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    distinct and evident forms of individuality as Jerome found the Latin versions ? Why should the Christian world- be supposed to have unanimously agreed in one Greek version , whea they had innumerable Latin ones ? The author subsequently published a supplement to his work , in which he briefly replied to the remarks of some opponents , in the persons of the active Bishop of St . David ' s , of an able Reviewer m the British Critic , and of Mr .

    Conybeare , the kite Prebendary of York . They have all borne testimony to his talents and originality , and , if such be the extent of his ambition , they appear very willing to concede to him that degree of praise which is implied in Lardner ' s remark , that to readers of a superior order , it is not of the first importance whether an author supports a right or a wrong opinion , if he collects together the materials on which a judgment can be exercised , because such persons will form their own notions on the statements that are submitted to them . " He has made his book a storehouse , for instance , of

    curious quotations , and is at least entitled to the merit * if it be one , of having given us some very plausible reasons why we might have been inclined to suspect some things to have happened in one way , if we could shut our eyes to overwhelming conviction , that , in point of fact , they happened in quite another . The main position , and one certainly which deserves a thorough investigation , is that which has at present been least minutely considered by his opponents , we mean the argument drawn from supposed mistranslations of Latin words or phrases . The author has coupled his theory with an

    avowed recognition , nevertheless , of the authenticity of the books of the New Testament in some text or another * For this purpose he has been obliged , as we have seen , to have recourse to some extraordinary and highly improbable assumptions , in which it i& very likely that many of his readers will not follow him ; and it would have been as well , therefore , to have explained how he meant to obviate the consequences which he car * hardly be ignorant have been drawn from the admission of his principal position , as to a lurking Latin original , coupled with a rejection of the rest of his hypothesis . He

    must , we should think , be aware that this principal position has been maintained ; though not publicly advocated , by at least an $ eminent scholar ; who used it as proof , not that the inspired Jewish teachers , wrote Latin , and that this Latin has disappeared every where from the face of the earth , with the other improbabilities attendant upon our author ' s hypothesis ; but that the writings which bear their names are spurious , and a nwe Roman fabrication , transferred into the Greek language by clumsy hands . It is impossible not to see that this would be a conclusion likely to occur to some whom the

    main argument might convince , while the accompanying assumptions startled them by their gross improbability ; and if a j&olutian sobQstile to the truth of Christianity itself be really far from his thoughts , we repeat , that it would have been better to have stated and met the difficulty which would thug stand in the way of his hypothesis . In what we have said of the book before us , we must remind the reader that our object has been to state the progress of the controversy rather historically than critically . We cannot pretend to have done any thing Kfce

    critical justice to such a book as the Palreoromaica . Its merits consist rather in the mode and details of its execution , than in the results of its arguments , and a bare skeleton can therefore do it little justice . As it is , however * we have taHen up so much space , that we must defer to another Number a few remarks on Dr . Makb y ' s Sermon , which we are happy to see ) he announces as <« part of a series designed to illustrate the original languages of Scripture , particularly the Hellenistic Greek . " &

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    Original Language ofthfr New Testament . 99

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1827, page 99, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1793/page/19/