body this is not the Figure but my body it selfe which onely pleaseth my Father which only can worthily thanke him which onely can effectually appease him the others were not pleasing to him but so farre forth as they had relation to this heere in as much as they did Figure it and foretold its comming this is the subiect of all these bodies and of all these old Sacrifices this is the body in which God shall be truely honored in which he shall bee fully satisfied in which he shall receiue with infinite measure the taxe of mans Redemption and in which he shall iudge the quicke and the dead By these words then our Sauiour sheweth the body which is the honor of all his Church both in earth and in heauen for that which is most precious in a Kingdome is not treasure munition gould and siluer mines the store-houses of merchandizes the opulent Cities the stately houses Pallaces the Orchyards the Gardens and other such like pleasant places But it is the body of the King it is for him and by him that the Nobles command that the souldiers fight that the Magistrates exercise Iustice that the Guard watch and keepe Sentinell that the Merchants trade He that hath the body of the King hath all Wherefore the words of our Sauiour This is my body declare that this is the holiest and diuinest thing within the inclosure of the kingdom of heauen and Monarchy of his most deare Spouse which is his Church What canst thou then O sweet Iesus choose more rich and more diuine for to honor thy Father to testifie thy loue to make happy thy Spouse then to leaue this body in a perpetual Sacrifice to his Maiesty in daily Sacrament and food to thy members What canst thou vtter higher then to say This is my body The great Casar disguised in the habite of a slaue gaue once both astonishment and courage to his Pilot dismayed with a storme when making himselfe knowne he tells him Haue heart my friend Plut. in Casares it is Casar thou carriest With what heart and with what admiration ought wee to heare these words This is my body With what respect and loue ought we to receiue this body although disguised in the habite of fraile Elements since it is thou that speakest clearely and sayest This is my body And what courage oughtest thou to haue O my soule hauing with thee and carrying in thy mortall body with thee this immortall body this liuely body quickned with a most noble soule replenished with all perfection both of Nature and Grace this Lord God and Man King of Kings And what other thing canst thou doe but contemplate in silence rather then to endeauour to expresse in words the greatnesse of thy Redeemer in this his owne Word which thou canst not comprehend And with a deepe humility and burning affection enioy the Presence that he maketh thee thereof so often as for thy good and saluation he shall say to thee that which he then said of his body to his Church This is my body take and eate 6. HOW OVR SAVIOVR OFFERS HIMselfe to God in Sacrifice saying This it my bodie WHen our Sauiour made dis body Present in vttering these words This is my body in the same instant he offered it to his Father in an vnbloudy Sacrifice after the forme of Melchisedech and forth with he gaue it to his Apostles in Sacrament vnder the same forme This is the cause why hauing said This is my body hee addeth giuen for you that is to say offered for you in Sacrifice broken for you now giuen and broken and which shal be hereafter giuen and broken in the same fashion euen till the end of the world in remembrance of that bloudy Sacrifice which to morrow I wil offer for you once for all vpon the Crosse So as our Sauiour made not his body onely Present but present vnder the formes of bread giuing it a being of food a dead being albeit that in it selfe it was euer liuing euen as in making himselfe man his Diuinity tooke a body and a mortall being and endured death in that body albeit the Diuinity was alwayes immortal and endured nothing as we haue declared before He made himselfe by reason of the dead species present as dead and represented himselfe as a Victime and as an offered Lambe for to bee afterward the refection of the Father of the Family 〈◊〉 12. and of his houshold according to the Figure of the Iewes Lamb the which could not be eaten before it was first dead immolated offered and made a Victim as the Scripture hath told vs S. Greg. Niss or 1. de Resur and Saint Gregory of Nisse after the Scripture And it imports not as hath been said heretofore that our Sauiour vttered no words of Oblation expresly saying My Father I offer thee this body the manner after which he makes himselfe Present as a Victime expressed sufficiently that he offered himselfe It was also sufficient that hee made it Present with intention to offer it to God who seeth the heart though the tongue say nothing And so the Iewish Priests did offer their Sacrifices immolating the the beasts only and saying no other thing whereby to signifie that it was a Sacrifice And so our Sauiour likewise offers himselfe vpon the Crosse without vsing any words fignifying Oblation Matth. 26.28 The same immolation was made in the Censecration of the Chalice when our Sauiour said This is my bloud of the new Testament Luke 22.20 shed for many for the râ—â—ission of siâ—ner Also This Cup is the new Tastament in my bloud the which is shed for you For by this consecration the bloud of our Sauiour is represented apart which also doth euidently declare that his body was made a Sacrifice according to the likenesse of those of the Iewes who comming to immolat the beast did kil it separating the bloud from the body with a sword Heb. 4.12 as our Sauiour with his omnipotent Word in stead of a piercing Sword made his bloud Present in the Cup as separated from his body and so representeth the immolation therof and albeit the body and the bloud were not actually separated and that the body was in the Cup and the bloud was with the body vnder the accidents of bread yet notwithstanding by reason of the forme of wine separated and set apart they appeared separated to represent this immolation and the bloud was truely shed not after the maner of Aarons bloudy Sacrifices in which the bloud was drawne from the veines in proper forme but after the manner of wine Our Sauiour vsed also the Present tense saying This is my bloud shed this is the Chalice of my bloud shed for remission of sins Matth. 26. Luke 22. to signifie that this which was in the Chalice to wit his bloud for the wine could not bee shed for remission of sinnes was already powred into the Chalice by an vnbloudy effusion
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
after them that hauing ouertaken the enemie the same night hee charged them so hotly vpon the sudden that he easily discomfited them recouered the prisoners and brought backe many others with a glorious victory and with these rich spoiles of cattell apparell and all sorts of wealth which the Painter hath diuersly expressed in the taile of the forenamed Squadron For there you see Camels and Horses some shewing a peece of the head onely others all the head and others a peece of the body likewise there you see also Coates Aimours Chestes and such like things But you ought not to wonder that the Souldiers haue their armes and garments bloudie for they come fresh from the combate These first Lords next Abraham wearing great plumes in their gilded Helmets enuironed with a Diadem Gen. 14.17 are the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah who hauing gathered certaine troopes are come to encounter him with congratulation Abraham vsing them with all courtesie and rendering to them not onely their people that were prisoners but also their goods which they found as they were a little before when they were taken from them they returne Well satisfied and contented Melchisedcch is attentiue to the Sacrifice and makes his Offerings of Bread and of Wine to God praying to him most affectually Gen. 14. heare what he saith Blessed bee Thou ABRAHAM by God the highest which created heauen and earth and blessed be God the highest by whose protection thy enemies are in thy hands This laid he blessed Abraham and gaue to him part of the Sacrifice as also to his people and inuited them all most earnestly to his house to refresh them euery one thanking God with the High-Priest and Abraham giuing him as his due the tenth part of all the spoiles O how many mysteries are hidden in the shadow of this Picture 1. MELCHISEDECH FIGVRE OF our Sauiour MEn cannot paint foorth that which is to come not being able to haue the corporall sight thereof but God who seeth all as present hath made the portraiture of the future Priest-hood of his Sonne in the person of Melchisedech and of the Eucharist in his Offering Saint Paul writes thus Melchisedech saith he King of Salem Hebr. 7. Priest of the mest high God who mette Abraham returning from the slaughter of the Kings and blessed him to whom also Abraham gane Tithes of all First indeed by interpretation the King of Iustice and then also King of Salem which is to say King of Peace without Father without Mother without Genealogie hauing neither beginning of dayes nor end of life but likened to the Sonne of God continueth a Priest for ener He saith then expressely that Melchisedech was the Figure of our Sauiour and setteth downe many resemblances betweene them Melchisedech was in Figure King of Iustice Iesus Christ is the true King of Iustice constituted Iudge of the quick and the dead Melchisedech bearing the name and Iesus Christ being the thing Melchisedech King of Peace our Sauiour the true Salomou Prince of Peace For it is he onely that hath made peace betweene God and man Melchisedech King and Priest of the Chanancons and of Abraham Iesus Christ King of Gentiles and of Hebrewes descending from Abraham hauing made of both people the building of his Church whereof himselfe is the corner stone Melchisedech annoynted of God not with a corporall Vnction as Aaron and the other It wish Priests but with spirituall Iesus Christ the annointed of his Father the Holy of Holies and the Saint of Saints Melchisedech without Father and without Mother and without Genealogie that is to say named in the Scripture without any mention of Father or Mother or of his lineage not that he had no Father nor mother but for a mystery The generation also of the Sonne of God is vndiscouerable not only the eternall but euen the temporall for what spirit can comprehend how he hath been begotten and that from all eternity of his Father and how in time without cohabitation of man he was borne of a perpetuall Virgin before his birth in his birth and after his birth Thus then Melchisedech the High-Priest was the Figure of Iesus Christ 2. THE PRIEST-HOOD OF THE SONNE of God figured in that of Melchisedech BVt the most liuely part of this resemblance and most concerning our mystery is that which the Apostle puts the last as the most perfect saying That the Priesthood of the Sonne of God according to the order of MELCHISEDECH remaines eternally Psal 119. which was also the Prophesie of DAVID Our Lord hath swâ—rne and it shall not repent him Thou art a Priest for euer according to the order of MELCHISEDECH This parcell then containeth the mystery of the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Eucharist instituted by Iesus Christ in his Church vnder the formes of bread and wine to continue euen to the end of the world There had been amongst men two kindes of Priesthood before the comming of our Sauiour the one in a Sacrifice not bloody which offered to God gifts without effusion of blood such was the Offering of Melchisedechs bread and wine the other in bloody Sacrifices which were of three sorts of beasts Oxen Weathers or Goats and so many kinds of Birds Doues Turtles and Sparrowes such were the Sacrifices of Aaron The truth whereof was accomplished and fulfilled in the Sacrifice of the Crosse where Iesus Christ was offered once for all in a bloody manner and that with death after the resemblance of the sacrificing and Sacrifices of Aaron and such a Sacrifice could not be iterated for Iesus Christ could die but once But the truth of the Priesthood and Sacrifice of Melchisedech began in the euening of the institution of the Eucharist when our Sauiour ordained the Sacrament and Sacrifice not bloody of his sacred body vnder the formes of bread and wine this hath he continued euer since by the mystery and seruice of our Priests his Vicars and shall continue so long as the Church shall trauaile vpon the earth he being eternally Priest according to the order of Melchisedech that is to say offering continually the true bread and true wine of his body and blood as Melchisedech offered the Figure But wherefore is it that this Soueraigne wisdome hath instituted the Sacrifice and Sacrament of his body vnder the formes of bread and of wine If we may be able to find out the reason it will very much enlighten vs to see and admire his greatnesse 3. WHEREFORE OVR SAVIOVR HATH instituted the Sacrament and Sacrifice of his body vnder the formes of bread and wine THe supreame wisdome of Christ hath instituted the Sacrament and Sacrifice of his body vnder the formes of bread and wine for many reasons of which the most principall seeme to me to be these First because the bread and wine sensibly and very properly set forth the nature the profitablenesse and the excellencie of this Sacrifice and Sacrament There is nothing more common nor better
knowne to vs then bread and wine which as they are the two most noble and proper sustenances of mans life euen so the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the body of our Sauiour is the most diuine food and strength of our soules and bodies Bread and wine is very prositable and necessary in the beginning midst and end of repast and the Hebrewes vnder the word Bread comprehend all meat as being the chiefe and a companion of all other meates and the ancient Sages haue of old called wine the King of the banquet 〈◊〉 6.46 〈◊〉 25. 〈◊〉 4. Our Sauiour then hath instituted the Eucharist with these two Symboles or signes to teach vs by them that in the Law of Grace the Sacrifice and Sacrament of his body holds the first ranke amongst all the presents of meate that can be set vpon the table of his Altar for to honour his Maiestie and feede our soules withall 4. THE BREAD AND WINE SIGNES of the Passion of our Sauiour in his Sacrament THe second cause wherefore our Sauiour hath instituted the mystery of his body in these elements is to set before our eyes that which he hath endured for vs making himselfe bread and drinke vnto vs. The corne is cast into the earth to come vp in eares and to encrease it dyeth to come forth it endureth winde haile frost heate and cold in the field it is threshed in the barne-floore ground in the Mill wrought in the kneading and baked with fire in the Ouen The Grape carries the markes of the same torments for after it escapeth the iniuries of the ayre as the Corne doth it is troden and trampled vnder feete it is wrung in the Presse it endures to be shut vp in the Tunne and inclosed in the caue for to become good wine These actions and passions are the draughts that paint foorth to vs the trauailes which our Sauiour hath endured that hee might be to vs the celestiall bread and wine which hee giueth vs in the Sacrifice and Sacrament of his body 5. THE BREAD AND WINE IN THE Eucharist signes of the Mysticall body of our Sauiour THe third cause of this institution made in these elements is to represent the mysticall body of the Church of Iesus Christ for as the bread and wine is made of many cornes and wrought into one paste so the Church also is composed of many members vnited vnder one head therefore it is that the Greekes call this Sacrament Sinoxis that is to say collection S. Chrysost hom 24. in 1. Cor. 10. S. Aug. 26. in Ioan. and the Latines Communion as much to say as a common vnion For these reasons and likenesses our Sauiour hath instituted this mystery in bread and wine in such sort that the bare elements speaking without words doe teach vs these three godly lessons the charity of our Sauiour in nourishing vs with himselfe his patience in suffering for vs and our vnion with him Such was his diuine wisdome in this institution that it learneth also for Doctrine 6. THE BODY OF OVR SAVIOVR CALled Bread and his Blood Wine FOr the same cause aforesaid the Scripture calleth the body of our Sauiour Bread Ierem. 1. and his blood Wine Ieremie saith in the person of the Iewes Let vs cast wood vpon his bread that is to say Let vs put his body on the Crosse as the ancient Fathers haue interpreted it Againe Hee shall wash his stole in wine Gen. 49.11 and his garments in the bloud of the grape that is to say he shall shed his bloud in abundance figuring his bloud by the wine 1. Cor. 10.16 Saint Paul also calling the Sacrament bread and wine explaines it to be the body and bloud of our Sauiour 1. Cor. 11.27 Hee that shall eate saith he this bread and shall drinke this Chalice vnworthily he shall be guiltie of the body and bloud of our Lord. Ioan. 6 Our Sauiour himselfe calleth himselfe Bread and his bloud Drinke because he offered himselfe to his Father in Sacrifice and giueth himselfe to men in this Sacrament vnder the formes of bread and wine 7. WHAT THIS SACRAMENT IS THe Eucharist is a Sacrifice as was the Oblation of Abel and both a Sacrifice and Sacrament as was the Paschall Lambe and many other ancient mysteries for the body of our Sauiour as it is offered to God in the Masse is sacrificed and the self-same body as it is giuen for food to Christians is a Sacrament And heere-hence some sigures represent it onely as it is a Sacrament so did the Tree of Life others as a Sacrifice onely so did the Oblation of Abel others as both a Sacrifice and a Sacrament together and so did the Oblation of Melchisedech the Paschall Lambe and such like Well then a Sacrament is a signe and an instrument of a holy thing so Baptisme signifies the internall and holy washing of the soule and as an instrument effects it if he which receiueth it doe not hinder the same In like manner the Eucharist containes the body and bloud of our Lord inuisibly which feed the soule and is also a signe thereof by the outward materiall visible formes of bread and wine and in this respect is a perfect Sacrament 8. WHAT A SACRIFICE IS AND HOW it is offered in the Masse THe Sacrifice taken in his proper signification is an outward action of religion and soueraigne honour done to God in acknowledgement of his supreame Maiestie by a proper officer in offering some present and in making some change thereof In this manner the offerings of beastes and other bodies in the Law of Nature and of Moses were Sacrifices And in this sense the Eucharist also is a Sacrifice in the Law of Grace and that of so much more excellencie aboue the former as the bodie of the Sonne of God offered in it surpasseth all the other bodies which could be presented to the diuine Maiestie This Sacrifice is made as hereafter we shall shew more at large by the words of Consecration This is my body this is my blood by which Iesus Christ transubstantiates the bread and the wine into his body and bloud and by the same action hee offers it to his Father for his Church though he vse not any formall words of oblation as by saying I offer thee my body for it is enough that he make it present vpon the Altar with that intention for he did no more in offering the Sacrifice of the Crosse as neither did the ancient Sacrificers in their Sacrifices God vnderstands sufficiently the language of the heart The Church hauing this body from the liberality of God offers it with Iesus Christ and by it doth honor him with homage of diuine and soueraigne whorship shee also prayeth to him by the merits which were purchased in this body afterward taketh it for her food and refection And as in olde times God gaue beasts to the Iewes which the Iewes offered to him againe honouring him in them and
did eate of the flesh to participate of the Sacrifice so hath he giuen vs the body of his Sonne and we honor him with it and pray vnto him endeuoring by it as by a rich present to pacifie him and to make him fauourable towards vs and afterwards we take it for our refection but yet without euer consuming the same as the bodies of beasts were consumed which could serue but once and therefore to euery Sacrifice was required a new beast But the body of our Sauiour is immortall and alone sufficient to honour God and to be the food of immortalitie to all the members of his Church S. Aug. lib. 10. de Ciuit. cap. 6. at all times and in all places We haue said before that good workes done for God are sometimes called Sacrifices as Prayers Fastings Almes and other actions of piety but these are called Sacrifices only by way of resemblance and this kinde of Sacrifice euery one may and ought to offer whereas the proper and true Sacrifice cannot be offered but by him who is a proper and true Priest by office such as was Melchisedech and the Iewish Priests of olde and now are the Priests of Christ 9. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEENE A Sacrament and a Sacrifice FIrst a Sacrament is instituted of God for the sanctification of his creature but a Sacrifice is ordained to hoâ—ior the Creator the one regardeth man the other respecteth God for albeit that the sanctification given by the Sacrament redounds to the honor of God and the action of Sacrifice to the sanctification of his creature the proper end notwithstanding which a Sacrament aymes at is to sanctifie man and that of the Sacrifice to doe homage vnto God neither more nor lesse then in a Ciuill Monarchie Alleagiance is for the King and the administration of lustice for the People though administration of Iustice honor also the King and Alleageance be profitable to the Subiect Euen so then in the Church a spirituall Monarchie the Sacrament is ordained to helpe man and the Sacrifice to honour God What more is done in the one or the other it is rather by consequence then of the first intention and therefore as a Sacrament is properly the signe and instrument of the grace of God so a Sacrifice especially setteth foorth the greatnesse and Maiesty of God Secondly a Sacrament profits onely him which receiueth it being well disposed and prepared as Baptisme sanctifieth only the baptised the Sacrifice may profit all the world absent present iust iniust disposed indisposed liuing and departed if they be not in deadly sinne for though it be not directly instituted for the Sanctification of man as hath beene said yet notwithstanding it openeth the do ore to the sanctification of all men for as much as it pleaseth God by honor and prayer and by this office of piety it obtaines of him mercy and grace and new blessings of repentance and remission of sinnes to all those for whom it is offered And so therefore the Sacrifice of the Masse is profitable for all those which heare it and for whom it is offered 10. NO RELIGION WITHOVT Sacrifice AS the Church hath alwayes had Sacraments for a meanes to sanctifie the children of God so it hath neuer been nor euer shall be vpon the earth without a Sacrifice And sure great reason there is it should be so for since that al true religioÌ„ is instituted for the soueraigne acknowledgement seruice of God it is necessary that in his Church which is his Kingdome and Monarchie there should be a publike worship of supreame honor by which men assembled in one body and societie might professe their faith and dutie towards him This worship is the Sacrifice by which God is knowne and adored publikely as our soueraigne Lord Master of life and death and Author of all our good the most high honor that can be giuen proper to God and vncommunicable to any creature as onely due to diuine Maiestie Wherefore a Religion without a Sacrifice is a body without a soule and a Monarchie without homage or publike acknowlegement of authoritie that is to say without a signe of Monarchie The Church then onely keeper of true Religion hath euer had proper Sacrifice and Priests appropriated by their office to administer the same The most famous Sacrifice in the Law of Nature was that of bread and wine offered by the High-Priest Melchisedech in the Law of Moses there were many in the Law of Grace our Sauiour hath established this of his body one alone in the place of all the Ancient adumbrated by them all and alone the most sufficient of all as well by reason of the thing offered which is of infinite price as of the dignity of the Offerer who is the Sonne of God for the Priest is nothing but his Vicar so as this onely Sacrifice is in estimaon aboue all those of olde as the Sunne is aboue all the Starres A Sacrifice most perfect and most worthy of our Sauiour who hath instituted it in the Law of Grace the most perfect Monarchie that euer was or which euer shall be and instituted it after so noble a manner as it is full of mystery to wit after the resemblance of the Sacrifice of the most noble King and High-Priest Melchisedech vnder the formes of bread and wine which he shall offer euen vntill the end of the world by his Priests and Vicars he himselfe remaining High-priest for euer after the order of Melchisedech 11. TESTIMONIES OF THE HEBREW Doctors vpon the same subiect that is of the Sacrifice of MELCHISEDECH RAbby Samuel renowned amongst the Hebrewes Rabby Sammeâ— in Gen. speaking of this that Melchisedech offered saith Hee did an act of Priest-hood for he sacrificed bread and wine to God holy and blessed Rabby Phines also a great Hebrew Doctor Sabby Phinee See Gal. 1.10 In the time of the Messias all the Sacrifices shall cease but the Sacrifice of bread and wine shall remaine alwayes as it is written in Genesis And Melchisedech brought foorth bread and wine Melchisedech that is to say the King Messias shall except out of this cessation of Sacrifices the Sacrifice of bread and wine as it is said in the Psalmes Psal 109. Thou art a Priest for euer after the order of Melchisedech His meaning is that Melchisedech was the figure of Iesus Christ who is the true Messias and that Iesus Christ is an High-Priest for euer according to the order of Melchisedech instituting in his Church an eternall Sacrifice of his body and blood vnder the formes of bread and wine making all the other Sacrifices to cease they being but shadowes and figures of this heere And so wee see it to be fulfilled since the death of our Sauiour wherein all the bloody Sacrifices Figures of his death were finished whereas contrariwise the institution of the Eucharist which is our Masse the Sacrifice sigured by that of Melchisedech then tooke its first beginning 12. TESTIMONIES OF THE ANCIENT
Greeke Fathers vpon the Figure of MELCHISEDECH SAint Clement S. Clem. lib. 4. Stre. MELCHISEDECH King of Salem Priest of the most high God gaue the bread and wine sanctified in figure of the Eucharist Saint Chrysostome S. Chrysost hom 35.36 in Gen. speaking of the same Sacrifice of MELCHISEDECH Beholding the Figure thinke I pray you vpon the truth that is to say if thou makest account of the Offering of Melchisedech how much more of the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the body of our Sauiour which is the truth signified of old by the ancient Figure And againe Idem After that MELCHISEDECH King of Salem had offered bread and wine for hee was the Priest of the most high ABRAHAM tooke from his hand part of that which had been offered that is to say he did eate and drinke of the sacrificed bread and wine Theodoret 〈◊〉 Pas 109. Idem in Gen. 4.63 hauing declared how our Sauiour had begun his Priest-hood after the order of Melchisedech in the institution of the Sacrament of his body addeth Wee haâ—e found Melchisedech Priest and King affirming to God not Sacrifices of beasts deprined of reason but of bread and wine as if he should say that the Priest-hood and offering of our Sauiour is not with effusion of blood of beasts as that of Aarons but without killing and that his body is giuen in Sacrifice vnder the formes of bread and wine according to the order of Melchisedech Saint IOHN DAMASCENE S. Ioan. Damâ—â— lib. 4. de Fid. cap 24. The Table of Melchisedech figured out our mysticall Table euen as Melchisedech carried the Figure and the Image of the true Prelate Iesus Christ TMEOPHILACT vpon the Epistle to the Hebrewes Theophil in 〈◊〉 5. ad Heb. Psal 109. explaning the words of the Psalmist Thou art a Priest for euer according to the order of Melchisedech It is most cortaine saith he that this Prophecie is to be vnderstood of Iesus Christ for it is he onely that hath sacrificed bread and wine according to the order of Melchisedech And a little after He saith eternally as well for that Iesus Christ maketh intercession for vs incessantly to his Father as for that he is offered euery day this Oblation is made without ceasing by the Officers and Seruitors of God hauing for Priest and for Sacrifice Christ the Sauiour it is hee that breaketh and distributeth himselfe 13. TESTIMONIES OF THE ANCIENT Latine Fathers SAint CYPRIAN S. Cyprian l. 2. ep 3. ad Cecil Who hath been more Priest of the highest then our Lord Iesus Christ who hath offered Sacrifice to God the Father and offers the same that Melchisedeth did Ioan. 6. bread and wine to wit his body and his bloud for his body is the true bread and his bloud is the true wine and the true drinke Saint Hierom S. Hieron epist 126. ad Euagr. S. Hieron in ep ad Marcel nomine Paula Eustoch scripta giuing a reason to Euagrius wherefore Melchisedech was compared to our Sauiour It is saith he because he sacrificed not victimes of flesh and blood of beasts but dedicated the Sacrament of Christ with bread and wine a simple and pure sacrifice And elsewhere Reade Genesis Thou shalt finde the King of Salem Prince of the Citie who then offered in Figure of Christ bread and wine and dedicated the mystery of Christians in the body and bloud of our Saniour Againe Our mystery the Masse is signified by the word Order not in imolating victimes of beastes according to the order of Aaron but in offering bread and wine that is to say the body and bloud of our Sauiour Saint Ambrose speaking of the Eucharist S. Ambrel l 5. de Sacra cap. 1. We know saith he that the Figure of this Sacrament hath gone before in Abrahams time then when Melchisedech offered Sacrifice Saint Augustine speaking of this Sacrifice of MELCHISEDECH S. Aug. lib. 16. de Ciuitate Dei cap. 22. Then first was shewed in Figure the Sacrifice which now is offered by Christians throughout the vniuersall world S. Aug lib. 1. Cont. Aaâ—â—â—s â—â— cap. 20. And elsewhere Those that reade know what Melchisedech brought forth when he blessed Abraham and are made partakers thereof they see that through all the world such a Sacrifice is offered And he meaneth the Sacrifice of the Masse which is offered ouer all the world 14. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEENE THE Sacrifice of the Crosse and that of the Eucharist THe Sacrifice of the Crosse was bloudie Of this Oblation speaketh Saint Paul Hebr. 7.27 offered but once in Hierusalem onely this of the Eucharist not bloudie it is offered and shall be throughout all the world where the Church is dispersed and that euen to the end of the world That of the Crosse is the chiefe cause of our good the treasure and the generall exchequer of our redemption and the fountaine of our sanctification for by this death our Sauiour hath purchased vs all the good vnlesse we hinder or neglect it the Sacrifice of the Masse is the instrument to apply the fruit of all these purchased goods vnto vs it is the key which opens this treasure it is the meanes to haue part of this substance and the bucket to draw vp from the spring of this fountaine where with to cleanse vs and as when some one is washed in Baptisine or absolued in Penance the merite of the Crosse flowes into him or her that is baptised or absolued from sinne by meanes of these Sacraments euen so the fruit of the Crosse is distributed by the Sacrifice of the Eucharist to all those which offer it and for whom it is offered and it is the same body that was offered vpon the Altar of the Crosse and that which is offered on the Altar in the Church and giuen for food of immortalitie to all those which will receiue it The Masse then celebrating this Mystery makes the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the body of our Saniour and in them both is as of olde the ancient Sacraments and Sacrifices were an instrument to make vs participate the merit of the Passion of our Sauiour but so much more efficatious and precious as Iesus Christ who is in it the Priest and the offering for the man is but the Vicar surpasseth in dignity the ancient Priests and their earthly victimes This is the difference betweene the Sacrifice of the Crosse and that of the Masse and the glory of God is manifested diuersly thereby in two diuers mysteries 15. THE DIFFERENCE OF THE SACRIfice of Melchisedech and of this of the Masse THe Sacrifice of Melchisedech was but the shadow and the Figure this of the Masse the body and the truth In that there was nothing but bread and wine terrestriall materiall and insensitiue nourishing nothing but the body and that for a little time in this there is offered the body and bloud of our Sauiour the true bread and the true drinke bread of
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
cont Trypho that the Lamb was so disposed of when they rosted it that it made the Figure of a Crosse The selfe-same Lambe in other ceremonies was one of the most rare Figures of the Eucharist as our Sauiour declareth in generall when after the eating of the Lambe he instituted incontinently the Sacrifice of his body For he ioyned not with any other intention these two ceremonies S. Cyprian serm de Can. Denun but to shew that he accomplished this Figure past in this present verity and that vpon a Picture of most noble and most illustrious antiquitie he made as it were a bed or table for the Sacrifice of the Law of Grace which will appeare if we obserue the very lineaments of the Iudaical shadow expressed in the light of our faith First the Law commandeth to offer the Lambe in the euening of the fourteenth day of the first Moone that is to say of the first month of the yeare as hath been said and afterwards to eate it for it could not be eaten without it were first immolated as Saint Gregory of Nisse noteth S. Greg. Niss Or. 1. de Resur In the next place the selfe-same Law saith that they ought to eate it euery one priuately in his owne family These circumstances as the others of which we will speake hereafter haue infallibly been accomplished in some Sacrifices of the new Law Matt. 5.17.18 for otherwise Iesus Christ should not haue fulfilled the old Law from point to point according as he promised and should haue giuen a Figure or shadow without exhibiting the truth and substance Now this accomplishment hath not been made in the Sacrifice of the Crosse for this Sacrifice fell not out in the fourteenth but in the fifteenth day of the Moone which was the Friday following neither in the euening of the day but at midday when our Sauiour mounting on the Crosse hung thereon three hourses after before he died neither was there then any mysticall refection for none did eate at that time neither was this Sacrifice made priuately in euery Family but publikely and in the sight of the world These Ceremonies then touch not the Crosse whereas all of them agree very well to the Eucharist For our Sauiour offered himselfe therein Matth. 26. Marc. 24. Luc. 22. the true Lambe at the going downe of the Sun on Thursday the fourteenth day of the Moone and gaue himselfe to be catenpresently after and this in priuate onely in the presence of his Family which were his twelue Apostles representing then his deare Spouse the Church to whom he left for his last farewell out of this mortall life his body as a pledge of his infinit loue and an immortall memory of the good that he was to doe to vs and for vs. This ancient Figure then of the Paschall Lambe according to the circumstances thereof hath beed accomplished in the Eucharist and not elsewhere 4. HOW IESVS CHRIST IS IMITATED in the Eucharist BVt if the Lambe was imitated and immolation importeth occasion how is it that our Sauiour hath accomplished the verity of the immolation in the institution of the Eucharist seeing that he was not slaine at that time How can it be that he should now be immolated seeing that he is immortall The Catholike Doctors answere to this question that if one take the word of immolation strictly and in rigour signifying reall occasion it was not properly done but on the Crosse and heere is no immolation of that nature for so much as the body of our Sauiour is now remoued infinitely from the gripes of death and from all hurt not onely on the Altar but wheresoeuer else he is Rom. 6. Iesus Christ saith the Scripture being risen dyeth no more death hath no more power ouer him The same Doctors notwithstanding following the Scripture teach all with one accord that hee is mmolated in the Eucharist howbeit they be different in the explication of this immolation some haue said that there is no other thing but the bare representation of the death of our Sauiour which is not sufficient because so it should be but a Picture of immolation not true immolation nor such as the Catholike Doctrine teacheth vs. Wherefore the exposition of others is better and more agreeable to the Scriptures and to the testimony of antiquitie who hold that this immolation consists in this that our Sauiour gaue himselfe as hee yet giues himselfe for meate and drinke vnder the forme of dead things which are the accidents of bread and wine taking in them a dead being to wit of things that wee eate which is a being that hath neither life nor feeling So that as hee became mortall by taking vpon him our mortal nature in the which he was immolated in his owne person on the Altar of the Crosse albeit his Diuinity remained still immortall Euen so taking heere an exteriour being of a thing dead and giuing himselfe vnder such a being he exhibits himselfe as dead and after this manner he is truely immolated in regard of the formes though he remaine still in himselfe altogether impassible And although the humanity alone of the Sonne of God endured the strokes of death yet notwithstanding we say that God is truely dead because the Humanity and the Diuinity made then but one to wit one person God and man 1. Cor. 2.8 Iesus Christ In like manner we say that the body of our Sauiour is truely immolated albeit nothing but the species earieth the marks of death not because the forms make not one person but one Sacrament with the body of our Sauiour and this body is truely immolated and truely broken by reason of the species of bread which endures this breaking and likewise his bloud is truely shed not as the bloud which is drawne from the veines but after the maner as the substance of wine might a little before haue bin powred out in his owne kind to which succeeded the substance of bloud immolated without occasion as the first Councell of Nice explaines it Concil 1. Nicen. Cap. 5. and shed without bloudy effusion and truely immolated according to the order of Melchisedech vnder the dead formes of bread and wine Concil Trident. Sess 22. cap. 1. as speakes the Councell of Trent immolated not in Figure as of old in the Hebrew Sacrifices where his body was not present and immolated not in him himselfe and in his proper forme as it was on the Crosse but as it is said vnder the formes of bread and wine vnder which his body is present and it is in this sense that the holy Scripture and the Doctors teach that our Sauiour is offered or immolated in the Eucharist as shall be euident by the testimonies following 5. THE IMMOLATION OF THE BODY of our Sauiour in the Masse confirmed by the testimonies of the Scripture and ancient Fathers SAint Paul saith 1. Cor. 5.7 Christ our Paschall Lambe hath been immolated wherefore let vs feast with
bread without leauen bread of sincerity It is certaine that the Apostle meant the immolation of our Sauiour made in the Eucharist with refection and not that of the Crosse which was a Paschal Feast accompanied with torments of ignominies of distresses and wants and of other circumstances repugnant to a holy refection Saint AMBROST S. Ambros in cap. 1 Luc. When we Sacrifice Christ is present Christ is immolated for Christ our Passcouer hath been offered Saint Hierom after Origen giues the same exposition Orig. S. Hier. in 26. Mat. Concil 1. Nic. can 5. that Saint Ambrose of the words of Saint Paul and the first Councell of Nice saith that our Sauiour is immolated without effusion of bloud as we said euen now Saint Cyril of Hierusalem tells vs speaking of the Eucharist S. Cyril Hieres Catech. Mist 5. Christ is offered to God the Father for our sins Saint Gregory Nisse proueth it by the Figure of the Paschall Lambe saying S. Greg. Niss Or. 1. de Resur Euery man knoweth that man could not eate the Lambe but first it was immolated wherefore Iesus Christ gining his body to be eaten shewes manifestly that there was before a true and entire immolation Saint AVGVSTINE Iesus Christ S. Aug ep 23. ad Bonis hauing been once immolated in himselfe is he not neuerthe lesse immolated for the people euery day After the same language speake the other Doctors of the Church of God whom it is not needfull to cite we ought rather to admire heere the infinite power wisdom and bounty of our Redeemer in that he will vouchsafe to giue himselfe in such a fashion for the benefit of his members and that so much the more because the gift surpasseth not onely our merits but euen our thoughts For who could euer dare to hope who would euer thinke that he would so much abase himselfe after his triumphant Ascension that he would become meate for vs To apparell himselfe with mortality to make vs immortall To take a mortall Robe vpon him for to giue vs an immortall garment Is hee not truely all puissant in this effect all wise in this ordinance and al good in this charity As who for example would euer haue expected those other things which now wee see are come to passe if they were not done alreadie Who would haue thought that this selfe-same Sonne of God equall in all things to his Father immortall impossible most rich Creator and nourishers of all creatures could haue had the power and will to make himselfe Man a mortall man a needy little Insant sucking the breast of a Virgin to giue himselfe afterwards on the Crosse remaining alwayes what hee was before Who without particuler reuelation would euer haue thought this Wee know that he would doe it and that he hath done it and we admire it in our attentiue silence Admire then likewise the same God for that he giueth and continueth to giue his glorious body hidden vnder such base elements impassible vnder corruptible garments immortall vnder the robe of immortality and a great Creator vnder the cottage of a little creature a great God vnder the forme of a little Lambe 6. HOW THE PASCHALL LAMBE sheweth the vse and end of the Eucharist THere is yet one noble consideration more in the Paschall Lambe which shewes the vse and the end for which our Sacrifice was ordained The Paschall Lambe was instituted in signe of the deliuery of the Iewes Exod. 8.12.12 and in memory of it For they immolated it about the euening at the going downe of the Sunne and did eate it a little after towards night Deut. 16. and at midnight following was the Pasque or the Fast that is to say the passage of our Lord when passing thorow Aegypt hee slew by the hand of his reuenging Angell all the first borne which was the great blow he gaue for the deliuerance of the Iewes that was to follow the next day and Moses by the ordinance of God aduertised the Iewes to teach their posterity that this Sacrifice of the Lambe was commanded in memory of this deliuerance Exod. 12.14.26 Wherefore this was a signe of the benefit to be receiued and a memoriall thereof after it was receiued The resemblance of this Figure hath been perfectly accomplished in the verity For our Sauiour ordained the Sacrament and Sacrifice of his body vpon the euening of that night in which he was taken to be crucified the next morning and passe from this world into another to stisle by his death the true first-borne of Aegypt to wit the sinnes of mankinde and to bury afterwards in his precious bloud as within the depth of a red-Sea of his infinite merits the powers of hell for the true deliuerance of his Elect. This Sacrifice then was a signe of the victory which was to be gotten and a memoriall of the same after it was gained this our Sauiour signified when instituting the same he foretold the Apostles of his death and commanded them to doe what hee had done in remembrance of him Doe this in remembrance of me that is to say Luc. 22.19 1. Cor. 11.24 celebrate this Sacrifice in remembrance of that I shall haue done for your redemption For as the night which followed the institution of the Paschall Lambe was the great Vigil and immediate signe of the deliuerance of the Hebrewes so also the midnight of our Sauiour which followed the institution of this Sacrifice was the great brunt and the immediate ensigne of our redemption The time of this midnight was at ful midday whē he moūted on the Crosse to encounter the enemy and to ouerthrow our sins with out-stretched armes this was a profound midnight indeed of spirituall darknesse in which they were buried which procured his death a midnight also of corporall darknesse for the Sunne and the Moone enraged with the indignity of such a crime committed against the person of their Creator were suddenly colypsed and caused a profound darknesse extraordinary and a dreadfull night in the midst of the day And as the Ceremony of the Paschall Lambe continued in memory of the good receiued in Aegypt so long as the Synagogue endured So in like maner the Sacrifice of the Masse was instituted to continue in memory of the victorious Passion of our Lord so long as the Church shall be militant heere on earth and this is it which Saint Paul saith 1. Cor. 11.26 writing to the Christians of Gorinth As often as you shall eate of this Bread and drinke of this Chalice you shew the death of the Lord vntill he come that is to say euen vntill the great day 7. OF THE CEREMONIES VSED IN eating the Paschall Lambe THere were a great number of Mysticall Ceremonies vsed in eating of the Iewes Paschall Lambe which in their shadowes Figure to vs the truth of ours and together instruct vs how we ought to eate it for to draw substance of life from it The Iewes
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
haue their eyes fixed on the Altar sinoaking yet with the Sacrifice of the burnt Victimes other on the Priests gesture eleuating so ceremoniously the Loaues put ouer the Lambs some also are attentiue to the Loaues and the Lambes themselues but their lookes cannot bee seene nor the mouings of their hands and eyes for as much as all of them look towards the Altar and are painted for the most part with their backes turned towards vs so as little of their shape before appeares and much lesse their visage But by these few we see we may well coniecture that the most spirituall cast their thoughts on the mystery which was hidden vnder the rinde of the Ceremony for they are taught that their Law was as it were a peece of Tapestree 1 Cor. 10. teaching the truth of that which should after be in the time of the Messias by meanes whereof they behold not so much the preparation of the Sacrifices of the Beasts and of new Loaues as that which is signified by them and it is not to bee doubted but God did make seene to many the future light of the Law of Grace surely by contemplating onely the countenance of this olde Priest portrayted on the right side of the Altar lifting his eyes to heauen and holding his hands a crosse all rauished and all in an extasie one may collect that he hath had some secret reuelation of the great good that God had promised for the ages to come by the feast of this Sacrifice of new Loaues and that he in his soule glorified the diuine Maiesty desirous if such were the good pleasure of God to bee liuing vpon the earth in that season and like it is that he said in his heart O God of Israel how great how magnificent and admirable art thou in the workes of thy hands great to doe great things magnificent to obliege men by thy great benefits and admirable to choose the times and seasons wherein thou wilt bestow them Thou hast by that commandement alone of thy liuely word created heauen and earth and all that is betweene them to make a present thereof to man thy creature and ceasest not to oblige him with new benefits euery moment thou hast in particular assisted with a thousand blessings this thy people the Hebrewes breaking with a strong hand the yron chaines of their bondage deliuering them out of Aegypt and from the tyranny of Pharoe giuing them for their portion a Land of Milke and Holy true delicacies of the earth and communicating to them thy holy Lawes and secrets these are the true effects of thy great goodnesse but I see it will extend it selfe out of measure more then euer to the future people and ages not containing it selfe in Palestine but spreading it selfe ouer the world when the Messias and Redeemer whom thou hast promised and we expect and whom these Sacrifices prefigure to vs and after a secret manner foretell shall come to Sacrifice himselfe and to be an Oblation of new Bread and food of immortality O happy time in which this Sauiour shall be borne O happy people which shall be his people conducted by his Lawes and fed at his Table O that I were a childe of that age and member of that Common-wealth This Picture makes vs coniecture that hee speaketh to this purpose 1. THREE IVDAICALL PEASTS OF the First-fruits THe Iewes receiued a Commandement in the Desert Leuit. 23. to offer vnto God the first of the new fruites of the Land of Promise when they should be peaceable possessors thereof and that vpon three Feasts of the yeare The first was the day after the Pasque in which they gaue a sheafe of the first eares in the beginning of Haruest Leuit. 23. Ioseph l. 3. c. 10. Ant. 9. which after the Iudaicall account began in March or in the entrance of Aprill because the Land was very hot The second they celebrared fifty daies after which for that cause was called Pentecost wherein not eares of Corne as in the first Feast but two Loaues of new Wheate with many bloudy Sacrifices going before were offered vp to God The third was after the fifteenth of Septemb. in which the First-fruits of all the year were offred together as Wheat Barly Grapes Oliues Pomgranats Figges and Dates The most famous of all the three Feasts was that of Pentecost and for that reason the Law called it simply and without any addition Rab. Salomon â—â—ad â—â—ra in c. 23. Leuit. The feast of First-fruits a most solemne and most holy day The Oblation offered vpon that day was accompanied with all the three kindes of the Iewish Sacrifices which were the Holocaust the Propitiatory and the Peace-offering and they made them of the noblest kinde of Hoasts and Victimes to wit of seuen Lambes of one fat Calfe of two sheepe in Holocaust to the honor of God one Goate in Propitiatory Sacrifice for remission of sinnes and two Lambes with the Loaues in a Peace-offering for thanksgiuing This is the Feast and the Oblation of the First-fruits represented in the former Picture 2. THE MASSE THE NEW OBLATION in the Pentecost of Christians THis Oblation and this First-fruits of new Bread at Pentecost was one of the most illustrious Figures of the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Masse a new Oblation indeed and the true First-fruits of the Wheat of the new Law as the ancient Fathers haue obserued And amongst others Saint Irenaeas very elegantly in these words Our Sauiour saith hee teaching his Disciples to offer the First-fruits of his creatures to God 〈…〉 l. 4. c. 32 not for any need he had of them but to the end they night not be vnprofitable and vngratefull seruants tooke the bread which is the creature and yeelding thankes said This is my body likewise he confessed that the Chalice which came of his creature was his bloud teaching the new Oblation of the new Testament which the Church receiued from the Apostles and offers all ouer the world to God our nourisher and feeder for the First-fruits of the gifts that he hath bestowed vpon vs in the Law of Grace according as Malachy hath foretold I haue no will in you saith the Lord of Hostes and gifts will not receiue at your hands Malac. 1. for from the rising of the Sunne euen to the going downe great is my name among the Gentiles saith the Lord of Hostes By which words addeth this Doctor The Prophet manifestly signefieth this which is now come to passe for the former people cease offering to God and Sacrifice is now offered to God throughout all the vniuersall world and the name of God is glorified amongst the Gentiles Making then allusion to the old Figure he saith that our Sauiour saying This is my body and this is my bloud and transubstantiating the bread into his body and the wine into his bloud taught his Apostles Disciples to giue to God the First-fruits of his creatures and to offer him a new
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
grant they doe but it is by their owne fault who depriue themselues of this fruit for it profits others The Crosse is a wayes then the foundation of our whole redemption the Sacraments are the meanes for to apply them in particular to euery liuing Christian well disposed the Sacrifice of the Masse to all as hath been said and in them all the bloud shed on the Crosse is the price and payment of our redemption 7. THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASSE and the Sacraments rather giue then take any honor from the Crosse AS the Sacrifice of the Masse and all the Sacraments of the Church doe take their vertue from the infinit merit of the Crosse so they honor it by applying the vertue thereof For so many times as they giue grace so often they giue occasion to praise the first cause of that grace Neither more nor lesse then naturally an Eagle a Lion a Dolphin an Emeraud and euery other noble creature bringing by his goodnes and beauty some profit or pleasure to man stirre him vp to praise the Creator who gaue that goodnesse and beauty to the creature So the Sacraments giuing grace by that action of theirs testifie to vs the merit of the Passion of Christ meritorious spring of this grace But aboue all Christian Mysteries the Sacrisice of the Masse excelleth and that for two reasons The first because it containes in it present the same body which redeemed vs vpon the Crosse and presenteth in this body the fountaine of our redemption Whereas other Sacraments communicate nothing but the Riuers flowing from that Fountaine The second because it liuely represents the action of this our redemption to wit the Passion of our Sauiour and the Sacrifice of the Crosse for the same body which was offered on the Crosse is offered heere on the Crosse by bloudy Sacrifice heere by vnbloudy Sacrifice on the Crosse it was immolated it is immolated also heere but there with slaughter and violent effusion of bloud heere it is immolated after the maner we haue said to wit the formes of bread and wine and by them represented as a dead and insensible thing such as are bread and wine and his bloud seeming to be after the manner of wine shed vnder which it is whereas it is alwayes in his body and both body bloud remaine impassible immortall and glorious Vpon the Crosse his power seemed weaknesse and infirmity his goodnesse malice and his wisdome folly for the wicked beheld him poore beleeued him impotent blasphemed him as a malefactor and derided him as a foole though he was in himselfe all powerfull all good all wise all this is represented in the Sacrifice of the Masse For in outward shew nothing appeares but infirmity to the eyes of Infidels neither will they beleeue that our Sauiour can make his body there present it also seemes to them impiety and therefore they call it Idolatry it appeares to them nothing but folly and therefore they mocke at it as if it were a Comâ—edy wheras notwithstanding it is an action of the Sonne of God and the most godly worke of Piety and Religion that is in the Church For these reasons then it honoreth it preacheth it communicateth it represents the vertue of the Crosse aboue all other Christian mysteries and no meruell for it was ordained by the hand of him which hath of old drawne forth in the old Sacrifices all the Figures of the Crosse and who knew well how to prepare a Sacrifice in the Law of his Grace which might liuely 1. Cor. 11.26 and effectually represent the same Passion in euery point And as he hath wisely ordained it so hath he chosen it for a most honorable memory of his Crosse Wherefore the Aduersary affirming that the Masse euacuats the honor of the Crosse is a not orious lyer a wicked deceiuer and an impudent calumniator and goeth about himselfe to euacuat the honor of the Crosse and depriue men of the fruit of it obscuring the truth by his lyes deceiuing soules by his impostures and blemishing the actions of piety by his slanders 8. THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASSE Profitable to obtaine from God all kind of good and it extends it selfe to all persons except the damned SEing that the Sacrifice of the Masse is so good a means to obtaine remission of sinnes it is easie to conceiue that it is able to helpe vs to obtain whatsoeuer else is profitable for vs. For it is more hard to appease the wrath of God and to encline him to be mercifull vnto vs when by sinne we are his enemies then to obtaine all other gifts from him when he is become our friend We know likewise that the ancient Sacrifices were offered nor onely for sinne but for many other temporall ends also It followes then that the Sacrifice of the Eucharist which succeeded to all the ancient Sacrifices as Saint Chrysostome S. Chrysost in Psal 95. S. Aug. cont Adâ—ers leg l. 1. c. 20 S. Leoserm 8. de Pass Dom. Saint Augustine Saint Lee and the other Doctors of the Church affirme may be offered for the same ends otherwise the truth should come short of the Figure which were absurde That the ancient Sacrifices were employed for the obtaining of other gifts besides remission of sinne is euident by the holy Scripture which tels vs that the Hebrews offered Victims for the life of King Darius Darius 1. Esd 6. Heliodor 2. Mach. ib. 3.32 and his children As also that Onias High-Priest offred for the health of Heliodore The Masse then is much more able to obtaine all that which the Iudaicall Oblations obtained for they contained onely the Figure of the body of our Sauiour but the Eucharist exhibits the reall body it selfe And this hath been the practise of the Church euen from her Cradle 1. Tim. 2. Saint Paul commanded that publike prayer should bee made in the Church for Kings and other persons in authority to the end we might liue peaceably vnder them these Prayers the holy Fathers Saint Chrysostome S. Chrysost in 1. ad Tim 2. S. Amb. l. 6. de Sacer. c. vlt. S. Aug. ep 59. ad Paul Thâ—oph Occum in 1. Tim. 2. Tertul. ad Sea pul S. Aug. l. 22. c. 8. S. Prosper Aquitan de predictio Dâ—i c. 6. S. Chrysost in hâ—â— 1â— 21. in Act. Apost S. Hierâ—s Catech 5. Misâ—ag Saint Ambrose Saint Augustine and others expound to be those which are made in the Sacrifice of the Masse Tertullian confirmeth this custome Wee Sacrifice saith hee for the health of the Emperour Saint Augustine writeth That in his time certaine Priestes said Masse and offered Sacrifice in a house for to driue away the Diuels which infested it and made it inhabitable Saint Prosper witnesseth that the Sacrifice of the Masse was offered for a woman possessed that shee might bee deliuered and after that shee was dispossessed the same was offred againe in the way of thanksgiuing Saint Chrysostome in many places
makes mention of the custome of the Church to say Masse for the fruits of the earth and the testimony of Saint Cyril of Hierusalem is cleare in this matter who in one of his Lessons speaking of the Masse saith After that the spirituall Sacrifice and vnbloudy worship is done ouer the same Heast of Propitiation we pray to God for the common peace of all the Churches for the tranquillity of the world for Kings for Souldiers for the sicke for the afflicted In conclusion for all those which haue need of succour 9. THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASSE profitable to the Faithfull departed which are in Purgatory and honorable to those which raigne in heauen THe faith and custome of the Church hath euer been to offer also to God the Sacrifice of the Masse for the soules of the faithfull departed not to procure pardon for their sinnes but to obtaine of God release of the paine due to their sinnes who are in Purgatory For they which are in hell are cut off eternally from the body of Iesus Christ and incapable of succour from his precious bloud Saint Chrysostome S. Chrysost hom â—9 ad Pap. Anâ—ie â—â—m 3. 〈◊〉 ad Philip. speaking of this custome Not without cause saith he it was or daâ—â—ed by the Aposiles that commemoration should be made of the faith full departed in the dreadfull mysteries for so he calleth the Sacrifice of the Masse for they well knew it would bring them great benefit and profit According to which faith S. Aug. l. 9 â—â—â—sess c. 11.12.13 S. Augustine was entreated by his Mother to pray to God for her after her death in the Masse Shee saith hee charged me not to prepare for herâ— sumptuous toâ—be but onely signified that shee l sâ—râ—d that remembrance should be made of her at the Altar at which emery day shee religiously serued God knowing that from it was the Victime distributed 〈◊〉 2.14.15 which wâ—ped out the hand writing of decree that was against vs and led the enemy in triumph Which he performed like a faithfull childe causing the office for the dead and Masse to be said for her at her burial helping her rather after this manner then bewailing her with teares as himselfe witnesseth saying to God We wept not O Lord in the prayers which we made when the Sacrifice of our price was offered vp to theâ— Whereby he shewes what was the faith and religion of all the Church in his dayes S. Epiphanâ— also puts this custome amongst the Articles of Catholike Doctrine and witnesseth Epiph. heres 57. in Aâ—acephaleâ—â— S. Aug. de 〈◊〉 cap. â—3 as after him did also S. Augustine that Aerius was Anathematized as an Heretike for hauing held that the Sacrifice of the Masse was not to be offered for the dead The same Church hath also at all times offered Sacrifice of thankesgiuing for the Victime of the blessed Saints which are raigning in heauen And here-hence it is that men say Masse vpon their Feasts in which they are called vpon remembred not that men offer Sacrifice to them for that was the slander of the old Heretikes and Pagans but to giue thanks to God who made them victorious and to shew that we reioyce in their glory And this is it Saint Augustine declareth S. Aug. l. 8. de Ciuit. cap. 27. answering to the calumnies of Heretikes Who is he amongst the Infidels saith he that euer heard the Priest being at the Altar say in his Prayer I offer Sacrifice to thee O Peter O Paul O Cyprian for it is to God and not to them that that Sacrifice is offered within the Churches dedicated to their memory And elsewhere Ideâ— coâ—â—â—â— Faâ—st l. 20. c. 21. almost in the same tearmes We erect not Altars to Martyrs but onely to God in remembrance and memory of them For who did euer heare any Prelate doing his office at the Altar where Saints bodies lye say We offer Sacrifice to the O Peter O Paul O Cyprian but what is offered is offered to God who crowned the Martyrs though it be done in places dedicated to their memorie By which Doctrine it appeares how the Sacrifice of the Masse is not onely Propitiatory for sinnes but profitable to obtaine of God all kind of benefits And that it extends it selfe to all sorts of persons except the damned And that as the Sacrifice of the Crosse is a generall and fundamentall treasure for all the members of the Church of God liuing and dead present and to come so the Sacrifice of the Masse is an instrument and vniuersall meanes to apply the merit of this treasure to euery one THE ELEVENTH PICTVRE THE FIVE LOAVES AND TVVO FISHES The Description HEE which is in company of Iesus Iohn 6. Matth. 14.21 Marc. 6.40 can want nothing Doe you behold this great number of people set by hundreds and fifties vpon these beds and Tapestries of hearbes and flowers of the Spring taking their refection in the midst of the Desart they are about fiue thousand men besides women and little children Matth. 14.21 who following our Sauiour many dayes heard his Word with such feruour and delight that before they were a ware all their prouision was spent and were vtterly destitute of necessary food in these high mountaines and barren places fruitfull onely of grasse and flowers Yet notwithstanding they banquet to their fill hauing meruailous aboundance of food though all their prouision was but fiue Barly-loaues and two fishes which a yong Boy of the troope had by chance brought with him O this Boy shall one day vnder the name of Marshall be a great feeder and nourisher of Christian soules in the Countrey of Aquitan This prouision was onely casuall and very insufficient for so great a number of people but the Diuine prouidence was neither casuall nor nigardly which knowes well how to prouide for want and to make abundance of new Manna spring vp in the midst of the Desart and to feed them after with materiall food whom he had fed before with the bread of his holy Doctrine For hee multiplied the Loaues and the Fishes by his blessing in such abundance as they did suffice to fill all this people set at so many tables who brought with them as good appetites to eate as they had strong stomackes to disgest All cat as much as they will of these Loaues and these Fishes And the Apostles are the diuiders and deliuerers no lesse wondering then ioyfull to see that the bread and fishes encreased in their hands as fast as they distributed them to their guests But Philip and Andrew aboue all other were astonished for they also aboue therest apprehended the greatnesse of the multitude and the little quantitie of food which was to be had in that place The good Philip said Two hundred pentworth of bread will not suffice that euery ont may haue a little bet as the custome is to distribute holy-bread Whereas these fiue Loaues brought by this
be proper cleare and euident and without doubtfulnesse ambiguitie or incertainty that the Will of the Testator may bee vnderstood without difficulty and without contention Matth. 26. Marke 14. Luke 22. This is the cause why three Euangelists the Registers of this Institution and Notaries of this Testament haue vsed the selfe-same words and S. Paul after them without varying 1. Cor. 11. To the end to hold constant the light of this euidence and strongly to maintaine the ground of that faith which wee ought to haue of this mystery and to declare by a firme and sollide accord of foure diuine witnesses that the sense of the words is that which they literally signifie and that being the words of an Almighty worker to whom nothing can be impossible and the words of a supreme truth who can say nothing which is not true they must needs make that which they signifie By which meanes if any one refusing the literall sense of the Scripture will glose it from his owne head saying This is my body that is to say this is the Figure of my body This is my bloud that is the Figure of my bloud he should herein be opposite to the holy deposition of these foure witnesses not daring so to speake which notwithstanding they would haue done if such had been the sense of the words and should also too boldly change the truth of Gods word giuing a sense cleane contrary to the signification of the words and putting the Figure for the Body against the authority of the forenamed witnesses who haue neuer presumed to giue such a glosse Yea hee should doe contrary to all law of Speech and Grammer which commandeth to take the words of the text according to the ground of their proper meaning without hauing recourse to any metaphoricall and improper signification when they do not giue any absurde or contradictory sense which happeneth not here For heere the proper sense is most cominent and agreeable to the truth and the words do signifie no other thing but the presence of the body of Iesus Christ in this Sacrament which is not onely not contradictory nor absurde but full of wonders most worthy of the power wisdome and goodnesse of our Sauiour When the Scripture calleth the King a Lion the word ought to bee taken by similitude that a King is like a Lion by reason of his royall magnanimity for taking the word according to the sense of the letter the meaning should be that he were a beast which would be false and absurde But these words taken in their naturall signification containe nothing but that which is most agreeable to the Maiesty of the Creator and most heneficiall to his creature wherefore there is not any reason heere to runne to Figures and therefore also it is impiety to say that these clauses This is my body This is my bloud are improper speeches importing no more then that they are Figures of his body and bloud For such deprauation destroyes the truth of a most noble Sacrament and shewes that such Enterpreters are not onely void of faith but also depriued of vnderstanding hastily opening the gate to themselues and to all other senselesse people to reiect all sense of Scripture be it neuer so euident if it displease them and to frame the manner of it according to the vnsteadinesse of their owne braines and to the exorbitant passion of vnbridled flesh 4. TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS vpon the Exposition of the same words AS the Scripture is euident in these diuine words so is the Exposition of holy Fathers constant to maintaine the sense they giue in proper signification as hath bin said Saint CYRIL of Hierusalem Since that Iesus Christ S. Cyril Hieres Catech. myst 4 hauing taken the bread saith This is my body Who is he which for euer dare to doubt and he affirming the same and saying This is my bloud Who will refuse to beleeue it He changed water into wine a creature neighbour to bloud by his only will Iohn 2. and shall not we beleeue that hee hath changed the wine to his bloud Beleeue then most constantly that we receiue the body and bloud of Christ for vnder the forme of bread the body is giuen thee and the bloud vnder the forme of wine Saint BASIL hauing asked with what feare faith S. Basil in Regul breu interrog 172. and affection of the soule men ought to take the body and bloud of our Sauiour answeres himselfe saying How great the feare is S. Paul instructs vs Who so eateth this bread and drinketh this Chalice vnworthily he eateth and drinketh his owne damnation What we are to beleeue is taught by the words of Christ who said This is my body giuen for you And there this Doctor consequently sheweth how we ought to beleeue these words This is my body which the same faith with which we beleeue these words of Saint Iohn when he saith The Word was made flesh Iohn 1. and those of Saint Paul Philip. 2. when he extolled the great humility of the same Word in his Incarnation his great obedience in his Passion and his infinit charity in the one and the other as then we beleeue that God was really and truely made flesh and suffered death according as the words of the Scripture tell vs. In the same manner Saint Basil will that wee beleeue the Reall Presence of the body of our Sauiour according as these words This is my body teach vs and concludes that by faith and consideration of these things we are inflamed with a great loue to Iesus Christ which is the affection of the soule that wee ought to bring with vs to the Communion of his body and bloud accompanied with feare and beleefe as hath been said Saint CHRYSOSTOME S. Chrysos hom 83. in Matth 60 ad Pap. Antioch Hom. de prodit Iuda Gen. 1.22 8.17 Let vs beleeue God without doubt for it is he which said This is my body And elsewhere It is not man which makes the body and bloud of Christ in offered things but Christ himselfe crucified for vs Hee said This is my body by this word the offering is consecrated And euen as these words once vttered Increase and multiply and fill the earth alwayes worke their effect in Nature for generation euen so these words vttered This is my body giue certainty to the Sacrifice through all the Tables of the Church euen vnto this day and will giue it vntill the comming of the Sonne of God Saint IOHN DAMASCENE S. Ioan. Damas l. 4. c. 14. The bread and the wine mingled with water supernaturally are changed into the body and bloud of Christ by the innocation of the holy Ghost and are not two but one and the same this hallowed bread it not the Figure of the body neither the wine the Figure of the bloud but the true deified body of our Lord and his true bloud THEOPHILACT Theophil in Matth. 26. a graue
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
there the food is heere immortall thy food there will be immortall Hee which hath of his owne free cost and charges prepared this Feast on earth for the food of his Pilgrims the selfe-same will prepare according to his magnificency the Feast of felicity in heauen for a glorious triumph of those who shall haue runne couragiously in the pathes of his diuine Lawes Yet there is a difference For in this Feast nothing but faith soberly perceiues the sauour of the meate and the sweetnesse of the drinke humane sense and iudgement seeth nothing heere but couered dishes without power to touch them In that there the meate shall bee exposed to the appetite of the soule to the full in a magnificent and open table and the senses shall haue also their good part In this heere we are mortall growing in the Land of the dying in that wee shall bee immortall without feare of death or disquiet set in the possession of the Land of the Liuing and of the eternall kingdome but who can vtter by word or imagine by thought the magnificency of that royall Feast The great Apostle rapt vp euen into the third heauen to learne the lessons of those diuine mysteries 1. Cor 2.9 Esay 6.4.4 knew not how to doe it and shewed himselfe learned in the confession of his ignorance in the mysteries of God This is a Feast vnknowne to any that is not set at the Table to eate and drinke there Well then O faithfull soules and trauellers in this Desart redeemed by this Lord beloued of this Spouse inuited to those nuptiall banquets purely vse the meat that he hath prepared and that he offereth you in pawne of his loue in this mortall life liue holily 〈…〉 attend patiently keepe your lampes replenished with the oyle of your good workes and kindled with the light of your conuersation to the end that when the time of the celestiall mariage shall come the doore may be opened to you that you may enter to the Feast And thou O sweete Lambe which shall bee the great King and the great food of this immortall table effect if it please thee by the infinite merite of thy Crosse that wee may sit downe there according to the promise of thy Testament and that wee there may liue eternally there to praise thee euerlastingly Amen FINIS Laus Deo beataequeVirgini MariaÌ„ omnibus sanctis A TABLE OF THE PICTVRES DESCRIPTIONS AND EXPOSITIONS OF THEM PICTVRE I. Paradise and the Tree of Life THe Description Page 13 1 The Church of God liuely set forth in earchly Paradise Page 16 2 Of the benefits and excellent qualities of the Church described in the patterne of earthly Paradise Page 18 3 The holy Sacrament of the Altar figured by the tree of life Page 19 4 Resemblances of the tree of life to the holy Sacrament of the Altar Page 20 5 Of the excellency of the holy Sacrament of the Altar farre aboue the tree of life Page 23 6 The body of the Sauiour nourishment of the soule and cause of the glorious resurrection of the body Page 24 7 The Sacrament of the body of the Sonne of God tree of all the earth Page 25 8 Certaine spirituall aspirations of the soule desiring the cleare vision of the body of our Sauiour and a giuing thankes for the same Page 26 PICTVRE II. The Sacrifice of Abel THe Description Page 29 1 The Sacrifice of Abel a Figure of the Crosse and of the Eucharist Page 31 2 The accord of the Figure of the Sacrifice of Abel with that of the Masse Page 32 Of two sorts of Sacrifices Page 34 3 God permits euill to draw good forth of it for his glory and the profit of his children Page 35 4 Abel an Image of the Iust and Cain of the wicked Page 38 PICTVRE III. The Sacrifice of Melchisedech THe Description Page 42 1 Melchisedech the Figure of our Sauiour Page 45 2 The Priest-hood of the Son of God figured in that of Melchisedech Page 46 3 Wherefore our Sauiour hath Iustituted the Sacrament and Sacrifice of his body vnder the formes of bread wine Page 47 4 The bread and wine signes of the Passion of our Sauiour in his Sacrament Page 48 5 The bread and wine in the Eucharist signes of the mysticall body of our Sauiour Page 49 6 The body of our Sauiour called bread his bloud wine Page 50 7 What this Sacrament is ibid. 8 What a Sacrifice is and how it is offered in the Masse Page 51 9 The difference betweene a Sacrament and a Sacrifice Page 53 10 No Religion without Sacrifice Page 54 11 Testimonies of the Hebrew Doctors vpon the same subiect that is of the Sacrifice of Melchisedech Page 55 12 Testimonies of the ancient Greeke Fathers vpon the Figure of Melchisedech Page 56 13 Testimonies of the ancient Latine Fathers Page 58 14 The difference betweene the Sacrifice of the Crosse and that of the Eucharist Page 59 15 The difference of the Sacrifice of Melchisedech and of this of the Masse Page 60 16 The good spirituall souldiers are worthy of the food and blessing of the body of our Lord. Page 61 PICTVRE IV. Isaak on the Altar THe Description Page 63 1 Isaak and the Ramme sacrificed a Figure of the death of our Sauiour and of the Sacrifice and Sacrament of his body Page 67 2 The height of the mystery of the Eucharist signified by the Mountaine and by Abraham and how wee are to appreach to it Page 69 PICTVRE V. The Paschall Lambe THe Description Page 73 1 Of the time of Immolation of the Paschall Lambe and of the Holy and Ciuill yeare of the Hebrewes and of their Neomenia or new Moone Page 75 2 Wherefore the yeare of the Hebrewes was Lunary and how the Synagogue was compared to the Moone Page 78 3 The Paschall Lamb a Figure of the Sacrifice of the Crosse and of the Eucharist Page 80 4 How Iesus Christ is imitated in the Eucharist Page 82 5 The Immolation of the body of our Sauiour in the Masse confirmed by the testimonies of the Scripture and ancient Fathers Page 84 6 Hom the Paschall Lambe sheweth the vse and end of the Encâ—arist Page 86 7 Of the ceremonies vsed in eating the Paschall Lambe Page 88 PICTVRE VI. Manna in the Desert THe Description Page 93 1 Manna a Figure of the Sacrament of the Altar Page 95 2 The correspondence of Manna to the Sacrament of the Altar Page 96 3 What signified the likenesse of Manna to Coriander Page 99 4 The holy Sacrament kept in the Tabernacle as Manna in the Arke Page 100 5 The Bread of the Iewes beares the name of wonder in Figure of our wonderfull Sacrament of the Altar Page 101 6 The wonderfull power of God in the Sacrament of the Altar Page 102 7 Of the omnipotemcie of God in Transubstantiation Page 104 8 This Change is a miracle for the faithfull Page 106 9 Of the same power of God shewed in
or at the Circumcision or in March. Before the time of K. Charles the ninth in France men began it at Easter and since at the Circumcision and according to this yeere wee count at this present 1600. since the Natiuity of our Sauiour comming into the world to repaire our ages and to giue vs eternity for time Our Ciuill yeare is variable and according to the diuersitie of the Countrey or condition of persons good husbands and Schollers begin at Saint Rhemigius many at Saint Martin some at Saint Iohn Baptist and others at other seasons but the Holy yeare hath his vniforme limits as it ought and there is little difference through all the Catholike Church Well then God commanded the Hebrewes to keepe their yearely Sacrifice of the Paschall Lambe in this first month and in the fourteenth day of it because this was the nearest time to their going forth and deliuerance for they went forth the next morning after the first-borne of the Aegyptians were slaine at midnight the night before So as the Ceremony was iustituted at that time precisely to put them in minde of the benefit as also the day and houre of it which was alwayes religiously obserued vntill the truth of this Figure at the same time many yeares after was accomplished by our Sauiour deliuering vs out of a greater seruitude and substituting the true Lambe in memory thereof as after we shall see The same Hebrewes had commandement to offer Sacrifice euery new Moone that is to say Num. 10. 28. Ioseph lib. 3. Antiq. cap. 10. vpon the Calends or first dayes of euery month which solemnity the Hebrews called Hodesch as who would say beginning the Septuagint haue translated it Neomenia a Greeke word which signifies a new month or a new Moone This Feast was not instituted to serue as a Sacrifice to the new Moone as the Pagans made it but for a thanksgiuing to God for the benefits of his bounty and wisdome in the gouernment of the world for to instruct vs that we ought to make our entrie into all the seasons and to begin euery action with the praise of God and inuocation of his holy name And hereby they were inuited to honour the Creator of the Moone Genes 1.14 and of all the world seruing themselues of the course of that Planet for signe of times for the which end it was created 2. WHEREFORE THE YEARE OF THE Hebrewes was Lunary and how the Synagogue was compared to the Moone THe causes wherefore God would that the Hebrews should take their years from the course of the Moone rather then from the Sunne as now the Church doth are worthy to be knowne if they were also easie to be found out For it ought not to be doubted but that this ordinance was founded in great reason comming from so wise a Law-maker Amongst many others I finde three The first is taken from the rudenesse of this people to which God hauing regard commaunded them to reckon their yeares and months by the Moone as more facill and easie then if they accounted by the twelue celestiall signes deuised by the Chaldeans and other Heathenish people For euery one seeth the new Moone and all his quarters and the most simple can obserue that shee ends her whole course within one moneth whereas none knowes the signes of the Zodiaque but Astronomers S. Greg. Naz. Or. 2. de Pasch The second is more important touched by Saint Gregory Nazianzen that it was to keepe in order by this ceremony the Iewes from following the superstition of the Pagans who were extreamely giuen to the worship of the Moone for they adored it in heauen as a Queene in the earth and vnder earth as a Goddesse vnder the name of Luna Diana Proserpina whose example might giue occasion to that people vainely giuen and of themselues inclined to imitate the foolish Pagans to suffer themselues to be head-long carried to Idolatry so much in practise in those dayes if they had not some true and lawfull vse of the Moone thereby to be held from the abuse therof against the Law of God Therfore God commanded them to order their months and yeares Feastes and Ceremonies according to the course of the Moone adored the true God in his Law and seruing themselues of the creature to the honour of their Creator Exod. 25. And with like wisdome hee ordained the Arke of Couenant to the end they should haue some visible thing before which to honor God without running to Idols The third cause is full of mystery and it was to giue a secret and mysticall signification of the condition of the Synagogue by the qualities of the Moone very significant of it The Moone is the lowest Planet of all terrestriall and grosse and yet celestiall notwithstanding the Iudaicall Law also was earthly and carnall the Ceremonies Sacrifices Promises and the rest no better and yet giuen of God notwithstanding and therefore celestiall in this respect the Moone is a cold and mutable Planet the Synagogue a Law of feare which is a cold passion a temporall Law and mutable which was to be changed into the Law of Grace The Moone by her light doth not ripen any fruit though shee giue by her influence encrease to Plants Trees and liuing creatures The Synagogue giueth not any perfection by his ceremonies Hebr. 7.19 The Law saith Saint PAVL bringeth nothing to perfection and neuerthelesse vnder her direction and light the children of God did receiue from his Maiesty grace and encrease of vertue not by force of Iudaicall Sacraments as now by the Christian but onely by the faith and obedience that they brought with them to those Sacraments For these reasons amongst others the Lunary yeare was the yeare and the time of the Synagogue Such as are more spirituall will draw better reasons hereof from the treasures of the Book of God whose wisdome is infinite in all things The Christians rule themselues by the Solary yeare because the foresaid causes neither touch them nor their religion We shall now decypher the sense of the Picture and shall see how the Paschall Lambe figureth the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the body of our Sauiour 3. THE PASCHALL LAMBE A FIGVRE of the Sacrifice of the Crosse and of the Eucharist THE Paschall Lambe did Figure Iesus Christ true Lambe without spot descended from heauen to bee killed and by his bloud to deliuer vs from the death and seruitude of the Aegyptians to wit from ignominie and eternall damnation This Ceremony in certaine circumstances carried the signe of the Sacrifice of the Crosse in the reall slaughter in the bloudy effusion in the roasting of the Lambe and such like Saint Iohn also in the Sacrifice of the Crosse Tem. 19.36 Exod. â—2 46 applieth the prohibition of not breaking the bones of the Lambe to that fact of the Iewes when they breake not one bone of our Sauiour crucified Saint Iustin singularly remarketh S. iustin Dialo
Iren. epist ad vict Pap. quae est apud Erseb lib. 5. hist c. 24. Euseb l. 6 c. 36. or be present at Masse to receiue it Such was the practise in the time of the Apostles and in the ages following vntill this day as it appeareth by the writings of Saint Iustin and other Doctors of holy antiquitie 5. THE BREAD OF THE IEWES BEARES the name of wonder in Figure of our wonderfull Sacrament of the Altar AS Manna was wonderfull in his causes in his nature and in his effects so it carried a name signifying nothing but wonder and admiration for Manna comes from the word Man-bu which is as we haue said before nothing but What is this a word which importeth admiration and desire to know in him that speakes it who because he is ignorant of the nature of the thing admires it and asketh What is this Our Manna and our Sacrament is so admirable that no name câ—n declare it and after that one hath well considered it hee shall finde it much more easy to admire it then to expresse it by a name correspondent to the excellencie by which meanes of all the names that it beares there is none which is more agreeable to it then Manna the name of admiration which Dauid declared by Periphrasis when he called the Eucharist Psal 110. The memoriall of the wonders of God which is not so much a name as a marke of wonder and to this of Dauid it is likely our Sauiour had regard when instituting the Sacrament of his body he said to his Apostles Luke 22.29 Doe this in remembrance of mee as if he had said vse this as a memoriall of my wonders Well then in this very name of Manna wee shall obserue another resemblance of admiration betweene the old Manna and the institution of the new Exod. 16. For when the Hebrewes hauing taken theirs in their hand said wondering Man-hu what is this Moyses answered onely in generall to their demand this is the bread that our Lord hath giuen you to eate but our Sauiour taking the bread and instituting the Sacrament answeres in particular saying This is my body Matthew Marke Luke and taking the Cup This is my bloud as if he had said Your Fathers long since asked What is this holding in their hand the food that I made raine downe vnto them and you still pronouncing Manna aske what is this I answere both to you and your Fathers This is my body this is my bloud their Manna and their wonder was this my body in Figure but the Manna which I make and the memoriall that I institute is my body not in Figure but in truth Behold then the wonder of our Sacrament figured in the name of the ancient Manna and the admirable resemblance betweene the old Manna in the Law of Moses and our new Manna in the Law of Grace And since that all heere is admirable and that the admiration hereof is profitable to vs and honorable to God in this great Mystery let vs further contemplate the springs and causes of this admiration arising out of his omnipotencie wisdome and bountie and let vs see wherefore the holy Fathers haue so extraordinarily admired it 6. THE WONDERFVLL POWER OF GOD in the Sacrament of the Altar GOd shewes himselfe admirable three wayes by his Power by his Wisdome and by his Bountie to the which end he hath grauen the workes of these three vertues in euery worke of his be it neuer so little The naturall vertues of Stones or Plants and the armour of beasts set forth the power of their Creator the ordering of the parts of euery creature the industry of the great and little beasts and their agilitie make vs to see his wisdome the essence and propertie of all things giuen vs doe witnesse his bountie vnto vs all that he did long since in the Law of Nature and of Moses and all that he hath done or shall doe hereafter in the Law of Grace is marked with these three markes and there is nothing wherein hee becomes not admirable by meanes of these three to all those that exercise the eyes of their soules in contemplation of the greatnesse of his works But aboue all he hath shewed himselfe maruailous in this diuine Sacrament as the last and principall worke of his hands and the admirable new Schedule or Codicill of his Testament And first he hath made appeare in it his wonderfull Power by so many sundry waves as there be diuersities in the nature of things we must explaine them after a stammering manner For how can we doe otherwise O Lord speaking of so high an effect of thy infinite power We finde in all visible nature the Substance the Qualitie the Relation the Action the Passion the Place the Time the State the Habite and nothing more Man for example hath a reasonable soule and a body which make his substance He hath his quantity which are his length breadth and thicknesse Hee hath his qualities which are his colour his beauty his bounty and such like He hath his relations compared to another which is lesse great lesse good or as great and as good as himselfe and is thereby surnamed greater better or equall He hath also his actions for hee speaketh hee writeth or doth other things He hath his passions for he receiues in his body or in his soule some impression of cold of heate of ioy of knowledge of sorrow and such like He is in some place as in the City in the fields and that at sometime either in the morning or in the euening in Summer or in Winter He hath his situation for hee is sitting or standing or lying Finally he hath his vesture or clothing his cloake his shooes c. And all whatsoeuer which is found in Man or in any other corporall creature is referred to one of these heads which are the ten orders by the Philosophers assigned to Nature Arist in Meta. Logic. comprehending all the parcells of euery creature According to all which our Sauiour sheweth himselfe omnipotent in this Sacrament let vs see it first insubstance 7. OF THE OMNIPOTENCIE OF GOD in Transubstantiation AS for Substance which is the foundation of all and holds the first ranke amongst things Categoria sub 〈◊〉 our Sauiour shewes his supreame power in this Sacrament in that hee changeth by his Word the substance of bread into his bodie and the substance of wine into his bloud a kinde of miracle very like vnto creation and more noble in this Mystery then creation it selfe and most fit to make vs know and acknowledge him an omnipotent workman In the creation Dexit facia 〈◊〉 Psal 32.9 God did speake and it was done he commanded and it was created as Dauid singeth Heere he saith This is my body and his body is found there This is my bloud and his bloud is there present Then his omnipotent Word made that to be which was not before at
the humility of our sense and iudgement which in this Mystery is altogether blinde so often we purchase new strength and new grace to beleeue the omnipotencie of our God And herehence it is that the holy Fathers S. Iustin S. Ireneus S. Chrysostoms S. Iustin Apol. 2. S. Iren. l. 4. c. 34. S. Chrysost bom 16. ad Pap. Annâ— bom 83. in Maâ—â—h S. Ambros lib. 4 â—â—it mist c â—9 9 S. Cyprian lib. 〈◊〉 Corn. Dom. S. August in Psal 33. S. Ambrose S. Cyprian S. Agustine and other Doctors so often as they either speake or write of the Eucharist alwayes inculcate with vs the Almightie power of God and obiect it to Heretikes as a certaine Marke of his powerfulnesse And as the Patriarkes and Prophets when they would shew that God is Almighty call him Creator of heauen and of earth Euen so the holy Doctors when they will extoll the almightinesse of our Sauiour alledge euer this his chiefe worke and as the Diuell of old perswaded certaine misinformed Philosophers to write that the world was not created but that it was eternall without beginning to weaken so much our faith in the omnipotencie of the Creator So in our age hath he raised certaine hereticall spirits which deny the presence of the body of our Sauiour in this Sacrament by their heresie to take away and to deface this most noble marke or signe of his omnipotency and to ouerthrow a most strong pillar of our Faith and the most beautifull ornament of Christian Religion 21. OF THE GOODNES OF OVR SAuiour in this Sacrament THe contemplation of the omnipotency and goodnes of God makes vs admire and loue him We haue giuen some documents of his omnipotency in this Sacrament let vs say one word of his goodnesse in the fame It is an argument of our loue to giue our goods to his behoofe and profit vpon whom we bestow them So God hath shewed himselfe to loue man by giuing him a being and creating the world for him It is an argument of greater loue to giue his owne substance for he that giueth of his proper bloud out of his body shewes himselfe more louing then he which makes neuer so great a present out of his purse Almighty God hath giuen his onely Sonne Ioan. 3.16 substance of his substance and the Sonne also hath giuen himselfe vnto vs ioyning in alliance his Diuinity to the Family of our Father Adam and making himselfe our brother so to worke our Saluation could he haue tyed himselfe to vs by any more straite bond and giuen himselfe more amorously then in giuing himselfe wholly to vs and making himselfe one with vs to deifie vs with himselfe and make vs heires of his glory Well then as in the Incarnation he hath made a gift of his Diuinity to man so in this Sacrament he hath bestowed vpon vs his Humanitie 〈◊〉 hath giuen it once to death in a bloudy Sacrifice and from time to time he ceaseth not to giue it for meat to apply vnto vs the fruit of his redemption he maried his Diâ—â—nity to our Humanity when he made himselfe man he â—â—arieth his humanity to ours when he giueth it to vs in this Sacrament For the flesh of our Sauiour heere is holily vnited to ours to make it both chast and fruitfull in bringing forth good workes and the same flesh is also a most diuine dish of his nuptiall feast to feed and fat our soules with celestiall vertues and to giue immortality to our bodies O sweet Iesus what goodnesse is this and what an effect of inflamed loue that thou vouchsafest to ioyne thy selfe by two so straite knots of Mariage and of Meate to so base and so miserable persons as we are the Lord to his scruants the King to his vassals the Creator to his creatures God to wretched poore sinners O what loue is this of thine in this diuine Mariage and Food What King would euer take for his Spouse a poore vassall of his And what father would feede his children with his owne body We see that mothers nourish their children with their milke which is a white bloud but what mother euer nourished her children with her proper flesh O diuine mariage O diuine banquet O wicked abuser and immortall enemie of Man which hast troubled this marriage and this banquet substituting in the place of this true Bridegroome 1. Reg. 19.13 and this true Dauid and this deified flesh an Idoll of Bakers bread But this thou hast done in the Church which thou hast falsly intituled Resormed and not in the Church of God Thou hast done it I say in a Synagogue of such misbeleeuers as haue chosen rather to lend their eares to the lyes of thy vanity then to beleeue the sacred and holy words of verity not in that Church 1. Tim. 3.15 pillar of truth Spouse which cannot erre assisted with the true Spirit Shee knoweth full well her Spouses voice and manner of proceedings she knoweth the goodnesse of his Table and will beware how shee forgoe it shee knoweth the Son omnipotent made for vs Emanuell Esay â— 14 that is to say God with vs when he was made Man liuing with vs and speaking with vs in his proper person but especially when he giueth himselfe vnto vs in this nuptiall banquet heere wherein more then euer or any where else he is indeed Emanuell For when he conuersed with vs mortall and visible it was but for a littla time the vnion was lesse with fewer people and that in Iury onely but by this Sacrament he is euer most straitely vnited as Spouse and Food with all them that will marrie themselues with him and feed vpon him and this not in one onely Land but in so many places as this Catholike and Vniuersall Church adores her Spouse euen from the East to the West from the South to the North and through all the earth An husband when he departs from his wife a father from his children a friend from his friends signifies his loue more then euer makes a feast leaues a pretious remembrance and shewes that departing hee would leaue himselfe still present if he could possibly be in many places at once Iesus Christ hath accomplished all this after a diuine manner for vpon the end of his passion and of his departure from this world hee shewed his feruent loue to his children Hauing loued his owne which were in the world Ioan. 13.1 saith Saint IOHN he loued them to the end that is to say he shewed them his loue more then euer before He likewise made his banquet with singuler signification of loue saying I haue greatly desired to eate this Pasque with you not the Moysaicall but the truth of the Moysaicall wherein he himselfe was the Lambe Finally for a Ring of remembrance he hath left his proper body and his owne selfe to be alwayes present with his friends in the manner aforesaid and to be for euer their Emanuell 22. CHARITIE
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
to be cut in peeces but spiritually of a liuely flesh which my Spirit will make present to be giuen in a spirituall manner without death or detriment as he wrought the conception of this same body in the wombe of the Virgin without carnall operation and without any hurt to her Virginity 11. THE MASSE BEGAN TO BE CELEbrated by the Apostles at Pentecost IT was then at Pentecost that the Apostles new Sacrificers did giue beginning to the practise of a new Sacrifice in the new Law offering a full and sufficient Oblation and celebrating the Messe with a pacifying Hoist of the bread from heauen and of the immortall Lambe Saint Iames was one of the first that offered in Hierusalem as all Antiquity witnesseth and after him the other Apostles both in Hierusalem and elsewhere Then began this diuine and first troupe as the first fruites of the Spirit of Grace to eate these delitious Cakes promised at the comming of the Messias and to communicat not once a yeare onely or once a month or once a weeke but euery day for it was a food they had neuer eaten of before exceeding delight full to the taste and these good foules had a continual appetite Aâ—â— 2. They were perseuerant saith the Scripture in the doctrâ—ne of the Apostles in the communion of the breaking of bread and in prayer They went to it euery day but this was after that the holy Ghost was descended For before it was said onely that they did perseuer in prayer they communicated euery day after the descent of the holy Ghost Great worker of this mystery Spirit which brought celestiall fier into their stomackes quicknesse to their tongues charity to their harts did let forth the pure water foretold by the ancient Lauarites of Salomons Temple Fountaine of Dauid Fzech 36.25 Ioel. 3 2â— Zach. 13.1 water of Grace and of the Sacrament of Baptisme of Penance and the rest appropriated to cleanse the entrals and the feete of the Hoasts to be offered and of the Offerers themselues that is to say to purifie the hearts the actions intentions and affections of them which offered the Sonne of God their good workes and themselues as whole burnt Sacrifices vpon the Altar of his Maiesty O if Moses had been at this Pentecost at this new Oblation and Sacrament of truth whereof so long before he had drawne the Picture With what reuerence would hee haue adored it O if Dauid could haue had a place at the table of this pacifique Bread and of this immortall Wine as he had in the ancient Sacrifices with what appetite would he haue fed vpon this celestial flesh and with how earnest desire would he haue said of this diuine drinke Psal 115. I will take the cup of salnation and call vpon the name of the most high If Salomon after hauing finished his magnificent Temple had had this body for to haue offred it to God after the manner of Melchisedech without effusion of bloud and without death how much more rich and honorable would he haue thought the dedicating of that Temple in respect of this Sacrifice alone then in regard of thousands of Oxen sheepe and Bulles burnt vpon the Altar of Holocausts O Christian soules lifted vp by contemplation acknowledge the gift of your Lord often celebrate this Pentecost offer this oblation take the first fruits of this deified Wheate and offer him yours to the end that one day you may haue place at the Table of felicitie where this same Lord shal be both the meate and the drinke of that banquet THE NINTH PICTVRE THE BREAD OF ELIAS The Description HAVE you not compassion of this good Elias 1. Reg. 19. â— who sleepeth vnder the shadow of this Iuniper tree more resembling one dead then a man sleeping Behold his face pale and wanne and bathed with a cold sweat his head carelessely bending towards the earth vpon the left side his eyes halfe open his armes cast heere and there and no signe of breath in his mouth and all his body stretched out as if he were yeelding vp the ghost Surely a little before being as it were beside himselfe with feare and ouercome with wearinesse hee asked of God if it were his good pleasure to take him out of this world that he might be deliuered once for all from the griefes that his soule felt by reason of the persecution of this cruell Tygresse Iezabel who had sworne by her gods that shee would put him to death within foure and twenty houres and in the feruour of his Prayer he is fallen a sleepe vnder this shrubbe where he is but euill accommodated either for shadow or any rest or repose for it is little and the leaues are like so many thornes which doe not keepe off the Sunne but pricke and pierce the flesh and the earth is sowed round about him Wherby I coniecture that the holy man without election or choise cast himselfe downe where he was finding himselfe in a manner out of breath and where the feeblenesse of his body had placed him But God who hath alwayes his eyes open to behold the paines of his seruants and his armes stretched out for their deliuerance hath sent for his comfort and succour this heauenly youth who stands hard by him with bread baked vpon the cinders â— â—â—g 19.5.6 and a pot of water It is an Angell in figure and shape of a man for so the Spirits commonly appeare vnto men The Painter hath made his visage bright in forme of lightning representing by this sudden flash his spirituall and subtill nature his lockes flying backe behinde are of a golden colour he hath also wings set on his backe according as the Scripture it selfe doth paint them forth to signifie the Swistnesse of their motion You see them vnequally spred forth in the ayre the one of them shewing the inside the other the outside wonderfully faire artificially drawne The two great feathers guides of the rest are of a bright greene colour as the wing of a Peacock the other next to them are intermingled with yellow oring-tawnie red and blew after the fashion of a Rainbow the little feathers which cloath the quills of both these and of the others that follow in diuers rankes are of diuers colours as the former the downe which couers the backe of the wing is like a heape of little small scales of diuers colours sette vpon cotten His garment is a stole of fine linnen embrodered with a curious work all about The refection which he brought for this good Prophet seemes not great at the first show consisting onely of bread and water which are the two most common and vulgar parts of the food of man but experience will shew that it is a diuine meat and drinke for Elias shall by it be sustained and fortified to walke the space of forty dayes and forty nights vntill that he come to the wonderfull Mountaine where of old God gaue the Tables of
Iewes saith the Euangelist contend amongst themselues saying How can this man giue vs his flesh to eate Iesus said vnto them Verily verily I say vnto you if you eate not the flesh of the Sonne of Man and drink not his bloud you shall not haue life in you Who so eateth my flesh and drinke my bloud he hath life eternall and I will raise him vp at the last day For my flesh is meate indeed and my bloud it drinke indeed who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud he dwelleth in me and I in him As the liuing Father hath sent mee and I liue by the Father Hee that eateth mee hee also shall liue by mee This is the bread that came downe from heauen not as your Fathers did eate Manna and died hee that eateth this bread shall liue for euer I hese are the words of our Sauiour The Apostles and they which did beleeue in him are ranished but there are others that haue deafe eares and grosse conceits iudging amisse of his words rashly taking scandal at the mystery which they vnderstood not â—on 6.60 and murmuring said This is a hard saying who can abide to heare it But Iesus Piercing their thoughts and secret murmurings corrected them said vnto them Doth this scandalize you if then you shall see the Son of Man ascend where he was before it is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profileth nothing the words that I haue pinken to you bee Spirit and Life So hee endeauoureth to make them capable but they notwithstanding remaine still blind and obstinate in their misbeleefe and got themselues out of his company Behold you how they wrinkle their fore heads in going away and looke behinde them These are carnall and ouerweyning people beleeuing nothing which comes not vnder the comprehension of their sense These are the Patriarches of all those which make warre against the Sacrament of the body of our Sauiour 1. WHEREFORE OVR SAVIOVR MADE a Sermon of the Eucharist before hee anstituted it THe Painter who knoweth how to dispose well of his worke hee hath in hand endeauours amongst other things to ioyne dexteriously the beginnings to their ends and so to smooth the knots of parts disagreeing that nothing appeare hard or constreined in the connexion but all to be aptly guided and brought to an end with due proportion of draught and colour The supreame Wisdome Master of Sciences and Artes obserued this law in all his creatures And it is vsuall with him Sap. S. 1. 11.12 to reach in his strength from end to end and to gouerne all things sweetly and to dispose them in measure in number and in weight According to this rule he continueth the course of this mouable world coupling extremities with their extremities by conuenient meanes So hee made the day to succeed the night by interposing of the morning and the night to the day by the euening neighbour to both the Sommer to Winter by the Spring comming betweene and the Winter to Sommer by interposing of Autumne and so in all his other workes of this world When the Sonne of God Soueraigne Wisdome had decreed in the Councell of his Father and of the holy Ghost to marry one day the greatnesse of his Diuinity to the littlenesse of our Nature and resolued at the same time to bestow also vpon vs as well for food as ransome the body which he had taken of Adams Posterity he began euen then by little and little to ordaine these Figures which we haue hitherto runne ouer and other such like which are in his booke making as it were the first preparations for this Feast which was to follow And being at length made Man and the time being come when he was to fulfill the verity of them and to couer the holy table with the food of his pretious flesh hee made a wonderfull proofe vpon the bread Matth. 14.21 Iohn 5.10 as we haue seene and incontinently after he preached this excellent Sermon which was as it were a generall proclamation of the banquet colouring by the brightnesse of a famous miracle and by his liuely voice those Characters of the old Figures and ioyning the Images past to the Verity present by the interposition thereof before the full accomplishment of his worke The selfe-same method vsed hee for preparatioÌ„ to the faith of other mysteries of his death of his Resurrection of his Ascension of the comming of the holy Ghost of Baptisme and of other Sacraments For besides the ancient Figures of them which he ordained long before he made many discourses a little before they were effected and the Sacraments themselues were instituted Wherefore this Sermon was as it were the connexion of things passed to things present of the shadow to the body and as a speaking morning declaring the comming of the Sacrament of the Altar which is the summe of all the other mysteries in the Church of God 2. THE FIRST CAVSE WHY OVR SAuiour would giue his flesh to eate and his bloud to drinke which was to shew his goodnesse THe first cause why our Sauiour would giue his flesh to eate his bloud to drinke is for as much as he is admirably good exceedingly liberall towards vs as hath been often already declared He tooke his body of vs and because he did that for vs he will in ploy it vpon vs and giue it vs againe like a magnificent Lord as many wayes as a body might profitably be ginen and imployed to wit for a price for food for vnion and signe of amity Hee which giues a pearle of great value to redeeme his friend from captiuity giues it as a price he that sets some delicate fruit vpon the table doth it that it may be eaten and the husband which giues himselfe in mariage giues his body that by vnion hee may become one flesh with his wise and the ring which hee leaues departing from her is a pledge of his loue Our Sauiour gaue his body on the Crosse for our redemption and thereby paid the tribute due to the diuine Iustice for the Ransome of mankinde he giues the same body in the Table of his Sacrament as a nuptiall Feast for meat vnto vs for to make a diuine vnion with vs and for a pledge of his loue Then the master and chiefe cause why he gaue vs his flesh to eat and his bloud to drinke is his boundy his liberality and his infinite loue 3. THE SECOND CAVSE TO GIVE A remedy to our misery THe second cause why our Sauiour did giue vs his body to eate is our miserable condition which out of his exceeding loue to vs he was desirous to repaire as hee hath in ample maner by the gift of his body For by communicating vnto vs his diuine flesh and deified bloud he hath both performed the part of a true Father and of a naturall Mother towards his children and withall hee hath wisely and effectually repaired all the breaches of our spirituall
ruine and procured the restauration and health of our soules and bodies by remedies directly opposite to our diseases The Father giueth all that he can to his childe engendered of his seed The mother nourisheth and brings her childe vp with her owne milke which is also a part of the substance of her body and both meate and drinke to the childe Our Sauiour who regenerated vs in his bloud by Baptisme is wholly bestowed vpon vs in giuing vs his body for by concomitance we haue together with it his soule and his Diuinity to the which it is inseparably vnited And of this dainty food he giues vs not a part onely but his whole body and his whole bloud each of which is both true meate and true drinke vnto vs. By meat he lost vs by meat he repaired vs. The first meate was forbidden vnder paine of death Matth. â—â— â—6 Iohn 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not eate of the Tree of Knowledge of good and euill for looke what day thou shalt eat of it thou shalt die The second meat is commanded with promise of life Take eate who eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud he hath life eternall The first was really eaten by disobedience and killed vs. The second is really eaten by obedience and quickens vs. The poyson was truely swallowed downe the Antidote or counter-poyson also is truely taken and not by Figure The flesh of the first Adam by geueration drew vs to death and confusion the flesh of our Sauiour second Adam receiued by manducation brings vs to life and nourisheth vs to immortalitie and eternall glory 4. TWO BAD VNIONS OF THE FLESH of Adam with our soule repaired by the flesh of our Sauiour BVT behold the maine point of opposition betweene the flesh of our Sauiour and that of Adam The flesh of Adam is the spring of all our miseries by reason of two vnions wherewith it ioynes it selfe to our soule the one is naturall and made in the wombe of our mother by necessity the other morall and made my our owne free-wil when the soule followeth the appetites of this corrupted flesh of Adam The first vnion is the blow that first wounded vs to death 〈…〉 For by it we are begotten in iniquity and conceiued in sin according to the saying of King Dauid and become defiled in the first instant of our conception branded with the marke of originall malediction enennes of our Creator separated from him and at war within our seiues for wee bring with vs the Schedule of rebellion and the fource of cruell warre which this masse of corruption incessantly stirreth vp against our soules casting darknesse of ignorance into our vnderstanding fier of concupiscence into our will and forgetfulnesse of heauen and of other future things into our memory The same vnion is also cause that the spirits of men are multiplied and at diuision amongst themselues for looke how many bodies are begotten of the flesh and seed of Adam so many soules are created to be vnited to those bodies and to giue them life and as the children of Adam disser in bodies so by meanes of this generation they are also of different spirits The second vnion of this flesh with the soule encreaseth and maketh worse the euills which came from the first For the soule by loue being vnited to her flesh and following the sensual appetites thereof forgetting heauen and liuing in the vanities and voluptuousnesse of the earth is so much more made enemie of God and banished from his friendship as shee yeelds her selfe peruerse and so much more also diuided in her selfe enduring a continuall tyranny of our flesh to whom shee is made slaue by this voluntary vnion and of whom shee is arrogantly vexed and pricked forward to commit new sinnes which are to her soule so many executioners which giue her torment at euery moment This vnion also diuideth men amongst theÌ„selues for euery one seeking the coÌ„modities of his owne flesh and giuing himselfe to vice loues none but himselfe his proper commodities his honors riches and voluptuous pleasures hating and persecuting at those that do hinder him in them whether they be good or bad And from thence doe spring dissentions warres and all excesse of enuy whoredome couetousnesse and such like sinnes which are committed in the world Behold then how the first vnion of the flesh of Adam with our soules is the spring And the second the fulnesse of all our euills diuiding vs from God from our selues in our felues and amongst our selues for an Antidote and counterpoyson of this flesh and those pernitious effects thereof the second Adam Iesus Christ affoords vs his owne flesh endued with contrary qualities and worker of contrary operations For the flesh of the first Adam is foule infected and pestilent that of the second Adam pure holy Virgin like and in one word flesh of God The flesh of Adam produced from a filthy seed and ioyned with our soule makes vs the children of Adam the flesh of our Sauiour begotten of a Virgin by the worke of the holy Ghost and giuen vs for to be vnited with vs and to vnite vs to God makes vs the children of God not by necessity of generation but by acts of deuotion ordained by meanes of this vnion not onely to cherish to nourish and beautifie our soules but also to repaire the defects of our bodies to correct their wicked inclinations to extinguish their concupiscences to purge and refine them to the likenesse of his owne and to sow in them the seed of glorious immortalicy And albeit this vnion be not naturall as the vnion of body and soule yet is it notwithstanding reall true and most intrinsecall after the manner of meate and drinke and of a holy and diuine mariage by the which wee are made one Spirit with God By the mediation of this flesh of his Sonne vnited to ours wee are also vnited in our selues our sanctified flesh obeying thereby the Law of the Spirit and finally we are voited euen one with another and made one Spirit and one body vnder our chiefe Soueraigne Iesus Christ by the vertuall knot of his pretious flesh which euery one receiueth in this Sacrament Behold you the opposite effects By the flesh of Adam wee are made sinners separated from God both in spirit and in body our bodies are multiplied and likewise our spirits in the same proportion with the bodies men are diuided amongst themselues by enmities arising from the loue of the flesh and euery man is diuided in himselfe his flesh rebelling to the spirit By the flesh of our Sauiour all these inconueniences are repaired as with admirable wisdome so with aboundant grace Of this meate then giuen as a counter-poyson against the first meat and of this sacred vnion in remedy of that which diuided vs. Did our Sauiour heere Preach This is the sense and the end of his diuine Sermon Iohn 6.48 for calling it the brend of life the lining bread that came downe
from heauen and saying That this bread is his flesh which he will giue for the life of the world He declareth that he will giue his body for our food and redemption And adding after He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath life euer lasting and I will rasse him vp at the last day for my flesh is meate indeed and my bloud is drinke indeed Hee signified the effects of this meate contrary to the effects of the meate of Adam The meate of Adam cause of death a deadly morsell an carthly food a food of anguish The meate of our Sauiour spring of life bread of life bread from heauen flesh of ioyfulnesse and of resurrection When he said Hee that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud abideth in me and I in him He sheweth that he giues his flesh for this vnion for a bond of amity and perpetuall pledge of his loue towards vs. Hee hath then giuen his body in this life for our good as many waies as it could be giuen for our redemption for our meat for our remedy for a pledge vnto vs to deliuer vs to nourish vs. to heale vs and to comfort vs and will giue it in heauen to glory for vs. Hath he giuen sufficiently is he sufficiently liberall to giue himselfe so liberally and at so many time and by so many wayes on earth and to promise himselfe vnto vs yet another way in heauen And are not wee exceedingly vngratefull in not acknowledging his goodnesse no lesse vniust in not giuing our selues to him that haue nothing but from him And most ingratefull in making no better vse of his gifts ordained to vnite our selues vnto him and amongst our selues for the attaining of life euerlasting What hath this diuine Spouse done What hath he inuented What doth he not What hath he not deuised to gaine the loue of a faithfull soule And what doe we In what doe we employ our selues to gaine his loue And who is it of whom this Prince so infinitly rich mighty and beautifull is so much inamored but of a poore caytiffe and deformed creature whom he would enrich nobilitate and beautifie to make him worthy of his Kingdome And how would he seeke to purchase by so many meanes the loue of such a creature if he were not goodnesse it selfe O infinit Goodnesse infinit Wisdome infinite Power fulnesse Make our soules holily inamored of thy beauty enlighten them with the diuine beames of thy celestiall knowledge and make them worthy of thy sacred loue 5. PRIDE AND LICENTIOVSNES ENEmies of Faith and the first aduersaries of the holy Sacrament PRide and sensuality are vncapable to vnderstand the wonders of God and vnworthy to receiue his benefits Wee haue heard the diuine promises of our Sauiour speaking of the eating of his flesh and of the euerlasting fruits thereof heere was cause to wonder at the height of the mystery and liberality of the Giuer and good occasion to say as Saint Peter a little after wondering said Thou bast the words of eternall life Iohn 6.63 They were heere neuerthelesse who in stead of being lifted vp in admiration were strucke downe to death by the words of life because pride and sense had made them bad hearers of the truth enemies of the light and vnable to behold further then humane iudgement could reach In so much as though truth it selfe did speake vnto them they murthered themselues by the voice of truth thinking that eyther he could not doe as he promised and giue his flesh to eate or that if hee could doe it it should be a very inhumane and barbarous act They vnderstood of flesh saith S. Augustine as if one should dismember a dead body or as men sell it in the market S. August Trust 27. in Ioan. in Psal 98. and flesh vnderstood not what it was he called flesh They thought that our Sauiour would cut his body into little bits and serue it to the table boyled and dressed as the body of a beast and standing vpon the bulwarke of their carnall imaginations and pushed forward by the spirit which blindes the soule in stead of being edified they were scandalized and became perfidious in their heart rude in their thought and blasphemers in their language and did say How can this man giue vs his flesh to cate Behold Iohn 6.52.60 a hard saying and who can endure it By the first question they did shew their incredulity not perswading themselues that our Sauiour could accomplish that which he did promise by the second they made their pride appeare condemning our Sauiour as if he intended to commit an horrible crime by killing himselfe and giuing mans flesh to eare if he should be able to doe that which he said People extreamely blinded with pride and sensuality for they had seene a little before a thousand of miracles done by the hand of our Sauiour and beleeued them without asking How And in stead of learning by those so many rare workes to beleeue more easily they heere aske How more incredulous then euer But why are they now so little obedient to the voice of our Sauiour Why were they not before more scrupulous and wary Wherfore did they not as well aske how he made the blinde to see the lame to walke the diuels to flye and of the fresh miracle how hee satisfied fiue thousand men with fiue Loaues and two Fishes Heere their How had been much more to purpose and more pertinent for they might haue vnderstood thereby that he did these things in the authority power of a Master Al-wise and Al-mighty and this knowledge would haue perswaded them that hee could powerfully and wisely accomplish this which hee so manifestly did promise of his flesh although it seemed impossible and absurde to their sense and iudgement But what will you They were proud and their pride had made them to lose the memory of what was past and bound their eyes not to see the truth present nor to fore-see the truth to come and in one word did make them obstinately erronious that is to say Heretikes Behold the first controulers the first persecutors and first Herenkes stirred vp against the truth of this holy Sacrament behold the first authors of Quomodo How out of which mould the Diuell hath shaped all the rest which sithence haue conspired against God for to assault the mysteries of his Church by Quomodo and by How and namely to shake this heere as the most high and most repugnant to their senfuality It was pride and the flesh that made them mutiners and rebels against the doctrine of Iesus Christ and presumptuous to comdemne that which they vnderstood not So the Arrians mocked at the Catholike faith concerning the generation of the Sonne of God whilest they would vnderstand that which they could not and would not beleeue that which they should to wit that God had begotten a Sonne Psal 3.7 Psal 109.1 and in stead of saying Christianlike I beleeue
Sea Baptisme Sampsons Foxes the Heretikes Golish the enemy of mankinde Danid Iesus Christ and that there is no other thing meant thereby he should make a spirituall fense indeed but should ouerthrow the ground of the history and commit Sacrilege against the Scripture which writeth the foresaid things as truly performed they should do in this as the Priscillianists did long since who did allegorize according to their fantasie all the passages and literall senses of the Scripture which were against their Herefie S. August lib. de Hares 70. as writeth S. Augustine In like manner these heere allegorize and say that there is nothing heere but a spirituall and mysticall eating of the flesh of our Saulour Iohn 6. For since that our Sauiour hath said that his flesh is meate indeed and his bloud drinke indeed and that who so eateth his slesh shall haue eternall life we must necessarily suppose a reall eating of a reall thing adde the spirituall allegoricall afterwards We sinde indeed in the Scriptures the word Lion put for the Diuell 1. 〈◊〉 18. Matth. 7.15 and the word Woulse for a faise prophet These are metaphoricall and spirituall significations but the same words are placed elswhere in their proper vsage and do signifie beasts and out of a resemblance of these words in their proper signification they are translated to signifie the Diuell and false Prophets Wherefore if there bee heere an eating of the flesh of our Sauiour all spirituall that is to say which is done onely by the Spirit without any reall taking of that flesh it is necessary to finde a proper and reall ground foundation thereof the which reall eating cannot bee but in the Eucharist containing really the flesh and bloud of our Sauiour true and proper meat true and proper drinke But is it not a carnall vnderstanding to admit a reall eating of the flesh of our Sauiour Yes doubtlesse if we should vnderstand as did the Capharnaiâ—s an humane and sensuall eating but the manducation which the Catholike Church teacheth and which we haue declared is reall indeed but spirituall but diuine and full of wonderous effects testimonies of the powerfulnesse goodnesse and wisdome of the Creator And when the ancient Fathers refute the carnall eating they neuer meane this heere but onely that which the Capharnalts did forge to themselues and which our Sauiour doth correct by the words we haue expounded as they sufficiently testifie of themselues For as often as the Fathers speak of this carnall eating they propose the Capharnaits as authors of that fond imagination and doe also pâ—â—nely shew that the eating of which our Sauiour did preach is of the reall flesh of him though the manner of taking be spirituall Let vs cite one or two for all Saint HILLARY S. Mill. 〈◊〉 8. de Trin. It is our Sauiour that said my flesh is mâ—â—te indeed and my bloud is drinke indeed Who shall 〈◊〉 my flesh and drinke my bloud dwelleth in mee and I in him Heere is no occasion to doubt of the truth of the flesh and bloud of our Sauiour for according to his word and according to our faith it is flesh indeed 〈◊〉 bloud indeed and those things taken and drunke by vs make that we are in Iesus Christ and Iesus Christ in vs. Is not this the â—â—th to them let it not be true which doe not beleene that Iesus Christ is true God He would say that the words of our Sauiour ought to be taken in their liuely and literall signification The same faith Saint AVGVSTINâ— Wee haue heard saith he the true Master the diâ—ine Rodâ—â—â—â—r and the Sauiour of mankinde recommending vnto vs his bloud our price He hath spoken to vs of his body and of his 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 said that his â—â—dy is 〈◊〉 and his bloud deinke when recommending to vs such meat and such drinke he said If you eate not my flesh and drinke not my bloud you shall 〈◊〉 haue life 〈◊〉 you And who could say this of life but Life himselfe Phâ—â— then shall bee deâ—â— to him and not life who shall thinke Life to be a lyer That is to say whosoever shal think that our Sauiour cannot or will not gine his flesh and his bloud as his words did fignifie he is an Insidell 〈◊〉 shall â—â—e and be damned for 〈◊〉 The other Doctors speake after the same manner that those two beere doe 10. TWO KINDES OF COMMVNION THE one Spirituall the other Sacramentall THe ancient Fathers haue clearely acknowledged an eating altogether spiritual of the flesh of our Sauiour which is done in hearing the Masse in meditating vpon the greatnesse of this banquot in taking the flesh of our Sauiour onely by sight by desire and by dâ—uotion But they haue deliuered thâ—â— doctrine without preiudice to that other which you haue heard for they haue euer beleeued and esteemed this reall eating which by proper name they haue called Sacramentall and haue preserâ—ed it before the other when it is holily done as also they haue preferted the Spirituall alone before the Sacramentall if it be not done with due preparation Rightly iudging that it is better to heate Masse deuoutly and contemplate the mysteries of this meate and communicate in â—b is spirituall maner then to communicate with a consciousâ— defiled with morâ—â—ll finno and by fiâ—â— to pâ—ophane the table of our Lord. And this Sacramentall eating though it bee reall ceaseth notto be spirituall because the 〈…〉 is supernaturall and diuiâ—e as hath been 〈…〉 is called Sacramentall for distinctions sake because heere men take the Sacrament The other simply bears the name of Spirituall because it is only done by Spirit without receiuing really the flesh of our Sauiour This Spirituall communion properly is but deuotion towards the Sacrament as the Sacramental is the reall receiuing of the Sacrament the which ought for an vnseparable companion alwayes to haue the Spirituall for otherwise it profiteth nothing and hurteth exceedingly much whereas the Spiritual may be profitable without the Sacramentall The children of God vse both sorts for they communicate both Sacramentally and Spiritually but the mis-beleeuers are depriued of both For denying the presence of the body of our Sauiour they take away the heart of the Sacrament and depriue themselues of the Sacramentall communion and not hauing the true faith of the Sacrament they cannot communicate spiritually For without faith no holy Spirit quickeneth no Sacrament profitath so that still they remaine carnall in their fancie as the Capharnaits did in theirs 11. OF THE DIVINE WISDOME AND goodnesse of God in this Sacrament and of the folly and ingratitude of men BVt before wee turne away our face from beholding this Picture let vs a little fixe the eyes of our vnderstanding vpon the contemplation of this diuine Widome preaching to vs of the communion of his flesh and vpon our owne basenesse not knowing how to acknowledge the sweetnesse of his diuino benefits On the one side let vs
these wicked disciples these stragling sheepe and preserue vs in the sollidity of thy holy faith in the lap of our good Mother thy royall Spouse to receiue there alwayes the refection of thy holy flesh We beleeue thou giuest it vs reall and not in Figure for thou hast said in plaine tearmes The bread which I will giue is my flesh for the life of the world Iohn 6. We acknowledge that thou hast the words of life in the administration of thy holy body and of thy holy bloud We know that thou art life eternall and that thou giuest in thy slesh and in thy bloud nothing S. August Traâ—â— 27. in Ioan. but that which thou thy selfe art thus speakes one of thy Saints In the confession of our infirmity incapacity and misery we adore the height of the almightinesse wisdome and goodnesse in this diuine and mysticall Sermon and in the mystery that it teacheth and acknowledge hoere with the words of life the Fountaine of life For which wee yeeld thee immortall thankes and humbly intreate thy Maiâ—sty to make vs so holily to vse this Sacrament of thy pretious body that thereby we may be vnited with thee for euer and made worthy to bee for euer also in heauen at thy blessed Table in the life eternall THE THIRTEENTH PICTVRE THE WASHING OF THE FEET GOING BEfore the institution of the Eucharist The Description THIS day being the fourteenth of the first Moone of the Spring the Sunne is set but a greater Sun shineth The Sauiour of the world hath celebrated the Legall Pasque and goeth to prepare the great and admirable Feast of the Sacrament and Sacrifice of his body ordaining the same in stead of the Hebrewes Paschall Lambe He is risen from the Table and hath put off his feasting roabe to the end to wash his Apostles feet for a remarkable ceremony See you how this sweete Lambe girt with a white towel Ioan. 13 4â— doth the office of a meane seruant washing his seruants feete and wiping them with the same towell Hee hath washed them all except good Peter who seeing his Master to come Ioan. â— 6 and cast himselfe at his feete to doe him the same seruice that he had done to the eleuen of his companions withheld and protested to him that he would neuer endure that he should wash his feete But hearing ouâ— Sauiour threaten that if he refused he should be depriued of his part with him Hee yeeldes readily and with alacrity presents to be washed not onely his feere but his hands and his head also remaining neuerthelesse much astonished and confounded And truely not without reason for the brightnesse of this thy meruailous humility O good Iesus amazed the dimme sense of this poore man and by admiration rauished the soule out of his body This brightnesse is so great that it is able to â—â—â—onish all men as the light of thy Diuinity rauisheth into adminiration fear the Powers of heauen Who wil not be abashed to see the Master prostrate before his seruant Such a Master before such a Disciple To see the Maiesty of such a Master to bow himselfe to the basenes of such a seruice And how could this good old man but feare but be astonished and dismayed at this profound and extraordinary humility of his King How could he but refuse to haue his feet washed by the hand of God as being ashamed to see himself so humbly serued by the Greatnesse which he adored But what may this humble Apostle say seeing his King and his God kneeling before him to wash his feete Seeing these almighty armes tucked vp and his diuine hands workers of the Starres of heauen and of a thousand wonders vpon earth to cleanse the silthinesse of his feete These fingers so pure and so neate to touch the foule toes and the soles of his fraile mortality This gesture these hands these eyes these behauiours that the Picture giues him seeme they not to you to speake O Christian soules And to tell you by silence that this good Apostle said in his heart O my sweet Master what is this Washest thou my feete Doest thou I say thus kneele before mee Thou thy selfe bow downe to my feete And how was it not sufficient lowhnesse in thee to haue taken Philip. â— being infinite God the shape of a man and to bee maried to the most meanest family of thy reasonable creatures To be made a little Infant Citizen of Nazareth and Pilgrim on the earth Philip. 2. and to haue thy infinite Greatnesse lapped within the cloathes of our littlenesse Canst thou more humble thy selfe then in abasing thy selfe by taking the condition of a meane seruant Choosing the crauels the poornesse the contempt of this world but that thou most cast thy self notwithstanding at my feet Thou my Lord wash my feet thou my King of mee thy vassall thou my God of me thy creature thou supreame purity of me most filthy thou my worthy Sauiour of mee most vnworthy sinner And what may the Angels say and the Planets themselues of thee and of mee O Lord beholding a spectacle of such consusion seeing the varlet to be serued by the Master the King to be made seruant to the varlet and the Creator to be on his knees before his creature Thou wash my feete O Lord and I 〈◊〉 thee and the Angels and the Planets which see mee doe they not now detest my pride for that I permit thee and the creatures of the earth would they not â—â—nne presently vpon me if thy Almightinesse hindered them not Saue mee if thou pleasest O Lord from their indignation if I am proud thy humility hath constrained me it is that which hath commanded mee I protest that I protested that thou shouldest neuer wash my feet but thy humility wil be the Mistres I haue obeyed it and am become proud in my humiliation and in obeying content your selfe O Lord with that which you haue already done and suffer mee to take your place and to bee a little proud in washing your feete since that I already haue sufficiently been proud in enduring you to wash mine Ah sinfull creature that I am such might be the discourse O diuine Apostle which thou madest in thy thought vpon the humility of thy Lord. But stay a while and thou shalt well see other proofes and other exercises of this diuine vertue Expect vntill he shall giue himselfe to thee for meate and drinke cloathed with a roabe of exceeding humility with a thin whitenesse with a waterish rednesse with the littlenesse of fraile accidents when he shall enter within thy entralls and abase himselfe not onely before thee but moreouer within thee Expect this night when he shall be taken as an offender bound as a theese mocked as a foole beaten like any base fellow spit vpon as a blasphemer Expect vntill the morning when hee shall bee euill entreated of Kings of Priests of people and whipt after by all the worldly powers
when he shall be condemned crowned and crucified as a theefe as a tyrant as a notable offender conuicted Expect but till these things come to passe and then thou wilt see that this humility which now seemes infinite to thee is but a small parcell of the humility of thy Sauiour thou wilt see that his humility is a bottom without end and without any bounds O diuine Humility how great art thou become in the littlenesse of the Sonne of God how beautifull in his base seruices and ignominies rich and aboundant in his pouerty O Iesus thou art a great Master and teachest well a godly Lesson teaching humility in thy humiliation teaching not in saying only but in doing teaching by worke and by example and not onely by word and by councell And who euer dare amongst the sonnes of men lift vp themselues by pride hauing seene the Sonne of God bow downe himselfe to this little Boteswayne and poore fisher and to abase himselfe before the worthlessenesse of vile and wretched sinners and that with so great humiliation And who will not for euer make account of humility since that Wisdome himselfe hath taken it to himselfe who will not learne it with loue and respect since that the Sonne of God teacheth it on his knees Who will not entertaine the greatnesse of this little vertue and the littlenesse of this great Dame since the eldest borne of so great a Lord descended from heauen and made man loues her embraces her praises her and made himselfe little to make her great and to procure her authority amongst the sonnes of men O holy Huâ—niilty foundation of true Christian vertue and ladder to the glory of heauen O welbeloued Christians Let vs loue hereafter the example of our Redeemer let vs humble our selues vpon earth with him to be exalted with him aboue the celestiali Arches 1. OVR SAVIOVR CELEBRATES THE Iewish Passouer before he institutes the Sacrament of his body OVR Sauiour celebrates the Iewes Pasche when hee would institute the Sacrament and Sacrifice of his body according to the order of Melchisedech laying with a diuine skill the liuely colours of the truth vpon the dimme Picture of the ancient portraiture The manner then which hee vseth in celebrating this Pasch was the same which the Iewes did then obserue different from the old Pasch celebrated in Aegypt in some ceremonies Exod. 12. added or changed since that time which neuerthelesse were kept by our Sauiour In the number of these ceremonies one was to be cloathed in eating with a feasting Roabe named from a Greeke word Synthesis Sueton. in Nere. cap. 51. and in the Gospell A wedding garment and in Latine words Pallium lana vest is coenatoria accubitoria which in English is a Sleeuelesse garment Cloake or Roabe in which one sitteth at the table It was decent and of good stuffe and often of a purple colour or of skarlet or of a crimson violet The Iews custome was also to eat the Pasch not standing but as at other ordinary refections after the maner of Persians leaning on the one side vpon their beds and hauing the table before them and for this reason they had no shooes on their feet of which manner of eating the Scriptures as well the new as the olde make mention in sundry places The History of Hester describing to vs the magnificent banquet of King Assuerus saith That they had little beds vpon the which men did repose themselues in taking their repast Tobiâ— 2.3 We learne the same out of Tobias booke Luke 38. and in the Euangelists we haue many signes therof namely in Saint Luke when he resites how Magdalen comming to the banquet remained behinde our Sauiour washing his feete with her teares and wiping them with her haire which giues vs to vnderstand that he was vpon a bed raised vp holding his naked feete from the ground behinde him otherwise she standing behind could not haue washed him and done him this seruice The Romans did keepe the same custome as well in their apparell as in their fitting at table and as they were careful to keep it they also thought it vnseemely publikely to be seene in one of these garments which they did eate in This Suetâ—nius noteth in Nero Neron Sueton. in Nor. cap. 5. saying That he one day went out into the streete cloathed with his Synthesis or mantle for the table without a girdle without shâ—â—es with a hand-kercher about his necke From this truth we gather that the Hebrewes as well as the Romans did in this fashion imitate the people of the East At this day it is no more in vse neuerthelesse there be diuers manners of eating In all Europe almost all men eat sitting as wee see in Spaine in Italy and elsewhere which is the honestest and comliest maner The Iaponians eate fitting vpon the ground after the maner of Taylors sowing vpon a table and so doe the Turkes in many places The Iewes then took their repast and did eat their Lamb lying halfe a long vpon one side in their beds We also learne out of their rituall that in eating the Paschall Lambe a pottage made of wilde lettice and endines was serued in according to the Law Exod. 12. into which the Father of the family did first dip his sweete bread that is to say vnleauened then the rest after him So as that which the Euangelist doth recite Matth. 6.26.21 Marke 14.20 Luke 22.21 our Sauiour to haue said in supping He which putteth his hand into the dish to eat with me it is he that will betray me doth shew that the Iewish ceremony was kept by him And further teacheth wherefore Iudas was not discouered by these words and why euery one was in trouble to know of whom our Sauiour meant them for euery one did dippe his sop together with our Lord so as the true betrayer could not bee discerned amongst the rest and so euery one was afraid to be noted because euery one did put his hand into the dish with Iesus Christ The same father of the family did take a great cake kept vnder the table-cloath and diuided it into as many peeces as he had there people at the table and did giue to euery one his share saying these words This is the bread of Auguish which our Fathers haue eaten in the Land of Aegypt whosoeuer is hungry let him come neere and make his Pasche This done he tooke the cup saying Thou art blessed O Lord who 〈◊〉 created the fruit of the Vuse And hauing drink 〈◊〉 gaue it to the next and he to his neighbour and 〈◊〉 â—om hand to hand euen to the last This ceremony had been also added by the Iewes and our Sauiour condemned it not but mended it seruing himselfe of it as a shadow and laying vpon it one part of the preparation of his Sacrament for he blesseth the bread and wine changing them into his body and into his bloud offers them
family Iesus Christ who held the vpper end of this first bed Saint Peter is next Saint Iohn the other are fiue and fiue on two other beds They are a little astonished and sorrowfull euery one examining his conscience vpon that which our Sauiour hath said euen now in eating the Lambe that there was one amongst them which would betray him Saint Iohn the nearest to him and the boldest asked him who it should be but neither he nor the rest of his companions could know any thing except Iudas who in his heart was twisting the cord of treason against his Master to his owne condemnation Euery one is afraid to fall into this foule crime except the offender And all attend the issue of some great mystery not onely by reason of the ceremony of washing which our Sauiour had neuer vsed in keeping the Passouer with them the yeares before but also because of his countenance behauiour and words for men reade in his eyes in his mouth and in all his visage the graces of a diuine loue and the grauity of Maiesty more then humane and his words full of affection and of wisdome did witnesse that he did meditate some worthy proofe of an Almighty power 〈◊〉 22.15 Hee tould them that he greatly destred to eate this Passouer with them before he suffered not the Iewes Passouer which he had long since eaten drawing the last line of the Figure but the Passouer of his body These are significatiue words of great affection and the affection of so powerfull a Lord cannot faile to effect some great thing He hath taken the bread hath blessed and broken it as before he blessed the fiue Loaues and two fishes Matth. 14. They moreouer perswade themselues that this ceremony is a preamble of some miracle neuer heard of before Being then thus attentiue he gaue to them all that which hee had taken saying 〈◊〉 6. This is my body take and eate He giues now the Cup saying This is the Chalice of my 〈◊〉 of the new Testament drinks you all of it and doe this in remembrance of me They did drinke and as they found themselues wholly transported and ranished with loue when they tooke the Sacrament of his body vnder the forme of bread So now they feele their soules set a sire with a diuine flame by drinking of the mysterious and beauenly liquor of his pretious bloud Iudas alone by his fault made no benefit of it for he hath not taken this holy flesh diuine drink with a requisite preparation The Diuell had seized on his heart long since had porswaded him to betray his Master he had his feete cleansed but 〈◊〉 soule loaden with filthinesse wherefore taking vnworthily a meate so worthy hee hath swallowed death and damnation in place whereof the others receiued life and sanctification Behold the chiefe worke of our Sauiour effected and perfected in fiue words behold the signification and protâ—â—se of a thousand Prophesies and Figures past fulfilled in one truth Behold the offered Lambe in an vnbloudy Sacrifice commemorating that of the Crosse which to morrow he ought to accomplish Behold the Masse and the magnificent â—â—â—ation of Christians which shall endure euen to the end of the world to honor the Creator of the world to celebrate the death of his Sonne and to nourish his children with his Flesh to eternall life Matth. 26.30 Marke 14. 〈◊〉 Our Sauiour rising from the Table goeth his way and hauing like a true Father giuen many documents parsing from his children and saying vn Hymne in action of thankes goeth foorth vnto the Garden of Oliues Hee went long since and is walking there O sweet Lambe whither goest thou in the snary darknesse of this dangerous night thou knowest well that this is the place noted by the Trdytor which hath sold thee for ready money thou well knowest that the wolues are already trouped and armed with crast and rage to take thee and lead thee bound to the butchery than 〈◊〉 O drinke Wâ—â—lome for nothing can scape the eyes of thy diuine prouidence thou knowest that there for our saluation an agony of horror shall fall vpon thee Luke 22.44 and a bloudy sweat shall flow from thy passioned body with extreame feare of thy grieued soule euen to the death thou knowest thou shalt be taken there and bee bound like a Lambe and bee led from thence like a theefe to Execution and notwithstanding all this thou goest thither nay thou goest thither because thou doest know it And what compels thee to these voluntary torments O Redeemer of my soule but the force of thy loue and mercy which make thee goe with ioyfulnesse of heart to present thy selfe to the combate for to pull forth the children of Adam out of the oppression of sinne and from danger of eternall damnation by the price of thy bloud O great God by what offices seruices and Sacrifices shall we be able to acknowledge this thy vnlimitted bounty O my soule what wilt thou doe for such a Redeemer with what loue canst thou sufficiently loue him by what words canst thou duely thanke him and with what honor wilt thou adore him 1. THE ENTRANCE THAT SAINT IOHN maketh by which he declareth the greatnesse of the mystery of the Eucharist which our Sauiour was to institute THis Picture represents vnto vs the Institution of the Sacrament and Sacrifice of our Lords body the noblest actioÌ„ the diuinest InstitutioÌ„ that euer he did after he was made Man the richest present that hee did euer giue to God and to men while he liued mortal vpon the earth and the highest mystery that hee was to leaue in the treasures of his deare Spouse the Church We haue formerly discoursed hereof in many precedent Figures and namely in that of Manna it will bee sufficient heere to note the circumstances of the present history which especially set forth the greatnesse of it Saint Iohn beginning his narration of the washing of feete vpon the Eue of the Pasche writeth thus Iesus knowing that his houre was come that he should passe out of this world to his Father whereas he had loued his that were in the world vnto the end hee loued them And when Supper was done whereas the Diuell now had put into the heart of Iudas Iscariot to betray him knowing that the Father had giuen all things into his hands and that hee came from God and returned to God he riseth from Supper and layeth aside his garments And that which followeth of the washing of feete by which words Saint Iohn taught vs that our Sauiour was now in the vigill of his Passion that he had loued and did constantly loue his owne that he was the Sonne of God hauing all things in his power And by these preamples hee signified vnto vs that in this Euening so neare to his departure hee was to make the conclusion of all his course by some notable acte to the honor of his Father and their good whom
he had loued so much An action worthy of such a Father and of such a Sonne and of such a Louer all powerfull all good and all wise A Sonne spares nothing to honor his Father how liberall then will such a Sonne be to such a Father A father reserueth nothing from his children that may tend to make them happy and departing from them hee leaueth them all the best that he hath What then will such a Father doe for the aduancement and happinesse of his children Wherefore our Sauiours desire was to accomplish this his chiefe worke in a little time but with such magnificence as was agreeable to his greatnesse gaue with the ornament of those wonders which wee haue mentioned before his owne body in Sacrifice to his Father and in food to his Church commanding her to continue this soueraigne honor and this table of immortâ—â—◠〈◊〉 〈…〉 as shee shall be a traueller in the desart of this mortallty And so he fulfilled that which Saint Iohn would signifie by those words that he hath set in the beginning of his Dircourse for giuing his body to his Father in Sacrifice hee made him a present most worthy of his Maiesty and giuing it in food to his Church he leaues her a most precious gage of his loue And by the changing of the bread into his body and of the wine into his bloud which hee doth in this mystery he doth a proper act of an infinite power and more noble then the creation of the world Wherefore as the manner of the worke is worthy of God so the Present is mest magnificent and of greater value then ten thousand worlds for it is the bady of a Prince the body of a King the body of God and the Sacrifice made therof is indeed a Sacrifice of Soueraigne honor especially being ostered by such a Priest who is the Sonne of God himselfe and the food of this pretious body and the manor of giuing and taking it vnder the formes of bread and wine is most agreeable to the wisdome of the Giuer and to the profit of the receiuers The vnwonted ceremony of washing of feete did signifie no lesse then the former words the Maiesty of the future mystery And whereas the other Euangelists note that our Sauiour before he Instituted this holy banquet said I haue greatly desred to eaâ— this Pasche with you Luke 22.151 Manto 26. Marke 14. Luke 22. And againe That he tooke bread and blessed it with thankesgiuing the Cup also and blessed it All these words tended to the same end to declare that our Sauiour was going to do some admirable worke vpon the bread and the wine in the end of his dayes before hee died Let vs now search into the words of the Institution 2. THE EXPOSITION OF OVR SAVIours words THIS IS MY BODY OVR Sauiour being set againe at the Table with his Apostles in such manner as hath been said tooke bread and hauing blessed it brake it and said Matth. 2â— Marke 14. Luke 22. This is my body and in so saying the creature obeyed one substance gaue place to the other and the bread was transubstantiated into the body of our Sauiour that is to say the substance of bread departed and the substance of our Sauiours body taked the place thereof Howbeit the colour the taste and the other accidents of bread do still remaine to serue for the outward robe to couer our Sauiours body and to make an entire Sacrament which is euer composed of two things euen as a man is made of soule and of body the one inuisible for the soule and the other visible for the sense so to speake and so to doe appertained to an omnipotent Lord mans word onely signifieth but the word of God both signifieth and worketh The Kings and the Potentates of the world command indeed their subiects and their subiects obey them but if they command their trees their riuers their mountains and other insensible creatures their commandements are in vaine to the eares of such vassals for that which hath neither sense nor soule cannot vnderstand the voice of any but the Creator King Xerxes threatened the mountaines Plut. de Ira. and made to be heaten the waues of the Sea but the mountaines were dease to his threatnings and the Sea contemned his whip It is God alone that can make himselfe to be vnderstood and felt of all that is S. Hieron in c. 8. Matth. All creatures saith Saint HIEROM haue feeling of the Creator for they vnderstand him when hee threatens them or commands them not that all things haue vnderstanding as the Heretikes dreame but by reason of the Maiestie of him that hath made euery thing of nothing He commandeth all and not onely things depriued of sense but euen that which yet hath neither nature nor being Rom. 4.17 Matth. 8.27 Marke 4.41 He calleth saith the Apostle the things which are not as if they were So the Sonne of God by his Word puts the bridle in the mouth of the windes and waues and calmes the raging of the Sea Euen so he commanded the sicke Death it selfe and the Sepulcher and his commandement was fulfilled Gen. 1. So he commanded Nothing when he created the world of Nothing and that nothing was obedient and became a world by the commandement of his voice The word of man is significatiue Gods word is also operatiue If a man say in the night O that it were day he signifies that he hath a desire that the Sunne should rise from his Horizon to make it day but the Sunne for his saying hasteneth neuer the more the course of his Chariot to make day approach But God saying Gen. 1. Let there be light the light appeared presently and his word was not significatiue onely but moreouer the effectrix of his will saying then This is my body that which a little before was bread is truely his body and his word doth outwardly signifie to the eare and maketh inwardly that which it did signifie It said that it was the body of the Sauiour and saying so it made it so for otherwise he had not said so of it Ioan. 14. for so much as a lye cannot proceed from the mouth and heart of Truth it selfe which assureth nothing that is not true 3. OF THE CLEARENES OF THE SENSE of these words THIS IS MY BODY by Scripture and by reason THese words This is my body are most cleare if there be any in the whole volume of the booke of God and good reason they should be cleare For they containe the Law and Institution of thy greatest Sacrament and mystery of our Faith in ordaining whereof it was fit to speake clearely and intelligibly to the end to take away all occasion of error in a matter of such importance They containe also the principal clause of the testament or Pact which the Sonne of God did then make with his Church wherein the Language which is vsed ought to
as it was the next day by bloudy a effusion on the Crosse And when the holy Fathers did sometimes turne the words of Consecration into the Future tense saying This is my bloud which shall be shed in stead of that is said which is shed they contraried not the sense which we now giue for they all did affirme the Reall Presence of our Sauiours bloud in the Chalice but they referred the words of our Sauiour not onely to that present powring foorth which was then made but also to that which was to bee made as well on the Crosse by bloudy Sacrifice once as in the Eucharist by vnbloudy Sacrifice euen vntill the end of the world Behold how our Sauiour Sacrificed and offered his body to his Father by these words This is my body giuen for you This is my bloud shed for you And this is the new Sacrifice and offering in the Law of Grace which the holy Fathers say was instituted in this mysticall Supper as we shall learne by the ensuing witnesses 7. THE SACRIFICE AND SACRAMENT of our Lords body to haue been instituted in the mysticall Supper declared by the testimonie of Fathers SAint Gregory of Nisse speaking of the institution of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist S. Greg. Niss or 1. de Resur made in the Supper of the Paschall Lambe Our Sauiour saith hee by his ordinance preuenteth the violence of his enemies with a secret manner of Sacrifice ineffable and inuisible to the eyes of mortall men He himselfe offers himselfe for vs Oblation and Victime Priest and Lamb of God together And when was this this was then when hee gaue to his familiars his body to eate and his bloud to drinke Saint CHRYSOSTOME S. Chrysost hom 2. in 2. Tim. Be it Peter be it Paul bee it another Priest of like merits which offereth the holy Oblation this is euer the selfe-same which Iesus Christ in person gaue to his Disciples and that which the Priests yet make daily this heere is no lesse then that there Wherefore Because they are not the men that sanctifie it but it is the same Christ who hallowed it before Saint AMBROSE S. Ambros in Psal 8. We haue seene the High Priest comming to vs and haue heard him offering his bloud for vs Let vs follow him according to our power since that we are Priests to the end to offer Sacrifice for the people we are certainly vnequall in merit but honored by the Sacrifice For albeit that Christ now seemes not to offer he is neuerthelesse offered on the earth then when his body is offered heere Saint AVGVSTINE S. Aug. in Psal 33. cont 2. Psal 109. Iesus Christ hath instituted of his body and bloud a Sacrifice according to the order of Melchisedech AESICHIVS of the same time with Saint Augustine Aesich lib. 2. in Leuit. c. 8. Our Lord God supping with his Apostles did first offer the Lambe which made the Figure and after his owne Sacrifice RVPERT Rupert lib. 2. in Exod. c. 6. Our Saniour extreamely perplexed in the beginning of his Passion first immolated himselfe to his Father with his owne proper hands These passages and the rest that haue been cited in the Types of Melchisedech and of the Paschall Lambe teach how our Sauiour instituted the Sacrifice and Sacrament of his body after the old ceremony of the Paschall Lambe was accomplished which is the Faith that the Church hath euer held and will hold for euer 8. OVR SAVIOVRS TESTAMENT MADE in the Institution of the Sacrifice and Sacra ment of his body IT was in this admirable actiō that our Sauiour made his new Testament of the new Couenant with his Church amending the old and drawing neere to his death it was a time fit and agreeable for him to bequeath and leaue an eternall testimony of his last Will and affection towards his children The words of the Testament Gal. 4.24 Heb. 8.7 vlt. Exod. 24. Matth. 26.28 Marke 14.24 Luke 22 20. Exod. 24.7.8 Heb 9.16.17.18.19.20 of the Testator are cleare as also the Ceremony according to S. Matthew and S. Marke our Sauiour said This is my bloud of the new Testament that shall be shed for many vnto the remission of sinnes And according to S. Luke This is the Chalice the new Testament in my bloud which shall be shed for you in the same sense he saith new Testament of his bloud making allusion to the old which he long since had written by the meanes of his seruant Moyses and marked with the bloud of beasts to Figure forth this heere that there was made in the Desart at the foot of the Mount Sinay where Moyses as a royall Notary read the Law and the cenure of the written Testament and gaue the aduertisements of the Father of the Family before seuenty of the Ancients assembled by name and before the people that were to inherit In it the goods also were be queathed to wit the Land of Promise a Figure of Paradise And in Figure the death of the Testator also was interposed for there was Sacrifice offered whereby the death of the future Testator Iesus Christ made Man was represented and promised for confirmation of the Testament to which Ceremony that hath reference which Dauid said Psal 49. Iosue 8.31 Leuit. 23. Gather yee together his Saints vnto him which ordaine 〈◊〉 Testament and alliance with Sacrifice The same Ceremony was practised by Iesus when he renewed the Couenant of this Testament obserued also by the Iewes euery yeare in the Feast of Pentecost and by Salomon 3. Reg. 9.25 three times in one yeare These Victims then after they were offered to God were taken by the Priest and by the people in ordinary refection and the Altar Exod. 24. Heb. 9. and the Booke of the Law was sprinkled with the bloud of them According to the trace of all these Ceremonies Our Sauior made this Testament in this last euening in the desart of this world in Mount Sinay where the old was made but in another part thereof to wit in Sion and Hierusalem part of Sina and adioyning to it as Saint Paul said In Sion more noble then the other part of Sina Gal. 4.24 and in Hierusalem a more liuely Figure of his Church then was the Desart whereof Esay hath written The Law shall goe foorth of Syon Psay 2.3 and the word of God from Hierusalem In it then our Sauiour published in two words his Law and gaue his Aduertisements saying in this same Supper Ioan. 13.34 I giue you a new Commandement that you loue one another A Law of Loue and not of Feare as the Law of the old Testament Matth. 26.28 Marke 14.24 Luke 22.20 1. Cor. 11.24 He made the Recitall of his Testament in these words This is my bloud of the new Testament He made his Legacies and promises to his inheritors not of a Land of Canaan as of old to the Hebrewes but of the
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
inssituted to be celebrated once alone Hest 1. as that of Assuerus was but foâ— to be continued euen vntill the end of the world as the Paschal Lamb continued vntill the end of the Synagogue Exod. 12. as hath been declared Wherfore our Sauiour hauing communicated his Apostles and established the Institution of his banquet in this first refection commandeth the continuation thereof and declareth the end why hee would it should be continued saying Luke 22.19 1. Cor. 11.24 Doe this for a commemoration of me In y selfe will alwayes be the Sacrifice and the principall Sacrificer but inuisible I ordaine you Priests to be my Vicars and visible Sacrificers in my Church euen as I haue giuen you the authority of Doctors and Pastors to keepe my place in the Chaire of truth and to feed and rule my slocke Doe this then do this action the noblest that shal be done in my Family and continue therein a memory of the Sacrifice which shall be offered by me to morrow on the Crosse for you and all mankinde Do it in memory of the Passion that I shall haue suffered for you in memory of the infinite price of my bloud which I shall shed for you in memory of the victory that I shall obtainâ— for you ouer the enemies of your soules health ouer the infernall powers ouer the tyrants of your spiries ouer the Prince of darknesse ouer the flesh and the world in memory of the immortall glory that I shall haue purchased for you and for those which will be my members giuing my flesh in Sacrifice vpon the Altar of the Crosse Do this Feast and celebrate this Sacrifice in memory of these exploits continuing it without limit of time and when my Passion shall be once past let it be alwayes liuing and pâ—â—serued by your seruice in the memory and in the face of my Church and as the benefit is of infinite merit so let the acknowledgement also be eternall This is the sense of these words Luke 23 19â— Doe this for a commemoration of 〈◊〉 As well Diuine as Humane Iustice requiteth that men giue praise to great exployts of vertue and that they be mindfull of a benefit that the remembrance be so much more liuely and honorable as the benefit is great Exod. 20.8 This is it why our Lord commanded the Sabbath day in remembrance of the Creation of the world the Feast of new Moones in memory of the conseruation thereof the Paschall Lambe 2. Par. 2.4 Exod. 12. in memory of the deliuery of the Hebrewes captiues in Aegypt The same Hebrewes did celebrate the victory of Mordecheus gained ouer their enemies 2. Mâ—â—b vlt. Iudis 16. and that of the valiant Iudith obtained ouer Holofernes Was it not then reason and iustice that there should be a memoriall of the Passion of the Sonne of God it being the most admirable worke that euer was and the true worke of an Almighty and all mercifull Lord his highest prowesse his noblest victory his greatest benefit towards men and for which alone hee descended from heauen taking the garment of our mortality Especially considering that this Redemption could not haue saued vnlesse it had been applied and made proper to euery one by this memory reiterated with faith loue deuotion contemplation fasting watching and other workes of piety which are the doores by which this infinite merit of his Passion-entereth into our soules euen as the windows of an house are the means by which they that are within doe pertake of the Sun-beames and enioy them as if it shined onely for them 13. THE MASSE A MOST PROPER MEmoriall of our Sauiours Passion AS it were very reasonable and very important that the memory of our redemption were alwayes fresh and liuing in our soules so the diuine Wisdome hath chosen a most agreeable meanes to represent it most honorably and with fingular efficacie to that end instituting a Sacrifice in his house and a solemne refection amongst his children for these are the two principall acts among men whereby God is Soueraignely honored and the memory of any thing most effectually preserued The Sacrifice acknowledgeth God reuerenceth him and doth him homage rendering him thankes for his benefits and the refection assembles and vnites men together and makes their meetings more famous and more capable to retaine the remembrance of things Pâ—st and more powerfull to ingraue and send their memory forward to the future ages of posterity And so wee see as well in holy Histories as prophane that the greatest actions of men of Kings of Captaines and Princes and Common-wealthes in the world for Peace for Warre for Victory for Triumphes for Funerals and other workes of great importance haue been begunne and ended with Sacrifices and Feasts Salomon celebrated the Dedication of his magnificent Temple 3. Reg. 2.63 2. Por. 7.8 which he built for God with innumerable Sacrifices and Feasts the Persians the Aegyptians the Grecians the Romans and all the Nations of the world vsed the same meanes to honour their Actes and make the memory of them immortall Thus to doe is an imprinted Law of Nature and holily practised in the House of God It is no wonder then that Iesus Christ Author of all good Lawes hath established an Altar and a Table a Sacrifice and a Feast to ingraue his Honor and make the memory of his triumphant Death to liue for euer But that which in this preparation is more efficatious to represent this death and more to be considered then all the rest in this preparation is that same body which suffered which died and which suffering and dying had triumphed is actually present in this Sacrifice and refection as the matter both of the one and of the other He hath not ordained that it should be celebrated as it was of old by words and mysteries and by the bodies of beasts but he himselfe would be present in the action Neither more nor lesse then as a King who desirous to celebrate some great Victory of his owne not onely would make it to be recounted and sung and represented by Orators Poets and Painters but he himselfe in person would be present acting the principall personage in the representation thereof For so our Sauiour hath represented his owne victorious death being therein himselfe the chiefe Actor the Sacrifice and the Sacrificer giuing his body immolated and his bloud shed his body as dead and yet liuing his bloud as drawne forth of his body and yet still vnited with his body in conclusion exhibiting himselfe in Sacrifice and refection after a most effectuall and pregnant manner to set forth clearely liuely and profitably the resemblance and memory of his sacred Passion to the honor of his Father and the saluation of his welbeloued And therefore hath also commanded this Sacrifice and Feast to bee celebrated from yeere to yeere Exod. 12. not in one place only as that of the Iewes Lamb but euery day and many
times a day and this in all places wheresoeuer the faith of his name and the name of his Maiesty should haue shewed it selfe and in all parts of the earth wheresoeuer the tree of his glorious Crosse should haue taken roote 14. THE MASSE THE FEAST OF GOD wherein he is singularly called vpon in the Law of Grace and the Christians are perfectly heard THE Masse the singular Sacrifice and Royall Feast by which God is highly honored and his creature is exceedingly helped for in it his Maiesty denyeth nothing be it neuer so great that any man asketh either for the health of his owne soule or for the saluation of his neighbour and so his creature is there inriched by his gifts The Persian Kings celebrated in their Court a certaine kinde of Feast dedicated either to the day of their birth or of their coronation which they in their Persian language did call Ticta 〈◊〉 Lin. 8. as who should say perfect Supper This Feast was honored with such a prerogatiue as the King at that time denied no demand which was made vnto him A custome no lesse wisely then happily obserued by Queene Hester for her History tells vs that hauing spied the season shee feasted with royall prouision Assuerus her husband the King of Medes and Persians to obtaine of him vengeance against her enemies and deliuerance for her people and therefore after they had taken their refection the King according to his custome said What is thy petition that it may be giuen thee 〈◊〉 and what wilt thou haue done although thou shalt aske the halfe of my Kingdome thou shalt obtaine it Shee asked boldly and as easily obtained that which shee asked The Sonne of God is more magnificent in his continuall Feast deuoted vnto the dayes of his remembrance for hee giues not earthly goods but himselfe for a sauing Sacrifice and food of saluation and puts a present in our hand wherwith we may be sure to obtaine of the Maiesty of his Father all that concernes our peace repose safety and promiseth vs not the halfe of an earthly kingdom like an earthly King but as an heauenly King the whole Kingdome of heauen So that the promise God made of old to the captiue Hebrewes in Babylon You shall call vpon me and I will be are you Ierem. 29. is diuinely fulfilled in the Law of Grace by meanes of this noble and perfect Feast indeed for albeit in the Law of Nature and of Moyses God well liked the Sacrifices of his seruants and heard their prayers yet was it with farre lesse liberality and alwayes in contemplation of the Messias to come who one day was to satisfie the diuine Maiesty by the Sacrifice of his body Whereas Christians in the Law of Grace offer him a Sacrifice most acceptable in the highest degree that is the body bloud of the Messias himselfe paying as it were in his hand a full satisfaction taken from that body and bloud the fairest payment that can be made and praying the Father by the Sonne which is the most vrgent prayer that can be imagined The Histories tell vs that the Molessians desirous to obtaine some fauour from their King Plutarch in Themist did take one of his sons holding him in their armes cast themselues on their knees before him neere to the domesticall Altar doing this they were neuer denied Which maner of supplication Themistocles vsed then when being banished from Athens hee came into that Country and preserued himself by this ceremony from the anger of Admetus King of Molessians who long before had been his great enemie and would haue put him to death being then in his power had hee not serued himselfe of this desence To receiue a prayer for loue of a sonne is naturall and it ought not to be doubted but since God is Author of Nature and hath giuen this inclination to fathers he hath it also in himselfe and that so much more perfectly as he is a Father of infinit perfection and loue and that his owne Sonne is the liuely Image of his Fathers perfection and therefore infinitly beloued of him And for this cause our Sauiour exhorteth his Disciples Heb. 1.3 to aske boldly of his Father what they would in his name and by his merit as hauing right to obtaine by this title whatsoeuer they demaunded The Church also following the direction of her Redeemer concludes her prayers in his name saying Heare vs almighty God by Iesus Christ thy Sonne Matth 21. Marke 11. Ioan. 16.24 And albeit euery Christian hath at all times and in all places accesse to God by the merits of his Sonne yet then his prayers are most acceptable when hee sayeth or heareth Masse and with due preparation receiueth this Sacrament For the King himselfe is then present at this perfect and compleat Feast at the which he denyeth nothing that is asked and the prayer being made in his Royall presence carryeth with it credit and prerogatiue to be heard of the Diuine Maiesty Behold the banquet the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Law of Grace figured by all those of old that went before it and substituted in their places the Oblation and Sacrifice of Christians and the noblest instrument they haue whereby to call vpon God to haue the grant of their requests behold our Eucharist and our Masse The Prayers the Scriptures the Garments and the Ceremonies which haue been since ordained by the Apostles and their Successors and which are in vse at this day are not the Sacrifice of the Masse they are onely the ornaments thereof the essence of the Masse and of all this Royall Feast is the body and bloud of the Sonne of God offered in a Sacrifice commemoratiue of his death This is the Sacrifice and the Sacrament which makes the substance of this banquet the rest serues onely to honor this honorable and diuine action In this euening then of the fourteenth day of the Moone the true Lamb was offered the Figure of the old was accomplished the right of legall Sacrifices was finished the continuance of the Synagogue was ended and the foundation was laid of the Law of Grace All which our Sauiour signifieth diuinely by the circumstance of the time wherein he ordained the Iewes Pasche and in which he established the Sacrifice and Sacrament of his body which remaineth to be declared for a finall end to this Treatise 15. THE REDEMPTION OF MANKINDE and the end of the Synagogue signified by the Institution of the Eucharist in the full of the Moone EXplaining the type of the Paschall Lambe wee said that the Ceremony began vpon the fourteenth day of the first month of the Hebrewes holy yeare vpon the euening because in that night the first borne of Aegypt were killed and the gates opened to the freedom of the children of God Our Sauiour then to put an end to the old Figure and liuely to expresse the truth thereof instituted the Sacrament of his body
the Church in her first increasings Shee sheweth the Church vnder the Law of Nature at the Change in the weaknesse of her beames and on the fourteenth day when shee is at the Full shee hath a resemblance of the Church in the Synagogue as we haue said but in that she became a new Moone after a new manner in her fifteenth day she signified the Church in the Law of Grace The newnesse and new manner consists in this that shee drew neare to the Sun by an extraordinary meanes for being on Thursday so farre from it as the East from the West the next day shee was euen against it which approachment shee should not make according to her naturall course but in the space of fourteene dayes supernaturally also and with no lesse wonder shee returned to the East on Friday euening at Sun-set where shee had been the night before And so in six houres shee put on the seuerall roabes of all her states for shee was new shee was in he first quarter shee was in her fulnesse and in the beginning of her third seuenth to wit in her fifteenth day In these circumstances and in these wonders happening neuer before nor since shee marketh out the Church in the state of Grace a state of singular renouation of a third seuenth of a third time in the new Pasch in the new and great Sacrifice and Feast instituted by the Sonne of God in his body To which purpose Saint Augustine writeth in these words Because wee are in the third time of all the worlds continuance 〈◊〉 Aug. 〈◊〉 119. ad lanâ—er c. 3. herehence it is that our Sauiour rose vpon the third day The first time was before the Law the second in the Law the third vnder Grace in the which is manifested the Sacrament which was hid in the folds of the Propheticall bookes This it is that which was signified by the number of the Moones and for that 〈◊〉 the Scripture the number of seuen hath a mysticall signification of perfection the Pasche was celebrated in the third weeke of the Moone which is betweene the fourteenth and the â—â—e and twentieth day Behold how God reades vs a lesson by his Starres teaching vs Paradise by the skie and communicating to vs the beames of his intellectuall light by the condition and course of the corporall 18. OVR SAVIOVR HAVING INSTITVted the Sacrifice and Sacrament of his body goeth foorth of his ledging to goe to the Garden of Oliuet THe sweete Lambe being offered this euening and giuen in refection to his Apostles and hauing abolished the olde Pasche and instituted the new as hath been said sung an Hymne with his Apostles after the tradition of the Iewes and went forth to goe to the garden of Oliuet where he was to be deliuered by Iudas to the wicked who had already the watch-word to apprehend him This only remained to accomplish all the proofes of his infinite loue towards mankinde He was first offered to his Father by an vnbloudy Sacrifice without death and passion he went forth to be taken afterwards as a Lambe and to be made a victime on the Crosse there shedding his bloud and giuing his life He had giuen his body to his friends he goeth now to offer it to his enemies He had refectioned the soules of the humble he went soone after to bee fed with gall to drinke viniger to surfet with the torments and reproaches of the proud He long since planted a Garden of delights of rest and of honor he is now gone to a garden of sorrowes of combate and of disgrace He planted the Tree of Life in that delightfull Garden he commeth to plant another in the Orchard of his Church more exquisit and more excellent without comparison And himselfe walkes in this solitary Garden to repaire the fault committed in the first Garden In that the debt was made by disobedience in this it began to be paid by humility In planting the first Garden and the first tree of life he only imployed his word who commanded and all was made but in this it is not so one houres stay in this will cost thee thy bloud O my sweet Redeemer and with the droppes of that pretious purple the beds of this garden must be watred And the Tree of Life which thou hast planted in the Paradise of thy Church is not any meane effect as that was of thy holy word but thy pretious body and bloud it selfe accompanied with the aray of thy holy Diuinitie O my Lord what can I say to prayse thy magnificency I say that thou art magnificent euery way in taking and giuing in feeding and in suffering euery way good and euery liberall of thy goods and of thy selfe euery way rich in mercy and euery way aboundant in propitiation herehence it is that for thy last retraite thou goest to the Garden of Oliuet to make for vs and to giue vnto vs the oyle of thy mercies Oliues for vs but Apples of anguish for thee O my soule thy Redeemer goeth in the night and goeth to subiect himselfe for thee to paines in this Garden doe something for him accompany him amidst this darknesse haue compassion on him admire his loue towards thee loath thy sinnes that haue cast him into these vexations weepe and pray with him offer him thy heart and seruice in this perplexed high-way of his Agony And fince thou art written in his Will called to his Heritage and placed at the Table of his Kingdome to eate of his fruit of life giue some signe of a grateful soule and mindfull of so many benefits make him some present of thy gifts that he hath giuen thee and giue him something of that which he hath made thine albeit thou art nothing yet giue him thy selfe in giuing thy selfe thou shalt become something giue thy selfe to him since he hath giuen himselfe to thee and when I say himselfe what say I an infinite depth of goodnesse giuen many wayes vnto thee in his birth in his conuersation in thy meate in his death and in all the kindes that a thing can be giuen After thou hast contemplated thanked followed and serued him in the Garden of Oliues at the Iudgement Barre of Pilate in the Mount Caluary at the Crosse with teares and sighes of loue of compunction and compassion make him often thy Host by means of this diuine Table which he hath prepared for thee of his immortall and glorious body to giue himselfe to thee and to lodge with thee so often as thou wilt and taking the healthfull refection of his dish contemplate moreouer in this Table the delicates of Paradise and of eternall life which shall follow after For as the Altars of the Hebrewes were Figures of this Feast so this Feast is the Image of the celestiall Table Heere thou eatest the bread of Angells in heauen thou shalt also liue of the bread of Angels Heere thy meat is God himselfe the self-same God will be thy food at that Table