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CHAPTER XVII.

LETTER TO ROBERT HALDANE, ESQ., ON THE CANON AND INSPIRATION OF
THE SCRIPTURES-BIBLE SOCIETY CONTROVERSIES-PAPERS ON THE
STATE OF RELIGION ON THE CONTINENT-CONTROVERSY RESPECTING
DR. HAFFNER'S PREFACE · DR. CARSON'S PAMPHLET AGAINST DR.
SMITH-PASSAGES FROM THE PAMPHLET-DR. CARSON'S DENUNCIA-
TION OF DR. SMITH'S MOTIVES-RECKLESSNESS OF DR. CARSON'S
GENERALIZATIONS-MR. ROBERT HALDANE'S UNAVAILING EFFORTS TO
CIRCULATE DR. CARSON'S WRITINGS-THE STYLE AN INSUPERABLE
BARRIER TO THEIR SUCCESS-LEFT UNNOTICED BY THE GENERALITY
OF THOSE WHOSE VIEWS HE ASSAILED"
66
SLOTH," IGNORANCE,"
"COWARDICE" TOO HASTILY ASCRIBED TO THE OPPONENTS OF MESSRS.
HALDANE'S VIEWS OF INSPIRATION-DR. CARSON NEVER NOTICED IN
DR. SMITH'S PUBLICATIONS-DR. SMITH'S APOLOGY TO MR. ALEXANDER
HALDANE-THE SUMMING up.

DURING the Homerton College vacation, in 1826, the THEOLOGICAL TUTOR spent five weeks at East-Bourne, on the coast of Sussex. While there, he addressed a Letter to the late Robert Haldane, Esq., of Airthrey, in Scotland, the principal part of which was on the Inspiration of the Scriptures generally, and on the authenticity of particular words or passages, such as the disputed term in 1 Tim. iii. 16; 1 John v. 7, 8. A copy of the Letter, in the Doctor's handwriting, has been preserved, at the end of which he added, in pencil-" To this Letter Mr. Haldane returned no answer." But though unanswered by the gentleman to whom it was addressed, the Letter was not suffered to be in the end neglected. A vehement assailant of Dr. Smith's views as they had been submitted to Mr. Haldane, appeared in the following year in the person of Dr. Carson, of Tubbermore, in Ireland, who wrote a pamphlet, entitled, Review of the Rev. Dr. J. Pye Smith's Defence of Dr. Haffner's

Preface to the Bible, and of his Denial of the Divine Authority of Part of the Canon, and of the Full Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. Edinburgh, 1827. Now while the Letter to Mr. Haldane is chiefly conversant with the second of the two subjects held up to censure in Dr. Carson's title-page, it does also contain a single clause in reference to the first. On both accounts, therefore, it is important to introduce it here, as supplying the first lines of a controversy which, in some of its details, is both instructive and curious::

"East Bourne, Aug. 4, 1826.

"My dear Sir,-You and I know each other sufficiently to be quite at ease from the apprehension of giving offence by any plainness of speech. We shall love each other the more, if we save time and paper by an abruptness which in other circumstances we might think rude. The disinterested and noble attachment, which you have manifested for the interests of TRUTH and the REDEEMER'S glory, puts me out of all fear in freely expressing to you some difficulties and doubts, relative to some things advanced by you in your last publication on the affairs of the Bible Society. "Your style of writing seems to imply it to be essential to the character of a genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus, that he hold the following positions, or some of similar kind and effect:

:

"I. That some existing copy, or edition, of the original texts of the Scriptures is entitled, by a sort of prescription, to be considered as a safe and certain standard of textual accuracy. It is evident that, in assuming something like this, you are not referring to the edition of Kennicott or Jahn for the Old Testament, and those of Griesbach, or Matthäi, or Knapp, or Vater, for the New, which are almost if not quite the only editions in which an enlarged and comprehensive endeavour has been made to ascertain the genuine text, by the careful comparison of all the sources of information. The chief of these, Griesbach, always enables us to form our own opinion on every conflicting reading, by his summary of the evidence on each side: so that we are not the less indebted to him, though in any particular instance our judgment may draw a conclusion different from that which he has proposed. If, then, any such assumption as I have supposed exist in your mind, I shall be greatly obliged by having the edition of the Old Testament and that of the New specified, and the grounds of the preference laid down. "II. That those modern translations of the Scriptures, which were made more or less about two centuries ago, and are usually called the authorised versions, are entitled to an indisputable pre-eminence; so that any deviation from them is, forthwith and without any further investigation, to be considered as false and 'vitiated;' and that those who make them are guilty of what would indeed be aggravated and unprincipled wickedness, 'altering the translation of the word of God, as to them seems meet.' Mr. Haldane's Reply to Dr. Steinkopff, p. 144, 136.—Then upon what grounds of evidence does this assumption rest?

"III. That the INSPIRATION of the Scriptures consisted in this, that every phrase and word of the Scriptures were suggested or enjoined by the Holy

ÆT. 52.] ON THE CANON AND INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE.

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Spirit to the writers; so that in fact, theirs was, or at least needed to be, no other than a mechanical labour. Permit me to request your kind, but rigorous and scrutinizing attention to some brief remarks on this subject, in a Work entitled 'Scripture Testimony to the Messiah,' vol. i. pp. 62, 63, and 27-29. Allow me also to ask and observe some things which now occur to me.-1. How is this view of inspiration to be transferred to any versions?— 2. It appears to me to be clogged with very serious and inextricable difficulties; and that the contending for it is likely to bring great detriment to the evidence and interests of evangelical truth. At the same time, it is one of those subjects which ought to be considered and settled without any respect of favour or disfavour to any system of doctrine.-3. After the attention of about thirty years to this subject, a view, of which the following is an outline, appears to me to be the truth on this subject. Yet, I trust, I have well considered what you have advanced in your excellent Work on the Evidences and Authority of Divine Revelation.

"(1.) That the essential seat of the inspiration lies in the thoughts and sentiments, whatever be the variety of phrase by which they may be expressed. The inspiration of God, therefore, extends to all metaphrases and translations, provided they be equipollent in meaning.

"(2.) That though the inspired writers used the diction which was most familiar to them, according to their characteristic style and verbal habits, yet in all cases, the original Hebrew, Chaldee, or Greek, is the best expression of the mind of the Spirit.' For, either the very words and phrases were suggested by the Holy Spirit, (most probably so in prophetic declarations and messages,) or were accepted, so to speak, by Him; which two cases are precisely the same in practical effect.

"(3.) That in historical narration (under which I include all relations of the feelings, fears, sorrows, temptations, deliverances, &c., of individual believers, or of the Church as a Body; e. g. the Book of Job, that of Lamentations, and many of the Psalms,) all that we want are due selection and faithful statement: and these, inspiration secures.

"(4.) That in the didactic parts, the Apostles, &c., wrote as they were in the habit of speaking. Each, in both kinds of communication, uttered what he had seen and heard,' what he had received from the Lord,' in the entire exercise of his own judgment and affections, and with, it may be, a perpetual variety of expression, pro re nata; yet with a full consciousness of being taught and guided infallibly by the Holy Spirit.

"(5.) That with regard to some parts of the Old Testament, there are extreme difficulties in applying the New Testament terms-'the Writingthe Writings-the Holy Writings-the Oracles of God-what is written in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.' E. g. I can find no determinate evidence that the Song of Solomon and the Book of Esther come under those denominations. That they are genuine books and the latter a true history, I have no doubt: but I do doubt whether they were included in the New Testament terms just mentioned. I fear that the narrator of Esther was influenced by a very weak and sinful fear of the Persian Court, and that thus he abstained from ascribing unto Jehovah the glory due unto His name;' which, I think, a godly Jew could scarcely have kept himself from doing, when relating such astonishing dispensations of providential mercy and judgment. Yet the facts are not the less certain,

nor is our instruction prevented, from the sad omission of any reference to the name, perfections, government, word, and worship of the Blessed God. "(6.) So my belief in the inspiration of the other historical books of the Old Testament, is not affected by the numerous and incontrovertible instances of errors from VERY early transcribers, and which are in all existing copies and in the most ancient translations, having respect to names, numbers, summations, and other little circumstances. (See Kennicott's Dissertations; Dathe Vet. Tes. passim, and other Authors.) Judicious and honest criticism has done much towards the removing of these difficulties; but they exist in full force in most, if not in all the old authorised versions. ... Allow me to entreat you, my dear Sir, to give to this great subject a renewed consideration. To me it appears that the views, which I have thus briefly and cursorily touched upon, are the just result of what the New Testament intimates and warrants in the case."

This is about half the Letter: the other is occupied with miscellaneous remarks which are of no special interest now. It is, however, in the latter part that the question occurs— "Could you favour me with a sight of Haffner's Preface?"

The first clause of the Letter shows Dr. Smith's motive for writing it to have been, a desire to call Mr. Robert Haldane's attention to certain views respecting the Canon and Inspiration of Scripture, which that gentleman had then recently stated in a publication animadverting on the affairs of the British and Foreign Bible Society; which to the Homerton Tutor appeared untenable in the form and to the extent contended for by his friend in the North. Now to all who are familiar with the early history of that Society, it is well known that in the delight which was experienced on perceiving wide openings for the circulation of the Scriptures on the Continent, the Committee of the Institution furnished aid, in the shape of money, printing paper, or books, for distributing Bibles as largely as possible, without laying down any rule which would exclude the Apocrypha from the volumes intended for use in Foreign Countries. That such a plan ought to have been maintained in perpetuity, few persons of evangelical sentiments will in our day affirm: but that it was of great service in the transition period when it was first introduced, few probably will deny. An impulse was given to Bible distribution not only in many Protestant, but in many Popish communities in Europe, which may be traced clearly to the absence for a time of any public discussion respecting the Canon of Scripture. It was,

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notwithstanding, unquestionably proper that that discussion should at length come on; and the initiative, or at all events the great impelling power, was found in Scotland. The contest was protracted, and the combatants in defence of the early plan were able and eloquent, yet as the age was ripe for the purer principle, the Committee in Earl Street, and the Society at large, yielded to the just wishes and demands of their Brethren in the North. Mr. Robert Haldane was one of the earliest, and most efficient instruments in effecting this important change.

It was probably in the same spirit and from the same motives, that the Bible Society was not at first very vigilant in keeping the copies of the Scriptures which they assisted to circulate on the Continent free, as their issues in this country were, from additions of other matter, either in the shape of introductory remarks or of interspersed notes. But here also their want of due care in this respect, and the consequences which might ensue from such an oversight, were urged on the attention of the Christian public by the gentlemen who had begun and were vigorously carrying on the controversy for excluding the Apocrypha from all Bibles distributed by the Society's agency.

Dr. Smith, it is presumed, agreed with his countrymen generally at that early day in the plan, which was at length laid aside, of circulating the uncanonical books with the canonical; and it is certain that he did not entertain any such dread of the injury likely to arise from the addition of other matter to the Scriptures, which was felt and complained of by not a few warm friends of the Society in England, and by a still larger number in Scotland. His habit of seizing upon the true and the good in almost every kind of publication, rendered him inapt to detect, or at least slow to denounce the doubtful or the erroneous, in the manner which is common with a large class of critics.

In order to impart information, and especially to prevent, if possible, the interest felt in this country in Bible distribution abroad from abating, or from being turned into a mere feeder of party feeling, whether on the one side or the other of the discussions which had arisen respecting the Apocrypha and its allied subjects, Dr. Smith contributed a series of papers to the

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