Psalm cxix, 70. The old versions there mean, not turned sour, but coagulated into cheese: which notion is not very different from being hardened into gross, insensible fat, or stupified. And this is the sense of WV in Chaldee. Built up or prospered their families, would be the right translation, and family should be put for house in several of the places cited. If the phrase, covenant of salt, were more generally understood, it would have been naturalised before now. But as it hath not, it should be altered. confined to his house when he was confined I do not understand Exodus iv, 26 at all. In Nehem. vi, 10, y seems to signify, on some account: as Jer. xxxvi, 5. by imprisonment. Some have translated the phrase precious or vile. But though W doth signify to treasure up as a thing of value, yet never doth. Perhaps therefore the meaning is only to include the whole by mentioning the two opposites, confined and left at liberty; as elsewhere great and small, young and old, good and evil. And thus Deut. xxxii, 36. and 2 Kings xiv, 26. will express a great desolation, no one remaining, worth being named, of any sort. 2 Sam. viii, 13. DW seems better explained by c. vii, 9, 23. 1 Chron. xiv, 17. Is. Ixiii, 12, 14. Jerem. xxxii, 20. Dan. ix, 15. And Zeph, iii, 20. doth not mean a visible monument, but an extensive fame. And I am not willing to interpret Gen. xi, 4. in a sense different from so many parallel instances, and which hath no one parallel. They hoped, by building the tower, to raise them a great reputation, and that their city would be considered the seat of empire, to which mankind as they increased would on all occasions have recourse; and remove no further from its dominion than was approved, nor from its protection than was necessary. Yet I think the other opinion hath been very ingeniously defended: and particularly by deducing pa and enusov from D. Readers of our literal versions have learnt the meaning of many Hebrew phrases. And whether it was right to translate them so at first or not, it is needless to alter them now. I approve in general the five subsequent observations which you intimate in your Letter, but have not yet drawn out in form. To what passages particularly you may apply them, I know not. I dare not undertake to examine your translation of Genesis: publishing a new translation of a whole book, especially such a one as that, is an affair of much greater moment, than proposing a number of separate conjectures and remarks; and ought to be preceded by long consideration first, then by the assistance of many learned men, and lastly, by an accurate re-consideration of the original work, compared with their suggestions. Else a version, which is better in some parts, may be worse in others, And though it be better on the whole, I doubt whether versions should be multiplied for the sake of but a few improvements; especially in the Old Testament, which hath had so much less pains taken upon it than the New. 1 had rather have one a good while hence done very well, though I shall not live to see it, than several quickly done each pretty well. But I readily allow others to be of a different opinion. In Gen. ii, 6. the verb is different from the preceding one, to which the negative is joined; and this makes it somewhat harsher to supply the negative, than in 2 Sam. i. 21. There must of course rise a mist from the moist ground. The Book of Proverbs was not intended as a test whether men were wise, but an instruction to make them so; and therefore Prov. i. 2. the common of лy, to know is the proper one: and it no more means a test, than 2 which follows doth. In Jerem. xxii, 16. 'MIN MY signifies as ix, 5, 6. to know me or the knowledge of me. It may be said that doing justice is not the knowledge of God, but a proof of men's knowing God. But still the word proof should not be put into the translation, but understood by the reader. And thus the tree of knowledge should not be translated the tree of the test of knowledge, and yet less, the tree of the test, omitting knowledge, even though it could not be called the tree of knowledge in any other sense, than as it was a test, whether our first parents knew good from evil: but it might be called so because it proved, and God foresaw it would, the occasion of their knowing experimentally evil as well as good. Indeed they probably knew not themselves before their fall the reason of the name. And therefore the serpent gave it another turn, and persuaded them that it signified the tree to be the means of their acquiring the knowledge of good and evil, that is, of every thing. See Gen. xxxi, 24, 29. 2 Sam. xiii, 22. xiv, 17, 20. Surely for these reasons y should be interpreted in its most general sense. The word, Gen. ii, 23, is Dyn. And it doth not follow that this signifies formerly, because Dy DyƉƆ signifies formerly. Yet indeed these two words signify not at one, but at several former times. In Neh. vi, 5 DVD doth not signify formerly; but Dy .signifies the fifth time חמישית Probably Gen. iii, 8, belongs to God, of whom it is used Deuter. xxiii. 14, 15. 2 Sam. vii, 6, and of men elsewhere; but never, I believe, of a voice or sound. Yet 7 is Exod. xix, 19. 'Excuse the freedom and pass over the mistakes of these wellmeant remarks, written in the utmost haste. I have this evening received your present, and am very much obliged to you for it: but must beg leave to insist, as I do with all my friends, that you shall not repeat any thing of that kind. March 5, 1757. Sir, Deanery of St. Paul's, March 15, 1757. If I have made no remarks on any of the papers which I have seen, it is because I found no occasion. I return you thanks for the candour with which you have received those which I have made. And I beg you not to be biassed in any thing against your own judgment by the opinion of Your loving Brother and Servant, Cuddesden, Nov. 5, 1757. Sir, I am glad, if you have found my Observations of any tise, and obliged to you for your proposal of dedicating your remarks to me. But as I have never given that permission to any one, though application hath been made to me for it by persons whom I have esteemed very much, I hope you will excuse Good Mr. Your loving Brother and Servant, Deanery of St. Paul's, April 4, 1758. · I thank you heartily for your congratulations. It is a comfort to me that I have not sought this promotion. I shall have cause to be glad of, only in proportion as God enables and inclines me to perform the duties belonging to it: for which purpose the prayers of all good people are much needed by Your loving Brother and Servant, Thos. Oxford. Rev. Mr. Pilkington, at Stanton, near Nottingham. It is rather singular that Numb. xxiii, 20, which in our Bible translation Bp. Horsley observes, "expresses a very different sentiment from the original, according to the reading of the best Mss. and the Septuagint," is not noticed cither by the Archbishop or Mr. Pilkington. EDITOR. Good Mr. Pilkington, Lambeth, Jan 1, 1759. I thank you for your book, in which there are many things that I approve; but I thought you would like that I should mark down, as I went along, some of those in which I differ from you. I have not re-examined that part of David's History, against which you object; but continue to hope and think it is reconcileable to the rest. For indeed I should be afraid that very bad consequences would be plausibly drawn, if it were not. And I cannot but that you had taken such consequences into your particular consideration, and said more to obviate them. However, the goodness of your intention throughout, as well as the usefulness of your performance in many parts, is very visible. When you have looked over these papers I desire you would return them to The Rev. Mr. Pilkington, at Stanton, near Nottingham. Your loving brother, Thos. Cant. The two following Letters were sewn together with the preceding in the collection of MSS. from which the Editor has made the selection now presented to the public. As the first is very short, and the second contains the opinion of the Archbishop on an important point, the Editor has not hesitated to add them. Good Mr. Pilkingtor, Lambeth, Oct. 16, 1759. I thank you for your Letter, and shall be glad of more particular information both concerning Mr. Berridge, and concerning the quarrel between Mr. Kendrick and Mr. Sellon: for I know nothing of it, and very little of them. I pray God to bless you, and am Good Mr. Pilkington, Your loving Brother, Thos. Cant. Lambeth, Sept. 19, 1760. I heartily beg your pardon that, being engaged in other matters, I have omitted so long to thank you for your Letter, and kind offer in relation to the copies of your Sermon. But my own bookseller having furnished me with one, I thought it unreasonable to make use of the order which you sent me for more. Authors in these days should not be put to unnecessary expenses. The word is torn off in the MS. It is easily supplied. VOL. XX. Cl. JI. Q I think you have fully proved your several points: and hope many will be convinced by the texts which you have produced. Yet I wish you had not asserted, without any intimation of doubt, that our Saviour is said, John xiii, 1, &c. to have baptised his disciples and authorised them to baptise converts. The notion is new to me; and I much question whether it will bear examination. I wish also that you had prefixed to your discourse a passage of Scripture directly relating to baptism, though I approve entirely of your connecting it with circumcision. And as the case of those who say they believe in Christ and omit water baptism, only because they cannot see it to be commanded by him, is very different from those who profess not to believe in him: so, if the former can be sincere in denying so plain a point, I would willingly persuade myself that though they are not within the letter of the covenant, they may possibly be considered as within the equity of it, in such a degree at least, as advantageously to be distinguished from total unbelievers. But whether it be on the whole expedient to express this charitable hope, is a question that should be considered. I am, Sir, Your loving Brother, Thos. Cant. COMMENTARY On the Description of Ardent Fever given by Aretaus. PART I. THE short chapter on the symptoms of ardent or burning fever by Aretæus is highly deserving of the attention of the physician, the philosopher, and the student of natural theology. To those who would acquire an accurate knowledge of the true import of Greek words, this short chapter will also prove a most useful exercise, for the terins are exquisitely well chosen, and the language beautiful, rising even to sublimity. The disease, as here described, is of rare occurrence in our times, and the method of cure is unfortunately amongst the desiderata of this excellent author; we may, however, from other passages of his works, infer what his treatment of the disease would have been; and farther information upon the subject |