The Book, The Vulgate Latin | The true English | Corruptions in the Chapter, and Ver. Text. according to the Rhemish trans- Protestant Bi- 1579. The last translation of the Protestant Bible, Edit. London,anno 1683. (a) Hail, thou In Bible, 1637. that art freely be- Hail, thou that loved. In Bible, art highly fa1577. Thou that voured. In Biart in high favour. ble, 1683. Hail, thou that art highly favoured, our Lord is with thee. Psalm 138. How precious are thy unto (e) Nimis hono- Thy friends, O (e) How dear Eng. Bible, rificati sunt amici God, are become are thy councils also 139. verse tui, qp7o1 Diños σv. exceedingly hon-(or thoughts) to thoughts Deus; nimis con- ourable; their me? O! how great me, 0 God! fortatus est princi- princedom is ex- is the sum of How great is patus eorum proceedingly them? the sum of them! ¡Dзy aι ȧgxaι auTwv. strengthened. 17. (a) THE most B. Virgin, and glorious Mother of Christ, has by God's holy church always been honoured with most magnificent titles and addresses: one of the first four general councils gives her the transcendant title of the Mother of God.* And by St. Cyril of Alexandria, she is saluted in these words," Hail! holy Mother of God, rich Treasure of the world, evershining Lamp, Crown of purity, and Sceptre of true doctrine; by thee the holy Trinity is every where blessed and adored, the Heavens exult, angels rejoice, and devils are chased from us : who so surpasses in eloquence, as to be able to say enough to the glory of Mary?" Yea, the angel Gabriel is commissioned from God to address himself to her with this salutation, "Hail! full of grace:" + since which time, what has ever been more common, and, at this day, more general and useful in all Christian countries, than in the Ave Maria to say, Gratia Plena," Full of grace?" But, in our miserable land, the Holy Prayer, which every child used to say, is not only banished, but the very text of Scripture wherein our blessed Lady was saluted by the angel, "Hail! full of grace," they have changed into another manner of salutation, viz. "Hail thou that art freely beloved," or, "in high favour." I would gladly know from them, why this, or that, or any other thing, rather than "Hail! full of grace?" St. John Baptist was full of the Holy Ghost, even from his birth; St. Stephen was full of grace;§ why may not then our Lady be called " full of grace," who, as St. Ambrose says, "only obtained the grace which no other woman deserved, to be replenished with the Author of grace?" If they say, the Greek word does not signify so: 1 must ask them, why they translate axoMiv, ulcerosus, "full of sores," and will not translate xexagilaμm, gratiosa, "full of grace?” Let them tell us what difference there is in the nature and significancy of these two words. If ulcerosus, as Beza translates it, be "full of sores," why is not gratiosa, as Erasmus translates it, "full of grace?" seeing that all such adjectives in osus signify fulness, as periculosus, ærumnosus, &c. as every school-boy knows. What syllable is there in this word, that seems to make it signify "freely beloved?" St. Chrysostom, and the Greek doctors, who should best know the nature of this Greek word, say, that it signifies to make gracious and acceptable. St. Athanasius, a Greek doctor, says, that our blessed Lady had this title, xexplain, because the Holy Ghost descended into her, filling her with all graces and virtues. And St. Hierom reads gratia plena, and says plainly, she was so saluted, "full of grace," because she conceived him in whom all fulness of the Deity dwelt corporally.¶ (b) Again, to take from the holy Mother of God, what honour they can, they translate, that "He, (viz. Joseph) called his name Jesus." And why not she as well as he? For in St. Luke, the angel saith to our Lady also, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus." Have we not much more reason to think that the B. Virgin, the natural mother of our Saviour, gave him the name Jesus, than Joseph, his reputed father; seeing also St. Matthew, in this place, limits it neither to him nor her? And the angel revealed the name first unto her, saying, that she should call him. And the Hebrew word, Isa. 7. whereunto the angel alludes, is of the feminine gender; and by the great rabbins referred unto her, saying expressly, in their commentaries, et vocabit ipsa puella, &c. "And the Maid herself shall call his name Jesus." (c) How ready our new controllers of antiquity, and the approved ancient Latin translation, are to find fault with this text, Gen. 3. "She shall bruise the head," &c. because it appertains to our blessed Lady's honour; saying, that all ancient fathers read ipsum†† when on the contrary, St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. Bede, St. Bernard, and many others, read ipsa, as the Latin text now does. And though some have read otherwise, yet, whether we read "she" shall bruise, or " her seed," that is, her Son, Jesus Christ, we attribute no more, or no less to Christ, or to his mother, by this reading or by that; as you may see, if you please to read the annotations upon this place in the Doway Bible. I have spoken of this in the Preface. (d) Where the Scripture, in the original, is ambiguous and indifferent to divers senses, it ought not to be restrained or limited by translation, unless there be a mere necessity, when it can hardly express the ambiguity of the original: as for example, in this where St. Peter speaks so ambiguously, either that he will remember them after his death, or that they shall remember him. But the Calvinists restrain the sense of this place, without any necessity; and that against the prayer and intercession of saints for us, contrary to the judgment of some of the Greek fathers; who concluded from it, "That the saints in Heaven remember us on earth, and make intercession for us." (e) In fine, this verse of the Psalms,++ which is by the church and all antiquity read thus, and both sung and said in honour of the holy apostles, agreeably to that in another Psalm, "Thou shalt appoint them princes over all the earth," they translate contrary hoth to the Hebrew and the Greek, which is altogether according to the said ancient Latin translation, “How are the heads of them strengthened, or their princedoms:" And this they do, purposely to detract from the honour of the apostles and holy saints. Conc. Eph. cap. 13. † St. Luke 1. v. 18. # St. Luke 1. v. 15. § Act. 7. ver. 8. | Luke 16. ver. 20. St. Chrys. Comment. in Ep. 1. St. Athan. de S. Deipar. St. Hierom. in Ep. 140 in Expos. Psal. 44. ** Rabbi Abraham, & Rabbi David. tt See the annotations upon this place in the Doway Bible, ‡‡ Oecum. in Caten. Gagneius in hunc locum. Psal. 44. according to the The Book, The Vulgate Latin | The true English | Corruptions in the protestant Bi- The last translation of the protestant Bible, edit. London, anno. 1683. By faith Ja (a)-And lean chap. 11. ver. 21. and moriens singulos fi- dying, blessed e-ing on the end of cob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, ejus. προσεκύνησεν top of his rod. Genesis, chap. 47. ver. 31. ἐπὶ τὸ ἄκρον τῆς ράβ δε αυτό, And worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.' (a) THE sacred council of Trent decrees, that "the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and of other saints, are to be had and retained, especially in churches; and that due honour and worship is to be imparted unto them: not that any divinity is believed to be in them; or virtue, for which they are to be worshipped; or that any thing is to be begged of them; or that hope is to be put in them; as, in times past, the pagans did, who put their trust in idols; but because the honour which is exhibited to them, is referred to the archetype, which they resemble: so that, by the images which we kiss, and before which we uncover our heads, and kneel, we adore Christ and his Saints, whose likeness they bear.* And the second council of Nice, which confirmed the ancient reverence due to sacred images, tells us, "That these images the faithful salute with a kiss, and give an honorary worship to them, but not the true Latria, or Divine Worship, which is according to faith, and can be given to none but to God himself."t Between which degrees of worship, Latria et Dulia, protestants are so loth to make any distinction, that, in this place, they restrain the Scripture to the sense of one doctor; insomuch that they make the commentary of St. Augustine, (peculiar to him alone) the very text of Scripture, in their translation; thereby excluding all other senses and expositions of other fathers; who either read and expound, that "Jacob adored the top of Joseph's sceptre;" or else, that "he adored towards the top of his sceptre :" besides which two meanings, there is no other interpretation of this place, in all antiquity, but in St. Augustine only, as Beza himself confesses. And here they add two words more than are in the Greek text, "Leaning and God:" forcing avrou to signify durov, which may be, but is as rare as virga ejus, for virga sua; and turning the other words clear out of their order, place, and form of construction, which they must needs have correspondent and answerable to the Hebrew text, from whence they were translated; which Hebrew words themselves translate in this order, "He worshipped towards the bed'shead;" and if so, according to the Hebrew, then did he worship "towards the top of his sceptre," according to the Greek; the difference of both being only in these words, sceptre and bed; because the Hebrew is ambiguous as to both, and not in the order and construction of the sentence. (b) But why is it, that they thus boldly add in one place, and take away in another? Why do they add "leaned and God" in one text, and totally suppress "worshipped God" in another? Is it not because they are afraid, lest those expressions might warrant and confirm the catholic and Christian manner of adoring our Saviour Christ, towards the holy cross, or before his image, the crucifix, the altar, &c.? And though they make so much of the Greek particle, w, as to translate it "leaning upon" rather than "towards;" yet the ancient Greek fathers+ considered it of such little import, that they expounded and read the text, as if it were for the phrase only, and not for any signification at all; saying, "Jacob adored Joseph's sceptre; the people of Israel adored the temple, the ark, the holy mount, the place where his feet stood," and the like: whereby St. Damascene proves the adoration of creatures, named dulia; to wit, of the cross, and of sacred images. If, I say, these fathers make so little force of the prepositions, as to infer from these texts, not only adoration " towards the thing," but adoration of " the thing;" how come these, our new translators, thus to strain and rack the little particle, , to make it signify "leaning upon," and utterly to exclude it from signifying any thing tending towards adoration? I would gladly know of them, whether in these places of the Psalms there be any force in the Hebrew prepositions surely no more than if we should say in English, without prepositions, "Adore ye his holy hill: we will adore the place where his feet stood: adore ye his foot-stool;" for they know the same preposition is used also, when it is said, " Adore ye our Lord;" or, as themselves translate it, " Worship the Lord;" where there can be no force nor signification of the preposition: and, therefore, in these places, their translation is corrupt and wilful; when they say, "We will fall down before," or, " at his foot-stool," &c. Where they shun and avoid, first, the term of adoration, which the Hebrew and Greek duly express, by terms correspondent in both languages throughout the Bible, and are applied, for the most part, to signify adoring of creatures. Secondly, they avoid the Greek phrase, which is, at least, to adore "towards" these holy things and places: and much more the Hebrew phrase, which is, to adore the very things rehearsed. "To adore God's foot-stool," as the psalmist saith, "because it is holy," or, "because he is holy,” whose foot-stool it is, as the Greek readeth. And St. Augustine so precisely and religiously reads, "Adore ye his footstool," that he examines the case; and finds, thereby, that the blessed sacrament must be adored, and that no good Christian takes it, before he adores it. * Council Trident. sess. 25. † 2 Concil. Nicen. Act. 7. St. Chrys, Oecum in Collection, $t. Damasc. lib. 1. pro imaginib. Leont, apud Damas. The Book, The Vulgate Latin | The true English | Corruptions in the Chapter, and Ver. Text. protestant Bi- according to the The last transla. tion of the protestant Bible, Edit. London, anno 1683. And co vetousness, which vetousness, is the worshipping which is idolatry. of images. |