a menorials & other times that they had proNATH II 06. What hat beer preserved from the wres of ages and which Providence had put into The controversy was held in a

ther hands.

The decision in the first instance was in the bane of the learned: and it was for Them, or the Toundation Top of an historical evi

dence. It is the canor of scripture, or to tell the

and I be it be the genuine scriptures of the Old and New Testament. They, by means of the historical probation, made discovery of these; and it was left for the people, by means of the experimental probation, to make verification of them. Calvin antedated the matter wrong, when, in his controversy with the learned of the church of Rome in behalf of the scriptures, he made appeal to that mernal evidence which is felt and appreciated by the unlearned at the time when, fighting his adversaries with their own weapons, he should have urged the argument critically and historically. He has charged it as preposterous, to plead this argument distinct from the internal evidence. But we should reverse the preposition, and call it preposterous in this matter, to place the internal before the external evidence.* ization of individuals, the is the only one resorted t

* Pan cautions the churches from him; and, to distinguish his he set a particular mark on th It is a felicitous remark of Jon posterous to endeavor by a credit to the

ized by the great majority of the household faith Bun anne he foundations of a Chris tian del mu nearing the munitions of ve external the storical probation be resurset 11. Tey who "walk about 7 and grom thout her, telling the towers thes and marking weil er bulwarks," speak * * chief of ze istorical or external evitons els leads to tie tetermination of the scriptus – Ne again vin insider and devise fix the w culture of her nerard, for the work or bein and the ragion of ner people, spek » of that trial and experiments. finde tevetonment and effect in the reading

their hands.

the seriptures which best

By this process, the

bation takes the precedence th follows it. It is the comb forme the strength and th By the first of them is mo covery of books, which

dition, some upon as we
foid greater splendon

and history of
them, the book w. **

when left to do me

产

is

re

nea

vious,

to pre

vidence ; gative and

of the ques

nk, not only a

re have of his

sciences of me.

died by th

16. In some books of scripture, the internal evidence may lie deeper beneath the surface than in others when a more frequent and thorough digging will be requisite, to obtain discovery of the hidden treasure-the fruit of assiduous perusals, and earnest prayers. At the first and superficial aspect, there seems little or no difference between the Book of Wisdom and the Book of Proverbs so that it is not at one glance only, that we can perceive the human quality of the one, the divine quality of the other. Yet however little distinguishable at once in respect of their internal, there are no books more distinguished from each other in respect of their external evidence. It is a striking remark of Michaelis that "the canonical authority of no part of the Old Testament is so ratified by the evidence of quotations, as the Book of Proverbs; but it is remarkable that the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, which has so striking an affinity with the Book of Proverbs, is not quoted in a single instance by apostles and evangelists; and the difference between canonical and apocryphal is nowhere so strikingly marked, as in this example."* The right order of procedure then in regard to this book is, that, ascertained to be scripture by the learned, it was given as such by them to the unlearned-many of whom, in the course of their patient and devout reading, would find a mine of sacred truth in the one composition, which they never could have found in the other. And whether or not they have formally recognized

Marsh's Michaelis, 4th Ed. Vol. I. p. 207, 208.

it from its internal character to be the handiwork of God-the Book of Proverbs has been a fountain of high and heavenly wisdom to the Christian peasant, who, in many instances, has attained to the relish and often to the perception of its sacred

ness.

17. Had the respective functions and relative places of the external and internal evidence been sufficiently pondered by Dr. Pie Smith,* he would not have fallen into the error that he has committed, when, asserting the non-inspiration of the Song of Solomon-and that too, in the face of the strong external evidence which it possesses in common with all the other scriptures of the Old Testament. It is preposterous to put the internal before the external in this question. If he have ventured too much, who pronounces by internal evidence alone, and in the absence of the external, on the divinity of the Book of Wisdom-he surely adventures too much, and at a still more fearful hazard, who, in the abundance of its external evidence, would pronounce on the humanity of the Song of Solomon. A summary approval in the one case is surely not more premature, than a summary rejection in the other. In neither instance is the heavenly or the earthly parentage sufficiently obvious, in looking merely to the books themselves, to preclude the consideration of the external evidence ; or to strip that evidence of its prerogative and rightful power, for the determination of the question. It would bespeak, we think, not only a

See his exposition, among the very best we have of his scripture evidences for the divinity of Christ.

more pious but a more philosophie docility, to leave that book in undisturbed possession of the place which it now enjoys where it might minister as in ages heretofore to the saintly and seraphie contemplations of the advanced Christian, who discovers that in this poem a greater than Solomon is here, whose name to him is as ointment poured forth, and who while he luxuriates with spiritual satisfaction over pages that the world has unhallowed, breathes of the ethereal purity of the third heavens as well as their ethereal fervour.

18. There are various analogies, by which the process that actually takes place, and as we have now explained it, for the Christian education of a people, might be both illustrated and vindicated. They do certain things at the telling of others; and, in virtue of so doing, they are made to behold certain truths, not with the eyes of others, but with their own eyes. From between what they take on trust, and what they are made in consequence to see for themselves, a right and rational belief emerges at the last.

19. On the authority of an almanac, all men expect with confidence the next coming eclipse. Whatever might be said of the philosophy of this general expectation, it is universally felt by us, that, not to share in it, would argue, not a soundness, but a perversity of intellect. At all events, the greater part of men look for the predicted event as they have been told; and, in the act of looking to it, they obtain a demonstration of its reality at first hand. As they have heard so they

ve seen. What the learned could predict by