account given by father Sicard, of the result of his researches in different monaste

ries in Egypt.

XII. 4. Mr. Simon, in his Critical History of the New Testament, Part II. ch. xx. observes, that," although the Greeks have "not spoken their antient Greek tongue “for some years, as being no longer under"stood by the people, nevertheless they "have not composed, even to this present "time, any translation of the Bible in the

vulgar Greek." The first translation of the New Testament was printed at Geneva, in one volume 4, in 1638, in two columns, one containing the antient, the other containing the modern Greek. It was published at the expence of the United Provinces, upon the solicitation of Cornelius Haga, their Ambassador at Constantinople, by certain Greeks inclining, as Mr. Simon supposes, to Calvinism. That writer assures us, that it is one of the most exact and judicious translations that have been com

posed in the latter ages. But from those,

for whose use it was designed, it met with no favour. "Si quæras," says Largius, in his dissertation on this edition, " in quo

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pretio hæc versio sit Græcis habita, om"nino respondendum fuerit, pretium vix "adeo magnum illam fuisse consecutam "in Græcia." Helladius, cited by Masch, has a remark on the fate of this version, which deserves attention. "If," he observes, "the effect of the version should be "to supersede entirely the antient text, it "were greatly to be feared, that the Greeks "at large would fall into complete barba"rism; the sacred Scripture in the antient "Greek being the only means they have,

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by which, as an easy road, they can ar"rive at the intelligence of other authors,

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particularly the holy fathers." A new edition of the former translation, but with some alteration, was published at London, in 1703, in one volume, 12", by Seraphin, a monk of Mitylene. He prefixed to it a

Preface, which gave offence to the Greek bishops, particularly the patriarch of Constantinople. By his order it was committed to the flames: this has made the copies of this edition extremely rare: it was reprinted in 1705. In that edition, the passages in the Preface objected to by the Greek prelates were omitted. A more correct edition of it was printed at Halle, in Saxony, in 1710, in one volume 12m, under the patronage, and at the expence, of Sophia Louisa, the Queen of Prussia. Different parts of the New Testament have been translated, at different times, into the modern Greek; some of them by the Jews. The Greeks have an old translation of the Psalter. The authors to be consulted on this subject are, Joh. Mich. Langius, Philologia Barbaro-Græca, Norimbergæ, 1708, 4", and Alexander Helladius, Status Præsens Ecclesiæ Græcæ.

XIII.

XIII. 1. Among the ORIENTAL VERSIONS the Syriac claims the first place, from the immense territory where it is spoken, having always been the language of learning, and of the higher orders of life, from the mountains of Assyria to the Red-Sea. The inhabitants of Syria must be divided into the descendants of those inhabitants of the country, who were conquered by the Greeks of the Lower Empire; the Greeks, or the descendants of the Greek conquerors; and the present rulers of the country, the Ottoman Turks. The Greeks must be subdivided into those, who are separated from the Church of Rome, and the Latin Greeks, or those who are reunited to that Church. The Maronites descend from the original inhabitants of the country; they have their name from a monk called Maron, and profess to have kept inviolate the orthodoxy of their religious credence. That Nestori

!

anism gained some ground among them, is probable; but there seems reason to suppose, that the body at large preserved its integrity. They occupy, almost exclusively, the country from the ridge of mount Libanus to the shores of Tripoli. Mr. Volney computes their population at more than one hundred and fifteen thousand persons. They acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope: they are governed by a patriarch; he assumes the title of patriarch of Antioch; his residence is at Canubin, a monastery celebrated for its high antiquity: they have many bishops, and many convents. All the ceremonies of religion are performed among them without restraint; and their chapels have bells, a thing unheard of in any other part of Turkey. The mass is celebrated in Syriac; but the Gospel is read aloud in Arabic. There is an Hospitium for them at Rome, where many of the youth receive a gratuitous education. It has produced some scholars of distinction; particularly the celebrated Asseman