and two
cursive copies. Origen[553], and (long after him) Cyril, employed _both_
readings[554].

(II) But then, (as all must see) such a maimed exhibition of the text
was intolerable. The balance of the sentence had been destroyed. Against
[Greek: ho protos anthropos], St. Paul had set [Greek: ho deuteros
anthropos]: against [Greek: ek ges]--[Greek: ex ouranou]: against [Greek:
choikos]--[Greek: ho Kyrios]. Remove [Greek: ho Kyrios], and some
substitute for it must be invented as a counterpoise to [Greek:
choikos]. Taking a hint from what is found in ver. 48, some one
(plausibly enough,) suggested [Greek: epouranios]: and this gloss so
effectually recommended itself to Western Christendom, that having been
adopted by Ambrose[555], by Jerome[556] (and later by Augustine[557],)
it established itself in the Vulgate[558], and is found in all the later
Latin writers[559]. Thus then, _a third_ rival reading enters the
field,--which because it has well-nigh disappeared from Greek MSS., no
longer finds an advocate. Our choice lies therefore between the two
former:--viz. (a) the received, which is the only well-attested reading
of the place: and (b) the maimed text of the Old Latin, which Jerome
deliberately rejected (A.D. 380), and for which he substituted another
even worse attested reading. (Note, that these two Western fabrications
effectually dispose of one another.) It should be added that
Athanasius[560] lends his countenance to all the three readings.

But now, let me ask,--Will any one be disposed, after a careful survey
of the premisses, to accept the verdict of Tischendorf, Tregelles and
the rest, who are for bringing the Church back to the maimed text of
which I began by giving the history and explaining the origin? Let it be
noted that the one question is,--shall [Greek: ho Kyrios] be retained in
the second clause, or not? But there it stood within thirty years of the
death of St. John: and there it stands, at the end of eighteen centuries
in every extant copy (including AKLP) except nine. It has been
excellently witnessed to all down the ages,--viz. By Origen, Hippolytus,
Athanasius, Basil, Chrysostom, Cyril, Theodotus, Eutherius, Theodore
Mops., Damascene and others. On what principle would you now reject
it?... With critics who assume that a reading found in [Symbol:
Aleph]BCDEFG must needs be genuine,--it is vain to argue. And yet the
most robust faith ought to be effectually shaken by the discovery that
four