ferve to confirm us in the belief, that they are authentic. They fhow us, that the church did not rafhly give credit to every pretence of infpiration, but that she examined every such pretence with the moft fcrupulous care; whence fome books, which were really infpired, were not at once received in every part of the Chriftian world; and others, which bore the names of apoftles, being found fuppofititious, were rejected. A fpirit of difcrimination was exercifed; and we may have the greater confidence, therefore, in the canon which was finally agreed upon.

Similar reafoning may be used with regard to the Old Testament. The Jews were impelled by the strongest motives, to employ the greatest diligence in examining the grounds, on which the books, which were prefented to them as divine, refted their claim. They entertained the famet ideas, with the first Chriftians, refpecting the confequences of embracing a falfe, and rejecting a true revelation. That they did not rafhly admit books into their canon, but received and excluded them, according as the evidences of their infpiration were fatisfactory or not, we learn from the case of the apocryphal books, of which

we

we fhall afterwards fpeak. The books thus carefully diftinguifhed, they have delivered to the Christian church; and we know that thofe alone, which are now in our poffeffion, were acknowledged by them in the days of our Saviour. They arrange them in three claffes, the law, the prophets, and the holy writings; and to this arrangement he seems to have alluded, when he said to his difciples, "These are the words which I fpake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Mofes, and in the prophets, and in the pfalms, concerning me *." There is extant

* John xxiv. 44. The law comprehends the five books of Mofes. The prophets are fub-divided into the former and the latter. The former prophets are Jofhua, Judges, Samuel and Kings; the latter prophets are again distinguished into the greater, Ifaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel; and the leffer, Hofea, Joel, Ames, &c. The holy writings are Pfalms, Proverbs, Job, Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclefiaftes, Efther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles. In the text quoted above, the Pfalms are put for the holy writings, probably because they were the principal book, or occupied the first place in that divifion. This claffification affords but a poor fpecimen of the judgment of its authors; for none, it may be prefumed, but themfelves, would have denied Daniel a place among the prophets, and ranked Ruth

rather

2 Greek tranflation of the Old Teftament, known by the name of the Septuagint, or the tranflation of the feventy, which was made before the Chriftian æra; and in it is the exact number of books which is at prefent found in the Hebrew copies. Since the time of our Saviour, it hath not been in the power of the Jews, though they had been fo difpofed, to add to, or take from the ancient canon, because the cuftody of the books hath been transferred to the Chriftian church; nor, on the other hand, could the Chriftian church have made any alteration, because the Jews have watched her with a jealous eye, and would not have failed, from malignity as well as zeal, to exclaim against the unhallowed deed. Hence, at this moment, the Jews and we recognise the same books, as containing the revelation which God made to their fathers.

But befides thefe, there are fome other bocks, to which divine authority hath been affigned;

and

rather than Judges or Samuel, among the holy writings. Dr Owen thinks, that, though the general divifion be ancient, the préfent arrangement of the books is the work of the poft-talmudical doctors, who had a regard, in making it, to the different degrees, or modes of revelation, mentioned in note, page 16. Owen on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Vol. I. Exercit. vii.

and of which, therefore, it is neceffary to take notice, before we leave this part of the fubject. The church of Rome, by her last council which met at Trent, hath placed, in the same rank with the law and the prophets, the following apocryphal books: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclefiafticus, the first and fecond book of the Maccabees, Baruch, with the additions to Efther and Daniel*. By all Proteftant churches, however, they are accounted mere human compofitions; and, in defence of this judgment, the following reasons may be advanced.

They were not acknowledged to be of divine authority by the Jews. This circumftance is decifive. If they were not received by those, to whom the oracles of God were committed, and who were never blamed for rejecting any of his oracles, what right has any council, or any individual,

* Vide Canones et Decreta Concilii Tridentini, Seff. Quart. There are fome other apocryphal books; but thofe which have been named, are the only ones fanctioned by the council. Its words are worthy to be tranfcribed. "Si quis libros ipfos integros, cum omnibus fuis partibus, (with the ftories, no doubt, of the fparrow's dung, which fell on the eyes of Tobit, and of the heart and liver of the fish, the fioke of which frightened the devil,) pro facris et canonicis non fufceperit,anathema fit.

individual, under the present difpenfation, to asfign them a place among the canonical writings ? In confirmation of this argument, it may be remarked, that they are not written, either in pure Hebrew, or in that mixed dialect which was fpoken after the captivity, but in Greek; and it is highly improbable, that God would deliver any part of revelation to his people in a language which they did not understand.

They were written after the days of Malachi, in whom, according to the universal teftimony of the Jews, the spirit of prophecy ceased, and who not obfcurely hints, that after him no prophet fhould arife, till the Baptist appeared in the spirit and power of Elijah*. The vain pretence, in the book of Wisdom, that it was written by Solomon, is an additional proof, that it is not infpired, because the pretence is manifeftly false. In another part of the book, the writer represents the Ifraelites as in fubjection to their enemies ; whereas we know, that during the reign of Solomon, they enjoyed peace and profperity †.

No part of them is quoted by Christ or his apoftles. Indeed, all the books of the Old Teftament

* Mal. iv. 4, 5, 6.

Wifd. ix. 7, 8. xv. 14.