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    who , though the evidence which he has hitherto heard bears all one way , and gives him the strongest anticipation of the conclusion to which he shall corrie , keeps himself open to possible conviction , till he has heard th& cause fairly to an end . This was p lainly the state of Bentley ' s mind ; he had expressed an opinion unfavourable to the verse , and had alarmed his worthy correspondent ^ who writes him a remonstrance ; in reply he tells him , it is a

    question of fact , not of doctrine , and that his mind is etill open to conviction as to the fact , if evidence of it can be produced . A few months afterwards he openly and solemnly declares his opinion that the verse is spurious . What inconsistency is there in this ? The other assertion , that Bentley deemed so highly of the Vulgate as to say , that he preferred ancient MSS . of it to those of the Greek , rests on a misapprehension of his meaning into which Semler had already fallen , and which , as far as we know , Crito first

    pointed out . Writing , in 1718 , to Wet stein , who had procured him some MSS . and collations for his intended edition of the New Testament , Bentley says , " Jam illud unice expeto ut si quos Latinos veteris notae Actuum , Epistolarum et Apocalypseos codices apud vos repereris , eos accuratissime tarn ad verba quam ad verborum ordinem cum Papae editione conferas ; Hujusmodi Latinos veterrimos vel Grcecis ipsis prcetulerim . " Taken in connexion with the subject of the letter , there can be no doubt , we think , that he meant

    only that he should prefer Wetstein ' s procuring him such Latin MSS . or their collations to Greek copies ; and the reason of the preference is obvious . He was to give in parallel columns in his edition a corrected Latin and a corrected Greek text .: for the latter he had ample materials in MSS . in England , in preceding editions , especially that of Mills , in collations which he had procured ; but the MSS . of the Latin version were little known , and the divines employed by Sixtus and Clemens had performed their work like

    theologians , not like critics . How Bentley would have received a suggestion to make the Latin the model from which to correct the Greek , may be judged from a thundering exordium of a sermon , preached in 1715 , before the University , in which he reproaches the Roman Catholics for " enhancing the authority of the vulgar Latin above the Greek original . " Crito , p . 171 . The fifth section treats of miscellaneous matters connected with the

    controversy , " Mr . Porson ' s observations on Bishop Smallbroke , Dr . Mill and Bengelius on the state of the controversy , and the proceedings of theologians . " From this part we feel pleasure in extracting the just and discriminating character of the late Dr . Hey , the glory and the shame of the church to which he belonged . Has it not , however , occurred to the sagacity of Crito , that his own panegyric contains an ample explanation of the neglect of Dr . Hey by the ruling powers ?

    " Will the reader here pardon a short digression , from Bengelius—to the great rnan ^ whose Lectures in Divinity have thus obtained an incidental notice ?—To persons whose minds are duly prepared for serious reflection on the nature and bearings of the leading doctrines of Christianity , Dr . Hey ' s Lectures form one of the most important works that have ever appeared in the English language . To persons , I repeat , whose minds are duly prepared :

    —for , in my own judgment , productions more dogmatic in their form are rather to be recommended to those who are beginning their Theological studies . The materials of thought must have been collected , and the habits of thought acouired , before a full use can be made of the disquisitions of Dr . Hey . Ana yet , with all their philosophical character , his Lectures are entirely free from intentional obscurity . The writer ' s object undoubtedly was—to communicate the most valuable information , and enforce the most

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    328 Revkm . -r Vindication < of Porson .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1828, page 328, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2560/page/40/