Wesley Corpus

1785 To Dean D-- [1] [1785.] REVEREND SIR, - When Dr. Bentley published his Greek Testament, one remarked, 'Pity but he would publish the Old; then we should have two New Testaments! [Dr. Richard Bentley, the great classical scholar, issued in 1720 proposals for a new edition of the New Testament in Greek with the Latin Version of Jerome.] It is done. Those who receive Mr. Hutchinson's emendations certainly have two New Testaments! But I stumble at the threshold. Can we believe that God left His whole Church so ignorant of the Scripture till yesterday And if He was pleased to reveal the sense of it' now, to whom may we suppose He would reveal it 'All Scripture,' says Kempis, 'must be understood by the same Spirit whereby it was written.' [Robert Spearman, a pupil of John Hutchinson, published An Enquiry after, Philosophy and Theology in 1755. For William Jones's Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity, see letter of April 17, 1776.] And a greater than he says, 'Them that are meek will He guide in judgment, and them that are gentle will He learn His way.' But was Mr. Hutchinson eminently meek and gentle However, in order to learn all I could from his Works, after first consulting them, I carefully read over Mr. Spearman, [Book I, chap. v.] Mr. Jones's ingenious book, and the Glasgow [Edinburgh] Abridgement. I read the last with Mr. Thomas Walsh, the best Hebraean I ever knew. I never asked him the meaning of an Hebrew word but he would immediately tell me how often it occurred in the Bible and what it meant in each place! We then both observed that Mr. Hutchinson's whole scheme is built upon etymologies; the most uncertain foundation in the world, and the least to be depended upon. We observed, secondly, that if the points be allowed, all his building sinks at once; and, thirdly, that, setting them aside, many of his etymologies are forced and unnatural. He frequently, to find the etymology of one word, squeezes two radices together; a liberty never to be taken where a word may fairly be derived from a single radix.