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The Greek Fathers stile it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; yea, most expresly it is called the Lords Supper, 1 Corinth. 11.20. and though Maldonate interpreteth the place of the Agapae, which out of doubt were not rightly used in those dayes, and were reprehended by St. Paul: yet at those Agapae was the Lords Supper eaten: or they a little before, or after it. And St. Paul divinely teacheth them, first
negatively, that they eat not the Supper of the Lord, when they eat their owne supper one before another, vers. 20.21. or when some were hungry, some drun∣ken; and that in the Church of God: whereupon he telleth them, they had houses to eat and drink in, and will by no meanes praise their doings, ver. 22.
Secondly positively; that they truly eat the Supper of the Lord, who follow Christ for their patterne, and imitate his example: and so by consequence sheweth the right institution of the Lords Supper, which was his maine intent fully to declare against all concomitant abuses, to that end that they might follow it accordingly.
As the Eucharist came in the roome of the Paschal, so the Agapae after Christs time succeeded in the place of the Second Supper of the Jewes.
Alba-spinaeus observationum 1. observatione 18. pag. 58. speakes timorously. I will not deny, in the Apostles time, but that the Agapae were made perhaps at or with the celebration of the Eucharist. He might have spoken boldly. Three things are certaine.
First, before Tertullians time the Eucharist was given and taken in the mor∣ning. Secondly, The Agapae were in the evening. Thirdly, Yet at the first they were both about the same time. Let me say a little of each point.
Alba-spinaeus doth answer very shallowly, That this crime was forged, even from the daies of Tiberius, as Tertullian saith in his Apologetick.
I reply. All this is true, that it was a most horrid falshood, an affected Lie, coined in Tiborius his time. But the question is not, Whether the same were
true, or false; (to which only Alba-spinaeus supinely but idlely answereth) but from what ground or probability the rumour did arise, or how we may trace the report home to its owne forme, to the bed from whence it first started. I say againe, It was because the Eucharist and the Agapae were conjoyned, and were then kept at Night-season: thereupon they found fault with the Suppers of Chri∣stians, as sated with blood and humane flesh. And perhaps in after times this was one true reason why they are the blessed Sacrament in the morning, and the Agapae at night, to remove that objection; That in the night they feasted not themselves with the blood of an Infant. Which practice, though it staggered the report, and someway diverted it, and the Christians absoluti sunt, were ac∣quitted; yet litura manebat, the spot was not cleane taken away, as Claudius was wont to say in another case & aliquid haerebat, but something still remai∣ned behind, because the accusation was boldly vouched. Inveterate rumours are not easily wiped out.
If Alba-spinaeus had observed, that at their single separated Agapae there was no possibility of suspition of Infanticide, or feeding on mans flesh, or drinking of mans blood, but that the words of the body and blood of Christ eaten, and drun∣ken, might in the carnal mis-interpretation be Caput famae, a ground (though slip∣pery) for report, and for such a report, through their malice and infidelity; he would then have said (without a perhaps) that for a good while after Christs time both the Eucharist and the Love-feasts did touch or kisse each the other; and that thence arose the horrid imputation, that their Suppers were accused as sceleris in∣fames, infamous for villanies, to use Tertullians phrase. Weigh this farther cir∣cumstance. The Agapae were kept on the Lords day: Diebus Dominicis celebra∣bant Agapas, they celebrated their Love-feasts on the Lords day, saith Alba-spi∣naeus himselfe, observat. 18. and then was the most blessed Eucharist administred; that day above all other dayes, that time of the day, even about Supper time, in imitation of our Lord.
Tertullian ad uxorem 2.4. speaketh of Pagan husbands suspition of their Chri∣stian wives: Quis ad Convivium Dominicum illud, quod infamant, sine sua suspi∣tione dimittet? Who can endure to let his wife goe to that infamous banquet of the Lord without jealousie? What this Convivium Dominicum, this Banquet of the Lord is, falleth under enquiry. Pamelius interpreteth it, de Missa Christia∣norum, of the Christians Masse. Rhenanus, Junius, Mornaeus, Casaubonus Exer∣citat. 6. pag. 512. interpreteth it of the Eucharist. Alba-spinaeus in his notes on this place of Tertullian, thus farre concludeth wittily and truly, That Tertullian speaketh of that Banquet or Feast that was infamous among the Gentiles. Con∣vivium illud, quod infamant, are the very words of Tertullian. But they were not suspected of any incest at the Eucharist, saith Alba-spinaeus, or of any un∣lawfull lust then, as from Pliny junior and others may appeare. Therefore those scandals were only taken against the Agapae, or Love-feasts. What things are objected against the Christians, in Justin, adversus-Judaeos Apolog. 2. In Tertul∣lian Apologet. and ad Scapulam, De cultu foeminarum, in Minutius Foelix, in Eusebius 4.1. & 4. capitibus, concerning their Suppers, and Infanticide, they are to be referred to the Agapae, in which the Eucharist was neither consecrated, nor received. Thus farre White-thorne, or Alba-spinaeus.
But if he had observed, either that at their Agapae only there was no possi∣bility of suspition concerning Infanticide, and that at the Eucharist a carnall man might so interpret it; or that the Eucharist was held by the Gentiles worse than the Agapae, so much worse, as Infanticide, and devouring humane flesh and blood, are worse than the sins of the eighth Commandement; or that the holy Eucharist and the Agapae were kept both at one time, about Supper time, in the dayes Apostolicall: and the Eucharist being first dispatched, the suspition for lust was laid upon the Second Supper, where they did feast, sing, and were merry: and that Tertullian Apologetico cap. 39. mentioneth the Triclintum Chri∣stianorum,
the Supping-beds of the Christians, and their discumbing thereon, both men and women: I say againe, he would have concluded without a per∣haps, that the blessed Eucharist and the Agapae were not dis-sundred by much time, but rather were united; and he would not have rejected, as he did, both his owne and our Heroes, Pamelius, Rhenanus, Junius, Mornaeus, Casaubone, to whom let me add that learned Jesuit Ludovicus de la Cerda, who interpreteth Dominicum Convivium, the Lords Supper, thus; Convivium Domini peragebatur, celebrabaturque sacrâ Eucharistiâ: ac tunc menticbantur Gentiles, ac dicebant, Christianos panem sacrum Eucharistiae edere intinctum sanguine jugulati Infantis: So farre Cerda. The Banquet of the Lord was kept and celebrated at the sacred Eucharist: and then did the Gentiles falsly report, and say, that the Christians did eat the sacred bread of the Eucharist dipped in the blood of a butchered In∣fant. I may not omit it is called Dei coena, the Supper of God, in Tertullian ad uxorem 2.6. And that Alba-spinaeus in all his Observations observed not that the Agapae or Love-feasts did succeed the Second Supper of the Jewes, at all their great feasts: which Suppers were for the most part contiguous, and never farre dis-sundred. Julian the Apostata taxed the Christians for these three alto∣gether, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as it is in Petavius his Edition pag. 588. Chrysostome Homiliâ 27. on the Epistle to the Corinthians, Statis diebus mensas faciebant communes, on set and certaine times they kept common feastings: & peracta synaxi post Sacramentorum communionem, omnes commune inibant Convivium: and when the Congregation was dismissed, after they had communicated of the Sacraments, they all met together at a common Banquet. Thus did the Agapae, or Love-feasts, succeed in the roome of the Second Jew∣ish Supper. After the Sacraments were administred they feasted altogether.