Sin theoni en christoni the answer to the preface of the Rhemish Testament. By…Syn theōi en christōi the ansvvere to the preface of the Rhemish Testament. By…

Likewise there being a certain promise, that those which abide in the word which they have believed, shall know ¹the truth: it cannot be, but that the people doing that aswell as the Minister, shall for their proportion, be partakers of the promise aswell as he. Hitherto belongeth the plain and most usual words, the phrase and manner of speech most frequented, the comparisons and similitudes most familiar, taken out of the shops, and out of the fields, from husbandry and housewifery, ⟨p. 29⟩from the flock, and from the heard, from the plough, and the mow. For notwithstanding that it had been easy for the Lord by his learned Prophets and Apostles, and our Saviour Christ especially, to have flown up into the heavens, and to have gone down to hell, for comparisons to set forth his doctrine with: yet we see how he creepeth as it were upon the ground, in taking that which is before mens feet to clear his doctrine with. Wherefore? but that thereby he would notify unto the sons of men, that he wrote the Scriptures for the capacity & understanding of th'unlearned. Last of all when the whole body of the Scripture, from the head to the foot thereof, is termed a light & lantern, they² must needs be the children of darkness, which breath and bluster darkness & obscurity continually against them. And therefore if it be hidden to any, it is hidden to those whose understandings the God of this world hath blinded, that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should not shine unto ⟨p. 30⟩them. This judgement of th'easiness and facility of the Scripture, have the ancient fathers. Origen saith that they³ are shut against the negligent, and open to those which knock & seek. Another, that⁴ all is clear and plain in holy Scriptures: whatsoever is necessary for us is manifest. Another, that the Lord hath spoken by his ⁵Gospel, not that a few, but that all should understand it: that Plato wrote his writings, but not to the people, but to a few, scarce three understanding him. Last of all, Cyril saith, that the Scriptures are profitably