of them. Still less will it be so thought, when higher interests are involved in the elucidation of what is unnecessarily obscure, and in the detection of what is absolutely false, in it, and the groundwork of misplaced cavil and dispute. Are the interests of the Christian religion to be thought inferior to those of a translation of its documents? An answer in the affirmative may be consistent with Popish superstition-but the sensible and manly reasoning of Protestants will deny it frankly, and will burn, if it be necessary, every translation in the world on the shrine of the purity of the Christian records.

It is not denied that many passages of the New Testament afford unnecessary scope for the objections of the sceptical. When one passage has been called arrant nonsense' by the learned Dr. Campbell, it becomes us to think there are mistakes, in others.

It is my intention to collect such passages, as administer to the scoffs of cavillers without any foundation in the original Scriptures. And, in doing this, I humbly trust that I am forwarding the interests of knowledge, of religion, and of truth.

1. The passage alluded to above is the following: "Behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man, touching those things, whereof ye accuse him. No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him: and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him." Luke xxiii. 15. Καὶ ἰδοῦ, οὐδὲν ἄξιον θανάτου ἐστὶ πεπραγμένον αὐτῷ. Translate it by him: and all will be correct. See Campbell's note.

2. "And shall not God avenge his own elect, who cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?" (Luke xviii. 17.) Can this be the word of God? say some. The Greek is μяxрoluμшν π' aurois. Dr. Campbell shows us that it should] be translated, though he delays them long. And this removes objections.

3. I need scarcely point to that use of the word thought in St. Matthew, vi. 25. 28. 31. which is now obsolete, and affords matter for objection. For take no thought we should translate be not anxious. Nor does this translation disagree with the words in the 34th verse: "Be not anxious for the morrow: for the morrow shall be anxious for the things of itself," &c.

:

4. I refer the reader to Paley, Lardner, and other writers, for a less objectionable translation of Luke ii. 2.

5. We must be very careful not to ascribe more contradiction to the Evangelists than really exists. By our translation Matthew is in express opposition to the other three, who say that,

when the Marys arrived, they found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty; crying, "They have taken away the Lord, and we know not where they have laid him,' &c. But Matthew is made to say, when the Marys came, Behold, there was a great earthquake,' &c. But it should be, There had been a great earthquake. See Dr. Campbell." This observation is extracted from a late work, intitled, The New Trial of the Witnesses: in which indeed it is the author's intention to subvert the Christian faith but an enemy is sometimes beneficial. If, sometimes, the only way to rescue passages of the Scriptures from contradiction or objection is to give them a new translation, then it is a great point gained, if our adversaries have led the way, and by their concessions have already allowed us to take the course we wish. Surely in this subject as in all others is the observation correct, Fas est et ab hoste doceri.

6. "A chronological objection arises on a date assigned in the beginning of St. Luke: Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Jesus began to be about 30 years of age.' The solution turns on an alteration in the construction of the Greek. St. Luke's words in the original are allowed by the general opinion of learned men to signify, not that Jesus began to be about 30 years of age,' but that he was about 30 years of age, when he began his ministry.' This construction being admitted, the adverb about' gives us all the latitude we want, and more especially when applied, as it is in the present instance, to a decimal number." Paley's Evidences, Vol. II. p. 178. Ed. 1811.

7. I have pointed out in No. 55, p. 122. of the Classical Journal, a new translation of a passage in the second chapter of St. John's Gospel. The passage, as it stands in our common version, is faulty in two respects. One of the faulty versions, viz. that of Tí uol xai ool; is differently translated in Mr. Valpy's late edition of the Greek Testament, and the words are thus noticed: "Verti possunt hæc verba, Quid hoc ad me et te? Noli solicita esse: hanc rem nec ego nec tu curare debemus." The present translation of this passage is at all events highly harsh and objectionable.

8. "But I say unto you, whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." Matth. v. 28. Dr. Lardner has observed that yʊvaïna should here be translated a married woman, and that, if it were so, all apparently needless severity would be destroyed. It is certain that yuvaina is used in the sense of wife in the 31st

1

and 32d verses of this chapter. And ai yuvaxes is the Greek expression in that sentence to the Colossians: Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands.' This meaning is also particularly supported by the words ἤδη ἐμοίχευσεν αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ. How could he be a μοιχός, were not the woman a wife?

9. The story of the woman taken in adultery has been made a subject of objection. Bishop Pearce is of opinion that this story is an interpolation; and it is certain that many Mss. omit it. In a future edition therefore it might be printed in italics, to avoid all cavil.

10. There are some passages, which contain formularies of language, known indeed to the individuals for whom the writings of the New Testament were immediately intended, but evidently unfit for our language. Thus Romans vi. 17. " But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed that form of doctrine which was delivered you." Could St. Paul thank God that his Roman converts had been the servants of sin? In such passages the idiom of the Greek should be deserted, and should give way to our own. The passage before us might be translated: But God be thanked that, having been the servants of sin, you have obeyed,' &c. So again in Matth. xi. 25. "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." Dr. Campbell has made some good observations on the principle of this note. Perhaps indeed he has carried it even to excess: but the principle itself is, I think, indisputably correct. See his preliminary observations.

I hope hereafter to continue these observations, should you have patience to bear with them. In the mean while I will just notice that Mr. Bellamy is inaccurate, when he writes in his Antideist, p. 82, 83. that, instead of "for the time of figs was not yet," it should be translated, " where it was the season of figs." Surely the position of ou in οὐ γὰρ ἦν καιρὸς σύκων forbids us to construe ou for ou, where: ou followed by yàp can mean nothing but the negative particle.

I cannot refrain, before I conclude, from observing that of σTρаTEVÓμevo in Luke iii. 14. deserves to be translated, those who were on actual military service,' instead of "the soldiers.' Michaelis, and after him Bishop Marsh, have already shown the minuteness of this participle, and have derived the legitimate conclusion from it of our historian's correct and exact information.

It is for the poor, rather than for the rich, that these new translations are proposed: for the poor should not blunder and stumble unnecessarily and what the Author of Christianity said while on earth, should be thought by Christians still necessary : IIrwyol sayyexigovrat.

S. Y.

MUHAMEDAN INVOCATION.

Verses composed by Soliman ben Muhamed, late Emperor of Marocco, which are chanted every morning at the break of day by the Mûden, at the top of the minarets of the mosques, throughout the empire, at the conclusion of the ûden el fejêr, or the morning invocation, calling the Musulmen to prayers. Transcribed with the Oriental punctuation.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ARABIC BY JAMES GREY JACKSON.

الحمد لله وحده ذهب الليل مدبرا بظلام

و انا الصبح مقبلا بضياء

له الحمد
شريك
ذالذي الملك لا
نعماء
ما افاد من

علي

Glory be to God alone

The night departs and scatters the darkness with her, and the morning, in succeeding her, brings back the light.

Homage to (him) that is the King; let none share with Him praise; and thanks be rendered to him, for all the benefits he sends forth upon us.

317

NOTICE OF

Observations on the History and Doctrine of Chris tianity, and, as historically connected, on the primeval religion, on the Judaic, and on the Heathen, public, mystical, and philosophical; the latter proposed as an appendix to the political and military History of Greece. By WILLIAM MITFORD, Esq. 8vo. 1823.

THIS volume is of a mixed character, and, under the appearance of loose observations on religious history, will be found to supersede many bulky commentaries. It is indeed a pleasing fact in the annals of literature, that a layman, having, in the course of a prolonged life, given to the world the best historical work of modern times,' should adduce his testimony to revelation, without omitting such doubts as may arise in a serious examination. That laymen should undertake such a task is less extraordinary than desirable; "they are not, like ecclesiastics, open to the imputation which allurement of worldly interest, or impulse of professional engagements, might stimulate them to labor in it" (p. 3.): nor is the circumstance uncommon: De Groot, Jenyns, West, and Lyttleton, devoted their talents to divinity; Weston wrote Sermons, and a distinguished poet of the present day has followed his example.

Mr. Mitford commences his observations with the doctrinal portion of his faith, which we shall consider hereafter. In the first historical chapter, intitled "On the Old Testament," he sums up the early account of mankind in these words: "Man, with reason for his guide, was placed in this world for trial."

Reverting, then, to the first human pair, it is obvious that, of the matters, countless in the peopled world, adapted to try human virtue, and continually occurring, nothing existed for them in the circumstances in which they were first placed. Their trial was necessarily to be peculiar. As far as human imagination can go on the subject, it could only

"His great pleasure consists in praising tyrants, abusing Plutarch, spelling oddly, and writing quaintly; and what is strange after all, his is the best modern history of Greece in any language, and he is perhaps the best of all modern historians whatsoever. Having named his sins, it is but fair to state his virtues-learning, labor, research, wrath, and partiality. I call the latter virtues in a writer, because they make him write in earnest." Lord Byron.