fundamentall poyntes of our religion yet that they cannot free vs from error in every question that may bee mooued of it not to speake of the faint proofes that sometime they vsed euen in great mysteries of our religion vvherein notvvithstanding touching the matter it selfe their iudgement is sounde and Catholicke To the next section page 11. After that by hiding burning the Scriptures by threatning and murdering of men for reading of them they cannot attaine to the causing of such a night of ignorance wherin they might doe all thinges without controulment there remayned one onely engine which Satan with all his Angels hauing framed and hammered vpon his lying forge hath furnished them of This engine is the defacing dis-authorizing of the Scriptures as it were the taking from them their girdle or garter of honour by a false surmise of corruption of them in the languages wherein they were firste written Which abominable practise being attempted in th' old testament by Lindanus whom some term Blindasinus is nowe assayed in the new by the Iesuites who of others for their deadly hatred of the trueth are not called vnfitly Iebusites First therfore or euer we come to their particular arguments whereby they would as it were couer the head and maiestie of th'authentical copies in the Greek to bring them to subiection vnto th' olde translation we think it not amisse to set downe the generall doctrine that no one oracle or sentence of God can fall away Whereby it will be euident that the holy Scriptures both in the old new testament written in their original tongues cannot either by additioÌ„ detraction or exchange be corrupted Wherevnto the coÌ„sideration of th'autor of them ministreth a substantiall proofe For seing they are of Psal 111. â— God all whose workes remaine for euer it followeth that al the holy scriptures being not only his handiework but as it were the chiefe and master worke of all other must haue a continuall endurance And if there be not the least and vilest creature in the world which eyther hath not heretofore or shall not hereafter by the mightie hand of God vpholding all thinges be continued how much lesse is it to be estemed that any sentence of God wherin a greater glory commeth to him and greater fruite to his people then of many of those creaturs which for these two ends he doth so carefully continue should perish and fall away Secondly they all are written generally for our instruction more particularlie for admonition and warning for comfort and consolation c vnles we will say that God may be deceiued in his purpose and end wherefore he ordeyned them it must needes be that it must continue whatsoeuer hath bene written in that respect For if it or any part thereof fal awaye the same cannot according to th'ordinance of god either informe vs against ignorance or warne vs against danger or comfort vs against afflictions or finallye doe any other dutie vnto vs which we haue need of they were prepared for Thirdly if th' authority of th'autheÌ„tical copies in Hebrew Chalde Greek fal there is no high court of appeale where coÌ„trouersie rising vpon the diuersitie of translations or otherwise may be ended so that the exhortation of hauing re course vnto the law to the prophets Esai â— and of our Sauiour Christ asking Luke 10 Hieron epist ad Maâ—cel epist ad Suniam Fretel ad Damasum praefâ—in 4. Euang praef in paenitent Ambros de Spirit sanct lib. â— cap. 6 August de doctr christiana 2. lib. cap 11 lib. 11. contra Faust Manich. opist 59 how it is written and how readest thou are now either of none effect or not sufficient whilest these disgracers and disgraders of the Scripture haue taught men to say that the coppies are corrupted and the sense changed Nay not onely our estate is worse then theirs vnder the law and in our sauiour Christs time but worse theÌ„ theirs which liued some hundred yeres after Christ when th' ancient fathers exhorted in such cases that men should make sute vnto th' originall Scriptures to haue an end of their controuersies Yea their owne Gratian out of Augustine falsly alledged for Ierome sendeth vs in deciding of differences not to th' olde translator but to th'originals of the Hebrew in th' olde and of the Greek in the new testament They vse quarrelously to surmise against vs that we abbridge the priuiledges of the Churches of our dayes because vve accord them not to be so ample in euery point as they vvere vvhen the Apostles liued But vvo vnto the Churches of our dayes if the Scriptures be as the Papistes would beare vs in hand corrupted if the Charters and recordes whereby we hold the inheritance of the kingdom of heauen are rased or otherwise falsifyed if we haue not wherewith to conuey our selues to be children vnto the heauenly father and Priests vnto God in Iesus Christ further then from the hand of such a Scribe and Notarie as both might erre and hath erred diuersly Hieron in 6. c. Es August de ciuit dei lib. 15. c. 13 These euidences were safely surely kept when one onely nation of the Iewes and the same sometymes a few excepted vnfaithfull bare the keyes of the Lords librarie now when there be many nations that haue keyes vnto th'ark or counter wherein they are kept it is altogether vncredible that there should be such packing or such defect as th' aduersarie doth wickedly suppose Againe if the Lord haue kept vnto vs the booke of Leuiticus in it the ceremonies which ar abolished wherof there is now no practise for that they haue a necessary and profitable vse in the Church of God how much more is it to be esteemed that his prouideÌ„ce hath watched ouer other bookes of the Scripture which more properly belong vnto our times Laste of all passing by other reasons which might further be alledged let vs heare the Scripture it selfe witnessing of it own authority durablenes to al ages Thus therfore Moses writeth of it the secret hidden things remaine Deu. 29. 29 to the Lord our God but the things that are reueiled are to vs and our children for euer Psa 119. 152 Dauid also professeth that he knew long before that the Lord had founded his testimonies for euermore But our Sauiour Mat 24. 35 Mar. 13. 32 Math. 5. 18 Christs testimony is of all other most euident that heauen and earth shall passe but that his word can not passe and yet more vehemently that not one iote or small letter prick or stop of his law can passe vntill all be fulfilled Now as for the common obiection of diuerse bookes meÌ„tioned in th' old Testament where of we find none so intituled in the canon thereof it is easily answered That either they were ciuill and commonwelth stories whether the reader is referred if it like him to read the stories
same bookes which we doe argueth a giltie conscience constreyned to confesse the truth which they condemn A strange impudencie therfore vvhich neither Salomon prafat in Iarem praefat in Dan. ad Domni Rogat in Esram Nehemiam ad Laetam Epiphan lib. dâ—mens ponder Concil Laodic can 59. able to answere our manifest reasons nor to bring any of theirs nor yet to match in any sort our authorities not withstanding blare out their tongues crying and barking still that we disauthorize the Canonicall Scripture Their quarrell againste Master Beza is answered in the proper place That against the tenth article of the Creede in meeter is vtterly vnworthy of any answer for the meeter alwayes requiring a paraphrasis or som compas of words the poet could not more fitly haue expounded the forgiuenes of sinnes then by noting our saluation by faith alone according as th' Apostle of the remission of sinnes out of the Psalme concludeth the iustification by faith without workes Th' other corruption of Christs soule descending into hell after his death argueth no contradiction amongest our selues but a smal remnant of th' infection of Poperie in that author which is so malitious and stubborne a leprosie as for the approued tryall of their clensing froÌ„ it they haue commonly neede to be shut vp from pulpit and pen some resonable time and as they say in the French prouerb The monks Cowle is not easely put of in many yeares what consent of iudgment there is amongst vs in that behalf the later editions which haue left that Creede cleane out may somwhat declare To the foure next sections pag. 9. 10. 11. What compassion haue you had of your country men which haue kept back the wheat of Gods word from them so many yeares and ages vvherevvith they should haue bene fed to aeternall life And your compassions novv vvhat are they but as Salomon saieth of the Prov. 12. 10. compassions of the wicked moste cruell Wherefore it is certaine that as the curses of Gods people haue hitherto pearsed your soules and runne them thorovv for engrossing into your hands the graine of life so novv they vvill be as sore and sharp against you for selling them such mustie mildred blasted and by all meanes corrupted graine Neither is your impietie lesse now in poysoning them then it was before in staruing them Wherefore you partly perswade vs that you haue done this worke in feare and trembling seeing in so open corruptions and so manifolde and manifest wrestings it was harde for you not to see eft-sones hell opened before your eyes As for your childish translation of numbering word for word and as it were syllable for syllable rather then to giue sense for sense and to translate rather by weight of sense then by tale of words although also it shal appeare that you haue kept your selfe to neither yet haue you no defence in Ierome for it For although by the wordes you alleadge maye well be gathered out of him a straighter Iawe in turning the Scriptures then in turning other writters yet hauing shewed in the same Epistle that his vse in translating Hieron ad Pammach de optima gener inter prâ—tâ—ndi was not to nuÌ„ber but to weigh wordes that he followed the wordes so farre as they were not strange from the custome of speach that he translated not wordes but sentences he addeth that it is no maruell if this were done in translating prophane and ecclesiasticall writers seing that the seuenty interpreters th'Euangelistes and Apostles had done the same not yeelding worde for worde And after in the same Epistle he saith that the care of th'Evangelists was not to hunt after wordes and syllables but to set downe the minde or sense of the doctrines And therefore sheweth by diuers examples where they in wordes neither aggree with the 70. interpreters nor yet with the Hebrew Amongst other th' example that he citeth out of Saint Marke is notable where our Sauiour Christs words being onely Tabitha Cumi i. Rise mayde th'Euangeliste translating it to make the sense more full interlaceth I say to thee And if the Iesuites tarie to heare where Ierome himself vseth this libertie in translating the Scriptures we send Ad Pammach Marcellinum them to another Epistle of his where they shall find him defeÌ„ding himselfe in his liberty of traÌ„slating Naschqu Bar which being worde for worde kisse the sonne he translated adore the sonne least Nolens traÌ„sferre putidè sensum magis sequutus suÌ„ as hee saith if hee had turned otherwise he should haue turned it euill fauoredlie Which we write rather to shew how farre Ieromes iudgement in translating differed from these apish Iesuites then that wee esteeme that th' other translation which hee shunned was so hard orrough as hee iudged it And therefore it was elegantly saide of the Emperour I hate alike as departing aequally from the meane both Antiquitaries Suetonius in Octauio Augusto and affectors of nouelties The firste place recited out of Augustine maketh nothing to the purpose For as the stile of the Scripture as it were the garments and habite thereof is neither new fangled nor exquisitly laboured by perswasible wordes of mans wisedome so is it not foule sluttish but it is arrayed from top to toe as an honest and chaste matrone avoyding aswell barbarousnes and rusticalnes of th' one side as curiositie and affectation of th' other In th' other place there is no such thing founde as they talke of albeit that also should make as little to the purpose as th' other And if the olde writters speaking and writing vnto their people did speake and write barbarouslie that they might bee the better vnderstoode of them what is that to make it a rule in translating If Ierome in correcting th' olde translation so tempered his penne that amending it where it changed the sense of the text he left the rest to remaine as they were It followeth not because hee suffered them to stand that therefore he alowed of them throughout considering that a man vvill not vse that boldnesse in correcting another mans vvorke vvhich he vvould doe in his ovvn nor put out euery phrase and euery maner of speach vvhich he himself could better Besides that it is a harder matter then you ar euer able to performe to shevve that this olde translation vvherein these venerable barbarismes solecismes are found is the same that Ierome corrected In none of th' other places alleadged out of Augustine is there any thing to maintaine this babishnes of translation but rather contrariwise when he affirmeth that some bind themselues too much vnto the wordes vvhich translations hee holdeth for insufficient Also that vvhen the phrases are not translated according to the custome of the auncient Latinists although nothing be taken away from the vnderstanding yet they offend those which are delighted with the things when a certaine purenes is kept in the signes of the thinges
doth load vs with gifts So that the Hebrewe doeth not onely tell vs that Christ gaue gifts but that he gaue them as Mediatour hauing receiued them Beside that it is knowne that the Apostles in alledging testimonies doe not nomber the wordes but giue the waight of the sentence to which nombring of words when not so much as translators are alwaies as it is said bound to much lesse were th'Apostles tyed vnto it which were no translaters but expounders of the Scripturs And all reasonable men will iudge it good payment if for foure single pence he receaue a whole groate or if th' opportunity so serue eight single half-pence They proceed with the 40 Psalme where in stead of the Hebrew Thou hast pearced my eare th'Apostle hath Thou hast prepared me a bodie But they ought to haue vnderstoode that there is first a Trope of the part for the whole which th'Apostle doth elegantly expres when for the eare he setteth down the body Secondly they should knowe that there is a manifest Metaphore in the worde pearcing vsed of the Prophet which being drawn from the law prouyding that the seruant which would willingly giue himself ouer to a perpetuall and whole seruice of his maister should so be serued signifieth an inabling of the Prophet for a willing obedience to be giuen vnto the Lord. And therefore this Metaphore is elegantly expounded by th'Apostle when he saith Thou hast prepared and fitted me a body without the which our sauiour Christ could not haue beene the seruant of God to any such purpose as he was ordayned So that if as Dauid by Christ so Christ for Dauid muste bring not a legall sacrifice but his ears bored through that is a bodie obedient vnto the death men may easilie see that th'Apostle did expound and make plaine that vvhich vvas somewhat obscure in the Prophete whose sense and not whose words he alledged Further they alledge 2. Chron. 28. 19. Achas King of Israel for King of Iuda As if they ought to be ignorant that the place where Achas was buried was first the place where the kings of Israel that is of the twelue tribes were buried or euer it was the place of the kings of Iuda only And if they had marked it they shuld easily haue knowne both the Prophet Ieremie and Lamé 2. 2 Rom. 9. 4. 17. 10. 21. 11. 7. 16. 29. 10. 3. 1. 29. th'Apostle to containe Iuda vnder Israel and contrariwise Israel vnder Iuda And the vulgare according vnto the Hebrew in the last verse readeth in the sepulchres of the Kings of Israel And as ignorance of the story of the Scripture deceiued you here so in the next the ignorance of the tongue abuseth you For 1. Chron. 2. 18. that which you turne out of the Hebrewe hee begat Azubah his wife and Ierioth is falslie and ignorantlie translated For ETH the particle there is not a note of the accusatiue case but is a praeposition and signifieth that he begate of Azubah his wife c. as is confirmed by other places vvhere it is so taken As Gen. 44. 4 Ezech. 6. 9 for that out of 2. Reg. 24. 19. of putting brother for vncle it argueth you vtterlie vnacquainted with the Scriptures in any tongue seing the word brother is generall for all kinsmen both in the olde and new Testament Wherupon Genes 13 Matth. 12. 16. 47 Abraham is called Lots brother as your vulgar printed by Plantine 1576. himselfe readeth and so our Sauiour Christ is saide to haue brethren Whereupon it is euident howe free the Hebrew is from corruption when th'obiections against it are so friuolous as nothing can be more And as this is easy to conceiue of al that know the Church which vnto that tyme was alvvaies sealed amongst them to be the piller of truth so it shall much 1. Tim. 3 more be setled firmely in their breast if the Iewes carefull minde and indeuour of keeping the Hebrewe text fithence the time of their falling away be considered Which appeareth not onelie in that the greatest testimonies vvritten by th'Apost Euangelistes for the proof of Iesus to be the Christ doe remaine as they vvere alledged but also by the testimony of th' auncient Fathers 400. yeares after Christ Hieron in 6. cap. Es August de ciuita Dei lib. 15 c. 13 Hier. epist 74. ad Mar cel Look in his epistle of diuers readings vvhich beare vvitnesse to their innocencie heerein Your owne men are nowe as much ashamed of you in this charge of th'Ebrewe Text as Ierome vvas of some in his time charging the Hebrew as you doe Look Arias Montanus vvhich defendeth the Ievves innocencie in this behalfe Looke Lucas Francis lu eae Burg. an not at in sa era Biblia Looke also his epist ad Cardinal Sirlet Burgensis hovv he defendeth the Hebrew against the vulgar Latin where he cannot reconcile them Read Iohn Isaak a Popishe Ievve against Lindan Now let them ansvvere vvhether the Lordes care be not as great to keepe the newe Testament as to keepe the olde vvhether it be not as great to keep those vvords vvhich he spake by his sonne as it vvas to keepe those Hebr. 1. vvhich he spake by his seruants Finallie whether he keepeth not his wrytings as safelie by the Church which is his friend as hee keepeth it by the synagogue vvhich is his enemie Last of al let the good reader vnderstand that this Popish allegation is a verie haereticall practise and shamelesse shift of the deceauers of Gods people Hieron aduersus Hel. bidium Hieron For thus Ierome chargeth Helbidius that he quarrelled with the truth of the copies did most foolishly perswade himselfe that the Greeke bookes were falsified The like practise vsed the monstrous heresie of the August ad Hieron epist 19 Manichees of vvhome Augustine vvryteth thus The Manichees not able to wrest many places of the holie Scripture whereby they are moste euidentlie conuinced affirme the same to be false yet so that they attribute the same not to the Apostles which wrot them but I knowe not to what other which afterward corrupted them Which because they cannot proue neither by the most copies nor by the most auncient nor by th' authority of the former tongue from which the Latine bookes were translated they are confounded c. We may be bolde therefore to range you vnder the banner of heretickes vvhich beare their proper marke and recognisance But let vs come to the particular places supposed to be corrupted Wherein let the reader obserue first that to discredite nombers of the Greek Copies reading as we do they bring but th' authoritie of one only Doctor For although in the third place they alledge the corruption from the Tripartite storie and Socrates yet it being known that the tripartite story gathereth that which he writeth out of Socrates vnder two authors there is but one authoritie Which may also be said of the second
places where th' authors alledged ar not eye witnesses but hang al of the report of th' olde translator And if in Gods law the witnes of one man is not sufficient to take away a mans life much lesse may one mans witnes take away the life and authoritie of Gods word which without that witnes should vndoutedly be so taken And if we should weigh th' olde translator with such weightes we might with far more right dash out a great part of your translator in th' olde Testament Euen so much as he differeth and dissenteth Ire lib. 3 cap. 25 Tertul. apolog c. 18. 19 Hâ—l psal 2 August de â—iuit Dei lib. 15. c. â—â— in from the 70. interpreters For there is a great consent of th' old fathers that the interpretation of the 70. interpreters in greek was written by the same spirit wherewith the Prophets wrote in Hebrew Secondly it is to be obserued that in proouing the Greeke copies in three places to be corrupted by the Greeke heretikes they alledg for two of those places Latine writers and Latine translators such as were vsed in the Latin Church so that if the testimonies proue any thing of the corruption of th' originall it proueth it more against the Latine then against the Greeke Church For notwithstanding that Marcion were Greek born yet was not his heresie begoten in Greece but in Rome after that his father being a Bishop had for his lewd behauiour cast him out of the Church in his natiue countrie And seeing Rome taketh vpon her to be the piller of truth and the Lords librarie whatsoeuer can be proued of the corruption of th' originall shall by their owne doctrine returne to the further discredite of the Latine then of the Greeke Church Now touching the first example of Marcions corruption you doe belie Tertullian and that in two sortes For first Tertullian saieth not that the truth is as it is in the vulgar For Tertullian himselfe readeth otherwise then the vulgar after this sort The first man Tertuâ— aâ— resurrectionâ— carnâ—s of th' earth earthy that is slimie which is Adam The second man is from heauen that is the word of God which is Christ leauing out heauenly which the vulgare hath Cyprian de zelo liâ—or aduersus ludaeos a. libi and you striue for And so his scholler Cyprian readeth Secondly you falsifye him for that he doth not say as you suppose of him that the Greek text which is now is Marcions corruption For so should he haue accused himselfe aswell as Marcion considering that himself also departeth from that which is in the vulgar Indeed Marcion had corrupted the place by leauing out man in the second place therby to help his haeresie of th' untruth of Christs manhood It may also be gathered that Tertullian liked not the word Lord but esteemed it a corruption of Marcion This is therefore novv the question vvhether Lord in that place be the true or heretical reading First therefore let them shevv vs hovv this reading doth maintayn in any sort the heresie of Marcion considering that the Greek hath vvith full consent the second man which Marcion left out vvherby the humanity of Christ is plainly established And it appeareth that the vulgar traÌ„slation hath more coulour of that heresie theÌ„ the Greek reading For he might haue easier abused the vulgare to proue that Christ broght his flesh from heaueÌ„ then he can do the Greek And as the Greek reading is further from the heresie of Marcion then the vulgar so it is in diuers respects more proper both for the generall analogie of the true doctrine of the person of Christ and for the circumstance of that particular place For first the Greek reading containeth a notable testimony of the two natures of our Sauiour Christ in th' unitie of one person which the vulgar doth not so manifestly expresse Secondly th' opposition of Adam from th' earth and of Christ the Lord from heauen is much fuller and liuelier considering that he might haue bene both from heauen and heauenly and yet haue bene but a naked creature as th' Angels Thirdly the Greeke copies did not shunne the word heauenly which Marcion is supposed to haue of purpose avoyded considering that they call Christ heauenly For in the next two verses the Greek copies with full consent apply the word heauenly vnto Christ Therfore the Greeke copies shunned not this worde heauenly in speaking of Christ but reserued it vnto a fitter place For hauing in the former verse called Christ the Lord from heauen in the verses following he might without danger call him heauenly whereas if he had not sent that title of the Lord from heauen before he might haue bene thought to haue bene called heauenly in respect of the place he came from as the first man is called earthly in regard of the earth from whence he was taken Again seing that Marcion did corruptly alledg verse 45 as plainly appeareth by Tertullian which corruption is not in the Greeke there is no liklie-hood that one of the corruptions of Marcion should continew in the Greeke more theÌ„ th' other Moreouer the Syrian Arabian paraphrasis auncienter then was Marcions reading as the Greek copies doe it is euident that either Marcion brought not in this reading of the Lord or els he brought it in long before he was borne Last of all seing the Greeke Fathers so reade a Lib. de orthod fide cap. 3 Damascene b In 〈◊〉 locuâ— Chrysostome Theophilact Oecumenius al which detested the haeresy of Marcion either this is no corruption or else these learned mens noses were stuffed which coulde neuer smell the sauour of any Marcionisine And althogh diuerse ancient and other writers accustoming themselues to the reading of the vulgare translation followed it in this point because there is no manifest repugnance in it to any article of faith yet that is no let but that this may bee as indeede it is the trueth which is found in Greek copies and not that which is in th' old translator In the second place Ierome alone is brought to discredite so many Greek copies Against whome beside the great consent of the Greeke copies Basil lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we oppose the Syrian Arabian Paraphrasis Chrysostom Theophilact Oecumenius Basile who thrise in one book doth so alledge it as the copies supposed to be falsified And last of al wee oppose Ierome himselfe who for once alledging it thus for his benefite against Hieron aduersus Helbidium ad Eustoch de seruand virginitate his aduersarie in that booke where the Papists themselues cannot denie but he abused diuerse testimonies of th' Apostle shamefullie alledgeth it twise as it is in the Greek copies which they condemne Let al men therefore iudge what a worthie proof this is broght from Ierome to discredit these copies which is contraried of so manie and of himselfe who after he was departed from
your owne saying which affirme that you haue forsaken the poynting of the Latine to follow The last page of their preface the poynting of the Greeke And if the Greeke hath kept the trew poynting why should it not keepe the trueth of words And if your Latine haue lost the trew pointing without the which he that readeth the Scripture is like him that rideth without a bridle why should it not rather be said to haue lost the trueth of the words and sense then the Greeke which keepeth the trueth in poynting To the next section The principall cause that hath made you take armes against the Iohn 8. 47 Greeke copies is that you are not of God and therefore cannot abide the wordes of God Thereupon it commeth that th' olde translation as it is further from the worde of God smacketh you better then the Greek copies doe And althogh you may sooner get water out of a flint then anie reliefe of your cause from the Greek copies yet if it were possible for trueth to helpe to maintaine a lye it were yet vnpossible for you to like of it therfore althogh we are assured that you had great aduantage out of the vulgar which is a great cause that maketh you stand so close vnto it and no aduantage at all out of the Greeke as partly hath and further shall appeare yet we know that you haue a further fetch in preferring the handmaide vnto her mistres which is thereby to vndermine all authoritie of the holy Scripture that it being ouer-throwen the Popes decrees might ride on horseback which cannot take breath as long as th' authoritie of the holy Scripture remaineth And if it be as you say that the Greek serueth your turne better then the vulgar you beare vs witnes at vnawares that the small estimation which we haue your vulgar in procedeth not of anie feare that we stand in lest he should hurt our cause To the next section page 18. It were doubtles vnworthie the name of a translation that should be inferiour to the vulgar Howbeit we charge not th' old translator of Popery and impute not all the corruptions in the vulgar to the translator but rather to th' enemie which sowe tares in his field albeit as hath bine said he might some-where preiudice the trueth not thinking of it As for the testimonies both here and in the former section they are discussed in their proper places To the next section We grant they are word for word at in the Greek And therefore vnlesse we shewe that Poperie leaning vpon them falleth to the ground and that it is not only staied by them but destroyed of them We will willingly confesse our selues most vnworthie eyther of the defence of so good a cause or of the places which we ocupy in the Church of God In the meane season your beggery is too impudent which take that for graunted wherin you haue bene alwaies in the face resisted And if we would trifle out the time as you doe we could for fiue or six sentences which you bring as seming to smyle vpon you alledge fiue or six hundreth which doe so apparantly frowne vpon your Poperie as at the verie sight of them it falleth downe dead If you had any generall councils or anie other auncient fathers of the west part beside Cyprian and Primasius to warrant your phrases by we dout not but you would haue made them speake which handle the matter so cunninglie that the dumbe in your cause and sometime those which are eloquent against it are notwithstanding for want of others compelled to speake for it As for the two fathers alledged let the reader looke the answer in the proper place To the next section page 19. As the Philosopher saide of his work that being set forth it should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the hardnes and darknes thereof as it were be vn-set forth so may it be verified in a good part of the Iesuites translation that being translated it remaineth partly for the sottish superstition of keeping of words rather then sense and partly for th'unnecessarie newe fanglednesse of forraine speach as it were vn-translated So is your translation as litle Catholik as may be as that which is so proud so scornfull disdainful that none of the ruder sort can haue any acquaintance with it wheras a good translator will endeuour to deliuer to his reader the meaning of his author which he trāslateth with al light plainnes of speach possible What are the sacred words speaches for retaining whereof you are fallen into this seruitude If you had translated the Greek you might better haue pretended this For we acknowledge the pens of th'Apostles and Euangelists to haue bene sacred which we cannot acknowledge not you cannot shew in th' old translator Vnlesse your Councell of Trent comming so manie yeares after th' olde translator was able then to make that sacred which had not beene so before To the next section But let vs heare their examples The first kinde whereof is of Hebrew wordes retained in the Greeke text and by the same reason to be contayned in all translations But this argument turneth not all together so round as you thinke For it may well be that these wordes of Amen and Alleluia c. were well knowne by th'Apostles preaching to the Churches in that time Wherfore th' use of them then when they were well and generallie knowne was more iustifiable then now when they are not so 2. Cor. 1. 20 And for the word Amen first we haue th'Apostle which giueth the iust weight thereof in a Greeke worde Matt. 5. 18 whereunto our yea answereth Secondly th' old translator vseth it as an indifferent thing eyther to trāslate it into Latine or to let it remaine as he found it in the Greeke text Heere therfore the drudgerie of the Iesuites is manifest For notwithstanding they esteeme it not meete that Amen should be translated yet because the vulgar hath translated it they haue also thoght good to follow him therin Thereby tying themselues faster vnto the vulgar then the vulgar did tye himself vnto th' originall Hovvbeit in retayning of the Hebrevv vvords vvhich the originall doth vse they should for vs haue passed vvithout blame if by contrarie practise of that which they professe they had not differed as much from themselues as from vs yet deceiue themselues in that they think they may keepe Corbana aswell as we keepe Hosanna Raca Beliall For Saint Luke hath translated Corbana Gazophylacium vvhich is in our tongue a treasurie and tearmeth Luk. 21. 4 it also the place of the giftes of God Which interpretation when none of th'Apostles or Euangelists giue in the vvords vvhich we haue retained it is euident that they haue not that vvarrant of reteyning this vvhich we haue of those much lesse to keep Parasceue which they ought aswel to haue translated into English the tongue which they write in as Saint Luke forsaking