Ptōchomuseion [sic]. = The poore mans librarie Rapsodiæ G.A. Bishop of Exceter vpon the first epistle of saint Peter, red publiquely in the cathedrall church of saint Paule, within the citye of London. 1560. Here are adioyned at the end of euery special treatie, certaine fruitful annotacions which may properly be called miscellanea, bicause they do entreate of diuerse and sundry matters, marked with the nombre and figures of Augrime. 2.

Responsio.

In the gospell of Marke the high priest said to Christ:* 1.1 tu es Christus ille filius benedicti? art thou that sonne of the blessed god? Likewise he saith in Mathew: I adiure thee by the liuyng god, that thou tel vs, whether thou be Christ, the son of the lyuing god: Iesus answered ego sum: I am. For you shall see the sonne of man sitting vpon the right hand of the power of god, and comming in the clouds of the heauens.

This confession of the Lorde, as most blasphemouse and worthie death they brought before Pilate, crieng: we haue a lawe, and after our lawe he oughte to dye, because he made himselfe the sonne of God.

Furthermore, Christ saith in Iohn:* 1.2 I haue shewed many good workes vnto you from my father: for which of those workes do you stone me? The Iewes an∣swered him sayeng: for the good worke we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and that thou being a man makest thy selfe God.

Againe, Christ saith to his disciples: ne turbetur cor vestrum, creditis in Deum,* 1.3 et in me credite &c. Let not your harte be troubled: ye beleue in god,* 1.4 beleue also in me. In my fathers house are many dwellyng places: if it were not so, I would haue tolde you: I go to prepare a place for you, & though I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receiue you vnto my selfe, that where I am, there may you be also. And a title after he saith: I am the way & the truth, & the life. &c.

Here he commaundeth vs to beleue in him as in the true God. Also he saith: Pater venit hora, glorifica filium tuum, vt filius tuus glorificet te &c. Father,* 1.5 the houre is come, glorifie thy sonne, that thy sonne also maye glorifie thee, as thou hast geuen him power ouer all fleshe, that he should geue eternal life to all them that thou haste geuen him. And this is life eternall, that they know thee to be the onely very liuyng god, and whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ. I haue glorified thee on the earth: I haue finished the worke that thou gauest me to do. And now glorifie me, thou father, with thine owne self, with the glorie which I had wyth thee before the worlde was. By these wordes Christ doth proue him selfe to be the true God.

Finally, sainct Paule in the epistle to the Romains hath a strong testimonie for the diuinitie of Christ. His words be these: Of whom, concerning the fleshe,* 1.6 Christ came, whiche is god ouer all, blessed for euer, Amen.

The like sayeng is in the epistle of sainct Iohn, the wordes be these: we are in him that is true, that is in his sonne Iesus Christ.* 1.7 This same is very god and eternall lyfe.

Well, I will conclude this parte with a golden and godly similitude writen by the learned father and godly byshop Cyrillus, who writeth after this maner: fi∣lius

in patre & ex patre est, non profluens foras, sed aut quasi à sole splendor, aut quasi ab igne insita sibi caliditas. In his enim exemplis vnum ab vno produci, & am∣bo consempiterna sic esse conspicimus, vt aliud absque alio nec esse possit nec natu∣rae suae rationem retinere: quomodo enim erit sol splendore priuatus, vel quomodo erit splendor, nisi sol sit à quo defluat? Ignis verò quomodo erit calore carens? vel calor vnde prodeat, nisi ex igne, aut ab alio forsan non procul à substantiali qualita∣te ignis disiecto &c. that is to saye: The sonne is in the father, and of the father, not flowing out of an other, but eyther as it were the brightnesse cōming frō the sunne, or els as it were the natural heate coming from the fire. For in these exam∣ples, we see the one to be so produced and brought forth of the other, and so to be perpetually annexed together, that neyther one can be without the other, neyther reteine nor holde his proper nature. For, how shal the sunne be without bright∣nesse, or how shall there be brightnesse, vnlesse ther be a sunne from which it may come? Or from whence can heate come, but from fire, or from some other thing not far distante from the substantial qualitie of fire? Therfore like as the natural qualities are together which their subiectes from whome they come, and doo al∣wayes shewe from whence they come: so in the onelye begotten sonne of God we must vnderstand, that not onely he is with the father, but also he is beleued to be in the father, not straunge from the nature nor inferior to the father by nature, but is with him, and of him after the maner of an vnspekeable generation.

Thus I haue brought you sufficient testimonies for the proofe of Christs di∣uinitie: and now wil I procede to the third parte, which shalbe to establishe with strong arguments and reasons that Christ was a very true and naturall man, sinne only excepted.

In the first boke of Moyses God saide vnto the serpente: I wil put enmitye betwene thee and the woman,* 1.8 and betwene thy seede & her seede. He shal breake thine head, and thou shalte bruse his heele &c. Who knoweth not the head of the serpent to be the kyngdome, the might, and the power of the deuil? And all the scripture doth testifie, that Christ (who was called the seede of the woman) hath vanquished and ouercome this mightie tirannie of the said serpent. And Christ is properly called sèmen, for the veritie of the humaine nature. But he is called the seede of a woman, not of man, by the reason he was conceiued of the holy Ghost, without the seede of man.

The like promise was renued and inculked vnto Abraham, In semine tuo be∣nedicentur omnes gentes orbis:* 1.9 In thy seede shalbe blessed all the nations of the worlde. Saint Paule to the Galathians doth say: This seede of Abrahā in the which we obteine blessednes, is Iesus Christe.

The same Apostle in the epistle to the Hebrues doth write, that Christ toke not vpon him the nature of Aungels,* 1.10 but he toke the seede of Abraham. By naming the Aungels, he excludeth all spiritual substaunces. By the seede of Abraham, he vnderstandeth the very substance of mans fleshe.

The scripture doth deduce the line and progenie of Christ out of the loynes of Abraham vnto Iacob, and out of him into Iuda, and so again vnto Dauid, vnto whom the promis of the sonne of God was again renued. Nathan said vnto Da∣uid: Thus the Lorde saith: when thy dayes be fulfilled, thou shalte sleepe with thy fathers,* 1.11 and I will set vp thy seede after thee, whiche shal procede out of thy bodie, and will establish his kyngdome: he shall build an house for my name, and I will establishe the throne of his kyngdome for euer.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Cap. 14.
• * 1.2

  Cap. 10.
• * 1.3

  Iohn. 14.
• * 1.4

  10. Many dwel¦ling places
• * 1.5

  Iohn· 7,
• * 1.6

  Cap. 9.
• * 1.7

  1. Ep. cap. 2.
• * 1.8

  Genes. 3. 11. He shall.
• * 1.9

  Genes. 22
• * 1.10

  Cap. 2.
• * 1.11

  12. Nathan.