e (D), the only remaining
very ancient MS. authority,--notwithstanding that it is observed on most
occasions to exhibit an extraordinary sympathy with the Vatican (B),--here
sides with A and C against B and {~HEBREW LETTER ALEF~}. He inquires after all the other
uncials and all the cursive MSS. in existence, (some of them dating from
the xth century,) and requests to have it explained to him _why_ it is to
be supposed that all these many witnesses,--belonging to so many different
patriarchates, provinces, ages of the Church,--have entered into a grand
conspiracy to bear false witness on a point of this magnitude and
importance? But he obtains no intelligible answer to this question. How,
then, is an unprejudiced student to draw any inference but one from the
premisses? _That_ single peculiarity (he tells himself) of bringing the
second Gospel abruptly to a close at the 8th verse of the xvith chapter,
is absolutely fatal to the two Codices in question. It is useless to din
into his ears that those Codices are probably both of the ivth
century,--unless men are prepared to add the assurance that a Codex of the
ivth century is _of necessity_ a more trustworthy witness to the text of
the Gospels than a Codex of the vth. The omission of these twelve verses,
I repeat, in itself, destroys his confidence in Cod. B and Cod. {~HEBREW LETTER ALEF~}: for it
is obvious that a copy of the Gospels which has been so seriously
mutilated in one place may have been slightly tampered with in another. He
is willing to suspend his judgment, of course. The two oldest copies of
the Gospels in existence are entitled to great reverence _because_ of
their high antiquity. They must be allowed a most patient, most
unprejudiced, most respectful, nay, a most indulgent hearing. But when all
this has been freely accorded, on no intelligible principle can more be
claimed for any two MSS. in the world.

The rejoinder to all this is sufficiently obvious. Mistrust will no doubt
have been thrown over the evidence borne to the text of Scripture in a
thousand other places by Cod. B and Cod. {~HEBREW LETTER ALEF~}, _after demonstration that
those two Codices exhibit a mutilated text_ in the present place. But what
else is this but the very point requiring demonstration? Why may not these
two be right, and all the other MSS. wrong?

I propose, therefore, that we reverse the process. Proceed we to examine
the evidence borne by these two witnesses on certain _other