66 66 IV. " and that he should execute judgment with a true heart; BOOK give me wisdom which is ever about thy seat, and put me not out from among thy children. For I thy servant, "and son of thine hand maiden, am a feeble person, of a "short time, and too weak to the understanding of thy judg"ments and lawes. And tho' a man be never so perfect 66 among the children of men, yet if thy wisdome be not "with him, he shalbe of no value. O send her out therfore "from thy holy heavens, and from the throne of thy majes"tie, that she may be with me, and labour with me, that I 66 may know what is acceptable in thy sight. For she know❝eth and understandeth all things. And she shal lead me "soberly in my works, and preserve me in her power. So "shal my works be acceptable by Christ our Lord. To "whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be al honour ❝and glory, world without end. Amen." Number LXXXIV. 137 Archbishop Parker's Preface before the New Testament. THE New Testament, so called, conteining the writings of the Evangelists, with the Epistles of Christs Apostles, and with other such divine books, declare plainly unto us the sum and effect of all the Scriptures expressed in the Old Testament. That which was in figure and in obscuritie, in- 2 Pet. i. volved by the Patriarchs and Prophets in their prophetical Psalm xlv. volumes, written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is in this book more plainly and evidently set out, uttered also in the self same spirit by the children of the prophets, the holy Apostles. Indeed the law was given by Moses, but grace and John i. verity came by Jesus Christ. Which grace this book of the New Testament doth most evidently commend and set out. In this is discoursed the whole mystery of our salvation and redemption, purchased by our Saviour Christ: here is his holy conception described, his nativity, his circumcision, his whole life and conversation, his godly doctrine, his divine mi IV. Col. iii. Mat. xxv. John xx. Heb. i. BOOK racles. In this book of the New Testament is set out his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his sending of the Holy Spirit, his session in our flesh on the right hand of his Father, making continual intercession to him for us. In this book is conteined the fourm and order of his last judgment, after the general resurection of our bodies. These be the mysteries of our faith, these be the grounds of our salvation: these be thus written, that we should believe them, and by our belief should enjoy life everlasting. Once, and in times past, God diversly and many wayes spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets, but in these last dayes he hath spoken unto us (upon whom the ends of the world be come) by his own Son, whom he hath made heir of all things. Whose dignity is such, that he is the brightness of his Fathers glory, and the very image of his substance, ruling all things by the word of his power. This heavenly Doctor, so endued with glory and majesty, we ought most reverently to believe, as commended unto us from the aucthority of the heavenly FaMatt. iii. ther, to be heard at his most welbeloved Son, in whom is his whole delight, by whom he wilbe pleased and pacified. It Deut. xviii. wil else come to pass, saith the Prophet Moses, that whosoever shal not hear and obey that Prophet in the words that he shall speak in his Fathers name, I wilbe, saith the Father, a revenger of him. This is the last Prophet to be looked for to speak unto us. In him be universally enclosed the riches and tresures of the wisdome and knowledg of God his Father; by him he hath decreed finally to judg the whole world, the living and the dead: by him hath he decreed to give to his elect the life everlasting; and to the reprobate, who hath contemned his life and doctrin, death everlasting. xvii. Col. ii. 2 Tim. iii. Acts xvii. Let us therefore seriously hear and obey this our heavenly teacher, submit our selves to this our Judg and Rewarder. Let us esteem his doctrine and conversation, as a ful, perfect, and sufficient patern of al holines and virtue. Let us esteem the doctrine of this book as a most inflexible rule to lead us to all truth and newness of life. Here may we behold the eternal legacies of the New Tes IV. tament, bequeathed from God the Father in Christ his Son BOOK to all his electes; I say, the legacies, lively renewed unto us, not of deliverance from Pharao his servitude, but from the bondage and thraldome of that perpetual adversary of ours, the Devil. Here may wee behold our inheritance, not of the temporal land of Canaan, or of the translation of us to the place of worldly paradise; but here we may see the ful restitution of us, both in body and soul, to the celestial paradise, the heavenly city of Hierusalem above, there to raign Gal. iv. with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, for ever. Which legacies of his New Testament, promised and bequeathed, were notwithstanding recorded in the books of the Old Testament to our ancient Fathers, which in hope believed in Christ to come: who was painted before them in figures and shaddowes, and signified in their Heb. ix. old sacraments, ordained for that time; but now more evi- 1 John i. dently renewed and exhibited unto us, not in figure, but in deed; not in promise, but in open sight, in feeling, and 138 handling, and touching of this eternal life, most manifestly confirmed unto us in Christ his blood in this his new testament, continued and revived, yet in new sacraments, the better to bear in our remembrance this his eternal testament of al joyful felicities. Let us now therfore, good Christian people, rejoyce in 1 Pet. iv. these glad tydings expressed unto us by the name of the Gospel of our Saviour Christ; and let it never fal out of our remembrance, that we were sometime overwhelmed in darknes, and set in the shadow of death. Let us consider, that we were sometime, by our natural birth, the children of God his wrath, and wholly estranged from the houshold of God. Let us bear in mind, that we were sometime no people of God, nor his beloved; that we were by nature branches of the wild olive, and now by mere mercy grafted into the right and natural olive-tree. Wherupon let us the rather repose our life in fear and reverence. If we be now the children Matt. iv. of light, let us walk in this our light in al holines and godlines of life, approving that which is pleasing to the Lord. Let us have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of dark- Eph. ii. Rom. xi. 1 Thes. v. Eph. iv. Eph. ii. BOOK nes; and let us henceforth be no more children, wavering IV. and carried about with every wind of doctrin, and by the deceit and craftines of men, wherby they lay in wait to deceive; but let us follow the truth in love and charity, and in al things grow up into him, which is the head, that is, Christ our Saviour. If we be now the children of grace, and made lively members of his body, tho' sometime strangers and forainers far off, and made neer by the bloud of Christ, and made citizens with the saints, and of the houshold of God; let us direct our hearts thither, where our head is, delighting our self in al heavenly cogitations, walking in al spiritual works and fruits of the spirit, as God's dear elect. God grant that Christ may so dwel in our hearts by faith, that we may be able to comprehend with al saints the unspeakable love of Christ, which passeth al man's knowledg. Unto him therfore, which is able to do exceeding abundantly above al that we can ask or think, be praise in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout al generations for ever. Amen. Ut in prolog. Vet. Test. And here yet once again, let the reader be admonished charitably to examine this translation of the New Testament following; and be not offended with diversity of interpretation, tho' he find it not to agree to his wont text, or yet to disagree from the common translation. Remembring what Santes Pagninus testifieth of that ancient interpreter, S. Hierom, that in many places of his commentaries he doth read and expound otherwise then is found in the common translation: yea, saith Santes, Hierom doth retract very many places, and doth plainly confess, that himself was deceived by the hast of his translating, in the doubtful signification of the words. And therfore saith the same Hierom thus, "I think it better to rebuke mine own error, then, "while I am ashamed to confess my lack of skill, to persist "in an error: for who was ever, saith he, so wel learned, "that hath not somewhere been deceived?" Thus far S. Hierom. Wherupon, good reader, I exhort thee, read advisedly, expend learnedly, and correct charitably. And be not offended, good English reader, to see the holy Scriptures in thine own language, as a matter newly seen; seeing that our IV. own countryman, that venerable Priest Bede, many years BOOK agon, did translate S. John's Gospel into the vulgar tongue, ad utilitatem Ecclesia; i. e. "to the profit of the Church," saith Cuthbert and Durham's story, who reporteth Bede's own saying, Nolo ut discipuli mei mendacium legant; i. e. "I would not that my disciples should read any ly, or "spend their labour after my departure without fruit." Which thing also the antient life of Bede doth testify of him. In hiis diebus etiam Evangelium Joannis in Anglicam transtulit linguam, juxta Apostolum, Sapientibus et insipientibus debitor sum, et omnibus omnia factus. "In these dayes (of his sicknes) he did translate the Gospel of S. "John into the English tongue, saying with the Apostle, "I am debtor to the learned and unlearned. I am made al to "al." The rather he so said, saith William Malmsbury, quia hoc Evangelium difficultate sui mentes legentium exercet; "because this Gospel, by the difficulty that is in it, "doth so much exercise the wits of the readers;" therefore he did interpret it into the English tongue. And so did condescend, saith he, to them which were not skilful in the Latine tongue. God grant that al readers may take so much profit therby, as the good translators meant unto them. Amen. 66 Number LXXXV. Lawrence's Notes of Errors in the Translation of the New Wordes not aptlye translated in the New Testament. 139 me. OF whome do the kynges of the earthe take tribute or MSS. penes toule? of the children, or of straungers? It is otherwise Matth. xvii. Gracè; ἀπὸ τῶν υἱῶν αὐτῶν, ἢ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων, that is, of25. their owne children, or of the straungers? ver. 27. Goe thow to the sea, and cast an angle: Togeubels sis Thy Cap.eodem, θάλασσαν, βάλε ἄγκιστρον, that is, cast an hooke ; ἄγκιστρον is an hooke, and not an angle; if the angle be cast without the hooke, there is no hope to catche the fishe. Julius Pollux, |