Page images
PDF
EPUB

any authority, or on any account whatever; corrections in an inspired book, were to him little better than sacrilege. The present copy of the Bible, he apprehended, was in no degree, not even a single jot or tittle, wrong. I subscribe your reasons for rejecting Father Houbigant's, and in not admitting Mr Kennicott's exposition of the Hebrew adagy, "ITHUE IRAE."

I shall treasure up your remark on the relative "ASHER," and wish you had the designing or the superintending of the cuts, which the printer of Mr Stackhouse's History of the Bible says, cost eight hundred pounds. I am delighted with your interpretation of Isaiah xxx. 18. What a charming representation it gives us of the Divine long-suffering, tender mercy, and profuse goodness! O that I might live under the clear manifestation of these lovely perfections!

In Psalm xxxvi. 1. Houbigant would read "LEBU," instead of "LEBI," and thus translates the clause, Loquitur impius juxta; improbitatem quæ est in medio cordis ejus."

66

Instead of "ZIUU," Psalm cxxxiii. 3. he would introduce "SHIAU," and justifies his alteration from Deut. iv. 48. Did you ever observe this passage, and compare it with the text under consideration?

Psalm lxviii. 16. for "ERSHENI," he would substitute "EREDSHU," "mons pinguis ;" which alteration he thus explains, and thus vindicates: "Est mons Dei, mons Sion, in quem asportatur arca fœderis; qui mons, collatione facta cum cæteris montibus, quorum laus est pinguedo sive ubertas, laudatur ob ejus pinguedinum; ex quo, videlicet, tempore eum montem habitat ille, qui pinguem fecit domum Obed-edom. Mons altitudinum, altero in membro, est attributum montus Sion, cæteris circum montibus altioris. que mons Basan nihil hic ad rem; præsertim cum de monte Sion ea hoc in psalmo dicantur, propter quæ ille mons sit monti Sion longe anteponendus. Gen. xx. 16. Ego dedi fratri tuo argenti mille pondo, erit id tibi pro velaminibus oculorum, seu tui tibi aderunt, seu cæteri quicunque homines, ne forte te con

Ita

cupiscant. "UGEBETHETH," verbum pro verbo, nam concupiscilibus es ob tuam pulchritudinem ; ex "NECET," Arabic. verbo, ducere uxorem vel ejus matrimonium ambire." Do not you think this method of deducing the sense of Hebrew words from the present Arabic is precarious? If we knew the precise signification which Arabic words bore in the days of Moses, and what words were commonly used in that early age, there would be surer ground to proceed upon. But I apprehend the Arabic language has undergone great alterations, and received great improvements, since that period; that Golius's Lexicon is no more the Arabic used in the time of Moses, than Johnson's Dictionary is the English spoke in the days of Chaucer.

My best thanks for your plan. I propose to follow the track of Mr Marshall in his book entitled "The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification." You are acquainted, I presume, with this valuable piece of spiritual and experimental divinity; THIS, and Mr Erskine's sermons, led me into those notions of faith which are delivered in Dialogue xvi. If you have that treatise, (Marshall's I mean), I should be much obliged for your opinion of it. You ask how Houbigant reads Gen. xi. 32. Thus, "Feruntque dies Thare annorum quadraginta quinque supra centum." This, he says, is according to the Samaritan copy; and adds: "Cui scriptioni adhærendum esse, notat Sam. Bochartus; aliter enim cum Hebræo cod. pugnantia dicturum Stephanum diaconum, Acts vii. 4. Quod sic probatur: dictim fuit, ver. 26. Thare fuisse annorum 70, cum gigneret Abrahamum: Infra dicetur, (cap. xii. ver. 4.) Abrahamum fuisse annorum 75, cum ex Haran in Canaan profectus est. Ex quo efficitur ut Thare, tempore illius profectionis, annum ageret 145, atque adeo ut Thare, si quidem vixerit annos 205, fuerit totos annos 60 huic profectioni superstes. Quæ cum ita sint, non jam intelligitur, quare Stephanus dixeret Abrahamum fuisse, mortuo jam Thare, in Canaan profectum. Aut fallitur Stephanus, aut statuendum cum Sam.

codice, non plus vixisse Thare, quam annos 145. Nam per eum numerum, libri Genesis cum Stephano discordia conciliatur.-Erroris fontem aperuit Boehartus, in litera "K" 100, pro "M" 40, exarata. Erroris fons eo manifestior, quod in codicibus Germanicis litera "K" pede hoc modo decurtato, "E" fere similis est literæ "M.'

His marginal reading of Exod. xii. 40. is thus:According to the Samaritan text, ISHRAL BENI

66

UMISHN METZRIM INARO CENOI GARO ISHBU ASHER

UANUTHM." While he thus translates (for his Hebrew text is conformed to the common standard, and only in the translation his corrections are introduced), "Commoratio autem filiorum Israel, et patrum eorum qui in terra Canaan et in terra Ægypti habitarunt, fuit," &c. In his note on this passage, he refers the reader to his prolegomena; where, after he has proved that, by admitting the Samaritan reading, difficulties, otherwise inextricable, are cleared up and removed, he takes to task Grotius, Le Clerc, and Buxtorf. You will perhaps be willing to see his manner, which on many occasions is like the scelerata sinapis, sharp as mustard. "Non incommode, inquiebat Grotius, sic explicatur: Exilium illud Ægyptiacum durasse usque ad annum 430, ex quo Deus Abrahamo præsignificaverat. In qua Grotiana explicatione Grotium desidero. Num exilium erat Egyptiacum, tum cum Deus Abrahamo præsignificabat? Vel cui persuadebat Grotius, Mosen hæc verba, ex quo Deus Abrahamo præsignificaverat, cum dicere vellet, omisisse? Quæ verba cum suo marte Grotius; et sacra pagina invita, inferciat, num huic potius credemus, ut ea verba omiserit Moses, sine quibus intelligi non posset, imo secum ipse pugnaret, quam Samaritanis, quorum diligentia commonemur Judæos scribas fuisse negligentes? Sed audiendus Joannes Clericus. Malim, inquit, axvgoroɣiav in Masoretico codice agnoscere, quam mendam. Vigilas, Clerice, cum hæc loqueris? Negas Hebr. in volumine esse mendam, hoc est, errorem a scribis Judæis profectum; eo potius inclinas, ut sit axvgologiæ,

hoc est, Mosis ipsius in temporibus notandis indiligentia? Egregiam profecto indiligentiam, ut Moses scripserit annos 430, cum scribere debuisset annos 215, eo præsertim loco, in quo tempora tam diligenter notat Moses, ut non modo annos computet, sed ipsum etiam ponat anni mensem, mensisque ipsum diem. Quid Buxtorfium dicemus, non modo, ut cæteri interpretes hic tergiversantem, sed etiam plane negantem, fuisse hic quidquam a Judæis scribis omissum? Heus ta, Buxtorfi! Illamne fuisse Mosis scriptionem putas, qua Moses Mosi contradicat, et aperte mentiri videatur? Videatur sane, inquit; sed nihil quidquam amplius Mosen scripsisse mihi quidem constat. Quonam igitur pacto, Buxtorfi, Mosen cum Mose conciliabis? Non conciliabo, inquit, si non potero, sed veto in hodierno cod. Heb. quidquam addi et suppleri. Quid ita? Quia, inquit, codices Heb. omnes hic consentiunt, et illud additamentum ignorat. Quod si autem scribæ alicujus lapsu, vel etiam plurium excidisset, non potuisset id fieri in omnibus exemplaribus. Sed Buxtorfium nunc linquimus, Buxtorfianasque nugas, quoniam eas sumus non multo post confutaturi." I intended to have laid before you a specimen of his very bold, and, I fear, rash attempts upon the sacred texts; but these I must defer till I have the pleasure of subscribing myself, on another paper, your most obliged and truly affectionate friend.

LETTER CXL.

DEAR SIR,-HEREWITH I send you the new edition of Theron and Aspasio. It desires your acceptance and your prayers, that it may be for the praise of the glory of God's grace in Christ, and for the edification of his people in faith and holiness.

You will find Dialogue xvi. somewhat altered, and rendered, I hope, less incorrect than in the former editions. It contains the genuine sentiments of my heart. But if they recede a hair's-breadth from the unerring standard, if they differ in one jot or tittle

from God's holy word, in that jot or tittle I most earnestly wish the world may not receive them, and that I myself may have grace to retract them. What you meet with that appears contrary to the doyos vying, axalayowsos, freely point out. This will please, this will profit; and therefore this will oblige, dear sir, your affectionate friend, &c.

P. S.-You will permit me to keep your manuscripts a little longer; one of them, the Scriptural Chronicle, a person is transcribing. May the blessed Jesus transcribe his word and his image on our heart.

* LETTER CXLI.

MY POOR FELLOW-SINNERS, I RECEIVED a letter from you, and should have visited you; but my health is so much decayed, and my spirits are so exceedingly tender, that I could not well bear the sight of your confinement, your chains, and your miserable circumstances, as I can hardly bear the thoughts of your approaching execution, and your extreme danger of everlasting destruction. But, because I cannot come in person, I have sent you the following lines, which I hope you will consider, and which I beseech the God of all grace to accompany with his blessing.

You have been already condemned at an earthly tribunal; you are also condemned by the law of God, for thus it is written, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them," Gal. iii. 10. If every violation of the divine law exposes you to a curse, what a multitude of curses are ready to fall upon your unhappy souls! And remember this is not the curse of a mortal man, but of the great, eternal, infinite God. If it was dismal to hear an earthly judge command you to be hanged by the neck till you are DEAD, how much more terrible to hear the almighty Judge

* This letter was wrote from Weston-Favell to two condemned malefactors in Northampton gaol, (namely, James Smart and Joseph Browne), about the middle of July 1755..

« EelmineJätka »