1. The testimony of God revealed to man, -the leading principle of theology,-is contained in a book exhibiting a certain peculiar form of language. In tracing reason upwards, in the ascending scale, to that divine testimony (the reverse of the order pursued in the preceding pages), it would be our first duty to inquire into the history of that book -the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 67.

2. This book professes to have been written by men divinely gifted and inspired, consequently, infallible in what they wrote.— The second office of reason, therefore, is to inquire into the truth of this inspiration the authority of the Holy Scriptures.

3. This book is found to contain a series of doctrinal truths, which are distinguished as mysteries, and these are asserted to be the immediate dictates of the Spirit of God. To verify this supernatural fact, a series of supernatural tests and evidences are inseparably connected with these mysteries, so that if the former be true, the latter must be true likewise. The third office of reason is, con

67 See page 55.

sequently, to examine these tests and evidences the divinity of the Holy Scrip

tures.

4. This book was written and early translated in ancient languages, and has its meaning conveyed, and often couched and concealed, in particular styles and forms of writing. The fourth office is, to understand these ancient languages, and to unfold their peculiar styles and idioms,—the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.

5. And, as this book was given for the use and advantage of all nations, it is the end and object of theological study, so to render it into different languages, that it may be rightly and properly understood by those who speak them. In this office, consists the translation of the Holy Scriptures.

When these several offices are duly executed, the edifice of theology is complete, Reason resigns herself to Faith, which takes immediate possession of the soul, embracing with implicit and firm assent, the contents of this sacred volume. Its doctrines then become, as the first principles of its truth. They reject all direct attempt to

judge, compare, or account for them by human reasoning. They are not the posita of philosophers, but the pla ita of God".

6. But though Reason may not directly intrude into the temple of Faith, which she hath thus erected, it is her sacred duty, as the handmaid of Religion, to attend this queen of science with all obeisance and devotion, to contemplate her excellence, to illustrate her doctrines, to confirm her precepts, to promote her interests, to behold her fair beauty, and to bring her children, the arts and sciences, to minister in her courts. And, as the moral precepts of reason are recognised in revelation, as the immediate will and command of God; it is her final and highest office to propose them to the will of men, with every advantage of accuracy and precision, seconded by all the powers of argument and persuasion-the ethics of the Holy Scriptures.

In these various offices of theological reasoning, which is different in the aggregate every other intellectual process, a sound

from

See Bacon De Augm. Scient. lib. ix.

understanding and a sincere heart will be found far more useful and propitious guides, than all the modes and figures of syllogistic logic 68

On the question of a new translation of the Scriptures, there is still, of course, some difference of opinion; but the editor believes, that the public are, on the whole, so well satisfied with our present translation for popular use, and feel so many perils attending any new version, that they are well content to put up with its imperfections, rather than encounter a host of unknown evils. The translations of Lowth will always be admired for their elegance, and those of Doddridge, Campbell, and Macknight are deservedly esteemed; but Geddes has sunk almost to the level of Harwood, and the Unitarian version.

The general observations of Dr. Tatham, on scriptural translation, are eminently just and accurate; but he has, perhaps, carried, to an extreme, his dread of introducing taste and elegance. In the poetical parts of Scripture, such as the Psalms or the book of Job, there is surely some scope for the exercise of genius and imagination in the translator. As an evidence of the force of his complaint of the want of uniformity, in our translation of the Old and New Testament, it may suffice to refer the student to 1 Peter, iv. 18, which is an exact quotation of Proverbs, xi. 31, in the LXX, but which passages in our translations convey not only different, but opposite meanings.-Editor.

TH

CHAP. VII.

THEOLOGICAL TRUTH.

HUS the prize of theologic science cannot be won, without much labour in the race, and even when the prize of faith is won, and "we have the witness in ourselves," though the truths of religion in their value, duration, and object transcend all other truth; yet are their evidences more complicate and various, than those of any other science. And thus faith is compelled to stoop from divine, to human testimony; and what is abstractedly the highest truth, seems often to human wisdom comparatively "foolishness." Derived into the human understanding, through such a various and complex train of reasoning, when viewed in its mere logical proportions, it is not only different from all others, but secondary and inferior in force and evidence. Its