Note: R. L. Vaughan posted this quote to comments on the WM 245 youtubevideo, and I shared on my twitter @Riddle1689 and thought I’d post here too.
Scottish Presbyterian Ebenezer Ritchie on Ps. 12:6-7 and the
preservation of Scripture (1868):
“Before passing from this subject, I would advise, in reference to the
canon of Scripture, that you meddle not with them that are given to change. We
might reason, a priori, from the regard God has to His Word, and the important
ends intended by it, as a perfect and infallible record and rule, that it is so
much the object of His care and superintending providence that no book of
Scripture has perished, and even that no words of God contained it have been
lost.
‘The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve
them from this generation for ever.’
But the question occurs, where are the original inspired words of
Scripture to be found? We answer, In the received Hebrew and Greek texts, with
their marginal readings, which are the prototype of our English version, and of
almost all vernacular translations of the Scriptures at the present time.”
From The Original Secession Magazine, Rev. E. Ritchie, Address to the
Students of Divinity of the United Original Secession Church, Volume VIII, No.
XII, November 1868, p. 734.
JTR
