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Turks in memory of the sultan of that name, who was the principal cause of their grandeur, and that this name has nothing in common with that of Mussulman, which means the Man of Islam, that is the Devout Man of God; so that the Turks might become Christians without ceasing to be Osmanlis. The Wehhabites call themselves Mussulmen by excellence; and when they speak of Islam, they understand only by that word the persons of their sect, which they look upon as the only orthodox. They esteem the Turks, and the other Mussulmen, as Schismatics (Mouschrikinns,) that is to say, men who give companions to God; but they do not treat them as idolaters or infidels (Coffar). In a word, the Islam is the religion of the Koran, that is, the duty to one God. Such is the religion of the Wehhabites, who are in con. sequence true Mussulmen, such as were (according to the Koran) Jesus Christ, Abraham, Noah, Adam, and all the prophets, until the time of Mouhhammed, whom they look upon as the last true prophet or missionary of God, and not as a simple learned an, as the Christians say of him, speaking of the Wehhabites; since in reality, if Mouhhammed had not been sent of God, the Koran could not be the divine word, and consequently the Wehhabites would act against principle.

The Wehhabites have not diminished the profession of faith, "La ilaha ila Allah, Mouhhummed Arassoul Allah," "There is no other God than God, Mouhhammed is the prophet of God." The public criers of the Weh

The recognition of Jesus as a Divine messenger, is, according to Ali Bey, a fundamental tenet of Mouhammedanism; and in recounting his visit to the supposed tomb of Christ at Jerusalem, he remarks, "The Mussulmen say prayers in all the holy places consecrated to the memory of Jesus Christ and the Virgin, except this tomb, which they do not acknowledge. They believe that Christ did not die, but that he ascended alive into heaven, leaving the likeness of his face to Judas, who was condemned to die for him; and that in consequence Judas having been crucified, his body might have been contained in this sepulchre, but not that of Jesus Christ. It is for this reason that the Mussulmen do not perform any act of devotion at this monument, and that they ridicule the Christians who go to revere it."

habites make this profession of faith to be heard in all its extent, from the tops of the minarets of Mecca, which they have not destroyed, as well as in the temple, which is already under their dominion; and why should they not do it, since the Koran repeats this profession of faith an hundred times as indispensable to the welfare of Mussulmen? The Wehhabites have, it is true, adopted also the following profession of faith:

La ilaha ila Allah ou ahadahouThere is no other God than God alone.

La scharika la hou

There are no companions near him.
Lohal moulkou, loha alhamdo-
To him belongs dominion, to him
belong praises,

oua yahia, ona yamita-
and life, and death;

oua houa alla Kolli schai inn Kadi

roun

and he is Lord over all.

But this particular profession of faith, which was also recommended by the prophet, does not prevent the first being proclaimed daily at all the canonical prayers.

Abdoulwehhab never offered himself as a prophet, as has been supposed. He has only acted as a learned scheik reformer, who was desirous of purifying the worship of all the additions which the imains, the interpreters, and the doctors, had made to it, and of reducing it to the primitive simplicity of the Koran; but man is always man, that is to say, imperfect and inconstant. Abdoulwebhab proved this, by falling, in his turn, into minutiæ, which were not analogous either with the dogma, or moral. I shall give a slight proof of this.

The Mussulinen shave their heads, according to an established custom, allowing one tuft to grow. Several, however, do not do this; but the greater part preserve it, without attaching in reality much importance to it, perhaps through habit. Among then there are some who think that, will take them by this tuft, to carry at the day of judgment, the prophet them to Paradise. This custom was not worth the notice of a law; however. Abdoulwehhab thought differently, and the tuft was forbidden.

The Mussulmen have in general, whether from use or for amusement, a chaplet in their hands, the grains of which they count frequently, with

out saying any thing, and even whilst they are conversing with their friends, although they sometimes invoke the name of God, or repeat in a low tone of voice a short prayer after every grain. Abdoulwchhab proscribed the chaplets as a sign of superstition.

The reformer included the use of tobacco, and the employing silk and precious metals in clothes and utensils, as among the number of the greatest sins; but he did not hold the despoiling a man of another religion or rite to be a sin.

The Wehhabites have forbidden to the pilgrims the stations of Djebel Nor, or the Mountain of Light, and those of Mecca, as superstitious; yet they make that of Aamra, and go to Mina to throw the small stones against the devil's house.§ Such is man!

It was upon this spot that, according to Mahometan tradition, the angel Gabriel brought the first chapter of the Kour-aun to the greatest of prophets. The Wehhabites have destroyed the chapel upon its summit, and have placed a guard at the foot of the mountain, to prevent the pilgrims from ascending.

This is probably a mistake of the press. Medina, the prophet's tomb, is the other prohibited station, in his attempt to approach which, Ali Bey was arrested by the Wehhabites, and compelled to retrace his steps.

El Aamra is a mosque, about a league to the W. N. W. of Mecca, where the pilgrims assemble towards the close of the pilgrimage. "We first said the prayer," observes our traveller, "and then placed three stones one upon the other, in a de

vout manner, at a small distance from the mosque. We afterwards went to the spot where the infamous Abougebél, the furious enemy of our holy prophet, resided, and threw seven stones upon it with a boly fury, cursing it at the same time.

§ The following is Ali Bey's account of this ceremony. "We alighted immediately after our arrival (at Mina), and went precipitately to the house of the devil, which is facing the fountain. We had each seven small stones, of the size of grey peas, which we had picked up expressly the evening before at Mosdelifa, to throw against the house of the devil. Mussulmen of the rite of Maleki, like myself, throw them one after the other, pronouncing after every one these words, "Bismillah Allahuak' bar," which interpreted are, “In the name of God, very great God." As the devil has had the malice to build his house in a very narrow place, not above thirty-four feet broad, ccupied also in part by rocks, which it

The reader of the foregoing account cannot fail to be struck with the coincidence of several of the principles and views of the reformers of the religion of the pseudo-prophet of Mecca, with those entertained by the champions of religious reform in our own country. Happily the parallel is not complete; for the Wehhabites in the true spirit of their master, have not scrupled to carry their reforms into effect at the point of the sword, exposing their views to the double imputation of cruelty and cupidity.Abdelaaziz being already master of the interior part of Arabia, soon found himself in a state to extend his views over the adjacent country, and began by making an expedition to the neighbourhood of Bagdad, in 1801, at the head of a body of troops mounted upon dromedaries. He advanced upon Imam Hossein, a town at a short distance from Bagdad, where was the tomb of this linam, grandson of the prophet, in a magnificent temple, filled with the riches of Turkey and Persia. The inhabitants made but a feeble resistance, and the conqueror put to the sword all the men and male children of every age. Whilst they executed this horrible butchery, a Wehhabite doctor cried from the top of a tower, strangle all the infidels who give companions to God.' Abdelaaziz seized upon the treasures of the temple, which he destroyed and pillaged, and burnt the city, which was converted into a desert."

Kill,

Far different will be the conduct of those who, embracing the truth, at the same time imbibe the spirit of the humble prophet of Nazareth. With what holy vigilance ought those to guard and regulate their zeal, who aspire to purify and renovate his peaceful religion, so that unbelievers may be left without excuse, who would

was requisite to climb to make sure of our aim, when we threw the stones over the wall that surrounded it, and as the pilgrims all desired to perform this ceremony immediately upon their arrival, there was a most terrible confusion. However, I soon succeeded in accomplishing this boly duty, through the aid of my people; but I came off with two wounds in my left leg. I retired afterwards to my tent, to repose myself after these fatigues. The Webbabites came and threw their little stones also, because the prophet used to do so. We offered up the paschal sacrifice this day."

confound Christianity with its corruptions, or assimilate it to those idle and debasing superstitions which have usurped dominion over the understand ing and the conscience.

It is to be regretted that the intelligent traveller from whom the foregoing extracts are made, must be ranked amongst these scoffers; and still more is it to be lamented that the contempt which, in the character of a Mussulman, he pours upon the absurdities and delusions of the Christian world, should be so much countenanced by facts. It is said that he is a native of

Spain, and professed the religion of the Crescent, in order more effectually to compass the object of his travels-an intimate acquaintance with the internal economy of the Mahommedan States. One has little difficulty in conceiving how a native of the Peninsula has been impelled to class Christianity in the number of those delusions which have obtained or cemented their empire by the effusion of torrents of human blood, and at the expence of almost all that tends to advance the human species in liberal knowledge and the arts of civilized life.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

Mr. Belsham's Animaduersions on Dr. Magee.

..S18,

TH

THE Very Reverend Dean of Cork, Dr. Magee, in the third volume of his theological Ohio lately published, in the style and temper of which he seems to have excelled all his former excellings, has selected as the text of his discursive performance six passages from the Improved Version, all of them, as he expresses it, "vitally affecting some of the great doctrines of Christianity;" as "specimens of important unacknowledged departures from Newcome's Version, not to be accounted for from mere accident;" and in direct contravention of their express engagement with the public to make open acknowledgment of every departure from the Primate's text. And they are further accused (with a pecularly good grace froin the learned Dean) of employing lengthened observations in the notes, for the very purpose of divesting these texts of all appearance of the meaning which would necessarily result from the Primate's rendering, deliberately and unacknowledgedly rejeeted and altered by them." The texts and variations are produced at length, pp. 480, 481, and the charge is alleged without any modification or qualification whatsoever.

I have thought it expedient to notice these charges, because some candid and sensible persons, who duly appreciate the Dean's general arguments, have nesertheless expressed their surprise at, what has appeared to them, the gross inattention of the editors of the Improved Version, in passing over without

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1. The first of those texts which the Very Reverend writer has selected as an important" instance in which the editors aforesaid have deliberately," and, as he elegantly expresses it, un acknowledgedly rejected and altered the Primate's rendering," is,

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Luke i. 35, thus translated by Dr. Newcome: "Therefore that holy child also who shall be born of thee, shall be called The Son of God." The editors substitute" A Son of God," and they have omitted to acknowledge the variation.

Upon this most important distinction between A Son and THE Son, the Very Reverend and Very Learned writer has descanted through thirty-five pages of lengthened observations, in the notes, to shew that neglecting to acknowledge a variation of such magnitude, "could not be accounted for by mere accident," but must have been the result of some sinister design on the part of the editors.

It is in vain to urge to the Very Reverend accuser, in extenuation of the offence, that the Primate's monosyllable THE, being printed in italics, was an indication that it was not found in the original, and, therefore, that the deviation was the more excusable: for it will appear in the course of these observations, that Unitarian readers being "men of sound understandings and

honest hearts," against whom the Very Reverend Dean entertains the same laudable antipathy as his great prototype, the Bishop of St. David's, know nothing of the distinction between roman and italic characters, or of the use of that distinction. See p. 672 of the Dean's volume.

To the charge, therefore, as it stands in the indictment, the editors of the Improved Version must plead guilty. They have verily and indeed substituted their own roman A for the Primate's italic THE. And this they have done, as the Dean says, quite unacknowledgedly, and as I think very unnecessarily: for it is very probable that the authors of the fable of the miraculous conception meaned in this passage to affirm that Jesus derived the title of the Son of God from his miraculous birth; thus hoping to efface in some measure the scandal of the cross, by elevating, as they foolishly dreamed, the founder of their faith to a level with the hero gods of the heathen mythology. This was a great step for so early an age: but the sublime mystery of the sonship of Christ, as the second person in the Trinity, had not then been discovered. The editors, therefore, of the Improved Version, who have been guilty of this needless alteration, I leave to the tender mercies of the Dean of Cork: and I request the pious reader seriously to consider the solemn question of the venerable dignitary, whether such “ specimen of important unacknowledged departure from Newcome's Version is to be accounted for from mere accident," and to give his judgment accordingly.

a

II. The second text in which the editors of the Improved Version are accused of "unacknowledgedly departing from the Primate's rendering," is John i. 12, thus adopted by the Archbishop from the Public Version: "But as many as received him to them gave he POWER to become children of God." The Improved Version for " power,"

substitutes AUTHORITY.

And here the editors of the Improved Version must again plead guilty. They have rejected, they have altered, and they have not acknowledged. A common reader with a grain of charity and "a sound understanding," who sees but little difference between being empowered to become children of God, and being authorised to call themselves by that honourable name, would

candidly say of the omission, " per adventure it was an oversight." Not so the perspicacious Dean of Cork; wherever he spies an Unitarian, he sees an enemy to the constitution in church and state. He is sure that it is impossible for an Unitarian to make use even of the commonest phraseology, without some deep and concealed meaning of blasphemy, sedition, jacobinism, or perhaps even worse. And in the present case, he has eked out four and twenty pages of "lengthened observations" and learned "notes," to prove that the editors of the Improved Version mean something very bad, though he cannot precisely tell what, by this important and unacknowledged substitution of AUTHORITY for POWER.

III. The third count in the indictment of the Very Reverend accuser, is John iii. 13, the first clause of which is thus translated by Archbishop Newcome: "Now no ran GOETH up to heaven but he who came down from heaven." The editors of the Improved Version have, in preference, substituted the words of the Public Version," No man hath ASCENDED up to heaven."

One would not have suspected that there could be any great harm in this; but, unfortunately, Unitarians can do nothing right. Accordingly, in page 480, this variation is marked without any qualification or reserve, as one of those "important unacknowledged departures from Newcome's Version, which are not to be accounted for by mere accident;" on which "the editors employ lengthened observations in the notes, for the very purpose of divesting them of all appearance of the meaning which would necessarily result from the Primate's rendering deliberately and unacknowledgedly rejected and al tered by them."

So the indictment stands in its original form, p. 480; and in this sense it must necessarily be understood by every attentive reader. And yet if the reader's patienee holds out to p. 540, he will see by the Dean's own acknowledgment that there was no foundation whatever for the accusation. His words are," this variation, however, is acknowledged:" as it most certainly is, in a "lengthened note" of fifteen lines, by the editors of the Improved Version. And if it be so acknowledged, and you knew it to be acknowledged, was it fair, Mr. Dean, in you, in p. 480, to introduce this clause as "a specimen

of important unacknowledged departures from Newcome's Version?" Upon whom, in this case, does the charge rest of a deficiency "in honour and honesty?"

In the last clause of the verse, how ever, the Very Reverend accuser stands The Primate upon stronger ground. reads, "the Son of man, who was in heaven," for which the editors of the Improved Version most unacknowledgedly substitute "the Son of man [who is in heaven]," not only presuming without any notice to substitute the 18 of the Common Version for the WAS of the Primate's, but, what is infinitely worse, including the last four words in brackets, as an indication not only of their own doubts concerning the genuineness of the clause, the reasons for which they have assigned in a lengthened observation" of three lines at the foot of the page, but what is far worse, as implying that Newcome and Griesbach partook of the same

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doubts.

"Are we then to suppose," exclaims the indignant accuser, page 541, and what reader possessed of the smallest portion of holy zeal can fail to sympathize in his feelings, and to join in "Are we the eloquent interrogatory, then to suppose this careful and significant demarcation by the brackets, to which nothing corresponding occurs in either Griesbach or Newcome, as well as the substitution of 1s for WAS, to have been both of them slips of the pen, or errors of the press? both oc curring without the slightest notice of the variation, and both occurring together in a clause of considerable moment in the Unitarian question, and one also to which a note [of three lines] is annexed, relating both to the authenticity of the clause and to its meaning, the attention of the editors of course specially directed to both the points of difference, and yet neither of them glanced at by a single observation?”

As every reader may not understand this heavy charge of the two brackets, which rouses the Dean's indignation to such an alarming height, it may be proper to mention that Griesbach, in his edition of the Greek Testament, prefixes a certain mark to every reading which in his judgment is probably erroneous, though he did not take the And liberty to alter it in the text. Archbishop Newcome professes to inslude such readings in brackets: This

notation is adopted in the Improved
in such notations, as all
Version.
The
know who have made the trial, it is
difficult to be perfectly correct.
Primate himself candidly acknowledges
The editors
that he has sometimes inattentively
departed from this rule."
of the Improved Version have in the
present instance committed an error of
the same kind; and they must be con-
tent to leave their case to the judgment
of the reader. All readers are not like
the Dean of Cork.

Why the Very Reverend accuser
should quarrel with the editors for
It is the orthodox inter-
substituting 18 for WAS, is not so
apparent.
pretation: it is appealed to as a proof
of the divinity of Christ: it is also the
word used in the Public Version. The
editors therefore are surely entitled to
some thanks, for redeeming the clause
from the hands of the Arians, to which
the Primate's translation had given it.
But, alas! all is wrong which Unita-
rians can do. Every thing in them
partakes of the nature of sin.
the sum total of the Dean's indignant
complaint amounts to this, that though
the translation of the editors is and
must be right, being the same as King
James's Version, it was very officious
in them as Unitarians to adopt it. So
much for the two brackets and the
word IS.

And

IV. The fourth charge against the editors of the Improved Version is taken from Rom. ix. 5, the first clauses of which are thus rendered by the Primate, in conformity with the Public Version: "Whose are the fathers, and of whom AS CONCERNING THE FLESH Christ came:" for which the editors substitute, "BY NATURal deSCENT Christ came."

This is a variation of some impor tance. The phrase "according to the natural flesh," is a Jewish idiom. It is used by the Apostle Paul to express consanguinity. Thus Rom. ix. 3, he speaks of the Jews as his "brethren and kindred according to the flesh." His language is well understood it involves no mystery, nor is it suspected, of any. In the next sentence the same phrase in the same sense is applied to Christ.

And the English reader, misled by his system, immediately dis covers a reference to his human nature," as distinguished from his divine. To obviate this error, the editors of the Improved Version have substituted

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