that we sholde go to the truithe of the Hebrue tonge / if we do doubte in any place of our translations. The selfe same thinge dothe Hierome teache in manye places. But they saie that these bokes are corrupted of the Iues. Heare I thinke good to answer with Hierome. Either saithe he they dyd this before the comminge of Christe / and the preachinge of the Apostles / or after: if before / it is maruell that when Christ / the Apostles / and Paule / dyd reproue moste shãfull faultes in the Iues / that they wolde haue kepte in silence so greate and haynous a sacriledge as this: surelie if it hade bene so / they wolde haue reproued yt. But if it was done after Christes ascẽsiõ / they wolde thẽ chieflie haue corrupted those places which do make mẽciõ of Christ / and those which Christe / and his Apostiles did alledge. But those remayne safe and vncorrupte / the same sense and meaninge of thẽ is in their bible in which they were recyted of Christe / and his Apostles (for aboute the wordes they were not so curious) wherfore it is not lyke / that they haue corrupted any other places at all in the holy bokes of the scripture. Yea if a mã dothe iustly beholde thẽ / he shall see that they haue many moo testimonies and sentences for vs / more plaine / I saye / then our cõmen translatiõ hathe / as in the .2. Psal. kisse the sonne / where ours hathe / laie holde of knowledg. In like maner the whole .53. of Esaie / which dothe moste plainlie prophecie of Christ / remaynith vncorrupt. The bokes therfore are not corrupted. Yea they coulde not haue corrupted those bokes thoughe they wolde / but it shuld be easyly espied: for ther be of them many moste awncient in wryten hande / which haue bene kepte moste diligentlie of Christians. But let vs retourne to the profyt that Augustine speaketh of. Many mighte thinke / that those thinges which are spokẽ of the olde people were vayne and fayned / and likwise those thinges which we do tell owte of the prophettes / excepte they dyd see the Iues thẽselues yet liuinge / and remayninge / with their bokes / which do beare witnesse to the thinges that we do speake: wherfore though the Iues be blinded in mynde / and in harte are our enemyes / yet euen them and their bokes we haue moste plaine witnesses of out faithe. Aske thẽ of the prophettes whom Christ dothe alledge / they graunte them to be true. Aske them of the vnderstandinge of thẽ / in yt they are ignoraunte / because they are blinded. And amonge all other witnessinges / that witnesse which is gyuen of a mãs enemie is of greatest weight / and makith most for him: Of suche witnesses truly the lorde hathe prouided good stoore for his churche. For we haue not only the bokes of the Hebrues to make for vs / but also the verses or rydles of the Sibylles / which were of an heathẽ poeple. It is not to be thought / that our elders fayned thos verses: for Sibylles bokes were euen commune / in all mens hands / in the tyme of Eusebius the bishoppe of Cesarea / of