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34
into the right way. Alas! that fo
many fhould fet their hearts upon va-
nity, fo many upon riches! caftyour
eyes around, and behold how eager
they are about the mammon of un-
righteousness; I fee fome among them,
who ought to fet better examples,
Cambridge divines, deacons and
priefts, nay there are doctors alfo,
fportingly inclined, holding out the
King's image and fuperfcription; and
I fuppofe, if any difpute fhould arife

A Criticifm on Matthew xxiii. 23.

Jan.

was

about their wagers, they would not
fcruple to confirm by an oath. They.
are making mouths at me, and fhak-
ing their heads; I dare fay they are
empty enough if the truth
known: I'll expound a difficult paf-
fage in fcripture with any of them for
-but hold, I was very near exceeding
the bounds of propriety, this would
be preaching of contention; the fervant
of the Lord muft not fo ftrive, and
therefore---I'll bethink me of my text.

To the EDITOR of the LONDON MAGAZINE. SIR,

YOUR

OUR giving the following criticifm on Matth. xxiii. 23. a place in your very reputable Magazine, will oblige your humble fervant,

F. NOTWITHSTANDING the tranflators of the New Teftament into our language have, perhaps, done as much juftice to the text as has been done to it in any other language; yet they feem to have very unreafonably rendered Matth. xxiii. 23. "Wo unto you Scribes and Pharifees, hypocrites; for ye pay tithe of mint, anife, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, JUDGMENT, MERCY, and FAITH: thefe ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." It is the laft fentence I have mine eye upon, aasiva un apsval. Now there is no Greek word that can here exprefs that term, the other, for nausia is never fo rendered in any other text but this, which both Matthew and Luke mention, though we meet with the word twenty-three times in the New Teftament. It most ufually illuftrates and enforces what has been jutt faid, in Mar. xii. 4. where it is diftinguished from as alter, the other. "Again he fent another fervant, and even at him they caft ftones (naxevo A8 Anday TES) and fo v. 5. nanevov aminlerway Luke xx. 11. He fent another servant, HIM (xaxor) they beat likewife.John vi. 57. As the living Father hath fent me, and I live by the Father, fo he that eateth me, even be (nanstvo:) fhall live by me.. -John x. 16. Other heep I have which are not of this fold, THEM ALSO (a) I must bring."

Further, it is ufed to identify, or exprefs the fameness of a thing. John xiv. 12. "He that believeth on me, the works that I do fhall be do aljo, (xaxeivos moines).—Matth. xx. 4. Κακείνοις είπεν, to thole fame perfons he faid, go ye alfo into the vineyard." It may now be seen how the text should have been tranflated, viz. thus, Thefe things ought ye to have done, and not have omitted them. The things not to bave omitted, are the things which ought to be done, and can have no reference to the tithing of mint, anife, and cummin. No fuch reference could poffibly have place; fince that tithing was not of divine, but of hu man appointment. By the Mofaic law, only corn, wine, and oil, were titheable; our Lord could not then fay, that they had any obligation to fuch fuperftitious obfervance. He, on the contrary, condemned an unlording the commandment by their traditions; and their teaching for doctrines the commandments of men; therefore to fuppofe him capable of fuch a declaration, would have reflected upon him the greatest dishonour.

Thus, I truft, the miftranflated text appears to great advantage, in its genuine point of light, and a greater pleasure cannot well be defired than that of paying refpect to the facred canon; for whatever the cavilling fceptic may say, no man did ever Speak like fefus Chrift-Authority holds. out her fcepter in all his teachings; and he who does not reverence Jelus, has not yet learnt how to reverence himfelf nor does he know what it is to live.

For

For the LONDON MAGAZINE.

R. Zubly (an eminent clergy

35

restoring and perpetuating the tran

Dman in the province of Georgia) quillity of a great empire: perfons of

lately fent the following addrejs to Lord Dartmouth, on American affairs-which an old correfpondent hopes you will infert in your valuable repository.

0.

To the Right Honourable William Earl
of Dartmouth.

My Lord,

YOUR lordship's appointment to be fecretary of ftate for the American department, by numbers that refpected your lordship's religious cha racer, was looked upon as a very providential and happy event. Your patronizing religious undertakings, confirmed the general opinion; and we were happy in the expectations of your lordship's confcientious regard to juftice and equity, as well as to the civil and religious liberties of this great continent; we expected the cause of liberty and religion would meet with the ftrongest fupport under your adminiftration, and in your lordship would ever find a constant and successful advocate with your royal mafter.

Unhappily during your adminiftration, measures have been purfued very contrary to American hopes; and we eafily conceive your lordship may think it not lefs ftrange that many friends of religion in America fhould be fo unealy under laws which had your lordship's concurrence and approbation.

It is to the man and to the Chrif tian I wish to be permitted to address myfelf: your lordship ranks among the higheft fubjects, and has a large fhare in all public measures; but anxiety for what may diftrefs, and zeal for the welfare of the empire, can be no crime even in the meaneft; and when a houfe is once in flames, every man is inexcufable, or must at least be fo in his own breast, that does pot contribute whatever he may think in his power to their being extinguished. The effects of the prefent measures are visible, and it requires no fagacity to foresee what may be the confequence, should they be continued. Your lordship may do much towards

my ftation have nothing to offer but hints and wishes, hould thefe be beneath your notice, or ftand in need of forgiveness, my fincere wish to contribute any thing towards a juft, happy, and perpetual connection between a parent state, and an infant country, growing apace to the most aftonishing Pulchrum eft bene facere reipublica, jed importance, must be my only apology.

bene dicere non eft abfurdum.

agitates Great Britain and America,
The question, my lord, which now
and in which your lordship has taken
fuch an active part, is, whether the
right to lay taxes on the Americans,
parliament of Great-Britain has a
prefented; and whether the parlia-
who are not and cannot there be re-
ment has a right to bind the Ameri-
cans in all cafes what foever? What-
people in great Britain may believe,
ever may be faid, or whatever the good
this is the whole fubject of the dif
pute. All the feverities hitherto ex-
ercifed upon the Americans, professed-
fuch a dependance; and nothing lefs
ly have no other view than to enforce
than a claim, deftructive of all natu-
have united all America in a general
ral and national liberty, could poffibly
oppofition, or have aroufed them to.
join all like one man in their common
defence. Let a declaratory bill be
paffed, "that any law and, ulage to the
contrary notwithstanding, America is
mankind, and all the bleflings of the
entitled to all the common rights of
British conftitution, that the fword
fhall never be drawn to abridge, but
to confirm her birthright," and the
ftorm inftantly becomes a calm, and
every American thinks himself happy
fence, and glory of Great Britain,
to contribute to the neceffities, de-
to the utmost of his ftrength and
power.

ever," my lord, the Americans look
To" bind them in all cafes whatfo-
tifm in its utmoft perfection. What
upon this as the language of defpo-
can, fay they, an emperor of Morocco
pretend more of his flaves than to
bind them in all cafes whatsoever ?

F 2

Were

36

Dr. Zubly's Addrefs to Lord Dartmouth

Were it meant to make the Americans hewers of wood and drawers of water, were it meant to oblige them to make bricks without ftraw, were it meant to deprive them of the enjoyment of their religion, and to eftablish a hierarchy over them fimilar to that of the church of Rome in Canada; it would, fay they, be no more than a natural confequence of the right of binding them (unfeen, unheard, unreprefented) in all cafes whatsoever.

My lord, the Americans are no idiots, and they appear determined not to be flaves. Oppreffion will make wife men mad, but oppreffors in the end frequently find that they were not wife men: there may be refources even in defpair fufficient to render any fet of men ftrong enough not to be bound in all cafes whatsoever.

Grievous is the thought, my lord, that a nobleman of your lordship's cha racter should be fo zealous to make war, and to imbrue his hands in the blood of millions of your fellow-fubjects and fellow-chriftians. Pray, my jord, is it poffible that thofe, who at three thousand miles distance can be bound in all cafes, may be faid to have any liberty at all? Is it nothing in your lordship's eye to deprive fo confiderable a part of the globe of the privilege of breathing a free air, or to fubjugate numbers and generations to flavery and defpotifm? Can your lordship think on these things without horror, or hope they must be produc tive of any thing but deteftation and difappointment? Your lordship believes a fupreme ruler of the earth, and that the fmall and great must ftand before him at laft: would your lordship be willing, at the general meeting of all mankind, to take a place among those who deftroyed or enflaved empires, or risk your future ftate on the merit of having, at the expence of British blood and treafure, taken away the property, the life and liberty of the largest part of the British empire? Can your lordfhip think thofe that fear the Lord will not cry to him against their oppreffors? and will not the father of mankind hear the cries of the oppreffed? or would you be willing that their cries and tears should rife against

Jan,

you as a forward inftrument of their oppreffion ?

I know, my lord, that this is not courtly language, but your lordship is a profeffor of religion, and of the pure, gentle, benevolent religion of Jefus Chrift: the groans of a people pushed on a precipice, and driven on the very brink of despair, will prove forcible; till it can be proved that any power, in whofe legiflation the Americans have no part, may at pleafure bind them in all cafes whatsoever; till it can be proved that fuch a claim does not conftitute the very effence of flavery and defpotifm; till it can be proved that the Americans (whom in this view I can no longer call Britons) may, and of right ought, to be thus bound; abhorrence of fuch affertions is only the language of truth, which in the end will force its way, and rife fuperior to all the arts of falfhood and all the powers of oppreffion.

Right or wrong, my lord, “in all cafes whatsoever," but more especially when the fate of nations is concerned, are words of infinite moment. Your lordship doubtless believes that the weighty alternative muft have very folemn and different effects here and hereafter; but waving the right or wrong of this vile unhappy difpute, let me entreat your lordship's atten tion to confider at what an infinite risk the present measures must be purfued, even were it not demonftrable that they are in the highest degree wrong, cruel, and oppreffive.

The bulk of the inhabitants of a continent extending eighteen hundred miles in front on the Atlantic, and permitting an extenfion in breadth as far as the South Sea, look upon the claim, to bind them in all cafes whatsoever, as unjuft, illegal, and deteftable: let us fuppofe for a moment that they are grofsly miftaken; yet an error imbibed by millions, and in which they believe the all of the prefent and future generations lies at stake, may prove a very dangerous error; destroying the Americans will not cure them, nor will any acts that condemn to ftarve or be miferable, have any tendency to perfuade them that thefe acts were made by their friends. The people in England are made to believe that the

Ame.

1776,

on the American Conteft and its Effeds.

Americans want to feparate from them, or are unwilling to bear their part of the common burden. No reprefentation can be more false; but, my lord, a nation cannot be misled always, and when once the good people of Great Britain get truer notions of the matter, they will naturally wreak their refentment on those by whom they have been grofsly mifinformed or wretchedly deceived.

Review, my lord, the effects of the prefent measures; the paft and prefent will inform your lordship of what may be to come.

With an unparalleled patience did the Bostonians bear the annihilation of their trade, the blocking up of their harbour, and many other diftreffes, till at Lexington an attack was made upon their lives, and then they gave fufficient proof that their patience was not the effect of timidity, but of prudence and an unwillingness to fhed British blood. This attack convinced all America that the British miniftry and troops were athirst after their blood; and the behaviour of both parties on that day, and in many little kirmishes fince, muft convince all the world that in the cause of liberty the Americans are not afraid to look regulars in the face, and that in an unjuft and oppreffive fervice British troops are far from being invin cible.

The burning of the innocent town of Charles-Town, after it had been left by its inhabitants, is a piece of fuch wanton cruelty as will fix an everlasting difgrace on the British arms. In the long civil war in Great Britain nothing of the kind was attempted by either party, and this barbarity cannot fail being condemned by all civilized nations.

If at the battle on Bunker's Hill the Americans have been furprized, fuperiority has coft the regulars dearer than the Americans what is called their defeat; one or two more fuch defeats of the Americans would for ever put it out of the power of the prefent regular army to gain a victory.

The rejecting of the New-York petition has effectually filenced all thofe who pleaded for, or hoped any good from, petitioning. The cannonading. of that town in the dead of the night,

37

and without the leaft previous warning, as it has fhewn what the inhabiwill in hiftory stand as a lasting monutants are indifcriminately to expect, ment of fuch wantonnefs of cruelty as nations not remarkable for humanity would be ashamed of.

land fishery laid all those who were The deftroying of the New-Engdeprived of their bread and occupafity of feeking it in the American tion at fea, under an abfolute necefarmy, and the fenfe of the injury done them will doubtlefs exert itself in the day of battle.

Canadians and favage Indians againft The endeavour to ftir up popish the colonists has been productive of the taking of the important pafs of Ticonderoga, which has been effected without the loss of a single life on either fide.

ton, after they had, in dependance on Detaining the inhabitants of Bofup their arms, to be ftarved and the general's word of honour, given ruined, is an action worthy of the caufe, and can only be equalled by the diftreffes of Proteftants driven under the walls of Londonderry, at which even a James relented.

fterial writers relative to American Propofals publicly made by minidomeftics, laid the fouthern provinces under a neceffity of arming thempower of domeftics to cut the throats felves; a propofal to put it in the of their mafters, can only ferve to cover the propofers and abettors with everlasting infamy.

"a rope of fand;" but blood and fand
The Americans have been called
enough American blood has been al-
will make a firm cementation; and
ready fhed to cement them together
broken.
into a thirteenfold cord, not easily to be

fent measures has almost instantane-
My lord, the violence of the pre-
oufly created a continental union, a
continental currency, a continental
army, and before this can reach your
lordship, they will be as equal in dif-
cipline, as they are fuperior in cause
zealous
and fpirit to any regulars. The most

effected in an age, what the cruelty and
Americans could not have
violence of adminiftration has effec-
tually brought to pass in a day.

The regular army employed on this

errand,

38
errand, with four able generals, now
lies no better than befieged within
the ruins of Charles-Town and Bof-
ton, unable to procure the neceffaries
of life, obliged to import their bread
from Europe, and fuel from Canada,
pining away with disease, and afford-
ing daily martyrs to cruelty and arbi-
trary power, while every day adds to
the improbability of their ever obtain
ing thofe unhappy ends. A ftrange
fituation for a British army!

Dr. Zubly's Addrefs to Lord Dartmouth.

Reftraining the trade of the colonies, will effectually annihilate all their trade with Great-Britain. The numbers that crofled the Atlantic, or re-exported American commodities from Great-Britain; the manufacturers that wrought for America, or worked up their raw materials; will now be at full leifure to know and feel whether the American trade be an object of any importance, and how much the nation is obliged to a mi niftry that has fo effectually laboured its deftruction.

The prefent difpute has made every American acquainted with, and attentive to, the principles of the Britifh conftitution: in this refpect, as well as in a strong fenfe of liberty, and the ufe of fire-arms almoft from the cradle, the Americans have vaftly the advantage over men of their rank almost every where elfe. From the conftant topic of prefent converfation, every child unborn will be imprefied with the notion: it is flavery to be bound at the will of another in all cafes whatsoever; every mother's milk will convey a deteftation of this maxim. Were your lordship in A merica, you might fee little ones, acquainted with the word of command before they can distinctly speak, and fhouldering the refemblance of a gun before they are well able to walk.

When millions of free people at once turn their thoughts from trade, and the means of acquiring wealth, to agriculture and frugality, it mult caufe a moft fenfible alteration in the ftate. My lord, this is the cafe at prefent in America; every new act of violence will ftrengthen and confirm the fpirit that taught them the necef fity of being frugal and virtuous, that they might remain free and become invincible.

. Jan.

Admit, my lord (for fuppofitions now become probable in proportion of their being aftonishing and violent) that a British fleet may effectually guard every harbour, river, creek, or inlet on the American coaft; admit alfo that her troops destroy every town, village, or hut along the fea fhore, what then will be the confequence? Why, my lord, it will be the deftroying the property of thoufands in Great-Britain, and of a few on this fide of the water, whom your lordhip calls your friends: perhaps the attempt may not fucceed; but fuppofing it fhould, the Americaus, injured beyond a poflibility of reparation, and irritated to the highest degree, will retire where they are inacceffible to troops and hips; instead of trade and navigation, you will have a defolate fea coait; the trade of America will be loft, and with it the finews of war: and, my lord, in the natural courfe of things America, in lefs than half a century, will contain more inhabitants than Great Britain and Ireland; and that period, my lord, is not fo far diftant to put the prefent treatment entirely out of remembrance. America and Great-Britain joined in arms together, may grow confident against the world befides; but if Britain continue her arms against America; if her troops can be perfuaded to go on againft their brethren and friends; if they will deftroy the last asylum of liberty, and a country which has faved fo many thousands from ftarving at home; the Americans will fight like men who have every thing at ftake: the mercenaries with bayonets at their backs, and at the rate of fix-pence a day, if they are once defeated, whence will they be refupplied? If they return to Britain victorious, they will be fit inftruments to promote that flavery at home which they have been fuccessful in fastening (probably for a very little while) on their fellow-fubjects abroad.

In times of public confufion men of all parties are fometimes carried further than they intended at first setting out. Hiftory and the knowledge of human nature fhould inform your lordship how much it is against all found policy to fecure or Itrive for punctilios at an infinite risk.

The

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