Even those who seem to meet with the fewest and the least inconveniences in this life, and dazzle the eyes of spectators with the brightness of a seemingly constant and uniform felicity-besides that they often suffer from secret vexations and cares, which destroy their inward peace, and prey upon their distressed hearts-how uncertain, weak, and brittle, is that false happiness which appears about them, and when it shines brightest, how easily is it broken to pieces! So that it has been justly said, "They want another felicity, to secure that which they are already possessed of." If, indeed, there are some Christians whose minds are less affected by the forms and appearances of external things, and that look down with less concern upon all the events of this world, whether of a dreadful or engaging aspect, even this state of mind does not make them quite happy: nor do they think themselves so; they have still something to make them uneasy-the remaining darkness that overspreads their minds, their ignorance of heavenly things, and the strength of their carnal affections, not yet entirely subdued. And though these we are now speaking of are by far the noblest and most beautiful part of the human race, yet, if they had not within them that blessed hope of removing hence, in a little time, to the regions of light, the more severely they feel the straits and afflictions to which their souls are exposed by being shut up in this narrow, earthly cottage, they certainly would be so much more miserable than the rest of mankind.

As oft, therefore, as we reflect upon these things, we shall find that the whole comes to this one conclusion: "There is certainly some end." There is, to be sure, some end suited to the nature of man, and worthy of it; some particular, complete, and permanent good: and since we in vain look for it within the narrow verge of this life, and among the many miseries that swarm on it from beginning to end, we must of necessity conclude, that there is certainly some more fruitful country, and a more lasting life, to which our felicity is reserved, and into which we shall be received when we remove hence. This is not our rest, nor have we any place of residence here; it is a region of fleas and gnats; and while we search for happiness among these mean and perishing things, we are not only sure to be disappointed, but also not to escape those miseries which, in great numbers, continually beset us, so that we may apply to ourselves the saying of a famous artist, confined in the island of Crete, and truly say, "The earth and the sea are shut up against us, and neither of them can favour our escape; the way to heaven is alone open, and this way we will strive to go." It remains that we now inquire into the happiness of the life to come.

Yet, I own, I am almost deterred from entering upon this inquiry by the vast obscurity and sublimity of the subject, which in its nature is such, that we can neither understand it, nor, if we could, can it be expressed in words. The apostle Paul, who had had some glimpse of this felicity, describes it no otherwise than by his silence, calling the words he heard "unspeakable, and such as it was not lawful for a man to utter." And if he neither could nor would express what he saw, far be it from us boldly to force ourselves into, or intrude upon, what we have not seen: especially as the same apostle, in another place, acquaints us, for our future caution, that this was

unwarrantably done by some rash and forward persons in his own time. But since in the sacred archives of this new world, however invisible and unknown to us, we have some maps and descriptions of it suited to our capacity; we are not only allowed to look at them, but, as they were drawn for that very purpose, it would certainly be the greatest ingratitude, as well as the highest negligence in us, not to make some improvement of them. Here, however, we must remember what a great odds there is between the description of a kingdom in a small and imperfect map, and the extent and beauty of that very kingdom, when viewed by the traveller's eye; and how much greater the difference must be between the felicity of that heavenly kingdom to which we are aspiring, and all, even the most striking figurative expressions, taken from the things of this earth, that are used to convey some faint and imperfect notion of it to our minds. What are these things, the false glare and shadows whereof in this earth, are pursued with such keen and furious impetuosity-riches, honours, pleasures? All these in their just, pure, and sublimest sense, are comprehended in this blessed life: it is a treasure that can neither fail nor be carried away by force or fraud: it is an inheritance uncorrupted and undefiled, a crown that fadeth not away, a neverfailing stream of joy and delight; it is a marriage-feast, and of all others the most joyous and most sumptuous; one that always satisfies, and never cloys the appetite; it is an eternal spring, and an everlasting light, a day without an evening: it is a paradise, where the lilies are always white and full blown, the saffron blooming, the trees sweat out their balsams, and the tree of life in the midst thereof; it is a city where the houses are built of living pearls, the gates of precious stones, and the streets paved with the purest gold; yet all these are nothing but the veils of the happiness to be revealed on that most blessed day; nay, the light itself, which we have mentioned among the rest, though it be the most beautiful ornament of this visible world, is at best but a shadow of that heavenly glory; and how small soever that portion of this inaccessible brightness may be, which, in the sacred Scriptures, shines upon us through these veils, it certainly very well deserves that we should often turn our eyes towards it, and view it with the closest attention.

Now, the first thing that necessarily occurs in the constitution of happiness, is a full and complete deliverance from every evil and every grievance; which we may as certainly expect to meet with in that heavenly life, as it is impossible to be attained while we sojourn here below. All tears shall be wiped away from our eyes, and every cause and occasion of tears for ever removed from our sight. There, there are no tumults, no wars, no poverty, no death nor disease; there, there is neither mourning, nor fear, nor sin, which is the source and fountain of all other evils. There is neither violence within doors nor without, nor any complaint in the streets of that blessed city; there, no friend goes out, no enemy comes in. 2. Full vigour of body and mind, health, beauty, purity, and perfect tranquillity. 3. The most delightful society of angels, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and all the saints; among whom there are no reproaches, contentions, controversies, nor party-spirit, because there are, there, none of the

sources whence they can spring, nor anything to encourage their growth; for there is, there, particularly, no ignorance, no blind selflove, no vain-glory nor envy, which is quite excluded from those divine regions; but, on the contrary, perfect charity, whereby every one, together with his own felicity, enjoys that of his neighbours, and is happy in the one as well as the other: hence there is among them a kind of infinite reflection and multiplication of happiness, like that of a spacious hall, adorned with gold and precious stones, dignified with a full assembly of kings and potentates, and having its walls quite covered with the brightest looking glasses. 4. But what infinitely exceeds, and quite eclipses all the rest, is that boundless ocean of happiness which results from the beatific vision of the ever-blessed God; without which, neither the tranquillity they enjoy, nor the society of saints, nor the possession of any particular finite good, nor indeed of all such taken together, can satisfy the soul, or make it completely happy. The manner of this enjoyment we can only expect to understand when we enter upon the full possession of it; till then, to dispute and raise many questions about it, is nothing but vain, foolish talking, and fighting with phantoms of our own brain. But the schoolmen, who confine the whole of this felicity to bare speculation, or, as they call it, an intellectual act, are in this, as in many other cases, guilty of great presumption, and their conclusion is built upon a very weak foundation. For although contemplation be the highest and noblest act of the mind, yet complete happiness necessarily requires some present good suited to the whole man, the whole soul and all its faculties.

Nor is it any objection to this doctrine, that the whole of this felicity is commonly comprehended in Scripture under the term of vision; for the mental vision, or contemplation of the primary and infinite good most properly signifies, or, at least, includes in it, the full enjoyment of that good; and the observation of the Rabbins concerning Scripturephrases, "That words expressing the senses, include also the affections naturally arising from those sensations," is very well known. Thus, knowing is often put for approving and loving; and seeing for enjoying and attaining. Taste and see that God is good," says the Psalmist; and in fact, it is no small pleasure to lovers to dwell together, and mutually to enjoy the sight of one another. "Nothing is more agreeable to lovers, than to live together."

We must, therefore, by all means conclude, that this beatific vision includes in it not only a distinct and intuitive knowledge of God, but so to speak, such a knowledge as gives us the enjoyment of that most perfect Being, and, in some sense, unites us to him; for such a vision it must of necessity be, that converts that love of the Infinite Good, which blazes in the souls of the saints into full possession, that crowns all their riches, and fills them with an abundant and overflowing fulness of joy that vents itself in everlasting blessings and songs of praise.

LEIGHTON.

ON QUARRELLING. I have ever found, that to strive with my superior is furious with my equal, doubtful; with my inferior, sordid and base; with any, full of unquietness.-Hall.

21

SCRIPTURE CRITICISM. 1 COR. XIII.

THE general excellency of the English version, as a faithful translation from the original Greek, is, we believe, universally acknowledged by those who are competent to judge. There are, however, some few instances in which the words employed in the English version do not happily express the sense of the original. This is the case in the use of the word charity in the 1 Cor. xiii. By examination of the general meaning of the Apostle, it is easily seen, that for the word charity, love ought to be substituted. For example, in our version we read as follows:-" And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." To feed the poor is, in the ordinary sense of the word, to exercise charity, and if a man were to give all his goods to feed the poor he would thereby prove himself to be a charitable man.

The Greek word, which is, in the chapter referred to, rendered into charity, may with propriety be translated into love, and it is oftentimes so rendered, The general meaning of the Apostle proves that it ought to be so rendered in this chapter. Then the verse before quoted will read thus-"And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." It is possible for a man to be very charitable from the mere impulse of a sympathetic nature, and from a superstitious, blind, and bigoted zeal to be willing to give his body to be burned, and yet to be destitute of love to God, which produces love to man; and in this true religion consists. He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, for God

is love."

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The Rev. J. Wesley, Dr. Clarke, and most of our recent translators and commentors have adopted the word love, instead of charity, to express the meaning of the Apostle in the 1 Cor. xiii. The Rev. G. B. Kidd, in a work published about three years since, has given the following curious and interesting remarks on the preference due to the word love, and on a statement made by Mr. Wesley thereon. Mr. Kidd remarks as follows:

Having in this note used the better translation of love, in 1 Cor. xiii. I may be permitted here to correct a statement made by Mr. Wesley, in the beginning of his Sermon (XCI.) On Charity,-That "in all the editions" of the English Bible published in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Elizabeth, and James I., and even" in the Bibles of K. Charles the First's reign," the word love (and not charity) is found in 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3; adding, "The first Bibles I have seen wherein the word was changed, were those printed by Roger Daniel and John Field, printers to the Parliament in the year 1649. Hence it seems probable that the alteration was made during the sitting of the Long Parliament;" &c. &c. As this statement is not only of some interest in reference to these verses, but, if true, might more extensively affect the confidence of readers in the integrity of our common Bibles, 1 have thought it worth examination; and the result is as follows.

The Greek word in question occurs in 116 places of the N. T. In eightyseven of these, in our present Bibles, it is rendered love, in twenty-seven, charity; and in two, not only in K. James's Bible, but also in the Geneva, and the Bishops' Bible, the meaning is conveyed by the words charitably and dear. Rom. xiv. 13. CoL. i. 13. Mr. Wesley's remark appears correct in reference to the English versions of the Scriptures printed in the reigns of

Henry and Edward. I have examined the edition of Taverner's Bible printed by John Daye and William Seres, London, 1549, (Lewis's History, 1739, pp. 177-9.) and the edition of the New Testament attributed to Sir John Cheke, printed by Thomas Gaultier, London, 1550, containing the Latin version of Erasmus; (Lewis pp. 184-7.) and in both, love is used throughout 1 COR. xiii.-But during the long reign of Elizabeth, two different versions of the Bible were in general use. That called the Bishops' Bible, first printed 1568, was read in the churches, but never published in the smaller forms. The Geneva Bible, of which more than thirty editions, chiefly of a portable size, were printed between 1560 and 1616, was most used by the people at home. Abp. Parker, and the excellent Grindal, then Bp. of London, (afterwards Abp. successively of York and Canterbury,) having in 1565 recommended it in a letter to the Secretary Cecil, while they were preparing for the other version; adding, that "it should nothing hinder, but rather do much good to have diversitie of Translations and Readings." Lewis's History, 1739, p. 235.) In the Geneva Bibles, both those in which notes from Beza are added to the N. T. by Lawrence Tomson, and in the others, the word is rendered love in all the 116 places, except the two above mentioned, and one where we find charity, JUDE 12, which stands in Tomson's Testaments thus, These are rockes in your feastes of charity, &c. (1576, 1587, 1599,) but in the copies without L. Tomson's name, in the Bishops' Bible, and in the small neat pocket Testament of 1587 with Tomson's initials, it has spots (or "spotes") as in ours;-a diversity easily explained by the Greek word."

In the Bishops' Bible, on the other hand, we find "charitie" in all the twenty-seven places in which it stands in K. James's version, AND IN SIX MORE, where the older word "love" is now restored: these are Roм. xiii. 10. twice, I THESS. iii. 12. v. 8. 1 JOHN iii. 1. JUDE 2.

Thus both the words appear in the Bibles of Elizabeth's reign. And as a further proof of the familiarity with which charity was then used for love, it may be worth mentioning, that in the address, "To the Christian Reader," prefixed to the Geneva Bibles, the editors state their object to be the "edifying of the brethren in faith and charitie." In Tomson's Testaments, too, the summary of 1 COR. xiii. begins, " He showeth that there are no gifts so excellent, which in God's sight are not corrupt, if Charitie be away;" and in the notes on this chapter, “charitie" occurs frequently, "love" only once. Also in Wycliffe's Testament, (first printed 1731,) and in the older MSS. from which Dr. A. Clarke inserts this chapter in his Commentary, the word charite (or charitee) is used in the text.

Of K. James's Bible, I have seen numerous copies of the older editions; but in all, the word charity (or charitie) occurs throughout 1 COR. xiii., and I doubt not in all other places where we now have it. Probably there was never a copy of this version printed with love in this chapter; but if I hear of any such before this work is finished, it will be mentioned in the Postscript.

For the opportunity of examining Taverner's Bible, Sir John Cheke's Testament, and the Bishops' Bible, (folio, 1585) I am indebted to the Hull Subscription Library, and to G. Davies and E. S. Donner, Esquires, of Scarborough. But having in my possession several copies of the Geneva, and of K. James's Bible, of dates from 1599 to 1648, I shall be happy to show them for confirmation of these statements to any who may desire it.

Thus it appears that Mr. Wesley has committed a singular mistake, either through haste, wrong information, or imperfect recollection. As an edition of the Geneva Bible was printed so late as 1616, (five years after King James's Bible was published,) in hastily referring to this single passage, it may have been mistaken by some one for a Bible of the present version; or the trifling alteration of no to not, in 1 COR. xiii. 2, sometime since 1701, may have caused the remark that the passage had been variously printed, which Mr. W. may have heard and applied to the more important alteration he has supposed. Probably the edition he mentions of 1649, was the earliest he had examined on this point; and circumstances not now discoverable, may have produced a wrong impression as to the older copies. His error adds one to thousands of proofs that the same man cannot excel in every way. The activity and success of Mr. W. are in modern times without a parallel: they left him no