If not so perfectly, etc. . .This is not said with regard to the truth of the narration; but with regard to the style and manner of writing: which in the sacred penmen is not always the most accurate. See St. Paul, 2 Cor. 11.6.
15:40. For as it is hurtful to drink always wine, or always water, but pleasant to use sometimes the one, and sometimes the other: so if the speech be always nicely framed, it will not be grateful to the readers. But here it shall be ended.
APPENDICES
These texts come from the 1610 Doway printing of the second tome of the Old Testament (see the 'History' section at the top of the e-text). The primary sources provide a glimpse both into the history of the Douay- Rheims version and the English language itself. The reader will quickly notice that the letter 'j' does not appear in the texts, rather 'i' functions either as a vowel or a consonant. Likewise 'u' is not a distinct letter; it is employed typographically in the lower-case in place of 'v' where not starting a word. The letters 'u' and 'v' both function either as vowels or consonants. The word 'vniuersity' demonstrates this rule. The letter 'w' is often employed, but in some cases the earlier form of a double-v (vv) appears instead.
The transcriber has done his best to render the text accurately. Note the relaxed spelling standards of the time; many variants appear. While the errata section from the 1610 edition observed: "We haue also found some other faultes of lesse importance; and feare there be more. But we trust the reader may easely correct them, as they occurre." only obvious errors have been amended. Where the transcriber has doubt between whether an irregular spelling is either an error and a variant, the printed text stands. 7-bit ASCII cannot fully represent the typographical standards of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and many special characters have been replaced with modern equivalents. Where verse numbers stand in the margins of the printed texts, they have been transferred to the body; the verse numbers in the 'Prayer of Manasses' have been supplied from other versions. Reference notes have been transferred from the margins, and their abbreviations modernized.
ADDITIONAL BOOKS
The prayer of Manasses, vvith the third & fourth Bookes of Esdras, extant in most Latin and vulgare Bibles, are here placed after al the Canonical bookes, of the old Testament: because they are not receiued into the Canon of Diuine Scriptures by the Catholique Church.
THE PRAYER OF MANASSES KING OF IVDA, WHEN HE WAS HELD CAPTIVE IN BABYLON.
LORD omnipotent God of our fathers, Abraham, & Isaac, and Iacob, and of their iust sede, (2 Par 33:12) [2] which didst make heauen and earth: with al the ornamentes of them, [3] which hast bound the sea with the word of thy precept, which hast shut vp the depth, and sealed it with thy terrible and laudable name: [4] whom al thinges dread, & tremble at the countinance of thy powre, [5] because the magnificence of thy glorie is importable, & the wrath of thy threatning vpon sinners is intollerable: [6] but the mercie of thy promise is infinite and vnsearchable: [7] because thou art our Lord, most high, benigne, long suffering, and very merciful, and penitent vpon the wickednes of men. Thou Lord according to the multitude of thy goodnes hast promised penance, and remission to them that haue sinned to thee, and by the multitude of thy mercies thou hast decreed penance to sinners, vnto saluation. [8] Thou therfore Lord God of the iust, hast not appointed penance to the iust, Abraham, & Isaac and Iacob, them that haue not sinned to thee, but hast appointed penance for me a sinner: [9] because I haue sinned aboue the number of the sand of the sea. Myne iniquities Lord be multiplied, mine iniquities be multiplied, and I am not worthie to behold, & looke vpon the height of heauen, for the multitude of mine iniquities. [10] I am made crooked with manie a band of yron, that I can not lift vp my head, and I haue not respiration: because I haue stirred vp thy wrath, and haue done euil before thee: I haue not done thy wil, and thy commandmentes I haue not kept: I haue set vp abominations, and multiplied offenses. [11] And now I bowe the knee of my hart, beseeching goodnes of thee. [12] I haue sinned Lord, I haue sinned, & I acknowlege myne iniquities. [13] Wherefore I beseech disiring thee, forgeue me Lord, forgeue me: and destroy me not together with myne iniquities, neither reserue thou for euer, being angrie, euils for me, neither damme me into the lowest places of the earth: because thou art Lord, God, I say, of the penitent: [14] in me thou shalt shew al thy goodnes because thou shalt saue me vnworthie according to thy great mercie, [15] and I wil prayse thee alwayes al the dayes of my life: because al the power of the heauens prayseth thee, and to thee is glorie for euer and euer. Amen.