A defense of the sincere and true translations of the holie Scriptures into the English tong against the manifolde cauils, friuolous quarels, and impudent slaunders of Gregorie Martin, one of the readers of popish diuinitie in the trayterous Seminarie of Rhemes. By William Fvlke D. in Diuinitie, and M. of Pembroke haule in Cambridge. Wherevnto is added a briefe confutation of all such quarrels & cauils, as haue bene of late vttered by diuerse papistes in their English pamphlets, against the writings of the saide William Fvlke.

MART. 26. And if these later Rabbines be the He∣brewes that Beza meaneth, and which these gay English tran∣slators followe, we lament that they ioyne themselues with such companions, being the sworne enemies of our Sauiour Christ. Surely the Christian Hebrewes in Rome, and elsewhere, which of great Rabbines are become zealous Doctors of Christianiti••, and therefore honour euery mysterie and article of our Christi∣an faith, concerning our Sauiour Christ, they dispute as vehe∣mently against those other Rabbines, as we doe against the He∣retikes, and among other things, they tell them, thus Saul sayd,* 1.1 Raise me vp Samuel, and that the woman sayd, I see Gods ascending out of the earth, and, An olde man is ascended or come vp, and that Samuel sayd, Why hast thou disquie∣ted me, that I should be raysed vp? and, To morow thou and thy sonnes shall be with me. And the booke of Eccle∣siasticus* 1.2 sayth, that Samuel died, and afterward lifted vp his voice out of the earth, &c. All which the holy Scripture would neuer haue thus expressed, (whether it were Samuel in deede o•• not) if Saul and the Iewes then had beleeued, that their

Prophets and Patriarches had bene in heauen about. And as for the Hebrew worde, they make it (as euery boye among the Iewes doth well know) as proper a word for Hell▪ as panis is for bread, and as vnproper for a graue (though so it may be vsed by a figure of speech) as Cymba Charontis is Latine for death.

FVLK. 26. If we followed the Iewes in exposition of the Scriptures against Christ, we were not so much to be pitied, as to be abhorred: but if we be content to learne the proprietie of Hebrew wordes of the learned Rabbinsi, as Hierom was glad to doe of his Rabbin, who as it appeareth by his scholler in some places, was not excellently learned, there is no cause why any man should pitie vs, but them rather, that to cloke their ig∣norance in the Hebrewe tongue, pretende as if it were more vnlawfull to learne Hebrew of the Hebrew Rab∣bins, than Latine of Quintilian or Priscian, and Greeke of Gaza, Suidas, and such like. That you tell v•• of the Romishe Rabbins conuerted from Iudai••me, to Papi∣strie, is not worth a straw. For their argument of Saules and a witches opinion, that the deade might be raysed, proueth nothing in the worlde, that they were in Hell. And the sonne of Syrach sheweth him selfe not to be directed by the spirite of God, which affirmeth, Sa∣muel did lift vp his voice after his death▪ out of the earth, contrarye to the iudgement of Catholike Doctors of the Church. For that the Scripture speaketh of Samu∣el raysed by the witche, is meant of a wicked spirite counterfetting the shape and similitude of Samuel. For the soules of the faithfull, and holy Prophets, be not at the commaundements of witches, but at rest with God, where they can not be disquieted. As for the authoritie of those vnknowen authors, that teach boyes to say, Sheol is as proper for hell, as panis for bread, we may esteeme it to be of as good credit, as Charons boate, Plutoes pallace, and Cerberus three heads, &c.

Notes

• * 1.1

  1. Reg. 28.
• * 1.2

  Eccl. 46. 23.