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Again, they came or were thought to come to the work, not exercendi causa (as one saith) but
exercitati, that is, learned, not to learn: For the chief overseer and [NOTE: Greek letters omitted]
under his Majesty, to whom not only we, but also our whole Church was much bound, knew by
his wisdom, which thing also Nazianzen taught so long ago, that it is a preposterous order to teach
first and to learn after, yea that [NOTE: Greek letters omitted] to learn and practice together, is
neither commendable for the workman, nor safe for the work. [Idem in Apologet.] Therefore such
were thought upon, as could say modestly with Saint Jerome, Et Hebreaeum Sermonem ex parte
didicimus, et in Latino pene ab ipsis incunabulis etc. detriti sumus. “Both we have learned the
Hebrew tongue in part, and in the Latin we have been exercised almost from our very cradle.” S.
Jerome maketh no mention of the Greek tongue, wherein yet he did excel, because he translated
not the old Testament out of Greek, but out of Hebrew. And in what sort did these assemble? In
the trust of their own knowledge, or of their sharpness of wit, or deepness of judgment, as it were
in an arm of flesh? At no hand. They trusted in him that hath the key of David, opening and no man
shutting; they prayed to the Lord the Father of our Lord, to the effect that S. Augustine did; “O let
thy Scriptures be my pure delight, let me not be deceived in them, neither let me deceive by them.”
[S. Aug. lib. II. Confess. cap. 2.] In this confidence, and with this devotion did they assemble
together; not too many, lest one should trouble another; and yet many, lest many things haply might
escape them. If you ask what they had before them, truly it was the Hebrew text of the Old Testament,
the Greek of the New. These are the two golden pipes, or rather conduits, where-through the olive
branches empty themselves into the gold. Saint Augustine calleth them precedent, or original
tongues; [S. August. 3. de doctr. c. 3. etc.] Saint Jerome, fountains. [S. Jerome. ad Suniam et Fretel.]
The same Saint Jerome affirmeth, [S. Jerome. ad Lucinium, Dist. 9 ut veterum.] and Gratian hath
not spared to put it into his Decree, That “as the credit of the old Books” (he meaneth of the Old
Testament) “is to be tried by the Hebrew Volumes, so of the New by the Greek tongue,” he meaneth
by the original Greek. If truth be tried by these tongues, then whence should a Translation be made,
but out of them? These tongues therefore, the Scriptures we say in those tongues, we set before us
to translate, being the tongues wherein God was pleased to speak to his Church by the Prophets
and Apostles. Neither did we run over the work with that posting haste that the Septuagint did, if
that be true which is reported of them, that they finished it in 72 days; [Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12.]
neither were we barred or hindered from going over it again, having once done it, like S. Jerome,
if that be true which himself reporteth, that he could no sooner write anything, but presently it was
caught from him, and published, and he could not have leave to mend it: [S. Jerome. ad Pammac.
pro libr. advers. Iovinian.] neither, to be short, were we the first that fell in hand with translating
the Scripture into English, and consequently destitute of former helps, as it is written of Origen,
that he was the first in a manner, that put his hand to write Commentaries upon the Scriptures,
[Sophoc. in Elect.] and therefore no marvel, if he overshot himself many times. None of these
things: the work hath not been huddled up in 72 days, but hath cost the workmen, as light as it
seemeth, the pains of twice seven times seventy two days and more: matters of such weight and
consequence are to be speeded with maturity: for in a business of movement a man feareth not the
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