quia, for, or because, then by Et. And so the English Bible printed in the yeare of our Lord 1552. readeth: Melchisedech King of Salem brought forth bread and wine: for he was the Priest of the most Highest God. The latter Editions also in like places haue not the copulatiue And, but some other word as the sense requireth Gen. 20. v. 3. Thou art but a dead man, for the womans sake which thou hast taken: for she is a mans wife: Where the Hebrew phrase is, And she is maried to a husband. Gen. 30. v. 27. they read thus: For I haue proued that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake, where precisely construing the Hebrew they should say, I diuined (or coniectured) and the Lord blessed me for thy sake. Likewise Esay 64. v. 5. they read: But Loe, thou hast been angrie, for we offended, the Hebrew is thus: Loe thou art angrie, and we haue sinned. In the same place they translate, Yet shal we be saued, which the Hebrew expresseth by the copulatiue, And we shal be saued. So when they thinke it conuenient, they translate the Hebrew particle, For, that, yet, which strictly signifieth And.
The Hebrew text sheweth that Melchisedech did the office of a Priest in bread and wine.Now let vs also see the original in this place. In the Hebrew it is thus: VMALCHI TSEDEC MELEC CHALEM HOTSI LECHEM VAIAIIN. VEHV COHEN LEEL ELION. VAIE VARE CHEHV, &c. In English word for word thus: And Melchisedech King of Salem brought forth bread and wine. And he the Priest to God most High. And he blessed him, &c. Where albeit the causual word, For, is not expressed, yet these wordes, And he the Priest, further declaring that besides the office and dignitie of a King (which was said before) The proper office of a Priest is to offer Sacrifice.Melchisedech was also a Priest, must needs signifie that he did something about the bread and wine belonging to a Priests office. And what that something was, perhaps the Vniuersitie of Cambridge wil testifie, whose late Professour of Diuinitie teacheth plainly, Guiliel. Whittak. contra Gegor. Martin.that Melchisedech offered Sacrifice, and was therin a figure of Christ (Pag. 6. Reprehen.) Sacerdotes (saith he) ii vere & proprie sunt, qui sacrificia faciunt; qualis fuit Aaron, & Aaronis filii, & Melchisedechus, & quem illi adumbrabant, Christus. Priestes truly and properly are they, that offer sacrifices, such as was Aaron, and the sonnes of Aaron, and Melchisedech, and Christ, whom they prefigured. If then both Aaron & Melchisedech were truly & properly Priests, because they offered sacrifices (according to this Professours definition) and both were figures of Christ, it must needs be granted that as Christ fulfilled the figure of Aarons bloudie sacrifices, in offering himselfe vpon the Crosse; so he also fulfilled the figure as wel of vnbloudie sacrifices of Aaron, as especially of Melchisedechs Sacrifice in some other besides that on the Crosse, seeing the prophet Dauid and S. Paul say, Christ is a Priest (not according to Aarons order, for that was to haue an end, but) For euer according to the Order of Melchisedech. Christ stil exercizeth the office of Priesthood according to the Order of Melchidesech by the ministerie of Priests.And what other Sacrifice did our Sauiour offer to remaine perpetual, but of his owne bodie & bloud in vnbloudie manner, vnder the formes of bread and wine, with commandment to his Apostles and Priests to doe the same til the end of the world? Let the indifferent Reader weigh it wel. And whosoeuer is not very proud wil for his better instruction or confirmation, esteeme the vniforme iudgement of manie, ancient, godlie, and learned Fathers, writing vpon this place. We wil only recite their wordes without other deduction, for breuitie sake.
S. Clemens Alexandrinus, li 4. Strom. versus finem, writeth thus: Melchisedech King of Salem, Priest of God most High, gaue wine & bread sanctified nutriment in type of the Eucharist.
The ancient fathers proue that Melchidesech offered Sacrifice in bread & wine, in figure of Christ, and of other Priests of the new Testament.S. Cyprian Epist 63. ad Cæcilium: Christ is Priest for euer according to the Order of Melchisedech, which Order is this comming from that Sacrifice, and thence descending, that Melchisedech was Priest of God most High, that he offered bread and wine, that he blessed Abraham. For who is more a Priest of God most High, than our Lord Iesus Christ, who offered Sacrifice to God the Father, and offered the same which Melchisedech had offered, bread and wine, to wit, his owne bodie and bloud. And a litle after: That therfore in Genesis,
