moved by the Party; and he return'd the MS with Thanks, and defired it might be printed; for it had convinc'd him of his Miftakes. So far that Gentleman feems to have been in the Right, and to have acted like a fincere honeft Man. But I think that in Point of Honour and Conscience, he was obliged to go one Step farther; I mean, by an open Declaration and publick Recantation, to repair the Mischief he had done, to heal the Wounds he had given to the Church of England, to wreft those falfe Weapons from the Hands of its Enemies, to make a full Reparation to the Publick, and to undeceive thofe Readers, whom by his Name and great Authority, he had mifled in Points of fuch a Confequence as the Conftitution and Discipline of the Primitive Church: This is what, I conceive, in Honour he was obliged to perform. But though no Man fhould ever be afham'd to own himfelf in the Wrong, which is but faying, in other Words, that he is wifer Today than he was Yesterday; yet fuch is the Weakness of human Nature, fo fond are Men generally of their own Productions, that they are afham'd and unwilling to confefs their Errors, and to give up their Mistakes,

Et quæ olim fcripfere pudet delenda fateri.

I might now proceed to the Account which Plutarch has given of the Jews, who, I am forry to fay, has been as hard and fevere upon them, and with as little Justice and Reason, as thofe Authors I have already mention'd; and alfo to examine the earlier Writers who have treated of the Jews, and their Religion, as Cicero, Trogus Pompeius, and Strabo, who, as I have already obferved, have given fairer and

* See Thoughts of Dr. Swift and Mr. Pope,

more

more impartial Accounts than those who lived long after them, and had Opportunities of better Information. But as I fear this would run me into too great a Length, take up too much Room in your History, trefpafs too far upon the Patience of your Readers, and deprive them of Remarks much more curious and inftructive than my own, I propofe to refer them to another Month, together with fome Obfervations on a famous Paffage of Suetonius, relating to our Saviour and the Jews, which has occafioned fome Controverfy among the Learned.

1 am Sir, &c.

ARTICLE

II.

A Continuation of Mr. Lewis's Hiftory of the English Tranflations of the Bible.

IN

N our first Article on this Subject we brought down the History of the English Tranflations of the Bible to the Year 1541, which is the Date of the laft Edition thereof in the Reign of Henry VIII. About that Time his Zeal for the Reformation flackened, and the Popish Party regained the Afcendency over him. Accordingly, in the Parliament that met by Prorogation the twenty-fecond Day of January, 1542, an Act paffed, which, tho' it did not entirely deprive the Laity of the Scriptures, yet it impofed fuch Restrictions as did not come vaftly fhort of a Prohibition. Grafton, the King's Printer, was now likewife called to an Account for printing Matthews's Bible 1537. He was alfo examined about the Great Bible, and what Notes he intended to fet to it; and tho' he replied, that he added

C 4

added none to the Bible he printed, when he perceived the King and the Clergy not willing to have any, yet was he fent to the Fleet, from whence he was not releafed till fix Weeks after, on giving a Bond of three thousand Pounds, neither to imprint or fell any more English Bibles, till the King and the Clergy fhould agree upon a Translation; which the latter intended thould never come to pass.

But in the third Chapter of Mr. Lewis's Work, which we are now entering upon, and which treats Of the feveral Editions of the English Bible, &c. during the Reigns of King Edward VI, and Queen Mary, we find, that in the firft Parliament which met after King Edward's Acceffion to the Throne, the fore-mentioned Statute was repealed; and there was printed immediately after, in 1547, an Impreffion of the new Teftament in Latin and English: A Copy thereof is in St. Paul's Library, at the End of which is the enfuing Paragraph:

Thus endeth the Newe Teftament both in Englyfche and in Laten of Mayfter Erafmus Tranflacion, with the Pytles taken out of the Old Teftament. Set forth with the Kynge's most gracious Lycence, and imprynt-· ed by William Powell, dwellyng in Fleteftrete, at the Signe of the George next unto Saynt Dunstan's Churche., The Yere of our Lorde MccccC XLVII. and the fyrfte Yere of the Kynge's most gracyous Reygne. God fave the Kynge.

The Latin is printed in a mix'd Character, moftly Black, and fome Roman.

About the fame Time the King ordered a Royal Vifitation, in which were Injunctions given by him, as the fupreme Head of the Church of England, to all his Subjects, both Clergy and Laity, trictly commanding the former to fet up Bibles in the Churches, and the latter to read them: Every Parfon, Vicar, Curate, Chauntery Prieft, and Stipen

Stipendiary, being under the Degree of a Batchelor of Divinity, fhould have of his own the New Teftament both in Latin and English, with the Paraphrase of Erasmus.-This fame Year therefore, fays Mr. Lewis, was printed in English and Latin the New Teftament in Quarto. The English was of the Translation of the Great Bible, and the Latin of Erafmus's.-This great Man had made a Paraphrafe in Latin on the New Teftament, which Catharin Parr, after her Marriage with Henry VIII. procured to be tranflated into English. It was printed in two Parts at feveral Times: The first came out of the Prefs, the laft Day of Januarie, Anno Domini 1548, the fecond, on the Sixteenth of August, 1549. Erafmus had omitted the Revelations of St. John in his Verfion, but the Printer, Edward Whitchurch, in Order to make this Teftament compleat, procured Leo Jude's Paraphrafe on the Apocalypfe to be rendered into English out of the High-Dutch, and added to what Erafmus had done.

In 1548 was published in Octavo, an Edition of Tyndal's New Testament, with the following Title; The New Teftament of our Saviour Chrift, newly fet forth after the best Copie of William Tindale's Tranflation, whereunto are added the Notes of Thomas Matthew, wyth other healpynge verie much to the Understandynge of the Text. Imprinted at London, by John Daye and William Seres, dwelling in Sepulchre's Parish, &c.

In August, 1549, was finished at the Press a new Edition of Taverner's English Bible, with the enfuing Title: The Bible, that is to fay, all the Holy Scripture; in which are contained the Olde and New Teftament, truly and purely tranflated into English, and nowe lately with greate Industry and Diligence recognised.

Imprynted at London by Jhon Daye, dwelling at

Alder

Alderfgate; and William Seres dwelling in Peter College, &c.

Another Edition of this Bible in a fhort Folio was printed A. D. 1551.

The fame Year* was published a third Edition of the New Teftament in English, with the Latin of Erafmus.

In October of this Year 1549, was finished at the Prefs a new Edition of Matthews's Bible, with this Title: The Bible; whych is all the Holy Scripture: in whych are contayned the Old and Newe Teftament, truelye and purely tranflated into Englyfhe, by Thomas Mathewe, 1537. And now imprinted in the Yeere of our Lord M.D.XLIX. Imprinted at London by Thomas Raynolde and William Hyll, dwelling in Paule's Church Yard, &c.-In this Edition, Mr. Lewis fays, the former, of 1537, was revised, and the Notes altered; of which he has given a Specimen by a Collation of one of the Notes, as it ftands in the two Editions.

In December following was published another Edition of the Great Bible, as corrected 1541. It was printed by Edward Whitchurche. Some Time the fame Year, 1549, was printed another Edition of Matthews's Bible.

Next Year, 1550, was published another Edition of Coverdale's Tranflation of the Bible 1535, Folio. This was in Quarto, printed for Andrew Hefter in Paul's Churchyard. In this Edition, fays our Author, are the three Verfes in Pfalm xiv. viz. the 5th, 6th, and 7th, printed in the fame Letter with the others, but a marginal Note is added, intimating that they are not in the Hebrew.

Another Edition of this Bible was printed by Edward Whitchurch in Quarto this Year, and dedicated to Archbishop Cranmer.

The fame Year was printed in Octavo and *It is somewhat dubious whether 1551 or 1549 be here meant. Twelves,