On the Petition etc.

that he would himself take the trouble to check the pointed out places in the Book itself; so that he knows how a word or speech fits there, and how faithfully or not the same have been extracted by the Deputies. For to write everything out here now would make the work too long; and then still leave the Reader in doubt whether some trick in shortening or lengthening might have been practiced by me. The Petition continues as follows.

He speaks quite irreverently of the Holy Prophets and Apostles, letter A, and no less irreverently of our supreme master Christ himself, letter B.

Meanwhile the Scripture says that the Angels are Spirits, when it calls them ministering Spirits. Hebrews 1:14. But from David's words Psalm 104:4, that is [not] so easily to be proven as one thinks ---- without that, it agrees most closely with the entire content of the Psalm, that one may understand this verse of the Wind, and the Fire of the thunder-lightning. For the thread of the speech is applied to God's wonder-works in the natural course of Heaven -----. So that God's works in the Air, on the Earth, in the Sea are the continuous subject of this Song of Praise. For this reason I would easily depart from all translations, if Paul did not hold me to it.

See there, Reader, the proof of my irreverence regarding the Holy Prophets and Apostles. But from which of these words shall that now be squeezed? For as far as I am concerned, I pray, do read in my Book this broken-off speech in full; and you shall well see what I mean to say therein: namely that that text speaks of the Angels, as Paul takes it: but without that, one would translate David's words differently. David a Prophet and the Apostle Paul are compared together, and the latter as interpreter of the former is placed above all translations. Is it then irreverence to the Prophet David, that I take an Apostle as his interpreter; or to the Apostle Paul, that I place him above all translators? Or have the men perhaps misplaced themselves here, that they should have placed it a little further under the letter C, as proof that I tax criticize or find fault with the Translations? For to want to depart from all Translations for a Paul,