of the reputation of men distinguished in the literary world, to give currency to his own favourite notions and corrupt principles. We know not what number of copies of this book have passed the press; but we doubt not that efforts will be made to circulate them as widely as possible: and we think that our correspondent has deserved well of the religious publick, for going through the drudgery of a minute examination of the volume, and exposing the unwarranted renderings, by the author, of certain words in the Sacred Text, and the garbling, in some instances, of the language of the respectable translators whom he professes to have copied.-That we are not hostile to an improvement in the exhibition of the common version of the Bible, will be seen in our next article. "THE SACRED WRITINGS OF THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS OF from the original Greek, by To the Editor of the Christian Advocate. Rev. and dear Sir,-You have long known that a few years ago, I had a publick debate with the author of the above-mentioned translation, Mr. Campbell, a Unitarian Baptist. You know, also, that during the last winter I published an exposure of his false report of that debate. That exposure gives notice that I am now engaged in writing out the whole of my argument on Christian Baptism. In this argument, I take the liberty of making frequent use of Mr. Campbell's VOL. V.-Ch. Adv. new translation. It was intended to promote the peculiar views of its author: but in some things he has certainly missed his mark. At present I can give you only a specimen of what shall be shown more at large, if Providence permit me to finish the work now in hand. In speaking of the mode of baptism, he lays even more than usual stress on the Greek prepositions; prov ing, as he thinks, that there is a going down into and coming up out of the water. During the debate, he treated with the most abhorrent contempt, any suggestion that these prepositions might prove nothing more than a going to, and a coming from, the water. Knowing that this meaning of the words was established upon sufficient scriptural usage, he was not willing that I should traverse the scriptures at pleasure, and quote an instance wherever I could find it, but insisted that the meaning which was found most common in reading regularly on, must be the right meaning. But as he could not read through the scriptures, in the time allowed, and as he could not get me to read chapter about with him, even in the first book of the Septuagint, he selected such chapters of Genesis, as he thought would answer his purpose, and made what he could of them. Since the appearance of his new translation, the thought occurred to me, that I would make an experiment, and see how his plan would hold out in his own version. For this purpose I selected the preposition apo, which occurs in Matthew, iii. 16, and is translated out of. As he had partially examined the first book in the Septuagint, I examined, not partially, but fully, the last book of his New Testament, marking his translation of the preposition apo, in every place in which it occurred. The result was, that I could find only ONE place in which he rendered it out of, and I found TWENTYSEVEN places in which he translated 2 E it from! showing, according to his own principle, that, after baptism, the subject went up from the water. As Mr. Campbell's New Testament has several prominent features which would not obtrude themselves into the regular course of my argument, but which ought nevertheless to be known by an honest publick, I concluded that when an opportunity offered, I would digress into something like a formal review of his book. This opportunity occurred while showing that Abraham and his seed were a visible church, from the scriptural use of those Hebrew and Greek words which we consider as equivalent to the word church. The singular fact that the word church does not occur once in Mr. Campbell's translation, from beginning to end, made this a convenient occasion for devoting a section in the midst of the argument to the examination of this anomalous production. It is here sent to you as an excerpt from the work in which I am engaged. If it be agreeable to your feelings and arrangements, to insert it in your valuable Miscellany, you will confer a favour on the author. W. L. M'CALLA. In the New Testament, ecclesia occurs one hundred and fourteen times; in more than one hundred of which it confessedly means the visible church. I do not know that my opponent will confess this, but every other sort of Baptist will. My reason for excepting him is, that he has such an aversion to the word church (a word inestimably precious to the Christian,) that he appears determined to banish it from his vocabulary. He has published an English translation of the New Testament, in which (strange to tell!) neither the word church nor the word baptism is found once. By its title page, it professes to be "The New Testament, translated from the original Greek, by GEORGE CAMPBELL, JAMES MACKNIGHT, and PHILIP DODDRIDGE, Doctors of the Church of Scotland." In the Preface and the list of errata, he speaks of a "London edition of this translation," which "departed, in some instances, from the original works" of Campbell, Macknight and Doddridge. Such of these alterations as affected "the style" only, he professes to have "retained:" but, "some of these alterations affected the sense;" these he professes to have "brought back to the original works" of Campbell, Macknight and Doddridge. In this translation, then, we are to look for the meaning of a certain set of men, clothed in another man's style. When the Ettrick Shepherd first saw DuncanCampbell, the little stranger, though only seven years old, wore a coat originally made for a man. If this new style should give George Campbell and his companions as grotesque an appearance, my opponent can account for it, upon the ground that they are just escaped from prison, through his benevolent interposition. Here a writer in the Western Luminary speaks as follows, viz: "Mr. Campbell, on this part of his subject, says something about the works of Campbell, Doddridge, and Macknight, having been imprisoned;' and seems to take credit to himself for having brought them out to publick gaze; and considers his own precious existence necessary to prevent them from being again locked up." How enviable is the lot of my opponent! in being the honoured instrument of preserving these eminent scholars from rotting in a dungeon. His agency in this business proves the rapid advance of the Western Country in the march of mind. Let posterity know that, but for the labours of a certain inhabitant of Buffaloe Creek, the works of three of the most celebrated Doctors of Europe would soon have sunk into oblivion. As his alterations of his originals are far more numerous than one nations, for holding doctrines or ordinances "injurious to the well being of society, religious or political," he must be indulged in a little commendable boasting, such as the following, viz:"Taking every thing into view, we have no hesitation in saying, that, in the present improved state of the English language, the ideas communicated by the Apostles and Evangelists of Jesus Christ, are INCOMPARABLY better expressed in this, than in any volume ever presented in our mother tongue.” would expect from the title page, view!!!" Perhaps so great a portion he tells us, in the close of his Ap- of charity, anti-sectarian liberality, pendix, that these emendations and the milk of human kindness "are preferred merely because of can hardly be found in the island their being more intelligible to com- of Great Britain, as my opponent mon readers, whose edification we knows to exist in one little privileged have supremely in view." For these spot on the banks of Buffaloe. It is alterations he has made ample reasonable, therefore, that he should amends to the admirers of his three claim to his work superior praise worthies, by stuffing their jugu- over the London copy, whose Edilated words into an Appendix, with tors probably spent much of their such novel and convenient refer- strength in sectarian debates against ences, that they are almost as ea- infant-sprinkling, and the 39 Artisily found as a needle in a haystack. cles, and the 33 Chapters, and male Speaking of this in his Preface, he and female Missionaries, and Bible says, "All that we can be praised and Benevolent Societies, and the or blamed for is this one circum- observance of family prayer and stance, that we have given the most the Sabbath day. As my opponent conspicuous place to that version never was known to whisper sectawhich appeared to deserve it."-rian charges against other denomiThat is, when the words of Campbell, Macknight, and Doddridge, appear to my opponent the most deserving, he gives them in the text, and places others in the Appendix: but when the words of these three men appear to my opponent less deserving, he packs them off to the Appendix, and substitutes others in the translation, whose names are not mentioned in the title page. Thus every word of this version may be considered as having passed through the crucible of my opponent's judgment. And who so well calculated to judge among the jarring translations of jarring sects, as that man who possesses the greatest literary and theological attainments, and is, at the same time, perfectly divested of all sectarian feelings or prejudices, as is evident from the whole career of my opponent, from Mount Pleasant to Washington. Hear the words of his Preface on this subject. "If the mere publication of a version of the inspired writings requires, as we believe it does, the publisher to have no sectarian object in view, we are happy in being able to appeal to our whole course of publick addresses, and to all that we have written on religious subjects, to show that we have no such object in Whenever, therefore, my opponent's translation of the New Testament is mentioned in this discussion, remember, that, "taking every thing into view," particularly his own rare qualifications for such a work, it is "INCOMPARABLY" the best in the language. To set forth his unparalleled qualifications still more fully, he says, in his Preface, "The whole scope, design, and drift of our labours is to see Christians intelligent, united and happy." With regard to uniting Christians, his labours, in one way or another, appear to succeed in a small degree. The Western Luminary informs us, that my opponent has made an ingenious effort to prove, that his two bosom friends, Barton W. Stone and Dr. James Fishback, are united in sentiment, in relation to our Saviour's person. Although the former openly rejects the doctrine of his Supreme and Eternal Deity, and the latter would be thought to receive this doctrine. Moreover, they are now very cordially united in their opposition to creeds and confessions, those stubborn things which have been so much in the way of Unitarians, from the Council of Nice to the present day. If Mr. Greatrake and the orthodox Pastors and Editors, Associations and Conventions of the Baptist denomination have not followed the amiable example of unity which these brethren have set them, it is their own fault. Mr. Greatrake will not admit that my opponent is for peace abroad, or unity at home. Writing to the Western Baptist Churches concerning my opponent, he says, "Having had you for two or three years spectators of his own personal combats, or familiarized your minds to a view of his own fightings, you will find, perhaps too late, that the object contemplated by Mr. C. was to prepare you for dissentions and fightings among yourselves; to the end that he might share the spoils by making you a divided people."* As my opponent refers to his life for his anti-sectarian character, so Mr. Greatrake says to the churches, "Yes, brethren, search, search his whole life, as far as possible." He then tells them, that this scrutiny will irrefragably prove "that you [Baptists,] as a denomination, have been made the citadel of his safety, while throwing the shafts of his hostility at other denominations; particularly at that one with which you most assuredly stand in the greatest degree of fellowship. The question then is, whether Mr. C. represents your feelings towards the Presbyterian and other pedo-Baptist Churches, against whom he breathes out threatenings and • Unitarian Baptist of the Robinson school exposed.-p. 88. slaughter ?" If he does, let us know what cause they have given for this interminable rage. But I need not put this sort of question to you, being fully persuaded that your greatest partiality is towards that very church which Mr. C. appears to hate with the most deadly hatred." This is a righteous sentence pronounced in the name of the Western Baptist Churches, by one of their most respectable and worthy ministers, in exculpation of the much injured, and grossly insulted pedo-Baptists of this country. It correctly represents my would-be anti-sectarian opponent, as breathing threatenings and slaughter, and throwing the shafts of his hostility, with interminable rage, and the most deadly hatred, at other denominations, particularly our own; and as doing this, not to oppose error, (for he is rotten to the core,) but all this zeal against others is, that he may prepare the Baptists for dissentions and fightings among themselves, that he may share the spoils of their divisions. He must surely be rarely qualified for writing an incomparable translation of the New Testament! (To be continued.) FOR THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. NEW ARRANGEMENT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. An edition of the New Testament has lately issued from the Princeton press, which deserves to be noticed. It is an attempt to introduce into the English translation such an arrangement of the text, as now prevails in the best Greek editions; an arrangement in which the common order of verses and chapters is disregarded, and respect is had only to the sense, in the forma tion of periods and paragraphs, as in any other writing. The long established divisions of verses, and chapters are noted in the margin, inasmuch as they have become necessary for the sake of reference. No alterations have been made in the text of our common translation. The editor of the work is Mr. James Nourse, a student of the Theological Seminary. The propriety and accuracy of the divisions, however, into which the text is distributed, is not made to rest simply or chiefly upon his own judgment. The best editions of the Greek Testament have been compared ;* that of Knapp is principally followed; in some instances Bengel is preferred, and it is but rarely that the authority of both these venerable names is departed from. We are glad to see this attempt.t It is an attempt to rescue the word of God from a most unhappy incumbrance, and it deserves the thanks of all who honour the sacred volume, or desire to have its truth widely and rightly understood. Those who are accustomed to read the Testament in the original, need not be told of the benefit to be derived, in reading according to the arrangement of the later editions; they know it to be far more than the best commentary can communicate. We hope that many who are necessarily confined to the English translation, will find a similar advantage in Mr. Nourse's Testament. We hope far more; we hope that the propriety and importance of publishing the scriptures after a like plan, will so appear from this and like attempts,‡ that hereafter The third edition of that serious and judicious critic; in which the text is pointed somewhat differently from the first, after a rigid examination of the arrangement adopted by Griesbach. We feel constrained, however, to express a regret, that the work should have passed with so little honour through the hands of the printer. Its execution is certainly disreputable to the Princeton press. The thing has been attempted in England already on a larger scale. The entire Bible has been printed in more than one edition, in which the common version is arranged after the model of the no other shall be known, and the whole miserable array of chapters and verses, shall be found driven from the sacred text entirely. Why should it not be so? Why should the Book of God be disfigured and obscured by a device of human invention, which nobody would be willing to tolerate in another book? Is there any thing sacred in the common plan of chapters and verses-any thing connected with their origin or history which claims our veneration and prohibits change? The original writers of the sacred volume knew nothing of them; the Spirit of inspiration never gave them authority. The division of the whole Bible into chapters as we have them now, took place in the thirteenth century. It was done by Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro, for the purpose of convenient reference in the construction of a concordance, which he had in view. With the same object, he subdivided the chapters into smaller portions, by placing the six first letters of the alphabet, at equal distances along the margin of each. In the fifteenth century, Rabbi Mordecai Nathan, a celebrated Jew, contemplating a similar concordance of the Old Testament, adopted Hugo's chapters, but instead of his marginal letters, he used Hebrew numerals, noting only every fifth verse. About the middle of the seventeenth century, Athias introduced verses regularly numbered into his edition of the Hebrew Bible. In accordance with this, all copies of the Bible in other languages have since been marked. The New Testament continued as Hugo left it, till the middle of the sixteenth century, when the division of verses as we have them now took place. They were devised by Robert Stevens, the celebrated printer of that period; and distri modern Greek Testaments, with the chapters and verses thrown into the margin. These editions are put forth by a Mr. Reeves, and are said to be very beautiful |