doth load vs with gifts So that the Hebrewe doeth not onely tell vs that Christ gaue gifts but that he gaue them as Mediatour hauing receiued them Beside that it is knowne that the Apostles in alledging testimonies doe not nomber the wordes but giue the waight of the sentence to which nombring of words when not so much as translators are alwaies as it is said bound to much lesse were th'Apostles tyed vnto it which were no translaters but expounders of the Scripturs And all reasonable men will iudge it good payment if for foure single pence he receaue a whole groate or if th' opportunity so serue eight single half-pence They proceed with the 40 Psalme where in stead of the Hebrew Thou hast pearced my eare th'Apostle hath Thou hast prepared me a bodie But they ought to haue vnderstoode that there is first a Trope of the part for the whole which th'Apostle doth elegantly expres when for the eare he setteth down the body Secondly they should knowe that there is a manifest Metaphore in the worde pearcing vsed of the Prophet which being drawn from the law prouyding that the seruant which would willingly giue himself ouer to a perpetuall and whole seruice of his maister should so be serued signifieth an inabling of the Prophet for a willing obedience to be giuen vnto the Lord. And therefore this Metaphore is elegantly expounded by th'Apostle when he saith Thou hast prepared and fitted me a body without the which our sauiour Christ could not haue beene the seruant of God to any such purpose as he was ordayned So that if as Dauid by Christ so Christ for Dauid muste bring not a legall sacrifice but his ears bored through that is a bodie obedient vnto the death men may easilie see that th'Apostle did expound and make plaine that vvhich vvas somewhat obscure in the Prophete whose sense and not whose words he alledged Further they alledge 2. Chron. 28. 19. Achas King of Israel for King of Iuda As if they ought to be ignorant that the place where Achas was buried was first the place where the kings of Israel that is of the twelue tribes were buried or euer it was the place of the kings of Iuda only And if they had marked it they shuld easily haue knowne both the Prophet Ieremie and Lamé 2. 2 Rom. 9. 4. 17. 10. 21. 11. 7. 16. 29. 10. 3. 1. 29. th'Apostle to containe Iuda vnder Israel and contrariwise Israel vnder Iuda And the vulgare according vnto the Hebrew in the last verse readeth in the sepulchres of the Kings of Israel And as ignorance of the story of the Scripture deceiued you here so in the next the ignorance of the tongue abuseth you For 1. Chron. 2. 18. that which you turne out of the Hebrewe hee begat Azubah his wife and Ierioth is falslie and ignorantlie translated For ETH the particle there is not a note of the accusatiue case but is a praeposition and signifieth that he begate of Azubah his wife c. as is confirmed by other places vvhere it is so taken As Gen. 44. 4 Ezech. 6. 9 for that out of 2. Reg. 24. 19. of putting brother for vncle it argueth you vtterlie vnacquainted with the Scriptures in any tongue seing the word brother is generall for all kinsmen both in the olde and new Testament Wherupon Genes 13 Matth. 12. 16. 47 Abraham is called Lots brother as your vulgar printed by Plantine 1576. himselfe readeth and so our Sauiour Christ is saide to haue brethren Whereupon it is euident howe free the Hebrew is from corruption when th'obiections against it are so friuolous as nothing can be more And as this is easy to conceiue of al that know the Church which vnto that tyme was alvvaies sealed amongst them to be the piller of truth so it shall much 1. Tim. 3 more be setled firmely in their breast if the Iewes carefull minde and indeuour of keeping the Hebrewe text fithence the time of their falling away be considered Which appeareth not onelie in that the greatest testimonies vvritten by th'Apost Euangelistes for the proof of Iesus to be the Christ doe remaine as they vvere alledged but also by the testimony of th' auncient Fathers 400. yeares after Christ Hieron in 6. cap. Es August de ciuita Dei lib. 15 c. 13 Hier. epist 74. ad Mar cel Look in his epistle of diuers readings vvhich beare vvitnesse to their innocencie heerein Your owne men are nowe as much ashamed of you in this charge of th'Ebrewe Text as Ierome vvas of some in his time charging the Hebrew as you doe Look Arias Montanus vvhich defendeth the Ievves innocencie in this behalfe Looke Lucas Francis lu eae Burg. an not at in sa era Biblia Looke also his epist ad Cardinal Sirlet Burgensis hovv he defendeth the Hebrew against the vulgar Latin where he cannot reconcile them Read Iohn Isaak a Popishe Ievve against Lindan Now let them ansvvere vvhether the Lordes care be not as great to keepe the newe Testament as to keepe the olde vvhether it be not as great to keep those vvords vvhich he spake by his sonne as it vvas to keepe those Hebr. 1. vvhich he spake by his seruants Finallie whether he keepeth not his wrytings as safelie by the Church which is his friend as hee keepeth it by the synagogue vvhich is his enemie Last of al let the good reader vnderstand that this Popish allegation is a verie haereticall practise and shamelesse shift of the deceauers of Gods people Hieron aduersus Hel. bidium Hieron For thus Ierome chargeth Helbidius that he quarrelled with the truth of the copies did most foolishly perswade himselfe that the Greeke bookes were falsified The like practise vsed the monstrous heresie of the August ad Hieron epist 19 Manichees of vvhome Augustine vvryteth thus The Manichees not able to wrest many places of the holie Scripture whereby they are moste euidentlie conuinced affirme the same to be false yet so that they attribute the same not to the Apostles which wrot them but I knowe not to what other which afterward corrupted them Which because they cannot proue neither by the most copies nor by the most auncient nor by th' authority of the former tongue from which the Latine bookes were translated they are confounded c. We may be bolde therefore to range you vnder the banner of heretickes vvhich beare their proper marke and recognisance But let vs come to the particular places supposed to be corrupted Wherein let the reader obserue first that to discredite nombers of the Greek Copies reading as we do they bring but th' authoritie of one only Doctor For although in the third place they alledge the corruption from the Tripartite storie and Socrates yet it being known that the tripartite story gathereth that which he writeth out of Socrates vnder two authors there is but one authoritie Which may also be said of the second
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE ANSVVERE TO THE PREFACE OF THE RHEMISH Testament By T. Cartwright AT EDINBVRGH PRINTED BY RObert Walde-graue printer to the Kings Maiestie 1602. Cum priuilegio Regio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Th'answere to the preface of c. To the six first sections page 1. 2. 3. THE true religion being like the heauenlie bodies which neuer change the Popish religion resembleth the earth which as the potters claye is readie to receaue any forme according as the wind and weather times and seasons of the â—eare winter or sommer spring or fall wil set vpon it Hereof it is that they which sometyme did so deadly hate the instruction of the youth in the groundes principles of religion that they coulde not heare the worde of Catechisme with patient eares nowe in feare of a generall falling from them through opinion either of their blockish ignoraunce or sluggishe negligence are constrayned both to write and teach their Catechismes Out of the same feare it riseth that they which hitherto coulde not indure the holie scriptures to be red of the people in their mother tongue nowe leaste they shoulde vtterlie fall from the hope of their gaine throgh a vehement suspition of jugling and playing vnder the boarde with the people and constrayned to professe a printe of that which they sometimes burned and praetend allowance of that which in times past they condemned Howbeit th'euidence of the trueth hauing these Church robbers vpon the rack see notwith-standing how hardlie they are gotten to confesse the trueth how they lysp it rather then speake it out For heere they confesse that th' Armenians Gotthes Italians French and English men had either some part or the whole of the scriptures traÌ„slated into their own tongues But they will not grant it of the Slauoies which notwithstanding is most euident not onely by the words of Ierome who affirmeth that he gaue to his own nation a translation most diligently ameÌ„ded but by certaine of their own Doctors from whom th'euidence of Ieromes wordes Hosius dâ— Saecro verbo Vernac legendo Alfonsus dâ— Haeres lib. 1. c. 13 doth wring foorth the confession of the trueth in this behalfe But what needeth all this nicenesse when it is euident that in the elder and purer times the scriptures were translated into innumerable yea to all tongues vsual amongst men In the latter times of poperie Chrysost in Ioh. homil 1 Theodoret. de corrig Graecorum affect lib. 5. it is not shewed that there were such translations especially in England where the Iesuites doe foolishly coÌ„clude that there was a translation in our tongue alowed because the counsell prouideth that none should be permitted but that which was allowed by the Diocesane And if ther were any yet it being kept close prisoner that it coulde neither come to the people nor the people to it it is all one in this question whether there were none or no vse of them And if they both were and were vsed yet for so much as by their owne confession they were permitted to wring out of the peoples handes the translation whereby the Popish Church was besieged it is euident that you permit it not either in reuerence to the holy scriptures or loue to the people but rather as desperat enemies which had rather kill with it then that the head of your gainefull errors should bee striken of by it And it fareth altogether with you in this poynt as with men which hauing a naturall hatred of cheese or some such foode in such sorte as the verie sight or touch of it doth offend them yet being effamished are content for the safetie of their liues euen to eate it For abhorring from the scriptures in time of your peace when it commeth that you and your state is plunged by such as you call baeretickes you are glade to bite or nibble vpon the scriptures if happelie you can get any thing to serue the praesent neede But tell vs goâ—d sirs is the reading of the scriptures by the people like vnto Strawberies that ar good onelye in some season of the yeare is it physick wheÌ„ men are sick and not meate when they be whole is it triacle to driue out poyson and not praeseruatiue to keepe from it hath it strength to put the enemie to flight and hath it none to hinder his approch finally is it good to weede not to plant The contrary whereof is rather true For if it be able to heale a sicke man it is much more able to keepe him whole which is alreadie in health if it be meete to giue light to the simple when the heauens are ouercast with the mist and cloud of haeresie it is much more forcible to shew the way when they are not so clouded It is therefore a sottish distinction which the Iesuites vse in making the peoples reading of the Scripture dangerous in tyme of peace and profitable when th' enemie by haeresie hath made a broyle How beit admitting that the peoples haruest of reading the Scripture is onely in foule weather how coÌ„meth it to passe that you haue not welnigh fortie yeares long wherein the gospell after a dead winter hath beene greene and florished againe in our country and wherein the Haereticall translations as you call them haue filled the land procured that this sickle of your translation might be in the hands of the people therby to get them so much grain as might haue fed them in this dearth of Masses and other such swill and swaddes as you were wont to fill them with Wherefore the people maye well see Tranquillus that as vnto Vitellius the dead citisen was alwayes of good sauour so vnto you the dead carcased soules are of pleasant smell But let vs come vnto the groundes of this difference of the peoples reading of scriptures which they haue set in the forefront of the praeface The first is that it is not absolutely necessary for al maner of men to read them It is absolutely necessary that all men shoulde vse all good meanes and helpes whereby to know Christ more perfectly but reading of the scripturs which al do testifie of him is a good meane and help therevnto wherefore it is absolutely necessary And to this stayre of clyming vp to the knowledge of Christ by reading doth our S. Christ lift vp his hearers when hee willeth them to search the scriptures For he Ioh. 5. 39. doeth not will them onely to heare the worde preached but to vse all maner of instruments whereby they might digge out the hid treasure of the knowledge of himselfe And the circumstance of that place doth argue that hee had in that particular exhortation a more speciall regarde to the reading of them then to th' other more excelleÌ„t exercise of hauing them preached For when of th' one side they beleeued not the Sermons of our Sauiour Christ and of th' other side it was dangerous to refer them ouer to
places where th' authors alledged ar not eye witnesses but hang al of the report of th' olde translator And if in Gods law the witnes of one man is not sufficient to take away a mans life much lesse may one mans witnes take away the life and authoritie of Gods word which without that witnes should vndoutedly be so taken And if we should weigh th' olde translator with such weightes we might with far more right dash out a great part of your translator in th' olde Testament Euen so much as he differeth and dissenteth Ire lib. 3 cap. 25 Tertul. apolog c. 18. 19 Hâ—l psal 2 August de â—iuit Dei lib. 15. c. â—â— in from the 70. interpreters For there is a great consent of th' old fathers that the interpretation of the 70. interpreters in greek was written by the same spirit wherewith the Prophets wrote in Hebrew Secondly it is to be obserued that in proouing the Greeke copies in three places to be corrupted by the Greeke heretikes they alledg for two of those places Latine writers and Latine translators such as were vsed in the Latin Church so that if the testimonies proue any thing of the corruption of th' originall it proueth it more against the Latine then against the Greeke Church For notwithstanding that Marcion were Greek born yet was not his heresie begoten in Greece but in Rome after that his father being a Bishop had for his lewd behauiour cast him out of the Church in his natiue countrie And seeing Rome taketh vpon her to be the piller of truth and the Lords librarie whatsoeuer can be proued of the corruption of th' originall shall by their owne doctrine returne to the further discredite of the Latine then of the Greeke Church Now touching the first example of Marcions corruption you doe belie Tertullian and that in two sortes For first Tertullian saieth not that the truth is as it is in the vulgar For Tertullian himselfe readeth otherwise then the vulgar after this sort The first man Tertuâ— aâ— resurrectionâ— carnâ—s of th' earth earthy that is slimie which is Adam The second man is from heauen that is the word of God which is Christ leauing out heauenly which the vulgare hath Cyprian de zelo liâ—or aduersus ludaeos a. libi and you striue for And so his scholler Cyprian readeth Secondly you falsifye him for that he doth not say as you suppose of him that the Greek text which is now is Marcions corruption For so should he haue accused himselfe aswell as Marcion considering that himself also departeth from that which is in the vulgar Indeed Marcion had corrupted the place by leauing out man in the second place therby to help his haeresie of th' untruth of Christs manhood It may also be gathered that Tertullian liked not the word Lord but esteemed it a corruption of Marcion This is therefore novv the question vvhether Lord in that place be the true or heretical reading First therefore let them shevv vs hovv this reading doth maintayn in any sort the heresie of Marcion considering that the Greek hath vvith full consent the second man which Marcion left out vvherby the humanity of Christ is plainly established And it appeareth that the vulgar traÌ„slation hath more coulour of that heresie theÌ„ the Greek reading For he might haue easier abused the vulgare to proue that Christ broght his flesh from heaueÌ„ then he can do the Greek And as the Greek reading is further from the heresie of Marcion then the vulgar so it is in diuers respects more proper both for the generall analogie of the true doctrine of the person of Christ and for the circumstance of that particular place For first the Greek reading containeth a notable testimony of the two natures of our Sauiour Christ in th' unitie of one person which the vulgar doth not so manifestly expresse Secondly th' opposition of Adam from th' earth and of Christ the Lord from heauen is much fuller and liuelier considering that he might haue bene both from heauen and heauenly and yet haue bene but a naked creature as th' Angels Thirdly the Greeke copies did not shunne the word heauenly which Marcion is supposed to haue of purpose avoyded considering that they call Christ heauenly For in the next two verses the Greek copies with full consent apply the word heauenly vnto Christ Therfore the Greeke copies shunned not this worde heauenly in speaking of Christ but reserued it vnto a fitter place For hauing in the former verse called Christ the Lord from heauen in the verses following he might without danger call him heauenly whereas if he had not sent that title of the Lord from heauen before he might haue bene thought to haue bene called heauenly in respect of the place he came from as the first man is called earthly in regard of the earth from whence he was taken Again seing that Marcion did corruptly alledg verse 45 as plainly appeareth by Tertullian which corruption is not in the Greeke there is no liklie-hood that one of the corruptions of Marcion should continew in the Greeke more theÌ„ th' other Moreouer the Syrian Arabian paraphrasis auncienter then was Marcions reading as the Greek copies doe it is euident that either Marcion brought not in this reading of the Lord or els he brought it in long before he was borne Last of all seing the Greeke Fathers so reade a Lib. de orthod fide cap. 3 Damascene b In 〈◊〉 locuâ— Chrysostome Theophilact Oecumenius al which detested the haeresy of Marcion either this is no corruption or else these learned mens noses were stuffed which coulde neuer smell the sauour of any Marcionisine And althogh diuerse ancient and other writers accustoming themselues to the reading of the vulgare translation followed it in this point because there is no manifest repugnance in it to any article of faith yet that is no let but that this may bee as indeede it is the trueth which is found in Greek copies and not that which is in th' old translator In the second place Ierome alone is brought to discredite so many Greek copies Against whome beside the great consent of the Greeke copies Basil lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we oppose the Syrian Arabian Paraphrasis Chrysostom Theophilact Oecumenius Basile who thrise in one book doth so alledge it as the copies supposed to be falsified And last of al wee oppose Ierome himselfe who for once alledging it thus for his benefite against Hieron aduersus Helbidium ad Eustoch de seruand virginitate his aduersarie in that booke where the Papists themselues cannot denie but he abused diuerse testimonies of th' Apostle shamefullie alledgeth it twise as it is in the Greek copies which they condemne Let al men therefore iudge what a worthie proof this is broght from Ierome to discredit these copies which is contraried of so manie and of himselfe who after he was departed from