A53737:578
A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux
A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux wherein the principles of the Roman church, as to moderation, unity and truth are examined and sundry important controversies concerning the rule of faith, papal supremacy, the mass, images, &c. discussed / by John Owen.
London: printed for Ph. Stephens, 1664
A Vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat Lux. › Chapter 22
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Your following words are a Commendation of the zeal and piety of the days and times before the Reformation, with reflections upon all things amongst us since, and this I shall pass by, so to avoid the occasion of representing unto you the true state of things both here and elsewhere in the Ages you so much extol. Neither indeed is it to any great purpose ⟨p. 541⟩to lay open anew that darkness and wickedness which the world groaned under, and all sober men complained of. You proceed to other Exceptions and say:
Your following words are a Commendation of the zeal and piety of the dayes and times before the Reformation, with reflections upon all things amongst us since, and this I shall pass by, so to avoid the occasion of representing unto you the true state of things both here and elsewhere in the Ages you so much extoll. Neither indeed is it to any great purpose ⟨p. 541⟩to lay open anew that darkness and wickedness which the world groaned under, and all sober men complained of. You proceed to other Exceptions and say:
Where Fiat Lux says, That the Pentateuch, or Hagiography was never by any High Priest among the Jews put into a Vulgar Tongue, nor the Gospel or Liturgy out of the Greek in the Eastern part of the Christian Church, or Latin in the Western, you sleight this discourse of mine, because Hebrew, Greek and Latin were Vulgar Tongues themselves: I know this well enough: but when, and how long ago were they so? Not for some thousand years to my knowledge. And was the Bible, Psalms, or Christian Liturgy then put into Vulgar Tongues, when those they were first written in, ceased to be Vulgar? This you should have spoken unto, if you had meant to say any thing, or gainsay me. Nor is it to purpose to tell me that St. Jerome translated the Bible into Dalmatian. I know well enough it hath been translated by some special persons into Gothish, Armenian, Ethiopian and other particular Dialects. But did the Church either of the Hebrews, or the Christians either Greeks or Latin ever deliver it so to translated to the generality of People, or use it in their Service, or command it so to be done as a thing of general Concernment and necessity? so far is it from that, that they would never permit it.