Their prejudices they will scatter to the winds.

At every step they will insist on proof.
In the first place, then, let it be observed that the New Testament Scriptures are wholly without a parallel in respect of their having been so frequently multiplied from the very first.

They are by consequence contained at this day in an extravagantly large number of copies [probably, if reckoned under the six classes of Gospels, Acts and Catholic Epistles, Pauline Epistles, Apocalypse, Evangelistaries, and Apostolos, exceeding the number of four thousand].

There is nothing like this, or at all approaching to it, in the case of any profane writing that can be named[12].
And the very necessity for multiplying copies,--a necessity which has made itself felt in every age and in every clime,--has perforce resulted in an immense number of variants.

Words have been inevitably dropped,--vowels have been inadvertently confounded by copyists more or less competent:--and the meaning of Scripture in countless places has suffered to a surprising degree in consequence.