[Footnote 99: Having inserted in the text a translation of this hymn from a copy with which I had been long familiar, I think it right to insert here the two forms side by side. They supply an example of the changes to which we have already alluded.
Exultet coelum laudibus, Exultet orbis gaudiis, Resultet terra gaudiis, Coelum resultet laudibus, Apostolorum gloriam Apostolorum gloriam Sacra canunt solemnia. Tellus et astra concinunt. Vos sæcli justi judices Vos sæculorum judices Et vera mundi lamina, Et vera mundi lumina, Votis precamur cordium Votis precamur cordium Audite preces supplicum. Audite voces supplicum. Qui coelum verbo clauditis Qui templa coeli clauditis Serasque ejus solvitis, Serasque verbo solvitis, Nos a peccatis omnibus Nos a reatu noxios Solvite jussu, quæsumus. Solvi jubete quæsumus. Quorum præcepto subditur Præcepta quorum protinus Salus et languor omnium, Languor salusque sentiunt, Sanate ægros moribus, Sanate mentes languidas, Nos reddentes virtutibus. Augete nos virtutibus. Ut cum judex advenerit Ut cum redibit arbiter Christus in fine sæculi, In fine Christus sæculi, Nos sempiterni gaudii Nos sempiterni gaudii Faciat esse compotes. Concedat esse compotes. Deo Patri sit gloria, Jesu, tibi sit gloria Ejusque soli Filio, Qui natus es de virgine, Cum Spiritu paracleto, Cum Patre et Almo Spiritu, Et nunc et in perpetuum. In sempiterna sæcula.
[Footnote 100: Or as in the present Roman Breviary:--
Let the world exult with joy, Let the heaven resound with praise; The earth and stars sing together The glory of the Apostles. Ye judges of the ages And true lights of the world, With the prayers of our hearts we implore, Hear the voices of your suppliants. Ye who shut the temples of heaven, And loose its bars by a word, Command ye us, who are guilty, To be released from our sins; we pray. Ye whose commands forthwith Sickness and health feel, Heal our languid minds, Increase us in virtues, That when Christ, the Judge, shall return, In the end of the world, He may grant us to be partakers Of eternal joy. Jesus, to thee be glory, Who wast born of a virgin, With the Father and the Benign Spirit, Through eternal ages. Amen. { 264} ]
Many a pious and humble Catholic of the Roman Communion, I have no doubt, would regard these prayers as little more than an application to Peter and the rest of the Apostles for absolution, and would interpret its several clauses as an acknowledgment only of that power, which Christ himself delegated to them of binding and loosing sins on earth. But the gulf fixed between these prayers, and the lawful use of the power given to Christ's ordained ministers on earth, is great indeed. To satisfy the mind of this, it is not necessary to enter upon even the confines of the wide field of controversy, as to what was really conveyed by Christ to his Apostles. I would ask only two questions. Could any of us address these same words to one of Christ's ministers on earth? And could we address our blessed Saviour himself in stronger or more appropriate language, as the Lord of our destinies--the God who heareth prayer--the Physician of our souls?