through an heretical intention of introducing an utter oblivion of them among the people. 66 The words "church, bishop, priest, altar, eucharist, sacrifice, grace, sacrament, baptism, penance, angel, apostle, Christ," &c., at their first revolt, they suppressed, and changed into congregation, superintendent, elder and minister, table, thanksgiving, gift, mystery, washing, repentance, messenger, ambassador, anointed;" several other words and phrases they likewise altered, as is evident from what goes before. And for what cause was all this change and alteration of Catholic terms and phrases, but that the sound of the words should vanish with the substance of the things which they have taken away? With bishops they banished the pastoral care and charge of the Pope and Catholic bishops, and set up a child and a woman for the heads of their congregation. With priests went away the office of priest, in offering the holy sacrifice of Christ's body and blood; with grace went away the sacrament of holy orders, and four or five of the other sacraments; with altar, eucharist and sacrifice, they excluded the proper service of Almighty God, with Christ's sacred presence in the blessed sacrament; with the word penance they banished confession, absolution, and satisfaction for sins; they altered the word church, because they had cut themselves off from the Catholic church. And what other design could we suppose them to have had in leaving out apostles, and putting in ambassadors or legates; in leaving out angels, and introducing messengers; in putting down the word anointed, where Christ used to be read; and in translating grave for hell; but in time to extinguish all faith and memory of apostle, angel, heaven, hell, Christ, and Christianity;" and to bring them to atheism and infidelity, the very centre to which their reformation tends? (a) This fantastical and impious vanity, in changing Catholic and Christian terms and speeches into their profane and heathenish use and signification, was a thing so detested, even by Beza himself, notwithstanding his often being guilty of the same, that he inveighs against it, and those who use it, in this manner : "The world is now come to that pass," says he, "that not only they who write their own discourses, refuse the familiar and accustomed words of scripture, as obscure, unsavoury, and out of use, but also those that translate the scripture out of Greek into Latin, challenge to themselves the like liberty; so as while every man will rather freely follow his own judgment than religiously behave himself as the Holy Ghost's interpreter, many things they do not convert, but pervert; for which licentiousness and boldness, except remedy be provided in time, either I am notably deceived, or within a few years, instead of Christians we shall become Ciceronians, i. e. Pagans, and by little and little shall lose the possession of the things themselves." (b) By this you see, that though Beza was one of the greatest masters in this wanton, novel, and licentious art of changing Christian for Heathen terms and phrases, yet he foresaw that in the end, with the words, would be taken away the things signified, "sacraments, baptism, eucharist, priesthood, sacrifice, angels, apostles, and all apostolical doctrine :" and that so we should be brought again from Christianity to heathenism. From WHICH, and from the STILLINGFLEETIAN ERROR, (c) that, by asserting, "The pagan god, Jupiter, to be the true God, blessed for evermore," throws open the door of Jupiter's temple, and points out the very pathway to paganism, GOOD LORD, DELIVER US! A VINDICATION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS: AS ALSO THEIR DECLARATION, AFFIRMATION, COMMINATION; SHOWING THEIR ABHORRENCE OF THE FOLLOWING TENETS, COMMONLY LAID AT THEIR DOOR. AND THEY HERE OBLIGE THEMSELVES, THAT IF THE ENSUING CURSES BE ADDED TO THOSE APPOINTED TO BE READ ON THE FIRST DAY OF LENT, THEY WILL SERIOUSLY AND HEARTILY ANSWER AMEN TO THEM ALL. 1. CURSED is he that commits idolatry; that prays to images or relics, or worships them for God. R. Amen. 2. Cursed is every goddess worshipper, that believes the Virgin Mary to be any more than a creature; that honours her, worships her, or puts his trust in her more than in God; that believes her above her Son, or that she can in any thing command him. R. Amen. 3. Cursed is he that believes the saints in heaven to be his redeemers, that prays to them as such, or that gives God's honour to them, or to any creature whatsoever. R. Amen. 4. Cursed is he that worships any breaden (a) Change of words induces change of faith. god, or makes gods of the empty elements of bread and wine. R. Amen. 5. Cursed is he that believes priests can forgive sins whether the sinner repent or not: or that there is any power in earth or heaven that can forgive sins, without a hearty repentance and serious purpose of amendment. R. Amen. 6. Cursed is he that believes there is authority in the Pope or any others, that can give leave to commit sins; or that can forgive him his sins for a sum of money. R. Amen. 7. Cursed is he that believes that, independently (b) Beza in Act. x. 46, edit., anno 1556, but in the latter ed. of 1565, some of these words are altered either by himself or the printer. (c) Dr. Stillingfleet's Charge of Idolatry against the Church of Rome, p. 7, and p. 40. of the merits and passion of Christ, he can merit salvation by his own good works; or make condign satisfaction for the guilt of his sins, or the pains eternal due to them. R. Amen. 8. Cursed is he that contemns the word of God, or hides it from the people, on design to keep them from the knowledge of their duty, and to preserve them in ignorance and error. R. Amen. 9. Cursed is he that undervalues the word of God, or that forsaking scripture chooses rather to follow human traditions than it. R. Amen. 10. Cursed is he that leaves the commandments of God, to observe the constitutions of men. R. Amen. 11. Cursed is he that omits any of the Ten Commandments, or keeps the people from the knowledge of any one of them, to the end that they may not have occasion of discovering the truth. R. Amen. 12. Cursed is he that preaches to the people in unknown tongues, such as they understand not; or uses any other means to keep them in ignorance. R. Amen. 13. Cursed is he that believes that the Pope can give to any, upon any account whatsoever, dispensation to lie or swear falsely; or that it is lawful for any, at the last hour, to protest himself innocent in case he be guilty. R. Amen. | without check of conscience, say Amen to all these curses? Yes, they can, and are ready to do it whensoever, and as often as it shall be required of them. And what then is to be said of those who either by word or writing, charge these doctrines upon the faith of the Church of Rome? "Is a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets? are they all gone aside? do they backbite with their tongues, do evil to their neighbour, and take up reproach against their neighbour?" I will say no such thing, but leave the impartial considerer to judge. One thing I can safely affirm, that the " Papists" are foully misrepresented, and show in public as much unlike what they are, as the Christians were of old by the Gentiles; that they lie under a great calumny, and severely smart in good name, persons, and estates, for such things which they as much and as heartily detest as those who accuse them. But the comfort is, Christ has said to his followers: "Ye shall be hated of all men,” (Math. x. 22,) and St. Paul: "We are made a spectacle unto the world ;" and we do not doubt, that he who bears this with patience, shall for every loss here and contempt receive a hundred-fold in heaven: "For the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen." 1 Corinth. i. 28. As for problematical disputes, or errors of particular divines, in this, or any other matter whatsoever, the Catholic Church is no way re 14. Cursed is he that encourages sins, or teaches men to defer the amendment of their lives, on presumption of their death-bed repen-sponsible for them; nor are Catholics, as Cathotance. R. Amen. 15. Cursed is he that teaches men that they may be lawfully drunk on a Friday or any other fasting-day, though they must not taste the least bit of flesh. R. Amen. 16. Cursed is he who places religion in nothing but a pompous show, consisting only in ceremonies; and which teaches not the people to serve God in spirit and truth. R. Amen. 17. Cursed is he who loves or promotes cruelty, that teaches people to be bloody-minded, and to lay aside the meekness of Jesus Christ. R. Amen. 18. Cursed is he who teaches that it is lawful to do any wicked thing, though it be for the interest and good of mother church: or that any evil action may be done that good may come of it. R. Amen. 19. Cursed are we, if amongst all these wicked principles and damnable doctrines commonly laid at our doors, any one of them be the faith of our church; and cursed are we, if we do not as heartily detest all those hellish practices as those who so vehemently urge them against us. R. Amen. 20. Cursed are we, if in answering, and saying Amen to any of these curses, we use any equivocation, mental reservation; or do not assent to them in the common and obvious sense of the words. R. Amen. lics, justly punishable on their account. But, As for the king-killing doctrine, or murder of princes, excommunicated for heresy; it is an article of faith in the Catholic Church, and expressly declared in the General Council of Constance, sess. 15, that such doctrine is damnable and heretical, being contrary to the known laws of God and nature. Personal misdemeanors of what nature soever, ought not to be imputed to the Catholic Church, when not justifiable by the tenets of her faith and doctrine. For which reason, though the stories of the Paris massacre; the Irish cruelties, or powder-plot, had been exactly true, (which yet for the most parts are mis-related) nevertheless Catholics as Catholics, ought not to suffer for such offences, any more than the eleven apostles ought to have suffered for Judas's treachery. It is an article of the Catholic faith to believe, that no power on earth can license men to lie, forswear, and perjure themselves, to massacre their neighbours, or destroy their native country, on pretence of promoting the Catholic cause, or religion. Furthermore, all pardons and dispensations granted, or pretended to be granted, in order to any such ends or designs, have no other validity or effect, than to add sacrilege and blasphemy to the above-mentioned crimes. Sweet Jesus, bless our sovereign: pardon our enemies. Grant us patience; and establish And can the Papists then, thus seriously, and peace and charity in our nation. VERSION OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE: A VINDICATION OF WARD'S ERRATA, IN REPLY TO GRIER, BY THE RIGHT REV. DR. MILNER. DEAR SIR-You have witnessed the failure of | our vicar in his attempt to vindicate the canon of scripture, without recourse to the authority of tradition, and this on Protestant, as well as on Catholic grounds. As to the other point, which he says he is equally called upon to prove, on the same condition of not recurring to tradition, namely: "Which are the books that have been written by Divine inspiration, and, indeed, that any books at all have been so written," (a) he entirely gives it up, in the following terms: "To pronounce with confidence what books of the canon, or parts of books, are inspired, and what not, may consistently belong to Dr. M., as being a member of a church which lays claim to infallibility; but certainly not to a member of the Church of England. So that when he asks, how we have learned, what books have been written by Divine inspiration, or that any books at all have been so written? we may answer that, where the holy scriptures declare that they set forth a divine revelation, or that they express the word of God, we believe them to do so : [thus again grounding a thing to be proved upon itself!] but as to the fact of their inspiration, we must, with awe and humility, decline to say, what we believe no church, ancient or modern, can attest." (b) If this were so, I would ask the vicar, of what great use is the scripture more than any other good book? and why is it called the word of God? Again, with what consistency does the Church of England appeal to it, in her Articles, as her only rule of faith? But the vicar's ideas are evidently confused on the subject, and therefore, he hastens to another more familiar to him, since he has already published a quarto volume on the fidelity of the English Bible. However, as the fifty pages he spends upon it in the present work, consist, for the most part, of mere declamation in praise of the translation, its authors, and himself, together with proportional abuse of its critics, and Dr. M., (a style in which I will not contend with the Rev. Gentleman,) I hope to be able to confine my reflections within much narrower bounds than he confines his. The vicar begins his declamation, dear Sir, with unlimited abuse of your correspondent. This he carries on through the greater part of ten pages, reproaching me with ignorance, superciliousness, arrogance, superficialness, &c. (c) In (a) Reply, p. 2. (b) P. 9. (c) P. 61, et seq. sbort, he says, that "Dr. M. cannot stand a competition, on the score of learning and talents, with even the obscurest" of the fifty-four clergymen who were named in the reign of James I., to make a new version of the scripture, though he confesses there are five amongst them of whom he knows nothing at all, and some others, of whom he has barely learned something from the late Mr. Todd. (d) To this abuse I am content to answer, that as the vicar knows nothing of me or my attainments, but what he learns from my publications, which, together with his own, are before the world, so our respective characters for learning and talents will not be decided upon by what we may say of ourselves, but by what others may judge of us. The very profession of the vicar, which is to vindicate, at the same time Tyndal's translation of the Bible, and king James's correction of it, as being both of them faultless, carries with it its own refutation, and betrays his insincerity and spirit of chicanery. His fellow-labourer, Dr. Ryan, whose Analysis of Ward's Errata (e) he has commended, "as decisive to the extent it goes," (f) very fairly gives up several corruptions of the sacred text, which disgraced Tyndal's and the other early translations and editions of the English Bible, during more than fifty years, as indefensible. Thus, for example, speaking of Ward, he says: "He produces seven texts to show that we mistranslated our Bible, for the purpose of injuring his church, and to excuse our apostacy from it; but the former mistranslations of these seven texts having been corrected in our present Bible, should have been excluded from his catalogue of errata.” (g) With the same fairness Dr. Ryan says: (Ward) produces eight texts, which he accuses us of misconstruing against the sacrament and mass; but five of the eight having been corrected in our version, agreeably to his own, should have been excluded from the book." (h) The (d) P. 66. (e) Dublin, 1808. (f) Reply, p. 94. "He (g) Analysis, p. 10. In Tyndal's translation, and the editions of 1562, 1577, 1579, instead of the word CHURCH, the word CONGREGATION is used in the following manner: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my CONGREGATION. Mat. xvi. 18. if he will not hear them, tell the cONGREGATION; and if he will not hear the CONGREGATION, let him be to thee as a heathen, &c. Mat. xviii. 17. xiv. 22, instead of saying: Jesus BLESSED the bread, the old editions say: Having GIVEN THANKS. In two other passages, 1 Cor. ix. 13, and 1 Cor. x. 18, the word TEMPLE is used, instead of ALTAR, to exclude the idea of a sacrifice under the new law. (h) Ibid., p.12. In two of these passages, Mat. xxvi. and Mark 66 | Doctor proceeds: "Our opponent (Ward) books, called, The Wicked Mammon, The True charges us with misconstruing twelve texts, for Obedience, and The Answere to Syr T. More, the purpose of proving Catholics guilty of ido- together with the latter's Confutacion of Tynlatry.' But six of the twelve being corrected dale's Answere, &c., I am convinced he must in our Bible, ought to have been omitted "in have lowered his tone of panegyric with respect his list." (a) In a word, this advocate of the to Tyndal into that of extenuation, at least, as English Bible challenges the Popish doctors, as he would have found this pretended apostle's he calls them, to answer him this question: language to be no less seditious than it is hetero"Did not the translators of our Bible of the dox, and no less injurious to the present Church year 1683, correct forty errors in our old of England, than it was to that of former times. ones? (b) Such is the acknowledgment of Dr. With the most specious pretensions to charity Ryan, writing in defence of the English Bible, and submission, he terms, at every turn, those against the learned cavalier Thomas Ward; who were most dignified and venerated in church but the Rev. Mr. Grier undertakes equally to and state, "apish, pivish, popish jugglers, thieves, vindicate the old version and the new one, the murtherers, blood-suppers, Pilates, Herods, corrected and the uncorrected text; and even priapists, sodomites, hangmen, Christ-killers, in those very passages in which the infidelity of devils, &c." (f) The learned and dignified the latter is most glaring, and obnoxious to the author, quoted below, points out, "amonge English Church as well as to the Catholic other tokens of Tyndale's evill intent in hys Church. For example, he defends Tyndal and translacion, for enswample, that he chaunged his followers in the use of the word congregation, commonlye this woorde churche into this woorde for that of church, affirming that, in so doing, congregacion, and this woorde priest into this they did not depart from the letter or the woorde seniour; and charitie into love, and meaning of the Holy Ghost." (c) In a word, he grace into favour, confession into knowledge, and pronounces, with Selden's Table-Talker, that penaunce and repentance, with wordes mo, which "the English translation of the Bible is the best he chaunged and useth dayly, as in turning in the world, and which renders the sense of the ydoles into ymages, and anonynting into smering, original the best; taking in for the English consecrating into charming, sacramentes into translation the Bishops' Bible as well as king ceremonys, and ceremonys into witchecrafte, and James's;" adding: "The bishops made the yet many moe. (g) Notwithstanding John preceding English versions of Tyndal and Fox attributes a splendid miracle (in rendering Coverdale the models and as it were the basis of void the enchantment of a certain magician), to their own." (d) Thus then, according to the the sanctity of Tyndal, (h) he is far from sucvicar, the version of the Lutheran Tyndal from ceeding in vindicating his religious or his moral the Latin Vulgate, of the Calvinist Coverdale, principles. (i) It appears that, though Coverfrom the Vulgate and the Greek, (e) and the dale encouraged his disciple Frith to die for his corrected version of the English divines from belief, yet, it is plain, from his story, that he the Hebrew and the Greek, though often differ- himself suffered death, not for that, or his Enging from each other in meaning, as well as in | lish translation of the Bible, but for treasonable other respects, are each of them" the best trans-practises against the government of the Low lation in the world, and renders the sense of the Countries, under which he lived. But why does original the best." not the vicar honour the name of the above-mentioned Frith, who had so large a share in his master Tyndal's Bible, with a single notice? I can conceive no other motive for this, except that, when he was burnt in Henry's reign, for denying the Catholic doctrine of the sacrament, archbishop Cranmer had the chief hand in bringing him to the stake. The vicar, however, makes amends for this omission, by the lofty praises he heaps on the "venerable Coverdale," as he calls him, who was the most conspicuous character in giving the early editions of the English Bible. This apostate friar was of the same religious order with Luther, and, like him, broke through his solemn vow of continency, by taking to himself a pretended wife, during the confusion of Edward's reign, at which time also he became bishop of Exeter. Retiring to Geneva, when Mary mounted the throne, he sucked in there The vicar, as might be expected, speaks in high terms of Tyndal, whom John Fox calls England's "s apostle, and with equal censure of his great antagonist, Sir Thomas More. Had the vicar read and faithfully exhibited the former's (a) Ibid., p. 24. The following are some of the old corrup tions, which have been since corrected, according to the original and the Rheims Testament, Coloss. iii. 5, Covetousness, which is the worshipping of images, Ephes. v. 5; 2 Cor. vi. 16, How agreeth the temple of God with images? 1 John v. 21, Babes, keep yourselves from images. (b) P. 62. To this the Catholic Doctors answer in the affirmative. But they add, first, that the very circumstance of their being corrected by Protestants, is a proof that the latter acknowledged them to be errors: secondly, that after the forty corrections in question have been made, a still greater number of corrections remain to he made. (c) Answer to Ward's Errata, by the Rev. R. Grier, 1812, p. 2. To this, his former work, the vicar refers in his present Reply, with his usual modesty, as follows: "I trust the readers of my Answer will credit the truth of the assertion, that my publication, comprising, as it does, the ablest arguments of our most learned divines, contains a full and victorious refutation of pernicious error; and that I have successfully established the superior merit of our standing English text, no less than its fidelity."- Reply, p. 94. (d) P. 76. (e) Coverdale had the chief hand in the Genevan edition, which was so obnoxious to the Church of England, that the prelates of the establishment constantly oppose its publication, as may be seen in Strype. | (f) Sir Thomas More's Works, London, 1517, p. 336. (g) Syr T. More's Second Boke, whiche confuteth the Defence of Tyndall, for his Translacion, p. 405. (h) See Acts and Moriani. (i) This appears by his attempt to get into Bishop Tunstal's service, after he had declared himself a Protestant, and by his constant maxim of, bearing with the times. ing to vindicate both the old and the new version, the uncorrected and the corrected one, and to prove that each of them is the best translation in the world, than the vicar's subsequent comparison between them, and the preference which he gives, in an important instance, to the former ? (c) Proceeding to treat of the new version of the scriptures, which was made by order of king James I., more than seventy years after the first appearance of the former, the vicar chiefly confines himself to combating the following passage in The End of Controversy, where, speaking of the Bibles, "which had been published by authority or generally used by Protestants in this country," the author said: "Those of Tyndal, Coverdale, and queen Elizabeth's bishops, were so notoriously corrupt, as to cause a general outcry against them among learned Protestants, as well as among Catholics, in which the king himself, James I., joined: and accordingly he ordered a new version of it to be made, being the same that is now in use, with some few alterations made in it after the restoration." (d) the doctrine and prejudices of Calvin, so that, | exposure of the latter's absurdity, in attemptreturning to England when Elizabeth became queen, he was neither restored to his see, nor treated as a bishop. It was not without difficulty that he obtained the poor living of St. Magnus', near London Bridge, and he was, after some time, turned out of that for non-conformity. The vicar sets up a most curious proof of the fidelity of Coverdale's biblical labours, which is worthy, dear sir, of your notice, as a specimen of the conclusiveness of his reasoning; it is this, Fulk declares as follows: "I myself did heare that Reverend father, M. Dr. Coverdale, of holie and learned memorie, in a sermon at St. Paule's Crosse, upon occasion of some slaunderous reportes, that then were raised against his translation, declare his faithful purpose in doing the same, which, after it was finished and presented to K. Henry VIII., and by him committed to diverse bishops of that time to peruse, of which, as I remember, Stephen Gardiner was one-they being demanded by the king, Are there any heresies maintained thereby? They answered that there were no heresies that they could find maintained thereby." (a) So far Fulke, to whose account of Coverdale's sermon, the vicar subjoins The vicar commences his attack on this pasthe following inference: "This single admission sage with denying, first, that learned divines of Gardiner speaks volumes!" But, dear Sir, of the Church of England, whom alone he acI would ask the reverend gentleman the follow-knowledges to be Protestants, objected to the ing questions: Of what weight is William old version; and, secondly, that the Puritans, Fulke's account of Miles Coverdale's sermon in to whom he refuses that title, raised an outcry defence of the old exploded version? Secondly, against it. But I would ask him, whether the What signify Stephen Gardiner's words concern- subscribers to the Millinary Petition to Parliaing it, or any other point during Henry's reign, ment, who therein describe themselves to be when he was as abject a slave to the religious "more than a thousand ministers, that had subtyrant as Cranmer himself was? Thirdly, scribed the service book" of Common-Prayer, What proof of the fidelity of a scriptural trans- and whose representatives, at the conference of lation would the decision even of a council be, Hampton-Court, were Dr. Reynolds and Dr. that it maintained no heresies; when it might be Spark, both of them professors of Oxford Unifound censurable on twenty other theological versity, were not divines of the Church of Engcharges? And what then becomes of the re- land? And whether these representatives did verend vicar's volumes of evidence, for the purity not then and there petition as follows; " May of Coverdale's version? But the simple fact of it please your Majesty, that the Bible be newly a new translation of the whole scripture having translated, such as are extant not answering the been set on foot and executed by authority original, which he (Dr. Reynolds) instanced in both of church and state, in James's reign, is a proof that the former version of Tyndal and Coverdale, even after it had been corrected by the bishops was deemed to be faulty. That it did abound with errors is demonstrated by the learned Gregory Martin, in his Discoverie, &c., whom Fulke in vain attempted to answer. The same is again demonstrated, together with sufficient proofs that the present version also abounds with errors, by the intelligent Thomas Ward, in his Errata, the success of whose undertaking accounts for the vicar's unbounded abuse of him. (b) But what need is there of a further (a) Reply, p. 73. (b) There is no expression of hatred and contempt too strong for the vicar, in speaking of these two able and learned men, which is the best proof of his being wounded by their pens, and his inability to cope with them. The fellow students of Gregory Martin, at Oxford, bore a very different testimony of his learning and merit from that of Mr. Grier. The celebrated historian of that university relates that, when the Duke of Norfolk, to whose eldest son Martin was then domestic tutor, visited St. John's College, he was greeted with a public oration, in which the orator, speaking of its great ornament, Gregory Martin, said: nostrum, "Habes, illustrissime Dux, Hebræum nostrum, Græcum With respect to Ward, it may be enough to say that, though a layman and a military man, he proved himself to be an overmatch for his different clerical antagonists, one of of Canterbury. See his Monomachia. His Cantos on the Reformation, though written in dogrel verse, contain such sterling matter, as to have caused the conversion of many Protestants, and, among others, of the late Rev. Roland Davies, C. A. D. The vicar's pretended Answer to the Errata, was the prototype to his Reply to the End of Controversy. He writes much about different subjects, and about them, and makes many bold assertions and denials, but never once proves the point which he takes in hand to prove. whom was Richel, vicar of Hexam; another, Tennison, A.B., (c) Quoting that foolish book, Selden's Table- Talk, he says that "The Bishops' Bible (the old translation), copied chiefly from Tyndal and Coverdale) ranks equally high, as a translation, with king James's, and either of them is the best translation in the world."-Reply, p. 76. (d) End of Controversy, Let. ix., p. 71. |