INTRODUCTORY PREFACE.

"UTINAM nobis contingat esse tam felicibus ut Editionem Bentleii, thesaurum desideratissimum, e tenebris in lucem productum conspiciamus'."

| When Wetstein concluded his notice of Bentley's projected dition of the New Testament with these words, he could ardly have expected that more than a hundred years would lapse before any attempt should be made to gratify so reasonble a wish. Nor is it at all likely that the valuable materials of Criticism, which Bentley left behind him at his death in 1742, would have thus been consigned to oblivion, had they passed at once into the keeping of Trinity College.

But the ceaseless quarrels which embittered the last twentyfive years of his life and the animosities which they kindled within the College walls, while they robbed him of the leisure required for the completion of his great work, probably made him disinclined to commit it unfinished to the charge of the Master and Fellows. At any rate he cherished the hope that his nephew Dr Richard Bentley, Fellow of Trinity College, might turn his materials to account, and therefore bequeathed them to him. "But this gentleman never edited any posthumous works of his Uncle: and returned the money of the subscribers to the New Testament"." Thus the Collations and Notes which

1 Wetstenii Prolegomena in N. T. p. 156.

2 Monk's Life of Bentley, Vol. II. p. 415, 8vo ed.

Bentley had prepared lay untouched at Nailstone Parsonage in Leicestershire till the year 1786: when, by the will of Dr Richard Bentley, they became the property of Trinity College. From that day to this they have remained in the Library, the admiration of every Greek Testament Scholar. A list of some of the principal volumes may be found in Mr Dyce's edition of Bentley's Works', and many interesting particulars concerning them are mentioned in the notes to Dr Wordsworth's valuable Collection of Bentley's Correspondence: but no attempt has hitherto been made to publish any portion of these remains, or to appreciate the services rendered by Bentley to this depart ment of Sacred Criticism.

Mill's Edition of the Greek Testament was given to the world in 1707. Its publication constitutes an era in the histor of the Printed Text. Until then the Elzevir Edition stoo unassailed: and what at first was a text 'received' by contre versialists began to be regarded as the text 'received' by Scho lars. But when Mill appended to the text the fruit of thirty years' labour in foot-notes containing the readings of MSS. and Versions collated by himself, the religious world was appalled by his boldness: and the first Edition of the text of the New Testament which appealed to authority for its support encoun tered a storm of opposition. Good men, like Dr Whitby, were alarmed, lest the authority of Scripture should be impaired i the true state of the MSS. was allowed to be known: and bad men, like Collins, were only too happy to hear that the text of the New Testament was unsettled by the discovery of 30,000 various readings. Bentley was in his 46th year when this happened, and his reply both to Whitby and Collins exhibits a the vigour of his prime. Under the feigned name of Phileleu therus Lipsiensis he vindicated the Edition of Mill from the at tacks which were made upon it, and established the Criticism of the New Testament upon a sure and lasting basis. Sinc

1 Dyce's Bentley, Vol. III. p. 483.

2 Remarks on a Discourse of Free Thinking, Dyce's Bentley, Vol. III. p. 347.

the appearance of Bentley's Remarks, the public mind of England has been reassured on this subject: it has been clearly understood, that the text of Scripture has nothing to fear from the most laborious collation of ancient MSS., or the most searching examination of critics:

Per damna, per cædes ab ipso

Ducit opes animumque ferro.

The Remarks were published in 1713 in a letter to "F. H., D.D., London," (Dr Francis Hare), who replied under the name of Philo-Criticus, in a pamphlet entitled The Clergyman's thanks to Phileleutherus for his Remarks on the late Discourse of Free-thinking. In a letter to Dr Bentley. Fungor vice cotis. This pamphlet is interesting to us as containing the following passage (p. 38, ed. 1713):

"That the present text wants the help of more manuscripts than have yet been examined, or the assistance of critic to supply the want of them, is not only a priori evident from the reason and nature of the thing; those who have read the New Testament with a critical care and exactness know it to be so in fact: yourself have given us a small specimen of this in your happy conjectures upon three passages, which, as far as I can find by my own conversation and my friends, are universally liked by the men of learning, who would be very glad so great a master would turn his labours to the Scriptures: and if not a new edition of the Testament, that he would give us at least a Critice Sacra on it, which, from so able a hand, will on many accounts be infinitely valuable. Many of us are sensible this wants to be done, though none of us can do it; the province is yours without dispute, 'twill be our part to judge and to applaud."

It is possible that Bentley's attention was first called to the criticism of the Greek Testament through the ferment which was caused by the appearance of Mill's Edition: and though he was little likely to be attracted by an invitation so fulsome as that of Philo-Criticus, we may perhaps be justified in drawing

b

the negative inference from the above passage: that until then the great critic of the age had not devoted himself to the Sacred Text. The year 1714 was occupied in preparing an edition of Terence. In 1715 the Northern Rebellion called forth his Sermon on Popery, which is memorable for his valuable criticism on 2 Cor. ii. 17. The year 1716 brought him into close intimacy with John James Wetstein, so famous in after years for his edition of the Greek Testament. He was received by Bentley at Trinity Lodge, with the generous hospitality which he always dispensed to foreign Scholars; and the result of their meeting is best given in Wetstein's own words.

"Cum initio anni 1716 virum Cl. Richardum Bentleium Cantabrigiæ primum in Collegio Trinitatis, deinde Londini in Bibliotheca Regia qua erat, erga exteros præcipue, humanitate familiariter viderem, per occasionem illi exposui quos in Gallia N. T. Codices cum editis contulissem. Quo audito suasit, ut quæ in Schedis collecta haberem ipso juvante in lucem publicam emitterem. Cum vero et ætatis juvenilis, et temporis peregrinanti parum commodi, et nimis angusti, excusatione uterer, rogaremque ut ipse hunc laborem in se susciperet, meisque collectaneis uteretur, permovi tandem virum KρITIKÓтaтov ut edendi N. T. de quo prius nunquam cogitasse videbatur, consilium caperet. Communicavi igitur cum illo excerpta mea ex codice C. quæ oræ editionis Oxoniensis in octavo ipse adscripsit, et cum voluptate observavit, hunc codicem cum Alexandrino plerumque convenire: porro in Editionis Cantabrigiensis parvæ margine descripsi quæ ex codicibus Coislinianis aliisque deprehenderam : postea in ejus gratiam redii Lutetiam Parisiorum, Codicem C. iterum, et quantum fieri posset accuratissime, collaturus, quod et feci: denique codicem Græco-Latinum epistolarum Pauli, quem Ao. 1717 in itinere Heidelbergæ inspexeram ei et indicavi et, ut eum nancisceretur, curavi.""

Wetstein then subjoins a letter of Bentley dated July 10th, 1718, in which he thanks him cordially for informing him of the 1 Wetstenii Prolegomena in N. T. P. 153.