The following pages, it is presumed, will be found to possess one recommendation to many readers. They are removed, as far as it is possible to be, from what have been styled polemics. Jaded as the human mind has often been for the last three hundred years, and especially in Britain, with controversial divinity, it may be grateful to not a few, it is believed that there is no English edition at Stuttgard which is not to be found in the libraries of our native land. The Royal Library at Paris is not at all remarkable for editions of the English Scriptures. Into the once imperial city of WORMS, where our first English New Testaments appear to have been finished, and where a printing press was first set up, three hundred and thirty years ago, any man may now enter, and either reflect on the marriage of Charlemagne, or look on the few remaining fragments of the ancient imperial palace; he may visit the Cathedral or Dom Kirche, standing as it did; look into the little Jewish Synagogue, above eight hundred years old; or within a church at the market place, the site of the venerable Rathhaus, stand upon the ground which Luther trode when he appeared before the Emperor; but in reference to the printing office to which, only four years after, Tyndale had repaired, it was in vain to inquire for the street or the corner where Peter Schoeffer, or any other brother of the trade had once been so busy. Not one solitary printer was to be found at work throughout the city! COLOGNE, on the contrary, where Tyndale had commenced his New Testament at the press, exhibited a different aspect. Lately declared to be a free port, and now also to be reached by railway, it promises to rise to greater importance than ever before. It was indeed equally in vain to inquire for the quarter where Ulric Zell, Henry and Peter Quentel, or any other ancient printer, once plied their occupation, but their works were to be found there. In one repository was a catalogue of Bibles and Testaments (1843) such as is scarcely ever to be found with any bookseller in this country. Besides Polyglots, there were Bibles, or parts of the Scriptures, in twenty-seven different languages. In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, (in 240 articles,) Ethiopic, Arabic, Syriac, Persic, Armenian, and even Tamulian or Malabar. And of European languages, in Gothic, Finnish, Danish, Russ, Slavonic, Turkish, Polish, German, (in 236 articles,) Wendish, Hungarian, Bohemian, Swiss, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Belgian, and English. These, however, in general, were ancient, not modern, editions, but amounting to more than 800 articles of sale, in the Bibliotheca of J. M. HEBERLE. Here, also, the very rare tracts of Alexander Ales had been recently sold for a trifle, which altogether in this country have fetched above four guineas. if they can find another walk, in past times down to the present, of such a character as lies at the root of all that has ever existed under the name of Christianity within the kingdom; and so important as in vital connexion with its progress throughout the earth. If with the changing scenes through which the history will be found to pass, it had ever forfeited its original cast or character, there it might have terminated, and there it ought. But, on the contrary, as the continuation so singularly corresponds with the commencement, there was to be found no halting-place before the present day. It In point of time, the history of our English Scriptures, from the date of their first appearing in print, will be found to take precedence of all the Institutions, Establishments, or local interests, within our shores. The noble contest, so singularly commenced and conducted, was nearly decided before their origin; at least, the first brunt of the battle was over, and Divine truth had been so effectually sown and rooted in our native soil, that, from that early period, all the power of the enemy has been in vain. This, of itself, gives the story a preference, or a prior claim to consideration, before any other narrative in the form, or under the name, of religious history. Nor is this its only peculiarity. Ever since, the continuation will be found maintaining a higher place, describing a larger, and therefore a loftier circle, than that of any mere class or denomination whatever; embracing, without any interruption, the Christian community of Britain in its widest sense. will continue throughout as independent of all local interests, as it was before they had existence. That the history of the English Bible has never before been viewed in this light, is freely granted; nor had the author himself the slightest idea of this, its marked or distinguishing peculiarity, before he began. It is now the more worthy of notice, and may prove of some service, in different ways, beside that of promoting modesty of statement by any single community in Britain. No section of Christians, it will be seen, of whatever name, can possess any title to rank itself as having been essential, either to the progress or to the general prevalence of the English Scriptures, much less to their original introduction. This is an undertaking which has been uniformly conducted above their sphere of judgment. Should this general prevalence turn out to have been almost equally independent of the civil power, from Henry the Eighth down to Charles the Second, or rather to the present hour, it will form altogether by far the most singular fact, as such, in the annals of the kingdom. It is a feature in the history of our Bible, claiming supreme attention from the existing age. Upon the whole, the present forms a department in past history, with which every Minister of the truth, in English, ought to have been familiar long ago, nay, and every Parent throughout the kingdom. As it regards instruction, as well as ground for new reflections, it will be found to occupy a course or channel peculiar to itself. Perhaps the fifth book in our New Testament Scriptures, may in part explain its character. Men, indeed, have entitled that book "the Acts of the Apostles;" but it is in reality a history of the way and manner in which " the Word of the Lord grew and multiplied," -the Apostles themselves, whether as individuals or as a body, being treated in perfect subordination to the grand or leading design. In some faint resemblance to this manner, so ought the history of the Divine Word, in our native tongue, to have been attempted long since; leaving men and things, whether great characters or national events, in the subordinate places which have actually belonged to them. At the same time, such men and such events, viewed as they have now been, sometimes in contrast, and at other times in connexion with the progress of Divine Revelation itself, lend a peculiar zest or life to the entire narrative. Upon the characters of Henry VIII. and Wolsey, of Warham, Tunstal, or Sir Thomas. More, of Cranmer and Lord Crumwell, with many other men well known under all the subsequent reigns, certainly no such additional light could have been thrown, till they were brought into immediate contact or contrast with the printing or circulation of the Scriptures in our native tongue. Should the reader, therefore, at any time, wish to view only the progress of that unequalled conflict in our national history, which ended in the English Bible being given to Britain, and extends to the close of the first volume, he may do so, by following throughout the largest letter of the text; but if to understand also the existing state of the nation at the moment, or those circumstances which render that progress doubly striking, the smaller type must not be omitted. While thus proceeding from year to year, he will see how unavailing were all the efforts of human malignity; and how feeble a thing is human nature, though armed with power and pride, when striving to stem the progress of divine truth. In the midst of enemies, from the throne downwards, all along shewn to be so contemptible in themselves, when the moment fixed for victory has come, the reader will share in the triumphs of a conquest as perfect, as it seemed improbable. But even from the commencement, and down to our own times, or the close of the second volume, some such history has become positively essential to a just estimate of our present peculiar condition as a Nation, now by far the most responsible under heaven. It may, and it will furnish motives to action, such as can be drawn from no other retrospect. It forms a key, if not the only one, to our highest imperative obligations; and it may well be pondered, as the path by which Jehovah led our forefathers, in a way of his own devising, with more than "the pillar of a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night." In this view, the history, though never written before, and therefore not understood, can never be out of date. It involves the commencement and continuance of a Cause, which is but pursuing its course in our own day, not only to a wider extent, but with greater energy than ever before, and yet to be pursued with greater still. In conclusion, the author, it will be evident, is far from placing any reliance on the mere dispersion of Bibles, even by the million; but although no man can measure the consequences of the immutable standard of divine truth having been exhibited to the eye of this nation, the spirit of the age loudly demands, that the history of that exhibition should now be more accurately known. Once understood, it must be left to the judgment of every discerning reader, whether, at the present crisis, in such unparalleled possession of the Sacred Volume, British Christians can close their eyes with impunity on the existing state of other nations-the condition of a world. EDINBURGH, CONTENTS Brief survey of the ages which preceded any printing of the Scrip- tures in the English tongue-Including the revival and tri- umph of classical learning and the arts, contrasted with the times of Wickliffe, with his version of the entire Sacred Volume, and its effects-The invention of printing, its rapid progress to perfection, and the point to which the European nations, but more especially England and Scotland had been brought, before ever this invaluable art was applied to any version of HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. The New Testament in English preparing by Tyndale, for circu- lation in his native land; and in two editions from the press by |