some in St. Augustines time had it for in cap. 28. de verbis Domini he reciteth the whole prayer out of St. Luke as out of Saint Matthew and it seems such copies were of use and authoritie in those dayes for St. Ambrose relates it in like manner From whence saith Chemnitius it may be gathered that the Latine copies did differ in Augustines time some reading this Prayer in St. Luke as the Greek copies doe whole and intire Besides Lucas Brug numbers eight Latine Manuscripts wherein the third Petition is retained in St. Luke where he adds that it agrees to the Greek Text of the Kings Bible and to the Syriack Translation of the same and of the other particulars Qui es in Coelis and libera nos à malo he saith some Latine exemplars have them Now here that I may give more full satisfaction and because the consequence of what I shall say may resolve another scruple concerning the Doxologie I shall briefly discuss these four things 1. The authoritie of the Greeke Copies above others 2. Which of the Greeke Copies are most authentick 3. In what ancient Beza's Greeke Copie is to he had 4. What is the rise and authoritie of the Vulgate Latine First the authority of the Greek Copies is acknowledged even by the Papists themselves when they are serious to be Apostolical Bellarmine saith Constat N. T. Graece scriptum esse ab Apostolis vel Evangelistis quorum nomina titulis praefiguntur It is manifest that the New Testament written in Greek by the Apostles or Evangelists were theirs whose names are prefixed to the Titles And it cannot be doubted saith he that the Apostolical editions are of highest authoty unless it could be proved that they were corrupted of which I have reason to think the same as of the Hebrew Copies viz. that neither they nor the Greek are generally corrupted and this saith he may be easily demonstrated for there never wanted Gatholickes which did discover the indeavours of those hereticks that sought to corrupt them and did not permit those sacred Scriptures to be depraved Thus he wherein he speaks as much like a Protestant as those that make the Objection and indeed when we hear the complaints of the Greeke Fathers in those Primitive times sounding loud against those bold and busie Hereticks as Ireneus against Marcion Origen Chrysostom Eusebius Epiphanius Theodoret c. against the Arians Macedonians Manichees Valentinians Nestorians and others they shewed themselves careful and faithful shepherds in watching and withstanding those morning-Wolves Bellarmine notes that Ambrose did so by the Arians who from John 4th took away Spiritus est Deus for so the Vulgate read it which all the Greeke books have saith he So that although those vermine did impair some of those books yet seeing the Fathers of the Church did hunt them out of their lurking places and observed all their haunts and through Gods providence by their care did prevail to preserve the greater number of those books pure and intire which were so owned and received by the common consent and practice of the Church I know not what any adversarie can say against the authoritie of them Take these instances of the watchfulness of those Ancients Origen noteth that those Hereticks took away that in Rom. 16. 25. Ei qui potens est c. which saith he was in other copies that had not suffered by them Theodoret speaking of Tatian saith Ego inveni plusquam ducentos hujusmodi libros I found more then two hundred depraved books which were had in honour in our Churches which when I had gathered I caused them to be laid aside and in their stead I placed the four Evangelists for as he saith this Tatian had composed a Gospel which he called the Gospel by four leaving out the Genealogies and whatever doth prove that Christ descended from David according to the flesh which Gospel not only those of his sect did use but such also who following the Doctrine of the Apostles did not discern the fraud but in simplicitie made use of it as a Compendium of all the Gospels Dionysius Bishop of Corinth observed such endeavours Dominicas Scripturas nonnulli corrumpere sunt cornati Of many that would corrupt the holy Scriptures And in truth whatever the Papists say in the heat of dispure yet in cold blood they all prefer the Greek copies So Brugensis Sic esse legendum Graeca clamant Thus the Greeke Exemplars vote it The Divines at Lovaine Ita in Graecis exemplaribus legi and by the Greek they do frequently correct their Latine copies So Maldonat on Matthew 6. 5. where the Latine read qui amant the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they love in this place I judge saith he that our copies ought to be corrected rather then the Greek So Stapleton Where the Latine read Sanguis qui pro nobis fundetur i. the blood that shall be poured out for us the Greek reads in the present tense the blood that is poured out these words saith he are to be read in the present tense according to all the Evangelists in the Greek text So Faber on John 1. 30. The Latine read Qui ante me factus fuit i. who was made before me the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is only fuit was before me unhappy Arius would admit no other Exposition saith he that he might belch out his madness against us and confute us by an Interpreter which he could not do by the truth Bellarmine himself saith the Fathers doe teach every where that we must have recourse to the Greek and Hebrew Fountains Vega Ribera Vives Costa and others do acknowledge the same and whereas some of them have sifted the Greek books to discover corruptions in them Chamier Glassius and others have sufficiently vindicated them Secondly the constant interpretations of the Text by the Greek Fathers with whom many of the Latine do agree according as it is in the Greek copies is an argument that they are preserved pure and entire for seeing these sacred books were written originally in Greek it was more facile for the Fathers of that Church to find which doubtless they did seek the best copies then for any others And secondly supposing they had greater helps to find and obtain we cannot in Charitie deny them care and integritie to preserve them intire from all corruption addition or detraction for they were not ignorant of that curse Revel 22. 18. neither as in fact it appeareth were they wanting in this dutie Thirdly The Greek Churches which then owned these copies were of a far greater number and extent then the Latine were The Church of Asia and Palestine the Greeks in Egypt and Europe with whom the Syrians also joyned To which add Fourthly The providence of God who would not permit the fountain of Holiness and Truth to be depraved which providence as it did appear in preserving those Oracles of God that were committed
Thorndike to which ex abundanti it may be added That it is true the Books themselves are not some of them above a thousand or eleven hundred years old but yet they do record matter of a far greater Antiquity as books printed in this very age may record such rites and forms as were in use among primitive Christians for more then a thousand years since so for instance in the late Liturgy were the best parts and offices of devotion preserved that had been used by any Church since the Apostle dayes And as for the Mischna wherein most of these petitions are extant it is known to be one part of that Talmud which was compiled by R. Hakkadosh who lived in the year of Christ 150. that is 1508. years since and the Title and Contents of it is this Liber traditionum qui Patrum traditiones continet quae inde à Mose observatae successivè per oralem traditionem propagatae fuerunt The book of traditions which containeth the traditions of the Fathers which had been observed from that time unto Moses and were successively propagated by Oral tradition Maimonides gives us this series of the tradition R. Hakkadosh had it from Simeon his father he from Gamaliel his father he from another Simeon his father he from another Gamaliel his father he from a third Simeon he from Hillel he from Shemaiah and Abtalion his masters they from Judas the son of Tabbaeus c. unto Simeon the Just who had it from Ezra he from the Prophets successively they from the Judges and Elders of Israel they from Joshua he from Moses who as they pretend had many of them from God Arias Montanus speaking of the form in which Christ gave thanks saith thus Porro illa gratiarum actionis formula antiqua est ut constat ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Israelitarum ex Mischnaioth Now if these books prove the antiquity of that form used by our Saviour they must relate it as a matter of fact beyond the time of our Saviour in the judgement of that learned man And certainly the forms and heads of Devotion used and recorded by these later Jewes of Portugal were the product of more ancienttimes and were then collected and composed by them that they might not be lost and forgotten in the dispersion as they had lost many Customes and Manners and their very Language in the Babylonish captivity In one of the Petitions above named they say so much expresly dicebant pii priores Our pious forefathers were wont to say c. And considering how superstitiously tenacious they have ever been of the customes and traditions of their forefathers retaining and practising in their Synagogues to this very day many things which their Ancestors practised long before our Saviours time it cannot reasonably be thought that they did coin any new devotions or at least that they did insert any such there but least of all would they have stampt upon them the likeness of our Lords Prayer in every Character as we shall now shew in answer to the second Objection which is 2. Object That possibly the Rabbines since the dayes of our Saviour may have borrowed some parts and expressions of their Devotion from our Lords Prayer and from other Evangelical passages but that our Saviour the very wisedome of his Father should be beholden to the Jewish Liturgies and Forms for his Devotion is not with any reason to be imagined 1. Answer This Objection is made somewhat unadvisedly for if it were true that the Jewes did insert these Petitions into their Devotion from our Saviours Prayer it would be a sad consideration that the Jewes should shew more respect and observance to the prescriptions of our Saviour then such as would be accounted the most excellent Christians Secondly It hath been already proved beyond all contradiction that our Saviour was pleased to practise and retain divers Jewish forms and adapted them to the Ministerie of the Gospel and commended them to his Disciples in the principal service of God and therefore there is sufficient ground to assert that he did the same in this business of devotion But on the contrary there will be but rare instances given that the Jewes did make use of any new Rite Institution Doctrine or History which is proper to the Gospel in those ancient Records of theirs so as to use or approve the same and therefore it is unlike that they had any respect to this Prayer in their Devotions Thirdly It is yet more incredible that the Jewes who abhor the very name of Christ and make many solemn publick imprecations against him and all his followers should transcribe any thing of his into their Devotion much less that every Petition of our Saviours Prayer should find place in theirs for in the very Talmud one Chapter is intitled De Idololatriâ ac vitanda omni conversatione societate cum Christianis Of Idolatrie and of avoyding all manner of societie and conversation with the Christians And Buxtorf saith of them In secretissimis corum libris scribunt docent quòd anima Esaui corpus Christi subingressa est They call Christians Edomites and Esauites and in exemplaribus vetustis saith he they have sundry forms of imprecation against Christians of which take this one Let them be destroyed and have no more hope and let all the Infidels they mean Christians especially perish in the twinkling of an eye and all thy enemies which have hated thee O Lord our God be suddenly rooted out and that proud and presumptuous Kingdome be quickly overthrown and at last come to a totall ruine and make them without delay subservient to us in these our dayes That the Turks should record some of our Saviours sentences is not strange seeing they account him to have been a Prophet and I have read that among their devotions they have a Prayer which they call the Prayer of Jesus the Son of Mary which differs little from ours onely it ends thus And let not him have rule over me that will have no mercy upon me O thou most High But that the Jewes who hate and nauseate every thing that hath the least savour of Christianitie eo nomine as it is Christian should insert this most Christian Prayer in its full latitude into their prayers is certainly a vain imagination Yet as you see both Iewes and Turkes doe retain though not as Christian both the form and matter of this Prayer where then are the enemies of it if they be friends Alas in Christs own house among them for whose sake chiefly it was written and unto whom it was not onely commended as a priviledge but commanded as a duty among Christs own stewards and servants Of our own selves as the Apostle saith have men arose speaking perverse things they that had made it their familiar and would not eat at Gods Table or sleep in their own beds without it have I will not say
to the Jewes so doubtless it hath and will appear in the preservation of the Mysteries of our salvation in the New Testament to the end of the world for I know not any promise or priviledge that the Jewes had in this respect above Christians and seeing God doth require on our parts that we should captivate our reason and understandings to the Doctrines and Truths therein revealed it is but reasonable to think that God will certainly preserve them in their integritie and puritie And if the Jewes who have been professed enemies to Christ and Christian Religion ever since they had a being have been so wonderfully withheld from corrupting the Scriptures of the Old Testament in those things that concern our Saviour his Nature Person and Offices which they have alway had more then a good will but never power to do how can it be supposed that the Greek books of the New Testament which have alway bin in the custodie and under the care of most of the Churches of God who in all ages have had men of great abilitie sidelitie and vigilancie to preserve them should be corrupted And thus we pass on in the second place to enquire that seeing there are many Greek copies some of which do hugely differ from others yet all of them pretend to Antiquity and Purity which of these are the most authentique and in this also we shall be directed by those that are the greatest enemies to them Sextus Senensis thus Dicimus eum Gracum codicem qui nunc in Ecclesia legitur c. We affirm this Greek book which is now used in the Church to be the very same which the Greek Church had in the times of Hierome and long before even to the dayes of the Apostles which is true sincere and faithful not polluted by any falsitie as the continual reading of all the Greek Fathers doth plainly shew for Dionysius Justine Irenaeus Melito Origen Affricanus Apollinarius Athanasius Eusebius Basil Chrysostome Theophylact and other Fathers before and after the time of Hierome doe use one and the same Text of Scripture Now that all these should be so deluded as not to know the corrupt copies from the true and by their inanimadvertency purchase a curse to themselves and intail it on their posteritie no rational man can think if he consider how near they were to the Apostles dayes what abilities they had and what courage for the cause of Christ besides the tradition of the Church which is an Argument against the Papists and the actings of divine Providence to the contrary And Saint Hierome tells us it was the practice of the Church in his time In N. T. si quando apud Latinos quaestio oritur c. If any controversie doe arise among the Latines concerning the New Testament and there be variety in the Latine copies we presently flie to the Greek fountains and although some Greek copies did anciently differ as possibly they might within a few Centuries of years yet the difference being but in words and letters rather then sense and the Church still retaining those which did agree with one consent and common practice there cannot be a more probable Argument of their authority and perfection Besides seeing those ancient Greek copies which by the Primitive Church have been delivered to us do keep the same Analogy of faith and truth among themselves it is an argument they were not corrupted by those Hereticks whose malice aimed at the most precious truths But when any particular Greek copy goes against the generally approved ones and is faulty in any of the more important truths that copy may be suspected as spurious or corrupted thus the corruption of the Arian copies discovered it self in corrupting those places that did in Christo hominem à Deo separare separate the Divinity from the Humanity of Christ as Jo. 1. 30. 1 Jo. 5. 7. Our third inquiry is concerning the authoritie of those Greek copies especially that of Beza which differ from the rest Brugensis saith of his second copy which hath some difference from others Latinae editioni contra alia omnia consonat c. that it agrees with the Latine Edition against all others and sometime with its Grand errors and was almost wholly conformed to the Latine So Erasmus of the Greek copy in the Vatican Exemplum illud ante paucos annos confectum esse tempore Concilii Florentini cùm facta est concordia Latinae Ecclesiae cum Graecâ This copy was made not many years since in the time of the Florentine Councel when there was a peace made between the Latine and Greek Churches Then for Beza's copy Mr. Gregory tells us that it was the Opinion of those two learned Bishops Armagh and Worcester that it had been corrupted by the Hereticks and that which he intimates concerning its faultiness in the Genealogie is an argument of it But it may suffice to give you his own judgement concerning that copy as he delivers it in his Epistle to the Universitie of Cambridge to whom he presented it Quatuor Evangeliorum Actorum Apostolorum Graeco-Latinum exemplar ex Sancti Irenaei caenobio Lugdunensi ante aliquot annos nactus inutile quidem illud neque satis emendatè ab initio ubique descriptum neque ita ut oportuit habitum sicut ex paginis quibusdam diverso charactere insertis indocti cujuspiam Coligeri barbaris alibi adscriptis notis apparet vestrae potissimùm Academiae ut inter verè Christianas vetustissimae plurimisque nominibus celeberrimae dicandum existimavi Reverendi Domini Patres in cujus Sacrario tantum hoc venerandae nisi forte fallor vetustatis monumentum collocetur etsi nulli verò melius quam vos ipsi quae sit huic exemplari fides aestimarint hac de re tamen vos admonendos duxi tantam à me in Lucae praesentìm Evangelio repertam esse inter hunc codicem caeteros quantum vis veteres discrepantiam ut vitandae quorundam offensioni asservandum potiùs quà m publicandum existimem In hac tamen non sententiarum sed vocum diversitate nihil profecto comperi unde suspicari potuerim à veteribus illis haereticis fuisse depravatum imo multa mihi videor deprehendisse observatione digna quaedam etiam sic à recepta Scriptura discrepantia ut ramen cum veterum quorundam Graecorum Latinorum Patrum scriptis consentiant non pauca denique quibus vetusta Latina editio corroboratur quae omnia pro ingenii mei modulo inter se comparata cum syrâ Arabicâ editione collata in majores meas Annotationes à me nuper emendatas brevi Deo favente prodituras congessi c. This copy was found at Lions in France during the civil wars there in the year 1562. of whole Antiquity the chief mark that Beza gives is that it hath barbarous notes affixed to it whereas the Grecians have been more barbarous in