John Owen on Divine Preservation of Scripture

In his treatise “Of the Integrity and Purity of the Hebrew and Greek Text of the Scripture” the Puritan John Owen affirms both the inspiration and preservation of Scripture, noting that God would not have given his Word to his people if he had not also intended to preserve it for them:

But what, I pray, will it advantage us that God did so once deliver his word, if we are not assured also that that word so delivered hath been, by his special care and providence, preserved entire and uncorrupted unto us, or that it doth not evidence and manifest itself to be his word, beings so preserved? ….

Far be it from the thoughts of any good man, that God, whose covenant with his church is that his word and Spirit shall never depart from it, Isa lix. 21, Matt. v.18, 1 Pet. i.25, 1 Cor xi.23, Matt. xxviii.20, hath left it in uncertainties about the things that are the foundation of all that faith and obedience which he requires at our hands (Works, Vol. 16, p. 350).