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worship him all ye HIS Angels; and the Apostle to make the point appear more clear expresseth the correlative thus, Angels of God. See Chap. 13. v. 6. §. 78.
Because I shall have oft occasion to make mention of the seventy Interpreters of the Old Testament into Greek, who are oft expressed by these Letters LXX, I think it meet at this first mention of them, distinctly to set down their History, as an ancient Father hath left it upon record, thus; Ptolomy the Sonne of Lagus, de∣sirous that the Library which he had made in Alexandria, might be replenished with worthy Books of all sorts, prayed the Jews at Ierusalem to have their Scri∣ptures interpreted into the Greek Tongue; thereupon they who were then under the Macedonians, sent to Ptolomy seventy Elders, such as perfectly understood the Scriptures, and the Hebrew and Greek Tongue, according to his desire: He wil∣ling to make proof of them, and fearing lest they should conceal by their Interpre∣tation that truth which was in the Scriptures, by a mutual consent, severed them one from another, and commanded every one of them to interpret the same Scripture, and this he did in all the Books. But when they met together in one before Ptolo∣my, and compared their Interpretations, God was glorified and the Scriptures be∣leeved to be truly divine; all of them rehearsing the same Scripture, both in the same words and in the same names, from the beginning to the end; that even the present Gentiles might know, that by the inspiration of God the Scriptures were interpreted.
Such additions of words or alterations of phrases, as make to a more perspicuous expression of the Authors minde, may well be done by such as quote his sayings. For such as only cite Testimonies for proof of a point, are not so strictly tied to the words as Translators are: It is enough for the former to retain and expresse the true meaning of the Text which they cite, though it be in other words.
Thus change of phrase doth oft better expresse the minde and meaning of the au∣thour, then a translation word for word: Therefore a faithfull Interpreter stands not over-strictly upon the letter; That which the Apostles aimed at, was not to hunt after letters and syllables, but to prove doctrines; See Chap. 3. v. 9. §. 100. & Cha. 9. v. 20. §. 106.
This may serve in generall to answer the alteration of the person in expressing worship: For the Psalmist useth the second person, as speaking to the Angels, thus, worship him all ye Angels. And the Apostle useth the third Person as speaking of the Angel thus, Let all the Angels worship him. Both phrases set forth one and the same sence.
As for the difference this reason may be given.
The Psalmist endeavouring to set out the magnificence of Christ in the best man∣ner that he could, amongst other very elegant expressions, useth this Rhetoricall Apostrophe to the Angels, worship him all ye Gods. But the scope of the Apostle is only to give a proof of Christs excellency above Angels. For this purpose it was the fittest expression to set it down positively thus, Let all the Angels of God wor∣ship him.