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    troduction is uncertain , though it was adopted in a very early age . ( Michaelis , Introd . ch . -i . ) AyocQr i KY ) has a double sense importing either a covenant or bond , or a testament or will . It is evident tha ^ it was in the former sense , that the term was used to denote the collection of writings considered by Christians to be divine ; the translation of It , therefore by a word ( Testament )

    bearing only the latter sense , was " an egregious blunder . ' ( Marsh on Michaelis . Notes to ch . i , ) Campbell ( Dis . on Gosp . ) rightly conjectures , that the reasoning of Paul Hcb , ix . 16 17 , led translators antient and modern , to rerrder ^ a ^ yct ] Testament ; but this seems only one of many instances , in which the Apostle avails himself' of the latitude of meaning of a well-known \ vor , d 5 to give a new and ingenious turn to his argument . The proper rendering of the word is unquestionably Covenant . In the sense of a contract or

    covenant , both the Jewish and Christian dispensations are frequently understood in the scriptures i and the idea is intelligible and significant . But what sense

    can be put upon the word Testament ^ as applied to the Jewish and Christian religions , or to the volumes in which they are set forth ? There is an absurdity in the notion of a Testament or Will , made by him who only hath immortality ; and if the notion be not absurd in reference to the religion of Jesus , who was dead and is alive again , it does not seem proper to use the word * of a volume which Christ did not write , and which was none of it written till after his death !

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    It may be a hopeless attempt to endeavour to explode language which is familiar to every Chris , tian , and bears the stamp of ami , quity and sacredness ; but the

    continuance of it cannot be jus . tjfied on any reasonable grounds . Surely , then , it is to be expected that those Christians who boast ( and with justice , ) that their opinions are rational , \ v ill not per . sist in writing and speaking in terms which originated in mistake

    and have been preserved through ignorance and from prejudice , and which , in strictness of speech , are unscriptural . The reformation for which I plead has been attempted . Beza added to the title of his Testamentum Nowm ~ -sive Foedus Novum- and he

    was followed by the Geneva French translation , the title of which is , Le Nouveau Testament , e ' est a dire . La N out elle Alliance . And archbishop Newcome entitles his version , " A Translation of the Greek Scriptures , or the New Covenant of Jesus Christ . ' I wish the editors of the late Improved Version had followed these examples , which , considering that they professed to repub .

    lish Newcome , it is rather strange that they have not . Is _ not the Ncxo Covenant better than the JNew Testament } Or is the Im proved Version of Newcome a greater innovation than the UMtarian editors chose to hazard .

    The former of these questions must surely be answered in the affirmative , and I venture to express my confident hope that tnc editors will give a satisfactory practical answer to the lattei , the next edition of their invaluajw volume . EIKONOCLASi t >

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    574 On the Phrase , 6 c New TestamentSy

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1811, page 274, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2416/page/18/