| Citation |
BNL.739.005
8-15 Mar 1739:11,12 (1825)
Yours of the first currant I just now receiv'd, and in reply
to your inquiry, What are my thoughts of Dr. Nicholas Brady
and Nahum Tate, Esq; their version of the Psalms, and of the
motion of some to introduce them into our churches? I
shall first briefly hint at a few remarks of others, and
then offer a few of my own.
Upon the abovesaid motion, some zealous lovers of the
ancient founders and ways of New-England, are ready to apply
with sorrow those complaints of old, Hos.II My people are
bent to backsliding from me. Jer. 14. Thus have they loved
to wander. Jer. 2. But thou saidst I have loved strangers
and after them I will go. For 'tis both surprizing and
grievous to those good people to think, that when the wise
and pious fathers of this country, as well as diverse other
Godly and learned men in Britain, were so much aggrieved
with Sternhold and Hopkins their version, because it was so
much a paraphrase and went so widely from the original; that
as soon as they came over hither, they laboured after a
version as near thereto as possible, that we might have the
inspired scripture as pure in our worship as may be: Yet
how grievous is it to see some of their offspring (ignorant
of the original) so ready to leave a vastly purer version,
one of the purest this day in the world, and return to a
less scriptural version or rather paraphrase again. A
paraphrase as wide from the scriptures almost as the other,
and wherein the authors have presum'd to make many needless
additions to the sacred text, in many places have needlessly
left out or taken away, in many other have intirely chang'd
or perverted the sense, and given too much occasion for
serious minds to fear lest those awful sentences in
Rev.22.18.10 should belong to those, who being plainly told
of such intrusion on the word of God, are yet resolv'd to
use them.
These are some of the sentiments of others, and I am apt to
think they are of so much weight as to deserve a serious and
deliberate consideration.
To these I may add, that as the noble example of our
forefathers soon after their arrival here, was quickly
followed by the renowned church of Scotland, who made
another excellent version, wherein she likewise aimed at as
near a conformity to the original as might be for her own
use; to this she therefore steadily and wisely adheres, and
no doubt will do so till she sees another not only of a
politer language, but as near at least to the inspired
original as this she uses: while some of the sons of New-
England seem to have lost the ancient zeal for the purity of
the Christian worship, and are come to such an indifferent
temper, that if a paraphrase be fill'd with more modish
phrases, they seem to care not whether it be agreable to the
Bible or no, nor will they examine, but without a thorough
inquiry, are for hurrying it into use at all adventures.
And that which adds to the surprize is this, that when Tate
and Brady are so much lower'd in the esteem of the most
knowing and polite in England, upon the point of being
exploded from the ?churches there for their many blemishes:
and several of the learned bishops are so out of conceit of
the version, as to desire the late Sir Richard Blackmore to
make a purer more agreeable to the original, and retaining
more of the oriental beauties; yet we must stand up for this
falling version: just as they are on the point of leaving it
off, that we must begin to use it! It seems very ill tim'd
and unadvised; for if we must have another, one would be apt
to think that a little prudence would rather move us to stay
three or four years longer in hopes of a new one, or else we
must quickly change again.
By the printed advertisements in the Magazines in London,
they have published two or three years ago some account of
the faults in Tate and Brady: and tho I cannot learn that
the book has reach'd this country, yet I think a reader of
no great accuracy or penetration may easily see them, yea
can scarce turn a leaf and not see them without the
assistance of that observer. Slightly or superficial
thinkers, or those who examine nor what they read, are
easily led away with a little glare of words, and take no
notice of many blunders or contradictions either to common
sense or grammer as they pass along, and much less will they
take the pains to compare the passages even with those of
the Psalms in prose in our English: the sense whereof the
poet pretends to turn to verse, and which almost every
reader can easily compare and judge of.
Dear Sir, I do not charge you, nor every other that inclines
to the version, with a superficial mind or being incapable
of discerning. I know that you and some of them have the
powers of piercing judgment if they are once awakened. I
only charge you with what I almost constantly charge my
self, and indeed the greater part of the knowing world, viz.
with inadvertency or negligence: And because I clearly and
surprizingly see them in the present case, I would offer a
few of the many remarks I might easily make of the faults of
this mistaken version.
I abhor the thoughts of censorious critick. There are a
great many beauties in that composure and so far as it keeps
to the sense of Scripture, the authors are to be praised:
but where they go off from the sense to add beauties wholly
of their own invention, of which there is no hint in the
text, the paraphrase may be agreeable and pleasing to the
imagination, but the version wrong, and so is every judgment
that approves the same. It is with great reluctance that I
point out their blemishes, and those who know me, know
there's scarce any thing more averse to my natural temper:
but when I see my particular friends, and much more my
country in danger of being deceived through inadvertency, it
should not be tho't ill-nature to attempt to preserve them,
but rather cordial friendship and a publick spirit.
I readily own that our New-England Version has many
inaccuracies of stile or language: but this I insist on,
that as the sense is nearer to the original than any
metrical version I know of, so even the language it self has
for the most part an amiable simplicity and purity in it,
which equals, if not exceeds all others, and those other
inaccuracies may be easily mended. And as it has been
propos'd by some, I would back the motion, that our next
convention would appoint a committee to mend the less
accurate passages, only by very cautiously varying some of
the words but not the sense, unless in some few places where
they may yet come nearer the living original. And ther, the
objections being removed, I am apt to think it will be more
highly priz'd and charily kept in our churches till the
general frame of our language alters, if not to the end of
the world.
That there are many inaccuracies of language in our New-
England Version is therefore no insuperable objection, since
they may be easily corrected; and when they are so, we will
venture to compare it with any other. Or being this
corrected, if it will not satisfy; then it will be time
enough to consider whether the case is so important, as it
would be advisable for any particular church to vary from
the general practice of the other churches of the same
denomination and way of worship throughout this country, and
renounce so pure a version for one less pure, and the
version of their learned and pious fathers. And yet as our
version is at present, it in many places excels the other,
both for beauty and purity of diction, and even clear good
sense, as I may show in the sequel.
. . . To be continued.
|