' Hebijioa voluniina uec in una dictione corrupta invenies. Sant. Pag. l^Ta Sv r, filot xtpaia oh fih ^Ta^tX^ji. (Matt. V. 18.)
VAEIOUS HEADINGS OF HEBREW TEXT. 301
apostles and evangelists; but the ccTroypafa, or "copies" wliicli we have contain every iota that was in them.
There is no doubt but that in the copies we now enjoy of the Old Testament there are some diverse readings, or various lections. The a-TiS-l np/ the DnsiD l-lisn/ the Dnsio -i-1t2y/ (for the in-ilp are of another nature,) — the various lections of Ben Asher, or Rabbi Aaron the son of Rabbi Moses of the tribe of Asher, and Ben Naphtali, or Rabbi Moses the son of David of the tribe of Naphtali — the lections also of the eastern and western Jews, which we have collected at, the end of the great Bible with the Masora — evince it. But yet we affirm, that the whole Word of God, in every letter and tittle, as given from him by insjDiration, is preserved without corruption. Where there is any variety it is always in things of less, indeed of no, importance.* God by his providence preserving the whole entire, suffered this lesser variety to fall out, in or among the copies we have, for the quicken- ing and exercising of our diligence m our search into his Word.
It was an unhappy attempt, (which must afterward be spoken unto,) that a learned man* hath of late put himself upon, viz., to prove variations in all the present 'A-roy^apa of the Old Tes- tament in the Hebrew tongue from the copies used of old, merely upon uncertain conjectures and the credit of corrupt translations. Whether that plea of his be more unreasonable in itself and devoid of any real ground of truth, or injurious to the love and care of God over his Word and church, I know not ; sure I am, it is both in a high degree. The translation especially insisted on by him is that of the LXX. That this translation — either from the mistakes of its first authors, (if it be theirs whose name and number it bears,) or the carelessness, or ignorance, or worse, of its transcribers — is coiTupted and gone off from the original in a thousand places twice told, is acknowledged by all who know aught of these things. Strange that so corrupt a stream should be judged a fit means to cleanse the fountain ; that such a Lesbian rule should be thought a fit measure to correct the original by ; and yet on the account hereof, with some others not one whit better, (or scarce so good,) we have one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six various lections exhibited unto us, with frequent insinuations of an infinite number more yet
' Reading, in the margin, and writing, in the line.
* Correctio scribarum, or the amendment of some small apicuU in eighteen places.
' Ablatio scribarum, or a note of the redundancy of " in five places. (Vid. Ray- mund., Pngio Fid. Petrus Galat., lib. i. cap. 8.)
* Ilebraji V. T. Codices per universum terrarum orbem, per Europam, Asiam, et Africani, ubique sibi sunt similes, eodemque modo ab omnibus scribuntur et leguntur ; si forte exiguas qiiasdam apiculorum quorundam diiferentias excipias, quae ipsae tamen nullani varietatem efficiimt. (Bux. Vin. A'^er. Heb. ii. cap. 14.)
* Ludovicus Cappellus, in his " Critica Sacra."
802 THE DIVINE ORIGINAL OF SCRIPTUEE.
to be collected. It were desirable that men would be content to show then- learning, reading, and diligence, about things where there is less danger in adventures.
Nor is the relief Cappellus provides against the charge of bringing things to an uncertainty in the Scripture, (which he found himself obnoxious unto,) less pernicious than the opinion he seeks to palliate thereby ; although it be since taken up and approved by others.^ " The saving doctrine of the Scripture," he tells us,^ " as to the matter and substance of it, in all things of moment, is preserved in the copies of the original and translations that do remain.''
It is indeed a great relief against the mconvenience of connipt translations, to consider that although some of them be bad enough, yet, if all the errors and mistakes that are to be found in aU the rest should be added to the worst of all, every necessary, sav- ing, fundamental truth, would be found sufficiently testified unto therein. But to depress the sacred truth of the originals into such a condition as wherein it should stand in need of this apology, and that without any colour or pretence from discrepancies in the copies themselves that are extant, or any tolerable evidence that there ever were any other in the least differing from these extant in the world, will at length be found a work unbecoming a Christian, Protestant divine. Besides the injury done hereby to the providence of God towards his church, and care of his Word, it vnll not be found so easy a matter, upon a supposition of such corruption in the originals as is pleaded for, to evince unquestionably that the whole saving doctrine itself, at first given out from God, continues entire and incor- rupt. The nature of this doctrine is such, that there is no other principle or means of its discovery, no other rule or measure of judging and detennining any thing about or concerning it, but only the wiiting from whence it is taken ; it being wholly of divine revelation, and that revelation being expressed only in that writing. Upon any comiption, then, supposed therein, there is no means of rectifying it. It were an easy thing to coiTect a mistake or cor- ruption in the transcription of any problem or demonstration of Euclid, or any other ancient mathematician, from the consideration of the things themselves about which they treat being always the same, and in their own nature equally exposed to the knowledge and