these diuine and delitious Cakes at the mysticall Table of our Sauiour The ancient Iewes could not write more clearly of the Figure of our Truth amongst the shadowes of their Law and he that seeth not this Truth brightly shining in the Sacrifice of the Law of Grace is blinde at noone-day and worse then a Iew. 7. THE TESTIMONIES OF HEBREW Doctors for Transubstantiation and the manner how the body of our Sauiour is present in the Eucharist THe manner how the body of our Lord is really present in the Eucharist hath been no lesse plainely set downe in the writings of the Hebrewes then is the Reall presence it selfe This Manner hath two respects the one to the beginning of the Presence and teacheth how the body of our Lord is first made present in the Sacrament of the Altar the other to the maner of this Presence and declares how he remaines there present Of both wee haue spoken in the Figure of Manna discoursing there of the Almighty power of our Sauiour Heere we shall onely alledge the testimonies of Hebrew and Christian Doctors to declare this Presence more fully and to shew the soundnesse of the Catholike faith concerning Transubstantiation And as for the first Conâ— Trident. sess 19. c. 4. can 2. the Catholike Faith and doctrine holds that the body of our Sauiour is made present vpon the Altar by Transubstantiation that is to say not by descent from heauen to earth neither by new production but by changing the substance of bread into the substance of the body of our Sauiour borne of the Virgin The same faith and doctrine saith that it remaines there with a diuine Presence spirituall and supernaturall in its quantity without possessing any place and in its Maiesty without any shew thereof being there immortall and glorious but inuisible to sense and incomprehensible to reason and humane iudgement as hath been said elsewhere And this in summe is that which the Doctors as well Iewes as Christians haue written The Hebrewes as we haue said before in the Table of Proposition Loaues haue taught that these Loaues were called Breads of faces because they did Figure forth a Sacrifice in the which there should be bread in the beginning and flesh in the end for the substance of bread was there to be changed into the substance of the body of the Messias the outward accidents remaining whole and that it should be a Sacrifice of two faces one outward of bread which the sense might see and the other inward of the substance of flesh which Faith only could perceiue And to this may haue reference that the Hebrew word Lehen bread and flesh Rab. Kimhi 1. Serasâ—im Gal. 10. 7. 1. Cor. 11.27 Lehen set in this place hath a double signification for sometimes it signifieth bread sometimes flesh So as where our Translation hath He offered him the breads of Proposition other translations haue He offered the flesh of thy God And Saint Paul long time after vsing the same manner of speech what he calls Bread he also names the body of our Sauiour The same Hebrew Doctors Osee 14.8 explaining the words of Osee They shall be conuerted that sit vnder his shadow they shall liue with Wheate Our Masters say they writ vpon these words that at the comming of the Redeemer there shal be change of nature in Wheat And Rabby Moyses vpon the words of the Psalme Rab. Moyses Hadarsania Psal 135. Gal. l. 10. c. 6. Rab. Iudas in Exod. cap. 25. Gal. l. 10. c. 6. Who giueth food to all flesh a for saith he the bread which bee will giue is his flesh and this shall be a great wonder The Oblation then is bread in the beginning but after the words of Consecration it is flesh the substance of bread being turned into the substance of the body of our Sauiour by the vertue of his Omnipotent word the which being able to make all the world of nothing can change one substance into another This changing is called Transubstantiation in the Catholike Church a word brought into vse fiue hundred yeares agoe Rab. Kimbi Gal. l. 10. c. 4. to stoppe the mouthes of the Heretickes which rose vp against the true Faith the thing it selfe being as ancient as the Eucharist for in the same instant that the Sacrament was instituted by our Sauiour Transubstantiation was in vse though the name was not to be borne vntill long time after As for the Manner according to which the Messias body was to remaine in the Sacrament after it is made present by Transubstantiation the same Hebrew Doctors haue tolde that it was to bee there inuisible and impalpable and in many places together which they beleeued also of the body of the Prophet Elias being in many places at the same time without being seene or touched as the Rabbins testifie in these their Expositions 8. THE TESTIMONIES OF THE CHRIstian Doctors concerning Transubstantiation and the manner how our Sauiours body is in the Eucharist THe Christians haue been so much more resolute and cleare in setting downe the Faith and Doctrine of Transubstantiation and the manner of the presence of our Sauiours body in this Sacrament by how much they haue had better Masters then the ancient Hebrews Their Masters were our Sauiour himselfe the Sonne of Truth the Reuealer of heauenly secrets and his Apostles filled with the new light of the Holy Ghost whereas the Hebrewes had none but Moyses and the Prophets which taught by shadowes and Figures Behold then what they haue said of this admirable change which wee call Transubstantiation and of the manner how the body of our Sauiour remaines in the Sacrament Saint IVSTINE Wee are taught S. Iustin Apol. 2. that the meate the bread and wine wherwith our flesh and bloud are nourished by change thereof into our substance being Consecrated by the prayer and word of God is the flesh and bloud of Iesus Christ incarnate that is to say the substance of bread and wine is changed into the body and bloud of our Sauiour Saint IRENEVS S. â—râ—â— l. 4. c. 3â— disputing against the Heretikes which denied that Christ was Omnipotent Hâ—w saith hee will they beleâ—ue that the consecrated bread is the body of Iesus Christ As if he should say if they beleeue not that he is Omnipotent they cannot beleeue that in the Eucharist the bread is changed into his body by his Word seeing there can be made no such change by any other word but his who can doe all by his Word as hee made the world by his Word Saint CYRIL of Hierusalem S. cyril â—ierosol â—â—tech misâ—ag 4. Hee long since in Cana turned water into wine the which hath some resemblance to bloud shall we esteeme him lesse worthy to be beleeued saying that he hath changed the wine into his bloud Saint CHRYSOSTOME S. Chrysost hom 6. ad Pap. Anâ—ioch Because the Word saith This is my body let vs obey and beleeue beholding it with
not of bodies of the beasts as in the old Law but of the body of God by which body he hath been soueraignely honored with which he hath bin fully appeased in which he hath ouercome the power of his capitall enemie and shall one day come to iudge both the quicke and the dead So as the worship is most soueraigne and the thing offered so great that it cannot be greater which as it is an art of Religion most honorable to the Creator so is it most beneficiall also to his creature who receiuing this precious body from the liberality of God offers it to him againe for an Holocaust for a thanksgiuing for a Propitiation or remission of sin honoring him for his gifts with his proper gift as in Figure thereof In the Law of Nature and Mâ—yses the holy Saints did honor him in making offrings of those goods that they had receiued of him Which is it that the great and deuout King Dauid confesseth saying All things are thine 1. Paral. â—9 14 and we haue giuen thee that which wee haue receiued from thy hands In this Sacrament wee haue likewise a lesson of humility seeing our Sauiour to appeare amongst vs in a poore familiar habit without attendance and in a meaner manner then Dauid when he came to the Priest Achimelech 1. 〈◊〉 2. to appeare I say not in his owne garment but vnder the formes of bread and wine hiding therewith his robe of glory that wee might with greater confidence draw neere vnto him Wee haue heere also a lesson of patience beholding our Redeemer to endure so constantly and for so many ages the iniuries that the wicked doe vnto him through their misbeleefe their sinues their blasphemies treading him vnder their feete casting him into the fier and the like dishonors though all this be done without any hurt of his impassible body Heere we haue also a lesson of obedience in that he is present without faile at the voyce of his Vicar whosoeuer he be pronouncing the words of his omnipotency ouer the bread and wine Heere therefore we haue a lesson of all the most high vertues giuen by the example it selfe of our Redeemer a manner of teaching most cleare and pregnant and recommended vnto vs by himselfe when he said I haue giuen you an example to the end you should doe as you haue seeneme do Hee ceased not to giue vs examples of well doing from time to time while he liued and conuersed with vs but heere hee giueth vs the patternes and examples of diuine vertues from better imitation altogether Behold the wonders of our Sacrament without comparison greater then those of Manna and far more worthy for the which we should say Man-hu What is this for neither men nor Angels can sufficiently enough admire it A COLLOQVIVM OF PRAISES AND thanksgiuing to God VVHat remaines heere then O Lord Almighty most good and most wise but that we eleuate our hearts to the contemplation of this thy diuine Sacrament And Bauing admired the wonders of thy greatnesse to render thee immortall thankes for thy immortall benefits But who can worthily contemplate the price and the excellencie of this benefit if thou giuest not eyes and light to see it And what tongue shall be able to speake of this thy great mercy Moyses considering thy goodnesse and resounding thy praises said Deut. 32. Let the Earth heare the words of my mouth let my doctrine grow vp together as raine and my speech flow as the dew as a shower vpon the hearbe and as drops vpon the grasse for I will inuocate the name of our Lord. Giue magnificence to our God the workes of God bee perfect and all his wayes Iudgements It is heere where there is need of such an Orator and of such a language to magnifie and praise such a gift as surpasseth all those that the Hebrewes did euer receiue and to extoll such a worke as carrieth with it markes of diuine perfection ingrauen therein by the hand of God all good all wise and all mighty Though Moyses himselfe were heere and that his language were eloquence it selfe yet hee would come short to speake of thy Matesty herein O Lord. The tongues of Angels stammer in vttering this Mystery and wee Fecome dumbe the more we endeauour to speake thereof Our highest praise is an humble confession of our insufficiency and our greatest endeauour is to contemplate heere in silence thy great vertue to adâ—â—re with respect thy admirable wisdome to thanke with loue thy infinite goodnesse which wee desire to d ee O sweete Iesus all the time of our mortall life to the end that hauing well knowne the benefit of this Manna and wonderfull pasture of our pilgrimage we may come to enioy the other which thou holdest hidden for the life to come 〈…〉 in the treasures of thy felicitie THE SEVENTH PICTVRE THE BREADS OF PROPOSITION The Description THese twelue Loaues set vpon the Table six at each end piled one aboue another and the Violl of gold aboue them full of most pure Incense are those which the Scripture calleth the Loaues of Proposition or Breads of faces as who would say Bread exposed and set in a publike and sacred place before the face of God There lyeth hid vnder this name a double mystery which the Pensill knowes not how to expresse they are made by Priests onely of most pure flower weighing about eight pounds euery one all Loaues well prepared but neither puffed vp nor great in regard of their weight because they are without leauen They offered them euery weeke and they were to be renewed euery Sabbath-day and hot ones to bee put in their place the Loaues being taken away the Priests might eate them They are twelue because it is the offering of all the Children of Israel diuided into twelue Tribes by which they make a Present in common of thankes to God acknowledging their life and conuersation to come from his Maiestie The Table where they are sett is made of Setim a pretious and incorruptible wood It is two cubits long and one broad all gilded with fine gold and enriched with a circle of gold also which goeth all about bordered with double crownes of foure fingers large the one aboue the other beneath It is put vpon two tressels made of the same wood of a cubit and a halfe long square and sett vpon feete cut and carued It is placed towards the North vpon the right side of the Sanctuary And on the left side towards the South there stands the golden Candlesticke with seuen Lampes and betweene both the Altar of Incense But who is this braue Knight Dauid 1. Râ—g 21. accompanied with certaine Light-hoâ—semen that speaketh with Achimelech the High Priest keeper of these Loaues and as it seemes all astonished to see him It is without doubt valiant Dauid who flying the fury of Saul is come to the City Nob in haste being stolne away from the Court and hee askes something to
the eyes of our faith As if he would haue said these words This is my body are words of the Omnipotent and effect that which they signifie we ought then to obey and beleeue that Idem hom 23. in Maâ—â—h which they say The same Doctor vpon the same subiect of Transubstantiation The things that we propose you are not workes of humane vertue it is God that sanctifieth them and changeth them we are but the instruments Saint GREGORY NISSE S. Greg. Niss in orat mag catech c. â—7 Iâ—â—â—n de S. â—apâ—â—sme We beleeue that the bread duely sanctified by the word of the Word of God is changed into the body of the Word of God And againe The bread of the Aliar in the beginning is common but after that it is sacrificed in the Masse it is called the body of Christ and it is so indeed Saint IOHN DAMASCEN S. Ioh. Damas l. 4. de Fide c. 14. The bread and the wine mingled with water is supernaturally changed into the body of Christ by the inuocation and comming of the holy Ghost and they are not two but one selfesame thing THEOPHILACT Theoph. i◠〈◊〉 This bread is transformed into the flesh of our Lord by the mysticall blessing of secret words and by the comming of the holy Ghost Behold you haue heard some Greeke Fathers with the same spirit and like stile speake also the Latine Fathers TERTVLLIAN Our Sauiour tooke the bread Tertvl l. 4. cont Mar. c. 40. and made it his body saying This is my body Saint CYPRIAN This bread S. Cyp. de Câ—n. Dom. which our Lord presented to his Disciples was made flesh by the all powerfulnesse of his Word changed not in apparance but in substance As if hee would haue said the outward formes of the clements the quantity colour and sauour remaine but the inward substance is changed into the substance of the body and bloud of our Sauiour Saint AMBROSE This bread S. Amb. l. 4. de Sacer c. 4. before the words of the Sacrament is bread but after Consecration the bread is made flesh and hauing shewed that this consecration and changing is made by the word of God he confirmes his conclusion saying If the word of Christ hath been so powerfull as to giue a being to that which was not how much more is it credible that it can make the things which were before to be now changed into another But heare Dauid saying He hath spoken and the things were done he hath commanded and they were created I answere thee then Thas before consecration the bread was not the body of Christ but after the same it is the body of Christ hee said it and hee bath effected it Saint AVGVSTINE almost in the same tearmes S. Avg. serm 2â— de Verb. Dom. I haue told you that before the words of Christ the bread is called bread but after they are pronounced it is no more called bread but the body of Christ Saint RHEMIGIVS of Rhemes The flesh S. Remig. in◠〈◊〉 ep 2. Cor. which the word of God the Father hath taken in the Virginall wombe and vnited vnto his Person and the bread which is consecrated vpon the Altar is one bodiy of Christ For euen as that flesh is the body of Christ so this bread is changed into the body of Christ and are not two but one body Hee meant that Transubstantiation produceth not a new body of Iesus Christ but that it makes the same body which he tooke in the wombe of the Virgin present in this Sacrament after consecration nothing remaining of those elements but the accidents PASCHASIVS Paschasius Corbiensâ—â— l. de Corp. sang 〈◊〉 c. 1. Though the forme of bread and wine be found in this Sacrament we ought to beleeue notwithstanding that after the consecration there is no other thing but the flesh and bloud of Christ From all these testimonies we collect the explication of two points which doe concerne the manner of our Sauiours being in the Sacrament of the Altar For first we vnderstand hereby that the body of our Sauiour is made present in the Sacrament by Transubstantiation that is to say by change of substance the substance of bread giuing place to the substance of his body which succeeds by vertue of his Omnipotent word And because the Soule and the Diuinity neuer leaue this body whole Iesus Christ is in the Sacrament his body by vertue of his Word his Soule and his Diuinity as necessarily following and accompanying the same Secondly we learne that so long as the species be there vncorrupted the same body remaines vnder them with its quantity beauty immortality and glory but supernaturally and in a spirituall and diuine manner without being perceiued vnlesse by the eyes of faith as we haue before declared so far forth as a thing ineffable can be declared By meanes whereof the Fathers often aduertise vs not to consult heere with the Lawes of Nature nor to regard what sense and humane iudgement tells vs but simply to beleeue the word of him who can doe all and cannot lye 9. WHERFORE OVR SAVIOVR WOVLD haue his body hid and not visible in the Sacrament HEere it shall be good to note wherefore our Sauiour gaue his body veiled vnder the shewes of bread and wine not visible in proper forme For hereby we shal come to know that he was nolesse wise then he is good not onely giuing vs an inestimable gift but also giuing it after the manner he did The principall reasons noted by the Fathers are these The first is taken from the nature of the Sacrament for since that euery Sacrament is a visible signe of an inuisible thing it followeth that he giuing his body in this Sacrament was to couer it vnder some visible signes as the accidents are the colour the whitenesse the sauour and such like things which obiected to our sense might put our soule in minde of some secret thing whereas if he had giuen it openly it had not been a Sacrament full of mystery but a simple gift of his body The second reason giuen by S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Cyril ep ad Coâ—osirium S. Amb. l. 4. d. sacr c. 6. l. 6. c. 1 S. August apuâ—â— grat de cons d. 2. verum See S. Iohn Damas l. 4. c. 14. de fid S. Tho. p. 3. q. 75. c. 5. c. and Saint Cyril is this to wit because this sweet manner is most conuenient and principally to our infirmity most naturall and easie for we take this diuine morsell vnder the forme of common bread familiar to our taste to wit vnder the accidents of bread and wine Whereas if wee should haue eaten them with the feeling of the naturall qualities thereof it had been an eating that could not haue been endured for two reasons For first it could not bee done but sense would naturally conceiue horrour to swallow downe humane flesh in proper forme especially being raw
childe were not to be valued at three pence And Andrew giuing notice to our Sauiour Cohn 6.7 of the afore named Loaues and Fishes saith But what are these amongst so many As indeed they might seeme to bee nothing for so great a number according to the rule of humane iudgement meaning the food with the eaters and not conndering what the diuine hand of God can doe Whilest they serue and admire the miracle the gues's bestirre themse lues lustily without sparing either their paines in eating or the meate set before them They who haue long since filled their stomackes begin to fill their bockets and there is not one heere that doth not keepe some piece of this bread some for necessary prouision others as reliques of deuotion And after all this the Apestles filled twelue baskets full with the fragments All of them are transported with ioy and astonishment preferring our Sauiour before Moyses as hauing found a meanes by his omniporent hand to furnish a table in the Desart whereas Moyses procured only Manna to fall from heauen made to his hands by the hands of Angels and not produced by any blessing of his Whereupon they resolue to take our Sauiour their head and to make him their King But hee who was created King by his Father Apec 19.16 and carieth written in his thigh and in his garment this stile King of Kings and Lord of Lords and is descended on earth to endure dishonors and not for to ioy in the glory of the world will not haue to doe with such electors nor with such a Kingdome Wherefore hee goes further into the desart stealing away both from their fight and election 1. THE MIRACLE OF THE FIVE LOAVES a Figure of the Eucharist THis wonderfull banquet prepared in this Desart was a Picture of our Sacrament as the Figures were which euen now haue been declared not so ancient for time but wrought by the hand of a more cunning work-man For the former Figures were anciently pictured indeed according to the direction of God but by the hand and Pensell of Moyses this was the inuention of our Sauiour himselfe and freshly drawne by his owne hand Wherefore those former did signifie a farre off and in diuers subiects the Eucharist and the Author thereof this is an entrance vnto it and sheweth it to bee neere at hand because it is done by the Author himselfe in proper person The others set foorth our diuine mystory as the old Prophets foretold the Messias to come many yeares after this heere did shew him in a manner present as Saint Iohn Baptist did point at our Sauiour with his finger And therefore as our Doctors note the Euangelist Saint Iohn great Secretary and most priuy to his Masters intentions before hee would set downe the Sermon which our Sauiour made of the eating of his flesh sets in the for efront the declaration of this miracle as a peece of the same subiect necessary for the vnderstanding of that Sermon and for the stranthening of our faith concerning the Feast which our Sauiour was to prepare shortly after By this method the supreame wisdome hath wisely taught vs tracing out by little and little both by deeds and words the way to the faith of this mystery of his pretious body working a miracle vpon the sustenance which was to be a signe thereof and declaring to vs the designe of the future banquet of his flesh to be after exhibited vnder the formes of bread Behold now proportions and colours of the Picture 2. IN WHAT THE MIRACLE OF THE fiue Loaues did Figure the Eucharist THis miracle was a Figure of the Eucharist in generall because it was a wonderfull refection as that is of the Eucharist wonderfull in that it was cleane contrary to other common repasts which in the beginning are greatest in quantity and the longer the banquet continueth the lesse meat remaineth till at last all be consumed Whereas heere contrariwise in the beginning there was but a little meate to wit fiue Loaues and two Fishes and the same enereased more and more the more it was distributed and eaten and in the end of the Feast there remained great aboundance This wonder appeareth farre greater in the Eucharist in which one onely body of our Sauiour hath sufficed for all the Church now more then sixteene hundred yeares which multiplieth without being many and is eaten without being consumed For if there be an hundred thousand Hoasts consecrated it is in them all and yet it is but one And if it be receiued of an hundred thousand mouthes it is taken whole and entire of all and neithere is nor can bee consumed of any This is the first draught of the likenes that is betweene the miracle of the fiue earthly loaues our celestial bread which is but one The other smaller draughts are these That miracle was made of bread by the blessing of our Sauiour it was done in the Desart it was prepared without labour paine or difficulty it was distributed by the Apostles and was a refection giuen both to the soules and bodies there is no doubt but faith hope and charitie reuerence religion and other vertues were planted in the hearts of many of them when they beheld this admirable worke done by our Sauiour for their good herehence it was that they would needs create him King These designes are expressed with liuely colours in the Eucharist for it is made of bread by the benediction of our Sauiour who worketh secretly by his Almighty word as a Master work-man in this Sacrament It is made in the Desart of this life for in the other there shall be no more Sacraments It is made after a simple manner onely of bread and wine and the words of Consecration whereas the ancient Sacrifices of the Iewes were made with paine and trauell much killing much washing and burning of the Victimes And if some other ceremonies be vsed in the Masse they are easie and appertaine rather to the decencie then to the essence of the Sacrament and Sacrifice In conclusion this Sacrifice and Feast is made by the ministery of the Apostles and of Priests succeeding them and it serueth to plant and encrease in the soule as elsewhere we haue declared Faith Hope Charity Religion and other diuine vertues true food of our soules and to giue vigour to our bodies that they may rise gloriously vpon the great day of the general resurrection 3. THE TWO FISHES A FIGVRE OF the same Sacrament THe Fishes by another similitude do signifie to vs the same Sacrament S. Aug. l. 1 S. de Qiuit cap. 23. Our Fish is Iesus Christ saith Saint Augustine because he alone was without sinne in the depth of this mortality as in the profundity of waters The same haue said Tertullian Tertul. de Rap. c. 1. Opt. Mil. l. 3. The Sibills S. August ibid. Iethus Optatus Mileuitan cited by the same Saint Augustine and many other Fathers And before them the Sibills
fundamentall subiect of our holy Tables or Pictures of the Eucharist For our principall end is to explane the things and the remarkable actions instituted in the Law of Nature and of Moses to signifie the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the body of our Sauiour Notwithstanding in displaying the volume of these figures we haue serued our selues of the other two kindes of Pictures that is to say of the Dumbe Picture in the printed figures themselues and of the Speaking Picture in our descriptions or declarations of them We haue also made many excursions in recommendation of Vertue and in detestation of Vice for the institution of manners and often encited the Reader to the contemplation and loue of the celestiall countrey touching by this meanes the foure Cardinall Senses â—â—ure Sences of Scripture S. Thâ—m Wart 〈…〉 Greg lib. 10. nor cap. 1. The Literall The Allegoricall The Morall The Anagogicall which commonly are found in the treasures of the holy Scripture the Literall or Historicall which goeth the first the Allegoricall or Figuratiue which is the spirit of the Literall the Tropologicall or Morall which formes the manners and the Anagogicall which shewes the triumphant Church the Literall is the foundation of the other three the Allegorical is the mysticall signification of the Literall the Tropologicall is the fruit of the one and of the other and the Anagogicall is the end of them all And in this fashion haue wee comprehended foure sorts of Expositions and three sorts of Pictures to teach with fruit and pleasure the most great mystery of our Religion for if there be no other better nor profitable Methods then these foure and if there bee nothing more delightfull then a picture not which makes a thing glide more sweetly within the soule then a picture nor which more profoundly engraues it in the memorie nor more effectually calls foorth the will to loue or hate any obiect good or euill which to it shall be proposed I see not in what manner one can more profitably liuely and delitiously teach the vertues the fruits and the delicatenesse of this diuine and holy meate of the body of the Sonne of God then with the aboue named Expositions and with this triple picture of the pensell of the Word and of the signification If my labour in this excellent matter To all Christian Writers truely Christian and worthy of the attention of all honorable men bring any profit or luster to our faith or to the publike weale as I desire with all my heart it should all the praise be to God which hath furnished me with spirit and body inke and paper to write thereof And if by the example of these Pictures any men of good spirit take occasion to vse the like method in discoursing pleasantly on some worthy subiect to teach with honest recreatioÌ„ profit the means to follow Vertue and flye Vice I shall receiue my part thereby of singular contentment and solace and they their recompence of honor and glory from the hand of him which neuer leaues any good worke done for his name without reward nor any ill committed against his Lawes without punishment Truely to say this by the way it is a misery as worthy of compassion as shame that so many Poets and Orators amongst Christians and namely heere in France Employ the goodnesse and fruitfulnesse of their spirits to write tales and fables of Loue and other things either vnprofitable or pernitious and who like to Spiders that draw out their owne bowels in making copwebs to catch Flies doe occupie themselues in such vanities letting passe a thousand faire subiects vpon which they might with eternall praise both learnedly and eloquently write It is a great shame to the name of Christians to see a Pagan Pindarus an Euripides a Virgil an Appelles a Philostratus and other like prophane Authors trauaile so carefully to set foorth sing paint and represent their Captains their Acts their Gods their Vices and their Vanities for the glory of their superstition and that many Christians know not how to choose neither matter nor maner a greeing to their name for to write Christianly to the praise of the true God or to the honor and illustration of their onely true Religion A thing yet farre more vnworthy and yet most deplorable it is to see others temper their pensel and their pen in the sinke and puddle of prophane things Pictures of scandall to represent Pictures of abomination and scandall and to write and paint foorth such fooleries and vilonies as they doe more prophanely then the prophanest themselues without care of losing their soules so they may gaine some brute of reputation amongst the lighter sort And what lamentable folly is it to purchase at so deare a rate the smoake of vanitie to incurre ignominy and eternall paine only to haue their names swimme in the mouthes and estimation of fooles for cunning Artizans of folly But let vs come to the second point of our introduction and declare wherefore God hath of old vsed such Figures going before the Law of Grace THE CAVSES VSES AND EFFECTS of Pictures and Figures in holy Scripture IT remaines yet to declare according to our power wherefore the Diuine prouidence would vse fore-going Figures in the Law of Nature and Moses before that hee sent his Son to establish his owne Law in his proper Person Whereof we giue this reason in generall that it was to declare that he is God and for the more profitable instruction of his creature in this point And thus we prooue what we haue said It is the familiar manner of Gods proceeding to perfect his admirable workes vpon little principles and smal beginnings God workes by little principles therby to make it appeare that he is God in little things as well as in great and no lesse in the first beginning and going forward then in the end and conclusion of his worke In creating the world he began it of nothing and in the gouernment thereof hee continueth the propagation of his creatures by meanes of their seede which in a manner is also no thing For which is worthy of admiration this little seede containes in its littlenesse all that which is to be borne out of it afterwards This Method of God is very fit to manisest clearely his wisedome power and bountie and very proper sweetely to make himselfe knowne vnto man according to his capacitie Who sees a faire great Palme-tree well branched thicke of boughes and loaden with Palmes hath hee not wherefore to admire the Creator in this creature but hee who shall contemplate the little stone from whence all this come forth Their beginning and end the roote the body the branches the leaues and the fruit of this tree will magnifie on the one side his diuine wisdome which secretly proceeding from such a beginning to such an end from such imperfection to such perfection teacheth properly the greatnesse of it selfe by the opposition to the
Passion so insinuated he the victory of his Resurrection by the shipwrack and comming forth of Ionas out of the Whales belly Ionas Iona. 2.2 Matth. 12.19 so the Euangelists and the Apostles vse often the witnesse of the old Testament to giue foote and credit to the faith they preached Secondly the Figures confirme our hope for seeing that which God hath so long before figured and foretold is faithfully accomplished wee are induced to hope that what is yet to come as the iudgement the Reward the glory the paine and the rest shall be likewise accomplished with the same fidelitie Finally they inflame our loue tovvards God because this contemplation of the ancient Figures reported to the present truth maketh vs see the eternall charitie vvith vvhich God hath loued vs preparing for vs by so long Prescience the Good which in the end he hath giuen vs and still promising vs more to come hereafter And because loue and benefits engender loue here-hence it is that if wee be not vnnaturall wee encrease in our loue tovvards God by this meditation These are the causes effects and vse of Figures It remaines to enter into the Temple of God there to see the holy Pictures of the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the body of his Sonne drawne from the writings of his holy Testament explained by his owne Word and that according to the Doctrine of his Diuine Painters and Writers the Interpreters of his Word the dumbe Picture shall be for your eyes the description of them for your eares and the exposition of one and of the other shall serue for your spirits or vnderstandings The first is of the earthly Paradise and of the Tree of Life planted therein set forth as you see in the Picture follovving THE FIRST PICTVRE PARADISE AND THE TREE OF LIFE The Description CHRISTIAN Beholders Gen. 2. â— you know that this admirable Chronicler and diuine Cosmographer Moses said in the History of the Creation that God had in the beginning planted a Garden of pleasure towards the East in which he put the Man that he had formed This is that faire and spacious Region that the Painter represents to you in this Table or Picture It is high in seate rich in goodnesse rare in beautie gratious in habitation and aboundant in all forts of delights The earth in some quarters thereof is leuelled into a plaine champion field and in other places raised vp in little harrowes or hilles replenished with plants and trees of excellent goodnesse In the place where it is highest you may there marke a fountaine which rising in great bubbles is formed into a Riuer winding and watering all the Garden towards the end whereof it is diuided into foure heads and maketh foure great slouds running into diuers quarters of the earth The first of which is called Phison casting vpon the shoare her golden sands and many faire pretious stones but no person gathered them vp because there was none as yet but Adam and Eue in the world their children you may imagine will not lose them for want of gathering The ayre there is most pure and subtill and therefore we see not any token of clouds or mists the Sun shining cleare and bright alwayes As for the fire which is of elements the most supreame it holds it selfe still and quiet in its kingdome aboue the ayre yet contributing notwithstanding light and heate with a sweete temperature as it were after the manner of a Torch lighted in heauen This gay verdure wherewith the earth is still apparrelled and these odoriferous flowers which with a thousand florishing colours adorne the same and wherewith those trees in like sort are all so trimly dressed shew forth the Spring in whose company the other Seasons make heere their quarters all together And therefore Summer hath heere alreadie made yellow the Haruest in this golden field and ripened many fruits in those Meadowes and neighbour Orchards which are readie for the gathering As also Autumne shewes forth her goodly clusters of ripe Grapes in those little hilles where Noah as yet had neuer planted Vineyard And lastly the Winter giues repose without any sharpnesse of colde See Saint Bafil â— Paradis for it is mitigated partly by the light of the Sunne which at al times casts his cleare beames vpon the Horizon of this diuine Region without estranging it selfe very much towards the South partly by the moyste warme breath of those windes which blow sweetely from the South to abate the coldnesse of this Pegising ayre So that there is a perpetuall accord of all the soure Seasons whereof the Spring-time holdeth the preheminence This goodly wood of high trees and thick Cops about it are full of little birds which make the ayre resound with a thousand sorts of warblings and aboue all the Nitinghall incessantly and in many quires make melodious muficke all the yeere long But the Painter could not represent to the eare their sweete harmony as hee represents to the eye the Birds and in particular that Birde which men call the Birde of Paradise hanging heere in this Palme-tree little of body with long feathers all ouer adorned with beautifull colours her head yellow her neck enameled with a gay greene her wings spotted with a cawny purple and the rest of her body with a pale gold colour Citizen of the skye faire wits excellencie and admirable in this that shee is alwayes in the ayre without euer touching the earth for that shee hath no feete and when shee will rest her selfe shee grapples about the trees with two long feathers made in fashion of wyer threeds like as it is represented heere These Lions Elephants S. Bas Orat. de Parad. Aug. lib. 4 de Ciuit. Dâ—i 9.11 Tygers and other liuing creatures that you see in diuers places are not cruell nor furious but gentle and obedient and therefore Eue had not any feare of them no more then Adam her husband who walked neere them in coasting these woods But that which is most exquisite and admirable in this Garden is the Tree of Life or of Liues according to the Hebrew word planted in the middest of the others so called because the fruite thereof is of such vertue that it cannot onely nourish the body for a time as other fruites do but also repaire all defecteousnesse and giue it strength and vigour of life to make it perdurable and immortall And as God hath made in man an Abreuiation of all other creatures euen so hath he comprised in this Tree the vertues and perfections of all other Plants And I beleeue it to be that Nectar and Ambrosia called also Nepenthes Ambrosia and Nectar Nepenthes Moly Plin. lib. 25. cap. 4. and Moly which the ancient Poets inuoluing the truth in fables affirme to haue force to make young againe to preserue from death and to driue away all cause of griefe and discontentment The first Tree which you see on the left-hand towards the West is the Tree of Knowledg
turned vp-side downe for earthly trees haue their heads fixed in the ground to wit their roote Man contrariwise hath his lifted vp to heauen he is then a diuine heauenly Tree Mat. 7.17 12 13. Marke 6.24 Our Sauiour oft compareth the good man to a good tree and the wicked to an euill and one of the blinde which were healed by him being asked if hee saw any thing answered that he saw men like trees walking vpon the earth If then this meruailous Tree were the picture of any man or meate what could it more worthily figure in the Church of God then Iesus Christ God and Man and his body the most diuine meate of all But the better to know the correspondencie of this Picture to the truth we ought to note the draughts or lines of the olde mystery and so compare them with the qualities of the new 4. RESEMBLANCES OF THE TREE of Life to the holy Sacrament of the Alter THe portraitures and lineaments of the resemblances and likenesse that is betweene our Sacrament and the Tree of Life are these that follow The Tree of Life was the Tree of Trees that is to say the collection of the vertue of all trees and plants as man of all creatures and the Sunne of all lights the body of Iesus Christ also is the most noble of all bodies the rich storehouse of all vertues and the treasure of the Diuinitie it selfe conceiued in Virgin earth by the worke of the holy Spirit and borne of a Virgin a Body wherein dwelleth truely the fulnesse of all goodnesse S. Aug. lib. 1. cont aduers legis cap. 18. The Sacrament also of this body is the collection of all the ancient Sacraments and Sacrifices and for this cause Sacrament of Sacraments and Sacrifice of Sacrifices as the Tree of Life was the Tree of Trees and the Fruite of Fruites Sacrament truely planted in the midst of the Church that is to say lifted vp to a most noble height amongst the other celestiall mysteries as the Tree of Life was planted in the midst and most eminent place of the Garden among the other Trees The Tree of Life was ordained not to nourish the body by little and little as did the other fruits but for to repaire all the defects thereof at once to render it vigorous to giue it a perfect life without end and to nourish it in the highest degree that a body can possibly be nourished Even so the body of our Sauiour is left in refection to his Church not to sustaine vs after the fashion of corruptible meates which are conuerted into the substance of our bodies but rather to conuert our bodies into it imprinting in them his diuine qualities and giuing them a liuing spring of immortalitie according to that which our Sauiour said Hee that eateth this bread shall liue eternally Ioan. 6.51.44 Hee that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood bee hath life eternall and I will raise bins vp in the last day The tree of life was no where to bee found but onely within the inclosed earthily Paradise neither was there any more then one alone the Sacrifice also and Sacrament of the body of our Sauiour is not made but in his Church by such as are lawfully called thereunto and if it be found amongst Heretikes they haue it from the Church and it is euery where one selfesame body and not many so as there is no profitable Sacrament of this precious meate neither any Tree of Life in the assemblies of Heretikes no more then in that of the Paynims and if they carry it out of the Church with them and take it being Infidels it is to their damnation because they are foorth of the holy Church the true and onely earthly Paradise in which is planted the Tree of Life for the children of God Exod. 12. S. Aug. Serm. de Temp. 181. c. 12. The Lambe saith Saint Augustine is sacrificed in one onely house for that the true Sacrifice of the Redeemer is sacrificed in one Catholike Church the flesh of which the Law forbids to bee carried forth for so much as wee must not cast to dogges that which is holy The Tree of Life was prepared for meate vnto Adam no longer then hee remained in state of Innocencie and therefore after he had sinned hee was excluded from it which depriuing him thereof was Gods Iustice and Mercy together Iustice because that sinfull man merited by his disobedience to be depriued of the vse of that fruit which was reserued for the reward of his obedience saith Saint Chrysostome and Theodoret. S. Chrysost hom 〈◊〉 Gen. 18. Theâ—d â— 126. in Gen. Mercy for that hauing been condemned to many miseries if he had eaten he had bin made immortall and so immortally miserable vpon the earth whereas in liuing but a little time his misery is so much shortned Tren l. 3. c. 37. S. Greg. Naz. â—â— at 2. de Pasch Wherefore saith Saint Gregory Nazianzen after Saint Ireneus his punishment is turned into mercy for if he had tasted of this fruit his life had become immortall and his euils endlesse And euen so the fruit of our Sacrament is also prepared for those which haue a cleane soule so that if any one take it with conscience of mortall sinne he takes death and puts himselfe in danger to be eternally miserable This is it which Saint Paul saith 1. Cor. 11.27 Whosoeuer shall eate and shall drinke the Chalice of our Lord vnworthily hee shall bee guiltie of the body and bloud of our Lord and for that cause let euery one proue himselfe and so eate of this bread and drinke of this Chalice for whosoeuer eates and drinkes vnworthily he eates and drinkes his owne condemnation not discerning the body of our Lord. He exaggerates the greatnesse of the crime and threatens the criminals by great and piercing words to make euery Christian attentiue and wary that he do his endeauour to prepare himselfe worthily to the eating of this bread and herewith he sheweth in what consisteth the meanes to make this preparation which is by cleansing the soule by an holy confession of all the sinnes which we can remember in doing penance and making satisfaction for the same for this the examining and proouing of which he speaketh S. Chrysost hom 24. in 1. Cor. hom 3. ep Ephes S. Amb. lib. 6. in Luc. c. 37. S. Cyp. l. 3. ep 14. S. Aug. tract 16. in Ioan. and that he commands is no other thing then this as Saint Chrysostome Saint Ambrose Saint Cyprian Saint Augustine and all the holy Fathers haue explaned To this purpose said Saint Iohn Blessed are those which wash their robes to the end that their strength be in the wood of life that is to say happy are those which doe penance and cleause themselues of all their sinne Apoc. 12. to the end that they may worthily participate the fruite of this diuine Sacrament the Tree planted in the
Church of God for the attaining of life eternall 5. OF THE EXCELLENCIE OF THE HOly Sacrament of the Altar farre aboue the Tree of Life THe likenesse of the Tree of Life with our Sacrament makes vs to admire the wisdome and power of God who had both knowledge and power to exhibite so diuine a portraiture of this most excellent Sacrament but if we contemplate the difference and the excellencie of the one so farre aboue the other we shall more admire his vnmeasurable liberalitie towards vs. The difference is first in this that the Tree of Life was but an earthly body and corruptible brought foorth and nourished by the earth insensible after the manner of other created things quickned with the life of a plant hauing neither sense nor discourse Our Tree of Life is an immortall body celestiall and diuine engendered in the wombe of a Virgin by the worke of the holy Ghost quickned by an intellectuall soule carrying the Image and likenesse of God expressed therein with the most liuely and compleate draughts of perfection and beauty that euer humane soule enioyed so that if the working hand of the Creator shew it selfe admirable in the common Fabricke of mans body what tongue shall be able to tell what spirit to comprehend the beauty of the bodie of his Sonne Or so much as of that earth out of which he brought foorth and with which he nourished this body which was the holy body of the Virgin Mary O deified body of the Sonne O diâ—iâ—e body of the Mother O fruitfull Virgin aboue all mothers O chast Mother aboue all virgins hauing engendered such a Sonne O heauenly earth true earth of theliuing paterne of the Church Garden of God infinitely more noble then this first earthly Paradise Virgin diuinely and truely fruitfull which hast brought forth a Tree of so precious fruit surpassing in goodnesse and beauty al the fruits of the earth O the bountifull liberality of him that gaue it 6. THE BODY OF THE SAVIOVR NOVrishment of the soule and cause of the glorious resurrection of the body THe second difference betweene our Sacrament and the Tree of Life is that this Tree was onely for the body to make it immortall and to preserue it from death Our Tree of Life is also for the soule which it beautifieth nourisheth and maketh sat with celestiall and diuine vertues and besides it imparts much more to the body then did the other for it disposeth it not onely to immortality but also to a glorious resurrection and therefore it is without comparison more worthy to be called Tree of Liues then the other to be termed the Tree of Life for this giues three liues the life of grace to the soule the corporal life to the body to both the life of glory prerogatiues most diuine and alone proper to the body of the Son of God for although the heauens the starres and other naturall bodies furnish the soule with some spirituall nourishment seruing her for an obiect to contemplate their fiame and beauty and to feed and refresh her with the knowledge of their natures it is notwithstanding a farre off by imagination alone wheras this deified body marieth it selfe vnto her by a contracted knot of celestiall and diuine loue and being really present with her imprinteth in her his qualities of grace and glory which no other naturall body can do it being aboue their force and vertue and reserued to the onely body of the Master of Nature 7. THE SACRAMENT OF THE BODY of the Sonne of God Tree of all the earth FInally the first Tree of Life had for her onely and last dwelling the earth and that for a little time and in one parcell alone It may be it had been multiplied in many quarters if that man had perseuered constant in his first innocency But the second is in many places of the earth continuing alwayes one and abideth not for a little time but remaine in heauen for euer for on earth as contained in this Sacrament it feedeth the children of God during their peregrination in whatsoeuer coast of the world they be dispersed and to them it is and shall be the high obiect and eternall meate of felicitie in proper forme and cleare vision of glory when the soule implunged as it were in the profound contemplation and loue of his God shall enioy to the full the riches of his Diuinity and the body cloathed with immortality and honor shall see and admire with corporall eyes the wonderfull glory of that body by which it was redeemed 8. CERTAINE SPIRITVALL ASPIRATIons of the soule desiring the cleare vision of the body of our Sauiour and a giuing thankes for the same O Good Iesus when shall the Sunne of that day shine wherein we shall openly see this bright body of thy holy humanitie which yet we heere behold by faith hidden in the depth of this profound mystery when shall that season be in which we shall enioy with full libertie this Tree of selicitie alwayes youthfull greene flourishing and bearing fruit planted within the inclosure of the celestiall Paradise in the Land of the Liuing A Land in which the Orient-Sunne shineth perpetually causing an euerlasting Spring to abound with the Autumne fruites of immortalitie watred with delicate riuers of pure delights ennobled with all sorts of beauty inhabited with diuine spirits Habitation of honor felicity and peace euerlasting When O sweete Iesus shall we be in possession of this happinesse thou knowest when O Lord from whom nothing can be hid and thou alone hast the cleare knowledge hereof we haue nothing but faithfull hope and know no more thereof then that which the mouth of thy deare Spouse hath tould vs. This shall be when thou shalt please This shall be when the decree of thy wise mercie shall haue put an end to all our misery and the tearme of our mortall life shall giue beginning to that which knoweth neither death nor ending This shall be then when farre from all griefe we shall reioyce with the fulnesse of all goodnesse in thee and by thee eternally happie But in the meane while O Soueraigne Creator we haue an eternall oblation to thy infinite bountie that prepared for our first Father and vs the diuine benefite of that Tree which was to haue been a preseruatiue from death and a soueraigne electuary of immortality with a thousand other goods for the sustenance pleasure of the life of our body And if he receiued not the fruitfull vse of this Tree it was his owne most faultie ingratitude no lesse enormious then thy liberality was great towards him and the practise thereof so much the greater that thou wast not hindered from conferring so great a benefit vpon him although thou didst foresee that he would offend thee and so depriue himselfe by his owne crime of this comfort Much more ought we to thanke thee that thou hast giuen vs in the Law of Grace a Sacrament of Life infinitly better then
the Tree of Life for what comparison is there betweene thy celestiall body and the wood of earthly Paradise betweene the price of a body which hath redeemed all the world and a Tree that is not the thousandth part of the world betweene the excellency of the body in which inhabites the fountaine of life and the fruit in which remaines onely but a part of life between the vertue of a deified body bearing God and being vpheld of God and a liuely plant of God hauing in it selfe but the vertue of a mortall creature What is then thy bountie O mercifull Lord and who could euer imagine that after hauing been so grieuously offended of men and hauing iustly depriued them of the vse of this first fruit thou wouldest so mercifully substitute another which so infinitely surpassed the former in all good qualities and who could be so good and so liberall but thou which art selfe goodnesse and liberalitie without measure or end be blessed O Lord for thy gifts and since without end thou art sweet and gratious giue vs yet meanes and grace to praise thee thanke thee and serue thee with all the forces of our soule euen till the last breath of our life and so holily to make an end of our pilgrimage in this oâ—â— mortall race strengthned with the viaticum of the precious Sacrament of thy body that one day we may eternally enioy the fruit of life which thou hast prepared in heauen to be meate and nutriment of euerlasting happinesse for thy beloued THE SECOND PICTVRE THE SACRIFICE OF ABEL The Description SIlence masters and attention Genes 4. â— wel to pierce into the draughts and the sense of this sacred Picture to learne how we ought to make Sacrifice to God and to yeeld him faithfull homage ABEL first shepheard and first iust of the children of Adam and first Priest of the Law of Nature offereth Sacrifice to the diuine Maiestie The Altar is prepared by nature without arte for the world is but new borne there are not yet any builders or houses amongst mortall men the Priest is also cloathed simply after the fashion of Adam his Father halfe naked and couered onely with a sheepes skinne but the offering is a choise one and culled for the best that he could choose in all his flocke but the heart of the Offerer is yet much better you reade his profound deuotion and humilitie in the posture of his body he prayeth vpon his knees bowed to the earth his eyes weeping and cast vp towards heauen his mouth modestly open pronouncing the praises of God his armes and hands moderately lifted vp imploring his diuine mercy and the whole composition of his sweete and gratious visage witnesseth his godlinesse his faith his hope his charitie and other diuine vertues of his soule with which he offered both the Sacrifice and himselfe to his Creator so as the heart of the Offerer and the sweet smell of the Offering ascended euen to the heauens S. Cyprian sermâ— de Natiuitate from whence as you see God makes descend his fier inflaming the ayre and lighting vpon the Altar to deuour the Burnt-offering in signe that it is very acceptable in his sight It is not so in Caine the older brother of Abel who by manner of acquiting himselfe hee cares not how and as though he meant to deceiue his diuine Maiesty makes his oblation on the other side offering certaine ill-fauoured sheaues of straw keeping the best corne for himselfe no maruell therefore though it had no signe of approbation from heauen as the Sacrifice of Abel had whereat he is all inraged and giueth manifest signes of his fury Gen. â— â— see you how lumpishly he looketh how he roules his eyes in his head and bends his browes as a forlorne mad-man God from aboue perceiued him well and chidde and corrected him as a Father shewing him that the eye of his knowledge pierced the depth of his secret thoughts and that an Hypocrite thinking by faire shewes to deceiue God deceiueth himselfe Moreouer that it is in his liberty to doe well and that in doing well he shall haue him for his friend and well shall come of him But Caine remaines Caine hardened and obstinate by his fatherly correction and turning the point of his spite against his innocent brother Abel he now resolueth to haue his life and goeth forthwith to put his malitious designe in execution so that making the earth to drinke mans bloud in the beginning of the world and the bloud of the innocent and of his owne proper brother he carieth the marke of the first Murtherer first Tyrant and first Paracide in his forehead and becommeth the fundamentall stone of the kingdome of Satan But thou O meeke childe which art attentiue to thy Sacrifice without any suspition or thought of the enuy of thy vnnaturall brother thou shalt be the first member of the Church of God representing both in thy name and in thy person all the teares trauels anguishes persecutions and laborious courses of the iust in this life But especially in thy Sacrifice and in thy death thou shalt beare the figure of the iust Messias killed to kill our sinne and to restore vs againe to the life of Grace Farewell Abel farewell the blessednesse of the Family of thy Father farewell the honour of the world thou art taken away from the earth in the flower of thy yeeres the very Starres mourne for thee and turne away their eyes in detestation of the foule crime of thy brother O you tender soules which see and heare all this melt your hearts into griefe and your eyes into teares with sorrow and compassion But comfort your selues Abel is yet aliue Abel is now in the safety of the hand of God he shall die no more but liue for euer and we shall liue with him in heauen if we imitate him on earth as all those that are obstinate and wicked with obstinate Caine must perish eternally 1. THE SACRIFICE OF ABEL A FIGVRE of the Crosse and of the Eucharist THe Sacrifice of Abel was a manifest Figure as well of the death of our Sauiour as of the Sacrament and Sacrifice of his body left for a memoriall of his death That it was a Figure of Christs death the Scripture teacheth when it saith Apoc. 13.2 That the Lambe hath been slaine from the beginning of the world that is to say that Iesus Christ hath been put to death from the beginning in Figure which Figure consists not onely in the death of Abel but also in the death of the Lambe which he offered Tertullian Tertul de Car. Christi S. Aug. lib. 15. cap. 18. lib. 28. cont Faust cap. 9.11 Rup lib. 4. Genes 4. Ioan. 10. Saint Augustine and other Doctors declare the resemblance betweene them in this manner Abel brother of vniust Caine most Iust Iesus brother of the most vniust Iewes Abel a shepheard Iesus Christ the Good shepheard the sacrifice of Abel
heauen bread of life immortall and glorious diuine bread and diuine flesh without the substance of any materiall bread both meate and drinke together giuing the nourishment of grace to the soule and the sprout of immortalitie to the body and to both of them the fruit of all blessednesse In that God shewed his diuine wisdome figuring with his prouident pensill the future Priest-hood of his Sonne in the person of Melchisedech and the Sacrifice of the body of his Sonne in the Sacrifice of Melchisedech But in this heere hee hath left markes infinitely more cleare of his omnipotencie wisdome and boundy changing the hidden substance of bread into that of his body without changing the forme of the outward accidents offering himselfe by himselfe being at one instant together the Sacrificer and the thing Sacrificed Could he shew himselfe more great more skilfull and more liberall Could he establish a Sacrifice either more honorable for the acknowledging of his diuine Maiestie then this in which he offered not the body and bloud of beasts but his owne body and bloud or more profitable to man then in which he giues vs his owne body This mystery then so agreeable to the honor of God and so beneficiall to his friends doth it not merit to be eternally continued in the Church according to that which Dauid hath so diuinely prophecied Thou art a Priest for euer according to the order of Melchisedech Not according to the order of Aaron who was the Sacrificer of the bodies of beasts lesse honorable and lesse profitable and therefore worthy to be changed but according to the order of Melchisedech offering without bloud the body of the Sonne of God vnder the formes of bread and wine Sacrifice and Priest-hood most honorable and most worthy to endure euen to the end of the world neither can the world be furnished with a better either for the houor of God or for the good of his children 16. THE GOOD SPIRITVAL SOVLDIERS are worthy of the food and blessing of the body of our Lord. BVt who are the children worthy to feed vpon this Sacrifice and to haue the blessing of the true Melchisedech truely they are Abraham and his souldiers which haue noble soules and are armed in all parts with vertue which hotly pursue the enemies of their saluation fighting valiantly against the forces of the Assyrians pride Couetousnesse Leachery Enuy Gluttony Hate Idlenesse Iniquity Impiety and other vices signified by the Assyrians These then are they that giue the tenth of their victories and of their spoiles to God which giue him thankes for his benefits and acknowledge his assistance as chiefe cause of all their good actions for which they glory in nothing but in him and confesse that all their good commeth from him These are they that are true children of Abraham and like valient warriers know readily how to manage their bodies in all sorts of combates and exercises of spirituall battle This braue Horse of Abrahams so well made and so well taught to the bitt and to the spurre to trotte to gallop to runne and to bee decently ordered resembleth those bodies that are well tamed and well taught to follow the commands and directions of a warlike soule Such was he 1. Cor. 9.27 which said I chastise my body and make it a seruant such haue been a thousand champions of our Sauiour which haue victoriously combated against the greatest forces and armies of their enemies the world the flesh and the diuell Such souldiers are worthy of the bread of God worthy which whom the great Melchisedech should comply in the end of their victories comming foorth to honor them to congratulate with them to inuite them to receiue the holy Repast of his sacred body and to sanctifie them with his great blessing wherewith they returne into their countrey which is heauen rich with reward and enobled with immortall glory THE FOVRTH PICTVRE ISAAK ON THE ALTAR The Description THese two yong men seruants of Abraham attend at the foote of the mountaine with this saddled Asse Abraham himselfe with yong Isaak is ascended to the top of the mountaine hauing commanded them to tarry beneath vntill he had there worshipped and offered Sacrifice this is the third day since they came from home with him hauing neuer vsed to depart from him their face shewes that they are sorrowfull and astonished and it is by all true likelihood for not knowing the cause why he should leaue them and for hauing seene and heard of things they misliked they had seene how their Master all sad had put the wood which the Asse carried vpon the shoulders of Isaak taking himselfe fire in the one hand and a sword in the other Ioseph lib. 1. Antiq. cap. 13. and certainly the teares ran downe in great abundance from their eyes because they see their yong Master loaden with this heauie burden to goe with no little paine for hee is tender and delicate and but fiue and twentie yeeres old They could not also imagine what should be the Sacrifice Abraham would offer seeing it was his custome to Sacrifice before his domesticals without euer hauing vsed such like ceremony But this which puts them yet in more great wonder is that they perceiued not any beast he had to sacrifice whereof Isaak himselfe being sollactous asked of his Father in the way where the Lambe was for the Burnt-offering to whom Abraham answered that God would prouide it The good childe knew not that himselfe was the Lambe appointed for the Sacrifice lesse knew hee what this holy old man thought within himselfe for hee felt a maruailous combate in his soule pressed on the one side with the assaults of Nature which moued him to fatherly compassion and on the otherside with the Word of God which made him stedfast in the execution of his Commandement Nature said to him O Father what dost thou Hast thou begotten a sonne to be his murtherer Hast thou giuen him life in the world to put him with thine owne hand to death Hast thou giuen being to this creature and wilt thou depriue him of it in a moment as soone as it beginneth Wilt thou burie in one moment the comfort of thy age and all the hopes of thy future race within the tombe of thy only sonne Thy only sonne giuen thee of God after so many faire and goodly promises of thy prosperity Thy onely son so tenderly nourished so carefully brought vp so beautifull so gratious so obedient and perfect in all kinde of graces And who euer saw such a Father as thou art And what will thy houshold thy neighbours and thy kindred say And aboue all the rest what will his poore Mother say who sitting at home little thinkeâ—â— of any such matter when shee shall see thee returne all alone and that shee shall heare the pitifull newes of her deare and onely childe slaine not by force of sicknesse nor by the hand of the enemie nor by the teeth of any furious
after a diuine manner Plin. lib. 11. c. 14 lib. 12. c. 4. Gal. l. 3. de aliment The naturall Philosophers haue well acknowledged a kinde of naturall Manna which is a certaine dew of honny which the labourers of Syria gather from the trees of the mount Lybanus whereof the Apothecaries make vse but this heere was far otherwise in his effects causes as hath bin said it was produced miraculously in the Desert and fel euery day but the Sabbath in Winter and in all times and it was a miracle that it fell not on the Sabbath It continued in this manner forty yeeres and no more and this was one of the miracles that this people saw there continually in the Desert this was then a celestiall food supernaturall and diuine This quality agrees very well to our Sacrament For first the body of our Sauiour was not begotten after a naturall manner Luke 1. but by vertue of the holy Ghost in the wombe of the Virgin which are two extraordinary causes Secondly this body is made present in the Altar vnder the formes of bread and wine by the ministery of Priests which are the Angels of God in the Church These are those which as instruments make this body in the Sacrament vsing to that end the omnipotent word of Iesus Christ THIS IS MY BODY and in this sense it is made by Angells and is the true bread of Angels Thirdly Manna was giuen for prouision in the Desert of Arabia euen vntill they entred into the Land of Promise the Sacrament is giuen vs in the Desert of this world vntill the Church militant shall enter victoriously and triumphantly into the Land of the liuing which is her heauenly countrey Fourthly Manna gathered in little or great quantity was neither more nor lesse for neuer a one had in the end more then the measure of a Gomer bee it that he had gathered more or lesse and this measure was equally sufficient to euery one nourishing a man growne and not ouer-charging the stomack of a yong childe A thing in truth most admirable that in a multitude of more then six hundred thousand of people and so great inequalitie of complexions and of stemackes the selfe-same quantity was equall and proportionable to the condition of euery one This also is more admirably seene in the Eucharist for it is not greater in a little Hoast then in a great one in a piece then in all and the body of our Sauiour is all in all the Hoast and all in euery part of it and is giuen equally to all vnder vnequall pieces how be it that in regard of the effect it profits more to those that are prepared Fiftly Manna serued both for meat and drinke for it baked into bread before the fire and ranne into water before the Sunne here-hence is that the Doctors said that the Iewes asking water murmured malitiously without cause Exod. 16. for so much as hauing Manna they had whereof to eate and drinke neither more nor losse then long time after them the fiue thousand which did cate in the Desert the bread and fishes multiplied had both meat and drinke by that miraculous food in Figure of our Eucharist Euen so the Eucharist it selfe giueth the body and the bloud of our Sauiour true bread and true drinke together though it be but vnder one kinde Sixtly Manna was couered and hidden betweene two dewes Glossa ex Rab. Salan Exod. 16. the body and bloud of our Sauiour is couered and hid from our sense and iudgement vnder the outward accidents of bread and wine Are not heere resemblances enough to make vs see the very face and Figure of our Sacraments And if God hath bin admirable figuring long since the patterne of the truth is he nor yet much more admirable in making perfect from point to point the truth it selfe according to the patterne and in laying so faire and so measurable a resemblance of the liuely colours of a new Mystery vpon the lineaments of the ancient Figure But let vs see yet some other draughts 3. WHAT SIGNIFIED THE LIKENES of Manna to Coriander PHILO a great Doctor writeth Philo. l. 2. Alleg. post med That the peeces of the graine of Coriander burst and cast in the earth grow as well as the whole graine euen as the grafts of a tree set or planted will liue and grow An admirable property of this graine and which is not found in any other seede that I haue read of not in Wheat which is a graine that hath the sprout most full of life The Scripture which puts not one tittle to paper without reason compares Manna to Coriander to the end no doubt wee should marke a wonder hidden in the Iudaicall shadowes to be discouered in the light of our faith the which wonder consists in this that one part alone of our Sacrament hath life as well as the the whole and that euery peece of an Hoast broken containes as much as the whole Hoast This wonder was signified as I said before in the quantity of Manna which was so equall in the prouision although it were gathered in vnequall measure Then the Scripture saying that Manna the olde Figure was like to the graine of Coriander gaue an outward Picture to the Iewes and signified to vs the inward life of our Manna in all his parts hauing the likenesse of Coriander albeit this be in one respect infinitely more perfect for none of the parts of Coriander is all the Coriander but all the parts of the Sacrament are all the Sacrament and all containe the body of our Lord and all are the whole yet if we respect the formes the parts of the Hoast are not the whole Hoast but only a part thereof 4. THE HOLY SACRAMENT KEPT IN the Tabernacle as Manna in the Arke VVEE haue heard how Moses commanded his brother Aaron to take of Manna to bee reserued within the Tabernacle for a memoriall of the benefits receiued from God which was put in execution so soone as the Arke was prepared Exod. 16.33 within the which Aaron put a golden pot full of Manna and the Arke and the pot in it was seated in the most holy place Heb. 9.4 as Saint Paul witnesseth writing to the Hebrewes So as Manna not onely serued for meat and all manner of sustenance but also for a memoriall The truth of these shadowes continue from age to age in the Church of God in which the body of our Sauiour as celestiall Manna is giuen for food and a viaticum and withall is kept and rescrued for a memoriall of benefits receiued from God For wheresoeuer the blessed Sacrament is found euery where it is a memoriall of the bountie of our Sauiour towards vs it is also kept and it shall be kept in Churches euen to the end of the world to be caried to the sicke and others who haue need of it and cannot come to the Church S. Iust. ep 2. S.
all now it makes present his body in a place where it was not a little before There it changed nothing into the creature heere it changeth one creature into another and in a certaine manner into the Creator himselfe so as the Priestes working in the Consecration by vertue of this omnipotent words are in this respect Creators of their Creator For changing the bread into the body of our Sauiour and making this body present they make also by necessary concomitance that his Soule and his Diuinity which neuer abandons the body be also present and by such operation they produce after a certaine manner the diuine Person and their Creator neither more nor lesse then the glorious Virgin brought forth Iesus Christ God and Man and is truely called the Creatrix and Mother of her Creator although shee bred neither the Soule nor the Diuinitie of him but onely the body conioyned to a reasonable Soule and hypostatically vnited to the Diuine Person which accompanieth it vnseparably Therefore the mystery of the Incarnation as also of Transubstantiation is greater and nobler then that of Creation For the effect of the Creation was a creature to wit the World but the effect of the Incarnation as also of Transubstantiation is the Creator by reason of this consequence and concomitance And if one should consider the body of our Sauiour alone the effect is alwayes more pretious seeing that this body surpasseth the price of a thousand worlds God then sheweth himselfe greater in this change then he did in the Creation And therefore after the Creation and before the Mystery of Transubstantiation when he would giue proofe of his power it was first by the change of one creature into another because such an operation did most properly testifie the soueraigne Master of Nature but therewithall to facilitate the faith of Transubstantiation which he was to make in the Law of Grace of bread and wine into the body and bloud of his Sonne So for the first proofe of his omnipotencie he changed the Rod of Moses into a Serpent and before Pharoe and the Aegyptians Exod. 3. 4. he conuerted the waters of Aegypt into bloud So likewise the first miracle by which Iesus Christ made man shewed himselfe God was by changing the water into wine the last remarkable miracle that he wrought in his mortall life Ioan. 2. was in changing the bread into his body the wine into his bloud which he continueth euery day and shall continue in witnesse of his omnipotencie so long as his Church shal walke in the Desert of this world as he continued the Figure of Manna in the Desert of Arabia during the peregrination of the Hebrewes in which Manna this admirable mutation was figured for as it is said in the booke of Wisdome Sap. 16.21 it was turned into that euery man would haue it 8. THIS CHANGE IS A MIRACLE FOR the Faithfull NOw this changing of substance into substance appeareth not to the bodily sense but to the eyes of faith onely and therefore it is made for the faithful which beleeue without seeing and not for vnfaithfull and carnal people S. Aug. in serm de Temp. 147. Whose rule is to vnderstand nothing except that which they touch saith Saint Augustine The mutations and changes that Moses made to fight against the infidelity of Pharoe and the Aegyptians and to giue manifest proof of Gods omnipotency strucke their senses with admiration as also the miracles of our Sauiour did and those of his Saints which were done to plant the faith The miracle that hee worketh in this change as also in the accidents is not for the planting of faith but for the exercise and encrease thereof he that requireth to see it with sense shewes that he hath no more faith then an Infidell and that he more beleeues his sense then the words of God which denounceth to him this change saying This is my body this is my bloud he shewes also that he vnderstands not reason for there are diuers natural changes which are made in secret without the senses perceiuing when they are made as when the water changeth it selfe into the juyce of wine in the Vine and into the juyoe of a Cherry in a Cherry-tree when the corne changeth it selfe into the substance of an eare and when an Egge is turned into a Chicken the shell remaining whole and without any exteriour mutation 9. OF THE SAME POWER OF GOD shewed in the accidents of bread and wine AS our Sauiour sheweth himselfe in this Sacrament Lord and Master of Nature by changing the substance as it hath been said so he maketh it appeare that he is omnipotent in the accidents of the same substance distributed into those nine Orders which wee haue set downe before First in generall because he giues to them all a manner of being supernaturall which is to support themselues without subiect an effect so farre aboue the power of common nature as it is for a man to hold himselfe in the ayre without stay And in particular he giueth force to the quantity of bread not onely to be without subiect but also to doe the office of substance and to serue for foundation to the quality to the sauour Gen. 21. and to other accidents and produceth with them a substance in giuing nourishment by them 2. Reg. Luke 1. Luke 1. And as by commanding the barrennesse of Sara of Anna and of Elizabeth and the Virginitie of his blessed Mother to conceiue and bring forth he made proofe of his omnipotencie Euen so he shewes himselfe heere omnipotent when he commandeth the barren accidents themselues and without all sappe of substance to bring forth and which is more to bring foorth an effect farre aboue their ranke to wit a substance which is a nature without comparison more noble then the accident and of whom the accidents altogether depend as simple officers and vassalls hauing nothing of their owne but what they haue from the power of substance These are then so many markes of an omnipotent Lord in this Mystery 10. THE SELFE-SAME POWER VERIFIED in the accidents of the body of our Sauiour and first in respect of the quantity THe diuine Power is yet more euident in the managing of the accidents of the body of our Sauiour 2 for it there holds his quantity all entire with his dimensions without possessing place all in all the Hoast and all in euery part how little soeuer it be which is to giue to his body that manner of being that naturally belongeth to a spirit thereby to shew himselfe God omnipotent So God is all through all and all in euery part of the world and our soule through all the body and all in euery part The body of our Sauiour is not euery where that being a prerogatiue reserued to the Diuinitie alone but it is in many places in one selfesame time and in all parts of the Hoast which is naturall to spirits and
a priuiledge giuen to this body vnited to the Diuinitie And since God giueth the power to Angells which are spirits to take a corporall being and to cloath themselues with some humaine or other visible forme and to possesse a place after the manner of a body it is not to be doubted but he can giue contrariwise to a body especially his deified body the prerogatiue to be in this Sacrament after the manner of a spirit without possessing any place and it repugnes no more to the nature of a body not to possesse a place then to the fier not to burne wherefore as the fier ceased not to bee fier within the furnace Van. 3. though it burnt not the Hebrew children so the body of our Lord ceaseth not at all to remaine a body in this Sacrament though it occupie no place and if God hath made that the virginity remained entire with the conception and bringing forth of a childe an effect most repugnant to virginity wherefore shall it be hard to him to make that a body remaine a body without possessing place seeing that virginity and facundity are more disagreeing from accord then to be a body and not to occupie any place The Scripture makes to vs easie the faith of this miracle teaching that our Sauiour went forth of the Sepulcher it being shut and that he entred into the chamber of the Apostles the doores being shut his body then possessed no place at that time or two bodies were in one selfesame place with penetration of dimensions which is an effect as difficult and hard to Nature and onely depending of the omnipotencie of God 11. THE MARVAILOVS POWER OF GOD about the qualities of the body of our Sauiour in the blessed Sacrament THe brightnesse colour 3 and such like qualities of the body of our Sauiour are also heere by prerogatiue of his omnipoteucie inuisible to the eye and vnknowne to all the other senses The eye seeth well a whitenesse the tongue tasteth a rellish the hand toucheth a quantity but these are the qualities of bread and wine and not of the body of our Sauiour which our mouth taketh without any feeling of the proper qualities of it When he conuersed with men the Diuinity appeared not but by the body of his Humanitie heere the body is hidden not appearing but by the accidents of bread and wine hee hath his body inuisible vnder the visible accidents disposing his body at his pleasure So he made it inuisible by miracle before his resurrection so he walked without heauinesse vpon the waues so after his resurrection hee hid the splendor of his body and vanished from the sight of his Apostles so he mounted vp to heauen not hindered by any heauinesse of his body 12. THE WONDERFVLL RELATIONS OF the body of our Sauiour in the same Sacrament VVHen a body is in a naturall place 4 euery member hath diuers relations to the diuers parts of the place The head to one the feete to another the hands to a third and so of the rest For there it is extended but heere the parts of our Sauiours body haue euery of them relation not to the parts of place but to one or other The head is not where the rest of the members are and all is heere distinct and apart and yet all notwithstanding in a little Hoast and sometimes in so little a quantitie of the Sacrament that it seemes to be impossible that all should not be in confusion And indeed it is impossible to Nature to make such an experiment or but to comprehend it much lesse yet to explaine it It is thy Power O Iesus omnipotent and soueraigne Master of Nature thy knowledge and thy word can doe it There is yet another diuine relation of this Sacrament figured in Manna For as Manna gathered in vnequall quantity was alwayes found in equall measure euen so here a little Hoast applied and compared to a great one is found equall for that in both the body of our Sauiour is as great in the one as in the other and which is more admirable it is one and the same body So as the equalitie is not onely by reason of equall taking but of the selfe-same thing in number to wit the body of our Sauiour all whole receiued of euery one We also admire Exod. 13.21 as a meruailous relation in another kinde that the Cloud the Pillar and the fiery Tongues representing the holy Ghost Ioan. 3.22 Act. 2.3 were all one thing Let vs admire that the visible formes distinct in themselues referred to the body of our Sauiour make one Sacrament Let vs admire that according to diuers relations Eue was a sprout of Adam and in a manner as his daughter being extracted from his body and notwithstanding in another respect his wife and that our Sauiour was Sonne of the Virgin by reason of his Humanity and Father of the selfe-same Virgin in regard of his Diuinitie If we admire these things certainly vnderstanding the relations which are in this Sacrament of a great body to one so little of the members one to another in so little a space and of them all to the visible accidents we haue whereat to wonder and in our wonder to magnifie the power of almighty God 13. ADMIRABLE ACTIONS OF THE body of our Sauiour THe actions of the body of our Sauiour 5 is heere diuinely admirable for it nourisheth without being disgested it nourisheth not as corruptible meats for a little space of time but for euer to immortality For it soweth in the body the seed by which it shall be one day inabled merise gloriously and the presence of this body giues vertue of nourishing to the accidents which they cannot do naturally without substance This deified body mounts yet more high for it nourisheth the Spirit and workes in the Spirit a prerogatiue denied to all other bodies so that as it is heere present after the maner of a Spirit it hath the operation of a Spirit and penetrates the Soule by his action beautifieth it illuminateth it makes it chast and ingraues in it other spirituall ornaments If the tree of Life renewing the body and Manna changing the taste were admirable in their actions how much more the body of our Sauiour in respect of the action it hath in this Sacrament For they worked not but vpon the body but this body worketh vpon body and soule and that not onely to immortality but also to eternall felicitie as we haue said 14. THE BODY OF OVR SAVIOVR impassible THe body of our Sauiour in this Sacrament endures not any hurt although it may be iniured by vngodly soules that take it vnworthily or by the wickednesse of Infidels which doe iniury the outward signes where with it is cloathed as the King with his Royall roabe The impassibility of Manna resisting the fier Sap. 16.17 and the not cortupting thereof on the Sabbath which putrified on other dayes Exod. 3.3 the impassibility of
the Bush not consuming though it was all compassed with the flame the impassibilitie of the garments of the Hebrewes which endured whole the space of forty yeeres in the Deserts Dâ—ut 29.5 without being wasted or euer mended all these impassibilities were admirable but that of the body of our Sauiour was most wontierfull of all For all these things at the last ended in corruption was none at all but in this nothing happeneth or can happen to the body of our Sauiour but onely to the visible signe for howsoeuer the Hoast be diuided into many parts the body for all that still remaineth vndiuided and whole in euery part as the face for example is seenâ— whole in euery peece of a broken glasse The stomack disgesteth the formes but disgesteth not the body if the formes vanish away in one place the body ceaseth to be there but it is found in other places wheresoeuer the eternall Sacrament remaineth The formes may bee burnt in the fier gnawne of beasts troden vnder-foot but the body is alwayes impassible free from hurt and corruption and retaining alwayes its owne glory and immortality 15. THE SACRAMENT IS IN MANY places at one and the same time THe place of earthly Paradise was most beautifull as hath bin said and it cannot be denied but the dwelling of Adam was delightfull and both the one and the other admirable especially in respect of the Tree of Life Heere the second Adam is in this Sacrament as hid in the shadow of his Paradise he alone being both the Tree of life and the Paradise of soules whose Spouse he also is and euery thing is heere more admirable Our Sauiour is heere and he is also in heauen He is in heauen as in his Kingdome occupying place as other bodies doe after a naturall manner he is heere after a supernaturall manner lodged in a little roome answerable to the quantity of the formes vnder which he is conforming thereby his greatnesse to our littlenesse his power to our weaknesse Howbeit his body is nothing lessened by the littlenesse of the place but remaines as great as it was on the Crosse Who can see this without the eyes of faith who can also comprehend how in one selfesame instant he is found on diuers Altars in diuers Countries and both in earth and in heauen Truely no body but euery faithfull Christian beleeues it though hee cannot comprehend it because the Scripture teacheth it it is the Scripture which saith Our Sauiour gaue his body to his Apostles saying Maâ—â— 2â— Mark 14. 〈◊〉 22. This is my body from which antecedent it solloweth that it was in diuers places in one and the self same instant it was in his naturall place naturally and sacramentally in as many other places as there were Apostles that receiued it it ought then to bee beleeued though humane iudgement cannot vnderstand it 〈◊〉 Coâ— â—2 2 Saint Paul assures vs as knowing it that he was rauished into the third heauen and notwithstanding he confesseth he could not comprehend in what manner whether it were in body and in soule or onely in soule and we beleeue that which he saith though it seeme difficult to vs. Our Sauiour saith to many Take this is my body by consequence he saith that it is in diuers places shall we then not beleeue it because our capacity cannot comprehend it Shall we measure the worke of God by the reach of our vnderstanding and take the Scepter out of his powerfull hand to giue the more credit to the infirmitie of our iudgement Saint Paul could not vnderstand how he had been rauished Was he not therefore rauished at all And we lesse know how he was rauished Do we therefore not beleeue it And it we know that one selfesame voice in one selfesame moment entreth whole and entire into ten thousand eares and that our soule is eutirely all in diuers parts of our bodies that Abacuck was in one selfesame howre in Babylon Abacut â—an 14 36. and in Iudea places distant one from another more then an hundred leagues wherefore should wee make difficulty to beleeue heere what the Word of God assirmeth We see daily that the Starres which are in the midst of heauen are in foure and twenty howres in all places of heauen which is more then if a birde flying round about the earth should twentie or thirty times in one halfe quarter of an howre bee both in the East and in the West and in all the places which are betweene these two spaces should wee thinke that the power of God is abridged so as it cannot make his bodie to be in diuers places Beleeue then Christian soules the Word of your omnipotent God and with faith admire in this act his admirable power 16. THE BODY OF OVR SAVIOVR aboue the Lawes of Time TIme passeth by succession and rules all heere in this world but when God created the world the Time began without precedence of Time and succeeded not to Time so as then it simply began The same God at his pleasure hath bridled Time and hindered it from consuming the things that were subiect to Time The garments of the Hebrewes were all kept whole as it hath been said Dent. 29.5 the space of forty yeeres in despight of deuouring Time The little pot of Meale and the vessell of Oyle of the Widow 3. Kings 17.14 who nourished Helias endured many months which could haue sufficed but one day Manna corrupted in foure and twentie howres and held good eight forty howres when the next day was the Sabbath and endured for many ages being kept within the Arke in a golden pot Hebr. 9.4 These workes were admirable but our Sauiour shewes himselfe in his Sacrament much more admirable then in those workes his body is present in the Hoast so soone as the words of Consecration are ended and that in a moment without requiring any precedent time euen as the world was made without any precedence of Time The presence of this body coutinueth by verrue of this Word as in vertue of the same the production of creatures continued and shall continue euen to the end of Time Doth not our Redeemer then shew himselfe herein the Master of Nature 17. THE ADMIRABLE SITVATION OF the body of our Sauiour in the blessed Sacrament VVEE haue heere aboue touched the admirable situation of the body of our Sauiour in this Sacrament and the more we thinke thereof the more occasion we haue to admire Gods power and to confesse our insufficiency in this point as in others All the members are heere distinct the one from the other hauing their proper reference amongst them howsoeuer it be with the accidents of bread and wine Shall we not then admire the greatnesse of God making such a distinction of members retaining their quantity in so little a space in inclosing them in a little point and yet leauing to them the largenesse of their dimensions and capacities And
TOWARDS GOD AND towards our neighbour encreased by this Sacrament IF liberalitie drawes hearts if the table makes friends and if loue begets loue what person will shew himselfe so rusticall and frozen as not to be allured by this infinit goodnesse not to be gained by this feast not to be inslamed with this fier in the frequentation of this diuine Sacrament What soule I say will not be wholly inflamed with the loue of her Redeemer feeling her selfe so delitiously feasted by him so tenderly embraced of him and so straitely vnited with him Whom will shee loue if shee loue not this goodnesse With whom wilshee make amitie if shee make it not with so liberall a Spouse And of whom shall shee be amorous if shee be not enamored of so feruent a friend and louer And then if shee loue faithfully this her Spouse and attentiuely consider the nature of this Mariage and Feast it cannot bee but shee must also loue forthwith her neighbours and her Christian brethren for the loue of her Spouse when shee shall see how they are likewise beloued of him and called to the same Feast and made members of one and the selfe-same body with her For to signifie this mutuall amity he himselfe is ginen in meate and drinke vnder the likenesse of bread and wine which are made of many graines and of many grapes as wee haue said elsewhere And truely the Apostle to exhort the maried holily to loue their wiues â—â—bes 5.25 drawes his most forcible argument from this mystery as being the example of a perfect mariage and of a perfect loue From the mariage I say of Iesus Christ with his Church to whom he liberally giues himselfe and with whom he is vnited by these two most straite bonds of a Spouse and of Meate For which reason also the Eucharist hath alwaies been an Embleme of vnion peace and charity And for signification whereof it was an ancient custome to giue the kisse of peace in the Masse from whence came afterward the ceremony of kissing the Pax which is still in vse Behold then how this soueraigne goodnesse drawes vs by this Sacrament as well to his owne loue as also to the loue of our neighbour 23. OF THE WISDOME OF GOD IN this same Mysterie LEt vs now see some workes of the diuine Wisdome in this his Sacrament for it is so well ordered as it is easie to perceiue that it is shee which is the Mistresse and chiese doer therein According whereunto the Scripture also saith Wisdome hath built her a House Prou. 9.1 shee hath cut out seuen Pillars shee hath immolated her victime mingled her wine and set foorth her table This House is the Church these seuen Pillars are the seuen Sacraments the wine mingled is the pretious bloud of our Sauiour and the meat of this table the sacred Manna of his flesh and so haue the ancient Fathers explained it and namely S. Cyprian S. Cyprian cpist 63. ad Cecil dâ— Sacer. Calicis lib. 2. aducrs Iudeos â— 2. Now as humane wisdome shewes it selfe in well ordaining well comprising and well instructing for these are the true effects of a wise vnderstanding so the diuine Wisdome maketh her selfe appeare in this Sacrament by the same meanes A wise Orator shewes himselfe in the orderly method of his discourse A wise Captaine in well ranking an armie a wise Architect in well ioyning the parts of the building and so of other wise worke men A wise Musition in setting many parts of Mâ—â—ick and vniting them together with a sweete and well a greeing harmony Mirmerides was admired for his and aâ—trious wisdome when he made that so much renowned Chariot of foure wheeles 〈◊〉 l. 35 c. 10. which the wing of a Fly did couer and that wonderfull ship stored with Masts Pun. 16. with Sayles with Roaps with Ankors with Rudder and with all other tacklings which the wing of a Bee might also couer But aboue all Wisdome shewes her selfe in the good and effectuall teaching of euery Science or Vertue and this is her most high title In all these kindes the diuine Wisdome shineth foorth most brightly in this Sacrament Her ordinance heere is admirable For what goodlier order can one desire then to haue drawne so many faire Figures from time to time and to haue at the last inspired and breathed as it were the life of Truth into those ancient lineaments giuing in a Law most perfect a Sacrament full of all perfection a Sacrament of charity in a Law of loue and preparing for the nuptialls of our humane nature with the Sonne of God a nuptiall feast of the flesh of God His Wisdome is heere yet more admirable in combining for this combination surpasseth all wonder for God and Nature are heere combined Heere is the body of the Sonne of God by vertue of his omnipotent Word his soule as inseparable from the body his Diuinity as vnited vnto them both and by consequence the Father and the holy Ghost and all the holy Senate it selfe of this blessed Trinity are heere assembled All the wonders of Nature are heere comprised as hath been said All the soules and bodies of the faithfull are heere conioyned in one as many cornes in one loafe Maub 24.28 S. Chrâ—ost bom 4. in 1. Cor. 10. and many grapes in one cup of wine gathered together like vnto so many diuine Eagles about the body of their King saith Chrysostome But what diuine wisdome was it to haue prepared this diuine morsell so conformable to the infirmity and capacity of our weake nature vnder the taste and feeling of bread and wine meat and drinke of all other the most familiar to vs. 24. GODS DIVINE WISDOME IN teaching of this high Mystery THe last and most liuely tract of Wisdome is to teach effectually And what greater wisdome can be shewed therein then to haue giuen heere the meanes to learne to encrease and fortifie both faith and charity the one the foundation and the other the crowne of Christian vertue For eating this morsell we receiue an Earnest of immortality and as the Church singeth A pledge of future glory And it cannot bee but that by the presence of so braue a Captaine whom we beleeue firmely to be heere present though inuisible to our sight our courage and heart should much encrease if we be faithfull souldiers For as the wicked spirits fright vs if wee beleeue them to bee present though we see them not with onâ— bodily eyes So contrariwise and with more reason we grow confident and as it were are lifted vp to heauen by the assured presence of our Sauiour Heere moreouer wee learne Religion the most noble Pearle of Christian Iustice whereby we honor God doing him the homage of Soueraigne worship due to his Maiestie alone which heere is done with soueraigne preparation For first heere is offered a Sacrifice vnto him which is a worship of supreame acknowledgement incommunicable to all other but to God a Sacrifice
his Law Whilest I speake the good old man sleepes still and thinks neither of eating nor drinking nor of any meanes to free him from danger Wherefore the Angell shakes him the second time â— â—eg 15.7 and waking him aduises him to take some refection and be packing If you please to expect vntill he rise you shall see him gift with a great leather girdle in a dusty Cassock reaching to the mid-legge couered also with a little mantle flying in the ayre and when he is vp hee will not faile with all speed to obey the words of the Angell and to get him as farre as he can from the fury and reach of the Queene Behold he is now risen and walketh on a pace towards the Mountaine of Horeb. 1. THE BREAD OF ELIAS FIGVRE OF the Sacrament of the Altar THe Bread of Elias was for certaine a Figure of our Sacrament and of many mysteries hidden in it Wee haue said elsewhere that in the Scripture as well in the old as in the new Bread signifieth generally the body of our Sauiour for so much as it is giuen in meat for the sustenance of our soules and the immortality of our bodies So Ieremie speaking of the body of our Sauiour Ier. 11. saith in the person of the Iewes resolued in their Councell to crucifie him Lay the wâ—â—d on his bread that is to say giue the torments of the Crosse to his body Tertul. l. 4. cont Marâ— as the ancient Fathers haue explained it and the Sonne of God said of himselfe I am the Bread of heauen In this generall sense then Iohn 6. the Bread of Elias did Figure this body and this meate But more partiularly in that it was wonderfull in all its causes effects and circumstances which are so many Lineaments drawne vpon the old Figure for a liuely representation of the truth which should follow after First then this Bread was sent from God by the seruice of an Angel this â— accomplished in the Sacrament for it is giuen vs from God specially by the ministery of the Priest Malach. 1.2.7 S. Dâ—anil l. 〈…〉 12. who is called the Angell of God in Scripture because that after the manner of Angell he teacheth others saith S. Dionise of Areopagita for as the superiour Angells enlighten the inferiours by their knowledge so the Priests communicate their doctrine to the inferiour members of the Church of God S. 〈◊〉 iâ—id Angell also according vnto Saint Hierom because he is a Mediator betweene God and man and declareth to the people the will of God Finally Angell of God saith Saint Chrysostom S. Chry2ost hom â— in 2. Tim. 1. because he speaketh not of himselfe but as sent from God It is then this Angell that consecrateth our bread by the Word of God that maketh it flesh by his power and distributeth it by his commission Secondly this Bread of Elias was bread of Wheat for if it had been of other matter the Scripture would haue specified it And it was Bread fashioned into a cake after the forme of loaues baked on the cinders This is also accomplished in our Sacrament for this is the matter and that the forme of our Hoasts which are of Wheate the Sacrament and the admirable Cakes of the Messias of which mention was made a little before but what doth the Scripture signifie by saying that this Bread was baked vnder the imbers 2. WHAT MEANETH THE SCRIPTVRE in signifying that the Bread of Elias was baked vnder the imbers THough we know not how this Bread was baked vnder the imbers by the Angell wee beleeue notwithstanding that it was so baked for the Scripture saith it and because it saith nothing without cause there is no doubt but vnder the hollow of these imbers there lye hidden some mysteries appertaining to our Sacrament These mysteries are three amongst many others which such as are more spirituall may obserue The one is that it puts vs in minde of our Sauiours charity The imbers are the remainder of fier and heate past this Bread then baked vnder the hot imbers mingled with liue coales did Figure our Sacrament true memoriall instituted by Iesus Christ and commanded to be celebrated in his memory Luke 22.19 and in a recordation of his loue and death And therefore it is the true Bread baked vnder the imbers that is to say prepared with the burning coales of his Charity of which it is a memoriall as also of that which he endured for vs. The second mystery taught in this baking is the great humility of the Sonne of God in this Sacrament the imbers being a thing of small value or none at all and therefore Hieroglyfick of basenesse and of humiliation as the naturall Ceremony of all Nations teacheth vs vsing them in this signification So Abraham out of humility Genes 18. calleth himselfe dust and â—shes and abaseth himselfe vnder the name of these things Also the Hebrewes of Bethulia Iudith 7.4 beseeching the diuine Maiesty to succour them in humility cast ashes vpon their heads So the Pagan King of Niniuy humbled himselfe rising from his throne Iohn 3.6 and sitting vpon ashes The Bread then baked vnder the ashes is Iesus Christ true Bread of heauen humbled and abased humbled not onely in making himselfe man in marrying his Maiesty with the infirmity of our nature and in enduring the torments and reproaches of the Crosse but also in giuing himselfe as meate to his creatures vnder the Figure and habite of these weake and meane elements of bread and wine in giuing himselfe after the manner of a thing dead and insensible in giuing himselfe to be eaten and swallowed downe of poore sinners All these degrees of humility represented in ashes are heere persormed and practised in this Sacrament With good reason then was it figured by such a notable signe of great humility as were the imbers on which was baked the Bread of Elias The third mystery is that hereby are signified the many mysteries of this Sacrament hidden vnder the formes of bread and wine as vnder imbers mysteries of the loue and greatnesse of God and of the adminâ—bâ—â— effects of this meat which deuout soules may more easily seâ—â—e then I can expresse And as the great Maâ—esâ—y of our Sauiour walking visibly vpon the earth was câ—uered vnder the cloake of our humanity his almighty power wâ—sdome and bounty effecting the worke of our â—â—cemption by the sâ—eblenesse folly and ignominy of the 〈◊〉 Fuâ—â— so in this Sacrifice he couereth the glory of his body vnder the veyle of these signes and cinders of 〈◊〉 and makes the hand of supreme vertue woâ—â—e iâ—â—sbly for the support and health of our soules and bodies 3. WHAT SIGNIFIETH THE SLEEPE of Elias vnder the shadow of the luniper tree THe diuine hand of God hath by other Lineaments and colours no lesse admirably painted forth the three former mysteries many others in another corner of this table where you see
Elias sleeping in the shade of the Iuniper tree for herein we see our Sauiour sleeping on the Crosse and acknowledge the memory of his passion the greatest signe of his loue and humility and the most high secret of this Sacrament of his pretious body Plin. l. 16. c. 24. Pâ—in l. 16. c. 25. The Iuniper commonly is a little shrubbe growing in sandy and barren places void of all exteriour beaute hauing for slowers and leaues nothing but sharpe prickles Elias sleepes tyred and weary in the shade of this shrub Is not this a liuely representation of our Sauiour vexed with torments crowned with thornes sleeping a dead sleepe vpon the Crosse Tree of humility shadowing his greatnesse punishment of 〈◊〉 coâ—ering his innocency â—â—ce of thornes paine and pouerty Are not these the markes of the course of the painefull life of our good King and of his dolefull sleepe Moreouer the selfe-same circumstances set forth to vs the qualities of our Sacrament being a memoriall of his life and death for if wee consider it exteorly it shewes nothing but what is little easie without fruit without flowers and without beauty to the sense and all full of thornes to humane iudgement which is backward to beleeue the things which it sindes to bee repagnant to our capacity and as it were pricked and offended therewith as long since it happened to the Capharnaâ—ts Iohn 6. and other children of darknesse which since that time â—â—â—ef â—lowed after them On the otherside the same tree is â—â—â—r greene his thornes are his leaues and beauty the wood being burnt driueth away Serpents Pliâ— l. 24. c. â— and the coale thereof haue such a liuely and burning heate that they will endâ—â—e a whole yeare vnder the ashes For which reason Daâ—â—id calleth them Coales of desolation Psal 119.4 because they bâ—â—ne scorchingly and consume forcibly These qualities doe secretly paint vnto vs the inward vertue and beauty of the Crosse of our Sauiour and of his Sacrament For all that which appeares there repugnant to sensuality is verdure and beauty to the faithful soule as also a proofe of the omnipotencie and loue of Iesus Christ towards vs. The wood of this Crosse and of this Sacrament which is it that appeareth hardest in the one and in the other being burned in meditation with the heauenly fier of which Dauid said The fier shall burne in my meditation being Psal 8.3 I say set a sier by this meditation chaseth away Sernents that is to say the wicked thoughts which the old Serpent hisseth into our soule to poyson and sting vs to death It eagendereth also in vs coales of charity which being hidden vnder the imbers of humility neuer die Thus you 〈◊〉 the Iuniper decyphered But vnder the shadow of this Iuniper Elias slept that is the Christian soule taketh his rest in meditating vpon the Sacrament of the Altar which is the shadow that is to say the memorial of the death of our Sauiour as hath been said for as the shadow represents the body so the Sacrament represents the Passion and as the body is present with the shadow so is our Sauiours body with the holy Sacrament 4. ELIAS HIS WALKE AFTER THE SHAdow of the Iuniper tree to the Mountaine Horeb and of the water that was giuen him with the bread VNder this shadow truely wee ought to repose our selues in the wearisomnesse of our persecutions as Elias slept vnder the figuring shadow of this tree when he fled from the rage of Iezabel For there is not any where a more sweete and sound rest amidst the trauailes of this painfull life then in receiuing his body to meditate vpon his death Which Dauid by the Spirit of Prophecy taught vs of olde saying to God in the person of euery afflicted Christian Psal 22.5 Thou hast preyared in my sight a Table against them that trouble me And therefore the Angell as it were interpreting the Figure awaketh Elias and exhorts him to eate the Bread figuring this Table the which he doth and there with is so well refreshed that hee takes strength and courage to walke forty dayes and forty nights enen to the Mountaine of God freeing himselfe from the persecution of the Queene Where we haue yet two other mysteries in the Figure appertaining to the truth For this space of forty dayes signifieth the painefulnesse of our mortall pilgrimage diuided into foure ages as into foure tens into Infancy Yong age Mans age and Old age consisting of dayes and nights of good and euill of consolation and persecution The walke of Elias continued euen to Horeb signifieth the progresse which is conuenient for vs to make ascending by holy desires and aspirations and by good works euen to the top of Christian perfection according to the measure of the grace of God communicated to euery one and from this toppe to zoare vp with a victorious flight aboue death and the world to the high Mountaine of our celestiall felicity But now in this pilgrimage our true Bread and sustenance is the body of our Sauiour giuen by his Angell to wit by his Priest as hath been said 5. THE SIGNIFICATION OF THE pot of Water BVT what signifieth the pot of Water giuen with this bread surely nothing else but the grace of God giuen with this Sacrament for so it was figured by the Creator himselfe when he promised it by his Prophet Ezechiel saying I will powre out vpon you cleane water to wit his Grace and our Sauiour crieth in the Temple Ezech. 36 25. Iohn 7.37 If any man thirst let him come to me and drinke speaking of the same Grace It is this water which is giuen vs to refresh our wearinesse which giues vs force and makes vs able to ascend with ease the Mountaine of God that we may so obtaine the possession of heauen Who would haue thought at the first show that in the shadow of this Figure these excellent mysteries were hidden And how many more be there that a contemplatiue soule might heere obserue But are not these sufficient to make vs admire the infinite wisdome of God in the delineation of his secrets His Soueraigne powerfulnesse in the greatnesse of his workes His surpassing bounty in the largenesse of his benefits Truely this was an euident testunony of his most wise prescience to draw so long before such a liuely Picture of the Sacrament of his body a goodly marke of his vertue to haue giuen to Elias Bread of sâ—ch force that it could maintaine life and furnish with strength for forty whole dayes trauell an ouer-trauelled body an euident signe of his great mercy with so fatherly care to defend one of his owne mortall creatures and to send him an immortall Spirit and one of his owne Court to serue him as his Pantler and Cup-bearer in his necessity But what is this in respect of that hee hath done leauing this Sacrament to his militant Church this pretious pledge which is both armour
day as the ancient Figure was for Masse is said euery day The bloud is set vpon the Altar and offered to God in the Masse The flesh of the body of our Sauiour likewise is there eaten both by Priests and Lay people who in quality of Christians and faithfull people are all in some sort accounted Priests and Kings as Saint Peter calls them 1. Pet. 2.9 And for so much as they prepare themselues duely before they communicate by Penance and other workes of Piety they are male children of the Priestly Line as hauing manly and not effeminate soules though they be women and yong Virgins This flesh is eaten in a holy place that is to say in the house of God which is the Catholike Church and ordinarily in the place of Sacrifice and Prayer and if the sick eate it in their priuate houses it is alwaies in the circuit of the house of God And this flesh sanctifieth those who eat it purely and without being defiled with any mortall sinne 4. WHAT DIFFERENCE THERE IS BEtweene the Iudaicall Propitiatory Sacrifices and Sacraments and those of Christians THe Sacrifices of the Iewes offered for sinnes were Propitiatory and obtained pardon not by any vertue that wasin them for as Saint Paul saith Heb. 10. It is impossible that sinnes should be taken away by the bloud of Bulls and of Goats but by the Religion and piety of those which offered them protesting by them the faith and hope that they had in the Messias to come Iesus Christ After this manner God promised them grace saying of the deuout man Heuit â— Hee shall offer Sacrifice and the Priest shall pray for him and his sinne shall be forgiuen him They were then auaileable and obtained pardon by the faith and vertue of the Offerers who were acceptable to God but not of themselues sauing onely in Figure whereas the Sacrifice of the Eucharist which is the truth of them all containeth and giâ—â—â—h grace as doe all the Sacraments of the Law of Grace 〈◊〉 hauing beene instituted by the Author of Grace 〈◊〉 Christ and by the Mâ—ster himselfe in person and 〈◊〉 the mediation of Moses his seruant and the price of our redemption being paid in his pretious bloud it was but reason that they should haue in them the vertue which the former figured and that seeing the money was now paid in they should giue truely and indeed remission of sinnes Wherefore the Christians Sacraments doe giue grace of themselues and by their proper operation in vertue of the prerogatiue giuen to them by our Sauiour and hee which receiues them with good disposition receiueth profit by two wayes to wit by the Sacrament which he receiues and by his owne deuotion which hee brings with him whereas the Hebrewes had none but onely by the second way Their Sacraments were beneficiall as was the brazen Serpent in the Desart 〈◊〉 21. for it was not by its owne proper vertue that it did heale the biting of Serpents but from the faith of those which did behold it according as God had commanded it seruing onely for a signe to behold with their eyes and for an obiect of their faith in God by whom they were to be cured But ours are healthfull in the nature of a pretious Triacle against poyson which hath in it selfe the efficacy and strength of a soueraigne medicine and so entring into a prepared stomacke worketh a soueraigne effect for the health of the body In like manner the Sacraments of the Law of Iesus Christ haue in themselues vertue to saue as Baptisme Penance and other Sacraments instituted for the remission of sins wash sinnes out of the soule and bring grace by their very action it selfe And principally the Eucharist containing the Creator of Grace Iesus Christ The other Sacraments hauing onely the fruit this is both the Tree and the Apples The others giuing flowing streames but this the Fountaine it selfe The Eucharist also in as much as it is a Sacrifice obtaines pardon of the Diuine bounty for him for whom it is offered For the body of Christ is so precious in Gods sight and God hath been so much glorified by it that it cannot bee presented to him vpon the Altar but it will procure fauour and grace especially the chiefe presenter being the proper person of his Sonne himselfe in whom he is well pleased and to whom he can deny nothing the Priests are but the visible Vicars and Mediators of the action The Gift and the Giuer the Offering and the Offerer is one and the same infinitely agreeable to the eyes of the diuine Maiesty The Eucharist then is a Propitiatory Sacrifice figured by that of the Iewes in the manner as hath been said 5. TESTIMONIES OF THE ANCIENT FAthers both Latine and Greeke teaching the Sacrifice of the Masse to bee a Propitiatory Sacrifice SAint AVGVSTINE By many ancient Sacrifices S. Aug. ep 57. which were offered for sinne this Sacrifice was signified which giueth indeed true remission of sinnes The bloud of which Sacrifice not onely is not forbidden as in those of the Law but presented to all the world and all are inuited to drinke it And in his booke of the City of God he writeth S. Aug. l. 20. de Ciuit. Deic 25. That in the Church Sacrifices are offered for sinne and shall bee vntill the day of Iudgement but not after because then there shall be none to whom sinnes can be remitted And in a Sermon which he hath made of the Innocents speaking of the Altar where Priests say Masse Idem Serm. de Innocent There saith he is powred foorth the bloud of Iesus Christ for sinners Saint AMBROSE speaking of the Eucharist Iesus Christ offereth himselfe as Priest for the remission of our sins S. Ambros lib. 1. Offic. cap. 48. And in his Exhortations to Virgins he calleth that which is offered on the Altar An healthfull Hoast Idem in Exhort ad Vâ—g by the which the sinnes of the world are taken away Saint CYPRIAN S. Cyprian de Coeâ—â— Dem. in a Scrmon saith That the Eucharist is an Holocaust for the purging of our iniquities Saint HIEROME S. Hieroâ—an c. 1 â—pist ad â—it If men command the Lay people to abstaine from the company of their wiues that they may pray the better what ought men to thinke of the Bishop which offers to God euery day the Victims without spot for his own sins and the sinnes of the people Saint CHRYSOSTOME S. Chrysost lib 6. 〈…〉 The Priest as Embassadour and Oratour makes intercession to God for all to the end to make him mercifull not onely to the sinnes of the liuing but also of the departed And in his Lyturgie or forme of saying Masse Idem in Lyturg. H. stâ—a 〈…〉 3. in ep ad â—pâ—â— he prayes to God thus Make vs fit to present to thee gifts and Sacrifices for our sinnes and for the ignorances of the people and oftentimes calleth the Eucharist
an healthfull Hoast And Saint BASIL also in his Masse S. Basil in Lyâ—â—rg initio Make vs worthy saith he praying to God to present our selues before thee with a cleane heart and to serue thee and offer this venerable Sacrifice for the blotting out of our sinnes and the malice of the people Saint IAMES in his S. Iam. in Lyâ—â—rg Wee offer this vnbloudy Sacrifice to thee for our sinnes and the ignorances of the people Saint IVSTIN MARTYR S. Iustin â—ial Cont. Tâ—â—pho writes That the Sacrifice of the Doue which men did offer for the Leaprous in the Law of Moyses was the Figure of the Eucharist offered for the purgation of sinnes Saint CYRIL of Hierusalem S. Cyril Hier os â—atech Miâ—lâ—â— 5. Wee offer Iesus Christ slaine for our sinnes to the end to make him mercifull to vs and to others who is most benigne and grations In conclusion all the Catholike Doctors Latine and Greeke are of the same faith and speake the same Language and call the Sacrifice of the Masse the true and only Sacrifice of Christians instituted by Iesus Christ for the obtaining from God remission of sinnes the Sacrifice of the Crosse is not the Sacrifice of Christians though it be the foundation of Christian Religion for the Christians neither can offer it our Sauiour being now immortall nor desire to offer it for so much as they should be like to the Iewes which crucified him It is the Eucharist which is the sole and proper sacrifice of Christians ordained for a memoriall of that of the Crosse and to apply the merite thereof And as Baptisme Confirmation and the other Sacraments as Sacraments remit sinne in the vertue of the Sacrifice of the Crosse so the Eucharist as a Sacrifice applieth to vs remission of sinnes gained vpon the Crosse and after this manner is a propitiatory Sacrifice This Doctrine is according to God and according to reason For since Iesus Christ is Priest eternally Psal 109. according to the order of â—â—â—lchisedech the Sacrifice instituted by him according to that order which is that of the Masse and no other must needs be Propitiatory because it is the essentiall office of a Priest to offer for sinne as Saint Paul writes 〈…〉 For euery High Priest taken from among men is appointed for men in those things that pertaine to God that hee may offer gifts and sacrifice for sinnes Iesus Christ then as Priest offereth hâ—nselfe in this Sacrifice for our sinnes and hee doth it by the ministry of Priests his Vicars euen as by them he teacheth baptiseth confirmeth and exerciseth the other offices and holy functions of our Doctor and Redeemer Iâ— standeth with reason also seeing that Prayer Almes Fasting Penance and other actions of Piety bee honorable and pleasing to God appease his wrath and obtaine of him remission of faults committed that this Sacrifice which is the greatest honor that the Church can present to God and the most diuine of all other holy actions should haue force to appease him and gaine his Grace Moyses Exod. 3â— 3â— Dan. 4 2â— Moyses obtained pardon for many thousand of sinners Daniel did counsell the King of Babylon to redeeme his sinnes by Alms. These works then were Propitiatory how should not then the Sacrifice of the body of the Sonne of God offered by the same his Sonne and by his members in supreme worship of his Maiesty be so The enemy of mankinde hath he not been extreamely enuious and malitious that would take away this beleese from the soules of the children of God and such as haue beleeued his deceits against the honor of God and against the Doctrine of his Church Are they not miserably bewitched and altogether vnworthy to haue remission of their faults 6. AFTER WHAT MANNER THE SACRIfice of the Masse and the Sacraments remit sinne since that of the Crosse is our whole redemption BVT if the Sacrifice of the Crosse bee our whole redemption and the infinite price paid for all our sins and of a thousand sinfull worlds if there had been so many how say we that the Sacrifice of the Masse the Sacraments and good workes are propitiatory I answere that the Sacrifice of the Crosse is the Fountaine head of our saluation the Sacrifice of the Masse and Sacraments are the Riuers by which the merits of the Crosse flow into our soules and without which this merit should be vnfruitfull to vs. Baptisme is one of these Riuers so is Consirmation and the other Sacraments The Sacrifice of the Masse is one of them also and by them the Crosse imparteth saluation but to no other sauing only to Christians For Turkes and Pagans doe not receiue any fruit because they haue not any Sacrament nor Sacrifice by which they may open the doore to come to this Merit and make flow into them the waters of Redemption and of health The Crosse to them is a Fountaine stopped an Orchard inclosed a Treasure locked vp because they neither haue the Conduit-pipe nor the entry nor the Key by which they may be partakers thereof The Masse therefore is no more a new redemption then the Sacraments as that of the Crosse was but an excellent meanes to apply the redemption which was made on the Crosse The Sacraments are meanes in their kinde The Eucharist hath the Prâ—uiledge to doe it both as a Sacrifice and as a Sacrament Good workes are good and Propitiatory not of themselues but because they are founded vpon the Crosse and without this stay they are vnprofitable to eternall life Wherefore the Sacraments the Sacrifice of the Masse good workes godly actions and all Christian Religion take life force and vertue from the Crosse The Sacraments are the Conduit-pipes the good workes the fruites the Eucharist is the great Key The Sacraments profit and are Propitiatory onely to those which receiue them in good disposition Baptisme remits sinne onely to him that is baptized Penance to him which doth it and so of the rest The Eucharist as a Sacrament giueth grace onely to him which communicates but as a Sacrifice it profits all those for whom it is offered as well for that it is a most noble action made with a generall and most effectuall Prayer as also by reason of the present it makes to God and is therefore a generall meanes to appease him by offering him the body of his Sonne who hath paid all and for all and therefore is able to obtaine all Wherefore if Masse bee said for the Iust it procures them encrease of grace and vertue to perseuer therein if for repentant sinners it obtaines them pardon if for the impenitent it obtaines them repentance if for Infidels it obtaineth their conuersion and so it profits all the liuing If it be applied to the Saints departed it honors them if for those which are in Purgatory it diminisheth their paines But what if you obiect Masse is offred for many which notwithstanding remaine obstinate in their wickednesse I
and ancient Doctor Iesus Christ saying This is my body sheweth that the bread sanctified vpon the Altar is his body and not the Figure of it seeing that he saith not this is the Figure of my body but This is my body for it is thansformed in an explicable manner though outwardly it seemeth bread Saint AMBROSE S. Ambros de Sacr. l. 5. c. 4. 5. It is the word of Christ which made this Sacrament by which Word all hath been made Our Lord commanded and the earth was made seest thou then how working his Word is If then his Word hath been so mighty as it made that to be which was nothing before how much more easy will it be vnto him to change one thing into another the bread before consecration is bread but after the vttering of these words This is my body it is the body of Christ Heare him saying This is my body take you all and eate of this It is Iesus our Lord which testifieth that wee receiue his body and his bloud shall we doubt of his fidelity or testimony Saint CYPRIAN This saith our Lord is my body S. Cyp. de cun Dom. They had according to the visible forme eaten of the same bread and drunke of the same wine But before these words that food was onely for the nourishment of the body and to giue strength to the corporall life but after that Iesus Christ had said Doe yee this in remembrance of me This is my flesh The forme of Consecration are these words THIS IS MY BODY This is my bloud as often times as the same words are pronounced with the same faith this substantiall bread and this consecrated Chalice with solemne benedicton hath been profitable for the health of the whole man He teacheth then that the words of our Sauior are vnderstood according as they do signifie and that they are the forme by which the bread and the wine are consecrated into the body and bloud of our Sauiour Saint AVGVSTINE writing the ancient enstome of Christians who did answer Amen S. August l. 22. cont Faust c. 10. in Psal 33. Concil 1. after that the Priest had vttered the words of Consecration This is my body this is my bloud saith thus The bloud of Christ giueth a cleare voice on earth then when as the Christians hauing receiued answered Amen It is the cleare voice of bloud that the bloud it selfe pronounceth by the mouth of the faithfull receiued by that bloud The same Author elsewhere Iesus saith hee carried himselfe in his hands when recommending his body he said This is my body It was then according to the literall sense of the Word the body of our Sauiour Saint ANSELME S. Anselm in 1. Cor. 11. expounding the selfe-same clauses maketh Iesus Christ to speak thus Eate this that I giue you because it is my body It plainly appeares bread to the outward senses but acknowledge by the sense of faith that this is my body the same in substance that shall be giuen for you to death This is the Exposition of the ancient Fathers and there hath neuer been any Doctor of the Catholike Church which gaue to these words This is my body other sense then these heere doe giue And this is the meaning of Iesus Christ and whosoeuer followeth any other he is gone out of the Schoole of Christ Iesus taking a lye for truth and damnation for food of eternall life 5. MYSTICALL REFERENCES OF OVR Sauiours words THIS IS MY BODY to the ancient Figures and to all other bodies THis is my body saith our Sauiour We haue said something vpon these words but it is nothing in comparison of that which may yet be said they are cleare but yet they are full of hidden meanings They alone containe the old and new Testament and flye in signification farre aboue the height of heauen more profound then the depthes of the Ocean and more in widenesse then is the compasse of the world in sweetenesse they surmount all the hony and milke of the Land of Promise in vertue the power of all men and Angels and in greatnesse the Maiesty of all Kings that euer were vpon the earth The words which made the world out of nothing were great in effect in heauen they made the Starres the Fishes in the sea Gen. 1 in the ayre the Fowles vnder earth the stones and mettells and vpon earth the Plants the Trees the Lions the Elephants and other creatures in number infinite and in beauty admitable but that which our Sauiour saith and in saying effecteth by these words This is my body is more infinite then all that together this body is more then a thousand worlds if so many had been produced The most excellent name of God is the Tetragram expressed vnder the voice Idoney composed of foure letters not to be vttered by the Iewes This clause This is my body it the clause Tetragram wouen of foure words euident to the eares of faith but vnexplanable by the tongue either of man or Angell What shall we say then to expresse the vertue of it And who can or shall expresse it but he who is the Author of these words and mysteries It is he must do it that is the all-knowing Word and all powerfull able to know to say and to doe whatsoeuer he will What said then this great God by these words This is my body He said that it is his body and saying this he said all that is precious admirable and diuine amongst bodies Hee distinguisheth all the bodies that he had euer made or created from his owne and prefetreth it before them all Hee said I haue made the Sunne and the Moone the Starres and all those immortall bodies which on high make the wainscot of my Fathers Pallace but these are not my body neither substances allied to my person these to me are strange bodies This is my body which I haue formed by an extraordinary way in the wombe of an holy Virgin which I haue diuinely appropriated to my greatnesse and which I haue made the habitation of my dignity The other bodies are parts of my possession this heere is the body of my particular person surpassing the excellency of all the bodies long since consecrated to God and were propheticall Figures thereof The Tree of Life planted in the earthly Paradise the Lambe of innocent Abel offered in Sacrifice the bread of Melchi adech giuen in blessing the Sacrifice of Abraham accomplished by rare faith and obedience the Hebrewes Paschall Lambe the Manna from heauen the Loaues of Proposition the First-fruit offerings the bread of Eliah the Sheepe the Lambe the Ewes the Heifers the Beefes the Oxen the Doues the Sparrowes the Turtles and all the bodies of beasts which the Law of Moses set vpon the Altar in Holocaust in action of thanks in Propitiation all the bodies that men haue offred to the Maiesty of my Father haue been sacred bodies the Figures of this my
remission of sinnes and of the Kingdome of heauen Of remission saying This bloud shed for you and for many Luke 22.29 vnto remission of sinnes And of the Heritage he saith I dispose to you as my Father disposed to me a Kingdome that you may eate and drinke vpon my table in my Kingdome and may sit vpon thrones iudging the twelue Tribes of Israel Behold a wonderful sauourable conclusion David making his Will enioyned King Salomon his sonne his sonne 3. Keg 2.7 that he should make the children of Berrellay to eate at his table in token of great honor and friendship but he made them not inheritors of his Kingdome nor sharers of his Royall honors Heere our Sauiour communicates his Table his Kingdome and his Throne to his friends his Table in which is serued for meate and for drinke his proper flesh and bloud it could not be more royall nor more exquisite neither the Heritage greater nobler nor worthyer of such a Testator The Testament was written also with the Law not in Tables of stone as the old but in the hearts of the Apostles and of all those which shall be called to this inheritance after them And this is that which was foretold by Ieremy Hier. 31.32.33 I will giue my Law within their ontrals and will write it in their hearts According to which manner of speech Saint Paul said to the Corinthians You are the Epistle of Christ 2. Cor. 3.3 ministred by vs and writen not with inke but with the Spirit of the liuing God not in tables of stone but in tables of the heart consisting of flesh It was signed by the hand and bloud of the Testator when holding the Chalice and changing the wine to his bloud he said This is my bloud of the new Testament Matth. 26.28 Marke 14.24 The Altar which was our Sauiour himselfe was besprinkled when he tooke it the people Inheritor and the Book was also sprinkled when the Apostles did drinke and did wet their brests which were the tables wherein the Law and the Testament were written The refection of the Victim sacrificed was made betweene the Priest and the people when our Sauiour hauing offered his body to his Father tooke it himselfe and gaue it to his Apostles to eat concluding his eternall Couenant with the refection of his body and with the drinke of his bloud He left a pledge of loue by his Testament and a pretious Iewell of his remembrance when he left this self-same body and this self-same bloud for an eternall memory of his charity towards vs his heires Luke 12.18 saying Doe this in remembrance of me So our Sauiour hauing written and accomplished his Testament according to the draughts of the old Figure died the next day and his Testament shall remaine eternally confirmed by his death O diuine and powerfull work-man O sweet Iesus O great God! What shall we heere amidst so many wonders first admire thy Powerfulnesse thy Wisdome thy Goodnes thy Greatnes thy Prouidence thy sweetnesse thy Liberality altogether or all apart where all is great and admirable together all great and admirable apart What a work-man art thou O Redeemer of the world to haue so long agoe so diuinely drawne the Figure of thy Testament and to accomplish the truth vpon that Figure with so diuine tracts of improuement What a Master art thou to haue left so heauenly instructions and so faire lawes of amity grauen in such liuing tables as are the hearts of thy Disciples What a King to haue made so amiable and honorable a combination with thy poore subiects What a Father of a Family to haue written so fauourable a Testament vnto men and of thy enemies to haue made them thy children and thy heires of so great a Kingdome O Redeemer what were we without this Testament we were eaytifes and vagabonds vnworthy to be supported vpon the earth and worthy of eternall confusion but by it we haue gotten a right to heauen and to immortall glory and nothing remaineth but to take possession and there to reioyce in peace for euer so soone as we shall haue fought the good fight as thy Apostle speakes 2. Tim. 4.7 kept the faith and consummated the course of our yeares in the good workes of thy loue and charity according to thy Commandement For thy victorious death hauing made this Testament of force and irreuocable hath done vs this fauour aboue thy ancient friends and children which departed before it who albeit they did leaue this world with the hope of heauen yet they enioyed not heauen immediatly in recompence of the workes they had done in thy Grace and seruice as true children noe this was a Grace referned to the time of thy new Testament which was to be eternall by thy death and to put in full possession without delay those thy children which like true heires shall haue executed the will of their Father and what thanksgiuing shall be able or sufficient for to acknowledge worthily the least part of these so great fauours 9. IN WHAT MANNER OVR SAVIOVR hauing made his Testament left his body to his Heires OTher fathers hauing disposed of their goods and signed their testament dye and leaue their bodies to be put in the earth where they rot and their soules goe to their places so as their heires haue no other better pawne of the presence and person of their father then their ashes and bones Our Sauiour hath obserued the substance of this Ceremony but after a different maner for he gaue his body to his Apostles in an impassible manner albeit mortall also then and from that time he left it to his Church clothed indeed with the first mortall robe made of the accidents of bread and wine but vnited with his Soule and his Diuinity now a liuing body immortall and glorious For his tombe also hee hath the bodies and soules of his heires a liuing tombe and ennobled with a reasonable soule which if it be well prepared with requisite qualities doth from his harbouring receiue a wonderfull reward for whereas other tombes reape from the bodies buried in them nothing but spoiles of death and horror and are by them defiled the bodies of Christians doe receiue life immortality sanctification and celestiall ioy from the body of our Sauiour whereby it appeareth that we ought to vse exceeding great diligence in well preparing our selues to lodge worthily in vs this pretious body The principall apparell is Loue and Chastity and then after these all the other vertues of the soule which accompany the former We reade that Artemissia Câ—â—â— Tuscal Herod Liu. 8. Plut. l. 36. c. 5. Vâ—â— lib. â— Queene of Carya after shee had consumed her treasures in a magnificall and admirable Sepulcher that shee had prepared for the dead body of the King her husband in the end made them to pound his bones and tooke them in a drinke for to be her selfe the liuing Sepulcher of his dead body whom shee
had so extreamely loued in his life and without whom shee could not liue This was an Humane loue more worthy of compassion then of praise which neuerthelesse may serue vs for an example to make vs do better for how much more conuenient and iust is it that wee should employ all our spirituall meanes our loue our deuotion our fastings our almes our prayers that we may become a liuing Cabinet of the body of this diuine Spouse of our soules whom we shall receiue not senselesse nor dead nor reduced into powder but aliue immortall all whole with his soule and with his glory and with all the Maiesty of his Diuinity for to be one day eternally vnited with him 10. TWO GREAT WONDERS HAPPENED in the institution of this Sacrament SAint Augustine S. August in Psal 33. 2. Keg 21.13 expounding what the History of the Kings saith of Dauid that counterseiting to be out of his wits before King Achis He carried himselfe in his own hands tooke occasion to admire another wonder farre exceeding that which came to passe in the institution of this Sacrament And it is that our Sauiour carried himselfe in his proper hands A thing which he esteemed most admirable and impossible to haue been practised by Dauid according to the sence of the letter But that our Sauiour only did it when holding his body in his hand and saying This is my body hee cetried it to his mouth and gaue it to his Apostles For though it might be that Dauid playing the foole carried himselfe in his hands by going on all foure after the manner of little children or bearing himself vp vpon his armes and vsing them in stead of feet and of legges after the fashion of those who by actluity cast their body vpward in the ayre with their head downward like a tree and walke vpon their hands S. Augustine neuerthelesse had reason to say that to cary himselfe of himselfe in his owne hands belongeth only to our Sauiour for it is he which truly earieth himselfe David caried not himselfe on his hands but rather on his hands and feet together if it be to be vnderstood of the first manner or only on his armes if of the second but our Sauiour carieth himselfe properly in his hands neither more nor lesse then he caried in his band the meate which he put in his mouth or into the mouthes of others There is heere yet another thing admirable in this Institution which is that our Sauiour tooke himself for food a thing not heard of neither hapned to any man since the Creation of the world Ioseâ—h lib. 7. de â—el Iudaâ—c Histories tell vs that some mothers had fed vpon their owne children as Mary the Iew and that some person haue eaten a certaine part of their body compelled by the violence of some extraordinary sicknes but it was neuer read that a man either did or could eate himselfe all whole still remaining without hurt and such an act neuer came into the thought of man The Sonne of God alone can doe it and hath done it and hath giuen herein an illustrious testimony that hee is God doing a worke which onely God could doe by vertue vncommunicable to any other for it is God alone that liueth of himselfe and is his owne proper food the creatures do liue of other creatures and their food is from without their body and none liue of themselues the blessed Spirits in heauen doe liue of the vision of God but God alone is his owne life and his owne meat from all eternity and needeth no other thing but himselfe to sustaine himselfe eternally So that our Sauiour taking himselfe for food signeth himselfe with the signe of his owne greatnesse and sheweth as by an experiment proper to God that he was God hee being able to make food of himself euen according to the body after the likenesse of his Diuinity which is the food and nourishment of himselfe and belongeth to no other thing but to God alone And this is that which he signified by these words Iâ—â—â— 5.26.24 S. Chrysost hom 〈◊〉 in Ioan. For as the Father hath lofe in himselfe so bee hath giuen to the Sonne also to haue life in himsele for proofe then and declaration of his speech hee rooke himsele in food corporally as spiritually he himselfe is his life and his food and his felicity and likewise the life food and felicity of his Elect. 11. SAINT IONN FIRST RECEIVETH OF all the Apostles The Eucharist the true refection and the Present at the refection OVR Sauiour then doth offer his body and his bloud to God his Father in Sacrifice and hauing receiued them first himselfe he giues them to his Apostles for spirituall refection beginning at Saint Iohn and not onely because he was nearest him at the table but because he was endued with singular charity and chastity vertues altogether proper to make vs sit worthily at the table of this feast of loue and purity It is heere where the refection began which alone is true and holy and now it began to be continued afterward so long as the world should endure All the other which had of old been instituted in the House of God were but Figures of this their meats were meates of corruption and of death seruing onely to maintaine this mortall life the Victims the Offerings and all that which was set vpon the Altar or vpon the table in the Law of Nature and of Moses were but dead bodies and mortall food to nourish mortall bodies the body of our Sauiour is the body of life and food of immortality In this refection the ceremony of Alliance made betweene God and Man was celebrated by the mediation of the flesh and bloud of God signes both signifying and withall effecting a most streight and most diuine vnion of the head with his members of the members amongst themselues And the Symbols which were the meate of the table and the connexion of such as assisted the selfe-same were the Presents of the Feast It was a famous custome among the Nations of the world to giue Presenis after a great Feast the which were called of the Greeke word Apophoreta as who should say things to bee carried from the Feast of which S. Ambrose speaking S. Ambros in exhort ad Virg writ in these termes in his Exhortation to Virgins Such as are inuited to a great Feast haue a custome to bring away some conuiuiall presents Isid Some bring vesieis of gold some of sillier some gold and siluerâ— some money Sueton. Coligul Lamâ—â—d in Heliogaâ—oto some Iewels some beasts some men the Sonne of God gaue his body and his bloud for the Present of his Feast or the meat of his Feast and for the Feast it selfe surpassing the price of all other Presents as also the splendour and deliciousnesse of all other banquets 12. OF THE WORDS OF OVR SAVIOVR Doe this in my remembrance NOw this diuine refection was not
the accidents of bread and wine Page 107 10 The selfe-same power verified in the aceidents of the body of our Sauiour and first in respect of the quantitie Page 108 11 The meruailous power of God about the qualities of the body of our Sauiour in the blessed Sacrament Page 109 12 The wonderfull relations of the body of our Sauiour in the same Sacrament Page 110 13 Admirable actions of the body of our Sauiour Page 111 14 The body of our Sauiour impâ—ssible Page 112 15 The Sacrament is in many places at one and the self-same time Page 113 16 The body of our Sauiour about the Lawes of time Page 115 17 The admirable situation of the body of our Sauiour in the blessed Sacrament Page 116 18 The cloathing of the body of our Sauiour Page 117 19 How the Eucharist is an abridgement of all the wonders of God Page 118 20 How Faith is fortified by this Sacrament Page 120 21 Of the goodnesse of our Sauiour in this Sacrament Page 121 22 Charity towards God and towards our neighbour encreased by this Sacrament Page 124 23 Of the Wisdome of God in this same mystery Page 125 24 Gods diuine wisdome in teaching of this mystery Page 127 A Colloquium of prayses and thankesgiuing to God Page 129 PICTVRE VII The Bread of Proposition THe Description Page 131 1 The body of our Sauiour conceined of a Virgin by the operation of the holy Ghost signified by the Loaues of Proposition kneaded of the purest flower without leauen Page 133 2 How the body of our Sauiour is offered euery day and renewed euery weeke Page 134 3 The beginning and end of the Communion is Charity Prayer and Contemplation Page 135 4 The body of our Sauiour signified by the Table vpon which were set the Loanes of Proposition Page 136 5 The signifieation of the Candlesticke Page 137 6 The heart of the Iust is the Altar of Incense Page 138 7 Wherewith and how we ought to serue God Page 139 8 The vertues which are necessary worthily to giue thankes vnto God and to make a iust examen of our actions Page 140 9 A Soueraigne acknowledgement due onely to God made in the Eucharist Page 141 10 The body of our Sauiour meate for the Sanctified Page 142 11 What signified the Table of Proposition Loanes and the Candlestickes multiplied by Salomon Ibid. 12 Purity of body necessary in such as come to receiue the holy Communion Page 144 13 They which holily communicate receiue strength and are armed my the Sacrament Page 14â— 14 A briefe exhortation to purity when we present our selueâ— to the holy Sacrament ibid. PICTVRE VIII The Oblation of the First-fruits at Pentecost THe Description Page 147 1 Three Iudaicall Feasts of the First-fruits Page 151 2 The Masse the new Oblation in the Pentecost of Christians Page 152 3 Of many circumstances of the ancient Oblation answering to the truth of the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Masse Page 154 4 Of the name Masse Page 155 5 Transubstantiation made in the Sacrament figured by the Leauen Page 157 6 The Sacrament and Sacrifice of the body of our Sauiour vnder the formes of bread foretold in the Scripture and 〈◊〉 by the Hebrew Doctors Page 159 7 The testimonies of Hebrew Doctors for Transubstantiation and the manner how the body of our Sauiour is present in the Euchariâ—â— Page 161 8 The testimontes of the Christian Doctors concerning Transubstantiation and the manner how our Sauiours bodie is in the Eucharist Page 163 9 Wherefore our Sauiour would haue his body hid and not visible in the Sacrament Page 167 10 As the old Oblation of First-fruits began in Pentecost so ours new Page 170 11 The Masse began to bee celebrated by the Apostles at Pentecost Page 171 PICTVRE IX The Bread of Elias THe Description Page 17â— 1 The Bread of Elias Figure of the Sacrament of the Altar Page 177 2 What meaneth the Scripture in signifying that the Bread of Elias was baked vnder the imbers Page 178 3 What signifieth the sleepe of Elias vnder the shadow of the Iuniper tree Page 180 4 Elias his walke after the shadow of the Iuniper tree to the Mountaine Horeb and of the water that was giuen him with the bread Page 182 5 The signification of the pot of Water Page 183 PICTVRE X. The Propitiatory Sacrifice THe Description Page 185 1 Three kindes of Sacrifices Page 186 2 Of the Propitiatory Sacrifice which properly signifies that of the Crosse ibid. 3 The second kinde of the Propitiatory Sacrifice a Figure of the Eucharist Page 188 4 What difference there is betweene the Iudaicall Propitiatory Sacrifices and Sacraments and those of Christians Page 189 5 Testimonies of the ancient Fathers both Latin and Greeke teaching the Sacrifice of the Masse to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice Page 191 6 After what manner the Sacrifice of the Masse anâ— the Sacraments remit sinne since that of the Crosse is our whole redemption Page 194 7 The Sacrifice of the Masse and the Sacraments rather gâ—â—â— then take any honor from the Crosse Page 196 8 The Sacrifice of the Masse profitable to obtaine from God all kinde of good and it extends it selfe to all persons except the damned Page 198 9 The Sacrifice of the Masse profitable to the faithfull departed which are in Purgatory and honorable to those which raigne in heauen Page 200 PICTVRE XI The fiue Loaues and two Fishes THe Description Page 203 1 The miracle of the fiue Loaues a Figure of the Eucharist Page 205 2 In what the miracle of the fiue Loaues did Figure the Eucharist Page 206 3 The two Fishes a Figure of the same Sacrament Page 208 4 Wherefore no mention is made of any drinke in this miracle and other circumstances of it Page 209 5 Why the people would create our Sauiour King and why hee fled them Page 210 6 God nourisher of euery creature true nutriment of his Children Page 212 PICTVRE XII Our Sauiour Preaching of the Sacrament of his body THe Description Page 217 1 Wherefore our Sauiour made a Sermon of the Eucharist before he instituted it Page 218 2 The first cause why our Sauiour would giue his 〈◊〉 to eat and his blend to drinke which was to shew his goodnesse Page 220 3 The Second cause to giue a remedy to our misery Page 221 4 Two bad vnious of the flesh of Adam with our soule repaired by the flesh of our Sauiour Page 222 5 Pride and licentiousnesse enemies of Faith and the first aduersaries of the holy Sacrament Page 226 6 Exposition of the words of our Sauiour Page 230 7 Heresie alwayes carnall and in loue with extremities Page 232 8 Contradictions of Heretikes in their false and imaginarie faith Page 234 9 The literall sense foundation of others against the same Heretikes Page 235 10 Two kindes of Communion the one Spiritual the other Sacramentall Page 238 11 Of the diuine wisdome and goodnesse of God in this Sacrament and of the