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A10745 Holy pictures of the mysticall figures of the most holy sacrifice and sacrament of the Eucharist: set forth in French by Lewis Richome, prouinciall of the Societie of Iesus; and translated into English for the benefit of those of that nation, aswell protestants as Catholikes. By C.A.; Tableaux sacrez des figures mystiques du très auguste sacrifice et sacrement de l'Eucharistie. English Richeome, Louis, 1544-1625.; C. A., fl. 1619.; Anderton, Christopher, attributed name.; Apsley, Charles, attributed name. 1619 (1619) STC 21022; ESTC S115932 200,986 330

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fundamentall subiect of our holy Tables or Pictures of the Eucharist For our principall end is to explane the things and the remarkable actions instituted in the Law of Nature and of Moses to signifie the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the body of our Sauiour Notwithstanding in displaying the volume of these figures we haue serued our selues of the other two kindes of Pictures that is to say of the Dumbe Picture in the printed figures themselues and of the Speaking Picture in our descriptions or declarations of them We haue also made many excursions in recommendation of Vertue and in detestation of Vice for the institution of manners and often encited the Reader to the contemplation and loue of the celestiall countrey touching by this meanes the foure Cardinall Senses ●●ure Sences of Scripture S. Th●m Wart 〈…〉 Greg lib. 10. nor cap. 1. The Literall The Allegoricall The Morall The Anagogicall which commonly are found in the treasures of the holy Scripture the Literall or Historicall which goeth the first the Allegoricall or Figuratiue which is the spirit of the Literall the Tropologicall or Morall which formes the manners and the Anagogicall which shewes the triumphant Church the Literall is the foundation of the other three the Allegorical is the mysticall signification of the Literall the Tropologicall is the fruit of the one and of the other and the Anagogicall is the end of them all And in this fashion haue wee comprehended foure sorts of Expositions and three sorts of Pictures to teach with fruit and pleasure the most great mystery of our Religion for if there be no other better nor profitable Methods then these foure and if there bee nothing more delightfull then a picture not which makes a thing glide more sweetly within the soule then a picture nor which more profoundly engraues it in the memorie nor more effectually calls foorth the will to loue or hate any obiect good or euill which to it shall be proposed I see not in what manner one can more profitably liuely and delitiously teach the vertues the fruits and the delicatenesse of this diuine and holy meate of the body of the Sonne of God then with the aboue named Expositions and with this triple picture of the pensell of the Word and of the signification If my labour in this excellent matter To all Christian Writers truely Christian and worthy of the attention of all honorable men bring any profit or luster to our faith or to the publike weale as I desire with all my heart it should all the praise be to God which hath furnished me with spirit and body inke and paper to write thereof And if by the example of these Pictures any men of good spirit take occasion to vse the like method in discoursing pleasantly on some worthy subiect to teach with honest recreatiō profit the means to follow Vertue and flye Vice I shall receiue my part thereby of singular contentment and solace and they their recompence of honor and glory from the hand of him which neuer leaues any good worke done for his name without reward nor any ill committed against his Lawes without punishment Truely to say this by the way it is a misery as worthy of compassion as shame that so many Poets and Orators amongst Christians and namely heere in France Employ the goodnesse and fruitfulnesse of their spirits to write tales and fables of Loue and other things either vnprofitable or pernitious and who like to Spiders that draw out their owne bowels in making copwebs to catch Flies doe occupie themselues in such vanities letting passe a thousand faire subiects vpon which they might with eternall praise both learnedly and eloquently write It is a great shame to the name of Christians to see a Pagan Pindarus an Euripides a Virgil an Appelles a Philostratus and other like prophane Authors trauaile so carefully to set foorth sing paint and represent their Captains their Acts their Gods their Vices and their Vanities for the glory of their superstition and that many Christians know not how to choose neither matter nor maner a greeing to their name for to write Christianly to the praise of the true God or to the honor and illustration of their onely true Religion A thing yet farre more vnworthy and yet most deplorable it is to see others temper their pensel and their pen in the sinke and puddle of prophane things Pictures of scandall to represent Pictures of abomination and scandall and to write and paint foorth such fooleries and vilonies as they doe more prophanely then the prophanest themselues without care of losing their soules so they may gaine some brute of reputation amongst the lighter sort And what lamentable folly is it to purchase at so deare a rate the smoake of vanitie to incurre ignominy and eternall paine only to haue their names swimme in the mouthes and estimation of fooles for cunning Artizans of folly But let vs come to the second point of our introduction and declare wherefore God hath of old vsed such Figures going before the Law of Grace THE CAVSES VSES AND EFFECTS of Pictures and Figures in holy Scripture IT remaines yet to declare according to our power wherefore the Diuine prouidence would vse fore-going Figures in the Law of Nature and Moses before that hee sent his Son to establish his owne Law in his proper Person Whereof we giue this reason in generall that it was to declare that he is God and for the more profitable instruction of his creature in this point And thus we prooue what we haue said It is the familiar manner of Gods proceeding to perfect his admirable workes vpon little principles and smal beginnings God workes by little principles therby to make it appeare that he is God in little things as well as in great and no lesse in the first beginning and going forward then in the end and conclusion of his worke In creating the world he began it of nothing and in the gouernment thereof hee continueth the propagation of his creatures by meanes of their seede which in a manner is also no thing For which is worthy of admiration this little seede containes in its littlenesse all that which is to be borne out of it afterwards This Method of God is very fit to manisest clearely his wisedome power and bountie and very proper sweetely to make himselfe knowne vnto man according to his capacitie Who sees a faire great Palme-tree well branched thicke of boughes and loaden with Palmes hath hee not wherefore to admire the Creator in this creature but hee who shall contemplate the little stone from whence all this come forth Their beginning and end the roote the body the branches the leaues and the fruit of this tree will magnifie on the one side his diuine wisdome which secretly proceeding from such a beginning to such an end from such imperfection to such perfection teacheth properly the greatnesse of it selfe by the opposition to the
after a diuine manner Plin. lib. 11. c. 14 lib. 12. c. 4. Gal. l. 3. de aliment The naturall Philosophers haue well acknowledged a kinde of naturall Manna which is a certaine dew of honny which the labourers of Syria gather from the trees of the mount Lybanus whereof the Apothecaries make vse but this heere was far otherwise in his effects causes as hath bin said it was produced miraculously in the Desert and fel euery day but the Sabbath in Winter and in all times and it was a miracle that it fell not on the Sabbath It continued in this manner forty yeeres and no more and this was one of the miracles that this people saw there continually in the Desert this was then a celestiall food supernaturall and diuine This quality agrees very well to our Sacrament For first the body of our Sauiour was not begotten after a naturall manner Luke 1. but by vertue of the holy Ghost in the wombe of the Virgin which are two extraordinary causes Secondly this body is made present in the Altar vnder the formes of bread and wine by the ministery of Priests which are the Angels of God in the Church These are those which as instruments make this body in the Sacrament vsing to that end the omnipotent word of Iesus Christ THIS IS MY BODY and in this sense it is made by Angells and is the true bread of Angels Thirdly Manna was giuen for prouision in the Desert of Arabia euen vntill they entred into the Land of Promise the Sacrament is giuen vs in the Desert of this world vntill the Church militant shall enter victoriously and triumphantly into the Land of the liuing which is her heauenly countrey Fourthly Manna gathered in little or great quantity was neither more nor lesse for neuer a one had in the end more then the measure of a Gomer bee it that he had gathered more or lesse and this measure was equally sufficient to euery one nourishing a man growne and not ouer-charging the stomack of a yong childe A thing in truth most admirable that in a multitude of more then six hundred thousand of people and so great inequalitie of complexions and of stemackes the selfe-same quantity was equall and proportionable to the condition of euery one This also is more admirably seene in the Eucharist for it is not greater in a little Hoast then in a great one in a piece then in all and the body of our Sauiour is all in all the Hoast and all in euery part of it and is giuen equally to all vnder vnequall pieces how be it that in regard of the effect it profits more to those that are prepared Fiftly Manna serued both for meat and drinke for it baked into bread before the fire and ranne into water before the Sunne here-hence is that the Doctors said that the Iewes asking water murmured malitiously without cause Exod. 16. for so much as hauing Manna they had whereof to eate and drinke neither more nor losse then long time after them the fiue thousand which did cate in the Desert the bread and fishes multiplied had both meat and drinke by that miraculous food in Figure of our Eucharist Euen so the Eucharist it selfe giueth the body and the bloud of our Sauiour true bread and true drinke together though it be but vnder one kinde Sixtly Manna was couered and hidden betweene two dewes Glossa ex Rab. Salan Exod. 16. the body and bloud of our Sauiour is couered and hid from our sense and iudgement vnder the outward accidents of bread and wine Are not heere resemblances enough to make vs see the very face and Figure of our Sacraments And if God hath bin admirable figuring long since the patterne of the truth is he nor yet much more admirable in making perfect from point to point the truth it selfe according to the patterne and in laying so faire and so measurable a resemblance of the liuely colours of a new Mystery vpon the lineaments of the ancient Figure But let vs see yet some other draughts 3. WHAT SIGNIFIED THE LIKENES of Manna to Coriander PHILO a great Doctor writeth Philo. l. 2. Alleg. post med That the peeces of the graine of Coriander burst and cast in the earth grow as well as the whole graine euen as the grafts of a tree set or planted will liue and grow An admirable property of this graine and which is not found in any other seede that I haue read of not in Wheat which is a graine that hath the sprout most full of life The Scripture which puts not one tittle to paper without reason compares Manna to Coriander to the end no doubt wee should marke a wonder hidden in the Iudaicall shadowes to be discouered in the light of our faith the which wonder consists in this that one part alone of our Sacrament hath life as well as the the whole and that euery peece of an Hoast broken containes as much as the whole Hoast This wonder was signified as I said before in the quantity of Manna which was so equall in the prouision although it were gathered in vnequall measure Then the Scripture saying that Manna the olde Figure was like to the graine of Coriander gaue an outward Picture to the Iewes and signified to vs the inward life of our Manna in all his parts hauing the likenesse of Coriander albeit this be in one respect infinitely more perfect for none of the parts of Coriander is all the Coriander but all the parts of the Sacrament are all the Sacrament and all containe the body of our Lord and all are the whole yet if we respect the formes the parts of the Hoast are not the whole Hoast but only a part thereof 4. THE HOLY SACRAMENT KEPT IN the Tabernacle as Manna in the Arke VVEE haue heard how Moses commanded his brother Aaron to take of Manna to bee reserued within the Tabernacle for a memoriall of the benefits receiued from God which was put in execution so soone as the Arke was prepared Exod. 16.33 within the which Aaron put a golden pot full of Manna and the Arke and the pot in it was seated in the most holy place Heb. 9.4 as Saint Paul witnesseth writing to the Hebrewes So as Manna not onely serued for meat and all manner of sustenance but also for a memoriall The truth of these shadowes continue from age to age in the Church of God in which the body of our Sauiour as celestiall Manna is giuen for food and a viaticum and withall is kept and rescrued for a memoriall of benefits receiued from God For wheresoeuer the blessed Sacrament is found euery where it is a memoriall of the bountie of our Sauiour towards vs it is also kept and it shall be kept in Churches euen to the end of the world to be caried to the sicke and others who haue need of it and cannot come to the Church S. Iust. ep 2. S.
Iren. epist ad vict Pap. quae est apud Erseb lib. 5. hist c. 24. Euseb l. 6 c. 36. or be present at Masse to receiue it Such was the practise in the time of the Apostles and in the ages following vntill this day as it appeareth by the writings of Saint Iustin and other Doctors of holy antiquitie 5. THE BREAD OF THE IEWES BEARES the name of wonder in Figure of our wonderfull Sacrament of the Altar AS Manna was wonderfull in his causes in his nature and in his effects so it carried a name signifying nothing but wonder and admiration for Manna comes from the word Man-bu which is as we haue said before nothing but What is this a word which importeth admiration and desire to know in him that speakes it who because he is ignorant of the nature of the thing admires it and asketh What is this Our Manna and our Sacrament is so admirable that no name c●n declare it and after that one hath well considered it hee shall finde it much more easy to admire it then to expresse it by a name correspondent to the excellencie by which meanes of all the names that it beares there is none which is more agreeable to it then Manna the name of admiration which Dauid declared by Periphrasis when he called the Eucharist Psal 110. The memoriall of the wonders of God which is not so much a name as a marke of wonder and to this of Dauid it is likely our Sauiour had regard when instituting the Sacrament of his body he said to his Apostles Luke 22.29 Doe this in remembrance of mee as if he had said vse this as a memoriall of my wonders Well then in this very name of Manna wee shall obserue another resemblance of admiration betweene the old Manna and the institution of the new Exod. 16. For when the Hebrewes hauing taken theirs in their hand said wondering Man-hu what is this Moyses answered onely in generall to their demand this is the bread that our Lord hath giuen you to eate but our Sauiour taking the bread and instituting the Sacrament answeres in particular saying This is my body Matthew Marke Luke and taking the Cup This is my bloud as if he had said Your Fathers long since asked What is this holding in their hand the food that I made raine downe vnto them and you still pronouncing Manna aske what is this I answere both to you and your Fathers This is my body this is my bloud their Manna and their wonder was this my body in Figure but the Manna which I make and the memoriall that I institute is my body not in Figure but in truth Behold then the wonder of our Sacrament figured in the name of the ancient Manna and the admirable resemblance betweene the old Manna in the Law of Moses and our new Manna in the Law of Grace And since that all heere is admirable and that the admiration hereof is profitable to vs and honorable to God in this great Mystery let vs further contemplate the springs and causes of this admiration arising out of his omnipotencie wisdome and bountie and let vs see wherefore the holy Fathers haue so extraordinarily admired it 6. THE WONDERFVLL POWER OF GOD in the Sacrament of the Altar GOd shewes himselfe admirable three wayes by his Power by his Wisdome and by his Bountie to the which end he hath grauen the workes of these three vertues in euery worke of his be it neuer so little The naturall vertues of Stones or Plants and the armour of beasts set forth the power of their Creator the ordering of the parts of euery creature the industry of the great and little beasts and their agilitie make vs to see his wisdome the essence and propertie of all things giuen vs doe witnesse his bountie vnto vs all that he did long since in the Law of Nature and of Moses and all that he hath done or shall doe hereafter in the Law of Grace is marked with these three markes and there is nothing wherein hee becomes not admirable by meanes of these three to all those that exercise the eyes of their soules in contemplation of the greatnesse of his works But aboue all he hath shewed himselfe maruailous in this diuine Sacrament as the last and principall worke of his hands and the admirable new Schedule or Codicill of his Testament And first he hath made appeare in it his wonderfull Power by so many sundry waves as there be diuersities in the nature of things we must explaine them after a stammering manner For how can we doe otherwise O Lord speaking of so high an effect of thy infinite power We finde in all visible nature the Substance the Qualitie the Relation the Action the Passion the Place the Time the State the Habite and nothing more Man for example hath a reasonable soule and a body which make his substance He hath his quantity which are his length breadth and thicknesse Hee hath his qualities which are his colour his beauty his bounty and such like He hath his relations compared to another which is lesse great lesse good or as great and as good as himselfe and is thereby surnamed greater better or equall He hath also his actions for hee speaketh hee writeth or doth other things He hath his passions for he receiues in his body or in his soule some impression of cold of heate of ioy of knowledge of sorrow and such like He is in some place as in the City in the fields and that at sometime either in the morning or in the euening in Summer or in Winter He hath his situation for hee is sitting or standing or lying Finally he hath his vesture or clothing his cloake his shooes c. And all whatsoeuer which is found in Man or in any other corporall creature is referred to one of these heads which are the ten orders by the Philosophers assigned to Nature Arist in Meta. Logic. comprehending all the parcells of euery creature According to all which our Sauiour sheweth himselfe omnipotent in this Sacrament let vs see it first insubstance 7. OF THE OMNIPOTENCIE OF GOD in Transubstantiation AS for Substance which is the foundation of all and holds the first ranke amongst things Categoria sub 〈◊〉 our Sauiour shewes his supreame power in this Sacrament in that hee changeth by his Word the substance of bread into his bodie and the substance of wine into his bloud a kinde of miracle very like vnto creation and more noble in this Mystery then creation it selfe and most fit to make vs know and acknowledge him an omnipotent workman In the creation Dexit facia 〈◊〉 Psal 32.9 God did speake and it was done he commanded and it was created as Dauid singeth Heere he saith This is my body and his body is found there This is my bloud and his bloud is there present Then his omnipotent Word made that to be which was not before at
from heauen and saying That this bread is his flesh which he will giue for the life of the world He declareth that he will giue his body for our food and redemption And adding after He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath life euer lasting and I will rasse him vp at the last day for my flesh is meate indeed and my bloud is drinke indeed Hee signified the effects of this meate contrary to the effects of the meate of Adam The meate of Adam cause of death a deadly morsell an carthly food a food of anguish The meate of our Sauiour spring of life bread of life bread from heauen flesh of ioyfulnesse and of resurrection When he said Hee that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud abideth in me and I in him He sheweth that he giues his flesh for this vnion for a bond of amity and perpetuall pledge of his loue towards vs. Hee hath then giuen his body in this life for our good as many waies as it could be giuen for our redemption for our meat for our remedy for a pledge vnto vs to deliuer vs to nourish vs. to heale vs and to comfort vs and will giue it in heauen to glory for vs. Hath he giuen sufficiently is he sufficiently liberall to giue himselfe so liberally and at so many time and by so many wayes on earth and to promise himselfe vnto vs yet another way in heauen And are not wee exceedingly vngratefull in not acknowledging his goodnesse no lesse vniust in not giuing our selues to him that haue nothing but from him And most ingratefull in making no better vse of his gifts ordained to vnite our selues vnto him and amongst our selues for the attaining of life euerlasting What hath this diuine Spouse done What hath he inuented What doth he not What hath he not deuised to gaine the loue of a faithfull soule And what doe we In what doe we employ our selues to gaine his loue And who is it of whom this Prince so infinitly rich mighty and beautifull is so much inamored but of a poore caytiffe and deformed creature whom he would enrich nobilitate and beautifie to make him worthy of his Kingdome And how would he seeke to purchase by so many meanes the loue of such a creature if he were not goodnesse it selfe O infinit Goodnesse infinit Wisdome infinite Power fulnesse Make our soules holily inamored of thy beauty enlighten them with the diuine beames of thy celestiall knowledge and make them worthy of thy sacred loue 5. PRIDE AND LICENTIOVSNES ENEmies of Faith and the first aduersaries of the holy Sacrament PRide and sensuality are vncapable to vnderstand the wonders of God and vnworthy to receiue his benefits Wee haue heard the diuine promises of our Sauiour speaking of the eating of his flesh and of the euerlasting fruits thereof heere was cause to wonder at the height of the mystery and liberality of the Giuer and good occasion to say as Saint Peter a little after wondering said Thou bast the words of eternall life Iohn 6.63 They were heere neuerthelesse who in stead of being lifted vp in admiration were strucke downe to death by the words of life because pride and sense had made them bad hearers of the truth enemies of the light and vnable to behold further then humane iudgement could reach In so much as though truth it selfe did speake vnto them they murthered themselues by the voice of truth thinking that eyther he could not doe as he promised and giue his flesh to eate or that if hee could doe it it should be a very inhumane and barbarous act They vnderstood of flesh saith S. Augustine as if one should dismember a dead body or as men sell it in the market S. August Trust 27. in Ioan. in Psal 98. and flesh vnderstood not what it was he called flesh They thought that our Sauiour would cut his body into little bits and serue it to the table boyled and dressed as the body of a beast and standing vpon the bulwarke of their carnall imaginations and pushed forward by the spirit which blindes the soule in stead of being edified they were scandalized and became perfidious in their heart rude in their thought and blasphemers in their language and did say How can this man giue vs his flesh to cate Behold Iohn 6.52.60 a hard saying and who can endure it By the first question they did shew their incredulity not perswading themselues that our Sauiour could accomplish that which he did promise by the second they made their pride appeare condemning our Sauiour as if he intended to commit an horrible crime by killing himselfe and giuing mans flesh to eare if he should be able to doe that which he said People extreamely blinded with pride and sensuality for they had seene a little before a thousand of miracles done by the hand of our Sauiour and beleeued them without asking How And in stead of learning by those so many rare workes to beleeue more easily they heere aske How more incredulous then euer But why are they now so little obedient to the voice of our Sauiour Why were they not before more scrupulous and wary Wherfore did they not as well aske how he made the blinde to see the lame to walke the diuels to flye and of the fresh miracle how hee satisfied fiue thousand men with fiue Loaues and two Fishes Heere their How had been much more to purpose and more pertinent for they might haue vnderstood thereby that he did these things in the authority power of a Master Al-wise and Al-mighty and this knowledge would haue perswaded them that hee could powerfully and wisely accomplish this which hee so manifestly did promise of his flesh although it seemed impossible and absurde to their sense and iudgement But what will you They were proud and their pride had made them to lose the memory of what was past and bound their eyes not to see the truth present nor to fore-see the truth to come and in one word did make them obstinately erronious that is to say Heretikes Behold the first controulers the first persecutors and first Herenkes stirred vp against the truth of this holy Sacrament behold the first authors of Quomodo How out of which mould the Diuell hath shaped all the rest which sithence haue conspired against God for to assault the mysteries of his Church by Quomodo and by How and namely to shake this heere as the most high and most repugnant to their senfuality It was pride and the flesh that made them mutiners and rebels against the doctrine of Iesus Christ and presumptuous to comdemne that which they vnderstood not So the Arrians mocked at the Catholike faith concerning the generation of the Sonne of God whilest they would vnderstand that which they could not and would not beleeue that which they should to wit that God had begotten a Sonne Psal 3.7 Psal 109.1 and in stead of saying Christianlike I beleeue