given in our English translation of the Old Testament. As this is the case, our translation_ought by all means to be altered. This great defect in our Bibles probably arose froin the superstitious ideas that the Jews have of the term Jehovah, which is so great that they only use it on some very solemn occasions, but in the place of it adopt some of the inferior names of God, as Elohim or Adonai, which also express power or authority, and are often given to human beings, and even to idol gods, or they use fanciful terms of their own coining, all which are very improper substitutes for the most proper and distinguishing name of the Supreme Being. And as we find the term Jehovah in the original Scriptures, without any caution to pronounce it but seldom, surely we ought to pronounce it when ever we find it: why else was it put there? Beza, and, I believe, some others, have, in their Latin translations of the Old Testament, rendered it Jehova. And several learned modern translators of the Scriptures into the English language have rendered it Jehovah, as Lowth, Newcome, Blayney, Geddes, Bellamy and Wellbeloved.

This would distinguish the Supreme Being from all other beings in the universe; for, however great some of them may be, His name alone is Jehovah. Ps. lxxxiii. 18.

What a moral lustre and dignity it would give to the word of God, to have this most expressive of all terms scattered about four thousand times over its sacred pages! Such a translation would be far superior to any one now existing in the English language; and its value would, I persuade myself, soon be felt and acknowledged by a discerning public. All intelligent readers of the Holy Scriptures would then, when they wished to purchase a copy of the Old Testament, ask for that which has the word Jehovah so many times in

it.

Let me then recommend it to our gentlemen stationers and printers to undertake so honourable, so useful and lucrative a work. It must answer in the end. Great is the truth, and it will prevail, especially so important a truth as this is. If it shall be deferred until the higher powers shall

give orders for the doing of it, I fear it will be a long while first, though they will do it at length. The march of truth is slow, but certain.

Permit me to call your attention to the sentiments of several of the learned on this subject. And first it will be proper to refer you again to the learned translations of Lowth, Blayney, Newcome, Geddes, Bellamy and Wellbeloved, &c. All of them have acted on the principle I am recommending, in those parts of the Old Testament which they have translated into the English language. _Actions speak louder than words. However, as their words united with their deeds will strengthen my arguments, I think myself happy in being able to produce some of them.

Archbishop Newcome says, "I therefore propose, 1, that translators should previously agree on the rendering of certain words and phrases. For instance, that should always be rendered by Jehovah, and misar mine by Jehovah, God of Hosts." Newcome on the Twelve Minor Prophets, Introd. p. 27.

Bishop Horsley, speaking of the Seventy having translated Jehovah, Lord, says, Later translators have followed their mischievous example,

mischievous in its consequences, though innocently meant, and our English translators among the rest; in innumerable instances for the original Jehovah, which ought upon all occasions to have been religiously retained, have put the mere general title of the Lord. A flagrant instance of this occurs in that solemn proem of the Decalogue in the xxth chapter of Exodus, I am the Lord thy God,' so we read in our English Bibles, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.' In the original it is, I am Jehovah thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.' Another example of the same unhappy alteration we find in that passage of the cxth Psalm, which I have already had occasion to produce, The Lord said unto my Lord,' which is in the Hebrew, 'Jehovah said unto my Lord.' If translators have used this unwarrantable licence of substituting a title of the Deity, for his proper name, in texts where that name is applied to the Almighty Father" Bishop.

Horsley's Sermons, Vol. III. pp. 6

So Dr. Watts says, "It had been much better if the Hebrew name Jehovah itself had been always written in the English Bibles." Dr. Watts's Glory of Christ, &c. p. 2.

As it will be necessary, in order to satisfy the law, that there should be some notes in such a work, they should be no more than what the law demands, that the price of the work be not needlessly increased. The notes should relate to the text, and not illustrations of the pure text. And they should be taken from the most learned and accredited authors. If it was published in numbers it would promote the sale..

SIR,

J. JEVANS.

Islington,
Feb. 1st, 1824.
VOLUME of Sermons by the

A late Rev. T. N. Toller has just

appeared, to which a MEMOIR of the Author by Robert Hall, A. M. is prefixed. The Discourses are, as might be expected, truly excellent, and the Memoir renders due honour to the preacher's memory. But whilst the biographer extols the intellectual and moral worth of Mr. Toller, he seems anxious to have it understood that from whatever source his eminence as a Christian divine may have arisen, none can have been derived from the institution where he was educated for the ministry. The tutors, indeed, receive a large portion of his praise. "At the early age of fifteen his parents sent him to the Academy at Daventry, in Northamptonshire, over which Dr. Ashworth, the worthy successor of the celebrated Doddridge, presided; his assistant in the Academy was the Rev. Mr. Robins, who after wards occupied the same station with distinguished ability. Of both his tutors he was wont to speak in terms of high respect of Mr. Robins he was often heard to say, that he considered him as the wisest and best man he ever knew. The qualities of his heart corresponded to those of his genius, and though long before his death his bodily infirmities obliged him to relinquish a commanding station and retire into obscurity, he retained to the last such an ascendancy over the ninds of his former pupils, and such

an interest in their affections, as nothing but worth of the highest order can comm» nd." Under tutors like these, the studies of the pupils must have been rightly directed, and whilst their understandings were stored with the choicest treasures of learning, their minds would be trained to the purest emotions of piety. But nojust the contrary. Every thing seems wrong; the system of tuition is rotten at the core; for the young men left the Academy with views hostile to the "principles generally embraced" of modern orthodoxy. But let Mr. HALL speak for himself, not forgetting his own account of the very superior endowments of the tutors, which must have admirably fitted them for their station.

"At the time of Mr. Toller's admission into the Daventry Academy, the literary reputation of that seminary was higher than that of any among the Dissenters; but partly owing to a laxness in the terms of admission, and partly to the admixture of lay and divinity students, combined with the mode in which theology was taught, erroneous principles prevailed much, and the majority of such as were educated there, became more distinguished for their learning than for the fervour of their piety or the purity of their doctrine. The celebrated Priestley speaks of the state of the Academy while he resided there with great complacency: nothing, he assures us, could be more favourable to free inquiry, since both the tutors and students were about equally divided between the Orthodox and Arian systems! The arguments by which every possible modification of error is attempted to be supported, were carefully marshalled in hostile array against the principles generally embraced, while the theological professor prided himself on the steady impartiality with which he held the balance betwixt the contending systems, seldom or never interposing his own opinion, and still less betraying the slightest emotion of antipathy to error or predilection for truth. Thus a spirit of indifference to all religious principles was generated in the first instance, which naturally paved the way for the prompt reception of doctrines indulgent to the corruption and flattering to the pride of a depraved and fallen

nature. To affirm that Mr. Toller derived no injury from being exposed at so tender an age to tlas vortex of unsanctified speculation and debate, would be affirming too much, since it probably gave rise to a certain ge, neral manner of stating the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, which attached chiefly to the earlier part of his ministry, though it is equally certain that his mind even when he left the Academy was so far imbued with the grand peculiarities of the gospel, that he never allowed himself to lose sight of the doctrine of the Cross as the only basis of human hope."

Upon this singularly strange and curious paragraph many queries occur. When the reverend biographer complains of laxness in the terms of ad. mission into the Daventry Academy, would he introduce articles of faith to which every student should subscribe? And how is this to be reconciled to his principles as a Protestant Dissenter? When he denounces the mode in which theology was taught, would he admit evidence only on one side of a controverted topic, and proscribe the examination of any other subject? This would be confounding truth and error, and it would be impossible to attain any rational satisfaction in the study of divinity. When he reproaches the celebrated Priestley for viewing the Academy with complacency, for nothing there could be more favourable to free inquiry, does he mean to prohibit all free inquiry? If so, let us return back to the middle ages, and hide ourselves in the bosom of the Romish Church. And, finally, when he reprobates the theological professor priding himself on the steady im partiality with which he held the balance betwixt the contending sys tems," ," does he mean to insinuate that one system should be advocated, and every other system branded with false hood? Then let us renounce all claim to the name of Protestant, and ac knowledge the Pope to be our infalli. ble head, thus terminating every dispute and settling the repose of the Church of Christ for ever! It is as tonishing that a man of Mr. HALL'S talents and attainments could have committed such a paragraph to paper, and then deliberately send it forth for the approbation of the Dissenting world. The Catholic Bishop Milner,

(an incorrigible. bigot, though an ac complished man and an able writer,) with far greater consistency published a few years ago, a work entitled an End to Controversy. In that work he proscribed all tehets, except those of the Catholic Church, as damnable heresy, embellishing it with a beautifully-engraved representation of the true vine, its legitimate branches being popes, cardinals, monks, friars, &c., whilst the reformers Luther, Calvin, Beza, Melancthon, &c., are seen falling off as blasted leaves into irremediable perdition! Were Mr. Hall to favour the religious world with a similar pro→ duction, he might embellish it in like manner, adorning his main branches with the names of his own favourite Orthodox divines, whilst those of Arians and Sociniane (luckless stu dents of some academy addicted to free inquiry,) might be consigned to destruction. The Catholics put forth an Index Expurgatorius, containing a list of theological books not to be read, and certain Protestants might furnish a list of doctrines which must not he examined. Should Mr. Hall, however, allow of free inquiry to young men educating for the ministry, let him be pleased to say, what kind of free inquiry, to what extent in dulged, by what regulations exercised, and with what consequences it must be attended. At all events, "unsanc tified speculation and debate" must be excluded; this would endanger the superstructure of modern orthodoxy.

Even the doctrine of the Cross," as Mr. Hall is pleased vauntingly to designate his own system of belief, must be held with the utmost vigilance and circumspection. Amidst Dr. Hawker and his followers, there at this moment prevails a portentous and pestiferous Antinomianism, scat tering abroad the germs of licentiousness. Nor is it in the Church of England alone that this worst of all heresies is gaining ground. Amongst the Dissenting Calvinistic Churches it is making progress, so that Mr. Hall, exercising freely and fully his powers of ratiocination, has written against it in terms of severe but just reprobation. Systems of faith, how. ever specious or popular, must not for a moment be suffered to annihilate the great axiom of the New Testa mentWithout holiness no man shall

nor can convince, yet all must be suppressed which is not found in their syntagma. They are the troublers, they are dividers of unity, who neglect and permit not others to unite those discovered pieces which are yet want ing to the body of Truth. To be still searching what we know not by what we know, still closing up truth to truth as we find it, (for all the body is homogeneal and proportionate,) this is the golden rule in theology as well as in arithmetic, and makes up the best harmony in a church, not the forced and outward union of cold and neutral and inwardly-divided minds."

66

Noble and liberal sentiments pervade these Discourses which Mr. Hall has ushered into the world. Every thing narrow and contracted was foreign to the preacher's heart. The tutors of such a minister ought not to have been censured for their mode of tuition, rendering men more distinguished for their learning than for the fervour of their piety." By their fruits shall ye know them, is the text which our Saviour himself hath in stituted. I venerate the memory of Messrs. Ashworth and Robins for having produced Mr. Toller, whose characteristics were "gentleness, humility and modesty." I once, and only once, heard him, when he officiated for my late dear and excellent friend Hugh Worthington, with an indescribable satisfaction.

How much better is the sending forth such men, than the conduct of those academical institutions, (nurseries of intolerance,) whose only aim is to rear a race of bigots, intent on anathematizing all who, asserting the rights of a man and the privilege of a Christian, dare to differ from them! But, blessed be God, intolerance is not incurable. I knew a venerable divine, living in the vicinity of the metropolis, who, issuing from the aca demy with a violent antipathy against Antitrinitarians, composed a sermon from Psalm cxxxix. 22, I hate them with perfect hatred, which he thundered out from every pulpit into which he gained admission. But the AntiChristian fervour of this youthful zealot soon cooled. He found, as he advanced in life, that there were good men in every denomination. He recognized the image of Christ wherever he discerned it. He died an Arian,

and through the far greater part of a long life he was distinguished for his moderation and liberality. Indeed, whatever revolutions our creed undergoes, and Christians should be always growing wiser, it is a most sacred duty incumbent upon us to preserve our spirits undebased by intolerance and unpolluted with bigotry. Candour is the offspring of unadulterated piety. The religion that rests not on the dictates of the understanding, has no foundation in the New Testament.

Excepting the blemishes on which I have animadverted, the Memoir of Mr. Toller, by the Rev. Robert Hall, is a well-written and interesting piece of biography. At one omission I am surprised, there is no enumeration of the publications of the deceased. These were probably few, but ought to have been specified. I recollect perusing with pleasure his small tract on the Evidences of Christianity, marked by his accustomed felicity of illustration, and adapted to generate a lasting impression upon the minds of the rising generation in behalf of revealed religion. He also printed a Funeral Sermon for the late Rev. Samuel Palmer, of Hackney. There may have been other effusions of his pen: these only have I seen, and they are creditable to his talents and piety. In noticing these defects of the Memoir, I am actuated by no improper motive. Having had the honour, nearly forty years ago, of being one of the biographer's pupils, I feel grateful for his instructions, and would be the last person to detract from the high and deserved reputation which he sustains in the Republic of Letters. He began his career well, in chastising the arrogance of an orthodox divine, not a hundred miles from the metropolis, for having ascribed the Birming ham riots to the judgments of heaven avenging the spread of Unitarian blasphemy; he then, champion-like, buckled on his armour, and shook to their foundations the strong holds of infidelity; he next put forth a most ingenious Apology for the Freedom of the Press, as the palladium of the inestimable blessings of civil and religious liberty; and now, recently, he has directed all the energies of his powerful, mind to battering down an odious wall of partition, by vindicating the practice of free communion, a prac