received it pure and genuine. This is evinced by the accordance of the early versions with our present Greek text; by the collations which have taken place of great numbers of existing manuscripts (being much more numerous, indeed, than the manuscripts of any other ancient writing), and some of them extremely ancient; which collations, while they show that mistakes, as it was to be expected, have been made in the individual manuscripts by the transcribers, prove those mistakes to be of trifling importance, such as never affect the relation of any important fact, or the statement of any important doctrine, either respecting faith or morals, and afford the means of correcting them: and by the utter impossibility that either negligence or design could have introduced, without detection, any material alteration into a book dispersed among millions in widely distant countries, and among many discordant sects; regarded by them all as the rule of their faith and practice; and in constant and regular use among them all in public worship, in private meditation, and in their vehement and unceasing controversies with each other. (s)

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(s) Gisborne's Familiar Survey, p. 229. Doddridge's Pneumatology, &c. Lect. 118, 119. "Not frighted (says that very eminent critic "Dr. Bentley) with the 30,000 various readings, I, for my part, and, as I believe, many others, would not lament, if out of the old MSS. yet untouched 10,000 more were faithfully collected some of which, "without question, would render the text more beautiful, just, and 66 exact; though of no consequence to the main of religion; nay, <6 perhaps wholly synonymous in the view of common readers, and quite "insensible in any modern version." Philaleuth. Lipsiens. p. 90. See also pp. 111-114.

On the subject of Various Readings, the critical reader may consult the Eclectic Review, vol. v. pp. 236-250; a small but instructive pam

With regard to the BIBLE in general, including both the Old Testament (or Covenant) and the New, a cogent proof of the general conformity of our present copies of the several books, with those which existed in early times, is derived from an examination of the works of the Fathers of the Christian Church. If we take, for example, the epistle of CLEMENS ROMANUS to the Corinthians, written at latest about A. D. 70, we shall find at least thirty-four express quotations from different parts of the Pentateuch, four from the book of Joshua, two from Esther, ten from Job, thirty from the Psalms, four from the book of Proverbs, sixteen from the prophecies of Isaiah, three from Jeremiah, one from Ezekiel, three from Daniel, one from Jonah, one from Habakkuk, one from Malachi. In the New Testament, two from St. Luke's Gospel, one from the Acts of the Apostles, fourteen from the Epistles of St. Paul, including three from that to the Hebrews, three from the Epistles of St. Peter, three from that of James, and one from that of Jude. Some of these are long quotations, nearly of whole chapters; several of them are introduced by the notices, "Thus it is "written," "Thus saith the Scripture," "The Holy

66

Spirit itself beareth witness," &c.; and all of them agree with the corresponding passages in our present

phlet in reply to the blasphemous "Manifesto of the Christian Evidence "Society," by my esteemed friend, Dr. J. Pye Smith; and the Rev. T. Hartwell Horne's Introduction to the Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures. I cannot refer to this work, without cordially recommending it, as constituting a most valuable accession to Biblical literature, serving, indeed, to supply a serious desideratum long felt by our theological students.

copies. This I affirm, not upon the authority of others, but from a careful inspection; and I think it furnishes a most striking proof of the general integrity of the Scriptures we possess. So far as I have carried the comparison through the works of the Fathers of the first three centuries, the inference from it increases in force: and I have no doubt that those who have leisure and inclination to pursue this train of inquiry will find its result irresistible.

The Bible has also unexpectedly met with strong additional confirmation, as to the correctness of the most received versions, in the discoveries of recent travellers in India. Dr. Buchanan especially, who in 1806 visited the Syrian churches, amounting to 119, in Malayala, was informed by the inhabitants that no European had, to their knowledge, visited the place before. Their liturgy is derived from that of the early church of Antioch. They affirm too, that their version of the Scriptures was copied from that used by the primitive Christians at Antioch, and brought to India before or about the council of Nice, A. D. 325, at which council some ecclesiastical historians inform us Joannes, bishop of India, attended. These Syrian Christians allege also, that their copies have ever been exact transcripts of that version, without known error, through every age, down to this day. There is one volume found in a remote church of the mountains, which merits particular description:-it contains the Old and New Testaments, engrossed on strong vellum, and written with beautiful accuracy. The character is Estrangelo-Syriac, and the words of every book are

137

numbered. This volume is illuminated, but not after
the European manner, the initial letters having no
›rnament. Prefixed to each book there are figures of
principal Scripture characters (not rudely drawn), the
colours of which are distinguishable; and in some places
the enamel of the gilding is preserved: but the volume
has suffered injury from time or neglect, some of the
leaves being almost entirely decayed. In certain places
the ink has been totally obliterated from the page, and.
has left the parchment in its natural whiteness; but
the letters can, in general, be distinctly traced from the
impress of the pen, or from the partial corrosion of the
ink. The Syrian church assigns to this manuscript a
high antiquity; and alleges that it has been for some
centuries in the possession of their bishops; and that
it was industriously concealed from the Romish inquisi-
tion in 1599: but its true age can only be ascertained
by a comparison with old manuscripts in Europe of a
similar kind; and from such a comparison its date has
been referred to the seventh century. On the margin
of the drawings are some old Roman and Greek letters,
the form of which may lead to a conjecture respecting
the
age in which they were written. This copy of the
Scriptures has admitted as canonical the epistle of
Clement, in which respect it resembles the Alexandrine
manuscript: but it has omitted the Revelation,-that
book having been accounted apocryphal by some
churches during a certain period in the early ages.
The order of books of the Old and New Testament
differs from that of the European copies,-this copy
adhering less to unity of subject in the arrangement

4

than to chronological order. The very first emendation of the Hebrew text proposed by Dr. Kennicot (Gen. iv. 8) is to be found in this manuscript. The disputed passage, 1 John v. 7, is not to be found in it: in almost every other respect, its several books agree with those which Europeans obtained ages ago through other channels. (t)

I have only to add, that this most valuable and interesting manuscript is now in England. Mar Dionysius, the resident bishop at Cadanette, presented it to Dr. Buchanan, who again has presented it to the University of Cambridge, in whose public library it is now lodged. It has been lately examined with great care and skill by Mr. Yeates, who has published a more minute account of it than the above, in the Christian Observer. (v) These particularities, in reference and description, will prove to you the value I attach to the discovery of this Manuscript. Its existence will compel unbelievers to drop, as broken and pointless, their favourite weapon against the genuineness of our Scriptures. I therefore consider its preservation as another interposition of Divine Providence

(t) Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine, No. 115.

(v) Christian Observer, for May and June, 1810. A still fuller account of it has been recently published by Mr. Yeates in a separate volume. He has also given in the Christian Observer, for October, 1812, an interesting account of the Ethiopic Christians in Abyssinia; who amount to many millions; whose origin may be safely traced to the apostolic age; and who, having the same ordinances with other Christians, possessing likewise pure doctrine, and copies of the Holy Scriptures, which, though they have descended to them in an independent channel, agree in all essential points with our own,-thus furnish another powerful evidence of the genuineness of the sacred writings.