Bentley calls attention to "ye vast heap of various
lections found in MSS of ye Greek Testament." After
saying that this was a favourite theme of freethinkers
and " one of Collins' Topics in his Discourse on Free-
thinking," and that he (Bentley) had lately been led
into a " new course of study," he says, " I find I am
able (what was once thought impossible) to give an
Edn of ye Greek Text exactly as it was in ye best exem-
plars at ye time of ye Council of Nice," so that there
shall not be " twenty words nor even Particles Differ-
ence." He asserts that the Text of the New Testament
had suffered more than that of most classical authors :
he expresses a poor opinion of the Vulgate, and says :
" Pope Sixtus and Clemens at a vast expense had an
assembly of learned divines to recense and adjust ye
Latin Vulgate and then enacted their new Edition
authentic. But I find, though I have not yet discovered
anything done dolo malo, they were quite unequal to
ye affair. They were mere theologi, had no experience
in MSS nor made use of good Greek copies and followed
books of five hundred years before those of double age,
nay I believe they took those new ones for ye older of ye
two ; for it is not everybody knows ye age of a MSS."
Wake received the project with encouragement, and
made useful suggestions to the great scholar.
