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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	law_n	work_n	write_v	3,207	5	6.2968	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

cannot but call upon and encourage all much that tender their own weale to fall on with more boldnesse and eagerness upon the reading of the holy Scriptures seeing now it is so infallibly proved by this man of a thousand that it is the very Word of God that 's reached to them in that Translation that they have before them in the tongue wherein they were borne We of this Nation have great cause to blesse God for that * learned Prince that caused our last and best Translation which hath gained an high Testimony from a * learned Writer of a forreign Countrey when he calls it the most accurate Translation of the English Honour we then the reading of the Word of God 1. In the publike Congregation Deut. 31. 11. Ezra 8. 2 3. Act. 15. 21. that is attended with the greatest blessing Ezra 8. 14 16. Nehem. 13. 1 3. 2. In our private houses 2 Reg. 22. 10. Jer. 36. 12. 15 16. 3. In our proper Closets or where we can have our opportunities See Acts 8. 30. Apoc. 1. 3. Reade so as we reade all Josh. 8. 34 35. though it be never so difficult 't is given by inspiration and 't is profitable The very a Craggs and Rocks have their physical he bs We are b fed by the clear and tried by the obscure There 's an c immanent where 's not a transient power to edifie Something is a going when we little think it If it be but to humble us that we cannot see the reason of the setting those hard names together The wisdome of God is there though man cannot fathom it Besides it keeps our hearts in order and gives us cause of thanks when we meet with other things that be more facile in things that be most essential And reade in d order young Beginners may take the New Testament first as being the easier and the Old after it The Books be writ in Order Luke 1. 3. Let them be reade in Order Work goes on best when men take it as 't is before them He that reades confusedly will come to little He that takes the Bible as it lies will get most good by it See Neh. 8. 13 14. Reade every day Josh. 1. 8. all the dayes of our lives Deut. 17. 19. Psal. 119. 96. Alphonsus King of Arragon read the Bible over fourteen times with some Comments upon it Reade in thine own book the King was to write him out a Copy of the Law for his own peculiar use Deut. 17. 18. * Theodesius the second had writ out the New Testament with his own hand Men shoot best in their own Bowes work best with their own Tools David did best with his own Scrip and Sling The side of the leafe is remembred when the chapter and verse cannot be thought on Reade with the greatest reverence for it is the Word of God See Neh. 8. 3. 5 6. with the best understanding Mat. 24. 15. with sincerest affection bringing our selves to the Bible not the Bible to us A Veile is upon them that comes with prejudice 2 Cor. 3. 14. and reade with heartie prayer unto God thar he will open our eyes Psal. 119. 18. and sanctifie our hearts Psal. 119. 36. and order our steps Psal. 119. 133. It will be else as a book sealed up to us See Isa. 29. 11 12. The result of all is this We must so reade and so heare besides that there may be both an holy faith and an holy life too Nor this alone not that by its own selfe What God hath set together let not us put asunder 'T will but little availe a man to be sound in his opinion if he be loose in his conversation without holinesse there is no seeing God Heb. 12. 14. Nor will strictness of Life be much advantageous where there be rotten principles He was utterly unclean in the Law that had the Leprosie in his head and under the Gospel men of corrupt mindes have but a sad character for all their forme of godlinesse See 2 Tim. 3. 5 8 13. * Swenck feldius was a man of plausible behaviour and so was * Rotman too for a while 'T is no mean stroke to be given over to strong delusion 2 The● 2. 11 12. Nor was it a light thing which they received as a recompence of their errour and yet it was but meet too Rom. 1. 27. See then that our faith be most holy Jude 20. and that our lives be according 2 Pet. 3. 12. in all holy * conversations and godlinesses How shall we hold up our faces before God before men in all cases conditions and appear without spot in the day of Christ Jesus Give attendance to reading 'T is too little thought on even of some well-minded people The Bible is the Book of Books a full Store-house There be Rules for all sorts of persons young and old Tit. 2. 2 3. rich and poor in all manner of conditions prosperous and adverse in all cases whatsoever we shall be put upon The * exactest Rules too to keep a man so far from usurie that he shall not be as anusurer Exod. 22. 25. And those that will be for his greatest glory too Deut. 4. 6 7 8. even in the eyes of common men Here we shall meet with that that will enlighten our eyes Psal. 119. 130. Dan. 9. 2. humble our hearts Deut. 17. 20. kill our sins Psal. 119. 9. enable us against Satan and all his temptations 1 John 2. 14. Matth. 4. 4 7 10. strengthen our faith Rom. 10. 8. Though we have much ado to beleeve what we reade sometimes yet reading will master it * Antonius Musa complain'd to Luther he had much ado his own self to believe what he preached to others Luther was glad there was any as bad as himself but the Word help't rhem and it will help us Here we shall have that that will over-awe our hearts Psal. 119. 161. that will encrease our patience and our comfort Rom. 15. 4. Here we shall have that that will help in life Prov. 16. 22. 23. and support in death Luke 2. 29. And reade we shall again and again too If 1. We be so truly taken up with God we shall then look upon the Scriptures as upon his * love-letters Hos. 8. 12. 2. If we so truly taste the sweet that 's there See 1 Pet. 2. 2 3. If we taste we shall desire 3. If we be so much advantaged by the use of the other Ordinances See Acts 8. 30. when he had been at Jerusalem So Acts 17. 11. 4. If we be so far above the world as it doth become us Martha was cumbred and could not heare no more then we can reade when we be so clutter'd but Mary sate down at Christs feet Luke 10. 41 42. 5. If we be so willing to order our steps to be so exact in our doings then we shall see to that word that 's a light and

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

since the Apostles there are no men in the world but are subject to deceive and to be deceived All infallibility in matters of this nature having long since left the world Again too like unto this is that of Master Wotton who cantell saith he what the signification of the Hebrew and Greek words is even in the Bible but by the report of men And to the like purpose is that observation That the two Tables written immediately by Moses and the Prophets and the Greek Copies immediately penned by the Apostles and Apostolical men are all lost or not to be made use of except by a very few And that we have none in Hebrew or Greek but what are transcribed Now transcribers are ordinary men subject to mistake may faile having no unerring spirit to hold their hands in writing These be terrible blasts and do little else when they meet with a weak head and heart but open the doore to Atheisme and quite to fling off the bridle which onely can hold them and us in the wayes of truth and piety this is to fill the conceits of men with evil thoughts against the Purity of the Originals And if the Fountains run not clear the Translation cannot be clean The best is this doth concern the learned who can best get out of such scruples as these it being made plaine to them by the Jewes themselves no friends to Christian Religion That the Hebrew Text is curiously preserved by them in its integrity For if the Oracles of God were as they were Rom. 3. 2. committed them it deeply concernes the Providence of God to look to it that the Jewes should keepe the Oracles of God not onely safe but pure not onely from not being lost but also from not being corrupted It 's out of question that the same God who committed the Oracles to the Jews did also take care that they should preserve them safe and sure uncorrupt and pure It is the use of Saint Paul much to follow the Greek translation which doth use to use the Greek word translated Oracles to meane the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets And what if there be scapes in some Copies yet other Copies runne clear But sith this concernes the Learned whom I much look not after from the Originals let us turne to the businesse of the Translations As for other matters about the Greek and Hebrew which it is and what is the meaning of the words I passe as a meere excrement of wit sith this is cried downe by all the learned world whither Christian or unchristian and therefore is not like to take to doe any hurt unto the soules of any 2. As touching Translations IT is granted that translators were not led by such an infallible spirit as the Prophets and Apostles were In the Councel of Trent after much debating by witty and learned heads they concluded That Translators were not Apostles but very near unto them The greatest Papists are of the same mind onely Sixtus Senensis is of opinion the seaventie two Translatours of the old Testament into Greeke were infallible Some are so quite another way that they like not any translations at all Smith the Se-baptist is utterly against reading translations in times of worship Amongst his Reasons two are the chiefest One is that we must worship God with the best we have Translations are not the best but the Originals Yet I hope they that know not the Originals Translations are the best they have If this were true then none can worship God in and by reading of the Scriptures but such as understand the Originals nor is that currant in reason or Divinity that we must serve God with the best There is good there is better there is best of all So that if one do that which is good he sinnes not though he do not that which is better if he do that which is better he sinnes not though he do not do that which is best of all He sinnes not who keepes within the circle of that which is good albeit he do not do that which is better or that which is best of all Againe a thing may be absolutely better in it self yet a lesse good thing in it selfe may be better in some respects and circumstances As simply in it self marriage is simply better then a single life yet in some respects Paul shews that a single life is better then marriage and this is Pauls Divinity Though a man do not that which is better nor that which is best yet as long as he doth do that which is good he sins not His other reason is That we must worship God with our owne gifts not with anothers As Translations are not our doing but made by the gifts and paines of others To this we say that 't is true we must worship God with our owne gifts but it is not true that in the worship of God with the help and by the meanes of that which is anothers we do not exercise our owne gifts The maine of the worship of God is That we worship him in and with the Spirit and truth in the inward parts and so we must and may doe and do do when we make use of Translations When we reade translations we must reade them with Faith and with the Spirit which are our inward gifts and graces else our reading is not to profit our selves withal and what hinderance the translation is to the use of Faith and the Spirit they do not they cannot prove So we are said to sing with the Spirit and yet we sing with the Spirit the better for that and to pray with the Spirit and yet the book is no hindrance to that neither Others gifts as long as they rather further then hinder the use of our own gifts can be no blur in the worship of God The same man doth wrangle with the originals too not denying them but denying the use of the book in the originals themselves in worship for that the Prophets and Apostles wrote books but did never divide their books into Chapters and Verses till Henry Stephens but the other day first made the verses of the New Testament which being man invention is not saith he to be used in the worship of God But whether Stephen Langton Arch-bishop of Canterbury did it first for chapters or Robert or Henry Stephens for the New Testament did it into verses is not material sith we place no Religion in it and this provision is known to be a great helpe to men in the worship of God We passe by this as a giddinesse of a weak braine in this Sebaptist He grants Translations are of good use but not in the worship of God and if of good use elsewhere why not there Saint Paul exhorts the Collossians That the Word of God might dwell in them richly in all wisdome They being Grecians I take it for granted that the most of them were not skilled in the