Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - 1881.djvu/82

 Ixxiv INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

copies the one called "republican" (with compliments to Cromwell in the preface, but no dedication), the other " loyal " and dedicated to Charles II.*

Walton's Polyglot is less magnificent than the Paris Polyglot (Paris, 1645, in 10 vols.), but more ample, com- modious, and critical. f

well's permission the paper for this work was allowed to be im- ported free of duty, and honourable mention is made of him in the Preface. On the Restoration this courtesy was dishonour- ably withdrawn, and the usual Bible dedication sycophancy transferred to Charles II., at the expense of several cancels; and in this, the ' Loyal ' copy, so called in contradistinction to the 'Republican,' Cromwell is spoken of as 'Maximus ille Draco.' This is said to have been the first work printed by subscription in England" (T/te Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition, London, 1877, p. 119 sq.). Comp. H. J. Todd's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Brian Walton, London, 1821, 2 vols.
 * "Twelve copies were struck off on large paper. By Crom-

f Brian Walton was involved in a controversy with Dr. John Owen, the famous Puritan divine, who labored to defend, from purely dogmatic premises, without regard to stubborn facts, the scholastic theory that inspiration involved not only the religious doctrines, but "every tittle and iota," and that " the Scriptures of the O. and N. Testaments were immediately and entirely given out by God himself, his mind being in them represented unto us without the least interveniency of such mediums and ways as were capable of giving change or alteration to the least iota or syllable." (Of the Integrity and Purity of the Hebrew Text of the Scriptures, icith Considerations on the Prolegomena and Appendix to the late 'Biblia Polyglotta,' Oxford, 1659.) To this Walton re- plied, forcibly and conclusively, in The Considerator Considered, London, 1659. He maintained that the authority of the Script- ures, as a certain and sufficient rule of faith, does not depend upon any human authority or any human theory of inspiration, and that Owen's view was contrary to undeniable facts, and

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