Bellarmine on Psalm 109 : Verse 5

Verse 5

The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.

Juravit Dominus, et non pœnitebit eum : Tu es sacerdos in æternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech

He passes now from royal to priestly dignity, and he shows Christ is the eternal priest, not as a successor to Aaron, but ordained immediately by God, and for whom Melchisedech’s priesthood was a type. The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent: God’s sworn oath is a guarantee of the promise which he announces when he adds: “and he will not repent,” that is, He has decreed it most firmly, never to be altered: David signifies by these words that that Aaron’s priesthood would be changed, but that Christ’s priesthood would never be changed. God’s repentance is expressed by metaphor, when He does what men do when they repent for things done; for what makes them repent changes, as God says in Gen. vi : “I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, from man even to beasts, ... for it repenteth me that I have made them;”[1] etc.And in I Kings xv: “It repenteth me that I have made Saul king.”[2]  Thou art a priest for ever: these words are spoken by God, not by David: for the Apostle in Hebrews v says repeats these are 

the words of the Father to the Son; Christ is said to be a priest forever firstly, because the effect of the one sacrifice by which he offered His body on the cross, continues forever, as the Apostle says in Hebrews x: “For by one oblation he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified;”[3] secondly, because He, living forever, offers sacrifice daily through the hands of ministers succeeding one another in the Church, which the Apostle confirms in Hebrews vii, saying: “And the others indeed were made many priests, because by reason of death they were not suffered to continue: But this, for that he continueth for ever, hath an everlasting priesthood.”[4] According to the order of Melchisedech: by order is understood rite, law, tradition, custom: this is what the Hebrew word signifies; the order of Melchisedech is however to be distinguished from the order of Aaron in 

many ways: firstly, it is not written that Melchisedech succeeded anyone nor was he succeeded by any other; for it is said “Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life,”as Hebr. Vii says.[5] In Aaron’s priesthood, however, each priest by dying handed on the priesthood to his sons.  Secondly, Melchisedech was a priest and a king; Aaron was simply a priest. Thirdly, Melchisedech offered bread and wine; Aaron sheep and oxen. Fourthly, Melchisedech was a universal priest, not a priest for only one nation; Aaron was a priest for the Hebrews alone. Fifthly, Melchisedech needed neither tabernacle nor temple for sacrifice; Aaron did, and hence the sacrifice has ceased among the Hebrews to this day, because the temple has been cast down. Christ is therefore a priest according to the order of Melchisedech, because in truth He succeeded no-one and no-one succeeded Him in the supreme dignity of the eternal priesthood; and He in truth properly speaking has no father insofar as He is man and no mother insofar as He is God; the same Christ is king and priest, and He offered bread and wine at the last supper, that is, His body under the appearance of bread and His blood under the appearance of wine, and He is not a priest for the Hebrews alone but for the Hebrews and the gentiles; nor is His priesthood confined to one temple or one tabernacle, but, as Malachias foretold in chapter I: “For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, ... and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation.”[6]From these texts the heresy is openly refuted of the Lutherans who deny that the true sacrifice may properly be said to be clearly seen in the Church of God; let the Lutherans, if they can, show how the prophecy might be fulfilled of a priesthood according to the order of Melchisedech instituted with nothing changing.

[1] He said: I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, from man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them. Delebo, inquit, hominem, quem creavi, a facie terrae, ab homine usque ad animantia, a reptili usque ad volucres caeli : poenitet enim me fecisse eos. [Gen. vi. 7]

[2] It repenteth me that I have made Saul king: for he hath forsaken me, and hath not executed my commandments. And Samuel was grieved, and he cried unto the Lord all night. Poenitet me quod constituerim Saul regem : quia dereliquit me et verba mea opere non implevit. Contristatusque est Samuel, et clamavit ad Dominum tota nocte. [ Kings xv. 11]

[3] For by one oblation he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Una enim oblatione, consummavit in sempiternum sanctificatos. [Hebr. x. 14]

[4] And the others indeed were made many priests, because by reason of death they were not suffered to continue: But this, for that he continueth for ever, hath an everlasting priesthood, Et alii quidem plures facti sunt sacerdotes, idcirco quod morte prohiberentur permanere : hic autem eo quod maneat in aeternum, sempiternum habet sacerdotium. [Hebr. vii. 23-24]

[5] Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but likened unto the Son of God, continueth a priest for ever. sine patre, sine matre, sine genealogia, neque initium dierum, neque finem vitae habens, assimilatus autem Filio Dei, manet sacerdos in perpetuum. [Hebr. vii. 3]

[6] For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts. Ab ortu enim solis usque ad occasum, magnum est nomen meum in gentibus, et in omni loco sacrificatur : et offertur nomini meo oblatio munda, quia magnum est nomen meum in gentibus, dicit Dominus exercituum. [Malach. i. 11]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.