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Acknowledgments and Motices.

We are happy to acknowledge the numerous testimonies we have received of the approbation with which the first Number of our new Volume has been honoured. We beg to assure our friends that we trust they will find that the career of improvement is as yet only commenced.

We have had reason to apprehend that a few of our new Subscribers have commenced under the impression of finding an engraved Portrait in every Number. We trust, that the expression of our intentions in the December Number and the Supplement, was sufficiently explicit to preclude misunderstanding in the minds of any who saw those Numbers. To those who did not peruse the Advertisements to which we allude, we can only say, that in adhering to our engagement of giving four good Portraits in the year, we shall be making quite as great a sacrifice as prudence will warrant. Were the Plates in question similar to those in many other Periodicals, it would be another matter. the Portrait of WICKLIFFE given in our January Number, was not paid for by less than the whole sum received for One Thousand copies of that Number.

But

We have received, and purpose to insert, as soon as possible, Thoughts on attending a dying Bed, Avauvnois, Rhymer, Aliquis, H. S-B.'s translations, S. T. and Benevolus.

Clericus must allow us to assure him that we have never met with any thing to justify his remarks; the conduct of Dissenters in every Bible Meeting at which we have been present, and they are not a few, has been marked by a most exemplary spirit of moderation and forbearance. Differing thus with him in his premises, we differ also as to the conclusion, and do not think that another Society is either expedient or practicable. We beg to add, that the POSTAGE of all Communications ought to be paid.

We are much obliged to C. S. for the Original Letter of the Rev. S. Walker of Truro. The Queries of R. W. N. and Rhoda on Public Dinners, and on Special Tokens, are submitted to one of our stated contributors, and will be answered speedily.

C. O.-Eleanor.-J. R. R.-Henry, and J. C-y, have favoured us with Hymns, Verses, &c. on which we shall decide with all possible dispatch and impartiality; but shall not give judgment in the matter until called upon.

Laicus Gloucestriensis, and J. Z. are received and under consideration.

All Addresses on the New Year, whether Prose or Verse, must be postponed, either to our Supplement, or our Number for January; if transmitted to us at present, they will be in imminent danger of premature interment in the depths of our BARATHRUM; we therefore submit it to the possessors of such articles, whether it may not be expedient carefully to revise, correct, or re-write them once a week for the next nine months (we are not so savage as Horace, nonumque prematur in annum'); and then about the beginning of November we shall be happy to receive as many as they think proper.

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We are obliged to Mr. Brooker for a copy of the Children's Missionary Meeting; and though it is not exactly suited to our pages, we shall cheerfully recommend it to our young readers.

Our readers will be glad to hear, that the Ecclesiastical Memoir of the first four Decades of the Reign of George the Third, embellished with portraits of Archbishop Secker, Bishops Horne, Horsley, and Porteus, will be published in the course of a few days-in one octavo volume, at a very moderate price.

The Rev. E. Bickersteth, author of the Scripture Help, &c. has in the Press, a Treatise on the Lord's Supper, in two Parts. The first Part designed to explain the Doctrines connected with that Ordinance; and the second Part to assist the Communicant in devoutly receiving it. It will probably appear early in the Spring.

A third Edition of the Rev. Henry Gauntlett's Exposition of the Book of Revelations is in the Press.

The Rev. J. Dakins; editor of a Selection of Tillotson's Sermons, just published in two vols. has in the press a second Edition of his Selection of Beveridge's Sermons, which will appear in February.

An octavo Edition of the Rev. E. Bickersteth's Treatise on Prayer is also in the press.

The following new Publications are announced:

Remarks on the present State of Ireland, with Hints for ameliorating the Condition, and promoting the Education and moral Improvement of the Peasantry of that Country. By Robert Stevens, Esq.

A Treatise on the Covenant of Works. By John Colquhoun, D. D. Minister of the Gospel, Leith. 4s. 6d. Boards.

Sea Sermons, or short Discourses designed for the Use of Sailors. By the Rev. George Burder.

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JOHN WICKLIFFE, D. D. [Continued from Page 47.] BUT it is neither the stand made by Wickliffe against idle monkery, nor his general exposure of the corruptions of popery, that has so much endeared his name to succeeding generations, as his translation and publication of the Bible in the vulgar tongue. Here he appeared as an angel of God, with the everlasting Gospel in his hand, as the true friend of the laity and the genuine benefactor of mankind. In this point of view, his character is beheld with more certainty and satisfaction than in any other. He seems, as a Christian, not to have been so free from personal infirmity as many whose names are had in honour; for a warmth of temper, and an attachment to political party, sometimes obscured his graces: nor was he so far enlightened as to be able to detect all the gross errors of his day; or so uniformly bold and faithful, as to defend his tenets without logical sophistry or partial prevarication. But it is more pleasing to consider what he was than what he was not; and in balancing his virtues against his defects, the darkness of the age should always be taken into the

account.

He had early obtained the title of "the Evangelical Doctor," from his known attention to the study of the Holy Scriptures. And it is MARCH 1822.

no wonder that his generous mind should pity the state of the common people, and that he should endeavour to gain them access to those fountains of life, whose waters he had proved to be cleansing and invigorating. He had long desired thus to benefit his generation; and the first use he made of his returning health was to begin the blessed work. He has observed in his writings; "Scripture is the faith of the Church, and the more it is known in an orthodox sense, the better; therefore, as secular men ought to know the faith, the divine word is to be taught them in whatever language is best known to them. The truth of the faith is clearer and more exact in the Scripture than the priests know how to express it; and if one may so speak, there are many prelates who are ignorant of Scripture, and others who conceal things contained therein. It is desirable, then, that the faithful should themselves search and discover the sense of the faith, by having the Scriptures in a language which they know and understand. Christ and his Apostles converted men by making known to them the Scriptures in that language which was familiar to them. Why, then, should not the modern disciples of Christ gather fragments from the loaf, and, as they did, clearly open the Scriptures to the people, that they may know them? The Apostle teaches,

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that we must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, and be answerable for all the goods intrusted to us. It is necessary, therefore, the faithful should know these goods, and the use of them, that they may give a proper answer. For the answer by a prelate or an attorney will not avail at that time, but every one must answer in his own person

Aware of the prejudice and opposition which he would have to encounter in this glorious undertaking, especially from those priests who wished the people to be kept in ignorance of the holy writings, that they might impose on mankind whatever articles of faith they pleased for doctrines of revelation, he published a tract in which he ably pleaded the right of the commonalty to read the Bible in the vernacular tongue; showed the guilt of those who would withhold from others such a precious boon; and maintained, that holiness of life was the one thing needful both for learned and unlearned in understanding the divine writings.

That these writings had been first rendered into Latin, arose from the simple circumstance of the general reception of that language in the western church and in the countries of Europe. But as other dialects and tongues prevailed, it became a dead language, and the Bible a sealed book. It was to the credit of the Venerable Bede, and the great Alfred, that the former had translated the Gospel of St. John, and the latter the Psalms, into Saxon. Other learned men also had translated the Scriptures into English; such as Richard Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh; and John de Trevisa, a Cornish man. But the honour seems to have been reserved for our reformer to be the first who undertook a complete English ver

* Great Sentence. Spec. Secul. Dom. Doctr. Christ.

sion of the Old and New Testament, not omitting even the apocryphal books, in a clear and plain diction, and who at the same time used all possible means to awaken a popular interest upon the subject, and to convince his countrymen that the monopoly of knowledge affected by the Romish hierarchy was as contrary to the dictates of sound reason and equity as to the spirit of Christianity itself. Assisted by a few learned and zealous associates, he collated a great number of Latin copies, studied all the commentaries of which he could obtain a sight, and consulting old grammarians for the true meaning of difficult passages, noticed in the margin the difference between the Latin and the original language. The appearance of the work itself rendered the year 1380 a memorable era in ecclesiastical history †.

The following extract from Mark, xii. 13-17, is subjoined as a specimen of the purest English of the day, and for the gratification of those who reverence the memory of our great countryman, but have not ready access to his work.

"And thei senten to him summe of the Farisees and Erodians to take him in word. Which camen and seyen to him Maister we wetin that thou art sothfast and reckist not of ony man for neither thou biholdist into the face of man but thou techist the wey of God in truthe. is it lefful that tribuyte be given to the Emperour? Or we schulen not give? Which witynge her pryvey falsenesse seyde to hem what tempten ye me? bring ye to me a peny that I se. And thei broughten to him and he seyde to hem whos is thys ymage and the wryting? thei seyen to him the Emperouris, and Jhesus answerde and seyde to hem than yelde ye to the Emperour the thingis that ben of the Emperouris

+ Lewis, p. 331.

and to God the thingis that ben of God, and thei wondriden of him." Though the circulation of this version must have been comparatively limited, from its confinement to manuscript copies, yet the clergy took the alarm, and raised a general clamour against the author. Those whose interest it had been to impose on the people by false representation felt that their craft was in danger; and others, who superstitiously thought that the study of God's word should be appropriated to the priestly order, considered the offer of its perusal to the commonalty as scarcely less than an invitation to Uzzah to touch the ark. "Christ intrusted his Gospel," says Knighton, "to the clergy and doctors of the Church to minister it to the laity and weaker sort, according to their exigencies and several occasions. But this Master John Wickliffe, by translating it, has made it vulgar, and has laid it more open to the laity, and even to women who can read, than it used to be to the most learned of the clergy, and those of the best understanding; and thus the Gospel jewel, the evangelical pearl, is thrown about and trodden under foot of swine." The prelacy threatened; the presbytery abused; a bill was brought into Parliament, whose preamble set forth the dangers to be apprehended from this bold and 'abominable measure; and required the immediate suppression of this version, as the grand mean to stop the growth of heresy, and prevent the decay of all religion in the land. The arguments of the bigots were, however, too shallow even for that ignorant age. One answer sufficed for all. "We are told," said the members, "that sixty heresies have sprung up since the translation of the Scriptures into Latin; and yet these reverend gentlemen have never charged those corruptions on that translation. How comes it that an English version should be so particu

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larly dangerous?" The bill was thrown out by a considerable majority; while the discussion only served to give greater notoriety to the obnoxious subject, and transcripts of single Gospels or Epistles were sought after and purchased with avidity by such as could not procure a larger portion.

Wickliffe was not, however, deterred by this opposition from attacking the priesthood in another very tender quarter. In the following year he boldly animadverted, in his public lectures, on the received doctrine of the Lord's supper. After long suspicion of the unscriptural character of the tenet of transubstantiation, and occasional remark on its corrupt quality, he specially denied the grounds on which it had been maintained. He asserted that the substance of the bread and wine remained the same after consecration, and that the body and blood of Christ were not substantially in them, but only figuratively. His spirited conduct on this occasion argued an increase both of courage and information. When he attacked the mendicants, he had the University on his side: when he reasoned against the Popish taxation, he was seconded by the court; when he translated the Scriptures, the whole body of the laity was gratified; but when he opposed the change of the elements in the Eucharist, he aimed a blow at Superstition in her most inviting form and most acceptable appearance. The doctrine of the real presence had been gaining ground in the Church ever since the ninth century: the ignorant multitude, in an age of thick darkness and destitution of spiritual relish, readily caught at a notion, which seemed to make the sacrifice of their Saviour in a Christian temple as palpable and as tangible as an oblation of a victim on a Jewish altar; while the priests, seeing the increase of reverence for their character which it would gain from the

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common people, if the idea were firmly fixed in their minds, that they could at pleasure make a God, did not fail to encourage the notion, and endeavoured to disguise its absurdity by assimilating themselves as much as possible in dress, and decoration, and circumstance, to the Aaronic ministry. He doubtless, therefore, reckoned on much opposition, and could not but anticipate the desertion of many adherents.

He proceeded in the most fair and open manner. Having called in question the general doctrine, he offered to defend his opinions in public disputation with any opponent. Dr. Barton, Chancellor of the University, from well-grounded apprehension and mortified pride, refused this proposal; and instead of appointing a champion, persuaded twelve doctors to join him in signing a decree condemning the reformer's conclusions as erroneous, and tyrannically forbidding any academic from holding such tenets, on pain of imprisonment and suspension from all scholastic acts. It was well for the Professor himself that it was not yet the fashion to burn heretics, and that the King was understood to have a right in the life of a subject, of which he could not be summarily deprived by the keys or the sword of St. Peter. The rage of his adversaries could vent itself in condemnation alone; menacing, however, imprisonment and excommunication if he persisted. He could not but feel acutely this ungracious treatment from an university of which he had been the benefactor and the ornament. He appealed to the King in Parliament, but had the additional mortification of finding his petition rejected, even by his former patron the Duke of Lan

caster.

It pleased God that some political events, which occurred at this crisis, should increase the apparent difficulty of the situation in

which this faithful confessor stood; though doubtless for the ultimate furtherance of his truth, while by his providential interposition he could enable his servant, after his sovereign will and in the appointed measure, to triumph over every obstacle. An extensive and alarming insurrection in consequence of a severe impost, broke out among the common people in Kent and Sussex, who marched to London in a strong body, where they committed many outrages, and among other murders put to death the Archbishop of Canterbury. William Courtenay, Bishop of London, who upon principle had beenone of Wickliffe's most active opponents, was advanced to the vacant see; and one of his first measures was the extirpation of what he deemed the new heresy. He highly approved of the proceedings at Oxford, but desired that the ecclesiastical power should take up the cause, and execute more signal vengeance against the offender. That all might be conducted, however, with the greatest solemnity and with the highest authority, he waited till his consecrated pall should arrive from Rome, as the sign of papal confirmation of his archiepiscopal jurisdiction, which took place on the sixth of May 1382; and eleven days after, he summoned a court of the superior clergy, and some civilians, for the purpose of examining the heresies of Wickliffe and his followers.

The Professor was cited to appear before this court, which was held in the monastery of the Preaching Friars in London. Having consulted with his friends, he refused to attend the citation. He pleaded his official situation in the University as exempting him from this stretch of episcopal jurisdiction, and was supported in his plea by the leading academical characters, who, whatever might be their opinion of his religious sentiments, found their privileges endangered

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