Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	father_n	great_a	lord_n	5,746	5	3.6147	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38614	Shibboleth, or, Observations of severall errors in the last translations of the English & French Bibles together with many other received opinions in the Protestant churches, which being weighed in the ballance are found too light / written by John Despagne ... ; and translated into English by Robert Codrington ...; Shibboleth. English	Espagne, Jean d', 1591-1659.; Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665.	1656 (1656)	Wing E3271; ESTC R20162	51,713	172

SHIBBOLETH OR Observations of severall Errors in the last Translations of the English French Bibles Together With many other received Opinions in the Protestant Churches which being weighed in the ballance are found too light Written by John Despagne Minister of the French CHURCH And translated into English By Robert Codrington Mr of Arts London Printed in the yeare 1656 THE PREFACE REader I am one of the least but of those who are peaceable and faithfull in Israel And amongst those I am not the first who have undertaken to lay open those defects to which the most learned are subject Where is that Moses who still doth not stammer although God himself hath talked to him It is true the Defects which I have here noted are not so fatall in their consequences as that of Shibboleth was unto the Ephraimites Howsoever we should indeavour to correct our selves unto the truth and to speak as uprightly and as properly as we can Amongst a multitude of passages and places which deserve a review I have onely taken a small number and have ranked them by no other order but by that onely of my memory and according to that measure which it hath presented them unto me A work more compleat and exact doth pertain to the great Masters of knowledge unto whom I do commend the care thereof Nevertheless If time or rest or life if sight or light and which is more if the light of GOD doth not fail me I hope I shall not be altogether unprofitable Divers Treatises heretofore published by this Author POpular Errors in Generall points which concern the knowlege of Religion referred to their causes and comprehended in severall observations The use of the Lords Prayer maintained against the Objections of the Innovators of these times New Observations on the Creed New Observations on the Decalogue The eating of the Body of Christ considered in its principles SERMONS An Abridgement of the Sermon Preached on the 12. of Sept. 1648. Vpon the Treaty which was then to begin betwixt the late King and the Parliament A Funerall Sermon of the Author upon the Death of his wife A Funerall Sermon on the Death of Philip Earl of Penbrok● An Advertisement on the Breaking and distributing of the Bread in the Sacrament of the Supper omitted in many Orthodox Churches An Abridgement of two Sermons which preceded the Ordination of a Pastor in the French Church at Canterbury Considerations on the Eclips of the Sun March 29. the yeer 1652. The Charity of the Parliament of England to the French Church gathered in the Chapell at Somerset House The greatest part of the works above mentioned have been already translated into English by divers learned men SHIBBOLETH OR The Reformation of several places in the Translations of the French and of the English Bible Of a generall Fault in the English Translation at the beginning of the Lords Prayer and a great number of other places in the New Testament INstead of saying Our Father which art in the Heavens the English do express it Our Father which art in Heaven There are ●ew who can be perswaded but they express this Prayer in the same terms as our Saviour did dictate it Nevertheless the mistake is very visible If it proceeded onely from custom and vulgar use I should not here make mention of it But it is authorized by the publick Translation reviewed and oftentimes re-imprinted For all the Translations of Math. 6. and Luke the 11. do with one voyce pronounce Who art in Heaven I shall not here study at all to give an Answer to those who immediatly will reply Is it not all one If we say that GOD is in Heaven or in the Heavens A man experienced in the Scriptures will never speak it The difference is very great betwixt Heaven in the Singular and Heavens in the Plural Number And although in some matters the Singular be indifferently pronounced as the Plurall as in Math. 16. and 19. and Math. 18. and 18. yet this difference is not universall On the contrary It is of great importance to discern when the Scripture speaks of the Heavens and when it speaks of Heaven Of which I will not treat at this present It shall suffice to speak that the word Heavens in the Plurall doth far more express the extent of the power of GOD whom in that Prayer we do implore And also that Terme doth imply that he hath all the Heavens at his service to assist us Not onely the Angels who are in the highest Heaven but the Sun and the Stars also which are in another Heaven and besides them the Rain and the Air which is also called Heaven In the same Prayer The Heaven in which the Angels do perform the Will of God is distinguished by the Singular number from the Heavens in the Plurall which our Father doth fill with his presence and ●is power But why should I alleage Reasons to maintain a truth which cannot be de●yed He that is no extraordinary Grecian may understand well enough that are the terms in the Originall to which the Translation ought to answer Is it Our Father which art in Heaven No It is Who art in the Heavens Wherefore then do we not speak it so Wherefore do we not translate the word as they are in the Original Text Is it because the Ianguage of this Island doth want a word to express the Heavens in the Plurall The contrary is sufficiently known as by experience it is evident Is it because the changing of one word to which the people have a long time been accustomed would appear either strange or difficult We ought to regard more the truth of God then the custom of men And it will not be so uneasy in a new Translation to change a supposition in the singular number into a truth in the Plurall Nevertheless it is here requisite that I meet with and prevent a subterfuge which may be used For it may be objected The Evangelists themselves repeating the passages of the old Testament in which the Heavens are named in the Plurall have translated in Heaven in the singular number As may appear in the 7th of the Acts and the 46. verse in comparing it with the 66. of Esay 1. To which I answer That we are not Evangelists of such a rank as they were and that our Translations proceed not as theirs did from the Dictates of the infallible Spirit And when we render the new Testament into any other language we ought to express the very terms of the Evangelists and the Apostles And likewise when we translate the old Testament we should represent the very terms thereof It is remarkeable that in all the New Testament the Son of God did never say Your Father which is in Heaven or My Father which is in Heaven But alwaies which is in the Heavens In the Heavens in the Plurall The Evangelists do recite a great number of the passages in which he hath said Our Father or my

Father which art in the Heavens But not that he ever said The Father which art in Heaven Wherefore then Do we make him to change his stile in the Prayer which he hath prescribed to us But the English Translation doth change also all the other places in which Jesus Christ doth express the Heavens in the Plurall Number when he speaketh of the Father To the same purpose our Lord did never say the Kingdom of Heaven but alwaies the Kingdom of the Heavens One onely of the Evangelists hath this terme of the Kingdom of the Heavens no less then six and thirty times but the Kingdom of Heaven not once which plainly doth demonstrate seeing the multitude of passages in which the Plurall number is alwaies imployed and never the Singular that there is a mystery or an Emphasis in the one which is not in the other But the English Translation to the contrary doth never say the Kingdom of the Heavens but alwaies the Kingdom of Heaven Amongst all the places of the New Testament where the Original nameth the Heavens there are very few where the English do express the Plurall It is in their translation of the 2 Cor. 5. 1. and Heb. 1. 10. Why ought it not to be or could it not be as well in all the other places which the holy Ghost hath dictated And in Ephes. 1. 10. where the Originall mentioneth the Heavens in the Plurall the English Translation doth onely put it in the Margent and placeth the Singular in the text it self Of Lucifer who is mentioned in the English Translation Esay 14. ver. 12. THe School-Boys know that Lucifer is a Latin word and it is the name of the Star which sheweth its self before the rising of the Sun The Hebrew which signifies this Star is indeed expressed it self by the word Lucifer but it is when we speak in Latine not when it is translated into English To what purpose then is this Lucifer in the English translation The translators in the Margent have inserted the true word of the English tongue which is the Day-Star but in the body of the text they had rather imploy the Name of Lucifer as if it were better English or as if there were some great cause which did oblige them to it It is indeed no other thing but the tracing of an antient Allegory which applyeth to the Devill that which is spoken to the King of Babylon and of the Name of a Star hath made it to be the proper Name of the Prince of evill Spirits and give it him in Latin that is to say Lucifer And because proper Names do retain themselves in whatsoever language they are spoken it was beleived that this ought not to be changed for any other But wherefore do we yet retain the relicks of such notorious folly censured a long time since and disavowed by our selves who is he amongst the vulgar that finding in his Bible this word Lucifer doth not immediatly believe that it is the Name of a great Devill whom common ignorance so calleth It is true that the Divines who have published the last annotations on the English Bible have also condemned those who do so understand the name of Lucifer But so long as that word shall remain in the text the error will continue What need is there to retain a word which is not of the English tongue since the English can express the Hebrew without this Latin word which onely serveth to nourish an antient folly The common people of England have a long time thought that the evill Rich man Luke 16. verse 19 c. was called Dives according to his proper Name And for the greatest part they do to this day believe it for they ordinarily say that Dives is in Hell that Dives spoke with Abraham c. As if Dives had been his Christen-name or at least his Sirname Now this ridiculous opinion was conceived and born at that time when the people had not the Bible but in Latin For because that Dives doth signify a rich man in the Latin tongue when mention was made of Dives the ignorant did imagin that it was the name of a man An interpretation as vain as that which is recited in a modern Satyre of one who maintained that the name of Tobyes Dog was Canis because it is said that Canis followed his Master But it is to be admired how this ignorance hath been fomented even by the Orthodox themselves since the Reformation when they published the Scriptures in the English tongue for in the Contents of the Chapter which they have prefixed to the 16. of Luke we do yet read as if that Chapter did speak of Dives and Lazarus The last translation hath not this word Dives No more ought Lucifer to be any more especially in the text it self Of Mary Magdalen who falsly is said to be a Woman of a bad life The injuries which Divines for the most part a● her in their Sermons and their Books And especially the English Bible in the Argument of the seventh Chapter of St. Luke THe injury which the Roman Church doth to another Mary who was the Sister of Lazarus hath been sufficiently confuted by the Orthodox Ignorance hath caused to believe that this Mary and another who was of Magdala and the Sinner mentioned in the 7th of Saint Luke were but one and the same person confounding these three in one now we have truly and already vindicated one of the three who is Mary of Bethany who was the Sister of Lazarus but we do still defame her of Magdala as if this Magdalen were the Sinner of whom Saint Luke speaketh There is nothing more common in the mouth of the vulgar then the wicked life of Magdalen The Preachers willing to comfort Souls afflicted with the horror of their sins do represent unto them this Woman as one of the most unchast and most dissolute that ever was to whom nevertheless GOD hath been mercifull On the same prejudice which is but imaginary the reason is builded wherefore the Son of God being raised from the dead did appear first to Mary Magdalen before he appeared to any other for it is alleged it was because she had more need of comfort having been a greater finner than others The common places the Indexes even that of Marl●rat himself and other Books which serve for an Address to Students do give them betimes this impression which alwaies afterwards they retain He who hath wrote the Practise of Piety of whom I shall speak more hereafter doth rank this Magdalen with the most enormous sinners yea with Manasse himself one of the most wicked that ever was And yet more to atuhorize this error it is inserted into the Bible it self For the Contents of the 7th Chapter of Saint Luke in the English translation doth tell us that the Woman whose sins were in a greater number then the sins of others the Woman who untill then had led a wicked life and full