meaning the words And vvhat his iudgement is in August lib de vera relig cap. 5◠this cause he doth other where plainly and clearely set dovvne vvhen hee saith that the Scripture is to be declared according to the proprietie of euery tongue Indeede he saith that sometime the vulgar speach is more profitable but his reason is farre different from yours For it appeareth vvhen hee praeferreth August de doctr Chr. lib. 2. c. 11. those Barbarismes it is for the better cōmodity capacity of the people to whome he spake or wrote praferring rudenes of speach onely to that purenes which either bringeth new words to offend th' eares of the reader or else maketh the sense doubtfull or obscure In vvhich respect he affirmeth that to August in Psal 138. let his speach fall th' easilyer to th' vnderstanding of his people hee had rather say ossum which is no true speach then os which is the proper and true lāguage Beside that it is more euidēt by their barbarismes in other speaches then in the texts of Scripture that they so speak sometime because they met with no better nor more choise wordes Seing therefore a good pure Latine speach is now better vnderstood then th' ould rotten and rustie wordes there is no cause why they should not now be abolished if euer they had any vse heretofore And if it please the Iesuites to confer the stile of these dayes sithence the Gospell after a long winter of ignorance began to flowre againe with the stile of those which wrote 200. yeares hence we suppose that they will accord vs that there is as greate difference as was sometime betweene the Dorickes and th' Attickes in Greece or is now betweene the courte and countrey with vs yet we think that the Iesuites will not therefore rather chuse to stamber stut with their fore-goers then to speake clearly purely with the present age sure we are that they haue done their best to the contrary Wherefore it is euident that you can bring nothing to defend your sottish speach of hell of fire for hell fire for against the spirituals of wickednes in the celestials for docible of God c. nor yet for your doubtful and dangerous speach of the sinne of the spirit for the sinne against the spirit with a number moe of the same late And yet haue you not kept the law your selues haue made for you haue translated eighteene years Luke 13. 4 where both the Greeke and olde Interpreter which you propound to follow so superstitiously haue ten and eight years If here seing your folly you amended it why haue you not corrected it in places of greater importance and hauing corrected th' olde traslatour in another place of some moment Rom. 13. 9. where for restored you haue turned comprised why haue you not performed the same in other of greater weight Not to speake of Lindanus your brother in this impietie who speaking of the truth of the matter retained by th' ould interpreter more then the truth yet notwithstanding confesseth the often slips of improprietie in speache and other babishnes of him in translating Now as by your vnlearned translation you haue greatly embased the pure mettle of the holy word so by your corrupt annotations wresting and writhing haling pulling the translation either to a diuers or contrarie sense of that which the wordes giue you haue made it no better then filthie drosse So that it may be verified of your work which Ierom sayth you make of the Gospell of Christ the gospell of Hieron in Epist ad Gal. cap. 1. man or that which is worse the gospel of the Diuell If you had giuen your people your translation alone we dout not but they should notwithstanding all your declinings frō the natiue purenes of the word haue found releefe in it against extream famine which your vnfaithfulnesse hath thrust them into Which thing you wel perceiuing durst not vpon the peril of quenching your kitchin-fire put forth your single few of translatiō without y◠Cooloquintida of your annotatiōs therby to bring certain death to all those that shoulde taste of them Wherein let th' indifferent reader compare our confidence we haue in the goodnes of our cause in either nakedly deliuering the Scripturs without any annotations at al or els with few short directiōs Rather to open the file and course of the Scriptures then to praeiudice the reader either with recommending ours or condemning th' aduersaries iudgment Let him I say compare it with the fearfull dout that the Iesuits haue of theirs which durst not commend their single translation vnto the conscience of the reader vnlesse beside the load and charge of their margent notes they had added almoste at the end of euery chapter a iag of annotations wherein they recommend their owne and condemne our doctrine therby at vnawares testifiing against themselues that the wordes of the holy Ghost speak nothing for them vnles they be twitched aside with the wrinch wrest of their annotatiōs We hauing found Christ in the Scripturs cannot be to seek in the true Church you that hold not the head it is no maruel if you haue not layd hold of a filthy deade caryon in steade of the liuely body of Christ which is his Church We which follow the light of the scripture in all questions that can be moued of religion and not in those onely which you idely rouingly alledge out of August haue promise of resolution 2. Tim. 3 ◠Petr. 1 in all our doubts But you which blasphemously make the Scripturs to giue no more light to the decision of diuers poyntes in religion thē a hair-cloth do miserably run your selues others to the condemnation wherevnto you are ordained In which way although you vvould drag Augustine vvith all your might and maine yet vvill not he keepe you company not onely for that he hath nothing for you in the place vvhich you alledge but that he hath the cleane contrary vnto you vvho affirmeth that in the Scriptures we are to seeke the Church by them to August d◠vnit eccles cap. 3. discusse our controuersies after he saith that all should be remoued whatsoeuer is alledged of either side against other sauing that which commeth out of the canonicall Ibi. cap. 16. Scriptures And againe we desire not to be beleeued because wee are in the Church of Christ or that Optatus or Ambrose or innumerable Bishops of our profession haue cōmended it vnto vs. Howbeit as through the vvhole booke it shall appeare hovv small consent of the auncient Church you haue in the principal demandes hanging betvveene you and vs so it shal appeare a little after that there is a more certaine rule of th' understanding of the Scriptures then you assigne and that although the former iudgement of the Church of Christ sithence th' Apostles time is able to keepe vs from falling dangerouslie in the principal and
your owne saying which affirme that you haue forsaken the poynting of the Latine to follow The last page of their preface the poynting of the Greeke And if the Greeke hath kept the trew poynting why should it not keepe the trueth of words And if your Latine haue lost the trew pointing without the which he that readeth the Scripture is like him that rideth without a bridle why should it not rather be said to haue lost the trueth of the words and sense then the Greeke which keepeth the trueth in poynting To the next section The principall cause that hath made you take armes against the Iohn 8. 47 Greeke copies is that you are not of God and therefore cannot abide the wordes of God Thereupon it commeth that th' olde translation as it is further from the worde of God smacketh you better then the Greek copies doe And althogh you may sooner get water out of a flint then anie reliefe of your cause from the Greek copies yet if it were possible for trueth to helpe to maintaine a lye it were yet vnpossible for you to like of it therfore althogh we are assured that you had great aduantage out of the vulgar which is a great cause that maketh you stand so close vnto it and no aduantage at all out of the Greeke as partly hath and further shall appeare yet we know that you haue a further fetch in preferring the handmaide vnto her mistres which is thereby to vndermine all authoritie of the holy Scripture that it being ouer-throwen the Popes decrees might ride on horseback which cannot take breath as long as th' authoritie of the holy Scripture remaineth And if it be as you say that the Greek serueth your turne better then the vulgar you beare vs witnes at vnawares that the small estimation which we haue your vulgar in procedeth not of anie feare that we stand in lest he should hurt our cause To the next section page 18. It were doubtles vnworthie the name of a translation that should be inferiour to the vulgar Howbeit we charge not th' old translator of Popery and impute not all the corruptions in the vulgar to the translator but rather to th' enemie which sowe tares in his field albeit as hath bine said he might some-where preiudice the trueth not thinking of it As for the testimonies both here and in the former section they are discussed in their proper places To the next section We grant they are word for word at in the Greek And therefore vnlesse we shewe that Poperie leaning vpon them falleth to the ground and that it is not only staied by them but destroyed of them We will willingly confesse our selues most vnworthie eyther of the defence of so good a cause or of the places which we ocupy in the Church of God In the meane season your beggery is too impudent which take that for graunted wherin you haue bene alwaies in the face resisted And if we would trifle out the time as you doe we could for fiue or six sentences which you bring as seming to smyle vpon you alledge fiue or six hundreth which doe so apparantly frowne vpon your Poperie as at the verie sight of them it falleth downe dead If you had any generall councils or anie other auncient fathers of the west part beside Cyprian and Primasius to warrant your phrases by we dout not but you would haue made them speake which handle the matter so cunninglie that the dumbe in your cause and sometime those which are eloquent against it are notwithstanding for want of others compelled to speake for it As for the two fathers alledged let the reader looke the answer in the proper place To the next section page 19. As the Philosopher saide of his work that being set forth it should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the hardnes and darknes thereof as it were be vn-set forth so may it be verified in a good part of the Iesuites translation that being translated it remaineth partly for the sottish superstition of keeping of words rather then sense and partly for th'unnecessarie newe fanglednesse of forraine speach as it were vn-translated So is your translation as litle Catholik as may be as that which is so proud so scornfull disdainful that none of the ruder sort can haue any acquaintance with it wheras a good translator will endeuour to deliuer to his reader the meaning of his author which he trāslateth with al light plainnes of speach possible What are the sacred words speaches for retaining whereof you are fallen into this seruitude If you had translated the Greek you might better haue pretended this For we acknowledge the pens of th'Apostles and Euangelists to haue bene sacred which we cannot acknowledge not you cannot shew in th' old translator Vnlesse your Councell of Trent comming so manie yeares after th' olde translator was able then to make that sacred which had not beene so before To the next section But let vs heare their examples The first kinde whereof is of Hebrew wordes retained in the Greeke text and by the same reason to be contayned in all translations But this argument turneth not all together so round as you thinke For it may well be that these wordes of Amen and Alleluia c. were well knowne by th'Apostles preaching to the Churches in that time Wherfore th' use of them then when they were well and generallie knowne was more iustifiable then now when they are not so 2. Cor. 1. 20 And for the word Amen first we haue th'Apostle which giueth the iust weight thereof in a Greeke worde Matt. 5. 18 whereunto our yea answereth Secondly th' old translator vseth it as an indifferent thing eyther to trāslate it into Latine or to let it remaine as he found it in the Greeke text Heere therfore the drudgerie of the Iesuites is manifest For notwithstanding they esteeme it not meete that Amen should be translated yet because the vulgar hath translated it they haue also thoght good to follow him therin Thereby tying themselues faster vnto the vulgar then the vulgar did tye himself vnto th' originall Hovvbeit in retayning of the Hebrevv vvords vvhich the originall doth vse they should for vs haue passed vvithout blame if by contrarie practise of that which they professe they had not differed as much from themselues as from vs yet deceiue themselues in that they think they may keepe Corbana aswell as we keepe Hosanna Raca Beliall For Saint Luke hath translated Corbana Gazophylacium vvhich is in our tongue a treasurie and tearmeth Luk. 21. 4 it also the place of the giftes of God Which interpretation when none of th'Apostles or Euangelists giue in the vvords vvhich we haue retained it is euident that they haue not that vvarrant of reteyning this vvhich we haue of those much lesse to keep Parasceue which they ought aswel to haue translated into English the tongue which they write in as Saint Luke forsaking
of the Scripture is a great munition against sinne but th' ignorance thereof is a downe-fall a deepe hell this begetteth heresies Againe It cannot now be I say it cannot be that any can obtain saluation vnlesse he be continually occupyed in reading of the Scripture There would be no end of wryting if wee shoulde laye open all that Chrysostome hath in this behalfe to proue that he herein praescribed physicke for the generall disease of all Christian people and not for a special maladie as it might be the sweating sicknesse that haunted that people whereof he had the gouernment Also for all times both in prosperitie and aduersitie euen vncessantlie And not Homil. 3 de Laz. onelie in those wherein through abundance they waxing wanton gaue themselues to dicing and carding c Wherfore your distinction of a teacher in the Schoole and Pulpit-man hath no place heere as indeede it is foolishe and hath no place otherwhere For the doctrine in schoole is and ought to be the same that is in pulpite and that in pulpite as exact absolute and necessarie as that in the schoole The difference is that in the schoole hath not annexed the goade and prick of exhortation as th' other hath For you may not imagine Chrysostomes pulpet so loose and so prophane as yours is to speake at all randome without any girdle of truth about your loines Our wemen God be praised although they are wel able to set such Doctors as you are to schoole know their places and keepe silence content to teach their children at home which if you cannot brooke in them or euer it can light of them your condemnation must first passe vppon the head of S. Paule who commandeth to be teachers Titus â— 3. of good things vnto their daughters and of Bathsheba who taught Prov. 31 the wisest child that euer was among the sonnes of Adam Christ excepted The example also of Eunice who taught Timothe from his verie infancie 2. Tim. 1. 5 3. 15 in the Scriptures is notable to teach that neither wemen muste forbeare teaching nor verye babes to learne And if alwayes learning they are alwayes ignorant in what degree of ignorance shall yours be found that neuer learne any thing at all They reade the whole Bible seeing all is inspired of God and all profitable and 2. Tim. 3 therefore the morall partes But yet praefer those that be doctrinall or as you speake dogmaticall as both the foundation of all good manners and the rule whereby they maye iudge of the example of life whether it bee good or bad worthie of praise or dispraise And it pittieth them to see the blindnesse that is yet in your eye which deemeth that to be so crooked which to all sounde iudgement is straight that is to say that the causes shoulde goe before th' effects and the rule before that which is ruled by it And as Saint Paull in the duetie of teaching Act. 26 coulde not acquite the faith and trust put in him but by teaching the people the whole counsell of God so they thinke not themselues discharged in the duetie of learning vnlesse to the vttermost of that they maye they endeuoure to learne what is the good pleasure and perfite will of God towards them Neither doubt they but Rom. 12 that they vse more reuerence true humilitie in comming to the high mysteries you speake of then you doe in turning your backes vnto them And they are well assured that they are fitter to wonder at and to advaunce th' incomprehensible breadth length height and depth of them which haue waded so farre in them as the Bowies and markes of holye Scriptures doe teach them then you which neuer wet your neb in them And if they read the harder bookes of Scripture oftner more diligently then they doe th' easier a wise Schoolemaister which taketh pleasure in his Scholer would commend them Neither hath it bene heard of that the Scholer was euer reproched for his greater diligence in his harder lesson but of such three halfpennie vshers as you bee which are loath your scholers shoulde learne too fast but heere one word and there another heere a line and there a line least in their dexteritie forwardnesse of learning your inabilitie and vntowardnesse of teaching should appeare The clasped and sealed booke to vs which come not in the strength of our owne wits or merites Apoc. 5 but in the victory of our Sauiour christ who hath vnsealed them for vs lye so far forth open as therein we are well assured to read so much as will serue for our certaine direction vnto the kingdome of heauen But in you which bring of your naturall powers and vaunt your selues of your merites It is true that the Prophet saith Esai â—â— that neither can your learned reade because all is vnto theÌ„ as a sealed letter your vnlearned being offered the reading they refuse to read it think themselues discharged because they haue no learning And wherfore I pray you should th' Epistle to the Romanes not be reade of artificers wemen to both which sorts amongst others it was first written and why should that be baulked more then others by the simpler sort which hath a speciall testimonie that both it and all other the preachings and writings of th' Apostle are tempered aswell to Rom. 1. 14 the capacitie of the foolish vnlearned as of the wise and vnderstanding men If there be nothing in that Epistle for th' ign oranter sort to learne then hath Saint Paule made a desperate debt which now being dead he is neuer able to pay As for Saint Peters wordes they make no more against the peoples reading of his Epistles then against any other part of the Scripture the whole whereof he affirmeth to be peruerted of vnlearned and vnstable men In which kind if you iudge all th' vnlearneder sort of your people to be you fome out your owne shame and manifestlie verefie the prouerbe such Doctor such Scholer For our people we cannot hold them for vnlearned which haue learned Christ nor vnstable which by faith are founded and rooted so stedfastlie that al the winde and weather waues and floods that can beat against theÌ„ are not able to remoue them from the trueth which they haue learned in the Scripture We acknowledge with Augustine their wonderfull depth which would afray no man from reading of them if you had faithfullie reported Augustines wordes Who affirmeth Confess li. 12. c. 14. that the ouermost of them smyleth vpon the little ones and a little after addeth let vs come therefore together to the words of thy booke meaning Gods In th' other place quoted by you hee sheweth that if a man of the sharpest wit and greatest diligence from his childehood should giue himself to the study of them continuing in them vntill crooked age as if he should liue the yeares of Methusalah yet he might alwayes profite
the Hebrevv and Syriack vvords vsed the vvord that vvas proper vnto the tongue he vvrote in And therefore you impudently face dovvne the trueth vvhen you say that Parasceue is as solemne a word for the sabaoth euen as Sabaoth is for the Iewes seuenth day Neither is there more cause to leaue it vn-translated when we are not able vvith like shortnes of our speach to attaine the full signification then to leaue it vnturned when the shortnes of our speach affordeth a sentence in a smaller compasse of wordes then doth th' originall And if this be a sufficient reason to hold the translators hand because there are three wordes in Mat. 1. 19. the translation of Parasceue aboue that which is in the Greeke why haue you translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put to open shame Naye howe commeth it to passe that without all warrant of the Greeke or circumstance of the place beyond the mark of the vulgar translation which you propounde vnto your selues and that in text Act. 8. letters you translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they took order for buriall We knowe therefore that your Dirigie groates and Trentall money will make you lauish and rauill in your translation as much as your seruile minde maketh you dumb mute in other places where you might better speake In the rest also your comparisons are foolish For if we haue retained certē words in their originall because our speach fitteth them not so well it followeth not therefore that you might doe that where it is at hand and readie to serue the Greeke or Hebrew word Or if we haue sometimes not vsed the benefite and wealth of our tongue doth it follow therefore that you may so doe And if we seeking to translate all the Greek wordes haue left some vntranslated because the English phrase either did not afford it vnto vs or els stood at that time far from vs doth it followe that you should retain those words in a strange tongue which our tongue doth afford you the translation of which we haue found out vnto your hand and which hath confirmation by the common vse and practise of our nation for manie yeares together Breifly whereas our people by the grace of God in knowledge of the worde through the meanes of a lightsome plaine translation haue bene deliuered out of Egypt in steed that you should haue added light where it is wanting and plained that which is rough you haue endeuoured by your clouddy and hacked speaches to bring in againe all confusion and ignorance of God and of his trueth And if your daintie stomack could not brooke the feast of the sweete bread yet was there no cause for you to accuse it of falshood seing sweete bread vnleauened bread with vs are all one The translation also printed at Geneua hath vnleauened bread But nothing tasteth you but Azymes and that because the people cannot chaw these crusts of yours or bones rather which of purpose you set before them that they may departe hungrie from your table Your interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is false without all manner of proofes framed out of your cruell and vnmercifull iudgement of throwing all into hell which die without baptisme as if they were not planted in the house of God before they be baptized where the true vse of baptisme is towards those which we vnderstand either by their own confession or by the couenant to be already planted in the house of God As for the meaning of th' Apostle it is euident that he would haue none drawne to the ministery of the worde which is lately come to the profession of the Gospell therefore your fantasie of a neophyte that hath bene an olde scholler in the schoole of Christ for so you must meane implieth a manifest contradiction and is all one as if you should say he is a new olde plant or a new olde scholler For in those that were not gathered from heathenish religion to the fellowship of the Gospell before the yeares of discretion the same daie that they became true schollers they became true plants and contrariwise Wherefore to be a young scholler is the same thing in effect as to be a yong plant where Neophyte to a bare Englishman is nothing at all no more then depositum exinanited exhaust the foolerie and beastlines whereof is euident to all men seing our speach is able to yeeld the iust valuation of them And if our shewing the glad tidings be not significatiue to our nation much lesse is your Euangelizing which scarce one amongst a hundreth doth vnderstand And if you had learned that the doctrine of Christ vnder the Gospell is not set forth sufficientlye by the Greeke word without a Trope of synecdoche or as they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you might easilie haue knowen that the same Trope being vnderstood in our glade tidings would haue reached the Greek word and whatsoeuer is signified by it sufficientlye For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a Greeke worde before the Gospell came into the world and is vsed of Greek authors to signifie all manner of good newes and nothing els And therefore the word can properly signify no more now then it did then But th' Euangelist chose that word especially to note that where men are desirous to knowe good tidings they should bestowe both their eares to vnderstand this doctrine which is only worthie of that name And if our translation liked you not as you haue translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gospell so you might haue translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Gospell and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gospelling with more vnderstanding of our people and with as full attainment of the signification of the words vnlesse you will confesse that you haue fayled in turning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gospell Lastly if so much of the signification is lost vnlesse it be turned Euangelize how commeth it that you Math. 11. 5. haue translated it the Gospell is preached Heere therefore your drudgerie to th' old interpreter is againe manifest for notwithstanding you hold it ill turned vnlesse the Greek word be retayned yet because th' old translator turneth it otherwise you stick not contrarie to your iudgment to turn it as he doth so haue you no iudgement of your own and th' old translators iudgement who by turning it nowe one way and nowe another signifieth an indifferency of translation you vtterly ouerthrowe But that vvhich follovveth is more absurde that the people must be depriued of the naturall translation of the vvords through your sottish desire of keeping of Latin vvords which the vulgar vsed vvhich these lying spirits calling first the Latine text of the Scripture after by and by call it the verie words of the Scripture as if the Scripture translated into the English tongue vvere not as much the Scripture as that vvhich is translated into the Latine For your poenance you must do poenance