perly underflood, they will be found to agree; fo that, taking for his model and following the footsteps of the apoftles, who produced their prophetical teftimonies and evidence both from the Hebrew and from the Septuagint; therefore, fays he, I have thought it the beft method to make ufe of both, because they are both as one, and equally divine.

• Morinus, who is on the fame fide, allows, however, of a few exceptions.

"Open," fays he, "the volume of the New Testament, and after that the Septuagint Bible as well as the Hebrew Bible and take your chance of the first paffage that shall occur, and compare it with the Greek and with the Hebrew text, and you will find exactly the fame words in the Septuagint tranflation which appear in the text of the apoftle. Ipfiffima verba in Septuaginta tranflatione quæ in apoitolico textu deprehendes. But, fays he, if any paffage happens to vary from the Greek text, the variation is ftill greater from the Hebrew, except about three or four paffages, which equally differ both from the Greek and Hebrew text; and there is about the fame number, which are mentioned as quotations, and yet which are not to be found either in the Greek or Hebrew." But at last he concludes with this remarkable obfervation, "That out of the innumerable paffages which are quoted in the New Tellament from the Old, there is not above one, or at most two, to be found, which agree with the Hebrew and not with the Greek tranflation; and that this was occafioned by a small mistake in the interpreters reading the original Hebrew word as having a fingle letter more than was in the true reading of the text.'

But St. Jerome, who is the great patron and fupporter of the oppofite opinion, infifts, "that though the writers of the New Teftament do most frequently give their quotations from the Old Testament copied from the Septuagint translation; yet that they now and then give it in words that are more literally tranflated from the Hebrew, and more particularly in thofe paffages where the Septuagint tranflation has varied in the meaning confiderably from the original Hebrew text."

For the proof of this pofition, St. Jerome has felected ten different paffages in the New Teftament, quoted from the Old Teftament, and which are not taken from the Septuagint. Four of the paffages are in the Gospel of St. Matthew, two of them in the Gospel of St. John, two of them from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, and the last two are from the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians.'

Thefe ten paffages or texts, together with thofe on which Capellus has founded his objections, and fome others, which are apparently directed against the authenticity of the Septuagint, are all particularly confidered by Dr. Blair; and his conclufions from them, in favour of this Greek tranflation, are fupported with ingenuity and candour.

The

The author's intention was next to give a critical examination of the different books of the New Teftament, as they ftand at prefent in the canon of our church. But he has left behind him only a Fragment on this fubject, of about forty pages. In this, after fettling the title of the New Teftament, which he makes to comprehend the two ideas of a covenant and a bequest, and explaining the meaning of the word Gospel, he proceeds to the difcuffion of what particularly relates to that of St. Matthew, who, he fays, is admitted, by the best authorities, to have written it at Jerufalem, for the use of the Jews in Palestine who were converted to Chriftianity, and that in the thirty-ninth year of the vulgar æra of the birth of Christ, though there are fome who place it two years later.' St. Matthew is hence concluded to have written before the other evangelifts, and may be compared, fays the author, to the fainter light of the dawn that ferves to usher in the greater fplendor and increafing brightness of the noon-day. Then follows a difcuffion of the question-in what language was the Gofpel of St. Matthew originally compofed? After fome difplay of learning, Dr. Blair concludes, that the stronger arguments feem to prove the hypothefis of the prefent Greek copy being the true original of St. Matthew's Gofpel.

The Hebraifms, difcovered in St. Matthew, and in almost every chapter of the Gofpel and Epiftles of the New Teftament, are in the next place accounted for, and several examples of them adduced. Thefe lead Dr. Blair to an examination of the opinion of Daniel Heinfius, and other learned men, who diftinguished those who wrote and fpoke the fame fpecies of Greek language that was made ufe of in the books of the New Teftament by the name of Gens Helleniftarum, a nation of Hellenists; and afferting that the language itself was the Helleniftic dialect, which was well known both in the Leffer Afia, and all over the Eaft, blending and mixing the Hebrew with the Greek language, and that it differed as much from the common language as the modern Italian language does from the ancient Latin.' But Dr. Blair clofes with the opinion of Salmafius, who refuted the above hypothesis, and will not allow that the Jews of the difperfion, i. e. the people, who in different countries fpoke the dialect in queftion, were to be confidered by themselves as a diftinct and feparate nation, or that the language they used was to be claffed as a new dialect of the Greek tongue, under the title of Lingua Hellenistica.

There is nothing in the few remaining paffages of this fragment of fufficient importance to claim our notice.

The

The Holy Bible. Containing the Books of the Old and New Teftament, and the Apocrypha, &c. By Thomas Wilfon, D. D. Bishop of Sodor and Man. (Concluded from Vol. Ixii. p. 174.) Having promifed, in our former article on this work, an

extract from the biographical part of the learned editor's Preface, and a specimen of bishop Wilfon's Notes, we do not think we fhall fulfil the first object of our engagement difagreeably to our readers, in giving them Mr. Crattwell's account of William Tyndal, who printed the first edition of his New Teftament in the year 1526.

• William Tyndal, or Tindale, or Tindall, otherwife Hitchins, was born fomewhere in Wales; and being bred to learning, was placed in Magdalen Hall, in Oxford, where now remains an original picture of him. Here he took his degrees, and read lectures privately in divinity to feveral of the students of that hall, and fellows of the adjoining college. His manners and conversation, fays Fox, were fuch, that all who knew him reputed and esteemed him to be a man of most virtuous difpofition, and life unfpotted. Wood fays he was expelled for his Lutheran tenets; and whether he took any degree in that aniversity does not appear.

From Oxford he removed to Cambridge, whence, after fome itay, he went to Little Sodbury, in Gloucestershire, where he was entertained in the family of fir John Welch, as tutor to his children. But being fufpected of herefy by the neighbouring clergy, with whom he had fometimes difputes about reli gion, and being by them threatened and perfecuted in the ecclefiaftical courts, he, with the confent of fir John, left the family, and went to London, where he for fome time preached in the church of St. Dunstan's in the Weft. Here he obtained the recommendation of fir Henry Guildford, master of the horfe, to Dr. Cuthbert Tonital, bishop of London, to whom he prefented an oration of Ifocrates, tranflated by himself out of the Greek, with an epistle to the bishop, which he wrote by the advice of fir Henry. But the bishop's answer was, that his houfe was full; that he had more than he could provide for; and advised him to seek out in London, where he could not fail of employment. Not being able to obtain any, he was fupported by Mr. Humphry Monmouth, a draper and alderman of London, a favourer of Luther's opinions; with whom he abode half a year, behaving in the most fober and temperate manner; studying night and day, and bending his thoughts towards the tranflation of the New Teftament into English. But being fenfible of the hazard he would run by printing it in England, he refolved to go into Germany, as a place of greater fecurity and more liberty. And this he was better enabled to do by the affiftance of his friend Mr. Monmouth, who gave him an an

nuity of ten pounds a year, then a fufficient maintenance for a fingle man, and as much as Tyndal defired. At his first leaving England he went as far as Saxony, where he conferred with Luther, and other eminent reformers. From thence he returned, and fettled at Antwerp, where was at that time a considerable factory of English merchants, many of which were zealous profeffors of Luther's doctrine. Here he immediately fet himfelf about his favourite work, the English translation of the New Teftament, in which he had the affiftance of John Fry, (or Frith), and a friar named William Roye, who wrote for him, and helped him to compare the texts together; and in the year 1526, it was printed in octavo, without a name, with an epistle at the end, wherein he defired them that were learned to amend if ought were found amifs. This edition is very fcarce for foon after its first appearance, the bishop of London, being at Antwerp, defired Auguftus Packington, an English merchant, to buy up all the copies that remained unfold; and on the bishop's return, they, with many other books, were burned at Paul's crofs. This, Dr. Jortin, in his Life of Erafmus, thinks was done by the bishop to ferve Tindal; however that be, the fale of thefe copies put a good fum of money into Tyndal's pocket, and enabled him to prepare another edition for the prefs, more correct than the former, which, however, was not printed till 1534, he being probably hindered by his avocations as clerk to the English merchants, in which capacity he was received on his firft going to Antwerp.

From the first edition five thousand copies were re-printed by the Dutch printers in 1527, 1528, and in 1530; but all these editions are reprefented to be exceedingly incorrect. In 1534, the Dutch printed the fifth edition, corrected by George Joye, who not only corrected the typographical errors, but ventured to alter and amend, as he thought, the tranflation; and foon after the fecond edition, by Tyndal himself, appeared, in which he complains of Joye's foreftalling him, and altering his tranflation.

Befides purchafing the copies at Antwerp, other means were tried orders and monitions were iffued by the archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishop of London, to bring in all the New Teftaments tranflated into the vulgar tongue, that they might be burned, and to prohibit the reading of them.

His brother John Tyndal was profecuted, and fentenced to do penance: his patron, alderman Monmouth, was imprifoned, and almoft ruined.

In 1531, king Henry VIII. ordered all the books containing feveral errors, &c. with the tranflation of the Scriptures corrupted by William Tyndal, as well in the Old Teftament as in the New, to be utterly expelled, rejected, and put away out of the hands of his people, and not to go abroad among his fubjects: a proclamation was iffued to the fame purpose.

Tyn

Tyndal's tranflation of the Pentateuch was printed at Marlborough, in Heffe, the year before, and that of Jonah, this year. Some are of opinion thefe were all he tranflated, and Fox mentions no more; but Hall and Bale, his contemporaries, fay, that he likewife tranflated Joshua, &c. to Nehemiah; which, unless Matthew's be fo far a new tranflation, is moft probable. Fuller prefumes, that he tranflated the Old Teftament out of the Latin, as his friends allowed him not to have any kill in Hebrew: but in this he might be mistaken. He finished his tranflation of the Pentateuch in the year 1528; but going by fea to Hamburgh, he fuffered fhipwreck, with the lofs of all his books, papers, &c. fo that he was obliged to begin the whole again.

It is neither the editor's wifh, nor his duty, to give characters of perfons, or reafons of things, knowing how very precarious every thing must be, and how little probability of obtaining proof of truth; but we may be altonifhed that the priefts and bishops of the Romish church fhould fo violently oppofe a tranflation of the Scriptures into the language of the country, and which alone could be understood by the community at large for as to the learning of the clergy, fecular and regular, there certainly is not fufficient evidence to prove it was defpicable, as fome would make us believe; and the number of learned men at the very time, whofe names have defcended to pofterity, is a contradiction to the affertion.

The pride, the ignorance, and the rapacity of the church is now, and ever has been, the opprobrium of ill-difpofed minds; and in the violence of controverfy, it has been more ufual to blacken the character of the adverfary than to preferve one's own. Whatever the purity of the church, or the morals of the clergy may be, let us have facrilegious tyrants for our kings, and we shall have greedy and facrilegious courtiers ready enough to rend the pittance that remains; and who, in fpite of religion, true or falfe, will be glad to enrich themfelves though they impoverish a ftate; being like thofe men of corrupt minds, who, in the language of St. Paul, fuppofe, that "gain is godliness."

That the clergy were against the tranflation of Tyndal is evident, perhaps prompted thereto by the prologues rather than by the text, which they declared were full of herefy, as the tranflation was full of faults. Sir Thomas More objects not to the Scriptures being tranflated, and produces inftances that they had been tranflated before: he proclaims Tyndal's tranflation as erroneous, though the principal evidence he brings is a play upon words of small confequence, and, except in matters relating to church government, perhaps of no confequence at all. Tyndal himself, in a letter to John Frith, written January 1583, fays, "I call God to record against the day we shall ap pear before our Lord Jefus, to give a reckoning of our doings, that I never altered one fyllable of God's word against my confcience;

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