est ad eum c. Tu es sacerdos Hebr. 5. in aeternum secundùm ordinem Melchisedech Euen so Chryste also glorified not him self to be made the high pteist but he that said vnto him c. Thowe arte a preist for euer after the order of Melchisedech And declaring the great benefitte that came by him being the high preist to all beleuers he saieth again Et consummatus factus est omnibus obtemperantibus sibi causa salutis aeternae appellatus à Deo Pontifex iuxta ordinem Melchisedech And Ibid. he being perfight was the cause of eternall saluacion vnto all them that obeied him and ys called of God an high preist after the ordre of Melchisedech Likewise he calleth him in the VI. chapiter And the wholl VII chap. he occupieth in applieng Melchisedech to Chryst prouing by this prophecie the abrogacion of the preisthead of the lawe and so consequētlie of the lawe yt self Wherfore he saied Yf nowe therfore perfection came by the preistheade Hebr. 7. of the Leuites for vnder that preisthead the people receaued the lawe what neadeth further that an other preist shoulde rise to be called after the ordre of Melchisedech and not after the order of Aaron For yf the preisthead be translated then of necessitie must the lawe be translated also c. For after this maner dothe he testifie Thowe arte a preist for euer after the order of Melchisedech Then the commaundement that went before ys disanulled bycause of weakenesse and vnprofitablenesse And further declaring the excellencie of Chrystes preisthead aboue the preisthead of Aaron he saieth For these preistes were made withoute an othe but this preist with an othe by him that saied to him The Lorde sware and will not repent him Thowe art a preist for euer after the order of Melchisedech Thus as the lawe of nature hath in Melchisedech figured Chryste And the lawe of Moyses by prophecie forespoken yt So hath the lawe of the Gospell as ye haue nowe learned by sainct Paule fullfilled the same and most plainlie and euidentlie proued yt so to be Yf then Chryste be a preist after the order of Melchisedech we must seke what the order of the preistheade of Melchisedech ys and wherin yt consisteth And therbie shall we knowe the preistheade of Chryste wherin yt consisteth Sainct Paule generallie declareth the order of a preist when he saieth Omnis namque Pontifex ex hominibus assumptus pro hominibus constituitur in ijs Hebr. 5. quae sunt ad Deum vt offerat dona sacrificia pro peccatis Euery high preist that ys taken from amonge men ys ordeined for men in thinges perteining to God to offer giftes and Sacrifices for sinne By whiche description of saincte Paule yt dothe appeare that the order of preisthead standeth in two partes The first he teacheth when he saieth Ordre of preisthead standeth in two partes Pro hominibus constituitur in ijs quae sunt ad Deum He ys ordeined for men in thinges perteining to God Wherby ys ment the preaching to the people and teaching them the lawes of God and ministring the Sacramentes to them as yt was saied vnto Moyses Esto tu populo in ijs quae ad Exod. 18. Deum pertinent vt referas quae dicuntur ad eum ostendasue populo ceremonias ritum colendi viam per quam ingredi debeant opus facere Be thowe vnto the people to Godward that thowe maist bringe the causes vnto God And thowe shalt teache them ordinaunces and lawes and shewe them the waie wherin they must walke and the worke that they must doo The seconde parte of the order of preistheade standeth in offring giftes and sacrifices for the sinnes of the people Then they that be called of God as was Aaron and doo preach and teache one faith of God vnto the people and offer vnto God one maner of sacrifice they be one order of preistheade So that these two must concurre or ells yt ys not a perfight order For Elias the prophet of God and the 3. Reg. 18. preistes of Baall did offer one maner of thinge in sacrifice for they both offred oxen yet they differed in preisthead For Helias was the preist of God the other the preistes of Baall And why was this difference bycause they taught not one faithe in one God Melchisedech and Aaron taught one God and were bothe preistes of Gen. 14. Leuit. 8. Heb 5. God For Melchisedech was the preist of the most high God as the booke of Genesis wittnesseth and Aaron was called of God as the booke of Leuiticus and saincte Paule to the Hebrues testifie And yet they were not of one order of preisthead bycause their sacrifices were not of one maner By this then yt maie be taken for a trueth that Chryst not being a preist after the order of Aaron but after the order of Melchidech whiche two orders differed not in faith but in maner of sacrifice ys so called a preist after the order of Melchisedech for the maner of the sacrifice For he must agree with Melchisedech in that thing that maketh the difference betwixt the order of Aaron and the order of Melchisedech and that was and ys in the maner of sacrifice For Aaron offred in blood the other in bread and wine But here the Aduersarie will saie that Chryst ys not likened to Melchisedech for anie sacrifice by all the processe of saincte Paule But for Obiection that Melchisedech was Rex Salem kinge of Salem and withall the preist of God and for that he was with oute Father withoute Mother hauing neither beginning of daies nor ending in these pointes he ys the figure of Chryste who ys both king and preist hauing no Father in earth nor mother in heauen neither as concerning his Godhead anie beginning and as touching his Godhead and Manhead no endinge And so ys he a preist for euer To this I saie that the thing that saincte Paule principallie intended ys to be considered And then yt shall easilie be perceaued why he did not Principall entent of S. Paule in his epist to the Hebrues make rehersall of the maner of the sacrifice of Melchisedech nor mencion of the doing of the same in Chryste The principall entent of saincte Paule in this place was to proue and make manifest the excellencie of Chryst and his preisthead aboue Aaron and his preisthead Whiche excellencie in nothing more appeared then in that that Chryst was an euerlasting preist and his preisthead euerlasting and not in the maner of sacrifice For yf he had alleaged that Melchisedech did sacrifice in bread and wine The Hebrues wolde quickly haue saied that their sacrifices in that respecte moche excelled and had a moche more gloriouse shewe and cowntenance then the sacrifice of Melchisedech being but bread and wine And therfor saincte Paule omitted to make mencion VVhie S. Paule spake nothing of she sacrifice of Melchisedech in his epist
example of godlie liuing that God bothe in his pastours and people maie be glorified As cōcerning the second that the scriptures haue doubtes and difficulties Scriptures ful of doubres Yt appeareth by the expresse woorde of God when he saieth Yf ther rise a matter to hard for thee in iudgemēt c. Thow shalt get thee vppe to the preistes the Leuites But forsomoch as this matter ys allready sufficiētlie treacted of and proued yt ys enough here nowe to haue touched yt and so to passe to the third Which ys that the people must be taught and learn the lawes of god of the preistes Which thīg ys so manifestlie declared ād in so plain woordes Doubtes in the lawe of God must be dissolued by the preistes opened in the scriptures alleaged that I shal not nede to make any further declaraciō therof forasmuche as yt ys plainlie ther saied that the doubtes of the people in the lawe of God must be dissolued bi the preistes to whose sentēce and iudgemēt they must in any wise stande and not decline frō yt neither on the right hand nor on the left and that on the pain of deathe In the which saing of God yt ys euidēt howe moche God wolde that the determinaciō of his church in the doubtes of his lawe should be estemed ād reuerēced and his preistes in that respecte obeid Which howe moche yt ys nowe disdained and contēned and gods ordre and cōmaūdemēt neclected his holie faith and religion infringed and violated yt ys more with Sithes and teares to be lamented then beinge so manifest as yt ys nedefull to be opened and declared Of whose mouthe the people should learn the lawe AlmightieGod by his prophete Malachie telleth Likewise that of the preistes the people should aske People must learn of the preistes the lawe God by the Prophete Aggaeus cōmaundeth Who shoulde teach the people the newe Testamēt he also prescribeth Appointing some Apostles some Prophetes some Doctours or teachers who to theise offices are appointed to rule and instruct the people In ijs quae ad Deū pertinēt in those thinges that appertein to God But nowe al this ordre ys inuerted in manie places The people teache the preistes and not the preistes the people The people dissolue the doubts of the lawe the preistes not being asked for The people God his ordre inuerted speake the preistes holde their peace The people make lawes in religion the preistes are cōpelled to obeie The people take in hande the thinges that appertain to God the preistes are put to scilence A moch like state we finde in the time of Moyses emōge the children of Israel in the time when Moyses was in the moūt with God For they perceiuing him to be lōg absent and thinking that he wolde no more come they began to take the rule vpō thēselues And wheras Aarō before cōmaūded and taught thē the religiō of the true God nowe they taking the rule and inuerting the ordre cōmaunded Aaron and taught him soche Religion as lyked them of a false God When the people sawe saieth the booke of Exodus that yt was long er Moyses came downe oute of the Mountain they gathered themselfes togeather Exod 32. vnto Aaron and saied vnto him Vppe make vs Gods to go before vs. For of this Moises the felowe that brought vs oute of the lande of Aegypte we wote not what ys become Hereby maie yt be perceiued what religion shall be when the ordre that God appointed being broken they will teache and commaunde which in matters to godwarde shoulde be taught and commaunded But with all yt ys to be remembred that for this wickednes the wrathe of God waxed hote against the people and notwithstanding that ther was immediatelie Plaguesfor breaking Gods appoincted ordre in religiō and mynisterie a greate slaughter of the people aboute the nōbre of three thousand and that Moyses made intercession to God for the people Yet allmightie God in the ende saied Neuer the latter in the daie when I viset I will viset their sinne vpon them and the Lorde plagued the people bicause of the calfe whiche Aaron made Wherfore seinge that the moche like trangression ys committed emonge the Chrystian people yt ys to be feared that the wrathe of God will waxe hote against vs. But God graūte vs a Moyses that by earnest intercessiō maie yet mittigate the plague of God that shall come for this wickednesse The plague I feare me will be sore vpon Corah Dathan and Abiron and vpon the capitanes of the multitude whiche be the great and famouse mē in the Num. 16. congregacion which haue gathered thē selues together against Moyses and Aaron and cā not contēt thē selues with soche ordre as God hath put in his Church and which by hys pleasure hath so long continued But yet they come to Moyses and Aaron and saie ye make muche to doo seing all the multitude are holie euery one of them and the Lorde ys emonge them Whieheaue ye your selues vppe aboue the Congregacion of the Lorde I must staie my hand I shall ells be to tediouse to the reader in this matter in the whiche I thought not to haue writtē the fourth parte of that that ys written and for expedicion leaue vnto him to reade the strory in the booke of Nombres and so further to consider yt And wher ther be manie stories declaring the displeasures of God to haue commed vppon the people bicause they wolde not submitte them selues to the ordeinaunce of him and his ministres but wolde vsurpe vpon them both Yet I will speake but of one in the first booke of the kinges which ys that where God appointed Samuel his beloued and holie Prophet to be the ruler of the people they being a stiffnecked and disobedient people to gods 1. Reg. 8. ordre so long before vsed al the elders gathered themselues together and came to Samuel and saied vnto him Beholde thowe arte olde and thy Sonnes walke not in thy waies Nowe therfore make vs a king to iudge vs as al other nacions haue See their phantasticall prouidence and therwith their disobediēce They take in hande to prouide for their common wealth as though God coulde not prouide them as good a ruler after Samuel as he did in prouiding of Samuel And therfore the ruler whiche God appointed reiected make vs saie they a kinge But what saied Almightie God to Samuel Heare the voice of the people for they haue not cast thee awaye but me that I shoulde not reign ouer them 1. Reg. 12. And after that they had a kinge Samuel to cause them to vnderstand that their offence was great saied I will call vnto the Lorde and he shall send thunder and rain that ye maie perceaue and see howe that yower wickednesse ys great which ye haue doen in thee seight of the Lorde in asking yowe a king And they saied Praye for vs thy seruauntes vnto the Lorde thy God that
he accuseth them that they so were and in facte they did so but to Gods pleasure and the wealth of their soules they coulde not do so For yt ys proprely saied that we maie doe that that we maie doe well And that we can not doe whiche we can not doe well To this sense also Chrysostome by his interrogatiue including soch a negatiue saied The blaspbemers of Gods name coulde not with the same mouth and toung that they blasphemed with receaue the bodie of our Lorde receaue the sacrifice of our Lorde Whiche his sainge yet rebuketh them bicause they did so Wherfore yt ys not a negatiue absolute A like sainge ys ther ascribed to Origen for yt ys vncerten whether yt Origenes be his worke or no oute of the which yt ys taken and yt ys this Multa porrò de ipso Verbo dici possunt quod factum est caro cibusue verus quem qut comederit viuet in aeternum quem nullus malus potest comedere Manie thinges also maie be saied of the Sonne of God himself that yt was made flesh and verie meat whiche whosoeuer shall eate shall liue foreuer whiche no euell man can eate Thus moche Origen As S. Paule and S. Cypriane saied that they that were parteners of Idolathites A place of Origen opened coulde not be partakers of our Lordes table And as Chrysostom saied that vain swearers by Gods holie name coulde not with the same mouthe and tounge receaue the holy sacrifice whiche ys the bodie of our Lorde whiche ys the table that S. Paule and S. Cyprian spake of in whiche their sainges they haue made mencion but of two vices that shoulde let them from the partaking of the holie and blessed meate of our Lordes table So Origen declareth that all vices that be mortall and whiche make a man an euell man do diuide him from the same table And saieth that soche a man can not eate of the meat of our Lorde not that soche a one doth not eate yt but that soche a one dothe not eate yt to his profitte but raither to his condemnacion bycause with the offence of God he doth abuse the bodie of Chryst with moche irreuerence ioining yt as yt were in the house of his bodie with Sathan betwixt whom and Chryst as betwixt God and Beliall ys none agreement A liuely argument wherof ys declared in the first booke of kinges where 1. Reg. 5. we read that the Azotyans hauing the Arke of God put yt into the temple of Dagon And forasmoche as they accompted yt as the Arke of the God of Israell of whose great might and power they had heard moche they set yt by their Idoll Dagon But in the morning when the Azotians came into the temple they fownde Dagod lieng grooueling vpon the grownde They set him vppe again and the next daie coming into the temple they fownde him lieng before the Arke of God like a trunke cast downe to the grownde his head and palmes of his handes cutte of By this ys signified vnto vs that although yt pleased God through his great sufferance so to be abused as to be ioined with Sathan Behall or Dagon yet to declare that he ys offended withall he throweth down Dagon and causeth him to be fownde lieng like a stocke or trunke and with all striketh the people with a great glague By this then as by that that ys before saied yt maie be perceaued howe this scripture of S. Paules epistle ys to be vnderstanded and the doctours also whiche haue ben hetherto alleaged for the exposition of the same or shall hereafter be alleaged THE ONE AND THIRTETH CHAP. ENDETH the exposition of this text by Theophilact and Anselmus I Shoulde not nede to alleadge so manie holie Fathers and doctours vpon euery scripture as I doe so to seke oute the true vnderstanding of them but that the impudencie of the Proclamer hath thervnto enforeed me He saieth the catholike Churche hath not one scripture nor doctour for them but yt ys and shall be made manifest that yt hath not one in dede alone but yt hath all the scriptures and holie doctours that treacte of the blessed Sacrament But bicause vpon this tenth chapiter of Sainct Paule a long exposition by diuerse and manie doctours ys allreadie made by whom being made plain howe these scripturs going before are to be vnderstanded yt ys the easier to perceaue the vnderstanding of this nowe in hande depending of them therfor I will cuttof some parte of my pourpose and nowe vpon this text bring in but one coople more of the which Theophilact shall be the first Who for that that S. Paule willed the Corinthians to consider the Iewes who vsed to offre sacrifices and be partakers of the aultar to the entent that they being chrystians might perceaue that of soche sacrifice as they offred they were partakers by expresse woordes openeth and declareth what S. Paule ment that the Corinthians were partakers of Thus he saieth De Iudaeis namque nil intulit Theoph. in Dec. 1. Cor. quod de eo participarent sed Altaris sunt participes dixit in quo quod immolandum suisset impositum igni consumebarur De Christi autem corpore haud quaquam res ita se habet sed Christi corporis fuit participatio Non enim altaris sumus sed Dominici corporis ipsi participes Of the Iewes he saied nothing that they shoulde partake of yt meninge the sacrifice but he saied that they are partakers of the aultar We are partakers euen of the bodie of our Lord offred on the aultar vpon the which aultar that that was to be offred in sacrifice when yt was put vpon yt yt was consumed with fire But of the bodie of Chryst the matter ys not so but ther was a participacion of the bodie of Chryst For we are not partakers of the aultar But we are partakers euen of the bodie of our Lorde Thus moche Theophilact In whome this cometh woorthilie to be noted that S. Paule speaking of VVhie S. Paule saied not that the Iewes were partakers of their sacrifices as the chrystians of theirs the sacrifices of the Iewes doth not name anie thing by speciall name wherof they shoulde be partakers but onely vseth the generall tearme of the aultar saing that they be partakers of the aultar And whie bicause in some of these Sacrifices yt was ordeined that they shoulde be burnt and consumed And therfor he saied not that they shoulde be partakers of the thing offred but of the aultar But when he spake of the bodie of Chryst saieth Theophilact he did not handle the matter so but by expresse and speciall woordes saied allwais that ther was a partaking of the bodie of Chryste Nowe yf the bodie of Chryst by his ascension were absumed frō vs as the sacrifice of the Iewes was consumed from them by fire so that we did no more by no nearer partaking by presence receaue Chryst then they did their