tion, to make the necessary provision for carrying on the worship and service of God here, anxious that both himself, his family, and connexions, as well as the neighbourhood in general, might enjoy the privilege of an evangelical ministry.

"Whilst our deceased friend afforded such important assistance to the cause of religion at home; he, at the same time, extended his service to other places likewise. He was a large contributor towards the erection of various places of worship in the more immediate neighbourhood; and, by different means, he encouraged the cause of evangelical religion, throughout this county at large. And, indeed, by his liberal contributions to Sabbath Schools, Public Seminaries, Bible and Missionary Societies, and for the erection of Chapels, &c. he afforded considerable support to the cause more generally throughout the country, and also in the more distant parts of the world.

"Although Mr. Welman's attention, as might be expected, was chiefly directed to the cause of evangelical truth among Dissenters; yet, at the same time, he was always ready to assist in promoting it in the Established Church also. He rejoiced when pious, holy, and devoted men of God were appointed to labour in the church; and it was not long since, that he himself gladly embraced the opportunity of filling up a vacant living which was in his own gift, by the appointment of a Clergyman of that description as the Incumbent.

"Our deceased friend felt the genuine influence of religion, and regularly practised its duties: he might be naturally expected, therefore, to enjoy more or less of its consolations. These he did enjoy. Few persons have passed

a more tranquil and peaceful life than he. It cannot be doubted, that his affluent circumstances, his pious and amiable connexions, and his own cheerful disposition, were sources of considerable pleasure to him; and, no doubt, he felt his obligation to the God of his mercies for them: but he had other sources of enjoyment besides these; and such as were far superior, both in their nature and their results. He had the means of doing good; and he enjoyed the luxury of it: and the blessing of them that were ready to perish came upon him' in return. In his service to his God and his generation, he enjoyed a satisfaction and a delight which could not be obtained from any other source whatever. In that service he secured the approbation of his own conscience, the esteem of the wise and good of his fellow-creatures, and, above all, the special tokens of the Divine approbation and favour.

"Our late venerable friend, during the last three or four years, had sustained several severe attacks of illness, so that his health and strength had considerably declined; but from the prior goodness of his constitution, and the remarkable recoveries he had lately experienced, a hope was entertained by his friends, that his valuable life might yet be protracted for some time to come: but it has pleased the All-wise Disposer of all things to prevent that hope from being realized.

sible, and appeared to know every one that entered the room.

"What he did say was quite satisfactory. The subject that he chiefly dwelt upon, was the fittest and best that could be preferred at such a time. Mercy! Mercy! Mercy! were some of his last expressions: as if he would satisfy his weeping attendants that he had already obtained mercy; that he still felt his need of mercy; and that he was soon going to that happy state where he should enjoy all the blessed fruits of mercy, and celebrate the praises of mercy for ever and ever. "On being asked if he was happy, he replied, Yes, very happy; quite happy.' This was enough. There could be no deception under such circumstances. Soon after this, he heaved one deep sigh, and then sunk quietly away, without a struggle or a groan. So easy was his dis

mission, that his kind and attentive lady and her beloved sister and brother, who were supporting him, did not know, for some little time, that he had breathed his last-that he had fallen asleep. Thus departed our venerable friend; who is come to his grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.' His end was, indeed, peace! Who does

not wish to die the death of this righteous man; and that his last end may be like his !"

Of the family connexions of Mr. Welman it would be unnecessary, and, perhaps, indelicate to speak, had he not, by his devotedness to the welfare of our churches," made every incident relating to his character and household interesting to the dissenting public. He was twice married: by the first marriage he was blessed with two children- -a son, baptized by the Rev. S. Lavington, who died young, and a lovely daughter, eminent for her piety, and a member of the church at Fulwood; who was united in marriage to Charles Noel Noel, Esq. M.P. (the present Lord Barham) but who, in 1811, resigned her to the arms of death, while travelling from London to Falmouth, where they had designed to embark for Madeira, with the hope of restoring her to health by the voyage.

Mr. Welman's second union was to the Honourable Miss Noel, sister to Lord Barham, and the excellent Clergymen of that name. She lives to lament her loss, and to train her son, and only child, in the principles of his sainted father. May he inherit and illustrate them all!

To few writers of the present age is the theological and critical reader more indebted than to the Rev. Dr. Hales, of Trinity College, Dublin. His "New Analysis of Chronology," which appeared in 1811, and following years-contains an immense mass of most valuable learning-not

merely relating to chronology, but to all matters of a biblical nature. In the second volume of this work, pp. 905, 906, he has given his opinion, that the verse in question is spurious. Six years after this, however, Dr. Hales declared himself," at length perfectly satisfied of the authenticity and credibility

of the disputed clause, from a more critical view of the whole of the evidence, external and internal, for and against it."

The work in which this second opinion is avowed, is his "Faith in the Holy Trinity, the Doctrine of the Gospel," &c. London, 1818. 2 vols. 8vo. Second thoughts are sometimes best, and the learned Doctor has an undoubted right to change his mind, on obtaining another view of the evidence from what he formerly had. But I cannot help expressing my surprise, that a man of the cool and accurate mind of Dr. Hales, should avow so strongly his entire satisfaction of the authenticity of the passage, without being able to place the evidence on which that opinion is founded more satisfactorily before his readers.

In the second volume of this learned work on the Trinity, for learned it is, though I cannot assent to various parts of it, there is a dissertation of one hundred pages on the disputed verse. In the course of the discussion contained in it, Dr. Hales travels over a great part of the ground, without saying any thing new, or placing the old argument in a more forcible light. He also commits some very considerable mistakes in parts of his statement. Speaking of Griesbach's account of the Greek MSS. of the New Testament, he says,

Deducting several manuscripts that are either mutilated, or imperfect in this place, he counts 146, that omit the clause, as collated either by himself, or by others; namely, Simon, Wetstein, Matthai, Blanchini, Birch, Lamy, Porson, Marsh, Clarke, Goldhagen, Sinner, and Travis; and he thus closes the account:

"I may venture to assert confidently, that there is no Greek manuscript, extant in Europe, in

which the seventh verse is read. For if such was any where found, a treasure so rare, and desirable would have been brought to light long ago.'

"But of these 146 manuscripts, there are no more than two, of the oldest class, namely, the Alexandrine A, and the Vatican B, that omit the clause; for the Ephrem C, is mutilated in this place, and the Cambridge D, the Laudian E, and Coislinian F, do not contain the Catholic Epistles. The rest are comparatively modern; none, probably, older than the ninth century, and many of much later date.

"The entire number of manuscripts, wholly or partly collated hitherto, does not much exceed 400; and these bear but a small proportion to those that have not been collated in the several libraries of Europe. There are many manuscripts in uncial letters, in the different libraries of Italy, which have never been collated.. Of the numbers in the Vatican library, only thirty-four have been collated. And since the death of Asseman, the celebrated Orientalist and Librarian of the Vatican, the difficulty of access to the manuscripts is so great, as to make it almost impossible for a critic to derive, at present, any advantage from them. It is strictly forbidden, not only to copy, but even to collate them. In the 1783, the Abbé Spoletti__presented a memorial to the Pope, requesting permission to print the whole of the celebrated Codex Vaticanus. He was referred, according to the usual routine, to the Inquisition; whose permission was refused, under the plea, that • the

year

Codex Vaticanus differed from the Vulgate, and might, therefore, if made known to the public, be prejudicial to the interests of the Christian religion.'

"In the Florence library alone, are at least a thousand Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, two of which are of the Apocalypse; of these only twenty

four have been collated.

"In the Royal Library of Paris, are 202 manuscripts, of which only 49 have been collated. See Marsh's Notes to Michaelis, vol. 2. p. 612-647.

"Griesbach, therefore, has hazarded an unguarded, and unfounded assertion, even with respect to the libraries of Europe. And how many ancient and valuable manuscripts may lie buried in the libraries of Constantinople, it is impossible to judge. That there are many, indeed, appears from the accounts given by the Abbé Toderini, in his Letteratura Turchesca, published at Venice in 1787, in 3 vols. 8vo. The Pope and the Mufti are equally adverse to the publication of hidden treasure so rare, and so desirable,' to the Christian world."*

Passing over other mistakes in this passage, there is one SO perfectly absurd, that it is surprising Dr. Hales should not have perceived it. He gravely asserts, that in the Florence library alone there are at least a thousand manuscripts of the New Testament." And he as gravely refers to Michaelis for this fact. It is surprising it did not occur to Dr. Hales, that it is not generally believed that there are a thousand manuscripts of the Greek Testament in existence in all the world. The truth is, Michaelis, in the passage referred to, is speaking of Greek manuscripts in general, which Dr. Hales, by an unfortunate mistake, applies to the New Testament in particular. The whole of his hypothetical argu

* Vol. II. pp. 185-137.

ment, therefore, is at once swept away. Instead of there being many uncollated manuscripts, there is reason to believe, that there are comparatively few which

have not been examined for evidence on this very passage; and all, with the exceptions that are so well known, and so little regarded, are against it.

Towards the conclusion of his dissertation, he expresses his confidence, that "it will be found exhaustive of the subject, and set the controversy at rest in future."* In this the learned Doctor has already found himself to be mistaken. The controversy still goes on, and must continue to do so, till evidence is adduced of a very different kind in favour of the verse, from what has ever yet been brought forward.

The next work I have to mention takes the opposite side from Dr. Hales, and is in all respects worthy of the critical learning and acumen of its author. His former labours on the subject have been already noticed. In the sixth part of Dr. Marsh's (now Bishop of Peterborough) Course of Theological Lectures, as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, which appeared in 1822, his Lordship again refers to this controversy, as affecting the credibility of the New Testament. He shows, as I conceive, with considerable force of argument and ingenuity, "that if it be true in regard to the disputed passage, that the ancient Greek manuscripts, which have descended to the present age, with the works of the ancient Greek Fathers, and the manuscripts of the ancient versions, the oldest of the Latin versions not excepted, have descended to us in a mutilated state, there is an end to that security,

*P. 225.

which is derived from their mutual agreement, for the integrity of the New Testament in all other places. And we are brought at length into this dilemma; either to relinquish a part, or abandon the whole."

After noticing its absence from all the ancient Greek manuscripts and Fathers, he thus endeavours to account for its introduction. "At the end of the fourth century, the celebrated Latin Father, Augustin, who wrote ten treatises on the First Epistle of St. John, in all of which we seek in vain for the seventh verse of the fifth chapter, was induced, in his Controversy with Maximin, to compose a gloss upon the eighth verse. Augustin gives it professedly as a gloss upon the words of the eighth verse, and shows, by his own reasoning, that the seventh verse did not then exist. The high character of Augustin in the Latin Church soon gave celebrity to his gloss; and, in a short time, it was generally adopted. It appeared indeed under different forms; but it was still the gloss of Augustin, though variously modified. The gloss having once obtained credit in the Latin Church, the possessors of Latin manuscripts began to note it in the margin, by the side of the eighth verse. Hence the oldest of those Latin manuscripts which have the passage in the margin, have it in a different hand from that of the text. In later manuscripts we find margin and text in the same hand; for transcribers did not venture immediately to move it into the body of the text, though in some it is interlined, but interlined by a later hand. After the eighth century the insertion became general. For Latin manuscripts written after that period, have generally, though not always, the passage in the body of the

N. S. No. 56.

text. Further, when the seventh verse made its first appearance in the Latin manuscripts, it appeared in as many different forms as there were forms to the gloss upon the eighth verse. And though it now precedes the eighth verse, it followed the eighth verse at its first insertion, as a gloss would na turally follow the text upon which it was made. It is not, therefore, matter of mere conjecture, that the seventh verse originated in a Latin gloss upon the eighth verse: it is an historical fact, supported by evidence, which cannot be resisted.

"But many centuries elapsed before the passage was exhibited in Greek. The first Greek writer who has given it, is Manuel Calecas, who lived as late as the fourteenth century. And we need not wonder at finding the passage in his works, as Calecas was a convert to the Church of Rome. the fifteenth century the passage was quoted by Bryennius, who was likewise so attached to the Church of Rome, that he quoted other readings of the Vulgate which are not found in the Greek manuscripts.

In

"At length, in the sixteenth century, a Greek MS. of the New Testament appeared with 1 John v. 7. Its original appellation was Codex Britannicus: but it is now called the Dublin MS. It made its first appearance about the year 1520: and that the MS. had just been written when it first appeared, is highly probable, because it appeared at a critical juncture, and its appearance answered a particular purpose. But whether written for the occasion or not, it could not have been written very long before the sixteenth century. For this MS. has the Latin chapters, though the kepalaia of Eusebius are likewise noted. Now the Latin chapters 3 H