places where th' authors alledged ar not eye witnesses but hang al of the report of th' olde translator And if in Gods law the witnes of one man is not sufficient to take away a mans life much lesse may one mans witnes take away the life and authoritie of Gods word which without that witnes should vndoutedly be so taken And if we should weigh th' olde translator with such weightes we might with far more right dash out a great part of your translator in th' olde Testament Euen so much as he differeth and dissenteth Ire lib. 3 cap. 25 Tertul. apolog c. 18. 19 Hâ—l psal 2 August de â—iuit Dei lib. 15. c. â—â— in from the 70. interpreters For there is a great consent of th' old fathers that the interpretation of the 70. interpreters in greek was written by the same spirit wherewith the Prophets wrote in Hebrew Secondly it is to be obserued that in proouing the Greeke copies in three places to be corrupted by the Greeke heretikes they alledg for two of those places Latine writers and Latine translators such as were vsed in the Latin Church so that if the testimonies proue any thing of the corruption of th' originall it proueth it more against the Latine then against the Greeke Church For notwithstanding that Marcion were Greek born yet was not his heresie begoten in Greece but in Rome after that his father being a Bishop had for his lewd behauiour cast him out of the Church in his natiue countrie And seeing Rome taketh vpon her to be the piller of truth and the Lords librarie whatsoeuer can be proued of the corruption of th' originall shall by their owne doctrine returne to the further discredite of the Latine then of the Greeke Church Now touching the first example of Marcions corruption you doe belie Tertullian and that in two sortes For first Tertullian saieth not that the truth is as it is in the vulgar For Tertullian himselfe readeth otherwise then the vulgar after this sort The first man Tertuâ— aâ— resurrectionâ— carnâ—s of th' earth earthy that is slimie which is Adam The second man is from heauen that is the word of God which is Christ leauing out heauenly which the vulgare hath Cyprian de zelo liâ—or aduersus ludaeos a. libi and you striue for And so his scholler Cyprian readeth Secondly you falsifye him for that he doth not say as you suppose of him that the Greek text which is now is Marcions corruption For so should he haue accused himselfe aswell as Marcion considering that himself also departeth from that which is in the vulgar Indeed Marcion had corrupted the place by leauing out man in the second place therby to help his haeresie of th' untruth of Christs manhood It may also be gathered that Tertullian liked not the word Lord but esteemed it a corruption of Marcion This is therefore novv the question vvhether Lord in that place be the true or heretical reading First therefore let them shevv vs hovv this reading doth maintayn in any sort the heresie of Marcion considering that the Greek hath vvith full consent the second man which Marcion left out vvherby the humanity of Christ is plainly established And it appeareth that the vulgar traÌ„slation hath more coulour of that heresie theÌ„ the Greek reading For he might haue easier abused the vulgare to proue that Christ broght his flesh from heaueÌ„ then he can do the Greek And as the Greek reading is further from the heresie of Marcion then the vulgar so it is in diuers respects more proper both for the generall analogie of the true doctrine of the person of Christ and for the circumstance of that particular place For first the Greek reading containeth a notable testimony of the two natures of our Sauiour Christ in th' unitie of one person which the vulgar doth not so manifestly expresse Secondly th' opposition of Adam from th' earth and of Christ the Lord from heauen is much fuller and liuelier considering that he might haue bene both from heauen and heauenly and yet haue bene but a naked creature as th' Angels Thirdly the Greeke copies did not shunne the word heauenly which Marcion is supposed to haue of purpose avoyded considering that they call Christ heauenly For in the next two verses the Greek copies with full consent apply the word heauenly vnto Christ Therfore the Greeke copies shunned not this worde heauenly in speaking of Christ but reserued it vnto a fitter place For hauing in the former verse called Christ the Lord from heauen in the verses following he might without danger call him heauenly whereas if he had not sent that title of the Lord from heauen before he might haue bene thought to haue bene called heauenly in respect of the place he came from as the first man is called earthly in regard of the earth from whence he was taken Again seing that Marcion did corruptly alledg verse 45 as plainly appeareth by Tertullian which corruption is not in the Greeke there is no liklie-hood that one of the corruptions of Marcion should continew in the Greeke more theÌ„ th' other Moreouer the Syrian Arabian paraphrasis auncienter then was Marcions reading as the Greek copies doe it is euident that either Marcion brought not in this reading of the Lord or els he brought it in long before he was borne Last of all seing the Greeke Fathers so reade a Lib. de orthod fide cap. 3 Damascene b In 〈◊〉 locuâ— Chrysostome Theophilact Oecumenius al which detested the haeresy of Marcion either this is no corruption or else these learned mens noses were stuffed which coulde neuer smell the sauour of any Marcionisine And althogh diuerse ancient and other writers accustoming themselues to the reading of the vulgare translation followed it in this point because there is no manifest repugnance in it to any article of faith yet that is no let but that this may bee as indeede it is the trueth which is found in Greek copies and not that which is in th' old translator In the second place Ierome alone is brought to discredite so many Greek copies Against whome beside the great consent of the Greeke copies Basil lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we oppose the Syrian Arabian Paraphrasis Chrysostom Theophilact Oecumenius Basile who thrise in one book doth so alledge it as the copies supposed to be falsified And last of al wee oppose Ierome himselfe who for once alledging it thus for his benefite against Hieron aduersus Helbidium ad Eustoch de seruand virginitate his aduersarie in that booke where the Papists themselues cannot denie but he abused diuerse testimonies of th' Apostle shamefullie alledgeth it twise as it is in the Greek copies which they condemne Let al men therefore iudge what a worthie proof this is broght from Ierome to discredit these copies which is contraried of so manie and of himselfe who after he was departed from
fundamentall poyntes of our religion yet that they cannot free vs from error in every question that may bee mooued of it not to speake of the faint proofes that sometime they vsed euen in great mysteries of our religion vvherein notvvithstanding touching the matter it selfe their iudgement is sounde and Catholicke To the next section page 11. After that by hiding burning the Scriptures by threatning and murdering of men for reading of them they cannot attaine to the causing of such a night of ignorance wherin they might doe all thinges without controulment there remayned one onely engine which Satan with all his Angels hauing framed and hammered vpon his lying forge hath furnished them of This engine is the defacing dis-authorizing of the Scriptures as it were the taking from them their girdle or garter of honour by a false surmise of corruption of them in the languages wherein they were firste written Which abominable practise being attempted in th' old testament by Lindanus whom some term Blindasinus is nowe assayed in the new by the Iesuites who of others for their deadly hatred of the trueth are not called vnfitly Iebusites First therfore or euer we come to their particular arguments whereby they would as it were couer the head and maiestie of th'authentical copies in the Greek to bring them to subiection vnto th' olde translation we think it not amisse to set downe the generall doctrine that no one oracle or sentence of God can fall away Whereby it will be euident that the holy Scriptures both in the old new testament written in their original tongues cannot either by additioÌ„ detraction or exchange be corrupted Wherevnto the coÌ„sideration of th'autor of them ministreth a substantiall proofe For seing they are of Psal 111. â— God all whose workes remaine for euer it followeth that al the holy scriptures being not only his handiework but as it were the chiefe and master worke of all other must haue a continuall endurance And if there be not the least and vilest creature in the world which eyther hath not heretofore or shall not hereafter by the mightie hand of God vpholding all thinges be continued how much lesse is it to be estemed that any sentence of God wherin a greater glory commeth to him and greater fruite to his people then of many of those creaturs which for these two ends he doth so carefully continue should perish and fall away Secondly they all are written generally for our instruction more particularlie for admonition and warning for comfort and consolation c vnles we will say that God may be deceiued in his purpose and end wherefore he ordeyned them it must needes be that it must continue whatsoeuer hath bene written in that respect For if it or any part thereof fal awaye the same cannot according to th'ordinance of god either informe vs against ignorance or warne vs against danger or comfort vs against afflictions or finallye doe any other dutie vnto vs which we haue need of they were prepared for Thirdly if th' authority of th'autheÌ„tical copies in Hebrew Chalde Greek fal there is no high court of appeale where coÌ„trouersie rising vpon the diuersitie of translations or otherwise may be ended so that the exhortation of hauing re course vnto the law to the prophets Esai â— and of our Sauiour Christ asking Luke 10 Hieron epist ad Maâ—cel epist ad Suniam Fretel ad Damasum praefâ—in 4. Euang praef in paenitent Ambros de Spirit sanct lib. â— cap. 6 August de doctr christiana 2. lib. cap 11 lib. 11. contra Faust Manich. opist 59 how it is written and how readest thou are now either of none effect or not sufficient whilest these disgracers and disgraders of the Scripture haue taught men to say that the coppies are corrupted and the sense changed Nay not onely our estate is worse then theirs vnder the law and in our sauiour Christs time but worse theÌ„ theirs which liued some hundred yeres after Christ when th' ancient fathers exhorted in such cases that men should make sute vnto th' originall Scriptures to haue an end of their controuersies Yea their owne Gratian out of Augustine falsly alledged for Ierome sendeth vs in deciding of differences not to th' olde translator but to th'originals of the Hebrew in th' olde and of the Greek in the new testament They vse quarrelously to surmise against vs that we abbridge the priuiledges of the Churches of our dayes because vve accord them not to be so ample in euery point as they vvere vvhen the Apostles liued But vvo vnto the Churches of our dayes if the Scriptures be as the Papistes would beare vs in hand corrupted if the Charters and recordes whereby we hold the inheritance of the kingdom of heauen are rased or otherwise falsifyed if we haue not wherewith to conuey our selues to be children vnto the heauenly father and Priests vnto God in Iesus Christ further then from the hand of such a Scribe and Notarie as both might erre and hath erred diuersly Hieron in 6. c. Es August de ciuit dei lib. 15. c. 13 These euidences were safely surely kept when one onely nation of the Iewes and the same sometymes a few excepted vnfaithfull bare the keyes of the Lords librarie now when there be many nations that haue keyes vnto th'ark or counter wherein they are kept it is altogether vncredible that there should be such packing or such defect as th' aduersarie doth wickedly suppose Againe if the Lord haue kept vnto vs the booke of Leuiticus in it the ceremonies which ar abolished wherof there is now no practise for that they haue a necessary and profitable vse in the Church of God how much more is it to be esteemed that his prouideÌ„ce hath watched ouer other bookes of the Scripture which more properly belong vnto our times Laste of all passing by other reasons which might further be alledged let vs heare the Scripture it selfe witnessing of it own authority durablenes to al ages Thus therfore Moses writeth of it the secret hidden things remaine Deu. 29. 29 to the Lord our God but the things that are reueiled are to vs and our children for euer Psa 119. 152 Dauid also professeth that he knew long before that the Lord had founded his testimonies for euermore But our Sauiour Mat 24. 35 Mar. 13. 32 Math. 5. 18 Christs testimony is of all other most euident that heauen and earth shall passe but that his word can not passe and yet more vehemently that not one iote or small letter prick or stop of his law can passe vntill all be fulfilled Now as for the common obiection of diuerse bookes meÌ„tioned in th' old Testament where of we find none so intituled in the canon thereof it is easily answered That either they were ciuill and commonwelth stories whether the reader is referred if it like him to read the stories
little that they can see a mote in his eie wheÌ„ they perceaue not the beame that is in their own And if the places were so manie wherein M. Beza pronounceth the Greek to be corrupted that they would make the reader to wonder you haue done verie foolishly which in the great store you pretend haue repeated the most places twise and that of Cainan thrise at the least in this book bewraying thereby how in great want of abilitie of accusing him iustly the will and desire to accuse was out of all measure Yet speake we not this as taking vpon vs Maister Bezas defence without all exception For we haue shewed Acts. 13. how the Greeke copies doe well aggree with the trueth so we hope that the same might be performed in other appearances Look vers 14. how Ierome reconcileth these places which the Iesuites think irrâ—conciliable in his quaesriâ—ns vpon Genesis of contradiction euen in the two most difficultest places of all other which are in the 7. of th' Acts And touching that of the 75. soules beside Iacob it accordeth well with the nomber which Moyses particularly reckoneth vp Genes 46. where beside Iacob are mentioned 75. persons Neither doth S. Steuen affirme that 75. persons came into Egypt but declareth Looke Tremalius and Iunius in their anno tat vppon Genes 46 in that number the whole family of Iacob was before he came to Egypt that when men knew that it came in so manie yeares to no greater a summe then to 75. persons reckoning also the 4. wiues of Iacob and two sonns of Iehuda that were dead they might the more clearlie see the wondrous and miraculous blessing which followed before their departure from Egypt Th' other place which seemeth likwise irrecoÌ„ciliable concerning Abrahams vers 16. buying of a peece of grouÌ„d at Sichem of the sonns of Emor is as cleare as the sun at noone dayes If this place of th' acts be compared with the places of Genesis 12. 3. 4. and 33. 19. 20. for in the former of these places it is euident that Abram had built an altar vnto the Lord in the verie selfe same place which Iacob in the latter of these chapters is said to haue bought for 100. peeces of money Now if Abraham would not bury his wife in that land wherein he was a stranger but in ground bought with his own money much lesse would he build an altar to serue the Lord with but vpon a purchase thereof made It appeareth therefore that S. Steuen might with as good right call it the place which Abram bought as that which Iacob bought both of them hauing bought the place Neyther can it seeme strange vnto anie that Iacob purchased the same againe that his grand-father had bought before if they remember that the fathers were often iniured and depriued of welles and Genes 26 other things that they had gotten especially amongst a people who in all kinde of impietie and in-iustice were now come almost to the top And that it was Saint Steuens meaning to note out Abrahams purchase rather then Iacobs it may partly appear in that he maketh no mentioÌ„ of a certain price paid for the ground which notwithstanding is twise praecisely made mention of in the purchase of Iacob And Gen. 33. 19 Ios 24. 32. if the places were of that difficultie that we were not able to cleare them yet for our parts we had rather confesse our own ignoraÌ„ce theÌ„ to charge a full coÌ„sent of Greek copies with an vntrueth And although it should be trew which Maister Beza suspecteth some-where of the Greeke copies It followeth not that the trueth or anie part of the trueth is fallen from the Greek copies considering that the corruptions suspected of him are not such but by eyther circumstance of the place or conference of other places of Scripture the repaire may be made Last of all where they assigne such contrarietie betwene the testimonies cited according to the 70. interpreteres in the new Testament and the Hebrew text in th' old that either we must be driuen in cleauing to the Hebrew of th' olde to forsake the Greeke of the new or in cleauing to the Greeke in the new forsake the Hebrew in th' old they declare themselues to be verie trifelers and to abuse their reader impudently For they know that we are able to iustify euery place cited out of the 70. by the Apostles and Euangelists to be agreeable with the Hebrew and in some diuersitie of words to haue the same sense at the least to haue no sense repugnant to that in the Hebrewe which is manifest by this that where the 70. differed in sense there they leauing the 70. whome they so desirouslie followed for support of the Gentiles acquainted therewith follow the Hebrew text And as this is manifest by experience so is it obserued Hieron pro log 15. lib. in Esai expresly of Ierome To the next section page 17. Doubt not good reader but the Iesuites are like to bruste for anger to vnderstand that we are so well praepared to proue both that the princely garments are not worn vpon the Greek originals for the space of aboue 1500. yeares wherein they haue passed from hand to hand in the horrible deserte of this wicked world and that both the bread and apparel of th' olde translator setting out some hundreth yeares after it if euer it were clad and vitailed in anie passable measure of a translation yet that nowe it is so patched and so peeced so hoary and so mouldy that any man that asketh counsell of the Lord may easily see that neyther it commeth so far as the Iesuites doe praetend neither hath foode and rayment able to feed or cloth the children heires of so great a King And where hauing no more shamefastnes in their forehead then they haue haire on their bald pates they haue taken this boldnes to say that the Greek is not so corrupt as we say although th' olde translator be lesse corrupted then the Greek vnto whom what may we answer better then that which our Sauiour Christ answered vnto the Deuill confessing him to be yÌ„son of God hold your peace Mark 1. For beside that the truth caÌ„not beare anie praise of such foule mouthed enemies as these be their praise inferior to the Deuils in-trueth is alwaies to the same end that his that is wholy tending to the destruction of the trueth The Greeke is not so corrupt as we say O impudency as if there were anie that hath cald downe the royall value of th' originall Greeke as you haue done Though in comparison we knowe it lesse sincere and corrupt then the vulgar Latine O noble commenders of the Greek copies Could you haue set them lower then in placing them vnder the vulgar You might aswel haue set the heauens vnder the earth considering that the Greek originall being borne in heauen your vulgar sprung out of the dust How doth also this aggree with