Sundry other branches there are of the abominations of these men besides those enumerated, all which may be reduced to these three corrupt and bloody foun- tains : —
I. That the Scriptui'e at best, as given out from God, and as it is to us con- tinued, was and is but a partial revelation of the will of God, the other part of it (which how vast and extensive it is no man knows; — for the Jews have given us their Sit/rs/sJff-s/s in their Mishna and Gemara; these kept them locked up in the breast or chair of their holy father) being reserved in their magazine of traditions.
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2. That the Scripture is not able to evince or manifest itself to be the Word of God, so as to enjoy and exercise any authority in his name over the souls and consciences of men, without an accession of testimony from that combination of politic, worldly-minded men that call themselves the Church of Rome.
3. That the original copies of the Old and New Testaments are so corrupted (" ex ore tuo, serve nequam") that they are not a certain standard and measure of all doctrines, or the touch-stone of all translations.
Now, concerning these things, you will find somewhat offered unto your consi- deration in the ensuing discourses ; wherein I hope, without any great altercation or disputes, to lay down such principles of truth as that their idol imaginations will be found cast to the ground before the sacred ark of the Word of God, and to lie naked without wisdom or pow'er.
It is concerning the last of these only that at present I shall deliver my thoughts unto you; and that beciiuse we begin to have a new concernment therein, Avhere- with I shall afterward acquaint you. Of all the inventions of Satan to draw off the minds of men from the Word of God, this of decri/ing the authority of the ori- ginals seems to me the most pernicious. At the beginning of the Reformation, before the council of Trent, the Papists did but faintly, and not without some blushing, defend their Vulgar Latin translation. Some openly preferred the ori- ginal before it, as Cajetan,' Erasmus, Vives,^ and others; yea, and after the council also, the same was done by Andradius,^ Ferrarius,* Arias Montanus,® Masius,^ and others. For those who understood nothing but Latin amongst them, and scarcely that, whose ignorance was provided for in the council, I suppose it will not be thought meet that in this case we should make any account of them. But the state of things is now altered in the world, and the iniquity which first wrought in a mystery, being now discovered, casts off its vizard and grows bold: " Nihil est audacius istis deprensis." At first the design was managed in private writings. Melchior Canus,^ Gulielmus Lindanus,^ Bellarminus," Gregorius de Va- lentia,'** Leo Gastrins," Huntlseus,''' Hanstelius," with innumerable others, some on one account, some on another, have pleaded that the originals were corrupted, — some of them with more impudence than others. Leo Castrius, as Pineda ob- serves, raves almost wherever he falls on the mention of the Hebrew text. " Sed is est author,'"'" saith he, " dum in hujusmodi Ebraizationes incidit, vix siii compos; et bono licet zelo, tamen vel ignoratione rerum quarundam, vel vebementiori aliqua aftectione, extra fines veritatis et modestiae rapitur: et si ex hujusmodi tantum unguibus Leonem ilium estimaremus, non etiam ex aliis pra^claris conati- bus, aut murem aut vulpem censeremus, aut canem aut quiddam aliud ignobilius." Yea, IMorinus, who seems to be ashamed of nothing, yet shrinks a little at this man's impudence and folly. " Apologetici libros,"'^ saith he, " sex bene longos scripsit, quibus nihil quam Judseorum voluntarias et malignas depravationes de- monstrare nititur; zelo sane pio sci'ipsit Castrius, sed libris Ilebraicis ad tantum opus quod moliebatur parum erat insiructus." In the steps of this Castrius walks Huntley, a subtle Jesuit, who, in the treatise above cited,'" ascribes the corruption of the Hebrew Bible to the good providence of God, for the honour of the Vulgar Latin ! But these, with their companions, have had their mouths stopped by Reynolds, AVhitaker, Junius, Lubbertus, Rivetus, Chamierus, Gerardus, Amesius, Glassius, Alstedius, Amama, and others : so that a man would have thought this
1 Prsef. in V. Lib. Mos. 2 In August, de Civit. Dei, lib. xv. cap. l."?. 3 Defens. Cone.
Trid., lib. iv. ♦ Prolep. Biblica. 5 Prsef. in Bib. in Lat., et passim. C Tripf. in
Comment, in Josh. ^ Loc. Com., lib. i. cap. 13. 8 De Opt. Gen. Interp.,lib. i. 8 Lib.
ii. De Verb. Dei. 10 Tom. i. d. .% q. .S. n De Translat. Sioe. cum Comment in Esa.
H Epito. Controv Contrar., i. c. 8. 13 Dispunctio Calum. Casaub. U Pined , lib. v.
De Keb. Solom., o iv. s. 1. 1'' Morin, Exercit. de Sincerit. Excrc. i. c. 3. 16 Cap.
X. lib. I.
280 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
fire put to the house of God had been sufficiently quenched. But after all the endeavours hitherto used, in the days wherein we live it breaks out in a greater flame; they now print the original itself and defame it, gathering up translations of all sorts, and setting them up in competition with it. When Ximenes put forth the Complutensian Bible, Vatablus his, and Arias Montanus those of the king of Spain, this cockatrice was not hatched, whose fruit is now growing to a fiery flying serpent. It is now but saying, " The ancient Hebrew letters are changed from the Samaritan to the Chaldean; the points or vowels, and accents, are but lately invented, of no authority; without their guidance and direction nothing is certain in the knowledge of that tongue ; all that we know of it comes from the translation of the LXX. ; the Jews have corrupted the Old Testament ; there are innumerable various lections both of the Old and New; there are other copies diff^ering from those we now enjoy that are utterly lost." So that ujion the matter there is nothing left unto men but to choose whether they will be Papists or Atheists.