and Coverdale; and the New Teftament was Tindall's verfion. In fact the whole tranflation is reprefented to be no other than that of Tindall and Coverdale, fomewhat altered. That the name of Matthewe was a feigned one is univerfally allowed, and that it was affumed for prudential reafons; one of which was, that the reader's obligation to Tindall might be concealed, his memory being ftill odious to a great number of perfons. John Rogers, before mentioned, a learned academic, and the first who was condemned to the flames in the reign of queen Mary, is understood to have been employed by Cranmer in fuperintending the edition, and in furnishing the few emendations and additions which were thought neceffary. At the interceffion of the archbishop, lord Cromwell again exerted his influence with Henry the eighth, and his vicarial authority in recommending the Bible to public notice: and fo well pleafed was our worthy prelate with his lordship's effectual interpofition, that he expreffed himself in the following terms of pious gratitude and affection: I doubt not but that hereby fuch fruit of good knowledge fhall enfue, that it shall well appear hereafter what high and excellent fervice you have done unto God and the king which fhall fo much redound to your honour, that, befde God's reward, you fhall obtain perpetual memory for the fame within this realm.-This deed you fhall hear of at the great day, when all things fhall be opened and made manifeft.'

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print a bible at Paris, on account of the fuperior fkill of the workmen, and the comparative goodnefs and cheapnefs of the paper. But, notwithftanding the royal licence, the inquifition interpofed to prevent the execution of the defign. The French printers, their English employers, and Coverdale the corrector of the work, were fummoned to appear before the inquifitors; and the impreffion, confifting of 2500 copies, was feized and condemned to the flames. In confequence, however, of the avarice of the officer who fuperintended the burning of the books, fome chefts of them were fold to a haberdasher, for the purpose of wrapping his wares. When the alarm fubfided, the English proprietors, who had fled from Paris, returned to that city, and not only recovered fome of the copies which had escaped the fire, but brought with them to London the prefles, types, and printers. This tranflation took place in the latter end of the year 1538. Early in 1539, Grafton and Whitchurch printed the Bible in large folio, and prefixed to it a beautiful frontispiece defigned by Hans Holbein. In the text, thofe parts of the Latin verfion which are not found in the Hebrew or Greek are inferted in a fmaller letter; and a mark is used to denote a difference of reading between the Hebrews and the Chaldees. Matthewe's Bible was revised, and feveral alterations were made in the tranflation, particularly in the book of Pfalms; but the prologues and notes of the edition of 1537 were wholly omitted. This third edition of the fcriptures has been called the Bible in the large or great volume,' and has been fuppofed to be the fame which Grafton obtained leave to print at Paris. If it was a different impreffion, it was ftill under the chief care of Miles Coverdale, who compared the translation with the original Hebrew, and improved it in many places.

In the courfe of the fame year, another Bible was printed by John

Byddell; and the conductor of it was Richard Taverner, who had received his education at Christchurch in Oxford, and was patronised by Cromwell, when secretary of state. It was probably on account of Taverner's great skill in the Greek language that he was encouraged by his patron to undertake this work, which is neither a bare revifal of the English Bible juft described, nor a new verfion, but between both. Many of the marginal notes of Matthewe's impreffion are adopted, many omitted, and others inferted. Taverner, in his dedication to the king, expreffes a proper fenfe of the difficulty of a good tranflation of the fcriptures. Such a tranflation, he thinks, could fcarcely be accomplished by one or two perfons; and that it would require the deep conferring of many learned wits together, and a full proportion of time and leifure. After Cromwell's death, the influence of the bishops, who were addicted to the Romish religion, procured Taverner's imprifonment in the Tower upon account of this work; but he had the addrefs to reinftate himself in the king's favour, and his verfion was read in churches by royal authority.

Several privileged editions of the Bible rapidly fucceeded; no lefs than five having appeared in 1540. In the fame year, the curates and parishioners of every parish were required, by royal proclamation, to provide themselves with the Bible of the largest volume; and to the neglect of doing it a penalty was annexed. All ordinaries were, at the fame time, charged to fee that the proclamation was obeyed. In 1541, a new edition of Cranmer's Bible was finish ed by Grafton; and this was follow. ed, in a few months, by an impreffion of another Bible of the largest fize, which was fuperintended, at the king's command, by Tonftal bishop of Durham, and Heath bifhop of Ro

chefter.

This edition was followed by a farther decree from Henry, that a Bible

fhould be fet up in every parish throughout England. But notwithftanding these injunctions were so frequently repeated, they were partially and reluctantly obferved. The matter was difcouraged by those bishops who were attached to popery, and whofe power and influence gradually gained ftrength, after the execution of Thomas Cromwell, earl of Effex. In him the venerable Cranmer loft a zealous and able fupporter. The prelates, who were hoftile to their metropolitan's laudable exertions, reprefented to the king, that the English tranflation was very erroneous and heretical. Agreeably to the language which is fo congenial to all thofe who are averfe to every fpecies and degree of reform, it was faid, that the free ufe of the Bible was calculated to increafe faction and parties, to raise difputes among the common people, and to destroy the peace of the kingdom. In the convocation, which met in 1542, the archbishop, in the king's name, required the bishops and clergy to revife the tranflation of the New Teftament. For this purpofe, he divided it into fourteen parts, and portioned them out to fifteen bishops, affigning two to the Book of Revelations, on account of its difficulty. The convocation being foon diffolved, the defign was not carried into execution. The view of the hoftile prelates was to banish the tranflation already made, and to introduce one which fhould be fo frequently interfperfed with Latin words as to remain unintelligible to the mere English reader. In parliament, the Romish party fo far prevailed, that Tindall's tranflation was condemned and abolifhed by law. Other verfions were, indeed, permitted to remain in force; but even thefe verfions were to be read by the higher claffes only; and not by the lower fort, without the king's licence. It was with no mall dificulty that Cranmer obtained fome mitigation of thefe injunctions. Grafton, the printer, who had been so zealous in promoting the knowledge.

of the practice of one good action at the expence of another. The ancients were ignorant of the true motives to virtue, the fear of God, and the hopes of immortality; and we are, therefore, rather to be pleafed with the good we find in them, than to be furprised they are fo often deficient and irregular in a fyftem, that never was perfected before the propagation of Christianity.

But it is a queftion for our confideration, who have fallen upon times of fuperior light and knowledge, whether friendship be not abufed in the manner of the ancients, or, in other words, whether we do not often fall into the fame errors? Whatever merit we allow to friendship, it ever ought to be confidered, that there are obligations binding upon us, of a fuperior kind; that, for instance, no real or acquired notions of friendfhip ought to be allowed to fuperfede the more important calls of juftice and truth. And I am afraid that, if we reflect upon the fubject in this light, we must be compelled to condemn many of the actions of our lives with more feverity than it would be fair to use toward the ancients, who had not that knowledge of the true fources and motives of moral action, which we poffefs. The difference between us and them is a ferious, and, in fome refpects, a humiliating confideration. An English peafant, who knows juft enough to remember the precepts of holy writ, is a better moralift than Zeno or Diogenes, whofe licentiousness cannot be mentioned without abhorrence; than Lycurgus, who allowed of theft as a branch of education; or than Plato, Ariftotle, or the Catos, who were all remarkable for diftinguifhed vices. But whether the learned, the polite, and the opulent among us, can claim a preference to these fages, is another queftion.

The moderns, who have written with the greateft animation on friend, fhip, have, I think, in general, enterfained more juft ideas of it. They

confider the moft romantic friendship as confifting only in facrificing our own advantages and intereft to that of our friend; and in proportion to the magnitude or frequency of thefe facrifices, our degree of friendship is to be estimated. But none of them, as far as I know, have ever recom. mended than any moral principle ought to be facrificed even to ferve a friend; on the contrary, the condict between friendship, or love, and duty, has formed the basis of our moft ingenious works of fiction. It is a conflict to which few are equal; but the victory is fo dignified, and the triumph fo fplendid, that no man will ever have reafon to repent that he contended to the laft.

It is to be lamented, however, that much corruption arifes from that false conception of friendship which forms the fubject of this paper. Artful men, when they wish to gain an im portant point, have recourfe to thofe means which create a temporary friendship. The duration of it is not long, but it is fufficient for their purpofe. They contrive to infpire thofe with gratitude from whom they expect advantages; and gratitude is a branch of friendship. It is impoffible to watch the progrefs of a popular election without meeting with many inftances of this. I do not mean of men who give a vote in return for a ftipulated fum of money (it would be too much to call that gratitude or friendship: it is at beft a fpecies of profligate traffic) but of men, who having received fome favour which their honeft hearts feel as an obligation fuperior to pecuniary confiderations, are induced to act contrary to their confcience and their underflanding, that they may not be branded with the vice of ingratitude. An inftance fo familiar would perhaps not have been worth mentioning, if it were not that many men of great fenfe, and not bad principles, will often contend againit the bafe ingratitude of a man acting according to his confcience, and forgetting every

ather obligation. It is when corruption becomes a fyftem, and is portioned out in parts to mankind in general, that they become thus callous to the true diftinctions between virtue and vice, and the whole becomes a confufed mafs.

It is of the highest importance in morals to have recourfe to first principles. In the hurry and bufile of life, we are called upon to do many things in hafte; fudden emergencies call for prompt action; and if we never think, we can never a well. It is for want of this, that the retrofpe&t of paft actions becomes irkfome, and that the concluding days of great men have been fo miferable. The principles of morality are few and fimple. Refpecting the fubject of this paper, nothing can be to obvious as that juice ought to be paramount to friendhip; nor will that be any detriment to friendship; it will neither abate its warmth, nor check its activity. But whoever commits a crime from a motive of friendship, will afiuredly find that he has fallen upon the worft poflible expedient to ferve his friend, and the firf to lofe bis friendship. The juft facrifices of friendhip are heroic and memorable; we cannot forget them if we would; but a crime committed, under this pretence, must be, like all crimes, a reproach and a difgrace, in proportion as it becomes known.

Most of the errors of friendship arile from timidity. We are afraid to be fincere and juft, because we may lofe our friend. Or from an inability to render our fincerity and juflice as obviously neceflary to him, as they appear to ourfelves. It is certain, that in the management of the temper, much delicacy is required, becaufe it is as certain that inequalities of temper, fudden anger and peevishnefs, are apt to be fatal to friendship. Whether a friendship loft by caufes fo apparently trifling, is worth preferving, is a queftion which can only be answered by an attentive obferver of the particular cafe and occafion,

The friendship that is eafily affected must be fore and fickly; but yet a very great error is committed, when, for the fake of any friendship, we facrifice the confcioufnefs of having acted uprightly. And this will be invariably the cafe, where the motive of friendship is that gratitude which arifes from intereft only, and thofe expectations of farther advantage, which we think we cannot better fecure than by flattering the foibles, or aiding the crimes of our friend.

From the prevalence of mistaken notions of friendship and gratitude, it cannot be doubted that morality, in general, is greatly injured, and that the lower claffes of people beeome relaxed in their duty. To oppofe this growing corruption, an oppofite virtue appears now and then, and is, at least the profefed admiration of mankind: it is called Independence. This, in the fenfe we understand it, was not known by the ancients, neither the Greeks nor Romans have a a word to exprefs it. Horace, indeed, depics fuch a character, in general terms, in two of his odes; in that beginning Integer suite, &c." and that Juftum & tenacem propofiti virum, &c.' But, according to our acceptation of the word, it is not of very long ftanding in this country. It is, however, a word ufed to exprefs the character of a man who allows no earthly confideration to interpofe between him and his duty, in all poffible cafes. Vulgarly, it is restricted to the fingle cafe of political bias. That it is a virtue which confers the highest honour on him who acts agreeably to it, is acknowledged by that efteem which the worlt of men dare not refufe for fuch a character. But that it is fcarce, that few have the industry to acquire an independent fituation, few the good fenfe to be fatisfied with it, and few the fortitude to relift temptation, is a melancholy truth. Were this not the cafe, we should not wonder, with a foolish face of admiration,' at the few in