saith he the excellency of it's moral Precepts the high Strains and noble Flights of Piety prove not that it was written by inspiration for then Plato Seneca Ignatius Clement Romanus the VII wise Men of Greece c. might lay claim to inspiration Would you think it that a Protestant Divine should talk thus ignorantly of the blessed Scriptures Are the Precepts in Plato and Seneca as Excellent as those of the Holy Bible Can he find such high Strains and noble Flights of Piety in Pagan Authors as in the inspired Writings A Man that has felt the Power of God's Word renewing quickning comforting and strengthening his Heart will acknowledge the vast Difference between inspired and humane Writings and resolve his Faith into the Authority of God who speaks powerfully and feelingly unto our Consciences by his Spirit in the Scriptures which have Signatures of their Divine Original upon them that no Book besides can lay claim to Tradition is of Use to beget in us a good Opinion of the Scripture but he that makes it a Rule of Faith especially the first and leading Rule as the Rector seems to do resolves his Faith into a humane Authority which can beget but a Humane Faith Divine Faith is founded upon a Divine Testimony and a Humane Testimony can produce but a Humane Faith * Vinc. Lerin adv haeres Lerinensis his Rule about Tradition is quod omnes ubique semper All the Faithful have not at all times and in every Place transmitted every Book of Scripture as of Divine Authority The Popish Church pretend Tradition for the Apocrypha which they receive as Canonical Few of the People are able to judge of the Rule whether it be True or False Ministers may tell 'em of it suppose they receive their Dictates which few are able to Examin they believe with an Implicite Faith because their Ministers say so and thus the Subordinate Rule becomes the first and leading Rule Creeds Canons Dictates of wise and good Men and the like are either agreeable to the Scripture or they are not If they be not they are far from being Rules of Divine Faith for they are Rules of Error and Falshood If they are agreeable to the Scripture we believe and receive them because they are Consonant to the Word of God the only Rule of saving Divine Faith We will allow 'em to be helps unto our Faith but judge it very improper to call 'em Rules of Faith I told the Rector That the laying aside the Un-scriptural Terms of Communion which have been the fatal Engines of Disunion and Schism wou'd soon heal us To this he Answers 1 The Experiment has been once made in the late Times but without Success Divisions were increased c. Things were in a fair way of healing when the Concessions of King Charles I. were voted satisfactory by the Parliament had not a Faction in the Army put all out of Course and governed the Nation by a very Arbitrary Power and yet there were very hopeful beginnings of a Coalition between the moderate Episcopal Presbyterian and Congregational Brethren upon the Principle I mention between the years 1652 and 1659 as appears by the Worcester-shire Association as also by those of Cumberland Westmorland Essex c. which are to be seen in Print If this Principle did not heal us in those distracting and unsettled Times it does not follow that it would not do it now in a State of Settlement and such a Settlement wherein the Bishops are in Power under whom the moderate Dissenters wou'd not scruple to Exercise their Ministry if the offensive Terms were removed out of the way And if ever our unhappy Breaches be healed it must be upon this Principle which has been asserted by the Great Men of the Episcopal Communion †Iren. Pref. Dr. Stillingfleet the present Biship of Worcester declares against Vn-scriptural Impositions He that came to take away the Un-scriptural Yoke of Jewish Ceremonies certainly did never intend to Gall the Back of his Disciples with another instead of it And it would be strange the Church should require more than Christ himself did What possible Reason can be assign'd why such Things shou'd not be sufficient for Communion with a Church which are sufficient for Eternal Salvation Without all Controversy the main In-let of all the Distractions Confusions and Divisions in the Christian World hath been by adding of other Conditions of Church Communion than Christ hath made My Lord Bacon saith that the ancient and true Bounds of Unity are one Faith one Baptism and not one Ceremony one Policy * Resusc par 1. p. 129. The same was the Judgment of King James the I. In non necessariis libertati Christianae locus detur †Is Casaub ep ad Card Peron See Mr. Tallents's healing Book of large Foundations wherein you may find more Testimonies to this purpose 2. The Rector perscribes the method of healing us and that is to obey them that have the Rule over us in all lawful things i. e. which are not forbidden by God The meaning is if I understand him that Church Rulers have Power to impose Things lawful i. e. not forbidden as Terms of Communion and that it is our Duty to obey such impositions This Explication permised I answer 1. He ought to prove that Christ hath Commission'd our Church Rulers to fix un-scriptural Terms of Christian Communion before he prove it our Duty to obey ' em Where they have no power to command I see not our obligation to obey The grand Commission saith Dr. Stillingfleet the Apostles were sent out with was only to teach what Christ had Commanded them Not the least intimation of any Power given to impose or require any thing beyond what himself had spoken to them or they were directed to by the immediate Guidance of the Spirit of God * Iren ubi supra It is not whether the things required be lawful or not but whether they do consult for the Churches Peace and Unity who suspend it uopn such Things How far the Example of our Saviour or his Apostles doth warrant such rigorous Impositions We never read the Apostles making Laws but of Things supposed necessary 2. He ought to shew that all Things not forbidden may lawfully be imposed as Terms of Communion The use of Oyl Spittle Salt Cream c. are not forbidden in Baptism therefore the Rector wou'd submit to the Use of them if his Rulers think fit to enjoyn them as is done in Popery Holy Water is not forbidden nor are any of the Ceremonies used in Popery expresly Prohibited in Scripture therefore they are lawful to the Rector You see whither this Hypothesis tends Sitting at the Lords Supper is not forbidden no more is Prostration the humblest Gesture of Adoration the Rector would scarce like it if either of these were rigidly imposed 3. Who must judge what is Lawful what not If those that obey we are but where we were that
to be asham'd to own their genuine Productions 5. He stuffs p. 6. and 7. with more Invectives against the Dissenters and indeed he never seems to be so much in his Element as when he is upon that Subject But at last he comes to the Remarks p. 8. and begins with the Preface In my Preface which consisted of four Pages only I gave a short Account of the Heads of his Sermon with brief Remarks upon some passages in it which I judg'd Exceptionable He has a long Chapter Chap. 2. which takes up near half his Book from p. 8. to p. 32. in answer to my short Preface I told him I would not intermeddle in the Controversy between him and Mr. De Laun nor will I now I I only touch'd upon a few things concerning which I see no Cause to alter my Sentiments by what he has offer'd to the Contrary But I will not detain the Reader from the main Poin by attending his tedious digression about the Titles of the Psalms and the Corruptions of the Hebrew Text which I shall consider in a Postcript by it self CHAP. II. Being an Answer to the latter Part of his Second Chapter I Call'd the Rector's affirming the Sadducees to have rejected all but the Five Book of Moses a vulgar Error and gave my Reasons for it out of Josephus and Lightfoot to whom I refer the Reader whom I will not detain on this trifling Subject on which the Rector bestows the best Part of two Pages He says the Fathers were of another Opinion and he hopes I will not thrust them into the vulgar Form p. 27 28. It 's certain the Fathers are not free from all the vulgar Errors of the Age in which they lived the Story of the Phoenix springing out of the Ashes of the old One is mentioned by several Fathers Clemens Romanus has it and would prove the Resurrection from it The ingenuous Rector here desires his Reader to mark how we are advocating for the Samaritans and Sadducees which in good Time the Dissenters will comprehend also Some of the Quakers and Anabaptists the modern Sadducees and Mahometans I mean the Socinians and almost all the Nation of Schismaticks and Hereticks are in their interests already The Samaritans and Jews are happily coming into the confederacy p. 27. I advocate no further for them than Dr. Lightfoot to whose Judgment the Rector promises to stand thus he speaks * Li. Vol. II. P. 1101 1102. It 's the received Opinion amongst the Learn'd that the Sadducees refused all the old Testament but only the Five Books of Moses If they mean it absolutely I must confess my small reading hath not taught so far as to be satisfied in that But if they mean it with some Qualification it 's very True In such a qualified Sense as to say the rest of the Jews refused the third Part of the Bible i. e. the Hagiographa viz. Job Psalms Solomon's Writings Daniel c. They admitted not the reading of these in the Synagog not because they undervalued them but because they counted the rest Sufficient i. e. the Law and Prophets which were read every Sabbath p. 27. The Church of England admits not the reading of some Parts of the Bible in the publick Congregation will you therefore say she rejects them 2. But be this Matter as it will the Rector's inference has as little Sense in it as it has Truth and Charity If he means that the Quakers Anabaptists and Socinians are in the Interests of the Presbyterians it is a vile Calumny If he means that they are Dissenters from the Episcopal Churches so they are from the Presbyterian also Though I must tell him that the Socinians in some of their printed Pamphlets declare themselves of the Church of England nor do I hear that they are expell'd their Communion when any of them are disposed to joyn with her Nay it 's well known that Mr. S. N. a beneficed Parson of the Church of E. is the Author of several of the late Socinian Pamphlets I mention not this to reflect on the Church of England who disowns this Heresy and ought not to be charged with the Errors of particular Persons but as a necessary Vindication of our selves I do not know any one Congregation of Dissenters that wou'd tolerate a Socinian in their Communion As to the Samaritans and Jews I know none fitter for their Confederacy than the Rector of Bury who helps them to a Chronological Argument out of our English Bibles to disprove the coming of Christ in the Flesh For according to our Vossian Rabbi Christ was not to come untill the 6000th Year of the World and according to our Bibles the World is not yet 6000 years Old Mr. G. in his Sermon call'd the Scripture the supreme Rule of Faith to which I made this Answer We know no other Rule of divine Faith but the holy Scripture The Rector undertakes to teach us several Subordinate Rules of Faith such as Creeds Catechisms Decrees of Councils Testimony of Fathers Dictates of wise and good Men the Instrustions of Parents Consent of Adversaries the Voice of Conscience Reason Preaching Providence and lastly universal Tradition p. 29. The Industrious Rector has found out no less than Twelve new Rules of Faith and these may be multiplied into 12000 for every Article of a Creed every Canon of a Council every Dictate of a wise and good Man every Saying of a Father every Passage in a Sermon is a Rule of Faith with the Rector For Instance we will suppose the Rector a wise and good Man I hope then you 'l receive all his Dictates for so many Rules of Faith of which you have abundance in his Remarks upon Remarks and among others that all our Bibles are Corrupted in very material Things This look's a little Comical the supreme Rule of Faith is Corrupted and you must believe it because the subordinate Rule the wise and good Rector's Dictates assures us of it however it is not Impossible but the supreme Rule may be Right and Pure and the subordinate Rule Croked and Corrupt And the Rector will be so Good as to Pardon us or so Wise as to Instruct us better if we think so I now begin to understand the Reason why he is so very Impatient of Opposition why all his Dictates are Rules of Faith and ought to be received for Oracles But the best on 't is he allows us the Benefit of another Rule of Faith that is the Light of Reason what if these two Rules happen to clash We have known Creeds Councils Sermons c. to do so as contrary as they are they are still Rules of Faith with the Rector Yea the sayings of the Pagan wise Men of Greece are Rules of Divine Faith to him and but for Vniversal Tradition he wou'd know no difference between Plato Seneca the wise Men of Greece you may if you please put a wise Man of Gotham among them and the holy Scripture for
of God the First was his Text from which he aggravated his Charge and this he has mis-quoted the Second was the Subject of his Charge in Acts 6. 3. and this also he has mis-quoted by putting seek for book and omitting the Words among you And therefore it ill becomes him to aggravate Mr. B's omitting the word these 3ly I find Acts 15. 28. in the Book of Homilies to which the Rector has subscribed quoted without the words these In the Acts of the Apostles we read that they sent word to the brethren Acts 15. 28. that it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them to charge them with no more than with necessary Things * Homil. against Whoredom I. Part p. 72. edit Lond. 1673. Fol. If the Omission of the word these be a Corrupting of the Word of God let him write an Invective against the Homilies of the Church and retract his Subscription by which he has made himself a Party to this Corruption He charges Mr. B. with Corrupting a Passage in Jerom in his Fifth Dispute which I have not by me and therefore can say nothing to it But if it be mis-quoted I believe it was by Accident and not by Design as he suggests It s evident that he designedly mis-represented me in saying I mistook one Person for another and to cover his Design suppresseth that Part of the Sentence to which I refer'd and therefore have little Reason to believe his Accusations of Mr. B. or any body else and less Reason to believe he has such an Aversion as he pretends to that he unjustly Charges us with viz. a designed mis-representation of Authors This he is notoriously Guilty of and which is a great deal worse he hath Corrupted the Word of God which I admonished him of in my Answer to his Tentamen Novum in which you may find both Corruptions one is in Acts 11. 19. where he reads the rest preached the Word c. instead of they that were scatter'd abroad preached the Word c. so our Bibles have it according to the Original This looks like a designed Corruption meerly to support his Argument as the Reader may see in his Tentam. p. 4. The other Corruption is of 1 Cor. 5. 4. In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my Spirit c. so our Bibles The Rector reads it In the Name of our Lord Jesus and of my Spirit as if the Construction were in the Name of my Spirit i. e. by my Authority intimating that the whole Power of Excommunication was in the Apostle and none in the Church contrary to 1 Cor. 5. 13 14. see his Tentam. p. 17. One wou'd think a Man that is Guilty of Corrupting the Scriptures shou'd not so severely aggravate a mis-quotation out of the Fathers which may happen by the Fault of the Transcriber or Printer or by the inadvertency of the most vigilant Author without any Design But none are more forward to censure a Mote in a Brothers Eye than those Gentlemen that have a Beam in their own The Rector is one that doth so in his Charge against Mr. B. and my self He bestows the two next Pages upon a mis-quoted Passage out of Chrysostom in my Plea in which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mis-printed for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Point I treated of was that Evangelists were unfixed Officers which is Evident in the New Testament and is the General Opinion of learned Men nay the Rector himself can't deny but they were at first unfixed Tentam. p. 118. For the Confirmation of this receiv'd Opinion I quoted Eusebius and Chrysostom as agreeing with him and by a mistake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter which makes the Negative an Affirmative I but saith he if you had cited Chrysostom in the Negative as you ought he wou'd not have agreed with Eusebius p. 57. I have proved in my Tutam Evangel that they do agree if Chrysostom be cited in the Negative as I confess he ought Eusebius saith they passed into other Countries and Nations Chrysostom saith they did not go up and down every where as the Apostles did but preach'd the Gospel as Priscilla and Aquila He adds a little after that the Evangelists went about * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Eph. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It 's evident from Chrysostom that Evangelists went about but not every where So did Aquila and Priscilla go up and down but not every where as St. Paul and other Apostles did Aquila and Priscilla are Evangelists in Chrysostom now it 's certain they went up and down and that as the Apostles helpers in Christ Rom. 16. 3. Aquila was a Native of Pontus Acts 18. 2. he lived with his Wife Priscilla sometime at Rome Afterwards we find them at Corinth Acts 18. 1 2. afterwards at Ephesus Acts 18. 18. 19. 1 Cor. 16. 19. and after that we meet them at Rome Rom. 16. 3. if the Epistle to the Romans was written after the 1 Corinthians as Doctor Lightfoot Affirms †Vol. I. p. 299. and 313. When the second Epistle to Timothy was written we find 'em in Asia 2 Tim. 4. 19. 'T is most undeniable then that Aquila and Priscilla Chrysostom's Evangelists went up and down and that into other Countries and Nations tho' not every where and so Chrysostom agrees with Eusebius But suppose Chrysostom shou'd not agree with Eusebius as it 's Evident he doth this doth not prejudice Eusebius's Testimony nor my Hypothesis of Evangelists that they were unfixed Officers which the Rector himself is forced to acknowledge I shall not quarrel with him about Chrysostom whilst he owns my Notion of Evangelists which if he think fit to retract I will undertake to maintain without being obliged to Chrysostom He thinks I have no way to come off from his Charge of Corrupting Chrysostom for which he is pleased to give me the Character of a Great Rogue but by pleading Ignorance or Dishonesty p. 58. There is no necessity of either Plea which are both equally false But I have a Third which is a just one and will pass with Men of Honesty whose Characteristic is Candor viz. that the mistake of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was by inadvertency or over-sight as we will Charitably hope many of his are tho' a Man must strain his Charity very hard to think so of his Corrupting the Text of Scripture It cannot be imagined his Printer wou'd foist whole Words into a Text without the knowledge of the Author especially where the Corrupt reading is adapted to an Argument which cannot be supported without it Let the World judge who is the Great R. he that happens to mistake a Sentence in the Fathers or he that refines upon the Word of God Ay but saith he the Remarker hath Corrupted Rom. 15. 19. for he affirms Tutam Evangel p. 124 125. that Paul preach'd the
Certificate of the Consent of Parents If this be so The Rector is guilty of the basest disingenuity to revive a malicious Accusation against a Man in his Grave and to suppress his Compurgation whereby his Innocency was cleared Mrs. P. affirms and will take it upon her Oath if there be occasion that she had her Parents Consent and that Morning before she was Married to Mr. P. she had both Father and Mother's blessing and in the Evening they were both entertain'd and wellcomed by her Parents He quarrels with an innocent Passage in the Reverend Mr. O. H's Family Altar the design of which is to persuade Persons to keep up the Worship of God in their Families It 's well if the Rector in his Parochial Visitations be as forward to oblige his Parishoners to Pray in their Families as he is to ridicule a judicious Discourse upon the Subject of Family Prayer It puts me in Mind of the Jews Treatment of the Christians of which Just Martyr gives this Account tho' one shou'd speak Ten Thousand Words never so well if he happens to say the least Thing that does not please you because it 's either not understood or not carefully heeded you overlook the abundance of Things that are well spoken and get some little Word by the end and fasten upon it the most impious Constructions | Just Mart. adv Tryphon The Rector serves Mr. O. H. much after the same Manner he over-looks all the good Things in Mr. H's excellent Book the very Subject of which is recommending to every Devout Christian and has pick'd out one Sentence in it to make Sport with which is this God is the Author of all Topography and Geography as well as Genealogy and Chronology p. 37. Any one but the Candid Rector wou'd have over-look'd a Passage of this kind in a popular Discourse of Practical Religion wherein Ministers Study not all the exactness of Expression But he is One of Just Mart. Criticks who seeks Occasion to reproach more useful Men than himself The words are capable of a fair Construction Why may not God be call'd the Author of Geography as Hipparchus call's Homer hujus peritiae primarium Authorem * the first and Chief Author of Geography Tho' Homer has not written professedly of that Subject but there are a great many Discriptions of Places scatter'd up and down in his Poems and so there are in the Scripture The Great Bochart hath written a very Learned Book of Sacred Geography †It 's certain the first Book extant that Treats of Geography Genealogy and Chronology is the Bible of which I hope the Rector will not deny God to be the Author FINIS ADVERTISEMENT WE find ye for we in Matt. 20. 22. of a fair Octavo Bible Printed at Oxford 1679. ye are able instead of we are able THE POSTSCRIPT Being an Answer to the Rector's 2d Chapter wherein he endeavours to prove the Titles of the Psalms to be no Parts of Scripture and the Hebrew Bibles to have been Corrupted in very material Things IN pursuance to my promise I will now examine his Digression about the Titles or Inscriptions of the Psalms and the Purity of the Hebrew Text of which our English Bibles are a Translation I must here premise that the Difference between the Rector and me about the Hebrew Titles and Copies is no point of Controversy between the Episcopal Party and the Dissenters but I oppose a bold Paradox of his which he endeavours to maintain against the Common Sentiments of learned Protestants and the more moderate Papists I shall begin with the Titles of the Plalms which because he finds 'em omitted in the Liturgy Translation of the Psalms he attempts to exclude out of the Sacred Canon We agree that they are very Ancient but he is of Opinion they are humane Additions and that some of 'em are False I affirm and undertake to prove that they are of equal Authority with the rest of the Psalms and to be admitted for Canonical Scripture Before we enter upon the debate of this Point let it be consider'd 1st That the Rector's Opinion is very singular and has few or no Patrons in the Christian World at this Day He has not hitherto been able to produce any one Protestant Writer or Christian Commentator that has condemn'd 'em as Spurious and Un-canonical A wise Man is not Ambitious of being thought singular especially in a doubtful Point least of all in an Error and that of such a Nature as strikes at the Authority of any Part of the inspired Volumns 2dly Tho' the Titles of the Psalms be but a small Part of Scripture and several of 'em obscure and hard to be understood we must not therefore expunge them out of the Divine Canon to which we must neither add nor diminish Every Word of God ought to be equally precious to us as being an Emanation from the same Fountain of un-erring Wisdom and Truth Even the more abstruse and seemingly less useful Parts of Scripture must be received with the same Veneration which is paid to those that are more plain and do more sensibly concern us 3dly If the Titles be Parts of the Holy Scripture as I shall prove immediately the Rector stands convicted by his own Sermon of being a Corrupter of the Word of God for he endeavours to diminish from it In prosecuting this Subject 1st I will vindicate my Arguments to prove the Titles of the Psalms to be Canonical 2dly I will answer his Objections to the Contrary CHAP. I. Vindicating my Arguments for the Titles of the Psalms THE Rector having challenged us to prove the Titles to be Original and Essential Parts of Scripture I proposed a few Arguments for the Affirmative without Design of entering into this Controversy as being foreign to his Charge These he pretends to Answer which I shall now Vindicate I. My first Argument was this That they are as Ancient as the Psalms themselves for ought appears to the Contrary they being in all the Hebrew and Greek Copies that ever I have seen and that they are most of 'em Translated by the LXX and by Theodotion Symmachus and Aquila as also by the Targumist * Remarks upon Remarks p. 9. To this he answers That the Subscriptions of St. Paul's Epistles are to be found in all Greek Copies save that of Claromont and are always Translated into our modern Versions and yet the Remarker will not own them for Canonical Scripture Nothing can be inferr'd from these Subscriptions in prejudice of my Argument because 1st They are not in all Greek Copies as Grotius and Beza with many others have observ'd and the Rector is forced to confess but can he produce any Copy of the Hebrew Psalms that wants the Titles The constant Consent of all Hebrew Copies bespeaks 'em not only ancient but original Parts of Scriptures 2. The Postscripts of St. Paul's Epistles are not the same in all ancient Manuscripts and therefore saith Grotius they are of
which no man is able to read or understand because one half of it is maimed neither has it any Vowels but what were given it by the enemies of Christianity * Codex ille mutus est quem nec legere ne dum intelligere quisquam sciat Is Vos Resp ad Nup. Crit. In another place he passes this arrogant Censure on the Learned Translators of the Hebrew Bible I could produce whole Chapters especially out of the more obscure Books of the Holy Scripture as Ecclesiastes Job Hoshea and others in which you will not find so much as one Verse rightly understood and rendred by the Interpreters of our Age | In quibus ne unicus quidem occurrat versiculus qui à nostri saeculi Interpretibus rectè acceptus redditus fuerit De Sibyll Orac. cap. 13. p. 270. If no Man be able to read or understand the Hebrew Bible how comes Vossius to understand it And if he does not understand it how knows he that the Interpreters of our Age have not Translated aright If he does understand it why had he not given us a right Translation of those whole Chapters that are misrendred He repeats his bold Assertion The Hebrew Book is mute as being destitute of true Vowels and tho' we had Vowels even this would not enable us to Translate it since we have utterly lost the signification of the words and the sense which arises from them even the Jews themselves do not deny this difficulty of interpreting Resp ad Obj. p. 325. If our Hebrew Bibles be such useless Things as Is Vossius makes them it 's hard to determine what they are good for It 's well if his admirer Mr. G. does not condemn them to the Flames as he has done some of our * Serm. p. 27. English Bibles for the Corruption he finds in them and their being unintelligible at the best if we may believe his Friend Vossius for whose profound Judgment he has so great a Veneration The same Vossius thus reflects on Dr. Lightfoot's Horae Hebraicae Talmudicae on 1 Cor. which the learned World justly admires He seems to me saith he to be less faulty who wou'd expound the Gospels out of the Alcoran than out of the Talmud And a little after he Charges him as justly as the Rector does the Dissenters with Corrupting the Word of God with preferring the Authority of the Talmud to that of the Gospel in the Explication of Scripture †Voss Resp ad Obj. p. 331. 332. He commends Charles the Great for laying aside the Gothick Saxon and French Languages and for propagating with his Empire the Latin Tongue and assigning it the chief Place | Ibid. p. 340. non in Sacris modo not only in Religious but in Civil Actions also He calls those that defend the Hebrew Bibles Asellos cassos Iumine intellectu Asses void of Judgment and Understanding girt with a Professors Gown and carrying for their Shield the Masoretick Bible with all it's Points § Epist. ad Andr. Colv. Thus much I thought fit to Advertise the Reader concerning Isaac Vossius whose great Judgment the Rector applauds and subscribes to in his Opposition to the Hebrew Bible He that makes our Hebrew Bibles to consist in dumb Letters which no Man can read much less understand that Censures the Interpreters of his Age as not rendering so much as one Verse aright in whole Chapters that speaks favourably of the Use of the Latin Tongue in Religious Worship is not the most excellent Pattern for a Protestant Minister to follow but the Rector is of Age to chuse his own Masters CHAP. IV. Being a Vindication of my Arguments for the Purity of the Hebrew Text. I Briefly hinted at two or three Arguments for the Purity of the Hebrew Copies which I will now improve and vindicate from the Rector's Exceptions I. I affirm'd the Hebrew Copies to have been incorrupt in our Saviour's Time because he never Charg'd the Jews with Corrupting the Scriptures The Rector takes no Notice of this Argument but he saith afterwards p. 22. many Corruptions might steal into the Hebrew Text and designedly be thrust into it before Christs Time He dare not say there were any thrust into it but he slily insinuates there might be He deals here with the sacred Text as he has done with Dissenters he brings it under Suspicion when he wants direct Proof If the Jews before the Birth of Christ had designedly Corrupted the Holy Bible doubtless we shou'd have heard of it in the History of the New Testament We are told there that the Oracles of God were Committed to them Rom. 3. 2. They were made the Conservators of the Divine Writings which were concredited to them Had they betray'd so great a Trust and perfidiously falsified the Holy Scriptures can we imagine that Christ and his Apostles wou'd have overlook'd so horrid a wickedness attended with a train of the most fatal Consequences Jesus Christ was faithful to him that appointed him as also Moses was in all his House Moses as a Servant but Christ as a Son over his own House Moses his Fidelity consisted in his Care to transmit the Divine Laws pure and incorrupt to the People as he received them in the Mount Had these Laws been Corrupted by the wickedness of after Ages doubtless the Lord Jesus wou'd have restored 'em to their Original Purity It cannot be conceiv'd that the Son shou'd be less concern'd for the Laws of his House than the Servant had been One great end of his Appearance was to Reform the Corruptions of the Jewish Church and wou'd he leave their very Laws Vnteform'd He came into the World to bear Witness unto the Truth and can we think he wou'd have overlook'd the Falshoods of that Book which is the Standard of Truth had any been thrust into it as the Rector supposes He who reproves the Jews for lesser Sins wou'd never have Connived at so great an Abomination as the Corrupting of the Hebrew Copies He censures their Corrupt Glosses upon the Law and Vindicates it from them Mat. 5. much more wou'd he have noted the Corruptions of the Original Text. He bids his Disciples search the Scriptures hear the Scribes and Pharisees sitting in the Seat of Moses who was read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day It 's not likely that he wou'd have recommended the Study of corrupted and depraved Scriptures unto his Followers without a necessary Caution against the Errors of them From the whole it's Evident that the Scripture of the Old Testament was not Corrupted before the Birth of Christ nor were they Corrupted after as appears by the Testimonies which Christ and his Apostles cite out of 'em which are all for Substance to be found in Moses and the Prophets as they are cited by them Thus Origen and Jerom anciently argued for the Purity of the Hebrew Text If the Jews Corrupted the Scriptures say they they did it either before