Nothing of the sort.

If it were some inconsiderable portion of Scripture which it was proposed to get rid of by shewing that it is disallowed by a vast amount of ancient evidence, the proceeding would be intelligible.

But I take leave to point out that a highly complex and very important incident--as related in twelve consecutive verses of the Gospel--cannot be so dealt with.
Squatters on the waste are liable at any moment to be served with a notice of ejectment: but the owner of a mansion surrounded by broad acres which his ancestors are known to have owned before the Heptarchy, may on no account be dispossessed by any such summary process.

This--to speak without a figure--is a connected and very striking portion of the sacred narrative:--the description of a considerable incident, complete in itself, full of serious teaching, and of a kind which no one would have ever dared to invent.

Those who would assail it successfully must come forward with weapons of a very different kind from those usually employed in textual warfare.
It shall be presently shewn that these Twelve Verses hold their actual place by a more extraordinary right of tenure than any other twelve verses which can be named in the Gospel: but it would be premature to enter upon the proof of that circumstance now.