feasts 2. Discumbing at feasts 3. Pererius his 6. Ceremony omitted 4. Pererius his 7. Ceremony supping on high-beds The woman standing behinde Christ 5. Pererius his 8. Ceremonie feasting bare-footed washing of feete practised in Abrahams dayes 6. Pererius his 9 Ceremonie lying in the bosome Abraham's bosome 7. Pererius his 10. Ceremony highest roomes at feasts the Chiefest guests sate in the cheifâ—st and highest roomes which place in discumbing was the highest whether Christ in the Supper at Bethanie sate in the highest-roome Christ had the middle-place and is sayd most commonly to be in the middest highest in situation not alwayes highest in dignity 8. Pererius his 11. Ceremonie three on a bed Triclinium whence so called How many beds at feasts Σ sigma what it was Biclinium How many guests on a bed 9. Whether Christ and his 12. Apostles at his last Supper discumbed on three beds 10. Order of discumbing Iesuites in this point dissent among themselves Faire collections from the Scriptures lawfull 11. How farre the Apostles discumbed the one from the other 12. The words dividite inter vos not to be understood of the Eucharist edentibus illis interpreted Eucharist instituted after the Paschall Supper Christ gave the bread and wine to his Disciples severally 13. Pererius his 12. Ceremonie the Romanes and Jewes ate in Common the Romanes huge Platters Aesop's Vitellius Platters Trojan Boare 14. Romanes and Jewes in their feastings had divers dishes the Romane carving of foules Aegyptians and Jewes great Platters M. Anthonies immania pocula Vessels of the Sanctuary vessels of desire 15. Romanes did lye not sit on beds discumbing Pererius affirmeth deuyeth it Romanes Suppers at times continued from night till Morning Romanes changed their Posture in discumbing Rosinus his description of the Romanes discumbing ancient Romanes temperance at feasts Romane fashion in drinking at feasts 16. Pererius his 13. Ceremony the Romanes in their feasts appointed Magistrum potandi Regem vini modimperatorem the manner of the Graecian and Latine jolly drinking 17. The Epitome of all Pererius his twofold mistaking the Conclusion directly against Pererius PARAGRAPH 1. THe sift point singled out by Pererius wherein he saith the Iewes observed the custome of the Romanes concerning their bodily Posture in their feasting 1. Pererius acknowledgeth that the ancient Iewes at supper and feasts did sit Eccles 31.12 If thou sit at a bountifull Table Prov. 23.1 if thou sit to eate with a Ruler Iudg. 19.6 The Levite and his Concubine sate downe and did eate and drinke both of them together 1 King 13.20 They sate at the table Gen. 43.33 the brethren of Joseph sate before him 1 Sam. 20.5 To morrow is the new moone or Kalends and I should not faile to sit with the King at meate Exod. 22.6 The people sate downe to eate and to drinke and rose up to play so farre Pererius Let me adde the Apostle citing that place of Exodus readeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they sate downe which shaketh off tricliniary accubation and properly signifieth Session 2. The ancient Romanes were wont to sit at feasting saith he Perpetuis soliti Patres considere mensis saith Virgil. that is It was their guise in ancient Time To sit at boords when they did dine And Pererius grounds himselfe on Philander and Mercurialis Marcus Varro indeed and Servius affirme that both men and women among the Romanes anciently supped sitting in processe of time the men did lye along at their feasting and the women sate still at last both men and women lay along on beds when they supped and feasted he addes Virgil at the latter end of his first booke of Aeneids Pictis discumbere lectis To lye along on painted beds This last authority addeth no force to the point of sitting at feasts but rather weakeneth it Secondly let me adde in all those places of Canonicall Scripture the Radix Jashah is used which seldome very seldome by it selfe proveth discumbing but sitting Thirdly more places may be added Prov. 9.14 She sitteth at the doore of her house on a seate in the high-high-places of the Citie Ier. 3.2 In the wayes hast thou sate for them which two places cannot possibly bee interpreted of tricliniary accubation Lastly in 1 Sam. 20.5 it is doubled Iashab Esheb sedendo sedebo by sitting I will sit PAR. 2 THirdly Pererius saith the Iewes in Christs time did not feast sitting but discumbing praeter morem Romanorum quem ipsi tum imitabantur contrary to the usance of the Romanes whom they did imitate the mis-printing of Praeter is the least fault it should be juxta propter or secundum morem Romanorum quem ipsi tunc imitabantur according to the usance c. as the sense convinceth and his subsequent proofes declare fourthly the Romanes feasted and supped Non sendentes inscamnis vel sellulis sed accumbentes in lectis not sitting upon benches formes stooles or chaires but lying along on beds saith he as he proveth by many authors and by the Marble Statues to be seene in divers Palaces of Italy sternantur lecti Caeciliane sede saith Martial 8.67 The discumbing-beds are fit Pray good Caecilian sit Not onely out of Supper-time as here but even at supper sometimes was Session even in the midst of accubation upon the beds as the woman in Ezekiel Veiashabt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sedisti in lecto pulcherrimo she sate even on a stately bed Ezek. 23.41 yet the stately bed on which she sate with a table prepared before it as there followeth in signe of a feasting bed is also called ver 17. the bed of love into which the Babylonians came to her So Hest 3.15 the King and Haman Iashbee sate downe that they might drinke As I easily grant this manner of Jewish and Romane feasting so nor he nor any of his shall ever bee able to proove that the Jewes did take up that custome from the Romanes though perhaps in some few or small Ceremonies of their feasting some few who had beene at Rome or were inwardly acquainted with the Romanes might conforme themselves to the Romanes For not onely other Asiatickes but the very Iewes used that custome before ever Rome was thought of much lesse will it ever bee evicted that the Iewes in their Sacred Paschalls had any resemblance with the profane feastings of the Romanes which is the maine point now in question See the first booke 7. Chap. what there I prove or disprove PAR. 3. THe sixt point wherein Pererius intended to shew the assimilation or correspondence of the Iewes unto the Romanes either he quire forgot and so I must let it dye with him or he did not marke it or mis-marked it and then it hath its answere under one of the other points PAR. 4. SEptimò saith he the Romanes were wont to sup and feast accumbere in altis lectis seu thoris to lye-downe on high-beds Inde thoro Pater Aeneas sicorsus ab alio Christ also did sup at the Pharisees house on an high
a branch of the Law of Nature and both Gentiles and Iewes had all the Law of Nature written in their hearts though some more plainely others more obscurely PAR. 4. THe Author of that excellent worke whosoever he was called a Patterne of Catechisticall Doctrine Pag. 122. c. sheweth first that the Iewes had the effect of every Commandement in them before the Law as 1. Gen. 35.2 Put away the strange gods 2. Gen. 31.34 Idolls Gen. 35.5 Earerings 3. Gen. 25.3 Sweare by the Lord God of Heaven 4. Gen. 2.3 And Exod. 16.23 Rest of the Sabbath 5. Gen. 27 41. Dayes of mourning for my Father 6. Gen. 4.9 Cain hideth his killing of Abel 7. Gen. 38.24 The whore Thamar to be burnt and 34.3 8. Gen. 44.7 God forbid we should steale 9. Gen. 38.20 Iudah kept promise not lying or deceiving by untruth's 10. Gen. 12.17 and 20.3 It was sin to looke on a woman with lust after her Vide si libet plura hâc de Re apud Nicolaum Hemmingium in libro de lege Naturae Secondly not onely the Iewes but the Gentiles also had the same law by Nature in their hearts though some of the Commandements more manifestly than other some Manifestly sixe namely the 3.5.6.7.8.9 Somewhat obscurely foure as 1.2.4.10 For the most manifest Commandements the third was a Law of the Aegyptians as Diodorus Siculus faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sweare not nisi morieris lest thou dye let me adde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He who sweareth and nameth Eccles 23.11 for Reverence to the Name of God this word God is not in the Greeke but wholly forborne nor in Hentenius and Santandreanus though the Bishops Bible and our late Translation have expressed it according to the sense without difference of Character and though the precedent verse doth necessarily cause it to be understood of God Drusius on the place thus the Iewes doe so scrupulously if not superstitiously observe the precept that they doe not write in their letters the name of Elohim which name yet is communicated to the Creatures but the proper Name of God they called Iehovah which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the word of foure Letters they are so farre from naming that they know not this day how it is to be read or pronounced Furthermore it is very likely that the Heathen imitated the Iewes for the Religious among them did forbeare to speclalize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but contented themselves with the reserved sense and understanding saying onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Suidas The fifth Homer saith of one that had a misfortune it was Quia parentes non honoravit because he honoured not his Parents the fixt is a Rule even in Nature Homicîda quod fecit expectet let the murtherer expect murther the seventh Stephanas out of Nicostratus Fuge nomen moechi si mortem fugies avoyd Adultery as thou wouldst death the eighth Demosthenes against Timocrates repeateth it as Solons Law in the very words Thou shalt not steale The ninth in the twelve tables Tarpeio saxo dejieatur cast him downe from a high rocke who giveth false testimony For those they had somewhat obscurely For the first Pythagoras sayd if a man come and say I am God let him create another world and we will beleeve him For the second they agreed that every god should be worshipped as he himselfe thought good and this is the very foundation of the second Commandement For the fourth little can be found but sufficient for their condemnation they know that numerus septenarius est Deo gratissimus the number of seaven is most pleasing unto God and it was numerus quietis a number of rest and thence they might have gathered that God would have his rest that day and so saith the Doctor the seventh day after birth they kept exequiae and the seventh day after death the funerall which words were mistaken or mis-printed the tenth their Lawes neuer touched yet the scope of them was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non concupiscere Thou shalt not covet and Menander saith they should not covet so much as a button so he most deepely and divinely PAR. 5. ANd yet because the Author bringeth but one instance and specially out of the Roman Lawes I hope mine ensuing discourse will not bee ill accepted by the intelligent Criticke but he will taste of my gleanings and thanke God and pray for me Tacitus Annal. 3. saith the twelve Tables were compounded and made ac citis quae usquam egregia fuerunt from Greece and other parts Indeede there were at first but ten tables of the Roman answerable to the number of Gods Lawes being onely ten afterwards the Decem-viri added two tables more quae leges Romanorum proprias continebant which conteined the proper Lawes of the Romanes the ten Tables being taken from other Cities and Law-makers and as by the sequell will appeare principally from the lawes of God that the Sibyllae were well acquainted with the Iewish affaires is most apparent that the Romanes esteemed the Sibylline bookes as the Oracles of God the Romanes themselves doe confesse and the keeping of them Tarquinnius Superbus committed Duo-viris sive Duumviris Sacrorum who were the most eminent Patricians but because Marcus Tullius gave Petronius Sabinus leave to transcribe that booke which conteined Secreta civilium sacrorum the Mysteries of the civill Lawes Tarquinius caused Marcus Tullius to be so wed up in a sacke and cast into the Sea To conclude by what streames soever the Romanes had their Lawes conveighed or derived unto them most certaine it is the fountaines and heads of their Lawes they had from the Law of God Phocylides writeth so many divine passages that you may imagine he was acquainted with Moses or his Law and so did diverse of the Greeke Poets in whom the Romanes were well versed PAR. 6. TErtullian Apologet. cap. 45. Scitis ipsas leges quoque vestras quae videntur ad innocentiam pergere de divinâlege ut antiquiore formam mutuatas which words of Tertullian since neither Rhenanus Pamelius Cerda Iunius Albaspinaeus Regaltius nor any other ever explaned in particular suffer me to exercise my Tyrociny that way in amplifying this unperformed this unattempted passage Cicero lib. 1. de Oratore bringeth in Crassus strongly thus avouching fremant omnes licèt dicant quodsentio Bibleothecas meherculè omnium Philosophorum unus mihi videtur 12. Tabularum libellus si quis legum fontes capita viderit authoritatis pondere utilitatis ubertate superare Take exception who will I will speake what I thinke assuredly that one little booke of the 12. Tables if a man have recourse to the head-springs of the Lawes is to be preferred before the Libraries of all the Philosophers both by the strength of its authority and abundance of benefit Well Rhetorized Tully you knew some would chafe at your Hyberbolicall straine and laboured to prevent it by fathering it on Crassus Tully knew what belonged
had we have had hundreds and the Gospell of Christ hath lasted longer than both their Temples with all their Jewish Policie yea for Numbers of each side we have and yet doe exceede them by millions PAR. 13. ONce more I returne from my By-pathes and Diversions The Passeover continued all the dayes of the prosperity during the second Temple nor did the Annuall sacrifice cease at Hierusalem whilst the Temple was purified yet must you not thinke that the proper Passeover was tyed and fastned to the Temple but rather the Sacrifices of the feast belonging to the Passeover It is a confessed and yet proved truth that the Passeover was not bound to be slaine and eaten in the Temple but might be must be performed in their private houses at Hierusalem but the rest of all the Sacrifices which were to be offered during the feast of unleavened bread which endured seven dayes all those were commanded as well as other Sacrifices to be killed in the Temple at Hierusalem Deut. 12.13 Take heede to thy selfe that thou offer not thine offerings in every place that thou seest but in the place which thy Lord shall chuse in one of thy Tribes There thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings and there shalt thou doe all that I command thee ver 14. I will not deny but sometimes upon some extraordinary occasions the Passeover might be slaine in the Temple but that was not often or necessary-legall nor might ever or was it ever eaten there but in any other part of the City PAR. 14. MArke the judgements of God in these two points though many are most observable First he who undertooke and performed to keepe their Cities during their absence at Hierusalem whilest they truely served him the same Almighty God caused the Romans to fall upon their Cities and to besiege Hierusalem whilest they were there when once their sinnes were come to maturity Iosephus de Bello Iudaico 6.4 is either wronged by transcribers or wrong in his account which is not likely when he saith that the day of unleavened bread fell on the 14. of Aprill The City was full of people observant of the Passeover and Titus besieged them and they valiantly beate him off One of the 3. Factions viz. the Zelotes were slaine upon the day of unleavened bread every one of them by Iochanan the head of other mutiners who closely sent armed men into the Temple and filled it with blood They broke the Covenant and therefore the bond betweene God and them was now of none effect Nor was the siege ended till toward the end of September the Temple being fired and the people in it on the tenth day of August even the same day that it had beene burnt once before by the King of Babylon as Baronius collecteth from Iosephus the City was burned after and mount Sion forced on the Sabbath day being the 8. of September A stone was not left upon a stone in Hierusalem The second point which I observe is this that whereas the Jewes cryed fiercely when they would have Christ crucified His blood bee on us and on our Children Mat. 27.25 Titus as the Jewes were taken even five hundred a day and more caused them all to be crucified Ita ut jam spatium Crucibus deesset corporibus Cruces so that there was not roome for crosses nor crosses enough for their bodies as Iosephus an eye-witnesse relateth it de Bello Iudaico 6.12 Lastly I have either credibly heard or read that whereas Christ was sold for 30. pieces of silver the Captive Jewes were sold 30. of them for one piece of silver and more particularly for Iudas Rupertus observeth that for the 30 pieces of silver which Iudas tooke to betray Christ he had just as many Curses Prophetically denounced against him Psal 109.6 c. though I will not avouch that Rupertus hitteth the exact number or that every curse in that Psalme is appropriated to Judas onely excluding all other of Davids enemies Yet I dare say most of them fully reflect upon Iudas So much concerning this sixth Ceremony this durable Rite that the Passeover was to be kept in Hierusalem onely after the Temple was once erected The Prayer MOst infinite and incomprehensible God sometimes above all the rest of the world in Iury wert thou knowne thy Name was great in Israel in Salem was thy Tahernacle and thy dwelling place in Syon Salvation was of the Jewes unto the Jewes were committed the Oracles of God and the Sacraments of the old Law but blessed be the glory of thy mercy to us the partition wall is now broken downe and thou O blessed Saviour didest dye out of the gates of Hierusalem with thy face to us-ward and the houre now is when the true worshipper shall worship the father in Spirit and in Truth and that not in Hierusalem alone or in any other especiall mountaine or valley but every where art thou called upon and every where art praysed The heathen adore thee O God and the Islands rebound thankes unto thee for enlarging thy Kingdome for spreading thy armes of mercy to embrace them and for bringing them unto thy fold O blessed Saviour the onely shepheard of our Soules O Jesus Christ the Righteous who didst give thy life for thy sheepe and who by tasting death for all men doest bring us to life againe All prayse honour and glory be ascribed unto thee the most holy indivisible Trinity through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHP. XII The Contents of the twelfth Chapter 1. The Paschall Lambe was to be eaten in one house and slaine not in the Temple but in the house commonly More Lambes might be eaten in one great house It might not be eaten without doores No Salvation without the Church Schisme is forbidden 2. Not onely the Priests but the people of Israel might kill the Paschall-Lambe the people might not slay any other Sacrifice Nor the Levites ordinarily but the Priest onely Every one in the Congregation of Israel did not slay the Passeover but the Chiefe in one houshold Maymonides rejected Bellarmine truely avoucheth this duty of offering the Paschall-Lambe to belong to the priviledges of the first-borne before Aaron or his sonnes were chosen to be Priests 3. The Levites might offer the Sacrifice of the Passeover for the Priests if the Priests were not sanctified and the Priests might slay the Paschall-Lambe for the people if the people were not sanctified 4. Whether the head of the family himselfe must of Necessity slay the Passe-over or whether he might depute another in his place Barradius rejected for saying Christ himselfe slew the Passeover 5. A strange story out of Suidas 6. The Apostles prepared the Passeover before Christ came 7. The Passeover was not slaine at the Altar neere the Temple 8. The roasting of it whole is another fixed Ceremony 9. They were to eate it roasted with fire 10. They were not to eate it raw 11. Not sodden at all with water 12. The head was to
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