Commentary on Galatians 1-5, Title page 1 – Dedication 1
A COMMENTARIE OR Exposition, vponupon the fiue first Chapters of the Epistle to the Galatians: penned by the godly, learned, and Judiciall Diuine, M. W. PERKINS.
Now published for the benefit of the Church, and continued with a Supplement vponupon the sixt Chapter, by RAFE CVDWORTH Bachelour of Diuinitie.
ALMA MATER CANTA BRIGIA
HINC LVCEM ET POCVLA SACRA
Printed by IOHN LEGAT, Printer to the Vniuersitie of CAMBRIDGE. 1604.
TO THE RIGHT HOnourable, right vertuous, and most truly religious Lord, ROBERT, Lord RICHE, Baron of Leeze, &c. Grace and peace.
THE holy Scriptures (Right Honourable) giuen by diuine inspiration, and penned by 2. Tim. 3. 16.the holy men of God, Prophets, Apostles, and Apostolike writers, not by priuate motion, but as they were guided by the holy 2. Pet. 1. 20.Ghost; are not onelyonly commended by God, and left vntounto the Church as a pretious depositum carefully to be kept in their integritie (for which 1. Tim. 6. 20.cause the Church is called the ground and pillar of truth. 1. Tim. 3. 15.) nor to be defended onelyonly by the sword of the Magistrate, against Heretikes, Schismatikes, and men of scandalous life, in which respect he is called (and that truly,) Custos vtrius que tabula: But also to be the piller and foundation whereon to rest our faith; the touch-stone of truth; the shoppe of remedies for all spirituall maladies; an anker in the blasts of Temptation, and waues of affliction; a two edged sword to foyle and Eph. 6. 17.put to flight our spirituall enemies; the onelyonly Oracle to which Esa. 8. 20.we must hauehave recourse, and whereat we are to enquire the will of God: In a word, the bread and water of life, whereon our soules are to feede vntounto eternall life. Therefore we are commanded to search the Scriptures as for siluer, and to seeke in Ioh. 5. 9. Mal. 1 2.them as for treasures, to read in them continually, to meditate of them day and night, to vse them as bracelets vponupon our armes, Deut 6 8.and frontlets betweene our eyes; to teach them to our posteritie, and to talke of them when we are in our houses, and when we walke by the way, when we lie downe, and when we rise vp. And great reason there is of this commandement, seeing that (as an ancient writer saith) Quicquid in cis docetur veritas est: quicquid praecipitur bonitas est: quicquid promittitur foelicitas Hugo de S. Vi…t. de Script. & Scriptor. …cris. l…. 1. c. 1.est: that is, Whatsoeuer is taught in them, is truth it selfe: whatsoeuer is commanded, is goodnes it selfe: whatsoeuer is promised, is happines it selfe. They beeing of such perfection, that nothing may be added vntounto them, nor any thing taken from them: of such Deut. 4. 2.infallible certentie, that heauen and earth shall sooner passe away, Matth 5. 13.then one title fall to the ground: so pleasant and delightfull, that they exceede the honie and the honie combe: and so Psal 19. 10.profitable, that no treasures may be compared vntounto them: seeing they are able to make vsus wiser then our enemies, then the Psal 119. 98. &c. 2 Tim. 3. 15. Act. 2. …. Iam 1 21.aged, then our teachers: to make vsus wise vntounto saluation; to giuegive vsus an inheritance among them that are sanctified: nay, able to saue our soules. Which beeing so; I cannot sufficiently wonder, that any calling themselues Christians should make lesse account of the booke of God, then the Romanes in old time, did of their twelue Tables, and other Heathens of their Rituall bookes: or then the Iewes at this day doe of their Talmud, the Turkes of their Alcoran, the Aethiopians of their Abetelis: especially that those which professe themselues Diuines, should so distast the holy Scripture, that leauing it the cleare fountaine of the water of life, they should betake themselues to the troubled streames of mens deuises, and digge vntounto Ier. 2. 13.themselues pittes which will hold no water. Wherein the Schoolemen (I meane the Sententiaries, the Summists, and Quodlibetaries) are chiefly (if not onelyonly) to be censured, who setting aside the Scriptures hauehave vanished away in vaine speculations in their Questions vponupon Lombard the Master of the Sentences, and vponupon Thomas their new Master. So that had it not beene for some fewe Glosses (which notwithstanding like the glosse of Orleans doe often corrupt the text) Nicolaus de Lyra, Hugo de S. Charo, and Peter Comestor (whom I should hauehave named first, beeing so good a text man, that (as his name importeth) he did eate vp the text, as the poore mans horse dranke vp the moone) we should not hauehave had among such a multitude of writers, one poore comment vponupon the Bible for diuers hundred yeares. And no maruaile, seeing it is an ordinarie thing for young nouices in Popish Vniuersities (and I would it were but there onelyonly) not to lay the foundation of their studie in Diuinitie vponupon the rocke, but vponupon the waters: that is, not vponupon the Scripture, but vponupon Aquinas, or some such Summist: and to reade the Scripture no further then they giuegive them light for the vnderstanding of their Schoole-Doctours. Witnesse one of their owne writers, who testifieth Ferdinaud. Vellosill. Epis. Luc. in praef. in aduer. Schol. Theol Nec Script nec Doctores vel a limino solutaste.of himselfe that he had studied Schole-diuinitie and the Canon Law for the space of 16. yeares, and yet neuer so much as saluted either the Scriptures or the Fathers. Which course they take, either because they presume to vnderstand, aboue that which is writtē, cōtrarie to the cōmandemēt of the Apostle, Rom. 12. 3. or for that they iudge the Scriptures too simple and shallow for them to wade in, as not affording them sufficient matter for their witts to worke vponupon. Not considering that whilst they contemne the simplicitie of the Scriptures, & looke beyond the Moone, in the meane time with Thales they fall into Laert. de vit. Philos. lib. 1. in Thal.the ditch: and that whilst they striue with the winges of their wit to soare aboue the cloudes of other mens conceyts, they sincke into a Sea of absurdities and errors. Nor yet remembring that the Scripture hath great maiestie ioyned with simplicitie, and as great difficultie mixed with plainnes and facilitie: and therefore not vnfitly resembled by S. Gregorie, to the Epist. ad Leander.main Ocean in which the lamb may wade & the Elephant may swim. For the spirit of God hath in wonderfull wisdom so tempered the Scriptures, that they are both obscure & perspicuous: in some places like a clasped or sealed booke. Isay 29. 11. in other places like a booke that is opened. Apoc. 5. 5. beeing both easie & difficult. Easie, in that the enterance into the word, giueth light and vnderstanding so the simple. Psal. 119. 130. Difficult, in that some things are hard to be vnderstood. 2. Pet. 3. 16. and hard to be interpreted. Ebr. 5. 11. Easie, to inuite vsus to reade and learne thē: Difficult, to exercise vsus lest we should cōtemne them. From the easie and plaine places are gathered principles of religion, both articles of faith & rules of good life, which we call Catechismes. The difficult places require interpretation, & the Cō mentaries of the learned. Both which are necessarie in the church of God. Catechismes hauehave a necessarie vse, both in regard of the simple, who are to be fed with milke, beeing but babes in Christ: and of the learned who are strong men in Christ, that they may hauehave some rule, whereby to trie the spirits, consonant to the analogie of faith, and the doctrine of the orthodoxe Fathers of the Church: which Paul calleth the forme of knowledge. Rom. 2. 20. and The forme of doctrine. foreign.Rom. 6. 17. and a patterne of wholesome wordes. 2. Tim. 1. 13. which formes of doctrine were in vse in the primatiue church in the Apostles daies, as it is manifest Heb. 6. 1. where the Apostle sets downe the principall points of the Catechisme, calling them the doctrine of the beginning of Christ. And after the Apostles, we find that they were vsed by the learned Fathers, both of the Greeke and Latine Church. Clement Alex. had his Pedagogue. Cyril of Ierusalem his Catechisme and Mystagog. bookes. Origen (that famous Catechist) his books oforeign.of principles. Theodoret his Epitome foreign. Lactantius his Institutions. Augustine his Enchiridion. Hugo de S. Victore his books of the Sacraments, or mysteries of christian religion. And it were greatly to be wished that as in other reformed churches beyond the Sea, they hauehave a set Catechisme which all men follow; and in the church of Rome one approoued by the Councell of Trent: so there were an vniforme Catechisme inioyned by publick authoritie to be vsed in all Families, Schooles, and Churches in this land, that we might all with one mind and one mouth, iudge and speake the same thing.
Now as Catechismes gathered out of plaine and easie places are necessarie for the simple: so Commentaries are as necessarie for the vnderstanding of such places as are more abstruse and difficult. Our Sauiour Christ (the great Doctor of the Church) hath by his owne practise giuen vsus a president hereof in expounding the lawe, Matth. 5. in expounding all hard parables to his disciples a part: for the text saith, that he vnfolded or expounded them vntounto them. Mark 4. 33. That he interpreted vntounto foreignthem in all the scriptures the things which were written of him. foreign.Luk. 24. 27. That he opened vntounto them the scriptures. v. 32. And foreign.they hauehave bin alwaies so accounted in the Church of God. For the Iewes (as we know) had their Per…shim, the Greeke church their Scholia, the Latin Church their Glosses, with other Paraphrases, & Expositions. Neither was it euer called in question by any, saue by the phantasticall Anabaptists, who rest onelyonly Sleidan. lib. 6.vponupon immediate reuelations. And some preiudicate Papists, who hold the consent of all Catholikes to be the true Scripture, Coster. Enchir. controvers. c 1.both the glosse, and the text, the written word, but inkie Diuinitie, and a dead letter. And certaine arrogant spirits who with Nestorius skorne to read any Interpreters. But how Commentaries Socrat. lib. 7. cap. 32.ought to be written, it is not so easie to define, there beeing such difference as well in regard of the manner of writing, as of the measure. For besides that the Popish writers make foure seuerall senses of the Scripture, commending Ierome to excell in the Literall, Origen in the Allegoricall, Ambrose in the Anagogicall, Chrysostome in the Tropologicall; they hauehave aboue fiftie seuerall waies of expounding the Scripture, as their owne writers doe record. In the measure, we Sixt. Senens. in praefat. in Bib.finde some too tedious, as the two Alphonsi, Tostatus, and Salmeron, who vponupon eueryevery small occasion digresse from the text, or rather take occasion to enter into infinite friuolous questions, which breede strife rather then godly edifying which 1. Tim. 1 4.is by faith. For there is not so short a Chapter in the Bible, vponupon which the former mooueth not aboue eight score questions: Sixt Sen. Bibl. lib. 4.whereupon his volumes growe to that bignesse, that one contracting his Commentarie vponupon S. Matth. and drawing it into an Epitome, yet could not so abridge it, but that it Tetrus Ximenes Episc. Cauriens.contained aboue a thowsand pages in folio in the largest volume, & smallest character. The other is so short with his 12 volumes vponupon the Euangelists, that he might well hauehave contracted leaues into lines, and lines into letters. Which tedious discourses, and impertinent excursions from the text, serue for no other ende but to cast a mist before the eyes of the reader, and drawe (as it were) the vaile of Moses ouer his face, so that a. Cor. 3.he cannot see the meaning of the holy Ghost. Others on the contrarie are too short, and compendious, offending as much in breuitie, as the former in prolixitie: by name, Emanuel Sa the Iesuit, whose Commentaries vponupon the Bible are shorter then the text it selfe, like to those of Apollinaris, of whome Ierom Non tam Commentarios quam indicie …lorum. Hieron. proam. in 1. …m Esai.writeth, that a man which readeth them, would thinke he red Contents of chapters, rather then Commentaries. But as for the manner: the literall sense (which our author here followeth) is the onelyonly sense intended by the Spirit of God: the Allegoricall, Tropologicall, Anagogicall, beeing but seuerall vses and applications thereof: For the Scripture (consisting in the sense not in the letters) is profitable to teach, and improoue, as Paul 2. Tim. 3. 16.saith: whereas from the Allegoricall sense no necessary argument Symbolica Theologia … … argumentatiua. Thom.can be taken (as their owne doctors confesse) either to confirme or confute any point of doctrine: & therefore much lesse from the Tropologicall, or Anagogicall. And as for the measure, in regard of breuitie or prolixity, the golden meane hath alway beene iudged by the learned to be the best, which is not onelyonly to giuegive the bare meaning paraphrastically, but to make collection of doctrine and application of vses; yet breefly, rather pointing at the cheife heads, then dwelling long vponupon any point. Some are of opinion that a Commentor is onelyonly to giuegive the literal sence of the place, without making further vse of application, or instruction: To which I could easilie subscribe, if all the Lords people could prophesie, or if all were able to handle the word of God, the sword of the spirit: For as to an expert Musitian who is acquainted with the concords or rules of discant, it is as good a direction to hauehave onelyonly the ground as if he had eueryevery point pricked out vntounto him, beeing inured to the diuision vponupon eueryevery point, as it falleth out in the ground: So to him that is acquaynted with the word of God, a short and concise handling of the Scripture, may be as good a direction as if eueryevery point were discoursed at large. But because all readers are not strong men in Christ, some beeing but babes, who must hauehave eueryevery thing minced, and cutt small vntounto them before they can receiue it. Neither all teachers expert, & prompt Scribes, like to Ezra, nor mightie in the Scripture as Apollos, such as are able to diuide the word a right, and applie it fitly as they ought. (Some beeing deceitfull worckmen peruerting it to their owne destruction, in pressing the two dugges of 1. Cor. 1: …3.the Scripture, the Ould and New Testament, that in steed of Volusian. ad Nicol. 2.milck, they sucke nothing but blood: Others, vnskilfull, casting wild Colloquintida into the pott of the children of the 2. Pet. 3 16.prophets, beeing too hastie to learne, and too ignorant to know of them selues, what they should hauehave gathered). Therefore to help the ignorance of the one, and hinder the malice of the other (and so to profitte the most) beside the meaning, he hath briefly drawne out such doctrines as naturally arise from the text, shewing withall, how they ought to be applied for confutation, correction, instruction, consolation. Which he hath donne with such dexteritie, (artificially matching together two things, heretofore insociable, Breuitie, and Perspicuitie) that the like (I take it) hath not beene performed heretofore by any Expositer vponupon this Epistle: which we may well call the key of the new Testament, in that it handleth the waightiest points of doctrine, whether we consider the necessarie knowledge thereof, or the controuersies of these times. Therefore Luther after he had once publikely expounded it, toke in hand againe, and interpreted it the second time, beginning (as himselfe saith) where he ended, according to the saying of Syracides, When a man hath donne what he can, he must beginne againe. Eccles. …. 6.Which Commentarie, seeing it hath found such good intertainement amongst vsus, beeing but a forrainer, and hauing lost much of his strength, and taken winde by changing from language to language, as wine from one vessell to another: I doubt not but this, beeing a free-denizen, will find the like fauour and acceptance, therather, if it will please your Honour to vouchsafe it your countenance: To whose protection and patronage I here commend it, as S. Luke did his Histories to the most noble Theophylus: desiring hereby to testifie my humble dutie vntounto your Honor, and my thankfulnes to God for the riches of his grace bestowed vponupon you in my sterie of the Gospell, for your zeale of gods glory, your louelove of the truth, and of all those that vnfainedly embrace the truth.
And thus fearing to hinder the course of your more serious cogitations & actions, I humbly take may leaue: Desyring the Lord, who hath promised to honour those that honour him, 2. Sam. …. 30.that as he hath made you Honourable in your noble progenitors, so he would make you thrise Honourable in your future successors, and long continue you a notable instrument vnderunder his Highnes, of the peace and welfare of your country as hetherto he hath done, accomplishing all your desires for present prosperitie and future felicitie. From Emanuell colledge in Cambridge: August. 10. 1604.
Your Honours most humbly deuoted RAFE CVDWORTH.