Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	prophet_n	scripture_n	3,225	5	5.6489	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33462	Capel's remains being an useful appendix to his excellent Treatise of tentations, concerning the translations of the Holy Scriptures : left written with his own hand / by that incomparably learned and jucicious divine, Mr. Richard Capel, sometimes fellow of Magdalen-Colledge in Oxford ; with a preface prefixed, wherein is contained an abridgement of the authors life, by his friend Valentine Marshall.	Capel, Richard, 1586-1656.; Marshall, Valentine.; Capel, Richard, 1586-1656. Tentations.	1658 (1658)	Wing C471; ESTC R5922	60,793	168

say their Church cannot erre in matters of Faith And why forsooth Because it is infallibly guided by the strait line of the spirit We say The true Church cannot so erre in matters of faith or life as to fall away from Christ and so to fall into damnation And why Because besides other helps the true Church is guided by the certain and infallible direction of the spirit the vicar general to our Lord Jesus Why then may not we twit them rather then they do us with the private spirit Aquinas the first through-Papist that ever was It is Dr. John Rainolds censure of him shall speak last for this point All holy learning is proved out of the Scriptures onely necessarily out of all other authors only probably For our faith doth rest on the revelation made to the Apostles and Prophets who wrote the Canonical Books and not on any other revelation if any be made to other Doctors So he and he was preferred by Innocent the Pope before all Writers next to the Scriptures well might the Pope so do saith the same Dr. Rainolds for that he deserved better of the Papacy then all the Fathers These things are so plaine that to argue more were to weaken them As I have read it to be the observation of Tully That things perspicuous and clear are much obscured by much arguing I hope the Papists for shame will give over fooling against us that we run after private Spirits and revelations since Aquinas the flower of the Papists speaks out as much as we do as touching the sealing of the Spirit The Application of all I have made a long and tedious discourse about the Originals and Translations because I find by my self that things let fall in Print by learned men and great reformers as touching the Originals that none can say this is the Hebrew that the Greek but because Linguists and learned men say so and they may erre Nor that this is the English of the Hebrew or of the Greek which we say is but men subject to trip do so say That the Originals transcribed into many Copies might erre and mistake and for the translations that there be flaws in them too since the transcribers and translators were no Prophets but men though not willing perhaps yet subject to speak and write besides the matter that translations are not the Word of God nor our rule These and such things as these I doubt not do stagger the thoughts of weak of strong Christians too and drive a many towards Atheisme And now saith a sick soule What shall a poore feeble-hearted Christian do My counsel is that when he is come to be certain without actual doubting by reasons arguments consent of times of the Church that our Bible is the Word of God that he would in all humility and sincerity apply himselfe to read it to hear it read to heare it preached and he may promise to himself that by the use of the word the Spirit of God will infuse inspire divine saving faith into his soul and free him not only from all actual but possible doubting that the Bible translated is the word of God And if the translation then the Originals For what ever is the instrument to convert the soul must needs be the pure word of God Some are firme that God never works a miracle but to confirme truth This is past question that the Spirit of God doth never work this miracle to convert the soule but by Gods word So say Now I know that it is the pure word of God for that it is a means to convert my soul so Psal. 19. 7 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul By this then I know that it is without dispute the perfect Law of the Lord because it doth not only evince and convince me but convert my soul St Austine saith that he was converted by reading the last verse of the thirteenth to the Romans and that did prove to Austine that it was the perfect Law and word of God It is storied that Cyprian was converted by reading the Prophet Jonas And Iunius in his life written by himself saith that he was converted by reading the first Chapter of the Gospel of Iohn For Austine Cyprian I think neither of them had much skill in the Originals no nor Iunius neither at that time wherefore it is plain enough that they were converted by reading translations When then a man doth finde that by reading or hearing translations read or preached upon it hath pleased God to warme thy heart to turn and change thy poor soul to convert thee into a new creature go thy ways doubt nothing its an argument past answer that the Bible even as translated is the Word of God Go on look on it as Gods word read on still be diligent to hear it with the best ears thou hast and thou shalt finde it more and more to convert and sanctifie thee and so by consequence to assure thee by an undoubtful and divine faith inspired and infused into thy poor soul by the Spirit of God that this book no other is the very Word of God By this you see where and how the poor crazy soul may find rest and it is to rest on the translated Word of God waiting therein on the line of the sweet providence who by the use of the word will breath into his soul divine faith infused by the sure influence of the Spirit of God which spirit brings a light with it by which we know that what we know this is done by a divine faith not by humane conjecture being wrought in us by a special providence of God perswading and drawing us to acknowledge the contents therein to be of Divine authority Nor is this as I said to make our private spirit the rule of our faith but we lay all at the foote of the divine providence to put light into our minds and then to work in us a firm assent to the Word of God that it is indeed and truth the very Word of God And none of this is done otherwise then by the Word of God itself and the spirit joyning with the Word In a word nothing can work saving grace in any man to the conversion of his soule but the very Word of God But this the word translated hath wrought in me therefore I know by this that the Scripture translated is the word of God sith nothing but Gods word can turne and convert the soul Make the most of that which some call universal tradition it can bring us no farther then an humane belief little better is it then that which the Papists call the authority of the Church The Ministry of the Church we grant needful and useful but for the authority of the Church we acknowledge none Thus the Jewes are for their Rabbines and their universal tradition So did the Saracens like as the Gentiles

Prophets own hands those were not then extant nor when extant to be seene of every body What then when he bade them search the Scriptures he must needes meane some transcribed Copies or some Translations For Copies in the Hebrew I doubt me whether the common people did then understand the Hebrew and amongst the Bereans who did search the Scriptures I think it past question that there were many ordinary people and perhaps Coblers or Taylors or such as Dr J. Rainolds seems to judg If this be granted that those who were commanded to search the Scriptures and commended for searching the Scriptures did not could not search the Original Hebrew what shall we think then No other can be imagined but some Translations which they did understand Syriack Chaldee but chiefly the Greek Translation which the most if not all understood But you will say the Translators were subject to mistake and erre or worse being no Prophets and if they did understand the Hebrew yet sith they could not come by the first Original Copy they must needs have recourse to some transcribed Copies Whether the Church were to repaire to Translations or to transcribed Copies all comes to one sith neither Transcribers nor Translators were Prophets Very good men let them be yet men they were and subject to errour May I speake my Opinion I think when Christ said search the Scriptures he meant the Sciptures translated into Greek and by Scriptures the Apostles meant the Greek Translation which tongue if not in Christs time yet in the Apostles times in a manner all did understand VVherefore when the Apostle saith is given by inspiration and is profitable he meanes it is profitable to be read or heard read in the Greek Translation And the rather am I of this minde because Schollars do know that the New Testament doth cite the places out of the Old Testament according to the Greek Translation and most an end are very punctual in it However whither we look on Translations or Transcriptions sith the first Table written by God himselfe was lost with the Temple and the Original Greek Copy of the Translation of the Old Testament was the Learned think and I think they think well in it burned by Julius Coesars Army when they fired Alexandria and the famous Library there The Ephesians were built on the Prophets and Apostles the Apostles they had with them but the Prophets were dead and gone Malachi was the last the Apostles they might consult with and they had their writings but for the writings of the Prophets the Ephesians being Gentiles I take it for granted understood not the Hebrew at least the body of them but being Grecians they might and did understand the Greek translation which I doubt not was purer then then it is now yet then being but a translation and the Original it self but carried up and down in transcribed Copies it is consented unto by all parties that the Translators and Transcribers might erre being not Prophets nor indued with that infallible spirit in translating or transcribing as Moses and the Prophets were in their Original writings The tentation lies on this side how the Ephesians then and much more sith there are no Prophets no Apostles no nor any infallible spirits in the Church how can we build on the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles now sith the Scriptures in their translated Copies are not free from all possible corruptions in the Copies we have either by transcribers or translators Besides many are unlearned and cannot read a Letter For these last though they cannot read yet they can hear it read to them Do not we see many blinde men in Schooles come to great learning by hearing others read Philosophy and Divinity and the body of other Arts Sciences to them so it is with the Scriptures they cannot read them but they can hear them read preached by others Dr. Jackson in his first book of his Commentaries on the Creed and Mr. John Goodwin in a set and large Treatise to justifie the authority of the Scriptures have shewed much learning and taken great paines in this Argument But like two Elephants they both swimme so deep that the benefit and comfort of it can reach but to a few we must fight lower and in a briefer way least we weary the Reader and charge the Printer and set down the brief of the matter in it so that common people and men of ordinary braines who are most subject to Tentation may find a way to spell out the right of this how faith can be had and the soule built on the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles sith this foundation was in their Writings and their Writings are under no other notion to any but either the Original transcribed or translated Take it either way it is done by ordinary men not by Prophets or postles and so subject to mistake insomuch that Cajetan was wont to say That to believe translations of the Scripture was not to beleeve the Word of God but the words of men Yet the Papist is more to seek then the Protestant for the Papist hath no Translation to compare as we have most of them allow no not Schollars to correct their translations as we all do The Papist doth allow no translation to be read in Churches no nor in Houses but under caution but the Latine none in the mother-tongue which all the people understand And therefore they are to take up their faith on the credit of the Priest and he many times little wiser then a foole little better then a son of Belial Cajetan did much rely on the words of Hierome who said That to prophesie and write holy Books proceeded from the Holy Ghost but to translate them into another tongue was a work of humane skill Nay for the Originals themselves Wotton is bold to Print That no man can tell what the signification of the Hebrew and Greek Word is even in the Bible but by the report of man And another as learned as he tells us That we can know further that that is the Hebrew tongue or Greek tongue wherein the Old and New Testaments are in the Originals but by the credit of men who tell us so In the Councel of Trent there were many great wits and men of great learning too who did tosse this Argument up and down about Translations and when they had done left it little better then they found it Upon these grounds the third of the Popish Articles passing under the name of Wrights Articles in termes is thus All Protestants who are ignorant of the Greek and Latine Tongues are Infidels and why because forsooth he relies upon the Ministers who may and do erre The second Article is That all learned Protestants are Infidels so that by his sentence all Protestants learned and unlearned are Infidels because they relie on a private spirit Thus with him and the rest of that Tribe all Protestants are damned All this

Thomas Overbury that learned Knight his very friend indeed and then he bade adieu to that course of life As for his inward stormes they were very many and exceeding bitter together with a number of bodily infirmities attending him in his younger yeares but it was well for him that he bore the yoke in his youth And none that I know can now set out these to any purpose if ever an occasion be offered but that eminent and learned Divine Dr. Harris that knew so much of his * temptations and desettions by reason of that intimate acquaintance he had with him in those dayes being his Kinsman besides occasioned the more by the often recourse he had then into those parts for the fetching of some spiritual refreshing from that Divine of Divines Mr. John Dod that was both able and willing to speak a word in season to a broken and a contrite heart Mine intent is only as * Junius did with Ursine to pitch upon some few things of many and to confine my selfe to what I know of mine own certain knowledge having had the favour to stand in the repute of more then a common friend of his for above these thirty yeares together And this I must needs say 1. For the eminencie of his parts I never came near any that came near him in all particulars The most even of our most highflowen Eagles have commonly some peculiar Sparta which they adorne well and do very good service in it to Christ and his Church but this man had grasp't all good learning and made every thing his own so evenly to see to that he was as expert in his way as Hector in b Homer and would with Cato the elder be up in the c height in all that ever he was to act in Melancthon would say of Pomeranus he was the Grammarian of himself he was the Logician of Jus●us Jonas he was the Oratour but of Luther he was d all in all Here was one would fetch out Luthers mark if he list to turn to the School or to Case-Divinity to Austin or Chrysostome Galen or Hippocrates Aristotle or Tully to History or Philosophy to the Arts or Tongues who could tell but himself which he was least versed in He was a very living Library a full store-house of all kinde of good Literature no lesse then a little University the Mirrour of our parts above the envie of all that I knew The least draught of his pencil would have told any a Protogenes he had been the Apelles He excell'd in all that ever I saw he would set his hand to unlesse it were in his utterance in the publick Congregation and therein I must needs confesse he had a great defectivenesse God gave him great understanding of the times to know what Israel b ought to do He stood upon the Watch-tower and saw what was hid from most of our eyes and being quick of c Sent in the feare of the Lord he gave timely notice to some that stood in place which had it been heeded we had never been so fearfully pestered with those Hydraes heads that are now starting up afresh daily to the great disturbance of our people Simler said of Melancthon at his going from Tubing that none of the learned men there how many soever they were had so much learning as to know the great learning that was in that man Too too many of us were sick of the same disëase we knew not the depth in this mans breast We had many a man in this one man even all Scholarship epito nized in this profound Clerk And yet for all this that great blessing he had which he himself observed as a singular favour vouchsafed to Dr. John Rainolds that great Oracle of Oxford that he never set on foot any manner of new opinion The like is observed of learned Dr. a Whitakers stiled the Oracle of Cambridge and the Miracle of the world A mercy that most men of b superlative parts use not to be too rich in There 's scarce any strong braine without some strange fancie If the great wits of our times had kept themselves close to the steps of these rare Divines we had never seen the sorrows that we now sigh and groan under and would be glad to be shift on if we knew how 2. For the excellency of his preaching Wherein if I mistake not as I think I do not he excell'd all men I am sure all that ever I came near without the disparaging of any There be a great many that I know and a many-many more there be that I know not the Lord encrease their number that be singularly well-fitted for this great emploiment Worthies they be and must be as well as those were that attained not to the first * three This mans lot fell in the foremost rank He was an Interpreter one of a thousand His understanding was strangely opened for the understanding and the opening of the Scriptures He would bolt out that out of the holy book of God that would not come into any other mans consideration yet it should be genuine and evidently appearing to be the drift and meaning of the holy Ghost An intelligent man could never sit at his feet but he should meet with that there that would never fall from any other mans mouth nor ever drop from any other mans pen His words were as goads as miles fastned by the masters of the Assemblies They were edged with so much reason re-enfo●ced from the lively Oracles that they could not fall to the ground 'T is no wonder then that the creame of the whole Countrey as they could have their opportunities would a hang upon his Ministry Yet how plaine would he be in all his expressions he would not deliver what he had from God in an unknown tongue nor yet in termes that were too spruce and trim He had learnt his lesson well of that great Apostle that came not with b inricing words nor with any other then such as the very c Catechumeni the youngest beginners might understand He kept close to the footin●s of our own choicest Worthies famous Mr. Dod that would say so much Latine was so much flesh in a Sermon Master Cleaver Master Hildersam and such d holy men of God led by the self-same spirit He would deliver the holy and wholsome truth of God in such an holy and wholsome way that it bred very good blood in the hearts of the hearers He would stoop so low as to speak to our poor countrey-people in their own proper dialect so as they could not but even see and feel and finde out God and be occasioned to speak of him all the week after If he came to a deep mystery he would make it plaine to the shallowest capacity What ever he fell upon he would follow it so divine-like that the hearts of his Auditors would be rapt up into heaven

Christ is the Scriptures which being the first is to prove not to be proved but in an higher School the Schoole of heaven by evidences unprovable and unreprovable evidences taken from the Prover and Spirit of God Of which hereafter N 2 Of translations How Anabaptists overthrow all Translations I No way like that of Cajetan That to understand the Latine Translation was not to understand the infallible Word of God but the word of the Translatours subject to errour Though he took it from Hierome that to write holy Books proceeded from the Holy Ghost but to translate them into another Tongue was a work of humane skill For if an Ambassadour deliver his minde by an Interpreter are not the words of the Interpreter the words of the Ambassadour Right say you if the Interpreter do it truely So say I a Translation is a translation no further then he doth translate and interpret truely for a false translation as farre as it is false is no translation I have read in a great Papist That it is a great error for a man to think that he can understand or interpret the holy Scriptures without some peculiar guift of the Holy Ghost And sith the Lord hath commanded his people to heare and read the word and the cōmon people cannot read the word but in some translation of other that therefore translations are in special a special Ordinance of God and that therefore God being in his providence very careful that his Church shall not want sufficient provision for their soules hath ever doth and will ever so assist Translatours that for the main they shall not erre I am of minde that there was never any Christian Church but the Lord did so hold the hands and direct the pens of the translators so that the translations might well be called the Word of God The vulgar Latine which the Papists out of a veine of opposition do advance too much is faulty enough yet it is so sound that I think many have beene led by it to their conversion Why may I not think that those many who have been converted from Popery in the Church of Rome and joyned themselves to our Church have beene beholding for the most of them next to God to their vulgar translation as Martyr Zanchius Luther Oecolampadius and a many others The Ephesians were builded in their faith on the Prophets and Apostles the Apostles were living but the Prophets were dead and gone long since they could no way build their faith on the Prophets but on their writings Now the writings of the Prophets in the Original were in Hebrew and I take it for granted that the Ephesians being bred and borne Grecians did not understand the Hebrew tongue and that therefore there were translations of the Prophets which translations were made by such men as were ordinary as ours are subject I confesse to some errour but not such errour but that it did serve to help the Church to faith for the salvation of their souls In the Apostles time I know that they that did know the Apostles to be Apostles and that they did preach they did preach as Apostles they were to take them at their words But when they did heare them preach as the Bereans did not so I think a many else did not look on them as Apostles and infallible speakers And no question there were many Pastours and Teachers then who though many had more then a common gift of prophecying yet had not the infallible spirit of the Apostles Those Prophets had not the same supreame spirit which the Apostles had as saith to me the most Learned amongst the Learned but yet saith he they had a more extraordinary spirit not to write nor to translate but to interpret Scripture then the ordinary Pastors and Teachers had but I think that gift of interpreting died with them Now what the Bereans did to Paul so all stood bound to do to the ordinary Pastors and Teachers even to examine by the Scriptures whither those things they taught were right or not And those who were thus to examine the Sermons of the ordinary Pastors and Teachers were to do it by the Greek Translation sith many did not understand the Hebrew and they that did understand the Hebrew yet were to do it no question by Transcripts made by ordinary men after the Prophets ended with Malachi which Transcripts of the Hebrew text some quarrel at as done by ordinary gifted men which were they say subject to mistake in transcribing as well as translatours might mistake in translating In which neither of them must be looked as free from all mistake Wotton saith saith truly that many thousands were converted and many Churches settled by the preaching of the several Apostles sent abroad to convert the world amongst the Jewes and Gentiles without the knowledge and before the penning of the Books of the New Testament but that they did it without the use and authority of the Old Testament and the Word of God written there there is no proof nor I think can there be any Besides the Apostles carried the Word of God in their bosoms having that holy Library in their Heads by immediate and infalible inspiration I doubt not but the Ephesians were converted by Paul but yet Paul when he did convert them did it by the truth of doctrine left behinde them by the Prophets which is cleare in that the Apostle makes the Prophets the Foundation as well as the Apostles By Prophets I take it for granted he meanes the writing Prophets of the Old Testament not the preaching Prophets of the New And I take it also to be clear of it selfe that the Ephesians living so long after all those Prophets were dead and gone had their writings only so then the Ephesians were converted by the truth of doctrine left for them by the Prophets and preached to them by the Apostles I will also take it for granted till I heare or reade any deny it that the Ephesians understood not the Hebrew In which tongue the Prophets left their doctrine as the Canon of the Church And hence it cannot but follow that saving what help the Ephesians had from Paul they were to have recourse to the doctrine of the Prophets not in Hebrew which they understood not but in some Translation of others which without dispute must be the Greek translation of the Seventy there then being no other translations The Ephesians being also not Jewes but Grecians The resolution 1. As touching the Originals 2. As touching the Translations 1. I cannot but confesse that it sometimes makes my heart ake when I seriously consider what is said That we cannot assure our selves that the Hebrew in the Old Testament and the Greek in the New are the right Hebrew and Greek any further then our Masters and Tutors and the General consent of all the Learned in the world do so say not one dissenting But yet say these

need or use they have of the Scriptures in the Originals or translation Before we come unto the maine of the businesse we cannot skip over a businesse of Mr. Wotton his words are these No man ever dreamed that we commonly build our faith upon our English translation What he would have by the word commonly I know not except his heart did faile his penne when he wrote this and by this word commonly he had a conceit that he might finde by it some shift and starting hole A strange speech it is to me that English men of such he speaks who can understand no language but English should be said not to build their faith on the English translation On what then The Original they know not other translations they understand not And if they must not build their faith on the English translation they are left nothing to build their faith on And what is this but to leave all unlearned in the Originals without a rule And if this be not to steale Atheisme into the hearts of the common people I know not what is sith Atheisme is such a welcome guest to the corrupt heart as it is Which makes me call to mind an Observation of Villeroy a late wise Secretary of France That the maine different Sects of Religion in the East and the fierce opposition they made each against each made the people weary of the Christian Religion and so Mahomet crept in with his religion and was too welcome to almost all who were almost weary of the sundry Heresies and Schisms which were so brief and rife amongst Christians of the East And this saith he overthrew the Christian Church first and the Christian Empires and states next over the East and let in Mahomets Alchoran and Mahomets Sword I doubt there is scarce any strange opinion pressing hither but would be welcome to us The Christian Religion was never in such danger since my time as it is now sith men runne so many and so contrary wayes that few can now tell which is true And since so great a Clerk and so great a Reformer as Wotton hath left the poore English man no rule to prove his own or to disprove the contrary For if the English translation be not to an English man let Elias come and tell us what and which is the rule and on what an English man may build his faith on being that there is nothing left him but his English translation So the old Church after Malachi what was left to the most but the Greek Translation and after the Apostles were dead and gone the Christian Churches were tied to the Greek translation of the Old Testament or else the Old Testament was no rule to them except to a few who understood the Hebrew That which all men say saith Aristotle is not to be doubted but al the learned I think agree that the Church used no translation but the Greek for a matter of six hundred yeares after the birth of Christ for two hundred yeares before So that for my part I look upon it as a position full of danger for men to affirme That translations are not a rule to ground our faith on when we understand no other That say I or none not none therefore that And now at last after the clearing of what is past we come to the maine point to find out what it is that a poore soule who understands not the Originals must rest upon First I say that the Lord is not nor will not be wanting to his Church in things necessary to salvation And to have a rule to build our faith on is absolutely necessary to salvation And that rule for common people must be the Scripture translated or nothing And therefore I take it to be a special Ordinance that the Scriptures should be translated for the use of the Church in several languages For the Original Copies I must subscribe to that of Ganus a Papist who tells us That we are not to receive into the holy Canon both for the Old and New Testament but such books as the Apostles did allow and deliver over to the Church of Christ And as the Church of the Jewes did preserve the Hebrew Original of the Old Testament safe and sure so I doubt not but the same hand of the providence of God hath and doth preserve the Greek Original of the New Testament And for that it is not possible that the Originals should serve the turne of all or immediately of any but of such as have the knowledge of those tongues who are but a poor few in respect of all the world over wherefore I take it for granted that the line of Gods providence hath and doth and will carry the matter in having translations of several languages so inti●e as to be a sufficient rule to ground their faith else God in his providence must needs be wanting in providing necessaries for his Church Nor do I think that there was or ever shall be a Church of Christ or a Church of Christians in the belly of Antichrist but have had translations sufficient to rest their souls on I doubt not but the vulgar for all its faults hath sufficient for the saving of some soules Besides among the Papists they have Pagnine allowed by two Popes which runs as pure as any Translation in the world and Arias Montanus a translation without exception Senensis much commends Jacobus de Voragine a Papist Arch-Bishop of Genua his translation into the Italian and Senensis could well tell having great skill in the Originals To me it is much that Senensis so sharp a Papist as he is should in print and that since the Councel of Trent so highly commend a translation of the Bible into the Italian tongue And Leo the tenth Bishop of Rome did just before Luthers dayes print a recommendation of Erasinus translation of the New Testament into Latine So that I look on it as a special providence of God that there were translations and those exact too in the heart of Popery And if so then he will not suffer the visible Church to be without a sufficient translation as a sufficient rule Smith himself the great backbiter of translations saith That if the Translation agree with the Original it may well be said to be the Word of God and if it do not agree with the Original it is not the translation of the Original And now we will draw towards the main conclusion How a simple Countrey-man is to believe our Bible to be the Word Doctor Jackson and Master John Goodwin have set downe many and many excellent things but they flie so high that they are for Eagles One may say of their books as Aristotle said of his books of Philosophy That they were published yet not published seeing not to be understood without his help Now all the considerations these great Sophies have and let there be as much more added to them yet they will not