The exposycyon of the sayd texte
WHo so rede & cōsyder well good crysten reders, the doctryne and ye doynge of our sauyour Crist, shall by sundry places of holy scrypture ꝑceyue, yt of his heuynfy wysedome his […] vsage was, in ma ny great thynge yt he purposed to do, byfore the doyng of the same (besyde the fygures of the old testament fore fygurynge the same / & besyde the pro phecyes of the old ꝓphetes fore prophecyeng the same) for mēnes more redynesse toward ye thinges whan he wolde execute theym by his dede, to geue them some warnyng & informa cyon therof before by his wordes.
Thus before he made saynt Peter his chyefe shepeherd ouer hys flocke, iii. times at ones, specially […] dynge hym to fed his shepe, he fyrste sayd vnto hym, thou shalt be called stone / & after sayd also to hym, whan he cōfessed hym to be Christ: Thou art stone / & vpon the same stone shal I byeld my chyrche, and the gates of hell shall not preuayse agaynste yt.
Thus before he made him his ge nerall vicare, he gaue hym the name of stone / which stone he sayd after he1 wold byelde hys chyrche vppon.2
Thus he gaue his apostles & dys cyples warnyng of his betrayeng, of3 his takyng, of his deth, of his resurreccion, of his ascensyon, by his word before the thinges were done in dede. And of his comynge agaynge to the dome also at ye general resurreccyon, whyche thynges surely shalbe & […] not yet done in dede. And alwaye the more straunge the thynges were / the more he opened them wyth wordes. And yet hadde he for all that, some of those thynge for that whyle not very wel byleued, not euyn of some of his owne dyscyples. But yet neyther were his wordes fully frutelesse at the time, but that they toke some hold in some folke, and wrought in some sowles, though not a full fayth, yet an inclynacyon and a disposycyon toward̄e yt / and nowe serue, and euer synnes haue serued, and euer whyle the worlde lasteth shall serue, to the plantynge, rotynge, and waterynge of the sayth, in al chrysten nacyons all the worlde about.
Nowe as our lorde dyd in many thynges / so dyd he specyally in the two great sacramētes / the sacrament of baptysme, and in this hygh blessed sacrament of the aulter.
Of the tone he talked with Nicho4 demus that came to hym by nyght, and durst not be sene with him by day for drede of the Iewes.
And of the tother, that is to wytte of the sacrament of the awtre, he talked here, and taught the very thynge but not the very forme therof vnto the Iewes & hys dyscyples amonge theym.
And as he founde Nichodemus farre of fro the perceyuynge of the spyrytuall frute that ryseth in the sen syble ablucyon & faythfull wasshyng of baptysme / so founde he the substaunce of these folke very farre fro the perceyuynge of the spyrytuall fruyt, that groweth of the bodyly receyuynge of Chrystes owne blessed body, to them that faithfully receyue it in the blessed sacrament vnder the sensyble forme of brede.
Our sauyour also good reder bycause the thynge that he nowe wente about to tell them, was a meruesous hygh thynge and a straunge, vsed in the proponynge therof vnto them, di uers wayes deuysed of hys diuyne wysedome.
Fyrst to make them the more mete to receyue the doctryne of that poynt and to perceyue it / he dyd two myracles before he began to speke therof. One (which though they were not at it, yet they perceyued well as the gospell5 she weth) in goyng ouer ye water without a vessell / and another that he dyd not onely in theyr presēce, but also made them all parteners of the profyte, that is to wyt whan he fedde6 them all beynge fyue thousande in nombre, of two fysshes and fyue souys / and yet whan all theyr […] were full, gathered & fylled twelue baskettes of the fragmentes.
Uppon the occasyon of this myra cle good reader of these fyue louys by suche a myracle so multyplyed as a thynge very conuenient, he toke his begynnynge to induce theruppon the feste that he wold in this world leue perpetually with his chirche; by fedynge of innumerable thousandes with that one lofe that is his blessed body in the forme of brede. Not for yt ye myracle of yt fedyng of the Iewes and this fedyng of Chrystes chyrch, is in euery thynge lyke / (bytwene whiche twayne there are incomparable differences) but bycause the lesse miracle and in some part lyke, is a cō uenient thynge for an entre and a begynnynge wherwyth to drawe them ferther. And vnto his apostles at ye tyme so was it and yet vnto this time vnto all good chrysten peple so is it.
Our sauyour also to enduce them the better to the bylyefe of his great kyndnes, in that he wold vouch saufe to gyue them his owne body to be receyued and eaten in to theyrs, he dyd tell thē two other thynge / the tone yt he was very god, the tother that he wold dye for theyr sakes. Of these two poyntes / the tone myght make them sure that he wold do it, and the tother that he coulde do it. For what coulde he not do that was god almyghty? or what wolde he dysdayne to do for vs, that wolde not dysdayn to dye for vs.
Now good readers remembryng well these thynges, marke what our sauiour hath sayd in this gospell, and consyder well what he ment.
Footnotes
Chapter 7 of 70