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A17143 An answere to ten friuolous and foolish reasons, set downe by the Rhemish Iesuits and papists in their preface before the new Testament by them lately translated into English, which haue mooued them to forsake the originall fountaine of the Greeke, wherein the Spirit of God did indite the Gospell, and the holie Apostles did write it, to follow the streame of the Latin translation, translated we know not when nor by whom With a discouerie of many great corruptions and faults in the said English translation set out at Rhemes. By E.B. Bulkley, Edward, d. 1621? 1588 (1588) STC 4024; ESTC S106854 84,001 112

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Scriptures in the which God speaketh vnto thée no lesse faithfully than if he spake vnto thée mouth to mouth A little after SObrietie with earnest praier and continuall meditation of the Scriptures is a most safe defence of the hart For al holy Scripture giuen by diuine inspiration is profitable to teach to improoue to correct and to instruct in righteousnes that the man of God may be perfect and instructed to euerie good worke Out of it therefore we must gather sentences which we may alwaies haue at hand and in readines that by them we may beat downe the serpent lifting vp his head against vs. For there is no disease of the soule wherunto the holie Scripture doth not minister a present remedie Hence we must get examples of godly men especially of Christ wherewith euerie one may either incourage or comfort himselfe Origines in Leuiticum Homil. 9. DOest thou thinke who comest scarcely vpon the holie daies vnto the Church and neither art attenti●● 〈◊〉 to heare the word of God nor indeuorest to kéepe his commandements that the lot of the Lord can come vpon thée Yet we wish that by hearing these things you would be diligent not onely in the Church to heare the word of God but also to be exercised therein in your houses and to meditate both day and night in the law of the Lord for there also is Christ yea and he is euerie where to them that séeke him A little after IF the diuine reading be in thine hands the commandements of God before thine eies then thou shalt be found ready to cast away those things that pertain to the diuels lot In the same homily after THe nourishments of the soule are diuine reading continuall praier the word of doctrine with this food it is fed becommeth healthie and getteth victorie Theodoretus de curatione Graecarum affectionum Lib. 5. WE doo manifestly shew you the great power of the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets For the whole face of the earth which is vnder the Sunne is full of such words And the Hebrew books be translated not onely into the Gréeke but also into the Romane Aegyptian Persian Indian Armenian Scithian and Slauoi and in a word into all toongs which the nations vse vnto this day And a little after YOu may euery where sée our doctrines to be vnderstood not onely of them which be the teachers of the Church and instructors of the people but also of Taylers Smithes weauers and all artificers Yea also of all women not them only which be learned but also victuallers puddingmakers hand maids and seruants Neither those men onely which dwell in cities but also husbandmen doo well vnderstand the same One may find ditchers and heardmen and planters of vines disputing of the trinitie and of the creation of all things and hauing better knowledge of the nature of man than Plato and Aristotle had Saint Hierom in his preface vpon Esay to a woman called Eustochium IF according to the Apostle Paul Christ be the power of God and the wisedome of God and he that knoweth not the Scriptures knoweth not the power and wisedome of God then the ignorance of the Scriptures is the ignorance of Christ Saint Hierom ad Iulianum WE flie vnto the grauitie of the holy Scriptures where is the true medicine of our wounds and the sure remedies of our griefes Saint Hierom vpon the Epist. to Tit. cap. 1. THis place maketh against them who giuing themselues to idlenes and sléepe thinke it a sinne if they read the Scriptures and doo contemne them as pratlers and vnprofitable who meditate day and night in the Law of God Saint Hierom in his Epitaphie of a woman called Fabiola O good Iesus with what feruencie with what earnest study did she giue hir selfe to the diuine books of the Scriptures And as desirous to satisfie an hunger she did run through the Prophets Gospels and Psalmes propounding questions and hiding the same being answered in the chest of hir hart Saint Hierom in his Epitaphie of a woman called Paula PAula could say the Scriptures without Booke and she enforced me that she and hir daughter might read ouer the old and new Testament hearing me expound it Saint Hierom to a woman called Celantia IT is a great helpe vnto righteousnes to fill thy mind with the holy Scriptures and alwaies to meditate in hart that which thou desirest to execute in déed In the same place LEt therefore the holy Scriptures be alwaies in thy hands and continually meditated vpon in thy mind Saint Hierom to Gaudentius touching the education of his yoong daughter called Pacatula WHen the ignorant and toothles girle commeth to be seuen yéeres old and beginneth to be bashfull to know what she ought to kéepe in silence and to doubt what to speake let hir learne without booke the Psalter and vntil she come to ripe age let hir make the books of Solomon the Gospels Apostels and Prophets the treasure of hir hart Saint Hierom to a woman called Laeta concerning the bringing vp of hir daughter LEt hir first learne the Psalter with those holy Psalms let hir withdraw hir selfe from light songes Let hir be instructed in the prouerbs of Solomon for the leading of hir life By the books of the Preacher let hir accustome to tread vnder féete the things of this world In Iob let hir follow examples of vertue and patience Thence let hir goe into the Gospels and neuer lay them out of hir hand Let hir with the whole desire of hir hart as it were drinke in the Actes of the Apostles and the Epistles And when she hath inriched the storehouse of hir hart with these riches let hir commit to memory the Prophets the fiue books of Moses the books of the Kings and the Chronicles with the volumes of Esdras and Hester Saint Hierom in cap. 3. to the Coloss vpon these words of the Apostle Let the words of Christ dwell in you plentifullie HEre is shewed that lay men ought to haue the word of Christ not sparingly but plentifully and to teach and admonish one an other Saint Augustine lib. 3. de doctr Christia cap. 1. THe man that feareth God diligently séeketh his will in the holy Scriptures Saint Augustine in Psal 33. conc 2. REad ye the Scriptures Therefore God would haue thē to be written that we might be comforted by them Saint Augustine in Psal 64. OVr father hath sent from heauen Epistles vnto vs God hath giuen the Scriptures vnto vs by the which Epistles a desire to come vnto him should be wrought in vs. Saint Augustine de verbis domini secundum Iohan. serm 45. YOu séeke me and shall not find me Why Bicause you search not the scriptures which doo beare witnes of me S. Augustine lib. de vtilitate credendi ad Honoratum Cap. 6. WHatsoeuer beléeue me is in those holie Scriptures it is déepe and diuine for truth and discipline most méet both to refresh and reforme our soules
command vs. But now let vs examine our Iesuits proofes for the confirming of this strange Paradoxe Rhemish Iesuits THe proofe heerof is euident bicause most of the ancient heretikes were Grecians and therefore the Scriptures in Greeke were more corrupted by them as the ancient fathers often complaine Answer LEt the good Christian Reader héere consider the desperate dealing of the Papists against the holy Worde of God First they haue with all carefulnes and diligence kept it vnder the bushell of a strange toong that the light thereof might not shine in the eies of the common people to the discouering of their errors Idolatries and mockeries But when through the great mercie of God this light hath béene taken from vnder this bushell and set vpon a candlestick to giue light to al that are in Gods house to the directing of their féete to walke in Gods waies then they haue fallen to raile on it and reprochfully to speake of it Iohn Ecchius calleth the Scripture Euangelium nigrum Theologiam atramentariam That is the blacke Gospell and Inken Diuinitie Albertus Pighius another patron of the Popes cause writeth thus Sunt Scripturae vt non minus verè quàm festiuè dixit quidam velut nasus cereus qui se horsum illorsum in quamcunque volueris partem trahi retrahi fingíque facilè permittit That is The Scriptures be as one no lesse truly than pleasantly said like a nose of waxe which maybe drawen this way and that way be applied to whatsoeuer part a man will One Ludouicus a canon of the Laterane church in Rome thus spake in an oration in the late goodly Councell of Trident Ecclesia est viuum pectus Christi Scriptura autem est quasi mortuum atramentum That is the Church is the liuely brest of Christ but the Scripture is as it were dead inke How contemptuously writeth Cardinall Hosius of those comfortable and swéet Psalmes of Dauid which be a pretious part of the holy canonicall Scripture For whereas it was obiected for the proofe of kings and princes power in Ecclesiasticall causes that king Dauid did not onely deale in such causes for the restoring and planting of Gods true worship and seruice greatly decaied in the daies of king Saul a wicked hypocrite but also did write Psalmes which pertaine to the canon of the Scripture for the instruction and direction of Gods Church for euer Hosius answereth in these words Scripsit Dauid Psalmos aliquot si quid Athanasio credimus quinque tantùm Quid ni scriberet Ne nunc quidem regi prohibetur aut principi quominus aut rythmos aut Psalmos aut carmina scribat quibus Dei laudes celebret Scribimus indocti doctíque poemata passim That is Dauid did write certaine Psalmes if we beléeue Athanasius but fiue onely Why might he not write Euen now a king or prince is not prohibited to write either rimes or Psalmes or verses wherewith he may praise God We write learned and vnlearned poems apace Thus contemptuously writeth that popish prelate and president in that Tridentine Conuenticle of the Psalmes comparing them with rimes and verses that kings may or do now write and thereunto disdainfully and blasphemously applying that verse of Horace the profane poet Besides this contemptuous speaking of the holy Scriptures our Papists be now procéeded a step further in accusing the originall texts of the Scriptures to be corrupted the old Testament by the Iewes and the New by Gréeke heretikes Is not this desperate dealing against the word of God First to suppresse it and kéepe it in a strange toong then reprochfully to speake of it and now lastly to accuse the original and autenticall copies thereof to be corrupted What can they do more vtterly to deface and discredit the word of God contained in the Scriptures the which may séeme to be the marke they shoote at that by pulling downe the credit of the holy Scriptures they may set vp their owne vaine inuentions and wicked traditions wherewith their religion doth much better agrée than with the Scriptures But now let vs more particularly come to the examination of this assertion The proofe heerof is euident say our Rhemish Iesuits bicause most of the ancient heretikes were Grecians c. I answer that the disproofe héerof is easie For this is not the complaint as you most falsely affirme of ancient fathers but a false slander of ancient wicked heretikes as by the ancient godly fathers doth most plainly appéere So did Heluidius as Saint Hierom sheweth whose words I may aptly apply vnto you which be these Ac nè fortè de exemplariorum veritate causeris quia tibi stultissimè persuasisti Graecos codices esse falsatos ad Ioannis Euangelium venio That is But least peraduenture you complaine of the truth of the copies bicause thou hast most foolishly persuaded thy selfe that the Gréeke bookes be falsified I come to the Gospel of Iohn In which words you may sée how that you who will be worshippers of the virgin Marie ioine héerin hand in hand with Heluidius whom otherwise you would séeme much to mislike for denying the perpetuall virginitie of hir And as Hierom said that Heluidius was most foolishly persuaded then that the Gréeke bookes of the Testament were corrupted Euen so may I say vnto you that this is an extreame folly thus to iudge now as did Heluidius then for what reason is it to thinke that the Gréeke heretikes could corrupt all the Gréeke copies in the world Or why shall not we thinke that the godly learned fathers were as carefull to kéepe them pure from corruption as the heretikes were to corrupt them And whereas there were as the Papists also do now that thought the Iewes had corrupted the Hebrew in the old Testament S. Augustine answereth thus Sed absit vt prudens quispiam vel Iudaeos cuiuslibet peruersitatis atque malitiae tantum potuisse credat in codicibus tam multis tam longè latéque dispersis vel septuaginta illos memorabiles viros hoc de inuidenda gentibus veritate vnum communicasse consilium That is But God forbid that any wise man should beléeue that the Iewes how peruerse or malitious soeuer they were could do so much as to corrupt so many copies and so far and wide dispersed abroad or that those woorthy men the seuentie interpretors did take this counsell togither to depriue the Gentils of the truth Vpon which words of S. Augustine Ludouicus Viues writeth thus Hoc idem responderi potest hijs qui falsatos corruptósque ab Hebraeis codices veteris instrumenti à Graecis noui obijciunt nè veritas sacrorum librorum ex illis fontibus petatur That is This same may be answered to them who do obiect vnto vs as our Rhemish Iesuits do now that the bookes of the old Testament were corrupted and falsified by the Iewes and the bookes of the new Testament by
man can obtaine saluation although we be continuallie partakers of this diuine medicine But if we be dailie wounded and be destitute of remedie what hope can we haue of life or saluation Doost thou not sée Ironsmithes Goldsmithes and Siluersmithes and all those that occupie anie handie craft how they alwaies haue readie kéepe whole all the instruments of their art although famine pinch them and pouertie afflict them rather desiring to sustaine anie aduersitie than to sell anie of the instruments of their occupation and by the monie thereof to be nourished Yea and many times they will rather take vpon vsurie than put in pawne and pledge the smallest of their tooles and this they doo not without iust cause for they know that if they be sold their art is altogither vnprofitable to them and that the substance of their profit is lost but if they retaine and kéepe them it may be that by exercising continuallie their occupation at the last by progresse of time they may discharge their debt But if they doo sell their instruments to other before their debt be discharged there remaineth no meanes to helpe their hunger and ease their pouertie Euen after the same sort ought we to be minded and affected for as the hammer the puntch and the tongs are instruments to them so the books of the Apostles and Prophets and all the holie Scripture which commeth by diuine inspiration is verie profitable are instruments to vs. And as they by those their instruments doo worke and finish that which they take in hand euen so we also by these our instruments doo forme and frame our soule and when it is depraued we amend it and when it is corrupted we correct and renew it And they herein onelie doo vse their art to adde a forme to things for they cannot alter and change the matter and substance of vessels as to make Gold of Siluer but they doo onlie make the forme and fashion of things But thou maist not onlie doo that but more to for thou maist of a wodden at the last make a golden vessel as Paul witnesseth writing in this manner 2. Tim. 2. In a great house are not onelie vessels of gold and of siluer but also of wood and of earth some for honor and some for dishonor If a man purge him from these he shall be a vessell vnto honor sanctified and made méete for the Lord and prepared vnto all good works Therefore let vs not neglect to prepare and get vs those diuine bookes lest we in things touching our life be wounded Neither let vs hide and dig gold in the ground for vs but let vs hide to our selues the treasures of those spirituall bookes Indéed gold when it most increaseth it most deceiueth them that possesse it but these diuine bookes being reposed and kept doo greatlie profit those that haue them For euen as where the kings armor and munition is reposed and laid although there be none that haue the ouersight of it yet it causeth much safetie defence to them that dwell there whilest neither open théefe nor priuie piker nor anie wicked person dare assault the house euen so wheresoeuer those spirituall bookes be from thence all diuellish power is expelled and to them that dwell there much comfort and consolation is added For euen the verie sight of those bookes maketh vs more slacke and slouthfull to sinne for whether we haue attempted anie thing which is prohibited and forbidden vs and therewith haue polluted our selues whē we returne home behold those holie bookes our conscience dooth more sharplie condemne vs and we are therby warned and admonished from committing the same againe or whether we persist in holines we are made by those books more firme and constant for assoone as one hath touched the Gospell by and by he frameth his minde and withdraweth it from worldly matters and that onely by the sight thereof But if diligent reading be ioined thereto the soule being occupied in those holy and diuine mysteries is purged and purified for as much as God speaketh to it by the Scriptures But what then say they if we vnderstand not the matters which are conteined in the scriptures Yes verily although thou vnderstand not that which is secret and obscure yet euen by the reading thou maist get much godlines and yet it cannot be that thou shouldest equally and alike be ignorant of all For the gracious spirit of God hath so disposed and tempered the Scriptures that euen publicanes fishers tentmakers shepheards apostles and simple and vnlearned men might by them be saued that no simple or vnlearned man should flie to this excuse of difficultie and hardnes séeing that the thing which in those diuine books be vttered are so easie for all men that euen craftsmen seruants women and those that be most void of learning may not a little profit euen by the hearing of them read For they whom God from the beginning vouchsafed to indue with his spirit of grace did not write and compose these books for vaine glory as did the ethnicks but for the saluation of those which should heare them For those prophane Philosophers eloquent Orators and fine Rhetoritians when they did write books did not séeke what was most for the publike profit of the people but onely had a regard héereto and studied for this euen to be in admiration and therefore albeit they vttered any thing that was profitable yet they did couer and hide it in the darknes of their wisdom which they much vsed But the Apostles and Prophets did al things contrary for they vttered things in cleare and manifest maner and opened them to all men being as it were the common teachers of the world that euery man might learne the things that are set foorth by the onely reading thereof And this the prophet foreshewed before saieng They all shall be taught of God euery one shall not say to to his neighbor know God for al shal know me frō the least of them to the greatest of them And S. Paul saith 1. Cor. 2. And I brethren when I came to you came not in gloriousnes of words or of wisdom shewing to you the mysteries of God And againe My words and preaching were not in the faire inticing spéech of mans wisedome but in the plaine euidence of spirituall power And againe We speake saith he the wisedome not of this world nor of the princes of this world which come to naught To whom are not manifest the things that be written in the Gospell Who hearing blessed be the milde blessed be the mercifull blessed be the cleane in hart and such other saiengs will require therin to be instructed or to haue the same expounded Also to whom be not signes myracles and histories plaine and manifest This is but a vaine pretence excuse and cloke or couer of slothfulnes Thou doest not vnderstand the things that are conteined in the Scriptures How canst thou euer vnderstand them when as
our vnderstanding reuealeth those things which be secret teacheth vs the things which we do not vnderstand if we of our selues will do our owne endeuor For you shall not saith he call any man master vpon earth Therefore when we take that spirituall booke into our hands all worldly care laid aside let vs kéepe our cogitations and restraining our minde that it be not caried away let vs with good deuotion and great attention giue our selues to reading that we may by the holie Ghost be lead vnto the vnderstanding of the things that be written and receiue great profit therby That Barbarian an eunuch to the Quéen of the Ethiopians who was in so great glorie and did ride in his coach yet in that time neglected not reading but hauing the prophet in his hand vsed great diligence and that not knowing what was contained therein yet he did his indeuor and vsed studie willingnes and attentiuenes Consider I pray you how diligent he was in not neglecting to read as he was trauelling in his iourney and especially sitting in his coach Let them heare and marke this example who cannot be perswaded to do this at home in their houses but thinke the reading of these things to be superfluous bicause they either liue in marriage or be appointed to warfare or haue care of children seruants and other affaires and therefore thinke that the reading of the holie Scriptures doth not appertaine vnto them Behold this Eunuch c. A little after WHerupon he did not speake those things which now manie men doo saieng I doo not vnderstand those things that be written and I cannot attaine to the profound déepenesse of the Scriptures Whie should I in vaine take paines and trouble my selfe I read and haue none to direct me That Eunuch did thinke no such thing being in toong a Barbarian but in mind a Philosopher But rather he thought he should not be neglected but helped with grace from aboue if he did his owne indeuour and vsed studie and diligence Therefore our gratious Lord séeing his desire did not forsake him neither did let him want his helpe but straightwaies sent a teacher vnto him A little after YOu sée what great profit the diligent reading of the holy Scriptures bringeth A little after LEt vs not therefore I beséech you neglect the reading of the Scriptures But whether we vnderstand the things therein contained or vnderstand them not neuerthelesse let vs be earnest in reading for continuall meditation doth not a little confirme the memorie neither seldome doth it come to passe that that which we reading could not to day find out to morrow reading the same ouer againe we doo quickly and plentifullie perceiue it God of his mercie secreatly inspiring it into our minds Chrysostom in his preface vpon the Epistle to the Romanes BVt this gréeueth me and euen tormenteth me and maketh me to mourne that all men doo not know this man Paul as they ought to doo but manie be so ignorant of him that they doo not well know the number of his Epistles And this commeth not by the fault of ignorance but bicause it liketh them not continuallie to talke with this blessed man A little after ANd you if you would giue your selues to reading with chéerefulnesse and attentiuenesse you should haue néed of no other teacher For the word of Christ is true when he saith séeke and you shall find knocke and it shall be opened vnto you A little after HEnce innumerable euils haue sprong in that men be ignorant of the Scriptures Hence hath come that great plague of heresies hence procéedeth dissolutnesse of life and vnprofitable labours For as they that be depriued of this outward light cannot walke rightlie so they that looke not to the beames of the holie Scripture must néeds often and much offend in that they walke in farre woorse darknesse the which that it happen not to vs let vs open our eies to the brightnesse of the Apostles words For his toong in cléerenesse excéeded the sunne and in the deliuerance of doctrine he excelled all others Infinit such other earnest exhortations for all men to read the holie Scriptures might be alledged out of Saint Chrysostom who of all other was most earnest and vehement in this point but these shall suffice both to stirre vp the godlie to this holie and fruitfull exercise and to conuince the vanitie of our Rhemists and their foolish cauillations who saie that he spake these things not as a teacher in schoole making exact and generall rules to be obserued in all places and times but as a pulpit man agréeable to that audience and his peoples default who were delicat dull worldlie much giuen to dice cards stage plaies and theaters c. What vaine cauils these be let the Christian reader indifferentlie iudge And séeing all the children of Adam through the corruption of their sinfull nature be subiect to the like vanities vices and maladies as that people of Constantinople were they stand in néed of the same remedies and preseruatiues of reading and knowing the holie Scriptures which Chrysostom as a good Phisition prescribed And for the further testifieng of this truth and conuincing of the vanitie and follie of our Rhemists I will ad a few moo places out of the other ancient and godlie fathers of Christs Church by the which the Christian reader may discerne who be their true children and faithfull successors we or the Papists The Canons ascribed by the Papists to the Apostles Canon 84. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Let all of you both Clerks and lay men haue the reuerend and holie Bible Irenaeus lib. 2. cap. 46. SEing all the Scriptures both propheticall and apostolical be plain and without ambiguitie and may alike be heard of all men Irenaeus lib. 3. cap. 12. THe ignorance of the Scriptures and of Gods disposition hath brought them into all these errors Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 66. REad diligently the Gospell which is giuen vnto vs by the Apostles and read diligently the Prophets and you shall find all the actions doctrine and passion of our Lord preached in them Tertullianus de baptismo DOmini sermo non debet abscondi ab vllo that is The word of God ought not to be hid from any Tertullianus apolog aduers gentes cap. 39. WE assemble togither to heare the holie Scriptures as the qualitie of the present times inforceth vs either to forewarne or to call to memorie any thing Surely with those holie words we féed our faith we lift vp our hope we confirme our confidence yet neuertheles we confirme the discipline of holie precepts by vrgent exhortations A little after THey talke so as they that know that God doth heare them After washing and candles brought in euerie one is prouoked out of the holie Scriptures as he can to sing foorth vnto God c. Cyprianus de duplici martyrio IN like maner in other temptations obiect vnto the temptor the buckler of the