community at large any Memorial may be safely left; but independently of every thing else there is ONE which would tell more powerfully at a distance from the place of his birth than even any other of their farfamed productions, By the genius and enterprise of a single individual, a man who trusted nothing to others, a native of Wolverton, in the same county, Birmingham once stood very high in the art of printing, nay, and of printing the Bible; for though this was seventy years ago, the memory of Baskerville is not forgotten. His typography united the elegance of Plantin with the clearness of the Elzevirs. His English folio Bible of 1763, the most beautiful of his day, cost him first a considerable premium to the University of Cambridge, even for permission to print it; though after his death, part of his types, at least ultimately, went to print the works of Voltaire in France, and in nearly seventy volumes ! But now there is a far wider field open to English enterprise, where, happily, no permission needs to be either asked or granted; and if zeal for the Sacred Volume has begun to show itself in the vicinity of Voltaire's grave, why should it not in that of poor Baskerville's? The weapons of war from this enterprising, populous, and spirited town, are famous, not only over America, but over the far East. But if OXFORD has been busy with the antidote to all error in our own tongue, why may not BIRMINGHAM be as much so in furnishing the sovereign antidote to all the confusion and gloom, the bondage and misery of Superstition, among the Nations near at hand, as well as to the horrors of War afar off?

At all events, let us not linger behind the state of the moral world and its demands. It is not in Oxford, Birmingham, or London alone, but in all our cities there are Christian men who know well that, as an efficacious remedy, there is nothing to be compared with the Word of God, in the dialect of the belligerents, whether physical or moral. At such a crisis as this, the poet who strung his lyre to the highest pitch in praise of Divine Truth would not have objected to the application of his own words.

SECOND ISSUE, WITH ADDITIONS.

Lately published, and to be had of all Booksellers, in 2 vols. 8vo, price £1, 10s.

THE

Annals of the English Bible

From 1524 to 1848.

With a Line Engraving of Tyndale, Fac-Similes of his first New Testaments, and, 1. An Index-List of 280 Editions of Bibles and Testaments. II. Historical Index. III. Index of Names. IV. Index of Progress.

BY CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON.

LONDON: WILLIAM PICKERING, 177, PICCADILLY.

"THE work which is now offered to public attention, has been drawn from authentic and unpublished manuscripts, from the original printed authorities in succession, and the editions of the Scriptures themselves. It will be found to contain the historic Annals of the English Bible viewed in contrast or connexion with national affairs; including Memoirs of Tyndale, his contemporaries and successors; the first introduction of the Sacred Volume, as printed in the native language, into England, Scotland, and America; the earliest triumphs of Divine Truth, and its progress down to the present day; the imperative obligations of British Christians in such extraordinary possession of the Word of God.

"In the literature of this country, although it has been so often felt and regretted, a more observable deficiency does not exist, than that of there being no history of the English Bible. It may have been imagined, that such a narrative could embrace no heart-stirring incidents, or incidents laid as the foundation of a great design, no frequent peril of life, no hair-breadth escapes, nor, especially, any of those transactions in which the vital interests of this Nation have been involved. No mistake could have been greater, but whatever has been the cause, the defect is notorious. The people of every City alike, have never been informed, at what time, and in what a singular manner, their ancestors first received the oracles of God, as printed on the Continent for their benefit. As for their subsequent prevalence and effects, these form a vein of British history which has never been explored."-Preface.

OPINIONS OF REVIEWS, AT HOME AND ABROAD.

"The author has had the rare good fortune to produce a work that was much wanted, on a most important subject, and just at the right time. It evinces great learning and industry, and must have cost him vast labour. It contains an interesting and most instructive portion of English history, never before so fully or so clearly written, casting light on many obscurities, and developing some principles of vital moment in the present day-all going to prove, in a very remarkable manner, that the Book of God is not only the book of truth and salvation, but also, pre-eminently, the Book of Freedom; and that it has won its victories, not by the power or patronage of princes and prelates, but by the zeal, energy, and fidelity of the People."-North British Review.

"Here, though with much reluctance, we must leave these deeply interesting volumes. The preceding remarks and quotations do but imperfectly exhibit their character and value. It is much to say that here, for the first time, is shown by what agencies England has been made what it is. Here, not without a degree of awe, mingled with devout thankfulness, we see the wrath of man, and even the evil passions of royalty, the enmity of mitred tyrants, the intrigues of corrupt statesmen, all made subservient to the highest and holiest

59

designs, by an overruling Providence, and we are compelled to say, Surely this is the finger of God.'

"It were an injustice to an author from whom we have derived so much gratification and instruction, were we not to notice the manner in which the long deferred history of the English Bible, and of those who gave it to our country, has now been rendered. Nothing great has ever been accomplished without enthusiasm ; and in this case, love for the Bible, and admiration of those who first translated and circulated it, have been combined with peculiar aptitude for the work. Every page affords evidence of patient industry and untiring well directed research, aided by a powerful and disciplined memory. To a very great extent the work is a secret history of the period of which it treats. Facts unknown to Foxe, Burnet, Strype, and their followers, derived from careful research, illustrative of the character and acts of the men of the sixteenth century, enrich almost every page. The most perfect catalogue of English Bibles was that of Rev. Henry Cotton, D.C.L., printed at the Clarendon in 1821. The index list of this author includes a hundred editions from 1525 to 1613, not in Dr. Cotton's Catalogue; the date, place, printer, and present possessors of each edition being given. This is only one fact, among many, illustrating the industry and research which characterise the work."-Oxford Protestant Magazine.

"This work is composed on a plan so comprehensive, and is animated by a spirit so discriminative, with an aim so constantly directed to its main argument -the display of God's providence in conducting the Holy Scriptures into the hands of the English people, that it must not only be ranked highly as a critical performance, but it should be commended to the attention of a much wider circle than even that of theological criticism. It has a general interest, and is well worthy of a general perusal; as being, in fact, the religious history of England in one of its most important divisions. With so masterly a performance, the disjointed compilations of Strype will scarcely bear any comparison. But still, if in the way of chronological annals, or as a body of materials, the latter are admitted to our shelves, and even in new editions to our presses, they ought, in the hands of a competent Editor, to be made in some measure to reflect the light which is thrown forth by modern works so able as this. Mr. Anderson has at length performed what so many of his predecessors had attempted only in part. He has fully availed himself of the valuable materials which they had partially disregarded, or negligently employed; and he has, in the cause of truth, paid honour where honour was due, at the same time ever referring all things to the directing Providence of the Most High."-The Gentleman's Magazine.

"We expected that the author would collect a large mass of original information, and in this respect we have not been disappointed. To his general accuracy, and to the acuteness and sagacity of many of his remarks, we gladly bear testimony; and we have no doubt that his book will become a standard work." British Quarterly Review.

"See especially Anderson's Annals of the English Bible,' which must now be regarded as the standard work on the subject."—Rev. Dr. Davidson, Professor of Biblical Literature, &c., in Kitto's Cyclopædia, article Versions.

“Mr. A. has given a copious and deeply interesting narrative of the circumstances attending the apprehension and martyrdom of Tyndale."—Horne's Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. For other references, see the Ninth Edition, just published, vol. v. pp. 81-94.

"The reader of the English Version in Britain, or in America, or wherever a Colony of ours exists, is under immense obligations to the Author for his patient research, his cautious sagacity in detecting the errors of former writers, his just view of parties, his anxious desire to embody all that can be known of the early translators, and their eventful history-for his wise endeavour to exhibit the hand of a watchful Providence in the circulation of the Sacred Oracles, and his constant aspiration that Britain may know its privilege, and how to improve it."-United Secession Magazine.

FROM CANADA.

"True it is that Johnson, Lewis, Dibdin, Newcome, Todd, Townley, and others, have written on this subject, but with little success, and with still less independent research. The production of the only work on the

Bible of our

60

Fathers,' of thorough scholarship and standard authority, was reserved for Mr. Anderson. Unexpected success has followed efforts untiringly prosecuted. Mistakes of preceding writers have been rectified, curious and instructive incidents brought to light, the providential origin and dissemination of the English Bible triumphantly proved, and the characters of TYNDALE and FRYTH, (of England,) ALESS, (of Scotland,) and others, rescued from comparative oblivion, to be henceforth known, revered, and imitated."-Canada Protestant Herald. FROM INDIA.

"As a collector of materials there can be but one opinion. The author has succeeded in bringing facts to light, which, strange as it may appear, seem to have escaped the eye of the most inquisitive of all book collectors-the lovers of black letter lore. It has excited our surprise that the subject has not attracted attention before." The biographical, historical, and Bibliographical memoranda at the foot of the pages throughout this work contain many incidents of curious additional interest. "To extract and group these," says the Reviewer, "would be as gratifying as instructive, but our limits will not admit of this; while so minute and unbroken, though apparently fragmentary, so isolated, and yet dependent are the features of this singular history, so striking in its details and comprehensive in its bearings, that it is utterly beyond our reach to attempt it." N.B.--The additions made to the second issue supply the place of any such attempt.-Friend of India, Bengal.

FROM SPAIN.

Translation of a passage in the Appendix to a recent reprint, in Spanish, and in Spain itself, of CARRASCON, a very scarce work of one of the Spanish Reformers of the SIXTEENTH Century." It is impossible, as TYNDALE said, to imbue the minds of the common people, effectually, with a single truth of the Bible, unless the Bible itself is put into their hands in the vulgar and native language, so that they may see the connexion and inference on which the text proceeds, and the relative meaning that connects all its parts. And this view is very opportunely corroborated by CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON, in his Annals of the English Bible, where he shows it to be an historical axiom of the highest importance, proved by the experience of more than three hundred years, that the publication of the Sacred Text, without Note or any Comment, is not only the most effectual mode of procedure against its opponents, but what is most expressly sanctioned by time and experience, since thus it has been circulated with a measure of success beyond all expectation. And the same author presents with great force the contrast-a contrast very mournful and bitter to us—of

The Bible in Spain and the Bible in England!

It is certainly true that both these nations possess two languages on which the sun never sets; but how differently employed! In English, the sounds of the words of the Bible cease not to be heard in every region of the earth! but in Spanish !! And what is the effect produced by such a contrast in both countries, and in those that have been, or now are, their colonies? ENGLAND OWES ALL THE DIFFERENCE TO HER APPRECIATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. And our beloved Spain owes all her misery and misfortunes to an opposite course.

"The earliest splendid and durable monuments of art, raised in honour of the Bible, are, doubtless, Spanish. Spaniards they were who conceived and executed them. In the place where our Cervantes was born, in unremembered ALCALA, where now, perhaps, not a person opens a Bible, in 1517 was printed the earliest Polyglot; and in the same century, the learned and pious Arias Montano superintended and printed the second. To Christian eyes these monuments, it is true, form the highest literary prize of our country. But in return, neither in Spanish bosoms, nor in Spanish customs, nor in the lugubrious history of the moral and religious transactions of Spain, are to be seen the traces of the excelling and most worthy monument that the human understanding has to raise to the Bible-THE INFLUENCE OF ITS CONTENTS. And therefore we wish every Spaniard in his heart and conduct to come to the Bible."

Devotional language, more recently received from Christian friends in Spain— "Grant that liberty of worship may be established in our Spain, together with complete civil liberty; and that the gift of liberty may be assured for ever, with the free, extensive, and continued printing, circulation, and reading of the HOLY SCRIPTURES! Amen, and Amen."