tort sentences, and to force the reluctant Scriptures to their own wishes." * "Foolish men," says St. Ephraem, "they are assiduous at Scripture, not to profit by pious reading, but that they may err more freely. They have turned aside from the stones set in the King's highway; and that they may wander with less restraint, they have plunged into pathless and desert places. But indeed to him alone who perseveres in keeping the King's highway will it be granted to possess the gifts and come into the presence of the King." † *St. Jerome, Ep 53 ad Paulin. + St. Ephraem, Serm. 66. LECTURE THIRD. THE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE AMONG PROTESTANTS. "Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand."-ST. MATTHEW Xii. 25. THE object of the present lecture is to set forth briefly the actual history of the Bible among Protestants. Having taken it into their own hands without any sufficient proof of its authority as the inspired word of God, they have been responsible for its use among themselves. It will be interesting to know precisely what they have done with it, and how far the Holy Scriptures in their hands have retained their sacred character. Our design will be accomplished by giving, first, a statement of the principal Protestant translations; secondly, a view of the changes wrought by them in the canon of the Bible; thirdly, an outline of the diversities of interpretation consequent upon their theory; and, lastly, the pro gress and result of evangelization by means of the Scriptures alone. I. As Protestantism began with Luther, our view of the translations of the Bible will naturally begin with the Reformation. There were many forerunners of Luther, of whose religious and moral character he has no occasion to be proud. The work of Wycliffe was in some respects the inspiration of the reformed movement. His translation of the Scriptures appeared in 1382. Of it the English writer, Canon Westcott, says: "Like the earlier Saxon translations, it was made from the Latin Vulgate. It was so exactly literal that in many places the meaning was obscure. The followers of Wycliffe were not blind to these defects, and within a few years after his death a complete revision of the Bible was undertaken by John Purvey." * This revision, made about 1388, nearly displaced Wycliffe's, and was widely circulated among all classes until superseded by the printed versions of the sixteenth century. The translation of Martin Luther, which is the first of the actually Protestant translations, was begun in 1522 and finished in 1532. The New Testament came *Westcott, "History of the English Bible," p. 13. |