Verses by numerical Figures. This Circumstance, adminifters our Author an Occafion of enquiring into the Date of this Practice, which has fo generally if not univerfally obtained; who introduced it, and what Alterations and Improvements have from Time to Time been made therein. He then tells us, A fecond Edition of this Teftament, printed at Geneva, with fhort marginal Notes, in the fame Volume, was published three Years after, 1560.

We are now at the End of the third Chapter of our Hiftory, which the learned and diligent Author clofes with an Intimation of Mr. Strype, That the Teftament laft mentioned was only the English Tranflation revised and corrected; and that as they had finished the New Tefta"ment, they proceeded to revife the Old, which "they having not made an End of at Queen Eli"zabeth's Acceffion to the Crown, fome of "the Undertakers [viz. of the fix above "named] staid at Geneva to finish it, and that ac"cordingly the whole Bible was there printed 1560, "Quarto, by Rowland Hall, with an Epiftle to "the Queen, and another to the Reader, which, "by Mistake, are left out in the after Editions "of this Bible." But this Verfion we shall have Occafion to mention hereafter, in the fourth Chapter, to which we now proceed, and which comprehends the Hiftory Of the feveral Editions of the English Bible and Teftament in Queen Elizabeth's Reign.

After an Introduction, in which we discover the Difpofition of the new Queen, the Temper of the better Part of the Nation, and the State of Religion at the Commencement of that glorious Period whereon we are now entering, our Author obferves, That notwithstanding the Encouragement there was, for reading and printing the Scriptures; yet

there

there was not, as he finds, any new Edition of the English Bible or Teftament till three Years after Queen Mary's Death, viz. 1562, which, as he fays, affords fome Prefumption, that whatever Difcouragement the English Bible might meet with in the late Reign, the printed Copies of it were not burnt and deftroyed as they had been in King Henry VIIIth's; tho' by the Queen's Articles of Inquiry, exhibited at her Royal Visitation, it is intimated, that fome Books of Holy Scripture were delivered to be burnt, or otherwife deftroyed. However this be, as he adds, there was this Year another Edition, in Folio, of the Great Bible, with the following Title: The Bible in Englyfhe, that is to fay, the Contentes of all the Holy Scriptures both of the Olde and Newe Teftament, according to the Tranflation that is appointed to be read in Churches. Imprinted at London, in White-Croffe-Street, by Richard Harryfon, An. Dom. 1562.

It is the Custom with Mr. Lewis, when he defcribes an Edition of the whole Bible, to recite the Titles prefixed both to the Old Teftament and the New, as alfo to specify the Divifions and Appendages of each. All this is of Ufe, and pleafing to a Reader, rendering his Work instructive and very curious. But in this Synopfis, which is intended only for a Taste, whereby those who peruse it may guess what Entertainment the Original will afford them, no fuch Thing is to be expected. But I give this Notice, as I have others of the like Sort in the former Article upon this Work, that I might not depreciate the Idea that ought to be formed of it, by the neceffary Omiffions of my Abstract. I return to the Hiftory, whereof all the effential Facts are registered in this Compendium, in the fame Order as they are exhibited by our Author, but ftripp'd of almoft all thofe Particulars with which he illuftrates and adorns them.

Four Years after the last mentioned, was another very fine and pompous Edition of this Bible, in a large black Letter, and on a Royal Paper, with this Title:

The Bible in Englyfhe of the largest and greatest Volume: That is to faye, the Contentes of all the Holye Scripture both of the Oulde and Newe Teftament. According to the Translation appointed by the Queene's Majeftie's Injunctions, to be read in allChurches within ber Majeftie's Realme. At Rouen. At the Coft and Charges of Richard Carmarden. Cum Privilegio. 1566.

Two Years after was another Edition of this Bible, in Quarto, imprinted at London, in Paule's Church Yarde, by Richard Jugge and John Cawood, Printers to the Queene's Majefty, 1568. The Title has nothing fingular in it.

Mr. Lewis thinks there was a New Testament printed alone about this Time, of which he fupposes he has one, in Quarto, the Title wanting. Throughout the Gofpels and the Revelation are interfperfed large wooden Cuts, as in the Editions 1551, 1553. He remarks, that in these two last mentioned Editions, the Text 1 John v. For there are three which beare Record in Heaven, &c. is printed in the fame Letter with the other Texts. He tells us likewife, that in Mr. Thoresby's Musœum is, the New Teftament in English, in Octavo, the Tables, Maps, and Notes, as in Jugge's Quarto Edition. The Almanack for thirty-four Years commenceth 1561.

Befides thefe Editions, there was printed in a fmall English Letter, in Quarto, an Edition of the Great Bible, as it was printed 1541, without any Notes or Contents of Chapters, only in the Margin are fome parallel Texts, and the Capital Letters of the Alphabet, A, B, C. The Copy which our Author faw is fo imperfect, as that there is no Name of the Printer, or any Thing to be found of

the

the Place or Date of the Printing; only, by fome oblique Strokes which are used inftead of Commas, one would guess it, he fays, to be fome Foreign Edition and from its being faid at the End, that the Table is to find the Epistles and Gofpels ufually read in the Church, according unto the Book of Common Prayer, it is plain, that it was printed fome Time in the Reign of King Edward VI. or Queen Elizabeth.

The New Teftament alone, of Tyndal's Tranf lation, was printed in Octavo, some Time after 1537, when the Bible, called Thomas Matthews's was published; for this Copy has no Date, only at the End it is faid to be imprinted at London, by William Seres, dwelling at the Weft-end of Paule's Church-yard, at the Sign of the Hedge-hogge.

Thefe, Mr. Lewis fays, are all the most remarkable Editions of the Bible and New Teftament alone of this Tranflation and Revifion, that he has either feen or heard of. He adds,

That it commonly paffes for current, that the Old and New Teftament were tranflated by Tyndal and Coverdale, and the Apocrypha by John Rogers. But it is plain, as he goes on, that the Apocrypha in Matthews's Bible is of the fame Tranflation with that in Coverdale's; and that Coverdale gives not the Hint of any one's affifting him in his Tranflation, but always fpeaks of it as entirely his own.

After a few Particulars of the Life of the faid John Rogers, Mr. Lewis fpends two or three Pages in critical Remarks, which are very inftructing, relating to the Tranflators and Verfion of the English Pfalter in our Liturgy; as likewise of the Epiftles, Gofpels, Hymns, and other Portions thereof. Thefe introduce fome others on the Errors and Inaccuracies that have been objected to the Translation of the Bible by Tyndal and CoverD 2

dale,

dale, revifed by Archbishop Cranmer. He cites between thirty and forty Paffages that have been cenfur'd, fufficient, as he fays, to fhew what forts of Faults were found with it; of which, however, one may, he thinks, venture to fay, there never was one more entirely English. As to the Typographical Errors, they have been accounted for, by Tyndal's Tranflation having fo many Editions abroad, printed by Foreigners, who understood not a Word of the Language.

Mention has been already made of a Translation of the Bible into English by fome Refugees who fled to Geneva in the late Reign, that was finished in 1560, and there printed in Quarto, by Rowland Harle. That Impreffion being fold off, the Proprietors of it (among whom was one John Bodleigh) had it carefully reviewed and corrected, in order for another Edition. This Review they had compleated about the Beginning of March, 1565, when Bodleigh applied himself to Secretary Cecil for the Royal License to reprint it. Cecil hereupon referred him to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, being unwilling to give him any Encouragement therein without their Advice, because of their intending themfelves, fpeedily, to publifh an English Tranflation of their own providing. Upon this the Archbishop wrote to the Secretary, expreffing not only his and his Brother of London's Confent to, but their hearty Approbation of, Bodleigh's Defign, and praying his Lordfhip with all his Power to promote it. How long after this it was before it was finish'd, our Author cannot tell. Mr. Strype, he fays, names an Edition of 1576, and a learned Friend of his own, one of 1570, and 1575. The firft Mr. Lewis has seen printed in a large Quarto, 1576, of which fome Mention will be made hereafter. What he now proceeds to, is an Account of PARKER'S, or the BISHOPS BIBLE.