A SERMON UPON POPERY,*

PREACHED AT CAMBRIDGE,

November the fifth, 1715.

2 CORINTHIANS, ii. 17.

For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

OUR text, as it exhibits to us two contrary characters, of many that corrupt the word of God, and of some that handle it in sincerity, may fitly represent the two different views of the Church under Popery and the Reformation; and may furnish a proper discourse for the solemnity of this day, when we are met to commemorate the public deliverance from one of the most impious and bloody attempts that even popish pravity and corruption either contrived or favoured.

[* This admirable discourse, well suited to the peculiar circumstances of those times, was attacked by a Calvinistic dissenter named Cummins (or Commins) in Remarks on Dr. Bentley's Sermon upon Popery: Preach'd before the University of Cambridge, November the 5th, 1715.

1716, 8vo, pp. 24.

Cummins was answered in Reflections on the Scandalous Aspersions cast on the Clergy, By the Author of the Remarks upon a Sermon on Popery, Preach'd by the Revd. Dr. Bentley, November the Fifth, 1715. With a particular Vindication of the Doctrine of Universal Redemption. Anseribus cibaria publice locantur et canes aluntur in Capitolio ut significent si fures venerint, at fures internoscere non possunt, significant tamen si qui noctu in Capitolium venerint.—Quod si luce quoque canes latrent cum deos salutatum aliqui venerint, opinor iis crura suffringantur, quod acres sint etiam tum cum suspicio nulla est. Tull. Orat. pro Rosc. Amerino.—Οὐμενοῦν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ- δύνασαι ἀντιλέγειν ἐπεὶ Σωκράτει γε ουδὲν Xaλenóv. Plat. Symp. 1717, 8vo, pp. 43.-It has been said that the last-mentioned tract was written by Bentley himself; "which (observes Dr. Monk, Life of B., vol. i. p. 383) nobody can believe who reads half a page of the pamphlet."-D.]

But the text will be still* more proper to this anniversary occasion, when we have attained to the true and full sense of it, as it lies in the original. For our English translators have not been very happy in their version of this passage. We are not, says the apostle, καπηλεύοντες τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ : which our translators have rendered, We do not corrupt, or (as in the margin) deal deceitfully with the word of God. They were led to this by the parallel place, ch. iv. of this epistle, ver. 2, not walking in craftiness, μndè doλoûvtes tòv Xóyov Toû Ocoû, nor handling the word of God deceitfully: they took καπηλεύοντες and δολοῦντες in the same adequate notion; as the vulgar Latin had done before them, which expresses both by the same word, ADULTERANTES verbum Dei : and so likewise Hesychius makes them synonyms, 'Еккαπηλεύειν, δολοῦν. Δολοῦν, indeed, is ftly rendered adulterare: so δολοῦν τὸν χρυσὸν, τὸν οἶνον, to adulterate gold or wine, by mixing worse ingredients with the metal or liquor. And our translators had done well if they had rendered the latter passage, un doλoûvтes тòv Xóyov, not adulterating, not sophisticating the word. But xаπηλеúονтes in our text has a complex idea, and a wider signification: кaπηλeveɩv always comprehends δολοῦν; but δολοῦν never extends to καπηXever, which, besides the sense of adulterating, has an additional notion of unjust lucre, gain, profit, advantage. This is plain from the word kárηλos, a calling always infamous for avarice and knavery: perfidus hic caupo,† says the poet, as a general character. Thence κажηλеúει, by an easy and natural metaphor, was diverted to other expressions where cheating and lucre were signified: καπηλεύειν τὸν λόγον, says the apostle here; and the ancient Greeks, κaπŋλeúεiv tàs díxas, τὴν εἰρήνην, τὴν σοφίαν, τὰ μαθήματα, to corrupt and sell justice, to barter a negotiation of peace, to prostitute learning and philosophy for gain. Cheating, we see, and adulterating is part of the notion of xaжηλеúεɩν; but the principal

essential of it is sordid lucre. So cauponari, in the famous

[* be still; 1st ed. "still be."-D.]

[t Hor. Sat. i. i. 29.-D.]

[ principal essential; 1st ed. "principal and essential.."-D.]

passage of Ennius, where Pyrrhus refuses the offered ransom for his captives, and restores 'em gratis :

Nec mi aurum posco, nec mi pretium dederitis,

Non cauponanti bellum, sed belligeranti.*

So nundinari, negotiari, when used in the like metaphor, have a double aspect both to fraud and to profit; but the primary one to the latter. And so the Fathers expound this place: τοῦτό ἐστι καπηλεῦσαι, says St. Chrysostom, ὅταν τις χρημάτων πωλῇ, ὅπερ δωρεὰν ἔδει δοῦναι : this is καπηλεύειν, when any one sells that for money which he ought to give freely. So St. Ignatius, where he paraphrases our text, calls them Χριστέμποροι in an elegant compound ; Χριστέμποροι, says he, τὸν λόγον καπηλεύοντες, καὶ τὸν Ἰησοῦν πωλοῦντες, traffickers and traders in the Gospel, sellers of Christ: and Greg.Nazianzen, with the† like elegancy, Xpiσтokátnλoi. So that, in short, what St. Paul says, kaπηλeúovтes tòv Xóyov, might be expressed in one classic word, Xoyéμπороι, oг λογοπρᾶται, where the idea of gain and profit is the chief part of the signification. Wherefore, to do justice to our text, we must not stop lamely with our translators, corrupters of the word of God; but add to it, as its plenary notion, corrupters of the word of God FOR FILTHY LUCRE: in which true version we shall find the specific character of Popery, which in all and every deviation from primitive Christianity made worldly profit and advantage its principal design; as my present discourse shall endeavour to shew you.

But before I enter upon that, I must crave leave to set another thing right in the text, where our translators have failed. For we are not, say they, AS MANY, which corrupt the word of God: but the original has not ós πoλλoì, but s oi πoλλoì, as the many, as the multitude. These two senses are very different as many may still be the lesser part; as the many must always be the majority: as many must mean here Christians only; as the many may include the heathens too is oi Toλλoì, as the world does, as the gene

[* Apud Cic. De Off. i. 12.- Vulgo, "Nec cauponantes bellum, sed belligerantes."-D.] [t the; 1st ed. “a.”—D.]

rality does. Oi Toλλoi, the multitude, the community, is a known expression in profane authors, opposed sometimes Tois σopois, to the wise, sometimes Toîs Tλovolois, to the rich; and ever denotes the most, and generally the meanest, of mankind. And it were to be wished, that our translators had either known this better, or better attended to it. There are few places in the New Testament where Toλλoì comes with the article; and the most of those few are much injured in our translation. This learned audience will easily forgive me, if I here enumerate them all; being both a proper illustration of our present text, and very worthy of our observation for their own merit and importance.

Luke, vii. 47, 'Αφέωνται αἱ ἁμαρτίαι αὐτῆς αἱ πολλαί: here our translators have competently rendered it, her sins, which are many, are forgiven; though it might have been more easy and literal, her many sins, her numerous sins, are forgiven. But if ai Toλλai here had been confounded with Toλλal without its article, then the version would have been, many of her sins are forgiven; an interpretation manifestly defective, and, as exclusive of some of her sins, manifestly false.

Revel. xvii. 1, our translators were not so fortunate: Come hither, and I will shew thee the judgment of the great whore, that sitteth, say they, upon MANY WATERS; where the impropriety is visible; for how can one person be supposed to sit upon many waters at once? But the original is not eπì πολλῶν ὑδάτων, but ἐπὶ τῶν ὑδάτων τῶν πολλῶν, upon the many waters, upon the vast, wide, and spacious waters: for it's known that woλùs is often applied to continued quantity, as well as to discontinued; to magnitude and dimension, as well as to number.

Romans, xii. 5, For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, οὕτως οἱ πολλοὶ ἓν owμá éoμev év Xpior@, so we being many, say our translators, are one body in Christ. This version, indeed, is tolerable; but it had been better to render it literally, so we the many (oi Toλoi) are one body in Christ where it's plain that in this construction, in this opposition to one, the many denote

the whole multitude, the complex and aggregate body of Christians. And this will enable us to clear up another place of much greater consequence, Rom. V.; where, after the apostle had said, v. 12, that by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed UPON ALL MEN (eis Távтas ȧvdpúπovs), for that all have sinned; in the reddition of this sentence, v. 15, he says, for if through the offence (TOû évòs) of one (oi πoλλoì) many be dead (so our translators), much more the grace of God by (TOû Évòs) one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded (eis Tous TоXλous) unto many. Now who would not wish that they had kept the articles in the version which they saw in the original? If through the offence of the one (that is, Adam) the many have died, much more the grace of God by the one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto the many. By this accurate version, some hurtful mistakes about partial redemption and absolute reprobation had been happily prevented: our English readers had then seen, what several of the Fathers saw and testified, that of Toλλoi, the many, in an antithesis to the one, are equivalent to Távтes, all, in v. 12, and comprehend the whole multitude, the entire species of mankind, exclusive only of the one. So, again, v. 18 and 19 of the same chapter, our translators have repeated the like mistake; where, when the apostle had said, that as the offence of one was upon ALL MEN (eis TáνTas ȧvIρóπоνs) to condemnation, so the righteousness of one was upon ALL MEN to justification; for, adds he, as by (TOû ¿vòs) THE ONE man's disobedience (oi πoλλoì) THE MANY were made sinners, so by the obedience (TOû évòs) of THE ONE (oi Toλλoi) THE MANY shall be made righteous. By this version the reader is admonished and guided to remark, that the many in v. 19 are the same as Távтes, all, in the 18th. But our translators, when they render it MANY were made sinners, and MANY shall be made righteous, what do they do less than lead and draw their unwary readers into error? And from these observations, I have some suspicion that in the famous passage, Heb. ix. 28, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins OF MANY, εἰς τὸ πολλῶν ἀνενεγκεῖν