Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/97

 tim they etMf beemine the did not khow them; and ho charged the Jews in general of great inattention for not reeognising him as the Messiah from a perusal of the Scriptures; yet he never charged them .Pither of adding to or diminishing from the original 'doeumonts, nor of mutilating them in any manner..The. Old Testament was therefore preserved down till our Saviour's time in an unsdnlterated form. (6.) Since the Christian age, the Old Testament could not have un- dergone any change. The Christians had their copies of the Old Tea* tamont. The Jews possessed their own. Both watched one another with je.ous eyes. On comparing their copies they exactly agree. (7.) The various fran made of the Old Testament show it8 integrity. The translations or rather paraphrases of several parts of the 01d Testament into Chaldea; the translation of the zventy inter- praters into Greek about three hundred years before Christ; 5oth of which, asreeln  in the main with our Hebrew text, furnish one strong ]leoof of the auenticity of our canon. (8.) Add to all this, ken�tt collated about seven hundred and fifty manuscripts of great antiquity, and found, after a laborious search, the moat abundant evidence both in corttirmation of the canon of Scripture, aml of the uncorrupted state in which it descended to us. He found that the various readings did not affect the present Hebrew text in any material respect. That we possess uncorrupted copies of the NEw TSSTAMENT, we have the most convincing proofs. sml.) The number of zct which prevailed since the Christian era, who watched over each other with sleepless constancy, furnishes strung assurances that the New Testament has not been altered. (2.) Again, we possess several tra/atL,, made at an early stage of Christianity. We possess copies of these translations. They. Jutve been compared with original Greek copies, with which they agree, Mid ,hub furnish a strong proof of the integrity of the Greek originals. (3.) Besides, we have many reek pt.v of very ancient date. Griesbach compared about three hundred of them, and found they afford evidence for the confirmation of the purity of the Greek text, and establish the present canon of the New Testament. It is true, we have a great many various readings; but then these concern the text so little that there i8 not a single doctrine of the New Testament affected by them, although there i8 much light thrown on many passages. But though they cast much light and beauty on the original text, the greatest part of them are absolutely insensible in a translation. (4.) God is a being of infinite wisdom, goodness, and power. Is it saying too much that by his particular direction and overruling provi- denee he would watch over his own word, and preserve it from the corrnpions of' ignorant and wicked men? This, at least, if not a demon�ration, is a presumptive proof. Indeed, we can easily see the super- inten(ing providence of God in the preservation of his word to us. 4. As it rettrd8 the i/on of Scripture, it in supported by evi* dance so elear in itself convincing, and so independent of the Church of Rome, that on th8 part of the conttover8 we occupy gromid which she can never successfully contradict, or at any rate disprove. It in true, they ask us triumphantly, How do yotf prmM tAat #M Bde /  ! To .this we readily annwar, From 5ttd,nwi Mid mofdrnml ovi* 1

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