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    the Complutensian edition was printed are in existence or not ; it has been generally supposed that they were sold for the purpose of making rockets in the year 1749 , and Bishop Burgess , who is , no doubt , glad to believe that they are safely out of the way , adopts this story . But we think no one who reads Mr . Bowing ' s statement ( Mon . Repos . 0 . S . XVL p . 203 ) can doubt that the tale is without foundation . The Hebrew MSS ., seven in number

    which were in the library in the sixteenth century , are there still , and the preface of the Complutensian editors leads us to suppose that the chief , if not the only , sources of their text of the New Testament , were the MSS . which Leo X . had lent to Cardinal Ximenes for this edition . « IHud lectorem non lateat , non quaevis exemplaria impressioni huic archetypa fuisse , sed antiquissima emendatissimaque , ac tantse prgeterea vetustatis ut fidem eis abrogare nefas videatur ;—quae sanctissimus in Christo Pater ac Dominus ?

    noster Leo X ., ex Apostolica Bibliotheca edueta misit ad Rev . Dom . Cardinalem . " Gomez , the biographer of Ximenes , in a passage intended to give the highest idea of his munificence , ( Wetst . Proleg . p . ] \ 6 , ) mentions the four thousand aurei which he had paid for his Hebrew MSS ,, but says nothing of the purchase of MSS . of the New Testament ; nor do the editors specifically mention any other MS . except the Rhodian of the apostolical epistles , to which Stunica appeals in his controversy with Erasmus . Now

    it is quite incredible that the MSS . furnished from the Vatican library should not have been returned when they had been used ; no rocket makers are suspected of having committed ravages there ; they must still be in the bookcases of the Vatican : but the Vatican MSS . have been all examined , and not one contains the Heavenly Witnesses . Or let us take the other part of the alternative , and suppose that they perished on their way back to Italy , or were blown into the air by Torijo , and then , by the rule of law , secondary

    evidence to their contents will be admissible . Now , what better proof can we have that they did not contain the Heavenly Witnesses than that Stunica , when pressed by Erasmus on the subject of the insertion of this text in the Complutensian edition , " most piteously cries out , Scienduni est Grceconcm codices esse corruptos ; nostros vero ( i . e . the Latin ) ipsam veritatem continere . If this , " continues Mr . Porson , " be not a full and clear confession that he knew of no MS . containing the disputed verse , I cannot tell what is . " Letters , p . 46 . Before we leave this subject , we must remark , that Crito justly complains of the Bishop for putting together Mr . Porson ' s words in such a manner as to make him express his wonder only how the Complutensian MSS . had disappeared , instead of all the MSS . which Travis had reckoned up as containing the verse .

    " By the omission of the beginning of the paragraph and that part of a subsequent sentence which mentioned the Dublin copy , considerable care seems to have been employed to adjust the question to the answer that was prepared . This indeed is the most unpleasant part of the proceeding . In itself , the matter is of no great consequence ; but the mind is filled with uneasiness by an occurrence of the kind . Suspicions are excited that quotations may in other instances be accommodated to particular purposes . "— P . 91 .

    Speaking of a similar piece of management , he observes , " While reading the publications of the learned prelate on this subject , there is one question which almost constantly presents itself to the mind . What is the author ' s object ? It can hardly be to state things as they really are : it must be to make out a case at all adventures . "—P . 104 .

    Untitled Article

    Review . —Vindication of Porson . 325

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1828, page 325, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2560/page/37/