But it is always difficult, and often impracticable, to push our advantages without a knowledge of the original. Under such a privation, the expounder or the advocate of revealed truth must trudge painfully on, yielding a blind credence to the assertion of another; and if, upon any occasion, the fidelity or the competency of his guide should happen to be suspected by himself, or impeached by others, he has no escape from the misery of suspense, or the shame of defeat. But when his acquaintance with the original enables him to measure all criticisms and glosses by that authoritative test, he can take his ground with a promptitude, and keep it with a confidence, second in value only to the ground itself.

Again. All living languages fluctuate. Old words become obsolete; new ones are coined; and of those which remain in vogue, multitudes gradually change their meaning, so as to convey in popular and even classical usage, ideas very different from what they expressed a century before. This fluctuation is extensive and rapid nearly in proportion to the varieties of industry, the competitions of skill, and the intercourse of nations. Eastern versions of the Bible suffer the least. The Eastern habits and languages being, for obvious reasons, more stable than those of the West. But from the changes which have passed upon the languages of Europe, the ver nacular versions, understood according to the present acceptation of their terms, frequently put into the mouth of the sacred writer propositions most

David Hume. The point of their satire remains unblunted, and their reply to Voltaire unanswerable; notwithstanding the epithet of " pedant" applied to their author by Mons. Voltaire's distressed editor, fortified, too, by a philosophic quibble. Vid. Oeuvres de VOLTAIRE, Tom. XLII, p. 131; 8vo. 1785. ¡ biboss L

foreign to his sense; and lead the unwary reader into false and hurtful conclusions. Strong examples might be adduced from our English Bible; but our limits forbid the detail.

Further. The art of printing has multiplied books, we had almost said, into a nuisance. The multiplication of books has, in its turn, vitiated the art of printing. It has sunk from an employment for talents and erudition, into a mere mechanical craft. The voracious demand for books rendered this unavoidable. United with the boundless circulation of the Scriptures, with the quick succession of editions, and with the low price at which the copies must be furnished for common use, it has increased the number of typographical errours beyond all count. Some of these are of such a nature as to pervert the meaning of the passage, yet to preserve grammar and sense, and to defy correction from the context. Let us mention a curious instance. In 1 Cor. vi. 4. The apostle says," If ye have judgments of things per

taining to this life, set them to judge who are least "esteemed in the Church!" One of the editions has it," set them to judge who are best esteemed." A glance at the original detects the mistake. But, setting this aside, no man could tell with certainty, whether we should read " least" or "best;" and a hundred critical arguments might have been mustered to show that the wrong reading is the better.

Besides; there are many things, and those of importance, in every language, which disappear, or rather never appear in a translation. We know that this is doubted, denied, and even laughed at by many. We cannot help it. It is the privilege of ignorance to laugh; of insincerity, to misrepresent and of captiousness, to doubt.. Leaving them in the possession of their several honours, we combine the suffrages of all candid scholars. There is a colouring, a viva

city, avigour, a comprehension, a pungency of idiom, a felicity of reference in the structure of a word or the peculiarity of a phrase, which never can be transferred. There is a clear opening of sense to an eye practised in the original, which a thick cloud mantles the moment it passes into a version. There is a precision of construction obvious to a scholar of taste, the causes of which are more a matter of feeling than of argument; and though perfectly decisive, are too delicate to be perceived by the uncultivated sense. Yet, in their effects, they tinge and beautify the whole discussion of a subject.

In conclusion. The adversaries of evangelical truth and hope, are much addicted to the practice of assailing our faith through the medium of criticism. What they want in solidity, they make up in boldness and in show. When you press them with the subject, they will criticise all your heavy matter away into the thin air of metaphor; little concerned if, in following up their principle, they criticise God himself into a figure of speech. When you press them with a plain text, they will flout at the translation, abuse the translators, and hear nothing but the original. When you produce the original, as little to their comFort as the translation, they smell a corruption in the text, and it must be purged by manuscripts; any manuscript being good enough to amend or discard an orthodox expression. When the manuscripts are rebellious, which commonly happens, unphilosophical Christians as they are, they must receive the castigation of critical acumen, i. e. the guesses of an Arian or Socinian mender of the Bible, are to sway our consciences in the question of heaven and eternal life; or we are to be degraded from the rank of rational believers to the pitiable plight of bigots, fanatics, and simpletons.

To repress this effrontery, and to shield the community from the assaults of this rabid fury; as well as to meet the several exigencies enumerated above, there is no effectual means but the living teacher skilled in the original tongues, and imbued with the correspondent learning. The times awfully demand it. And if such employment does not require a se parate profession for the ministry, and able and educated men in it, there is not, and cannot be, a human occupation to which every human being is not always and every where equally competent.

་བྱང་

SELECT SENTENCE.

Some men speak much of the imitation of Christ, and following his example; and it were well if we could see more of it really in effect. But no man shall ever become like unto him by bare imitation of his actions, without that view, or intuition of his glory, which alone is accompanied with a transforming power to change them into the same image.

Owen.

REVIEW.

ART. IV.

The excellence of the Church: a Sermon, preached at the consecration of Trinity Church, Newark, New-Jersey, by the Right Reverend Bishop Moore, on Monday, May 21, A. D. 1810. By John Henry Hobart, D. D. An Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, New-York. Published by request. New-York, T. & J. Swords, pp. 41. Svo.

(Continued from p. 459.)

IT is not the intrinsic value of this discourse, that

induced us to pay particular attention to it. Its importance, in our estimation, is derived from circumstances of another description. The station which Dr. Hobart occupies, as a minister of Trinity Church, and as the foremost of those who have stood forth to assure the world, that they possess learning and talents adequate to the defence of the Episcopal cause, confers upon himself and his writings an importance, in public estimation, which it does not becomeus tooverlook. We take an interest in every thing which can influence the religious opinions of men; and we are encouraged to hope, from the improvement which Dr. Hobart has made under the hands of the critics, that we shall be able to render him, in the course of time, at least consistent with himself, and a little more cautious in his assertions.

The sermon under review, furnishes us with some foundation for this hope. In page 23, where he ex