cannot but call upon and encourage all much that tender their own weale to fall on with more boldnesse and eagerness upon the reading of the holy Scriptures seeing now it is so infallibly proved by this man of a thousand that it is the very Word of God that 's reached to them in that Translation that they have before them in the tongue wherein they were borne We of this Nation have great cause to blesse God for that * learned Prince that caused our last and best Translation which hath gained an high Testimony from a * learned Writer of a forreign Countrey when he calls it the most accurate Translation of the English Honour we then the reading of the Word of God 1. In the publike Congregation Deut. 31. 11. Ezra 8. 2 3. Act. 15. 21. that is attended with the greatest blessing Ezra 8. 14 16. Nehem. 13. 1 3. 2. In our private houses 2 Reg. 22. 10. Jer. 36. 12. 15 16. 3. In our proper Closets or where we can have our opportunities See Acts 8. 30. Apoc. 1. 3. Reade so as we reade all Josh. 8. 34 35. though it be never so difficult 't is given by inspiration and 't is profitable The very a Craggs and Rocks have their physical he bs We are b fed by the clear and tried by the obscure There 's an c immanent where 's not a transient power to edifie Something is a going when we little think it If it be but to humble us that we cannot see the reason of the setting those hard names together The wisdome of God is there though man cannot fathom it Besides it keeps our hearts in order and gives us cause of thanks when we meet with other things that be more facile in things that be most essential And reade in d order young Beginners may take the New Testament first as being the easier and the Old after it The Books be writ in Order Luke 1. 3. Let them be reade in Order Work goes on best when men take it as 't is before them He that reades confusedly will come to little He that takes the Bible as it lies will get most good by it See Neh. 8. 13 14. Reade every day Josh. 1. 8. all the dayes of our lives Deut. 17. 19. Psal. 119. 96. Alphonsus King of Arragon read the Bible over fourteen times with some Comments upon it Reade in thine own book the King was to write him out a Copy of the Law for his own peculiar use Deut. 17. 18. * Theodesius the second had writ out the New Testament with his own hand Men shoot best in their own Bowes work best with their own Tools David did best with his own Scrip and Sling The side of the leafe is remembred when the chapter and verse cannot be thought on Reade with the greatest reverence for it is the Word of God See Neh. 8. 3. 5 6. with the best understanding Mat. 24. 15. with sincerest affection bringing our selves to the Bible not the Bible to us A Veile is upon them that comes with prejudice 2 Cor. 3. 14. and reade with heartie prayer unto God thar he will open our eyes Psal. 119. 18. and sanctifie our hearts Psal. 119. 36. and order our steps Psal. 119. 133. It will be else as a book sealed up to us See Isa. 29. 11 12. The result of all is this We must so reade and so heare besides that there may be both an holy faith and an holy life too Nor this alone not that by its own selfe What God hath set together let not us put asunder 'T will but little availe a man to be sound in his opinion if he be loose in his conversation without holinesse there is no seeing God Heb. 12. 14. Nor will strictness of Life be much advantageous where there be rotten principles He was utterly unclean in the Law that had the Leprosie in his head and under the Gospel men of corrupt mindes have but a sad character for all their forme of godlinesse See 2 Tim. 3. 5 8 13. * Swenck feldius was a man of plausible behaviour and so was * Rotman too for a while 'T is no mean stroke to be given over to strong delusion 2 Theâ— 2. 11 12. Nor was it a light thing which they received as a recompence of their errour and yet it was but meet too Rom. 1. 27. See then that our faith be most holy Jude 20. and that our lives be according 2 Pet. 3. 12. in all holy * conversations and godlinesses How shall we hold up our faces before God before men in all cases conditions and appear without spot in the day of Christ Jesus Give attendance to reading 'T is too little thought on even of some well-minded people The Bible is the Book of Books a full Store-house There be Rules for all sorts of persons young and old Tit. 2. 2 3. rich and poor in all manner of conditions prosperous and adverse in all cases whatsoever we shall be put upon The * exactest Rules too to keep a man so far from usurie that he shall not be as anusurer Exod. 22. 25. And those that will be for his greatest glory too Deut. 4. 6 7 8. even in the eyes of common men Here we shall meet with that that will enlighten our eyes Psal. 119. 130. Dan. 9. 2. humble our hearts Deut. 17. 20. kill our sins Psal. 119. 9. enable us against Satan and all his temptations 1 John 2. 14. Matth. 4. 4 7 10. strengthen our faith Rom. 10. 8. Though we have much ado to beleeve what we reade sometimes yet reading will master it * Antonius Musa complain'd to Luther he had much ado his own self to believe what he preached to others Luther was glad there was any as bad as himself but the Word help't rhem and it will help us Here we shall have that that will over-awe our hearts Psal. 119. 161. that will encrease our patience and our comfort Rom. 15. 4. Here we shall have that that will help in life Prov. 16. 22. 23. and support in death Luke 2. 29. And reade we shall again and again too If 1. We be so truly taken up with God we shall then look upon the Scriptures as upon his * love-letters Hos. 8. 12. 2. If we so truly taste the sweet that 's there See 1 Pet. 2. 2 3. If we taste we shall desire 3. If we be so much advantaged by the use of the other Ordinances See Acts 8. 30. when he had been at Jerusalem So Acts 17. 11. 4. If we be so far above the world as it doth become us Martha was cumbred and could not heare no more then we can reade when we be so clutter'd but Mary sate down at Christs feet Luke 10. 41 42. 5. If we be so willing to order our steps to be so exact in our doings then we shall see to that word that 's a light and
Hebrew the New Testament being not written not any of it till after Pentecost not all of it nntill John a matter of sixty years after Christs death This to the Colossians could not be meant of the New Testament but of the Old So againe the Thessalonians being Grecians did not understand the Hebrew yet they were commanded to prove all things By what why by the Scriptures and this was the Old Testament which they understanding not the Hebrew then it cannot but be meant of the translation This Conclusion I think is clear sith the Churches of the Gentiles were commanded to read Moses and the Prophets and read them they could not but in a translation therefore translations are commanded by God as an Ordinance and constitution of Heaven it felf The same Smith in the same book falls foule on the Greek translation of the seventy as that it was a grievous sin to translate the Old Testament into Greek or any language else His reason is for that this ought not to have bin done til the fulnes of time of the calling of the * Gentiles other reasons he hath not worth a fig nor is this reason much better It 's known that * Ptolomy King of Egypt had together certaine Learned Jewes skilful in the Greek Language in number seventy two and by them he caused the Old Testament to be done into Greek about two hundred and ninety years before the Birth of Christ And this is observed to be a fit time to have it done for if it had not been done till after the coming of Christ either the Jewes out of envy would have kept and hid the Hebrew Copies or corrupted them or else cast some suspition and evil report of evil doings on the translators All which it being done at this time was prevented Now though this were done before the coming of Christ and so of the time of the full calling of the Gentiles yet it was not so long before but that it was a fit preparative against the calling of the Gentiles whose language since Alexanders conquest generally was Greek and sith there then was no printing no Copies could be scattered abroad but by manuscripts and writing which is great labour and cost and this being such a slow work there needed that this translation should be done some good space before the calling of the Gentiles that so a sufficient number of Manuscript-written Copies might be had and scattered abroad among the Gentiles they all understanding the Greek and but few or none the Hebrew that the books being the foundation of the Prophets might be ready done against the time of the calling of the Gentiles for their need and use * The time of this translation being after the Jewes had been amongst the Gentiles in captivity we finde that the Gentiles being to creep into the Church and now and then some to turn Proselytes and was it not fit that there should be a translation ready to bid them welcome into the Church And what if it were a sinne to attempt the full calling of the Gentiles before the full time yet who can say with any reason that it was a sin to provide a translation which they understood against their calling Nor could this translation be sufficiently provided for number in written Copies and sufficiently scattered till the time of their calling So that this was not to go about to call them before the time was they were to be called but rather an excellent Providence to have Copies ready in a language they understood against the full time of their full calling And whereas it is objected that these Jewes who did put it out of the Hebrew into the Greek were profane men is more then I knowe or then they can prove Againe to make it good that the act of translating the Scriptures into Greek was no unlawful thing I need go no further then to the Apostles who becoming all things to all men to save some were careful in citing places out of the Old Testament to tie themselves much to this Greek translation Insomuch that though they did never vary from the Hebrew in sense yet they did chose rather to follow the phrase and words of the Greek then the Hebrew to condescend as far as might be to the Gentiles who were acquainted with the Greek translation but not with the Hebrew original Wherefore it must needs be the froth of a giddy head in this man to call this act of translation into Greek a grievous sin sith the Apostles did so much use and reverence it and chiefly Paul who chiefly the Apostle of the Gentiles We all do or should know that the Gospel began at Hierusalem from * Hierusalem it went to Judea and Samariah thence to Syria and Cilicia from thence to Ciprus Asia Greece Italy and from these parts to the utmost coasts of the earth according to the commission of Christ Now in all * those parts the Greek was most in use in most onely in use in some and of necessity they had recourse to the Greek translation Smith speaks fowle of it as a false and forged translation I dispute not what it is now but what it was then If it had been such a piece the Apostle Paul would not have looked after it so much as he did nor the church have used it so long as it did is well known to those who know the state of the Church that the church did generally use this Greek translation a Latine one framed out of this scarce any other if any other at all for six hundred yeares after Christ I know Sixtus Senensis and Bellarmine men of great reading do write that the seventy Interpreters though they were not Prophets who wrote Scripture yet that they had a line and light of the spirit which did direct them so that in translating they did not erâ—e at all which perhaps is too much on the other hand however it held very pure I am perswaded along time till the greek tongue began to grow out of use and then came in a world of translations in Latine and popular languages I am cleare of opinion that those Anabaptists who are against all learning are against all translations whatsoever For without the knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek tongues it is not possible to turne the Old and New Testament into any language whatsoever Nor without the understanding of those two languages can any understand the Bible in the Originals neither And on this ground God may be said to binde us to what is impossible I meane to build on the Scripture when we can neither have it by their principles in any Translation nor understand it in the Originals Mr. Wotton saith that the Anabaptists do every one claim a priviledge of not erring for himself yet not for others which opinion he calls a false and lewd opinion And on the matter if that they do so hold I know no great
let in sin but rather this is against sin So Paul I do that I would not I do not do what I would there is no question but there is some ignorance some not knowing of him when any sinne is sinned Master Anthony Burges speech I think is in the right All sins saith he are called because all sinners are ignorant of something they should know there being no sinne which doth not proceed from some errour in the practical judgement For although a man sin wilfully and advisedly so that there is no other cause of the malice but the malice it self as Austine speaks of some of his sins yet even then there is an errour in that mans conscience Thus he and to this I subscribe So that it is not faith nor knowledge which dwelleth in us is the cause why we sin but as Paul speaks of himself it is sin which dwelleth in us Not I as I but sinne that dwelleth in me So then a man borne of God when he treads beside the line he may say it is not I but sinne that dwells in me so in this sense it is a truth that he that is borne of God as born of God doth not sin nor cannot sin This is pious and truth but under correction I do not think it to be the square meaning of this text What then some think it to be this He that is borne of God sinneth not that is sinneth not as the devil did who ve se 8. of this chapter sinneth not sinned but sinneth from the beginning And this is like to be the mind of this text for that it is said in the same verse before He that committeth sinne is of the Devill That I think is too short which some say that the proper sense of this Text is he that is born of God sinneth not that sinne of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost In a word then the full meaning is that he that is borne of God doth not commit sinne that is he doth not make it his practice his occupation his work he doth it when he doth it besides his minde and when he doth it he is besides himself in that particular as the Prodigal was It is long of some fits in his disease when he doth it not onely as his act but as his work who give themselves over to be sould and servants to sin So Paul so Christ Matth. 7 23 Depart from me all ye that work iniquity Therefore Saint John speaks of such who are not regenerate whose desire is to sin and are afire to commit it For otherwise all the regenerate do sin so this our Apostle If we say we say we have no sin we seduce our selves Nor do they sin onely of infirmity but sometimes they fall into greater sins even into some of the greatest sins but this is not unto death as our Apostle saith So that such as are born of God sin they may sin they do and sometimes great sins but to go on in a course of finning to the death this they do not that they cannot do because they are born of God The onely shew of exception that can be taken is that Adam who is called they say Luke 3. ult. the son of God did sin and might as the state stood with him unto death And the Angels called the sons of God Job 2. 1. did a many of them sin unto death But we read not that these were said to be borne of God or that they had this seed remaining in them They were called the sons of God in respect of that that holinesse wherein they were created but the regenerate that are said to be borne of God are so said not onely in respect of the image of God but of Christ and the grace of regeneration which is rooted in Christ which as it cannot die in Christ the roote so it cannot wither away in Christians the branches The sap which is still alive and fresh in Christ is by the Spirit of Christ kept so alive in them that albeit it do not keep them from sinning yet it doth so preserve them that they cannot sin unto death they are so the members of Christ that he will not suffer any of his true members to sin all their spiritual life away Quest N. 2. How can a regenerate man sin since grace is predominant and the infused Theological habits of faith hope and charity are stronger then their sins Answ 'T is true they are so and should always shew themselves to be so And Divines make this difference between moral vertues acquired and spiritual habits and graces that for habits moral we may use them as we will that they are under the free Power of our wills but for habits and graces infused into our wills the seat of them our wills are rather under them and their power Then thus under the power and determination of God that there is a force in them to rule and over-rule all In this the string is in the hand of God and therefore it is said in the Word of God that he it is that doth make us walk in his wayes and keep his Lawes Had we a fulnesse of created graces as the Angels had yet if God stand by and leave us to them and our selves and do not uphold us we may fall for all them though there be nothing from without or from within to push us down the mutability only of our own free will might do it in us as it did in the lapsed Angels But those habits or divine qualities being lost in Adam in whom we all sinned such as are regenerated and born againe have supernatural graces of redemption which albeit they be not so full yet are more firme then those of creation were Those of God as Creator were lost those of God in Christ our Redeemer can never be so lost but as the same St. John saith There is a seed remaining in them which doth so keep spiritual force up in them that they cannot sin unto death Quest But how then is the spirit stronger then the flesh and the infused habit of grace may be said to have a ruling hand over our will Answ It hath such a rule many ways but in this one thing the power of the Spirit appeares above the power of the flesh for that the Spirit doth ever bring us first or last one way or other to repent of the works of the flesh but the flesh is never able to make us sorry for and repent of the fruits and acts of the Spirit No man is sorry for his vertues all good men are for their vices FINIS BOOKS lately Printed for John Bartlet and to be sold at the Gill-Cup on the south side of Pauls over against the Drapers A Volume of Dr. Tho. Taylors in Fol. Dr. Harris works in fol. A supplement to the former Edition in 4. His threefold state of man 12. Sibs excellency of the Gospel 12. Christs Exaltation in 12. The
tempests be tender of that that might be in such stead for poore trembling hearts in a stormy day Get to God then as thou canst sad distempers be upon our people Spiritual judgments be the sorest judgments What if thou hast but the a self-same words The song of Moses was a b new song tendered to God with new affections What if the petitions be c broken confused This poore d man cried saith the Text when he was in a poore case indeed like a e bedlam and yet he was heard The lesser lisping children some-whiles have the grant when those that be of greater maturity seeme to be fet aside Whilest Moses his hands were up though in a poor way Israel had the better Who can tell what God may do Abraham left asking ere God left granting even for a filthy Sodome Remember Latimers f once-again once-again tugg and wrastle We may come to see and our people may be made to know that their heart is g turned back-again to the God of their fathers For the soundnesse and settlednesse of his judgement He pitcht at first upon a good foundation and being h nourished up in the words of faith He continued in the things he had learned and beene well assured of knowing from whom he had received them He was with Socrates an a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} grounded in his opinion one that stood like a brazen wall as firme as a very rock with Virgils b Latinus in the midst of all the dashings and clashings of tempestuous times He saw with a cleare eye thorow all the painted glosses of those that were given to change and therefore was not moved at all with any thing said or done in that kinde He was true to his Religion and clave close all along to his first principles holding fast the faith that was c once and as he himself would often expresse it but once delivered to the Saints He lived and died a true Orthodox Divine according to the knowne doctrine of the Church of England He knew full well for all the great talk of the Gosspel as though it were but newly dropt out of the clouds that there is not any other Gosspel then the everlasting Gospel that was preached before unto Abraham and hath been entertained all along still by Gods faithful people and shall be so continually to the worlds end But some there be no mean pretenders to the Gospel that be in great danger of perverting the Gospel of Jesus Christ This stable man was set up as a sure Sea-mark Stand to his steps though we stand alone God and a good conscience be very good company Elijah was but one yet did very good service One d Athanasius in the East one Hilary in the West was of mighty great use in a staggering time What if we meet with stormes 'T is but a poore Religion that 's not worth suffering for 'T will turn to a a testimony When the wilde humour is spent men will look home againe A Mercuries statue will be lookt upon then Those poor silly souls that be tossed to and fro and b whirl'd about and about again with every winde of doctrine will be glad of such a sight in the day of their visitation Whereas if they that know or should know more of God be not steady in their steering but varying their course poor bewilder'd hearts will be at their wits ends not knowing which way to turne nor to whom to goe nor whom to walke after As there is but one God so there is but one Faith one Baptism c one way to eternal life one Rule for us all to walk by Why be we not then all of one heart all in one tract so many men as we see so many mindes there be Every e moneth almost a new faith 'T is easie to swim with the tyde to perswade the heart of the rectitude of that that 's turn'd up trump by the times and yet to pretend still 't is from more light We may talk of the Spirit but f Schism is a fruit of the flesh The old way is the good way he shal stumble and hamper his feet that swerves from the g ancient pathes What 's got by gadding men itch for change still There 's no rest but with our first a husband 'T is good to be all of one minde in God Where 's not unitie in judgement there 's scarcely unity in affection Too fierce we be against such as close not with our notitions It was b Bell Book and Candle once 't is not much better now Wild-fire flies amaine We cannot all cut to a thread there will be some variation in the compasie but whilest we aime at the white the c oddes is to be passed by without bitternesse Why should there be such huge rents and divisions in the Church Where 's our forbearance We have not yet learnt our lesson well to wait one for another till God shall reveale Phil. 3. 15. Whilest we be so sharp in our contests Satan makes his Markets d Religion goes to wrack our differences e widen Some be ready to give up all seeing there's no better harmony others could wish themselves well out of the world that they may be delivered as Melanchthon saith from the d implacable differences even of some Divines Hearken to God He would have the truth g followed but in love If the Word will not sway the crosse will come and set an h Hooper and a Ridley to the embracing of one another Fall upon that one and only solid way of God and stick there Be we stedfast men It was once the Martyrs a stile it will ever be the good mans glory Get we then to God he can stablish the shuttle heart 2 Cor. 1. 21. See the judgement be so rightly set Is 33. 6. and the heart so firmly knit to God and his Truth he that b loved his Master would not leave his Master Tamper we not with opinions 2 Pet. 3. 17. nor with opinionative c men Rom. 16. 17 18. nor yet with books that scatter Tares This grave d Divine himself gives very good caution to this purpose from famous e Mr. Dod a man of that vast experience An honest heart may be sorely puzled with a forked Argument The Martyr could die for Christ that could not f dispute for him Some pretend they must trie all things but they speak besides the g book Who will try Ratsbane or a sharp sword whether it will pierce into his bowels Some think to withdraw when they see danger but Satan is subtile venome will get in we know not how and errour will h stick and eate What gets the flie that goes whisking by the Candle They that nibble at the bait shall hardly ' scape the hook Again gingle not with termes that be
Christ is the Scriptures which being the first is to prove not to be proved but in an higher School the Schoole of heaven by evidences unprovable and unreprovable evidences taken from the Prover and Spirit of God Of which hereafter N 2 Of translations How Anabaptists overthrow all Translations I No way like that of Cajetan That to understand the Latine Translation was not to understand the infallible Word of God but the word of the Translatours subject to errour Though he took it from Hierome that to write holy Books proceeded from the Holy Ghost but to translate them into another Tongue was a work of humane skill For if an Ambassadour deliver his minde by an Interpreter are not the words of the Interpreter the words of the Ambassadour Right say you if the Interpreter do it truely So say I a Translation is a translation no further then he doth translate and interpret truely for a false translation as farre as it is false is no translation I have read in a great Papist That it is a great error for a man to think that he can understand or interpret the holy Scriptures without some peculiar guift of the Holy Ghost And sith the Lord hath commanded his people to heare and read the word and the cōmon people cannot read the word but in some translation of other that therefore translations are in special a special Ordinance of God and that therefore God being in his providence very careful that his Church shall not want sufficient provision for their soules hath ever doth and will ever so assist Translatours that for the main they shall not erre I am of minde that there was never any Christian Church but the Lord did so hold the hands and direct the pens of the translators so that the translations might well be called the Word of God The vulgar Latine which the Papists out of a veine of opposition do advance too much is faulty enough yet it is so sound that I think many have beene led by it to their conversion Why may I not think that those many who have been converted from Popery in the Church of Rome and joyned themselves to our Church have beene beholding for the most of them next to God to their vulgar translation as Martyr Zanchius Luther Oecolampadius and a many others The Ephesians were builded in their faith on the Prophets and Apostles the Apostles were living but the Prophets were dead and gone long since they could no way build their faith on the Prophets but on their writings Now the writings of the Prophets in the Original were in Hebrew and I take it for granted that the Ephesians being bred and borne Grecians did not understand the Hebrew tongue and that therefore there were translations of the Prophets which translations were made by such men as were ordinary as ours are subject I confesse to some errour but not such errour but that it did serve to help the Church to faith for the salvation of their souls In the Apostles time I know that they that did know the Apostles to be Apostles and that they did preach they did preach as Apostles they were to take them at their words But when they did heare them preach as the Bereans did not so I think a many else did not look on them as Apostles and infallible speakers And no question there were many Pastours and Teachers then who though many had more then a common gift of prophecying yet had not the infallible spirit of the Apostles Those Prophets had not the same supreame spirit which the Apostles had as saith to me the most Learned amongst the Learned but yet saith he they had a more extraordinary spirit not to write nor to translate but to interpret Scripture then the ordinary Pastors and Teachers had but I think that gift of interpreting died with them Now what the Bereans did to Paul so all stood bound to do to the ordinary Pastors and Teachers even to examine by the Scriptures whither those things they taught were right or not And those who were thus to examine the Sermons of the ordinary Pastors and Teachers were to do it by the Greek Translation sith many did not understand the Hebrew and they that did understand the Hebrew yet were to do it no question by Transcripts made by ordinary men after the Prophets ended with Malachi which Transcripts of the Hebrew text some quarrel at as done by ordinary gifted men which were they say subject to mistake in transcribing as well as translatours might mistake in translating In which neither of them must be looked as free from all mistake Wotton saith saith truly that many thousands were converted and many Churches settled by the preaching of the several Apostles sent abroad to convert the world amongst the Jewes and Gentiles without the knowledge and before the penning of the Books of the New Testament but that they did it without the use and authority of the Old Testament and the Word of God written there there is no proof nor I think can there be any Besides the Apostles carried the Word of God in their bosoms having that holy Library in their Heads by immediate and infalible inspiration I doubt not but the Ephesians were converted by Paul but yet Paul when he did convert them did it by the truth of doctrine left behinde them by the Prophets which is cleare in that the Apostle makes the Prophets the Foundation as well as the Apostles By Prophets I take it for granted he meanes the writing Prophets of the Old Testament not the preaching Prophets of the New And I take it also to be clear of it selfe that the Ephesians living so long after all those Prophets were dead and gone had their writings only so then the Ephesians were converted by the truth of doctrine left for them by the Prophets and preached to them by the Apostles I will also take it for granted till I heare or reade any deny it that the Ephesians understood not the Hebrew In which tongue the Prophets left their doctrine as the Canon of the Church And hence it cannot but follow that saving what help the Ephesians had from Paul they were to have recourse to the doctrine of the Prophets not in Hebrew which they understood not but in some Translation of others which without dispute must be the Greek translation of the Seventy there then being no other translations The Ephesians being also not Jewes but Grecians The resolution 1. As touching the Originals 2. As touching the Translations 1. I cannot but confesse that it sometimes makes my heart ake when I seriously consider what is said That we cannot assure our selves that the Hebrew in the Old Testament and the Greek in the New are the right Hebrew and Greek any further then our Masters and Tutors and the General consent of all the Learned in the world do so say not one dissenting But yet say these
since the Apostles there are no men in the world but are subject to deceive and to be deceived All infallibility in matters of this nature having long since left the world Again too like unto this is that of Master Wotton who cantell saith he what the signification of the Hebrew and Greek words is even in the Bible but by the report of men And to the like purpose is that observation That the two Tables written immediately by Moses and the Prophets and the Greek Copies immediately penned by the Apostles and Apostolical men are all lost or not to be made use of except by a very few And that we have none in Hebrew or Greek but what are transcribed Now transcribers are ordinary men subject to mistake may faile having no unerring spirit to hold their hands in writing These be terrible blasts and do little else when they meet with a weak head and heart but open the doore to Atheisme and quite to fling off the bridle which onely can hold them and us in the wayes of truth and piety this is to fill the conceits of men with evil thoughts against the Purity of the Originals And if the Fountains run not clear the Translation cannot be clean The best is this doth concern the learned who can best get out of such scruples as these it being made plaine to them by the Jewes themselves no friends to Christian Religion That the Hebrew Text is curiously preserved by them in its integrity For if the Oracles of God were as they were Rom. 3. 2. committed them it deeply concernes the Providence of God to look to it that the Jewes should keepe the Oracles of God not onely safe but pure not onely from not being lost but also from not being corrupted It 's out of question that the same God who committed the Oracles to the Jews did also take care that they should preserve them safe and sure uncorrupt and pure It is the use of Saint Paul much to follow the Greek translation which doth use to use the Greek word translated Oracles to meane the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets And what if there be scapes in some Copies yet other Copies runne clear But sith this concernes the Learned whom I much look not after from the Originals let us turne to the businesse of the Translations As for other matters about the Greek and Hebrew which it is and what is the meaning of the words I passe as a meere excrement of wit sith this is cried downe by all the learned world whither Christian or unchristian and therefore is not like to take to doe any hurt unto the soules of any 2. As touching Translations IT is granted that translators were not led by such an infallible spirit as the Prophets and Apostles were In the Councel of Trent after much debating by witty and learned heads they concluded That Translators were not Apostles but very near unto them The greatest Papists are of the same mind onely Sixtus Senensis is of opinion the seaventie two Translatours of the old Testament into Greeke were infallible Some are so quite another way that they like not any translations at all Smith the Se-baptist is utterly against reading translations in times of worship Amongst his Reasons two are the chiefest One is that we must worship God with the best we have Translations are not the best but the Originals Yet I hope they that know not the Originals Translations are the best they have If this were true then none can worship God in and by reading of the Scriptures but such as understand the Originals nor is that currant in reason or Divinity that we must serve God with the best There is good there is better there is best of all So that if one do that which is good he sinnes not though he do not that which is better if he do that which is better he sinnes not though he do not do that which is best of all He sinnes not who keepes within the circle of that which is good albeit he do not do that which is better or that which is best of all Againe a thing may be absolutely better in it self yet a lesse good thing in it selfe may be better in some respects and circumstances As simply in it self marriage is simply better then a single life yet in some respects Paul shews that a single life is better then marriage and this is Pauls Divinity Though a man do not that which is better nor that which is best yet as long as he doth do that which is good he sins not His other reason is That we must worship God with our owne gifts not with anothers As Translations are not our doing but made by the gifts and paines of others To this we say that 't is true we must worship God with our owne gifts but it is not true that in the worship of God with the help and by the meanes of that which is anothers we do not exercise our owne gifts The maine of the worship of God is That we worship him in and with the Spirit and truth in the inward parts and so we must and may doe and do do when we make use of Translations When we reade translations we must reade them with Faith and with the Spirit which are our inward gifts and graces else our reading is not to profit our selves withal and what hinderance the translation is to the use of Faith and the Spirit they do not they cannot prove So we are said to sing with the Spirit and yet we sing with the Spirit the better for that and to pray with the Spirit and yet the book is no hindrance to that neither Others gifts as long as they rather further then hinder the use of our own gifts can be no blur in the worship of God The same man doth wrangle with the originals too not denying them but denying the use of the book in the originals themselves in worship for that the Prophets and Apostles wrote books but did never divide their books into Chapters and Verses till Henry Stephens but the other day first made the verses of the New Testament which being man invention is not saith he to be used in the worship of God But whether Stephen Langton Arch-bishop of Canterbury did it first for chapters or Robert or Henry Stephens for the New Testament did it into verses is not material sith we place no Religion in it and this provision is known to be a great helpe to men in the worship of God We passe by this as a giddinesse of a weak braine in this Sebaptist He grants Translations are of good use but not in the worship of God and if of good use elsewhere why not there Saint Paul exhorts the Collossians That the Word of God might dwell in them richly in all wisdome They being Grecians I take it for granted that the most of them were not skilled in the