duction to the Writings of the New Testament," (2d edit. vol. I. p. 313, &c.) speaks of him as follows:

"Bengel is the first German who has laboured creditably in this department of learning. While for many years he was engaged as a tutor and lecturer, he was quietly pondering the text of Mill, and early availed himself of Latin and Greek MSS. for consultation. But his valuable industry did not stop here. He proceeded to make numerous collations, and hereby developed more and more his original talent for criticism. For this he was neither indebted to his friends about him, nor to the expensive and valuable helps procured for him, but to the resources with which his own mind was endowed. By long and indefatigable attention, he became quite familiar with the various phenomena of the sacred text, and so well acquainted with the peculiarities and usages of heterogeneous critical documents, that from his own observation he drew out new principles for the profitable application of critical learning. He was the first who classified MSS. according to the incidental agreements which he discovered in their general features and in their particular lections. He discerned in them respectively a common similarity and uniformity, sufficient for evincing two distinct classes; one of which he termed the African, and the other, sometimes, the Asiatic. His observations having thus conducted him to a simplicity of research, and his classification of so many various witnesses having converted them into compact and conspiring parties, he elicited from them certain general principles, whereby he set in motion that present march of criticism which will now proceed, even supposing his own editorial works could ever be forgotten. Wetstein is, in my opinion, deservedly to blame for having neither valued, nor so much as comprehended, Bengel's admirably luminous principles of criticism.

In harmony with these sentiments, has been the general reception of Bengel's critical writings to the present time: and though Biblical criticism became after his death materially advanced every ten years, first by Wetstein, and subsequently by Griesbach and Matthiæ, Bengel's octavo Greek Testament has gone through five editions.

There was published at Oxford, in 1742, (è TheatroSheldoniano, edente Johanne Gambold,) Novum Testamentum Græcum, textu per omnia Milliano cum divisione pericoparum et interpuncturâ, J. A. Bengelii; and in 1745, when the authorized Danish version was revised by command of his majesty the king of Denmark,

the text of Bengel was preferred as the standard for that pur

pose.

A second edition of the "Apparatus Criticus" was published in 1763, by Philip David Burk, "curis beati auctoris posterioribus aucta et emendata;" (enlarged and corrected by the latest labours of its pious deceased author). It contains Bengel's supplementary criticism on the New Testament, with which are embodied his collations of a written copy of another MS. of the Apocalypse. This MS. having been destroyed by a fire at Copenhagen, the copy of it was communicated to Bengel, by J. L. von Mosheim. A particular review of this second edition of the "Apparatus" is found in Dr. John Aug. Ernesti's* " New Theological Library," vol. IV. part ii. p. 109, &c. We shall better learn its value by noticing a few of the principal matters referred to in that review, with Ernest Bengel's counter statements and observations upon it. The reviewer speaks as follows:-" The Apparatus Criticus of the late prelate Bengel, is one of those books which do honour to our church and country; and though in its general drift and particular remarks it is not without defects and errors, and is far short of a perfect work, nothing of the kind yet published by any member of our own church will bear comparison with it. Its first appearance drew forth great opposition amongst us; for Scripture criticism had been previously very little attended to. The science had hitherto been regarded as dangerous, and even mischievous; but public opinion about it has gradually become quite altered; and Bengel is now not only celebrated in foreign parts, but his merit has been more and more perceived and acknowledged by ourselves; especially since our countrymen have begun in larger numbers to study and engage in works of criticism. This is evident from the first edition being now out of print, and from those continued and frequent inquiries after it, which give good reason to expect a quick circulation for this new

one.

By comparing the number of pages in the two editions, the augmentation of the second does not appear considerable; for the first consists of six hundred and twelve, and this second, which is of the same type, contains no more than six hundred and twenty. Much, however, upon critical subjects may be furnished

* Professor of Divinity at Leipsic; the well known author of valuable editions of Greek and Latin classics. He died in 1781.

+ Vide E. Bengel's " Elucidation," &c.

It is

within the space of eight quarto pages of letter-press.* to be regretted, that the excellent author either never saw Wetstein's Greek Testament, Bianchini's Evangeliarium, and Sabatierius's Italian version of the Old Testament, or else did not choose to make use of them.†

"Of several pieces in the Appendix, the following here deserve to be noticed :

"1. 'An Essay on the duty of preserving the purity of the Greek text of the New Testament;' (Tractatio de sinceritate N. T. Græci tuendâ ;) which contains a reply to some remarks upon Bengel's work inserted by Dr. Michaelis, in his Tractatio de variis lectionibus N. T. cautè colligendis et dijudicandis; ('Essay on the duty of caution in collecting, and deciding upon, the various readings in the Greek text of the New Testament.') Bengel sent it in manuscript to Dr. Michaelis himself, who printed it at Halle with his own observations, in 1750. Bengel said of it to his friends, that ' he could answer Michaelis's remarks, but would not; lest so amicable a contest should lose its agreeableness by prolongation into a controversy.' If the tract of Dr. Michaelis should ever be reprinted, this piece of Bengel's might be usefully annexed to it. 2. Clavicula N. T. Græce ex iteratâ recensione nuper edita; (‘A small Key to the Greek Testament, a new edition, repeatedly revised;') which was written chiefly in reply to some strictures of the late Dr. Baumgarten, and is occasionally rather harsh.‡ Baumgarten, though he had not made criticism his particular study, did not want acumen and a pretty good acquaintance with his subject; neither is it unjustly that he upbraids Bengel with having introduced readings of minor importance, and omitted others of greater; nor could Bengel give him any other answer but that it did not belong to his plan to exhibit every particular

66

• Ernesti altered this remark in part x, p. 490, to the following:-" It was by an oversight (?) that in the review of Bengel's Apparatus, twelve leaves were mentioned instead of twelve sheets; by which it appears that the new edition is a larger work than the old one." This alteration, however, is still more erroneous than his original remark; for he was correct in saying that the second edition contains 620 pages; but this is with the omission of the whole of the Greek text of the New Testament, which was inserted in the first edition; consequently there was a much greater enlargement than the reviewer had noticed.

+ The former of these alternatives is the more probable; and may be accounted for by considering that Bengel, in the latter part of his life, with his new official engagements, his infirm state of health, and his strong anticipation of the nearness of his end, could no longer follow up literary labours with the attention of his earlier years.

The alleged asperity will not easily be perceived, if the manner in which Baumgarten attacked Bengel be impartially considered.

lection;* an answer which shows how necessary it is for such of his readers as wish to be thorough critics, not to limit themselves to his Apparatus, but to seek out more extended and comprehensive repertories of criticism.† Bengel, however, has respectably answered the objections which Baumgarten made to his criticisms upon some passages in the Acts of the Apostles, in the Epistle to the Romans, and in the Epistle of St. James; and here his work contains a number of important additions.

"3. Tabula lectionum variantium N. T.; ( A Table of the various readings of the Greek Testament;') which is the most useful part of this Appendix. It is well known that the excellent author, when he published his Gnomon,' had changed his opinion of some readings; which was not to be wondered at. Here then we have his final judgment upon the whole.

6

"But notwithstanding all the defects which may be pointed out in this Apparatus,' it is a highly valuable compendium of criticism on the New Testament, for those who have not leisure or inclination to explore further in such a field of literature. We have always recommended it to students, and we do so still."

*It is true that only this general answer was given by Bengel in his Clavicula; but a particular refutation of such objections will be found at proper places in the revised text of his Apparatus Criticus.

+ Bengel was fully sensible of this, and acknowledged it even in the first edition of his Apparatus; at the same time he remarked, that a work presenting the whole apparatus of criticism in every minute particular, was not his object; though he wished such a work might exist.

CHAPTER IV.

HIS GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF EXPOSITION.

EXEGESIS was, more immediately than criticism, a part of his official business; and having to go through the New Testament with his pupils every two years, he conscientiously prepared expository remarks for each lecture. This led him necessarily into criticisms; which he laboured to reduce to a regular system for the press, before he published any thing exegetical; and though the latter was what his friends urged him first to send out, he waived it for the present, because he saw that the study of criticism was too little valued; though, as one of the departments of theological knowledge, it then needed cultivation more than the rest. He also considered, that as so many valuable comments had already appeared, no new expositor ought to come forward without well digested materials; whereas, for his own part, he should not be able to feel himself thus competently furnished, till after the persevering labour of a number of years. With these views he had been accumulating observations for above twenty years together, so that he could the more readily give forth, in due time, the fruit of very extensive researches. These may be considered as of two kinds, namely, general and special. His "Gnomon" upon the whole of the New Testament, and his German translation of the Greek Testament with its annotations, comprise his general researches; and those which we term special are found in his chronological and apocalyptical writings, and in his several defences of them. That his chronological and apocalyptical writings frequently run into one another, was because the fore-appointment of times as well as of events entered indispensably into Bengel's views. His first expository publications were some concise tracts on the Apocalypse, inserted in various theological journals; afterwards, in 1736, he published his "Harmony of the Gospels;" and in 1740, "An Exposition of the Revelation of St. John;" as specimens of more enlarged expositions promised to the public. His