PARA. 1.
ANd now having handled the Rites of the Iewish Paschall Lambe; and shewed what were transient; what were permanent; what selfely un∣dergone by a traditionall sumpsimus; having also shewed, that Christ observed all the durable ceremonies of the Passeover, and every of them; and that he conformed himselfe to the free, and vo∣luntary observations of the Passeover, no further than he thought fit; as not being bound to them, on the one side; nor bent against them on the other side; when they were not against reason, or conveniencie: my proposed method calleth me to other matters, of mayner intendments, and consequences, viz. what was said or done, (so farre as is revealed in the New Testament) particularly (in) and (at) Christs last Paschall supper; which was the first of those three Suppers, at which he was present, in the same night that he was betrayed: but even this point also cannot have its perfect explanation; unlesse as we have manifested how, and when Christ followed the Iewish Rites of Paschatizing; so we also search, and determine wherein Christ did symbolize, with the Romane fashions, in feasting; since in many specialities, the Iewes and Romanes accorded in their feastings; and our blessed Saviour abhorred singularity, and did swim with the Current of those times, for outward Civill usage, deportment and behaviour, in things decent. But loe! here am I to enter into the Lists, against Benedictus Pererius, that most learned and fa∣mous Iesuite; who is as a Gyant, and one of the sonnes of Anak; in Comparison of whom I may seeme as a grasse-hopper, Num. 13.33. he is a very Goliah, a man of warre from his youth, 1 Sam 17.33 which Pererius, in his labours on S. Iohn, and in that worke of his, of which Vere dici queat, fuisse hoc opus nostrum, quod nunc Typis mandatur, Trigenario studio, & curâ elaboratum, atque confectum; (that I may translate his owne words, in his Preface, to the fourth Tome) I say, in that worke of his; of which it may be truely sayd, that he was 30. yeares studying, ma∣king, mending, polishing, and perfecting it.