and honor-I feel myself his, and him mine; and I would rather be the meanest soldier in his army, than the greatest potentate on earth-I do rejoice exceedingly in him all the day, and when I walk in the fields, or sit by the fire, my heart wanders after him; when travelling along the way, I sometimes speak out to him as if I were conversing with him: and the very idea that the eyes of the King of Kings are upon me, makes me bold in danger, and active in all the obedience of faith-I sometimes retire from the best company, to talk a few minutes to my Lord, and nothing is sweeter to my taste, than is an interview with Him who pardons my sins-takes me into his family, and promises to take me home to his own glorious abode by and by-I think no more about tenets or doctrines, but upon the love of God, the death of Jesus-his resurrection from the dead-his coming to judge the world, and the resurrection of the just. This is the spirit I have received and enjoyed since I put on the Lord. Now tell me is this the holy spirit promised? BIBLICUS. To the Editor of the Christian Baptist. DEAR SIR, I have got home to my friends and brethren, and found them all well. I find many of your opponents are preaching the very faith which once they condemned; and not only at home, but on my tour through Kentucky and Virginia, I find some of your opponents are deriving at least as much benefit from your writings as those who are your friends and open advocates. Some of the editors, too, who have opposed you, are now exhibiting your views on sundry subjects, for which a year or two ago you were very much censured by the Regular Baptists and some others. In a tavern in Maryland I picked up a "Columbian Star," and found, to my surprise, that brother Brantley had given your views of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and under the editorial head, thereby showing that he had made them his own. In Kentucky, too, our brother Clack has come over wonderfully. He has given your views of the baptism of the Holy Spirit; and on sundry other topics he has appropriated your sentiments, and is detailing them in his paper-I mean those which were once reprobated by numbers in Kentucky. You will see in the last "Recorder," which I read to-day, that in one of brother Clack's late sermons, detailed under date of the 11th instant, he has given your views of the Keys given to Peter-of the Thrones on which the Apostles were placed-and indeed, substantially, your views on the Commencement of the Reign of the Messiah, as detailed in your Debate with M'Calla. I do not say that these views originated with you, but certainly they were once denominated yours; and I must confess I never learned them till I saw your writings. Brother Noel, since he has devoted himself to proclaiming the gospel and abandoned the contest about creeds, has been very successful. He made no converts by preaching up church covenauts and creeds. I only regret to see so little candor amongst some of our brethren, who, unhappily for themselves and the public, took a stand too soon against what they called "your innovations"-I say, I regret to see them not give you credit either in their preaching or writings for views they as certainly learned from you as I received my name from my father. But still I rejoice to find that some of those who oppose you as an innovator, are making great innovations themselves. Persevere, brother. You are conquering, and will conquer. One of your most bigoted opposers said not long since, in a 3 N DEAR SIR, I HAVE seen many pieces published in several periodicals without giving me the least credit, which I well know were borrowed from my writings. But I gave myself no concern about it. I was glad to see them in the columns of those who have traduced me. In some instances I saw them neutralized by a preceding or succeeding paragraph, and by some crude mixtures of undisciplined minds. Many sentiments in this work are original to me. I dug them out of the mines of revealed truth. But how many more may have dug the same treasures out of the same mines, I know not. But one thing I know, that numbers who are now improving themselves and others by them, never dug them out themselves. But so long as they are held up to human view, I rejoice; and in this I will rejoice though all who publish them exhibit them as their own. In much haste, yours in the hope of immortality. EDITOR. Ancient and Modern Bishops. "LET none," says Dr. Mosheim, alluding to the first and second centuries, "confound the bishops of this primitive and golden period of the church, with those of whom we read in the following ages. For though they were both designated by the same name, yet they differed extremely, in many respects. A bishop, during the first and second centuries, was a person who had the care of one Christian assembly, which at that time, was, generally speaking, small enough to be contained in a private house. In this assembly he acted not so much with the authority of a master, as with the zeal and diligence of a faithful servant. The churches also, in those early times, were entirely independent; none of them subject to any foreign jurisdiction, but each one governed by its own rulers and its own laws. Nothing is more evident than the perfect equality that reigned among the primitive churches: nor does there ever appear, in the first century, the smallest trace of that association of provincial churches, from which councils and metropolitans derive their origin."-[Ecc. Hist. vol. I. p. 105—107.] Constantine's Imperial way of Reconciling Bishops. SOCRATES says, that the bishops having put into the emperor's hands written libels containing their complaints against each other, he threw them all together into the fire, advising them, according to the doctrine of Christ, to forgive one another as they themselves hoped to be forgiven. Sozomen says, that the bishops having made their complaints in person, the emperor bade them reduce them all into writing, and that on the day which he had appointed to consider them, he said, as he threw all the billets unopened into the fire, that it did not belong to him to decide the differences of christian bishops, and that the hearing of them must be deferred till the day of judgment.-Life of Constantine, book iii. ch. 10-14. Character given Wickliffe by one of the Enemies of Reformation. JONES says As the clergy had hated and persecuted him with great violence during his life, 32 37 and what he really meant, are coincident. They to whom the words of the Spirit do not exhibit his meaning with clearness and certainty, have no standard by which they can try the opinions of others, and ascertain their agreement and disagreement with what the Spirit says. His faith, therefore, to whom the Spirit's own words do not clearly reveal his meaning, cannot rest on divine information, but on the words and information of fallible, erring man, and must partake of all its uncertainty. If the words of any writ they exulted with indecent joy at his disease and death, ascribing them to the immediate vengeance of Heaven for his heresy-"On the day of St. Thomas the Martyr, Arch bishop of Canterbury," says Walsingham, a contemporary historian," that limb of the devil, enemy of the church, deceiver of the people, idol of heretics, mirror of hypocrites, author of schisms, sower of hatred, and inventer of lies, John Wickliffe, was, by the immediate judgment of God, suddenly struck with a palsy, which seized all the members of his body, when he was ready, as they say,ing do not clearly reveal its meaning to my mind, to vomit forth his blasphemies against the blessed St. Thomas, in a sermon which he had prepared to preach that day." No. 5.] DECEMBER 1, 1828. Remarks on the Bible.-No. II. HENCE it is, that though Christ has entrusted the business of publishing, teaching, instructing, and exhorting, into the hands of uninspired men; nay, has made it the duty of every friend to his cause to perform these acts to the best of his ability, and full extent of his opportunity, with the single exception that females are not to teach in public assemblies; yet explanation, as being a work that requires the same degree of inspiration with original revelation, is never committed to or enjoined on, an uninspired man; for who can know the mind of the Spirit, but the Spirit himself, or those that are inspired by him? how can I determine whether another apprehends it? Impossible. I may deem his conjecture ingenious, plausible, probable, but certain I cannot pronounce it: for that would be to declare that it agreed with my own opinion, whereas in this case I have none. Indeed all we really mean when we pronounce other men's opinions true or false, correct or incorrect, is, that they agree or disagree with our own, our own conceptions being in all cases made the standard of our judgments respecting the truth or falsehood, the accuracy or inaccuracy of the conceptions of other men. The labor, therefore, of the countless host of commentators, lecturers, expositors, sermonizers, &c. who have vainly attempted and presumptuously pretended to render God's message plainer than he could, or at least chose to render it, to discover words fitter to express the Spirit's ideas than he could himself discover, deserves to be stigmatized not only On the Spirit's message being understood and as entirely useless, and grossly impious, but as complied with, depends its whole utility to man. excessively pernicious to ignorant incautious morNot understood, misunderstood, or neglected, it tals. By the unhappy toil of these self conceited is no better than water poured on a rock. Can presumers to render God's message plainer than we then believe that God would send a message, he thought fit, or deemed it necessary to render which to be of any use to his creatures must be it, the world has been deluged with discourses clearly understood by them, in words and phras- and books, crammed with metaphysical jargon, es which they could not understand, or commit airy speculation, doubtful disputation, jarring its interpretation to persons whom he had never notions, discordant opinions, contradictory conqualified, appointed, or accredited for the pur-jectures, and vain jangling, and the ignorant, pose-that is, to uninspired men? Surely not. unreflecting, unsuspecting multitude have, to their irreparable injury, had their veneration lessened, their affections alienated, and their attention diverted by these pernicious baubles from studying, or to use the Saviour's term, from searching the only volume on earth that contains one particle of certain information on the allimportant subject of religion; their minds stuffed with error, prejudice, bigotry and delusion; their hearts corrupted with the vilest passions, and their lives degraded and embittered with all the jealousy, rancor, contempt, and contention, which a deluded and sectarian spirit can engender. Let it be observed further, that in every instance in which the words, arrangement, and connexion, preferred and adopted by the Spirit, have left his ideas in any degree uncertain, all the attempts made by uninspired men for nearly two thousand years, to explain and render them more certain, have entirely failed. Not one of these uncertain and obscure passages is at this day in the least clearer than it was when their abortive labors first began: nor will the total failure of these presumptuous attempts at all surprize us, if we call to mind an observation already made, that the obscurities and ambiguities that may be met with in sacred writ, were knowingly and intentionally introduced into it by its Divine Author, and that no adequate means have ever been provided by him for their removal: that is, the spiritual gift, which alone can enable man to remove them, has never since the days of the apostles been conferred on any mortal. Nay, for ever must they remain just as they are, unless God shall send an inspired expositor, furnished with unquestionable credentials of a divine commission for that purpose, to remove them. All that uninspired men, however sagacious, pious, and learned, can do in this superhuman undertaking, and certainly all they have done, is to exhibit an endless parade of discordant (often contradictory) conjectures, conceits, notions, opinions, suppositions, or by whatever name their dreams or reveries may be called, in which no confidence can be reposed, because in no instance does there exist the least certainty that any of their conjectures about the Spirit's meaning, Let us mark the impiety of attempting to extort from the words of God's message more information than he has fitted them to impart, or of absurdly amusing ourselves in abortive trials to substitute words plainer than he has chosen to employ. Between man, and useless, perhaps, pernicious knowledge, God has kindly interposed here a profound silence, there a phraseology to us intelligible only to a certain degree: but regardless of Heaven's barring, human presumption has attempted to force its impious way into the uncommunicated secrets of the Almighty, and not contented with the quantity of information which God in his wisdom and goodness, has judged best for his miserable creatures, has charged him with ignorance, injustice, and illiberality: told him to his face, that either he did not know the quantity of information that man's condition required, and was justly due to him; or, if he knew it, that he was too illiberal to bestow it; and had thus compelled his creature to commit the atrocious impiety of attempting to increase his information whether his Creator own; or did they employ words invented by would or would not. But insufficient informa- themselves, and of course publish in their own tion is not the only fault charged on the oracles words only their own conceptions about what of God-obscure diction is also imputed to them: the Spirit had suggested to them? And if the and man, impudent and ungrateful man, has, in inspired men published the Spirit's ideas only i the plenitude of his self conceit, and profane the words suggested by the Spirit, by what aufolly, dared to imagine that he could select thority do uninspired men publish what they words and phrases fitter to convey the ideas of fancy or imagine about the Spirit's message in the Spirit in an intelligible manner, than he their own words, and call their fancies the goscould. The question then is, Did God send his pel? message so improperly worded, as to compel men, in order to derive from it all the benefit which God intended, to become grossly impious? We think not. Response. THE burthen of this query has occasioned considerable discussion amongst the more learned commentators and interpreters of sacred scripBut whoever, with a mind void of prejudice, ture. I cannot, however, discover any real difuncorrupted with the doctrines of the nursery, ficulty in deciding the controversy, or in answerthe family, the neighborhood, the church and its ing the query. In all matters purely supernatuauxiliaries, repairs to the oracles of God for in- ral, the communication was made in words. The formation, and contented to receive with humil- ideas were suggested and expressed in words.ity and thankfulness the instruction there pre- So that, as Paul says, "We speak spiritual things sented, will soon, from his own comfortable ex-in spiritual words," or in words suggested by the perience, be induced to vindicate the message Holy Spirit. But a very small portion of both sent him by his gracious Parent, from all charges Testaments are of this character. Communicaof unnecessary deficiency of matter or diction: tions purely supernatural occupy by far the least he will find it perfectly able to make him wise portion of the sacred books. In the historical to salvation; and this is certainly all he can books of both Testaments, and in the epistolary wish it to do. part of the New, there are many things presentBut to terminate a discussion, already rendered ed to our minds which did not originate in heathrough a desire of being understood, too long, ven, or which did not pertain to heavenly things. let me ask, If the preceding remarks be just, In all such communications the writers were so that is, if the words chosen and employed by guided, or had things so recalled to their memothe Divine Spirit to communicate his thoughts to ry, as to be able to give a faithful narrative.man, be the fittest that could be employed for The sentiment or sense of all passages purely that purpose; if they alone contain and offer cer- moral or religious, is the result of divine teachtain information on the interesting subject of ing; and all matters pertaining to this life are of religion; if in them only, just as they have been divine authority, though not supernatural either arranged and connected by their all-wise author, in their original communications or in the terms unaltered, unmixed, undisturbed by the temerity in which they are expressed. I presume the folof presumptuous mortals, be contained and pre-lowing criterion is both judicious, safe, and evesented to the human mind the good news called "The Gospel;" and if in the commentaries, lectures, expositions, sermons, tracts, treatises or discourses of men, no matter how sagacious, learned, and pious they may think themselves, or may in reality be, there are to be found, not the Spirit's message, denominated "The Gospel," but their own uninspired, crude, uncertain, and often discordant notions or conjectures about God's message; let me ask, I say, if it be not the most daring temerity, the most unpardonable arrogance and vanity, the very consummation of human impudence and vanity, to attempt to confound two things so entirely different as the Spirit's message contained and conveyed in his own well-chosen words, and men's miserable conjectures about that message; and to call the publication of these conjectures, either by written documents or verbal discourse, the preaching or publication of the gospel? Is it not to attempt to practise on the ignorant and unsuspecting the grossest imposition? Surely if the Spirit's own words alone contain and exhibit the gospel, reading or pronouncing from memory the Spirit's words, without the least alteration, mixture, or derangement, can only with truth be termed preaching or publishing the gospel: and surely they who impose on their deceived and deluded hearers or readers their own reveries about the gospel, for the gospel, cannot be held guiltless. A-S ry way unexceptionable. Whatever information requiring nothing more than the memory of the writer, or whatever information on sensible objects is found in the sacred scriptures was neither supernatural in the matter nor manner of communication, unless the strengthening of the memory, or a new presentation of the things to the mind of the writer, may be called supernatural. The history of the Deluge, for instance, as written by Moses, is not of the same character as the institutions of the Jews' religion. The latter was purely supernatural-the former, an authentic account from tradition; in writing which, the historian was simply guided in the selection of the documents, and prevented from committing errors. The sense or sentiment of all the sacred books is of divine authority. The words and phrases were in all instances, except in communications purely supernatural, of the selection of the writer. Of this, more hereafter. EDITOR. Four Queries Answered. MR. EDITOR-WILL you favor me with your thoughts on the following Questions: 1. DID Christ commit, during the period of gifted men, the extension of his kingdom or multiplication of his subjects, to any besides these gifted men? 2. And to whom, after their death, did he consign it-to a few specially as now, or to the whole body of his subjects indiscriminately? 3. On what acts has Christ rested the multiplication of his subjects, and their confirmation P. S.-Query. DID Paul and the other inspired men, when they spoke or wrote on the subject of religion, employ the words and phrases only in which the inspiring Spirit suggested his ideas to their minds, and thus strictly pub-in his service? lish the Spirit's message, just as suggested to them, unmixed with any ideas or words of their 4. Does preaching the gospel consist in publishing it, as it is found in the Spirit's own words, or in publishing discourses made by men about | folds. That monosyllable is LOVE. it? AN INQUIRER. "Love is the Answer to Query I. DURING the apostolic age for the establishment of christianity, the Saviour employed apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, all supernaturally endowed. To these alone was the work of establishing or lay-puzzled so many minds, and so generally dising the foundation of his religion in the world committed. Answer to Query II. After their death, the congregation of the saints was entrusted with this work; that is, by the operation of parental authority; by the proclaiming in word and deed the excellency of the christian religion to all men, in all the several relations;-by the simple proclamation of the gospel facts, with their evidences, was the number of the saints to be multiplied; and in their weekly meetings for reading the apostolic writings and for observing the ordinances composing the christian institution, the saints were to be edified. Answer to Query III. Christ has rested the multiplication of the faithful on the exertions of the christian congregations. On their holding forth in word and in their behavior the gospel facts and their import, and not upon the exertions of a certain class of individuals called Priests, Clergy, Preachers, Teachers, or Bishops. The giving up the conversion of the world into the hands of a certain class, however designated, chosen, and appointed, has been the greatest check to the progress of christianity which it has ever sustained. fulfilling of the whole law." The glad tidings of the divine philanthropy is the instrument or medium of the inspiration of this principle. The New Institution writes upon the heart, and not on marble, the governing principle or laws of all religious and moral action. This truth recognized and apprehended, solves the difficulty which has tracted religious society. Many christians have read and rummaged the apostolic writings with the spirit and expectations of a Jew in perusing the writings of Moses-Jews in heart, but christians in profession. They have sought, but sought in vain, for an express command or precedent for matters as minute as the seams in the sacerdotal robes, or the pins and pilasters of the tabernacle. The remote or proximate causes of most errors in disciplinary proceedings may be traced either to the not perceiving that the distinguishing peculiarity of the New, or Christian Institution, is this that it aims at governing human action without letter, and causes its votaries to "serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter;" or, to the not observing that the congregations which christianity forms are designed rather as schools of moral excellence, than as courts of inquiry possessed of judicial authority. To look still farther into the genius of the New Institution is yet prerequisite to just conclusions on this subject. The New Institution, governing religious and moral action by a law or principle engraved upon the heart, proposes certain acts of private and public edification and worAnswer to Query IV. The preaching of the ship. These are stated in the apostolic writings, gospel never did mean making sermons or dis- and conformity to them is enjoined upon discicourses about it, no more than the cure of dis- ples from the new obligations which arise out of eases has been effected by disquisitions upon the new law. The precepts found in the apospathology or the nature of diseases and reme-tolic epistles and those found in the Pentateuch dies; but in the proclamation of the great facts or writings of Moses, have one differential attrifound in the historical books of the New Tes-bute which cannot be too clearly presented here. tament, supported by such evidences and arguments as the apostolic testimonies contain and afford. Had I room for the demonstrations and proofs from which these conclusions are drawn, which would occupy at least an entire number of this work, I would not despair of making the above answers apparent and convincing to all honest inquirers. But in the mean time I submit the answers without the premises for examination and reflection, EDITOR. A Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things. The precepts found in the apostolic epistles originated or were occasioned by the mistakes and misdemeanors found in Jews and Pagans, recently converted to the christian faith. But the precepts or laws found in the Pentateuch were promulged before the people began to act at all, as a part of the institution itself. Hence it was an institution essentially of law-the New essentially an institution of favor. All the actions of the former were prescribed by law; but subordination to the latter is implied in the gracious promulgation itself. The relation established between God and Israel was a different relation from that established between God and christians. As all duties and privileges arise from relations, if the relations On the Discipline of the Church.-No. V. are different, the duties and privileges are differTHEY greatly mistake who expect to find a ent also. Now God made himself known to liturgy, or a code of laws in the New Institution, Israel simply as their God and deliverer from designed to govern christians either in their pri- Egyptian bondage, and as their King in contravate or public relations and character. This may distinction from the kings of all other nations. be found in the Old Institution which the God of Upon this fact, as the grand premises, was the Abraham set up amongst the children of the Old Institution proclaimed. Thus it began:flesh. The nation of the Jews affords both de- "I am the Lord your God who brought you out monstration and proof that man cannot be gov- of the house of bondage. Therefore you shall erned or controlled either in piety or morality by acknowledge no other God besides me," &c. any extrinsic law, however excellent or spiritual. But the premises upon which the New InstituThe former institution was an institution of law tion proceeds are of a much more sublime and -the new an institution of favor. Christians are exalted character. Relations more sublime than not now, nor were they ever, under law, but un-national and temporal relations, enter into its der favor. Hence argues the Apostle:-"Sin nature, and lay the foundation of the New shall not lord it over you; for you are not under Economy. He is the God and King of christians law, but under favor." A single monosyllable upon higher considerations-and more than simrepresents the active principle, or law of subor-ply their God and King-he is their Saviour and dination and of practical morality which it un- Redeemer from worse than Egyptian bondage; their leader and guide to a better inheritance | it, remember, aims at gaining the supposed than Canaan; and their Father by a new and glorious provision which the national compact at Mount Sinai knew nothing of. The relation of Master and Servant is a very different relation from that of Father and Son. This is rather an illustration, than a full representation of the difference of relation in which Jews and Christians stand to the God of the whole earth. The relation of Creator and creature is the natural relation existing between God and all mankind. But besides this he has instituted political and gracious relations between himself and human beings. These flow from his own good will and pleasure, and, as such, will be acquiesced in by the wise and good. The natural and first relation in which mankind stand to each other is that of fellow-creatures; but besides this, a number of other natural, political, and gracious relations have been either necessarily or graciously called into existence-such as that of parent and child, husband and wife, and the whole table of consanguinity and affinity; besides all the political relations, and those found in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Now the relation between God and christians, or the relation which the New Institution developes, is the most gracious and desirable which can be conceived of; and therefore presents to the human mind the loftiest and most comprehensive principles which can excite to moral action. As in physics, so in ethics there are principles or powers more influential than others. But christianity discovers principles of action which no political, moral or religious relations hitherto known, could originate. These new relations, and these new principles of action, are stronger than death, more triumphant than the grave, and lasting as eternity. The discovery of a new, gracious, spiritual, and eternal relation, and correspondent principles of action, moral and religious, is the basis of that association called the christian church or congregation. It is called the Reign or Kingdom of Heaven, bccause of the high and sublime nature of the relations, principles, duties, and privileges which it developes. All the political, commercial, and temporal relations of what nature or kind soever, which human passions, interests, partialities, or antipathies have given rise to, are weak and transient as the spider's thread compared with these. Hence the superlative glory of the New Institution. The world knows it not. It knew not the founder, and it apprehends not the institution. The light shines in darkness, but the darkness reaches it not. These premises merely stated, not illustrated, suggest the true reason why, in the discipline of the church, so much is to be done before a member is to be severed from her embraces. In the politico-ecclesiastical relations of schismatic corporations the ties of consociation are neither very binding, nor the relations very endearing. They are not much stronger than the pursestrings of the treasurer, nor more durable than the paper on which is written the shibboleth of their Magna Charta. Members may be, and often are, separated without a pang or a sorrow. There is none of that tenderness of reproof, of correction, of admonition, of dehortations, of persuasion, known in such confederations as that which the New Institution enjoins upon the citizens of Heaven. The first effort which the genius of the New Institution enjoins with respect to offending brothers, is similar to that notable regulation concerning private trespasses, which, all who have read The aggressor or delinquent. Hence the most characteristic feature in all congregational proceedings in reference to those who sin, not so much against a brother as against Christ, is that condescending tenderness which aims at the conversion of the delinquent or transgressor. dernier resort, when all means fail, is separation. This tender solicitude and earnestness to gain a brother who has fallen, is, in some cases, where the nature of the case does not forbid, extended even beyond exclusion. So that although public good, as well as that of the subject of censure, does re. quire his exclusion; yet even then he is not to be treated as an enemy, but admonished as a brother. The lesson of all others the most difficult, and the most important to be learned on the subject of this essay, is that which the preceding considerations suggest, and that is briefly that every part of the proceedings in reference to an offending brother must be distinguished by every possible demonstration of sympathy and concern for his good standing and character in the sight of God and man: and that final seclusion from the congregation must not be attempted until admonition, reproof, and persuasion, have failed to effect a real change in his views and behavior. Though I neither hold Lord Chesterfield nor his writings in much esteem, yet I cannot but admire his happy use of the "suaviter in modo" and the "fortiter in re," so much commended in his letters. If the "suaviter in modo," or the sweetness or gracefulness in the manner of doing, could always accompany the "fortiter in re," or the firmness in the purpose, or in the thing to be done, it would be no less useful than ornamental even amongst christians in all their congregational proceedings relating to offenders. EDITOR. Preface of the King's Translators. Now though the church were thus furnished with Greek and Latin translations, even before the faith of Christ was generally embraced in the empire; (for the learned know, that even in S. Hieromes time, the consul of Rome and his wife were both Ethnicks, and about the same time the greatest part of the senate also) yet for allthat the godly learned were not content to have the scriptures in the language which themselves understood, Greek and Latin, (as the good lepers were not content to fare well themselves) but also for the behoof and edifying of the unlearned which hungred and thirsted for righteousnesse, and had souls to be saved as well as they, they provided translations into the vulgar for their countrey-men: insomuch that most nations under heaven did shortly after their conversion, hear Christ speaking unto them in their mother tongue, not by the voice of their minister only, but also by the written word translated. If any doubt hereof, he may be satisfied with examples enow, if enow will serve the turn. First, S. Hierome saith, Multarum gentium linguis Scriptura ante translata, docet falsa esse quæ addita sunt, &c. that is, The Scripture being translated before in the languages of many nations, doth shew that those things that were added (by Lucian or Hesychius) are false. So S. Hierome in that place. The same Hierome elsewhere affirmeth that he, the time was, had set forth the translation of the Seventie, suæ linguæ hominibus; that is, for his countrey-men of Dalmatia. Which words not onely Erasmus doth understand to purport, that S. Hierome translated the Scripture |