vidently practised
largely: and almost with as little felicity as when Bentley held the
pen. Lastly, there can be no question that there was a certain school of
Critics who considered themselves competent to improve the style of the
Holy Ghost throughout. [And before the members of the Church had gained
a familiar acquaintance with the words of the New Testament, blunders
continually crept into the text of more or less heinous importance.] All
this, which was chiefly done during the second and third centuries,
introduces an element of difficulty in the handling of ancient evidence
which can never be safely neglected: and will make a thoughtful man
suspicious of every various reading which comes in his way, especially
if it is attended with but slender attestation. [It has been already
shewn in the companion volume] that the names of the Codexes chiefly
vitiated in this sort prove to be B[Symbol: Aleph]CDL; of the
Versions,--the two Coptic, the Curetonian, and certain specimens of the
Old Latin; of the Fathers,--Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and to some
extent Eusebius.

Add to all that goes before the peculiar subject-matter of the New
Testament Scriptures, and it will become abundantly plain why they
should have been liable to a series of assaults which make it reasonable
that they should now at last be approached by ourselves as no other
ancient writings are, or can be. The nature of God,--His Being and
Attributes:--the history of Man's Redemption:--the soul's eternal
destiny:--the mysteries of the unseen world:--concerning these and every
other similar high doctrinal subject, the sacred writings alone speak
with a voice of absolute authority. And surely by this time enough has
been said to explain why these Scriptures should have been made a
battle-field during some centuries, and especially in the fourth; and
having thus been made the subject of strenuous contention, that copies
of them should exhibit to this hour traces of those many adverse
influences. I say it for the last time,--of all such causes of
depravation the Greek Poets, Tragedians, Philosophers, Historians,
neither knew nor could know anything. And it thus plainly appears that
the Textual Criticism of the New Testament is to be handled by ourselves
in an entirely different spirit from that of any other book.

Sec. 2.

I wish now to investigate the causes of the corruption of the Text of
the New Testament. I do not entitle the present a discussion