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ADVERTISEMENT.

IN the present edition of the Homilies, which is the fifth

that has issued from the Clarendon press since the com-
mencement of the nineteenth century, the text of the first
part or book has been compared with four ancient editions,
the various readings of which are exhibited at the bottom of
the
pages, and are distinguished by the letters A. B. C. D.

A. is the first edition of the first book. It was printed in quarto by Richard Grafton in the year 1547, and is dated on the last day of July in the first year of king Edward the sixth.

B. is the earliest edition in which the Homilies of the first book, being twelve in number, are divided into thirtytwo parts. It was printed in quarto by Grafton in the year 1549, and is dated in August of that year. The copies of both A. and B. employed in preparing the present edition, are preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College in this University.

C. is an edition in quarto, printed by Richard Jugge and John Cawood in the year 1562. Two or more editions appear to have been printed by the same printers in the same year ; but the present editor has had no opportunity of comparing them, and of endeavouring to select the earliest. The copy actually used is preserved in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, and is bound up in the same volume with an edition of the second part, printed in 1563, which will be mentioned hereafter.

D. is an edition of both parts of the Homilies in folio (the earliest of that size which the editor has seen) printed by John

• One of these editions is in small octavo. tish Museum.

There is a copy of it in the Bri

4

Bill in the year 1623. The copy used belongs to the library of Christ Church a.

There are many other ancient editions both of the first part of the Homilies separately, and of the first and second united. They may be divided, as far as regards the first part, into four classes, which differ materially from each other in their readings. Although there is hardly any edition, which exactly agrees with those which preceded it, the present editor has not thought it necessary to collate more than the earliest edition of each class b.

The editions of the second part of the Homilies may all be divided into two classes, and the copies used in preparing the text of the present edition are only two, marked A. and B.

A. is an edition in quarto, printed by Jugge and Cawood in 1563. It is justly observed by Strype c, that there are two or more editions of this date; and another writer suspects that there are fourd. The present editor has seen and examined two. The collation now printed is taken from a copy in the library of Exeter College. The other edition, of which there is a copy at Lambeth, is more correctly printed, exhibits a somewhat different text, and more frequently agrees with the subsequent editions. This last circumstance induced the editor to sus

a This copy differs in some respects from one in the possession of the editor, in which the first twenty-four pages appear to have been reprinted with several inconsiderable alterations, one of the most remarkable of which is the strict rigour of the law instead of the full request of the law, p. 28, 26. ed. 1822. The editor's copy seems to agree with a copy on large paper at Lambeth. b It is proper to mention, that B. and C. were in the first instance examined only in those places, in which A. and D. differ. Since the first book was printed off, however, B. has been collated throughout, and some additional various readings of small importance have been collected. See the Additions and Corrections.

Life of Parker, p. 128.

Bennet, Essay on the thirty-nine Articles of Religion, 1715. p. 245. "There are in St. John's college library, in Cambridge, two copies of the second tome of Homilies, bearing date

1563. There is a third in the university library, and a fourth in Trinity college library, in the same university, which bear the same date. They are all in quarto, and in some respects different from each other. Whether the diversity be such, as argues that they are of really different impressions, I wish some person that has leisure and patience enough, and understands printing well, would examine and inform us."

e On comparing this collation with one which was made some years ago for a different purpose, it was discovered, that they were both defective in some respects, each collator having passed over in silence a certain number of various readings. This discovery will not surprise any person who is conversant with operations of this nature; and it is mentioned merely for the information of those readers, who are not aware of the extreme difficulty of collating books with perfect accuracy.

pect at first, that the latter edition is more recent than the former. But farther consideration has in some degree weakened this suspicion a. He now regrets, that he did not either give the readings of both copies, or of the Lambeth copy

alone.

The Homily" against Disobedience and wilful Rebellion" does not occur in any edition of the Homilies printed before 1571. But there exists a separate edition of it, printed in quarto by Jugge and Cawood, which is probably somewhat earlier than the edition of the entire second book printed in that year. Copies of that separate edition are preserved at Lambeth and in the British Museum. They consist of ten signatures of four leaves each, and there is no appearance of a titlepage in either of them. The copy at Lambeth has been collated for this edition, and the various readings of it are marked A. as being the first edition of the homily which it contains.

B. is the edition of 1623, already distinguished among the editions of the first book by the letter D.

In exhibiting the various readings extracted from the several editions above mentioned, the modern system of orthography has commonly been followed. In a few particular cases only, for reasons which will be obvious in each case to a reader of sagacity, the ancient spelling of the various readings has been preserved. To have preserved it throughout, would have exceedingly aggravated the labour of the editor and the printer, without conferring any corresponding benefit on the reader.

With the exception of orthographical variations, hardly any difference of reading has been deemed too inconsiderable to be noticed. The variations of among and amongst, Jesu and Jesus, toward and towards, with many others of as little importance, might perhaps have been entirely omitted without inconvenience. But the bulk of the volume is very little increased by the admission of such variations, and there are

* P. 376, 24. "In that he healed men with his only word." This is the true reading, in which the Lambeth copy agrees with the great majority of the editions. But the copy in the library of Exeter college reads with his

holy word. If holy was the original reading, only is certainly a very ingenious alteration. Whereas, if only was the original reading, holy is au error of the press exceedingly likely to be committed.

many readers, to whom it is more satisfactory to be permitted to exercise their own judgment in weighing the importance of various readings, than to be compelled to acquiesce in the deeision of an editor.

An edition of the Homilies in folio with various readings was published in the year 1816, by a society in London called "The Prayer Book and Homily Society." The various readings of this edition are collected from not fewer than ten different editions, several of which, however, are entirely destitate of authority. The editor has not published the whole of his collation, but has merely selected such readings as appeared to him to be important.

The text of the present edition was formed for the most part on the principle of adhering to the last recension published by public authority, that is to say, to the edition of 1623, which probably was not only reprinted, as stated in the titlepage, but also revised by authority of the crown, the alterations of the text being by far too numerous and important to have been made by the printer, or by an editor employed by him. As no later recension has ever been made by public authority, the edition of 1623 has some claim to be considered as the standard text of the Homilies, and to be compared with the Bible of 1611, and the Book of Common Prayer of 1662.

Except in a very small number of instances 2, the present editor has so far deferred to the authority of the edition of 1623, as to admit no reading, which is not found either in that edition, or one of those which preceded it. The text of the Homilies is now purged of a great number of unauthorized and erroneous readings, which had gradually crept into it between the publication of the edition of 1623 and the present time.

To adhere strictly to the edition of 1623, without frequent reference to former editions, would have been impracticable, on account of the numerous errors of every sort, by which that edition is defiled. Many of those errors are undoubtedly de

* One of the most remarkable of these instances is as follows. P. 16, 21. Let us be glad to receive this "precious gift of our heavenly father." There seems to be no doubt that to re

ceire is the true reading. All the early editions, however, including that of 1623, read to revive. The editor has not found to receive in any edition prior to 1673.

rived from the copy which the printer useda; but it is also certain, that many of them are to be attributed to his own negligence b. The alterations intentionally introduced into the text of this edition, are for the most part injudicious and unnecessary, and sometimes injurious to the sense. Upon the whole, the early editions of queen Elizabeth's recension exhibit a much better text of the Homilies, than the edition of 1623. In the present edition, the Homily against Rebellion has been printed with very few deviations from its original form. In a future edition, it may perhaps be thought advisable to restore the text of queen Elizabeth throughout the whole volume, with the exception of some particular expressions. That text is not only better in itself than that of king James the first, but it also seems to be sanctioned by the thirty-fifth Article of Religion, as far at least as regards the second book.

Fortunately, however, the variations in the different editions of the Homilies, numerous as they are, are almost universally verbal or grammatical. It is very remarkable, that one of the symbolical books of the church of England, which has passed through the hands of so many editors, and has been altered in almost every edition, should have received so few alterations of any importance as to doctrine c. One of the

It would not be difficult to ascertain the edition, from which that of 1623 was copied. The latest preceding edition which the present editor has seen, was printed in quarto by Edward Allde, in the year 1595. If no edition appeared between 1595 and 1623, it is somewhat remarkable that a period of twenty-eight years should elapse without an edition of the Homilies, which were so frequently reprinted both before 1595 and after 1623.

P. 58, 8. "by the negligence of them that chiefly ought to have [preferred God's commandments, and to have] preserved the pure and heavenly doctrine left by Christ." P. 69, 32. "That by true Christian charity, God ought to be loved [above all things, and all men ought to be loved], good and evil, friend and foe." P. 424, 6, "That which is boru [of the flesh, saith Christ, is flesh, and that which is born] of the spirit is spirit." In these three passages, the words inclosed in

brackets are omitted in the edition of 1623. The first and second omissions are made in some of the preceding editions. In the following passage those copies only of the edition of 1623 in which the first pages have been reprinted, omit the words inclosed in brackets: P. 11, 12. "it is called the best part, which Mary did choose, for it hath in it everlasting [comfort. The words of holy scripture be called words of everlasting] life for they be God's instrument, ordained for the same purpose.

• The addition of the words wrought in faith in the following passage can hardly be considered as an alteration of that nature. P. 62, 29. “And travailing continually during your life thus in the keeping the commandments of God, (wherein standeth the pure, principal and right honour of God, and which, wrought in faith, God hath ordained to be the right trade and path way unto heaven,) you shall not

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