our
history, &c.--If the booksellers object against a second
edition till the full disposal of the first, I hope we may
buy them off with subscription for a new impression; wherein
my name should stand for six copies, and better example I
hope would be given by more able friends. I pray God bless
your labours and reward them." Several letters follow, in
which this amiable prelate and learned antiquary sends Lewis
a good deal of valuable information for his proposed second
edition of the Life of Wicliffe; but which was never put to
press. One more extract only from the Bishop of
Peterborough, and we bid farewell to the Rev. John Lewis: a
very respectable bibliomaniac. "Rev. Sir; In respect to you
and your good services to the church and our holy religion,
I think fit to acquaint you that, in the _Weekly Journal_,
published this day, Oct. 28 (1721), by _Mr. Mist_, there is
a scandalous advertisement subscribed M. Earbury, beginning
thus: 'Whereas a pretended _Vindication of John Wickliffe_
has been published under the name of one Lewis of Margate,
by the incitement, as the preface asserts, of the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and in the same I am injuriously reflected
upon as a scurrilous writer, this is to inform the public
that I shall reserve the author for a more serious whipping
in my leisure hours, and in the meantime give him a short
correction for his benefit, if he has grace and sense to
take it'--and ending thus--'Why does this author persuade
the world the late Archbishop of Canterbury could have any
veneration for the memory of one who asserts God ought to
obey the devil; or that he could be desirous to open the
impure fountains from whence the filth of Bangorianism has
been conveyed to us? M. EARBURY." "I confess (proceeds the
bishop) I don't know that, in the worst of causes, there has
appeared a more ignorant, insolent, and abandoned writer
than this Matth. Earbury. Whether you are to answer, or not
to answer, the F. according to his folly, I must leave to
your discretion. Yet I cannot but wish you would revise the
Life of Wickliffe; and, in the preface, justly complain of
the spiteful injuries done to his memory, and, through his
sides, to our Reformation. I have somewhat to say to you on
that head, if you think to