felt himself to lie, of diligently instructing his children both in the observances and history of his own people. For this being the general habit of the well-principled among them, we have the concurrent evidence of many different writers, not the less distinct from, and therefore not the less corroborative of each other, that they happen to be placed side by side within the limits of one volume. They were placed there, because of the respect held for them in former ages; and they should not therefore suffer on this account, in the estimation of later ages. Even so early as the days of Abraham, the father and prototype of the Jewish nation, we find this religious training of his own family singled out as the habit that most recommended him to the favour of God. "For I know him that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."* It is solemnly enjoined that the words of God, not as handed from one to another by oral tradition, but as committed to writing and so forming the words of the book of a law,† should be taught by parents to their families. "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou " Gen. xviii. 19. Deut. xxviii. 61; xxix. 21; xxxi. 26. tinction in ancient times, is the very reason why in modern times we should place all the firmer reliance on him. The Bible is not one book, but an aggregate of many; and if, viewing it as such, we were to compute aright the force of that argument which lies in the concurrence of distinct and independent witnesses we should find, not only for the facts of scripture history, but for the deference and respect in which the various writers particularly of the Old Testament were held, a stronger chain of testimony, and on the whole, a brighter galaxy of light and evidence, than can be exhibited in any collection or credibility which might be framed of the best extracts from all other authors. 5. But before considering in detail, the scriptural evidence for each particular book of the Old Testament-there is a certain general evidence, of this very species too, that is applicable to them all; and which attaches to these Hebrew writings such proofs of genuineness and authority, as are quite unexampled of any other documents that have been transmitted to us from ancient times. 6. First-there can be no doubt in respect to the Jewish nation, that one of their most resolute and characteristic principles, in every family where principle had the ascendancy, was a respect for their law; and, by consequence, for the books which contained that law, as well as for all oth books received by their nation as of divir rity. We cannot imagine a greater the faithful transmission of these b obligation under which felt himself to lie, of diligently instructing au estimation of later ages. Even early as the aut shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.' "And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law." This habit of transmission from father to son was not confined to the statutes and books of the nation; but it extended to their monuments, and the remarkable passages of their history. The stones of Gilgal may be quoted as a distinct example of this. “And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land."‡ ،، As for me and my house," says Joshua, "we will serve the Lord."§ laid on household or family tuition among the Jews, may be traced downward through the succeeding books of the Old Testament; and in passages greatly too frequent for the exhibition of them all. The tremendous destruction that came upon Eli's house is represented, in the first book of Samuel, to have been the consequence of his neglect of this duty. "And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his *Deut. vi. 6-9. The stress + Dent. xxxii. 46 house; when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him, that I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever. In short, we may notice throughout the Old Testament everywhere, the indications of that parental tuition in the knowledge of their national religion, which seems to have been quite a habit and a principle among the Jews. That "which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us, we will not hide from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children." There was thus what might be termed a general family habit among the Jews, which made them all the more effectual keepers of the divine oracles-this being one great purpose of their selection by God as His peculiar people. It formed a great security, not 1 Samuel iii. 11-14. + Psalm lxxviii. 3-6. See further in confirmation of this argument-Exod. xii. 26, 27. Deut. iv. 10; v. 29; xii. 28; xxix. 29; xxx. 2; xxxi. 13. 1 Kings ii. 4; viii. 25; ix. 6. cxxxii. 12. Prov. xxii. 6; xxix. 15. Josh. iv. 6; xxii. 24-28. |