the power ) and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen, A prayer was more suitable than a hymn, especially at the time in which our Lord prescribed this form to His disciples. Jesus was not yet glorified : the disciples as yet scarcely comprehended the full extent of these petitions, much less the amount of thanksgiving corresponding thereto. In fine, no one denies that the spirit of the whole clause is pious and holy, and conformable to the doxo- logies which frequently occur in Scripture : but the question is whether the Lord prescribed it in this place in these words. Faithful criticism regards little, in doubtful passages, what may happen to be the reading of the majority of Greek MSS. now extant, which are more modern and less numerous than is gene rally supposed : the question under consideration is rather, what was the reading of the Greek MSS. of the first ages, and therefore of the spring itself, i.e. the first hand.1 The Latin Vulgate, which is certainly without this clause, stands, and will continue to stand, nearest in antiquity to the spring : but the force of its testimony is not appreciated till after long experience. In this passage, however, Greek witnesses, few indeed, but those of high authority, support the reading of the Vulgate. I wish what I have said on this subject in my Apparatus2 to be carefully considered.3 Nothing has occurred since I published that work
1 BDZaSc Vulg. Memph. Origen, Cypr. (who adds " Amen ") omit the doxology. Orig. Nyssen, Cyril, Maximus all omit it in giving expressly an explanation of the prayer. So all the Latin Fathers. It rather too widely separates ver. 12 and 14, which are connected together. Moreover Jesus was not yet glorified when He gave the prayer : it therefore was hardly then appropriate. It was probably added after the kingdom had been founded by the Holy Ghost on Pentecost. Ambrose de Sacram. vi. 5 im plies that the doxology was recited by the priest alone, as a response (tin(pui>Yifx.a) after the people had repeated the Lord's prayer. Alford, from 2 Tim. iv. 18 where similarly pixriTKi dvro vovnpov is followed by the doxology, argues that some such way of ending the prayer existed at that time. — ED.
2 He has devoted more than eight pages to the subject : See App. Grit. pp. 101-109.— (I. B.)
3 E.B. and those who have adopted his text, add here " especially § x. on this passage." It runs thus : —
De tota re, lector judicet.
Prsetermisit clausulam Lutherus, in Agendis Baptismi, eisque renovatis ; in Tract, de Decalogo, symbolo Apost. et oratione Dominica ; in Catechismo utroque, et Hymno : ubi etiam Amen cum Hieronymo ad rogationes referl