16. When these Criteria all concur, no doubt can exist, except in the mind of a sceptic.
17. When, however, it happens that some of these Criteria may be adduced in favour of one reading, and some in favour of another, the critic may be drawn sometimes in this, some times in that direction ; or, even should he decide, others may be less ready to submit to his decision. When one man excels another in powers of vision, whether bodily or mental, discussion is vain. In such a case, one man can neither obtrude on another his own conviction, nor destroy the conviction of another ; unless, indeed, the original autograph Scriptures should ever come to light.
18. It is not the best style of criticism, which may be resolved into the following shape, — " Erasmus, and the Stephani, and almost all the printers, have printed it thus : thus, therefore, it must remain, even to the end of time, without the minutest variation. Monuments of antiquity, as far as they support this reading, are to be admitted ; as far as they call it in question, with however universal consent, they ought to be rejected." We must speak the truth : this is a most summary and unsatis factory kind of criticism, and entirely unworthy of men who have reached years of discretion. It encourages an obstinate and credulous attachment to the more received text, and a per verse and jealous distrust of ancient documents. They who declare that, without such support as this, the safety of those portions of the sacred text, which are free from all variation, and, consequently, of Scripture and Christianity itself, would be endangered, are themselves dangerous thinkers, and know not the meaning of faith. We have recorded in our Apparatus1 (p. 401 ; i.e., Ed. ii., p. 35, Obs. xix.) the most just judgment of Calovius,2 far removed from the typographical superstition,
1 sc " Modernos Graecos codd. quorum integritatem asserimus, non esse prae- cise editiones Graecas neotericas, hujus vel illius opera divulgatas, seclusis codicibus manuscriptis antiquioribus et probatioribus : sed respici hie universes cod. Graecos et manuscriptos et typis editos. Grit, sacr., p. 492." — (I. B.)
2 Abraham Calovius, a celebrated Lutheran divine, one of the ablest opponents of the Socinians. He was born at Morungen, in Brunswick, A.D. 1612: studied at Konigsberg and Rostock, and became successively Pro fessor at Konigsberg, Rector at Dantzic, and Professor of Theology at Wit- temberg, where he died, 1686. — (I. B.)