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A51743
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Some considerations towards peace and quietness in religion. In answer to the question, whether the multitude are fit readers of Holy Scripture.
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Manby, William.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing M389; ESTC R31159
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11,498
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26
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incapacities he understood too well to require any such thing of them By Scriptures here he meant the Psalms the Predictions of Ezekiel Daniel c. the Mosaical types and figures of the Messiah which at that time the most learned Jews had enough to do to unriddle The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Search being a Metaphor taken from such as dig deep in the mines imports such an Enquiry as unlearned People who understand not the Original cannot be thought capable of The maternal language of Judea at that time and long before was Syriac and as learned men say the Vulgar Jews of that Age understood Hebrew no more than now Vulgar Italians do Latin But 't will be said The Law and the Prophets were then read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day Yes in the Hebrew tongue as at this day and interpreted by the Scribes and Jewish Doctors otherwise not understood by the common people The perfect Hebrew ever since the Captivity ceasing to be the Vulgar Language of the Jews The Reader may please to see a further account of this in Bishop Walton's Preface before his Introduction to the Eastern tongues Printed Anno 1655. The Old Testament was not then extant in the Vulgar that is the Syriac tongue nor perhaps any Chaldee Paraphrase Or if it were a Paraphrase is one thing and a Translation is another 'T is to me a little strange that our blessed Saviour if it were a matter of so grand necessity either left no injunction touching an intire translation of the Scriptures or that the Apostles recorded it not 'T is true the Old Testament was then extant in Greek which the Vulgar Inhabitants of Judea understood not But are not the Bereans commended Acts 17.11 in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Yes Paul and Sylas went into the Synagogue at Berca and there preached to the Jews opening and alledging out of the Old Testament That Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead Whereupon the Bereans as many as were capable of it consulting the Scriptures honestly and without prejudice were converted to the Christian faith Where it is to be observed That these Bereans by the Apostles Preaching and Expounding understood the Scriptures and never before though they read them and heard them read every Sabbath day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were of a more generous and docible temper than other Jews In all which there is not that I can perceive any contradiction to what I have said that the Multitude cannot of themselves and by their own Reading understand the Scriptures that is without the guidance of their Pastors But the Bereans examined St. Paul's doctrine by the Scriptures therefore the People are to examine their Pastors doctrine by the Scriptures It will not follow The Bereans were as yet no Christians but Jews and consequently He not as yet acknowledged for their Pastor The case is not the same between Christian Pastors and Jews as between Christian Preachers and their own flocks Christian people if they regard the Scriptures are not to judge but to obey and submit themselves to their own Pastors who watch for their souls as those that must give an account Heb. 13.17 We may talk of our judgement of discretion and mistake our own petulant humours for it What but confusion and distraction can be the consequence of this maxim that the Sheep may arraign the doctrine of their Pastors The Clergy therefore in case of erroneous doctrine are to be accountable to their own Superiors There are divers other Texts objected against the premises but none which the ingeni us Reader and to such alone I address this Paper may not easily answer That the Israelites were to meditate in the Law and teach it diligently to their Children is very often and very impertinently objected For the Law of God is one thing and the Scripture at large is another By the Law of God is meant not every passage in the Bible but the moral judicial and ceremonial Laws contained in the Books of Exodus Leviticus and Deuteronomy Which Laws the Israelites were first to be taught by their Priests Deut. 31.11 and afterwards to teach them their Children This is nothing to our case That Christian People are to know and understand Gods commandments no body ever doubted That they are bound I mean the unlearned to read or understand Ezekiel Daniel or the Revelations yea or St. Paul's Epistles is that which I deny and I would gladly see a pertinent Text to prove it As for S. Paul's commendation of Timothy that he had known the Holy Scriptures from a Child it 's no contradiction to what has been said Imagine Timothy a select Person an Angel of the Church understood all the Prophecies of the Old Testament from a Child will it follow that every Woman and Tradesman can be so happy Again by the Holy Scriptures cannot be meant here all the Prophecies of the Old Testament because divers parts thereof as the beginning of Genesis the Book of Canticles the first and last Chapters of Ezekiel were not to be read by the ancient Jews under thirty years of age as S. Hierom informs us in his Epistle to Paulinus In whose dayes the Scriptures being so profan'd by Vulgar hands mov'd him to this following resentment which the Reader will give me leave to transcribe out of that Epistle Agricolae Caementarii Fabri metallorum Lignorumque Caesores Lanarii quoque Fullones caeteri qui variam supellectilem fabricant absque doctore esseâ—non possant Quod medicorum est promittunt medici tractant fabrilia fabri Sola Scripturarum ars est quam passim omnes sibi vendicant Hanc garrulaâ—anus hanâ— delirus senex hanc Sophista verbosus hanc universi praesumunt lacerant docent antequam discunt c. That is to be a Smith or Mason or Carpenter or any other sort of Craftsman there is need of a Master only the Trade of expounding Scripture is a Mystery which every one arrogates to himself Here the Physician will be prescribing receits the Lawyer will be demurring and every handy-crafts-man will be handling the Word of God with impure hands This the pratling huswife this the old Dotard this the wrangling Sophister in a word this men of all sorts take upon them to have skill in and to teach what they never learn'd Thus he The Bible then in his dayes you will say had been translated into the vulgar tongue It was so and perhaps two centuries before and into Greek long before our Saviours time The question all this while is not whether the Scriptures may be read in the Vulgar Language no that which S. Hierome resented was the promiscuous and unlicens'd use of them by all sorts of ill dispos'd People Let the question therefore be whether the Church in prudence might not restrain such profanation of them or whether conduces more to
the honour of Religion the peace and unity of the Church to have the use of Vulgar Translations with or without Licence I don't find the Church of Rome themselves absolutely forbidding the use of Vulgar Translations but only providing that the unlearned and unstable people may read but not wrest them to their own destruction as S. Peter speaks See Bellarm. lib. 2. de Verbo Dei cap. 15. I wish it were the worst of their errors whereby they have preserved themselves if not from all disputes of Religion at least from that Labyrinth of Reformation into which we of these Nations seem to have brought our selves at this day For as if Religion had not been often enough reform'd since Hen. 8. we are at this day not without our apprehensions nor our numerous Adversaries without their strong hopes of another Reformation Let it be remembred that envy and inconstancy are the natural humours of the Multitude and that no experience hath found these humours any whit abated but rather heightned by their familiarity with the Scriptures The High Commission Court in causes Ecclesiastical if restor'd were a happy remedy some think to suppress heresies errors schisms blasphemies and abuses in Religion But alas reflect a little on our late times and then tell me what did this High Commission Court signifie against the multitude intoxicated with mistakes of Holy Scripture But Heresies and Schisms you will say have been vented for the most part not by ignorant but learned men I know not perhaps if the truth were known their pride and ill nature would be found much greater than their learning and their schisms might have expir'd with themselves were not the Holy Scriptures unadvisedly expos'd into the rude hands of the Multitude To be short let the Reader please to observe with me this one thing that unlearned People when they read the Bible must of necessity construe it by an implicit faith on the skill of the Translators and why not by the same faith and much more safety and humility receive the substance and effect of it collected by the Church into Books of Piety and Devotion This I humbly think were not to keep them in ignorance but in sobriety and in their wits A man would think considering the popular incapacity and weakness to receive so strong meat not being chew'd nor prepar'd for them such Books as the Catechism of the Church of England or the whole Duty of man much fitter for them S. Paul gave this judgement concerning his Corinthians 1 Cor. 3.2 I have fed you with milk and not with meat for bitherto ye were not able to bear it neither yet are ye able Unlearned People I say whether they will or no must depend on the fidelity of the Translators of Holy Scripture For ought they know it may be all misinterpreted into the Vulgar Language as certainly many places are in our English Bible To instance in a few Matth. 28.19 Gal. 5.17 Coloss 2.20 1 Cor. 7.9 Matth. 19.11 Job 7.1 1 Cor. 11.2 Daniel 4.27 Acts 17.22 All which and many other Texts are made use of at every turn to justifie their loose and Fanatical opinions Particularly you shall find Gal. 5.17 cited by the Presbyterian Assembly of Divines to prove the impossibility of keeping Gods Commandments the words in the Original admitting no such construction We will not pin our faith on the sleeve of the Church no by no means The Church is not infallible but on the sleeve of Translators we will pin all our Religion The self-same thing we will abhor One way and long another for Hudibr Well in vain did we expect the common Peoples amendment by their own reading of the Scriptures In vain have they eaten of this Tree of knowledge And whereas divers of them who read the Bible are yet modest and tractable enough to Government and conformable to the present establisht Church some you may observe are indifferent for any Religion others are conformable not so much from their understanding of that book as out of the loyalty and honesty of their natures and that such may have licence to read it no body denies For the rest who are inclin'd to faction and change experience hath made it apparent enough the liberty of the Scriptures hath made them more factious and seditious For instance there are many extraordinary passages or matters of fact in the Old Testament particularly in the Books of Samuel the Kings and Chronicles which to them are very good arguments against the present Government of Church and State The destruction of the Groves and high places and molten Images by Josiah the slaughter of Baal's Priests by Jehu have been very good arguments against the Hierarchy and Cathedral Service of the Church of England The spoiling of the Egyptians the zeal of Phinehas against Zimri and Cozbi are good Precedents for Reformation and defensive Arms against the King And examples so they be Scripture are as argumentative with the Vulgar as any Precepts whatsoever The English Bible is become a Glass wherein the factious Multitude can see all the Vices but none of the Vertues of their Governours 'T is too apparent that English men were never so ill-natur'd towards one another so sacrilegious towards God nor so regardless of their Clergy as they have been for this last Century And the Author of the late book entituled The Reasons of the Contempt of the Clergy might have assigned one Reason for it which I think he has forgot namely the liberty of the English Bible For in Scripture I do not find saith the judicious Inn-keeper any such necessity of the Clergy do I not read Joel 2.28 It shall come to pass in the last dayes that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see Visions and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those dayes will I pour out my spirit and they shall prophesie And do I not read 1 Cor. 12.7 To every man is given the manifestation of the spirit to profit withall And Heb. 8.11 They shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest Veâ—ily methinks the Scripture saith the profound Weaver holds forth rather a Presbyterial than Prelatical Government For don't I read Luke 22.25 The Rings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them but it shall not be so among you And 1 Tim. 4.15 Neglect not the gift that was given thee by Prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery And in vain shall you or I tell him that he is mistaken in his interpretation of these Texts Yea as for Luke 22.25 the spirit saith he witnesseth with my spirit whatever your carnal Greek sayes to the contrary I am not mistaken To dress any meat on the Lords Day is with him a breach of the fourth