Samuel Newth

“ And on this behalf I beseek thee, thou that hast the riches of this world, and lovest God with thy heart, to lift up thine eyes, and see how great a multitude of poor people run through every town; have pity on thine own flesh, help them with a good heart, and do with thy counsel all that ever thou canst, that this unshamefaced begging may be put down, that these idle folks may be set to labour, and that such as are not able to get their living may be provided for. ”

“ Not from any testimony given to them by others, but from their own lengthened and varied experience of it, they know it to be the Father’s gift unto His children. It has quickened, guided, and strengthened them, as no human words had ever done, answering the deepest cravings of their nature, stimulating them to endeavours after a nobler life, and enkindling within them the confidence of a sure and blessed hope. That it is from heaven, and not from men, they know, not because of what has been told them, but from what they themselves have seen and learnt ”

“ Thus much thought I to speak of the old Testament, wherein Almighty God openeth unto us his mighty power, his wisdom, his loving mercy and righteousness: for the which cause it ought of no man to be abhorred, despised, or lightly regarded, as though it were an old scripture that nothing belonged unto us, or that now were to be refused. ”

“ Many other things we might give thee warning of, gentle Reader, if we had not exceeded the measure of a preface already. It remaineth that we commend thee to God, and to the Spirit of his grace, which is able to build further than we can ask or think. He removeth the scales from our eyes, the vail from our hearts, opening our wits that we may understand his word, enlarging our hearts, yea, correcting our affections, that we may love it above gold and silver, yea, that we may love it to the end. ”

“ Scholars might still study for themselves the ancient Bible, but for the people at large the form which the Scriptures now practically assumed was that of the spoken utterances of the Scribes.
How imperfect and unsatisfactory this must have been is obvious; and the more so as these teachers did not content themselves with simply rendering the ancient text into a familiar form, but intermingled with it a mass of human traditions that obscured and sometimes contradicted its meaning. ”

“ If thou be a preacher, and hast the oversight of the flock of Christ, awake and feed Christ’s sheep with a good heart, and spare no labour to do them good: seek not thyself, and beware of filthy lucre; but be unto the flock an ensample in the word, in conversation, in love, in ferventness of the spirit, and be ever reading, exhorting, and teaching in God’s word, that the people of God run not unto other doctrines, and lest thou thyself, when thou shouldest teach other, be found ignorant therein. ”

“ Apply alway the law to thy deeds, whether thou find lust in thine heart to the law-ward; and so shalt thou no doubt repent and feel in thyself a certain sorrow, pain, and grief to thine heart, because thou canst not with full lust do the deeds of the law. Apply the gospel, that is to say the promises, unto the deserving of Christ, and to the mercy of God and his truth, and so shalt thou not despair, but shall feel God as a kind and merciful father. ”

“ But as touching the evil report and dispraise that the good word of God hath by the corrupt and evil conversation of some that daily hear it and profess it outwardly with their mouths, I exhort thee, most dear reader, let not that offend thee, nor withdraw thy mind from the love of the truth, neither move thee to be partaker in like unthankfulness; but seeing the light is come into the world, love no more the works of darkness, receive not the grace of God in vain. ”

“ Again, in Josaphat, in Ezechias, and in Josias, thou seest the nature of a virtuous king. He putteth down the houses of idolatry, seeth that his priests teach nothing but the law of God, commandeth his lords to go with them, and to see that they teach the people. [Pg 167] In these kings, I say, thou seest the condition of a true defender of the faith; for he spareth neither cost nor labour to maintain the Laws of God, to seek the wealth and prosperity of his people, and to root out the wicked. ”

“ The duty of providing for a further revision of the English Bible has been handed down as a solemn trust from generation to generation. Every new discovery made of Biblical manuscripts, and every fresh field of research opened up, has at once made the need of revision more apparent, and given intensity to the desire that it should be undertaken ”

“ There is the righteousness of works, as I said before, when the heart is away and feeleth not how the law is spiritual and cannot be fulfilled, but from the bottom of the heart, as the just ministration of all manner of laws, and the observing of them, and moral virtues wherein philosophers put their felicity and blessedness—which all are nothing in the sight of God. There is a full righteousness, when the law is fulfilled from the ground of the heart. This had neither Peter nor Paul in this life perfectly, but sighed after it. ”

“ Augustine was not ashamed to retractate, we might say, revoke, many things that had passed him, and doth even glory that he seeth his infirmities. If we will be sons of the truth, we must consider what it speaketh, and trample upon our own credit, yea, and upon other men’s too, if either be any way an hindrance to it. This to the cause. Then to the persons we say, that of all men they ought to be most silent in this case. For what varieties have they, and what alterations have they made, not only of their service books, portesses, and breviaries, but also of their Latin translation? ”

“ And rather than thou wouldest teach the people any other thing than God’s word, take the book in thine hand, and read the words, even as they stand therein; for it is no shame so to do, it is more shame to make a lie. This I say for such as are not yet expert in the scripture; for I reprove no preaching without the book, as long as they say the truth.
If thou be a man that hast wife and children, first love thy wife, according to the ensample of the love wherewith Christ loved the congregation; and remember that so doing thou lovest even thyself: if thou hate her, thou hatest thine own flesh ”

“ The New Testament is a book wherein are contained the promises of God, and the deeds of them which believe them or believe them not.
Evangelion (that we call the gospel) is a Greek word, and signifies good, merry, glad, and joyful tidings, that maketh a man’s heart glad, and maketh him sing, dance, and leap for joy: as when David had killed Goliath the giant, came glad tidings unto the Jews, that their fearful and cruel enemy was slain, and they delivered out of all danger ”

“ A weighty sentence from the last-mentioned writer will be a fitting conclusion to the present lecture. “It is positive unfaithfulness on the part of those who have ability and opportunity to decline the task. The Word of God, just because it is God’s Word, ought to be presented to every reader in a state as pure and perfect as human learning, skill, and taste can make it. The higher our veneration for it the more anxious ought we to be to free it from every blemish, however small and unimportant. But nothing in truth can be unimportant which dims the light of Divine Revelation.” ”

“ By the substance of the Bible we mean the statements which, in various ways and diverse manners, it presents to our thoughts; the precepts and the promises, the histories and the prophecies, the doctrines and the prayers, the truths about God and about man, through which our minds are instructed, our consciences enlightened, and our hearts established by grace. By the form of the Bible, we mean the signs or sounds by which the various statements contained in the Bible are presented to us, and which are, as it were, the channel through which the truths it teaches are conveyed to our minds. ”

“ Whatsoever is above that, is Christ’s gift, purchase, doing, and working. He bought it of his Father dearly with his blood, yea, with his most bitter death, and gave his life for it. Whatsoever good thing is in us, that is given us freely, without our deserving or merits, for Christ’s blood’s sake. That we desire to follow the will of God it is the gift of Christ’s blood. That we now hate the devil’s will (whereunto we were so fast locked, and could not but love it) is also the gift of Christ’s blood; unto whom belongeth the praise and honour of our good deeds, and not unto us. ”

“ No sea, be it ever so great a tempest, is so unquiet. For it is not possible for a natural man to consent to the law, that it should be good, or that God should be righteous which maketh the law; his wit, reason, and will being so fast glued, yea, nailed and chained unto the will of the devil. Neither can any creature loose the bonds, save the blood of Christ. ”

“ God be praised therefore, and grant us of his fatherly mercy that we be not unthankful; lest where he now giveth us a Josaphat, an Ezechias, yea, a very Josias, he send us a Pharao, a Jeroboam, or an Achab!
In the two first books of Esdras, and in Hester, thou seest the deliverance of the people, which though they were but few, yet is it unto us all a special comfort; forsomuch as God is not forgetful of his promise, but bringeth them out of captivity, according as he had told them before. ”

“ After it had pleased God to put in my mind and also to give me grace to translate this fore-rehearsed New Testament into our English tongue, howsoever we have done it, I supposed it very necessary to put you in remembrance of certain points, which are, that ye well understand what these words mean: the Old Testament, the New Testament; the law, the gospel; Moses, Christ; nature, grace; working and believing; deeds and faith; lest we ascribe to the one that which belongeth to the other, and make of Christ Moses, of the gospel the law, despise grace and rob faith ”

“ In the case of such a book as the Bible, however perfect the translation which may at any time be made, the duty of revision is one of recurring obligation. The necessity for it is inevitable, and this from two causes in constant operation. (1) By the imperfection that attaches to all kinds of human labour various departures from the standard form became gradually introduced in the process of reproduction; and (2) by the natural growth of language, and the attendant changes in the meaning of terms, that which at one time was a faithful rendering becomes at another obscure or incorrect. ”

“ Nay, “I am sure that neither death nor life, neither angel, neither rule nor power, neither present things nor things to come, neither high nor low, neither any creature, is able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesu our Lord.” In all such tribulations, a christian man perceiveth that God is his Father, and loveth him even as he loved Christ when he shed his blood on the cross. ”

“ That any should dare to meddle with a book so precious and so honoured, seems to them a sacrilegious act, and a Revision of the Holy Scriptures is to them a presumptuous attempt to improve upon the handiwork of God. ”

“ For whom I love from the deep bottom and ground of mine heart, him condemn I not, neither reckon his sins, but suffer his weakness and infirmity, as a mother the weakness of her son, until he grow up unto a perfect man. ”

“ This Evangelion or gospel (that is to say, such joyful tidings) is called the New Testament; because that as a man, when he shall die, appointeth his goods to be dealt and distributed after his death among them which he nameth to be his heirs; even so Christ, before his death, commanded and appointed that such Evangelion, gospel, or tidings, should be declared throughout all the world, and therewith to give unto all that believe, all his goods; that is to say, his life, wherewith he swallowed and devoured up death; his righteousness, wherewith he banished sin ”

“ An act, passed in the second parliament of Henry V., went still further, and declared that all who read the Scriptures in their native tongue should forfeit land, cattle, life, and goods, they and their heirs for ever. Notwithstanding these repressive measures, copies of the Wycliffe Bible were still made and read in secret. This could be done only with great risk and difficulty, and none but persons of some wealth could afford the expense of a complete copy. Those in humbler positions deemed themselves happy if they could secure a single book, or even a few leaves. ”

“ It has seemed to me to be of great importance that those who are engaged in the responsible service of teaching the young, and to whom the Bible is the constant source of appeal, should be able both to take up an intelligent position in regard to the new revision of the English Scriptures, and to meet the various enquiries that will be made respecting it by those about them. I have therefore endeavoured to provide for their use, in a compendious form, a survey of the general argument for revision, and of the facts which exhibit the present duty of Christian men in relation thereto. ”

“ And, above all things, fashion thy life and conversation according to the doctrine of the Holy Ghost therein, that thou mayest be partaker of the good promises of God in the Bible, and be heir of his blessing in Christ: in whom if thou put thy trust, and be an unfeigned reader or hearer of his word with thy heart, thou shalt find sweetness therein, and spy wondrous things, to thy understanding, to the avoiding of all seditious sects, to the abhorring of thy old sinful life, and to the stablishing of thy godly conversation. ”