the subject of negation in the former, and of doubt in the latter, must be acknowledged to be one and the same: whereas the common translation denies the giving of the Holy Ghost in the one, and in the other questions his existence.

3. The error will be corrected by applying the same rule of interpretation to both, and by looking for guidance to whichever of these passages may be more clearly determinable than the other.

4. Now that the passage in John is elliptical, is most obvious; because otherwise an Evangelist (for these are John's own words) must be supposed to deny the existence of the Holy Ghost previous to the glorification of Jesus. And not only so, but the context marks the propriety of that very word (given) which has been supplied; because it directs us to the long-promised descent of the Spirit of God, called elsewhere the gift of the Holy Ghost, which was not to take place till Jesus was glorified, being necessarily subsequent to that event which it was designed to attest. Accordingly, the first preaching of the resurrection, and the first descent of the Holy Ghost, took place on the same day, the day of Pentecost. The meaning of these words of the Evangelist being thus established, 5. We conclude that the passage under consideration is also elliptical, and is also to be supplied by the word given. It will then run so, we have not so much as heard whether the Holy Ghost be given : and thus the answer marks no ignorance of that spirit who dwelt in them, but merely intimates that they had not heard of the Holy Ghost's having yet been poured out; a circumstance which affected not their views of the only True God, involved no error in their faith of the gospel, and for which the place of their residence fully

accounts.

XII.

INSTANCES OF INACCURACY IN THE OMISSION OR INSERTION OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE.

"I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting."-1 Tim. ii. 8.

WE certainly ought to read-"that the men pray everywhere;” or literally, "in every place." The men, in contradistinction to women. The original is decisive-[res ardgas]. Accordingly, the Apostle proceeds, in the next and following verses, to give his instructions about the women, the sobriety of their apparel, their silence in the church, &c.

It is therefore plain, that in the 8th verse, the expression pray imports leading in social prayer; as it is certain the Apostle never

intended to debar Christian women from prayer, either from praying individually in private, or from joining in spirit with the social worship of the brethren. And the addition of the words, "in every place," marks, I think, that the Apostle extends his regulation beyond the meeting of the brethren on the first day of the week, to any other occasion in which several of them united in prayer: an instance of which we have in Acts xii. 12.-I make the observation, because, (if I mistake not) it was at one time maintained by Mr. WAKEFIELD, that all open engagement in social prayer is contrary to the direction which Christ gives his disciples in Matth. vi. 6. But that this direction related exclusively to private, or individual prayer, and that the sentiment I have mentioned was utterly erroneous,-is proved decisively by the Apostle's language in this passage of his letter to Timothy.

WE

"For the love of money is the root of all evil."-1 Tim. vi. 10.

We should read, " is a root of all evil." [a yxe-not pα.] -The common version would seem to imply, that the love of money is the only root of all evil.

"I have fought a good fight."—2 Tim. iv. 7.

HERE we should read, "the good fight." The original is emphatic-[rov xywvx Tov xaλov]—as if he said, "I have maintained the contest that is indeed the glorious one; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith."-The Apostle's language here and in the following verse obviously alludes to the public games, of running, &c. in which the Greeks especially delighted; and a prize in which they spoke of frequently as the highest honour attainable by mortals. We find the same allusion in 1 Cor. ix. 24-27. and elsewhere.

The Christian, while engaged in maintaining "the good fight of faith," (1 Tim. vi. 12.) must lay his account indeed to meet with the contempt and scorn of the world. But even in this he is enabled to glory, while kept looking unto the great forerunner. HE "endured the cross, despising the shame." He was "mocked" and "spit upon." HE is " despised," as well as rejected, by men." (Isa. liii. 3.) And the remembrance of HIм may well enable his followers even to rejoice, when they are counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.' (Acts v. 41.) But as yet "their life is hid with Christ in God." It is "when Christ, their life, shall be manifested,-[zvgwon]-that they also shall be manifested with him in glory." (Col. iii. 3, 4.) And then it will appear to all, that the "fight of faith" which they have maintained, at whatever cost of suffering for his name, is indeed "the good fight,”—the honourable and glorious contest.

"And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days."—Acts xxi. 4.

[ανευρόντες

It should be" And having found out the disciples." [ugovтES της μαθητας.]

Here, besides the omission of the definite article, our translators have very imperfectly given the force of the preceding participle, which really implies that Paul and his Christian companions, on their arrival at Tyre, had inquired, or searched, for the disciples in that city. This is always the proper force of the compound verb [aveugin]; of which we have another example in Luke ii. 16. The simple verb [igoxa] neither implies, nor necessarily excludes, the idea of such an antecedent search; and accordingly it is employed in the 2nd verse of this chapter; the finding of a ship sailing to Phenicia having been, perhaps, unlooked for.

Trifling as the correction which I have suggested may appear to some, it renders the narrative much more interesting to those, who are at all acquainted with the fellowship of Christian brethren. Paul, arriving at Tyre (as it would appear) on a Monday, sets about inquiring for the Christians of that city; and succeeds in finding them. Finding any one of them, he in effect found them all; for all were in one body most intimately associated. But the Apostle, anxious to meet with them all assembled on the first day of the week, and to join with them in shewing forth that which was the one foundation of their common hope towards God, tarries at Tyre for the purpose seven days. (We find him tarrying the same period at Troas for the same purpose, in the preceding chapter, v. 6 and 7.) Perhaps he had never before seen the face of one of these Tyrian disciples. Yet, O! what closeness of heart union, what endeared fellowship was there among them? And is not this intimated in that most striking, though most simple description, which is contained in the fifth and sixth verses?

Can we contemplate the whole narrative, without contrasting Apostolic Christianity with that which passes under the name, at this day and in this country? Shall we imagine a Christian stranger, of the Apostolic school, arriving in any city in Christendom for the first time; and proceeding to inquire for the disciplesfor the Christians of that place? "The Christians! Sir: we are all Christians!"-Perhaps the inquirer has just passed by two of these Christians, staunch upholders of Church and State-going out to the field of honour, deliberately to shoot one another. Perhaps― But I forbear. Too wide a field opens before me.

"But exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."-Heb. iii. 13.

Ir should be of the sin" [rns aμagrias]; namely, that sin of unbelief, against which the Apostle has warned the Hebrew Chris

tians in the verse immediately preceding, and warns them throughout the Epistle.

Nor is it without reason, that in the 12th verse he connects the "evil heart of unbelief" with " departure from the living God." It is in the doctrine of Christ, that the name or character and glory -of "the only true God" is declared. They who are turned from darkness unto light, from the false religious sentiments, which naturally possess the sinner's mind, to the belief of the truth as it is in Jesus,-they, and they alone, are turned to the only true God; are indeed converted, and have "repentance unto life." And, on the other hand, those who depart from the faith and uncorrupted truth of the Gospel, after having once professed it, do awfully "depart from the living God;" and are indeed apostates, for whom there remaineth a "fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." Heb. x. 27.

"And again Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust. [ελπισι.] Νovo the God of hope [ns såwidos] fill you with all joy and peace in beleving, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit."-Rom. xv. 12, 13.

WE should read, "in him shall the Gentiles have hope. Now the God of this hope"-and-" that ye may abound in this hope." The Apostle speaks not of every hope, or of every religious hope, indiscriminately: but specially and exclusively of the hope of the Gospel; of that good hope through grace," of which sinners believing in Christ are made partakers; which has the living God for its author, his faithful word for its warrant, his immutability and omnipotence for its guarantee.

The distinguishing character of this hope is marked in all the prophecies which the Apostle has quoted, and which declared that the Gentiles should be partakers of it: the Gentiles, whom the Jews were accustomed to consider as dogs, in comparison of themselves; and whose natural state is described as that of "" aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, having no hope and without God in the world," "dead in trespasses and sins." (Eph. ii. 1, 12.) Herein "the hope of the Gospel" stands distinguished from all the vain hopes, which men derive from the consideration of some supposed worth, or wisdom, or power in themselves. It is for those that are ungodly and without strength (Rom. v. 6.); and it rests on the "sure foundation, which God has laid in Zion." In such Gentiles, the Apostle declares that "CHRIST is the hope of glory." (Col. i. 27.) And this is the hope that "maketh not ashamed."

XIII.

"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them, and said,―The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, lo here! or, lo there! for behold the kingdom of God is within you."-Luke xvii. 20, 21.

WE certainly ought to read, "the kingdom of God is in the midst of you." And so the French version. The more closely we examine the context in the light of scriptural truth, the more will this correction appear indisputably just.

The Lord Jesus had not as yet publicly and avowedly put himself forward as the MESSIAH. On the contrary, he enjoined his disciples who acknowledged him in that character, not to tell any man that he was the Christ: and this, for the wisest reasons. The contrary course could at that time only have excited the people to revolt against their Roman governors; and so have countenanced the imputation that he was an enemy to Cæsar. Indeed we find on one occasion, that the people, excited by the miraculous feeding of the multitude, would have "come and taken him by force to make him a king." (John vi. 15.) How much more forward would they have been to engage in such attempts, had he not appeared in circumstances and uniformly pursued a course-opposite to all the greatness and splendour of earthly kings?

The Pharisees, however, could not fail to understand the various intimations by which, from time to time, he left his hearers to conclude that he was the Christ; nor were they ignorant that his followers considered him as such. Accordingly they had agreed, "that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue." (John ix. 22.) And when the whole Sanhedrim condemned him to be guilty of death as a blasphemer, it was because he replied with an explicit affirmative, "I am," to the High Priest's question-" Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” (Mark xiv. 61–64.) To ensnare him into such an avowal prematurely, and so to establish against him the charge of making himself a king in opposition to Cæsar, was the object of the Pharisees on many occasions, in which they endeavoured to entangle him in his talk and it appears to have been their object in demanding of him, When the kingdom of God should come?"

In the Lord's reply, we may admire that divine wisdom which ever flowed from his lips. Without either denying or asserting that he was the King of Israel, his reply strikes at the root of the false conceptions concerning the nature of the Messiah's kingdom, upon which the question of the Pharisees proceeded; and testifies against the blindness which possessed their minds. The kingdom of God cometh not with observation,"-not with any outward display of