Of the love of our only Lord and Saviour, Iesus Christ: Both that which he beareth to vs; and that also which we are obliged to beare to him. Declared by the principall mysteries of the life, and death of our Lord; as they are deluiered [sic] to vs in Holy Scripture. With a preface, or introduction to the discourse.

Of the iudgemēt which the holy Fathers of the Church haue alwayes made of this holy Sacrifice, and B. Sacrament; and the great venera∣tion, which they had them in; and the motiues whereby we may be in∣duced to do the like.

CHAP. 47.

VVELL might the Prophet say, that this Sacrifice vvas pure and cleane, since it is no lesse then God himselfe; though not as God, but man. And the cheife Priest also is God vvho dayly offereth vp the same, together vvith the subordinate Priest. And al∣though no Quire of Angells can speake as magnificently of it, as the thing deserues; yet the Fathers of the Church haue done theyr best, to acknovvledge and admire it. And for the comfort of my reader, I vvill cite him a fevv of the many passages vvhich are found in them.

Who is more the Priest of God, sayth(a) 1.1 S. Cyprian, then our Lord Iesus Christ, who offered a Sa∣crifice to God the Father, & he offered that which Mel∣chisedech offered, towit, bread and wine, that is to say, his owne body and bloud.

When we offer this Sacrifice, sayth(b) 1.2 Saint Cyrill, we afterwards make mention of the dead.

We erect not Altars to Martyrs, saith(c) 1.3 S. Augustine, but we offer Sacrifice to him alone, who

is the God both of them and vs. This S. Augustine saith; and he relateth els vvhere of his mother, That when she was dying, she desired him to remem∣ber her, at the Altar, where she was wont to be pre∣sent, euery day; and from whence she knew that holy Sacrifice(d) 1.4 to be dispensed, wherby the hand wry∣ting was blotted out which was contrary to vs.

Our flesh, sayth(e) 1.5 Tertullian, doth secd vpon the body and bloud of Christ, that the soule also may be made fat with God.

The bread which our Lord gaue to his Disci∣ples, (as(f) 1.6 S. Cyprian saith of the Reall Presence) being changed not in shew, but in substance, by the omnipotency of the word, was made flesh. That as in the person of Christ the humanity was seene, and the diuinity lay hid; so hath the diuine essence vnspeakea∣bly powred it selfe, into this inuisible Sacrament.

We doe rightly beleeue, sayth(g) 1.7 S. Gregory of Nisse, that bread being sanctified, by the word of God, is transmuted into the body of the word of God.

We know, and haue it for most assured, sayth(h) 1.8 S. Cyrill Bishop of Hierusalem, that this bread which is seene by vs, is not bread, although the tast e∣steeme it to be bread, but that it is the body of Christ.

Many mothers, saith(i) 1.9 S. Chrysostome, put out their children, when they are borne, to be nurst by o∣thers; but Christ our Lord would not doe soe, but doth nourish vs with his owne body, and so doth conioyne, & glew vs to himselfe.

O miracle!(k) 1.10 O benignity of God, sayth the same S. Chrysostome! He that sitteth aboue, with the Father, at the same instant is handled by the hands of all; and he deliuers himselfe vp to such as will receaue

and imbrace him. And in(l) 1.11 another place, he sayth thus, That which is in the Chalice, flowed out of his side, and of that doe we communicate.

This indeed, as sayth S.(m) 1.12 Ephrem, exceedeth all admiration, all speach, and all conceipt, which Christ our Sauiour the only begotten sonne of God, hath done. To vs who are clad with flesh, he hath giuen fire, and spirit to eate, namely his body, and his bloud.

My bread, sayth(n) 1.13 S. Ambrose, is vsuall bread but this bread is bread, before the words of the Sacra∣ment, but whē the cōsecration once doth come, of bread it is made the flesh of Christ. Let vs therfore settle this point how that which is bread, can be made the body of Christ? By consecration. This consecration, of what speach and words doth it consist? Of the words and speach of our Lord Iesus. For all the rest which is said, is either prayse giuen to God, or there are particular prayers, made for the people, and for Kings, and others. But when he comes to the tyme of making the B. Sa∣crament, the Priest doth no longer speake in his owne words, but in the words of Christ. The speach ther∣fore of Christ, is that which makes this Sacrament. What speach of Christ? Thevery same wherby al things were made. Our Lord commaunded, and the heauen was made. Our Lord commaunded, and the earth was made. Our Lord commaunded, and the sea was made. Our Lord commaunded & al the creatures were made. Thou seest therfore how effectually the speach of Christ doth work. If(o) 1.14 then there be such power in the speach of our Lord Iesus, as to make those things be, which were not; how much more effectually, will it worke towards the making of them be which are; and to make them be changed, into other, then what they were.

Therefore(p) 1.15 that I may answere thee, I say: That it was not the body of Christ, before the consecration; but after the consecration, I say to thee, that then, it is the body of Christ.

Christ was carried, sayth(q) 1.16 S. Augustine, in his owne hands, when commending his body to his A∣postles, he said, Hoc est corpus meum, this is my body, for then he carried his body in his hands.

And agayne, Our Lord would place our sal∣uation, in his body, and bloud. But how did he com∣mend his body and bloud to vs? In his humility. For vnlesse he were humble, he would not be eaten and drunke.

The good Pastour, sayth(r) 1.17 S. Gregory the great, laid downe his life for his sheepe, that he might turne his body and bloud into our Sacrament, & might feed the sheepe which he had redeemed, by the nutri∣ment of his flesh.

Vnder the species of bread (sayth S.(s) 1.18 Cy∣rillus Ierosolymitanus) the body is giuen thee; and vn∣der the species of bloud, the wine; that so thou maist become participant of his body & bloud. So shall we by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is Carryers of Christ, when we shall haue receiued his body and bloud, into our body; and so, as S. Peter saith we shall be made consorts of the diuine nature.

And (according to that of S.(t) 1.19 Cyrill) if any man shall mingle wax, which is melted, by fire, with other wax, which is also melted, in such sort that they both doe seeme to be but one, made of both; so by the coniunction of the body and bloud of Christ our Lord, he is in vs, and we in him.

S.(u) 1.20 Gregory doth surther say: What faith∣full

soule can doubt, but that in the very hower of the Sacrifice, the heauens doe open, at the voyce of the Priest; and that in this mystery of Christ Iesus, the Quires of the Angells doe assist; the highest and the lowest things doe meete; Terrestriall and Celestiall things are ioyned; and there is made one thinge, of things which are visible, and inuisible.

Heere then we are taught, by the holy Fathers of the Church, (whome I might haue cited to this purpose, both more at large, and more in number) the inscrutable loue of our Lord IESVS to mankind, expressed in these high mysteries, of the blessed Sacrament, and the holy Sacrifice of the Masse. But how shall we be able to disingage our selues, for being euen ouerwhelmed with the huge weight therof, since the superexcellent Humanity of our(x) 1.21 Lord IESVS (consisting of that pretious body, which first was framed out of purest bloud of the all-immaculate Virgin, by the only hand of the holy Ghost, and of that glo∣rious soule, which in the first instāt of the crea∣tion therof was hypostatically vnited to God the sonne, the second person of the most B. Trinity; (and the same person, being indiui∣sible from the other two, of God the Father, and God the holy Ghost) that this person, I say, of Christ our Lord, should be communi∣cated to all the Priests of the holy Catholike Church, to be offred daily, ouer all the world, and to be receiued into the brest both of them, and al the other faithfull children of that mo∣ther, as often as thēselues should desire. What

Cherubim is able to discouer the greatnes of this benefit; and what Seraphim hath his hart hoat inough, to breath out such ardent flames of loue, as grow due to God vpō this account? How full of reason was the exclamation and admiration of holy Dauid when he said,* 1.22 That there was none like to God, in the cogitations which he interteyned for our Good? No man, no creature could euer haue aspired to such a happines, or so much as to haue conceaued, that euen the diuine nature it selfe, had bene able to expres∣se such goodnes. But God is God, and God is loue, and the loue euen of Creatures is full of(y) 1.23 inuention, for the inioyning, and (if it were possible) for the very exchanging them∣selues by loue into one another. And now as God is infinite, in all things, so is he infinite, after a particular manner, in his loue, and by consequence, he is infinite in his inuention.

How inspeakeable honour had it bene for man, to haue bene, though but admitted, to the sight alone, of Christ our Lord, in the blessed Sacrament?* 1.24 For if the sight of that bra∣sen serpēt with faith in Christ our Lord (who was then but to come so long after) were a∣ble to cure the Israelites of the stings of ser∣pents; how much more would the only sight of our blessed Sauiour, with faith, haue suffi∣ciently serued to cure their soules of all their sicknesse? How much happines had it bene for vs, to touch the sacred host, with our hāds; the senfible part of the same host being a gar∣ment which sits so close vpon the body, and

soule of Christ our Lord. For we know that a woman was cured of a bloudy flux,* 1.25 by the on∣ly touch of the hemne of his looser garment. Such ho∣nour and happines had bene much for vs to haue receaued; but it was nothing, in cōpari∣sō of the excessiue charity of our Lord, which would not be satisfied with doing lesse then all. For what could euen his omnipotency haue added, to the trace which heere he hath deuised; not only of a coniunction, but of an vnion; and that such an one, as is the most in∣ternall which can be imagined, being in the way of food. S. Augustine sheweth how God hath made as able to feed vpon him, by a meer spirituall manner, in the mistery of the In∣carnation; and we may fitly apply the same wordes, to this Sacramētall kind of feeding, as indeed these two misteries haue great affinity with one another. God(z) 1.26 became man (sayth this incomparable Saint) for mans sake, that so man might be redeemed by him, by whome he was created. And, to the end that God might be beloued by man after a kind of more familiar manner, he ap∣peared in the likenes of man. That so, both the inter∣nall, and the externall senses of man, might be made happy in him; and that the eye of our hart might be fedd by the consideration of his diuinity, and the eye of our flesh and bloud, by that of his humanity. That so, whether we should worke inward, or outward, this humane nature of ours which was created by him; in him might be sure to find store of food. This S. Au∣gustine sayth, and if this might be well affir∣med in respect of the Incamation of our Lord

IESVS, how much more may it be sayd, in res∣pect of the mystery of the blessed Sacrament; where we feed not only spiritually, but besi∣des, after a sacramentall, and yet reall māner.

Notes

• (a) 1.1

  Cypr. l. 2. Ep. 3.
• (b) 1.2

  Cyril. Hierosol. (one of the fathers of the first Councell of Nice) in Catech. mist. 5.
• (c) 1.3

  Au∣gust. de ci∣uit. Dei l. 22. c. 10. Idem. Confes. l. 9. c. 13.
• (d) 1.4

  The body of our Lord.
• (e) 1.5

  Tertul. l. deresur∣rect. carnit cap. 8.
• (f) 1.6

  Cypr. de coena Domini.
• (g) 1.7

  Gre∣gor. Nys∣sen. in ora∣tione ca∣techistica cap. 37.
• (h) 1.8

  Cyril. Ierosol. cathe. Myst. 4.
• (i) 1.9

  Chry∣sost. hom. 83. in Matt.
• (k) 1.10

  Chry∣sost. l. 3. de Sacerde tio.
• (l) 1.11

  Chry∣sost. hom. 24 c. 10.1. Epist. ad Corinth.
• (m) 1.12

  Saint Ephrem (who was familiar with Saint Basil the great) lib. de natura Dei non serutanda cap. 5.
• (n) 1.13

  Am∣bros. l. 4. de Sacra men••is.
• (o) 1.14

  Note this con∣sequence.
• (p) 1.15

  Marke well the expresse authority of this Saint.
• (q) 1.16

  Aug. in Psal. 33. Conc. 1. Ibid.
• (r) 1.17

  Greg. in hom. 14. in Euang.
• (s) 1.18

  Cyril. Ierosol. in Catech. Myst. 4.
• (t) 1.19

  Cyril. l. 10. in Iohn. c. 11.
• (u) 1.20

  Greg. l. 4. Dia∣log. c. 58.
• (x) 1.21

  The incompa∣ble digni∣ty of the person of Christ our Lord.
• * 1.22

  Psalm. 34. & 9.
• (y) 1.23

  How full of In∣uention great loue is.
• * 1.24

  Num. 88.
• * 1.25

  Matt. 9 & 14. Marc. 6. Luc. 8.
• (z) 1.26

  A pas∣sage of S. Augusti∣ne, which well de∣serueth to be consi. dered. Manual. cap. 26.