232 CAUSES, WAYS, AND MEANS, ETC. [BOOK VI., PAET II.
There is yet another work of the Holy Ghost with respect unto the Scripture, which although it fall not directly under the present consideration of the ways and means of saving illumination, yet the whole of what we have discoursed is so resolved into it, in the order of an external cause, as that it may justly claim a remembrance in this place; and this is, his watchful care over the written word, in preserving it from destruction and corruption, from the first writing of it unto this very day. That it hath been under the especial care of God, not only the event of its entire preservation, considering the opposition it hath been exposed unto, but also the testimony of our Saviour as to the books of the Old Testament, than which those of the New are certainly of no less esteem or use, do sufficiently evince: Matt. v. 18, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law." That by the law the whole writings of the Old Testament are intended, the context doth declare. And what he affirms, that it shall not by any means pass away, — that is, be abolished or corrupted, — that he taketh on himself to preserve and secure. Two things the Scripture in itself is subject unto: — 1. De- struction or abolition, as unto the whole or any necessary part thereof. 2. Corruption of the writing, by changes, alterations, and falsifi- cations of the copies of it. And by both of these it hath been at- tempted, and that both before and since the time of the promulga- tion of the gospel, the stories whereof are known; and yet is it come safe off from all, not only without ruin, but without wound or blemish. For any one to suppose that this hath been done by chance, or by the care of men alone, without the especial watchful provi- dence and powerful actings of the Spirit of God, in the pursuit of the promise of Christ that it should not fail, — which expressed a care that God had taken on himself to make good from the beginning, — is not only to neglect the consideration of the nature of all human affairs, with the revolutions that they are subject unto, and the deceit and violence wherewith the Scriptures have been attacked, with the in- sufficiency of the powers and diligence employed for their preserva- tion, but also to countenance the atheistical notion that God hath no especial regard to his word and worship in the world. Indeed, for a man to think and profess that the Scripture is the word of God, given unto men for the ends which itself declares, and of that use which it must be of in being so, and not believe that God hath always taken and doth take especial care of its preservation, and that in its purity and integrity, beyond the ordinary ways of his providence in the rule of all other things, is to be sottish and foolish, and to enter- tain thoughts of God, his goodness, wisdom, and power, infinitely unworthy of him and them. There have of late been some opinions concerning the integrity and purity of the Scriptures invented and
CIIAP. IX.] MEANS FOR UNDERSTANDING THE MIND OF GOD. 233
maintained, that, I conceive, take off from the reverence of that rela- tion which the Scripture hath, in its integrity and purity, unto the care and glory of God. Hence it is by some maintained that some books written by divine inspiration, and given out unto the church as part of its canon, or rule of faith and obedience, are utterly lost and perished; that the law and Scripture of the Old Testament before the captivity were written, though in the Hebrew tongue (which, they say, was not originally the language of Abraham, derived from Eber, but of the posterity of Ham in Canaan), yet not in the letters or characters which are now in use, but in those which a few wicked idolaters called Samaritans did use and possess, being left unto them by Ezra, and new characters invented by him, or borrowed from the Chaldeans for the use of the church; that the vowels and accents, whereby alone the true reading and sense of it is preserved, are a late invention of some Masoretical rabbins ; and that the ori- ginal text is in many places corrupted, so as that it may and ought to be corrected by translations, especially that of the LXX. ; with sundry other such imaginations, which they countenance with un- certain conjectures and fabulous stories. And I cannot but wonder how some seem to take shelter unto their opinions, especially that of preferring the translation of the LXX. unto the original Hebrew text, or, as they fondly speak, " the present copy of it," in the church of England, whose publicly authorized and excellent translation takes no more notice of, nor hath any more regard unto that transla- tion, when it differs from the Hebrew, as it doth in a thousand places, than if it had never been in the world. And as no translations are in common use in the whole world but what were immediately tra- duced out of the Hebrew original, excepting only some part of the vulgar Latin, so I verily believe that those very Christians who contend for a preference to be given unto that of the LXX., now they have got their ends, or at least attempted them, in procuring a reputation of learning, skill, and cunning, by their writings about it, would not dare to advise a translation out of that to be made and composed for the use of that church which they adhere unto, be it what it will, to the rejection and exclusion of that taken out of the original : and to have two recommended unto common use, so dis- crepant as they would be found to be, would certainly be of more disadvantage to the church than by all their endeavours otherwise they can compensate. Yea, I am apt to think that they will not be very urgent for an alteration to be made in the church's transla- tion in those particular instances wherein they hope they have won themselves much reputation in proving the mistakes of the Hebrew, and manifesting how it may be rectified by the translation of the LXX. ; for whatever thoughts may be in their minds concerning their