be expounded at large For Convivantibus ipsis Before they had ended their Feasting Before that nightly Festivity was broken up Before they went out of the Coenaculum that Supping room Christ administred the holy Eucharist Estius on 1 Corinth 11.20 saith they are not to be heard who thought the Corinthians did in the middest of their banqueting take the holy Communion For this were a confounding of things sacred with profane saith he And that is altogether unrighteous say I I retort the same on Iacobus Salianus the great Annalist of the Old Testament who in his last Tome pag. 454. conjoyneth in a sort the washing of the Apostles feet and the Institution of the Eucharist after both which saith he Secuta est Coenacommunis Followed the Second Supper He forgot that after the pedi-lavium or washing of the Apostles feet Christ sate down again and gave Iudas a Sop which was in the Second Supper and discoursed and marked out Iudas for the Traytor whereupon he departed and then Christ took and gave the blessed Sacrament and did not take another Supper after it In the Easterne Churches there was a Traverse drawn between the people who were imployed in praying and hearing and those Priests or Deacons which were preparing And whilst they were preparing the bread and wine for consecration when all was in a readinesse they drew the vayle folded up the curtaines the Priest did consecrate the heavenly Eucharist did receive it himselfe did give it to the people One cryed Sursum corda Lift up your hearts And the sodaine rushing open of the Traverse at the beginning of the sacred celebration was to strike Reverence into them For Segnius irritant animum dimissa per Aures Quà m quae sunt Oculis subjecta fidelibus Things by the eares do lesse the soule affect Than by the eyes what on it doth reflect Strange sights prepare the soule for Devotion Sodaine extraordinary sights do pierce the soule to the quick And this was also to admonish them that Then Heaven was open and the Angels descending to be present at the holy mysteries with all possible Veneration that I may not say co-adoration of Christ This may be gathered from S. Chrysostome in his third â—omily upon the Epistle to the Ephesians and divers other places of others If the Church of Christ in succeeding ages did divide the holy things from the most holy and gave most reverence to the divine Eucharist we cannot well say that Christ did mingle sacred things with profane as Salanius fableth And that Iudas was admitted to partake of those Heavenly mysteries which the Christian Church would not suffer profane persons so much as to behold them but kept them hid within the vayle till the Faithfull were to participate of them as the notorious wicked ones were to bee excluded PAR. 9. VVHen Judas was gone out the Second Supper ended and thankes given And when Christ went about to celebrate the blessed Sacrament of the New Law what order did he take How began he How proceeded he Here I had need to have especiall care to lay a good foundation Nam ex principiis veris non possunt sequi falsa cùm ex veris nil nisi verum sequatur saith Petrus Pomponatius de Incantationibus pag. 318. From True principles flow no false conclusions Truth produceth Truth therefore let us determine certain things certainly probable probably I answer we have no exact proofes or demonstrations to insist upon Sense Reason and Probability must be our best guides What is most remote from all Absurdity is principally to be insisted upon Petrus Pomponatius de Incantationibus cap. 10. pag. 131. Supponitur quod in rebus difficilibus occultis responsiones magis ab inconvenientibus remotae ac magis Sensatis Rationibus consonae sunt magis recipiendae quam oppositae rationes Suppositio patet ex tertio Topicorum Minus malum praeeligitur majorïmalo cum quoquo modo minus malum sit magis bonum This is always to be supposed That in difficult and abstruse matters those answers which are most congruous most sensible and most consonant to reason are rather to be approved than allegations to the contrary The supposition is plaine in the 3. Book of Aristotles Topicks The lesser evill is to be chosen before the Greater evill since the lesser evill is by all meanes the greater good Again ibid. Averroes 2. de Coelo saith from Alexander That Aristotles sayings are preferred before other Philosophers because His are more remote from contradiction Aristotle hath a divine saying de Coelo secundo cap. 12. textu 60. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us try to speake what seemeth best to us He is rather held to be venerable than rash who in thirst after Philosophy can finde but small proofes sometimes in difficult matters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It being a good thing both to seeke further knowledge and to embrace small hints or degrees of knowledge that are comfortable to Reason as Aristotle hath it in the next Text. Oh how divine Conclusions did some Heathen draw from that small knowledge which they had Plato in his Booke called Alcibiades Secundus Or de Voto set forth by Jodocus Badius Ascentius with Marsilius Ficinus his Arguments before many bookes Folio 19. brings in Socrates teaching his Alcibiades for indeed leanthes did commonly and usually say That Socrates onely held Alcibiades by the Eares and that Alcibiades stood in awe of Socrates above all others as Plutarch hath it in Alcibiade How to pray or rather How not to pray vainely since folly was discernable in the prime prayers and devotions of those times And thence Socrates collecteth and concludeth thus It is necessary to wait or expect till it may be learned How we may behave our selves as we ought both to God and Man Alcibiades roundly replieth When will that be ô Socrates and who is that Teacher or Instructor For I would most willingly know and acknowledge that Man whosoever he shall be Socrates most divinely answereth if his words be weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary He is he who hath a care of thee And afterwards He wonderfully provideth for thee Whether Plato learned these truths of the Aegyptian Priests Or Jewish Doctors Or whether he had them inspired from God Or whether from naturall Reason he collected That good God would not leave his creatures in perpetuall darknesse but would send One to teach them to guide them to reforme their ignorances and instruct them in their duties to God and Man since He is He who hath a care of us and in a wonderfull manner watcheth over us for our Good I say whence he had those beames of the divine light is hard to determine I am sure the Scripture faith Esay 54.13 unto the Church of the Gentiles All thy Children shall be taught of the Lord. And Act. 3.22 A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto Moses Him shall yee
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
thou shalt deny mee thrice which is repeated verse 72. Accordingly the Cocke did first crow when Peter was in the Porch ver 68. And after his three-fold deniall The second time the Cocke crew vers 72. PAR. 11. THe third Quaere is How often S. Peter was questioned or by others affirmed to be Christs Disciple since the Evangelists much vary therein S. Matthew relateth two severall maides avouchments that Peter was with Christ and thirdly the by-standers affirmation of the same Matth. 26.69 c. And with S. Matthew doth S. Marke agree Marke 14.66 c. S. Luke thus varieth it A maide first affirmed it Luke 22.56 Secondly a man said Thou art also of them For Peter said man I am not ver 58. In the third place Another confidently affirmed it and Peter answered Man I know not what thou sayest ver 16. S. Iohn storieth it differently from all The Damosell which kept the doore first questioned Peter Art not thou also one of this mans Disciples And he answered I am not Ioh. 18.17 In the next place more interrogated the same thing How many more is not expressed but more Peter denied and said I am not ver 25. In the third place Malchus his Kinsman said Did not I see thee in the Garden with him ver 26. PAR. 12. THe fourth Quaere is How many times Peter denyed Christ since from S. Matthew it may be collected hee denied it two severall times to two severall maydes and once more to standers by And S. Luke confesseth his generall denyalls to two severall men S. John acknowledgeth his deniall to divers at once PAR. 13. I Answer briefely to the first the words of Iesus were spoken as they are in Saint Marke and the word twice is to be understood and by way of sense is to be included in the other three Evangelists For the holy Ghost spake a fuller truth by S. Marke for truth hath its latitudes and no Evangelist did or could lye and what is set downe is expresly to be beleived but the other three Evangelists might omit and otherwhere have omitted many severall words many severall matters and some write more largely some more briefely some omit more some lesse and wheresoever any affirme what others omit we must beleeve what is affirmed by any one though all the rest passe by it Neither Matthew Luke nor Iohn say negatively Christ spake no other words but these if they or any of them had so said there had beene an irreconcileable contradiction unto S. Marke But they saying onely These were the words of Iesus Before the Cocke crow thou shalt deny me thrice they might understand the word Twice Before the Cocke crew twice which they lawfully omitted as not being bound to expresse every particular and S. Marke who could not erre in writing hath directly taught us so to expound them And for confirmation hereof S. Marke names the severall places S. Peter was in when the Cocke crew twice which they all also omitted as being poynts of the By and not on necessitie to be particularly specialized Quod subintolligitur benè omittitur quod subauditur sine causa exprimitur That which is necessary to be understood may be well omitted That which is understood is needelessely expressed PAR. 14. IN this answer you have another involved resolution to the second Quaere The Cocke crowed first when Peter was in the Porch and this did not strike to Peters heart Nor can it be proved that Peter heard the Cocke crow the first time or if he did heare he might thinke it an ordinary Naturall crowing without any reference to himselfe But when his Trina negatio was passed immediatly the Cocke crew the second time and Christ turned himselfe to Peter to make Peter returne to him and looked upon Peter as if he had said Peter I I thrice fore-told thee thou wouldest deny me thrice before the Cocke crow twice Thou hast denied me thrice and the Cocke hath now crowed twice I have beene a true Prophet be not hereafter too confident of thy selfe Remember my words repent goe forth and weepe bitterly and so he did PAR. 15. TO the third Quaere How often S. Peter was questioned or vouched to be Christs Disciple I answer It seemeth cleerely by the Evangelists that S. Peter was doubted of by some and affirmed by others to be Christs Disciple divers times but they must be reduced all to three onely for you are to consider all foure Evangelists agree The first who spake of Peter was the Maide the doore-keeper The other Maide spake of Peter not to him but upon her speech a man said Thou art also of them saith S. Luke The Maides talking and the Mans accusing are to be held as one enquiry or affirmation Then not one after one but divers almost at once fell upon S. Peter They said unto him Art not thou also one of his Disciples Ioh. 18.25 who those They were S. Matth. setteth downe viz. They that stood by which might be the very same men that S. Iohn meaneth though first they interrogated as it is in S. Iohn and after bluntly and boldly affirmed it as it is in S. Matth. and particularly among that company might be the confident-affirmer in Luke and Malchus his cozen in Iohn So he was questioned or affirmed to be a Disciple once by the Doore-keeper once by a Man from another womans words and the third time by Troopes or Routes or many together three times in all Cajetan on Iohn 18. thinketh that he was seven times under the file of examination thrice by Maides or Women foure times by Men. But the witty Cajetan might have considered the Apostles relate the same thing though in divers manners some inhering in one circumstance some in another and as I said The severall relations may designe out the same persons and did as severall sayings of S. Peter made up but his thrice deniall If hee had well weighed this he would not also have determined as he hath done That S. Peter denied Christ seven times thrice to the Women foure times to the Men which reacheth home to PAR. 16. THe next Quare the fourth in number How many times Peter denyed Christ Whatsoever Cajetans account is I beleeve that S. Peter denied our Saviour but Thrice First because our Lord three times insisted on that fixed number of thrice Thou shalt deny me thrice The first time was upon this occasion Zachary foretold and Christ poynts at the place I will smite the Shepheard and the Sheepe of the flocke shall be scattered S. Peter professed he would not be offended Christ replied S. Peter should deny him thrice Matth. 26.34 S. Peter saith he will not and did out-argue Christ in words A second occasion was this Satan had winnowed Indas and prevailed and would have winnowed S. Peter but Christ prayed for him and Satan prevailed not to his finall overthrow But when Christ said to Peter When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren his fall was fore-seene
especially Maldonate if the words be not fathered on him Any name almost better pleaseth them than that the Supper of our Lord. In my Miscellanies and in the second book of this Tricaenium I have beene very bitter against the maledicency and scolding of the Jesuit Maldonate And in truth the words in his book deserve sharp reprehension and recrimination as being too full of spleene partiality calumny and base untruth That I wrote so eagerly against the person of the man I am sorry For I have been credibly informed lately by one who in all likelihood knew the inside of such businesse even my very learned good friend Mr John Salkeld that Maldonate in his life was esteemed a moderate Papist yea a favourer of our Religion and after his death that his Commentaries on the Gospels did suffer by divers other more factious Jesuits both dispunctions and additions with strange alterations Da magistrum give me my master quoth Cyprian of Tertullian The right reverend father in God Richard now Lord Bishop of Norwich was sometimes my President whilst I was chamber-fellow with him in the Kings Colledge in Cambridge His writings have I delighted in His most learned Apparatus was I on other occasions reading when unexpectedly as I was writing my excuse of Maldonate I found the same opinion confirmed by him another way I rather think saith he Apparatu 7. Paragrapho 16. that other Massipontane Jesuits did intersert into Maldonate his Commentaries when he was dead the railings against our men since 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Historicus Thuanus that most true historian Thuanus relateth that Maldonate was a most modest man But in his Commentaries are most scurrilous revilings which could never proreed from Modesty I date say The same day also I overviewing upon other occasions the learned Casaubone found to my hand as casually as Abraham found the Ram and Isaac the venison as he said that Exercitatione 16. cap. 32. he saith of Maldonate that he was a learned man sine controversiâ acerrimi ingenii Now whether he meaned that out of doubt and confessedly he was of excellent parts and of a most keen sharp wit or that he was a sharp-witted man except when he medled with controversies I did somewhat doubt For Casaubone could not but have read and perhaps to it he alluded what Aulus Gellius lib. 10. c. 15. hath written viz. that when Antonius Julianus the Rhetorician had heard a rich ill-bred Gentleman too too talkative in a doubtfull if not unexplicable controversie he said privately most facetiously and with an exceeding bitter irrision Adolescens hic sine controversiâ disertus est If he meddle not in hard points he is an eloquent young man But passing by the man let us come to the matter the ground why I call it the Third Supper is because when the Paschal and the Common Supper were eaten before the blessed Eucharist was instituted in the last place and the same holy Eucharist is tearmed by the Apostle St. Paul 1 Corinth 11.20 The Supper of the Lord this is not to eate the Lords Supper Concerning the Third Supper it is nowhere in Scripture called a Supper saith Maldonate on Matth. 26.26 and in this point falleth a scoffing thus The Calvinists without authority of Scripture without example of old writers without reason without judgement call it a Supper when they ought rather to call it Merenda a bever if they take it after dinner a dinner if they take it at noon a breakfast if they take it in the morning Yet Maldonate himselfe calleth it so his fellow Jesuits call it so Cyprian and other Fathers call it Canam Domini the Supper of the Lord. Caena Dei the Supper of God in Tertullian The same Maldonate on John 13.2 Tres caenas Christus ut nonnulli authores observarunt illâ nocte fecit Christ as some authors have observed made Three Suppers in the same night in which he was betrayed The first was the Legal Surper of the Paschal Lambe The second was the Common Supper the paschal being ended which was not ordeined so much to satiate and nourish nature as to keep the Legal Ceremony that they who had eaten the Lambe if they wanted more meate to satisfie themselves might be filled with ordinary meates Consider Reader if these two testimonies from him do not hack one another If it be objected that Bellarmine saith Dominus post ceremoniam agni Paschalis continuò subjunxit celebrationem Eucharistiae nec distulit in aliud tempus aut locum ut apertè ostenderet se novâ istâ coremoniâ coremoniâ finem imponere veteri The Lord after the Ceremony of the Paschal Lambe did presently subjoyne the celebration of the blessed Eucharist neither did he put it over till another time or place that he might plainly shew that he did impose an end to the old Law by that new ceremony From which words it may seeme to result that there was no second Supper I answer Bellarmine speakes not of the Sacrificium agni the Sacrifice of the Lamb but of the Ceremonia agni Paschalis of the ceremony of the Paschal Lamb which may very truly be extended to the end of the second Supper The second Supper treading as itwere on the heels of the first and the Paschal Lambe or the flesh therof standing still on the table unremoved till the end of the second Supper And thus Bellarmine may seeme to be rather for us than against us PAR. 3. The Greek Fathers stile it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea most expresly it is called the Lords Supper 1 Corinth 11.20 and though Maldonate interpreteth the place of the Agapae which out of doubt were not rightly used in those dayes and were reprehended by St. Paul yet at those Agapae was the Lords Supper eaten or they a little before or after it And St. Paul divinely teacheth them first negatively that they eat not the Supper of the Lord when they eat their owne supper one before another vers 20.21 or when some were hungry some drunken and that in the Church of God whereupon he telleth them they had houses to eat and drink in and will by no meanes praise their doings ver 22. Secondly positively that they truly eat the Supper of the Lord who follow Christ for their patterne and imitate his example and so by consequence sheweth the right institution of the Lords Supper which was his maine intent fully to declare against all concomitant abuses to that end that they might follow it accordingly As the Eucharist came in the roome of the Paschal so the Agapae after Christs time succeeded in the place of the Second Supper of the Jewes Alba-spinaeus observationum 1. observatione 18. pag. 58. speakes timorously I will not deny in the Apostles time but that the Agapae were made perhaps at or with the celebration of the Eucharist He might have spoken boldly Three things are certaine First before Tertullians time the Eucharist was given and
Munster as that Gospell is in Hebrew and by him set forth and dedicated to Henry the eight where Nizabon of the Iewes fiercely objecteth against us Christians Si Christus odivit Sabbata solennitates Neomenias quarè suscepit super se legem Iudaicam circumcisionem Sabbatum Vniversam legem Israel cunctis Diebus suis If Christ hated our Sabbaths solemne Feasts and New Moones why did he undergoe or fulfill all the Law of the Iewes Circumcision the Sabbath and the Universall Law of Israel all the dayes of his life Munster excellently retorteth it if Christ observed their whole law as is here confessed why doe they why did their forefathers accuse him of Sabbath breaking and condemne him as a transgressour of the Law their present confession is ground enough to conclude hee strictly solemnized this passeover and was unjustly both accused and condemned Whosoever preferreth not the searching out and finding of a truth before a little paines in reading may passe over the next argument and many other in this Booke PAR. 7. THe next yeare the next passeover that Christ was present at is poynted at in these words e Ioh. 5.1 Iohn 5.1 After this there was a feast of the Iewes and Iesus went up to Hierusalem If any object that here is no mention of the passeover I answer there is none expresly and further adde both that there were many other Feasts of the Iewes and that the diversity of expositors and expositions seeme to make the poynt more full of scruple than I conceive it to be f Melchior Caenus loc com 11 c. 5. ad 5. Melchior Canus approoveth Cajetan for holding that this Feast of the Iewes was a Winter Feast and so could not be the Feast of Easter Canus himselfe addeth Nihil interest sive dicas fuisse Festum dedicationis Templi secundi sub Zorobabele quod celebrabatur tertiâ die mensis Adar hoc est Februarii sive potius Festum sortium quod Iudaeis solenne erat 14 15. die ejusdem postremi mensis That is It mattereth not whether it was the Feast of the dedication of the second Temple under Zorobabel which was kept on the third day of February or the Feast of Lots which was observed by them on the 14. and 15. dayes of the same February so he may crosse the torrent and invent a new crochet he can be content to leave it in a certaine uncertainety It must be acknowledged that it is said a feast of the Iewes and that the Iewes had many feasts some Stata some Conceptiva saith Zepper but say I their Conceptiva were Stata also therefore thus they may be better divided Some were of primitive divine institution as besides other the three famous feasts of the passeover Pentecost and Tabernacles to which there was due a most strict obedience yearely Thrice in a yeare shall all your male children appeare before the Lord God a Exod. 34.23 Exo. 34.23 viz. Once at each of these feasts And there were some other posthumous feasts afterward casually and incidentally appointed as the Feasts of the dedication and of Lots c. made by men pro re natâ as occasion served yet no way against Gods Law divine PAR. 8. ANd howsoever some frothy-mouth'd ignorants raile against holy dayes and say none can make holy dayes save God onely who is holy I say when the Church of God maketh holy dayes it is never done against God or besides his will but they are lawfully made and are holy to God and God may be said mediately to make them holy Concerning the Feast of Lots thus When the Iewes were wonderfully delivered from the cursed plots of Haman and evill fell on him who evill thought they called those dayes Purim b Esth 9.26 Esth 9.26 By reason of the Magicall Lots which Haman used calling in the great Abaddon to helpe the Iewes destruction And the Iewes ordained and tooke upon them and upon their seed and upon all such as joyned themselves to them so as it should not faile that they would keepe those two dayes yearely ver 27. This was the decree of Esther confirming the ordinance of the Iewes ver 32. Will you say this was profane or unlawfull So concerning the feast of Dedication c 1 Mac. 4.59 1 Mac. 4.59 Iudas and his Brethren with the whole Congregation of Israel ordained that the dayes of the dedication of the Altar should be kept in their season from yeare to yeare by the space of eight dayes Was the dedication of the Altar profane were no dayes holy but Sabbaths what was his feast of eight dayes wherein one Sabbath at least was included Though they esteeme not of the Churches power in making holy dayes yet Christ in his time did observe those holy dayes and sanctifyed them with the presence of his owne words workes and person d Ioh. 10.22 Ioh. 10 22. It was at Ierusalem the Feast of dedication and it was Winter there Christ did miracles there did he plainely avouch himselfe to be God To that feast of the Maccabees doe our late translators apply the words of Saint Iohn and with them agree Maldonat and some others yet if it were at the dedication of the whole City of Ierusalem when the decayed Walls were repayred as Theodorus Mopsuestiensis opineth though the dedication of the City Wals is not so holy a thing or if it were the dedication of Salomons Temple which was in this place aymed at e Cyril in Graeca Catena Cyril rather imbraceth though it will be hardly proved that the day of Salomons dedication was kept holy and festivall after his Temple was destroyed and after the new building of another Temple and new dedication Lastly if it were the dedication of Zorobabel when the Israelites came from Babylon and Persia f 1 Esd 7.7 1 Esd 7.7 Where they offâ—red to the dedication of the Temple 100. Bullockes 200. Rammes 400. Lambes I say which soever of all these dedications it was it is all one to our purpose sithence Christ did honour the feast of the dedication with his owne presence and with wonderfull both words and deeds and that feast of dedication was at Hierusalem and it was Winter as I said before from g Ioh. 10.22 Ioh. 10.22 Encaenia facta sunt I cannot but taxe Zepper lib. 9 c. 9. Who maketh encaenia and Renovalia to be Synonoma's whereas Renovations must differ from dedications and all feasts were often renovated yea some annually some often in a yeare as the New-Moones or the Feasts of the Calends PAR. 9. THe same Zepper faults those meetings of people at the feasts of dedication of Temples and especially the dancing at those times as provocations to venery How temptations may arise from the Dutch dances I know not they may be like those ungracious ones h Exod. 32.6 Exod. 32.6 Or like the Herodian dances though I was never any dancer I know a harmelesse use may be made of dancing himselfe
confesseth Antiquitùs saltationes illae sacris populi veteris adhibitae sunt nullaque ferè olim sacra sine his peracta fuerunt the ancient Iewes used those dancings and there were scarce any holy times or duties performed without them and he bringeth these instances Iudg. 11.34 1 Sam. 18.6 2 Sam. 6.16 Iudeth 15.14 Since Christ he citeth a Theodor hist Ecâ—le 4.27 Tripartit hist 6.48 Theodoret and the Tripartite history and I am sure God turned Davids mourning into dancing b Psal 30.11 Psal 30.11 And the good Father and prodigall penitent had dancing c Luk 15.25 Luk 15.25 And that churlish Euclio the elder brother faulted it and that the rather commends it especially sithence the pittifull old man represented God our mercifull Father and Christ found not fault with dancing when he said We have piped and ye have not danced d Math. 11.17 Math. 11.17 But rather commends it so e 1 Cor 4.17 1 Cor. 4.17 When the Apostle speaketh of piping and harping giving a distinction in sounds whereby it may be knowne what is piped or harped it is very probable that he alludeth unto the piping and harping unto dancers whose tunes guide the measures But to be briefe it is not dancing that we so much strive for in our Revels or Feasts of dedication as all other lawfull Recreations post sacra peracta with friendly neighbourhood and harmelesse good fellowship and wise modest moderate feastings to the refreshing of the poore and indigent to the cutting off all needlesse and litigious Law-sutes when so many friends doe meete to be merry with putting on of their best apparell insomuch that encaeniare saith f August â—ract 48. in Iohan. Augustine was vulgarly knowne to he all one with Novam vestem induere to decke themselves in their best apparell which the Country man calleth the putting on of the Apostle-day cloathes which Feasts in both Testaments were kept with joy and the Lord made them joyfull that I may speake in the Scripture phrase g Ezr. 6.16.22 Ezra 6 16.22 Without sinne if we follow the prescribed rules of our most sacred Soveraigne King Charles who is Inter primos primus the glory and chiefe of Princes and of his most learned Father King Iames of happy memory who did holily what they did to keepe the Iudaizing Reformers from further madnesse Even in Constantines time the Encaenia were every where celebrated Dedicationum Festivitates per urbes singulas templorum nuper exaedificatorum consecrationes frequentes Episcoporum in unum conventus peregrinorum longè ab exteris regionibus accedentium concursus mutuae populi in populum benevolentiae And all holy exercises are particularly recounted by h Euseb Histo Eccle. 10.3 Eusebius So on the Anniversary Feasts in remembrance of the dedication of our Churches after sacred exercises performed Festivity mirth and jollity may be used Rhenanus on Tertullian de Coronâ militis thus Mos commessandi in dedicationibus Templorum Natalibus Divorum diebus antiquus esse cognoscitur the custome of feasting on the dayes when Churches were dedicated and on the birth-dayes of Saints is knowne to be ancient but in all the Scriptures no holy men ever feasted on their birth dayes Pharaoh and Herod did of all the Feasts in the yeare only the birth of our Lord and of his fore-runner are kept holy the rest are the Feast dayes of their obit's Rhenanus is justly taxed by Pamelius for applying that to their birth-dayes for such was indeed the custome of the heathen which ought to be said of their death-dayes for they were anniversarily observed and both those good customes we may and doe keepe without sin c. PAR. 10. I Come to the Iesuite Maldonate and nearer to the point in hand Magnâ nos Iohannes molestiâ contentioneque liberâsset saith he si vel unum adjecisset verbum quo quis ille Iudaeorum dies fuisset Festus declarâsset that is Saint Iohn might have rid us of much trouble and strife if he had added but one word declarative what that Feast day was sawcily boldly malapertly written Plus quà m pro censurâ satis pro imperio over-censorious and imperiously enough Will the Iesuite prescribe to the Almighty a better course then he hath taken will he grudge if the divine Scripture hath left some points dubious enveloped and fit to be enquired after will he taxe the holy writ of deficiency when as Nature which is nothing but the right hand of God doth neither abound in superfluities nor is wanting in necessaries Or is it a molestation to dive into the harder places of the word of God or if it be a strife is it not an holy strife to overcome errour to trace after the truth The Iesuites impudency being reproved I approach to the matter I will not touch at all the Iewish feasts either primary or secundary but such onely as have Patrones and defenders that they are meant by these words a Ioh. 5.1 Ioh. 5.1 There was a Feast of the Iewes you heard before the opinion of Cajetan and Canus see them excellently confuted by the learned b Perer. disput 1 in Ioh. 5.1 Pererius â—AR 11. SOme of the late Writers held it was the Feast of Tabernacles saith Maldonat but levi conjecturâ as he professeth his judgement and there indeed he is in the right Many have held that it was the Feast of Pentecost so Cyril 2.123 Chrysostome Hom. 35. Euthymius Author Historiae scholasticae Aquinas Lyranus Hugo Cardinalis Carthusian thus Communiter dicitur quòd erat solennitas Pentecostes Pentecoste opinor saith Theophylact but Tolet proveth at large by the series rerum ordo historiae by the passages of those times it could not be Pentecost which is strongly confuted also by the Itinerary in Franciscus Lucas Brugensis Canus also and Cajetan hold it not likely that it was Pentecost Pererius refuteth it thus after the other precedent Passeover Christ both stayed in Iudaea and thence after went into Galilee and in his passage conferred with the woman of Samaria foure moneths before the Harvest c Ioh. 4.35 Ioh. 4.35 But the Harvest in Iudaea was before Pentecost d Levit. 23.10 16. Levit. 23.10 To the end of the 16. verse So this Feast of the Iewes could not be Pentecost Jrenaeus thinkes the Passeover was meant in this place so Rupertus Barradius Tolet and many others PAR. 12. PErerius in his vehemency for the Passover mightily overlasheth and disput 1. he is peremptory Nusquam sive inveteris sive in novi Testamenti Scripturâ reperire est aliud Festum nisi Pascha appellari Festum simplicitèr precise that is in no place of the Old or New Testament is any other Feast But the passeover called precisely singly and simply a Feast but the great scholler is certainely in a great errour for the Feast of Tabernacles is called simply and precisely a Feast e Ioh 7.8.10.11.14
I rather thinke the Romans followed the Grecians and the Grecians imitated the effeminate Asiatiques the Romanes tooke most of their Lawes and most of their Customes from the Greekes 1. Concerning this particular posture of Discumbing e Alexander ab Aâ—exan gen dier l. 5. c. 21. Alexander ab Alexandro thus a principia Majores nostri sedentes epulabantur Laconum more that is in the beginning our Ancestors feasted sitting as the Lacedemonians used apud veteres Romanos non crat usus accumbendi saith Isidorus the Ancient Romanes were not wont to lye downe at meales Afterwards when the men did lye downe the women sate saith the Great Varro Quià turpit visâ—is est in muliere accubitus because it was a filthy unseemely sight for a woman to lye downe saith he afterward none but the next kindred of women-kinde might Accumbere neither among the greater men PAR. 8. YEt Annarus Babylonia Rex cum 150. psaltrile accubans coenitabat saith Alexander ab Alexandro Annarus King of Babylon supped with 150. Psalterists or Minstrellests lying downe with them even among the Romans Suetonius saith of Caligula pleno convivio sorores singulas infra se vicissim collocabat uxore suprâ cubante that is at a great feast he placed every one of his sisters one after another below himselfe and his wife lay above him Nero mixt himselfe with Harlots on their Feasting Beds in ipsis lectis cum viris cubantibus foeminae sedentes coenitabant men and women supped together the women sate the men lay on their beds saith the same Alexander ab Alex. but this was labentibus moribus when the Empire was increased and good Discipline was corrupted PAR. 9. YEa Tertullian himselfe acknowledgeth that discumbing was practised by the good Primitive Christians and cap. 39. Apologet. mentioneth Triclinia Christianor um the parlours of Christians and otherwhere he confesseth that even women did accumbere lye downe at meales by the men And to the carping objection of the Heathens Tertall Apologet cap. 7. he answereth fully holily and truely the words of Tertullian are these Vescere libenter intere à discumbens dinumera loca ubi mater ubi soror supple torum presserit nota diligenter ut cum tenebrae ceciderint Canine non erres piaculum enim admiseris nisi incestum feceris the supply hath firme ground from his owne words in another a Tertul. ad Nationes 1 7. place dinumera loca ubimater aut soror torum presserit Which words of Tertullian may bethus translated eate willingly the flesh of an Infant in the meane time as thou lyest downe observe the especiall places where thy mother or thy sister reposeth her selfe on the bed marke it diligently that when the dogges have tumbled downe and put out the Candles thou mayst be sure to constuprate thy Mother or thy sister It is an haynous offence not to bee Incestuous lest these words of Tertullian should be mistaken or misapplyed you are to be informed that in that part of the Chapter Tertullian to the confusion of the Heathen most wittily and divinely frameth his discourse by way not of truth or granting but by way of supposall as if a Christian Prelate should say these words to an Heathen newly Christianized eate the flesh of Infants drinke their blood commit Incest doe such horrid and dismall sinnes and live for ever you would not buy saith Tertullian eternall life at so deere a rate nor would you beleeve him therefore you are to thinke we Christians neither doe such evill nor beleeve such words not say them b Tertul. ad uxorem v. 5. Tertullian againe ad uxorem discumbit cum marito in sodalitiis saepè in popinis I returne to the old Romans who were wont to sit at meales so c Virgil. Aeneid 8. Virgill Perpetuis soliti patres considere mensis that is It was their guise in Ancient time To sit at boord when they did dine And againe Vivoque sedilia saxo The rockes did sometimes afford them refreshing places at their meate and yet Virgill saith of Aenem before Rome or Romans were Inde toro pater Aeneas sic orsus ab alto Then old Aeneas Virgil. Aeneid 2. from his lofty bed Thus gan his tale when first be had well fed PAR. 10. THe Graciant also at first did fit and not lye downe onbeds I observed before that in the beginning the Lacedamonians fashion was to sit they of Crete held it a horrible thing to lye downe at meate saith Alexander ab Alex. ibid. King Alexander ate his â—eate sitting saith he and yet within three leaves after even in the same forecited Chapter he saith fertur Alexander Macedo appetente nocte coenâsse primo diluculo prandio accubuisse Alexander of Macedon supped at earely night and lay downe to dinner at the first shine of morning PAR. 11 ACcubation was in free prosperous Times if not delicate and luxurious Terentius Varro and Hanniball in their Misery supped standing and Cato after Pompey's death in the Civill wars did not discumbere as he was wont but sate The Romans made their way to Asia through Greece partaking of the Graecian fashions as the Greekes did of the Asiatique effaeminatenes Antiqui torum ex palustri ulvâ ex stramento vel ex cespite fuisse saith the often cited a Alexand. ab Alex. l. 5. cap. 25. initio Alexander ab Alex. their beds were made of reedes or of Sea-grasse straw stubble or turfe then they left those homely Countrey fashions and had first square then round Tables to dine and suppe on which fashion saith he I beleeve they borrowed from the Lacedaemonians PAR. 12. AFter this Cneius Manlius carried in Triumph upon the Asian Conquest amongst other things aeratos lectos Triclinia bedsteads of Brasse and Feasting beds and then did voluptuousnesse encrease among the Romans of which hereafter but the Asiatiques used it long before the Romans PAR. 13. BEsides what before I related of Annarus King of Babylon which story I hold to be uncertaine sure I am that in the dayes of Ahashuerus they used accubation of bed-repasting for Hest 1.6 the very banqueting beds with their furniture are described and Hest 7.8 Haman was fallen on the bed whereon Ester was Est 1.6 7.8 and at the banquet of wine it was a feasting bed Est 3.15 the King and Haman sate downe to drinke Iasheba sate in likelihood on their feasting beds yea an hundred yeares before the raigne of Abashuerus and Ester Ezekiel prophecied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he so describeth a wicked woman that in her you may conjecture at the custome of the Jewes and that the Jewes did not take up that custome of feasting beds from the Romans for this was within a while after Romulus but the Romanes or Graecians might take it from the Jewes howsoever b Pererius in Ioh 13. â— Pererius is confident that herein the Jewes followed the Romane usance the
words of Ezekiel are these cap. 23. vers 40. c. They came for whom thou didst wash thy selfe painted thy eyes and deckedst thy selfe with Ornaments and satest upon a stately bed and a table prepared before it c Ezek. 25.40 c. whereupon thou bast set mine incense and mine oyle all which ceremonies were after used in the Romane feasting if you except painting of their eyes higher than this I cannot bring the Custome PAR. 14. BUt this was long after the Aegyptian Passeover and therefore let them who imagine the Israelites lay on beds at the first Passeover produce one Authour or other sacred or prophane that at that time any Nation under heaven used to lye or leane on beds at their feasting and then they shall say something though not fully Conclusive PAR. 15. INdeede it is sayd of Angells in the shape of men Gen. 19.4 Gen. 19.4 before they lay downe but it is plaine that it is not meant of lying downe on feast-beds for their supper preceeded but of their beds to rest on all night and I never found any expositour otherwise interpreting it the intention of the Sodomites may prove that their villanies were ordeined not at supper-time but at bed-time But indeede the manner of Accubation or discubation at meate was not in use any where for many centuries of yeares after PAR. 16. THe second part of the first question was whether the Israelites did sit at the first Passeover M. Broughton in his Generall view of the holy Scriptures concerning the Ceremonie of sitting and standing at the Passeover Pag. 120. thus distinguisheth This is the consent of the Jewes they of fit yeares did fit those that were young did stand unlesse they were bid to sit if all this bee granted for he taketh it up on trust and specializeth no authority yet his following discourse savoureth of madnesse not of truth or sobriety Pag. 121. he saith Christ sate with his Apostles after the manner of the wilde Irish on the ground did they so Hugh Where is thy proofe Where is any likelihood First they are it in an upper Chamber the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying a large upper roome furnished and prepared Mar. 14.15 and so it was above ground Secondly lying all along on the ground affordeth liberty and ease for one to lye on anothers brest whilest they sate on the ground their posture must be upright and is not so well accommoded for leaning but S. Iohn did leane on Christs breast therefore then he sate not on the ground Christ washed the Apostles feete and he arose to doe so did they then sit on the ground and did he kneele to wash and wipe them Another perhaps would finde fault with M. Broughtons improprietie of language for saying Christ and his Apostles sate after the manner of the wilde Irish when hee might better have sayd if he could have sayd it verifially the wild Irish fit after the manner of Christ and his Apostles ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of Devills 1 Cor. 10.21 where he intimateth that they are their Sacred morsells on Tables or as they were taken from the Consecrated Tables Have the wilde Irish tables to eate on when they sit on the ground The hand of him who betrayeth me is with me on the Table saith Christ Luk 22.21 Was a guest-chamber sought Was a large upper roome furnished and yeelded up to make ready there as is to be gathered from Luke 22.11.12 and in the end shall they sit on the ground and eate the Passeover Hath M. Broughton beene so drench'd in his Heathen Greeke that he forgetteth that all the Greeke words used in the New Testament describing their posture at the eating of the Paschall Lambe doe in their Native signification imply rather lying along and recumbing than sitting Was the Passeover ever eaten by such as sate on the ground Did ever any Jew any ancient Grecian or Roman yeeld authority to M. Broughton for his so wilde Irish a conceite Though Ludolphus the Carthusian went too farre that way yet doth he not fully agree with him but of this God willing in the third booke more at large indeede e Clem. Alexan. paedagog 2.3 Clemens Alexandrinus speaking against costly Utensills and excesse saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rich drinke bringeth danger with it polished glasse teacheth us both to feare and to drinke the costly beds were insolentium deliciarum argumenta invidiae mollisque ignaviae insidiosa commoda signes of excessive pleasure insnaring benefits of Envie and soft sloath sed vide but behold Christus in vili catino cibum sumpsit fecit discipulos super herham accumbere pedes eorum lavit linteo accinctus Christ did eate his meate in a poore platter and made his Disciples lye along on the grasse and washed their feete he being bound with a Towell some have had so little wit as to apply all this to his last supper and it may bee Hugh Broughton and Ludolphus dranke of this cup of intoxication but whosoever readeth Clemens himselfe in the place will finde that he speaketh not of Christs last supper onely or any one supper onely but of the continued course of Christ's life and that by an induction or enumeration of particulars hee proveth Christ to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and evinceth his being a stranger to pride As for the first Passeover there cited in the Margin Mat. 14.19 where it is sayd that he bad the multitude to sit downe on the grasse and Mar. 6 39. where we reade the Apostles made all to sit downe upon the greene grasse these passages have no reference to Christs last supper and therefore are nothing to the purpose though the words following doe reflect on the second supper immediately after the Paschall I hope they had no grasse growing in an upper Chamber I hope there is a difference betweene the thousands of Disciples and his twelve Legates â latere his most holy Apostles divers actions are fitted to divers places and Clemens addeth Christ asked water out of the Samaritans earthen water-pot Iohn 4.7 distinct people distinct places distinct occasions must not be indistinctly huddled together and falsely applyed onely to Christs last Supper And yet I must needes declare for my part I judge it farre more probable that they did sit than that they did lye downe at this first Passeover First for that the Passeover was to be eaten in haste but sitting is a gesture more accommoded for haste than the manner of discumbing was or could be Secondly sitting at Feasts was before this time in use the brethren of Ioseph sate before him at a feast Gen. 43.33 which custome of sitting we must not thinke was introductory but explanatory it was not onely then used because onely then expressed but this posture or gesture did declare the Common practise of them in those times Thirdly sitting was in use by the same Individuall people who are the Passeover
annexed unto the priviledges of their Primogeniture which ancient Custome they observed in this poynt not onely at the first Passeover but ever after even when the Priesthood was setled on Aaron and his sonnes or families unlesse they were defiled as 2 Chro. 30.17 or else some other great occasion interceded PAR. 3. THe first objection to the contrary Yea but it is said 1 Esdr as 7.12 The Levites offered the Passeover for all them of the Captivity and for their brethren the Priests and for themselves I answer as it is in the precedent verses They that were of the Captivity were not all sanctified together but the Levites were all sanctified together Want of sanctification might make them unfit who otherwise had right enough to have discharged the duty The second Objection Ezra 6.20 The Priests and the Levites were purified together all of them were pure and killed the Passeover for all the children of the Captivity and for their brethren the Priests and for themselves I answer the Priests and Levites extraordinary sanctification in the pollution of the multitude reached them out an handle on just opportunity to doe that which others might have done if they had beene truely sanctified This answer is confirmed 2 Chr. 30.17 Many in the Congregation were not sanctified therfore the Levites had the charge of killing of the Passeover for every one that was not cleane and the uncleane did eate it but not kill it And God heard the voyce of Hezekiah praying the good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seeke God though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary ver 18. and 19. Observe I pray you the force of the illative Therefore Therefore the Priests had the charge of killing the Passeover Why first because many in the Congregation were not sanctified Secondly They killed the Passeover for every one who was not there it is not said the Levites or Priests killed the Passeover for all and every one of the Congregation the cleane might sacrifice for themselves and their families but for every one that was not cleane did the Priests and Levites kill the Passeover Lastly some interprete the immolation by the Priests and Levites onely of the Paschalia sacrificia the Paschall Sacrifices so Barradius termeth them and not of the great passeover Sacrificium Pascha the sacrifice of the passeover but because there may seeme little difference in this distinction I rather diversifie it thus They slew and flayed the sacrifices of the Chagigah not of the Sacramentall Pascha of the Herd not of the flocke or if they did sacrifice any of the flocke Lambs Weathers or Rammes these were not for the first dish of the first Course the first night of the Paschall solemnity which was to be an unspotted Male under a yeare old c. but for the other second dishes of the second course or for other dayes of their great Septemdiale Festum Festivity of seven dayes PAR. 4. BEllarmin de missâ 1.7 Paterfamiliâs per se immolabat reliqui per patrem familiâs paterfamiliâs propriè per se immolante reliquis per illum immolantibus voluntate participatione in sacrificium consentientibus The Master of the Family killed the passeover by himselfe others by him and in him he properly they as Consentients and Co-parthers yet Bellarmin determineth not whether the eldest or chiefest of the Family were bound personally to doe it himselfe so bound that he could not depute another in his roome I for my part thinke that as the Primogenitus or First-borne did willingly and most ordinarily performe the duty in his owne person So there were divers dispensable occasions which might permit him to consigne over that office of preparing the passeover for some times to another in his place and as his substitute with vicariall power Barradius more peremptory than Belarmin saith Christ himselfe slew the passeover Where is his proofe That Christ himselfe might have slaine the passeover I deny not hee had a double right unto it first as Paterfamilias or Master of the Family secondly as he was a Priest spiritually of the order of Melchizedek and had the fountaine of all authority and Priesthood in him as he was the eternall Priest but â posse ad esse non valet consequentia from what he might have done to what he actually did doe is no good consequence or he might have done it Ergo he did doe it is no good Argument and the question is not de jure of the right but de facto of the deede This perhaps might be one reason why he designed others to slay the passeover lest if he had slaine it himselfe some mis-judging people might have beene deceived and perhaps thought him to be a Priest lineally descended from Levi or Aaron who were not excluded from slaying the passeover in their owne houses but Christs pedigree is not counted from Levi or his sonnes Heb. 7.6 nor is he to be called Priest after the order of Aaron ver 11. but appertaineth to another Tribe of which no man gave attendance at the Altar ver 13. For it is evident the Lord sprang out of Judah of which Tribe Moses spake nothing concerning Priesthood ver 14. Aquinas part 3. quast 22. Art 1. ad secundum thus Quia sacerdotium veteris Legis erat figura sacerdotii Christi noluit Christus nasci de stirpe figuralium sacerdotum ut ostenderetur non esse omnino idem sacerdotium sed differre sicut verum â figurali that is Because the Priesthood of the old Law was a figure of the Priesthood of Christ Christ would not be borne of the stocke of the Leviticall Priests that it might appeare that his Priesthood and theirs was not all one but that they did differ as the truth from the shadow PAR. 5. SVidas on the word Iesus saith the Iewes kept among their Archiva or Registries that Christ about thirtie yeares of age was chosen a Priest of their Law and thence taught in their Synagogues It is truth they delivered him the Scripture to interpret it Luke 4. but whether to intrap him or else in admiration of his learning or indesire to heare Novelties none knoweth Certainely Priests were Hereditary not Elective and Interpretation of Scripture belonged not to the Tribe of Levi onely for Act. 13.15 Paul who was of the Tribe of Benjamin was requested to exhort PAR 6. HE who diligently readeth the divine story shall find how First the Disciples were carefull to have the passeover provided Matth. 26.17 Mar. 14.12 Secondly our Saviour hearkened to their request as there it followeth Thirdly Christ made an exempt of his Disciples retaining some with himselfe and he sent others to make ready the passeover Fourthly those two whom he sent were none of the meanest but rather the chiefest of his Apostles S. Peter and S. Iohn as it is Luke 22.8 Fiftly in the sacrificing of the passeover you may observe these distinct
it is so appointed Exod. 13.5.6 and because they had no leasure till they were past the Red-sea to keepe much feasting but withall he doth well to acknowledge it very likely that from the houre of their departure they are no leavened bread for the next 7. dayes and after for they baked unleavened cakes of the dough ver 39. That the Israelites ate the rosted Passeover with unleaved bread I finde generally confessed this durable ceremony bound them even in Aegypt and in the wildernesse Numb 9.11 and ever after PAR. 7. LEaven may very well signifie two things yea two disparate if not contrary things briefely it may shaddow out both good and evill you shall finde it taken in the good sense Matth. 13.33 The kingdome of heaven is like unto leaven so Luke 13.20.21 The Kingdome of God is like a Leaven which a woman tooke and hid in three measures of meale till the whole was leavened thus leaven implyeth an effectuall good unseene operation and communication of its proper vertue continuance in things mingled with it a spreading or growing from a small matter to a great a diffusive grace Againe leaven doth shadow-out a godly affection mingled with some griefe as the Psalmists heart was leavened Psal 73.21 For so the word signifieth the Radix is all one with that of Levit. 7.13 Indeede our Translation readeth Thus my heart was grieved acescit cor meum saith the Interlineary My heart waned soure and perhaps this may be the reason why after deliverance from griefe and sorrow the devout and godly duty of thanksgiving was appointed to be offered with leavened bread Levit. 7.13 As leaven may be taken and is taken in an ill sence so our bread in our Paschatizing must be unleavened Leaven is taken for malice and froward affections 1 Cor. 5.8 Leaven is taken for erroneous opinions Take heede and beware both are specialized of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees Matt. 16 6. And the leaven of Herod Marks 8.15 Leaven is taken both for a corrupting infectious disposition and for a pronenesse and inclination of the subject corruptible for corrupted nature for the whole masse of us deformed and soured Purge out therefore the old leaven not that wee may be newly-leavened but that yee may be a new lumpe as yee are unleavened 1 Cor. 5.7 Unleavened bread is more pure more naturall more free from art and humane devices and though Tostatus say Leavened bread is Saporosior stomacho salubrior more savoury and more wholesome for the stomacke yet I say dainty tender natures prove it otherwise and unleavened bread doth signifie incorruption Let vs keepe the feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickednesse but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5.8 PAR. 8. I Llyricus upon the word Fermentum or leaven thus There is a threefold kind of leaven found in holy writ 1. Pharisaicum quod significat corruptelas doctrinae Pharisaicall which signifies corrupt doctrines or opinions 2. Apostolicum quod est regnum coelorum Apostolicke which increaseth to the Kingdome of God 3. Malitiae versutiae quod est morum perversitas of malice and craftinesse which perverteth good manners PAR. 9. BEsides all this you shall find Deut. 16.3 Unleavened bread is called even the bread of affliction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some are headstrong in beleefe that the meaner sort of men and the poore common people were wont to eate unleavened bread among the Iewes wherefore Cajetan calleth it Panem paupertatis the bread of Poverty but proofe hereof is wanting Pauperum est carere commoditate fermentandi panem poore men most commonly doe want the benefit of leaven for their bread saith Cornelius â Lapide but I know the poore use leavened bread for their owne use more than the rich Pauperum est saith he uti pane subcineritio qui azymus est statimque fit coquitur It is for poore men saith he to eate unleavened cakes baked on the coales which are made and baked on a sudden but if he had kept a great house he might easily have knowne that as well though perhaps not so often leavened cakes as unleavened are baked on the hearth or under embers or set up against the sides of the Oven and are often baked before the oven be stopped Amongst us the most of our poore and rusticks eate leavened bread weake stomackes and rich men eate unleavened bread but is not unleavened bread called here Bread of Affliction Yes yet by these words you are not to thinke that unleavened bread is undervalued or held to be naughty bad bread or worse tasted but it is called Panis afflictionis bread of affliction per appositionem as unleavened bread was appointed by God to be the record and monument of their affliction in Aegypt This reason is expressely added ibid. Thou shalt eate unleavened bread with the Passeover even the bread of affliction for thou camest forth of the land of Aegypt in pavere in feare as some reade it cum trepidatione with Trembling as others read it in haste say we That thou mayst remember the day when thou camest forth all the dayes of thy life the bread of it selfe was not bad but was onely to be a remembrance of their affliction passed rather than leavened bread because they had not time to leaven their bread for it was not leavened because they were thrust out of Aegypt PAR. 10. THe same things are the best monuments of themselves thus the pot of Manna and Aarons rod Heb. 9.4 Next unto these not things unlike but semblable proportionable and like are fittest to be remembrancers who hath a deare child or friend that is absent if hee see a thousand that have no lively resemblance of him he doth not so readily thinke on him but if he see one who is very like unto him yea but his lively picture he quickly calls his absent beloved to his present remembrance Leavened bread they had none in that burly-burly unleavened they had therefore unleavened bread was the apter and fitter than leavened bread to call to minde the great affliction in Aegypt when they had the like unleavened bread before them So much for the second Sacrametall Ceremony unleavened bread PAR. 11. THe next Sacramentall and durable ceremony was The passeover was to be eaten with biâ—ter herbs Exod. 12.8 With unleavened bread and bitter herbes they shall eate it though there be no mention of this precept reiterated Deut. 16. yet there is no doubt but it was of stable continuance and perhaps is so presupposed and therefore omitted in Deuteronomy you shall finde it particularly commanded Num. 9.11 Eate it with unleavened bread and bitter herbes indeed in the Hebrew it runneth thus Super infermentatis amaritudinibus comedent illud yet the generall Exposition runs to our purpose Cum lactucis agrestibus say some Cum herbis amaris say others and among the rest the learned Hebrew Observations Printed at
And after blessing then the younger fort enquired why the preceding Supper was so discordant and divers from all other Suppers with double washings without baked boyled or stewed meates without any herbes save bitter ones As the youth enquired according to that Exod. 12.26 So the head of that societie you may say he was Rex sacrorum Architriclinus King of the Ceremonies Sewer or Master of the feast Gentleman-Vsher Chaplaine in Ordinary or Marshall of the Hall or Symposiast pater discubitus Initiator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who placed the guests according to their worth Nomarcha Coenae the Ruler of the Feast according to that of Exod. 13.8 made remonstrance of what God had done to deliver them from the house of bondage nor might any of their Table-talke be irreligious or vaine or carpingly censorious or provoking to wrath nor was it as at other times with Riddles or other delightfull good discourses nor roved they at large at all sacred conferences but was empaled in and confined to the well-seasoned Relations as the Memoriall then lead them of the plagues in Aegypt of the destroying Angell inhibited to destroy their First-borne of the Seas retiring and the Two walles of water forgetting their naturall Fluidity on the right hand and on the left of their haste and feare and of Pharaohs hardened heart mollified by his drowning and Gods carrying them on Eagles winges Aulus Gellius Noct. Attic. 13.11 Nec loquaces Convivas nec multos legere oportet guests must not be tatling like Geese nor mute as Fishes and the discourses must be jucunde invitabiles delightfull and profitable not perplexing or troublesome the Master or Lord of the Feast must be Non tam lautus quà m sive sordibus neate and cleanely Macrobius Saturnal 7.1 handleth the poynt more at large as a few mute letters dispersed among many vowells in societatem vocis facilè mansuescunt doe make an easie pronounciation so some few unlearned delighting in the company of more learned either accord with them if they can or are delighted with their discourse Timotheum clarum hominom Athenis principem Civitatis ferunt cùm coenuvisset apuà Platonem eoqui convivio admodùm delectat â—s esses videssetque eum postridiè dixisse vestrae quidem Coenae non solùm in praesentiâ sed etià m postero die jucundae sunt that is It is storied of Timothy a famous man of Athens and one of the chiefe of that Citie that having on a time supped with Plato hee was wonderously delighted with that Feast and meeting him by chance the next day he told him that his Supper did rellish a long time after a Philosophers banquet as Cicero lib. 5. Tusquaest PAR. 6. HOw great a care God had of continuing the Memorialls of his favour to the Israelites appeareth by appointing the pot of Manna to be kept and Aarons rod which budded likewise Iosh 4.5 c. Twelve men tooke up twelve stones every man a stone upon his shoulder that this may be a signe among you that when your children aske their fathers in time to come saying what meane you by these stones Then ye shall answer them that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord when it passed over Jordan the waters of Jordan were cut off as it is pithily repeated ver 7. See to the same purpose Iosh 4.20 c. Quoties Christiani agapis vescebant fidem Psalmis pascebant ait Tertullianus that is as oft as Christian did fill their bellies together with good cheere they fed their faith with finging of Psalmes Cyprianus lib. 2. epist 2. Nec sit velhora convivii gratia coelestis immunis Sonet Psalmis sobrium convivium that is at all your sober Christian Feasts let Grace be Salt and Psalmes the Musique what Ioshua did was in immitation of what God commanded Exod. 12.35 When ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you you shall keepe the Passeover and when your children shall say unto you what meane you by this Service that yee shall say It is the Sacrifice of the Lords Passeover who passed over the houses of Israel in Aegypt when he smote the Aegyptians and delivered our houses ver 27. Though such discourse was not directly appointed at the first Aegyptian passeover because of their affrighted haste yet I doubt not but both they and their children knew why this Feast was thus kept and ever after it was to them a speaking memoriall of their deliverance concerning which their children were taught to enquire of their parents and their parents were used to relate unto them all their passed seares sorrowes and deliverances with their enemies destructions Exod. 13.8 Thou shalt shew thy sonne in that day and 14. When thy sonne asketh thee Thou shalt say c. So Deut. 6.20 c. When thy sonne asketh thee in time to come Thou shalt say to thy sonne we were Pharaohs bondmen in Aegypt and ver 7. Thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children and shall talke of them when thou sittest in the house when thou walkest by the way when thou lyest downe and when thou risest up The Spouse Cant. 2.9 saith of Christ My beloved is like a Roe or a young Hart behold hee standeth behinde our walls he looketh forth at a window shewing himselfe through the Lattesse Which words the Targum thus Paraphraseth to our purpose as it is set forth by the learned Edmund Rivius The Congregation of Israel said in the time when the glory of God was revealed in Aegypt in the night of the passeover and when he slew all their first-borne God ascended upon swiftest lightning and ranne like ae Roe or young Goate and protected and defended the houses in which we were and stood behind our wall and looked through the Lattesses and saw the blood of the Passeover and of the Circumcision imprinted as it were on our portalls and behold from the highest heavens and saw his people eating the passeover rosted with fire with wilde Lettuce and unleavened bread and spared us and gave no power to Apollyon to destroy us These are the declarative sayings of the Church as the Targum imagineth in answer forsooth to the question like enough to be propounded at the eating of the passeover but in truth Delrio most divinely on the place adapteth the words to our Saviours Incarnation which the obstinate Iew will not beleeve to be accomplished PAR. 7. IF any Psalme were sung at their passeover after Davids time or in it I presume it was the 78. Psalme in which was a full relation of Gods wonders in Aegypt and he teacheth them what he had learned of others ver 3.4 as God commanded them ver 5.6 though God commanded them in other places to teach their children yet this place of Exod. 12.25 may be also aymed ar Till Davids time I suppose they at the passeover did recite Moses his song Exod. 15.1 I will sing unto the Lord for
recubation to sit downe by companies upon the greene grasse the Interlineary erred to interpret it super viridi foeno upon the greene Hay Franciscus Lucas Brugensis thus ut verbo discumbendi vel accumbendi non necessariò significatur quòd cubuerit seu jacuerit Iesus inter coenandum quanquam ea est propria verbi significatio ita nec significatur necessariò quòdsederit praesertim semper quasi non potuer it aliquando stetisse sed quòd convivio afuerit quòd ex eâ ad quam accesserat mensâ caenam sumpserit nunc stans nunc sedens pro opportunitate vox Syra Semich stanti sedenti ascribi potest significat enim proprie innixum esse quod quidem tam de baculo quà m de lecto vel scamno potest accipi that is as by the word of discumbing or accumbing we are not necessarily to understand that Iesus lay downe at supper time although that indeede be the proper signification of the word so neither is there any necessity enforcing us to say that he sate at least that he sate alwayes as if sometimes hee might not also stand but the meaning is that he was present at the Passeover because he supped at that Table unto which he came sometimes standing sometimes sitting as occasion served The Syriacke word Semich may be applyed either to him that standeth or to him that sitteth for it signifieth properly to leane upon which may be understood as well of a staffe as of a bed or of a forme or boord and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they sate downe in rankes by hundreds and by fifties these places were no discubitory beds besides the greene grasse and yet the Holy-ghost forbeareth the properest words for sitting the Evangelist also doubleth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in a sort as they did at feasts to that effect I thinke the originall ought to be interpreted though our translatours wholly skip the words and render it onely by companies though many thousands might be by companies which had no reference to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Piscator thus observeth S. Marke saith he chap. 6. ver 39. word for word hath it banquetting companies banquetting companies it is a kinde of distributive speech as above two two in a company So in the verse following rowes rowes the praeposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per or By is understood so that the sense must be by companies that is to say they were so distributed into smaller companies as they commonly use to be at banquets c. See Piscator farther on Matth. 14. ver 19. PARA 3. AS this is a faire excuse why our English Translatours do use the word sitting throughout all their description of the Ceremonies in the eating of the Paschall though the words in the Originall doe signifie no such thing sensu primo at first sight for the learned translatours respected the sense and significant meaning not the propriety of the words and in their very discumbing beds there was sitting as I noted before and though we should grant that most of their time was spent in discumbing yet sitting was in likelihood the next lasting Posture and under it in much practise PAR. 4. SO theÌ„ madnesse of some people is hence apparent who will fit forsooth at the receiving of the thrice Sacred Eucharist because Christ is sayd by Matthew Marke and Luke to fit at the eating of the Paschall-Lambe nor have they ought to insist upon but the English Originall upon whom a just seducement hath fallen for being deceived by an indifferent translation of such whom they will not they dare not trust for a faithfull interpretation whilst they will be lead onely by the evidence of the spirit but let them take heede it be not a blacke spirit transfigured into an Angell of light I ever suspected any spirit who shall offer to lead me into matters beyond my Capacitie as God knowes the Common-peoples capacity and the floating imaginations of boyes and girles Apprentises and monoglosses cannot be as such stewards of the Mysteries of God PAR. 5. THe fifth Puncto expressed by S. Marke 14.18 is this As they did eate Jesus spake no doubt some at that instant did not eate and to those perhaps Christ principally spake those words they might pawse a while others did eate and yet harken also yea chiefely harken yet fall againe to their meate and it seemeth Christ both are and yet chose a fit time to speake One of you who eateth with me shall betray me ver 18. Ergo he ate and yet it may seeme probablest that Christ spake not much of the act of their eating but spake onely of them as they were Convivae or Convivatores eaters together with him Beza on Matth. 26.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish whether it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is read Mark 14.20 it is not to be taken as if at the very time when Christ sayd these words Iudas his hand was in the dish for this had beene a manifest and undoubted signe of the Traytour as Erasmus rightly observeth but it is to be referred to the mutuall dayly eating together I say against Erasmus and Beza the Apostles understandings being clowded with sorrow or eclipsed divinely they did not take this for an unboubted remonstrance as they suppose PAR. 6. VVHat sayd our Saviour Verily I say unto you one of you which eateth with me shall betray me all words of our Saviour were full of verity nor was one more or lesse true than other yet all words of truth are not of equall weight goodnesse benefit or consideration therefore when remarkeable momentuall or more necessarie marters are handled the word verily is perfixed and set as a Beacon upon an hill as a Diamond in a Ring of gold and sometimes the word is doubled Verily verily Amen sometimes is a kind of Prayer 1 King 1.36 After David had declared that Salomon should succeede him Benajah sayd Amen the Lord God of my Lord the King say so too and it was commanded to be used at the vote of the people in cursing of sinners Deut. 27.15 c. and ever since used at the close of all Prayers in all Churches likewise it signifyeth a certaine asseveration next in firmitude to an oath thus 2 Cor. 1.20 All the promises of God is Christ are yea and in him Amen the adverbe being put for the adjective truely or certainely for true certaine and faithfull Amen in this place signifieth no other thing but assuredly by which he raiseth up their attention to observe somewhat more than ordinary PAR 7. I Say unto you future things are to others unknowne but not unto me others may be deceived I cannot though no man knoweth the bea rt of man except the spirit of man though mans minde be volubilis deambulatoria usque ad mortâ—â— slitting and roving even untill death and what he purposeth one day hee altereth estsoone and sometimes
words did sufficiently enough declare the Traytor for divers might dip-together with Christ and in likelihood divers did dippe yet did they make the galled-horse to winch when Christ said It had beene good for that man if he had not beene borne whereupon Iudas alone replied Master Is it I Matth. 26.25 and Christ replied Thou hast said PAR. 11. VVHich words Thou hast said though they be an Hebrew Idiotisme and plaine enough to those that are skilfull in that language yet in another Language they are ambiguous and reserved enough The Apostles now spake Syriacke and perhaps were not then acquainted with the more learned proprieties of the holy tongue I acknowledge that Matth. 26.64 and Luke 22.70 the words are to be taken for the affirmation of a question yet it may be doubted whether of malice they did so interpret them that they might the rather condemne Christ I am sure when Christ said to Pilat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou sayst Matth. 27.11 Pilat esteemed it not for an affirmation for then he would and must have condemned Christ as publikely professing He was King of the Iewes and durst not have excused him as he did for feare of Caesar his Master The words Thou sayest are ambiguous and to any to all of the Apostles who likewise interrogated Is it I Christ might have sayd Thou sayest Christ could have sayd O sordid and wicked Judas thou haste a long time sate abrood on this evill and of late hast concluded for money darest thou as an innocent man interrogate me to thy question Is it I take this answere thou sayest Terminos nobis ac regulas tolerantiae figens oblivion is injuriarum Thou sayest the truth or a truth or the matter questioned may be here understood a full and cleare light of detection as yet shineth not These are all the things which S. Matthew or S. Mark have recorded of the words or deedes spoken or done at the eating of the Paschall-Lambe If any object that I leave the businesse of Judas imperfect let him consider that our blessed Saviour during the Passeover and till that Supper was ended did leave the designing of the Traytor in ambigno so that the Apostles knew not perfectly whom Christ meant they might perhaps upon some of those severall Indicia or discoveries which Christ made guesse at the Traytor certaine knowledge of him they had not Simon de Cassiâ thinketh Christ did purposely with-hold the Apostles from understanding when he described the Traytor lest they would have made a tumult Aquinas before him Theophylact and Chrysostome thinke Peter would have killed Iudas yet Simon de Cassiâ might have remembred that our blessed Saviour could as well and as easily with-hold his Apostles from a tumult and Peter from killing Judas as he could keepe the Apostles from understanding what he meant by words not very obscure Barradius judgeth that if the Apostles had infallibly knowne Iudas to be the Traytor they would have laboured to convert him I answer could not Christ himselfe have done it more easily if he would and if they had laboured to convert him would Iudas have regarded their words who regarded not the words of Christ and who after so many warnings so many reproofes and menaces intermixed also with many kinde offices done to him by our Saviour yet would not be recalled I rather imagine our Saviour at the eating of the Passeover made no exact and perfect discovery of him because his sinne not full and ripe as then his conscience might recoyle and be on the stayes he might doubt feare and vary from himselfe but as Treason did grow upon his soule more and more so were the detections proportionable and none beyond the present intentions of Iudas when our blessed Saviour spake degrees of detection answered the degrees of Iudas his entertainment of sinne and courting it nor may a man doubt but at that instant when Christ spake in the present tense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 traditur Is betrayed Matth. 26.24 even then the Treason was in Iudas often before Christ had foretold them he should be betrayed when Iudas began to undertake the Treason Christ spake more clearely of it and the more his heart was hardened the more did Christ detect him but a full discovery of the Traytor was not clearely made to the Apostles was not made at all at least till towards the end of the second Supper though Iudas perhaps understood every word but in the second Supper you must heare more of this He named him not Ne irritaret cum ut conscius agat poenitentiam saith Hierome lest he should stirre up his conscience unto Repentance Leo Ser. 7. de Pass Notam sibi esse proditoris conscientiam demonstravit non asperâ apertâ eum increpatione confundens sed leni tacitâ admonitione conveniens ut facilius corrigeret poenitendo quem nulla deformâsset abjectio that is hee made demonstration that he knew well enough what was in the Traytors conscience in that he did not reprove him sharpely and openly but admonish him gently and privily that so he might the more easily draw him to repentance The Prayer WHom have I O Lord in heaven but thee and there is none on earth nor any thing that I desire besides thee keepe me ever in this constant love I beseech thee and if thou vouchsafest unto me but the meanest degree of glory if I may but eate of the crummes that fall from thy Table my soule shall be refreshed and I shall for ever magnifie thy holy name through Jesus Christ my Mediator and Advocate Amen CHAP. XXIII The Contents of the three and twentieth Chapter 1. Christs hearty desire to eate his last Supper 2. The words before after untill unto from c. are particles sometimes inclusive sometimes exclusive 3. Donec or untill negatively used de futuro 4. Kingdome of God what 5. He tooke the Cup not the Eucharisticall Cup fruit of the vine spirituall Nectar Turkes place eternall felicitie in sensuall Pleasures 6. Maldonates error concerning the Cup. 7. Spirituall Table-Talke at Christs last eating of the Passeover 8. Methodus rerum aut Historiae not alwayes observed in Scripture the Originall of greatest authority nothing to be altered in the Scriptures PARAGRAPH 1. SAint Luke hath most considerable varieties Christ said With desire have I desired to eate this Passover with you before I suffer that is I have heartily desired to eate it with you Luke 22.15 Tertullian Contra Marcion 4.46 rendreth it concupiscentiâ concupivi the reason of his desire annexed by S. Luke which is omitted by all the other Evangelists For I say unto you I will not any more eate thereof donec impleatur untill it be fulfilled in the kingdome of God Luke 22.16 He meaneth not saith the learned Lucas Brugensis that he would againe at another time eate the Paschall-Lambe especially in the Kingdome of God but that he would eate it no more in this world much
exhilarated body with competent meate and drinke wee finde by experience to make us better affected both towards God and Man Hold man hold though thy Master hold that when a man hath eaten moderately he is fitter to receive the Communion then when he is fasting because after meate the head is more purged the mouth cleaner the breath sweeter yet I dare say the head is fuller of noysome fumes the mouth no cleaner when one hath eaten and if thy breath stink common food maketh it no sweeter then the Divine Eucharist I am sure the third Councill of Carthage Canone 29. hath decreed Vt Sacramenta Altaris non nisi a jejunis hominibus celebrentur That the Sacraments of the Altar should not be celebrated but onely by those that are fasting and the seventh Councill of Toledo Canone 2. excommunicateth such as eate any thing before the performance of divine offices It was likewise a Novell position That when a man commeth most unprepared to receive the holy Sacrament then hee commeth best prepared and when he is most sinfull then a sinner may most worthily receive His very words are these in his Sermon of the Eucharist made 1526. Ille ut aptissimus ad communicandum qui ante retro est peccatis contaminatissimus sine peccatis mortalibus nullum debere accedere Hee is fittest to communicate who before and behinde who on all sides is most defiled with sinne and without deadly sinne none ought to come to the Communion He meaneth not that a new life sufficeth without contrition confession satisfaction as some of his fellowes say his words runne to a worse sense For in another Sermon of the worthy receiving the Eucharist eight yeeres before Optima dispotio est saith he non nisi ea quâ pessime es disposit us è contrario tunc pessimè es dispositus quando optimè es dispositus Then art thou best disposed when art thou worst disposed and contrarily then art thou worst disposed when thou art best disposed Are not such words the meanes for men to commit sinnes and continue in them and with unrepentant hearts boldly fiercely impudently to swallow up the heavenly food of our soules the sacred Eucharist rather then exhortations to devout receiving Is this way the proving and judging of our selves doth it teach repentance for sinnes past sorrow shame feare selfe-accusing for the present doth it teach a stedfast resolution and a setled purpose never to doe so againe doth his way encrease faith strengthen hope nourish charity yet these things are expected from a worthy Communicant What preparation was used at the giving of the Law Exodus 19.20 c. What sanctifying of themselves both people vers 14. and Priests vers 22. All this preparation might have beene cut off and saved by Luthers doctrine They did not eate the Paschall Lambe without divers washings and many legall purifications insomuch that a second Passeover in another moneth was ordained for the uncleane by Gods extraordinary appointment Numbers 9.10 Which was practised in Hezekiah his dayes 2. Chron. 30.15 18 19. verses Abimelech gave the hallowed Bread to the sanctified onely 1. Sam 21.4 c. David professed I will wash my hands in innocencie So will I compasse thine Altar O Lord Psal 26.6 Saint Paul adviseth or commandeth 1. Corin. 11.28 Let a man examine himselfe and so let him eate of that bread and drink of that cup. Aug. alluded to the words of the Psalmist when he said Tractatu 26. in Iohannem Innocentiam ad altare pertate peccata si sint quotidiana vel non sint mortifera Carry innocencie instead of Frankincense unto the Altar though thou hast committed no mortall sinnes but sinnes of infirmity The same Divine Saint Augustine Hom. 50. Tom. 10. pag. 115. Constituto in corde judicio adsit accusatrix cogitatio testis conscientia carnifex timor Inde quidem sanguis animae confitentis per lachrimas profluat posiremo ab ipsa mente talis sententia proferatur ut se indignum homo judicet participatione sanguinis corporis Domini Vt qui separari â regno coelorum timet per ultimam sententiam summi judicis per Ecclesiasticam disciplinam a Sacramento coelestis panis interim separetur When a Tribunall is erected in thy heart let thy thought accuse thee thy conscience be witnesse against thee thy feare and dread be thy tormentor then let the bloud of a soule confessing it selfe flow out in teares Lastly let the minde pronounce this sentence That a man judge himselfe unworthy to receive the body and bloud of our Lord That he who feareth to be separated from heaven by the last sentence of the supreme judge may in the meane time bee separated according to Ecclesiasticall discipline from the Sacrament of the heavenly Bread By which words in the meane time might well be inferred that S. Augustine differed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heaven wide from a novel German who would have a man fall upon the Sacrament with mortall offences on his soule with unwashed hands having newly committed sins Vastantia Conscientiam devoratoria salutis which lay waste a mans conscience and woorie his salvation He avoucheth the best disposition to be the worst and the greatest preparation the unfittest But Augustine would have a man after mortall sinne to abstaine from the most holy Eucharist a competent time till hee had repented till hee had proved and judged himselfe till hee had confessed his sinnes and laboured to wipe away the blots by his teares Which truth is confirmed divinely by our sacred Liturgi If any of you be a blasphemer of God c. unto these words so shall yee be meete partakers of these holy mysteries when Christ said Come unto me all yee that are heavie laden he meant not with loads of unrepented sinnes for as such cannot move one foot toward Christ to such obstinate sinners Christ is a judge and condemner not a mercifull Saviour And the words cannot aime at that sense for then not onely the spirituall food in the Sacrament but even Christ should bee the great allurer unto sinne as being abettor thereof which God forbid for then not onely a window but a doore were set open to all iniquity and villany but the meaning of that most comfortable invitatory is and must be this All yee who have sinned and are heartily sorry for your offences wearied groaning and ready to faint under griefe for the same yea who finde no comfort in your selves but are ready to be swallowed up of despaire or too much not sinnes but sorrow for sins O come yee unto me and this is evidenced by the gratious promise I will refresh you refreshing being opposed to trembling dejectednesse weakenesse swownings trepidations grievings faintings which are fruits of the heavie-hearted sinner and steps or breathings toward repentance refreshing is not opposed robustae iniquitati to strength of sinning or boystrous coutinuing in iniquity or triumphing rebellion and so the sorrowfull penitent
the first Generall MY propounded method leadeth mee now to examine in the second place what severall Evangelasts wrote concerning the severall Suppers Which beeing cleered much confusion will be chased away and the greatest dubious matters will distinctly appeare S. Matthew Chapter 26. speaketh of the Passeover from v. 17. to the 25. inclusivê Saint Marke Chapter 14. doth the like from vers 12. to vers 21. inclusivê also Saint Luke Chapter 22.7 beginneth a large narrative from the beginning of the preparation to the Supper it selfe and at the 14. verse the continuance of that Supper till the 19. vers exclusivè The Passeover which the three Evangelists had described so fully Saint Iohn omitteth and toucheth onely at the heele or end of that Supper Iohn 13.2 Supper being ended viz. the Supper of the Paschall lambe For neither was the sacred supper then instituted or begunne much lesse ended No nor yet was the Common supper during which so many matters of moment were acted of which hereafter and therefore the words must be understood of the ending of Paschall Concerning the second Supper the common or ordinary Supper Saint Matthew said nothing and Saint Marke nothing And Lucas usus est praeoccupatione Saint Luke recordeth the last supper before the second saith Barradius Tom. 4. pag. 64. concerning the history of the Supper adding that hee learned it of Saint Augustine Yet Saint Luke admirably declareth things done and words spoken from the 21. vers to the 30. inclusivè which in fairest probability were done and spoken at the second supper rather than in the first or in the third supper Saint Iohn writing last and seeing memorable passages omitted in the second supper hee onely points at the passeover making the end of it to be the beginning of the second supper Nor doth hee mention or so much as point at the third supper at all because it was throughly discribed by all the other three Evangelists but applyeth himselfe wholy to a large and full explanation of things done and words spoken at the second supper Iohn 13. from vers 2. to the 30. vers inclusively PAR. 2. COncerning the Supper of the Lord it is apparent that it was not be begunne till after the second supper 1 Cor. 11.25 In the same manner hee tooke the Cup when hee had supped Likewise also hee tooke the cup After Supper Luk. 22.20 So the first supper was ended and then began the second And after the second supper was ended that is when Iudas was gone forth of which hereafter when it was night Iohn 13.20 and after some little discourse from verse 31. to verse 38. inclusivè Christ instituted his last best holiest Supper of the Eucharist So the first supper that is the Passeover was ended where Saint Iohn began his discourse of the second supper And the blessed Eucharist was also instituted after supper which must be understood of the ending of the second supper after their being washed The third supper is described from Matthew 26.26 to part of the 30. verse inclusively from Marke 22. to part of the 26. verse inclusively also And from Luk. 22.19 20. verses And this third supper they ended with an Hymne PAR. 3. The second Supper The third particular of the first Generall ANd now two of those points which I thought fit to be premised being done I come to handle the third and last puncto or praelibandum And it consisteth in the answers to this question Why there is no expresse mention of a second supper I am bold to say expresse mention is not necessary A thousand matters of weight and moment have beene passed over without expresse mention yet really have beene performed and are most true of their owne nature Moses passed over the creation of Angels and Archangels and the innumerable glorious hosts of heavenly incorporeall spirits and doth not so much as once name them whence the Sadduces belike did gather that there are neither Angels nor Spirits No expresse mention is there of baptizing of infants or many other matters Consequentiall and inferentiall Divinity if truly and unforcedly collected cannot be disapproved Quae colliguntur ex Scripturis perinde habenda sunt ac si in illis scripta essent Greg. Nazianzenus Theologiae lib. 5. You are to esteeme such things as are gathered out of the Scriptures as those that are written in them Quae in divinis Scripturis non sunt scripta tractare debemus per ea quae scripta sunt sayth Origen in Matth. cap. 23. Those things which are not written in sacred Scriptures must be handled or explained by those things that are there written Augustinus contra Mendacium ad Consentium cap. 10. In divinis Scripturis vera aliquando tacentur non mentiendo sed tacendo Many true things are concealed in Scripture not by lying but by omission or silence From those things that are written we must saith the Divine Saint Augustine gather such things that are not written In the whole booke of Hester there is not the name of the Father Sonne or Holy Spirit No nor so much as the name of God yet manifest effects are there of the divine providence justice and mercy of God In the whole Scriptures there is not in expressis terminis a mention of the Unity in Trinity or Trinity in Unity yet the deductions naturally flowing are most evident for it Thus though there be no expresse mention of Angels in the History of the Creation yet by resultance the hidden truth is inlightned the concealed doctrine is revealed Some of the Fathers because no such is named in the story of the Creation have held that the Angels were created before the world as Hieron in his Commentary on the Epistle to Titus 1.2 from the words God promised eternall life before the wold began If any who besides the Angels Therefore the Angels were before the world beganne I answer 1 In that place is no mention of Angels nor intention towards Angels or any promise to them or for them of eternal life The Apostle speaketh concerning the hope of mens salvation 2 Augustine de Civitate 12.16 truely observeth Promittere eo loco nihil aliud esse quam statuere vel praedestinare promised in that place signifieth nothing else but ordeined or predestinated 3 Why may I not say if the words were taken litterally for promise it is an holy trialogisme of the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost before the foundations of the world sweetly concording and promising eternall life to mankinde though man was not as yet created Ambrose Hexameron cap. 5. saith Angels were before the creation So Hilarius de Trinitate 12. So among the Greekes Basill Homil 1. c. 2. Origen Homil. 4. in Esaiam Chrysostom Nazianzen Ludovicus Vives on Augustine de Civitate Dei 11.9 saith The Greeke Divines for the most part hold that Spirituall things were made before corporall and that God did use those as instruments to produce these Others ran into another extreme that 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
treasures who pity the vanity of such as set their hearts on beasts to keep them company and think themselves great by daily conversing with their Inferiours You learned soules embelisht with grace and goodnesse feeding on content and a good conscience in this world Reversioners to Heaven Come ô come bring forth your treasures both new and old You are the Lights of the World Heires of Grace having Glory in reversion and shining as Lights in dark places Come I say and further this work Scientia fit per additamenta Science grows by steps â—nd degree Timotheus had never been so excellent a Musician unlesse Phrynis had been before him saith Aristotle in the 2 of his Metaphysicks And so God blesse our endeavours PAR. 2. I Hold it not amisse here in the forefront to shew some reasons why I tearme this work of mine Tricaenium True it is I have not read the word any where But as true it is I never met with Author but he frameth some words to his present occasions every wit inventing and adding somewhat Horace de Arte Poëtica almost in the beginning concerning the inventing of new tearmes intimateth there is given and expresseth there shall bee granted a power to invent new tearmes Dabiturque licentia sumpta pudenter Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem si Graeco fonte cadant parc è detorta You leave may have new-coyned words to chuse If that you modest liberty will use If from the Grecian fountaines they do flow And keep the Latine cadence all a row Let me say of my selfe as Horace doth there of himselfe Ego cur acquirere pauca Si possum invideor cum lingua Catonis Ennî Sermonem patriam ditaverit nova rerum Nomina protulerit Licuit semperque licebit Signatum praesente notâ procudere nomen If I by chance a few new words can coyne Why should a man my liberty purloyne Since Cato rude and Ennius harsh of old T' inrich their mother tongue were very bold And stampt new-words Which for to do they saw Both ever was and ever would be law I will be briefe in some particulars Pererius in Theatro rerum creatarum cap. 19. p. 145. saith thus Lycophron Poëta vocavit Herculem Tri-esperum quasi Trinoctem propter triduum quo necando pisci intra ejus alvum immoratus est The poet Lycophron called Hercules Tri-esper as if he had called him Three-nighted Hercules by reason of the three dayes and three nights which he stayed in the fishes belly which he killed Divinely is the story of Jonas recorded in the old Testament In reference to which the Heathen fabulously ascribe some such thing to one of their Hercules for they had many so called And in the new Testament the history of Jonas is confirmed by the mouth of Truth it selfe For Christ said Mat. 12.40 Jonas was Three dayes and Three nights in the Whales belly Naevius termeth Nestor Tri-saeclum because he lived towards Three hundred yeares Usuall in antiquity are the words of Bi-clinium and Tri-clinium why not Bicaenium and Tricaenium Martial 12.78 mentioneth Trinoctiale Domicaenium Tricaenium is not farther fetched Ludovicus de la Cerda on Tertullians first Book de Pallio Numero 252. useth the word Antecaenium The word Pocaenium is commonly used where a Third Supper is shall we exclude Tricaenium The Latines did Graecize All nations under the Roman Empire did Latinize And composition of severall words was most frequent in both languages It were losse of time to enlarge such a confessed truth I deny not but in classicall authority the only word Coena is extended to comprize the Ante-past the Supper it selfe yea and perhaps the Post-past also Macrobius Saturnal 3.13 thus Coena haecfuit Ante coenam echinos ostreas crudas quantum vellent peloridas sphondylos turdum asparagos subtus gallinam altilem c. The manner of the Supper was this Before supper Urchins the now meat of vagabond Gypsees raw Oysters in abundance Palours the roots of Angelica Thrushes Sperage covering under them a crammed Hen with other strange delicates Macrobius addeth In coenâ at Supper Sumina sinciput aprugnum patinam piscium patinam suminis anates querquedulas elixas lepores altilia assa amylum panes Picentes The sowsed hinder teates of newly farrowing Sows the cheeks of a wild Bore or Brawn a great platter of fish a charger of fat Ducks Teals boyled Hares fatted foules rosted wafers loaves of bread fetched from the people dwelling about Rubicon and Ancona Yet of both these of all hee saith only Caena haec fuit this was their Supper And the divine Apostle though there was nothing else or eaten or drinken save only the consecrated bread and wine at our blessed Saviours receiving and administring the holy Eucharist calleth this heavenly refection the Supper of our Lord 1 Cor. 11.20 And behold whilst I was writing of this passage I received a gratulatory letter from that Mundus eruditionis that living Library the most eminent Regius professor of Divinity Doctor Collins Provost of our Kings Colledge in Cambridge in these very words So wishing you Tri-Nestora 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to your Tricaniums happy accomplishment for he had heard of it fearing no Martha's obstreperousnesse while you play both Martha and Mary in one I crave your good prayers to God Accordingly I have prayed and do pray to God to blesse us with increase of Grace and guide us to his Glory Amen Therefore I have presumed upon the Triple Supper at which our Saviour was present in one night the last night that he lived in this world a naturall common life viz. The Paschal solemnity the ordinary Supper the thrice-sacred-Supper of our Lord and Saviour to terme all three joyned together or continued Tricaenium the threefold Supper of Christ To the proofes in the second book for a threcfold Supper let me now adde the words of Justinian the Jesuit on 1 Corinth 11.20 Solet triplex caena distingui Legalis seu typica quâ agnus Paschalis comedebatur Mystica seu nova quae spectat ad Sacramenti institutionem tertia communis quae ad azymorum usum inchoandum instituta erat The threefold Supper is usually distinguisht into the Legal or Typical wherein the Paschal Lamb was eaten the Mystical or new Supper which belongs to the institution of the Sacrament and the Third or common Supper which was ordained to begin the use of unleavened bread Though Justinian erre in the order placing the Supper of the Lord before the Common Supper and though he erre in the reason because the Jewes did eate their Paschal Supper with unleavened bread before the Second Supper was brought in and so the Second Supper did not begin the use of unleavened bread yet in the maine for Three Suppers he is in the right Nor can I well digest that the Papists are so vehemently offended with our men for calling the Third Supper the Supper of our Lord. Estius Franciscus Lucas Brugensis
Corinthinans cap. 11. By Isidore de Divinis Officiis By Bede on Luke 22. By Paschasius de corpore Domini cap 19. and most amply handled by Walafridus Strabo de rebus Ecclesiae cap. 19. So far Pamelius on Cyprian That ill Custome is condemned by Calvin Institut 4.10 But the kneeling in prayers with our hats off he there commendeth and the administration of the Lords Supper not fordidly and unmanerly but sollemnly and reverently More particularly concerning Kneeling in the time of solemne prayers he saith ibid. Parag. 30. That it is so an Humane tradition that it is also a Divine tradition And it proceedeth from God as it is part of the Decency which the Apostle commendeth to us but of this more hereafter PAR. 7. I Now proceed to the twelfth point In the Epistle of Cyprian and of the African Synod to Cornelius as it is in the first volume of the Generall Councels printed at Venice pag. 381. Nos Sacerdotes sacrificia Des quotidiè celebramus we Priests doe daily celebrate the service of God And Augustine in the fore-cited Epistle to Januarius thus Alii quotidiè cōmunicant corpori sanguini Dominico alii certis diebus accipiunt c. Some every day receive the Eucharist some at certaine times only In one place they receive it on the Sabbath and on the Lords day in another they take it only on the Lords day Neither doth Saint Augustine condemne those who take it daily nor them who choose Set-daies nor them who receiue After Supper or Sup After their receiving Faciat ergo quisque quod in eâ Ecclesia in quam venit invenerit Let every one saith he follow the Custome of that Church in which he liveth Which is an holy advice in it selfe but thrusteth through the loynes of all selfe-conceited Singularists who know not or use not that holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that pliable condescent that humble yeelding that charitable peaceable and candid exposition of things either unknowne or doubtfull which the Fathers of the first Christian times both practised and taught Casaubone commendeth the Fathers for it and wished to find it among the Jesuits and I for my part rather preferre a supple accordance a reconciling and uniting of differences before the drawing and stretching of the rope of Contention by both ends and before the multiplying of alienations or divisions which S. Basil calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Over-earnest desire to draw all things to the contrary part Eudemon Johannes that fierce fiery Divell holds That healing vertue that balme for scissures or ruptures that milde and moderate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be little lesse than the betraying of Truth than the abjuration of all Christian Religion Casaubone justly reproveth the eager and fiery Jesuit Exercitatione 16. cap. 32. And not Casaubone only but the great and learned Rigaltius in his Observations on Tertullian de Oratione commendeth in the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Tertullian aswell as of other Fathers Tanta fuit patribus charitatis cura ut plerosque ritus ratione non bona receptos tolerarent potius quà m rigidâ censurâ vel minimam scissurae occasionem praberent pag. 40. The Fathers saith Rigaltius had so great a regard unto or care of Charity that they did rather beare with diverse Rites though instituted and received upon no good ground than they would by rigid censure administer the least occasion of scissure or division Yet there were ever some who whereas they ought to esteeme or labour to make indifferent things good and good things Better do yet indevour to make good things but Indifferent Indifferent matters to be bad and bad to be worse But as Rigaltius truly observeth Hac erat illo aevo Christianoruni 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In those dayes not only the Fathers but other Christians also used that modest holy complying and condescent Neither God bee blessed hath this latter age had all and only rigid and inflexible Lutherans Jesuits and Puritanes but God hath given unto the Church moderate men of softer metall Calvin himselfe gives good advice to Farellus Though saith he we be free in all things yet let us be servants to peace and concord I cannot but add that most divine temper of Calvin if the same flowed from his heart which flowed from his pen that though Luther called him a Divell a thousand times yet he would never say otherwise of Luther but that he was a chiefe servant of God And I hope the best because in another case where he was much abused yet his complaints were moderate and modest To establish his new-found Presbyterie which was falling to the ground he became the busiest Polypragmon that ever was in the world of his meanes He cryeth downe Tithes giveth all power almost to the Lay-Magistrates of Geneva upholdeth usury culium obsequio petens by flattery and beggery seeking to be reverenced accepteth a slipend of forty pounds annually And when the fixed honorary of Tithes was taken away the unfixed humours of the Laicks appeared They cared not to pay him his ten pound quarterly and if the silly man had starved for his pretty new invention they had not much esteemed Yet doth not he play the Boutefeau he animateth none to rebellion he seeketh not the change of estate though the penurious man in his Commentaries on Gen. 47. and Gal. 6. could not but complaine how slowly and ill he was paid When they received the blessed Sacrament on Good-friday they did forbeare to kisse one another as it was usuall at other times For the Apostle commands it Romans 16.16 1 Cor. 16.20 and 2 Cor. 13.12 in all three places not a Lustfull but a Peacefull An Holy kisse is appointed Greet ye one another with an Holy kisse as it is in all three places But 1 Thes 5.26 it is varied Greet ye All the brethren with an Holy kisse Lastly the Apostle Saint Peter sheweth what manner of Kisse this ought to be Greet ye one another with a kisse of charity peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus 1 Pet. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kisse of Charity perhaps because it was given and received when they went to their Agapae or Feasts of Charity a Kisse to manifest true Charity a Kisse to settle peace a Kisse to seale up the prayers of Christians one to another and practised duly and reverently it was as appeareth both by the Greek and Latine Liturgies Origen saith this Custome is delivered to the Churches that After prayers fratres suscipiant se invicem osculo the Christian brethren kissed one another Saint Augustine thus divinely and alwayes like himselfe After the Lords prayer they say Pax vobiscum peace bee with you and then the Christians kisse one another with an Holy Kisse which is the signe of peace As thy lips approach to the lips of thy brother so let thy heart come nigh his heart Sermone 83. de diversis So this kisse is called Holy
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
the best excuse yet the unlikely hood that so great a Scholler as Optatus would speake so improperly might have made him to distrust his own Copy and to make search after other Copies and he might have found the truth in the Copy of Albaspinaeus as I have cited the words Neither needed Rigaltius to have inquired far off For Optatus with the Notes and Observations of Albaspinaeus were Printed at Paris three yeares before Rigaltius Observations on Tertullian came forth in the same City under his nose PAR. 10. THeir fashion to Adore their Images or false Gods either Eminus or Cominus either Aloofe off or Close by but especially Aloofe off as they followed other businesses their casuall saluting Adoration was manifold and of divers formes See our accomplished Mr. Selden who is impensè Doctus in his Titles of Honor and in his Syntagmata de Diis Syris toward the beginning They did Kisse their Images that must be when they are close by them Their Kissing he proveth from Cicero Act. 5. in Verrem from Lucretius libro 1. And ere they Kissed they looked up to Heaven with Hands spread abroad say I and after they Bended down and sometimes Kneeled Many Knees bow to Baal Many mouths kissed him 1 King 19.18 So Hosea 13.2 They kissed the Calves or molten Images The good man did wiser when he kist his Cow Concerning the Heathens Adoration at Distance it was diverse if they Adored the Celestiall bodies First they looked up toward the Heavens For they beheld the Sun when it shined and the Moon walking in brightnesse Job 31.26 Secondly their Heart was secretly enticed to give the honor due to the Creator to those his Creatures Thirdly their mouths did Kisse their hands vers 27. which was not without some Bendings of their bodies Fourthly they Prayed unto them either audibly or by a more secret murmur Remember the place of Tertullian concerning which by and by Ad Solis inititium Labra vibratis Ye wag your Lips at the rising of the Sun Bona pars procerum tacitâ libabit acerrâ Haud cuivis promptum est murmurque humilesquesusurros Tollere de templis Et aperto vivere voto Mens bona Fama Fides haec clarè ut audiat hospes Illa sibi introrsum sub linguâ immurmurat ô si Ebullet patrui praclarum Funus ô si c. Persius Satyrâ secundâ The greater part of Noblemen their Tacit censers bring Unto the Gods when they from them some shameful boon would wring 'T is not ô 't is not for each one to banish far away Their Secret muttrings from the Church and make them lowd to pray If they for a sound mind do pray for Fame or Credit then The 'll pray alowd and make their vows ring in the eares of men If for rich Nuncles death they wish that once 't would bubble out They 'll pray so soft that none shall heare that stands them round about The like they did when they prayed to the Sun Secondly concerning their Worship or Adoration of Images on Earth at Distance it is thus for the most part branched by the glory of our Nation for all humane literature 1. They stood somewhat off before their Images 2. They solemnly moved their Right Hands to their Lips 3. They Kissed the Forefinger joyned with the Thumb 4. They turned about their Bodies on the same hand as Mr. Selden alledgeth from diverse Authors 5. Let me adde They then lifted up both their Eyes and Hands spread abroad to Heaven When they swore by Jove Capitoline they looked not so much to Jove in the Capitol as to the Heavens Yea their backs were sometimes towards the Capitol 6. They did draw nearer and did Kisse oftimes the Images themselves as I said before That this was a Kisse not like the Humane Ambulatory Salutation only done for Complement but of deep and reall Adoration of false Gods as is evidenced Because I should have denyed the God that is above saith Job vers 28. For Worshipping of Idols on Earth by Kissing them is a deniall of God in Heaven Which mutuall Kissing of one another is not nor can be Nor did they Kisse the Lips only of their Idols and their Mouths but both the Fore-parts and the Hinder parts and their Shoulders the Cheeks the backe of the Hand even the very Feet See Ritterbusius ad Salvianum pag. 379. Perhaps they might kisse some other Hinder parts in humiliation And I do verily think they left not the Knees unkissed PAR. 11. AMong men if Persians of equal Degree did meet they Kissed one anothers Lips If a Superior met an Inferior he gave the Inferior his Cheeks to kisse But a meane Persian falling down did worship the Better or more Ronowed saith Brissonius pag. 241. as he is cited by Drusius The story of Polyperchon falleth in here very fittly A Persian worshipping Alexander fell on his face before him and with his chin touched the ground Polyperchon in a floute exhorted the Persian to shake his chin lustily against the ground Alexander thereupon drew Polyperchon from the banqueting bed and tumbled him down and arietated him to the earth and made his head knock the ground and bitterly taunted him saying Now Polyperchon thou seest thy selfe do that which even now thou didst laugh at in another See Curtius 8. pag. 245. Mr. Selden very probably addeth It was called Adoration or they were said to Adore Quòd ad Ora sive ad Os manum admovebant because they moved their Hands to their Mouths or rather the Fore-finger joyned to the Thumb as he before explained it His proofe from S. Hierom is most punctuall who do Adore do Kisse their Hands and Bow down their Heads saith Hierom And in the propriety of the Hebrew tongue Kissing is used for Worship or Adoration Psal 2.12 The vulgar of Cajetan Hentenius and Santandrianus have it Apprehendite disciplinam Apprehend discipline agreeing with the Chaldee The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lay holdfast on Discipline Osculamini Filium saith the Hebrew which Vatabus doth well inlarge saying Osculo manuum testamini vos Dei Filium habere pro Rege By Kissing the Hands that is by Adoration witnesse that ye esteem the Son of God as King Geverard Elmenhorst in his notes on Minutius Foelix citeth to the same purpose both Pliny and Apuleius whom Mr. Selden insisteth in One reason why they did both Bend and Kisse may be because both Head and Mouth with it did stoop down toward the Hand and the Hand did mount up to meet the Mouth The joynt correspondence the concurring to the same action maketh the Sense appliable either to Hand or Lips Perhaps the reason why they put their Hands to their Mouths in Adoration might grow from hence When they worshipped the Sun and Moon and the Host of Heaven or Coelestem Africae Deum The heavenly God of Africa as Tertul. Apologet. 33. or rather Coelestem Illum That heavenly One as Salvianus lib. 8. They
of one commeth to the doore of the lips and by it is united to anothers soule and some times infused into it and so poyson is sucked in say I. The Heathen were wont to take boys by the eares when they kissed them But he spake more philosophically who said In osculo effunduntur spiritus ex corde In a kisse the spirits come forth from the heart Plautus in Poenulo sine te prehendam Auriculis sine dem snavium Let me hold thee by thine eares Whilst thy lip my kisses beares The yong Sons were wont to take their parents by their eares when they kissed them Tibullus lib. 2. Elegia 5. Natusque parenti Oscula comprensis auribus eripiet Which Scaliger in his notes on Tibullus pag. 159. saith he found and amended from a place of Aristophanes The little lad Holding his Fathers eares shall Kisse his Dad. Yea even Christians and those prime teachers and instructers of youth taught the children so to doe Clemens Alexandrinus Stromâtum 5. pag. 402. stands in defence of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We doe not inconsiderately charge children to hold by the Eares such friends as they kisse secretly signifying that love is ingendred by Hearing Yet indeed I esteeme it as a wanton toy in children and indiscreet fondnesse of parents unfit for Christians to teach or practise And with reverence to Clemens Alexandrinus be it spoken The kissing of people whom they hold by the Eares hath not so much as a shadow of signification that Love is ingendied by hearing but perhaps rather the contrary The Scripture pointeth at another kinde of Kissing Ioab tooke Amasa by the Beard with his right hand to kisse him 2 Sam. 20.9 In S. Augustine his time the custome of kissing One another at the receiving of the Sacrament yet continued and was not found fault withall so much as among the Schismaticks themselves but practised by them Augustinus Tomo 7. contra literas Petiliani lib. 2.23 pag. 22. saith to Petilian concerning one of his Factionists Cui pacis osculum inter sacramenta copulabatis Whom you gave conjoyned kisses unto whensoever he received the blessed Sacrament In the Countrey of Prester Iohn the ordinary custome which all Christians Noblemen and Gentlemen use at all times of the yeare of saluting one another is when they meete together once a day if they be almost equalls they kisse their shoulders and embrace one another and one kisseth the right shoulder and another the left Onely in the weeke before Easter they speake not one to another but passe by without lifting up their eyes much lesse doe they kisse each other See Purchase his Pilgrimes from Francis Alvarez a Portingall lib. 7. of Africa cap. 5. Paragrapho 16. pagina 1096. If Persians of equall degree did meete they kissed one anothers lips If a superior met an inferior he gave the inferior his cheeke to kisse But a meane Persian falling downe did worship his Better saith Brisonius pag. 241. de regno Persarum as Drusius citeth him PAR. 9. BUt to returne to the Agapae from whence I have digressed I cannot exactly finde out neither when the Agapae did first begin nor when they wholly ended when it was sinne to omit them when to take them The Trullane Councell in Constantinople Anno 692. Canon 74. saith Men must not keepe their feasts of charity in the Temples nor eate them there Zoraras on that Canon explaineth it that they might not feast in the Churches or within the bounds of the Chauncells but in proauliis in the Church-porches they might Casaubone Exercitatione 16. Numero 31. in fine Haec coena that is the Agapae à mysteriis toto genere fuit diversa postea Templis est ejecta actandem penitus sublata This Supper that is to say the feast of Charity being altogether diverse from the mysteries of the holy Eucharist was afterwards abandoned out of the Churches and at length like an old Almanack grew cleane out of date But at what Time he mentioneth not Sure I am they were instituted by the Apostles and practised in their times But what yeare they began or what moneth they were first practised I would faine learne Yea the right use of them was much abused whilst the Apostles lived For divers Apostles found great fault with their disorders in their Agapae The ringleaders to evill in them are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maculae vituperia Spotts and Blemishes whilest they feast with you 2 Pet. 2.13 Saint Jude also in his Epistle verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are spotts in your feasts of Charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luxuriantes vobiscum saith S. Peter coepulantes saith Augustine feasting with you without feare For it seemeth to me that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth fitlier cohere with the precedent than with the subsequent words yet both readings are good They were not onely spotted for alas who is not so someway but very spotts in the Abstract Abhominable in themselves and withall defiling and bespotting others even in those banquets of charity where should have been and was at first much holinesse If any desire to know more exactly when the Agapae first began I answer It cannot be certainly knowne Yet I thinke it probable to say They were celebrated the first Eucharist that the Apostles tooke after Christs death or a while after about his Ascension When and Where the Church of God had ease and rest For Nature requireth that the beeing of things precede the good or bad use of them and when they once Are then followeth the right or the ill Applying of them And the Right use most commonly if not alwayes is in time before the Abuse But Towards the beginning were Abuses and At the beginning they were in Right use Sure I am three thousand Converts continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in Breaking of bread and in prayers Act. 2.42 And All that beleeved were together and had All things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to All men as every man had need And they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house or at home did eate their meate with gladnesse and singlenesse of heart So farre the Scripture speaketh Acts 2.44 45 46. verses The words Breaking of bread and breaking bread from house to house are diversly interpreted Some restraine them to the Eucharist So the Syriack and Arabick Translators Montanus wholly consorteth with them But this opinion Beza disliketh The Greeke Scholia gather from thence that the Primative Church used sparing dyet and lived frugally Beza wittily distinguisheth that the good Christians did so indeed but that it resulteth not from this place because the same forme of words is used by the Hebrews in their solemne and greatest feasts as Genesis 43.25 They should eate Bread there The truth is Beza and the rest might have observed that there is not onely mention of Breaking of
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