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OF THE

PROTESTANT BIBLE;

OR THE

TRUTH OF THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS EXAMINED;

IN A TREATISE,

SHOWING SOME OF THE ERRORS THAT ARE TO BE FOUND IN THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES, USED BY PROTESTANTS, AGAINST SUCH POINTS OF RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE AS ARE THE SUBJECT OF CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THEM

AND THE MEMBERS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

IN WHICH ALSO,

FROM THEIR MISTRANSLATING THE TWENTY-THIRD VERSE OF THE FOURTEENTH CHAPTER
OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, THE CONSECRATION OF DR. MATTHEW PARKER,
THE FIRST PROTESTANT ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,

IS OCCASIONALLY CONSIDERED.

BY THOMAS WARD, ESQ.

A NEW EDITION, CAREFULLY REVISED AND CORRECTED.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED,

THE CELEBRATED PREFACE OF THE REV. DOCTOR L............. IN ANSWER TO RYAN'S "ANALYSIS ;"

AND

A VINDICATION, BY THE RIGHT REV. DOCTOR MILNER,

IN ANSWER TO GRIER'S "REPLY."

"For I testify to every one that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book: If any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from these things which are written in this book." REVELATIONS xxii. 18, 19.

DUBLIN:

PUBLISHED BY JAMES DUFFY,

25, ANGLESEA-STREET.

1.841.

DUBLIN: PRINTED BY EDWARD EGINTON,

36,

LOWER ORMOND QUAY.

TO THE

RIGHT REVEREND JOHN FENNELLY,

VICAR APOSTOLIC OF MADRAS,

AND

BISHOP OF CASTORIA,

THIS EDITION OF WARD'S INVALUABLE WORK,

AGAINST

THE GROSSEST OF ALL CORRUPTIONS,

THE CORRUPTION OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES,

IS

MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,

AS A SMALL TESTIMONY OF THE HIGH ESTEEM AND VENERATION

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PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

BY DR. L

THE publication of Ward's "Errata to the Protestant Bible" has disclosed a most curious and important fact, that the scriptural church of England and Ireland was originally founded on a false translation of the scriptures. It was the boast of the first reformers, that they had emancipated their disciples from the shackles of Catholic despotism, and had restored to them the freedom of the children of God: it now appears, that this freedom consisted in reading an erroneous version of the inspired writings, and in venerating as the dictates of eternal Wisdom the blunders of ignorant or interested translators." The scriptures," they exclaimed, "are the sole rule of faith. Here they are, no longer concealed under the obscurity of a learned language, but exhibited to you in your native tongue. Here you will easily detect the errors of Popery, and learn the true doctrine of the Gospel." The credulity of multitudes accepted with joy the proffered boon; the new teachers were hailed as apostles commissioned by heaven; and every old woman, both male and female, that could read, became an adept, if not in the knowledge of the Bible, at least in the prejudices and errors of its translators.

It is not for man to dispute the wisdom of Providence, and arraign at the bar of his private judgment the means which God may choose for the diffusion of religious knowledge. Otherwise, I must confess, there appears to me something very unaccountable in the scriptural blunders of the apostles of the reformation. The object, they said, of their mission was the dissemination of evangelic truth. If the Holy Spirit selected them for this important office, he must also have gifted them with the true knowledge of the scriptures, and, if he gifted them with the true knowledge of the scriptures, it seems to follow that he ought also to have granted them the power to make a true translation of the scriptures. The apostles of Jesus received the knowledge of tongues, that they might instruct the different nations of the earth: the apostles of the church of England and Ireland ought to have received the knowledge of, at least, the Hebrew and Greek tongues, that they might form an accurate version of the scriptures. Such a version was as necessary to that church, as the instructions of the first apostles could be to the primitive churches of Christianity. If they were apostolical, she was scriptural. However, without speculating on the cause, the fact is certain, not only from the arguments of Ward, but even

from the concessions of his adversaries, that the fathers of this scriptural church gave it a version of the scriptures abounding with errors. And here it may reasonably be asked, whence arose these errors? Were they the offspring of ignorance, or design? Dr. Ryan warmly contends for the former, and endeavours to fortify his opinion by the authority of Father Simon: (a) but then, even admitting his assertions, devoid as they are of proof, and liable to objection, what are we to think of the temerity of these men, who, incompetent to the task, and conscious of their incompetency, still presumed to violate the purity of the sacred volumes, and to obtrude on their unsuspecting disciples an erroneous version as the immaculate word of God, and as the sole and infallible guide to religious truth? Ward, on the contrary, attempts to show that the more important of their errors were committed by design; and a curious circumstance it is, highly corroborative of his opinion, that most of their blunders are favourable to their own peculiar doctrines, and unfavourable to those of their opponents. But, if this be true, what judgment can any unprejudiced man form of these saints of the reformation? For my part, I know of no crime more foul in its own nature, more prejudicial in its consequences, more nearly allied to diabolic malignity, than that of designedly corrupting the holy scriptures, and, by such corruption, leading the sincere inquirer into error, and converting the food of life into the poison of death.

But, from whatever source these false renderings proceeded, whether their authors were guided by policy or misled by ignorance, this must be conceded, that if Ward has fairly established the fact, he is entitled to the gratitude of the impartial reader. The impartial reader, let him be Protestant or Catholic, will, if his object be truth, thankfully receive the truth from whatever hand may present it to him. Hence it was with no small surprise that I heard the clamour which was raised against the last edition of the "Errata." In parliament and out of parliament, in newspapers and pamphlets, it was stigmatized as an attempt to vilify the reformation, and to heap disgrace on the Established Church. "It was the work," observed an eminent senator, eminent for the only talent he possesses, that of

(a) Ryan's Analysis, p. 5. Simon, however, in the passage referred to, does not speak of the English translators in particular, but of the Protestant translators in general. This Dr. Ryan has thought fit to conceal from his readers.

B

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