the humility of our sense and iudgement which in this Mystery is altogether blinde so often we purchase new strength and new grace to beleeue the omnipotencie of our God And herehence it is that the holy Fathers S. Iustin S. Ireneus S. Chrysostoms S. Iustin Apol. 2. S. Iren. l. 4. c. 34. S. Chrysost bom 16. ad Pap. Annâ— bom 83. in Maâ—â—h S. Ambros lib. 4 â—â—it mist c â—9 9 S. Cyprian lib. 〈◊〉 Corn. Dom. S. August in Psal 33. S. Ambrose S. Cyprian S. Agustine and other Doctors so often as they either speake or write of the Eucharist alwayes inculcate with vs the Almightie power of God and obiect it to Heretikes as a certaine Marke of his powerfulnesse And as the Patriarkes and Prophets when they would shew that God is Almighty call him Creator of heauen and of earth Euen so the holy Doctors when they will extoll the almightinesse of our Sauiour alledge euer this his chiefe worke and as the Diuell of old perswaded certaine misinformed Philosophers to write that the world was not created but that it was eternall without beginning to weaken so much our faith in the omnipotencie of the Creator So in our age hath he raised certaine hereticall spirits which deny the presence of the body of our Sauiour in this Sacrament by their heresie to take away and to deface this most noble marke or signe of his omnipotency and to ouerthrow a most strong pillar of our Faith and the most beautifull ornament of Christian Religion 21. OF THE GOODNES OF OVR SAuiour in this Sacrament THe contemplation of the omnipotency and goodnes of God makes vs admire and loue him We haue giuen some documents of his omnipotency in this Sacrament let vs say one word of his goodnesse in the fame It is an argument of our loue to giue our goods to his behoofe and profit vpon whom we bestow them So God hath shewed himselfe to loue man by giuing him a being and creating the world for him It is an argument of greater loue to giue his owne substance for he that giueth of his proper bloud out of his body shewes himselfe more louing then he which makes neuer so great a present out of his purse Almighty God hath giuen his onely Sonne Ioan. 3.16 substance of his substance and the Sonne also hath giuen himselfe vnto vs ioyning in alliance his Diuinity to the Family of our Father Adam and making himselfe our brother so to worke our Saluation could he haue tyed himselfe to vs by any more straite bond and giuen himselfe more amorously then in giuing himselfe wholly to vs and making himselfe one with vs to deifie vs with himselfe and make vs heires of his glory Well then as in the Incarnation he hath made a gift of his Diuinity to man so in this Sacrament he hath bestowed vpon vs his Humanitie 〈◊〉 hath giuen it once to death in a bloudy Sacrifice and from time to time he ceaseth not to giue it for meat to apply vnto vs the fruit of his redemption he maried his Diâ—â—nity to our Humanity when he made himselfe man he â—â—arieth his humanity to ours when he giueth it to vs in this Sacrament For the flesh of our Sauiour heere is holily vnited to ours to make it both chast and fruitfull in bringing forth good workes and the same flesh is also a most diuine dish of his nuptiall feast to feed and fat our soules with celestiall vertues and to giue immortality to our bodies O sweet Iesus what goodnesse is this and what an effect of inflamed loue that thou vouchsafest to ioyne thy selfe by two so straite knots of Mariage and of Meate to so base and so miserable persons as we are the Lord to his scruants the King to his vassals the Creator to his creatures God to wretched poore sinners O what loue is this of thine in this diuine Mariage and Food What King would euer take for his Spouse a poore vassall of his And what father would feede his children with his owne body We see that mothers nourish their children with their milke which is a white bloud but what mother euer nourished her children with her proper flesh O diuine mariage O diuine banquet O wicked abuser and immortall enemie of Man which hast troubled this marriage and this banquet substituting in the place of this true Bridegroome 1. Reg. 19.13 and this true Dauid and this deified flesh an Idoll of Bakers bread But this thou hast done in the Church which thou hast falsly intituled Resormed and not in the Church of God Thou hast done it I say in a Synagogue of such misbeleeuers as haue chosen rather to lend their eares to the lyes of thy vanity then to beleeue the sacred and holy words of verity not in that Church 1. Tim. 3.15 pillar of truth Spouse which cannot erre assisted with the true Spirit Shee knoweth full well her Spouses voice and manner of proceedings she knoweth the goodnesse of his Table and will beware how shee forgoe it shee knoweth the Son omnipotent made for vs Emanuell Esay â— 14 that is to say God with vs when he was made Man liuing with vs and speaking with vs in his proper person but especially when he giueth himselfe vnto vs in this nuptiall banquet heere wherein more then euer or any where else he is indeed Emanuell For when he conuersed with vs mortall and visible it was but for a littla time the vnion was lesse with fewer people and that in Iury onely but by this Sacrament he is euer most straitely vnited as Spouse and Food with all them that will marrie themselues with him and feed vpon him and this not in one onely Land but in so many places as this Catholike and Vniuersall Church adores her Spouse euen from the East to the West from the South to the North and through all the earth An husband when he departs from his wife a father from his children a friend from his friends signifies his loue more then euer makes a feast leaues a pretious remembrance and shewes that departing hee would leaue himselfe still present if he could possibly be in many places at once Iesus Christ hath accomplished all this after a diuine manner for vpon the end of his passion and of his departure from this world hee shewed his feruent loue to his children Hauing loued his owne which were in the world Ioan. 13.1 saith Saint IOHN he loued them to the end that is to say he shewed them his loue more then euer before He likewise made his banquet with singuler signification of loue saying I haue greatly desired to eate this Pasque with you not the Moysaicall but the truth of the Moysaicall wherein he himselfe was the Lambe Finally for a Ring of remembrance he hath left his proper body and his owne selfe to be alwayes present with his friends in the manner aforesaid and to be for euer their Emanuell 22. CHARITIE
Lambe was offered in the euening Iesus Christ gaue himselfe in the Eucharist and on the Crosse in the euening of the world and at the last howre of the day Ioan. 2.18 as speaketh the Apostle Saint Iohn The Lambe was to be roasted thereby to shew the burning charitie of our Sauiour in giuing his body in this Sacrament seasoned and coloured with the flame of his burning charity teaching vs withall that wee must bring with vs feruent loue when we come to eate it for this is the preparation and the appetite with which spirituall meates ought to be taken for the good nourishment of our soules Exod. 12. Those which did eate it ought to be Iewes by bloud or by Religion no person may eate our Lamb that is not a Christian borne of Christians or made Christian by Baptisme They did eate it in the night to shew that our Eucharist is a hidden mystery and inuisible to sense and humane iudgement and knowne onely to faith The Father of euery Family was to eate it euery Pastor in his Parish as in his Family and euery Church as a Family vnder her Pastor eates the Lambe of God but with this difference that the Iewes did eate diuers Lambes in diuers houses and in diuers times their Lambe being corruptible the Christians eate all one selfesame Lambe in all times Iesus Christ incorruptible Lambe and immortal and onely sufficient for all and alwayes They did not breake the bones to Figure the impassibility of the Diuinitie of our Lambe Iesus Christ hid vnder the Humanity as the bones are hidden vnder the flesh and further to represent the impassibilitie of his body hid vnder the formes of bread and wine And therefore the Figure is perfectly accomplished in our Banquet for we eate our Lambe not onely without breaking his bones but without hurting whatsoeuer of his flesh all whole all vnited all immortall without euer consuming of it The Figure giues but a little touch concerning the bone onely the verity goes further and accomplisheth it also in the body They were to eate it hastily to shew that this mystery ought to be deuoured with a liuely and blessed faith without the narrow sifting curiosity of reason and humane sense Of the selfe-same signification was the Ceremony which commanded to burne what remained to teach vs what we cannot comprehend in our mystery that we ought to burne in the fire of Charity The bread without leauen signifies the sinceritie of conscience that men ought to bring to this Table 1. Cor. 5.8 as S. Paul interprets it the bitter Lettice signifies Penance and herehence it is that the children of the Church of God before they present themselues to receiue the blessed Sacrament put their soules in good estate bewailing their sins confessing themselues and doing penance for them The Iews were gyrt eating their Lambe in signe that we ought aboue all things to be chast when we eate of this virginall flesh of the Lambe without spor For Luxury proceedeth from the Reines and to girde the Reines is to take away the first causes of the sinne of the flesh and make whoredome to dye in its spring and therefore Saint Gregory saith S. Greg hom 13. We then put the girdle to our reines when we represse the lasciuiousnesse of the flesh by the bridle of continency The staffe in their hands and shooes of dead skinne on their feete after the fashion of people which are to take a iourney teach vs that we should liue in this mortall flesh as pilgrimes dead to this world hauing for the soueraigne strength of our Pilgrimage the staffe of the Crosse †and for our shooes of our feet the meditation of death and this at euery pace and moment of our life as indeed in euery steppe we approach to the graue There are then in all these faire lineaments and mysteries figured and accomplished sufficient markes whereby to acknowledge as well the truth which is the Sacrament of our Lambe the Redeemer as also the bounty and supreame wisdome of him who hath figured it by his seruant Moses and by his owne proper hand fulfilled the same But who shall giue vs eyes to penetrate sufficiently these workes words to praise them highly affection to loue them holily except thou O soueraigne Master who art the worker of them Who shall make vs touch the fruit of thy flesh and of thy bloud except thou which giuest them vs to vse Who shall deliuer vs from Pharoe and from Aegypt except thou that hast certainly deliuered vs But we vnthankfull and forgetfull wretches haue taken againe the iron chaine of seruitude by our sinnes vpon vs. O sweet Lamb that didst come into this world to wipe away the sins of the world in the purple colour of this noble bloud imployed to dye red the poasts of the Crosse and to turne from vs the violence of the destroying Angel Defend vs against our enemies in this bloud wash vs from our sinnes in this bloud refresh vs with this bloud and in this bloud powred into our breasts stifle the first-borne of spirituall Aegypt which are seldome from vs and which too often we carry with vs the loue of this world fleshly pleasures follies and smoakes of vanities stifle the high desires of our obdurate soules which as the first-borne of Man push vs forward to the vanity of worldly honours Smother the concupiscenses and fiers of our flesh which as the first-borne of our brutish and vnreasonable appetites which seeke after nothing but the hay of the earth and the baits of sense Enkindle in our hearts this celestiall fire with which thou art seasoned to be our Paschall Lambe and the delicious dainty of our Feast to the end that we may receiue it with gaine of incorruption seasoning our soules by this receiuing to become an Holocaust of delicious smell and of good taste to thy Maiesty Make vs wise well to acknowledge thy gifts make vs good to the end we may be worthy of them and strengthen vs in vertue that we may perseuer in the way of thy holy Lawes to be receiued at last to thy Mariage-feast where thou shalt be the Spouse and the Lambe the Giuer and the meate of eternall felicitie THE SIXT PICTVRE MANNA IN THE DESERT The Description YOV see heere the Desert of Arabia Exod. 16. in the confines of Aegypt and Moses conducting the multitude of the Hebrewes in number more then six hundred thousand lately deliuered from the bondage of the Aegyptians Exod. 12.37.38 and from the hands of Pharoe who came to be swallowed vp with all his armie in the depthes of the waues of the Sea So soone as the meate and the bread which they brought with them from Aegypt began to saile then they fell a crying for hunger for the belly hath neither patience nor eares especially in so rude a people and enclined to murmure as these are God of his liberality and benignity towards them makes this day
he had loued so much An action worthy of such a Father and of such a Sonne and of such a Louer all powerfull all good and all wise A Sonne spares nothing to honor his Father how liberall then will such a Sonne be to such a Father A father reserueth nothing from his children that may tend to make them happy and departing from them hee leaueth them all the best that he hath What then will such a Father doe for the aduancement and happinesse of his children Wherefore our Sauiours desire was to accomplish this his chiefe worke in a little time but with such magnificence as was agreeable to his greatnesse gaue with the ornament of those wonders which wee haue mentioned before his owne body in Sacrifice to his Father and in food to his Church commanding her to continue this soueraigne honor and this table of immortâ—â—◠〈◊〉 〈…〉 as shee shall be a traueller in the desart of this mortallty And so he fulfilled that which Saint Iohn would signifie by those words that he hath set in the beginning of his Dircourse for giuing his body to his Father in Sacrifice hee made him a present most worthy of his Maiesty and giuing it in food to his Church he leaues her a most precious gage of his loue And by the changing of the bread into his body and of the wine into his bloud which hee doth in this mystery he doth a proper act of an infinite power and more noble then the creation of the world Wherefore as the manner of the worke is worthy of God so the Present is mest magnificent and of greater value then ten thousand worlds for it is the bady of a Prince the body of a King the body of God and the Sacrifice made therof is indeed a Sacrifice of Soueraigne honor especially being ostered by such a Priest who is the Sonne of God himselfe and the food of this pretious body and the manor of giuing and taking it vnder the formes of bread and wine is most agreeable to the wisdome of the Giuer and to the profit of the receiuers The vnwonted ceremony of washing of feete did signifie no lesse then the former words the Maiesty of the future mystery And whereas the other Euangelists note that our Sauiour before he Instituted this holy banquet said I haue greatly desred to eaâ— this Pasche with you Luke 22.151 Manto 26. Marke 14. Luke 22. And againe That he tooke bread and blessed it with thankesgiuing the Cup also and blessed it All these words tended to the same end to declare that our Sauiour was going to do some admirable worke vpon the bread and the wine in the end of his dayes before hee died Let vs now search into the words of the Institution 2. THE EXPOSITION OF OVR SAVIours words THIS IS MY BODY OVR Sauiour being set againe at the Table with his Apostles in such manner as hath been said tooke bread and hauing blessed it brake it and said Matth. 2â— Marke 14. Luke 22. This is my body and in so saying the creature obeyed one substance gaue place to the other and the bread was transubstantiated into the body of our Sauiour that is to say the substance of bread departed and the substance of our Sauiours body taked the place thereof Howbeit the colour the taste and the other accidents of bread do still remaine to serue for the outward robe to couer our Sauiours body and to make an entire Sacrament which is euer composed of two things euen as a man is made of soule and of body the one inuisible for the soule and the other visible for the sense so to speake and so to doe appertained to an omnipotent Lord mans word onely signifieth but the word of God both signifieth and worketh The Kings and the Potentates of the world command indeed their subiects and their subiects obey them but if they command their trees their riuers their mountains and other insensible creatures their commandements are in vaine to the eares of such vassals for that which hath neither sense nor soule cannot vnderstand the voice of any but the Creator King Xerxes threatened the mountaines Plut. de Ira. and made to be heaten the waues of the Sea but the mountaines were dease to his threatnings and the Sea contemned his whip It is God alone that can make himselfe to be vnderstood and felt of all that is S. Hieron in c. 8. Matth. All creatures saith Saint HIEROM haue feeling of the Creator for they vnderstand him when hee threatens them or commands them not that all things haue vnderstanding as the Heretikes dreame but by reason of the Maiestie of him that hath made euery thing of nothing He commandeth all and not onely things depriued of sense but euen that which yet hath neither nature nor being Rom. 4.17 Matth. 8.27 Marke 4.41 He calleth saith the Apostle the things which are not as if they were So the Sonne of God by his Word puts the bridle in the mouth of the windes and waues and calmes the raging of the Sea Euen so he commanded the sicke Death it selfe and the Sepulcher and his commandement was fulfilled Gen. 1. So he commanded Nothing when he created the world of Nothing and that nothing was obedient and became a world by the commandement of his voice The word of man is significatiue Gods word is also operatiue If a man say in the night O that it were day he signifies that he hath a desire that the Sunne should rise from his Horizon to make it day but the Sunne for his saying hasteneth neuer the more the course of his Chariot to make day approach But God saying Gen. 1. Let there be light the light appeared presently and his word was not significatiue onely but moreouer the effectrix of his will saying then This is my body that which a little before was bread is truely his body and his word doth outwardly signifie to the eare and maketh inwardly that which it did signifie It said that it was the body of the Sauiour and saying so it made it so for otherwise he had not said so of it Ioan. 14. for so much as a lye cannot proceed from the mouth and heart of Truth it selfe which assureth nothing that is not true 3. OF THE CLEARENES OF THE SENSE of these words THIS IS MY BODY by Scripture and by reason THese words This is my body are most cleare if there be any in the whole volume of the booke of God and good reason they should be cleare For they containe the Law and Institution of thy greatest Sacrament and mystery of our Faith in ordaining whereof it was fit to speake clearely and intelligibly to the end to take away all occasion of error in a matter of such importance They containe also the principal clause of the testament or Pact which the Sonne of God did then make with his Church wherein the Language which is vsed ought to
had so extreamely loued in his life and without whom shee could not liue This was an Humane loue more worthy of compassion then of praise which neuerthelesse may serue vs for an example to make vs do better for how much more conuenient and iust is it that wee should employ all our spirituall meanes our loue our deuotion our fastings our almes our prayers that we may become a liuing Cabinet of the body of this diuine Spouse of our soules whom we shall receiue not senselesse nor dead nor reduced into powder but aliue immortall all whole with his soule and with his glory and with all the Maiesty of his Diuinity for to be one day eternally vnited with him 10. TWO GREAT WONDERS HAPPENED in the institution of this Sacrament SAint Augustine S. August in Psal 33. 2. Keg 21.13 expounding what the History of the Kings saith of Dauid that counterseiting to be out of his wits before King Achis He carried himselfe in his own hands tooke occasion to admire another wonder farre exceeding that which came to passe in the institution of this Sacrament And it is that our Sauiour carried himselfe in his proper hands A thing which he esteemed most admirable and impossible to haue been practised by Dauid according to the sence of the letter But that our Sauiour only did it when holding his body in his hand and saying This is my body hee cetried it to his mouth and gaue it to his Apostles For though it might be that Dauid playing the foole carried himselfe in his hands by going on all foure after the manner of little children or bearing himself vp vpon his armes and vsing them in stead of feet and of legges after the fashion of those who by actluity cast their body vpward in the ayre with their head downward like a tree and walke vpon their hands S. Augustine neuerthelesse had reason to say that to cary himselfe of himselfe in his owne hands belongeth only to our Sauiour for it is he which truly earieth himselfe David caried not himselfe on his hands but rather on his hands and feet together if it be to be vnderstood of the first manner or only on his armes if of the second but our Sauiour carieth himselfe properly in his hands neither more nor lesse then he caried in his band the meate which he put in his mouth or into the mouthes of others There is heere yet another thing admirable in this Institution which is that our Sauiour tooke himself for food a thing not heard of neither hapned to any man since the Creation of the world Ioseâ—h lib. 7. de â—el Iudaâ—c Histories tell vs that some mothers had fed vpon their owne children as Mary the Iew and that some person haue eaten a certaine part of their body compelled by the violence of some extraordinary sicknes but it was neuer read that a man either did or could eate himselfe all whole still remaining without hurt and such an act neuer came into the thought of man The Sonne of God alone can doe it and hath done it and hath giuen herein an illustrious testimony that hee is God doing a worke which onely God could doe by vertue vncommunicable to any other for it is God alone that liueth of himselfe and is his owne proper food the creatures do liue of other creatures and their food is from without their body and none liue of themselues the blessed Spirits in heauen doe liue of the vision of God but God alone is his owne life and his owne meat from all eternity and needeth no other thing but himselfe to sustaine himselfe eternally So that our Sauiour taking himselfe for food signeth himselfe with the signe of his owne greatnesse and sheweth as by an experiment proper to God that he was God hee being able to make food of himself euen according to the body after the likenesse of his Diuinity which is the food and nourishment of himselfe and belongeth to no other thing but to God alone And this is that which he signified by these words Iâ—â—â— 5.26.24 S. Chrysost hom 〈◊〉 in Ioan. For as the Father hath lofe in himselfe so bee hath giuen to the Sonne also to haue life in himsele for proofe then and declaration of his speech hee rooke himsele in food corporally as spiritually he himselfe is his life and his food and his felicity and likewise the life food and felicity of his Elect. 11. SAINT IONN FIRST RECEIVETH OF all the Apostles The Eucharist the true refection and the Present at the refection OVR Sauiour then doth offer his body and his bloud to God his Father in Sacrifice and hauing receiued them first himselfe he giues them to his Apostles for spirituall refection beginning at Saint Iohn and not onely because he was nearest him at the table but because he was endued with singular charity and chastity vertues altogether proper to make vs sit worthily at the table of this feast of loue and purity It is heere where the refection began which alone is true and holy and now it began to be continued afterward so long as the world should endure All the other which had of old been instituted in the House of God were but Figures of this their meats were meates of corruption and of death seruing onely to maintaine this mortall life the Victims the Offerings and all that which was set vpon the Altar or vpon the table in the Law of Nature and of Moses were but dead bodies and mortall food to nourish mortall bodies the body of our Sauiour is the body of life and food of immortality In this refection the ceremony of Alliance made betweene God and Man was celebrated by the mediation of the flesh and bloud of God signes both signifying and withall effecting a most streight and most diuine vnion of the head with his members of the members amongst themselues And the Symbols which were the meate of the table and the connexion of such as assisted the selfe-same were the Presents of the Feast It was a famous custome among the Nations of the world to giue Presenis after a great Feast the which were called of the Greeke word Apophoreta as who should say things to bee carried from the Feast of which S. Ambrose speaking S. Ambros in exhort ad Virg writ in these termes in his Exhortation to Virgins Such as are inuited to a great Feast haue a custome to bring away some conuiuiall presents Isid Some bring vesieis of gold some of sillier some gold and siluerâ— some money Sueton. Coligul Lamâ—â—d in Heliogaâ—oto some Iewels some beasts some men the Sonne of God gaue his body and his bloud for the Present of his Feast or the meat of his Feast and for the Feast it selfe surpassing the price of all other Presents as also the splendour and deliciousnesse of all other banquets 12. OF THE WORDS OF OVR SAVIOVR Doe this in my remembrance NOw this diuine refection was not
remission of sinnes and of the Kingdome of heauen Of remission saying This bloud shed for you and for many Luke 22.29 vnto remission of sinnes And of the Heritage he saith I dispose to you as my Father disposed to me a Kingdome that you may eate and drinke vpon my table in my Kingdome and may sit vpon thrones iudging the twelue Tribes of Israel Behold a wonderful sauourable conclusion David making his Will enioyned King Salomon his sonne his sonne 3. Keg 2.7 that he should make the children of Berrellay to eate at his table in token of great honor and friendship but he made them not inheritors of his Kingdome nor sharers of his Royall honors Heere our Sauiour communicates his Table his Kingdome and his Throne to his friends his Table in which is serued for meate and for drinke his proper flesh and bloud it could not be more royall nor more exquisite neither the Heritage greater nobler nor worthyer of such a Testator The Testament was written also with the Law not in Tables of stone as the old but in the hearts of the Apostles and of all those which shall be called to this inheritance after them And this is that which was foretold by Ieremy Hier. 31.32.33 I will giue my Law within their ontrals and will write it in their hearts According to which manner of speech Saint Paul said to the Corinthians You are the Epistle of Christ 2. Cor. 3.3 ministred by vs and writen not with inke but with the Spirit of the liuing God not in tables of stone but in tables of the heart consisting of flesh It was signed by the hand and bloud of the Testator when holding the Chalice and changing the wine to his bloud he said This is my bloud of the new Testament Matth. 26.28 Marke 14.24 The Altar which was our Sauiour himselfe was besprinkled when he tooke it the people Inheritor and the Book was also sprinkled when the Apostles did drinke and did wet their brests which were the tables wherein the Law and the Testament were written The refection of the Victim sacrificed was made betweene the Priest and the people when our Sauiour hauing offered his body to his Father tooke it himselfe and gaue it to his Apostles to eat concluding his eternall Couenant with the refection of his body and with the drinke of his bloud He left a pledge of loue by his Testament and a pretious Iewell of his remembrance when he left this self-same body and this self-same bloud for an eternall memory of his charity towards vs his heires Luke 12.18 saying Doe this in remembrance of me So our Sauiour hauing written and accomplished his Testament according to the draughts of the old Figure died the next day and his Testament shall remaine eternally confirmed by his death O diuine and powerfull work-man O sweet Iesus O great God! What shall we heere amidst so many wonders first admire thy Powerfulnesse thy Wisdome thy Goodnes thy Greatnes thy Prouidence thy sweetnesse thy Liberality altogether or all apart where all is great and admirable together all great and admirable apart What a work-man art thou O Redeemer of the world to haue so long agoe so diuinely drawne the Figure of thy Testament and to accomplish the truth vpon that Figure with so diuine tracts of improuement What a Master art thou to haue left so heauenly instructions and so faire lawes of amity grauen in such liuing tables as are the hearts of thy Disciples What a King to haue made so amiable and honorable a combination with thy poore subiects What a Father of a Family to haue written so fauourable a Testament vnto men and of thy enemies to haue made them thy children and thy heires of so great a Kingdome O Redeemer what were we without this Testament we were eaytifes and vagabonds vnworthy to be supported vpon the earth and worthy of eternall confusion but by it we haue gotten a right to heauen and to immortall glory and nothing remaineth but to take possession and there to reioyce in peace for euer so soone as we shall haue fought the good fight as thy Apostle speakes 2. Tim. 4.7 kept the faith and consummated the course of our yeares in the good workes of thy loue and charity according to thy Commandement For thy victorious death hauing made this Testament of force and irreuocable hath done vs this fauour aboue thy ancient friends and children which departed before it who albeit they did leaue this world with the hope of heauen yet they enioyed not heauen immediatly in recompence of the workes they had done in thy Grace and seruice as true children noe this was a Grace referned to the time of thy new Testament which was to be eternall by thy death and to put in full possession without delay those thy children which like true heires shall haue executed the will of their Father and what thanksgiuing shall be able or sufficient for to acknowledge worthily the least part of these so great fauours 9. IN WHAT MANNER OVR SAVIOVR hauing made his Testament left his body to his Heires OTher fathers hauing disposed of their goods and signed their testament dye and leaue their bodies to be put in the earth where they rot and their soules goe to their places so as their heires haue no other better pawne of the presence and person of their father then their ashes and bones Our Sauiour hath obserued the substance of this Ceremony but after a different maner for he gaue his body to his Apostles in an impassible manner albeit mortall also then and from that time he left it to his Church clothed indeed with the first mortall robe made of the accidents of bread and wine but vnited with his Soule and his Diuinity now a liuing body immortall and glorious For his tombe also hee hath the bodies and soules of his heires a liuing tombe and ennobled with a reasonable soule which if it be well prepared with requisite qualities doth from his harbouring receiue a wonderfull reward for whereas other tombes reape from the bodies buried in them nothing but spoiles of death and horror and are by them defiled the bodies of Christians doe receiue life immortality sanctification and celestiall ioy from the body of our Sauiour whereby it appeareth that we ought to vse exceeding great diligence in well preparing our selues to lodge worthily in vs this pretious body The principall apparell is Loue and Chastity and then after these all the other vertues of the soule which accompany the former We reade that Artemissia Câ—â—â— Tuscal Herod Liu. 8. Plut. l. 36. c. 5. Vâ—â— lib. â— Queene of Carya after shee had consumed her treasures in a magnificall and admirable Sepulcher that shee had prepared for the dead body of the King her husband in the end made them to pound his bones and tooke them in a drinke for to be her selfe the liuing Sepulcher of his dead body whom shee