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SERMONS

OR

HOMILIES

APPOINTED TO BE READ IN CHURCHES

IN THE TIME OF THE LATE

QUEEN ELIZABETH

OF FAMOUS MEMORY.

AND NOW THOUGHT FIT TO BE REPRINTED BY AUTHORITY
FROM THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

A NEW EDITION.

OXFORD,

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

MDCCCXXII.

Clar. Press
1.6.51.

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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 commencement 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 a; 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. There is a copy of it in the British Museum.

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, 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 Collegee. 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.

d 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."

* 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

a 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 an error of the press exceedingly likely to be committed.

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