AN EXERCITATION Concerning the frequent use of Our LORDS PRAYER In the Publick Worship of God And A view of what hath been said By Dr. OWEN concerning that Subject Ignatius ad Magnesios p. 55. per Vedelium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chemnitius in Harmo p. 785. Fastidere vel brevitatem vel simplicitatem Orationis Dominicae quasi meliorem Orandi formam tu possis excogitare componere non tam temeritas quà m Impietas est By THOMAS LONG Preacher of the Gospel LONDON Printed by J. G. for R. Marriot and are to be sold at his shop in St. Dunstans Church-yard Fleet-street 1658 THE DEDICATION Blessed Saviour WHo hast put into the heart of thy meanest Servant to vindicate one of the highest Ordinances and hast in some measure given him strength to bring forth what thou gavest him grace to conceive Pardon I humbly beseech thee the weakness of these endeavours and prosper them by thy Almightie Spirit to the reviving of thine own despised Institution Thou hast the hearts of all men in thy hand remove I pray thee all ignorance and prejudice all pride and partiality all carnall interests and inordinate passions from their hearts into whose hands these unworthy labours shall come and cause them and the dayly prayers of thy Servant to become effectuall through thy blessing for the production of that good end to which it is intended And let the Power and the Praise be onely thine who bringest greatest things to pass by the weakest means and out of the mouths of babes and sucklings dost ordinarily perfect thy praise Suffer not blessed Lord the spirit of errour and division to prevail against those whom thou hast purchased with thy blood but let that blood be effectually applied unto them to cleanse them from their sins to confirm them in thy truth and to cement them inseparably in brotherly love and unity That as we have One Lord one Faith and one Baptisme so we may be all of one heart and of one mind in all things that concern the purity of thy worship the peace and edification of thy Church and may have all our requests together with the Incense of thy Almighty Intercession dayly presented unto our heavenly Father in that golden Censer which thou in great mercy to our infirmities hast consecrated for the offering up of the prayers of thy Servants commanding us when we pray to say Our Father c. To the VVorshipfull JOHN MAYNARD ESQUIRE Serjeant at Law Honoured Sir I Have made my Dedication laying down my self and all my poor endeavours at the feet of Jesus Christ my great Master And having payed my vowes I come now to pay my debts or rather because they are greater then I can satisfie to make my acknowledgement presenting this Pepper-corn to your hand All the hope that I have of your acceptance is because I have intitled you to a righteous cause and such as can plead for it self No eminency of learning or authority can give any opponent so great advantage against him that pleadeth the cause of Christ is the truth and goodness of that cause can administer to him that defends it against all opposers be they never so numerous or clamorous And yet Worthy Sir lest the weakness of the Advocate should seem to prejudice the cause I have chosen to plead it mostly in the Language and Arguments of men as famous for excellent learning and exemplary Pietie as any this Age can boast of And I am sure too that there are many Persons alive of that Character who will readily appear and plead for it still but if all should forsake it if all should oppose it Our great Master can plead his own Cause and I doubt nor Sir but you will be of his Councel and then though the Solicitor be an Ignoramus yet there is no fear of the Verdict And thus having done my devoir and told the world that no man on Earth hath better Title to my Labours then your self I beseech the God of Heaven to make you as eminent in Spiritual as you are in Temporall blessings that the inner man may prosper as the outward doth So prayeth Your Servant in all good Offices THO. LONG The Preface WHile our generation hath been so busie in casting out the rubbish of the Sanctuary it should have been the special care and inspection of the publick Servants of God attending holy things that none of the sacred vessels and utensils of that house which had Holiness to the Lord written on them were thrown out But the enemy haveing prevailed with too many to lay aside some as vessels and to trample on others as outworn beggarly implements hath also raised so much dust as hath buried many and sullied the glory of all the rest yea and as if the Christian Church had its cloud too the understandings of the beholders are so darkned that it is become as difficult to discern and separate between the precious and the vile as it is easie familiar to call evil good and good evil In this great confusion wherein Jerusalem hath been made an heap that Golden Censer wherein the Prayers of the Saints were wont to be offered up to the God of Heaven and that which hath been used in all ages as the Salt to season all Christian services hath it self been hudled up as useless or cast out as unsavoury And no wonder for when the enemy opposeth no Ordinance more then Prayer and of all Prayers this of our Lord is incomparably the most excellent of which we may justly say as the People did of David Thou art worth ten thousand of others we may not think it strange if as the King of Syria did he so order it that his Instruments fight not against small or great but onely this King of Prayers And indeed fought they have against it many a time since Pelagius first blew the trumpet and marshalled his forces against this and other important truths of Christ but never were they so unhappily succesful as in our generation That the professed enemies of Jerusalem should cry raze her raze her even to the ground is a voice that the Church hath been acquainted with in all ages that they should assault her foundations and trample upon all the holy Ordinances disannul the Office and despise the persons of the Ministry call their Prayers charmes and their Preaching foolishness is so far from wonder that it would be a great wonder if they should not but that they who are named by the name of Christ should doe these iniquities that his veterane Souldiers and houshold-servants who yet remain in his Tents should conspire with his enemies to betray his foretresses cast away their armes and desert his cause is of very sad consideration Such practices as these have weakned the cause of Christ and given great advantage to the adversary yea and a just ground of scandall is hereby offered to all sober Christians both at home and
to the Jewes so doubtless it hath and will appear in the preservation of the Mysteries of our salvation in the New Testament to the end of the world for I know not any promise or priviledge that the Jewes had in this respect above Christians and seeing God doth require on our parts that we should captivate our reason and understandings to the Doctrines and Truths therein revealed it is but reasonable to think that God will certainly preserve them in their integritie and puritie And if the Jewes who have been professed enemies to Christ and Christian Religion ever since they had a being have been so wonderfully withheld from corrupting the Scriptures of the Old Testament in those things that concern our Saviour his Nature Person and Offices which they have alway had more then a good will but never power to do how can it be supposed that the Greek books of the New Testament which have alway bin in the custodie and under the care of most of the Churches of God who in all ages have had men of great abilitie sidelitie and vigilancie to preserve them should be corrupted And thus we pass on in the second place to enquire that seeing there are many Greek copies some of which do hugely differ from others yet all of them pretend to Antiquity and Purity which of these are the most authentique and in this also we shall be directed by those that are the greatest enemies to them Sextus Senensis thus Dicimus eum Gracum codicem qui nunc in Ecclesia legitur c. We affirm this Greek book which is now used in the Church to be the very same which the Greek Church had in the times of Hierome and long before even to the dayes of the Apostles which is true sincere and faithful not polluted by any falsitie as the continual reading of all the Greek Fathers doth plainly shew for Dionysius Justine Irenaeus Melito Origen Affricanus Apollinarius Athanasius Eusebius Basil Chrysostome Theophylact and other Fathers before and after the time of Hierome doe use one and the same Text of Scripture Now that all these should be so deluded as not to know the corrupt copies from the true and by their inanimadvertency purchase a curse to themselves and intail it on their posteritie no rational man can think if he consider how near they were to the Apostles dayes what abilities they had and what courage for the cause of Christ besides the tradition of the Church which is an Argument against the Papists and the actings of divine Providence to the contrary And Saint Hierome tells us it was the practice of the Church in his time In N. T. si quando apud Latinos quaestio oritur c. If any controversie doe arise among the Latines concerning the New Testament and there be variety in the Latine copies we presently flie to the Greek fountains and although some Greek copies did anciently differ as possibly they might within a few Centuries of years yet the difference being but in words and letters rather then sense and the Church still retaining those which did agree with one consent and common practice there cannot be a more probable Argument of their authority and perfection Besides seeing those ancient Greek copies which by the Primitive Church have been delivered to us do keep the same Analogy of faith and truth among themselves it is an argument they were not corrupted by those Hereticks whose malice aimed at the most precious truths But when any particular Greek copy goes against the generally approved ones and is faulty in any of the more important truths that copy may be suspected as spurious or corrupted thus the corruption of the Arian copies discovered it self in corrupting those places that did in Christo hominem à Deo separare separate the Divinity from the Humanity of Christ as Jo. 1. 30. 1 Jo. 5. 7. Our third inquiry is concerning the authoritie of those Greek copies especially that of Beza which differ from the rest Brugensis saith of his second copy which hath some difference from others Latinae editioni contra alia omnia consonat c. that it agrees with the Latine Edition against all others and sometime with its Grand errors and was almost wholly conformed to the Latine So Erasmus of the Greek copy in the Vatican Exemplum illud ante paucos annos confectum esse tempore Concilii Florentini cùm facta est concordia Latinae Ecclesiae cum Graecâ This copy was made not many years since in the time of the Florentine Councel when there was a peace made between the Latine and Greek Churches Then for Beza's copy Mr. Gregory tells us that it was the Opinion of those two learned Bishops Armagh and Worcester that it had been corrupted by the Hereticks and that which he intimates concerning its faultiness in the Genealogie is an argument of it But it may suffice to give you his own judgement concerning that copy as he delivers it in his Epistle to the Universitie of Cambridge to whom he presented it Quatuor Evangeliorum Actorum Apostolorum Graeco-Latinum exemplar ex Sancti Irenaei caenobio Lugdunensi ante aliquot annos nactus inutile quidem illud neque satis emendatè ab initio ubique descriptum neque ita ut oportuit habitum sicut ex paginis quibusdam diverso charactere insertis indocti cujuspiam Coligeri barbaris alibi adscriptis notis apparet vestrae potissimùm Academiae ut inter verè Christianas vetustissimae plurimisque nominibus celeberrimae dicandum existimavi Reverendi Domini Patres in cujus Sacrario tantum hoc venerandae nisi forte fallor vetustatis monumentum collocetur etsi nulli verò melius quam vos ipsi quae sit huic exemplari fides aestimarint hac de re tamen vos admonendos duxi tantam à me in Lucae praesentìm Evangelio repertam esse inter hunc codicem caeteros quantum vis veteres discrepantiam ut vitandae quorundam offensioni asservandum potiùs quà m publicandum existimem In hac tamen non sententiarum sed vocum diversitate nihil profecto comperi unde suspicari potuerim à veteribus illis haereticis fuisse depravatum imo multa mihi videor deprehendisse observatione digna quaedam etiam sic à recepta Scriptura discrepantia ut ramen cum veterum quorundam Graecorum Latinorum Patrum scriptis consentiant non pauca denique quibus vetusta Latina editio corroboratur quae omnia pro ingenii mei modulo inter se comparata cum syrâ Arabicâ editione collata in majores meas Annotationes à me nuper emendatas brevi Deo favente prodituras congessi c. This copy was found at Lions in France during the civil wars there in the year 1562. of whole Antiquity the chief mark that Beza gives is that it hath barbarous notes affixed to it whereas the Grecians have been more barbarous in
being a form or our using it as such be a fault both these may be charged on our Saviours account who yet knew no sin though he used divers forms and why we should be such professed enemies to what our Saviour declared himself so much a friend especially if we consider how much the formes used by him were beneath that which he commanded us I fear a satisfactory reason can be scarcely given Nay when we doe the same thing in other parts of Gods Worship why should we disallow our selves in this The Scriptures which we read are formes There are formes of Doctrine and formes of wholesome words formes of praysing God and praying unto him in the words of Abraham Jacob Moses Deborah David Solomon Hezekiah c. and when we may and ought to bless and praise God in some of these forms why ought we not also to pray unto God in this It seems forms are lawful in our praises in the administration of both Sacraments in our benedictions yea and our excommunications too onely in our prayers they are not so And is not this greatly to be wondred at that in our Generation men should so much dote upon and contend for petty forms of Discipline which till of late dayes were never fancied to be either in the Scriptures of God or the practice of his Church for which notwithstanding the veil of the Temple yea the very bowels of the Church are rent and Christ himself seems to be crucified afresh when this form so positively prescribed in Scripture so universally practised by the Church in all ages is most undeservedly and unworthily exploded Our Saviours own practice was a sufficient warrant for the Primitive Church to compose and make use of forms of Prayer in the publick worship of God and that promise of his which also implies a precept was a firm ground of raising their faith and hope of obtaining a blessing on them I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall aske it shall be done for them c. And indeed it will require the serious study experience wisedome and premeditation of more then one Disciple to express the necessities of all the people of God and suit them to the capacities and affections of them all And now having already given you a series of the use of forms in the service of God under the Old Testament and seeing the use of this prayer is disliked chiefly because it is a form I am even necessitated to say somewhat of the use of forms also under the New And that they that seek a stumbling-block may find none I shall choose to doe it in the words of pious and approved men who are above all exception And such an one in the first place I take Mr. Calvin to be who in his Epistle to the then Protector of England sayes thus As for formes of Prayer and Ecclesiastical rites I greatly approve that there be set formes from which the Pastors may not depart in their offices and whereby provision will be made to assist the simplicity and indiscretion of some and the consent of all Churches may more visibly appear and it will prove a remedy against the desultory levity of some men that still affect innovations as I have shewed saith he that the Catechisme it self serves for this purpose so therefore there ought to be a set form of Catechisme a set form of the administration of the Sacraments and of publick prayer The worst that Mr. Calvine said of the English Liturgy when it was newly purged from the dross of Popery being importuned by some dissenting English at Franckfort to pass his censure upon it was this that the things most obvious to exception were tolerabiles ineptiae trifles that might be tolerated rather then contended about and his toleration of the worst implies his approbation of the rest Upon one of these grounds the heathen themselves made use of formes which indeed were grown more universal then the Church her self ne fortè aliquid praeposterè dicatur lest any unfit thing should be spoken they read their Prayers before their sacrifices out of a book And in truth as at the building of the Temple there was no noise of axes and hammers heard but all the materials were hewed and formed before hand so in the publick service of God we should use all lawful means to secure our selves from those weaknesses indecencies and miscarriages to which we are all subject Marosius tells us that adstata pietas officia c. It is both lawful and expedient in the constant duties of Piety as well private as publick to use preconceived forms whereby both the mind and tongue may be guided in the performance for this saith he was the constant practice of the Church in all ages and grounded upon most firm testimonies of Scripture Next Alsted sayes That certain formes of prayer have been alwayes used in the Church and although to pray in a right manner be a gift of the holy Ghost tamen formulae precum divinitus praescriptae c. yet formes of prayer which are by divine prescription are not to be neglected as the precepts of living well are not therefore to be despised because the holy Spirit doth work Holiness in us Bishop Andrewes reproves an imagination against Orabo Spiritu praying in the Spirit 1 Cor. 14. 15. by finding fault with a fit Liturgy which they call stinted Prayers and giving themselves to imagine Prayers at the same instant whereby it is plain they so occupy their minds with devising what to say next that their spirit is unfruitful no less then the others understanding and both the understanding of the mind and the affection of the spirit are there necessarily required And again St. Cyprian saith It was ever in Christs Church counted an absurd thing ventilari precs inconditis vocibus the absurdity whereof would better appear if seeing under prayers here Psalmes and spiritual Songs are contained both being parts of Invocation they would have no stinted Psalmes but conceive their songs too and so sing them for in truth there is no more reason for the one then for the other but Gods Church hath ever had as a form of Doctrine both of Faith in the Creed and of life in the Decalogue so of Prayer too which from Acts 13. 2. the Fathers in all ages have called a Liturgy or the Service of God So the Reverend Bishop And Alsted sayes Eruditio eruditionum est Symbolum Virtus virtutum est Decalogus Litania litaniarum est Oratio Dominica I shall close this with that which D. Wilkins hath said of this subject who after a debate pro and con for Prayer by form and without form concludes That generally it is both lawful and necessary to prepare our selves as for the gift in general so for every particular Act of it by premeditating if we have leisure
some in St. Augustines time had it for in cap. 28. de verbis Domini he reciteth the whole prayer out of St. Luke as out of Saint Matthew and it seems such copies were of use and authoritie in those dayes for St. Ambrose relates it in like manner From whence saith Chemnitius it may be gathered that the Latine copies did differ in Augustines time some reading this Prayer in St. Luke as the Greek copies doe whole and intire Besides Lucas Brug numbers eight Latine Manuscripts wherein the third Petition is retained in St. Luke where he adds that it agrees to the Greek Text of the Kings Bible and to the Syriack Translation of the same and of the other particulars Qui es in Coelis and libera nos à malo he saith some Latine exemplars have them Now here that I may give more full satisfaction and because the consequence of what I shall say may resolve another scruple concerning the Doxologie I shall briefly discuss these four things 1. The authoritie of the Greeke Copies above others 2. Which of the Greeke Copies are most authentick 3. In what ancient Beza's Greeke Copie is to he had 4. What is the rise and authoritie of the Vulgate Latine First the authority of the Greek Copies is acknowledged even by the Papists themselves when they are serious to be Apostolical Bellarmine saith Constat N. T. Graece scriptum esse ab Apostolis vel Evangelistis quorum nomina titulis praefiguntur It is manifest that the New Testament written in Greek by the Apostles or Evangelists were theirs whose names are prefixed to the Titles And it cannot be doubted saith he that the Apostolical editions are of highest authoty unless it could be proved that they were corrupted of which I have reason to think the same as of the Hebrew Copies viz. that neither they nor the Greek are generally corrupted and this saith he may be easily demonstrated for there never wanted Gatholickes which did discover the indeavours of those hereticks that sought to corrupt them and did not permit those sacred Scriptures to be depraved Thus he wherein he speaks as much like a Protestant as those that make the Objection and indeed when we hear the complaints of the Greeke Fathers in those Primitive times sounding loud against those bold and busie Hereticks as Ireneus against Marcion Origen Chrysostom Eusebius Epiphanius Theodoret c. against the Arians Macedonians Manichees Valentinians Nestorians and others they shewed themselves careful and faithful shepherds in watching and withstanding those morning-Wolves Bellarmine notes that Ambrose did so by the Arians who from John 4th took away Spiritus est Deus for so the Vulgate read it which all the Greeke books have saith he So that although those vermine did impair some of those books yet seeing the Fathers of the Church did hunt them out of their lurking places and observed all their haunts and through Gods providence by their care did prevail to preserve the greater number of those books pure and intire which were so owned and received by the common consent and practice of the Church I know not what any adversarie can say against the authoritie of them Take these instances of the watchfulness of those Ancients Origen noteth that those Hereticks took away that in Rom. 16. 25. Ei qui potens est c. which saith he was in other copies that had not suffered by them Theodoret speaking of Tatian saith Ego inveni plusquam ducentos hujusmodi libros I found more then two hundred depraved books which were had in honour in our Churches which when I had gathered I caused them to be laid aside and in their stead I placed the four Evangelists for as he saith this Tatian had composed a Gospel which he called the Gospel by four leaving out the Genealogies and whatever doth prove that Christ descended from David according to the flesh which Gospel not only those of his sect did use but such also who following the Doctrine of the Apostles did not discern the fraud but in simplicitie made use of it as a Compendium of all the Gospels Dionysius Bishop of Corinth observed such endeavours Dominicas Scripturas nonnulli corrumpere sunt cornati Of many that would corrupt the holy Scriptures And in truth whatever the Papists say in the heat of dispure yet in cold blood they all prefer the Greek copies So Brugensis Sic esse legendum Graeca clamant Thus the Greeke Exemplars vote it The Divines at Lovaine Ita in Graecis exemplaribus legi and by the Greek they do frequently correct their Latine copies So Maldonat on Matthew 6. 5. where the Latine read qui amant the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they love in this place I judge saith he that our copies ought to be corrected rather then the Greek So Stapleton Where the Latine read Sanguis qui pro nobis fundetur i. the blood that shall be poured out for us the Greek reads in the present tense the blood that is poured out these words saith he are to be read in the present tense according to all the Evangelists in the Greek text So Faber on John 1. 30. The Latine read Qui ante me factus fuit i. who was made before me the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is only fuit was before me unhappy Arius would admit no other Exposition saith he that he might belch out his madness against us and confute us by an Interpreter which he could not do by the truth Bellarmine himself saith the Fathers doe teach every where that we must have recourse to the Greek and Hebrew Fountains Vega Ribera Vives Costa and others do acknowledge the same and whereas some of them have sifted the Greek books to discover corruptions in them Chamier Glassius and others have sufficiently vindicated them Secondly the constant interpretations of the Text by the Greek Fathers with whom many of the Latine do agree according as it is in the Greek copies is an argument that they are preserved pure and entire for seeing these sacred books were written originally in Greek it was more facile for the Fathers of that Church to find which doubtless they did seek the best copies then for any others And secondly supposing they had greater helps to find and obtain we cannot in Charitie deny them care and integritie to preserve them intire from all corruption addition or detraction for they were not ignorant of that curse Revel 22. 18. neither as in fact it appeareth were they wanting in this dutie Thirdly The Greek Churches which then owned these copies were of a far greater number and extent then the Latine were The Church of Asia and Palestine the Greeks in Egypt and Europe with whom the Syrians also joyned To which add Fourthly The providence of God who would not permit the fountain of Holiness and Truth to be depraved which providence as it did appear in preserving those Oracles of God that were committed
these later centuries then in the former nor doth he say much for the authority of it For first he saith it differs from other ancient copies especially in Saint Lukes Gospel so much as that for fear of giving offence he thought it fitter to conceale then publish it And secondly that some things in it differed from the received Scripture but so as it agreed with the Writings of Greeke and Latine Fathers Thirdly that it did in many things confirm the old Latine Edition And this last I take it is no great argument of its authority or purity Solomon Glassius suspects that it was corrected by the Latine for as Brugensis had said of his second copy that it was so conformed Quidni de antiquis Beza codicibus si qui fuerant asseri possit the same saith Glassius may be affirmed of Beza's And surely were not our Scriptures a more sure word then either the writings of Greeke and Latine Fathers I speak without any disparagement of them or if we had not a more pure and perfect copy of the Scriptures then the vulgate Latine we should not build on so sure a foundation as now by the mercy of God we do Besides Beza's copy differs from all others as in many things throughout and especially in Saint Luke so even in this Prayer retaining the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debts for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trespasses which no other Greek copie doth But I shall use another medium because it is pertinent to the business in hand to prove the imperfection both of Beza's Greek and the Vulgate Latine copies which is this If the Doxologie in our Lords Prayer and those copies that retain it be authentique then such as leave it out are not so But the Doxologie c. Ergo. The authoritie of the copies retaining it we have proved alreadie and the verity of the Doxologie follows upon that but yet because the truth is generally opposed by the Papists and too much slighted by some Protestants I shall do my endeavour to assert it And I will not dissemble who they are and what they say that speak against it Erasmus saith Taxanda est illorum tomeritas qui non voriti sunt tam divinae precationi suas nugas assuers Their rashness is much to be blamed that were not afraid to annex their trifles to this Divine Prayer Kirstenius saith A pio quodam fidei imbecillis tanquam nova precatio additafuit more modestly that it was added as another Prayer by some pious man but of a weak faith Brugensis saith that it crept into the Greek of St. Matthew from the Liturgies of the Greek Church Grotius saith the same and Beza calls it Magnificam longè sanctissimam Sed irrepsisse in contextum quae in vetustissimis aliquot codicibus Graecis desit Here is much said by great men but Magna est veritas truth is great and will prevail To these things therefore thus I answer that Erasmus is not much to be confided in in this business for he gives an easie consent to the expunging that of 1 John 5. 7. which so plainly proveth the Doctrine of the Trinitie and that upon a weak ground because some Greek and some Latine bookes have it not the authoritie of which place hath beene irrefragably asserted by Gerhard in his dispute upon it But I shall prove this particular also ex concessis from premises granted by the Papists themselves viz. the authoritie of the Greeke books And first take the testimony of Brugensis though our enemy in this particular who speaking of the Doxologie saith thus Coronidem istam quae subsequitur in Graecis plerisque Syriacis libris c. That clause which followeth in most of the Greek and Syriack books we omit and Erasmus and Bellarmine grant that it is generally in the Greek books to whose authoritie you have heard their assent Solo. Glassius tells us particularly that it is in the ancient and correct copies of Henry Stephens and Aldus Manutius in others that are most ancient and approved Beza saith the same that it is in the Syriack and in most Greek copies And again Brugensis saith of one of the Greek copies at Paris which omits the Doxologie that it was corrected by the Latine because saith he in this place and in divers other all the Greek books adde what the Latine omit and so doth the Syriack interpreter and the Greek Fathers as he there observes Laurentius Valla saith Nihil hic erat Graecis additum sed à Latinis detractum i. Nothing was here added to the Greek but omitted in the Latine books And so Solomon Glassius Quis verò nos quove argumento certos reddat c. But who can assure us or by what argument that it was rather added to the Greek then substracted from the Latine seeing as he quoteth from Helvicus that the Greek is the fountain the Latine are the streams this the daughter and that the mother by which therefore it ought to be corrected and he thinks the Vulgate Latine inexcusable for maiming our Lords Prayer as it doth in St. Luke which he thinks a sufficient argument to justifie the Greek copies against it in other particulars So that if I may speak ingenuously what I think although Beza made very good use of his copie in his Annotations yet he seems a little too zealous in building the reputation of it on the disparagement of the many ancient Greek and Syriack copies that retain it which because they differ from his he saith they had those particulars supplied Olim long since which was indeed ab initio from the beginning as hath been proved but the Papists greedily swallow this concession and vomit it forth against Protestants as Huntly the Jesuite doth I shall therefore make my restringent the stronger by adding to the testimonies above the reasons for the authority of the Doxology 1. Because it is extant in the Syriack translation which is of greater antiquity and purity then any that wants it can pretend unto of this Brugensis saith Hoc teneo indubitanter This I firmly believe that the Syriack text of the New Testament ought to be had in esteem and honour with the ancient Greek exemplars And Franzius saith Omnes eruditi c. All learned men do assert the purity of this above all other versions which holy men did therefore so esteem because Christ did speak and preach in this Language so that without doubt the Apostles and Apostolical men did diligently inquire and conserve the formal words of Christ and by a pious labour did record them in this translation and moreover they did most happily translate the Apostolical Epistles seeing that these Syriack Doctors held frequent converse with the Apostles themselves And in p. 38. Of all the translations of the New Testament the Syriack is the chiefest most sure happy and divine compiled without doubt by Apostolical men which best knew the words of