The Marginal Notes of the Popish Testament Translated Into English, Book 7
1. Corinthians.
1. Cor. 1. 1….
The text.
And I meane this, for that euerie one of you saith, ⸫ I certes am Paules, and I Apollos, but I Cephas, and I Christs.
The note.
The beginning of schismes is ouer much admiring, and addicting mens selues to their owne particular masters.
The answer.
We hauehave one master, that is to saie Christ, him we professe to follow, and of him to learne: others of what godlines or estimation so euer we follow, but so far foorth as they followed Christ. If admiring of men, and addicting mens selues to particular masters, be the beginning and cause of schismes: Then what can you say for your Austen friers, your Dominicans, your Franciscans, your Iesuites, your schoolemen, your Thomists, your Scotists, why they should not go for schismatikes? HaueHave they not the authors of their their sects in admiration? HaueHave they not addicted themselues to their particular masters?Antoninus de Dominico. HaueHave they not deuised a number of vntruthes to bring their masters into admiration, and estimation? What though there be some kinde of consent amonst them, yet that excuseth them not from being schismatikes, no more then the consent of Pharisies, Sadduces, & other sectaries of the Iewes against Christ, and his truth, did excuse them.
1. Cor. 3. 2.
The text.
As it were to litle ones in Christ, I gaue you ⸫ milke to drink, not meate: for you could not as yet. But neither can you now verily, for yet you are carnall.
The note.
The church onelyonly hath truth both in her milke, and in her bread, that is whether she instruct the perfect or imperfect, who are called carnall. Aug. lib. 15. cap. 3. contra Faustum.
The answer.
If you went not about with the name of the church to beguile the simple, as though thereby your church were vnderstood, wée néeded not to giuegive this any answer. But now to auoide your deceite we (as we learne of Augustine) admonish all men by the scriptures to iudge of the church,Augustin. de …mtate Ecclesie capite. 4. least therin being deceiued, they in stéed of milke and bread receiue strong poison.
1. Cor. 3. 9.
The text.
For we are Gods coadiutors: ⸫ you are Gods husbandrie, you are Gods building.
The note.
A maruellous dignitie of spirituall pastors, that they be not the onelyonly instruments, or ministers of Christ, but also Gods coadiutors in the worke of our saluation.
The answer.
I hauehave not hitherto neither carped at your old translator, neither yet at your translation, neither will I begin here, though I might. Onlie this I would hauehave all men to obserue diligently, that in this dignitie, which God hath bestowed vponupon men to vse their labor,1. Cor. 3. 5. and paines in his worke, men do vse strength not naturall but conferred by grace, that they may be apt, and fit instruments to aduance forward Gods worke, so that they hauehave nothing of themselues, in themselues to glorie of. And further, that all that which is chéefe in this worke,1. Cor. 3. 7 as all encrease of goodnes, saluation, and life do so procéede from God, as that therein he vseth no mans helpe, but his owne.
1. Cor. 4. 6.
The text.
But these things ⸫ brethren I hauehave transfigured, into my selfe and Apollo for you: that in vsus you may learne, one not to be puffed vp against another, aboue that is written.
The note.
Lo when he named himselfe, and Apollo, and Cephas: he ment other seditious and factious preachers, whose names he spared.
The answer.
We sée rather that those which are seditious and factious, doo for their better winning of credit, shroud them selues vnderunder the names of those which be famous for godlines and learning. And so it is like that they did at Corinth, & that the Apostle correcting the fault, was content to spare their names, that by that milde dealing he might the better winne them, if it were possible.
1. Cor. 4. 15.
The text.
For ⸫ if you hauehave ten thousand paedagogues in Christ, yet not manie fathers.
The note.
So may Saint Augustine our Apostle say to vsus English men.
The answer.
The reader is here to vnderstand, that our papists meane Augustine the monke, & not Augustine the famous doctor, and that this Augustine was no Apostle, for that he was not sent vsus immediatlie from God, but from a méere man. This Augustine found in this Iland better Christians then he made anie, whom bicause they could not like that gallie mawfrie which he brought from Rome, he caused to be most cruellie murdered in great numbers. And yet this is to be noted also, that a great number of our popish corruptions in his time were neither bred nor borne, as for example the vniuersalitie of the popes power and transubstantiation.
1. Cor. 5. 2.
The text.
And you are puffed vp, and ⸫ hauehave not mourned rather, that he might be taken away from among you, that hath done this deede.
The note.
Christian men should be sorowfull to see greeuous offences borne withall, and ought zealouslie to seeke the offenders punishment by excommunication.
The answer.
This note agréeth not with the open practise of your church of Rome, wherein not onlie Curtisans are maintained for money, but also the sinne of Sodom both fréelie practised, and also praised and commended.
1. Cor. 5. 9.
The text.
I wrote to you in ⸫ an Epistle, not to keepe companie with fornicators.
The note.
Either this epistle in the words before, or some other.
The answer.
I take it to be some other, for that I sée no reason to lead me to thinke it to be this.
1. Cor. 5. 11.
The text.
But now I wrote to you, not to keepe companie, if he that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or a couetous person, or a ⸫ seruer of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one not so much as take meate.
The note.
A notorious wilfull corruption in the Bible 1562. translating in the verse before idolaters, and here worshippers of images, the Apostles word being one foreign, idolater.
The answer.
A marueilous iudgement of God is vponupon you, that contrarie to the expresse commandement of God, & contrarie to the whole course of scriptures, you maintaine that worshipping of images is not idolatrie. Your quarrell to the translation is answered by Doctor Fulke against Martinius. As for your selues you bow to the wood, whereof part hath serued to warme men,Esai. 44. 18, 19. and part to dresse their meat: denie it if you can.
1. Cor. 6. 2.
The text.
Or know you not that the ⸫ saints shall iudge of the world?
The note.
The faithfull iudge and giuegive sentence with God at the latter daie, speciallie the Apostles and the perfect Christians that hauehave forsaken all for Christs sake.
The answer.
The promise of iudging the world is generall to all true christians, and not restrained to perfect Christians. But that is intollerable, that you plant the perfection of Christians in them selues, that is, in their owne doing, whereas our perfection is the doing and perfect obedience of our Lord & Sauiour Iesus Christ.
1. Cor. 6. 10.
The text.
Do not erre, neither fornicators, nor ⸫ seruers of idols, nor adulterers, nor the effoeminate, nor the liers with mankinde, nor theeues, nor the couetous, nor drunkards, nor ra…ers, nor extortioners shall possesse the kingdome of God.
The note.
For this the English Bible 1562. falselie translateth worshippers of images.
The answer.
A foole must be alwaies plaieng with his bable, your quarell is not woorth the answering so oft. An idol in Gréeke is the same that we call image in English: but you can not abide that an image should be called an image, but you can abide to commit as grosse and foule idolatrie, as euer there was anie in the world.
1. Cor. 6. 18.
The text.
Euerie sinne whatsoeuer a man doeth is without the bodie: but he that doeth fornicate, sinneth ⸫ against his owne bodie.
The note.
Fornication is not onelyonly an enimie to the soule, but wasteth, weakeneth, corrupteth, and defileth the bodie, more properly and directly than any other sinnes do.
The answer.
Your note is true, and yet some of your side do prefer fornication before marriage in some persons, and all your priests refuse the remedie,Smith de votis & cae…batu. that God himself hath ordained against fornication.
1. Cor. 7. 5.
The text.
Defraud not one another, except perhaps by consent for a time, ⸫ that you may giuegive your selfe to praier: and returne againe togither, least sathan tempt you for your incontinencie.
The note.
If the lay man can not pray, vnlesse he abstaine from his wife: the priest that alwaies must offer sacrifices, and alwaies pray, must therefore alwaies be free from matrimonie. Hierom lib. 1. c. 19. cont. Iouin.
The answer.
Will you admit all Ieroms reasons in that booke to be good? I know you will not. Amongst other this is a very loose one: Remember I pray you your owne note vponupon the first to the Romans. He is said to pray continually, that eueryevery day at some certaine time praieth. Therefore there is no such necessitie for anie man to abstaine continually from marriage, bicause married men may very well hauehave time for both the duties.
1. Cor. 7. 8.
The text.
⸫ But I say to the vnmarried, and to widowes: it is good for them if they so abide euen as I also.
The note.
Before he treated of the continencie of such as were married, now he giueth lessons for the vnmarried also.
The answer.
But you refuse to learne both the one and the other. For neither you will admit eueryevery man to hauehave his owne wife, neither yet will you leaue the profession of virginitie to be taken or left, as eueryevery man feéeleth in himselfe strength, for that to be giuen to him, or not to be giuen to him of God.
1. Cor. 7. 23.
The text.
You were bought with price, be not made the ⸫ bond men of men.
The note.
You must not serue men, so that you obey or please them more than God.
The answer.
The pope exacteth that seruice, his extollers, flatterers, and clawbacks bestow it vponupon him: and generally all papists vnderunder that color and pretence, withdraw euen their lawfull obedience from their soueraignes and lawfull princes.
1. Cor. 7. 28.
The text.
Art thou loose from a wife, seeke not a wife. But if thou take a wife ⸫ thou hast not sinned.
The note.
Virginitie counselled as the better, marriage not forbidden, bicause it is no sinne.
The answer.
Why hauehave you not thrust virginitie in amongst your sacraments, sith you hold it absolutely better than matrimonie? You speake very nicely of marriage, being one of your sacrements: Uirginitie counselled, marriage not forbidden. The reasons, bicause virginitie is the better, but marriage no sinne. Is that the best reason you can giuegive for the not forbidding of marriage, or can you affoord it no better commendation? Is marriage a sacrament, and no where counselled nor commanded? Sure that were very strange. The admirers of virginitie make marriage no better than sinne. For the end of it is death, saith Ierom in his first booke against Iouinian. But to leaue your fansies of marriage and virginitie, this I say, that either of them is better than other, as time, place, persons, and other circumstances do serue for the choise of the one or the other. Marriage is the holie ordinance of the almightie, commanded to all that hauehave not the gift of continencie. Uirginitie is a vertue rare onelyonly to be kept of those, to whom God hath giuen speciall gifts for that purpose.
1. Cor. 7. 40.
The text.
But ⸫ more blessed shall she be, if she so remaine according to my counsell. And I thinke that I also hauehave the spirit of God.
The note.
The state of widowhood more blessed than the state of matrimonie.
The answer.
This also is not absolute, but in respect of many encumbrances that commonly accompanie the married.
1. Cor. 8. ….
The text.
⸫ Knowledge puffeth vp, but charitie edifieth.
The note.
Knowledge without charitie puffeth vp in pride, and profiteth nothing at all: when it is ioined with charitie then it edifieth. Aug. lib. 9. ciuit. Dei. cap. 20.
The answer.
Héere againe saint Augustine might hauehave béen spared, for you hauehave giuen testimonie sufficient of your reading.
1. Cor. 9. 5.
The note.
HaueHave not we power to lead about a woman a sister, as also the rest of the Apostles, and our Lords brethren, and ⸫ Cephas?
The note.
He nameth Cephas (that is Peter) to prooue his purpose by the example of the chiefe and prince of the Apostles. Saint Ambrose. Saint Chrysost. Oecum. vponupon this place.
The answer.
You plaie altogether the sophisters, to racke a word or two beyond the meaning of the writers. I hauehave told you before that it was no péece of their meaning to giuegive to Peter anie soueraignty ouer the rest of the Apostles, aswell bicause they giuegive those additions to others as to Peter, as also for that in expresse words they make all the Apostles equall in authoritie, & of Paul and Peter they know not whether of them to preferre. But what néede we fathers, are not the scriptures in this case plaine? did not Iames, Peter,Galat. 2 9. and Iohn giuegive to Paul and Barnabas the right handes (not of soueraigntie) but of societie,2. Cor. 11. 5. and Paul estéemed not him selfe inferior to the best and chiefest of the Apostles? And if your desire for Peter were graunted, yet for the Bishop of Rome you were neuer the nigher your purpose.
1. Cor. 9. 9.
The text.
For it is written in the Law of Moises, Thou shalt not muzzel the mouth of the oxe that ⸫ treadeth out the corne.
The note.
In that countrie they did tread out their corne with oxen, as we do thresh it out.
The answer.
A néedlesse note, for what could anie man els imagine of it?
1. Cor. 9. 13.
The text.
Know you not that they which worke in the holie place, eate the things that are of the holie place, and they that serue ⸫ the altar participate with the altar?
The note.
The English Bible (1562) here and in the next chapter saith thrise for altar, temple most falselie and hereticallie against holie altars, which about the time of that translation were digged downe in England.
The answer.
An ouersight we graunt, but false or hereticall meaning we denie. For if these places make nothing for your altars, howe could the leauing out of the word altar be of purpose against your altars. Besides, the translator sufficientlie cleareth him selfe of anie such purpose, in that in diuers and sundrie places, he translateth altars, as he findeth it. For it had béene to verie small purpose in a place or two to shunne the name of altars, and to reteine them in infinite other places.
1. Cor. 9. 2….
The text.
To all men ⸫ I became all things, that I might saue all.
The note.
Not by fiction or simulation, but by compassion of the infirmities of all sortes. August. epist. 9.
The answer.
A verie good and necessarie example for those which labour in the word, to beare so farre as they lawfullie may, or can with the infirmities of manie, to the end to winne and gaine them to God.
1. Cor. 10. 1….
The text.
Therefore he that thinketh him selfe to stand, let him take heed ⸫ least he fall.
The note.
It is profitable to all, or in a maner to all for to keepe them in humilitie, not to know what they shalbe, saith Saint Augustine, which maketh against the vaine securitie of the protestants.
The answer.
You alledge Saint Augustine at randon without telling vsus where we might finde this place, which maketh me to doubt that it is but some patch of a place, which being violentlie pulled from that which goeth before, and from that which followeth, may séeme to make for that which he meant not. In which coniecture, whether in this place true or false, yet I do you none iniurie. First, because Augustine giueth me occasion so to coniecture, whom I suppose in this point not to be against him selfe, who alwaies teacheth christians not to doubt of that which God hath promised them. Secondlie, your selues hauehave often giuen occasion of this coniecture, who manie times make the fathers seeme to speake that, which they neuer meant, as both alreadie hath bene shewed, and héerafter shall be shewed in these answers to your marginall notes.
1. Cor. 11. 2.
The text.
And I praise you brethren, that in all things you be mindefull of me: and as I hauehave deliuered vntounto you, you keepe my ⸫ precepts.
The note.
In the Greeke traditions foreign.
The answer.
Could not your vulgar translator abide traditions, or hath the Gréeke worde some other signification? Against vsus Martinius maketh manie and mightie outcries if we do not alwaies translate it tradition. He cannot abide that we should learne any more significations of the word. And all the stur is to giuegive some colour to your vnwritten verities.
…. Cor. 11. …5.
The text.
For I receiued of our Lord that which also I hauehave deliuered vntounto you, ⸫ that our Lord Iesus in the night that he was betraied tooke bread, &c.
The note.
The Apostles drift in all that he saith here is against vnwoorthy receiuing (as S. Augustine also noteth ep. 118. cap. 3.) and not to set out the whole order of ministration, as the heretikes do ignorantly imagine.
The answer.
Saint Augustine doth not saie, that the whole order of the administration of the Lords supper is not to be gathered hence. For if the whole institution of Christ, be not a direction to vsus for that, whence shall we hauehave it? But it is best for you to stand vponupon deniall of this, bicause you break the whole institution of Christ. How did Paule deliuer that which he receiued of the Lord, if he deliuered not the order of the administration of the sacrament? did not Christ leaue vntounto his church an order for it? Though the Apostles drift here be agianst vnreuerent and vnwoorthy receiuing, yet that could not be better reformed, then by teaching the reuerende and orderly vse of it. But bicause you hauehave in your larger annotations bestowed great labor about this point, therefore I refer it ouer to the answer of them.
1. Cor. 12. 8.
The text.
To one certes by the spirit is giuen ⸫ the word of wisdome, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same spirit: to another faith in the same spirit, &c.
The note.
All these gifts be those, which the learned call gratias gratis da…as, which be bestowed often vponupon euill liuers, which hauehave not the other graces of God, whereby their persons should be gratefull, iust, and holie in his sight.
The answer.
That these graces which are here recited are fréely giuen many times to the wicked is manifest, and confessed of all. But that which you would secretly insinuate, that the other graces wherby men are made gratefull, iust, and holie in Gods sight, are not fréely giuen, but to those that procure them by works preparatorie, or to them that deserue them by inherent iustice, is manifestlie and directly opposite to the Scriptures, Romaines 3. 24. Ephes. 2. 8.
1. Cor. 12. 1….
The text.
For as the bodie is one, and hath manie members, and all the members of the bodie wheras they be manie, yet are ⸫ one bodie: so also Christ.
The note.
A maruellous vnion betwixt Christ and his church, and a great comfort to all catholikes being members thereof, that the church and he the head and the bodie make and be called one Christ. Aug. de vnita Eccl.
The answer.
A maruellous good note, wherin onelyonly this héed is to be taken, that men be not deceiued by ioining themselues to those that are catholikes in name, and not in déede. Which it is impossible otherwise to auoide, then by holding fast the societie of them, that imbrace and keepe that forme of doctrine, which was deliuered to the church by the apostles, whom all parts confesse to be true catholikes.
1. Cor. 12. 28.
The text.
Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all doctors? ⸫ are all myracles? hauehave all the grace of doing cures, &c.
The note.
Saint Augustine ep. 137. giueth the same reason, why myracles and cures be done at the memories or bodies of some saints, more then at others, and by the same saints in one place of their memories, rather then at other places.
The answer.
Augustine was a man, sometimes, as well as others, deceiued by illusions. For why should not the same saints memories bée honored with myracles in Affrica, as well as in Italie? For it was not to places, but to persons, that the gift of doing myracles was granted. How much trulier wrote Augustine that myracles were not suffered to endure to his time,August. 1. r… tract. cap. 13. least men should alwaies séeke visible confirmations, and least men should waxe cold by the commonnes of those things, by the strangenes wherof they were first enflamed.
1. Cor. 13. 2.
The text.
And if I should hauehave prophecie, and knew all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should ⸫ hauehave all faith, so that I could remooue mountaines, and hauehave not charitie I am nothing.
The note.
This prooueth that faith is nothing woorth to saluation without works, and that there may be true faith without charitie.
The answer.
It is strange that when in the former chapter you hauehave set faith among the gifts that are giuen often vntounto the wicked, now the same faith being spoken of, you would hauehave it to be taken for the faith we speake of in the cause of iustification, and so consequently that it might be without charitie: Whereas there is as much difference betwéene that faith, and this, as is betwixt the beléefe of the omnipotent power of God, and affiance in his goodnes. But admit that that were granted you, which you so much desire, that a true faith were here ment, how followeth your reason? Is euerie supposition a proofe? Saint Paule saith, if an angell from heauen teach an other gospell, &c. doth it follow that an angell from heauen may teach an other Gospell? do you not sée the vanitie of your proofe?
1. Cor. 13. 10.
The text.
But ⸫ when that shall come that is perfect, that shal be made voide that is in part.
The note.
By this text Saint Augustine lib. 22. Ciu. cap. 29. prooueth that the saints in heauen hauehave more perfect knowledge of our affaires here, then they had whiles they liued here.
The answer.
Saint Augustine there entreateth of the knowledge and sight of God, which the godly shall hauehave after the resurrection of their bodies. And he speaketh in that place no word of the knowledge, that dead men hauehave touching the affaires of men liuing here, whiles this world endureth. But touching that matter his mind is,Despiritu & …ma. cap. 29. as he expresseth it else where, that the saints in heauen know no more what we do here, then we know what they do there. But you care not how you lie, so you may turne men from God, to put confidence in creatures.
1. Cor. 13. 13.
The text.
And now there remaine faith, hope, and charitie, these three. But the ⸫ greater of these is charitie.
The note.
Charitie is of all three the greatest. How then doth onelyonly faith, being inferior to it, saue, and iustifie, and not charitie?
The answer.
I will not at all touch that charitie is not simply the greatest, but in some certaine respects. But I will come to your reason. If faith iustified by the vertue and merite of it self, then your reason were somewhat, for then charitie being the greater vertue, should rather iustifie. But now when it is but an instrument, to lay hold vponupon Christ our righteousnes, your reason holdeth not. Our hands are inferior to some other parts of man, yet our hands are the onelyonly instruments, whereby we lay holde on, and vse such weapons as serue for our defence: And therefore men are called men of their hands.
1. Cor. 4. 14.
The text.
But if thou blesse in the spirit, he that supplieth the place of the ⸫ vulgar, how shall he say Amen, vponupon thy blessing, bicause he knoweth not what thou saiest?
The note.
By this word are ment all rude vnlearned men, but specially the simple, which were yet vnchristened, as the Catechumens, which came into those spirituall exercises, as also infidels did at their pleasures.
The answer.
By this word are ment all priuate men, for it is euident that except they vnderstoode the publike praier and thankesgiuing, they could not shew foorth their assent by saieng, Amen.
1. Cor. 15. 3.
The text.
For ⸫ I deliuered vntounto you first of all, which I also receiued: That Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures.
The note.
This deliuerie in the Latine, and Greeke importeth tradition, and so by tradition did the Apostles plant the church in all truth, before they wrote any thing.
The answer.
The controuersie is not whether tradition, or writing was first: but whether the apostles did not write as much as is necessarie for vsus to know, and kéepe: and whether traditions, which vnderunder their name you obtrude, be to be iudged by their writings, or not. As for that tradition he speaketh of here, he specifieth most plainly in writing, and therefore this can not make for your vnwritten verities, to the which you would faine impropriate the name of traditions.
1. Cor. 15. 10.
The text.
But by the grace of God I am that which I am: and his grace in me hath not been ⸫ voide: but I hauehave labored more aboundantly then all they: yet not I but the grace of God with me.
The note.
In him Gods grace is not voide, that worketh by his freewill according to the motion, and direction of the same grace.
The answer.
As you hauehave drawen fréewill from philosophie, so you plant grace in the roome of that, which the philosophers called right reason, and you giuegive vntounto it no more then they did to right reason, that is to mooue and direct the will. But Paule on the contrary side so attributeth all to grace, that he leaueth nothing to himselfe. I hauehave labored (saith he) yet not I, but the grace of God with me, that is to saie, which is with me.
1. Cor. 15. 14.
The text.
And if Christ be not risen againe, then vaine is our preaching, vaine also is your faith, and we are found also ⸫ false witnesses of God, &c.
The note.
So we may say, if the catholike faith in all points be not true, then our first apostles were false witnesses, then hath our countrie beleeued in vaine, all this while are all our forefathers dead in their sins, & perished, which presupposing Christ to be God, were the greatest absurditie in the worlde.
The answer.
And whie did you not say, if the faith which the church of Rome at this day professeth, be not in al points true? for that we know you meane by the Catholike faith: but you would hauehave your words true, howsoeuer your meaning was. But we denie your Romish faith to be the catholike faith. By our first Apostles also you meane neither Peter nor Paul, nor anie of Christes Apostles, but Augustine the monke pope Gregories apostle: but if his doctrine were Catholike, neither yours nor ours is in all points Catholike. For our forefathers which you speake of, you meane those which liued of late yeeres: for those of elder time knew not your faith, they could not tell that the Pope could not erre, they thought him subiect to the whole church, they knew nothing of transubstantiation, of concomitance, and of a number of such toies as you of late hauehave coined. And therefore let men vnderstand that the Catholike faith is that, which Paul and Peter and the other Apostles of Christ left vntounto vsus, taught in the scriptures, and that which the first church of Christ beléeued and embraced at their hands, and which the church of Rome at this day persecuteth, and then your note may stand vntouched.
1. Cor. 15. 42.
The text.
For ⸫ starre differeth from starre in glorie, so also the resurrection of the dead.
The note.
The glorie of the bodies of saints shall not be all alike, but different in heauen according to mens merits.
The answer.
The Apostle putteth no difference here betwéene the glorified bodies of the saints: but betwéene the state of our bodies afore the resurrection and after the resurrection: betwixt which two states of the selfe same bodies, there shalbe as great difference, as betwixt the glorie of the sunne, & the glorie of anie other starre:: & therefore you do but according to your accustomed order, wrest this text to bring men to put confidence in their owne merits.
1. Cor. 15. 44.
The text.
It is sowen a naturall bodie, it shall rise a spirituall bodie.
The note.
As to become spirituall doeth not take away the substance of the bodie glorified, no more when Christes bodie is said to be in spiritual sort in the sacrament, doth it import the absence of his true bodie & substance.
The answer.
Hungrie dogges eate durtie puddings, this stuffe must serue where better can not be had. Our bodies though spiritual and configured (as you call it) to the bodie of his glorie, yet are true bodies, & not in manie places at once, whereof it followeth that Christes bodie being a true glorified bodie, is not in manie places at once: for that can not stand with the trueth of his bodie.
1. Cor. 15. 5….
The text.
This I say (brethren) that flesh and blood can not possesse the kingdome of God, neither shall corruption possesse incorruption.
The note.
Flesh and blood signifie not here the substance of those things, but the corrupt qualitie incident to them in this life by the fall of Adam.
The answer.
If you should light on men as froward and contentious as your selues, they might with as great reason contend with you, for the litterall sense of flesh and blood, as you do for the litterall sense of, This is my bodie, which spéech being of a Sacrament, you will by no means admit to be of the same nature, and to hauehave like interpretation as all other spéeches of Sacraments hauehave.
1. Cor. 16. 2.
The text.
In ⸫ the first of the Sabaoth, let euerie one of you put a part with him selfe, laying vp what shall well like him: that not when I come collections be made.
The note.
That is Sunday. Hierome q. 4. Hedibiae. So quickelie did the Christians keepe Sunday holie day, and assembled to diuine seruice on the same.
The answer.
For Sunday, that it was appointed by the Apostles to bée kept for the Saboath, & that it was so solemnized in their times it is manifest, you needed not Saint Hieroms authoritie for it, sauing that you louelove to vse the fathers where you least need them.
1. Cor. 16▪ 8.
The text.
But I will tarie at Ephesus till Pentecost.
The note.
The heretikes and other new fangled striue amongst themselues, whether Pentecost signifie here the terme of fiftie daies, or els the Iewes holie day so called. But it commeth not to their minds, that it is most like to be the feast of Whit suntide, kept and instituted, euen then by the Apostles, as appeareth by the fathers. See Augustine epist 119. cap. 15. and 16. Ambrose in cap. 17. Lucae.
The answer.
In Augustine I find certaine mysteries in the number of fifty noted as well out of the new testament, as out of the old, and that the feast of Pentecost was in his time kept of Christians: but what was meant by it in this place, or whether the Apostles did institute that feast to be kept of Christians or not, I find nothing there. In Ambrose I find, that the beginning of the eighth wéeke after Easter maketh the Pentecost, and that Paul in this place promised to tarrie till that time, and that they kept all the fiftie daies as Easter, but whether by the apostles tradition or no, that is left vncertain. So we sée not by your fathers, that the apostles instituted the feast of Whitsuntide. But we sée that you louelove to trouble your selues and others with trifles.
1. Cor. 16. 2….
The text.
If any man louelove not our Lord Iesus Christ, be he Anathema, ⸫ Maran-atha.
The note.
That is, our Lord is come. Hierom ep. 173. Therefore Anathema to all that louelove him not, or beleeue not. Theophilact. vponupon this place.
The answer.
In matter not in controuersie betwixt vsus you make vnnecessarie shew of reading. If you did either in louelove or in faith wait for the comming of the Lord, you would not wilfully serue his enimie, and oppose your selues to his knowen truth.