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The Genuineness of the Text of the First Epistle of Saint John. Chap. V. [verse]. 7., Tr. From the French
The Genuineness of the Text of the First Epistle of Saint John Chap V 7 Tr From the French - verse Author:David Martin General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1722 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: (.) mtftakes. The helps of Correctors, which are fix'd in every Printing- houfe, being wanting to the generality of tranfcribers, the faults which efcap'd their pen remain'd in their Manufcripts; this Manufcript came into the hands of the buyer, who fometimes was a man jefs careful in reading, than in forming a Library for pomp and fhew: nothing is more frequent in the worlJ than this, and we muft not imagine that it was ever otherwife. When fuch a Manufcript met with a buyer who us'd it, and read it for devotion, he might either not perceive the omifllon, or leave it there without giving himfelf the trouble to con-eft it; either becaufe he could not write,' (for that art was not always fo common as it is in our days;) or if he could, thro' "negligence in correcting it; or becaufe of an overcurious nicenefs he was afraid of fpoiling the beauty of his Book. There are at pre- fent men of all thefe Characters, the negligent, the indolent, and the afftctedly neat -, and men who liv'd a thoufand years ago were fofm'd no o- therwife than thofe who have come after 'em. Th'e omiffions thus remaining in one Manufcript which has been preferv'd for many ages, of what weight can this Manufcript and others of the fame fort be in a matter which ows its firft original to the care-' lefsnefs of a tranfcriber, and 'which is preferv'd only by a like carelefsnefs, or ignorance, or the la- Zlinefs and negligence of the perfons into whofe hands it fhall have pafs'd fucceffively ? It even happens, that when fuch dn omiflion is grown old in a Manufcript, the ages which have pafs'd upon it without making any alteration in it...« less