The saying is faithful; if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we believe not, he remaineth faithful; for he cannot deny himself.' From the above, which is a fair specimen, our readers may form some idea of the character of the present translation. It has been carefully made. It sometimes improves upon, sometimes falls below, the authorised version. This we say, making fair allowance, we think, for the influence of early association. There are several renderings from which we dissent on the score of correctness, others which we disapprove as disagreeable to our taste and feeling. Thus we should not have rendered svaYYÉλIOV KATÀ Maratov the good tidings according to Matthew.' It is evident that evayyov, as a title had become technical, though not the best title, according to modern ideas, which could be given to the gospels, it was retained when the New Testament canon was compiled, because it was the recognised title, and for the same reason we would retain the word 'gospel,' in a modern version. In John iv. 11, Mr. Sharpe translates Lord, thou hast nothing to draw with,' and in ver. 15, 'Lord, give me this water;' this we decidedly disapprove. In ver. 19, the rendering Lord, I perceive that thou art a prophet,' speaks for itself. We never wish to inquire into the motives of a translator in substituting one term or phrase for another, but could hardly resist the impression that this might be to detract from the force of Lord,' as applied to Jesus, when used in other places; however we might, and hope we should be, wrong in yielding to this impression. We will, however, observe, that, instead of the glory of the great God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ,' which is Mr. Sharpe's translation, we should have rendered τῆς δόξης τοῦ μεγάλου Θεοῦ καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ,' and we are surprised that the considerations which induced Mr. Sharpe to translate 2 Peter i. 11 as he has done, did not induce him to prefer that rendering. 6 Our remaining observations respect the outward form of this translation, which comprises several valuable improvements. Every citation from the Old Testament is clearly distinguished by being printed in italics. The genealogies are put into a tabular form; the songs of Mary, Zacharias, and Simeon, appear in the hemistic form so well known and appreciated in Bishop Lowth's Isaiah, and in the poetical portions of the Religious Tract Society's paragraph Bible, which should be in every body's hands; and every discourse, and whatever occurs in the form of dialogue or conversation, is distinguished by inverted commas. The work is well printed, and though the price is high, being one-fifth higher than that at which the American Testament we have referred to is obtainable in London, there are doubtless many persons to whom it will be an acquisition. 488 Literary Entelligence. In the Press. Sketches and Skeletons of Sermons on Types and Metaphors. By a Dissenting Minister. Illustrations of German Poety, with Notes, &c. By Elijah Barwell Impey, Esq., M.A., Faculty Student of Christ Church, Oxford. The Congregational Lecture for 1840. Subject: The Connexion and Doctrinal Harmony of the Old and New Testaments. By the Rev. W. Lindsay Alexander, M.A., of Edinburgh. Just Published. The Art of Needlework. Edited by the Countess of Wilton. The Pictorial Edition of Shakspere. King Richard the Third. The Wesleyan Conferences of England and Canada-their Union and Separation. Lives of the Queens of England. By Agnes Strickland. Vol. III. Stenography Remodelled. By J. Fancutt. Chivalry and Charity. Ward's Library. Aids to Preaching and Hearing. By Thomas Skinner, D.D. Religion and Crime, or the Distresses of the People, and their Remedies. By John Minter Morgan. Abridgment of Sir T. Fowell Buxton's Work on the African Slave Trade and its Remedy. The History of England under the House of Stuart, including the Commonwealth. Library of Useful Knowledge. 2 vols. Selections from Robert Hall. By Charles Badham. Notes on the Pentateuch. By T. Brightwell. The Temple of the Living God as erected by the Apostles. A Treatise on English Grammar, &c. By Richard Hiley. The Spirit of Popery. Letter to Lord John Russell in Reply to Mr. Jamieson on the Niger Expedition. By Sir George Stephen. A Topographical History of Surrey. By E. W. Brayley, F.S.A. Part I. The Works of Josephus. Translated by Whiston. Part V. Consolation for Christian Mourners. By Adam Thomson, D.D. Heber and other Poems. By Thomas Ragg. A Summary of the History of France. Translated from the French of Felix Bodin. By Jonathan Duncan. Memoir of Paul Duffe. By Wilson Armstead. The Backslider. By Andrew Fuller, with a Preface by Rev. J. A. James. The Naturalist's Library. Vol 29. Entomology by James Duncan. Fisher's Historic Illustrations of the Bible. Division I. Cyclopædia of Domestic Medicine. By Keith Imray. Part I. A Manual of Commerce. By William Waterson. Dr. Pye Smith on the Relation between the Holy Scriptures and Some Parts of Geological Science. Second Edition, foolscap 8vo. THE ECLECTIC REVIEW NOVEMBER, 1840. Art. I. 1. The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland. 2. An attempt towards an Analysis, Arrangement, and Compression of the Book of Common Prayer of the United Church of England and Ireland. By Rev. J. RILAND, M.A., Curate of Yoxhall. 8vo. pp. 64. Hamilton and Adams. THE Book of Common Prayer is used every week by myriads of our fellow countrymen as a formula of devotion. It is employed for the same purpose in all places to which the Church Missionary Society and the government send clerical agents. Those who use it are accustomed to laud it as a sort of second Bible and nonconformists have sometimes, by admissions more creditable to their good feelings than their judgment, helped to keep up the delusion. We propose to glance slightly at the history of this book; and inquire carefully into its merits. In pursuing the course thus marked out, we shall endeavor to avoid whatever might needlessly wound the feelings of those Christians who use the Prayer-book as a guide in their approach to the mercy-seat. Devout emotions are always to be respected, however needless and erroneous the forms with which they are encumbered. The piety of a Christian papist (there are many such), whose penitence is awakened as he gazes on the mummeries of popery, is to be held in high esteem: and equal regard is due to the devout Protestant, who on the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, or the five and twentieth after Trinity, or on Quinquagesima Sunday, or on any other Sunday, shall reverently VOL. VIII. 2 L turn to the altar, and say the Nicene creed. We may deem the Quinquagesima, and the creed, and the altar, and the turning to the east, useless and frivolous; but if any think otherwise, and connect with these superstitions sincere worship, their piety is to be respected more than their weakness is to be despised. In the year 1548, commissioners appointed by Edward and his council met to prepare an English liturgy. In prosecution of their task they examined the Breviary, Missal, Ritual, and Pontifical, the service books of the Romish church; together with other books of the kind then in use. These were compared with ancient liturgies, and the works of the fathers; and before the close of the year the new liturgy was completed, and sanctioned by parliament; which enacted that the said form of common prayer, and no other, 'should after the feast of Pentecost next following, be used in all his majesty's dominions.' In 1551, the articles were drawn up, nearly in their present form; and the new service book, as it was called, underwent a thorough revision. Several important omissions, and some valuable additions, were made; and the whole in its amended form was, in the month of April, 1552, authorised by parliament; the act requiring all 'persons after the feast of Allhallows next, to come to common prayer, every Sunday and holiday, under pain of the censures of the church.' The Book of Common Prayer now in use is, with the exception of some prayers relating to events of more recent occurrence, and a few unimportant alterations, the same with that which received the imprimatur of parliament 288 years ago. Who can sufficiently admire the wisdom of the ecclesiastics and senators, who just emerging from the densest darkness themselves, could so amply and exactly provide for the wants of coming centuries, and produce a book to all and every thing contained in which a hundred and fifty thousand clergymen have since declared their unfeigned assent and consent! * Most Dissenters (by no means all of them) would object to the Prayer-book, simply as a form of prayer. Were that form free from error, and greatly varied, still would they deem it a poor substitute for the pouring out of the heart. Prayer is the utterance of our wants and desires before God; and our wants are so infinitely diversified and so perpetually varying, that no petitions prepared for general and constant use can possibly answer the purposes of prayer: very much of the worth and efficacy of which depends on its being exactly and even minutely pertinent. * We have no certain account of the use of any liturgies in the first ages of the church; those of St. Mark, St. James, and that of Alexandria being manifestly spurious. It is not till the latter end of the fourth century that they are first mentioned; and then it was left to the care of every bishop to draw up a form of prayer for his own church.'-Neal's His. Pur. vol. i. p. 44. ¡ He who will consult the dictates of common sense, or the prayers of Paul, recorded in most of his Epistles, will perceive how cold and chilling must be set forms used on all occasions, as compared with supplications which receive their peculiar character from our immediate exigences. Every devout man knows that the doctrines of our religion, though ever the same, yet so blend themselves with all the changes and chances of this mortal life, as to produce the greatest variety of religious feeling; and as the disciple of Christ is in all things to give thanks, so, we may add, is he in all things to pray. His prayers, therefore, and his praises, though always substantially the same, will yet in their complexion be ever varying, as the incidents of his own life, or the events of providence occurring around him, call into exercise his faith and piety. And as the Christian in his own retirement will thus find his devotions marked by a natural and most interesting variety, so will it be, at least so ought it to be, with Christian congregations. The varying state of the particular church, and of the neighborhood in which it is placed; unusual occurrences in the course of divine providence; intelligence relating either to the civil or religious condition of other parts of the world:- these, and many other causes, will perpetually operate, where the worshippers are not enslaved by a liturgy, and give a tone to the services of the sanctuary. The occasional prayers and thanksgivings, introduced into the Prayer-book, recognize the principle we have explained; but these forms for occasional use, though now and then enlarged by a scrap of prayer from the palace at Lambeth, for the use of the poor clergy (who, having been educated at the universities, cannot be trusted in their own words to pray that God would avert the cholera, or give thanks for the preservation of the life of the supreme governor of their church), are a very lame attempt to reduce that principle to practice. If extemporaneous prayer were freely used, in conjunction with liturgical forms, the objection to the Prayer-book which has now been advanced would be at an end.* It is amusing to think what a pother would be raised in 'our most excellent Church,' by the simple requirement of prayer without book. Let it be supposed that some such missive as the following were issued. VICTORIA REGINA, Our will and pleasure is, that after Sunday next, on all Sundays and ecclesiastical days throughout the year, there be used in all cathedral and collegiate churches and chapels, and all chapels of colleges and halls within our Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, and of our colleges of Eton and Winchester, and in all parish churches and chapels within those parts of the United Kingdom called England and Ireland, prayer without book; the minister uttering with his eyes closed the words of devotion which his heart has conceived, and not those forms of prayer which in our royal wisdom we perceive do lead to vain repetitions; and which, therefore, in virtue of our |
