Defense of the Translations of the Scriptures into the English Tongue, Treatise · Chapter 16
CHAP. XVI.
Hereticall translation against the Sacrament of Matrimonie.
BVT as they are iniurious translatours to the sacred order of Priesthoode, so a man woulde thinke they should be very friendly to the sacramēt of Matrimonie. For they would seeme to make more of Matrimonie then we do, making it equall at the least with virginitie. Yet the trueth is, we make it, or rather the Church of God esteemeth it as a holy sacrament, they do not: as giuing grace to the maried persons to liue together in louelove, concorde, and fidelitie: they acknowledge no such thing. So that Matrimonie with them is highly esteemed in respect of the flesh, or (to say the best) onelyonly for a ciuill contract, as it is among Iewes and Pagans: but as it is peculiar to Christians, and (as S. Augustin… sayth) in the sanctification also and holinesse of a Sacrament, they make no account of it, but flatly denie it.
FVLK. 1.
VE make no more of matrimonie than the holy scripture doeth teach vsus neither doe wee in all respectes make it equall with virginitie, howe so euer you doe slander vsus. But you so make it an holy sacrament that you thinke the holy order of priesthoode is prophaned by it. Wee acknowledge that God giueth grace to them that bee faithfull, to liue in louelove, concorde and fidelitie, euen as he did to the fathers of the olde testament liuing in the same honorable estate, which prooueth that matrimonie is no sacrament of the newe testament, although it be an holie ordinance for Gods children to liue in, and in it is contained, a holy secret or mysterie of the spirituall coniunction of Christ and his church. It is therefore nothing else but a diuelish slander to say that wee esteeme it but in respect of the flesh or for a ciuill contract.
MART. 2. And to this purpose they translate in the epistle to the Ephesians, 5. Where the Apostle speaketh of matrimonie,Sacramentū hoc magnū est. This is a great secret. Whereas the Latine Church and all the Doctors thereof hauehave euer read, This is a great Sacrament: the Greeke Church and all the fathers thereof, This is a great mysterie▪ because that which is in Greeke, mysterie: is in Latine, Sacrament: and contrariwise, theforeign. wordes in both tongue… being equiualent. so that if one be taken in the large signification, the other also: as, Apoc. 17. I will shewe thee the sacrament of the woman. And ISacramentū foreign. will shewe thee the mysterie of the woman. And so in sundrie places, againe if one be restrained from the larger signification, & peculiarly applyed, signifie the Sacramentes of the Church, the other also. As, the Sacrament of the bodie and bloud of Christ: or, the Mysterie of the bodie and bloud ofDuo Sacramenta. foreign. Christ: and the Caluinists in their Latine and Greeke Catechisme say, two Sacramentes. or, two Mysteries.
FVLK. 2. The English worde secret signifieth fully as much as the Greeke worde foreign, in which we must seeke no holinesse as papistes doe in vaine sounde of wordes: but in the matter annexed, which plainely expresseth that it is a great secret of great holines whereof the Apostle speaketh. And it is verie false that you say that the Latine worde sacramentum is equiualent to the Greeke: for both it signifieth an oth which ye Greke word doth not, and also it includeth holinesse which the Greeke worde doth not. Or else why sayth not your vulgar translator and you the sacrament of iniquitie. foreign therefore signifieth euerie secrete, sacramentum onelyonly an holy sacrament, as when you say, Apoc. 17. the sacrament of the woman, the meaning is the secret to be reuealed concerning her is an holy thing: else in the same chapter you hauehave not a sacrament written in her forheade but a mysterie or secret Babylon the mother of abhominations. That the sacramentes are called mysteries we confesse, but that whatsoeuer is called a mysterie may also be called a sacrament, that doe we vtterly denie.
MART. 3. This being so, what is the fault of their translation in the place aforesaide? this, that they translate neither Sacrament, nor, Mysterie. As for the worde Sacrament, they are excused, because they translate not the Latine: but translating the Greeke, why sayde they not, Mysterie, which is the Greeke worde heere in the Apostle? I meane, why sayde they not of matrimonie, This is a great Mysterie? No doubt there can be no other cause, but to auoide both those wordes, which are vsed in the Latin and Greeke Church, to signifie the Sacrament…s. For in the Greeke Church the Sacrament of th… bodie & bloud it self is called but a mystery or mysteries, whichWere it honest or lawfull to translate▪ Baptiso, I wash: or Baptismus, Washing: o… Euāgeliū. good newes? yet ye words prophanely taken, signifie no more. yet the Protestāts themselues call a true Sacrament. Therfore if they shold hauehave called Matrimonie also by that name, it might easily hauehave sounded to be a Sacrament also. But in saying it is a great secret, they put it out of doubt that it shall not be so taken.
FVLK. 3. Seeing the word secrete yt we vse, signifieth wholy as much as mysterie, we hope all reasonable men wil allow ye same also. Sacrament without preiudice to ye trueth we could not translate, and mysterie for the better vnderstanding of the people we hauehave expressed in the English worde, secrete. Out of which if it hauehave any force of argument in it you may proue matrimonie to be a sacrament as well as out of the Greeke worde mysterie. But it is the sounde of an vnknowen worde that you had rather play vponupon in the eares of the ignorants then by any sound argument out of ye scripture to bring them to the knowledge of the trueth.
MART. 4. They will say vntounto mee, Is not euerie sacrament & mysterie in english a secrete? Yes, as Angel, is a messenger: & Apostle, one that is sent. But when the holy Scripture vseth these words to signifie more excellēt & diuine things then those of the common sort, doth it become translators to vse baser termes in steede therof, & so to disgrace the writing & meaning of the holy Ghost? I appeale to themselues, when they translat… this word in other places, whether they say not thus, And wt out doubt, great was yt MYSTERIE of godlines: God1. Tim. 3. Col. 1. v. 26. Eph. 3. v. 9. 1. Cor. 15. V. 51. was shewed manifestly in ye flesh, &c. againe, The MYSTERIE which hauehave bin hid since ye world began, but now is opened to his saincts. againe▪ I shew you a MYSTERIE, we shal not al sleep, but we shal all be changed. And the like. Where if they should trāslate, secret, in steed of, mysterie, as the Bezites do in one of these places, saying, I wil shew you a secret thing: what a disgracing & debasing were it to those high mysteries there signified? And if it were so in these, is it not so in matrimonie, which the Apostle maketh such a mysterie▪ that it representeth no lesse mater then Christ & his Church & whatsoeuer is most excellent in that coniunctiō? No… then, if in all other places of high mysterie they translate it also, mysterie, as it is in the Greeke, & only in Matrimonie do not so, but say rather, This is a great secret, vsing so base a terme in so high & excellent a mysterie, must we not needs thinke (at no dout it is) that they do it because of their heretical opiniō against the Sacramēt of Matrimony, & for their base estimation therof…
FVLK. 4. Nowe you flie to your old shift of ye ecclesiastiall vse of termes which you cannot proue to be like of this English word mysterie, which is cōmōly as prophanely & secularly vsed as any other word. For what is more cōmon among artificers, thā their science or mystery of weauing, of dying, & such like? And yet the word may be vsed of the highest secrets of Christian Religiō, as it is of our translators. And wheresoeuer they hauehave said a mysterie they might as truely hauehave saide a secret, & where they say a secrete they might hauehave said a mysterie. But wher you say yt in al other places of high mystery they translate ye word mysterie it is false. For Mat. 13. Mark. the 4. Luk. the 8. where all ye mysteries of the kingdome of God are spokē of, they translate mysteria, the secrets of ye kingdome of heauen. & 1. cor. 4. where the sacraments & al other secrets of Christian Religion are spokē of they translate foreign stewards of ye mysteries of God. Wherefore it is a shamefull and senselesse slander that heere only we vse this word secret to shew our base estimation of matrimonie.
MART. 5. But they wil yet reply againe, & aske vsus, what we gaine by translating it either Sacrament, or mysterie? Doth that make it one of the Sacramentes properly so called, to wit, such a Sacrament as Baptisme is? no surely, but howsoeuer wee gaine otherwise, at least we gaine the cōmendation of true translators, whether it make with vsus or against vsus. For otherwise it is not the name that maketh it such a peculiar Sacrament. For (as is said before) Sacrament is a generall name in Scripture to other thinges. Neither do we therefore so translate it, as though it were foorthwith one of the seuen Sacraments, because of the name: but as in other places wheresoeuer we finde this word in the Latine, we translate it, Sacrament (as in the Apocalipse, theApoc. 17▪ sacrament of the woman) so finding it heere, we doe heere also so translate it and as for the diuerse taking of it heere, and else where, that wee examine otherwise, by circumstance of the text, and by the Churches and Doctors interpretation: and we finde that heere it is taken for a Sacrament in that sense as we say, seuen Sacramentes: not so in the other places.
FVLK. 5. No reasonable man can charge vsus to be false translators when we turne the Greeke worde into that which it doth generally, properly, and alwaies signifie. And for al your bragging of syncere translating, if you should translate Tob. 12. I am perswaded you would not say: it is a good thing to hide the kinges sacrament. Yet is the Latine worde in that place Sacramentum: and the Greeke foreign. But it is sufficient for you to hauehave a shadow of somthing to find your selfe occupied rather than you would be saying of nothing.
MART. 6. As when we reade this name Iesus in Scripture common to our Sauiour and to other men, we translate it alwaies alike, Iesus, but when it is bInde. v. 5.IESVS Christ, & when some other Iesus, cAct. 7. v. 45. Colos. 4. v. 11.we knowe by other circumstances. Likewise presuppose Baptisme in the Scripture were called a sacrament: yet the Protestantes themselues would not, nor could thereby conclude, that it were one of their two Sacraments. Yet I trow they would not auoyde to translate it by the worde sacrament, if they found it so called: euen so wee finding Matrimonie so called, do so translate it, neither concluding thereby that it is one of the Seuen, nor yet suppressing the name, which no doubt gaue some occasion to the Church and the holy doctors to esteem it as one of the Seuen. They contrariwise, as though it were neuer so called, suppresse the name altogether, calling it a secrete, to put it out of all question, that it is no Sacrament: which they would not hauehave done, if the Scripture had sayde of Baptisme or the Eucharist, This is a great Sacrament. So partiall they are to their owne opinions.
FVLK. 6. Except you thought you had to doe with verie ignorant persons, or else esteemed too much of your lately professed diuinitie, you would neuer comber the reader with such childish trifles of the name of Iesus, of the bare name of sacrament which could not proue baptisme or the Lords supper to be sacramentes &c. and what we would do if wee found them so called, &c. I hauehave alreadie told you what we hauehave done, where not onelyonly the sacraments, but all other pretious Iewels of Christs church committed to the dispensation of his ministers are called foreign, and translated secretes without any abasement of the dignitie of them, or with out any intent to suppresse any of the honor and reuerence which is due vntounto them. Wherefore vsing ye word secret in this text, wee had no purpose to derogate any thing from the worthines of matrimonie, much lesse from the spiritual mysterie which the Apostle offereth to be considered by it in Christ & his Church.