The Nevv Testament of Iesus Christ, translated faithfully into English, out of the authentical Latin, according to the best corrected copies of the same, diligently conferred vvith the Greeke and other editions in diuers languages; vvith arguments of bookes and chapters, annotations, and other necessarie helpes, for the better vnderstanding of the text, and specially for the discouerie of the corruptions of diuers late translations, and for cleering the controversies in religion, of these daies: in the English College of Rhemes

❧ THE BOOKES OF THE NEVV Testament, according to the counte of the Catholike Churche.

4 GOSPELS.

• The Gospel of S. Matthevv.
• The Gospel of S. Marke.
• The Gospel of S. Luke.
• The Gospel of S. Iohn.
• The ACTES of the Apostles.

S. PAVLES EPIST. 14.

• The Epistle to the Romanes.
• The 1 Epistle to the Corinthians.
• The 2 Epistle to the Corinthians.
• The Epistle to the Galatians.
• The Epistle to the Ephesians.
• The Epistle to the Phillppians.
• The Epistle to the Colossians.
• The 1 Epist. to the Thessalonians.
• The 2 Epistle to the Thessaloniās.
• The 1 Epistle to Timothee.
• The 2 Epistle to Timothee.
• The Epistle to Titus.
• The Epistle to Philemon.
• The Epistle to the Hebrevves.

THE 7 CATHOL. EPISTLES.

• The Epistle of S. Iames.
• The 1 Epistle of S. Peter.
• The 2 Epistle of S. Peter.
• The 1 Epistle of S. Iohn.
• The 2 Epistle of S. Iohn.
• The 3 Epistle of S. Iohn.
• The Epistle of S. Iude.
• The APOCALYPSE of S. Iohn.

1 The infallible authoritie and excellencie of them aboue al other writings.

S. Augustine li. II. cont. Faustum. cap. 5.

THe excellencie of the Canonical authoritie of the old and new Testament, is distincted from the bookes of later writers: which being confirmed in the Apostles times, by the succession of Bishops, and propagations of Churches, is placed as it were in a certaine throne on high, wherevnto euery faithful & godly vnderstanding must be subiect and obedient. There, if any thing moue or trou∣ble thee as absurd, thou maiest not say, The author of this booke held not the truth: but, either the copie is faultie, or the Translatour erred, or thou vnderstandest not. But in the workes of them that wrote afterward, which are conteined in in∣finite bookes, but are in no case equal to that most sacred authoritie of CANONI∣CAL SCRIPTVRES: in which soeuer of them is found euen the same truth, yet the authoritie is far vnequal.

2 The discerning of Canonical from not Canonical, and of their infallible truth, and sense, commeth vnto vs, only by the credite vve giue vnto the CATHOLIKE CHVRCHE: through vvhose cōmendation vve beleeue both the Gospel and Christ him self. Vvhereas the Sectaries mea∣sure the matter by their fantasies and opinion.

S. Augustine cont. Epist. fundamenti cap. 5.

I for my part, vvould not beleeue the Gospel, vnles the authoritie of the CA∣THOLIKE CHVRCH moued me. They therfore whom I obied saying, Be∣leeue the Gospel: vvhy should I not beleeue them saying, Beleeue not * Mani∣chaeus? Choose vvhether thou vvilt. If thou wilt say, Beleeue the Catholike: loe they vvarne me that I giue no credite vnto you: and therefore beleeuing them, I must needes not beleeue thee. If thou say, Beleeue not the Catholikes: it is not the right vvay, by the Gospel to driue me to the faith of Manichaeus, because I belee∣ued

the Gospel it self by the preaching of Catholikes.

Againe li. de vtilit. credend. cap. 14.

I see the concerning Christ him self, I haue beleeued none, but the confir∣med and assured opinion of peoples and nations: and that these peoples haue on euey side possessed the mysteries of the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH. Vvhy should I not therfore most diligently require, specially among them, what Christ commaunded, by vvhose authoritie I vvas moued to beleeue, that Christ did commaund some profitable thing? Vvilt thou (ō Heretike) tel me better vvhat he said? vvhom I vvould not thinke to haue been at al, or to be, if I must beleeue, because thou saiest it. Vvhat grosse madnes is this, to say, Be∣leeue the Catholikes, the Christ is to be beleeued: and learne of vs, vvhat he said.

Againe cont. Faustum li. II. cap. 1.

Thou seest then in this matter what force the authoritie of the CATHO∣LIKE CHVRCH hath, vvhich euen from the most grounded and founded seates of the Apostles, is established vntil this day, by the line of Bishops suc∣ceding one an other, & by the consent of so many peoples. Vvhereas thou saiest, This is Scripture, or, this is such an Apostles, that is not: because this soundeth for me, and the other against me. Thou then art the rule of truth. vvhatsoeuer is against thee, is not true.

3 No heretikes haue right to the Scriptures, but are vsurpers: the Catholike Church being the true ovvner and faithful keeper of them. Heretikes abuse them, corrupt them, and vtterly seeke to abolish them, though they pretend the contrarie.

Tertullianli. De praescriptionibus, bringeth in the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH speaking thus to all Heretikes.

Vvho are you, vvhen, and from vvhence came you? vvhat doe you in my possession, that are none of mine? by vvhat right (Marcion) doest thou cut dovvne my wood? vvho gaue the licence (ô Valentine) to turne the course of my fountaines? by vvhat authoritie (Apelles) doest thou remoue my boundes? and you the rest, vvhy do yovv sovv and seede for these companions at your pleasure? It is my possession, I possesse it of old, I haue assured origins thereof, euen from those authors vvhose the thing vvas. I am the heire of the Apostles. As they prouided by their Testament, as they comitted it to my credite, as they adiured me, so doe I hold it. You surely they disherited alvvaies and haue cost you of, as forainers, as enemies.

Againe in the same booke.

Encountering vvith such by Scriptures, auaileth nothing, but to ouerturne a mans stomake or his braine. This heresie receiueth not certaine Scriptures: and if it do receiue some, yet by adding and taking avvay, it peruerteth the same to serue their purpose: and if it receiue any, it doth not receiue them vvholy: and if after a sort it receiue them vvholy, neuertheles by diuising diuers expositions, it turneth them cleane an other vvay &c.

4 Yet do they vaunt them selues of Scriptures excedingly, but they are neuer the more to be trusted for that.

S. Hierom aduersus Luciferianos in fine.

Let them not flatter them selues, if they seeme in their ovvne conceite to affirme that vvhich they say, out of the chapters of Scripture: vvhereas the Diuel also spake some thinges out of the Scriptures, and the Scriptures consist not in the reading, but in the vnderstanding.

Vincentius Lirinensis li. cont. prophanas haeres•••••• Nouationes.

Here perhaps some man may aske, vvhether heretikes also vse not the testi∣monies of diuine Scripture. Yet in deede do they, and that vehemently. For thou shalt see them flie through euery one of the sacred bookes of the Lavv, through Moyses, the bookes of the kings, the Psalmes, the Apostles, the Gos∣pels, the Prophets. For, vvhether among their ovvne fellowes, or strangers: vvhether priuatly, or publikely: vvhether in talke, or in their bookes: vvhether in bankets, or in the streates: they (I say) alleage nothing of their ovvne, which they endeuour not to shadow vvith the wordes of Scripture also. Read the vvorkes of Paulus Samosatenus, of Priscillian, of Eunomian, of Iouinian, of the other plagues & pestilences: thou shalt finde an infinite heape of exam∣ples, no page in a manner omitted or voide, which is not painted and coloured with the sentences of the new or old testament. But they are so much the more to be taken heede of, & to be feared, the more secretly they lurke vnder the sha∣dowes of Gods diuine law. For they knovv their stinkes vvould not easily please any man almost, if they were breathed out nakedly & simply them selues alone, & therfore they sprinkle them as it vvere vvith certaine pretious spi∣ces of the heauenly vvord: to the end that he vvhich would easely despise the errour of man, may not easely contemne the oracles of God. So that they doe like vnto them, vvhich vvhen they vvil prepare certaine bitter potion•• for children, do first anoint the brimmes of the cup vvith honie, that the vn∣warie age, vvhen it shal first feele the svvetnes, may not feare the bitternes.

5 The cause vvhy, the Scriptures being perfit, yet vve vse other Ecclesiastical vvritings and tradition.

Vincentius Lirinensis in his golden booke before cited, aduersus prophanas haeres•••• Nouationes.

Here some man perhaps may aske, for asmuch as the Canon of the Scrip∣tures is perfit, and in all pointes very sufficient in it self, vvhat neede is there, to ioyne therevnto the authoritie of the Ecclesiastical vnderstanding? for this cause surely, for that all take not the holy Scripture in one and the same sense, because of the deepenes thereof. but the speaches thereof, some interpret one vvay, & some an other vvay, so that there may almost as many senses be picked out of it, as there be men. for, Nouatian doth expound it one vvay, and Sabel∣lius, an other vvay, othervvise Donatus, othervvise Arîus, Eunomius, Mace∣donius, othervvise Photinus, Apollinaris, Priscillianus, othervvise Iouinian, Pelagius, Celestius, lastly othervvise Nestorius. And therfore very necessarie it is, because of so great vvindinges and turninges of diuers errours, that the line of Prophetical and Apostolical interpretation, be directed according to the rule of the Ecclesiastical and Catholike sense or vnderstanding.

S. Basil li. de Spiritu sancto cap. 27.

Of such articles of religion as are kept and preached in the Church, some vvere taught by the vvritten vvord, other some vve haue receiued by the tra∣dition of the Apostles, deliuered vnto vs as it vvere from hand to hand in my∣sterie secretly: both vvhich be of one force to Christian religion: and this no man vvil deny that hath any litle skill of the Ecclesiastical rites or customes. for if vve goe about to reiect the customes not conteined in Scripture, as being of smal force, vve shal vnvvittingly and vnavvares mangle the GOSPEL it self in the principal partes thereof, yea rather, vve shal abridge the very prea∣ching of the Gospel, and bring it to a bare name.

Notes

• Luther, Caluin.
• Luther, Zuinglius, Caeluin.
• Their scholers & folovvers.
• Of Caluin, of ••uel, of the rest.
• So he calleth the Churches sense, and the fathers inter∣pretations of Scriptures.
• Othervvise Wiclesse Lu∣ther, Caluin, Puritanes.