men's brains, so that neither Athanasius, nor any body else, could afterwards remember that they had ever seen it in their books before; and out of their own books too, so that when they turned to the consubstantial faith, as they generally did in the west, soon after the death of Constantius, they could then remember no more of it than any body else. Well, then, it was out of their books in Jerome's age, when he pretended it was in; which is the point we are to prove; and when any body can show, that it was in their books before, it may be pertinent to consider that point also; but till then we are only to inquire how, since it was out, it came into the copies that are now extant. For they that, without proof, accuse the heretics of corrupting books, and upon that pretence correct them at their pleasure without the authority of ancient manuscripts, as some learned men of the fourth and fifth centuries used to do, are falsaries by their own confession, and certainly need no other confutation. And therefore if this reading was once out, we are bound in justice to believe, that it was out from the beginning; unless the razing of it out can be proved by some better argument than that of pretence and

XVII. Will you now say

some copy different from

what he himself seems to represent; for in his blaming not the vulgar Greek copies, but the Latin interpreters only, which were before his time, as if they had varied from the received Greek, he represents that he himself followed it. He does not excuse and justify himself for reading differently from the received Greek, to follow a private copy, but accuses former interpreters, as if, in leaving out the testimony of "the Three in Heaven," they had not followed the received Greek, as he did. And therefore, since the Greeks knew nothing of this testimony, the authority of his version sinks; and that the rather, because he was then accused of corrupting the text, and could not persuade either the Greeks or the Latins of those times to receive his reading; for the Latins received it not till many years after his death; and the Greeks not till this present age, when the Venetians sent it amongst them in printed books; and their not receiving it was plainly to approve the

accusation.

XVIII. The authority of this version being thus far discussed, it remains, that we consider the authority of the manuscripts, wherein we now read the testimony of "the Three in Heaven." And by the best inquiry that I have been able to make, it is wanting in the manuscripts of all languages but the Latin. For, as we have shown, that the Æthiopic, Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, and Sclavonian versions, still in use in the several eastern nations, Ethiopia,

Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Muscovy, and some others, are strangers to this reading, and that it was anciently wanting also in the French; so I am told by those who have been in Turkey, that it is wanting to this day in the Greek manuscripts, which have been brought from those parts into the west; and that the Greeks, now that they have got it in print from the Venetians, when their manuscripts are objected against it, pretend that the Arians razed it out. A reading to be found in no manuscripts but the Latin, and not in the Latin before Jerome's age, as Jerome himself confesses, can be but of little authority; and this authority sinks, because we have already proved the reading spurious, by showing that it was heretofore unknown, both to the western and the eastern churches, in the times of the great controversy about the Trinity. But, however, for further satisfaction, we shall now give you an account of the Latin and Greek manuscripts; and show, first, how, in the dark ages, it crept into the Latin manuscripts out of Jerome's version; and then how it lately crept out of the Latin into the printed Greek without the authority of MSS; those who first published it in Greek, having never yet so much as seen it in any Greek manuscript.

XIX. That the vulgar Latin, now in use, is a mixture of the old vulgar Latin, and Jerome's version together, is the received opinion. manuscripts are above four or five

Few of these

hundred years

old. The latest generally have the testimony of "the Three in Heaven;" the oldest of all usually want it, which shows that it has crept in by degrees. Erasmus notes it to be wanting in three very ancient ones, one of which was in the Pope's library at Rome, the other two were at Bruges; and he adds, that in another manuscript belonging to the library of the Minorites in Antwerp, the testimony of " the Three in Heaven" was noted in the margin in a newer hand. Peter Cholinus notes in the margin of his Latin edition of the Scriptures, printed anno Christi 1543 and 1544, that it was wanting in the most ancient manuscript of the Tugurine library. Dr Gilbert Burnet has lately, in the first letter of his travels, noted it wanting in five other ones kept at Strasburg, Zurich, and Basil; one of which MSS. he reckons about 1000 years old, and the other four about 800. Father Simon has noted it wanting in five others in the libraries of the king of France, Mons. Colbert, and the Benedictines of the abbey of St Germain's. An ancient and diligent collator of manuscripts, cited by Lucas Brugensis by the name of Epanorthotes, notes in general, that it was wanting in the ancient Latin manuscripts. Lucas himself, collating many Latin ones, notes it to be wanting in only five, that is, in the few old ones he had, his manuscripts being almost all of them new ones. For he praises the Codex Lobiensis written anno Christi 1084, and the *Lucas Brug, in calce annot.

Codex Tornacensis written anno Christi 1105, as most ancient and venerable for their antiquity; and used others much more new, of which a great number was easily had; such as was the Codex Buslidianus, written anno Christi 1432, that is, but eight years before the invention of printing. The Lateran council, collected under Innocent the Third, anno Christi 1215, canon 2, mentions Joachim, the abbot, quoting the text in these words; Quoniam in canonicá Johannis epistolâ legitur, Quia Tres sunt qui testimonium dant in cælo, Pater, et Verbum, et Spiritus, et hi Tres Unum sunt; statimque subjungitur-Et Tres sunt qui testimonium dant in terrâ, spiritus, aqua, et sanguis, et Tres Unum sunt: sicut in codicibus quibusdam invenitur. This was written by Joachim* in the papacy of Alexander the Third, that is, in or before the year 1180, and therefore this reading was then got but into some books; for the words sicut in codicibus quibusdam invenitur refer as well to the first words of Joachim, quoniam in canonicâ Johannis epistolâ legitur, as to the next statimque subjungitur; and more to the first than the next, because the first part of the citation was then but in some books, as appears by ancient manuscripts; but the second part was in almost all; the words Tres Unum sunt being in all the books which wanted the testimony of "the Three in Heaven," and in most of those which had it; though afterwards

* Vide Math. Paris Histor. Angl. A. D. 1179.