of JAMES I. to the throne of England, some objections having been made to the Bishops' Bible, at the Conference held at Hampton Court in 1603, the King, in the following year, commanded a new version to be undertaken and fifty-four learned men were appointed to this important Jabour. The subjoined list

:

"Contains the names of the Translators, the places at which they were to assemble, and the portions assigned for translation to the respective companies but as there are only forty-seven mentioned in the lists given by FULLER and LEWIS, it is probable, either that seven were dead, or, that in the fifty-four were included the overseers to be appointed by the Universities.

'Westminster, 10. vis. DR. LANCELOT ANDREWS, DR. JOHN OVERALL, DR. ADRIAN A SARAVIA, DR. RICHARD CLARKE, DR. JOHN LAYFIELD, DR. TIGHE, (miscalled LEIGH,) MR. BURLeigh, Mr. King, MR. THOMPSON, MR. BEDWELL.-Pentateuch to the end of 2 Kings.

Cambridge, 8. MR. EDWARD Lively, DR. RICHARDSON, DR. CHADERTON, MR. DILLINGHAM, MR. HARRISON, MR. ANDREWS, MR. SPALDING, MR. BING. The rest of the Historical Books, and the Hagiographa, viz. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Canticles, Ecclesiastes.

Oxford, 7. DR. HARDING, DR. REYNOLDS, DR. HOLLAND, DR. KILBY, DR. MILES SMITH, MR. BRETT, MR. FARECLOWE.-The Four Greater Prophets, with the Lamentations, and Twelve Lesser Prophets.

Cambridge, 7. DR. DUPORT, DR. BRANTHWAITH, DR. RADCLIFFE, MR. WARD, Eman., MR. DOWNES, MR. BOYSE, MR. WARD, Reg.-The Prayer of Manasses, and the rest of the Apocrypha. 'Oxford 8. DR. THOMAS RAVIS, DR. GEORGE ABBOT, DR. EEDES, DR. GILES THOMPSON, MR. SAVILLE, DR. PERYN, Dr. Ravens, MR. JOHN HARMAR.-The Four Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and Apocalypse.

Westminster, 7. DR. WILLIAM BARLOW, DR. HUTCHINSON, DR. SPENCER, MR. FENTON, MR. RABBETT, MR. SANDERSON, MR. DAKINS.-The Epistles of St. Paul, and the Catholic Epistles.'

"The translation seems to have been begun in the spring of 1604, as it is said to have been retarded by the death of the great Orientalist, MR. EDWARD LIVELY, in 1605, whose active labours had materially assisted the work. When the whole was finished, three copies were sent to London; one from Cambridge, a second from Oxford, and a third from Westminster. Two of each company

were then selected to review and polish the translation; of whom those from Cambridge were, MR. JOHN BOYSE, and MR. ANDREW DOWNES. These, with their fellow-labourers, met daily in the Stationers'-Hall, London. lu nine months they completed their important task, and during that time received £30 weekly, from the Company of Stationers, having previously received nothing. Afterwards, DR. BILSON, Bishop of Winchester, and DR. MILES SMITH, again reviewed the whole, and and the latter was ordered to write the prefixed arguments to the several books; Preface. The first edition of this translation was printed at London, by ROBERT BARKER, in 1611, in folio." (Vol. iii. pp. 288-290.)

This is the version now in use, wherever the English language is spoken. Though its accuracy and fidelity have been impugned at vari ous times, (and in our days with equal virulence and ignorance,) critics competent to pronounce on these subjects have delivered their judg ments most decidedly in its favour: and indeed, says DR. GEDDES, (as quoted by MR. TOWNLEY,)

If accuracy, fidelity, and the strictest attention to the letter of the text, be supposed to constitute the qualities of an excellent version, this of all versions must, in general, be accounted the most excellent. Every sentence, every word, every syllable, every letter and point, seem to have been weighed with the nicest exactitude, and expressed, either in the text or margin, with the greatest precision." (Vol. iii. p. 290.)

Though no new English transla tion has been made by royal command since the time of JAMES I., several circumstances have occurred, which prove the care taken to preserve the version from being corrupted, or becoming obsolete.

"In 1632, BARKER and LUCAS, the King's Printers, printed an edition of the Bible of 1000 copies, in which a serious mistake was made by leaving out the word not in the Seventh Commandment, causing it to be read Thou shalt commit adultery.' His Majesty King CHARLES I., being made acquainted with it by DR. WILLIAM LAUD, Bishop of London, order was given for calling the printers into the high-commission, where, upon the fact being proved, the whole impression was called in, and the printers heavily fined. With this fine, or a part of it, a fount of fair Greek types and matrices were provided, for publishing such MSS. as might be pre

pared, and should be judged worthy of publication." (Vol. iii. pp. 318, 319.)

"In 1638, another error, of less moment, indeed, than that for which the fine was imposed, but rendered important by the disputes between the independents and episcopaliaus, appeared in an edition of the Bible printed at Cambridge, by BUCK and DANIEL. This was the alteration of the word we into ye, in Acts vi. 3. The error was continued in several editions, till 1685, when it was corrected." (Vol. iii. pp. 321, 322.)

These mistakes, however, were not confined to the earlier editions. DR. COTTON, in his List already cited, has observed that the beautiful folio Bible, printed by BASKETT at Oxford, in 1717, is commonly termed the Vinegar-Bible, from an error in the running-title of Luke xxii., where we read "the Parable of the VINEGAR," instead of the VINEYARD; in the Oxford Bible, of 1792, PHILIP is named in Luke xxii. 34, instead of PETER, as the disciple who should deny CHRIST; and in the octavo Oxford Bible, of 1811, we have the following unpardonable blunder in Isa. lvii. 12, "I will declare thy righteousness and thy works, for they SHALL profit thee,' instead of "they shall NOT profit

thee!"

"In 1677, a Bible was printed by HAYES, at Cambridge, with many references added to the first edition; and in 1678, a Bible also was printed at Cambridge, with still more references, the labour of DR. SCATTERGOOD, Rector of Wilwick and Elverton, in Northamptonshire, and one of the compilers of the Critici Sacri. A new edition of the Bible, in folio, was printed at London, in 1701, with a great addition of parallel texts, and a new chronological index, by DR. TENISON, Archbishop of Canterbury, and DR. LLOYD, Bishop of Worcester. To this edition were added Bishop CUMBERLAND's Tables of Scripture-measures, weights, and coins. DRS. TENISON and LLOYD transmitted the additional parallels, &c., to the printer, bat did not correct the press; the edition, therefore, was so full of typographical errors, that when it appeared, a complaint was exhibited against the printers, by the Clergy of the Lower House of Convocation, A. D. 1703. The printers continuing to print the Bible carelessly, with a defective type, on bad paper, and when printed, to sell them at an exorbitant price, his Majesty GEORGE I. issued the following order to

the patentees, dated Whitehall, 24th April, 1724:1. That all Bibles printed by them hereafter, shall be printed upon as good paper, at least, as the specimens they had exhibited.'

2. That they forthwith deliver four copies of the same specimens to be deposited and kept in the two Secretaries' offices, and in the public registries of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London, to the end recourse may be had to them.'

3. That they shall employ such correctors of the press, and allow them such salaries, as shall be approved from terbury, and Bishop of London, for the time to time, by the Archbishop of Cantime being.'

4. That the said patentees for printing Bibles, &c., do print in the title-page of each book the exact price at which such book is by them to be sold to the

booksellers.'

"The most complete revision of the authorized version of the English Bible, JAMES I., was made in 1769, by DR. since its translation in the reign of BENJ. BLAYNEY, Rector of Polshott, in Wiltshire, and afterwards Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Oxford, under the direction of the ViceChancellor and Delegates of that University. In this edition, 1. The punctu ation was thoroughly revised; 2. The and corrected by the Hebrew and Greek words printed in Italics were examined originals; 3. The etymology of which allusions are made proper names, to the in the text, were translated, and entered in the margin; 4. The heads and runningtitles were corrected; 5. Some material errors in the chronology were rectified; and, 6. The marginal references were reexamined, corrected, and their number greatly increased." (Vol. iii. pp. 322, 323.)

This has generally been considered as the standard edition of the English Bible, to which all editions since 1769 have been made conformable: yet even this edition must yield the palm of correctness to those published by the King's Printer in London, in 1806 and 1813, of which an interesting account is given in the second volume of MR. HORNE'S Introduction to the Critical Study of the Scriptures. To the information there given, we may add, from a Correspondent in America, that the Protestant Episcopal Church in that country, at their triennial Convention held at Philadelphia in 1820, established these editions as the standards whence future impressions of the

for this purpose, they crossed it with
their hand, and then thus blessed it:
"Hallowed be thou Vervain,

As thou growest on the ground,
For in the mount of Calvary
There thou wast first found.

Thou healedst our SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST,

And staunchedst his bleeding wound:

"In the name of the FATHER, the SoN,

and the HOLY GHOST, I take thee from the ground.'

"DR. JOHN WHITE, Vicar of Eccles, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, adduces other instances of the ignorance which reigned among the members of the Church of Rome. My selfe,' says he, continued many yeers in a parish, where there were not a few recusants; and in all the number, I did not in the time, though I made trial of many, find one that could say or pronounce these things in the English tongue, unless he were (which few were) booke learned. Among many other, I came to an aged woman's house, and desiring her to repeat unto me the Creed; shee said it in fustian Latin, [as expressed above,] and essaying to teach it her in English, she answered, that seeing her Latin Creed had served her turne to this age, she would now learne no newe.

And

rule over it are as averse as ever to the unrestricted use of the Scriptures. This fact is confirmed by various documents which MR. ToWNLEY has obtained from some of the superior clergy of that communion: and the denunciations of the Papal Bulls against the British and Foreign Bible Society sufficiently attest the enmity that still animates the Roman See against the unfettered circulation of the Word of God. These attempts, however, have hitherto proved fruitless, in this country; and on the Continent they have not produced much effect. While one part of the Protestant Church there is falling into an indifferency bordering on infidelity, an outpouring of the SPIRIT has taken place in other parts; and many pious Catholics are zealously circulating the Word of Life, regardless of Papal anathemas.

On the state of religion on the Continent we are in possession of some interesting facts, which, at no distant interval, we hope to lay before our readers.

We bere terminate our notice of MR. TOWNLEY'S labours. The extracts we have given will convey some idea of the magnitude and extent of his researches; which, after all, can only be fully appreciated by those who have been engaged in similar pursuits. While the number and variety of the anecdotes, contained in these volumes, are frequently of such a nature as to call forth the devout gratitude of the christian reader, the general information which they present, relative to the literary history of the Bible, is so various and well selected, as to give them a claim to a place in every Biblical Library.

and Son.-To such as feel an interest in the advancement, of sound theological knowledge, it must be highly gratifying to find so many modern reprints of the

writings of our old Divines. Several of these it has been our lot to announce; and we have particular satisfaction in adding to the number the work of BISHOP PEARSON on the Creed. This neat and very convenient Edition of that invaluable Body of Divinity has been carefully collated with the best folio copies; and the quotations and notes have been accurately examined. For the purpose of more distinct and easy reference, they are subjoined at the foot of each page, instead of being placed in the margin, as in the early editions, or printed in a separate volume, as in some other octavo editions. This is unquestionably an important improvement. Two copious Indices of Texts and of Principal Subjects are judiciously appended. Few of our readers can need to be informed that this is one of those standard books, without which any religious Library must be considered as materially deficient. It is equally valuable to common readers, and to those who are able to avail themselves of the learned lore of theological science. "The body of it," as the Author very truly states in his Preface," containeth fully what can be delivered and made intelligible in the English Tongue, without the least sentence of any learned language; " while the Notes" contain whatever is necessary for illustration to them who have knowledge of the original languages, of the writings of the ancient Fathers, the doctrines of the Jews, and the history of the Church, those great advantages towards a right perception of the Christian Religion."-To the Methodists it will be a strong recommendation of this work, that MR. WESLEY, long ago, charged the Preachers in his Connexion to read it with much prayer." (See Minutes of Conference for 1744; vol. i. p. 16.) Indeed he repeatedly availed himself of BISHOP PEARSON'S authority and arguments in his own controversial writings, particularly in his Appeals, and in his Answer to BISHOP WARBURTON on the Operations of the HOLY SPIRIT; in which he declares that PEARSON was "in no ways inferior to CHRYSOSTOM," and calls him as learned and orthodox a Divine as England ever bred." Letters on the Evidence, Doctrines, and Duties of the Christian Religion: By OLINTHUS GREGORY, LL.D., Professor of Mathematics in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. 4th Ed., with Corrections and Additions. 2 vols. 8vo. 148.

It is encouraging to find that a work so replete with evangelical truth and piety, as DR. GREGORY's Letters, continues to be so much in request with the public as to make a fourth Edition necessary.

The Preacher, or Sketches of Original Sermons, chiefly selected from the Manuscripts of two eminent Divines of the last Century, for the use of Lay Preachers and Young Ministers: to which is prefixed, a Familiar Essay on the Composition of a Sermon. 12mo. Vol. I. pp. 252, Vol. II. pp. 246, 4s. each vol.-We have already had occasion, in taking notice of a similar work, (similar in its nature, and partly so in its title, though in reality quite a distinct publication,) to express our opinion that such Books " may be of service, when used judiciously, as helps to pulpit-preparation and not as substitutes for it." (Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, May, 1822, p. 316.) Each of these volumes contains about forty-four Abstracts or Outlines of Sermons. Some of them, and especially a considerable number of those in which passages of the Old Testament are made the subjects of practical remark and improvement, possess more than ordinary excellence; most of them are sound, judicious, and instructive ;-a few appear to us to exhibit too much of that wire-drawing, and excessive multiplication of topics, which weaken the effect of a discourse, and procure for the Preacher the too quaint and contemptuous, yet expressive, appellation of a mere spin-tert. These the Editor ought, in justice to the departed Authors, to have left in the state of MSS., in which he found them. It is a sacred duty towards the venerable dead, not to give posthumous publicity to every scrap of sermonizing composition, found among their Papers, however rude and incipient the sketch, or manifestly unfinished and imperfect the execution. In general, however, the contents of these volumes are such as it was laudable to rescue from oblivion; and they may be very profitably consulted by those for whose use they are designed. To many young and unpractised Preachers, they will furnish occasional hints of much value, which they may follow out to greater