Exposition of the Dominical Epistles and Gospels, Section 2
Epist. ROM. 15.4.
Whatsoeuer things are written aforetime, they are written for our learning, &c.
THis Scripture containes in it three things concerning the Scripture:
What it is written. Shewing the Scriptures authority.
When aforetime. Shewing the Scriptures antiquity.
Why for our learning. Shewing the Scriptures vtility.
For the first: things only told, passing thorough many mouthes, are easily mistold: it is long ere we get them, and we soone forget them: Almighty God therefore commanded that his Law should be written in bookes, and engrauen in stone, that the syllables thereof might alway be in our eyes, so well as the sound in our eares, and that for two causes especially:
1. That the godly man might mPsalm. 1.2. Ioshua 1.8.exercise himselfe therein day and night.
2. That the wicked might neither nDeut. 4.2.adde to it, nor detract from it.
In like maner, albeit the oRom. 10.18.sound of the thundring Apostles went out thorough all the earth, and their words vntounto the ends of the world: yet the Spirit of wisedome thought it meete that there should be a treatise written of pAct. 1.1.all that Christ did and said: and that qLuke 1.2.from point to point: entituled, rMatth. ….1.The Booke of the generation of Iesus Christ. The Scripture then is a Bible, because written: and the Bible, foreign, in many respects excelling all other bookes, especially for the maker and matter, in so much that S. Paul saith, sGal. 1.8.If an Angell from heauen preach otherwise, let him be accursed. And tIr…naeus cont. haeres. lib. 4. cap. 14 & Euseb. hist. lib. 4 cap. 1….Iustin Martyr goes yet further: If Christ himselfe should preach another God, or another Gospell, I would not beleeue him: Ipse non crederem Domino Iesu.
This doctrine makes against vnwritten verities of Papists, and fond reuelations ofuMelancth. in loc. Anabaptists, and factious interpretations of Schismatikes, and impudent conceits of xMartyr in loc.Libertines; all which equall their owne phantasies with the Scriptures authority.
The Papists and Schismaticks are all for a speaking Scripture: the Libertines and Anabaptists are all for an infused scripture: the true Catholicks only for the written scripture; yEsay 8.20.to the Law, and to the Testimony. zPsalm. 119.105.Thy word is a lanterne vntounto my feet, and a light vntounto my paths.
The second point to be considered is, that foreign or foreign, scriptures written aforetime, being the first booke so well as the best booke: for as aLib. contra Praxeam.Tertullian was wont to call Praxeas, hesternum Praxean: so we may terme the most ancient Poets and Philosophers, in comparison of Moyses, vpstart writers. bIosephus lib. 1. contr. Apion.Omnia Graecorum sunt n…ua & heri. As Galaton painted Homer vomiting, Reliquos verò poetas ea quae ipse euomuisset haurientes: to signifie, saith cDe varia hist. lib. 23.Aelian, that he was the first Poet, and all other, as well Greeke as Latine, but his apes.
In like maner Moyses is called by dDe curat. Graec. affect. lib. 2.Theodoret, Oceanus theologiae, the sea of Diuinitie, from whom all other writers as riuers are deriued. The which point as it is excellentlie confirmed by Theodoret, eIn Protrept.Clemens, fLibris contra Appi…n.Iosephus ▪ and others, so it is ingeniously confessed euen by the heathen Historiographers: gClem. 1. Strom.Eupolemus lib. de Iudaea… regibus, auoweth Moyses to be the first wise man: hIn Epinomide.Plato. that a barbarous Egyptian was the first inuentor of Arts, iIustin. Mart. in admonitorio.Appion, Ptolomey, Palaemon, hauehave granted the same: and vponupon the point, Strabo, Plinie, Cornelius Tacitus, and others, as …icinus reports, lib. de religione Christiana, cap. 26. To demonstrate this more particularly; The Troian war is the most ancient subiect of human history: but Tr…y was taken in the dayes ofkClem. 1. Strom. Dauid. about the yeare of the world, lB…cholcer. in Chron, ad ann. 2788.2788. and Homer flourished mIdem ad ann. 3000.anno 3000. whereas Moyses was borne nIdem ad annum 2373.anno 2373.
Secondly, this foreign oMartyr in loc.confutes the Marcionites and Manichees, and all such as reiect the old Testament. For the place, to which the text hath reference, is taken out of the 69. Psalme, verse 9, that the scriptures of Moses and the Prophets are written for our instruction. It is plain by Christs iniunctiō, pIohn 5.39.Search the Scriptures: as also by that of our Apostle, 1. Cor. 10. These things happened vntounto them for ensamples: and were written to admonish vsus vponupon whom the ends of the world are come. If all little histories, then much more the great mysteries are our scholemasters vntounto Christ: Let vsus examine therefore the third obseruable point, concerning the Scriptures vtilitie; Whatsoeuer things are written afore time, they are written for our learning. The Scripture (saith Paul) is the peoples instruction: the Scripture, say the qBellarmin. de verbo Dei, lib. 2. cap. 15.Papists, in the vulgar tongue, is the peoples destruction. The Scripture, saith r2. Tim. 3.17.Paul, doth make the man of God absolute: the Scripture, say the Papists, in a knowne language, makes men hereticall and dissolute; but the Bible makes men heretikes, as the Sunne makes men blinde: and therefore sIn his Wicket.Wickliffe truly; To condemne the word of God translated in any language for heresie, is to make God an heretike.
Not to presse this place nor vrge any other scripture, we may beate the Rhemish and Romish in this controuersie with their owne weapons, Antiquitie and Custome. For it is tSixtus Senen. bib. lib. 6. annot. 152.acknowledged that the Christians in old time read the Bible to their great edification and increase of faith in their mother tongue. The uRhem. preface, sect. 4.Armenians had the Psalter, and some other peeces of Scripture translated by S. Chrysostome. The Sclauonians by S. Hierome: the Goths by Vulpilas, and that before he was an Arian: The Italians three hundred yeers since by Iames Archbishop of Genua: and the Bible was in French also two hundred yeeres agoe. Beside these, the xD. E…lk answer to Rhem. prefac. vbi sup.Syrians, Arabians, Aethioptans, had of ancient time the Scriptures in their seuerall languages; as it is manifest by those portions of them, which are at this day brought from their countries into this part of the world.
To speake of our owne countrey; venerable Beda did translate the whole Bible into the yFox Preface before the 4. Euang. in the Saxon.Saxon tongue, and the Gospel of S. Iohn into English. K. zHistor. Eli. lib. 1. cap. 37.Alfred also considering the great ignorance that was in his kingdome, translated both the Testaments into his natiue language. Queene Anne, wife to Richard the second, had Scriptures translated in the vulgar, as Thomas Arundel, then Archbishop of Yorke and Chancellor of England, mentioned at her funerall sermon, anno aPolydor. Virg. hist. Anglican. lib. 20. fol. 420.1394.
Moreouer; in a Parliament of this King Richard there was a bill put in to disanull the Bible trāslated into English, vntounto which Iohn Duke of Lancaster answered, and said: We will not be the refuse of al men; other Nations hauehave Gods lawes in their owne language. Thomas Arundel, as we reade in the constitutions of bTit. de magistris.Linwood, being translated vntounto the sea of Canterburie, made strait prouision in a Councell holden at Oxford, that no version set out by Wickliffe or his adherents should be suffered, being not approued by the Diocesan.
It is apparent then out of our owne Chronicles, that the Bible was turned into the mother tongue before and after the Conquest; before and after the time of Wickliffe; before and after the daies of Luther: and all this paine was vndertaken by good and holie men, that the people of God reading and vnderstanding the Scripture, through patience and comfort of the Sonne might hauehave certaine hope of another life.
As then I condemne the malice of Papists in forbidding; so likewise the negligence of carnall Gospellers in forbearing to reade those things aforetime written for our learning. Our forefathers heretofore spared neither cost nor paine: they ventred their crownes and their heads too for the new Testamēt in English, translated by Master Tyndall: and when they could not heare the Gospell in the Church publikely, they receiued much comfort by reading it in their houses priuately: the very children became fathers vntounto their parents and begat them in Christ, euen by reading a few plaine Chapters vntounto them in a corner: but in our time, when eueryevery shop hath Bibles of diuers translations, editions, volumes, annotations, the number of those who can read… is but small, the number of those who doe reade is lesse, the number of those who reade as they should, least of all. If a learned Clerk should …en a treatise for thy particular instruction, thou wouldest instantly with all diligence peruse it. If a Nobleman should send thee gracious letters concerning thy preferment, thou wouldest with all dutifull respect entertaine thē. If thy father, or some other friend, taking a iourney into a farre countrey, should penne his Will, and leaue it in thine hands and custody, thou wouldest hold it as a great token of his louelove. Behold the Bible is written by Wisedome it selfe for our learning, that we may be perfect vntounto all good workes. It is Gods cChrysost. in 2. Th…s. 2.Epistle, and Letters patent, wherein are granted vntounto vsus many gracious immunities and priuiledges: it is his Testament wherein all his will is reuealed, whatsoeuer hee would hauehave done or vndone: and therefore let vsus pray with the Church, that wee may in such wise reade holie Scriptures, heare, mark, learne and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of Gods holie word, wee may embrace and euerhold fast the hope of euerlasting life: through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen.