As, then, I shall not speak any thing to derogate from the worth of their labour who have gathered all these various readings into one
364 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT.
body or volume, so I presume I may take liberty without offence to say, I should more esteem of theirs who would endeavour to search and trace out these pretenders to their several originals, and, reject- ing the spurious brood that hath now spawned itself over the face of so much paper, that ought by no means to be brought into compe- tition with the common reading, would reduce them to such a neces- sary number, whose consideration might be of some other use than merely to create a teinptation to the reader that nothing is left sound and entire in the word of God.
However, now Satan seems to have exerted the utmost of his malice, men of former ages the utmost of their negligence, of these latter ag^es of their diligence, — the result of all which we have in the present collection in this Appendix, — with them that rightly ponder things there ariseth nothing at all to the prejudice of our assei'tion; as may possibly, God assisting, be further manifested hereafter, in the particular consideration of some or all of these diverse readings therein exhibited vmto us. Those which are of imj^ortance have been already considered by others, especially Glassius, tract. 1, lib. i.
It is evident that the design of this Appendix was to gather to- gether every thing of this sort that might by any means be afforded. At the present, that the reader may not be too much startled at the fruit of their diligence whose work and labour it was, I shall only remark concerning it some few things that, on a general view of it, occur unto me : —
First, then, here is professedly no choice made nor judgment used in discerning which may indeed be called various lections, but all differences whatever that could be found in any copies, printed or written, are equally given out. Hence many differences that had been formerly rejected by learned men for open corruptions are here tendered us again. The very first observation in the treatise next printed unto this collection, in the Appendix itself, rejects one of the varieties as a corruption. So have some others of them been by Arias Montanus, Cameron, and many more. It is not every variety or difference in a copy that should presently l)e cried up for a various reading. A man might with as good colour and pretence take all the printed copies he could get of various editions, and gathering- out the errata typogra-phica, print them for various lections, as give us many, I shall say the most, of those in this Appendix under that name. It may be said, indeed, that the composers of this Appendix found it not incumbent ou them to make any judgment of the readings which de facto they found in the copies they perused, but merely to represent what they so found, leaving the judgment of them unto others. I say also it may be so ; and therefore, as I do not reflect on them nor their diligence, so I hope they or others
THE VARIOUS LECTIONS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 365
will not be offended that I give tins notice of what judgment re- mains yet to be made concerning them.
Secondly, Whereas Beza, who is commonly blamed by men of all sides and parties for making too bold upon various lections, hath pro- fessedly stigmatized his oivn manuscript, that he sent unto Cam- bridge, as so corrupt in the Gospel of Luke that he durst not publish the various lections of it, for fear of offence and scandal (however, he thought it had not fallen into the hands of heretics, that had design- edly dejoraved it), we have here, if I mistake not, all the corruptions of that copy given us as various readings ; for though I have not seen the copy itself, yet the swelling of the various lections in that Gospel into a bulk as big- or bigger than the collection of all the New Testa- inent, — besides the [other] Gospels and Acts, wherein that copy is cited one thousand four hundred and forty times, — puts it out of all question that so we are dealt withal. Now, if this course be taken, and every stigmatized copy may be searched for differences, and these presently printed as various readings, there is no doubt but Ave may have enough of them to frighten poor unstable souls into the arms of the pretended infallible guide; — I mean as to the use that will be made of this work by such persons as Morinus.
Thirdly, I am not without apprehensions that " opere in longo ob- repsit somnus," and that whilst the learned collectors had their hands and minds busied about other things, some m.istakes did fall into this work of gathering these various lections. Some things I meet withal in it that I profess I cannot bring to any good consistency among themselves. To let pass particular instances, and insist on one only of a more general and eminent importance: — in the entrance unto this collection an account is given us of the ancient copies out of which these observations are made; among the rest one of them is said to be an ancient copy in the library of Emmanuel College in Cam- bridge: this is noted by the letters Em. throughout the whole collec- tion. Now, whereas it is told us, in these preliminary cautions and observations, that it contains only Paul's Epistles, 1 wonder how it is come to pass that so many various lections in the Gospels and Acts as in the farrago itself are fixed on the credit of that book could come to be gathered out of a copy of Paul's Epistles. Certainly here must be some mistake, either in the learned authors of the previous directions, or by those employed to gather the varieties following. And it may be suppo.sed that that mistake goes not alone; so that, upon a further consideration of particulars, it may be we shall not find them so clearly attested as at first view they seem to be. It would indeed be a miracle, if, in a work of that variety, many things should not escape the eye of the most diligent observer.