|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... |
Hand-typed, modernized, corrected, and annotated by William H. Gross.
由William H. Gross手工打字、现代化、校正和注释。
中文下载
Slight formatting changes have been made for readability. The terms, “thee, thine, hast,” etc.have been modernized; archaic and cumbersome syntax has been simplified; obsolete words and phrases have either been revised, or annotated.为了便于阅读，已对格式做了微小改动。”thee, thine, hast”等词已被现代化；古老和繁琐的句法已被简化；过时的词语和短语要么已被修订，要么已被注释。
To the Reader:
致读者：
Some years have now passed since it pleased divine providence to put a period to the life of Dr. William Ames, in whose death very many interested themselves, as no indifferent mourners.
自从神圣护理乐意为威廉·埃姆斯博士的生命画上句点以来，已经过去了几年，在他的死亡中，许多人都深切关注，绝非无动于衷的哀悼者。
Not only those who either, under the notion of scholars or friends, had become his familiars — but universally, all those who had been sensible of enjoying the fruits of his labours, and who were fervent lovers of sound literature, purity of heavenly doctrine, and godliness in sincerity of heart: knowing indeed that in Ames, the garden of learning had lost one of its choicest flowers, the fortress of truth one of its stoutest defenders, piety its most faithful favourite, the school a most able and reverent doctor, and studious youth their most diligent instructor.
不仅是那些以学者或朋友的名义成为他的熟人的人，而且普遍地，所有那些明智地享受他劳作成果的人，以及那些热爱纯正文学、天国教义之纯洁和真心实意之敬虔的人：他们确实知道，在埃姆斯身上，学问的花园失去了一朵最珍贵的花，真理的堡垒失去了一位最坚强的捍卫者，虔诚失去了它最忠实的爱好者，学校失去了一位最有能力和受人尊敬的博士，而勤奋的青年失去了他们最勤勉的导师。
That we have in him lost such a man, those who derived their streams of learning from his clear fountain, are undeniable witnesses.
我们在他身上失去了这样一个人，那些从他清澈的泉源汲取学问之流的人，是无可辩驳的见证。
In further testimony are his elabourate tracts in opposition to the idolatrous tyranny of popery, and the spreading gangrene of Arminianism, especially his Coronis, whereby he placed the Crown in conflict.
进一步的证明是他精心撰写的反对教皇制度偶像崇拜暴政和阿民念主义蔓延坏疽的著作，尤其是他的《Coronis》，通过它他使王冠置于冲突之中。
As also those things which he dedicated to both religion and piety, his Marrow of Divinity, his Cases of Conscience, Explication of the Psalms, Peter, etc.
同样还有他献给宗教和虔诚的著作，他的《神学精髓》、《良心案例》、《诗篇解析》、《彼得书注释》等。
And these, his Catechetical Commentaries, which indeed he intended for the private use of his scholars, upon whose entreaty he put them down.
以及这些，他的《要理问答注释》，这些确实是他本打算供他学生私人使用的，是应他们的请求而写下的。
But things so eminently conducive to the public were not to be confined to the narrower limits of private profit.
但如此显著有益于公众的事物不应局限于私人利益的狭窄范围内。
Among those diverse ways by which diverse [men] handle Catechetical Doctrine, this author thought fit above all to make use of this method: He takes out of the Word of God a text most apposite, resolves and explains it succinctly, then draws out examples containing doctrinal instructions, and lastly applies them to their several uses.
在各种人处理要理问答教义的不同方式中，这位作者认为最适合使用这种方法：他从神的话语中选取最贴切的经文，简明地解析和解释它，然后提取包含教义指导的例子，最后将它们应用于各自的用途。
If this disgusts some nicer palette, entreat him only little by little to remit that prejudiced opinion, which he can deduce from nothing but a slight perusal, and must upon a more settled introspection confess that in this piece Ames has most prudently chosen, and dexterously handled, the most plain and regular method for the preacher’s function, and Christian instruction.
如果这让一些更挑剔的口味感到不适，只需渐渐地请他放弃那种偏见，这种偏见只能从粗略阅读中推断出来，而在更深入的思考后，必须承认在这部作品中，埃姆斯已经最明智地选择，并巧妙地处理了对于传道人职能和基督教教导最为简明和规范的方法。
But if any should please themselves with any other method, they may with little pains, and exceeding profit, produce compliance between it and our Amesian System.
但如果有人喜欢任何其他方法，他们可以花很少的功夫，获得极大的收益，使其与我们的埃姆斯系统相协调。
The truth of this is sufficiently attested, not only by our own countrymen, but also by the Dutch, French, and others, among whose Catechistic Treatises this was and is [held] in no small esteem.
这一点的真实性不仅得到了我们同胞的充分证明，也得到了荷兰人、法国人和其他人的证明，在他们的要理问答著作中，这部作品过去和现在都受到不小的尊重。
I need not have taken this much pains to premise a Prefatory Epistle, when indeed I am not ignorant how the least knowing among us will conclude me but weak to suppose, that I might induce them to prize this piece by a second motive, when the title has already presented them with the name of Ames.
我本不必费这么大力气来前置一封前言，实际上我并非不知道，我们中间最无知的人会认为我很弱，以为我可能用第二个动机诱导他们珍视这部作品，而当标题已经向他们呈现了埃姆斯的名字。
But lest a total silence should bring this work at first sight to be questioned as spurious, I thought it not altogether unnecessary to usher it into the world with this short preface.
但为了避免完全的沉默使这作品乍看之下被质疑为伪作，我认为以这短序引导它问世并非完全不必要。
Farewell
告别
HT Onthewing.org
HT Onthewing.org