Tricoenivm Christi in nocte proditionis suæ The threefold svpper of Christ in the night that he vvas betrayed / explained by Edvvard Kellett.

PAR. 3.

AFter the Apostles doubting, and gazing one upon the other, when they found no signes of discovery, Peter who before was chid, about his too resolute deniall to be washed, fearing perhaps, lest the aspersion might rest on himselfe, Beckned to Iohn, who was leaning on Iesus bosome, that he should aske who it should be of whom Christ spake, Iohn 13.24.

Even beckes have their language. Augustine de Doctrinâ Christiana, lib. 1. cum oculis fabulamur; we discourse with our eyes: Confessionum; 8.8. plus alloquebantur animum meum, frons; genae; oculi, color; modus vocis, quam verba quae promebam: my frowne, my cheeke, my colour; my manner of speaking, did make fuller expression of my minde, than did the words themselves, which I did utter. Ovidius Meta∣morpho 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 4.

—Nutu signisque loquuntur;

With beckes and signes, Th' expresse their mindes.

Proverb. 6.13. He speaketh with his feete, he teacheth with his fingers; loquens in pe∣dibus suis: docens in digitis suis, as Montanus hath it. Digitis loquitur, saith the Vulgar.

—digitis saepe est nutuque locutus Et tacitam mensae duxit in orbe notam,

Ovid. Trist. 1.

Oft with his fingers, oft with beckes he spake, And on the round board secret signes did make.

Navius in Tarentilla,—Alii: dat digito literas. To some others he wrote let∣ters on his fingers ends. Et potest de computo digitorum manualis loquela figurari, saith Beda, in libro de indigitatione. There may be framed a certaine kind of speaking by the hand; even by an arithmeticall disposall of his fingers. The wanton Tibullus was not ignorant, Lib. 1.

—nutus conferre loquaces, Blandaque compositis abdere verba notis.

How to conferre by speaking beckes, How to compose his speech. In silent language, when h' intends To flatter and beseech.

No mervaile then, if S. Iohn understood S. Peters significative beckning: and leaning on Jesus breast, sayd unto him, Lord, who is it? Here I could reproove the over earnest affe∣ctators of S. Peters Primacie. I could tell them that D. Collins hath divinely weigh∣ed, not in the Bakers ballance, but in the Gold smiths scales, both S. Peter and S. Paul. Let others judge, I forbeare. It is in his Increpation of Eudaemon Johannes, pag. 305. & sequent: I could tell them hence, that S. Peter was glad, to make a Mediator of S. Iohn, to interrogate Christ, which himselfe either dated not, o•• thought inconvenient to propound: but such comparisons please not me.