, if not five ([Symbol: Aleph]ACFG) of these same MSS., by reading
'we shall all sleep; but we shall not all be changed,' contradict St.
Paul's solemn announcement in ver. 51: while a sixth (D) stands alone in
substituting 'we shall all rise; but we shall not all be changed.'--In
this very verse, C is for introducing [Greek: Adam] into the first
clause of the sentence: FG, for subjoining [Greek: ho ouranios]. When
will men believe that guides like these are to be entertained with
habitual distrust? to be listened to with the greatest caution? to be
followed, for their own sakes,--never?

I have been the fuller on this place, because it affords an instructive
example of what has occasionally befallen the words of Scripture. Very
seldom indeed are we able to handle a text in this way. Only when the
heretics assailed, did the orthodox defend: whereby it came to pass that
a record was preserved of how the text was read by the ancient Father.
The attentive reader will note (_a_) That all the changes which we have
been considering belong to the earliest age of all:--(_b_) That the
corrupt reading is retained by [Symbol: Aleph]BC and their following:
the genuine text, in the great bulk of the copies:--(_c_) That the first
mention of the text is found in the writings of an early heretic:--(_d_)
That [the orthodox introduced a change in the interests, as they
fancied, of truth, but from utter misapprehension of the nature and
authority of the Word of God:--and (_e_) that under the Divine
Providence that change was so effectually thrown out, that decisive
witness is found on the other side].

Sec. 4.

Closely allied to the foregoing, and constantly referred to in connexion
with it by those Fathers who undertook to refute the heresy of
Apolinarius, is our Lord's declaration to Nicodemus,--'No man hath
ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son
of Man which is in heaven' (St. John iii. 13). Christ 'came down from
heaven' when He became incarnate: and having become incarnate, is said
to have 'ascended up to Heaven,' and 'to be in Heaven,' because 'the Son
of Man,' who was not in heaven before, by virtue of the hypostatical
union was thenceforward evermore 'in heaven.' But the Evangelist's
language was very differently taken by those heretics who systematically
'maimed and misinterpreted that which belongeth to the human nature of
Christ.' Apolinarius, who relied on the present place, is found to have