Above all, it is to be inferred that licentious and rash Editors of Scripture,--among whom Origen may be regarded as a prime offender,--must have deliberately introduced into their recensions many an unauthorized gloss, and so given it an extended circulation.
Not that we would imply that permanent mischief has resulted to the Deposit from the vagaries of individuals in the earliest age.

The Divine Author of Scripture hath abundantly provided for the safety of His Word written.

In the multitude of copies,--in Lectionaries,--in Versions,--in citations by the Fathers, a sufficient safeguard against error hath been erected.

But then, of these multitudinous sources of protection we must not be slow to avail ourselves impartially.

The prejudice which would erect Codexes B and [Symbol: Aleph] into an authority for the text of the New Testament from which there shall be no appeal:--the superstitious reverence which has grown up for one little cluster of authorities, to the disparagement of all other evidence wheresoever found; this, which is for ever landing critics in results which are simply irrational and untenable, must be unconditionally abandoned, if any real progress is to be made in this department of inquiry.