VI. “Inter plures unius loci lectiones ea pro suspectâ merito habetur, quae orthodoxorum dogmatibus manifestè prae ceteris favet” (Griesbach, N. T., Proleg., p. lxvi. vol. i). I cite this canon from Griesbach for the sake of annexing Archbishop Magee’s very pertinent corollary: “from which, at least, it is reasonable to infer, that whatever readings, in favour of the Orthodox opinion, may have had _his_ sanction, have not been preferred by him from any bias in behalf of Orthodoxy” (Discourses on Atonement and Sacrifice, vol. iii. p. 212). Alford says that the rule, “sound in the main,” does not hold good, when, “_whichever reading is adopted, the orthodox meaning is legitimate_, but _the adoption of the stronger orthodox reading is absolutely incompatible with the heretical meaning_,—then it is probable that _such stronger orthodox reading was the original_” (N. T., Proleg., vol. i. p. 83, note 6, 4th edition): instancing Act. xx. 28, where the weaker reading τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ κυρίου would quite satisfy the orthodox, while the alternative reading τοῦ θεοῦ “would have been certain to be altered by the heretics.” But in truth there seems no good ground for believing that the rule is “sound in the main,” though two or three such instances as 1 Tim. iii. 16(251) and the insertion of θεόν in Jude, ver. 4, might seem to countenance it. We dissent altogether from Griesbach’s statement, “Scimus enim, lectiones quascunque, etiam manifestò falsas, dummodo orthodoxorum placitis patrocinarentur, inde a tertii seculi initiis mordicus defensas seduloque propagatas, ceteras autem ejusdem loci lectiones, quae dogmati ecclesiastico nil praesidii afferrent, haereticorum perfidiae attributas temere fuisse” (Griesb. _ubi supra_), if he means that the orthodox forged those great texts, which, _believing them to be authentic_, it was surely innocent and even incumbent on them to employ(252). The Church of Christ “inde a tertii seculi initiis” has had her faults, many and grievous, but she never did nor shall fail in her duty as a faithful “witness and keeper of Holy Writ.” But while vindicating the copyists of Scripture from all wilful tampering with the text, we need not deny that they, like others of their craft, preferred that one out of several extant readings that seemed to give the fullest and most emphatic sense: hence Davidson would fain account for the addition ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκ τῶν ὀστέων αὐτοῦ (which, however, is not unlikely to be genuine(253)) in Eph. v. 30. Since the mediaeval scribes belonged almost universally to the monastic orders, we will not dispute the truth of Griesbach’s rule, “Lectio prae aliis sensum pietati (praesertim monasticae) alendae aptum fundens, suspecta est,” though its scope is doubtless very limited(254). Their habit of composing and transcribing Homilies has also been supposed to have led them to give a hortatory form to positive commands or dogmatic statements (_see_ Vol. I. p.