which has adhered to it. It is
good but not perfect; and it is hoped that its friends will not be
unwilling to accept an improvement.

From the publication of Wickliffe's Bible in 1380, to that of Tindal's
New Testament in 1526, was one hundred and forty-six years. From the
publication of Tindal's New Testament in 1526, to that of King James's
Bible in 1611, was eighty-five years. There was considerable progress
made in knowledge, and the English language was considerably changed,
in the interval of one hundred and forty-six years between the
publication of Wickliffe's Bible and Tindal's New Testament. There was
also considerable progress in knowledge, and some changes were made in
the English language, in the interval of eighty-five years between the
publication of Tindal's New Testament and King James's Bible.

The period that has elapsed between the publication of King James's
Bible in 1611 and the present time (1858) is two hundred and
forty-seven years, sixteen years more than the entire period from the
publication of Wickliffe's Bible in 1380 to that of King James's in
1611. Besides, this has been a period of unparalleled activity in the
investigation of Biblical subjects, and the prosecution of Biblical
studies. Two hundred and forty-seven years, reckoning, thirty-three
years to a generation, are seven generations and a half; and these
seven generations and a half have been engaged in Biblical studies with
unprecedented diligence and success, making great improvements in the
text, detecting numerous interpolations and errors, making great
improvements in the rendering, and detecting numerous errors in it; but
the almost exclusive Bible of common life, of the family, the school,
the church, and of private and devotional reading and study, with
English Protestants, is still the Bible of King James, with its errors
uncorrected, its interpolations unremoved, and its defects unsupplied.

Several new translations have been made since King James's time, but
none of them have as yet been received with any considerable favor.
King James's Bible, though extravagantly eulogized, was an excellent
version for the times that produced it; yet it made much less
improvement on the Bishop's Bible, the Geneva Bible, and Tindal's,
Coverdale's, and others which it superseded, than Tindal's and
Coverdale's did on Wickliffe's. Tindal, in the face of constant
persecution, and cut off from many of the advantages and facilities
which i