PHIL.
The copulatiue coniunction is much vsed for a causall: as in the Prophet Esay, where it is according to the Hebrew, Behold thou art angry, and we haue sinned; which your selues translate, Behold thou art angry, for we haue sinned. The like is to be said of the Greeke particle, answering to the Hebrew; As for example, in the words of the Angel, it is according to the Greeke, Bles∣sed art thou among women, and the fruit of thy wombe is blessed. Vpon which place, Beza proueth very well, that the copulatiue is put for a causall: and your selues translate it accordingly, Because the fruit of thy wombe is blessed. Likewise in this present place, the copulatiue must be expounded by the causall: as may appeare euen by the Hebrew, which your selues so aduance and magnifie. For after these words, And he was a Priest of the most High God. There is an accent called Soph pasuk, to signifie that the period is ended. Therefore though wee should reade, And he was a Priest of the most High God: yet because there is a full point, the very words thus pointed according to the Hebrew, Chaldee, Greeke and Latine, would proclaime, that he brought forth bread and wine, as a Priest to sacrifice.
ORTHOD.
In the diuision of the Chapters into verses, there was re∣spect had, not onely of Musicall harmonie, but also of some equalitie or indif∣ferencie in the length of the Verses. So it commeth to passe▪ that sometimes a long sentence extendeth it selfe, and is continued in diuers verses, before the sense be perfectly concluded. Wherefore though euery Verse haue his Soph pasuk, yet euery Verse is not a full period. As for example, In the 23. of Ge∣nesis, after the 17. Verse, there is the same point and accent, which is here; and yet in your owne vulgar Bibles, set out by Sixtus 5. and Clemens octauus, there is but a comma: and that no marueile, seeing sometimes there is onely a com∣ma betweene Chapter and Chapter, As for example, Betweene the 21. and 22. of the Acts, both in the Greeke and in the Latine. Now for this present place of Genesis, In Pagnins translation set out by Vatablus, as also in Delrio, yea in the authenticall Edition of Sixtus quintus, and Clemens octauus, the Soph pasuk you vrge, is expressed onely by a comma, and in some of the Vulgar, there is not so much as a comma. Wherefore this doeth rather argue a rela∣tion to that which followeth, then to that which went before, and conse∣quently, these words, He was a Priest of the most High God, cannot be referred to the bringing foorth of the bread and wine, but rather to the blessing. And that it is so, may appeare by the Epistle to the Hebrewes, where the Type of Melchisedec is vnfolded: and yet there is no mention at all of sacrificing, but on∣ly of blessing▪ But if we should suppose, that it were to be translated by the cau∣sall, (for) and that these words, For he was a Priest of the most High God, had re∣lation to that which went before, concerning the bringing out of bread and wine, what should you gaine by it?
PHIL.
The very point in question. For the latter part shall yeeld a rea∣son of the former. Did Melchisedec bring foorth bread and wine to Abra∣ham? What moued him so to doe? The reason is rendered, because he was a Priest of the most High God; Therefore this was a Priestly action.