The Sun.
London, England, 1833-12-26 00:00:00

ATTORNET•GENERAL V. SHORE
The Vice-Chancellor delivered his Judgment in
this case. It did not appear to him that the question
in this case to be determined was whether the
Unitarians were called Christians or not, but was
whether it was consistent with what appeared on
the trust-deeds of Lady Hewley, having regard
to such evidence as had been produced of what
her sentiments were, that the Unitarians could
be allowed to participate in the benefit of her
Charity, she having stated that the first trust was
for poor and godly preachers for the time heinss.
of Christ's Holy Gospel," and then repeating
phrases which evidently showed that they alluded
to the same sort of persons who might happen
to be widows of persons, of exhibitioners, and
so on, as would fall under the first denomina-
tion. The will of Sir J. Hewley bad been put
in, which commenced with the following words:
—" This is the last will and testament of Sir
J. Hewley.. who being of God's mercy of per•
feet memory, and so on, first committing my
spirit to God who gave it, hoping to find mercy
to me a sinner, and to be saved only by the
merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, my alone
Saviour and Redeemer." He also re-
ferred to the manner in which the will was
witnessed—" Witness my hand and seal, 24th
of June, in the year of our Lord God 1682 ;"
and therefore he considered that the will testified
from the beginning to the end his belief in the
Divinity of the Redeemer. He next referred
to the words of the will of Mrs. Sarah Hewley
—" I, Dame Sarah Hewley, widow, having first
committed my immortal soul into the hands of
my Redeemer, to be washed in his blood, and
made meet to be partaker with the saints," Sce.;
she then proceeded to make her will. He
thought the natural inference from this will was,
that she not only believed in the divinity of the
Redeemer, but she looked to salvation through
his merits in that sense in which the Church
of England understood that he was the
Redeemer, " that he had paid the price," and
that for the price which he had paid God
would be pleased to forgive the sins of all
that turned unto him. He would next refer
to the will of Dr. Coulton : he also had used
similar phrases—" I commit my immortal soul
into the hands of Almighty God, my Creator,
and which I beseech him mercifully to look
upon, not as it is in itself polluted with sin,
but as it is redeemed and purged with the
precious blood of his only beloved Son
and my most sweet Saviour .Jesus Christ,
in confidence of whose merits and mediation
alone it is that I cast myself upon the
mercy of God, for the pardon of my
sins and the hope of eternal life." He then
said it was to be remarked that this was one of
Lady Hewley's trustees, and was the person
that preached at St. Saviour's Chapel, where
she attended until her death. Then, looking
at the words of the deed, he thought he was
necessarily driven (inasmuch as the rules were
directed by the deed to be observed) to a con-
sideration of Bowles's Catechism, and he
thought that, for the purpose of this question,
he was bound, not merely to consider the
questions and answers, but also the texts in the
margin, which were manifestly referred to in
support of the answers. One question was—
" What was the sin of our first parents ?
Eating the forbidden fruit. What was the fruit
of that eating ?—lt filled the world with sin and
sorrow. In what condition is the posterity of
our first parents born ?—ln a sinful and miser-
able condition." He thought that that last
answer comprehended all the posterity of Adam.
" Wast thou born in that condition ?—Yes, I
was conceived in sin, and am by nature a child
of wrath, as well as others. What is Jesus
Christ ?--The Son of God manifest in• the
flesh." Now that answer referred to the very
singular verse at the end of the third chapter of
St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy, which, ac-
cording to the translation of the Scripture used
at that time, could not leave a doubt in the
mind of any person as to the divinity of
the Redeemer, because, according to the re-
ceived translation, it was put- in this way :
" And without controversy, great is the
mystery of godliness ; God was manifested in
the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory." Now, no
man could doubt that this text was intended
to convey the only conclusion that could be
formed, which was, that not merely the office
and mission of our Saviour was divine, as
stated in these answers, but that his person
was divine. It then went on, in another part,
"In what order doth od work faith by the
word ? First, he shows men their sins, and
then their Saviour. Why does he observe
this order ? That Christ may he the more
precious to the soul. How loth faith work
love ? It lays hold upon the infinite love
of Christ, and works a mutual love in us."
Now, that expression—" the infinite love of
Christ," he thought of necessity conveyed the
notion that he was divine, for none but a divine
Being could hare infinite love. Persons might
appeal to their own common reading and
observations of what passed every day, and he
would appeal to the testimony given upon the
Committee of the Lords and Commons upon
the state of Ireland for proof of this proposi-
tion, that the Presbyterians did not hold that
the only effectual view of religion for the
purpose of
softening the hearts of man and
turning them to God, was the view of the
Father's love, by permitting the Son to appear
,
upon tne earth, to suffer as a man, and that
was the very view which was taken by a
Presbyterian,p
Regium Donuniviamt Belfast,k of
wlienthle benefitsie‘vas examofiltil:i
by the Lords and Commons' Committee. Now
the first donation was to " poor and godly per-
"'(;°lshe
ssotpiso osfe though
holy gospel." He could not but
up
others,
enter-
tain, amongwas not a Conformist, that
she did mean those persons, not being Mem-
hers of the
divinity Church of England, who did enter-
the foremost belief in the
of our Redeemer's person, in the neces-
sity of the sacrifice he made, because of the
universality
had stated of sin, commonly called original
sin ; and that she would, as Sir Edward- Sugden
with great propriety, have shaken
with horror at the notion of her charity being

given to the sustenance of persons who not only
dicbelieved those two doctrines, but who actually
preached against them. It had also been argued
(and he must say he did not remember a case
which had been argued with more ingenuity and
ability by all the members of the bar concerned
in it) that the real object of this lady was to sup•
port poor ministers, widows of poor ministers,
and the other persons included in her trust-deed,
who would themselves be the supporters
of what was called the great doctrine of the
Presbyterians—that sort of unconnected method
of disseminating that faith which would not
snbmit to be bound by any test or creed except
that of the words of Scripture. Now, he must
say that that book which was called a new im-
proved version of the New Testament, afforded
a stronger inference that persons who could
permit the publication of it would not come
under the description of a poor and godly
preacher of Christ's Holy Gospel, even accord-
ing to the view which had been taken of those
w.eeds by the defendants' Counsel. He thought it
was immaterial whether the creed was expressed
in a form of words, or whether a thing to be
called a translation was propounded to mankind
which refused to give the literal sense of words,
and substituted other words, which themselves
were only the evidence placed in the translation
for the purpose of conveying a doctrine he could
easily understand. Where the literal meaning
of a word was doubtful, translators might place
another in the margin, in order that a choice
might be made ; and he could imagine many
cases in which the idiom of the English language
would permit the literal rendering of word for
word from the Greek or Hebrew, but he thought,
where parties had obviously and systematically
gone out of their way to give a literal translation,
but for the purpose of misleading the ignorant
reader, those persons must be considered as in
effect imposing a creed upon the reader, and not
giving him the benefit of judging for himself by
means of the pure word of Scripture. He made
that observation in consequence of the translation
which was given in that book of the First
Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews ; for it appeared
to him most clearly, that the persons who com-
posed the translation did not intend, when they
made what they called a translation, to render that
first chapter literally. In the first instance, it
began thus :—" God who in several parts and in
several manners formerly spake to our Fathers by
the Prophets." Now, he did not mean to say that
they have not translated the words in the original
properly as " God ;" our translation being " God
who at sundry times"—ero.etLEFec—might sig-
nify so many parts of time, or so many parts of
space. These new translators, however, thought
proper to give themselves the character of extreme
accuracy, by not adopting that which was good
enough, but apparently selecting something which
they thought better. "In the last of these days
hath spoken to us by his Son, whom he bath
appointed heir of all things, for whom also
he constituted the ages." Now, the words in
the original were (according to Griesbach) "
xai To:); at:4;Ya; tntr,s•Ev: Feeling them.
selves therefore a little pushed hard when they
translate as co " for whom," they have recourse
to a note book, by which it appeared that two
or three persons had fancied that might be the
proper translation. But suposing it to be so,
it still showed a very great apparent intention to
be extremely correct, though it certainly was
not the received translation, nor did he (the
Vice Chancellor) think that any Greek scholar
off hand would dream that such was the con-
struction. It then proceeded—,, who being a
ray of his brightness and an image of his per-
fections." What were the words in the original
—ac wv cerfe:eyetcrp,ce O*; ?tat za-
a.x.-rr, orocrTctcrEw; cee-ree. He was
perfectly astonished, and could hardly have
conceived it possible, before he had read
it, that any person could have ventured to cal
this a literal translation of the Scriptures which
has rendered the word tyr;og-r•ao-tc " perfection."
It was perfectly plain, therefore, in that passage,
the parties never meant to give a translation, but
that they meant to fetter down the understand-
ing of the reader by imposing their creed in
the shape of a translation. lhey then said—
" and ruling all things by his powerful word,''
" 4)EFA)V TE 1-cc 7;:x.v7a. ri[J,l7l 3L)vati-sw;
atprot;." They might as well have said "by the
word of his power ;" but they did not choose to
give the literal translation ; they chose rather to
substitute words of their own, which might ex•
press the sense, but which it was quite clear
did not express the literal meaning, nor did the)
intend that it should. It then proceeded—
', for to which of those messengers spake God
at any time, thou art my son, this day I have
adopted thee. "The passage they meant to transbee
was " Ten -,eaQ EIVE TWY arys?,cue. Tres.
t.eou El TV, Erw• crrili.Epv eE." There
was not the slightest pretence to translate the
word eistyist,/Ex.a. " I Dave adopted." It was the
same thing that gave rise to what was stated b'
Locke, in his Essay on Toleration—namely.
that the Son of God was taken by the
Jews, in the Bible, to be the Messiah, because
their second psalm was in these words—" Why
do the heathens so fiercely rage against Jehovah,
and against his anointed ?" and a little lower
down in the psalm followed--" I will declare thy
decree, Jehovah has said to him, Thou art my
son ; this day have I begotten thee.' " That
was to say, he used that word in the Hebrew
which was !uniformly translated in the Septua-
gint " begotten ;" and it was the word which
several times occurred in the sth chapter c)
Genesis, in which there was a detailed account
of all the antediluvian patriarchs given in sueeee.
sion ; the very word used in the 2d Psalm
was the word used in that chapter, and
the word used in the Septuagint was
they
he
~as same
quoted a
is they
s t
ueesurpefsciaelhatcsdiueel
al
iotifinfuoLilt
ilascapgtinaaietvds,
aeuyeg
Saviour
meant,e,evri
Inaba 'ysl:vwiitlicltioall:iest:
had translated the Unitarian Testament had
lain
n
o
ur
d
emi:aseaktgadeobenti
1.1
yi
do
in ctrine
Ctarttihi
the
orthodox Dissenters, as they were called, to
signify some divine operation by means of
which the nature of the Redeemer was the saute
as that of the Father. That they meant to
oppose. But for the purpose of avoiding the
interference which might be made in the mind
of an unlearned reader, they there wilfully al-
tered a word and substituted, he should say, a

(lee rust a o a translation. Again, " And
!et ail the messengers of God pay homage to
him, and of these messengers the Scripture
saith." Now, it was to be observed, that here
the words were both in italics, as they oteeht
to be, because there were no words correspond-
ing to them exactly in the origins! ; the word
evidently referred as it appeared from their own
translation, to God ; but they chose to vary the
phrase by saying first, " God saith," and :hen tile.
Scripture saith," which seemed to him an altera-
tion without any necessity. Then they said, " and
of these messengers the Scripture saith, who
maketh the winds his messengers, and flames of
lightning his ministers." It was truly astonishing
to find such a translation as " berms of light-
fling" given to the words " tpXeyx," which
could not have had that meaning. It might be
said that was what was intended, hut certainly
that was not said. They translated " God is
thy throne for ever and ever, a sceptre of recti-
tude is the sceptre of thy kingdom," according
to the received translation, and it might perhaps
he true that that translation was right ; but there
was this observation to be made upon it—they
had introduced in the mode of orintine, as it
stood in their version, the word " is" as if it were
not a translation of part of the original text, and
the word " God" stood there as a trans'e lots
from the original text. The " was put
in italics as if' it were no part of the ori-
ginal text; but in the original there was
no verb ; therefore, if at all named, it should
not have been put in italics, as a word not in
the original, but as supplied by the translator
to make up tits text. Having in the first part
translated the passage " who maketh the winds
his messengers," they said at the end, " are the`'
nut all servants ?" Supposing them to be right
in the first instance in translating it • ind. his
messengers," it was clear they ought in
the latter part to have said '' ate they
not all ministering winds" @este ,e^71.40:
a'r CO, to be consistent with themselves; at
any rate if they thought proper to change the
phrase, and translate the word ereeey,geece
wind" first, and servants, they should have
translated it " ministering spirits," which would
have the sense of servants, but still it would
be a correct translation, which theirs was not.
He had taken that as a specimen of the whole ;
he had looked at a variety of the parts, and he
never remembered to have seen any tianslation
which could be considered more unsatisfactory,
more arbitrary, more fanciful, more silly, and,
he was sorry to say, more false, than was that
book ; and he was perfectly certain that Lady
Hewley would have thought it the worst
calamity that could have happened to her that
such persons should be considered entitled to
participate in her chatity—professing to call
themselves " godly preachers of Christ's Holy
Gospel," who would give their sanction to the
publication of such a work as that. For the
reasons he had assigned she would, if the matter
had been duly explained to her, have seen that
it militated against that principle which the
defendants' counsel said was the principle on
which she desired her charity to be adminicered—
namely, the principle of free discussion, without
creed, and by appealing only to the Scriptures
as they stood. His Honour said there were
a vast number of other passages, but it. was
perfectly useless to go through them. He
found by the evidence that Mr. Wellbeloved
and Mr. Kendrick and some third person were
subscribers to the institution called the Unita-
rian Society, which stated amongst the books
it circulated this improved version of the
Scriptures, as it was called ; and his orittion
was, that the question now being not who
Should participate, but what given individuals
should be excluded, it waq satisfactorily made
out to him that no person who believed as Mr.
Wellbeloved had stated in his sermon he be-
lieved, who had acted as Mr. Wellbeloved had
acted with regard to the supporting that Uni-
tarian Society, who had published such a hook
as that, could be considered as entitled to
share in the charity of Lady Hewley. There-
fore, he thought it clear that no stipend ought
to be continued to Mr. Wellbeloved, nor any
person preaching the doctrines he did; sod i.
was also clear to him that the charity itself
could not be administered according to the
intention of Lady Hewley, at least there was
not reasonable security that it could be admi-
nistered according to her intention, if it was
be allowed to remain in the hands of persons
vho thought as he did, and who had acted as
he had. He had no evidence whatever to
induce him to believe that he had anything to do
with the book, more than in assisting by his sub-
scription the publication of it, nor had he ever
heard who were the persons, nor had he the
slightest conception who were the fabricators of
the book ; but he was quite certain Lady Hew-
ley never would have thought this book did
contain Christ's Holy Gospel, or that the
persons who disseminated that book were to be
considered disseminators of Christ's Holy
Gospel. Therefore, hes decree must declare,
that no persons who denied the divinity of our
Saviour's
original
iurs
person,in, anti
was it ish de
go
enert,iiiielyd tuhneddoctrine
t.r,to,,
(i,
were tinkled to participate in Lady Hew ley's
charity, anti that the first set of trustees Inuit be
removed. He also thought it was sufficiently
manifest that this lady never intended tha there
should be trustees of-one sort to administer the
dealing out of the funds amongst the persons
who were named in the first deed, aud trustees
of a second sort to superintend the hospital
which contained the poor almswonaen. He,
therefore, thought that all the trustees who were
dissenters, whoo),bme
objection
di:sit:li
oit enibldoepuetgrrl
eishemot
personally
or
tiu;nogeahri‘notidir oopttui:rothontithough
sa-
viour's divine person, and the doctrine of
he
who, it appeared, was a member of the Church
otol fri grEiennwaglal as :lid:l°,
continued a trustee.

THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.—ThiS
popular periodical commences the new ye.ir with increased
attractions. The January number will comprise, among
a valirty of other interesting papers, the first of a series,
in prose as well as verse, from the pen of that uni, mut
favourite, Mrs. Ilemans; Magpie Castle, by the author
of " Sayings and Doings;" Sketches of Irish Fools, by
T. C. Grattan, Esq. ; the Progress of Music in England
at the Present Day; and an article on the Society for the
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, which, we are informed,
is likely to create a considerable sensation in the literary
world.

The Suabian Mercury has the following
Hitherto criminals condemned to death in Greece have
been shot, but henceforth their heads are to he cut off.
For this purpose a guillotine has been framed, anti i;s effect
:tied upon eriminalc One of the,e machines has been
sent to Thebes for the execution of two capital convicts.
Not a Greek, however, was fou d wdling to become the
.aecutioner, and this repugnince is s•r.ngtoeneit b, to 4.
e,rcumstance that the man who toasiruct a tue lust etnene
of death died immedia-ely aster it was fill11,11.!(1. Bi-
iarian soldier of one of the working eAnpanits lees titier-
t iken the task about to be por:ortned at Thebes."