2

We have, however, unquestionable evidence of the genuineness of the O. T., in the fact that its canon was fixed some centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the son of Sirach, author of the book of Ecclesiasticus, makes evident references to the prophesies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and mentions these prophets by name: he speaks also of the 12 minor prophets. It likewise appears from the prologue to that book, that the law and the prophets, and other ancient books, were extant at the same period. The book of Ecclesiasticus, according to the best chronologers, was written in the SyroChaldaic dialect, A. M. 3772, that is, 232 years before the Christian era, and was translated by the grandson of Jesus into Greek, for the use of the Alexandrian Jews. The prologue was added by the translator; but this circumstance does not diminish the evidence for the antiquity of the O. T., for he informs us, that the Law and the Prophets, and the other books of their fathers, were studied by his grandfather; a sufficient proof that they were extant in his time. 50 years, indeed, before the age of the author of Ecclesiasticus, or 282 years before the Christian era, the Greek version of the O. T., usually called the Septuagint, was executed at Alexandria, the books of which are the same as in our Bibles, whence it is evident that we still have those identical books which the most ancient Jews attested to be genuine. The Christian fathers, too, Origen, Athanasius, Hilary, Gregory, Nazianzen, Epiphanius, and Jerome, speaking of the books that are allowed by the Jews as sacred and canonical, agree in saying that they are the same in number with the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, that is, 22, and reckon particularly those books which we have already mentioned. Nothing can be more satisfactory and conclusive than all the parts of the evidence for the authenticity and integrity of the canon of the O. T. Scriptures.

It may be added that the books of the O. T. have been always allowed, in every age and by every sect of the Hebrew church, to be the genuine works of those persons to whom they are usually ascribed, and they have also been universally and exclusively, without any addition or exception, considered by the Jews as written under the immediate influence of the Divine Spirit. Those who were contemporaries with the respective writers of these books, had the clearest evidence that they acted and spoke by the authority of God Himself; and this testimony, transmitted to all succeeding ages, was in many cases strengthened and confirmed by the gradual fulfilment of predictions contained in their writings. The Jews of the present day, dispersed all over the world, demonstrate the sincerity of their belief in the Authenticity of the Scriptures, by their inflexible adherence to the Law, and by the anxious expectation with which they wait for the accomplishment of the prophesies. "Blindness has happened to them" only "in part" (Rom. xi. 25), and the constancy with which they have endured persecution, and suffered hardships, rather than renounce the commands of their lawgiver, fully proves their firm conviction that these books were divinely inspired, and that they remain uninjured by time and transcription. Handed down, untainted by suspicion, from Moses to the present generation, they are naturally objects of their unshaken confidence and attachment. But suppose the case reversed: destroy the grounds of their faith, by admitting the possibility of the corruption of their Scriptures, and their whole history becomes utterly inexplicable. "A book of this nature," says Dr. Jenkin, speaking of the Bible, "which is so much the ancientest in the world, being constantly received as a Divine revelation, carries great evidence with it that it is authentic; for the first revelation is to be the criterion of all that follows, and God would not suffer the ancientest book of religion in the world to pass all along under the notion and title of a revelation, without causing some discovery to be made of the imposture, if there were any in it, much less would He preserve it by a

But the most decisive proof of the authenticity and inspiration of the ancient Scriptures is that (already hinted at) which is derived from the N. T. The Saviour of the world Himself, even He who came expressly "from the Father of Truth to bear witness to the Truth," in the last instructions which He gave to His Apostles just before His ascension, said: "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me” (Luke xxiv. 44). Our Lord, by thus adopting the common division of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, which comprehended all the Hebrew Scriptures, ratified the canon of the O. T. as it was received by the Jews, and by declaring that these books contained prophesies which must be fulfilled; He established their divine inspiration, since God alone can enable men to foretell future events. At another time Christ told the Jews that they made "the word of God of none effect through their traditions” (Mark vii. 13). By thus calling the written rules which the Jews had received for the conduct of their lives, "the word of God," He declared that the Hebrew Scriptures proceeded from God Himself. Upon many other occasions Christ referred to the ancient Scriptures as books of divine authority; and both he and his Apostles constantly endeavored to prove that "Jesus was the Messiah" foretold in the writings of the Prophets. Paul bears strong testimony to the divine authenticity of the Jewish Scriptures when he says to Timothy, "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. iii. 15); this passage incontestably proves the importance of the ancient Scriptures, and the connection between the Mosaic and Christian dispensations; and in the next verse the Apostle expressly declares the inspiration of Scripture: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." To the same effect Luke says that "God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets" (i. 70). And Peter tells us that "prophesy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Pet. i. 21). In addition to these passages, which refer to the ancient Scriptures collectively, we may observe that there is scarcely a book in the O. T. which is not repeatedly quoted in the N. T. as of Divine authority.

It appears from the different styles in which the books of Scripture are written, and from the different manner in which the same events are related, and predicted by different authors, that the sacred penmen were permitted to write as their several tempers, understandings, and habits of life, directed, and that the knowledge communicated to them by inspiration, upon the subject of their writings, was applied in the same manner as any knowledge acquired by ordinary means. In different parts of Scripture we perceive that there were different sorts and degrees of inspiration: God enabled Moses to give an account of the creation of the world. He enabled Joshua to record with exactness the settlement of the Israelites in the land of Canaan. He enabled David to mingle prophetic information with the varied effusions of gratitude, contrition, and piety. He enabled Solomon to deliver wise instructions for the regulation of human life. He enabled Isaiah to deliver predictions concerning the future Saviour of mankind, and Ezra to collect the sacred Scriptures into one authentic volume: "But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will" (1 Cor. xii. 11). In some cases inspiration only produced correctness and accuracy in relating past occurrences, as in writing the words of others; in other cases it communicated ideas, not only new and unknown before, but infinitely beyond the reach of unassisted human intellect; and sometimes inspired prophets delivered predictions for the use of future ages, which they did not themselves comprehend, and which cannot be fully understood til! they are accomplished. But whatever distinctions we may make with respect to the sorts, degrees, or modes of inspiration, we may rest assured that there is one property which belongs to every inspired writing, viz.: that it is free from error, and this property must be considered as extending to the whole of each of those writings, for we cannot suppose that God would suffer any errors tending to mislead our faith or pervert our practice, to be mixed with those truths which He Himself has mercifully revealed to His rational creatures as the means of their eternal salvation. In this sense it may be confidently asserted, that the sacred writers always wrote under the influence, or guidance, or care of the Holy Spirit, which sufficiently establishes

THE PENTATEUCH.

The Pentateuch, the name by which the first five books of the Bible are designated, is derived from two Greek words, pente, five, and teuchos, a volume, thus signifying the five-fold volume. Originally these books formed one continuous work, as in the Hebrew manuscripts they are still connected in one unbroken roll. At what time they were divided into five portions, each having a separate title, is not known, but it is certain that the distinction dates at or before the time of the Septuagint translation. The names they bear in our English version areborrowed from the LXX, and they were applied by those Greek translators as descriptive of the principal subjects— the leading contents of the respective books. In the later Scriptures they are frequently comprehended under the general designation, The Law, The Book of the Law, since, to give a detailed account of the preparations for, and the delivery of, the Divine code, with all the civil and sacred institutions that were peculiar to the ancient economy, is the object to which they are exclusively devoted. They have been always placed at the beginning of the Bible, not only on account of their priority in point of time, but as forming an appropriate and indispensable introduction to the rest of the sacred books. The numerous and oft-recurring references made in the later Scriptures to the events, the ritual, and the doctrines of the ancient church, would have not only lost much of their point and significance, but have been absolutely unintelligible without the information which these five books contain. They constitute the groundwork or basis on which the whole fabric of revelation rests, and a knowledge of the authority and importance that is thus attached to them, will sufficiently account for the determined assaults that infidels have made on these books, as well as for the zeal and earnestness which the friends of the truth have displayed in their defense.

The books of the Pentateuch, of which Moses was the author, contain the history of the creation of the world and its inhabitants, the fall and curse of man, the destruction of all the human race save one family of eight souls, the dispersion of the nations, the deliverance of the chosen people of God from oppression, and the introduction of that wonderful dispensation of which the Divine Being Himself was the author and executor, and under which the civil and ecclesiastical government of these nations was administered for so many ages.

And whence did Moses receive the knowledge which philosophy has been so long in reaching through the paths of geology? Was the generation in which he lived more learned than any which succeeded for thousands of years? There is not the slightest shadow of evidence to sustain so incredible a position. It could not be through the slow processes of geological investigation, either of himself or his contemporaries, that Moses learned the sublime truths which were hidden from Aristotle and Pythagoras. The superior wisdom which distinguishes the Hebrew prophet from all his contemporaries, and renders his simple narrative a standard of truth in all ages, was from above. It was from Him who made the world that Moses learned the history of its creation; and in no other way could his successors on the inspired page be possessed of the truth and wisdom which shines as brightly in their pages as in his.

The inspiration of the author of the Pentateuch is one of "the things most surely believed among us." Messiah Himself was a prophet like unto Moses. The Pentateuch is the foundation of Scripture; all the subsequent books of revelation are full of allusions to these early documents. The books themselves claim Moses for their author, and there is no reason to doubt their statement. Their style and composition show them to have been written "at sundry times:" narrative and legislation are naturally interspersed. Laws are given in various forms; for, according to the growing exigencies of the time, did earlier statutes require modification. (Compare, for example, Ex. xxi. 2-6, with Deut. xv. 12-17, Num. iv. 24-33, with Num. vii. 1–9, Num. iv. 3, with Num. viii. 24 Lev. xvii. 3, 4, with Deut. xii. 5. 6.

|21, Ex. xxii. 26, with Deut. xxiv. 6, 10-15, Ex. xxil. 16, 17, with Deut. xxii. 29). Had these books been a modern compilation, the laws would haw been classified and arranged under separate heads; but they are given by Moses in the simple form in which they were originally enacted. The Hebrew nation has always received these treatises as the books of Moses, and they were read to the assembled tribes at stated periods. It is impossible that the nation could have received such publications at any period later than Moses. And so we find, from the time of Moses downwards uninterrupted witness to the existence and genuineness of the Pentateuch. (See Josh. i. 7, 8, xxiii. 6; compare Josh. xxiv. 26, with viii. 32, 34, 1 K. ii. 3, 2 K. xxii. 8, 2 Chr. xxxiv. 14). To prove that these references are made to the very same books of Moses which we now possess, nothing more is necessary than to make a careful comparison of the passages in the historical books with the passages alluded in the Pentateuch (2 K. xiv. 6, with Deut. xxiv. 16, 2 K. xxiii. 2-25, and 2 Chr. xxxv. 1-19, with Lev. xxvi. 3–45 and Deut. vii. 11, xxviii. 68, Ezr. iii. 2–6, with Lev. vi. vii., Ezr. vi. 18, with Num. iii. 6-45, viii. 11, 14, Neh. i. 7–9, with Lev. xxvi. 41, and Deut. iv. 26, 27, xxviii. 64, xxx. 3-5). All these multiplied references may be verified by consulting the places referred to in the books of Moses.

The same thing occurs in the Prophets. Israel and Judan separated after the death of Solomon, but the 10 tribes preserved the law of Moses, the only religious book in circulation among them; and it is still known to the learned as the Samaritan Pentateuch. The prophets who labored among these 10 tribes often allude to the Pentateuch. (Compare Hos. ix. 10, with Num. xxv. 3, Hos. xi. 8, with Deut. xxix. 23, Hos. xii. 4, 5, with Gen. xxxii. 24, 25, Hos. xii. 12, with Gen. xxviii. 5, xxix. 20, Amos ii. 9, with Num. xxi. 21, 24, Amos. iv. 4, with Num. xxviii. 3, 4, Amos iv. 10, with Ex. vii.-xi., Amos iv. 11, with Gen. xix. 24, 25, Amos ix. 13, with Lev. xxvi. 5). The prophets, also, who flourished in Judah, are full of varied references to the law and early literature of their people. The history and character of the Jewish nation are a perpetual monument of the ancient existence, the veracity, and authenticity of the books of Moses, the man of God. The prophesies contained in the Pentateuch have also been strikingly and minutely fulfilled; and Jews, in their present condition, dispersion, and degradation, are living witnesses of their truth.

Let not the evidence adduced be deemed defective because we cannot produce testimonies that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch from contemporary writers. If there were any at that remote period, their works and their memory have perished. "The Jews, as a nation," says Sumner, in his Treatise on the Records of Creation, "were always in obscurity, the certain consequence, not only of their situation, but of the peculiar constitution and jealous nature of their government. Can it, then, reasonably be expected that we should obtain positive testimony concerning this small and insulated nation from foreign historians, when the most ancient of these, whose works remain, lived more than 1000 years posterior to Moses? Can we look for it from the Greeks, when Thucydides has declared that even respecting his own countrymen he could procure no authentic record prior to the Trojan war? or from the Romans, who had scarcely begun to be a people when the empire of Jerusalem was destroyed and the whole nation reduced to captivity? Such profane testimony as can be produced, serves only to show what was the prevailing opinion among heathens, and when we find them not only recording many of the facts in the narrative of Moses, but speaking of him by name, and referring to his law, we conclude that no doubt was entertained that he was the lawgiver of the Jews, or that his writings were genuine. Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Tacitus, Juvenal and Longinus, make mention of him and his writings, in the same manner as we appeal to Cicero and his works. The truth is, no ancient book is surrounded with such evidence of its genuineness, authenticity, and inspiration, as the Pentateuch. Venerable in their age, sublime in their natural simplicity, overpowering in their evidence, and mighty in their results. are the fivbooks of Moses.