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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	father_n	redeemer_n	sinner_n	5,275	5	9.6958	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70894	The life of the Most Reverend Father in God, James Usher, late Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh, primate and metropolitan of all Ireland with a Collection of three hundred letters between the said Lord Primate and most of the eminentest persons for piety and learning in his time ... / collected and published from original copies under their own hands, by Richard Parr ...	Parr, Richard, 1617-1691.; Ussher, James, 1581-1656. Collection of three hundred letters.	1686 (1686)	Wing P548; Wing U163; ESTC R1496	625,199	629

be made betwixt God and man The one respects God the party offended whose justice hath been in such sort violated by his base Vassals that it were unfit for his glorious Majesty to put up such an injury without a good satisfaction The other respects Man the party offending whose blindness stupidity and hardness of heart is such that he is neither sensible of his own wretchedness nor God's goodness that when God offers to be reconciled unto him there must be much intreaty to perswade him to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. 20. In regard of the latter I acknowledge with the Apostle That the natural man receives not the things of the spirit for they are foolishness to him neither can he because spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. And this impediment is not taken away by Christ's Satisfaction which is a work of his Priestly Function but by the enlightening of the mind and softening the heart of the sinner which are effects issuing from the execution of the Prophetical and Kingly Office of our Redeemer When therefore I say That by Christ's satisfaction to his Father he made the Nature of Man a fit subject for mercy I mean thereby that the former impediment arising on God's part is taken away that if it were not for the other for the having whereof we can blame none but our selves and in the not removing whereof we cannot say God hath done us any wrong there were no let but all Men might be saved And if it pleased God to extend his mercy unto All as he keeps his freedom therein in having compassion on whom he will have mercy and leaving others in blindness natural hardness of their own heart yet the worth of Christ's satisfaction is so great that his Justice herein should be no loser But if this Justice you will say be satisfied how comes it to pass that God exacts payment again from any I Answer We must take heed we stretch not our similitudes beyond their just extent lest at last we drive the matter too far and be forced to say as some have done That we cannot see how satisfaction and forgiveness can stand together and so by denying Christ's Satisfaction be injurious to God's Justice or by denying remission of sins become injurious to God's mercy We are therefore to understand that the end of the satisfaction of God's Justice is to make way for God's free liberty in shewing mercy that so Mercy and Justice meeting and embracing one another God may be just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus Rom. 3. 26. Now the general satisfaction of Christ which was the first act of his Priestly Office prepares the way for God's mercy by making the sins of all mankind pardonable the interposition of any bar from God's Justice notwithstanding and so puts the Sons of Men only in a possibility of being justified a thing denied to the nature of fallen Angels which the Son was not pleased to assume But the special Application of this Satisfaction vouchsafed by Christ unto those persons only whom his Father hath given him out of the World which is an appendant or appertaineth to the second Act of his Priest-hood viz. his Intercession produceth this potentia in Actum i. e. procureth an actual discharge from God's anger and maketh Justification which before was a part of our possibility to be a part of our present Possession If it be said It is a great derogation to the dignity of Christ's death to make the sins of mankind only pardonable and brings in a bare possibility of Justification I Answer It is a most unchristian imagination to suppose the merit of Christ's death being particularly applied to the Soul of a sinner produceth no further effect than this Saint Paul teacheth us that we be not only justifiable but justified by his blood Rom. 5. 9. yet not simply as offered on the Cross but through faith in his blood Rom. 3. 25. that is through his blood applyed by faith The blood of Jesus Christ his Son saith Saint John 1 John 1. 17. cleanseth us from all sins yet cleanse it doth not by being prepared but by being applyed prepared it was when he poured it out once upon the Cross applyed it is when he washeth us from our sins therein Rev. 1. 5. It is one thing therefore to speak of Christ's satisfaction in the general absolutely considered and another thing as it is applyed to every one in particular The consideration of things as they are in their Causes is one thing and as they have an actual Existence is another thing Things as they are in their Causes are no otherwise considerable but as they have a possibility to be The application of the Agent to the Patient with all circumstances necessarily required is it that gives to the thing an actual Being That Disease is curable for which a Soveraign Medicine may be found but cured it is not till the Medicine be applyed to the Patient and if it so fall out that the Medicine being not applied the party miscarries We say He was lost not because his sickness was incurable but because there wanted a care to apply that to him that might have helped him All Adam's Sons have taken a mortal sickness from their Father which if it be not remedied will without fail bring them to the second death No Medicine under Heaven can heal this Disease but only a potion confected of the blood of the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the World which as Prosper truly notes habet quidem in se ut omnibus profit sed si non bibitur non medetur The virtue thereof is such that if all did take it all without doubt should be recovered but without taking it there is no recovery In the former respect it may be truly said That no man's state is so desperate but by this means it is recoverable and this is the first comfortable news that the Gospel brings to the distressed Soul but here it resteth not nor feedeth a man with such a possibility that he should say in his heart Who shall ascend into Heaven to bring Christ from above but it brings the word of comfort nigh unto him even to his mouth and heart and presents him with the Medicine at hand and desireth him to take it which being done accordingly the cure is actually performed LETTER XXIV A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier afterwards Earl of Bath to Dr. James Usher afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh Worthy Sir VVERE my Invention able to find Words to express the greatness of my Error I would fill this Sheet of Paper with Phrases Apologetical and Reasons of Excuse for my long Silence but when I consider the Goodness of your Disposition and mine own Confidence of the Interest I have heretofore had in your Love they diminish Despair in me and perswade strongly to conceive Hope of Pardon at your Hands I should have been very glad in this time of

are to receive the Communion viz. Almighty God and heavenly Father c. have mercy upon you pardon you and deliver you from all your Sins c. Or else the first clause in the form of Absolution used at the Visitation of the Sick would have served the turn viz. Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left Power to his Church to absolve all Sinners which truly repent and believe in him of his great Mercy forgive thee thine Offences And there could be no reason at all imaginable why the next clause should be superadded to this prayer viz. And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee from all thy Sins c. if the Priest did not forgive Sins Authoritativè by such a delegated and commissionated power as before we spake of After all which tedious Charge of the Doctor 's against the Lord Primate which I have been forced to transcribe to let the impartial Reader see I shall not answer him by halves I doubt not but to prove that first the Doctor hath dealt very disingenuously with the Lord Primat's Book by him there cited out of which he hath culled some passages here and there on purpose to cavil and find fault For I shall shew you 1. that the Lord Primat doth there assert that whatsoever the Priest or Minister contributes in this great Work of Cleansing the Souls of Men they do it as God's Ministers and receiving a power from God so to do and that tho perhaps he does not make use of the Doctor 's distinction of authoritativè yet he speaks the same sence 2. That admit the Priest does absolve authoritativè Yet that this Absolution can only operate declarativè or optativè and not absolutely And 3dly That the Church of England in none of the three forms of Absolution above mentioned no not in the last which he so much insists upon does pretend to give any larger power to the Priest or Minister than this amounts to As for the first Head I have laid down I shall prove it from the Lord Primat's own words in the same Treatise before cited by the Doctor who agrees with the Lord Primat that the supream power of forgiving Sins is in God alone Next that the power given to the Priest is but a delegated power from God himself Now that the Lord Primat owns the Priest or Minister to be endowed with such a power I shall put down his own words in the said Book viz. Having thus reserved unto God his Prerogative Royal in Cleansing the Soul we give unto his under Officers their due when we account of them as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God Not as Lords that have power to dispose of Spiritual Graces as they please but as Servants that are tied to follow their Master's prescriptions therein and in following thereof do but bring their external Ministry for which it self also they are beholden to God's Mercy and Goodness God conferring the inward Blessing of his Spirit thereupon when and where he will Who then is Paul saith St. Paul himself and who is Apollos but Ministers by whom ye believed even as the Lord gave to every Man Therefore saith Optatus in all the Servants there is no Dominion but a Ministery Cui creditur ipse dat quod creditur non per quem creditur It is he who is believed that giveth the thing that is believed not he by whom we do believe Whereas our Saviour then saith unto his Apostles Joh. 20. Receive the holy Ghost Whose Sins ye forgive shall be forgiven St. Ambrose St. Augustine St. Chrysostom and St. Cyril make this Observation thereupon that this is not their work properly but the work of the holy Ghost who remitteth by them and therein performeth the works of the true God To forgive Sins therefore being thus proper to God only and to his Christ his Ministers must not be held to have this power communicated unto them but in an improper sence namely because God forgiveth by them and hath appointed them both to apply those means by which he useth to forgive Sins and to give notice unto Repentant Sinners of that Forgiveness For who can forgive Sins but God alone yet doth he forgive by them also unto whom he hath given power to forgive saith St. Ambrose And tho it be the proper work of God to remit Sins saith Ferus yet are the Apostles and their Successors said to remit also not simply but because they apply those means whereby God doth remit Sins After the Lord Primat had shewed in the pages before-going that the power of binding and loosing consists in exercising the Discipline of the Church in debarring or admitting Penitents from or to the Communion he proceeds thus That this Authority of loosing remaineth still in the Church we constantly maintain against the Heresie of the Montanists and Novations c. And after having confuted the uncharitableness of those Hereticks who denied that Penitents who had committed heinous Sins ought to be received into the Communion of the Church goes on thus That speech of his viz. St. Paul's is specially noted and pressed against the Hereticks by St. Ambrose To whom ye forgive any thing I forgive also for if I forgave any thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes I forgave it in the Person of Christ. For as in the Name and by the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ such a one was delivered to Satan for God having given unto him Repentance to recover himself out of the snare of the Devil in the same Name and in the same Power was he to be restored again the Ministers of Reconciliation standing in Christ's stead and Christ himself being in the midst of them that are thus gathered together in his Name will bind or loose in Heaven whatsoever they according to his Commission shall bind or loose on Earth Then after he has shewn that the power of the Priest or Ministers of the Gospel is only ministerial and declarative like that of the Priests under the Law of Moses Where the Laws are set down that concern the Leprosie which was a type of the pollution of Sin we meet often with these speeches The Priest shall cleanse him and The Priest shall pollute him and in vers 44. of the same chapter The Priest with pollution shall pollute him as it is in the Original Not saith St. Hierom that he is the author of the pollution but that he declareth him to be polluted who before did seem unto many to have been clean Whereupon the Master of the Sentences following herein St. Hierom and being afterwards therein followed himself by many others observeth that in remitting or retaining Sins the Priests of the Gospel have that Right and Office which the Legal Priests had of old under the Law in curing of the Lepers These therefore saith he forgive Sins or retain them whiles they shew and declare that they are forgiven or

is set two years sooner viz. in the fourth year of the 76 th Olympiad At what time perhaps his trouble began upon the Arraignment and Examination of Pausanias Whereunto I thus answer It was far from my meaning to alledge any Author that setteth the flight of Themistocles later than the second year of the 77 th Olympiad But I would know of you what reason might be alledged why it should not be placed forwarder The Arraignment and Execution of Pausanias is referred by Diodorus Siculus to the fourth year of the 75 th Olympiad The flight of Themistocles by Eusebius to the fourth of the 76 th Olympiad These two being the sole Authors who express the time of these two accidents why should we without cause reject the Testimony of either Especially for the strengthening of the Assertion of Eusebius which we may thus farther reason The Peloponnesian War began in that Spring which ended the first year of the 87 th Olympiad as is known Two years and a half after that dyed Pericles witness Thucydides lib. 2. pag. 141. He began to rule the Common-wealth after the death of Aristides and continued the Government fourty years witness Plutarch in Pericle pag. 155. 161. Aristides deceased almost four years after Themistocles was expelled from Athens as Aemilius Probus or Cornelius Nepos testified in the life of Aristides These things being laid together do shew That the expulsion of Themistocles from Athens fell no later than the beginning of the fourth year of the 76 th Olympiad to which time you doubtfully refer the beginning of his troubles how much sooner soever my opinion is That at that time Themistocles fled unto Persia as Eusebius noteth whose Testimony I have no reason to discredit unless I have some better Testimony or Reason to oppose against it The year before that which is the third of the 76 th Olympiad I suppose Artaxerxes Longimanus to have begun his Reign to whom as yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Themistocles fled as Thucydides sufficiently proveth Thus the 20 th year of his Reign should fall upon the second year of the 81 Olympiad And the 487 th year from that which is the middle of Daniel's last week should fall toward the end of the fourth year of the 202 Olympiad from which I cannot be drawn as yet to draw the passion of our Saviour Christ. If you have any further reason to perswade me to hold my first Opinion which I learned from you and did once publickly deliver in the Schools upon the reasons laid down in the beginning of this Letter I pray you let me understand thereof for I am most willing to learn any thing that may further me in the understanding of Daniel Concerning Aera Dhilkarnain and Taric Alkept I cannot in such manner as I would deliver my mind unto you until I see the intire work of Albategnius which I expect from you by this Bearer together with Geminus according to my request in my former Letter which by reason of the Bearer's sudden departure from hence hath lain by me well nigh a year In the mean time I commit you and your Godly Studies unto the Blessing of the Almighty resting always Your most Assured Loving Friend and Brother James Usher Dublin Jan. 2. 1617. LETTER XXII A Letter from Dr. James Usher afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh concerning the Death of Christ and his Satisfaction on the Cross. THE All-sufficient satisfaction of Christ made for the sins of the whole World The true Intent and Extent is Lubricus locus to be handled and hath and doth now much trouble the Church this question hath been moved sub iisdem terminis quibus nunc and hath received contrary resolutions the reason is That in the two extremities of Opinions held in this matter there is somewhat true and somewhat false The one extremity extends the benefit of Christ's satisfaction too far as if hereby God for his part were actually reconciled to all mankind and did really discharge every man from all his sins and that the reason why all men do not reap the fruit of this benefit is the want of that faith whereby they ought to have believed that God in this sort did love them whence it would follow that God should forgive a man his sins and justifie him before he believed whereas the Elect themselves before their effectual vocation are said to be without Christ and without hope and to be utter strangers from the Covenants of Promise Ephes. 2. 2. 2. The other extremity contracts the riches of Christ's satisfaction into too narrow a room as if none had any kind of interest therein but such as were elected before the foundation of the World howsoever by the Gospel every one be charged to receive the same whereby it would follow that a man should be bound in Conscience to believe that which is untrue and charged to take that wherewith he hath nothing to do Both extremities then drawing with them unavoidable absurdities the Word of God by hearing whereof faith is begotten Eph. 1. 13. must be sought unto by a middle course to avoid these extremities For finding out this middle Course we must in the matter of our Redemption carefully put a distinction betwixt the satisfaction of Christ absolutely considered and the application thereof to every one in particular The former was once done for all the other is still in doing The former brings with it sufficiency abundant to discharge the whole debt the other adds to it efficacy The satisfaction of Christ only makes the sins of mankind fit for pardon which without it could not well be the injury done to God's Majesty being so great that it could not stand with his honour to put it up without amends made The particular application makes the sins of those to whom that mercy is vouchsafed to be actually pardoned for as all sins are mortal in regard of the stipend due thereunto by the Law but all do not actually bring forth death because the gracious Promises of the Gospel stayeth the execution even so all the sins of mankind are become venial in respect of the price paid by Christ to his Father so far that in shewing mercy upon all if so it were his pleasure his justice should be no loser but all do not obtain actual remission because most offenders do not take out nor plead their pardon as they ought to do If Christ had not assumed our Nature and therein made satisfaction for the injury offered to the Divine Majesty God would not have come unto a Treaty of Peace with us more than with the fallen Angels whose nature the Son did not assume But this way being made God holds out unto us the Golden Scepter of his Word and thereby not only signifieth his pleasure of admitting us unto his presence and accepting of our submission which is a wonderful Grace but also sends an Embassage unto us and entreats us that we would be reconciled unto him 2 Cor. 5.

yet withal this must be yielded for a certain truth That it is God who must work in us to will and to do of his good pleasure and though the Call be never so loud and large yet none can come except the Father draw him Joh. 6. 44. For the Universality of the satisfaction derogates nothing from the necessity of the special Grace in the application Neither doth the speciality of the one any ways abridge the generality of the other Indeed Christ our Saviour saith Joh. 17. 9. I pray not for the world but for them that thou hast given me but the consequence hereby inferred may well be excepted against viz. He prayed not for the World Therefore He payed not for the World Because the latter is an act of his satisfaction the former of his Intercession which being divers parts of his Priesthood are distinguishable one from another by sundry differences This his satisfaction doth properly give contentment to God's justice in such sort as formerly hath been declared His Intercession doth sollicit God's mercy The first contains the preparation of the remedy necessary for man's salvation the second brings with it an Application of the same And consequently the one may well appertain to the common nature which the Son assumed when the other is a special Priviledge vouchsafed to such particular persons only as the father hath given him And therefore we may safely conclude out of all these premises That the Lamb of God offering himself a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world intended by giving sufficient satisfaction to God's Justice to make the nature of man which he assumed a fit subject for mercy and to prepare a Medicine for the sins of the whole World which should be denied to none that intended to take the benefit of it Howsoever he intended not by applying this All-sufficient remedy unto every person in particular tomake it effectual unto the salvation of all or to procure thereby actual Pardon for the sins of the whole World So in one respect he may be said to have died for all and in another respect not to have died for all yet so as in respect of his mercy he may be counted a kind of universal cause of the restoring of our Nature as Adam was of the depraving of it for as far as I can discern he rightly hits the nail on the head that determineth the point in this manner Thom. Contra Gentiles lib. 4o. 55. Mors Christi est quasi quaedam universalis causa salutis sicut peccatum primi hominis fuit quasi universalis causa damnationis Oportet autem universalem causam applicari ad unumquemque specialiter ut effectum universalis causae participet Effectus igitur peccati primi parentis pervenit ad unumquemque per carnis originem effectus autem mortis Christi pertinget ad unumquemque per spiritualem regenerationem per quam Christo homo quodammodo conjungitur incorporatur James Usher March 3. 1617. LETTER XXIII An Answer to some exceptions taken against the former Letter by the Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh I Cannot sufficiently wonder why such exceptions should be taken at a Letter of Mine which without my privity came to so many mens hands as if thereby I had confirmed Papism Arminianism and I know not what error of Mr. Culverwell's which as you write is and hath been opposed by many yea all good men The Papist saith one doth thus distinguish a Mediator of Redemption and Intercession and Bellarmine saith another divides the satisfaction and application of Christ. To which what other Answer should I make but this To hold That Christ is the only Mediator of Redemption but the Saints are also Mediators of Intercession That Christ by his Merits hath made satisfaction to his Father in gross and the Pope by his Indulgence and his Priests by their Oblations in the Mass do make a particular application to particular persons to joyn thus Partners with Christ in this manner in the Office of Mediation is Popery indeed but he who attributing the entire work of the Mediation unto Christ alone doth yet distinguish the Act of Redemption from the Act of Intercession the Satisfaction made by him unto God from the Application thereof communicated unto men is as far from Popery as he that thinks otherwise is from the grounds of the Catechism for that Christ hath so died for all men as they lay down in the conference of Hague Ut reconciliationem cum Deo peccatorum remissionem singulis impetraverit I hold to be untrue being well assured That our Saviour hath obtained at the hands of his Father Reconciliation and Forgiveness of sins not for the Reprobate but Elect only and not for them neither before they be truly regenerated and implanted into himself For Election being nothing else but the purpose of God resting in his own mind makes no kind of alteration in the party elected but only the execution of that Decree and purpose which in such as have the use of reason is done by an effectual Calling in all by spiritual regeneration which is the new birth without which no man can see the Kingdom of God That Impetration whereof the Arminians speak I hold to be a fruit not of his Satisfaction but Intercession and seeing I have learned from Christ's own mouth Joh. 17. 9. I pray not for the reprobate World I must needs esteem it a great folly to imagine that he hath impetrated Reconciliation and Remission of sins for that World I agree therefore thus far with Mr. Ames in his dispute against Grevinchovius That Application and Impetration in this matter we have in hand are of equal extent and That forgiveness of sins is not by our Saviour impetrated for any unto whom the merit of his death is not applyed in particular If in seeking to make straight that which was crooked in the Arminians Opinion he hath bended it too far the contrary way and inclined too much upon the other extremity it is a thing which in the heat of disputation hath befallen many worthy men before him and if I be not deceived gave the first occasion to this present controversie But I see no reason why I should be tied to follow him in every step wherein he treadeth And so much for Mr. Ames The main error of the Arminians vid. Corvin in Defen Armini cap. 11. and of the patrons of Universal Grace is this That God offereth unto every man those means that are necessary unto salvation both sufficiently and effectually and that it resteth in the Free-Will of every one to receive or reject the same for the proof thereof they alledge as their Predecessors the Semipelagians did before them that received Axiom of Christ's dying for all men which being rightly understood makes nothing for their purpose Some of their Opposites subject to oversights as well as others more forward herein than circumspect have answered this Objection not by expounding as

this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel This phrase is frequent with Maymon in his Tract of Repentance cap. 8. sect 7. where he saith that the World passeth away only the Kingdom must first be restored unto Israel 10. 1 Cor. 7. 31. For the Fashion of this World passeth away So 1 John 2. 17. The World passeth away So Maymon in his Tract of Repent cap. 9. sect 2. saith That this World after his fashion passeth away And there he makes as it were a threefold World 1. This present World 2. The day of the Messiah And 3. the World to come or Everlasting Life And he explaineth himself That by this present World he means the Kingdoms and Monarchies which do captivate and afflict Israel the last of which being taken away then shall begin the World of the Messias he means as Rabby Abraham Tzebang a Spanish Jew hath expounded in his bundle of Myrth on the first of Gen. that after 5600 Years of the World expired and before the end of the 6000 Year in which they say the World shall end In this interim I say of 400 Years in which time we now live shall be the fall of Rome which they call Edom typically and that then Redemption shall come in to Israel And this is Maymon's meaning here when he saith That the first wise Men have said that between this World of the Monarchies viz. and the days or times of the Messiah there is not any space or let but only this that God causes first the Kingdoms to pass away that is the last of these Monarchies that afflicts Israel must pass away which is the Idolatry of Rome that hinders the Jews from believing in Christ. 11. 2 Cor. 11. 31. The God which is blessed for ever So Rom. 1. 25. The Creator blessed for ever So Rom. 9. 5. God over all blessed for ever This Epistle which St. Paul useth so frequently in his Epistles is infinitely used of Maymon and all the Rabbins and therefore is become one of their Rabbinical Abbreviatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God holy and blessed for ever 12. 2 Cor. 1. 3. Blessed be God the Father of Mercies So Maymon ends his Book of Knowledg Blessed be the God of Mercy it were more significantly translated the God of Commiserations as Drusius hath well observed for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Father of Mercies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Father of Commiserations answerable to Maymon's Syriac word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose fatherly Bowels yearn with a natural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Pity and Compassion towards his 13. Rev. 1. 20. 2. 1 8 12. He whom St. John calls so often in the Revelations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angel of the Church is called by Maymon in his first Chap. of the Fundamentals of Moses's Law Sect. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Messenger Legate Legate Apostle Minister of the Church or Congregation There he saith that God appeared in Mount Sinai when he gave the Law like to the Angel or Minister of the Church or Congregation wrapped in Garments 14. Luke 3. Christ saith twice It is written and once It is said And so St. Paul often useth this Phrase The Scripture saith but they seldom or never tell you in what Book it is written or said or in what Chapter or in what Verse The same Phrase is as frequent with Maymon he saith It is said It is written or The Scripture saith whensoever he bringeth any place of Scripture for to prove his Assertion Now the reason why he never cites the Section Chapter or Book is for that the Jews have always been so ready and pregnant in the Scriptures as that they need not cite the Book Chapter or Verse For this their expertness in the Scriptures they were called Sopherim Seribes or Numberers of the Law They have told us that there be 54 Parashioths or Sections in Moses's Law of which they do here joyn together the two shortest and so in every year they read over Moses's Law ending on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles every Sabbath-day reading in the Synagogue a whole Section They set down the number of the Verses of every Book as namely Genesis hath in it 1534 Verses The midst of the Book is at these words And by thy Sword thou shalt live The Sections thereof be 12. The Sydrim or lesser Sections be 43. The number of the Letters of Genesis be 4395. And Hakmi tells us on the first of Genesis how many Alphabets there be in the Law viz. 1800. And so I could run through all the other Books But I must not be tedious Now methinks I hear some ignorant Scholar object such an one as Jude speaks of who condemns and speaks ill of those things which he knows not and corrupts those things he also knows To what end and purpose serves this great and needless labour of the Rabbies in numbring up of the Books Verses Sections Words and Letters I answer They serve us for exceeding great use especially in these our days in which God did foresee Popelings would go about to prove that the Scriptures were corrupted and that then we must of necessity have another Judg viz. the Pope If I should grant this Argument made by the Pope's Champion Pistorius That the Scriptures were corrupted and that therefore we must have another Judge Yet doth it not follow that the Pope must be he but contrary-wise that of all other the Pope must be excluded from being Judg for that he is a Party But we constantly deny the Corruption of the Scriptures which they affirm and endeavour to prove by the 848 variae Lectiones and by the Keries and the Cethists And we answer that variety of reading argues not any Corruption but Ingenuity and plentiful Fruit of the Spirit of God done only in obscure places for Illumination for we can prove out of the Nazarites and Sopherisms every word and letter to have been through God's singular Providence numbred up and so kept by them thereby from Corruption Upon which Point Pistorius the Pope's Champion durst not dispute with a Learned Man of our Land For howsoever the Jews were male Legis observatores yet were they boni servatores custodes true keepers of the Oracles of God committed unto them And how did they keep them but by numbring up every Word Letter and Verse that so it being left unto Posterity on Record we might prove the Purity of the Scriptures by their Nazaretical Books against the foisting Papists who do nothing but foist in and corrupt all things not only the Greek Fathers but even the Targums and Comments of the Rabbins in all those places and expressions that make against Rome in Buxtorffs Bible lately set forth As for Example Esay 34. 9. And her i. e. Edom's Rivers shall be turned into Pitch Jonathan the Chaldee Paraphrast that wrote long before Christ comments thus And the Rivers of Rome shall be turned into