one so heterogeneous at first, and now so long out of use, as the Greek of the New Testament. Veneration, also, that is due to writings divinely inspired, induced our translators rather to leave the sense ambiguous or obscure, where they found it so, than to avail themselves of the liberty of conjecture or paraphrase. This characteristic of our version is frequently attended with perplexity, and, if not attended to, with mistake. Yet it may be improved to some advantage; as, while it calls for the stronger exertion of our faculties, it affords them the greater scope, in ascertaining the primitive signification of the sacred writings. Nothing is more remote from the design of these remarks, than to depreciate the value of the Bible in common use among us. A translation is the only medium by which the inestimable revelation of God's will can become generally known in any nation now on the face of the earth. We, as a people, are obliged to thankfulness for the enjoyment of this mercy in a superior degree to most others that profess Christianity. The best evidence of that disposition is to make a suitable and effectual improvement of the trust committed to us. The way to do this is, not to content ourselves with the sound of a few passages of Scripture, but to spare no efforts to comprehend the grand and connected meaning of the whole. We must not only be on our guard against adopting religious sentiments without reading the Scriptures which are thus put into our hands, but we must avoid forming a hasty and immature judgment, from a careless and desultory perusal of them. From what has been suggested respecting the dissim ilitude of the terms and phrases of different languages, the present obscurity of those in which the Scriptures were originally recorded, and the proper character of our own version of them, it is hoped that the danger of depending upon the apparent meaning of detached texts and insulated expressions, will be sufficiently clear. A serious, humble, and devout attention to all that precedes and follows them, in the division of Scripture to which they belong, can alone, in most instances, fix their genuine sense. If the certainty of this observation be still doubted, the reader may easily satisfy himself by looking into any two comments upon some important portion of the word of God, the authors of which are known to have differed materially in sentiment: and he may be still more informed and convinced upon the subject, by comparing the opposite arguments of almost any two writers in religious controversy. Of the latter, however, with very few exceptions, it may be proper to warn the reader against making farther use. The temper and conduct of persons, whose minds have been heated and warped by the violence of party zeal, may answer a similar purpose with the Spartan exhibition of inebriated slaves, by associating ideas of disgust with the wilful divesture of reason. But, of all modes of pursuing religious truths, the most unpromising is the perusal of such writers as use the Bible only to accumulate detached sentences out of it. Any one of them, most probably, when taken by itself, may signify one thing or another: and when the writer has arranged and connected the whole of them according to his own fancy or interest, it is hard indeed if he cannot deduce or infer from them any VOL. III. * 2 thing he pleases. The only candid controversialists are those who argue from the necessary import of any text as fixed by the context; and this, it is hoped, the reader will be enabled to determine for himself, in a more safe and profitable manner, if the object of these remarks is accomplished. In speaking above, of the division of Scripture to which any particular text belongs, I adverted to the entire book of history, prophecy, or epistolary instruction, in which the passage is found. If the laboriousness of such an examination appears alarming, it will not be denied that the end to be obtained deserves all possible application. But this seeming discouragement will probably vanish, when it is considered, that, for this purpose, it is not a perpetual reference, to the whole book for the explanation of every incidental text that is recommended as expedient, but a continued perusal of the several inspired books; so that, when a part of any one of them is in question, the judgment of its meaning may be assisted by a familiarity with the complete portion from which it has been taken. It may be of advantage to read each distinct book of the scriptures repeatedly, before proceeding to the next; in order to be certain what was the leading view of the inspired penman, when influenced to compose it. To discover this, it should be read throughout with as little interruption or delay as relative circumstances and adequate attention will permit. The subject to which the writer most constantly adheres, or to which he most frequently returns, will aid the reader to interpret occasional digressions and ambiguous phrases. If this fixed point, like the polar star, be kept in view, we shall understand where we are, and what directions we have to take, in every part of our course. The pains we were at in settling with due solid ty, our judgment in the first instance will also serve as a foundation to rest upon in attending to subsequent parts of revelation. Nor will the future superstructure be unlikely to repay the support by adding to the consolidation of our early decisions. And, when the various books of Divine scripture become, as it were, confronted, by a just discrimination of their respective similarities and differences, they will reflect a reciprocal light, by which some parts may be illustrated, even after they had been given up as irrevocably obscure. This will especially be probable if a close attention be paid to those hints of the chronological order of writings and facts, and of the geographical disposition of places and countries, with which the various books of the Old and New Testaments mostly abound. The book of Kings, and the Acts of the Apostles, will, in this view, be the best key to the prophetic and epistolary divisions. Much latent information and evidence will likewise be mutually afforded by a comparison of the several prophecies and epistles. among themselves, grounded, not upon their casual places in our Bibles,but upon the order in which they may be arranged by the historical facts to which they refer. In following the connected narrative or argument of each book, an almost insurmountable obstacle occurs in the divisions, so long and universally adopted, of chapters and verses. This distribution, it is well known, was first occasioned by the want of some method of reference to particular expressions of scripture; and has gradually assumed its present form, more by accident than contrivance. It has produced such a metamorphosis in the sacred books, and made them so much like one another, and so unlike themselves, that it is diffi cult for a common reader to conceive that they were ever otherwise; or for any body to figure to himself what they would appear to be, if not deranged by so unnatural an analysis. The most beautiful statue, if hacked into fifty pieces, and those again broken into morsels, would scarcely be restored to its pristine dignity and beauty with greater difficulty. Considerable help would probably be afforded to a sincere and studious inquirer after scriptural knowledge, by an edition of the Bible, corrected from the common version, were it indispensably necessary for clearness or justice, with the books arranged suitably to their apparent dates, and those which are poetical distinguished by lines, according to the Hebrew MSS. as in Lowth's Isaiah; admitting no subdivisions but such paragraphs as the sense required; and printed, perhaps with a very few notes, in a size and form adapted to general circulation. Farther hints upon this subject are precluded by necessary limitations. It may possibly be resumed in another place, with a view to the application of our stated opportunities of public worship to the same important purpose. ON THE HISTORICAL PART OF THE SCRIPTURES. THE Holy Scriptures are a most invaluable treasure: they are a celestial light, shining in this dark world. Without them the most polished people on earth would be like the Egyptians, under the plague of darkness: |