and then returning up to the Altar he kneels to the blessed Sacrament after that bowing himself with his hands joyned before the Altar he says WE present our selves O Lord before thee in the spirit of humility and repentance and therefore we beseech thee that this Sacrifice may be agreeably accomplisht by us this day The Priest kisseth the Altar and kneels down then turning to the People he desires them to joyn in Prayers with him to God that he will please to accept this Offering of Wine and Water in memory of the Bloud and Water which ran out of our Saviours side And this Offering is a kind of Sacrifice in that it is joyned with the Consecrated Hoast which represents the bloudy Sacrifice of Jesus Christ PRay Brethren that this my Sacrifice which is also yours may be acceptable to God the Father Almighty And to observe unto us that this Oblation is only a representation of the bloudy Sacrifice of Jesus Christ and that no unbloudy Sacrifice is celebrated this day Suscipiat Dominus is not answered And thereupon also there is no Consecration this day because the memory of Christs Passion is only celebrated as it actually had past Nevertheless that we may not be deprived of participating the fruit of his Passion being incorporated anew with him the Body of this our Divine Saviour is reserved the day before but not the Bloud for fear of Accidents Let us Pray PRAECEPTIS c. The faithful beg of God that they may be made worthy to reap the benefit of the Passion of his Son Jesus Christ in receiving his Body in the same Prayer which Christ himself taught us giving them confidence to call him our Father as he made himself our Brother to teach us that we cannot fail of any thing having an Omnipotent Father BEing taught by our Saviour's Commands and led by Divine Institution we are bold to say Our Father which art in Heaven where you shine in greater glory and whereunto thou art pleased that we should raise our thoughts Hallowed be thy Name Acknowledged and Adored Thy Kingdom come The Empire of thy Grace in this World and of the next Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread The precious Body and Blood of thy Son which is daily consecrated thy Grace and all things necessary for us in the course of this life And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors And lead us not into temptation The People to testifie their concurrence with the Priest in this Prayer answer But deliver us from evil From sin from the snares of this world the flesh and the devil And to shew that this Prayer is pronounc'd in the name of all it is answered Amen LIBERA c. The Priest considering that there is no greater evil nor more contrary to the Holy Communion than that which may trouble and destroy the Peace and Union of Christians beseeches God to deliver us by the Merits of Jesus Christ by the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin of the Apostles and all the Saints and to grant us that Peace and Union which we ought to have with our Saviour and with the other Members of his Church which he signifies by breaking the Hoast and dividing it into three parts That part which he puts upon the Patten signifies the faithful in this life that which he retains in his Hand the faithful that are in Purgatory and that which he breaks the blessed DEliver us O Lord we beseech thee from all evils past present and to come and grant us peace in these our Duties by the intercession of the ever-glorious Virgin Mary Mother of God of thy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul of St. Andrew and all the Saints that being assisted by thy gracious mercy we may be free from all sin and secure from all dangers Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth God with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever The faithful concurring with the Priest answer Amen No Incense is used at this Elevation to signifie that on this day the Jews refused all honour due to God nor are the Bells rung to mind us of the Disciples silence and astonishment After the Deacon hath uncovered the Chalice and the Priest divided the Hoast into three parts over the Chalice he puts the least particle into the Chalice which represents the Estate of the blessed and the other two parts upon the Patten without saying any thing or making the sign of the Cross omitting Pax Domini c. Haec commixtio c. Agnus Dei c. Domine Jesu Christe qui dixisti c. Domine Jesu Christe Pili Dei vivi c. to express unto us that the wholesom effect of Christs Passion and the reconciliation of Men with God was not compleated till after his Resurrection Nor is the Pax given about for the same reason as also to shew our aversion to Judas his traiterous kiss The Priest says the Prayer following to beg of God a disposition requisite for the worthy receiving of the Eucharist GRant O Lord Jesus Christ that this participation of thy body which now though unworthy I intend to receive may not turn to my judgment and condemnation but through thy mercy may be a protection and and a wholsom medicine to my soul and body Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost world without end Amen And having kneeled to adore the Sacrament taking the Hoast between his hands considering he is to receive his God he puts all his confidence in his mercy saying I Will take the Celestial Bread and will call upon the Name of our Lord. And calling to mind how acceptable the Centurion's humility was to the Son of God when he would have honoured him with a visit in imitation of him he protests himself unworthy so great a favour and knocking his breast useth the same words LOrd I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my soul shall be healed When he receives the Body of our Lord he makes the sign of the Cross with the Hoast calling to his mind that 't is that Body which Christ exposed to death to save us THe Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my Soul to Life Everlasting Amen The Priest having taken the Body of Christ the Deacon uncovering the Chalice drinks that piece of the Hoast put into the Chalice together with the Wine therein without saying any thing or making the sign of the Cross to signifie the Wine is not consecrated The Sub-deacon pours wine and water into the Chalice to wash his singers that so the least piece of the
it by the Faith of the Church which asks it O Lord Jesus Christ who didst say to thy Apostles Peace I leave unto you my Peace I give unto you regard not my sins but rather look upon the Faith of thy Church and grant it that Peace and Union which may be according to thy will who livest and reignest God for ever and ever Amen The Priest having prayed for the Faithful prays for himself to obtain a disposition requisite to receive the Eucharist worthily O Lord Jesus Christ Son of the living God who by thy Fathers Will and by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost by thy death hast given life to the whole World deliver me by this thy Holy Body and Bloud from all my sins and from all evil make me a true observer of thy Commandments and that I be never separated from thee who being God livest and reignest for ever Amen O Lord Jesus Christ let not this participation of thy Body which I though unworthy now presume to receive be to my Judgment and Damnation but through thy Mercy a wholesom Medicine to my Infirmities who being God livest and reignest with God the Father in the Unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen After he hath kneeled to adore the Blessed Sacrament taking the Host into his hands and considering that he is to receive his God he puts all his confidence in his Mercy saying I Will take the Bread of Heaven and will call upon the name of our Lord. And representing to himself how acceptable the Centurion's Humility was to the Son of God when he would have honoured him with a Visit in imitation of him he protests himself unworthy of so great a favour and striking his breast repeats the same words thrice LOrd I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my Soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my Soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my Soul shall be healed In receiving the Body of our Lord he makes the sign of the Cross with the Hoast calling to his memory that it is the Body which Jesus Christ exposed to death to save us THE Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my Soul to Life Everlasting Amen In taking the Chalice he gives God thanks for the advantages he receives by the Communion of the Bloud of Christ by those words of the 117 and 118 Psalm WHat shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits to me I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of our Lord. In singing his praises I will call upon our Lord and I shall be safe from mine enemies When he receives the Bloud of our Lord making on himself the sign of the Cross with the Chalice and meditating that it is the Bloud which Jesus Christ would shed to save us he says THe Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my Soul to Life Everlasting Amen Whilst he takes Wine in the Chalice to wash his mouth and fingers that so the least particle of the Sacrament may not remain there and to shew the care he must take to preserve himself in Purity he says this Prayer GRant O Lord that we may receive that with a pure heart which we have taken by our mouths and that of a Temporal Gift it may become an Eternal Remedy unto us In taking the second Absolution he says LEt thy Body O Lord which I have received and thy Bloud which I have drunk cleave unto my bowels and grant that the least spot of sin may not remain in me who have been satiated with thy pure and holy Sacraments who livest and reignest world without end Amen Neither Communion nor Post-Communion is said because the Neophytes did not receive at this Mass But the Priest to give God Thanks for the Benefits we have received by the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ uses that Thanksgiving which the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of our Saviour did for the whole Body of the Church Secondly to testifie that we ought not to be less sensible of the Benefits received from God by the Merits of his Son than the Saints of the Old Testament to whom God had revealed them the Church says the 116 Psalm Thirdly the Church teaches us that in commemorating the Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ we ought to present unto our Saviour the perfumes of our Prayers and Good works in imitation of the Charity and Zeal of those good Women who came to his Sepulcher at Day-break with their Persumes to pay him the Duty of their Piety And therefore the Antiphon is taken out of the 28th Chapter of St. Matthew Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia PSALM CXVI PRaise our Lord all ye Gentiles praise him all ye people Because his mercy is confirmed on us and his truth remains for ever Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning and now and ever and world without end Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Another ANTIPHON out of the 28th Chapter of St. Matthew IN the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn in the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to the Sepulcher Alleluia The Canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary Luke 2. The Church in this Canticle represents us with an Abridgment of the Promises and Mysteries of the Salvation and teaches us that as the Son of God became Man to repair by his Humility what Adam had lost by his Pride he was pleased to chuse the Blessed Virgin to be his Mother for the accomplishing this great work in regard of her Humility MY soul doth magnifie our Lord. And my spirit hath rejoyced in God my saviour Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me and holy is his Name And his mercy from generation unto generations to them that fear him He hath shewed might in his arm he hath dispersed the proud in the conceit of their heart He hath deposed the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble The hungry he hath filled with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away He hath received Israel his child being mindful of his mercy As he spake to our fathers to Abraham and his seed for ever Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning and now and ever world without end ANTIPHON In the end of the Sabbath as before pag. 304. The Incense puts us in mind of the Piety of these Holy Women who carried Perfumes to our Saviours Sepulcher And the Church beseeches God that our Prayers may ascend as this Incense unto him Our Lord be with you R. And
to his Church And that this Peace is a reflection of that which he possesses infinitely in the Glory and Bosom of the Holy Trinity and which is fully communicated to the blessed The Priest begs this Peace for the Faithful and prays God that they may never fail of it THe Peace of our Lord abide always with you The People crave the same for him And with thy Spirit Haec Commixtio c. Then the Priest puts this part of the Host into the Chalice to signifie the happy state of the Church in our Saviour's Resurrection and glory after the union of his Body with his Blood and beseeches God to make us partakers of that happiness by vertue of this Sacrament LEt this Commixtion and Consecration of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ be unto me and to all that receive effectual to life everlasting Amen Agnus Dei c. As Sin is the onely Obstacle of this Divine Peace and our Bliss the Priest confessing in the name of the Faithful that we never are without sins in this life and that it is onely Christ who blots them out having been pleased to be sacrificed as an innocent Lamb for our attonement with God his Father and to settle this Peace between Heaven and Earth which sin had divided he implores mercy by this act of Adoration taught us by Saint John the fore-runner of our Saviour Behold the Lamb of God taketh away the sins of the world LAmb of God who takest away the sins of the World have mercy on us Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the World have mercy on us Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the World grant us peace In Masses for the Dead instead of saying Have Mercy on us Or Grant us Peace We say Grant them Rest Grant them Eternal Rest Because the dead being no longer in this World amongst us we have no occasion to beg peace with them and they being in a state of Grace where they are in peace and assurance of their salvation it would be in vain to ask God's grace to free them from sin and give them peace assuring them of their salvation we beseech God to deliver them from the pains they endure at present and grant them eternal rest which they expect Domine Jesu Christe qui dixisti c. Peace being the chief disposition of this Sacrament it being the Sacrament of Union and Charity the Priest begs it for the Faithful who are to receive this Holy Communion and acknowledging that he being a sinner deserves not that his Prayers should be heard he humbly beseeches his Majesty to have regard unto his own goodness who has vouchsafed to offer this Peace and to the Faith of the Church which demands it of him O Lord Jesus Christ who didst say unto thy Apostles Peace I leave unto you regard not my Sins but look upon the Faith of thy Church and according to thy pleasure give us Peace and Union Who livest and reignest God for ever and ever Amen At Solemn Mass the Priest having kissed the Altar to signifie that he receives peace from Jesus Christ gives it to the Deacon by a kiss to transmit it to the Faithful Peace be with you The Deacon receiving this Peace testifies his concurrence by his words And with thy Spirit At Masses for the Dead the Pax is not given to the Faithful nor is the foregoing Prayer said because the Faithful do not receive the Communion at those Masses and for other reasons before mentioned The Priest after he has prayed for the Faithful he prays for himself to obtain all requisite dispositions to receive the Holy Eucharist worthily O Lord Jesus Christ Son of the living God who according to thy Father's will the Holy Ghost co-operating by thy death didst give life to the World deliver me by this thy most holy Body and Blood from all my sins and from all evil and making me always obedient to thy commands grant that I be never separated from thee Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest c. GRant O Lord Jesus Christ that this participation of thy Body which I now however unworthy presume to receive be not to my Judgment and Condemnation but through thy mercy may avail to the safeguard of my Soul and Body and likewise as a wholsome remedy Who livest and reignest with God the Father c. Then with bending knee having adored the blessed Sacrament taking the Host in his hands and considering that he is to receive his Creator he puts his trust in his mercy saying I Will take this Heavenly Bread and call upon the Name of our Lord. And representing how acceptable the Centurians humility was to the Son of God where he was pleased to honour his house in imitation of him he professeth himself unworthy of so great a favour and striking his breast he repeats the same words thrice LOrd I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter into my house say but the word and my soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter into my house say but the word and my soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter into my house say but the word and my soul shall be healed In receiving the Body of our Saviour he makes the sign of the Cross with the Host to mind us that 't is the Body of Jesus Christ which hath been exposed to death for our salvation THe Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my soul to life everlasting Amen In taking the Chalice he gives God thanks for the Benefits he receives by the Communion of the Blood of Christ using these following words out of the 15th and 17th Psalm WHat shall I render to our Lord for all things that he hath given to me I will take the Chalice of Salvation and will Invocate the Name of our Lord. Praising I will Invocate our Lord and I shall be saved from my enemies In receiving the Blood of our Saviour he makes the sign of the Cross with the Chalice representing thereby that it is Christ's Blood which he shed to save us and says THe Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my soul to life everlasting Amen Then taking Wine into the Chalice to wash his mouth and fingers to the end that the least particle of the Sacrament may not remain thereon and to instruct us of the care we ought to have to preserve our selves in purity he says GRant O Lord what we have taken with our mouth we may receive with a pure mind and that of a temporal gift it may become to us an everlasting remedy In taking the second Lotion he says LEt thy Body which I have received O Lord and thy Blood which I have drank cleave unto my bowels and grant that no stain of sin may remain in me whom thy pure and holy Sacrament hath satiated Who livest and reignest for ever and ever Amen Then the Priest
The Faithful in the name of the rest beseech God to make them constant and stable in Faith as the three Hebrews in the midst of Persecutions and Traverses of this Life and that he will give them the grace to remain humble as not depending on their own Justice or Merits but hoping only in his Mercy ALmighty and Everlasting God the onely hope of the world who by the mouths of thy Prophets hast manifested the mysteries of these times increase through thy goodness the fervour of the Vows and Prayers of thy people that they may obtain that perfection in Faith and Piety which they beg since none can advance in vertue but by thy holy inspirations Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Then the Priest goes to the Font and the following Tract is sung taken out of the one and fortieth Psalm to inform the Catechumens how fervently they ought to desire Baptism AS the heart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God V. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God V. My tears have been my meat day and night while continually they say unto me Where is thy God Before the blessing of the Font the Priest says this Prayer Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us Pray The Priest prays for the Catechumens that God would please to give them the Faith necessary for their Sanctification in this Sacrament of Baptism ALmighty and Everlasting God look graciously upon the devotion of thy people now to be regenerate who as the Hart thirst after the waters of thy fountain and grant that the faith which they thirst may sanctifie their Soul and Body by the Sacrament of Baptism Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The Church blessing the Fonts upon Easter-Eve does instruct us that Baptism is a figure of the death of Jesus Christ and that he Spiritually does that in our souls which was truly done in his Body upon Mount Calvary For as Jesus Christ by dying hath destroyed the flesh which was in appearance sinful as he blotted out sin which was not in him but because he was pleas'd to charge himself with it to satisfie Divine Justice so Baptism destroys the Old Man who is truly the sinner to invest us with the New and to destroy sin which is truly ours to give us his Grace The Water wherein we are plunged represents our Saviours Burial advertising us that all our sins are there buried and when we come forth of it it is a figure of his Resurrection which was for the glory of his Father and signified that by his Example we ought to live a new Life full of Sanctity and that after this life of Grace we shall enjoy one of Glory if we are truly united to Jesus Christ It is to be observed that though these Ceremonies are not absolutely necessary yet they are not to be altered but upon extream necessity In that they are very ancient and comprehend great Mysteries the knowledge whereof brings us to see the admirable changes wrought in a Soul by Baptism The Priest implores Gods assistance to bless the Font. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us Pray ALmighty and Everlasting God bless these great Mysteries and Sacraments of thine infinite bounty and to regenerate this new people which this water of Baptism brings thee pour forth upon them the Spirit of Adoption so that what is to be done by the ministry of our weakness may be accomplished by the effect of thy power Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The Priest raising his voice to a higher Tone protests himself unworthy to administer so great a Sacrament and declares that all the efficacy of the Waters of Baptism come from the Holy Ghost who pours forth upon those that are Baptized the graces they are capable of through the Merits of Jesus Christ For ever and ever Amen Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Raise up your hearts R. We have them to our Lord. Let us give thanks to our Lord God R. It is meet and just IT is truly meet and just right and wholsom that we always and in all places give thee thanks O Lord Holy Father Almighty and Everlasting God who by thy invisible power dost wonderfully bring to pass the effect of thy Sacraments and though we are unworthy to administer so great Mysteries yet thou not withdrawing the gifts of thy grace art graciously pleased to hear our Prayers God whose spirit in the world beginning was carried upon the waters that then its nature might conceive the vertue of sanctification God who by the waters washing away the sins of the guilty world didst note the figure of regeneration by the overflowing of the deluge to the end that the same element by a prodigious mystery should be both the destruction of vices and the source of vertues cast down thine eyes upon the face of thy Church and multiply in her thy regenerations Thou who satiatest thy holy city with joy by the abundant affluence of thy graces and openest the Fonts of Baptism to the whole world to renew the nations inhabiting it that under the Empire of thy Majesty she may receive the grace of thy only Son by the vertue of the Holy Ghost The Priest divides the Water in form of the Cross to teach us that Grace and Sanctification are given us through the Merits of Christs Cross and Passion and that by the same Merits the Waters created for the generation of the Body are Sanctified and joyned with the grace of the Holy Ghost to a Spiritual Regeneration of Men on whom our Lord bestows his gifts without respect either to Nation Sex or Quality making them his Members that so they may live the same life with him And as by Adam's sin the Devil usurpt a Dominion over the Creatures which he makes use of to prejudice Man so he is deprived of it by our Redeemer's Merits who Sanctifies them for our good WHom we beseech by a secret mixture of his Divine Grace to make this water fruitful designed for the regeneration of men to the end that those who are conceived and sanctified in the immaculate womb of this Font may become a heavenly progeny being regenerated to a new creature and that all who are distinguished either by sex in the body or age in time may be brought forth to the same in fancy by grace which is their spiritual mother Command therefore O Lord that all unclean spirits may withdraw hence that all malice and deceit of the devil be banished that no power of the enemy may lurk here to prepare his ambushes to surprise by secret artifices to corrupt with his infection The Priest touches the Water with his hand to beg of God by the following words that it be not profaned MAY this holy and innocent creature O Lord be free from enterprises of the devil and all malice being set apart may be
our Soul the Spirit of his Grace This â—â—orable Saviour is so benign as to feed us with his own Flesh and more for the love of us he offered himself as a Victim Then that Excuse have we if though we receive such Nourishment â—e yet persist in our wicked ways or if in eating the Lamb we leave not being Wolves if in being fed with his Flesh which was as sweet as Lamb we desist not from devouring others as Lions For this Mystery must not only draw us from all Injustice and Sin but also take away all Animosities though never so small for this is a Mystery of Peace and Charity R. I was like an innocent Lamb I was led to be immolated and I did not know it My enemies made counsel against me saying Come let us put wood on his bread and let us root him out from the land of the living V. All my enemies thought evil against me they have spoken ill against me saying Come ye c. VIII LESSON The Apostle treats of the Institution of the Eucharist and shews us that it was instituted to the end that by eating that Bread and drinking that Blood we might always remember him who died and rose again for us FOr I received of our Lord that which also I have delivered unto you That our Lord Jesus in the night that he was betrayed took bread and giving thanks bâ—rake and said Take ye and eat THIS IS MY BODY which shall be delivered for you This do ye for the commemoration of me In like manner also the chalice after he had supped saying THIS CHALICE IS THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MY BLOOD This do ye as often as you shall drink for the commemoration of me For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink the chalice you shall shew the death of our Lord until he come The Church represents unto us how that if we cannot consider Judas his Treason without having great indignation against him who after he had been admitted to the spiritual Table of his Divine Majesty and to that magnificent and terrible Feast and after he had received so many Testimonies of his Friendship yet he delivered and sold his Master by a Kiss Wherefore we must always be careful of our Actions and watch with great solicitude lest we make our selves guilty of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ by betraying him and profaning and violating that Divine Agreement which in our Baptism we contracted with him which we shall do if we receive him with a Mouth full of Impurity and Filth and with a depraved and impure Soul after we have received so great and many Benefits T was Avarice that destroyed Judas and that 's the Precipice from which we must defend our selves It behoveth him who is desirous to Communicate in memory of Jesus Christ who died and rose again for us that he be not only clean from all Impurity of Body and Mind but also that he evidently shews that what he do's is in commemoration of him that died and rose again for us by declaring that he is dead to Sin to the World and to himself and that he only lives for God in our Lord Jesus Christ R. Could you not watch one hour with me who were so resolved to die for me But Judas sleeps not behold how he is coming to betray me into the hands of the Jews V. Why do ye sleep Arise and pray that ye enter not into temptation But Judas sleeps not c. IX LESSON The Apostle shews us after what manner we ought to prepare our selves to receive the Communion and with what diligence â—e ought to examine our Conscience We ought to prepare our selves for the Participation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through a true Repentance proportionable to our Sins In this Penance each one must be severe and rigid to himself that having condemned himself he may not be condemn'd by God Each one must seat himself in the Tribunal of his own Conscience there to act against himself This Judgment being so established in the Heart of Man his Thoughts must be imagin'd to be Accusers his Conscience tho Witness and his Fear the Executioner After which Tears must appear as a kind of Blood trickling from the Soul that confesses her self culpable Also the Image of the last dreadful Day of Judgment must be represented before the Eyes to the end that with dread and Horror we may apprehend the Danger of being cast into eternal Death We must likewise observe according to the Admonition St. Augustin gives us in the 118. Epistle to Januarius That those words of the Apostle For the other Rules I shall establish them when I shall be amongst you by which are understood the Order of the Office of the Blessed Sacrament and the Sacrifice of the Altar such as is now celebrated in the Universal Church THerefore whosoever shall eat this bread or drink the chalice of our Lord unworthily he shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of our Lord. But let a man prove himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that chalice For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment to himself not discerning the body of our Lord. Therefore are there among you many weak and feeble and many sleep But if we did judge our selves we should not be judged But whiles we are judged of our Lord we are chastised that with this world we be not damned Therefore my brethren when you come together to eat expect one another If any man be an hungred let him eat at home that you come not together unto judgment And the rest I will dispose when I come The Church having entertained us with that Divine Banquet which Jesus Christ made on the Vigil of his Passion to his Disciples of his own Body and Blood and having shewed us that this sacred Banquet in which we assist is of the same nature as that wherein his Apostles assisted and that there is nothing less in This than there was in That because it was truly Christ himself who made This as well as it was he who made the other and having instructed us in the due Preparation to receive him worthily She as soon minds us of the Conspiracy of the Jews against Jesus Christ thereby to teach us That there is nothing makes us more firm and vigorous that animates us that encourages and fortifies us more against the Violence of Temptations and Persecutions than the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and that nothing renders us so capable of drinking of the Cup of Sorrow than to drink of the Chalice of our Saviour R. The Elders of the People consulted together how they might by some wile apprehend Jesus and kill him with swords and clubs they came out as it were to a thief V. The Priests and Pharisees consulted together how they might by some wile apprehend Jesus R. The Elders of the People
THE Compleat Office OF THE Holy Week WITH NOTES and EXPLICATIONS Translated out of Latin and French Published with Allowance IHS LONDON Printed for Matthew Turner at the Lamb in High-Holborn 1687. TO THE QUEEN MADAM WITH all possible Respect and some Hopes it will not prove absolutely unwelcom I Humbly lay at Your Majesty's Feet a very good Book but a very ill-suited Present For Devout Ink and Paper to Your Majesty whose Life is it self a Book of Devotion is but a Link of Silver to a Chain of Gold And then a Translation is such a kind of Present to Your Majesty as a bad Copy to one who has an excellent Original 'T is true you are an absolute Mistress of our Language as well as Hearts but you would never Pray in an Vnknown Tongue though there were neither English nor Italian in the World and Translating is but telling you a Story for News which you know already and hear when you please much better told But since what is useless to Your Majesty may be beneficial to your Subjects and a Queen is neither the Greatest nor the most Glorious of your Titles I promise my self that your Charity will condescend to make an Alms of your Name and Patronage and by your countenance to Devotion allure a People fond of making their Court to you to make it in the way most pleasing to Your Majesty straining to follow afar off and be as Devout as they can since few can hope to be as Devout as you 'T is to be hoped this will be the Courtship in fashion now the Times are returned in which the Queens of England are Saints again and the Fruit infinitely great when People find the way to Heaven is the way to be well at Court I was Ambitious to make my Court this way but to my shame so poor a Courtier that I was forc'd to borrow a Present and to make it mine dress'd in a new Language as we alter the property of Plate by a new Fashion I know I have expos'd my unskilfulness in this Trade to the Eye in all England which will the soonest discern it But Your Majesty will have the goodness to reflect that no Translation can express the beauty and force of the Original to suffer the Argument to attone for all Faults and to have some Indulgence for the Passionate Zeal and Profound Respect with which I shall always be MADAM Your MAJESTY'S Most Humble most Faithful and most Dutiful Subject Walter Kirkham Blount THE OFFICE UPON Palm-Sunday Of Holy Water IT has been an Ancient Practice in the Church even among the Primitive Christians for the Priest before Mass at Easter and Whitsontide to sprinkle the People with Water out of the Font blest with the Prayers and Exorcisms the Eve of those Holy Days and there reserved till Holy Oyl was poured therein And to the end the Faithful should not esteem this sprinkling a second Baptism the Church has instituted particular Blessings and Exorcisms of Water and Salt for each Sunday through the Year to instruct us That by this sprinkling she gives us no second Baptism but that she applies her Prayers to obtain of God through the Merits of JESUS CHRIST if we our selves are not the obstacle the grace of true repentance for our sins and a guard from the assaults of the Devil that so we may preserve our selves in that state of innocence we received by Baptism By the Water the Church tells us she prays to God and that we are therein to concur with her to beseech him to purifie our Souls by his Grace as the Water cleanseth our Bodies And by the Salt she represents her Prayer to God wherein we ought also to joyn for obtaining his Grace to preserve our Souls from spiritual corruption as Salt preserves the Body from corporal And as Salt gives an agreeable tast to our Meat so his Grace renders our actions acceptable to his Majesty preserving us from falling into those sins wherewith the Devil might otherwise infect us whereby we may more worthily be assistant at the Holy Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of CHRIST and reap the benefit thereof Every Sunday Water and Salt is prepared in the Sacristy which the Priest blesseth being vested in his Albe or Surplice and with a Stoale The Exorcism and Benediction of the Salt OUr help is in the Name of the Lord. R. Who made Heaven and Earth V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Whereas by the Fall of Adam the Devil has usurpt an Empire over creatures so as to make use of them to the disadvantage of men he is deprived of them again by the Merits of our Redeemer who sanctifies them for our benefit I Exorcise thee O creature Salt by the living God the true God by the holy God by that God who commanded thee to be cast into the Water by the Prophet Elizaeus to cure its barrenness that by this Exorcism thou mayest be made beneficial to the Faithful healthful both to the Bodies and Souls of all that shall use thee and where ever thou art sprinkled thou mayest chase away all Illusions Malice Crafts and Surprises of the Devil and that all unclean Spirits be cast out of him who will come to judge the living and the dead and the World by fire Amen The PRAYER Let us Pray The Priest by signing with the Cross instructs us that the sanctifying of creatures and the graces which we receive thereby are only derived unto us from the merits of the death of Christ He makes the sign of the Cross twice upon the Salt to signifie unto us that the Church prays unto God to preserve us from corruption both of Soul and Body ALmighty and Everlasting God we humbly implore thy infinite clemency that thou wilt vouchsafe out of thy Piety to bless ✚ and sanctifie ✚ this thy creature Salt to the end that all such as make use of it may be sensible of health in Soul and Body and that what shall be either touch'd or sprinkled with it may be preserved from all uncleanness and assaults of the Devil Through our Lord c. The Exorcism and Benediction of the Water The Priest makes the sign of the Cross thrice in this Exorcism and once in the following Prayer to teach us that the Graces we receive by the Merits of Christ's Death are bestowed upon us by the three Divine Persons who are one only God I Exorcise thee O creature Water in the Name of God ✚ the Father Almighty in the Name of Jesus Christ ✚ our Lord his Son and in the Vertue of the Holy Ghost ✚ That by this Exorcism thou mayest dissipate all the Assaults of the Enemy and put the Enemy himself to flight with all his apostate Angels by the power of the same our Lord Jesus Christ who will come to judge the living and the dead and the World by fire Amen The PRAYER Let us Pray O God who for the health of Mankind hast
triumphant entry into Jerusalem which was a figure of his glorious Ascension to Heaven having vanquished the Devil and therefore the Church begins this Ceremony with the Canticle which the Hebrew Children sung on this day in honour of our Saviour where we are to observe that the Priest reads it with a low Voice without making the sign of the Cross to mind us that this Action preceded the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ HOsanna to the Son of David or save us we beseech thee O Son of David blessed is he who comes in the Name of our Lord O King of Israel Hosanna in the highest V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray The Faithful considering how God had opened the mouths of the Hebrew Children to sing a Canticle of Praise to the Honour of his Son Saviour of the World and how he had inspired the People of Jerusalem to go before him with Olive and Palm branches as a sign of those Graces he intended us by his Victory and Triumph over the World and the Devil beseech his Majesty to render us worthy of those Graces and that Salvation which he hath purchased for us by his victorious Death to the end we may reap the accomplishment thereof in eternal bliss by the vertue of his Resurrection O God whom it is justice to love multiply in us the Gists of thy ineffable Grace and as through the Death of thy Son thou hast made us hope for what we believe grant that we may arrive to Eternal Glory according to our desires through the resurrection of thy only Son who liveth and reigneth one God with thee in unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen The Lesson taken out of the 15th and 16th Chapter of Exodus The Church minds us that as the Israelites found refreshment in the desert under the shade of Palm-trees and in the Fountain of fresh Waters they murmured presently after against Moses their leader and notwithstanding God was pleased to surmount their ingratitude with his benefits by showring down Manna In like maner the Jews who would have found their salvation in the honour which they rendred this day to Jesus Christ if they had accompanied it with a lively faith did yet presently after conspire against him who nevertheless was pleased in his bounty to give them his own Body as Bread from Heaven for Food to their Souls which he soon after offered as a Sacrifice to God his Father to expiate the sins of men and heap upon them his Grace IN those days the Children of Israel came into Elim where there were twelve Fountains of Water and seventy Palm-trees and they camped beside the Waters And they set forward from Elim and all the multitude of the Children of Israel came into the desert Sin which is between Elim and Sinai the fifteenth day of the second Month after they came forth out of the land of Egypt And all the Assembly of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the Wilderness and the Children of Israel said to them Would to God we had died by the hand of our Lord in the land of Egypt when we sate over the Flesh-pots and did eat Bread our fill Why have you brought us into this desert that you may kill all the multitude with famine And our Lord said to Moses Behold I will rain you Bread from Heaven let the People go forth and gather that sufficeth for every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my Law or no. But the sixth day let them provide for to bring in and let it be double to that they were wont to gather every day And Moses and Aaron said to all the Children of Israel At Even you shall know that our Lord hath brought you forth out of the land of Egypt and in the Morning you shall see the glory of our Lord. The following Responsory is sung instead of the Gradual taken out of the Eleventh Chapter of St. John THe chief Priests therefore and Pharisees gathered a Council and said What do we for this Man doth many signs If we let him alone so all will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away our Place and Nation Vr. But one of them named Caiphas being the high Priest of that year said to them It is expedient for us that one man die for the people and the whole Nation perish not Therefore from that day they devised to kill him saying And the Romans c. Another Responsory taken out of the second Chaper of St. Matthew JEsus prayed unto his Father on Mount Olivet My Father if it be possible let this Chalice pass from me The spirit indeed is prompt but the flesh weak thy will be done Watch ye and pray that ye enter not tentation The spirit indeed is c. In the mean time the Deacon carries the Book of Gospels to the Altar to testifie that it contains the Word of God and presents Incense to the Priest to bless saying Reverend Father bless this Incense The Priest takes the Incense and putting into the Thurible blesseth it â—avowing by this Benediction that the Sacrifice of the Mass is offered to God alone humbly beseeching his Grace that his Prayers may ascend as this Incense towards him Be thou bless'd by him to whose honour thou shalt be burnt Then the Deacon upon his knees at the foot of the Altar prepares himself to receive commission from the Priest to publish the Gospel by this Prayer CLeanse O Almighty God my heart and lips who didst purifie with a fiery coal the lips of the Prophet Isaiah and vouchsafe so to purifie me for thy mercies sake that I may worthily declare thy holy Gospel Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. Amen Then taking the Book from the Altar he asks the Priest's Blessing Reverend Father bless me The Priest blesseth him OUr Lord be in thy heart and lips that thou mayest worthily publish his Gospel in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen The Deacon kisseth the Priest's hand to testifie that as in the Old Law a Seraphin did purifie the lips of the Prophet Isaiah with a coal of fire so in the New Law it is Jesus Christ represented by the Priest who purifies his mouth He goes to the place appointed for reading the Gospel with the Subdeacon Thurifer and two Acolyts who carry two Tapers lighted before him to signifie the Joy which the Faithful ought to have for this Great Blessing of the Light of Faith He turns towards the People that they may hear the Gospel the Subdeacon holding the Book before him to testifie that what he reads to the People is only what the Priest ordered him Before he reads the Gospel he beseeches God's blessing upon the Assembly to hear his Word worthily saying Our Lord be with you The Assembly reciprocally beseeching God to assist him with his Grace and that
both of Soul and Body WE beseech thee O Lord Holy Father Almighty and Everlasting God to bless and sanctifie this Olive thy creature which thou hast commanded to spring from Wood and which the Dove brought in his mouth returning to the Ark that whoever shall take of it may receive protection both for Soul and Body thou O Lord making it a Remedy for Health and a Sacrament of thy Grace Through our Lord c. Amen Let us Pray The Faithful considering that those blest Palms represent our Union with Christ being delivered from the Tyranny of the Devil and the intercession of the Church which is applied unto us by this Blessing joyn in Prayer with the Church and beg God's protection O God who gatherest together such things as are disperst and preservest what is so gathered together who didst bless the People going forth with Boughs to meet Jesus bless also these Palms and Olive-branches which thy People take in honour of thy Name that where-ever they shall be brought the Inhabitants may be sensible of thy Blessing and freed from all Adversity and thy Right-hand protect those whom Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord redeemed Who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen Let us Pray As by the sin of Adam the Devil hath usurpt an empire over creatures which he makes use of to the prejudice of men so is he deprived thereof through the Merits of Jesus Christ who sanctifies them for our benefit And therefore the Faithful considering that by these Branches which the Church blesseth and distributeth this day she represents the Victory which Christ gained over the Devil and our Divine Redeemer's triumph in his glorious Resurrection beseech God to make them able to vanquish the Devil and overcome all Obstacles of their Salvation through the Merits and Grace of our Redeemer with whom we are incorporated so that at last we may partake of his glory O God who through the wonderful order of thy Providence art pleased to make use of insensible creatures to instruct us in the way of our salvation Grant we beseech thee that the devout hearts of thy Faithful may healthfully understand what is mystically designed in the action of this day in which the multitude of Jews being illustrated with a heavenly light went to meet our Redeemer with Boughs of Palms and Olives which they cast under his feet The Palm-branches put us in mind of the Victory he gained over the Prince of Death and the Olive-boughs do in a sort proclaim that the Spiritual Unction is come to us For all that blessed Company understood that Ceremony to signifie that our Redeemer taking compassion of man's misery was to encounter the Prince of Death for the Life of the World and that he was to triumph by dying Therefore he fulfilling the Will of God performed all those things that we might thereby arrive to the knowledge of his Triumphs and unctuous plenitude of Mercy We also firmly believe Lord Holy Father Omnipotent and Eternal God that all hath been fulfilled that was signified And therefore most humbly beseech thee through the same our Lord Jesus Christ that in and by him we whom thou hast vouchsafed to become his members having obtained the victory over Death may also partake in his glorious Resurrection Who liveth and reigneth c. Let us Pray The Faithful beseech God that these hallowed Boughs representing the Happy Reconciliation obtained for us by Jesus Christ with his Divine Majesty may induce them to dispose themselves as worthily to receive the wholsome effects O God who by an Olive-branch didst command a Dove to publish Peace to the Earth vouchsafe we beseech thee to sanctifie with thy Celestial Benediction the salvation of all Through Christ our Lord c. Let us Pray The Faithful considering that by these Palm-boughs the Church represents the conquest we ought to endeavour to obtain over the Devil and by the Olive-branches the Works of Charity we are obliged to practice demand of God his Grace to accomplish what the Church teaches by this Ceremony BLess we beseech thee O Lord these Boughs of Palms or Olives and grant that thy People may testifie the zeal of their Piety by a pious performance of what this day they outwardly profess and triumphing over their Enemies may apply themselves zealously to the Works of Mercy Through our Lord c. Then the Priest sprinkles the Boughs with Holy Water to teach us that we ought to purisie our selves in receiving a Blessing from God and to practice what the Church designs by these Boughs Thou shalt sprinkle me with Hyssop and I shall be cleansed thou shalt wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow The Priest then incenseth the Boughs to instruct us that all the Blessing comes from God and that we ought to beg that our Prayers may ascend as Incense towards him The PRAYER Whereby we ask God's Grace to prepare our Ways to our Saviour by a lively Faith and good Works V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us pray O God who for our salvation didst send into this World thy only begotten Son that he humbling himself for us might regain us unto thee before whom at his entry into Jerusalem that the Scriptures might be fulfilled a multitude of People spread their Garments with a pious zeal and cast Palms in the way Grant we beseech thee that we may so prepare the way of Faith to him that the stone of offence and rock of scandal being removed our good works may flourish as the branches of a beautiful tree and therein imitate him Who with thee liveth and reigneth c. The Priest gives Palms to the Clergy and People whilst the Quire sing the following Antiphons and Canticle sung by the Children at Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem ANTIPHON THE Hebrew Children spread their Garments in the way and cryed out saying Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he who comes in the Name of our Lord. ANOTHER THE Hebrew Children spread their Garments in the way and cryed out saying Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he who comes in the Name of our Lord. The Antiphons are repeated till all the Palms are distributed then the Priest in the name of the Faithful beseeches God for his grace that in this Commemoration of his Son JESUS CHRIST'S triumphant entry into Jerusalem they may arrive to the Innocence and Piety of those who pay him all due honour V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray ALmighty Everlasting God who wast pleased that our Lord Jesus Christ should sit upon an Asses Colt and directedst the multitude to spread their Garments and Boughs in the way singing Hosanna in his honour Grant us the grace to imitate their Innocence and to partake of their Merit Through the same our Lord c. Then they go in Procession to represent JESUS CHRIST'S triumphant entry
Arch-angel the blessed S. John Baptist the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul all the Saints and you my Brethren to Pray to God for me R. ALmighty God have mercy upon thee and forgive thy sins and bring thee to life everlasting P. Amen I Confess unto Almighty God to the blessed Virgin S. Mary to the blessed S. Michael the Arch-angel to S. John Baptist to the Apostles Peter and Paul to all the Saints and to thee my Father that I have very much sinned in Thought Word and Deed through my Fault through my Fault through my most grievous Fault Therefore I beseech thee blessed Virgin S. Mary the blessed S. Michael the Arch-angel the blessed S. John Baptist Peter and Paul all the Saints and thee my Father to Pray to God for me P. ALmighty God have mercy on you forgive you your sins and bring you to life everlasting R. Amen P. ALmighty and merciful Lord grant us pardon absolution and remission of all our sins Amen This Confession being made the Priest and the Faithful encourage each other in the acknowledgement of God's mercy P. Thou being turned shalt quicken us O Lord. R. And thy people shall rejoyce in thee P. Shew us O Lord thy Mercy R. And give us thy Salvation P. O Lord hear my Prayer R. And let my cry come unto thee P. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit In this confidence the Priest ascends unto the Altar and says TAke away O Lord our Iniquities that so with a pure heart we may enter into the Holy of Holies Through Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest being at the Altar kisseth it in testimony of reconciliation with Christ and the Church triumphant for the Altar represents Christ crucified and the Reliques upon the Altar the Saints of the Church triumphant incorporated with Christ and says WE pray thee O Lord through the Merits of thy Saints whose Reliques are here and of all Saints that thou wilt please to pardon all my sins Amen After this preparation the Priest begins the Introit of the Mass THE MASS FOR Palm-Sunday The station in the Church of S. John Lateran As in the Old Law it was the custome to bring the Paschal Lamb into Jerusalem four days before the Feast so Jesus Christ of whom the Paschal Lamb was a figure was pleased to come into Jerusalem four days before the celebration of the Festival And therefore the Church representing this Mystery makes to day the station at Rome in the Church consecrated to God in honour of S. John Baptist because he declared unto us that our Saviour was the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the World The Introit taken out of the 21st Psalm As this Day 's Solemnity is a figure of the Victory which Christ gained over the World and the Devil by his Passion and Triumphant Resurrection the Church represents those Mysteries in the Introit of this Mass to teach us that the Resurrection of Christ in as much as it relates to his flesh was not delayed as that of other men but that he was exempted from corruption in the grave triumphing over death and the fury of his persecutors whom the Scriptures compare to Lions in respect of their cruelty to Dogs for their fury and to Unicorns for their pride For every proud and ambitious spirit would command all others as much as in him lies The wicked Jews thought they had done a grand work in that they were able to kill his Body yet had they not power to hurt his Soul they were able to take away a Mortal Life but could not prejudice his Eternal Life which is the onely and true Life and though as the Son of God he were worthy to be heard without Tears or Plaints yet to teach us our Duty by his example he would offer to God his Father most fervent Prayers with Tears and Crys beseeching him not to leave him dead in his grave The Dignity of his Condition the Reverence which he bore his Father whose Honour he repaired by his Death the incomparable Love wherewith his Father cherished him easily prevail for a concession of so just a Request O Lord prolong not thy help from me look towards my defence Save me out of the Lions mouth and my humility from horns of Unicorns PSALM XXI The Church represents unto us the Humility and Obedience wherewith Christ by a transport worthy his love would perfectly fulfil his Father's Will intimating unto us that the sins of men which he took upon him did require that he should be abandoned by his Father to all imaginable pains whereby to make rigorous satisfaction to his Justice yet that these words My God my God why hast thou forsaken me he speaks not in his own person but as in the unhappy infirmity of our flesh which he hath taken upon him and on the behalf of the members of his mystical body whose Groans and Prayers to his Father and himself he foresaw through a propension of humane nature desirous to be freed from Suffering and Death for who can believe our Saviour should desire to avoid Death and Sufferings since he came into the World to that end Or who can imagine he spake in such sort as if that which happened had been against his will who had power to give up his Soul to God and take it again though no man had power to bereave him of it These words then of this 21st Psalm are a figure of such Prayers as shall be addrest to God by men in their afflictions begging to be freed of them GOd my God have respect unto me why hast thou forsaken me far from my salvation are words of my sins O Lord prolong not thy help from me c. Gloria Patri c. is not now said because it is a publick Confession of Faith which the Church omits at this time when she represents the extreme impiety and infidelity of the Jews And Gloria in excelsis is for the same reason forborn The Priest in the name of the Faithful acknowledges the need we all have of the Grace of our Redeemer and repeats thrice the following words addrest to each Person of the Holy Trinity to express the great necessity we have of his assistance Lord have mercy on us R. Lord have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us R. Christ have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us R. Christ have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us R. Lord have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us The Priest turns towards the Faithful and beseeches God that he will be pleased to make them worthy of his presence and mercy V. Our Lord be with you The Faithful joyning Prayer with the Priest beg the like Grace for him R. And with thy Spirit The Collect. The Faithful beg of God Grace to imitate the Humility Obedience and Patience of Jesus Christ in all his Sufferings in this life that so they may partake with him in glory of his Resurrection
of it to them GRant omnipotent God that being purified by the vertue of these Sacrifices we may arrive with the greater purity to their fountain Through our Lord c. The SECRET Against the Persecutors of the Church PRotect O Lord those that assist at these Mysteries that intending holy things they may serve thee both in soul and body Through our Lord. Or for the Pope REceive O Lord graciously these our offerings and guide by thy continual grace thy Servant N. whom thou hast advanced to be Chief Pastor of thy Church Through our The Preface and Canon of the Mass c. is until the Communion as before pag. 60. unto pag. 79. The COMMUNION taken out of the 34th Psalm The Church telling us the evil the Jews drew upon themselves in their crucifying Jesus Christ instructs them the punishment those deserve who receiving the Sacrament of the Altar unworthily make themselves guilty of prophaning the Body and Blood of Christ committing that frequently in their hearts which the Jews onely once perpetrated upon Mount Calvary LEt them blush and be ashamed together that rejoyce at my evils let them be clothed with confusion and shame that speak malicious things against me The POST-COMMUNION The Faithful beg of God grace to receive this Holy Sacrament worthily to the end they may reap the benefit of Christ's Passion GRant O Lord that thy holy Mysteries may inspire us with a divine fervour that in celebrating them we may also be delighted with the fruit of them Through our Lord c. POST-COMMUNION Against the Persecutors of the Church O Lord our God we beseech thee to preserve those from falling through humane frailties whom thou hast vouchsafed to a participation in this Holy Communion Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. Or for the Pope PRotect us O Lord we beseech thee by the participation of this Divine Sacrament and strengthen thy Servant N. whom thou hast advanced to be Chief Pastor of thy Church that he and the Flock committed to his charge may attain Eternal Life Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. As the Post-Communion is a Prayer which the Priest says for those who have communicated so the Church adds another for those that do not communicate lest they want the suffrages when they are most subject to the assaults of the Devil in exercises of penance as also to obtain grace for those that have received the blessed Sacrament A Prayer over the People Humble your selves and bow down your heads to God O God who art our salvation afford us thy succour and grant that we may solemnize the approaching Feasts in memory of those Benefits wherewith thou hast been pleased to refresh us Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son c. All the rest as before pag. 75. THE MASS FOR TUESDAY IN Holy Week The station at St. Priscas-Church That the Cross of Christ may triumph in that very place where lately the Heathens had built their Prime Temple and that where the Gentiles adoring Hercules his Idol and been seduced from the Worship of the True God by putting confidence in their own strength there the Christian Church should withdraw men from self-love to the love of their Redeemer who being God was pleased to take upon him our frail nature and partake of our infirmities to reconcile us by his humility to God the Father from whom through Pride we had so far seperated our selves Likewise the station is this day in Rome at St. Priscas-Church by whose example she being but a Virgin of the age of Thirteen underwent great Torments for the Faith of Christ we may be moved to suffer for his love The INTROIT taken out of the 6th Chapter of the Apostle St. Paul to the Galathians and out of the 66th Psalm The Church teaches us by the example and words of the Apostle St. Paul that we ought to look upon the Cross of Christ as our only glory for by it we were delivered from the Tyranny of the Devil and raised from the Death of Sin as we shall be raised from our corporal death By it Christ confers the Life of Grace upon us in this World as he will hereafter give us the Life of Glory in Eternal Bliss 'T is true that to glory in the Cross of Christ we must suffer many hardships but then how great is the glory prepared by God for the just who suffer with patience what will their felicity be but a Crown in Heaven in recompence for their Vertues in this Pilgrimage and immortal incomprehensible Rewards for short and temporal sufferings The compleat consummation of their happiness shall be at the Day of Judgment when Christ raising them from death to life will inanimate them all with his happy life and holy spirit as all the members of one body are inspirited and enlivened by one soul BUT it behoveth us to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom is our salvation life and resurrection by whom we are saved and delivered PSALM LXVI As the Sacrifice of the Cross is an effect of God's mercy so his grace whereby we come to the knowledge of this inestimable benefit and to make our selves worthy to reap the advantage of it is an effect of his goodness and mercy which we ought to pray for GOD have mercy on us and bless us illuminate his countenance upon us and have mercy on us Nos autem c. Kyrie eleison c. as before pag. 36. The COLLECT The Faithful beseech God that they may receive the fruit of the Passion of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ ALmighty and Everlasting God grant us thy grace so to celebrate the Mysteries of the Passion of our Saviour that through thy mercies we may reap the benefit Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. Against the Persecutors of the Church Ecclesiae tuae quaesumus c. as before pag. 84. Or for the Pope Deus omnium as before pag. 85. The Lesson out of the Prophet Jeremy Chap. 11. The Church in this Lession which describes the Jews conspiracy against the Prophet Jeremy by figure represents unto us the suffering of Jesus Christ under that nation and the evils they drew upon themselves by that excess of wickedness Let us observe how the Prophet threatens them with the punishments prepared for them not through hatred or malice but in zeal to God's service considering their reprobation as decreed by Divine Providence being so revealed unto him IN those days saith Jeremias O Lord thou hast shewed me and I have known thou hast shewed me their studies And I as a mild lamb that is carried to a victim And I knew not that they devised councels against me saying Let us cast wood on his bread and rase him out of the land of the living and let his name be mentioned no more But thou O Lord of Sabaoth which judgest justly and provest the reins and the hearts let me see thy revenge of them for to thee I have revealed
my cause O Lord my God The GRADUAL taken out of the 34th Psalm The Church teacheth us in affliction to have recourse to God by Fasting and Prayer and by Patience to overcome our Persecutors and by our Benefits their Ingratitude without seeking revenge but leave that to God whereby we heap coals of fire upon their heads that is we leave them to a more severe correction than we are able to give them though this ought not to be the motive of our patience But if we think to repay them for the ill they do us then their malice overcomes our goodness BUT I when they were troublesome unto me did put on haircloth and humbled my soul in fasting and my prayer shall be turned into my bosome V. Judge O Lord them that hurt me overthrow them that impugn me take arms and shield and rise up to help me The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Mark Chap. 14 15. AT that time the Pasche was and Azymes after two days and the Chief Priests and the Scribes sought how they might by some guile lay hands on Jesus and kill him But they said Not on the festival-day lest there might be a tumult of the people And when he was at Bethania in the house of Simon the leper and sate at meat there came a woman having an alabaster box of Oyntment of precious Spiknard and breaking the alabaster box she poured it upon his head But there were certain that had indignation within themselves and said Whereto is this waste of Oyntment made for this Oyntment might have been sold for more than three hundred pence and given to the poor And they murmured against her But Jesus said Let her alone why do you molest her she hath wrought a good work upon me for the poor you have always with you and when you will you may do them good but me you have not always That which she had she hath done she hath prevented to anoint my body to the burial Amen I say to you Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world that also which she hath done shall be told for the memory of her And Judas Iscariot one of the twelve went his way to the Chief Priests for to betray him to them Who hearing it were glad and they promised him that they would give him money And he sought how he might betray him conveniently And the first day of the Azymes when they sacrificed the Pasche the Disciples say to him Whither wilt thou that we go and prepare for thee to eat the Pasche And he sendeth two of his Disciples and saith to them Go ye into the City and there shall meet you a man carrying a pitcher of water follow him and whithersoever he entreth say to the master of the house the master saith Where is my Refectory where I may eat the Pasche with my Disciples And he will shew you a great chamber adorned and there prepare for us And his Disciples went their ways and came into the city and they found as he had told them and they prepared the Pasche And when evening was come he cometh with the twelve And when they were sitting at the table and eating Jesus said Amen I say to you that one of you shall betray me he that eateth with me But they began to be sad and to say to him severally Is it I Who said to them One of the twelve he dippeth with me his hand in the dish And the Son of man indeed goeth as it is written of him but wo to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed it were good for him if that man had not been born And while they were eating Jesus took bread and blessing brake and gave to them and said Take this is my body And taking the chalice giving thanks he gave to them and they all drank of it And he said to them This is my blood of the New Testament that shall be shed for many Amen I say to you that now I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I shall drink it new in the kingdom of God And an hymn being said they went forth into Mount Olivet And Jesus said to them You shall all be scandalized in me this night for it is written I will strike the Pastor and the sheep shall be dispersed But after that I shall be risen again I will go before you into Galilee And Peter said to him Although all shall be scandalized yet not I. And Jesus said to him Amen I say to thee That thou this day in this night before the cock crow twice shalt thrice deny me But he spake more vehemently Although I should die together with thee I will not deny thee And in like manner also said they all And they came into a farm-place called Gethsemani And he said to his Disciples Sit you here until I pray And he taketh Peter and James and John with him and he began to fear and to be heavy And he said to them My soul is sorrowful even unto death stay here and watch And when he was gone forward a little he fell flat upon the ground and he prayed that if it might be the hour might pass from him And he said Abba Father all things are possible to thee transfer this Chalice from me but not that which I will but that which thou And he cometh and findeth them sleeping And he saith to Peter Simon sleepest thou Couldst thou not watch one hour Watch ye and pray that you enter not into tentation The spirit indeed is prompt but the flesh infirm And going away again he prayed saying the self-same word And returning again he found them asleep for their eyes were heavy and they wist not what they should answer him And he cometh the third time and saith to them Sleep ye now and take rest it sufficeth the hour is come behold the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners Arise let us go behold he that shall betray me is at hand And as he was yet speaking cometh Judas Iscariot one of the twelve and with him a great multitude with swords and clubs from the Chief Priests and the Scribes and the Ancients And the betrayer of him had given them a sign saying Whomsoever I shall kiss it is he lay hold on him and lead him warily And when he was come immediately going to him he saith Rabbi and he kissed him but they laid hands upon him and held him And one certain man of the standers about drawing out a sword smote the servant of the Chief Priests and cut off his ear And Jesus answering said to them As to a thief are you come out with swords and clubs to apprehend me I was daily with you in the Temple teaching and you did not lay hands on me But that the Scriptures may be fulfilled Then his Disciples leaving him all fled And a certain young man followed him
and from the servitude of sin THis saith our Lord Tell ye the Daughters of Sion Behold thy Saviour cometh behold his reward is with him and his work before him Who is this that cometh from Edom with died garments from Bosra this beautiful one in his Robe going in the multitude of his strength I that speak justice and am a desender to save Why then is thy clothing red and thy garments as theirs that tread in the Wine-press I have trodden the Press alone and of the Gentiles there is not a man with me I have trodden them in my fury and have trodden them down in my wrath and their bloud is sprinkled on my garments and I have stained all my raiment For the day of revenge is in my heart the year of my redemption is come I looked about and there was no helper I sought and there was none to aid and my arm hath saved and my indignation it self hath helped me And I have trodden down the people in my fury and have inebriated them in my indignation and have drawn their strength down to ground I will remember the mercies of our Lord the praise of our Lord for all things that our Lord hath rendred to us The GRADUAL out of the 68th Psalm The Church having represented our Saviour in the precedent Lesson triumphing over his enemies in his glorious Resurrection presents him unto us in this Gradual in the extremity of his Passion begging of his Father to be delivered from it To instruct us that he prays not for himself to be delivered from his pains and from death for how should he beg for himself to be freed from this hour wherein he should die for us since he came voluntarily upon Earth to that end being able by his own strength to rescue himself and give up his Soul to God and take it again But his Prayer was on our behalf to teach us in afflictions to have recourse to God to deliver us if it be his will or to give us strength to bear them patiently Likewise Jesus did not pray to be freed from his pains and death because he had a will to suffer but he askt to be delivered from the corruption of the Sepulchre by a speedy and glorious Resurrection To teach us by his Passion what we ought to contemn in the course of this life and by his resurrection what we ought to hope and pray for TUrn not away thy face from thy Servant Because I am in tribulation hear me speedily V. Save me O God because waters of affliction are entred into my Soul I stuck fast in the mire of the depth and there is no sure standing Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us pray The faithful beseech God that by the merits of his Son's Passion they may partake in the glory of his Resurrection O God who wert pleased that thy Son should suffer death for us upon the Cross that so the power of the enemy of mankind might be abated grant unto us thy servants that we may partake of his glorious Resurrection Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ c. Against the Persecutors of the Church Ecclesiae tuae c. as before pag. 84. Or for the Pope Deus omnium c. as before pag. 85. The Lesson out of the Prophet Isay ch 63. The Church teacheth us that the mystery of Gods Incarnation is so full of astonishment his Sufferings so outrageous and his Death so ignominious that the Prophet Isay durst not publish them lest men should not believe them After this Prophet hath foretold many of the torments to be endured by this man of God he teacheth us first that our sins were the cause of his sufferings by which he was to satisfie for us to his Fathers justice Secondly that he offered himself to these pains as a voluntary Victim for our salvation and would suffer death thereby to purchase life for us Thirdly that in compensation of this his humility and sufferings he is raised above all Creatures in Heaven sitting on the right hand of God his Father Fourthly that God his Father hath bestowed upon him all those for his children who are predestinated to glory as the precious off-spring of his bloud which he so freely shed that even he was pleased to wash those in it that put him to death according to the Prayer as he made even when he was nailed on the Cross between the two Thieves IN those days said Isaias Who hath believed our hearing and the arm of our Lord to whom is it revealed And he shall come up as a young Spring before him and as a Root from a thirsty ground There is no beauty in him nor comliness and we have seen him and there was no sightliness and we were desirous of him Despised and most abject of men a man of sorrows and knowing infirmity and his look as it were hid and despised whereupon neither have we esteemed him He surely hath born our infirmities and our sorrows he hath carried and we thought him as it were a Leper and strucken of God and humbled But he was wounded for our iniquities he was broken for our sins the discipline of our peace was upon him and with the wait of his stripes we are healed All we have strayed as Sheep every one hath declined into his own way and our Lord hath put upon him the iniquity of all us He was offered because himself would and opened not his mouth As a Sheep to slaughter was he led and as a Lamb before his Shearer he shall be dumb and shall not open his mouth From distress and from judgment he was taken up Who shall declare his Generation because he is cut out of the Land of the living For the wickedness of my people have I strucken him And he shall give the impious for his burial and the rich for his death Because he hath not done iniquity neither was their guile in his mouth And our Lord would break him in infirmity If he shall put away his Soul for sin he shall see seed of long age and the will of our Lord shall be directed in his hand for that his Soul hath laboured he shall see and be filled In his knowledge the same my just servant shall justifie many and he shall bear their iniquities Therefore will I distribute unto him very many and he shall divide the spoils of the strong for that he hath delivered his Soul unto death and was reputed with the wicked and he hath born the sin of many and hath prayed for the transgressiors The TRACT taken out of the 101st Psalm The Church tells us that Jesus Christ in the time of his Passion offered to God his Father most fervent Prayers with tears and groans beseeching him not to leave him under the power of death which he suffered onely for his love and for the salvation of the faithful signified by Sion His dignity his innocence this very act of
is God V. The love of Jesus Christ hath united us V. Let us rejoyce and praise him V. Let us fear and love the living God V. And love one another with a sincere heart Then the Antiphon is repeated Where charity and love is there is God V. When therefore we are assembled V. Let us beware we are not divided in mind V. Let all quarrels and contentions cease V. And let Christ be among us Then the Antiphon is repeated the third time Where charity and love is there is God V. Grant that we may see with the blessed V. Thy face in glory O Christ our Lord. V. There to enjoy a happy and immense joy V. For ever and ever Amen Then the Superior or he that washes the feet of others washeth his hands wipes them and putting on his Coap he stands upright with his head bare says Pater noster c. V. And lead us not into temptation R. But deliver us from evil V. Thou hast enjoyned O Lord R. That thy Laws be exactly observed V. Thou hast washed thy Disciples feet R. Despise not the work of thy hands V. O Lord hear my Prayer R. And let my cry come unto thee V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray GRant O Lord we beseech thee that we may worthily discharge this our duty and since thou vouchsafest to wash thy Disciples feet despise not the work of thy hands which thou hast commanded us to retain and imitate that as we here cleanse all filth from our Bodies so thou wilt be pleased to free our Souls from all sins Which we beseech thee to grant us who livest and reignest God for ever and ever Amen THE MASS FOR THURSDAY IN Holy Week The station in the Church of St. John of Lateran This day in Rome the station is in this Church because the Pope did formerly bless the Holy Oyls there upon this day The INTROIT The Church representing to us in this Mass how our Saviour instituted the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist it being the Eve of his Passion as a perpetual Monument and to apply the fruit of it unto us she teacheth us by the example and words of Saint Paul that we ought to look upon the Cross of Christ as our onely glory for it is by its vertue that we are freed from the tyranny of the Devil that we are raised from death It is by it that Jesus Christ grants from corporal death of sin as we must be raised to the life of grace in this world as he will hereafter he will when he pleases give us the Life of Glory in Everlasting Bliss 'T is true that to glory in the Cross of Christ we must suffer much But what will that glory be which God hath prepared for the patience of the just what will their happiness be when for their vertues in this exile he shall give them crowns in heaven for short and temporary pains immortal and incomprehensible rewards The consummation of their felicity will be at the day of judgment when Jesus Christ after he hath raised them again shall inanimate them with his happy life and spirit as all the members of one body are filled and enlivened by one soul BUt we ought to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom is our Salvation Life and Resurrection and by whom we are redeemed and saved PSALM LXVI As the Sacrifice of the Cross is an effect of God's Mercy so his Grace whereby we are enlightened to acknowledge this inestimable benefit and whereby we are made worthy to reap the fruit of it is an effect of his Bounty and Mercy which we ought to beg of him GOd have mercy upon us and bless us illuminate his countenance upon us and have mercy upon us But we ought to glory c. KYRIE ELEISON LOrd have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us All the rest as before pag. 30â— As the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is a Consequent and Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God on this day whereon our Saviour instituted this most venerable Sacrament the Church commands that Hymn to be sung which the Angels did sing at his Birth GLory be to God in the Highest and on Earth peace to men of good will We praise thee we bless thee we adore thee we glorifie thee we give thanks to thee for thy great glory O Lord God Heavenly King God the Father Almighty O Lord the onely begotten Son Jesus Christ O Lord God Lamb of God Son of the Father who takest away the Sins of the World have mercy on us Thou that takest away the Sins of the World receive our Prayers Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father have mercy on us For thou onely art Holy Thou onely art the Lord Thou onely O Jesus Christ with the Holy Ghost art most high in the Glory of God the Father Amen The Bells are rung during the Gloria in excelsis but are not rung again till Holy Saturday to teach us that the preaching of the Gospel and the voice of those who ought to excite others to follow Christ were silent during this Passion-time The COLLECT The people considering on the one side that Judas having received so many Testimonies of Favour from Jesus Christ after he had been admitted to his Table was yet so blind with covetousness that he betrayed his Master and God into the hands of the Jews who put him to death upon the Cross and transported with despair fell headlong into Hell On the other side the good thief made sensible by his pains repented himself of his sins and acknowledged our dying Saviour's divinity and putting his whole hopes and confidence in him deserved to receive the fruit of his Death and Resurrection They beseech God that they may nor approach his Table as Judas did but may obtain the same Grace with the penitent thief that so they may reap the advantage of the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour O God who hast punished the sin of Judas and rewarded the confession of the repenting thief grant unto us the effect of thy mercy to the end that as our Lord Jesus Christ hath dispensed to each of them at his Passion according to their merit so having destroyed the old man in us he will grant us grace to have part with him in his glorious Resurrection Who liveth and reigneth one God world without end This Prayer is only said The Lesson out of the first Epistle of the Apostle St. Paul to the Corinthians Chap. 11. 1. The Apostle blames them for their disorder in their Feasts called Agapae as we have explicated before 2. He treats of the institution of the Eucharist and teacheth us that Christ did institute this Sacrament to renew in us the memory of his incomparable love restified by his dying for us 3. He shewed how we ought to prepare our selves worthily to receive this Adorable Sacrament
to the true living God and to his only Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Let us Pray Let us bend our knees R. Lift up your selves ALmighty and Everlasting God who willest not the death of sinners but rather that they should be converted and live graciously hear our Prayers and freeing them from their Idolatry admit them into thy holy Church for the honour and glory of thy Name Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The Adoration of the Cross This Adoration is not terminated in the wood of the Cross but in Jesus Christ fastened thereon The Ceremony is very ancient For besides that it is set forth in the Roman Order and in St. Gregory's Book of the Sacraments St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola the immortal Ornament and Native of Bourdeaux living in the Fourth Age mentions it in his 11 Epistle to Severus Sulpicius The publick Prayers being ended the Priest puts off his Casuble and takes the Cross to represent Jesus Christ naked and loaded with his Cross Then he uncovers it at three several times to shew us how the Gospel was spred first in a little corner of Judea and for that cause the Priest begins to unvail the Cross on the right side and beneath the Altar singing BEhold the Wood of the Cross And the Quire answers R. Come let us adore Secondly The Gospel was preached publickly to the Jews figured by the right side of the Altar and therefore the Priest coming to the right corner of the Altar uncovers the right arm and the head of the Crucifix saying again Behold the Wood of the Cross The Quire answering R. Come let us adore Thirdly The Gospel was preacht to the whole world and therefore the Priest goes to the middle of the Altar and uncovers the Crucifix entirely saying Behold the Wood of the Cross whereon the Saviour of the World is fastened The Quire answer again R. Come let us adore Then the Priest puts the Cross in a convenient place for the people he first beginning this Ceremony in three times kneeling according to the ancient custom in the Roman Order And after the Priest the rest of the Clergy and people follow in the same manner During the Ceremony the Trisagion is sung both in Latine and Greek being taken from the Grecians as you may read in the first Session of the Council of Chalcedon mentioned by Nicephorus in his 14th Book and 46th Chapter and by it the Church offers to our meditation that Christ dying for us according to his humanity is the living invincible and immortal God by his Natural and Divine Person Then the following Verses are sung taken out of the Prophets and particularly out of Michaeas which contain the just reproaches our Saviour made to the Jews for their ingratitude MY people what have I done to thee or in what have I molested thee Answer me V. Because I brought thee out of the land of Egypt thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour V. Agios O Theos Sanctus Deus O Holy God V. Agios Ischyros Sanctus fortis Holy and strong God V. Agios Athanatos Eleison imas Sanctus immortalis miserere nobis Holy and immortal God have mercy on us V. Because I led thee through the desart forty years and fed thee there with Manna and brought thee into a good soil thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour Agios O Theos c. as before V. What ought I to do more and have not done I have planted thee my most beautiful vine and thou art become very bitter unto me in my thirst thou gavest me vinegar to drink and with a launcet thou hast pierced thy Saviour's side Agios O Theos as before V. My people what have I done to thee or in what have I molested thee Answer me V. For thy sake I struck Egypt in their first-born and thou hast delivered me to be scourged My people c. I brought thee forth of Egypt having drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea and thou hast delivered me over to the princes of the priests My people c. V. For thee I opened the sea and with a launce thou hast pierced my side My people c. V. I went before thee in a pillar of the cloud and thou hast brought me to the palace of Pilate My people c. V. I nourished thee with Manna in the desart and thou hast struck me with bussets and whips My people c. V. I gave thee wholsom water to drink from the rock and thou hast given me to drink vinegar and gall My people c. V. For thy sake I have struck the kings of the Chananites and thou hast struck my head with a reed My people c. V. I gave thee a royal scepter and thou hast set upon my head a crown of thorns My people c. V. I have raised thee with great strength and thou fastened me on the cross The ANTIPHON The people by their adoring the Cross testifie their horrour of the Jews impiety and ingratitude and considering how Christ triumphed over death by his glorious Resurrection to make us partakers of his glory they render him thanks O Lord we adore thy Cross we praise and glorifie thy Holy Resurrection for by the Wood of the Crofs the whole World is filled with joy PSALM LXVI The Faithful beg of God that he will make them capable to receive the benefit of his Passion and Resurrection GOd have mercy upon us and bless us Illuminate his countenance upon us and have mercy on us Ant. O Lord we adore thy Cross c. After this Crux fidelis and the Hymn Pange lingua are sung HAil Holy Cross to thee we bow To whose blest fruit our lives we ow Our earth bears no such tree Dear are the nails and dear the wood On which our dear Lord shed his blood 'T was Heaven that planted thee Come then my soul and gladly sing The happy combate of our King Which on this Cross he sought Where he the all-victorious Lamb Sin Death and Hell it self o'recame And our full safely wrought V. Hail Holy Cross to thee we bow To whose blest fruit our lives we ow Our earth bears no such tree V. He saw with pity our sad fate When our first-parents rashly ate Of that unhappy tree He saw and markt the deadly wound And soon this sovereign Balsam found To save our souls by thee V. Dear are the nails and dear the wood On which our dear Lord shed his blood 'T was Heaven that planted thee V. This way our cure required as fit That Heaven 's high wisdom should out-wit The dire black art of hell And from the source of all our bane A powerful Antidote should be tane The poison to expell Hail Holy Cross c. V. When the blest time was fully come The Father from his glorious home Sent his Eternal Son He that created Heaven and Earth Of a poor Virgin took his Birth And our frail flesh put on V. Dear are the nails
c. V. The tender Infant as he lies In the cold manger shrinks and cries As little children use While his chast Mother binds his hands His feet his legs in swathing bands Nor does he worse refuse V. Hail Holy Cross c. V. He does not only not refuse But out of pure love freely chuse Death on this bitter Cross Where he the innocent Lamb was slain Eternal Life for us to gain And so repair our Loss V. Dear are the nails c. V. Behold the gall and vinegar The mocking reed and cruel spear Their hate his love display Behold the body cold and wan Whence streams of blood and water ran To wash our stains away V. Hail Holy Cross c. V. Bend gentle tree O quickly bend Thy softned branches and suspend Thy native stubborn heart O give at least this small relief To the God of Heaven but man of grief At least abate his smart V. Dear are the nails c. V. 'T was thou alone wert worthy thought To bear him who our ransom brought And on thee paid it down 'T was he alone and his dear blood That sav'd us from the common flood Which else the world would drown V. Hail Holy Cross c. V. All glory to the sacred Three One individed Deity All honour bliss and praise O may we still adore thy Name Thy Pow'r and Goodness still proclaim Beyond the end of days Amen V. Dear are the nails c. When the adoration of the Cross is near finished the Candles upon the Altar are lighted and the Deacon taking the corporal case carries it to the Altar spreading the corporal upon the Altar after the usual manner and puts it directly against the Purificatory And the Adoration being ended he places the Cross upon the Altar The Sub-deacon takes the Missal from the Epistle and carries it to the Gospel side Then a Procession is made to the place where the blessed Sacrament is reserved The Subdeacon goes first with the Cross between two Acolytes they carrying Candlesticks with lighted Tapers and the Clergy follows in order the Priest last with those that Officiate When they are come unto the place where the blessed Sacrament is the Tapers are lighted and not put out till after the Communion The Priest kneels and prays a while the Deacon in the mean time opens the Tabernacle wherein the blessed Sacrament is Then the Priest rising up puts Incense into the Censors without blessing it then kneeling again he takes one of the Censors and incenseth the Holy Sacrament Then the Deacon taking the Chalice wherein the blessed Sacrament is out of the Tabernacle he puts it into the Priests hands who covers it with the ends of the vail that is upon his shoulders and so they go in order as they came the Priest with the blessed Sacrament under the Canopy the two Acolytes incensing and all the people singing this Hymn A Broad the Regal Banners fly Now shines the Crosses mystery Vpon it life did death endure And yet by death did life procure Who wounded with a direful spear Did purposely to wash us clear From stain of sin pour out a flood Of precious water mixed blood Fully accomplisht are the things David in faithful Meeter sings Where he to nations does attest God on a tree his reign possest O lovely and refulgent tree Adorn'd with purpled majesty Cull'd from a worthy stock to bear Those limbs which sanctified were Blest tree whose happy branches bore The wealth that the World restore The beam that did that body weigh Which rais'd up Hell's expected prey Hail Cross of hopes the most sublime Now in this Morning Passion-time Improve religious souls in grace The sins of criminals efface Blest Trinity Salvation's spring May every soul thy praises sing To those thou grantest conquest by The Cross-Rewards apply Amen When the Priest shall come to the steps of the Altar the Deacon kneeling first shall take the blessed Sacrament and place it upon the Altar Then the Priest standing upright puts Incense into the Censor and incenseth the B. Sacrament upon his knees Then the Vail is taken off his shoulders and he goes up to the Altar where he kneels again and takes the Hoast out of the Chalice putting it upon the Patten which he takes from the Deacon After this he puts the consecrated Hoast upon the Corporal without any words or making the sign of the Cross Then he puts the Patten not under the Corporal as is usual but above to represent Jesus Christ in his Sepulcher If by chance he hath toucht the Hoast he must wash his singers in some Vessel and dry them upon the Purificatory and to do this also he must go down the steps of the Altar The Deacon takes the Chalice and without wiping it he goes to the Epistle corner and puts Wine into it the Sub-deacon also puts in a little Water without blessing it and so presents the Chalice to the Priest without either kissing his hand or the Chalice The Priest placeth the Chalice upon the Corporal without making the sign of the Cross or saying any thing The Deacon covers it with the Pall. The Priest puts Incense into the Censor without a blessing to signifie that the Author of all blessing is dead Then he incenseth the Oblation of Wine and Water to teach us thereby that Bloud and Water issued out of our Saviours side when he was pierced upon the Cross and kneels not when he incenseth the Oblation to signifie to us that this Wine and Water is not to be consecrated LEt this Incense O Lord blest by thee ascend unto thee and let thy mercy descend upon us After the Priest hath incensed the Oblation he incenseth the Altar testifying that as the Sacrifice which is offered is insinitely more Holy than the Sacrifices of the old Law so he ought to beg of God a more perfect preparation and a greater sanctity of Life than that which the Royal Prophet required in this 140 Psalm of being able to correspond by his Prayers to the sanctity of the Sacrifice which was but a Figure of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ LEt my Prayer O Lord be directed as Incense in thy sight the elevation of my hands as Evening Sacrifice Set O Lord a watch to my mouth and a door round about my lips that my heart decline not into the words of malice to make excuses for sins The Priest gives the Censor to the Deacon without being incensed himself as refusing that Honour upon this day wherein Jesus Christ was so affronted with Ignominies and he prays God to inflame his heart as well as all others with a more fervent Charity than the fire in the Censor MAy our Lord kindle in us the fire of his love and the flame of his eternal charity Amen The Priest having delivered the Censor to the Deacon goes down from the Altar on the Epistle side and being near the Credence with his Face to the People he washeth his hands silently
fixed in a triangle which he lights one after another to instruct us that the Light of the Gospel which Jesus Christ hath brought unto us is the work of the blessed Trinity to whom we are to render thanks And therefore advancing towards the Altar he thrice repeats Behold the light of Christ The Faithful answer R. Thanks be to God The Deacon disposing himself to receive Commission from the Priest to give God thanks for the favour done us in freeing us from the Tyranny of the Devil and the Slavery of Sin by the Death and Resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ whereof the Jewish Pasch was a figure asks his blessing Vouchsafe Father to bless The Priest blessing him saith OUr Lord be in thy lips that thou mayest worthily and competently declare the praises of his Pasch In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen Then the Deacon taking the Censor out of the Acolyts hands incenseth the Book thrice in honour of the Holy Trinity which the light of the Gospel revealed unto us as we are taught by Jesus Christ And inviting the Faithful to give God thanks for the Victory which his Son Christ Jesus gained over the Devil and for the favour done unto them by drawing them from darkness and servitude of sin by the light of the Gospel represents unto them that their joy ought to be common to them and to the Angels who rejoyce to see that their number lessened by the fall of Lucifer and his complices is filled up again by humane nature renewed and repaired by Jesus Christ Then the Deacon acknowledging his own unworthiness joyns in Prayer with the Church MAy the angelical troops now rejoyce may the divine mysteries be celebrated with a holy joy may the sound of a comfortable trumpet publish the victory of so great a King and may the whole earth be sensible of the blessing it had by the splendour of the the Eternal King who freed it from that darkness which overspread the whole World May our Mother the Church rejoyce also at the glympse of so resplendent light and may this place resound with the voices of this Congregation And therefore I beseech ye my beloved Brethren here present who enlightened with the admirable splendour of this holy light joyn with me and call upon our Merciful and Almighty God to the end that as he hath been pleased not through my merits to advance me to the number of his Levites so shedding the beams of his light upon me he will give me grace to perfect the praise of this Paschal Candle Through c. Amen The Benediction and Praise of the Paschal Candle is very ancient for this Ceremony is mentioned in Prudentius his Hymn who lived in the fourth Age and St. Gregory Nazianzenus and St. Ambrose Then the Deacon prepares the Faithful to celebrate this Ceremony worthily with him advising them to lift up their hearts to God and to quit all affections to Creatures acknowledging the grace they have received of God by the Light of his Gospel which is represented by the Candle Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit R. Lift up your hearts The Faithful being in the disposition he requires answers We have raised them towards our Lord. Then the Deacon bids the Faithful consider that God so disposed their hearts therefore that they should give publick thanks Let us give thanks to our Lord. The Faithful answer that it is just and reasonable and according they give publick thanks by the Deacon and particular resentments of their hearts by following in their minds the words which the Deacon uses R. It is meet and just The Deacon exhorts the Faithful to give God thanks for that in this Night by the glorious Resurrection of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Merits of his Death he had freed us from the Tyranny of the Devil and from the Bondage of Sin wherein our first Parent by his sin had involved us and for that by the light of his Gospel he had conducted us to the Kingdom of Heaven which he had promised to his faithful Servant as he delivered the Israelites out of the Captivity of Egypt causing a Pillar of Fire to lead them into the Land of Promise IT is truly meet and just that with all affections of our heart and soul and with the ministry of our voice we glorifie the invisible God Father Almighty and his onely Son our Lord Jesus Christ who hath paid Adam's death for us to his Eternal Father and by shedding his innocent blood hath blotted out the hand-writing of our old sins whereby we are subjected to death For these are the Paschal Feasts wherein the true Lamb is immolated and the gates of the Faithful consecrated by his blood This is that night wherein first thou madest our forefathers the Children of Israel to pass the Red Sea dry-foot This is that night which dissipated the darkness of sins by the light of a pillar of fire This is that night which separating through the whole World those that believe in Jesus Christ from the vices of this age and from the darkness wherein sinners are ingaged restores them to grace and associates them to sanctity This is that night wherein the chains of death being broken Christ ascended Conquerour from Hell For it would not have availed us to have been born unless Christ had been pleased to redeem us O God how admirable is thy bounty towards us how inestimable thy charity who didst deliver up thy Son to redeem thy slave O certain necessary sin of Adam to make us sensible of the excess of God's love towards us since it hath been effaced by the death of Jesus Christ O happy fault that merited to have such and so great a Redeemer O truly happy night which alone deserved'st to observe the time and moment of Christ his rising from the dead This is that night of which it is written in the 178th Psalm The night shall shine as the day and the night is my illumination in my delights therefore the sanctification of this night banisheth all crimes washeth away all offences restores to innocence those that had been lost makes glad the afflicted reconciles hatred and enmities restores peace and union and humbles empires Here the Deacon puts the five grains of blest Incense in form of a Cross into the Candle not yet lighted which signifies the dead Body of our Saviour teaching us how adorable the wounds were which he received on the Cross where he offered up himself a Sacrifice for us to God his Father whereof the Evening Sacrifice was a figure in the Old Law and the Sacrifice of the Altar is a representation of it in the Evangelical Law Then the Deacon lighting the Candle which then becomes a figure of Christs Body risen again acknowledges the advantage we have received by his Resurrection REceive then O Holy Father from us on this happy night the Evening-Sacrifice of
he is bountiful to forgive for my cogitations are not your cogitations nor your ways my ways saith our Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth so are my ways exalted above your ways and my cogitations above your cogitations And as the shower cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth no more thither but inebriateth the earth and watereth it and maketh it to spring and giveth seed to the sower and bread to him that eateth so shall my word be which shall proceed from my mouth It shall not return to me void but it shall do what things soever I would and shall prosper in these things for which I sent it saith our Lord God Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves The Church begs of God an absolute Conversion of all the Nations of the Earth ALmighty and Eternal God multiply for the honour of thy Name that which thou hast promised to the faith of our forefathers and encrease by an holy adoption thy Church with new children to receive the effects of thy promises that so they may see that almost accomplished which the Saints formerly doubted not but would come to pass Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The SIXTH PROPHECY taken out of the 3d Chapter of Baruch In this Lesson the Church represents to us the excellency of Christian Religion which teaches us that Men of themselves are not able to make their Lives happy that all those who pretended themselves Authors of their own Happiness and believed they were only indebted to themselves for it who only have sought it for their own Vertue and in the fleeting Pleasures and Wealth of this Life who are persuaded that already they possess the Sovereign Good and that in fine to obtain it they sought not God nor placed their hopes in his infinite Goodness and Bounty but that they are lost in those vain and proud thoughts 'T is from God alone that hath made them and can make them blessed that can divert the evils of this Life or sweeten them or give courage to support them or absolutely free those that bow under the burthen And who can at last elevate Man to the true fruition of this Bliss where no evil is to be feared and where the sovereign goodness is not to be lost And unto this end God hath given Law unto Men wherein proposing and promising a recompence unto Pious Souls he teaches us not to spend this temporal and uncertain Life in its Vanities and Pleasures but to suffer all sorts of Afflictions and Torments rather than to violate his Commandments out of a strong confidence of the fidelity of his Promises and in hopes after death to enjoy Eternal Happiness And to enable us to observe the Law it was his Will that his Son should come into this World This Divine Saviour covering the Grandeur of his Divinity under the Weakness of our Nature hath taught us by the example of his Passion what Miseries we ought to suffer in this World and by his Resurrection what Blessings to hope for in the next giving us at the same time the grace to do and obtain that which he hath shewed us if by our sins we render not our selves unworthy HEar Israel the commandments of life hearken with your ears that you may know prudence What is the matter Israel that thou art in the land of the enemies Thou art waxed old in strange land thou art defiled with the dead thou art reputed with them that go into hell Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom For if thou hadst walked in the way of God thou hadst verily dwelt in peace everlasting Learn where wisdom is where understanding is that thou mayest know withal where is the long continuance of life and living where the light of the eyes and peace is who hath found the place thereof and who hath entred into the treasures thereof where are the princes of the Gentiles and they that rule over the beasts that are upon the earth that play with the birds of heaven that treasure up silver and gold wherein men have confidence and there is no end of their getting which fashion silver and are careful neither is there invention of their works They are destroyed and are gone down to hell and others are risen up in their place Young men saw the light and dwelt upon the earth but the way of discipline they knew not neither understood they the paths thereof neither have their children received it It is made far from their face It hath not been heard in the land of Canaan neither hath it been seen in Theman The children of Agar also that seek out the prudence that is of the earth merchants of Myrrh and of Theman and fablers and searchers of prudence and understanding But the way of wisdom they have not known neither have they remembred the paths thereof O Israel how great is the house of God and how great is the place of his possession It is great and hath no end high and unmeasurable There were the gyants those renowned that were from the beginning of big stature expert in war These did not our Lord chuse neither found they the way of discipline therefore did they perish And because they had not wisdom they perished through their folly Who hath ascended into heaven and taken her and brought her down from the clouds Who hath passed over the sea and found her and brought her above chosen gold There is none that can know her ways nor that can search out her paths but he that knoweth all things knoweth her and hath found her out by his prudence he that prepareth the earth in time everlasting and replenished it with cattel and four-footed beasts he that sendeth forth light and it goeth and hath called it and it obeyeth him with trembling And the stars have given light in their watches and rejoyced they were called and they said Here we are and they have shined to him with chearfulness that made them This is our God and there shall none other be esteemed against him He found out all the way of discipline and delivered it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved After these things he was seen upon the earth and was conversant with men The Church telling us that God not being contented to have taught Men by his Prophets but further he sent his only Son to instruct them by his Word and Example and to give them a new life by the Sacrament of Baptism beseeches his Majesty to make them worthy always to maintain the Grace they have received Let us Pray Let us bend our knees R. Lift up your selves O God who dost always multiply thy Church in the call of the Gentiles vouchsafe graciously thy continual protection to all those who shall be cleansed with the waters of baptism Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. The SEVENTH PROPHECY out of the 37th Chapter of Ezechiel The Prophet Ezekiel represents to us
preserved in its purity May it be a fountain of life a regenerating water a purifying stream that all those who shall be washed in this wholsom bath may obtain the grace to be perfectly purified by operation and assistance of the Holy Ghost The Priest signs the Font thrice with the sign of the Cross to shew us that as the Holy Trinity was by visible Tokens present at Christs Baptism So these Three Persons by an invisible Presence are so assisting when the People are Baptized ANd therefore I bless thee O creature water by the living ✚ God by the true ✚ God by the holy ✚ God by that God who at the beginning of the world separated thee from the dry land by his word and whose spirit was carried upon thee The Priest divides the Water with his Hand and casts it towards the four parts of the World instructing us thereby that the grace of Baptism is poured forth through the whole Earth And the Church setting before our Eyes the Wonders wrought by God upon the Waters both in the Old and New Testament teacheth us that we are not to think it strange that this Element is made use of to make a Sacrament for our Regeneration and Sanctification GOD who made thee spring in Paradise and dividing thee into four rivers commanded thee to water the whole earth who changed thy bitterness in the desart and made the potable by an imprinted suavity and to issue out of a rock to quench his peoples thirst I bless thee also through our Lord Jesus Christ his only Son who in Cana Galilee changed thee into wine by a singular miracle of his omnipotency who walked dry-foot upon thee and was baptized in thee by St. John in Jordan who caused thee together with blood to issue out of his side and who commanded his disciples to baptize all those in thee who should believe in him saying Go ye and teach all nations and baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost The Priest invocates Gods assistance with a profound respect OMnipotent God mercifully assist us observing thy commandments and of thy goodness infuse thy spirit into us Then the Priest breaths upon the Waters in form of a Cross to teach us that Jesus Christ by the Merits of his Cross and Passion communicates his Holy Spirit to those that are Baptized as he communicated it to his Disciples by the breath of his Mouth BLess these simple waters with thy mouth that besides their natural quality of cleansing the body they may receive yet further vertue to purifie our souls The Priest dippeth the hallowed Candle into the Water to shew us that the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ represented by this Virgin-wax sanctified the Waters when he was Baptized in Jordan and that he gave them the virtue to regenerate and that as the Holy Ghost descended then upon Jesus Christ he also descends upon those that are new Baptized MAy the vertue of the Holy Ghost descend upon this water The Priest breaths three times upon the Water to instruct us that not only the Holy Ghost but the Father and Son also descend upon the Baptized as these three Persons visibly appear'd at our Saviours Baptism we are also taught by it that in this Sacrament of Regeneration we receive Faith Hope and Charity ANd make the whole substance of this water fruitful and capable to regenerate The Priest takes the Taper out of the Water to instruct us that by Baptism we are dis-engaged from sin re-established in grace admitted into a new life which entitles us by our good works to Eternal Glory MAy here all the stains of sin be blotted out may here nature created unto thy image being restored to its original dignity to the honour of its Authour be purified from all filth of the old man that all who receive this Sacrament of Regeneration may be born in true innocency of a new birth Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who shall come to judge the living and the dead and world by fire After this the Priest pours the Oyl for the Catechumens into the Water cross-wise to represent unto us the strength we receive by this Sacrament as Champions of Jesus Christ to persevere generously in the encounters of this World that so we may wear the Crown prepared for us in Everlasting Life And as the Oyl is drawn from Olives bruised in a Press this Liquor denotes unto us that grace and strength figured thereby is given us by the Passion of Jesus Christ MAy this Font be sanctified and made fruitful by this health-giving oyl for those who shall be regenerated therein unto life everlasting Amen Then the Priest pours into the Water Oyl of Chrism to teach us that Baptism is a Spiritual and Mystical Consecration by which being invisibly anointed with the grace of the Holy Ghost we partake of the Regality and Priesthood of Jesus Christ and thence we are called Christians that is anointed MAy this infusion of the Chrism of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost the comforter be done in the Name of the Holy Trinity Amen Lastly the Priest pours Oyl and Chrism together into the Water to put before us the advantages we reap by this Sacrament of Baptism and the Sollicitude we ought to use to conserve them The Water signifies that we are cleansed from all our sins The Oyl that we are anointed with the Holy Ghost as Champions of Christ to be guarded and fortified in all Encounters and Assaults that befal us in this Life as in all sorts of Temptations interior and exterior in Afflictions Persecutions and generally in all occasions which may hazard our loss of Faith and of the grace of God The Chrism represents unto us that we are consecrated unto God by the participation of the Regality and Priesthood of Jesus Christ MAy this commixture of the Chrism of Sanctification and the Oyl of Unction and of the Water of Baptism be made in the Name of the Father ✚ and of the Son ✚ and of the Holy Ghost ✚ Amen The blessing of the Font being ended the Priest accompanied with his Ministers goes before the Altar and upon his knees sings the Litanies to implore the Intercession of the Saints But in Churches where no Fonts are after the Sixth Prophecy is read and the Prayer following it Litanies are sung to implore the Intercession of the Saints LOrd have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us Christ hear us Christ graciously hear us God the Father of heaven have mercy on us God the Son Redeemer of the world have mercy on us God the Holy Ghost have mercy on us Holy Trinity one God have mercy on us Holy Mary pray for us Holy Mother of God pray for us Holy Virgin of Virgins pray for us St. Michael pray St. Gabriel pray St. Raphael pray All ye Holy Angels and Archangels pray for us All ye Holy Orders
your selves which also in CHRIST JESUS who when he was in the form of God thought it no robbery himself to be equal to God but he exinanited himself taking the form of a servant made into the similitude of men and in shape found as a man R. Thanks be to God HYMN In remembrance of the Victory Christ obtained by his Cross A Broad the Regal Banners fly Now shines the Crosses Mystery Upon it Life did Death endure And yet by Death did Life procure Who wounded with a direful Spear Did purposely to wash us clear From stain of Sin pour out a Flood Of precious Water mixt with Blood Fully accomplish'd are the things David in faithful Meeter sings Where he to Nations do's attest God on a Tree his Reign possest O lovely and refulgent Tree Adorn'd with purple Majesty Cull'd from a worthy Stock to bear Those Limbs which sanctified were Blest Tree whose happy Branches bore The Wealth that did the World restore The Beam that did that Body weigh Which rais'd up Hells expected Prey Hail Cross of Hopes the most sublime Now in this mournful Passion-time Improve Religious Souls in Grace The Sins of Criminals efface Blest Trinity Salvations Spring May ev'ry Soul thy Praises sing To those thou grantest Conquest by The Holy Cross Rewards apply Amen THE SONG OF THE HOLY VIRGIN MARY Luke 1. The Church briefly represents unto us in this Canticle the Promises and Mysteries of our Salvation and shews us that the Son of God became Man to repair by his Humility what Man had lost through his own Pride and that it was his will to chuse the Holy Virgin to be his Mother out of his great Humility to accomplish this grand Work MY Soul doth magnifie our Lord. And my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me and holy is his Name And his mercy from generations unto generations to them that fear him He hath shewed might in his arm he hath dispersed the proud in the conceit of their heart He hath deposed the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble The hungry he hath filled with good things and the rich he hath sent away empty He hath received Israel his child being mindful of his mercy As he spake to our fathers to Abraham and his seed for ever Glory be to the Father c. Ant. For it is written I will strike the Pastor and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed but after I shall be risen again I will go before you into Galilee and there ye shall see me saith our Lord. At Paris the following Anthymn is said ALl the people which descended rejoyced and began to praise God exceedingly for the wonders they had seen saying Blessed is the King that comes in the name of our Lord Peace in heaven and glory in the highest THE PRAYER To beg God's Grace to imitate the Humility and Patience of our Saviour O Almighty Eternal God who hast caused our Saviour to take Flesh and be crucified for Mankind as an Example of Humility to be imitated Grant propitiously that we may partake both of the Instructions of his Patience and the Fellowship of his Resurrection Thro' the same our Lord c. AT COMPLINE The Reader says Vers REverend Father bless me THE BLESSING GRant us Omnipotent Lord a quiet Night and a happy End Resp Amen THE LESSON taken out of the First Epistle of the Apostle St. Peter chap. 5. BRethren be sober and watch because your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist ye strong in faith But thou O Lord have mercy on us R. Thanks be to God V. Our help is in the name of our Lord. R. Who made Heaven and Earth OUr Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from all evil Amen HAil Mary full of Grace our Lord is with thee Blessed art thou amongst Women and blessed is the Fruit of thy Womb JESUS Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us Sinners now and in the hour of our death Amen I Confess unto Almighty God to Blessed Mary ever Virgin to Blessed Michael the Archangel to Blessed John Baptist to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul to all Saints and to Thee Father That I have sinned exceedingly in Thought Word and Deed by my fault by my fault by my most grievous fault Therefore I beseech the Blessed Mary ever Virgin Blessed Michael the Archangel Blessed John Baptist the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul all Saints and Thee O Father to pray for me to our Lord God Almighty God have mercy on us and all our Sins being forgiven bring us unto everlasting Life R. Amen The Almighty and merciful Lord give unto us Pardon Absolution and Remission of all our Sins R. Amen Convert us O God our Saviour R. And avert thine Anger from us V. Incline unto my aid O God R. O Lord make haste to help me Glory be to the Father c. Ant. Have mercy on me PSALM 4. This Psalm shews us That 't is impossible to raise up our Thoughts to the Love of the true Goods whilst our Hearts are overcharged with the Cares of Worldly Affairs but that once being purified with the Grace of God we then in the secret of our Souls begin to contemn our selves and being touched with a true Compunction of Heart we offer to his Majesty a Sacrifice all our past Life with an intention by his assistance entirely to change it And from thence-forth our Lord begins to make us rellish his Sweets and Delights and to heap Joys upon us Then we find in that Sovereign Good another Grain another Wine and another Oyl than what here below so as we neither envy the Prosperity of the Wicked nor fear their Persecutions having placed all our Confidence in God WHen I invocated the God of my justice heard me in tribulation thou hast enlarged to me Have mercy on me and hear my prayer Ye sons of men how long are you of heavy heart why love you vanity and seek lying And know ye that our Lord hath made his Holy One marveilous our Lord will hear me when I shall cry to him Be ye angry and sin not the things that you say in your hearts in your chambers be ye sorry for Sacrifice ye the sacrifice of justice and hope in our Lord Many say Who sheweth us good things The light of thy countenance O Lord is signed upon us thou hast given gladness in my heart By the fruit of their corn and wine and oyl they are multiplied In peace in the self same I will
Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us R. This night without Sin V. Have mercy on us Lord. R. Have mercy on us V. Let thy mercy O Lord come on us R. Even as we have trusted in thee V. O Lord hear my Prayer R. And let my Cry come unto thee V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit Let us Pray VIsit we beseech thee O Lord this Habitation and repel far from it all Snares of the Enemy Let thy holy Angels dwell therein to preserve us in peace and thy Blessing be upon us for ever through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who with thee liveth and Reigneth in the Unity of the Holy Ghost One God for ever and ever Amen V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy Spirit V. Let us bless our Lord. R. Thanks be to God THE BLESSING V. The Almighty and Merciful Lord the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost bless and keep us R. Amen THE ANTHYMN OF THE HOLY VIRGIN HAil Queen advanc'd to heavenly Reign Hail Lady of th' Angelick Train Hail Root hail Gate that did disclose The Light which to the World arose Virgin rejoyce whose Form divine All others Beauty do's out-shine Be ever bless'd thrice-beauteous Maid By thee let Christ be for us pray'd V. Vouchsafe that I praise thee O sacred Virgin R. Give me force against my Enemies Let us Pray GRant O merciful God defence unto our Frailty that we who make Commemoration of the Holy Mother of God may by the help of her Intercession arise from our Iniquities Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. R. Amen V. Let the Divine Help always remain with us R. Amen THE NIGHT-OFFICE ON WEDNESDAY IN Holy-Week FOR THVRSDAY at MATTINS ON this Day the Church represents unto us That Jesus Christ supped with his Apostles washed their Feet prayed in the Olive-Garden and that he was betrayed by Judas into the hands of the Jews These three following Days after having said Pater noster Ave Maria and Credo at Mattins and Prime without farther Ceremony they begin Mattins and Vespers with an Anthymn of the First Psalm and every Anthymn is repeated as on double Feasts Domine labia mea c. and Deus in Adjutorium are omitted to signifie that Jesus Christ was then abandoned by his Father to Torments and Death The Invitatory is likewise omitted Neither the Hymn nor Gloria Patri are said to shew us that the Honor due to the Blessed Trinity was violated by the excessive Wickedness and Infidelity of the Jews Fifteen Wax Tapers are lighted because there are recited two Canticles and thirteen Psalms in the Mattins and Laudes which are all sung under one and the same Anthymn Whereby are represented unto us the Light of the Faith which the Prophets in the Old Testament foretold unto the People And a Taper is extinguished at the end of each Psalm to declare that the Light of that Faith whereof the Prophets spoke unto the Jews was in them extinguished after they had crucified the Saviour of the World And at the end of the Canticle of Zachary the Father of St. John Baptist they put not out that Taper which represents Jesus Christ whom St. John Baptist declared to be the true Light of the World to shew that tho' Jesus Christ died according to his Humanity yet that he was always living according to his Divinity They also hide that Taper to signifie that the Divinity of Jesus Christ was hid under the Veil of his Humanity It likewise represents Jesus Christ in his Sepulcher Afterwards they shew the lighted Taper to represent his Resurrection AT THE FIRST NOCTVRN PSALM 68. That which the Royal Prophet foretold in this Psalm of the Mystery of the Passion of Jesus Christ the Church proposes unto us according to the Explication left us by the Apostles as well in the Book of their Acts and in their Epistles as in the Book of Gospels First She represents us with the Sufferings and Death of Jesus Christ which the Prophet compares to an overflowing of the Waters and to a Tempest and to a Wreck Secondly She presents us with the Prayer which our Saviour made to God his Father at the access of his Grief when in the condition of a Slave which our Infirmities occasion'd being in appearance forsaken of God his Father since in his Sufferings he denied him that which he desired through a propension of Humane Nature wherewith he was clothed drawing from the bottom of his Heart these Words full of Love and Piety My Father if it be possible let the Chalice of my Sufferances pass without my drinking it however thy will be done not mine That which he earnestly desired 't is that made his Innocency appear and that he voluntarily suffered those Pains for the Sins of Men and not for his own having never committed or been able to commit the least Sin And though his Passion seems ridiculous and is an Object of Scandal and Abomination in the judgment of the Jews and Gentiles yet the Faithful are not thereat troubled Thirdly The Church shews us that in this Psalm the Prophet foretells how our Saviour was to be betrayed by one of his Disciples and abandoned by his others and how many Outrages and Contempts the Jews would cast upon him Fourthly In this Psalm is declared the Zeal Jesus Christ had for the Honor of his Father his Resignation to his Father's Will his Submission to his Conduct and his Contempt of his own proper Interest For so the Apostle St. Paul in the fifteenth Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans explicates one part of this Psalm Fifthly According to St. Luke in the first Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and of St. Paul in the second Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans in this Psalm is described the Punishment which was prepared for the Traytor Judas and the other Persecutors of Jesus Christ wherewith this adorable Saviour threatens them not through any Hate or Revenge but through the Zeal of God's Justice considering the Reprobation of those Wretches in the Decrees of his Providence Sixthly We are instructed in this Psalm That Jesus Christ having by his Death repaired the Honor of God his Father he was also to rise again and build his Church which through Sin was lost and establish his Faithful in the possession of the Heavenly Inheritance signified by Jerusalem and lost by Sin Establishing on Earth a more agreeable Sacrifice than that of Calves which was offer'd him in the Old Law to wit the Sacrifice of his own Body and Blood Ant. The zeal of thy house hath eaten me and the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me SAve me O God because waters are entred into my Soul I stick fast in the mire of the depth and there is no sure standing I am come into the depth of the sea and a tempest hath overwhelmed me I have laboured crying my jaws are made hoarse my eyes have failed whilst I hope
comforted me For I also will confess to thee in the instruments of Psalm thy truth O God I will sing to thee on the Harp holy One of Israel My Lips shall rejoyce when I shall sing to thee and my soul which thou hast redeemed Yea and my tongue all the day shall meditate thy justice when they shall be confounded and ashamed that seek evils to me Ant. My God deliver me out of the hand of the sinner V. Let them be turned away backward and blush for shame that will me evils Pater noster c. THE BEGINNING OF THE LAMENTATIONS OF THE PROPHET JEREMY Jube Domine c. is omitted nor is the Blessing given before the reading of these Lamentations to shew that the Author of all Blessing is dead Under the Figure of the Sufferances of the Prophet Jeremy of the Ruine of Jerusalem and of the Captivity of the Israelites in Babylon for their Sins the Church represents us the Sufferings of Jesus Christ and the Evils the Jews drew on themselves by putting to death this Divine Saviour I. LESSON taken out of the First Chapter ALEPH. These Hebrew Letters of the Alphabet shew the beginning of each Verse the first Word beginning with one of these Letters And the Church proposes it to signifie unto us that these Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremy are the Alphabet of penitent Souls wherein they ought to learn how to meditate on the Sufferances of Jesus Christ and on those Pains which through their Sins they deserve HOw doth the city full of people sit solitary how is the lady of the Gentiles become as a widow the princess of provinces is made tributary BETH Weeping she hath wept in the night and her tears are on her cheeks there is none to comfort her of all her dear ones all her friends have despised her and are become her enemies GHIMEL Judas is gone into transmigration because of affliction and the multitude of bondage she hath dwelt among the Gentiles neither hath she found rest all her persecutors have apprehended her within the straits DALETH The ways of Sion mourn because there are none that come to the solemnity all her gates are destroyed her priests sighing her virgins loathsom and her self is oppressed with bitterness HE. Her adversaries are made in the head her enemies are enriched because our Lord hath spoken upon her for the multitude of her iniquities her little ones are led into captivity before the face of the afflicter Tu autem Domine c. is omitted to shew that the Jews through their own presumption are very far from the way of truth and that their cruel obstinacy has debarred them the way of Mercy because they killed him by whom Mankind was to obtain it but the following words are said By which the Church represents unto us That the Obstinacy of the Jews and their perseverance in Wickedness was the cause of those Evils which afterwards befel them And under the name of Jerusalem she exhorts us to convert our selves to God with our whole Heart lest we fall into the like Reprobation with the Jews Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God The Church having represented unto us the Complaints the Prophet Jeremy uttered from the very bottom of his Heart in the bitterness of his Grief she proposes unto us that Prayer Jesus Christ made unto God his Father in the heighth of his Affliction being charged with the Infirmities of Humane Nature and the Counsel he gave to his Disciples when the Hour of his Passion drew nigh to teach us first That if in the Traverses of this Life we find that we do not obtain the Effect of our Prayer and that any thing should happen contrary to what we beg of God however we ought to bear it patiently and give God thanks for all things and we must no ways doubt but that Gods Will is more for our Benefit than our own Desires Secondly That if our Life be so full of Tentation it self may well be termed a Tentation we then always watch with great care and pray continually with great fervor and assiduity to protect us from falling into Tentations ON mount Olivet Jesus prayed unto his Father saying Father if it may be let this Chalice pass from me for the spirit is quick but the flesh infirm Thy Will be done V. Watch ye and pray that you enter not into tentation The spirit indeed is prompt but the flesh is weak Thy Will be done II. LESSON VAU ANd from the daughter of Sion all her beauty is departed her princes are become rams not finding pastures and they are gone without strength before the face of the pursuer ZAIN Jerusalem hath remembred the days of her affliction and prevarication of all her things worthy to be desired which she had from the days of old when her people fell in the enemies hand and there was no helper the enemies have seen her and have scorned her sabbaths HECH Jerusalem hath sinned a sin therefore is she made unstable all that did glorifie her have despised her because they have seen her ignominy but she sighing is turned backward TETH Her filthiness is on her feet neither hath she remembred her end she is pulled down exceedingly not having a comforter See O Lord mine affliction because the enemy is exalted Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God The Church having declared unto us the Despair and Blindness of the Jews in their Afflictions She also proposes unto us the Counsel Jesus Christ gave to his Disciples when he grieved at the approaching of the Hour of his Passion to wit To watch and pray with him shewing us That it was not for him but for themselves that he commanded them to watch and pray She also teacheth us That if the Apostles shewed so much fear whilst our Saviour suffered how far greater reason have we to fear since we our selves are the cause of his Sufferings R. My soul is sorrowful even unto death stay here and watch with me ye shall now behold a multitude that will environ me Ye shall fly and I will go to be immolated for you V. Behold the hour approacheth and the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of sinners Ye shall fly away and I will go to be immolated for ye III. LESSON JOD THe enemy hath thrust his hand to all her things worthy to be desired because she hath seen the Gentiles enter into her sanctuary of whom thou gavest commandment that they should not enter into thy church CAPH All her people sighing and seeking bread they have given all precious things for meat to refresh the soul See O Lord and consider because I am become vile LAMED O all ye that pass by the way attend and see if there be sorrow like to my sorrow because he hath made vintage of me as our Lord hath spoken in the day of the wrath of his fury MEM. From on high he hath cast a sire into my bones
must put our chiefest Confidence in the Mercy of God and in the Truth of his Promises and not in our own Merits Sixthly We must demand his Assistance and Grace so to love Justice as that no Persecution may sever us from it Seventhly We are not to beg Punishments for the Wicked through any Motive of Hate or Revenge but through a Motive of Charity that they might mend whilst there was the least hope of their Correction and that by their Punishments others might avoid their Crimes and that Sin being thus destroyed God alone might reign in the World Eighthly We must also beg That as the force of the Evils of this Life may no way shake our Courage so the Allurements of Prosperity may not charm our Senses and Affections but that we may wholly adhere to God and glorifie him Ninthly That we may glorifie God as we ought we must offer our selves unto him in a Spirit of Destruction and Sacrifice that is in a Spirit of Penance Tenthly The Service we offer unto God must be free and not servile or constrain'd God must be served with a full and entire Affection Eleventhly We must likewise acknowledge we cannot have this Will unless the Grace and Spirit of God deliver us from our Evils therefore with our whole heart we must beg it of him Ant. Strangers have risen up against me and the strong have sought my soul O God save me in thy name and in thy strength judge me O God hear my prayer with thine ears receive the words of my mouth Because strangers have risen up against me and the strong have sought my soul and they have not set God before their eyes For behold God helpeth me and our Lord is the receiver of my soul Turn away the evils to mine enemies and in thy truth destroy them I will voluntarily sacrifice to thee and will confess to thy name O Lord because it is good Because thou hast delivered me out of all tribulation and mine eye hath looked down upon mine enemies Ant. Strangers have risen up against me and the strong have sought my soul V. False witnesses have risen up against me R. And iniquity hath lied to it self IV. LESSON Taken out of the Treatise of St. Augustin on the Sixty third Psalm In this Lesson the Church represents unto us That JESUS CHRIST being our Chief has taught us not only by his Words but also his Example how we are to surmount our present Calamities and to hope after the future Goods by shewing us that what Power soever our Persecutors have to kill this mortal Flesh yet they cannot hurt the Soul if being assisted by the Grace of God she be not overcome with their Malice and consent to do Evil. There is this difference 'twixt CHRIST's and our Sufferings that ours depends not always on our own Will It is necessary that we one day must die which being due to our Sins is of Necessity and Justice But JESUS CHRIST did not suffer Torments and Death because he would and when he would and after that manner as it pleased him and being the same God with his Eternal Father he could not die and remain always equally in his Glory Secondly By his Sufferings and Death he hath merited and acquired to us Life everlasting but by our Sufferings and Death we can neither merit nor acquire it unless it be in him and by him and with him MY God thou hast protected me from the assembly of the malignant from the multitude of them that work iniquity Let us now consider our Chief Many Martyrs have suffered such Torments but none with so much splendor as the Chief of Martyrs for their Sufferings received Lustre from his He was defended from the Fury of the Wicked both by God's and his own protection 'T was he defended his own Flesh and this Human Nature wherewith he was clad for he was the Son of Man and the Son of God The Son of God because of his Form God being of the same Essence with his Eternal Father The Son of Man because he took on him the Form of a Slave having power to separate his Soul from his Body and to resume it again what could his Enemies then do against him They killed his Body but his Soul they could not touch Be attentive Our Lord was not contented to exhort the Martyrs only with his Words but would also fortifie by his Example RESP. The Church confirms us by the Words of JESUS CHRIST in what St. Augustin hath taught us in the precedent Lesson That this Divine Saviour suffered neither Torments nor Death because that he would when he would or after what manner he desired R. As to a thief are you come out with swords and clubs to apprehend me I was daily with you in the temple teaching and you did not lay hands on me V. And when they had laid hands on JESUS he said to them I was daily c. V. LESSON The Church represents unto us the Ingratitude and Impiety of the Jews who after having received so many Benefits from the Saviour of the World seen him purifie the Leprous make the Lame to walk cured all Sicknesses drive Devils out of possessed Bodies multiply the Loaves of Bread appease the Tempest raised the Dead to Life after having heard his Heavenly Doctrine whereof he made them Partakers both by his Words and Actions they not only were so obstinate as to draw no Advantage or the least Acknowledgment from them but even crucified him on an infamous Cross whereon they even exulted over him with extreme Insolency persuading themselves through a stubborn blindness that he was not the Son of God or the Saviour of the World because he suffered Death and yet the Prophets shewed most evidently unto them what hapned in his Passion YOu know what was the Assembly of the wicked Jews and what the Multitude of them that work Iniquity But what was that Iniquity 'T was that they would kill our Lord Jesus Christ I have shewed you said he so many good works and for which of them will you kill me He comforted the Sick amongst them he cured their Infirmities he preached unto them the Kingdom of Heaven he shewed them the Enormities of their Crimes that they might hate them but not the Doctor that cured them But in stead of acknowledging the good he did them by these wholesom Remedies so great was their Ingratitude that as if tormented with a burning Fever they were so transported against this charitable Doctor who came only to cure them that they studied how to destroy him as if thereby they would try whether he were true Man and could die or whether he were any thing above Man and would not permit his own Death We find their Discourse on this Subject in the Book of Wisdom To a most shameful Death say they let us condemn him for there shall be respect had unto him by his words for if he be the true Son of God he
will deliver him RESP. The Church shews us That the Miracles done at the Death of our Lord JESUS CHRIST and which the Prophets foretold of him were most evident Testimonies to the Jews to have acknowledg'd him to be the Son of God and Saviour of the World who had power to render up his Soul to his Eternal Father and to take it again so as none could bereave him of her 'T is therefore that being nailed on the Cross he pronounced the Twenty first Psalm which describes his Passion and gives the Reason of it to wit That by his Sufferings and Death he might satisfie God's Justice for the Sins of Mankind wherewith he was charged and that by his Example he might instruct us that we are not to become Christians only to enjoy this temporal Life but that the Name Christian must make us Pretenders to Life everlasting R. Whilst the Jews crucified Jesus darkness covered the earth and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice My God why hast thou forsaken me And bowing his head gave up the ghost V. And Jesus crying with a loud voice said Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And bowing down his head c. VI. LESSON In this Lesson the Church shews us how the Jews put JESUS CHRIST to death THey have sharpned their Tongues as a Sword Let not the Jews say We have not killed Christ for certainly 't was therefore they delivered him into the Hands of Pilate the Judge that so they might seem guiltless of his Death For when Pilate said unto them Do ye your selves put him to death they answered 'T is not lawful for us to kill any one Thus they would retort on the Judge the Injustice of their own Crime But how could they deceive God who is the true Judge 'T is certain that what Pilate did made him partake of their Guilt but in comparison of the Jews he is far more innocent for he did what he could to deliver him out of their Hands And therefore having first caused him to be scourged he shewed him unto them not that he scourged our Lord out of design to persecute him but thereby a little to appease their Rage that by their beholding him so cruelly whipped they might be satisfied and desist from demanding his Death And this he did But when they still persisted ye all know he washed his Hands before them and said That he had nothing to do with it and was cleansed from the guilt of his Death yet he put him to death and if he be guilty for having condemn'd him against his will are they innocent who forced him to it By no means Because Pilate pronounced Sentence against him and commanded him to be crucified he is guilty of his Death And ye O Jews have put him to death and how have ye put him to death With the Sword of your Tongues For ye have sharpned your Tongues and soaked them in his Blood when ye exclaimed against him saying Crucifie Crucifie RESP. The Church shews unto us That the Prophet Jeremy in his twelfth Chapter did foretel this Insolence of the Jews against the Saviour of the World who was willing to suffer this Outrage that thereby he might obey the Decree of God's Providence R. I have delivered my beloved Soul into the Hands of the Wicked and my Inheritance became unto me as a Lion in the Wood The Enemy cried out against me saying Let us assemble and make haste to devour him They have set me in the remotest of the Wilderness and all the earth wailed over me because he was not found that would acknowledge me or do me good V. Men without mercy have risen up against me and they have not spared my Soul Because he was not found that would acknowledge me or do me good R. I have delivered my beloved Soul c. THIRD NOCTVRN PSALM 58. or 59. In the Person of David the Church represents unto us CHRIST persecuted by the Jews and by them put to death yet that he begged from his Father that he would not suffer these wicked People who like mad Dogs were enraged against him to triumph in his Death but that by a quick Resurrection he would deliver him from their Hands shewing thereby what we are to contemn in the Course of this Life and what to hope for in all Eternity and making us acknowledge that all our Merits and all the Good we do is the pure effect of God's Mercy towards us and that when he crowns our Deserts he in reality crowns but his own Gifts 2. The Church shews us the Chastisements God inflicted on the Persecutors of his Son by banishing them out of their own Country depriving them of all Honors Power and Authority and by dispersing them over the whole World like Slaves Vagabonds and the Out-cast of all People Ant. From them that rise up against me defend me O Lord because they have taken my soul DEliver me from mine enemies O my God and from them that rise up against me defend me Deliver me from them that work iniquity and from bloody men save me Because loe they have taken my soul the strong have fallen violently upon me Neither is it mine iniquity nor my sin O Lord without inquity have I run and gone directly Rise up to meet me and see and thou O Lord the God of powers God of Israel attend to visit all nations have no mercy on all that work iniquity They will return at evening and they shall suffer famin as dogs and shall compass the city Behold they will speak in their mouth and a sword in their lips because who hath heard And thou O Lord wilt scorn them thou wilt bring to naught all nations I will keep my strength to thee because thou art my receiver my God thy mercy shall prevent God will shew unto me concerning mine enemies kill them not lest sometimes my peoples forget Disperse them in thy strength and depose them my protector O Lord. The sin of their mouth the word of their lips and let them be taken in their pride And for cursing and lying they shall be talked of in consummation in wrath of consummation and they shall not be And they shall know that God will rule over Jacob and over the ends of the earth They shall be turned at evening and shall suffer famine as dogs and shall compass the city They shall be dispersed to eat and if they be not filled they will murmur also But I will sing thy strength and will exalt thy mercy in the morning Because thou art become my receiver and my refuge in the day of my tribulation My helper I will sing to thee because thou art God my receiver my God my mercy Ant. From them that rise up against me defend me O Lord because they have taken my soul PSALM 87. This Psalm is a Prophecy of the Passion Burial and Resurrection of JESUS CHRIST wherein the Royal Prophet represents unto us the
are the punishments of our Sins and those of JESUS CHRIST are the effects of his Love towards us that thereby he might open Heaven for such as honor him with a sincere Heart as the good Thief did who beholding JESUS CHRIST hanging on the Cross all torn with stripes overwhelmed with shame and confusion drinking Gall covered with Spirtle and so outragiously scoffed at by all the People yet was he no ways scandaliz'd but on the contrary publickly acknowledged he was God he silenced his fellow Malefactor who cursed this Innocent he confessed his Sins he discoursed after a wonderful manner of the Resurrection and prayed JESUS CHRIST who expired on the Cross to be mindful of him when he came into his Kingdom Ant. The one thief said to the other We indeed justly receive worthy of our doings but what hath this man done Lord remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom The Psalm Deus Deus meus ad te de luce vigilo c. as before p. 69. CANTICLE OF HABACCUC Chap. 3. The Prophet Habaccuc represents unto us under the Figure of the deliverance of the Israelites from the Captivity of Babylon and Egypt the deliverance of the Faithful by our Saviour JESUS CHRIST from the slavery of Sin and tyranny of the Devil Ant. When my soul shall be troubled O Lord thou shalt be mindful of mercy LOrd I heard thy hearing and was afraid Lord thy work in the midst of years quicken it In the midst of years shalt thou make it known when thou art angry thou wilt remember mercy God will come from the south and the holy One from mount Paran His glory shall cover the heavens and the earth is full of his praise His brightness shall be as the light horns in his hands there is his strength hid Before his face shall death go and the devil shall go forth before his feet He stood and measured the earth he beheld and dissolved the Gentiles and the mountains of the world were broken The hills of the world were bowed by the ways of his eternity For iniquity I saw the tents of Ethiopia and the skins of the land of Median shall be troubled Why wast thou angry with the rivers O Lord or was thy fury in the rivers or thine indignation in the sea Who wilt mount upon thy horses and thy chariots salvation Raising thou wilt raise up thy bow the oath to the tribes which thou hast spoken Thou wilt cut the rivers of the earth The mountains saw thee and were sorry the gulf of water passed the depth gave his voice the height lifted up his hands The sun and the moon stood in their habitation in the light of thine arrows they shall go in the brightness of thy glittering spear In fretting thou wilt tread down the earth in fury thou wilt astonish the Gentiles Thou wentest forth the salvation of thy people salvation with thy Christ Thou struckest the head out of the house of the impious thou hast discovered the foundation even to the neck Thou hast cursed his scepters the head of his warriors them that came as a whirlwind to disperse me Their exultation as his that devoureth the poor in secret Thou madest a way in the sea for thy horses in the midst of many waters I heard and my belly was troubled at the voice my lips trembled Let rottenness enter in my bones and swarm under me That I may rest in the day of tribulation that I may ascend to our girded people For the fig-tree shall not flourish and there shall be no spring in the vines The work of the olive-tree shall deceive and the fields shall not yield meat The cattel shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls But I will joy in our Lord and will rejoyce in God my Jesus God our Lord is my strength and he will make my feet as of the harts And upon my high places he the conqueror will lead me singing in psalms Ant. When my soul shall be troubled O Lord thou shalt be mindful of mercy ANOTHER ANTHYMN The Church sets before us the Example of the good Thief that by his Example we must have recourse unto Christ in all afflictions and hope for Eternal Goods which by his Death he has merited for us Lord remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom PSALM Laudate Dominum de coelis c. as before p. 74. VERSICLE taken out of Psalm 142. The Church represents unto us the Blindness and Insolency of the Jews who having put JESUS CHRIST to death glorified therein as if they had vanquished him and destroyed his Power for they believed not he would triumph over Death by a speedy Resurrection He hath set me in obscure places R. As the dead of the world AT BENEDICTUS ANTHYMN The Church hath shewed us how Iniquity hath lied against it self for the Jews Maugre all their Power were enforced to publish JESUS CHRIST to be their true King and whereas they thought by the punishment of the Cross to have destroy'd his Kingdom they have thereby more powerfully established it They put over his head his cause written This is JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS The Canticle of Zachary Benedictus c. as before p. 78. V. Christ made himself for us obedient unto death even the death of the cross Pater noster c. Miserere c. as before p. 13. 65. THE PRAYER Respice Quoesumus as before p. 80. AT COMPLINE As before p. 82. V. Jesus Christ made himself for us obedient unto death even the death of the cross Pater noster c. Miserere mei Deus c. as before p. 13. 65. THE PRAYER Respice Quoesumus c. as before p. 80. THE NIGHT-OFFICE ON Holy-Friday FOR SATURDAY AT MATTINS FIRST NOCTVRN PSALM 4. This Psalm declares unto us that we cannot raise up our selves to love and seek after the true good whilst our Hearts are loaded with the weight and cares of this World and that being but once enlightened with the Grace of God we then begin to afflict our selves in the secret of our Soul and being touch'd to the very bottom of our Hearts we then offer to his Majesty all our past life and for the future resolve by his assistance entirely to change it Then our Lord begins to make us relish his Sweets ad Delights and to heap on us all Joys Then we find in that Sovereign Good another Wine and another Oyl than they below do so as we neither repine at the prosperity of the Wicked nor fear their Malice having all our confidence in God Ant. In peace in the self-same I will sleep and rest WHen I invocated the God of my justice heard me in tribulation thou hast enlarged to me Have mercy on me and hear my prayer Ye sons of men how long are you of heavy heart why love you vanity and seek lying And know ye that our Lord hath made his
holy one merveilous our Lord will hear me when I shall cry to him Be ye angry and sin not the things that you say in your hearts in your chambers be you sorry for Sacrifice ye the sacrifice of justice and hope in our Lord. Many say Who sheweth us good things The light of thy countenance O Lord is signed upon us thou hast given gladness in my heart By the fruit of their corn and wine and oyl they are multiplied In peace in the self-same I will sleep and rest Because thou Lord hast singularly setled my hope Ant. In peace in the self-same I will sleep and rest PSALM 14. In this Psalm the Prophet teacheth us how the life of a Religious Christian that pretends to the Kingdom of Heaven consists in a strict observance of Gods Commandments and in keeping the Laws of Fraternal Charity Ant. He shall dwell in thy tabernacle and shall rest in thy holy hill LOrd who shall dwell in thy tabernacle who shall rest in thy holy hill He that walketh without spot and worketh justice He that speaketh truth in his heart that hath not done guile in his tongue Nor hath done evil to his neighbor and hath not taken reproach against his neighbor The malignant is brought to nothing in his sight but them that fear our Lord he glorifieth He that sweareth to his neighbor and deceiveth not that hath not given his money to usury and hath not taken gifts upon the innocent He that doth these things shall not be moved for ever Ant. He shall dwell in thy tabernacle and shall rest in thy holy hill PSALM 15. According as the Apostles have explicated this Psalm in the Second Chapter of their Acts it contains the Prayer which JESUS CHRIST made unto God his Father for the establishment and preservation of his Church as being our Head and according to his Humanity giving him thanks for the wonderful work of our Redemption which was to be effected by his Incarnation Preaching Passion Resurrection and Ascension It also makes us acknowledge that there could be no Creature so perfect as in any manner to be able to make a suitable return either by Deeds or Services for the favors they received from their Creator for he being Omnipotent and Infinite fully satisfies in himself And that 't is sufficient for a Creature loaded with such infinite benefits to promise to give unto God all Testimonies of a profound acknowledgment in all the instancesof this life Ant. My flesh shall rest in hope PReserve me O Lord because I have hoped in thee I have said to our Lord Thou art my God because thou needest not my goods To the saints that are in his land he hath made all my wills merveilous in them Their infirmities were multiplied afterward they made haste I will not assemble their conventicles of blood neither will I be mindful of their names by my lips Our Lord the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou art he that will restore mine inheritance unto me Cords are fallen to me in goodly places for mine inheritance is goodly unto me I will bless our Lord who hath given me understanding moreover also even till night my veins have rebuked me I soresaw our Lord in my sight always because he is at my right hand that I be not moved For this thing my heart hath been glad and my tongue hath rejoyced moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou give thy holy One to see corruption Tho hast made the ways of life known to me thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance delectations on thy right hand even to the end Ant. My flesh shall rest in hope The Church represents unto us that maugre all the Power of the Jews Yet JESUS CHRIST triumphed over that Death they had inflicted on him and raised himself from that Sepulcher wherein they had inclosed him confirming us in the Resurrection of our Bodies by the Example and Power of his own Resurrection V. In peace in the self-same R. I will sleep and rest LESSON I. Out of the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremy Chap. 3. The Prophet Jeremy shews us That in all our Miseries and Afflictions we must ever have recourse unto God with a true and hearty Repentance We must also support those Persecutions that befal us with all patience and submission to the Divine Will setting all our confidence and trust in his Mercy TETH THe mercies of our Lord that we are not consumed because his commiserations have not failed HETH New in the morning great is thy fidelity HETH Our Lord is my portion said my soul therefore will I expect him HETH Our Lord is good to them that hope in him to the soul that seeketh him TETH It is good to wait with silence for the salvation of God TETH It is good for a man when he beareth the yoke from his youth JOD He shall sit solitary and hold his peace because he hath lifted himself above himself JOD He shall put his mouth in the dust if perhaps there be hope JOD He shall give the cheek to him that striketh him he shall be filled with reproaches Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God RESP. The Church shews us That JESUS CHRIST has himself undergon out of his meer Love towards us whatever hath been taught us by his Prophet As a sheep he was led to slaughter and whilst they ill treated him he opened not his mouth he was delivered to death that he might give life to his people V. He delivered up his soul to death and was reputed among the wicked that he might give life to his people LESSON II. Taken out of the Fourth Chapter The Prophet describes unto us the destruction of the Temple and City of Jerusalem foretelling the Jews that the enormities of their Crimes should bring a Desolation on them ALEPH. HOw is the gold darkned the best colour changed the stones of the Sanctuary dispersed in the head of all streets BETH The noble children of Sion and they that were clothed with the principal gold how are they reputed as earthen vessels the work of the potters hands GHIMEL Yea even the Lamiaes have opened their breast they have given suck to their young the daughter of my people is cruel as the Ostrich in the desert DALETH The tongue of the suckling hath cloven to the roof of his mouth for thirst the little ones have asked bread and there was none that brake it unto them HE. They that fed voluptuously have died in the ways they that were brought up in scarlet have embraced the dung VAU And the iniquity of the daughter of my people is become greater than the sin of Sodom which was overthrown in a moment and hands took nothing in her Jerusalem Jerusalem Convert unto the Lord thy God RESP. The Church represents to the Jews That the miseries which befel them was occasioned by their
Psalm the Church tells us that altho' the Wicked think they can do much because they can kill those who love and fear God yet they cannot utterly destroy them for in spite of them they will rise again and triumph over Death and their Persecutions as JESUS CHRIST has assured them by his Resurrection who brought his Enemies to that condition as they had no reason to rejoyce in the Death they had inflicted on him Ant. Lord thou hast brought forth my soul out of hell I Will exalt thee O Lord because thou hast received me neither hast delighted mine enemies over me O Lord my God I have cried to thee and thou hast healed me Lord thou hast brought forth my soul out of hell thou hast saved me from them that go down into the lake Sing to our Lord ye his saints and confess to the memory of his holiness Because wrath is in his indignation and life in his will At evening shall weeping abide and in the morning gladness And I said in my abundance I will not be moved for ever O Lord in thy will thou hast given strength to my beauty Thou hast turned away thy face from me and I became troubled To thee O Lord I will cry and I will pray to my God What profit is in my blood whilst I descend into corruption Shall dust confess to thee or declare thy truth Our Lord hath heard and had mercy on me our Lord is become my helper Thou hast turned my mourning into joy unto me thou hast cut my sackcloth and hast compassed me with gladness That my glory may sing to thee and I be not compunct Lord my God for ever will I confess to thee Ant. Lord thou hast brought forth my soul out of hell VERSICLE taken out of Psalm 63. The Church proposes unto us 1. That altho' JESUS CHRIST had power to raise his one Body from Death to Life yet he begged that favor from God his Father thereby to give us an Example of perfect Submission and Obedience 2. That as JESUS CHRIST by his Resurrection and Ascension was made the source of all Grace and Salvation to those who rendred him a punctual obedience so was he confirm'd the Sovereign Judge to condemn those to Eternal Flames who should die in their Iniquities V. But thou O Lord have mercy on me R. And raise me that I may be thankful for them LESSON IV. Taken out of the Treatise of St. Augustin upon the Sixty third Psalm In this Lesson St. Augustin teacheth us That Jesus being both God and Man suffered only as he was Man It was necessary he should be God that he might reconcile us to God his Father being in the quality of a Mediator between God and Man It was needful he should be Man to the end he might be able to satisfie in all rigor the Justice of God his Father for the Sins of Mankind MAn shall penetrate into the depth of his heart and God shall be exalted They have said Who shall see us They are wearied in searching after wicked Councils Man has penetrated into the wicked Councils and has suffered himself to be taken like a Man for unless he had been a Man he could not have been taken seen whipp'd crucified or died Therefore it was a Man that underwent all these Passions which unless he had been Man could have had no effect upon him For had he not been Man Man had never been delivered Man then penetrated into the depth of the heart that is to say into the Secret of the Heart presenting his Humanity to their sight but concealing his Divinity from them and hiding from them his form of God wherein he was equal to his Father and only permitting to their sight the form of a Servant wherein he was less than his Father RESP. The Church represents unto us That JESUS CHRIST declared his Divinity even in his Death by those Miracles he then did and by his descent into Hell by destroying the Empire of Death and the Devil R. Our Pastor is retired the Fountain of living Water is vanished and the Sun lost its Light at his passage For he is now taken who led the First Man Captive To day our Saviour hath broke both the Locks and Gates of Hell V. He hath destroyed the prisons of Hell and overthrown the Powers of the Devil For he himself was taken who led Captive the First Man LESSON V. In this Lesson St. Augustin declares the Iniquity of the Jews who persecuted JESUS CHRIST even to his Grave TO what excess did their Search and Care transport them and how they fainted in their Searchings That our Lord being dead and buried they should set a Guard over his Sepulcher for they said unto Pilate That Seducer By that name they called our Lord Jesus Christ to the comfort of his Servants when they are called Seducers Therefore they said to Pilate That Seducer said yet living After three days I will rise again Command therefore the Sepulcher to be kept till the third day lest perhaps his Disciples come and steal him and say to the People He is risen from the dead And the last error shall be worse than the first Pilate said to them You have a Guard go guard it as you know And they departing made the Sepulcher sure sealing up the Stone with Watchmen RESP. The Church proposes unto us all the Sufferings of JESUS CHRIST O all ye that pass by this way behold and see if there be any grief like mine V. All ye people behold and see my grief if there be any grief like mine LESSON VI. St. Augustin represents unto us the malice and obstinacy of the Jews who instead of owning the truth of Christs Resurrection whereof they had such certain Testimonies yet they still persisted in their Infidelity running headlong on their own ruin and destruction THey set a Guard of Soldiers to keep the Sepulcher In the mean time the Earth trembled and our Lord arose signalizing his Resurrection by so many Miracles that the very Soldiers who guarded his Body became Witnesses and could have declared it if they had willed to have spoken truth But Avarice which had possessed that Companion-Disciple of Christ had likewise entred the Hearts of those Soldiers who kept the Sepulcher We will give you Money said they and say That whilst ye were asleep his Disciples came and stole him away Truly they failed in their vain Searches Unhappy as ye are What have ye said Where is your Subtleness and Cunning Are ye so blind Have ye so little Sense Are ye so wicked and malicious to utter such Words O unhappy Craft What hast thou said Dost thou forsake so much the Light of Counsel and Piety And art thou so much drowned in Cunning and Wickedness as to say this Do ye say That whilst ye slept his Disciples came and stole him away You produce sleeping Witnesses but rather you have slept your self since you are lost in your vain Search
and asked of him setting soldiers who might keep him R. Our Lord being buried AT LAUDS The Church tells us That to receive benefit from CHRIST's Death we must have a hearty and true Repentance ANTHYMN taken out of the Thirteenth Chapter of the Prophet Osee Ant. I Will be thy death O death thy bit will I be O hell PSALM 50. Miserere mei Deus c. as before p. 65. ANTHYMN taken out of the Twelfth Chapter of the Prophet Zachary The Church having declared unto us That JESUS CHRIST suffered Death to fulfill the Commands of his Father and to accomplish the Predictions of the Prophets She now represents us the grief the Converted and Penitent Jews had for having been of the number of those who put him to Death She also minds us to acknowledge the obligation we have to mortifie our selves to sigh and weep for having by our Sins contributed to his Death They shall lament him with lamentation as it were upon an only begotten because our innocent Lord is slain PSALM 42. The Church offers us the Prayer JESUS CHRIST made unto God his Father which declares the difference 'twixt his Sufferings and Death and ' twâ—â— the Death and Sufferings of Men. Their Deaths and Sufferings are the Punishments due to their Sins But JESUS CHRIST who is Sanctity it self and the Fountain of all good he only suffered Death because himself would and charged himself with our Iniquities that he might deliver us and satisfie the rigorous Justice of God his Father Then the Church shews us That God made his Light and Truth shine in this Divine Saviour by making his Innocency appear by the Wonders and Miracles that happened at his Death and by his glorious Resurrection from his Tomb and afterwards by his destroying of Jerusalem and by casting the reprobate Jews in everlasting Perdition JUdge me O God and discern my cause from the nation not holy from the unjust and deceitful man deliver me Because thou art God my strength why hast thou repelled me and why go I sorrowful whilst the enemy afflicteth me Send forth thy light and thy truth they have conducted me and brought me into thy holy hill and into thy tabernacles And I will go into the altar of God to God which maketh my youth joyful I will confess to thee on the harp O God my God Why art thou sorrowful O my soul and dost thou trouble me Hope in God because yet I will confess to him the salvation of my countenance and my God Ant. They shall lament him with lamentation as it were upon an only begotten because our innocent Lord is slain Ant. Behold all ye people and see my grief The Psalm Deus Deâ—â—â—eus as before p. 69. Ant. From the gate of hell deliver my soul O Lord. The Canticle of Ezechias Isa 38. Under the Figure of Ezekias's Malady from which he was deliverd by God at the intercession of the Prophet Isay which signifies the health of God The Church represents unto us the deplorable condition whereinto Human Nature was reduced through Sin from which we are freed through the Grace of our Lord JESUS CHRIST She also admonisheth us to render our humble Thanks to the Divine Majesty I Have said In the midst of my days shall I go to the gates of hell I have sought the residue of my years I have said I shall not see our Lord God in the land of the living I shall behold man no more and the inhabiter of rest My generation is taken away and is wrapped together from me as the tent of shepherds My life is cut off as by a weaver whilst I yet began he cut me off from morning until night thou wilt make an end of me I hoped until morning as a lion so hath he broken all my bones From morning until evening thou wilt make an end of me As a young swallow so will I cry I will meditate as a dove Mine eyes are weakned looking on high Lord I suffer violence answer for me What shall I say or what shall he answer me whereas himself hath done it I will recount to thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul Lord if mans life be such and the life of my spirit in such things thou shalt chastise me and shalt quicken me Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter But thou hast delivered my soul that it should not perish thou hast cast all my sins behind my back Because hell shall not confess to thee neither shall death praise thee they that go down into the lake shall not expect thy truth The living the living he shall confess to thee as I also this day the father shall make the truth known to the children O Lord save me and we shall sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of our Lord. Ant. From the gate of hell deliver my soul O Lord. Ant. O all ye that pass by this way behold and see if there be any grief like unto mine Psalm Laudate Dominum de coelis c. as before p. 74. V. My flesh shall rest in hope R. And thou shalt not give thy holy One to see corruption AT BENEDICTUS ANTHYMN THe women sitting at the monument lamented weeping for our Lord. THE CANTICLE OF ZACHARY Benedictus c. as before p. 78. V. Christ was made obedient for us unto death even the death of the cross R. Wherefore God hath exalted him and given him a name above all names Pater noster c. Miserere mei Deus c. as before p. 13. 65. THE PRAYER Respice Quoesumus c. as before p. 80. FOR SATURDAY IN Holy-Week AT COMPLINE Jube Domine c. as before p. 12. to p. 19. The Chapter and Hymn are omitted The Chapter is not said to signifie That after the Resurrection the Blessed will need no farther Instructions in their Estate of eternal Blessedness which is represented by the Chapters of Divine Offices The Hymn is also omitted to shew That after the Resurrection they praise not God in Heaven with such Hymns as they sang unto him in this World but that they will praise him after another manner Ant. And in the evening of the Sabaoth THE CANTICLE OF SIMEON Luke 2. NOw thou dost dismiss thy servant O Lord according to thy word in peace Because mine eyes have seen thy salvation Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples A light to the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost Even as it was in the beginning and now and ever and world without end Amen Ant. And in the evening of the Sabaoth which dawneth on the first of the Sabaoth came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary to see the Sepulcher Alleluiah V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit Let us pray VIsit we beseech thee O Lord this Habitation and repel far from it all Snares of the Enemy Let thy Holy Angel dwell therein to preserve us in Peace and thy Blessing be upon us for ever Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen V. Our Lord be with you R. And with thy spirit V. Let us bless our Lord. Alleluiah Alleluiah R. Thanks be to God Alleluiah Alleluiah THE BLESSING V. THe Almighty and Merciful Lord the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Bless and keep us Amen THE ANTHYMN OF THE HOLY VIRGIN O Queen of Heaven rejoyce Alleluiah For he whom thou deservest to bear Alleluiah hath risen as he said Alleluiah Pray unto God for us Alleluiah V. Rejoyce and be glad O Virgin Mary Alleluiah R. Because our Lord hath truly risen Alleluiah Let us pray O God who by the Resurrection of thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ hast vouchsafed to make glad the world Grant we beseech thee that by his Mother the Virgin Mary we may receive the Joys of Life eternal Through the same Christ our Lord. R. Amen V. The Divine Help always remain with us R. Amen Pater noster c. Ave Maria c. Credo in Deum c. FINIS