be moved for ever The just shall be in eternal memory he shall not fear at the hearing of evil His heart is ready to hope in our Lord his heart is confirmed he shall not be moved till he look over his enemies He distributed he gave to the poor his justice remaineth for ever and ever his horn shall be exalted in glory The sinner shall see and will be angry he shall gnash his teeth and pine away the desire of sinners shall perish Glory be to the Father c. Ant. He shall have great delight in his commandments Ant. The name of our Lord c. PSALM 112. or 113. This Psalm represents unto the Faithful of what Estate or Condition soever they be their Obligation they have to praise God whose Care extends it self over all Creatures according to the Order of his Providence PRaise our Lord ye children praise ye the name of our Lord. Be the name of our Lord blessed from henceforth now and for ever From the rising of the Sun unto the going down the name of our Lord is laudable Our Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens Who is as the Lord our God that dwelleth on high and beholdeth the low things in heaven and in earth Raising up the needy from the Earth and lifting up the poor out of the dung To place him with princes with the princes of his people Who maketh the barren woman to dwell in a house a joyful mother of children Glory be to the Father c. Ant. Be the name of our Lord blessed for ever Ant. But we that live c. PSALM 113. or 114. The Church represents unto the Faithful the Goodness and Mercy of God in having delivered them from the Tyranny of the Devil and by planting amongst them his Gospel and true Worship thereby to withdraw them from Idolatry and the Slavery of Sin She also exhorts them to praise God with as true and fervent a Zeal as the Israelites when he delivered them from the Bondage of Egypt gave them his Law and conducted them into the Land of Promise and there caused a Temple to be built to be therein adored IN the coming forth of Israel out of Egypt of the house of Jacob from the barbarous people Jewry was made his sanctification Israel his dominion The sea saw and fled Jordan was turned backward The mountains leaped as rams and the little hills as the lambs of sheep What aileth thee O sea that thou didst fly and thou O Jordan that thou wast turned backward Ye mountains leaped as rams and ye little hills as lambs of sheep At the face of our Lord the earth was moved at the face of the God of Jacob. Who turned the rock into pools of waters and stony hills into fountains of waters Not to us Lord not to us but to thy Name give the glory For thy mercy and thy truth lest at any time the Gentiles say Where is their God But our Lord is in heaven he hath done all things whatsoever he would The Idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold the works of mens hands They have mouths and shall not speak they have eyes and shall not see They have ears and shall not hear they have nostrils and shall not smell They have hands and shall not handle they have feet and shall not walk they shall not cry in their throat Let them that make them become like to them and all that have confidence in them The house of Israel hath hoped in our Lord he is their helper and their protector The house of Aaron hath hoped in our Lord he is their helper and their protector They that fear our Lord have hoped in our Lord he is their helper and their protector Our Lord hath been mindful of us and hath blessed us He hath blessed the house of Israel he hath blessed the House of Aaron He hath blessed all that fear our Lord the little with the great Our Lord add upon you upon you and upon your children Blessed be you of our Lord which made heaven and earth The heaven of heavens is to our Lord but the earth he hath given to the children of men The dead shall not praise thee O Lord nor all they that go down into hell But we that live do bless our Lord from this time and for ever Glory be to the Father c. Ant. We that live do bless our Lord. At Paris the Anthymn Occurrunt turbae c. is said to these five Psalms A Great number of people carrying flowers and olive-branches went before the Redeemer of the world victoriously and triumphing rendring him all due honour The Nations publish the Greatness of the Son of God crying out Hosanna in the highest The LITTLE CHAPTER taken out of the Epistle to the Philippians chap. 2. The Church shews us the greatness of God's Bounty who to save us was willing his only Son should be charged with all our Infirmities and Evils She farther represents unto us with how much Zeal we are to endeavor to please him thereby to work our Salvation BRethren for this think in
your selves which also in CHRIST JESUS who when he was in the form of God thought it no robbery himself to be equal to God but he exinanited himself taking the form of a servant made into the similitude of men and in shape found as a man R. Thanks be to God HYMN In remembrance of the Victory Christ obtained by his Cross A Broad the Regal Banners fly Now shines the Crosses Mystery Upon it Life did Death endure And yet by Death did Life procure Who wounded with a direful Spear Did purposely to wash us clear From stain of Sin pour out a Flood Of precious Water mixt with Blood Fully accomplish'd are the things David in faithful Meeter sings Where he to Nations do's attest God on a Tree his Reign possest O lovely and refulgent Tree Adorn'd with purple Majesty Cull'd from a worthy Stock to bear Those Limbs which sanctified were Blest Tree whose happy Branches bore The Wealth that did the World restore The Beam that did that Body weigh Which rais'd up Hells expected Prey Hail Cross of Hopes the most sublime Now in this mournful Passion-time Improve Religious Souls in Grace The Sins of Criminals efface Blest Trinity Salvations Spring May ev'ry Soul thy Praises sing To those thou grantest Conquest by The Holy Cross Rewards apply Amen THE SONG OF THE HOLY VIRGIN MARY Luke 1. The Church briefly represents unto us in this Canticle the Promises and Mysteries of our Salvation and shews us that the Son of God became Man to repair by his Humility what Man had lost through his own Pride and that it was his will to chuse the Holy Virgin to be his Mother out of his great Humility to accomplish this grand Work MY Soul doth magnifie our Lord. And my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me and holy is his Name And his mercy from generations unto generations to them that fear him He hath shewed might in his arm he hath dispersed the proud in the conceit of their heart He hath deposed the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble The hungry he hath filled with good things and the rich he hath sent away empty He hath received Israel his child being mindful of his mercy As he spake to our fathers to Abraham and his seed for ever Glory be to the Father c. Ant. For it is written I will strike the Pastor and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed but after I shall be risen again I will go before you into Galilee and there ye shall see me saith our Lord. At Paris the following Anthymn is said ALl the people which descended rejoyced and began to praise God exceedingly for the wonders they had seen saying Blessed is the King that comes in the name of our Lord Peace in heaven and glory in the highest THE PRAYER To beg God's Grace to imitate the Humility and Patience of our Saviour O Almighty Eternal God who hast caused our Saviour to take Flesh and be crucified for Mankind as an Example of Humility to be imitated Grant propitiously that we may partake both of the Instructions of his Patience and the Fellowship of his Resurrection Thro' the same our Lord c. AT COMPLINE The Reader says Vers REverend Father bless me THE BLESSING GRant us Omnipotent Lord a quiet Night and a happy End Resp Amen THE LESSON taken out of the First Epistle of the Apostle St. Peter chap. 5. BRethren be sober and watch because your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist ye strong in faith But thou O Lord have mercy on us R. Thanks be to God V. Our help is in the name of our Lord. R. Who made Heaven and Earth OUr Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from all evil Amen HAil Mary full of Grace our Lord is with thee Blessed art thou amongst Women and blessed is the Fruit of thy Womb JESUS Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us Sinners now and in the hour of our death Amen I Confess unto Almighty God to Blessed Mary ever Virgin to Blessed Michael the Archangel to Blessed John Baptist to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul to all Saints and to Thee Father That I have sinned exceedingly in Thought Word and Deed by my fault by my fault by my most grievous fault Therefore I beseech the Blessed Mary ever Virgin Blessed Michael the Archangel Blessed John Baptist the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul all Saints and Thee O Father to pray for me to our Lord God Almighty God have mercy on us and all our Sins being forgiven bring us unto everlasting Life R. Amen The Almighty and merciful Lord give unto us Pardon Absolution and Remission of all our Sins R. Amen Convert us O God our Saviour R. And avert thine Anger from us V. Incline unto my aid O God R. O Lord make haste to help me Glory be to the Father c. Ant. Have mercy on me PSALM 4. This Psalm shews us That 't is impossible to raise up our Thoughts to the Love of the true Goods whilst our Hearts are overcharged with the Cares of Worldly Affairs but that once being purified with the Grace of God we then in the secret of our Souls begin to contemn our selves and being touched with a true Compunction of Heart we offer to his Majesty a Sacrifice all our past Life with an intention by his assistance entirely to change it And from thence-forth our Lord begins to make us rellish his Sweets and Delights and to heap Joys upon us Then we find in that Sovereign Good another Grain another Wine and another Oyl than what here below so as we neither envy the Prosperity of the Wicked nor fear their Persecutions having placed all our Confidence in God WHen I invocated the God of my justice heard me in tribulation thou hast enlarged to me Have mercy on me and hear my prayer Ye sons of men how long are you of heavy heart why love you vanity and seek lying And know ye that our Lord hath made his Holy One marveilous our Lord will hear me when I shall cry to him Be ye angry and sin not the things that you say in your hearts in your chambers be ye sorry for Sacrifice ye the sacrifice of justice and hope in our Lord Many say Who sheweth us good things The light of thy countenance O Lord is signed upon us thou hast given gladness in my heart By the fruit of their corn and wine and oyl they are multiplied In peace in the self same I will
habitation which thou hast wrought O Lord. Thy sanctuary Lord which thy hands have confirmed our Lord shall reign for ever and ever more For Pharao on horseback entred in with his chariots and horsemen into the sea and our Lord brought back upon them the waters of the sea But the children of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst thereof Ant. Lord thou hast exhorted thy people to put their trust in thee and thou hast comforted them with thy holy grace ANTIPHON taken out of the Fifty third Chapter of the Prophet Isaie The Church having represented unto us under the Figure of the Delivery of the Israelites from the Captivity of Egypt God's Bounty in freeing us from the Tyranny of the Devil and Slavery of Sin by the Merits of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ She now shews in this Antiphon after what manner he bought us to wit by voluntarily sacrificing himself for us Ant. He was offered because himself would and he carried our sins PSALM 148. The Church in the following Psalms shews us the Obligation we have to praise God and to give him Thanks that he has created us and redeemed us from the Slavery of Sin by his only Son and for the Care he has to preserve us and deliver us from the Temptations Persecutions and other Miscries of this Lise and for the Promise he has made us of Life everlasting PRaise ye our Lord from the heavens praise ye him in the high places Praise ye him all his angels praise ye him all his hosts Praise ye him sun and moon praise him all ye stars and lights Praise him ye heavens of heavens and the waters that are above the heavens let them praise the name of our Lord. Because he said and they were made he commanded and they were created He established them for ever and for ever and ever he put a precept and it shall not pass Praise our Lord from the earth ye dragons and all the depths Fire hail snow ice spirit of storms which do his word Mountains and all little hills trees that bear fruit and all cedars Beasts and all cattel serpents and feathered fowls Kings of the earth and all peoples princes and all judges of the earth Young men and virgins old with young let them praise the name of our Lord because the name of him alone is exalted The confession of him above heaven and earth and he hath exalted the horn of his people An hymn to all his saints to the children of Israel a people approaching unto him PSALM 149. SIng ye to our Lord a new song let his praiâ—â— be in the church of saints Lord â—â—â—el be joyful in him that made him and let the children of Sion rejoyce in their king Let them praise his name in quire on timbrel and psalter let them sing to him Because our Lord is well pleased in his people and he will exalt the meek unto salvation The saints shall rejoyce in glory they shall be joyful in their beds The exaltations of God in their throat and two-edged swords in their hands To do revenge in the nations chastisements among their peoples To bind their kings in fetters and their nobles in iron manacles That they may do in them the judgment that is written This glory is to all his saints PSALM 150. PRaise ye our Lord in his holies praife him in the firmament of his strength Praise ye him in his powers praise ye him according to the multitude of his greatness Praise ye him in the sound of trumpet praise ye him on psalter and harp Praise ye him on timbrel and quire praise ye him on strings and organ Praise ye him on well-sounded cymbals praise ye him on cymbals of jubilation Let every spirit praise our Lord. Ant. He was offered because himself would and he carried our sins The Chapter and Hymn are here omitted The Chapter is not here said to shew us that the Jews profited themselves nothing from the Instructions of the Prophets The Hymn is also here omitted to shew that the Honor due to God was violated through the Wickedness of the Jews and Persidiousness of Judas which the Fortieth Psalm represents unto us by the Treason of Achitophel V. The man whom I loved and in whom I confided R. Who did eat my bread betrayed me through great perfidiousness ANTHYMN taken out of the Twenty sixth Chapter of St. Matthew Ant. But the Traytor gave them a sign saying Whomsoever I shall kiss that is he hold him Canticle of Zachary taken out of the First Chapter of St. Luke The Church proposes unto us this Canticle of Sr. John Baptist's Father to represent unto us the greatness of Gods Bounty and the excessive Baseness of the Jews because God sent them not only his Prophets to declare unto them the Coming of his Son the Redeemer of the World but likewise his Forerunner to advertise them he was now come and to shew them him Yet were they so unhappy as to blind themselves and in stead of owning and acknowledging him they by a most persidious Treachery put him to death BLessed be our Lord God of Israel because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people And he hath erected the horn of salvation to us in the house of David his servant As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that are from the beginning Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us To work mercy with our fathers and to remember his holy testament The oath which he sware to Abraham our father that he would give to us That without fear being delivered from the hand of our enemies we may serve him In holiness and Justice before him all our days And thou child shalt be called the prophet of the Highest for thou shalt go before the face of our Lord to prepare his ways To give knowledge of salvation to his people unto remission of their sins Through the bowels of the mercy of our God in which the Orient from on high hath visited us To illuminate them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to direct our feet in the way of peace All the Tapers being extinguished saving one shews us that the Light of Faith wherewith the Prophets enlightned the Jews was extinguished in them by putting to death the Saviour of the World The Church also represents unto us by that one Taper left lighted during the singing of the foregoing Canticle that JESUS CHRIST whom St. John declared to be the true Light though he died according to his Humanity yet always lived according to his Divinity Ant. And the Traytor gave them a sign saying Whomsoever I shall kiss that is he hold him Here the lighted Taper is hid to shew that the Divinity of CHRIST was concealed in his Humanity according to which he suffered himself to be delivered into the Hands of the Jews by a most profound and incomprehensible Obedience V. Christ was made for us
that end into this World Or why did he speak thus as if what hapned unto him was against his will he who had power to render his Soul to God and to take it again without any ones being able to take it from him These Words therefore of this Psalm represent those who in their Miseries pray unto God to be freed from them Moreover God shews us that his Eternal Father did not free him from the Power of the Jews who scoffed and scorned him to death as before he had saved Noe from the Deluge Lot from the Fire from Heaven Isaac from the Sword that threatned his Head Joseph from a Womans slanderous Accusations and the horror of a Prison Moyses from the Fury of the Egyptians Rahab from the Destruction of his City in Jericho Susanna from false Witnesses Daniel from the Den of Lions the Three young Hebrew Children from the Flames that environ'd them Whereby he instructs us what we are to desire and beg by the Grace of the New Testament and he teacheth us that the End for which we are Christians is not to enjoy Happiness in this temporal Life wherein God often leaves us to the Rage of our Enemies but that 't is the Eternal Life which under the Name of Christians we must endeavour to attain unto considering that he from whom we take that Name was used in such like manner before us Ant. They have divided my garments amongst them and upon my vesture have cast lot GOd my God have respect to 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 out-cast of the people All that see me have scorned me they have spoken with the lips and wagged the head He hoped in the Lord let him deliver him let him save him because he will 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 mouth upon me as a lion raving and roaring As water I am poured out and all my bones are dispersed My heart is made as wax melting in the midst of my belly My strength is withered as a potsheard and my tongue cleaved to my jaws and thou hast brought me down into the dust of death Because many dogs have compassed me the counsel of the malignant 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 have cast lot But thou O Lord prolong not thy help from me look tward my defence Deliver O God my soul from the sword and mine only one from the hand of the dog Save me out of the lions 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. 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 descend 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 amonst them and upon my vesture they have cast lot PSALM 26. The Church declares unto us That we ought not to fear any thing in the Persecutions and Troubles of this Life since God provides for our Conduct and Salvation And what Assistance are we not to expect from him since his only Son was sacrificed for us And what should we fear since by his Death he hath overcome whatever could prejudice us since he hath ascended into Heaven there to give a Refuge and Sanctuary which in all our Sufferings and Necessities is open to us since from his Throne of Glory he pours upon us his Graces to sanctifie us to conduct us to make us surmount all Obstacles to our Salvation and to make our Patience the Shame and Confusion of our Enemies Therefore we must be careful lest we render our selves unworthy of his Protection we must take heed lest the Apprehensions of our Adversities make us commit unlawful Actions we must be very careful to keep exactly his Commandments and employ our selves wholly to serve him in expectation of that eternal Felicity he has promised Ant. False witnesses have risen up against me and iniquity hath lied to it self OUr Lord is my illumination and my salvation whom shall I fear Our Lord is the protector of my life of whom shall I be afraid Whilst the harmful approach me to eat my flesh Mine enemies that trouble me themselves are weakned and are fallen If camps stand together against me my heart shall not fear If battel rise up against me in this will I hope One thing I have asked of our Lord this will I seek for That I may dwell in the house of our Lord all the days of my life That I may see the pleasantness of our Lord and visit his temple Because he hath hid me in his tabernacle in the day of evils he hath protected me in the secret of his tabernacle In a rock he hath exalted me and now he hath exalted my head over mine enemies I have gone round about and have immolated in his tabernacle an host of jubilation I will sing and say a psalm unto our Lord. Hear O Lord my voice wherewith I have cried to thee have mercy on me and hear me My heart hath said to thee my face hath sought thee
to the Precepts of his Gospel with the fidelity of a sincere Heart and consider that that Infinite Wisdom cannot be deceived which penetrates the most hidden Secrets of our Soul LEt us hasten therefore to enter into that rest that no man fall into the same example of incredulity For the word of God is lively and forcible and more piercing than any two-edged sword reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit of the joynts also and the marrows and a discerner of the cogitations and intents of the heart And there is no creature invisible in his sight but all things are naked and open to his eyes To whom our speech is Having therefore a great high-priest that hath entred the heaven Jesus the Son of God let us hold the confession For we have not a high-priest that cannot have compassion on our infirmities but tempted in all things by similitude except sin RESP. The Church represents unto us That this Sovereign Priest felt the Temptations and Infirmities of Humane Nature by offering himself unto God for us as a Sacrifice and Victim R. They have delivered me into the hands of the wicked and have cast me among the impious and have not spared my soul The strong are gathered together against me and like giants have stood against me V. Strangers have rose up against me and the strong have sought my soul And like giants c. VIII LESSON The Church describes to us a holy Bishop in general and a Pattern of one very particularly in JESUS CHRIST LEt us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid For every high-priest taken from among men is appointed for men in those things that pertain to God that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins that can have compassion on them that be ignorant and do err because himself also is compassed with infirmity and therefore he ought as for the people so also for himself to offer for sins RESP. The Church in the precedent Lesson having proposed unto us the Description of a Holy Bishop in this she presents us in the Person of Caiphas with a Wicked one R. The wicked delivered Jesus to the chief princes of the priests and to the elders of the people But Peter followed him afar off that he might see the end V. But they led him to Caiphas the prince of the priests where the Scribes and Pharisees were met together But Peter followed c. IX LESSON The Apostle teacheth us That as in the Old Law none could intrude himself to exercise the Function of Priesthood without a successive Vocation so JESUS CHRIST intruded not himself into the Pontifical Dignity but received it from God his Father Then he treats of the Prayers accompanied with the Sighs and Tears JESUS CHRIST offered on the Cross and which God accepted in regard of his Dignity and the Love he bare towards him as his Son 2. The Apostle declares unto us the Excellency of CHRIST's Priesthood above that of Aaron's 1. Because being Immortal he was an Eternal Priest 2. Because he was the Son of God and one and the same God with his Father 3. In being the Beginning of our Salvation 4. In that he offered up himself 5. Because he needed not to have been offered up a Sacrifice for his own Sins he having none nor being able to commit any because he was the Source and Fountain of all Goodness NEither doth any man take the honor to himself but he that is called of God as Aaron So Christ also did not glorifie himself that he might be made a high priest But he that spake to him My Son art thou I this day have begotten thee As also in another place he saith Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedeck Who in the days of his flesh with a strong cry and tears offering prayers and supplications to him that could save him from death was heard for his reverence And truly whereas he was the Son he learned by those things which he suffered obedience And being consummate was made to all that obey him cause of eternal salvation called of God a high-priest according to the order of Melchisedeck RESP. The Church presents unto us the extremity of Christs sufferings and that by his Passion he has given us an example of perfect Patience and Obedience R. My eyes are darkned with my tears for he is far from me that did comfort me See all people if there be any sorrow like to my grief V. O all ye that pass by this way behold and see if there be any grief like to my grief My eyes are darkned with my tears because he is far from me who did comfort me See all ye people if there be any grief like mine AT LAUDS Ant. GOod spared not his own Son but delivered him for us Miserere mei Deus c. as before p. 65. PSALM 142. The Church shews us that in all our afflictions we must have recourse to Gods Mercy with an humble confidence and faithful submission to his Will and we must acknowledge that our Sins brought on us our Miseries and we must pray his Divine Majesty to conduct us with his Holy Spirit lest the extremity of our sufferings transport us to do unlawful Actions Ant. My spirit is in anguish upon me within me my heart is troubled LOrd hear my prayer with thine ears receive my petition in thy truth hear me in thy justice And enter not into judgment with thy servant because no man living shall be justified in thy sight Because the enemy hath persecuted my soul he hath humbled my life in the earth He hath set me in obscure places as the dead of the world and my spirit is in anguish upon me within me my heart is troubled I was mindful of old days I have meditated in all thy works in the facts of thy hands did I meditate I have stretched forth my hands to thee my soul is as earth without water unto thee Hear me quickly O Lord my spirit hath fainted Turn not away thy face from me and I shall be like to them that descend into the lake Make me hear thy mercy in the morning because I have hoped in thee Make the way known to me wherein I may walk because I have lifted up my soul to thee Deliver me from mine enemies O Lord to thee I have fled teach me to do thy will because thou art my God Thy good spirit will conduct me into the right way for thy name sake O Lord thou wilt quicken me in thine equity Thou wilt bring forth my soul out of tribulation and in thy mercy thou wilt destroy mine enemies And thou wilt destroy all that afflict my soul because I am thy servant Ant. My spirit is in anguish upon me within me my heart is troubled ANOTHER ANTHYMN The Church shews us the difference 'twixt Christ's and our Sufferings Ours