Officium Gregorianum gets by this means to be in credit but doth it continue without change or altering No the very Romen Service was of two Fashions the new Fashion and the old the one used in one Church the other in another as is to be seen in Pamilius a Romanist his preface before Micrologus The same Pamilius reporteth out of Radalphus de Rive That about the year of our Lord 1277 Pope Nicholas the third removed out of the Churches of Rome the more ancient Books of Service and brought into use the Missals of the Fryars Minorites and commanded them to be observed there insomuch that about an hundred yeers after when the above named Radulphus happened to be at Rome he found all the Books to be new after the new stamp Neither was this chopping changing in the ancient times only but also of late Pius Quintus himself confesseth That every Bishopprick almost had a peculiar kind of Service most unlike to that which others had which moved him to abolish all other Breviaries though never so ancient and priviledged and published by Bishops in their Diocesses and to establish and ratifie that only which was of his own setting forth in the year 1568. Now when the Father of their Church who gladly would heal the sore of the Daughter of his people softly and slightly and make the best of it finding so great fault with them for their odds and jarring we hope the children have no great cause to vaunt of their uniformity But the difference that appeareth in our Translation and our often correcting of them is the thing that we are specially charged with Let us see therefore whether they themselves be without fault this way if it be to be counted a fault to correct or whether they be fit men to throw stones at us o tandem major pareas minori they that are less sound themselves ought not to object infirmities to others If we should tell them that Valla Stapulensis Erusinus and Vives found fault with their vulgar Translation and consequently wished the same to be mended or a new one to be made they would answer peradventure That we produced their Enemies for Witnesses against them albeit they were in no other sort Enemies then St. Paul to the Galatians for telling them the truth and it were to be wished that they had dared to tell it them plainer oftner But what will they say to this That Pope Leo the tenth allowed Erasmus Translation of the New Testament so much different from the vulgar by his Apostolick Letter and Bull That the same Leo exhorted Pagnine to translate the whole Bible and bare whatsoever charges was necessary for the Work surely as the Apostle reasoneth to the Hebrews that if the former Law and Testament had been sufficient there had been no need of the later So we may say That if the old Vulgar had been at all points ollowable to small purpose had labour and charges been undergone about framing a new If they say it was one Popes private Opinion and that he consulted onely himself then we are able to go further with them and to aver That more of their chief men of all sorts even their own Trent-Champions Paiva Vega and their own Inquisitors Hierominus ab Oleastro and their own Bishop Isadorus Clarius and their own Cardinal Thomas a vio Caietan do either make new Translations themselves or follow new ones of other mens making or note the Vulgar Interpreter for halting none of them fear to dissent from him nor yet to except against him And call they this an uniform Tenor of Text judgement about the Text so many of their Worthies disclaiming the now received conceit Nay we will yet come a little nearer the quick doth not their Paris Edition differ from the Lovaine and Hentenius his from them both and yet all of them allowed by authority Nay doth not Sextus Quintus confess That certain Catholicks he meaneth certain of his own side were in such a humour of translating the Scriptures into Latine that Satan taking occasion by them though they thought of no such matter did strive what he could out of such uncertain and manifold a variety of Translations so to mingle all things that nothing might seem to be left certain and firm in them c. Nay further did not the same Sextus ordain by an inviolable Decree and that with the counsel and consent of the Cardinals That the Latine Edition of the Old and New Testament which the Councel of Trent would have to be authentick is the same without controversie which he then set forth being diligently Corrected and Printed in the Printing House of the Vatican thus Sextus in his Preface before his Bible And yet Clement the eight his immediate Successor to account of publisheth another Edition of the Bible containing in it infinite differences from that of Sextus and many of them weighty and material and yet this must be authentick by all means What is it to have the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with yea and nay if this be not Again what is sweet harmony and consent if this be Therefore as Dimaratus of Corinth advised a great King before he talked of the dissentions among the Grecians to compose his own domestick broils so all the while that our adversaries do make so many and so various Editions themselves and do jarre so much about the worth and authority of them they can with no shew of Equity challenge us for changing and correcting Thus far the said Translators From which may be observed At what great uncertainty the most wise and learned on both sides have been and are about the Scripture contesting which side hath the true not knowing that either side hath it 2. At what great uncertainty they likewise are in respect of those Scriptures which they have not certainly knowing the undoubted true sense and meaning thereof this plainly appears in that they do on each side so often alter change amend and new translate their respective Bibles wherein will be found many variations if not contradictions to the former and when they have done all they can it will be far from satisfying all the learned of the same party who having opportunity will alter and new translate it to their own minds which will as much displease others who will take their turn again to alter it and in this manner may it run ad infinitum from time to time and still upon like uncertainties and that the case is no better with us our next Author more fully sets forth 3. Jer. Taylor Dr. in Divinity and a great Schollar he in his Discourse of Liberty of prophesying pag. 61 62 63. shews and by many Reasons proves that which in effect amounts to an impossibility for any man to find out a true Copy or Translation or right sense of Scripture his words are these Viz. There are so many thousand of Copies that are writ by persons of
several interests and perswasions such different understandings and tempers such distinct abilities and weaknesses that it is no wonder there is so great variety of readings both in the Old and New Testament In the old Testament the Jews pretend that the Christians have corrupted many places on purpose to make symphony between both the Testaments On the other side the Christians have had so much reason to suspect the Jews That when Aquilla had translated the Bible in their Schools and had been taught by them they rejected the Edition many of them and some of them called it Heresie to follow it And Justin Martyr justified to Tryphon That the Jews had defalk'd many sayings from the Books of the Old Prophets and amongst the rest he instances that of the Psalm Dicite in Nationibus quia Dominus Regnavit à ligno Englished Tell it or say i.e. amongst the Nations the Lord hath raigned for or by the wood or tree The last words they have cut off and prevailed so far in it that to this day none of our Bibles have it but if they ought not to have it then Justin Martyr's Bible had more in it then it should have for there it was so that a fault there was eitheir under or over But however there are infinite readings of the New Testament for in that I will instance some whole verses in one that are not in another and there was in some Copies of Saint Marks Gospel in the last chapter a whole verse a chapter it was anciently called that is not found in our Bibles as St. Hierom ad Hedibiam Q. 3. notes the words he repeats Lib. 2. Contra Polygamos Et illi satis faciebant dicentes saeculum istu iniquitatis incredulitatis substantia est quae non sivit per immundos spiritus veram Dei apprehendi vertutem idcirto jam nunc revela justitiam tuam Englished And they did satisfie saying that age is the substance of iniquity and incredulity which by reason of unclean spirits doth not suffer the virtue power or efficacie of God to be apprehended therefore now reveal thy righteousness These words are thought by some to savour of Manichaism and for ought I can find were therefore rejected out of many Greek Copies and at last out of the Latine c. The Parable of the woman taken in Adultery which is now in Joh. 8. Eusebius sayes It was not in any Gospel but the Gospel secundum Hebraeos and St. Hierome makes it doubtful and so doth St. Chrysostome and Euthimius the first not vouchsafing to explicate it in Homolies upon St. John the other affirming it not to be found in the exacter Copies c. But the instances in this kinde are too many as appears in the variety of readings in several Copies proceeding from the negligence or ignorance of the Translators or the malicious * Graci corruperunt novum Testamentum ut Testantur Tertul. l. 5. ado Marcion Euseb L. 5. Hist C. ult Irenae l. 1. c. 29. Allu Haeres Bafil L. 2. Contr. Eunomium endeavour of Hereticks or the inserting Marginal Notes into the Text or the neerness of several words And in pag. 82. he saith That since there are in Scripture many mysteries and matters of question upon which there is a vail since there are so many Copies with infinite variety of readings since a various interpunction a Parenthesis a Letter an Accent may much alter the sense since some places have divers litteral senses many have spiritual mystical and allegorical meanings since there are so many trops metononies ironies hyperbolies properties and improperties of Languages whose understanding depends upon such circumstances that it is almost impossible to know its proper interpretation now that the proper knowledge of such circumstances and particular stories is irrecoverably lost since there are some mysteries which at the best advantage of expression are not easily to be apprehended and whose explication by reason of our imperfections must needs be dark sometimes weak sometimes untelligable And lastly Since those ordinary means of expounding Scripture as searching the Originals conference of places purity of reason analogie of faith are all dubious uncertain and very fallible he that is wisest and by consequence the likeliest to expound truest in all probability of reason will be very far from confidence because every one of these and many more are like so many degrees of improbabilities and incertainty all depressing our certtainty of finding out the truth in such mysteries and amidst so many difficulties and therefore a wise man that considers this would not willingly be prescribed to by others and therefore if he be also a just man he will not impose it upon others for it is best every man should be left to that Liberty from which no man can justly take him unless he could secure him from Error And in pag. 82. he tells us That Osiander in his confutation of a Book which Melanchthon wrote against him observes That there are twenty several Opinions concerning Justification all drawn from Scriptures by the men onely of the Augustan Confession there are sixteen several Opinions conncerning Original Sin and as many definitions of the Sacraments as there are Sects of men that disagree about them And then he proposeth a question with i'ts answer in these words viz. And now what help is there for us in the midst of these uncertainties if we follow any one Translation or any one mans Commentary what Rule have we to choose the right by Or is there any one man that hath translated perfectly or expounded infallibly No Translation challenges such a prerogative as to be authentick but the vulgar Latine and yet see with what success for when it was declared authentick by the Councel of Trent Sextus put forth a Copy much amended of what it was and tyed all men to follow that but that did not satisfie for Pope Clement reviews and corrects it in many places and still the Decree remains in a changed subject And secondly that Translation will be very unapt to satisfie in which one of their own Issidore Clarius a Monk of Brestia found and amended 8000. faults besides innumerable others which he sayes he pretermitted And then thirdly To shew how little themselves were satisfyed with it divers learned men among them did new translate the Bible and thought they did God and the Church good service in it So that if you take this for your president you are sure to be mistaken infinittly if you take any other the Authors themselves do not promise you any security If you resolve to follow any one as far only as you see cause then you only do wrong or right by chance for you have certainty just proportionable to your own skill to your own infallibility If you resolve to folllow any one whithersoever he leads we shall oftentimes come thither where we shall see our selves to become ridiculous Thus far that learned and ingenuous Doctor who also shews
as the devils instruments they unjustly hold their Fellow-brethren as captives in oppression slavery It is therefore to be lamented when at any time we see him thrive in any such devillish project The Lord in mercy deliver every honest man from being overcome by any such temptation Amen But to find the word answer of God in the way aforementioned may apear to be very uncertain by this viz. If four pious men should each of them seek by prayer for an answer from God in one and the same thing be it of publicke concernment or otherwise wherein their interests judgements and perswasions are different and various each from other you will find the propencity and bent of their hearts and desires after prayer for the most part will vary as much as before which will manifest this to be no sound or sure way to find out or know the word or answer of God nor is this intended to discourage any from seeking to the Lord in any occasion but from trusting to the bent of their own hearts to be any sure Rule to know the answer of God by because that may be the effect of some pride or vain desire of wordly glory or of some other lust secretly lurking in the heart of man undiscerned for the heart of man being deceitful above all things who then can know his own heart or the secret turnings thereof Jer. 17.9.10.11 or who can say his heart is so pure and clean as to be quite purged from all kind of vain carnal and eatthly affection and lust he must then be no longer a man having flesh blood or any other infirmity like other men on earth but be equal to the purest Angel in heaven And now having proposed left these things to consideration we will proceed to the next Fourthly Mr. R Baxter a man of Eminency both for exquisite learning parts in his Saints Rest Part. 2. pag. 201. of the sixth Edition tells us thus viz. R.B. That Divine Faith hath ever a Divine Fvidence And in page 205. thus We must know it to be a Divine Testimony before we can believe Fide Divina And in page 211. he saith As Translations are no further Scripture then they agree with the Copies in the Original Tongues so neither are these Copies further then they agree with the Authographs or original Copies or with some Copies perused and approved by the Apostles Obj. But it is a thing worth the knowing of this Author Whether he or any man else can infallibly produce the Authographs or any such original Copies of the Bible as have been so perused and approved of by the Apostles and if none can do this how can they then prove any Copie or Translation to be true or Scripture as he phraseth it And if any can do this how shall it be known to be such without Divine Evidence undoubtedly to prove it Answ But to this he gives us a general answer in his Preface to his Book of Infidelity where he tells us R.B. That the Holy Ghost by special inspiration was the Author of the Scriptures and by extraordinary Endowments was the Author of the miracles which were wrought for its confirmation Obj. But here it is necessary that he tells us where when by whom those miracles were wrought which so confirmed the scriptures And in the second place he should tell us where which are those Scriptures that were so confirmed withal to produce some Divine Evidence to prove what he therein sayes before any wise man believe him for he himself in his Rest Pag. 201. before cited informs us R. B. That to believe implicitely That the Testimony is Divine or the Scripture is the Word of God this is not to believe God but to resolve our faith into some humane Testimony even to lay our foundation upon the Sand where all will fall at the next assault And yet notwithstanding in Pag 238. 239. of his Saints Rest before mentioned he tells us R.B. That something must be taken upon trust from man whether we will or no yet no uncertainty in our faith neither For 1. saith he The meer illitterate man must take it upon trust that the Book is a Bible which he hears read for else he knows not but it may be some other Book Obj. What! may he not take it so upon trust that the Book is a Bible and yet never the more know but it may be some other Book or doth not a mans simple taking a thing especially of such high concernment so groundlesly upon trust argue some diminution of his knowledg and wisdom too rather then any augmentation of either R. B. 2. That these words are in it which the Reader pronounceth 3. That it is translated truly out of the Original Languages Obj. How can it be translated truly and imperfectly or imperfectly and truly for in pag. 211. of the same Book he positively asserts That there is an impossibility that any Translation should perfectly express the sense of the Original R. B. 4. That the Hebrew and Greek Copies out of which it was translated are true authentick Copies 5. That it was originally written in these Languages 6. Yea and the meaning of divers Scripture-passages which cannot be understood without the knowledge of Jewish ustoms of Cronology Geography c. though the words were never â—o exactly translated all these with many more the vulgar must take upon the word of their Teachers Obj. Alas poor Vulgars what miserable hard tasks are here imposed upon you and almost all men with a must much like those put upon the children of Israel to make their full tale of brick without any allowance of straw whereby they were put to take up any stubble where-ever they could find it But can any wise man take these Doctrines to be divine or come from God they being so irrational and absurd and so contrary to him and his wayes who oppointed his Gospel to be dispensed not in an unknown Tongue or upon any such uncertainties to any but to all people in their own language himself also evidently and powerfully attesting the same otherwise he obligeth no man to take it for truth nor blameth any man for taking it otherwise And whereas he positively asserts in pag. 211. of his Saints Rest as before is noted R. B. That there is an impossibility that any Translation should perfectly express the sense of the Original Obj. It 's now incumbent on him to tell us whether it was the expressable imperfect sense in Translations or the unexpressable perfect sense of the Original that was so confirmed by miracles or whether it was all or any of those many books which are mentioned in Scripture and whereof we have neither original nor Copy that were so confirmed plain dealing herein would be very satisfactory and is even more then necessary In his book of Infidelity Part 1. Pag. 11. he tells us That R. B. Besides the sanctifying Spirit of Christ proper
from doing this that each various and contrary Faith and Doctrine is stifly upheld and maintained from the various Copies and Translations thereof and from the various and contrary readings and meanings which each Opinionist respectively may and doth put upon the Scripture it self insomuch that indeed it is now made capable of any impression which every learned and witty man can invent and pleaseth to put upon it to serve his own turn and occasion though he face about and change never so much never so often And thus each man still makes the Scriptures to be like to Pictures wherein every man in the Room believes they look on him only and that wheresoever he standeth or how often soever he changeth his station Now whether all this doth arise from a natural hidden sense of the Scripture or from the brevity of them or for want of many Books mentioned in Scripture whereof we never had either Original or Copy or from mistakes made by Transcribers Printers or Translators or from the varions acceptation of words and phrases contained in them and in probability understandable only by such persons to whom they were first written who being before-hand grounded in the Faith and Principles of Christianity and instrueted in the things treated upon were thereby enabled aright to understand the mind of the Pen-men in what they did but briefly touch upon in their Writings to them Or whether from all of these or from any other cause or causes I leave to the wise and considerate to determine but certainly were they perspicuous in their sense so many learned studious good men could not possible so much have erred and been divided in their understanding of them And if such as these notwithstanding all their advantages of learning have not been able to resolve the truth of these Doctrines so familiarly mentioned in the Scripture and so necessarily required to true Christianity who shall conceive that they were intended by God for the ground of Faith and Worship for all or any sort of men whatsoever except we shall conceive that the unlearned sort of men are in a better capacity perfectly to resolve the sense of Scripture then the learned which is too gross to imagine or else that all men are bound to know and conform their Faith and Worship to a Doctrine that none of them certainly understand which none will affirm it being inconsistent with that Justice and Goodness which all confesse to be in Almighty God Let us see what to this point is said by learned Dr. Taylor in his forecited Book pag. 13. his words are these viz. It is a demonstration that nothing can be necessary to be believed upon pain of damnation but such propositions of which it is certain that God hath spoken and taught them to us and of which it is certaine that this is their sense and purpose for if the sense be uncertaine we can no more be obliged to believe it in a certaine sense then we are to believe it at all if it were not certaine that God delivered it but if it be only certaine that God spake it and not certaine to what sense our faith of it is to be as indeterminate as its sense nor is it consonant to Gods justice to believe of him that he can or will require more But to go on and bring this neater It is manifest even in those Scriptures we have that Jesus Christ requires no credit to be given to his Doctrine either upon his own bare word or the bare word of any persons whatsoever as before is set forth If I bear witness of my self saith he my witness is not true neither receive I testimony of men the works that I do in my Fathers Name they bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me And when he is blaming the Scribes and Pharisees for their unbelief in him he thus far excuseth them in it That if he had not done among them the Works that none other man did they had not had sin Now who can conceive that Christ should pronounce men guiltless for not believing him upon his own bare testimony and yet not hold men much more guiltless for not believing the Scripture upon its bare testimony Christ though he bare witness of himself his witness was certain and true whereas Copies and Translations as before we have seen are uncertain and erroneous Christ disclaims the Testimony of men yea of John the Baptist as a ground insufficient to engage men to believe in his Doctrine though all that John said of him was true and what he had heard and seen that he testified And shall we imagine that he will binde all the succeeding generations of men to believe the truth of Christ and the Gospel upon any such inferior testimony as the testimony only of such as disclaim infallibility and have neither heard nor seen as John did Shall God and Christ be true and all men lyars and yet shall fallible men be preferred before them in being believed upon lower easier terms then either they or their most infallible servants Or shal God be conceived to require contraries of men as not to believe super-natural truths such the Gospel is judged to be without a sutable evidence and on the other side require men to believe it without any such evidence Shall men be blameless and blamed by him upon one and the same account If this cannot be as surely it cannot then it must necessarily follow That the Scripture was never instituted or intended by Almighty God to be the ground of Christian Faith and Religion or to be believed in and obeyed by mankind to salvation Moreover it is evident if we may take the meaning according to the sense of the words as they are delivered to us in Translations That the Epistles and St. Johns Revelation in the New Testament were all written unto Believers and that both the Acts and Lukes Gospel were written to Theophilus an instructed Disciple Luke 14. And it is most probable that the other three Gospels were written to believers also at least for their sakes especially for such of them as did not see Christ themselves after his resurrection whereby he mightily declared himself to be the Son of God Rom. 1.4 whereof the rest of the Apostles as well as Thomas much doubted whilest he lay dead as may appear by 1 Pet. 1.3 where St. Peter speaking of himself and of the rest saith That God of his abundant mercy had begotten them again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and what may be understood by this but that all their hope was extinct or languished by his death and revived again by his resurrection And that his being risen from death was very hardly believed by any of them may appear from Mark 16.10 11. when Mary Magdalen told the Disciples as they were mourning and weeping that Christ was alive and that she had seen him they believed it not and