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ments, and established by an infinity of fulfilled predictions. We have found it to be a history sustained by numberless miracles, and written with a simplicity, which carries with it the clearness of truth; and we have shewn, that the public testimony of the general records of the Jewish nation was added to these accumulated demonstrations. And, above all, we have proved, that the laws contained in, and inseparable from, this history, are, in their very nature, divine. It only remains for the unbeliever to refute our testimony by an obstinate and unsupported denial of holy writ, if such can be called a refutation. It is not difficult, I confess, for hardened impiety to exclaim, "I will not believe;" but I know that it is impossible for him to add with any truth, “and I have such testimony as will destroy your faith." The Christian knows in whom he has believed; he feels the Bible to be the word of Divine truth; and he desires to meet every opposition of the infidel with the "sword of the Spirit" alone, before whose dazzling brightness, that many-headed monster, scepticism, must at last retreat with dismay.

In the next chapter we will say a few words on the order in which the books of the Old Testament are placed, which will close the subject as far as it regards that part of holy writ, which is acknowledged by the people of Israel themselves to be the inspired word of God.

CHAPTER XXI.

OF THE CANONICAL BOOKS WHICH COMPOSE THE OLD TESTAMENT, WITH REGARD TO THEIR ORDER AND NUMBER.

I HAVE not the slightest intention to undertake the examination of this matter as a critic: this is not necessary for the establishment of the truth of the sacred volume, which is our only object here. For this purpose, it will suffice for us to prove, that the writings of the Old Testament, in the order in which they now stand in the received translations of the Bible in use among us, were acknowledged by the Jewish nation to be the whole of the revealed Word of God, and that Malachi, with whose predictions the Old Testament concludes, is the last prophet who was admitted by that people as such.

Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, were contemporaries, and from these prophets to the coming of Christ no further books were added to the sacred volume by the Jews. Of this we have sufficient and undeniable proof, as well as that all the writings, which we admit into the Old Testament, were allowed by them to possess the weight of

Divine authority, and are to this day received by that people as the inspired word of God.

Who Malachi, this last of the Prophets, was, is left, in some measure, uncertain. Some have imagined him to have been Ezra or Nehemiah; the last of those names, signifying the consolation of God, makes it not improbable, because that of Malachi means "my angel," or messenger. Whoever he was, it is most undeniable that he was the last of the Prophets: indeed the three concluding verses of his predictions most explicitly teach us, that, from him to the coming of that Elijah, of whom he speaks, all prophecy was to cease, and no further revelation was to be expected. Thus, his last chapter may be considered as the seal of the Old Testament.

One is next led to inquire, who it was that arranged the books of the Old Testament in the order in which they now stand? Some attribute this to Ezra but as holy writ gives us no information of the kind, it appears to me that this is mere matter of conjecture; to which, after all, not the slightest importance is attached, though the discussion of the subject is neither unreasonable nor improper, if not carried on in a spirit of cavil and unbelief. Some people have imagined, that all the books of the Old Testament, the histories of the Jews, as well as the prophecies, are only extracts from the public records, to which we alluded

in the preceding chapter; and they add to these surmises, that this abridgment was made in the time of Ezra, by him or some other learned rabbi. I confess I have never discovered one argument which can in the slightest degree support this conjecture, and I see no probability of its cor

rectness.

We have no reason to imagine, that the public registers consisted of any thing more than a simple recital of the most considerable facts of history as regarded the state, without any particular reference to religion. Under this supposition, we cannot allow that these annals contained reflections, exhortations, censures, and predictions, such as Moses and the Prophets abound with. Of this, the proof is in the Bible itself, and it is most satisfactory and clear; for there these records are only occasionally referred to on the statement of some fact of history, as being the document in which an enlargement of the relation was contained, sacred history giving us no more than such information as was necessary to bring in view the fulfilment of God's promises or the execution of his judgments.

The civil history of the state, as contained in its public records, could necessarily have been accessible to but a few persons; and must only have been referred to on particular occasions, and on subjects which did not interest the generality of

the people. But sacred history was the concern. of all, and was to be accessible to every one. The Law of Moses was to be known to the whole nation, as we find it commanded in Deuteronomy: "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 thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou 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 *."

The Prophets too required, that all people should know the Lord. Thus we see that religion was to be within the reach of the whole nation. The word of God was too valuable to be confined within the records of the state: that, which they were diligently to teach their children, was to be within the reach of every parent. Those predictions, on which they were to place implicit reliance, were to be ready for the examination of all. Those threatenings, those exhortations which were addressed to all, all might be acquainted with; all could profit by them, if they would.

Again; we have every reason to believe, that

*Deut. vi. 6-9.

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