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This, then, is all that is signified by this word Immanuel! So that again we have all idea of the Divine nature of our Lord set aside, and the glorious mystery implied in that name kept entirely out of sight! And though, in the note on Isa. ix. 6, he says that "the names given to the Royal Child cannot without extravagance, and (perhaps one might say) without blasphemy, be explained of any but a Divine (goddelijken, literally godlike) person; yet even this, to one who knows any thing of the Dutch Remonstrants in general, or of van der Palm in particular, will still appear unsatisfactory: for many will acknowledge the Divinity of Christ (Goddelijkheid), who deny his Deity (Godheid).

Job xix. 25-29 is thus rendered :

25 Yea, I know that my Goël liveth, he shall at last stand up for the dust: 26 And after this my skin is wholly mouldered away, then shall I, released from my flesh, behold God!

27 Whom I shall behold for my good, and mine eyes shall see, no more estranged (from me)! How gasps the longing within me.

28 Then shall you say: why persecuted we him! when the ground of my matter (or the truth of my case) shall be discovered.

29 Tremble then on your own account for the sword, for flaming it avenges the misdeeds of the sword! so that ye shall know there is a judgment.

We have no objection to leave the word Goël untranslated; for we know of no word, in any other language, which expresses the full force and meaning of the Hebrew: but when a man leaves a word untranslated in the text, we must look to his notes to see how it is that he intends us to understand the passage. In such a case the translation is only to be found in the note; wherein we read:

...... Only two opinions can here be noticed either, that we here find Job's prospect in eternity, when God would not only no longer treat him as an enemy, but on the contrary vouchsafe him the beholding of his presence and the enjoyment of his highest favour: which exposition may agree very well with the letter of the text. But if we extend this further, and here introduce the day of universal judgment, when public sentence shall be pronounced on every one's guilt or innocence, then it must be feared that we do not enough keep in view the light and the dispensation of those times. Meanwhile many are of opinion that even the state of the soul in the life to come cannot be intended by Job, because this is carefully kept out of sight throughout the whole of the dispute between Job and his friends. There then remains a second explanation, which is by no means destitute of probability. According to this, Job here sets forth his unshaken confidence, that God will not always permit the apparent triumph of his friends, but one time or other bring his innocence to light, though it be after his death, with visible execution of vengeance and punishment on those who had thus undeservedly slandered him. Goël has then here the oldest and proper signification of avenger of blood; for Job's slandered innocence was the same thing as the shedding of innocent blood, according to ch. xvi. 18, where what is noted should be compared herewith. The sword, before which his friends must tremble (ver. 29), is the sword of that avenger of blood. The modes of speech

vers. 26, 27, that Job himself, after his death, would see and behold, for his good, God as such a defender and avenger, we must explain in this sense, that he as surely believed this as if he should see it with his eyes; thereby keeping in mind, that, according to the Eastern mode of representing things, a dead man actually saw his avenger rise up before him, when his murderer was punished; as then first his blood ceased to well up from the ground, and his cry for vengeance was hushed, according to ch. xvi. 18. When one thus reads all this, inspired with truly Eastern feeling, this place will be found, in expression, design, and connection, very agreeable to the rest of this speech, and of this book.

We hope our readers find this very satisfactory! The Professor also objects to translate the word Goël by Redeemer, because here it would mean too much; but when he meets with the same word in Isaiah, he tells us that Redeemer means too little, for it does not express the whole extent of its meaning. This is true: but the due consideration of the original meaning of the word, even according to the interpretations which he gives in different places where it occurs, would utterly forbid its being confined in this place to the signification of avenger of blood, which he would affix to it. Significat enim Ebræum vocabulum, propriè et accuratè loquendo, ejusmodi assertorem et vindicem, liberatorem et redemptorem, qui, jure consanguinitatis motus, causam propinqui sui interfecti asserit, ejusque sanguinem vindicat: vel qui bona à consanguineo proximo, donatione seu venditione, vel quoque modo devoluta, et contractu quodam implicata, jure proprietatis pristinæ ei rursus asserit et vindicat. Hæc vis illa vocis dictæ est : undè facilè liquet, qualem Vet. Test. patres expectaverint exoptaverintque Messiam et Liberatorem. Glassii Philol. Sacr. "For the Hebrew word, properly and accurately speaking, signifies such an asserter and avenger, liberator and redeemer, as, moved by the the of consanguinity, asserts the cause of his slain relation and avenges his blood: or who again claims and rescues for him, in right of former property, the goods which were alienated by gift or sale, or in any other manner, and implicated in some contract. This is the force of the said word: whence it readily appears what sort of Liberator and Messiah the OldTestament fathers expected and longed for." is properly the next of kin; and the verb signifies, to do the part, or execute the office, of a kinsman: whence, by a little consideration of Eastern customs and Jewish laws, all the various meanings assigned to it in different places may be easily derived. We con ceive, then, that the passage Job xix. 25-27 has been very accurately, though poetically, rendered thus:

I know

That He who loves me with a kinsman's love,
My own Redeemer, lives; and He shall stand
At the Last Day triumphant o'er the dust;

And though this skin and body feed the worm,
Yet in my flesh, and with the eyes of sense,
I shall behold my Saviour and my God;
Shall see him for myself, and not another:

My reins within me yearn with strong desire!

We have said that we cannot pretend, within the limits of this work, to give any thing like a complete review of a work so extensive as that of van der Palm; nor can we enumerate even a small portion of those passages which deserve severe animadversion. We can only give a few hints, by which our readers may be enabled to judge of the spirit in which his work is conducted; and as it seems but just to give two or three specimens out of the New Testament, we will only remark further, that, with the writers of the neologian school generally, van der Palm seems to consider the Canticles as not at all belonging to the inspired Scriptures. We say, seems; for he does not say so in so many words; but he speaks, as usual, in a doubtful manner, which may rather lead one to guess at his meaning, than suffice to declare it. However, this he tells us plainly, that he considers it only as a collection of love songs, intended to set forth the sweetness and tenderness of conjugal affection when limited to one object, in opposition to the polygamy which has prevailed in the East from the most ancient times. He treats it as a thing not to be dreamed of, that there should be any mystical or spiritual meaning sought in this book; and therefore feels himself obliged to offer many excuses for the Oriental colours in which every thing is described, and makes a sort of apology for its admission into the Sacred Volume.

Turning, then, to the New Testament, we find the brief notice of the doctrine of the Trinity, given by the old translators in a note referring to Matt. iii, 16, 17, entirely omitted, as useless and unseasonable. Matt. iv. 4 is rendered: "Man needeth not to live by bread alone, but by every thing which the mouth of God thereto ordains." This is called translation! We wish that there were no need to accuse English divines-Dr. Campbell, for instance of putting the same construction upon it. In his notes on the whole passage, vers. 1-11, our author notices with some appearance of contempt the idea that this must all be taken literally; but mentions that others suppose the tempter to have been a person deputed by the Jewish council, who wanted to put the truth of the Divine mission of Jesus to the proof, or to persuade him to unite with their party. A third class (with whom he seems disposed to agree) consider all this as having been presented to the imagination of Jesus in a trance or vision; and thinks the expression, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit

into the wilderness," gives us to understand as much!-In Matt. v. 3, he would omit the words "in spirit;" and read, "Blessed are the poor, for theirs," &c.: for he tells us that

poor in spirit" is "a strange expression, and scarcely in the style of Jesus!" We can believe, indeed, that to this learned Professor it is totally unintelligible: but what becomes of the force and sweetness of the passage, if such a maiming of the sacred text be admitted?-On Matt. xviii. 20, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name," he observes in the note, "That is to say, two or three Apostles; for to these alone belong properly the promises which we here meet with"!

The idea of a real conversion is intolerable to such divines. Therefore, in the notes on Luke xix. 8, he tells us that the saying of Zaccheus, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor," is to be understood of his ordinary conduct during his whole life and translates the last clause of the verse, 66 I am ready to return him four-fold ;" and considers this as the language of a man who was conscious he had never defrauded any one, and was unjustly despised by the prejudiced Jews, merely because he was a publican! We need not point out how completely the words of our Lord (in vers. 9,10) refute such a strained interpretation.

We might point out how, in the notes on John i. 1 and 14, instead of the plain, straight-forward declaration of the proper Deity and Incarnation of the Son of God, the reader is bewildered with a learned account of the notions of certain philosophers of his time, from whose opinions the Evangelist intended to warn and wean his readers. His own opinion, as far as may be gathered from the notes, would seem to be that of Sabellius, rather than that of the Nicene Fathers: but we are rather inclined to question whether he himself knows what his opinion is respecting the person of Christ.

Perhaps our readers will be glad to know what is said on John iii. 1—11. He tells us, then, in the note on ver. 3, that "without conversion, and a change of tenets (or opinions), no one can have part in God's kingdom: this conversion Jesus names, a new birth; which expression the Jews used at that time, to express a transition from heathenism to Judaism." This is the key to all he says on that important conversation, and on all similar passages. If this were forgotten, he would sometimes appear to give a true and spiritual interpretation: but this explains all that he elsewhere says, and reduces it to nothing.

Let this then suffice. We trust it is enough to prove to our readers, that it was worthy of the craft of Satan to alter the Dutch language, so that a new translation of the Scriptures

should seem to be required, when he could find opportunity, by the expedient, to substitute such a work as that of Professor van der Palm for the old Dutch version, of which we gave an account in our preceding Number. And to this work there is prefixed a list of nearly three thousand subscribers! persons of the first respectability in the country, and a large proportion of them ministers of the Dutch Church! Nor has any one come forward, except the converted Jew to whom we have alluded, to point out, in a public and resolute manner, the numberless abominations which this book contains! This is a fearful token of the awful state of the Dutch churches at present: and it is partly to give some idea of the state of religion in that country that we have dwelt upon this book and while an unforeseen accident, which has broken the thread of his narrative, and made it rather difficult to resume it, has interrupted the communications of our Correspondent on the State of Religion in Holland, we trust our readers will think we have not done amiss in giving, by way of episode or appendix, this brief account of the old and the new Dutch versions of the Bible. We think the consideration and comparison of the two will furnish some important hints, upon many points connected with the progress of religion in general, and with the important work of Bible-translation in particular.

We conclude with citing the last sentence of van der Palm's preface, and (as a pleasing contrast) the last paragraph of another preface, which is, perhaps, not so well known to our readers as it should be.

I conclude, after having supplicated the abundant blessing of the Most High, and of the glorified King of his Church, upon your important occupations for the promotion of truth, love, and virtue, with naming myself, &c.

p. 32.

This is the only expression of a devotional nature in the whole preface; which we may easily perceive would come as suitably from the mouth of a Socinian as from that of a Christian, if not indeed (all circumstances considered) much more so. It is therefore a relief to turn to the conclusion of the Address of our own pious Translators to the Reader, which may be studied for itself, as well as in contrast with the above.

"Many other things we might give thee warning of, gentle reader, if we had not exceeded the measure of a preface already. It remaineth that we commend thee to God, and to the Spirit of his grace, which is able to build further than we can ask or think. He removeth the scales from our eyes, the veil from our hearts; opening our wits, that we may understand his word; enlarging our hearts, yea, correcting our affections, that we may love it above gold and silver, yea, that we may love it to the end. Ye are brought unto fountains of living water which ye digged

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