Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come unto thee"-1 John v. 7, in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. 8, And there are three that bear witness in earth;" this passage is omitted in all the Greek MSS. and Fathers previous to the 16th Century. See Dean Alford's Greek Testament in loco.

The True Greek Text.

With reference to the ascertaining of the True Greek Text of the New Testament, it may be stated, that there are previous to the Sixth Century but Five MSS. that require particular notice, viz., The Vatican-The Alexandrian-The Parisian- The Beza or Cambridge-and The Sinaitic.

The first in antiquity of these, it may be, by nearly 100 years, is the Vatican MS.; and as such, not only demands attention, but some reason, Why its Record is not to be received as the True record; and such reason is not to be found, if Definite Rules are to control decision, in the existence of different Records in either or any of the other MSS.; seeing that no claim of superior authority being urged

for either of them, only internal evidence can therefore direct the estimate of their respective value; and seeing, that this evidence includes the following.

We read Mark xiv 68, " And the cock crew" in all the Five MSS. just specified except the Vatican and Sinaitic; if this passage be received as genuine, Three of the Apostles or Writers of the Sacred Records, in Five separate places, have given utterance to direct false statements; seeing that in Matt. xxvi. 34 & 75, Luke xxii. 34 & 61, and John xiii. 38, it is expressly declared, "Before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice." Internal evidence therefore requires, that the Three MSS. which contain this passage, viz., The Alexandrian, The Parisian, and The Cambridge, be here esteemed to convey false statements; and if so here, we may by Arbitary Selection determine in what other passages their authority is worthy of regard, but by no other means are we able to do so; and consequently, their value in relation to supplying a True Text of Holy Scripture is of no account.

The Alexandrian MS. contains also Mark xvi. 9 to end of the Chapter-Luke xxiii. 34 and John v. 3. The Parisian MS. contains also, Matt. xx. 16, Mark

1

Ivi. 9 to end of the Chapter, Luke xxiii. 34. The Cambridge MS. contains also, Matt. xx. 16, Mark xvi. 9 to end of the Chapter, Luke ix. 55, xxii. 43, xxiii 34, John vii. 53 to viii. 12, Acts viii. 37. The Sinaitic MS. contains also, Luke xxii. 43, xxiii. 34, Acts xxiv. 6 to 8.

It appears to be probable, that our Blessed Lord's declaration recorded Mark xiv. 72 was understood, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice," instead of, Before cock twice (that is, for second time in the day) to have crowed, thrice thou wilt deny me; and that in order to verify their estimate of the prediction, the words, " And the cock crew," were Intentionally introduced into verse 68 in the Alexandrian, Parisian, and Cambridge MSS.; but that the contradiction to this statement elsewhere given being perceived by the Writer of the Sinaitic MS., he thought to remove the difficulty of his understanding of our Blessed Lord's declaration in verse 72, by Intentionally omitting in his Text of it, the words èk devrépov, dis; and as these words are found in every other MS., their omission must be regarded to be erroneous; and taking the circumstances of the case into account, the appearance is, that it was an Error Intentionally

:

effected and the correctness of this opinion is es

tablished by the omission in the Sinaitic MS. in Mark xiv. 30 of the words dìs.

To sum up the evidence on this subject. In Four out of the Five Oldest extant MSS. of the New Testament, which are only copies of the original MSS., we are able to prove the existence of Error ; and of Error that does not appear to have been the result of Accident, but of an Intentional substitution of something that could not have existed in the original Document; and in addition thereto, we find numerous passages which (according to the evidence we possess respecting them) are required to be considered Erroneous. When we recall their number, that they are many Thousands-The length of many of such passages-And that The sense of the Record is generally complete, whether the erroneous passage is or is not considered to be a portion of the Original narrative, it exceeds the bounds of probability to attribute these erroneous passages to Accident, or to any other cause than an Intentional alteration of the Original Record; most probably, in many cases, with the idea and expectation of improving it, and rendering it more beneficial to mankind. The Authorized Text has all the errors of the various MSS. here set forth.

In the 5th of the Oldest extant MSS., The Vatican, Error of no description is proved or asserted to exist, beyond what is reasonably attributable to the error of human transcription.

Justice therefore demands. What sufficient reason is there for not taking the Vatican MS. to be the True Text of Holy Scripture? What reading is there, different to the Reading of the Vatican MS., that demands adoption? Until answers to these inquiries be found, the Vatican MS. demands, and must be esteemed to be the True representative of the Sacred Text, by all who do not Arbitrarily Select some other MS. to be so.

Translation of Verbs.

Arbitrary Selection is incessantly employed by every Translator of Holy Scripture in relation to the expression of the Person, Number, Tense, Mood, and : Voice of Verbs. The Grammatical Rule of expres

sion in relation to either of these particulars is not disputed by any Translator, neither is it contended by any Translator, that a Sense capable of application to the Context of any selected passage does not exist, if a Rendering subject to the Grammatical Rules of expression in relation to these particulars