the Scriptures 1 The New Testament in his Blood 2 The Blood of the New Testament 3 The Cup of the Lord. 4 The Communion of the Blood of Christ The blessed Eucharist consisting of both kindes is styled in Scripture 1 The Lords Supper And in what regards it is so called The Papists dislike the frequent use of this Phrase Casaubone confutes Justinian and Maldonate the Jesuites and calls it The Great Supper The most Divine Supper The Arch-Symbolicall Supper 2 The Table of the Lord 1 Cor. 10.21 With us it is commonly called Christ his last Supper And the reasons why it is called the last Supper In the Fathers it hath these titles 1 The Communion of Saints in the Apostles Creede 2 Peace of Christ Ignatius and Cyprian 3 A New Oblation Irenaeus 4 Mystery is a common appellation Augustinē 5 Life so called by the Africans Augustinē 6 The Oath and strictest band of Religion Augustinē 7 The Mysticall bread Augustinē 8 The holy Offering in regard of the offerings for the poore Augustinē 9 The Supper of God and the Lords Banques Tertullian 10 The Lords Testament or Legacie 11 A Communion prohibiting schisme and division and inclining to Peace and Vnion 12 A blessing 13 A giving of thankes 14 The Authentique performance of the Type Theodoret. 15 The Latines name is Missah the Masse which word some derive from the Hebrew or Chaldee and say it signifies A Tribute of a Free-will Offering of the hand Cevallerius dislikes that derivation The Heathen Greeke Priests dismissed their people with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Pagan Romans with these words I licet Missa est Whence the Christian Roman Church borrowes their Masse 16 The Greeke Church calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ministration 17 Sacramentum Sacramentorum c. Nicolaus de Cusa 18 God Tertullian Fol. 656 Par. 4 Eleventh Generall Wherein is inquired what speeches were used by our Saviour in the Coenaculum After the third Supper was administred The gratious Sermon of Christ His Prayer to God An Hymne 658 Tricoenium Christie Or the threefold Supper of Christ in the Night that he was betrayed 1 The Passeover wherein I consider 1 The occasion of this Discourse 2 The Introductories 1 What the Jewes used to doe at their ordinary meales 2 What they used to doe at their feasts 3 The Paschall Supper it selfe 1 As it was observed by the Jewes of those daies Here consider 1 What things the Iewes were commanded Which were of 2 sorts some were 1 Temporary In this I consider 1 The 7. great Passeovers recorded in the Old Testam 2 The 4. Passeovers specialized in the New Testament at which Christ was present Besides one more from which he was absent 3 How many Ceremonies were transitory namely 6. 1 They might chuse a Lambe or a Goate 2 They prepared it 4. daies before-hand 3 They bloodied their doores 4 They ate the Passeover in great haste shod girt staved rather standing than sitting rather sitting than lying downe at the first Passeover 5 They went not out of doores 6 They chose their next neighbours 2 Perpetuall to continue during the Iewish politie these were either 1 Propitiatory 14. 1 They were to chuse a Lambe 2 An unspotted one 3 A Male Lambe 4Vnder a yeare old 5 A Proportionable number were to eat it 6 All these were to be of the Iewish Church 7 It was to be killed on the first moneth of the Jewish yeare The yeare of the World when this first began is here handled 8 On the 14. day of that Moneth 9 Betweene the two Evenings 10 At Jerusalem 11 In one house 12 The People and not the Levites onely might kill the Lambe 13 They must dresse it whole In this are 5. other precepts 1 Rosie it with fire 2 Eate it not raw 3 Not sodden with water 4 The head with the legs 5 And with the purtenance 14 Every one was to bring an Offering according to his ability 2 Sacramentall properly only 3. 1 To eate the Passeover 2 To eate it with unleavened bread 3 To eate it with sowre herbes 3 Subsequent ceremonies 6. 1 A bone was not to be broken 2 The flesh was not to be carried out of the house 3 The Table-talke appointed 4 They continued the feast of unleavened bread seven dayes after 5 They were to leave none of the flesh untill the morning 6 What was left was to be burnt with fire 2 What they performed voluntarily 1 They washed 1 All of them their hands 2 Many their feete 3 Some their whole bodies 2 They consecrated their 1 Wine 2 Bread 3 Flesh 3 They imitated 13. of the Roman fashions saith Pererius A full intire tractate against Pererius who groundlesly holdeth that the Iewes in Christs time did conforme themselves in their feastings to 13. fashions of the Romans 2 As Christ and his Apostles kept it So farre as the Old Testament inforced New Testament hath related Whether at the eating of the Pascall Lambe were any servants present and administrant The summe of all as it were in a picture 3 The third Supper or Supper of the Lord the most blessed Eucharist Vide lib. 3. TRICAENIVM CHRISTI IN NOCTE PRODITIONIS SVAE The threefold Supper of Christ in the night that he was betrayed LIB 1. CHAP. 1. The Contents of the first Chapter 1. The occasion of this Discourse 2. The praesumptuous ignorance of some Caco-zelotes 3. The state of the question 4. Foure points propounded Three preparatory One decisive and determining These Preparatory 1. What course the Iewes tooke at their ordinary meates 2. What they used to doe at their Festivalls 3. What they especially practised at their Passeover 4. The mayne point is what religious or civill rites our Saviour more particularly observed when he kept the Passeover in the night of his apprehension PARAGRAPH 1. WHen I administred the thrice-blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of our Saviour Iesus Christ to my Parishioners among many other things I bad them take heed of the leaven of those refractory Ignorants swarming otherwhere who at and in the receiving of the holy Communion where so devour prayers are made where so sacred things are conferred refuse to kneele and to their chiefe objection that they must imitate our Saviour and his Apostles who did not kneele but sit or leane or lye downe PARA 2. I Answered that these presumptuous silly ones know onely the outside and not the inside of these mysteries that it is not clearely revealed in any place what posture was used or what was the bodily situation at the giving or taking of the body of our Lord but to build their pretended conformity on uncertaine and unknowne things is not conformable to reason much lesse religion sithence they by so doing doe make their imagination their onely originall their crooked will their onely rule PAR 3. THen did I enlarge the poynt that Christ and his holy Apostles except Indas who went out before the
that it should be Holy and without blemish Ephes 5.26 27. Aqua quae benedicitur purgat illuminat hominem The water which is blessed doth purge and illuminate man saith Gregory Nyssen in lib. de Baptismo Caro abluitur ut anima emaculetur the body is washed that the soule may be made cleane saith Tertullian de resurrectione carnis From whence in all likelihood Augustine tract 80. in Johannem propounded that assevering interrogation unde tanta vis aquae ut corpus tangat cor abluat from whence is that powerfull vertue of water that the body being touched the soule is washed The blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist is more powerfull than over Paschal was Tertul. de resurrectione carnis thus Caro corpore Christi sanguine veseitur ut anima de Deo saginetur our flesh feedeth on the body and blood of Christ that our soules may be filled and fatted with God Bernard in primo Sermone de coena Domini pag. 145. Who can quell so fierce raging wilde motions of concupiscence who can beare the itchings bitings or akings of this wound Beleeve Gods grace is sufficient for men And that ye may be secure saith Saint Bernard you have the investiture that is a new acquist and possession of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ For that Sacrament worketh two things in us Et sensum minuit in minimis ingravioribus peccatis tollit omnino consensum it infeebleth and diminisheth sin in the smallest matters but in more grievous sins it wholly taketh away our consent If any of you find not so sharp motions to anger envie luxury or the like let him thank the body and blood of our Lord because the vertue of that Sacrament worketh effectually in him and let him rejoyce that the fowlest ulcer beginneth to heale I conclude this passage with the memorable words of our Saviour at the institution of the holy Eucharist Mat. 26.28 This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Thus doe the Sacraments of Grace remit quell and mortifie sin whereas the divine Apostle speaking of the Sacraments of the old Law is expresse Heb. 10.4 It is not possible that the blood of Goats and Bulls should take away sins PAR. 3. A Third Reason for its Institution was to prefigure Christs death and going out of the world John 13.1 Jesus knew his houre was come that he should depart out of the world unto the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut transeat that he might Passe out of the world having apparent reference both to the old and new Passeover on the Crosse All Sacraments of the old Law were figures of the Eucharist And they did also finally designe and typifie Christs death Therefore the blessed Eucharist must needs adumbrate Christs death also Indeed the Egyptian Passeover by the sprinkling of whose blood the Israelites were freed from the exterminating Angel doth most lively typifie Christ slaine and his blood delivering us But the Paschal Lamb which afterward was yeerely slaine did more resemble the Sacrament of Christs body and blood and yet both the first and the succeding yeerely Passeover may all of them and each of them in a true and fitting sence be said to prefigure not only the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ but the very Crucifixion of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ PAR. 4. A Fourth Cause of Christ's superinducing of the blessed Eucharist was to be a remembrance to us of Christs death till he commeth againe 1 Cor. 11.24 Doe this in remembrance of me so verse 25. As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye doo shew the Lords death till he come ver 26. The Paschall was a memoriall of their deliverance from Egypt and of their passing the Red-sea without danger whilst the Sea stood as two Christall walls on the right hand and the left and they passed through dry-footed Exod. 14.22 Againe when in after times their children were to ask What mean you by this service Ye shall say It is the Sacrifice of the Lords Passeover who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivere dour houses Exod. 12.26 c. But the Eucharist is a memoriall of our deliverance from Sin Hell and the power of Satan Therefore so farre as spirituall deliverances are above temporall as the soules are above the bodies heaven above earth so farre doth our holy Eucharist antecede their Paschal and bringeth with it more certaine fruit and fuller Grace infused not only Sealing and Signifying Grace but Conferring and Exhibiting it by it selfe in the true use I urge not this effect so farre as to exclude Baptisme from working remission of sinnes nor as if the sacred Sucharist did remit the Same Individuall sinnes which were Before remitted by Baptisme or as if it did remit sins that never were Repented of God doth not so much But the Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord forgiveth such sins as have beene committed betweene the receiving of Baptisme and it and such sins as have overborne us since our hearty Contrition and Repentance yea where sins are perfectly forgiven before the holy Communion yet doth the Holy Communion Enseale and Ratifie the former remission if I may so speake and the Eucharist in the right use maketh an Attrite man a Contrite One A Contrite man to be Justified A Justified man to be Holy An Holy man to be More holy and the Holiest One to be more lively spiritfull and prompt in religious services than I think he would have beene if the Sacrament had beene omitted Thus I doubt not but if the Thrice-blessed Virgin Mary had received the consecrated Eucharist as in likelihood she did though she were full of Grace according to the Angels salutation when she received it yet it would not have beene uneffectuall to her Good for she was not so full of Grace but that shee was still capable of more and greater additaments of Grace Many more Reasons there are why Christ Jesus did superinstitute the blessed Eucharist destroying and abolishing thereby the old Passeover I will instance only in some of them and that very briefly PAR. 5. A Fifth Reason why Christ did institute this Sacrament was to unite us to Himselfe 1 Corinth 10.16 The cup of blessing which wee blesse is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we breake is it not the Communion of the body of Christ The cup is so necessary that the Apostle placeth it before the bread 6. To breed brotherly love and to unite us to Christ and one to another For we being many are One Bread and One Body For we are all partakers of that One Bread 1 Cor. 10.17 Hence floweth that great Article of our Creed The communion of Saints Hence is that Sacred Eucharist called Communio A Communion John 6.56 He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my
would not neglect the preaching of the Word of God nor exclude themselves from It to serve Tables In this sense S. Paul said 1 Corinth 1.17 Christ sent me not to Baptize but to preach the Gospel yet both Baptising and Serving at Tables especially the Sacred Ones were divine offices Christ was given for us in the Sacrifice was given to us in the Sacrament In the first per modum victimae as an offring in the last per modum epuli as Bishop Andrews hath it as in a Banquet Who knoweth not Banquets are commonly set on Tables In the Feastings of our great Ones you may perhaps find out the Jewish fashion of Feastings For as oft times our people arise when the first and second courses are removed and other meat and messes carried away and go to another Table and Banquet of Sweet-meats as the close of all So very well may it be that when Judas was excluded out of that room and gone down staires and forth of doores Christ and his Apostles might arise from their former Feasting and at another Table apply themselves to this Sacred banquet of the Holiest Heavenliest Sweet-meat since more devotion was required at this most Sacred food than at their other repast of which hereafter Besides I desire to see one proofe where ever any of Christs Apostles or any Jew of those times did feed from the Ground Floore or Pavement when they did eat in any house well-furnished I cannot omit another place 1 Cor. 10.21 Ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of Devils That the Apostle speaketh of the sacred Eucharist in the first place appeareth by the precedent verses The Cup of blessing which wee blesse is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Bread which wee breake is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ vers 17. Here are both Species both Kinds Christ blessed the Cup and so do we before and in the Consecration and this is the Communion of Christs blood Giving of thanks preceded consecration The Heathen had Altars on which they made offrings to their Gods the Devils and they had also Tables from which they did participate of things Offered It was lawfull to go to the Tables and Feasts of the Gentiles and to eate whatsoever was set before them 1. Cor. 10.27 But they might not approach to the Pagan Altars to partake of them Nor eat any thing in Idolio in the Idols Temple Nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As a thing offred to Idols no though a man did but say so vers 28. Yet Christians partaked even of the Sacrifices which were upon and taken from the Heathen Altars on which they were Sacrificed if they knew it not as the Gentiles and Jews also Deuteronomy 18.1 c. though not Altars but Tables were principally ordained to eat upon Yet they who waited at the Altar are partakers with the Altar 1 Cor. 9.13 Christ could not expect an Altar in an upper chamber of a private man Altars were no part of chamber-furniture The Jews might have no other permanent Altars after their setting in Hierusalem bu two The Altar of Incense and the Altar of Sacrifice Christ may be said in a sort to be the Altar the Offring and the Priest when he was Sacrificed on the Crosse Other than a Metaphoricall Altar he used not he was not The poore mans box or chest shall be set neare to the high Altar Injunction the 29. But he consecrated the saving Eucharist on a Table and therefore is it called the Lords Table And because Christ did so all other Christians were the apter to do so and for a while called the Church-Altars Tables in reference to Christs first Institution upon a Table For in times of persecution they could well use none but Tables and therefore doth the Primitive Church oft call them Tables and seldome Altars unto which they were not admitted to administer the Sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord. Nor did they carry Altar or Altars from house to house from City to City from Countrey to Countrey as they Communicated in severall Houses in severall Cities and Countreys and for a while daily so communicated but used the Tables such as they were made by Art wheresoever they came Nor perhaps did they stand on the particular consecration either of Tables or of Cups and Vessels to hold the Body and Blood of Christ but in the fiery furnace of persecution were content sometimes to make use of such things as could be had and rather made them holy than found them holy But he who from hence will think that the name of Altar is unlawfull or of a late invention or that they were excluded from Christian Churches or that there were Tables allowed and every where set up in the Churches Or that Altars were destroyed generally or for the most part Or that even Altars themselves were not sometimes called Tables with an eye to Christs first institution Or that will cry-up Tables to cry-down Altars He knoweth not the different usances of the Church in times of persecution and cut of it but taketh advantage of words to set asunder things which well may stand together and runneth with a strong by as to his own works Neither would I have my speciall friend to precipitate himselfe into the other extreame or so to fix his mind on Altars so to undervalew Tables as to maintain or publish that Christ did not celebrate the Heavenly Eucharist on a Table and that he instituted it on a plain Floore or pavement which opinion I think was scarce ever heard off a thousand yeares after the first Institution of the Sacrament The extract or exempt especially appropriated to our purpose is this Not only the Devils in a kind of imitation of God Almighty this worship had by the Heathen Tables erected and consecrated to them of which they took part and were allowed their divident or portion on which they fed sometimes in the Temples of their Idols sometimes at home But even the holy Christians in their best perfection had diverse Tables on which they did administer the Lords Supper and partaked of the holy Communion and they were called the Tables of the Lord. For the Lord himselfe and his holy Ones a long time after him administred the blessed Eucharist on Tables PAR. 6. THe second point held probable was and is The holy Eucharist was administred by Christ on a Table different and variant from the Paschall and Ordinary Supper-Table Object Yea but what proofes have you for that Sol. I answer what proofes have you to the contrary And why was not the Heavenly food consecrated on a distinct Table Or which opinion is like-liest In this so uncertaine a point we are not forbidden but rather commanded to search for the truth 1 John 4.1 Beleeve not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God 2 Thess 2.2 Be not soon shaken in mind or troubled But 1 Thess 4.21 Prove
De corona cap. 5. Deus auditum in auribus fodit visum in oculis accendit gustum in ore conclusit odoratum in naribus ventilavit contactum in manibus astimavit per haec exterioris hominis ministeria interiori homini ministrantia fructus munerum divinorum ad animam deducuntur à sensibus God hath bored hearing in the eares because into them it descendeth as into an hole He hath kindled sight in the eyes for the eyes do sometimes sparkle with fire and are of a fiery nature He hath shut up tasting within the mouth for he hath bounded it within that compasse He hath winnowed or vanned smelling in the nostrils by the playing of the wind He hath made the hands the judicatories of touching which touching being diffused over all the body yet is more used by the hands He concludeth divinely By these ministeriall bodily Organs serving the inner Man the blessings and fruits of heavenly gifts are from the Senses conveyed to the soule Much more might be added of other parts I will end all in this addition They defraud their Knees of the chiefest office and greatest honour who refuse to bend them in holy times and places especially at the receiving of the blessed Sacrament which I would take after I had fallen on my Face and used groveling Adoration if the Church so appointed me or if scandall would not arise from such extraordinary Gesture THE PRAYER O Lord thou knowest my heart and that with Soule and Body I Reverence and Adore thee in thy divine Eucharist I humble my selfe as much as I can and I would humble my selfe lower even unto the gates of Hell if I could confessing my worthinesse in nothing but that I am worthy to be condemned In such contemplations quakeing and terror take hold of my heart and I am horribly afraid of thy Iudgement Abraham Isaac and Jacob shall be in a sweat at the day of Iudgement as good children shall be in a dread to see their father angry with his rebellious children The earth shall melt away like wax the heavens shall tremble and the pillars of Heaven shall shake to whom shall I fly to whom shall I say Cover me but unto thee most compassionate Saviour for thou art my rocke thou art the buckler of my defence under the shadow of thy wings do I desire to rest as thou wert superexalted because thou didst humble thy selfe so grant good Lord I may so fall down before thee that I may bee taken up by thee and that the greatnesse of my humility may bring unto mee by thy favour the riches of thy glory the exaltation both of my soule and body Lord heare my prayer and let my cry come unto thee for Iesus his sake Amen CHAP. VIII Which containes the ninth tenth and eleventh Generals Wherein is declared 1. What Gesture we are to use at the Receiving of the blessed Eucharist 2. What Names have been given to it 3. What Words were spoken by our Saviour after the Third Supper before he departed out of the Coenaculum 1. What Gesture we are to use at the Administration of it to others Receiving of it our selves Both handled promiscuously The English Liturgy our best guide At the Repeating of the Law the people must Kneele Receiving of the same the Israelites did no lesse Never Patriarck Prophet Evangelist Apostle nor holy Man nor Christ himselfe prayed Sitting when there was opportunity of Kneeling The Monkes of Egypt did pray Sitting The Rule of Saint Benedict mentioneth Sitting at the Reading of three Lessons Rising up at Gloria Patri c. Severall Gestures are to be used both by Priest and People upon severall occasions The Priest never Kneeles while the people stand but he may stand when they kneele Great reason why the people should kneele at the Receiving of the Body and Blood of Christ No superstition nor Idolatry then to Kneele But obstinate Irreverence if not blasphemy not to Kneele Prayer most an end used with bâ—nding of the Knees The Pharisee Stood Christ Kneeled when he prayed The Rubrick of the Communion Book is to be followed by all obediently 2. The Minister is to deliver the Communion to the people Kneeling in both kindes into their Hands Maximus would have Men to wash their hands Women to bring clean linnen that will Communicate The Nicity of former times questioned The sixth Synod Canon 3. against it The consecrated bread must be carefully delivered and received To let any crumb or particle thereof fall to the ground accounted a great sinne by Tertullian and Origen Pope Pius the first punished those who let any of the Lords blood fall upon the ground or Altar S. Cyril of Hierusalem gives a Cave at to this purpose Little Tables set before the Communicants in former times as now we hold Linnen clothes saith Baronius The usuall fashion of receiving the Consecrated bread between the Thumb and a Finger or two disliked Receiving the holy bread in the Palme of the hand a safer way In Tertullians dayes the Christians did stretch abroad their hands like Christ upon the Crosse in their private prayers Damascene would have us receive the Body of Christ crucified with our hands framed like to a Crosse The right Hand being upward open and hollow to receive the bread This accounted the safer way S. Cyril commandeth the same kind of usance Other manners of Taking it not sinfull In things indifferent we must not love singular irregularity All unseemely Motions and Gestures are so many profanations of the Lords Supper Seven Generall Rules to be observed against the profanation of the Lords Supper The word Amen explaned and Kneeling at Receiving the blessed Sacrament pressed 3. Tenth General What Names are given to the blessed Sacrament by the Scriptures and Fathers the Latine and Greek Church The hallowed Bread is called in the Scriptures 1. The Lords Body Broken for us 2. The Communion of the Body of Christ And the Reasons thereof 3. Breaking of Bread from house to house 4. Holy Bread Blessed Bread Eucharisticall Bread Heavenly Bread Joh. 6. In the Fathers 1. Taking of the Lords Body Tertullian 2. Earthly Bread sanctified by prayer consisting of Earthly and Heavenly things Irenaeus A Medicine of immortality an Antidote against death procuring life purging sin driving away all evils idem 3. Christs Dole to his Church Tertullian The Plenty Aboundance and Fatnesse of the Lords Body The Wine is called in the Scriptures 1. The New Testament in his Blood 2. The Blood of the New Testament 3. The Cup of the Lord. 4. The Communion of the Blood of Christ The blessed Eucharist consisting of both kinds is styled In Scripture 1. The Lords Supper And in what regards it is so called The Papists dislike the frequent use of this Phrase Casaubone confutes Justinian and Maldonate the Jesuits and cals it The Great Supper The most Divine Supper The Arch-Symbolicall Supper 2. The Table of the Lord 1 Cor. 10.21 With Vs it is commonly
should receive the blessed Sacrament sitting or leaning on his elbow or halfe-sitting halfe-kneeling or looking on the one side or smiling or using unseemly motion though those Gestures be not in singled particularities forbid yet they are a profanation of the Lords Supper as being forbidden in the Generall Rules First That comeliest and devoutest Gesture be used in holiest matters Sancta sanctè Secondly Let all things be done to edifying 1 Cor. 14.26 Thirdly Let all things be done in order vers 4. The rest will I set in order when I come saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 11.34 Fourthly Rom. 14.17 The Kingdome of God is not in meats nor drinks but righteousnesse and peace and joy in the holy Ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace as there followeth Fiftly Let all things be done decently 1 Cor. 14.40 A comelinesse is commended Ecclesiastes 5.18 1 Cor. 11.13 It is comely that a women pray unto God uncovered Comelinesse is taught by nature as it there followeth Sixtly The meetings in sacred convocations are for good nor for evill We are come together for the better not for the worse And the contrary is reproved by Saint Paul 1 Cor. 11.17 Lastly God ruleth things Inferior by Superior things farther off by things nearer to him The people must not prescribe to the Magistrates nor to themselves Laws in things indifferent but the Governors and Pastors to the People Whosoever therefore at the receiving of the blessed Eucharist doth any thing misbeseemingly sinneth against these or some of these Rules and so sinneth against Christ I proved before that at the holy Receiving a prayer is preparatory and made for every one of us And as the Minister devoutly prayeth doth not thy heart say Amen and is not Amen truly explaned and enlarged thus O Lord I confesse this is thy Body this is thy Blood yea it is thine own Selfe which thou vouchsafest unto me and I do now Receive Oh preserve my body and soule unto everlasting life I eat in remembrance that thy Body was broken and that thou dyedst for me I drink in remembrance that thy Blood was shed and powred out for me Lord I am thankfull and I feed on thee in my heart by Faith Lord I beleeve pardon my wandring thoughts unite me unto thee make me from henceforth holy and conformable to thy selfe and let this spirituall food strengthen me in the way to Heaven To conclude in the Divine M. Hookers words Oh my God thou art True Oh my Soule thou art blessed He who useth not these or some of these or the like faithfull thankfull precatory ejaculations both at the instant act of receiving of the sacred Communion and presently after yea and whilst the Minister is praying for him he hath an obdurate heart he discerneth not the Lords Body but eateth and drinketh his owne damnation Now Reader judge again if a man will not kneele when the Minister prayeth for him and that openly If he will not kneele when he powreth out his hearty prayers unto God whether he sinneth not haynously Certainly God condemneth his foolish obstinacy and so I passe to another point PAR. 3. THe next is What names are given unto the holy Sacrament And here I will first speak of the Bread and of the Wine severally and shew you what names have been given them both in the Scriptures and by the Fathers and then will I speak of them joyntly together The hallowed Bread in the sacred Word of God is called the Lords Body broken for us 1 Cor. 11.24 discernable to be the Lords body vers 20. stiled also the Communion of the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 which Communion is not in the use of Scripture a proper name of the Eucharist but a declaration of its power and efficacy by making us one with Christ and by partaking the Sacrament with our brethren being a speciall meanes to the Communion of Saints though the Fathers make it a proper appellation saith Casaubone Act. 2.46 it is said They continued Breaking of Bread Domatim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at home or from house to house In which place it is varied Communicabant in fractione Eucharistiae They did Communicate in breaking of bread where the Translator makes use of a Greek word which he doth not often It is farther called Panis Sanctus Panis Benedictus Panis Eucharisticus Panis Coelestis Holy Bread Blessed Bread Eucharisticall Bread Heavenly Bread John 6.32 The Fathers appellations for it Oratio solvenda est Corpore Domini accepto Tertullian de Oratione cap. ultimo Upon taking the Lords Body we end our Prayers The same in lib. de Idololatria cap. 7. saith some did Manus admovere Corpori Domini move their hands to take the Lords Body Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 34. E terrâ panis percipiens invocationem Dei non jam communis panis est fed Eucharistia ex rebus duabus constans terrenâ coelesti Earthly bread Sanctified by prayer is not now common bread but the Eucharist consisting of earthly and heavenly things It is a Medicine of immortality an Antidote against death procuring life purging sin driving away all evils Tertullian Adversus Judaeos in fine calleth the Eucharist Dominicae gratiae quasi viscerationem Christs Dole to his Church And least you may think it to be a poore Dole a Leane Thin Hungry gift the same Tertullian in lib. de Pudicitiâ expresseth it better thus Opimitate corporis Domini vescitur Hee eateth of the Plenty Abundance and Fatnesse of the Lords Body and our Soule is fully satisfied fatted crammed with God of which testimony hereafter The Cup is the new Testament in his blood 1 Cor. 10.25 This is my blood of the new Testament Matth. 26.28 and it is termed The Cup of the Lord vers 7 So it is also called 1 Cor. 10.21 Ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord. The Cup of blessing which we blesse is the Communion of the Blood of Christ vers 16. The blessed Eucharist consisting of both kinds hath these glorious Tittles In the Scripture it is termed the Supper of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.20 And the Lords Supper in all these regards First because the Lord did Institute it Secondly did Take it Thirdly did Administer it to his Apostles Fourthly did appoint the Church to do the like in remembrance of the Lords death The Papiâ—â—s as before I observed dislike the frequent use of this phrase See Casaubone confuting Justinian the Jesuit in that point and against Maldonate whilst Casaubone from the Ancients calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Great Supper the Most Divine and Arch-symbolical supper By a Metonymie of the subject a Table that is the food set on that Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Table of the Lord 1 Cor. 10.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords Testament or Legacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communion as prohibiting Schisme and Division
in the porch of the Temple but onely the Kings of Davids loynes The humble gesture of the Iewes when they came in went out of the Temples The Primitive Church kneeled to the Altars Altars the seats of the body and blood of Christ The Crosse in Chrysostomes dayes did alwayes use to remaine upon the Altar An Angel an assistant when Christ is offered up Ambrose To this day we worship the flesh of Christ in the Sacrament Idem No man eateth the blessed Sacrament before be have worshipped Christ in the Sacrament Augustine Constantine the Emperour in his Soliloquies with God pitched on his knees with eyes cast downe to the ground K. Charles partaketh of the body and blood of Christ with as much Humilitie as the meanest penitent amongst his subjects His holy and devout gestures at the participation of the Lords Supper turned the heart of a Romanist to embrace the truth on our side In Origens Arnobius and Tertullians dayes the Saints never met in holy places about holy things without decent reverence The Papists in kneeling adore the very materials of the Sacrament Yet the abuse of a thing taketh not away the right use Proved by divers curious instances Christians may lawfully use many artificiall things though invented by Heathenish Gods and Goddesses To argue from the Abuse of things to the whole removing of the use is rediculous Illustrated by some particulars Veneration of the Sacrament is accorded on all sides In the very Act of receiving it it is lawfull to kneele downe and worship Christ in it Calvin himselfe holdeth that adoration to be lawfull The Lutherans are divided in this point Illyricus denieth Christ to be worshipped in the Eucharist Brentius and Bucer hold That then we must worship Christs body Luther himselfe stileth the Eucharist Sacramentum venerabile Adorabile Chemnitius saith None but Sacramentaries deny Christ to be adored in the Sacrament Chemnitius acknowledgeth these Theses 1. Christ God Man is to be adored Arrians deny this 2. Christs humane nature for the hypostaticall union with the Divinitie is to be adored None but Nestorians will deny this The Apostles worshipped the Humane Nature of Christ Adoration precedeth Communication by the judgement of S. Chrysostome and S. Augustine Christs flesh as made of earth may be said to be Gods footestoole So is the Arke All the Angels of God doe Worship Christ Christ is to be adored alwayes and every where Augustine Ambrose Nazianzene and Eusebius Emissenus are Chemnitius Co-opinionists Not the materiall Elements but Christ onely in them is to be adored If wee must adore Christ when we celebrate the divine Sacrament much more did the Apostles Habituall not alwayes Actuall Adoration of Christ 〈…〉 â—â—â—â—ired of the Apostles The Apostles worshipped Christ 1 When he had newly performed any Super-humane worke 2 When they begged great matters of him 3 When he did heale some who were vehemently afflicted 4 When he conferred any extraordinary blessing on their soules As hee did when he instituted the new Sacrament Master Hooker tearmeth Kneeling an Adorative gesture No kinde of Worship accepted that is not sometimes conjoyned with Kneeling Gregory Nazianzens Story of his sister Gorgonia Eusebius Emissenus and Origen say Christ is worshipped in the Sacrament Kneeling at the Communion commanded by the Booke of Advertisments set down set forth by Queene Elizabeth by the Lawes of the Realme and the Queenes Majestie Injunctions They defraud the Knees of their chiefest office and honour who refuse to bend them at the receiving of the blessed Sacrament Fol. 645 The Contents of the eight Chapter Par. 1 WHat gesture we are to use at the Administration of it to others Receiving of it our selves Both handled promiscuously The English Liturgie our best guide At the Repeating of the Law the people must kneele Receiving of the same the Israelites did no lesse Never Patriarch Prophet Evangelist Apostle nor holy Man nor Christ himselfe prayed sitting when there Was oportunity of kneeling The Monkes of Egypt did pray sitting The rule of Saint Benedict mentioneth Sitting at the Reading of three Lessons Rising up at Gloria Patri c. Severall gestures are to be used both by Priests and People upon severall occasions The Priests never kneeles while the people stand but he may stand when they kneele Great reason why they should kneele at the receiving of the Body and Blood of Christ No superstition nor idolatry then to kneele but obstinate irreverence if not blaspemy not to kneele Prayer most an end used with bending of the knees The Pharisee stood Christ kneeled when he prayed The Rubricke of the Communion Booke is to be followed by all obediently Fol. 652 Par. 2 The Minister is to deliver the Communion to the people kneeling in both kindes into their Hands Maximus would have Men to wash their hands Women to bring clean linnen that will communicate The nicetie of former times questioned The sixth Synod Canon 3. against it The consecrated bread must be carefully delivered and received To let any crumme or particle thereof fall to the ground accounted a great sinne by Tertullian and Origen Pope Pius the first punished those who let any of the Lords blood fall upon the ground or Altar S. Cyrill of Hierusalem gives a caveat to this purpose Little tables set before the Communicants in former times as now we hold linnen clothes saith Baronius The usuall fashion of receiving the Consecrated bread between the thumb and a finger or two disliked Receiving the holy bread in the Palme of the hand a safer way In Tertullians dayes the Christians did stretch abroad their hands like Christ upon the Craffe in their prayers Damascene would have us receive the body of Christ crucified with our hands framed like to a Crosse The right hand being upward open and hollow to receive the bread This accounted the safer Way Saint Cyril commanded the same kinde of usance Other manner of taking it not sinfull In things indifferent wee must not love singular irregularity All unseemly motions and gestures are so many profanations of the Lords Supper Seven generall rules to be observed against the profanation of the Lords Supper The word Amen explaned and kneeling at receiving the blessed Sacrament pressed Fol. 653 Par. 3 Tenth Generall What Names are given to the blessed Sacrament by the Scriptures and Fathers the Latine and Greeke Church The hallowed bread is called in the Scriptures 1 The Lords body broken for us 2 The Communion of the Body of Christ And the reasons thereof Breaking of bread from house to house 4 Holy bread Blessed bread Eucharisticall bread Heavenly bread Joh. 6. In the Fathers 1 Taking of the Lords body Tertullian 2 Earthly bread sanctified by prayer consisting of Earthly and Heavenly things IreÌ„naeus A Medicine of immortality an antidote against death procuring life purging sinne driving away all evills idem 3 Christs Dole to his Church Tertullian The plenty abundance and fatnesse of the Lords Body The Wine is called in
Bread but they did also Eat their Meate with gladnesse and as by the first words the Eucharist may be well understood For the bread which we breake is it not the communion of the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 That interrogation is in effect a doubled affirmation so by the phrase of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capiebant or sumebant cibum they did eate their meate their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love-feasts are apparently signed out I say with Montanus that in those times Eucharistiae Sacramentum repetebant assiduè They tooke the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist daily and with Beza that by the word Bread the Hebrews understood all kinde of meats and will not deny but the Hebrews did make their bread broad and thinne that they were rather broken than cut But since there is mention both of Breaking of Bread and eating of Meate I shall appropriate the first to the holy Sacrament the second to their feasts of charity and be bold to averre that these words in the cited places designe both And I wish that Beza had noted that though the Corinthians did abuse both their blessed Sacrament and their Love-feasts also by mingling one with another and profaning the Churches in making them places of common repast yet this was somewhat After this story in the second of the Acts when the Agapae succeeded the blessed Sacrament as the second Supper of the Iewes succeeded their Paschall For their Breaking of Bread was before their Eating of Meate And I thinke the degrees were these They daily continued in the Temple There was the place of prayer Act. 3.1 They are their Bread their sacred Bread Domatim at Home or from house to house or at one time in severall houses For in the Temple they could not doe so persecution and the sword hung over them A private house could not affoord competent roome and decent spaces for above three thousand to receive day by day And therefore they imployed diverse houses to that purpose Though it be said they were All together verse 44. yet saith Chrysostome not in One place or roome but All together in Grace faith charity unity of the Spirit and singlenesse of heart vers 46. All of them having but One minde One heart After this in the third place were their Love-feasts carefully tended and ordered by the Apostles themselves at first and then was no abuse But when the number of the Disciples increased the Apostles applyed themselves to Better things and left the guidance of Love-feasts in part to others Then crept in partiality and discontent and there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widowes were neglected in the daily administration Act. 6.1 Their Love-feasts were daily administred as well as the blessed Sacrament Whereupon the twelve Apostles called the multitude of Disciples unto them and said It is not reason we should leave the word of God and serve Tables vers 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministrare mensis i conviviis or in conviviis saith Beza to set forth the Love-feasts or attend on them And most divinely to cut off all cavills they appointed all the Disciples to choose out of themselves Seven men of honest report full of the holy Ghost and wisdome Act. 6.3 to present them to the Apostles both for that and other services The Disciples chose them the Apostles prayed and laid their hands upon them Yet neither the care of the Apostles nor the deputed authority of the Seaven Deacons whom the Apostles did appoint over this businesse Act. 6.3 could keepe the Christians in due course but Satan did sow his tares and bred divisions and introduced innovations so that they ate the body of our Lord and dranke his blood with Other meats and that in the very Temple most intemperately and partially Not discerning the Lords body to the great scandall of others so that the Apostles were faine to take notice of them to reprove and reforme them The Prayer GRacious God fountaine of light we miserable men are led in darknesse and wander up and downe in it we stumble and fall and run into an hundred by-paths rather than in the way of truth We see not so well as we ought Our intellect is mistaken our will is perverse O thou who inlightnest one way or other all men that come into the world shew me thy brightnesse Guide and governe me Into thy hands doe I commend my poore spirit with all the faculties both of my soule and body Let thy holy rayes incompasse me deliver me from both outward and inward darknesse and bring me to see thy face for Iesus Christ his sake Amen Chap. II. and fourth Generall Wherein are demonstrated certaine Reasons why the sacred Eucharist was substituted to the eternall disannulling of the Passeover 1. Diverse Ends why the Third holy Supper was instituted 1. Reason To substantiate the praeceding Type The difference between Fulfilling of a Law and realizing or consummating of a Type Tertullian censured Hierome applanded The Passeover was a figure of the Eucharist and of Christs Passion All figures are not Antitypes 2. 2 Reason To conferre more grace upon us by It than was given unto the Iewes The figure must come short in excellency to the thing figured The vertue and effect of the Lords Supper in us 3. 3 Reason â—o praefigure Christs death and going out of the world All Sacraments of the Old Law were figures of the Eucharist and did finally typifie Christs death 4. 4 Reason To be a Remembrance to us of Christs death till his comming againe The holy Eucharist not onely sealeth and signifieth Grace but also conferreth and exhibiteth it by it selfe in the true use thereof How farre forth this effect is to be understood Why Christ received the blessed Sacrament before he went into the Garden Christ had degrees of devotion Not to faint in Prayer The blessed Virgin Mary not so full of Grace but that shee was capable of more latitude 5. 5 Reason To unite us to Christ 6 Reason To breed brotherly Love and to unite us one to another Hence the Communion of Saints the Eucharist called the Communion 7 Reason To be an Antidote against daily sinnes The Eucharist called Panis supersubstantialis and by S. Ambrose Panis quotidianus 8 Reason To further our Spirituall Life 9 Reason Because it is the Sacrament of supernall charity and filiation PARAGRAPH 1. YEt because it is a vanity to institute any new matters unlesse men be moved to it by very good reasons and lawfull inducements Let us now examine Why this Third holy Supper was instituted and we shall finde that the Ends were diverse I will instance in some and 1. First in this It was Appointed to this purpose viz. to Substantiate the Preceding Type There is great difference between Fulfilling of a Law and Realizing or Consummating of a Type By Eating the Paschall Christ did as the Law commanded and in that point fulfilled the Law but if he had
of me Luke 22.19 and hallowed the Cup with its proper consecration His countenance was divided between the Sacred Eucharist and his Disciples Somtimes he beheld one somtimes another as the matter required He viewed the bread when he began to say This is my Body which is broken or given When he proceeded It is given or broken for you he earnestly beheld his Apostles and the whole Church in Them Idealiter Likewise when he said concerning the Cup Drinke yee all of it c. His Eyes passed along with his Words his Words with his Heart viewing the varied objects as was meet flitting and moving from the Apostles when he commanded All of you drink or Drinke you All But when he added Drink ye all of it for this is my blood of the new Testament it cannot bee but hee earnestly beheld the consecrated Wine or his own Blood All this I likewise suppose to be done by our Heavenly Saviour as he stood on his Feet And this doth the Church or ought to do imitating him and fulfilling his commandement Do this in remembrance of me which he spake not only of the Bread and the forme of its consecration Luke 22.19 and perhaps of Identity of Gesture but also of the Cup and the Consecrating of the Wine in its proper forme as himselfe had done 1 Cor. 11.25 And either in Heaven or from Heaven taught his Apostle S. Paul Whilst each of them did eat he beheld the Eater severally and when they drank All of it as they All drank of it Marke 4.23 So he beheld them especially and singly one after another The Prayer I Must needs acknowledge O all-knowing God that the humblest way that I can I do Worship thee both in soule and body and yet I apparently discerne I do not sufficiently Adore thee Accept holy Father my devout wrestling rather than performances Pardon my imperfections confirme and increase in mee all goodnesse and give O give mee such a taste of thee in this life that I may be filled and satisfied with thee and by thee in thy glorious Kingdome Amen CHAP. VI. And the second Section of the seventh Generall Wherein is shewed what Actions and Words Christ used in the Consecrating of the blessed Eucharist 1. The first Action He Tooke Bread Christ never took any thing into his hand in a religious manner but it was bettered Ignatius was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the child whom Christ took in his armes Christs Sâ—â—urge had more vertue than an ordinary whip Christs Touch imparâ—â—â—â—th vertue 2. The second Action He Blessed the Bread What it is to Blesse Many kindes of Blessings Gods Blessing what it is The effects of Gods Blessing Joseph a Prophet Christs Blessing of the five loave caused their multiplication not in Number but in Magnitude Christs Blessing is like Gods Blessing it consisteth not in meere words It is effectuall in operation Christs Blessing of the bread was not the Consecration of his Body Parents Blessing Priests Blessing and the effects thereof Illyricus would have altered the doctrine of the Keyes Christs Benediction consisted partly of Prayer Tankesgiving Giving of Thankes and Blessing sometimes used promiscuously Piscator's observation How God Christ blesseth How Man blesseth God Why the blessed Sacrament is called the Eucharist In the Celebration of the blessed Sacrament Blessing Giving of Thankes all one The power of Blessing greater than the power of Nature Mans blessing of God a superlative kinde of Thankesgiving Christs blessing of God what it is The vertue of Christs blessing Mans blessing of Man what it is Christs Thankesgiving and blessing in the Sacrament what it was The Jews had distinct Graces for their Suppers Christs Benediction of the Bread in ihe Sacrament not the Consecration of it Lyranus Hugo Innocentius and S. Ambrose taxed in this point The properest use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst Men. How Christ in the blessed Sacrament did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give thankes Probable that Christs blessing was not without Imposition or lifting up of his hands Heave offerings in the old Law types of this Wave offerings in the old Law types of this Possibly Christ might use Elevation and waving of the Bread at the Benediction 3. The third Action He Brake it The end why he Brake it Maldonat saying Breaking of the bread and Giving of it is all one is exploded Christ in Breaking the bread followed the Hebrew custome Breaking of the bread did properly signifie the breaking of his body on the Crosse How Christs body was broken Breaking of the bread sheweth the ancient custome of Imparting the Sacrament to the Standers-by Lorinus in saying the bread was cut with a Knife is against three Evangelists and S. Paul The ancient Fathers do not use the terme of Cutting but Breaking of bread The Not-Breaking of the bread in the Sacrament is a transgression of the first Institution The Church of Rome herein censured The practise of the Primitive Church both in receiving of the Bread and Wine The Papists taxed for Barring the Laity the Cup. Broken and Divided not all one as Gaspar Sanctius ridiculously thinks The Rabbin that taught Baronius Direct against Lorinus The form of bread at the Jews ordinary Feasts described by Baron cut Lozinge-wise The forme of the Panis decussatus religiously used among the ancient good Christians A Crosse or Christ crucified on the Crosse was in ancient times impressed on the mysticall bread The picture of a Dove of the Holy Lamb and of a Shepheard with a sheep at his back and the mysticall signification of them 4. The fourth Action He gave it to his Disciples He Himselfe gave it to every of his Disciples particularly The consecrated bread given by Christ was unleavened bread We may consecrate either Leavened or unleavened bread It is probable Christ gave the Cup Himselfe to every of his Disciples Musculus censured therein Aquinas saying The Sacrament is many things materially but one thing formally He gave it to his Disciples The Communicants at this Eucharist were none of the Common Disciples but onely the Eleven Apostles They in some sort represented the rest of the Priesthood onely Christ never gave power to any Lay-man to administer his sacred Body Common persons are not to meddle with holy things Gods judgements upon such prophane persons Christ at this Eucharist gave his Apostles power to Consecrate the sacred Eucharist After his Resurrection and before his Ascension he seconded this power The Apostles in another regard represented the whole company of all his Disciples Christians in generall Christ when he Consecrated the blessed Eucharist represented the body of the Clergie Idealiter But when he received it he represented the whole body of the universall Church both Clergie and Laitie The Apostles quâ Apostoli Discipuli represented the body of the Clergie Laitie 5. Secondly His words First word Take He said or Saying were not spoken by Christ neither are they part of his
And this may seeme to favour him Jesus said to the Iewes Destroy This Temple and in three dayes I will rayse it up Joh. 2.19 And the holy Apostle expoundeth it Christ spake of the temple of his body verse 21. Tolet in his Commentary on the place saith It is certaine that when Christ said This temple he did by his Gesture and the motion of his hands demonstrate Himselfe and pointed not at the materiall Temple built of stone so might he here doe Tolet his Collection is but probable For Christ might point at either at neither but leave them in suspence Many times did Christ use verball aequivocations as I have proved in my Miscellanies that is he so spake that his words might have a double Construction though he adhorred mentall Reservation Concerning Carolostadius I must needs say he was one of them who in those precipitious and whirling times did strive to rayse his owne name by inventing most new devices And this was one of them which is not seconded by any other Christian Divines which I have seene but disliked by many For when Christ said This is my Body which shall be given for you as Carolostadius hath it is as if he pointed at and did meane his naturall passiive body What did they eate They did eate none of That body nor was it Broken till after the Celebration of the holy Eucharist he did suffer But the holy Scripture hath it in the Present tense Luk. 22.19 This is my Body which Is given for you And vers 20. This Cup Is the new Testament in my Blood which Is shed for you Can you think O Carolostadius that when he gave them the Cup he touched his breast and pointed at and meaned the blood in the veynes lanes and hidden alleys of his mortall body So 1 Corinth 11.24 This is my body which Is broken for you And this Cup Is the new Testament in my blood vers 25. Likewise Matth. 26.28 This is my Blood which Is shed and so Mark 14.24 For though it be a truth most certaine that Christ his naturall body and naturall blood was broken given and shed afterwards in his Passion yet Carolostadius was too blame to change the Tense to invent an imagined gesture of Christ which is impossible to be proved Lastly to broach a new opinion contrary to all Divines from which refulteth That they did eate onely bare Bread but no way the Body of the Lord and dranke onely the fruit of the Grape but no way dranke the Blood of the Lord. Indeed the Vulgate hath it Frangêtur in the Future tense is Shall be broken for you But it starteth aside from the Originall Nor standeth it with sense reason or example that the Future is taken for the Present tense since it is a retrograde course against nature But the Present tense is often used for the Future foreshewing the infallible certainty of what will or shall come both in Propheticall and Evangelicall Writings Esay 60.1 The glory of the Lord Is risen upon thee And yet he speaketh of Christ and his comming And Revel 22.12 Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me And Yet he commeth not though it were said above fifteene hundred yeares passed But most undoubtedly He Shall come quickly Celeritate motus though not celeritate temporis when he beginneth to come he shall come speedily though he shall not quickly begin to come PAR. 7. IT succeedeth This is my Body Matth. 26.26 which is Given for you Luk. 22.19 Which is Broken for you 1 Corinth 11.24 This doe in remembrance or for a remembrance of Me as both S. Luke and S. Paul have it And he tooke the Cup and gave thankes and gave it to them saying Drinkeyee All of it for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sinnes Matth. 26.27 c. It is thus changed Mark 14.23 He gave it to them and They all dranke of it And S. Mark leaves out these words For the remission of sinnes S. Luke maketh the alteration thus Likewise also he gave them the Cup after Supper saying This Cup is the New Testament In my blood which is shed for You Luk. 22.20 Another diversity is yet 1 Corinth 11.25 Likewise after Supper he tooke the Cup when he had supped saying This Cup is the new testament In my blood This doe yee as oft as yee drinke it in remembrance of mee Matth. 26.29 Christ saith I will not drinke henceforth of the fruit of the Vine And this was After the sacred Supper But saith Adam Contzen A Matthaeo non suo ordine ad finem coenae recitantur ea verba de Genimine vitis S. Matthew reciteth not in Order the words concerning the fruit of the Vine nor were they spoken After Supper Perhaps say I they were spoken Twice Here if ever is an ample field to expatiate in these words have tortured the wits of the learnedst men since the dayes of the Apostles Et adhuc sub judice lis est And yet they are not determined And as the Areopagites in an inexplicable perplexity deferred the finall determination till the last day so the Roman Church might have deferred their definitive sentence and over-hard censure even till then especially since they confesse that the manner of Transubstantiation is inenarrable Whereupon I am resolved to forbeare farther disquisition and to lose my selfe in holy devotion and admiration that I may find my Christ The sayle is to large for my boat This Sea is too tempestuous for my Shallop The new Cut of Erasmus Sarcerius in his Scholia on the place of S. Matthew thus shuffleth it The Materiall causes are Bread and Wine and the things under them understood and present the Body and Blood The Formal causes are to Eat and to Drink The Efficient causes Christ who did institute it and his Word The Effectuall causes to have Remission of sins I say this may rather go among the finall causes And to make Effects to be Effectuall causes introduceth new Logick new Termes into Logick Besides he omitteth the Finall cause which is the first mover to the rest Divinity and the mysteries of it are not to bow down to any ones Logick Oh! but will you now say leus in the last Act in the last Scene Will you be silent where he and she Apprentices where Women and illiterate Tradesmen rayse themselves upon their startups prick up their eares and tyre their tongues 1. I answer If I should enter into the lists of controversie and take upon me to decide and determine all the doubts which concerne the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist and to untye all the knots which may be made from those words I am perswaded you might sooner see an end of me than I of this Work For I am wearied and tyred already This toyle which I have performed and the labour which I have bestowed hath cost me full deare My sedentary life hath made my
hands that with a pure mind and neat conscience they may receive the Sacrament Likewise let the Women bring cleane Linnen that they may receive Christs body Baronius Tom. 1. Anno. 5. Numero 148. observeth men might take it into their bare hands Women might not take it but in Linnen which was called Dominicale Hence first the nicity of former times may be questioned Why the Women were to receive it in pure linnen and white but the Men into their bare hands Have not the Women as cleane and white hands as Men If the Womens hands were unworthy to receive it how are the Mens hands more worthy If linnen be to cover or adorne the Womens hands Why will not such an ornament befit Mens hands also In the sixt Synod Canone 3. celebrated Anno Domini 681. there seemes to be a Plea against that custome We do not admit those who make receptacles of gold or of other matter to receive in stead of their hands the Divine mysteries for they prefer the livelesse subject matter before the Image of God If any do so let both the Administrant and the Communicant be separated Again it is the fashion both for Men and Women to receive the sacred Bread from the hands of the Minister some with the thumb and one finger some with the thumb and two fingers and this is not sinfull nor to be condemned in it selfe as it may be carefully delivered and received But if any crumb or particle fall to the ground it is a greater sin than people imagine Tertullian took it very grievously when any such thing was Origen accounteth it a sin and a great sin told the people they did well to think so of such as let any part fall to the ground The words are Tom. 1. p. 102. in Eusebius Episcopius his edition Nostis qui divinis mysteriis interesse consuevistis quomodo cùm suscipitis Corpus Christi cum omni cautelâ veneratione servatis ne ex eo parum quid decidat ne consecrati muneris aliquid dilabatur Reos enim vos creditis rectè creditis si quid inde per negligentiam decidat Circa Corpus Christi conservandum magnâ utimini cautelâ recte utimini You who are usually present at Divine services do know with what warinesse and reverence you preserve the Body of Christ when you receive the same least by chance some small parcell or crumb of the Consecrated gift should slip out from between your fingers and fall to the ground For you do beleeve and rightly beleeve that you are guilty of the Body of Christ if any part or parcell thereof should through your negligence fall to the ground And therefore you do use and rightly use a great deale of cautelousnesse in the preservation of the Body of Christ Pope Pius the first who lived in the dayes of Justin Martyr between 100 and 200 yeares after Christ punished those by whose negligence any of the Lords Blood did fall upon the ground or Altar The like we imagine of the sacred Body Sanctificatis ergo oculis tam sancti corporis contactu communica Cave ne quid excidat tibi The very eyes being sanctified by the touching of so holy a Body receive the blessed Eucharist but take heed that no part of it fall from thee saith Cyril of Hierusalem Baronius Tom. 1. anno 75. Numero 146 saith that when they took the Eucharist in former times certaine little Tables were set before the Communicants as now saith he we hold Linnen cloths before the Receivers And all this was done and is done out of doubt least any particle should fall to the Ground Indeed there is more danger in the nice receiving with the thumb and a finger or two for the Bread is made of many cornes and every corne yeelds such mealy stuffe as may easily by breaking or in the acts of delivery and receiving moulder into crumbs and fall down There is much more care to be had of the keeping whole of such mouldring soft food than if silver gold or pretious stones from which nothing can drop away were to be consigned over or delivered to others Nor is there danger in the fall of them But danger there is in the fall of the Consecrated Bread Wherefore I doubt not but as the words of the Liturgy command not to put the holy bread into the peoples fingers or between their thumb and fingers but into their hands so the meaning is it ought to be delivered into the palmes of their hands as a safer receite and as a safer conveyer unto their mouths than the use of thumb and fingers Tertullian de Oratione cap. 11. Nos non Attollimus tantùm manus sed etiam expandimus Dominicâ passions modulantes â—rantes confitemur Christo When we pray we do not only lift up our hands but we spread them abroad like to the Crosse conforming our selves to the Passion of our Lord. For say I his hands were stretched out But this was done in private prayers In publick prayers they lifted them up but a little way as before I noted out of Tertullian Johan Damasc Orthodoxae Fidei 4.14 Accedamus ei desiderio ardenti Manus in crucis modum formantes crucisixi corpus suscipiamus apponentes oculos labra frontem divinum carbonem concipiamus Let us come to the Sacrament with an earnest desire And framing our hands like to a crosse let us receive the body of Christ crucified and laying our foreheads eyes and lips nigh to it conceive it as a divine coale to burne our sins To conclude in my opinion the left hand bearing up the right and especially in some Paraliticks one hand had need to stablish another and both crossing about the wrists and the palme of the right hand being upward and open at the receiving of the bread the blessed Sacrament of Christs body may be received But at the taking of the Cup there is no need or cause that the palme should be upright yea it cannot be so with conveniency and this doth no way enterfeere with Damascâ—n or our Lyturgy and let the Christian heart judge if this be not the safer way And thus for ought that I can object to the contrary the Apostles themselves might receive the Sacrament and perhaps did I was overjoyed when I found this proofe following agreeing both to my practise and opinion Cyrillus Hierosolymit in Mystag 5. Come not to the Communion with the palmes of thy hands spread all abroad nor thy fingers severed and open but putting the left hand under thy right to settle and establish it in the hollow of thy hand receive the Body of Christ I will not say that any other course of taking is sinfull but I have spoken my opinion for the Conveniency The liberty granted by Christ is not to be curbed or Ephorized by us But let us take heed least our liberty grow to licentiousnesse or that we love singular irregularity For if one
the flood Enos was Called a God Held a God for his admirable vertue and justice His sons called the sons of God Gen. 6.2 So Adam so are Kings and their Officers so are Christians Enos the first who called upon God by the name of Jehovah How God was not knowne by the name of Jehovah to Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Two conjectures of the Author Many words in the Hebrew Bible signifie contrary things to excite our mindes to a diligent search of the right meaning Authorities that Idolatry was not before the flood Silianus Cyrill Irenaeus c. The fiâ—st Idols had their primitive Adoration from the Adoration of Kings The latter Kings c. have had Adoration from some kinde of Adoration derived from Idols When Christ celebrated the holy Communion 't is probable he fell downe on his face Falling on the face is the most forcible Gesture exciting to Devotion The prostration of the body is the elevation of the soule Christ in the celebration of his last Supper varied his gestures as occasion required The Church ought to imitate Christ in those things which shee commands Fol. 605 The Contents of the sixth Chapter Par. 1 THe first Action Hee tooke bread Christ never tooke any thing into his hand in a religious manner but it was bettered Ignatius was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the child whom Christ tooke in his armes Christs Scourge had more vertue than an ordinary whip Christs touch importeth vertue Fol. 614 Par. 2 The second Action He blessed the bread What it is to blesse Many kindes of blessings Gods blessing what it is The effects of Gods blessing Joseph a Prophet Christs blessing of the five loaves caused their multiplication not in Number but in Magnitude Christs blessing is like Gods blessing it consisteth not in meere words It is effectuall in operation Christs blessing of the bread was not the consecration of his Body Parents blessing Priests blessing and the effects thereof Illyricus would have altered the doctrine of the Keyes Christs benediction consisted partly of Prayer Thanksgiving Giving of thankes and blessing sometimes used promiscuously Piscatot's observation How God Blesseth How Christ Blesseth How Man blesseth God Why the blessed Sacrament is called the Eucharist In the Celebration of the blessed Sacrament Blessing Giving of thankes all one The power of blessing greater than the power of Nature Mans blessing of God a superlative kinde of Thankesgiving Christs blessing of God what it is The vertue of Christs blessing Mans blessing of Man what it is Christs thanksgiving and blessing in the Sacrament what it was The Jewes had distinct Graces for their Suppers Christs benediction of the Bread in the Sacrament not the consecration of it Lyranus Hugo Innocencius and S. Ambrose taxed in this poynt The properest use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst men How Christ in the blessed Sacrament did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Givethankes Probable that Christs blessing was not without Imposition or lifting up of his hands Heave Wave offerings in the old Law typs of this Possibly Christ might use Elevation and waving of the bread at the Benediction Fol. 614 Par. 3 The third Action He brake it The end why he brake it Maldonat saying breaking of the bread and giving of it is all one is exploded Christ in breaking the bread following thee Hebrew custome Breaking of the bread did properly signifie the breaking of his body on the Crosse How Christs body was broken Breaking of the bread sheweth the ancient custome of imparting the Sacrament to the standers by Lorinus in saying the bread was cut with a Knife is against three Evangelists and S. Paul The ancient Fathers doe not use the terme of Cutting but Breaking of bread The Not-breaking of the bread in the Sacrament is a trasgression of the first Institution The Church of Rome herein censured The practise of the Primitive Church both in receiving of the Bread and Wine The Papists taxed for baring the Laiety the Cup. Broken and divided not all one as Gaspar Sanctius ridiculously thinkes The Rabbin that taught Baronius direct against Lorinus The forme of bread at the Iewes ordinary Feasts described by Baron cut Lozing-wise The forme of the Panis discussatus religiously used among the ancient good Christians A crosse or Christ crucified on the Crosse was in ancient times impressed on the mysticall bread The picture of a Dove of the Holy Lambe and of a Shepheard with a sheepe at his backe and the mysticall signification of them Fol. 619 Par. 4 The fourth Action He gave it to his Disciples He himselfe gave it to every of his Disciples particularly The consecrated bread given by Christ was unleavened bread We may consecrate either Leavened or unleavened bread It is probable Christ gave the Cup Himselfe to every of his Disciples Musculus censured therein Aquinas saying The Sacrament is many things materially but one thing formally He gave it to his Disciples The Communicants at this Eucharist were none of the common Disciples but onely the eleven Apostles They in some sort represented the rest of the Priesthood onely Christ never gave power to any Lay-man to administer his sacred body Common persons are not to meddle with holy things Gods judgements upon such prophane persons Christ at this Eucharist gave his Apostles power to Consecrate the sacred Eucharist After his Resurrection and before his Ascension he seconded this power The Apostles in another regard represented the whole company of all his Disciples and Christians in generall Christ when hee Consecrated the blessed Eucharist represented the body of the Clergie Idealiter But when he received it he represented the whole body of the universall Church both Clergie and Laitie The Apostles qua Apostoli Discipuli represented the body of the Clergie Laitie Fol. 21 Par. 5 Secondly His words First word Take He said or Saying were not spoken by Christ neither are they part of his Consecration The words of Consecration were onely-these This is my Body c. Innocentius the third his opinion concerning Christs Consecration of the blessed Sacrament censured A second and third opinion related by Aquinas censured Lucas Brugensis thinkes Christ used more words in the Consecration When or at what time Christ said those words Take c. Christ gave the Hallowed bread not in Promise but in exhibition Iohn the Baptist called a foole Epictetus saying Christ put not the blessed Sacrament into the Disciples mouthes but into their hands In the Primitive Church the Christians received it into their hands So did they in Tertullians time So did they in Cyprians dayes Taking is by the hand Cases may fall out wherein the hallowed food may be put into the Recipients mouthes We are not bound to doe all whatsoever Christ did at the first Celebration Wee must doe all whatsoever he commanded us to doe Authorities for taking the blessed Sacrament into our hands The Tripartite History Chrysostome Cyprian Tertullian The Schismaticks in
Col. 3.17 Col. 3.17 What ye doe in word or deed doe all in the name of the Lord Iesus giving thankes to God even the Father by him This they did at their meales especially at their Festivals PAR. 8. THe guise or order of the Primitive Church followeth first for their ordinary meales they had but poore commons rose with appetite pur as coenas sine animalibus coenas suppers without flesh a Clem. Alexand paeoa 1.11 Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let our Supper saith he be small and short fit for men that watch and not with variety of mingled meates the Grecians call prodigall men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well signifying their end i. as it seemeth to me saith Clemens whilst they esteeme them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is voyd of salvation by the elision of the letter σ Sigma Tertullian most signisicantly to the prodigall intemperate Romanes saith thus nostras coenulas sugillatis cum vestris ructibus acescat aer you finde fault with our short small suppers when the very ayre groweth sowre with your belchings And yet the parsimony of the ancienter Romanes was exemplary of which more hereafter take onely one testimony out of b Iuvenal Satyr 11. ver 77. c. Iuvenal Haec olim nostri jam luxuriosa senatus Coena fuit Curius parvo quae legerat horto Ipse foc is brevibus ponebat oluscula quae nunc Squallidus in magna fastidit compede fossor that is The now luxurious suppers of the Senate Of old were meane Curius when as he ate With a small fire cook'd such few berbes which he Pickâ— from his narrow gardens hus bandry As now a dirty Ditcher loathes to eate Though loaden with cold Iron and Gyves full great Secondly for the feastings of the old Christians c Minut. Foelix in Octavio pa. 391. Minutius Foelix saith thus Convivia non tantum pudica colimus sed sobria nes enim indulgemus epulis aut convivium mero ducimus sed gravitate bilaritatem temperamus casto sermone corpore castiore pudorem non facie sed meute praestamus that is our Feasts are observed with shamefastnesse and sobriety we doe not indulge and glut our selves with dainties or draw out at length the banquet by bibbing of wine but we mingle and temper mirth and gravity together using chaste speeches in more chaste bodies our mindes out-blushing our faces d Terâ—al in Apolog cap. 39. Tertullian more at large sheweth the whole forme of feasting thus Non priùs discumbitur quà m or atio ad Deum praegustetur editur quantum esurientes capiunt bibitur quantum pudicis est utile ita saturantur ut qui meminerint etiam per noctem sibi adorandum esse it a fabulantur ut qui sciant Dominum audire post aquam manualem lumina de Scripturis sacris vel de ingenio proprio canitur bine probatur quomodo biberit aeque oratio convivium dirimit inde disceditur non in eruptiones lasoiviarum sed in candem curam modestiae pudicitiae ut qui non tam coenam coenaverint quam disciplinam that is we sit not downe till we have first prayed to God grace is the first dish we taste of we eare onely to satisfie nature we drinke no more then is fit for chaste people we so eate and drinke as remembring we must rise in the night to worship God our discourse is as in the presence of God after washing of our hands by candle light we sing either some Psalmes or other holy Hymnes or songs of our owne invention by which we see that we have not drunke much Prayer also concludeth the banquet from whence we depart not running into lascivious course of chambering and wantounesse or sporting our selves in the deeds of darkenesse but impaling our selves within our wonted bounds of modesty and shamefastnesse as if we had made our suppers rather of discipline and religion then of ordinary meates PAR. 9. OUr age is much faulty in both extreames of Prodigality and covetousnesse neglecting the golden meane of liberality Some with the glutton fare deliciously every day make their belly their God joyne dinners to suppers and prorogue suppers till the morning-starre and light approacheth to dimme the candles turning with Heliogabalus night into day and day into night their appetite makes raw digestion and their foule stomackes by being over-loaden doe surfet the meate which is left behind in the dish is more behoofefull and healthfull to the Cormorant or intemperate Epicure then that which he devoures Plures occidit gula quam gladius The two fore-fingers and the thumbe Kill more then battaile sword or gunne The earth ayre and water afford not enough for their gluttony and though sawcy Art second Nature nor eye nor desire is satisfyed the creatures groane under their grosse abuse these are swinish Epicures prodigall consumers of Gods blessings Tobacco the never unseasonable Tobacco the all-usefull Tobacco good for meate drinke and cloathing as they say good for cold heate and all diseases this must sharpen their appetites before meate must heate it at their meare and close up their stomacke after meate being the onely curious antipast sauce and post-past wine and beere must wash downe the stench of that weede and it againe must dry up their moyst fumes PAR. 10. ANother sort there is who call themselves the generation of the Iust that fall into the other extreame who are as unhospitable as Caucasus as covetous as Euclio these to save spending spend whole Festivalls in the saving hearing as they cal it of the word and to turne out their poore friends and kinred shut up their doores and pricke up their eares to needlesse repetitions Fasting on the Lords day is affected because good cheare is costly an health at their owne table is damnation though they will carowze foure times the quantity even to the overthrow of health at another mans board Some will lay up more devout Peter-pence at the yeares end out of thirty pound certainely with the voluntary contributions then charitable hospitable men can doe with 200. pounds per annum the roote of all evill yeelds them their desired fruite and they live as if Mammon were the onely God they serve and lecture it onely to picke up Mammon Mammon may be had and kept and used without sinne yet Mammon must not be served for yee cannot serve God and a Mat. 6.24 Mammon PAR. 11. BVt happy is he who keepeth the middesse first for meate what need a Christian solicitously provide for that which makes his ordure Secondly for sauce S. Bernard alloweth no sauce but salt a stomacke dieted to a continuall appetite is the best sauce b Clem. Alexandâ— paeda 2.1 Clemens Alexandrinns saith they doe effeminate bread who sift away the branne I am sure the one-way bread the second bread groweth not mouldy so soone and is both heartier and passeth speedyer through the body As for drinke
hee would have extolled them above the Rhodian bunches Mr John Sanderson our country man travelling 1601. as Purchas hath it pag. 1635. relateth In the valley of Escholl at this day there are grapes one bunch of them will weigh of our weight about twenty or one and twenty pounds The holy Scripture Num. 13.24 recordeth that the Spies came to the River of Escholl and cut downe thence a branch with one cluster of grapes and they bare it on a barre betwixt two Lest the heavenly Scripture may suffer prejudice and be thought hyperbolicall where it is apparently literall I thinke fit to adde in another quarter of the world namely in Africa as you may finde in the second booke of Iohannes Leo and in Purchas from him pag. 779. viz. in Tagodast a City seated on the top of a Mountaine That the Grapes thereof are red and are for their bignesse called in the language of that people Hennes Egges which is meant of the severall particular grapes not of the severall bunches for even our cold climates have bunches as bigge as three or foure Hens egges And now suppose that three hundred such single Grapes grew upon one branch may it not be carried betweene two upon one colt-staffe So much on the by to explaine a seeming difficulty of Scripture and yet I opine that the messengers did carry on the barre between them some Pomegranates and Figges also as is in the same verse which might be so many as to make a just and portable shoulder-burthen I cannot omit this parallell digression because it gravelled mee in my youth before I came to taste of Rhetoricke or much humane learning Iudg. 20.16 of seven hundred men left handed every one could sling stones at an hares bredth and not misse Peter Martyr Tremellius and others are wholly for the hyperbole And indeed I see no reason why the Divine Scripture may not use an hyperbole as well as humane authors if not better as certainly it doth in diverse places But since wee can finde examples in profane stories which do almost equall this even in truth of things done though the heavenly prescripts be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be beleeved for themselves yet the additament of humane authority to a doubting minde will make the Seripture more credible and more seemingly reasonable There was one who before Alexander the Great shewed extraordinary dexterity by standing a pretty distance off and did sling a pease into and through the hole of a board which hole was very little bigger than the pease it selfe One Aster did grave on the shaft of his arrow Aster Philippo and with that arrow stroke out one of Phillips eyes See Strabo lib. 8. and Plutarch reporting this to have happened to Philip Alexander the Great his father If it were not for like performances it were incredible what Damianus à Goes pag. 200. saith of those of Lâ—spland for their admirable skill Also Florus 3.8 saith thus of the Ilands of Majorca and Minorca in Bello Balearico Every man fighting hath three darts who can mervell that they strike so certainly when darts are their onely weapons and they study nothing else but to be apt slingers The mothers give not meate to their children till they have hit the marke shee appointeth Iohannes Stadius on that place of Florus in his Commentary saith some thinke they were called Baleares a studio per fundos feriendi from their study and practise in exquisite striking of the marke by stones from their slings Livy in diverse bookes mentioneth the great skill of the Baleareans for slingers yet in his 38. booke he preferreth before those Ilanders certaine men of Aegium Patre Dimae townes of Achaia and saith of these latter They were so skilfull that they would a great way off sling a bullet through a garlands rings and small hoopes nay they would be sure to hit not onely the head of the enemie but any part of his face they aimed at and never faile So farre Livy who so beleeveth these strange relations neede not much doubt of the words of sacred Scripture Judg. 20.16 Purchas in his Pilgrimage of Africa 9.9 pag. 1499. thus historisieth of the Arabians Their horses are leane little swift laborious and bold and the horsemen active beyond beleefe darting and catching with the hand the same dart in the horses swiftest race before it commeth to the ground also taking up weapons lying on the ground while the horse is running and in like swift race hit the smallest marke with Arrow or Sling Who so beleeveth c. I returne Ioseph Scaliger goeth on Hebraei epulis sacrificii functi secundis mensis gratias Deo agebâ—nt potionem circumferebant id quoque bodie retinent So he The Hebrewes were wont at the banquets of the sacrifice and second course to say Grace and to drinke round a Cup of Charitie which custome they keepe even at this day PAR. 4. POst poculum bymnus cantabatur saith Scaliger after he Grace-Cup they used to sing a Psalme If he meanes it of the Iewes he saith true if of Christ and his Apostles then he misseth his marke for the hymne mentioned in the new Testament was not sung till the end of the third Supper till they had received the Eucharist For when they had sung an Hymne they went out into the mountaine of Olives Matth. 26.30 And yet perhaps they might sing a little Hymne at the end of the second Supper concerning which I intend to speake hereafter Solenne fuit antiquis Israelitis sacra celeberrimaque Cantica Cantica à vini degustatione nichoare saith Montanus on Judg. 9. pag. 367. It was the usuall custome amongst the ancient Israelites after they had drunke a Cup of wine to beginne some sacred and choyce Psalmes PAR. 5 THey gave thankes they dranke wine they did eate they discoursed and all this was done in the first quarter of an houre in the second Supper But what was their discourse Or why did Christ take occasion to wash their feete I answer we can know neither of these things infallibly and demonstratively Secondly I answer if we knew no ground of it nor could guesse at the reason of it wee may well presume Christ did wash his disciples feete on great just momentuall motives For many things he knew cause why he did so or not so though they be hid from us And we must not be too inquisitive when he is silent Before I come to demonstration I must proceede upon three foundations probable enough First that the Apostles might fall out or strive upon severall occasions though none be expressely mentioned Seven guests make a feast but nine feasters make a brawle or are scandalous saith the old proverbe Many harmelesse occurrences might engender debate Secondly that there was controversie betweene them now especially in theÌ„ second Supper about superioritie is most probable PAR. 6. THirdly that S. Luke toucheth at their contention Luk. 22.24 I hold very likely For though he placeth the
his sake who is the propitiation for the sinnes of the whole world even Iesus Christ the righteous to whom with the holy Father and blessed Spirit be ascribed all power all thankes all wisedome and all other good things for ever and ever so be it Amen The Synopsis or summe of All. And now having ended the second Supper give me leave as it were in a Picture to present it unto your eyes as I did the first Supper 1. THe same faire Upper-chamber was well furnished still 2. The same Table was in it almost foure-square decent adorned where they tooke their common repast 3. Three bed-steds still with good furniture incompassing three sides of the bed on which they might either sit or lye downe for their greatest and best ease 4. Great store of water standing by 5. Unleavened bread sufficient 6. The Remainders of the Paschall-Lambe not removed 7. Store of wine salt and other sauce in all conveniencie still on the same Table and Table-cloth Then 8. Rost meates sod meates baked meates stewed meates as I sayd before Esculenta Poculenta Condimenta of great variety brought in by the same Administrants for the second Supper The 2. Supper began 9. Christ and his twelve Apostles eating frugally and discoursing heavenly about one quarter of an houre 10. Contentions arising among the Apostles for superiority 11. Christ then arose from the second Supper put off his cloathes girded himselfe washed and wiped his Apostles feete All of them 12. Put on his cloathes againe lay downe and preached humility to them both by word and deede 13. This Pedilavium or washing with the discourse concerning it tooke up another quarter of an houre and upward 14. The third quarter of an houre or more before the end of the second Supper was spent in the further detection of Iudas and sealed up with an exact demonstrative discovery of the Traytor by Christs delivering of a sop to him and his taking of it 15. This Sop was not the blessed Eucharist 16. Here the second and usuall supper ended 17. Satan entred into Iudas 18. Christ separated Iudas 19. The Apostles were ignorant what Christ meant by those words to Iudas What thou doest doe quickely 20. They mis-interpreted them 21. Judas his Egresse when it was Night 22. They gave thankes at the end of the second Supper 23. They had a Grace-Cup 24. And if they sung an Hymne it was a short one 25. Thus about sixe of the clocke they began to eate the Paschall Supper which lasted not much above one quarter of that houre 26. The second Supper lasted above three quarters of an houre and about one quarter of an houre after seven in the Night both the Paschall and usuall Supper were fully and perfectly dispached and transacted When I have handled the third Supper I hope in God to remove the curtaine of obscuritie and folded preplexities and to shew you a true picture drawne almost to life of the things done and appeartaining to that Most Sacred Supper of the Lord. Deus in adjutorium meum intende Lord be thou my helper Amen FINIS TRICOENIUM CHRISTI WHEREIN THE THIRD AND LAST SUPPER OF OUR LORD IS HANDLED LIBER TERTIUS Manu ducat me Iêsus Christe juva Ignoto feror aequore plenaque ventis Vela dedi totus langueo Christe juva Aut doce Aut disce Aut cupientem prodesse patere Monuit Robertus Cenalis Episcopus Abrincensis LONDON Printed for Andrew Crooke at the green Dragon in Saint Pauls Church yard 1641. This third Book is the third Generall part of my propounded method Wherin is contained 1. A Preface 2. A Tractate wherin is shewed 1. Reasons of the word Tricoenium and why I call this work Tricoenium Christi 2. Divers differences between the Agapae and the Third Supper or Supper of the Lord. 3. The use of the Holy Kisse at the Lords Supper Chap. 1. 4. Certaine Reasons why the Sacred Eucharist was substituted to the aetetnall disannulling of the Passeover Chap. 2. 5. What course our Saviour took in the perfecting of his Third or Last Supper And therein is shewed 1. After what words Christ began this Third or Last Supper A digression 1. Concerning the division of the Bible into Chapters Verses 2. Against filthy prophaners of Churches Church-yards 3. Against Conventicles Chap. 3. 2. It was instituted in the same large upper roome wherein they ate the Paschall and Common Supper 3. It was not whilst the Apostles were eating the Second or Common Supper but After That Supper 4. It was instituted on a Table 5. On a distinct Table Chap. 4. 6. Whether Christ himselfe received the blessed Eucharist 7. What posture Christ used when he consecrated the Eucharist Chap. 5. And therein I consider his 1. Actions 1. He took bread 2. He blessed it 3. He brake it 4. He gave it to his Disciples 2. Words implyed in these words And said 1. Take 2. Eate 3. This is my Body c. Chap. 6 8. What Gesture the Apostles used in Receiving the holy Eucharist Chap. 7. 9. What Gesture we are to use at the receiving of it 10. What Names have beene given to the blessed Eucharist 11. What Speeches were spoken by our Saviour after the Third Supper before he departed out of the Coenaculum Chap. 8. A PRAYER ETernall and only wise God because on the one side Satan standeth with danger in his hands and laboureth to inveigle us to search into curious and needlesse matters and on the other side standeth our naturall lazinesse with distrust making men beleeve they can never finde out such truthes as indeed may be found I humbly beseech thee O gracious God and giver of all good gifts to preserve me from both of these extremes and grant unto me good Lord that I may abhorre to looke after things unsearchable super subtile and above my reach which lie hid within the closet of thy breast and yet may with all holy and reverent industry proceed to the finding out of Thee Thyself in and by thy Truth even Iesus Christ my alone Saviour and Redeemer Amen TRICAENIUM CHRISTI LIB III. CAP. I. Which containes the first second and third Generals Wherein is shewed 1. Reasons of the word Tricaenium 2. Differences between the Agapae and Third Supper 3. Use of the holy Kisse 1. A Praeface by way of Admonition to the Vnlearned Invocation of the Learned 2. Reasons of the word Tricaenium and why I call this Work Tricaenium Christi A threefold Supper farther proved The Papists offended for calling the third Supper the Supper of the Lord. A deviation concerning Maldonat the Jesuite his Life and Doctrine The ancient Fathers both Latine and Greeke call the third Supper the Supper of the Lord. 3. A discourse concerning the Agapae or Feasts of Charity They succeeded in the place of the Chagigah or second Supper When Eaten The Eucharist before Tertullians dayes eaten in the Morning the Agapae in the Evening The Eucharist and Agapae in the Primitive
the Eucharist which likewise he did not need nor want To this last point he either answereth nothing which he seldome doth or else it was suppressed by higher authority or his answer is involved in these words Quicquid de hoc sit and in this sense whether Christ received the blessed Sacrament or received it not I will not now speak I will passe it over or the like Aquinas Parte 3. Quaest 81. Articulo 1. handleth this point scholastically Whether Christ took his own Body and Blood And with his authorities and reasons is for the Affirmative though he saith Others think the contrary Soto likewise 4. Sententiarum Distinctione 12. Quaest. 2. Articulo 1. propoundeth the same quick question Whether Christ did Receive his own Body and Blood And he answereth stealing almost all from Aquinas There have not been wanting who have said Christ gave his Body to his Disciples but himselfe took it not Luther de Abrogandâ Missâ privatâ resolveth Christ took not that blessed Sacrament and thence collecteth if Soto belye him not that other Priests ought not to take it but to give Both kinds to the Laity If Luther so said Soto well reproveth him and confuteth him because by Luthers argument the Priests are of worse condition and in a worse state than the people Which none but a popular Claw-back or Calfe of the people will say Aquinas his Inference is much sounder Because the Ministers with us receive it first therefore we conclude Christ first took it For say I Christ commanded us to do as He did And the Church evermore since Christs time doing so that is the Priests not giving the blessed Sacrament till themselves had first received it followeth unforcedly that Christ took it first There be many Canons of the Church which command the Priests first of all to receive So is it in the Councell of Toledo If they that Sacrifice eate not they are guilty of the Lords Sacrament 1 Corinth 10.18 Are not they which eate of the Sacrifices partakers of the Altar For if to participate be to eate and the Sacrificers be the chiefe partakers it resulteth They must first eate The like was practised in the old Law The Priest was served even of the peoples offrings before the people themselves 1 Sam. 2.13 c. If you say that was but an usurpation and prophanation of Ely his sonnes then see the Law it selfe Leviticus 6.25 Where the burnt offring is killed shall the sin-offring be killed before the Lord it is most holy and verse 26. The Priest that offereth it for Sinne shall eate it Leviticus 7.29 c. You may see the Priests portion of the Peace-offrings by a statute for ever Numbers 15.20 Yee shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough Of the first of your dough yee shall give unto the Lord Vers 21. But especially see Deut. 18.3 4. verses and Numb 18.9 c. What God reserved for Aaron his sonnes daughters and house-hold that were cleane All the best of the oyle All the best of the wine and of the wheate the First fruits of them that offer and whatsoever is First ripe in the Land The people of the old Law shall rise up in Judgement against Our people who think the least and worst things are too good for the Clergy though God hath committed to us the word of Reconciliation and given us a power above Angels and Archangels in those most powerfull un-metaphoricall proper words John 20.23 Whosesoever sins yee Remit they are remitted unto them and whosesoever sins yee Retaine they are retained The people of the Law enjoyed not Their part till the Priests had first Their parts not ought Our people to participate of our sacred offerings Till the Priests have taken Their parts Soto his proofe for the Affirmative is a ridiculous one David fuit figura hujus David was a figure hereof who 1 Samuel 21.13 c. before Achish Suis se manibus referebat sic Christus suum corpus suis tenebat manibus suo sumebat ore So Christ held his owne body in his hands and received it with his mouth I answer there are no such words nor words tending to that purpose in the Vulgar either of Hentenius or Saint-andreanus or in Vatablus or the Interlineary nor in the Greeke or Hebrew Nor can I judge from what words in that Chapter Soto did gather his wild protasis or first part of the typicall comparison A weake proofe doth harme to a good cause and so hath Soto done in this point The authority of Hierom in his Epistle to Hedibia de Decem quaestionibus quaestione 2. Tomo 3. fol. 49. reacheth home Dominus Iesus Ipse conviva et convivium ipse comedens qui comeditur The Lord Jesus was himselfe both guest and feast He was both eater and thing eaten Act. 1.1 Iesus began to doe and teach his actions led the way his voyce followed He first Received then Administred He first celebrated the Eucharist then made his Sermon in coenaculo or Sermon in the Supping Chamber Before be Instituted his Baptisme he was Baptized When he said to his Apostles Doe this in remembrance of me if followeth he did take it First Himselfe The Glosse on Ruth 3. saith Christ did eate and drinke That Supper when he delivered the Sacrament of his Body and Blood to his Disciples Soto bringeth this objection When Christ said Take and Eate the question is Whether He did eate or no If you say He had eaten this is against that opinion because he had not Then consecrated the bread For by the subsequent words he did consecrate and say This is my body If He had not eaten then it is apparent He did not before his Disciples For reaching it to them he said This is my Body I answer saith Soto He first broke the bread into Thirteene pieces which when he had in a dish together in his hands He said Take eate this is my body receiving his own part First For he kept Feast with them and the nature of a Feast requireth that the Inviter feed with the Invited He fed with them in the First Supper He dranke with them in the Second Supper In the Best Supper and the Supper which was most properly his Owne did he nor Eate nor Drinke Barradius thus Accepit ex mensâ panem azymum benedixit in partes Duodecem fregit eas consecravit unam sumpsit reliquas distribuit He tooke from the Table unleavened bread He blessed it He brake it into twelve parts He consecrated it One He tooke the Other he distributed Therefore even our adversary being our judge He was at a Table Iudas was not present for then there should have been Thirteene pieces or morsels Christ himselfe received himselfe So they cannot tax me for these opinions or these opinions for novelty but they must needs condemne Barradius and diverse others of their own side Chrysostome homilia 83. on Matthew 26. Christ dranke himselfe
when he said Drink yee all of this lest the hearers should say Why drinke I blood and eate flesh To keepe them from being troubled at it as they were troubled when many fell off from him he dranke his own blood first himselfe So Titus hath it the Abbreviator of him Isychius on Leviticus 8. as I guesse verse 23. Moses tooke of the blood of the Ramme and put it upon the tip of Aarons right eare and on the thumbe of his right hand and upon the toe of his right foot And verse 24. He did the like afterwards to Aarons Sonnes Not onely on their thumbes but verse 27 He put oyle upon Aarons hands and upon his Sonnes hands Not onely on his hands But verse 30. Moses tooke of the annointing Oyle and of the blood which was on the Altar and sprinckled it upon Aaron first and his garments and upon his Sonnes and his Sonnes Garments and sanctified both Aaron and his Sonnes and their Garments Isychlus addeth Christ in that Supper first dranke his blood Then gave it to his Disciples Yea but it is not read that he ate his Body and dranke his blood Soto answereth It is read that He Tooke the bread He Tooke the Cup and though it must be expounded He Tooke them into his hand or hands yet it is not said He tooke them into his hands onely but He tooke them himselfe as he commanded his Disciples to take them Therefore when he said to them Take eate drinke so when He tooke them it is deducible He did after the same manner eate and drinke The old Rimer before cited is authentique enough in this last point Se tenet in manibus se cibat Ipse cibus Christ in his hands Himselfe did bring The Food and Feeder being one thing Soto bringeth another objection Betweene the Receiver and the thing Received there is a Division But Christ is not divided from himselfe Therefore he could not take himselfe It is answered saith he Christ is not compared to the place by his proper Dimensions but by the Dimensions of the severall Species so that wheresoever They are there is his body and blood Therefore because he had the bread and wine in his mouth and stomach when he ate Them he did eate himselfe And to this there needs no division between the receiver and the received PAR. 2. A Third Objection by him urged is this There is a double eating of the Sacrament Spirituall Sacramentall Christ needed not the spirituall receiving for he received no Grace from the Sacrament The Sacramentall reception is improper proper to sinners onely and so unfit for Christ He answereth with Aquinas Christ received himselfe both Spiritually and Sacramentally And so before Aquinas Alexander Hales settled at last in that opinion For though Christ received no increase of Grace or Charity by the Sacrament because he needed none yet he received a spirituall Taste and sweet enjoying of Delight which are effects of this Sacrament So he tooke it also Sacramentally To take it Sacramentally without increase of Grace hapneth from hence that the Receiver Then is not capable of Grace And this may come to passe two wayes Either because he puts an impediment or block against it as he is a sinner or because a man is so full of Grace that he cannot receive an Increase of Grace as Christ was Much of this discourse proceeded from the learned Dominicus Soto Confessor to Charles the Fist which because he most inlargeth Aquinas I have translated and cleared and inlarged him To conclude let me adde that Christ might well take the blessed Eucharist himselfe for example sake to Teach us what we should doe who may recieve much good by taking it and should imitate him by taking it first our selves before we administer it unto Others For thus did he doe diverse Actions in his life to Teach us to doe the like Gregorius de Valentia Tom. 4. in Tertiam partem Thomae Disputat 6. Quastione 9. Puncto 1. pag. 1095. agreeth with Soto and useth most of his arguments producing nothing of his owne Cajetan in his Commentaries in Tertiam partem Thomae Quaest 82. seemeth to approve Durand for saying That the Apostles though they did concaenare cum Christo yet they did not concelebrare Christ did it by himselfe the Apostles did not assist him in Consecration but he leaveth Aquinas without exposition in the maine point Whether Christ are his owne Body and dranke his own Blood Franciscus Lucas Brugensis on Matth. 26. saith in these words Christus ipse comêdit priusquam discipuli ejus qui tamen non comêdit priusquam pronuntiasset haec verba Hoc est corpus meum Christ did Eate before his Apostles did yet did he not Eate before he had said This is my Body Lastly all the Fathers who say Christ communicated with Iudas are clearely for the Affirmative If by these words My Fathers Kingdome Matth. 26.29 and these The Kingdome of God Mark 14.25 the blessed Eucharist be pointed at and meant as is likely then apparent it is Himselfe dranke of his owne blood in the sacred Eucharist for he professed He would drinke no more of the fruit of the Vine but onely in the holy Eucharist Bishop Lake in his Sermon upon Matth. 26.26 c. saith It may well be presumed that Christ did receive it Himselfe For in his owne person he did sanctifie and honour both Circumcision and the Passcover Also he was baptized and sanctified the water of Jordan Why should we question his Taking of the Eucharist That he did so needed not to be expressed because of the correspondency of This Sacrament to That of the Passeover Indeed Christ needed not partake But by his owne participation he gave vertue to all the Sacraments So he needed not to die for Himselfe but he dyed for us To this effect that holy and learned Prelate now a great Saint in heaven PAR. 3. I Now come to the next points unexpressed 1. What Posture Christ used when he consecrated the Eucharist 2. What Gesture They used when they Tooke it Of which in the seventh Chapter Some there are who say That all the Gestures which we use in religious worship may be brought to Two heads Some belong to Hope as first the Lifting up of the eyes which doe crave or expect some good thing Secondly the Lifting up of the hands to reach at mercy offered or set forth The other Gestures belong to Humiliation as the Uncovering of the head is as the laying downe of the crowne glory and majesty that Man hath and a baring of Mans merit or emptying himselfe of worth to give it to the party worshipped Secondly the beating of the Breast shewing that in it is sin which ought to be expectorated Thirdly Bowing of the Knee which is a great token of the hearts contrition But somewhat is defective in this Dichotomy of which more fully hereafter I returne to the Queres Concerning the first Remember what I writ in the
first spoken by Moses and applied by Moses to the first times so soone as Man was created and so continually dispersed into the History of the other Patriarcks Moses delighting in his prerogative of first knowing the the name of Iehova as Lawyers may more eloquently utter the Laws of the 12 Tables which were in rude Latin long before in the more refined and fuller expressions of latter times Or like Historians and Poëts who ascribe the name of Iove and Ioves words and deeds to the first beginning of times though Iove had no being till after the Flood of Noah and therefore no name So Moses might write according to the most cleare Revelations of his time what was done and said in other termes not so energeticall long before to the Patriarcks If this please you not what say you to a second way May not the words be read by way of Interrogation which is as good as a strong and vehement affirmation By the name of Iehova was not I known to them As if he had said yes certainly I was as may be seen in their particular stories and passages of their time And I have elso established my Covenant with them Exod. 6.4 Even by that name Jehova Gen. 15.1 2 4 6 7 8 verses For I pray you consider God here speaketh not to diminish the reputation of Abraham Isaac and Jacob but to the great glory of their names and persons with whom first hee established the Covenant made with them for the Jews And therefore Ignorance of God or nesciency of his great Name cannot be handsomely ascribed to those Patriarcks in this place where the knowledge and ratification of Gods Covenant and Gods familiarity with them are reckoned as their glorious priviledges above all other men of those times Did not Abraham see Christs day a far off Did he not rejoyce at the sight of it Was God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob above other men and they esteemed as the Living and not as Dead shall we rest in Abrahams bosome and eat and drink with Abraham in the Kingdom of Heaven than which prerogatives none ever had greater and more except our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who also came of Abraham and was promised particularly to Abraham that in his seed that is as the Apostle saith not in his seeds but in Christ all the Nations of the World should be blessed and shall Abraham be ignorant of the name Jehova which both Caine knew at first and every Jew and Christian now knows I cannot so undervalew those Patriarcks majorum Gentium Besides though not a Sentence not a Word not a Letter not a jot of Scripture can now be lost or perish yet the note of an Interrogation or a Comma a Colon a Mark or a Pause might be omitted long since For was not all Scripture written without both points and vowels at first If you say the marke of an Interrogation being wanting leadeth us to perplexities to diversity yea contrariety of senses I answer Do not full many words in the Hebrew Bible signifie contrary things exciting our studious minds to a search of the most probable matters and meaning whilst the truth is known to God alone Even thus might it be with this passage Where the note of an Interrogation might either be wholly omitted at first or casually unobsetved and left out by the first Transcribers or Translators and this might lead men into Ignorance ever since and yet no imperfection is to be imputed unto Gods Word nor is it blameable for any deficiency And therefore I conclude according to the Rules of Aristotle Top. 6. cap ult Let this exposition stand and be beleeved till better be invented and come in place And then let the clearest light of truth have his due that is perswasion And let the lesse yeeld and obey the greater If you expect authorities averring that Idolatry was not before the Flood I refer you to the learned Salianus in divers places especially in anno Mundi 250 and to the learned Scholia ibid. who citeth for me and for the negative Cyril Alexandrinus contra Julianum libro primo Irenaeus 5.29 and divers others Besides such whom my wearinesse commandeth me to omit that I may returne from extravagances to the right way and method propounded by me And so because there was no Idolatry before the Flood and Kings at least eminent men of high renown and worth were long before the times of the Flood or Idolatry I conclude Kings Princes Dukes and other men of venerable account for their goodnesse in making Cities governing of Nations and founding Common-weales had not the beginnings of their Adoration from the worship exhibited to Idols Statues Images or Pictures but rather those Simulacra were Adored because they were the representations of Kings Princes or other people beloved and revered who both in their lives and after their deaths were Adored And yet to make the best interpretation that I may of Mr. Seldens words whom for his depth and variety of learning I admire Let my consent run along thus far by his side That the later Kings and Heroës might perhaps have had their Adorations from some kind of Adoration derived from Idoles and yet the first Idols had their primitive Adoration from the Adoration of Kings and other people of esteem which were before Idolatry When Christ Worshipped and Adored God as doubtlesse he did full often I think He fell down on his Face No Gesture could be more convenient at the celebration of the holy Sacrament For we cannot think otherwise but that Christ used almost all possible meanes to make the Apostles attentive to him and stirred them up to the consideration of so stupendious mysteries that they might be better prepared to the holy receiving of them Among Gestures exciting and raising up of Devotion the falling down upon ones Face is most forcible either in seeing it so done by others or in practising it our selves The dejection and prostration of the body is the elevation of the soule and a meanes to sanctifie and quicken the spirit When he took the bread and gave thankes for thankes hee gave Luke 22.19 I cannot think otherwise but he lifted up his Eyes and Hands to Heaven So did he in lesser matters for when he multiplied the five loaves he looked up to Heaven and blessed and brake and gave the loaves to his Disciples And can we now think He looked on the Earth and not up to Heaven when he gave Thanks and blessed the Food of life for us When he brake the bread and gave it It is likeliest he stood on his Feet and might move from one to another or reach it to every one severally So did the Pater familias or chiefe of the Feast among the Jews stand and distribute the bread at their sollemne meetings as the Rabbins affirme When hee consecrated the Bread saying Take eat this is my Body which is given for you Do this in remembrance
house with great plagues because of Sarai Abrahams wife Gen. 12 1â— though Pharaoh had committed no evill with her The other King was Abimelech to whom God came by dreame in a night and said Thou art a dead man for Sarah whom thou hast taken Gen. 20.3 Yet Abimelech had not come neere her ver 4. Abraham is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee ver 7. And Abraham prayed unto God and God healed Abimelech and his wife and maid-servants and they bare children For the Lord had fast-closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech ver 17 18. The like may be said of Isaac whom Abimelech so revered that he charged all his people sayin He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death Gen. 26.11 And both he and his people confessed that Isaac was now the blessed of the Lord ver 29. God hath the like care of Ioseph and he was a prosperous man And Potiphar saw that the Lord was with him and That the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand Gen. 39 3 5. And the Keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand because the Lord was with Ioseph and that which he did the Lord made to prosper ver 23. Pharaoh made much of Ioseph and God prospered both Pharaoh and his kingdome through Iosephs meanes And Ioseph may well be accounted a Prophet for Ioseph had a Cup by which indeed he divineth saith the Steward of Iosephs house Gen. 44.5 And if indeed he did Divine he was a Prophet yea one of those Prophets pointed at by the Psalmograph as followeth in Psal 10. â— in the next verses where Ioseph is particularly named He was blessed in himselfe and a reall blessing to others When Christ blessed the five loaves and two fishes Luke 9.16 Benedictione augebat eos multiplicabat by the blessing he increased and they began to multiply immediately upon Christs benediction of them increased more at his fraction multiplied yet more as he gave them to the Disciples ascended to a greater augmentation as the Disciples gave them to the people growing still in quantity as the people held or beheld them Lastly it is like also they did increase even in their mouthes and as they did eat them Nor were the five loave made more loaves or the two fishes increased in number for then it had been improperly said that they all did eat and were filled with five loaves and two fishes if the loaves and fishes were more in number as if from every stalke seven eares came up full and good so from every loafe more loaves did arise and from every fish more fishes But each piece or mouthfull of every one of these did grow greater And as some wells do fill the rather and swell the more by haâ—ing water often drawne from them or as fountaine water continually floweth and what you take up from it filleth again with a kind of usurious increase so every parcell of bread or fish did grow as Butchers say of young fat meat did plim or grow till it came to their eating As God Blesseth so Christ Blesseth For his Blessing never consisted in meer words but was effectuall in operation conveying reall good unto the blessed For though the Blessing of the bread was not properly the Consecration of his body yet it was an antecedent Preparative a dispositive Adaptation not void or vaine or inefficacious perhaps accompanied with prayers perhaps with thanksgiving perhaps with both The Benediction of Parents though it be but a prayer most times yet it returneth not empty but many times imparteth blessednesse yea Alwayes if the Recipient be well prepared The Sacerdotall Benediction is not Onely a plaine good prayer but wholly and altogether hath a certaine power and efficacy of the Key Loosing and Absolving saith Illirycus Who would have invocated the doctrine of the Keyes if he could have found but a little hole Open or a little crack or flaw But Christs Benediction as it was mighty in operation so it consisted in part as well of Thankesgiving as of Prayers For though S. Matthew and S. Mark have the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and apply it to the Bread onely Matth. 26.26 Mark 14.22 And though S. Paul 1 Corinth 10.16 calleth the Sacred Cup the Cup of Blessing which we Blesse yet S. Paul 1 Corinth 11.24 useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so doth the Evangelist Luk. 22.19 He tooke bread and gave thankes and brake it Giving of Thankes and Blessing are sometimes of one and the same signification as is evidenced 1 Corinth 14.16 When thou shalt Blesse with the Spirit how shall he who occupieth the roome of the unlearned say Amen at thy Giving of thankes where Blessing and Giving of Thankes are confounded Piscators observation on the 1 Corinth cap. 10. vers 16. is good Poculum illud Benedictionis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That cup of Blessing The words in the Syriac are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cosó haú dothaudithó id est Poculum illud Gratiarum actionis That Cup of Giving of Thankes And so it is read in Tremelius Syriac translation of the New Testament Vbi observa Syrum nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exponere per nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et sanè in Institutione sacrae Coenae duo ista verba 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uno eodemque sensu accipiuntur Where observe saith Piscator on that place that the Syriac expoundeth the word which signifieth Blessing by a word which signifieth Giving of Thankes And verily in the Institution of the holy Supper those two words of Blessing and Giving of Thankes are to be taken in One and the selfesame signification God doth not blesse with Giving of Thankes or Prayers to man Christ blessed creatures reasonable and unreasonable sometimes with Giving of Thankes sometimes with Prayer Thankes to God Prayers for the things to be blessed Man may be said in a nice way to blesse God yet not Give him Thankes Then but God may be blessed by prayer alone At another time he may be blessed by Thankesgiving alone without Prayer Commonly it is done by the coadunation of both duties For no otherwise can we blesse God or conferre good on him But we can Thanke him and Pray to him and keepe his Commandements The Jewes did use the word Benedicere to governe both a Dative and an Accusative case As Benedicere Deo and Benedicere Deum The Romans doe restraine the use more to the Dative The Graecians construe it with the Accusative As the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord is called the Eucharist from Christs giving of Thankes when he did institute it and Justin Martyr in his second Apology tearmeth the Sacrament Eucharistizatum panem the bread which is sanctified by Giving of Thankes or rather cibum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the
bread of nourishment And Irenaeus 4.34 Ille panis in quo gratiae actae sunt est corpus Domini that bread In which or On which or Over which Christ gave Thankes is the Body of the Lord. So was both Bread and Wine blessed even the very materials and the Fathers insist more upon the Benediction than on the Thankesgiving In Celebration of the blessed Sacrament the duties of Blessing and Thankesgiving seeme to be all One though they may and are at other times divided In giving of Thankes Christ blessed in blessing the bread he gave Thankes Eusebius Emissenus Homilia 5 de Paschate Quanta vis divinae Benedictionis ut in Christi substantiam divina elementa mutentur Oh how great is the power of Christs divine Benediction that changeth the divine Elements into Christs substance Ambrose de iis qui initiantur cap. 9. answereth in a sort Greater is the power of Blessing than of nature because by the Blessing Nature her selfe is changed Blesse me sweet Lord and change my Nature into Grace He blessed some bread to multiply it and it did multiply as if it had had vegetation sense or reason Neither was the Crescite and multiplicamini Increase and multiply so fruitfull For of five loaves and two fishes which he Blessed Matth. 14.19 All did eate and were filled above five thousand in all and there was more left than was in store before they fed But here Christ blessed the bread separating it from common use elevating it above its nature and imparting to it spirituall vertue When Men blesse God it is but an higher degree of Thankesgiving if I may so call it For our Goodnesse reacheth not to him we can convey no good to him we may by blessing God and thanking him doe good to our owne soules bodies and estates to our children kindred friends and benefactors The Greater properly Blesseth the Lesser Not the Lesser the Greater Whensoever either Christ blessed God or Man did doth or shall blesse him Benediction is nothing else but Thankesgiving and praysing and speaking good of him And of the two rather Giving of Thankes is comprized in Benediction and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than Benediction is all one with Thankesgiving or Benedicere be interpreted Gratias agere Christ never blessed any Creature but it received good by him in one kinde and degree or other But Benedicere nostrum non est causale as Christs blessing was sed recognoscitivum seu expressivum Wee Thanke God and utter our desires Man never blessed man or Creatures so that the very Benediction was not a Thankesgiving to them but rather a Prayer for them and a Thankesgiving to God Christs Giving of Thankes when he administred the Sacrament was Thankes to God alone not to Men not to the Sacrament And the Benediction did not onely blesse God but blessed the subject matter the Bread and the Wine contained in the Cup the Cup it selfe being said to be blessed by the Metaphor of continens pro contento The elementall Sacramentals had an induing some way or other with heavenly vertue The Jewes had distinct Graces for their Suppers And no doubt Christ was more devout in Thankesgiving to God than the Jewes were He is a Jew who denieth this truth Therefore Christs Thankesgiving in the Celebration of the Eucharist was not an Ordinary Giving of Thankes as is before all other meales but more Divine and Operatively energeticall suting with so heavenly mysteries Christs Benediction of the bread was not principally the Consecration of it but a kinde of preparative prayer before the Consecration Lyranus Hugo Innocentius say the Benediction was the Consecration Benedixit ipsum panem saith Maldonate Ambrose Hic est panis quem Benedictio consecravit This is the bread consecrated by the Blessing saith he in Libro de iis qui initiantur cap. 9. Barradius saith Ambrose taketh Benedictionem Latè and inferreth If after Blessing Christ instituted the Sacrament then the blessing was not the Consecration Truely may I say the Blessing and Thankesgiving was not the full intire Consecration but onely the former part of it Amongst men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Blessing before eating sanctifying the meate ere it be taken by prayer to God and daily doe we blesse the Table as our phrase is that is the meate on the Table or the whole Meale though all the dishes be not brought in and this is the properest and best use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After meate is a Thankesgiving rather for the Creatures received than a Sanctification of them And it may be Christ did both Blesse Before he did eate and drinke and gave God Thankes After one time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though the manner of Christs Benediction be not recorded in Scripture yet we cannot well thinke it was in words onely Excluding all solemnity of Ceremony denying his Ocular Elevation rejecting the Imposition of his Hands which he was wont to doe in Benediction He laid his Hands on little children and blessed them Mark 10.13 So did he in healing the sicke Mark 6.5 He laid his Hand on a few sicke folk and healed them So Luke 4.40 Sure I am that he lift up his Hands when he Blessed his Apostles Luk. 24.50 And his Apostles were wont to consecrate people to divine services by Imposition of Hands 1 Timoth. 5.22 Lay Hands sodainly on no man He doth not speake in Sensu forensi of Laying on of hands as he Laid his hands on me that is he strooke me But in sensu Ecclesiastico as the Holy Spirit teacheth us for Consecration as Timothy himselfe was used who received a gift by prophecy With the Laying on of Hands 1 Timoth. 4.14 In the old Law they had diverse Heave offrings or Wave-offrings As they did wave other things So they did wave a loafe of bread and a cake of oyled bread and a wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread Exodus 29.23 Vatablus readeth it Exaltabisque Illa Exaltationem Thou shalt wave them for a Wave-offring This was first Lifted up or Heaved up Then was it waved or shaken to and fro as it is in the Margin of our last Edition Vatablus in his Comment saith it is Ad verbum Agitabis illa agitatione yet the Interlineary hath it Agitabis Ea agitationem I conclude Lifted up the bread was and shaken to and fro it was after it was Lifted So farre have we Scripture to guide us Vatablus doth more particularize the manner of the waving The Heaved-up Sacrifice they did shake or wave moving it first from the East to the West then from the North into the South signifying thereby that God was Lord of the whole earth saith he The signification is good and proper if it were grounded on Scripture which it is not That the heaving up of the offering did manifest It appertaineth to God is a faire
resultance but though Rabbi Solomon and Vatablus after him may safely conclude it was moved or shaken round about yet which quarter of heaven they began at and which they ended at wanteth proofe and the Rabbins differ in judgement one from another I will not say but it is possible Christ at the Benediction might use Elevation in signification that he should be Lifted up to the Crosse yea waving of the bread in the sight of his Apostles and toward them or toward heaven and if he did he did it with a divine signification that God commanded this and that this ordinance was from heaven perhaps with more than one onely But it seemeth not probable to me that when and where he abrogated part of the Leviticall Law Then and There he used the Ceremony of the said Leviticall Law or that his Offering was not every way perfecter than the Oblations of the Old Law which savoured more of the Terrestriall than Celestiall Canaan Sed quisque abundet sensu suo Let every one opine as he pleases yet thus conclusively I shall never beleeve but the Benediction was with some sacred extraordinary Solemnitie Ceremony or Action more than if it had beene used or was used at an ordinary refection For by the breaking of ordinary bread Christ was not knowne nor was discerned nor could be discerned from any other man But when he so solemnly Tooke bread and Blessed it and Brake and Gave it them just as he did before in the Eucharist by his Actions and the devout manner of them in their Circumstances were their eyes opened to know him Luk. 24.30 c. PAR. 3. WHen Christ had Taken the bread he Blessed it He Gave thankes He Brake it His Breaking of it is now to be considered If the Priest alone had been to take it there needed little breaking or rather none unlesse the Priest are all the broken pieces The Breaking implieth it is so done for more than one and for this end was Fractio panis The Breaking of bread It is ridiculous what is in Maldonate Matth. 26.26 on the word Fregit It is called the Breaking of Bread not because it is truely Broken but because it is Given As if Bread could not be Broken and yet not Given As if they could not also Give whole loaves Did whole loaves and not rather Broken bread signifie Christs body which was Broken for us And did not Christ Give his Disciples the Sacred Bread after it was Broken How then is Breaking all one with Giving He saith our reasoning proceedeth from great Ignorance Judge Reader if this supervice exposition doe not arise from pride and presumptive confidence that he can cast dust and blinde the eyes of the world Even in this particular also it seemeth Christ followed the Hebrew custome For the Talmudists report that at their Home-feasts among the Jewes the Head or Father of the Family Tooke Bread Gave Thankes and Brake it And in truth Breaking had a proper signification to demonstrate That his Body should be Broken on the Crosse For though a Bone of him was not Broken John 19.36 yet were they Out of joynt Psal 22.14 yet his Flesh was Broken in many pieces His holy Temples and Head pierced with many thornes thornes beate in with a Reede or Cane Matth. 27.30 His tender backe so cruelly whipped that the Psalmist Psal 129.3 compareth the executioners to ploughmen the dints ruptures and slices made by the Roman rods to no lesse than furrowes than long furrows The ploughers plowed upon my backe and made long furrowes I know no interpretation of this Scripture so proper as this that I have delivered His innocent hands and feete they bored thorough with great vast nayles so great that a bridle was made of them as Eusebius records The Psalmist sayth Psal 22. vers 16. They Digged my hands and my feet as the Hebrew well beareth it intimating the wide orifices of the wounds Lastly so great an hole was made in his side that Thomas thrust his hand into it Joh. 20.27 in signe of these Breakin gs well might he Breake the Bread The word of Breaking sheweth the ancient custome of Imparting the Sacrament to the By-standers And it was Broken by the Hand of the Breaker or rather with a Knife saith Lorinus on Act. 2. because unleavened bread is glutinous or clammy and so is easier divided That a Knife shall be said so propely to Breake bread as an Hand I cannot beleeve And I discerne no such clamminesse or cleaving of the Unleavened Bread above the Leavened as should cause a Knife to be used rather than an Hand and the Hand may easily enough divide it And if the Knife did prepare it yet the often repeated word of Fraction induceth me to think the Fingers did Breake the divided Bread into lesse and fit pieces But Lorinus brings in that invention of the Knife and preferreth it before the Breaking with the Hand contrary to three Evangelists and S. Paul who name not Cutting but Breaking of bread Nor doe the ancient Fathers name the Cutting but urge the Breaking And when Christ said Doe this It is as cleare as the light of the Sunne he meaned Take the bread Give thankes Breake it c. And so the not Breaking of the Bread is a trangression of the first Institution How ill then doth the Church of Rome to leave off Breaking of the Bread as it hath done for a long time and to consecrate Singulos panes seu minores hostias ad vitandum periculum decidentium micarum the loaves by themselves or lesser hostes or sacrifices to avoyd the danger of the crumbes falling downe and that the Laicks and other sacred Administrants must be contented with a lesser host than the sacrificer hath saith Lorinus Yet Christ Brake the Bread without feare of crumbes falling say I and the Primitive Church appointed men to receive the sacred bread into their Right hands with their fingers close and not open and the women to receive it in cleane Linnen so to prevent the falling of the crumbes Likewise concerning the sacred Wine The Laicks were wont of old Cannâ haurire Dominicum sanguinem è calice with a Cane to drink out of a Chalice the Blood of our Lord and so was no danger of spilling one drop Pellican calleth it argenteum calicem Fisiulam quâ Laici Dominicum exorbeant sanguinem A silver Mazor or Cup or Chalice and a Pipe Reed or Cane by which the Laicks sucked and supped the Blood of our Lord. See Beatus Rhenanus in his preface before Tertullian de Corona Militis and Tertullians testimony in his book de Corona Militis is expresse that they had a great care of the sacred Mysteries Calicis aut Panis etiam nostri aliquid decutian terram Anxiè patimur We are soretroubled and passionately suffer if one drop of the sacred Wine or one crumb of sacred Bread fall to the ground Which in despight of some novellists I will apply to the
those very especiall Twelve or rather Eleven Judas being gon forth which were an exempt out from the rest employed above the rest more inwardly and familiarly conversing with Christ than the rest of the Disciples So since they are so often called Disciples we may think it teacheth us probably That the Apostles represented at this Eucharist in this regard viz. as Christ was the Administrant the rest of the Priesthood only not the Body of Christs Church not the whole and intire company of all the Faithfull Disciples that then were or were to bee unto the Worlds end Lay and others but the Clergy Presbyters and Ministers who are here called Disciples though the word Disciples be also often of a larger extent And this may be a reason hereof No man can imagine that Christ gave power to the Laity and Common Disciples Men and Women to consecrate his Sacred Body and Blood If they should offer to do such an Act they should be more guilty than rash Vzzah who for but touching the Arke was stroken dead by God 2 Sam. 6.7 Than foolish Saul who for offering a burnt Offering lost his Kingdome 1 Sam. 13.13 Than presumptuous Nadab and Abihu who offered strange fire before the Lord Lev. 10.1 and were consumed with fire from Heaven Than wicked Jeroboam who by raising up two Calves made Israel the greatest Calfe to sin and made of the lowest of the People Priest of the High places now the Calfe was growne to to an Oxe Any one that would or whosoever would Jeroboam consecrated him 1 King 13.33 which thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the Earth vers 34. It were an horrid intrusion on Sacred offices and a Nullity in the fact it selfe Not Angels or Archangels nor any of that Heavenly spirituall Host Not Kings nor Princes unlesse in Orders not any under Heaven except the Clergy have power to Consecrate the most holy Eucharist To whom he said Hoc facite which he said not to others Indeed it is true as is in my Miscellanies that Saint Peter represented sometimes all the Apostles sometimes the Apostles represented all the Clergy But in this place toward his death Christ gave his Apostles representing the whole body of the Priesthood a power to consecrate the Sacred Eucharist and gave it to them only So after his Resurrection when he had overcome actually Death and Sin Hell and Satan when he had fully satisfied to the utmost farthing for all our offences and had an over-merit left even before his Ascention he gave again when he had most and properest power for to give to the Apostles representing the Church for ever that are in holy Orders another power and authority distinct from the former yet conducing some way to it in these words John 20.21 c. As my Father sent me so send I you Then hee breathed on them and said Receive ye the holy Ghost Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them Whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained Let the ill-bred ignorant Clown jeere at the power of the Keyes he shall never find Heaven gates open but by these Keyes And to the Clergy only were thy given maugre all the enemies of the Clergy In one respect it hath been maintained that the Apostles did at the Eucharist represent the body of the Priesthood viz. as the Sacrament wholly and only was to be Instituted and Consecrated by them by whom the Bread must bee Taken Blessed Broken Distributed and Hallowed with the right forme of consecration But in another regard the Apostles even Then may be said to represent the whole company of the Disciples in the largest signification namely as All and Every Christian was to Receive it for so were Themselves Then Recipients and as Recipients as well as in other regards Administrants were these words said to them Do this in remembrance of me and All of you drinke of this which last words cannot be restrained to the Ministers only but involve within their circumference the whole round World of devout Christians Else none might Communicate but Priests only which to say is accursed Perhaps I may say inoffensively Christ represented the Apostles and stood for them and the body of the Clergy Idealiter when he consecrated the blessed Eucharist and gave it to them But as Christ himselfe Received it and in both kindes he may be called their Symposiarchon and I am sure I may say truly and therefore boldly Our most blessed Saviour represented the whole body of his universall Church both Clergy and Lay-people if so he did Receive it as is most probable In imitation of him I say likewise that the Apostles quà Apostoli Sacerdotes did celebrate the Divine Mysteries and Administer them So representing the Clergy but as they received the Divine Food they were Participants quà Discipuli and so stood in the room of the whole Christian Laity PAR. 5. THe words of Saint Matthew and Marke and S. Paul do follow after He gave it to them And said S. Luke varieth it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saying It is all one in sense Here let me tell you These words Hee said or Saying were not spoken by Christ nor part of his Consecration But they are the words of the Evangelists and Apostles recording and coupling Deeds and Words at Christs Institution Christs Consecration consisted of Actions and Words His Actions were Hee Tooke Bread Blessed it Brake it and Gave it to his Disciples His words were not these Saying or He said They are the Historicall copulative narrative of the Heavenly Penmen but his words were only these This is my Body and so forth Aquinas tertiâ parte Quaestione 78. Aritic 1. ad primum relateth That Innocencius the third opined Christ first perfected the Eucharist by Divine power and Afterwards expressed the forme which others should follow But this is expresse against the Evangelists who say Christ did blesse it which was not without some forme of words yet in favour of Innocentius he saith The words were spoken Opinativè magis quà m determinativè Rather by way of Opinion than of determination Others quoth he say the Benediction was made with certaine other words to us unknown but he replyeth wisely This cannot hold because our Benediction of Consecration is now perfected by reciting what was then done Let me adde and Said also And if it were not done by those words Then it would not be done by these words Now. A third sort say Christ spake the words of Consecration twice Once secretly the second time openly to instruct others how to do so But this cannot stand because the Priest doth consecrate uttering these words as publikely spoken by Christ not in a secret Benediction Whereupon since the words have no force but as Recited by Christ it seemeth Christ consecrated the Eucharist by manifest uttering of them More he may reade at large in him who so
reines as quarries of stones my parents knew no such disease though they lived long my right hand heretofore carelesly unfenced and undefended from the cold alas for the time hath swelled with the gowt as if it would break I have been often sick always weak yet have I prevented antelucanam opificum industriam nox ad diem accessit Early and late have I performed my hard taske Yea Midnight hath conceived full many of the dayes expressions and oft have I arose from my bed and meales with a Conclusum est to prevent forgetfulnesse But the manifold avocations by my own private affaires and especially by publick employements both in Ecclesiasticall and Civill Justice have after their dispatch set an edge and sharpned the appetite of my endeavours The unbent bow hath prepared it selfe for the stronger shooting or delivery Yet now my senses decay my memory faileth me I have no courage or incouragement I am out of heart I am worne to the stumps and spent I must imitate old Ennius his race-horse to whom age afforded quiet and exempted from more active exercise craving pardon if my book in some passages have partaken of my weaknesse and infirmities or languishing And now thou great Work of mine concerning the Estate of humane soules from their creation to the day of the generall Judgement exclusively on which I have bestowed thousands of houres Lie still and sleep S. Hierom did seeme always to heare Surgite Mortui venite ad Judicium Arise you dead and come to Judgement And me thinks I heare the repeated precept as spoken to my selfe and such only as are in my case 1 Thess 5.17 pray without ceasing pray always Luke 21 3◠Yea though I be enfeebled and faint wronged and distressed as the widow was yet the rather ought I alwayes pray and not faint Luke 18.1 The very Mcores of Morocco pray six times in 24. houres And thinck he is not held worthy to beare witnesse to a truth who hath not said his prayers six times in a naturall day Seven times a day did David prayse God Psal 119. vers 164. Some have held and sure that Christian doth best who saith the Lords Prayer at least seven times in a day There never was composed a perfecter and sweeter prayer To what prayer shall God give eare if not to the prayer composed by his own son which the extravagant bablings of Pharisees and battologies of those who Longum precantur love long prayers as Tertullian phraseth it and the sudden extemporary ebullitions of Lip-holy seeme-Saints are as far inferior as Hell is to Heaven which no men no raptures of Angels or Archangels can mend O Lord prepare my heart to continue in Prayers and guide my prayers to please thee through him in whom thou art well pleased Jesus Christ our blessed Saviour and Redeemer 2. I will go briefly to work Concerning the divisions of these times and the scruples from these words I wholly put them off to the Masters of Controversies and the Anti-Bellarminian Canvasers and I refer my selfe and my beliefe to the Doctrine of the Church of England assenting to her wholly so far as my knowledge reacheth and in other things beyond my capacity implicitly beleeving in her For I see no reason but in such things as the Lay-man and Ignorant must trust in his Priest by an implicit Faith so the Clergy man ought to trust in his Church It is no false ground whatsoever the ignorant Zelotes do say or write but fit to be imbraced To confesse and follow Scripture expresse in things apparent and to beleeve such senses thereof as may be though to us unrevealed Not can it be amisse to subscribe to our Church in points beyond our Sphere Needle or Compasse but to Follow the Faith of our Governors Overseers and Pastors That which I know is good what I know not I beleeve to be better said Heraclitus of old To her I subject in humblest manner all my Writings with my selfe professing in the sight of God who searcheth soules and tryeth consciences that I beleeve the Church of England to be the purest part of Christs Militant Church pro quâ non metuam mori as one said in another case In the defence whereof I could be well content if occasion served to sactifice my dearest blood In a more particular expressing I unbosome my thoughts thus We have had foure right Reverend and most learned Lords Bishops Bishop Jewel Bishop Andrewes Bishop Morton and Bishop White who have written polemically and unanswerably of this subject and may give content to any indifferent Reader Many other Heroës of our Church of England have also done excellently well but the incomparable Mr. Hooker exceeds them all Let them who have him not buy him who have him study him and who is scrupulous concerning these words This is my Body c. let him reade and diligently consider and he may safely beleeve what Mr. Hooker writeth in his Ecclesiasticall Polity lib. 5. Par. 67. I cannot but transcribe part Thus then divinely he proceedeth p. 179. Variety of Judgements and opinions argueth obscurity in those things whereabout they differ But that which all parts receive for truth that which every one having sifted is by no one denied or doubted of must needs bee matter of infallible certainty Whereas therefore there are but three expositions made of This is my Body The first This is in it selfe before participation really and truly the naturall substance of my body by reason of the coëxistence which my omnipotent body hath with the sanctified element of bread which is the Lutherans interpretation The second This is in it selfe and before participation the very true and naturall substance of my body by force of that Deity which with the words of Consecration abolisheth the substance of bread and substituteth in the place thereof my body which is the Popish construction The last This hallowed Food through concurrence of divine power is in verity and truth unto Faithfull receivers instrumentally a cause of that mysticall participation whereby as I make my selfe wholy theirs so I give them in hand an actuall possession of all such saving grace as my sacrificed body can yeeld and as their soules do presently need this is to them and in them my body Of these three rehearsed Interpretations the Last hath in it nothing but what the rest do all approve and acknowledge to be most true nothing but that which the words of Christ are on all sides confest to inforce nothing but that which the Church of God hath always thought necessary nothing but that which alone is sufficient for vvery Christian man to beleeve concerning the use and force of this Sacrament finally nothing but that wherewith the writings of all Antiquity are consonant and all Christian Confessions agreeable And as truth in what kinde soever is by no kinde of truth gain-faid so the mind which resteth it selfe on this is never troubled with those perplexities which the
other do both find by meanes of so great contradiction between their opinions and true principles of reason grounded upon experience nature and sense Which albeit with boysterous courage and breath they seeme oftentimes to blow away yet who so observeth how again they labour and sweat by subtilty of wit to make some show of agreement between their peculiar conceits and the generall Edicts of Nature must needs perceive they struggle with that which they cannot fully master Besides sith of that which is proper to themselves their discourses are hungry and unpleasant full of tedious and irksome labour heartlesse and hitherto without fruit on the other side reade we them or heare we others be they of our own or of ancienter times to what part soever they be thought to incline touching that whereof there is controversie yet in this where they all speak but one thing their discourses are heavenly their words sweet as the Hony-comb their tongues melodiously tuned instruments their sentences meere consolation and joy are we not hereby almost even with voyce from Heaven admonished which wee may safeliest cleave unto He which hath said of the one Sacrament Wash and be cleane hath said concerning the other likewise Eat and live If therefore without any such particular and solemne warrant as this is that poore distressed woman comming unto Christ for health could so constantly resolve her selfe May I but touch the skirt of his garment I shall be whole what moveth us to argue of the manner how life should come by bread our duty being here but to take what is offered and most assuredly to rest perswaded of this that can we but Eat we are safe When I behold with mine eyes some small and scarce discernable graine or seed whereof Nature maketh promise that a tree shall come and when afterwards of that tree any skilfull artificer undertaketh to frame some exquisite and curious work I look for the event I move no question about performance either of the one or of the other Shall I simply credit Nature in things Naturall Shall I in things artificiall relye my selfe on Art never offering to make doubt and in that which is alone both Art and Nature refuse to beleeve the Author of both except he acquaint me with his ways and lay the secret of his skill before me where God himselfe doth speak those things which either for height and sublimity of matter or else for secrecy of performance we are not able to reach unto as we may be ignorant without danger so it can be no disgrace to confesse we are ignorant Such as love piety will as much as in them lyeth know all things that God commandeth but especially the duties of service which they owe to God As for his dark and hidden works they prefer as becommeth them in such cases simplicity of Faith before that knowledge which curiously sifting what it should adore and disputing too boldly of that which the wit of man cannot search chilleth for the most part all warmth of zeale and bringeth soundnesse of beleife many times into great hazard Let it therefore be sufficient for me presenting my selfe at the Lords Table to know what there I receive from him without searching or inquiring of the manner how Christ performeth his promise Let disputes and questions enemies to piety abatements of true devotion and hitherto in this cause but over patiently heard let them take their rest Let curious and sharp-witted men beat their heads about what questions themselves will the very letter of the Word of Christ giveth plaine security that these mysteries do as nayles fasten us to his very Crosse that by them we draw out as touching officacy force and vertue even the blood of his goared side in the wounds of our Redeemer we there dip our tongues we are died red both within and without our hunger is satisfied and our thirst for ever quenched they are things wonderfull which he feeleth great which he seeth and unheard-of which he uttereth whose soule is possest of this Pascall Lambe and made joyfull in the strength of this new Wine This Bread hath in it more than the substance which our eyes behold this Cup hallowed with solemne benediction availeth to the endlesse life and wel-fare both of soule and body in that it serveth as well for a medicine to heale our infirmities and purge our sins as for a sacrifice of thankesgiving with touching it sanctifieth it enlightneth with beliefe it truly conformeth us unto the Image of Jesus Christ What these Elements are in themselves it skilleth not it is enough that to me which take them they are the Body and Blood of Christ his promise in witnesse hereof sufficeth his word he knoweth which way to accomplish Why should any cogitation possesse the mind of a Faithfull Communicant but this O my God thou art true O my soule thou art happy So far M. Hooker The Prayer THou art mercifull oh Heavenly Saviour thou art mercifull to Mankind against the fiery and furious temptations and assaults of spirituall powers sometimes alluring sometimes haling sometimes leading men captive unto sin and under it Thou most graciously hast ordained an Host of Holy Angels to help us to suggest good thoughts unto us to free us to streng then us that we shall not so much as hurt our foot and there are more on our side than against us But in opposition of the allurements from the wicked world and the insurrections and ebullitions of the skittish civill warre betweene the flesh and our soule thou hast provided both preservatives that we fall not and redemptives if we fall even thy powerfull Sacraments replenished with Divine vertue For thine own sake most holy Mediator and Advocate let thy blessed Sacraments work effectually in us be conduit-pipes of grace and conveyers of goodnesse into our soules Let them nourish us up unto true Faith Hope and Charity and let thy sacred Eucharist be our spirituall Food both in Life and Death Amen Lord Jesus Amen CHAP. VII And the eight Generall Wherein is questioned what Gesture the Apostles used in Receiving the blessed Eucharist 1. The Word of God hath omitted to set it down in particular 'T is probable they did Kisse their Right hand and so receive it An evill custome of False complementing by Kissing the hand in Jobs daies In Adoration our hands must be lifted up Our voyce lowly and submisse In great Agonies it is lawfull to Cry alowd and Roare Probable it is the Apostles received the heavenly Sacrament humbly Kneeling on both their Knees Tertullian is punctuall against Sitting even after prayer The Heathen after their prayers and some even at their prayers did use to sit upon their Altars Their Servants had three Sanctuaries to fly unto from their angry Masters Numa's Law to sit at the time of Adoring their false Gods A reason why no passage either in the Evangelists nor Apostles commandeth Adoration at the Sacrament How the Antient Fathers are to