The Holy Bible. Containing the Old and New Testaments, arranged and adapted for Family Reading: with Notes Practical and Explanatory. By A LAYMAN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 2 vols. 4to. 31. 3s. Hatchard. 1824.

To give the editor of this work an opportunity of speaking for himself, and of declaring his reasons for publishing a mutilated copy of the Holy Scriptures, we transcribe the beginning of his Preface.

"In some families, the pious custom is observed of reading to its assembled members a portion of the Holy Scriptures on the Lord's day; and it is devoutly to be wished that such custom was more general-it would be attended with the happiest effects: kindness and attention on one part beget love and respect on the other, and harmony and goodwill reign in a family where the Word of God is the rule of their actions. But there are few parents or masters of families that have not experienced serious inconvenience in reading the Bible in a regular order and succession, though it is very desirable for understanding the whole scheme of God's providence and dealings with mankind, that it should be so read: narratives occur which must almost of necessity be omitted: portions intervene, relating to the ceremonial and Levitical law and genealogies, which, though important to the Jews, are to Christians of small import: and expressions unexpectedly come upon the reader, which he is obliged to pass over or alter. To obviate these inconveniences, and to present the Holy Scriptures in a form adapted to general reading in regular succession, is one of the objects of the present undertaking; and to assist the reader and hearer to understand and benefit by what is read, is another. The Notes are plain and concise, and may in general be read in Conjunction with the Text, without causing too great an interruption. The usual division into chapters and verses is not adhered to they are not in the original, and though useful for reference, in other respects they are inconvenient, and sometimes disturb the sense, and embarrass the reading. The larger books are divided into sections or chapters, at places where there is a natural pause or rest in the subject."

Without stopping to examine the weight of these reasons, we protest at once against any attempt to put forth a book under the sacred name of THE BIBLE, when it is only a part of the Bible. In the title page, the volumes before us are called "The Holy Bible, containing the O'd and New Testaments," and in the dedication page, they are styled "This Edition of the Holy Scriptures." Now they are neither the one nor the other, but

an altered, an abridged, and an expurgated production, and therefore a spurious copy of what they profess to be.

We may have an expurgated Horace, or Juvenal, or a Family Shakspeare, and, as is the fact in the last of these instances, we may be deeply grateful to the judicious editor who has relieved a most instructive author from the sentence of excommunication, which lay upon him in many circles; and enabled us to put into the hands of our wives and daughters an inoffensive, as well as an incomparably interesting picture of the constitution of the human mind, and the effects of human passions; but it is presumption and profanation to meddle thus with the text of Scripture, when we are assured by unerring authority, that "ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.". In the face of this solemn declaration of the value and importance of every sentence in the Bible, who can take upon himself to say, that there is any chapter, verse, or clause, which is so utterly unprofitable, as to deserve no place in a reprint of the present day?

We cannot but respect the well-meant and pious labour which Mr. Watson has expended in his voluminous compilation; and there are many of his notes which would have merited attention, had they been embodied in any other form, but in their present shape we must not tolerate them for a moment. A more dangerous precedent, or a more glaring violation of the integrity of Scripture never appeared. A book denominating itself "The Holy Bible," when it is not the whole Bible, assumes a disguised character, to say the least of it. Recommending itself to notice, as the work of "a Layman of the Church of England," it implies the approbation of that Church, which cannot encourage the circulation of a garbled version of the Bible without acting in direct opposition to the principles upon which it is established, and to the language in which it addresses that Holy Spirit "who has caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning." The work is " dedicated by permission" to the Lord Bishop of Durham, a Prelate most eminent in munificent works of piety and charity, but who, we are well assured, would not knowingly have given his high sanction to authorise a proceeding which goes to throw open the door to any sect, party, or individual, who may desire to conceal truth, or propagate error, by cutting down the text of Scripture so as to make it answer a particular purpose or a private interpretation.

Mr. Watson, not being so fully impressed with the importance

of the connection between the Mosaic and Christian law as other Biblical investigators, or entertaining nicer sentiments on the subject of refinement, is of opinion, that some passages in the sacred volume are too prolix, and others too plain; therefore he publishes a selection from the original books of the Old and New Testaments, and calls it "The Holy Bible." Now, upon the same principle of arbitrary exclusion, and with the same self-appointed powers of chusing or rejecting, why may not an Unitarian publish a book and call it the Bible, with the omission of those passages which attest the divinity and godhead of Christ? Why may not a Baptist take the same liberty with those which justify the practice of infant baptism? Or what is to hinder a Quaker from obliterating that expression of St. Paul, "Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak :" (1 Cor. xiv. 34.) or a Roman Catholic from expunging the second commandment from his edition of the Bible, as it is already expunged from the decalogue in his catechism?

It is beyond the limits of human authority to add, or to subtract one iota from the written word of God; and we consider that we cannot be more usefully employed than in keeping watch over the press, to detect and expose every undertaking that would introduce to the youthful members of the household of faith a private abstract of Scriptural History and Precepts, under the venerable name of that which, for distinction sake, is emphatically styled "The Book."

The authenticity of the Holy Scriptures must be fully established before any other evidence of our faith can be fairly advanced; but if that jealousy and watchfulness with which all Christian sects regard the integrity of the text should once subside, and interpolations, alterations, or omissions be allowed, the principal argument in favour of such authenticity must fall to the ground. Hitherto it has been triumphantly proved that there never could be any adulteration of the sacred volumes in consequence of this mutual jealousy, and that all copies, transcripts, reprints, and translations have substantially agreed with the original; but there will be no end to the confusion, when spurious copies and garbled versions begin to be substituted by reciprocal consent, to indulge the scepticism of one party, or the refinement of another. Should the time ever arrive when generally received editions of the Bible can no longer be collated with each other, without finding discrepancies in the ceremonial, doctrinal, moral, or historical passages, and without detecting that one has omitted what another has inserted, the enemies of

the Christian religion will be furnished with a weapon, which they will not fail to use to the best advantage.

Among Mr. Watson's principal omissions, are some of those details which he considers would offend the modesty of the youthful and uncorrupt; but far too fastidious is the refinement which discards, as disjecta membra, passages of Scripture that speak in plain language of the vices and depravity of man, while evil is in the heart of man; and insecure is the innocence which depends upon ignorance as its safeguard.

One of the editor's own notes may be quoted in illustration of the inconsistent manner in which he has proceeded with his expurgations.

In a former sentence it is said that they were naked, and were not ashamed; they were then clothed with innocency, and having committed no sin, felt no shame : but now having transgressed the command of God, their nakedness and guilt stare them in the face; they are conscious of having done wrong, and they vainly attempt to supply the garb of innocency, and to cover their nakedness with fig-leaves.' P. 4.

We are tempted to add part of another note, (and would do so were we not more restrained by Mr. W.'s avowed principle than he is himself,) to shew that it is possible for the person whose delicacy shrinks from transcribing certain expressions in Scripture, to fall himself into the error of putting his readers to the blush, by quoting a passage from a profane author, which goes much more into revolting detail than any in the sacred writers which he has thought proper to expunge.

Having said enough upon the inconsistency which must attend every attempt to expurgate Scripture, we will try to give some idea of the execution of Mr. Watson's work.

The usual division into chapters and verses has not been followed, but a new arrangement is adopted, according to which the sections conclude at places where the editor considers there is a natural pause. Thus the first section ends with what would be the 25th verse of the 4th chapter of the authorized version, after an entire omission of the whole history of Cain's family, from the 17th to the 25th verse; and the second section cómmences with the substitution of the ensuing table instead of the 5th chapter of Genesis.

Upon this sweeping scale of exclusion, the editor boldly proceeds to expunge those verses of the 6th chapter, which explain the nature of that impurity, rapine, violence, and impiety which excited the Almighty's wrath against the human race, and enters thus briefly into the history of the deluge.

"And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the Earth, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil continually," &c.

But not to follow him through all his omissions, we will notice, by way of specimen, a few of the numberless passages which he has thought fit to reject.

Noah's transgression, Gen. ix. 20-27.; the dividing of Nations, ch. x.; Lot's Incest, ch. xix. 31. to the end; the transactions between Abraham and Abimelech, ch. xx.; the generations of Ishmael, ch. xxv. 12-16.; the transactions between Isaac and Abimelech, ch. xxvi. 7-33.; the rape of Dinah, and the murder of the Shechemites, ch. xxxiv.

In Leviticus the 3rd, 7th, and 9th chapters are expunged, and the whole number from the 12th to the 24th.

In Numbers from the 4th to the 8th chapter, and chapters x. xix. xxviii. xxix. xxx. xxxiv. and xxxvi.

The whole of the first and second Book of Chronicles, much of Nehemiah, the whole of the Song of Solomon, and the 23rd chapter of Ezekiel, are also among the excluded passages in the Old Testament.

In the New Testament there is scarcely any room for expurgation, even in the judgment of the most fastidious, but Mr. Watson's pruning hand could not leave every thing as it stands in the authorized version, and therefore we find him taking exception to several of the verses in the first chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and to those which contain his salutations in the 16th chapter of the same Epistle. We cannot but