improperly put for the person, Mammon-the god who was invoked and served, in order to procure it. And who would talk of serving wealth, on any common occasion?

Ch. viii. ver. 17. 'He took away our infirmities and removed our diseases.' The text referred to here, is Isa. liii. 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.' Applied by Matthew, in the Common Translation, thus: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.' It is clear, from the context, that the application intended a person suffering with, or instead of, another not one merely healing by some art or power of his own, himself at ease! The attempt to pervert this text reminds me of having seen the whole fifty-third of Isaiah criticised, in a periodical publication, as an Eastern Elegy on some public character deceased, of whose history we have not the particulars :' but we must allow an Evangelist to know better.

Ver. 27. obey him?'

'What great man is this, that even the winds and the sea

Would these have obeyed him as man, though never so great? The C. T. implies at least the commission of a prophet. The Greek is avros, this one, with оTαTоç qualis; implying a doubt whether it were man at all. Ch. x. 13. And if the house be worthy, let your wish of peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your wish of peace return to yourselves.'

Why? The wish' was already uttered in the words of salutation: and surely, the ειρηνη of the text implies more than a compliment. And what were their own good wishes to themselves? But let us see further, ver. 40— 42. In the former place the preacher is taught his duty towards the members of a family, that should receive him :-here, the family are told that whatsoever they should do for the preacher, in personal service and in furtherance of the object of his mission, (for both are included in the words ' in the name of a prophet,') it should be recompensed with a share in his reward-in his present peace of mind, his future blessings.

Matt. xi. 27. All things have been delivered unto me by my Father(a): and no one knoweth the Son (b) but the Father; neither knoweth any one the Father, but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son chooseth to reveal him.'

Notes. (a.) 'That is, all things relating to my Father's will, have been communicated to me;' John viii. 28; xii. 49. Bishop Pearce.

(b.) The meaning is, that no one but the Father can fully comprehend the object and extent of the Son's commission, and no one but the Son comprehends the counsels and designs of the Father, with respect to the instruction and reformation of mankind.'

The first note is unsatisfactory: it is not in respect of the understanding merely, but of power to rule the appetites and affections, and to worship God in spirit, that Jesus says, (John xiv. 6,) I am the way, and the truth, and the life.' See also the doctrine of the Word in John i. 1—5.

The former part of the second note is not inappropriate; but the latter

is inadequate to the sense; as not comprehending the union of believers with Christ as 'one spirit;' 1 Cor. vi. 17, and their edification in Him.

Matt. xii. 22. Then was brought to him one who had a demon, blind and dumb and Jesus cured him, so that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.'

The two who had demons (ch. viii. v. 28,) are set down without ceremony in the note as madmen. But to be blind and dumb are not insanity, in the common acceptation of the term. Here we have the demon obstructing the use of the organs of sight and speech-an effect also of paralysis; and in that case permanent.

Our critics have prudently, here, let the text alone! Jesus himself (of whom they had just before admitted, in xi. 27, that he was in full possession of the counsels of God towards mankind) clearly recognizes a spiritual being, as the cause of the obstruction, or as the agent in it; and he affirms, in verse 28, in opposition to the charge of magic, (or of doing this cure by demoniacal authority,) that he cast out devils by the Spirit of GOD. More than this, he asserts for the very children of the accusers, who had become his disciples, the like power for the like operation; according to his charge to them, x. 8, 9, in the words of our versionists as follows, 'Cure the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: ye have received of free bounty, give of free bounty.'

Ver. 33. Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit.'

I should have expected a different rendering here, in an improved version.' Either represent the tree as good, when its fruit is so; or make the tree corrupt, together with its fruit.

Par. Be consistent in your malice: do not attribute that, which you must own to be good in effect, to a cause so eminently evil. The Satan would be known by his tormenting, not by his healing acts. If I therefore cast out the inferior spirits, which torment mankind, it is plain that I am against him and above him: for he would not destroy his own kingdom by his own acts. And let even your sons, who are with me, decide this question for us: them you would not choose to brand with the infamy of magic; yet they also cast out devils, and that by the power of God.

Ch. xiii. 38, 39. He who soweth the good seed is the Son of God: and the field is the world: and the good seed are the sons of the kingdom: and the tares are the sons of the evil one: and the enemy who sowed them is the devil (a): and the harvest is the end of the age: and the reapers are the angels.'

(a) Note. The principle of evil personified. Sons of the evil one' are wicked men. Such in the Old Testament are called sons of Belial, or worthlessness, i. e. worthless men, 1 Sam. ii. 12; 1 Kings xxi. 10. See 2 Cor. vi. 15.'

It is true that the particle is found in the Greek, authorizing these ands: but the version is clearly disimproved by retaining them. Now as to the devil whom, as a person, our Editors seem resolved never to become acquainted with, not even for their good: but how shall we know his 'depths' and his 'wiles,' without it? There is, however, something in the

acknowledgment of so much as a principle of evil: which principle the whole New Testament personifies; both in One, a leader of supereminent power and malice, and in many separate spirits; the agents, with a conscious and a willing service, in the design of man's everlasting ruin, and the laying waste of Christ's kingdom on earth; and, so far as they might then prevail, in heaven itself. Shall we credit this doctrine, and put ourselves on our guard as against personal insinuations and assaults? Or shall we dream that it is all the fruit of imagination in ourselves and others;' and sleep on-the sleep of death?

Ch. xiv. 33. Then those who were in the ship came and did him obeisance, saying, Truly thou art a Son of God.'

Here is the indefinite article interpolated, (according to the text in my Oxford Testament, of 1742,) yet not put in italics: and on what an occasion! Surely, if in any case our Lord was to be addressed as the Son of God, it was here: and with regard to the change, of worship to obeisance,' we must recollect that anciently the same term stood for both (see Luke xiv. 10) and as our Translators have there stumbled on the higher sense in a case of respect, the Editors here prefer the lower, in a case of the most profound reverence. The disciples came and bowed down before Christ-the words show in what disposition. In the want of this, have the Editors before thrown out of this book the account of his divine origin; and now seek to deprive him of this acknowledgment of it, nade under the fullest impressions of the power of the Godhead dwelling in Him, in all its fulness, bodily! See John viii. 42.

Ch. xv. Then she came and did him obeisance.' The same verb in the Greek as before; and the sense kneeled to him.' She was a Canaanite, and had yet full faith in Christ as a Divine person: and she obtained the dislodgment of the demon from her child.

Ch. xvi. 5. The disciples had omitted to take bread with them to the other side of the water, and would now have occasion to make it for themselves. In the consultation which ensues about it, our Lord, who had been reflecting on what had passed just before with the professors of religion of the age, comes in after his wonted manner with some doctrine, applicable to the circumstances they were in. He gives them a caution, under the figure of leaven, against the maxims of these-a caution likely to be the better remembered by being connected with an actual need of the 'Be neither superstitious as are those Pharisees-nor unbelievers, like the Sadducees whom we have left behind.'

moment.

Ch. xvi. ver. 16. Then Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Of what use was it to foist in the a before, when the definite article is here in the Greek?

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Ver. 23. Get thee behind me, thou adversary.' Very properly changed from Satan, as it stands in the com. version: the term being used in its simple and literal acceptation, as explained by what follows, (in this) Thou art a snare unto me.'

Ch. xviii. 3. Unless ye be changed, and become as little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.'

There is a reference to the margin of Newcome's version, on the word

'changed: Newcome paraphrases thus, Lay aside your notions of temporal greatness in my kingdom.' In both, the doctrine of conversion, upheld in the Com. Trans. is attempted, but vainly, to be set aside!

Mark i. 1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.' The definite article put in, against their own system, there being no article in the Greek; but they balance it by the note, ' a son of God.' Ver. 13. 'And he was tempted by Satan forty days:' on which we have this note: i. e. he was exposed to various trials for the discipline of his mind.' And how were these conducted? By the temptations of Satan, as before. Thus we get nothing by the explanation.

Ver. 35. And in the morning he rose up, while much of the night remained, and went out :'-Literally from the Greek, and without interpolations thus. And very early, in the dark of the morning, rising up, he went out.' The language of the common version is the best.

Ch. ii. 22. As a specimen of improved rendering, take this. And no man putteth new wine into old skins: otherwise the [new] wine bursteth the skins, and the wine is spilled, and the skins will be marred but new wine must be put into new skins.'

The application of this doctrine to set fastings, ceremonial works, and tithes and offerings, under the New Covenant, is not so often made as it might be, in the comments and discourses of Christian pastors and teachers upon this and other passages.

Ch. vi. 5, 6. And he would not do any mighty work there, [at Nazareth,] except that he put hands upon a few sick, and cured them. And he wondered because of their unbelief.' The change to 'would' from 'could' is most unhappy. The miracles of Christ and his apostles were the appointed means of confirming a belief in his mission: but they plainly required a measure of faith (with a few exceptions found in acts of free and sovereign grace) in the subjects. The faith of the Nazarenes had decayed by reason of worldly-mindedness: they had become familiar by report with the mighty works wrought by his hands; and were not in a disposition to receive him as the Son of God.' Once at home, the despised 'carpenter, the son of Mary,' (here is proof, again, of his not being Joseph's,) was actually excluded from doing any but mere benevolent miracles; while his doctrine was wondered at, and neglected. How many of the preachers of it have since had the same humiliation to go through!

Ver. 27. And then he will send his messengers, and will gather together his chosen from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of heaven.'

'Angels' and 'elect' are put in a note as Newcome's, why not in the text. The Scriptural term for the messenger from God to man, and for the man whom God, having proved and found worthy, hath chosen, are here dropt: I conclude, because in neither case could the Editors own the doctrine!

(To be continued.)

THE

YORKSHIREMAN,

A

RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY JOURNAL.

BY A FRIEND.

No. CVIII.

ART. I.-Remarks on an Improved Version of the NEW TESTAMENT, edited by the Unitarian Book Society, 1808.' Royal 8vo., with Notes.

(Continued from page 176.)

Mark xiii. 32. But of that day or hour none knoweth; no, not the angels that are in heaven, nor the Son; but the Father.'

I shall insert here a note which I have characterized in my interleaved copy as the climax of our Editors' daring on the subject !'

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'Nor the Son. Ambrose cites MSS. which omit this clause, and complains that it was introduced by the Arians. But all MSS. and versions now extant retain it, and it is cited by early writers. It proves that Christ is not God, because his knowledge is limited. Nor can it be inferred from the climax that he is a superangelic being. All the instruments by which Divine Providence executes its purposes [what does this convey to us as relates to the gospel?] are called angels: and angels are represented as ministers of Christ, and subject to his orders, at the destruction of Jerusalem. Prophets are said to do what they are commissioned to predict. See Jer. i. 10. Thus Christ is said to have destroyed Jerusalem, and angels are represented as acting under him, when perhaps nothing more is intended than that Christ predicted the event which God in the course of his providence brought to pass.'

'Christ [as they choose to take it, though the text relates to the Son] is not God, because his knowledge is limited.' That is to say, God having been pleased to take our nature upon him, and in that nature and in character of the Son, professing not to know that which the Father hath kept in his own power-is, therefore, no more God! Again, the Son is here placed, as in other Scriptures, above the angels that are in heaven; above

VOL. V.

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