385
may be corrected ; but when the text is corrupted, the injury is much greater. Yet in all these modes the offence may be committed in a greater or less degree, the faithful being hindered, so that they can- not learn to hear the Lord’s I come , and to answer Come , and thus to enjoy the truth and fruit of the whole book or of the separate parts and portions, and to recognise the glory of Jesus Christ : ver. 17, 20. Nor is theirs a slight fault, who perversely, unfairly, and unseasonably bring forward mysteries, and produce in the world and its princes envy and suspicion towards the kingdom of God. It is not the modest endeavour, joined with the desire of progress, and not blocking up the way to the truth arising from other sources, which is here condemned ; it is profane boldness, arising from carnal sense, which is condemned. And John especially forewarned Cerin- thus, who afterwards incurred this censure. This clause applies to the case of all the books of Holy Scripture : comp. Deut. iv. 2 ; Prov. xxx. 6 ; but it especially applies to the Apocalypse, the crown- ing point of prophecy, which was exposed to peculiar danger, and the minute and admirable connection of which might be disturbed or obscured by the change of even a single word. The separate parts of this book, guarded as it is by so severe an interdict, are of great moment. The extraordinary multitude of various readings in the Apocalypse cries aloud, that all have not at all times acted with religious caution in this matter. [In this very interdict, about the not adding or taking away , I have noticed twenty-four varieties of reading introduced by copyists. — Not. Crit.] Thanks be unto God, who has preserved to us marks and traces of the genuine reading through the dangers of so many ages ! — edv tic enidy, %.t.\., if any man add) To add, according to the interpretation of Lange, is to put off to the future those things which are already accomplished : to take away, is to regard future things as already accomplished. Comm. Apoc. f. 250. Let another see, that he does not add ; I am on my guard, that I do not take away.
19. ’ Acrb rov I'uXov Trig xa> Tr\g TroXecag Trig ciyiag, ruv yeypafxfjj'svuv, x.r.X.) See App. Crit. Ed. ii. on this place.1 The tree of life itself, and the holy city itself, are the first and the last (ch. ii. iii. xxii.), nay, even the sum of those distinguished privileges, the hope of which is given to the faithful in this book.
1 AB Amiat. best MS. of Vulg. read rov %vXov. h Fuld. MS. of Vulg. and Rec. Text read /3//3Aov. BA Yulg. and Rec. Text read ex, before rijg %6'heug: so Tisch. A omits it : so Lachm. AB read r ytypocppdvuv : but Rec. Text prefixes x»t, without good authority. — E