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
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
triumphant entry into Jerusalem which was a figure of his glorious Ascension to Heaven having vanquished the Devil and therefore the Church begins this Ceremony with the Canticle which the Hebrew Children sung on this day in honour of our Saviour where we are to observe that the Priest reads it with a low Voice without making the sign of the Cross to mind us that this Action preceded the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ HOsanna to the Son of David or save us we beseech thee O Son of David blessed is he who comes in the Name of our Lord O King of Israel Hosanna in the highest V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray The Faithful considering how God had opened the mouths of the Hebrew Children to sing a Canticle of Praise to the Honour of his Son Saviour of the World and how he had inspired the People of Jerusalem to go before him with Olive and Palm branches as a sign of those Graces he intended us by his Victory and Triumph over the World and the Devil beseech his Majesty to render us worthy of those Graces and that Salvation which he hath purchased for us by his victorious Death to the end we may reap the accomplishment thereof in eternal bliss by the vertue of his Resurrection O God whom it is justice to love multiply in us the Gists of thy ineffable Grace and as through the Death of thy Son thou hast made us hope for what we believe grant that we may arrive to Eternal Glory according to our desires through the resurrection of thy only Son who liveth and reigneth one God with thee in unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen The Lesson taken out of the 15th and 16th Chapter of Exodus The Church minds us that as the Israelites found refreshment in the desert under the shade of Palm-trees and in the Fountain of fresh Waters they murmured presently after against Moses their leader and notwithstanding God was pleased to surmount their ingratitude with his benefits by showring down Manna In like maner the Jews who would have found their salvation in the honour which they rendred this day to Jesus Christ if they had accompanied it with a lively faith did yet presently after conspire against him who nevertheless was pleased in his bounty to give them his own Body as Bread from Heaven for Food to their Souls which he soon after offered as a Sacrifice to God his Father to expiate the sins of men and heap upon them his Grace IN those days the Children of Israel came into Elim where there were twelve Fountains of Water and seventy Palm-trees and they camped beside the Waters And they set forward from Elim and all the multitude of the Children of Israel came into the desert Sin which is between Elim and Sinai the fifteenth day of the second Month after they came forth out of the land of Egypt And all the Assembly of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the Wilderness and the Children of Israel said to them Would to God we had died by the hand of our Lord in the land of Egypt when we sate over the Flesh-pots and did eat Bread our fill Why have you brought us into this desert that you may kill all the multitude with famine And our Lord said to Moses Behold I will rain you Bread from Heaven let the People go forth and gather that sufficeth for every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my Law or no. But the sixth day let them provide for to bring in and let it be double to that they were wont to gather every day And Moses and Aaron said to all the Children of Israel At Even you shall know that our Lord hath brought you forth out of the land of Egypt and in the Morning you shall see the glory of our Lord. The following Responsory is sung instead of the Gradual taken out of the Eleventh Chapter of St. John THe chief Priests therefore and Pharisees gathered a Council and said What do we for this Man doth many signs If we let him alone so all will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away our Place and Nation Vr. But one of them named Caiphas being the high Priest of that year said to them It is expedient for us that one man die for the people and the whole Nation perish not Therefore from that day they devised to kill him saying And the Romans c. Another Responsory taken out of the second Chaper of St. Matthew JEsus prayed unto his Father on Mount Olivet My Father if it be possible let this Chalice pass from me The spirit indeed is prompt but the flesh weak thy will be done Watch ye and pray that ye enter not tentation The spirit indeed is c. In the mean time the Deacon carries the Book of Gospels to the Altar to testifie that it contains the Word of God and presents Incense to the Priest to bless saying Reverend Father bless this Incense The Priest takes the Incense and putting into the Thurible blesseth it â—avowing by this Benediction that the Sacrifice of the Mass is offered to God alone humbly beseeching his Grace that his Prayers may ascend as this Incense towards him Be thou bless'd by him to whose honour thou shalt be burnt Then the Deacon upon his knees at the foot of the Altar prepares himself to receive commission from the Priest to publish the Gospel by this Prayer CLeanse O Almighty God my heart and lips who didst purifie with a fiery coal the lips of the Prophet Isaiah and vouchsafe so to purifie me for thy mercies sake that I may worthily declare thy holy Gospel Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. Amen Then taking the Book from the Altar he asks the Priest's Blessing Reverend Father bless me The Priest blesseth him OUr Lord be in thy heart and lips that thou mayest worthily publish his Gospel in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen The Deacon kisseth the Priest's hand to testifie that as in the Old Law a Seraphin did purifie the lips of the Prophet Isaiah with a coal of fire so in the New Law it is Jesus Christ represented by the Priest who purifies his mouth He goes to the place appointed for reading the Gospel with the Subdeacon Thurifer and two Acolyts who carry two Tapers lighted before him to signifie the Joy which the Faithful ought to have for this Great Blessing of the Light of Faith He turns towards the People that they may hear the Gospel the Subdeacon holding the Book before him to testifie that what he reads to the People is only what the Priest ordered him Before he reads the Gospel he beseeches God's blessing upon the Assembly to hear his Word worthily saying Our Lord be with you The Assembly reciprocally beseeching God to assist him with his Grace and that
Arch-angel the blessed S. John Baptist the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul all the Saints and you my Brethren to Pray to God for me R. ALmighty God have mercy upon thee and forgive thy sins and bring thee to life everlasting P. Amen I Confess unto Almighty God to the blessed Virgin S. Mary to the blessed S. Michael the Arch-angel to S. John Baptist to the Apostles Peter and Paul to all the Saints and to thee my Father that I have very much sinned in Thought Word and Deed through my Fault through my Fault through my most grievous Fault Therefore I beseech thee blessed Virgin S. Mary the blessed S. Michael the Arch-angel the blessed S. John Baptist Peter and Paul all the Saints and thee my Father to Pray to God for me P. ALmighty God have mercy on you forgive you your sins and bring you to life everlasting R. Amen P. ALmighty and merciful Lord grant us pardon absolution and remission of all our sins Amen This Confession being made the Priest and the Faithful encourage each other in the acknowledgement of God's mercy P. Thou being turned shalt quicken us O Lord. R. And thy people shall rejoyce in thee P. Shew us O Lord thy Mercy R. And give us thy Salvation P. O Lord hear my Prayer R. And let my cry come unto thee P. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit In this confidence the Priest ascends unto the Altar and says TAke away O Lord our Iniquities that so with a pure heart we may enter into the Holy of Holies Through Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest being at the Altar kisseth it in testimony of reconciliation with Christ and the Church triumphant for the Altar represents Christ crucified and the Reliques upon the Altar the Saints of the Church triumphant incorporated with Christ and says WE pray thee O Lord through the Merits of thy Saints whose Reliques are here and of all Saints that thou wilt please to pardon all my sins Amen After this preparation the Priest begins the Introit of the Mass THE MASS FOR Palm-Sunday The station in the Church of S. John Lateran As in the Old Law it was the custome to bring the Paschal Lamb into Jerusalem four days before the Feast so Jesus Christ of whom the Paschal Lamb was a figure was pleased to come into Jerusalem four days before the celebration of the Festival And therefore the Church representing this Mystery makes to day the station at Rome in the Church consecrated to God in honour of S. John Baptist because he declared unto us that our Saviour was the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the World The Introit taken out of the 21st Psalm As this Day 's Solemnity is a figure of the Victory which Christ gained over the World and the Devil by his Passion and Triumphant Resurrection the Church represents those Mysteries in the Introit of this Mass to teach us that the Resurrection of Christ in as much as it relates to his flesh was not delayed as that of other men but that he was exempted from corruption in the grave triumphing over death and the fury of his persecutors whom the Scriptures compare to Lions in respect of their cruelty to Dogs for their fury and to Unicorns for their pride For every proud and ambitious spirit would command all others as much as in him lies The wicked Jews thought they had done a grand work in that they were able to kill his Body yet had they not power to hurt his Soul they were able to take away a Mortal Life but could not prejudice his Eternal Life which is the onely and true Life and though as the Son of God he were worthy to be heard without Tears or Plaints yet to teach us our Duty by his example he would offer to God his Father most fervent Prayers with Tears and Crys beseeching him not to leave him dead in his grave The Dignity of his Condition the Reverence which he bore his Father whose Honour he repaired by his Death the incomparable Love wherewith his Father cherished him easily prevail for a concession of so just a Request O Lord prolong not thy help from me look towards my defence Save me out of the Lions mouth and my humility from horns of Unicorns PSALM XXI The Church represents unto us the Humility and Obedience wherewith Christ by a transport worthy his love would perfectly fulfil his Father's Will intimating unto us that the sins of men which he took upon him did require that he should be abandoned by his Father to all imaginable pains whereby to make rigorous satisfaction to his Justice yet that these words My God my God why hast thou forsaken me he speaks not in his own person but as in the unhappy infirmity of our flesh which he hath taken upon him and on the behalf of the members of his mystical body whose Groans and Prayers to his Father and himself he foresaw through a propension of humane nature desirous to be freed from Suffering and Death for who can believe our Saviour should desire to avoid Death and Sufferings since he came into the World to that end Or who can imagine he spake in such sort as if that which happened had been against his will who had power to give up his Soul to God and take it again though no man had power to bereave him of it These words then of this 21st Psalm are a figure of such Prayers as shall be addrest to God by men in their afflictions begging to be freed of them GOd my God have respect unto me why hast thou forsaken me far from my salvation are words of my sins O Lord prolong not thy help from me c. Gloria Patri c. is not now said because it is a publick Confession of Faith which the Church omits at this time when she represents the extreme impiety and infidelity of the Jews And Gloria in excelsis is for the same reason forborn The Priest in the name of the Faithful acknowledges the need we all have of the Grace of our Redeemer and repeats thrice the following words addrest to each Person of the Holy Trinity to express the great necessity we have of his assistance Lord have mercy on us R. Lord have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us R. Christ have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us R. Christ have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us R. Lord have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us The Priest turns towards the Faithful and beseeches God that he will be pleased to make them worthy of his presence and mercy V. Our Lord be with you The Faithful joyning Prayer with the Priest beg the like Grace for him R. And with thy Spirit The Collect. The Faithful beg of God Grace to imitate the Humility Obedience and Patience of Jesus Christ in all his Sufferings in this life that so they may partake with him in glory of his Resurrection
and from the servitude of sin THis saith our Lord Tell ye the Daughters of Sion Behold thy Saviour cometh behold his reward is with him and his work before him Who is this that cometh from Edom with died garments from Bosra this beautiful one in his Robe going in the multitude of his strength I that speak justice and am a desender to save Why then is thy clothing red and thy garments as theirs that tread in the Wine-press I have trodden the Press alone and of the Gentiles there is not a man with me I have trodden them in my fury and have trodden them down in my wrath and their bloud is sprinkled on my garments and I have stained all my raiment For the day of revenge is in my heart the year of my redemption is come I looked about and there was no helper I sought and there was none to aid and my arm hath saved and my indignation it self hath helped me And I have trodden down the people in my fury and have inebriated them in my indignation and have drawn their strength down to ground I will remember the mercies of our Lord the praise of our Lord for all things that our Lord hath rendred to us The GRADUAL out of the 68th Psalm The Church having represented our Saviour in the precedent Lesson triumphing over his enemies in his glorious Resurrection presents him unto us in this Gradual in the extremity of his Passion begging of his Father to be delivered from it To instruct us that he prays not for himself to be delivered from his pains and from death for how should he beg for himself to be freed from this hour wherein he should die for us since he came voluntarily upon Earth to that end being able by his own strength to rescue himself and give up his Soul to God and take it again But his Prayer was on our behalf to teach us in afflictions to have recourse to God to deliver us if it be his will or to give us strength to bear them patiently Likewise Jesus did not pray to be freed from his pains and death because he had a will to suffer but he askt to be delivered from the corruption of the Sepulchre by a speedy and glorious Resurrection To teach us by his Passion what we ought to contemn in the course of this life and by his resurrection what we ought to hope and pray for TUrn not away thy face from thy Servant Because I am in tribulation hear me speedily V. Save me O God because waters of affliction are entred into my Soul I stuck fast in the mire of the depth and there is no sure standing Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us pray The faithful beseech God that by the merits of his Son's Passion they may partake in the glory of his Resurrection O God who wert pleased that thy Son should suffer death for us upon the Cross that so the power of the enemy of mankind might be abated grant unto us thy servants that we may partake of his glorious Resurrection Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ c. Against the Persecutors of the Church Ecclesiae tuae c. as before pag. 84. Or for the Pope Deus omnium c. as before pag. 85. The Lesson out of the Prophet Isay ch 63. The Church teacheth us that the mystery of Gods Incarnation is so full of astonishment his Sufferings so outrageous and his Death so ignominious that the Prophet Isay durst not publish them lest men should not believe them After this Prophet hath foretold many of the torments to be endured by this man of God he teacheth us first that our sins were the cause of his sufferings by which he was to satisfie for us to his Fathers justice Secondly that he offered himself to these pains as a voluntary Victim for our salvation and would suffer death thereby to purchase life for us Thirdly that in compensation of this his humility and sufferings he is raised above all Creatures in Heaven sitting on the right hand of God his Father Fourthly that God his Father hath bestowed upon him all those for his children who are predestinated to glory as the precious off-spring of his bloud which he so freely shed that even he was pleased to wash those in it that put him to death according to the Prayer as he made even when he was nailed on the Cross between the two Thieves IN those days said Isaias Who hath believed our hearing and the arm of our Lord to whom is it revealed And he shall come up as a young Spring before him and as a Root from a thirsty ground There is no beauty in him nor comliness and we have seen him and there was no sightliness and we were desirous of him Despised and most abject of men a man of sorrows and knowing infirmity and his look as it were hid and despised whereupon neither have we esteemed him He surely hath born our infirmities and our sorrows he hath carried and we thought him as it were a Leper and strucken of God and humbled But he was wounded for our iniquities he was broken for our sins the discipline of our peace was upon him and with the wait of his stripes we are healed All we have strayed as Sheep every one hath declined into his own way and our Lord hath put upon him the iniquity of all us He was offered because himself would and opened not his mouth As a Sheep to slaughter was he led and as a Lamb before his Shearer he shall be dumb and shall not open his mouth From distress and from judgment he was taken up Who shall declare his Generation because he is cut out of the Land of the living For the wickedness of my people have I strucken him And he shall give the impious for his burial and the rich for his death Because he hath not done iniquity neither was their guile in his mouth And our Lord would break him in infirmity If he shall put away his Soul for sin he shall see seed of long age and the will of our Lord shall be directed in his hand for that his Soul hath laboured he shall see and be filled In his knowledge the same my just servant shall justifie many and he shall bear their iniquities Therefore will I distribute unto him very many and he shall divide the spoils of the strong for that he hath delivered his Soul unto death and was reputed with the wicked and he hath born the sin of many and hath prayed for the transgressiors The TRACT taken out of the 101st Psalm The Church tells us that Jesus Christ in the time of his Passion offered to God his Father most fervent Prayers with tears and groans beseeching him not to leave him under the power of death which he suffered onely for his love and for the salvation of the faithful signified by Sion His dignity his innocence this very act of
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
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
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
Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us R. This night without Sin V. Have mercy on us Lord. R. Have mercy on us V. Let thy mercy O Lord come on us R. Even as we have trusted in thee 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 VIsit we beseech thee O Lord this Habitation and repel far from it all Snares of the Enemy Let thy holy Angels dwell therein to preserve us in peace and thy Blessing be upon us for ever through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with thee liveth and Reigneth in the Unity of the Holy Ghost One God for ever and ever Amen V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit V. Let us bless our Lord. R. Thanks be to God THE BLESSING V. The Almighty and Merciful Lord the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost bless and keep us R. Amen THE ANTHYMN OF THE HOLY VIRGIN HAil Queen advanc'd to heavenly Reign Hail Lady of th' Angelick Train Hail Root hail Gate that did disclose The Light which to the World arose Virgin rejoyce whose Form divine All others Beauty do's out-shine Be ever bless'd thrice-beauteous Maid By thee let Christ be for us pray'd V. Vouchsafe that I praise thee O sacred Virgin R. Give me force against my Enemies Let us Pray GRant O merciful God defence unto our Frailty that we who make Commemoration of the Holy Mother of God may by the help of her Intercession arise from our Iniquities Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. R. Amen V. Let the Divine Help always remain with us R. Amen THE NIGHT-OFFICE ON WEDNESDAY IN Holy-Week FOR THVRSDAY at MATTINS ON this Day the Church represents unto us That Jesus Christ supped with his Apostles washed their Feet prayed in the Olive-Garden and that he was betrayed by Judas into the hands of the Jews These three following Days after having said Pater noster Ave Maria and Credo at Mattins and Prime without farther Ceremony they begin Mattins and Vespers with an Anthymn of the First Psalm and every Anthymn is repeated as on double Feasts Domine labia mea c. and Deus in Adjutorium are omitted to signifie that Jesus Christ was then abandoned by his Father to Torments and Death The Invitatory is likewise omitted Neither the Hymn nor Gloria Patri are said to shew us that the Honor due to the Blessed Trinity was violated by the excessive Wickedness and Infidelity of the Jews Fifteen Wax Tapers are lighted because there are recited two Canticles and thirteen Psalms in the Mattins and Laudes which are all sung under one and the same Anthymn Whereby are represented unto us the Light of the Faith which the Prophets in the Old Testament foretold unto the People And a Taper is extinguished at the end of each Psalm to declare that the Light of that Faith whereof the Prophets spoke unto the Jews was in them extinguished after they had crucified the Saviour of the World And at the end of the Canticle of Zachary the Father of St. John Baptist they put not out that Taper which represents Jesus Christ whom St. John Baptist declared to be the true Light of the World to shew that tho' Jesus Christ died according to his Humanity yet that he was always living according to his Divinity They also hide that Taper to signifie that the Divinity of Jesus Christ was hid under the Veil of his Humanity It likewise represents Jesus Christ in his Sepulcher Afterwards they shew the lighted Taper to represent his Resurrection AT THE FIRST NOCTVRN PSALM 68. That which the Royal Prophet foretold in this Psalm of the Mystery of the Passion of Jesus Christ the Church proposes unto us according to the Explication left us by the Apostles as well in the Book of their Acts and in their Epistles as in the Book of Gospels First She represents us with the Sufferings and Death of Jesus Christ which the Prophet compares to an overflowing of the Waters and to a Tempest and to a Wreck Secondly She presents us with the Prayer which our Saviour made to God his Father at the access of his Grief when in the condition of a Slave which our Infirmities occasion'd being in appearance forsaken of God his Father since in his Sufferings he denied him that which he desired through a propension of Humane Nature wherewith he was clothed drawing from the bottom of his Heart these Words full of Love and Piety My Father if it be possible let the Chalice of my Sufferances pass without my drinking it however thy will be done not mine That which he earnestly desired 't is that made his Innocency appear and that he voluntarily suffered those Pains for the Sins of Men and not for his own having never committed or been able to commit the least Sin And though his Passion seems ridiculous and is an Object of Scandal and Abomination in the judgment of the Jews and Gentiles yet the Faithful are not thereat troubled Thirdly The Church shews us that in this Psalm the Prophet foretells how our Saviour was to be betrayed by one of his Disciples and abandoned by his others and how many Outrages and Contempts the Jews would cast upon him Fourthly In this Psalm is declared the Zeal Jesus Christ had for the Honor of his Father his Resignation to his Father's Will his Submission to his Conduct and his Contempt of his own proper Interest For so the Apostle St. Paul in the fifteenth Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans explicates one part of this Psalm Fifthly According to St. Luke in the first Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and of St. Paul in the second Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans in this Psalm is described the Punishment which was prepared for the Traytor Judas and the other Persecutors of Jesus Christ wherewith this adorable Saviour threatens them not through any Hate or Revenge but through the Zeal of God's Justice considering the Reprobation of those Wretches in the Decrees of his Providence Sixthly We are instructed in this Psalm That Jesus Christ having by his Death repaired the Honor of God his Father he was also to rise again and build his Church which through Sin was lost and establish his Faithful in the possession of the Heavenly Inheritance signified by Jerusalem and lost by Sin Establishing on Earth a more agreeable Sacrifice than that of Calves which was offer'd him in the Old Law to wit the Sacrifice of his own Body and Blood Ant. The zeal of thy house hath eaten me and the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me SAve me O God because waters are entred into my Soul I stick fast in the mire of the depth and there is no sure standing I am come into the depth of the sea and a tempest hath overwhelmed me I have laboured crying my jaws are made hoarse my eyes have failed whilst I hope
of the Devil and his bad Angels Conversion we may despair of for Holy Writ shews us that they are destined to eternal Torments and Flames and against whom we sustain an invisible Conflict to which the Apostle encourageth us and arms us saying Our Combate is not against Flesh and Blood that is against Men whom we see but against the Princes Potentates and Rulers of the Darkness of this World lest when he had said of the World we should think that the Devils were the Rulers of Heaven and Earth He says not simply against the Princes and Powers of this World but adds which reign in Darkness By the World he means those that love the World by the World he means the Impious and Wicked He means by the World that World of which the Gospel speaks The World knew him not The Church shews us what Testimonies of Friendship Christ gave unto Judas even whilst he was compleating the Treason against him R. Judas a most wicked Merchant kissed our Lord and he as an innocent Lamb refused not the Kiss to Judas He delivered Christ unto the Jews for a few Pence V. It had been better he had never been born for some Pence he delivered Christ unto the Jews VI. LESSON The Church represents unto us the Good which Christ drew from the Wickedness and Cruelty of the Jews raising his Throne of Mercy on the Instruments of his Death FOr I have seen Iniquity and Strife in the City Behold the Glory of his Cross That Cross which was the Object of his Enemies Scorn is now placed on the Foreheads of Kings His Power appeared by the Effects for he governed the World not with Steel but Wood. The Wood of the Cross which seemed to his Enemies only to be worthy of their Scorn when before it they wagg'd their Heads saying If he be the Son of God let him come down from the Cross And he stretch'd forth his Hands to an unbelieving and factious People If therefore he be just that lives by Faith he that wants it is wicked Wherefore by Iniquity is understood Infidelity Our Lord therefore seeing the Iniquity and Disobedience which then reigned in the City stretched forth his Hands to the faithless and mutinous People and expecting them he said Father forgive them for they know not what they do The Church having here shewed us with what an excess of Love Jesus Christ prayed unto God his Father for the Conversion and Salvation of his Persecutors She likewise declares his Charity and Goodness by endeavouring to withdraw Judas from his Wickedness by shewing him his Goodness in admitting him to sit at his Table and permitting him to put his Hand with him into the Dish although he knew of his Design to betray him and represented unto him the Unhappiness he was ready to fall into Whereby 't is evident Judas cannot attribute his Damnation to any thing but his own Malice and Infidelity R. One of my Disciples shall this day betray me but wo unto him by whom I shall be betrayed It were better for him he had not been born V. He that dippeth his hand with me in the Dish he shall deliver me up into the hands of sinners It were better for him he had not been born R. One of my Disciples c. THIRD NOCTVRN PSALM 74. The Church represents unto us That with a firm Belief and true Acknowledgment we are to expect the Effects of Gods Promises in the Calamities and Traverses of this Life which Christ hath confirmed unto us not only by the sacred Oracle of his Blessed Mouth but also by the holy Mystery of his bitter Passion and glorious Resurrection Shewing us by his bitter Passion the Hardships we are to undergo in this Life and by his glorious Resurrection what we are to hope for in the next The Church also tells the Wicked how much they are to dread and apprehend the severe Judgment of God who leaves no Ill unpunish'd and prepares eternal Flames for such as die in their Iniquities which the Royal Prophet compares to a Chalice of Wine mixt with Bitterness She also exhorts us to repent and acknowledge that even the temporal Goods which they enjoy in this World are only from the Bounty of God and not the Effects of Fortune or their Industry and that they are only given to Man as conducing to his Salvation Ant. I said to the wicked Speak not iniquity against God WE will confess to thee G God we will confess and will invocate thy name We will tell thy marveilous works when I shall take a time I will judge justices The earth is melted and all that dwell in it I have confirmed the pillars thereof I said to the wicked Do not wickedly and to them that offend Exalt not the horn Exalt not your horn on high speak not iniquity against God For neither from the east nor from the west nor from the desert mountains because God is judge This man he humbleth and him he exalteth because there is a cup in the hand of our Lord of mere wine full of mixture And he hath poured it out of this into that but yet the dregs thereof are not emptied all the sinners of the earth shall drink But I will shew forth for ever I will sing to the God of Jacob. And I will break all the horns of sinners and the horns of the just shall be exalted Ant. I said to the wicked Speak not iniquity against God PSALM 75. The Church admonisheth the Faithful who are represented by the People of Israel to thank God for calling them to the Knowledge and Profession of his Holy Name by his Son our Lord Jesus Christ who reconciled us to his Father uniting us by the Tie of Charity that we might not be at variance with any but in peace with every one and who enlightens us from his Throne on high with the Light of his Grace to make us contemn the transitory and perishable Goods of this World which the Wicked enjoy as it were only in a Dream and which vanish at the Hour of Death The Church represents this Divine Saviour triumphing over the Wicked and proposes unto us the Rigor of his Justice at his last coming when he shall judge the Living and the Dead with so great a Majesty and such irresistible Power that even all the Heavens and Elements shall quake and tremble to the end that the Terror of the Threats of this Last Judgment might not only stop and prevent the Boldness and Rashness of Sinners and secure the Innocency of the Just even in the midst of the Wicked but also that the Wicked fearing the Torments wherewith God in his Justice punishes Offences might at the same time when they dread Chastisement be restrained from sinning and by an internal Motion be excited to invoke the Goodness of God which changes their Spirit and by an admirable Effect of his Grace cures the Corruption and Malice of their Will and transports them not only
Sufferings this Divine Saviour was to undergo to satisfie the Rigor of the Justice of his Father and that for the Sins of Man wherewith he had loaded himself Then having described his Burial he proposes to us the Prayer he was to offer to his Eternal Father to demand of him his Resurrection not only for himself for being equal with his Father he had no need of Prayers that he might not be left in the Power of Death who alone was free among the Dead and had power to leave his Soul and take her again but for us that he might make us Partners with him of his New Life and give us an Example of perfect Patience and Submission to the Will of God Then he shews us the Advantage we receive by the Resurrection of our Saviour making us acknowledge that our Faith had been fruitless if it had remained in the Sepulcher for then our Sins had not been taken away Death is the Effect of Sin so that if our Saviour had not conquered Death it might have been said he had not triumphed over Sin Ant. Thou hast made my familiars far from me I was delivered and came not forth O Lord the God of my salvation in the day have I cried and in the night before thee Let my prayer enter in thy sight incline thine ear to my petition Because my soul is replenished with evils and my life hath approached to hell I am accounted with them that descend into the lake I am become as a man without help free among the dead As the wounded sleeping in the sepulchers of whom thou art mindful no more and they are cast off from thy hand They have put me in the lower lake in the dark places and in the shadow of death Thy fury is confirmed upon me and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me Thou hast made my familiars far from me they have put me abomination to themselves I was delivered and came not forth mine eyes languished for poverty I cried to thee O Lord all the day I stretched out my hands to thee Wilt thou do merveils to the dead or shall physicians raise to life and they confess to thee Shall any in the sepulcher declare thy mercy and thy truth in perdition Shall thy merveilous works be known in darkness and thy justice in the land of oblivion And I O Lord have cried to thee and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Why dost thou O Lord reject my prayer turnest away thy face from me I am poor and in labors from my youth and being exalted humbled and troubled Thy wraths have passed upon me and thy terrors have troubled me They have compassed me as water all the day they compassed me together Thou hast made friend and neighbor far from me and my familiars because of misery Ant. Thou hast made my familiars far from me I was delivered and came not forth PSALM 93. In this Psalm we are taught neither to repine at the Prosperity of the Bad nor to be troubled at the Afflictions of the Just for God being Omnipotent and Sovereignly Good being the Creator and chief Master of all things would suffer no Ill in his Works were he not sufficiently Powerful and Good to extract some Good even from Evil it self He has thought fit that 't is better to draw Good from Bad than not to permit Evil. Wherefore since we can no more doubt of his Power than Bounty we must patiently support all Ills that befal us and believe that the Will of God is more beneficial for us than our own Will or Desires can be Let us then consider the Assistance he gives his faithful Servants and the Rewards he promises unto them and let us regard the Torments he prepares for the Wicked Ant. They will hunt after the soul of the just and will condemn innocent blood OUr Lord God of revenges the God of revenges hath done freely Be exalted thou that judgest the earth render retribution to the proud How long shall sinners O Lord how long shall sinners glory Shall they utter and speak iniquity shall all they speak that work injustice Thy people O Lord they have humbled and thine inheritance they have vexed The widow and the stranger they have slain and the pupils they have killed And they have said The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob understand Understand ye foolish in the people and ye fools be wise at sometime He that planted the ear shall he not hear or he that made the eye doth he not consider He that chastiseth nations shall he not rebuke he that teacheth man knowledge Our Lord knoweth the cogitations of men that they be vain Blessed is the man whom thou shalt instruct O Lord and shalt teach out of thy law That thou mayst give him quietness from the evil days till a pit be digged for the sinner Because our Lord will not reject his people and his inheritance he will not forsake Until justice be turned into judgment and they who are near it are all that are right of heart Who shall rise for me against the malignant or who shall stand with me against them that work iniquity But that our Lord hath holpen me within very little my soul had dwelt in hell If I said My foot is moved thy mercy O Lord did help me According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart thy consolations have made my soul joyful Doth the seat of iniquity cleave to thee which makest labor in precept They will hunt after the soul of the just and will condemn innocent blood And our Lord became my refuge and my God the help of my hope And he will repay them their iniquity and in their malice he will destroy them the Lord our God will destroy them Ant. They will hunt after the soul of the just and will condemn innocent blood VERSICLE taken out of Psalm 108. The Church having presented unto us in the precedent Psalm she Comfort we receive in our Sufferings by considering the Power and Goodness of God who created us preserves and assists us with his holy Protection She admonisheth us in these following Versicles to consider the great Love God had for us since he delivered his only Son to death for our Salvation So that by the Example of his Son our Saviour we might be more powerfully fortified in the Persecutions and Miseries of this Life V. They have spoken against me with deceitful tongue R. And with words of hatred they have compassed me and they have impugned me without cause VII LESSON Out of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews chap. 4. The Church teacheth us That the Reason why the Son of God would become Man and bear all our Infirmities even to die for us was that thereby he might open the Heavens to us and so enable us to enter into the Repose of eternal Tranquillity And to enjoy so great a Benefit we must live conformably