all things hold fast that which is good Search the Scriptures John 5.39 Our love must abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgement that we may try or approve things that are excellent Philip. 1.9 Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3.18 I can say it by experience He who diligently searcheth for the revelation and inlightning of the Truth though he find not sometime that particular for which he inquired hee shall find many excellent things for which he did not seck and perhaps of more force and worth than the thing searched for And so O Truth Tu non inventa reperta es Remember withall that no beast under Heaven though never so great and vast hath so great and large braines as man hath nor broader allies lanes or cels for the animall spirits of man to walk or rest in which may serve for the disquisition of deep or higher knowledge Yet I would have no man so given to novelty as Campanella who ascribeth Sense to the earth and dry sticks 3.14 Reason to beasts with an hundred other vain imaginations The craft of the Spider saith he de sensu rerum 2.23 is wonderfull or stupendious by reason she makes her net frameth the attractory threads of her web egreditur ad captionem musce cum multis syllogismis Comes forth to catch the fly with many syllogismes And Canes exmotu sylvae latitantem syllogisant bestiam saepe arguto syllogismo Leporem insectantes And the Dogs by the motion of the wood do reason concerning the hidden beast often chasing the silly Hare with witty and subtill syllogismes And the Ants of necessity speak or use their voyces and many the like uncouth positions which he is glad at the end of that Chapter to temper and modifie with a Quasi Discursiva dicenda sunt rationalia The creatures which can discourse are said to be Reasonable yet so that Man is said to be Reasonable and not Brutes not because Brutes do not at all use Reason but for that they use Reason but a little As Plants are not called Animals because they have but a little sense And thus will we speak saith he But we understand a Man Rationall in his mind and do give Brutes only Reasonable sense which Aquinas calleth Estimative Is this all this discourse come now to this I will take a liberty to speak as I please and so I will set up new positions and contradict all in my way that ever was said before and then I will so qualifie it that I will have only new tearmes new expressions and yet but old matter that all the Reason of Beasts be but the Estimative faculty as Aquinas calleth it Affected novelty be thou humble And though we must be humble and Scepticall where we have no firme footing yet if we put into the weights two opinions with their best circumstances we are not forbid upon a diligent triall and search of them not in the Bakers ballance but in the exacter scales of the Gold-smith to say such an opinion is so many Graines Scruples Dramms Ounces or Pounds better and heavier than the other Proceed wee then to examination whether it were a distinct Table or no That it was celebrated After Supper no man can contradict If it had been at the Paschall or at the Common Supper or during their turnes or times no man could deny but it had been administred at the same Table And too many Christians not observing that point have run into many errors and let slide from their pens apparent mistakings But at that Table it could not be administred conveniently And herein again I appeale to any learned man or good Christian soule Which is fitter of the two That the most wonderfull Sacrament should be celebrated as the Recipients Lay along or Sate at a Table incompassed with Three beds Or at another Table better accommoded for their devout participation and graced with Diviner food With reference to the parties Recipient these may bee the Arguments In Naturals Morals Politicks these Axioms hold De minimis minima cura est habenda de maximis maxima cura est habenda Of least things the least care is to be taken and of greatest things the greatest care Upon this ground we preferre the Body before Raiment the Soule before the Body the joyes of Heaven above the pleasures of Earth the love of God above the love of Men. Charitas est ordinata Charity proceeds by Order and chieflyest looketh to things most necessary When Martha was carefull and troubled about many things Christ said to her One thing is needfull and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not bee taken away from her Luke 10.42 Seeke yee First the Kingdome of God Matth. 6.33 Take no thought for the morrow I have seene a naturall foole hold up his arme to receive a blow which was aymed at his head And he is little lesse than an Idiot who bestoweth more care on small or poore things than he doth on great and better things Domitian was a foole to bestow his time in killing of Flyes when the care of the whole Roman Empire lay on his shoulders The Roman Empire was not disturbed by a Fly The particular nature will destroy it selfe to preserve the Generall Fire will descend rather than there should be a Vacuum Things will rather suffer any evill than vacuity All and every particular nature by it selfe and with others doth so abhorre vacuum vaine emptinesse that they all concurre to remedy it against their owne private inclinations and dispositions to keepe as it were their Common-wealth whole and sound For they Themselves are preserved when the Generality is preserved Ayre hath beene seene impetuously and forcibly to leap downe into the bottome of the gaping Seas and into cavernes of the earth against nature descending to inhibit Inanity To this effect excellently Campanella de Sensu Rerum 1.9 though I like not his Collections or Diductions therefrom Concerning Christs Body in the first place And shall we think that any thing in the earth is equall to the pretious Body and Blood of Christ We are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the pretious Blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.19 Heb. 9.14 The Blood of Christ purgeth our consciences from dead works to serve the living God 1 Joh. 1.7 The Blood of Christ cleanseth us from All sinne He washed us from our sinnes in his owne Blood Revel 1.5 and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God as followeth His Blood was and is of infinite merit And if there should be created as many worlds of people as there are now people in this world and if God had made the like covenant with them as he hath done with us though every one of those were great sinners yet if they did repent and beleeve in Christ every one should be forgiven and saved and for all this God should remaine a debtor to
makes a Supper Fol. 593 Par. 6 Adoration and the Degrees thereof 1 Degree Vncovering of the Head 2 Degree Bowing of the Head and Face 3 Degree Kneeling 4 Degree falling on the face 5 Prayer Kneeling Prostration Rising againe Standing in adoration what they signifie Jacobus de Valentia his degrees of adoration rejected Others preferred 1 Reverence and its Act. 2 Veneration and its Act. 3 Worshp 4 Adoration Adoration produceth 1 An act of the Intellect 2 An act of Will 3 Bodily Acts bending kneeling Prostration c. Probable when Christ instituted the blessed Eucharist he prayed and kneeled Prayer and thankesgiving almost one Two motives to Prayer Feare and Hope The fruits and gestures thereof both joyned together in prayer Fol. 594 Par. 7 By the ancient Heroes and Semidei are meant famous Men and Princes of renowne Secundei saith Trithemius successively rule the World Pagan Gods were very men Arnobius and Minutius Foelix do mention the places of their Births Countries c. Alexander wrote unto his mother De Diis Hominibus Tertullian wrote of Saturne that hee was a Man the Father and Sonne of a Man The Heathen Gods were borne and dyed The Heathen to preserve the memory of their Heroes made Statues and Images of them Minutius Foelix reproveth their manner of Deifying Men. The ancient Romans made an absurd decree that the Emperour might not consecrate a God without the consent of the Senate The very people did one day Deifie a God and the next day Vndeified him Tiberius the Emperour approved Christ to be a God The Senate reject him Fol. 595 Par. 8 The Pagans had severall kindes of worshipping their consecrated Gods First they did lift up their eyes unto them Secondly they blessed them Thirdly they did sacrifice unto them Fourthly they did set their Idols upon their Beast and Cattle The lepid story of the Image of Isis set upon an Asses backe They made Caroches and Carts to caray their Images upon They made Beds in their Temples in honour of their Idols They doubed them over with silver and gold They clothed them with costly garments The story of Dionysius his sacraledge The story of the Knave that stole away Jupiters golden eyes out of his head Fol. 596 Par. 9 Another kinde of Adoration of Idols at distance To kisse the hand in passing by the Idol So did Cecilius worship the Image of Serapis A Creditour by the Law of the twelve Tables might-cut in pieces his condemned Debtor who was not able to pay him The rigour of that Law commuted into shame The manner of shaming such debtors There is a civill death of a mans honour and good name as well as a corporall death of the Body Fol. 597 Par. 10 Their fashion of Adoring their Idols was either at Distance or Close by Adoration at distance was divers either of Idols in heaven or on Earth If they adored the Celestiall bodies 1 They looked up towards the Heavens 2 They did in heart give the honour to the Creature which is due onely to the Creator 3 Their mouths did Kisse their hands 4 They prayed unto them either audibly or tacitely If they Adored their Images on Earth 1 They stood before their Images somewhat off 2 They solemnely moved their right hand to their lips 3 They kissed the forefinger joyned with the thumbe 4 They turned about their body on the same hand 5 They did draw neerer and kisse the Images They kissed not onely their Lips and Mouthes but other parts of their bodies also Fol. 598 Par. 11 The manner of saluting one another among the Persians The story of Polyperchon Adoration whence so called The reason why in adoration they aid both bend and kisse The reason why they put their hands to their mouthes in adoration The ancient Romans had a house dedicated to the Sunne A greater Obeliske dedicated to the Sunne meaner to the Moone Kings adored before either Sunne or Moone The Persians worshipped the Sunne The manner how The buckler of the Sunne what it is Servius Tullus built a Temple in Honour of the Moone The Manichees adored the Sunne and the Moone Fol. 599 Par. 12 The originall of Adoration Kings and Princes had not their originall of worship from the adoration of Idols or Images as Mr Selden openeth But Statues and Images had the beginning of their adoration from the examplary worshipping of Kings and famous Heroes as Geverard Elmenhorst proveth from Saint Cyprian Athenagoras and Alexanders letter unto his mother About Serug his time they begun to draw the pictures of Magistrates Tyrants c. About Terah's daies they made Statues and Images Statues were made 1 Of Clay by the Potter 2 Of stone by the Mason 3 Of silver gold c. by the Gold-smith 4 Of iron by the Black-smith And other Artificers The divers Appellations of Images made for Gods Heroes Kings Wisemen Well-deserving men The cause of Adoration sometimes Greatnesse Goodnesse Adoration a Reward for the dead Illective for the living Both Men and Women for some evident priviledge of Vertue were deified The first inventors of every thing profitable for men Deified Jupiter so called a juvando Jovis Jovi Jovem Jove corrupt derivations from Jehovah Fol. 601 Par. 13 The Cities Countries and Places of the Heathenish gods are knowne where they were Borne Lived were Buried The great variety of gods and goddesses among the Heathen Saturnē the ancientest among the Heathen Gods Jupiter borne and buried in Crete 300 Jupiters The famous Heroes and Princes were in the World before their Images Statues were at first comforts are now sacred reliques Common people pray unto and publiquely consecrated Images The mouths of the Image of Hercules many Images at Rome worne bare by kissing Fol. 602 Par. 14 In ancient times living Kings were worshipped and adored Sonnes of God Gen. 6.2 were sonnes of Princes Elohim the name of God applyable to Princes Great men in ancient times adored for their wickednesse Men reverenced and adored for their Name In ancient time great story of Kings Nine in one battle Gen. 14. Vsuall in India for Subjects to kisse their Kings by way of Worship Some Kissed their hands yet did not adore Adored yet kissed not their hands Adorare to worship used for Orare to pray both in Scripture profane authors and Fathers Praying to an Idoll maketh it a false God The true God onely must be prayed to Prayer used for Adoration Adoration for Prayer The story of the Father Wisedome the 14 for the untimely death of his sonne Fol. 603 Par. 15 The story in the Mr of the Ecclesiasticall History concerning the Originall of Idols Idolatry had divers inventours The Egyptian Idolatry the worst That place of Scripture Then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord Gen. 4.26 vidicated from the misinterpretations of Bellarmine and Waldensis who apply it to a Monasticall life Others who gather from hence the Originall of Idolatry Examined at large truly interpreted No Idolatry before
Angels were created after the world as the soule of man was after his body So Gennadius and Acatius Yet Beda Cassiodorus and others are peremptory that the Angels were created within the sixe dayes And they followed the Divine S. Aug. for after Aug. almost all the Latines saith Ludovicus Vives de Civitate 10.9 and since them all the Schooles say all the Angels were created within the sixe dayes I boldly say Col. 1.16 By Christ were all things created that are in heaven earth whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers hee might have specialized Angels or Archangels Cherubims or Seraphims since hee added Al things were made by him and for him What some said of Origen I may say concerning those Greek Fathers that they rather Platonize than Christianize for Plato long before them in his booke de mundi opificio held the same opinion The reasoning of Augustine de Civitate Dei 11.9 is good That the creation of Angels is not left out only by Moses I thinke by this saith he it is said expresly God ended his worke on the seaventh day and hee rested the seaventh day from all his workes Gen. 2.2 And In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth Gen. 1.1 Now if he made nothing before the sixe dayes and rested from all his worke the seaventh day then the Angels must needes be created within that time But yet there is a plaine place Exod. 20.11 though it be not sufficiently expressed without some deduction In sixe dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is The Angels are in heaven and on earth This is the assumption Therefore in the sixe dayes they were created Psalm 146.6 It is varied somewhat God made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that therein is From whence you may extract the same conclusion As man was created when all things were fitted for him and the soule is infused into the body when the body is prepared to receive it so as soone as the Heavens the Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now framed the Lord filled it with Angels Furthermore it is said Psalm 148.2 Praise the Lord all yee Angels of his the reason is added in the fifth verse Let them praise the name of the Lord for hee spake the word and they were made hee commanded and they were created not onely Sun and Moone not onely Starres of light not onely heavens of heavens and the waters above the heavens but Angels also and first of all are Angels placed when hee had formerly said Praise the Lord from the heavens And so are they comprized as well as other creatures within the sixe dayes compasse of the creation Augustine in the forecited booke and chapter argueth from the song of the three children in the midst of the fire though it be Apocrypha tous for in the 34. verse it is said All yee workes of the Lord blesse yee the Lord and in the next verse O yee heavens blesse yee the Lord the subsequent verse hath it O yee Angels of the Lord blesse yee the Lord as if they were created and indeed so they were so soone as their habitation was made and God had fitted them a dwelling place But that was done towards the beginning of the creation and therefore the Angels were then created Againe though there be not expresse mention in iisdem terminis sic terminantibus In plaine words and disert termes of baptizing of infants yet the Church justly profitably and excellently observeth it And thus it may be evinced by Scripture In the Apostles time they did baptize whole housholds 1 Cor. 1.16 I baptized the house of Stephanas Lydia was baptized and her houshold Act. 16.15 So the Jaylor was baptized hee and all his streight way Act. 16. verse 33. that is his children as well as his houshold servants Act 2 38. Be baptized every one of you For the promise is made to you and to your children vers 39. This were a silly reason if children might not be baptized but indeed it is a strong motive that they should bring their children to Baptisme and an argument faire enough that children were baptized for those to whom the promise is made must be baptized but the promise is made as much to children as to any others therefore children ought to be baptized Certainly the Apostles would never have named their children if none of them had any children but the converts in that place being some thousands it could not be otherwise but many of them had children yea and that their children were baptized with themselves as in the same day was Abraham circumcised and Ishmael his sonne and all the men of his houshold Gen. 17.26 For otherwise hee had beene disobedient to the holy Apostle who said Be baptized every one of you But no good Christian will or can thinke that those then converted were disobedient and therefore their children were baptized It is a ridiculous thing to thinke the Apostles chose out such housholds only as had no little infants in them leaving great and numerous families unbaptized because some little children were in them And fairelier we may conclude In many families there were some infants But many whole families were baptized therefore some infants If some why not others If others why not all And so all infants are to be baptized Againe Baptisme is necessary for us as Circumcision was for the Jewes This is proved because of the correspondence betweene the Type and Antitype which correspondency is so square and perfect betweene the Old and New Sacrament that the Apostle 2.11.12 in effect designeth out Baptisme by the name of Circumcision But their infants were circumcised Gen. 17.27 and therefore our infants must be Baptized Act. 2.41 In one day were added to the Church about 3000 soules yea daily the Lord added such to the Church as should be saved vers 47. but children are some of those that must be saved for of such is the Kingdome of God saith Christ Matth. 19.13 It is added Mark 10.15 verse Verily I say unto you Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdome of God as a little child hee shall not enter therein Lastly lest any should cavill these children were not very little but such as came of themselves unto Christ it is said in the same verse of Saint Matthew They brought little children unto him and some of those children so brought were infants Luk. 18.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being significantly translated in our best and last translation They brought unto him also infants Therefore infants according to Christs yea the Apostles practise must be baptized For there is no likelihood but in such great multitudes as were together baptized and divers day by day but there were some infants Much more may be added to this point but Quantò diffusares est tantò substringenda nobis erit that I may use Tertullians phrase ad Nationes 2.12 The second Supper is not
implyed and fore-told before his conversion Yet againe when the forward undertaking S. Peter avouched the contrary Christ replied Luke 22.34 Thou shalt deny me thrice A third occasion was this S Peter would know whither Christ went Christ answered S. Peter could not then follow him Why cannot I follow thee now I will lay downe my life for thy sake quoth the great Presumer or Promiser Christ answered him a third time Ioh. 13.38 The Cocke shall not crow or the ordinary time of Cocke-crowing shall not come till thou hast denied me thrice Hence I frame mine Argument PAR. 17. IF Christ three times so solemnly upon so many severall provocations when his Apostle did out-crow him did foretell That he should deny Christ thrice not sixe not seven times not more not lesse but onely thrice The Triple diction of Christ was seconded with a Triple deniall of his Apostle and with no more And the three-fold cord will hardly be broken Heaven and earth shall passe but Christs word shall not passe away Matth. 24.35 Cajetan replyeth If Peter denyeth Christ seven times he did deny him thrice as he who payeth seven pieces payeth three I answer Christs intent was to humble S. Peter and to make him see his owne frailtie in his over-forwardnesse Therefore if Christ had knowne Peter would have denyed him seven times he would not have lessened the number of his denyalls but have named all his seven denialls the rather to beate downe his selfe-love selfe-conceit selfe-assurance But Christ fore-telling onely three denyalls we may not forge more which Christ could not be ignorant of if such were to have beene and would not have spared to tell Peter so To the Question or affirmation of three sorts of people First of a Maide to it was made the first denyall Secondly of a Man upon a Womans asseverations was made the second deniall Thirdly to the manifold searchings or avouchments of the confused Multitude and of other two particular men was made one entire and full deniall Though divers did interrogate or affirme the same thing yet was the answer but one and the same I end as I said before The first deniall accomplished was to the Maide the doore-keeper The second denyall was to a single severall accuser a Man Luke 22.58 A little while after upon a Womans suggestion for though S. Matthew speaketh of a second Maide or Woman yet the second Maide spake not to Peter but of Peter to others Matth. 26.71 and Marke 14.69 This is one of them and then and thereupon a Man charged him home and so indeede the second deniall About an houre after one confidently affirmed as it is in S. Luke 22.59 and others interrogated Ioh. 18.25 and the By-standers avouched Matth. 26.73 and perhaps Malchus his cozen might be one of those troupes though poynted out singly and they all in likelihood came upon S. Peter so fast one in the necke of another as is usuall when many talke together that he answered All and each of them with this third resolute denyall The first was a simple denyall I know not what thou sayst Matth. 26.70 The second denyall upon a mans direct accusing him Luke 22.58 After a Womans confident avouchment Matth. 26.71 was not single and simple but Juramentall Vers 72. The third deniall upon the charge of so many some single some in a route was imprecatory and made him both curse and sweare Matth. 26 74. and Marke 14.71 though neither S. Luke nor S. Iohn mention his swearing or cursing PAR. 18. TO conclude though many sifted S. Peter and though many answers or excuses be particularly discribed after his second deniall yet they are to be esteemed and accounted but as one onely and being conjoyned must goe onely for Peters worst greatest third denyall That in the intention of Scripture S. Peters diversified answers both to the standers by in Matthew and Marke and to the confident Affimer in Luke and to the others in S. John and with them to Malchus his cozen are accounted but one whole full denyall appeareth by this that both Matthew Luke and Iohn upon their severall relations conclude in the same words Immediatly the Cocke crew for upon his deniall to Malchus his cozen Immediately the Cocke crew Joh. 18.27 And upon the deniall to the confident Affirmer Immediately while he yet spake the Cocke crew Luke 22.60 Thirdly upon his denyall cursing and swearing to the By-standers Immediately the Cocke crew Matth. 26.74 And you are further to know that at his first deniall the Cocke crowed once Marke 14.68 and after his third denyall with Oath and Imprecation The Cocke crowed the second ver 72. I have not heard nor read any man avouching more than two crowings of the Cocke But you must of necessitie establish foure severall crowings of the Cocke before S Peters Repentance unlesse you agree with me in making his fore-cited last excuses though veriously Historified to be but one onely denyall his third and last denyall immediately whereupon the Cocke crew The Cocke cannot crow immediately upon severall occasions but there are severall Cocke-crowings PAR. 19. ALL this discourse hindreth not me from imbracing my former opinion viz. that the Iudaicall Paschall was about one quarter of an houre in transacting and the usuall Supper annexed unto it was about three quarters of an houre and so all Ceremony Leviticall was accomplished betweene 6. and 7. or there-abouts in the night whilst of the two by the word about I encline rather to the more than to the lesse For now when the even was come he sate downe with the 12. Mat. 26.20 Yea he came in the Evening with the Twelve Mark 14.17 It was the time of Twi-light or Twiter-light when the light is mingled with darkenesse and day with night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 duy vespra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vespa qd lux tenebra er tempore permisceantur v. Pagin lex in Rad. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 GNARBAIIM by which Hebrew Duall are meant two distinct things at the same time viz. A mixture and partaking both of day and night that men cannot then distinguish as Lucas Brugensis hath it a dog from a Wolfe which we call Owle-light Now reckon one houre after this or somewhat more for lesse time the two Suppers did not take up a little more they might and did in all likelihood than within one houre or more after the night had usurped on the day and light was gone to bed till the morning may that be fully accomplished which was sayd of Iudas He went out and it was Night In no place of the world when it begins to be darke but somewhat an houre after 't is Night The Prayer MErcifull Lord God I givē thee most hearty thankes for all the favours that thou hast conferred upon me upon my Soule my body and my fortunes and I beseech thee make me use them as I ought to the glory of
severall kinds of worshipping their Consecrated Gods First they did lift up their eyes unto them Secondly they blessed them Thirdly they did Sacrifice unto them Fourthly they did set their Idols upon their Beasts and Cattle The lepid story of the Image of Isis set upon an Asses back They made Caroches and Carts to carry their Images upon They made Beds in their Temples in honour of their Idols They dawbed them over with silver and gold They clothed them with costly garments The story of Dionysius his sacrilege The story of the Knave that stole away Jupiters golden Eyes out of his head 9. Another kind of Adoration of Idols at distance To kisse the hand in passing by the Idol So did Cecilius worship the Image of Serapis A Creditor by the Law of the 12. Tables might cut in pieces his condemned Debtor who was not able to pay him The rigor of that Law commuted into shame The manner of shaming such Debtors There is a Civill death of a mans Honor and Good name as well as a Corporall death of the Body 10. Their fashion of Adoring their Idols was either at Distance or Close by Adoration at distance was diverse either of Idols in Heaven or on Earth If they adored the Celestiall bodies 1. They looked up towards the Heavens 2. They did in heart give the honor to the Creature which is due only to the Creator 3. Their mouths did Kisse their hands 4. They prayed unto them either audibly or tacitely If they Adored their Images on Earth 1. They stood before their Images somewhat off 2. They solemly moved their right hand to their â—ips 3. They kissed the forefinger joyned with the thumb 4. They turned about their body on the same hand 5. They did draw nearer and kisse the Images They kissed not only their Lips and Mouths but other parts of their bodies also 11. The manner of saluting one another among the Persians The story of Polyperchon Adoration whence so called The reason why in Adoration they did both Bend and Kisse The reason why they put their Hands to their Mouths in Adoration The ancient Romans had a house dedicated to the Sun A greater Obeliske dedicated to the Sun meaner to the Moon Kings Adored before either Sun or Moon The Persians worshipped the Sun The manner how The Buckler of the Sun what it is Servius Tullus built a Temple in Honour of the Moon The Manichees Adored the Sun and the Moon 12. The originall of Adoration Kings and Princes had not their originall of worship from the Adoring of Idols or Images as M. Selden opineth But Statues and Images had the beginning of their Adoration from the exemplary worshipping of Kings and famous Heroes as Geverard Elmenhorst proveth from S. Cyprian Athenagoras and Alexanders letter unto his mother About Serug his time they began to draw the pictures of Magistrats Tyrants c. About Terah's daies they made Statues and Images Statues were made 1. Of Clay by the Potter 2. Of Stone by the Mason 3. Of Silver Gold c by the Gold-Smith 4. Of Iron by the Black-Smith and other Artificers The diverse Apellations of Images made for Gods Heroës Kings Wisemen Well-deserving men The cause of Adoration sometimes Greatnesse Goodnesse Adoration a Reward for the dead Illective for the living Both Men and Women for some evident priviledge of Vertue were deified The first Inventors of every thing profitable for men Deified Jupiter so called à juvando Jovis Jovi Jovem Jove corrupt derivations from Jehova 13. The Cities Countries and Places of the Heathenish Gods are known where they were Borne Lived were Buried The great variety of Gods and Goddesses among the Heathen Saturne the Ancientest among the Heathen Gods Jupiter borne and buried in Crete 300. Jupiters The famous Heroës and Princes were in the World before their Images Statues were at first Comforts are now sacred Reliques Common people pray unto and publiquely consecrated Images The mouths of the Image of Hercules many Images at Rome worne bare by Kissing 14. In ancient times living Kings were Worshipped and Adored Sons of God Gen. 6.2 were Sons of Princes Elohim the name of God appliable to Princes Great men in ancient times Adored for their wickednesse Men Reverenced and Adored for their Name In ancient time great store of Kings Nine in one Battle Gen. 14. Vsuall in India for Subjects to Kisse their Kings by way of Worship Some Kissed their Hands yet did not Adore Adored yet Kissed not their Hands Adorare to worship used for Orare to pray both in Scripture profane Authors and Fathers Praying to an Idoll maketh it a false God The True God only must be prayed to Prayer used for Adoration Adoration for Prayer The story of the Father Wisedome the 14. for the untimely death of his Son 15. The story in the Mr. of the Ecclesiasticall History concerning the Originall of Idols Idolatry had diverse Inventors The Egyptian Idolatry the worst That place of Scripture Then began men to call on the Name of the Lord Gen. 4.26 vindicated from the misinterpretations of Bellarmine and Waldensis who apply it to a Monasticall life Others who gather from hence the Originall of Idolatry Examined at large and truly Interpreted No Idolatry before the Flood Enos was Called a God Held a God for his admirable Vertue and Justice His Sons called the Sons of God Gen. 6.2 So Adam so are Kings and their Officers so are Christians Enos the first who called upon God by the name Jehovah How God was not knowne by the name of Jehovah to Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Two Conjectures of the Author Many words in the Hebrew Bible signifie contrary things to excite our minds to a diligent search of the right meaning Authorities that Idolatry was not before the Flood Salianus Cyrill Irenaeus c. The first Idols had their primitive Adoration from the Adoration of Kings The latter Kings c. have had Adoration from some kind of Adoration derived from Idols When Christ celebrated the holy Communion t is probable he fell down on his Face Falling on the Face is the most forcible Gesture exciting to Devotion The prostration of the Body is the Elevation of the Soule Christ in the celebration of his Last Supper varied his Gestures as occasion required The Church ought to imitate Christ in those things which she commands PARAGRAPH 1. 1. WHether Christ himselfe received the blessed Sacrament I answer Here cannot choose but be diversities of opinions Bellarmine de Sacramento Baptismi 1.23 thus Dices potuit Christus accipere sunm Baptisma non ad effectum Regenerationis Adoptionis consequendum sed aliquâ aliâ de causâ c. You will say Christ might be Baptized with his own Baptism not to work Regeneration or obtaine Adoption but for some other cause As Christ was Circumcised which hee needed not and was Baptized by John to the Baptism of Repentance though Christ had no cause to Repent and lastly as he took
the best excuse yet the unlikely hood that so great a Scholler as Optatus would speake so improperly might have made him to distrust his own Copy and to make search after other Copies and he might have found the truth in the Copy of Albaspinaeus as I have cited the words Neither needed Rigaltius to have inquired far off For Optatus with the Notes and Observations of Albaspinaeus were Printed at Paris three yeares before Rigaltius Observations on Tertullian came forth in the same City under his nose PAR. 10. THeir fashion to Adore their Images or false Gods either Eminus or Cominus either Aloofe off or Close by but especially Aloofe off as they followed other businesses their casuall saluting Adoration was manifold and of divers formes See our accomplished Mr. Selden who is impensè Doctus in his Titles of Honor and in his Syntagmata de Diis Syris toward the beginning They did Kisse their Images that must be when they are close by them Their Kissing he proveth from Cicero Act. 5. in Verrem from Lucretius libro 1. And ere they Kissed they looked up to Heaven with Hands spread abroad say I and after they Bended down and sometimes Kneeled Many Knees bow to Baal Many mouths kissed him 1 King 19.18 So Hosea 13.2 They kissed the Calves or molten Images The good man did wiser when he kist his Cow Concerning the Heathens Adoration at Distance it was diverse if they Adored the Celestiall bodies First they looked up toward the Heavens For they beheld the Sun when it shined and the Moon walking in brightnesse Job 31.26 Secondly their Heart was secretly enticed to give the honor due to the Creator to those his Creatures Thirdly their mouths did Kisse their hands vers 27. which was not without some Bendings of their bodies Fourthly they Prayed unto them either audibly or by a more secret murmur Remember the place of Tertullian concerning which by and by Ad Solis inititium Labra vibratis Ye wag your Lips at the rising of the Sun Bona pars procerum tacitâ libabit acerrâ Haud cuivis promptum est murmurque humilesquesusurros Tollere de templis Et aperto vivere voto Mens bona Fama Fides haec clarè ut audiat hospes Illa sibi introrsum sub linguâ immurmurat ô si Ebullet patrui praclarum Funus ô si c. Persius Satyrâ secundâ The greater part of Noblemen their Tacit censers bring Unto the Gods when they from them some shameful boon would wring 'T is not ô 't is not for each one to banish far away Their Secret muttrings from the Church and make them lowd to pray If they for a sound mind do pray for Fame or Credit then The 'll pray alowd and make their vows ring in the eares of men If for rich Nuncles death they wish that once 't would bubble out They 'll pray so soft that none shall heare that stands them round about The like they did when they prayed to the Sun Secondly concerning their Worship or Adoration of Images on Earth at Distance it is thus for the most part branched by the glory of our Nation for all humane literature 1. They stood somewhat off before their Images 2. They solemnly moved their Right Hands to their Lips 3. They Kissed the Forefinger joyned with the Thumb 4. They turned about their Bodies on the same hand as Mr. Selden alledgeth from diverse Authors 5. Let me adde They then lifted up both their Eyes and Hands spread abroad to Heaven When they swore by Jove Capitoline they looked not so much to Jove in the Capitol as to the Heavens Yea their backs were sometimes towards the Capitol 6. They did draw nearer and did Kisse oftimes the Images themselves as I said before That this was a Kisse not like the Humane Ambulatory Salutation only done for Complement but of deep and reall Adoration of false Gods as is evidenced Because I should have denyed the God that is above saith Job vers 28. For Worshipping of Idols on Earth by Kissing them is a deniall of God in Heaven Which mutuall Kissing of one another is not nor can be Nor did they Kisse the Lips only of their Idols and their Mouths but both the Fore-parts and the Hinder parts and their Shoulders the Cheeks the backe of the Hand even the very Feet See Ritterbusius ad Salvianum pag. 379. Perhaps they might kisse some other Hinder parts in humiliation And I do verily think they left not the Knees unkissed PAR. 11. AMong men if Persians of equal Degree did meet they Kissed one anothers Lips If a Superior met an Inferior he gave the Inferior his Cheeks to kisse But a meane Persian falling down did worship the Better or more Ronowed saith Brissonius pag. 241. as he is cited by Drusius The story of Polyperchon falleth in here very fittly A Persian worshipping Alexander fell on his face before him and with his chin touched the ground Polyperchon in a floute exhorted the Persian to shake his chin lustily against the ground Alexander thereupon drew Polyperchon from the banqueting bed and tumbled him down and arietated him to the earth and made his head knock the ground and bitterly taunted him saying Now Polyperchon thou seest thy selfe do that which even now thou didst laugh at in another See Curtius 8. pag. 245. Mr. Selden very probably addeth It was called Adoration or they were said to Adore Quòd ad Ora sive ad Os manum admovebant because they moved their Hands to their Mouths or rather the Fore-finger joyned to the Thumb as he before explained it His proofe from S. Hierom is most punctuall who do Adore do Kisse their Hands and Bow down their Heads saith Hierom And in the propriety of the Hebrew tongue Kissing is used for Worship or Adoration Psal 2.12 The vulgar of Cajetan Hentenius and Santandrianus have it Apprehendite disciplinam Apprehend discipline agreeing with the Chaldee The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lay holdfast on Discipline Osculamini Filium saith the Hebrew which Vatabus doth well inlarge saying Osculo manuum testamini vos Dei Filium habere pro Rege By Kissing the Hands that is by Adoration witnesse that ye esteem the Son of God as King Geverard Elmenhorst in his notes on Minutius Foelix citeth to the same purpose both Pliny and Apuleius whom Mr. Selden insisteth in One reason why they did both Bend and Kisse may be because both Head and Mouth with it did stoop down toward the Hand and the Hand did mount up to meet the Mouth The joynt correspondence the concurring to the same action maketh the Sense appliable either to Hand or Lips Perhaps the reason why they put their Hands to their Mouths in Adoration might grow from hence When they worshipped the Sun and Moon and the Host of Heaven or Coelestem Africae Deum The heavenly God of Africa as Tertul. Apologet. 33. or rather Coelestem Illum That heavenly One as Salvianus lib. 8. They
is counted the greatest of many abominations in that Chapter their backes were toward the Temple of the Lord and their faces towards the East and they worshipped the Sunne towards the East and Clitchtovaeus holds it probable that the Jewes were commanded to worship toward the West to recall them from the Idolatry of the Gentiles who in their adoration bended towards the East But Idolatry being rooted out by Christianity and there being no occasion to feare the imitation of Ethnickes as the Jewish Circumcision was turned into the more convenient Baptisme the Paschall Lambe into the thrice blessed Sacrament the Sabbath into the Lords day so the praying toward the West by the Jewes was more aptly changed to the praying Eastward by the Christians Clemens Alex indrinus Stromat 7. ante medium pag. 520. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diei Natalis Imago est Oriens that is the East is as it were the birth day of the day and from thence the light springeth therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad ortum matutinum habentur preces we pray towards the East Iustin Martyr quaest ad Orthodox with us the most excellent things are destinated to the honour of God it were better for all if it were so in our times but in the opinion of men the East is better than the other parts and therefore in the time of prayer doe we all turne toward the East this reason was taken from the Apostles saith Iustin Martyr not because they thought the Climate of the sunne to be the Habitacle of God but for the reasons now specialize Hyginus de limitibus the Ancients builded their Temples toward the West afterward they changed all Religion to that place from which place of heaven the earth is enlightned surely Hyginus borrowed the first part of his words from Clemen Alexandrinus in the place above cited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The most ancient Churches looked towards the West S. Hierame ad cap. 6. Amos in flne from the 67. Psalme thus reads it Psallire Domino qua ascendit super Caelum caeli ad orientem unde saith he in mysteriis primùm renunciamus ei qui in occidente est nobisque moritur cum peccatis sic versi ad orientem pactum inimus cum sole Iustitiae ei servituros nos esse promittimus that is Sing unto the Lord who ascended above the Heaven of Heavens at or in the East whence in our Sacraments we first renounce Sathan in the West and then turning to the East wee covenâ—nt with Christ and promise to serve him but this is not done without prayers Ambrose likewise Ad Orientem converteris qui enim renunciat Diabolo ad Christum convertitur illum directo cernit obtutu the initiate is turned toward the East for he who renounceth the Devill turneth to Christ and seeth Christ directly Dionyfins Areopagtia de Hierarch Eccles cap. 2. Turning to the West thou shalt abjure Sathan then turning to the East thou shalt prayse God These three last Authorities evince that the turning to the East was not casuall or indifferent or done without speciall Reason but that it proceeded from a Religious observation of those holy times even in the height of Divine Mysteries I will close up the point with the learned Father Damascene de fide Orthod 4.13 Non simpliciter fortuitò ad Orientem adoramus that is we doe not simply ignorantly or casually adore God toward the East but upon good Motives did they so First because God is an intelligible Light and our Saviour is the Son of righteousnesse Mal. 4.2 and Christ is called Oriens The day-spring from on high hath visited us Luk. 1.78 Therefore the East is to be dedicated unto him in our Adoration 2. Secondly he who bestoweth every good gift largely willingly lovingly on us is to receive from us omne praestantius every thing that was most excellent such was the Adoration towards the East supposed to be see the most learned Commentary of Iudocus Clitchtovaeus on this passage 3. Thirdly God placed Eden in the East and cast out man to the West therefore desiring our old habitation and sighing for it towards it we worship 4. Moses his Tabernacle had the vayle and propitiatory on the East and the Tribe of Iudah as the most honourable Tribe encamped on the East and in the most famous Temple of Salomon the Porch was towards the East 5. Christ being Crucified looked towards the West and we in fervent desire sighing after him worship towards him Christ in his assumption ascended toward the East and so his Apostles worshipped him and so shall he descend to the last judgement at his second comming for Act. 1.11 This same Iesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seene him going into Heaven say the blessed Angels and this they learned from Christ himselfe Mat. 24.27 As the lightning commeth out of the East and shineth even unto the West so shall also the comming of the sonne of man be If it be objected speciously that it is to be understood de modo non de situ positione corporis First I answere I onely cited Damascen's argument Secondly in mode situs positio Corporis potest intelligi Thirdly the unusuall doubled phrases shall so come and in like manner point out variety of matter in the manner for I thinke not fit to exclude the manner nor his ascent to the East 4. Situs corporis may be understood two wayes either pro positione corporis quiescentis this the Text doth not meane or propositionis corporis moti vel moventis sese and of this posture is the Text to be interpreted for Christ in his body shall come from the East toward the West 6. Damascen acknowledgeth there is no expresse command in Scripture to pray or worship toward the East by saying it is an Apostolicall tradition and an unwritten Apostolicall Tradition if it be so certainely binds us as well as if it were written see most of these pointsamplified by the learned Clitchtovaeus upon Damascene Concerning the two last arguments of Damascene which Clitchtovaeus wholly omitteth I will onely say this omitting many things that our dead are buried with their feere toward the East that at the Resurrection their faces may be that way prepared as it were to behold the glorious second comming of our Saviour so much expected so much desired Thus much be spoken in defence of Christians praying toward the East which may be done at many fit times and fitly though we officiate the Liturgie at the North-side of the Communion Table From whence likewise the Canonicall appointment of the Commandements to be set on the East-end of every Church and Chappell and the placing of our Communion Table our woodden Altars our Sacred boords toward the East exactly as the Propitiatory was in the old Law is justly defended and found answerable to the Primitive usance Henceforth let that blaspheunous
Nebo which he imparted to the followers of the Chaldaean Discipline saith Montanus ib. Bel was renowned for a Captaine Nebo for a Scholler both of them afterwards esteemed to be gods and divers deities Isa 46.1 Bel boweth downe Nebo stoopeth and ver 2. They stoope they bow downe even Bel and Nebo even those two their Images we have it Idolls the vulgar simulacra so Vatablus their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their graven Images were on the beasts S. Hierome interprets Nebo to be Prophecie or divination in the abstract but I follow Montanus who was the greater Hebrician and he who makes Nebo to signifie a diviner a god esteemed to have the spirit of foretelling and prophecying of things to come It is sayd remarkeably Esa 15.2 He is gone up to the high places to weepe Moab shall bowle over Nebo that there was an Altar on Nebo the 70. say that there was mourning for Nebo the judicious Mr. Selden confesseth expounding the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly rendred super by propter that they mourned for the City or Country I will not deny and I thinke they wept also over their bowed Bel and stouped Nebo their Captive Images as People weepe over their dead they bowed and stouped before Bel and Nebo but now Bel bowed and Nebo stouped before them PAR. 4. SO much if not too much to evince that no places where the heathen gods or Idolls were worshipped nor any other place which man or men should choose was to be the place of the true Gods great worship but that place onely which reserved as secret within the closet of his owne breast for a long time after they were gone out of Aegypt even untill the dayes of David then the Lord revealed himselfe more plainely that the place so often before spoken of was to be in the Temple and the Temple in Jerusalem unto which God appropriated most of his Service and among the rest the observing of the Passeover there and no where but there when once they had began there PAR. 5. FOr the Iebusities inhabited Hierusalem divers yeares after David was King in Hebron 2 Sam. 5.6 in which City of Hierusalem when David was once quietly setled I am fully perswaded that the thought of nothing more than of fixing that individuum vagum that wandring Arke and reducing those often fore-prophecyed generall words the place that God would choose to the choosing of some such determined place as God should particularly designe and marke out See 2 Sam. 7.1 c. At that time God did thus farre proceede by the Propheticall mouth of Nathan and revealed unto David 2 Sam. 7.10 c. that God would appoint a place and Davids sonne should build an house for Gods Name and Salomon by Name 1 Chron. 22.9 Yet David rested not but was very inquisitive and most eager to know the speciall place that he might provide Materialls for the future building of it Psal 132.1 Lord remember David and all his afflictions by which he meaneth not all the Troubles and crosses that David had in all his life but all his holy-afflicting cares that he had about things Sacred and the worship of God or his unresting griefes prayers and almes after he had made a vow till God had declared where the Temple should be They enquired not at the Arke of God in the dayes of Saul 1 Chr. 13.3 but there was an heare-say that Ierusalem was to be that place saith Cajetan and therefore so soone as ever David was made King by all the Tribes of Israel the first thing that ever hee is recorded to have done after he was thus chosen was to recover Ierusalem from the Jebusites 2 Sam. 5.3 and 6. verses In the fixt Chapter see his great care to bring the Arke into the City of David yet when God had smitten Vzzah David was afrayd of the Lord and sayd How shall the Arke of the Lord come to me So he carried it aside into the house of Obed Edom but when he discerned that the Lord blessed Obed Edom and all his houshould then David went and brought up the Arke of God from the house of Obed Edom into the Citie of David with gladnesse then David danced before the Lord with all his might and Michal dispised David in her heart When it was thither brought and set in the midst of the Tent which David had pitched for it 1 Chro. 16.1 and the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord remained under Curtaines 1 Chro. 17.1 David did not like those slacke covetous ones of whom God complaineth Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you O yee to dwell in your sieled houses and this house lye waste But he sayd Loe I dwell in a house of Cedar but the Arke of the Lord dwelleth within Curtaines 2 Sam. 7.2 Whereupon he intended to build the Lord an house but was forbid 1 Chro. 17.4 Yet David rested not here but having onely a promise I will ordaine a place for my people ver 9. and desirous to know the particular place now as is most likely did he make that binding vow and oath to the mighty God of Iacob that he would not come into the Tabernacle of his New-builded house nor climbe up to his bed nor sleepe nor slumber till he knew the Vbi or setled place of the Temple If you aske why he named Iacobs God rather than the God of Abraham Cajetan saith it was for the likenesse of the oath that Iacob made when he saw the Ladder reaching from earth to heaven Gen. 28.21 The Lord shall be my God and this stone which I have set for a Pillar shall be Gods house this is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven saith he ver 17. Cajetan addeth that David beleeved the tradition of the Elders that the Temple should be built in the place where Iacob saw the Ladder but Cajetan and the tradition if so it were are both deceived for Bethel or Luz was not nigh the place of the temple at Ierusalem he should rather by this laft reason have called on the God of Abraham who sacrificed on mount Moriah where certainely the Temple afterward stood They are much awry who thinke David made this oath and vow to finde out the Arke at Shilo or Cariathiearim or Abinadab's or Obed Edom's house or the threshing-floore of Araunah Davids prayer was saith the Margin in Vatablus Vt Deus institutum suum de Templo perficiat that God should once bee pleased to bring to passe what he had purposed concerning the Temple all other places wheresoever the Arke had beene were sufficiently knowne to David before and needed not to be sought for or enquired after anxiâ animi solicitudine with such carking and caring as David did now in Tremellius his phrase but to finde out the exact place within which the Temple should be circumscribed Hic labor hoc opus est this David so strugled for that he might prepare things
the shining heating or kindling from the Sunne 2 King 1.10 and 12. verses the old sacred fire of the Altar it was not And herein Ribera was foulely deceived that I may not now question the authoritie of the second Book of Macchabecs How apt Naptha is to conceive fire every Scholler knoweth even as apt as Pitch Brimstone or Powder it being a kinde of liquid bitumen but Nehemiah himselfe called this thing Napthan 2 Macc. 1.36 which little differeth from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke or Naptha in Latine and out of doubt poynted plainely that Art and Nature concurred without miracle to kindle that fire though the King of Persia understood not so much 2. The Vrim and Thummim was not in the second Temple say the whole streames with Genebrand Ribera opposeth it grounding onely on Iosephus But the great vaunter of his owne Nation is not a fit man to crosse the current and yet Iosephus himselfe Antiq. 3.9 confesseth that 200 yeares before he writ so the vertue of them failed God being angry for the prevarication of his Lawes as if they angred not God above 200. yeares And yet if it were so there is no mention of them neere the dayes of our Saviour nor were they in the Temple with him and after bis death at the destruction of the Temple other Monuments and sacred reposites being found the Ark was not found Some as polluted were put from the Priesthood and the Governour told them they should not eate of the most holy till there stood up a Priest with Vrim and with Thummim Ezra 2.69 which is repeated Nehe. 7.65 Now though the Governour did hope that the Lord would give the same priviledges to the intended second Temple as he had to the first yet fince we know no such thing we need not beleeve it but may firmely conclude that at the building of the second Temple they then had them not though they stood in expectancy thereof and if they had them in likelihood we should have heard of it Some write saith Vatablus on this last place that this must needs be understood of Christ for the Vrim and the Thummim which Moses put in the breast-plate were not in the second Temple Montanus thinkes Tempore Iremiae desiisse that they ended in the dayes of Ieremy the Prophet and the reason of not finding them againe he ascribeth to this Id agente Deo ut hominum genus sanctiorum etiam rerum quae novi Testamenti tempore oblata sunt desiderio expectatione afficerentur It was Gods good will and pleasure so to have it that men might be affected with the desire and expectation of more holy things which were offered in the time of the new Testament you shall finde the decay of the Vrim and Thummim confirmed by the Tractat Jomah Rabbi Salomoh Joseph Ben-Gorion Abrabureb in his Commentary on Pirke Aboth and Rab. Aben-Ezra Against single Iosephus the Iewes themselves administer an unanswerable argument viz. that in the roome of Vrim Thummim succeeded another kind of Oracle which the Commentator of the Talmud Text from the Sanhedrim thus describeth The voyce from heaven was not heard but the Echo thereof and therefore they called it Bath-col the daughter of the voyce This voyce shewed what was to be done or omitted foretold future things and revealed what was to be thought of things passed Happy most happy was that time when that voyce was heard saith Rabbi Salomon Most of this I had from Balthazar Bambach in the third of his foure most profitable Tractates I hope I shall be charitable enough though I suspect this reflecting voyce the jugling of the Priests in the old Law I am sure Ben Syra when hee tells of the voyce that came from heaven to David let Rhehoboam and Ieroboam divide the Kingdome when David seeing the truth of Mephibosheths cause did right him but by halves and said Thou and Ziba divide the land 2 Sam. 19.29 I am sure I say he doth not establish Bath-col but speakes of an unreflected voyce upon that peremptory injustice of David who did rather in part uphold his owne errors than right Mephibosheth Thou and Zibà divide the land let Rehoboam and Ieroboam divide the Kingdome To which let me adde that the Prophets also did in a sort supply the decay of the Breast-plate 3. The Arke was not in the second Temple So Genebrard Lyra Carthusian Dorothous Martyr cited by Ribera By the Arke is meant both the body of the Arke it selfe and the Pedestall or Subpedaneall being a chariot on which the Cherubims stood 1 Chron. 28.13 beside and the Propitiatory which was over the Arke and the Cherubims and the voyce of God which came from over the Propitiatorie The Arke was not all of pure gold the cover or Propitiatory was all of pure gold called by the 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 placamen operculum by the Vulgat oraculum Ribera thinkes it not improbable for one to say that it was a while kept in the second Temple His onely ground is the second Booke of Macchabees But himselfe saith perhaps the controversie is sooner ended if we remember the same Ieremy foretold that in the time of the New Testament the Iewes should not remember the Arke Ier. 3.16 In those dayes they shall say no more the Arke of the Convenant of the Lord neither shall it come to mind neither shall they remember it c. But by his leave this ends the controversie little the sooner for it might be in the second Temple yet not in the time of the New Testament Just as Josephus said before of the Vrim and Thummim if he said true In secundo Templo saith Gaspar Sanctius on the place of Jeremy Arca Domini non fuit in the second Temple there was not the Arke of the Lord. Porchetus part 1. victoriae contra Hebraeos cap. 4. fol. 19. thus In libro Talmud qui dicitur Ioma dicitur in Sanctuario secundo non fuit Arca in the Booke of the Talmud which is called Ioma it is written In the second Temple there was no Arke And Tradition saith that with it was taken away the pot of Manna the Chrismatory or vessell of oyle the rod of Aaron with the Almonds and Buds the golden Emrods which the Philistims offered 1 Sam. 6.17 With the golden Mice ver 18. and Coffer holding them Comestor said that the Arke was carried in triumph of Titus and is now kept at Rome in the Church of S. John of Lateran Ribera himselfe on the fabricke of the Temple 2.2 saith this is false and disproves it by Iosephus Christopher Castrus on Ieremy 3. proveth Satis superque very abundantly that the Arke was not in the second Temple Chrysost oratione 3.3 adversus Iudaeos denieth the heavenly fire the Vrim and Thummim and the Oracle from the Propitiatory to be in the second Temple Now the Propitiatory was a part of the Arke and the Divine presence gave answers from the Oracle and
And after blessing then the younger fort enquired why the preceding Supper was so discordant and divers from all other Suppers with double washings without baked boyled or stewed meates without any herbes save bitter ones As the youth enquired according to that Exod. 12.26 So the head of that societie you may say he was Rex sacrorum Architriclinus King of the Ceremonies Sewer or Master of the feast Gentleman-Vsher Chaplaine in Ordinary or Marshall of the Hall or Symposiast pater discubitus Initiator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who placed the guests according to their worth Nomarcha Coenae the Ruler of the Feast according to that of Exod. 13.8 made remonstrance of what God had done to deliver them from the house of bondage nor might any of their Table-talke be irreligious or vaine or carpingly censorious or provoking to wrath nor was it as at other times with Riddles or other delightfull good discourses nor roved they at large at all sacred conferences but was empaled in and confined to the well-seasoned Relations as the Memoriall then lead them of the plagues in Aegypt of the destroying Angell inhibited to destroy their First-borne of the Seas retiring and the Two walles of water forgetting their naturall Fluidity on the right hand and on the left of their haste and feare and of Pharaohs hardened heart mollified by his drowning and Gods carrying them on Eagles winges Aulus Gellius Noct. Attic. 13.11 Nec loquaces Convivas nec multos legere oportet guests must not be tatling like Geese nor mute as Fishes and the discourses must be jucunde invitabiles delightfull and profitable not perplexing or troublesome the Master or Lord of the Feast must be Non tam lautus quà m sive sordibus neate and cleanely Macrobius Saturnal 7.1 handleth the poynt more at large as a few mute letters dispersed among many vowells in societatem vocis facilè mansuescunt doe make an easie pronounciation so some few unlearned delighting in the company of more learned either accord with them if they can or are delighted with their discourse Timotheum clarum hominom Athenis principem Civitatis ferunt cùm coenuvisset apuà Platonem eoqui convivio admodùm delectat â—s esses videssetque eum postridiè dixisse vestrae quidem Coenae non solùm in praesentiâ sed etià m postero die jucundae sunt that is It is storied of Timothy a famous man of Athens and one of the chiefe of that Citie that having on a time supped with Plato hee was wonderously delighted with that Feast and meeting him by chance the next day he told him that his Supper did rellish a long time after a Philosophers banquet as Cicero lib. 5. Tusquaest PAR. 6. HOw great a care God had of continuing the Memorialls of his favour to the Israelites appeareth by appointing the pot of Manna to be kept and Aarons rod which budded likewise Iosh 4.5 c. Twelve men tooke up twelve stones every man a stone upon his shoulder that this may be a signe among you that when your children aske their fathers in time to come saying what meane you by these stones Then ye shall answer them that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord when it passed over Jordan the waters of Jordan were cut off as it is pithily repeated ver 7. See to the same purpose Iosh 4.20 c. Quoties Christiani agapis vescebant fidem Psalmis pascebant ait Tertullianus that is as oft as Christian did fill their bellies together with good cheere they fed their faith with finging of Psalmes Cyprianus lib. 2. epist 2. Nec sit velhora convivii gratia coelestis immunis Sonet Psalmis sobrium convivium that is at all your sober Christian Feasts let Grace be Salt and Psalmes the Musique what Ioshua did was in immitation of what God commanded Exod. 12.35 When ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you you shall keepe the Passeover and when your children shall say unto you what meane you by this Service that yee shall say It is the Sacrifice of the Lords Passeover who passed over the houses of Israel in Aegypt when he smote the Aegyptians and delivered our houses ver 27. Though such discourse was not directly appointed at the first Aegyptian passeover because of their affrighted haste yet I doubt not but both they and their children knew why this Feast was thus kept and ever after it was to them a speaking memoriall of their deliverance concerning which their children were taught to enquire of their parents and their parents were used to relate unto them all their passed seares sorrowes and deliverances with their enemies destructions Exod. 13.8 Thou shalt shew thy sonne in that day and 14. When thy sonne asketh thee Thou shalt say c. So Deut. 6.20 c. When thy sonne asketh thee in time to come Thou shalt say to thy sonne we were Pharaohs bondmen in Aegypt and ver 7. Thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children and shall talke of them when thou sittest in the house when thou walkest by the way when thou lyest downe and when thou risest up The Spouse Cant. 2.9 saith of Christ My beloved is like a Roe or a young Hart behold hee standeth behinde our walls he looketh forth at a window shewing himselfe through the Lattesse Which words the Targum thus Paraphraseth to our purpose as it is set forth by the learned Edmund Rivius The Congregation of Israel said in the time when the glory of God was revealed in Aegypt in the night of the passeover and when he slew all their first-borne God ascended upon swiftest lightning and ranne like ae Roe or young Goate and protected and defended the houses in which we were and stood behind our wall and looked through the Lattesses and saw the blood of the Passeover and of the Circumcision imprinted as it were on our portalls and behold from the highest heavens and saw his people eating the passeover rosted with fire with wilde Lettuce and unleavened bread and spared us and gave no power to Apollyon to destroy us These are the declarative sayings of the Church as the Targum imagineth in answer forsooth to the question like enough to be propounded at the eating of the passeover but in truth Delrio most divinely on the place adapteth the words to our Saviours Incarnation which the obstinate Iew will not beleeve to be accomplished PAR. 7. IF any Psalme were sung at their passeover after Davids time or in it I presume it was the 78. Psalme in which was a full relation of Gods wonders in Aegypt and he teacheth them what he had learned of others ver 3.4 as God commanded them ver 5.6 though God commanded them in other places to teach their children yet this place of Exod. 12.25 may be also aymed ar Till Davids time I suppose they at the passeover did recite Moses his song Exod. 15.1 I will sing unto the Lord for
exhilarated body with competent meate and drinke wee finde by experience to make us better affected both towards God and Man Hold man hold though thy Master hold that when a man hath eaten moderately he is fitter to receive the Communion then when he is fasting because after meate the head is more purged the mouth cleaner the breath sweeter yet I dare say the head is fuller of noysome fumes the mouth no cleaner when one hath eaten and if thy breath stink common food maketh it no sweeter then the Divine Eucharist I am sure the third Councill of Carthage Canone 29. hath decreed Vt Sacramenta Altaris non nisi a jejunis hominibus celebrentur That the Sacraments of the Altar should not be celebrated but onely by those that are fasting and the seventh Councill of Toledo Canone 2. excommunicateth such as eate any thing before the performance of divine offices It was likewise a Novell position That when a man commeth most unprepared to receive the holy Sacrament then hee commeth best prepared and when he is most sinfull then a sinner may most worthily receive His very words are these in his Sermon of the Eucharist made 1526. Ille ut aptissimus ad communicandum qui ante retro est peccatis contaminatissimus sine peccatis mortalibus nullum debere accedere Hee is fittest to communicate who before and behinde who on all sides is most defiled with sinne and without deadly sinne none ought to come to the Communion He meaneth not that a new life sufficeth without contrition confession satisfaction as some of his fellowes say his words runne to a worse sense For in another Sermon of the worthy receiving the Eucharist eight yeeres before Optima dispotio est saith he non nisi ea quâ pessime es disposit us è contrario tunc pessimè es dispositus quando optimè es dispositus Then art thou best disposed when art thou worst disposed and contrarily then art thou worst disposed when thou art best disposed Are not such words the meanes for men to commit sinnes and continue in them and with unrepentant hearts boldly fiercely impudently to swallow up the heavenly food of our soules the sacred Eucharist rather then exhortations to devout receiving Is this way the proving and judging of our selves doth it teach repentance for sinnes past sorrow shame feare selfe-accusing for the present doth it teach a stedfast resolution and a setled purpose never to doe so againe doth his way encrease faith strengthen hope nourish charity yet these things are expected from a worthy Communicant What preparation was used at the giving of the Law Exodus 19.20 c. What sanctifying of themselves both people vers 14. and Priests vers 22. All this preparation might have beene cut off and saved by Luthers doctrine They did not eate the Paschall Lambe without divers washings and many legall purifications insomuch that a second Passeover in another moneth was ordained for the uncleane by Gods extraordinary appointment Numbers 9.10 Which was practised in Hezekiah his dayes 2. Chron. 30.15 18 19. verses Abimelech gave the hallowed Bread to the sanctified onely 1. Sam 21.4 c. David professed I will wash my hands in innocencie So will I compasse thine Altar O Lord Psal 26.6 Saint Paul adviseth or commandeth 1. Corin. 11.28 Let a man examine himselfe and so let him eate of that bread and drink of that cup. Aug. alluded to the words of the Psalmist when he said Tractatu 26. in Iohannem Innocentiam ad altare pertate peccata si sint quotidiana vel non sint mortifera Carry innocencie instead of Frankincense unto the Altar though thou hast committed no mortall sinnes but sinnes of infirmity The same Divine Saint Augustine Hom. 50. Tom. 10. pag. 115. Constituto in corde judicio adsit accusatrix cogitatio testis conscientia carnifex timor Inde quidem sanguis animae confitentis per lachrimas profluat posiremo ab ipsa mente talis sententia proferatur ut se indignum homo judicet participatione sanguinis corporis Domini Vt qui separari â regno coelorum timet per ultimam sententiam summi judicis per Ecclesiasticam disciplinam a Sacramento coelestis panis interim separetur When a Tribunall is erected in thy heart let thy thought accuse thee thy conscience be witnesse against thee thy feare and dread be thy tormentor then let the bloud of a soule confessing it selfe flow out in teares Lastly let the minde pronounce this sentence That a man judge himselfe unworthy to receive the body and bloud of our Lord That he who feareth to be separated from heaven by the last sentence of the supreme judge may in the meane time bee separated according to Ecclesiasticall discipline from the Sacrament of the heavenly Bread By which words in the meane time might well be inferred that S. Augustine differed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heaven wide from a novel German who would have a man fall upon the Sacrament with mortall offences on his soule with unwashed hands having newly committed sins Vastantia Conscientiam devoratoria salutis which lay waste a mans conscience and woorie his salvation He avoucheth the best disposition to be the worst and the greatest preparation the unfittest But Augustine would have a man after mortall sinne to abstaine from the most holy Eucharist a competent time till hee had repented till hee had proved and judged himselfe till hee had confessed his sinnes and laboured to wipe away the blots by his teares Which truth is confirmed divinely by our sacred Liturgi If any of you be a blasphemer of God c. unto these words so shall yee be meete partakers of these holy mysteries when Christ said Come unto me all yee that are heavie laden he meant not with loads of unrepented sinnes for as such cannot move one foot toward Christ to such obstinate sinners Christ is a judge and condemner not a mercifull Saviour And the words cannot aime at that sense for then not onely the spirituall food in the Sacrament but even Christ should bee the great allurer unto sinne as being abettor thereof which God forbid for then not onely a window but a doore were set open to all iniquity and villany but the meaning of that most comfortable invitatory is and must be this All yee who have sinned and are heartily sorry for your offences wearied groaning and ready to faint under griefe for the same yea who finde no comfort in your selves but are ready to be swallowed up of despaire or too much not sinnes but sorrow for sins O come yee unto me and this is evidenced by the gratious promise I will refresh you refreshing being opposed to trembling dejectednesse weakenesse swownings trepidations grievings faintings which are fruits of the heavie-hearted sinner and steps or breathings toward repentance refreshing is not opposed robustae iniquitati to strength of sinning or boystrous coutinuing in iniquity or triumphing rebellion and so the sorrowfull penitent
him Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 Perfectissimum est exemplar quod minus perfectum imitatur saith Aquinas 3. part Quaest 56. articulo 1. ad 3. But all other Examples take Christ for their example therefore he is the most perfect example of all Even Seneca did advise that a man should propound unto himselfe some eminent man as if be were present to be a spectator of all his actions and an example and guide unto him But no example is so perfect an example as Christ was and is The Schoole distinguisheth betweene Exemplar and Exemplum thus Exemplar est ex quo aliud simile facimus Exemplum est quod aut sequimur aut vitamus Exemplar is the person from whom we take Example Exemplum is the thing which is propounded to us to imitate Christ is the Exemplar his humilitie is our Example I have given you Example that yee should doe as I have done to you Examples certainely move more than precepts though precepts ought to move more than Examples For our Saviour hath most divinely instructed us by one rule of all other like matters and it is a lesson not onely for the multitude but for the Disciples also The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seate all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and doe not onely Observe but Doe which is a double expression of the same duty But doe not yee after their workes for they say and doe not Mat 23.1 2 and 3. verses Earthen vessells may hold rich treasure a seale of brasse makes as good a print as a seale of gold and S. Paul being so holy as he was above others had beene to blame to say 1 Cor. 1 14. I thanke God I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius if the worth of the administrant had added any thing to the effectualnesse of the Sacrament or ill example had diminished the power of it to the truely prepared and devout recipient Eliah refused not meate which was sent of God though it was brought unto him in the mouth or clawes of divers uncleane Ravens 1 King 16.6 Yet such is the perversnesse of mans nature that it justifieth the Schoole conclusions Aquinas 1.2 quaest 34. Artic. 1. in corpore Articuli If those who teach all delights to be evill be found to embrace some delights men will be more prone to pleasures by the Example of their workes than free from pleasure for all their words For in humane operations and passions in which experience is most prevalent examples are more forcible than words I have given an example that ye should doe as I have done to you PAR. 13. A Reason why we should stoope our soules downe to humility is added Verily Verily the servant is not greater than his Lord neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him vers 16. Other-where Christ varieth this thus The Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord It is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the servant as his Lord Matth. 10.24 25. ver Againe Every one that is perfect shall be as his Master or Every one shall be perfected as his Master Luk. 6.40 Iohn 16.20 Remember the word I sayd unto you the servant is not greater than the Lord whence he inferreth a kinde of equall participation In troubles if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you and in blessings If they have kept my sayings they will keepe yours also all these termes of equality and likenesse are but incentives unto humilitie that Masters might not domineere too much nor servants be too much dejected for servants are fellow-brethren to their Lords and Masters In our Lord and Master Jesus Christ S. Paul in his Epistle to Philemon vers 16. commendeth to Philemon his repentant servant Onesimus Not now as a servant but above a servant a brother beloved especially to me but how much more unto thee both in the flesh and in the Lord Yet to shew that the Lord is indeede and in civill conversation among men ought to be above the Servant not onely the inference is pregnant Mat. 10 25. If they have called the Master of the house Belzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold But the doctrine drawne from their confession in the practise Luke 17.7 8. verses Which of you having a Servant plowing or feeding cattell will say unto him by and by when he is come from the field goe and sit downe to meate and will not rather say to him make ready wherewith I may sup and gird thy selfe and serve me till I have eaten and drunken and afterward thou shalt eate and drinke And in the 9. verse Christ denyeth thankes to be given as due to that servant who did the things that were commanded Here is a lawfull superiority of the Master above the servant in all civill morall and Oeconomicke affaires S. Peter goeth one steppe further Servants be subject to your masters with all feare and not onely to the good and gentle but also to the froward 1 Pet. 2 18. And in the verses following argueth It is their duty to take things patiently though they suffer wrongfully for hereunto ye were called because Christ suffered for us leaving us an Example to follow his steppes c. here are foote-steppes of inequality that the Master is above the servant lest servants should grow proud and lazie or stand upon termes of comparison PAR. 14. THe last part of Christs holy conclusions in this point is If yee know these things happie are ye if ye doe them verse 17. The worders the knowers are but the addressers to happinesse the Doers enjoy happinesse Not every one who saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven Matth. 7.21 He that heareth my words and doth them not shall be likened to a foolish man which built his house upon the sand Vers 26. Not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the Doers of the Law shall be justified Rom. 2.13 See the same practicall duty enjoyned and enlarged James 1. from vers 22. to vers 25. inclusively The Prayer O Lord Legall purifications cleanse not the spirit poure downe I humbly entreate thee but one drop of Christ Jesus his sacred blood and it will cleanse the spots of my soule better than milke or much soape better than all the Lavers in the Law heare me O holy holy holy father Sonne and blessed Spirit for the merits of Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. XIII The Contents of the thirteenth Chapter 1. The 2. Passage in the 3. quarter of the second Supper is the graduall detection of the Traytor The first degree Judas not chosen Judas like an Asse kickt against Christ The second Degree Judas a horse-Leech a blood sucker 2. Judas aymed at in the Individuum vagum One of you c.
not Superinduced a Third Supper nor given us the most blessed Eucharist to be our Evangelicall Pasch or Passeover he had not actuated the Type nor accomplished the Figure nor established the new light and present truth in stead of the precedent shadow For when Christ was circumcised though he was obedient to the Law and thereby fulfilled that Law yet till he instituted Baptisme to be in the roome of Circumcision he did not Realize or Substantiate the Figure But when he had appointed new Sacraments more full of Grace and every way more excellent more easie and parable and fewer in number which were presigned and fore-destinied and presignified by the Types Then indeed and not till Then were the Figures substantiated And to returne homeward by the Eating of the most blessed Eucharist in Christ his Third and Last Supper is Christ become Our true Paschall Lambe Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ our Passeover is slaine I grant that S. Paul speaketh of the Crucifixion and the Lambe was a Type of his death and the manner thereof in many things as I instanced in before Yet was the Paschall Lambe a figure also of the sacred Eucharist Magis immediatè principaliter ceremonia agni paschalis fuit figura Eucharistiae quam Passionis saith Bellarmine de missa 1.7 The Ceremony of the Paschall Lambe was more immediately and more principally the figure of the blessed Eucharist than of Christs Passion Hierome on Matth. 26. and upon those words vers 26. commenteth thus Postquam Typicum pascha fuit impletum Agni carnes cum Apostolis comederat ad verum Paschae transgreditur Sacramentum After that the Typicall Passeover was fulfilled and Christ had eaten the flesh of the Lambe with his Apostles he passeth over to the True Sacrament of the Passeover Tertullian almost at the end of the fourth Booke against Marcion hath an odd Crotchet That Christ desired not to eate the Jewish Passeover but the Evangelicall Chrstus non concupivit vervecinam Iudaeorum cùm ait se desiderare Pascha edere He desired not to eate of a Jewish Wether Lambe or Sheepe But that Father did little consider Luk 22.24 I have desired to eate This Passeover This and vers 13. They made ready the Passeover that Passeover to eate which he purposely went up to Jerusalem for which purpose he sent this word to his Host Matth. 26.18 I will keepe the Passeover at thy house which are spoken all of them of the Jewish Passeover For all these Passages were spoken before the Supper of the Lord yea before the Second Supper Besides when Christ had desired to eate the Jewish Passeover he did not long to eate it quâ caro as it was flesh but quâ Sacramentum erat vâ—teris legis as it was a Sacrament of the old Law which he was bound to doe whosoever would fulfill the Law as Christ did and so he did eate it not as common profane meat but as a sacred duty which could not be performed without eating of it Hierome writ more soundly on Matth. 26. toward the beginning Christus finem carnali festivitati volens imponere umbraque trarseunte Paschae reddere veritatem dixit Desiderio desideravi Where he excludeth not as Tertullian needlesly did the first Supper but distinctly expresseth it and doth more than include the Last Supper For he saith Christ being willing to abrogate disannull and set an end to the Carnavalls or carnall Festivall of the Jewish Passeover and to make the Type appeare in substance and verity he said Desiderio desideravi I have much desired to eate thereof The Passeover was a Type of the Eucharist and principally figured out It. Bellarmine de Sacramento Eucharistiae 4.9 A Type but not an Antitype saith he Agnus paschalis erat figura evidentissima Eucharistiae Ibidem lib. 4. cap. 18. For the flesh was eaten and the blood sprinkled upon the doore-posts signified the blood of the Eucharist as may be gathered from Gregory Homilia 22. It was also in another degree a Figure of Christs Passion saith he ibid For if the Paschall Lambe was a Figure of the Eucharist and the Eucharist doth lively represent the Passion it must needs from thence result that the Passeover was a Figure of Christs Passion The Eucharist is not onely the figure or type of the body and blood of Christ but the Antitype because all Figures are not Antitypes but onely those quae nihil ferè differunt à veritate which very much resemble the Substance Bellarmine de Sacramento Euchastiae 2.15 Thus have I presumed to mend Bellarmine in this place PAR. 2. A Second Reason of the Institution of the Eucharist was to conferre more Grace upon us by it than was given unto the Jewes Figuratum non debet esse figurâ vilius saith Bellarmine de Missa 1.7 yea not to cloake the truth the Figure must come short in excellency to the thing Figured as the shadow to the body the Type to the thing typified Galat. 4.3 When we were children we were in bondage under the rudiments of the world And vers 9. How turne you backe to the weake and beggarly elements whereunto yee desire againe to be in bondage And this the Apostle spake of the Jewish Ceremonies So Colos 2.17 the Ceremonies of the Law are said to be the shadow of things to come but the body is Christ And Heb. 10.1 The Law had a shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the things But he tearmeth the Law of Grace the time of Reformation Heb. 9.10 And the Tabernacle thereof a greater and more perfect Tabernacle vers 11. And Christ a Minister of the Sanctuary and of the True Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not Man Heb. 8.2 Christ not Moses Christ hath obtained a more excellent Ministery by how much also he is the Mediator of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises Heb. 8.6 Augustine in Psal 73. Our Sacraments are pauctora salubriora faciliora foeliciora fewer wholsomer easier happier Looke unto Bellarmine the Master of Controversies and to the Canvasers of him and they confesse unanimously what Saint Augustine taught the fuller and more gracious power of our Sacraments The quarrell-picking niceties on both sides I dislike Let one instance serve for all Whereas in the old Law The Sacrifices sprinkling the uncleane sanctified to the purifying of the flesh Heb. 9.13 Ours sâ—nctifie to the purifying both of bodies and soules Baptismus facit animam pulchram Deo dilectam haeredem Dei aperit regnum coelorum Baptisme makes a white soule beloved of God the heire of God and openeth the kingdome of heaven as the Fathers phrase it Christ sanctifieth and cleanseth the Church with the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himselfe a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or any such thing no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not inclining to a spot but
that it should be Holy and without blemish Ephes 5.26 27. Aqua quae benedicitur purgat illuminat hominem The water which is blessed doth purge and illuminate man saith Gregory Nyssen in lib. de Baptismo Caro abluitur ut anima emaculetur the body is washed that the soule may be made cleane saith Tertullian de resurrectione carnis From whence in all likelihood Augustine tract 80. in Johannem propounded that assevering interrogation unde tanta vis aquae ut corpus tangat cor abluat from whence is that powerfull vertue of water that the body being touched the soule is washed The blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist is more powerfull than over Paschal was Tertul. de resurrectione carnis thus Caro corpore Christi sanguine veseitur ut anima de Deo saginetur our flesh feedeth on the body and blood of Christ that our soules may be filled and fatted with God Bernard in primo Sermone de coena Domini pag. 145. Who can quell so fierce raging wilde motions of concupiscence who can beare the itchings bitings or akings of this wound Beleeve Gods grace is sufficient for men And that ye may be secure saith Saint Bernard you have the investiture that is a new acquist and possession of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ For that Sacrament worketh two things in us Et sensum minuit in minimis ingravioribus peccatis tollit omnino consensum it infeebleth and diminisheth sin in the smallest matters but in more grievous sins it wholly taketh away our consent If any of you find not so sharp motions to anger envie luxury or the like let him thank the body and blood of our Lord because the vertue of that Sacrament worketh effectually in him and let him rejoyce that the fowlest ulcer beginneth to heale I conclude this passage with the memorable words of our Saviour at the institution of the holy Eucharist Mat. 26.28 This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Thus doe the Sacraments of Grace remit quell and mortifie sin whereas the divine Apostle speaking of the Sacraments of the old Law is expresse Heb. 10.4 It is not possible that the blood of Goats and Bulls should take away sins PAR. 3. A Third Reason for its Institution was to prefigure Christs death and going out of the world John 13.1 Jesus knew his houre was come that he should depart out of the world unto the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut transeat that he might Passe out of the world having apparent reference both to the old and new Passeover on the Crosse All Sacraments of the old Law were figures of the Eucharist And they did also finally designe and typifie Christs death Therefore the blessed Eucharist must needs adumbrate Christs death also Indeed the Egyptian Passeover by the sprinkling of whose blood the Israelites were freed from the exterminating Angel doth most lively typifie Christ slaine and his blood delivering us But the Paschal Lamb which afterward was yeerely slaine did more resemble the Sacrament of Christs body and blood and yet both the first and the succeding yeerely Passeover may all of them and each of them in a true and fitting sence be said to prefigure not only the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ but the very Crucifixion of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ PAR. 4. A Fourth Cause of Christ's superinducing of the blessed Eucharist was to be a remembrance to us of Christs death till he commeth againe 1 Cor. 11.24 Doe this in remembrance of me so verse 25. As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye doo shew the Lords death till he come ver 26. The Paschall was a memoriall of their deliverance from Egypt and of their passing the Red-sea without danger whilst the Sea stood as two Christall walls on the right hand and the left and they passed through dry-footed Exod. 14.22 Againe when in after times their children were to ask What mean you by this service Ye shall say It is the Sacrifice of the Lords Passeover who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivere dour houses Exod. 12.26 c. But the Eucharist is a memoriall of our deliverance from Sin Hell and the power of Satan Therefore so farre as spirituall deliverances are above temporall as the soules are above the bodies heaven above earth so farre doth our holy Eucharist antecede their Paschal and bringeth with it more certaine fruit and fuller Grace infused not only Sealing and Signifying Grace but Conferring and Exhibiting it by it selfe in the true use I urge not this effect so farre as to exclude Baptisme from working remission of sinnes nor as if the sacred Sucharist did remit the Same Individuall sinnes which were Before remitted by Baptisme or as if it did remit sins that never were Repented of God doth not so much But the Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord forgiveth such sins as have beene committed betweene the receiving of Baptisme and it and such sins as have overborne us since our hearty Contrition and Repentance yea where sins are perfectly forgiven before the holy Communion yet doth the Holy Communion Enseale and Ratifie the former remission if I may so speake and the Eucharist in the right use maketh an Attrite man a Contrite One A Contrite man to be Justified A Justified man to be Holy An Holy man to be More holy and the Holiest One to be more lively spiritfull and prompt in religious services than I think he would have beene if the Sacrament had beene omitted Thus I doubt not but if the Thrice-blessed Virgin Mary had received the consecrated Eucharist as in likelihood she did though she were full of Grace according to the Angels salutation when she received it yet it would not have beene uneffectuall to her Good for she was not so full of Grace but that shee was still capable of more and greater additaments of Grace Many more Reasons there are why Christ Jesus did superinstitute the blessed Eucharist destroying and abolishing thereby the old Passeover I will instance only in some of them and that very briefly PAR. 5. A Fifth Reason why Christ did institute this Sacrament was to unite us to Himselfe 1 Corinth 10.16 The cup of blessing which wee blesse is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we breake is it not the Communion of the body of Christ The cup is so necessary that the Apostle placeth it before the bread 6. To breed brotherly love and to unite us to Christ and one to another For we being many are One Bread and One Body For we are all partakers of that One Bread 1 Cor. 10.17 Hence floweth that great Article of our Creed The communion of Saints Hence is that Sacred Eucharist called Communio A Communion John 6.56 He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my
Numbers 36. at the last verse The 44. Section began Deuteronomy 1.1 ended Deuteronomy 3.22 The 45. Lecture began Deuteronomy 3.23 ended Deuteronomy 7.11 The 46. Lecture began Deuteronomy 7.12 ended Deuteronomy 11.25 The 47. Section began Deuteronomy 11.26 ended Deuteronomy 16.17 The 48. Lecture began Deuteronomy 16.18 ended Deuteronomy 21.9 The 49. Reading began Deuteronomy 21.10 ended Deuteronomy 25. at the last verse The 50. Lecture began Deuteronomy 26.1 ended Deuteronomy 29.9 The 51. Lecture began Deuteronomy 29.10 ended Deuteronomy 30. with the last verse The 52. Lecture began Deuteronomy 31.1 ended Deuterenomy 31. with the last verse The 53. Section of the Law began Deuteronomy 32.1 ended Deuteronomy 32 with the last verse The 54 and last Section of the Law began Deuteronomy 33.1 ended with the last words of Deuteronomy This is transcribed from the Jewish Doctors and Englished by Aynsworth and it is observable I might proceed to other their Readings out of the six Books of the Psalmes as the Jews divided them though the holy Spirit by S. Peter calleth it in the singular number The Book of the Psalmes Acts 1 20. having reference to the first composure and united body of them And out of the Prophets they had another distinct Reading Acts 13.15 After the reading of the Law and the Prophets Acts 13.27 The Rulers knew not Christ nor yet the voyces of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day And yet by reason of one Spirits dictate and one unity and uniformity of them all in one truth of doctrine the holy Ghost saith Acts 3.18 God shewed by the Mouth of All his Prophets that Christ should suffer But now saith Cornelius Cornelii à Lapide on that place they are accustomed to sing that part which they call Haprathah Propheticam Missionem the propheticall Sending because that being ended the people are sent home See Elias Levita in his Thisbi The Jews deliver traditionally that every of the Lectures of the Law or Pentateuch consisted of one hundred thirty sixe verses And when Antiochus had rent the Books of the Law in pieces which they found and to make sure work as he imagined burnt them also with fire and this the instruments of Antiochus did monethly 1 Macchab. 1.56 58. verses To supply this the Jews saith Lapide took as many verses agreeing in sense with the former out of the Prophets and so read them united in the room of the other and wee may not think any one verse hath perished much lesse so great variety The Jews say confidently that the Lord God more regardeth and respecteth every syllable and letter of the Law than he doth the Stars of Heaven PAR. 3. THese their Deuteroseis or Traditions I will not strictly and rigidly examine though the number of verses in severall Lectures differ Only I will observe these things in or from their former good courses First against the malevolent maledicent recalcitrating ignorant Puritans who reprove our Church for mangling and cutting in pieces the Word of God because we read in our Service one piece of one Chapter and another piece of another and so patch up a Lesson as they terme it I answer In many of these Lectures of the Law Gods chosen people did do so as appeareth in their very first Lecture which ended at Genesis 6 8. and their second Lecture began not at a new whole Chapter but at Genesis 6.9 verse And the like is in diverse other Readings as by the divisions plainely appeareth Therefore if our Church led by such a President and by that which is to be preferred before any humane president Wel-grounded Reasons doth sometimes begin toward the middle of one chapter and end toward the midle of another chapter it is not to bee disallowed Wee aremore to be guided by matter than by Numbers And if any new matter of moment do occurre as often it doth about the midst of a chapter this new notable emergent point wheresoever arising may wel begin a Lesson appropriat for that time and occasion as the Sun-shine always appeareth most welcome from what part of Heaven soever it breaketh from under a cloud Secondly as I hold it most certaine that the names of the Books Divine were called even from their very beginnings as now they are Genesis Exodus and the like So I have not seene it proved that at the first the books were divided by Chapters or the Chapters by Verses Sure I am wheresoever the holy Spirit of God in the New Testament pointeth at or citeth any passage from the Old Testament though the Prophet be named or the Law that is one Book of the Pentaeteuch be mentioned or the Book of Psalmes be particularly expressed yet never in any one of all these places is the chapter much lesse the verse specialized Neither was there any need in those dayes For the Jews got by heart as we say all the Old Testament and upon the least intimation or inckling of any matter they as readily could recite it as many of us can the Lords Prayer or the Ten Commandements PAR. 4. THirdly whereas diverse people of our Westerne parts have horribly Judaized of late and have run on madly in the by-paths of Trask though it bee generally both knowne and confessed that the Iews shall be converted to us and not we Christians to the Iewes Yet I would advise them and all other English Christians whatsoever to beware of these horrid abuses following It is alas it is too common a fault for Women to hold their children out to defile the Church-yards more usuall and common for men to bepisse the corners of our Churches and make them their voyding vessels whilest some wash the filth down into their parents mouths buried nigh that place More especially and as a wicked wonder let me with griefe and indignation of heart â—ecount that whereas the City of Exeter is by its naturall situation one of the sweetest Cities of England and by the ill use of many one of the nastiest and noysommest Cities of the Land whilest not only their by-lanes but the High-faire street yeelds many offensive both sights and savours to the eyes and noses of the Passers by whilest the polluted corners of the â—athedrall are almost dyed by their urine into another colour whilest the Church-yard hath been the draught unto many and the very Câ—oysters the receptacles of their ordures Sacrilegi in Sacrario faciunt oletum I write no more than what I have seen and God thou knowest I know there in that kind worse than what I have now written which for my love to that City I do forbeare For in truth it is an honorable City and the Corporation a choyce Fraternity of worthy good wealthy men Yet let me take leave humbly to advertise them that their holy Predecessors went not to Heaven by opposing that ancient well-founded Cathedrall but by Reverencing of It and of their Canonicall Clergy the guides of their soules and their Ghostly Fathers Let them know
first spoken by Moses and applied by Moses to the first times so soone as Man was created and so continually dispersed into the History of the other Patriarcks Moses delighting in his prerogative of first knowing the the name of Iehova as Lawyers may more eloquently utter the Laws of the 12 Tables which were in rude Latin long before in the more refined and fuller expressions of latter times Or like Historians and Poëts who ascribe the name of Iove and Ioves words and deeds to the first beginning of times though Iove had no being till after the Flood of Noah and therefore no name So Moses might write according to the most cleare Revelations of his time what was done and said in other termes not so energeticall long before to the Patriarcks If this please you not what say you to a second way May not the words be read by way of Interrogation which is as good as a strong and vehement affirmation By the name of Iehova was not I known to them As if he had said yes certainly I was as may be seen in their particular stories and passages of their time And I have elso established my Covenant with them Exod. 6.4 Even by that name Jehova Gen. 15.1 2 4 6 7 8 verses For I pray you consider God here speaketh not to diminish the reputation of Abraham Isaac and Jacob but to the great glory of their names and persons with whom first hee established the Covenant made with them for the Jews And therefore Ignorance of God or nesciency of his great Name cannot be handsomely ascribed to those Patriarcks in this place where the knowledge and ratification of Gods Covenant and Gods familiarity with them are reckoned as their glorious priviledges above all other men of those times Did not Abraham see Christs day a far off Did he not rejoyce at the sight of it Was God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob above other men and they esteemed as the Living and not as Dead shall we rest in Abrahams bosome and eat and drink with Abraham in the Kingdom of Heaven than which prerogatives none ever had greater and more except our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who also came of Abraham and was promised particularly to Abraham that in his seed that is as the Apostle saith not in his seeds but in Christ all the Nations of the World should be blessed and shall Abraham be ignorant of the name Jehova which both Caine knew at first and every Jew and Christian now knows I cannot so undervalew those Patriarcks majorum Gentium Besides though not a Sentence not a Word not a Letter not a jot of Scripture can now be lost or perish yet the note of an Interrogation or a Comma a Colon a Mark or a Pause might be omitted long since For was not all Scripture written without both points and vowels at first If you say the marke of an Interrogation being wanting leadeth us to perplexities to diversity yea contrariety of senses I answer Do not full many words in the Hebrew Bible signifie contrary things exciting our studious minds to a search of the most probable matters and meaning whilst the truth is known to God alone Even thus might it be with this passage Where the note of an Interrogation might either be wholly omitted at first or casually unobsetved and left out by the first Transcribers or Translators and this might lead men into Ignorance ever since and yet no imperfection is to be imputed unto Gods Word nor is it blameable for any deficiency And therefore I conclude according to the Rules of Aristotle Top. 6. cap ult Let this exposition stand and be beleeved till better be invented and come in place And then let the clearest light of truth have his due that is perswasion And let the lesse yeeld and obey the greater If you expect authorities averring that Idolatry was not before the Flood I refer you to the learned Salianus in divers places especially in anno Mundi 250 and to the learned Scholia ibid. who citeth for me and for the negative Cyril Alexandrinus contra Julianum libro primo Irenaeus 5.29 and divers others Besides such whom my wearinesse commandeth me to omit that I may returne from extravagances to the right way and method propounded by me And so because there was no Idolatry before the Flood and Kings at least eminent men of high renown and worth were long before the times of the Flood or Idolatry I conclude Kings Princes Dukes and other men of venerable account for their goodnesse in making Cities governing of Nations and founding Common-weales had not the beginnings of their Adoration from the worship exhibited to Idols Statues Images or Pictures but rather those Simulacra were Adored because they were the representations of Kings Princes or other people beloved and revered who both in their lives and after their deaths were Adored And yet to make the best interpretation that I may of Mr. Seldens words whom for his depth and variety of learning I admire Let my consent run along thus far by his side That the later Kings and Heroës might perhaps have had their Adorations from some kind of Adoration derived from Idoles and yet the first Idols had their primitive Adoration from the Adoration of Kings and other people of esteem which were before Idolatry When Christ Worshipped and Adored God as doubtlesse he did full often I think He fell down on his Face No Gesture could be more convenient at the celebration of the holy Sacrament For we cannot think otherwise but that Christ used almost all possible meanes to make the Apostles attentive to him and stirred them up to the consideration of so stupendious mysteries that they might be better prepared to the holy receiving of them Among Gestures exciting and raising up of Devotion the falling down upon ones Face is most forcible either in seeing it so done by others or in practising it our selves The dejection and prostration of the body is the elevation of the soule and a meanes to sanctifie and quicken the spirit When he took the bread and gave thankes for thankes hee gave Luke 22.19 I cannot think otherwise but he lifted up his Eyes and Hands to Heaven So did he in lesser matters for when he multiplied the five loaves he looked up to Heaven and blessed and brake and gave the loaves to his Disciples And can we now think He looked on the Earth and not up to Heaven when he gave Thanks and blessed the Food of life for us When he brake the bread and gave it It is likeliest he stood on his Feet and might move from one to another or reach it to every one severally So did the Pater familias or chiefe of the Feast among the Jews stand and distribute the bread at their sollemne meetings as the Rabbins affirme When hee consecrated the Bread saying Take eat this is my Body which is given for you Do this in remembrance
duty and God would the more love us and sooner and higher lift us up Whosoever desireth proofes from the ancient Fathers that the holy Eucharist is to be adored let him reade Bellarm de Sacramento Eucharistiae 4.29 toward the end but expound them so as if Christ were to be worshipped in the Sacrament and not the meere Elementary part When they lifted up their hands in adoration they were wont also to spread them abroad PAR. 2. COngruentiall reasons hereof doe follow First To most sacred things most sacred reverence is to be exhibited But the blessed Eucharist was and is a most divine gift and kneeling is a sacred reverence Therefore was it received with kneeling The greatest care is to be had of heavenly matters This is confirmed by Tertullian in lib. 1. ad uxorem Saecularibus satis agentes sumus utrique nostrum consultum volumus si talibus tabulas as Rigaltius well readeth it ordinamus cur non magis de divinis atque coelestibus posteritati nostrae prospicere debeamus We are wise enough in worldly businesses and will looke well enough to our selves and make our Wills and Testaments concerning these lower and meaner affairs why then ought we not rather to provide for posterity in things divine and heavenly Secondly The Fathers of the Primitive Church received the holy mysteries with kneeling And though the true Geniculation be of the mind so that one were better to have an humbled minde and stand upright than to kneele often and be proud withall yet if we worship God in our hearts our hearts will command the humble Bowing of the knees Besides Geniculatio corporis aedificat simplices the bodily kneeling doth edifie the simple Therefore Moris Ecclesiastici est Christo genuflectere saith Hierom on Esay 45. It is an Ecclesiasticall custome to Bend the Knees when Christ is named When the Corinthians did meete at the receiving of the Eucharist wee may safely pronounce they lay not on Beds but as they might Sit at their feasts of Charity so we may presume they kneeled when they partaked of the Sacrament Rhenanus in his Annotations before Tertullian de Coronâ Militis pag. 413. Propter crebram Sacramentorum tractationem inolita fuit illis religio quaedam etiam vulgarem panem vulgare poculum reverenter tractandi They were so religious when they tooke the Sacrament that they did transferre some reverence also even unto their common meats The fifty-two Injunction of Queen Elizabeth commandeth her people to make a lowly courtesie answerable to antiquitie which used a modest and humble Bowing of the body But more of this by and by Yea the Priests were wont 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Three times to bow downe as it is in Chrysostomes Liturgy And the like was appointed to the Lay people in his Homilies The more devout as I take it did Bend and Bow their Bodies very low Thrice even almost to the Earth which was the Greater Reverence and the Lesser Reverence which was a Bending of the head and shoulders onely they performed Twelve times as a late learned Writer affirmeth If he pick out such kinde of Reverences in which by his description there was no Kneeling nor Bending of the Knee He might countenance Geniculation and bring proofes for it In the worship of God Body and Soule being united together there ought to be a sympathy betwixt them And since the Body expecteth to be Lifted up to Heaven hereafter it must Kneele here on Earth God loveth not half-worship and God will be glorified as well in our Body as in our Spirit 1 Corinth 6.20 Textullian witnesseth That the Penitents did Adgeniculare Kneele downe at the receiving of Absolution And indeed both the Baring of mens heads and the Kneeling on Bare and Bended Knees are both of them gestures of humbled and mortified minds worshipping God Not-Kneeling and coveted heads argue mens pride The Ancients were wont with Bended Knees piously to worship God except from Easter to Whitsontide saith Tertullian And on the Lords day we accompt it unlawfull to fast or geniculis adorare to Kneele Other where Tertullian esteemeth and reckoneth the Not-kneeling betweene Easter and Whitsontide an Immunity or Priviledge But at other times Kneeling was their Ordinary pious practise For Histories make it plaine that diverse of those holier times had knees as hard as horne by their often and continued praying in that gesture Therefore let such deluded Pure-trants who come into the Church as if they had no joynts as if they had swallowed two barrs of iron or as if two stakes were falne into their legges so that they will not or as if they could not stoope learne more piety and devotion and not deny That Reverence to God which they give to temporall Princes PAR. 3. IF any aske the reasons why those Primitive devout Ones did forbeare Kneeling betwixt Easter and Whitsontide I answer First the Church did so appoint it and they were the obedient children of the Church and would not teach their Teachers or spirituall Fathers When our Church commandeth thee so to doe doe so Yea but why did the Church appoint it so I say they might have and I beleeve they had many powerfull Reasons inducing them Then so to doe which we know not now I answer secondly This might be one Inductive Because it was fit the people should shew themselves Thankfull for the great and blessed gift of Baptisme which at Easter and Pentecost they received most commonly For it seemeth as the newly-baptized washed not for a whole weeke after sacred Baptisme and did weare onely White clothes whence the Sunday called Dominica in Albis or Whitsonday had its denomination Which Ceremonies had their faire significations So the Church of the Newly-Baptized gave God Thankes for the Remission of their finnes and the grace conferred on them by Baptisme Standing rather than Kneeling as may be collected from Rhenanus His words are these in his Annotations before Tertullian de Coronâ Militis Geniculari in adorando velut poenitentis est Quistans adorat tanquam jam veniam consecutus Gratias agit In the worship of God Kneeling is the signe of a Supplicant or suppliant or as it were of a Penitent Who worshipped God standing giveth Thankes as having then received pardon of his sinnes When any of our un-kneeling Schismaticks are new-baptized as none are Or if they have not sinned againe since the forgivenesse of their sinnes or if they need no pardon Or if they were so holy every way as the Primitive Church was we will indulge somewhat unto them And let them consider whether Tertullian or other Fathers did not speake in the persons of the Newly-baptized onely and represented them when they pleaded the priviledge of Standing and not Kneeling at some certaine times Tertullian de Coronâ Militis cap. 3. From the day of Baptisme we abstaine a whole weeke Lavacro quotidiano From our daily washing For as I dare say that diverse Churches did Fast on
the lesse righteous But if the Supreame Magistrate or the Church command a thing indifferent it is no longer indifferent to thee it is now a binding precept upon the injunction and that must make thee yeeld Obedience upon the Ecclesiasticall Magistrates authority which bindeth not others in other places Variety of ceremonies is not hurtfull to the Church of Christ but rather beneficiall for out of them we may choose those for practise which are best and most agreeable to our Times and Congregations If thou findest any thing any where that more pleaseth God select that to the use of the Church saith Gregory the Great to our Augustine of Canterbury as it is in Beda cap. 27. What Gregory appointed I wish the now Bishop of Rome practised In all our solemne Ecclesiasticall meetings we begin with publick humble prayer unto God to blesse and guid us Yet in the Popes Consistory at Rome there is not heard the voyce of publick prayer And the learned Cardinall Palaeotus De Sacri Consistorii Consultationibus p. 373. goeth about to excuse it saying The Pope and the Cardinals were at their Devotions before they came to the Consistory and there commended themselves heartily to God I answer Every one I presume in our Convocation-house do pray to God heartily before our going to that meeting yet publick prayers are also thought necessary because of meeting in an holy place and because holy matters are there to be handled and we seeke to obtaine a blessing from God and we must not be weary in well-doing Gal. 6.9 but must pray always that is upon all faire occasions In too too many things the Church of Rome hath followed and imitated the fashions of Heathen Rome In this point Pagan Rome is holier than our late Christian Rome No man doubteth but the Senators did after their sort pray in their Houses or Capitoll or Temples before they came into the Sentate house yet before they began any businesse of the World this kind of prayer was publickly recited Quod foelix faustumque sit c. God blesse and prosper us in our undertakings His Second subterfuge that they pray not because the Pope is present who hath so great power is most ridiculous for supposing him so holy and to have all the pretended power He and they should the rather pray together to God and would the sooner be heard I returne to the old matter Concerning Kneeling at the Receiving of the holy Eucharist it was never disliked as a thing of its own nature evill and unlawfull but as inconvenient for such times and not simply inconvenient but because the Church so judged From Easterday not only unto Whitsunday excluding it sed eâdem immunitate in Pentecosten usque gaudemus saith Tertullian de Coronâ Militis cap. 3. They kneeled neither at the feast of Easter nor at the feast of Pentecost nor between those times but after both feasts were ended If you look for Scripture to command this No Scripture prescribeth it as a Law Tradition is the author Custome the confirmator Faith is the observer saith Tertullian cap. 4. And there was some reason for it to which thou owest obedience saith he ibid. Whensoever they received the blessed Sacrament standing they prayed standing likewise when they Kneeled at one duty they Kneeled at the other yet diverse of the factious ones will kneele at Prayer who will not kneele when they are partakers of the Communion and are faulty therein which themselves find fault withall contemning the ancient Churches practise in the one halfe whilst they are eagerly bent for the other part Thirdly at the first institution of things both sacred and prophane the solemnity is more than in the sequell of them Abraham made a great Feast the same day that Isaac was weaned Genesis 21.8 When Christ weaned the Apostles from the World and made them an Heavenly banquet we must think their Joy and Thankes was great and their devotion did strive to correspond unto the gift At the receiving of the Law the Israelites sanctified themselves two dayes and washed their cloaths and did not come to their wives Exodus 19.14 and 15. yet was the Law but a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ and brought not with it that benefit to them which the sacred Eucharist doth to us Therefore the greatest and devoutest solemnity of Gesture can be but too little When Christ was in his swadling-bands The wisemen fell down and worshipped him Matth. 2.11 and gave gifts unto Him And can we think the Apostles lay all along or sate unreverently when Christ gave Them better gifts than Gold Franckincense and Myrrhe when he gave Himselfe to them Absit God forbid If we have but new cloaths we will not suffer a spot upon them but we wipe them brush them and put them on more carefully than when they are thread-bare and worne out It is an old Proverbe Every new thing hath a Golden tayle is much loved admired and desired and yet within awhile it fals into neglect and sometimes into contempt malam caudam trahit that I may use Calvins phraze in his Epistles Colum. 478. it smelleth ill like the candle going out I have lived to see popular Lectures sinck below scorne who were formerly admired and both undeservedly as the humors and passions of the people move which is by Levaltoes The diseases of the body and the humors thereof commonly fall into the legs all sins of former times have descended and rowled down upon and into our dayes and now the feet swell and we proud that they are full of corruption and a curing hand they will not heare of O my God! into what dregs of time are we fallen that they who pretend most Devotion and think themselves to be the purest Christians on the earth do accompt it Indevotion to be humble and reverent and will not come into the house of prayer till prayer be ended that they may heare a Sermon Who will not Kneele when they enter into the Church nor shew any reverence at their going out of it nor bow at the sacred mention of our Saviour Jesus Christ but come boldly impudently and most irreverently into Gods house and stay there and returne as if it were an ordinary roome or Town-house to meet in Is this to reverence Gods Sanctuary Is the feare of Superstition become the mother of Atheisme Hath liberty been turned into licenciousnesse Because some Kneele to Idols shall we not Kneele to the true God Because some creep to the Crosse shall not wee worship and fall downe and kneele before the Lord our Maker This is such a mark of the deare children of God of the Elect and the Generation of the Just of the Plants for Heaven of the Holy Ones that are sure to be saved as former times never heard of How hath my soule abhorred to see some men labour to gaine reputation upon God and by being irreverent in the Church to magnifie themselves as they think above
Militis yet I will use them as necessary both for commerce and divinity If he used Musicke so did David Aesculapius first cured Diseases yet this did not hinder Esaias to apply a medicinall playster to Ezechias And S. Paul knew a little Wine was good for the weake stomacke of Timothy Though Minerva made the first ship yet the Apostles yea Christ himselfe refused not to sayle in shipps If you name some Heathen god as Author Founder and Inventor of all and every utensils and vessels I will also say Christ did recumbere in lectulo lay on a small discubitory bed and was girded with a Towell Propriâ Osyridis veste with a vestment appropriated to the service of Osyris both when he tooke the Bason and washed the Apostles feet and when he put water into it ex urceo out of the waterpot or pitcher Remove the Abuse keepe still the right Use To argue from the abuse to the wholly removing of things in their right use is as childish and ridiculous as if another should say The Vines and the Corne are to be spoyled and cut downe because some are drunke and doe surfet and all creatures and all the world to be destroyed because Man abuseth them yea mens soules and bodies to be annihilated because there are none but sometimes and some wayes doe abuse both their soules and bodies Concerning the veneration of the Sacrament it is accorded on all sides That in the Act of Receiving or whilst we are participating of it it is lawfull to Kneele yea to fall downe and worship Christ in it Calvin who is most vehement against Adoration when the Host is carried up and downe in state as oft it is under a great goodly costly Canopy is expresse Institutionum 4.17 Parag. 37. If Christ be adored in or at the receiving of the Supper I will say that that Adoration then is lawfull if it resideth not in the signe but mounteth up and is directed unto Christ sitting in Heaven The Lutherans run with divided streames Illyricus denieth Christ to be worshipped in the Eucharist saith Bellarmine de Sac. Eucharistiae 4.29 Others hold That when we are busied in the reall present partaking of Christs body we must then worship it See Brentius in his Apology for the confession at Wittenberg and Bucer in the Acts of the Conference at Ratisbon Their leader Luther cited by Chemnitius in his Examen of the Decrees of the Tridentine Councell the second part pag. 151. of Sarerius his Edition stileth the Eucharist Sacramentum venerabile Adorabile A Sacrament to be worshipped and adored And none saith Chemnitius denieth Christ to be adored in the Supper but Sacramentaries or such as deny Christ to be truely and really present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist Chemnitius himselfe acknowledgeth these Theses 1. Christ God and Man is to be adored Onely Arrians deny this 2. Christs humane nature for the hypostaticall union with the divinitie is to be adored None but Nestorians will deny this The Apostles worshipped the Humane nature Matth. 28.17 When they saw him they worshipped him Let me adde Adoration praecedeth Communication for Adora Communica saith Chrysostome Homil. 21. ad populum Antiochenum And Nemo illam carnem manducat nisi prius adoraverit No man communicateth of those heavenly morsels who hath not first adored 3. The adoration of God is not confined to time or place S. Augustine on those words Worship at his footstoole Psal 99.5 readeth it Adorate scabellum pedum ejus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suppedaneum Worship his footstoole S. Augustine his opinion is expresse That Christs Flesh as made of Earth may be said to be Gods Footstoole That That Footstoole is to be Worshipped and therefore Christs Flesh is to be Worshipped And when we eate his Flesh we doe not onely not sinne in Worshipping it but we sinne if we doe not Worship it yet if the Prophet and Psalmist aymeth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 principally at the Adoration of Christs Flesh in that place but commandeth their prostration before the Temple and before the Sanctuary which was holy and before the Arke in it as in my judgement he doth For the Temple was the place both of Gods throne in some regard and the place of the soles of his feet in another regard Ezechiel 43.7 And God saith He will beautifie the place of his Sanctuary and make the place of his feete glorious Esay 60.13 And in the verse following he expresseth how it shall be glorious They shall come bending unto thee and they shall bow themselves downe at the soles of thy feet a very low prostration The Arke also is called the Footstoole of God and there God was to be worshipped not the Arke it selfe but God 1 Sam. 1.19 They worship before the Lord. We will goe into his Tabernacles We will worship at his Footstoole Arise O Lord into thy rest Thou and the Arke of thy strength Psal 132.7 8. verses I resume and say if the Israelites were commanded to worship God before the Temple before the Sanctuary before the Arke O come let us worship and fall downe and Kneele before the Lord which I have forealleaged We cannot thinke that God would have Christians lesse devout toward his onely Sonne God and Man than the Israelites were to the Temple Sanctuary or Arke and therefore I hold it a probable inference The Apostles Adored Christ whilst he was facially present and presenting his most sacred Body and Blood to them which was a most gracious gift and blessing more of value than the Temple and all the holy things contained in it Did God when he brought in the First-begotten into the world say Heb. 1.6 Let all the Angels of God worship him And when the same Saviour of Ours was going out of the world and was present with his holy Apostles and gave them his owne Body and Blood with all needfull graces and among them even this grace to know Whom to adore and When which are parts of his Worship can we think he was not worshipped by them Alwayes then and everywhere is Christ to be adored Fieri nec potest nec debet quin fides Christum in actione coenae praesentem veneretur It cannot be nor ought to be but that our Faith must worship and adore Christ present in the Sacramentall distribution and reception And the same Chemnitius bringeth in Augustine Ambrose Nazianzen and Eusebius Emissenus for his Co-opinionists yet thus he expounds himselfe That not the materiall Elements are to be adored but Christ onely But my inference and collection from these passages is onely this If we must adore Christ when we celebrate and take the divine Sacrament then it behoved the Apostles much more to doe so when They beheld Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 visibly personally and bodily present conferring those hallowed Blessings unto them I doe not say I doe not thinke that the Apostles did alwayes at all times and in all places adore
Christ by bodily prostration after they knew he was humanatus-Deus the Sonne of God yea God in our Flesh He expected it not The occasions did not so permit it He sent them He sate with them He did eate and drinke ordinary food with them He washed their feete At which times bodily adoration was not could not be well performed Christ held it worship enough at some times that they did confesse him to be God and Lord My Lord and my God saith Thomas Joh. 20.28 Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God saith Peter Matth. 16.16 We beleeve and are sure Thou art That Christ Joh. 6.69 It was well accepted from them That they did worship him in Spirit and Truth Joh. 4.24 If their mindes and soules had gotten an habituall adoration of him the expression of it by continuall prostration was not necessary 1. But first when Christ had newly performed some superhumane workes they did as they were bound Worship him Matth. 17.6 At the Transfiguration when they heard a voyce from Heaven They fell on their faces At the great draught of fishes overlading their ship Peter fell downe at Iesus knees Luk. 5.8 And others might doe so at other times though it be left unmentioned 2. When they begged great matters They worshipped him The woman of Canaan seeking for helpe Worshipped him Matth. 15.25 The mother of Zebedees children craving a boone Worshipped him Matth. 20.20 3. When Christ did actually heale some who were vehemently afflicted They did adore him The healed Samaritan fell downe on his face at Christs feete Luk. 17.16 4. Lastly it was fit to adore him when he extraordinarily conferred on their soules greater blessings to the saving and inriching them with all necessary graces At such times and seasons did they ought they too Adore him And thus did he doe to them when he gave them the consecrated food of his Body and Blood when he instituted a new Sacrament for the good of their soules And therefore I doubt not but they did Then Adore him according as the excellency of the gift required Therefore Kneeling being a Gesture of Piety as M. Hooker fitly tearmeth it an Adorative Gesture and above all Gestures most frequent in use to worship God I conclude with some degree of certainty and with the cleerest probability That when Christ administred the consecrated Eucharist unto his Apostles they Kneeled at least if they did not fall down on their Faces and worship him And yet if they did fall down to the Ground they first fell on their Knees and Kneeling was the way and meanes of their prostration and they arose not up without Kneeling Let any one give me one instance where ever any Church at any time did like or prescribe that any one might receive the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist Sitting or Lying all along except such as were unable to kneele till these later times of Singularity and Innovation and I shall give them thankes Tertullian de Oratione cap. 12. Irreverens est assidere sub conspectu contraque conspectum ejus quem cum maximè reverearis ac venereris quanto magis sub conspectu Dei vivi Angelo adhuc Orationis astante factum istud irreligiosissimum est nisi exprobramus Deo quod oratio nos fatigaverit It is irreverent among men to sit in his sight and against him face to face whom you do most revere and worship But this is more a most irreverent fact to Sit in the sight of the living God the Angell that heareth and offereth up our prayers Standing still there unlesse we object it against God that prayer hath tyred us And is it likely that the Apostles at the Receiving of the stupendious mysteries from the hands of their Saviour then present blessing the Elements giving Thankes to God working miraculously fore-signifying his Death and Crucifixion with the breaking of his Body and powring out of his Blood and giving himselfe unto them after a new way lastly lifting them up then from consideration of things earthly to the enjoying of things heavenly I say is there so much as a shadow of likelihood that they did not worship him Even Balaam advised Balack to stand at his Burunt-offering whilst Balaam met the Lord further off Num. 23.15 and Balak obeyed him for Behold he stood by his Burnt-offering vers 17. And yet it is likely that Balak did sometimes Sit for vers 18. It is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Surge not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Septuagint Balaam as it were dislikeing Sitting in sacred offices Even the unweildly Eglon arose out of his seat when Ehud said to him I have a message from God unto thee Judges 3.20 And he was another King of Moab Gregory Nazianzen in his Oration of the death of Gorgonia his sister saith When she was afflicted with an incurable disease by night she hastened to the Church and lying Prostrate before the Altar so earnestly prayed before the venerable Sacrament that she was presently cured calling upon him who is Worshipped on the Altar And can we think she did not fall down on her knees at least when her selfe received the sacred Food of her soule Eusebius Emissenus Homilia 5. de Paschate saith The Sacrament was instituted ut coleretur Christus jugiter per mysterium That Christ might be continually worshipped by the mystery Origen Homilia 13. in Exodum Nostis qui divinis mysteris interesse consuevistis you who use to be present at the Divine Mysteries do know that when ye receive the Body of the Lord ye heed unto it with all fearefull cautiousnesse and worship least any thing of it fall Again Contra Celsum 8. about the middle of the book With prayers and thanksgiving for the benefits received do we eat the sacred Bread And did they not neele either when they prayed or when they received In the next place followeth the binding argument from the book of Advertisements set forth by Queen Elizabeths command 1584 and printed by Thomas Dawson in the Articles for administration of Prayers and Sacraments We appoint Now follow the words That all Communicants do receive Kneeling and as it is appointed by the Lawes of the Realme and the Queenes Majesties Injunctions Lastly let men consider themselves and their own natures and they shall find that the body of Man was not ordained of God to serve only nor principally for naturall necessities It is indeed as a stranger to percolate our Bread Meats and Drinks but it hath many faire offices and more spirituall The Face framed with erected eyes to look up to Heaven The Heart to meditate on it The Hands being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the instruments of instruments to work righteousnesse and are not the Knees Omni cardine versatiliora more pliable flexible and turning than any hooks or hinges whereby we may easily fall down and worship God and easily arise to prayse him and do him service Let me speak in Tertullians phrases