OF THE RELIGION, &c. &c. CHAP. I. Of the Holy Scriptures. Two excellent rules doth St. Paul prescribe unto Christians for their direction in the ways of God: the one, that they "be" not unwise, but understanding what the will of God is;" the other, that they "beb not more wise than behoveth to be wise, but be wise unto sobriety:" and that we might know the limits, within which this wisdom and sobriety should be bounded; he elsewhere declareth, that not to be more wise than is fitting, is "not to be wise above that which is written." Hereupon Sedulius, one of the most ancient writers that remaineth of this country birth, delivereth this for the meaning of the former rule; "Search" the law, in which the will of God Ephes. cap. 5. ver. 17. b Rom. cap. 12. ver. 3. μὴ ὑπερφρονεῖν παρ ̓ ἃ δεῖ φρονεῖν ἀλλὰ φρονεῖν εἰς τὸ σωφρονεῖν. c 1 Cor. cap. 4. ver. 6. μὴ ὑπὲρ ὃ γέγραπται φρονεῖν. d Scrutamini legem, in qua voluntas ejus continetur. cap. 5. Sedul. in Ephes. is contained;" and this for the latter: "He would be more wise than is meet, who searcheth those things that the law doth not speak of." Unto whom we will adjoin Claudius, another famous divine, counted one of the founders of the university of Paris, who for the illustration of the former, affirmeth that men "therefore err, because they know not the Scriptures; and because they are ignorant of the Scriptures, they consequently know not Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God:" and for the clearing of the latter, bringeth in that known canon of St. Hierome, "This, because it hath not authority from the Scriptures, is with the same facility contemned, wherewith it is avowed." Neither was the practice of our ancestors herein different from their judgment. For as Bede touching the latter, recordeth of the successors of Colum-kille the great saint of our country, that they "observed only those works of piety and chastity, which they could learn in the prophetical, evangelical, and apostolical writings:" so for the former, he specially noteth of one of the principal of them, to wit, bishop Aidan; that "all such as went in his company, whether they were of the clergy, or of the laity, were tied to exercise themselves, either in the reading of Scriptures, or in the learning of psalms." And long before their time, it was the observation which St. e Plus vult sapere, qui illa scrutatur quæ lex non dicit. cap. 12. Id. in Rom. ' Propterea errant, quia scripturas nesciunt : et quia scripturas ignorant, consequenter nesciunt virtutem Dei, hoc est, Christum, qui est Dei virtus et Dei sapientia. Claud. in Matth. lib. 3. Habetur MS. Romæ in bibliotheca Vallicellana; et Cantabrigiæ, in bibliothec. Colleg. Benedict. et Aula Pembrochi anæ. Hoc, quia de scripturis non habet authoritatem, eadem facilitate contemnitur qua probatur. Id. ib. Tantum ea quæ in propheticis, evangelicis et apostolicis literis discere poterant, pietatis et castitatis opera diligenter observantes. Bed. lib. 3. histor. Ecclesiast. cap. 4. In tantum autem vita illius a nostri temporis segnicia distabat; ut omnes qui cum eo incedebant, sive adtonsi, sive laici, meditari deberent, id est, aut legendis scripturis, aut psalmis discendis operam darc. Id. ibid. cap. 5. Chrysostom made of both these islands: that "although* thou didst go unto the ocean, and those British isles, although thou didst sail to the Euxine sea, although thou didst go unto the southern quarters, thou shouldst hear ALL men every where discoursing matters out of the SCRIPTURE, with another voice indeed, but not with another faith, and with a different tongue, but with an according judgment." Which is in effect the same with that which venerable Bede pronounceth of the island of Britain in his own days, that "in' the language of five nations it did search and confess one and the same knowledge of the highest truth, and of the true sublimity; to wit, of the English, the Britons, the Scots, the Picts, and the Latins;" which last, although he affirmeth "by the meditation of the Scriptures to have become common to all the rest;" yet the community of that one among the learned, did not take away the property of the other four among the vulgar, but that such as understood not the Latin, might yet in their own mother tongue have those Scriptures, wherein they might search the knowledge of the highest truth, and of the true sublimity, even as at this day in the reformed churches, the same Latin tongue is common to all the learned in the meditation and exposition of the Scriptures; and yet the common people for all that, do in their own vulgar tongues "search" the Scriptures, because in them they think to have eternal life." For as by us now, so by our forefathers then, the continual" meditation of the Scriptures was held to give k Κἂν εἰς τὸν ὠκεανὸν ἀπέλθης κἂν πρὸς τὰς Βρεταννικὰς νήσους ἐκείνας· κἂν εἰς τὸν Εὔξεινον πλεύσης πόντον κἂν πρὸς τὰ νότια ἀπέλθης μέρη πάντων ἀκούσῃ πανταχοῦ τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς γραφῆς φιλοσοφούντων, φωνῇ μὲν ἑτέρα, πίστει δὲ οὐχ ̓ ἑτέρᾳ, καὶ γλώσσῃ μὲν διαφόρῳ, διανοίᾳ δὲ συμφώνω. Chrysost. in serm. de utilitate lectionis scripturæ, op. tom. 3. pag. 71. I Quinque gentium linguis unam eandemque summæ veritatis et veræ sublimitatis scientiam scrutatur et confitetur; Anglorum videlicet, Britonum, Scotorum, Pictorum, et Latinorum, quæ meditatione scripturarum cæteris omnibus est facta communis. Bed. lib. 1. histor. ecclesiast. cap. 1. Joh. cap. 5. ver. 39. " Bonis semper moribus delectatur et consentit; et assiduis scripturarum me special vigour and vegetation to the soul, as we read in the book attributed unto St. Patrick, of the abuses of the world: and the holy documents delivered therein, were esteemed by Christians, as their chief riches; according to that of Columbanus, Sinto tibi divitiæ, divinæ dogmata legis. In which heavenly riches our ancient Scotish and Irish did thrive so well, that many worthy personages in foreign parts were content to undergo a voluntary exile from their own country, that they might more freely traffick here for so excellent a commodity. And by this means Altfrid King of Northumberland purchased the reputation of "a man most learned in the Scriptures." Scottorum qui tum versatus incola terris, as Bede writeth of him, in his poem of the life of our countryman St. Cuthbert. So when we read in the same Bede of Furseus, and in another ancient author of Kilianus', that "from the time of their very childhood," they had a care to learn the holy Scriptures: it may easily be collected, that in those days it was not thought a thing unfit, that even children should give themselves unto the study of the Bible. Wherein how greatly some of them did profit in those ditationibus et eloquiis animam vegetat. Patric. de abusionibus sæculi, cap. 5. de Pudicitia. • Columban. in monastichis, et in epistola ad Hunaldum. P Successit Ecgfrido in regnum Altfrit, vir in scripturis doctissimus. Bed. lib. 4. hist. cap. 26. 4 Ab ipso tempore pueritiæ suæ curam non modicam lectionibus sacris, simul et monasticis exhibebat discipinis. Bed. lib. 3. hist. cap. 19. Ab infantia sacris literis et monasticis disciplinis eruditus. Johannes de Tinmouth (et ex eo Jo. Capgrar.) in vita Fursei. A puerili ætate magnum habet studium sacras discere literas. Tom. 4. Antiqu. lect. Henr. Canis. pag. 642. tender years, may appear by that which Boniface, the first archbishop of Mentz, relateth of Livinus, who was trained up in his youth by Benignus in the singing of David's psalms, and the reading of the holy Gospels, and other divine exercises; and Jonas of Columbanus, in whose "breast the treasures of the holy Scriptures were so laid up, that within the compass of his youthful years he set forth an elegant exposition of the book of the Psalms;" by whose industry likewise afterward, the study of God's Word was so propagated, that in the monasteries which were founded "according" to his rule" beyond the seas, not the men only, but the religious women also did carefully attend the same, that through patience and comfort of the Scriptures they might have hope. See for this, the practice of the virgin Bitihildis lying upon her death-bed, reported by the same Jonas, or whosoever else was the author of the life of Burgundofora. W As for the edition of the Scriptures used in these parts at those times; the Latin translation was so received into common use among the learned, that the principal authority was still reserved to the original fountains. Therefore doth Sedulius in the Old Testament commend unto us "the Hebrew verity," for so with St. Hierome doth he style it; and in the New correct oftentimes the vulgar Latin according to the truth of the Greek copies. For example he readeth as we do," There is a difference between a wife and a virgin;" and not as the Rhemists have translated it out of the Latin. He readeth, "Non vosmetipsos vindicantes, not avenging yourselves ": where the * Davidicis psalmorum melodiis, et sanctorum evangeliorum mellifluis lectionibus atque cæteris divinis exercitationibus. Bonifac. in vita Livini. Tantum in ejus pectore divinarum thesauri scripturarum conditi tenebantur; ut intra adolescentiæ ætatem detentus, psalmorum librum elimato sermone exponeret. Jonas in vita Columbani, cap. 2. "B. Burgundofora monasterium quod Euoriacas appellatur, &c. secundum regulam S. Columbani instituit. Id. in vita Burgundof. "Cum jam in extremis posita posceret per successiones noctium lumen coram se accendi, et sacræ lectionis præconia ante se legi, &c. Id. ibid. * Hebraicam veritatem. Sedul, in Galat. cap. 3. et Hebr. cap. 7. y 1 Cor. cap. 7. ver. 34. z Rom. cap. 12. ver. 19. |