conclusions by the natural powers of his judgement, he should be preserved from material inaccuracy and omission. That inspiration was vouchsafed farther the Scriptures do not pronounce: that it was necessary farther, there appears no sufficient reason to conclude: and, consequently, that it was given farther, is a position for which there seems no obligation to contend.

We may now proceed to state the several proofs, general and particular, which shew that the canonical books of the Old Testament were written under the superintendence of inspiration; and that they were preserved in their original integrity to the days of our Saviour. That they have been preserved in the same state from the coming of Christ to the present time is a truth which will afterwards be established.

The books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, containing an account of the creation, and of the fall of man, the heads of the early annals of the world, and a full recital of the Jewish law, and of the events which had happened to that nation until it had now finally reached the borders of the land of Canaan, were written by Moses. An exception, however, must be made of the concluding chapter of Deuteronomy, evidently added after his death, in order to complete his history: and perhaps of one or two passages (as of that in Genesis* respecting the kings of Edom) which may have been inserted by some succeeding prophet, not improbably by Ezra, for the purpose of conveying illustration or additional intelligence. I mention these slight exceptions, obvious as they are, because absurd cavils have sometimes been founded upon them, as though

* Gen. xxxvi. 31-43.

they afforded an argument to shew that Moses was not the author of the other parts of the books. The proofs of his having been the author of those books are numerous and decisive. The fact has ever been firmly believed by the Jews; and continues to this day to be one of the thirteen articles of their creed.* It is virtually asserted in the very books themselves. "Moses wrote all the words of the Lord; and took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people."+ Again, near the close of the book of Deuteronomy, which it must be remembered was in substance a recapitulation of the preceding books, it is said, that "when Moses had made an end of writing the words of the law in a book, until they were finished, Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee." In the book of Joshua, in both the books of Kings, in the second book of Chronicles, in the books of Ezra, of Daniel, and of Malachi, the writing of the law is unequivocally ascribed to Moses. § And let it be observed, that if we for the present admit, what will shortly be demonstrated, the inspiration of these several books of Scripture; the passages to which I have now referred are so many distinct and irrefragable testimonies to the inspiration

See Bishop Watson's Apology for the Bible, pp. 45, 46.; and Butler's Horæ Biblicæ, Oxford, 1799, where the thirteen articles are recited at length, pp. 87-90.

+ Exod. xxiv. 7.

Deut. xxxi. 24-26.

§ Joshua, viii. 34, 35.; xiv. 10, &c. xxiii. 25. 2 Chron. xxiii. 18.; xxx.

1 Kings, ii. 3. 2 Kings, 16. Ezra, iii. 2. Dan.

of the books of Moses. The same remark may be extended to the first book of Chronicles, the book of Psalms, of Isaiah, and of Jeremiah; in all of which the Divine mission of Moses is attested.* Farther, it is to be noticed that Moses in his writings gives a detailed account of various miracles openly wrought by himself, and of various miraculous testimonies of the Divine favour openly vouchsafed to him: miracles too, and testimonies of such a nature, that the Israelites who beheld them could not possibly be deceived as to their reality. If, then, these miracles were wrought, and these testimonies vouchsafed, they prove the writings to be faithful and true; and, therefore, to be what they profess to be, inspired of God. If the miracles had not been wrought, nor the testimonies vouchsafed; the writings would manifestly have appeared replete with falsehood and imposture, and would never have been received as of Divine authority. Let us proceed to the evidence which the New Testament presents concerning Moses. Jesus Christ expressly affirms that Moses gave the law to the Jews.‡ He continually refers to that law; speaks of it with the highest reverence; appeals to it as containing decisive predictions concerning himself; affirms that had his hearers believed Moses, they would have believed himself; and that they who would not believe Moses and the prophets, would not be persuaded, though one should be raised from the dead purposely to convert them. After the ascension of Christ, his apostles

add their testimony in the clearest language to the fact, that the law was written by Moses, and written under the guidance of inspiration.* And each of the five books is separately quoted, or has reference made to it, by Christ himself in the Gospels; and by the sacred writers in the subsequent parts of the New Testament. In recounting the attestations by which the Jewish lawgiver is thus honourably distinguished, it must not be forgotten, that when our Lord was transfigured on the mount, Moses was one of the two prophets who were commissioned to appear to him in glory.

xvi. 29. 31. ; xx. 37.; xxiv. 27. John, iii. 14.; v. 46. These are by no means all the testimonies, which the Gospels bear to the authority and inspiration of the Mosaic writings.

* See, among many other passages, Acts, iii. 22.; vii. 35-37.; xiii. 39.; xxvi. 22.; xxviii. 23. Rom. x. 5. 1 Cor. x. 2. 2 Cor. iii. 7—15. Heb. iii. 2.; vii. 14.; x. 28.

Rev. xv. 3.

+ Of these quotations and references, which are extremely numerous, many are specified under the proper heads in Gray's Key to the Old Testament; a work which will be found highly useful to all who are solicitous to attain an accurate knowledge of the several parts of their Bible.

Luke, ix. 30, 31. After the numerous and decisive proofs of the Divine commission of Moses, which have been produced from the Old and New Testaments, it would be almost superfluous to mention the early Heathen writers, who concur in ascribing the Jewish law to Moses. But it is not unimportant to add, that in distant regions of the world, among the Egyptians, the Pheni. cians, the Greeks, the Hindoos, traditions and practices have prevailed; which, however loaded and debased with fable and superstition, are yet capable of being traced, as Grotius and other writers have shown, to Patriarchal or Mosaical institutions. It is remarkable, too, as Bishop Watson pointedly observes, that the books which come nearest to the book of Genesis in age, "are those which make either the most distinct mention of, or the most

Antecedently to any particular observations on the historical books of the Old Testament, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the two books of Samuel, of Kings, and of Chronicles, together with the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, some general remarks may fitly be premised. After the death of Moses, historical accounts of the transactions of the Jews appear from the Scriptures to have been composed by persons professedly favoured with assistance from above, and commonly bearing the prophetic character. That Joshua was especially appointed by the Supreme Being to govern and instruct the Israelites, and received reiterated promises that God would ever be with him as he had been with Moses, is manifest. Samuel was also a prophet or seer*: and his employment as an historian, and that of other seers, is expressly stated in the first book of Chronicles: "Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer." + Again, when the acts of Solomon are mentioned, it is said; "Are they not written, first and last, in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?"‡ The acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are afterwards

evident allusion to, the facts related in Genesis, concerning the formation of the world from a chaotic mass; the primeval innocence and subsequent fall of man; the longevity of mankind in the first ages of the world; the depravity of the antediluvians, and the destruction of the world." *That "seer" and "prophet" port is affirmed in 1 Sam. ix. 9. + 1 Chron. xxix. 29.

Apology for the Bible, p. 75, were terms of the same im

2 Chron. ix. 29.