# Richard Capel on the preservation and translation of scripture for our salvation



## Reformed Covenanter (Jan 5, 2021)

And as the Church of the Jews did preserve the Hebrew Original of the Old Testament safe and sure, so I doubt not but the same hand of the providence of God, hath and doth preserve the _Greek_ Original of the New Testament.

And for that it is not possible that the Originals should serve the turn of all, or immediately of any, but of such as have the knowledge of those tongues, (who are but a poor few in respect of all the world over) wherefore I take it for granted that the line of God’s providence hath, and doth, and will carry the matter, in having translations of several languages so entire, as to be a sufficient rule to ground their faith: else God in his providence must needs be wanting in providing necessaries for his Church.

Nor do _I_ think that there was, or ever shall be a Church of Christ, or a Church of Christians in the belly of Antichrist, but have had translations sufficient to rest their souls on. _I_ doubt not but the _vulgar,_ for all its faults hath sufficient for the saving of some souls. ...

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## Jerusalem Blade (Jan 5, 2021)

Hello Daniel, what Capel means when he says, "...but the vulgar, for all its faults..." might lead some souls to think of the AV, as the WCF 1.8 says, "...translated into the vulgar language of every nation". Though I think it would refer to the Vulgate of Rome, as Capel here is in the midst of countering a Romish attack on the Reformation's Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, who proffer their Latin as better..

Dr. Paul Ferguson, in his article, "Preservation of the Bible: Providential or Miraculous?", remarks,

Richard Capel, one of the Westminster Divines, warned concerning those who undermined the preservation of Scripture when he wrote in 1658,​​And to the like purpose is that observation, that the two Tables written immediately by Moses and the Prophets, and the Greek Copies immediately penned by the Apostles, and Apostolical men are all lost, or not to be made use of, except by a very few. And that we have none in Hebrew or Greek, but what are transcribed. Now transcribers are ordinary men, subject to mistake, may fail having no unerring spirit to hold their hands in writing.​​Referring to these types of statements, Capel immediately writes,​​These be terrible blasts, and do little else when they meet with a weak head and heart, but open the door to Atheism and quite to fling off the bridle, which only can hold them and us in the ways of truth and piety: this is to fill the conceits of men with evil thoughts against the Purity of the Originals: And if the Fountains run not clear, the Translation cannot be clean.​


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## Reformed Covenanter (Jan 5, 2021)

Jerusalem Blade said:


> Hello Daniel, what Capel means when he says, "...but the vulgar, for all its faults..." might lead some souls to think of the AV, as the WCF 1.8 says, "...translated into the vulgar language of every nation". Though I think it would refer to the Vulgate of Rome, as Capel here is in the midst of countering a Romish attack on the Reformation's Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, who proffer their Latin as better..



Yes, he is referring to the Latin Vulgate because the immediate context of the statement refers to the "Christians in the belly of Antichrist," who only have the "vulgar" (e.g. Vulgate) to read. Obviously, those folks were not reading the AV.

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