(3.) If they had any inclination to do this, out of malice against Christianity, it would have been to no purpose, after our Saviour’s time; for it was then translated into Greek, and this translation was in the hands of almost all Christians; so that the fallacy would soon have been detected. And if they had corrupted some copies of the Hebrew Bible, they could not have corrupted or altered them all; therefore to attempt any thing of this kind, would have been to expose themselves to no purpose. (4.) It would not have been for their own advantage to pervert it; for, in altering the texts that make for Christianity, they would (especially if the fraud should have been detected) have weakened their own cause so far, that the reputation of scripture being hereby lost, they could not have made use of it to that advantage, to prove their own religion from it. But, notwithstanding all this out-cry of the scriptures being perverted, they pretend to give no proof hereof, except in two or three words, which do not much affect the cause of Christianity; whereas, if the Jews had designed to pervert it, why did they not alter the fifty-third of Isaiah, and many other scriptures, which so plainly speak of the person and offices of the Messiah? 2. As to the other part of the objection, that the New Testament hath been corrupted by heretics since our Saviour’s time, whatever charge hath been brought against the Arians, and some others, of having out some words, or verses, which tend to overthrow their scheme, they have not been able, even when the empire was most favourable to their cause, to alter all the copies; so that their fallacy has been detected, and the corruption amended. As for those various readings that there are of the same text, these consist principally in literal alterations, which do not much tend to pervert the sense thereof. It was next to impossible for so many copies of scripture to be transcribed without some mistakes, since they who were employed in this work were not under the infallible direction of the Spirit of God, as the first penmen were; yet the providence of God hath not suffered them to make notorious mistakes; and whatever mistakes there may be in one copy, they may be corrected by another; so that the scripture is not, for this reason, chargeable with the reproach cast upon it, as though it were not a perfect rule of faith. Footnote 15: