But in translating of words equivocal, that is, that have many significations under one letter, may lightly be peril (there may easily be a danger of mistake); for Austin saith in the ij. book of _Christian Teaching_ that if equivocal words be not translated into the sense or understanding of the author it is error,[137] as in that place of the psalm, _the feet of them be swift to shed out blood_. The Greek word is equivocal to _sharp_ and _swift_, and he that translated _sharp feet_ erred, and a book that hath _sharp feet_ is false, and must be amended, as that sentence, _unkind young trees shall not give deep roots_, ought to be thus _plantings of adultery shall not give deep roots_.[138] Austin saith this there; therefore a translator hath great need to study well the sentence, both before and after, and look that such equivocal words accord with the sentence; and he hath need to live a clean life, and be full devout in prayers, and have not his wit occupied about worldly things, that the Holy Spirit, author of wisdom, and cunning, and truth, dress him in his work, and suffer him not for to err. Also this word _ex_ signifieth sometime _of_, and sometime it signifieth _by_, as Jerome saith; and this word _enim_ signifieth commonly _forsooth_, and, as Jerome saith, it signifieth, _cause thus_, _forwhy_. And this word _secundum_ is taken for _after_, as many men say, and commonly; but it signifieth well _by_ or _up_, thus _by your word_, or _up your word_. Many such adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions be set off one for another, and at free choice of authors sometime; and now they should be taken as it accordeth best to the sentence. By this manner, with good living and great travail, men may come to true and clear translating and true understanding of holy writ, seem it never so hard at the beginning. God grant to us all grace to ken well and to keep well holy writ, and to suffer joyfully some pain for it at the last. Amen. (B.) _TYNDALE’S PROLOGUES._ I. NEW TESTAMENT[139] 1525. 4TO. I have here translated, brethren and sisters, most dear and tenderly beloved in Christ, the New Testament, for your spiritual edifying, consolation, and solace; exhorting instantly and beseeching those that are better seen in the tongues than I, and that have better gifts of grace to interpret the sense of the Scripture and meaning of the Spirit than I, to consider and ponder my labour, and that with the spirit of meekness; and if they perceive in any places that I have not attained unto the very sense of the tongue, or meaning of the Scripture, or have not given the right English word, that they put to their hands to amend it, remembering that so is their duty to do. For we have not received the gifts of God for ourselves only, or for to hide them; but for to bestow them unto the honouring of God and Christ, and edifying of the congregation, which is the body of Christ.