wards. He came, and stooping over her begged her to forgive all the manner in which he had disturbed her life. I think and I hope for the sake of her soul that she had repented then at last, but she was on the point of death at that minute, her eyes turned gently and sorrowfully up on him, then she gave one heavy sigh and her breath was gone for ever. It was a sorrowful time after that, for the grief of Miss Maria was beyond all I ever saw a child show for a parent. From all I had heard I learned that Mrs. Boyle was an English lady of considerable rank as compared with her husband, who was of low origin. She had fallen in love with him for his beauty, and made a runaway match when she was only sixteen years old. He was a very young man too, and handsome, but a profligate character. Her relations disowned her at first altogether, and her husband soon ill-treated her so that she hated him. At last she secretly left him with her infant daughter, and proceeded to the house of one of her rich relations, who received her on condition that she would renounce Boyle for ever, and take a new name. She did this, and for some time lived unmolested by her husband. At last he discovered her, and followed her everywhere. He was dotingly fond of his child it seemed, and go where she would he found her out. Mrs. Boyle allowed him a yearly sum for his support, but still he would not when he could be out of her presence, or rather, that of his daughter, whom, as she grew up, he managed to see frequently. They had been living in many places in England, and Scotland, and abroad too, before they came to Linsfort, but still Boyle discovered their retreat wherever they went. Miss Maria and her father left Linsfort as soon as possible, taking the body of the unfortunate lady with them. They went to England immediately. I have often heard from them since, and Miss Maria has sent me some kind remembrances, which I could show you. She married very happily I believe, and her father always lived with her, and was a reformed man in all respects." When Mrs. Blayney had finished this story she took her departure, and I was left alone again to my own meditations. Thinking over all the particulars of the narrative I had heard, I looked round the large solitary old apartment, and was comforted, if not consoled, in some respects, with the consciousness that other strong, human, suffering emotion besides my own, had once sighed and sorrowed there, and passed away long ago, and the old room was as quiet and serene as if a mortal life had never been destroyed by passion in it. It is a short existence which our struggling feelings trouble, and we must all soon forget or die—that is the consolation. IT THE NEW COMMENTED EDITION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.* It appears to have been the practice in the earliest ages of Christianity to translate the Holy Scriptures into the language of every country into which they were received; for we are informed by Theodoret, who lived in the beginning of the fifth century, that they were not only translated into the language of the Greeks, but also of the Romans, Persians, Armenians, Scythians, Samaritans, Egyptians, and, in a word, into all the languages used by every nation where the gospel had been received; and he adds, "For the sacred writ being the foundation of the Christian religion, upon which its professors built the whole system of their morality and doctrine, and which they were obliged to read both in public and private, the several churches of the world could not be long without such translations as might be understood by every body. We cannot exactly ascertain the precise time of the introduction of Christianity in Great Britain, nor can we say how soon after the gospel was preached to the inhabitants, the Holy Scriptures were translated into the language of the people. The first of which we have any account is a translation of the Psalms into Anglo-Saxon, by Adhelm, bishop of Sherborne, about the year 706. Egbert, bishop of Landisfern, who died in the year 721, made a Saxon version of the four gospels, and not long after, the venerable Bede translated the whole Bible into that language. It appears also that new translations were made from time to time as the language of the country varied, and towards the end of the ninth century king Alfred translated the Psalms. This When, however, the Popes of Rome had established their spiritual dominion in Europe, they prohibited the reading of vernacular translations of the Bible, and the people had, in consequence, been so long deprived of the use of the scriptures, that in the fourteenth century, the latest of these translations had become unintelligible. In this century, Wickliff, from whom we may date the first dawn of the reformation in this country, published an English translation of the whole Bible. gave so much offence to the Romish clergy, that in the year 1390 a bill was brought into the House of Lords to suppress it, but the powerful opposition of the Duke of Lancaster, the king's uncle, caused it to be rejected. At the commencement of the next century the Romish party were more successful, for in 1408, in a convocation held at Oxford by Archbishop Arundel, it was decreed by constitution, "That no one should thereafter translate any text of holy scripture into English by way of book, or little book, or tract, and that no book of this kind should be read that was composed lately in the time of John Wickliff, or since his death." After this, many persons were severely punished, and some even with death, for reading the scriptures in English. In the reign of Henry the Eighth, William Tyndal translated the New Testament from the original Greek, and printed it without a name at Hamburg or Antwerp, about the year 1526. This impression, which was the first printed edition of any part of the holy scriptures into the English * The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, accompanied throughout with a brief hermeneutic and exegetical Commentary and revised version. By the Rev. T. J. Hussey, D.D., Rector of Hayes, Kent. language, was sent over to England, but the selling or dispersion of it was prohibited under heavy penalties. In the year 1535 Miles Coverdale published, in folio, the first English translation of the whole Bible, and dedicated it to King Henry the Eighth, and in the same year, at the solicitation of Archbishop Cranmer, the king gave his consent for a new translation of the holy scriptures to be made. In the following year the clergy were enjoined by royal authority to provide a book of the whole Bible both in Latin and English, and lay it in the choir for every man that would read therein; and in 1538 a similar injunction was issued by the vicar-general. In the year 1537 an edition of the Bible, varying but little from Coverdale's translation, was printed in folio under the superintendence of John Rogers, who afterwards suffered death as a heretic in the reign of Queen Mary. He assumed, however, the name of Matthew, and hence this is always called Matthew's Bible. In 1539, the Bible in large folio was printed in London under the direction of Coverdale, and the patronage of Cranmer. It contains some improvement upon Matthew's translation, and is generally called the Great Bible. It went through several editions, and that of 1540, to which Cranmer wrote a preface, showing that, " Scripture should be had and read of the lay and vulgar people," is called in consequence, Cranmer's Bible; and from this the translation of the Psalms in our Liturgy is taken. In this year a royal proclamation was issued, requiring the curates and parishioners of every parish, to provide themselves with the Bible of the largest size before the feast of all souls, under the penalty of forty shillings a month, and a brief or declaration to the same effect was published in the following year. After this time, however, the Popish party appears to have been in the ascendant, for in the year 1542 an act of parliament was passed, prohibiting the Bible to be openly read in any church but by leave of the king, or privately by any women, artificers, apprentices, journeymen, husbandmen, labourers, or by any servants of yeomen or under, but allowing every nobleman or gentleman to have the Bible read in his house, and noble ladies, gentlewomen, and merchants, to read it themselves, but no man or woman under those degrees. It does not appear that during the reign of that excellent prince, King Edward the Sixth, any new translation of the Bible was attempted, but in the reign of Queen Mary, when many of the principal reformers were driven out of the kingdom by the terrors of persecution, they took refuge at Geneva, and there employed themselves in making a new translation of the sacred writings. This was completed in 1560, and is called the Geneva Bible. Queen Elizabeth commanded a new translation of the Bible to be made under the direction of Archbishop Parker, who divided the work among fifteen persons, eminent alike for their piety and learning. After these had completed the portions assigned to them, the whole was revised with the greatest care, and because eight of the persons originally concerned in it were bishops, it is generally called the Bishop's Bible. The archbishop wrote a preface to it, and it was published in 1568. The Roman Catholics alarmed at the spread of the Holy Scriptures amongst the common people, printed at Rheims an English New Testament translated from the Vulgate, and in 1610 completed a translation of the Old Testament, which they published at Douay. In 1611, under the auspices of King James the First, the present authorized version of the Bible was published. It is the work of fortyseven learned men of the universities and other places, and was commenced in the year 1607. When each had completed the task assigned him, the whole was read over and corrected by a committee of six of the translators, two being selected from Cambridge, two from Oxford, and two from Westminster, and it was privately reviewed by Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, and Dr. Miles Smith, who together prefixed arguments to the several books, and the latter wrote the preface. The following table will show in chronological order the several printed translations of the Holy Scriptures, of which the foregoing brief account has been given. Tyndal's first translation of the New Testament . Matthew's Bible The Bishops' Bible. 1526 1535 1537 1539 1540 1560 1568 1582 1610 The Rhenish New Testament The Douay Bible King James's Bible, the present authorized Version 1611 This last, which in the language of a learned divine of the last century "is a most wonderful and incomparable work, equally remarkable for the general fidelity of its construction, and the magnificent simplicity of its language, has continued for upwards of two hundred years the authorized version appointed to be read in our churches." Though not a perfect work, it has the advantage of being correct in its doctrine, and all its general construction faithful to the original, but the great progress which has since been made in the study of the original languages, the improvement which has succeeded in critical learning, the better acquaintance with oriental customs, and the possession of many hundred manuscripts of more ancient date, which the translators under King James, had no opportunity of consulting, have enabled the learned to discover many imperfections and errors of translation, and led to a general desire that a more perfect version should be published. "As such a work," says a late theological writer, "deliberately planned and judiciously executed, would unquestionably contribute much to the advancement of true religion, many pious men have expressed their anxious wishes for its accomplishment; and doubtless, in due time, by the blessing of God, the prudent governors of our church will provide for its execution." This was written upwards of half a century since, but no revised version has yet appeared, bearing upon its face the authority of the church. Several detached portions have been translated by learned individuals, among whom we must particularly notice Bishop Lowth's Isaiah, which being arranged in parallelisms according to the construction of Hebrew poetry, approaches nearer than any other to the grandeur and simplicity of the sacred language. An anonymous translation of the whole Bible has also been recently published, which professes to give upwards of twenty thousand emendations of the text, but until we are acquainted with the name of the writer we know not what authority to give to his work. We have, however, referred to several passages which we know to be inaccurately translated in the authorized version, and have found a more correct rendering given in their respective places. The learned Dr. Hussey, rector of Hayes, in Kent, has, however, after a life of intense labour, completed a carefully revised version of the Holy Scriptures, which is now publishing in monthly numbers, the first two of which have appeared. The plan of his work appears to be, to give in parallel columns, the authorized version of the Holy Scriptures, and a version carefully revised by himself, in which he professes only to differ from the former "where more recent investigations have proved the inadequacy of the rendering, and where corruptions existing in the Hebrew text from which the translation was made, but detected by later researches, make such a departure indispensable, in order to reconcile contradictions, or to rectify manifest errors." In this we think that he has been eminently successful, although in some passages where he differs from the received text, we much prefer the rendering of the authorized version. He has also inserted in smaller type, additions from the Samaritan Pentateuch, and from the Septuagint, and has incorporated with the text of his revised version a brief hermeneutic and exegetical commentary of such passages as he considered might thus be rendered more intelligible to the general reader. He has likewise given in a fourth column the chronology of Dr. Hales, which he considers far preferable to that of Usher, the one more generally adopted. The following extract will give a clear view of the plan of the work. Before Christ, 4004. (a) John i. 1, THE FIRST BOOK OF MOSES CALLED CHAPTER I. 1. The creation of heaven and earth; 3, of the light; 6, of firmament; 9, of the earth separated from the waters; 11, and made fruitful; 14, of the sun, moon, and stars; 20, of fish and fowl; 24, of beasts and cattle; 26, of Man in the image of God; 29, also the appointment of food. 1 In the(a) begin2; Heb. i. 10. ning(b) God created the & xxxiii. 6, & heaven and the earth. (b) Ps. viii. 3, lxxxix. 11, 12, & cii. 25, & cxxxvi. 5, & cxlvi. 6. Is. 1 In the beginning, previous to the six days, but the time of the creation not defined, God created the heaven and the earth. ends and purposes for Before Christ, 5411. |