originally dictated by the inspiration of the Spirit of God.

The inspiration of those parts of the New Testament which were written by the evangelists St. Mark and St. Luke, is a fact which is to be established upon somewhat different grounds. They are proved by undoubted evidence to have been written by the persons whose names they bear: they were approved of, respectively, by two of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, whom the writers accompanied: and they have been invariably received, from the apostolic age, with the same reverence as the other books of the New Testament. This uninterrupted testimony proves that these writings always formed a part of the sacred canon, up to the period when the fact of their inspiration could be known by verbal testimony. For these reasons we receive also those books, as forming a part of canonical Scripture, and as divinely inspired.

The difficult enquiry, to what precise extent the inspiration of the Scriptures of the New Testament reached, falls not within the scope of our present intention. It is sufficient to know, that the Scriptures, thus proceeding from the Spirit of truth, may be fully relied upon as being free from all essential errors; and that thus, "the testimony of the Lord is sure."

5. The divine authority of the New Testament being thus established, that of the Old Testament cannot be denied: because it is expressly and repeatedly recognized both by Christ and his apostles. Christ declares that "all the prophets and the law prophesied until John." He comprizes the whole duty of man in two short precepts, and declares that on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. When Christ referred to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, as writings of indisputable authority,u and declared "that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning him," he alluded in explicit and well known terms to all the books of the Old Testament, and acknowledged their infallibility. After his ascension his apostles constantly refer to the same Scriptures.y And St. Peter, especially, declares that "holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

X

Upon the authority of assertions such as these, we must receive the Scriptures, to which they refer, as undoubtedly inspired.

6. The only question, which can be fairly

• Matth. xi. 13.

" Luke xxiv. 25, 26.

t Matth. xxii. 40.

x Luke xxiv. 44.

Acts i. 20. iii. 22. xxvi. 22. xxviii. 23.

12 Pet. i. 21.

raised, is whether the books which we possess are the same books which then existed, having been transmitted from the period when they were first written by their alleged authors.

On this point, testimony has been collected amply sufficient to satisfy the most scrupulous mind. Independently of the catalogues which were published, at different periods of the Christian church up to the very age of the apostles, and of translations which were made as early as the second century, the very opposition made by the enemies of our faith has served in this respect to establish it. The Jews acknowledge the very same Scriptures of the Old Testament as ourselves. Josephus, in the age of the apostles bears this testimony to the veneration with which the Scriptures were held, and the accuracy with which they were preserved, as well as to their identity with the books which we now read. "We have not innumerable books, disagreeing with one another, and contradictory, but twenty-two only. These contain the records of all past times, and are justly believed to be divine. Of these, five belong to Moses, and contain his laws, and the history of the origin of man, until his own death. This period of time comprehends nearly three thousand years. From the death of Moses to the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, who succeeded Xerxes on the throne,

the prophets who followed Moses wrote down what was done in their time, in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and moral precepts for the conduct of life. How stedfastly we have held fast our faith in these records of our nation, is evident by our deeds. For, during so many ages as have since elapsed, no one has dared to add any thing thereto, or to take any thing therefrom, or to make any change therein. It is become as it were, the very nature of a Jew, from his birth, to esteem these books as oracles of divine truth: to abide by them, and, if necessary, readily to die in their defence. It is no new thing for numerous captives to be frequently seen enduring divers kinds of death, rather than say one word against our laws, and the records which they contain."a

These books were always thus kept by the Jews with the most holy reverence. They were under the especial guard of a peculiar tribe set apart for that service. The authentic copy of the law was preserved in the ark of the covenant to be read every seven years. b The Scriptures

That this enumera

a Josephus against Apion, Lib. 1. §. 8. tion includes all the books now esteemed canonical, see Schmidius Historia Antiq. et Vindicatio Canonis Sacri Vet. et Nov. Test. Lib. 1. Sect. i. §. 53, 54.

b Deut. xxxi. 9.

were ever publicly read in their synagogues. They were preserved as their most sacred treasure. They formed their national code of laws; they contained the record of their history, the promises of their future glory. The providence of God had thus so ordered their history as entirely to prevent any material alteration of their Scriptures.

There are numerous other collateral proofs, that we have received the Scriptures of the Old Testament without material addition or mutilation. The Samaritans, most hostile to the Jews, preserved the Pentateuch of Moses. And their copy has come down to our own times. For this portion of the Old Testament we have therefore the advantage of comparing two copies perfectly independent: each guarded with jealous care. The comparison of them shews how small a variation has taken place by the unavoidable errors of transcription; while their almost constant agreement affords an unanswerable proof of the authority of those books.

Nearly three hundred years before the Christian era, the Septuagint version, into the Greek language, was made; and whatever authority this version may be entitled to, it shews, at least, that the Scriptures of the Old Testament, at that period, were essentially the same Scriptures which we now receive.