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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03881	A treatise of the vvritten VVord of God. Composed in Latin, by the Reuerend Father Iames Gordon Huntley of Scotland, Doctour of Diuinity, of the Society of Iesus. And translated into English, by I. L. of the same Society. The first part of the first controuersy; Controversiarum epitomes. English. Selections	Gordon, James, 1541-1620.; Wright, William, 1563-1639.	1614 (1614)	STC 13996; ESTC S115737	32,568	73

A TREATISE OF THE VVRITTEN VVORD OF GOD. COMPOSED In Latin by the Reuerend Father Iames Gordon Huntley of Scotland Doctour of Diuinity of the Society of IESVS And translated into English by I. L. of the same Society The first Part of the first Controuersy Permissu Superiorum M. DC X IV. THE FIRST CHAPTER Of the Scope and Methode of this Treatise ALL the Controuersies of this time may be reduced to two heades for eyther they are certayne generall principles foundations of our faith and religion or they are particuler questions appertayning to the same Amongst other generall principles there are two about which there is greatest contention at this day the one is the Word of God the other the Church we will first speake of the word of God and afterwardes of the Church and lastly we will examine euery particuler Controuersy if God shall ●raunt vs life and health Two thinges there are which now adayes hold many in error The one is a 〈◊〉 opinion that many haue who thinke it a matter of little importance whether they giue credit or no to many things taught by the Roman Church which daungerous perswasion may be taken out of the mind●s of all faithfull people by that which we shall deliuer cōcerning the Word of God and the Church for thereby it shall euidently appeare that al thinges are firmely to be belieued which the Roman Church belieueth and that without this faith no man can hope to be saued The other is that such as de●ire to find out the true faith in euery particuler Cōtrouersy are oftentimes so hindred by the sleights and falshoods of our aduersaryes as it will be very hard for them to discerne that which is true from that which is false Wherfore we will endeauour in euery particuler Controuersy to set downe the true state of the question Afterward we will lay open the foundation of the Catholike doctrine And lastly we will plainly and briefly answere the chiefe obiections of our Aduersaries whether they be drawne out of the Scriptures or taken from the Fathers 2. And because our Aduersaries euermore boast and brag of the written Word of God pretending out of it only to proue their doctrine impugne ours our chiefe care shal be to shew that the Catholike and Roman faith is both euidently and strongly to be confirmed out of the written Word of God and the doctrine of our Aduersaries hath no foundation at all in the holy Scriptures but is manifestly opposite repugnant therunto yet so as we will set downe the vniforme consēt of the auncient Church to be agreeing with vs in euery Controuersy leauing the more ample search of antiquity vnto others to whome we will referre the Reader setting downe their particuler names so loath we are that this booke of ours should grow too great and for the same reason we haue thought good to omit many arguments which might be drawne out of the holy Scriptures for confirmation of the Catholike faith contenting our selues to set downe only the more solide and euident proofes because we are resolued to be as briefe as we may CHAP. II. Of the Word of God in generall THE word of God if we speake of it in generall may be considered two wayes either for that One Eternall and Infinite Word which contayneth perfectly in it selfe whatsoeuer is in the mind of Almighty God which is the same with the Sonne of God and Word of the Father of whome S. Iohn speaketh in his Ghospell saying In the beginning was the VVord but of this Word we are to say nothing heere but the Word of God may be other wise cōsidered and taken for that Word which was not alwayes nor contayneth all thinges which are in the mind of God but a small part only of them to wit such thinges as God would haue vs know and belieue and of the Word of God in this sense we speake now For this Word is the proper and complete obiect of our faith 2. Moreouer this Word hath two conditions or properties the one is that the same be reuealed vnto vs for there are innumerable verities in the mind of God the which because they are not reuealed to vs do not appertayne to this Word The other is that it be immediatly reuealed by God for such thinges as God manifesteth vnto vs by naturall reason appertayne not to this word of God called therfore by the Deuines the reuealed Word of God 3. Of this Word of God so vnderstood there is no Controuersy betwene vs and our Aduersaries but only in wordes for wheras our Aduersaries say that Catholikes affirme that we must with diuine fayth belieue the words of men or which is worse rather belieue the words of men then the Word of God it is a meere slaunder for there is no Catholike so ignorant but he knoweth that the Theologicall vertue Faith relieth astogeather vpon the pure sincere and certayne Word of God alone according to that of S. Paul when you had receiued of vs the word of the heating of God you receaued it not as the word of men but as the VVord of God as indeed it is Neyther can any man doubt but that the reuealed word of God is partly the written Word contayned in the Canonicall bookes of the old and new Testament partly vnwritten and deliuered by tradition and preaching of which vnwritten word the Scripture maketh mention in many places but we will first treat of the written Word CHAP. III. Of the written Word of God THE written Word of God consisteth of two parts of the Letter which euery man may read in the books themselues and in the true sēse of the Letter which is as it were the very soule and life thereof without which the Letter alone rather killeth thē quickneth or giueth life as we see euidently by experience in the Iewes Arians c all other heretikes as well new as old for the Iewes hold thēselues stiffely to the Letter of the old Testamēt the Arians as also in a manner all other heretikes receiue eyther altogeather or for the greatest part the Letter of the new but because they will not acknowledge the true sense of the Letter Iewes they are Heretikes they are Catholikes they are not And surely the Letter alone without the true sense cannot truly and properly be called the Word of God no more then a body without a soule can truly and properly be called a man wherefore they which spoile the Letter of the true sense may be compared to them who bereaue a man of his soule and life 2. But whosoeuer do substitute another contrary sense and meaning in place of the true do no otherwise then they who not only kill a man but by Art Magick bring into the body of the man killed some other diabolicall spirit by which the dead body is so moued and stirred as it seemeth to many to bealiue all this is so manifest a truth as our

bookes to wit that which is receaued and appre●ued by the iudgment of the Catholike Church which cannot erre our Aduersaries reiecting this Canon make all the bookes doubtfull conteined therin for no certayne testimony can be had of these bookes but eyther by this Canon only or by the aunciēt tradition of the Church but they neyther admit this Canon nor wil stand to this vnwritten Traditiō or acknowledge it for the true Word of God 2. Now as for the Canons lately set out by themselues no man can safely belieue them seeing they neyther agree one with another nor with the auncient Canons of the Church nor are any where found in the writtē Word of God which as they teach is only to be belieued neyther can they bring any thing eyther concerning the Canon of the Hebrewes or any other auncient Canon which they haue not taken from the writings of the auncient Fathers whose authority without the expresse written Word of God they will haue to be in no wise sufficient to ingender fayth so as euen by the iudgment of our Aduersaries none of all these can establish fayth concerning this matter 3. Iohn Caluin indeed sayth that it is as easy for a faithfull man to discerne Canonicall Scripture from that which is not Canonicall as to one that seeth it is easy to discerne light from darknes and white from Black But in so saying he contradicteth both reason and experience for it is euident that in old tyme there was no small controuersy amongst the raythfull yea and amongst learned and godly men concerning many bookes of the old and new Testament yea and also euen now amōgst such as our Aduersaries esteeme faithfull men which Caluin himselfe in many places confesseth 4. Moreouer Caluins owne followers well perceauing this fly vnto their owne peculiar spirit by which they say they are chiefly perswaded and moued and not by the only consent of the Church But these speake nothing to the purpose for in faith two thinges concurre one is the cause or origen of fayth to wit God himselfe and the holy Ghost whereof there is no controuersy betweene vs and them for we all acknowledge the holy Ghost to be the principall cause of the assent we giue by fayth that is to say that it is the holy Ghost who chiefly perswadeth vs to belieue The other is the obiect of fayth or that which is to be belieued whereof we now dispute for the holy Ghost doth not induce vs to belieue the false vncertaine deuises of men but the pure and sincere Word of God only we aske therfore of our Aduersaries by what expresse Word of God he reuealeth vnto them that there are so many Canonicall bookes and neyther fewer nor more for we read not this any where in the Scripture and they admit only the written Word of God how can the holy Ghost then perswade thē●o belieue that which is not the Word of God for we are not now to expect new ●●uelations from God as do the ●nabaptists and Libertines whom for this cause our Aduersaries condemne It is necessary therefore that if they will haue vs belieue that they are perswaded by the holy Ghost to belieue such books only to be authenticall as they doe say are such that they first shew this to be a truth expressely contayned in holy Scripture which they will neuer be able to do wherfore there is no certainty with them eyther of the sense of the holy Scripture or of the Letter nor euer wil be vntill they returne vnto the Church agayne But we Catholikes are certaine of both for we haue a most faythfull Canon receaued in the Church more thē a thousand and two hundred yeares agoe confirmed by a generall and Oecumenicall Councell 5. And this to haue beene the faith and doctrine of the auncient Church for the discerning of true and authenticall Scriptures that short but pithy sentence of S. Augustins whome Caluin acknowledgeth to haue byn the best and most faithfull witnes of antiquity sufficiently testifyeth saying I for my part would not belieue the Ghospell vnlesse I were moued by the authority of the Church of which place I will say more herafter in the Controuersy of the Church And else-where he saith VVe receaue the old and new Testamēt in that nūber of bookes which the authority of the holy Catholike Church deliuereth So S. Augustine 6. I know our Aduersaries obiect many thinges against many bookes contayned in our Ecclesiasticall Canon but their chiefe arguments do not only derogate authority from those bookes but also from many others which they receaue as Canonicall For they obiect that some Fathers did sometymes doubt of those bookes which they will not admit but they are not ignorant that some Fathers of old haue doubted of the Epistles of S. Iames and S. Iude of the second Epistle of S. Peter of the 2. and 3. of S. Iohn of the Epistle to the Hebrewes and of the Apocalyps of which bookes they dare not now doubt especially Caluins followers as is manifest by their confession of faith 7. They say further that in those bookes which they reiect there are many thinges obscure difficult and full of contradiction but what booke of Scripture in a manner is there in the which there do not occurre sometymes thinges obscure and hard to be vnderstood did not S. Peter acknowledge as much But as for true contradictions there are none at al howsoeuer there may be some things which at the first fight may seeme to imply contradiction yet indeed all thinges agree very well togeather such a contradiction is oftentymes found in those bookes which euen our Aduersaries receaue yea euen in the Ghospells themselues which for all that are not to be reiected but humbly soberly and piously to be ●nterpreted as S. Augustine many tymes admonisheth 8. To conclude all the arguments that our Aduersaries make against these bookes are fully answered by Catholike writers which haue set out Commentaries vpon those bookes to wit Cornelius Iansenius vpon Ecclesiasticus Ionnnes Laurinus vpon the booke of VVisedome Ioannes Maldonatus and Christopher à Castro vpon Baruch and Nicolas Serarius vpon the rest of the bookes of the old Testament which our Aduersaries call Apocriphall to omit the most Reuerend and famous Cardinall Bellarmine and his Champion Iacobus Gretserus as also Iames Gordon Lesmoreus For it is sufficient only to haue cited them seeing that I write only an abridgment of Controuersies not any long commentaries vpon the Scripture And therfore contēt my selfe to haue shewed in this place that our Aduersaries must either receaue the Canon of Scriptures approued by the Councell of Trent or be vtterly destitute of any certayne and assured Canon CHAP. VI. Of the Hebrew Text. OVR Aduersaries when they are vrged with Catholike argumēts taken from the Scriptures are wont to fly to the Hebrew text of the old Testament and

Pastor or Ghostly Father 8. Our Aduersaries obiect certayn places of S. Chrysostome and S. Hierome in which they exhort to the reading of the Scripture but they should haue obserued that those Fathers speake of reading the Scripture in the Greeke tongue then extant or in the Latin according to the old edition which was neuer forbidden to any by the Church whereas our Controuersy is about the translations of the holy Scripture out of the Hebrew Greek and Latin into the vulgar tongue which are all for the most part corrupted 9. And it is worth the nothing that our Aduersaries spend their tyme in vayne in gathering togeather arguments by which to perswade men that it is necessary for them to read the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue to the end they may learne out of them what they must necessarily know if they wil be saued for how truly or plainly soeuer they be translated no man shall euer recevue any fruite by them vnlesse he first belieue aright and be guided by the holy Ghost to whome it appertayneth to guide vs into the right land to make knowne vnto vs the way in which we are to walke to teach vs the will of God which we are to fulfill VVhich is manifestly to be seene in the Iewes who vnderstād the Hebrew text much better then Christians in which there is so ample and cleare mention of Christ and yet for all that they do not belieue in Christ-Our Aduersaries therefore haue little reason to keepe such a do about the wordes of Scripture or the translation of them let them first imbrace the true Faith which is in the Church only let them seeke after the holy Ghost who is not to be found out of the Church let them seeke out the true sense of the Letter which the Church only conserueth vncorrupted and it will easily be graunted vnto them to haue the Scriptures in what tongue soeuer they will so they be truly and vncorruptedly translated and that they vse them to their owne saluation and not to their destruction as many do wherof we haue for witnesses not only the Scripture but dayly experience and this shall suffice concerning the translatiō of the Scripture into the vulgar tōgue 10. For of the prayers in Latin eyther priuately made by the people or publikely offered by the Priest at masse and in the administratiō of the Sacramēts we wil treat hereafter in their proper places CHAP. XIIII That our Aduersaries vse many sleightes in corrupting the Word of God OVR Aduersaries often require vs to proue all that which we say out of the written Word of God but when we cite the same in expresse tearmes they haue many wayes by which they depraue it Wherfore before I make an end of this Controuersy concerning the written Word it shall not be from the purpose briefly to detect such their corruptions partly to the end that no man be deceaued by them and partly that euery man may vnderstand nothing to be so plainely and clearely set downe in the written VVord which by the Commentaries of crafty and subtile wittes may not be weakned and made of little force if no regard be had to the authority and iudgment of the Church And that no man may thinke that I herin calumniate them or deale lesse sincerely with them I will set downe out of their owne writings some one or two exāpls of each manner of corrupting wherof many exāples will occure in each Controuersy 2. The first manner of shifting of places alleadged out of the written Word is to say that the originall text is corrupted and what is alleadged crept out of the margent into the text whereof see many examples in the 12. and 18. Chapter of the Latin Edition of this Cōtrouersy 3. Their second shift is to reiect the vulgar translation and instead thereof to cite some new and corrupt translation of their owne It is euident inough that Luther in his first version of the new Testament into the Germane tongue set forth in the yeare 1522. hath more then a thousād errors as many haue obserued amōgst which neyther the last nor the least is his presuming to ad to the text of S. Paul the 3. Chapter and 28. verse the particle alone thereby the stronglier to establish his doctrine that Fayth alone iustifieth for this place of the Apostle VVe thinke a man is iustifyed by fayth he trāslateth by fayth alone when a certaine friend of his to whome the same was obiected by a Catholike asked the cause why he so translated it he no lesse ridiculously then proudly answereth in a certayne little booke set forth by him in the yeare 1530. vnder this title A certaine information or answere made to two questions proposed by a certayne good friend concerning the translation of Scripture and the inuocation of Saints In which he aduiseth his friend to answere the Catholikes obiection after this manner D. Martin Luther will haue it so and sa●●h that a Papist and an Asse is all one thing so I will so I command let my will stand for a reason for we will not be the Papists schollers but their Iudges Luther will haue it so he saith that he is a Doctor aboue all the Popes Doctors So Luther concluding at last that the word alone shal remayne in his new Testament though it should make all his Aduersaries mad and he addeth further that he is only sory that he had not added two wordes more to the text and translated it after this manner we are ius●ifyed by only faith without any workes of any law 4. Zwinglius also who first in our age endeauored to perswade many that the body of Christ is not really contayned in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the better to establish this his error goeth about to proue that those words of Christ this is my body are very well translated thus this signifieth my body with this his new translation he is so rauished as if he had receaued the same from heauen for these are his word● So therefore hath Luke with whome we content our selues without citing any other Euangelist And hauing taken bread he gaue thankes brake it and gaue it them saying this signifyeth my body which is giuen for you do this in remembrance of me Thou seest O faithfull soule but yet wrapped in absurd opinions how all thinges heere agree and nothing inviolently eyther taken away or added so as thou hast cause to wonder that thou hast not byn alwayes of this opinion and much more that any dare so boldly teare and rent the body of this speach so well ioyned togeather So Zwinglius in the praise of his new translation wherein he arrogates more authority to himselfe thē is due so as that of Cicero in his booke de diuinatione may well be applyed to him I neuer saw any man arrogate greater authority to himselfe and in the end say iust nothing 5. Moreouer concerning Caluins and

Bezas errors in translating or rather peruerting the holy Scriptures whole books are extant as also of the corruptions of the Geneua Bylles which are euery yeare increased but this shall much more commodiously be declared heerafter in the particuler Cōtrouersies We will only heere set downe one example of a corruption to be found in Caluins Bezas and all the Geneua Bybles And this corruption is forged a purpose by them to confirme a new and notable blasphemy against Christ and himselfe by some apparent testimony of Scripture for they reach in many places that Christ when he praied in the Garden was seized with an extreme feare least God being angry with him for our sinnes for which he had taken vpon him to satisfy should inflict vpon him eternall damnation neyther did Christ feare without cause for they say he suffered vpon the Crosse the paynes of a damned person the torments of hell for these are the impions words of Caluin Christ suffered in his soule the torments of a forlorne and damned man and Beza sayth at what tyme Christ hang vpon the Crosse he was in the middest euen of the torments of hell which is as much as to say that God himselfe was not only afraid of the torments of hell but that he suffered and endured them for it is euident that Christ was true God But against these absurd paradoxes we are to dispute heerafter It shall suffice heere to shew that they haue depraued the holy Scripture to 〈◊〉 this their impious assertion for wheras it is written in the fifth to the Hebrewes and 7. v. that Christ was heard of God for his reuerence Caluin first and after Beza and all the Geneua Bybles make the text to say Christ was heard by reason of his feare or because he was afraid but that in the last Edition Beza hath added more words to the text making it sound thus His prayers being heard he was deliuered frō this feare Moreouer Caluin in his commentaris and Beza in his annotations seeke to proue out of this text that Christ feared eternall damnation that he was deliuered out of this feare by his prayers which he offered with teares true it is that in the French Bybles lately printed at Geneua the yeare 1●05 they haue put in the margent vel pro sua reuerentia where inforced by truth they manifestly contradict Caluin and Beza who plainly deny that this place is so to be trāslated yet least their inconstancy should be noted they leaue the former words in the text ayant esté exaucé 〈◊〉 qu'il craignoit that is in latin exauditus est eo vel in eo quod timuit 6. But all others as well Catholikes as their Aduersaries who haue written before Caluin translate prosua reuerentia vel propietate sua as Erasmus Bucer the Tiguriues in their bibles of the yeare 1542. Nay Sebastian Castalio for this cause sharply reprehendeth Beza who glorieth that Caluin was the first that found out this new explication in a note of his vpon this 7. v. se his editions of the yeare 1560. 1565. 7. The third shift is their false exposition of the text though neuer so truly translated for by diuers commentaries and little notes in the margent they goe about to perswade the Readers the cleane contrary to that which is expressely in the text see examples hereof in this Chapter in the latin edition CHAP. XV. The fourth fift and sixt shift that our Aduersaries vse in deprauing the Word of God THE fourth shift of our Aduersaries is to fly to figuratiue and metaphoricall speaches for it is most true that was wit●●ly obserued by S. Augustine If sayth he the mind be preoccupated with any erroneous opinion whatsoeuer the Scripture saith to the contrary men take to be a figuratiue speach And surely there is no kind of figuratiue speaking to which our Aduersaries at one tyme or another haue not recouse but there are three figures of which our Aduersaries doe o●tenest serue themselues in deprauing the holy Scriptures which are these Me●onymia Hyperbole and Ironia Metonymia is a figure very familiar with Caluin for by it he peruerteth many places of Scripture yea euen those playne words of Christ this is my body for hauing disputed long about the sense of those words at last he concludeth thus I omit sayth he Allegories and Parables least any man should thinke that I seeke euasions a●d to go from the matter in hand I say it is a Metonymicall speach So Caluin 2. By the figure Hyperbole our Aduersaries shift of all those so euident testimonies by which wee proue that remisof sinnes is obtayned of God by good works as are these Almes deliuereth from all sinne and death and suffereth not the soule to go into darknes And againe Almes deliuereth frō death it is that that purgeth sinne maketh vs find mercy life euerlasting Moreouer water putteth out a burning fier and Almes resisteth sinne for the Lutherans say that all these are Hyperbolicall speaches Beza also seeketh to extenuat by the figure Hyperbole that which the Apostle writeth in the praise of the Roman Church when he sayth your haith is preached all ouer tse world Caluin in like manner by the same figure not only depraueth many places of the auncient Fathers but will needes force Christ himselfe without any need at all to speake Hyperbolically And finally Philip Melancthon goeth about by the figure Ironia to delude those manifest wordes of Christ that which remayneth giue Almes and behold all thinges are cleane vnto you For Philip contendeth that Christ spake not those words in earnest but in iest which he tooke from Erasmus as he did many other things but Caluin and Beza confesse that this is a foolish Ironia Albeit they also peruert the same wordes another way for they restrayne the word omnia only to meate 3. The fift shift is when Catholiks alledge plaine places of Scripture which admit no figure to say that the Scripture yea euen Christ himselfe did speake exactly but after a grosse and popular manner the meaning is that he speaketh only probably and not solidly For example sake when wee proue that the Sacrament of the Eucharist excelleth the Manna of the Iewes by these wordes of Christ your Fathers indeed haue eaten Manna and are dead this is the bread descending from heauen that if any man eate of it he dye not Caluins answere is that Christ accommodated his speach to the grosse conceipt or opinion of the Iewes When we proue the Exorzismes of the Church by which she casteth out diuells to be holy because Christ sayth one Diuell will not cast out another Caluin answereth we must remember sayth he that when Christ vseth such prouerbes as are in vse among the people he vseth them only as probable coniectures and not as solid proofes So he No meruaile therfore if