[9] The Reviewer vindicates himself against Bp. Ellicott's misconceptions.

But you are quite determined that I shall mean something essentially different. The Quarterly Reviewer, (you say,) is one who contends that the Received Text needs but little emendation; and may be used without emendation as a standard.⁸⁷⁴⁸⁷⁴P. 40. I am, (you say,) one of those who adopt the easy method of making the Received Text a standard.⁸⁷⁵⁸⁷⁵P. 19. My Criticism, (it seems,) often rests ultimately upon the notion that it is little else but sacrilege to impugn the tradition of the last three hundred years.⁸⁷⁶⁸⁷⁶P. 4. (The last three hundred years: as if the Traditional Text of the N. Testament dated from the 25th of Queen Elizabeth!)—I regard the Textus Receptus therefore, according to you, as the Ephesians regarded the image of the great goddess Diana; namely, as a thing which, one fine morning, fell down from Jupiter.⁸⁷⁷⁸⁷⁷Acts xix. 35. I mistake the Received Text, (you imply,) for the Divine Original, the Sacred Autographs,—and erect it into a standard from which there shall be no appeal,—a tradition which it is little else but sacrilege to impugn. That is how you state my case and condition: hopelessly confusing the standard of Comparison with the standard of Excellence.

By this time, however, enough has been said to convince any fair person that you are without warrant in your present contention. Let any candid scholar cast an impartial eye over the preceding three hundred and fifty pages,—open the volume where he will, and read steadily on to the end of any textual discussion,—and then say whether, on the contrary, my criticism does not invariably rest on the principle that the Truth of Scripture is to be sought in that form of the Sacred Text which has the fullest, the widest, and the most varied attestation.⁸⁷⁸⁸⁷⁸Suprà, pp. 339-41. Do I not invariably make the consentient 388 voice of Antiquity my standard? If I do not,—if, on the contrary, I have ever once appealed to the Received Text, and made it my standard,—why do you not prove the truth of your allegation by adducing in evidence that one particular instance? instead of bringing against me a charge which is utterly without foundation, and which can have no other effect but to impose upon the ignorant; to mislead the unwary; and to prejudice the great Textual question which hopelessly divides you and me?... I trust that at least you will not again confound the standard of Comparison with the standard of Truth.