Prophets own hands those were not then extant nor when extant to be seene of every body What then when he bade them search the Scriptures he must needes meane some transcribed Copies or some Translations For Copies in the Hebrew I doubt me whether the common people did then understand the Hebrew and amongst the Bereans who did search the Scriptures I think it past question that there were many ordinary people and perhaps Coblers or Taylors or such as Dr J. Rainolds seems to judg If this be granted that those who were commanded to search the Scriptures and commended for searching the Scriptures did not could not search the Original Hebrew what shall we think then No other can be imagined but some Translations which they did understand Syriack Chaldee but chiefly the Greek Translation which the most if not all understood But you will say the Translators were subject to mistake and erre or worse being no Prophets and if they did understand the Hebrew yet sith they could not come by the first Original Copy they must needs have recourse to some transcribed Copies Whether the Church were to repaire to Translations or to transcribed Copies all comes to one sith neither Transcribers nor Translators were Prophets Very good men let them be yet men they were and subject to errour May I speake my Opinion I think when Christ said search the Scriptures he meant the Sciptures translated into Greek and by Scriptures the Apostles meant the Greek Translation which tongue if not in Christs time yet in the Apostles times in a manner all did understand VVherefore when the Apostle saith is given by inspiration and is profitable he meanes it is profitable to be read or heard read in the Greek Translation And the rather am I of this minde because Schollars do know that the New Testament doth cite the places out of the Old Testament according to the Greek Translation and most an end are very punctual in it However whither we look on Translations or Transcriptions sith the first Table written by God himselfe was lost with the Temple and the Original Greek Copy of the Translation of the Old Testament was the Learned think and I think they think well in it burned by Julius Coesars Army when they fired Alexandria and the famous Library there The Ephesians were built on the Prophets and Apostles the Apostles they had with them but the Prophets were dead and gone Malachi was the last the Apostles they might consult with and they had their writings but for the writings of the Prophets the Ephesians being Gentiles I take it for granted understood not the Hebrew at least the body of them but being Grecians they might and did understand the Greek translation which I doubt not was purer then then it is now yet then being but a translation and the Original it self but carried up and down in transcribed Copies it is consented unto by all parties that the Translators and Transcribers might erre being not Prophets nor indued with that infallible spirit in translating or transcribing as Moses and the Prophets were in their Original writings The tentation lies on this side how the Ephesians then and much more sith there are no Prophets no Apostles no nor any infallible spirits in the Church how can we build on the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles now sith the Scriptures in their translated Copies are not free from all possible corruptions in the Copies we have either by transcribers or translators Besides many are unlearned and cannot read a Letter For these last though they cannot read yet they can hear it read to them Do not we see many blinde men in Schooles come to great learning by hearing others read Philosophy and Divinity and the body of other Arts Sciences to them so it is with the Scriptures they cannot read them but they can hear them read preached by others Dr. Jackson in his first book of his Commentaries on the Creed and Mr. John Goodwin in a set and large Treatise to justifie the authority of the Scriptures have shewed much learning and taken great paines in this Argument But like two Elephants they both swimme so deep that the benefit and comfort of it can reach but to a few we must fight lower and in a briefer way least we weary the Reader and charge the Printer and set down the brief of the matter in it so that common people and men of ordinary braines who are most subject to Tentation may find a way to spell out the right of this how faith can be had and the soule built on the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles sith this foundation was in their Writings and their Writings are under no other notion to any but either the Original transcribed or translated Take it either way it is done by ordinary men not by Prophets or postles and so subject to mistake insomuch that Cajetan was wont to say That to believe translations of the Scripture was not to beleeve the Word of God but the words of men Yet the Papist is more to seek then the Protestant for the Papist hath no Translation to compare as we have most of them allow no not Schollars to correct their translations as we all do The Papist doth allow no translation to be read in Churches no nor in Houses but under caution but the Latine none in the mother-tongue which all the people understand And therefore they are to take up their faith on the credit of the Priest and he many times little wiser then a foole little better then a son of Belial Cajetan did much rely on the words of Hierome who said That to prophesie and write holy Books proceeded from the Holy Ghost but to translate them into another tongue was a work of humane skill Nay for the Originals themselves Wotton is bold to Print That no man can tell what the signification of the Hebrew and Greek Word is even in the Bible but by the report of man And another as learned as he tells us That we can know further that that is the Hebrew tongue or Greek tongue wherein the Old and New Testaments are in the Originals but by the credit of men who tell us so In the Councel of Trent there were many great wits and men of great learning too who did tosse this Argument up and down about Translations and when they had done left it little better then they found it Upon these grounds the third of the Popish Articles passing under the name of Wrights Articles in termes is thus All Protestants who are ignorant of the Greek and Latine Tongues are Infidels and why because forsooth he relies upon the Ministers who may and do erre The second Article is That all learned Protestants are Infidels so that by his sentence all Protestants learned and unlearned are Infidels because they relie on a private spirit Thus with him and the rest of that Tribe all Protestants are damned All this
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
So I dare lay it on the same God that he in his providence is so with the Church of the Gentiles that they have and do preserve the Greek Text uncorrupt and clear As for some scapes by Transcribers that comes to no more then to censure a book to be corrupt because of some scapes in the printing and 't is certaine that what mistake is in one print is correctin another A second Proposition is That God never did suffer his Church to be without a sufficient Rule and there can be no rule but translations to the Vulgar Therefore I make no question but the sweet providence of God hath held the hearts and hands and pens of translators so in all true Churches in all times that the virnacular and popular translation into mother tongues have beene made pure without any considerable tincture of errour to endanger the soules of his Church For what if Interpreters and Translators were not Prophets yet God hath and doth use so to guide them that they have been are and shall be preserved from so erring in translating the Scriptures that the souls of his people may have that which will feed them to eternal life that they shall have sufficient for their instruction and consolation here and salvation hereafter This is the opinion of Bellarmine himselfe albeit he appropriates it to their vulgar Translation yet I think the eye of providence provides for all vulgar and vernacular translations in their mother tongue for all true Churches in the world Translations are sufficient with all their mistakes to save the Church I will deliver this in the words of Master Baine Faith cometh by hearing of the word from a particular Minister who by confession of all is subject to errour As God hath not immediately and infallibly assisted Ministers that they cannot erre at all so we know that he is in some measure with them that they cannot altogether erre A Translation that erreth cannot beget faith so farre forth as it erreth The word Translated though subject to errour is Gods Word and begetteth and increaseth faith not so farre forth as man through frailty erreth but as he is assisted through speaking and translating to write the truth So he This gives full satisfaction to me and I hope it will to others The maine Conclusion for a ground of all is the evidence and seale of the Spirit of God which perswadeth us of the saving truth in the Translation and by way of Ministry to come to saving faith by the preaching of the Word by our several Ministers Papists cry up the inerrable and infallible authority of the Church and yet they themselves deny not but their particular preachers whom they heare are as subject to erre as any of ours are I know no authority the Church hath whatever the Church doth is but Ministerial The Papists and we agree in this That Translations Originals Reading Preaching is of no saving effect without the Revelation and Testimony of the Spirit Canus I rather choose to mention him the oftener because Dr. John Rainolds saith that he was of better minde and sounder judgement then Popish Doctors are the most of them It is a great errour saith he in them who think they can either understand or interpret the Scripture without the peculiar gift of the holy Ghost And againe The last resolution of our faith must be in the inner efficiency of God moving to beleeve We believe not for that John or any man else saith it but because God hath revealed it Now that God hath revealed his minde we do immediately believe it by special instinct And again The formal reason of our assent is the light of God which God doth infuse into us and for this he cites Aquinas Lect. 2. ad Rom. 10. And as the understanding in us discernes of natural things and the taste in matters of sense so when the minde of a man is inlightened by the Spirit we are inabled to discerne doctrines necessary to salvation from errours which are not of God This his resolution is often up and down in his book Bellarmine is for the same conclusion A man cannot saith he without the special illustration of God believe the mysteries of faith And again Faith cannot arise in the heart but by divine revelation which is either immediately from God alone or by the instrument of the Word reade or preached I think it hath truth in it which Canus observes That Peter had heard the Testimony of John Baptist when with open voice he proclaimed Christ to be the Son of God John 1. 84. and had moreover with his own eyes seene many miracles of Christ yet after all these Christ doth ascribe Peters confession of his saith to none of of these but onely to divine revelation So then Protestants and Papists we and they concurre in this That at last we must sit down by the evidence and sealing testimony of the Spirit but with this difference They say The Spirit gives light and evidence to the authority of the Church we say To the Sovereignty of the Scriptures Nothing can be seene without some light or other Things of Reason cannot be conceived without the light of reason nor things of the Spirit without the light of Faith and of the Spirit Though Wotton hath cast an unhappy stone or two at translations yet when he comes to answer Fisher who said That the Spirit of God teacheth and perswadeth men to believe the Church Are you saith Wotton they who mock at private spirits and yet are glad to flie that help Is it not as likely the Spirit should teach men which is the Scripture as which is the Church and assure them of a translation as of this or that mans Ordination and Priesthood So he thus at last he is for the divine authority of translations But is not this to fall upon private revelations No such matter for we call not in for the Testimony of revealing of the Spirit to teach us any thing but what is revealed in the word that wer to bring in privat revelations But because none doth or can know the secrets of God but the Spirit of God therefore we say that we are made to see the evidence of truth first revealed in the Word and then by that light which the Spirit kindleth in our hearts both the Scripture to be the Word of God and the minde of the Sripture is not onely revealed but confirmed to us by the Testimony of the Spirit in us and to us So here is no use of the Spirit to reveal new lights but to shew us the evidence of these truthes which are in the Word A private spirit is to lead us from this is to lead us to the Word And all this is done by illightning our understandings and sanctifying our wills to discern and to approve the evidence of truth which is in the Scripture and no other They
Thomas Overbury that learned Knight his very friend indeed and then he bade adieu to that course of life As for his inward stormes they were very many and exceeding bitter together with a number of bodily infirmities attending him in his younger yeares but it was well for him that he bore the yoke in his youth And none that I know can now set out these to any purpose if ever an occasion be offered but that eminent and learned Divine Dr. Harris that knew so much of his * temptations and desettions by reason of that intimate acquaintance he had with him in those dayes being his Kinsman besides occasioned the more by the often recourse he had then into those parts for the fetching of some spiritual refreshing from that Divine of Divines Mr. John Dod that was both able and willing to speak a word in season to a broken and a contrite heart Mine intent is only as * Junius did with Ursine to pitch upon some few things of many and to confine my selfe to what I know of mine own certain knowledge having had the favour to stand in the repute of more then a common friend of his for above these thirty yeares together And this I must needs say 1. For the eminencie of his parts I never came near any that came near him in all particulars The most even of our most highflowen Eagles have commonly some peculiar Sparta which they adorne well and do very good service in it to Christ and his Church but this man had grasp't all good learning and made every thing his own so evenly to see to that he was as expert in his way as Hector in b Homer and would with Cato the elder be up in the c height in all that ever he was to act in Melancthon would say of Pomeranus he was the Grammarian of himself he was the Logician of Jusâ—us Jonas he was the Oratour but of Luther he was d all in all Here was one would fetch out Luthers mark if he list to turn to the School or to Case-Divinity to Austin or Chrysostome Galen or Hippocrates Aristotle or Tully to History or Philosophy to the Arts or Tongues who could tell but himself which he was least versed in He was a very living Library a full store-house of all kinde of good Literature no lesse then a little University the Mirrour of our parts above the envie of all that I knew The least draught of his pencil would have told any a Protogenes he had been the Apelles He excell'd in all that ever I saw he would set his hand to unlesse it were in his utterance in the publick Congregation and therein I must needs confesse he had a great defectivenesse God gave him great understanding of the times to know what Israel b ought to do He stood upon the Watch-tower and saw what was hid from most of our eyes and being quick of c Sent in the feare of the Lord he gave timely notice to some that stood in place which had it been heeded we had never been so fearfully pestered with those Hydraes heads that are now starting up afresh daily to the great disturbance of our people Simler said of Melancthon at his going from Tubing that none of the learned men there how many soever they were had so much learning as to know the great learning that was in that man Too too many of us were sick of the same disëase we knew not the depth in this mans breast We had many a man in this one man even all Scholarship epito nized in this profound Clerk And yet for all this that great blessing he had which he himself observed as a singular favour vouchsafed to Dr. John Rainolds that great Oracle of Oxford that he never set on foot any manner of new opinion The like is observed of learned Dr. a Whitakers stiled the Oracle of Cambridge and the Miracle of the world A mercy that most men of b superlative parts use not to be too rich in There 's scarce any strong braine without some strange fancie If the great wits of our times had kept themselves close to the steps of these rare Divines we had never seen the sorrows that we now sigh and groan under and would be glad to be shift on if we knew how 2. For the excellency of his preaching Wherein if I mistake not as I think I do not he excell'd all men I am sure all that ever I came near without the disparaging of any There be a great many that I know and a many-many more there be that I know not the Lord encrease their number that be singularly well-fitted for this great emploiment Worthies they be and must be as well as those were that attained not to the first * three This mans lot fell in the foremost rank He was an Interpreter one of a thousand His understanding was strangely opened for the understanding and the opening of the Scriptures He would bolt out that out of the holy book of God that would not come into any other mans consideration yet it should be genuine and evidently appearing to be the drift and meaning of the holy Ghost An intelligent man could never sit at his feet but he should meet with that there that would never fall from any other mans mouth nor ever drop from any other mans pen His words were as goads as miles fastned by the masters of the Assemblies They were edged with so much reason re-enfoâ—ced from the lively Oracles that they could not fall to the ground 'T is no wonder then that the creame of the whole Countrey as they could have their opportunities would a hang upon his Ministry Yet how plaine would he be in all his expressions he would not deliver what he had from God in an unknown tongue nor yet in termes that were too spruce and trim He had learnt his lesson well of that great Apostle that came not with b inricing words nor with any other then such as the very c Catechumeni the youngest beginners might understand He kept close to the footinâ—s of our own choicest Worthies famous Mr. Dod that would say so much Latine was so much flesh in a Sermon Master Cleaver Master Hildersam and such d holy men of God led by the self-same spirit He would deliver the holy and wholsome truth of God in such an holy and wholsome way that it bred very good blood in the hearts of the hearers He would stoop so low as to speak to our poor countrey-people in their own proper dialect so as they could not but even see and feel and finde out God and be occasioned to speak of him all the week after If he came to a deep mystery he would make it plaine to the shallowest capacity What ever he fell upon he would follow it so divine-like that the hearts of his Auditors would be rapt up into heaven
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
a lamp Psal. 119. 105. See 2 Reg. 22. 16. and 23. 2 25. 6. If our hearts be so well be sprinkled with the blood of Christ See Heb. 9. 19. and Exod. 24. 7. 7. If we be so humbled under the sense of that body of death we have about us See how it was with Josiah 2 Chron. 34. 23 30. when his heart was touched with the wickednesse of the time He read and so shall we when we have a sense of the sinne that is in us This Man of God in this short but sweet and elaborate discourse that followes hath cleared the way daintily for poor plain Christians to build upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles in those Translations that God in his great mercy hath set before them Here 's the price put into * the hand where 's the heart to use it we can but call on men 'T is God must perswade Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem. He was touching a little and but a little upon mans imperfections and upon the working of grace whilest it is here in this life and God took him to the place where the soules of the just are made perfect where grace is compleated in glory This brief and pithy piece hath lien longer upon mine hand then I am well-pleased with This I can say 1. It was written in his fast hand and so it was the longer work ere it could be pickt out perfectly by my selfe and some others that best knew his writing He was like * Bucer in this he his own selfe could not reade his own hand sometimes in a moneth after he had writ it 2. I have been letted by sicknesse much upon my selfe and some also in those that be near me besides some other urgent occasions 3. Not being cut out for work of this nature I had the more ado to satissie my selfe in this that 's let abroad such as it is at the last I have been more large by farre then I intended but 't is for a friend to whose memory I owe as much as Philemon did to Paul more then I can pay 2. 'T is for a man of men the Phoenix of his Age as 't was said of * Beza 3. Besides 't is all that I intend in this kinde to trouble the world withal God grant his blessing may attend it I remain Thine in Christ Jesus VAL MARSHALL Elmore May the 20. 1658. A Resolution of certaine Cases to cleare some doubts concerning my former Writings 1. Of the Scriptures IN all buildings the maine is to settle the Foundation First of all next to Christ the foundation is laid upon the Prophets and Apostles So Paul are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets meaning the foundation which the Apostles and Prophets laid Laid where In their doctrine contained in their Writings So Doctor John Rainolds the famous Hence that of Christ search the Scriptures for in them ye think to have eternal life By which place it is put beyond all Queries and Question that the Scriptures are the foundation of Religion sith in them is said Ye think and ye think well in it to have eternal life So again ye erre saith Christ to the Saddâ—ces not knowing the Scriptures And again Apollos shewed and convinced the Jewes publickly by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ and once more all Scripture is given by inspiration by the breath of God Now by Scripture is meant the Word of God written Written then Printed now by the way note and grant that written and printed come all to one written then printed now so then by Scriptures we meane the Word of God written Now here the first case is What ground there is that we should ground our selves on the Scriptures sith for a matter of two thousand years the Church was without Scripture and many went to heaven when there was before Moses no Scripture at all and the Christian Church was best and purest before the New Testament was written at all This was pleaded in the Councel of Trent to justle out the Scriptures and to place Traditions in the place of the Scriptures All this should not shake and totter the heart of a Christian Before Moses the Lord did teach by tradition without Scripture and the Church did by the providence of God walk by as certaine rules then as now For this they who will may see Dr. Abbot against Bishop Many Reasons are given why then the written word was not necessary as 't is now as that the Church was in families after it came to be all one Nation over now over all Nations As also that the Patriarchs then had a spirit we have not Anabaptists say they have an infallible spirit which Wotton calls a lewd opinion yet they say this as onely for themselves But sure the Patriarchs and the Church under the Patriarchs had a certain and infallible rule to walk by which was to them as the Scriptures are to us Their rule was the Word of God but not written ours is the same Word of God but written It is enough that the Law hath now tied us to the Word of God written And for the Apostles time the Apostles men immediately inspired being living and other infallible men not Apostles as Mark Luke there was no such necessity to have the Word of God written as there was after Wherefore they did provide for this ere they died and committed the Word of God to writing when there should be no such men to consult with Let us then sit down by the Scriptures the Word of God written as the onely sure card and rule to guide us in all matters of faith and life For if we leave this once there is nothing but Sea and Aire no place for this poor Dove this poore soul of ours to rest her foot without which when and where to stay none can tell That then we may not run from opinion to opinion from Christ to Christ from Church to church till we have run our selvs out of all our onely sure way is to flie to the Scriptures to the written VVord of God as to an Anchour that so we may have hope if hope then faith Before we go further we must take it as cleare that by Scriptures Christ and his Apostles do meane the VVord of God written Our enquiry is What written word Not the Original Copy for that was in the Ark and there onely and not to be seen of every body if of any body but the high Priest and I know nothing but those Tables perished with the Temple Nor can it be that when he did call upon them to search the Scriptures he did send them to the Ark which then was not I doubt not but he meant by the Scriptures the writings of Moses the Prophets Now who can think that Christ and his Apostles did turn over the Church and people of God to the Scriptures written by Moses and the
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
need or use they have of the Scriptures in the Originals or translation Before we come unto the maine of the businesse we cannot skip over a businesse of Mr. Wotton his words are these No man ever dreamed that we commonly build our faith upon our English translation What he would have by the word commonly I know not except his heart did faile his penne when he wrote this and by this word commonly he had a conceit that he might finde by it some shift and starting hole A strange speech it is to me that English men of such he speaks who can understand no language but English should be said not to build their faith on the English translation On what then The Original they know not other translations they understand not And if they must not build their faith on the English translation they are left nothing to build their faith on And what is this but to leave all unlearned in the Originals without a rule And if this be not to steale Atheisme into the hearts of the common people I know not what is sith Atheisme is such a welcome guest to the corrupt heart as it is Which makes me call to mind an Observation of Villeroy a late wise Secretary of France That the maine different Sects of Religion in the East and the fierce opposition they made each against each made the people weary of the Christian Religion and so Mahomet crept in with his religion and was too welcome to almost all who were almost weary of the sundry Heresies and Schisms which were so brief and rife amongst Christians of the East And this saith he overthrew the Christian Church first and the Christian Empires and states next over the East and let in Mahomets Alchoran and Mahomets Sword I doubt there is scarce any strange opinion pressing hither but would be welcome to us The Christian Religion was never in such danger since my time as it is now sith men runne so many and so contrary wayes that few can now tell which is true And since so great a Clerk and so great a Reformer as Wotton hath left the poore English man no rule to prove his own or to disprove the contrary For if the English translation be not to an English man let Elias come and tell us what and which is the rule and on what an English man may build his faith on being that there is nothing left him but his English translation So the old Church after Malachi what was left to the most but the Greek Translation and after the Apostles were dead and gone the Christian Churches were tied to the Greek translation of the Old Testament or else the Old Testament was no rule to them except to a few who understood the Hebrew That which all men say saith Aristotle is not to be doubted but al the learned I think agree that the Church used no translation but the Greek for a matter of six hundred yeares after the birth of Christ for two hundred yeares before So that for my part I look upon it as a position full of danger for men to affirme That translations are not a rule to ground our faith on when we understand no other That say I or none not none therefore that And now at last after the clearing of what is past we come to the maine point to find out what it is that a poore soule who understands not the Originals must rest upon First I say that the Lord is not nor will not be wanting to his Church in things necessary to salvation And to have a rule to build our faith on is absolutely necessary to salvation And that rule for common people must be the Scripture translated or nothing And therefore I take it to be a special Ordinance that the Scriptures should be translated for the use of the Church in several languages For the Original Copies I must subscribe to that of Ganus a Papist who tells us That we are not to receive into the holy Canon both for the Old and New Testament but such books as the Apostles did allow and deliver over to the Church of Christ And as the Church of the Jewes did preserve the Hebrew Original of the Old Testament safe and sure so I doubt not but the same hand of the providence of God hath and doth preserve the Greek Original of the New Testament And for that it is not possible that the Originals should serve the turne of all or immediately of any but of such as have the knowledge of those tongues who are but a poor few in respect of all the world over wherefore I take it for granted that the line of Gods providence hath and doth and will carry the matter in having translations of several languages so intiâ—e as to be a sufficient rule to ground their faith else God in his providence must needs be wanting in providing necessaries for his Church Nor do I think that there was or ever shall be a Church of Christ or a Church of Christians in the belly of Antichrist but have had translations sufficient to rest their souls on I doubt not but the vulgar for all its faults hath sufficient for the saving of some soules Besides among the Papists they have Pagnine allowed by two Popes which runs as pure as any Translation in the world and Arias Montanus a translation without exception Senensis much commends Jacobus de Voragine a Papist Arch-Bishop of Genua his translation into the Italian and Senensis could well tell having great skill in the Originals To me it is much that Senensis so sharp a Papist as he is should in print and that since the Councel of Trent so highly commend a translation of the Bible into the Italian tongue And Leo the tenth Bishop of Rome did just before Luthers dayes print a recommendation of Erasinus translation of the New Testament into Latine So that I look on it as a special providence of God that there were translations and those exact too in the heart of Popery And if so then he will not suffer the visible Church to be without a sufficient translation as a sufficient rule Smith himself the great backbiter of translations saith That if the Translation agree with the Original it may well be said to be the Word of God and if it do not agree with the Original it is not the translation of the Original And now we will draw towards the main conclusion How a simple Countrey-man is to believe our Bible to be the Word Doctor Jackson and Master John Goodwin have set downe many and many excellent things but they flie so high that they are for Eagles One may say of their books as Aristotle said of his books of Philosophy That they were published yet not published seeing not to be understood without his help Now all the considerations these great Sophies have and let there be as much more added to them yet they will not