Few men are ignorant how Usher, who was born at Dublin in 1580. began early to gain a name among the Men of Letters, and to what degree his reputation afterwards was rais'd. As he was curious and indefatigable in his ftudies, fo he was also in his enquiry after the best Books, and most valuable Mannfcripts. To this end he run over all the most confiderable places in England, and by means of labour and money, he form'd a moft excellent and valuable Library. It fuffer'd feveral diminutions from the then civil wars, which caus'd it to be carry'd to divers places, but at laft it was brought from England into Ireland, and plac'd at Dublin, where it now is.

Among the Greek Manufcripts of the New Teftament, that out of which the extract of these pasfages of St. John was taken and fent me, is the only one, which has the New Teftament entire and the only one, at least that we know of, from which Uber took the pains to collect the various readings, in order to have them inferted in the famous Polyglot publish'd by Walton. This collection of Uber's reaches no farther than the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, beginning with the Gospel of St. Matthew, according to what Mills has obferv'd in the Prolegomena to his New Teftament, Art. 1379, and 1380.

The question will be now to know, whether the Manufcripts from which the three verfes of St. John's Epiftle were copy'd, is the fame with that which Mills has spoke of after Walton; and 'tis in this enquiry that Mr. Ycard has us'd all the pains and exactness that could be defir'd. The Differtation I had wrote upon the difputed paffage, was

8 See the Life of Ufher by Bernard in the Book entituled Vitæ felectorum aliquot virorum, &c. printed at London in 1681.

doubtless

doubtless what did raise in him the curiofity to fee whether it was in this Manufcript, and he had the fatisfaction to find it there. Then running over feveral places of this Copy, he faw at the bottom of a page in St. Matthew's Gospel, thefe words in Latin; fum Thome Clementis, olim fratris Froyht, that is, I belong to Thomas Clement, and formerly to Fryar Froyht's. Thefe two words brought into his mind what he had read in Walton, and in Mills, that one of the Manuscripts whofe various readings are given in the Polyglott of England, and in Mills, mark'd by the word Mont. which is the abridgment of Montfortius, had the fame words, fum Thoma Clementis, olim fratris Froyht. This was almost enough to determine it to be the fame Manufcript, but to be more fully affur'd of it, Mr. Ycard gave himself the trouble to compare the different readings which Walton and Mills have taken from the Manufcript Mont. with that which he had in hand; he faw that they were every where the fame, and he found that fome were by another hand than the Text of the Manufcript. He faw there alfo the Canons of Ammonius, and the Stichometry which Mills fays was in Mont, and after all thefe fo perfect agreements there was not the leaft caufe to doubt, but the Manufcript he had before his eyes, was this Manufcript Mont. which had belong'd to a Profeffor in Divinity, one Montfortius, from which by abbreviation, as I have obferv'd, was made the word Mont. by which it is exprefs'd by Walton, Mills, and

others.

This Manufcript is remarkable in many respects: it is not gilded or illuminated, nor has any other like ornaments, which are only for fhew and pomp. 'Tis wrote after a plain and ordinary manner, for the proper ufe of the perfon who copied it from another, and not to be fold, as thofe were which were made by the men who were writers by Pro

feffion,

feffion, fuch as fince the Art of printing are the Bookfellers. The writer of this has taken no pains to write it very fairly; he has even much negle&ed his hand in many places, and that which is very difagreeable to the eye; but which is yet the mark of integrity in a Copier is that when in writing he perceiv'd fome word or several forgot, he eras'd out thofe he had wrote, and replac'd 'em in the body of the Text, after he had wrote there those which he had forgotten; Mr. Ycard has taken notice of feveral of this kind of rafures and corrections, and has given me divers inftances.

As to what regards the main of the Manufcript it felf, there are few perhaps, which are more correct; the different readings which are found in Walton, and in Mills, fhew that they oft agree with the famous Manufcript of Cambridge, with that of Alexandria, with the old Lincoln, and fuch others as are most valued, I fhall give two or three examples.

Rom. Chap. xii. . 11. feveral Mannfcripts and fome Greek Editions have τῷ καιρῷ δελεύοντες, i. e. Serving the time, or complying with the time.

Grotius obferves that the most ancient and best have instead of the word nag, which fignifies time, that of xveiw which fignifies the Lord; and 'tis thus indeed that we read in our Bible, ferving the Lord; the Manufcript of Dublin, or Mont. has the word xveiw abbreviated in this manner x.

The doxology which contains the three last verses of the Epiftle to the Romans, Now to bim that is able to ftrengthen you, &c. was inferted in all the Manuscripts of Stephens, and in feveral others, at the end of the xivth Chapter, and 'tis there alfo, and not at the end of the laft Chapter, that it is in the Manuscript of Dublin.

In the first Epiftle of St. John, the 23d verfe of the iid Chapter has only thefe

Y

words in feveral

Manuscripts

Manufcripts, he who denies the Son, has not the Father; the Manufcript of Dublin, as feveral others, has the words following, He who acknowledges the Son, has the Father alfo.

We may judge from all this of the goodness of this Copy, and how it may ferve to mend several uncorrect paffages in fome very ancient Copies. As to the time when it may have been made, it has this in common with most of the reft, that there is no certain demonftration of it. 'Tis certain, that 'tis not before the eleventh Century, because it has the Prologues of Theophylact, who liv'd about the middle of that age; but nothing hinders withal but that it may belong to the clofe of that Century; nor would there be any room to doubt of it, if we could be fatisfy'd that a date which is found there at the end of St. Mark's Gofpel, was wrote by the fame hand with the Copy; this, as it was fent me, runs thus, ἐγράφη με χρόνες δέκα τ' τὸ χῦ ἀναλήψεως, i. e. it was wrote ten Centuries after Chrift's Afcenfion; which would exprefs the eleventh Century.

But to advance nothing of my own head upon a matter fo difficult as this, I fhall content my felf with giving fome particulars concerning the wri ting of this Manufcript, upon which the learned, who are converfant in thefe ftudies, may form their judgment, and know almost exactly, what age it may be of.

The form of the letters is in the main the fame with that of our Greek Editions, with accents, fpirits, and the iota fubfcript; but one thing among o thers is confiderable in the writing of the Texts of the Epistle of St. John which have been lately feen, and this is the vowel in the word pagrelav is mark'd with two points upon the top of it; that the also has the fame two points in the words ciợï and or, and withal in μagrügiav. F. Montfaucon, who of all men living is moft capable to judge of

thefe

thefe matters, has faid in the firft Book of his Paleographia Graca, that this manner or marking the 's and the v's is above a thousand years old. I know very well, it does not thence follow that we can afcribe fuch an antiquity to all the Manuscripts where it is found; but this may be inferr'd from it, with regard to this, that it was copied from another very ancient; which is confirm'd withal from the agreement I have faid, there is betwixt its different readings and thofe of the Manufcripts of Cambridge, Alexandria, and others.

Some attention perhaps may be given to the fhort manner of writing pagtugev in this extract, and to the abbreviation in the word ouve for segvi, in πὴς for παλής, in ανὼν for ἀνθρώπων, and in 90 for 98. Some others alfo have fallen under my eyes in feveral quotations of Scriptures, which have been communicated to me upon other occafions, fuch as there; ἰλὴμ for ἱερεσαλήμ, δαδ for δαυίδ; τεὸν for saugov, Is for Ines, X's o K's in the firft Epiftle of St. Peter, Chap. ii. . 3. for xgrsos o nuer & Kw for xve, Rom. xii. y. 11. as I have obferv'd already; πρὸς for παρός, πρές for πατέρες, ει

But whether one can or cannot draw from thefe ways of abridging certain words, and placing in fome two points over the letters a,, and y, certain proofs that the Manufcript in which these things are found is precisely of fuch an age, this will be yet a mark of antiquity, and even antiquity which may equal it, with the Manufcripts of the eleventh or twelfth Century. There are few of those that are collected in Libraries, which by Mr. Simon's own confeffion, are above fix or feven hundred years old; now this will have that age, tho' it were only of the twelfth or thirteenth Century. But was it yet more modern, being copied from one more ancient, as all that I have related fhews, its antiquity would lead us farther back, and we

fhould