A booke of notes and common places, with their expositions, collected and gathered out of the workes of diuers singular writers, and brought alphabetically into order. A worke both profitable and also necessarie, to those that desire the true vnderstanding & meaning of holy Scripture By Iohn Marbeck

BLESSE.

What it is to blesse, and who be blessed.

To blesse God, is to giue him praise and thanks for his be∣nefites.

¶To blesse a king or a Prince, is to thanke him for his kindnesse, and to praie to God that he may long raigne to the laude of God, and wealth of his Commons.

¶To blesse a mans neighbour, is to praie for him, and to doe him good.

¶To blesse my bread & meat, is to giue God thanks for it.

To blesse my selfe, is to giue God thanks, for his great be∣nefites that I haue receiued of him, & to praie to God of his in∣finit goodnesse he wil increase those gifts y^• he hath giuen mée, vnto his laude and praise, and as touching this flesh, to fulfill his will in it, & not to spare it but to scourge, cut and burne it, onelie that it maie be to his honour & glorie. This is y^e forme of blessing, and not to wagge two fingers ouer vs. I. Frith.

To blesse in the Hebrue manner of speach, is nothing else but to with an happie successe and to desire good things for him. As Symeon when he blessed Christ and his parents, shewed by his affection,* 1.1 that he wished well to the kingdome of their new king. Hemmyng.

¶The word blesse,* 1.2 when we talke of men, signifieth among the Hebrues to with well: & when it is referred to God, it betoke∣neth as much as to giue a man good fortune (as they terme it) or to enrich him abundantlie, with all good thinges. For in as much as Gods fauour is workfull, his blessing bringeth foorth of it self abundance of al good things. Cal. in the. 5. Psal. verse. 12

To blesse is to speake well, professe well, liue well. S. Au∣gustine* 1.3 saith: I will blesse the Lord in all times, alwaies his praise shall be in my mouth. Chrisostome* 1.4 saith: when God is blessed, and thanks be giuen of men vnto him, then more plen∣tious blessing is wont to be giuen of him for their sakes, by whom he is blessed. For he that blesseth maketh him debter of a greater blessing. Calfehill. fol. 116.

By blessing vnderstand not the wagging of the popes or Bi∣shops hand ouer thy head, but praier, as when we saie, GOD make thée a good man, Christ put his spirit in thée, or giue thée grace and power to walke in the truth, & to followe his com∣maundemēts,* 1.5 & as Rebeccaes friends blessed hir when she de∣parted,

saieng. Thou art our sister, growe into thousand thou∣sands, & thy séed possesse the gates of their enimies. And as Isaac blessed Iacob,* 1.6 saieng: God giue thée of the dew of heauen, and of the fatnesse of the earth, abundance of corne, wine, and oile. And Gen. 28. 3. Almightie God blesse thée and make thée grow and multiplie thée, that thou maist be a great multitude of people, & giue to thée and to thy séede after thee, the blessing of Abraham, that thou maist possesse the land, wherein thou art a straunger, which he promised to thy grandfather, & such like. Tindale fol. 145.

What Gods blessings are.

Gods blessings are his giftes: as in the first Chapter of Ge∣nesis: he blessed them, saieng, Grow and multiplie & haue do∣minion. And in the. 9. Chapter, he blessed. Noe & his sonnes, and gaue dominion ouer all beasts, & authoritie to eate them. And God blessed Abraham, with cattel and other riches. And Iacob desired Esau to receiue the blessing which he brought him, that is the present and gift. God blessed the. 7. daie. That is, gaue it a preheminence that men should rest therein from bodilie la∣bour, and learne to know the wil of God and his lawes, & how to worke their works godlie all the wéeke after. God also bles∣sed all nations in Abrahams séed, that is, he turned his loue and fauour vnto them, & giueth them his spirit, and knowledge of the true waie, and lust and power to walke therein, and all for Christs sake Abrahams sonne. Tindale. fol. 5.

Who is blessed and sanctified of God.

He is blessed which kéepeth himselfe, that which he is by new birth,* 1.7 that is to wit, which continueth in walking in newnes of life, according to the which Christ saith. Blessed are they which heare the word of God and kéepe it. Luke. 11. 28. Also, Blessed is he to whom the Lord imputeth no sin, & in whose heart there is no guile. Psal. 32. 1. 2. Rom. 4. 8. Marl. vpon the Apoc. fol. 276.

¶Blessed is that man of the Lord, yea, holie, iust, and per∣fect, maie he be reported also of all men which hath portion con∣uenient in y^• first resurrection with Dauid, Magdalene, Zache∣us, & Peter. Happy are they which hearing y^e word of God, retai∣neth it in their liuing, for they being renued with y^e glad tidings

of life, are depured by the spirit of Christ, sanctified, & so made the habitacles of the holie Ghost. Bale vpon the Apoc. fol. 59.

Some peraduenture will aske, who be they that be blessed, and sanctified of God, truelie all they whome Christ hath sanc∣tified in his bloud, and washed their sinnes in his bloud, that hath faith, and doth beléeue their sinnes onelie to bée taken a∣waie by Christ and his bloudshed, for their remission of sinnes, & which will beléeue surelie till they die. These be they which be truelie hallowed and sanctified in God the father, and these bée holie and blessed,* 1.8 whether men do blesse them or curse them. Other there be that be sanctified, as of men, and of the Pope, of the Cardinalls, of Bishops or Abbots, but these be not holie nor blessed, except that Christ hath sanctified them in his bloud, and hath remission of their sinnes by Iesus Christ, which thing they beléeue surelie, or els they be not sanctified of God nor bles∣sed, be they neuer so oftentimes blessed of the popes holy hand, and all his thrée crosses, with all the miters of his Cardinalls and Bishops. Bibliander in the exposition of Iude.

Of the sacramentall blessing.

Iesus tooke bread,* 1.9 blessed, &c. ¶To blesse is not to make a crosse, but rather to giue thanks as he himselfe doth expresse by & by, when he speaketh of the cup. Againe, where Marke vseth this word blessed, Mathew, Luke, and Paule doe saie, he gaue thanks both in Gréeke, and in the Latine. Sir I. Cheeke.

And when he had blessed.* 1.10 ¶Marke saith, had giuen thanks: and therefore blessing is not a consecrating, with a coniuring of murmuring & force of words: and yet the bread & the wine are chaunged, not in nature but in qualitie, for they become vn∣doubted tokens of the bodie and bloud of Christ, not of their owne nature and force of words, but by Christ his institution, which must be recited and laied foorth, that faith maie finde what to laie holde on, both in the word and the element. Beza.

The cup of blessing which we blesse,* 1.11 &c. ¶When I spake (saith Chrisostome) of blessing, I spake of thanksgiuing: and speaking of thanksgiuing, I open all the treasure of the goodnesse of God, and rehearse those great giftes of his. For with the cup we adde the vnspeakable benefites of God, and

whatsoeuer we haue obteined. So we come vnto him, we com∣municate with him, thanking him that he hath deliuered man∣kinde from errour, that when we had no hope, and were wic∣ked persons, he admitted vs brothers and companions to him∣selfe: with those and such other rendrings of thankes, we come vnto him. Héere ye sée, what Chrisostome tooke blessing to be. Calfehil. fol. 106.

What it is to blesse the Lords name.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.* 1.12 ¶We maie not onelie picke out the words, but also consider of what minde they pro∣céede, and that they be spoken trulie and vnfainedlie, for how is it possible that we should blesse the name of God, if we doe not first acknowledge him to be righteous? But he that grudgeth against God, as though he were cruell and vnkinde, cursseth God, because that as much as in him lieth, he lifteth himselfe vp against him. He that acknowledgeth not God to be his fa∣ther, and himselfe to be Gods childe, ne yéeldeth record of his goodnesse, blesseth not God. And why so? For they which taste not of the mercie and grace that God sheweth vnto men, when he afflicteth them, must néedes grinde their téeth at him, and cast vp, and vomit out some poyson against him. Therefore to blesse the Lords name importeth as much as to perswade our selues, that he is iust and righteous of his owne nature: and not one∣lie that, but also that he is good and merciful. Lo•• héere how we maie blesse Gods name after the example of Iob, that is by ac∣knowledging his Iustice and vprightnesse, and moreouer also, his grace and fatherlie goodnesse towards vs, &c. Caluine vpon Iob. fol. 32.

¶Héereby he confesseth that God is iust and good, although his hand be fore vpon him. Geneua.

He that shall blesse in the earth,* 1.13 shall blesse himselfe in the true God, and he that sweareth in the earth, shall sweare by the true God. By blessing, and by swearing, is ment the praising of God for his benefites, & the true worshipping of him, which shall not be onelie in Iudea, but through all the world. Geneua.

How this place of the Psalme is ex∣pounded.

And he shall receiue a blessing of the Lord.* 1.14 ¶When he

speaketh of blessing, he doth vs to wit that not all they which in title onely vaunt themselues for worshippers of God, shalbe pertakers of the promised blessednesse: but they that are aun∣swerable to their calling from the heart Howbeit, it is a very ef∣fectuall encouragement to godlinesse to and good life, when y^e faith∣full heare, that they misspend not their labour in following righteousnesse, because there is an assured blessing laied vp for them with God. Caluine.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Luke. 2. 34.
• * 1.2

  Psal. 5. 12.
• * 1.3

  Augustine
• * 1.4

  Chriso∣stome.
• * 1.5

  Gen. 14. 60
• * 1.6

  Gen. 27. 28
• * 1.7

  Apoc. 20. 6
• * 1.8

  The Bi∣shops fin∣gers cānot blesse.
• * 1.9

  Mar. 14. 22
• * 1.10

  Mat. 26. 26
• * 1.11

  1. Cor. 10. 16.
• * 1.12

  Iob. 1. 21.
• * 1.13

  Esa. 65. 16
• * 1.14

  Psa. 24. 5.