shall examine them only to show the weakness of them which they being very sensible of themselves endeavour to make up their want of strength by the greatness of their number and surely never were so many places brought out of Scripture to so little purpose as what they produce for the sacrifice of the Mass First then they go back as far as Genesis for it and it is very strange they should find it there this will make it very primitive and ancient indeed but where-ever they meet with bread and Wine which are things of very great Antiquity they resolve to make a sacrifice of them especially if there be but a Priest by who has the power of Consecrating for they suppose he must presently fall to his office and put on his habit if bread and wine be before him and that he cannot like other men eat and drink them as his ordinary food or entertain his friends and others with them except he not only Religiously bless them by Prayer and Thanksgiving which every good man ought to do and it was the custom even of the Heathens to do this before they ate but he must sacrifice and offer them up to God. This they will needs have Melchisedec do in the 14. of Gen. 18. verse Melchisedec King of Salem brought forth bread and wine and he was the Priest of the most High God. What is there here to show that Melchisedec offered bread and wine as a sacrifice to God the very word in their own vulgar Latin answering to the Hebrew is protulit he brought forth not obtulit he offered and if it were the latter could not he offer bread and wine to Abraham and his Company upon a Table but must it necessarily be to God upon an Altar Ver. 14 15. Abraham with his Three Hundred and Eighteen Trained Servants had been by night pursuing those who had taken away his brother Lot Captive and when they were thus weary and hungry Melchisedec hospitably and kindly entertained them with provision to refresh them and brought forth bread and wine to them thus it lyes in the Sacred History and Context and thus Josephus (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. c. 11. relates it and there is not the least mention or intimation of any sacrifice as Cajetan (b) Nihil hic scribitur de sacrificio sed de prolatione seu extractione quam Josephus dicit factam ad resiciendos victores Cajetan in Gen. 14. owns upon the place and so do many of their own Authors whom Possevine (c) Biblioth l. 4. c. 13. the Jesuit takes upon him to correct for it Bellarmine indeed as if he had been by at the entertainment and been one of Abraham's Souldiers tells us they had ate and drank very well before and therefore desires Melchisedec to excuse them for they had no need of his Bread and Wine at that time (d,) Quid igitur opus erat pane vino ijs qui spoliis abundabant paulo ante comederant biberant Bellarm. de Miss l. 1. c. 6. D. and yet in the same place owns that these were given to Abraham and his Companions for food (e,) At nos non negamus data illa in cibum Abrahae sociis sed dicimus fuisse prius Deo â—plata consecrata tum data hominibus ut de sacrificio participarent Ib. but that they were first offered to God and then given to them to partake of them as of a sacrifice But why were they given as Food if they had no need of Food Did Melchisedec know they had eaten Or does the Scripture say so Or might not he treat them as a King though they had victuals of their own How does Bellarmine know they were first sacrificed when there is not the least word of that Ay but it is said that he was the Priest of the most high God therefore it is likely he sacrificed why else should that be added It was added because he was so or because as it immediately follows he blessed Abraham Ver. 19.20 and Abraham gave him Tithes of all his spoils this is more likely than because he sacrificed for there is no mention of that as of the other and 't is not said he brought forth bread and wine because he was the Priest of the high God 't is only a conjunctive particle and he was not a causal for It is said also in the same place that he was King of Salem and why might not his entertaining Abraham be as he was a King because he is said there to be a King as well as a Priest and yet I suppose a Priest may be said to treat his Friends as another man without officiating then as a Priest though he be called a Priest Why Bellarmine should cite any Fathers for his Opinion I cannot imagine since the oldest of them are I suppose so much latter and at so great a distance from the times of Melchisedec that they could no more know what Melchisedec did at that time then we can now and they are very improper witnesses of a matter of fact that was so long ago which nothing but the Scripture history can give us any account of to which itis not only precarious but rash to add any of our own guesses and conjectures however tho some of the Fathers do by way of figure and allusion make this bread and wine of Melchisedec to relate to the Sacramental bread and wine as they make Manna and several other things which were not sacrifices yet none apply it to the sacrifice of the Mass nor could they well do it since they believed no such thing in the Romish sense as I shall show afterwards But after all what if Melchisedec did sacrifice bread and wine What service will this do to the sacrifice of the Mass The Priests do not there sacrifice bread and wine according to this Mystical Type nor did Melchisedec sure offer up Christs body and bloud under the species of his bread wine if we allow all that can be begged and desired that Melchisedec did sacrifice and that this his sacrifice was a Type and figure of another sacrifice why may not that be of the sacrifice of the Cross which is the true and only proper Christian sacrifice when Christ the Bread of Life was offered up unto God for us So that there is no necessity to bring in the sacrifice of the Mass to complete and answer this figure were there any thing in it besides guesse and fancy which I see no manner of reason to believe there is since there is nothing to countenance it in the New Testament and 't is very presumptuous and ungrounded to make any thing a true Type or to have a Typical meaning farther then Gods Spirit which alone could know this has given us warrant to do it by Revelation Yet without any such ground both Bellarmine †de Missâ l. 1. c. 6. and the Council