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be long in finding out,) that he has in this, as in other instances, committed the glaring mistake of trusting rather to second-hand testimony and mere hearsay evidence, than of consulting the original witnesses themselves. It will now appear clear to your readers why I submitted to the chance of being deemed a proser, by introducing a subject apparently foreign to the avowed object of this letter, when I quoted the results established by Sir J. Bland Burges's pamphlets. The fact is, by proving a tissue of mistakes on the part of Mr. Horne, in that particular portion of his "Introduction" in which Mr. Bellamy and Sir J. Bland Burges are so unceremoniously handled, his mistake in regard to them is more easily accounted for; and though it is to be regretted that errors of this description, so derogatory to the character of a clergyman, (inasmuch as they seem to be dictated by a spirit of malevolence,) have appeared under his sanction, I am willing to acquit him personally of any uncharitable design, rather attributing their insertion to the mistaken zeal of some coadjutor or amanuensis, who may have been employed in collecting the materials from which his work is compiled.

I now conclude, tendering my hearty thanks to Mr. Horne for his "Introduction," which, though defective in some parts, and containing but little important original matter, must yet, as a book of reference, be considered a valuable compilation; but I am still more indebted to him for the manner in which Mr. Bellamy and Sir J. Bland Burges are introduced therein; since, in all probability, but for that, I should never have read the elegant pamphlet of the Baronet, and the truly learned and (with Mr. Horne's permission) orthodox work of the translator, whom I scruple not to consider as a most enlightened biblical critic, and assuredly one of the first Hebrew scholars of our day.

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tion of the great and peculiar name of the Deity, wherever it is employed in the original, instead of the terms commonly used in our version; the importance and propriety of which alteration, he has very ably enforced : but it is evident that there is much more to be done in this case, if we desire a popular as well as a faithful and judicious translation of the Holy Scriptures.

That our authorized Version of the Bible, as a whole, excels all others in the English language, is, I believe, the general and established opinion. Like its great original, it is simple and sublime: and were this opinion more variable at present, than it was formerly, it is presumed, that in a question of literary taste, the judginent of such men as Swift and Addison, Johnson and Blair, might be almost deemed decisive. Now these authors have uniformly borne testi66 No mony to its general inerit. translation," says the Dean, "our country ever produced, hath come up to that of the Old and New Testament. The translators of the Bible were masters of an English style, much fitter for that work than any we see in our present writings; which, I take to be owing to the simplicity that runs through the whole, and which is one of the greatest perfections in any language.' Now, if we examine most of the modern English translations by this rule, we shall find them grievously deficient. The ob scure or awkward expressions occasionally to be met with in the common Bible, seem to have arisen chiefly from inadvertence; but our new translators appear to have laboured for awkward expressions, and taken pains to render themselves obscure: a selection of phrases might easily be made from their works, which, putting taste out of the question, bid defiance to the human understanding. Now, if you take away from the venerable simplicity of the Scriptures, you detract from their energy and usefulness. We forget the Patriarchs and the Pro"the sweet Psalmist of Israel;" the great Teacher and Prophet of Nazareth; the Apostle of the Gentiles; and the Fishermen of Galilee; when we see them arrayed in the

A PROPOSAL for a new transla. phets;

tion of the Bible having been suggested in your last Number, I crave leave to offer a few remarks upon the subject. Mr. Jevans has confined his observations (pp. 81-83) to one particular, viz. the substitu

* Letter to the Lord High Treasurer.

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ascititious garb of a modern novel,
adopting the pedantic phraseology
of linguists and grammarians, or the
superficial eloquence of courts and
assemblies. It is true, we should be
governed by the sense, rather than the
sound of Scripture; and one trans-
lation as such, is no more sacred than
another but alas! we are frail and
imperfect beings, uniting animal or-
gans with mental capacties; and "He
who knoweth our frame," instructs us
in the manner best adapted to our
state. The language, indeed, is hu-
man, but the mode and construction
are divine: and, as one well observes,
If in reading the Scriptures, we
could but imbibe a portion of that
spirit with which they were written;
we should not need, as we now do,
such volumes of instruction, but might
become virtuous by an epitome."* This
peculiarity of style and manner (with
out adverting to the question of inspi-
ration) is obvious, even in the narra-
tive parts of Scripture; how much
more, in the pathetic and the sublime!
And, if we are compelled to acknow-
ledge, either the singular judgment,
or the singular felicity of our transla-
tors in their great work, as to its
general correspondence both in senti-
ment and manner with the originals,
we cannot, we ought not, we will
not part with so invaluable a treasure.
But this ineffable spirit, this divine
euphony, which strikes at once to the
heart, seems to have been in a great
measure unknown by some of their
successors: they may have been very
erudite in the ancient languages, but
they have made lamentable work with
their own. Green's Version of the
Psalms, is neither poetry, nor prose,
nor rhythm in the New Testament,
the change of the terms, Grace, for
"Favour;" alas! for " woe;" and
happy, for "blessed;" noticed by
Dr. Carpenter, are perfectly childish:
it is Stoical rant, and not Christian
consolation, to tell a man on the
rack, or under persecution for con-
science' sake, that he is "happy,"
but he may be "blessed," or happy
in reversion. What fresh knowledge
will the "hewers of wood and drawers
of water," the plain persons of the

* Relig. Medic.
+ See Say's Essays, 1745.

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congregation acquire, by hearing that
the good Samaritan took out
denarii," instead of " two pence," for
the purposes of benevolence? or, that
Peter took from the mouth of the
fish, "half a shekel," instead of "a
piece of money"? Read to a man of
the world, the parable of the Prodigal
Son, in Dr. Harwood's Introduction
to the New Testament, (a valuable
work on the whole,) and you will
make him laugh;* read to him the
same parable (if you can read) in the
common Version, and you will make
him tremble. Come now, and let
us reason together,"
says the Al-
mighty to the rebellious Israelites, by
the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah:
"Come now, and let us settle the
affair!" says the translation of an
eminent modern Hebraist. † Again,
the word Kurios, it is allowed, some-
times admits of a familiar sense, and
our old translators have occasionally
so applied it-"Sir, we would see
Jesus-Sir, I have no man to put me
into the pool-Sir, I perceive that
thou art a Prophet" but to have
rendered it thus, in the peculiar cir-
cumstances of Saul at Damascus,
"Who art thou, Sir?" must surely
be deemed passing strange!
If any
man defile the temple of God, him
shall God destroy," says our New
Testament; If any man corrupt
the temple of God, God shall corrupt
him!" says the Version of Archbishop
Newcome. Now, though the Greek
verb in both sentences is the same,
yet having been certainly applied by
the sacred writer in different senses,
our translators have wisely adopted a
different phraseology. But it is an
easy matter to find fault; and "Ubi
plurima nitent, &c." It is presumed,
however, that the nitentes-the shi-
ning parts of most of the new versions,
will be found chiefly in those places
where they have adhered to the lan-
guage of the Old Bible, and not where
they have departed from it, as they
often have done, without any appa-
rent necessity.

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* "A gentleman had two sons," &c. + Not Bishop Lowth.

The writer excepts from these remarks, Mr. Wellbeloved's forthcoming Bible, and the later editions of the New Version, not having seen them.

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But, notwithstanding these remarks, our common Version has its defects. It contains vulgarisms, mis-transla, tions, and a few interpolations. As to the first, which are to be met with chiefly in the Old Testament, it may be observed, that that may be a vulgarism in English, which is not so in Greek or Hebrew, owing to the difference in languages, customs and manners. Perhaps, in some parts of the Levitical law, which was necessarily precise and determinate, it was not possible to avoid such renderings, consistently with the faithfulness of a translation; but, in other parts where there is nothing but an idiom or a popular manner of speech, the simple term might have been changed, with out any injury to the sense. Dr. Watts mentions some of these, in his Treatise on Logic. To name only one instance, The Lord taketh not plea. sure in the legs of a man:" this is both uncouth and unintelligible: it is an Hebraism, and might have been rendered thus-" He delighteth not in the strength of the horse; he taketh not pleasure in the power of a man:" that is, mere human advantages or accomplishments do not recommend us to God. Of the mistranslations, two only shall be mentioned. We often meet in the Epistles of St. Paul, with this phrase, "God forbid!" And, perhaps, the mere English reader may startle to be told, that there is no such expression in the Bible: for a pious Jew, or a primitive Christian, would have been shocked to employ such language. In the Greek, it is what is called a negation; and is properly changed by the moderns into the phrase," by no means," or, "that cannot be." In this case, therefore, our old translators have, unawares, encouraged profaneness, under the seeming authority of Scripture.

The other instance is in Philipp. ii., where the apostle speaking of our Saviour, says of him, "Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:" the first clause is a figure, the last, a mistranslation, which every plain man who reads his Bible with understanding may be certain of, without the help of the learned: for how can any being, how glorious and excellent soever, be " equal with God"? "To whom will ye liken me, or shall I be equal,

saith the Holy One?" But the words in the Greek are, "isa Theon," "like unto God;" a mode of speech common with the heathen writers, in the celebration of their heroes; and peculiarly applicable to our Divine Master, on account of the high offices and character which he sustained in the great work of human redemption: and the sense of the whole passage. appears to be this-that we should endeavour to acquire and exercise the most profound humility from the example of our Lord, who being in the form of God," that is, invested with God-like capacities and powers, in accomplishing, under God, the sal vation of mankind; was not anxious or solicitous, to display his peculiar character and extraordinary gifts, at all seasons, and upon all occasions, as a weak or ambitious mind would have been disposed to do; but on the contrary, "made himself of no reputation," abased himself to the lowest condition of humanity, even to "the form of a servant," to a state of suffering, and "to the death of the cross," to fulfil the purposes of the Divine benevolence: Wherefore,

God hath highly exalted him:" and we may form some idea of this exalted character of Christ, and of the beauty and propriety of the Apostle's illustration of it in this place, if we consider how difficult it is, in common life, for persons of extraordinary qua lifications and endowments, to restrain the exercise of them within due limits, and to apply them only to their proper uses. Health and strength, beauty, wit, learning, eloquence, riches, power, these gifts of God in the world of nature; instead of proinoting the happiness of their possessors, and the benefit of the world around them, are too often perverted to the injury of both: nay, even virtue itself, by passing into extremes, may degenerate into vice. (Eccles. vii. 16.) But here, our Lord came off completely victorious: though "tempted in all points as we are, he was yet without sin." Though invested with prodigious power, he never misapplied it: though constituted "Lord of all," he became "the servant of all;" and has now а name given him, above every natne, to the glory of God the Father."

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Of the interpolations in our common Bible, which are but few, and

most of which have been detected in the modern Versions, one instance shall suffice. Dean Swift preached a Sermon on the Three Witnesses, in St. John's First Epistle; from whence he endeavoured to deduce the Athanasian doctrine: the Sermon remains, but the text is acknowledged to be spurious, by the most orthodox writers. The reader is desired not hastily to conclude, that there is any inconsistency in these remarks. The sum is this: our authorized Version is an invaluable treasure, which, nevertheless, requires a revision; and which circumstance it is to be hoped, will, in due time, engage the attention of those whom it may concern; for this, as it should seem, is a case in which Christian magistrates and Christian legislatures may lawfully interfere, without being chargeable with intrusion; a case in which kings and queens may truly become "nursing fathers and nursing mothers to the church," namely, by taking proper measures to provide for the body of Christian professors, in the respective communities over which they preside, a faithful, plain and judicious translation into their native language of the Holy Scriptures: and let those persons who shall, hereafter, be engaged in this great work in our own land, whether cleric or laic, proceed with all imaginable delicacy, with a wholesome fear and caution as to the particulars here enumerated, which appear to comprise the chief of what is wanting; not departing from the simplicity, energy and pathos, of the venerable volume bequeathed to us by our forefathers, without absolute necessity, lest their work meet with the fate of some of the modern "humble attempts," either to drop still-born from the press, or, to remain in the libraries of the learned, apt indeed for consultation, but totally unfit for general use.

R.

P. S. Lawrence Howel's History of the Bible, 1718, contains many useful hints on this subject, particularly as to the mistakes in numerals in the Old-Testament History of Jephthah, &c., which astonish the plain reader, and furnish matter for the sneer of the sceptic.

I

SIR,

Islington, April 10, 1824. HAVE read with pleasure the Rev. Edward Irving's Orations for the Oracles of God, &c, but not with a blind and indiscriminate admiration. I am not insensible of the defects by which they are characterized, and which have been censured with the utmost severity. His critics have especially reprobated his use of antiquated words and obsolete expressions, drawn from Jeremy Taylor, from Isaac Barrow, and more particularly from John Milton's prose and poetry. Some, however, have commended his peculiarity of style, whilst others altogether denounce it. In my humble opinion, a middle course should be steered, just such a course as Pope thus happily delineates in his Postscript to the Odyssey. As I have not the pleasure of personally knowing the Rev. Mr. Irving, I will transcribe the paragraph, that it may reach him through the medium of your widelycirculating Miscellany. Influenced by no hostility to his preaching or authorship, he may, probably, thank me for it. Caressed and admired as he is by a large portion of the religious world, I am persuaded that he is not, like a spoiled child, unsusceptible of improvement.

"A just and moderate mixture of old words," (says Mr. Pope,) "may have an effect, like the working of old abbey-stones into a building, which I have sometimes seen to give a kind of venerable air, and yet not destroy the neatness, elegance, and equality requisite to a new work, I mean without rendering it too unfamiliar or remote from the present purity of writing, or from that ease and smoothness which ought always to accompany narration or dialogue. In reading a style judiciously antiquated, one finds a pleasure not unlike that of travelling on an old Roman way, but then the road must be as good as the way is ancient, the style must be such, in which we may evenly proceed without being put to short stops by sudden abruptnesses, or puzzled by frequent turnings and transpositions. No man delights in furrows and stumbling blocks; and let our love of antiquity be ever so great, a fine ruin is one thing, and an heap of rubbish

another! The imitators of Milton, like most other imitators, are not copies but caricatures of their original; they are an hundred times more obscure and cramp than he, and equally so in all places; whereas it should have been observed of Milton, that he is not lavish of his exotic words and phrases every where alike, but employs them much more where the subject is marvellous, vast and strange, as in the scenes of heaven, hell and chaos, than where it is turned to the natural and agreeable, as in the pictures of Paradise, the loves of our first parents, and the entertainments of angels!"

Having animadverted on the theological complection of the Rev. E. Irving's work, the preceding remarks upon the literary merits of the production may close my animadversions, and not prove unacceptable to the readers of your Miscellany.

Of all his "unregenerate critics," the Westminster Review furnishes the best account of his work, and to that excellent periodical publication I refer with satisfaction. Never was a poor author visited with such extremes of approbation and of disapprobation. One of his admirers denominates him "the Northern eagle grasping in his talons the thunderbolt and scattering abroad the lightning ;" whilst a diurnal critic represents his production no better than that of " a school boy, which his master flings back into his face for its nonsense and inaccuracy." Both of these statements cannot be true, and, indeed, neither is deserving of attention. Mr. Irving is, no doubt, a man of talent and acquirement; his work, though not Calvinistic, breathes a spirit of benevolence and piety. I only wish the style was more pure and chaste, agreeably to the above masterly suggestions of Pope, and that it had not been so deformed by that horrid antiscriptural doctrine of eternal misery! But I must check my pen: my only aim is to render Mr. Irving justice, entertaining for the sons of Caledonia a regard arising from having finished my education amongst them, and passed pleasantly an early portion of my life in their society. I had the happiness of knowing and enjoying the instructions of Campbell and Ger

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SIR,

Penzance,
April 9th, 1824.

A Rose Price appeared in the pub

Smy Correspondence with Sir

lic newspapers, I have no right to complain of your inserting it in your Repository; but have rather reason to be satisfied with the candid manner in which you have printed it; for candour may be visible even from the mode of printing. At the end of the Correspondence appears a Summary of it, dated from Plymouth, and signed I. W. Of this I have great reason to complain; though, if the reader should peruse the whole of the Correspondence, this statement will do little harm. The danger, however, is, that most readers will turn from the tediousness of a long correspondence to a summary, which from its very title promises brevity; and where a writer takes upon himself the office of a judge, truth and justice are to be expected, though there might be a failure of ability and discrimination. Surely the writer could not have entertained an idea that the Correspondence would have appeared in your pages, or he would not have ventured to have published such an incorrect account. He calls me "a flaming son of the Church." On the grammatical propriety of this epithet I shall make no remark; we all know the meaning of it. All I shall say is, that it does not in the very outset of the Summary bespeak the impartiality of the judge; and I trust that if he will take the trouble to ask my character in the town of which I am minister, (and I refer him to those who dissent from our Church,) he will find that I do not deserve it. He dates his letter from Plymouth, and therefore need not be a stranger to the character of a person almost a neighbour. However, the tone of his language is of small moment, and if a hundred such epithets had been used, I should not have taken notice of them; but positive misstatements demand ob

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