the renewing, sanctifying, and preserving influences of the Holy Spirit, he embraces as a most welcome part of the plan of saving mercy established by his Heavenly Father. On this foundation of redemption and grace, he builds his cheerful hope of deliverance from all sin, and from all its dreadful consequences. The testimony of heaven dictates his belief, that "other foundation can no man lay;" and that, to the unhappy persons who reject this hope set before them, "there remaineth no more any sacrifice for sins, but a fearful “looking for of judgment, and a fiery indignation, which shall devour "the adversaries" of Christ. With a heart as full of sensibility as that of his Unitarian friend can be, he looks into the awful, the unfathomable mystery of the permission and the prevalence of sin, and the never dying misery which it produces. While he receives with a submissive faith the numerous, clear, and pointed declarations of the divine word, that for the finally impenitent no hope remains beyond death; he possesses a sweet confidence that all the righteous judgments of God will be exercised in highest harmony with consummate wisdom, and with the most pure and perfect benevolence. He knows that Eternal Justice will do the wicked no wrong, and will never permit them to suffer the smallest injury: and he rejoices in the full assurance of faith, that, in the most awful retributions of Jehovah's holy government, HE will be, by every righteous being, admired, adored, and glorified, as not less THE GOD OF LOVE than in the brightest displays of his saving mercy.

I submit these observations, though but cursory and imperfect, as hints of the reasons upon which it does appear, to my most serious apprehension and conviction, that the distinguishing peculiarities of the Unitarian system rest on the assuming of “low and degrading thoughts concerning THE BLESSED AND HOLY GOD, his moral government, and the revelation of his justice and grace.”

Happy should I be, could my solicitation prevail on any of my Unitarian friends to peruse with candid attention, Dr. Edwards's Salvation of All Men strictly Examined, Newhaven, N. A. 1790; and republished at Glasgow, 1802. The author was the son of the great divine, Mr. Jonathan Edwards; and the work is worthy of being ranked among the most distinguished examples of calm, serious, and powerful argumentation.

As it has been necessary to refer frequently to the Manuscripts and the Ancient Versions of the New Testament, the following brief view of the MOST IMPORTANT MANUSCRIPTS, and of ALL THE ANCIENT VERSIONS, is here added to facilitate reference and to assist the judgment in particular cases.

14 The Alexandrian, presented to King Charles I. in 1628 by the excellent sufferer and martyr, Cyrillus Lucaris, Patriarch of Constantinople; and placed by George II. in the British Museum. It contains, mutilations excepted, the whole New Testament and the Septuagint Version of the Old. It is attributed to the fourth century, but some place it as low as the sixth. The New Testament was published with fac simile types, by Dr. Woide, in 1786; and the other parts in 1816 to 1821, by the Rev. H. H. Baber, in three beautiful and splendid volumes.

2. The Vatican, No. 1209, in the library of the papal palace of the Vatican at Rome: containing, excepting the mutilations, the whole of the Old and New Testament. The earliest date assigned is the third century, and the latest the fifth or sixth.

3. The Ephrem, in the King's library at Paris; originally containing the whole Old and New Testament, but greatly mutilated and defaced. At least of the seventh century, but probably much older.

4. The Cambridge, or Beza's; brought in 1562, from a monastery at Lyons, in the civil wars of France, and after near twenty years presented by Theodore Beza to the University of Cambridge. It contains the Four Gospels and the Acts, with a Latin Version on the opposite page. "It may be as ancient," says Bishop Marsh,

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as

the sixth, the fifth, or even the fourth century." It was published by Dr. Kipling, under the direction of the University, most beautifully printed with fac simile types in 1793.

5. The Codex Rescriptus, discovered in the library of the University of Dublin, and published with fac simile engravings, in 1801. It contains the Gospel of Matthew, but not free from mutilations. The learned discoverer and editor, Dr. Barrett, adjudges it to the sixth century.

6. The Clermont, in the King's library at Paris; containing the Epistles of Paul. Only two leaves and a part have been lost. The Epistle to the Hebrews is in a less ancient hand. Probably of the seventh century.

7. The Augiensis, in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge; containing the Epistles of Paul, except that the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans, and the whole of that to the Hebrews, are wanting. Attributed to the ninth or tenth century.

8. The Stephani Octavus, No. 62, in the King's library at Paris; containing the Four Gospels, with some mutilations. Of the eighth or ninth century.

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9. The Coislinianus, No.; existing thirty years ago in the Benedictine library at St. Germain. It contains only fragments of the Pauline epistles, and is of the sixth or seventh century,

Besides these, there are about 460 manuscripts known to exist, and scattered in the different public libraries of Europe. They are of various ages from the ninth to the fifteenth century. Some were originally copies of the whole, or nearly the whole, Greek Testament, but more usually they are portions, such as the Gospels, the Epistles of Paul, &c.

THE ANCIENT VERSIONS.

1. The Syriac.

(1.) The Peshito, that is right or correct. It certainly existed in the fourth century, and may not improbably be ascribed to the third or even the second. It is pure in diction, very accurate and faithful, and of great utility in criticism and interpretation.

(2.) The Philoxenian; made by Polycarp, under the patronage of Philoxenus, bishop of Hierapolis, in 508. It is literal to servility; but the translator was not well acquainted with Greek.

(3.) The Jerusalem Syriac, in the Chaldaic dialect; existing in manuscript in the Vatican library, written at Antioch in 1030, and containing only the Gospels.

2. The Coptic. (1.) The Memphitic, published by Wilkins, Oxford, 1716. There is reason to believe that its antiquity is very great, probably reaching to the third century. It is said to express the text of the best and most ancient Greek manuscripts. (2.) The Sahidic, existing only in manuscript, except a part of the Gospel of John, which was published at Rome, 1789. Woide thinks it may be even of the second century.

3. The Ethiopic; ascribed to the fourth century. It has never been duly collated, and copies are said to be almost incredibly scarce in Abyssinia. The only printed edition is that in Walton's Polyglott, and it is extremely disfigured with inaccuracies.

4. The Armenian; made by Miesrob about 410, said to be faithful, and often called the Queen of Versions. But the copies made since the middle of the thirteenth century, are supposed to have been interpolated from the Vulgate.

5. The Arabic. Several versions exist, of the whole, or of parts of the N. T. but all of them are supposed to be later than the seventh century, and are not of high authority. The version of the Acts and Epistles, published by Erpenius, was made from the Old Syriac.

6. The Persic; made from the Old Syriac, and containing only the Gospels. Other versions exist, but none of them are of much value in criticism.

7. The Latin. (1.) Versions before the time of Jerome. These were various, and going back to a very high antiquity. It is probable that the different books, or small collections of them, were translated by different persons. Among these one called the Old Italic is said to have been the most distinguished; but our information is obscure. (2.) The Vulgate; not a new version, but a selection, revision, and careful correction, by Jerome, A. D. 384. It possessed great merit as a very close translation and commonly following the best and oldest Greek copies: but it was not generally received till the eighth century. It has also been considerably altered since, by revisions and the intermixing of the former Latin versions.

8. The Gothic, or ancient German; by Ulphilas, bishop of the Gothic tribes in Wallachia, about the middle of the fourth century, and said to be a very excellent version. The Gospels only were known to be extant, till, in 1818, the Abbate Angelo Maio discovered manuscripts containing the Thirteen Epistles of Paul, in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. The publication of this much desired

part of this venerable version is eagerly expected by the lovers of sacred literature.

9. The Slavonic, or ancient Russian; by Methodius and Cyrill, in the ninth century.

10. The Anglo-Saxon, made probably in the eighth century. The Gospels only, and some fragments besides, have been published. It is said to exhibit chiefly the readings of the Old Italic.

11. The Georgian; made in the sixth century, but afterwards so interpolated from the Slavonic as to be of little independent value. In this corrupted state, it was printed at Moscow in 1743. Professor Alter published the most important readings, in his Dissertation on Georgian Literature; Vienna, 1798.

In 1817, a manuscript of a version of the whole Old and New Testament, in this language, was discovered in the Georgian monastery at Mount Athos. It is said to be the autograph of the translator, Euphemius, who lived in the eighth century; and therefore any interpolations must be discoverable. It is to be hoped that measures will be taken to procure an unaltered impression, or at least an exact collation of this new accession to the materials of Biblical literature. This hope has not yet been realized; A. D. 1829.-Nor in 1837; and Scholz does not even mention it.