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heaven, of grace, and mercy, and peace for himself and his offspring, in time and in eternity.

PARENS.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THEfollowingletter is transmitted to you in consequence of a wish repeated to the writer, a clergyman of the Established Church, that it should appear in your publication. It was written in reply to a letter of inquiry from a private gentleman, who detailed various particulars respecting the religious situation of a parish with which he was connected; and was solicitous for advice whether, under those circumstances, it was not his duty to bring (to use his own language) the preaching of "the pure Gospel" into the parish, by introducing a teacher in some dissenting communion. L. M.

Dear Sir-I wish that any thing which I may suggest may be at all satisfactory on the important subject which you mention. If a case were supposed of persons destitute of means adequate to salvation, any one who could furnish adequate means, under whatever form of Christianity, would be bound to furnish them. But I have frequently thought that the situation of English parishes, not favoured by Providence with such incumbents, or curates, as ministers of Christ ought to be in doctrine and in conduct, is occasionally described in language very unsuitable to the actual state of things, and in such a manner as to represent a case such as I have just mentioned, as a case, in fact, almost parallel to that of the heathen world.

I am confident that you will feel with me, that an accurate estimate of the means of salvation already existing in any parish, must be essential to forming a right judgment on any specific plan in contemplation for improving it. The

inhabitants of the parish to which you refer possess at present, under the blessing of the Divine Grace, the following advantages:--First, The free use of the Scriptures, Secondly, The opportunity of attending twice on a Sunday the service of our church; in which service, be the officiating minister who or what he may, the Gospel of Christ is actually and fully preached to them (excuse the expression) in the numerous and ever varying portions of Scripture: Psalms, Lessons, Epistles, and Gospels, which constitute a regular part of the service; and also in a truly evangelical liturgy, continu ally and prominently bringing for. ward all the essential doctrines of our faith, and in no respect contra vening them. Thirdly, and most hap pily, The inhabitants are in a great measure under the influence of a lay gentleman, who, with a partner co operating in his plans, is blessed with the desire in his heart, and with pecuniary ability, to circulate largely among them the Bible and unexceptionable religious books and tracts; and to encourage, by prudent marks of favour, those who give solid proof of being really worthy of patronage.

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Now of persons so circumstanc ed it cannot justly be said, that they are not in the enjoyment of means adequate to salvation. What a blessing should we deem it to bring a Hindoo or a Tartar village into such a state! But the inhabitants, it appears, labour under the misfortune and do not think that I do not regard it as one most deeply to be lameuted-of having a minister who, in one, and I own a most important, portion of Divine service, namely, the sermon, pro pounds sentiments at variance with those which have been propounded in the preceding portions. Of course, a similar variance will at tend his private instructions.

The question, then, which you propose, resolves itself into an inquiry of comparison. Is it pro

bable that good would finally result, on the whole, from an attempt to improve, by the introduction of a teacher such as you mention, the existing means of salvation in the parish? The answer requires the balancing of benefits to be expected and of evils to be anticipated. The nature of the benefits expected is obvious: and they are likely to have been fully weighed by yourself. The evils to be anticipated from such a measure are very serious-First, A certainty, or a very high probability, that a number of persons will be permanently alienated from the Church of England; which church I understand to be preferred by you to every other. Secondly, Divisions and separations in the church of Christ, so much deprecated in Scrip. ture, will be effected; and this not on account of wrong imputed to the church, but merely from disapprobation of one of its incidental ministers. Thirdly, Heartburnings, dissensions, and party-spirit will arise in the parish. Fourthly, There will always be a risk of being disappointed in the teacher introduced. He may prove not truly pious; or he may be pious and very considerably indiscreet; or he may soon remove elsewhere, and leave you to a repetition of risks. I am afraid too that I must add, meaning nothing disrespectful to any man, that in a teacher of the particular connexion you mention I could not altogether promise to myself the "pure Gospel," without mixture or adulteration, but must count upon some doctrinal excrescences not belong ing, as I conceive, to the Gospel. In teachers of other denominations other excrescences might be apprehended. Fifthly, Suppose that the incumbent's views should become altered (a most fit subject for earnest prayer); or that he should take a curate who is diligent and pious; or that he should be followed by a diligent and pious successor;--still the separation, once begun, will con

tinue, however much those who, with the very best intentions, introduced it, may themselves lament the step which they took. Allow me to adduce an example. It may now be twenty years or more, since, in a parish in my own neighbourhood, some religious individuals, wearied with the sad state of things in the church there, introduced an Independent Minister. In no long time the clergyman fell into declining health, and died; having, however, been brought, as I understood, during the course of his illness, and through the Divine blessing on the instrumentality of a religious son, to real penitence and a Christian frame of soul. He was succeeded, about eighteen years ago, by a decidedly pious clergyman. This good man soon died, and was succeeded by another equally valuable. The successor, after some years, removed to another living; and his place was immediately filled by the present vicar, still a young man, who is quite equal to his predecessors. The gentleman who introduced the Independent Minister has openly lamented that he did so: but said, that, as he has been brought, he must be supported. I may add, that, if I am rightly informed, the present Independent Minister there, who is an able man, and may, I doubt not, be a religious man, is an avowed and a violent enemy to the Church of England, and has republished and circulated at least one bitter tract against it; though the three successive clergymen have all been men of piety, gentleness, candour, and moderation.

Believe me, &c. &c.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

HAVING lately seen the Prospectus of a new translation of the Bible, by Mr. Bellamy, I think it but an act of duty to the public to offer a few remarks upon it.

He begins his Address in the fol. lowing words:-"It may be neces sary to inform the public, that no translation has been made from the original Hebrew since the 128th year of Christ. In the fourth century Jerome made bis Latin version from this Greek translation, from which came the Latin Vulgate; and from the Latin Vulgate all the European translations have been made; thereby perpetuating all the errors of the first translators,"

It would not be easy, I conceive, to point out, in the compass of a few lines, such a number of misrepresentations (to use no harsher word) as are crowded into this short extract; in contradiction to which it is necessary to inform such of the readers of Mr. Bella my's Address, as need information upon the subject

1. That after the 128th year of Christ, when the Greek version of Aquila (to which, I suppose, Mr. Bellamy alludes) was completed, two other translations from the original Hebrew were made in the course of the same century; namely, that of Theodotian, about A.D. 186; and that of Symmachus, A.D. 200.

2. That Jerome did not make his Latin version from "this" Greek translation, (I suppose Mr. Bellamy means the translation of Aquila), nor from any Greek translation, but from the original Hebrew. If Mr. Bellamy does not know this, or if he doubts it, let him examine the translation itself, or the author's prefaces to the several books of the Old Testament, or his letters to his friends on the subject of his translation, or the letters of his friends to him, or the testimonies of many of the early fathers, particularly St. Au-. gustine; all of which may be found in Jerome's works, or in the preface to the Hexapla of Origen.

3. That it is by no means clear that the Latin Vulgate came from Jerome's translation; though it is CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 196.

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probable that the modern Vulgate (so called in contradistinction to the ancient Vulgate, or the Italica, which appears to have been made from the Greek Septuagint version before Jerome's time), has been much indebted to the labours of that learned father.

4. That all the European translations have not been made from the Latin Vulgate. On the contrary,

(1) In the sixteenth century alone, there were several Latin translations from the original Hebrew; in particular, that of Pagninus, afterwards adopted and improved by Montanus-that of Munster-that of Leo Juda (which commonly, I believe, goes by the name of Vatablus)-that of Castaleo-that of Junius and Tremellius, and perhaps some others.

(2) Unless I am very much mistaken, Luther's German translation was made from the Hebrew: indeed, his history leaves scarcely any room to doubt the fact.

(3) It is particularly important, in reference to Mr. Bellamy's assertion, to let it be understood that our present authorised version of the Bible, commonly called King James's Bible, was made neither from the Latin Vulgate, nor from any other translation, but from the original Hebrew itself.

As this last point is of more immediate concern to us than any of the others, I shall not content myself with a bare mention of the fact, but shall establish it by some quotations from the Epistle Dedicatory to the King, and the Address to the Reader, prefixed by the learned translators to their work. I quote from the edition of 1634, in which the pages and paragraphs are not numbered.

"For when your highness had once, out of deep judgment, apprehended how convenient it was that out of the original sacred tongues, together with comparing of the labours, both in our own and other foreign languages, of 2 H

many worthy men who went before this may be done by some of your us, there should be one more readers who have access to sources exact translation of the holy Scrip- of information from which I am tures into the English tongue, your precluded. Enough, however, has, majesty did never desist, &c. I think, been said to excite more And now at last, by the mercy of than a suspicion, that Mr. Bellamy God, and the continuance of our is grievously deficient either in aclabours, it being brought into such a curacy of knowledge or in fidelity conclusion," &c.-(Epist. Dedicat.) of representation; qualities, neither "In this confidence and with this of which one should choose to disdevotion did they" (the translator's pense with in a translator of the speaking of themselves) "assemble Sacred Volume. together; not too many, lest one should trouble another; and yet many, lest many things haply might escape them. If you ask what they had before them, truly it was the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, the Greek of the New. These are the two golden pipes, or rather conduits, where through the olive branches empty themselves into the gold ...... If truth be to be tried by these tongues, then whence should a translation be made, but out of them? These tongues, therefore, the Scriptures we say in those tongues, we set before us to translate," &c. (To the Reader.)

"Truly, that we might not vary from the sense of that which we had translated before, if the word signified the same thing in both places (for there be some words that be not of the same sense every where), we were especially careful, and made a conscience, according to our duty. But that we should express the same notion in the same particular word; as, for example, if we translate the Hebrew or Greek word once by purpose, never to call it intent

thus to mince the matter we thought to savour more of curiosity than wisdom," &c. Ibid.

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It will, doubtless, excite surprise in the minds of many persons, as it did in my own, that an author should be found adventurous enough to hazard his reputation for learning or honesty upon such assertions as those which have here been considered. For myself, however, I will readily confess, that my surprise, though not my indignation, ceased when I turned to the other side of Mr. Bellamy's Address, and read the specimens with which he has favoured us of what we are to expect from the labours of " twenty years devoted to this work." As he "pledges himself to bring full authority from the original," for any variation he has made from the received translation, it would be premature, and perhaps unfair, to pronounce upon the merits of any of the "selected" emendations exhibited in the Prospectus, I am much inclined, however, to think, that neither your learned nor your unlearned readers will cherish any very sanguine hopes of improvement to present authorised translation from the critical labours of a gentleman who can seriously propose such alterations as the following:

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Gen. vi. 6: "Yet Jehovah was satisfied that he had made man on the earth; though he idolized himself at his heart."

Ibid. ver. 14: "Make for thee an ark of the wood of Gopher: apart ments shalt thou make in the ark; there thou shalt expiate within and without, by atonement."

Gen. xxxvi. 3: "Now Israel preferred Joseph before any of

his sons; for a successor of the eldership after him: and he made for him a vesture of supplication."

1 Sam. xvi. 23: "Now it was when the spirit of God was upon Saul."

origin of all contests, charges them at once upon "the lusts that war in the members;" in the same manner as, when treating of temptation, he vindicates God from any inculpation, and affirms, that " every man is tempted by his own lust, being drawn away by it, and enticed." It is the referring all wars to a Divine sanction, that appears to be the ground on which many upright and well-meaning persons have justified so dreadful a prac tice. But it is well to remember, that "the wars of the Lord" (see Numb. xxi. 14) are of a different character from those merely political contentions which nations have been accustomed to indulge

That our translation is susceptible of improvements in a considerable number of instances may safely, I think, be allowed, and can scarcely be denied. That "a new translation is, therefore, absolutely necessary," or "that our translators have erred respecting things most essential" (as Mr. Bellamy affirms in his Address), is a position to which I, for one, am by no means prepared to assent. But whatever may be wanting, or what-in. ever may still be effected towards the amelioration of the authorised version, I do not despair but that, even when Mr. Bellamy shall have brought his labours to a close, it will be as true as I believe it to have been when Selden made the observation, and as I believe it now to be, that "the English translation of the Bible is the best translation in the world, and renders the sense of the original best."

H. G.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. IN your Number for January last, a writer, who signs himself X Y Z, has made some remarks on the Tracts of the Peace Society. Will you permit me to offer a few observations in reply, without any intention of entering into a lengthened controversy on the subject, which I should be sorry to see occupy a disproportionate number of your pages?

X Y Z seems to consider war as necessary, and inseparable from the present state of humanity, and, from his allusion to the "hurricane and thunder-storm," to view it rather as appointed, than merely permitted, by God. This differs widely from the statement of the Apostle James, who, in tracing the

Under the Theocracy, the Divine Sovereign issued a sentence of extermination against certain idolatrous nations, of which sentence the Jews were, for obvious reasons, appointed the executioners. I ask, whether there is here any warrant for a human monarch, and his subjects, acting from their own impulse, without any authority from God, and impelled by motives of ambition, jealousy, revenge, or the like, to engage in a sanguinary and protracted warfare with a neighbouring nation, on the assumed ground that it is just and necessary ? And if there is no warrant here, it will be difficult to find one in any part of Scripture.

X Y Z is not aware, that "in this country war can be viewed as a custom;"-but, taking the last century as a specimen, we find (if we reckon the hostilities in British India, and in other parts, besides those on the continent of Europe) at least five or six wars in the course of it, occupying more than half of the century. Now, surely this amounts to a custom, especially when we consider that the last war alone may be said to have lasted nearly five and twenty years, or the fourth part of a century.

Your correspondent is dissatisfied with the statement, that "all the precepts contained in the New

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