) "I yet hesitate not to confess to you that an older copy than
myself,--the ancient Codex from which I was copied,--actually did contain
them."

The problem may, in fact, be briefly stated as follows. Of the four oldest
Codices of the Gospels extant,--B, {~HEBREW LETTER ALEF~}, A, C,--two (B and {~HEBREW LETTER ALEF~}) are _without_
these twelve verses: two (A and C) are _with_ them. Are these twelve
verses then an unauthorized _addition_ to A and C? or are they an
unwarrantable _omission_ from B and {~HEBREW LETTER ALEF~}? B itself declares plainly that from
itself they are an omission. And B is the oldest Codex of the Gospel in
existence. What candid mind will persist in clinging to the solitary fact
that from the single Codex {~HEBREW LETTER ALEF~} these verses are away, in proof that "S.
Mark's Gospel was at first without the verses which at present conclude
it?"

Let others decide, therefore, whether the present discussion has not
already reached a stage at which an unprejudiced Arbiter might be expected
to address the prosecuting parties somewhat to the following effect:--

"This case must now be dismissed. The charge brought by yourselves against
these Verses was, that they are an unauthorized addition to the second
Gospel; a spurious appendix, of which the Evangelist S. Mark can have
known nothing. But so far from substantiating this charge, you have not
adduced a single particle of evidence which renders it even probable.

"The appeal was made by yourselves to Fathers and to MSS. It has been
accepted. And with what result?

(_a_) "Those many Fathers whom you represented as hostile, prove on
investigation to be reducible to _one_, viz. Eusebius: and Eusebius, as we
have seen, _does not say_ that the verses are spurious, but on the
contrary labours hard to prove that they may very well be genuine. On the
other hand, there are earlier Fathers than Eusebius who quote them without
any signs of misgiving. In this way, the positive evidence in their favour
is carried back to the iind century.

(_b_) "Declining the testimony of the Versions, you insisted on an appeal
to MSS. On the MSS., in fact, you still make your stand,--or rather you
rely on _the oldest_ of them; for, (as you are aware,) _every MS. in the
world except the two oldest_ are against you.

"I have therefore questioned the elder of those two MSS.; and it has
volunteered the avowal that an older MS. than itself--_the Codex from which
it was copied_