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A69499 Devotions in the ancient way of offices with psalms, hymns, and prayers for every day in the week and every holiday in the year. Birchley, William, 1613-1669. 1668 (1668) Wing A4248A; ESTC R8861 220,254 576

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he shines out clear to the Blessed alone and the beams of his glory strike bright upon their faces Yet have his mercys to us far more of miracle far more of care and tender Providence VVhile he not only is pleas'd to be among us but condescends to become even one with us VVhile he not only is our God to go before us but our very food to enter into us O souls redeem'd by the Blood of JESUS and nourisht with the flesh of his sacred Body Why melt you not away into tears of joy for being so regarded by the King of heav'n Why not at least dissolve into tears of sorrow for so litle regarding him Who will not tremble with an amorous reverence * that stands in the sight of so great a Majesty Who can forbear to be transported with joy that thinks I 'm going to receive my God! Who can contain the overflowings of his hart while his brest can say here I have my God! My great and glorious God who meerly out of love * thus gives me Himself in pledg of my salvation O infinite sweetnes how good is it for us to be here and behold our Lord transfigur'd before us Here let us make a thousand Tabernacles one O my JESU for Thee and one for each of us That in our litle tents we may dwel about thee and sing and bow and rejoyce before thee What should the captive wish but liberty and the weary Pilgrim but to be at rest What should the sick desire but helth and what can I but to be with my God But stay am I drest like a friend of the Bridegroom * that I safely may come to this Marriage Supper Have I consider'd how chast those eys should be * which go to behold the God of purity Have I consider'd how clean that mouth should be * which presumes to eat the Bread of heav'n But most how all-celestial that soul should be * which aspires to an union with the Body of our Lord Look look my hart look well into thy self and strictly search every Corner of thy brest Alas how poor and dull and empty are we how infinitely unworthy so divine a Sacrament Yet are we cal'd by Him that can command by Him that sees and pitys our misery He bids us come he surely will receive us and with his bounteous fulnes supply our defects Go then my soul go to that sacred Table and take thy part of that delicious Banquet Go all inflam'd with love and joy and hope and quench thy holy thirst at that Spring of Blyss When thou hast tasted the sweetnes of thy God and feel'st his heav'nly streams flow gently on thee Open thy happy brest and suck those waters in and let them freely run over all thy powers Let them soak deep to the root of thy hart and turn thy barren heath into a fruitful land Fruitful in holy thoughts and pious words fruitful in good and just and charitable deeds Fruitful to thy self in thine own improvement fruitful to others in thy good example No more ingratitude to so gracious a God no more neglect of so glorious a Majesty Away false pleasures sin and vanity for the God of holines hath touch't my hart He has himself gone in and taken full possession and seal'd it up for his own service Glory be c. Antiph This is the greatest charity that God himself can bestow since God can bestow nothing greater then himself Capit. 1 Cor. 13. IF I speak with the tongues of men and Angels and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinckling Cymbal and if I should have Prophecy and understand all mysteryes and all knowledg and if I should have all fayth so that I should remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing Charity is patient is benigne Charity envyes not deals not perversly is not puft up is not ambitious seeks not her own is not provok't to anger thinks not evil rejoyces not upon iniquity but rejoyces with the truth suffers all things beleevs all things hopes all things bears all things Charity never fayls but whether Prophesyes they shal be made void or tongues they shall cease or knowledg it shal be destroy'd for we know in part and Prophecy in part but when that which is perfect shal come that which is in part shal be made void When I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things Now we see darkly through a glass but then face to face now I know in part but then I shal know even as I am known and now there remain faith hope charity these three but the greatest of these is Charity Hymn XIX DO I resolve an easy life Stor'd with plenty free from strife When dear Lord thy days and nights Pass'd in poverty and fights Do I design a gentle death Singing out my aged breath When my Saviour tortures tore Thy dear soul out drown'd in gore O dread dayly Sacrifice Acting in a sweet disguise JESUS Passions o're again Such undue conceits restrain Keep stil lively in my mind How I ought to be resign'd How this Pattern ought destroy All my sensual greif or joy Are suffrings Ills no goodness chose His and our way to blyss through those Are pleasures Goods no wisdom scorn'd Their daliance and us forewarn'd This this make my Ditty be At least whenever Thee I see Thee it's ground so oft repeating To prevent my souls forgetting JESU thus arm'd no terrors shall Make my vertuous courage fall No flatterys here my blest hope drown Since thy Cross led to thy Crown Live for ever glorious Lord Live by heav'n and earth ador'd May both their praises give They who see we who beleeve Amen Antiph Thou art ascended our glorious Redeemer to prepare a place for us yet continuest stil here our gracious Emmanuel to prepare us for it V. 'T is thy delight O Lord to be with the children of men R. O make it ours to be with the God of heav'n O Lord hear our prayers And let our supplications come to Thee Let us Pray O God who seeing the dulnes of our spirits need so often fresh impulses of sense hast wonderfully contriv'd our alone saving Object thy sacrific'd Son continually to solicite our harts by his own dear Presence stil really among us Reclaim we humbly beseech Thee all our wandring affections with this miracle of goodnes and compose them into such a diligent and devout attendance on our graciously veild JESUS that we may dayly feed our adoration and love of Him and dayly grow in our desires of seeing eternally his glorious Face who with Thee and the holy Ghost lives and reigns One God world without end Amen O Lord hear as Pag. 45. Thursday Complin OUr help c. as Pag. 46. Antiph What could'st thou say dear Lord more sweet then this Thy delight is to be with the Children of
of Kings the great ones of the world * an Heroick spirit to advance thy glory Enflame the harts of Prelats and the Preists of thy Church * with a generous Zeal of Conversion of souls Convince them all 't is the end and duty of their place * to improve mankind in vertue and Religion One mercy more we humbly beg which O may thy Providence favorably supply Prepare O Lord the harts of those that err * and make them apt to receive the truth Then chuse thy burning and thy shining lights and send them forth over all the world Send them O God of infinite Charity but send them not alone * lest they faint by the way or miscarry in the end Go with them Thy self guide them by thy grace and crown their labors with thy powerfull blessing So shall the humble vallyes be rais'd up and the stubborn mountains be brought low So shal the crooked paths be made direct and the rough ways smooth and plain So shal the glory of God be every where reveal'd and all flesh see it together Happy the times when this shal come to pass happy the eys that shal see these times Come glorious days wherin that Sun shal shine * which inlightens all at once both the hemisphears Come holy JESU and make those glorious days and let no cloud o'recast them for ever Come and in the largest sense maintain thy Title Be effectively the Saviour of the universal world Glory be c. Antiph To Thee O Lord we look up for salvation have mercy on the works of thine own hands Capit. Tytus 2. THe grace of God our Saviour has appeared to all men instructing us that denying all iniquity and wordly desires we should live soberly justly and piously in this present world expecting the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of our great God and Saviour JESUS Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself an acceptable people zealous of good works Hymn XXXI JESU whose grace inspires thy Priests To keep alive by solemn feasts The Mem'ory of thy love O may we here so pass thy days That they at last our souls may raise To feast with Thee above JESU behold three Kings from far Led to thy Cradle by a star Bring gifts to Thee their King O guide us by thy light that we May find thy lov'd face and to thee Our selvs for tribute bring JESU the pure and spotles Lamb Who to the Temple humbly came Those legal Rights to pay O make our proud and stubborn will Thine and thy Churches laws fulfil Whate're fond nature say JESU who on that fatal wood Pour'dst forth thy life's last drop of blood Nail'd to a shameful cross O may we bless thy love and be Ready dear Lord to bear for Thee All grief all pain all loss JESU who by thine own love slain By thine own pow'r took'st life again And from the grave did'st rise O may thy death our spirits revive And at our death a new life give A life that never dyes JESU who to thy heav'n again Return'dst in triumph there to reign Of men and Angels King O may our parting souls take flight Up to that land of joy and light And there for ever sing All glory to the sacred Three One undivided Deity All honour pow'r and praise O may thy blessed name shine bright Crown'd with those beams of beauteous light It s own eternal rays Here recite the Antiphon for Magn. with the Canticle Magnificat and the Prayer after it as in the Proper of our Saviours Feasts But if you voluntarily say this Office on any day that is not some Feast of our Saviour then use the Antiphon and Prayer following Antiph Come all you Nations of the earth whom the mercy of our Lord has so dearly redeem'd Come and in honour of the divine Son sing the Canticle of the Blessed Mother alleluia Magnificat as Pag. 44. O Lord hear our Prayer And let our Supplications come to Thee Let us pray O Holy and ever-blessed JESU who being the eternal Son of God and most high in the glory of thy Father vouchsafed'st for us sinners to be born of an humble Virgin to be subject to the weaknesses of a litle child to grow up in a life of privacy and labour to declare thy self at last the Redeemer of the world by establishing a perfect law of grace and confirming it with innumerable miracles and suffering for it intollerable persecutions even to death it self Work in us we humbly beseech thee the happy effects of all these mercys that beleeving in thee we may imitate thy life and obeying thy commands injoy thy promises who with the Father and the holy Ghost livest and reignest one God world without end Amen Commemorations as Page 29. O Lord hear our Prayers as Page 29. Complin for our B. Saviour OUr help is in as Pag. 46. Antiph Whither O my God should we go but to Thee Thou hast the words of eternal life Psal CII REtire now my soul from thy Common thoughts * permitted to entertain thy less serious hours Retire and call thy wandring fancys home and speedily range them into peace and order That thou mayst so be prepar'd to hear thy Lord * invite thee among the rest to tast his sweetnes Come to me you that labour and are opprest and I will refresh you Take up my yoke and learn of me for I am meek and humble of hart and you shal find rest to your souls For my yoak is sweet and my burthen light Enough dear Lord enough is said * to draw all the world to thy holy Discipline What can be offer'd so agreable to our nature * too much alas inclin'd to pleasure and profit What can be offer'd so powerfully attractive as to make our work delightful and then reward it As to propose an employment like the musick of Churches devout and sweet and gainful to the performers Whither O my God should we go but to thee Thou hast the words of eternal life Thou art our wisest Instructer to know what to do and only Enabler to do what we know Thou art the free Bestower of all we have and faithful Promiser of all we hope Thou kindly calst us O make us gladly hear thy voice * and constantly follow it till we come to Thee Suffer us no longer to go astray like lost sheep wandring up and down in our own by-ways Suffer us no longer to be distracted among many things * from thee O Lord who art but One But gather us up from the world into our selvs then take us from our selvs into Thee There to be ravisht with thy holy embraces there to be feasted with the Antepasts of heav'n O how unspeakable are thy sweetnesses O Lord which thou hast hid for those who fear Thee Which thou hast partly reveal'd to those who love Thee * and keep their tasts uncorrupted with the world
made the light his Garment and commanded the Clouds to be the chariot of his triumph The gates of heaven obey'd their Lord and the everlasting doors opened to the King of glory Enter bright King attended with thy beauteous Angels and the glad train of thy new deliver'd Captives Enter and repossess thy antient Throne and reign eternally at the right hand of thy Father May every knee bow low to thy exalted Name and every tongue confess thy glory May all created nature adore thy Power and the Church of thy Redeem'd exult in thy goodnes Whom have we in heav'n O Lord but Thee who expresly wentst thither to make way for thy followers What have we on earth but our hope by following Thee * to arrive at last where Thou art gon before us O glorious JESU our strength our Joy and the immortal life of all our Souls Be Thou the principal subject of our studyes and dayly entertainment of our most serious thoughts Draw us O dearest Lord from the World and our selvs that we be not entangled with any earthly desires Draw us after Thee and the odours of thy sweetnes that we may run with delight the ways of thy Commands Draw us up to Thee on thy Throne of blyss that we may see thy face and rejoyce with Thee for ever in thy Kingdom Glory be c. Psal VII WHy should our harts stil dwel upon earth since the treasure of our harts is return'd to heav'n Since our glorify'd Jesus is ascended above to prepare us a place in his own Kingdom A place of rest and secure peace where we shal see and praise and adore Him for ever A place of joy and everlasting fruition where we shal love and possess and delight in Him for ever O happy we and our poor souls if once admited to that blisful Vision If once those heav'nly portals unfold their gates and let us in to the joys of our Lord How wil our spirits be ravisht within themselvs to reflect on the fulness of their own beatitude How shal we all rejoyce in one anothers felicity but infinitely more in the infinitely greater felicity of God! O heav'n towards thee we lift up our languishing heads and with stretcht-out hands reach at thy gloryes When O Thou Finisher of all our hopes when shal we once behold that incomparable light That light which illuminates the eys of Angels and renews the youth of Saints That light which is thy very self O Lord our God! whom we shal there see face to face Whom we shal there know as we are known we shal know thee in thine own clear light O light shine thou perpetually in our eys that thy brightnes may darken the false lustre of this world O Light shed thou thy flames in our harts that thy heat may consume all other desires That we may burn continually with the chast love of thee til thine own bright day appear Til we be cal'd from this vale of darknes into the glorious presence of the living God To see Him that made the heav'ns and the earth and disposes all creatures in so beauteous order To see him that first gave us our being then govern'd us in our way * and brought us at length to so blest an end Meanwhile O gracious Lord the Crown of all thy Saints and only expectation of thy faithful servants Make us entertain our life with the comfort of this hope and our hope with the assurance of thy promises Make us still every day more perfectly understand * our own great duty thy infinite love Make us continually meditate the advancement of Thy glory and invite all the World to sing thy praises Praise our Lord O you holy Angels Praise him O you happy Saints Praise him O you Faithful departed in his grace Praise him O you Living who subsist by his mercy Praise him in the vast immensity of his power Praise him in the admirable wisdom of his Providence Praise him in the blest effects of his goodnes Praise him in the infinitenes of all his Attributes Praise thy Eternal Self O glorious God! and to all the felicities Thou essentially possessest may every creature say Amen Glory be Antiph O how adorable are thy Counsels O Lord how strangely endearing the ways of thy love Alleluia Capit. 1 Pet. 1. Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord JESUS Christ who according to his great mercy has regenerated us to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and pure and which cannot fade conserv'd for you in the heav'ns Hymn II. VVAke my Soul rise from this Bed Of dull and slugish earth Quickly rise lift up thy head And see thy Lords new birth Once He cam O blessed He Born of a Virgin-Womb Now He comes both times for thee Sprung from a Virgin tomb Lo he rises fresh and bright Incircled round with Stars Which from Him take all their light And from his glorious Scars Stil as He his progress makes Up to his heav'n again Each blest Saint his musick takes And follows in his train Thus together They ascend Til at heav'n gates they come Where the Angels all attend To bid them welcome home Soon they know again their King Soon they his Call obey All the Quires come forth to sing And crown with mirth the Day Come my soul let us rejoyce Let us our Concert bring Up to heav'n le ts lift our voice And with the Angels sing Glory honor pow'r and praise To the mysterious Three As at first begining was May now and ever be Antiph Why seek you the Living among the the Dead He is risen He is not here He is gloriously ascended and the heav'ns have receiv'd Him Alleluia Alleluia Benedictus BLessed be our Lord the God of Israel for he has visited and redeem'd his People And rais'd up a Kingdom of Salvation to us in the house of David his Servant As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets who have been since the world began Salvation from our Enemies and from the hands of all that hate us To shew mercy to our Fathers and to remember his holy Testament The Oath which he sware to Abraham our Father that he would give us Himself That being deliver'd from the hand of our enemys we may serve him without fear In holines and Justice before him * all the days of our life 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 Knowledg of salvation to his people for remission of their sins Through the tender mercy of our God wherby the Day-spring from on High has visited us To give light to them that sit in darknes and in the shadow of death to direct our feet into the way of Peace Glory be c. Antiph Why seek you the Living among the dead He is risen He is not here He is gloriously ascended and
the Heavens have received Him Alleluja Alleluja O Lord hear our prayers And let our supplications come to thee Let us Pray O God who hast glorify'd our Victorious Saviour with a visibly triumphant Resurrection from the dead and Ascension into Heaven where he sits at thy right hand the Worlds supream Governour and final Judg Grant we humbly beseech thee his Triumphs and Glorys may ever shine in our eyes to make us more clearly and couragiously look thorow his sufferings and assure by his Example our hopes on his promises that if by thy grace we endeavour to live and dye like Him purely for the advance of thy love in our selvs and others Thou wilt raise again our bodies too and conforming them to his glorious body call us up above the clouds and give us possession of thy everlasting Kingdom Through the same our Lord JESUS CHRIST thy Son who with thee and the Holy Ghost lives and reigns One God world without end Amen COMMEMORATIONS For the B. Virgin Antiph And the King sate on his Throne and a Throne was plac'd for the Kings Mother and She sate on his right hand And the King said to her ask on my Mother for I will not deny thee V. Ask thou all Blessings for us O Blessed among Women R. Of thy wombs Blessed Fruit our Lord JESUS O God who hast endow'd the ever Blessed Virgin MARY with all the graces on earth and all the gloryes in heaven worthy the Mother of thy son the Worlds great Redeemer Grant we beseech thee that as we praise and magnifie thy Name for so highly exalting the lowliness of thy Handmaid we may be encourag'd by the confidence of her intercession to hope still more in thy mercy both for pardon of our sins and conduct of our lives and joyful reception into thy everlasting Kingdom through the same our Lord JESUS CHRIST thy Son who with thee and the Holy Ghost lives and reigns One God world without end Amen For the Saints Antiph They seem in the eys of the foolish dead to themselves and all the world but they rest with God in immortal peace and exercise towards us a far greater charity V. Hear thou O Lord their Prayers for us in Heaven R. Who on Earth have taught us to pray O Eternal Father whose holy Spirit by thy blessed Apostles has planted in the world the saving Doctrine of thy Son and water'd it with so much sweat blood of Them and their Followers that it has o'respread the earth and born much fruit to heav'n Most thankfully we praise Thee for the gracious Lives and Deaths of all thy Saints here and the glorious Crowns with which they are rewarded in thy Kingdom where we humbly beseech Thee accept their intercession for us siners applying so home to our harts their Memorys and Merits that we too by thy grace may in some measure live and dy like Them and be crown'd at length with the same blisful rewards through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with Thee and the holy Ghost lives and reigns One God world without end Amen For the Church Antiph Let us in all things grow in Him who is our head Christ from whom the whole body being compact and knit together by every joynt of subministration increases to the edifying it self in charity V. We all are Members of the same Body R. Let us serve and love and pray for one another O God who gatherest thy Flock out of all Nations into the saving Fold of one Catholik Church where thy Providence has ordain'd Bishops and Pastors immediately to feed thy Sheep and Lambs and one Supreme Governour to secure Unity among the rest Bless we beseech thee thy Servant N. who at present sits in the known Chair of St. Peter with all the graces necessary to that highest Office on earth Bless all Bishops and their Clergy with courage and skil and fatherly care to edify and guard their several Charges Bless all the Faithful with a filial love and due obedience to their Superiours that the clearnes of truth and beauty of holines dayly increasing in thy Church through every ones devout pursuance of their dutys all Heresies and Schisms may at length vanish among Christians and all Pagans and Jews be happily won into her sacred bosom the sole Ark of Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with Thee and the Holy Ghost lives and reigns one God world without end Amen For the King Antiph Be subject to all in Autority to the King as most excellent and to the Rulers as sent by Him for punishment of the Bad and reward of the Good Be subject for so is the Will of God that by doing well you may stop the mouths of the ignorant and malicious V. Be subject not only for fear R. But for Conscience sake O God by whom alone Kings reign and all kinds and degrees of lawful Magistracy are substituted to provide for the publik Peace among such infinite varieties of humours and interests and by restraining private injurys to remove the impediments of true Charity that so the whole State and each Member may be built up together to their greatest fitness for thy heav'nly Kingdom Preserve we humbly beseech thee and govern by thy grace our Soveraign Lord King Charles endow his royal Person with Wisdom and Courage and all qualities befitting his weighty Office Bless him with fidedelity and diligence in his Ministers and with reverence and obedience in all his Subject that the sword of Justice in his Hand may establish us in peace and plenty to our freer improvement under the Discipline of true vertue and the higher exalting his own Crown in the Kingdom of Eternity through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with Thee and the Holy Ghost lives and reigns one God world without end Amen O Lord hear our Prayers And let our Supplications come to Thee Bless we our Lord. Thanks be to God May the Souls of the Faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace Amen Pause and meditate a while according to your devotion Then say The Blessing of God Almighty Father Son and holy Ghost descend upon us and dwell in our harts for ever Amen Pause a while then rise And so ends the Morning Office These four Conmemorations are said every day at the end of Lauds Sunday Vespers IN the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Amen Blessed be the holy and undivided Trinity now and for ever Amen Our Father Hail Mary O God incline unto our aid O Lord make hast to help us Glory be to As it was Alleluja Antiph Glorious things are said of Thee thou 〈◊〉 City of the King of Heav'n Alleluja Psal VIII LEt them O Lord seek other delights who expect no felicity from thee Let them fill up their time with other imployments who think thy rewards not worth their labour As for thy servants our chief content shall be to meditate
their birth and the unfortunate companions that inveagled them to sin They shall curse this vain deceitful world and cry out with a desperate enraged fury Are these the effects of those found desires whose enjoyment we made our chief felicity Alas what avail us now our wanton liberties aud the fugitive pleasures we so eagerly persu'd What comfort receive we from those empty honours * and faithles riches we so highly esteem'd They all are vanisht away like a shadow and as a cloud of smoke that 's scater'd with the wind But the remorse and punishment endure for ever and torture our spirits with perpetual anguish Thus shal they cry and none regard to hear them thus shal they mourn and none be found to pity them O sad expectance of a dissolute life O dreadful consequence of an impenitent death Eternally to long for what they never can enjoy eternally to suffer what they never can avoid Blessed be thy gracious Providence O God that with such tender care forewarns us of our dangers O save us too dear Lord from all those dangers save us for thy mercys sake Save us and make us fearful to do * what when we have done will make us miserable to suffer Quicken our apprehensions of the ruinous effects of Sin and with thy terrible threatnings check our unbridled passions That if thy glorious promises move not our harts the fear at least of hell may fright us into heav'n Glory be c. Antiph The day will come it will infallibly come when God will destroy all that work iniquity Antiph The day will come it will infallibly come when God will Crown all that love his glory Psal XLII VVHy do you mourn you children of the light to whom belong the promises of Blyss Who feed on the pleasant fruits of piety and the continual feast of a good conscience Who tast already the sweetnes of hope and herafter shal be satisfied with the fulnes of fruition What can molest your happy state whom the God of Glory has chosen for himself Whom he has adopted into his own Family and design'd for heirs of the Kingdom of heaven That Blessed Kingdom where all delights abound and sorrow and tears are banisht away Where none are sick or grow old or dy but flourish in health and youth and immortal life Where none are perplext with cares or fears but dwel secure and free for ever Where we no more shal be subject to chance no more expos'd to the danger of tentation Where we no more shal be crost by others no more disquieted by our own passions But a serene tranquillity perpetually within us and innumerable joys all round about us Joy in the excellencys of our glorifyd bodys joy in the perfections of our enlarged souls Joy in the sweet society of Saints joy in the glorious company of Angels Joy in the ravishing sight of our beloved JESUS joy in the blisful union with the adored Deity All shal be joy and love and peace and all endure for eternal ages Let then the impenitent sinner be frighted with fear and the obdurate hart break asunder with grief But for the hopeful Innocent let them always be glad and the servants of JESUS rejoyce and sing Sweet is the yoke of thy love O Lord and light the burthen of thy commands But O how far more rich are thy faithful promises how infinitely greater thy glorious rewards When every vertue shal wear its proper crown and shine with a Diadem fit for its own head The humble there shal be highly exalted and the poor in spirit prefer'd to be Kings The meek shal posses that holy land and the mourners be comforted with eternal refreshments The clean of hart shal see the God of purity and the lovers of peace have the priviledg of his Children They who hunger and thirst after heav'n shal be fill'd and the merciful entertain'd with the embraces of mercy They who suffer persecution shal abundantly be rewarded and the enlightners of others shine bright as the stars They who relinquish any thing for God shal receive a hundred fold and all the Just be in glory for ever Then shal they bless the true friend that reprov'd them and the charitable hand that assisted to their happines They shal bless the provident mercys of their God and sing aloud the victorys of his grace Is this the effect of those litle pains we took are these the repairs for those petty losses we suffer'd Happy we who deny'd our selvs toys and now are advanc't to these high felicities Millions of years shal pass away and our glory shal seem but then to begin Millions of Millions shal pass away and our glory shal be no nearer its end Thus shal they all rejoyce and none disturb them thus shal they sing and all the heav'ns joyn with them O sweet expectance of a pious life O happy consequence of a holy death Eternally to be free from whatever can afflict eternally to enjoy whatever can ●●elight Blest be thy gracious Providence O God that with so large a bounty woos us to our happines Woos us in a way we are so apt to be taken the love of our selvs and our own great interest As thou hast prepar'd such felicitys for us O may thy grace prepare us for them O may this best of works take up all our time at least take up the best of our time At least every morning let us renew our hope and close the evening with the same sweet thoughts Let us not faint and we surely shall see a prosperous issue out of all our sorrows Still let us labour still let us suffer our troubles are short and our joys eternal Glory be c. Antiph The day will come it will infallibly come when God will crown all that love his glory Antiph What will it profit us to gain the whole world and lose our own Souls or what shal we give in exchange for our souls Psal XLIII COme now my soul and chuse for life and death are set before thee Chuse while thy gracious Lord allows thee day lest the night of darknes overtake thy neglect Chuse but remember thy eternity is concern'd and examine well ere thou mak'st thy resolve Call all the pleasures of the world before thee and ask if any of them be worth such pains Ask if to satisfy some irregular passion * can recompence the forfeiture of such felicitys Ask if the vain forbidden things thou lov'st * deserve thy affection better than thy Maker Are they more worthy in themselvs or beneficial to Thee that thou canst prefer them before thy Redeemer Dost thou expect to be quiet by enjoying them or everlastingly happy by their procurement Will they protect thee at the hour of thy death or plead thy caus at the day of Judgment O 〈◊〉 they but deceive me with a smiling look which I too often have prov'd by dear experience 'T is heav'n alone that yeilds a true content 't is heav'n alone
c. Psal LXXII TO thee O God we ow our whole selvs for making us after thine own image To thee O Lord we ow more than our selvs for redeeming us with the death of thine only Son Nor were our ruines so soon repair'd as at first our Being was easily produc'd Thy Power to create us said but one word and immediately we became a living soul But thy Wisdom to redeem us both spake much * and wrought more and suffer'd most of all To redeem us He humbled himself to this low world and all the infirmitys of our miserable nature He patiently endur'd hunger and thirst and the malicious affronts of enraged enemys How many times did he hazard his life to sustain with courage the truths of heav'n How many tears did he tenderly weep in compassion of his blind ingrateful Country How many drops of blood did he shed * in that doleful garden and on the bitter Cross The Cross where after three long hours * of grief and shame and intolerable pains He meekly bow'd his fainting head and in an agony of prayer yeelded up the Ghost So sets the glorious Sun in a sad cloud and leaves our earth in darknes and disorder But goes to shine immediately in the other world and soon returns again and brings us light And so dost Thou dear Lord and more thy very darknes is our light 'T is by thy death we are made to live and by thy wounds our soars are heal'd O my ador'd Redeemer who took'st upon thee all our miserys to impart to us thine own felicitys Can we remember thy labours for us and not be convinc't of our duty to Thee Can our cold harts recount thy sufferings and not be inflam'd with the love that suffer'd Can we beleeve our salvation cost thee so dear and live as if to be sav'd were not worth our pains Ingrateful we how do we ●●light the kindnes of our God! how carelesly comply with his gracious design For all his gifts he requires no other return then to hope still more and desire still greater blessings For all his favours he seeks no other praise then our following his steps to arrive at his glory O glorious JESU behold to thee we bow and kumbly kiss the dust in honor of thy death Behold thus low we bow to implore thy blessing and the sure assistance of thy special grace That we may wean our affections from all vain desires and clear our thoughts from all impertinent fancys Then shal our lives be intirely dedicated to Thee and all the facultys of our souls to thy holy service Our minds shal continually study thy knowledge and our wills grow every day stronger in thy love Our memorys shal faithfully lay up thy mercys and both tongue and hart shal sing for ever Glory be c. Antiph Come let us glory in the Cross of our Lord JESVS Christ in whom is our life and helth and resurrection Capit. 2 Cor. 1. BLessed be the God and Father of our Lord JESVS Christ the Father of mercys and God of all consolation who comforts us in all our tribulations that we also may be able to comfort them who are in any distress by the consolation wherewith we also are comforted of God For as the passions of Christ abound in us so likewise by Christ our comfort abounds Hymn XXII TUne now your selvs my hart strings high Let us aloft our voyces raise That our loud song may reach the Sky And there present to Thee our praise To thee blest JESU who cam'st down From those bright sphears of joy above To purchase us a dear bought Crown And woo our Souls to ' espouse thy love Long had the World in darknes sate Til Thou and thy all-glorious light Began to dawn from heav'ns fair gate And with thy beams dispel their night We too alas stil there had stood As common slaves in the same shade But mercy came and with his blood Our general ransom freely paid Not all the spite of all the Jews Nor death it self could him remove Stil He his blest design pursues And gives his life to take our love And now my Lord my God my all What shal I most in Thee admire That pow'r which made the world and shal The world again dissolve with fire O no thy strange humility Thy wounds thy pains thy cross thy death These shal alone my wonder be My helth my joy my staff my breath To Thee great God! to Thee alone Three Persons in one Deity As former ages stil have done All glory now and ever be Antiph We are bought with a price even the most precious sweat and blood of JESUS henceforth to call Him Master whose service is perfect freedom and gives us effectual power to become the sons of God V. The chains fell off our hands and feet R. When Thine dear Redeemer were nail'd to the Cross V. O Lord hear our prayers R. And let our supplications come to Thee Let us pray O Eternal Father who sent'st down thy only Son to redeem the world inslav'd to sin and Satan by assuming our frail nature and powerfully teaching us both by word and example its sole way to that blyss for which we are created Grant we humbly beseech Thee that the continual memory of his bitter passion and death on the Cross may beget in us an utter disvalue of the Goods or Ills we meet with here compar'd to the advancing our selvs or others in the esteem of what we hope herafter through the same our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with Thee and the holy Ghost lives and reigns One God world without end Amen Here on every Friday that is fasted say kneeling V. Lord have mercy on us R. Christ have mercy on us V. Lord have mercy on us Our Father c. V. And lead us not into temptation R. But deliver us from evil Amen V. Have mercy on us O Lord have mercy on us R. For our souls confide in thee V. And under the shadow of thy wings will we hope R. Til our iniquities pass away V. Have mercy on us O Lord for we are weak R. Heal us O Lord for we have sinned against thee V. Our iniquities are gone over our head R. And like a sad burthen sit heavy on us V. Will not our God require an account of these things R. Will he not examine every passage of our lives V. He sees the secrets of our harts R. And our darkest sins are not hid from Him V. Lord make us judg our selvs lest we be condemn'd by thee R. And chastize our selvs lest we be punisht by thee V. Make us mortify our senses with discreet austeritys R. Particularly contrary to the passions which molest us V. That we may reduce our bodys into subjection to our minds R. And our minds into subjection to Thee V. That as our too much liberty brought us to folly R. Our just severity may bring us to pardon V. Pardon O Lord
Servants prophecy of Thee thus did their children sing thy praises Blessed be the Lord our God who alone does wonderful things and blessed be the Name of his Majesty for ever His dominion shall reach from sea to sea and from the river to the end of the world They who dwell in the wildernes shall kneel before him and his enemys shall lick the dust The Kings of Tharsis and the Isles shall offer him presents the Kings of Arabia and Saba shal bring him gifts All the Kings of the earth shal adore him and all Nations do him service For he shall rescue the weak from the hand of the mighty the weak who had none to help him He shall be favourable to the simple and the needy and preserve the souls of the poor He shall deliver them from usury and oppression and their name shall be honourable in his sight He shal live and to him shal be given of the gold of Arabia they shal adore him perpetually and bless him all day long O thou eternal King of heav'n and earth make good to thy servants these happy predictions So rule us here that we obey thy grace so favour us herafter that we injoy thy glory Glory be c. Antiph Lord thou not only offer'st us salvation but lay'st in means before hand to make us accept it Antiph All 's one to Thee O mighty Love whether joy or sorrow so mankind be sav'd Psal XCV 'T Was not thy joys alone O dearest Lord that thou inspir'dst into thy holy Prophets But thou reveal'dst to them thy sorrows too and commandedst them to publish them with a tender care That they not only should speak thy words but the more to affect us put on thy person O let our eys run down with water and our harts faint away with grief While we remember the suff'rings of our Lord and hear his sad complaints I gave my body to those that beat it and my cheeks to those that buffeted them I turn'd not away from them that reproach't me nor from them that spit on my face My enemys whisper together and spitefully maligne me when wil he dy and his name perish My familiar friend who ate of my bread * has lifted up his heel against me But thou upheldst me O Lord in my integrity and fet'st me before thy face for ever They Compast me about with words of malice and fought against me without a cause They rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love I am poured forth like water I am taken away as a shadow when it declines My hart within me is as melted wax and all my bones are out of joynt My strength is dry'd up like a potsheard and my tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth I'expected some to pity me and there was none I look't for Comforters but I found not one O my god my God how far hast thou forsaken me thou hast brought me into the dust of death Our father 's called to Thee and were deliver'd they trusted in Thee and were not abondoned But I am a worm and no man the reproach of men and the despis'd of the people All that see me laugh me to scorn they shoot out the lip and shake their head saying He trusted in God that he would save him let him deliver him if he delight in him Be not far from me O Lord my strength for trouble is nigh and none to help me The Assembly of the wicked have inclosed me about they pierce my hands and my feet I 〈◊〉 tell all my bones they gaze and stare upon me They part my garments among them and on my vesture they cast lots They gave me gall to eat and in my thirst vinegar to drink All these sad things O Lord thy Prophets foretold * to prepare our faith for such exorbitant truths All these indeed they expresly foretold but could there be found such wretches as would act them Yes O my God thine own selected nation conspir'd against Thee and with innumerable affronts most barbarously murther'd Thee This too even this thy cruel death thou plainly foreshewd'st The Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall look on me whom they crucify'd But O you holy Prophets what was the dismal cause * that shed the blood of this spotles Lamb He had they quickly answer done no iniquity nor could any fraud be found in his mouth But he was smiten for the sins of the people and taken away from the land of the living He deliver'd up himself to death and was numbred with the wicked he bore the sins of many and pray'd for his transgressors All we like sheep have gone astray and God laid on Him the iniquity of us all He was wounded for our offences and bruised for our transgressions The chastisements of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we were healed O blessed JESU who took'st upon thee our infirmitys to bestow on us thy own perfections Heal us thou great Physician of our souls and let us sin no more lest a worse thing befal us Heal us by the Mystery of thy holy Incarnation and the meeknes of thy humble Birth Heal us by the precious blood of thy Circumcision and the sweet and ever blessed name of JESUS Heal us by thy gracious manifestation to the Gentiles and the powerful influence of all thy Miracles Heal us by the exemplary obedience of thy Presentation and the Soveraign balsom of thy passion Heal us by the joys of thy victorious Resurrection and the triumph of thy glorious Ascension Heal us by the memory of all thy Blessings heal us by the memory of this days Mercy Heal us thou great Physician of our souls and let us sin no more lest a worse thing befal us Glory be c. Antiph All 's one to Thee O mighty Love whither joy or sorrow so mankind be sav'd Our Father c. First Lesson Isa 11. A Branch shal come forth from the root of Jesse and a flower rise up out of his root and the spirit of our Lord shal rest upon Him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of Counsel and strength the spirit of knowledg and piety and the spirit of the fear of our Lord shal replenish him He shal not judg according to the sight of the eys nor rebuke according to the hearing of the ears but he shal judg the poor in justice and rebuke for the mild of the earth in equity he shal strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips kil the impious Justice shal be the Girdle of his loyns and Faith the binder of his reins The Wolf shal dwel with the Lamb and the Leopard ly down with the Kid the Calf and the Lyon and the Sheep shal abide together and a little child lead them they shal not hurt and they shal not kil in all my holy mountain because the earth is filled with the knowledg of our Lord as the waters cover the Sea In
But O what are they then to those who see Thee and in that sight see all things else To those who rejoyce perpetually before Thee and in that joy find all joys else O beauteous truth which known inforces love and lov'd begets felicity Live thou for ever in my faithful memory and be my constant guide in all my ways Stil let me think on those joys above and undervalue all things compar'd to my salvation Stil let me think on my Saviours love that purchas'd for me all those joys O my ador'd Redeemer be Thou the masterwish of my hart the scope and end of all my time Soon as I wake let me look up to Thee and when I rise first lowly bow to Thee Often in the day let me call in my thoughts to Thee and when I go to rest cloze up mine eys in Thee So shal my time be govern'd by thy grace and my eternity corwn'd with thy glory Antiph Whither O my God should we go but to Thee Thou hast the words of eternal life I look not O Lord to be pardon'd without repentance but I hope thy grace to make me repent Psal CIII MY God when I remember those words of Thine Repent for the Kingdom of heav'n is at hand When I consider they were the first thou spak'st in publick the chosen text of the Eternal Wisdom Instantly I 'm struck with the importance of the duty and deeply affected with the power of the motive If what this last line says be not wholy true but repeated in course as a form of devotion Forgive dear Lord the de●●eitfulness of my hart and make me think as well as say my prayers Make me apply those searching words to my self and bind them fast on my own soul Repent O my soul for the Kingdom of heav'n is at hand repent for the Kingdom of heav'n depends on thy repentance Vnhappy me I cannot live without sin nor hope for pardon without due repentance I cannot repent without the grace of God nor obtain his grace without his own free gift O my sweet Saviour JESU who cam'st not to call the just but such as I am sinners to repent Since I am not strong enough to be perfectly innocent at least make me humble enough to be truly penitent Make me hartily sorry for what I have done amiss and not do again what will make me sorry Wo to the day and hour wherin I sin'd wo to the many days and hours I have foolishly mispent Or rather wo to me who abuse my days and hours * allow'd by thy goodnes to work out my salvation Deliver me O Lord from the punishments I deserve deliver me from the sins that deserve those punishments Teach me that safe and easy method * of censuring my self to be acquitted by Thee Every night let me sit as an impartial judg and call before me all my day Let me severely examine every thought and word and strictly search every deed and omission Condemning my offences to their just penance and making more firm and wary resolvs Imploring for the past the mercy of heav'n and for the time to come the same unbounded mercy If I perhaps find some litle thing well done * when weigh'd with the allowance indulg'd our frailty Let me return all the glory to my God and beg his grace to continue and improve it H●● is the hand that sews the seed h●● is the blessing that gives the increase Thus let me once a day at least look home and seriously inquire into the state of my soul What ere my weaknes or malice may have done let me now undo with a harty contrition Let not the sun go down upon my wrath nor on any other unrepented sin Still let me write at the foot of my account * Reconcil'd to my God and in charity with all the world Then go to bed with a quiet conscience and fall asleep in peace and hope Glory be c. Antiph I look not O Lord to be pardon'd without repentance but I hope thy grace to make me repent Antiph Since where my treasure is there will my hart be O make me place my treasure where my hart ought to be Psal CIV LOrd e're I take my leave of this Holy day * which thy Church has sanctify'd in honor of thy memory Let me repeat some few words more * of those incomparable many thou hast left among us Let me attentively mediate their substantial sense and settle them as Principles of my life and action Lay not up for your selvs treasures on earth * where rust and moth corrupt and Theeves break thorow and steal But lay up for your selvs treasures in heav'n * where neither rust nor moth corrupt nor Theeves break thorow and steal For where your treasure is there will your hart be also Go now you curious and study what you please for me I le stay and listen to my Saviour He 'l teach me high and sure and useful truths he 'l teach me truths that will make me happy Hark but this one word more and you 'l stay too if any sense of your eternal good can hold you Hark how he kindly tels us this new and glorious Secret we shal be herafter like the Angels in heav'n O sweet and precious word to them that relish it and thorowly digest its strong nourishment To them that feed on 't often as their dayly bread we shal be hereafter like the Angels in heav'n And what O dearest Lord are those blessed Angels * but spirits that know and love and delight for ever Such O my soul we shal be and that sweet life we shal lead we shal be and live like the Angels in heav'n We shal know all that 's true and love all that 's good and delight in that knowledg and love for ever No ignorance shal darken us nor error deceive us we shal be like the Angels in heav'n No cares shal perplex us nor crosses afflict us we shal be like the Angels in heav'n Our joys shal be full and pure and everlasting we shal be like the Angels in heav'n Cheer thee my soul and bless thy bounteous Lord 't is by him we shal be like the Angels in heav'n Cheer thee and raise thy hopes yet gloriously higher we shal be like Himself for we shal see him as he is Antiph Since where my treasure is there will my hart be O make me place my treasure where my hart ought to be Hymn XXXII LOrd now the time returns For weary man to rest And lay aside those pains and cares With which our day 's opprest Or rather change our thoughts To more concerning cares How to redeem our mispent time With sighs and tears and pray'rs How to provide for heav'n That Place of rest and peace Where our full joys shall never wain Our pleasures never cease Blest be thy love dear Lord That taught us this sweet way Only to love Thee for Thy self And for that love obey O Thou our
risen Saviour may quicken our harts not only in words but in life and death like him exemplarily to confes thy Son JESUS our Lord and our God to whom with Thee and the H. Ghost be all honour and glory now and for ever Amen Christmas-day and the fourth and fifth days in the Octave All as in the Office of our Saviour except 1. Antiph O joyful tydings worthy an Angels mouth Behold this day was born to us a Saviour who is Christ our Lord Alleluja 2. Antiph Wonderful signs to seek this new-born King of heav'n and earth you shal find him wrapt in swadling cloths and laid in a manger Alleluja 3. O blessed harmony of the celestial Quires Glory be to God on high in earth peace towards men of good wil Alleluja Alleluja Antiph for Benedictus and Magnificat This is the day which our Lord has made let us be glad and rejoyce therein Alleluja This is the day which made our Lord let us ex●●lt and triumph therein Alleluja Alleluja O Lord hear our prayers And let our supplications come to Thee Let us pray O God who every year giv'st a fresh birth to the devotions of thy Church by the welcom Festival of our Saviour's Nativity Grant us we beseech Thee with such tender affections to entertain this first humble Rising of the Sun of righteousnes to us as may better dispose and stronglier engage us to follow Him through the whole painful course which like a Giant he rejoyc't to run inlightening the world with thy truth and inflaming it with thy love til in the end we arrive at his eternal Rest through the same our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with Thee and the H. Ghost lives and reigns one God world without end Amen S. Stephen All as in the Office of Saints except 1. Antiph Stephen ful of grace and courage wrought great miracles among the people and none could resist the Wisdom and Spirit by which he spake Alleluja 2. Antiph And looking stedfastly up he saw the heav'ns open'd and Jesus standing on the right hand of God he saw and enter'd blessed are they to whom the heav'ns shal be open'd Alleluja 3. Antiph While they ston'd him he cal'd up on God and pray'd Lord Jesu receive my soul and kneeling down cry'd out with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge Alleluja Prayer O God who in thy first Martyr S. Stephen hast vouchsafed thy Church an eminent example of perfect Christianity Kindle we beseech Thee in our harts a zealous emulation of his graces that imitating here his constancy in asserting thy truth and his charity in praying for our persecuters even to death we may with him herafter receive the crown of eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ c. For Commemoration of Christmas-day recite the four Antiphons and Prayer of Christmas-day S. John Evangelist All as in the Office of Saints except 1. Antiph This is that favorite Disciple who learn'd on our Lord's brest at his last supper and to whom were reveal'd the secrets of Heav'n Alleluja 2. Antiph This is He in whom meet all those glorious Titles of Apostle Evangelist and Prophet of Martyr Confessor and Virgin Alleluja 3. Antiph This is He who above all those glorious Titles delights in this One incomparably greater then them all The Disciple whom JESUS lov'd Alleluja Alleluja Prayer O God by the prerogative of whose special grace the B. Apostle S. John obtain'd that transcendent character of Beloved of his Master and after became the great Doctor of mutual charity over all the world Grant we beseech Thee that his sacred Memory may excite us also and encourage us by the same purity of body and mind and steddy love of Thee and sincere charity one with another to aspire to some share in that blessed Title and its happy consequents thy grace here and thy glory herafter through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who c. For Commemoration of Christmas-day recite its four Antiphons and Prayer SS Innocents All as in the Office of Saints except 1. Antiph God withdrew his only Isaac and left a thousand happy lambs to be sacrific'd in his stead and accepted for his sake Alleluja 2. Antiph A voice was heard in Rama lamentation and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they were not Antiph 3. Weep not for thy children Rachel behold they are be comforted they are Kings and reign with Christ for ever Alleluja Alleluja Prayer O God who by the Martyrdom of the H. Innocents hast taught thy Church that no age or occasion of suffring for our Saviour is exempt from high reward Grant we beseech Thee that our celebrating their Festival may make us adore this gracious Ordination of thy Providence and however severely it may seem at any time to treat us or our relations confirm our harts in a hopeful resignation to thy Will and assured trust that all leads to eternal advantage through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who c. For Commemoration of Christmas-day recite its four Antiphons and Prayer S. Sylvester All as in the Office of Saints except 1. Antiph This is the holy Pope who miraculously heal'd the great Emperor Constantine and by the sacred laver of Baptism cleans'd him at once from the leprosy of his body and the sins of his soul Alleluja 2. Antiph The sign of the Son of man in the heav'ns which copyed on his Banner made him a Conqueror display'd on his forehead did incomparably more made him a Christian Alleluja 3. Antiph O happy times when Paganism was abolisht and Arianism condemn'd when persecution ceas'd and publick liberty was given to profes and practise as Christians and Catholicks Alleluja Alleluja Prayer O God whose bounty crown'd even on earth thy holy servant Pope Sylvester with the glory of baptizing the first Christian Emperor Constantine and the happines of obtaining liberty and incouragement for Christianity over all his Dominions Grant we beseech Thee that our celebrating his Festival may refresh in us the memory of that high mercy to the world and render us more tenacious of that primitive Faith so eminently at length victorious over all persecutions through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who c. For Commemoration of Christmas-day recite its four Antiphons and Prayer New-years-day 1. Antiph To day our B. Saviour who was Lord of the Law and by his perfect purity absolutely exempt undertook for us the smart of Circumcision and dishonour of being reckon'd among siners Alleluja 2. Antiph To day was given Him the Name above every name that at the Name of JESUS every knee should bow of things in heav'n of things on earth and things under the earth Alleluja Alleluja Alleluja 3. Antiph O B. JESU make good to us thy precious Name and save us from our sins that now we may begin a new year of vertue and cancel by repentance all the failings of the old Alleluja Prayer O God who
for our example commandedst thy beloved Son to submit his pure and innocent flesh to the rigour of the Law and for encouragement of our hope madest choice of that sweet and amiable Name JESUS Teach us we beseech Thee with readines and humility to obey thy sacred Laws how cross soever to our unmortify'd passions and in all our necessitys with joy and confidence call on that holy Name in which whate're we ask we are promis'd shal be granted through the same our Lord Jesus Christ c. Twelfth-day and during the Octave 1. Antiph Alleluja Alleluja Alleluja This is the priviledg'd Festival that comes forth adorn'd with the glory of three miracles To day the Wise-men were led by a Star to the cradle of our Lord and falling down ador'd Him and offer'd Him their royal Presents of Gold Frankincense and Myr●● Alleluja 2. Antiph To day our gracious Redeemer vouchsaft his presence at a Marriage-feast and there first publisht to the world his divine power turning water into wine Alleluja 3. Antiph To day our B. Saviour was baptiz'd by S. John and the H. Ghost descended visibly upon Him and a voice was heard from heav'n This is my beloved Son in whom I am w●●l ple●●'d Alleluja Alleluja Antiph for Ben●●dictus and Magnificat To day the first fruits of the Gentils were consecrated to our Lord and that sacred Prophesy happily fulfil'd In his light shal the Gentils walk and Kings in the brightnes of his rising Alleluja Alleluja Alleluja Prayer O God who by the guidance of a miraculous Star in the heav'n led'st the Gentils to the sight of the more miraculous Son of righteousnes newly risen to the world in a Stable Grant we humbly beseech Thee that inlighten'd and inflam'd by the memory of this wonderful providence our eys and harts may be more lively fixt on thy goodnes stil as graciously working towards the accomplishment of thy promises to call at length the Jews and all the earth to the saving knowledg and love of thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ who with Thee c. Candlemas All as in the Office of our Saviour except 1. Antiph To day the immaculate Mother humbled her self to the common rites of Purification and presented her first-born JESUS in the temple and for the litle price of a pair of Doves redeem'd the world's inestmable Redeemer Alleluja 2. Antiph To day the devout Simeon took our Lord in his arms and knowing nothing now could make him happier but the joys of heav'n sung aloud this glad farewel to all the world Now let thy servant O Lord depart in peace according to thy word for mine eys have seen thy salvation Alleluja 3. Antiph To day the holy Widow and Prophetes Anna who had spent her life in fasting and prayer and in the service of the Temple came happily in and saw our Lord and spake gloriously of Him to all that expected the redemption of Israel Alleluja Prayer O God who vouchsafest us this day to commemorate the B. Virgin 's presenting in the Temple her self to be purify'd and her Son to be redeem'd according to the Law Give us grace we beseech Thee to adore and praise the condescendence of thy providence that by such great Examples teaches us our evident duty of submitting to thy Discipline though seeming perhaps unnecessary for our selvs and grant that as we bear in our hands these hallowed candles we may confes in our lives our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son to be the light of the Gentils and the Glory of thy people Israel who with Thee and the H. Ghost c. Ash-Wednesday All as in the Office of Wenesday except Invitatory Come let us fast and mourn and pray for our Lord is merciful and just Antiph 1 2 3 Remember O man that dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return Say this one Antiphon before and after every Psalm at Matins Lauds Vespers and Complin Prayer O God whose providence introduces thy Church to the grave discipline of Lent by the mortifying Memento of the vile and frail matter we are made of Grant we humbly beseech thee that the Cross of our Redeemer form'd to day in ashes on our foreheads may lay all our proud conceits in the dust and make flesh and blood feel it self highly honour'd if by whatever crosses or mortifications it may be temper'd and rais'd to become a fit instrument for rip'ning souls in they love the immediate disp●●sition to eternal felicity through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who c. Sundays in Lent All as in the Office of our Saviour except Invitatory Come let us fast and mourn and pray for our Lord is merciful and just 1. Antiph Now is the time of acceptance now are the days of salvation let us not re-receive the grace of God in vain but in all things approve our selvs his servants in labours and watchings and fastings 2. Antiph Now let us take a just and holy revenge on our sins past and strive for the future to bring forth fruits agreeable to our penance in purity meeknes and temperance in charity patience and obedience 3. Antiph Let us follow as we may our divine Master in his forty days retirement and fasting who needed not as we the arts of religion but all he did was for our example that we might learn to fly from the danger of occasions and take away the fewel from our passions and by using to contradict the appetites of sense inure our selvs to obey the commands of reason Antiph for Benedictus and Magnificat Convert us O God of our salvation and turn away thy anger from us hear us in thy mercy and speedily forgive us lest prevented with death we find no time to repent and without repentance eternally perish Prayer O God whose gracious Providence has ordain'd us to lighten the oppressive weight of our corrupt bodys on our souls by the long and solemn Abstinence of Lent Grant us we beseech Thee conscienciously to observe the wholsom discipline now prescrib'd us and with the due mortification of our flesh so tojoyn the quickening of our spirit by frequent devotions that all our carnal appetities may be fitted for burial in our Saviour's grave and all our affections ready to rise with Him to immortality at those sacred Feasts for which this season is to prepare us through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who c. S. Mathias All as in the Office of Saints except 1. Antiph Let them that stand take heed lest they fall Judas was an Apostle yet betray'd his Master and dy'd in despair and another took his Bishoprick 2. Antiph The lot fel on Mathias a continual Follower of JESUS from the baptism of John till the day of His ascension and he was numbred with the eleven Apostles 3. Antiph He liv'd their life and dy'd their death and sits with them in glory to judge the twelve tribes of Israel Prayer O God by whose special grace the B. Mathias was chosen to supply
the room of the Traitor Judas and compleat again the number of the Apostles Grant we humbly beseech Thee our celebrating his memory may raise our ambitions every one by steddy following him to fill up the breaches made by our falling Brethren and advance towards accomplishment the happy number of thy Elect through our Lord JESUS Christ thy Son who c. S. Joseph All as in the Office of Saints except 1. Antiph This is that wise and faithful servant whom our Lord appointed over his Family 2. Antiph This is He who was honour'd with the title of Father of our SAVIOVR and Spouse to the B. Virgin-Mother 3. Antiph This is He who knew decently to joyn a carriage becoming these titles with all reverence to Their Persons Prayer O God who hast rewarded the blessed S. Joseph with glory in heav'n worthy these high graces vouchsaf't him on earth of Spouse to the B. Virgin and Father to thy eternal Son and faithful Guardian to them Both Grant we beseech Thee that as we celebrate the Memory of his glorious Titl●●s we may imitate the Vertues of his holy life and by the like perfect fidelity in whatever thy Providence intrusts to our charge secure our hopes to attain hereafter the same everlasting felicity through our Lord JESVS Christ thy Son who c. Anunciation All as in the Office of our Saviour except 1. Antiph To day the Archangel Gabri●●l was sent from God to the Virgin Mary and entring her litle chamber humbly presented Her this honourable salutation Hail ful of grace our Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among Women 2. Antiph To day the B. Virgin Mother gave her ●●●st consent to that glorious Embassy ●●Behold the Handmaid of our Lord be it to me according to thy word 3. Antiph To day the H. Ghost came upon Her and the power of the most High overshadow'd her and untoucht of man she conceiv'd in her pure Womb the Son of God Prayer O God who by the mouth of the Archangel Gabriel didst so graciously woo humble Handmaid Mary that her Virgin-Womb immediately conceiv'd the WORD ●●ested thy eternal Son with our humanity Grant us we humbly beseech Thee with such devout admiration to celebrate the memory of this highest Mystery as may feed and increase thy charity begotten in our harts by thy Spirit and ripen it to bring us forth partakers of his Divinity who with Thee and the same H. Ghost lives and reigns one God world without end Amen Passion Sunday All as in the Office of our Saviour except Invitatory Behold the Passion of our Lord draws nigh Come let 's adore Him 1. Antiph Who will give water to my head and a fountain of tears to my eys that day and night I may weep for my own sins and for my Saviours sufferings 2. Antiph What O my JESV could our weaknes want that Thou hast not done what could our malice invent that Thou hast not suffer'd 3. Antiph Far be it from us to glory in any thing but the Cross of our Saviour in whom is our life and helth and resurrection Instead of Lessons read the Passion according to St. Matthew Chapters 26 27. Antiphon for Benedictus and Magnificat LOok up my soul on thy crucify'd Lord look up and see the utmost extremity of divine love already He had carry'd on to a fair degree the work of our redemption in fasting and praying in travailing and preaching in doing miracles and bearing injuries but now to finish all with one incomparable charity behold He suffers even death it self and death upon the Cross Prayer O God who by the mortifying discipline of Lent hast graciously dispos'd us for the solemn season of closer preparation to celebrate the memory of our Saviours bitter Passion Make us now we beseech Thee so devoutly attend to and thorowly meditate every circumstance of this dear Mystery That our Lord JESUS may appear crucify'd even before our eys and melt our harts with such tender compassion as may kil in them all sin the sole cause of his sufferings and fit us by perfect love of Him for a happy part in his glorious resurrection through the same our Lord JESUS Christ thy Son who c. Palm-Sunday All as in the Office of our Saviour except Invitatory To day our Saviour entred Jerusalem in triumph Come le ts adore Him 1. Antiph Rejoyce O Daughter of Sion shout for gladnes O daughter of Jerusalem behold thy King comes to Thee the Just One and thy Saviour he comes to Thee meek and lowly and riding on a Colt the foal of an ass 2. Antiph As he rode a very great multitude spread their garments and boughs in the way and they that went before and followed after cry'd aloud Hosanna to the son of David blessed is He that comes in the name of our Lord Hosanna in the Highest 3. Antiph Behold this is our Lord whom we have long expected He himself is come to redeem us this is our God whom we long have lookt for let us sing and rejoyce in his salvation Instead of Lessons read the Passion according to St. Mark which begins Mark 14. 12. and ends Mark 15. 46. Antiphon for Benedictus and Magnificat COme let us joyn our voices too with this pious multitude and sing Hosanna to the Son of David blessed is he that comes in the name of our Lord Hosanna in the Highest blessed is He that comes for he is our Lord Hosanna in the Highest Recite the Canticle Repeat the Antiphon then pray Prayer O God who by this days solemnitys reviv'st to us the memory of our Saviours Triumph ushering in his Passion teach us we beseech Thee from this perfect instance the ficklenes of this worlds justest glorys and mortify our esteem of its best deserv'd applauses and bring our harts chearfully to expect a Cross after them as the highest way to our eternal glory with Thee through the same our Lord JESVS Christ thy Son who c. On Munday in holy Week instead of Lessons read the Passion according to St. Luke which begins Chap. 22. vers 1. and ends Chap. 23. ver 53. On Tuesday in holy Week instead of Lessons read the Passion according to St. John in the 18 and 19 Chapters On Wednesday in holy Week instead of Lessons read the Passion according to St. Matthew in the 26 and 27 Chapters Maundy Thursday All as in the Thursday Office but omit all Antiphons and Hymns and Glory be c. instead whereof at the end of every Psalm say kneeling Christ was made for us obedient to death and instead of Lessons read the Passion according to St. Mark which begins Mark 14. 12. and ends Mark 15. 46. When you have done the third Psalm at Lauds say this following Antiphon and so to the end Antiphon for Benedictus Our Lord JESVS rose from the Table and laid by his garments and girt himself with a towel and pour'd water into a Basin and wash't the feet of his
world without end Amen SS Philip and Jacob. All as in the Office of Saints except 1. Antiph Now it suffices thee Philip our Lord has shewn thee the Father and henceforth for ever thou shalt see Him face to face Alleluja 2. Antiph And thou holy Jacob the Brother of our Lord art gloriously happy injoying for ever the same blysful Vision Alleluja 3. Antiph These are Two of those precious stones that found and adorn the walls of the heav'nly Jerusalem Alleluja Prayer O God by whose grace the B. Apostles S. Philip and S. Jacob water'd as this day with their blood the heavenly seed which they had long swet in sowing o're the world Redouble we beseech Thee the devotions of thy servants by celebrating together their happy Memorys and grant that our Faith sopreciously confirm'd may fructify into holy lives deaths worthy such glorious Masters through our Lord JESUS Christ thy Son who Invention of the H. Cross All as in the Office of our Saviour except 1. Antiph Glorious art thou O B. Empress Helen whose devotion so miraculously restor'd to the world the standard of Salvation Alleluja 2. Antiph This holy Sign shal be in the heav'ns Alleluja when our Lord shal come to Judgment Alleluja 3. Antiph Far be it from us to glory in any thing but the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom the world is crucify'd to us and we to the world Alleluja Prayer O God who as this day vouehsafedst to raise again even the Cross of our Saviour from its ignominious grave to become a close and striking memorial of his Passion Grant we beseech Thee that our devout celebrating this thy special providence may still more deeply imprint in our harts its gracious design of making us often reflect on the great benefit of our redemption and the infinite love and mercy of our Redeemer through the same our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who c. Rogation VVeek Monday Tuesday and Wednesday All as in the Weekly Office except 1. Antiph Ask and you shal receive seek and you shal find knock and it shal be open'd to you says our Lord whose word cannot fail Alleluja 2. Antiph Thou know'st we need all these things but more but more by these our needs to be drawn to look up to Thee Alleluja 3. Antiph Seek first the kingdom of heav'n and all things else shal be added to you Alleluja Prayer O God by whose H. Spirit thy Church ordains this a solemn time of supplication for all our necessitys Open we humbly beseech Thee thy gracious ears to the pray'rs thou inspir'st and draw'st from our harts and by granting us those Goods which thy Children with humility and resignation ask of Thee their heav'nly Father so encourage our devotion and obedience and so increase our hope and love that transcending all Particulars as safely to be trusted in the hand of thy Providence our whole souls may thirst after Thee thy self alone who art our All in All for ever through our Lord Ascension and during the Octave All as in the Office of our Saviour except 1. Antiph I have finisht the work which my Father commanded me and now 't is time I return to him that sent me let not your harts be troubled I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God Alleluja 2. Antiph Let not your harts be troubled I go to prepare a place for you and I wil come again and receive you to my self that where I am there may my servants be Alleluja 3. Antiph Meanwhile I wil not leave you desolate but wil pray to my Father and he shal give you another Comforter the Spirit of truth to dwel with you for ever Alleluja Antiph for Benedictus and Magnificat Why stand we looking downwards on the things of this world behold our Lord is ascended into heav'n and sits in glory at the right hand of his Father Alleluja Why stand we idle with our accounts unprepar'd behold the same JESUS shal come again to judg the living and the dead and give to every one according to his works Alleluja Alleluja Prayer O God who hast inspir'd thy Church to celebrate this day the memory of our Saviours Ascension when having finisht on earth the great work of our Redemption He carryed up his glorify'd Humanity above the clouds to its eternal Rest Grant we humbly beseech Thee that taking off our eys from these vanitys here below we may stand continually looking after Him into heav'n and hartily expecting his appearance thence again at the last great day be always ready to obey his call and meet him in the clouds and follow him into those blysful Mansions which he went to prepare for us at thy right hand for ever through the same our Lord c. VVhitsunday and during the Octave All as in the Office of the H. Ghost Trinity-Sunday All as in Sunday Office except 1. Antiph There are Three that bear witnes in heav'n the Father the Word and the H. Ghost and these Three are One Alleluja 2. Antiph The Father is God and the Son is God and the H. Ghost is God yet are they not three Gods but One God Alleluja 3. Antiph In this adorable Trinity none is before or after none greater or less then Another but all the Three Persons are coequal among themselvs and coeternal Alleluja Antiph for Benedictus and Magnificat To thee the eternal Father made by none to thee the increated Son begotten by the Father alone to thee the B. Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son One holy consubstantial and undivided Trinity be ascrib'd all power and wisdom and goodnes now and for ever Alleluja Prayer O Eternal Father who by the visible dedescent of thy Son to redeem the world and of thy H. Spirit to sanctify the Elect has wonderfully made thy Churches own experience facilitate our faith of the incomprehensible Trinity Grant us we beseech Thee in hart and voice to profes this most high and supernatural truth and rejecting all the fallacious suggestions of short reason humbly adore Thee Three every-way-coequal Persons in the same indivisible Deity til we come herafter to thy blysful presence and see the Mystery reveal'd in thine own glorious face through our Lord c. Corpus Christi and during the Octave All as in Thursday Office except 1. Antiph I am the living bread that came down from heav'n if any one eat of this bread he shal live for ever and the bread which I wil give is my flesh for the life of the world Alleluja 2. Antiph Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you shal not have life in you Alleluja 3. Antiph He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I wil raise him up at the last day Alleluja Antiph for Benedictus and Magnificat O sweet and sacred Feast wherein Christ himself is receiv'd and the memory of his Passion renew'd our minds are fill'd
adore our glorify'd Jesus To him we ow all the days of our life at least let us pay this one to his service a service so sweet and easie in it self and so infinitely rich in its eternal rewards Come let 's adore our glorify'd Jesus Let us chearfully ascend to the house of our Lord the place he has chosen for our sakes to dwel in let us reverently bow to his holy Altars where himself in person comes to meet our prayrs Come let 's adore our glorify'd Jesus Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the begining both now and ever world without end Amen Come let 's adore our glorify'd Jesus Come let 's adore our glorify'd Jesus Hymn I. BEhold we come dear Lord to Thee And bow before thy Throne We come to offer on our knee Our vows to Thee alone What e're we have what e're we are Thy bounty freely gave Thou dost us here in mercy spare And wilt hereafter save But O can all our store afford No better gifts for Thee Thus we confess thy riches Lord And thus our poverty 'T is not our tongue or knee can pay The mighty debt we ow Far more we should than we can say Far lower than we bow Come then my soul bring all thy pow'rs And grieve thou hast no more Bring ev'ry day thy choycest hours And thy great God adore But above all prepare thy hart On this his own blest Day In its sweet task to bear thy part And sing and love and pray Glory to Thee Eternal Lord Thrice blessed Three in One Thy Name at all times be ador'd Till time it self be done Antiphon This is the day which our Lord has made let us be glad and rejoyce therein Alleluja Psal II. WElcome blest day wherin the Sun of Righteousnes arose * and chased away the clouds of fear Welcome thou birth-day of our hopes a day of joy and publique refreshment A day of holines and solemn devotion a day of rest and universal Jubilee Welcome to us and our dark world and may thy radiant Name shine bright for ever May all the earth be enlightned with thy beams and every frozen hart dissolve and sing This is the day which our Lord has made let us be glad and rejoyce therin This is the day he has sanctify'd to himself and cal'd by his own most holy Name That in it we may meet to adore his Greatnes and admire the wonders of his infinite Power That we may remember his innumerable Mercies and deeply imprint them in the center of our harts That we may visit his holy Temple a●●d humbly present our homage at his Altars Those sacred Altars where the Lamb of God is daily offer'd and the memory of our Saviour's love renew'd Worthy art thou O Lord of all our time worthy the praises of all thy creatures Every moment of our life is bound to bless thee since every moment subsists by thy Goodnes Shal others labour so much for vanity and shal we not rest for the service of our God Shal we employ the whole week on our selvs and not offer in gratitude one day to Thee To Thee who bestowst on us all we have and wilt give us hereafter more than we hope O gr●●●ous Lord whose mercy accepts * such slender payment as our poverty affords Whose bounty grants so liberally to us and retains so small a part for thy self O make us faithfully observe our duty and render so exactly the tribute we ow thee That passing still thy days to thy honour we may end our own in thy favour Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the begining both now and ever world without end Amen Antiph This is the day which our Lord has made let us be glad and rejoyce therein Alleluja Antiph Thou hast created all things O Lord for the use of man and man for the enjoyment of thy self Psal III. AS when the harvest Sun provides a cloud and seems to rest his wearied beams He seeks not to save the journy of his light but only spares the Reapers head Much less seek'st thou O Lord who mad'st the Sun * and inspir'st all creatures to represent thy bounty Much less seek'st thou by the reserve of a day to procure thine own repose Thou who createdst all things by a word of thy mouth and sustain'st them in thy hand without feeling any weight Who govern'st the whole World without perplexing thy thoughts and always remain'st the same unchangeable fulnes 'T is not to increase thine own Eternity that thus thou tak'st a portion of our time Thy goodnes friendly bears the name but intends for us all the profit of the day That the wearied hands may be reliev'd with rest and enabled to lift themselvs up to thee That the ignorant minds may be taught thy truth and learn the way to everlasting happines That the guilty consciences may accuse their crimes and be absolv'd on earth to be pardon'd in heaven That the love-prepared souls may approach thy Table and feast their hopes with that delicious Banquet That all may speak to thee by Prayer and hear thy voice by the mouth of their Pastors O blessed Lord what excellent arts * has thy wisdom invented to bring us to thy self Thou tak'st our eys by the beauty of thy house and the decent splendors of thy solemn Offices Thou quicken'st our affections by the livelyness of Pictures and meltest our hearts with the sweetness of thy Musick Thou strengthen'st our Faith by thy publique Assemblies and improv'st our Charity both to Thee and one another While we all meet together for the same blest end and by mutual reflections encrease our fervours Happy thrice happy they O Merciful God! whom thy Providence has favour'd with all these blessings Who freely may enter thy holy Sanctuary and sing aloud their praises to thy Name Who every day may wait on thy Altars and there securely adore thy Person Where thou art pleas'd to deny these Mercies refuse not O Lord to extend thy grace That at least we may build a litle Chappel in our harts and consecrate our selvs entirely to thee Be thou but present gracious God! and fill our Souls with thy chast love No farther motives shall we need to draw us nor other Temple to address our Prayrs Since every place where Thou art not is unholy and where thou art is Joy and Peace Glory be c. Antiph Thou hast created all things O Lord for the use of Man and Man for the enjoyment of thy self Antiph Has the Almighty Goodness made all things us for and shall we do nothing for him nothing for our selvs Psal IV COme let us lay aside the cares of this world and take into our minds the Joys of Heav'n Let us empty our heads of all other thoughts and prepare that upper room to entertain our God Retiring from the many distractions of this
your selvs also in the body Let your conversation be without covetousness contented with what you have for he has said I will not leave thee nor forsake thee so that we may confidently say our Lord is my help I will not fear what man can do to me And the God of Peace who brought again from the Dead the great Pastor of the Sheep in the blood of the eternal Testament our Lord Jesus Christ make you perfect in all goodness that you may do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight thorough Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Resp Thither O my Soul let us still be going where once to arrive is always to be at rest there let us dwell already in hope where once to enjoy is always to be happy * Since whate're we desire we are sure to have and whate're we have can never be taken from us Let us believe and obey and suffer let us read and meditate and pray Heaven 's a reward worth all our pains * Since what e're we desire we are sure to have and whate're we have can never be taken from us Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost * Since whate're we desire we are sure to have and whate're we have can never be taken from us Te Deum WE praise thee our God we acknowledge thee our Lord All the Earth adores thee thou Father Eternal To Thee the blessed Angels to Thee the Heavens and all their Powers To Thee the Cherubims and Seraphims perpetually sing Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth The heavens and the earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory The glorious Quire of Apostles praise Thee The renown'd society of Prophets bless Thee The noble Army of Martyrs glorify Thee The holy Church throughout the world confesses Thee Father of immense Majesty Thy adorable true and only Son Also the holy Spirit the Comforter Thou art the King of glory O Christ Thou art the eternal Son of the Father Thou being to undertake the delivery of Man did'st not disdain the Virgins Womb. Thou having overcom the sting of death opend'st to Believers the Kingdom of heav'n Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of thy Father We believe thou shalt com to be our Judg. Help therfore we beseech Thee thy servants whom thou hast redeem'd with thy precious blood Make them be numbred with thy Saints in glory everlasting Lord save thy People and bless thy Inheritance And govern them and raise them up even to eternity Every day we glorify Thee and praise thy Name for ever and ever Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us this day without sin Have mercy on us O Lord have mercy on us Let thy mercy O Lord be on us as our hope is in Thee In Thee O Lord have I plac't my hope let me not be confounded for ever Pause a while to reflect on what you have said and to renew your attention then begin Lauds Sunday Lauds O God incline unto our ayd O Lord make hast to help us Glory be to the Father and to the Son * and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning both now and ever world without end Amen Alleluia Antiph O how adorable are thy counsels O Lord how strangely indearing the ways of thy love Alleluia Psal V. SIng to our Lord a Psalm of Joy sing praises to the God of our Salvation Sing with a loud and chearful voice sing with a glad and thankful hart Say to the weak of Spirit be strong and to the sorrowful be of good comfort Tel all the world this soul-reviving truth and may their harts within them leap to hear it Tel them the Lord of life is risen again and has cloth'd himself with immortal glory He made the Angels messengers of his victory and vouchsaf't even himself to bring us the joyful news How many ways did thy mercy invent O Thou wise contriver of all our happines To convince thy followers into this blest belief and settle in their harts a firm ground of hope Thou appeard'st in the Garden to the holy women that sought Thee and open'dst their eys to know and adore Thee Thou overtook'st in the way the Two that discour'st of thee and mad'st their harts burn within them to hear thee Thou shewd'st thy self on the stedfast shore to thy weary Disciples labouring at Sea Labouring alas all night in vain without the blessing of their beloved JESUS Thou shew'dst thy self and told'st them who thou wert in the kind known token of a beneficial miracle Thorow the doors though shut thou swiftly passed'st to carry peace to thy comfortles friends To encourage their fears with thy powerful presence and secure their faith by thy charitable arguments How did'st thou condescend to eat before them and invite them to touch thy impassible body How didst thou sweetly constrain that incredulous servant to thrust his hand into thy wounded side Actions we know unfit for thy glorify'd state but absolutely necessary for our slow belief How often O my gracious Lord in those blessed forty days * did thy charity cast to meet with thy Disciples That thou might'st teach them stil some excellent truth and imprint still deeper thy love in their harts Discoursing perpetually of the Kingdom of heav'n and establishing means to bring us thither At last when all thy glorious task was done and thy parting hour from this earth approacht Thou tenderly gather'dst thy Children about thee and in their full sight wentst up into heaven Leaving thy dearest blessing on their heads and promising them a Comforter to supply thine absence O how adorable are thy counsels O Lord how strangely endearing the ways of thy love Say now my Soul is not this evidence clear enough * to answer all our darkest doubts Is not this hope abundantly sufficient to sweeten all our bitterst sorrows What though we mourn and be afflicted here and sigh under the miseries of this world for a time We 're sure our tears shal one day rejoyce and that joy none shal take from us What though our bodies be crumbled into dust and that dust blown about o're the face of the Earth Yet we undoubtedly know our Redeemer lives and shal appear in brightnes at the last great Day He shal appear in the midst of innumerable Angels and with these very eys we shal see Him We shal see him in whom we have so long believ'd we shal find him whom we have so often sought We shal possess him whom our souls have lov'd and be united to him for ever who is the only end of our Being Glory be c. Psal VI. RAise thy head O my soul and look up and behold the glory of thy crucify'd Saviour He that was dead and layd in the grave * low enough to prove himself Man Is risen again and ascended into heaven * high enough to prove himself God He is risen and
others There we shall rest for ever in the protection of our God in the arms and bosom of our dearest Lord. O Heav'n the eternal source of all these joys and infinitely more and infinitely greater As the Hart pants after the water-brooks so let my soul thirst after thee After Thee let me dayly sigh and mourn and with a fixt and longing ey look up and say When O my God shall I sit at that fountain head and drink my fill of those living streams When shall I be in●●briated with that torrent of pleas●●res which springs for ever from thy glorious Throne O that the days of my banishment were fully finish't How is the time of my pilgrimage prolong'd Why am I still detain'd in this vally of tears stil wandring up and down in this wilderness of dangers Come Thou sweet JESU my only Hope and sure Deliverer out of all my sorrows Come Thou and here begin to dwell in my hart and fit me for the life I shall lead hereafter Come O my dearest Lord and prepare my soul for Thee and then when thou pleasest take it to Thy self Glory be c. Antiph Never can we say too much of this glorious subject never can we think enough of the felicities of heaven Alleluja Capit. Rom. 12. Let love be without dissimulation Hate that which is evil Cleave to that which is good Love brotherly charity one towards another with honor preventing one another In business not slothful In spirit fervent Serving our Lord. Rejoycing in hope Patient in tribulation Instant in prayer Communicating to the necessities of the Saints Practising hospitality Bless them that persecute you Bless and curse not Rejoyce with them that rejoyce Weep with them that weep being mutually of the same mind not affecting high things but condescending to mean things Be not wise in your own conceits Render to none evil for evil Be solicitous to do well not only before God but in the sight of all men If it be possible as much as is in you live peaceably with every one Revenge not your selvs most dearly Beloved but give place to wrath for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith our Lord. But if thy enemy hunger give him meat if he thirst give him drink for doing this thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good Hymn III. WHy do we seek felicity Where 't is not to be found And not dear Lord look up to Thee Where all delights abound Why do we seek for treasure here On this false barren sand Where nought but empty shels appear And marks of Shipwrack stand O world how litle do thy joys Concern a soul that knows It self not made for such low toys As thy poor hand bestows How cross art thou to that design For which we had our birth Us who were made in heav'n to shine Thou bow'st down to thy earth Nay to thy hell for thither sink All that to thee submit Thou strew'st some flowers on the brink To drown us in the pit World take away thy tinsel wares That dazle here our eys Let us go up above the Stars Where all our treasure lys The way we know our dearest Lord Himself is gone before And has ingag'd his faithful word To open us the door But O my God! reach down thy hand And take us up to Thee That we about thy Throne may stand And all thy glories see All glory to the sacred Three One everliving Lord As at the first still may He be Belov'd obey'd ador'd Antiph O glorious God! thy infinite perfections cause us to admire Thee and thy bounteous promises ingage us to hope in Thee Thy incomparable beauty ravishes our harts and the joys thou hast prepared for us transcend all our wishes Alleluja Magnificat My soul magnifys our Lord And my spirit has rejoyced in God my Saviour Because he has regarded the low degree of his handmaid For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me Blessed For he that is mighty has done great things to me and holy is his Name And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation He has shew'd strength in his arm he has scatter'd the proud in the imagination of their harts He has depos'd the pow'rful from their seat and exalted them of low degree He has fill'd the hungry with good things and the rich sent empty away He has receiv'd Israel his child being mindful of his mercy As he spake to our Fathers to Abraham and his seed for ever Glory be c. Antiph O glorious God! thy infinite perfections cause us to admire Thee and thy bounteous promises ingage us to hope in thee thy incomparable beauty ravishes our harts and the joys thou hast prepar'd for us transcend all our wishes Alleluja O Lord hear our Pray'rs And let our supplications come to Thee Let us pray O God who graciously woo'st us to our eternal Inheritance by describing its inexpressible glorys all possibly-taking ways to our low conceits that they may fitly insinuate themselvs and become by degrees absolute Master of our harts Bring them we beseech Thee stil seasonably into our memorys and so strongly settle them in our affections that our souls being wholly ravish't with these great hopes all the temptations and vanities of this world may fly unconcerningly by us and never be able to distract our intire and steddy and dayly strengthning desires of entring once for ever into possession of thy Kingdom through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with Thee and the Holy Ghost lives and reigns One God world without End Amen O Lord hear our pray'rs And let our supplications come to Thee Bless we our Lord. Thanks be to God May the souls of the Faithful Departed through the mercy of God rest in peace Amen Pause a while to reflect on what you have said and to renew your attention Then begin Complin Sunday Complin V. OUr help is in the Name of our Lord R. Who made heav'n and earth V. Convert us O God our Saviour R. And turn away thy anger from us V. O God incline unto our ayd R. O Lord make hast to help us V. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the holy Ghost R. As it was in the begining both now and ever world without end Amen Alleluia Antiph All is unquiet here til we come to Thee and repose at last in the Kingdom of Peace Psal XI VVHo wil give me the wings of a Dove that I may fly away and be at rest That I may fly away from the troubles of this life and be at rest Dear Lord with Thee Here we alas are forc't to sigh and bear with grief the burthen of our miserys Often we encounter chances that endanger us and divert our progres in the way to Blys Often we are assaulted with temptations that overcome us and set us back in the accounts of eternity How
Creation to its end Vouchsafing so to order all thy creatures about us by thy grace that they may attain their perfection in duly serving us and we Ours in eternally injoying Thee through our Lord JESUS Christ thy Son who with Thee and the holy Ghost lives and reigns One God world without end Amen Commemorations c. as pag. 29. Monday Vespers IN the Name of the Father c. as pag. 33. Antiph To know Thee O Lord is the highest learning and to be known of Thee the greatest happines Psal XXI LEt us now consider O Lord our God! let us thankfully remember what Thou art to us Thou art the great Begining of our nature and glorious end of all our actions Thou art the overflowing Source from whence we spring and the immense Ocean into which we tend Thou art the free Bestower of all we possess and faithful Promiser of all we hope Thou art the strong Sustainer of our lives and ready Deliverer from all our enemys Thou art the merciful Scourger of our sins and bounteous Rewarder of our obedience Thou art the safe Conducter of our pilgrimage and the eternal Rest of our wearied souls Such words alas our narrownes is constrain'd to use * when we endeavour to speak thy bountys Wider a litle can our thoughts extend yet infinitely less than the least of thy mercys Tell us thy self one word of thine expresses more * then all the eloquence of men and Angels Tell us Thy self O Thou mild instructer of the ignorant what thou art to us Say to our souls Thou art our salvation but say it so that we may hear Thee Gladly will we run after the sound of that voice and hope by following it to find out Thee When we have found Thee once O Thou joy of our harts never let us lose thy sight again Never let us turn our eys from Thee but steddily fix them on thy glorious face Suffer us not to go till thou hast given us thy blessing and then may thy blessing bind us faster to Thee Glory be c. Antiph To know Thee O Lord is the highest learning and to be known of Thee the greatest happines Antiph To know our selvs is the truest wisdom and to see our own poverty the safest riches Psal XXII LEt us now consider O Lord our God! let us humbly remember what we are to Thee We who alas are nothing in our selvs what can we be to thy Immensity Thou who art all things in thine own rich self what canst thou receive from our poverty This only we are to Thee O great Creator the unthankful object of all thy bountys This only we are to Thee O dear Redeemer the unworthy cause of all thy sufferings Guilty we committed the crime and thou with thine innocency undertookst the punishment We went astray from the path of life and thy mercy came down from heav'n to seek us To seek us in the wilderness where we had lost our selvs and bring us home to the discipline of thy love Lord what are we that thou shouldst thus regard * such poor and vile and inconsiderable wretches What can our good will avail thy Blyss that with so many charms thou woo'st us to love Thee What can our malice prejudice thy content that thou threatnest so violently if we love thee not Is there O my God not felicity enough * in the sweetness alone of loving Thee Is there perhaps not misery enough * in living depriv'd of thy blysful love Yes Yes dear Lord and that thou knew'st and that 's the only cause * which mov'd thy goodnes to court our affections Thou knew'st we else would cast away our selvs * by doating on the follys of this deceitful world Thou knew'st the danger of our wilful nature and therefore striv'st by greatest fears and greatest hopes And all the wisest arts of love and bounty * to draw us to thy self and endow us with thy kingdom Unhappy we whose frowardness requir'd so strange proceeding * to force upon us our own salvation Happy we whose wants have met so kind a hand that needed but our emptines to engage him to fill us Happy yet more that our Lord who thus favours us now * will at last even give us Himself Glory be c. Antiph To know our selvs is the truest wisdom and to see our own Poverty the safest riches Antiph Vanity of vanitys all is vanity but the love of God and hope to enioy Him Psal XXIII LOrd without Thee what 's all the world to us * but a flying dream of busie vanitys It promises indeed a Paradise of blyss but all it performs is an empty cloud Thine are the joys that shine fixt as the stars and make the only solid heav'n Lord without Thee what are we to our selvs but the wretched causes of our own ruin We till thou gav'st us Being were purely nothing more remov'd from happines then the miserablest of thy creatures Now thou hast made us we wholly depend on Thee and perish immediately if thou forsake us Thou without us art the same all-glorious Essence brim-ful of thy own eternal felicity Without us thy royal Throne stands firm for ever and all the Powers of heav'n obey thy pleasure Pity O gracious Lord our imperfect nature whose every circumstance is so contrary to Thine Thou dwel'st above in the Mansions of glory and we below in houses of clay Thou art immortal and thy day out-lives all time we every moment go downwards to our grave Thou art immense and thy presence fills the heav'ns but the Greatest of us alas how litle are we Two yards of air contain us while we live and a few spans of earth suffice us at our death When O my God shall these distances meet together when will these extremitys embrace each other We know they once were miraculously joyn'd * in the sacred Person of thy eternal Son When the King of heav'n stoopt down to earth and grafted into his own Person the nature of man We hope they once again shall be happily united * in the blysful vision of thy glorious Self When the children of the earth shall be exalted to heav'n and made partakers of thy divine nature But are there no means for us here below O Thou infinitely high and glorious God! Is there no way to approach towards Thee and diminish at least this uncomfortable distance None but the way of holy love which none can attain but by thy free gift Nor must we sinners dare to ask thy love being infinitely unworthy to be cal'd thy servants Rather let us humbly beg the grace to love Thee who art so many ways worthy of more than our harts And yet O dearest Lord unless thou first love us and sweetly draw us by thy gentle hand Never shal we be so happy as to love Thee nor ever happy unless we love Thee O bounteous God! to all thy favours add this one * of making us esteem Thee above them
all Be thou to us our God and all things and make us nothing in our own eys Be thou our whole everlasting delight and let nothing else be any thing to us Glory be c. Antiph Vanity of Vanitys all is Vanity but the love of God and hope to enjoy him Capit. Ephes 6. CHildren obey your Parents in our Lord for this is just and you Fathers provoke not your Children to anger but bring them up in discipline and the fear of our Lord. Servants be obedient to your Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in the simplicity of your harts as to Christ not serving to the ey as it were pleasing men but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the hart knowing whatever good any one shal do that shal he receive of our Lord whether he be bond or free And you Masters do the same things to them forbearing threatnings knowing that both their Lord and yours is in heav'n and with Him is no acceptance of persons Hymn VII LOrd who shal dwel above with Thee There on thy holy Hill Who shal those glorious Prospects see That heav'n with gladnes fill Those happy souls who prize that life Above the bravest here Whose greatest hope whose eagrest strife Is once to settle there They use this world but value That That they supremely love They travel through this present state But place their home above Lord who are they that thus chuse Thee But those Thou first didst chuse To whom Thou gav'st thy grace most free Thy grace not to refuse We of our selvs can nothing do But all on Thee depend Thine is the work and wages too Thine both the way and end O make us stil our work attend And we 'l not doubt our pay We wil not fear a blessed end If thou but guide our way Glory to Thee O bounteous Lord Who giv'st to all things breath Glory to Thee Eternal Word Who sav'st us by thy death Glory O Blessed Spirit to Thee Who fill'st our harts with love Glory to all the Mystick Three Who reign one God above Amen Antiph He that fram'd the hart of man design'd it for himself and bequeath'd it unquietnes til possest of its Maker V. Vanity of Vanitys all is Vanity R. But to love our God and attend his service O Lord hear our prayers And let our supplications come to Thee Let us pray O God who alone art all in all things to us and to whom we are nothing but wretched objects of thy bounty which the more flows upon us the more we truly feel our own pure emptines and want of it Encrease we humbly beseech thee this happy sense iu thy servants by our dayly experience of this worlds unsatisfyingness and grant that finding it ordain'd by Thee to breed and widen not fill our capacity we may make this only use of all thy creatures here to raise and heighten our desires of thy infinite Self in Eternity through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with thee and the Holy Ghost lives and reigns one God world without end Amen V. O Lord hear our prayers R. And let our Supplications come to Thee V. Bless we our Lord R. Thanks be to God V. May the Souls of the Faithful Departed through the mercy of God rest in peace Amen Pause a while to reflect and renew Then begin Complin Monday Complin V. OUr help is in As Page 46. Antiph All thy ways O Lord are mercy and wisdom and all thy Counsels tend to our happines Psal XXIV MY God in every thing I see thy hand in every passage thy gracious Providence Thou wisely govern'st the house thou hast built and preventest with thy mercy 's all our wants Thou cal'st us up in the early morning and giv'st us light by the beams of thy Sun To labour every one in their proper Office and fill the litle place appointed them in the world Thou provid'st a rest for our weary Evening and favour'st our sleep with a shady darknes To refresh our bodys in the peace of night and save the wast of our decaying spirits Again thou awak'st our drowsy eys and bid'st us return to our dayly task Thus has thy wisdom mixt our life and beauteously interwoven it of rest and work Whose mutual changes sweeten each other and both prepare us for our greatest duty Of finishing here the work of our Salvation to rest herafter in thy holy peace Glory be c. Psal XXV LOrd how thy bounty gives us all things else * with a large and open hand Our Fields at once are cover'd with corn and our trees bow under the weight of their fruit At once thou fill'st our Magazines with plenty and sendst us who'e show'rs of other blessings Only our time thou distil'st by drops and never giv'st us two moments at once But tak'st away one when thou lendest another to teach us the price of so rich a Jewel That we may learn to value every hour and not childishly spend them on empty trifles Much less maliciously murther whole days in pursuing a course of sin and shame Lord as Thou thus hast taught our ignorance so let thy grace enable our weaknes Wisely to manage the time thou giv'st us and stil press on to new degrees of improvement That with our few but wel-spent years we may purchase to our selvs a blest eternity Glory be c. Psal XXVI IT was thy mercy too O gracious Lord to dispense by parcels our portion of time That the succeeding day may learn to grow wise and correct its faults by experience of the past Else were our Being all at once as it shall be in the next Eternal life Our sins would have here no power to be repented and then alas how desperate were we We who are born in the way to misery and unless we change can never be happy We who so often wilfully go astray and unless we return must perish for ever O Thou in whose indulgent hands * are both our time and our Eternity Whose Providence gives every minute of our life and governs the fatal period of our death O make us every Evening still provide * to pass with comfort that important hour Make us still ballance our accompts for heav'n and strive to increase our treasures with Thee That if we rise no more to our acquaintance here we may joyfully waken among thy blessed Angels There to unite our Hymns with Theirs and joyn all together in one full Quire Glory be c. Antiph All thy ways O Lord are mercy and wisdom and all thy Counsels tend to our happines Hymn VIII NOw my Soul the day is gone Which in the morn was thine Now its glass no more shall run Its Sun no longer shine True alas the day is gone O were it only so Is 't not lost as well as done Cast up thy counts and know Are we so much nearer heav'n As to the grave we bow Has our sorrow made all
art so much the more humble thy self and thou shalt find grace before God for the power of God only is great and he is honor'd of the humble Seek not the things that are too high for thee nor search into those that are above thy strength but the things which God has commanded thee think always on them and in many of his works be not curious since 't is not necessary for thee to see with thine eys those things that are hidden Place thy treasure in the precepts of the Highest and it shall profit thee more then gold Lay up thy alms in the hart of the poor and it shall obtain for thee against all evil above the shield of the mighty and above the spear it shall fight against the enemy In all thy gifts shew a chearful countenance and dedicate thy tyths with gladness give to the Highest according to what He has given thee and with a good ey do according to the ability of thy hands for our Lord is thy rewarder and he will repay thee seven times as much When the ways of a man please our Lord he will convert even his enemys to peace The hart of a man disposes his way but it pertains to our Lord to direct his steps He that is patient is better then the strong and he that rules over his mind then the Conqueror of Cities There is no wisdom there is no prudence there is no counsel against our Lord the horse is prepar'd for the day of batle but our Lord gives salvation R. Well may we give thee O Lord some part of what we have since we receiv'd of thee even all we have well may we give with gladness to Thee since thy bounty rewards us with so great advantage O make us still mistrust our selvs and with an humble confidence rely on Thee Without thy blessing our labors are in vain and against thy decrees no pollicy can succeed but if we humbly submit to thee thou wilt direct us if we keep thy commandments thou wilt defend us O make us Second Lesson WHen thou com'st to the service of God stand in justice and fear and prepare thy soul for tentation What ever is brought upon thee receive and in thy sorrow bear up and when thou art humbled have patience for gold and silver are try'd in the fire and acceptable men in the furnace of affliction Believe God and he will recover thee order thy way aright and hope in Him keep his fear and grow old therein You who fear our Lord expect his mercy decline not from him lest you fall believe him and your reward shall not miscarry You who fear our Lord hope in him and mercy shall come to you for your refreshment love him and your harts shall be illuminated Behold the generations of men and know that none has hop't in our Lord and been confounded Who ever continued in his commandments and was forsaken or cal'd upon him and he despised him God is compassionate and merciful and will pardon sins in the day of tribulation and protect all those that seek him in truth Wo to the double hart and wicked lips and the hands that work evil and the sinner that goes on the earth two ways Wo to them that are of dissolute hart who believe not God and therefore shall not be protected by him Wo to them that have lost patience and forsaken the right path and declin'd into perverse ways what will they do when our Lord shall begin to look into them R. Teach us O gracious Lord to begin our works with fear and go on with obedience and finish them with love and after all sit humbly down in hope and with a chearful confidence look up to thee * whose promises are faithful and rewards infinite All this we may do for men and yet they fail us we may fear and obey and they forget our service we may love and hope and they neglect our affections only Thou O Lord our God whom we no way can benefit dost every way oblige us * whose promises Third Lesson BEcause sentence is not speedily pronounc't against the wicked the children of men commit evil without fear but though a sinner offend a hundred times and be forborn by patience I know it shall be well with them that fear God There are just men to whom evil things happen as though they had done the works of the impious and there are impious who live secure as if they had the deeds of the just and this also I judg most vain The just and the wise and their works are in the hands of God yet no man knows whether he be worthy of love or hatred but all things are reserv'd incertain for the time to come because all things happen alike to the good and to the bad As is the vertuous so is the sinner and as the perjur'd so he that swears the truth by this the harts of men are fill'd with malice and contempt while they live and after are led away into hell I turn'd me to another thing and saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift nor the batle to the strong nor bread to the wise nor riches to the learned nor favour to men of skill but time and chance in all things R. And sure 't is fittest so for what can an infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodnes do but that which is best Lord I submit and adore thy Providence which scatters these temporal things with a seeming negligence as trifles of so litle importance that they signifie neither love nor hatred * Nothing but heav'n is indeed considerable nothing but Eternity deservs our esteem Fix thou our steps O Lord that we stager not at the uneven motions of the world but steddily go on to our glorious home not censuring our journy by the weather we meet nor turning out of the way for any accident that befals us * Nothing but Glory be * Nothing but Pause as page 17. Tuesday Lauds O God incline c. as page 18. Antiph Praise our Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Psal XXXI BE thou eternally ador'd O God of our salvation and may thy praises be sung by thy servants for ever When our first parents had disobey'd thy precepts to the ruine of themselvs and their whole posterity Thy mercy immediately provided a remedy and graciously promised a powerful Redeemer A Redeemer that should conquer sin and death and crush in pieces the serpents head A Redeemer that should fully repair the breaches of mankind and render our condition better then before Enlightning our eys with a clearer view * of those excellent truths that belong to our peace And supporting our nature with a stronger grace * to bear us safely on through all encounters Till we arrive at the land of rest and be receiv'd for ever into that glorious Kingdom O Blessed JESU our strength our guide who know'st and pittiest our weak capacitys Who in thy
tender care hast contriv'd such means * that nothing can undo us but our own perversnes How easie hast thou made the way to heav'n how light is the burthen thou lay'st on thy followers 'T is but to love Thee our greatest Benefactor and we perfectly fulfil every branch of thy Law 'T is but desiring to see Thee our supream Beatitude and we are sure to possess an eternity of joy Blessed O my God be the wisdom of thy Providence that alone knows the way to draw good out of evil That not only restores us to our first degree but makes even our fall rebound us to a greater hight Lord as thy goodnes turns all things to the advantage of thy Elect O may the Elect praise thy goodnes in all things Glory be c. Psal XXXII ADmirable wert thou O Lord in thy merciful promise but infinitely more in thy wonderful performance Thou deputedst not an Angel to supply thy place nor entrustedst so tender a work to the manage of a Seraphin But Thy self bow'dst the heav'ns and cam'st down and with thy own blest hands wroughtst our redemption Thy self took'st upon thee our frail nature and vouchsaf'dst to be born of an humble Virgin Thou condescendedst to the weaknesses of a child a child whose parents were poor and unesteem'd in the world Thou declinedst not the mean entertainment of a stable O how unfit for the birth of the King of Heav'n Thou contentedst thy self with the cradle of a manger and the uneasy lodging on a bed of straw Thou refusedst the soft accomodations of the rich to undergo the inconveniencies of a poor stranger Only the faithful Ioseph stood waiting on Thee and provided as he was able for his helples family Only thy pious Mother dearly embrac't Thee and wrapt thy tender limbs in litle clouts Wonder O heavens and be amaz'd O earth and every creature humbly bow your heads Bow and adore this incomprehensible mystery The VVORD was made flesh dwelt among us But most of all we who are most concern'd the banisht children of unfortunate Adam Let us bow down our faces to the dust and prostrate adore so unspeakable a mercy Behold thus low my Saviour stoopt for me * to check the pride of my corrupted nature Behold thus low He stoopt to take me from the ground and raise me to the felicitys of his own Kingdom Lift up thy voice with joy O my soul and sing Hosanna to the new born JESUS Call all the blessed Angels to celebrate his birth and repeat afresh that heav'nly Antheme Glory be to God on high * in earth peace towards men of good will Lift up thy voice aloud O my soul and to the Quires of heav'n ioyn the musick of the Church Glory be c. Psal XXXIII REjoyce all you faithful Nations of the earth * when you hear the sweet Name of our dear Redeemer Rejoyce and with your bended knees and harts * adore the blessed JESUS He is the Son of the everliving God equally participating the glorys of his Father He is that great Messias whom the Prophets foretold * and all the ancient Saints so long expected At length in the fulnes of time he came to visit in person our miserable world He came with his hands full of miracles and every miracle full of mercy He made the crooked become straight and the lame to walk and leap for joy He open'd the ears of the deaf to hear and gave sight to them that were born blind He loosen'd the tongues of the dumb to speak O may he govern ours to sing his praise He clens'd the leprous by the word of his mouth and heal'd their diseases who but toucht his garment To the poor he reveal'd the treasures of his Gospel and taught the simple the mysterys of his Kingdom He cast out Devils by the command of his Will and forc't them to confess and adore his Person He rais'd the dead from the grave to life the dead that were four days buryed and corrupted Nay even Himself being slain for us on the Cross * and his tomb made fast and secur'd with a guard He rais'd again by his own victorious power and carry'd up our nature into the highest heav'ns All these stupendious signs O glorious JESU were done by the hand of Thy Almighty mercy To witness thy truth with the seal of heav'n and endear thy precepts with obliging miracles That thus engag'd we might believe in Thee and obeying thy Law be eternally sav'd O Let not all this love dear Lord be lost be so many Tokens so kindly exprest One miracle more we humbly beg but one as strange and hard as any of the rest Soften our stony harts into a tender sense * of thy great goodnes and their own true duty Raise our dead spirits from this heavy earth to dwell with Thee in the land of the Living That as we here admire thy bounteous Power and daily sing the wonders of thy Grace We may herafter adore thy Blessed Self and sing eternally the wonders of thy Glory Glory be c. Antiph Praise our Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Capit. Jude v. 24 25. TO Him who is able to preserve you without sin and set you immaculate before the sight of his glory in exultation at the coming of our Lord JESUS Christ to the only God our Saviour by JESUS Christ our Lord be glory and magnificence Empire and Power before all ages and now and to all ages for ever Amen Hymn X. LEt others take their course And sing what Name they please Let wealth or beauty be their Theme Such empty sounds as these For me I 'le ne're admire A lump of burnisht clay Howe're it shines it is but dust And shall to dust decay Sweet JESUS is the Name My song shall still adore Sweet JESUS is the charming word That does my life restore When I am dead in grief Or which is worse in sin I call on JESUS and he hears And I to live begin Wherefore to thee bright Name Behold thus low I bow And thus again yet is all this Far less then what I ow. Down then down both my knees Still lower to the ground While with mine eys and voice lift up Aloud these lines I sound Live glorious King of heav'n By all the heav'n ador'd Live gracious Saviour of the world Our chief and only Lord. Live and for ever may Thy throne establisht be For ever may all harts and tongues Sing hyms of praise to Thee Amen Antiph I saw the bright Sun shew his flaming eys and behold a thousand rays fill'd the ayr and beauteously guilded the earth his glorious face but maskt it self in a cloud and immediately they vanisht away and their place was to be found no more I said such O my God just such is the stability of every creature V. Even the line we now repeat must beg its breath of Thee R. And stop if Thou deny'st it O Lord hear our
prayers And let our supplications come to Thee Let us pray O God the eternal Source and Necessity of Being on whose free overflowing that of thy whole Creation every moment depends strike we beseech Thee our harts with a continual dread and reverence of thy absolute Dominion which should it but never so litle suspend thy Bounty resolvs us all instantly into nothing nothing and grant that as we know thou preservst still on this world to grow daily riper for the Other to which thou hast ordain'd it we may by thy grace so husband our time here as in the next life to possess thy Eternity through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who c. Commemorations c. as page 29. Tuesday Vespers IN the Name c. As page 13. Antiph Who is like thee O Lord among the Gods who is like thee terrible in judgments Psal XXXIV SPeak no more proudly vain dust nor provoke any longer the living God Seal up thy lips in humble silence and tremblingly remember his dreadful judgments Remember how the earth open'd it self and swallow'd up alive so many thousands Remember how the clouds rain'd fire and brimstone and buried whole Cities in their own ashes Remember how the general deluge o'respred the world and swept away almost all mankind Remember and ask the cause of all this ruin and tell it aloud to the bold offender Tell him 't was sin and such as his * that drew upon them so swift destruction Sin threw the Angels down from heav'n and chain'd them up in eternal darknes Sin banisht Adam out of Paradise and turn'd that delicious garden into a field of weeds O God how terrible is thy mighty arm when Thou stretchest it forth to be aveng'd of thine enemys O sin how fatal is thy desperate malice that pulls on our heads all the thunder of heav'n O my soul how dull and sensles are we to sleep secure as if all were safe Can we repeat these amazing Truths and not tremble at the wrath of the divine justice Can we consider the deplorable end of sinners and still go on in the ways of sin Even while we sing thy praises O glorious Lord our very duty should fear before Thee What should corrupted nature then do when it sees its self ready to offend Thee What should a guilty Conscience do when it sees it self ruin'd by offending thee Strike thou our harts O Thou infinit Majesty with an awful reverence of thy great Name Correct our many levitys into a pious sadnes and break our proud spirits to bow to Thee Still may our consciences cry aloud within us dare you commit this evil and sin against your God Dare you commit this evil and undo your selvs and plunge your own souls in everlasting torments Forbid so rash a madness gracious Lord and make thy judgments on others mercys to us Glory be c. Antiph Who is like thee O Lord among the Gods who is like thee terrible in judgments Antiph Who is like thee O Lord among the Gods who is like thee amiable in mercys Psal XXXV WIpe away the tears from thine eys O my soul and clear thy hart from all clouds of despair He that 's thus infinite in power to punish * is full as infinite in goodness to save How often have we broken his divine Commands yet still his earth sustains and servs us How often have we abus'd our fulnes of bread yet still his clouds shower plenty upon us Himself with his own Almighty Word consin'd the waters and sharply reproacht their officiousnes to destroy Hitherto shall you come and no farther and here will I stay your proud waves Only the ambitious Angels find no forgivenes because their obstinacy refuses to seek it Else could those rebel-spirits disclaim their crimes and turn again to obey their Maker His clemency would soon revoke their sentence and restore them to shine in their first bright seats But O! the excess of mercy vouchsaft to Adam and to us dust and ashes his posterity For whom the soveraign King of heav'n * humbled Himself to descend upon earth Leading a poor laborious life and suffering a painful ignominious death Only to teach us how to live and how to dy and what in both to aim at Thy mercys Lord are above all thy works and this above all thy mercys Antiph Who is like thee O Lord among the Gods who is like thee amiable in mercys Antiph Dreadful art thou O Lord in the terror of thy Judgments but infinitely more amiable in the sweetnes of thy mercys Psal XXXVI STill let us sing the mercys of our God and hold and shake a litle longer this sweet key When we alas lay buried in the abyss of nothing his own free goodnes first cal'd us into Being He fashion'd our limbs in our mothers womb and fill'd our Nurses brest with milk He enlarg'd our litle steps when we began to go and carefully preserv'd our helpless infancy Commanding even his Angels to bear us in their hands lest we dash our feet against a stone How many dangers have we happily escapt and not one of them but was govern'd by his providence How many blessings do we dayly receive and not one of them but proceeds from his bounty He provided Tutors to instruct our youth and plant in our tender minds the seeds of vertue He appointed Pastors to feed our souls and safely guide them in the ways of Blyss He founded his Church on an immovable Rock and to render our faith firm and secure He seal'd his love with Sacraments of grace to breed and nourish in us the life of charity All this thou hast done O merciful Lord the wise Disposer of heav'n and earth All this thou hast done and still goest on * by infinite ways to gain us to thy love Thou command'st us to ask and promisest to grant thou invitest us to seek and assur'st us to find Thou vouchsaf'st even thy self to stand at the door and knock and if we open thou entrest and fill'st our harts with joy If we forget thee thou renew'st afresh our memory if we fly from thee thou still find'st some means to recal us If we defer our amendment thou patiently stay'st for us and when we return thou open'st thy arms to imbrace us Surely O my God! from all eternity * Thou hast cast thy gracious ey upon us Surely thy merciful hand has sign'd our lot and mark't us out for thy everlasting favors We know thy ways are in the deep abyss and none can sound the bottom of thy counsels Yet may we safely look on the flowing streams and gather this comfort from their gentle course When we were not thou freely lov'dst us Thou wilt nor forsake us now we strive to love thee When we had lost our way thou sought'st after us thou wilt not refuse us now we seek after thee Lord all we have is deriv'd from thee and all we expect can come from none but thy self Accomplish thine own
blest purpose in us and finish these happy beginings towards us For our hopes are great thou hast chosen us to thy glory since already thou so far art engag'd by thy grace Glory be c. Antiph Dreadful art Thou O Lord in the terrors of thy judgments but infinitely more amiable in the sweetnes of thy mercys Capit. Rom. 13. LEt every soul be subject to the higher Pow'rs for there is no Power but of God and they that be are ordain'd of God who ever therefore resists the Power resists the ordinance of God and they who resist purchase to themselves damnation For Princes are not a terror to good but evil works wilt thou then not be afraid of the Power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of it for he is the minister of God to thee for good but if thou dost evil fear for he bears not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God a revenger to wrath on him that does evil Wherefore be subject to what is so necessary not only for wrath but also for conscience And for this cause do you also pay tribute for they are the ministers of God serving to this very purpose Render therfore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honor to whom honor Ow no man any thing but to love one another for he who loves has fulfill'd the Law Hymn XI FAin would my thoughts fly up to Thee Thy peace sweet Lord to find But when I offer still the world Lays clogs upon my mind Sometimes I climb a litle way And thence look down below How nothing there do all things seem That here make such a show Then round about I turn my eys To feast my hungry sight I meet with heav'n in every thing In every thing delight I see thy Wisdom ruling all And it with joy admire I see my self among such hopes As set my hart on fire When I have thus triumph't a while And think to build my nest Some cross conceits come fluttering by And interrupt my rest Then to the earth again I fall And from my low dust cry 'T was not in my wing Lord but thine That I got up so high And now my God whether I rise Or still ly down in dust Both I submit to thy blest will In both on Thee I trust Guide thou my way who art thy self My everlasting End That every step or swift or slow Still to thy self may tend To Father Son and holy Ghost One Consubstantial Three All highest praise all humblest thanks Now and for ever be Antiph What hart can resist the great King of Kings terrible and amiable and mightily shewing Both in glorious miracles of vengeance and love V. His right hand holds a golden Scepter R. And his left a flaming sword O Lord hear our prayers And let our supplications come to Thee Let us pray O God who by hopes and fears the main swayers of our nature here hast graciously provided to counterpoise our weight downwards and sustain our faint progress up to Thee in thy Kingdom Grant we humbly beseech Thee that the many notorious Examples of thy dreadful judgments on obstinate and incorrigible sinners may strongly over-aw our vices and impenitence and thy many more eminent instances of indulgence and mercy to the penitent and truly desirous of vertue may incourage our weaknes into effectual endeavours after it by the abundant and surely efficatious means thou hast vouchsaf't in thy Church through our Lord O Lord hear c. As page 45. Tuesday Complin OUr help is in c. as page 46. Antiph Thou art O Lord all goodnes and patience and we alas all sin and disobedience Psal XXXVII GOod God how extreamly ingrateful are we how strangely insensible of our manifest duty Every creature hears thy voice but we every thing lives by rule but we The Sun observs its constant rising and sets exactly at his appointed time The Sun stands still if thou commandest and even goes back to obey thy will And yet the Sun pretends no reward nor looks to be plac'd in a higher heav'n We who expect those glorious promises and aim no lower then the heav'n of heav'ns Shall we forget the law of our God that only instructs us to perfect our selvs We who are bought by the blood of JESUS and freely redeem'd by his sacred Cross Shall we neglect so gracious a Saviour whose only design is to draw us to his love Shall we neglect so generous a love whose only effect is to make us happy O may thy holy will dear Lord be all our rule and thy gracious hand our only guide O may thy infinite goodnes engage us to love Thee and thy blessed love prepare us to enjoy Thee Glory be c. Psal XXXVIII WHat did I say O Lord my God! we guide not our lives by thy strait rules It was too mild and gentle a reproof * for us who quite contradict thy Laws What thou forbidst we eagerly pursue and what thou command'st our frowardnes still resists We boldly converse with temptation and sin which thy charity advises us to fly like death We timorously fear a loss or frown where Thou bidst us proceed with undaunted courage We govern our actions by our own wild fancys and expect thy Providence should comply with our humors We would have Thee relieve us when we list and rain and shine as we think fit Pardon O gracious Lord this rude perversnes and fashion our spirits to submit to Thee Make us exactly observe what Thou prescrib'st how bitter so ever it tasts to our sense We are sure thy wisdom knows our infirmities we are sure thy Goodnes delights in our relief Glory be c. Psal XXXIX T Was not alone to make the day that Thou O Lord did'st make the Sun But to teach us these pious Lessons and write them plain as it 's own beams So should our light shine forth to others and so our charity warm their coldness So when they say we are under a cloud we should like the Sun be really above it And though we appear sometimes Eclipst or even extinguisht in a night of sorrow Still we should shine to our selves and Thee and still go on the ways of light Still like the regular Sun unchangedly expect * the appointed periods of bright and dark Only in this we gladly disagree and blest be our God who made the difference Not like the Sun that every night goes down and must at last be quite put out When we have finisht here our course and seem to set to this dark earth We hope to rise and set no more but shine perpetually in a brighter heav'n Glory be c. Antiph Thou art O Lord all goodnes and patience and we alas all sin and disobedience Hymn XII BLessed O Lord be thy wise grace That governs all our day And to the night assigns its place To rest us in our way If
works the laboring hand impair Or thoughts the studious mind Both are consider'd by thy care Both fit refreshment find Fit to relieve their present state Fit to prepare the next While we are taught to meditate This plain and useful Text. As every Night lays down our head And morning ope's our eys So shal the dust be once our bed And so we hope to rise To rise and see that beauteous light Spring from those eys of Thine Not to be check't by any night But clear for ever shine All glory to the sacred Three One everliving Lord As at the first still may He be Belov'd obey'd ador'd Amen Capit. 1 Pet. 4. THe end of all is at hand bewise therefore and watch in prayers but above all have mutual charity continually among your selves for charity covers a multitude of sins use hospitality one towards another without murmuring every one as he has receiv'd grace ministring the same one towards another as good dispensers of the manifold grace of God If any man speak as the words of God if any man minister as of the Power which God gives that in all things God may be honored by JESUS Christ to whom is Glory and Empire for ever and ever Amen Antiph The Sun runs it's Course or stands still or goes back as thou command'st the raging Sea growes calm nay divides it's waves at thy word only Thine own Israel resist the voice of their God V. A rod of direction is the Scepter of thy Kingdom R. Swaying man to observe the discipline of life O Gratious Lord whose laws are but necessary Rules of Soul-saving love and whose Commands are but emphatical Advises of what our nature requires to grow happy Quicken we beseech Thee the slacknes of our obedience to them by often reflecting on this thy generous Goodnes and grant the ready observance paid by all other creatures to thy least will for serving us may so reproach our perverse resisting the guidance of thy sweet spirit towards our own only good which thou kindly cal'st thy Service that we may feel our selves confounded with shame at our notorious follys and be henceforth apter to learn by all the world about us our duty to Thee through our Lord Vouchsafe us as Page 54 to the end Office for Wednesday Matins Introduction as page 1. Invitatory Come let 's adore our God that governs us Come let 's adore our God that governs us Psal XL. HE is our great soveraign and Lord the absolute King of heav'n and earth he sees at once the whole frame of all things and thorowly comprehends their various natures Come let 's adore our God that governs us To every creature he appoints a fit Office and guides all their motions in perfect order till he has wrought his glorious design to finish the world in a beauteous cloze Come let 's adore our God that governs us All these he governs with infinite wisdom and all for the good of them that love him his counsels are deep and beyond our reach but all his ways are just and merciful Come let 's adore our God that governs us He governs his enemys with a rod of iron and punishes their wilfulnes with eternal miserys but his servants he blesses with the priviledg of children and provides for their duty a rich inheritance Come le ts adore our God that governs us Glory be c. As it was c. Come le ts adore our God that governs us Come let 's adore out God that governs us Hymn XIII OPen thine eys my soul and see Once more the light returns to thee Look round about and chuse the way Thou mean'st to travel o're to day Think on the dangers thou mayst meet And always watch thy sliding feet Think where thou once hast faln before And mark the place and fall no more Think on the helps thy God bestows And cast to steer thy life by those Think on the sweets thy soul did feel When thou didst well and do so still Think on the pains that shall torment Those stubborn sins that ne're repent Think on the joys which wait above To crown the head of holy love Think what at last will be thy part If thou go'st on where now thou art See life and death set thee to chuse One thou must take and one refuse O my dear Lord guide thou my course And draw me on with thy sweet force Still make me walk still make me tend By Thee my way to Thee my end All glory to the sacred Three One undivided Deity As it has been in ages gone May now and ever still be done Antiph The day will come it will infallibly come when God will destroy all that work iniquity Psal XLI WHy do you laugh unhappy wretches * who tire your selves in the ways of sin Ways that indeed seem smooth at first but lead to danger and end in ruine Why do you boast your pleasant life * who ly asleep in the arms of death Awake and chace the dream away * that deludes your sick heads with empty fancys Awake and fill your eys with teares * and sadly look on your real miserys Whither alas will your souls be hurry'd when in cold despare you sigh away your last faint breath They shall fly amaz'd from the sight of heav'n and hide their guilty selves in eternal darknes There they shal dwel with intolerable pains weeping and wailing and lamenting for ever Their understanding shal sit as in a deep dungeon and think on nothing but its own calamitys Their Will shal be heightn'd to a madness of desire and perpetually rackt with the despir of obtaining Their Memory shal serve but to renew their sorrows and their whole souls be drown'd in a sea of bitternes They shal wish the Mountains to fall upon them and cry to the Hils to cover them But nothing shal fal on them but the wrath of God nor cover them but their own confusion There every vice shal have its proper torment prodigiously bred out of its own corruption The lascivious shal burn in unquenchable fire perpetually flaming from their own passions The Glutton and the Drunkard shal vainly sigh * for a drop of water to cool their tongues The furious colerick shal rage like mad dogs and the spiteful envious knaw their own bowels The riches of the covetous shal be as thorns in their sides and the proud be thrown down to the bottom of contempt The slothful shal miserably deplore their lost time and languish with grief for their stupid negligence But O what horrid pangs shal seize them all and wound and pierce the very center of their souls When they shal see themselvs eternally deprived * of the bright and blisful Vision of God When they shal see themselvs eternally banisht * from the sweet and gratious presence of JESUS That God who made them to injoy his glory that JESUS who 〈◊〉 redeem'd them to be heirs of his felicity Then they shall curse the day of
sin and a shame that brings glory and grace Accept no person against thy soul not let the respect of any cause thee to fall Reverence not thy neighbour in his offence nor refrain from speaking when there is occasion to do good By no means contradict the truth nor be asham'd to confess thy sins Be not hasty in thy words and remiss and unprofitable in thy deeds Let not thy hand be stretcht out to receive and clos'd to give Be not as a lyon in thy house nor oppress those that are under thee Fear our Lord and the King and with detracters meddle not for their perdition shall suddenly come upon them He that swears much shall be fill'd with iniquity and mischief shall not depart from his house if he deceive his brother his sin shall be upon him if he dissemble he doubles his offence and if he swear in vain he shall not be acquitted Turn away thy face from a woman trimly drest and gaze not at anothers beauty for by the beauty of a woman many have perisht and it inflames concupiscence as a fire Be not at the feast of great drinkers nor at the riotous banquets of those who bring their dishes together to eat for the drunkard and the glutton shall be consum'd and the drowsy cloth'd with rags I past by the field of a slothful man and by the vinyard of a fool and behold it was run over with netles and thorns cover'd its face and the stone wall was destroy'd which when I saw I laid it in my hart and by the example learnt discipline By what things a man sins by the same he shall be tormented R. Blessed O my God be thy Providence for ever which so plentifully furnishes us with rules of vertue and so safely guides all those sould to happines who chuse to live under thy sweet government * As thou hast shewn us the way Lord give us strength to walk in it and bring us in the end to thy eternal rest Make us seriously reflect on every line we read and love the truth when it most reproves us Make us labour to correct every error of our lives and always humbly implore thy gracious assistance * As thou hast Glory be c. * As thou hast Pause As page 17. VVednesday Lauds O God incline c. as page 18. Antiph All my life long will I praise my God and lift up my hands to his holy Throne Psal XLIV LEt them neglect thy praises O Lord who never consider thy mercys Let them be silent to thee O gracious God whose mouths are full of themselves But as for us who subsist by thy gifts * and thankfully acknowledg the riches of thy goodnes Our harts shal continually meditate on Thee and our lips delight to sing thy glory Blessed for ever be thy name O JESU and blessed be the sweetnes of thy Wisdom Whose infinite Charity has vouchsaft our earth * such excellent Rules to guide it to heaven Thou taughtst us that happy skil of finding our lives by a generous losing them to follow Thee Thou taught'st us to love our true selvs best by wisely hating our mistaken selvs Thou taught'st us to trample this world under our feet and use it as a step to climb up to the next From Thee we learn those glorious Mysterys * that exalt our faith so high above reason From thee we derive those Heroick Counsels * that raise our souls so far above nature From thee alone and from thy school of grace * all we know we learn and all we do we receive How long alas might we have wandred here * in the midst of darknes and error Had not thy love and pity O merciful Lord brought down thy very self to become our light Never should we else have learnt to deny our selvs and take up our Cross and follow Thee Never should we have known that great secret of peace to forgive our enemys and do good to those who despitefully use us On the unsatisfying things of this low earth * should we blindly have set our whole affections Hadst thou not told us of the Kingdom of Heav'n and bid us lay up our treasures there Hadst thou not terrify'd us to fear thy wrath by declaring the miserys that attend our sins Hadst thou not invited us to obey thy Commands by proposing the felicitys of a pious life What hast thou promised gracious Lord * to the meek and poor in spirit What hast thou promised to the Weepers here to those that hunger and thirst after holines How many joys has thy bounty prepar'd for the lovers of mercy and the makers of peace How many blessings for the pure of hart and those who with patience bear their Crosses O thou all-seeing Wisdom of the eternal Father * and Soveraign King of Men and Angels Who left'st thy glorious Throne to come down on our earth and familiarly teach us the Oracles of heav'n Write thou these sacred words in the tables of our harts and suffer not at any time our passions to break them Make us stil study Thee our heav'nly Master and continually admire the beauty of thy Law A Law that so clearly shews us our end and so plenteously furnishes means to attain it A Law that so safely cures our infirmitys and so fitly supplys all our defects A Law so exactly conform to true reason and so highly perfective of humane nature A blessed Law that makes even here our life more sweet and leads us herafter to everlasting felicity Glory be c. Psal XLV NEver will we cease to exalt thy Goodnes O JESU since thou never ceasest to oblige us with new Blessings Thy generous charity could not thus be satisfyd to have only spoken to us the words of lif 'T was not enough for thy excessive love that thy heav'nly Sermons told us our duty But thou must urge and provoke our obedience by the sweet inforcement of thine own example Thou forbad'st thy followers to affect superfluitys and thine own provision was a few barly loavs Thou command'st the rich to give alms with cheerfulnes and bestow'st on the poorest wretch even thy precious self Thou bid'st us not fear them that kill the body and yeildest up thine own to the death on the Cross Thou injoyn'st us to love our fiercest Enemys and thy dying breath pray'd for thy Crucifiers Thy perfect Soul needed not as our weak natures * the outward forms and discipline of Religion Yet thou vouchsafed'st to observe the common Feasts and assist at the publique Offices of the Temple To watch and pray and fast with so fervent a zeal that thy practice outdid thine own precepts This life and even death it self our merciful Lord undertook to mark out for us the way to heav'n To beat it plain by his own sacred steps and render our passage thither easy and secure Shal we not then O my Soul rejoycingly follow that path * which we see our Saviour trod before us Which we see though
her head with a diadem of Saints Thou hast given her the keys of all thy treasures and open'd to her the mysterys of heav'n it self Mysterys that free our souls from the dominion of sense and place them above the reach of reason These thy whole Church unanimously attests as deriv'd from Thee their original source And runing along through every age * have always maintain'd their constant chanel O may they still bear on their course and still spread wider their wholsom streams May all the world be water'd with this dew of heav'n and bring forth fruit to everlasting life But O unhappy you who seek new paths and blindly follow your misleading guides You who forsake the known Church-way to truth and charge the whole Christian world with malice and error Tell me can any reason considerately think * that so many witnesses should conspire in a falshood Such as must necessarily damn themselvs and desperately endanger all their posterity Such as by every ey may easily be discern'd and the credit of the forgers confounded with shame Stay till a thousand Mothers freely agree * to poyson themselvs and their beloved children Stay till a Nation solemnly vote * that a wave of the Sea is firmer then a rock When you have seen this done and the deluge of Antichrist himself invade the world Yet shall that holy Ark still float above and save the Just from the fury of the waves O the excessive goodnes of our merciful God who has made his Testimonys even too credible Too credible to be doubted by any thing but ignorance too credible to be deny'd by any thing but passion We are almost now constrain'd to believe Lord grant us grace but to hope and love Glory be c. Antiph Upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Antiph How admirably O Lord has thy Wisdom contriv'd our salvation infusing even by our senses grace into our souls Psal LV. SAfe in this hand has our provident Lord * deposited the richest treasures of his Kingdom Commanding his Priests to conserve them with reverence * and dispense them to others with a prudent charity Soon as we 're born into this world of danger his vigilant Baptism stands ready to save us Ready to wipe out the guilt of our birth and write our new names in the book of life What all eternity could never have worn off * a litle sprinkling of water washes away When we are come to riper years and a fit capacity of professing our Faith His holy Bishops mysteriously anoint our foreheads to cherish and Confirm our growing beleef That we never be asham'd of the Cross of Christ but to the face of death freely confess him If in our spiritual combat we receive a wound he has appointed persons expresly to cure us Only he requires we should open our sores before them and hartily repent our wilful rashnes He requires we should satisfy the world and our own souls in repairing the damage they sustain by our trespas Heal'd by the bitter waters of Pennance we are imediatly invited to all the sweetnes of Paradise To tast the delicious bread of Angels to eat even the Flesh it self of the Son of God So to become intirely one with him while we feed on his Body and are govern'd by his Spirit That the world may continue in a blest succession he solemnly sanctify'd the rites of Marriage Exalting that state to the honour of a Sacrament that we might more regard the holines of its dutys To prevent the failing of Governours in the Church the Church for which this world continues Themselvs are impowr'd to kindle fresh lights who stil may shine on when the old ones are spent Yet is there one important period of our life the sicknes that summons us to the bar of death Nor has our gracious Lord forgotten this but carefully provided a holy Unction To allay our fears in that sad hour and strengthen our hopes of everlasting felicity That we may finish our course in peace and go up with joy to receive our crown Thus by thy wise indulgent care O Thou sweet Conductor of our Souls Every station of our pilgrimage has a fit entertainment and every defect a proper remedy Glory be c. Antiph How admirably O Lord has thy Wisdom contriv'd our Salvation infusing even by our senses grace into our souls Antiph We confess we are bound to do many things against our will why not believe some few above our understanding Psal LVI THese are the seven bright golden Candlesticks * set up to enlighten and adorn the Church But behold in the midst One like the son of man but is indeed the Son of God Behold One disguis'd in the shape of bread but is indeed the Son both of God and man He whom the Seraphims prostrate adore and fly with all their wings to perform his commands He who came down to dy for us sinners and ascended again above the highest heav'ns Himself is there and graciously stays our coming to receive our pray'rs and send us home with his blessing He 's there though not discern'd by sense nor the mysterys of his presence comprehended by reason Yet may a lively faith pass through the veil and confidently enter into the holy of holys A faith that works by love may enter and fill it self with celestial Manna But the uncharitable faith shall be cast into darkness among them that believe and tremble Behold O Lord we believe and hope perfect by thy vigorous grace our faint endeavours Quicken our half dead faith into a ready assent where ever thou art pleas'd to engage thy word Why should we doubt the Power of God can do somthing that the weaknes of man cannot understand Which of us knows how the common bread we eat * is naturally turn'd into our own substance And shall we dispute the supernatural conversion * of this blessed bread into the substance of our Saviour Shall we submit our reason to the secrets of nature and make it judg of the mysterys of grace Shall we rely on the reports of men where we do not see and distrust the word of God because we do not see No let us now believe that herafter we may see when our eys shall be open'd in the Kingdom of light Where our dark faith shall cease into vision and our hope expire into full enjoyment Where all our affections shall be contracted into love and love extended to eternity Glory be c. Antiph We confess we are bound to do many things against our will why not believe some few above our understanding Our Father c. First Lesson CHrist loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify it cleansing it by the Laver of water in the word of life that he might present to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors
* and are opprest under the weight of your sins Come to me you that hunger after heav'n * and thirst to drink at the fountain of blyss Come to me and I will refresh you * with the wine of gladnes and the bread of life Come you that are weak that you may grow strong and you that are strong lest you become weak Come you that have leisure and here entertain your time come you that are busy and here learn to sanctify your imployment Come all and gather freely of this celestial Manna and fill your souls with the food of Angels Glory be c. Psal LVIII THus does our gracious Lord invite and shall we go shall sinners dare to sit down at his table Thus He invites and shall we not go shall wretches presume to refuse his Call Rise then my soul and take thy swiftest wings and fly to the presence of this great Mystery Soon as thou com'st bow low thy head and humbly adore our hidden God Our God who is come thus far to meet us and brings along with him a whole heav'n to entertain us Arise and leave the world behind thee and run with gladnes to salute thy Lord Enter the Palace of that admirable Tabernacle the house of his own most glorious Residence There we shall see the Eternal Word * that descended from heav'n to become man for us We shall see him still more wonderfully abridg'd * into a lesser space and lower shape There we shall see the Lord of glory * vested with the familiar forms of bread and wine There we shall see the Prince of Peace * sacrifice himself to reconcile us with his Father There we shall see O stupendious mercy the Son of God stoop even to the mouths of men Can we O dear Redeemer believe these Wonders and not be ravisht with admiration of thy love Can we acknowledg thy supream Veracity and not believe were they possible stil greater wonders What though our eys say ther 's nothing but bread our faith assures us there 's nothing but our Saviour Shall not the almighty Power that made our senses * exceed the operation of his own creatures Shall we refuse to believe our God because his mercys transcend our capacitys No no 't is thy very self we see O Blessed JESU 't is thine own light by which we see Thee None but an infinite Wisdom could ever have invented * so strange and high and prodigious a mystery None but a more then infinite Goodnes would ever have imparted * so dear and tender and rich a blessing Glory be c. Psal LIX LOrd who are we unworthy sinners that thus thou regardest our wretched dust What is all the world compar'd to Thee that thus thou seem'st to disregard thy self 'T is for our sakes and to draw us to thy love that thou personally vouchsafest to dwell among us 'T is for our sakes and to spare the infirmity of our nature that thy brightnes appears not in its proper luster Blessed O JESU are the eys that see thee in this kind disguise and the mouth that reverently receives Thee Blessed yet more is the hart that desires thy coming and longs to see thee in thy beauteous self O Thou eternal Lord of grace and glory * our joy and portion in the land of the Living What hast thou there prepar'd for thy servants who bestowest such pledges of thy bounty here What dost Thou there reserve in thine own Kingdom who giv'st us Thy self in this place of banishment How will thy open vision transport our souls when our dark faith yields such delight Nothing on earth so sweet as to kneel whole hours before thee and one by one consider thy innumerable mercys VVhat must it be in heaven to shine continually before Thee and all in one contemplate thy u●●speakable glorys O my ador'd Redeemer when will that happy day appear that mine eys may behold thee without a veil When will these clouds and shadows pass away that thy beams may shine on me in their full brightnes Object not against me dearest Lord that none can see thy face and live Those fears thy love has chang'd and all my hope * is now to live by seeing thee Say not O thou mild and gracious Majesty if I approach thy presence I must dy Rather instruct me so to dy that I may live for ever in thy presence Glory be c. Antiph How great is the multitude of thy sweetnes O Lord which Thou hast hidden for those that love Thee Capit. 7. Apoc. A Men Benediction and Glory and VVisdom and Thanksgiving Honor and Power and Strength be to our God for ever and ever Amen Hymn XVIII VVIth all the pow'rs my poor soul hath Of humble love and loyal faith Thus low my God I bow to Thee VVhom too much love bow'd low'r for me Down busy sense Discourses dy And all adore Faith's Mystery Faith is my skill Faith can believe As fast as Love new laws can give Faith is my ey Faith strength affords To keep pace with those pow'rful words And words more sure more sweet then they Love could not think Truth could not say O dear Memorial of that death VVhich still survives and gives us breath Live ever bread of Life and be My food my joy my all to me Come glorious Lord my hopes encrease And fill my portion in thy peace Come hidden life and that long day For which I languish come away When this dry soul those eys shal see And drink the unseald source of Thee When glory's Sun faith's shade shal chase And for thy veil give me thy face Antiph He feeds the young Ravens that call on Him and says He esteems us much better then them behold a full proof He feeds them and all things else but to feed us behold yet a fuller O Riddle of Bounty even out of the Feeder himself comes food for us V. The bread of life which came down from heav'n R. Feed us with the bread of science and understanding O Lord hear our pray'rs And let our supplications come to Thee Let us pray O Bounteous Lord the continual supplier of thy creatures with all convenient sustenance to advance our growth and strength fit to take heav'n by violence and rise at length eternal Injoyers of thy self Fix we beseech Thee our eys and adoration on that open Hand which thus graciously gives us our dayly bread and grant that the miraculous Feast of thy Sons Body and Blood may duly sanctify our tasts to all other thy bountys that they may relish as they are only thy great love to us and feed as they ought purely thy dear love in us through the same our Lord Commemorations as Page 29. Thursday Vespers OUr Father c. as Page 33. Antiph Whether O my God should we wander if left to our selvs where should we fix our harts if not directed by thee Psal LX. UNhappy man at first created just as every work comes fair from
men Psal LXIII VVHo will give me this happy favour that I may find my God alone That I may find him in the silence of retirement where the noise of this world can no way interrupt us But that my God may speak to me and I to him as dearest friends converse together That I may unfold before him all my wants and freely ask the charity of his counsel VVhat shall I do O my gracious Lord to be happy here VVhat shall I do to be happy herafter Nature already has thus far taught me that in all I undertake I seek my own good Only I have cause to fear I may mistake that good and set up an Idol instead of thee Unless my God vouchsafe to instruct me and shew my soul its true felicity Hark how the eternal wisdom gives thee advice and let every word sink deep into thy soul Seek with thy first endeavours the Kingdom of heav'n and all things else shall be added to thy wish Love with thy whole affections the injoyment of thy God and all things else shall conspire to thy happines All these my lips confess are excellent truths but when O my God shall my life confess them When shall I perfectly overcome my passions and guide them so that they may draw me to thy light While they are mine alas I cannot govern them behold dear Lord I offer them all to Thee Check thou their lawles motions by thy grace lest they violently carry me away from my duty Wean thou my hart from the follys of this world and quicken its appetite to thy solid joys That I may hunger and thirst perpetually after Thee and those glorious promises thou hast made to thy servants That my whole soul may seek Thee alone since Thou alone art all my heav'n Glory be c. Psal LXIV WHen O my soul shall thy God find thee alone free from those busy thoughts that fill thy head O with what ready charity would he then instruct thee and let thee in to his blessed Secrets Himself would become thy familiar Guest and dwell with thee in perpetual joy Lord Thou must enter first and chace those fancys away and consecrate my soul a temple to thy self Take thou entire possession and hold it fast for ever and suffer not the enemys of my peace to return Sit thou as Soveraign King and absolutely command for thy government is mild and rewards are infinite What hast thou promis'd gracious Lord * to him that receives thee with an humble love All that 's contain'd in those sweet and mystick words * he dwels in me and I in him O blessed words if once my soul can say He dwels in me and I in him He is my refuge in all temptations He is my comfort in all distresses He is my security against all enemys He dwels in me and I in him What can an infinite bounty give greater then it self and what can an empty creature receive greater then his God O glorious God my life my joy and the only center of all my hopes VVere my unsteddy soul once united to Thee or once had relisht the sweetnes of thy presence How would all other company seem dull and tedious and the whole world be bitter to my tast How would my thoughts cleave fast to thee and gladly seal this everlasting Covenant If Thou O Lord wilt dwel with me my hart shall continually attend on Thee Night and day will I sing thy praises and all my life long adore thy mercys Glory be c. Psal LXV THou art my only hope O blessed JESU and thy favour alone is all things to me In thee I find the providence of a father * and the tender kindnes of an indulgent mother In thee I enjoy the protection of a King * and the rare fidelity of a constant friend In thee I possess what ever I want and thy fulnes exceeds even my utmost desires Thou art O JESU my God and all things what can I think or wish for more Already enough is said for them that love and know the value of those precious words O sweet and charming words my God and all things sweet in excess to those that tast them Not to the corrupted palates of the world who relish nothing but the food of sense VVordes that revive the fainting mind and fill its darkest thoughts with light and joy O may these blessed words dwell on my tongue and live for ever in my faithful memory VVhere e're I am in this inconstant world and what ever busines entertains my hand Still let my inward ey look up towards Thee and fix my sight on thy glorious face Still may I wish and long for that happy day * which opens to my soul so blest a view Where I shall see and no longer darkly believe * that thou O Lord art my God and all things Glory be c. Antiph What couldst thou say dear Lord more sweet then this Thy delight is to be with the children of men Hymn XX. COme my thoughts who fondly fly At every toy that passes by Spending so your strength in vain While what you court you ne're can gain Come my soul who sure must be Quite tir'd with all this life can see Losing oft thy hope and time Come take advice of this plain rime Seek no more abroad thy rest But seek at home in thine own brest Let thy mind from guilt be clear Then look for all thy comfort there With thy Self and with thy God Delight to make thy chief abode There repose secure and free And no mischance can trouble thee Should death's self thy walls assail Still thou art safe and canst not fail Still thy soul 's thine own and she To a new house remov'd shall be New and lasting there above All built and furnish't with pure love There shall this mud wall of thine Repair'd the brightest stars outshine There thy Lord who feeds thee now VVith his own flesh will more bestow He came down to be like thee Thou shalt go up and like Him be King of glory King of peace May these our praises never cease Still may we adore thy Throne Still bow and sing to Thee alone Capit. 1. Pet. 5. HUmble your selvs under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in the day of visitation casting upon Him all your solicitude for He has care of you Be sober and watch for your adversary the devil as a roaring lyon compasses about seeking whom he may devour whom resist strong in faith Antiph Be vacant and see how sweet our Lord is get above the eclipse of earth and be ravisht with the light of his countenance V. I said to all creatures Peace be gone R. Let me injoy my God in solitude and silence O Lord hear our prayers And let our supplications come to Thee Let us pray O God whose delights are to be with the children of men when thy grace can prevail with us to quit all other Converse and
retire to Thee alone Grant we humbly beseech Thee that thy Providence's withdrawing every night all the world from our senses may efficaciously prompt us to clear our heads and harts of all its distractions and thy holy Spirit finding our minds happily vacant may fill them with acts of love and reverence and adoration of Thee as our only God and all things through our Lord Vouchsafe c. as page 54. Friday MATINS Introduction as page 1. Invitatory Come let 's adore our God that redeem'd us Come let 's adore our God that redeem'd us Psal LXVI VVHen we had sold our selvs to sin and were all become the slaves of Satan our blessed JESU descended from heav'n and brought a vast price to buy out our freedom Come let 's adore our God that redeem'd us The price was no less then his own dearest blood which he plenteously shed on the holy Cross depositing so his inestimable life to rescue us sinners from eternal death Come let 's adore our God that redeem'd us Let us consecrate this day to his sacred memory and tenderly compassionate his unparalleld sufferings repenting from our harts our many sins and thankfully admiring his infinite mercys Come let 's adore our God that redeem'd us Let us wean our minds from unbecoming delights and mortify our senses with a prudent restraint that carry'd on the wings of fasting and alms our prayers may mount up more swiftly to heav'n Come let 's adore our God that redeem'd us Glory be to the Father c. As it was c. Come let 's adore our God that redeem'd us Come let 's adore our God that redeem'd us Hymn XXI COme let 's adore the King of love And King of sufferings too For love it was that brought him down And set him here in wo. Love drew him from his Paradise Where flow'rs that fade not grow And planted Him in our poor dust Among us weeds below Here for a time this heav'nly Plant Fairly grew up and thriv'd Diffus'd its sweetnes all about And all in sweetnes liv'd But envious frosts and furious storms So long so fiercely chide This tender Flow'r at last bow'd down Its bruised head and dy'd O narrow thoughts and narrower speech Here your defects confess The life of Christ the death of God How faintly you express Help O thou blessed Virgin-root Whence this fair Flow'r did spring Help us to raise both hart and voice And with more spirit sing To Father Son and holy Ghost One undivided Three All highest praise all humblest thanks Now and for ever be Antiph Take up thy cross and follow thy Lord for his yoke is sweet and his burthen light Psal LXVII MY God who can complain of doing too much if they consider the labours of JESUS Those painful labours he so freely undertook and mildly stoopt to his humble task When he might have flown on the wings of Cherubims he chose to walk with us worms in the dust When he might have cal'd for Manna from heav'n in the sweat of his brows he would eat his bread When he might have made the Angels his footstool he rather became the servant of his Parents Living with Them in their litle cottage and readily obeying even their least command There in that humble privacy He increast in wisdom and grew in grace both with God and man Still by his pious candor gaining the love * of those happy few that saw his life That saw thy holy life O glorious JESU and heard with joy and wonder thy incomparable sayings That felt a gentle motion stir their harts * to love and imitate so blest a pattern O that the same sweet spirit of grace * might draw our minds dear Lord to thee O that we could in every passage of our life * still actually reflect on the example of Thine Thy retirements were fill'd with holy speculations and in the midst of busines thy mind was free for heav'n Thy converse with others mispent no time but bestow'd every moment in excellent charity To instruct the ignorant and reduce the deceiv'd to comfort the afflicted and heal the diseas'd To convince the froward and absolve the penitent and perswade all the world to be truly happy It was thy meat and drink to do thy Fathers will O make it ours to perform Thine Make us in every action still think on Thee what thou wouldst counsel us to do What Thou thy self wouldst do O Blessed JESU if thou again wert here among us And when we thus have learnt our duty Lord make us do what thou hast made us know Glory be c. Antiph Take up thy Cross and follow thy Lord for his yoke is sweet and his bruthen light Antiph He humbled himself for us and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross Psal LXVIII MY God who can repine at suffering too much if they remember the afflictions of JESUS Those many afflictions he so patiently endur'd and bore with silence all their weight Even from his humble cradle in the grot of Bethelem to his bitter Cross on the mount of Calvary How litle do we read of glad and prosperous how much of pains and grief and perpetual affronts Somtimes abandon'd by his nearest friends and left alone among all his discomforts Somtimes pursu'd by his fiercest enemys and made the common mark of all their spite Somtimes they plot to insnare Him in his words and enviously slander his miraculous deeds Somtimes tumultuously they gather about him to gaze at and abuse this Man of sorrows Somtimes they furiously seize on his Person and hale and drag him along the streets At last they all conspire to take away his life and condemn him to a sharp and cruel death Have you not seen a harmless Lamb * stand silent in the midst of ravenous wolves So stood the Prince of Peace and Innocence besieg'd with a ring of savage Jews When they blasphem'd Him he reply'd not again and when they injuriously struck him he only observ'd their rashnes When they provok't him with their utmost malice he pleaded their excuse and when they kill'd him he earnestly pray'd for their pardon O strange ingratitude of humane nature thus barbarously to crucify the worlds Redeemer O admirable love of the worlds Redeemer thus patiently to dy for humane nature Say now my soul for whom thy dearest Lord * indur'd all this and infinitely more Canst thou complain of thy litle troubles when the King of glory was thus afflicted Canst thou complain of a meanly furnisht house when the Son of God had not where to lay his head We wear the conisance of a crucify'd Lord and shall we shrink back at every cross we meet We believe in a God that was crown'd with thorns and shall we abide to tread on nothing but roses Before our eys O JESU we see thee humble and meek and shall thy servants be proud and insolent We see thee travail up and down poor and unregarded and shal thy
followers strive to be rich and esteem'd Thy charitable labours were maliciously slander'd and shall not our faults have the patience to be reprov'd Thou disdain'dst not to be cal'd in scorn the Carpenters son and cannot our lownes bear a litle disparagement O how unlike are we to that blest Original * who descended from heav'n to become our pattern How do we go astray from that sacred path * which the holy JESUS trac'd with his own steps Pity O dear Redeemer the infirmitys of thy children and strengthen with thy grace our fainting harts Arm us O glorious Conqueror of sin and death against all the fears and terrors of this world Arm all our powers with those celestial vertues of Faith and Hope and invincible Love That we may still go on and resolutely meet * whatever stands in our way to heav'n Since we must suffer as Christians and deserve it as sinners * Lord let us bear it as becomes thy servants Glory be c. Antiph He humbled himself for us and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross Antiph Unworthy are we O Lord of the least of thy favours and ingrateful for all Psal LXIX MY God when I consider what thou hast suffer'd for us and what we have done against our ●●elvs I am amaz'd at the wonders of thy goodnes and confounded at the vilenes of our misery Our sins were the cause of thy cruel death yet still we permit them to live in us We entertain the worst of thine enemys and treacherously lodg them in our own bosoms Prefering a petty interest before thy heav'n a transitory pleasure before eternal felicity Many we confess are the follys of our life and our consciences tremble at their own great guilt Many are the times thou hast graciously pardon'd us and still we relapse and abuse thy clemency The memory of our transgressions is bitter to us and the thought of our ingratitude extreamly afflicts us But is there O my JESU any stain so foul * which thy precious Blood cannot wash away Is there any heap of sins so vast * to exceed the number of infinite mercys O no Thou canst forgive more then we can offend but Thou wilt not forgive unless we fear to offend Unless we seek to Thee for peace and reconcilement and humble our selvs in thy holy presence Wherefore behold O Lord we fall down at thy crucified Feet and there ask pardon for our perverse affections Reverently we kiss thy pierced Hands and implore forgivenes of our wicked actions Humbly we salute thy bleeding Side and supplicate thy grace to purify our intentions All we can offer thy offended Majesty * to pacify the justice of thy wrath Is only an humble ey bath'd in tears and a penitent hart broken with contrition Only a firm Resolve to change our lives and even all this we must beg of Thee O Thou our gracious and indulgent Lord who freely pardon'st all that truly repent Who giv'st repentance to all that ask and invit'st all to ask by promising to give Make us look seriously into our own brests and hartily lament our many failings Make us search diligently for our bosom-sins and strive to cast them out with prayer and fasting Open thou O Lord our lips to accuse our crimes that we blush not to confess what we fear'd not to do Correct our past sins with the works of pennance that the stains they leave may be quite ta'ne away Preserve us herafter with thy powerful grace that no temptation surprize or overcome us Extend thy mercy O Lord over all our works since Thy self has declar'd 't is above all thine own Glory be c. Antiph Unworthy are we O Lord of the least of thy favors and ingrateful for all Our Father c. First Lesson ATtend to me O my People hear me O my Nation for a Law shall proceed from Me and my judgment shall rest to be a light of the world I gave my back to the scourgers and my cheeks to those who pluckt off the hair I turn'd not away my face from them that rebuk't me and spit upon me I have trodden the winepress alone and of the Gentiles there was not a man with me I lookt about and there was no helper I sought and there was none to aid All that saw the laught me to scorn they shot out their lips and shook their heads he hop't in the Lord let him deliver him because he delights in him let him save him I was as one that is deaf and heard not and as a dumb man that opens not his mouth They who sought evil against me spake vanitys and meditated deceits all the day long They open'd their mouths upon me as a lyon ravening and roaring many dogs incompast me the councel of the malignant besieg'd me They pierc'd my hands and my feet they numbre'd all my bones they divided my garments and for my vesture they cast lots They gave me gall to eat and in my thirst vineger to drink I am poured out as water and all my bones are disjoynted my hart is made like wax melting in the mid'st of my bowels my strength is dry'd up like a potsheard and my tongue cleav'd to my mouth Thou hast brought me down to the dust of death R. All this O Blessed JESU thou taught'st thy holy Prophets to prepare the world for thy coming all this and infinitely more Thou verify'dst in thine own Person with pains and sorrows and reproaches able to make even patience it self break forth into this sad complaint * O all you that pass by the way behold and see if there be grief like to my grief I was betray'd and bound and led away captive I was revil'd and buffeted and scornfully spit on I was stript and scourg'd and condemn'd to a cruel death I was crown'd with thorns and pierc't with nails and crucify'd among theeves * O all Second Lesson NOw therefore saith our Lord Turn to me with all your hart in fasting and weeping and mourning Rend your harts and not your garments and be converted to the Lord your God for he is benign and merciful patient and of much compassion and ready to pardon your offences who knows if he will return and forgive and leave behind him a blessing Seek our Lord while he may be found call on him while he is nigh Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortned that he cannot save nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear but your iniquities have divided between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear Let the impious forsake his way and the wicked man his thoughts and return to our Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he is bountiful in pardoning Wash you be clean take away the evil of your thoughts from mine eys cease to do perversly learn to do good seek judgment relieve the oppressed judg for the fatherless defend the widow Come
now and argue with me saith our Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow and though they be red as vermillion they shall be white as wool R. Who will give water to my head and a fountain of tears to my eys that day and night I may continually weep and mourn and lament for my own sins and for my Saviours sufferings * O my ador'd Redeemer make us hartily sorry to have offended Thee make us speedily mend least we ruine our selvs Thou hast given us these holy rules to guide our lives and enforc't them on us by thine own example fasting and praying and weeping and humbling thy self to death even the death of the Cross * O my Third Lesson BEhold in the day of your fast you find pleasure and exact of all your debtors you fast to debates and contentions and strike with the first impiously Is this such a fast as I have chosen a man to afflict his soul for a day is this it to wind his head about like a circle and spread sackcloath and ashes Is not this rather the fast I have chosen dissolve the bands of impiety unlose the heavy burthens break in pieces every yoak and let the opprest go free deal thy bread to the hungry and bring the poor and harbourles into thy house when thou seest the naked cover him and despise not thine own flesh Then shal thy light break forth as the morning and thy helth speedily arise and thy justice go before thy face and the glory of our Lord compass thee round about Then shalt thou call and our Lord will answer thou shalt cry and he will say behold I am here I am he who blot out thy iniquitys for my own sake and thy sins I will remember no more I am the Lord thy God who teach thee profitable things and govern thee in the way where thou walkest I am the Lord thy God who take thee by the hand and say to thee fear not I will help thee fear not for I am with thee shrink not aside for I am thy God R. My God never let me so rely on any outward performances that I neglect the improvement of my mind lest my fasting becom an unprofitable trouble and my prayer a vain lip labor * The soul and the body make a man and the spirit and discipline make a Christian Never let me so pretend to inward perfection that I slight the outward observances of Religion lest my thoughts grow proud and phantastick and all my arguments be but a cover for licenciousnes * The Soul Glory be c. * The Soul Pause as Pag. 17. Friday Lauds O God incline as Pag. 18. Antiph Come let us glory in the Cross of our Lord JESVS Christ in whom is our life and helth and resurrection Psal LXX SHal we rejoyce my soul to day Shal we not mourn at the Funeral of our dear Redeemer Such O my Lord was the excess of thy goodnes to derive joys for us from thine own sorrows Thou forbadst thy followers to weep for Thee and reserved'st to thy self alone the shame and grief Thou invitest all the world to glory in thy Cross and command'st us to delight in the memory of thy passion Sing then all you dear-bought Nations of the Earth sing hymns of glory to the holy JESUS Sing every one who pretends to felicity sing immortal praises to the God of our Salvation To Him who for us indur'd so much scorn and patiently receiv'd so many injurys To Him who for us swet drops of blood and drank off the dregs of his Fathers wrath To the eternal Lord of heav'n and earth who for us was slain by the hands of the wicked Who for us was led away as a Sheep to the slaughter and as a meek Lamb open'd not his mouth Whither O my God did thy compassion carry thee how did thy charity too far prevail with Thee Was it not enough to becom man for us but thou must expose thy self to all our miserys Was it not enough to labor all thy life but thou must suffer for us even the pains of death No gracious Lord thy mercy stil observ'd * some wants in our nature as yet unsupplyd Thou saw'st our too much fondnes of life * needed thy parting with it to reconcile us to death Thou saw'st our fear of sufferings could no way be abated but by freely undergoing them in thine own person O blessed JESU whose grace alone * begins and perfects all our hopes How are we bound to praise thy love how infinitely oblig'd to adore thy goodnes At any rate thou would'st stil go on to heal our weak and wounded nature Even at the price of thine own dear blood thou would'st finish for us the purchase of heav'n Glory be c. Psal LXXI AWake my soul and speedily prepare * thy richest sacrifice of humble praise Awake and summon all thy thoughts * to make hast and adore our great Redeemer For now 't is time we should reverently go and offer our harts at the foot of his Cross Thither let us fly from the troubles of the world there let us dwel among the mercys of heav'n Under the shade of that happy tree let us kneel and often look up to our dearest Lord Let us remember every passage of his love and be sure that none escape our thanks Let us compassionate every stroak of his death and one by one salute his sacred wounds Blest be the hands that wrought so many miracles and were bor'd with cruel nails Blest be the feet that so often travail'd for us and at last were unmercifully fastned to the Cross Blest be the head which was crown'd with thorns the head that so industriously studied our happines Blest be the hart which was pierced with a spear the hart that so passionately lov'd our peace Blest be the entire person of our Crucifyd Lord and may all our powers joyn in his praise In thy eternal praise O gracious JESU and the ravishing thoughts of thy incomparable sweetnes O what excess of kindnes was this what strange extremity of love and pity The Lord is sold that the slave may be free the Innocent condemn'd that the guilty may be sav'd The Phisician is sick that the Patient may be cur'd and God himself dys that man may live Tell me my Soul when first thou hast well consider'd * and lookt about among all we know Tell me who ever wisht us so much good who ever lov'd us with so much tendernes What have our nearest friends done for us or even our Parents in comparison of this Charity No less then the Son of God came down to redeem us no less then his own dear life was the price he paid for us What can the favour of the whole world promise us compar'd to this miraculous bounty No less then the joys of Angels are become our hope no less then the Kingdom of heav'n is made our inheritance Glory be
c. Antiph He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world Antiph Now is the time of acceptance now is the day of salvation let us demean our selvs as the servants of God in fasting and watching in patience and charity Psal LXXV SHould'st thou O Lord have dealt with us in rigour we had long since been sentenced to eternal death Long since our guilty souls had been snatch't away and hurried down to everlasting torments But thy gracious mercy has repriev'd our lives and given us space to work out our pardons Now is the time of acceptance with Thee now is the day of salvation for us Now let us mourn our former offences and bring forth fruits worthy of repentance If we O JESU have hitherto persecuted thee and with our sins nayl'd thee on the tree of death Now let our whole endeavours attend thy service and loyally conspire to un-crucify their Lord Let us ascend the Mount of Calvary and often as we go kiss thy holy steps We kiss thy steps when we love thy ways and humble our selvs and follow Thee Let us there on our knees approach thy Cross and reverently cover thy naked Body We cover thee when our charity cloaths thy servants and hides the infirmitys of thy litle Ones Let us there with tendrest care unfasten the nails and gently draw them out of thy hands and feet We draw them out when we freely obey thy will and loosen our affections from cleaving to the world Lord when we thus have rescu'd Thee and plac'd thee again on thy Throne of glory Instead of Thy self nail thou us to the Cross who really deserve what Thou really indured'st Crucify our flesh with the fear of Thee and give us our portion of sorrow here Crucify the world to us and us to the world that dead to it we may live in Thee At least live thou in us O holy JESU and fit our souls for so glorious a guest Enter into our harts and fill them with thy self that no room be left for any thing but Thee One only hope we have thy care of us one only fear our neglect of our selvs Glory be c. Antiph Now is the time of acceptance now is the day of salvation let us demean our selvs as the servants of God in fasting and watching in patience and charity Capit. Philip. 2. IF there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of Charity if any fellowship of spirit if any bowels of Commiseration fulfil my joy that you be of one meaning having the same charity of one mind of one sentiment Let nothing be done by contention nor by vain glory but in humility every one counting others better then themselvs every one considering not the things that are their own but those that are of others Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ JESVS who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal to God but he abased himself taking the form of a servant made into the similitude of men and in shape found as man He humbled himself being made obedient to death even the death of the Cross for which God has exalted him and given him a name above all names that at the name of JESVS every knee bow of things in heaven of things on earth and of things under the earth and every tongue confess that our Lord JESVS Christ is in the glory of God the Father Hymn XXIII ANd now my soul canst thou forget That thy whole life is one long debt Of love to Him who on this tree Paid back the flesh He took for thee Lo how the streams of precious blood Flow from five wounds into one flood With these he washes all thy stains And buys thy ease with his own pains Tall tree of life we clearly now That doubt of former Ages know It was thy wood should make the Throne Fit for a more then Salomon Large Throne of love royally spred With Purple of too rich a red Strange costly price thus to make good Thine own esteem with thy Kings blood Hail fairest Plant of Paradise To thee our hopes lift up their eys O may aloft thy branches shoot And fill the Nations with thy fruit O may all reap from thy Increase The Just more strength the sinner peace While our half-wither'd harts and we Engraft our selvs and grow on Thee Live O for ever live and reign Blest Lamb whom thine own love has slain And may thy lost sheep live to be True lovers of thy Cross and Thee All glory to the sacred Three One undivided Deity As it has been in ages gone May now and ever stil be done Antiph Our Lord dyed for us that we might live in Him and putting off the old man with all his concupiscences be renew'd henceforth in the spirit of our minds V. Behold dear Saviour thou art exalted from the earth R. Fulfil thy word and draw all things to thy self O Lord hear our prayers And let our Supplications come to Thee Let us pray O God who at the price of thy only Sons last drop on the Cross hast purchased our harts from this life and all the goods of it to the sole pursuit and hopes of Thy self in eternity Possess we beseech Thee and absolutely dispose of what Thou hast so dearly paid for mortifying us to this world and confirming our courage to fight manfully under the Banner of our crucify'd JESUS that we stand the shock of all temptations and nothing in life or death be able to separate us from thy love in Him our glorious Redeemer who with Thee and the holy Ghost lives and reigns One God world with out end Amen Here on all Fridays that are fasted say kneeling V. Lord have mercy on us R. Christ have mercy on us V. Lord have mercy on us Our Father c. V. And lead us not into temptation R. But deliver us from evil Amen V. Who will give water to our eys R. And a fountain of tears to our head V. That we may weep day and night R. The loss of our time past and the danger of our time to come V. That we may weep for our many sins R. And humbly confess our grievous offences V. We have sin'd with our fathers we have sin'd R. We have done unjustly we have committed iniquity V. We have broken the Laws of our Maker R. We have provokt the wrath of our Judg. V. We have despised the goodnes of our God R. What shall we do O thou Preserver of men V. What shall we do but appeal from the bar of thy justice R. To thy mild and gracious Seat of Mercy V. Spare us O Lord for thy mercy sake R. Spare the works of thine own hands V. Spare us whom thou hast made for the enjoyment of thy self R. Spare us whom thou hast redeem'd with thy precious Blood V. Pardon O Lord our sins of
my gracious God Vouchsafe to grant it Cast me not away from thy presence for ever nor wipe my name out of the book of life But my eternal hopes let them remain and stil grow quicker as they approach their end Glory be c. Psal LXXVIII MY thoughts run o're the passages you have met to day or rather forget such impertinent things What have we seen but distracting vanitys and what brought home but unprofitable fancys How often have we felt our minds disturb'd how often endanger'd by unhappy accidents Somtimes we frowardly throw our selvs down and like sullen children will not stand Somtimes the tempest throws us down and like weak children we cannot stand Yet are we venturing stil among the snares entic'd by the appearance of some present delight We weary our selvs with running after flyes which are hard to catch and trifles when they are caught This we pursue and follow that but nothing we mee●● can fill our harts Til we have found out Thee O gracious Lord our only full all-satisfying Good Til we have found out Thee not by a dark beleef but clearly as thou art in thine own bright Self Remember O my soul this truth of the world we live in which our own experience too evidently proves The ey is not fill'd with seeing its varietys nor the ear with hearing all its harmony Remember this truth of the world we hope made sure to our faith by the word of JESUS The ey has not seen such beauteous glorys nor has the ear heard such ravishing charms Nor can the hart it self conceive such incredible joys as our God has provided for them that love him As our Blessed JESUS has purchas'd for his servants and even for Thee my soul to crown thy patience Wherfore in peace lay down thy head and rest secure in the protection of thy God Whose mercy so graciously has singled Thee out and so strongly establisht on himself thy hope Glory be c. Antiph In peace will we sleep and take our rest for thou O Lord hast particularly establisht us in hope Hymn XXIV T Is not for us and our proud harts O mighty Lord to chuse our parts But act wel what Thou giv'st 'T is not in our weak pow'r to make One step o' th way we undertake Unless Thou us releev'st What Thou hast given Thou canst take And when Thou wilt new gifts canst make All flows from Thee alone When Thou didst give it it was Thine When thou retookst it 't was not mine Thy will in all be done It might perhaps too pleasant prove Too much attractive of my love So make me less love Thee Some things there are thy Scriptures say And reason proves that heav'n and they Do seldom wel agree Lord let me then sit calmly down And rest contented with my own That is what Thou allow'st Keep thou my mind ferene and free Often to think on heav'n and Thee And what thou there bestow'st There let me have my portion Lord There all my losses be restor'd No matter what falls here Is 't not enough that we shall sing And love for ever our blest King Whose goodnes brought us there Great God as Thou art One may we With one another all agree And in thy praise conspire May Men and Angels joyn and sing Eternal Hymns to Thee their King And make up all one Quire Capit. 6 Galat. GOd forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord JESVS Christ by whom the world is crucifyd to me and I to the world For in Christ JESVS neither circumcision avails any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature and whoever shal follow this rule peace on them and mercy and on the Israel of God Antiph Consider O my soul and see that nothing can happen unprofitable to those who know how to use it and real●●y seek by tempering right their minds to build them up in true Vertue V. Day to day utters words of instruction R. And night to night affords Science O Lord hear our prayers And let our Supplications come to thee Let us pray O God whose provident mercy makes every day a new branch of the tree of Knowledge to us whence the Evening may gather fresh variety of wholsom fruit for the nourishment of souls whose digestion by grace has sanctifyd by feeding on the tree of life the Cross of JESUS Grant we humbly beseech Thee that no experience of good or evil which this day has afforded may be lost on us but what e're of moment has happen'd to our selvs or others may by seasonable and minute rumination be fitted to render us more skilful in discerning the true value and use of this state in all its postures and stronger to sacrifice up with our Saviour our whole Concerns and Being here to thy Will and the sole advance of thy glory which at length will surely crown thy Servants with immortal Blyss through our Lord Vouchsafe as Pag 54 to the end Saturday MATINS Introduction as page 1. Invitatory Come let 's adore our Victorious Redeemer Come let 's adore our Victorious Redeemer Psal LXXIX COme all you Powers of my deliver'd soul and pay your homage to the Prince of our salvation cast your unworthy selvs at his sacred feet and renew your vows of following his steps Come let 's adore our Victorious Redeemer He triumpht over death in his own body and enables us to conquer it in ours imparting to us his heav'nly skill and provoking our courage with infinite rewards Come let 's adore our Victorious Redeemer He chang'd the corrupted government of the world and establisht a new and holy Law that as we were vassals to sin before we might now become the free subjects of grace Come let 's adore our victorious Redeemer Let us live and dy in his blest obedience and no temptation ever separate us from him who if we resist will make us overcome and when we have overcome will crown us with peace Come let 's adore our victorious Redeemer Glory be c. As it was c. Come let 's adore our victorious Redeemer Come let 's adore our victorious Redeemer Hymn XXV LOrd we again lift up our eys And leave our slugish beds But why we wake or why we rise Comes seldom in our heads Is it to sweat and toyl for welth Or sport our time away That thou preserv'st us stil in helth And giv'st us this new day No no unskilful soul not so Be not deceiv'd with toys Thy Lords commands more wisely go And aim at higher joys They bid us wake to seek new grace And some fresh vertue gain They call us up to mend our pace Till we the prize attain That glorious prize for which all run Who wisely spend their breath VVho when this weary life is done Are sure of rest in death Not such a rest as here we prove Disturb'd with cares and fears But endless joy and peace and love Unmixt with grief and tears
Glory to Thee O bounteous Lord Who giv'st to all things breath Glory to Thee Eternal VVord VVho sav'st us by thy death Glory O blessed Spirit to Thee Who fill'st our souls with love Glory to all the mystick Three Who reign one God above Antiph This is alas the land of the Dying but we hope to see the glory of God in the land of the Living Psal LXXX PRostrate before thy Tomb O Lord behold we freely confess our misery And in the lowliest posture of afflicted Pilgrims humbly implore thy mercy Peacefully in the grave thy body repos'd and thy soul went triumphing to redeem thy Captives But we alas thy helpless orphans how are we left in the midst of our enemys To how many dangers is our life expos'd with how many tentations are we round besieg'd Tentations in meat tentations in drink tentations in conversing tentations in solitude Tentations in business tentations in leisure tentations in riches tentations in poverty All our ways are strew'd with snares and even our own senses conspire against us Whether O my God shall our poor souls go encompast with a body so frail and a world so corrupt Whether but to Thee the Justifier of sinners and to thy grace the Sustainer of the weak Thy grace instructs us what we ought to do and breeds in us the will to endeavour what we know Thy grace enables us to perform our resolvs and when all 's done thy grace must give the success Govern us with this thy grace O Eternal Wisdom and direct our steps in the safe way Order every chance to prevent our falling and still lead us on towards our happy end Give us the ey and wing of an eagle to see our danger and fly swiftly away If we must needs engage our Enemy and no means left to escape the encounter Strengthen us O Lord to persevere with courage that we never be wanting in our fidelity to Thee Convince us Blessed JESU into this firm judgment and may our memorys faithfully retain it What ever our senses say to deceive us or the world to obscure so beauteous a truth That Thy self alone art our chiefest good and the sight of thy glory our supream felicity Glory be c. Antiph This is alas the land of the Dying but we hope to see the glory of God in the land of the Living Antiph Well done thou good and faithful servant I gave thee two talents and thou hast gain'd two more enter into thy Masters joy Psal LXXXI HAppy are they O Lord who have so much employment that there remains no room for idle thoughts Happy are they who have so litle business that they want not space to attend their souls Happy yet more are they who in the midst of their work * can think somtimes of the wages above Whom nothing diverts from that chief concern * of seeking to make their election sure But while their backs are bow'd down with labor they freely can raise up their minds to heav'n And while they are tyed to their beds with sicknes can yet move on towards their eternal rest Often they rejoyce with themselvs alone and silently say in their contented harts Here we alas are narrowly confin'd and our time entertain'd with trivial affairs But herafter we expect an unbounded enlargement and the same glorious office with the blessed Angels Here we are subject to a thousand miserys and the most prosperous life is vain and short But herafter we expect an infinity of joy and the solid pleasures of heav'n for ever We too O gracious Lord who now adore Thee and in thy presence sing these holy words We humbly pray thee guide us in the middle path that we never decline to any vicious extreme Deliver us from the stormy sea of busines and the dead water of a slothful life Lest we be cast away by forgetting thee or becom corrupted by neglecting our selvs Make us somtimes at least recollect our thoughts how much soever our condition distract us Make us look up with confidence in our God how low soever our afflictions depress us Make us look up to the eternal mountains and feed our souls on this sweet hope The day wil come when out of this dark world * we shal joyfully ascend to that beauteous light The day will come and cannot be far off when we shal rest for ever in the bosom of blyss Glory be c. Antiph Well done thou good and faithful servant I gave thee two talents and thou hast gain'd two more enter into thy Masters joy Antiph Well done thou good and faithful servant I gave thee five talents and thou hast gain'd five more enter into thy Masters joy Psal LXXXII HAppiest of all O Lord are they * whose very business is thy service Who not only bestow an interrupted glance but stedily fix their eys on Thee Who not only visit thy house somtimes but night and day dwel in thy presence If the Sun rise it finds them at their prayers and when it sets leaves them at the same sweet task Every place is a Church to them and every day a holy Sabaoth Every object an occasion of Piety and every accident an exercise of vertue Do they behold the beauteous stars they presently adore their great Creator Do they look down on the fruitful earth they instantly begin to praise his bounty Let War or Peace do what they will and the inconstant world reel up and down They pass through all as unconcern'd and smoothly go on their regular course Looking stil up to that glorious life above and entertaining this present in hope and solitude If they depart somtimes from their proper center and forsake a while their belov'd retirement 'T is to approach and give light to others and enflame some cold or ●●ukewarm hart While they are thus abroad their minds are at home with Thee and nothing can divide them from thy dear presence Yet do they wisely make hast to return and injoy Thee alone in their litle Cell There Thou receiv'st them as familiar friends and freely admit'st them to thy secret sweetnes Thou giv'st them a tast from thine own full board and overflow'st their harts with the wine of gladnes Often they feel a litle beam from heav'n * strike gently and fill their brests with light Often that gentle light is kindled into a flame and chastly burns with pure desires Desires that stil mount up and aim at Thee * the supernatural center of all their hopes O happy state of reverend Discipline free from the cares and tumults of this world Free from the dangerous allurements of sin and perpetually solicited with engagements to vertue Where they seldom fall and quickly rise and make swift advances in the way to heav'n Where they live in purity and dy with confidence and go to sing among the Quires of Angels Blest Providence who govern'st all things in perfect wisdom and assign'st to every one his proper place If Thou hast pleas'd to
dispose our lives * in circumstances less favourable then these O let thy powerful hand supply our wants * and lead us on in our low path That at least afar off we may follow them * who strive to tread so near thy steps So shal we too though slowly arrive * at the rich inheritance of that holy Land So shal we gladly enter those Blysful gates and dwel for ever in the City of peace Glory be c. Antiph Well done thou good and faithful servant I gave thee five talents and thou hast gain'd five more enter into thy Masters joy Our Father First Lesson HAve thy thoughts in the precepts of God and let thy chief busines be his Commandments Deliver him that suffers injury out of the hands of the proud and be not faint-harted when thou sittest in judgement Be merciful to Orphans as a father and as a husband to their mother and thou shalt be as the obedient Son of the Highest and he will have mercy on thee more then a mother He that calumniates the poor upbraids his Maker but he honours Him that pitys the necessitous The wicked shal be cast out in his malice but the just has hope in his death Our Lord will not accept any person against the poor and will hear the prayer of him that is injur'd He will not despise the prayer of the Fatherles nor the widow when she pow'rs out her words of complaint Do not the Widows tears run down her cheeks and is not her cry against him that causes them●● but from the cheek they go up to heav'n and our Lord who hears them will not be pleased Turn not away thine eys in anger from the poor nor give him occasion to curse thee behind thy back for the prayer of him that curses thee in the bitternes of his soul shal be heard He that made him shal hear him Remember not every wrong of thy neighbour nor do any thing by injurious practises If thine enemy be hungey give him bread to eat and if he thirst give him water to drink for thou shalt heap ●●ot coals on his head and our Lord will reward thee Contemn not the just man that is poor nor magnify the sinful that is rich The Great and the Judg and the mighty are in honor but there 's none greater then he that fears God R. Lord with what admirable wisdom dost thou govern the world Thou mak'st the poor and appoint'st them their task of innocent work Thou mak'st the rich and giv'st them leasure for their better improvement and both poor and rich to need and help one another * O give us harts to comply with this thy blest design that every one may strive for the good of all One God created us one Saviour redeemed us one holy spirit sanctify'd us that we all may live in love and unity mutual assistance * O give us Second Lesson BE not eager to grow rich but use moderation in thy endeavours Welth hastily gotten shal be diminish't but that which is gather'd with the hand by litle and litle shal be multiply'd Lift not thine eys to the riches which thou canst not have for they make themselvs wings as of an Eagle and fly into the Ayr. Let not thy hart envy siners but be always in the fear of our Lord then shalt thou hope in the later end and thy expectation shal not be disappointed A deceitful ballance is an abomination to God and an equal weight is his delight There 's nothing more wicked then to love mony for he that does so will set even his soul to sale Riches will not profit in the day of wrath but justice shall deliver from death The j●●stice of the righteous shall deliver them and the unjust shall be caught in their deceitful practises the justice of the simple shall guide his way and the wicked shall fall in his own impiety Better is a dry morsel with joy then a house full of victims with brawling Better is a poor man walking in his simplicity then the rich in crooked ways Sweet is the laborers sleep whether he eat much or litle but the satiety of the rich suffers him not to sleep Some who have nothing are as if they were rich and others who abound in wealth are as if they were poor Some give of their own and become richer others take what 's not their own and are always in want The sincerity of the just shal direct them and the deceitfulnes of the perverse shall destroy them R. Give me O thou sweet Disposer of all things give me neither beggary nor riches but only things necessary for my sustenance * Lest perhaps being full I be allur'd to deny thee and say who is the Lord or compel'd by want steal and forswear the name of my God or rather dearest Lord give me what thou pleasest since Thy self hast taught me now a more perfect Lesson to submit intirely my will to Thine only I still may beg that in all my ways thy Providence govern me and in all my temptations thy grace preserve me * Lest Third Lesson 'T Is better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of banqueting for in that the end of all men is signified and he that is alive thinks what herafter he shall be All flesh shall wax old as grass and as leavs growing on a green tree some bud forth and others fall off so is the generation of flesh and blood one is buried and another is born If a man live many years and rejoyce in them all he must remember the darksom time and those many days which when they come the things that are past shall be reprov'd of vanity Rejoyce therefore O young man in thy youth and let thy mind be chearful walk in the ways of thine hart and in the sight of thine eys but know for all these God will bring thee to Judgment Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth before the time of aff●●ction come and the years approach of which thou shalt say They please me not Before the dust return to its ear●●h from whence it came and the spirit to God who gave it Of making many books there is no end and much study is wearines to the flesh Let us hear the Conclusion of all Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man R. In all thy works remember thy last end when thou must bid a long farewel to all this world remember that dreadful day of the universal Judgment when thou must give account for every idle word * And thou shalt not sin for ever Remember the joys prepar'd for the innocent and the miserys that attend the wicked Remember how nearly it concerns thy soul to have a good or bad eternity * And Thou Glory be c. * And thou Pause a while to ref●●ect and renew Then Saturday Lauds O God incline c. as page 18. Antiph When thou hadst overcome the sting
't is Thou bestow'st His pow'r his will to help our end Is just so much as thou allow'st If we enjoy a free estate Our only Title is from Thee Thou mad'st our lot to bear that rate Which else an empty blank would be If we have h●●lth that wel-tun'd grownd Which gives the Musick to the rest It is by Thee our ayr is sound Our food secur'd our physick blest If we have hope one day to view The glorys of thy blysful face Each drop of that refreshing dew Must fall from heav'n and thy free grace Thus then to Thee our praises bow And humbly thy acceptance crave Since 't is to Thee our selvs we ow And to thy bounty all we have Glory to Thee great God alone Three persons in one Deity As it has been in ages gone May now and stil for ever be Antiph 'T is consummated Thou hast O JESU overcom in thy Body all the Powers of darknes their hour is past but thy souls eternal blyss remains and Behold That of thy triumphant Resurrection approaches V. Be not afraid of those who kill the body R. And after that have no more they can do O Lord hear our Prayers And let our Supplications come to Thee Let us pray O God who hast submitted thy only Son our Saviour JESUS to expire on the Cross and descend into the grave that he might destroy the life of sin and bury the terrors of death grant we beseech Thee they may never revive or rise again to tempt or fright us from the ways of vertue nor shake this sure and fundamental truth which thy grace has laid in our harts That the greatest mischiefs our salvation can cost us here are but momentary and work above measure exceedingly in us an eternal weight of glory through the same our Lord Commemorations as Page 29. to the end Saturday Vespers OUr Father c. as Page 33. Antiph They who use this world let them be as if they ●●s'd it not for the figure of this world passes away Psal LXXXVI WHy do we stil pursue this world and so eagerly seek its fond enjoyments A world of vanity and false deceits a world of misery and sad disasters Whose crosses are solid and comforts empty whose sorrows are permanent and delights pass quickly away A world where the innocent are condemn'd with shame and the guilty freed with applause Where often the wicked are advanc'd to honour and the vertuous opprest with disgrace Where friends fall off and kindred forget and every one minds his private interest Yet are we taken with this crooked world and blindly court its painted face We make some ugly passion mistress of our hart and neglect the pure and amiable love of JESUS Whose goodnes to us gives us all we have whose perfections in himself are more then we can conceive Thou art O glorious JESU the beauty of Angels and the everlasting joy of all thy Saints Thou art the heay'n of heav'n it self and in thy sight alone is the fulnes of Blyss All this thou art and infinitely more and yet alas how few esteeem thee The world we dearly know too often has deceiv'd us and our rashnes cares not to be undone again Thou never O JESU hast fail'd our hope and our dulnes fears to rely on Thee The world distracts and embroils our spirits and wretched we delight in our misery Thou always O JESU fil'st our harts with peace and sensles we are weary of thy happines The world calls and we faint in following it thou cal'st and we are stil reliev'd by Thee Yet is our nature so ingratefully perverse we run after that which tires and abandon that which refreshes Somtimes our lips speak gloriously of Thee O Thou living fountain of eternal Blyss Some happy times we relish thy sweetnes and decry aloud the poyson of the world But we are soon enticed by its guilded cup and easily forsake the waters of life O Blessed JESU who took'st upon thee all our frailtys to bestow on us thine own perfections Teach us to prize the joys of heav'n and part with all things else to purchase Thee Make all the pleasures of this life seem b●●tter to our tasts as they are indeed pernitious to our helths Let not their flatterys any more delude us nor superfluous cares perplex our minds But may our chief delight be to think on Thee and all our study to grow in thy love Glory be c. Antiph They who use this world let them be as if they us'd it not for the figure of this world passes away Antiph We by a fond self-love blame every thing but our selvs while nothing can hurt us but our own misplac't affections Psal LXXXVII ALl this is true and yet the world is lov'd and our nature inclines to affect its vanitys 'T is lov'd and so it justly deservs did we understand its real value Our life indeed seems mean and trivial and all things about us troublesom and dangerous Yet O my God is their consequence excellent in this that they are our only way of coming to Thee This world and this alone 's the womb that breeds us and brings us forth to see thy light This is alone the proper Machine wherein thy hand has set our lives To learn the art of managing it right and wind up our selves to thy glorious heav'n O that we had that happy skill how soon would every thing help forward to advance us Whether we eat or drink or what ever else * an innocent hand can undertake If we regard our faithful end and order all to the improvement of our minds They instantly change their secular name and deservedly are prefer'd to become religious Riches themselves and imperious honour * have not so perverse and fixt a malice But a prudent use converts them to piety and makes them fit instruments of highest Blyss Our very delights O the Goodnes of our God! may so be temper'd with a wise alloy That his mercy accounts them as parts of our duty and fails not to give them their full reward While they are entertain'd for the health of our bodys or the just refreshement of our wearyed spirits And both our bodys and spirits constantly apply'd * to gain new degrees of the love of heav'n Thus gracious Lord every moment of our lives * may still be climbing up towards Thee Thus may we still proceed in thy service even then when we most of all serve our selvs And then indeed it is we best serve our selvs when we are busiest in what we call thy service Thou sweetly vouchsaf'st to stile th●●t thy glory which in very truth is nothing but our interest Thou kindly complain'st we dishonour thy Name when we only mischief our own souls O Blesses JESU King of clemency and great Rewarder of every little grace Thou who by all we can do pretendest no gain but bestow'st on us all thy self hast done Thou who cam'st down from heav'n to shew us a
pattern and mad'st us free to work for our own profit Instruct our gratitude to consecrate all to Thee since all by thy bounty will redound to our selves Glory be c. Antiph We by a fond self love blame every thing but our selvs while nothing can hurt us but our own misplac't affections Antiph It is decreed for all men once to dy and after death Judgment Psal LXXXVIII THis life indeed is the way we must walk but this alone cannot bring us to our end Ere we arrive at our appointed home we must be led through the gates of death Where we shall absolutely be stript of all we have and carry nothing with us but what we are Where we not only must quit the whole world but leave behind us even part of our selvs Hast thou my soul seen som Neighbour dy and dost thou remember those circumstances of sorrow VVe are sure the case ere long will be our own and are not sure but it may be very soon Have we our selvs been dangerously sick and do we remember the thoughts we had then How we resolv'd to correct our passions and strive against the vices that particularly indanger us 'T will come to this again and no reprieve be found * stay one single minute the hand of death But he immediately will seize upon us and bear us away to the region of spirits There to be rang'd in our proper place as the course of our life has qualify'd us here Nor is this all to expire and dy and dwell for a time in a state of separation VVe must expect another Day a day of publick accounts and restiution of all things When the Archangel shal sound his trumpet and proclaim aloud this universal summons Arise you dead and come to Judgment arise and appear before the Throne of God Then shall the little heaps of dust immediately awake and every soul put on her proper body Immediately all the children of Adam shal be gather'd together from heav'n and hell and every corner of the earth There they must stand and all attend their doom but O with how sad and fatal a difference The Just shal look up with a cheerful confidence and in their new white robes triumph and sing Alleluia let us rejoyce for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his Bride has prepar'd her self Let us rejoyce for the Kingdom of the world is made our Lords and his Christs and He shal reign for ever and ever Let us rejoyce for now our Redeemer is nigh behold he comes quickly and his reward is with him Come come Lord JESU thou long Desire of our harts come quickly thou full Delight of our Souls Come and declare to all the world thy glory come and reward before all the world thy servants Lo where aloft he comes in power and Majesty attended with a train of innumerable Angels Behold where he sits inthron'd on the wings of Cherubins and takes at once a view of all mankind Soon he commands his Angels to sever his Sheep and gather them together on his right hand First then to them he turns his glorious face and shines upon them with these ravishing words Come you Blessed of my Father possess the Kingdom * prepared for you from the begining of the world O the joys their souls shal feel when those heav'nly words sound in their ears Joys that the wit of man cannot conceive joys that the tongues of Angels cannot express Let it suffize themselvs shal tast their own felicity and feed on its sweetnes for ever But O with what dejected eys and trembling harts * shal the wicked stand expecting their Judg What shal they do when where're they look * their ey can meet with nothing but despair Above the offended Judge ready to condemn them below the bottomless pit gaping to devour them Within the worm of conscience knawing their bowels and round about all the world in flames What shal they do when that terrible voice * shal strike them suddenly down to the bottom of hell Go you accursed into everlasting fire * prepar'd for the Devil and his Angels The day of man is past when siners did what they pleas'd and God seem'd to hold his peace 'T is now the day of God when his wrath shal speak in thunder and siners suffer what their wickednes deservs Then shal they sink immediately into the pit of sorrow and dwel in darknes and torments for ever While the Just shal go up in joy and triumph and reign with our Lord in his Kingdom for ever Thus shal the whole Creation be finally dispos'd and mercy and justice divide the world O my soul who now art here below and read'st these dreadful truths as things afar off Know thou shalt then be present and see them with thine eys and be thy self concern'd for all eternity Know as thou livest thou art like to dy and as thou dy'st thou art sure to be judg'd Think what a sad condition it will be * to find thy self on the wrong hand Think what thou then would'st give to have repented in time think what thou would'st give for a litle time to repent Watch therfore now and continually pray for we know not the hour when the Son of man will come O Son of God and man who cam'st in mercy to save us bring the same mercy with thee when thou com'st to judg us Mean while assist us with thy heav'nly grace to stand perpetually with our accounts prepar'd That we may dy in the peace of God and his holy Church and go to live with Him and his blessed Saints Glory be c. Antiph It is decreed for all men once to dy and after death judgment Capit. Tytus 2. SPeak thou the things which becom sound doctrin that the aged men be sober chast wise sound in faith in charity in patience likewise the aged women that they be in holy attire not speaking ill of others not given to much wine teaching good things that they may learn the young women wisdom to love their husbands to love their children to be prudent chast sober to have a care of the house to be gentle subject to their husbands that the word of God be not blasphem'd Young men also exhort to be sober Servants to be obedient to their Masters pleasing them in every thing not contradicting not defrauding but shewing good fidelity in all things that in all things they may adorn the doctrin of God our Saviour Hymn XXVII LOrd what a pleasant life were this If all did well their parts If all did one another love Sincerely with their harts No Suits of law no noise of war our quiet minds would fright No fear to lose no care to keep What justly is our right No envious thought no sland'ring tongue Would e're disturb our peace We should help them and they help us And all unkindnes cease But the All-wise chose other laws And thought it better so He made the world and
in the shades of nothing his mighty hand awak't us into Being Not That of stones or plants or beasts o're which he has made us absolute Lords But an accomplisht body and immortal spirit and litle inferiour to his glorious Angels He printed on our souls his own similitude and promis'd to our obedience his own feli●●ity He endued us with appetites to live well and happy and furnisht us with means to satisfie those appetites Creating a whole world to serve us here and providing a heav'n to glorify us her-after Thus didst thou favour us O infinite Goodness but we what return did we make to Thee Blush O my Soul for shame at so strange a weaknes and weep for grief at so extreme an ingratitude We childishly prefer'd a trivial apple * before the Law of our God and the safety of our own lives We fondly embrac't a litle present satisfaction * before the Pleasures of Paradise and the eternity of heav'n Behold the unhappy source of all our miserys which still increast it streams as they went farther on Till they exacted at last a deluge of justice * to drown their deluge of iniquity And here alas had been an end of Man a sad and fatal end of the whole world Had not our wise Creator foreseen the danger and in time prevented the extremity of the ru●●e Reserving for himself a few choice plants * to replenish the earth with more hopeful fruit Yet they grew quickly wilde and brought forth sowre grapes and their childrens teeth were set on edg Quickly they aspir'd to an intolerable pride * of fortifying their wickedness against the power of heav'n Justice was now provok't to a second deluge and to bring again a cloud o're the earth But mercy discover'd a bow in the cloud and our faithful God remembred his promise Allaying their punishment with a milder sentence and only scattering them from the place of their conspiracy Which yet his Providence turn'd into a blessing * by making it an occasion of peopling the world Stil their rebellious nature disobey'd again and neither fear'd his judgments nor valued his mercys But with a graceles emulation propagated sin * as far as his Goodnes propagated mankind Then he selected a private Family and increast and govern'd them with a particular tendernes Giving them a law by the hands of Angels and ingaging their obedience by a thousand favours But they neglected too their God and heav'n and fel in love with the ways of death When thou hadst thus O dearest Lord try'd every remedy and found our disease beyond all cure When the light of nature prov'd too weak a guide and the general flood too mild a correction When the miracles of Moses could not soften their harts nor the law of Angels bring any to perfection When all was reduc't to this desperate state and no imaginable hope left to recover us Behold the eternal Wisdom finds a strange expedient the last and highest instance of almighty love Himself he resolvs to cloath with our felsh and come down among us and dy to redeem us Wonder O my soul at the mercys of thy Lord how infinitely transcending ev'n our utmost wishes Wonder at the admirable providence of his counsels how exactly fitted to their great design Had he been less then God we could never have believ'd * the sublime Mysterys of his heav'nly Doctrin Had he been other then Man we must needs have wanted * the powerful motive of his holy Example Had He been only God he could never have suffer'd * the least of those afflictions he so gloriously overcame Had He been meerly Man he could never have o'recome those infinite afflictions he so patiently suffer'd O blessed JESU both these Thou art in thy self be Thou both these to us Be thou our God and make us adore Thee be thou our Leader and make us follow Thee Glory be c. Antiph Blessed be the mercy of our God who has left no means untry'd that could possibly recover us Antiph Lord thou not only offer'st us salvation but lay'st in means before hand to make us accept it Psal XCIV SOon as this blest decree was made * of sending the Son of God to redeem mankind Immediately his goodnes was ready to come among us had our ungracious world been ready to receive him But we as yet were too gross and sensual and utterly incapable of so pure a Law We were immerst in cares and pleasures and wholly indispos'd for so perfect an obedience While we were thus unfit for thee O thou God of pure and perfect holines Thou graciously wert pleas'd to stay for us and all that time prepare us for thy presence From the begining entertaining us with hope and through every age confirming our faith How early O my God didst thou engage to relieve us The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head How often didst thou repeat thy promise to Abraham In thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed How many ways did thy mercy invent * by unquestionable tokens to give notice of thy Coming Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and his name shall be called God with us A branch shall shoot out of the stock of Jesse and from the root of that branch shall spring a Flower The Spirit of our Lord shall rest upon him and the spirit of wisdom and piety and fortitude Our Lord shall raise up a Prophet like Moses and put his words in his mouth and he shall teach us And thou Bethelem who art litle among the thousands of Juda out of thee shall He come that 's to be the Ruler in Israel Whose goings forth are from the beginning even from the days of eternity Hark how the eternal Father introduces his Son commanding first all the Angels to adore Him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten Thee Thou art my Son and I will be thy Father I will give Thee the Gentiles for thine inheritance and the ends of the world for thy possession 'T is too litle that thou raise up the Tribes of Jacob and convert the dregs of Israel Thou art appointed a lght for the Gentiles and a Saviour to the utmost parts of the earth Hark how the antient Prophets rejoyce in the Messias and in soft and gentle words foretel his sweetness He shall come down as rain into a fleece of wool and as drops of dew distilling on the earth He shall feed his flock like a Shepherd and gently lead those that are with young He shall gather his lambs with his arms and carry them in his own bosom The bruised reed he shall not break nor quench the smoking flax Justice and peace shall flourish in his days and sin and death be destroy'd for ever Then shall the eys of the blind be open'd and the ears of the deaf be made to hear Then shall the tongues of the dumb be loosen'd and the lame man leap like a Back Thus did thy holy
ardently love Thee that I may eagerly desire Thee and eagerly desire Thee that I may transportedly enjoy Thee Glory be c. Antiph Bless our Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name Capit. Ephes 3. NOw to Him who is able to do all things more abundantly then we desire or understand according to the power that works in us to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations world without end Amen Hymn XXX SWeet JESU why why dost thou love Such worthles things as we Why is thy hart still toward us Who seldom think on Thee Thy bounty gives us all we have And we thy gifts abuse Thy bounty gives us ev'n Thy self And we Thy self refuse My soul and why why do we love Such wretched things as these These that withdraw us from our Lord And his pure eys displease Break off and be no more a child To run and sweat and cry While all this stir this huge concern Is only for a fly Some silly fly that 's hard to catch And nothing when 't is caught Such are the toys thou striv'st for here Not worth a serious thought Break off and raise thy manly ey Up to those joys above Behold all those thy Lord prepares To woo and crown thy love Alas dear Lord I cannot love Unles Thou draw my hart Thou who th●●s kindly mak'st me know O make me do my part Stil do thou love me O my Lord That I may stil love Thee Stil make me love thee O my God! That thou may'st stil love me Thus may my God and my poor soul Stil one another love Till I depart from this low world T' enjoy my God above To Thee great God to Thee alone One coeternal Three All pow'r and praise all joy and blyss Now and for ever be Here recite the Antiphon for Benedictus and the Canticle Benedictus and the Prayer as in the Proper of our Saviours Feasts But if you voluntarily say this Office on any day that is not some Feast of our Saviour then use the Antiphon and Prayer following Antiphon for Benedictus BLessed be thy holy Name O glorious Son of God and blessed be thy mercy for ever thou hast perfectly fulfil'd all thy Prophets foretold and infinitely transcended all the wonders they admir'd thou hast done enough to convince us into faith and suffer'd too much to inflame us with thy love Blessed be thy holy Name O glorious Son of God and blessed be thy mercy for ever alleluia Benedictus c. as Page 27. O Lord hear our Prayers And let our Supplications come to Thee Let us pray MOst gracious Lord who so loved'st the world that thou gavest thy self to redeem it and humbly took'st upon thee our low nature that thou might'st familiarly teach us the truth of salvation and invincibly fortify us against all persecution and efficaciously draw us after thee into thine own Kingdom by thy holy life and precious death and glorious resurrection Grant us we beseech thee so to meditate these ifinite mercys and fill our whole souls with the memory of this love that we may live in thy obedience and dy in thy favour and rise again to rejoyce with thee for ever in thy glory Who with the Father and the holy Ghost liveth and reigneth One God world without end Amen Commemorations as Page 29. Vespers for our B. Saviour IN the Name as Page 33. Antiph Thy judgements O Lord we confess are just but deal we beseech thee with thy servants in mercy Psal XCIX LIft up thy voice Jerusalem and be not afraid say to the Citys of Juda behold your God Behold the Lord your God is come with a strong hand his reward is with him and his work before him He is come to bring redemption to all the world and graciously offers it first to you his People But you refus'd the Holy One and the Just and desir'd a murtherer to be granted to you Hark with how sweet and eligant a Compassion * thy kind Redeemer complains of thy ingratitude O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them who are sent to thee How often would I have gather'd thy children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings * and thou wouldest not O hadst thou known in that thy day the things which belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eys Harken once more with what terrible threatnings * thy provident Lord forewarns thee of thy danger Gird thee with sackcloth Jerusalem and ly down in ashes cover thee with mourning and bitterly lament For the days shal come when thy enemys shal besiege thee and compas thee about with a trench They shal not leave one stone upon another but beat thee to the ground and thy children in thee Thy people shal be slain by the edge of the sword and led as slaves into all Countrys They shal wander up and down without King or Prince they shal mourn without sacrifice or altar And Jerusalem shal be trodden under feet by the Gentiles till the fulnes of Nations be accomplisht But O how long Lord holy and merciful how long wilt thou be angry with them for ever Hast thou not said he that scatters Israel will gather them again and keep them as a Shepherd does his flock Remember thy antient promises O Lord and save the remnant of thy once lov'd Israel Take away the veil from before their eys that they may see thy truth and imbrace it Take away the hardnes from their stony harts that they again may be thy people and thou again their God Then shal they lay aside the garment of mourning and put on the brightnes which comes from Thee They shall celebrate the Jubily of this their greatest Deliverance and every one sing in that day of joy Come let 's ascend to the mountain of our Lord let us learn his ways and walk in his paths As 't was our wickednes to go astray from our God so now return'd let us seek him ten times more Too late have we known thee O thou ancicient Truth too late have we lov'd thee O Thou desir'd of all Nations We were misled by the error of our fathers we were abus'd by our own blind passions The Kingdom we expected deservs not that name a short and vain and troublesom prosperity Thy Dominion O Lord is holines and peace and of thy Kingdom there shal be no end Such was the Kingdom thou promisedst to David Thy Throne will I establish for ever Such is the Kingdom thou giv'st to thy Servants They shal live and reign with Thee for ever O make us love dear Lord this eternal Kingdom and all things else shal be added to it O make us love this eternal Kingdom though nothing else should be added to it Glory be c. Antiph Thy judgements O Lord we confes are just but deal we beseech Thee with thy servants in mercy Antiph Thou art O Lord
souls chief hope We to thy mercy fly Wher'ere we are thou canst protect What'ere we need supply Whether we sleep or wake To thee we both resign By night we see as well as day If thy light on us shine Whither we live or dy Both we submit to Thee In death we live as well as life If thine in death we be Glory to Thee great God One coeternal Three To Father Son and holy Ghost Eternal glory be Capit. 1 Thes 5. BUt we who are of the day let us be sober having on us the brest-plate of faith and charity and for a helmet the hope of salvation for God has not appointed us to wrath but to the purchasing salvation thorow Jesus Christ our Lord who dyed for us that whither we wake or sleep we might live together with Him Antiph By seeking our selvs in this world of vanity we lose both thee O Lord and our own souls by seeking our selvs in Thee and thy love we find both Thee and our own happines injoying already a sweet possession of hopes to end e're long in a sweeter fruition of glory V. Thou art O Lord the free bestower of all we have R. Thou art the faithful Promiser of all we expect O Lord hear our Prayers And let our Supplications come to thee Let us pray O Blessed JESU whose sacred Body after thou hadst finisht in it the work of our redemption was taken down from the Cross and after a short repose in the Sepulcher was rais'd again to a glorious immortality Grant us we beseech thee so frequently to renew in our minds the memory of thy grave that we always be prepar'd for our own and so seriously to reflect on the consequences of a holy death that every day we grow less affected to this transitory life and more in love with thy eternal joys who with the Father and the holy Ghost liveth and reigneth one God world without end Amen Vouchasfe c. as Pag. 54. to the end Office of the Holy Ghost Matins Introduction as pag. 1. Psal CV Invitatory Come let 's adore our God that sanctifys us Come let 's adore our God that sanctifys us COme let us humbly first implore his grace to make us worthy to adore our Sanctifier who from the Father and the Son eternally proceeds and with the Father and the Son is equally glorifyed Come let 's adore our God that sanctifys us He infuses into us the breath of life and brings us forth in our second birth a birth that makes us heirs of heav'n and gives us a title to everlasting happines Come let 's adore our God that sanctifys us Let us prepare our understandings to assent to his truths and our wills to follow his divine inspiratons let us fil our memorys with his innumerable mereys and our whole souls with the glory of his Attributes Come let 's adore our God that sanctifys us Let us confidently addres to Him our petitioNs who promises to help the infirmity of our pray'rs let us not doubt the bounty of his goodnes but hope he will grant what Himself inspires to ask Come let 's adore our God that sanctifys us Glory be to the Father and to the Son * and to the holy Ghost As it was in the beginning both now and ever * world without end Amen Come let 's adore our God that sanctifys us Come let 's adore our God that sanctifys us Hymn XXXIII COme holy Spirit come and breath Thy spicy odours on the face Of our dull region here beneath And fil our souls with thy sweet grace Come and root out the poysonous weeds Which over-run and choke our lives And in our harts plant thine own seeds Whose quick'ning power our spirit revives First plant the humble Violet there That dwels secure by dwelling low Then let the Lilly next appear And make us chast yet fruitful too But O! plant all the Vertues Lord And let the metaphors alone Repeat once more that mighty word Thou need'st but say Let it be done We can alas nor be nor grow Unless thy pow'rful mercy please Thy hand must plant and water too Thy hand alone must give th' increase Do then what thou alone canst do Do what to thee so easie is Conduct us through this world of wo And place us safe in thine own blyss All glory to the sacred Three One everliving Soveraign Lord As at the first still may He be Belov'd and prais'd fear'd and ador'd Antiph In those days saith our Lord I wil pour out my spirit upon all flesh Alleluja Alleluja Psal CVI. LOrd with how sweet and natural a conduct * does thy Providence govern the children of men Leading them on from one degree to another till thou hast brought them up to their highest perfection Thou putst them to learn in the school of Vertue and disposest their capacity's into several forms In the first ages when the world was young * thou gav'st them for their guide the book of Nature There thy divine assistance helpt them to read * some few plain Lessons of their duty to Thee They saw this admirable frame of creatures and as far as these could argue they could conclude Sure ther 's a God the cause of all things sure ther 's a Providence the disposer of all things He must be powerful that made so vast a world he must be wise that contriv'd such excellent works He must be goodnes it self that did all this for us and we ingrateful wretches if we 'l do nothing for Him Thus far some few could say and very few could do with those slender assistances they then injoy'd After thou gav'st thy people a written Rule which train'd them up in a set form of discipline Which grew and spred into a publick Religion and uniformly profest by a whole Nation They had some weak conceit of the Kingdom of heav'n and some imperfect means to bring them thither But for those high supernatural Mysterys * that so gloriously exalt the Christian faith They all alas were blind or in the dark and dangerously expos'd to the effects of their ignorance Wanting those clear instructions to know their End wanting those powerful motives to love their God Yet this prepar'd them for the times of Grace * to which thy mercy O Lord reserv'd far greater favours To which thou hadst promis'd by thy holy Prophets * an effusion of blessings from thine own full hands I will put my Law in their bowels and write it in their harts I will be their God and they shal be my People I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shal prophesy They shal teach no more every one his Neighbor for all shal know me from the greatest to the least O merciful Lord who hast lov'd us from the begining be graciously pleased to love us to the end Pity the unhappy state of faln mankind which neither nature nor law could bring to perfection If any riper souls
pray'd and mingled with their prayers their tears they wept and mingled with their tears their complaints Ah dearest Lord why were not we so happy * to be conuerted by Thee while thou dweld'st among us Why not entertain salvation when thou brought'st it to our homes and preferd'st our litle nation before all the world Vnhappy we how came this misery to pass * that many of us look't on thy miracles and saw them not Before our eys thou gav'st sight to the blind and our souls were darkned with sin and prejudice Thou did'st cleanse the leprous and heald all manner of deseases thou did'st raise the dead and cast out divels with thy word Yet we alas how many of us blasphem'd thy name how many conspir'd with thy bloody crucifyers Spare us O Lord have mercy on us O JESU for we knew thee not to be the Lord of glory Blessed be thy holy spirit who has open'd our eys and made us see through the veil that ecclipst us Now we beleeve Thee the Messias we expected now we acknowledg Thee the King of Israel Such were the fervours of those happy times and O how happy were our times had we those fervours But ours are become miserable by schisms and heresys and the darknes that covers a great part of the earth Ours are become miserable by the unfruitful lives * and scandalous examples of too many Christians Too many alas yet even the gates of hell * can ne're prevail against the power of God Stil the same spirit governs the world and keeps alive the same primitive fire Stil there are harts ful of the holy Ghost ful of that ravishing wine of divine love Stil there are souls who renounce all they have and take up their cross and follow our Lord. Stil there are fiery tongues kindled by the breath of heav'n who carry their sacred flames into every Nation Stil the Apostolick Church is true to its name and sends abroad her burning and her shining lights Stil the Almighty Goodnes is true to his Church and conservs it one and holy and universal O keep us blessed Spirit in this thy fold of grace and bring the whole world into one flock That all may be of the same mind here and all enjoy the same happines herafter Glory be c. Antiph This is our Lords doing and it is wonderful in our eys Alleluja Alleluja Our Father c. First Lesson Jo. 14. AMen amen I say to you he that beleevs in me the works that I do he also shal do and greater then these shall he do because I go to the Father and wharever you shal ask in my name I wil do that the Father may be glorify'd in the Son If you love me keep my Commandments and I wil ask the Father and he will give you another Paraclete to abide with you for ever the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it sees Him not nor knows Him but you know Him for he shal abide with you and be in you Resp Blessed be thy merciful Providence O JESU who when thon hadst finisht thy great work on earth ascendedst into heav'n to draw up our minds even thither after Thee Alleluja * That where our happines is there might our harts be also Alleluja Alleluja Blessed be thy infinite goodnes O dear Redeemer who when thou hadst taught us the words of eternal life ●●entst down the holy Ghost to make us observe them and raise up our affections to that glorious Kingdom whether thou art gone before us Alleluja * That Second Lesson Acts. 2. WHen the days of Pentecost were accomplisht they were all together in once place and suddenly there was made a sound from heav'n as of a vehement wind coming and it fill'd the whole house where they were siting and there appear'd to them parted tongues as it were of fire and sate upon each of them and they were replenisht with the holy Ghost and began to speak with divers tongues according as the holy Ghost gave them to speak And there were dweling at Jerusalem Jews devout men of every Nation under heav'n and when this noise was made the multitude came together and was astonisht in mind because every one heard them speak in his own tongue the wonderful works of God Resp Thus were the words of the Prophets fulfil'd and the promises of our Saviour perform'd and the faith of the Christian Church miraculously begun Alleluja * O may it stil go on and increase and multiply til every Nation speak in their own tongues the wonderful works of God Alleluja Alleluja Govern O blessed Spirit the Church thou so wonderfully hast establisht govern it with thy special grace and always preserve it in obedience to Thee and us in obedience to it Alleluja * O may Third Lesson Acts 4. ANd the multitude of Beleevers had one hart and one soul nor did any say that ought was his own of what he possest but all was common to them And the Apostles with great power gave testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and great grace was in them all nor was there any one needy among them for as many as were owners of lands of houses sold them and brought the price of what they sold and laid it at the feet of the Apostles and to every one was divided as every one had need Resp O happy life O heav'n upon earth this is the blest effect of the fire of the true Spirit which warms without scorching and shines without smoking and inlightens without consuing Kindle in our harts O Lord this holy fire of meeknes and peace and unity * That all the world may know whose Disciples we are by seeing us love one another Alleluja But O deliver us from the contrary fire the fire of the false spirit that scorches without warming and smokes without shining and consumes without inlightening deliver us from schism and heresy and every least uncharitable passion * That all the Glory be c. * That all the Lauds for the Holy Ghost O God incline c. as Page 18. Antiph Kindle in our harts O Lord thy holy fire that we may offer to thee the incense of praise Alleluja Psal CIX COnsider now my soul the mercys of thy God consider the wonders he has wrought for the children of men The eternal Father created us of nothing and set us in the way to everlasting happines The eternal Son came down from heav'n to seek us and restor'd us again when we had lost our selvs The eternal spirit sends his grace to sanctify us and gives us strength to walk that holy way Thus every Person of the sacred Trinity * has freely contributed his peculiar blessing And All together as one co-infinite Goodnes * have graciously agreed to compleat our felicity But O ingrateful we was it not enough * to receive of our God all we have and are Was it not enough that the Son of God should come down and live
to teach us and dy to redeem us Was not all this enough to make us love and love is all he aim'd at and love is all we needed Let us confess to thee O mercifull Lord let us confess to thee our miserable condition Such was alas the corruption of our nature and so many and strong the rentations round about us That without this thy last miraculous favour * of sending the holy Ghost to guide and quicken us We should have still remain'd in our old dull pace slow to understand and slower to obey We should have quite forgotten our God that made us and neglected the service of our Lord that bought us Had not thy fulnes been readily furnisht * with one blessing more to bestow on thy children Ha'dst not thou providently reserv'd a better blessing then the dew of the clouds and fatnes of the earth Better then plenty of corn and wine * or the multitude of posterity or dominon o're our Brethren These were the great rewards of the old Law but behold far greater then these are here Divine refreshments from the heav'n of heav'ns and the rare delicious fruits of the holy Ghost Meeknes and peace and joy diffus'd in our brests strength and undaunted courage kindled in our harts A thousand sweet imbraces of the Spouse of Souls a thousand dear pledges of his everlasting love These are the great rewards of the law of grace and given to prepare us for the Kingdom of glory O blessed Spirit who bestow'st thy favours as thou pleasest and the more thou hast given stil the more thou giv'st Fit and dispose thy servants first to entertain thee then graciously vouchsafe to descend into our harts Fil us O holy Ghost and our litle Vessels and as thou fil'st us inlarge our capacitys Make us the more we receive of thee stil grow in desire of receiving more Til we ascend to those satisfying joys above where all our facultys shal be stretcht to the utmost Where they shal all be fil'd to the brim and overflow'd with a torrent of pleasure for ever Glory be c. Psal CX Blessed for ever be thy name O holy Spirit and blessed be the bounty of thy goodnes When the eternal Father by creating the world * had declar'd Himself and his almighty Power When the Increated Word by redeeming mankind * had reveal'd Himself and his infinite Wisdom When now there remain'd but one seal more * to be open'd of the Book of divine Mysteryes Behold a strange condescendance to our weak nature the invisible Spirit visibly appears He descends from heav'n in the shape of a doue and gently lights on the Prince of peace Again he descends in the liknes of fire and miraculously sits on the heads of the Disciples Mingling thus together into one blest compound * those cheif ingredients of excellent vertue Mildnes to allay the heat of zeal and zeal to quicken the indifferency of mildnes Innocence to adorn the light of knowledg and knowledg to direct the simplicity of innocence O blest and admirable Teacher who can instruct like the spirit of God! He needs no years to finish his course but with a swift and effecacious touch consummates all things He entred the soul of a young delighter in musick and presently sanctify'd him into a Composer of Psalms He took a poor shepherd from following the flock and immediatly rais'd him to the degree of a Prophet He by one lesson perfected the Disciples and polisht rude fishermen into eloquent Prechers He toucht the hart of a persecuting Pharisee instantly chang'd him into a glorious Apostle All this thou hast done O infinite Goodnes and all we do is wrought in us by thee By thee we are regenerated at first in our baptism by thee confirm'd in the imposition of hands By thee we are heal'd in the Sacrament of Penance by thee prepar'd for that banquet of the bread of Angels By thee thy choycer servants are consecrated into Priests by thee our marriages are sanctifyed into blessings By thee our souls are comforted on our beds of sicknes and by thy holy vnction all our life is govern'd If in the Church be any wisdom or knowledg if any real sanct●●ty or decent order If any faith of the mysterys of religion if any hope of everlasting salvation If any love of God as our soverain bliss if any mutual charity of one towards another If any miracles to convert unbelievers or quicken devotion in such as faintly beleeve All flows from Thee and thy free grace O thou boundles Ocean of eternal mercys All flows from Thee and may we all return * our litle streams in tribute to thy bounty May every favour thou offer'st be thankfully receiv'd and every talent thou bestow'st diligently improv'd So shal we faithfully perform our duty and render to thy grace its just glory While whate're we have we acknowledge from thee and whate're thou giv'st us is not in vain Glory be c. Psal CXI STil let us sing O blessed Spirit to Thee let us humbly sing these few lines more To Thee the eternal Love of the Father and the Son and glorious Finisher of that sacred Mystery To Thee the quickning Spirit of regenerate Souls in whom they live and move and have their being To Thee the soveraign Balsom of our wounds and only Comfort of all our sorrows To Thee our Refuge in this place of banishment and faithful Guide in this wandring pilgrimage To Thee the sacred Pledg of our free adoption and ensuring Seal of our eternal Salvation What do we say O thou adorable Spirit of God! what do we say when we utter such words as these We say what we can in our low capacity but alas how short of thy unspeakable excellencys O that we had the tongues of Saints and Angels O that we had thine own miraculous tongues Those which sate flaming on the heads of the Apostles and made them speak thy wonders in every language Stil all our praises would be poor and narrow stil infinitely less then thy more then infinite perfections But if we cannot speak as our God deservs shal we hold our peace which our God forbids Wo be to them O Lord who are silent of Thee and spend the breath thou giv'st them on any but Thy self O thou who openest the mouths of the dumb and makest the tongues of children eloquent Inspire thy servants if not with expressions suitable to Thee at least with such as are profitable to us Such as may instruct us what we ought to do such as may move us to do what we say And when we have try'd our best endeavours and taken measure of our own defects Let us beg this charity of thy Blessed above to supply our weaknes with their worthier hymns Praise the eternal Spirit O thou Queen of Saints by whom the world's Redeemer was conceiv'd in th●● womb By whom thou wert made the Mother of the Son of God so high a favour to thee and so happy
to us Praise him all you Quires of rejoycing Angels whose early grace confirm'd you in glory Praise him you reverend Patriarks whose ways he govern'd and by particular providence led you to felicity Praise him you ancient Prophets whose souls he inspir'd * to teach his chosen People the mind of heav'n Praise him you glorious Apostles whose persons he empowr'd * to be Embassadors of peace betwixt heav'n and earth Praise him you generous Martyrs whose spirits he encourag'd and gave you victory o're the terrors of death Praise him you blessed Confessors whose lives he sanctify'd and gave you victory o're the world and your selvs Praise him you holy Virgins whose souls he espous'd and consecrated your chast bodys into Temples for himself Praise him you faithful departed whose hope he sustains and will at last bring you to full fruition Praise him all you Elect in your several happy states bless him and magnify him for ever Praise him in the power and freedom of his grace praise him in the greatnes and eternity of his glory Praise him O my soul for his mercys to thee praise him for his goodnes to all the world Praise him on thy choicest instrument that of thy hart praise him in thy best words those of the Church Glory be c. Antiph Kindle in our harts O Lord thy holy fire that we may offer to Thee the incense of praise Alleluja Capit. Rom. 8. WE are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh for if you live according to the flesh you shal dy but if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh you shal live For whoever are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God and if sons then heirs heirs truly of God and coheirs of Christ if we suffer with him to be also glorifyed with him Hymn XXXIV COme mild and holy Dove Descend into our brest Do thou in us make us in thee For ever dwel and rest Come and spread o're our heads Thy soft all-cherishing wing That in its shade we safe may sit And to thee praises sing To thee who giv'st us life Our better life of grace Who giv'st us breath and strength and speed To run and win our race If by the way we faint Thou reachest forth thy hand If our own weaknes make us fal Thou mak'st our weaknes stand When we are sliding back Thou dost our danger stop When we again alas are faln Again thou tak'st us up Else there we stil must ly And stil sink lower down Our hope to rise is all from Thee Our ruin's all our own O my ingrateful foul What shal our dulnes do For Him that does all this for us Only our love to woo We 'l love Thee then dear Lord But Thou must give that love We 'l humbly beg it of thy grace But Thou our pray'rs must move O hear thine own self speak For thou in us dost pray Thou can'st as quickly grant as ask Thy grace knows no delay Glory to Thee O Lord One coeternal Three To Father Son and holy Ghost One equal glory be Antiph Come holy Spirit the free Dispenser of all graces visit the harts of thy faithful servants and replenish them with thy sacred inspirations illuminate our understandings and inflame our affections and sanctify all the facultys of our souls that we may know and love and constantly do the things that belong to our peace our everlasting peace Alleluja Alleluja Recite the Canticle Benedictus as page 27. Then repeat this Antiphon c. O Lord hear our prayers And let our supplications come to Thee Let us pray O God who miraculously sent'st down the holy Ghost to supply the absence of thy Son and comfort his hartless Followers and instruct them in all things necessary to their great work the conversion of the world Grant we humbly beseech thee that our devout commemorating those fiery tongues which sate on each of their heads and produced such glorious effects may increase the fervour of our harts to continue and attest by all fruits of grace the same spirits stil abiding with us through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with Thee in the unity of the same blessed Spirit lives and reigns one God world without end Amen Commemorations c. as page 29. Vespers for the holy Ghost IN the name c. as Pag. 33. Antiph We are not our own but the temples of the holy Ghost let us dedicate our selvs entirely to his service Psal CXII COme let us now again prepare our harts and humbly offer this our evening sacr●●ce Let us clear our heads of all other thoughts that fil us at best with nothing but emptines Let us remember our God is a pure Spirit and delights to dwel in a clean tabernacle He wil not enter a soul that 's subject to ●●in nor stay where he finds his grace neglected If he vouchsafe us the blessing of a visit and O how heav'nly sweet and ravishing is his presence Let us open wide our bosoms to receive him and summon all our powers to come and entertain him Come my understanding and bring all thou know'st all that enlightens thee in the way to felicity Come my Wil and call in all thy loves and contract them into one and setle it here for ever Come my Memory with all thy swarm of notions and forget them all but what concerns thy eternity Come my whole Soul with these thy facultys about thee and prostrate adore the eternal Spirit Behold he now is with us and sits in our harts as on his throne * to receive our petitions and give us his blessings He never will forsake us if we chace him not away but guide and comfort us with his holy inspirations Come then and with devoutest reverence attend and hear what the Lord our God wil say He leads us thus into retirement and silence and there familiarly speaks to our heart Tel me O you design'd for everlasting happines tel me now freely for none shall interrupt us What do you chiefly delight to think on and what do you aim at in all those thoughts Consider wel the question I propose and when you have examined your selvs give me your answer O thou our merciful though offended God! behold thus low we bow our guilty heads Blushing for shame to see our folly and so much the more because we see our duty Happy were we could we still be thinking on Thee and raise all those thoughts into desires to be with thee Happy were we could we always feel those fervours * of which somtimes thou inspirest a litle spark O were that spark kindled into a fire and that fire blown up into a continual flame But we alas are hot and cold by fits and which is worse our cold fit is the longer Some few half hours we spend in pray'r and many whole days in idlenes and vanity Somtimes we bestow a litle on the poor and often throw away a
If thou imbrace his love Great God of rich rewards who thus Hast crown'd thy Saints and wilt crown us As Both to Thee belong O may we both together sing Eternal praise to thee our King In one eternal song Antiph Happy are thy Saints O Lord who wisely chose their End and constantly pursu'd the means to attain it Psal CXVI TEl me you eager lovers of the world what 't is you aim at in all your pretences You weary your bodys with restles labour and afflict your minds with perpetual care Day and night you are still perplext stil busily plotting to compas your ends Tel me what are those ends you so long have sought and I will tell you what you soon will find While they are many they but distract your thoughts and often engage them to quarrel among themselvs One end and one alone 's the way to peace and on that One must all the rest depend 'T is true and by that rule we guide our lives * whate're we undertake is only to be happy 'T is to be happy that we strive to be great and enrich our selvs by defrauding others 'T is to be happy that we run after pleasures and covet in every thing our own proud wil But we alas mistake our happines and foolishly seek where 't is not to be found As silly children think to catch the Sun when they see it setting at so neer a distance They travail on and tire themselvs in vain for the thing they seek is in another world Just so we judg and just so are deceiv'd when we think to meet with heaven upon earth This world alas has now no Paradise but all its fruits are weeds and thorns All dangerously mixt with occasions of sin all sprinkled over with the bitternes of sorrow What did we ever passionately love but stil in the end it made us repent Nay the best end was hartily to repent and learn by our falling to tread more sure 'T is not then here we must seek our happines and yet 't is happines we all must seek Pity us O Lord who live below in the dark stil wishing for rest but finding none Scatter those mists of passion that blind our eys and shine upon us with thy beauteous light Convince us thorowly there 's a better world then this a happier people then those we know That we may now begin our journy thither and fit our selvs for that blessed company Glory be c Antiph Happy are thy Saints O Lord who wisely chose their end and constantly pursu'd the means to attain it Antiph O how glorious is the kingdom of heav'n where our Lord reigns in the midst of his Saints Psal CXVII IF thus our nature tend to happines there 's sure some happines to content our nature Sure the All-wise Creator has provided means to satisfy the appetites which himself has made Doubt not my soul the bounty of thy Lord but turn all thy fear on thine own unworthines Look up and see a rich delicious Land that flows with sweeter streams then milk and hony Look up and see a glorious City incomparably braver then the Courts of Kings Behold the blessed Angels shining on their thrones and all the holy Saints triumphing with their hymns Behold the glory wherewith their Lord has crown'd them in the solemn day of their Espousals with Himself Look up and see a more exalted seat and on it one far brighter then the rest the Queen of all those Saints and Angels the Virgin-Mother of the Son of God Look up yet higher O my soul and see * the sacred Humanity of thy deer Redeemer That blessed JESUS who dy'd for us on the Cross and now invites us to partake his crown See and rejoyce in those eternal honors which heaven and earth pay to their King Look up once more and infinitely farther and humbly admire the unspeakable Mystery See and adore the Soveraign Deity essentially ful of its own blest Light Full and overflowing into all his creatures which shine as litle beams deriv'd from Him When thou hast seen all this my soul and staid and dwelt a while among those wonders Turn down thine ey towards the earth again and see the petty things that entertain our minds What is a name of honor and a momentary pleasure compar'd to the blyss of an eternal Paradise What is a bag of mony or a fair Estate if counterballanc't with the treasures of heaven How narrow there do our greatest kingdoms seem how smal a circle the whole globe of the earth Citys and towns shew like litle hils and the busie world but as a swarm of ants Runing up and down and jostling one another and all this stir for a few grains of corn O heaven let me again lift up my eys to thee and take a fuller view of that glorious Prospect There let me stand and fix my steddy sight til I have look't my self into this firm judgment All the most prosperous fortune can here posses or even the largest fancy possibly imagin All is an idle dream to those real joys an absolute nothing to that solid felicity Glory be c. Antiph O how glorious is the kingdom of heav'n where our Lord reigns in the midst of his Saints Antiph In thee O Lord is all our hope in life and death in time and eternity Psal CXVIII T Is true there is I see a glorious state * prepar'd above for the spirits of the Perfect But how shal we poor dust and ashes and laden too with the burthen of our sins How shal we hope to ascend those higher Regions or claim a portion in that holy land Fear not my soul send up thy sighs and prayers * and ask with confidence those celestial spirits They want not knowledge to resolve our doubts they want not charity to relieve our needs Themselvs somtimes have come down to assist us what wil they do when we go up to wait on them Ask the bright Angels what made them happy and straight they 'l answer with a spriteful voice We readily obey'd our great Creator and he fixt us here to shine for ever Ask the blest Saints what brought them to felicity and immediately they 'l tel you in the same glad tune We faithfully lov'd our dear Redeemer and that love plac't us here Ask Both together what bred those excellent vertues and Both together will proclaim aloud Blessed for ever be the grace of our God which alone has wrought all our works in us Blessed for ever be the Bounty of our Lord which gave us freely first then crown'd his own gifts Hark how the holy Saints as more ally'd to us * bear on alone and sweetly cloze the song Fear not say they you who dwel below and sigh under the weight of flesh and blood Fear not to ascend at last to this place of joy and take your happy seats among our Quires We too liv'd once in that valley of tears and were set to strive
with the same unruly passions He that made us o'recom can as easily strengthen you He that has crown'd our victorys wil as surely glorify yours Fear not the way is smoother then you are made believe and the time shorter then perhaps you wish 'T is but to love your own true interest which seems no hard command * and that but while you live which you seldom think too long This once well done you have no more to do but to come and sing and rejoyce with us O you blest Saints who now are gladly arriv'd * at the quiet harbor of eternal rest Behold us here below imbarkt on the same Ship and bound with all our interest for the same Port. Behold us strugling yet in this Sea of storms and guide us safely thorow all our dangers Come holy Angels with your swiftest speed and disappoint the enemys that threaten to sink us Bend down thy gracious eys O Queen of clemency and fill them from our woes with soft compassion Then sweetly turn them to thy Son 's mild throne whose love stands always ready to meet thy wishes There represent to Him our needs our fears and favorably obtain for us a happy passage And Thou O soveraign Lord of universal nature on whom the whole celestial court continually waits Command thy vigilant Angels to watch about us and carry us strongly on to the Place of our desires Save us O Thou whom the Sea and winds obey save us O merciful Lord or else we perish Save us who call on Thee in all our distresses save us for whom thy glorious Heaven pours forth their prayers Save us for whom thy immortal self wert pleased to dy and graciously receive us into thine own blest Arms Thou art thy self O Lord the Heaven of repose bring us to thy self and our souls shall be safe Glory be c. Antiph In thee O Lord is all our hope in life and death in time and eternity Our Father c. First Lesson THe souls of the Just are in the hand of God and the torment of death shal not touch them they seem'd to the eys of the unwise to dy and their departure was counted affliction but they are in peace Though before men they suffer'd torments their hope is full of immortality Vext in a few things they shall be well treated in many for God has try'd them and found them worthy Himself as gold in the furnace he has prov'd them and as a burnt-offering receiv'd them and in time there shall be respect of them The Just shall shine and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble they shall judg Nations and have dominion over Peoples and their Lord shall reign for ever They that trust in him shall understand truth and the faithful in love shall remain with him for rest and peace is to his Elect. Resp Rejoyce all you holy Saints rejoyce and sing for ever the mercys of our Lord his blessed hand has wip't away all tears from your eys and now you no more shall weep no more complain * For the evening of sorrow is past and the day of eternal joy is come Alleluja Now you no longer shall sigh to be delivered out of this dark and tedious prison but dwel for ever in that glorious light the light which springs from the face of God * For Second Lesson THe Just if prevented with death shal be in a place of refreshment for venerable age consists not in length of time nor is accounted by number of years but wisdom is the gray hair to a man and an unspotted life old age He pleased God and was belov'd of Him and living among sinners was translated he was taken away lest malice should change his understanding or deceit beguile his soul for the bewitching of vanity obscures good things and the wandring of concupiscence perverts the simple mind Being made perfect in a short space he fulfil'd much time for his soul pleased God therefore he hastned to bring him out of the midst of iniquities This the people saw but did not understand not laying up such things in their harts That the grace of God and mercy is with his Saints and that He has respect to his Chosen Resp O happy they whom our Lord shall honor on the day of his triumph and rising from his Seat of Judgment go gloriously before them and with these sweet and gracious words invite them to follow him Come you blessed of my Father possess the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world * The reward of your labours I will give you I my self will be your reward Alleluja You have firmly beleev'd you have firmly beleev'd you have readily obey'd you have constantly suffer'd Come enter now into your Masters joy * The reward Third Lesson THen shal the Just stand with great confidence before the face of those who have afflicted him and made no account of his labors When they shal see it they shal be troubled with terrible fear and amaz'd at the suddennes of his unexpected salvation and repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit they shal say within themselvs These are they whom heretofore we have had in derision and as a by-word of reproach Sensless we esteem'd their lives a madnes and their end dishonorable behold how they are numbred among the children of God and their lot is among the Saints We therfore have err'd from the way of truth and the light of justice has not shin'd to us we have wearied our selvs in the paths of iniquity and perdition we have walked hard ways but the way of our Lord we have not known What has our pride profited us or what benefit has Vaunting of our riches brought us They all are past away as a shadow and as a Post that runs by in hast or as bird that flys in the sky and no sign of her passage to be found but only a sound of her wings beating the light air so we assoon as we were born began to draw to our end not able to shew any token of vertue but were consum'd in our own wickednes Such things said they in hell who had sin'd for the hope of the impious is as dust blown away with the wind and as a thin froth scatter'd by the storm But the Just shal live for ever and their reward is with our Lord and the care of them is with the Highest therefore shal they receive a glorious Kingdom and a beautiful crown from the hand of our Lord for with his right hand shal he cover them and with his holy arm defend them Resp Deliver us O Lord from that sad deplorable end which thy justice has prepar'd for the wicked deliver us from those vain deceitful ways that lead us to so miserable an End * O make us always fear thy Judgments that we never feel them always hope in thy mercys that we never forfeit them Bless us O Lord with a happy death that our souls may depart
in peace and go up to dwel among thy Saints and Angels bless us O Lord with a holy life and then our death cannot but be happy * O make Glory be c. O make Te Deum as Page 16. Lauds for Saints O God incline as Page 18. Antiph The Just shal be as lillys planted in Paradise Alleluja and flourish in the presence of God for ever Alleluja Psal CXIX COme le ts all bring forth our Psalms and go together to the house of Praise There let us meet in peace and love and joyn our harts and voices into one glad song Come let us sing but who shal be our theme what worthy subject shal our Musick chuse No 't is not Conquerours we mean to admire nor any of the Great Ones whom the world applauds But You Blest Spirits who bravely overcame your selvs and led in triumph your own passions Who either wisely us'd this world or to be safer us'd it not at all You are the illustrious worthies we desire to praise * and guild our hymus with your bright names Yours are the only Trophys we delight to set up and beautify our Churches with your holy Pictures Sing then aloud my Soul the glorys of the Saints and let their sacred memorys be always in thine Rejoyce thou who feelst these miserys here * and often complain'st of the dangers of this life Rejoyce at their glad delivery from all these sorrows and hartily congratulate their secure felicity Rejoyce and with thy best instructed thoughts admire * the exquisite wisdom of the divine Providence Who from such low beginings can raise so great effects yet every step thrust naturally on the next Behold a litle seed that 's buryed in the earth * shoot gently out its tender leav●● And nourisht on with the clouds and Sun * climb up by degrees into a tall stalk There it displays its full blown hope and crowns its own head with a silver lilly Such is the progres of immortal souls even those who shine now among the highest Seraphins At first shu●● up in their mothers womb where they ly confin'd close prisoners in the d●●rk Thence they come forth to see and h●●ar and slowly begin to walk and spek Next they advance to understand and discourse then learn to fly with the wings of grace Til they get up even beyond themselvs and believe and live above their own nature At last the kindly hand of death gives them a stroke and they instantly become like the glorious Angels Instantly their dark and narrow knowledg unfolds it self and spreads into a clear and spacious view Where they at once shal see all the glorys of heav'n at once possess and for ever injoy them Thus from the humble seed of grace connaturally spring the flowers of glory And from this life 's green stem of hope * grow just on the top of the Lillys of Paradise Lillys that never fade but stil shine on and fil the heav'ns with their beauteous sweetnes Lillys that even Salomon in all his glory * was not array'd like one of these Sing then my soul but stil among thy Hymns * mingle resolvs to imitate their lives Those are the Lauds most deligh●●ful to Them whose charity rejoyces at the conversion of a sinner Those are the Feasts most profitable to thee whose weaknes needs the impressions of example Learn but of them to be humble and meek to submit all thy wishes to the Will of heav●● To govern thy senses by a rule of reason and thy reason by the dictates of Religion To design thy whole life in order to thy end and establish for thy end the blyss of eternity These holy Lessons let thy life transcribe and never fear their acceptance of thy praise Saints like our service best when our honoring them * becomes an occa●●ion of benefiting our selvs Glory be c. Antiph The Just shal be as lillys planted in Paradise Alleluja and flourish for ever in the presence of God Alleluja Antiph Rejoyce O you Holy and Just Alleluja for our Lord has chosen you for his own inheritance Alleluja Psal CXX O Praise our Lord all you powers of my soul praise the immortal King of Saints and Angels Praise him as the Author of all their graces praise him as the Finisher of all their glorys Praise him in the admirable priviledges of his Virgin-Mother whom he obeyed on earth and assum'd into heav'n That he might give us hope our petitions will be heard presented by the hand of so powerful an Advocate Praise him in the mighty hosts of Angels whom he sets about us as the Guard of our lives That they may safely keep us in all our ways and carry us at last to their own home Praise him in the sacred Colledg of Apostles to whom he reveal'd the mysterys of his Kingdom That they might teach us too those heavenly truths and shew us the same best way to felicity Praise him in the generous fortitude of Martyrs whom he strengthen'd with courage to resist even to death That we might learn of them to hold fast our faith and rather lose this life then hazard the Other Praise him in the eminent fanctity of Confessors whose whole design was a course of heroick Vertue That we might raise our minds from our usual lazy flight and with a quick and active wing mount up towards heav'n Praise him in the Angelical purity of Virgins whose harts he enflam'd with his divine charity That they might kindle ours with the same chast fire the same fe●●vent love to the spouse of our souls Praise him in the perfect holines of all his Saints whose lives he moulded into so various shapes That every size of ours might readily be furnisht * with a pattern cut out and fitted for it self O praise our Lord all you powers of my soul praise the immortal King of Saints and Angels Praise every Person of the sacred Deity and give a harty joy to the whole court of heaven Blessed for ever be the Eternal Father who has fixt his Angels in so high a happines Triumph bright Angels on your radiant thrones and shine continually in the presence of your God Blessed for be ever the Eternal Son who has crown'd so gloriously his incomparable Mother Live most miraculous Mother of the King of heaven and dwel perpetually in the joys of thy Son Blessed for ever be the Eternal Spirit whose grace prefers all the Saints into glory Rejoyce every happy Saint in your own felicity rejoyce every one in the felicity of All. Blessed for ever be the undivided Trinity whose sight alone is the heaven of heaven Sing all you holy Citizens of heaven sing all together everlasting hymns Sing and among your highest fervours forget not us who thus in our low way remember you Still pray our dear Redeemer to save our souls and still we 'l praise his Name for saving yours Glory be c. Antiph Rejoyce O you Holy and Just Alleluja for our Lord
has chosen you for his inheritance Alleluja Antiph Perpetual light shall shine on thy Saints O Lord Alleluja and joy and glory for ever Alleluja Psal CXXI BUt who are we born here below in the dust and still kept down with the thoughts of this world Lord who are we that our polluted hands * dare offer to Thee the incense of praise We who so often disobey thy commands and so seldom weep for our many follys Forgive great God our boldnes who thus rashly presume forgive our frailtys who thus weakly perform Plead our excuse O you glorified Spiritis and with your flaming charity warm our coldnes O praise our Lord you pure unblemisht Angels * who never displeas'd him with the least offence Praise him O you freely pardon'd Saints who perfectly repented every litle trespass Praise him with the highest Office of all your Feasts praise him with the loudest musick of all your Quires And so they do look up my soul and see * the innumerable multitude of triumphing Spirits See how they stand all cloth'd in white robes with palms in their hands and golden crowns on their heads Behold the glorious Angels fall down before the Throne and prostrate adore Him that lives for ever Behold the blessed Saints lay their Crowns at his feet and on their faces adore Him that lives for ever Hark how they fill that spacious Temple with their Hymns * while night and day they continually sing Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come Alleluja Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts heav'n and earth are full of thy glory Alleluja Glorious art Thou in creating all things glorious in preserving them every moment of their being Glorious in governing them their several ways glorious in appointing them their proper ends Glorious in rewarding thy servants above their hopes glorious in punishing sinners below their demerits Glorious art Thou O Lord in all thy works but infinitely more in thine own self-blessed Essence Thus they rejoyce above thus they triumph and may their joy and triumph last for ever But O were we not made as wel as they ** to serve and glorify our great Creator We ow him all we have and they can ow no more they can but do their best and we should do no less Your pardon blessed spirits if we worms aspire to sing the same bright name which you adore We are ingag'd as deep as You but cannot pay without your charity O in your golden Censers put our prayers and offer them perfum'd with the odours of yours Though we are now alas in this land of banishment and indispos'd for those Songs of Sion Yet 't is our hope one day to dwel above and hear your holy harps and learn to sing of You We hope to walk with you those ways of light and follow the Lamb with you where're He goes Mean while we every day will joyn our Vow●● to Yours and say a glad Amen to all You sing We as Your faithful Ecchoes will every day repeat * these few short Ends of Your Seraphik Hymns Salvation to our God who sits on the Throne and to the Lamb that redeem'd us with his blood Alleluja Blessing and Wisdom and Power be to Him that sits on the Throne and to the Lamb for all eternity Alleluja Glory be c. Antiph Perpetual light 〈◊〉 shine on thy Saints O Lord Alleluja and joy and glory for ever Alleluja Capit. Apoc. 7. AFter these things I saw a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the Throne and in the sight of the Lamb cloth'd in white robes and palmes in their hands And they cry'd with a loud voice saying Salvation to our God who sits on the Throne and to the Lamb. And all the Angels stood in the Circuit of the Throne and of the Seniors and of the four Beasts and they fell in the sight of the Throne upon their faces and ador'd God saying Amen Benediction and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving honour and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever Amen Hymn XXXVII WAke all my hopes lift up your eys And crown your heads with mirth See how they shine beyond the skys Who once dwelt on our earth Peace busy thoughts away vain cares That clog us here below Let us go up above the Sphears And to each order bow Hail glorious Angels Heirs of light The high-born Sons of fire Whose heats burn chast whose flames shine bright All joy yet all desire Hail holy Saints who long in hope Long in the shadow sate Til our victorious Lord set ope Heav'ns everlasting gate Hail great Apostles of the Lamb Who brought that early Ray Which from our Sun reflected came And made our first fair day Hail generous Martyrs whose strong harts Bravely rejoyc't to prove How weak pale death are all thy darts Compar'd to those of love Hail Blessed Confessors who dy'd A death too love did give While your own flesh You crucify'd To make your spirit live Hail beauteous Virgins whose chast vows Renounc't all fond desires Who wisely chose your Lord for Spouse And burnt with his pure fires Hail all you happy Spirits above Who make that glorious ring About the sparkling Throne of love And there for ever sing Hail and among your Crowns of praise Present this litle wreath Which while your lofty Notes you raise We humbly sing beneath All glory to the sacred Three One ever-living Lord As at the first stil may he be Belov'd obey'd ador'd Antiph The number of Them was thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and divinity and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and benediction Alleluja Alleluja Alleluja O Lord hear our Prayers And let our Supplications come to Thee Let us pray MOst gracious God the author of all sanctity and Lover of unity whose wisdom has establisht an admirable communion between thy Church Triumphant in heav'n and Militant on earth as members of the same mystical Body wherof thy Son Christ Jesus is the head mercifully grant that as thy Blessed without ceasing pray to Thee for us we may continually praise Thee for them and in correspondence to their perfect charity with pious observance celebrate their Memory till-we all meet before thy glorious throne and with one hart adore the Saviour of us all who with Thee and the holy Ghost lives and reigns one God world without end Amen Commemorations c. as page 29. Vespers for Saints IN the Name c. as page 33. Antiph Pity O Lord the infirmitys of thy servants and quicken our slownes by the example of thy Saints Psal CXXII LOrd what a lukewarm life is this of ours compar'd to the zeal and fervor of thy Saints Often and long they fasted to chastize their bodys and bring them under the command of reason On all their senses they set a constant
victorys Whom shal we then fear thus safely guarded who can resist so invincible a strength None but our own corrupted nature dare contend and the unlucky accidents that conspire with it against us Somtimes surprizing our unwary negligence somtimes defeating even our strongest resolvs Not that they can compel our wills unles we yeild or make the least wound without our consent Much less prevail against the power of heav'n and frustrate the purpose of the Almighty Wisdom Whose mercy has us'd more arts to save us when the craft of Vice can invent to destroy us Such a redemption so miraculously wrought such holy Sacraments so often repeated Such glorious promises so faithfully assur'd and which revives our hope so easily attain'd O infinite Goodnes how generous is thy love how liberally extended over all the world Thou invitest little children to come to Thee and the lame and the blind to sit down at thy feast None are shut out of heav'n but such as wil not go in none made unhappy but those who care not to be otherwise Cheer then thy self my hart and let no fears molest thee * nor even death it self abate thy courage Death is a passage that was always short and our SAVIOURS Cross has made it safe By the practise of his Saints 't is grown familiar and by their happy success becom desirable Lose not then thy hope in so glorious an enterprise Eternity is at stake and heav'n the reward That heav'n for which the antient Hermits peopled the Desart and so many Religious live bury'd in their Cells That heav'n for which the holy Confessors spent all their time and innumerable Martyrs laid down their dearest lives That heav'n where Millions of Angels continually sing and all the Blessed make one glorious Quire That heav'n where the ador'd JESUS eternally reigns and the immortal Deity shines bright for ever That very heaven is promis'd thee my soul that blest eternity thou art commanded to hope Raise now thy head and see those beauteous Prospects that ravish the harts of all their Beholders Yonder far above the Stars is thy Saviours Kingdom yonder we must dwell when we leave this earth Yonder must our souls remove to rest when the stroak of death shal divide them from their bodys And when the Almighty Power shal joyn them again yonder must we live with our God for ever O bounteous Lord the only Author of all we have the only object of all we hope As thou hast thus prepar'd a heav'n for us O may thy grace prepare us for it O make us live the life of the Just and let our last end be like Theirs That we may dy the death of the Just and live for ever in their blest society Glory be c. Antiph If God be with us who can be against us if He justify us who can condemn us Capit. Apoc. 7. THese are they who are come out of great tribulation have washt their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb therfore they are before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and He that sits on the Throne shal dwel over them They shal hunger no more nor thirst the Sun shal not fal upon them nor any heat for the Lamb who is in the midst of the Throne shal rule them and conduct them to the living fountains of waters and God shal wipe away all tears from their eys Hymn XXXVIII TEll me You bright Stars that shine Round about the Lambs high Throne How through bodys once like mine How are you thus glorious grown Hark with one voice they reply This was all our happy skil We on JESUS fixt our ey And his emi'nent followers stil As we clearly saw their mind Set and rul'd we order'd ours Both This state alone design'd Up towards this strem'd all our Powers Taught by Temp'rance we abstain'd From all less for greater Goods Slighting litle drops we gain'd Full and sweet and lasting Floods Arm'd with Fortitude we bare Lesser Evils worse to fly Mortal death we durst outdare Rather then for ever dy Iustice we observ'd by giving Every one their utmost due That in peace and order living All might freely Heav'n pursue Prudence govern'd all the Rest Prudence made us still apply What was fittest what was best To advance great Charity On those golden wheels of grace That loves fiery Chariot bear We ariv'd at this bright place Follow us and never fear O sure truth O blest Attesters O that a●● the world may prove Of both these such strong digesters That both these may feed their love Him who made us all for This Him who made Himself our way Him who leads us in'to Blyss May all praise and all obey Antiph Worthy art Thou O Lord to receive the book and to open the seals thereof for thou wert slain and hast redeem'd us to God with thy blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and hast made us to our God a Kingdom Alleluja Magnificat as Page 44. Antiph Worthy art Thou c. O Lord hear our prayers And let our supplications come to Thee Let us pray O God whose merciful Providence has stil from the Begining sown the seeds of grace in the harts of thy chosen servants which at the Resurrection of thy Son the first fruit of them that slept sprung up into glory and by his holy doctrin and admirable life and precious death has infinitely encreast the mean●● of salvation and the number of thy Saints Grant we beseech Thee that we whom tho●● hast favour'd with so many advantages may by the powerful intercession of that glorious Com●●pany obtain thy grace to imitate them here and rejoyce with them for ever in thy Kingdom hereafter through the same our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with thee and the holy Ghost lives and reigns one God world without end Amen Commemorations as page 29. Complin for Saints OUr help c. as page 46. Antiph Help us you blessed Citizens of heaven direct our way you who have attain'd your end Psal CXXV THus we have past another day another step towards our long home We have seen the Sun a few hours more and our day is lost in its own night But is it lost O careles we and all the holy words we have read and heard Leave they no mark in our memorys behind them but make a litle sound and vanish in the air Have we not been at a solemn Feast and do we soon forget our entertainment Could we see nothing among all those raritys * that relisht with us and stir'd our appetite Was there no fit provision for some vertue we want no proper remedy for some weaknes we have Are we devout already as the Saints of God and chast and temperate and resign'd as they Do we despise this world with a zeal like theirs and value heav'n at the same rate with Them Would we give all we have just now to be
there and part with life it self to dy and go thither Alas how short are we of these perfections how slowly do we follow those excellent Guides O that we liv'd I dare not say blest Souls like you * whose aim was high and a generous heat bet in your brests But that our harts desire were to live like you and what you really did we really wisht to do O that we liv'd in some degree like you and lov'd to think and read and speak of you To sign and publish your heroick Acts and where we cannot imitate at least admire At least let us learn to humble our selvs and check the vanity of our proud conceits Let us mourn and blush at our many infirmitys and so much the louder call to heav'n for releef Hear us you blessed Saints who dwel secure above and turn your eys of pity towards us below Look down with tendernes on our world of miserys and bow your charitable knees to the God of mercys That what our own unworthines cannot obtain we may hope to receive by your holy prayers Glory be c. Antiph Help us you blessed Citizens of heav'n direct our way you who have attain'd your end Antiph Fear not my soul our God has a blessing too for us if we have a love and obedience for Him Psal CXXVI LEt us humble our selvs but not grow faint * at the sight of others so far before us Rather let us quicken our sloth by their swift pace and encourage our fears with their happy success We who profess the Religion of all these Saints who liv'd and dy'd in the same Church with us We who partake of the same holy Sacraments and eat the same celestial Food Why should we fear one day to shine above and rejoyce together with you glorious Saints Are we not all redeem'd by the same rich price the same eternal crowns propos'd to us all Are we not bred in the same Apostolick faith and nurst at the brests of the same Catholick Church The Lessons I see and Teacher is the same but the hand is dul and instrument out of tune You liv'd indeed in a dangerous world like this and were ty'd to bodys frail as ours But by a constant vigilance you o'recame the world and subdu'd your bodys to the service of your minds You overcame with a joyful hart * and we thus congratulate the triumph of your victorys You overcame but not by your own strong hand you now triumph but 't is by the bounty of your God Chear then thy self my soul raise thy head * and open thy bosom to the hopes of heaven Fear not our God has a blessing too for us if we have a love and obedience for Him If we delight in the ways of piety and diligently attend the Offices of devotion If we refrain from the libertys of the world and curb the loose suggestions of the flesh If we can look on gold and honor and their flaming beams not dazle our eys If we perform with them the part of faithful servants * we shal surely with them have the portion of children Glory be c. Antiph Fear not my soul our God has a blessing too for us if we have a love and obedience for Him Antiph Precious in thy sight O Lord is the death of thy Saints precious to thee and themselvs and us Psal CXXVII PRecious in thy fight O Lord is the death of thy Saints which finishes thy greatest work the perfecting of Souls Whom Thou esteem'st as the jewels of heav'n and choicely gather'st into thine own Treasury Precious to themselvs O Lord is the death of thy Saints which takes off the dusky cover that hides their brightnes Which shapes and polishes them to a beauteous luster and sets them as stars round about thy Throne Precious to us O Lord is the death of thy Saints which makes us heirs of so great a welth Which leaves us furnisht with so rich variety that every kind of want is abundantly supply'd Some teach us courage to encounter dangers and not for fear make Shipwrack of our conscience Others instruct us to converse with meeknes and patiently bear neglects and injurys From some we learn how wisely to use this world and make it serve us in our way to the next From others how more generously to renounce it and pass our time in peace and prayer From all we learn this best of arts to live and dy like Saints and in the best of methods their own example O gracious Lord whose love still looks about and searches every way to save us siners Who cam'st thy self bright Sun of glory * to inlighten our darknes and warm our frozen harts Who with thy fruitful beams stil kindlest others to burn as tapers in thy Churches hand And by their near proportionate distance stand fit to shine into every corner of our lives O make us bless thy Name for all these mercys and let not one be lost by our ingratitude Let us not see in vain the crown at the races end and sit down lazily in the shades of ease Let us not keep in vain these sacred memorys to be only a reproach to our unprofitable lives But let us stretch our selvs and pursue to the mark for the glorious prizeis that set before us Stil with our utmost speed let us follow Them whose travails ended in so sweet a rest And when our life's last day begins to fal and bids us hasten to prepare for night Then come you holy Angels and watch about 〈◊〉 and suffer not the enemy to disturb our ●●ssage Come and receive in peace our departing souls and bear them safely to the presence of our Lord. Then O Thou blessed Virgin-Mother protect us with thy favor and all you glorious Saints assist us with your pray'rs Then O Thou dear Redeemer of the world and Soveraign King of life and death Thou who despisest not the tears of the penitent nor turnest away from the sighs of the afflicted Thou who preserv'dst all that rely on Thee and fulfilst their desires that long to be with Thee Hear Thou our cryes and pardon our sins and graciously deliver us from all our fears Cal us to thy self with thine own blest voice cal us O dearest JESU in thine own sweet words Come you Blessed of my Father possess the kingdom * prepared for you from the foundation of the world Then O my happy soul immediately obey and go forth with gladnes to meet the Lord To live with Him and behold his glory to rejoyce with Him and sing his Praise Glory be c. Antiph Precious in thy sight O Lord is the death of thy Saints precious to Thee and themselvs and us Hymn XXXIX NIght forbear alas our Praise And our young begining hope Set to grow on these blest days Faint and dull requires more scope 'T will not hear but sullen flys Summons all the world to sleep Bids us close our books and eys What
have had sacrifice I verily had given it with burnt-offerings thou art not delighted R. A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit a contrite and an humbled hart O God thou wilt not despise V. Deal favorably O Lord in thy good will with Sion that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up R Give them eternal rest O merciful Lord and may thy glorious light shine upon them for ever V. Turn not thy face away from them O Lord R. Turn not thy face away in wrath from thy servants V. Behold their humiliation and their labor R. And forgive them all their sins V. Behold how their spirit is in anguish R. And their hart troubled within them V. Their iniquitys have overtaken them R. Innumerable evils have compast them about R. And now what is their expectation but thou O Lord R. And their substance is with Thee V. Before Thee is all their desire R. And their groans are not hid from Thee V. As the Hart pants after the water brooks R. So do their souls thirst after thee V. Their souls thirst after Thee the living fountain R. When shal they come and appear before thy face V. Their tears are their bread day and night R. While stil 't is said to them Where is your God V. Convert them O Lord thou God of strength R. Shew them thy face and they shal be safe V. Bring out their souls from prison to praise thy Name R. The Just stand expecting til thou rewardst them V. How long Lord wilt thou forget them for ever R. How long wilt thou hide thy face from them V. Turn thee O Lord and deliver their souls R. Save them for thy mercys sake V. Save thy People O Lord and bless thy Inheritance R. Govern them and raise them up to eternity V. That they may walk in the light of thy countenance R. And rejoyce in thy presence for ever V. That their souls may live and sing thy praise R. While even thy judgments lead them to their Blyss V. O Lord hear our pray'rs R. And let our supplications come to thee Let us pray O God who in thy mercy hast prepar'd immediate rewards for the Perfect and in thy justice immediate punishments for the wicked and mingling thy mercy and justice together hast ordain'd a middle state for those who depart in a true but weak degree of divine charity hear we beseech thee our prayers for these thy afflicted servants who look up to thee and sigh after the times of refreshment from thy glorious presence forgive them their sins and deliver them from their sorrows and bring them to the possession of all their wishes in rest and peace and everlasting joy through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with Thee and the holy Ghost lives and reigns One God world without end Amen A Prayer for any particular person departed BEhold with pity we beseech thee O Lord the soul of thy servant N. for whom we humbly offer our Pray'rs to thy Divine Majesty and grant that the offences which humane frailty has inconsiderably committed being by thy clemency mercifully forgiven and all impediments by a perfect cleansing from the strains of sin thorowly remov'd the happy effect of seeing Thee face to face for ever may immediately follow through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who V. Give them eternal rest merciful Lord. R. And may thy glorious light shine upon them for ever V. May they rest in peace R. Amen Vespers for the Dead OUr Father Hail Mary Secretly and Kneeling then rise and say Antiph Blessed are the servants whom our Lord shal find watching he surely wil bestow on them all the mercys of heav'n Psal CXXXIV COme let us make our peace betimes with our God before the evening approach too near While it is cal'd to day let us faithfully labour for the night wil come wherein none can work Let us implore his favour first for our selvs and not til then presume to beg for others Let us look first into our own brests and strictly examine what passes there Lest while we pray for the salvation of others * our selvs becom everlasting reprobates Tel me my soul how stand our great account are all things even betwixt heav'n and us Are we prepared to go meet our Judg whose justice punishes every least defect Is there not stil some restitution to make which the love of this world tempts us to delay Is there not stil some mis-affection to rectify which our own false harts abuse us to connive at Not that we esteem O Lord any creature more then thee from which abhor'd ingratitude defend thy servants But that we esteem them more then they deserve serve and busy our thoughts too eagerly about them We love them in some degree for themselvs not purely as instruments to bring us to Thee Forgive O Soveraign Goodnes these our imperfections and fix our whole harts on nothing but Thy self Why are we thus at best but good by halfs for whom there 's a heav'n prepar'd worth all our labors Why do we mingle stil with thy pure grace * so much of our own corrupted nature Deliver us O Lord from the tentations of this world and mercifully save us from the wrath to come That dreadful wrath which we so justly fear and which so many terribly feel Justly they too confes and yet they hope * in the God of clemency to meet with pity Pity O Lord their miserys Thou who hear'st their crys releive their sorrows Thou who seest their tears Pity their fainting eys that perpetually wake * till the long expected day appear Pity their wearied hands stretch't out to Thee and send thy blessed Angels to unloose their bonds That they may pass away to those mansions of joy where holy Souls rest and weep no more Give them eternal rest O merciful Lord and may thy glorious light shine upon them for ever Antiph Blessed are the servants whom our Lord shal find watching he surely wil bestow on them all the mercys of heav'n Antiph Happy they who are pray'd for by others but far more happy they who pray for themselvs Psal CXXXV HEar these our Pray'rs O Lord for thy servants and favourably accept our humble charity Hear their own better pray'rs O Lord for themselvs and tenderly regard their doleful complaints Out of that dark and dismal prison behold they cry in the anguish of their harts O wretched we what do we feel what strange extremitys do we here endure How has the just Avenger of our crimes * severely pour'd his wrath into our souls Every thing afflicts us in this sad abode but nothing so much as our own iniquitys They like a heavy yoke oppress our necks and keep down our eys from looking into heaven Lord we confess we have follow'd vanity and negligently perform'd the work thou gav'st us We confess we have gone astray after the manner of men but our chief desires were towards thee In Thee we believed and