Having given an account of the occasion of this discourse, and mentioned the particulars that are, all or some of them, to be taken into further consideration, l^efore I proceed to their discussion, I shall, by way of addition and ex2:)lanation to what hath been delivered in the former treatise^ give a brief account of my apprehensions con- cerning the purity of the present original copies of the Scripture, or rather copies in the original languages, which the church of God doth now and hath for many ages enjoyed as her chiefest treasure ; whereby it may more fully appear what it is we plead for and defend against the insinuations and pretences above mentioned.
First, then, it is granted that the individual avToypatpa of Moses, the prophets, and the apostles, are in all probability, and as to all that we know, utterly perished and lost out of the world; as also the copies of Ezra. The reports mentioned by some to the contrary are open fictions.^ The individual ink and parchment, the rolls or books that they wrote, could not without a miracle have been preserved from mouldering into dust before this time. Nor doth it .seem im- probable that God was willing by their loss to reduce us to a nearer
1 Adrianus Ferraricusis Flagellum Juda;or. lib. is. cap. ii. Eab. Azarias Meor Henaim. p. 13, cap. ix.
VOL. XVI 23
S54 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT.
consideration of his care and providence in the preservation of every tittle contained in them. Had those individual writings been pre- served, men would have been ready to adore them, as the Jews do their own axJ/paf a in their synagogues.
Moses, indeed, delivered his original copy of the Pentateuch in a public assembly unto the Levites (that is, the sons of Korah), to be put into the sides of the ark, and there kept for a perpetual monu- ment, Deut. xxxi. 25, 26. That individual book was, I doubt not, preserved until the destruction of the temple. There is, indeed, no mention made of the book of the law in particular, when the ark was solemnly carried into the holy place after the building of Solo- mon's temple. 2 Chron. v. 4, 5 ; but the tabernacle of the congrega- tion continued until then. That, and all that Avas in it, are said to be " brought up," verse 5. Now, the placing of the book by the sides of the ark being so solemn an ordinance, it was no doubt preserved ; nor is there any pretence to the contrary. Some think the book found by Hilkiah in the days of Josiah was this xaXn TapaO/jxri, or avToypapov of Moses, which was placed by the sides of the ark. It rather seems to have been some ancient sacred copy, used in the service of the temple, and laid up there, as there was in the second temple,^ which was carried in triumph to Rome: for besides that he speaks of his finding it in general in the house of the Lord, upon the occasion of the work which was then done, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 15. Avhicli was not in or about the holy place, where he, who was high priest, knew full well this book was kept, it doth not appear that it was lawful for him to take that sacred depositum from its peculiar archives to send it abroad, as he dealt with that book which he found; nay, doubtless, it was altogether unlawful for him so to have done, it being placed there by a peculiar ordinance, for a peculiar or special end. After the destruction of the temple, all inquiry after that book is in vain. The author of the Second Book of Maccabees mentions not its hiding in Nebo by Jeremiah, with the ark and altar, or by Josiah, as say some of the Talmudists ; nor were it of any importance if they had. Of the Scripture preserved in the temple at its last destruction, Josephus gives us a full account, De Bell. Jud. lib. vii. cap. xxiv.
Secondly, For the Scriptures of the New Testament, it doth not appear that the a\)Toyfa<pa, of the several writers of it were ever gathered into one volume, there being now no one church to keep them for the rest. The epistles, though immediately transcribed for the use of other churches. Col. iv. 16, were doubtless kept in the several churches whereunto they were directed. From those rrpuro- ruvTct there were quickly sxrvKovi/.iva, "transcribed copies," given out ^ Joseph, de Bell. .Jud. lib. vii. cap. xxiv.
OF THE PURITY OF THE ORIGINALS. 355
to "faithful men," 2 Tim. ii. 1, whilst the infallible Spirit yet con- tinued his guidance in an extraordinary manner.
For the first transcribers of the original copies, and those who in succeeding ages have done the like work from them, whereby they have been propagated and continued down to us, in a subserviency to the providence and promise of God, we say not, as is vainly charged by Morinus and Cappellus, that they were all or any of them amfjLaprriToi and ^somiusroi, " infallible and divinely insjjired," so that it was impossible for them in any thing to mistake. It is known, it is granted, that failings have been amongst them, and that various lections are from thence risen ; of which afterward. Religious care and diligence in their work, with a due reverence of Him with whom they had to do, is all we ascribe unto them. Not to acknowledge these freely in them, without clear and unquestionable evidence to the contrary, is high uncharitableness, impiety, and ingratitude. This care and diligence, we say, in a subserviency to the promise and providence of God, hath produced the effect contended for; nor is any thing further necessary thereunto. On this account to argue, as some do, from the miscarriages and mistakes of men, their oscitancy and negligence in transcribing the old heathen authors. Homer, Aristotle, Tully, we think it not tolerable in a Christian, or any one that hath the least sense of the nature and importance of the word, or the care of God towards his church. Shall we think that men who wrote out books wherein themselves and others were no more concerned than it is possible for men to be in the writings of the persons mentioned, and others like them, had as mvich reason to be careful and diligent in that they did as those who knew and con- sidered that every letter and tittle that they were transcribing was part of the word of the great God, wherein the eternal concernment of their own souls and the souls of others did lie? Certainly, whatever may be looked for from the religious care and diligence of men lying under a loving and careful aspect from the promise and providence of God, may be justly expected from them who undertook that work. However, we are ready to own all their failings that can be proved. To assert in this case without proof is injurious.