/ .■;e«S!!!!!?^'?-''=;==^- |TI]Et)LCGICALSEOKAKY.| 1'^ PiincetGn, H. J. ^ ' Fulke, William, 1538-1589. Confutation of the Rhemish Testament sec V N V, ■? >» s ^ ^ \ CONFUTATION RHEMISH TESTAMENT. BY WILLLIAM'FULKE, D.D. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ; INCLUDING A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR, COMPLETE TOPICAL AND TEXTUAL INDEX. NEW-YORK: LEAVITT, LORD AND CO. 182 Broadway. BOSTON : CROCICER AND BREWSTER, 47 Washington-street. 1834. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1834, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. JOIIN H. TURKEY S STEREOTYPE. PREFACE. BY THE EDITOR. Among " the signs of tlie times," few events more remarkable and impressive can be cited than the republication by American Protestants, M the original edition of the Rhemish Testament. When that volume was iirst issued in 1582, it excited in Britain indescribable alarm. " It was considered as a book of very dangerous tendency ; being designed to pro- mote the errors, superstitions, and impurities of Popery." In the preface to his " Defence of the English translations of the Bible, Fulke remarks — " The adversaries of our Lord who ' willeth the holy scriptures to be searched,' perceiving that they cannot prevail to bring in that darkness and ignorance of God's most sacred word and will therein contained, whereby their blind devotion, the daughter of ignorance, as they themselves profess, was wont to make them rulers of the world, they also at last are become translators of the New Testament into English. In whicli, they leave the pure fountain of the original verity to follow the crooked stream of their barbarous Latin translation, and which beside other manifest corruptions, is pestered with many annotations both false and undutiful, by which they seek to infect the minds of credulous readers with heretical and superstitious opinions." Not one permanent settlement of Europeans, except in Mexico, then existed on this Northern continent. Neither Popery nor Protestantism was known to the aboriginal Indians. Now, the emissaries of Rome are prowling about with all craftiness, and in all the agility and ferocity of the " BeasV to which the Dragon of Hell gave " his power, seat, and great authority." Revelation xiii. 2. That book which Protestants, two hundred and fifty years ago, dreaded as the pestilential " smoke of the bottomless pit," has been republished under the sanction of a:i offiripnt portion of Reformed Christians, expressly that it may TESTIFY OF ITSELF. No greater proof of the change which has taken place in reference to Popery, between the days when the impious tyranny of Pope Gregory XIII. raged, and the present era, when the no less insolent assumptions of Gregory XVI. are so openly avowed, can possibly be cited, than these two facts ; that the commentary by which it was confidently hoped " the bright and blissful Reformation" would be obliterated, the modern Jesuits dare not print: and that Protestants have published that volume, confident that no rellecting citizen who reads the exhibition of the doctrines and practices of Romanism by the Jesuits of Rheims, will ever become a Papist. Notwithstanding this conviction, it is a duty to avail ours 'Ives of that wisdom and erudition and piety, which have effectually demonstrated the falsifications, ignorance, and wickedness of the Rliemists who so openly perverted the word of God. At the period when the New Testament, so called by the Jesuits of Rheims, appeared in 15S2, " it was the opinions of the learned, that both the trnnshition and the notes ought to be answered by the ablest pen that could be procured ; and no man in Britain was thought so well quahiied lor the undertaking, as Thomas Cartwright. Lei- cester, Queen Elizabeth's favourite, and Walsingham who was accounted xhe very mouth and hand of the queen, made particular application to him, and earnestly entreated him to engage in this important service for the church of God. The ministers and scholars of London, Suffolk, and Cam- bridge also combined their aflectionate and pressing invitations. Thus encouraged, he laboured with all diligence during nearly four years, when Archbishop Whitgift, who was called the Pope of Lambeth, authoritatively forbade him to proceed any further in the work !" In consequence of this arbitrary display of antichristian intolerance and ecclesiastical despotism, Fulke, a very intimate friend of Cartwright, and a determined adversar}' to the modern Babylon, commenced the arduous task. He died almost immediately after he had completed his design ; and although it was finished in 1589, yet twenty-eight years elapsed before the volume appeared from the press. Such was the manifest preference for Popery among those who directed the governmental affairs, during the Utter part of ihe reign of Elizabeth, and the first years of James I., that a license for printing the confutations of the Rhemish Testament by Fulke and Cartwright, could not be obtained. To that noble friend of civil and religious liberty, Archbishop Abbot, are the world indebted for the dissemi- nation of the two most instructive and convincing works which have ever been published in the English language respecting the Papal controversy. Before we analyze the ensuing " Confutation of the Rhemish Testament," it may gratify the student to know something of the author. The follow- ing concise biographical narrative has been compiled 'from Brook's Lives, Middleton's Biographia Evangelica, and Brook's History of Religious Liberty, which contain the most minute and authentic account extant. William Fulke was born in London, but in what year is not known. He was chosen fellow of John's college, Cambridge, in 1564; and as he was so resolute and daring a Protestant, he must have been too young to have atracted notice during the reign of Queen Mary, a " woman literally drunk with the blood of the saints,, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Revelation xvii. 6. In compliance with paternal desire, he dedicated some time to the acquisition of jurisprudence. But disgusted with that profes- sion, he resumed studies more congenial to his own inclination ; upon which liis father was so ofTinided, that be withdrew from him necessary support. Fulke, however, persevered ; and became so celebrated in the university for his mental endowments and superior scholarship in the various departments of learning, that he attained his fellowship without any adventitious patronage, by the mere force of his eminent claims in literature. As a preacher, he became extensively known in the year 1565, in con- sequence of his uncompromising and bold remonstrances against the Popish habits and ceremonies incorporated with the ecclesiastical establishment. For this dislike and contempt of the Babylonish vestments which the priests wore, " Bomish rags," as they were then disdainfully denomiuated, he PREFACE. 3 suffered considerable persecution, and finally was expelled from his college. He continued however to reside in Cambridge, and supported himself by the delivery of public lectures. Strype's Parker. 197, 280. Middleton' s Biographia. Vol. 2. page 262. Notwithstanding this ungodly oppression exercised toward him, he speedily obtained a reputation so distinguished and honourable, that in 1569, he would have been elected master of the college in which he held his fellowship, had not Archbishop Parker directly interposed his authority, and hindered the election. As a compensation for this obstruc- tion to his usefulness, the Earl of Leicester, who witli all his faults was the inflexible friend of those ministers who were stanch Protestants, and inclined to Puritanism, received him into his house, and appointed Fulke his domestic chaplain. But in consequence of the persecutions which he was called to endure, and some odious charges which were alleged against him by his malignant competitors, he resigned his fellowship. The in- quiry into the truth of the imputations cast upon him having proved that the whole tale was merely a groundless calumny, fabricated through envy, his college, immediately re-elected him to his former endowment. In the year 1573, Fulke was chosen master of Pembroke Hall, and Margaret Professor of Divinity, in the University of Cambridge ; from which latter office, his friend Thomas Carlwright had been ejected by the wicked artifices and oppression of the semi-Popish prelates, who dreaded his influence and unbounded popularity. Notwithstanding Cartwright's illegal expulsion from his lecture and fellowship, the sameness of their duties, with their congeniality of character, temper, theological opinions, and detes- tation of the Romish idolatry, cemented Fulke and Cartwright in the most harmonious intimacy and brotherhood. Fulke was greatly instrumental in persuading Cartwright to accede to the solicitations which were made to him for his answer to the Rhemish Testaments : " but when he found that by the tyrannical prohibition of Archbishop Whitgift, Cartwright was forbidden to proceed, he undertook to answer it himself. This work was entitled "yl Confutation of the Rhemish Testament;'''' in which he gave notice that the reader might some time be favoured with a more complete answer from Cartwright. That which occasioned the publication of the Rhemish Testament was as follows. — " The English Papists in the seminary at Rheims perceiving, as Fuller quaintly observes, that they could no longer blindfold the laity from the scriptures, resolved to fit them with false spec- tacles ; and set forth the Rhemish translation in opposition to the Protestant versions." Piercers Vindication. Page 103. " Fulke undertook, and suc- cessfully accomplished an entire refutation of the Popish version and commen- tary. The late James Hervey passed a very just encomium on this noble performance. He styles it, " a valuable piece of ancient controversy and criticism, full of sound divinity, weighty arguments, and important observa- tions. Would the young student be taught to discover the very sinews of Popery, and be enabled to give an efiectual blow to that complication of error ; I know scarcely a treatise better calculated for that purpose." Topladyh Historic Proof. Vol. 2. Pages 196, 197. Jn the year 1582, Fulke, Goad, and several other ministers were engaged in a public disputation with some Papists, among whom was that Master- Jesuit Campion. This emissary of Rome, with others, was appointed by the Pope, expressly to murder Queen Elizabeth, and to subvert the Pro- testant government. Tliey were eventually apprehended, and besides the gross idolatries and other corruptions of Romanism, they maintained that the Pope possessed authority over the queen, and as she was lawfully deposed by the Pope, they were justified in endeavouring to excite rebel- lion. For tills treason, Campion and his traitorous associates were condemned to death. Du Sloulbi's Vindication of Protestantism, Page 198. Although Fulke held a prominent station in the university of Cam- bridge, and among the theologians of that spirit-stirring age of profound inquiry, yet his opinions of the ecclesiastical state establishment, and of the necessity of conforming to its claims, were very puritanical. In his " Petition of Prelates examined,'''' page 15, he thus delivers his Judg- ment, which proves that in his views of the evangelical ceremonies and discipline, he was substantially consonant with Cartwright. " In the scrip- ture a bisl)op and elder is of one order and authority. There ought to be in every church or congregation an eldership, which ought to have the hearing, examination, and determination of all matters pertaining to the discipline and government of that congregation. Many speak of the sign of the cross, but they speak beside the book of God ; and therefore their reasons should be rejected. For men must not compare or join the cross with the king's stamp ; for he appointed no such thing whereby his servants mi.^ht be known, but only baptism." Zion's Plea. Page 99. Ai"tcr a life of great usefulness and labour in the church of God, this eminent servant of Christ was released from his warfare, August, 1589. He was interred in the clmrch at Kedington, of which he was minister. The religious character of Fulke may easily be ascertained from the first clause of his last will and testament. " I commend my soul into the hands of Almighty God my Saviour and Redeemer, yielding most humble and hearty thanks unto his majesty for all his mercies bestowed upon me, most vile and unworthy wretch, but especially for his mercy showed unto me in Jesus Christ, in whom I believe to have remission of my sins, and to be justified by his blood, ^ly body f commit to the earth, whence it was taken, in steadfast hope of a glorious resurrection unto life everlasting, through the mercy and merits of the same Lord Jesus Christ." The greater part of Fiilkn's writings arc volumes against the Papists. Some of them were only of temporary reference. But his, " Defence of the translation of the Holy Scriptjires in English,^'' should be republished. It contains not only the marrow of the Popish controversy, and a vast fund of profound biblical criticism, but it is replete with the most important literary and historical intelligence respecting the period of the Reformation. " The Confutation of the Rhemish Testament" richly deserves all the eulogy appended to it by Ilervey, the celebrated author of the meditations. It is full of critical erudition, sound theology, historical facts, and irresistible arguments. In modern times, and according to the aspect of the present controversy with the Romanists ; the grand points which the Jesuits urge in defence of Popery are connected with the antiquity of tiie Papal claims, the uniform consent of all ages to those assumptions, and the universal testimony of the early fathers in corroboration of the more recent assertions of the un- changeablcness and infallibility which they say ever have characterized the dogmas, rites, and practices enforced by the triple crowned Pontiff of Rome, No one of all the " strong delusions" with which the " all deceiva- bleness of unrighteousness" is maintained, is more imposing in its lofty pretensions, more bewildering to those who are not versed in " the working of Satan," and whose opportunities of research have not been sufficient to draw truth from the fountains of knowledge, and more pernicious as it regards the direful bondage in which it cliains those deluded votaries who become entangled in the net and labyrinth of this " mystery of iniquity," than the Roman claim of priority, antiquity, and universality. The boasted principle of antiquity among the Romanists is tlie grand incentive to all their indignation, whenever their ungodly system is assailed. During a recent public disputation, the Papists became so audaciously obstreperous, that all the order and comfort of the meeting were destroyed. Inquiry was afterward made of an avowed Romanist in a respectable con- dition of life ; " what is the reason of the different behaviour among the Protestants and Papists at religious discussions when the relative authority of their respective systems is canvassed 1 We sit as quiet as children vvlien your priests pour forth their malignity, falsehoods, and calumny respecting the Reformers or the modern champions of our faith ; but whenever a Pro- testant stands up to portray the character and acts of' the 3Ian of Sin, and the Mother of Harlots ;'' instantly the Papists are in a commotion and uproar as if Bedlam at once had let loose all its pitiable tenants in the midst of the Assembly, What is the cause of this astonishing contradiction 1" The Papist very candidly replied — " You Protestants have no right to say a word against our church. We are the ancient and the only true religion, and you upstart heretics ought to be hindered from slandering our holy religion ; and if we had it in our power, we would soon silence you !" This was as honest and true an avowal, as it was malignant and characteristic of the Popish temper and desires. One of the most insidious wiles of the annotations to the Rhemish Tes- tament is this : they constantly and chiefly aim to convince the reader that Romanism in all its parts is derived from the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles. To sustain tliis position, there is a continual parade of pretended citations from the writings of the primitive authors in the Christian church ; all of whom are adduced as witnesses to demonstrate, that in every age from the apostolic era, the cardinal doctrines, rites, and practices of the Papacy were the general and authoritative opposition of Christianity : that the Lord himself conferred upon Peter alone, as his earthly vicegerent, the uncontrolled supremacy of the church militant, and also invested him with the godlike attribute of infallibility ; and that the apostle Peter was directed by Christ to delegate the same mysterious power and jurisdiction to his successors, the Popes of Rome throughout all ages. To corroborate this usurped claim, a large number of the most ingenious and corrupt partizans of the Papacy were long and successively employed to forge public trea- ties, and acts of councils, and decretal epistles, with similar records. From these they pretended to demonstrate that in the apostolic age, and from that period during ten centuries, without interruption, the Popes had always been clothed with the same supreme spiritual majesty, as that in which they were decorated during the dark ages. With most ostentatious triumph, these fictitious writings were adduced ; and esj^ecially the fabricated pro- ceedings and decisions and canons of a suppositious council which never existed, but which was reported to have been held during the fourth century, tended in a high degree to enrich and aggrandize the Papal Hierarchy. Fnlke on Revelation, xvii. 4. Indescribable mischiefs have resulted from the deceptions thus practised by the Papal writers, and from this system of turpitude which they had consecrated. They not only forged legendary tales and constitutions, laws and canons, in the name of the apostles, dis- ciples, martyrs, and their immediate successors of the earliest Christian antiquity ; but as far as was necessary to sanction their traditions, idola- trous rites, and impure and dissolute lives ; they also cancelled, mutilated, altered and vitiated the various works of the earlier Christian writers, the copies of which they pretended to issue from the dark recesses of their mo- nasteries. Hence, one of the most evil effects of their treachery is tliis ; it is often extremely difficult, and sometimes totally impossible to decide what is genuine unadulterated truth, and to distinguish it from the spurious Monkish fables. Conscious of the facility with which the unlettered portion of the people may be puzzled by a parade of quotations from a century of autliors, and by references to half a thousand more ; the Roman controvertists have always resorted to this subterfuge to ensnare their victims. Not less con- vinced of the fruitless toil in exploring the antiquated and musty volumes which have experienced the metamorpiiosis wrought by those forgers and counterfeiters in the literary productions of tiiem who published their writings, fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen hundreds of years ago ; their works are glutted with simulated extracts from tiie most renowned and estimated cham|)ions of the gospel ; especially those who lived prior to the days of the Emperor Theodosius ; expressly to turn off Protestants from the real topics in controversy. Nothing is more easy to a book compiler than this summary method of enforcing conviction, not by the power of argument or an array of facts, but by a deceitful reference to non-existent authorities, to whicli an opponent may not have access, and the searcli after which, he is previously apprized will repay him neither for his labour nor time. None of the Papists or of their allies scarcely ever resort to the gospel for a sanction to tiieir doctrines — and for a plain reason — neither Popery in its unrestricted demands, nor any modification of it however attenuated, derives any sanction from tiie oracles of God. Consequently, while it is factitiously based upon that foundation, it is discovered tliat the airv edi- fice rocks to its centre ; and the dissembling castle-builders are obliged to support their tottering superstructure, by collecting every species of mate^ rials out of which they may be able to raise a buttress to prop up the falling Babylon. They abandon thoicfore, Peter, Paul, James, John, Matthew, Jude, Mark, and Luke ; and summon as witnesses, Tertullian, Cyprian, Eusebius, Jeron)e, Chrysostoni, Augustin, NazianzxMi, Ambrose, &-c. ; all of whom in diflerent proportions were muddled in their judgments, and infected with the tendency to that grand apostacy of whicli Paul had prophesied, 2 Thessalonians 2 ; and which by the concuss-ion of the Roman empire was rapidly attaining its full evolution. The translation and notes by the Jesuits of Rheims, commonly called the Rhemish Testament, are a perfect specimen of the diversified corruptions and falsifications with which the Roman controvertists attempt to per[)lex and confound the weak and the uninformed. Probably one half of the annotations are quotations from nearly two hundred diflerent authors; whose works are extremely rare, and of course totally inaccessible to the incalculable majority of readers — and even could they be examined, the time necessary for an accurate research would preclude nine stud^-nts out of ten, from such a laborious and unprofitable investigation. Nevertheless if the factors of the man of sin promulge " lying wonders," and if " that wicked" disseminate " the lie," Christians must in duty publish the truth, as an antidote to their soul destroying fallacies. Fulke and Cartwright in their confutations of the Rhemish Testament have executed in this respect a most noble and essential duty. Exclusive of all the overpowering argu- ments with which they have demolished the modern Babylon the Great at the bar of reason — and setting aside the numerous facts from ecclesiastical annals which are incorporated in their volumes — their works are invaluable to every person who is desirous to understand the genuine opinions of the most renowned writers of antiquity, upon all the prominent doctrines and duties revealed in the gospel of Christ. These volumes comprise an au- thentic and an extensive selection of the most interesting passages from the ancient authors upon the various topics discussed; and of their value and importance, all persons can judge merely by a reference to the index. They include almost every prominent controversy which has ever disturbed the nominal church; and especially all those which advert to Popery in its paramount characters and influence. These confutations completely exhibit the principles which were held by those men of whom the Papists so tauntingly boast : and from the survey, it is evident, that all the Fathers, as they are called, either doubted, disapproved, or denied every peculiarly distinctive attribute and observance of Popery. Thus, as the title to Cartwright's refutation justly apprises us, the " manifest impieties, heresies, idolatries, superstitions, profaneness, treasons, slanders, absurdities, falsehoods and other evils, hy occasion ichereof the true sense, scope, and doctrine of the scripture and human authors loere ahusecV " by the Jesuits of Rheims, are exposed in a masterly manner. Both the Protestants unfold a controversial dexterity and a fund of erudition not less admira- ble than instructive. The false quotations of the ancient writers announced by the Jesuits ; their deceitful contrivances to make the original authors sustain the Papal corrupt traditions ; their impudent perversions of the plain meaning of the early ecclesiastical historians and theologians ; and their wicked contra- dictions of the most easily comprehended passages of scripture, expressly that the truth may be concealed, and the most antichristian heresies may be sanctioned, are illustrated on every page. Of the numerous examples which might be specified, three instances are singularly remarkable. 1. The apostle Paul, in 1 Timothy 2: 5, proclaims that Christ Jesus is the " one Mediator between God and man ;" and the apostle John, 1 Epistle 2: 1, asserts, that "Jesus Christ the righteous" is our " Advocate with the Father ;" and from the strict and only correct inter- pretation of the language, it is directly implied that Jesus Christ is the sole Mediator and Advocate. If a controvertist wished in the most compre- hensive form to terminate all debate upon the subject of the exclusive mediation and advocacy of Immanuel ; he could not possibly select from the sacred canon, two passages more brief and decisive. Yet these same texts, as if in the very spirit of perverse contradiction, the Jesuits have selected on which to append not only their own lengthened and contradic- tory notes, but also references to Augustin and Cyril ; thereby to induce the unwary reader to suppose that these writers supported their senseless idolatry of praying to the saints ; when it is demonstrable, that Cyril and Augustin both repudiated that pagan superstition. The acumen and eru- dition and sound didactic theology of Fulke and Cartwright most lucidly appear in their replies to the Rhemish annotations upon those verses. 2. Excepting the first and second commandments, probably, a more terse and authoritative mandate against all the forms of image-worship cannot be quoted from the holy scriptures, especially when we consider the then existing state of the world, than the injunction of the beloved Disciple, 1 John 5: 21, "keep yourselves from idols." Notwithstanding, the Jesuits have annotated upon this prohibition in such a manner, that it is transformed into a direct sanction of idolatry — and Eusebius, Augustin, and Gregory are introduced as testimonies in behalf of this strange perversion of the fundamental article in all rational religion. The second Nicene council is also cited — and ])ersons who know nothing of the Nicene council but as they have indistinctly heard of them as being mentioned at the head of the confession of faith, bearing the title of " the Nicene creed," may thereby suppose that the council of Nice whose creed is adopted by so many Protestants, and found in their standard books, were supporters of that gross form of idolatry, the worship of statues, images, crucifixes, &.c. This wickedness and Jesuitism are portrajed in all their hideousness by the defenders of the Protestant faith ; and the iniquitous dissimulation which impelled and directed all the course of the Rhemists in their blind transla- tion, is justly exposed to merited execration. 3. The apostle Paul, 1 Timothy 3: 2. Titus 1: 6, describing the qualifications of a minister, pronounces that he must be " the hxishand of one f«t/e," which every person of common judgment rightly understands. At that period, bigamy, polygamy, and promiscuous concubinage were not only tolerated, but in many particulars were essentially combined with the prevalent idolatry, and consequently the whole multitude of the people were contaminated with the most loathsome pollution. Paul therefore enjoined that a Christian minister should have one wife, and but one ; according to the original divine appointmcMit in Paradise. Tlie Jesuits however iiave inculcated in their note upon those words, that the marriage of priests is ungodly and unlawful, and have introduced a great show of the early ecclesiastical writers to justify tlicir abhorrent celibacy, which is not less impure than it is unnatural. The replies by Fulke and Cartwright upon this topic, probably equal in value any disquisitions in their whole volumes. They lay the axe to the root of the corrupt tree ; and if piety, learning, argument and gospel truth could have prostrated the system of monkery ! that direful source of uncleanness, infanticide, and all their con- con)itant crimes, would long since have been banished to " the bottomless pit," in which they originated. McGavin's Protestant, volume II. pages 80, and 85. Hartford edition. It will consequently be perceived that the volumes of Fulke and Cart- wright are an extensive spiritual armoury, in which are deposited a great variety of weapons for the use of those assailants who are desirous to over- turn that " habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird, Babylon the great." Revelation 18 : 2. To contrast the various excellencies or deficiencies of those two anti- Popish wariors would be equally useless and absurd. " They rest from their labours and their tvorks dofolloio them," Their immortal volumes in defence of our common Christianity survive them ; and are now faithfully presented to all American Protestants. We do not approve of every sentiment contained in these confutations of the. Rhemish Testament; and if Fulke and Cartwright could now revise their volumes, doubtless, they would erase some passages ; but we did not feel disposed to reject " a measure of wheat" because a grain of cockle is mixed with it. The most unsatisfactory jjart of these works is their at- tempted illustrations of the Apocalypse. The evolution of the grand pre- dict'ons respecting the remarkable period of 1260 years was at too great a distance in futurity to be accurately discerned. Even at this period, after 250 years have elapsed, many passages in the prophecies of Daniel and John are profoundly inexplicable. But this unavoidable defect is amply compensated by their other pre-eminent recommendations ; for in addition to an invaluable and triumphant refutation of Popery, and a condensed sum- mary of the works of the primitive Christians, these volumes by Fulke and Cartwright contain a rich treasury of pure didactic theology, blended with a deep mine of spirituality, devotional fervour, and practical piety; so that by the attentive perusal of them, the conscience and heart experience as much benefit, as the understanding realizes light and expansion. As a specimen and proof of the ([ualifications of those renowned colle- gians to accomplish the arduous labour assigned them ; the letter, written it is said by Fulke, to incite his " most celebrated" brother to the magnifi- cent work of silencing the Jesuits of Rheims, is hero subjoined. LETTER TO THOMAS CARTWRIGHT- NuNQUAM a te, venerande Cartwkighte, plus opera exigeremus, quam quod in minis- terio publico consumitur ; nisi Ecclesiae nostrse rationes ot frequentes hostium incur- siones vehementer flagitarent. Cum vero templum Domini extruere iam nobis satis non 2 10 ' PREl-'ACi;. sit, sed altera etiam pugnandum manu contra frequentes haereticorum exercitus, non a'gr': feres, si te Ecclesis nostrae alumnum ad certaminis hujus societatcm provocemus. Non te fugit quanto cum impetu, ct quam fiirenter Papistarum cohortes, et Jesuitaruin examina involarint in nostras Ecclesias. Quicquid apertae impressiones, occultae insidis, clandestina consilia efficerc potuerunt, experti sumus ; nullum defuit accrbitalis virus, quo vel re- ligionis dignitas obfuscari poterat, vel optinii cujusque fama violari. Atque cum hactenus semper in religionis certamine illorum vires acriter satis repulerimuB, verbi divini presidiis communiti : novam illi nuper rationem iniverunt, quo a suis partibus stare divinas voces, et coelestia oracula, hominibus imperitis persuaderent. Quid enim aliud student novi federis translatione, et putidis, quas adjunxerunt, annotatiunculis, quibus quasi circum- foranei prsstigiatores rebus clarissimis tenebras offundunt, quam ut hominum mentibus opinio inhereat, sacras scripturas turpiter a nobis contaminari, et quicquid est in eis vere solideque expressum, id illorum sententias firmissime corroborare, nostras penitCis con- vellere I Quanta hinc malorum nascatur Ilias, tibi facile est conjectura assequi. Nam licet pauci quidam c doctioribus videant, omnia ccecis tenebris et densa caligine ab eis obrui ; tamen infirmorum mentibus multipliccs intenduntur insidiae, et hominum in rc- ligione nutantium animi variis dubitationum fluctibus concutiuntur. A te igitiir contendi- mus, venerande Cartwp.ighte, ut sceleratorum hominum impuris his conatibus velis obsistere, vel integrum librum refutando, vel ejus partem aliquam. Non cujusvis est c vulgo artificis affabre conficere Tabernaculum Dei, sed Bczalielis et Alwliahi. Nee quivis in bella Domini temerc intrudendus, fed e fortibus Davidis diligendi duces. Qualem cum te agnoscimus ex superioribus praeliis pro civitatis nostra, id est, Ecclesiaemuris susceptis ; non dubitamus, si hoc certaraen inire velis, debes certe pro ea, qua es in patriam et re- ligionem pietate, quin pro aris, et focis, pro ipso Templi intimo sacrario dimicaturus, JebusQBorum vires, qui in arcem Davidis convolare student, possis pessundare. Accedit hue, quod mirifice facit ad animum exacuendum, quod non tibi jam cum fratre aliquo et ejusdem religionis socio dimicandum sit, quod languidius solet certamen efficere, sed cum EcclesiiE Christi insensissimis hostihus, Philistceis quibusque, et Ammonitis, multo diriori- bus. Non dubitamus quin Madianitarum instar tandem se mutuis perfodiant vulneribus ; cum nostr e rai/oTrXias vel strepitum inaudiverint. Vides ad quam honorificam te invitamus contentionem, Christi negotium suscipietur, contra Satanae satellites. Excitamus ad bella Domini, ubi certa victoria, quam triumphus et applausus Angelorum consequetur. Nostra? preces tibi nunquam deerunt ; aderit, procul dubio, Christus, cujus causa defenditur. Dominus Jesus tibi animum et vires adaugeat, et incolumem ad Ecciesiae bonum diutissime custodiat. Vale. Toi in Christo amantissimi firatres. ROGERUS GOADE. Jo. FlELDUS. GuLiELMUs Whitaker. Nicholaus Cranbs. Thomas Crocus. Egidius Seintler. Johannes Fretonus. R. Gardiner. GULIELMUS FULCO. GlJLI. ChARCUS. TRANSLATION. " We never would require of you, highly revered Cartwright, any fiirther endeavour than that which is spent in the public ministry, did not the respects of our church state, and the oft incursions of our enemies, vehemently urge us. But since it is not now sufficient for us to build up the temple of the Lord : but we must also with the other hand fight against the frequent armies of heretics : you will not take it ill that we provoke you as a foslerchild of our church unto the fellowship of this conflict. You are not ignorant with how great force and fury the bands of papists and swarms of Jesuits have flown upon our churches. We have felt whatsoever open hostility, secret stratagems, and privy plot- tings could effect. There hath wanted no poison of bitterness, whereby the dignity of religion might have been darkened, or the character of every excellent person debased. And whereas hitherto, being every way fortified by the power of the divine Word, in the conflicts for religion, we have always boldly repelled their forces ; they have of late enter- prised a new course, by which they might persuade unskilful men, that the divine scrip • PREFACE. 11 tures and heavenly oracles stand on their side. For what else do they project by the translation of the New Testament, and their adjoined unsavoury silly annotations, where- by, like runagate jugglers, they cast mists on most clear things, than that a conceit might stick in men's minds, that the holy scriptures are by us basely contaminated, and that whatsoever is in them truly and soundly expressed, the same most firmly strengthen- eth their opinions and utterly eradicates our interpretation. It is easy for you to conjecture what a mass of evils thence may flow. For though a few of the Icarneder sort see that all things are by them overwhelmed with blind darkness and thick mists : yet there are mani- fold snares laid for weak minds, and the wavering in religion are beaten upon by divers waves of doubt. With you therefore are we earnest, most revered Cartwright, that you would set yourself agamst the unhallowed endeavours of mischievous men, either by refuting the whole book, or at least some part thereof It is not for every man, workman- like to frame God's tabernacle, but for Bezaleel and Aholiab : neither is every one to be rashly thrust forth into the Lord's battles ; but the captains are to be chosen from among David's worthies ; of which we acknowledge you to be, by your former battles undergone for the walls of our city, the church. We doubt not, if you will enter into this war, which truly you ought according to the zeal and piety you bear to your country and reli- gion, but that fighting for your conscience and your country, yea even for the very inmost holy place of the temple, you will be able to tread under foot the forces of the Jebusites, who set themselves to assault the tower of David. Moreover, and it marvellously serveth to the sharpening of your courage, you are not now to fight with any brother or fellow of the same religion, which would make the conflict more faint, but with the most inveterate enemies of the church of Christ, far more cruel than ever was any Philistine or Ammonite. We doubt not but Midianite like they will at length deadly wound each other, so soon as they hear but the rattling of your complete armour. You see to what an honourable fight we invite you. Christ's business shall be undertaken against Satan's champions. We stir you up to fight the battles of our Lord, where the victory is certain, and to which the triumph and applause of angels will ensue. Our prayers shall never be wanting to you. Christ, without doubt, whose cause is defended, will be present with you. The Lord Jesus increase your courage and strength, and keep you very long in safety for the good of his church ! Farewell. Your most loving brethren in Christ. Roger Goad. John Field. William Whitaker. Nicholas Crane. Thomas Crooke. Giles Seintler. John Ireton. Richard Gardiner. William Fulke. William Charke. Notwithstanding this peerless testimony ; such was the dread of ecclesi- astical malignity in Britain in the year 1618, when Cartwright's volume was first published, and when the pioneer congregation of Puritans were preparing to migrate from Europe to the American wilds, that the names of the other ministers who had subscribed the preceding document were concealed from the public, because they were then living, and there- fore exposed to Laud's persecution ; merely for having persuaded the Master Theologian of his age and country to compose an efficient antidote to that destructive " working of Satan," artfully disseminated by the Jesuits under the name of the New Testament. Thanks be to God ! that intole- rance and despotism over the press have been banished from America and Brhain ; and the " Confutations of the Rhemish TestamenV by Fulke and Cartwriglit shall yet expose the devices and ungodliness of Popery, to all who are willing to comprehend its ^'■damnable heresies !" which bring upon men " swift destruction!" 2 Peter 2 : 1. The volume by Cartwright will also speedily be printed : and as it may be said of him and 12 PREFACK of Fulkc, in the lancjuage of the gracious Redeemer concerning his forerun- ner John : — They were burning and shining lights : O that all American citizens may rejoice in thoir light ! John 5 : 35. When these replies to the Jesuits of ilheims shall have been completed, the Churches of Christ in the United States may be thankful and rejoice, that the Lord has graciously permitted them to obtain at such a low price, this edifying and unanswer- able refutation of Romanism. If the doctrine of our immortal Poet he true, and who can doubt it? in an inconceivably more seraphic sense than mortal strains can chant : — " The Saints on earth and all the dead But one communion make ; All join in Christ, their living head, And of his grace Then the spirits of those "just men made perfect," Fulke and Cart- wright, must exult in Paradise at the grateful intelligence wafted there by some ministering angel ; that being dead, by their " Confutation of the Rhemish Testament," they yet speak — and speak to whom? To a people, to churches, and to Christians residing in a country, which, when they were pilgrims on earth, was one vast unexplored continuity of wilderness, and by civilized beings uninhabited. From this ancient solitary place, now blossoming as the rose ; to the New Jerusalem, those who have been chiefly instrumental in procuring the repub- lication of this series of volumes to counteract the progress of Popery in this republic, would themselves not only aspire, but they pray that all their Chris- tian Brethren also would soar to that amplitude of knowledge and sanctity, which by divine grace shall enable them to contend earnestly " for the faith which was once delivered to the saints," and qualify them eventually to par- ticipate in the beatitudes of those exalted champions of gospel truth, whose " memory is blessed ;" so that when the time of their departure is at hand, they may exult with the conviction and fervour pf our apostolic exemplar, Paul : " I have fought a good fight — I have finished my course — I have kept the faith — Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- ness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at his appearing V New- York, April, 1834. CONFUTATION THE RHEMISTS' PREFACE. 1. If the whole Bible had been translated by you, and tliat long since, into the Endish tongue, it is marvel, that it has lain so lotig by you, for lack of good means to publish it. You have published books of as great charge, and much less importance, within these eight and twenty years; but such, indeed, by which you had more hope to win unto your credit and cause, than you have by the holy Bible, though you perverted it with never so partial translation, and poisoned it with never so he- retical and blasphemous annotations, as you have done your edition of the New Testa- ment. You were wont to boast of the zeal of popes, cardinals, and other great prelates of j the Romish sect, for the conversion of our nation unto their obedience. Were they also so straight laced, that none of them can find in their purses, to bear the charges of print- ing a work so necessary, or at leastwise pro- 1 fiiable, as you hold the translation of the | scriptures to be, for the maintenance of the Ca- 1 tholic religion ? Or do you not rather, as the j family of love used to do, for their works, craftily beg of your favourers in England, larger exhibition, upon colour of printing vour translation of the Bible ? when it is not hard to gather, that if you were purposed indeed to set it forth, and would use such means as you may, in those parts, the forbearing of the money, though your printer took it upon in- terest, might be paid for in the sale of one impression, although it so might happen, that a number of them were confiscated, or mis- carried in the ways, as chanced to some of these your books. But who so seeth what unnecessary charge you have put yourselves unto, in printing this your translation of so large a volume : may easily perceive you set it not forth for poor men's profit, and that by so excessive price, of so small a part of the whole Bible, you mean to discourage your friends from waiting for all the rest : what advantage you have in this part, for deciding the doubts of these days, we shall examine in the several places, where you pretend to take it. 2. You are afraid, to give over your old impu- dent proposition, that ignorance of the Scrip- tures, is the mother of Popish devotion. And therefore you hold it an erroneous opinion, " That the holy Scriptures should be always in our mother tongue, or that they ought, or were ordained by God, to be read indifTerently of all. Whereas it is certain, that the holy Scripture of the Old Testament was by God's ordinance first written in the mother-tongue of the Jews, and the New Testament in the Greek tongue, which was the mother-tongue to a great part of the world, and that language, which was most generally understood among the Gentiles, tmto whom the Gospel was preached. Our Saviour Christ commandeth, not only a readmg, as you yourselves con- fess, but also a deep search of the Scriptures, unto all the Jews indifferently. Paul com- mendeth the education of Timothy, in know- ledge of the Scriptures from his infancy. Wliich authorities prove, that the holy Scrip- tures were ordained by God, to be read and knownindifferently of all, and therefore ought to be translated into the mother tongues of all nations, that all may read and know them. Another erroneous opinion they account it, to think, that the Scriptures can be easily un- derstood of every one that readethqr heareth them in a known language, which if it were admitted, yet it foUoweth not, that the Scrip- tures ought not to be in a known language, because they cannot be easily understood of every one that readeth or heareth them, but rather, that every one that readeth or heareth them, ought more diligently to study and ex- ercise himself in them, more often hear and read them, and more fervently pray to God for aid of his Spirit, that he may understand them. And yet it is certain, that albeit some places of the Scripture are not easy to be un- derstood of all men, yet there are many parts of them, and so many, as are able to instruct us unto salvation, so plain and easy, as they may be understood of every one that readeth or heareth them. And of this judgment is Augustine, answering this objection of the obscurity of the Scriptures : " Therefore hath the Holy Ghost magnifically and whole- somely so tempered the holy Scriptures, that by plain and open places, he might prevail against famine : by dark places, he might wipe away loathsomeness. For no- thing almost, is gathered out of those ob- scurities, which IS not found most plainly uttered in some other place." — De doct. Christ, lib. 2, cap. 6. And in the chapter immediately before, he showeth, that by reason of the di- versity of languages, the same sound of 14 PREFACE. words, not serving all nations, the Scriptures were translated into divers tongues, that they might be generally known. " Wliereof it is come to pass, that even the holy Scriptures, by which so great diseases of men's wits are helped, being proceeded Ironi one tongue, which iniglit conveniently spread overall the world, through divers languages of the inter- preters, being dispersed tar and wide, might become known ol the nations to their salva- tion." By both oi Which places, it is evident that Augustine deemed it more convenient in itself, and more agreeable to God's word, honour, and edification of the faithful, to have the Scripture turned into vulgar tongues, than t(J be kept and studied in any learned language whatsoever. Now why you should account any one tongue, more than other, to be ecclesiastical, you are able to give no sound reason, seeing God hath called his Church of all tongues and nations, and sanc- tified them all, to the preaching of the Gospel, and praise of his name. As for the Latin tongue, which you would most willingly have to be counted an ecclesiastical tongue, it was for many hundred years after Christ, the com- mon vulgar and popular tongue, in most jiart of the west Churches, of those nations that were subject to the Roman empire. And why it is now ecclesiastical, that then was vulgar, I know no cause, but that Antichrist, whose tongue it is, blasphemously challenging to be the head of the Church hath chosen and au- thorized it to be ecclesiastical, in contumely of all other languages, which the Holy Ghost, descending upon the Apostles, in cloven tongues, hath consecrated to the preaching of Christ Jesus, and to the magnifying and setting forth of the great praises of God. That through man's malice, or infirmity, the Scriptures are often made pernicious and hurtful to many, it is no greater reason to keep them from the knowledge of most men, than it were to deprive all men from meat and drink, because many do abuse them, to the destruction of both their bodies and souls. As for the .special consideration, that pro- cured this edition, when you express it, we may better judge of it. In the meantime, we can conceive none others, but that which is the practice of many heretics, when you could not altogether suppress the knowledge of the holy Scriptures, whereby your errors are dis- covered;' you thought it the next way for your purpose, by your partial translations, as much as you could, to obscure them ; and by your heretical annotations, to pervert them ; that the one should make them unprofitable, and the other hurtful. 3. The wisdom of the Popish Synagogue, and the governors tiicreof, is the wisdom of the old serpent, and of the children of this world, who are often wiser in their kind than the children of light, with whom it is a high point of prudence to provide for themselves, by any unjust means whatsoever. So have the Popish Clergy always endeavoured, by depriving the common people of the reading of holy Scrip' tures, and following their predecessors the Jewish lawyers, have taken away the key of knowledge, of the same pohcy, that they did, lest their wickedness being commonly dis- covered by the light, they should lose that estimation, which through blind ignorance they have commonly obtained. Tfiey who have made claim for the common people in this case, whom, of your charity, you call the populace and their seditious leaders, of godly zeal and true simplicity, not of curiosity, pride and disobedience, have both made it, and jus- tified it, with better reasons than all the proud Papists in the world are able to avoid. For what greater reasons can be alleged, than the authority of God in the Old Testament, and of Christ, our Saviour and his Apostles iri the New, and the practice of the primitive church, and the consent of the most ancient and approved Fathers of the same, which have been brought to prove that the holy Scriptures ought to be known of all Chris- tians ? But the Governors of the Popish Anti- christian Church, arrogating to themselves the name and dignity of the dispensing of God's mysteries and treasures, among which, as you confess, the holy Scriptures are no small store ; by maintaining that ignorance is the mother of devotion, declare, if they could, that they would williiigly abolish all know- ledge of the holy Scriptures from the com- mon people's hearts. And whereas you say, " that of old, they have not ever condemned all vulgar versions of the Scripture, nor ge- nerally forbidden the faithful to read them ;" let the registers of Bishops be searclied, where it will appear, that many have been accused and condemned as heretics, for hav- ing, reading, or hearing the holy Scriptures in the Engfish tongue, without any exception taken against the truth of the translation. And that' the Governors of the Popish Church " have not by public authority prescribed, commanded, or authentically ever recom- mended any interpretation of Scripture into the vulgar tongue to be indifferently used of all men ;" they have declared sufficiently thereby, that they were not the ministers of God and Christ, nor successors of his Apos- tles, nor of the ancient fathers of the primitive church ; all of whom, by public and lawful authority, always prescribed, commanded, and authentically recommended, as the holy Bible and the writings of the Fathers are most plentiful witnesses, the holy Scriptures of God, to be known, read and understood of all Christians indiflerentlv, and without ex- ception of any ; which of necessity implieth the translation of the same, into all vulgar languages, witlnnit which, it is not possible for all sorts of Christians to read them, know them, and understand them. 4. Seeing the Armenians were converted to the faith, long before Chrysostom went among them ; it is not to be doubted, but that they had the whole scriptures in their vulgar tongue long before this time. And their confession lately set forth, doth [ilainly argue, that they have the whole Bible in their own language at this day. To justify that the Sclavoniana PREFACE. 15 say of Hieronyin's translation into their tongue, his own words are these : " 1 say not this that 1 would bite my predecessors, or think that any thing is to be detracted trom them, whose iranshition being most diligently corrected, I have given long ago to the men of my language." Now the Slavonians were the men of Hieronym's language, or mother- tongue, as he testiiieth himself of the place of his nativity, in calalogo ; for whose use he might translaie the vulgar Latin Bible, which was according to the Septuagint, after he had most diligently corrected it. But if this place prove it not sulliuienlly, at least he sailh plainly, that the Scriptures were translated into the tongues of many nations. Pre/at. ad Damasum in emngelia. Besides these, the Syrians, Arabians, and Ethiopians, had of ancient time the holy Scriptures in their se- veral lairguages. The Spaniards of ancient time had the Old Testament translated into their mother tongue. Walafridus tesiifieth, that the Dutch tongue is the s-i'ii'\ v,-';:rh was the language of the Goth- If. ' ~, into which, since the days ol' i , , . :.\- whom they were first converii'', --i n- \>!~r man of that nation translated the holy Scrip- ture. De reb. eccles. cap. 7 In our own country, not only the Saxon translations of divers parts of the holy Scriptures, but the testimony of Bede, whom you quote and cite most impudently, doth prove that vulgar trans- lations of the holy Scriptures in his time were commonly used and occupied by the multi- tude. His words are these : " This island at this present, according to the number of books in which the law of God is written, doth search out and confess, one and the self-same know- ledge of the highest truth, and of the true height in five tongues ; namely, of the Angles, Britons, Scots, Picts, and Latins, which in meditation of the Scripture is made common to all the rest." He meaneth that men of all the four nations, studied the Scriptures by help of the Latin tongue, and such commen- taries and treatises of the elder Fathers as were written therein. But he saith expressly, that the knowledge of the highest truth, which is not to be found but in the holy Scriptures, and according thereunto was both searched out, and confessed in the mother tongue of the other four nations, by whom he meaneth the Christians unlearned in the Latin tongue. That the Scriptures were current in Eng- lish, both before and after Wicliff's time, and not of his translation, beside your conjecture out of Lynwood, is manifestly proved, by many ancient written copies of the English Bible, differing in translation, yet to be showed, of which Wicliff's translation coirfd be but one. Notwithstanding that the Phari- saical clergy condemned the reading of them for heresy, let the acts of public writings re- maining in the Registers testify. And of what devilish policy, they kept the laws of God in secrecy and silence, which he com- manded to be uttered in all places and times, to the edifying of all sorts of Christians, how- soever you seek to smooth and cover it, God'a children do plainly espy it. 5. How pernicious heretical translations of the Scriptures are, which poison the people under colour of divine authority: if we had not learned sufficiently by the corrujjtions of old heretics, this translation of yours doth give plentiful testimony, which being helped torward with ht-.retical annotations, as it were with stints, to make way for the poison to enter, liuih no small force to deceive the sim- ple. But the best is, we are assured that they shall not prevail finally, but in them whom the Lord acknowledgeth not for his. In the meantime, not only the remedy of true and sincere translation, out of the fountain and original text, is to be opposed, but also the fraud of the adversary, as occasion serveth, to be discovered and laid open. 6. The Popish Church arrogating to herself divine wisdom, in restraming that which God hath left to be most free and general, de- clareth that she is the Babylonical harlot, the spouse of Antichrist, who exalteth himself above all divine authority, and controlleth the wisdom of God in every thing, that is con- trary to his devilish presumption : as in the use of images, of the cup in the Lord's Sup- per, of marriage in the Church Ministers, of meats in times made by him more religious, and such other. The true Church of God teacheth the true use of the Scriptures, even out of the Scriptures themselves, and dis- courageth not men from reading of them, as it were from a dangerous discourse, whereby they are like to take harm, knowing that none but spiders can suck poison out of wholesome flowers, which poison yet is not in the good flowers, but in the evil nature of the spider. The holy Scriptures, learned even from a man's infancy, are able to make him wise unto salvation, and being well studied of the man of God, are able to make him per- fect and ready unto all good works, and to execute every part of nis office. — 2 Tim. 3. 15.