On Old English Bibles.

15 th Figure . Ac the tymo appointed by God's secret wyll , The sykle shal cut downe b ' oeth good aud yll . 16 th Figure . The seuen trompottes and the seuen scales , Declare the same thinges that the seuen viallcs 17 th Figure .

The Princes of the earth euerye one Havo with this whore wrought fornieacyon . 18 th Figure . The Romysho marohauntes , the Priestes of Bal Do wepe , houle , and crye , at Babylon ' s fall . 19 th Figure . All flesh is kylled with the ij edged sworde

, AVhich after the spirit is called Goddes worde . 20 th Figure . For euer lyeth Sathau bound in chayne , Though in his members he be louse agayne .

21 st Figure . A beautyfnll cytye , most semelyo to so Are the faythfull folowers of Godee ' s verytyo . Matthew ' s Bible was again reprinted by N . Hyll in 1551 . The title is in red ancl black , within a compartment , formed by two large woodcuts at the top and bottom , and four smaller at the sides . The lower woodcut is like that in

Coverdale ' s Bible of 1535 . The colophon states that it was " Iinprynted at London by Nicolas Hyll , dwelling in Saynct John ' s Streate , at the coste and charges of certayne honest menne of the occupacyon , whose names be upon their bokes . " As honest men were not common in the reign of Edward VI ., it may be well to record some of them . They were— "Abraham Veale , Robert ToyeRichard KeleThomas PettJohn Wyghte . "

, , y , John Rogers , the Editor of " Matthew ' s " Bible , was born about the year 1500 , near Birmingham . He entered Pembroke Hall , Cambridge , ancl took his B . A . degree in 1525 . He obtained a rectory in London in 1532 . He gradually imbibed the reli"'ious opinions then obtaining , - in Gerrnanv , and left

England , and took up his residence in Antwerp , where he held the post of Chaplain to the English Company of Adventurers—an office that had been previouly filled by William Tyndale . He soon became tired of keeping his vow of celibacy , ancl in 1537 married Adriane Pratt , the same year in wdiich the Bible he edited for his relative , Jacob van Meteren , was issued under the assumed name of Thomas Matthew . In 1548 he returned to England ,

and was on the 10 th of May presented to the rectory of St . Margaret Moses , and the vicarage of St . Sepulchre . He obtained the prebendal stall of St . Pancras at St . Paul ' s Cathedral , on the 24 th August , 1551 : another stall being at the same time held by Gabriel Donne , who was one of the agents employed to capture Tyndale , and who for this vile service had in 1539 been macle Abbot of Buckfastleigh Abbey , in Devonshire . Thus Tyndale ' s friend

ancl Tyndale ' s betrayer were prebendaries at the same time at St . Paul ' s . John Rogers was Divinity Lecturer at St . Paul ' s , and also held the Rectory of Chigwell , in Essex . In 1553 Edward VI . died , and in August of the same year the Lords of the Council ordered " John Rogers , alias Matthews , " to remain in his house as a seditious preacher , ancl on the 4 th of February he was cruelly put to death . ( To be continued . )