as he came Hence it is That as of old men by reason of abuse 1 Sam. 2.17 to 45. So many at this day forsake the assembling of themselves together They say of Erasmus that being here in England he came to none of our Churches and being asked his reason he said because he observed that men came forth of the Church more proud then they went in And the truth is if men be not the better they are the worse because they flatter themselves with a form of godlinesse and with that which we object to others the opus operatum as if the very hearing Gods word made them the better men Thus ye read of the Whore in the Proverbs that she strengthens her self in her whoredoms by her form of godliness Pro. 7.14.15 Reproof Of those to whom the Lord gives the soveraignty and rule over sin yet they prostitute themselves and enslave their soules under the bondage of sin and iniquity Hence we have a ground of Exhortation to master and rule over our sin When Abraham had given Hagar into the power of Sarah Gen. 16.6 she afflicted her and brought her under And wheras the Lord hath given iniquity into our power let us subdue it A Servant will not be corrected with words Prov. 29.19 And therefore S. Paul 1 Cor. 9.27 I keep under my body saith he and bring it into subjection c. The Romans when they waged war with their Servants who rebelled against them their Servants prevailed while their Masters fought with them with their swords thereby they did ipso facto make the Servants Freemen Which their Masters perceiving brought Whips and Scourges with them into the field and so subdued them Words and reasonings are ineffectual to subdue the earthly and sensuall concupiscence Venter non habet aures Eve reasoned with the Serpent and was foiled at that weapon Deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 Resist the Devil Tread him under foot By Repentance and Faith the world is overcome 1 John 5.4 And Blessed be God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ THe Voice of thy brothers blood Gen. 4. Ver. 10. The word we turn blood is plurall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so rendred in the margent bloods The holy spirit could as well here have used the singular as elsewhere but made choise of the plurall We may conjecture some reason as because in shedding the bloods of Abel Cain had shed the bloods of all his posterity all possibilities of his off-spring how many soever might have descended from him Which renders the sin of murder of all other the most abominable as that which beside many other aggravations brings with it the greatest horrour of conscience as may appear in the example of Cain And therefore David deprecates the guilt of killing not onely Uriah himself Psal 51.14 but all Vriah's posterity also deliver me from bloods O God the God of my salvation And because he who takes away life Hos 4.2 he takes away all good which depends upon the life blood is taken for all sin Bloods touch bloods that is as the Chaldee Paraphrast explaines it Sins adde above sins And to make this sin of murder yet the more odious the Greek hath the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to kill taken from the name of Cain the first murderer after his father the devill Joh. 8.44 1 Joh. 3.12 And he builded a city Gen. 4. Ver. 17. When not presently for who should help him build it who should inhabit it but long after when he had now gotten sons and daughters and sons and daughters had been born to them This was no sudden work Nor is it said he builded as our Translators render it but he was building 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fuit aedificans as Arias Montanus amended Pagnin who turn'd the words aedificavit whom our Translators follow The LXX keep the Hebrew expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he was building a city But what need was there of this curiosity as some will call it No doubt but Moses here wittingly laid the foundation of a spiritual understanding which S. Austin took notice of lib. 15. de civitate cap. 8. In Vniverso genere humano cum primùm istae duae caeperunt nascendo atque moriendo procurrere civitates prior est natus civis hujus saeculi posterior autem iste peregrinus in saeculo pertinens ad civitatem Dei c. When first these two Cities began to run forth in all mankinde as men are born or die the former Cain is born a Citizen of this world the later Abel is a stranger in the world who belongs to the City of God So that as Non uno est conditae Roma die Rome we say was not built in one day nor is the City of Cain built all at once Nemo repente fit pessimus A man is not stark naught all at one time Cain was building a City which all ungodly men in their respective generations Jude ver 11. who walk in the way of Cain are yet building Thus on the contrary Hebr. 11. The City of God whose builder and maker God himself is is not like Jonah's Gourd or a Mushroom grown up in a night it 's not built in a short time It 's true dreamed and fansied it may be but builded it cannot suddenly be as they well know who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 workers together with God Alas There 's a great deal of rubbish to be removed The foundation must be deeply layd And superstructures raised thereupon by degrees Neh. 4.10 1 Cor. 3.10 It is no hasty business As Cain was building and they who walk in his way are building his City so they who walk in the way of the Lord are building his City also But let every one take heed what and how and with whom he builds For Cain and his builders have as fair pretences as may be The name of his Son and his City was Enoch consecrated dedicated And ye shall finde among his posterity Mahujael Annuntians Deum a Preacher of God and Lamech an humble man And these pretend to build the City of God Ezra 4.2 as the adversaries of the Jewes did and would build with them And therefore it will neerely concern us to destinguish the two Cities which so different so contrary families are building the one of the love of God and their neighbour which is Philadelphia the City of David which is Love The other opposit here unto is the City of the devill which therefore must be Envy Hatred Malice and all uncharitableness This City men begin to build and inhabit when they depart from the other As when Cain departed from the presence of God who is Love then he was building his City Thus ye read 1 John 4.8.16 that when the ten Tribes revolted from the house and City of David the first royall City wherein their Kings dwelt was Tirza And so it is even to
AN ESSAY TOWARD THE AMENDMENT OF THE LAST English-Translation OF THE BIBLE OR A Proof by many Instances that the Last Translation of the BIBLE into English may be Improved The First Part on the PENTATEUCH OR Five Books of MOSES By ROBERT GELL D. D. Minister of the Parish of St MARY Alder-Mary LONDON Ad intelligendam Parabolam Interpretationem verba sapientum aenigmata eorum Prov. 1.6 Da Sapienti occasionem Sapientior erit fac scire justum addet doctrinam Prov. 9.9 Animalis homo non percipit ea quae sunt Spiritûs Dei 1 Cor. 2.14 LONDON Printed by R. Norton for Andrew Crook and are to be sold at the signe of the green Dragon in S. Pauls Church-yard 1659. A PREFACE To the godly-learned Reader THe main Scope of the pure Religion and undefiled is to render the man like unto his God For it seems to be the dictate of Nature what the Prophet saith Mich. 4. v. 5. All peoples will walk every one in the name of his gods And let it be our resolution to walk in the name nature or being of the Lord our God for ever and ever to be holy as he is holy pure as he is pure merciful as he is merciful perfect as he our heavenly Father is perfect For this end he hath given us a perfect Canon Directory and Rule the holy Scriptures which as they testifie of him so they teach us to know him and are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ But there have not been wanting some in all ages who either out of ignorance or want of care or out of zeal to their own chosen opinions and parties or such as upon credâ—t of others learning and authority have taken their Religion upon trust or such as out of malice have acted the envious mans part and sowen their tares among the good seed from one or other of these principles either they have mis-translated the original text of Scripture or if rightly translated they have corrupted it by mis-interpretations and false Glosses imposed upon it And thus by perverting the holy Scriptures to their own by-ends and purposes they make them speak every one their own sense and private interpretation as Demosthenes said that Philip had bribed the Oracle and made it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speak in favour of Philip. This the Philosopher tells us they do who corrupt the Judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they make the rule crooked like the Lesbian rule because the thing to be judged is so The Apostle saith that this hath been the endeavour of unlearned and unsetled men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they wrest S. Pauls Epistles as also other Scriptures to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 But whereas such is the Majesty and Authority of holy Scripture that not only the sense and meaning of it is breathed and instilled into it by the Spirit of God but also the words themselves are dictated by the same Spirit and accounted so sacred that as Eusebius saith out of Philo the writings of Moses were kept so unviolable that there was not one word altered for more then two thousand years Euseb de praepar lib. 8. When therefore the Scripture is to be turned into another language no doubt all care study and endeavour ought to be used for the due rendring of it and above all most earnest prayer is to be made to the only wise God for a like minde to that which enlivens and breathes in the Scripture that thereby the Translator may be guided into the truth of the sense and furnished with sutable expression of proper words That herein he deny himself and his own opinion and siding tenent misleading to a private interpretation and studiously follow the Word and Spirit shining before him as the pillar of fire and that as much as is possible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even word for word and because vocabula sunt rerum vehicula words carry matter sense for sense lest he be wildred in his own imagination and invention Yea although some Scripture in its native meaning may seem strange and uncouth yea absurd and inconsequent yee it is not safe therefore to impose our own sense upon it Because the holy Word is not onely literally to be understood but also mystically yea even the most literal text according to the judgement of the best learned men may beside the Letter have also a spiritual meaning And therefore when we meet with such seeming unfruitful Scripture which affords not much matter in the Letter we may then judge that according to the manifold wisdom of God there is a ground of some more notable meaning of the Spirit as where rich Mines are there the surface of the earth yields not much fruit And if we will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 5. Search the Scriptures as for hidden treasures Prov. 2. we shall not take offence at the surface of the Letter though more barren but from that occasion humbly and docibly enquire into the true treasure of the spirit hidden under that poor and beggarly Element We shall meet with instances of this kinde as elsewhere so especially Exod. 12.9 of which I have spoken in its due place And another I remember which I shall not reach in this work 2 Kings 13.21 2 Kings 13. where our Translators render the words thus And it came to pass as they were burying a man that behold they spied a band of men and they cast the man into the Sepulchre of Elisha and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood up on his feet Even thus it comes to pass in Israel when Elisha is dead and buried there Thus it falls out in the Church when the Lord Jesus God the Saviour that 's Elisha is dead in it Thus it happens in the soul when Jesus Christ is dead in it presently all things are out of order While he lives in Israel the Church the souls of his believers he bears and rules all things by the word of his power Heb. 1. The Syriac word there used is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to contain compose unite and knit together as a King saith the Wiseman doth Continere hominum multitudines containes and unites multitudes of men together as a binding chord in Musick makes all tunable what otherwise would be dissonant and jarring dis-harmony And while the King Christ who is our peace rules and umpires differences in our hearts Col. 3.15 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he unites and knits all the thoughts wills and affections of the soul together in subjection to himself 1 Cor. 10.5 But when Elisha is dead when God the Saviour is dead and buried in Israel dead in the Church dead in the soul all that which was united and knit together before all falls a pieces What was one before is now multiplyed and broken into many We read often in the book of Judges There
given them their possessions Deut. 2. Which yet will appear more forcible if we consider the ends why the Lord gives his temporal good things unto graceless men that they may seek out God Acts 17.27 that they may repent Rom. 2.4 So that he who takes away the goods of graceless men he hinders them from the means of finding God and repenting of their sins Yea if those two things be granted 1. That the dominion and right to temporal things is founded in grace 2. That a man may be his own judge who is and who is not in the state of grace no man shall quietly possess any thing he has If a gracious man steals his grace is no grace Yea hence will follow a prodigious distinction of theevery that which a graceless and that which a gracious man commits Come we to the measure and manner of Restitution He shall restore his trespass with the principal thereof and adde unto it the fifth part thereof and give unto him against whom he hath trespassed 1. He shall restore his trespass that is the thing wherein he hath trespassed by a Metonymie But what is here meant by the words following with the principal thereof What is this principal Is it some other thing beside the trespass Surely no Why then is it said he shall restore the trespass with the principal thereof if the principal and trespass be the same thing This doubt must be cleared by a spiritual sense of which anon Meantime as to the letter we may observe The wisdom and goodness of the most righteous God the Judge of all the World in removing all impediments and lets from among men that his royal law might take place in their hearts so that we might owe nothing unto any man but to love one another And what reason is there for this Restitution What is more just then the rule of the most righteous Judge of all the World The Lord tryeth or purgeth the righteous but the wicked and him that loveth violence or rapine his soul hateth Psal 11. ver 7. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousnesses inward and outward righteousness The word is plural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his countenance doth behold the upright Psal 11.7 Whence the Psalmist adviseth us to make trial of this by our own experience among men Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end or reward of that man is peace Psal 37.37 So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more then the beginning c. Job 42.12 Ye have heard of the patience of Job James 5. ver 11. and have seen the end or reward of the Lord James 5.11 But the transgressours shall be destroyed together The end or reward of the wicked shall be cut off And truly if men patiently wait on the Lord they shall observe that he will bring forth the flying rowl in his due time even the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth c. and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsly by Gods Name forswearing what he has stollen and it shall remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof Zach. 5.1 4. For it must have a time because 1. God is patient and long suffering and would not that any should perish And the fin being conceived in the heart as in the womb Psal 7.14 it must have a time to bring forth and so must the judgement and the curse which goes along collaterally with the sin And when sin is perfected it bringeth forth death And when once the curse hath setled it is no starter but it remaines in the midst of the house for punishments were wont to be inflicted on the houses of malefactors Ezra 6.11 Dan. 3.29 to root out their name and memory And when the curse hath taken up its place in the house its hot idle there but it consumes and eats where ever it comes For as the blessing increaseth Gen. 9.1 So the curse diminisheth and brings to nothing Levit. 26. Deut. 28. This curse goes along with goods however unjustly gotten by fraud or violence The story of Glaucus the Lacedemonian which Herodotus reports is remarkable He had received a sum of money of a certain Milesian for the use of his children under age Glaucus denied the receipt of the money with an oath Glaucus afterward guilty consulted with the Oracle which gave him this answer That the curse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seizing stock and house wholly shall destroy Which as the Historian affirms afterward accordingly came to pass For howsoever violent and fraudulent men may flatter themselves and one another we shall finde all pretious substance we shall fill our houses with spoil Prov. 1.13 yet ver 32. The prosperity of such fools shall destroy them Yea we may refer the ruines and destructions of Kingdoms and Commonweals as wise Historians and Statesmen do unto the same causes For of that Anarchy and ruin of Judah whereof ye read Esay 3. ye finde the cause ver 14. the spoil of the poor is in their houses And Jeremy having told the house of Israel and Judah Jer. 5. That their sinnes had with-held good things from them what sins were they Verse 26 27. As a Cage is full of Birds so are their houses full of deceit And Zephany having denounced an heavy judgement against the Jews Ver. 9. among other causes deserving it he saith that the servants filled their Masters houses with violence and deceit But let me again minde you of what one of the most antient Fathers hath written concerning these very sins whereof the Lord here speaks Absit absit inquam ut haec ego de aliquo fidelium sentiam Far yea far be it from me that I should think these things of any of the faithful And good reason since this is the character given of those Primitive times Adeò sancta erat illis temporibus fides ut fallere aliquos posse non crederetur There was such faithfulness and integrity among them that they thought it impossible that any one of them should deceive And because they themselves loved truth and faithfulness and knew not what it was to deceive they thought no man would deceive them So the Virgin-Church might say of her self Ego nescia rerum Difficilem culpae suspicor esse viam Vpon this very consideration that holy Father understood the former part of this law spiritually And I believe upon the same grounds we may so understand the latter part of it Let us inquire and make trial This ground we may lay or rather it s laid to our hand The law is spiritual and this law as hath appear'd in the former part of it It s here said he shall restere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his trespass his sin So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies and is rendred by the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trespass Esra 9.6
delivered and speak to what more properly concerns our present purpose 1. The Lords first Request to Israel is to fear the Lord their God But what fear of the Lord is here understood And why is that fear his first Request 1. The fear of the Lord here meant is not only servile which is a necessary introduction unto a better but filial initial and ingenuous fear also which hath the temper of love with it 2. This fear of the Lord is his first Request unto Israel because fear and reverence properly belongs to his soveraignty and supream Majesty Mal. 1.6 For it is the property of Saviraigns to expect reverence from their Subjects To this man will I look to the poor or humble and broken of spirit and trembling at my word viz. so trembling as the balances in aequi pondio when they are one weight ready to turn with the weight of the word And therefore this fear of the Lord appertains ad primam mensuram divinitatis quae janua est ad intrandum in palatium Regis to the first measure of the Deity which is the gate and in-let into the Palace of the great King saith Georgius Venetus out of the antient Divines Hence it is that this fear of the Lord is said by David to be the beginning of divine Wisdom Psal 111.10 which is confirmed by his wise son Solomon Prov. 1.7 Here is then the first service of the Lord and his first Request unto Israel to fear the Lord his God Ezod 20.20 2. This fear of the Lord is the principle of walking in all his wayes That 's the Lords second Request And what are those wayes There are many of them but they may be reduced unto three 1. There is a way of Gods Commandements Psal 119.1 Psal 119. v. 1. and 128. v. 1. O the blessednesses of the perfect in the way walking in the Law of the Lord wherein they walk who fear the Lord. O the blessednesses of every one fearing the Lord walking in his wayes This is the way of the Law 2. There is a way of faith which is Christ For so the Lord saith of himself I am the way John 14.6 and Christ and faith in him are promiscuously taken sometime as 2 Cor. 13.5 Gal. 3.23 24 25. And this is the way of the Gospel 3. There is a way of love a most excellent way 1 Cor. 12.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet I declare unto you a way 1 Cor. 12. v. 31. and 13.1 Secundum excellentiam according to eminency and excellency What that way is the Apostle shewes in the following Chapter If I speak with the tongues of men and Angels but have not love or charity c. Whereby its evident that Archbishop Stephen Langhton who divided the Scriptures into Chapters though elsewhere very happily most what yet herein he violently brake the last verse of the twelfth Chapter from the first of the thirteenth For the Apostle in the last verse of the twelfth Chapter begins a new argument or subject distinct by way of excellency from the former part of that Chapter which he prosecutes Chap. 13. This is the third way the way of love the way of the everlasting Gospel Matth. 24.14 Revel 14.6 1. Whence it appears that the fear of the Lord is only a soveraign and effectual preservative against sin according to that of the Wiseman The fear of the Lord driveth out sin and wrath Ecclus 1.26 And by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil But also it is a means as helpful for the advancement and promoting of every positive good as here for the walking in all the wayes of God 2. The Lord expecteth of Israel an universal obedience a walking in all his wayes obedience of fear Exod. 20.20 Obedience of faith Rom. 1.5 and 16.26 And obedience of love or charity 1 Pet. 1.22 1 Pet. 1. v. 22. So Hierom read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so he rendred the words Animas vestras castificantes in obedientia charitatis having purified your souls in or by the obedience of charity And this reading suits best with the context For the Apostle having spoken of faith and hope two of the Theological vertues v. 21. he proceeds to the third which is charity ver 22. 1. Whence they are justly to be reproved who have all the wayes of the Lord propounded unto them to walk in Esay 65. v. 2. yet choose rather to walk in a way not good after their own thoughts Esay 65.2 2. Such as pick and choose one or other of Gods wayes to walk in especially such as seems to them to be most smooth and easie Such are they who leave the way of the Law under pretence either of impertinency and that it belongs not unto them or which amounts to the same of impossibility for them to walk in and choose to themselves that way which they call the Gospel as if Christs walking in the way of the Law excused them from walking in it not remembring that the righteousness of the Law is to be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.3 4. Not considering that the Lord Jesus saith of the Gospel that strait or how strait is the gate and narrow is the way Mat. 7. v. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leading unto life Matth. 7.14 Yea full as much obedience and as tedious travailing there is in the way of the Gospel as in that of the Law as will appear to him who shall consider these Scriptures advisedly Matth. 5.17.18.19.20.48 and 7.14 2 Cor. 7.1 Col. 4.12 beside many others to be named in due place Only under the Gospel the Lord giveth more grace and strength to run the way of his Commandements 3. But most abominable are they who walk in lasciviousness excess of wine in rioting and drunkenness in chambering and wantonness yet pretend to walk in the way of pure and holy love These at this day are the close civil Ranters These are they of whom the Apostle saith that they turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness These are spots in our feasts of charity Jude v. 12 14. feasting with you feeding themselves without fear Enoch the seventh from Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prophesied unto these So far are these from walking in all Gods most holy wayes that they dare affirm Os blasphemum impudens O blasphemous and bold-faced men that the most holy God walks with them in all their most unholy and most unclean wayes Yea these set the Devil in the seat of God and make God like unto their ungodly selves of which the Lord will convince them in his judgement Thou thoughtst that I was altogether such as thy self Psal 50. v. 21 22 23. but I will reprove thee and I will set in order thy sins so the LXX in thine eyes Now or I beseech ye consider this ye forgetful of God lest I tear in pieces and there be none