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
iudge it to be much amisse that I haue altogether omitted those Printed Tables being in truth no lesse defectiue then superfluous in respect of their excellent Descriptions which of the two are farre the better Pictures That which doth more conceme me is to excuse some faults of mine owne which haue escaped mee heere and there in the Printing of this notable Worke the Copie which was sent mee being very soule and hauing no body by mee that could correct mee All that I can doe at this present in satisfaction thereof is onely to make a particular confession or recantation of them which you shall finde in the latter end of this Booke set downe in such manner as thou mayest easily reforme them in thy reading for the number of the page and line where the error is being noted there will easily shew thee how to mend it And so desiring Almighty God to pardon also those secret faults of thine with the rest of mine which I feare are farre the greater I bid thee hartily farewell THE LICENCE FOR THE PRINT which goeth before the French Copie VVEE Doctors of Diuinity in Paris doe subscribe certifying that we haue read all this present Booke entituled Holy Pictures c. Composed by the Reuerend Father LEVVIS RICHOME of the Society of the name of Iesus and not hauing found any thing herein contrary to the Catholike Apostolike and Romane Faith nor to good manners but many excellent things excellently deduced and most learnedly explained with a singular transparantnesse touching the high mysteries of the holy Eucharist therefore wee haue iudged it most worthy to come to light as much for the reducing of wanderers as for the edifying and consolation of all true Catholikes Done at Sorborne this 17. of March 1601. Ph. De Gamaches I. Mulet HOLY PICTVRES OF THE MYSTICALL FIGVRES APpertaining to the most excellent Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Eucharist THE AVTHORS PREFACE OF PICTVRES IN GENERALL What a Picture is and how many kindes of Pictures there are THe Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Eucharist is a worke of God so high and so great that no tongue of man or of Angels can sufficiently speake or worthily discourse thereof wee haue said some thing in the foure bookes of the holy Masse confuting errour and confirming the Catholike Faith we addresse now this Treatise without mingling of Controuersies to the honor of this mysterie confirmation of our saith concerning the same and in fauour of those who haue not had the leasure to reade the former worke wee take for the subiect of our discourse the most notable Figures of this mystery drawn from the booke of God which for this occasion we haue intituled Sacred Pictures The inscription of this worke which setting before our eyes the holy Images and propheticall Figures of the mysterie that we adore Such as haue seene the truth in armour of proofe laying about her in the field of dispute will also take pleasure to see her sit heere triumphant in her roabes of peace those which haue not seene her in the field shall haue occasion to confirme themselues without noyse of warre and without contention in the beleefe of the Church of God For Prologue of all this worke The subiect of this 〈◊〉 we ought briefly to declare what a Picture is how we take it heere and of how many sorts there be Moreouer why God would that in the Law of Nature and of Moses there should bee set downe so liuely Figures of the mysteries appertaining to the Law of Grace By the first declaration we shall haue a generall knowledge of those Pictures which hereafter shall bee decyphered to vs more particularly By the second wee shall vnderstand that God hath most wisely vsed this fashion to teach vs his Law as well for the manifestation of his glorie as also for the profit of his children which are the two feete or Bases whereon our Figures or Pictures are erected First then we are to note Naturall Figures that a Picture or Figure if we take it naturally doth according to the name signifie nothing else but the exterior forme of some body So as the outward forme the lineaments and the proportion of the parts of a Plant of a Beast or a Man is a figure of each of these but a naturall figure Artificiall Figures of which we speake not heere this subiect appertaining to the Naturalists Wherefore according to our sense and meaning heere it is a thing made or framed to represent and signifie another thing and this is an artificiall Figure otherwise called a Picture of which we finde three sorts Dumbe Pictures The first is that which to our eyes representeth by lineaments and colours some things without words called for this cause by the Ancients Dumbe Pictures such are the Images as well of imbosted worke as of painted fables Numar the Cherub 〈◊〉 6.29 Such was the Serpent of Brasse cast in mettall by Moses the Cherubims the Palme-trees and the other Images portraited in the Temple of Salomon also the Pictures of the Seasons of the yeere of Vices of Vertues and other fained peeces represented by the Cheesell in caruing or by the Pensell vpon a plaine boord Of this sort also are the Visions framed in our Imagination for though these be in some sort spirituall yet notwithstanding in the likenes of corporal obiects so they are represented to the sight of our inward sense The second sort of Pictures serues for the eare Speaking Pictures and for that qualitie we may call them Speaking Pictures such are the descriptions or fictions which the Poets or Historians make in words of a Tree of a Riuer of a liuing Creature of a Tempest of a Vertue of a Vice or of other imaginarie things This sort containes also the declarations which are made to explane some artificial figures either present or fained as present Such are the discourses of Philostratus for in them there is neither colour nor painting but the bare word which faines the Images and Figures and deciphers the phantasies of the Author as hauing the Pictures before his eyes The third sort of figures are any things or actions instituted to represent other mysteries Allegoricall or mysticall Pictures And if the mysterie be ciuill or prophane the Figure is ciuill or prophane as was the Hierogliphes of the old Aegyptians consisting in certaine figures of beasts or of instruments put for to signifie some hidden thing as a Crocodile was the figure of a Traytor the Eagle the figure of the soule But if it be a mystery of Religion it is an holy figure So Manna was an holy Picture not in regard of colours or of words but of signification so Circumcision was an action signifying and figuring Baptisme This kinde of Figure is otherwise called an Allegorie that is to say a mysticall Picture containing in it selfe a spirituall sense knowne to spirituall people and hid to the rude This last sort makes the
Church of God for the attaining of life eternall 5. OF THE EXCELLENCIE OF THE HOly Sacrament of the Altar farre aboue the Tree of Life THe likenesse of the Tree of Life with our Sacrament makes vs to admire the wisdome and power of God who had both knowledge and power to exhibite so diuine a portraiture of this most excellent Sacrament but if we contemplate the difference and the excellencie of the one so farre aboue the other we shall more admire his vnmeasurable liberalitie towards vs. The difference is first in this that the Tree of Life was but an earthly body and corruptible brought foorth and nourished by the earth insensible after the manner of other created things quickned with the life of a plant hauing neither sense nor discourse Our Tree of Life is an immortall body celestiall and diuine engendered in the wombe of a Virgin by the worke of the holy Ghost quickned by an intellectuall soule carrying the Image and likenesse of God expressed therein with the most liuely and compleate draughts of perfection and beauty that euer humane soule enioyed so that if the working hand of the Creator shew it selfe admirable in the common Fabricke of mans body what tongue shall be able to tell what spirit to comprehend the beauty of the bodie of his Sonne Or so much as of that earth out of which he brought foorth and with which he nourished this body which was the holy body of the Virgin Mary O deified body of the Sonne O diâ—iâ—e body of the Mother O fruitfull Virgin aboue all mothers O chast Mother aboue all virgins hauing engendered such a Sonne O heauenly earth true earth of theliuing paterne of the Church Garden of God infinitely more noble then this first earthly Paradise Virgin diuinely and truely fruitfull which hast brought forth a Tree of so precious fruit surpassing in goodnesse and beauty al the fruits of the earth O the bountifull liberality of him that gaue it 6. THE BODY OF THE SAVIOVR NOVrishment of the soule and cause of the glorious resurrection of the body THe second difference betweene our Sacrament and the Tree of Life is that this Tree was onely for the body to make it immortall and to preserue it from death Our Tree of Life is also for the soule which it beautifieth nourisheth and maketh sat with celestiall and diuine vertues and besides it imparts much more to the body then did the other for it disposeth it not onely to immortality but also to a glorious resurrection and therefore it is without comparison more worthy to be called Tree of Liues then the other to be termed the Tree of Life for this giues three liues the life of grace to the soule the corporal life to the body to both the life of glory prerogatiues most diuine and alone proper to the body of the Son of God for although the heauens the starres and other naturall bodies furnish the soule with some spirituall nourishment seruing her for an obiect to contemplate their fiame and beauty and to feed and refresh her with the knowledge of their natures it is notwithstanding a farre off by imagination alone wheras this deified body marieth it selfe vnto her by a contracted knot of celestiall and diuine loue and being really present with her imprinteth in her his qualities of grace and glory which no other naturall body can do it being aboue their force and vertue and reserued to the onely body of the Master of Nature 7. THE SACRAMENT OF THE BODY of the Sonne of God Tree of all the earth FInally the first Tree of Life had for her onely and last dwelling the earth and that for a little time and in one parcell alone It may be it had been multiplied in many quarters if that man had perseuered constant in his first innocency But the second is in many places of the earth continuing alwayes one and abideth not for a little time but remaine in heauen for euer for on earth as contained in this Sacrament it feedeth the children of God during their peregrination in whatsoeuer coast of the world they be dispersed and to them it is and shall be the high obiect and eternall meate of felicitie in proper forme and cleare vision of glory when the soule implunged as it were in the profound contemplation and loue of his God shall enioy to the full the riches of his Diuinity and the body cloathed with immortality and honor shall see and admire with corporall eyes the wonderfull glory of that body by which it was redeemed 8. CERTAINE SPIRITVALL ASPIRATIons of the soule desiring the cleare vision of the body of our Sauiour and a giuing thankes for the same O Good Iesus when shall the Sunne of that day shine wherein we shall openly see this bright body of thy holy humanitie which yet we heere behold by faith hidden in the depth of this profound mystery when shall that season be in which we shall enioy with full libertie this Tree of selicitie alwayes youthfull greene flourishing and bearing fruit planted within the inclosure of the celestiall Paradise in the Land of the Liuing A Land in which the Orient-Sunne shineth perpetually causing an euerlasting Spring to abound with the Autumne fruites of immortalitie watred with delicate riuers of pure delights ennobled with all sorts of beauty inhabited with diuine spirits Habitation of honor felicity and peace euerlasting When O sweete Iesus shall we be in possession of this happinesse thou knowest when O Lord from whom nothing can be hid and thou alone hast the cleare knowledge hereof we haue nothing but faithfull hope and know no more thereof then that which the mouth of thy deare Spouse hath tould vs. This shall be when thou shalt please This shall be when the decree of thy wise mercie shall haue put an end to all our misery and the tearme of our mortall life shall giue beginning to that which knoweth neither death nor ending This shall be then when farre from all griefe we shall reioyce with the fulnesse of all goodnesse in thee and by thee eternally happie But in the meane while O Soueraigne Creator we haue an eternall oblation to thy infinite bountie that prepared for our first Father and vs the diuine benefite of that Tree which was to haue been a preseruatiue from death and a soueraigne electuary of immortality with a thousand other goods for the sustenance pleasure of the life of our body And if he receiued not the fruitfull vse of this Tree it was his owne most faultie ingratitude no lesse enormious then thy liberality was great towards him and the practise thereof so much the greater that thou wast not hindered from conferring so great a benefit vpon him although thou didst foresee that he would offend thee and so depriue himselfe by his owne crime of this comfort Much more ought we to thanke thee that thou hast giuen vs in the Law of Grace a Sacrament of Life infinitly better then
knowne to vs then bread and wine which as they are the two most noble and proper sustenances of mans life euen so the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the body of our Sauiour is the most diuine food and strength of our soules and bodies Bread and wine is very prositable and necessary in the beginning midst and end of repast and the Hebrewes vnder the word Bread comprehend all meat as being the chiefe and a companion of all other meates and the ancient Sages haue of old called wine the King of the banquet 〈◊〉 6.46 〈◊〉 25. 〈◊〉 4. Our Sauiour then hath instituted the Eucharist with these two Symboles or signes to teach vs by them that in the Law of Grace the Sacrifice and Sacrament of his body holds the first ranke amongst all the presents of meate that can be set vpon the table of his Altar for to honour his Maiestie and feede our soules withall 4. THE BREAD AND WINE SIGNES of the Passion of our Sauiour in his Sacrament THe second cause wherefore our Sauiour hath instituted the mystery of his body in these elements is to set before our eyes that which he hath endured for vs making himselfe bread and drinke vnto vs. The corne is cast into the earth to come vp in eares and to encrease it dyeth to come forth it endureth winde haile frost heate and cold in the field it is threshed in the barne-floore ground in the Mill wrought in the kneading and baked with fire in the Ouen The Grape carries the markes of the same torments for after it escapeth the iniuries of the ayre as the Corne doth it is troden and trampled vnder feete it is wrung in the Presse it endures to be shut vp in the Tunne and inclosed in the caue for to become good wine These actions and passions are the draughts that paint foorth to vs the trauailes which our Sauiour hath endured that hee might be to vs the celestiall bread and wine which hee giueth vs in the Sacrifice and Sacrament of his body 5. THE BREAD AND WINE IN THE Eucharist signes of the Mysticall body of our Sauiour THe third cause of this institution made in these elements is to represent the mysticall body of the Church of Iesus Christ for as the bread and wine is made of many cornes and wrought into one paste so the Church also is composed of many members vnited vnder one head therefore it is that the Greekes call this Sacrament Sinoxis that is to say collection S. Chrysost hom 24. in 1. Cor. 10. S. Aug. 26. in Ioan. and the Latines Communion as much to say as a common vnion For these reasons and likenesses our Sauiour hath instituted this mystery in bread and wine in such sort that the bare elements speaking without words doe teach vs these three godly lessons the charity of our Sauiour in nourishing vs with himselfe his patience in suffering for vs and our vnion with him Such was his diuine wisdome in this institution that it learneth also for Doctrine 6. THE BODY OF OVR SAVIOVR CALled Bread and his Blood Wine FOr the same cause aforesaid the Scripture calleth the body of our Sauiour Bread Ierem. 1. and his blood Wine Ieremie saith in the person of the Iewes Let vs cast wood vpon his bread that is to say Let vs put his body on the Crosse as the ancient Fathers haue interpreted it Againe Hee shall wash his stole in wine Gen. 49.11 and his garments in the bloud of the grape that is to say he shall shed his bloud in abundance figuring his bloud by the wine 1. Cor. 10.16 Saint Paul also calling the Sacrament bread and wine explaines it to be the body and bloud of our Sauiour 1. Cor. 11.27 Hee that shall eate saith he this bread and shall drinke this Chalice vnworthily he shall be guiltie of the body and bloud of our Lord. Ioan. 6 Our Sauiour himselfe calleth himselfe Bread and his bloud Drinke because he offered himselfe to his Father in Sacrifice and giueth himselfe to men in this Sacrament vnder the formes of bread and wine 7. WHAT THIS SACRAMENT IS THe Eucharist is a Sacrifice as was the Oblation of Abel and both a Sacrifice and Sacrament as was the Paschall Lambe and many other ancient mysteries for the body of our Sauiour as it is offered to God in the Masse is sacrificed and the self-same body as it is giuen for food to Christians is a Sacrament And heere-hence some sigures represent it onely as it is a Sacrament so did the Tree of Life others as a Sacrifice onely so did the Oblation of Abel others as both a Sacrifice and a Sacrament together and so did the Oblation of Melchisedech the Paschall Lambe and such like Well then a Sacrament is a signe and an instrument of a holy thing so Baptisme signifies the internall and holy washing of the soule and as an instrument effects it if he which receiueth it doe not hinder the same In like manner the Eucharist containes the body and bloud of our Lord inuisibly which feed the soule and is also a signe thereof by the outward materiall visible formes of bread and wine and in this respect is a perfect Sacrament 8. WHAT A SACRIFICE IS AND HOW it is offered in the Masse THe Sacrifice taken in his proper signification is an outward action of religion and soueraigne honour done to God in acknowledgement of his supreame Maiestie by a proper officer in offering some present and in making some change thereof In this manner the offerings of beastes and other bodies in the Law of Nature and of Moses were Sacrifices And in this sense the Eucharist also is a Sacrifice in the Law of Grace and that of so much more excellencie aboue the former as the bodie of the Sonne of God offered in it surpasseth all the other bodies which could be presented to the diuine Maiestie This Sacrifice is made as hereafter we shall shew more at large by the words of Consecration This is my body this is my blood by which Iesus Christ transubstantiates the bread and the wine into his body and bloud and by the same action hee offers it to his Father for his Church though he vse not any formall words of oblation as by saying I offer thee my body for it is enough that he make it present vpon the Altar with that intention for he did no more in offering the Sacrifice of the Crosse as neither did the ancient Sacrificers in their Sacrifices God vnderstands sufficiently the language of the heart The Church hauing this body from the liberality of God offers it with Iesus Christ and by it doth honor him with homage of diuine and soueraigne whorship shee also prayeth to him by the merits which were purchased in this body afterward taketh it for her food and refection And as in olde times God gaue beasts to the Iewes which the Iewes offered to him againe honouring him in them and
Catholike Church S. Ambrol l. 4. de Sacra cap. 6. S. Thom. in Prosa lauda Sâ—â— S. Ambros lib. 4. de Sacra cap. 9. S. Thom in Prosa lauda Sion as it appeareth by the Canon of the Masse where like mention is made of this Sacrifice and that of Abel and of Abraham which is also confirmed by the testimony of Saint Ambrose who hath recorded the same Prayer in his writings and by Saint Thomas of Aquine in his Prose Lauda Sion and will be easily perceiued by the reference of the one to the other as of the Figure to the Truth it selfe In this Oblation Abraham offered the Sacrifice which he had made that is to say his sonne whom he had begotten in the Eucharist the Sonne of God offers his bodie which he himselfe formed in the wombe of the Virgin and which he maketh present vpon the Altar by his omnipotent word Abraham the Sacrificer offereth the Victime and Isaak also a liuely and reasonable Victime offereth himselfe in the Eucharist Iesus Christ offers himselfe who is both Priest and Sacrifice Sacrificer and Victime and that both liuing and reasonable Isaak being offered endured nothing in the Sacrifice but onely the Ramme in his â—â—ome the body of the Sonne of God endures no hurt in the Eucharist perseuering alwayes whole but onely the substance of bread and wine which cease to be after the words of Consecration and the visible species and accidents thereof which are subiect to alteration Isaak was not to be offered in any place indifferently neither was that left to the choyse of Abraham but in a chosen place and appointed expresly by God himselfe who spake thus to Abraham Gen. 22.2 Thon shalt offer thy sonne vnto me for an Holocaust in one of the Mountaines that I shall shew thee Iesus Christ also is offered onely in the Mountaine of the Church the Mountaine of Sion where hee raigneth and he is offered in such a place and on such an Altar as his Church taught by the holy Chost Psal 2.6 appointeth Thus haue we seene some draughts of the Figure which signifieth our truth let vs now see some others 2. THE HEIGHT OF THE MYSTERY OF the Eucharist signified by the Mountaine and by Abraham and how we are to approach vnto it THere are yet some circumstances in the Figure which teach vs other qualities of our Sacrament and Sacrifice The Mountaine teacheth vs how high a mystery it is for it is a familiar marke in the holy Scripture to shew thereby some diuine thing which is eleuated aboue the basenesse of common iudgement Exod. 20. So Moses receiued the Maiestie of the Law and the secrets of God in the Mountaine And so the Prophet exhorting the Preacher to lead a holy and contemplatiue life saith vnto him ascend vp to the Mountaine Thou that Euangelizest to Sion Esay 40.9 that is to say eleuate thy soule aboue earthly things and ascend the Mountaine of contemplation the better to declare the high Mountaine of Gods greatnesse Matth. 17. So our Sauiour transfigured himselfe on the Mount Thnbor so both himselfe and his Church is called a Mountaine And high Dan. 2.35 and spirituall things are signified by this circumstance of high places on earth As then the Sacrifice of Abraham was high and eminent in corporall situation so the greatnesse of our mystery is aduanced in spirituall highnesse and eleuated farre aboue earthly sense or humane iudgement and truely set in the top of Mount Sion being the most supreame and the most admirable of all the other Sacraments in the Church of God And in the same signification the two seruants of Abraham which represent our humane reason and vnderstanding remaine at the foot of the Mountaine sorrowfull and sadde as incapable of this Mystery And so likewise the Asse by the which is meant our corporall sense yet more vnapt to ascend the Mount of this diuine Mystery It is onely Abraham and Isaak that is to say spirits illuminated with a firme and liuely faith that haue their wings so strong as are able to flye so high pitch and to contemplate the eminency greatnesse and maiestie of the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the body of the Sonne of God on the top of holy Sion But in mounting they must perseuer and walke on from home three dayes together carrying with them the Wood the Sword and the Fire to burne as Abraham and Isaak did before them These three dayes are the preparation of good workes which we ought to doe in the faith of the Trinity before we present our selues to the Altar and Table of this diuine Sacrifice The wood signifies to vs the matter of good purposes and holy desires wherewith we ought to kindle the fire vpon the holy Altar The Sword is the Word of God with which we ought to be armed for it is that which saith This is my body and can doe all that it saith If Nature make difficult to beleeue it if shee oppose against it sense or reason we ought to defend our selues with this diuine Word and fight manfully as Abraham did who beleeued that which Nature strongly disswaded and executed that which it abhorred The Fire of Abraham is the Charity wherewith our heart ought to burne heere more then in any other acte of Religion for this is a nuptiall feast a banâ—â—â— et of Loue addressed for the children of Abraham cloathed with the wedding garment and prepared only for you O faithfull soules Math. 22.12 which sigh holily and fight valiantly against the assaults of infidelitie and the counsell of the flesh Perseuer couragiously euen to the third day when God will lift you vp from this base earth to make you see his glory in the top of the high and celestiall Sion our true and assured dwelling THE FIFTH PICTVRE THE PASCHALL LAMBE The Description ALL is in darknesse now in Egypt Sap. 18 1â— and all things rest quietly in silence of a peaceable repose The Sunne whirling about vnder the earth is well-neare come to the Meridian Antipode and the night is now in the midst of his course in the Aegyptian Climate the Hebrewes haue taken some foure howres since their mysticall refection of the Paschall Lambe in euery Family according as they were appointed and shall continue so to doe euery yeere from henceforth vpon the same day and howre that is to say in the euening of the fourteenth day of the first month of their holy yeere beginning in March for their Ciuil yeere began in September The Ceremony is very strange Ioseph l. Antiâ— c. 4. Exod. 12.11 for hauing sprinkled the bloud of the beast on the thresholds and poastes of all their doores they haue eaten with vnleauened bread and wilde Lettice the Lambe roasted Exod. 12.8 disseuering the bones from his flesh without breaking any and made maruailous haste in eating euery one holding a staffe in his hand hauing their garments girt to their loynes
cont Trypho that the Lamb was so disposed of when they rosted it that it made the Figure of a Crosse The selfe-same Lambe in other ceremonies was one of the most rare Figures of the Eucharist as our Sauiour declareth in generall when after the eating of the Lambe he instituted incontinently the Sacrifice of his body For he ioyned not with any other intention these two ceremonies S. Cyprian serm de Can. Denun but to shew that he accomplished this Figure past in this present verity and that vpon a Picture of most noble and most illustrious antiquitie he made as it were a bed or table for the Sacrifice of the Law of Grace which will appeare if we obserue the very lineaments of the Iudaical shadow expressed in the light of our faith First the Law commandeth to offer the Lambe in the euening of the fourteenth day of the first Moone that is to say of the first month of the yeare as hath been said and afterwards to eate it for it could not be eaten without it were first immolated as Saint Gregory of Nisse noteth S. Greg. Niss Or. 1. de Resur In the next place the selfe-same Law saith that they ought to eate it euery one priuately in his owne family These circumstances as the others of which we will speake hereafter haue infallibly been accomplished in some Sacrifices of the new Law Matt. 5.17.18 for otherwise Iesus Christ should not haue fulfilled the old Law from point to point according as he promised and should haue giuen a Figure or shadow without exhibiting the truth and substance Now this accomplishment hath not been made in the Sacrifice of the Crosse for this Sacrifice fell not out in the fourteenth but in the fifteenth day of the Moone which was the Friday following neither in the euening of the day but at midday when our Sauiour mounting on the Crosse hung thereon three hourses after before he died neither was there then any mysticall refection for none did eate at that time neither was this Sacrifice made priuately in euery Family but publikely and in the sight of the world These Ceremonies then touch not the Crosse whereas all of them agree very well to the Eucharist For our Sauiour offered himselfe therein Matth. 26. Marc. 24. Luc. 22. the true Lambe at the going downe of the Sun on Thursday the fourteenth day of the Moone and gaue himselfe to be catenpresently after and this in priuate onely in the presence of his Family which were his twelue Apostles representing then his deare Spouse the Church to whom he left for his last farewell out of this mortall life his body as a pledge of his infinit loue and an immortall memory of the good that he was to doe to vs and for vs. This ancient Figure then of the Paschall Lambe according to the circumstances thereof hath beed accomplished in the Eucharist and not elsewhere 4. HOW IESVS CHRIST IS IMITATED in the Eucharist BVt if the Lambe was imitated and immolation importeth occasion how is it that our Sauiour hath accomplished the verity of the immolation in the institution of the Eucharist seeing that he was not slaine at that time How can it be that he should now be immolated seeing that he is immortall The Catholike Doctors answere to this question that if one take the word of immolation strictly and in rigour signifying reall occasion it was not properly done but on the Crosse and heere is no immolation of that nature for so much as the body of our Sauiour is now remoued infinitely from the gripes of death and from all hurt not onely on the Altar but wheresoeuer else he is Rom. 6. Iesus Christ saith the Scripture being risen dyeth no more death hath no more power ouer him The same Doctors notwithstanding following the Scripture teach all with one accord that hee is mmolated in the Eucharist howbeit they be different in the explication of this immolation some haue said that there is no other thing but the bare representation of the death of our Sauiour which is not sufficient because so it should be but a Picture of immolation not true immolation nor such as the Catholike Doctrine teacheth vs. Wherefore the exposition of others is better and more agreeable to the Scriptures and to the testimony of antiquitie who hold that this immolation consists in this that our Sauiour gaue himselfe as hee yet giues himselfe for meate and drinke vnder the forme of dead things which are the accidents of bread and wine taking in them a dead being to wit of things that wee eate which is a being that hath neither life nor feeling So that as hee became mortall by taking vpon him our mortal nature in the which he was immolated in his owne person on the Altar of the Crosse albeit his Diuinity remained still immortall Euen so taking heere an exteriour being of a thing dead and giuing himselfe vnder such a being he exhibits himselfe as dead and after this manner he is truely immolated in regard of the formes though he remaine still in himselfe altogether impassible And although the humanity alone of the Sonne of God endured the strokes of death yet notwithstanding we say that God is truely dead because the Humanity and the Diuinity made then but one to wit one person God and man 1. Cor. 2.8 Iesus Christ In like manner we say that the body of our Sauiour is truely immolated albeit nothing but the species earieth the marks of death not because the forms make not one person but one Sacrament with the body of our Sauiour and this body is truely immolated and truely broken by reason of the species of bread which endures this breaking and likewise his bloud is truely shed not as the bloud which is drawne from the veines but after the maner as the substance of wine might a little before haue bin powred out in his owne kind to which succeeded the substance of bloud immolated without occasion as the first Councell of Nice explaines it Concil 1. Nicen. Cap. 5. and shed without bloudy effusion and truely immolated according to the order of Melchisedech vnder the dead formes of bread and wine Concil Trident. Sess 22. cap. 1. as speakes the Councell of Trent immolated not in Figure as of old in the Hebrew Sacrifices where his body was not present and immolated not in him himselfe and in his proper forme as it was on the Crosse but as it is said vnder the formes of bread and wine vnder which his body is present and it is in this sense that the holy Scripture and the Doctors teach that our Sauiour is offered or immolated in the Eucharist as shall be euident by the testimonies following 5. THE IMMOLATION OF THE BODY of our Sauiour in the Masse confirmed by the testimonies of the Scripture and ancient Fathers SAint Paul saith 1. Cor. 5.7 Christ our Paschall Lambe hath been immolated wherefore let vs feast with
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
after a diuine manner Plin. lib. 11. c. 14 lib. 12. c. 4. Gal. l. 3. de aliment The naturall Philosophers haue well acknowledged a kinde of naturall Manna which is a certaine dew of honny which the labourers of Syria gather from the trees of the mount Lybanus whereof the Apothecaries make vse but this heere was far otherwise in his effects causes as hath bin said it was produced miraculously in the Desert and fel euery day but the Sabbath in Winter and in all times and it was a miracle that it fell not on the Sabbath It continued in this manner forty yeeres and no more and this was one of the miracles that this people saw there continually in the Desert this was then a celestiall food supernaturall and diuine This quality agrees very well to our Sacrament For first the body of our Sauiour was not begotten after a naturall manner Luke 1. but by vertue of the holy Ghost in the wombe of the Virgin which are two extraordinary causes Secondly this body is made present in the Altar vnder the formes of bread and wine by the ministery of Priests which are the Angels of God in the Church These are those which as instruments make this body in the Sacrament vsing to that end the omnipotent word of Iesus Christ THIS IS MY BODY and in this sense it is made by Angells and is the true bread of Angels Thirdly Manna was giuen for prouision in the Desert of Arabia euen vntill they entred into the Land of Promise the Sacrament is giuen vs in the Desert of this world vntill the Church militant shall enter victoriously and triumphantly into the Land of the liuing which is her heauenly countrey Fourthly Manna gathered in little or great quantity was neither more nor lesse for neuer a one had in the end more then the measure of a Gomer bee it that he had gathered more or lesse and this measure was equally sufficient to euery one nourishing a man growne and not ouer-charging the stomack of a yong childe A thing in truth most admirable that in a multitude of more then six hundred thousand of people and so great inequalitie of complexions and of stemackes the selfe-same quantity was equall and proportionable to the condition of euery one This also is more admirably seene in the Eucharist for it is not greater in a little Hoast then in a great one in a piece then in all and the body of our Sauiour is all in all the Hoast and all in euery part of it and is giuen equally to all vnder vnequall pieces how be it that in regard of the effect it profits more to those that are prepared Fiftly Manna serued both for meat and drinke for it baked into bread before the fire and ranne into water before the Sunne here-hence is that the Doctors said that the Iewes asking water murmured malitiously without cause Exod. 16. for so much as hauing Manna they had whereof to eate and drinke neither more nor losse then long time after them the fiue thousand which did cate in the Desert the bread and fishes multiplied had both meat and drinke by that miraculous food in Figure of our Eucharist Euen so the Eucharist it selfe giueth the body and the bloud of our Sauiour true bread and true drinke together though it be but vnder one kinde Sixtly Manna was couered and hidden betweene two dewes Glossa ex Rab. Salan Exod. 16. the body and bloud of our Sauiour is couered and hid from our sense and iudgement vnder the outward accidents of bread and wine Are not heere resemblances enough to make vs see the very face and Figure of our Sacraments And if God hath bin admirable figuring long since the patterne of the truth is he nor yet much more admirable in making perfect from point to point the truth it selfe according to the patterne and in laying so faire and so measurable a resemblance of the liuely colours of a new Mystery vpon the lineaments of the ancient Figure But let vs see yet some other draughts 3. WHAT SIGNIFIED THE LIKENES of Manna to Coriander PHILO a great Doctor writeth Philo. l. 2. Alleg. post med That the peeces of the graine of Coriander burst and cast in the earth grow as well as the whole graine euen as the grafts of a tree set or planted will liue and grow An admirable property of this graine and which is not found in any other seede that I haue read of not in Wheat which is a graine that hath the sprout most full of life The Scripture which puts not one tittle to paper without reason compares Manna to Coriander to the end no doubt wee should marke a wonder hidden in the Iudaicall shadowes to be discouered in the light of our faith the which wonder consists in this that one part alone of our Sacrament hath life as well as the the whole and that euery peece of an Hoast broken containes as much as the whole Hoast This wonder was signified as I said before in the quantity of Manna which was so equall in the prouision although it were gathered in vnequall measure Then the Scripture saying that Manna the olde Figure was like to the graine of Coriander gaue an outward Picture to the Iewes and signified to vs the inward life of our Manna in all his parts hauing the likenesse of Coriander albeit this be in one respect infinitely more perfect for none of the parts of Coriander is all the Coriander but all the parts of the Sacrament are all the Sacrament and all containe the body of our Lord and all are the whole yet if we respect the formes the parts of the Hoast are not the whole Hoast but only a part thereof 4. THE HOLY SACRAMENT KEPT IN the Tabernacle as Manna in the Arke VVEE haue heard how Moses commanded his brother Aaron to take of Manna to bee reserued within the Tabernacle for a memoriall of the benefits receiued from God which was put in execution so soone as the Arke was prepared Exod. 16.33 within the which Aaron put a golden pot full of Manna and the Arke and the pot in it was seated in the most holy place Heb. 9.4 as Saint Paul witnesseth writing to the Hebrewes So as Manna not onely serued for meat and all manner of sustenance but also for a memoriall The truth of these shadowes continue from age to age in the Church of God in which the body of our Sauiour as celestiall Manna is giuen for food and a viaticum and withall is kept and rescrued for a memoriall of benefits receiued from God For wheresoeuer the blessed Sacrament is found euery where it is a memoriall of the bountie of our Sauiour towards vs it is also kept and it shall be kept in Churches euen to the end of the world to be caried to the sicke and others who haue need of it and cannot come to the Church S. Iust. ep 2. S.
all now it makes present his body in a place where it was not a little before There it changed nothing into the creature heere it changeth one creature into another and in a certaine manner into the Creator himselfe so as the Priestes working in the Consecration by vertue of this omnipotent words are in this respect Creators of their Creator For changing the bread into the body of our Sauiour and making this body present they make also by necessary concomitance that his Soule and his Diuinity which neuer abandons the body be also present and by such operation they produce after a certaine manner the diuine Person and their Creator neither more nor lesse then the glorious Virgin brought forth Iesus Christ God and Man and is truely called the Creatrix and Mother of her Creator although shee bred neither the Soule nor the Diuinitie of him but onely the body conioyned to a reasonable Soule and hypostatically vnited to the Diuine Person which accompanieth it vnseparably Therefore the mystery of the Incarnation as also of Transubstantiation is greater and nobler then that of Creation For the effect of the Creation was a creature to wit the World but the effect of the Incarnation as also of Transubstantiation is the Creator by reason of this consequence and concomitance And if one should consider the body of our Sauiour alone the effect is alwayes more pretious seeing that this body surpasseth the price of a thousand worlds God then sheweth himselfe greater in this change then he did in the Creation And therefore after the Creation and before the Mystery of Transubstantiation when he would giue proofe of his power it was first by the change of one creature into another because such an operation did most properly testifie the soueraigne Master of Nature but therewithall to facilitate the faith of Transubstantiation which he was to make in the Law of Grace of bread and wine into the body and bloud of his Sonne So for the first proofe of his omnipotencie he changed the Rod of Moses into a Serpent and before Pharoe and the Aegyptians Exod. 3. 4. he conuerted the waters of Aegypt into bloud So likewise the first miracle by which Iesus Christ made man shewed himselfe God was by changing the water into wine the last remarkable miracle that he wrought in his mortall life Ioan. 2. was in changing the bread into his body the wine into his bloud which he continueth euery day and shall continue in witnesse of his omnipotencie so long as his Church shal walke in the Desert of this world as he continued the Figure of Manna in the Desert of Arabia during the peregrination of the Hebrewes in which Manna this admirable mutation was figured for as it is said in the booke of Wisdome Sap. 16.21 it was turned into that euery man would haue it 8. THIS CHANGE IS A MIRACLE FOR the Faithfull NOw this changing of substance into substance appeareth not to the bodily sense but to the eyes of faith onely and therefore it is made for the faithful which beleeue without seeing and not for vnfaithfull and carnal people S. Aug. in serm de Temp. 147. Whose rule is to vnderstand nothing except that which they touch saith Saint Augustine The mutations and changes that Moses made to fight against the infidelity of Pharoe and the Aegyptians and to giue manifest proof of Gods omnipotency strucke their senses with admiration as also the miracles of our Sauiour did and those of his Saints which were done to plant the faith The miracle that hee worketh in this change as also in the accidents is not for the planting of faith but for the exercise and encrease thereof he that requireth to see it with sense shewes that he hath no more faith then an Infidell and that he more beleeues his sense then the words of God which denounceth to him this change saying This is my body this is my bloud he shewes also that he vnderstands not reason for there are diuers natural changes which are made in secret without the senses perceiuing when they are made as when the water changeth it selfe into the juyce of wine in the Vine and into the juyoe of a Cherry in a Cherry-tree when the corne changeth it selfe into the substance of an eare and when an Egge is turned into a Chicken the shell remaining whole and without any exteriour mutation 9. OF THE SAME POWER OF GOD shewed in the accidents of bread and wine AS our Sauiour sheweth himselfe in this Sacrament Lord and Master of Nature by changing the substance as it hath been said so he maketh it appeare that he is omnipotent in the accidents of the same substance distributed into those nine Orders which wee haue set downe before First in generall because he giues to them all a manner of being supernaturall which is to support themselues without subiect an effect so farre aboue the power of common nature as it is for a man to hold himselfe in the ayre without stay And in particular he giueth force to the quantity of bread not onely to be without subiect but also to doe the office of substance and to serue for foundation to the quality to the sauour Gen. 21. and to other accidents and produceth with them a substance in giuing nourishment by them 2. Reg. Luke 1. Luke 1. And as by commanding the barrennesse of Sara of Anna and of Elizabeth and the Virginitie of his blessed Mother to conceiue and bring forth he made proofe of his omnipotencie Euen so he shewes himselfe heere omnipotent when he commandeth the barren accidents themselues and without all sappe of substance to bring forth and which is more to bring foorth an effect farre aboue their ranke to wit a substance which is a nature without comparison more noble then the accident and of whom the accidents altogether depend as simple officers and vassalls hauing nothing of their owne but what they haue from the power of substance These are then so many markes of an omnipotent Lord in this Mystery 10. THE SELFE-SAME POWER VERIFIED in the accidents of the body of our Sauiour and first in respect of the quantity THe diuine Power is yet more euident in the managing of the accidents of the body of our Sauiour 2 for it there holds his quantity all entire with his dimensions without possessing place all in all the Hoast and all in euery part how little soeuer it be which is to giue to his body that manner of being that naturally belongeth to a spirit thereby to shew himselfe God omnipotent So God is all through all and all in euery part of the world and our soule through all the body and all in euery part The body of our Sauiour is not euery where that being a prerogatiue reserued to the Diuinitie alone but it is in many places in one selfesame time and in all parts of the Hoast which is naturall to spirits and
a priuiledge giuen to this body vnited to the Diuinitie And since God giueth the power to Angells which are spirits to take a corporall being and to cloath themselues with some humaine or other visible forme and to possesse a place after the manner of a body it is not to be doubted but he can giue contrariwise to a body especially his deified body the prerogatiue to be in this Sacrament after the manner of a spirit without possessing any place and it repugnes no more to the nature of a body not to possesse a place then to the fier not to burne wherefore as the fier ceased not to bee fier within the furnace Van. 3. though it burnt not the Hebrew children so the body of our Lord ceaseth not at all to remaine a body in this Sacrament though it occupie no place and if God hath made that the virginity remained entire with the conception and bringing forth of a childe an effect most repugnant to virginity wherefore shall it be hard to him to make that a body remaine a body without possessing place seeing that virginity and facundity are more disagreeing from accord then to be a body and not to occupie any place The Scripture makes to vs easie the faith of this miracle teaching that our Sauiour went forth of the Sepulcher it being shut and that he entred into the chamber of the Apostles the doores being shut his body then possessed no place at that time or two bodies were in one selfesame place with penetration of dimensions which is an effect as difficult and hard to Nature and onely depending of the omnipotencie of God 11. THE MARVAILOVS POWER OF GOD about the qualities of the body of our Sauiour in the blessed Sacrament THe brightnesse colour 3 and such like qualities of the body of our Sauiour are also heere by prerogatiue of his omnipoteucie inuisible to the eye and vnknowne to all the other senses The eye seeth well a whitenesse the tongue tasteth a rellish the hand toucheth a quantity but these are the qualities of bread and wine and not of the body of our Sauiour which our mouth taketh without any feeling of the proper qualities of it When he conuersed with men the Diuinity appeared not but by the body of his Humanitie heere the body is hidden not appearing but by the accidents of bread and wine hee hath his body inuisible vnder the visible accidents disposing his body at his pleasure So he made it inuisible by miracle before his resurrection so he walked without heauinesse vpon the waues so after his resurrection hee hid the splendor of his body and vanished from the sight of his Apostles so he mounted vp to heauen not hindered by any heauinesse of his body 12. THE WONDERFVLL RELATIONS OF the body of our Sauiour in the same Sacrament VVHen a body is in a naturall place 4 euery member hath diuers relations to the diuers parts of the place The head to one the feete to another the hands to a third and so of the rest For there it is extended but heere the parts of our Sauiours body haue euery of them relation not to the parts of place but to one or other The head is not where the rest of the members are and all is heere distinct and apart and yet all notwithstanding in a little Hoast and sometimes in so little a quantitie of the Sacrament that it seemes to be impossible that all should not be in confusion And indeed it is impossible to Nature to make such an experiment or but to comprehend it much lesse yet to explaine it It is thy Power O Iesus omnipotent and soueraigne Master of Nature thy knowledge and thy word can doe it There is yet another diuine relation of this Sacrament figured in Manna For as Manna gathered in vnequall quantity was alwayes found in equall measure euen so here a little Hoast applied and compared to a great one is found equall for that in both the body of our Sauiour is as great in the one as in the other and which is more admirable it is one and the same body So as the equalitie is not onely by reason of equall taking but of the selfe-same thing in number to wit the body of our Sauiour all whole receiued of euery one We also admire Exod. 13.21 as a meruailous relation in another kinde that the Cloud the Pillar and the fiery Tongues representing the holy Ghost Ioan. 3.22 Act. 2.3 were all one thing Let vs admire that the visible formes distinct in themselues referred to the body of our Sauiour make one Sacrament Let vs admire that according to diuers relations Eue was a sprout of Adam and in a manner as his daughter being extracted from his body and notwithstanding in another respect his wife and that our Sauiour was Sonne of the Virgin by reason of his Humanity and Father of the selfe-same Virgin in regard of his Diuinitie If we admire these things certainly vnderstanding the relations which are in this Sacrament of a great body to one so little of the members one to another in so little a space and of them all to the visible accidents we haue whereat to wonder and in our wonder to magnifie the power of almighty God 13. ADMIRABLE ACTIONS OF THE body of our Sauiour THe actions of the body of our Sauiour 5 is heere diuinely admirable for it nourisheth without being disgested it nourisheth not as corruptible meats for a little space of time but for euer to immortality For it soweth in the body the seed by which it shall be one day inabled merise gloriously and the presence of this body giues vertue of nourishing to the accidents which they cannot do naturally without substance This deified body mounts yet more high for it nourisheth the Spirit and workes in the Spirit a prerogatiue denied to all other bodies so that as it is heere present after the maner of a Spirit it hath the operation of a Spirit and penetrates the Soule by his action beautifieth it illuminateth it makes it chast and ingraues in it other spirituall ornaments If the tree of Life renewing the body and Manna changing the taste were admirable in their actions how much more the body of our Sauiour in respect of the action it hath in this Sacrament For they worked not but vpon the body but this body worketh vpon body and soule and that not onely to immortality but also to eternall felicitie as we haue said 14. THE BODY OF OVR SAVIOVR impassible THe body of our Sauiour in this Sacrament endures not any hurt although it may be iniured by vngodly soules that take it vnworthily or by the wickednesse of Infidels which doe iniury the outward signes where with it is cloathed as the King with his Royall roabe The impassibility of Manna resisting the fier Sap. 16.17 and the not cortupting thereof on the Sabbath which putrified on other dayes Exod. 3.3 the impassibility of
eate for he is extreame hungry Achimelech ignorant of the cause and wondering to see him so vnprouided with so little a traine being one of the greatest Captaines and Princes of the King speakes as if he were astonished and tells him that he hath nothing but the Breads of Preposition dedicated to the onely vse of Priests notwithstanding he and his people in such necessity might eate of them so that they were cleane and not defiled especially with womer Dauid answereth if there be no hinderance but that wee are cleane for we haue not had the company of our wiues these many dayes And so he went and tooke his refection and will carry away with him the sword of Golias which before hee had dedicated and left in the House of God where it hung wrapped in an holy linnen cloath He will serue himselfe of it in the warres of God and cut in pieces with it the enemies of his name 1. THE BODY OF OVR SAVIOVR CONceiued of a Virgin by the operation of the holy Ghost signified by the Loaues of Proposition kneaded of the purest flower without leauen THese Loaues and these Offerings did long since Figure footth our Eucharist which we haue declared to haue been the true Bread But none sauing those S. Cyril Hieros Catech. mist 4. S. Hier. in lib. 1. in cap. 1. epist ad Tim. that were spirituall men amongst the Iewes could penetrate the secret of this hidden mystery now it is easie for all Christians to see it the shell being broken that the kernell may appeare and the curtaine of the Figure drawne that the truth may be seene we need but cast our eyes vpon the ancient Lineaments to know the present truth The most pure flower and without leauen whereof the Loaues were kneaded signifieth the body of Iesus Christ conceiued by the operation of the holy Ghost of the most pure substance of the Virgin without leauen that is to say without originall sinne or any corruption For leauen in the Scripture oftentimes signifieth malice and infection and in that sense our Sauiour said to his Apostles Take heed of the leauen of the Pharisies which is hypocrisie Matth. 16.6.11 Marc. 8 1â— Luke 12.1 Marke 8.15.1 Cor. 5.6 And in another place Beware of the leauen of HEROD The like sayings he hath elsewhere After the same manner spake S. Paul saying Let vs feast not in the old leauen nor in leauen of Malice and wickednesse but in the aâ—inâ—es of sincerity and verity The ground of the similitude is in this that as leauen altereth and maketh sowre the paste so sinne changeth puffeth and corrupteth the beautie and goodnesse of the soule The Breads then without leauen are a Figure of our Sauiours body conceiued without infection of sinne They were called Loaues of faces or of two faces and therein lay two Mysteries as the ancient Hebrewes haue prophetically written Rabbi Ionathas in cap 25. Exod. Caâ— 10. c. 6. and namely Rabbi Ionathas who liued long time before the comming of our Sauiour The Mysteries are that in the future Sacrifice of the body of the Messias there should be a Change of one Substance into another as of one Face into another and also that two Natures and two Faces the Diuine and the Humane should be vnited in the Person of the Messias offered and sacrificed vnder the forme and face of bread and in the substance of Flesh And therefore the holy Loaues of the Table of our Sauiour are truely Loaues of two Faces and of two Natures containing the foresaid mysteries in truth as these heere did containe then in name and Figure They were offered euery day for the Children of Israel by the sacrifycing Priests of the Iewes as the body of our Lord in the Masse by Christian Priests for all Christians The Iewish Priests onely did make them and Christian Priests onely make the Sacrament and Sacrifice of this body for to them only is giuen this power and to no other seruants in the House of God be they men or Angels 2. HOW THE BODY OF OVR SAVIOVR is offered euery day and renewed euerie weeke THis body is offered euery day in the Masse and reserued as were the Loaues of Proposition for the children of God in memory of the death of our Sauiour and in thankesgiuing for all his benefits bestowed vpon vs for the sustenance of soule and body This is our true weekly and daily bread saith Saint Cyprian Matth. 6.9 Luke 11.3 S. Cyprian l. de or domin S. Ambros l. 5. de Sacra c. 4. S. August l. 2. de Serm. Dom. in Monte cap. 12. and the other Doctors of the Church which he himselfe hath taught vs to aske of him It is renewed once a weeke for although it bee offered euery day it is principally offred vpon the Sunday of rest to Christians substituted in the place of the Iewes Sabbath in which men are gathered together in the Church to renew the offering of that bodie with feruent and fresh deuotion in the presence of all faithfull soules This is alwayes one selfesame body immortall and glorious but it is renewed and multiplied because it is found in many new formes of bread and wine 3. THE BEGINNING AND END OF THE Communion is Charity Prayer and Contemplation THe Loanes of Proposition were placed vpon the gilded Table and vpon the vpper-most of them was sett a Violl of gold full of the purest Incense Which ceremonie teacheth vs that the body of our Lord requireth a soule cloathed with Charity which is the gold of the Temple of God to rest in and that the end of the Communion of his body ought to be inward prayer and contemplation signified also by the Violl of gold and by the Incense set aboue the Loaues For the Violl and Incense in holy Scripture doth signifie the prayers of Saints Psal 140.2 Apoc. 5.8 and gold the most pretious mettle of all other signifieth loue and heauenly charity the most noble affection of the soule wherewith the celestiall Ierusalem is enriched and of it all Christian workes ought to bee composed or at least gilded therewith but especially the communion of this Sacrament which is the Sacrament of loue and charity 4. THE BODY OF OVR SAVIOVR SIGnified by the Table vpon which were set the Loaues of Proposition THe Table made of the wood Setim incorruptible Guilded with fine gould crowned with a double crowne and framed with a wonderfull arte euen to the feete of the tressels signified the same body of our Sauiour conceiued as hath been said of the substance of the Vigin cleare from all corruption and endued with all sorts of perfectian that may be in a humane body after the likenesse of this Table excellent in matter and admirable in forme Iesus Christ then celestiall bread reposeth on Iesus Christ as the Bread of Proposition stood vpon this Table and as he himselfe is offered by himselfe as the ancient Loaues by the Priest Achimelech So as he
vs the truth of our Eucharist but principally three The first the Leauen the second the Time the third the Sacrifices foregoing this Oblation It hath been said that these Loaues were made of Leauen-paste and were eleuated in Oblation by the High Priest with the Lambes Leuit. 23.20 Then saith the Scripture the Sacrificers shall-eleuate the Lambes with the Loaues of the First-fruits turning them before the Lord. In such sort as the Loaues were put aboue the Lambes and all was eleuated together This is a diuine draught of Gods Pensell in the Table of the Figure teaching vs not only the presence of the body of his Sonne true Lambe without blot in the Sacrifice of the Masse but also the manner of his being there which is by transubstantiation that is to say by changing of the substance of bread into the substance of the body of our Sauiour hiddeÌ„ vnder the formes of bread The Leauen heretofore hath been a signe vnto vs of some bad thing but heere by a contrary quality it is a signe of that which is good as often in Scripture one selfesame thing hath sundry and contrary significations by reason of contrary references and respects So the Lion Gen. 49 9. Apoc. 5.5 1. Pet. 5.8 if we consider him as a Royall and strong beast is a signe of God as he is cruell and fierce a signe of the Diuell For which cause our Sauiour himselfe expresseth Vice by Leauen in one place Matth. 16.6 Luke 13.21 and in another he compares his Church to Leauen The Leauen then in the Loaues of the First-fruits figureth to vs the transubstantiation which is made in our Eucharist as already often hath been said and must bee said hereafter behold the picture The Leauen by a naturall property changeth the paste heates it puffes it vp and giues it in a certaine manner soule and life so farre forth as it is capable thereof The word of God supernaturall Leauen changeth also the bread and because it is of more force then nature it passeth also further for it chaÌ„geth not the qualities as the natural leaueÌ„ in the paste but the substaÌ„ce it leaues the visible qualities chaÌ„geth the bread within it animateth truly this bread makes it liuing bread changing the substance of it into the flesh of the Lambe of God Iesus Christ signified by the Lambes offred with the Loaues in this Sacrifice The Loaues the Lambes eleuated by the High Priest were diuers things and did make one onely oblation heere where the truth is liuely accomplished diuers elements also make one self-same Oblation for the Lambe is vnder the formes of bread and wine and when those elements are multiplied and offered in diuers places it is alwayes one selfesame Lambe and one selfesame Sacrifice So as this draught drawne in the old Figure tells vs that the Sacrifice figured by the bread of First-fruits should be one Sacrifice of flesh vnder the shewes of bread and wine to which draught our Sauiour gaue liuely colours when he instituted the Sacrament of his body vnder these elements Neither is it without mystery that the Loaues and the Lambs were of two diuers natures for they signified two natures in one Iesus Christ the Diuinity and the Humanity two things in one Sacrament the earthly which are the visible accidents and the heauenly which is the body of the Sonne of God and his Grace Finally they signified two peoples the Gentiles and Iewes vnited vnder one Head reduced into one and made one by meanes of this Sacrament and Sacrifice And so his diuine Wisdome not only teacheth vs by this figuratiue Lineament the presence of his Flesh in the Eucharist but also the quality of his Person and after what manner he makes vs his flesh and vniteth vs therein Let vs see what the Scripture and the ancient Hebrew and Christian Doctors say hereof enriching the Figure with the embroderies of their learned Expositions 6. THE SACRAMENT AND SACRIFICE of the body of our Sauiour vnder the formes of bread foretold in the Scripture and taught by the Hebrew Doctors DAVID by these eleuated Loaues foretold our Sacrament and Sacrifice Psal 71.72 There shall be saith hee a firmament in the earth in the tops of wountaines the fruit thereof shall be extolled farre aboue Libanus Or according to the Hebrew phrase There shall be a little wheat in the earth vpon the top of the mountaines and the fruit thereof shall be lifted aboue Lybanus These words cannot signifie other wheate or any other thing more liuely then our consecrated Hosts containing the body of our Sauiour true wheat on earth true bread and solid stabilitie of our soules and bodies fruit truely lifted vp not onely vpon the toppe of Libanus but aboue the highest of the celestiall powers Wherefore the Hebrew Doctors conformably hereunto Rab. Salomon in Psal 72.16 vol say that Dauid heere did sing of a certaine kinde of little Cakes or thinne delitious wafers that should bee offered in Sacrifice in the time of the Messias Psal 71.16 Our Masters saith he of happy memory vnderstood by this word a certaine kind of Cakes which shall be made in the time of the Messias of the which also all the Psalme is written And all their Hebrew Commentaries extoll extoll euen to heauen the eating and mystery of this Bread and of these Cakes which say they shall be of the bignesse of the palme of a mans hand And one amongst them Rab. Derachias â—â—â—eans illad â— Eccles quid est quod fuit id quod crit Eccles 9. named Barachias explaining these words of Ecclesiastices What is that which was the same that shall be addeth further As their first deliuerer to wit Moyses had giuen them bread of wonder which was Manna so the second Redeemer the Messias should giue them a more wonderfull bread to wit these Cakes And hereunto the same Redeemer alludeth Ioan. 6. saying It is not Moyses which gaue you the bread from heauen vnderstanding his body as it hath been declared in the Figure of Manna Rab. Ionathas in suo â—aigum Gal. l. 10. c. 4. Psal 71.17 And the Rabbins Paraphrastically interpret in the same sense the words of the Psalme before alledged There shall bee saith one of them a parcell of bread in the earth on the top of the mountaines that is to say saith hee there shall bee a Sacrifice of bread on the head of the mountaines of the Church or on the head of the Priests which shall bee in the Church For the Mountaines of the Church are the Prelats and Priests of it if they be such as are worthy of that name for so much as they are lifted vp aboue the vulgar as spirituall Mountaines aboue the earth by holinesse in manners and sublimity of Doctrine This Figure then is euery day literally fulfilled in the Church when the Priests say Masse eleuating the holy Hoast aboue their head and when the faithfull Christians eate
these diuine and delitious Cakes at the mysticall Table of our Sauiour The ancient Iewes could not write more clearly of the Figure of our Truth amongst the shadowes of their Law and he that seeth not this Truth brightly shining in the Sacrifice of the Law of Grace is blinde at noone-day and worse then a Iew. 7. THE TESTIMONIES OF HEBREW Doctors for Transubstantiation and the manner how the body of our Sauiour is present in the Eucharist THe manner how the body of our Lord is really present in the Eucharist hath been no lesse plainely set downe in the writings of the Hebrewes then is the Reall presence it selfe This Manner hath two respects the one to the beginning of the Presence and teacheth how the body of our Lord is first made present in the Sacrament of the Altar the other to the maner of this Presence and declares how he remaines there present Of both wee haue spoken in the Figure of Manna discoursing there of the Almighty power of our Sauiour Heere we shall onely alledge the testimonies of Hebrew and Christian Doctors to declare this Presence more fully and to shew the soundnesse of the Catholike faith concerning Transubstantiation And as for the first Conâ— Trident. sess 19. c. 4. can 2. the Catholike Faith and doctrine holds that the body of our Sauiour is made present vpon the Altar by Transubstantiation that is to say not by descent from heauen to earth neither by new production but by changing the substance of bread into the substance of the body of our Sauiour borne of the Virgin The same faith and doctrine saith that it remaines there with a diuine Presence spirituall and supernaturall in its quantity without possessing any place and in its Maiesty without any shew thereof being there immortall and glorious but inuisible to sense and incomprehensible to reason and humane iudgement as hath been said elsewhere And this in summe is that which the Doctors as well Iewes as Christians haue written The Hebrewes as we haue said before in the Table of Proposition Loaues haue taught that these Loaues were called Breads of faces because they did Figure forth a Sacrifice in the which there should be bread in the beginning and flesh in the end for the substance of bread was there to be changed into the substance of the body of the Messias the outward accidents remaining whole and that it should be a Sacrifice of two faces one outward of bread which the sense might see and the other inward of the substance of flesh which Faith only could perceiue And to this may haue reference that the Hebrew word Lehen bread and flesh Rab. Kimhi 1. Serasâ—im Gal. 10. 7. 1. Cor. 11.27 Lehen set in this place hath a double signification for sometimes it signifieth bread sometimes flesh So as where our Translation hath He offered him the breads of Proposition other translations haue He offered the flesh of thy God And Saint Paul long time after vsing the same manner of speech what he calls Bread he also names the body of our Sauiour The same Hebrew Doctors Osee 14.8 explaining the words of Osee They shall be conuerted that sit vnder his shadow they shall liue with Wheate Our Masters say they writ vpon these words that at the comming of the Redeemer there shal be change of nature in Wheat And Rabby Moyses vpon the words of the Psalme Rab. Moyses Hadarsania Psal 135. Gal. l. 10. c. 6. Rab. Iudas in Exod. cap. 25. Gal. l. 10. c. 6. Who giueth food to all flesh a for saith he the bread which bee will giue is his flesh and this shall be a great wonder The Oblation then is bread in the beginning but after the words of Consecration it is flesh the substance of bread being turned into the substance of the body of our Sauiour by the vertue of his Omnipotent word the which being able to make all the world of nothing can change one substance into another This changing is called Transubstantiation in the Catholike Church a word brought into vse fiue hundred yeares agoe Rab. Kimbi Gal. l. 10. c. 4. to stoppe the mouthes of the Heretickes which rose vp against the true Faith the thing it selfe being as ancient as the Eucharist for in the same instant that the Sacrament was instituted by our Sauiour Transubstantiation was in vse though the name was not to be borne vntill long time after As for the Manner according to which the Messias body was to remaine in the Sacrament after it is made present by Transubstantiation the same Hebrew Doctors haue tolde that it was to bee there inuisible and impalpable and in many places together which they beleeued also of the body of the Prophet Elias being in many places at the same time without being seene or touched as the Rabbins testifie in these their Expositions 8. THE TESTIMONIES OF THE CHRIstian Doctors concerning Transubstantiation and the manner how our Sauiours body is in the Eucharist THe Christians haue been so much more resolute and cleare in setting downe the Faith and Doctrine of Transubstantiation and the manner of the presence of our Sauiours body in this Sacrament by how much they haue had better Masters then the ancient Hebrews Their Masters were our Sauiour himselfe the Sonne of Truth the Reuealer of heauenly secrets and his Apostles filled with the new light of the Holy Ghost whereas the Hebrewes had none but Moyses and the Prophets which taught by shadowes and Figures Behold then what they haue said of this admirable change which wee call Transubstantiation and of the manner how the body of our Sauiour remaines in the Sacrament Saint IVSTINE Wee are taught S. Iustin Apol. 2. that the meate the bread and wine wherwith our flesh and bloud are nourished by change thereof into our substance being Consecrated by the prayer and word of God is the flesh and bloud of Iesus Christ incarnate that is to say the substance of bread and wine is changed into the body and bloud of our Sauiour Saint IRENEVS S. â—râ—â— l. 4. c. 3â— disputing against the Heretikes which denied that Christ was Omnipotent Hâ—w saith hee will they beleâ—ue that the consecrated bread is the body of Iesus Christ As if he should say if they beleeue not that he is Omnipotent they cannot beleeue that in the Eucharist the bread is changed into his body by his Word seeing there can be made no such change by any other word but his who can doe all by his Word as hee made the world by his Word Saint CYRIL of Hierusalem S. cyril â—ierosol â—â—tech misâ—ag 4. Hee long since in Cana turned water into wine the which hath some resemblance to bloud shall we esteeme him lesse worthy to be beleeued saying that he hath changed the wine into his bloud Saint CHRYSOSTOME S. Chrysost hom 6. ad Pap. Anâ—ioch Because the Word saith This is my body let vs obey and beleeue beholding it with
the eyes of our faith As if he would haue said these words This is my body are words of the Omnipotent and effect that which they signifie we ought then to obey and beleeue that Idem hom 23. in Maâ—â—h which they say The same Doctor vpon the same subiect of Transubstantiation The things that we propose you are not workes of humane vertue it is God that sanctifieth them and changeth them we are but the instruments Saint GREGORY NISSE S. Greg. Niss in orat mag catech c. â—7 Iâ—â—â—n de S. â—apâ—â—sme We beleeue that the bread duely sanctified by the word of the Word of God is changed into the body of the Word of God And againe The bread of the Aliar in the beginning is common but after that it is sacrificed in the Masse it is called the body of Christ and it is so indeed Saint IOHN DAMASCEN S. Ioh. Damas l. 4. de Fide c. 14. The bread and the wine mingled with water is supernaturally changed into the body of Christ by the inuocation and comming of the holy Ghost and they are not two but one selfesame thing THEOPHILACT Theoph. i◠〈◊〉 This bread is transformed into the flesh of our Lord by the mysticall blessing of secret words and by the comming of the holy Ghost Behold you haue heard some Greeke Fathers with the same spirit and like stile speake also the Latine Fathers TERTVLLIAN Our Sauiour tooke the bread Tertvl l. 4. cont Mar. c. 40. and made it his body saying This is my body Saint CYPRIAN This bread S. Cyp. de Câ—n. Dom. which our Lord presented to his Disciples was made flesh by the all powerfulnesse of his Word changed not in apparance but in substance As if hee would haue said the outward formes of the clements the quantity colour and sauour remaine but the inward substance is changed into the substance of the body and bloud of our Sauiour Saint AMBROSE This bread S. Amb. l. 4. de Sacer c. 4. before the words of the Sacrament is bread but after Consecration the bread is made flesh and hauing shewed that this consecration and changing is made by the word of God he confirmes his conclusion saying If the word of Christ hath been so powerfull as to giue a being to that which was not how much more is it credible that it can make the things which were before to be now changed into another But heare Dauid saying He hath spoken and the things were done he hath commanded and they were created I answere thee then Thas before consecration the bread was not the body of Christ but after the same it is the body of Christ hee said it and hee bath effected it Saint AVGVSTINE almost in the same tearmes S. Avg. serm 2â— de Verb. Dom. I haue told you that before the words of Christ the bread is called bread but after they are pronounced it is no more called bread but the body of Christ Saint RHEMIGIVS of Rhemes The flesh S. Remig. in◠〈◊〉 ep 2. Cor. which the word of God the Father hath taken in the Virginall wombe and vnited vnto his Person and the bread which is consecrated vpon the Altar is one bodiy of Christ For euen as that flesh is the body of Christ so this bread is changed into the body of Christ and are not two but one body Hee meant that Transubstantiation produceth not a new body of Iesus Christ but that it makes the same body which he tooke in the wombe of the Virgin present in this Sacrament after consecration nothing remaining of those elements but the accidents PASCHASIVS Paschasius Corbiensâ—â— l. de Corp. sang 〈◊〉 c. 1. Though the forme of bread and wine be found in this Sacrament we ought to beleeue notwithstanding that after the consecration there is no other thing but the flesh and bloud of Christ From all these testimonies we collect the explication of two points which doe concerne the manner of our Sauiours being in the Sacrament of the Altar For first we vnderstand hereby that the body of our Sauiour is made present in the Sacrament by Transubstantiation that is to say by change of substance the substance of bread giuing place to the substance of his body which succeeds by vertue of his Omnipotent word And because the Soule and the Diuinity neuer leaue this body whole Iesus Christ is in the Sacrament his body by vertue of his Word his Soule and his Diuinity as necessarily following and accompanying the same Secondly we learne that so long as the species be there vncorrupted the same body remaines vnder them with its quantity beauty immortality and glory but supernaturally and in a spirituall and diuine manner without being perceiued vnlesse by the eyes of faith as we haue before declared so far forth as a thing ineffable can be declared By meanes whereof the Fathers often aduertise vs not to consult heere with the Lawes of Nature nor to regard what sense and humane iudgement tells vs but simply to beleeue the word of him who can doe all and cannot lye 9. WHERFORE OVR SAVIOVR WOVLD haue his body hid and not visible in the Sacrament HEere it shall be good to note wherefore our Sauiour gaue his body veiled vnder the shewes of bread and wine not visible in proper forme For hereby we shal come to know that he was nolesse wise then he is good not onely giuing vs an inestimable gift but also giuing it after the manner he did The principall reasons noted by the Fathers are these The first is taken from the nature of the Sacrament for since that euery Sacrament is a visible signe of an inuisible thing it followeth that he giuing his body in this Sacrament was to couer it vnder some visible signes as the accidents are the colour the whitenesse the sauour and such like things which obiected to our sense might put our soule in minde of some secret thing whereas if he had giuen it openly it had not been a Sacrament full of mystery but a simple gift of his body The second reason giuen by S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Cyril ep ad Coâ—osirium S. Amb. l. 4. d. sacr c. 6. l. 6. c. 1 S. August apuâ—â— grat de cons d. 2. verum See S. Iohn Damas l. 4. c. 14. de fid S. Tho. p. 3. q. 75. c. 5. c. and Saint Cyril is this to wit because this sweet manner is most conuenient and principally to our infirmity most naturall and easie for we take this diuine morsell vnder the forme of common bread familiar to our taste to wit vnder the accidents of bread and wine Whereas if wee should haue eaten them with the feeling of the naturall qualities thereof it had been an eating that could not haue been endured for two reasons For first it could not bee done but sense would naturally conceiue horrour to swallow downe humane flesh in proper forme especially being raw
Secondly we could not haue endured the brightnesse of so ghstering a body nor the presence of so glorious a Maiestie if he had snâ—wed himselfe in it Saint Paul was become blinde for hauing seene the brightnesse of this body 〈…〉 Coâ— 3.23 and if it behooued Morses speaking to the Hebrewes to veile his shining face which they could not otherwise haue beheld how much more sit was it that Iesus Christ should veyle his body without comparison more resplendent then the face of Moses to come neare vnto vs and to be eaten of vs A third reason may be added that this inuisibility giues vs a singular meane to exercise our faith and to marit happinesse in beleeuing and not seeing according to the Maxime of our Sauiour Ioh. 20.29 who called them happy which beleeued without seeing that is to say which did giue faith and credit to the Word of God although sense and humane reason penetrate not the thing beleeued nay rather finde in it a repugnance to their Lawes as it comes to passe heere where we beleeue the body of our Sauiour to be though sense seeth onely the outward accidents of bread and wine vnder which it is present and humane iudgement cannot comprehend the possibility of this presence But if the body of our Sauiour by this conuersion were made visible and the accidents of bread changed as it was done in the miracle at the mariage in Cana in which the water â—â—ax 2â— with the qualities was changed into the substance and qualities of wine there should be no exercise of faith it not being an obiect of faith or hidden secret but an effect Hebr. 11. not onely euident to reason but also to sense There should also haue been no merit For looke where eyther sense or reason giues any proofe faith hath no reward saith one of our Doctors S. Greg. bow 26. Ioan. 2. In the Miracle of Cana and in other such like there is not any need of faith but of good sense for to make triall as the Master of the banquet did who witnessed that the wine was excellent hauing had no more but a taste thereof for he could not haue faith not knowing any thing then of that which our Sauiour had done howsoeuer hee saw the effect And that which the Apostles did beleeue therein was not the conuersion of water into wine for that they saw with their owne eyes and vision is not faith but the Diuinity of the Soane of God secret worker of that apparent miracle and the merit also of their faith was not in seeing the conuersion of the water into the wine but in beleeuing with the eyes of faith the Diuinity of Iesus Christ which they did not see with their corporall eyes A soâ—rth reason wherefore God giues vs his body hid vnder these signes was secretly to hid the mystery of this diuine meate from the view and sight of Infidels and to take from them al occasion of calumniating the Christians For if they called them Andropâ—phages Tertal in Apol. cap. 7. Minutius Feliâ— in Ocla â—io Eusch l. 5. hist cap. 1. Orig. cont Cels lib. 6. Athenagâ—orat pro Christâ—â—â— and eaters of humane flesh as witnesse Tertullian Euse bius Minutius and other ancient Fathers because they heard say that they fed vpon the body of Iesus Christ in a certaine banquet where notwithstanding they see nothing but bread and wine what might they haue said and what crimes might they haue laid to their charge if they had either vnderstood or seene that they did eate that body in the naturall forme Finally hereby our Sauiour hath preserued the Maiesty of his body from many inconueniences of beasts and of men to which it had been exposed and in danger to bee often iniured in his proper forme whereas by hiding the same al the indignities are receiued in a garment which is not his owne that is to say in the shew of bread and wine albeit such as are guilty of those crimes must expect iust condemnation from God for the iniury which they haue done to this Sacrament 10. AS THE OLDE OBLATION OF FIRST fruits began in Pentecost so our new THe two last draughts figuring the Masse consist partly in the circumstance of time in which the old Oblation was instituted and put in practise partly in the Sacrifices which were to be offered before These two Lineaments haue been diuinely accomplished The time of this Sacrifice was the fiftith day Leuit. 25 10.11 Num. 4. a number importing remission of sinnes and of liberty and freedome In signe whereof euery fiftith yeare each one entered into the possession of the goods which they had formerly sold without repaying any money backe In the same yeare the Land was neither tilled nor sowne And the Leuites were freed from the seruice of the Temple after they were come to the fiftith yeare of their age As then the ancient offering was ordained in the Desert and practised only in the Land of Promise in the prefixed time of Pentecost that is to say Haruest being gathered in fifty dayes after Easter number of remission In like manner the Sacrifice of the Eucharist was instituted by our Sauiour being yet a traueller in the Desert of this world and put in practise by the Apostles after the descent of the holy Ghost vpon the day of Pentecost fiftith day day of pardon and remission putting the children of God in possession of the promised Kingdome which they had lost before a day of generall Haruest in which were to be reaped all sorts of celestiall fruits And as the three sorts of bloudy Sacrifices Holocausts Propitiatories and Pacifiques did goe before the old Oblation of First fruits in the same manner the bloudie Sacrifice of the Crosse figured heere by them weâ—thefore the practise of our new Oblation At this time then and according to the Figure the Apostles did begin to celebrate the Masse and to offer to God the First-fruits and the admirable and immortall wheat of the body of the Sonne of God cast on the Crosse to die springing out of the Sepulcher for to reuiue mounting to the right hand of his Father and gathered into his celestiall barnes there to raigne for euer The Oblation of First-fruits which vntill then had bin made in Figure eyther in the Law of Nature or of Moyses was but Barly as it were the beginning of Haruest but this heere was the great Haruest the great solemnitie of First-fruites and the great Oblation of celestiall Wheat and of the Bread that liueth and giueth life the true Pentecost and the true Iubily of the holy Ghost chiefe worker of this Sacrament and Sacrifice Of which our Sauiour speaking said The words Ioan. 6â— which I say vnto you are Spirit and Life as if he had said The words I speake vnto you concerning the eating of my flesh are not to bee vnderstood carnally after the manner of the Capharnaits who dreamed of dead flesh
his Law Whilest I speake the good old man sleepes still and thinks neither of eating nor drinking nor of any meanes to free him from danger Wherefore the Angell shakes him the second time â— â—eg 15.7 and waking him aduises him to take some refection and be packing If you please to expect vntill he rise you shall see him gift with a great leather girdle in a dusty Cassock reaching to the mid-legge couered also with a little mantle flying in the ayre and when he is vp hee will not faile with all speed to obey the words of the Angell and to get him as farre as he can from the fury and reach of the Queene Behold he is now risen and walketh on a pace towards the Mountaine of Horeb. 1. THE BREAD OF ELIAS FIGVRE OF the Sacrament of the Altar THe Bread of Elias was for certaine a Figure of our Sacrament and of many mysteries hidden in it Wee haue said elsewhere that in the Scripture as well in the old as in the new Bread signifieth generally the body of our Sauiour for so much as it is giuen in meat for the sustenance of our soules and the immortality of our bodies So Ieremie speaking of the body of our Sauiour Ier. 11. saith in the person of the Iewes resolued in their Councell to crucifie him Lay the wâ—â—d on his bread that is to say giue the torments of the Crosse to his body Tertul. l. 4. cont Marâ— as the ancient Fathers haue explained it and the Sonne of God said of himselfe I am the Bread of heauen In this generall sense then Iohn 6. the Bread of Elias did Figure this body and this meate But more partiularly in that it was wonderfull in all its causes effects and circumstances which are so many Lineaments drawne vpon the old Figure for a liuely representation of the truth which should follow after First then this Bread was sent from God by the seruice of an Angel this â— accomplished in the Sacrament for it is giuen vs from God specially by the ministery of the Priest Malach. 1.2.7 S. Dâ—anil l. 〈…〉 12. who is called the Angell of God in Scripture because that after the manner of Angell he teacheth others saith S. Dionise of Areopagita for as the superiour Angells enlighten the inferiours by their knowledge so the Priests communicate their doctrine to the inferiour members of the Church of God S. 〈◊〉 iâ—id Angell also according vnto Saint Hierom because he is a Mediator betweene God and man and declareth to the people the will of God Finally Angell of God saith Saint Chrysostom S. Chry2ost hom â— in 2. Tim. 1. because he speaketh not of himselfe but as sent from God It is then this Angell that consecrateth our bread by the Word of God that maketh it flesh by his power and distributeth it by his commission Secondly this Bread of Elias was bread of Wheat for if it had been of other matter the Scripture would haue specified it And it was Bread fashioned into a cake after the forme of loaues baked on the cinders This is also accomplished in our Sacrament for this is the matter and that the forme of our Hoasts which are of Wheate the Sacrament and the admirable Cakes of the Messias of which mention was made a little before but what doth the Scripture signifie by saying that this Bread was baked vnder the imbers 2. WHAT MEANETH THE SCRIPTVRE in signifying that the Bread of Elias was baked vnder the imbers THough we know not how this Bread was baked vnder the imbers by the Angell wee beleeue notwithstanding that it was so baked for the Scripture saith it and because it saith nothing without cause there is no doubt but vnder the hollow of these imbers there lye hidden some mysteries appertaining to our Sacrament These mysteries are three amongst many others which such as are more spirituall may obserue The one is that it puts vs in minde of our Sauiours charity The imbers are the remainder of fier and heate past this Bread then baked vnder the hot imbers mingled with liue coales did Figure our Sacrament true memoriall instituted by Iesus Christ and commanded to be celebrated in his memory Luke 22.19 and in a recordation of his loue and death And therefore it is the true Bread baked vnder the imbers that is to say prepared with the burning coales of his Charity of which it is a memoriall as also of that which he endured for vs. The second mystery taught in this baking is the great humility of the Sonne of God in this Sacrament the imbers being a thing of small value or none at all and therefore Hieroglyfick of basenesse and of humiliation as the naturall Ceremony of all Nations teacheth vs vsing them in this signification So Abraham out of humility Genes 18. calleth himselfe dust and â—shes and abaseth himselfe vnder the name of these things Also the Hebrewes of Bethulia Iudith 7.4 beseeching the diuine Maiesty to succour them in humility cast ashes vpon their heads So the Pagan King of Niniuy humbled himselfe rising from his throne Iohn 3.6 and sitting vpon ashes The Bread then baked vnder the ashes is Iesus Christ true Bread of heauen humbled and abased humbled not onely in making himselfe man in marrying his Maiesty with the infirmity of our nature and in enduring the torments and reproaches of the Crosse but also in giuing himselfe as meate to his creatures vnder the Figure and habite of these weake and meane elements of bread and wine in giuing himselfe after the manner of a thing dead and insensible in giuing himselfe to be eaten and swallowed downe of poore sinners All these degrees of humility represented in ashes are heere persormed and practised in this Sacrament With good reason then was it figured by such a notable signe of great humility as were the imbers on which was baked the Bread of Elias The third mystery is that hereby are signified the many mysteries of this Sacrament hidden vnder the formes of bread and wine as vnder imbers mysteries of the loue and greatnesse of God and of the adminâ—bâ—â— effects of this meat which deuout soules may more easily seâ—â—e then I can expresse And as the great Maâ—esâ—y of our Sauiour walking visibly vpon the earth was câ—uered vnder the cloake of our humanity his almighty power wâ—sdome and bounty effecting the worke of our â—â—cemption by the sâ—eblenesse folly and ignominy of the 〈◊〉 Fuâ—â— so in this Sacrifice he couereth the glory of his body vnder the veyle of these signes and cinders of 〈◊〉 and makes the hand of supreme vertue woâ—â—e iâ—â—sbly for the support and health of our soules and bodies 3. WHAT SIGNIFIETH THE SLEEPE of Elias vnder the shadow of the luniper tree THe diuine hand of God hath by other Lineaments and colours no lesse admirably painted forth the three former mysteries many others in another corner of this table where you see
they asked as Philosophers How Albeit the Scripture did clearely set downe the truth of this generation and tolde them on the otherside that they could not comprehend it and that they ought to beleeue and not to question about it â—say 53.8 So the Panymâ— and the Heretikes did laugh at the saith of the death of Iesus Christ neither could they be perswaded that he being the Sonne of God and God himselfe would or could haue endured death and did say How can it bee that hee could dye At this very day in like manner such as beleeue not imitating their Ancestors beate their hornes against the same Rock and doe say How can the body of our Sauiour be present in the Eucharist How can it be in many places without possessing a place Be eaten without being seene Exposed to the iniuries of the wicked without hurt And because they are proud they beleeue nothing but what they vnderstand and so lose their faith and their vnderstanding like vnto their Fathers and namely the Capharnaits how be it in another extremitie of heresie For of them saith Saint Augustine They did not vnderstand S. Aug. Tract 27. in Ioan. because they beleened not and the Prophet saith If you beleeue not you shall not vnderstand By saith we are vnited to God and by vnderstanding we are quickened Let vs first adhere to the truth by faith to the and that we may afterward be quickened by vnderstanding for he that adhereth not vesisteth and who resists belecueth not Hee excludeth the beame of light which should penetrate into him be turnes not away his eyes but shuts vp his vnderstanding In like manner these heere would know in Philosophie and not beleeue in Christianity and so became bad Philosophers and lose the name of Christians The Church of God and the children of God doe not so They doe beleeue the voyce of truth which said The bread which I will giue is my flesh and after they come to vnderstand as much as diuine mysteries can be vnderstood in the shadow of this mortality expecting to see them in heauen vnmasked and discouered when they shall see all things in God 6. EXPOSITION OF THE WORDS OF our Sauiour IT is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words which I speake to you are Spirit and life It was the custome of our Sauiour to speake couertly in this maner of the highest mysteries to the end he might be heard with better attention For the secret of God saith S. Augustine ought to engender in the hearers attention S. Aug. 27. in Ioan. and not to breed auâ—rsion But what he spake darkly he after explained sufficiently to take away occasion of error So we see that hauing said to Nâ—codemus Iohn 3.4 That to be saued hee ought to be borne anew He expounded himselfe saying That he ought to be Baptised of water and the holy Ghost and that he meant not a corporall but a spirituall generation In like manner Iohn 2.19 when he said I will destroy this Temple and I will build it againe in the third day the Euangelist added for explination thereof that he spake this of the Temple of his body Our Sauiour seeing then how the Capharnaits tooke offence at his words giuing them an absurde sense and such as their grosse phantasies did forge he correcteth their carnall sense and explaines his owne and tells them Doth this scandalize you Iohn â— If then you shall see the Sonne of Man ascend where he was before As if he should say you are sensuall people and will not beleeue that I am able to doe more then you are able to comprehend you thinke that this is an impossible thing for me to giue you my flesh to eate and that it can suffice for you all or giue you eternall life what then will you thinke what will you say when you shall see that I shall carry this flesh to heauen from whence I descended to take it heere on earth when you shall vnderstand that I am God and Man together certainly when you shall see that done which is of more difficultie you will haue occasion to beleeue this which is more easie for it is of it selfe more difficult to carry flesh into heauen which none euer did then to giue it to eate on earth the which many haue done though not after the manner that I will giue it Wherefore either you ought to beleeue that I can giue my flesh to be eaten seeing that I can doe a more difficult thing or not beleening you are to enter into a greater incredulity condemnation when men shall tell you that I in flesh am ascended into heauen Our Sauiour doth not deny the giuing of his flesh to bee eaten but he tould them that he is God Almighty for otherwise he should not haue descended from heauen and that being God he could doe more then that and that if they did not beleeue him their pride and sensuality was the cause which are the true barres and bolts that exclude and hinder the entrance of faith He addeth The flesh profuteth nothing â—l is the Spirit that quickeneth the words that I speake vnto you are Spirit and life Whereby he sweetely taketh away the cause which scandalized them and said The flesh as you vnderstand it and the eating which you imagine is carnall and profiteth nothing but that flesh whereof I speake is spirituall and giueth life eternall The words which I say vnto you are Spirit and life and your thoughts sauour of nothing but of flesh and corruption My flesh shall indeed be giuen and truely vnited to the members of my Church yet not alone or without soule and life as the flesh of beasts which is onely for the body but as being quickened with my Spirit and with my Diuinitie by reason whereof it shall giue life and vnite them to life which shall eate thereof as it is vnited to the life of my soule and of my Diuinitie And shall be giuen not in a carnall manner in peeces and in gobbets as dead flesh but spiritually as liuely flesh immortall and vncapable of diuision And as this flesh was truely taken from the substance of the Virgin my Mother but in a spirituall manner by the vertue of the holy Ghost and not by coniunction with man euen so shall it be truely giuen not in a carnall but after a diuine and spirituall manner Flesh and humane iudgement shall perceiue nothing except some outward accidents of the colour Figure and taste but the eyes of faith will penetrate the mystery hidden therein This is it which our Sauiour would signifie to appease the murmuring of the Caphamaits and to raise them vp from the blockishnesse of their flesh vnto the spirituall sense of his holy word 7. HERESIE ALWAYES CARNALL AND in loue with extremities AS the enemie of man raised carnall men to oppose themselues to the word of life and to hinder the Sacrament of the flesh
of our Sauiour in the first preparation of this Feast so he hath also raised vp others to disturbe and stoppe the proceedings and fruit thereof already prepared These are they which in this last age do impugne the honor and magnificence of this Feast taking from it the substance and truth saying that the flesh of our Sauiour is not heere but onely a Figure thereof and that there is heere no reall eating of the flesh of our Sauiour present which they call carnall but onely spirituall by the meanes of saith alone which makes the body of our Sauiour spiritually present and eateth it spiritually These people are carnall as well as the Capharnaits and puffed vp with the same blast of pride oâ—erthrowing the truth but by a contrary battery The Capharnaits did interpret the words of our Sauiour altogether fleshly and these men altogether spiritually those were in one extremity beleeuing nothing but flesh these are in another extremity admitting nothing but spirit and both the one and the other not willing to acknowledge but what their fancies tells them and therefore are carnall faithlesse and proud though after a different manner The sensuality of the later in particular doth shew it selfe in that they thinke it a carnall thing that the flesh of our Sauiour should be present in the Sacrament their incredulity is in this that they will not beleeue the word of God who said that hee would truely giue his flesh to eate their pride in that they preferred the iudgement of their sense before his Word and condemne the ordinance of our Sauiour albeit they make faire shewes of defending the same They erre then in three things First in thinking the presence of the flesh of our Sauiour in this Sacrament to be carnall for the presence of a thing makes not the carnality but the manner his flesh was trutly and by reall presence conceiued in the wombe of the Virgin Yet was not that presence carnall because the manner of the conception was from the holy Ghost When he ascended into beauen his body was present in as many places of the beauens as he did penetrate the presence was reall but neuerthelesse spirituall because it depended of a cause spirituall and diuine and not naturall When he made himselfe seene to Saint Paul he was present and his presence was true and reall yet spirituall that is to say not after an ordinary and naturall manner Euen so the flesh of our Sauiour is really present in the Eucharist yet not carnally as common flesh is present vpon the table but by transubstantiation by a way about nature by the all powerfull word of our Sauiour It is there inuisible impalpable immorrall and inconsumptible and so spiritually and so diuinely that nothing but the eyes of faith can perceiue it and because these heere haue not but the eyes of their flesh and carnall iudgement therefore they deny this presence and same another according to the blindnesse of their flesh against the truth and leaue the true faith by an imaginary no faith and are blockish and infidels in their sensuall faith 8. CONTRADICTIONS OF HERETIKES in their false and imaginary faith THe same Heretikes inwrap themselues in contradiction denying on the one side the flesh of our Sauiour to be really present in the Eucharist and saying on the other side that it is there by Spirit and faith For if it bee not really there it cannot bee present by Spirit and by faith for as much as no strength neither of the Spirit nor of Faith doth make a thing present that is absent Neither faith nor the Spirit makes that the Hebrewes at this present doe passe the red sea or eate Manna in the Desart or that Iosua now doth stay the Sunne or that our Sauiour is now conceiued in the wombe of the Virgin or that he now riseth from death or ascends into heauen or that hee comes now to iudge the liuing and the dead though it beleeue all this if these men answere that faith imagineth these things as present albeit they bee absent they confesse that as the presence of these things is but imagination so the faith which they haue of the presence of the flesh of our Sauiour in the Sacrament is imaginary and that they cate it not but by imagination Like vnto them who sleeping dreame that they make good cheare and yet make no good cheare but in their fancie Such faith is not the faith that makes a faithfull man in this point neither is such sustenance truely sustenance neither such meate truely meate it is a faith a refection a meate of fancie Now our Sauiour said Iohn 6. that his flesh is meat indeed and his bloud drinke indeed then the faith or rather no faith of these men is a carnall infidelity and a froward imagination contrary to the faith of God They are the children of the Catholike Church which by faith doe eate indeed the body of our Sauiour that is to say in a spirituall manner as it hath been said and with the faith required thereunto by the which they doe beleeue the word of God beleeuing that his body is there present as his word saith beleeuing that they take it really and eate it really as he hath promised beleeuing that he could doe that which he said and that he doth nothing which is contrary to his goodnesse and wisdome And as their faith is farthfull so their eating is true and contrariwise the eating practised by these Heretikes in their Supper is altogether carnall for they take nothing heere more excellent then bread and neither doe they eath but bread nor beleeue any thing but what the faith of a Turke of a Iew and of a Pagan all carnall could not beleeue For what difficulty had there been to beleeue the presence of a morsell of bread that they see taste and perceiue by their sense to be so 9. THE LITERALL SENSE FOVNDAtion of others against the same Heretikes THese good people therefore lose themselues in the by-wayes of their spirituality for willing to interpret the flesh of our Sauiour and his bloud and all this eating spiritually according to their owne sense saying that men cate not this flesh but by Spirit and by faith alone they leaue the proper and fundamentall vnderstanding of the words of our Sauiour and take onely a metaphoricall one against the law of all good Diuinity which first ought to vnderstand and establish the literall and proper sense of the Scripture and after vpon that foundation to ground the spirituall For example the Scripture saith Gen. 2. Exod. 14. Iud. 15. 1. Reg. 17. that God planted an carthly Paradise that the Hebrewes did passe the red Sea that Sampson tyed Foxes by the tayles that Dauid did sight in single combate with Goliah and such like things if euery one would so spiritualize these histories that they would deny the literall truth and say that earthly Paradise is no other thing but the Church the red
Sea Baptisme Sampsons Foxes the Heretikes Golish the enemy of mankinde Danid Iesus Christ and that there is no other thing meant thereby he should make a spirituall fense indeed but should ouerthrow the ground of the history and commit Sacrilege against the Scripture which writeth the foresaid things as truly performed they should do in this as the Priscillianists did long since who did allegorize according to their fantasie all the passages and literall senses of the Scripture which were against their Herefie S. August lib. de Hares 70. as writeth S. Augustine In like manner these heere allegorize and say that there is nothing heere but a spirituall and mysticall eating of the flesh of our Saulour Iohn 6. For since that our Sauiour hath said that his flesh is meate indeed and his bloud drinke indeed and that who so eateth his slesh shall haue eternall life we must necessarily suppose a reall eating of a reall thing adde the spirituall allegoricall afterwards We sinde indeed in the Scriptures the word Lion put for the Diuell 1. 〈◊〉 18. Matth. 7.15 and the word Woulse for a faise prophet These are metaphoricall and spirituall significations but the same words are placed elswhere in their proper vsage and do signifie beasts and out of a resemblance of these words in their proper signification they are translated to signifie the Diuell and false Prophets Wherefore if there bee heere an eating of the flesh of our Sauiour all spirituall that is to say which is done onely by the Spirit without any reall taking of that flesh it is necessary to finde a proper and reall ground foundation thereof the which reall eating cannot bee but in the Eucharist containing really the flesh and bloud of our Sauiour true and proper meat true and proper drinke But is it not a carnall vnderstanding to admit a reall eating of the flesh of our Sauiour Yes doubtlesse if we should vnderstand as did the Capharnaiâ—s an humane and sensuall eating but the manducation which the Catholike Church teacheth and which we haue declared is reall indeed but spirituall but diuine and full of wonderous effects testimonies of the powerfulnesse goodnesse and wisdome of the Creator And when the ancient Fathers refute the carnall eating they neuer meane this heere but onely that which the Capharnalts did forge to themselues and which our Sauiour doth correct by the words we haue expounded as they sufficiently testifie of themselues For as often as the Fathers speak of this carnall eating they propose the Capharnaits as authors of that fond imagination and doe also pâ—â—nely shew that the eating of which our Sauiour did preach is of the reall flesh of him though the manner of taking be spirituall Let vs cite one or two for all Saint HILLARY S. Mill. 〈◊〉 8. de Trin. It is our Sauiour that said my flesh is mâ—â—te indeed and my bloud is drinke indeed Who shall 〈◊〉 my flesh and drinke my bloud dwelleth in mee and I in him Heere is no occasion to doubt of the truth of the flesh and bloud of our Sauiour for according to his word and according to our faith it is flesh indeed 〈◊〉 bloud indeed and those things taken and drunke by vs make that we are in Iesus Christ and Iesus Christ in vs. Is not this the â—â—th to them let it not be true which doe not beleene that Iesus Christ is true God He would say that the words of our Sauiour ought to be taken in their liuely and literall signification The same faith Saint AVGVSTINâ— Wee haue heard saith he the true Master the diâ—ine Rodâ—â—â—â—r and the Sauiour of mankinde recommending vnto vs his bloud our price He hath spoken to vs of his body and of his 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 said that his â—â—dy is 〈◊〉 and his bloud deinke when recommending to vs such meat and such drinke he said If you eate not my flesh and drinke not my bloud you shall 〈◊〉 haue life 〈◊〉 you And who could say this of life but Life himselfe Phâ—â— then shall bee deâ—â— to him and not life who shall thinke Life to be a lyer That is to say whosoever shal think that our Sauiour cannot or will not gine his flesh and his bloud as his words did fignifie he is an Insidell 〈◊〉 shall â—â—e and be damned for 〈◊〉 The other Doctors speake after the same manner that those two beere doe 10. TWO KINDES OF COMMVNION THE one Spirituall the other Sacramentall THe ancient Fathers haue clearely acknowledged an eating altogether spiritual of the flesh of our Sauiour which is done in hearing the Masse in meditating vpon the greatnesse of this banquot in taking the flesh of our Sauiour onely by sight by desire and by dâ—uotion But they haue deliuered thâ—â— doctrine without preiudice to that other which you haue heard for they haue euer beleeued and esteemed this reall eating which by proper name they haue called Sacramentall and haue preserâ—ed it before the other when it is holily done as also they haue preferted the Spirituall alone before the Sacramentall if it be not done with due preparation Rightly iudging that it is better to heate Masse deuoutly and contemplate the mysteries of this meate and communicate in â—b is spirituall maner then to communicate with a consciousâ— defiled with morâ—â—ll finno and by fiâ—â— to pâ—ophane the table of our Lord. And this Sacramentall eating though it bee reall ceaseth notto be spirituall because the 〈…〉 is supernaturall and diuiâ—e as hath been 〈…〉 is called Sacramentall for distinctions sake because heere men take the Sacrament The other simply bears the name of Spirituall because it is only done by Spirit without receiuing really the flesh of our Sauiour This Spirituall communion properly is but deuotion towards the Sacrament as the Sacramental is the reall receiuing of the Sacrament the which ought for an vnseparable companion alwayes to haue the Spirituall for otherwise it profiteth nothing and hurteth exceedingly much whereas the Spiritual may be profitable without the Sacramentall The children of God vse both sorts for they communicate both Sacramentally and Spiritually but the mis-beleeuers are depriued of both For denying the presence of the body of our Sauiour they take away the heart of the Sacrament and depriue themselues of the Sacramentall communion and not hauing the true faith of the Sacrament they cannot communicate spiritually For without faith no holy Spirit quickeneth no Sacrament profitath so that still they remaine carnall in their fancie as the Capharnaits did in theirs 11. OF THE DIVINE WISDOME AND goodnesse of God in this Sacrament and of the folly and ingratitude of men BVt before wee turne away our face from beholding this Picture let vs a little fixe the eyes of our vnderstanding vpon the contemplation of this diuine Widome preaching to vs of the communion of his flesh and vpon our owne basenesse not knowing how to acknowledge the sweetnesse of his diuino benefits On the one side let vs
consider the liberality of the Redeemer and on the otherside the ingratitude of men the wisdome of the Master and the folly of the Disciples Our Sauiour hauing sed the people with terrestriall bread intendeth to giue them the celestiall and to substitute the bread of life in place of the bread which was dead bread of the soule for bread of the body And behold these very men who hauing receiued and eaten the first bread esteemed the Giuer worthy the honor of a Scepter in recompence will not vnderstand our Sauiour preaching of the excellenty of the second although his words were very cleare yet they in their ignorance murmure against the bounty and wisdome of their Master for that bee promised to giue them bread of headen a deified bread which was his body not a strange body but his owne proper body not the flesh of beasts but the flesh of God incarnate They are scandalized because he intended to vnite them to himselfe by his flesh to deifie them by his flesh and to nourish them thereby not for soure and twenty houres onely but to all eternity They mistrusted his power were offended at his goodnesse and condemned the wisdome of his words before they vnderstood them â—â—hn 6.52 How oâ—n this man say they giue vs his flesh to eate O senselesse disciples and too obliuious And how a little before fed hee more then fiue thousand of you with fiue Loaues and two Fishes making aboundance in want and fruitfulnesse in the Desart If you beleeue Marth 14.16 Iohn â— he hath done this worke by power of his almightinesse wherefore aske you how hee can giue you his flesh wherefore esteeme you that he cannot accomplish this that he saith albeit it seemes vnpossible to you You say Behold a hard speech and who can endure it And what word find you so hard What hard speech could proceed out of the mouth of this good Master O delicate and dainty disciples what hath he said that so violently piereed your hearts What sentences hath hee vttered that seeme so hard for you to swallow He hath said That hee is the bread come downe from heane 〈…〉 that who so câ—teth this bread shall line eternally that the bread which be will gine is his flesh for the life of the world that his flesh is meat indeed and his bloud drinke indeed These words of Iron or of stone as are your breasts Are they not words of life and of eternall life words of saluation and consolation Doth life displease you Doth Saluation scandalize you and Consolation grieue you to the heart Are you not malitious schollers to striue against so louing a Lesson and desperately discased to enter into madnesse at the hearing of such a voice and that of such a Physition and that of such a promise of eternall life And if these words so louingly vttered by this sweet Lambe seeme to you intollerable how hard to you shall those words bee which hee shal vtter against you in his great day and against all them who shall bee incredulous as you are when he will say when hee will pronounce when hee will thunder out his last and irreuocable decree Goe you â—ursed from mee into eternall fire prepared for the Dâ—â—ll and his angels If the sweetnesse of the Lambe and Sauiour of the world bee now intollerable to you what will be the rigour of the Iudge of Angels and men then condemning your want of faith But if you finde difficult to your vnderstanding the words of the Master wherefore as good disciples aske you not to the end to be instructed If you haue conceiued some opinion of this Master by reason of the wonders that he hath done before you wherefore think you that he cannot do this that he promiseth that he cannot declare to you this which to you is difficult Why condemne you his doctrine before you vnderstand it Why depart you from the company of the truth which would instruct you 12. TO THE STRAYED SHEEPE OF our age BVt O you wandering soules of this last age why goe you backward in hauing abandoned the company of this Master imitating these your olde predecessors the Capharnaits who going out of the house of God haue forsaken the Table and the Feast of the flesh of the Son of God to goe take a bit of bread out of the throate of Wolues Why imitate you the Capharnaits which condemne you Wherefore like vnto them murmure you at the almightinesse of the wisdome of him that said The bread Iohn 6.51 that I shall gine you is my flesh Why beleeue you not this that he saith since that it is the mouth of Truth that speakes it which cannot lye Why giue you Law and measure to his arme saying That he cannot make a body be without possessing place and that it cannot bee at the same time in diuers places in heauen and earth in many Churches and on many Altars Can he doe nothing that is aboue the capacity of your braines But what faith is yours to beleeue nothing except that which sense witnesseth to you or which your spirit comprehendeth is it not the faith of a faithlesse Philosopher which followes the course of the creature altogether ignorant of the power of the Creator And what iudgement is yours to reiect the Catholike faith about this great mystery for not hauing the capacity to vnderstand it Seeing there haue been a thousand things in Nature it selfe that the Philosophers vnderstood not and for not vnderstanding them did they reiect them But can you vnderstand how our Sauiour took humane flesh without the seed of man how our bodies reduced into ashes shall rise againe How the bodies of the damned shall burne without being consumed in eternall flames and other mysteries of our faith And if you beleeue these things without vnderstanding them why beleeue you not this heere If this seeme more difficult to you so much the more haue you wherein to admire the omnipotencie of God and so much the more merit in beleeuing If you beleeue that God is Almighty why doe you not beleeue he can doe this that he saith who hath made the whole world by his onely word If you beleeue him all wise why beleeue you not what hee hath ordained is decreed with great wisdome albeit your iudgement cannot attaine to the secret of it If you beleeue that hee is most good why doe you not simply vse the gift of his Maiesty Wherefore say you that it is a carnall thing to haue his flesh to eate seeing he hath so disposed of it as it may be really and yet spiritually eaten Are you not proud in your basenesse rather beleeuing the infirmity of your iudgement then the greatnesse of his Almightinesse Intollerable in your folly condemning this which his wisdome ordained Vngratefull in your vnbeleeuing refusing the meate that he offers you for your health O good Iesus O good Master O good Pastor illuminate teach bring home these poore wanderers
be proper cleare and euident and without doubtfulnesse ambiguitie or incertainty that the Will of the Testator may bee vnderstood without difficulty and without contention Matth. 26. Marke 14. Luke 22. This is the cause why three Euangelists the Registers of this Institution and Notaries of this Testament haue vsed the selfe-same words and S. Paul after them without varying 1. Cor. 11. To the end to hold constant the light of this euidence and strongly to maintaine the ground of that faith which wee ought to haue of this mystery and to declare by a firme and sollide accord of foure diuine witnesses that the sense of the words is that which they literally signifie and that being the words of an Almighty worker to whom nothing can be impossible and the words of a supreme truth who can say nothing which is not true they must needs make that which they signifie By which meanes if any one refusing the literall sense of the Scripture will glose it from his owne head saying This is my body that is to say this is the Figure of my body This is my bloud that is the Figure of my bloud he should herein be opposite to the holy deposition of these foure witnesses not daring so to speake which notwithstanding they would haue done if such had been the sense of the words and should also too boldly change the truth of Gods word giuing a sense cleane contrary to the signification of the words and putting the Figure for the Body against the authority of the forenamed witnesses who haue neuer presumed to giue such a glosse Yea hee should doe contrary to all law of Speech and Grammer which commandeth to take the words of the text according to the ground of their proper meaning without hauing recourse to any metaphoricall and improper signification when they do not giue any absurde or contradictory sense which happeneth not here For heere the proper sense is most cominent and agreeable to the truth and the words do signifie no other thing but the presence of the body of Iesus Christ in this Sacrament which is not onely not contradictory nor absurde but full of wonders most worthy of the power wisdome and goodnesse of our Sauiour When the Scripture calleth the King a Lion the word ought to bee taken by similitude that a King is like a Lion by reason of his royall magnanimity for taking the word according to the sense of the letter the meaning should be that he were a beast which would be false and absurde But these words taken in their naturall signification containe nothing but that which is most agreeable to the Maiesty of the Creator and most heneficiall to his creature wherefore there is not any reason heere to runne to Figures and therefore also it is impiety to say that these clauses This is my body This is my bloud are improper speeches importing no more then that they are Figures of his body and bloud For such deprauation destroyes the truth of a most noble Sacrament and shewes that such Enterpreters are not onely void of faith but also depriued of vnderstanding hastily opening the gate to themselues and to all other senselesse people to reiect all sense of Scripture be it neuer so euident if it displease them and to frame the manner of it according to the vnsteadinesse of their owne braines and to the exorbitant passion of vnbridled flesh 4. TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS vpon the Exposition of the same words AS the Scripture is euident in these diuine words so is the Exposition of holy Fathers constant to maintaine the sense they giue in proper signification as hath bin said Saint CYRIL of Hierusalem Since that Iesus Christ S. Cyril Hieres Catech. myst 4 hauing taken the bread saith This is my body Who is he which for euer dare to doubt and he affirming the same and saying This is my bloud Who will refuse to beleeue it He changed water into wine a creature neighbour to bloud by his only will Iohn 2. and shall not we beleeue that hee hath changed the wine to his bloud Beleeue then most constantly that we receiue the body and bloud of Christ for vnder the forme of bread the body is giuen thee and the bloud vnder the forme of wine Saint BASIL hauing asked with what feare faith S. Basil in Regul breu interrog 172. and affection of the soule men ought to take the body and bloud of our Sauiour answeres himselfe saying How great the feare is S. Paul instructs vs Who so eateth this bread and drinketh this Chalice vnworthily he eateth and drinketh his owne damnation What we are to beleeue is taught by the words of Christ who said This is my body giuen for you And there this Doctor consequently sheweth how we ought to beleeue these words This is my body which the same faith with which we beleeue these words of Saint Iohn when he saith The Word was made flesh Iohn 1. and those of Saint Paul Philip. 2. when he extolled the great humility of the same Word in his Incarnation his great obedience in his Passion and his infinit charity in the one and the other as then we beleeue that God was really and truely made flesh and suffered death according as the words of the Scripture tell vs. In the same manner Saint Basil will that wee beleeue the Reall Presence of the body of our Sauiour according as these words This is my body teach vs and concludes that by faith and consideration of these things we are inflamed with a great loue to Iesus Christ which is the affection of the soule that wee ought to bring with vs to the Communion of his body and bloud accompanied with feare and beleefe as hath been said Saint CHRYSOSTOME S. Chrysos hom 83. in Matth 60 ad Pap. Antioch Hom. de prodit Iuda Gen. 1.22 8.17 Let vs beleeue God without doubt for it is he which said This is my body And elsewhere It is not man which makes the body and bloud of Christ in offered things but Christ himselfe crucified for vs Hee said This is my body by this word the offering is consecrated And euen as these words once vttered Increase and multiply and fill the earth alwayes worke their effect in Nature for generation euen so these words vttered This is my body giue certainty to the Sacrifice through all the Tables of the Church euen vnto this day and will giue it vntill the comming of the Sonne of God Saint IOHN DAMASCENE S. Ioan. Damas l. 4. c. 14. The bread and the wine mingled with water supernaturally are changed into the body and bloud of Christ by the innocation of the holy Ghost and are not two but one and the same this hallowed bread it not the Figure of the body neither the wine the Figure of the bloud but the true deified body of our Lord and his true bloud THEOPHILACT Theophil in Matth. 26. a graue
and ancient Doctor Iesus Christ saying This is my body sheweth that the bread sanctified vpon the Altar is his body and not the Figure of it seeing that he saith not this is the Figure of my body but This is my body for it is thansformed in an explicable manner though outwardly it seemeth bread Saint AMBROSE S. Ambros de Sacr. l. 5. c. 4. 5. It is the word of Christ which made this Sacrament by which Word all hath been made Our Lord commanded and the earth was made seest thou then how working his Word is If then his Word hath been so mighty as it made that to be which was nothing before how much more easy will it be vnto him to change one thing into another the bread before consecration is bread but after the vttering of these words This is my body it is the body of Christ Heare him saying This is my body take you all and eate of this It is Iesus our Lord which testifieth that wee receiue his body and his bloud shall we doubt of his fidelity or testimony Saint CYPRIAN This saith our Lord is my body S. Cyp. de cun Dom. They had according to the visible forme eaten of the same bread and drunke of the same wine But before these words that food was onely for the nourishment of the body and to giue strength to the corporall life but after that Iesus Christ had said Doe yee this in remembrance of me This is my flesh The forme of Consecration are these words THIS IS MY BODY This is my bloud as often times as the same words are pronounced with the same faith this substantiall bread and this consecrated Chalice with solemne benedicton hath been profitable for the health of the whole man He teacheth then that the words of our Sauior are vnderstood according as they do signifie and that they are the forme by which the bread and the wine are consecrated into the body and bloud of our Sauiour Saint AVGVSTINE writing the ancient enstome of Christians who did answer Amen S. August l. 22. cont Faust c. 10. in Psal 33. Concil 1. after that the Priest had vttered the words of Consecration This is my body this is my bloud saith thus The bloud of Christ giueth a cleare voice on earth then when as the Christians hauing receiued answered Amen It is the cleare voice of bloud that the bloud it selfe pronounceth by the mouth of the faithfull receiued by that bloud The same Author elsewhere Iesus saith hee carried himselfe in his hands when recommending his body he said This is my body It was then according to the literall sense of the Word the body of our Sauiour Saint ANSELME S. Anselm in 1. Cor. 11. expounding the selfe-same clauses maketh Iesus Christ to speak thus Eate this that I giue you because it is my body It plainly appeares bread to the outward senses but acknowledge by the sense of faith that this is my body the same in substance that shall be giuen for you to death This is the Exposition of the ancient Fathers and there hath neuer been any Doctor of the Catholike Church which gaue to these words This is my body other sense then these heere doe giue And this is the meaning of Iesus Christ and whosoeuer followeth any other he is gone out of the Schoole of Christ Iesus taking a lye for truth and damnation for food of eternall life 5. MYSTICALL REFERENCES OF OVR Sauiours words THIS IS MY BODY to the ancient Figures and to all other bodies THis is my body saith our Sauiour We haue said something vpon these words but it is nothing in comparison of that which may yet be said they are cleare but yet they are full of hidden meanings They alone containe the old and new Testament and flye in signification farre aboue the height of heauen more profound then the depthes of the Ocean and more in widenesse then is the compasse of the world in sweetenesse they surmount all the hony and milke of the Land of Promise in vertue the power of all men and Angels and in greatnesse the Maiesty of all Kings that euer were vpon the earth The words which made the world out of nothing were great in effect in heauen they made the Starres the Fishes in the sea Gen. 1 in the ayre the Fowles vnder earth the stones and mettells and vpon earth the Plants the Trees the Lions the Elephants and other creatures in number infinite and in beauty admitable but that which our Sauiour saith and in saying effecteth by these words This is my body is more infinite then all that together this body is more then a thousand worlds if so many had been produced The most excellent name of God is the Tetragram expressed vnder the voice Idoney composed of foure letters not to be vttered by the Iewes This clause This is my body it the clause Tetragram wouen of foure words euident to the eares of faith but vnexplanable by the tongue either of man or Angell What shall we say then to expresse the vertue of it And who can or shall expresse it but he who is the Author of these words and mysteries It is he must do it that is the all-knowing Word and all powerfull able to know to say and to doe whatsoeuer he will What said then this great God by these words This is my body He said that it is his body and saying this he said all that is precious admirable and diuine amongst bodies Hee distinguisheth all the bodies that he had euer made or created from his owne and prefetreth it before them all Hee said I haue made the Sunne and the Moone the Starres and all those immortall bodies which on high make the wainscot of my Fathers Pallace but these are not my body neither substances allied to my person these to me are strange bodies This is my body which I haue formed by an extraordinary way in the wombe of an holy Virgin which I haue diuinely appropriated to my greatnesse and which I haue made the habitation of my dignity The other bodies are parts of my possession this heere is the body of my particular person surpassing the excellency of all the bodies long since consecrated to God and were propheticall Figures thereof The Tree of Life planted in the earthly Paradise the Lambe of innocent Abel offered in Sacrifice the bread of Melchi adech giuen in blessing the Sacrifice of Abraham accomplished by rare faith and obedience the Hebrewes Paschall Lambe the Manna from heauen the Loaues of Proposition the First-fruit offerings the bread of Eliah the Sheepe the Lambe the Ewes the Heifers the Beefes the Oxen the Doues the Sparrowes the Turtles and all the bodies of beasts which the Law of Moses set vpon the Altar in Holocaust in action of thanks in Propitiation all the bodies that men haue offred to the Maiesty of my Father haue been sacred bodies the Figures of this my
the accidents of bread and wine Page 107 10 The selfe-same power verified in the aceidents of the body of our Sauiour and first in respect of the quantitie Page 108 11 The meruailous power of God about the qualities of the body of our Sauiour in the blessed Sacrament Page 109 12 The wonderfull relations of the body of our Sauiour in the same Sacrament Page 110 13 Admirable actions of the body of our Sauiour Page 111 14 The body of our Sauiour impâ—ssible Page 112 15 The Sacrament is in many places at one and the self-same time Page 113 16 The body of our Sauiour about the Lawes of time Page 115 17 The admirable situation of the body of our Sauiour in the blessed Sacrament Page 116 18 The cloathing of the body of our Sauiour Page 117 19 How the Eucharist is an abridgement of all the wonders of God Page 118 20 How Faith is fortified by this Sacrament Page 120 21 Of the goodnesse of our Sauiour in this Sacrament Page 121 22 Charity towards God and towards our neighbour encreased by this Sacrament Page 124 23 Of the Wisdome of God in this same mystery Page 125 24 Gods diuine wisdome in teaching of this mystery Page 127 A Colloquium of prayses and thankesgiuing to God Page 129 PICTVRE VII The Bread of Proposition THe Description Page 131 1 The body of our Sauiour conceined of a Virgin by the operation of the holy Ghost signified by the Loaues of Proposition kneaded of the purest flower without leauen Page 133 2 How the body of our Sauiour is offered euery day and renewed euery weeke Page 134 3 The beginning and end of the Communion is Charity Prayer and Contemplation Page 135 4 The body of our Sauiour signified by the Table vpon which were set the Loanes of Proposition Page 136 5 The signifieation of the Candlesticke Page 137 6 The heart of the Iust is the Altar of Incense Page 138 7 Wherewith and how we ought to serue God Page 139 8 The vertues which are necessary worthily to giue thankes vnto God and to make a iust examen of our actions Page 140 9 A Soueraigne acknowledgement due onely to God made in the Eucharist Page 141 10 The body of our Sauiour meate for the Sanctified Page 142 11 What signified the Table of Proposition Loanes and the Candlestickes multiplied by Salomon Ibid. 12 Purity of body necessary in such as come to receiue the holy Communion Page 144 13 They which holily communicate receiue strength and are armed my the Sacrament Page 14â— 14 A briefe exhortation to purity when we present our selueâ— to the holy Sacrament ibid. PICTVRE VIII The Oblation of the First-fruits at Pentecost THe Description Page 147 1 Three Iudaicall Feasts of the First-fruits Page 151 2 The Masse the new Oblation in the Pentecost of Christians Page 152 3 Of many circumstances of the ancient Oblation answering to the truth of the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Masse Page 154 4 Of the name Masse Page 155 5 Transubstantiation made in the Sacrament figured by the Leauen Page 157 6 The Sacrament and Sacrifice of the body of our Sauiour vnder the formes of bread foretold in the Scripture and 〈◊〉 by the Hebrew Doctors Page 159 7 The testimonies of Hebrew Doctors for Transubstantiation and the manner how the body of our Sauiour is present in the Euchariâ—â— Page 161 8 The testimontes of the Christian Doctors concerning Transubstantiation and the manner how our Sauiours bodie is in the Eucharist Page 163 9 Wherefore our Sauiour would haue his body hid and not visible in the Sacrament Page 167 10 As the old Oblation of First-fruits began in Pentecost so ours new Page 170 11 The Masse began to bee celebrated by the Apostles at Pentecost Page 171 PICTVRE IX The Bread of Elias THe Description Page 17â— 1 The Bread of Elias Figure of the Sacrament of the Altar Page 177 2 What meaneth the Scripture in signifying that the Bread of Elias was baked vnder the imbers Page 178 3 What signifieth the sleepe of Elias vnder the shadow of the Iuniper tree Page 180 4 Elias his walke after the shadow of the Iuniper tree to the Mountaine Horeb and of the water that was giuen him with the bread Page 182 5 The signification of the pot of Water Page 183 PICTVRE X. The Propitiatory Sacrifice THe Description Page 185 1 Three kindes of Sacrifices Page 186 2 Of the Propitiatory Sacrifice which properly signifies that of the Crosse ibid. 3 The second kinde of the Propitiatory Sacrifice a Figure of the Eucharist Page 188 4 What difference there is betweene the Iudaicall Propitiatory Sacrifices and Sacraments and those of Christians Page 189 5 Testimonies of the ancient Fathers both Latin and Greeke teaching the Sacrifice of the Masse to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice Page 191 6 After what manner the Sacrifice of the Masse anâ— the Sacraments remit sinne since that of the Crosse is our whole redemption Page 194 7 The Sacrifice of the Masse and the Sacraments rather gâ—â—â— then take any honor from the Crosse Page 196 8 The Sacrifice of the Masse profitable to obtaine from God all kinde of good and it extends it selfe to all persons except the damned Page 198 9 The Sacrifice of the Masse profitable to the faithfull departed which are in Purgatory and honorable to those which raigne in heauen Page 200 PICTVRE XI The fiue Loaues and two Fishes THe Description Page 203 1 The miracle of the fiue Loaues a Figure of the Eucharist Page 205 2 In what the miracle of the fiue Loaues did Figure the Eucharist Page 206 3 The two Fishes a Figure of the same Sacrament Page 208 4 Wherefore no mention is made of any drinke in this miracle and other circumstances of it Page 209 5 Why the people would create our Sauiour King and why hee fled them Page 210 6 God nourisher of euery creature true nutriment of his Children Page 212 PICTVRE XII Our Sauiour Preaching of the Sacrament of his body THe Description Page 217 1 Wherefore our Sauiour made a Sermon of the Eucharist before he instituted it Page 218 2 The first cause why our Sauiour would giue his 〈◊〉 to eat and his blend to drinke which was to shew his goodnesse Page 220 3 The Second cause to giue a remedy to our misery Page 221 4 Two bad vnious of the flesh of Adam with our soule repaired by the flesh of our Sauiour Page 222 5 Pride and licentiousnesse enemies of Faith and the first aduersaries of the holy Sacrament Page 226 6 Exposition of the words of our Sauiour Page 230 7 Heresie alwayes carnall and in loue with extremities Page 232 8 Contradictions of Heretikes in their false and imaginarie faith Page 234 9 The literall sense foundation of others against the same Heretikes Page 235 10 Two kindes of Communion the one Spiritual the other Sacramentall Page 238 11 Of the diuine wisdome and goodnesse of God in this Sacrament and of the
folly and ingratitude of men Page 239 12 To the strayed sâ—â—epe of our age Page 242 PICTVRE XIII The washing of the feete going before the Institution of the Eucharist THe Description Page 245 1 Our Sauiour celebrates the Iewes Passouer before he institutes the Sacrament of his body Page 249 2 What is signified by the washing of feete Page 252 PICTVRE XIV The Institution of the Eucharist THe Description Page 255 1 The entrance that Saint Iohn maketh by which has declareth the greatnesse of the mystery of the Eucharist which our Sauiour was to institute Page 258 2 The Exposition of our Sauiours words This is my body Page 261 3 Of the clearenesse of the sense of these words This is my body by Scripture and by reason Page 263 4 Testimonies of the Fathers vpon the Exposition of the same words Page 265 5 Mysticall references of our Sauiours words This is my body to the ancient Figures and to all other bodies Page 268 6 How our Sauiour offers himself to God in Sacrifice saying This is my body Page 271 7 The Sacrifice and Sacrament of our Lords body to haue been instituted in the mysticall Supper declared by the testimony of Fathers Page 274 8 Our Sauiours Testament made in the Institution of the Sacrifice and Sacrament of his body Page 275 9 In what manner our Sauiour hauing made his Testament left his body to his heires Page 279 10 Two great wonders happened in the Institution of this Sacrament Page 281 11 S. Iohn first receiueth of all the Apostles The Eucharist the true refection and the Present at the refection Page 283 12 Of the words of our Sauiour Doe this in my remembrance Page 284 13 The Masse a most proper memoriall of our Sauiours Passion Page 286 14 The Masse the Feast of God wherein he is singularly called vpon in the Law of Grace and the Christians are perfectly heard Page 288 15 The redemption of mankind and the end of the Synagogue signified by the Institution of the Eucharist in the full of the Moâ—ne Page 291 16 The end of the Synagogue and the beginning of the Law of Grace signified by the eclypse of the Moone and Sunne which fell out the next day of the Pasche and after the Eucharist ordained Page 293 17 The Church signified by the Moone and of the Pasche and Christian renouation Page 294 18 Our Sauiour hauing instituted the Sacrifice and Sacrament of his body goeth foorth of his lodging to goe to the Garden of Oliuet Page 297 FINIS Faults escaped PAge 14. line 21. pegising reade picreing p. 15. l. 23. cause r. sorts p. 18. l. 25. like quallities r. like heauenly quallities P. 25. l. 13. tree of all r. tree for all p. 27. l. 9. practise r. praise P. 32. l. 12. workes r. markes p. 38. l. 10. he feared the r. serâ—â—ed thee p. 47. l. 15. mystery r. ministry p. 57. l. 7. affirming r. offering p. 63. l. 33. salactous r. solicitous p. 64. l. 16. prosperity r. posterity p. 76. l. 1. wasting r. rosting p. 120. l. 14. wee haue r. wee heare p. 125. l. 20. workes r. markes p. 131. l. 27. conuersation r. conseruation p. 151. l. 43. holy r. honny p. 172. l. 22. Lauarites r. Lauatories p. 183. l. 11. celestiall r. eternall p. 212. l. 27. freed r. fed p. 221 l. 7. boundy r. bounty p. 225. l. 29. glory for vs r. glorifie vs. p. 230. l. 23. explanation r. â—â—plication p. 236. l. 15. writeth r. reciteth p. 264. l. 16. cominent r. connenient p. 267. l. 26. S. Augustine writing r. S. Augustine reciting p. 269. l. 7. Idonay r. Adonay p. 276. l. 17. Iesus r. Iosua p. 292. l. 2. fourteeth r. fourteenth and l. 7. Hierusam r. Hierusalem p. 292. l. 23. was not com r. was now com p. 295. l. 9. the Church shewes r. the Church shinâ— and l. 31. shee should not make r. shee could not make p. 229. l. 29. in that we shall be r. in that there we shall be
moreouer who will not wonder to see that howsoeuer a man turne the Hoast lift it vp or lay it downe yet this diuine bodie altereth not the situation in it selfe and although when the Sacrament is remoued it changeth place yet it changeth not for all that the situation of his parts wee see some such like thing in heauen For euen as the Sunne is alwayes aboue the earth albeit it seeme to vs wheeling about to the Antipodes Land to be vnder our feete euen so by resemblance albeit the parts of the quantity of the Hoast be changed neuerthelesse the parts of the body of our Sauiour remaine in their seate of Maiestie Humane reason there admireth God in the naturall seate and mouing of that great Celestiall body heere Faith extols the greatnesse of God in the admirable situation of the deified body of his Sonne 18. THE CLOTHING OF THE BODY of our Sauiour ADAM in his innocency was richly cloathed and neuerthelesse naked and after that he had offended he was clad with dead skins and yet notwithstanding he remained still naked all this was admitable For how was he cloathed and naked naked and clothed together This was because in that first estate he had his soule cloathed with all kinde of goodly garments of Iustice of Chastity of Charity of Fortitude of Temperance and of other such like attire and had nothing vpon his body neither had he need But when the soule was dispoiled of her habits shee was ashamed of her owne nakednesse and of that of her poore body which shee was necessarily to couer at least one part of the shame of the soule Thus Adam was clothed and naked naked and clothed by diuers considerations The Antithesis is most diuine and most meruailous without comparison for the body of our Sauiour hath not any garments and notwithstanding is alwayes most richly cloathed but it is with diuine gists of immortall glory It is shining by brightnesse more then the Sunne more pleasing by its beauty then all the Stars admirable in this and admirable also for that he couereth this robe of glory and takes that of bread and wine hiding the Maiesty of his presence vnder the visible formes to become the more familiar to our capacity euen as hee hid his Diuinity vnder the mantle of our humane nature appearing but Man and being neuerthelesse God Man together to make vs enioy his sweete conuersation So Manna Figure of this Mystery euen in this point was couered with two dewes the one falling before the Manna and seruing it as it were for a bed and the other after in stead as it were of a couerlet as hath been said Behold how God shewes himselfe in this Sacrament Soueraigne Lord of all Nature vniuersally 19. HOW THE EVCHARIST IS AN Abridgment of all the wonders of God IS not then this diuine Mystery an abridgment of Gods wonders And God hath he not made himselfe seene admirably admirable in this wonderfull abridgment more then in any other worke of his Hee hath made appeare his greatnesse two wayes the one in making of wonders apart the other which is the more diuine in assembling them together As a Musition that not onely knowes to set for single voyces but also hath the arte and the grace of setting many parts together and to delight the eare with a sweete harmony composed of diuers voyces well accorded After that he had shewed himselfe wonderfull in the production of a thousand creatures he made man as an abridgement of them all Hee hath made since the Creation of the world a thousand and a thousand admirable workes in the common course of nature sometime in the substance of things sometime in the accidents he hath changed as we haue said the wood into a Serpent changing the substance and the accidents Exod. 3. 4.9 Insu 10.12 and after the same miraculous manner the waters into bloud He hath stayed the course of the Sunne against the force of his extreame swistnesse 4 Reg. 1.10 4. Reg. 6.6 Exod. 10.21 Num. 16.31.32 he hath made fier to defcend from heauen contrary to its lightnesse Iron to swimme aboue the water contrary to the weightinesse thereof obscured the brightnesse of the ayre by extraordinary darknesse Num. 17.8 made the Sea passable within her very depths opened the bosome of the earth contrary to the solidnesse thereof made in one night to sprout to flourish and to beare fruite a drie wood contrary to it barrennesse made a Beast speak Num. 22.36 whereof naturally it was vncapable In conclusion he hath shewed that he is God of Nature making supernaturall workes in euer parcell and part of it but being come in proper Person into the world and being himselfe to depart out of the world hee hath left a miracle equall in greatnesse to the world and a chiefe worke worthy of his hand and for which he deserues to be remembred containing alone the abridgement of all the wonders that hee euer made be it in creating the world by his omnipotent Word be it in gouerning it by his dinine Wisdome be it in the preseruing of it by his infinite bounty A miracle containing his pretious body and thereby surpassing the price of a thousand worlds A miracle where hee made himselfe to be admired as soueraigne Master of all creatures commanding the substance of things and their accidents commanding the ten Categories that is the ten Orders of things in the vniuersall world Dnuid considering the diuersitie and beauty of creatures cryes out saying O Lord how thy name is admirable through all the earth Psal 8.1 but considering this future Mystery he sings another tune saying Our Lord hath made a memoriall of all his wonders Psal 110. and declaring what it is He hath giuen to eate to them that feare him It is his body which he giueth to his children for the common meates of the world he giueth to beasts and to men good and euill this body hee hath giuen to his deare Spouse prepared in this Sacrament and apparelled with all his wonders True marke and signe of his greatnesse true Manna bearing the name of wonder true bread descended from heauen true gift drawne from the greatest treasure of his almighty Wisdome and from his all-wise goodnesse 20. HOW FAITH IS FORTIFIED BY this Sacrament THe first article of our Faith is to beleeue in God Almightie for which this article beginneth our Creed and vpon this foundation are built all other points of our Religion Now the saith of this article is admirably exercised ayded and augmented in the practise of this diuine Mystery For so often as wee communicate as wee haue Masse as we participate or meditate vpon this holy banquet so often we beleeue that God is ommpotent making and renewing euery day by his omnipotent Word the wonder of his pretious body to the astonishment of Angels of men and of Nature vniuersally So often as we make bow to the obedience of Faith
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