Heretical translation against the Sacrament of MATRIMONY

1 BUT as they are injurious translators to the sacred Order of Priesthood, so a man would think they should be very friendly to the Sacrament of Matrimony. For they would seem to make more of Matrimony than we do, making it equal at the least with virginity. Yet the truth is, we make it, or rather the Church of God esteems it as a holy Sacrament, they do not: as giving grace to the married persons to live together in love, concord, and fidelity: they acknowledge no such thing. So that Matrimony with them is highly esteemed in respect of the flesh, or (to say the best) only for a civil contract, as it is among Jews & Pagans: but as it is peculiar to Christians, and (as S. Augustine says) in the sanctification also and holiness of a Sacrament, they make no account of it, but flatly deny it.

2 And to this purpose they translate in the epistle to the Ephesians, 5. where the Apostle speaks of Matrimony, This is a great secret. ¹ Whereas the Latin Church and all the Doctors thereof have ever read, This is a great Sacrament: the Greek Church and all the fathers thereof, This is a great mystery. because that which is in Greek, mystery:² is in Latin, Sacrament: & contrariwise, the words in both tongues being equivalent. So that if one be taken in the large signification, the other also: as, Apoc. 17. I will show thee the sacrament of the woman. ³ & I will show thee the mystery of the woman. and so in sundry places. Again if one be restrained from the larger signification, and peculiarly applied, signify the Sacraments of the Church, the other also. As, the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ: or, the Mystery of the body and blood of Christ:⁴ and the Calvinists in their Latin and Greek Catechism say, two Sacraments, or, two Mysteries.

3 This being so, what is the fault of their translation in the place aforesaid? This, that they translate neither, Sacrament, nor, Mystery. As for the word Sacrament, they are excused, because they translate not the Latin: but translating the Greek, why said they not, Mystery, which is the Greek word here in the Apostle? I mean, why said they not of Matrimony, This is a great Mystery? No doubt there can be no other cause, but to avoid both those words, which are used in the Latin and Greek Church, to signify the Sacraments. For in the Greek Church the Sacrament of the body and blood itself is called but a mystery or mysteries, which yet the Protestants themselves call a true Sacrament. Therefore if they should have called Matrimony also by that name, it might easily have sounded to be a Sacrament also.⁵ But in saying it is a great secret, they put it out of doubt, that it shall not be so taken.

4 They will say unto me, Is not every sacrament and mystery, in english a secret? Yes, as Angel, is a messenger: and Apostle, one that is sent. But when the holy Scripture uses these words to signify more excellent and divine things than those of the common sort, does it become translators to use baser terms instead thereof, and so to disgrace the writing & meaning of the Holy Ghost? I appeal to themselves, when they translate this word in other places, whether they say not thus, And without doubt great was that MYSTERY of godliness: ⁶ God was showed manifestly in the flesh &c. again, The MYSTERY which has been hid since the world began, ⁷ but now is opened to his Saints. again, I show you a MYSTERY, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. and the like. Where if they should translate, secret, instead of, mystery, as the Bezites do in one of these places, saying, I will show you a secret thing: what a disgracing and debasing were it to those high mysteries there signified? And if it were so in these, is it not so in Matrimony, which the Apostle makes such a mystery, that it represents no less matter than Christ and his Church and whatsoever is most excellent in that conjunction? Now then, if in all other places of high mystery they translate it also mystery, as it is in the Greek, and only in Matrimony do not so, but say rather, This is a great secret, using so base a term in so high & excellent a mystery, must we not needs think (as no doubt it is) that they do it because of their Heretical opinion against the Sacrament of Matrimony, and for their base estimation thereof?

5 But they will yet reply again, & ask us, what we gain by translating it either Sacrament, or mystery? Does that make it one of the Sacraments properly so called, to wit, such a Sacrament as Baptism is? No surely. But howsoever we gain otherwise, at least we gain the commendation of true translators, whether it make with us or against us. For otherwise it is not the name that makes it such a peculiar Sacrament. For (as is said before) Sacrament is a general name in Scripture to other things. Neither do we therefore so translate it, as though it were forthwith one of the 7 Sacraments, because of the name: but as in other places wheresoever we find this word in the Latin, we translate it, Sacrament (as in the Apocalypse,⁸ the Sacrament of the woman) so finding it here, we do here also so translate it. And as for the divers taking of it here, and elsewhere, that we examine other wise, by circumstance of the text, and by the Churches and Doctors interpretation: and we find that here it is taken for a Sacrament in that sense as we say, seven Sacraments: not so in the other places.

6 As when we read this name Jesus in Scripture common to our Saviour and to other men, we translate it always alike, Jesus: but when it is⁹ JESUS Christ, and when some other Jesus,¹⁰ we know by other circumstances. Likewise presuppose Baptism in the Scripture were called a sacrament: yet the Protestants themselves would not, nor could thereby conclude, that it were one of their two Sacraments. Yet I trow they would not avoid to translate it by the word sacrament, if they found it so called: even so we finding Matrimony so called, do so translate it, neither concluding thereby that it is one of the Seven, nor yet suppressing the name, which no doubt gave some occasion to the Church and the holy doctors to esteem it as one of the Seven. They contrariwise, as though it were never so called, suppress the name altogether, calling it a secret, to put it out of all question, that it is no Sacrament: which they would not have done, if the Scripture had said of Baptism or the Eucharist, This is a great Sacrament. So partial they are to their own opinions.