<& f? ERRATA PROTESTANT BIBLE; TRUTH OF THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS EXAMINED; IN A TREATISE, SHOWING SOME OF THE ERRORS THAT ARE TO BE FOUND IN THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES, USED BY PROTESTANTS, AGAINST SUCn POINTS OF RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE AS ARE THE SUBJECT OF CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THEM AND THE MEMBERS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ; IN WHICH ALSO, FROM THEIR MISTRANSLATING THE TWENTY-THIRD VERSE OF THE FOURTEENTH CHAPTER OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, THE CONSECRATION OF DR. MATTHEW PARKER THE FIRST PROTESTANT ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, IS OCCASIONALLY CONSIDERED. BY THOMAS WARD, ESQ. n A NEW EDITION, CAREFULLY REVISED AND CORREC TO WHICH ARE ADDED, THE CELEBRATED PREFACE OF THE REV. D OCTORLINGARD IN ANSWER TO RYAN'S " ANALYSIS, AND A VINDICATION, BY THE RIGHT REV. DOCTOR MILNER, IN ANSWER TO GRIER'S " REPLY." " For I testify to every one that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book : If any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from these things which are written in this book." Revelations xxii. 18, 19. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY D & J. SADLIER, No. 58 GOLD STREET. 1847. LOAN STACK 1 2^7 TO THE RIGHT REVEREND JOHN FENNELLY, VICAR APOSTOLIC OF MADRAS, BISHOP OF CASTORIA, THIS EDITION OF SARD'S INVALUABLE WORK, AGAINST THE GROSSEST OF ALL CORRUPTIONS, THE CORRUPTION OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES, u MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, AS A SMALL TESTIMONY OF THE HIGH ESTEEM AND VENERATION IN WHICH HIS LORDSHIP IS HELD, BY HIS LORDSHIP S MOST OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVANTS, THE EDITOR AND PUBLISHER. 25, Anoleska-street, Dublin, 1*< July, 1841. 961 CONTENTS. Preface to the Fourth Edition, . The Author's Preface, The Truth of Protestant Translations of the Bible examined, Of the Canonical Books of Scripture, Of Books rejected by Protestants for Apocryphal, Protestant Translations against the Church, " " against the Blessed Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Mass, " " against the Blessed Sacrament and the Altar, " " against Priests and Priesthood, " " against Priesthood and Holy Orders, " " against the Authority of Priests, " " against Episcopal Authority, « " against the Single Lives of Priests, " " against the Sacrament of Baptism, " " against Confession and the Sacrament of Penance, " " against the Honour of our Blessed Lady and other Saints, '« " against the Distinction of Relative and Divine Worship, " 9 against Sacred Images, " " against the Use of Sacred Images, " " against Limbus Patrum and Purgatory, ... " " against Justification and the Reward of Good Works, " " against Merits and Meritorious Works, " " against Free Will, " " against Inherent Justice, " " in defence of the Sufficiency of Faith alone, " '* against ApOstolical Traditions, " " against the Sacrament of Marriage, Protestant Corruptions by adding to the Text Considerations on the Lambeth Records, Protestant Translation against the Perpetual Sacrifice, " Corruptions of the Scripture, " Absurdities in turning Psalms into Metre, A Vindication of the Roman Catholics, A Vindication of Ward's Errata, in Reply to Grier, by the Right Rev. Dr. Milner, PAGE 1- -14 15- -24 25- -31 32 33- -39 40, 41 42, 43 44, 45 46, 47 48, 49 50, 51 52, 53 54, 55 56, 57 58, 59 60, 61 62, 63 64, 65 66- -69 70- -73 74, 75 76, 77 78, 79 80, 81 82, 83 84- -86 87 88- -90 91- -97 98- -101 102- ■107 108- -111 112, 113 114- ■118 PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. BY DR. LINGARD. The publication of Ward's " Errata to the Protestant Bible" has disclosed a most curious and important fact, that the scriptural church of England and Ireland was originally founded on a false translation of the scriptures. It was the boast of the first reformers, that they had emancipated their disciples from the shackles of Catholic despotism, and had restored to them the freedom of the children of God : it now appears, that this freedom consisted in reading an erroneous version of the inspired writings, and in venerating as the dictates of eternal Wisdom the blunders of ignorant or interested translators. " The scriptures," they exclaimed, " are the sole rule of faith. Here they are, no longer concealed under the obscurity of a learned language, but exhibited to you in your native tongue. Here you will easily detect the errors of Popery, and learn the true doctrine of the Gospel." The credulity of multitudes ac- cepted with joy the proffered boon ; the new teachers were hailed as apostles commissioned by heaven ; and every old woman, both male and female, that could read, became an adept, if not in the knowledge of the Bible, at least in the prejudices and errors of its translators. It is not for man to dispute the wisdom of Providence, and arraign at the bar of his private judgment the means which God may choose for the diffusion of religious knowledge. Otherwise, I must confess, there appears to me something very unaccountable in the scriptural blunders of the apostles of the reformation. The object, they said, of their mission was the dissemination of evangelic truth. If the Holy Spirit selected them for this important office, he must also have gifted them with the true knowledge of the scriptures, and, if he gifted them with the true knowledge of the scriptures, it seems to follow that he ought also to have granted them the power to make a true translation of the scriptures. The apostles of Jesus received the knowledge of tongues, that they might instruct the different nations of the earth : the apostles of the church of England and Ireland ought to have received the knowledge of, at least, the Hebrew and Greek tongues, that they might form an accurate version of the scriptures. Such a version was as necessary to that church, as the instructions of the first apostles could be to the primitive churches of Christianity. If they were apostol- ical, she was scriptural. However, without speculating on the cause, the fact is certain, not only from the arguments of Ward, but even from the concessions of his adversaries, that the fathers of this scriptural church gave it a version of the scriptures abounding with errors. And here it may reasonably be asked, whence arose these errors ? Were they the offspring of igno- rance, or design ? Dr. Ryan warmly contends for the former, and endeavours to fortify his opinion by the authority of Father Simon : (a) but then, even admitting his assertions, devoid as they are of proof, and liable to objection, what are we to think of the temerity of these men, who, incompetent to the task, and con- scious of their incompetency, still presumed to violate the purity of the sacred volumes, and to obtrude on their unsuspecting disciples an erro- neous version as the immaculate word of God, and as the sole and infallible guide to religious truth ? Ward, on the contrary, attempts to show that the more important of their errors were committed by design ; and a curious cir- cumstance it is, highly corroborative of his opinion, that most of their blunders are favour- able to their own peculiar doctrines, and unfa- vourable to those of their opponents. But, if this be true, what judgment can any unpreju- diced man form of these saints of the reforma- tion ? For my part, I know of no crime more foul in its own nature, more prejudicial in its consequences, more nearly allied to diabolic malignity, than that of designedly corrupting the holy scriptures, and, by such corruption, leading the sincere inquirer into error, and converting the food of life into the poison of death. But, from whatever source these false ren- derings proceeded, whether their authors were guided by policy or misled by ignorance, this must be conceded, that if Ward has fairly established the fact, he is entitled to the gratitude of the im- partial reader. The impartial reader, let him be Protestant or Catholic, will, if his object be truth, thankfully receive the truth from whatever hand may present it to him. Hence it was with no small surprise that I heard the clamour which was raised against the last edition of the " Errata." In parliament and out of parliament, in news- papers and pamphlets, it was stigmatized as an attempt to vilify the reformation, and to heap disgrace on the Established Church. " It was the work," observed an eminent senator, emi- nent for the only talent he possesses, that of (a) Ryan's Analysis, p. 5. Simon, however, in the pas- sage referred to, does not speak of the English translator in particular, but of the Protestant translators in general. This Dr. Ryan has thought fit to conceal from his readers. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. religious calumny, " it was the work of one hundred and twenty Popish priests leagued to put down Protestantism." Such nonsense hardly deserves notice. If facts are to be hidden from the eye of the public, because they reflect on the character of our predecessors, let history at once be condemned to the flames. The evangelists did not conceal the treachery of Ju- das : why should Protestant divines wish to conceal the blunders or the frauds of the fathers of their church ? To me, it appears, that none among the ad- versaries of Ward have had the courage, or the honesty to do justice to that writer. His object in compiling the " Errata," was twofold : firstly, to prove that the versions of the scripture on which the established creed was originally founded, were extremely corrupt : and secondly, to show that though many errors have been since corrected, there still remain many others to correct. All this however they prudently overlook ; and by an artful confusion of times and persons, by referring to modern Bibles the charges which he makes against those of a for- mer age, and by affecting to consider his accu- sation of the clergy of Queen Elizabeth as directed against the clergy of the present reign, they pretend to convict him of misrepresentation and calumny. In this, perhaps, they may act wisely ; they certainly act unfairly. Could they have shown that Ward had. attributed to the ancient English Bible errors *which it did not contain, or that he had attributed to the present Bibles errors which have been corrected in them, they might have substantiated their charges against him. But this they have not attempted. They content themselves with exclaiming that many of the former corruptions have been corrected, and therefore should not have been mentioned. But why should they not ? The very fact of their having been corrected is an unanswerable proof of Ward's assertion. It shows beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the church of England, however scriptural it may pretend to have been in its origin, was in reality founded on a false version of the scriptures ; a version which was a very Babel of confusion, which spoke sometimes the language of God and often the language of men, which had attempted to improve the lessons of eternal truth by the addition of the whims, the ignorance, the pre- judices, and the falsehoods of Tyndal, Coverdale, Cranmer, &c, &c. Among the opponents of Ward, the fiercest and the only one who has attempted a full refu- tation of the " Errata," is Dr. Ryan. His at- tempt is a consequence of the grant of Ireland which Adrian IV. made to Henry II. Nay, start not, gentle reader ; the most important events may often be traced to remote and almost imperceptible causes. The attempt of Dr. Ryan is a consequence of the grant of Ireland by Adrian IV. to Henry II. By that grant the Ryans lost an extensive property ;(a) and the present Dr. is the champion reserved by heaven (e) Anal., p. 58. to revenge on Popery the injuries which she inflicted on his ancestors six centuries ago. An awful lesson this to the ambition of princes ! But let us see, how the Dr. proceeds in the work of vengeance. He has divided his treatise into different sections, corresponding with those of the " Errata." In reviewing it, I shall follow the same order. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST THE CHURCH. Under this head Ward has adduced no less than seven texts in which the English translators had substituted the word congregation for church ; to which Dr. Ryan replies, " that the former mistranslations of these seven texts, having been corrected in the present Bible, should have been excluded from the catalogue of the ' Errata.' "(b) This plea has, I trust, been sufficiently refuted in the preceding observations. That the correction has taken place, is indeed an improvement in the present Bible ; but it is at the same time a condemnation of its prede- cessors. After the correction, Ward should not have imputed these errors to the corrected copies ; neither has he done so : he should have imputed them to the more ancient copies, and in doing so, he is justified by the very concession of his adversary. " But," continues the Dr., " he produces an eighth text to show that we have been guilty of misconstruction to injure his church. In the Romish version it is written : my dove is one ; (Cant. xi. 8 :) in ours, my dove is but one ; a curious proof of malice to his church ! Many of his errata are of this kind ; frivolous in themselves ; and affording no proof or but feeble proofs of the propositions he main- tains. "(c) Now, readei. what canst thou infer from this passage, but that Ward had censured the Protestant version for having adopted the reading, my dove is but one 1 The reverse, however, is the truth. Ward did not censure, he approved that reading. His censure was levelled against the more ancient reading in the English Bibles, my dove is alone. " But this," he adds, "is also amended." Such was the candour of Ward, that he carefully pointed out to his reader every correction. Of the candour of Dr. Ryan I wish I could speak with equal commendation. But he has begun his analysis with an artifice, which it will be impossible for him to palliate, much less to justify. He has suppressed the real assertion of his adversary, which he could not controvert, and has substi- tuted in its place an assertion so palpably absurd that it could not fail to make an impres- sion on the mind of the uninformed reader highly prejudicial to the character of Ward. Nor has the Dr. left his artifice to work its own effect. He has aided it by his own observations : and has of consequence charged the author of (b) Ibid., p. 11. (e) Ibid. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. the " Errata " with labouring to create disagree- ments where there was perfect harmony ; and wishing to widen instead of contracting the breach between the two churches, (a) Such is the honesty of our biblical Aristarchus. But if he cannot claim the praise of honesty, he may claim at least that of consistency. The fraud with which he has commenced his controversial career, he has been careful to repeat in every stage of it. He was fully aware that in works of the imagination, according to the masters of the art, perfection cannot be attained, unless character be preserved throughout. Serveter ad imum, Qvalii rib incccpto proccsserit, et sibi constet. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST THE BLESSED SACRAMENT, AND THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. Dr. Ryan commences his strictures on this section by observing, that five of the texts pro- duced by Ward having been corrected in the modern Bibles, should have been excluded from the " Errata." I shall not fatigue the patience of the reader by repeating what I have already said on the subject of these concessions : but shall content myself with reminding him how extremely corrupt that version must have been, the defence of which is thus abandoned by its warmest advocate. He proceeds: "The other three texts have no relation to the sacrament even in his own translations, as will appear by exhibiting them. Whom heaven truly must receive — let us cast wood upon his bread — -for he was the priest of the Most High. These three texts are thus rendered by us : Whom heaven must receive — let us destroy the tree with the fruit there- of — and he was the priest of the Most High, (b) These texts are no more for or against the sacrament than a treatise of astronomy : yet we are accused of misconstruing them from preju- dice against it !" Softly, good Doctor ! There may be more in some of these texts than you seem to be aware of. Let us examine them separately. 1st. Whom heaven must receive. In exhibit- ing this text, (to borrow the Doctor's expres- sion,) I fear he has had recourse to his favourite artifice, which I have exposed in the preceding section. He has suppressed the text, which Ward really condemns, and substituted in its place one which he approves. Ward did not condemn the corrected reading of the modern Bibles, which Dr. Ryan has exhibited : but he condemned the corrupted reading of the ancient Bibles, which the Dr. very prudently has for- gotten. That reading hath, whom heaven must contain ; a rendering which the correction, it has since received, sufficiently proves to have been false. But Dr. Ryan, by suppressing it, and substituting the corrected passage, states (a) Anal., p. 11. (6) Ibid., p. 12. two advantages : he conceals the ancient corrup- tion from the eye of his reader, and represents Ward as a man of weak intellects, who could thus refer to the sacrament a text which has no relation to it. In the corrected copies I acknow- ledge it has not ; but in the more ancient it had. Ward had told us that it Was so rendered by Beza, according to that reformer's own confes- sion, in order to exclude the presence of Christ from the sacrament ; and Dr. Ryan must have known that Protestant controvertists in England have often alleged the same text for the same purpose. Ward then was perfectly correct. 2d. The second passage is very differently ren- dered in the Catholic and Protestant versions : in the former, Let us cast wood upon his bread : in the latter, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof. It must be acknowledged that the Catholic rendering is not conformable to the present Hebrew : j»n>a y? wnrn». But then it is conformable to the more ancient ver- sions, the Greek, the Vulgate, and the Arabic, and the consent of these versions proves that the modern reading of the Hebrew is false, (c) The Protestant translators, on the contrary, : have chosen to follow that reading, and accor- i dingly have rendered 75 nrrrros, let us destroy ! the tree ; but then, to make sense, they have ; been compelled to give to orb a meaning, : which, I believe, it has not in any other part of ! scripture, and under -jttr£ the fruit thereof \ instead of his bread. Ward, therefore, was j justified in numbering this in his catalogue of errata. If it be asked why he placed it under the head of false translations against the sacra- ment, he answers because he suspected it to have been adopted in order to elude the force of a passage in the works of St. Jerom, who had re- ferred the original text to the holy Eucharist, (d) 3rd. The difference in the third text, Gen. xiv. 18, depends on the meaning which ought to be given to the Hebrew particle 1. The Vulgate and the English Catholic version have rendered it for ; and that it is susceptible of this meaning is evident from the Protestant trans- lators themselves, who in similar passages have rendered it in the same manner. (Gen. xx. 3 : Thou art but a dead man for the woman which thou hast taken ; i>3>3 rfrs mm, for she is a man's wife. And Isaiah lxiv. 5 : Behold thou art wroth, vx.rrs\ for we have sinned.) In the present instance, they have rendered it and, which Ward ascribes to their wish to elude the argument that Catholic theologians had been accustomed to draw from Melchizedeck's typical sacrifice of bread and wine. Dr. Ryan proceeds to instance another text, Avhich, as he vainly flatters himself, will yield him an easy victory. " In the Protestant trans- lation (Heb. x. 10,) it is said, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." " Ward says that our translators added the words for all, to take away the daily oblation of Christ's body and blood in the mass. (c) It was probably nmiDS in the more ancient copies. (d) Errata, No. II. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. But it must be admitted that the compound Greek word, which Romanists render once should be rendered once for all ; only once and for a short time : that the words for all are improperly- omitted in the Popish translations, and without servingthe cause for which Catholics contend. "(a) He is an unskilful or an unfortunate champion, who cannot aim a stroke at his adversary with- out inflicting a wound on his friends. When Dr. Ryan condemns the Catholic, his censure bears still more heavily on the Protestant trans- lators : and he chooses to praise them at the very moment when they condemn him. The Greek word egpocruS occurs frequently in the New Tes- tament : (b) yet in no one instance can I discover that the Protestant translators have rendered it once for all, except in this passage, Heb. x. 10. If then, as the Doctor asserts, the words for all are improperly omitted in the Popish translations, I trust, he will acknowledge that they are also improperly omitted in the Protestant translations ; and thus contribute his mite towards comple- ting Ward's catalogue of errata. The truth, however, is, that the Protestant translators, in- stead of thinking the words for all improperly omitted, were conscious that they formed no part of the sacred texts, and therefore printed them in italics, as an indication that they occurred not in the original, but were useful to form a right notion of the apostle's meaning. Thus is Dr. Ryan condemned by his own clients. But, continues the Doctor, " The term once without the. addition of the words for all, would not jus- tify a daily oblation : for where we are sanctified through the offering of Jesus Christ once, it must be unnecessary to repeat it : it does not follow that, because Christ's body was offered once for sinners, it should be daily offered for them." (c) Is not this a controversial stratagem, a ruse de guere, to draw off the attention of the reader from the real state of the question ? Ward did not say that because Christ's body was of- fered once, it follows that it ought to be offered daily. He was not so weak a logician. But he did say, that the Protestant translators added the words for all, in support of their favourite doctrine that he was not to be offered daily : and I confess, I think he is not mistaken : for on no other ground can I account for their having added the words for all in this passage, and having omitted them in every other in which the Greek term eq>anu$ occurs. As to the assertion that, " where we are sanctified by the offering of Jesus Christ once, it must be unnecessary to repeat it," I beg leave to refer Dr. Ryan to the commentary of St. Chrysostom on this very epistle, a writer who probably understood the Greek language as well as modern translators. From that ancient father he will learn, that though Christ was offered once, and his offering sufficeth for ever, yet we offer him daily : but that it is one and the same sacrifice, because we offer one and the same victim. Anal* nooar\vBxQr)J xai itg to ait tjqxsob . . . n ovv ; fym? (a) Anal., p. 1 2. (6) Rom. ti. 10 ; Heb. vii. 28 ; ix. 12. U) Anal., p. 13. xaO IxuoiTjv f^eqav ov nqoocpeooiiEv ; nooaqieoofiEv, ukh duvaftvrjoiv noiovpEvoi, iov davuiov dviov xat juai iojiv &utt] xai 6v noXXat .... iov yuq tivrov dft nqocq>EpojXEv bu vvv (jev eieqov, uvqiov devze- qov, aW (iet to uvio. 6>otb fiia turtv ^ &voia. In Epist. ad Heb. c. ix. horn. xvii. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS THE BLESSED SACRAMENT, AND THE ALTAR. Dr. Ryan opens his remarks on this section in his usual maner. " Ward charges us with misrendering three texts ; this is a curious charge, when our last translation of two out of the three agrees exactly with the Popish ; and when we have no translation of the third." It will not be a difficult task to unravel the web of his sophistry. Ward did not charge the last but the more ancient Protestant translations with misrendering the three texts, and that his charge is true, is evident from Dr. Ryan's attempts to shift the question from one version to another. As to the assertion that there is no translation of the third ; it can only mean that by Protestants it is not accounted part of the inspired writings, but occurs in one of the books which they have classed among the Apocrypha. He proceeds thus : " Nor need our first trans- lators have been afraid of using the word altars ; as there is no evidence that the Popish altars resembled those of the apostolic age." Did ever writer trifle more egregiously with the judgment and the patience of his readers 1 There is no evidence that the Popish altars re- sembled those of the apostolic age : therefore, the first Protestant translators need not have been afraid of using the word altars ! But is Dr Ryan then willing to admit that Christians made use of altars as early as the apostolic age 1 For what purpose did they make use of them ? It must have been for sacrifice : otherwise there could have been no more need of altars among Christians in the apostolic age, than among Protestants in the present. But if it were for sacrifice, that sacrifice would have been no other in substance than what Catholics call the sacri- fice of the mass. " The first Protestant translators need not have been afraid of the word altars .'" Why then did they substitute temple in its place ? Dr. Ryan cannot here have recourse to his former plea of their ignorance of the original languages. The veriest smatterer in the Greek tongue could have informed them that duoiaciiqiov meant not a temple but an altar. Their own conduct in falsifying these texts shows, that they were afraid of the word. For what but fear, and that too of a very urgent nature, could have impelled men, who had assumed the office of apostles, and whose existence as such depended on their reputation, to pollute that office, and hazard that reputation, by thus wilfully and de- liberately corrupting the sacred volumes 1 PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. The truth is, the first teachers of Protestantism had reformed religion ; they found it also neces- sary to reform the inspired writings. They had created a scriptural church without a sacrifice : it was prudent to have an edition of the scrip- tures without any honourable mention of altars. Altars and sacrifice are correlative terms : the one naturally leads to the other. When the Christian saciifice was abolished, altars were unnecessary. They had, of course, treated them with every species of indignity, and were too cautious politicians to permit them to be com- mended in the scriptures. But after the lapse of a century, circumstances were changed : the generation which had witnessed the altars and the sacrifice of the Catholic worship, had passed away. A new race of men, with new habits and new prejudices, had succeeded, no danger could arise from the adoption of the term ; and the word altar was silently permitted to resume its former place in the sacred writings. Before I close my remarks on this section, I must observe that Ward has noticed another cor- ruption of the text, which Dr. Ryan has thought it prudent to overlook. In 1 Cor. xi. 27, the apostle says, Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, r t mvi] shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord : from which disjunctive proposition Catholic controvcr- tists have been accustomed to draw an argument in favour of communion in one kind. This is a matter of such notoriety that a divine like Dr. Ryan could not be ignorant of it. In the first Protestant Bibles this text was faithfully trans- lated : but in the more modern it has been cor- rupted by the substitution of the copulative particle and, for the disjunctive particle or: a substitution of which Ward most justly com- plains. Now, in what manner does Dr. Ryan defend it ? He is silent ; he docs not even re- motely hint that such a corruptinn has been noticed by his adversary. Is he then conscious of the fraud, but unwilling that it should come to the knowledge of his Protestant readers 1 I fear this is the only consistent explanation, which his conduct will admit. It certainly is not manly : but it would, perhaps, be too much to expect that every writer should have the honesty to make confessions, which would go to crimi- nate himself. However, he may draw this lesson from it : that he, who stands in need of so much indulgence himself, should be cautious how he condemns with severity the imaginary blemishes, which he may fancy that he discovers in others. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST PRIESTS, PRIESTHOOD, AND HOLY ORDERS. On this subject Dr. Ryan observes : " Accord- ing to Ward we misconstrued six texts, by rendering the Greek word elder instead of priest : he says, we did so, lest the term priest should 2 reflect honour on the Catholic clergy." (a) Reader, consult Ward, and thou wilt find he says no such thing. Ward attributes the suppression of the word priest to the suppression of the sacrifice of the mass. Where there is no altar or sacrifice, there is no need of a priest. But Dr. Ryan has forged the reason which he here gives to Ward, as an introduction to the sarcasm against the Catholic clergy, which immediately follows it. " Elder," he also tells us, " is a more literal translation of the Greek word than priest, and presbytery than priesthood : so that the Protestant translators are not chargeable with a mistranslation of these words, (b) He will, however, allow me to ask, what kind of men they were, whom the sacred writers designate by the term nosa8vTSQOi,1 Were they not ministers of religious worship ordained for that purpose by the apostles ? As a minister of the Estab- lished Church, he must answer in the affirmative. But if they were, what is the proper term by which such ministers are described in the English language ? Not only common usage, but the very language of the Church of England decides in favour of the word priest. If then the translators of the Bible meant to speak a language intelligible to their readers, they ought to have translated the Greek word priests and not elders. Were I to request the favour of Dr. Ryan to translate the following Latin sen- tence : " Episcopus Londinensis cum major* civitatis et duobus ecclesiae presbyteris visitavit universitatcm Oxonicnsem," would he prefer as more literal such a version as this : the overseer of London, with the greater of the city, and two elders of the church, visited the generality of Oxford \ He proceeds : " Ward asserts that these translators were so conscious, that their bishops had no grace to confer a sacred character, by the imposition of hands, that they put out the word grace and substituted gift in two passages of St. Paul." When will Dr. Ryan cease to deceive his reader 1 No such reason, as he here relates, occurs in Ward. That writer ascribes the substitution of the term gift, to the doctrine which the reformers preached, that order was no sacrament, (c) Whoever is conversant with the sacred writings will agree with him that Xaoiona is not properly rendered, by gift. In scriptural language it always meant grace, or a supernatural gift. I cannot follow him through all his mistakes in this section. The last seems to prove that he had hardly looked at the book he pretends to refute. " We are charged," he says? " with mistranslating the Greek word signifying dea- con : though all the Protestant versions of it agree with the Popish without the slightest vari- ation !" (d) The truth, however is, that Ward does not charge them with mistranslating the passage in question, 1 Tim. iii. 12. He only notices that in this verse it was translated pro- perly : and yet in the fourth verse preceding it (a) Anal. (fi) Ibid. p. 14. (c) Errata, No. V. (d) Anal., p. 15. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. was rendered in the more ancient versions, minister. He only wishes to know why the same word, with the meaning attached to it in the Greek, should in the short space of four verses be rendered by a different word in Eng- lish ? In itself this is not a matter of great con- sequence : but I thought proper to notice it to expose the artifices of Dr. Ryan, who can thus condescend to calumniate his adversary, that he may enjoy a short and dangerous triumph. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST THE AUTHORITY OF PRIESTS AND BISHOPS. I have joined these two sections together, because the object of both is in a great measure the same, to determine the propriety of trans- lating certain scriptural terms, according to their general acceptation, in profane rather than ecclesiastical language. The words bishop, priest, deacon, angel, though originally borrowed from the Greek, have for more than a thousand years been naturalized among us. The three former serve to denote persons raised«to certain offices in the church: the last, one employed in the duty of the heavenly spirits. Their meaning is perfectly understood by every man who can speak the English language. But the English transla- tors, as if they had been making a version of some profane writer, rejected these terms, and employed others more consonant in their forma- tion to the meaning of the radicals, of which the Greek words are composed. Thus bishop, is rendered overseer ; the highest functionary in the church is denoted by a term, which in common language signifies a menial servant : priest is translated elder; and we are gravely told of choosing and ordaining elders, as if any thing but time could in the strict meaning of the word make an elder : deacons are called ministers, a term which properly includes all the offices of the church : angels, messengers, a w r ord which certainly does not give a very high notion of the dignity of the heavenly spirits. These innova- tions Ward condemns, and, I think, with much justice. He attributes them to the unsettled state of religion, when the first English versions were made. The reformers had demolished the ancient fabric : they had not agreed what to substitute in its place. It was therefore politic in them to exclude bishops, priests, and deacons from the scripture, that the people, who from habit had been accustomed to reverse these or- ders, might not conceive there was any founda- tion for them in scripture. From the words apostle and disciple, no danger was to be appre- hended. These therefore were suffered to remain. Though, had the translators followed any general rule, they also should have been metamorphosed into messengers and scholars. (a) * (a) In the late Bibles the words Atanovov and AyyiKoa are sometimes rendered properly. In 1 Peter ii. 13, we read in the Catholic version, Be subject.... whether it be to the king, as excelling : in the Protestant, whether it be to the king, as supreme. Dr. Ryan observes, " the Greek word vkeqsxoj signifies supreme as well as excelling ; so that it is not very material, which way it is rendered."(£) It should, however, be observed that in the more ancient version, to afford some scriptural foundation for the king's claim to the title of head of the church, it was rendered, to the king, as the supreme head, a corruption which I trust Dr. Ryan will not have the temerity to defend. The rendering of the more modern Bibles is less objectionable, though it does not in my opinion exactly convey the meaning of the original to the English reader. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST THE SINGLE LIVES OF PRIESTS. " Ward," observes Dr. Ryan, " says we mis- rendered the following text of St. Paul : Have we not the power to eat and to drink — to lead about a woman, a sister, as well as the other apostles? (1 Cor. ix. 5.) We render, a wife, a sister. The Greek word signifies wife as well as woman : so that our translators are not charge- able with misconstruing it." What idea Dr. Ryan may have formed of the duties of a scriptural translator, I know not : but the canon which he has here laid down, is, I conceive, most sin- gular in its nature, and most pernicious in its application. There exists hardly a word in any language which is not susceptible of several different meanings : and of these meanings it appears that the translator of the scriptures is at liberty to select that which may please him best. Now I think, and I trust every rational man will think with me, that, when the signification of a word is determined, as it generally is by the context, the translator is bound to adopt that signification : and that, when it is not, he is not at liberty to select the meaning that may please him best, but ought to render the ambiguity of the text by an expression of similar ambiguity in the version : otherwise he does not offer a faithful copy of the original : he does not translate but interpret : he substitutes fallibility for infallibility and gives the surmises of his own judgment or prejudice in the place of the real words of the inspired writer. It is true that the Greek word ywrj signifies wife as well as woman. It signifies wife in its secondary, woman in its primary and more general acceptation. Now, is there any thing in the context to fix it to its secondary meaning of wife ? Nothing ; so that the more ancient writers, whose judgment could not be biassed by controversial disputes, which did not arise till many centuries after they were laid in their graves, without hesitation translate it woman, and explain it of an unmarried woman. But even allowing it to be as probable that St. (b) Anal., p. 17. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION'. Paul meant a married, as that he meant an un- married woman, this probability should at least be preserved in the version, by the adoption of a word as equally susceptible of either meaning as the Greek word in the original. It should be translated a woman, a sister, or a sister woman, and not a wife, a sister, as in the Protestant translation. He who says, a woman, does not decide whether she were married or not : but he who says, a wife, determines the question at once, and by substituting that determination in place of the words of the apostle, corrupts the sacred volume, and deceives the credulity of his readers. The next text is thus rendered in the Catholic • version: I intreat thee also, my sincere compan- ion : in the Protestant, my true yoke-fellow. As Dr. Ryan justly observes, " the two versions 6eems to be the same in substance." But it should be remembered, that the Protestant transla- tion was made for the use of the vulgar, and in the ears of the vulgar yoke-fdlow sounds very much like wife. Now, why did the Protestant trans- lators act so very differently in rendering this and the preceding text ? In the former for a word of doubtful meaning they gave us another of determinate signification : in this the meaning of the expression is evident, (we have Dr. Ryan's word for it,) and yet they render it by a term, to say the best of it, of very ambiguous signification. To solve the problem, Ward asserts that their object was to teach the people to look with a more favourable eye on the married clergy : and whoever reflects on the disputes which then di- vided the Christian world on that subject, will not think his opinion devoid of probability. The next text is Matt. xix. 1 1 . Our Saviour, speaking of the virtue of continency, says : Not all, they take this word ; but they to whom it is given. The Protestant translation has all men cannot receive this word, save they to whom it is given. " A curious proof," remarks Dr. Ryan, " that we mistranslated to justify the marriage of the clergy !" The Dr. may make light of the difference between the two versions : but I must be allowed to maintain that the Protestant read- ing is a most palpable corruption. It is confessed that the word cannot does not occur in the original : and it is evident that it cannot be added without changing the sense. It affords a ready apology to every slave to impure gratification. Though the Dr. asserts that there is little differ- ence between do not receive, and cannot receive, I think few of our readers are so prejudiced as not to admit the distinction between power and act. Every one must know, that men frequently do not perform actions, though they can perform them. In short, let me ask why the translators added the word cannot ? If it did not add to the meaning of the original, why was the addition made ? If it did. where was their honesty 1 PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS 'AGAINST THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM. Of the mistranslations in the Protestant Bible a great number are owing to the peculiar opin- ions of their authors : and as these are now forgotten, those are frequently overlooked. It was the favourite tenet of Beza, that the sacra- ments of the new and the sacraments of the old law were of equal efficacy ; and that the baptism of John was similar to the baptism of Jesus. Now there occurs a passage of contrary import in Acts xix. 3. In what, said St. Paul to the Ephesians. were you baptized ? And they said, in John's baptism. Eia ti bvv efiamiodrjie ; 6t Ss hinov. Eia to Iwavvii fianrtofia. After which, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Eia to ovo/na t» Kvqib Iyou. To elude the force of this text, Beza translated : Unto what were ye baptized ? Unto John's baptism : and explained John's baptism to be a metaphor ex- pressive of John's doctrine. (a) Beza's opinion was adopted by the English translators, and with it was also adopted his version : though in the fourth verse they render the same Greek words baptized in and not unto. By this conduct they have undoubtedly disfigured and corrupted the text. Of their readers the greater part are unable to affix to it any meaning at all : and the few that do understand it, are presented with an erroneous version. Ward then was correct in numbering this passage among the Errata. Dr. Ryan in its defence only alleges, that the difference between the Catholic and Protestant versions is too trivial to be noticed : " into, unto, you and ye ! .'" But I would have him to reflect that the change of a single syllable will fre- quently cause a very important change in the sense : and to recollect that the Catholic version reads in and not into, as he has thought proper to assert. In Titus iii. 5, the Apostle says that we have been saved " by the laver of regeneration, and the renovation of the Holy Ghost, whom /*e(God) has poured upon us." In this text, which evidently alludes to baptism, the Apostle clearly says that the Holy Ghost is poured upon us in that sacrament. But this did not coincide with the views of Calvin, who therefore boldly ren- dered Sia kovroov 7ta).iv' t evtaiag, xai uvaxaiviDOEbiz nvevfiaiog uyw, 6 H-e'/eev lep ^/uag, per lavacrum regenerationis spiritus sancti quod effudit in nos. The English translators reversed the authority of Calvin ; and therefore preferring his version to the words of the original, they also rendered it, by the fountain of the regeneration of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us." If it be said that the relative which is ambiguous, and may be referred either to fountain or Holy Ghost, I ask, why, where the original is clear, did they prefer ambiguity? why did they select the veil) to shed, which alludes rather to the fountain than the Holy Ghost, and why did they so scrupu- lously adhere to Calvin's version, as to suppress the very words which he suppressed ? In the modern English Bibles, the words originally suppressed, are indeed restored, and fountain is changed into washing : but the ambiguous relative which, and the verb, to shed, are still retained. Dr. Ryan owns that the Catholic version is preferable. (a) Bez. annnt. in Act. xix. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST CONFESSION AND THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE. On this subject the point at issue between Ward and Dr. Ryan is the true meaning of the Greek verb psxavosiv. According to the Doc- tor it implies sorrow for sin with a firm resolu- tion of amendment, and is therefore properly rendered by the Protestant translators to repent. According to Catholics, it implies not only sorrow and a purpose of amendment, but also an external demonstration of that sorrow by good works performed in a penitential spirit, such as prayer, alms, and fasting, of which nu- merous instances are recorded in holy writ. The Catholic translators have therefore rendered it, to do penance. Now, that their rendering is accurate I think clear: lstly, from some of the texts themselves, which mention bodily afflic- tion as an adjunct to the sorrow and amend- ment required. Thus we read, Matt. xi. 21, Luke x. 13, They had done penance (repented Prot. ver.) in sackcloth and ashes ; 2ndly, from the ancient Greek ecclesiastical writers, who probably understood the real import of their own language as well as the Protestant transla- tors. Now those always style the performance of penitential works (isravoux. Thus St. Basil, speaking of the prayers, the abstinence, the sack- cloth and ashes of the Ninivites, exclaims : ToQavri] fy tcov duaQTiaig lve%ouBVb)v juezafoia ;(a) 3d, from the austerities to which in the ancient church public sinners were subjected, who were then termed 61 hv ttj ^exavoia aviso ; 4th from the translator of the Vulgate and the Latin fathers, who render it by " penitentiam agere." To these I may add Ausonius the poet in the well known passage, Sum Dea, quae facti, non factique exigo poenas ; Scilicet ut poeniteat, sic ^ravoia vocor. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST THE HONOUR OF OUR LADY AND OTHER SAINTS. I shall not dwell long on the texts enumerated under this head, as they are of minor importance. By Ward they were noticed with no other view than to show, how scrupulously anxious the Protestant translators were not to contaminate the orthodoxy of their version by any approach towards the language of Catholics. I shall give one instance. In Psalm exxxix. 17, occurs the following passage : — Thy friends, O God, are become exceedingly honourable : their princedom is exceedingly strengthened. In the Catholic service this text is applied to the saints ; a suffi- cient argument for its exclusion from a Protes- tant Bible. That the Hebrew word •psn ori- ginally meant thy friends, and tittimn their (a) St. Bas. hom. in fame et siceitate. princedom, cannot be denied. They had been rendered so by the Greek translator, and the Latin translator, and the Syriac translator, and the Arabic translator, and the Ethiopia trans- lator, and the Chaldaic paraphrast. But then it was the misfortune of these writers to live before the reformation. Hatred of Popery had not disclosed to them all the mysteries of the Hebrew language. Our Protestant translators applied to the task ; and by the magic touch of their pen, the friends of God, and their prince- dom, were translated into the thoughts of God and their sum. " How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God ! and how great is the sum of them." But this version, if it cannot lay claim to accuracy, has at least one advantage. It offers to the piety of the orthodox churchman a new subject of meditation, the sum of God's thoughts. Truly, if men are determined to corrupt the language of scripture, let them at least make it speak sense. To pervert it from its true meaning is guilt sufficient : to transform it into nonsense is a work of supererogation : it is more than is necessary for the support of or- thodoxy. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST THE DISTINCTION OF RELATIVE AND DIVINE WORSHIP. In Hebrews xi. 21, it is said of Jacob, nqo- OGXvvrjaEv em to (xhqoptijo- gufide avxa ; which in the Catholic translation is rendered, according to the Vulgate, adored the top of his (Joseph's) rod : in the Protestant, worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff. Among the ancient writers there were two opinions respecting the meaning of this passage, and that to which it alludes, Genesis xlvii. 31. St. Augustine expounded them to mean that Jacob adored God, leaning on his staff, and St. Jerom countenances this opinion by translating the Hebrew : " adoravit Israel deum, conversus ad lectuli caput." But the general opinion was, that Jacob in this instance directed his respect not immediately to God, but to his son Joseph. Those, however, who held this opinion, were divided in their manner of explaining it. " He worshipped Joseph," says Theophylactus, " pointing out the worship of the whole people. But how did he worship 1 On the top of his staff : that is, sup- porting himself on his staff on account of his age. But some say he worshipped towards the top of Joseph's rod, signifying by the rod the sceptre of the kingdom which would be after- wards worshipped." (b) Of these two opinions the former was adopted by Theodoret ; " Israel sat resting on his staff, and worshipped bending (i) YIpoiTCKVpriae Ttf lonretp t rrjv iravros rov \aov TrpooKWriaiu bifkodv' ITaxr <5s TTpooSKwr/o-cn ', cirt to &Kpov rr\a paafiov avrov, tovtmttiv, eiupeioOcia rripa08;o ita to yepaa. Tivea it ttri to UKpovTrjcr pafiiov tov \wat<p, <pao-i t TrpooCKwrjoe, oijfiawuv to Ttja 0aai\ctaa oxv^rpov <]ta T*)a pa06ov vpoaKW*]OriotaOai jtcWoy. Theophyl. in cap. xi. ad Hfeb. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. his head on his staff:" (a) the latter by St. Atha- nasius, who in quoting the passage inserts the words i5«8 duia " the rod of his son ," (b) and by St. Chrysostom, who says, " though an old man he worshipped Joseph, foretelling the future worship to be rendered by the whole people." (c) In such diversity of sentiment no translator can be blamed for adopting either opinion. I would translate it, He bowed to the top of Joseph's staff. In Ps. xcviii. 5, it is said, according to the Catholic version, adore the footstool of his feet, because it is holy : in the Protestant, worship at his footstool, for he is holy. The former version is favourable to the exhibition of religious re- spect to creatures ; the latter does not necessarily exclude it. I do not, however, think that the Protestant rendering is accurate. The Hebrew phrase is applied in the scriptures to the true God, to imaginary gods, and to creatures : and the nature of the worship, which it denotes, is determined by the nature of its object. But the reformers had rejected that respect, which Ca- tholics allow on religious motives to be sometimes paid to creatures ■ and it was of course improper to permit any traces of it to be found in the sacred volumes. Thus the same phrase adopted different meanings at the will of the translaior : and the same preposition on one occasion pointed out the object of worship, at another excluded it : nrft trnmcn kJ> is rendered, thou shah not bow down thyself to them: and tnrrb vr.--- worship at his footstool. If in the former passage the Hebrew phrase means to bow down to, how comes it to mean to worship at, in the latter ? I fear, that in this text, as in many others, the prejudices of the translators pre- vailed over their respect for the original. In the Catholic version we read, for it is holy ; in the Protestant, for he is only. The Hebrew text will bear either meaning. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST SACRED IMAGES AND AGAINST THE USE OF THEM. Among the different arts by which the apos- tles of the reformation contrived to inflame the animosity of their disciples against the Church of Rome, few were more efficacious than the clamour which they raised against the worship of images. According to the new gospel, every species of religious respect offered to inanimate objects was idolatrous : and to prove the truth of this doctrine, almost every page of scripture was improved by new denunciations of vengeance against images, and their worship- (a) E«ca9«o-0r7 (iaKTtpia it Ktxpnptvoa liriarijpi^Te dorr). TlpoacKVvriasv i-rriK^ivaar rrj pafffiu rr\» gt<pa\t)v. Theod. in Gen. interrog. 109. (ft) Homil. in St. Patres, 11, p. 693. (c) Kat ycpwv u>v, f]ir\ itpoetKVvt]Ot to) \biot(p, rr\v vavroa tov \aov irpoaKwrtuiv <JijXu>y tijv taoptvnv avTco. HoDl. XXVI. in epia. ad Heb. pers. No less than thirteen different words in the Hebrew, and nine in the Greek scriptures, were invariably rendered image in the English version : so wonderfully comprehensive is the meaning of that single word in orthodox lan- guage. Of the texts, which had been thus cor- rupted, two proved eminently useful. In 2 Cor. vi. 16, the Apostle was made to say : How agrecth the temple of God with images ? and this corruption furnished every iconoclast preacher with a most powerful text, when he urged the credulity of his hearers to deface the ornaments with which Catholic piety had been accustomed to decorate religious edifices. The other text occurred 1 John. v. 22, babes, keep yourselves from images ; and this, when the house of God had been purged from every trace of Popish idolatry, was constantly painted in large cha- racters within the door. Useful, however, as these texts have been, they no longer appear in the sacred volumes. They were suffered to effect the purpose of their authors, and then were directly consigned to oblivion. The same has been the fate of several others of similar import, as Dr. Ryan acknowledges : " but then," he adds, " having been corrected, Ward should not have inserted them in his list." Why not ? Did they not originally exist in the Protestant version T Were they not received by the people as part of the original text ? Undoubtedly. Ward then could not have omitted them without betraying the cause he had undertaken to defend. But though several of these texts have been corrected by men, whose more moderate ortho- doxy cold blush at the daring effrontery of their predecessors, Ward still complains that several are also left, which equally require cor- rection. In the Protestant version of the decalogue are read, thou shall not make to thy- self any graven image, instead of graven thing. " But where," says Dr. Ryan, " is the difference ? When a thing is graven, it becomes an image, and a graven thing must be the image of some- thing real or imaginary." (d) If the authors of the Protestant version reasoned in this manner, they deserved no less praise as logicians than as translators. Every graven thing must neces- sarily be an image, why, then I suppose every graven ornament is to be called an image, the pillars that adorn our porticoes will be images : even our houses of polished and ornamented stone must become images. That the Hebrew word in its original meaning denotes a. graven thing, cannot be denied : and that it may some- times mean an image, I will allow. But in what sense does Dr. Ryan wish it to be taken ? If in the latter, yet from the context it is evident that it denotes an image to which divine worship is to be paid : and such an image in plain English is an idol. Thus it was rendered by the Greek translators, and thus it ought to have been rendered by the Protestant. But if he takes it in the former sense, the present rendering is also false : as it restrains the prohibition to (^) Anal., p. 25. 10 PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. images, whereas in the original it includes under the denomination of graven things, the columns of stones, which were the objects of worship to many of the ancient nations. In two other texts, Rom. xi. 4. ; Acts xix. 35, it is acknowledged that image does not occur in the original. It has been preserved in the Protestant version as a memorial of the devotion which the reformed translators paid to this important word. It was their most useful auxiliary : and they have rewarded its services by still giving it a niche in the inspired writings. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST LIMBUS PATRUM AND PURGATORY. On this subject, after a long preamble in which he shows but little acquaintance with the Catholic doctrine, Dr. Ryan calls on Popish divines to show that the twelve texts mentioned by Ward prove the doctrine or existence of the Limbus patrum or purgatory. But this is unnecessary in the present instance. The point to be determined is, whether the Hebrew word ^aco denotes the grave, as it is rendered in the Protestant version, or the state of the soul after death, as it was understood by the Catholic trans- lators. Now, 1st, that it will admit of the lat- ter meaning must be acknowledged by Dr. Ryan himself: since in three instances to allow its insertion, the word grave has been expunged in the corrected editions of the Protestant Bible. 2nd. The proper Hebrew term for the grave is •top • nor can I find any proof that J>->ja> is ever employed in that sense in the scriptures, (a) In every passage in which it occurs, it will easily bear the meaning ascribed to it by the Catholic translators : in some it cannot bear that which is given to it in the Protestant ver- sion. Thus, when Jacob said, " / will go down into ^IJO) unto my son mourning ;" he could not mean the grave. He certainly did not con- ceive Joseph's soul to have been buried : and as for his body he could not expect to find it in the grave, as he believed it to have been devoured by wild beasts. In favour of his opinion Dr. Ryan adduces the Samaritan version in which this text, as he says, is rendered the grave. I fear, however, that, unable to read the Sama- ritan version itself, he has been deceived by the treacherous authority of its Latin translator. The Latin translator of the Samaritan version has indeed rendered Gen. xxxvii. 35, sepulchrum: but in the version itself we read, ^vnc, which is evidently the same word as the Hebrew, and has the same meaning ; and which the same trans- lator in the parallel passages, Gen. xlii. 38 ; xliv. 29, 31, has rendered by the Latin word Inferi. 3rd. If modern Lexicographers give (a) In the passages usually refered to, 1 Kings xi. G, 10, it is rendered aSn", inferi, by the ancient translators. They looked on irtoin his old age, as a figurative ex- pression for him in Ids old age. both meanings to the Hebrew word, I can op- pose to their authority that of the ancient Greek and Latin interpreters, who as invariably render Jnjoc lidna, inferi, infernus, as they do i^P, Taq>oa, (ivr t fia, sepulchrum. It is from them that the true meaning of this ancient language is to be learned. If, however, Dr. Ryan refuses to submit to them, I trust he will not reject the authority of St. Peter, who in Acts xi. 27, translates it tidno, and in obedience to wKom the correctors of the Protestant Bible have in this instance erased the word grave, by which it had been rendered in the more ancient editions. Dr. Ryan wishes to persuade his readers that Ward introduced the text from Heb. v. 7, as a proof of the existence of purgatory. Why should he thus misrepresent his adversary 1 In discoursing of the foregoing texts. Ward had occasion to mention that article of the creed, in which Christians profess their belief in the de- scent of our Saviour into hell : and this had led him to censure the opinion of Calvin and Beza that the descent into hell was only a metaphorical expression, significative of the anguish of de- spair, and the horrors of damnation, which Jesus felt on the cross. To countenance so blasphe- mous an idea, the Protestant translators added their mite ; and in rendering that passage, in which St. Peter alludes to the prayer of Jesus on the cross, tell us that he was heard in that which he feared. The Greek is dcaoTvo- LvXuGsiao, which in the Catholic version is translated, he was heard for his reverence. What plea may be offered in defence of the Protestant rendering I know not. Dr. Ryan has offered none. I may therefore assume that it is inde- fensible. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST JUSTIFICATION AND THE REWARD OF GOOD WORKS. Dr. Ryan observes that the texts enumerated by Ward in this section were too obscure to induce the Protestant translators to misrender them. But this is shifting the question. The point in debate is not, whether these texts be obscure or not ; but whether they be fairly ren- dered in the Protestant version. Ward asserts they are not : and I think he has made out a pretty strong case. The Protestant translators were violent champions in favor of justification by faith only, and whoever consults this version will find that they had two sets of English words to express the Greek word dixrj and its deri- vations. When they were united in the scriptures with the word fax th, then they were rendered by just, justice, justification ; but if they were united with words expressive of the reward or practice of good works, just and justification disappeared, and righteous and righteousness were adopted in their place. If nothing unfair were meant, what motive could they have for this verbal legerdemain 1 How comes it, that the same PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION'. 11 Greek words should be cautiously rendered by two different sets of English words, and that these should be alternately adopted as they fa- voured the opinions of the translators, or were adverse to those of their antagonists. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST MERIT AND MERITORIOUS WORKS. In this section Ward produces five texts which, he maintains, have been falsely rendered in the Protestant Bible. In answer, Dr. Ryan compares these texts as they now stand, with the same passages in the Catholic version, and very gravely asks where is the difference 1 But know, gentle reader, that he quotes from the amended version, in which the three principal corruptions have been corrected ; while Ward complains of the original translation. Such artifices are but sorry indications of the confidence which Dr. Ryan professes in the goodness of his cause. Of the remaining texts, one (Coloss. i. 12), according to fche Catholic version, declares that God has made us worthy ; according to the Protestant, has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints. The Greek is Ixavooavji \ and as the Protestant translators have rendered Ixat oa worthy in Matt. Ui. 11, and viii. 8, I see not why they should here have rendered it meet, were it not to avoid the Ca- tholic doctrine of merit. The other passage is in Ps. cxix. 112, in which 5P» is rendered for reward, by the Catholic ; unto the end, by the Protestant version. There is something very singular in the fate of this word. If in this passage the Catholic translator has rendered it for reward, in verse 33 of the same psalm he has rendered it always : and in like manner, if in this passage the Protestant translator has ren- dered it unto the end, in Psalm xix. 12, he has rendered it reward. In this confusion of ren- derings I should think it the most prudent to adhere to the ancient Greek interpreter, rather than the modern translators. He probably pos- sessed more accurate MSS-, and certainly was more intimately acquainted with the original language. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST FREE WILL. Of the seven texts enumerated by Ward under this head, three, according to Dr. Ryan, have been corrected ; a sufficient proof that in the original Protestant version they were rendered corruptly. It will be easy to vindicate Ward's remarks on the remaining four. 1st. The Greek text, 1 Cor. xv. 10, is sus- ceptible of two meanings : that the grace of God laboured alone, or that the grace of God and the apostle laboured together. The Pro- testant version, by inverting the words, " which was with me," appears to restrain the sense to the former meaning, and in that respect is not a faithful representation of the original. 2nd. Romans v. 6, the apostle says that of ourselves we were Aodsveia, which the Protestant version renders without strength. The true meaning is weak : but weakness does not imply a total deprivation of strength. 3rd. The Protestant version renders Ai fajoXai uvtu SaqBiai ax bioiv, 1 John v. 3, his command- ments are not grievous. Instead of grievous Ward contends we should read heavy- And that he is accurate will, I trust, appear by comparing this passage with that in St. Matt, xi. 30. 4th. Matt. xix. 11, is rendered in the Protes- tant version : all men cannot receive this saying. Dr. Ryan acknowledges that cannot is an inter- polation, by proposing a different version of his own, in which that word is omitted. The trans- lators must have trusted much to the credulity of their readers, when they dared thus to add to the meaning of the original. Their disciples however, unconscious of the deception, prided themselves on their imaginary happiness ; and, while they derived new lights from the blunders anil corruptions of the translators, wondered at their former ignorance, and pitied the blindness of the slaves of Popery. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST INHERENT JUSTICE. Among the new doctrines sported by the apos- tles of the reformation, was that of imputative justice. No man, how virtuously soever he might have lived, could be just or righteous indeed, but only in as much as the justice or righteous- ness of Christ was imputed to him. With the merits or demerits of this opinion I have no concern : but among the texts by which it was assailed or defended, Ward has selected six, which he maintains to have been corrupted by the zeal of the Protestant translators. Dr. Ryan contents himself with replying very gravely, that neither do the Catholic versions prove, nor the Protestant versions disprove the contrary doc- trine of inherent justice. Of all the theological champions, with whom it has been my lot to be acquainted, Dr. Ryan conducts controversy in the most singular man- ner. Ward had asserted that in more than one hundred passages the Protestant version of the scriptures was corrupted : he noticed in detail every one of these corruptions, and subjoined to each the reasons on which he founded his charge. Then came Dr. Ryan, and undertook to rebut the accusations. But how does he proceed ? Does he refute each of Ward's ar- guments ? No, he does not so much as mention them. A reader, who had perused none but Dr. Ryan's tract, would not know that. Ward had a single reason to offer. The Doctor 12 PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. throughout appears attempting to silence a dumb adversary, to conquer a man who makes no resistance. Now whence arises this conduct in Dr. Ryan 1 Was he unwilling to refute Ward's argument ? But who can suspect of unwilling- ness in such a cause the self-created representa- tive of the Ryans, who lost so extensive a terri- tory by the papal grant of Ireland to Henry II. 1 Was he unable to refute them 1 I believe he was. However, let his reasons have been what they may, this is certain, that instead of answer- ing, he has passed over the arguments of Ward, as if he had never seen them. But to proceed to the texts in question. 1st. The first is a passage of considerable ob- scurity, Rom. v. 18. By the Rhemish transla- tors it has been rendered with the most scrupu- lous and laudable fidelity, while the Protestant translators have undertaken to make it more clear by supplying such words, as they thought wanting. If Ward complain of these additions, it is probable that his complaint was not un- founded : since in the corrected editions they have been expunged, and their place has been supplied by other additions taken, as it appears, from the sixteenth verse. The alteration I think judicious : yet after all, it gives us not the words of the sacred texts, but only the conjec- tures of its Protestant translators. 2nd. We are told in the Protestant version, Rom. iv. 3, that Abraham believed God and that it was accounted unto him for righteousness. What is the meaning of these last words, for righteousness ? Do they not imply the same as instead of righteousness ? Such, at least, is the rendering, and the explication of Bezv, the master of our translators : pro justitia, i. e. vice et loco justitiaR. Now I appeal to any man ac- quainted with the Greek and Hebrew languages, whether such can be the meaning either of St. Paul, kti>yio6i] uTva lio <5jxo»oaiu'?;v, or of the writer of Genesis from whom the Apostle quotes, 3rd. In Ephes. i. G, the Apostle says that God IxocQiTOJO-ftv r^uaq iv TO) i]yanr]fxeva. Ward has made it sufficiently clear from the ancient Greek writers, that ex u Q lT0>aev means, has made us agreeable or pie sing in his eyes. The Pro- testant translators have rendered it, has made us accepted. At first sight it may perhaps appear that the two renderings are nearly alike ; but a closer inspection will discover that the former is adverse, the latter favourable to the doctrine of imputative justice. Ward then was probably accurate in attributing this rendering to the pre- judices of the translators in favor of their own opinion. 4th. The false translation of 2 Cor. v. 21, is corrected in the more modern Bibles. Who- ever consults Ward will see what unjustifiable liberties the original translators took with their text. But on this head Dr. Ryan is silent. He would fain persuade his readers, it is of the pre- sent and not of the ancient version that Ward complains. Such artifices are unworthy of a wri- ter, who is convinced of the goodness of his cause. 5th. The two remaining texts, Dan. vi. 22 ; Rom. iv. 6, are noticed by Ward principally as instances of the horror which the reformers seems to have entertained for the word justice. That they might not pollute their pages with such a term, they have inserted innocency in the former, and righteousness in the latter passage. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS IN FAVOUR OF THE SUFFICIENCY OF FAITH ALONE. This section, like most others, offered Dr. Ryan a subject of imaginary triumph. Out of the six corrupt renderings noticed by Ward, he boasts that four have been corrected in the later editions of the Bible. He must be a weak adver- sary indeed, who can envy him such a triumph. I shall therefore proceed to the two remaining texts. Among the separatists from the Church of Rome at the period of the reformation, no less than among the separatists from the Church of England at the present day, it was a favourite doctrine, that justification by faith consisted in a full assurance of salvation. Whoever could work in himself this conviction, was secure of future happiness. His assurance was infallible; it would preserve him from ever falling, so as to forfeit his claim to the kingdom of heaven. Among the texts adduced in favour of this opinion was that of the epistle in the Hebrews, x. 22, with this difference, that former fanatics could only appeal to the assurance of faith of the ancient Protestant version, while modern fanatics may appeal to the full assurance of faith of the present amended edition. But does the original text, ev nhjoocpoux. nTOTewa, warrant such a rendering 1 1 have no hesitation in asserting, that it does not, and I found my assertion on the authority of those who could not have been ignorant of the true meaning of the Greek language, the ancient doctors of the Greek Church. By these the nltjQocpoQia niazso)a is said to be, a full and perfect faith, a faith that believes without doubting whatever God has revealed. Tavia, says Theodoret, ijtwo- i/eiy niorevovTEO, xtxt notaav dixovoiav xr\a ipv/tjcr e^oQi^ot'isa. Tino yao nl^QOcpogiav ExaXEoev.^a) It is, according to Theophylact, tiiotio nsnX^^w- fisvy xcu aduTTctxiog. (6) The last text is Luke xviii. 43, Thy faith hath saved thee, instead of hath made thee whole. That this is a false rendering, is acknowledged. I shall therefore only ask, why it was first in- serted in the original version, and why it is still preserved in the corrected edition ? PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST APOSTOLICAL TRADITIONS. On this subject I shall be content to refer the reader to the Errata, No. XVI., where he will see (a) Theod. inEp. adHeb.,c. x. (*) Theod. in eund. loc. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION'. 13 what reasons Ward had for censuring the Protes- tant translators ; and shall only notice Dr. Ryan's artifice in attempting to persuade us, that two of the five texts condemned by his adversary " agree with the Popish translation." What then ! did Ward accuse the Protestants of mis- translating, when they translated in the same sense as the Rhemish divines ? No such thing, Dr. Ryan meant to say, that the ancient ren- dering of the Protestant Bible in these two pas- sages was so evidently false, that it has since been corrected according to the Catholic trans- lation. Had he said this, he would have said the truth. MISCELLANEOUS CHARGES. On this head I shall notice the principal passages. It would fatigue the patience of the reader to go through them all. On marriage. " In the Popish version," says Dr. Ryan, " we read, this is a great sacra- ment : in ours, this is a great mystery. (Eph. v. 22.) Ward allows that the word signifies mystery in Greek, and in Latin sacrament : surely then we are not chargeable with mistranslation. "(a) Never perhaps was there a more intrepid writer than Dr. Ryan ; never one who cared less for detection, or trusted more to the credulity of his readers. Does Ward then condemn the words, this is a great mystery, as a false transla- tion ? On the contrary, he approves of it as a true one. But he condemned the original Protestant rendering, this is a great secret ; a rendering so very faulty that Dr. Ryan was ashamed to notice it, and therefore endeavoured, by calumniating his adversary, to keep it agrcat secret. On prayers in an unknown tongue. In 1 Cor. xiv. the Protestant translators have added the epithet unknown in five different pas- sages ; and in answering this charge, Dr. Ryan very adroitly becomes the assailant, and accuses the Catholic translators of having omitted it in the same passages. What then 1 Does it occur in the original ? No ; but it is necessary to complete the sense. So Dr. Ryan may think ; but the apostle thought otherwise. He did not insert it ; and if he did not, I cannot conceive whence any translator can derive authority to insert it for him. If you will have the people to study their faith in the scriptures, let them at least have the scriptures as they were originally written. Let the stream flow to them pure from its source, without the admixture of foreign matters. With respect to the texts, 1 Cor. xiii. ; 1 Cor. i. 10 ; and 1 Tim. iii. 6, Ward's charges are directed against the ancient Protestant. version ; and Dr Ryan charges him with misrepresenta- tion because these passages are corrected in the modern amended editions ! ! James i. 13. Let no man say, that he is tempted of God : for God is not a tempter of (a) Anal., p. 40. 3 evil : and he tempteth no man. Instead of this the Protestant version reads, for God cannot be tempted with evil. Dr. Ryan has the modesty to assert that these two constructions are nearly the same ! (b) CONCLUSION. Dr. Ryan has repeatedly challenged he " Po- pish clergy" to reply to his analysis : he cannot be offended that I have accepted the invitation. If in the cause of my reply, I have shown that he has often adopted artifices unworthy a scholar and a divine ; that he was frequently misrepresented, and still more frequently con- cealed the arguments of his adversary, the blame must attach not to me, but to himself. He volunteered in the controversy : he must be an- swerable for the manner in which he has con- ducted the contest. Besides those parts of the Analysis which I have noticed, Dr. Ryan has offered some argu- ments respecting the Lambeth Register, and added answers to Ward's queries. AVith these I have no concern. My only object was to refute his remarks with respect to the Protestant version of the scriptures. As, however, it would be uncivil to take my leave without replying to these queries, which he has placed at the end of his pamphlet, I shall endeavour to do it as concisely and as satisfactorily as I can. The three first queries ask, how the Vulgate can be an infallible standard for other transla- tions ? I answer, that the Vulgate is a version deservedly of high authority, but I never yet met with a Catholic who considered it as infal- lible. Q. IV. Is the translation of the Bible respon- sible for the errors or excesses of Beza, or others, who had no hand in any of our versions ? A. It is not. Nor does Ward say it is. But many of the first translators were the pupils of Calvin and Beza, and it was not irrelevant to trace in the work of the masters the errors of their disciples. Q. V. Did the Protestant Churches ever pre- tend to be infallible in these translations or other- wise ? A. I know not whether they did or not. But this I know, they ought to have done so. Whence can a Protestant ignorant of the origi- nal languages, derive the knowledge of the Christian faith, but from the translation of the Bible ? If then, that translation be fallible, or manifestly erroneous, how can he have any security that his faith be true ? Built on an unsafe foundation, it can never acquire stability. The translation of the Bible must be infallible, or at least authentic, or the Protestant in question must always live in uncertainty. Q. VI. Did not the translators of the Bible of the year 1683 correct forty errors in our old ones 1 A. The reformers of the old Protestant trans- (6) Anal., p. 42. 14 PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. lations did correct forty errors, and should have corrected forty more. Q. VII. Having adopted the very words of the Popish English Bible in very many in- stances, is it fair to charge them in every page with malice, design, and misinterpretation? A. Ward does not often charge them with malice, design, and misinterpretation. His charges are principally levelled against the ori- ginal translators. He approves in many places of the conduct of the reformers of the Protes- tant version ; in some he condemns them, I fear, justly. Q. VIII. It always proves a bad cause to represent an opponent's argument as weaker than it is. Show where I exhibit Ward's objec- tions as less strong than they are ? A. In every division almost without exception. This I think I have sufficiently proved in the preceding pages. Q. IX. According to Ward, the apostles had a Christian doctrine, a rule of faith, before the New Testament was written ; prove that they had it ? A. If by a ride of faith Dr. Ryan means the thirty-nine Articles, I do not believe that the apostle had them either before the scripture was written or afterwards. But of this I am sure, that before the scripture was written the apos- tles preached the Christian doctrine, and estab- lished churches in which it was taught. I humbly conceive that they must have had a knowledge of it, and have imparted that know- ledge to their disciples. Q. X. Will not the Greek professor at May- nooth admit that the word Icpanal signifies once for all 1 A. As I have not the honour to be acquainted with the Greek professor at Maynooth, I am unable to answer the question. Qs. XL XII. XIII. XV. regard the meaning of Greek words. For answer I must request the reader to consult the preceding pages. Q. XIV. Was it not more decent in an apostle to lead about a wife than a strange woman ? A. I do not see how he could, unless he were married. Our blessed Redeemer was often attended by holy women of his kindred ; why might not an apostle also 1 Q. XVI. The word naQamoi\u6. signifies fault as well as sin. The Romanists render it sin : why may we not render it fault without being guilty of misconstruction 1 A. I see no great sin in rendering notQqnio)fi& fault, nor any great fault in rendering it sin. Q. XVII. Did not Adrian IV. grant Ireland to Henry II., and did not Alexander IV. confirm that grant ? A. Did not Dr. Ryan undertake to refute the " Errata," and has he not failed in almost every point 1 THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. . Among the many and irreconcileable differ- ences between Roman Catholics and the secta- ries of our days, those about the holy scriptures claim not the least place on the stage of controversy : as, firstly, whether the Bible is the sole and only rule of faith ? Secondly, whether all things necessary to salvation are contained in the Bible 1 Or, whether we are bound to believe some things, as absolutely necessary to salvation, which are either not clear in scripture, or not evidently deduced out of scripture ? Thirdly, whether every individual person, of sound judgment, ought to follow his own private interpretation of the scripture ? If so, why one party or profession should condemn, persecute, and penal-law another, for being of that per- suasion he finds most agreeable to the scripture, as expounded according to his own private spirit ? If not, to what interpreter ought they to submit themselves, and on whom may they safely and securely depend, touching the exposi- tion and true sense and meaning of the same ? Fourthly, whence have we the scripture ? That is, who handed it down to us from the Apostles, who wrote it ? And by what authority we receive it for the Word of God ? And, whether we ought not to receive the sense and true meaning of the scripture, upon the same author- ity we receive the letter 1 For if Protestants think, the letter was safe in the custody of the Roman Catholic Church, from which they received it, how can they suspect the purity of that sense, which was kept and delivered to them by the same church and authority ? With several other such like queries, frequently proposed by Catholics ; and never yet, nor ever likely to be, solidly answered by any sectaries whatever. It is not the design of this following treatise to enter into these disputes ; but only to show thee, Christian reader, that those translations of the Bible, which the English Protestant clergy have made and presented to the people for their only rule of faith, are in many places not only partial, but false, and disfigured with several corruptions, abuses, and falsifications, in derogation to the most material points of Cath- olic doctrine, and in favour and advantage of their own erroneous opinions : for, As it has been the custom of heretics in all ages, to pretend to scripture alone for their rule, and to reject the authority of God's holy church ; so has it also ever been their practice to falsify, corrupt, and abuse the same in divers manners. 1. One way is, to deny whole books thereof, or parts of books, when they are evidently against them : so did, for example, Ebion all St. Paul's epistles ; Manicheus the Acts of the Apostles ; Luther likewise denied three of the four Gospels, saying, that St. John's is the only true gospel ; and so do our English Protestants those books which they call the Apocrypha. 2. Another way is, to call in question at the least, and make some doubt of the authority of certain books of holy scriptures, thereby to diminish their credit : so did Manicheus affirm, that the whole New Testament was not written by the Apostles, and particularly St. Matthew's Gospel : so did Luther discredit the Epistle of St. James : so did Marcion and the Arians deny the Epistle to the Hebrews to be St. Paul's ; in which they were followed by our first English Protestant translators of the Bible, who pre- sumed to strike St. Paul's name out of the very title of the said Epistle. («) 3. Another way is, to oxpound the scripture according to their own private spirit, and to reject the approved sense of the ancient holy Fathers, and Catholic Church : so do all here- tics, who seem to ground their errors upon the scriptures ; especially those, who will have scripture, as by themselves expounded, for their only rule of faith. 4. Another way is, to alter the very origi- nal text of the holy scriptures, by adding to, di- minishing, and changing it here or there for their purpose : so did the Arians, Ncstorians, &c. and also Marcion, who is therefore called Mus Ponticus, from his gnawing, as it were,. certain places with his corruptions ; and for the same reason may Beza not improperly be called, the Mouse of Geneva. 5. Another way not unlike this, is to make corrupt and false translations of the scriptures for the maintenance of their errors : so did the Arians and Pelagians of old, and so have the pretended reformers of our days done, which I intend to make the subject of this following treatise. Yet, before I proceed any further, let me first assure my reader, that this work is not undertaken with any design of lessening the (o) See Bibles J 579, 1580. 16 THE AUTHOR 8' l'KEFACE. credit or authority of the Holy Bible, as perhaps some, may be ready to surmise : for indeed, it is a common exclamation among our adversaries, especially such of them as one would think should have a greater respect for truth, that Catholics make light of the written Word of God : that they undervalue and condemn the sacred scriptures : that they endeavour to lessen the credit and authority of the Holy Bible. Thus possessing the poor deluded people with an ill opinion of Catholics, as if they rejected, and trod under feet, the written Word : where- as it is evident to all, who know them, that none can have a greater respect and veneration for the holy scripture than Catholics have, receiving, reverencing, and honouring the same, as the very pure and true Word of God ; neither re- jecting, nor so much as doubting of the least tittle in the Bible, from the beginning of Genesis, to the end of the Revelations ; several devout Catholics having that profound venera- tion for it, that they always read it on their knees with the greatest humility and rev- erence imaginable, not enduring to see it pro- faned in any kind ; nor so much as to see the least torn leaf of a Bible put to any manner of unseemly use. Those who, besides all this, consider with what very indifferent behaviour the scripture is ordinarily handled among Pro- testants, will not, I am confident, say that Catholics have a less regard for it, than Pro- testants ; but, on the contrary, a far greater. Again, dear reader, if thou findest in any part of this treatise, that the nature of the subject has extorted from me such expressions as may, perhaps, seem either spoken with too much heat, or not altogether so soft as might be wished for ; yet, let me desire thee not to look upon them as the dictates of passion, but rather as the just re- sentments of a zealous mind, moved with the incentive of seeing God's sacred word adul- terated and corrupted by ill-designing men, on purpose to delude and deceive the ignorant and unwary reader. The holy scriptures were written by the Pro- phets, Apostles, and Evangelists ; the Old Tes- tament in Hebrew, except only some few parts in Chaldee and Syriac ; the greater part of the New Testament was written in Greek, St. Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew, and St. Mark's in Latin. We have not at this day the original writings of these Prophets and Apostles, nor of the seventy interpreters, who translated the Old Testament into Greek, about 300 years before the coming of Christ ; we have only copies ; for the truth and exactness whereof we must rely upon the testimony and tradition of the church, which in so important a point God would never permit to err : so that we have not the least doubt, but the copy authorised and approved of by the church is sufficiently authentic. For what avails it for a Christian to believe that scripture is the Word of God, if he be uncertain which copy and translation is true ? Yet, not- withstanding the necessity of admitting some true authentic copy, Protestants pretend that there is none authentic in the world ; as may be seen in the preface to the Tigurine edition of the Bible, and in all their books of controversy ; seeing therein they condemn the council of Trent, for declaring that the old translation is authentic, and yet themselves name no other for such. And, therefore, though the Lutherans fancy Luther's translation ; the Calvinists, that of Geneva ; the Zuinglians, that of Zuinglius ; the English, sometimes one, and sometimes another : yet because they do not hold any one to be authentic, it follows, from their excep- tions against the infallibility of the Roman Ca- tholic Church in declaring or decreeing a true and authentic copy of scripture, and their con- fession of the uncertainty of their own transla- tions, that they have no certainty of scripture at all, nor even of faith, which they ground upon scripture alone. That, the Vulgate of the Latin is the most true and authentic copy, has been the judgment of God's Church for above those 1300 years ; dur- ing which time, the Church has always used it ; and therefore it is, by the sacred council (a) of Trent, declared authentic and canonical in every part and book thereof. Most of the Old Testament, as it is in the said Latin Vulgate, was translated (b) out of Hebrew by St. Hierom, or St. Jerom ; and the New-Tes- tament had been before his time translated out of Greek, but was by him (c) reviewed ; and such faults as had crept in by the negligence of the transcribers, were corrected by him by the ap- pointment of Pope Damasus. " You constrain me," says he, " to make a new work of an old, that I, after so many copies of the scriptures dispersed through the world, should sit as a certain judge, which of them agree with the true Greek. I have restored the New Testament to the truth of the Greek, and have translated the old according to the Hebrew. Truly, I will affirm it confidently, and will produce many witnesses of this work, that I have changed nothing from the truth of the Hebrew," &c. (b) And for sufficient testimony of the sincerity of the translator, and commendations of his trans- lation, read these words of the great Doctor St. Augustin : " There was not? wanting," says he, " in these our days, Hierom, the priest, a man most learned and skilful in all the three tongues ; who not from the Greek, but from the Hebrew, translated the same scriptures into Latin, whose learned labour the Jews yet confess to be true." (e) Yea, the truth and purity of this translation is such, that even the bitterest of Protestants themselves are forced to confess it to be the best, and to prefer it before all others, as also to acknowledge the learning, piety, and sincerity of the translator of it ; which Mr. Whitaker, notwithstanding his railing in another place, (a) Con. Trident., Sess. 4. (b) S. Hierom. in lib. de Viris Illustr. extremo, et in Prscfat. librorum quos Latinos fecit. (c) Hier. Ep. 89. ad Aug., qucest. 11, inter Ep. Aug. (d) See his preface before the New Testament, dedica- ted to Pope Damasus, and his Catalogue in fine. (e) S. Aug. de Civit. Dei. lib. 18, c. 43, et Ep. 80, ad Hierom c. 3, et lib. 2, Doct. Christi, c. 15. THE AUTHOR S PREFACE. Yt does in these words : " St. Hierom, I reverence ; Damasus, I commend ; and the work I confess to be godly and profitable to the church." (a) Dr. Dove says thus of it : " We grant it fit, that for uniformity in quotations of places, in schools and pulpits, one Latin text should be used : and we can be contented, for the antiquity thereof, to prefer that (the Vulgate) before all other Latin books." (b) And for the antiquity of it Dr. Covel tells us, " that it was used in the church 1300 years ago :" not doubting to prefer that translation before others, (c). Dr. Humphrey frees St. Hierom, both from malice and ignorance in translating, in these words : " The old interpreter was much addicted to the propriety of the words, and indeed with too much anxiety, which I attribute to religion, not to ignorance." (</) In regard of which integrity and learning, Molinoeus signifies his good esteem thereof, saying, (e) " I cannot easily forsake the vulgar and accustomed reading, which also I am accus- tomed earnestly to defend :" " Yea, (/) I prefer the vulgar edition, before Erasmus's, Bucer's, Bullinger's, Brentius's, the Tigurine transla- tion ; yea, before John Calvin's, and all others." How honourably he speaks of it ! And yet, Conradus Pellican, a man commended by Bucer, Zuinglius, Melancthon, and all the fa- mous Protestants about Basil, Tigure, Berne, <fcc, gives it a far higher commendation, in these words : (g) " I find the vulgar edition of the Psalter to agree for the sense, with such dexterity, learning, and fidelity of the Hebrew, that I doubt not, but the Greek and Latin inter- preter was a man most learned, most godly, and of a prophetical spirit." Which certainly are the best properties of a good translator. In fine, even Beza himself, one of the great- est of our adversaries, affords this honourable testimony of our vulgar translation : " I con- fess," says he, <: that the old interpreter seems to have interpreted the holy books with won- derful sincerity and religion. The vulgar edition I do, for the most part, embrace and pre- fer before all others " (h) You see, how highly our Vulgate in Latin is commended by these learned Protestants : see likewise, how it has been esteemed by the an- cient (i) Fathers ; yet, notwithstanding, all this is not sufficient to move Protestants to accept or acquiesce in it ; and doubtless the very reason is, because they would have as much liberty to reject the true letter, as the true sense of scrip- tures, their new doctrines being condemned by both. For had they allowed any one translation (a) Whitaker in his Answer to Reynolds, p. 241. (b) Dove's Persuasion to Recusants, p. 16. (c) See Dr. Covel's Answer to Burges, pp. 91, 94. («') Dr. Hum. de Ratione Interp., lib. 1. pp. 74. (e) Molin. in Nov. Test.. Part. 30, (/) Et in luc. 17. (g) Pellican in Prafat. in Psalter. An 1584. (ft) Beza in Annot. in Luc.i. 1 . Et in Praefat. Nov. Test. (i) S. Hierom et St. Aug.supr.; St. Greg., lib. 70.; Mor. c. 23. ; Istdor., lib. G. Etyrn. c. 5, 7, et de Divin. Offic. lib. 1, cap. 12 ; S. Beda in Martyrol. Cassiod. 21 Inst. &c. ; to have been authentic, they certainly could never have had the impudence so wickedly to have corrupted it, by adding, omitting, and changing, which they could never have pre- tended the least excuse for, in any copy by themselves held for true and authentic. Obj. But however, their greatest objection against the Vulgate Latin is, that we ought ra- ther to have recourse to the original languages, the fountains of the Hebrew and Greek, in which the scriptures were written by the Pro- phets and Apostles, who could not err, than to stand to the Latin translations, made by divers interpreters, who might err. Ans. W r hen it is certain, that the originals or fountains aro pure, and not troubled or corrupt, they are to be preferred before translations : but it is most certain, that they are corrupted in divers places, as Protestants themselves are forced to acknowledge, and as it appears by their own translations. For example, Ps. xxii. ver. 1 G, they translate, " They pierced my hands and my feet :" whereas, according to the He- brew that now is, it must be read : " As a lion, my hands, and my feet;" which no doubt, is not only nonsense, but an intolerable corruption of the latter Jews against the passion of our Sa- viour, of which the old authentic Hebrew was a most remarkable prophecy. Again, according" to the Hebrew, it is read, (A) Achaz, king of Israel ; which being false, they in some of their first translations read, Achaz, king of Juda, ac- cording to the truth, and as it is in the Greek and Vulgate Latin. Yet, their Bible of 1579, as also their last translation, had rather follow the falsehood of the Hebrew against their own knowledge, than to be thought beholden to the Greek and Latin in so light a matter. Likewise, where the Hebrew says, Zedecias, Joachin's brother, they are forced to translate Zedecias, his father's brother, as indeed the truth, is according to the Greek. (/) So likewise in another place, where the Hebrew is, " He begat Azubahis wife and Jerioth;" which they not easily knowing what to make of, translate in some of their Bibles," He begat Azuba of his wife Jerioth ; and in others, " He begat Jerioth of his wife Azuba." But with- out multiplying examples, it is sufficiently known to Protestants, and by them acknowledged, how -intolerably the Hebrew fountains and originals 'are by the Jews corrupted : amongst others, Dr. Humphrey says, "The Jewish superstition, how many places it has corrupted, the reader may ea- sily find out and judge." [in) And in another place, " I look not," says he, " that men should too much follow the Rabbins, as many do ; for those places, which promise and declare Christ the true Messias, are most filthily depraved by them." (n) " The old interpreter," says another Pro- testant, " seems to have read one way, whereas the Jews now read another! which I say, be- cause I would not have men think this to (it) 2 Chron. xxviii. 19. (I) 4 Kings xxiv. 17, 19. (?/t) Humph. 1. 1. de Rat. interp. p. 178. (?i) Lib. ii. p. 219. 1 THE AUTHORS PREFACE. have proceeded from the ignorance or slothful- ness of the old interpreter : rather we have cause to find fault for want of diligence in the antiqua- ries, and faith in the Jews ; who, both before Christ's coming and since, seem to be less careful of the Psalms, than of their Talmudical songs." (a) I would gladly know of our Protestant trans- lators of tbe Bible, what reasons they have to tbink tbe Hebrew fountain they boast of so pure and uncorrupt, seeing not only letters and sylla- bles have been mistaken, texts depraved, but even whole books of the Prophets utterly lost and perished ? How many books of the ancient Prophets, sometime extant, are not now to be found 1 We read in the old Testament, of a Liber bellorum Domini, " The Book of the Wars of our Lord ; the Book of the Just Men (Protestants call it the Book of Jasher ;) the Book of Jehu the son of Hanani ; the Books of Semeias the Prophet, and of Addo the Seer ; and Samuel wrote in a book the law of the kingdom, how kings ought to rule, and laid it up before our Lord : and the works of Solomon were written in the Book of Nathan the Pro- phet, and in the Books of Ahias the Shilonite, and in the Vision of Addo the Seer." (b) With several others, which are all quite perished : yea, and perished in such time, when the Jews were " the peculiar people of God," and when, of all nations, " they were to God a holy nation, a kingly priesthood :" and now, when they are no national people, have no government, no king, no priest, but are vagabonds upon the earth, and scattered among all people : may we reasonably think their divine and ecclesiastical books to have been so warily and carefully kept, that all and every part is safe, pure, and incorrupt 1 that every parcel is sound, no points, tittles, or letters lost, or misplaced, but all sincere, perfect and absolute? How easy is it, in Hebrew letters, to mistake sometimes one for another, and so to alter the whole sense ? As, for example, this very letter vau for: jod, (c) has certainly made disagreement in some places ; as where the Septuagint read, za xouioo- fi5 owog ere qnuAuifty, Fortitudinem meam ad te custodiam, " My strength I will keep to thee ;" which reading St. Hierom also followed. It is now in the Hebrew 3>?. fortitudinem ejus, " His strength I will keep to thee." (d) Which corruptions our last Protestant translators fol- low, reading, " Because of his strength will I wait upon thee ;" and to make sense of it they add the words, " because of," and change the words, "keep to" into " wait upon," to the great perverting of the sense and sentence. A like error is that in Gen. iii. (if it be an error, as many think it is none,) Ipsa lonteret caput tuum, for Ipse or Ipsum, about which Protestants keep up such a clamour, (e) As the Hebrew has been by the Jews abused {a) Conrad. Pell. Tom. 4, in Psal. Ixxxv. 9. (b) Numb. xxi. 14 ; Josh. x. 13 ; Kings i. 18 ; 2 Paral. XX. 34 ; xii. 15 ; 1 Kings x. 25 ; 2 Paral. ix. 29. (c) "Warn «in. (d) Psal. lviii. 10, in Prot Bible it is Paa 1 . lix.9. (c) Gen. iii. 15. and falsified against our blessed Saviour Christ Jesus, especially in such places as were manifest prophecies of his death and passion, so likewise has the Greek fountain been corrupted by the eastern heretics, against divers points of Chris- tian doctrine, insomuch that Protestants them- selves, who pretend so great veneration for it, dare not follow it in many places, but are forced to fly to our Vulgate Latin, as is observed in the preface to the Rhemish Testament ; where also you may find sufficient reasons why our Catholic Bible is translated into English rather from the Vulgate Latin than from the Greek. To pass by several examples of corruptions in the Greek copy, which might be produced, I will only, amongst many, take notice of these two following rash and inconsiderate additions ; first, John viii. 59, after these words, Exivit e lemplo, " Went out of the temple ;" are added, Transiens per medium corum, sic prceteriit ; " Going through the midst of them, and so passed by." (/) Touching which addition, Beza writes thus : " These words are found in very ancient copies ; but I think, as does Eras- mus, that the first part, ' going through the midst of them,' is taken out of Luke iv. 30, and crept into the text by fault of the writers, who found that written in the margin : and that the latter part, ' and so passed by,' was added to make this chapter join well with the next. And I am moved thus to think, not only because neither Chrysostom nor Augustine (he might have said, nor Hierom) make any mention of this piece, but also, because it seems not to hang together very probably ; for, if he withdrew himself out of their sight, how went he through the midst of them ?" &c. (g) Thus Beza dis- putes against it ; for which cause, 1 suppose, it is omitted by our first English translators, who love to follow what their master Beza de- livers to them in Latin, though forsooth they would have us think they followed the Greek most precisely ; for in their translations of the year 1561, 1562, 1577, 1579, they leave it out, as Beza does ; yet in their Testament of 1580, as also in this last translation (Bible 1683), they put it in with as much confidence, as if it had neither been disputed against by Beza, nor omitted by their former brethren. To this we may also join that piece which Protestants so gloriously sing or say at the end of the Lord's Prayer, " For thine is the king- dom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen,'" which not only Erasmus dislikes, (h) but Bullinger himself holds it for a mere patch sowed to the rest, " by, he knows not whom;" (i) and allows well of Erasmus's judg- ment, reproving Laurentius Valla for finding fault with the Latin edition, because it wants it : " There is no reason," says he, " why Laurentius Valla should take the matter so hotly, as though a great part of the Lord's Prayer were cut (_/*) Aie'XQow <5<<z jieCH (inruii kcu Trapr)ytv suuj. (g) Beza in Job. viii. 59. (A) Erasm. in Annot. (i) Bullinger, Decad. v. Serm. 5. THE AUTHOR S PREFACE. 19 away : rather their rashness was to be reproved, who durst presume to piece on their toys unto the Lord's Prayer." Let not my reader think that our Latin Vul- gate differs from the true and most authentic Greek copies, which were extant in St. Hierom's days, but only from such as are now extant, and since his days corrupted. " How unworthily," says, Beza, " and without cause, does Erasmus, blame the old interpreter, as dissenting from the Greek ! He dissented, I grant, from those Greek copies which Erasmus had gotten ; but we have found not in one place, that the same interpretation which he blames, is grounded on Ihe authority of other Greek copies, and those most ancient : yea in some number of places we have observed that the reading of the Latin text of the old interpreter, though it agree not sometimes with our Greek copies, yet it is much more convenient, for tflat it seems to follow some truer and better copy." (a) Now, if our Latin Vulgate be framed exactly, though not to the vulgar Greek examples now extant, yet to more ancient and perfect copies ; if the Greek copies have many faults, errors, corruptions, and additions in them, as not only Beza avouches, but as our Protestant translators confess, and as evidently appears by their leav- ing the Greek and following the Latin, with what reason can they thus cry up the fountains and originals, as incorrupt and pure ? With what honesty can they call us from our ancient vulgar Latin, to the present Greek, from which them- selves so licentiously depart at pleasure, to fol- low our Latin ? (b) Have we not great reason to think, that as the Latin Church has been ever more constant in keeping the true faith than the Greek, so it has always been more careful in preserving the scriptures from corruption ? Let Protestants only consider, whether it be more credible, that St. Ilierom, one of the greatest doctors of God's church, and the most skilful in the languages wherein the scripture was written, who lived in the primitive times, when perhaps some of the original writings of the Apostles were extant, or at least the true and authentic copies in Hebrew and Greek better known than they are now ; let us then consider, I say, whether is more credible, than a translation made or received by this holy doc- tor, and then approved of by all the world, and ever since accepted and applauded in God's church, should be defective, false, or deceitful ? or that a translation made since the pretended Reformation, not only by men of scandalous, and notoriously wicked lives, but from copies corrupted by Jews, Arians, and other Greek here- tics, should be so ? (c) In vain, therefore, do Protestants tell us, that their translations are taken immediately (a) Beza in Praefat. Nov. Test., Anno 1556. (b) See the Prsef. to the Rhemish Testament; Dr. Mar- tin's Discovery ; Reynold's Refutation of Whitaker, cap. xiii. (c) Such were Luther, Calvin, Beza, Bucer, Cranmer, Tyndal, &c. from the fountains of the Greek and Hebrew ; so is also our Latin Vulgate ; only with this dif- ference, that ours was taken from the fountains when they were clear, and by holy and learned men, who knew which were the crystal waters, and true copies ; but theirs is taken from foun- tains troubled by broachers of heresies, self- interested and time-serving persons ; and after that the Arians, and other heretics, had, I say, corrupted and poisoned them with their false and abominable doctrines. Obj. 2. Cheminitius and others yet further object, that there are some corruptions found in the Vulgate Latin, viz., that these words, Ipsa conleret caput tuum, (d) are corrupted, thereby to prove the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; and that instead thereof, we should read Ipsum conteret caput tuum, seeing it was spoken of the seed, which was Christ, as all ancient writers teach. Ans. Some books of the Vulgate edition have Ipsa, and some others Ipse ; and though many Hebrew copies have Ipse, yet there want not some which have Ipsa : and the points being taken away, the Hebrew word maybe translated Ipsa : yea the holy fathers (e) St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory, St. Bede, &c, read it Ipsa, and I think we have as great reason to follow their interpreta- tion of it as Cheminitius's, or that of the Pro- testants of our days ; and though the word con- teret in the Hebrew is of the masculine gender, and so should relate to Semen, which also in the Hebrew is of the masculine gender, yet it is not rare in the scriptures to have pronouns and verbs of the masculine gender, joined with nouns of the feminine, as in Ruth i. 8 ; Esther i. 20 ; Eccles. xii. 5. The rest of Cheminitius's cavils you will find sufficiently answered by the learned Cardinal Bellarmine, lib. ii. de Verb, Dei, cap. 12, 13, 14. Again, Mr. Whitaker condemns us for follow- ing our Latin Vulgate so precisely, as thereby to omit these words, (/) " when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption," which are in the Greek exemplars, but not in our Vulgate Latin : whence it follows assuredly, says he, " that Hierom dealt not faithfully here, or that his version was corrupted afterwards." I answer to this, with Dr. Reynolds, (g) that this omission (if it be any) could not proceed from malice or design, seeing there is no loss or hindrance to any part of doctrine, by reading it as we read ; for the self-same thing is most clearly set down in the very next lines before. Thus stand the words : " For this corruptible, must do on incorruption ; and this mortal, do on immortality: and when this (corruptible, has done on incorruption, and this) mortal has done (d) Gen. iii. (e) St. August., lib. 2, deGen.cont. Manich ,c.xviii.l. 11, de Gen. ad Literam, cap. xxxvi. ; St. Ambr. lib. de Fu»a Sseculi, cap. vii.; St. Chrysost. in Horn. 17, in Gen St. Greg. lib. i.; Mor. cap. xxxviii.; Beda et alii in hunc locum. (/) 1 Cor. xv. 54. (g) See Dr. Reynolds' Refutation of Whitaker's Re- pichension3, chap. x. THE AUTHOR S PREFACE. 20 on immortality." Where you see the words, which I have put down, inclosed with paren- thesis, are contained most expressly in the fore- going sentence, which is in all our Testaments ; so that there is no harm or danger either to faith, doctrine, or manners, if it be omitted. That it was of old in some Greek copies, as it stands in our Vulgate Latin, is evident by St. Hierom's translating it thus : and why ought St. Hierom to be suspected of unfaithful dealing, see- ing he put the self-same words and sense in the next lines immediately preceding? And that it was not corrupted since, appears by the common reading of most men, in all after ages. St. Am- brose, in his commentary upon the same place reads as we do. So does St. Augustine, De Ci- vitate Dei, cited by St. Bede, in his commentary upon the same chapter, (a) So read also the rest of the Catholic interpreters, Haymo, Anselm, &c. But if this place be rightly considered, so far is it from appearing as done with any design of corrupting the text, that on the contrary, it appa- rently shows the sincerity of our Latin transla- tion ; for, as we keep our text, according as St. Hierom and the Church then delivered it ; so not- withstanding, because the said words are in the ancient Greek copies, we generally add them in the margin of every Latin Testament which the church uses, as may be seen in divers prints of Paris, Lovain, and other Universities : and if there be any fault in our English translation, it is only that this particle was not put down in the margin, as it was in the Latin which we followed. Sd that this, I say, proves no corruption, but rather great fidelity in our Latin Testament, that it agrees with St. Hierom, and consequently with the Greek copies, which he interpreted, as with St. Ambrose, St. Bede, Haymo, and St. Anselm. Whether these vain and frivolous objections are sufficient grounds for their rejecting our Vulgate Latin, and flying to the original (but now impure) fountains, I refer to the judicious reader. But now, how clear, limpid, and pure the streams are, that flow from the Greek and He- brew fountains, through the channel of Pro- testant pens, the reader may easily guess with- out taking the pains of comparing them, from the testimonies they themselves bear of one an- other's translations. Zuinglius writes thus to Luther, concerning his corrupt translation : (b) " Thou corruptest the word of God, O Luther : thou art seen to be a manifest and common corrupter and per- vcrter of the holy scripture ; how much are we ashamed of thee, who have hitherto esteemed thee beyond all measure, and prove thee to be such a man !" Luther's Dutch translation of the old Testa- ment, especially of Job and the Prophets, had its blemishes, says Keckerman, and those no small ones, (c) neither are the blemishes in his New Testament to be accounted small ones ; (a) St. Beda in 1 Cor. c. xv. (ft) Zuing. t. 2, ad Luth., lib. de S. (c) Keckerman, Syst. 8; Theol., lib. 2, p. 188; IS. Jon. v. 7. one of which is, his omitting and wholly leaving out this text in St. John's Epistle : " There be three who give testimony in heaven ; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one." Again, in Rom. iii. 28, he adds the word " alone" to the text, saying, " We account a man to be justified by faith alone, without the works of the law." Of which intolerable cor- ruption being admonished, he persisted obstinate and wilful, saying, " So I will, so I command ; let my will be instead of reason," &c. (d) Lu- ther will have it so ; and at last thus concludes, " The word alone must remain in my New Tes- tament ; although all the Papists run mad, they shall not take it from thence : it grieves me, that I did not add also those two other words, Omnibus et omnium, sine omnibus operibus, om- nium legum ; without all works of all laws." Again, in requital to Zuinglius, Luther rejects the Zuinglian translation, terming them in matter of divinity, " fools, asses, antichrists, de- ceivers," &c. (e) and indeed, not without cause ; for what could be more deceitful and anti- christian, than instead of our Saviour's words, " this is my body," to translate, " this signifies my body," as Zuinglius did, to maintain his figurative signification of the words, and cry down Christ's real presence of the blessed sacrament ? When Froscheverus, the Zuinglian printer of Zurick, sent Luther a Bible translated by the divines there, he would not receive it ; but as Hospinian and Lavatherus witness, sent it back and rejected it. (f) The Tigurine translation was, in like manner, so distasteful to other Protestants, " that" the Elector of Saxony in great anger rejected it and placed Luther's translation in room there- of-" (g) Beza reproves the translation set forth by Oecolampadius, and the divines of Basil ; affirming, " that the Basil translation is in many places wicked, and altogether differing from the mind of the Holy Ghost." Castalio's translation is also condemned by (h) Beza, as being sacrilegious, wicked, and ethnical ; insomuch, that Castalio wrote a special treatise in defence of it ; in the preface of which he thus complains : " Some reject our Latin and French translations of the Bible, not only as unlearned, but also as wicked, and differing in many places from the mind of the Holy Ghost." The learned Protestant, Molinceus, affirms of Calvin's translation, " that Calvin in his har- mony, makes the text of the Gospel to leap up and down ; he uses violence to the letter of the Gospel ; and besides this, adds to the text." (i) (d) To. v. Germ. fol. 141, 144. (e) See Zuing. Tom. 2, ad Luth. lib. de Sacr.,fol.388, 389. (/) Hosp. Hist. Sacram. part. ult. fol. 183; Lavath. Hist. Sacram. 1. 32. (g) Hospin. in Concord. Discord, fol. 138. (h) In Respons. ad Defens. et Respons. Castal in Test. 1556, in Praefat. et in Annot. in Mat. iii. et iv., Luc. ii.; Act. viii. et x. 1 Cor. 1. (i) In sua Translat. Nov. Test. Part. IS, fol. 1 10. THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. And touching Beza's translation, which our English especially follow, the same Molinoeus charges him, that " he actually changes the text ;" giving likewise several instances of his corruptions. Castalio also, " a learned Cal- vinist, as Osiander says, " and skilful in the tongues," reprehends Beza in a book wholly written against his corruptions ; and says further, " I will not note all his errors, for that would require too large a volume. ''(a) In short, Bucer and the Osianderians rise up against Luther for false translations ; Luther against Minister ; Beza against Castalio, and Castalio against Beza ; Calvin against Servetus ; lllyricus against both Calvin and Beza. (6) Staphylus and Emserus noted in Luther's Dutch translations of the New Testament only, about one thousand four hundred heretical corrup- tions, (c) And thus far of the confessed cor- ruptions in foreign Protestant translators. If you desire a character of our English Pro- testant versions, pray be pleased to take it from the words of these following Protestants ; some of the most zealous and precise of whom, in a certain treatise, entitled, " A petition di- rected to his most excellent majesty King James the First," complain, " that our transla- tion of the Psalms, comprised in our Book of Com- mon Prayer, doth, in addition, subtraction, and alteration, differ from the truth of the Hebrew in, at least, two hundred places." If two hun- dred corruptions were found in the Psalms only, and that by Protestants themselves, how many, think you, might be found from the beginning of Genesis, to the end of the Apocalypse, if ex- amined by an impartial and strict examination ? And this they made the ground of their scruple, to make use of the Common Prayer ; remain- ing doubtful, " whether a man may, with a sale conscience, subscribe thereto :" yea, they wrote and published a particular treatise, en- titled, " A Defence of the Ministers' Reasons for refusal of Subscribing ;" the whole argument and scope whereof, is only concerning mis- translating ; yea, the reader may see. in the beginning of the said book, the title of every chapter, twenty-six in all, pointing to the mistranslations there handled in particular. (<0 (0 Mr. Carlisle avouches, " that the English translators have depraved the sense, obscured the truth, and deceived the ignorant : that in many places they detort the scriptures from the right sense, and that they show themselves to love darkness more than light : falsehood more than truth." Which Doctor Reynold's objecting against the Church of England, Mr. Whitaker had no better answer than to say, " What Mr. Carlisle, with some others, has written against some places translated in our Bibles, makes nothing to the purpose ; I have not (a) In Test. Part. 20, 30, 40, 64, 65, CO, 71,99, et Part. 8, 13, 14,21, 23. (b) In Defens. tians.,p. HO. (c) See Lind Dub. p. 81, 85, 96, 98. (d) Petition directed to his Majesty, p. 75, 76. (e) That Christ descended into hell, p. 116, 117,118, 121, 151. said otherwise, but that some things may be amended." (/) The Ministers of Lincoln diocess could not forbear, in their great zeal, to signify to the king, that the English translation of the Bible, " is a translation that takes away from the text, that adds to the text, and that sometimes, to the changing or obscuring of the meaning of the Holy Ghost ;" calling it yet further, " a trans- lation which is absurd and senseless, pervert- ing, in many places, the meaning of the Holy Ghost." (g) For which cause, Protestants of tender con- sciences made great scruple of subscribing thereto : " How shall I," says Mr. Barges* " approve under my hand, a translation which hath so many omissions, many additions, which sometimes obscures, sometimes perverts the sense ; being sometimes senseless, sometimes contrary V (fi) This great evil of corrupting the scripture being well considered by Mr. Broughton, one of the most zealous sort of Protestants, obliged him to write an epistle to the Lords of the Council, desiring them with all speed to procure a new translation : " because," says he, " that which is now in England is full of errors." (i) And in his advertisements of corruptions, he tells the Bishops, " that their public translations of scriptures into English is such, that it per- verts the text of the old Testament in eight hundred and forty-eight places, and that it causes millions of millions to reject the New Testament, and to run to eternal flames." A most dreadful saying, certainly, for all those who are forced to re- ceive such a translation for their ordy rule of faith. King James the First thought the Geneva translation to be the worst of all ; aid farther affirmed, " that in the marginal notes annexed to the Geneva translation, some are very partial, untrue, seditious," &c. (A) Agreeable to this are also these words of Mr. Parkcs to Doctor Willet : " As for the Geneva Bibles, it is to be wished, that either they were purged from those manifold errors which are both in the text and in the margin, or else utterly prohibited." Now these our Protestant English transla- tions being thus confessedly " corrupt, absurd, senseless, contrary, and preverting the meaning of the Holy Ghost ;" had not King James the First just cause to affirm, " that he could never see a Bible well translated into English ?'' (/) And whether such falsely translated Bibles ought to be imposed upon the ignorant people, and by them received for the very Word of God, and for their only rule of faith, 1 refer to the judgment of the world ; and do freely asseit with Doctor Whitaker, a learned Protestant. (/) Whitaker's Answer to Dr. Reynolds, p. 255. (i>) See the Abridgment, which the Ministers of Lincoln Diocess delivered to his Majesty, p. 11, 12, 13. (A) Burges Apol. Sect. 6, and in Covel's Ansvei to Binges, p. 93. (/') See the Triple Cord, p. 147. (A) Seethe Conference before the King's Majesty, p. 4t>, 47. Apologies concerning Cbriffs descent into hell at Ddd. (I) Conference before his Majesty, p. 40. 22 THE AUTHOR S PREFACE. " that translations are so far only the Word of God, as they faithfully express the meaning of the authentical text." (a) The English Protestant translations having been thus exclaimed against, and cried down not only by Catholics, but even by the most learned Protestants, (b) as you have seen ; it pleased his majesty, King James the First, to command a review and reformation of those translations which had passed for God's Word in King Edward the Sixth, and Queen Elizabeth's days, (c) Which work was undertaken by the prelatic clergy, not so much, it is to be feared, for the zeal of truth, as appears by their having cor- rected so very few places, as out of a design of correcting such faults as favoured the more puritanical part of Protestants (Presbyterians) against the usurped authority, pretended episco- pacy, ceremonies, and traditions of the prelatic party. For example : the word " congregation" in their first Bibles, was the usual and only English word they made use of for the Greek and Latin word kxxh/crla ecclesia, because then the name of church was most odious to them ; yea, they could not endure to hear any mention of a church, because of the Catholic Church, which they had fosaken, and which withstood and condemned them. But now, being grown up to something (as themselves fancy) like a church, they resolve in good earnest to take upon them the face, figure, and grandeur of a church ; to censure and excommunicate, yea, and perse- cute their disssenting brethern ; rejecting there- fore that humble appellation which their primi- tive ancestors were content with, viz. congrega- tion, they assume the title of church, the Church of England, to countenance which, they bring the word church again into their translations, and banish that their once darling congregation. They have also, instead of ordinances, institu- tions, &c. been pleased in some places to trans- late traditions ; thereby to vindicate several ceremonies of theirs against their Puritanical brethren ; as in behalf of their character, they rectified, " ordaining elders, by election." The word Image being so shameful a cor- ruption, they were pleased likewise to correct, and instead thereof to translate Idol according to the true Greek and Latin. Yet it appears that this was not amended out of any good de- sign, or love of truth ; but either merely out of shame, or however to have it said that they had done something. Seeing they have not cor- rected it in all places, especially in the Old Testament, Exod. xx., where they yet read Image, " Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image," the word in Hebrew being Pesel, the very same that Sculptile is in Latin, and signifies in English a graven or carved thing ; and in the Greek it is Eidolon (an Idol) : so that by this false and wicked practice, they en- deavour to discredit the Catholic religion ; and, contrary to their own consciences, and correc- («) Whitaker's Answer to Dr. Reynolds, p. 235. (b) Dr. Gregory Martin wrote a whole Treatise against them (e) Bishop Tunstal discovered in Tyndal's New Testa- ment only, no less than 2000 corruptions. tions in the New Testament, endeavour to make the people believe that Image and Idol are the same, and equally forbidden by scripture, and God's commandments ; and consequently, that Popery is idolatry, for admitting the due use of images. They have also corrected that most absurd and shameful corruption, grave ; and, as they ought to do, have instead of it translated hell, so that now they read, " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ;" whereas Beza has it, " Thou wilt not leave my carcase in the grave." Yet we see, that this is not out of any sincere intention, or respect to truth neither, because they have but corrected it in some few places, not in all, as you will see hereafter ; which they would not do, especially in Genesis, lest they should there- by be forced to admit of Liinbus Patrum, where Jacob's soul was to descend, when he said, " I will go down to my son into hell, mourning," &c. And to balance the advantage they think they may have given Catholics where they have corrected it, they have (against purgatory and Limbus Patrum) in other places most grossly corrupted the text : for whereas the words of our Saviour are, " Quickened in spirit or soul. In the which spirit coming, he preached to them also that were in prison," (d) they translate, " Quickened by the spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison." This was so notorious a corruption, that Dr. Mon- tague, afterwards Bishop of Chichester and Norwich, reprehended Sir Henry Saville for it, to whose care the translating of St. Peter's epistle was committed ; Sir Henry Saville told him plainly, that Dr. Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Smith, bishop of Glou- cester, corrupted and altered this translation of this place, which himself had sincerely performed. Note here, by the bye, that if Dr. Abbot's con- science could so lightly suffer him to corrupt the scripture, his, or his servant Mason's forging the Lambeth Records, could not possibly cause the least scruple, especially being a thing so highly for their interest and honour. These are the chiefest faults they have cor rected in this their new translation ; and with what sinister designs they have amended them, appears visible enough ; to wit, either to keep their authority, and gain credit for their new- thought-on episcopal and priestly character and ceremonies against Puritans or Presbyterians ; or else, for very shame, urged thereto by the exclamations of Catholics, daily inveighing against such intolerable falsifications- But because they resolved not to correct either all, or the tenth part of the corruptions of the for- mer translation : therefore, fearing their over seen falsifications would be observed, both by Puritans and Catholics, in their Epistle Dedi- catory to the king, they desire his majesty's pro- tection, for that " on the one side, we shall be traduced," say they, " by Popish persons at home or abroad, who therefore will malign us, because we are poor instruments to make God's holy (d) 1 Peter iii. 18, 19. THE AUTHOR S PREFACE. truth to be yet more known unto the people whom they desire still to keep in ignorance and darkness : on the other side, we shall be ma- ligned by self-conceited brethern, who run their own ways," &c. We see how they endeavour here to persuade the king and the world, that Catholics are desi- rous to conceal the light of the Gospel : whereas on the contrary, nothing is more obvious, than the daily and indefatigable endeavours of Ca- tholic missioners and priests, not only in preach- ing and explaining God's holy word in Europe ; but also in forsaking their own countries and inconveniences, and travelling with great diffi- .culties and dangers by sea and land, into Asia, Africa, America, and the Antipodes, with no other design than to publish the doctrine of Christ, and to discover and manifest the light of the Gospel to infidels, who are in darkness and ignorance. Nor do any but Catholics stick to the old letter and sense of scripture, without altering the text or rejecting any part thereof, or devising new interpretations ; which certainly cannot demonstrate a desire in them to keep people in ignorance and darkness. Indeed, as for their self conceited Presbyterian and fanatic brethern, who run their own wavs in translating and interpreting scripture, we do not excuse them, but only say, that we see no reason why prelatics should reprehend them for a fault, whereof themselves are no less guilty. Do not themselves of the Church of England run their own ways also ; as well as those other sectaries in translating the Bible ? Do tbcy slick to either the Greek, Latin, or Hebrew text ? Do they not leap from one language and copy to another ? accept and reject what they please ? Do they not fancy a sense of their own, every whit as contrary to that of the Catholic and an- cient church, as that of their self-conceited bre- thren the Presbyterians, and others, is acknow- ledged to be ? And yet they are neither more learned nor more skilful in the tongues, nor more godly than those they so much contemn and blame. All heretics who have ever waged war against God's holy church, whatever particular wea- pons they had, have generally made use of these two, viz., " Misrepresenting and ridiculing the doctrine of God's church ;" and, " corrupting and misinterpreting his sacred word, the holy scripture ;" we find not any since Simon Magus's days, that have ever been more dexterous and skilful in handling these direful arms, than the heretics of our times. In the first place, they are so great masters and doctors in misrepresenting, mocking, and deriding religion, that they seem even to have solely devoted themselves to no other profession or place, but " Cathedra?, irrisorum" the school or " chair of the scorner," as David terms their seat : which the holy apostle St. Peter foresaw, when he foretold, that " there should come in the latter days, illusores, scoffers, walking after their own lusts." To whom did this pro- phecy ever better agree, than to the heretics of our days, who deride the sacred scriptures ? 23 " The author of the book of Ecclesiastes," says one of them, " had neither boots nor spurs, but rid on a long stick, in begging shoes." Who scoff at the book of Judith : compare the Ma- cabees to Robin Hood, and Bevis of Southamp- ton : call Baruch, a peevish ape of Jeremy : count the Epistle to the Hebrews as stubble : and deride St. James's, as an epistle made of straw : contemn three of the four Gospels. What ridiculing is this of the w r ord of God ! Nor were the first pretended reformers only guilty of this, but the same vein has still con- tinued in the writings, preachings, and teachings of their successors ; a great part of which are nothing but a mere mockery, ridiculing, and misrepresenting of the doctrine of Christ, as is too notorious and visible in many scurrilous and scornful writings and sermons lately published by several men of no small figure in our English Protestant Church. By which scoffing strata- gem, when they cannot laugh the vulgar into a contempt and abhorrence of the Christian reli- gion, they fly to their other weapons, to wit, " imposing upon the people's weak understand- ing, bv a corrupt, imperfect, and falsely trans- lated Bible." (a) Tertullian complained thus of the heretics of his time, lata hcr.resis non recipit quasdum scrip- luras, &c. " These heretics admit not some books of scriptures ; and those which they do admit, by adding to, and taking from, they per- vert to serve their purpose ; and if they receive some books, yet they receive them not entirely ; or if they receive them entirely, after some sort nevertheless they spoil them by devising divers interpretations. In this case, what will you do, who think yourselves skilful in scriptures, when that which you defend, the adversary denies ; and that which you deny, he defends ?" Et tu quidem nihil perdrs nisi vocem de r.ontentionc, nihil conscqueris nisi bilem de hlasphematione : " And you indeed shall lose nothing but words in this contention ; nor shall you gain any thing but anger from his blasphemy." How fitly may these words be applied to the pretended refor- mers of our days ! who, when told of their abu- sing, corrupting, and misinterpreting the holy scriptures, are so far from acknowledging their faults, that on the contrary they blush not to defend them. When Dr. Martin in his disco- very, told them of their falsifications in the Bible, did they thank him for letting them see their mistakes, as indeed men endued with the spirit of sincerity and honesty would have done ? No, they were so far from that, that Fulk, as much as in him lies, endeavours very obstinately to defend them: and Whitaker affirms, that " their translations are well done." Why then were they afterwards corrected 1 and that all the faults Dr. Martin finds in them are but trifles : demanding what is there in their Bibles that can be found fault with, as not translated well and truly 1 (b) Such a pernicious, obstinate, and contentious spirit, are heretics possessed with, (a) Dr. St , Dr. S., Dr. T., Mr. W., &c. (£) Whitaker, p. 14. 24 which indeed is the very thing that renders them heretics ; for with such I do not rank those' in the list, who, though they have even with their first milk, as I may say, imbibed their errors, and have been educated from their childhood in erroneous opinions, yet do neither pertinaciously adhere to the same, nor obstinately resist the truth, when proposed to them ; but on the con- trary, are willing to embrace it. How many innocent, and well-meaning people, are there in England, who have scarcely in all their life-time, ever heard any mention of a Catholic, or Catholic religion, unless under these monstrous and frightful terms of idolatry, superstition, antichristianism, &c. 1 How many have ever heard a better character of Catholics, than bloody-minded people, thirsters after blood, worshippers of wooden gods, prayers to stocks and stones, idolators, antichrists, the beast in the Revelations, and what not, that may render them more odious than hell, and more frightful than the devil himself, and that from the mouths and pens of their teachers, and ministerial guides ? Is it then to be wondered at, that these so grossly deceived people should enter- tain a strange prejudice against religion, and a detestation of Catholics ? Whereas, if these blindfolded people were once undeceived, and brought to understand, that all these monstrous scandals are falsely charged upon Catholics ; that the Catholic doctrine is so far from idolatry, that it teaches quite the contrary, viz., That whosoever gives God's honour to stocks and stones, as Protes- tants phrase it, to images, to saints, to angels, or to any creature ; yea, to any thing but to God himself, is an idolater, and will be damned for the same ; that Catholics are so far from thirsting after the blood of others, that on the contrary, their doctrine teaches them, not only to love God above all, and their neighbour as themselves, but even to love their enemies. In short, so far different is the Roman Catholic religion from what it is by Protestants repre- sented, that on the contrary, Faith, Hope, and Charity, are the three divine virtues it teaches us ; Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Tem- perance, are the four moral virtues it exhorts us to : which christian virtues, when it happens that they are, through human fraility, and the temptations of our three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, either wounded or lost ; then are we taught to apply ourselves to such divine remedies, as our blessed Saviour Christ has left us in his church, viz., his holy sacra- ments, by which our spiritual infirmities are cured and repaired. By the sacrament of bap- THE AUTHOR S PREFACE. tism we are taught, that original sin is forgiven, and that the party baptized is regenerated, and born anew unto the mystical body of Christ, of which by baptism he is made a lively mem- ber : so likewise by the sacrament of penance all our actural sins are forgiven ; the same holy Spirit of God working in this to the forgiveness of actual sin, that wrought before in the sacra- ment of baptism to the forgiveness of original sin. We are taught likewise, that by partaking of Christ's very body, and his very blood, in the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist, we by a perfect union dwell in him, and he in us, and that as himself rose again for our justification, so we, at the day of judgement, shall in him receive a glorious resurrection, and reign with him for all eternity, as glorious members of the same body, whereof himself is the head. It further teaches us, that none but a priest, truly consecrated by the holy sacrament of order, can consecrate and administer the holy sacraments. This is our religion, this is the centre it tends to, and the sole end it aims at ; which point, we are further taught, can never be gained but by a true faith, a firm hope, and a perfect charity. To conclude : if, I say, thousands of well- meaning Protestants understood this, as also that Protestancy itself is nothing else but a mere im- posture begun in Germany and England, main- tained and upheld by the wicked policy of self- interested statesmen ; and still continued by mis- representing and ridiculing the Catholic religion, by misinterpreting the holy scriptures ; yea, by falsifying, abusing, and, as will appear is this fol- lowing treatise, by most abominably corrupting the sacred word of God : how far would it be from them obstinately and pertinaciously to ad- here to the false and erroneous principles, in which they have hitherto been educated ? How willingly would they submit their understandings to the obedience of faith 1 How earnestly would they embrace that rule of faith, which our blessed Saviour and his Apostles left us for our guide to salvation ? With what diligence would , they bend all their studies, to learn the most wholesome and saving doctrine of God's holy church ? In fine, if once enlightened with a true faith, and encouraged with a firm hope, what zealous endeavours would they not use to acquire such virtues and christian perfections, as might inflame them with a perfect charity, which is the very ultimate and highest step to eternal felicity ? To which, may God of his infinite goodness and tender mere)'-, through the merits and bitter death and passion of our dear Saviour Jesus Christ, bring us all. Amen. THE TRUTH OF PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE EXAMINED. Our pretended Reformers, having squared and modelled to themselves a faith contrary to the certain and direct rule of apostolical tradition, delivered in God's holy church, were forced to have recourse to the scripture, as their only rule of faith ; according to which, the Church of England has, in the sixth of her Thirty-nine Articles, declared, " that the scripture compre- hended in the canonical books (i. e., so many of them as she thinks lit to call so) of the Old and New Testament, is the rule of faith so far, that, whatsoever is not read therein, or cannot be proved thereby, is not to be accepted as any point of faith, or needful to be followed." But finding themselves still at a loss, their new doc- trines being so far from being contained in the holy scripture, that they were directly opposite to it ; they were fain to seek out to themselves many other inventions ; amongst which, none was more gen crally practised than the corrupting of the holy scripture, by false and partial transla- tions ; by which they endeavoured, right or wrong, to make those sacred volumes speak in favour of their new-invented faith and doctrine. The corruptions of this nature in the first English Protestant translations, were so many, and so notorious, that Dr. Gregory Martin com- posed a whole book of them, in which he dis- covers the fraudulent shifts the translators were fain to make use of, in defence of them. Some- times they recurred to the HebreAV text. ; and when that spoke against their new doctrine, then to the Greek ; when that favoured them not, to some copy acknowledged by themselves to be corrupted, and of no credit ; and when no copy at all could be found out to cloak their corruptions, then must the book or chapter of scripture contradicting them be declared apoc- ryphal ; and when that cannot be made prob- able, they fall downright upon the prophefs and apostles who wrote them, saying, " that they might and did err, even after the coming of the Holy Ghost." Thus Luther, accused by Zuinglius for corrupting the word of God, had no way left to defend his impiety, but by impu- dently preferring himself, and his own spirit, before that of those who wrote the holy scrip- tures, saying, " Be it, that the church, Augus- tine, and other doctors, also Peter and Paul, yea, an angel from heaven, teach otherwise, yet is my doctrine such as sets forth God's glory, &c. Peter, the chief of the apostles, lived and taught [extra vcrbum Dei) besides the word of God."(a) And against St. James's mentioning the sa- crament of extreme unction : " But though," says he, " this were the epistle of St. James, I would answer, that it is not lawful for an apostle, by his authority, to institute a sacrament ; this appertains to Christ alone. "(b) As though that blessed apostle would publish a sacrament with- out warrant from Christ ! Our Church of England divines, having unadvisedly put St. James's epistle into the canon, are forced, instead of such an answer, to say, " That the sacrament of extreme unction was yet in the days of Gre- gory the Great, unformed." As though the apostle St. James had spoken he knew not what, when he advised, that the sick should be by the priests of the church, " anointed with oil in the name of our Lord. "(c) Nor was this Luther's shift alone ; for all Protestants follow their first pretended reform- er in this point, being necessitated so to do for the maintenance of their reformations, and trans- lations, so directly opposite to the known letter of the scripture. The Magdeburgians follow Luther, in accu- sing the apostles of error, particularly St. Paul, by the persuasion of James. ((/) Brentius also, whom Jewel terms a grave and learned father, affirms, " that St. Peter, the chief of the apostles, and also Barnabas, after (a) Vid. Supr. torn. 5, Wittemb., fol. 290, and in Ep. adGalat., cap. i; (b) De Capt. Babil., cap. de Extrem. Unct., torn. 2, Wittemb. (c) See the Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England, &.c. (d) Cent. 1, 1. ii., c. 10, col. 560. 26 PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS the Holy Ghost was received, together with the church of Jerusalem, erred." John Calvin affirms, that " Peter added to the schism of the church, to the endangering of Christian liberty, and the overthrow of the grace of Christ." And in page 150, he reprehends Peter and Barnabas, and others. (a) Zanchius mentions some Caivinists, in his Epist. ad Misc., who said, " If Paul should come to Geneva, and preach the same hour with Calvin, they would leave Paul, and hear Calvin." And Lavatherus affirms, that " some of Luther's followers, not the meanest among their doctors, said, they had rather doubt of St. Paul's doctrine than the doctrine of Luther, or of the Confession of Augsburgh."(6) These desperate shifts being so necessary for warranting their corruptions of scripture, and maintaining the fallibility of the church in suc- ceeding ages, for the same reasons which con- clude it infallible in the apostles' time, are ap- plicable to ours, and to every former century ; otherwise it must be said, that God's pun idence and promises were limited to a few years, and Himself so partial, that he regards not the necessities of his church, nor the salvation of any person who lived after the time of his disci- ples ; the Church of England could not reject it without contradicting their brethren abroad, and their own principles at home. Therefore Mr. Jewel, in his defence of the apology for the Church of England, affirms, that St. Mark mistook Abiathar for Abimelech ; and St. Matthew,. Hieremias for Zacharias.(c) And Mr. Fulk against the Rhemish Testament, in Galat. ii., fol. 322, charges Peter with error of igno- rance against the Gospel. Doctor Goad, in his four Disputations with Father Campion, affirms, that " St. Peter erred in faith, and that, after the sending down of the Holy Ghost upon them."(rf) And Whitaker says, " It is evident, that even after Christ's ascension, and the Holy Ghost's descending upon the apostles, the whole church, not only the common sort of Christians, but also even the apostles themselves, erred in the vocation of the Gentiles, &c. ; yea, Peter also erred. He furthermore erred in manners, &c. And these were great errors ; and yet we see these to have been in the apostles, even after" the Holy Ghost descended upon them. "(e) Thus, these fallible reformers, who, to coun- tenance their corruptions of scripture, grace their own errors, and authorise their church's fallibility, would make the apostles themselves fallible ; but indeed, they need not have gone this bold way to work, for we are satisfied, and can very easily believe their church to be falli- ble, their doctrines erroneous, and themselves corrupters of the scriptures, without being forced to hold, that the apostles erred. (f) (a) Calvin in Galat., c. ii., v. 14, p. 511. (b) Lavater in Histor. Sacrament, p. 18. (c) Pago 361. (d) The second dav's conference. (e) Whitaker de Eccles. contr. Bellar. Controvers. 2 q. 4, pi 223. (/) Proteinics, to authorise their own errors and fal- And truly, if, as they say, the apostles were not only fallible, but taught, errors in manners, and matters of faith, after the Holy Ghost's descending upon them, their writings can be no infallible rule, or, as themselves term it, perfect rule of faith, to direct men to salvation : which conclusion is so immediately and clearly deduced from this Protestant doctrine, that the supposal and premises once granted, there can be no certainty in the scripture itself. And indeed, this we see all the pretended reformers- aimed at, though they durst not say so much ; and we shall in this little tract make it most evi- dently appear, from their intolerable abusing it, how little esteem and what slight regard they have for the sacred scripture ; though they make their ignorant flocks believe, that, as they have translated it, and delivered it to them, it is the pure and infallible word of God. PjEMpE I come to particular examples of their falsifications and corruptions, let me advertise the reader, that my intention is to make use only of such English translations as are common, and well known in England even to this day, as being yet in many men's hands : to wit, those Bibles printed in the years 1562, 1577, and 1579, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign ; which I will confront with their last translation made in King James the First's reign, from the impression printed in London, in the year 1683. In all which said Bibles, (g) I shall take notice sometimes of one translation, sometimes of another, as every one's falsehood shall give occasion : neither is it a good defence for the falsehood of one, that it is truly translated in another, the reader being deceived by any one, because commonly he reads but one ; yea, one of them is a condemnation of the other. And where the English corruptions, here noted, are not to be found in one of the first three Bibles, let. the reader look in another of them ; for if he find not the falsification in all, he will cer- tainly find it in two, or at least in one of them : and in this case, I advertise the reader to be very circumspect, that he think not, by and by, these are falsely charged, because there maybe found, perhaps, some later edition, wherein the same error we noted, may be corrected ; for it is their common and known fashion, not only in their translations of the Bible, but in their other books and writings, to alter and change, add and put out, in their later editions, according as either themselves are ashamed of the former, or their scholars who print them again, dissent or disa- gree from their masters. Note also, that though I do not so much charge them with falsifying the Vulgate Latin Bible, which has always been of so great autho- rity in the church of God, and with all the (h) ancient Fathers, as I do the Greek, which they pretend to translate : I cannot, however, but libility, would make the apostles themselves erroneous and fallible. Or) Bib. 15G2,77,or79. (h) See the Preface to the Rheims New Testament OF THE SCRIPTURE. 27 observe, that as Luther wilfully forsook the Latin text in favour of his heresies and erro- neous doctrines ; so the rest follow his example even to this day, for no other cause in the world but that it makes against their errors. For testimony of which, what greater argu- ment can there be than this, that Luther, who before had always read with the Catholic Church, and with all antiquity, these words of St. Paul, " Have not we power to lead about a woman, a sister, as also the rest of the apos- tles ?" (a) And in St. Peter, these words, " Labour, that by good works you may make sure your vocation and election." Suddenly .after he had, contrary to his profession, taken a wife, as he called her, and preached, that all votaries might do the same : that " faith alone justified, and that good works were not neces- sary to salvation." Immediately, I say, after he fell into these heresies, he began to read and translate the former texts of scripture accord- ingly, in this manner : " Have not we power to lead about a sister, a wife, as the rest of the apostles ?" and, " Labour that you may make sure your vocation and election," leaving out the other words " by good works." And so do both the Calvinists abroad, and our English Protestants at home, read and translate even to this day, because they hold the self-same er- rors. I would gladly know of our English Protes- tant translators, whether they reject the Vulgate Latin text, so generally liked and approved by all the primitive Fathers, purely out of de- sign to furnish us with a more sincere and simple version into English from the Greek, than they thought they could do from the Vul- gate Latin ? If so, why not stick close to the Greek copy, which they pretend to translate ? but, besides their corrupting of it, fly from it, and have recourse again to the Vulgate Latin, whenever it may seem to make more for their purpose. Whence maybe easily gathered, that their pretending to translate the Greek copy was not with any good and candid design, but rather, because they knew it was not so easv a matter for the ignorant to discover their false dealings from it as from the Latin ; and also, because they might have the fairer pretence for their turning and winding to and fro from the Greek tothe Latin, and then again to the Greek, according as they should judge most advan- tageous to themselves. It was also no little part of their design, " to lessen the credit and authority of the Vulgate Latin translation," which had so long, and with so general a consent, been received and approved in the church of God, and authorized by the general Council of Trent, for the only, best, and most authentic text. Because, therefore, I find they will scarcely be able to justify their rejecting the Latin translation, unless they had dealt more sin- cerely with the Greek ; I have, in this following (a) 1 Cor. \x. 5, Mulierem sororem. 2 Pet. i. 10, Ut per bona opera certani vestram vocationeui et electio- nem faciatis. work, set down the Latin text, as well as the Greek word whereon their corruption depends ; yet, where they truly keep to the Greek and He- brew, which they profess to follow, and which they will have to be the most authentic text, I do not charge them with heretical corruptions. The left-hand page I have divided into four columns, besides the margin, in which I have noted the book, chapter, and verse. In the first I have set down the text of scripture from the Vulgate Latin edition, putting the word that their English Bibles have corrupted in a dif- ferent character ; to which I have also added the Greek and Hebrew words, so often as they are, or may be necessary, for the better under- standing of the word on which the stress lies in the corrupt translation. In the second column, I have given you the true English text from the Roman Catholic translation, made by the divines of Rheims and Doway ; which is done so faithfully and candidly from the authentic Vulgate Latin copy, that the most carping and critical adversary in the world cannot accuse it of partiality or design, contrary to the true meaning and in- terpretation thereof. As for the English of the said Rhemish translation, which is old, and therefore must needs differ much from the more refined English spoken at this day, the reader ought to consider, not only the place where it was written, but also the time since which the translation was made, and then he will find the less fault with it. For my part, because. I have referred my reader to the said translation made at Rheims, I have not altered one syllable of the English, though indeed I might in some places have made the word more agreeable to the lan- guage of our times. In the third column you have the corruption, and false translation, from those Bibles that were set forth in English at the beginning of that most miserable revolt and apostacy from the Catholic church, viz., from that Bible which was translated in King Edward the Sixth's time, and reprinted in the year 1562, and from the two next impressions, made Anno 1577, and 1579. All which were authorised in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, when the Church of England began to get footing, and to exercise dominion over her fellow sectaries, as well as to tyrannize over Catholics ; whence it cannot be denied, but those Bibles were wholly agree- able to the principles and doctrines of the said Church of England in those days, however they pretend at this day to correct or alter them. In the fourth column, you find one of the last impressions of their Protestant Bible, viz., that printed in London by the assigns of John Bill, deceased, and by Henry Hills and Thomas Newcomb, printers to the King's most excel- lent Majesty, Anno Dom. 1683. In which Bible, wherever I find them to have corrected and amended the place corrupted in their former translations, 1 have put down the word " cor- rected ;" but where the falsification is not yet rectified, I have set down likewise the corrup- tion : and that indeed is in most places, yea, and 28 PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS in some two or three places, they have made it rather worse than better : and this indeed gives me great reason to suspect, that in those few places, where the errors of the former false translations have been corrected in the latter, it has not always been the effect of plain dealing and sincerity ; for if such candid intention of amending former faults had every where pre- vailed with them, they would not in any place have made it worse, but would also have cor- rected all the rest, as well as one or two, that are not now so much to their purpose, as they were at their first rising. In the right-hand page of this treatise, I have set down the motives and inducements, that, as we may reasonably presume, prompted them to corrupt and falsify the sacred text, with some short arguments here and there against their un- warrantable proceedings. All which I have contrived, "fn as short and compendious a method as I possibly could, knowing that there are many, who are either not able, or at least not willing to go to the price of a great volume. And because my de- sire is to be beneficial to all, I have accommo- dated it not only to the purse of the poorest, but also, as near as possible, to the capacity of the most ignorant ; for which reasons also, I have passed by a great many learned arguments brought by my author, Dr. Martin, from the significations, etymologies, derivations, uses, &c. of the Greek and Hebrew words, as also from the comparing of places corrupted, with other places rightly translated from the same word, in the same translation ; with several other things, whereby he largely confutes their insincere and disingenuous proceedings : these I say, I have omitted, not only for brevity sake, but also as things that could not be of any great benefit to the simple and unlearned reader. As for others more learned, I will refer them to the work itself, that I have made use of through this whole treatise, viz., to that most elaborate and learned work of Dr. Gregory Martin, entitled, a " Discovery of the manifold Corruptions of the Holy Scriptures," &c, printed atRheims, Anno 1582, which is not hard to be found. Have we not great cause to believe, that our Protestant divines do obstinately teach contrary to their own consciences ? For, besides their having been reproved, without amendment, for their impious handling the holy scriptures, if their learning be so profound and bottomless, as themselves proudly boast in all their works, we cannot but conclude, that they must needs both see their errors, and know the truth. And therefore, though we cannot always cry out to them, and their followers, " the blind lead the blind," yet, which is, alas ! a thousand times more miserable, we may justly exclaim, " those who see, lead the blind, till with themselves, they fall into the ditch." As nothing has ever been worse resented by such as forsake God's holy church, than to hear themselves branded with the general title of heretics ; so nothing has been ever more com- mon among Catholics, than justly to stigmatize such with the same infamous character. I ara not ignorant how ill the Protestants of our days resent this term, and therefore do avoid, as much as the nature of this work will permit, giving them the least disgust by this horrid appellation : nevertheless, I must needs give them to under- stand, that the nature of the hoty scripture is such, that whosoever do voluntarily corrupt and pervert it, to maintain their own erroneous doc- trines, cannot lightly be characterized by a less infamous title, than that of heretics ; and their false versions, by the title of heretical transla- tions, under which denomination I have placed these following corruptions. Notwithstanding, I would have the Protestant reader to take notice, that I neither name nor judge all to be heretics, as is hinted in my preface, who hold errors contradictory to God's church, but such as pertinaciously persist in their errors. So proper and essential is pertinacity to the nature of heresy, that if a man should hold or believe ever so many false opinions against the truth of Christian faith, but yet not with obstinacy and pertinacity, he should err, but not be an heretic. Saint Augustine asserting, that "if any do defend their opinions, though false and perverse, with no obstinate animosity, but rather with all solicitude seek the truth, and are ready to be corrected when they find the same, these men are not "to be accounted heretics, because they have not any election of their own that contradicts the doctrine of the church." (a) And in another place, against the Donatists, " Let us," says he, " suppose some man to hold that of Christ at this day, which the heretic Photinus did, to wit, that Christ was only man, and not God, and that he should think this to be the Catholic faith ; I will not say that he is an heretic, unless when the doctrine of the church is made manifest unto him, he will rather choose to hold that which he held before, than yield thereunto. "(5) Again, " Those," says he, " who in the church of Christ hold infectious and perverse doctrine, if when they are corrected for it, they resist stubbornly, and will not amend their pestilent and deadly persuasions, but persist to defend the same, these men are made heretics :"(c) by all which places of St. Augustine, we see, that error without pertinacity, and obstinacy against God's church is no heresy. It would be well, therefore, if Protestants, in reading Catholic books, would endeavour rather to inform them- selves of the truth of Catholic doctrine, and humbly embrace the same, than to suffer that prejudice against religion, in which they have unhappily been educated, so strongly to bias them, as to turn them from men barely educated in error, to obstinate heretics ; such as the more to harden their own hearts, by how much the more clearly the doctrine of God's holy church is demonstrated to them. When the true faith is once made known to men, ignorance can no (a) S. Aug. Ep. 162. (b) Lib- 4, contr. Donat., c. vi. (c) De Civit. Dei, lib. xviii., c. 51. OF THE SCRIPTURE. 29 longer secure them from that eternal punishment to which heresy undoubtedly hurries them : St. Paul, in his Epistle to Titus, affirming, that " a man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned b) r his own judgment." (a) Whatever may be said, therefore, to excuse the ignorant, and such as are not obstinate, from that ignominious character : yet, as for others, especially the leaders of these misguided people, they will scarcely be able to free themselves either from it, or escape the punishment due to such, so long as they thus wilfully demonstrate their pertinacity, not only in their obstinately defending their erroneous doctrines in their disputes, sermons, and writings ; but even in corrupting the word of God, to force that sacred book to defend the same, and compel that divine volume to speak against such points of Catholic doctrine as themselves are pleased to deny. In what can an heretical intention more evi- dently appear, than in falsely translating and corrupting the holy Bible, against the Catholic church, and such doctrines as it has by an unin- terrupted tradition, brought down to us from the apostles 1 As for example : 1 . Against the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar. 2. Against the Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Eucharist. 3. Against Priests, and the Power of Priest- hood. 4. Against the *\uthority of Bishops. 5. Against the sacred Altar on which Christ's Body and Blood is offered. 6. Against the Sacrament of Baptism. 7. Against the Sacrament of Penance, and Confession of Sins. 8. Against the Sacrament of Marriage. 9. Against Intercession of Saints. 10. Against sacred Images. 11. Against Purgatory, Limbus Patrum, and Christ's Descent into Hell. 12. Against Justification, and the possibility of keeping God's Commandments. 13. Against meritorious Works, and the Re- ward due to the same. 14. Against Free Will. 15. Against true inherent Justice, and in de- fence of their own Doctrine, that Faith alone is sufficient for Salvation. 16. Against Apostolical Traditions. Yea, against several other doctrines of God's holy Church, and in defence of divers strange opinions of their own, which the reader will find taken notice of in this treatise : all which, when the unprejudiced and well-meaning Protestant reader has considered, I am confident he will be struck with amazement, and even terrified to look upon such abominable corruptions ! Doubtless, the generality of Protestants have hitherto been ignorant, and more is the pity, of this ilihandling of the Bible by their translators : nor have, I am confident, their ministerial guides ever yet dealt so ingenuously by them, as to tell them that such and such a text of scripture is (a) Titus iii. 10. translated thus and thus, contrary to the true Greek, Hebrew, or ancient Latin copies on purpose, and to the only intent, to make it speak against such and such points of Catholic doctrine, and in favour of this or that new opinion of their own. Does it appear to be done by negligence, ig- norance, or mistake, as perhaps they would be willing to have the reader believe, or rather designedly and wilfully, when what they in some places translate truly, in places of controversy, between them and us, they grossly falsify, in favour of their errors ? Is it not a certain argument of a wilful cor- ruption, where they deviate from that text, and ancient reading, which has been used by all the fathers ; and instead thereof, to make the exposition or commentary of some one doctor, the very text of scripture itself? So also when in their translations they fly from the Hebrew or Greek to the Vulgate Latin, where those originals make against them, or not so much for their purpose, it is a manifest sign of wilful partiality: and this they frequenllv do. What is it else but wilful partiality, when in words of ambiguous and divers significations, they will have it signify here or there, as pleases themselves ? So that in this place it must signify thus, in that place, not thus ; as Bc/.a, and one of their En ;lish Bibles, for example, urge the Greek word yviidy.it to signify wife, and not to signify wife, both against the virginity and chastity of priests. "What is it but a voluntary and designed con- trivance, when in a case that makes lor them, they strain the very original signification of the word ; and in the contrary case neglect it alto- gether ? Yet this they do. That their corruptions are voluntary and designedly done, is evident in such places where passives are turned into actives, and actives into passives ; where participles are made to disagree in case from their substantives ; where solojcisms are imagined when the construction is most agreeable ; and errors prel ended to creep out of the margin into the text : but Beza made use of all these, and more such like quirks. Another note of wilful corruption is, when they do not translate alike such words as are of like form and force ; example : if Ulccrosus be read full of sores, why must not Gratiosa be translated full of grace ? When the words, images, shrines, procession, devotions, excommunications, &c. are used in ill part, where they are not in the orginal text ; and the words, hymns, grace, mystery, sacra- ment, church, altar, priest, Catholic, justifica- tion, tradition, &c. avoided and suppressed, where they are in the original, as if no such words were in the text : is it not an apparent token of design, and that it is done purposely to disgrace or suppress the said things and speeches 1 Though Beza and Whitaker made it a good rule to translate according to the usual signi- fication, and not the original derivation of 5 30 PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS words ; yet, contrary to this rule, they trans- late Idolum, an image ; Presbyter, an elder ; Diaconus, a minister ; Episcopus, an overseer, &c. Who sees not therefore but this is wilful partiality ? If where the Apostle names a Pagan idol- ater, and a Christian idolater, by one and the same Greek word, in one and the same meaning ; and they translate the Pagan (idolater) and the Christian (worshipper of images) by two distinct words, and in two divers meanings, it must needs be wilfully done. Nor does it appear to be less designedly done, to translate one and the same Greek word nocQadoatg tradition, whensoever it may be taken for evil traditions ; and never so, when it spoken of good and apostolical traditions. So likewise, when they foist into their trans- lation the word tradition, taken in ill part, where it is not in the Greek ; and omit it where it is in the Greek, when taken in good part ; it is certainly a most wilful corruption. At their first revolt, when none were noted for schismatics and heretics but themselves, they translated division and sect, instead of schism and heresy ; and for heretic, translated an author of sects. This cannot be excused for voluntary corruption. But why should I multiply examples, when it is evident from their own confessions and ac- knowledgments 1 For instance, concerning (.lETuroelxe, which the Vulgate Latin and Erasmus translate Agite pcenitentiam, " do penance :" " This interpretation," says Beza, " I refuse for many causes ; but for this especially, that many ignorant persons have taken hereby an occasion of the false opinions of satisfaction, wherewith the church is troubled at this day." Many other ways there are, to make most certain proofs of their wilfulness ; as when the translation is framed according to their false and heretical commentary ; and when they will avouch their translations out of profane writers, as Homer, Plutarch, Pliny, Tully, Virgil, and Terence, and reject the ecclesiastical use of words in the scriptures and fathers ; which is Beza's usual custom, whom our English trans- lators follow. But to note all their marks were too tedious a work, neither is it in this place necessary : these are sufficient to satisfy the impartial reader, that all those corruptions and falsifications were not committed either through negligence, ignorance, over-sight, or mistake, as perhaps they will be glad to pretend ; but designedly, wilfully, and with a malicious purpose and intention, to disgrace, dishonour, condemn, and suppress the church's catholic and apostolic doctrines and principles ; and to favour, defend, and bolster up their own new- devised errors, and monstrous opinions. And Beza is not far from confessing thus much, when against Castalio he thus complains : " The mat- ter," says he, " is now come to this point, that the translators of scripture out of the Greek into Latin, or into any other tongue, think that they may lawfully do any thing in translating ; whom if a man reprehend, he shall be answered by and by, that they do the office of a translator, not who translates word for word, but who expresses the sense : so it comes to pass that whilst every man will rather freely follow his own judgment, than be a religious interpreter of the Holy Ghost, he rather perverts many things, than translates them." This is spoken well enough, if he had done accordingly. But, doing quite the contrary, is he not a dissembling hypocrite in so saying, and a wilful heretic in so doing 1 Our quarrel with Protestant translators is not for trivial or slight faults, or for such verbal differences, or little escapes as may happen through the scarcely unavoidable mistakes of the transcribers or printers : no ! we accuse them of wilfully corrupting and falsifying the sacred text, against points of faith and mo- rals, (a) We deny not but several immaterial faults and depravations may enter into a translation, nor do we pretend that the Vulgate itself was free from such, before the correction of Sixtus V. and Clement VIII., which, through the mis- takes of printers, and, before printing, of tran- scribers, happened to several copies : so that a great many verbal differences, and lesser faults, were, by learned men, discovered in different copies : not that any material corruption in points of faith were found in all copies ; for such God Almighty's providence, as Protestants themselves confess, would never suffer to enter : and indeed these lesser depravations are not easily avoided, especially after several transcrip- tions of copies and impressions from the origi- nal, as we daily see in other books. To amend and rectify such, the church (as you may read in the preface to the Sixtine edition) has used the greatest industry imagi- nable. Pope Pius IV. caused not only the original languages, but other copies to be care- fully examined : Pius V. prosecuted that la- borious work ; and by Sixtus V. it was finished, who commanded it to be put to press, as appears by his bull, which begins, " Eternus Me Calcstivrn.? &c, Anno 1585. Yet, notwith standing the bull prefixed before his Bible, then printed, the same Pope Sixtus, as is seen in the preface, made Anno 1592, after diligent exami- nation, found that no few faults slipped into his impression, by the negligence of the printers : and therefore, Censuit atque decrevit, he both judged and decreed to have the whole work examined and reprinted ; but that second cor- rection being prevented by his death, was after the very short reign of three other popes, un- dertaken, and happily finished by his successor Clement VIII., answerable to the desire and absolute intention of his predecessor, Sixtus : whence it is that the Vulgate, now extant, is called the correction of Sixtus, because this vigilant Pope, notwithstanding the endeavours of his two predecessors, is said to have begun (a) See a book entitled, Reason and Religion, cap. viii., where the Sixtine and Clementine Bibles are more fully treated of. OF THE SCRIPTURE. 31 it, which was according to his desire, recognized and perfected by Clement VIII., and therefore is not undeservedly called also the Clementine Bible : so that Pope Sixtus's Bible, after Cle- ment's recognition, is now read in the church, as authentic, true scripture, and is the very best corrected copy of the Latin Yulgate. And whereas Pope Sixtus's bull enjoined that his Bible be read in all churches, without the least alteration ; yet this injunction supposed the interpreters and printers to have done ex- actly their duty every way, which was found wanting upon a second review of the whole work. Such commands and injunctions therefore, .where new difficulties arise, not thought of before, are not, like definitions of faith, unalter- able ; but may and ought to be changed accord- ing to the legislator's prudence. What I say here is indisputable ; for how could Pope Sixtus, after a sight of such faults as caused him to intend another impression, enjoin no alteration, when he desired one, which his suc- cessor did for him ? So that if Pope Sixtus had lived longer, he would as well have changed the Breve, as amended his impression. And whereas there were sundry different lec- tions of the Yulgate Latin, before the said cor- rection of Sixtus and Clement, the worthy doc- tors of Louvain, with an immense labour, placed in the margin of their Bible these different lec- tions of scripture ; not determining which read- ing was best, or to be preferred before others ; as knowing well, that the decision of such causes belongs to the public judicature and authority of the church. Pope Clement therefore, omit- ting no human diligence, compared lection with lection ; and after maturely weighing all, pre- ferred that which was most agreeable to the ancient copies, a thing necessary to be done for procuring one uniform lection of scripture in the church, approved of by the see apostolic. And from this arises that villanous calumny and open slander of Doctor Stillingfleet ; who affirms, that " the Pope took where he pleased the marginal annotations in the Louvain Bible, and inserted them into the text ;" whereas, I say, he took not the annotations or commen- taries of the Louvain doctors, but the different readings of scripture found in several copies. Mr. James makes a great deal of noise about his impertinent comparisons between these two editions, and that of Louvain : yet among all his differences, he finds not one contrariety in any material point of faith or morals : and as for other differences, such as touch not faith and religion, arising from the expressions, being longer or shorter, less clear in the one, and more significant in the other ; or happening through the negligence of printers, they give him no manner of ground for' his vain cavils ; especially seeing, I say, the Louvain Bible gave the different readings, without determining which was to be preferred ; and what faults were shpped into the Sixtine edition were by him observed, and a second correction designed ; which in the Clementine edition was perfected, and one uniform reading approved of. Against Thomas James's comparison, read the learned James Grester, who sufficiently dis covers his untruths, with a " Mentito tertio Thomas James decern millia verborum" &c, after which, judge whether he hits every thing he says ; and whether the Yulgate Latin is to be corrected by the Louvain annotations, or these by the Yulgate, if any thing were amiss in either 1 In fine, whether, if Mr James's pretended dif- ferences arise from comparing all with the Hebrew, Greek, and Chaldee, must we needs suppose him to know the last energy and force of every Hebrew, Greek, or Chaldee word, when there is a controversy, better than the authors of the Louvain, and correctors of the Yulgate Latin, the Sixtine- Clementine edition ? Again, let us demand of him, whether all his differences imply any material alteration in faith or morals, or introduce any notable error, contrary to God's revealed verities ? Or are they not rather mere verbal differences, grounded on the obscure signification of original words ? In fine, if he or any for him, plead any material alteration, let them name any authentic copy, either original or translation ; by the indispu- table integrity whereof these supposed errors may be cancelled, and God's pure revealed verities put in their place. But to do this, after such immense labour and diligence used in the correction of the Vulgate, will prove a desperate impossibility. (a) Indeed, Mr. James might have just cause to exclaim, if he had found in these Bibles such corruptions as the Protestant apostle, Martin Luther, wilfully makes in his translations : as when he adds the word " alone" to the text, to maintain his heresy of " faith alone justifying ;'"(/;) and omits that verse, " But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven for- give your sins. "(c) He also omits these words, " That you abstain from fornication :" (d) and because the word Trinity sounded coldly with him, he left out this sentence, which is the only text in the Bible that can be brought to prove that great mystery : " There are three who bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are ojie." (e) Or if Mr. James had found such gross corruptions as that of Zuinglius, when instead of our blessed Saviour's postive words, " this is my body," he translates, " this is a sign of my body," to avoid the doctrine of the real presence, or such as are hereafter discovered in Protestant English translations : if, I say, he had met with such wilful and abominable corruptions as these, he might have had good cause of complaint ; but seeing the most he can make of all his painful comparisons comes but to this, viz., that he notes such faults, as Sixtus himself observed, after the impression was finished, and as Clement rectified ; I think he might have better employed (a) See the Preface to Sixtus V., Edit. Antwerp, 1599 ; and Bib. Max , Sext., 19, 20 ; Serarius, c. 19. (&) Rom. iii. 28. (c) Mark xi. 26. Id) 1 Thes. iv. 3. (e) John v. 7. 32 PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURE. his time in correcting the gross and most into- lerable corruptions of the Protestant translation, than to have busied himself about so unnecessary a work : but there are a certain sort of men, who had rather employ themselves in discovering imaginary notes in their neighbours' eyes, than in clearing their own from real beams. To conclude this point, no man can be cer- tainly assured of the true scripture, unless he first come to a certainty of a true church, inde- pendently of scripture : find out therefore the true church, and we know, by the authority of our undoubted testimony, the true scripture ; for the infallible testimony of the church is ab- solutely necessary for assuring us of an authen- tic scripture. And this I cannot see how Protestants can deny, especially when they seriously consider, that in matters of religion, it must needs be an unreasonable thing to endea- vour to oblige any man to be tried by the scrip- tures of a false religion ; for who can in pru- dence require of a Christian to stand in debates of religion to the decisions of the scripture of the Turks, " the Alcoran V Doubtless, there- fore, when men appeal to such scripture for determining religious differences, their intention is to appeal to such scriptures, and such alone ; and to all such as are admitted by the true church : and how can we know what scriptures are admitted by the true church, unless we know which is the true church ?'.' (a) So likewise, touching the exposition of scrip- ture, without doubt, when Protestants fly to scriptures for their rule, whereby to square their religion, and to decide debates between them and their adversaries, they appeal to scriptures as rightly understood : for who would be tried by scriptures understood in a wrong sense 1 Now when contests arise between them and others of different judgments concerning the right mean- ing of it ; certainly they will not deny, but the judge to decide this debate must appertain to the true religion ; for what Christian will apply him- self to a Turk or Jew to decide matters belong- ing to Christianity ? or who would go to an Atheist to determine matters of religion ? In like manner, when they are forced to have recourse to the private spirit in religious mat- ters, doubtless they design not to appeal to the private spirit of an Atheist, a Jew, or an He- retic, but to the private spirit of such as are of the true religion : and is it possible for them to know certainly who are members of the true church ? or what appertains to the true reli- gion, unless they be certainly informed " which is the true church ?" So that, I say, no man can be certainly assured which or what books, or how much is true scripture ; or of the right sense and true meaning of scripture, unless he first come to a certainty of the true church. (a) We must of necessity know the true church, be- fore we be certain either which is true scripture, or which is the true sense of scripture ; or by what spirit it is to beexpounded. And whether that church which has con- tinued visible in the world from Christ's time till this day, or that which was never known or heard of in the world till 1500 years after our Saviour, is the true church, let the world judge. And of this opinion was the great St. Augus- tine, when he declared, that " he would not be- lieve the Gospel, if it was not that the authority of the Catholic Church moved him to it :" Ego vero Evangelio non crederem, nisi me Ecclesicp. Catholicce commoveret authoritas. (b) OF THE CANONICAL BOOKS OF SCRIPTURE. The Catholic Church " setting this always be- fore her eyes, that, errors being removed, the very purity of the Gospel may be preserved in the church ; which being promised before by the prophets, in the holy scriptures, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, first published with his own mouth, and afterwards commanded to be preached, to every creature, by the apostles, as the fountain of all, the wholesome truth, and moral discipline contained in the written books, and in the traditions not written, &c, following the example of the orthodox fathers, and affected with similar piety and reverence ; doth receive and honour all the books both of the Old and New Testament, seeing one God is the author of both," &c. (c) These are the words of the sacred Council of Trent ; which further or- dained, that the table, or catalogue, of the cano- nical books should be joined to this decree, lest doubt might arise to any, which books they are that are received by the council. They are these following, viz. : Of the Old Testament. Five books of Moses ; that is, Genesis, Exo- dus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Joshua, Judges, Ruth. Four of the Kings. Two of Paralipomenon. The first and second of Esdras, which is called Nehemias. Tobias, Judith, Hester, Job, David's Psalter of 150 Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canti- cles, Wisdom, Ecclcsiasticus, Isaias, Hieremias, with Baruch, Ezechiel, Daniel. Twelve lesser prophets ; that is, Osea, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas, Michaeas, Na- hum, Abacuc, Sophonias, Aggeus, Zacharias, Malachias. The first and second of the Machabees. Of the New Testament. Four Gospels, according to St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John. The Acts of the Apostles, written by St. Luke the Evangelist. Fourteen Epistles of St. Paul, viz., to the, Romans, two to the Corinthians, to the Gala- tians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians, two to Timothy, to Titus, to Philemon, to the Hebrews. Two of St. Peter the Apostle. (b) S. Aug., lib. contr. Epist. Manich., cap. v. (c) Concil. Trident., Sess. 4, Decret. de Canonicis Scripturis ; Mark c. tilt OF BOOKS REJECTED BY PROTESTANTS FOR APOCRYPHAL 33 Three of St. John the Apostle. One of St. James the Apostle. One of St. Jude the Apostle. And the Apocalypse of St. John the Apostle. To which catalogue of sacred books is adjoined this decree : — " But if any man shall not receive for sacred and canonical these whole books, with all their parts, as they are accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church, and as they are in the old Vul- gate Latin edition, &c, be he anathema. " The third Council of Carthage, after having decreed, that nothing should be read in the jchurch under the name of divine scripture, but canonical scriptures, says, " that the canonical scriptures are Genesis, Exodus," &c. ; (a) so reckoning up all the very same books, and mak- ing particularly the same catalogue of them, with this recited out of the Council of Trent. St. Augustine, who was present at, and subscribed to, this council, also numbers the same books as above, (b) Notwithstanding which, several of the said books are by the Protestants rejected as Apo- cryphal : their reasons are, because they are not in the Jewish canon, and were not accepted for canonical in the primitive church ; reasons by which they might reject a great many more, if it pleased them : but, indeed, the chief cause is, that some things in these books are so mani- festly against their opinions, that they have no other answer but to reject their authority, as appears very plainly from those words of Mr. Whitaker : " We pass not," says he, " for that Raphael mentioned in Tobit, neither acknow- ledge we these seven angels whereof he makes mention ; all that differs much from canonical scripture, which is reported of that Raphael, and savours of, I know not what, superstition. Neither will I believe free will, although the book of Ecclesiasticus confirms it an hundred times." (c) This denying of books to be canoni- cal, because the Jews received them not, was also an old heretical shift, noted and refuted by St. Augustine, touching the book of Wisdom ; (d) which some in his time refused, because it refuted their errors : but must it pass for a sufficient reason amongst Christians to deny such books, because they are not in the canon of the Jews ? Who sees not that the canon of the Church of Christ is of more authority with all true Christians, than that of the Jews ? For a " canon is an assured rule, and warrant of direction, whereby (says St. Augustine,) the infirmity of our defect in knowledge is guided, and by which rule other books are known to be God's word :" his reason is, " because we have no other assurance than the books of Moses, the four Gospels, and other books, are the true word of God, but by the canon of the church." (a) 3 Concil. Carthag. , Can. 47. (b) Vid. Doctr. Christian., lib. 2, c. viii. (c) Whit, contr. Camp., p. 17. (d) S. Aug., lib. de Praedest. Sanct, c. 14. (e) Whereupon the same great doctor uttered that famous saying : " I would not believe the Gospel, except the authority of the Catholic Church moved me thereto." And, that these books which the Protestants reject, are by the church numbered in the sacred canon, may be seen above : however, to speak of them in particular, in their order : THE BOOK OF TOBIAS Is, by St. Cyprian, " de Oratione Dominica" alleged as divine scripture, to prove that prayer is good with fasting and alms. St. Ambrose calls this book by the common name of scripture, saying, " he will briefly gather the virtues of Tobias, which the scripture in an historical manner lays forth at large ;"(/) calling al&o this history prophetical, and Tobias a prophet : and in another place, he alleges this book, as he does other holy scriptures, to provide that the virtues of God's servants far excel those of the moral philosophers. (»-) St. Augustine made a special sermon of Tobias, as he did of Job. (h) St. Chrysostom alleges it as scripture, denounc- ing a curse against the contemners of it. (i) St. Gregory also alleges it as holy scripture, (k) St. Bede expounds this whole book mystically, as he does other holy scriptures. St. Hieroiu dated it out of the Chaldee language, •' judging it more meet to displease the Phari- saical Jews, who reject it, than not to satisfy the will of holy bishops, urging to have it." Ep. ad Chromat. et Heliodoriun. To. 3. In fine, St. Augustine tells us the cause of its being written, in these words : " The servant of God, holy Tobias, is given lo us after the law, for an example, that we might know how to practise the things which we read. And if temptations come upon us, not to depart from the fear of God, nor expect help from any other but from him." OF THE BOOK OF JUDITH. This book was, by Origcn, Tertullian, and other fathers, whom St. Hilary cites, held for canonical, before the first general Council of Nice ; yet St. Hierom supposed it not so, till such time as he found that the said sacred coun- cil reckoned it in the number of canonical scrip- tures ; after which he so esteemed it, that he not only translated it out of the Chaldee tongue, wherein it was first written, but also, as occasion required, cited the same as divine scripture, and (c) S. Aug., lib. 11, c. 5, contra Faustum, ct lib. 2,c 32, contra Cesconium. (/) S. Amb., lib. de Tobia. c. i. (g) Lib. 3, Offic, c. 14. (A) S. Aug., Scrm., 22G. de Tem. (») S. Chrysost, Horn. 15, ad Heb. (i) S. Greg., part. 3, Pastor, curu> admon. 21. 34 OF BOOKS REJECTED BY PROTESTANTS FOR APOCRYPHAL. sufficient to convince matters of faith in <§ontro- versy, numbering it with other scriptures, where- of none doubts, saying, " Ruth, Hester, Judith, were of so great renown, that they gave names to the sacred volumes." (a) St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, and many other holy fathers, account it for canonical scripture. PART OF THE BOOK OF HESTER. By the Council of Laodicea and Carthage, this book was declared canonical ; and by most of the ancient fathers esteemed as divine scrip- ture ; only two or three, before the said coun- cils, doubted of its authority. And though St. Hierom in his time, found not certain parts thereof in the Hebrew, yet in the Greek he found all the sixteen chapters contained in ten : and it is not improbable that these parcels were sometime in the Hebrew, as divers whole books which are now lost. But whether they ever were so or not, the church of Christ accounts the whole book of infallible authority, reading as well these parts, as the rest in her public of- fice, (b) OF THE BOOKS OF WISDOM. It is granted, that several of the ancient fathers would not urge these books of Wisdom, and others, in their writings against the Jews, not that themselves doubted of their authority ; but because they knew that they would be rejec- ted by the Jews as not canonical : and so St. Hierom, with respect to the Jews, said these books were not canonical ; nevertheless, he often alleged testimonies out of them, as from other divine scriptures ; sometimes with this paren- thesis, Si cui tamen placet libnmirecipcre, in cap. viii. and xii. Zachariae : but in his latter writings absolutely without any such restriction, as in cap. i. and Ivi. Isaiae, and in xviii. Jeremise ; where he professes to allege none but -canoni- cal scripture, (c) As for the other ancient fathers, namely, St. Irenaeus, St. Clement of Alexandria. Origen, St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Gregory Nyssen, St. Epiphanius, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, &c, they make no doubt at all of their being canonical scripture, as appears by their express terms, " divine scrip- ture, divine word, sacred letters, prophetical sayings, the Holy Ghost saith, and the like." And St. Augustine affirms, that, " the sentence of the books of Wisdom ought not to be rejected by certain, inclining to Pelagianism, which has {a) See the Argument in the Book of Judith in the Doway Bible, Tom. 1. (6) Vide Doway Bible, Tom. 1. (c) Vide Doway Bible, Tom. 2, and Jodoc, Coce. Tom. 1. Thesau. 6, Art. 9. so long been publicly read in the church of Christ, and received by all Christians, bishops, and others, even to the last of the laity, penitents, and catechumens, cum veneratione Divina au- thoritatis, with veneration of divine authority 1 Which also the excellent writers, next to the apostles' times, alleging for witness, nihil se adhibere nisi divinum testimonium crediderunt, thought they alleged nothing but divine testi- mony, (d) OF ECCLESIASTICUS. What has been said of the foregoing book, may be said also of this. The holy fathers above named, and several others, as St.. Cyprian, de Opere et Eleemosyna, St. Gregory the Great, in Psal. 1. It is also reckoned for canonical by the third Council of Carthage, and by St. Au- gustine, in lib. c. 8, Doct. Christian, et lib. 17, c. 20, Civit Dei. Of BARUCH, with the Epistle of JEREMY. Many of the ancient Fathers supposed this prophecy to be Jeremiah's, though none of them doubted but Baruch, his scribe, was the writer of it ; not but that the Holy Ghost directed him in it : and therefore by the fathers and councils it has ever been accepted as divine scripture. The Council of Laodicea, in the last canon, ex- pressly names Baruch, Lamentations, and Je- remiah's Epistle, (e) St. Hierom testifies, that he found it in the Vulgate Latin edition, and that it contains many things of Christ, and the latter times ; though because he found it not in the Hebrew, nor in the Jewish canon, he urges it not against them. ( f ) It is by the Councils of Flo- rence and Trent expressly defined to be canoni- cal scripture. Of the SONG of the THREE CHILDREN, the IDOL, BELL, and the DRAGON, with the STORY OF SUSANNAH. It is no just exception against these and other parts of holy scripture of the Old Testament, to say, they are not in the Hebrew edition, being otherwise accepted for canonical by the Catholic Church : and further, it is very pro- bable, that these parcels were sometimes either in the Hebrew or Chaldee ; in which two lan- guages, part in one, and part in the other, the (d) S. Aug. in lib.de Pradestinat. Sanct., cap. 14. Et lib. de Civit. Dei, 17, c. 20. (c) See the Argument of Baruch 's Prophecy in the Doway Bible, To. 2. (/) St. Hierom., in Praefat. Jeremias. OF BOOKS REJECTED BY PROTESTANTS FOR APOCRYPHAL. 35 rest of the book of Daniel was written ; for from whence could the Septuagint, Theodotion, Symmachus, and Aquila translate them ? in whose editions St. Hierom found them. But if it be objected, that St. Hierom calls them fables, and so did not account them canonical scripture ; we answer, that he, reporting the Jewish opinion, uses their terms, not explaining his own judg- ment, intending to deliver sincerely what he found in the Hebrew ; yet would he not omit to insert the rest, advertising withal, that he had it in Theodotion's translation ; which answer is clearly justified by his own testimony, in these words : " Whereas I relate," says he, " what the Hebrews say against the Hymn of the Three Children ; he that for this reputes me a fool, proves himself a sycophant ; for I did not write what myself judged, but what they are accus- tomed to say against me." (a) The Prayer of Azarias is alleged as divine scripture, by St. Cyprian, St. Ephrem, St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, St. Fulgentius, and others, (b) The Hymn of the Three Children is alleged for divine scripture, by divers holy fathers, as also by St. Hierom himself, in cap. iii. ad Galatos et Epist. 49, de Muliere Septies icta ; also by St. Ambrose and the Council of Toledo, c. 13. So likewise the History of Susannah is cited for holy scripture, by St. Ignatius, Tertullian, St. Cyprian, St. Chrysostom, who in Horn. 7, fine, has a whole sermon on Susannah, as upon holy scripture : St. Ambrose and St. Augustine cite the same also as canonical. The History of Bell and the Dragon is judged to be divine scripture ; St. Cyprian, St. Basil, and St. Athanasius, in Synopsi, briefly explica- ting the argument of the book of Daniel, make express mention of the Hymn of the Three Children, of the History of Susannah, and of Bell and the Dragon. OF THE TWO BOOKS OF MACCABEES. Ever since the third Council of Carthage, these two books of the Maccabees have been held for sacred and canonical by the Catholic Church, as is proved by a council of seventy bishops, under Pope Gclasius ; and by the sixth general council, in approving the third of Carthage ; as also by the councils of Florence and Trent. But because some of the Church of England divines would seem to make their people believe that the Maccabees were not received as cano- nical scripture in Gregory the Great's time, consequently not before, (c) I will, besides these councils, refer you to the holy fathers who lived before St. Gregory's days, and alleged these (a) S. Hier., lib. 2. c. 9, advers. Ruffin. (b) Vide Doway Bible, Tom. 2. (c) See the Second Vindication of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England. two books of the Maccabees as divine scripture, namely, St. Clement Alexandrinus, lib. i. Stromat. ; St. Cyprian, lib. i., Epistolarum, Ep. iii. ad Cornelium, lib. iv. ; Ep. i. et de Ex- hort, ad Martyrium, c. xi. St. Isidorus, lib. xvi., c. 1. St. Gregory Nazianzen has also a whole oration concerning the seven Maccabees martyrs, and their mother. St. Ambrose, lib. i., c. 41, OJfic. See in St. Hierom's Commentaries upon Daniel, c. i., 11 and 12, in how great esteem he had these books, though, because he knew they were not in the Jewish canon, he would not urge them against the Jews. And the great doctor St. Augustine, in lib. ii., c 8, de Doctrina Christiana, et lib. 18, c. 36, .de Civit. Dei, most clearly avouches, that, " Not- withstanding the Jews deny these books, the church holds them canonical." And whereas one Gaudentius, an heretic, alleged, for defence of his heresy, the example of Razias, who slew himself, 2 Mac. xiv., St. Augustine denies not the authority of the book, but discusses the fact, and admonishes, that it is not unprofitably re- ceived by the church, " if it be read or heard soberly," which was a necessary admonition to those Donatists, who, not understanding the holy scriptures, depraved them, as St. Peter says of like heretics, to their own perdition. Which testimonies, I think, may be sufficient to satisfy any one who is not pertinacious and ob- stinate, that these two books of the Maccabees, as well as others in the New Testament, were received, and held for canonical scripture, long before St. Gregory the Great's time. Judge now, good reader, whether the author of the second vindication, &c, has not imposed upon the world in this point of the books of the Maccabees. And indeed if this were all the cheat he endeavours to put upon us, it were well, but he goes yet further, and names eleven points of doctrine besides this, which he, with his fellows, quoted in his margin, falsely affirms not to have been taught in England by St. Augustine, the Benedictine monk, when he converted our nation ; telling us, " that the mys- tery of iniquity," as he blasphemously terms the doctrine of Christ's holy church, " was not then come to perfection." For, first, says he, " the scripture was yet received as a perfect rule of faith." Secondly, " the books of the Maccabees, which you now put in your cannon, were rejected then as apocryphal." Thirdly, " that good works were not yet esteemed meri- torious." Fourthly, " nor auricular confession a sacrament." Fifthly, " that solitary masses were disallowed by him." And sixthly, " tran- substantiation yet unborn." Seventhly, " that the sacrament of the Eucharist was hitherto admi- nistered in both kinds." What then ? so it was also in one kind. Eighthly, " purgatory itself not brought either to certainty or to perfection." Ninthly, " that by consequence masses for the dead were not intended to deliver souls from these torments." Tenthly, " nor images allowed for any other purpose than for ornament and instruction." Eleventhly, "that the sacrament of extreme unction was yet unformed." Then 36 OF BOOKS REJECTED BY PROTESTANTS FOR APOCRYPHAL. you must, with your master, Luther, count St. James's Epistle, an epistle of straw. Twelfthly, " and even the Pope's supremacy was so far from being then established as it now is, that Pope Gregory thought it to be the forerunner of an- tichrist for one bishop to set himself above all the rest." I will only, in particular, take notice here of this last of his false instances, because he cites and misapplies the words of St. Gregory the Great, to the deluding of his reader : whereas St. Gregory did not think it antichristian of unlawful for the Pope, whom (not himself, but) our Saviour Christ had set and appointed, in thg person of St. Peter, above all the rest, to exercise spiritual supremacy and jurisdiction over all the bishops in the Christian world : but he thought it antichristian for any bishop to set up himself, as John, bishop of Constantinople, had done, by the name or title of universal bishop, so as if he alone were the sole bishop, and no bishop but he, in the universe : and in this sense St. Gregory thought this name or title not only worthily forborne by his prede- cessors, and by himself, but terms it profane, sacrilegious, and antichristian ; and in this sense the bishops of Rome have always utterly re- nounced the title of universal bishop ; on the contrary, terming themselves Servi. Servorum Dei. And this is proved from the words of Andrreus Friccius, a Protestant, whom Peter Martyr terms an excellent and learned man. " Some there are," says he, " that object to the authority of Gregory, who says, that such a title pertains to the precursor of antichrist ; but the reason of Gregory is to be known, and may be gathered from his words, which he repeats in many epistles, that the title of universal bishop is contrary to, and doth gainsay the grace which is commonly poured upon all bishops ; he therefore, who calls himself the only bishop, takes the episcopal power from the rest : where- fore this title he would have rejected, &c. But it is nevertheless evident by other places, that Gregory thought that the charge and principality of the whole church was committed to Peter, &c, and yet for this cause Gregory thought not that Peter was the forerunner of antichrist." (a) Thus evidently and clearly this Protestant writer explains this difficulty. To this may be added the testimonies of other Protestants, who, from the writings of St. Gre- gory, clearly prove the bishop of Rome to have had and exercised a power and jurisdiction, not only over the Greek, but over the universal church. The Magdeburgian Ccnturists show us, that the Roman see appoints her watch over the whole world ; that the apostolic see is head ">f all churches ; that even Constantinople is ubject to the apostolic see. (b) These Cen- urists charge moreover the bishop of Rome, in the very example and person of Pope Gre- gory, and by collection out of his writings, by them particularly alleged, " that he challenged (a) Andrasus Friccius. de Ecclesia. 1 . 2, c. 10, p. 579. (i) Centur. 6, Col. 425, 420, 427, 428, 429, 438. to himself power to command all archbishops, to ordain and depose bishops at his pleasure." And, " that he claimed a right to cite archbishops to declare their cause before him, when they were accused." And also, " to excommunicate and depose them, giving commission to their neighbour bishops to proceed against them." That, " in their provinces he placed his legates to know and end the causes of such as appealed to the see of Rome." (c) With much more, touching the exeroise of his supremacy. To which Doctor Saunders adds yet more out of St. Gregory's own works, and in his own words, as, " that the see apostolic, by the authority of God, is preferred before all churches. That all bishops, if any fault be found in them, are subject to the see apostolic. That she is the head of faith, and of all the faithful members. That the see apostolic is the head of all churches. That, the Roman Church, by the words which Christ spake to Peter, was made the head of all churches. That no scruple or doubt ought to be made ot the faith of the see apostolic. That all those things are false, which are taught contrary to the doctrine of the Roman Church. That to return from schism to the Catholic Church, is to return to the communion of the bishops of Rome. That he who will not have St. Peter, to whom the keys of heaven were committed, to shut him out from the entrance of life, must not in this world be separated from his see. That they are perverse men, who refuse to obey the see apostolic." (d) Considering all these words of Pope Gregory, does not this vindicator of the Church of Eng- land's doctrine show himself a grand imposter, to offer to the abused judgment of his unlearned readers, an objection so frivolous and misapplied, by the advantage only of a naked, sounding resemblance of mistaken words ? To conclude, therefore, in the words of Doctor Saunders : " he who reads all these particulars, and more of the same kind that are to be found in the works of St. Gregory, and with a brazen fore- head, fears not to interpret that which he wrote against the name of universal bishop, as if he could not abide that any one bishop should have the chief seat, and supreme government of the whole militant church ; that man, says he, seems to me either to have cast off all under- sianding and sense of man, or else to have put on the obstinate perverseness of the devil." (e) It is not my business in this place, to digress into particular replies against his other false instances (/) of the difference between the doc- trine of Pope Gregory the Great, and that of the Council of Trent : I will therefore, in ge- neral, oppose the words of a Protestant bishop against this Protestant ministerial guide, and so submit them to the consideration of the judicious reader. (c) Vid. precced. Nota3. (d) Dr. Saund. Visit. Monar., lib. 7, a N. 433, 541. (c) Dr. Saunders supra. (/) You will find some of them hinted at in other places as occasion offers. OF BOOKS REJECTED BY PROTESTANTS FOR APOCRYPHAL. 37 John Bale, a Protestant bishop, affirms, (a) that " the religion preached by St. Augustine to the Saxons was, altars, vestments^ images, chalices, crosses, censors, holy vessels, holy waters, the sprinkling thereof, relics, translation of relics, dedicating of churches to the bones and ashes of saints, consecration of altars, cha- lices and corporals, consecration of the font of baptism, chrism and oil, celebration of mass, the archiepiscopal pall at solemn mass time, Romish mass books ; also free will, merit, justi- fication of works, penance, satisfaction, purga- tory, the unmarried life of priests, the public invocation of saints and their worship, the worship of images." (b) In another place, he says, that " Pope Leo the first decreed, that men should worship the images of the dead, and al- lowed the sacrifice of the mass, exorcism, par- dons, vows, monachism, transubstantiation, prayer for the dead, offering the healthful host of Christ's body and blood for the dead, the Roman bishop's claim and exercise of jurisdiction and supremacy over all churches, reliquum ponti- ficice super stitionis chaos, even the whole chaos of Popish superstitions." He tells us, that " Pope Innocent, who lived long before St. Gregory's time, made the anointing of the sick to be a sacrament." (c) These are Bishop Bale's words ; which this vindicator would do well to reconcile with his own. The like may be found in other Protes- tants ; namely, in Doctor Humphrey, in Jesui- tismi, partii., the Centurists, &c. But now to return to the place where we oc- casionally entered into this digression : you see by what authority and testimonies both of councils and fathers we have proved these books, which Protestants reject, to be canonical : yet, if a thousand times more were said, it would be all the same with the perverse innovators of our age, who are resolved to be obstinate, and, after their bold and licentious manner, to receive or reject what they please ; still following the steps of their first masters, who tore out of the Bible, some one book, some another, as they found them contrary to their erroneous and he- retical opinions. For example : Whereas Moses was the first that ever wrote any part of the scripture, and he who wrote the law of God, the ten commandments ; yet Luther thus rejects both him and his ten command- ments : (d) " We will neither hear nor see Moses, for he was given only to the Jews ; nei- ther does he belong in any thing to us." " I," says he, " will not receive (e) Moses with his law ; for he is the enemy of Christ." (/) " Mo- ses is the master of all hangmen." (g) " The ten commandments belong not to Christians." " Let he ten commandments be altogether rejected, (a) Bale in Act. Rom. Pontif,. Edit. Basil., 1658, p. 44, 45, 46, 47, et Cent. I , Col. 3. (b) Pageant of Popes, fol. 27. (c) Pageant of the Popes, fol. 66. (d) Tom. 3, Germ., fol. 40, 41, and in Colloq. Mensal., Ger., fol. 152, 153. (e) In Coloc. Mensal., c. de Lege et Evan. (/) Ibid., fol. 118. (g) Serm. de Mose. 6 and all heresy will presently cease ; for the ten commandments are, as it were, the fountain from whence all heresies spring." (h) Islebius, Luther's scholar, taught, (i) that "the decalogue was not to be taught in the church:" and from this came (k) the sect of Antinomians, who publicly taught, that " the law of God is not worthy to be called the word of God: if thou art an whore, if an whore- monger, if an adulterer, or otherwise a sinner, believe, and thou walkest in the way of salva- tion. When thou art drowned in sin even to the bottom, if thou believest, thou art in the midst of happiness. All that busy themselves about Moses, that is, the ten commandments, belong to the devil ; to the gallows with Moses." (/) Martin Luther believes not all things to be so done, as they are related in the book of Job : with him it is, " as it were, the argument of a fable." (m) Castalio commanded the canticles of Solomon to be thrust out of the canon, as an impure and obscene song ; reviling with bitter reproaches, such ministers, as resisted him therein, (n) Pomeran, a great evangelist among the Luther- ans, writes thus touching St. James's Epistle : " He concludes ridiculously, he cites scripture against scripture, which thing the Holy Ghost cannot abide : wherefore that epistle may not be numbered among other books, which set forth the justice of faith." (o) Vitus Theodorus, a Protestant preacher, ot Nuremberg, writes thus : " The Epistle of James and Apocalypse of John, we have of set purpose left out, because the Epistle of James is not only in certain places reprovable, where he too much advances works against faith ; but also his doc- trine throughout is patched together with divers pieces, whereof no one agrees with another."(p) The Magdeburgian Centurists say, that " the Epistle of James much swerves from the analogy of the apostolical doctrine, whereas it ascribes justification not only to faith, but to works, and calls the law, a law of liberty." (q) John Calvin doubted whether the apostles' creed was made by the apostles. He argued St. Matthew of error. He rejected these words : " many are called, but few are chosen." (r) Clemitius, an eminent Protestant, opposes the evangelists one against another : " Matthew and Mark," says he, " deliver the contrary ; there- fore to Matthew and Mark, being two witnesses, more credit is to be given than to one Luke," &c. (s) (h) In Convival. Colloq. cited by Auri faber, cap. de Lege. (t) See Osiander, Cent. 16, p. 311, 312, 320. (#) Sleidan, Hist, 1,12, fol. 162. (I) Vid. Confessio. Mansfieldensium Ministrorum Tit. de Antinomis, fol. 89, !)0. (m.) In Serm. Convival. Tit. de Patriarch, et Prophet, et Tit. de libris Vet et. Nov. Test. (n) Vid. Beza in Vita Calvini. (o) Pomeran. ad Rom , c. 8. (p) In Annot. in Nov. Test , pag. ult. (?) Cent. I., 1,2, c. 4, Col. 54. (r) Inst, 1, 2, c. 16. In Matt 27, Harm, in Matt. 20,16. (s) Victoria Veritalis et Rnina Papattis, Arg. 5. 38 OF SUCH BOOKS AS PROTESTANTS CALL APOCRYPHA. Zuinglius and other Protestants affirm, that " all things in St. Paul's Epistles are not sacred ; and that in sundry things he erred." (a) Mr. Rogers, the great labourer to our English convocation men, names several of his Protestant brethren, who rejected for apocryphal the Epis- tle of Paul to the Hebrews, of St. James, the first and second of John, of Jude, and the Apoc- alypse." (b) Thus, you see, these pretended reformers have torn out, some one piece or book of sacred scripture, some another ; with such a licentious freedom, rejecting, deriding, discarding, and censuring them, that their impiety can never be paralleled but by professed Atheists. Yet all these sacred books were, as is said, received for canonical in the third Council of Carthage, above thirteen hundred years ago. But, with the Church of England, it matters not by what authority books are judged canonical, if the Holy Spirit, in the hearts of her children, testify them to be from God. They telling us, by Mr. Rogers, that they judge such and such books canonical, " not so much because learned and godly men in the church so have, and do receive and allow them, as for that the Holy Spirit in our hearts doth testify, that they are from God." By instinct of which private Spirit in their hearts, they decreed as many as they thought good for canonical, and rejected the rest ; as you may see in the sixth of the Thirty- nine Articles, (c) OF SUCH BOOKS AS PROTESTANTS CALL APOCRYPHA. The Church of England has decreed, (d) that " such are to be understood canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority there was never any doubt in the church :" and therefore, by this rule she rejects these for apoc- ryphal, viz., Tobit. Judith. ' The rest of Esther. Wisdom. Ecclesiasticus. Baruch, with the Epistle of Jeremiah. The Song of the Three Children. The Idol, Bell, and the Dragon. The Story of Susannah. Maccabees I. Maccabees II. Manesseth, Prayer of. Esdras III. Esdras IV. (e) (a) Tom. 3, Elench., f. 10. Magdeburg. Cent. 1, 1. , c. 10. Col. 580. (6) Defence of the 39 Articles, Art. G. (c) The private spirit, not the church, told those Pro- testants who made the 39 Articles, what books of scrip- ture they were to hold for canonical. (d) In the 6th of the 39 Articles. (e) The three last are not numbered in the canon of the scripture. But if none must pass for canonical, but such as were never doubted of in the church, I would know why the Church of England admits of such books of the New Testament as have for- merly been doubted of? " Some ancient writers doubted of the last chapter of St. Mark's Gos- pel : (/ ) others of some part of the 22nd of St. Luke ; (g) some of the beginning of the 8th of St. John ; (A) others of the Epistle to the He- brews ; (i) and others of the Epistles of St. James, Jude, the second of Peter, the second and third of John, and the Apocalypse." (k) And Doctor Bilson, a Protestant, affirms, that " the scriptures were not fully received in all places, no, not in Eusebius's time." He says, " the Epistles of James, Jude, the second of Peter, the second and third of John, are contra- dicted, as not written by the apostles. The epistle to the Hebrews was for a while contra- dicted," &c. The churches of Syria did not re- ceive the second Epistle of Peter, nor the second and third of John, nor the Epistle of Jude, nor the Apocalypse. The like might be said for the churches of Arabia : will you hence conclude, says this doctor, that these parts of scripture were not apostolic, or that we need not receive them now, because they were formerly doubted of? Thus Docter Bilson. (I) And Mr. Rogers confesses, that " although some of the ancient fathers and doctors accepted net all the books contained in the New Testa- ment for canonical ; yet in the end, they were wholly taken and received by the common con- sent of the Church of Christ, in this world, for the very Word of God," &c. (m) And, by Mr. Rogers and the Church of Eng- land's leave, so were also those books which they call Apocrypha. For though they were, as we do not deny, doubted of by some of the ancient fathers, and not accepted for canonical : " yet in the end," to use Mr. Rogers' words, they were wholly taken and received by the common consent of the Church of Christ, in this world, for the very Word of God."(n) Yide third Coun- cil of Carthage, which decrees, " that nothing should be read in the church, under the name of divine scriptures, besides canonical scriptures :" and defining which are canonical, reckons those which the Church of England rejects as apocry- phal." To this council St. Augustine subscribed, who, (o) with St. Innocent, (p) Gelasius, and other ancient writers, number the said books in the canon of the scripture. And Protestants themselves confess, they were received in the number of canonical scriptures, (q.) (/) See St. Hierom. epist. ad Hed. q. 3. (g) S. Hilar. 1 10, de Trin., et Hierom, 1. 2, contr. Pelagian. (A) Euseb. H., 1. 3, c. 39. ({) Id, 1. 3, c. 3. (k) Et, c. 25, 28. Hierom Divinis Illust, in P. Jac. Jud. Pet. et Joan., et Ep. ad Dardan. (I) Survey of Christ. Suff, p. 664. Vid. 1st and 4th day's Confer, in the Tower, anno 1581. (m) Def. of the 39 Articles, p. 31, Art. 6. (n) Third Council of Cartha-e, Can. 47. (o) De Doct. Christian., 1. 2, c.8. (p) Epist. ad Exuper., c. 7. (q) Tom. 1, Cone. Decret. cum 70 Episcop. OF SUCH BOOKS AS PROTESTANTS CALL APOCRYPHA. 39 Brentius, a Protestant, says, " there are some of the ancient fathers, who receive these apoc- ryphal books into the number of canonical scriptures ; and also some councils command them to be acknowledged as canonical."(a) Doctor Covel also affirms of all these books, that, " if Ruffinus be not deceived, they were approved of, as parts of the Old Testament, by the apostles. "(b) So that what Christ's Church receives as canonical, we are not to doubt of: Doctor Fulk avouches, that " the Church of Christ has judg- es) Brentius Apol. Conf. Wit. Bucer's scripts. Ang., p. 713. (b) Covel cont. Burg., pp. 76, 77, 78. ment to discern true writing from counterfeit, and the Word of God from the writings of men ; and this judgment she has of the Holy Ghost." (c) And Jewel says, " the Church of God has the spirit of wisdom to discern true scripture from false. "(d) To conclude, therefore, in the words of the Council of Trent : " If any man shall not receive for sacred and canonical these whole books, with all their parts, as they are read in the Catholic Church, and as they are in the Vulgate Latin edition, let him be accursed. "(c) re) Fulk An. to a Countr. Cathol., p. 5. (i) Jewel Def. of the Apol., p. 201. (e) Concil. Trid., Sess. 4, Deer, de Can. Scrip 40 I. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, The true English accord- Corruptions in the Pro- The last Translation of Chapter, The Vulgate Latin Text. ing to the Rhemish testant Bibles, printed the Protestant Bible, Ed. and Verse. Translation. A. D. 1562, 1577. 1579. Lon., an. 1683. St. Matth. Et ego dico tibi, And I say to Instead of church It is corrected in chap. xvi. quia tu es Petrus, thee, that thou art they translate " con- this last translation. verse 18. et super hanc Pet- Peter, and upon this gregation." Upon ram adificabo " ec- Rock will I build this Rock will I build clesiam meam," fta my " church." my " congregation." xty ixxXtjaiap. (1) (1) St. Matth. Quod si non au- And if he will If he will not hear Corrected. chap, xviii. dierit eos, die " Ec- not hear them, tell them, tell the " con- verse 17. clesiee," ixxXrjola- si the " church ;" and gregation ;" and if autem " ecclesiam," if he will not hear he will not hear the txxXqolus, non audie- the " church," let "congregation," &c. rit, sit tibi sicut eth- him be as an hea- nicus et publicanus. then, and as a pub- lican. Ephesians Viri, diligite uxores Husbands, love Husbands, love Corrected. chap. v. vestras, sicut et your wives, as Christ your wives,as Christ verses 23, Christies dilexit " ec- loved the " church," loved the " congre- 24, 25, 27, clesiam." verse 25. gation." 29, 32. lit exhiberet ipsi That he might That he might Corrected sibi gloriosam " ec- present to himself a present to himself clesiam." glorious " church," verse 27. a glorious " congre- gation." u Sacramenlum " For this is a For this is a great Corrected hoc est magnum ; great " sacrament ;" "secret," for I speak ego autem dico in but I speak in Christ, in Christ, and in the Christo et "ecclesia" and in the "church," " congregation." ixxXrjalav. ver. 32, &c. Hebrews Et ecclesiam pri- And the " church" And the " con- Corrected. chap. ii. mitivorum, ixxXnala. of the first-born. gregation" of the verse 23. first-born. Canticles Una est columba My dove is " one." My dove is "alone." My dove it M but chap. vi. mea . nnx fi(a. (2) (2) one." verse 8. Ephesians Et ipsum dedit And hath made And gave him to And gave him to chap. i. caput supra omnem him head over all be the head over all be the head over verses 22, " ecclesiam" qum est the "church," which things to the " con- all things to the 23. corpus ipsius, et is his body, the ful- gregation," which is " church," which is plenitudo ejus, qui ness of him " which his body, the fulness his body, the fulness omnia in omnibus is filled," all in all. of him "thatfilleth" of him " that filleth" " adimpletur, " to all in all. (3) all in all. nXrjPB/jiva. (3) THE CHURCH. 41 The two English Bibles, (a) usually read in the Protestant congregations at their first rising up, left- out the word Catholic in the title of those epistles which have been known by the name of Catholic® Epistolce, ever since the apostles' time : (b) and their latter translations, dealing somewhat more honestly, have turned the word Catholic into " General," " the General Epistle of James, of Peter," &c. as if we should say in our creed, "we believe the general church." So that by this rule, when St. Augustine says, that the manner was in cities, where there was liberty of religion, to ask, qua itur ad Catholicum ? we must translate it, which is the way to the general? And when St. Hierom says, if we agree in faith with the bishop of Rome, ergo Catholici sumus ; we must translate, " then we are gene- rals." Is not this good stuff? (1) And as they suppress the name Catholic, even so did they, in their first English Bible, the name of church itself :(c) because at their first revolt and apostacy from that church, which was universally known to be the only true Catholic Church, it was a great objection against their schismatical proceedings, and stuck so much in the people's consciences, that they left and forsook the church, and the church condemned them : to obviate which, in the English translation of 1562, they so totally sup- pressed the word church, that it is not once to be found in all that Bible, so long read in their congregations : because, knowing themselves not to be the church, they were resolved not to leave God Almighty any church at all, where they could possibly root it out, viz., in the Bible. And it is probable, if it had been as easy for them to have eradicated the church from the earth, as it was to blot the word out of their Bible, they would have prevented its "continuing to the end of the world." Another cause for their suppressing the name church was, " that it should never sound in the common people's ears out of the scriptures," and that it might seem to the ignorant a good argu- ment against the authority of the church, to say, " we find not this word church in all the Bible :" as in other articles, where they find not the express words in the scripture. Our blessed Saviour says : " Upon this rock I will build my church ;" but they make him say, " Upon this rock I will build my congregation." They make the Apostle St. Paul say to Timothy, 1 Ep. c. iii. " The house of God, which is the congregation," not " the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth." Thus they thrust out God's glorious, unspotted, and (a) Bib. 1562, 1677. (b) Euseb., Hist. Eccles., lib. 2, c. 23, in fine. (c) Bible, printed anno 1562. most beautiful spouse, the church ; and in place of it, intrude their own little, wrinkled, and spotted congregation. So they boldly make the apostle say : " He hath made him head of the con- gregation, which is the body :" and in another place, " The congregation of the first-born : M where the apostle mentions heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, &c; so that by this translation there is no longer any church mili- tant and triumphant, but only congregation ; in which they contradict St. Augustine, who affirms, that " though the Jewish congregation was sometimes called a church, yet the apostles never called the church a congregation." But their last translation having restored the word church, I shall say no more of it in this place. (2) Again, the true church is known by unity, which mark is given her by Christ himself; in whose person Solomon speaking, says : "Una est columba mea ;" that is, " one is my dove," or " my dove is one." Instead of this, they, being themselves full of sects and divisions, Avill have it, " my dove is alone ;" though neither the He- brew nor Greek word hath that signification ; but, on the contrary, as properly signifies one, as unus doth in Latin. But this is also amended in their last translation. (3) Nor was it enough for them to corrupt the scripture against the church's unity ; for there was a time when their congregation was invisi- ble ; that is to say, when " they were not at all :" and therefore, because they will have it, that Christ may be without his church, to wit, a head without a body, (d) they falsify this place in the Epistle to the Eph., xi. 21, 23, translating, " he gave him to be the head over all things to the church," congregation with them, " which (church) is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." Here they translate actively the Greek word t5 nXrjoufievu, when, according to St. Chrysostom, and all the Greek and Latin doctors' interpretation, it ought to be translated passively ; so that instead of saying, " and filleth all in all," they should say, " the fulness of him which is filled all in all ;" all faithful men as members, and the whole church as the body concurring to the fulness of Christ the head. But thus they will not translate, " because," says Beza, " Christ needs no such compliment." And if he need it not, then he may be without a church ; and consequently, it is no absurdity, if the church has been for many years not only invisible, but also, " not at all." Would a man easily imagine that such secret poison could lurk in their translations ? Thus they deal with the church ; let us now see how they use particular points of doctrine. (d) Protestants will have Christ to be a head without a body, during all that time that their congregation was invisible, viz., about 1500 years. 42 II. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. St. Matth. chap. xxvi. verse 26. St. Mark, chap. xiv. verse 22. Acts of the Apos. chap. iii. verse 21. Jeremiah chap. xi. verse 19. Genesis chap. xiv. verse 18. The Vulgate Latin Text. Accepit Jesus pa- rtem et " benedixit," xai ivXoyricrag, ac /re- git, dedilque, <$fc.(\) Accepit Jesus pa- rtem et "benedicens," xai £vXoyJ[Oag : <$-c.(2) Quern oportet qui- dem ccelum " sicsci- pere" usque in tem- pora restitutions omnium, dv del dgd. vov di^aadai. (3) Mittamus lignum in pancm ejus. (4) At vero Melchize- dek, sex Salem, pro- ferens panem et vi- num, " erat enim sacerdos Dei Altis- simi." (5) The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. Jesus took bread and " blessed," and brake, and gave to his disciples. Jesus took bread, and "blessing," &c. Whom heaven tru- ly must " receive," until the times of the restitution of all things. Let us cast wood upon his bread. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine ; " for he was the priest of God most high." Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed A. D. 1562, 1577, 1579. Instead of " bless- ed," they translate, " and when he had given thanks." (1) Instead of " bless- ing," they say, "and when he had given thanks." (2) Instead of "receive," they say, whom hea- ven must " contain." And Beza, " who must be contained in heaven." (3) " We will destroy his meat with wood." In another Bible, " Let us destroy the tree with the fruit." (4) Instead of " for he was the priest," they translate, "and he was the priest," &c. (5) The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon., an. 10*83, Corrected. Corrected. Corrected. Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof.' Instead of "for," they translate "and." THE BLESSED SACRAMENT AND SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 43 (1) The turning of blessings into bare thanks- giving, was one of the first steps of our pre- tended reformers, towards denying the real pre- sence. By endeavouring to take away the operation and efficacy of Christ's blessing, pronounced upon the bread and wine, they would make it no more than a thanksgiving to God : and that, not only in translating thanksgiving for blessing, but also in urging the word eucharist, to prove it a mere thanksgiving ; though we find the verb Bv/ugigsiv used also transitively by the Greek fathers, saying, iov aoxov ivxaQiq^devia, panem, et chali- cem eucharistisatos ; or, panem, in quo gratia? actee sunt ; that is, " the bread and cup made the eucharist ;" " the bread, over which thanks are given ;" that is, " which, by the word of prayer and thanksgiving is made a consecrated meat, the flesh and blood of Christ." (a) St. Paul also, speaking of this sacrament, calls it, (1 Cor. x.) " the chalice of benediction, which we do bless ;" which St. Cyprian thus explicates, " the chalice consecrated by solemn blessing." St. Basil and St. Chrysostom, in their liturgies, say thus, " Bless, O Lord, the sacred bread ;" and "bless, O Lord, the sacred cup, changing it by thy Holy Spirit :" where are signified the conse- cration and transmutation thereof into the body and blood of Christ. (2) And, by this corrupt translation, they would have Christ so included in heaven, that he cannot be with us upon the altar. But Beza confesses, " that he translates it thus, on pur- pose to keep Christ's presence from the altar ;" which is so far from the Greek, that not only Illy- ricus, but even Calvin himself, dislikes it. And you may easily judge, how contrary to St. Chry- sostom it is, who tells us, " that Christ ascending into heaven, both left us his flesh, and yet ascend- ing hath the same." And again, " O miracle !" says he, " he that sits above with the Father in the same moment of time is handled with the hands of all." (b) This, you see, is the faith and doctrine of the ancient fathers ; and it is the faith of the Catholic Church at this day. Who sees not, that this faith, thus to believe the pre- sence of Christ is in both places at once, because he is omnipotent, is far greater than the Pro- testant faith, which believes no farther than that he is ascended ; and that therefore he cannot be present upon the altar, nor dispose of his body as he pleases 1 If we should ask them, whether he was also in heaven, when he appeared to Saul going to Damascus ; or whether he can be both in heaven, and with his church on earth, to the end of the world, as he promised ; per- haps, by this doctrine of theirs, they would be put to a stand. (3) Consider further, how plain our Saviour's words, " this is my body," are for the real pre- («) St. Justin in fine, 2 Apolog., St. Irenaeus, lib. 4, 34. (b) Horn. 2, ad popul. Antioch., lib. 3, de Saceidotio. sence of his body : and for the real presence of his blood in the chalice, what can be more plainly spoken, than " this is the chalice, the New Testament in my blood, which chalice is shed for you." (c) According to the Greek, ro noTTjQiov to Exxuvofisvov, the word "which" must needs be referred to the chalice : in which speech chalice cannot otherwise be taken, than for that in the chalice ; which sure, must needs be the blood of Christ, and not wine, because his blood only was shed for us ; according to St. Chrysostom, who says : " That which is in the chalice is the same which gushed out of his side." (d) And this deduction so troubled Beza, that he exclaims against all the Greek copies in the world, as corrupted in this place. (4) " Let us cast wood upon his bread ;" " that is," saith St. Hierom, (c) " the cross upon the body of our Saviour ; for it is he that said, I am the bread that descended from heaven." Where the prophet so long before, saying bread, and meaning his body, alludes prophetically to his body in the blessed sacrament, made of bread, and under the form of bread ; and there- fore also called bread by the apostle, (1 Cor. x.) so that both in the prophet and the apostle, his bread and his body is all one. And lest we should think the bread only signifies his body, he says, " Let us put the cross upon his bread ;" that is, upon his very natural body that hung on the cross. It is evident, that the Hebrew verb is not now the same with that which the seventy interpreters translated into Greek, and St Hierom into Latin ; but altered, as may be sup- posed, by the Jews, to obscure this prophecy of their crucifying Christ upon the cross. And though Protestants will needs take the advan- tage of this corruption, yet so little does the Hebrew word, that now is, agree with the words following, that they cannot so translate it, as to make any commodious sense or understanding of it ; as appears by their different translations, and their transposing their words in English, otherwise than they are in the Hebrew. ( f) (5) If Protestants should grant Melchize- dek's typical sacrifice of bread and wine, then would follow also, a sacrifice of the New Tes- tament ; which, to avoid, they purposely translate " and" in this place ; when, in other places, the same Hebrew particle vau, they translate enim, for ; not being ignorant, that it is in those, as in this place, better expressed by "for" or "because," than by " and." See the exposition of the fathers upon it. (g) (c) Luke xxii. v. 20. (d) St. Chrysost. in 1 Cor., cap. x., Horn. 24. (e) St. Hierom. in com. in cap. xi. vers. 19, Hierom. Prophetae. (/) Genes, xx. 3 ; Gen. xxs 27 ; Isaiah lxiv. 5. (g) St. Cypr., Epist. 63, Epiphan. Hasr. 55 et 79. St. Hierom. in Matth. xxvi., et in EpLst. ad Evagrium. 44 III. TROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. Proverbs chap. ix. verse 5. Proverbs chap. ix. verse 1. 1 Corinth, chap. xi. verse 27. 1 Corinth, chap. ix. verse 13. 1 Corinth, chap. x. verse 18. Daniel chap. xiv. verse 12. Et verse 17 Et etiam verse 20. The Vulgate Latin Text. Venite comedite pa- rtem meum, et bibite vinum quod "miscui" vobis, xsxe§vcxa f *lo'n. (1) Immolavit victimas suas, miscuit vinum, exsQuoEV. (2) Itaque quicunque manducaverit panem hunc, vel, r\, biberit calicem domini in- digne, <$fc. (3) Et qui altari de- serviunt cum altari participant, Ovaiagr^- Nonne qui edunt hostias participes, sunt altaris ? duai- agyqiu. (5) Quia fecer ant sub- mensa absconditum introitum, Tqane'Qct. (6) Intuitus rex men- sam. Et consumebant qua erant sypcr men- Thc true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have " mingled" for you. She hath immola- ted her hosts, she hath " mingled" her wine. Therefore, whoso- ever shall eat this bread, " or" drink the chalice of our Lord unworthily, &c. And they that serve the " altar," partici- pate with the"altar." Those that eat the hosts, are they not partakers of the " altar ?" For they had made a privy entrance un- der the " table." The king behold- ing the " table." And they did con- sume the things which were upon the " table." Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed A. D. 1562, 1577, 1579. The corruption is, drink the winewhich I have " drawn ;" instead of " min- gled."(l) She hath "drawn" her wine. (2) Instead of " al- tar," they translate "temple." (4) Partakers of the " temple. (5) For, " under the table," they say, un- der the " altar." (6) The king behold- ing the " altar." Which was upon the " altar." The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon., an. 1683. Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have " mingled." She hath killed her beasts, she hath mingled her wine. Wherefore, who- soever shall eat this bread, " and" drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, &c. Corrected. Corrected. The two last chap- ters they call Apo- crypha. THE BLESSED SACRAMENT AND THE ALTAR. 45 (1, 2) These prophetical words of Solomon are of great importance, as being a manifest prophecy of Christ's mingling water and wine in the chalice at his last supper ; which at this day, the Catholic Church observes : but Pro- testants, counting it an idle ceremony, frame their translation accordingly ; suppressing alto- gether this mixture or mingling, contrary to the true interpretation both of the Greek and He- brew : as also, contrary to the ancient fathers' exposition of this place. " The Holy Ghost (says St. Cyprian) by Solomon, foreshoweth a ! type of our Lord's sacrifice, of the immolated j host of bread and wine ; saying, Wisdom hath I killed her hosts, she hath mingled her wine into J the cup ; come ye, eat my bread, and drink the wine that I have mingled for you." (a) Speak- | ing of wine mingled (saith this holy doctor) he i foreshoweth prophetically, the cup of our Lord mingled with water and wine, (b) St. Justin, | from the same Greek word, calls it, xqaftu ; that ] is, (according to Plutarch) wine mingled with ! water : so likewise does St. Irenaeus. (c) See also the sixth general council, (J) treating largely hereof, and deducing it from the apostles and ancient fathers ; and interpreting this Greek word by another equivalent, and more plainly signifying this mixture, viz., mywvat. (3) In this place, they very falsely translate " and," instead of " or," contrary both to the Greek and Latin. And this they do on purpose, to infer a necessity of communicating under both kinds, as the conjunctive " and" may seem to do : whereas, by the disjunctive "or" it is evident, that we may communicate in one kind only ; as was, in divers cases, the practice of the primitive church; as also of the apostles themselves. (Act. ii. 42, and xx. 7.) But the practice of our Saviour is the best witness of his doctrine : who, silting at the table at Emaus (c) with two of his disciples, " took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and did reach to them." By which St. Augustine and (/) the other fathers, understand the eucharist : where no mention is made of wine, or the chalice : but the reaching of the bread, their knowing him, and his vanishing away, so joined, that not any time is left for the benediction and consecration of the chalice. In the primitive times, " it was the custom to administer the blood only to children," as St. Cyprian tells us : and, both he and Tertullian say, " that it was their practice, most commonly, to reserve the body of Christ ;" which, as Euse- bius witnesses, " they were wont to give alone (a) Ep. 63, 2. (6) Apol. 2, in fine. (c) St. Irenaeus, lib. 5, prop. Init. (d) Concil. Constantinop., 6, Can. 32, (e) Luke xxiv. 30 ; Lib. 3, de Consensu. (/) Hier. Epitaph. Pauke. Beda. Theophylact. St. Cy- prian'. 1. de lapsis, n. 10 ; Tertul , 1. 2, ad Ux., n. 4 ; Euseb. Eccl. Hist, 1. 6 c. 36; St. Basil, Ep. ad Ceesa- riara Patritiam. 7 to sick people, for their viaticum." Also, " the holy hermits in the wilderness, commonly re- ceived and reserved the blessed body alone, and not the blood," as St. Basil tells us. For whole Christ is really present, under either kind, as Protestants themselves have confessed : read their words in Hospinian, (g) a Protestant, who affirms, " that they believed and confessed whole Christ to be really present, exhibited and received under either kind ; and therefore under the only form of bread : neither did they judge those to do evil, who communi- cated under one kind." And Luther, as alleged by Hospinian, {h) says, " that it is not needful to oive both kinds ; but as one alone sufficeth, the church has power of ordaining only one, and the people ought to be content therewith, if it be ordained by the church." Whence it is granted, that, " it is lawful for the Church of God, upon just occasions, absolutely to determine or limit the use thereof." (4, 5) To translate temple instead of altar, is so gross a corruption, that had it not been done thrice immediately within two chapters, one would have thought it had been done through oversight, and not on purpose. The name of altar both in Hebrew and Greek, and by the custom of all people, both Jews and Pagans, implies and imports a sacrifice. We therefore, with respect to the sacrifice of Christ's body and blood, say altar, rather than table, as all the an- cient fathers were accustomed to speak and write ; though, with respect to eating and drinking Christ's body and blood, it is also called a table. But because Protestants will have only a communion of bread and wine, or a supper, and no sacrifice ; therefore, they call it table only, and abhor the word altar, as papis- tical ; especially in the first translation of 1562, which was made when they were throwing down altars throughout England. (6) Where the name altar should be, they suppress it ; and here, where it should not be, they put it in their translations ; and that thrice in one chapter ; and that either on purpose to dishonour Catholic altars, or else to save the credit of their communion table ; as fearing, lest the name of Bell's table might redound to the dishonour of their communion table. Wherein it is to be wondered, how they could imagine it any disgrace either for table or altar, if the idols also had their tables and altars ; whereas St. Paul so plainly names both together : " The table of our Lord, and the table of devils, (i) If the table of devils, why not the table of Bell ? By this we see, how light a thing it was with them to corrupt the scriptures in those days. (#) Hospin. Hist. Sacram., p. 2, fol. 112. (A)Ib.,fol. 12. (i) 1. Cor. x. 21. 46 IV. rROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. Acts of the Apos. chap. xv. verse 2. Titus, chap. i. verse 5. 1 Timoth. chap. v. verse 17. 1 Timoth. chap. v. verse 19. The Vulgate Latin Text. St. James, chap. v. verse 14. Statuerunt ut as- ccnderent Paulus et Barnabas, et quidain alii ex aliis ad Apos- tolos ct "p?-psbyteros" nQEcrfivteQug, in Jeru- salem, <$fC. Hujus rei gratia rcliqui te Cretan, ttt ca quae desunt corri- gas, et constituas per civitates " presbyte- ros," sicut et ego dis- posui tibi. The true English accord- ing to the Rhcmish Translation. Qui bene preesunt 11 presbyteri," duplici honore dignihabean- tur. Adversus " pres byterwn" accusatio- nem noli recipere, Sfc. Infirmatur quis in vobis? inducat "pres- byteros ecclesia" et orent super eum. They appointed that Paul and Barnabas should go up, and certain others of the rest, to the apostles and " priests" unto Jerusalem. Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed A. D. 1562, 1577, 1579. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest reform the things that are wanting, and shouldest ordain " priests," by cities, as I also appointed thee. The " priests" that rule well, let them be esteemed worthy of double honour. Against a "priest" receive not accusa- tion, &c. Is any man sick among you ? let him bring in the"'priests" of the church, and let them pray over him. Instead of "priests," they translate " el- ders." The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon., an. 1683. For "priests" they say here also " el- ders." Instead of "priests." they translate " el- ders." For "priests" they say " elders." The " elders" that rule well, &c. Against an "elder" receive not accusa- tion, &c. Let him bring in the "elders" of the " congrega- tion, &c. " Elders" also in. tliis Bible Instead of "priest' they put " elder *' Elders for "priests" here also. PRIESTS AND PRIESTHOOD. 47 St. Augustine affirms, " That in the divine scripture several sacrifices are mentioned, some before the manifestation of the New Testament, &c, and another now, which is agreeable to this manifestation, &c, and which is demonstrated not only from the evangelical, but also from the prophetical writings." (a) A truth most certain ; our sacrifice of the New Testament being most clearly proved from the sacrifice of Melchizedek in the Old Testament ; of whom, and whose sacrifice, it is said, " But Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine ; for he was the priest of God most high, and he blessed him," &c. And to make the figure agree to the jhing figured, and the truth to answer the figure of Christ, it is said, " Our Lord hath sworn, and it shall not repent him ; thou art a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedek." In the New Testament, Jesus is made an " high priest, according to the order of Melchizedek." For according to the similitude of Melchizedek, there arises another priest, who continues for ever, and has an everlasting priesthood. Whence it is clearly proved, that Melchizedek was a priest, and offered bread and wine as a sacrifice ; therein prefiguring Christ our Saviour, and his sacrifice daily offered in the church, under the forms of bread and wine, by an everlasting priesthood. But the English Protestants, on purpose to abolish the holy sacrifice of the mass, did not only take away the word altar out of the scrip- ture ; but they also suppressed the name priest, in all their translations, turning it into elder ; (b) well knowing that these three, priest, sacri- fice, and altar, are dependents and consequents one of another ; so that they cannot be separ- ated. If there be an external sacrifice, there must be an extenal priesthood to offer it, and an altar to offer the same upon. So Christ himself being a priest, according to the order of Melchizedek, had a sacrifice, " his body ;" and an altar, " his cross," on which he offered it. And because he instituted this sacri- fice, to continue in his church for ever, in com- memoration and representation of his death, therefore, did he ordain his apostles priests, at his last supper ; where and when he instituted the holy order of priesthood or priests, (saying, hoc facite, " do this,") to offer the self-same sacrifice in a mystical and unbloody manner, until the world's end. But our new pretended reformers have made the scriptures quite dumb, as to the name of any such priest or priesthood as we now speak of ; never so much as once naming priest, unless (a) St. August., Ep. 49, q. 3. (b) Psal. ex. 4; Heb. vi. 20, and chap. vii. 15, 17, 24. when mention is made either of the priests of the Jews, or the priests of the Gentiles, especially when such are reprehended or blamed in the holy scripture ; and in such places they are sure to name priests in their translations, on purpose to make the very name of priests odious among the common ignorant people. Again, they have also the name priests, when they are taken for all manner of men, women, or children, that offer internal and spiritual sacrifices ; whereby they would falsely signify, that there are no other priests in the law of grace. As Whitaker, (c) one of their great champions, freely avouches, directly contrary to St. Augustine, who, in one brief sentence, distinguishes priests, properly so called in the church ; and priests, as it is a common name to all Christians. This name then of priest and priesthood, properly so called, as St. Augustine says, they wholly suppress ; never translating the word Presbyteros " priests," but " elders ;" and that with so full and general consent in all their English Bibles, that, as the Puritans plainly confess, and Mr. Whitgift de- nies it not, a man would wonder to see how careful they are, that the people may not once hear of the name of any such priest in all the holy scriptures : and even in their latter trans- lations, though they are ashamed of the word " eldership," yet they have not the power to put the English word priesthood, as they ought to do, in the text, that the vulgar may understand it, but rather the Greek word presbytery : such are the poor shifts they are glad to make use of. - - IL j So blinded were these innovators with heresy, that they could not see how the holy scriptures, the fathers, and ecclesiastical custom, have drawn several words from their profane and common signification, to a more peculiar and ecclesiastical one; as Episcopus, which in Tully is an " overseer," is a bishop in the New Testa- ment ; so the Greek word, xeiqotovsiv, signifying " ordain," they translate as profanely, as if they were translating Demosthenes, or the Laws ot Athens, rather than the holy scriptures ; when, as St. Hierom tells them, (d) it signifieth Clericorum ordinationem ; that is, " giving of holy orders," which is done not only by prayer of the voice, but by imposition of the hands," according to St. Paul to Timothy, " Impose hands suddenly on no man ;" that is, " Be not hasty to give holy orders." In like manner they translate minister for deacon, ambassador for apostle, messenger for angel, &c, leaving, I say, the ecclesiastical use of the word for the original signification. (c) Whitaker, p. 199; St. Aug., lib. 20, de Civit. Dei, cap. 10. See the Puritan's Reply, p. 159, and Whitgift's Defence against the Puritans, p. 722. (i) St. Hierom. in cap. lviii. Esai. 48 V. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. Acts of the Apos. chap. xiv r . verse 22. 1 Timoth. chap. iv. verse 14. 2 Timoth. chap. i. verse 6. 1 Timoth. chap. iii. verse 8. The Vulgate Latin Text. Et verse 12 Et cum constitu- issent, xetqoxovTjoav- tsq, Mis per sin- gulas " ecclesias" "presbyteros," Ttqea- pvtsga;, (1) Noli negligere "gratiarn" xctQiofia- too, qua in te est, qucs data est tibiper prophetiam cum im- positions manuum *' presbyterii." (2) Propter quam cau- sam admoneo te, ut resuscitcs "gratiarn" Dei, quce in te est per impositionem manuum mearum. The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. " Diaconos" si- militer " pudicos," non bilingues, SfC, Jiaxovsg. (3) Aiaxovoi, diaconi.(4) And when they had ordained to them " priests" in every " church." Neglect not the " grace" that is in thee, which is given thee by prophesy, with imposition of the hands of "priest- hood." Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed a. d. 15C2, 1577, 1579. For the which cause I admonish thee,that thou resus- citate the " grace" of God, which is in thee, by the imposi- tion of my hands. "Deacons" in like manner " chaste," not double-tongued, &c. Deacons. And when they had ordained " el- ders by election," in every " congrega- tion." (1) Instead of "grace," they translate "gift;" and " eldership" in- stead of " priest- hood." (2) The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon., an. 1683. Instead of the word " grace" they say " gift." " Ministers" " deacons." (3) for Deacons. (4) "Elders" set in the stead of " priests." For the word " grace" they say " gift ;" and " pres- bytery," the Greek word, rather than the English word, " priesthood." They translate " gift," in the stead of " grace." Likewise must the " deacons" be " grave." Deacons. PRIESTHOOD AND HOLY ORDERS. 49 (1) We have heard, in old time, of making priests ; and, of late days, of making ministers ; but who has ever heard in England of making elders by election ? yet, in their first translations, it continued a phrase of scripture till King James the First's time ; and then they thought good to blot out the words by " election," begin- ning to consider, that such elders as were made only by election, without consecration, could not pretend to much more power of administering the sacraments, than a churchwarden, or con- stable of the parish ; for, if they denied ordina- tion to be a sacrament, (a) and consequently, to give grace, and impress a character, doubtless they could not attribute much to a bare elec- tion : and yet, in those days, when this transla- tion was made, their doctrine was, " that in the New Testament, election, without consecration, was sufficient to make a priest or bishop." Wit- ness Cranmer himself, who being asked, whether in the New Testament there is required any consecration of a bishop or priest ? answered thus under his hand, viz., " In the New Testament, he that is appointed to be a priest or bishop, needeth no consecration by the scripture ; for election thereunto is sufficient ; (b) and Dr. Stillingfleet informs us, that Cranmer has de- clared, " that a governor could make priests, as well as bishops." And Mr. Whitaker tells us, " that there are no priests now in the Church of Christ ;" page 200, advers. Camp, that is, as he interprets himself, page 210, " this name priest is never in the New Testament peculiarly ap- plied to the ministers of the Gospel." And we are not ignorant, how both King Edward the Sixth, and Queen Elizabeth, made bishops by their letters patent only, let our Lambeth re- cords pretend what they will : to authorize which, it is no wonder, if they made the scripture say, " when they had ordained elders by election," instead of " priests by imposition of hands ;" though contrary to the fourth Council of Car- thage, which enjoins, " that when a priest takes his orders, the bishop blessing him, and holding his hand upon his head, all the priests also that are present, hold their hands by the bishop's hand, upon his head, (c) So are our priests made at this day ; and so would now the clergy of the Church of England pretend to be made, if they had but bishops and priests able to make them. For which purpose, they have not only corrected this error in their last translations, but have also gotten the words, bishop and priest, thrust into their forms of ordination : but the man that wants hands to work with, is not much better for having tools. (2) Moreover, some of our pretenders to priesthood, would gladly have holy order to take (a) Twenty-fifth of the Thirty-nine Articles. (6) See Dr. Burnet's Hist, of the Refor.; see Stilling- fleet Irenicon, p. 392. (c) Council 3, anno 436, where St. Augustine was present, and subscribed. its place again among the sacraments : and therefore both Dr. Bramhall and Mr. Mason reckon it for a sacrament, though quite contrary to their scripture translators, (d) who, lest it should be so accounted, do translate " gift" in- stead of " grace ;" lest it should appear, that grace is given in holy orders. I wonder they have not corrected this in their latter transla- tions : but, perhaps, they durst not do it, for fear of making it clash with the 25th of their 39 Articles. It is no less to be admired, that since they began to be enamoured of priesthood, they have not displaced that profane intruder, " elder," and placed the true ecclesiastical word " priest," in the text. But to this I hear them object, that our Latin translation hath Seniores et majores natu ; and therefore, why may not they also translate " elders V To which I an- swer, " that this is nothing to them, who profess to translate the Greek, and not our Latin ; and the Greek word they know is txqeo^vieqho presby- tcros. Again, I say, that if they meant no worse than the old Latin translator did, they would be as indifferent as he, to have said sometimes priest and priesthood, when he has the words, " presbyteros" and " presbyterium," as we are indifferent in our translation, saying, seniors and ancient, when we find it so in Latin : being well assured, that by sundry words he meant but one thing, as in Greek it is but one. St. Hierom reads, Presbyteros ego compresbyter, (e) in 1 ad Gal., proving the dignity of priests : and yet in the 4th of the Galatians, he reads according to the Vulgate Latin text : Seniores in vobis rogo consenior et ipse : whereby it is evident, that senior here, and in the Acts, is a priest ; and not, on the contrary, presbyter, an elder. (3) In this place they thrust the word minis- ter into the text, for an ecclesiastical order : so that, though they will not have bishops, priests, and deacons, yet they would gladly have bishops, ministers, and deacons ; yet the word they translate for minister, is diuxdvoo, diaconus ; the very same that, a little after, they translate deacon, (c) And so because bishops went before in the same chapter, they have found out three orders, bishops, ministers, and deacons. How poor a shift is this, that they are forced to make the apostles speak three things for two, on purpose to get a place in the scripture for their ministers ! As likewise, in another place, (/) on purpose to make room for their ministers' wives, for there is no living without them, they translate wife instead of woman, making St. Paul say : " Have not we power to lead about a wife V &c, for which cause they had rather say grave than chaste. (d) Dr. Bramh. p. 96 ; Mason, lib. 1. (c) St. Hier., Ep. 85, ad Evagr. (/) 1 Cor. ix. 5. 50 VI. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, The true English accord- Corruptions in the Pro- The last Translation of Chapter, The Vulgate Latin Text. ing to the Rhemish testant Bibles, printed the Protestant Bible, Ed. and Verse. Translation. a. D. 1562, 1577, 1579. Lon., an. 1683. Malachi Labia enim sacer- The priest's lips The priest's lips For " shall" they chap. ii. dotis cuslodient sci- " shall" keep know- "should keep translate " should." verse 7. entiam, et legem re- ledge, and they knowledge,and they And for " angel" quirent ex ore ejus : " shall" seek the " should" seek the "messenger," in this quia " angelus" Do- law at his mouth ; law at his mouth ; also. mini exercituum est. because he is the because he is the (1) " angel" of the Lord of hosts. " messenger" of the Lord of hosts. (1) Apocalyp. " Angelo" Ephesi To the "angel" To the " messen- Corrected. chap. ii. iii. eccIesicB scribe. of the church of ger" of, &c, instead verses 1, 8, 12. Ephesus,write thou. of " angel." Malachi Ecce, ego mitto Behold, I send " Instead of " an- The same also chap. iii. " angelum" meum,Top mine " angel," and gel," they say "mes- they translate here, verse 1 . uyyelov fib, et pr<B- he shall prepare the senger." And for without any correc- parabit viam ante way before my face. " Angel" of the tes- tion. faciem mcam. Et And the Ruler tament, they trans- statim veniet ad tem- whom ye seek, shall late, " Messenger" plum suum Domina- suddenly come to of the covenant. (2) tor, quern vos qu&ri- his temple, even the tis, et "Angelus" " Angel" of the testamenti, quern testament, whom ye vos vultis. (2) wish for. St. Matth. Hie est enim de For this is he of For " angel" they Instead of " an- chap. xi. quo scriptum est, whom it is written, say " messenger." gel," they say "mes- verse 10. ecce, ego mitto " an- gelum" meum ante Behold, I send mine " angel" before thy senger." faciem tuam. face. Luke Hie est de quo This is he of — Behold, I send For " angel, " chap. vii. scriptum est, ecce, Whom it is written, my " messenger," " messenger." verse 27. mitto " angelum " meum, <Sfc. Behold, I send mine " angel," &c. &c. 2 Corinth. Si quid donavi If I pardoned any — In the " sight" Corrected. chap. ii. propter vos in " per- thing for you in the of Christ. (3) verse 10. sona" Christi,sv noo- aoinoi Xqigu. (3) " person" of Christ. THE AUTHORITY OF PRIESTS. 51 (1) Because our pretended reformers teach, " That order is not a sacrament ;" " that it has neither visible sign," (what is imposition of hands ?) " nor ceremony ordained by God ; nor form ; nor institution from Christ;" (a) con- sequently, that it cannot imprint a character on the soul of the person ordained ; they not only avoid the word " priests," in their transla- tions, but, the more to derogate from the pri- vilege and dignity of priests, they make the scripture, in this place, speak contrary to the words of the prophet ; as they are read both in the Hebrew and Greek, (pvl&Zsiai ix&Trpoow, TOpn -1 nEB" 1 ; where it is as plain as can be spoken, that " the priest's lips shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth ;" which is a wonderful privilege given to the priests of the old law, for true determination in matters of controversy, and rightly expounding the law, as we may read more fully in Deuteronomy the 17th chapter, where they are commanded, under pain of death, to stand to the priest's judgment : which, in this place, verse 4, God, by his pro- phet Malachi, calls, " His covenant with Levi," and that he will have it stand, to wit, in the New Testament, where St. Peter has such pri- vilege for him and his successors, that his faith shall not fail ; and where the Holy Ghost is president in the councils of bishops and priests. All which, the reformers of our days would deface and defeat, by translating the words otherwise than the Holy Ghost has spoken them. And when the prophet adds immediately the cause of this singular prerogative of the priest : " because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts," which is also a wonderful dignity to be so called ; they translate ; " because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." So do they also, in the Revelations, call the bishops of the seven churches of Asia, messengers. (2) And here, in like manner, they call St. John the Baptist, messenger ; where the scrip- ture, no doubt, speaks more ho* .urably of him, as being Christ's precursor, than of a messenger, which is a term for postboys and lacqueys. The scripture, I say, speaks more honourably of him ; and our Saviour, in the Gospel, telling the people the wonderful dignities of St. John, and that he was more than a prophet, cites this place, and gives this reason, " For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my angel be- fore thee :" which St. Hierom calls, meritorum, aliSijot*, the " increase and augmenting of John's merits and privileges." (b) And St. Gregory, " He who came to bring tidings of Christ him- self, was worthily called an angel, that in his very name there might be dignity." And all (a) Twenty. fifth of the Thirty-nine Articles. Roger's Defence of the same, p. 155. (b) St. Hierom, in Comment, inhunc locum. St. Greg., Horn. 6- in Erang. a the fathers conceive a great excellency of this word angel ; but our Protestants, who measure all divine things and persons by the line of their human understanding, translate accordingly ; making our Saviour say, that " John was more than a prophet," because he was a " messenger." Yea, where our blessed Saviour himself is called Angelus testamenti, the Angel of the testament ; there they translate, the " messenger of the covenant." St. Hierom translated not nuntius, but an- gelus ; the church, and all antiquity, both reading and expounding it as a term of more dignity and excellency. Why do the innovators of our age thus boldly disgrace the very elo- quence of scripture, which, by such terms of amplification, would speak more significantly and emphatically ? Why, I say, do they for angel translate messenger ? for apostle, legate or ambassador, and the like ? Doubtless, this is all done to take away, as much as possible, the dignity and excellency of the priesthood. Yet, methinks, they should have corrected this in their latter translations, when they began them- selves to aspire to the title of priests ; whose name, however, they may usurp, yet could not hitherto attain to the authority and power of the priesthood. They are but priests in name only ; the power they want, and therefore are pleased to be content with the ordinary style of messengers ; not yet daring to term themselves angels, as St. John did the bishops of the seven churches of Asia. (3) But, great is the authority, dignity, excel- lency, and power of God's priests and bishops : they do bind and loose, and execute all ecclesi- astical functions, as in the person and power of Christ, whose ministers they are. So St. Paul says : " that when he pardoned or released the penance of the incestuous Corinthian, he did it in the person ol Christ ;" (c) they falsely trans- late, " in the sight of Christ ;" " that is, as St. Ambrose expounds it, " in the name of Christ;" " in his stead," and as " his vicar and deputy ;" and when he excommunicated the same incestuous person, he said, " he did it in tht, name, and by virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ." (d) And the fathers of the Council of Ephesus avouch, " that no man doubts, yea, it is known to all ages, that holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the apostles, the pil- lar of faith, and foundation of the Catholic Church, received from our Lord Jesus Christ the keys of the kingdom ; and that power of loosing and binding sins was given him ; who, in his successors, lives and exercises judgment to this very time, and always." (e) (c) 2 Cor. ii. 10. (d) 1 Cor. v. 4. (e) Part 2, Acts iii. 52 VII. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, The true English accord- Corruptions in the Pro- The last Translation of Chapter, The Vulgate Latin Text. ing to the Rhemish testant Bibles, printed the Protestant Bible, Ed. and Verse. Translation. a. d. 1562, 1577, 1579. Lon., an. 1683. St. Matth. Ex te enim exiet For out of thee Instead of " rule," Corrected chap. ii. dux, qui " regal" shall come forth the the NewTestament, verse 6 ; populum meum Is- Captain, that shall printed anno 1580, Micah. rael. Jranorvrrfc, tS " rule" my people translates " feed. " chap. v. elvab slg (xgxdvTa re Israel. (0 verse 2. 'Iffgaijl. (1) 1 Peter Subjecti igitur Be subject there- In the latter end Submit yourselves chap. ii. estote " omni hu- fore " to every hu- of king Henry VIII. "to every ordinance verse 13. mancs creatura" man creature" for and in Edward VI. of man," for the n&or) dcvd(ih)7Tlvr} God, whether it be times, they transla- Lord's sake,whether xitoei,propter Deum, to the " king, as ted, " submit your- it be to the " king, sive "regi quasi praz- excelling," &c. selves unto all man- as supreme. cellenti" sive duci- ner of ordinance of bus, <fyc, fiagdEl <W man," whether it be insqixovri. (2) ; unto the " king, as to the chief head." IntheBibleof 1577, to the "king, as hav- ing pre-eminence." In the Bible of 1579, to the " king, as the superior." (2) Acts of Attendite vobis et Take heed to — Wherein the — Wherein the the Apos. universo gregi, in yourselves, and to Holy Ghost hath Holy Ghost hath chap. xx. quo vos Spiritus the whole flock, made you " over- made you " over- verse 28. Sanctus posuif'epis- wherein the Holy seers, to feed the seers, to feed the copos regere eccle- Ghost hath placed congregation" of church" of God. sium" Dei. "'Enia- you " bishops to God. (3) xonvg noi/ndireiv t»)»' rule the church" of Ixxhjolccv to 0ee.(3) God. • EPISCOPAL AUTHORITY. 53 (1) It is certain, that this is a false translation ; because the prophet's words (Mich, v., cited by St. Matthew) both in Hebrew and Greek, signify only a Ruler or Governor, and not a Pastor or Feeder. Therefore, it is either a great oversight, which is a small matter, com- pared to the least corruption ; or else it is done on purpose ; which I rather think, because they do the like in another place, (Acts, xx.) as you may see below. And that to suppress the signi- fication of ecclesiastical power and government, that concurs with feeding, first in Christ, and from him in his apostles and pastors of the church ; both which are here signified in this one Greek word, noijualvco ; to wit, that Christ ou" Saviour shall rule and feed, (a) yea, he shall rule with a rod of iron ; and from him, St. Peter, and the rest, by his commission given in the same word, noiuaive, feed and rule my sheep ; yea, and that with a rod of iron : as when he struck Ananias and -Sapphira with corporal death ; as his successors do the like offenders with spiritual destruction, (unless they repent) by the terrible rod of excommunication. This is import- ed in the double signification of the Greek word, which they, to diminish ecclesiastical authority, rather translate "feed," than " rule or govern." (2) For the diminution of this ecclesiastical authority, they translated this text of scripture, in King Henry VIII. and King Edward VI. times, " Unto the king, as the chief head," (I Pet. ii.) because then the king had first taken upon him this title of " Supreme head of the Church." And therefore, they flattered both him and his young son, till their heresy was planted ; making the holy scripture say, that the king was the " chief head," which is all the same with supreme head. But, in Queen Eliza- beth's time, being, it seems, better advised in that point, (by Calvin, I suppose, and the Ma<j- deburgenses, who jointly inveighed against that title ; (b) and Calvin, against that by name, which was given to Henry VIII.,) and because, perhaps, they thought they could be bolder with a queen than a king ; as also, because then they thought their Reformation pretty well established; they be- gan to suppress this title in their translations, and to say, " To the king, as having pre-eminence," and, " To the king, as the superior ;" endeavour- ing, as may be supposed by this translation, to encroach upon that ecclesiastical and spiritual ju- risdiction they had formerly granted to the Crown. But however that be, let them either justify their translation, or confess their fault ; and for the rest, I will refer them to the words of St. Ignatius, who lived in the apostles' time, and tells us, " That we must first honour God, then the bishop, then the king ; because in all things, nothing is comparable to God ; and in the church, nothing greater than the bishop, who is consecrated to God, for the salvation of the world ; and among magistrates and temporal rulers, none is like the king." (c) (a) Psalm ii. ; Apocalyp. ii. 27 ; Job. xxi. (b) Calvin in cap. \ii. Amos : Magdebur. in Prat". Cent. 7, fol. 9, 10, 11. (c) Ep. 7, ad. Smvrnenses 8 (3) Again, observe how they here suppress the word " bishop," and translate it " overseers ;" which is a word, that has as much relation to a temporal magistrate, as to a bishop. And this they do, because in King Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth's time, they had no episcopal conse- cration, but were made only by their letters patent ; (d) which, I suppose, they will not deny However, when they read of King Edward VI. making John a Lasco (a Polonian) overseer or superintendent, by his letters patent ; and of their making each other superintendents or pas- tors at Frankfort, by election ; and such only to continue for a time, or so long as themselves or the congregation pleased, and then to return again to the state of private persons or laymen ; (vid. Hist, of the Troubles at Frankfort ;) (e) and also of King Edward's giving power and au- thority to Cranmer : and how Cranmer, when he made priests by election only, I suppose, be- cause they were to continue no longer thai) the king pleased, whereas priests truly consecreated are marked with an indelible character, — pre- tended to no other authority for such act, but only what he received from the king, by virtue of his letters patent. Fox, torn. 2, an. 1546, 1547. And we have reason to judge, that Matthew Parker, and the rest of Queen Elizabeth's new bishops, were no otherwise iv de; than by the queen's letters patent ; seeing that the form devised by King Edward VI. being repealed by Queen Mary, was not again revived till the 8th of Queen Elizabeth. To say nothing of the invalidity of the said form, as having neither the name of bishop nor priest in it, the like doubt of their consecration arises from the many and gTeat objections made by Catholic writers (f) against their pretended Lambeth Records and Register; as also from the consecrators of M. Parker, viz., Barlow, Scorey, &c, whom we cannot believe to have been consecrated them- selves, unless they can first show us records of Barlow's consecration ; and secondly, tell us, by what form of consecration Coverdale and Scorey were made bishops ; the Rom. Cath. ordi- nal having been abrogated, and the new one not yet devised, at the time that Mason says they were consecrated, which was Aug. 30, 1551. And as for the suffragan, there is such a difference about his name, (g) some calling him John, some Rich- ard ; and about the place where he lived, some calling him suffragan of Bedford, (A) some of Dover, (i) that it is doubtful whether there was such a person present at that Lambeth cerenn-ny. But these things being fitter for another treatise, which, I hope, you will be presented with ere long, I shall say no more of them in this place. (d) K. Edw. VI. Let. Pat. Jo.Utenti. p. 71;Regist. Ec- cles. peregr. Londin. Calvin, p. 327, Resp. ad Pcrsecul. Angl. (e) Hist. Fra. p. 51, GO, 62, 63, 72, 73, H, 87, 97, 99, 125, 126, &c. ( f) Fitzherb. Dr. Champ. Nullity of the English Clergy Prot. demonst. &c. (s) See Dr. Brainhall, p. 98. (k) Mason, Bramhall, &c. (>') Dr. Butler Epist. de Consecrat. Minist. 54 VIII. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, The true English accord- Corruptions in the Pro- The last Translation of Chapter, The Vulgate Latin Text. ing to the Rhernish testant Bibles, printed the Protestant Bible, Ed. and Verse. Translation. A. n. 1562, 1577, 1579. Lon., an. 1683. 1 Corinth. Numquid non ha- Have not we Have not we Instead of " wo- chap. ix. bemus potestatem power to lead about power to lead about man," they trans- verse 5. " mulierem," soro- a "woman," a sis- a " wife," a sister 1 late " wife," here remfideXyty yvvalxa, ter? &c. &c. (1) also. circumducendi 1 fyc. (1) Philipp. Etiam rogo et te Yea, and I be- For companion, — " Yoke-fellow." chap. iv. germane " compar" seech thee, my sin- they say, " yoke- verse 3. avt,vys yv^aiB. (2) cere " companion." fellow." (2) Hebrews " Honorabile con- " Marriage hon- "Wedlock is hon- " Marriage is hon- chap. xiii. nubium in omnibus" ourable in all," and ourable among all ourable in all." verse 4. rlfiiog 6 yd/nog iv nqoi, et thorns immacula- tus. (3) the bed undefiled. men," &c. (3) St. Matth. Qui dixit Mis, Who said to them, — " All men can- — " All men can- chap. xix. " Non omnes capi- "Not all take this not receive this say- not receive this say- verse 11. unt" verbum istud, j* n&vtsg ^w^Sfft, sed quibus datum est.{4) word," but they to whom it is given. ing," &c. (4) ing," &c. , St. Matth. Et sunt "enunchi," And there are There are some Corrected. chap. xix. qui seipsos cast rave- " eunuchs," who " chaste," which verse 12. runt, ivvu%oi oiTiveg, have made them- have made them- ivv&/ioav eav Toig, selves " eunuchs" selves " chaste" for propter regnum coz- for the kingdom of the kingdom of hea- lorum. (5) heaven. ven. (5) THE SINGLE LIVES OF PRIESTS. 55 (1) " If," says St. Hierom, " none of the laity, or of the faithful, can pray, unless he for- bear conjugal duty, priests, to whom it belongs to offer sacrifices for the people, are always to pray ; if to pray always, therefore perpetually to live single or unmarried." (a) Er,t our late pre- tended reformers, the more to profane the sacred order of priesthood, to which continency and single life have always been annexed in the New Testament, and to make it merely laical and popular, will have all to be married men : yea, those that have vowed to the contrary : and it is a great credit among them, for apostate priests to take wives. And therefore, by their falsely corrupting this text of St. Paul, they will needs have him to say, that he, and the rest of the apos- tles, " led their wives about with them," (as King Edward the Sixth's German apostles did theirs, when they came first into England, at the call of the Lord-protector Seymour ;) whereas the apostle says nothing else, but a woman, a sis- ter ; meaning such a Christian woman as fol- lowed Christ and the apostles, to find and main- tain them with their substance. So does St. Hierom interpret it, (£) and St. Augustine also, both directly proving, that it cannot be translated " wife." (2) Neither ought this text to be trans- lated " yoke-fellow," as our innovators do, on purpose to make it sound in English, " man and wife ;" indeed, Calvin and Beza translate it in the masculine gender, for a " companion." And St. Theophylact, a Greek father, saith, that " if St. Paul had spoken of a woman, it should have been yvrjsia, in Greek." St. Paul says himself, he had no wife, (1 Cor. vii.) and I think we have a little more reason to believe him, than those who would gladly have him married on purpose to cloak the sensuality of a few fallen priests. In the first chapter of the Acts, ver. 14, Beza translates, cum exoribus, " with their wives," because he would have all the apostles there esteemed as married men ; whereas the words our cum mulicribus, " with the women," as our English translations also have it ; because, in this place, they were ashamed to follow their master Beza. (3) Again, for the marriage of priests, and all sorts of men indifferently, they corrupt this text, making two falsifications in one verse : the one is, " among all men :" the other, that they make it an affirmative speech, by adding " is ;" whereas the apostle's words are these : " Mar- riage honourable in all, and the bed undefiled ;" which is rather an exhortation ; as if he should say, " let marriage be honourable in all, and the bed undefiled ;" as appears, both by that which goes before, and that which follows immediate- ly ; all which are exhortations. Let, therefore, (a) St. Hierom., lib. coatr. Jovin., cap. 19 ; 1 Cor. vii. 5, 35. (b) Lib. 1, adversus Jovin., de Op.Mon., cap. 4 ; Lib. 2, eap. 24. Protestants give us a reason out of the Greek text, why they translate the words following, by way of exhortation, " Let your conversation be without covetousness ;" and not these words also in like manner, " Let marriage be honourable in all." The phraseology and construction of both are similar in the Greek. (4) Moreover, it is against the profession of continency in priests and others, that they trans- late our Saviour's words respecting a " single life," and the unmarried state, thus, " all men can- not," &c, as though it were impossible to live continent, where Christ said not, " that all men cannot," but " all men do not receive this say- ing." St. Augustine says, " Whosoever have not this gift of chastity given them, it is either because they will not have it, or because they fulfil not that which they will : and they that have this word, have it of God, and their own free will." (c) " This gift," says Origen, " is given to all that ask for it." (d) (5) Nor do they translate this text exactly, nor, perhaps, with a sincere meaning ; for, if there be chastity in marriage, as well as in the single life, as Paphnutius the confessor most truly said, and as themselves are wont often to allege, then their translation doth by no means express our Saviour's meaning, when they say, " there are some chaste, who have made them- selves chaste," &c, for a man might say all do so, who live chastely in matrimony. But our Saviour speaks of such as have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven ; not by cutting off those parts which belong to gene- ration, for that would be an horrible and mortal sin ; but by making themselves unable and impotent for generation, by promise, and vow of perpetual chastity, which is a spiritual castra- tion of themselves. St. Basil calls the marriage of the clergy " fornication," and not " matrimony." " Of canonical persons," says he, " the fornication must not be reputed matrimony, because the conjunction of these is altogether prohibited ; for this is altogether profitable for the security of the church." And in his epistle to a certain prelate, he cites these words from the Council of Nice ; " It is by the great council f; rbidden, in all cases whatsoever, that it should be lawful for a bishop, priest, or deacon, or for any whom- soever, that are in orders, to have a worr.rm live with them ; except only their mother, sis! r, or aunt, or such persons as are void of all suspi- cion. "(c) (c) Lib. de Gratia et Liber. Arbitr., cap. 4. (tf) Tract 7, in Matth. (e) St. Basil, Ep. 1, ad Amphiioch. ; Ep. 17, ad Pare- gor. Presbyt. Con. Nice, in Cod. Grae. Can. 6. 56 IX. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. Acts of the Apos. chap. xix. verse 3. Titus chap. iii. verses 5, 6. The Vulgate Latin Text. " In quo, *H il, ergo baptizati estis? qu> dixerunt, " In" Johannis baptismate. (1) Non ex operibus justitiee, qua fecimus nos, sed secundum suam rnisericordiam salvos nos fecit ; per lavacrum regenera- lionis et renovation- is Spiritus Sancti, "quern effudit" in nos abunde per Jesum Christum Salvato- rem nostrum. (2) The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. " In" what then were you baptized 1 who said, " In" John's baptism. Not by the works of justice, which we did ; but according to his mercy, he hath sayed us ; by the laver of regene- ration, and renova- tion of the Holy Ghost, " whom he hath poured" upon us abundantly, by Jesus Christ our Saviour. Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed A. D. 1562, 1577, 1579. " Unto " what then were you bap- tized 1 "And they" said, " Unto" John's baptism. (1) — By the " foun- tain" of the regene- ration of the Holy Ghost, " which he shed on" us, &c.(2) The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon., an. 1683. " Unto" what then were ye baptized ? And they said, "Un- to" John's baptism. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done ; but according to his mercy, he saved us ; by the " washing" of regeneration,and re- newing of the Holy Ghost, " which he shed" on us, &c. THE SACPAMENT OF BAPTISM. 57 In the beginning of the reformation, the_. not only took away five of the se^en sacraments, but also deprived the rest of all grace, virtue, and efficacy ; making them no more than poor and beggarly elements ; at the most, no better than those of the Jewish law. And this, be- cause they would not have them bv any means helpful, or necessary towards our salvation ; for the obtaining of which, they held and asserted, that " faith alone was sufficient." (a) For which reason Beza was not content to say, with the apostle, (Rom. iv. 11,) "That circumcision was a seal of the justice of faith ;" but because he thought that term too low for the dignity of circumcision, he (to use his own words) " gladly avoids it ;" putting the verb instead of the noun, quod obsignaret, for sigil- lum. And in his annotations upon the same place, he declares the reason of his so doing to be, the dignity of circumcision equal with any sacrament in the N?w Testament. His words are, " What could be more magnificently spoken of any sacrament 1 Therefore, they that make a real difference between the sacraments of the Old Testament and ours, never seem to have known how far Christ's office extendeth :" which he says, not to magnify the old, but to disgrace the new. (1) This is also the cause, why the firstEnglish Protestant translators corrupted this place in the Acts, to make no difi'erence between John's baptism and Christ's, saying : " Unto what then were you baptized ? And they said, Unto John's baptism." Which Beza would have to be spoken of John's doctrine, and not of his baptism in water ; as if it had been said, " What doctrine do ye profess ?" and they said, " Johns ;" whereas, indeed, the question is, " In what then ?" or " wherein were you baptized ?" and they said, " In John's baptism ;" as if they would 6ay, we have received John's baptism, but not the Holy Ghost, as yet : whence immediately follows, ■* then they were baptized in the name of lesus :" and after imposition of hands, " the Holy Ghost came upon them :" whence appears, the insufficiency of John's baptism, and the great difference between it and Christ's. And this so much troubles the Bezaites, that Beza himself expresses his grief in these words : " It is not- necessary, that wheresoever there is mention of John's baptism, we should think it the very ceremony of baptism ; thereiore they, who gather that John's baptism differs from Christ's, because these, a little after, are said to be bap- tized in the name of Jesus Christ, have no sure foundation." See his annotations on Acts xix. Thus he endeavours to take away the foundation (a) Twenty.-fifth of the Thirty-nine Articles. of this Catholic conclusion, that John's baptism differs from, and is far inferior to Christ's. Beza confesses, that the Greek els i* is often used for " wherein" or " wherewith :" as it is in the Vulgate Latin, and Erasmus ; but he, and his followers, think it signifies not so here ; though but the second verse after, (verse 5,) the very same Greek phrase els *6 ovofxa is by them translated " In ;" where they say, " that they were baptized in," not unto, the name of Jesus Christ. (2) But no wonder, if they disgraced the baptism of Christ, when some (b) of them durst presume to take it away, by interpreting these words of the Gospel : " Unless a man be born again uf water, and the Spirit," &c, in this manner, " Unless a man be born again of water, that is, the Spirit ;" as if by water, in this place, were only meant the Spirit allegorically, and not material water : as though our Saviour had said to Nicodemus : " Unless a man be born again of water, I mean of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." To which purpose, Calvin as falsely translates the apostle's words to Titus (c) thus : Per lavacrum regenerationis Spiritus Sfincti, quod effudit in nos abunde ; making the apostle say : " That God poured the water of regeneration upon us abundantly ;" that is, " the Holy Ghost :" and lest we should not understand him, he tells us, in his commentary on this place, " that the apostle, speaking of water poured out abundantly, speaks not of ma- terial water, but of the Holy Ghost :" whereas the apostle makes not " water" and the " Holy Ghost" all one ; but most plainly distinguishes them ; not saying, that " water" was poured out upon us, as they would infer, by translating it " which he shed ;" but the " Holy Ghost, whom he hath poured out upon us abundantly." So that here is meant both the material water, or washing of baptism, and the effect thereof, which is, the Holy Ghost poured out upon us. But, if I blame our English translators, in this place, for making it indifferent, either " which fountain," or "which Holy Ghost he shed," &c, they will tell me, that the Greek is also indifferent : but, if we demand of them, whether the Holy Ghost, or rather a fountain of water, may be said lo be shed, they must doubt- less confess, not the Holy Ghost, but water : and consequently, their translating " which he shed," instead of " whom he poured out," would have it denote the " fountain of water ;" thereby agreeing with Calvin's translation, and Beza's commentary ; for Beza, in his translation, refers it to the Holy Ghost, as Catholics do. (A) Beza in Jo. iv. 10, and in Tit. iii. 5. (c) Calvin's Translation in Tit. iii. b. 58 X. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. St. James chap. v. verse 16. St. Matth. chap. xi. verse 21 ; St. Luke chap. x. verse 13. St. Matth. chap. iii. verse 2. St. Luke chap. iii. verse 3. St. Luke chap. iii. verse 8. Acts of the Apos. chap. ii. verse 38. The Vulgate Latin Text. " Confitemini, " k^ofioXoyeiodp, ergo, alter utrum " pec- cata" vestra. (1) — Si in Tyro et Sidone facta essent virtutes, qua facta stent in vobis, olim in cilicio et cinere " pce- nitentiam egissent" (IBTBVOTjOaV, (2) u Pcenitentiam agite," appropinquabit enim regnum cozlorum. Predicans baptis- mum " poznitentia." Facite ergo fructus dignos "patnitentia" Petrus vero ad illos " pcenitentiam {inquit) agite," et baptizetur unusquis- que vestrum in no- mine Jesu Christi. The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. " Confess," there- fore,your "sins" one to another. — If in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the mira- cles that have been done in you, " they had done penance" in sackcloth and ashes, long ere now. " Do penance," for tne kingdom of hea- ven is at hand. — Preaching the baptism of " pe- Yield, therefore, fruits worthy of " penance." Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed a. d. 1562, 1577, 1579. But Peter said to them, "do penance," and be every one of you baptized in the name of JesusChrist. " Acknowledge " your " faults " one to another. (1) Beza in all his translations has, " they had amended their lives." And our other transla- tions say, " they would have repen- ted." (2) " Repent," for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon., an. 1683. Preaching the bap- tism of " repen- tance." — Worthy of "re- pentance." Beza says, " Do fruits meet for them that amend their lives." — " Repent," and be every one of you baptized, &c. " Confess " your faults," &c. Instead of " they had done penance," they say, " they would have repen- ted." " Repent," &c. — Preaching the baptism of " repen- tance." — Fruit worthy of repentance." — " Repent," and be baptized, &c. CONFESSION AND THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE. 59 ( 1 ) To avoid this term " confession" especially in this place, whence the reader might easily gather ** sacramental confession," they thus fal- sify the text. It is said a little before, " if any be sick, let him bring in the priests," &c. And then it follows, " confess your sins," &c. But they, to make sure work, say, acknowledge, instead of confess ; and for priests, " elders," tnd for sins, they had rather say faults ; " ac- knowledge your faults," to make it sound among the ignorant common people, as different as they can from the usual Catholic phrase, " Confess your sins." "W hat mean they by this ?" If this acknowledging of faults one to another, before death, be indifferently made to all men, why do they appoint in their common prayer-book, (o) (as it seems, out of this place,) that the sick person shall make a special confession to the minister ; and he shall absolve him in the very same form of absolution that Catholic priests use in the sacrament of penance 1 And again, seeing themselves acknowledge forgiveness of sins by the minister, why do tiiey not reckon penance, of which confession is a part, amongst the sacraments 1 But, I suppose, when they translated their Bibles, they were of the same judgment with the ministers of the diocess of Lincoln, (b) who petitioned to have the words of absolution blotted out of the common prayer- book ; but when they visit the sick, they are of the judgment of Roman Catholics, who, at this day, hold confession and absolution necessary to salvation, as did also the primitive Christians. Witness St. Basil : " Sins must necessarily be opened unto those, to whom the dispensations of God's mysteries is committed." St. Am- brose : " If thou desirest to be justified, confess thy sin : for a sincere confession of sins dissolves the knot of iniquity." (c) (2) As for penance, and satisfaction for sins, they utterly deny it, upon the heresy of, " only faith justifying and saving a man." Beza pro- tests, that he avoids these terms, [teiavoia, pwnitentia, and fieiaroeijs, pcenitentiam agile, of purpose : and says, that in translating these Greek words, he will always use, resipiscentia and resipiscite, " amendment of life," and " amend your lives." And our English Bibles, to this day, dare not venture on the word penance, but only repentance ; which is not only far different from the Greek word, but even from the very circumstance of the text ; as is evi- dent from those words of St. Matth. xi., and Luke x., were these words, " sackcloth and ashes," cannot but signify more than- the word repentance, or amendment of life can denote ; as is plain from these words of St Basil, (d) (a) Visitation of the Sick. (b) Survey of the Common Prayer-Book. (c) St. Basil, in Regulis Brevior., Interrogation e 288. St. Amb., lib. de Poenit., cap. 6. (d) St. Basil in Psalm xxix ; St. Aug. Horn. 27- Inter- 50 H. et Ep. 108; Sozom., Lib. 7, cap. 16. See St. Hierom. in Epitaph. Fabiol. " Sackcloth makes for penance ; for the fathers, in old time, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, did penance." Do not St. John Baptist, and St. Paul, plainly signify penitential works, when they exhort us to " do fruits worthy of penance ?" which penance St. Augustine thus declares : " There it a more grievous and more mournful penan?e, whereby properly they are called in the church, that are penitents : removed also from partaking the sacrament of the altar." And Sozomen, in his ecclesiastical history, says, " In the Church of Rome, there is a manifest and known place for the penitents, and in it they stand sorrowful, and as it were mourning, and when the sacrifice is ended, being not made par- takers thereof, with weeping and lamentations they cast themselves far on the ground : then the bishop, weeping also with compassion, lifts them up ; and, after a certain time enjoined, absolves them from their penance. This the priests or bishnps of Rome keep, from the very beginning, even until our time." Not only Sozomen, but (c) Socrates also, and all the ancient fathers, when they speak of penitents, that confessed and lamented their sins, and were enjoined penance, and performed it, did always express it in the said Greek words ; which, therefore, are proved most evidently to signify penance, and doing penance. Again, when the ancient Council of Laodicea (f) says, that the time of penance should be given to offenders, according to the proportion of the fault : and that such shall not communicate till a certain time ; but after they have done pen- ance, and confessed their fault, (g) are then to be received : and when the first Council of Nice speaks of shortening or prolonging the days of penance : when (h) St. Basil speaks after the same manner ; when St. Chrysustom calls the sackcloth and fasting of the Ninevhos, for cer- tain days, " Tot dierum pwnitentiam, so many days of penance :" in all these places, I would demand of our translators of the English Bible, if all these speeches of penance, and doing penance, are not expressed by the said Greek words ? and I would ask them, whether in these places, where there is mentioned a proscribed time of satisfaction for sin, by such and such penal means, they will translate repentance and amendment of life only ? Moreover, the Latin Church, and all the ancient fathers thereof, have always read, as the Vulgate Latin inter- preter translates, and do all expound the same penance, and doing penance : for example, see St. Augustine, among others ; (t) where you will find it plain, that he speaks of u penitential works, for satisfaction of sins." ,c) Socrat., lib. 5, cap. 19. (/) Council of Laodicea, Can. 2, 9, et 19. (#) 1 Council cf Nice, Can. 12. (h) St. Basil, cap. 1, ad Amphiloch. (i) St. August., Ep. 108. 60 XI. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, The true English accord- Corruptions in the Pro- The last Translation of Chapter, and Verse. The Vulgate Latin Text. ing to the Rhemish testant Bibles, printed the Protestant Bible, Ed. Translation. a. D. 15G2, 1577, 1579. Lon., an. 1683. St. Luke Ave, " giulia Hail, « full of Hail, " ihou that In Bib. 1637 chap. i. plena," Dominus te grace," our Lord is art freely beloved." Hail, " thou that art verse 28. cum, xexocoixw/xivTj. with thee. In Bib. 1577, "thou highly favoured." In (1) that art in high fa- vour." (1) Bib. 1683, Hail, " thou that art high- ly favoured," our Lord is with thee. St. Matth. Et " vocavit" no- And " called" his And " he" called And " he" called chap. i. nomen ejus Jesum, name Jesus. his name Jesus. (2) his name Jesus. verse 25. xc exaXsoe to ovo/ua ccvth Ij]ohv. (2) Genesis " 7psa" conteret "She" shall bruise " It" shall bruise "It" shall bruise chap. iii. caput tuum, et tu thy head in pieces, thy head, and thou thy head, and thou verse 15. " insidiaberis" cal- and " thou shalt lie shalt " bruise his shalt " bruise his caneo ejus. (3) in wait for her heel." heel." (3) heel." 2 St. Peter Da bo autem operant And I will do my I will endeavour I will endeavour, chap. i. et frequenter habere endeavour ; you to that you may be that you may be verse 15. vos post obitum mc- have often after my able, after my de- able after my de- um, ut "'horum me- decease also, that cease, to have these cease,to have "these moriarn" faciatis.{4) you may keep a things " always in things always in re- " memory of these remembrance." (4) membrance." things." Psalm Nimis honorijicati Thy friends, How dear are How precious also cxxxviii. sunt amici tut, ""'"T" 1 , God, are become thy counsels (or are thy thoughts un- Eng. Bib., oi cpiloi on, Deus ; ni- exceedingly honour- thoughts) to me ? to me, God! How cxxxix. mis confortalus est able ; their prince- ! how great is the great is the sum of verse 17. principatus eorum, arrnDJCl "jD^3>, at, aQxoit, aVTOiV. (5) dom is exceedingly strengthened. sum of them ? (5) them ! THE HONOUR. OF OUR BLESSED LADY AND OTHER SAINTS. 61 (1) The most blessed Virgin, and glorious mother of Christ, has by God's holy Church always been honoured with most magnificent titles and addresses. One of the first four general . councils gives her the transcendent title of the mother of God. (a) And by St. Cyril of Alexan- dria, she is saluted in these words, " Hail ! holy mother of God, rich treasure of the world, ever- shining lamp, crown of purity, and sceptre of true doctrine ; by thee the holy Trinity is every where blessed and adored, the heavens exult, angels rejoice, and devils are chased from us : who so surpasses in elegance, as to be able to say enough to the glory of Mary ?" Yea, the angel Gabriel is commissioned from God to address himself to her with this salutation, " Hail ! full of grace. "(b) Since which time, what has ever been more common, and, at this day, more gen- eral and useful in all Christian countries, than in the Ave Maria to say, gratia plena, " full of grace ?" But, in our miserable land, the holy prayer, which every child used to say, is not only banished, but the very text of scripture wherein our blessed Lady was saluted by the angel, " Hail ! full of grace," they have changed into another manner of salutation, viz., " Hail ! thou that art freely beloved," or, " in high favour." (c) I would gladly know from them, why this, or that, or any other thing, rather than " Hail ! full of grace ?" St. John Baptist was full of the Holy Ghost, even from his birth ; St. Stephen was " full of grace,(d) why may not then our Lady be called " full of grace," who, as St. Ambrose says, " only obtained the grace which no other woman deserved, to be replenished with the au- thor of grace ?" If they say, the Greek word does not signify so : I must ask them, why they translate ^Ixom fihoa, (e) ulcernsus, " full of sores," and will not translate xexngnwuivT], gratiosa, " full of grace V Let them tell us what difference there is in the nature and significancy of these two words. If ulcerosus, as Beza translates it, be " full of sores," why is not gratiosa, as Erasmus trans- lates it, " full of grace ?" seeing that all such adjectives in osus signify fulness, as periculosus; arumnosus, &c, as every school-boy knows. What syllable is there in this word, that seems to make it signify " freely beloved?" St. Chry- sostom, and the Greek doctors, who should best know the nature of this Greek word, say, that it signifies to make gracious and acceptable. St. Athanasius, a Greek doctor, says, that our blessed Lady had this title, xexotQircj/jiyj}, be- cause the Holy Ghost descended into her, filling her with all graces and virtues. And St. Hierom reads gratia plena, and says plainly, she was so saluted, " full of grace," because she conceived him in whom all fulness of the Deity dwelt corporally. (/) (2) Again, to take from the holy mother of God, what honour they can, they translate, (a) Cone. Eph., cap. 13. (£) St. Luke i. 18. (c) St. Luke i. 15. (dy Acts vii. 8. (e) Luke xvi. 20. (/) St. Chys. Comment, in Ep. 1 ; St. Athan. de S. Deipar; St. Hierom. in Ep. 140 in Expos. Psal. xliv. 9 that " he (viz. Joseph) called his name Jesus." And why not she, as well as he 1 For in St. Luke, the angel saith to our Lady also, " Thou shalt call his name Jesus." Have we not much more reason to think that the blessed Virgin, the natural mother of our Saviour, gave him the name Jesus, than Joseph, his reputed father ; seeing also St. Matthew, in this place, limits it neither to him nor her ? And the angel revealed the'hame first unto her, saying, that she should so call him. And the Hebrew word, Isa. vii., whereunto the angel alludes, is the feminine gender ; and by the great Rabbins referred unto her, saying expressly, in their commentaries, et vocabit ipsa puella, &c, " and the maid herself shall call his name Jesus." (g) (3) How ready our new controllers of antiquity and the approved ancient Latin translation, are to find fault with this text, Gen. iii., " She shall bruise thy head," &c, because it appertains to our blessed Lady's honour ; saying, that all ancient fathers read ipsum : (h) when on the contrary, St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. Bede, St. Bernard, and many others, read ipsa, as the Latin text now does. And though some have read otherwise, yet, whether we read " she" shall bruise, or " her seed," that is, her Son, Christ Jesus, we attri- bute no more, or no less to Christ, or to his mother, by this reading or by that ; as you inay see, if you please to read the annotations upon this place in the Doway Bible. I have spoken of this in the preface. (4) Where the scripture, in the original, is ambiguous and indifferent to divers senses, it ought not to be restrained or limited by trans- lation, unless there be a mere necessity, when it can hardly express the ambiguity of the original. As for example, in this where St. Peter speaks so ambiguously, either that he will remember them after his death, or that they shall remember him. But the Calvinists restrain the sense of this place, without any necessity ; and that against the prayer and intercession of saints for us, contrary to the judgment of some of the Greek fathers ; who concluded from it, " that the saints in heaven remember us on earth, and make intercession for us." (5) In fine, this verse of the Psalms, (i) which is by the church and all antiquity read thus, and both sung and said in honour of the holy apostles, agreeably tothat in another Psalm, " Thou shalt appoint them princes over all the earth," they translate contrary both to the Hebrew and the Greek, which is altogether according to the said ancient Latin translation, " How are the heads of them strengthened, or their princedoms ?" And this they do, pur- posely to detract from the honour of the apos- tles and holy saints. (g) Rabbi Abraham et Rabbi David. (A) See the Annot. upon this place in the Doway Bible (i) Oecum. in Caten. Gagneius in hunc locum, Psa xliv 62 XII. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, CI inter, and Vorse. The Vulgate Latin Text. The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed A. D. 1562, 1577, 1579. The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon., an. 1683. Hebrews chap. xi. verse 21. Fide, Jacob mo- riens, singulos filio- rum Joseph bene dixit, et " adoravit fastigiu m virg & ejus" nQoasxvvTjcrsv ini to &xqov ttj? qa@dis &VT8. (1) By faith, Jacob dying, blessed every one of the sons of Joseph, and "adored the top of his rod." — And " leaning on the end of his staff, worshipped God." (1) By faith Jacob, when he was a-dy- ing, blessed both the sons of Joseph, "and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff." Genesis chap, xlvii. verse 31. " Adoravit Israel Deum, conversus ad" lectuli caput. " Israel adored God, turning to" the bed's head. " Israel worship- ped God towards" the bed's head. (2) And "Israel bowed himself upon" the bed's head. Ps. xcviii. verse 5. Eng. Bib., xcix. Eocaltate Domi- num Deum nostrum- " et adorate scabel, lum pedum ejus," quoniam sanctum est. Exalt the Lord our God, " and adore ye the foot- stool of his feet," "because it" is holy. Exalt the Lord our God, and "fall down before" his footstool, "for he" is holy. Exalt the Lord our God, and " wor- ship at his footstool," " for he" is holy. Ps. cxxxi. verse 7. Eng. Bib., cxxxii. Introibimus in tabernaculum ejus, " adorabimus in loco ubi steterunt pedes ejus." We will enter in- to his tabernacle, we will " adore in the place where his feet stood." — We will " fall down before his foot- stool." We will go into his tabernacles, we will "worship at his footstool." THE DISTINCTION OF RELATIVE AND DIVINE WORSHIP. 63 (1) The sacred Council of Trent decrees, that " the images of Christ, of the virgin mother of God, and of other saints, are to be had and re- tained, especially in churches ; and that due honour and worship is to be imparted unto them : not that any divinity is believed to be in them ; or virtue, for which they are to be worshipped ; or tnat any thing is to be begged of them ; or that hope is to be put in them ; as, in times past, the Pagans did, who put their trust in idols ; but because the honour which is exhibited to them, is referred to the archetype, which they resem- ble : so that, by the images which we kiss, and before which we uncover our heads, and kneel, we adore Christ and his saints, whose likeness they bear." (a) And the second Council of Nice, which confirmed the ancient reverence due to sacred images, tells us, " That these images the faithful salute with a kiss, and give an honorary worship to them, but not the true latria, or divine worship, which is according to faith, and can be given to none but to God him- self." (b) Between which degree of worship, latria and Julia, Protestants arc 60 loath to make any distinction, that, in this place, they restrain the scripture to the sense of one doctor ; inso- much that they make the commentary of St. Augustine, (peculiar to him alone,) the verv text of scripture, in their translation ; thereby exclu- ding all other senses and expositions of other fathers ; who either read and expound, that " Jacob adored the top of Joseph's sceptre ;" or else, that " he adored towards the top of his sceptre :" besides which two meanings, there is no other interpretation of this place, in all anti- quity, but in St. Augustine only, as Beza him- self confesses. And here they add two words more than are in the Greek text, " Leaning an' 1 God." fV >rcing dirou to signify dviov, which may be, but is as rare as vtrgas ejus, for virgas surp. ; and turning the other words clear out of their order, place, and form of construction, which they must needs have correspondent and answerable to the Hebrew text, from whence they were translated ; which Hebrew words themselves translate in this order, " He wor- shipped towards the bed's head ;" and if so, according to the Hebrew, then did he worship ' " towards the top of his sceptre," according to the Greek ; the difference of both being onlv in these words, sceptre and bed ; because the Hebrew is ambiguous as to both, and not in the order and construction of the sentence. (2) But why is it, that they thus boldly add in one place, and take away in another ! Why do they add " leaned, and God" in one text, (a) Concil. Trident., Sess. 25. (£) Concil. Nicen., Act 7. and totally suppress " worshipped God" in another ? Is it not because they are afraid, lest those expressions might warrant and confirm the Catholic and Christian manner of adoring our Saviour Christ, towards the holy cross, or before his image, the crucifix, the altar, &c. ? And though they make so much of the Greek particle, em, as to translate it, " leaning upon," rather than " towards ;" yet the ancient Greek fathers (c) considered it of such little import, that they expounded and read the text, as if it were for the phrase only, and not for any signi- fication at all ; saying, " Jacob adored Joseph's sceptre ; the people of Israel adored the temple, the ark, the holy mount, the place where his feet stood," and the like : whereby St. Damascene proves the adoration of creatures, named dulia ; to wit, of the cross, and of sacred images. If, I say, these fathers make so little force of the prepositions, as to infer from these texts, not only adoration " towards" the thing, but ado- ration " of" the thing ; how come these, our new translators, thus to strain and rack the little particle, tm, to make it signify " leaning upon," and utterly to exclude it from signifying any thins: tending towards adoration ? I would gladly know of them, whether in these places of the Psalms there be any force in the Hebrew prepositions ? Surely no more than if we should say in English, without preposi- tions, " adore ye his holy will : we will adore the place where his feet stood : adore } e his foot- stool ;" for they know the same preposition is need also, when it is said, " adore ye our Lord ;" or, as themselves translate it, " worship tin', Lord ;" where there can be no force nor signi- fication of the preposition : and therefore, in these places, their translation is corrupt and wilful ; when they say, " we will fall down be- fore," or, " at his footstool," &c. Where they shun and avoid, first, the term of adoration, which the Hebrew and Greek duly express, by terms correspondent in both languages through- out the Bible, and are applied, for the most part, to signify adoring of creatures. Secondly they avoid the Greek phrase, which is, at least, to adore " towards" these holy things and places : and much' more the Hebrew phrase, which is, to adore the very things rehearsed. " To adore God's footstool," (as the Psalmist saith,) " because it is holy," or, " because he is holy," whose footstool it is, as the Greek read- eth. And St. Augustine so precisely and reli- giously reads, " adore ye his footstool," that he examines the case ; and finds, thereby, that the blessed sacrament must be adored, and that no good Christian takes it, before he adores it. (c) St. Chrys. Oecum. in Collection. St. Damasc.,lib. 1, pro Imaginib., Leont. apud Damas. 64 XIII. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. Coloss. cliap. iii. verse 5. Ephesians chap. v. verse 5. 2 Corinth, chap. vi. verse 16. 1 Ep. John chap. v. verse 21. 1 Corinth, chap. x. verse 7. The Vulgate Latin Text. Et avaritiam, qucs est " simulacrorum servitus," eidwloXur. gsia. (1) — Aut avarus, quod est " idolorum ser- vitus." Quis autem sensus templo con- Dei cum "idolis?"6idwXo)P (2) Filioli, custodite vos a " simulacris." BiditjXcoy. The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. — And avarice, which is the " ser- vice of idols." — Or covetous per- son, which is " the service of idols." And what cgree- ment hath the tem- ple of God with " idols ?" My little children, keep yourselves from " idols." Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed a. d. 1562, 1577, 1579. — And covetous- ness, which is the " worshipping of images." (1) — Or covetous man, which is " a worshipper of im- ages." The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon., an. 1683. — And covetous- ness, which is "ido- latry.' Corrected. How agreeth the temple of God with " images 1" (2) Babes, keep your- selves from " im- " Neque idolatry EidwXoXaTQcu, efflcia- mini," sicut quidam ex ipsis. " Neither become ye idolaters," as certain of them. "Be not wor- shippers of images," as some of them. Corrected. Corrected. Corrected also in this. SACRED IMAGES. 65 (1) Before I proceed in this, let me ask our English translators, what is the most proper, and best English of 'didwlov, cidwloWrpi?;, sldwXo. XaTQsla ; idolum, idolatra, idolatria ? Is it not idol, idolator, idolatry 1 Are not these plain English words, and well known in our lan- guage ? Why then need they put three words for one, " worshipper of images," and " wor- shipping of images ?" Whether is the more natural and convenient speech, either in our English tongue, or for the truth of the thing to say, as the holy scripture does, "covetousness is idolatry ;" and consequently, " the covetous man is an idolator ;" or to say, as their first ab- surd translations have it, " covetousness is worshipping of images," and the " covetous man is a worshipper of images ?" I suppose they will scarcely deny, but that there are many covetous Protestants, and, perhaps, of their clergy too, that may be put in the list with those of whom the apostle speaks, when he says, there are some " whose belly is their god." And though these make an idol of their money, and their bellies, by covetousness and gluttony, yet they would doubtless take it ill of us, if in their own scripture language, we should call them " worshippers of images." Who sees not, therefore, what great difference there is be- tween " idol" and " image," " idolatry" and " worshipping of images ?" even so much is there between St. Paul's words, and the Pro- testant translation ; but because in their latter translations they have corrected this shameful absurdity, I will say no more of it. (2) In this other, not only their malice, but their full intent and set purpose of deluding the poor simple people appear ; this translation being made when images were plucking down through- out England, to create in the people a belief, that the apostle spoke against sacred images in churches ? whereas his words are against the idols and idolatry of the Gentiles ; as is plain from what goes before, exhorting them not to join with infidels ; for, says he, " How agreeth the temple of God with idols ?" not " with images," for " images" might be had without sin, as we see the Jews had the images of the cherubim and the figures of oxen in the temple, and the image of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, by God's appointment ; though, as soon as they began to make an idol of the serpent, and adore it as their god, it could no longer be kept without sin. By this corrupt custom of translating image, instead of idol, they so bewitched their deceived followers, as to make them despise, contemn, and abandon even the very sign and image of salvation, the cross of Christ, and the crucifix ; whereby the man- ner of his bitter death and passion is represent- ed ; notwithstanding their signing and marking their children with it in their baptism, when they are first made Christians. By such wilful corruptions, in these and other texts, as, " Be not worshippers of images, as some of them ;" and, " Babes, keep yourselves from images ;" which, the more to impress on the minds of the vulgar, they wrote upon their church walls ; the people were animated to break down, and cast out of their churches, the images of our blessed Saviour, of his blessed mother, the twelve apostles, &c, with so full and general a resolution of defacing and extir- pating all tokens or marks of our Saviour's pas- sion, that they broke down the very crosses from the tops of church steeples, where they could easily come to them. And though, in their latter translations, they have corrected this cor- ruption ; yet do some of the people so freshly, to this day, retain the malice impressed by it upon their parents, that they have presumed to break the cross lately set on the pinnacle of the porch of Westminster abbey : and the more to show their spite towards that sacred sign of our redemption — the holy cross — they placed it, not long since, upon the foreheads of bulls and mastiff-dogs, and so drove them through the streets' of London, to the eternal shame of such as receive it in their baptism, and pretend to Christianity. What could Jews or Infidels have done more ? Was it not enough to break it down from the tops of churches, and to put up the image of a dragon, (the figure wherein the devil himself is usually represented,) as on Bow Church, (a) in the midst of the city, but they must place it so contemptuously on the fore- heads of beasts and dogs ? In how great esteem the holy cross was had by primitive Christians, the fathers of those days have sufficiently testified in their writings : " This cross," says St. Chrysostom, " we may see solemnly used in houses, in the market, in the desert, in the ways, on mountains and hills, in valleys," &c, contrary to which, the pretend- ed reformers of our times have not only cast it out of their houses, but out of their churches also : they have broken it down from all market- places, from hills, mountains, valleys, and high ways ; so that in all the roads in England there is not one cross left standing entire, that I have ever heard of, except one called Ralph cross, which I have often seen, upon a wild heath or mountain, near Danby forest, in the north riding of Yorkshire. (&) (a) Why might not a cock (the animal by which our Saviour was pleased to admonish St. Peter of his sins) have been placed upon Covent Garden Church, rather than a serpent ? ora cross on Bow Church, rather than a dragon 1 (b) The inhabitants of Danby, Rosdale, Westerdale and Ferndale, may glory before all parts of England, that they have a cross standing to this day in the midst of them. 66 XIV. — PROTECTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book. Chapter, and Verse. The Vulgate Latin Text. The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed a. D. 1562, 1577, 1579. The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon. an. 1683. 1 Corinth, chap. v. ver. 9. 10. Romans chap. xi. verse 4. Acts of the Apos. chap. xix. verse 35. Exodus chap. xx. verse 4. Scripsi vobis in epislola, ne commis- ceamini fornicariis, non vtique fornica- riis hujus mundi, aut avaris, aut rapaci- bus, aut " idolis ser- vientibus." eldojlol&j- Qulg, alioquin dcbue- ratis de hoc mundo eociissc : nunc autem scripsi vobis non commisceri ; si is qui frater nominatur, est fornicator, aut ava- rus, aut " idolis ser- viens" <fyc, slduloXdcT. ooctg. (1) Reliqui mihi sep- tem millia virorum qui non curvaverunt genua " ante Baal" (2) Viri Ephesi, quis enim est hominum, qui nesciat Ephesio- rum civitatem cultri- cem esse magna Diana et " Jovis prolix?" tS dion g tug ? Non fades tibi "sculptile, ,y ^25, El'dw- 1.0V. I wrote to you in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators ; I mean, not the fornicators of this world, or the covetous, or the ex- tortioners, or " ser- vers of idols ;" other- wise you should have gone out of this world. But now I have writ to you, not to keep company ; if he that is named a brother be a forni- cator, or covetous person, or a " ser- ver of idols," &c. I wrote to you " that you should" not company with fornicators : " and" I " meant" not " all of" the fornicators of this world,"either of" the covetous, or extortioners, "either the idolaters," &c. But " that ye" company not " toge- ther ;" if " any" that is " called" a bro- ther be a fornica- tor, or covetous, or a " worshipper of images," &c. (1) I have left me seven thousand men that have not bowed their knees to Baal. I have left me seven thousand men that have not bowed their knees to " the image of" Baal. (2) Ye men of Ephe- sus, for what man is there that knoweth not the city of the Ephesians to be a worshipper of great Diana, and " Jupi- ter's child ?" Instead of " Ju- piter's child," they translate "the image which came down from Jupiter." Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing-." Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image." It is corrected in this Bible. I have left me seven thousand men that have not bowed their knees to " the image of" Baal. And here they translate, " the im- age which fell down from Jupiter-" Thou shalt not make to thee any " graven image." THE USE OF SACRED IMAGES. (1) How malicious and heretical was their intention, who, in this one sentence, made St. Paid seem to speak two distinct things, calling the Pagans " idolaters," and such wicked Christians as should commit the same impiety, " worshippers of images ;" whereas the apostle uses but one and the self-same Greek word, in speaking both of Pagans and Christians ? It is a wilful and most notorious corruption ; for, in the first place, the translators, speaking of Pagans, render the word in the text " idolater ;" but, in the latter part of the verse, speaking of Chris- tians, they translate the very same Greek word, " worshipper of images," and what reason had they for this, but to make the simple and igno- rant reader think, that St. Paul speaks here not only of Pagan idolaters, but also of Catholic Christians, who reverently kneel in prayer before the holy cross, or images of our Saviour Christ and his saints ; as though the apostle had com- manded such to be avoided 1 All the other words, covetous, fornicators, extortioners, they trans- late alike, in both places, with reference both to Pagans and Christians : yet the word " idola- ters" not so, but Pagans they call " idolaters," and Christians, " worshippers of images." Was not this done on purpose, to make both seem alike, and to intimate that Christians doing reverence before sacred images, (which Protes- tants call worshipping of images,) are more to be avoided than the Pagan idolaters ? whereas the apostle, speaking of Pagans and Christians that committed one and the self-same heinous sin, commands the Christian in that case to be avoided for his amendment, leaving the Pagan to himself, and to God, as not caring to judge him. (2) Besides their falsely translating " image" instead of " idol," they have also another way of falsifying and corrupting the scripture, by intro- ducing the word " image" into the text, when, in the Hebrew or Greek, there is no such thing ; as in these notorious examples : " to the image of Baal : the image that came down from Jupi- ter :" where they are not content to understand " image" rather than " idol," but they must in- trude it into the text, though they know full well it is not in the G'-^k. Not unlike this kind of falsification, is that which has crept as a leprosy through all their Bibles, and which, it seems, they are resolved never to correct, viz., their translating sculptilc and conjlalile, graven image, and molten image ; namely, in the first commandment ; where they cannot be ignorant, that in the Greek it is " idol," and in the Hebrew, such a word as sig- nifies only a " graven thing," not including this word " image." They know that God com- manded to make the images of cherubim, and of oxen in the temple, and of the brazen serpent in the desert ; and therefore, their wisdoms might have considered, that he forbad not all graven images, but such as the Gentiles make, and worshipped for gods ; and therefore, Non 67 fades till sculptile, coincide with those words that go before, " Thou shalt have no other gods but me." For so to have an image, as to make it a god, is to maice it more than an image : and therefore when it is an idol, as were the idols of the Gentiles, then it is forbidden by this com- mandment. Otherwise, when the cross stood many yetrs upon the table, in Queen Elizabeth's chapel, pray was it against this commandment ? or was it idolatry in her majesty, and her coun- sellors, that appointed it there ? Or do their brethren the Lutherans beyond seas, at this day, commit idolatry against this commandment, who have in their churches the crucifix, and the holy images of the mother of God, and of St. John the evangelist 1 Or if the whole story of the Gospel concerning our Saviour Christ, were drawn in pictures and images in their churches, as it is in many of ours, would they say, it were a breach of this commandment ? Fie for shame ! fie for bhame ! that they should with such into- lerable impudence and deceit abuse and bewitch the ignorant people against their own knowledge and consciences. For do they not know, that God many times farbad the Jews either to marry or converse with the Gentiles, lest they might fall to wor- ship their idols, as Solomon did, and as the psalm reports of them ? This then is the meaning of fiie commandment, neither to make the idols of the Gentiles, nor any other, either like them, or as Jeroboam did in Dan and Be- thel, (a) By this commandment we are forbid- den, (not to make images, but) to make idols, or to worship images, or anything else, as God. " I do not," says St. John Damascene, " worship an image as God ; but by the images and saints I give honour and adoration to God ; for whose sake I respect and reverence those that are his friends." (b) " All over the world," says Pope Adrian I., " wheresoever Christianity is pro- fessed, sacred images are honoured by the faithful, &c. By the image of the body which the Son of God took for our redemption, wc adore our Redeemer who is in heaven ; far be it from us, that we (as some calumniate) should make gods of images ; we only express the lova and zeal we have for God, and his saints : and as we keep the books of the holy scripture, so do we the images, to remind us of our duty, still preserving entire the purity of our faith." (c). Learn from St. Jerom, after what manner they made use of holy images in his time ; he writes in the epitaph of Paula, " that she adored prostrate on the ground, before the cross, as if she saw our Lord hanging on it." And in Jonas, chap, iv., he proves, that out of the veneration and love they had for the apostles, they generally painted their images on the ves- sels, which are called Saucomaries- And will Protestants say, that this was idolatry 1 (a) 3 Kings xii. 28; Psal. cv. 19. (b) St. Jo. Damas., Orat. 3. (c) Adrian I, pontif., Ep. ad Constan. et Irenae. Im^p. 88 JLV, PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. Isaiah chap. xxx. verse 22, Habba chap. ii. verse 18. Daniel chap. xiv. verse 4. The Vulgate Latin Text. Et contaminabis laminas " sculptili- um" argenti tui, et vestimenlum " con- flatilis" auri tui, fye. (1) Quid prodest " sculptile" quia sculpsit Mud fictor suus " C07ijlatile," et "imaginemfalsam? w ~\ ylvmov < 2 ' J x arFV / xa - Quia non colo " idola" rnanufacta, eido)i.a XBiQononjia. (2) The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. And thou shalt con- taminate the plates of the " sculptiles" of thy silver, and the garment of the " molten " of thy gold. What profiteth the " thing engraven," that the forger thereof hath graven it a " molten," and a " false image V Because 1 wor- ship not " idols " made with hands. Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed A. D. 1562, 1577, 1579. Ye shall defile also the covering of the "graven images" of silver, and the or- nament of thy "mol- ten images" of gold. (0 What profiteth the " image," for the maker thereof hath made it an " image, " and a " teacher of lies ?" I worship not " things " that be made with hands. (2) The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon., an. 1683. In this also they translate " graven " and " molten im- ages, " instead of "graven" and "mol- ten things, " or " idols " What profiteth the "graven image," that the maker there- of hath graven it, the "molten image," and a " teacher of lies ?" Though they have corrected it, yet the two last chapters are omitted in their small impressions for Apocrypha. THE USE OF SACRED IMAGES. 69 (1) The two Hebrew words, pesilim and mas- secholh, which in the Latin, signify sculptilia and confiatiliu, they in their translation render into English by the word images, neither word being Hebrew for an image ; thus, if one should ask, what is the Latin for an image ? and they should tell him sculplile. Whereupon he seeing a fair painted image on a table, might perhaps say, Ecce cgregium sculptile ; which, doubtless, every boy in the grammar-school would laugh at. And this I tell them, because I perceive their endeavour to make sculptile and image of the same import ; which is most evidently false as to their great shame appears from these words of Habbakuk ; Quid prodest sculptile ? &c, which, contrary to the Hebrew and Greek, they translate, " What profiteth the image V &c, as you may see in the former page. I wish every common reader were able to dis- cern their falsehood in this place : first, they make sculpere sculptile no more than " to make an image ;" which being absurd, as I have hinted, (because the painter or embroiderer making an image cannot be said sculpere sculptile,) might teach them that the Hebrew has in it no signifi- cation of image, no more than sculpere can signify " to make an image :" and therefore the Greek Ivnritv, and the Latin sculptile, pre- cisely, for the most part, express neither more nor less than a " thing graven ;" but yet mean always by these words, a " graven idol," to which signification they are appropriated by use of holy scripture ; as are also simulacrum, idolum, conjlulile, as sometimes imago : in w T hich sense of signifying idols, if they did repeat images so often, although the translation were not precise ; yet it would be in some part toler- able, because the sense would be so ; but when they do it to bring all holy images into contempf, even the image of our Saviour Jesus Christ cru- cified, they may justly be controlled for false and heretical translators. Conjlatile here also they falsely translate image, as they did before in Isaiah, and as they have done sculptile, though two different words ; and, as is said, each signi- fying a thing different from image. But where they should translate image, as, Imaginem faham, " a false image," they translate another thing, without any necessary pretence either of Hebrew or Greek, clearly avoiding here the name of image, because this place tells them, that the holy scripture speaketh against false images ; or, as themselves translate, such im- ages as teach lies, representing false gods, which are not. Idolum nihil est, as the apostle says, et non sunt dii, qui manibus Jiunt. Which distinction of false and true images, our Protes- tant translators will not have, because they condemn all images, even holy and sacred also ; 10 and therefore make the holy scriptures to speak herein according to their own fancies. What monstrous and intolerable deceit is this ! (2) Wherein they proceed so far, that when Daniel said to the king, " I worship not idols made with hands," they make him say, " I worship not things that be made with hands," leaving out the word idols altogether, as though he had said, nothing made with hands was to be adored, not the ark, nor the propitiatory, no, nor the holy cross itself, on which our Saviour shed his precious blood. As before they added to the text, so here they diminish and take from it as boldly as if there had never been a curse denounced against such manglers of holy scrip ture. See you not, that it is not enough for them to corrupt and falsify the text, and to add and take away words and sentences at their plea- sure, but their unparalleled presumption em- boldens them to deprive the people of whole chapters and books, as the two last chapters of Daniel, and the rest which they call Apocrypha, which are quite left out in their new Bibles. When all this is done, the poor simple people must be glad of this castrated Bible, for their " only rule of faith." Vce ! v<b ! The reason they give for rejecting them is, as I told you above, " that they have formerly been doubted of;" but if you demand, why they do not, for the same reason, reject a great many more in the New Testament? the whole Church of England answers you in Mr Rogers' words, and by him, " Howbeit we judge them (viz., books formerly doubted of in the New Testa- ment) canonical, not so much because learned and godly men in the church so have, and do receive and allow of them, as fox that the Holy Spirit in our hearts doth testify that they are from God." See Rogers' Defence of the Thirty- nine Articles, pages 31, 32. So that Protestants are purely beholden to the private spirit in the hearts of their convocation-men, for almost half the NeAV Testament ; which had nei r er been ad- mitted by them in the canon of scripture,if the said " private spirit in their hearts had not testified their being from God ;" no more than the rest called Apocrypha, which they not only thrust out of the canon, but omit to publish in their smaller impressions of the Bible ; because, forsooth, the holy private spirit in their hen Us testifies them to speak too expressly against their heretical doctrines. 70 XVI. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. The Vulgate Latin Text. The true English accord- ing to the Rhemiih Translation. Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed A. d. 1562, 1577, 1579. The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon. an. 1683. Acts of the Apos. chap. ii. verse 27. Genesis ch. xxxvii. verse 35 Genesis chap. xlii. verse 38. Genesis chap. xliv. verses 29, 31. Quoniam non de- relinques " animam meam in inferno." Because thou "wilt' ! not leave my " soul in hell." Thou " shalt" not leave my " carcase in the grave." — Beza. Thou wilt not leave my " soul in the grave." — (Bible 1579.) (1) It is corrected in this translation. Desccndam adfi- lium meum lugens in " infernum, " ^», &drjg, infernus ; for so are the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words for hell. (2) I will go down to my son into " hell " mourning. I will go down into " the grave un- to" my son mourn- ing.^) I will go down into the " grave." Deducetis canos rneos cum dolore ad " inferos." You will bring down my grey hairs with sorrow unto " hell." Instead of" hell," they say "grave." Deducetis canos meos cum mozrore ad " inferos." — With sorrow unto " hell." — With sorrow unto " the grave." 3 Kings chap. ii. verses 6, 9. — Ad " inferos." — Unto "hell." — "To the grave." For " hell," they also say, " grave." — With sorrow unto the " grave." — " To the grave." LIMBUS PATRUM AND PURGATORY, 71 The doctrine of our pretended reformers is, that "there was never, from the beginning of the world, any other place for souls, after this life, but only two, to wit, heaven for the blessed, and hell for the damned." This heretical doc- trine includes many erroneous branches : First, that all the holy patriarchs, prophets, and other noly men, of the Old Testament, went not into the third place, called Abraham's bosom, or limbus patrum ; but immediately to heaven : that they were in heaven before our blessed Sa- viour had suffered death for their redemption ; whence it will follow, that our Saviour was not the first man that ascended, and entered into heaven. Moreover, by this doctrine it will follow, that our Saviour Christ descended not into any third place, in our creed called hell, to deliver the fathers of the Old Testament, and to bring them triumphantly with him into heaven : and so, that article of the Apostle's Creed, con- cerning our Saviour's descent into hell, must either be put out, as indeed it was by Beza in the confession. of his faith, printed anno 1564, or it must have some other meaning ; to wit, either the lying of the body in the grave, or, as Calvin and his followers will have it, the suf- j fering of hell torments, and pains upon the cross, (a) (1) In defence of these erroneous doctrines, they most wilfully corrupt the holy scriptures ; and especially Beza, who in his New Testament, printed by Robert Stephens, anno 1556, makes our Saviour Christ say thus to his Father, Non dcrelinqucs cadaver mcum in sepulchro ; for that which the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and St. Ilierom, according to the Hebrew, say, Non direlittques animam meant in inferno. Thus the prophet David speaks it in Hebrew : (/>) thus the Septuagint uttered it in Greek : thus the apostle St. Peter alleges it: thus St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles : and for this, St. Augustine calls lain an infidel that denies it. Yet all this would not suffice to make Beza translate it so ; because, as he says, he would avoid ( certain errors, as he calls them ) the Catholic doctrine of limbus patrum and purga- tory. And therefore, because else it would make for the Papists' doctrine, he translates animam, carcase ; infernum, grave, (c) And though our English translators are ashamed of this foul and absurd corruption, yet their intention appears to come not much, if any thing at all, short of Beza's ; for, in their Bible of 1579, they have it in the text, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave," and in the margin they put, " or life, or person ;" thereby (a) Calvin's Instit, lib. 2, c. 16, sect. 10, and in his Catechism. (b) Psal.xv. 10. (c) See Beza's Annotat. in Act. ii. advertising the reader, that if it please him, he may read thus, " Thou shalt not leave my life in the grave," or, " Thou shalt not leave my per- son in the grave :" as though either man's soul or life were in the grave, or anima might be translated person. I said, they were ashamed of Beza's translation ; but one would rather think, they purposely designed to make it worse, if possible. But you see the last translators have indeed been ashamed of it, and have cor- rected it. See you not now, what monstrous and absurd work our first pretended reformers made of the holy scriptures, on purpose: to make it speak for their own terms ? By their putting grave in the text, they design to make it a cer- tain and absolute conclusion, howsoever you interpret soul, that the holy scripture, in this place, speaks not of Christ's being in heil, but o.:lv in the grave ; and that according to his soul, life, or person ; or, as Boza says, his car- case. And so his " soul in hell," as the scrip- ture speaks, must be his carcase, soul, or life in the grave, with them. But St. Chrysostom says, ((/) " He descended to hell, that the souls which were there bound, might be locsr-d." And the words of St. Irenaeus are equally plain : •* During the three days he conversed where the dead were : ru the prophecy says of him, he remembered his holy ones who were dead, those who before slept in the land of promise ; he descended to them, to fetch them out, and Wive them." (e) (2) How absurd also is this corruption of theirs, " I will go down into the grave unto my son ?" as though Jacob thought that his son Joseph had been buried in a grave ; whereas, a little before, he said, that some " wild beast had devoured him." But if they mean the state of all dead men, by grave, why do they call it gTave, and not hell, as the word is in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin ? But I must demand of oiu latter translators, why they did not correct this, as they have done the former, seeing the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words are the same in both ? It cannot be through ignorance, I find : no, it must have been purely out of a design to make their ignorant readers believe, that the patri- arch Jacob spoke of his body only to descend into the grave to Joseph's body : for as con- cerning Jacob's soul, that, by their opinion, was to ascend immediately after his death into heaven, and not descend into the grave. But if Jacob were forthwith to ascend in soul, how could he say, as they translate, " I will go down into the grave, unto my son, mourning ?" as if, according to their opinion, he should say : " My son's body is devoured by a beast, and his soul is gone up to heaven :" well, " I will go down to him into the grave. " (d) St. Chrys. in Eph. iv. (e) S. Irenaeus, lib. 5, fine. 72 XVI. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Rook, Chapter, and Verse. Ps. lxxxv. verse 13. Ps. lxxxix. verse 49. Hosea chap. xiii. verse 14. 1 Corinth, chap. xv. verse 55. Psalm vi. verse 5. Proverbs ch. xxvii. verse 20. Hebrews chap. v. verse 7. The Vulgate Latin Text. Et eruisti animam meam ex " inferno inferiori." (1) Eruit animam suam manu " in- feri r (2) Ero mors tua, O mors, morsus tuns ero " inferne," ^"SW- Ubi est, murs, sti- mul'S tuus? ubi est " inferne" victoria tua? adq. In "inferno" autem quis conftebitur libi ? " Tnfernus" et per- ditio nunquam im- plentur. " Qui" in diebus carnis sum preces supplicationesque ad eum, qui possit ilium salvum facere a morte, cum clamore valido et lachrymis offer ens, exauditus est "pro sua reve- renfia," &nb ttj? £vXot- §sla?. (3) The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. Thou hast deli- vered my soul from the " lower hell." Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of " hell ?" O death, I will be thy death ; I will be thy sting, O " hell." Corruptions in the Pro- testant BiUes, printed a. D. 1562, 1577, 1579. Where is, O death, thy sting ? where is, O "hell," thy vic- tory. But in "hell," who shall confess to thee? " Hell and de- struction are never full. " Who" in the days of his flesh, with a strong cry and tears, offering prayers and suppli- cations to him that could save him from death, was heard " for his reverence." Thou hast deli- vered my soul from the " lowest grave." (1) Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the "grave?" (2) — O "grave," I will be thy destruc- tion. O death, where is thy sting? O " grave," where is thy victory ? They say, " in the grave." " The grave" and destruction are ne- ver full. " Which" in days of his flesh, "offered up" prayers, with strong " crying, un- to" him that " was able to" save him from death, " and" was heard, " in that which he feared." (3) The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon., an. 1683. Instead of "lower" hell, thev say, "low- est" hell"! Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the "grave 7 " O death, I will be thy " plagues ;" O " grave," I will be thy destruction. For "hell," they say, " grave." In the " grave," who shall "give thee thanks ?" Corrected "Who" in the days, &c, " and was heard in that he feared." LIMBUS PATRUM AND PURGATORY. 73 (1) Understand, good reader, that in the Old Testament none ascended into heaven. " This way of the holies," as the apostle says, " being not yet made open ;" (a) because our Saviour Christ himself was to " dedicate that new and living way," and begin the entrance in his own person, and by his passion to open heaven ; for none but he was found worthy to open the seals, and to read the book. Therefore, as I said before, the common phrase of the holy scriptures, in the Old Testament, is, even of the best of men, as well as others, that dying, they went down, ad inferos, or ad infernum ; that is, descended not to the grave, which received their bodies only ; but ad inferos, " into hell," a com- mon receptacle for their souls. So we say in our creed, that our Saviour Christ himself descended into hell, according to his soul. So St. Hierom, speaking of the state of the Old Testament, (b) says, " If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were in hell, who was in the kingdom of heaven ?" and again, " Before the coming of Christ, Abraham was in hell ; after his coming, the thief was in paradise." And lest it might be objected, that Lazarus being in Abraham's bosom, saw the rich glutton afar off in hell : and that therefore both Abra- ham and Lazarus seem to have been in heaven, the same holy doctor resolves it, that Abraham and Lazarus also were in hell, but in a place of great rest and refreshing ; and therefore very far off from the miserable wretched glutton, that lay in torments, which is also agreeable to St. Augustine's interpretation of this place, (c) in the Psalm, " Thou hast delivered my soul from the lower hell," who makes this sense of it, that the lower hell is the place wherein the damned are toi merited ; the higher hell is that wherein the souls of the just rested, calling both places by the name of hell. To avoid this dis- tinction of the inferior and higher hell, our first translators, instead of lower hell, rendered it lowest grave ; which they would not for shame have done, had they not been afraid to say in any place of scripture (how plain soever) that any soul was delivered or returned from hell, lest it might then follow, that the patriarchs and our Saviour Christ were in such a hell ; and though the last translation has restored the word hell in this place ; yet so loath were our translators to hear the scripture speak of limbus patrum or purgatory, that they still retained the superlative lowest, lest the comparative lower (which is the true translation) might seem more clearly to evince this distinction between the superior and inferior hell ; though they could not at the same time be ignorant of this (a) Heb. ix. 8; x. 20. (b) Epitaph. Nepot. cap. 3. (c) St. Aug. in Ps. lxxxv. 13. sentence of Tertullian : I know that the bosom of Abraham was no heavenly place, but only the higher hell, or the higher part of hell." (d) Nor can I believe, but they must have read these words in St. Chrysostom, upon that place of Esai : " I will break the brazen gates, and bruise the iron bars in pieces, and will open the treasure dark- ened," <fcc So he (the prophet) calls hell, says he ; " for although it were hell, yet it held the holy souls, and precious vessels, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." (e) (2) And thus all along, wherever they find the word hell, that is, where it signifies the place in which the holy fathers of the Old Testament rested, called by the church li?nbus palrum, they are sure to translate it grave ; a word as much contrary to the signification of the Greek, Hebrew, or Latin words, as bread is to the Latin word lac. If I ask them, what is Hebrew, Greek, or Latin for hell, must they not tell me, ^jx, y dng, infernus ? If I ask them, what words they will bring from those languages to signify grave, must they not say, "OP, i&<fog, sepulchrum ? With what face then can they look upon these wilful corruptions of theirs 1 (3) Note here another most damnable corrup- tion of theirs ; instead of translating as all anti- quity, with a general and full consent, has ever done in this place, " that Christ was heard of his Father, for his reverence ;" they read, " that he was heard in that which he feared ;" or, as this last Bible has it, " and was heard in that he feared." And who taught them this sense of the text ? Doubtless Beza ; whom, for the most part, they follow ; and he had it from Calvin, who, he says, was the first that ever found out this interpretation. And why did Calvin invent this, but to defend his blasphemous doctrine, " that our Saviour Jesus Christ, upon the cross, was horribly afraid of damnation : and that he was in the very sorrows and torments of the damned : and that this was his descending into hell : and that otherwise he descended not." Note this, good reader, and then judge to what wicked end this translation tends. Who has ever heard of greater blasphemy ; and yet they dare presume to force the scripture, by their false translation, to back them in it; " he was heard in that which he feared ;" as if they should say, he was delivered from damnation, and the eternal pains of hell, of which he was sore afraid. What dare they not do, who tremble not at this 1 (d) Tertul. 1, 4, adversus Marcion. (c) St. Chrysobt. Horn, quod Christus sit Deus, to. 5. 74 XVII. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. Romans chap. ii. verse 26. St. Luke chap. i. verse 6. Apocalyp. chap. xix. verse 8. 2 Tiinoth. chap. iv. verse 8. 2 Thessal. chap. i. verses 5, 6. Hebrews chap. vi. verse 10, The Vulgate Latin Text. Si igitur prceputium "justitias," dixaiw. /uecTuJegis custodial, 4-c. (i) Erant autem "justi," dixawl, amho ante Dcum, incedentes in omnibus mandatis et " justificationibus, " xai dixixiw/.taoi, Domi- ni sine querela. Byssinum enim "justificationes" sunt sanctorum,T« dixaib)- fllXTOC. In reliquo, reposita est mihi,corona *'jus- titice," rtjs Sixmoov- vr\g,quam reddet mihi Dominus in ilia die "Justus" judex, 6 dixaiog xqnrjg andw- oaei, (SfC (2) — In exemplum " justi" dixmag, ju- dicii Dei, ut digni habeamini in regno Dei, pro quo et patiamini, si tamen justum est, dtxatvot' sgi,apud Deum,retri- buere tribulationem Us qui vos tribulant. Non enim " injus- tus," adixog, Deus, ut obliviscatur operis vcslri, <$fc. The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed a. d. 1562, 1577, 1579. If then the pre- puce keep the "jus- tices" of the law,&c. And they were both "just" before God, walking in all the commandments and "justifications" of our Lord, without blame. For the silk are the "justifications" of saints. Concerning the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of "justice," which our Lord will ren- der to me in that day, a just Judge. For an example of the "just" judg- ment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the king- dom of God, for which you suffer, that yet it be "just" with God to repay tribulations to them that vex you, and to you that are vex- ed, rest with us, &c. For God is not " unjust," that he should forget your works, &c. If the uncircum- cision keep the "or- dinances"of the law. (1) And they were both "righteous" be- fore God, walking in all the command- ments and " ordi- nances" of the Lord blameless. For the "fine linen" are the " righteous- ness" of saints. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- ness," which the Lord the " righte- ous"Judge shall give me, &c. (2) Rejoice, &c which is a token of the " righteous" judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye suffer. For it is a " righte- ous"thing with God, to recompence tri- bulation to them that trouble you, and to you that are troubled, rest. God is not "un- righteous" to forget your good works and labour. The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon. an. 1C83. If therefore the uncircumcision keep the "righteousness" of the law. And they were both "righteous" be- fore God, walking in all the command- ments and " ordi- nances" of the Lord blameless. For the " fine linen" is the " righ- teousness" of saints For " justice, they translate "righ- teousness :" and for a "just" judge, they say a " righteous" judge. Here also they say " righteous" judg- ment, and " righ- teous thing," instead of "just," &c. For God is not " unrighteous," &c. JUSTIFICATION, AND THE REWARD OF GOOD WORKS. 75 (1) As the article of justification has many /anches, and as their errors therein are mani- oklj so are their English translations accord- ingly in many respects false and heretical : first, against justification by good works, and by keeping the commandments, they suppress the very name of justification in all such places where the word signifies the commandments, or the law of God ; and where the Greek signi- fies most exactly justices and justifications, according as our Vulgate Latin translates, justitias and justificationes, there the English translators say, statutes or ordinances ; as you see in these examples, where their last transla- tion, because they would seem to be doing, though to small purpose, changes the first cor- ruption, " ordinances of the law," into righ- teousness ; another word, as far from what it should have been, in comparison, as the first : and to what end is all this, but to avoid the term justifications ? they cannot be ignorant how different this is from the Greek, which they pretend to translate. In the Old Testament, perhaps they will pretend that they follow the Hebrew word, which is fprt ; and therefore, they translate statutes and ordinances ; (righteousness too, if they please ;) but even there also, are not the seventy Greek interpreters sufficient to teach them the signification of the Hebrew word, who always interpret it, dixatojuaia ; in English, justifications ? But admit that they may control the Septua- gint in the Hebrew ; yet in the New Testament they do not pretend to translate the Hebrew, but rather the Greek. What reason have they then for rejecting the word just and justifica- tions ? Sureiy, no other reason, but that which their master Beza gives for the same thing ; saying, that " he rejected the word justificationes, on purpose to avoid the cavils that might be made from this word, against justification by faith. "(a) As if he should say, this word, truly translated according to the Greek, might minister great occasion to prove, by so many places of scripture, that man's justification is not by faith only, but also by keeping the law, and observing the commandments of God ; which, therefore, are called according to the Greek and Latin, justificationes, because they concur to justification, and making a man just : as by St. Luke's words, also, is well signified ; which have this allusion, that they were both just, be- cause they walked in all the justifications of our Lord ; which they designedly suppress by other ■words. (2) And hereof it also rises, that when Beza (a) Beza Annot. in Luk. i. could not possibly avoid the word in his transla- tion, Apoc. xix. 8, " the silk is the justification of saints;" he helps the matter with this commenta- ry, " That justifications are those good works, which are the testimony of a lively faith."(6) But our English translators have found another way to avoid the word, even in their transla- tions : for they, because they could not say ordinances, translate, " the righteousness of saints;" abhorring the word "justifications of saints ;" because they know full well, that this word includes the good w r orks of saints : which works, if they should in translating, call their justifications, it would rise up against their " jus- tifications by faith only :" therefore, where they cannot translate ordinances and statutes, which are terms farthest off from justification, they say, righteousness, making it also the plural number ; whereas the more proper Greek word for righteousness is evfli/xj?.;, (Dan. vi. 22,) which there some of them translate, unguiltiness, because they will not translate exactly if you would hire them. And by their translating righteous, instead of just, they bring it, that Joseph was a righteous man, rather than a just man ; and Zachary and Elizabeth were both righteous before God, rather than just ; because when a man is called just, it sounds that he is so indeed, and not by imputation only. Note also, that where faith is joined with the word just, they omit not to translate it just, " the just shall live by faith," to signify, that "justification is by faith alone, "(c) (3) These places, (2 Tim., 2 Thess., and Heb.) do very fairly discover their false and corrupt intentions, in concealing the word jus- tice in all their Bibles ; for, if they should translate truly, as they ought to do, it would infer, (d) that men are justly crowned in heaven for their good works upon earth, and it is God's justice so to do ; and that he will do so, because he is a just Judge, and because he will show his just judgment ; and he will not forget so to do, because he is not unjust; as the ancient fathers do interpret and expound. St. Augustine most excellently declares, that it is God's grace, favour, and mercy in making us, by his grace, to live and believe well, and so to be worthy of heaven ; and his justice and just judgment, to render and repay eternal life for those works which himself wrought in us : which he thus expresses, " How should he render or repay as a just judge, unless he had given it as a mer- ciful Father ?" (e) (b) Beza Annot. in Apoc. xix. (c) Rom. i. (</) St. Chrys. Theodoret, Oecumen.upon these places. (e) St. Aug. de Gra. et lib Arbitr., cap. Q. 76 XVIII. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. Romans chap. viii. verse 18. Hebrews chap. x. verse 29. Coloss. chap. i. verse 12. Ps. cxviii. verse 112. Hebrews chap. ii. verse 9. The Vulgate Latin Text. "Existimo," Xoyl'Qo- ftai, enim quod non sunt "condignce pas- siones" hujus tempo- ris ad futuram glo- riutn, 6fC, ax «£t« nyog xi]v neXXaoav do^av. (1) Quanto magis pu- tatis " deteriora me- reri, supplicia," noaot Xeiqovog «£ loid^a ex at, TiftoQiag, qui Filium Dei conculcaverit, eye. (2) Gratias agentes Deo Patri, qui " dig- nos" ixuiioaavTi^nos fecit in partem "sor- tis" sanctorum in lu- mine. (3) " Inclinavi" cor meum ad faciendas "justifications tuas in eternum, propter retributionem" (4) Eum au tern qui modico quam angeli " minoratus est," vi- demus Jesum, prop- ter "passionem" mor- tis gloria el honor e coronatum. (5) The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. For "I think" that the " passions" of this time are not " condign to" the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us. How much more, think you, doth he " deserve worse punishments," who hath trodden the Son of God under- foot? Giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us " worthy" unto the part of the " lot" of the saints in the light. I have " inclined" my heart to do thy "justifications for ever for reward." But him that was a little " lessened under" the angels, we see Jesus, be- cause of the " pas- sion'^ death,crown- ed with glory and honour. Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed A. D. 15G2, 1577, 1579. For I am " cer- tainly persuaded," that the "afflictions" of this time are not "worthy of" the glory which shall be in us. (1) How much "sorer shall he be punish- ed," which treadeth under-foot the Son of God ? (2) Giving thanks to God the Father, " that" hath made us " meet to be par- takers" of the " in- heritance" of the saints in light. (3) I have " applied" my heart to fulfil thy "statutes always even unto the end." (4) We see Jesus crowned with glory and honour," which" was a " little infe- rior to" the angels, " through" the "suf- fering" of death. (5) The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon. an. 1683. For " I reckon" that the sufferings of this present time, are not " worthy to be compared with" the glory which shall be revealed in us. Of how much "sorer punishment," suppose ye, shall he be thought " wor- thy" who hath trod- den under-foot the Son of God. Giving thanks un- to the Father that hath made us"meet," &c. — " Even unto the end." But we sec Jesus, who was made a "little lower than" the angels, for the " suffering" of death crowned with glory and honour. MERITS, AND MERITORIOUS WORKS. (1) I shall not say much of this gross cor- ruption, because they have been pleased to correct it in their last translation : nor will I dwell on their first words, " I am certainly persuaded," which is a far greater asseveration than the apostle uses ; I wonder how they could thus translate that Greek word hylZo/uxi ; but that they were resolved nor only to translate the apostle's words falsely, against meritorious works, but also to avouch and affirm the same forcibly. And for the words following, they are not in Greek, as they translate in their first English Bibles, " the afflictions are not worthy of the glory," &c, because they will not have our suffering here, though for Christ's sake, to merit eternal glory ; but thus, " The afflictions of this time, are not equal, correspondent, or comparable to the glory to come," because they are short, but the glory is eternal ; the afflic- tions are small and few, in comparison ; the glory great and abundant, above measure. By this the apostle would encourage us to suffer ; as he does also in another place very plainly, when he says, " Our tribulation which presently is for a moment and light, worketh (' prepareth,' says their Bible, 1577, with a very false mea- ning) above measure exceedingly, an eternal weight of glory in us." See you not here, that short tribulation in this life " works," that is causes, purchases, and deserves an eternal weight of glory in the next ? And what is that, jut to be meritorious, and worthy of the same ? As St. Cyprian says, (a) " O what manner of day shall come, my brethren, when our Lord shall recount the merits of every one, and pay us the reward, or stipend of faith and devotion !" Here you see are merits, and the reward for the same. Likewise St. Augustine : (b) " The ex- ceeding goodness of God has provided this, that the labours should soon be ended, but the rewards of the merit shall endure without end ; the apostle testifying, the passions of this time are not comparable," &c. " For we shall re- ceive greater bliss, than are the afflictions of all passions whatsoever." (2) How deceitfully they deal with the scripture in this place ! One of their Bibles (c) very falsely and corruptly leaving out the words " worthy of," or " deserve," saying, " How much sorer shall he be punished ?" &c. And the last of their translations adding as falsely to the text the word " thought :" ** How much sorer pun- ishment shall he be thought worthy of," &c. ; and this is done to avoid this consequence, which must have followed by translating the Greek word sincerely ; to wit, if the Greek here, by there own translation, signifies " to be worthy of," or " to deserve," being spoken of pains or punishments deserved ; then must they grant us the same word to signify the same thing elsewhere in the New Testament, when it is spoken of deserving Heaven, and the kingdom (a) St. Cyprian, Ep. 56, v. 3. (b) St. August. Serm. 57, de Sanct. (c) Bible of 1562. 11 of God, as in Luke, xx., xxi., where, if they translate according to the Greek, which they pretend to, they should say, " may be worthy," and " they that are worthy ;" and not according to the Vulgate Latin, which I see, they are willing to follow, when they think it may make the more for their turn. (3) The Greek word Ixavuoui, they translate to make " meet" in this place, but in other places (viz. Mat. iii. 8, 11, and viii. 8,) they translate Ixavbg, " worthy." And why could they not follow the old Latin interpreter one step further ? seeing this was the place where they should have showed their sincerity, and have said, that God made us " worthy" of heavenly bliss ; because they cannot but know, that if Ixuvdg, be "worthy," then Ixuribaon must needs be " to make worthy." But they follow their old master, Beza, (d) who tells them, that here, and there, and soforth, 1 have followed the old Latin interpreter, trans- lating it " worthy," but in such and such a place (meaning this for one) I choose rather to say " meet." What presumption is here ! The Greek fathers interpret it " worthy." St. Chry- sostom, upon this place, says, (e) " God doth not only give us society with the saints, but makes us also worthy to receive so great a dig- nity." And OEcumenius says : that " it is God's glory to make his servants worthy of such good things : and that it is their glory to be made worthy of such things." (/) (4) Here is yet another most notorious cor- ruption against " merits :" " I have applied my heart to fulfil thy statues, always, even unto the end ;" and for their evasion here, they fly to the ambiguity of the Hebrew word Sp?> as if the seventy interpreters were not sufficient to de- termine the same ; but because they find it am- biguous, they are resolved to take their liberty, though contrary to St. Hierom, and the ancient fathers, both Greek and Latin. (5) In fine, so obstinately are they set against merits, and meritorious works, that some of them think, (g) that even Christ himself did not merit his own glory and exaltation : for making out of which error, I suppose, they have trans- posed the words of this text, thereby making the apostle say, that Christ was inferior to angels by his suffering death ; that is, says Beza, " for to suffer death ;" by which they quite ex- clude the true sense, that, " for suffering death, he was crowned with glory ;" which are the true words and meaning of the apostle. But in their last translations they so place the words that they will have it left so ambiguous, as yoi may follow which sense you will. Intolerable is their deceit ! (J) Beza Annot. in Matth. iii. Nov. Test. 1556. (e) Oecum. in Caten. (/) St. Bazil. in Orat. Litnr. (g) See Calvin, in Epist. ad Philip. 78 XIX. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. St. John chap. i. verse 12. 1 Corinth, chap. xv. verse 10. Ephesians chap. iii. verse 12. 2 Corinth, chap. vi. verse 1. Romans chap. v. verse 6. 1 Ep. John chap. v. verse 3. St. Matth. chap. xix. verse 11. The Vulgate Latin Text. Quotquot autem receperunt cum, de- dit eis " potestatem" cSuoluv, jilios Dei fieri. (1) — Scd abundan- tius Mis omnibus la- bor avi : non ego au- tem, sed gratia Dei " mccum," i) x&Q l Z T « Oeu )) ovv ifxoi. (2) In quo habemus •' Jiduciam" ct " ac- cessum" in confiden- tia per fidem ejus. (3) " Adjuvantes," ov- vEoyovvTEg,autem ex- hortamur, ne in va- cuum gratiam Dei recipiatis. (4) TJt quid enim Christ us, cum adhuc " infirmi essemus," ovtwv Tjfiwv <bodevibv : secundum tempuspro " impiis" mortuus est. (5) Hcbc est enim charitas Dei, ut mandata ejus custo- diamus : et mandata ejus " gravia" non sunt, ai iiToXul fia- qslui sx elalv. (6) Qui dixit illis, " non omnes capiunt, d n&vreg /htouai, ver- 'um istud, sed qui- bus datum est. (7) The true English accord- ing to the Khemish Translation. But as many as received him, he gave them " power" to be made the sons of God. — But I have la- boured more abun- dantly than all they; yet not I, but the grace of God " with In whom we have " affiance" and " ac- cess" in confidence, by the faith of him. And " we help- ing," do exhort, that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For, why did Christ, when we as yet " were weak," according to the time, die for the " impious." For this is the charity of God, that we keep his com- mandments : and his commandments are not " heavy." — All men " do hot" receive this saying. Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed a. d. 1562, 1577, 1579. But as many as received him, he gave them " prero- gative" (" Dignity," says Beza) to be the sons of God. (1) — Yet not I, but the grace of God " which is" with me. (2) " By" whom we have "boldness" and "entrance, with the" confidence " which is" by the faith of him ; or " in him," as Beza has it. (3) And wo " God's labourers," &c. In another Bible, We " together are God's labourers." (4) Christ, when we were yet of " no strength," died for the " ungodly." (5) — And his com- mandments are not " grievous." (6) — All men " can- not" receive this saying. (7) The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon., an, 1683. Corrected. — Yet not I, but the grace of God " which was" with me. Corrected. Corrected. For when we were yet " without strength," in due time Christ died for the " ungodly " — Instead of, his commandments are not " heavy," they say, are not " grie- vous." — All men " can- not" receive this saying. FREE WILL. 79 (1) Against free will, instead of power, they, in their translation, use the word preroga- tive ; and Beza, the word dignity ; protesting (a) that whereas, in other places, he often trans- lated this Greek word, power and authority, here he jejected both indeed against free will ; which, he says, the sophists would prove out of this place, reprehending Erasmus for following them in his translation. But whereas the Greek word is indifferently used to signify dignity or liberty, he that will translate either of these, and exclude the other, restrains the sense of the Holy Ghost, and determines it to his own fancy. Now we may as well translate liberty, as Beza does dignity ; but we must not abridge the sense of the Holy Ghost to one particular meaning, and therefore we translate potcstas and power, words indifferently signifying both dignity and liberty. But in their last Bible it is corrected. It would have been well, if they had corrected this next, though I think of the two, they have made it worse ; translating, " not I, but the grace of God which was with mc," (" which is with me,) say their old Bibles." (2) By which falsity, they here also restrain the sense of the Holy Ghost ; whereas, if they had translated according to sincerity, " Yet not I, but the grace of God with me," the text might have had not only the sense they confine it to, but also this, " not I, but the grace of God which laboured with me." So that, by this latter, it may be evidently signified, that the grace of God, and the apostle, both laboured together ; and not only grace, as if the apostle had done nothing, like unto a block, or forced only; but that the grace of God did so concur, as the principal agent, with all his labours, that his free will wrought with it : and this is the most approved interpretation of this place, which their translation, by putting, " which is," or, " which was," into the text, excludes. But they reprehend the Vulgate Latin inter- preter for neglecting the Greek article, not con- sidering that the same many times cannot be expressed in Latin ; the Greek phrase having this prerogative above the Latin, to represent a thing more briefly, commodiously, and significantly by the article, as Jacobus Zr.bedmi, Jacobus Alplicei, Judas Jacobi, Maria C/eophce : in all which, though the Greek article is not expressed, yet they are all sincerely translated into Latin. Nor can the article be expressed without adding more than the article, and so not without adding to the text, as they do very boldly in such speeches, throughout the New Testament. Yea, they do it when there is no article in the Greek, and that purposely : as in this of the Ephesians, (3) where they say, " Confidence is by faith," as though there were no "confidence by works." The Greek, f v lenoidrjosi. dia itj$ mqeoi;, bears not that translation, unless there were an article after confidence, which is not ; but they add it to the text : as also Beza does the like, in Rom. viii. 2, and their English Geneva Testa- (a) Beza Nov. Test 1580. ments after him, to maintain the heres)' of im- putative justice : as in his annotations he plainly deduces, saying confidently, " I doubt not, but a Greek article must be understood ;" and therefore, forsooth, put into the text also. He does the same in St. James ii. 20, still debating the case in his annotations, w r hy he does so ; and when he has concluded in his fancy, that this or that is the sense, he puts it so in the text, and translates accordingly. But if they say, that in this place of the Corinthians there is a Greek article, and therefore they do well to express it : I answer, first, the article may then be expressed in translation, when there can be but one sense of the same. Secondly, it must be expressed, when we cannot otherwise give the sense of the place, as Mat. i. 6- sx irjg is 'Ovals, Ex ea qua fuit Uria, where the Vulgate interpreter omits it not ; but in this of St. Paul, which we now speak of, where the sense is doubtful, and the Latin expresses the Greek sufficiently otherwise, he leaves it also doubtful and indifferent, not* abridging it, as they do, saying, " the grace of God which is wiih me." (1) Again, in this other place of the Corin- thians, where the apostle calls himself and his fellow preachers, " God's co-adjutors, co-la- bourers," or such as labour and work with God, how falsely have their first translators made it, let themselves, who have corrected it in their last Bible, judge. (5) And in this next, the apostle's words do not signify, that " we had no strength," or, " were without strength ;" but that we were " weak, feeble, infirm :" and this they corrupt to defend their false doctrine, " that free will was altogether lost by Adam's sin." (b) (c) (6) When they have bereaved and spoiled a man of his free-will, and left him without all strength, they go so far in this point, that they say, the regenerate themselves have no free -will and ability ; no, not by and with the grace of God, to keep the commandment. To this pur- pose, they translate, his commandments are not " grievous," rather than " are not heavy ;" for in saying, " they are not heavy," it would follow, they might be kept and observed ; but in saying " they are not grievous," that may be true, were they never so heavy or impossible, through pa- tience ; as when a man cannot do as he would ; yet it grieves him not, being patient and wise, because he is content to do as he can, and is able. (7) Our Saviour says not in this place of St. Matthew, as they falsely translate, " All men cannot," but, " All men do not ;" and therefore, St. Augustine says, " Because all will not." (J) But when our Saviour says afterwards, " He that can receive, let him receive :" he adds another Greek word to express that sense, 6 dwauEvog xwoetv xcogsiTw whereas by the Pro- testant translation, he might have said, 6 xmqmv Xuqeitci). Vide above. (b) Whitaker, p. 18. (c) See Beza's Annot, in Rom. ii. 27. (d) St. August, de Gra. et lib. Arbitr. cap. 4. BO XX. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. The Vulgate Latin Text. The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. Corruptions in the Pro testant Bibles, printed A. d. 1562, 1577, 1573. The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon. an. 1683. Romans chap. v. verse 18. Romans chap. iv. verse 3. 2 Corinth, chap. v. ver. ult. Ephesians chap. i. verse 6. Daniel chap. vi. verse 22. Romans chap. iv. verse 6. " Tgitur" sicut per unius delictum in omnes homines in condemnationsrn : sic etptr unius juslitium in omnes homines in just.fcationem vitce. (1) Credidit Abraham Deo, et reputatum est Mi "adjustitiam" eig SixuioovvTjv. (2) — Ut nos effice- remur "justitia" Dei ipso, Sutaioavvrj Qeu sv at/io). (3) In qua " gratifi- cavit,exotQiTcoasv, nos in dilecto filio suo. — Quia coram co "justitia inventa est in me." (5) Sicut et David dicit, i-sysl, beatitu- dinem hominis cui Dcus accepto fert justitiam sine operi- bus, (6) Therefore, as by the offence of one, unto all men to con- demnation : so also by the "justice" of one, unto all men to justification of life. Abraham believed God, and it was re- puted him " to jus- tice." — That we might be made the "jus- tice" of God in him. Wherein he hath " gratified us" in his beloved Son. — Because before him "justice was found in me." As David also "termeth" the bless- edness of a man, "to whom" God " repu- teth justice" with out works. " Likewise then," as by the offence of one, " the fault came on" all men to condemnation : so by the " justifying" of one " the benefit aboundeth towards" all men, to " the" justification of life. (1) Abraham believed God, and it was re- puted to him " for justice." (2) That we " by his means" should be " that righteousness which before" God " is allowed." (3) Wherein he hath "made us accepted," (or " freely accep- ted") in his beloved Son. (4) Because before him, " my justice was found out." (5) As David " de- scribeth" the bless- edness of "the" man, "unto whom" God " imputeth righte- ousness." (6) Therefore, as by the offences of one, "judgment came up- on" all men to con- demnation : even so by the " righteous- ness of of one,"the free gift came upon" all men unto justifi- cation of life. And it was ac- counted unto him "for righteousness." That we might be made the " righte- ousness" of God in him. Wherein he hath made us "accepted" in the Beloved. Forasmuch as be- fore him"innocency was found in me." Instead of " ter- meth" they say,"de- scribeth ;" and for justice," they have " righteousness." IXIIEREXT JUSTICE. 81 (1) Beza, in his annotations on Rom. v. 18, protests, that his adding to this text is especially against inherent justice, which, he says, is to be avoided as nothing more. His false translation you see our English Bibles follow ; and have added no fewer than six words in this one verse ; yea, their last translations have added seven, and some of these words much different from those of their former brethren ; so that it is impossible to make them agree betwixt themselves. I cannot but admire to see how loath they are to suffer the holy scripture to speak in behalf of inherent justice. (2) So also in this next place, where they add the word " for" to the text, " and it was reputed to him for justice," for " righteousness," says their last righteous work ; for the longer they live, the further they are divided from justice ; because they would have it to be nothing else, but instead and place of justice : thereby taking away true inherent justice, even in Abraham himself. But admit this translation of theirs, which, notwithstanding in their sense, is false, must it needs signify not true inherent justice, because the scripture says, it was reputed for justice ? Do such speeches import, that it is not so indeed, but is only reputed so? Then if we should say, this shall be reputed to thee " for" sin, "for" a great benefit, &c, it should signify it is no sin indeed, nor great benefit. But let them remem- ber, that the scripture uses to speak of sin and of justice alike, reputabitur tibi in peccatum, " It shall be reputed to thee for sin," as St. Hierom translates it. (a) If then justice only be reputed, sin also is only reputed : if sin be in us indeed, justice is in us indeed. And the Greek fathers make it plain, that " to be re- puted unto justice," is to have true justice indeed ; interpreting St. Paul's words, that " Abraham obtained justice," " Abraham was justified ;" for that is, say they, " It was reputed him to justice." And St. James testifies, that " In that Abraham was justified by faith and works, the scripture was fulfilled," which says, " It was reputed him to justice," Gen. xv. 6, in which words of Genesis there is not " for justice," or " instead of justice," as the English Bibles have it, for the Hebrew np-& "6 mom should not be so trans- lated, especially when they meant it was so counted or reputed for justice, that it was not justice indeed. (3) Again, how intolerably have their first translations corrupted St. Paul's words, 2 Cor. v., which though their latter Bibles have undertaken to correct, yet their heresy would not suffer them to amend also the word (a) Deut, xxiii. andxxiv.; CEcum. in Caten. Photius, chap. ii. ver. 23. " righteousness !" It is death to them to hear of justice. (4) Here again they make St. Paul say, that God made us " accepted," or " freely accepted in his beloved Son," (their last translation leaves out Son very boldly, changing the word his into the, " accepted in the Beloved,") as if they had a mind to say, that " in, or among all the beloved in the world, God has only accepted us :" as they make the angel in St. Luke say to our blessed Lady, " Hail ! freely beloved," to take away all grace inherit and resident in the blessed Virgin, or in us : whereas the apostle's word signifies that we are truly made grateful, or gracious and acceptable ; that is to say, that our soul is inwardly endued and beautified with grace, and the virtues proceeding from it ; and conse- quently, is holy indeed before the sight of God, and not only so accepted or reputed, as they imagine. Which St. Chrysostom sufficiently testifies in these words : " He said not, which he freely gave us, but, wherein he made us grate- ful ; that is, not only delivered us from sins, but also made us beloved and amiable, made our soul beautiful and grateful, such as the angels and archangels desire to see, and such as him- self is in love withal, according to that in the Psalm, the king shall desire or be in love with thy beauty." (b) St. Hierom speaking of bap- tism, says : " Now thou art made clean in the layer : and of thee it is said, who is she that ascends white 1 and let her be washed, yet she cannot keep her purity, unless she be strength- ened from our Lord ;" (c) whence it is plain, that by baptism original sin being expelled, in- herent justice takes place in the soul, rendering it clean, white, and pure ; which purity the soul, strengthened by God's grace, may keep and conserve. (5) Another falsification they make here in Daniel, translating : "My justice was found out ;" and in another Bible, " My unguiltiness was found out," to draw it from inherent justice, which was in Daniel. In their last edition you see they are resolved to correct their brethren's fault; notwithstanding though they mend one, yet they make another ; putting innocency in- stead of justice. It is very strange that our English Protestant divines should have such a pique against justice, that they cannot endure to see it stand in the text, where the Chaldee, Greek, and Latin place it. (6) It must needs be a spot of the same infection, that they translate " describeth" here ; as though imputed righteousness (for so they had rather say, than justice) were the description of blessedness. (6) St. Chrys. in this place of the Ephesians. (c) St. Hierom., lib. 3, contra Pelagianos. 82 XXI. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS IN The Book, Chapter, and Verse. Hebrews chap. x. verse 22. 1 Corinth, chap. xiii. verse 2. 1 Corinth. chap. xii. verse 31, St. James chap. ii. verse 22. St. Luke chap, xviii. verse 42. St. Mark chap. x. verse 52, and chap. viii. verse 48. The Vulgate Latin Text. " Accedamus" cum vero corde in"pleni- tudine" fidei, ix nlrj- Et si habuero "omnem" naaav,fi. dem, ita ut monies transferam charita- tem autem non ha- buero, nihil sum. (2) Et adhuc " exccl- lentiorem viam" vo- bis demonstro. Vides quoniam fides " co-operaba- tur," ow^oyet, operi- bus illius. (3) Et Jesus dixit Mi, respice, fides tua te " salvum fe- cit," ■§ nlgig ad asam- xi ae. (4) Vade, fides tua "te salvum fecit." The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. Let us "approach" with a true heart, in " fulness" of faith. And if I should have " all" faith, so that I could remove mountains,and have not charity, I am nothing. And yet I show you a " more excel- lent way." Seest thou that faith " did work with" his works. — Thy faith hath " made thee whole." — Thy faith hath " made thee safe." Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed A. D. 1562, 1577, 1579. Let us " draw nigh" with a true heart, in " assu- rance" of faith. (1) If I should have "whole" faith. "To- tam fidem " saith Beza, for " omnem fidem." (2) Beza, in Testa- ment, 1556, trans- lates it : " Behold, moreover also," I show you a way " most diligently." And in another, viz., of 1565: And "be- sides," 1 show you a way"to excellency." Thou seest that faith " was a helper of" his works. — Beza. (3) — Thy faith hath " saved thee." (4) — Thy faith hath " saved thee." The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon., an. 1683. Let us " draw near" with a true heart, in " full as- surance" of faith. "All" faith. • Corrected. Corrected. — Thy faith hath " saved thee." Corrected. DEFENCE OF THE SUFFICIENCY OF FAITH ALONE. 83 All other means of salvation being thus taken away, as you have already seen, their only and last refuge is faith alone : and that not the Christian faith contained in the articles of the creed, and such like ; but a special faith and con- fidence, whereby every man must assuredly believe, that himself is the son of God, and one of the elect predestined to salvation. If he be not, by faith, as sure of this, as of Christ's incar- nation and death, he shall never be saved. (1) For maintaining this heresy, they force the Greek text to express the very word of assurance and certainty thus : " Let us draw high with a true heart, in assurance of faith :" their last translation makes it, " in full assurance of faith ;" adding the word full to what it was before ; and that, either because they would be thought to draw that word from the original, or else because they would thereby signify such an assurance or certainty, as should be beyond all manner of doubt or fear ; thereby excluding not only charity, but even hope also, as unneces- sary. (2) The word in the Greek is far different from their expression ; for it signifies, properly, the fulness and completion of any thing ; and therefore, the apostle joins it sometimes with faith, sometimes with hope, (as in Heb. vi. II,) sometimes with knowledge or understanding, (Col. ii. 2,) to signify the fulness of all three, as the Vulgate Latin interpreter most sincerely (Rom. iv. 21,) translates it. Thus when the Greek signifies " fulness of faith," rather than " full assurance," (or, as Beza has it, " certain persuasion,") " of faith ;" they err in the precise translation of it ; and much more do they err in the sense when they apply it to the " certain " and " assured faith," that every man ought to have, as they say, of his own salvation. Whereas the Greek fathers expound it of the " fulness of faith," that every faithful man must have all such things in heaven, as he sees not ; namely, that Christ is ascended thither, that he shall come with glory to judge the world, &c, (a) adding further, and proving out of the apostle's words next following, that (the Protestants) " only faith is not sufficient, be it ever so special or assured. "(6) For the said reason do they also translate, " The special gift of faith," (Sap. iii. 14,) instead of " The chosen gift of faith." Another gross corruption they have in Ecclesi- asticus, v. 5. But because, in their Bibles of the later stamp, they have rejected these books, as not canonical, though they can show us no more reason or authority for their so doing, than for altering and corrupting the text, I shall be content to pass it by. (3) Beza, by corrupting this place of the Corinthians, translating totam Jidem for omnem (a) St. Chrysost.,Theodoret.,Theophyl. upon Rom. x. (b) St. Chrysost., Horn. 19, c. 10, ad Heb. Jidem, thinks to exempt from the apostle's words, their special justifying faith ; whereas it may be easily seen, that St. Paul names and means " all faith," as he doth " all knowledge," and " all mysteries," in the foregoing words. And Luther confesses, that he thrust the word " only," (only faith) into the text.(c) (4) Also by his falsifying this text of St. James, he would hafe his reader think, as he also expounds it, " That faith was an efficient cause, and fruitful of good works ;" whereas the apostle's words are plain, that faith wrought together with his works ; yea, and that his faith was by works made perfect. This is an impu- dent handling of scripture, to make works the fruit only, and effect of faith ; which is their heresy. (5) Again, in all those places of the Gospel, where our blessed Saviour requires the people's faith, when he healed them of corporal diseases only, they gladly translate, " Thy faith hath saved thee," rather than, " Thy faith hath healed thee," or, " Thy faith hath made thee whole." And this they do, that by joining these words together, they may make it sound in the ears of the people, that faith saves and justifies a man : for so Beza notes in the margin, fides salvat, " faith saveth ;" whereas the faith that was here required, was of Christ's power and omnipotence only ; which, as Beza confesses, may be pos- sessed by the devils themselves ; and is far from the faith that justifies. (d) But they will say, the Greek signifies as they translate it : I grant it does so ; but it signi- fies very commonly to be healed corporally, as, by their own translation, in these places, Mark v. 26 ; Luke viii. 36, 48, 50 ; and in other places, where they translate, " I shall be whole," " they were healed ;" " he was healed ;" " she shall be made whole." And why do they here translate it so ? Because they know, " to be saved," imports rather the salvation of the soul : and therefore, when faith is joined with it, they translate it rather "saved" than "healed," to insinuate their justification by " faith only." But how contrary to the doctrine of the ancient fathers this Protestant error of " faith alone justifying" is, may be seen by those who please to read St. Augustine, De Fide el Opere, c. 14. To conclude, I will refer my Protestant SoLiFiDiANto the words of St. James the apos- tle ; where he will find, that faith alone, without works, cannot save him. (c) Luth., torn. 2, fol 405, edit. Witte., anno 1551. (/) Beza Annot. in 1 Cor. xiii. 2. 84 XXII. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST The Book, Chapter, and Verse. 2 Thessal. chap. ii. verse 15. 2 Thessal. chap. iii. verse 6. I Corinth, chap. xi. verse 2. Coloss. chap. ii. verse 20. 1 Peter chap. i. verse 18 The Vulgate Latin Text. Itaque fratres, state et tenete " tra- ditiones"rtuQixdoaeig, quas didicistis, sive per sermonem, sive per epistolam nos- tram. (1) — Vt subtraliatis vos ab omni fratre ambulante inordi- nate, et non secun- dum " tradilionem," quam acceperunt a nobis. Laudo autem vos fratres, quod per omnia mei memores estis, et sicut " tra- didi" vobis,prcEcepta mea tenclis, xadwg naQsdoxa, jag naqa- Soaeig xoctsxets. Si ergo mortui estis cum Christo ab " ele- mentis^hujus tnundi: quid adhuc tanquam viventes in mundo de- cernitis 1 n doyfiaji- Zsods. (2) Scientes quod non corruptibilibus auro vel argento redempti estis de vana vestra conversatione " pa-. terncB traditionis" ix ji]g /LtuTixiag ifiwv avac,Qoq>i}g nctiQorru- QCtdoTU. (3) The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. Therefore, bre- thren, stand and hold the " tradi- tions" which you have learned, whe- ther it be by word, or by our epistle. — That you with- draw 3 T ourselves from every brother walking inordinate- ly, and not accord- ing to the " tradi- tions" which they have received of us. And I praise you brethren, that in all things you be mind- ful of ine, and as I have " delivered" unto you, you keep my " precepts." If then you be dead with Christ from the "elements" of this world, why do you yet "decree" as living in the world ? Knowing that not with corruptible things, gold or sil- ver, you are re- deemed from your vain conversation of " your fathers' tradi- tion." Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed a. D. 1562, 3577, 1579. For " traditions," they say " ordinan- ces.'^!) Instead of " tradi- tions," they trans- late, " instructions." — And " keep the ordinances," as I have " preached" unto you. If " ye" be dead with Christ from the " rudiments" of " the" world, why, " as though" living in the world, " are ye led with tradi- tions ?" And, " are ye burthened with traditions?" (2) " You were" not redeemed with cor- ruptible things, gold or silver, from your vain conversation " received by the" tradition of the" fa- thers. (3) The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. L6n., an. 1683. Corrected. Corrected — And keep the " ordinances," as I have delivered them to you. — Why, as though living in the world, are you " subject to ordinances ?" — From your vain conversation " received by tradi . tion from your fa thers." APOSTOLICAL TRADITIONS. 85 A general mark, wherewith all heretics that have ever disturbed God's church have been branded, is, " to reject apostolical traditions," and to fly to the scripture, as by themselves ex- pounded, for their " only rule of faith" We read not of any heresy since the apostles' time, on which this character has been more deeply stamped, than in those of this last age, especially the first heads of them, and those who were the interpreters and translators of the scriptures ; whom we find to have been possessed with such prejudice against apostolical tradition, that wheresoever the holy scripture speaks against certain traditions of the Jews, there all the Eng- lish translations follow the Greek exactly, never omitting to translate the Greek word nuqudooi;, " tradition." On the contrary, wheresoever the sacred text speaks in commendation of tradi- tions, to wit, such traditions as the apostles de- livered to the church, there (1) all their first translations agree not to follow the Greek, which is still the self-same word ; but for tradi- tions, use the words ordinances or instructions, preachings, institutions, and any word else, rather than traditions : insomuch, that Beza, the master of our English scripturists, translates the word 7i(xQO)d6aeig, traditam doctrinam, " the doctrine delivered," putting the singular number for the plural, and adding " doctrine" of his own accord, (a) Who could imagine their malice and partiality against traditions to be so great, that they should all agree, in their first translations I mean ; for they could not but blush at it in their last, with one consent so duly and exactly, in all these places set down in the former page, to conceal and suppress the word tradition, which, in other places, they so gladly make use of? I appeal to their consciences, whether these things were not done on purpose, and with a very wicked intention, to signify to the reader, that all traditions are to be reproved and rejected, and none allowed. (2) In some places they do so gladly use this word tradition, that rather than want it, they make bold to thrust it into the text, when it is not in the Greek at all ; as you see in this place of the Epistle to the Colossians, (b) " Why, as though living in the world, are you led with traditions ?" And as another English Bible reads mere heretically, " Why are ye burthened with traditions ?" Doubtless, they knew as well then, as they do now at this day, that this Greek word Soyfiu, doth not signify tradition ; yea, they were not ignorant, when a little before, in the same (a) 2 Thes. ii. 3. (b) Bib. 1579. 12 1 chapter, and in other places, themselves trans- late doyuaia, " ordinances," " decrees." (c) Was not this done then to make the very name of tradition odious among the people 1 And though some of these gross corruptions are corrected by their last translators, yet we have no reason to think they were amended out of any good or pure intention, but rather to de- fend some of their own traditions, viz., wearing of the rocket, surplice, four-cornered cap, keep- ing the first day in the week Loly, baptizing in- fants, &c, all which things being denied by their more refined brethren, as not being clearly to be proved out of scripture, and they having no other refuge to fly to but tradition, were forced to translate tradition in some places, where it is well spoken of. But, I say, this could not be from any pure intention of correcting their corrupted scripture ; but rather for the said self- end ; which appears evidently enough from their not also correcting other notorious falsifi- cations, (as 1 Pet. i. 18,) (3) " You were not re- deemed with corruptible things, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers ;'■' where the Greek in tTjj juaxala; ifttov uiutgooyrig TuiTQonaQodoiH, is rather to be thus translated, and it is the Greek they pretend to follow, and not our Vulgate Latin which they condemn : " From your vain conversation de- livered by the fathers ;" but because it sounds with the simple people, to be spoken against the traditions of the Roman Church, jhey were as glad to suffer it to pass, as the lormer translators were, for the same reason, to foist in the word tradition ; and for delivered, to say received. I say, because it is the phrase of the Catholic Church, that it has received many things by tradition, which they would here control by like- ness of words, in their false translations. But concerning the word tradition, they will tell us perhaps, the sense thereof is included in the Greek word, delivered. We grant it: bu* would they be content, if we should always ex- pressly add tradition, where it is so included ? Then should we say in the Corir.'hians, " I praise you, that as I have delivered to you, by tradition, you keep my precepts or traditions." And again, " For I received of our Lord, which also I de- livered unto you, by tradition." (d) And in another place, " As they, by tradition, delivered unto us, which from the beginning saw," &c, and such like, by their example, we should translate in this sort. But we us>; not this licen- tious manner in translating the holy scriptures ; neither is it a translator's part, but an interpre- ter's, and his that makes a commentary : nor does a good cause need any other translation than the express text of the scripture. (c) Col. ii. 14 ; Eph. ii. 15. {d) 1 Cor. xi. 2, 23 ; Luke i. 2. 86 PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS AGAINST APOSTOLICAL TRADITIONS. But if you say, (a) that our Vulgate Latin has, in this place, the word tradition ; we grant it has so, and therefore, we also translate accor- dingly : but you, as I hinted above, profess to translate the Greek, and not our Vulgate Latin, which you condemn as papistical, and say it is the worst of all, though Beza, your master, pronounces it to be the best, (b) And will you, notwithstanding, follow the said Vulgate Latin, rather than the Greek, when you find it seems to make for your purpose ? This is your par- tiality and inconstancy. One while you will follow it, though it differ from the Greek ; and another time you reject it, though it agree with the Greek most exactly ; as we have shown you above, (Col. ii. 20,) where the Vulgate Latin hath nothing of traditions, but, quid decernitis, as it, is in the Greek ; yet there your sincere breth- ren translate : " Why are ye burthened with traditions ?" Is not all this to bolster up their errors and heresies, without sincerely following either the Greek or Latin 1 The Greek, at least, why do they not follow? Doth the Greek nagoid'joeig, induce them to say, ordinances for traditions ? Or ddyfiuTu lead them to say, traditions for de- crees 1 Or dtxouw/uotTa, nQeoflvTSQog, udrjg, ei'dwloi 1 , &c, force them to translate ordinances for jus- tifications, elder for priest, grave for hell, image for idol, &c. ? No ! Where they are afraid of being disadvantageous to their heresies, they scruple not to reject and forsake both the Greek and Latin. Though Protestants, in their last translation of the Bible, have indeed corrected this error in several places, not in all, on purpose, thereby to defend themselves against their Puritanical bre- thren, when they charge them with several Po- pish observances, ceremonies, and traditions, which they cannot maintain by scripture alone, without being forced, as is said, to fly to unwrit- ten traditions : yet, when they either dispute with, or write against Catholics, they utterly deny traditions, and stick fast to the scripture alone, for their " only rule of faith :" falsely asserting, that the scripture was received by the primitive church as a " perfect rule of faith." These are the words of a late ministerial (c) guide of the Church of England, " The scrip- ture was yet (viz., when St. Augustine was sent (a) Discovery of the Rock, p. 147. (b) Beza, Praef. in Nov. Test., 1556. (c) See the Pamphlet called a Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England, &c.,p. 13, n. 24. into England) received as a perfect rule of faith :" for which he cites another authority like his own. But how true this is, let the holy fathers of the first five hundred years satisfy us. St. Chrysostom, expounding the words of St. Paul, (2 Thess. xv.) affirms, that " Hereby it appears, that the apostles did not deliver all things by epistle, but many things without wri- ting ; and these are worthy of faith : wherefore also, let us esteem the tradition of the church to be believed. It is a tradition, seek no fur- ther." (d) And the same exposition is given by St. Basil, Theophylact, and St. John Damascene : as also by St. Epiphanius ; who says, " We must use tradition, for all things cannot be received from divine scripture ; wherefore the ] ly ap^cles have delivered some things by tradition : even as the holy apostle says, as I have delivered to you, and elsewhere ; so I teach, and have de- livered in the churches." (e) St. Augustine, proving that those who were baptized by heretics should not be re-baptized, says, " the apostles commanded nothing hereof; but that doctrine which was opposed herein against Cyprian, is to be believed to proceed from their tradition, as many things be, which the church holds ; and are therefore, well be- lieved to be commanded of the apostles, al- though they are not written." (f) These words of this great doctor are so clear, that Mr. Cart- wright, (g) a Protestant, speaking thereof, says, " To allow St. Augustine's words, is to bring in Popery again." And in another place, (A) " If St. Augustine's judgment be a good judgment, then there be some things commanded of God, which are not in the scriptures, and thereupon no sufficient doctrine contained in the scriptures." How to make all this agree with the doctrine of our present ministerial guides of the Church of England, who teach that in those primitive times, " the scripture was received as a perfect and only rule of faith," will be a task that, I am confident, no wise man, who has either honour, credit, or respect for truth, will venture to un- dertake. {d) St. Chrys. in 2 Thes. Horn. 4. (c) See St. Basil de Spirit. Sanct., c. 20 ; Theophil. in 2 Thess. ii. ; St. Damasc, cap. 17, de Imag. Sanct. ; St Epiph. Hctr. 61. (/) St. Aug. de Bapt. contra Don., lib. 5, cap. 23. Qr) In Whitg. Def., p. 103. (A) And his Second Reply against Whitg., part L, pp. 84, 85, 86. XXIII. PROTESTANT TRANSLATION' AGAINST THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE. 87 The Book, Chap -, and Verse. Ephesians chap. v. verse 32. The Vulgate Latin Text. " Sacramentum " (iv^qiov, hoc mag- num est. (1) The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. This is a great " sacrament." Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed a. D. 1562, 1577, 1579. This is a great " secret." ( 1 ) The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon. an. 1683. This is " mystery.' great (1) The church of God esteems marriage a holy Sacrament, as giving grace to the married per- sons, to live together in love, concord, and fidelity. But Protestants, who reckon it no more than a civil contract, as it is amongst in- fidels, translated this text accordingly, calling it, in their first translations, instead of a " great sacrament," or " mystery," as in the Greek, a " gr?at secret." But we will excuse them for not translating " sacrament," because they pretended not to translate the Latin but the Greek : yet, however, we must ask them, why they call it not " mys- tery," as it is in the Greek ? Doubtless, they can give us no other reason, but that thev wished only to avoid both those words, which are used in the Latin and Greek Church, to sig- nify sacrament ; for the word mystery is the same in Greek, that sacrament is in Latin ; and in the Greek church, the sacrament of the body and blood itself, is called by the name of mys- tery, or mysteries ; so that, if they should have called matrimony by that name, it would have sounded equally well as a sacrament also : but in saying, " it is a great secret," they are sure it shall not be taken for a sacrament. But perhaps, they will say, is not every sacra- ment and mystery, in English, " a secret ?" Yes, as angel is a " messenger ;" priest, an " elder ;" apostle, " one that is sent ;" baptism, " washing ;" evangelist, " a bringer of good news ;" Holy Ghost, " Holy Wind ;" bishop, " overseer or superintendent." But when the holy scripture uses these words to signify more excellent and divine things than those of the common sort, pray does it become translators to use profane, instead of ecclesiastical terms, and thereby to disgrace the writing and meaning of the Holy Ghost ? The same Greek word, in all other places, (a) they translated mystery ; who, therefore, can imagine any other reason for the translating of it " secret" in this place, than lest it might seem to make against their heretical opinion, " That marriage is no sacrament V though the apostle makes it such a mystery, or sacrament, as repre- sents no less than the conjunction of Christ and his church, and whatsoever is most excellent in that conjunction. And St. Augustine teaches, that " a certain sacrament of marriage is commended to the faithful that are married ; whereupon the apostle says : ' Husbands, love your wives ; as Christ loved the church.' " (b) And Fulk grants, that " Augustine and some others of the ancient fathers take it, that matrimony is a great mystery of the conjunction of Christ and his church." (c) But because they have kept to the Greek in their last translation, I shall say no more of it ; nor should I indeed have thus much noticed it here, but to show the reader how intolerably partial and crafty they were in their first trans- lations. (a) Tim. iii.; Col. i. 26; Eph. iii. 9; 1 Cor. xv. 15. (b) St. Aug. de Nupt. et Concup., lib. i. c. 10. (c) Fulk. in Rhem. Test, in Ephes. v. 32, sect. 5. Here follow several heretical additions, and other notorious falsifications, 6fc. 88 XXIV. PROTESTANT CORRUPTIONS The Book, Chapter, and Verse. 2 Paralip. or Chron. ch. xxxvi. verse 8. Acts of the Apos. chap. ix. verse 22. 1 St. Peter chap. i. verse 25. See the like addi- tion in 1 Corinth, chap. ix. verse 17. St. James chap. iv. verse 6. Colossians chap. i. verse '23. The Vulgate Latin Text. Reliqua autem verborum Joahim, et abominationum ejus, quas operatus est, u et qua inventa sunt in eo" continentur in libro regum Jud<B el Israel. (1) Et confundebat JudxQS qui habita- bant Damasei, affir- mans quoniam hie est Christus. (2) Vcrbum autem Do; dni manet in (Sternum : hoc est auttrm verbum quod " evangelizatum est" in vos. (3) Majorem autem dat gratiam. (4) Si tamen permane- tis in fide fundati et s tallies, et immobiles a spe evangelii quod audistis, quod prmdi- catum est in universa crealura que sub cozh est. (5) The true English accord- ing to the Rhemish Translation. But the rest of the words of Joakim, and of his abomi- nations which he wrought, " and the things that were found in him," are contained in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And confounded the Jews, &c, affirm- ing that this is Christ. But the word of our Lord remaineth for ever : and this is the word that " is evangelized " among you. And giveth greater graces. If yet ye continue in the faith ground- ed and stable, and unmoveable from the hope of the gos- pel which you have heard, which is preached among all creatures, &c. Corruptions in the Pro- testant Bibles, printed a. D. 1562, 1577, 1579. The rest of the acts of Jehoakin, and his abomina- tions which he did, " and carved images that were laid to his charge,"behold they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. (1) Saul confounded the Jews, proving, " by conferring one scripture with ano- ther," that this is very Christ. (2) The word of the Lord endureth for ever : and this is the word which " by the gospel" was preach- ed unto you. (3) But " the scrip- ture" offereth grea- ter grace. (4) If ye continue established in the faith, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard " how it was" preached. Or, " whereof" ye have heard "how that it" is preached. Or, " whereof" ye have heard " and which hath been"preached. (5) The last Translation of the Protestant Bible, Ed. Lon. an. 1683. # Corrected. Corrected. — And this is the word, which " by the gospel" is preached unto you. But "he" giveth more grace. Which ye have heard, " and which was" preached to every creature BV ADDING TO THE TEXT. 69 (1)1 have not set down these few examples of their additions, as if they were all the only places in the Bible that were corrupted after this manner ; for if you observe well in the fore- going chapters, you will find both additions and diminutions ; and that so frequently done, and with such wonderful boldness, as if these trans- lators had been privileged by especial license to add to, or diminish from, the sacred text at their pleasures : or, as if themselves had been only excepted from that general curse denounced against all such as either add to, or diminish from it, in the close of the Holy Bible (Apo- calypse xxii. 18, 19,) in these words, " For I testify to every one, hearing the words of the prophecy of this book : If any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book. And if any man shall diminish of the words of the book of this pro- phecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and of these things that be written in this book." Against holy images they maliciously add to the text these words " carved images, that were laid to his charge." And to what intent is this, but to deceive the ignorant reader, and to fo- ment his hatred against the images of Christ, and his saints ? as they have done also in another place, (Rom. xi. 4,) where they maliciously add the word " image" to the text, where it is not in the Greek, saying, instead of " I have left me seven thousand men, who have not bowed their knees to Baal," thus, " I have left me seven thousand men, who have not bowed their knee to the image of Baal." (a) (2) " By conferring* one scripture with another:" this is- added more than is in the Greek, in favour of their presumptuous opinion, that the comparing of the scriptures is enough for any man to undertsand them himself, solely by his own diligence and endeavour ; and thereby to reject both the commentaries of the doctors, and the exposition of holy councils, and the Ca- tholic Church, (b) (3) "By the gospel:" These words are added deceitfully, and of ill intent, to make the simple reader think, that there is no other word of God, but the written word ; for the common reader, hearing this word gospel, conceives nothing else. But indeed all is gospel, what- soever the apostles taught, either by writing, or by tradition, and word of mouth. It is written of Luther, (c) that in his first translation of the Bible into the German tongue, he left out these words of the apostle clearly : " This is the word which is evangelized to you ;" because St. Peter does here define what is the word of God, saying : " That which is preached" to you, and not that only which is written. (a) Bible 1562. (b) Bible 1577. (c) Lind. Dubitat., p. 68. (4) In this place they add to the text the words " the scripture ;" where the apostle may as well, and indifferently say : " The Spirit," or, " Holy Ghost," gives more graces, as is more probable he meant, and is so expounded by many. And so also this last translation of theirs intimates, by inserting the word He : " But He giveth more grace :" though this is more than they can stand by. But they will never be pre- vented from inserting their commentary in the text, and restraining the " Holy Ghost" to one particular sense, where his words seem to be ambiguous, which the Latin interpreter never presumed to do, but always leaves it as open to either signification in the Latin, as he found it in the Greek. (5) Lv this last place they alter the apostle's plain speech with certain words of their own ; for they will not have him say, "Be immoveable in the faith and gospel, which you have heard, which has been preached ;" but, " whereof you have heard how it was preached ;" and though he spoke not of the gospel preached to them, but of a gospel which they had only heard of, that was preached in the world. The apostle exhorts the Colossians to con- tinue grounded in the faith and gospel, which they had heard and received from their apos- tles. (<l) But our Protestants, who with Hy- menals and Alexander, and other old heretics, have fallSh from their first faith, approve not of this exhortation. It is certain that these words, " whereof you have heard how it was preached," are not so in the Greek ; but, " which you have heard, which has been preached :" as if it were said, that they should continue constant in the faith and gospel, which themselves had received, and which was then preached and received in the whole world. In Cor. xiv. 4, where it is said, " He that speaketh with tongues, edifieth himself;" the Bible printed 1633, translates thus : " He that speaketh in an unknown tongue, edifieth him- self;" so likewise in the 13th, 14th, 19th, and 27th verses, they make the same addition ; so that in this one chapter they add the word " un- known" no less than five times to the text, where it is not in the Greek. And this they do, on pur- pose to make it seem to the ignorant people, that mass and other ecclesiastical offices ought not to be said in Latin : whereas there is nothing here either written or meant of any other tongues, but such as men spoke in the primitive church by miracle ; to wit, barbarous and strange tongues, which could not be interpreted com- monly, but by the miraculous gift also of inter- pretation : and though also they might by a miracle speak the Latin, Greek, or Hebrew tongues ; yet these could not be counted unknown (d) I Tim. i. 6. 90 PROTESTANT CORRUPTIONS BY ADDING TO THE TEXT. tongues, as being the common languages of the world, and of the learned in every city ; and in which also the scriptures of the Old and New Testament were written ; which could not be said to have been written in an unknown tongue, though they were not penned in the vulgar lan- guage, peculiar to all people ; but in a learned and known speech, capable of being interpreted by thousands in every country, though not by every illiterate person. I would gladly know irom our translators, what moved them to add the word " unknown" in some places, and not in others, where the Greek word is the same in all ? For instance, in the fifth verse of this chapter, where the apos- tle wishes that all should speak with tongues ; they translate exactly according to the Greek, without adding to the text ; when in all the other places, where they think there may be some shadow or colour of having it meant of the general tongue, and known language of the church, they partially, and with a very ill meaning, thrust in the word " unknown." See the annotations upon this place, in the Rhemish Testament Again, Rom. xii. 6, 7, where the apostle's words are, " Having gifts according to the grace that is given us, different, either prophecy ac- cording to the rule of faith : or ministry, in ministering ; or he that teaches, in doctrine ;" they, by adding several words of their own, not found in the Greek, and altering others, make the text run thus ; " Having then gifts, differing according to the grace that is given us, whether prophecy (let us prophecy) according to the proportion of faith ; or ministry (let us wait on our) ministering ; or he that teaches on teach- ing." Besides their additions here, they pervert the text, by changing the word " rule" of faith into " proportion" of faith ; whereby they would have their readers to gather no more from this place, than only that their new ministers are to pro- phecy or preach, and wait on their ministering according to the measure or proportion of faith or ability, less or more, that they are endued with. Whereas by this text, as also by many other places of holy writ, we may gather that the apostles, by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, before they divided themselves into divers na- tions, made among themselves a certain rule and form of faith and doctrine, containing not only the twelve Articles of the Creed ; but all other prin- ciples, grounds, and the whole platform of the Christian Religion ; which rule was before any of the books of the New Testament were writ- ten, and before the faith was preached among the Gentiles ; by which rule not only the doctrine of all other inferior teachers was to be tried, but also the preaching, writing, and interpreting, which is here called prophecying, of the apos- tles and evangelists themselves, wore by God's Church approved and admitted, or reproved and rejected according to this rule of faith. This form or rule every apostle delivered by word of mouth, not by scripture, to the country by them converted, which was also by the apostolical men, and those who received it entire from the apostles, delivered also entire to the next follow- ing age ; which also receiving it from them, de- livered it as they had received it, to the succeed- ing age, &c, till this our present age. And this is the true analogy of faith, set down and commended to us everywhere for apostolical tradition ; and not the fantastical rule or square, which every ministerial guide, according to his great or small proportion of faith, pretends to gather out of the scriptures, as understood by his own private spirit, and wrested to his own heretical purpose ; by which he will presume to judge of, and censure the fathers, councils, church, yea, the scripture itself. In the primi- tive church, as also in the church of God, at this day, all teaching, preaching, and prophecy- ing are not measured according to the proportion of every man's private and public spirit, but by this rule of faith, first set down and delivered by the apostles : and therefore, whatsoever novelties or prophecyings will not abide this text, they are justly, by the apostles, condemned, as con- trary and against the rule of faith thus delivered. I cannot omit taking notice, in this place, of two " notorious and gross corruptions" in their first, translation, seeing they much concern the Church of England's " priesthood." The first is in Acts i. 26, where, instead of saying : " He, Matthias, was numbered with the eleven ;" they translate it, " He was, by a common consent, counted with the eleven." The other, already mentioned, is, " Acts, xiv. 22, where, for, " When they had ordained to them priests in every church," they say : " When they had ordained elders by election in every congregation." In one of these texts, the words, " by a common consent," and in the other, " by election," are added on purpose to make the scripture speak in defence of their making superintendents and el- ders by election only, without consecration and ordination, by imposition oi bands : by which corrupt additions it evidently appears to have been the doctrine of the Church of England, in those days, that election only, without conse- cration, was sufficient to make bishops and priests. But in their last translation, made in the be- ginning of King James the First's reign, they have corrected these places, by expunging the words formerly added. And this was done by the bishops and clergy, for their great honour, dignity, and authority ; knowing that consecra- tion, which they thought now high time to pre- tend to, must needs elevate them much above the sphere of a bare election, in which they for- merly moved. And perhaps, another no less prevalent reason was, that they might more se- curely fix themselves in their bishoprics and benefices ; thinking, perhaps, that bishops con- secrated, might pretend to that jure divino, CONSIDERATIONS ON T THE LAMBETH RECORDS. 91 which men only elected by the congregation or prince, held at the mercy and good liking of the electors : what other motives induced them to this, matters not. However, they thought it now convenient to pretend to something more than a bare election ; to wit, to receive an epis- copal and priestly character, by the imposition of hands : whereas we find not, that their prede- cessors, Parker, Jewel, Horn, &c, ever pre- tended to any other character, but what they received by the Queen's letters patent, election, and an act of parliament ; as is plain from the 23rd and 25th of their 39 Articles, as well as from the statute 8 Eliz. I., and therefore were content to have the scripture read, " He was, by a common consent, counted with the eleven ;" and, " When they had ordained elders by elec- tion."^) And whereas our present ministerial guides of the Church of England, would gladly have le believe them to have a succession of bishops from the apostolic times to this day ; yet so far was Mr. Parker, Jewel, and the rest of their first bishops, from pretending to any such episcopal succession, " if they had been truly consecrated, they must of necessity have owned and maintained a succession among them," that, on the contrary, they published and preached many things to discredit the same : and to that purpose, falsified and corrupted the scripture against succession, for in the defence of the apology of the Church of England, they write thus : " By succession Christ saith, that desola- tion shall sit in the holy place, and anti-christ shall press into the room of Christ ;" for proof of which, they note in the margin, Matt. xxiv. And in another place of the same defence, they say of succession : St. Paul says to the faithful at Ephesus : " I know that after my departure hence, ravening wolves shall enter and succeed me ; and out of yourselves there shall, by suc- cession, spring up men speaking perversely ;" whereas St. Paul has never a word about suc- cession or succeeding ; nor is succession named in the 24th of St. Matthew. (c) So that you see, the first bishops of the Church of England, not only corrupted the sacred text, in translating many places of the Bible against ordination ; but also in their other writings, falsified the scrip- ture with their corrupt additions against succes- sion. (J) Two sufficient reasons for us to believe, that they neither had nor pretended to either con- secration, or episcopal succession in those days ; consequently were not consecrated at Lambeth, by such as had received their consecration and character from Roman Catholic bishops, who claim it no otherwise than by an uninterrupted succession from the apostles, and so from Christ. And this obliges me to digress a little into (d) CONSIDERATIONS ON THE LAMBETH RECORDS, BY WHICH PROTESTANT BISHOPS ENDEAVOUR TO PROVE THE CONSECRATION OF THKIR FIRST ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, DR. MATTHEW PARKER. (b) In the beginning of King James the First's reign, a new translation of the Bible being undertaken, the said falsifications of scripture corrected, and a full resolution put on of assuming to themselves the character of conse- crated bishops and priests ; they thought it absolutely necessary to derive this character from such bishops as had been, as they thought, consecrated by Roman Catholic bishops ; by whose hands they would now make the world believe, the first of their predecessors, Matthew Parker, was consecrated with great solemnity at Lambeth. To which purpose, they presume to obtrude upon the world certain, before un- heard of, records or registers. But the age in which the sun first shone upon these records, viz., anno 1613, not being so easily imposed upon as was expected, the said Lambeth Register became suspected, and, for divers reasons, detected as a forged instrument. Fitzhcrbert, a man of gr at sincerity and authority, writ against these Lambeth Records, in the very year (a) Dr. Tenison and A. B., in the Speculum Considered, p. 4!), tell us, " That in the Church of England they have a succession of bishops continued down from the apos- tolic time3 to this day ; but to name or number them," they say, " is neither necessary nor useful." They might have added, not possible. (6) The Lambeth Records Considered. that Mr. Mason, workman to Dr. Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, first published them to the world. These are his words : («.•) " It was my chance to understand, that one Mr. .Mason, lately published a book, wherein he endeavours to prove the consecration of the first Protestant bishops, by a register, testifying, that four bishops consecrated Matthew Parker, the first archbishop of Canterbury. Thou shalt therefore understand, good reader, that this our exception, touching the lawful vocation and consecration of the first Protestant bishops in the late queen's day, is not a new quarrel, now lately raised, but vehemently urged divers times heretofore, by many other Catholics, many years ago ; yea, in the very beginning of the late queen's reign : as namely, by two learned doc- tors, Harding and Stapleton, who mightily pressed them with the defect of due vocation and consecration, urging them to prove the same, and to show how, and by whom they were made priests and bisheps." Thus he. (c) See the Defence of the Apol., pp. 132, and 127. (d) The first Protestant bishops and clergy were so far from pretending to either consecration or succession, that they corrupted the scripture against both. (e) See Fitzherbert's Appendix to the Discovery of Dr. Andrews' Absurdities, Falsities, and Lies, printed anno 1613. 92 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE And to give you the words of the said doc- tors : thus writes Dr. Harding to Mr. Jewel, pretended bishop of Salisbury : " It remains, Mr. Jewel, you tell us, whether your vocation be ordinary or extraordinary : if it be ordinary, show us the letters of your orders ; at least, show us that you have received power to do the office you presume to exercise, by the due order of laying on of hands, and consecration : but order and consecration you have none ; for which of all these new ministers, howsoever else you call them, could give that to you, which he has not himself ?" These are his very words to Mr. Jewel ; having but a little before urged him also, in the words of Tertullian, thus : " You know what Tertullian says of such as you be, Edant origines ecclesiarurn suarum ; we sav likewise to you, Mr. Jewel ; and what we say to you, we say to each one of your companions : tell us the original, and first spring of your church ; show us the register of your bishops continually succeeding one another from the beginning ; so as that the first bishop may have some one of the apostles, or of the apostolical men, for his author, and predecessor, &c.(a) Therefore, says he, to go from your succession, which you cannot prove, and to come to your vocation : How say you, sir ? you bear yourself, as though you were bishop of Salisbury ; but how can you prove your vocation ? by what authority usurp you the administration of doctrine and sacraments ? what can you allege for the right and proof of your ministry 1 who has called you ? who has laid hands on you ? by what example has he done it 1 how, and by whom are you con- secrated ? who has sent you 1 who has committed to you the office you take upon you ?" &c. In this manner was Mr. Jewel urged : to all which he never replied, by sending Dr. Harding to any register of his, or his metropolitan's conse- cration : or by telling him, that their consecration at Lambeth, was upon record : or that they had authentic testimonies to show who imposed hands upon them. And how easily had such answers been given to these hard questions, if there had then been extant any authentic register or records of his own, or of Matthew Parker's consecration at Lambeth. After the same manner he is set upon by Dr. Stapleton, in his answer to Mr. Jewel's book, entitled, a reply, &c. : " How chanced then, Mr. Jewel," says he, " that you and your fellows, bearing yourselves for bishops, have not so much as this congruity and consent ; I will not say of the Pope, but of any Christian bishops at all, throughout all Christendom ; neither are liked and allowed by any one of them all ; but have taken upon you that office, without any imposi- tion of hands, without all ecclesiastical authority, without all order of canons and right 1 I ask not, who gave you bishoprics, but who made you bishops !" Thus he to Jewel. (b) {a) We also at this day still urge our Protestant bish- ops to prove their succession. Bat they, instead of doing it, waive us off with these words : " To name or number our bishops, is neither useful nor necessary." Vide Supr. (b) See Stapleton's Return of (Jntruhta. His Challenge to Jewel and Horn, and his Counterblast against Horn. And thus again, in his Counterblast against Horn, pretended bishop of Winchester: "Is it not notorious," says he to Horn, " that you and your colleagues, Parker, &c, were not or- dained according to the prescript, I will not say of the church, but even of the very statutes ? How then can you challenge to yourself the name of the lord bishop of Winchester ?" And in another place he urges Mr. Horn with his " being without any consecration at all of his metropolitan, Parker; himself, poor man," says he, " being no bishop neither." Who, I say once again, can imagine Jewel and Horn should have been so careless of their character and honour, as not to have produced their Lambeth register and records, if any such authentic writings had then been extant, when not only their own credit, but even the credit of their metropolitan, Parker, and all the rest of Queen Elizabeth's new bishops ; yea, the whole succession of that race, were so miserably shipwrecked ? Yea, in how great stead would such Lambeth writings have stood Mr. Horn, when he durst not join issue with bishop Bonner upon the plea, " That he was no bishop, when he tendered Bonner the oath of supremacy." The case was thus :(c) By the first session of that parliament, 5 Eliz. I., power was given to any bishop in the realm, to tender the oath of supremacy, enacted 1 Eliz., to any ecclesiastical person within his diocese ; and the refuser was to incur a premunire. By virtue of this statute, Mr. Robert Horn, pretended bishop of Win- chester, tenders the oath to Doctor Bonner, bishop of London, but deprived by Queen Elizabeth, and then a prisoner in the Marshal- sea, which was within the diocese of Winches- ter : Bonner refuses to take it. Horn certifies his refusal into the King's Bench ; whereupon Bonner was indicted upon the statute. He prays judgment, whether, he might not give in evi- dence upon this issue, Quod ipse non est inde culpakilis, eo quod dictus episcopus de Winches- ter non fait episcopus tempore oblationis sacra- menti. " That he was not culpable, because the said Horn, called bishop of Winchester, was not bishop when he tendered him the oath." And it was resolved by all the judges at Serjeants'- Inn, in judge Cattlin, the chief justice's cham- ber, " that if the verity and matter be so, indeed, he should well be received to give in evidence upon this issue, and the jury should try it." Now, what the trial was, appears by that he was not condemned, nor ever any further trou- bled for that case, though he was a man espe- cially aimed at. And at the next sessions of that parliament, which was the 8th of Elizabeth, they were forced for want, you see, of a better character, to beg they might be declared bish- ops by act of parliament. Besides, it is no more credible, that such knowing and conscientious men, as Dr. Staple- ton, Dr. Harding, Constable, Kelhson, &c. then living in England, and probably at London, would question so public and solemn an action, (c) See Abridg. of Dyers Reports, fol. 234. LAMBETH RECORDS. 93 than it is, than a sober man should now call in j] doubt king James the Second's coronation at Westminster ; or ask in print, who set the crown upon his head, pretending he had never been crowned. But in answer to these our objections : Dr. Bramhall falsely affirms, that the said records were spoken of in the eighth year of queen Elizabeth : for proof of which, he would gladly have the world so grossly to mistake the words of the statute of the 8th of Eliz. as to think that the mention there made of the records " of her majesty's father and brother's time, and also for her own time," have relation to their Lambeth Register : whereas by the records there spoken of, is understood only the records of her father's, brother's, and her own letters patent ; and not their then unknown Lambeth Register. But Dr. Bramhall, to make good his false as- sertion, and to impose upon the unwary reader, most egregiously falsifies the words of the said statute ; saying, " The statute speaks expressly of the records of elections, and confirmations, and consecrations :" (a) but you will find in the said statute, expressly these words : " As by her majesty's said letters patent, remaining on re- cord, more plainly will appear." Which, if at- tentively considered, is sufficient to convince the reader, that " the records of her majesty's said father's and brother's time, and also of her own time," relate not to any records or registers of the archbishop of Canterbury ; but only to the records of the king's and queen's letters patent. This device of Bramhall is more fully answered and refuted by the author of the " Nullity of the Prelatical Clergy of England ;" whither I will refer my reader. Again, Protestants tell us further, (b) that there is a register of their bishops, found in a book called " Parker's Antiquitates Britannicae ;'" which I deny not : but to this I answer, that the said register is forged and foisted into Parker's Antiq. Britan. For that edition, printed anno 1605, is the first that ever mentioned any such thing: the old manuscript of that book, having no such register at all in it ; as a learned author (c) who diligently examined the same, affirms in these words : " In the old manuscript of that book, Park. Antiq. Brit., which I have seen, and diligently examined, there is not any mention or memorial at all of any such register or conse- cration of Mat. Parker, or any one of those pre- tended Protestant bishops, as the obtruded re- gister speaks of. And any man reading the printed book, will easily see, that it is a mere foisted and inserted thing ; having no connec- tion, correspondence, or affinity, either with that which goes before or follows ; and con- tains more things done after Mat. Parker had written that book." Yet this very register (a) In this statute is expressly mentioned her majes- ty's " father's and brother's letters patent ;" as also ** her own remaining on recoid." (b) Antiq. Brit., edit. Hanov., 1605. (c) The author of a book, called, " The Judgment of ; t n e Apostles and first Age, in points of Doctrine," &c-, I printed in the year 1633. See pp. 209, 211, and 391 mentions not any certain place or form of their consecration ; so that it might be performed as well at the Nag's Head as at Lambeth. And indeed, we deny them not to have had a certain kind of puritanical consecration, by John Scorey, at the Nag's Head in Cheapside ; but we deny the said Nag's Head consecration to be either valid or legal, both for defect in the form, and in the minister, John Scorey himself being no bishop, no more than Barlow and Coverdale, as is hinted above, in page 53. By reason of which defects, the queen, it seems, was forced after- wards to declare, or make them bishops, by act of parliament. But to pass by these things, and to come to a closer examination of their Lam- beth Records : (d) Mr. Mason, the very first man that ever told us of this Lambeth Register, urges it in this manner : («) " Queen Mary died in the year 1558, the 17th of November ; the same day died cardinal Pool, archbishop of Canterbury ; and the very same day was queen Elizabeth pro- claimed. The 1 5th of January next following, was the day of queen Elizabeth's coronation, when Dr. Oglcthorp, bishop of Carlisle, was so happy as to set the diadem of that kingdom upon her royal head. Now the see of Canterbury continued void till December following ; about which time the dean and chapter having received the conge (Ttlirc, elected master Parker for their archbishop, juxta rnorcm antiquum et laudabilem consuetudincm eccle&ice prwdictcB ah antiqua usitu- tern et incussa observation, proceeding in this election " according to the ancient manner, and the laudable custom of the aforesaid church ;" citing for these words, his new found register, ex Regist. Mat. Parker. " After which elec- tion, orderly performed, and signified according to the law, it pleased her highness to send her letters patent of commission, for his confirma- tion and consecration, to seven bishops ;" whose names, with as much of the commission as is necessary, he sets down ; after which he tells us, " That to take away all scruple, he will faithfully deliver out of authentical records," as he cails them, putting in the margin ex Regist. M. Par- ker, with as much confidence as if they had then been made known to the world, and published or produced upon all occasions, for fifty years to- gether, before ever he spoke of them," both the day when he, Mr. Parker, was consecrated, and by whom, viz., Anno 1559. Mat. Park. Cant. cons. 17 Decemb. by William Barlow, John Scorey, Miles Coverdale, John Hodgkins." These are Mr. Mason's obtruded records ; with which let us compare the words of another recorder, Dr. Bramhall, who, after having told us of Mat. Parker's being, by conge d'clire, elected archbishop of Canterbury, says : (/) {d) Stat. I., 8th Eliz. (e) Mason, lib. 3, p. 126. if) Bram. p. 83. 13 94 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE V The queen, accepting this election, was gra- ciously pleased to issue out two commissions for the legal confirmation of the said election, and consecration of the said archbishop ; the former dated the 9th of September, anno 1559, directed to six bishops ; Cuthbert, bishop of Durham ; Gilbert, bishop of Bath ; David, bishop of Peterborough; Anthony, bishop of Landaff; William Barlow, bishop ; and John Scorey, bishop." Which commission he sets down at large, from Ro., par. 2, 1 Eliz. Dated, Apud Redgrave, Nono die Septembris anno regni Elizabeths Anglce, <$fc, primo. Per breve de privato sigillo, Examinator, Ri. Broughton. Then he goes on : (a) " Now if any man de- sire a reason why this first commission was not executed, the best account I can give him is this, that it was directed to six bishops, without an " Aut minus, or at the least four of you ;" so as if any one of the six were sick, or absent, or refused, the rest could not proceed to confirm or consecrate. And that some of them did refuse, I am very apt to believe, because three of them, not long after, were deprived." Thus Dr. Bramhall. The three bishops, he means, that were, as he would have us believe, " shortly after de- prived," were Cuthbert Tunstal, bishop of Dur- ham ; Gilbert Bourn, bishop of Bath ; and David Pole, bishop of Peterborough. But according to John Stow, (b) and Hollinshead, these three bishops, with other ten or eleven, all Catholics, were deprived and deposed from their sees, in July before, for refusing the oath of supremacy. " In the month of July," says Stow, " the old bishops of England, then living, were called and examined by certain of the Queen's Majesty's council, where the bishops of York, Ely, and London, with others, to the number of thirteen or fourteen, for refusing to take the oath, touching the Queen's supremacy, and other articles, were deprived of their bishoprics." Hollinshead hud also the same words, and tells us further who succeeded in their rooms and places." Hollinshead, in the praises of bishop Tunstal, of Durham, has these words : " He was, by the noble Queen Elizabeth, deprived of his bishop- ric, <fec, and was committed to Matthew Parker, bishop of Canterbury, who used him very hon- ourably, both for the gravity, learning, and age of the said Tunstal : but he, not long remaining under the ward of the said bishop, did shortly after, the 18th of November, in the year 1559, depart this life at Lambeth, where he first re- ceived his consecration." By this it appears, that Matthew Parker was bishop of Canterbury, and lived in the bishop's palace at Lambeth, consequently installed in the bishopric, which (a) P. 85. (b) See John Stow and Hollinshed, in an. 1 Eliz. he could not be before he was consecrated, if consecration was then used ; and all this before the 18th of November, 1559. And well might he, by this time, be in the full enjoyment and possession of the bishopric of Canterbury ; for by Stow and Hollinshead, we find him called bishop elect on the 9th of September, when he and others assisted at the king of France's obsequies. Yea, by Hollins- head, it evidently appears, that they were elected immediately, or, however, very shortly after the deprivation of the old Catholic bishops : for, on the 12th of August, we find Doctor Grindall not only called bishop elect, but exercising as much power, as if he had been more than only elect. His words are these : " On the 12th of August, being Saturday, the high altar in Paul's Church, with the rood, and the images of Mary and John, standing in the rood-loft, were taken down ; and this was done by the command of Doctor Grindall, newly elected bishop of Lon- don." The truth of what I have here set down, from Hollinshead and Stow, is unquestionable : but if it agree not with Mr. Mason, and Doctor Bramhall, and their Lambeth Records, shall we not have just cause to reject these as forged ? But, before we compare them together, let us first see what accordance and agreement is found among the records and recorders them- selves. Firstly, in the queen's letters patent, or com- mission for consecrating Matthew Parker, (c) the suffragan bishop, there mentioned, is named Richard, suffragan of Bedford ; whereas by Mr. Mason and others, he is called John ; yea, Mason calls him John in one place, and Richard in another. I suppose those, who made these records, might be ignorant of the said suffragan's name ; and therefore for making sure work, calls him sometimes Richard, sometimes John ; but if these records had been made while the man himself was living, and when he imposed hands on Matthew Parker, he could have satisfied them of his true name, and the place where he was saffragan, viz., whether of Bedford or Dover? And whether there was any other suffragan there besides himself, if we suppose that the Lambeth notarius publicus could be ignorant of such circumstances. Secondly, Mr. Sutcliff affirms, that Parker was consecrated by Barlow, Coverdale, Scorey, and two suffragans. But by our pretended register, we find but one suffragan at that solemnity. (</) Thirdly, Mr. Mason, and his records, style him suffragan of Bedford ; but by Doctor Butler he is called suffragan of Dover, (e) Fourthly, in Mr. Mason, we hear tell but of one commission from the queen, for the confir- mation and consecration of Matthew Parker. But Bramhall, by more diligent search among (c) See D. Bram., pp. 87, 89, 90. \d) Sutcliff* against Dr. Kellison, p. 5. (e) Butler, Ep. de Consecrat. Minist. LAMBETH RECORDS. 95 the records, finds two ; the first dated September the 9th. (a) Fifthly, by which commission it appears, Parker was elected before the 9th of Septem- ber : but Mr. Mason says, he was elected about the beginning of December. Thus they concur one with another : and to compare them with Richard Hollinshead, and John Stovv's chronicles, they jump as exactly, as if the one had been written at China, and the other at Lambeth : for, Sixthly, Mr. Mason, I say, affirms, that the dean and chapter elected Doctor Matthew Parker about the month of December, But irf Stow and Hollinshead, we find him and others called bishops elect, on the 9th of Sep- tember. Yea, seeing Hollinshead calls Grindall newly elect on the 12th of August, we may easily conclude, that Matthew Parker the metro- politan, was also elected before that time ; which, you see, is about four months before Mason's election by conge cTelire. Seventhly, Mr. Mason affirms, that the see of Canterbury continued void till December 1559. On the 17th of which month, according to the new register, Parker was consecrated. But in Hollinshead we find, that Matthew Parker was bishop of Canterbury, and lived in the bishop's place at Lambeth, where he had bishop Tunstal committed, prisoner, to his charge, long before the 17th of December : for on the J 8th of November, 1559, the said bishop Tunstal died. Eighthly, Doctor Bramhall, as is said, from our new-made records, brings us a commission, dated on the 9th of September, 1559. And directed, besides others, to three Catholic bishops, Cuthbert Tunstal, Gilbert Bourn, and David Pool, requiring them to confirm and consecrate Matthew Parker. And he has the confidence to affirm, that " the said three bishops were shortly after deprived of their bishoprics, as he is very apt to believe, for refusing to obey the said commission." But in Stow and Hollinshead we find, that the said three Catholic bishops, with ten or eleven others, were deprived of their bishoprics in the month of July before, for refusing the oath of supremacy ; and Mason himself confirms this, by acknowledging they were deprived not long after the feast of St. John the Baptist ; for which he also cites Saunders, lib de Schismate Angl. But pray consider, sirs, what can be more absurd, than to imagine that Queen Elizabeth would be beholden to such Roman Catholic bishops, as she had formerly deprived of their bishoprics, and made prisoners, for the confirming and consecrating of her new Protes- tant bishops, who were to be " unlawfully intruded" into their sees ; especially she having, as Bramhall says, Protestant bishops enough of her own ; or if such had been wanting, might, he says, have easily had store of bishops out of Ireland, to have done the work ? Pray give me leave to demand of our English (a) Bram., p. 83. prelates, why this first commission was by the queen directed to those three zealous Catholic bishops, and not rather to her own Protestant bishops, to whom she directed the last commis- sion, dated December 6 ? Her majesty was not ignorant that their consciences had been too tender to permit them to swear herself head of the Church of England : and that rather than gall their so tender consciences, they were con- tent to lose their bishoprics, and suffer perpetual imprisonment : could she, upon revolving this in her princely thoughts, easily imagine that they would, without all scruple, impose hands on her newly elected bishops, whom they knew to be of a religion as far different from themselves, as king Edward the YIth was from queen Mary's 1 Could she suppose, that they would make bishops in that church, whereof themselves refused to be members ? Could she think, that those Catholic bishops would consecrate Parker, according to king Edward the YIth's form of consecration, which they had in queen Mary's days declared to be invalid and null ; and which, at this time, was also illegal 1 Or could the queen easily imagine, that Matthew Parker and the rest of her chosen bishops, who had stood so much upon their punctilios at Frankfort, would receive consecration by a form condemned as superstitious and antichristian ; and from which, as Mason says, they had pared away so many superfluities ; yea, so many, as even to pare out the very name, itself, of bishop ? Let the impartial reader consider these things. How our present pretended bishops them- selves will make all these things agree, will be hard to imagine ; which, if they cannot do, let them be content to leave us to our own liberties, and freedom of thought ; and to excuse us, if we freely affirm, that " Matthew Parker was never consecrated at Lambeth : that the said records are forged : and, that themselves are but mere laymen, without mission, without succession, and without consecration." Ninthly, it is none of the least objections against Parker's solemn consecration at Lam- beth, that we find it not once mentioned by the historians of those times, especially by John Stow, who professed so particular a kindness and respect for Parker ; and who was so exact in setting down all things, of far less moment, done about London. Doubtless, he omitted it not through negligence or forgetfulness, seeing he is not unmindful to set down the consecration of cardinal Pole, Parker's immediate prede- cessor, and the very day on which he said his first mass. Nor does it appear to have been through forgetfulness, that Hollinshead men- tions not this notorious Lambeth solemnity, seeing he tells us, that bishop Tunstal, who died under Parker's custody, " received his consecra- tion at Lambeth :" if either he or John Stow had but given us only such a short hint as this, of Parker's consecration at Lambeth, we should never have questioned it further, nor have doubted of the truth of it, though they had not been so exact to a hair in every punctilio, as to have told us of the chapel's being " adorned 96 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE with tapestry towards the east ; a red cloth on the floor, in advent ; a sermon, communion, concourse of people ; Miles Coverdale's side woollen gown ; of the queen's sending to see if all things had been rightly performed." What care was here taken ? " Of answer being brought her, that there was not a little amiss, only Miles Coverdale was in his side woollen gown, at the very minute of the consecration : of their assuring her that that could not cause any defect in the consecration," &c, as our records mention ; which ridiculous circum- stances render them not a whit the more cre- dible, (a) If now, from what has been said, these Lambeth records appear evidently to be forged, to what other refuge will these pretenders to episcopacy have recourse for their episcopal character, but to queen Elizabeth's letters patent, and an act of parliment ? If so, I see no great reason why they should find fault with their ancient name and title of parliamentary bishops. Whoever read of bishops, between St. Peter's time and Parker's, that stood in need of an act of parliament to declare them such ? Doubtless, if they had been consecrated at Lambeth by imposition of the hands of true bishops, though all their consecrators had been in side woollen gowns, and neither tapestry towards the east, nor red cloth on the floor of the chapel, and could have shown authentic records of the same, they would never have desired the queen to make and declare them bishops by act of parliament : nor would the queen, and the wisdom of the nation, have con- sented to the marking of such a superfluous act, if their reverences had desired it. No ! no ! there would have been no more need of any such act for them then, than there had been for three score and nine preceding archbishops of Canterbury. After all this, another query will yet arise ; to wit, by what form of consecration Matthew Parker was consecrated ? Our present prelates and clergy will not say, I suppose, that he was made bishop according to the Roman Catholic form, though queen Elizabeth had revived the act of 25 Henry VIII., 20, which authorized the same. Nor can they say that king Ed- ward the Vlth's form was then in being, in the eve of the law ; for that part of the act of Edward the Vlth which established the book of ordination, having been repealed by queen Mary, was not revived till six years after the pretended consecration of Matthew Parker, viz., till the 8th of Elizabeth, as is easily proved. For whereas the act of 5th and 6th Edward VI.. 1, consisted of two parts ; one, which authorized the book of common prayer, as it was then newly explained and perfected ; another which established the form of consecrated bishops, &c. and added to the book of common prayer. This act, as to both these parts, was repealed by queen Mary ; and this repeal was reversed by (a) Several ridiculous circumstances mentioned in the Records, which yet render them less credible. 1 Elizabeth I., as to that part which concerned the book of common prayer only ; for so ;uns the act, " The said statute of repeal, and every thing therein contained, only, concerning the said book, viz. of common prayer, authorized by Edward VI. shall be void, and of no effect." And afterwards, 8th Elizabeth I. was revived that other part of it, which concerned the form of ordination, viz., in these words, " Such order and form for the consecrating of archbishops, bishops, &c, as was set forth in the time of Edward VI. and added to the said book of com- mon prayer, and authorized 5th and 6th of Edward VI. shall stand, and be in full force ; and shall from henceforth be used and observed." By which it is as clear as the sun at noon-day, that Edward the Vlth's form was not restored at all by 1 Elizabeth, either expressly or in general terms, under the name and notion of the book of common prayer, as Protestants would have it thought. Nay rather, it was formally excluded by the said act, 1 Elizabeth. For that act of Edward VI. consisting of nothing else but the authorizing of the book of common prayer, and establishing, and adding to it the book of ordination ; and the act of queen Mary having repealed that whole act, as to both these parts, that act of 1 Eliz. reversing that repeal, as to the book of common prayer only, did plainly and directly exclude the repealing of it, as to the book of ordination ; there being nothing else to be excluded, by that word only, but that book. So that it is undeniably evident, that king Edward the Vlth's form of consecra- tion was at that day illegal. And must we imagine, that the queen would suffer her new bishops to be consecrated by an illegal form, when she could as easily have authorized it by the law, as she had done the Roman form, by reviving the act 25th Henry VIII. 20th ? Yea, it had been as easy to make that form legal, as it was afterwards to declare them bishops by act of parliament ; and doubtless, more com- mendable. But admit Matthew Parker, and the rest of queen Elizabeth's new bishops, were made such by this, then illegal, form ; yet, if this form prove invalid, they are but still where they were before their election, as to their character. And that it is invalid, is sufficiently and clearly proved by the learned author of Erastus Senior, to Avhom I will refer my reader. Yea, the Protestant bishops and clergy themselves have judged the said form to be invalid ; and there- fore thought necessary to repair the essential defects of the same, by adding the words bishop and priest. Essential defects, I call the want of these two words bishop and priest ; for if they had not been essential, why were they added 1 Yet this will not serve their turn ; for before they can have a true clergy, they must change the character of the ordainers, as well as the form of ordination. A valid form of ordination, pronounced by a minister not validly ordained, gives no more character than if it had continued still invalid, and never been altered. The present Protestant bishops, whe changed LAMBETH RECORDS. the form of their own consecration, upon their adversaries' objections of the invalidity thereof, (for immediately after Erastus Senior was pub- lished against it, they altered it, viz , anno 1662,) might as well submit to be ordained by Catholic bishops ; or else, with the Presby- terians, utterly deny an episcopal character, as allow, by altering the form after so long a time and dispute, that it was not sufficient to make themselves, and their predecessors, priests and bishops. What has hitherto been said, concerning the nullity of their character, is yet further con- firmed by their altering the 25th of their 39 Articles ; for these first bishops, Parker, Horn, Jewel, Grindall, &c, understanding the condi- tion in which they were, for want of consecra- tion by imposition of hands, resolved in their convocation, anno 1562, to publish the 39 Articles, made by Cranmer and his associates, but with some alteration and addition ; especially to that Article wherein they speak of the sacra- ments : for, Whereas Cranmer's 25th or 26th Article says nothing of holy orders by imposition of hands, or any visible sign or ceremony required therein ; Parker, and his bishops, having taken upon themselves that calling, without any such ceremony of imposition and episcopal hands, for I believe they set not much by John Scorcy's hands and Bible in the Nag's Head, declared, that " God ordained not any visible sign or ceremony for the five last, commonly called sacraments ;" whereof holy orders is one. This alteration and addition you may see in Doctor Heylin's appendix to Ecclcsia Restaurata, page 189. In this convocation they denied also holy orders to be a sacrament ; consequently not likely to impress any indelible character in the soul of the party ordained ; which doctrine con- tinued long among them, as appears by Mr. Rogers, in bis defence of the 39 Articles, who affirms, that " none but disorderly Papists will say that order is a sacrament ;" and demands, " Where can it be seen in holy scripture, that orders or priesthood is a sacrament ? what form has it ? (says he) what promise ? what institution from Christ ?"(a) But after they began to pretend to have received an episcopal character from Roman Catholic bishops, an I to put out their Lambeth Records in defence of it, they disliked this doctrine, and taught the contrary, viz., that ordination is a sacrament. " We deny not ordination to be a sacrament," says Doctor Bramhall, " though it be not one of these two which are generally necessary to sal- vation."^) By order of this convocation the Bible of 1562 was printed, where the aforesaid text, li When they had ordained to them priests," &c, was translated, " When they had ordained elders by election ;" which, as soon as they began to thirst after the glorious character of priests and bishops, they corrected. (a) Defence of the Thirty-nine Articles, pp. 154, 155- (b) See Mason and Dr. Brani., p. 97. 97 And though Cranmer cared as little for any visible signs, imposition of hands, or ceremonies in ordination, as the other first Protestant refor- mers, and according to their practice had abjured the priestly and episcopal character, which he had received among Catholics ; as may be gathered by his words, related by Fox in his degradation, thus : " Then a barber clipped his hair round about, and the bishop scraped the tops of his fingers, where he had been anointed. "(c) When they were thus doing ; " All this," quoth the archbishop, " needed not, I had myself done witli this geer long ago." And also by his doctrine ; that, " In the New Testament, he that is appointed to be a priest or bishop, needs no confirmation by the scripture ; for election thereunto is sufficient." Though, I say, Cran- mer valued not any episcopal consecration, which he had received in the Catholic Church, yet he presumed not to make the denial thereof an article of the Protestant faith ; but queen Elizabeth's pretended bishops, and English Church, in their convocation 1562, seeing, they knew they had no episcopal character by impo- sition of true bishops' hands, thought fit, to make it a part of the Protestant belief, " That no such visible sign or ceremony was necessary, or instituted by Christ ;" and therefore con- cluded holy orders not to be a sacrament. And though, I say, the Church of England now teaches and practises the contrary, and in king James the First's reign erased from the text the word election as an imposture, or gross cor- ruption, yet this change of the matter does no more make them now true priests and bishops, than their last change of the form of ordination, in the year 1662, soon after the happy restoration of king Charles the Second. '• Ecclesia non est, qua sacerdotem non habet. There can be no church without priests." — St. Jerom. It is enough, that in this place we have proved these men without consecration or ordination ; yet seeing they glory also in assuming to them- selves the name of pastors, pastor of St. Mar- tin's, &.C., it may not be unseasonable to propose a few queries, touching their pastoral jurisdic- tion. 1 . Whether it is not a power of the keys, to institute a pastor over a flock of clergy and people ? 2. Whether any but a pastor can give pas- toral jurisdiction ? 3. Whether any bishop, but the bishop of the diocese, or commissioned from him, or his superior, can validly institute a pastor to any parochial church, within such a diocese 1 4. Whether any number of bishops can validly confirm, or give pastoral jurisdiction to the bishop of any diocese, if the metropolitan, or some authorized by him, or his superior, be not one ? 5. Or to the metropolitan of a province, if the (c) Fox's Acts and Monuments, fol. 216. 98 PROTESTANT TRANSLATION AGAINST primate of the nation, or some authorized by him, or his superior be not one ? 6. Whether any but the chief patriarch of that part of the world, or authorized by him, can validly give' pastoral jurisdiction to the primate of a nation ? 7. Whether the bishop of Rome is not chief patriarch of the western church, consequently of this nation 1 8. Whether Mat. Parker, the first Protestant pretended archbishop of Canterbury, received his pastoral jurisdiction from the bishop of Rome, or from others by him authorized 1 or, 9. Whether those who made Mat. Parker primate of England, or archbishop of Canter- bury, had any jurisdiction to that act, but what they received from queen Elizabeth ? 10. Whether queen Elizabeth had the power of the keys, either of order or jurisdiction 1 1 1 . Whether it is not an essential part of the Catholic Church to have pastors ? 12. Whether salvation can be had in a church wanting pastors ? 13. Whether they do not commit a most heinous sacrilege, who having neither valid ordination, nor pastoral jurisdiction, do notwith- standing take upon them to administer sacra- ments, and exercise all other acts of episcopal and priestly functions ? 14. Whether the people are not also involved with them, in the same sin, so often as they communicate with them in, or co-operate to, those sacrilegious presumptions ? 1 5. Whether those, who assume to themselves the names and offices of bishops and priests, take upon them to teach, preach, administer sacraments, and perform all other episcopal and priestly functions, without vocation, without ordination, without consecration, without suc- cession, without mission, or without pastoral jurisdiction, are not the very men of whom our blessed Saviour charged us to beware 1 (a) 16. To conclude, whether it is wisdom in the people of England, to hire such men at the charge of perhaps above .£1,000,000 [query, now 3 or .£"4,000,000 ?] per annum, to lead them the broad way to perdition ? ANOTHER CORRUPT ADDITION AGAINST THE PERPETUAL SACRIFICE OF CHRIST'S BODY AND BLOOD. Protestants teach, in the 31st of the 39 Articles, " That the offering of Christ once made, is that, perfect redemption, propitiation and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, &c. Wherefore the sacrifice of masses, in which it was commonly said, that the priests did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain and guilt, were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits." By this doctrine the Church of England bereaves Christians of the most inestimable jewel and richest treasure, that ever Christ our Saviour left to his church ; to wit, the most holy and venerable sacrifice of his sacred body and blood in the mass, which is daily offered to God the Father, for a propitia- tion for our sins. And because they would have this false and erroneous doctrine of their's backed by sacred scripture, they mostegregiously corrupt the text, Heb. x. 10, by adding to the same two words not found in the Greek or Latin copies, viz., " For all ;" the apostle's words being, " In the which will we are sanctified by the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ once ;" which they corruptly read, in their last transla- tion : " By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once, for all." By which addition they endea- vour to take away the daily oblation of the body and blood of Christ in the holy sacrifice of the mass ; contradicting the doctrine of God's holy church, which believes and teaches, " that our Lord God, although he was once to offer himself to God the Father upon the altar of the cross by death, that he might there work eternal redemption ; yet because his priesthood was not to be extinguished by death, in the last supper, which night he was to be betrayed, that he might leave a visible sacrifice to his beloved spouse the church, whereby that bloody one, once to be performed upon the cross, should be represented, and the memory thereof should remain to the end of the world, and the wholesome virtue thereof should be applied for the remission of those sins which we daily commit, declaring himself to be ordained a priest for ever, ac- cording to the order of Melchizedek, he offered to God the Father his body and blood, under the forms of bread and wine ; and under the signs of the same things he gave it to the apos- tles, whom then he ordained priests of the New Testament, that they should receive it ; and by the words he commanded them, and their suc- cessors in the priesthood, that they should offer it : " Do ye this in commemoration of me," &c. And, " Because in this divine sacrifice, which is performed in the mass, the self-same Christ is contained, and unbloodily offered, who offered himself once bloodily upon the altar of the cross : the holy synod teaches the sacrifice to be truly propitiatory, &c. Wherefore, according to the tradition of the apostles, it is duly offered, not only for the sins, punishments, satisfactions, and other necessities of the faithful that are living, but also for such as are dead in Christ, as not yet fully purged. "(i) This is the Catholic doc- trine, delivered in the sacred Council of Trent, which the Church of England calls blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits ; and against which they falsify the sacred text of scripture, (a) Mat. vii. 15. (b) Concil. Trid., sess. 22, cap. 1, cap. 2, THE PERPETUAL SACRIFICE. 99 by thrusting into it words of their own, which they find not in any of the Greek or Latin copies. But lest they may object, that this is but a new doctrine, not taught in the primitive church, nor delivered down to us by the apostles or by apostolical tradition ; I will give you these fol- lowing testimonies from the fathers of the first five hundred years. St. Cyprian says, (a) " Christ is priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedek, which order is this, coming from this sacrifice, and thence descending, that Melchizedek was priest of God most high, that he ofTered bread and wine, that he blessed Abraham ; for who is more a priest of God most high, than our Lord Jesus Christ, who ofTered sacrifice to God the Father, and offered the same that Melchizedek had offered, bread and wine, viz., his body and blood P And a little after : " That therefore in Gene- sis the blessing might be rightly celebrated about Abraham by Melchizedek the priest, the image, or figure of Chrst's sacrifice, consisting in bread and wine, went before : which thing our Lord perfecting and performing, offered bread, and the chalice mixed with wine, and he, that is the plenitude, fulfilled the verity of the prefi- gured image." The same holy father, in another place, as cited also by the Magdeburgian Centurists, (Z>) in this manner, " Our Lord Jesus Christ," says Cyprian, lib. 2, ep. 3, " is the high priest of God the Father ; and first offered sacrifice to God the Father, and commanded the same to be done in rememberance to him ; and that priest truly executes Christ's place, who imitates that which Christ did ; and then he offers in the church a true and full sacrifice to God." This saying so displeases the Centurists, that they say, " Cy- prian affirms superstitiously, that the priest executes Christ's place in the supper of our Lord." St. Hierom : (c) " Have recourse," says he, " to the book of Genesis, and you shall find Melchizedek, king of Salem, prince of this city, who even there, in figure of Christ, offered bread and wine, and dedicated the Christian mystery in our Saviour's body and blood." Again, " Melchizedek offered not bloody vic- tims, but dedicated the sacrament of Christ in bread and wine, a simple and pure sacrifice." And yet more plainly in another place, " Our ministry," says he, " is signified in the word of order, not by Aaron, in immolating brute vic- tims, but in offering bread and wine, that is, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus." St. Augustine expressly teaches, that " Mel- chizedek bringing forth the sacrament, or mystery, of our Lord's table, knew how to figure his eternal priesthood." (d) " There (a) Ep. 53, ad Caecilium. (b) In the Alphab. Table of the Third Cent., under the letter S., col. 83. (c) Ep. ad Marcel, ut migret. Bethleem. ; Ep. ad Evagr. Gluaest. in Gen., c. 14. (d) Ep. 95. first appeared," says he in another place, "that sacrifice which is now offered to God by Chris- tians, in the whole world." (e) Again, (Cone. 1, in Psal. xxxv.) "There was formerly," says he, " as you have known, the sacrifice of the Jews, according to the order of Aaron, in the sacrifice of beasts, and this in mystery ; for not as yet was the sacrifice of the body and blood of our Lord, which the faithful know, and such as have read the Gospel ; which sacrifice now is spread over the whole world. Set therefore before your eyes two sacrifices, that according to the order of Aaron ; and this, according to the order of Melchizedek ; for it is written, our Lord has sworn, and it shall not repent him, thou art a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedek." And in Cone. 2, Psal. xxxiii., he expressly teaches, "that Christ, of his body and blood, instituted a sacri- fice, according to the order of Melchizedek." Nothing can be more plain than these words of St. Irenaeus, in which he affirms of Christ, (/) " Giving counsel also to his disciples, to offer the first fruits of his creatures to God ; not as it were needing it, but that they might be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful, he himself took of the creature of bread, and gave thanks, saying, this is my body ; and likewise the chalice, he confessed to be his blood, which is made of that creature which is in use amongst us, and taught a new oblation of the New Testament, which oblation the church receiving from the apostles, throughout the whole world, offers to God, to him who gives us nourishment, the first fruits of his gifts in the New Testament ; of whom, amongst the twelve prophets, Malachy has thus foretold : ' I have no will in you, the Jews, says our omnipotent Lord, and I will take no sacrifices at your hands, because, from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof, my name is glorified amongst the Gentiles ; and in every place, incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice, because my name is groat among the Gentiles, saith our Lord Almighty,' manifestly signifying by these things, because the former people indeed ceased to oiler to God ; but in everyplace a sacrifice is offered to God, and this purr, for his name is glorified among the Gentiles." Thus St. Irenaeus, whose words so touch the Protestant Centurists, that they say, " Irenaeus, &c, seems to speak very incommo- diously, when he says, he, Christ, taught the new oblation of the New Testament, which the church receiving from the apostles, offered to God over all the world." Eusebius Caesariensis : (g) " We sacrifice, therefore, to our highest Lord a sacrifice of praise ; we sacrifice to God a full, odoriferous, and most holy sacrifice ; we sacrifice after a new manner, according to the New Testament, a pure HOST." St. John Chrysostom expounding the words of (e) Lib. 16, de Civ. Dei, c. 22. See him also lib. 17, c. 17, and lib. 18, c. 35; cum Psalm cix., lib. 1, contr. Ad vers. Leg. et Prophet, c. 20 : Serm. 4, de Sanctis Innocentibus, (/) Lib. 4, Advers. Haer., c. 32. {g) Lib. 1, Demonstrat. Evan., c. 10. 100 PROTESTANT TRANSLATION AGAINST the prophet Malachy, says, (a) " The church, which every where carries about Christ in it, is prohibited from no place ; but in every place there are altars, in every place doctrines ; these things God foretold by his prophet, for both declaring the church's sincerity, and the ingratitude of the other people, the Jews, he tells them, I have no pleasure in you, &c. Mark, how clearly and plainly he interprets the mystical table, which is the unbloody host, and the pure perfume he calls holy prayers, which are offered after the host. Thou seest how it is granted, that that angelical sacrifice should every where be known ; thou seest it is circumscribed with no limits, neither the altars, nor the song. In every place incense is offered to my name ; therefore the mystical table, the heavenly and exceedingly venerable sacrifice is indeed the prime pure host." Is it not a thing to be admired, that the Church of England should not only corrupt the sacred scriptures against the great and most dreadful sacrifice ; but should also make it an article of her faith, that it is a blasphemous fable, and dangerous deceit ? When, without all doubt, she cannot be ignorant, that the holy fathers call it : (b) " A visible sacrifice ; (c) " The sacrifice ;" (d) " The daily sacrifice ;" (e) " The true sacrifice according to the order of Melchizedek;"(/) "The sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ ;" (g) " The sacrifice of the altar ;" (h) " The sacrifice of the church ; (i) " The sacrifice of the New Testament ;" (k) " Which succeeded to all sacrifices of the Old Testament." And that it was offered for the health of the emperor, Saerificamus pro salute im- peratoris" says Tertullian, de Scapul. c. 2. That it was offered for the sick, Pro infirmis etiam sae- rificamus, says St. Chrysostom, Horn. 27, in Act Apos. " For those upon the sea, and for the fruits of the earth," idem. And for the purging of houses infected with wicked spirits. St. Aug. de Civit. Die, lib. 22, c. 8, says, that " One went and of- fered," in the house infected, " the sacrifice of Christ's body, praying that the vexation might cease, and by God's mercy it ceasedimmediately." In the first Council of Nice, can. 14, we find these words : " The holy council has been in- formed, that in some places and cities the dea- cons distribute the sacrament to priests ; neither rule nor custom has delivered, that they who have not power to offer sacrifice, should distri- bute the body of Christ to them who offer." See also, .concil. 3, Bracarense. can. 3, and (a) Ad. Psal. xcv. (b) St. Agu., de Civit. Dei, lib. 10, c. 19. (c) St. Cypr. 1. 2, ep. 3; et St. Agu. Cit. c. 20. (d) Aug. Cit. c. 16, et. Cone. Tolet., I. can. 5 ; Origen. in Num. Horn. 23. (e) St. Cyprian, 1. 2, <!p. 3, et Aug., lib. 16, c. 22, de Civit. Dei. (/) Et lib. 22, c. 8, et lib. 20, contr. Faustum, c. 18 ; et S. Hierom., lib. 3, contr. Pelag.; Aug. in Psal. xxxiii, con. 2. to. 8; et St. Crys., lib. 1, Cor. Horn, 24. (jg) S.Aug, in Enchiridion, c. H0,etdeCura pro Mor- tuis. c. 18. (A) Et de Civit. Dei, 1. 10, c. 20. (t) Et de Gratia Novi Test., c. 18, et S. Irenagus, lib. 4, c. 32. (k) Aug de Civit. Dei, lib. 17, c. 20.; St. Clement, in Apost. Constit., edit. 1564, Antverpia 1 , lib. 6, c. 22, fol. 123. concil. 12, can. 5. Moreover that "this holy sacrifice," as God's church at this day teaches and practises, " was offered for the sins of the living and dead," is a truth so undeniable, that Crastoius, a learned Protestant, in his book of the mass, against Bellarmin, page 167, repre- hends Origen, St. Athanasius, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, St Gregory the Great, and venerab'e Bede, for maintaining " the mass to be a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the living and of the dead." Consider then, what truth there is in the words of that author (I) who affirms, that in Gregory the Great's time, " Masses for the dead were not intended to deliver souls from those torments of purgatory." Doubtless he considered not the words of St. Augustine, lib. 9, Confess, c. 12, and De Verb. Apost. Serm. 34, viz. " That the sacrifice of our price was offered for his mother Monica, being dead," and, " That the universal church does observe, as delivered from their forefathers, to pray for the faithful deceased in the sacrifice, and also to offer the sacrifice for them." Nor considered this great vindicator, that great miracle related by St. Gregory the Great, him- self, concerning purgatory, and the benefits souls there receive, by the offering up of this propitia- tory sacrifice. In his fourth Book of Dialogues, chap. 55, telling us of a monk called Justus, who was obsequious to him, and watched with him in his daily sickness: "This man," says he, "being dead, I appointed the healthful host to be offered for his absolution thirty days together, which done, the said Justus appeared to his brother by vision, and said, I have been hitherto evil, but now am well, &c." And the brethren in the mon- astery counting the days, found that to be the day on which the 30th oblation was offered for him. Nor would doubtless this vindicator have told us, " That transubstantiation was yet unborn," to wit, in St. Gregory the Great's time, unless he had a mind to impose upon his reader, if he had ever read the doctrine of those fathers, who lived before St. Gregory's time, for example : St. Ignatius, martyr, in his epistle to the people of Smyrna, speaking of the heretics of his time, men of the same judgment with this vindicator, writes thus : " They allow not of eucharists and oblations," says he, " because they do not believe the eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, in his mercy, raised again from the dead." St. Justin, martyr, in his apology to the em- peror Antonius Pius, made for the Christians : " Now this food," says he, " amongst us, is called the eucharist, Avhich it is lawful for none to par- take of, but those who believe our doctrine to be true, who have been washed in the laver of rege- neration for the remission of sins; and who regu- late their lives according to the prescription of Christ ; for we do not receive this as common bread, or common drink ; but as by the word of God, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, being made (Z) The author of the Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England, &c, p. 13. THE PERPETUAL SACRIFICE. 101 flesh, had both flesh and blood for the sake of our salvation ; just so we are taught, that that food, over which thanks are given by prayers, in his own words, and whereby our blood and flesh, are by a change, nourished, is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus ; for the apostles, in the commentaries written by them, called the gos- pel, have recorded that Jesus so commanded them." St. Irenaeus, taking an argument from the participation of the eucharist, proves the resur- rection of the flesh, against the heretics of his time, (a) " As the blessed apostles say : ' Be- cause we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones ;' not speaking this of any spiritual or invisible man, but of that disposition which belongs to a real man, that consists of flesh, nerves, and bones ; and is nourished by the chalice, which is his (Christ's) blood, and receives increase by that bread which is his body. And as the vine, being planted in the earth, brings forth fruit in season : and a grain of wheat falling upon the ground, and rotting, rises up with increase by the virtue of God, who com- prehends all things, which afterwards, by a pru- dent management, becomes serviceable to men ; and receiving the word of God, are made the eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ ; so also our bodies being nourished by it, and laid in the earth, and there dissolved, will rise at their time ; the word of God working in them this resurrection, to the glory of God the Father." Eusebius Canadensis : (b) " Making a daily commemoration of him (Christ,) and daiiy cele- brating the memory of his body and blood ; and being now preferred to a more excellent sacri- fice and office than that of the old law, we think it unreasonable any more to fall back to those first and weak elements which contained certain signs and figures, but not the truth itself." Another place of Eusebius, as quoted by St. John of Damascene : " Many sinners," says he, " being priests, do offer sacrifice ; neither docs God deny his assistance, but by the Holy Ghost consecrates the proposed gifts. And the bread indeed is made the precious body of our Lord, and the cup his precious blood. "(c) St. Hilary : " We must not speak," says he, " of the things of God, like men, or in" the sense of the world : let us read what is written, and understand what we read, and then we shall be- lieve with a perfect faith. For what we say of the natural existence of Christ within us, if we do not learn from him, we say foolishly and profanely ; for he himself says : ' My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.' There is no place left for doubting of the reality of his flesh and blood ; for now, by the profes- sion of Christ himself, and by our faith, it is truly flesh, and truly blood. Is not this truth ? It may indeed not be true for them, who deny Christ to be true God."(rf) (a) Lib. 5, c. 11. (b) Lib. 1, de Demonstrat. Evang., c. 10. (c) Lib. 3, Parallel., c 45. (d) Lib. 8, deTrinitate. 14 St. Cyril of Jerusalem :(<?) " Since, therefore, Christ himself does thus affirm, and says of the bread, ' This is my body ;' who, from hence- forward, dare be so bold as to doubt of it 1 And since the same (Christ) does assure us, and say : ' This is my blood ;' who, I say, can doubt of it, and say, it is not his blood ? In Cana of Galilee he once, with his sole will, turned water into wine, which much resembles blood ; and does not he deserve to be credited, that he changed wine into his blood ; for if, when in- vited to a corporal marriage, he wrought, so stu- pendous a miracle, have we not much more reason to confess, that he gave his body and blood to the children of the bridegroom ? Wherefore, full of certainty, let us receive the body and blood of Christ ; for under the form of bread is given to thee the body, and the blood under the form of wine ; that having received the body and blood of Christ, thou mayest be made partaker with him of his body and blood. Thus we shall become Christophers, that is, 1 bearers of Christ,' receiving his body and blood into us. Do not, therefore, look on it as mere bread only, or bare wine ; for, as God himself has said, it is the body and blood of Christ. Notwithstanding therefore, the infor- mation of sense, let faith confirm thee ; and do not judge of the thing by the taste, but rather take it for most certain by faith, without the least doubt that his body and blood are given thee. When you come to communion, do not come holding both the palms of your hands open, nor your fingers spread ; but let your left hand be as it were a rest under the right, into which you are to receive so great a King ; and in the hollow of your hand take the body of Christ, saying, amen."(/) St. Gregory Nyssen :(g) "When we have eaten any thing that is prejudicial to our consti- tution, it is necessary that we take something that is capable of repairing what was impaired ; that so, when this healing antidote is within us, it may work out of the body, by a contrary affection, all the force of the poison. And what is this antidote 1 It is nothing but that body which overcame death, and was the origin of our life. For, as the apostle tells us, as a little leaven makes the whole lump like itself, so that body which, by God's appointment, suffered death, being received within our body, changes and reduces the whole to its own likeness. And as when poison is mixed up with any thing that is medicinal, the whole compound is rendered useless ; so likewise that immortal body being within him that receives it, converts the whole into its own nature. But there being no other way of receiving any thing within our body unless it be first conveyed into our stomach by eating or drinking, it is necessary that by this ordinary way of nature, the life-giving virtue of the Spirit be communicated to us. But now, since that body alone, which was united to the (e) In Catechis. (/) It was the custom in those days for the priest to de- liver the holy sacrament into the hands of the communicant. (g) In Orat. Cat., c. 37. 102 PROTESTANT CORRUPTIONS Divinity, has received this grace, and it is mani- fest that our body can no otherwise become im mortal, we are to consider how it is impossible, that one body, which is always distributed to so many thousand Christians over the whole world, should be the whole, by a part in every one, and still remain whole in itself." And a little after : " I do, therefore, now rightly believe, that the bread sanctified by the word of God is changed into the body of God the Word. And here likewise the bread, as the apostle says, is sanctified by the word of God and prayer : not so, that by being eaten it becomes the body of the Word, but because it is suddenly changed by the word into his body, by these words : ' This is my body.' And this is effected by virtue of the benediction, by which the nature of those things which appear is transelemented into it." Again, in another place :(a) " And the bread in the beginning is only common bread ; but ■when it is sanctified by the mystery, it is made and called the body of Christ." St. Hierom : " God forbid," says he, " that I should speak detractingly of these men, (priests,) who, by succeeding the apostles in their function, do make the body of Christ with their sacred mouth. "(b) St. Augustine : " We have heard," says he, " our Master, who always speaks truth, our di- vine Redeemer, the Saviour of men, recom- mending to us our ransom, his blood ; for he spake of his body and blood ; which body he called meat and which blood he called drink. The faithful understand the sacrament of the faithful." " But there are some," says he, " who do not believe ; they said : ' This is an hard saying, who can hear him ?" It is an hard saying but to those who are obstinate ; that is, it is incredible but to the incredulous. "(c) The same holy father and great doctor, in his commentary upon the Thirty-third Psalm, speaks thus of Christ : " And he was carried in his own hands ? And can this, brethren, be possible in man ? Was ever any man carried in his own hands ? He may be carried by the hands of others, but in his own no man was ever yet carried. How this can be literally un- derstood of David, we cannot discover ; but in Christ we find it verified ; for Christ was car- ried in his own hands, when giving his own very body, he said : ' This is my body ;' for that body he carried in his own hands." Such is the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is much recommended to men. How plain and positive are the words of these ancient and holy fathers, for the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the blessed sacrament of the eucharist, which Protestants so flatly deny ? 1 would ask our Church of England divines, whether, if they had been present among the apostles when Christ said : " Take and eat, this is my body," they durst have assumed the bold- ness to have contradicted the omnipotent Word, and have replied : " It is not thy body, Lord, it is only bread ?" I believe the most stiff sacra- mentarian in England would have trembled to have made such a reply ; though now they dare, with blasphemous mouth, call the doctrine of transubstantiation, the " mystery of iniquity." I have insisted somewhat longer upon these two points than, perhaps, the reader may think proper for this treatise ; but when he considers that the priesthood and sacrifice, against which Protestants have corrupted the scripture, and framed their new articles of faith, are two such essential parts of Christian religion, that if either of them be taken away, the whole fabric of God's church falls to the ground, he will not look upon it as an unnecesary digression. SEVERAL OTHER CORRUPTIONS AND FALSIFICATIONS NOT MENTIONED UNDER THE FOREGOING HEADS. This Treatise increasing beyond what indeed I designed it at first, will oblige me to as much brevity as possible, in these following corrup- tions : In Romans viii. 39, instead of the word " cha- rity," they, contrary to the Greek, translate " love ;" and so generally in all places, where much is spoken in commendation of charity. The reason is, because they attribute salvation to faith alone, they care not how little charity may sound in the ears of the people. So like- wise in 1 Cor. xiii. for " charity," they eight times say "love." In Rom. ix. 16, for this text : " Therefore it is not of the wilier, nor the runner, but of God that showeth mercy," (a) In Orat. in diem Luminum. (ft) In Rpist. ad Helibdorum. (c) Lib. de Verb. Apost. Serm. they translate in their old Bibles : " So lieth it not then in a man's will or running, but in the mercy of God ;" changing of, into in, and wilier and runner, into will and running ; and so make the apostle say, that it is not at all in man's will to consent or co-operate with God's grace and mercy. In 1 Corinthians i. J 0, for " schisms," which are spiritual divisions from the unity of the church, they translate " dissensions," which may be in worldly things, as well as religion ; this is done because themselves were afraid to be accounted schismatics. So likewise In Galatians v. 20, for " heresy," as it is in the Greek, they translate " sects," in favour of themselves, being charged with heresy ; also In Titus iii. 10, instead of saying, according to the Greek, " A man that is an heretic, <fec, their Bible of 1662 translates, "A man OF THE SCRIPTURE. 103 that is author of sects ;" favouring that name for their own sakes, and dissembling it as though the holy scripture spake not against heresy or heretics, schism or schismatics. In 1 Tim. iii. 6, for a " neophyte," (one lately baptized or planted in Christ's mystical body,) they translate in their first Bibles, " a young scholar ;" as though an old scholar could not be a neophyte, by deferring his baptism, or by long delaying his conversion to God, which he learn- ed to be necessary long before. In Titus iii. 8, instead of these words, " to excel in good works," they translate, " to show forth good works ;" and, as their last edition has it, " to maintain good works ;" against the dif- ferent degrees of good works. In Hebrews x- 20, for " dedicated," they translate, in their first Bibles, " prepared," in favour of their heresy, that Christ was not the first who went into heaven, which the word dedi- cated signifies. In the two Epistles of Peter, iii. 16, they force the text to maintain a frivolous evasion, that " St. Paul's Epistles are not hard," but the " things in the epistles ;" whereas both the Greek and Latin texts are indifferent with regard to both constructions. It is a general custom of theirs, and where they find the Greek text indifferent to two senses, there they restrain it only to that which may be most advantage- ous to their own error, thereby excluding its reference to the other sense. And often- times, where one sense is received, read, and expounded by the greater part of the ancient fathers, and by all the Latin church, there they very partially follow the other sense, not so generally received. In St. James i. 13, for " God is not a tempter of evils," they translate, " God is not tempted with evils," and " God cannot be tempted with evils," (a) than which nothing is more imper- tinent to the apostle's speech in that place. Win- is it that they refuse to say, " God is not tempted to evil," as well as the other 1 is it on account of the Greek word, which is passive ? They may find in their lexicon, that it is both an active and passive ; as also appears by the very cir- cumstance of the foregoing words, " Let no man say, that he is tempted by God." Why so 1 " Because," says the Protestant translators, " God is not tempted with evil." Is this a good reason 1 nothing less. How then ? " Because, God is not tempted to evil ;" therefore let no man say, that " he is tempted by God." This reason is so coherent, and so necessary in this place, that if the Greek word were only a passive, as it is not, yet it might have better beseemed Beza to translate it actively, than it did to turn an active into a passive, against the real presence, as himself confesses he did with- out scruple. But though he might and ought to have translated this word actively, yet he would not, because he would favour his own heresy ; which, quite contrary to these words of the apostle, says, that " God is a tempter to evil ;" his (a) A.xetoaao{ kqk&v. words are, Inducit Dominus in tentationem eos quos satance arhitrio permiltet, &c. (b) " The Lord leads into temptation those whom he per- mits to be at satan's disposal ; or, into whom rather he leads or brings in satan himself, to fill their hearts, as Peter speaketh." Note, that he says, God brings satan into a man to fill his heart, as Peter said to Ananias : " W r hy has satan filled thy heart, to lie unto the Holy- Ghost ?" So that by this doctrine of Beza, God brought satan into Anania's heart to make him lie unto the Holy Ghost ; and so leading him into temptation, was author and cause of that henious sin. Is not this to say, " God is a tempter to evil," quite contrary to St. James's words ? Or could he that is of this opinion, translate the contrary ; to wit, that " God is no tempter to evil ?" Is not this as much as to say, that God also brought satan into Judas to fill his heart, and so was author of Judas's treason, even as he was of Paul's conversion ? Is not this a most absurd and blasphemous opinion ? Yet how can they free themselves from it, who allow and maintain the aforesaid exposition of " God's leading into temptation ?" Nay, Beza, for maintaining the same, translates, " God's providence," instead of " God's prescience," Acts ii. 23, a version so false, that the English Bezaites, in their transla- tion, are ashamed to follow him. And which is worse than all this, if worse can be, they make God not only a leader of men into temptation, but even the author and worker of sin : yea, that God created or appointed men to sin ; as appears too plainly, not only in their translation of this following text of St. Peter's, but also from Beza's commentary on the same. Also Bucer, one of king Edward the Vlth's apostles, held directly, that " God is the author of sin." (c) St. Peter says of the Jews, that Christ is to them, Petra scandali qui offendunt verbo nee credunt in quo et positi sunt, fls o xal iii&eoar ; that is, " A rock of scandal to them (the Jews) that stumble at the word, neither do believe wherein also they are put," as the Rhemish Testament translates it : or as it is rendered in king Edward the Vlth's English translation, and in the first of queen Elizabeth's, " they believe not that whereon they were set ;" which transla- tion Illyricus approves, (d) " This is well to be marked, lest a man imagine that God himself did put them, and (as one, meaning Beza, against the nature of the Greek word, translates and in- terprets it) that God created them for this pur- pose, that they should withstand him. Erasmus and Calvin, referring this word to that which goes before, interpret it not amiss, that the Jews were made or ordained to believe the word of God, and their Messias ; but yet that they would not believe him ; for to them belonged the promises, the testaments, and the Messias himself; as St. (b) Annot. Nov. Test., anno 155G, Matt. vi. 13. (c) See Bucer's Scripta Anglicana, p. 931 ; et in Epist. ad Rom. in p. I, c. 94. (d) Illyricus's Gloss, in 1 Pet. ii. 8. 104 PROTESTANT CORRUPTIONS Peter says, Acts, ii. 3, and St. Paul, Rom. ix. And to them were committed the oracles of God, by witness of the same Paul, Rom. iii." Thus Illyricus ; who has here given the true sense of this text, according to the signification of the Greek word ; and has proved the same by scripture, by St. Peter and St. Paul, and has confirmed it by Erasmus and Calvin. Yea, Luther follows the same sense in this place : so does Castalio in his annotations to the New Testament, Yet Beza, against all these, to defend his blasphemous doctrine, that " God leads men into temptation, and brings in satan to fill their hearts," translates it thus : Sunt immorigeri ad quod etiatn conditi feurunt, (a) " They are rebellious, whereunto also they were created ;" With whom his scholars, our English translators, are resolv- ed to agree ; therefore, in their Bible of the year 1577, they read, " Being disobedient unto the which thing they were ordained." And in that of 1572 : " Being disobedient unto the which thing they were even ordained." This is yet worse, and with this, word for word, agrees the Testament of 1580, and the Scottish Bible of 1579. This is also the Geneva translation in the Bible of 1561, which the French Geneva Bible follows. And how much our Protestant last translation differs from these, may be seen in the Bible printed at London, anno 1683, where it is read thus : " And a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient whereunto also they are appointed." Is not this to say positively, that God is au- thor of men's disobedience or rebellion against Christ ? " But, if God," says Castalio against Beza, " hath created some men to rebellion or disobedience, he is author of their disobedience ; as if he has created some to obedience, he is truly author of their obedience." Yes, this is to make God the author of men's sin, for which purpose it was so translated : and thus Beza in his notes upon the text explains it ; that " men are made or fashioned, framed, stirred up, crea- ted or ordained, not by themselves, for that were absurd, but by God, to be scandalized at him, and his Son our Saviour ; Christus est eis offen- diculo, prout etiam ad hoc ipsum a Deo sunt con- diti .-" and further discourses at large, and brings other texts to prove this sense, and this translation. And though Luther and Calvin, as is said, dis- sented not from the true sense of this text, yet touching the blasphemous doctrine, (b) that " God is the author of sin," they, with Zuinglius, must, for all this, have the right hand of Beza. " How can man prepare himself to good," says Luther, " seeing it is not in his power to make his ways evil 1 For God works the wicked work in the wicked." " When we commit adultery or murder," says Zuinglius, " it is the Avork of God, being the mover, the author, and inciter, &c. God moves {a) Vide Castalio in Defensione qua Translat., pp. 153, 154 155. (b) Lut. To. 2, Wittem. an. 1551, Assert. Art. 36, Vid. de Servo. Arbit. fol. 195, Edit. 1603. Zuing. To. 10, de providentia Dei, fol. 365, 366, 367. the thief to kill, &c. He is forced to sin, &c God hardened Pharaoh, not speaking hyperbo- lically, but he truly hardens him, yea, although he resist." By which, and other of his writings, he so plainly teaches God to be the author of sin, that he is therefore particularly reprehended by the learned Protestant, Grawerus, in Absur- da Absurdorum, c. 5, de Prcedest., fol. 3, 4. " God is author," says Calvin, " of all those things, which these Popish judges would have to happen only by his idle sufferance." (c) He also affirms our sins to be not only by God's permission, but by " his decree and will." Which blasphemy is so evidently taught by him and his followers, that they are expressly condemn- ed for it by their famous brethren : Feming, lib. de Unioers. Grat.,p. 109.; Osiander, Enchirid. Controv., p. 104; Scaffman, de Peccat., Causis, pp. 155, 27; Stizlinus, Desput. Theol. de Pro- vid. Dei. sect. 141 ; Graver, in Absurda Absurd., in Frontisp. Yea, the Protestant magistrates of Berne made it penal by the laws, for any in their territories to preach Calvin's doctrine thereof, or for the people to read any of his books concerning the same, (d) Are not these blessed reformers 1 " O excellent instrument of God !" as Dr. Tenison styles the chief of them.(e) Protestants denying free will in man, not only to do good, but even to resist evil, open a very wide passage into this impious doctrine, of making God the author of sin. In 1 St. Peter i. 22, the apostle exhorts Christains to live as becomes men of so excel- lent a vocation : " Purifying," says he, " your souls by obedience of charity," (/) &c. ; a little before, verse 17, remembering always, that " God, without exception of persons, judges every man according to his works." From which place it appears, that we have free will working with the grace of God ; that we purify and cleanse our souls from sin ; that good works are neces sarily required of Christians : for by many di- vine arguments St. Peter urges this conclusion ; Ut anirnas nostras castificemus, " That we purify our own souls." So the Protestant translation, made in Edward the Sixth's time, has it, " For- asmuch as you have purified your souls." {g) So likewise one of queen Elizabeth's Bibles : " Even ye which have purified your souls ;" and so it is in the Greek. Notwithstanding all which, Beza, in his Testaments of 1556 and 1565, translates it, Animabus vestris purificatis obediendo veritati per Spiritum : which another of queen Elizabeth s Bibles renders thus : " See- ing your souls are purified in obeying the truth, through the Sprit." So translates also the En- glish Bible, printed at Geneva, 1561, and the Scotch, printed at Edinburgh, 1579. So that these words make nothing at all either for free will, or co-operation with God's grace, or value of good works, but rather the con- (c) Calvin, instit. 1. 1, c. 18, and 1. 2, c. 4, and 1 . 3, c. 23. (d) Vid. Litteras Senat. Bern, ad Ministros, &c. an. 1555. (c) Dr. Ten. Conf. with M. P. (/) Castificantes anhnas vestras in obedientia Charita.tis. (-)Bib. 1561, 1579. OF THE SCRIPTURE. 105 trary ; proving that in our justification we work not, but are wrought ; we purify not our- selves, but are purified ; we are not active and doers with God's grace, but passive and suffer- ers ; which opinion the Council of Trent con- demns, (a) The Protestant Bible of 1683, has again corrected this, and translates : " Seeing ye have purified your souls," &c. ; but whether with any good and sincere intention, appears by their having left uncorrected another fault of the same stamp in Philippians i. 28. Where St. Paul, handling the same argument, exhorts the Christians not to fear the enemies of Christ, though they persecute ever so ter- ribly, " which to them," says he, " is cause of perdition, but to you of salvation ;" where he makes good works necessary, and so the causes of salvation, as sins are of damnation. But Beza will have the old interpreter overseen in so translating : " because," says he, " the afflic- tion of the faithful is never called the cause of their salvation, but the testimony." (&) And, therefore, translates the Greek word tdeitii;, indicium. And his scholars, the English trans- lators, render it a " token ;" though, indeed, one of their Testaments translates it, as we do, a " cause ;" so do also Erasmus, and the Ti- gurine translators ; (c) yea, the apostles com- paring sins with good works, these leading to heaven, as those to hell, convinces its sense to be so ; as Theodoret, a Greek father, also gathers from that word, saying : " That pro- cures to them destruction, but to you salvation." (d) So St. Augustine, St. Hierom, and other Latin fathers. And that good works are a cause of salvation, our Saviour himself clearly shows, when he thus speaks of Mary Magdalen : Remittuntur ei pec- cata rnulta,quoniam dihxit imdtum : " Many sins are forgiven her, because she loveth much." Against which no man living can cavil from the Greek, Hebrew, or Latin, but that works of charity are a cause why sins are forgiven ; and so a cause of our justification and salvation, which are evidently the words and meaning of our blessed Saviour. Notwithstanding, Beza and our English translators have a shift for this also ; he translates, Remissa sunt peccata ejus multa ; nam dilexit multum : which in our Eng- lish Bible is rendered, " Her sins which are many, are forgiven ; for she loved much ;" (e) which the reader, perhaps, may think to be a difference so small as is not worth taking notice of; but, if well considered, will be found as great as is between our doctrine and Protestants. And first, the text is corrupted, by making a fuller point than either the Greek or Latin bears, the English making some a colon, (:) and some a semicolon, (;) where in the Greek there is only a comma (,) ; and Beza in his Latin, yet more desperately makes a down and full period, (.) /a) Sess. 6, cap. 4. (6) Beza Annot. in ilium locum (c) Bib. 1561. (d) Theod. in Phil., cap. ie) Beza Test-, anno 1565. Bib 168S. thereby dividing and distracting the latter part from the former, as though it contained not a reason of that which went before, as it does, but were some new matter ; wherein he is controlled by another of his own translators, and by the Greek prints of Geneva, Zurich, Basil, and other German cities, who point it as it is in our Latin and English. But their falsehood appear^ much more in turning quoniam into nam, " because" into " for." (/) Seeing our Saviour's words are in effect thus : " Because she loved much, therefore, many sins are forgiven her ;" which they, by this perver- sion and mispointing it, make a quite different, and almost contrary sense ; thus : " Because she had many sins forgiven her, therefore, she loved much ;" and this love following was a token of the remission which she, by only faith, had ob- tained before ; so turning the cause into the effect, and the antecedent into the consequent, hereby utterly overthrowing the doctrine which Christ by his words and reason gives, and the church by his words and reason gathers. Beza blushes not to confess why he thus altered Christ's words, saying : Nam dilexit, ifi&niioB, " For she loved :" the Vulgate translation and Erasmus render it, " Because she loved." " But I (says he) had rather interpret it as I do, that men may understand in these words to be shown, not the cause of remission of sins, but rather that which ensued after such remission, and that by the consequent is gathered the antecedent. And therefore, they who abuse this place, to overthrow free justification by faith alone, are very impudent and childish." (g) Thus Beza. But the ancient fathers, who were neither impu- dent nor childish, gathered from this text, that charity, as well as faith, is requisite for obtaining | remission of sins. St. Chrysostom, Horn. 6, in I Mat. says, (A) " As first by water and the i Spirit, so afterwards by tears and confession, we B are made clean ;" which he proves by this place. |j So St. Gregory, expounding this same place, lj says, " Many sins are forgiven her, because she || loved much ; as if it had been said expressly, he burns out perfectly the rust of sin, whosoever burns vehemently with the fire of love. For so much more is the rust of sin scoured away, by how much more the heart of a sinner is inflamed with the great fire of charity." And St. Ambrose upon the same words — " Good are the tears which are able to wash away our sins. Good are the tears, wherein is not only the redemption of sinners, but also the refreshing of the just." And the great St. Augustine, debating this story in a long homily, says, (i) " This sinful woman, the more she owed, the more she loved ; the forgiver of her debts, our Lord himself, af- firming so : Many sins are forgiven her, because she loved much. And why loved she much, (/) 1556. (g) Beza in Luc. vii. 47. (A) Horn. 33, in Evang. (i) Horn. 23, inter. 50. 10G PROTESTANT CORRUPTION'S. but because she owed much 1 Why did she all these offices of weeping, washing, &c, but to obtain remission of her sins ?" Other holy fathers agree in the self-same verity, all making her love to be a cause going before, and not an effect or sequel coming after the remission of sins. I have only taken notice here how Beza and our English translators have corrupted this text ; but he who pleases to read Musculus, in locis Communibus, c. de Justijicat., 11, 5, will find him perverting it after another strange manner, by boldly asserting, without all reason or probable conjecture, that our blessed Saviour spoke in Hebrew, and used the preterperfect for the present tense ; and that St. Luke wrote in the Doric dialect ; so that Musculus would have it said : " She loved Christ much, and no won- der ; she had good cause so to do, because many sins were forgiven her." But Zuingliiis goes yet another way to work with this text, and tells us, that he supposes the word " love" should have been " faith :" his words are, " Because she loved much. I sup- pose, that love is here put for faith ; because she has so great affiance in me, so many sins are forgiven her. For he says afterwards, Thy faith hath saved thee ; that is, has absolved and delivered thee from thy sins." (a) Which one distinction of his, will answer all the places that in this controversy can be brought out of scrip- ture to refute their " only faith." But, to conclude, what can be more impious than to affirm, that for obtaining of sins, charity is not required as well as faith, seeing our blessed Saviour, if we credit his evangelist, St. Luke, and I think his authority ought to be preferred before that of Zuinglius, Beza, Musculus, or our English sectaries, most divinely conjoins charity with faith, saying of charity, " Many sins are forgiven her, because she loved much !" straightway adding of faith, " Thy faith has made thee safe ; go in peace." As you see here, they use all their endeavours to suppress the necessity of good and charitable works ; so, on the other side, they endeavoured to make their first Bibles countenance vice, (b) so far as to seem to allow of the detestable sin of usury, provided it were not hurtful to the borrower. In Deuteronomy xxiii. 19, they translate thus, " Thou shalt not hurt thy brother by usury of money, nor by usury of corn, nor by usury of any thing that he may be hurt withal ;" by which they would have it meant, that usury is not here forbidden, unless it hurts the party that •borrows. A conceit so rooted in most men's hearts, that they think such usury very lawful, and therefore frequently offend therein. But Almighty God, in this place of holy scrip- ture, has not one word of hurting, or not hurting, as may be seen in the Hebrew and Greek ; and as also appears from their having corrected the same in their Bible of 1 683, where they read, as it ought to be, " Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother, usury of money, usury of vic- tuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury." (a) Zuin<r. in Luc. vii. To. 4. f ,b) Bib. 1562, 1577. If the Hebrew word signify to hurt by usury, why did not they, in the very words next fol- lowing, in the self-same Bibles, translate it thus : " Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury, but not unto thy brother V why said they not rather, " A stranger thou mayest hurt by usury, but not thy brother ?" is it not all the same in word and phrase here as before ? The Jews would have given them thanks for so translating it ; who, by forcing the Hebrew word as they do, think it well done, to hurt any stranger, that is, any Christian by usury, be it ever so great. Whether the first Protestant translators of the scriptures were guided by that spirit which should be in Christian Catholic translators, may be easily gathered from what follows, as well as from what you have already seen. They were so profane and dissolute, that some of them termed that divine book', called, Canticum, Canticorum, containing the high mystery of Christ and his church, " The Ballad of Ballads of Solomon," as if it were a ballad of love, between Solomon and his concu- bine, as Castalio wantonly translated it. And yet more profanely, in another place, which even their last translation has not yet vouchsafed to correct, " We have conceived, we have born in pain, as though we should have brought forth wind." (c) I am ashamed to set down the literal commentary of this their trans- lation. Was there any thing in the Hebrew to hinder them from translating it in this manner : " We have conceived, and as it were travailed to bring forth, and have brought forth the Spirit ?" Why should they say wind rather than spirit ? They are not ignorant, that the Septuagint in Greek, and the ancient fathers, do all expound it, (d, e,f,) according to both the Hebrew and Greek, of the " Spirit of God," which is first conceived in us, and begins by fear, Avhich the scripture calls : " The beginning of wisdom :" insomuch, that in the Greek there are these godly words, famous in all antiquity, " Through the fear of thee, O Lord, we conceived, and have travailed with pain, and have brought forth the Spirit of thy salvation, which thou hast made upon the earth :" which excellently sets before our eyes the degrees of a faithful man's increase, and proceeding in the Spirit of God. But. to say, " We have been with child," as their last translation has it, (g) " and have brought forth wind," can admit no spiritual interpretation ; but even as a mere Jew should translate, or under- stand it, who has no sense of the Spirit of God. It is the custom of Protestants, in all such cases as this, where the more appropriate sense is of God's holy Spirit, there to translate wind, as in Psalm cxlvii. 18. Another impropriety similar to this is, that they will not translate for the angel's honour that carried Habakuc, " He sent him into Babylon, over the lake, by the force of hi 3 (c) Isaiah xvi. 18. {d) St. Ambrose, lib. 2, de Interpret., c. 4. te) Ghrysostom, in Psal. vii. prop. fin. < f) See S. Hierom upon this place. (g) Bible 1683. OF THE SCRIPTURE. 107 spirit ;" but thus : " Through a mighty wind." So attributing it to the wind, not to the angel's power, and omitting quite the Greek word, uvju, " his," which showeth plainly, that it was the angel's spirit, force, and power. (a) Again, where the prophet Isaiah speaks most manifestly of Christ, saying : " And (our Lord) shall not cause thy doctor to fly from thee any more, and thine eyes shall see thy master ;" which is all the same in effect with that which Christ says, " I will be with you unto the end of the world ;" there one of their Bibles translates thus, " Thy rain shall be no more kept back, but thine eyes shall see thy rain." Their last translation has corrected this mad falsification, (b) Again, where the holy church reads : " Re- joice, ye children of Zion, in the Lord your God, because he has given you the doctrine of jus- tice ;"(c) there one of their translations has it, " The rain of righteousness :" and their last Bible, instead of correcting the former, makes it yet worse, if it can be made worse, saying, " Be glad then, ye children of Sion, &c , for he hath given you the former rain moderately." Does the Hebrew word force them to this ? Doubtless they cannot but know, that it signifies a teacher or master : and therefore, even the Jews themselves, partly understand it of Esdras, partly of Christ's divinity : yet these new and partial translators are resolved to be more pro- fane than the very Jews. If they had, as I hinted above, been guided by a Catholic and Christian spirit, they might have been satisfied with the sense of St. Hierom, a Christian doctor, upon these places, who makes no doubt but the Hebrew is doctor, master, teacher ; who also in the psalm translates thus : " With blessings shall the doctor be arrayed, "(d) meaning Christ ; where Protestants, with the Jews of latter days, the enemies of Christ, translate, " The rain covers the pools." What cold stuff is this in respect of that other translation, so clearly pointing to Christ, our doctor, master and lawgiver.(e) And again, where St. Jerom, and all the fathers translate and expound, " There shall be faith in thy times," to express the wonderful faith that shall be among Christians ; there they translate, " There shall be stability of thy times." And their last Bible has it thus, " And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times." Whereas the prophet reckons all these virtues singly, viz., judgment, justice, which they term righteousness, faith, wisdom, knowl- edge, and the fear of our Lord ; but they, for a little ambiguity of the Hebrew word, turn faith into stability. In Isa. xxxvii. 22, all their first Bibles read, " O virgin daughter of Sion, he hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn : O daughter of Jerusalem, he hath shaken his head at thee." In the Hebrew, Greek, St. Hierom's translation and commentary, as also in the last Protestant Bible, printed 1683, it is quite contrary, viz., (a) Isa. xxx. 20. (b) Joel ii. 23. (c) Lyra in 30. (d) Psalm lxxxiv. 7. (e) Isaiah xxxiii. 6. " The virgin daughter of Sion has despised thee, O Assur : the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at thee." All are of the feminine gender, and spoken of Sion literally triumphing over Assur ; and of the church spiritually tri- umphing over heresies, and all her enemies. In their first Bibles they translated all as of the masculine gender, thereby applying it to Assur ; insulting against Sion and Jerusalem. But for what cause or reason they thus falsify it, will be hard to determine, unless they dreaded, that by translating it otherwise it might be applied spiritually to the church's triumphing over themselves, as her enemies. We cannot judge it an oversight in them, because we find it so translated in the fourth book of Kings, xix. 21, yea, and in all their first translations. A great many other faults are found in their first translations, which might be passed by, as not done upon any ill design, but perhaps, rather as mistakes or over-sights, (/) yet however, touching some few of them, it will not be amiss to demand a reason, why they were committed : as for example, why they translated, " Ye abject of the Gentiles," Isa. xlv. 20, rather than, " Ye, who are saved of the Gentiles ;" or, as their translation has it, " Ye that are escaped of the nations ?" or, Why, in their Bible of 1 579, did they write at length : " Two thousand to them that keep the fruit thereof," rather than " two hundred ;" as it is in the Hebrew and Greek, and as now their last Bible has it 1 or, Why read they in some of their Bibles, " As the fruits of cedar ;" and not rather according to the Greek and Hebrew, " Tabernacles of cedar ;" or however, as their last translation has it, " Tents of Kedar ?" or, Why do they translate : " Ask a sign, either in the depth, or in the height above," rather than, %Ask a sign, either in the depth of hell," &c, as the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin has it 1(g) Or, Why do they translate : " To make ready an horse," rather than " beasts," as the Greek has it ; and as also now their edition of 1683 reads it 1(h) Or, Why translate they : " If a man on the sab- bath-day receive circumcision, without breaking the law of Moses ;" rather than, according to the Greek, which their last translation has fol- lowed : " If a man on the sabbath-day receive circumcision, to the end the law of Moses should not be broken ?"(i) Or, Why read they : " The Son of man must suffer many things, and be reproved of the elders," for " be rejected of the elders," as the Greek, and now their Bibles of 1683 have it ; and as in the Psalm, " The stone which the builders rejected ;" we say not reproving of the said stone, which is Christ l(k) Again, why translate they thus : Many which (/) Cantica. Canticor-, viii. 12. ; Cantica. Canticor.,i. 4 ; Isa. vii. 11. (g) Isa. vii. 11. (A) Acts xxiii. 24. (i) Jo. vii. 23. (at) Mark viii. 31. 108 PROTESTANT ABSURDITIES had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept," &c, when in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, it is read thus : " Many who had seen the first house in the foundation thereof, (i. e., yet standing upon the foundation, undestroyed,) and this temple before their eyes, wept ?" I suppose they imagined, that it should be meant they saw Solomon's temple when it was first founded ; which, because it was impossible, they trans- lated otherwise than it is in the Hebrew and Greek : they should indeed have considered better of it. Though we do not look upon several of these as done, I say, with any ill design, yet we cannot excuse them for being done with much more licentious boldness than ought to appear in sin- cere and honest translators. ABSURDITIES IN TURNING PSALMS INTO METRE. Their unrestrained licentiousness is yet fur- ther manifest, in their turning of David's Psalms into rhyme, without reason, and then singing them in their congregations ; telling the people, from Saint James, v. : " If any be merry, let him sing psalms ;" being resolved to do nothing but what they produce a text of scripture for, though of their own making : for, though the apostle exhorts " such as are heavy, to pray," and " such as are merry, to sing ;" yet he does not in^ particular appoint David's Psalms to be sung by the merry, no more than he appoints our Lord's Prayer to be said by such as he exhorts to pray, though perhaps, he meant it of both : so that from any thing our bold interpreters can gather from the text, &quo animo est ? Psallat. yxlXsTco, St. James might mean other spiritual songs and hymns, as well as David's Psalms : but be it that he exhorted them to sing David's Psalms, which we have no cause to deny, because the church of Christ has ever used the same ; yet that he meant it of such nonsensical rhymes as T. Sternhold, Joseph Hopkins, Robert Wisdom, and other Protestant poets have made to be sung in their churches, under the name of David's Psalms, none can ever grant, who has read them. It has hitherto been the practice of God's church to sing David's Psalms, as truly trans- lated from the Hebrew into Latin ; but never to sing such songs as Hopkins and Sternhold have turned from the English prose into metre : neither do I think that sober and judicious Protestants themselves can look upon them as good forms of praises to be sung in their churches to the glory, honour, and service of so great, so good, and so wise a God, when they shall con- sider how fully they are fraught with nonsense and ridiculous absurdities, besides many gross corruptions, viz., above two hundred ;(a) con- fessed by Protestants themselves to be found in the Psalms in prose, from which these were turned into metre, which we may guess are scarcely corrected by the rhyme. To collect all the faults committed by the said blessed poets in their psalm-metre, would be a task too tedious for my designed brevity ; I will, therefore, only set down some few of their absurd and ridiculous expressions ; and for the rest,leave the reader to compare these psalms in metre with the others in prose, even as by themselves translated. PSALMS in Prose, Bible 1683. Psalm ii. verse 3. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. Psalm xvi. verses 9, 10. Theretore, my heart is glad, and my glory re- joiceth : my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, &c. Psalm xviii. verse 36. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip. (a) See the Preface. (b) The reader need not be told why this is added, be- sides its making up the rhyme. (c) What they translate " glory " in prose they call PSALMS in xMetre, Bible 1683. Psalm ii. verse 3. Shall we be bound to them *? say they ; Let all their bonds be broke, " And of their doctrine and their law, Let us reject the yoke."{b) Psalm xvi. verses 9, 10. Wherefore my heart and " tongue" also, (c) Do both rejoice together ; My " flesh and body" rest in hope, When I this thing consider : Thou wilt not leave my soul in " grave," For, Lord, thou lovest me, &c. Psalm xviii. verse 36. And under me thou makest plain The way where I should walk : So that my feet shall never slip, " Nor stumble at a balk." " tongue," in rhyme. And for want of one foot to make up another verse, they thrust in a whole body, " flesh and body." Again, what in prose is called hell, in rhyme they term grave; as if souls were left in the grave. IN TURNING PSALMS INTO METRE. 109 PSALMS in Prose, Bible 1G83. Psalm xviii. verse 37. I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken i| them : neither did I turn again till they were jj consumed. Psalm xxii. verse 7. All they that see me, laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head. Psalm xxii, verse 12. Many bulls have compassed me, strong bulls of Basan have beset me round. Psalm xxvi. verse 10. In whose hand is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes. Psalm xlix. verse 20. Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish. Psalm lxxiv. verses 11, 12. Why withdraweth thou thy hand, even thy right hand ? Pluck it out of thy bosom. i Psalm lxxvii. verse 16. — He caused waters to run down like rivers. Psalm lxxviii. verse 57. — They were turned aside like a deceitful bow. Psalm Ixxxix. verse 46. The days of his youth hast thou shortened : thou hast covered him with shame. Selah. Psalm xcvii. verse 12. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness to the upright in heart. Psalm xcix. verse 1. The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble ; he sitteth between the cherubims, let the earth be moved. Psalm cxix. verse 70. Their heart is as fat as grease : (As fat as brawn, in another Bible. But in the Latin Vulgate, Coagulatum est sicut lac cor eorum.) Psalm cxix. verse 83. Por 1 am become like a bottle in smoke. (a) This warrior lays about him in a different manner from David. (i^ We have heard of crafty heads, but never of crafty hands. (c) In the title page they say : " If any be merry, let him sing psalms." But considering what psalms they are. they 15 PSALMS ix Metre, Bible 1683. Psalm xviii. verse 37. So I suppress and wound my foes, That they can rise no more : For at my feet they fall down flat, I strike them all so sore. (a) Psalm xxii. verse 7. All men despise, as they behold Me walking on the way : " They grin, they mow, they nod their heads," &c Psalm xxii. verse 12. So many bulls do compass me, That be full strong of head : " Yea, bulls so fat, as though they had In Basan-field been fed." Psalm xxvi. verse 10. Whose hands are heap'd with " craft {b) and guile," Their lives thereof are full, And their ri<rht hand with " wrench and wile, For bribes doth pluck and pull." Psalm xlix. verse 20. Thus man to honour God hath brought, Yet doth he not consider ; But like, brute beast, so doth he live, " And turn to dust and powder." Psalm lxxiv. verses 11, 12. Why dost thou draw thy hand " a back, And hide it in thy lap V O pluck it out, and be not slack, " To give thy foes a rap."(e) Psalm lxxvii. verse 16. — Of such abundance that " no floods To them might be compared." Psalm lxxviii. verse 57. — They went astray, Much like a bow that would not bend, But slip and start away. Psalm Ixxxix. verse 46. Thou hast cut off, and made full short His youth and lusty days ; " And rais'd of him an ill report. With shame and great dispraise. "(d) Psalm xcvii. verse 12. And light doth spring up to the just, With pleasure for his part, Great joy with gladness, mirth and lust, &c.(e) Psalm xcix. verse 1. The Lord doth reign, •' altho at it The people rage full sore ;" Yea, he on cherubims doth sit, " Tho' all the world do roar." Psalm cxix. verse 70. Their hearts are swoln with worldly wealth, As " grease so arc they fat." Psalm cxix. verse 83. As a " skin-bottle" in the smoke, So am I parch'd and dried. advise him to sing, they might have done as well to have said rather, " If any would be merry, let him sing psalms." (i!) To say that God raises an ill report of men, has af- finity to Beza's doctrine, which makes God the author of sin. Vid. Supr. (e) I thought, till now, that lust had been n sin. 110 PROTESTANT ABSURDITIES IN TURNING PSALMS INTO METRE. PSALMS in Prose, B^le 1683. Psalm cxix. verse 110. The wicked have laid a snare for me. " Psalm cxix. verse 130. The entrance of thy word giveth light : it giveth understanding unto the simple. Psalm cxix. verse 150. They draw nigh that follow after mischief: they are far from thy law. Psalm cxx. verse o. Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar. Psalm cxxvii. verse 2. It is in vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrow. Psalm cxxix. verse 6. Let them be as grass upon the house-tops, which withereth before it groweth up. PSALMS in Metre, Bible 1683. Psalm cxix. verse 110. Altho' the wicked laid their nets " To catch me at a bay." Psalm cxix. verse 130. When men first " enter into" thy word, They find a light most clear; And very idiots understand, " When they it read or hear ."(6) Psalm cxix. verse 150. My foes draw near, " and do procure My death maliciously :" Which from thy law are far gone back, " And strayed from it lewdly." Psalm cxx. verse 5. Alas! too long I slack, Within these tents "so black," Which Kedars are by '' name ;" " By whom the flock elect, And all of Isaac's sect, Are put to open shame. "(c) Psalm cxxvii. verse 2. Though ye rise early in the morn, And so at night go late to bed, " Feeding full hardy with brown bread," Yet were your labour " lost and worn. "(d) Psalm cxxix. verse 6. And made as grass upon the house, Which withereth " ere it grow. "(e) I could weary the reader with such like ex- amples ; they seldom or never speak of God's covenant with Israel, but they call it God's trade. (a) As in Psalm lxxviii. 10, where they sing, For why 1 they did not keep with God, The covenant that was made ; Nor yet would walk or lead their lives, According to his " trade." Psalm lxxxvii. verse 10. For why 7 their hearts were nothing bent To him, nor to his " trade." Psalm ex. verse 37. For this is unto Israel A statute and a " trade." Psalm lxxxi. verse 4. And set all my commandments light, And will not keep my "trade. Psalm lxxxix. verse 32. To them be made a law and " trade," &c. Psalm cxlviii. verse G. Such stuff as this you will find in other places. The words " more" and " less" have also stood them in as good stead as " trade" to make rhyme with, viz : All men on earth, both " least" and " most." Psalm xxiii. verse 8- All kings, both " more" and " less." Psalm xlviii. verse 1 1 . The children of Israel each one both "more" and " less." Psalm xlviii verse 14. See also Psalm cix. verse 10; Psalm xi. verse 6 ; Psalm xxvii. verse 8, &c, &c. Nor are they a little beholden to an " ever and for aye ;" " for ever and a day ;" " for evermore always," and the like. Besides their turning the psalms into metre, (a) Perhaps, this word " trade" should have been " tradi- tion" with them ; but for fear of a Popish term, which they so much detest they would rather write nonsense than use it. ij they also made rhyme of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. In which one thing is remarkable, viz., that in the Creed, upon the article of Christ's descent into hell they make a very plain distinction between the hell of the damned, and that of the fathers of the Old Testament, Limbus Patrv/n, thus : And so he died in the flesh, but quickened in the sprite, His body then was buried, as is our use and right. His soul did after this descend into the lower parts, A dread unto the wicked spirits, butjoy to faithful hearts. Whom do they mean by those " faithful hearts," to whom our blessed Saviour's descent into hell Limbus, was a joy, but those of whom the pro- phet Zachary spoke, when propheeying of our Saviour's releasing them, he said : " Thou also in the blood of thy Testament hast let forth thy prisoners out of the lake, wherein there is no water ?" And, whom St. Peter meant, when he said, that Christ in spirit " coming, preached to the spirits also that were in prison ; which had been incredulous sometimes, when they expect- ed the patience of God in the days of Noe, when the ark was in building." (f) The turning of this article into metre is, I suppose, the very cause why we have not the Creed printed in metre in their latter impres- sions ; and consequently, none of the other pray- (b) By singing thus, they would possess the people that even the most ignorant of them are capable to understand the scripture when they read it, or have it read to them. (c) Why is all this added 1 only for the sake of rhyming to the word " name," unless they would make Isaac a sect maker, and his religion a sect like their own. (d) If brown bread is the bread of affliction, a great many feeds on it who are able to buy white. (e) How grass can withpr before it grows, is a paradox. (/) Zach. ix. 11. PROTESTANT TRANSLATIONS Of THE SCRIPTURE. Ill ers and rhymes, which iheir first Bibles had after the Psalms ; because to put out this and no more, would have given too shrewd a cause of suspicion. Besides the turning of these into metre, they made also certain other prayers of their own in rhyme ; in one of which they rank the Pope, whom their modern divines count a great bishop, and chief patriarch of the western church, and from whom they pretend to receive their episcopal and priestly character, in the same list with the Turk, as if both were infidels alike, and both alike enemies to Christ. Robert Wisdom thus sets out his psalm, which the ignorant people may be apt to take for one of Davids ; assuring themselves that David himself prayed to be de- livered from the Turk and the Pope, and conse- quently, that the Pope is a dangerous creature : Preserve us, Lord, by thy dear word, From Turk and Pope defend us, Lord, Which both would thrust out of his throne, Our Lord Jesus Christ, thy dear Son. But this, with such other like stuff, is also left out by Protestants in their last impressions, as j being indeed ashamed of the impiety, malice, and folly of these gross imposters, especially of this Robert Wisdom, who, notwithstanding his name, was doubtless the most ignorant of all those who ever undertook to turn psalm into metre. And so it is likely he was looked upon by Dr. Corbet, sometimes bishop of Norwich, when he made the following address to his ghost : TO THE GHOST OF ft. WISDOM. That once a body, now but air, Arch-botchcr of a psalm or prayer, From Carfax (a) come, And patch us up a zealous lay, With an old ever and for aye, Or all and some. Or such a spirit lend me, As may an hymn down send me, To purge my brain. Then Robin look behind thee, Lest Turk or Pope do find thee, And go to bed again. This may seem too light for a treatise of this nature ; but the ridiculous absurdity of these rhymes, the singing of which in the churches, has, by several learned Protestants, been com- plained of and lamented, cannot be fully enough exposed ; that so, if possible, the common peo- ple's eyes maybe opened, and they may be taken off from the fondness they seem to have for them. Though the ignorance, rather than ill inten- tion of these busy poets appear in their psalm- metre ; yet what follows cannot be excused from being done with a very treacherous design of the translators ; for what can possibly be a more sly piece of rjraft to deceive the ignorant reader, than to use Catholic terms in all such places where they may render them odious, and when they must needs sound ill in the people's ears ? For example, 2 Maccabees vi. 7, this term (a) The place of his burial in Oxford. " procession" they very maliciously translate, saying : " When the feast of Bacchus was kept, they were constrained to go in procession to Bacchus." Let the reader see in the Greek Lexicon if there be any thing in this word, Tiofinadveiv iw Siovvaoj, like the Catholic Church's processions, or whether it signify so much as " to go about," as other of their Bibles translate it, with perhaps no less ill meaning than that of 1570, though they name not procession, (b) St. John, ix. 22, 25, where, for " He should be put out of the synagogue," there first transla- tions read : " He should be excommunicated," to make the Jews' doings against them, that con- fessed Christ, sound like the Catholic Church's acting against heretics, in excommunicaling them ; as if the church's excommunication of such, from the society and participation of the faithful, were like to that exterior putting out of the synagogue. And by this they designed to disgrace the priest's power of excommunica- tion, whereas the Jews had no such spiritual ex- communication ; but, as the word only signifies, did put them out of the synagogue ; and so they should have translated the Greek word, includ- ing the very name synagogue. But this trans- lation was made when the excommunications of the Catholic church were daily denounced against them, which they have corrected in their last Bible, because themselves have begun to assume such a power of excommunicating their non-conforming brethren. In Acts xrii. 23, for " seeing your idols," or " seeing the things which you Athenians did worship," they translate, " seeing your devo- tions," as though devotion and superstition were all one. And verse 24, for " temples of Diana," they translate " shrines of Diana," to make the shrines of saints' bodies, and other holy relics, seem odious ; whereas the Greek word signifies temples. And Beza says: " He cannot see how it can signify shrines." Thus they make use of Catholic words and terms, where they can thereby possibly render them odious ; but in other places, lest the an- cient words and names should still be retained, they change them into their own unaccustomed and original sound. So in the Old Testament, out of an itch to show their skill in the Hebrew, the first translators thought fit to change most of the proper names from the usual reading, never considering how far differently proper names of all sorts are both written and sounded in differ- ent languages ; but this is in a great part rectified by the last translators, according to the directions of king James the First, that in translating the proper names, they should retain the usual and accustomed manner of speaking. Their altering of these proper names in the Old Tastament, through the pride of being es- teemed such knowing masters in the Hebrew, was yet much more tolerable, than the changing of many other words in the New, through an (b) Bib. 1562, 1577. 113 A VINDICATION OF heretical intention of introducing an utter obli- vion of them among the people. The words " church, bishop, priest, altar, eucharist, sacrifice, grace, sacrament, baptism, penance, angel, apostle, Christ, &c, at their first revolt, they suppressed, and changed into " congregation, superintendent, elder and minis- ter, table, thanksgiving, gift, mystery, washing, repentance, messenger, ambassador, anointed ;" several other words and phrases they likewise altered, as is evident from what goes before. And for what cause was all this change and al- teration of Catholic terms and phrases, but that the sound of the words should vanish with the substance of the things which they have taken away ? With bishops they banished the pastoral care and charge of the Pope and Catholic bish- ops, and set up a child and a woman for the heads of their congregation. With priests went away the office of priest, in offering the holy sacrifice of Christ's body and blood ; with grace went away the sacrament of holy orders, and four or five of the other sacraments ; with altar, eucharist and sacrifice, they excluded the proper service of Almighty God, with Christ's sacred presence in the blessed sacrament ; with the word penance they banished confession, absolu- tion, and satisfaction for sins ; they altered the word church, because they had cut themselves off from the Catholic church. And what other design could we suppose them to have had in leaving out apostles, and putting in ambassadors or legates ; in leaving out angels, and introduc- ing messengers ; in putting down the word anointed, where Christ used to be read ; and in translating grave for hell ; but in time to ex- tinguish all faith and memory of apostle, angel, heaven, hell, Christ, and Christianity ;" and to bring them to atheism and infidelity, the very centre to which their reformation tends 1 (a) This fantastical and impious vanity, in chang- ing Catholic and Christian terms and speeches into their profane and heathenish use and signi- fication, was a thing so detested, even by Beza himself, notwithstanding his often being guilty of the same, that he inveighs against it, and those who use it, in this manner : " The world is now come to that pass," says he, " that not only they who write their own discourses, re- fuse the familiar and accustomed words of scrip- ture, as obscure, unsavoury, and out of use, but also those that translate the scripture out of Greek into Latin, challenge to themselves the like liberty ; so as while every man will rather freely follow his own judgment than religiously behave himself as the Holy Ghost's interpreter, many things they do not convert, but pervert , for which licentiousness and boldness, except remedy be provided in time, either I am notably deceived, or within a few years, instead of Chris- tians we shall become Ciceronians, i. e. Pagans, and by little and little shall lose the possession of the things themselves." (b) By this you see, that though Beza was one of the greatest mas- ters in this wanton, novel, and licentious art of changing Christian for Heathen terms and phrases, yet he foresaw that in the end, with the words, would be taken away the things signified, '* sacraments, baptism, eucharists, priesthood, sacrifice, angels, apostles, and all apostolical doctrine ;" and that so we should be brought again from Christianity to heathenism. From which, and from the Stilungfleetian error, (c) that, by asserting, M The pagan god, Jupiter, to be the true God, blessed for ever, more," throws open the door of Jupiter's temple, and points out the very pathway to paganism, COOD LORD, DELIVER US ' A VINDICATION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS AS ALSO THEIR DECLARATION, AFFIRMATION, COMMINATION ; SHOWING THEIR ABHORRENCE OF THE FOLLOWING TENETS, COMMONLY LAID AT THEIR DOOR. AND THEY HERE OBLIGE THEMSELVES, THAT IF THE ENSUING CURSES BE ADDED TO THOSE APPOINTED TO BE READ ON THE FIRST DAY OF LENT, THEY WILL SERIOUSLY AND HEARTILY ANSWER AMEN TO THEM ALL. 1. Cursed is he that commits idolatry ; that prays to images or relics, or worships them for God. R. Amen. 2. Cursed is every goddess worshipper, that believes the Virgin Mary to be any more than a creature ; that honours her, worships her, or puts his trust in her more than in God ; that be- lieves her above her Son, or that she can in any- thing command him. R. Amen. 3. Cursed is he that believes the saints in heaven to be his redeemers, and prays to them as such, or that gives God's honour to them, or to any creature whatsoever. R. Amen. 4. Cursed is he that worships any breaden (a) Change of words induces change of faith. god, or makes gods of the empty elements of bread and wine. R. Amen. 5. Cursed is he that believes priests can for- give sins whether the sinner repent or not : or that there is any power in earth or heaven that can forgive sins, without a hearty repentance and serious purpose of amendment. R. Amen. 6. Cursed is he that believes there is authority in the Pope or any others, that can give leave to commit sins ; or that can forgive him his sins for a sum of money. R. Amen. 7. Cursed is he that believes that, independently (6) Beza in Act. x. 46, edit anno 1556, but in the lat- ter ed. of 15G5, some of these words are altered either by himself or the printer. (c) Dr. Stillingfleet's Charge of Idolatry against the Church of Rome, p. 7, and p. 40. THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 113 oi the merits and passion of Christ, he can merit salvation by his own good works ; or make con- dign satisfaction for the guilt of his sins, or the pains eternal due to them. R. Amen. 8. Cursed is he that contemns the word of God, or hides it from the people, on design to keep them from the knowledge of their duty, and to preserve them in ignorance and error. R. Amen. 9. Cursed is he that undervalues the word of God, or that forsaking scripture chooses rather to follow human traditions than it. R. Amen. 10. Cursed is he that leaves the command- ments of God, to observe the constitutions of men. R. Amen. 11. Cursed is he that omils any of the Ten Commandments, or keeps the people from the knowledge of any one of them, to the end that they may not have occasion of discovering the truth. R. Amen. 12. Cursed is he that preaches to the people in unknown tongues, such as they understand not ; or uses any other means to keep them in ignorance. R. Amen. 13. Cursed is he that believes that the Pope can give to any, upon any account whatsoever, dispensation to lie or swear falsely ; or that it is lawful for any, at the last hour, to protest him- self innocent in case he be guilty. R. Amen. 14. Cursed is he that encourages sins, or teaches men to defer the amendment of their lives, on presumption of their death-bed repen- tance. R. Amen. 15. Cursed is he that teaches men that they may be lawfully drunk on a Friday or any other fasting-day, though they must not taste the least bit of flesh. R. Amen. 16. Cursed is he who places religion in nothing but a pompous show, consisting only in ceremonies ; and which teaches not the people to serve God in spirit and truth. R. Amen. 1 7. Cursed is he who loves or promotes cruelty, that teaches people to be bloody-mind- ed, and to lay aside the meekness of Jesus Christ. R. Amen. 18. Cursed is he who teaches that it is law- ful to do any wicked thing, though it be for the interest and good of mother church : or that any evil action may be done that good may come of it. R. Amen. 19. Cursed are we, if amongst all these wicked principles and damnable doctrines com- monly laid at our doors, any one of them be the faith of our church ; and cursed are we, if we do not as heartily detest all those hellish practices as those who so vehemently urge them against us. R. Amen. 20. Cursed are we, if in answering, and saying Amen to any of these curses, we use any equivo- cation, mental reservation ; or do not assent to them in the common and obvious sense of the words. R. Amen. And can the Papists then, thus seriously, and without check of conscience, say Amen to all these curses ? Yes, they can, and are ready to do it whenso- ever, and as often as it shall be required of them. And what then is to be said of those who either by word or writing, charge these doctrines upon the faith of the Church of Rome ? " Is a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets ? are they all gone aside ? do they backbite with their tongues, do evil to their neighbour, and take up reproach against their neighbour ?" I will say no such thing, but leave the impartial considerer to judge. One thing I can safely affirm, that the " Papists" are foully misrepresented, and show in public as much unlike what they are, as the Christians were of old by the Gentiles ; that they lie under a great calumny, and severely smart in good name, persons, and estates, for such things which they as much and as heartily detest as those who accuse them. But the comfort is, Christ has said to his followers : " Ye shall be hated of all men." (Math. x. 22,) and St. Paul : " We are made a spectacle unto the world ;" and we do not doubt, that he who bears this with pa- tience, shall for every loss here and contempt receive a hundred-fold in heaven : " For the base things of the world, and things which are de- spised, hath God chosen." 1 Corinth, i. 28. As for problematical disputes, or errors of particular divines, in this, or any other matter whatsoever, the Catholic Church is no way re- sponsible for them ; nor are Catholics, as Catho- lics, justly punishable on their accouut. But, As for the king-killing doctrine, or murder of princes, excommunicated for heresy ; it is an ar- ticle of faith in the Catholic Church, and ex- pressly declared in the General Council of Con- stance, sess. 15, that such doctrine is damnable and heretical, being contrary to the known laws of God and nature. Personal misdemeanors of what nature soever, ought not to be imputed to the Catholic Church, when not justifiable by the tenets of her faith and doctrine. For which reason, though the stories of the Paris massacre ; the Irish cruelties, or powder-plot, had been exactly true, (which yet for the most parts are mis-related) nevertheless Catholics as Catholics, ought not to suffer for such offences, any more than the eleven apostles ought to have suffered for Judas's treachery. It is an article of the Catholic faith to believe, that no power on earth can license men to lie, forswear, and perjure themselves, to massacre their neighbours, or destroy their native country, on pretence of promoting the Catholic cause, or religion. Furthermore, all pardons and dispen- sations granted, or pretended to be granted, in order to any such ends or designs, have no other validity or effect, than to add sacrilege and blasphemy to the above-mentioned crimes. Sweet Jesus, bless our sovereign : pardon our enemies. Grant us patience ; and establish peace and charity in our nation. VERSION OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE : A VINDICATION OF WARD S ERRATA, IN REPLY TO GRIER, BY THE RIGHT REV. DR. MILNER. Dear Sir — You have witnessed the failure of our vicar in his attempt to vindicate the canon of scripture, without recourse to the authority of tradition, and this on Protestant, as well as on Catholic grounds. As to the other point, which he says he is equally called upon to prove, on the same condition of net recurring to tra- dition, namely : " Which are the books that have been written by Divine inspiration, and, indeed, that any books at all have been so written, "(a) he entirely gives it up, in the following terms : " To pronounce with confidence what books of the canon, or parts of books, are inspired, and what not, may consistently belong to Dr. M., as being a member of a church which lays claim to infallibility ; but certainly not to a member of the Church of England. So that when he asks, how we have learned, what books have been written by Divine inspiration, or that any boohs at all have been so written ? we may answer that, where the holy scriptures declare that they set forth a divine revelation, or that they express the word of God, we believe them to do so : [thus again grounding a thing to be proved upon itself!] but as to the fact of their inspiration, we must, with awe and humility, decline to say, what we believe no church, ancient or modern, can attest. "(b) If this were so, I would ask the vicar, of what great use is the scripture more than any other good book 1 and why is it called the word of God ? Again, with what consistency does the Church of England appeal to it, in her Articles, as her only rule of faith ? But the vicar's ideas are evidently confused on the subject, and therefore, he hastens to another more familiar to him, since he has already pub- lished a quarto volume on the fidelity of the English Bible. However, as the fifty pages he spends upon it in the present work, consist, for the most part, of mere declamation in praise of the translation, its authors, and himself, together with proportional abuse of its critics, and Dr. M., (a style in which I will not contend with the Rev. Gentleman,) I hope to be able to confine my reflections within much narrower bounds than he confines his. The vicar begins his declamation, dear Sir, with unlimited abuse of your correspondent. This he carries on through the greater part of ten pages, reproaching me with, ignorance, super- ciliousness, arrogance, superficialness, <y c ( c ) In (a) Reply, p. 2. lb) P. 9. (c) P. 61, et seq. short, he says, that " Dr. M. cannot stand a competition, on the score of learning and talents, with even the obscurest," of the fifty-four clergy- men who were named in the reign of James I., to make a new version of the scripture, though he confesses there are five amongst them of whom he knows nothing at all, and some others, of whom he has barely learned something from the late Dr. Todd.(d) To this abuse I am content to answer, that as the vicar knows nothing of me or my attainments, but what he learns from my publications, which, together with his own, are before the world, so our respective charac- ters for learning and talents will not be decided upon by what we may say of ourselves, but by what others may judge of us. The very profession of the vicar, which is to vindicate, at the same time Tyndal's translation of the Bible, and king James's correction of it, as being both of them faultless, carries with it its own refutation, and betrays his insincerity and spirit of chicanery. His fellow-labourer, Dr. Ryan, whose Analysis of Ward's Errata(e) he has commended, " as decisive to the extent it goes,"(/) very fairly gives up several corrup- tions of the sacred text, which disgraced Tyn- dal's and the other early translations and edi- tions of the English Bible, during more than fifty years, as indefensible. Thus, for example, speaking of Ward, he says : " He produces seven texts to show that we mistranslated our Bible, for the purpose of injuring his church, and to excuse our apostacy from it ; but the former mistranslations of these seven texts having been corrected in our present Bible, should have been excluded from his catalogue of errata. "(g) With the same fairness Dr. Ryan says : " He (Ward) produces eight texts, which he accuses us of misconstruing against the sacrament and mass ; but five of the eight having been correc- ted in our version, agreeably to his own, should have been excluded from the book. "(A) The (d) P. 66. (e) Dublin, 1808. (/ ) Reply, p. 94. (g) Analysis, p. 10. In Tyndal's translation, and the editions of 1562, 1577, 1579, instead of the word church, the word congregation is used in the. following manner : Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my con- gregation, Mat. xvi. 18. If he will not hear them, tell the congregation ; and if he will not hear the congregation, let him be to thee as a heathen, &c. Mat. xviii. 17. {h) Ibid., p. 12. In two of these passages, Mat. xxvi. and Mark xiv. 22, instead of saying : Jesus blessed the bread, the old editions say: Having given thanks. In two other passages, 1 Cor. ix. 13, and 3 Cor. x. 18, the word temple is used, instead of altar, to exclude the idea of a sacrifice under the new law. VERSION" OE THE ENGLISH BIBLE. 115 Doctor proceeds : " Our opponent (Ward) charges us with misconstruing twelve texts, for the purpose of proving Catholics guilty of idol- atry." But six of the twelve being corrected in our Bible, ought to have been omitted " in his list." (a) In a word, this advocate of the Eng- lish Bible challenges the Popish doctors, as he calls them, to answer him this question : " Did not the translators of our Bible of the year 1683, correct forty errors in our old ones ? (£) Such is the acknowledgment of Dr. Ryan, writing in defence of the English Bible, against the learned cavalier Thomas Ward ; but the Rev. Mr. Grier undertakes equally to vindicate the pld version and the new one, the corrected and the uncorrected text ; and even in those very passages in which the infidelity of the latter is most glaring, and obnoxious to the English Church as well as to the Catholic Church. For example, he defends Tyndal and his followers in the use of the word congregation, for that of church, affirming that, in so doing, " they did not depart from the letter or the meaning of the Holy Ghost." (c) In a word, he pronounces, with Seidell's Table- Talker, that " the English translation of the Bible is the best in the world, and which renders the sense of the original the best ; taking in for the English translation the Bishop's Bible as well as king James's ;" ad- ding : " The bishops made the preceding Eng- lish versions of Tyndal and Coverdale, the models and as it were the basis of their own." (d) Thus then, according to the vicar, the ver- sion of the Lutheran Tyndal from the Latin Vulgate, of the Calvinist Coverdale, from the Vulgate and the Greek, (e) and the corrected version of the English divines from the Hebrew and the Greek, though often differing from each other in meaning, as well as in other respects, are each of them " the best translation in the world, and renders the sense of the original the best." The vicar, as might be expected, speaks in high terms of Tyndal, whom John Fox calls England's apostle, and with equal censure of his great antagonist, Sir Thomas More. Had the vicar read and faithfully exhibited the former's (a) Ibid. p. 24. The following are some of the old corruptions, which have been since corrected, according to the original, and the Rheims Testament, Coloss. iii. b, Covetousness, tch'tch is the worshipping of images, Ephes. v. 5 ; 2 Cor. vi. 16, How agrceth the temple of God with iviaues ? 1 John v. 21, Babes, keep yourselves from images. (b) P. 62. To this the Catholic Doctors answer in the affirmative. But they add first, that the very circumstance of their being corrected by Protestants, is a proof that the latter acknowledged them to be errors : secondly, that after the forty corrections in question have been made, a still greater number of corrections remain to be made. (c) Answer to Ward's Errata, by the Rev. R. Grier, 1812, p. 2. To this, his former work, the vicar refers in his present Reply, with his usual modesty, as follows : " I trust the readers of my Answer will credit the truth of the assertion, that my publication, comprising, as it does, the ablest arguments of our most learned divines, contains a full and victorious refutation of pernicious error ; and that I have successfully established the superior merit of our standing English text, no less than its fidelity." — Reply, p. 94. (,/) P. 76. (e) Coverdale had the chief hand in the Geneva edition, which was so obnoxious to the Church of England, that the prelates of the establishment constantly oppose its publication, as may be seen in Strype. books, called, The Wicked Mammon, The True Obedience, and The Answere to Syr T. More, together with the latter's Confutacion of Tyn- dale's Answere, dfc, 1 am convinced he must have lowered his tone of panegyric with respect to Tyndal into that of extenuation, at least, as he would have found this pretended apostle's language to be no less seditious than it is hetero- dox, and no less injurious to the present Church of England, than it was to that of former times. With the most specious pretentions to charity and submission, he terms, at every turn, those who were most dignified and venerated in church and state, " apish, pivish, popish jugglers, thieves, murtherers, blood-suppers, Pilates, Herods, priapists, sodomites, hangmen, Christ-killers, devils, &c." (/) The learned and dignified author, quoted below, points out, " amonge other tokens of Tyndale's evill intent in hys transla- cion, for enswample, that he chaunged common- lye this woorde churche into this woorde congre- gacion, and this woorde priest into this woorde seniour ; and charitie into love, and grace into favour, confession into knowledge, and penaunce and repentance, with wordes mo, which he chaunged and useth dayly, as in turning ydolcs into ymages, and anonynting into smering, conse- crating into charming sacramentes into cere- monys, and ceremonys into witchccraftc, and yet many moe." (g) Notwithstanding John Fox at- tributes a splendid miracle (in rendering void the enchantment of a certain magician,) to the sanctity of Tyndal, (h) he is far from succeed- ing in vindicating his religious or his moral principals. (?) It appears that, though Cover- dale encouraged his disciple Frith to die for his belief, yet, it is plain, from his story, that he himself suffered death, not for that, or his Eng- lish translation of the Bible, but for treasonable practises against the government of the Low Countries, under which he lived. But why does not the vicar honour the name of the above-men- tioned Frith, who had so large a share in his master Tyndal's Bible, with a single notice ? I can conceive no other motive for this, except that, when he was burnt in Henry's reign, for denying the Catholic doctrine of the sacrament, archbishop Cranmer had the chief hand in bring- ing him to the stake. The vicar, however, makes amends for this omission, by the lofty praises he heaps on the " venerable Coverdale," as he calls him, who was the most conspicuous character in giving the early editions of the English Bible. This apostate friar was of the same religious order with Luther, and, like him, broke through his solemn vow of continency, by taking to him- self a pretended wife, during the confusion of Edward's reign, at which time also he became bishop of Exeter. Retiring to Geneva, when Mary mounted the throne, he sucked in there (/) Sir Thomas More's Works, London, 1517, p. 336. (g) Syr T. More's Second Boke, whiche confuteth the Defence of Tyndall,for his Translacion, p 405. (h) See Acts and Moriani. (t) This appears by his attempt to get into Bishop Tun- 6tal's service, after he had declared himself a Protectant, '■ and by his constant maxim of, bearing with the Uvus 116 VERSION OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. the doctrine and prejudices of Calvin, so that, returning to England when Elizabeth became queen, he was neither restored to his see, nor treated as a bishop. It was not without diffi- culty that he obtained the poor living of St. Magnus', near London Bridge, and he was, after some time, turned out of that for non-comformity. The vicar sets up a most curious proof of the fidelity of Coverdale's biblical labours, which is worthy, dear sir, of your notice, as a specimen of the conclusiveness of his reasoning ; it is this, Fulk declares as follows : " I myself did heare that Reverend father, M. Dr. Coverdale, of holie and learned memorie, in a sermon at St. Paule's Crosse, upon occasion of some slaunderous reportes, that then were raised against his translation, declare his faithful pur- pose in doing the same, which, after it was finished and presented to K. Henry VIII., and by him committed to diverse bishops of that time to peruse, of which, as I remember, Strphrn Gardiner was one — they being demanded by the king, Are there any heresies maintained thereby ? They answered that there were no heresies that they could find maintained there- by." (a) So far Fulke, to whose account of Coverdale's sermon, the vicar subjoins the fol- lowing inference : " This single admission of GuTdiner speaks volumes !" But, dear Sir, I would ask the -everend gentleman the following questions ; Of what weight is William Fulkc's account of Miles Coverdale's sermon in defence of the old exploded version ? Secondly, What signify Sttphcn Gardiner's words concerning it, or any other point during Henry's reign, when he was as abject a slave to the religious tyrant as Crunmer himself was ? Thirdly, What proof of the fidelity of a scriptural translation would the decision even of a council be, that it maintained no heresies ; when it might be found censurable on twenty other theological charges ? And what then becomes of the reverend vicar's volumes of evidence, for the purity of Coverdale's version 1 But the simple fact of a new translation of the whole scripture having been set on foot and ex- ecuted by authority both of church and state, in James's reign, is a proof that the former version of Tyndal and Coverdale, even after it had been corrected by the bishops was deemed to be faulty. That it did abound with errors is demonstrated by the learned Gregory Martin, in his Discoverie, &c, whom Fulke in vain at- tempted to answer. The same is again de- monstrated, together with sufficient proofs that the present version also abounds with errors, by the intelligent Thomas Ward, in his Errata, the success of whose undertaking accounts for the vicar's unbounded abuse of him. (b) But what need is there of a further exposure (a) Reply, p. 73. (b) There is no expression of hatred and contempt too strong for the vicar, in speaking of these two able and learned men, which is the best proof of his being wound- ed by their pens, and his inability to cope with them. The fellow students of Gregory Martin, at Oxford, bore a very different testimony of his learning and merit from that of Mr. Grier. The celebrated historian of that university re- latei that, when the Duke of Norfolk, to whose, eldest son of the latter's absurdity, in attempting to vin dicate both the old and the new version, the un- corrected and the corrected one, and to prove that each of them is the best translation in th* world, than the vicar's subsequent comparison between them, and the preference which ho gives, in an important instance, to the former ? (c) Proceeding to treat of the new version of the scriptures, which was made by order of kinp James I., more than seventy years after the first appearance of the former, the vicar chiefly con- fines himself to combating the following pas- sage in The End of Controversy, where, speak- ing of the Bibles, " which had been published by authority or generally used by Protestants- in this country," the author said : " Those of Tyn- dal, Coverdale, and queen Elizabeth's bishops, were so notoriously corrupt, as to cause a gen- eral outcry against them among learned Protes- tants, as well as among Catholics, in which the king himself, James I., joined : and accord- ingly, he ordered a new version of it to be made, being the same that is now in use, w ith some few alterations made in it after the restoration. "(J) The vicar commences his attack on this pas- sage with denying, first, that learned divines of the Church of England, whom alone he ac- knowledges to be Protestants, objected to the old version ; and, secondly, that the Puritans, to whom he refuses that title, raised an outcry against it. But I would ask him, whether the subscribers to the Millinary Petition to Parlia- ment, who therein describe themselves to be " more than a thousand ministers, that had sub- scribed the service book" of Common-Prayer, and whose representatives, at the conference of Hampton-Court, were Dr. Reynolds, and Dr. Spark, both of them professors of Oxford Uni- versity, were not divines of the Church of Eng- land 1 And whether these representatives did not then and there petition as follows ; " May it please your Majesty, that the Bible be newly translated, such as are extant not answering the original, which he (Dr. Reynold's) instanced in Martin was then domestic tutor, visited St. John's College, he was greeted with a public oration, in which the orator, speaking of its great ornament, Gregory Martin said : " Habes, illustrissime Dux, Hcbrceum nostrum , Gracum nostrum, Poetam nostrum, decus et sluriam nostrnm." At hen. Oxon., P. 1, A r . 221. With respect to Ward, it may be enough to say that, though a layman, and a military man, he proved himself to be an overmatch for his different clerical antagonists, one of whom was Richel, vicar of Hexam; another, Tennison. A. B., of Canterbury. See his Monomachia. His Cantos on the Reformation, though written in dogrel verse, contain such sterling matter, as to have caused the conversion of many Protestants, and among others, of the late Rev. Roland Davies, C. A. D. The vicar's pre- tended Answer to the Errata, was the prototype to his Reply to the End of Controversy. He writes much about different subjects, and about them, and makes many bold assertions and denials, but never once proves the point which he takes in hand to prove. (c) Quoting that foolish book, Set/kn's Table-Talk, he says that " The Bishop's Bible (the old translation,) copied chiefly from Tyndal and Coverdale, ranks equally high, as a translation, with king James's, and either of them is the best translation in the world." — Reply, p. 76. {d) End of Controversy, Let. ix., p. 71. VERSION OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. 117 three particulars." (a) Did not the Lincolnshire ministers present a petition to the king in De- cember, 1604, complaining that " the book of Common Prayer appoints such a translation of scripture to be used in the churches, as in some places is absurd, and in others, takes from, per- verts, obscures, and falsifies the word of God ; examples of which are produced with the autho- rities of the most considerable reformers." (b) Was not Broughton of Cambridge an episcopal Protestant, and " the greatest scholar of his age for Hebrew," as Strype testifies ? And yet he charged the Bible, authorized in his time, (the Bishops' Bible) with " a great number of errors," which he called " traps and pitfalls ;" adding, in his letter to the Lord Treasurer, that sundry lords and some bishops, and others of inferior rank, had requested him to bestow his labour in clearing the Bible translations, (c) Finally the vicar himself quotes the translators of the new version as " echoing the words of the king," when they state that " upon the impor- tunate petition of the Puritans," the conference of Hampton-Court was held, in which " they had recourse at last to this shift, that they could not with good conscience, subscribe to the Com- munion Book, since it maintained the Bible as it was there translated, which was, as they said, a most corrupt translation." (d) I would now appeal to any candid reader, of whatever reli- gion he may be, no less than to yourself, whether I was not justified in stating, " there was an outcry against those Bibles, (TyndaPs, Cover- dale's, and the Bishops') among learned Protes- tants, as well as Catholics ?" It remains to be seen whether " king James joined in it or not V The vicar is forced to acknowledge the truth of Fuller's and Collier's account of this business ; who state, that on Dr. Reynolds' petition being made, his Majesty answered : " I profess I could never yet see a Bible well translated in English ; but I think that, of all, that of Geneva is the worst." (e) This declaration the vicar says, " can only be supposed to mean that he never yet had seen an English Bible in which there were not passages capable of being better translated ! (f) His pretext for this perversion of language is, that when the king gave orders for the new translation, which he represents him to have done merely to humour a poor empty shift, a mere shallow pretence (g) of the Church of (a) These particulars are the following : 1st. Gal. iv. 25, TVTroiyet, wrong translated bordereth. According to this, Mount Sina in Arabia, borders upon Jerusalem ! 2ndly, Ps. cv. 28, They were not disobedient (or they rebelled not,) contradictorily translated, They were not obedient. 3rdly, Ps.cvi.20, Phineas executed judgment, wrong translated, Phineas prayed. See Fuller's Ch. Hist, B. x., p. 14. The vicar asserts that " the passages at first objected to (by the non-conformists, and which he calls an empty shift and a hollow pretence,) have continued in it (the existing version) without alteration," p. 81. Now the fact is, that each of them has been altered according to the suggestion of Dr. Reynolds and his party, as will be seen in the present Eng- lish Bible. (b) Neal's Hist, of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 53. (c) Strype's Life of A. B. Whitgift, pp. 433, 587. (d) Reply, p. 80. (e) Fuller. Eccl. Hist., B. x., p. 14. </) Ibid., p. 91. (g) Reply, p. 81. 16 England's enemies, he gave directions that " The Bishops' Bible be followed, and as little altered as the truth of the original will permit ; and that Tyndal's, &c, be used when they agree better with the text than the Bishops'." (A) And yet what, else does this signify, except that the Bishops' Bible is not always conformable to the truth of the original 1 and that the other editions sometimes agree better with the text than does the bishops' ? Such is the vicar's ingenuity in refuting his own argument ; after which exhi- bition, he concludes, with his customary self- complacency, " I have thus disposed of the royal censure in all its bearings." (i) The vicar represents it to be a demonstra- tive proof of the different sects of non-con- formists and dissenters subscribing to the purity and excellence of the present version, that they have never attempted to substitute another in its place. But is this the fact? Did not the Grand Committee for Religion, in 1656, when the Presbyterians were in power, appoint a sub-committee, " to confer with Dr. Walton and five others about another translation of the Bible ! and were not many meetings held on this subject at secretary Whitlock's house ?" (A) Again, at the Savoy Conference in 1661, did not the non-conformist divines object to a great num- ber of faulty translations of scriptural passages which occurred in the liturgy, and obtain that they should be amended ; (/) I need say nothing by way of answer to the vicar, in justification of Sir Thomas More's, bishop Tunstall's, and other Catholics' predictions, as to the consequences to be expected from the general diffusion of Tyn- dal's and the other Protestant Bibles without an expositor, or so much as a commentary or note upon them, since these were visibly fulfilled in the sacrilegious confusion of Edward's reign, and still more in the fanatic rebellion and regicide fury of that of Charles I., when not a folly or a crime took place without chapter and verse being quoted in its vindication. In short, the Established Church of England, with the vicar himself, has at last taken just alarm at the consequences to be apprehended for herself, as well as for the state, from an unbounded and indiscriminate diffusion of Bibles, without the Prayer Book to direct its meaning. I do not find myself called upon to make any re- mark on the praises which the twenty-two Protestant writers, whom he quotes, bestow on their own Bible. The vicar's citation of these twenty-two witnesses makes no more for his cause, than if I were to cite the two hundred and fifty-two prelates of the Council of Trent who pronounced upon mine. Speaking of the last English translation of the Bible, the one now in use, published by king (A) P. 91. (t) P. 92. (A) Collier's Eccl. Hist., P. ii., p. 869. (I) For example, in the Epistle of the First Sunday after Epiph., Rom. xii. 1, the text stood thus : Be ye changed in your shape. In the Epist. for Sunday before Easter, Philip, ii. 5, Christ was said to be found in his apparel as a man Collier, P. ii., p. 878. 118 VERSION OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. James I., in 1611, the author of The End of Controversy said : " Though these new transla- tors have corrected many wilful errors of their predecessors, most of which are levelled at Ca- tholic doctrines and discipline, yet they have left a sufficient number of these behind, for which I do not find that their advocates offer any ex- cuse." Two of these he specified as standing in direct opposition to the original text, as it is quoted by those advocates, Dr. Ryan and the Rev. Mr. Grier. (a) On these two points, one of them regarding the celibacy of the clergy, the other, communion under one kind, the last named gentleman says : " I join issue with Dr. M." (b) I will state each of them briefly, yet clearly. Our B. Saviour having condemned the Jewish practice of divorce, His disciples say unto him : If the case of a man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he said unto them: All men receive not this saying; in Greek : ov navxeg /coqoogi xov Xoyov iovxov. Mat. xix. 2. In like manner St. Paul says, 1 Cor. vii. 7 : / say therefore to the unmarried and widows : it is good for them if they abide even as I ; but if they do not contain let them marry ; in Greek et 8e ovx eyxquxevovxai. Now in both these passages, the latter as well as the earlier Protestant translators change do not into cannot, in excuse for the first reformers' breach of their vowed celibacy, (c) With re- spect to the former of these falsifications, Dr. Ryan derides it, and says : " The Remish ver- sion agrees nearly with our own !" (d) while the vicar refers to his former work for a satis- factory proof that the word cannot " is most agreeable to the original," (e) which says do not. As to the second falsification, the vicar says : " I have been obliged to convict Dr. M. of gross ignorance of the Greek, no less than a fraudu- lent application of the Latin, and have proved to demonstration that the Rhemish version of this text, st Ss ovx eyqarevovxat, is erroneous." (/) Now in what does this boasted conviction of my ignorance, and of the erroneousness of the Rhemish version, consist ? Why the vicar says (a) End of Controv., Let. ix., p. 72. (b) P. 95. (c) Another falsification of the same kind, which seems to be levelled at the tenet of free-will, occurs both in the earlier and later version of Galat. v. 17. The apostle says : You DO NOT the things that 1J0U would : a av deXrire ravra iroirjre; this the translators turn thus : So that you cannot do the things that you would, contrary to the original Greek, the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac, Arias Montanus, Erasmus, Beza, Tremellius, &c. It is extraordinary that neither the editor of the Rheims Testament nor Ward has pointed out this corruption. (d) Analysis, p. 19. (c) Reply, p. 95. On consulting the book and page here referred to, the only words relating to the translation itself, consist in a repetition of Ryan's above-quoted falsehood, namely, he says : ** The Rhemish construction does not substantially differ from the Protestant one." The rest of his long dissertation is made up of his own confused expo- sition of the scripture and the fathers on the subject of celibacy. See Answer to Ward, pp. 33, 34, 35. (/) Ibid., p. 95. that eyoxTsvo/jat, " is a verb of the middle voice," and that " the Vulgate reading, which agrees with it, is, si vero se non continent, (g) that is to say : if they do not contain themselves ;" therefore, according to the vicar, the passage ought to be translated : if they cannot contain, as in the common Bible ! What is it that chi- canery and confidence will not attempt to prove ! The other instance of still subsisting error in the latter translation of the Bible, as well as in the former, consists in the false translation of 1 Cor. xi. 27, where St. Paul speaking of the B. Sacrament, says : Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord un- worthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord: SIcfxb og av Eodirj xov aqxov xovxov rj ixivrj xo noxrjqiov tow xvqiov ava^icog, svo- %o%, eorat xov awfiaxog xai ai/naxaq xov xvqiov. This text, which is so decisive in favour of the Catholic doctrine, respecting the body and blood of Christ being received under either kind in the B. Sacrament, is, on that account, falsified in both translations of the English Bible, by turning the disjunctive article or, into the conjunctive article and. Dr. Ryan finding this falsification (which Ward does not fail to expose) too gross to be defended, very prudently passes it by un- answered. The vicar had, in his former work, attempted to prove that r\ and xcu, or and and, are convertible articles ! At present he con- tents himself with relating a story about Dr. Kilbie, who, he says, hearing a certain clergy- man maintain in the pulpit that there are three arguments against the translation of a certain word, in the way it has been translated, an- swered him that there are thirteen reasons why it should be translated as it stands ; concluding thus : " To Dr. M. I leave the application of the foregoing anecdote ; for it certainly affords a useful hint to a self-confident critic." Such is the issue of the contest to which the vicai challenged me ! And such are his reasons for showing that the term do not, should be translated cannot, and why the disjunctive or, should be changed into the conjunctive and. I hope you will not forget Dr. Kilbie: if I do not mistake, the vicar will again intro- duce him to you. In the mean time, I remain. Yours, &c, J. M., D. D P. S.— The vicar's mode of reasoning on the corruption in question is of a piece with that of Luther, quoted by me in Letters to a Pre- bendary, Let. v., p. 187, when being called to an account for an undeniable false translation of scripture, he answered : " Sic volo, sic jubco, Luther usita vult, et ait se doctorem esse supra omnes doctores in toto Papatu." (g) Answer, p. 35. THE END. N. B.— For a list of additional errors in late additions of the Protestant Bible, seo the •' Rock of the Church"— Ed. XW&&* 5 I