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question whether it be applied to Christians metaphorically, or derivatively, or legitimately; if it be applied at all to them, we have every critical argument that we can desire. Kakoi nai oi ἱερεῖς κρεισσον (leg. κρείσσων) δὲ ὁ ̓Αρχιερεὺς (Ign. ad Phil.) which is in unison with its use in the Apocalypse *. Ispaрyevτa suggests the same observations. The writer's error consists in conceiving Enpoodentos to imply " a proper offering," whereas, had he conεὐπρόσδεκτος tinued in his mind the chain of metaphor, he could not but have seen that it meant acceptable, or well-pleasing; and here St. Paul referred to the necessity of preaching the Gospel on which he had insisted, and to the divine purpose of incorporating the other nations into the church, which divine purpose fulfilled could not but be acceptable or well-pleasing to the Almighty.

With this remark we shall dismiss our scrutiny. As a Lecturer's Notes, intended for the purposes of his class, this pamphlet is very creditable, although the writer has occasionally indulged too much in speculative interpretations. We have not detected any great critical acumen, and we have had occasion to perceive, that many valuable philological treatises on this subject have either not fallen into his hands, or not been submitted to his researches. But it is orthodox; and Mr. Turner has, with very few exceptions, elucidated the scope of the Apostle's arguments: he has entertained right ideas of the Epistle, and rescued many important passages from false glosses.

No part of St. Paul's writings requires more care than this: it is highly elliptical, and fraught with Hebraisms: and the ninth chapter, in particular, must be rendered obscure by every commentator, who does not patiently, and with laborious philological inquiry, investigate its separate verses. Yet, so far from implying an exclusive scheme on God's part in favour of individuals, when correctly developed, it is one of our strongest proofs of God's universally beneficent intentions to mankind, which are corroborated by passages from the Jewish Scriptures, and enforced by St. Paul's powerful deductions from them. No writer has been more misunderstood than this Apostle, and none more energetically, although in difficult language, has urged and demonstrated the grand principles of the Gospel: but he has been arguing with Christians on the one hand, and with Jews on the other, whose prejudices and misapprehensions of Scripture he has aimed to correct; and commentators, knowing little or nothing of the latter, have in their interpreta

* The retention of iɛpevc is totally unconnected with the apostolical gradation of ἐπίσκοπος, πρεσβύτερος and Διάκονος : in the first age of the church it was a general term.

tions obscured his text, by elucidating it from ecclesiastical history alone, and the customs and opinions of modern times. This error Mr. Turner * has avoided, nor has he run into the opposite extreme. Concerning the Epistle itself, we conclude our remarks in the words of Primasius: "Mysterium de vocandis Gentibus, in Lege diù fuerat occultatum, quod nunc per prædicationem vel revelationem Christi, et Evangelium Pauli patefactum est, per testimonia prophetarum."

Horæ Romanæ ; or an attempt to elucidate St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, by an original translation, explanatory notes, and new divisions. By ROBERT Cox, M.A. Pp. 88. 3s. London. Hatchard. 1824.

ALTHOUGH our preceding article has taken a brief critical survey of this portion of Holy Writ, we are by no means disinclined to resume the pen in order to follow another author in his " attempt to elucidate" the same important subject. No part of the Sacred Writings has arrested the attention and occupied the researches of the learned and zealous, so much and so deservedly as St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. It embraces the whole economy of Christianity, and developes more of its mysteries than any other single part of Scripture. In a controversial view it is decisive. It confounds the pretensions of the Jews. Its authority is absolute, and its arguments irrefragable. But the great body of the materials is susceptible of farther application. It is a treasury of divine truth. Had St. Paul confined himself to his great purpose of confounding the Jews, the Epistle would have been of only temporary value: but happily his excursive and ardent spirit, with his rich and copious sources of knowledge, has introduced so much collateral matter both of doctrine and practice, that its general importance can never be depreciated till the end of time. To Origen it was a chaos of mystery-a splendid scene of perplexity and confusion—a mighty maze, and quite without a plan. The writer he compares to a person, "who leads a stranger into a magnificent palace, perplexed with various intricate passages, and many remote and secret apartments; shews him some things at a distance, brings others near to his view, and again conceals others from it; often enters in at one door, and comes

The Pamphlet concludes with an "Essay for the Consideration of Theological Students," &c.

out at another; so that the stranger is surprised, and wonders whence he came, where he is, and how he shall get out."

The venerable Father, we suspect, was more intent upon decking and varying his simile, than on describing the genuine impression of his feelings. It can hardly be, that it reflects them truly. But whether it did or not, this opinion of his was of pernicious tendency. With great power of declamation, and a lively imagination, his authority was for centuries very great ; far surpassing the deservings of his judgment. His opinion of the Epistle passed current, without examination. The effect, doubtless, was to deter the student; and we may safely attribute some of the existing obscurities to the relaxation of enquiry brought about by his precipitate declaration. Earlier researches would have done more than can now be accomplished. The opinion of its inextricability still prevails-traditional and hereditary, rather than real and well founded.

Mr. Cox, in his preface, has quoted also Dr. Powell's opinion of the difficulties of this epistle. But his testimony does not go to the extent, nor indeed to the same purpose as Origen's. "The form and character of St. Paul's epistles we shall find to have been derived from the circumstances of his early life. Tarsus, where he was born, was, in that age, a celebrated seat of learning. The Tarsic eloquence was employed in sudden and unpremeditated harangues; and St. Paul, long accustomed to compositions of this sort, transferred the style and manner from speaking to writing. Little solicitous about method, he is often drawn from his design by the accidental use of an expression or a word; and neither when he quits his purpose, nor when he returns to it again, does he employ the usual forms of transition. Sometimes he assumes another person, and introduces a kind of dialogue, in which it is not always easy to distinguish who is speaking." This account gives a very accurate representation of St. Paul's impetuous and undisciplined manner of writing; but the rationale must excite a smile, when we come to book up the sum of our real knowledge of St. Paul's early life, and our acquaintance with Tarsic eloquence and its extempore capriccios. But though the truth of Dr. Powell's description will not be denied, it must on the other hand be conceded, that these deviations of St. Paul, these abruptions and resumptions, have been successfully detected, and ascertained with almost absolute certainty. The fact is, the great aim and object of the Epistle may be said to be now thoroughly understood. The subordinate and collateral portions are cleared of the greater part of their difficulties; and we are able, generally, to point and limit their specific meaning. The labours of Locke, Tay

lor, Macknight, and many others, have furnished a clue, with which Origen himself might fearlessly have ventured into the noble building, without any danger of not being able to find his way out again.

The epistle is addressed to Jewish converts, who still asserted the superiority of Jews, and supposed the laws of Moses were still to be observed by themselves, and enforced upon Gentile converts. The great aim of the apostle is to correct these misconceptions. The Jew is no longer superior to the Gentile; the one is no longer favoured, the other no longer an alien. The Jew is no longer the exclusive depositary of God's will. A new religion is proposed, to the benefits of which Jew and Gentile are alike eligible. New motives and new reliances are supplied. The sentence of the fall is repealed; all are justifiable by faith in Christ; their past sins remitted, and the hope of immortality presented to them.

But though it be true, that the laborious researches of learned men have given great facilities to the right understanding of the Epistle; who but the learned themselves know any thing about the matter? To the million the epistle is still a sealed volume. The authorized version is in every body's hands. The people know no other, or at least give their confidence to no other. It is invested with a sacred character, which excludes all competition, coming as all others do without the stamp of authority upon them. That version is, however, by no means free from obscurities, arising from many causes; from imperfect conception in the translators; obsoleteness of phraseology; adherence to the original idiom; the unskilful division into chapters and verses. Well,-but there are translations of almost every part of Scripture of acknowledged excellence, and accessible to every body. Accessible they may be, but the fact is, they are known to very few, and precisely to the few who have least occasion for them. Of those who most desire and require them, not one in a thousand knows even of their existence; not to add, that if they were known to exist, none of them are sufficiently plain and simple to meet their wants.

We are not for paraphrasing the Scriptures: for the most part, a literal rendering gives the sense closely and vigorously; but in innumerable passages, and particularly in St. Paul's writings, words and phrases are required to fill up the sense, and to supply these demands sound and sober judgment, and practical skill in language. These suppletory words and phrases have been given frequently with good discretion by Mr. Cox in his Epistle to the Romans. In truth, we are very much gratified by the publication of this unpretending but well executed per

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formance. Adhering, as the author has done, to the principle of a literal translation, it is, we think, almost as good as it is possible to produce. He has departed from this principle only where the difference of idiom in the two languages was so great as to make a literal rendering unintelligible, indistinct, or grossly uncouth. Explanatory words, such as point and complete the specific sense, are introduced freely-not by any means too much so; the quotations, which the apostle makes, are sometimes extended, on the well founded supposition, that he quotes a line or two only of a passage though the whole of it was applicable, trusting to the recollection of the readers for the remainder; references are made in the text to passages alluded to by the apostle; and new divisions are given, with brief analyses, certainly more conformable to the natural divisions of the subject, than the present injudicious, not to say, barbarous cutting and splitting into chapter and verse. On the whole, it presents no bad specimen of a translation, which we should like to see attempted of the whole sacred volume. It is no commentary, but it supersedes the necessity of one in numerous instances, and enables the reader to judge for himself, without the bias which a professed commentary is sure to give.

Mr. Cox's translation is also accompanied with notes; neither very new, nor always indispensable, but selected with fair judgment-here and there shewing too much anxiety perhaps to confound the Calvinists. The great impediment to the perfection of his translation is his too scrupulous adherence to a literal translation. Mr. Cox talks indeed of a literal version being most agreeable to his feelings. Now it is no question of feelings. He cannot help the idiom of one language not according with another. The business of a translator is to search for equivalent expressions, not verbal correspondencies and parallels; and neither to wish one thing nor another. He is responsible to his author and him alone. If Mr. Cox do not make St. Paul speak English he does nothing. But he has not always availed himself of the liberties given him by his own narrow views of a literal translation. The ra un na‡nnovτa (i. 28.) for instance is turned, things not expedient, which is not a whit more expressive than things not convenient. The catachresis has not force with us: why not render the words detestable crimes, as he finds it necessary to explain them in a note?

Mr. Cox has not supplied his explanatory words to the extent that the necessity for them fully justifies. Chap. ix. 16. is given, "So then, it is not of him who willeth, nor of him who runneth; but of God, who sheweth mercy." Now here the names of Isaac and Esau might have been usefully inserted;

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