for we are always glad to fee an aggregation of the fentiments of learned men on any particular fubject. The writers here brought in review by bifhop N. are Selden, Walton, Johnfon (not Dr. Samuel), Pole, Wells, Blackwall, Waterland, Doddridge, J. Welley, Lowth, Pilkington, Secker, the younger Lowth, Wynne, Purver, Worfley, Durell, White, Kennicott, Green, Blayney, Geddes, Symonds, Bagot, Wakefield, Ormerod; befide fome anonymous tracts on the fame queftion. Our author concludes the chapter thus: The authors to whom I have referred are, in fome places, inconfiftent with each other; and, in fome places, they advance pofitions contrary to my own fentiments: but I have quoted writers of different characters and denominations largely and impartially. They will greatly affift the reader in fettling his judgment on that interefting fubject, the expediency of an improved biblical verfion. They furnish many folid arguments in fupport of fuch a measure; and they place the chief objections to it in various and frong points of view. Thefe objections they examine as diligently, as they reprefent them faithfully; and as far as I can difcern, they diveft them of their falfe glare, and deftroy their force.-But I go on to ftate and folve the objections particularly and methodically." This our author does in chap. 111, we think, in the moft fatisfactory manner; partly in the words of other writers, and partly in his own. The principal works he refers to, are Dr. Geddes's Profpecus and Letter to the Bishop of London; Reafons for revifing by Authority our prefent Verfion, printed at Cambridge in 1788; Confiderations on the. Expediency of revifing the Liturgy, &c. by a confiftent proteftant, London, 1790. Having anfwered the common objections to a new, or revised verfion of the Bible, the bishop adduces, in chap. IV, the arguments that show an improved verfion to be expedient-One argument,' fays our author, p. 233, for fuch a tranflation is the flux nature of living languages. The ftyle of Wicklif's verfion, and of Tindall's, differs very widely in the courfe of 148 years: and the english tongue underwent also a great change, between the publication of Tindall's Bible and that of king James's tranflation, in the course of 81 years. Since the year 1611, when the prefent verfion firft appeared, the cultivation of claffical learning, a feries of eminent writers, and the researches of acute grammarians, have communicated to our language a great degree of copioufnefs, of elegance, of accuracy, and perhaps of ftability. Many words and phrafes which occur in the received verfion are become unintelligible to the generality of readers; and many, which are intelligible, are fo antiquated and debased, as to excite difguft among the ferious, and contempt and derifion among libertines. The ftrength of the argument from this topic rifes in proportion to the frequency of fuch expreffions, and to the importance of the book, throughout which they abound.'-It is not fufficient to fuggeft, or to prove, that many or all of the exceptionable terms or phrafes, enumerated by the writers referred to, had the fanction of general use in the age of our tranflators. At prefent, fome of them convey no meaning to moft readers, and fome of them convey a wrong one. Few know that harness, Exod. xiii. 18. 1 Kings xx. 11. denotes armour; that to ear the ground means to till it; that dayfman is an umpire, &c.-I believe that, early in the 17th century, the word carriage expreffed what travellers now call call their baggage; and that to take thought fignified to be follicitous: but ftill when it is faid, 1 Sam. xvii. 22. David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage; and when, Acts xxi. 15. St. Luke fays: "We took up our carriages:" the minds of many must be warped to a modern fenfe of the words: and, which is of ferious confequence, the precept, Take no thought for the morrow, is at prefent mifunderstood by many readers; and, from the found of the words, has been cenfured by the deifts as unreasonable.' But we must not reft,' continues the good bifhop, P. 238, in removing imperfections from an authorized verfion of the fcriptures. Every pofitive excellence of ftyle and manner, every chafle ornament which the dignity of fuch a work admits, should diftinguifh a book which as much exceeds all other books as the heavens are higher than the earth. That the english translation is recommended by general excellencies of this kind, is what all muft admit: but that its recommendations are as uniform as the rules of good writing and the refined tafte of the prefent age require, is what prejudice itfelf will not affert. It may be advanced to a much higher degree of perfection by following a right punctuation of the original, by a regular orthography, by a natural and pleafing collocation of the words, by ftrict grammatical purity, and by additional perfpicuity, fimplicity, elegance, dignity, and energy. These properties have charms for the wife and for the unwife; fince, according to Tully's obfervation, how widely foever men differ in executing any kind of compofition, it is wonderful how fimilar an effect perfection produces on all, and how it attracts their attention and commands their applause...... But we should be certain that we have difcovered religious truth, before we exert our utmost efforts to reprefent it under every poffible advantage and therefore it is by far the higheft confideration, whether our public verfion exhibits the true reading and fenfe of the divine original. It is granted that it's interpretations, as well as it's ftyle, may be allowed great merit, confidering the time when it was executed. But fince that period the biblical apparatus has been much enriched by the publication of polyglots; of the Samaritan pentateuch; of ancient and modern verfions; of lexicons, concordances, critical differtations and fermons; books of eaftern travels; difquifitions on the geography, cuftoms, and natural hiftory of the eaft; accurate tables of chronology, coins, weights, and measures. Many Hebrew and Samaritan MSS. many early printed editions of the Hebrew fcriptures, have been collated by Kennicott and De Roffi; the eastern languages, which have so close an affinity with the Hebrew, have been induftriously cultivated at home and abroad; the Maforetic punctuation is now ranked among ufeful affiftances, but is no longer implicitly followed; and the Hebrew text itfelf is generally allowed to be corrupt in many places, and therefore capable of emendation by the fame methods which are used in reftoring the integrity of all other ancient books. With fuch an acceffion of helps, with light poured in from every part of the literary world, with fuch important principles, and with the advancement of critical skill to apply them, it is natural to conclude that many mistakes and obfcurities may be removed from the prefent verfion, and that the precifion, beauty, and emphafis of the original may be communicated to it in various places.' The The laft chapter of this work contains the bishop's rules for conducting an improved verfion of the Bible. These are the fame that were before published in his preface to his verfion of the minor prophets; but here corrected, and enlarged with many remarks, both of the author, and of other writers on the fame fubject; efpecially thofe of latter times. To the greater number of these rules almost all bible critics, we think, will affent; but fome few of them will probably be difputed, efpecially by thofe who, with Caftalio, Houbigant, Michaëlis, Dathé, the latter Swedish and Pruffian tranflators, and Dr. Geddes, think a ftrictly fentential verfion preferable to a ftrictly literal one. We will not enter into this question; but recommend the perufal of bifhop N.'s book to all those who wish to form a proper idea of it: fo much the more, as he has fairly and candidly fet before his reader the ftate of the cafe, with his ufual uncommon modefty. These rules,' fays he, are fubmitted to the learned with much deference, that the wifdom of the many may correct the imperfect ideas of an individual.' The volume concludes with a list of various editions of the bible, and parts thereof, in English, from the year 1526 to 1776.-This lift is not fo ample as that prefixed to bifhop Wilfon's bible: but both are incomplete; and a more accurate one, we learn, is now preparing for the prefs. We alfo give notice to thofe who read bifhop N.'s lift, that all the editions which he marks as being in the poffeffion of Dr. Gifford, are now in the baptist museum-library of Bristol. ART. IX. The Tranflator of Pliny's Letters vindicated from the Objections of Jacob Bryant, Efq. to his Remarks refpecting Trajan's Perfecution of the Chriftians in Bithynia. By William Melmoth, Efq. 8vo. 39 pages. Price is 6d. Dodfley. 1794. WITH all the refpect due to an eminent veteran in literature, we hail the occafion which calls Mr. Melmoth, after an interval of many years, to revifit the fchool, of which he has long been, by the unanimous fuffrage of the public, an emeritus profeffor. The fubject on which he writes is important, and he treats it in a manner worthy of his elegant pen. Mr. Bryant, in his late treatife on the truth of the Chriftian religion, had objected to the opinion advanced by Mr. M. in a note annexed to his tranflation of one of Pliny's letters concerning the chriftians, that their perfecution under Trajan was not owing to any arbitrary and cruel temper in the emperor, but was grounded on the ancient conftitution of the state, and had called in queftion the fufficiency of the authority which he had quoted from Livy to establish his point. The principal grounds of Mr. Bryant's objections are, that the police of Rome could not affect the people of Bithynia or of Pontus: and the ancient chriftians, inftead of nobly daring at all hazards, to render themselves obnoxious by a wilful oppofition to the law, rofe before day-light, met in fecret to avoid giving offence, and were guilty of no breach of law in affembling together; that neither Pliny nor Trajan accufe them of any crime against the ftate; that, ufing no forms, ceremonies, or facrifices, they did not violate the ancient laws mentioned by Livy; that they had no ceremonies of which they could be juftly accufed, and introduced no new gods; and laftly, that they could not not render themselves obnoxious by refusing to join in communion with the established worship, as neither the romans nor greeks had any uniform mode of worship or ritual, like thofe of the christian churches, to which people were obliged to fubfcribe, the people being at liberty to serve all, or none of the received deities, without hazard of penalty or difgrace. The fubftance of Mr. M.'s reply, is as follows: Mr. Bryant has offered no proof, that the famous Senatus Confultum Marcianum, to which the quotation from Livy alludes, was repealed, or was confined to Italy or that no other law of the ancient republic was in force in Bithynia. It is evident, from various inftances in the tenth book of Pliny's Epiftles, that Trajan ruled the provinces of Bithynia and Pontus by ancient laws, and the conftitutions of his predeceffors, and not by capricious defpotifm. See Ep. x. 83, 84, 115, 116, 74, 78. Though it must be admitted, that there were many officia, antelucana, which might bring people abroad at different hours before day-light, without the leaft hazard of rendering themselves amenable to the magiftrate; it is not proved that the chriftians affembled fecretly in the night. It was an invariable principle of the roman legiflature to prevent unlicenfed affemblies, efpecially in the night. Ancient laws were inftituted against fuch meetings. Dio. Hal. iv. 43. Taylor's Elements of Civil Law, p. 569. They were prohibited by Trajan, Ep. x. 44, 118, 94. There were then laws against meeting together, at the time and under the circumftances mentioned. Cic. de Leg. ii. 3. Though every mode of facrificial worship was abolished by chriflianity, and therefore the chriftians could not be accused of performing any actual rites of that kind, yet the roman government, which had always been upon it's guard against religious innovations, could not but look with a jealous eye upon the clandeftine aflemblies of the chriftians, especially as they were confidered merely as a novel fect of jews, and as the facred functions performed in their nocturnal affemblies were expreffed in terms appropriated to the roman ritual, and were commemorative of an actual facrifice. The ceremonies of their Eucharift vifibly diftinguished it from a common repaft, as appears from their own declaration, related by Pliny. Ep. x. 97. Though the roman ritual did not refemble that of the chriftian church, a religious teft was required of thofe who were accused of being chriftians, namely, that they fhould join with the magiftrates in worshipping the gods, and offering incenfe to Trajan's ftatue. Ep. 16. The ancient romans had an established religion, guarded by the twelve tables, and fubfequent ftatutes. The confuls, even to the time of Trajan, never opened the bufinefs of a general affembly of the people, without previously invoking the national gods, by a folemn and appointed form of fupplication, in which the whole affembly joined. Nor could any perfon, unless by a special licence, deviate in his public or private worship, from the authorized ritual, with impunity. In fome cafes, an actual conformity, in the nature of a teft, was required, as in that of the chriftians, mentioned by Pliny and in the law appointed by Auguftus, which required all fenators, before they took their places, to qualify themselves, by offering frankincenfe and wine upon the altars of thofe gods in whofe temple they met; a ceremony which could not be evaded; the roman fenate always affembling in fome confecrated place. Liv. xxxviii. 49. xxxix. 15. Cic. pro Murena in prin. Plin. : Paneg. Parieg. c. 1. Sueton. in Vit. Auguft. 35. The adminiftration of public and private worthip was regulated by public authority. The functions of the pontifex maximus and his colleagues, which were continued through all the changes of the roman government, were of this kind. Liv. i. 2. The profperity of the nation was fuppofed to depend upon the precife difcharge of it's inftituted rites. Cic. Orat. de Harufp. Refpon. On the whole, the juft and evident conclufion is, that the ecclefiaftical laws of Rome guarded the religion of the ftate by the feverest prohibition against every kind of deviation from it's ancient ordinances. It was not the emperor and the proconful, but the ancient and established laws of the land, that were oppreffive and cruel to the devoted and innocuous converts in that province. In fact, Trajan ordained no new edict concerning them; and agreeably to that lenity which diftinguished his government in every part of his extenfive empire, he forbad Pliny to receive anonymous informations, or to moleft them by official profecutions. Benignity indeed was fo eminently confpicuous among the more fplendid qualities of his princely virtues, that it became an invariable cuftom during many fubfequent centuries after his death, to add to the usual votive acclamations on the acceffion of a new emperor, fis melior Trajano! Eutrop. viii. 5. k Mr. M., on account of his age, declines entering into any further controverfy on this subject: 'and concludes with a happy application of an ancient anecdote. P. 34. Poftfcript.- Polemical writers are apt to carry on the debate with fo much petulant intemperance, that the queftion feems ultimately to be, which of the difputants fhall have the honour of the laft word. The author of the prefent defence difclaims all ambition of that kind; and no reply, from whatever hand it may come, fhall induce him to advance a step farther in the controverfy. It was, indeed, with the utmost regret that he was conftrained, by a very unprovoked attack, to enter into it; and he could not but confider himfelf, upon that occafion, as in circumftances in feveral refpects fimilar to thofe of a certain veteran actor of ancient Rome*, who having in his declining years retired from the theatre, and being compelled by Cæfar, in the last period of his days, to re-appear upon the stage, addreffed the audience in a fuitable prologue, which concludes with thefe elegant and very appofite lines: Ut hedera ferpens vires arboreas necat, Ita me vetuftas amplexu annorum enecat : ART. X. The Age of Reafon, being an Investigation of True and Fabulous MR. PAINE's power of commanding public attention on important fubjects has been more than once proved beyond all contradiction. When he gives the world his thoughts on religion, it is in vain to expect, that either contemptuous filence, or coercive prohibition, will *Laberius. Vid. Macrob. Saturn. 11. 7. pre |