every way as fanciful as those of Jewish doctors of old, between one kind of inspiration and anotherit is enough for us to learn, that the Bible out and out is perfect, that the Bible is an infallible rule both of faith and manners.

8. Now in regard to the first of these advantages, how does the matter stand? There is a book of special designation, and claiming from the earliest times to stand apart from all human compositions, and that because of the high character which it assumes as the word of God. From the age of miraculous evidence, there has been a distinct and a definite title to mark this book, and signalize it from all others, just as effectually as that appellative the Bible is understood by every peasant in Christendom, to specialize a certain volume which professes to be the word of God, and in this respect to hold an infinite superiority over all the other authorship in the world. But, o ßßhos, the Bible, does not separate this volume more from all other books, than a ygapai, the writings in the days of the Old Testament, separated a part of that volume, or in the days of the apostles and Christian fathers separated the whole of it from all other writings. This designation was applied zar' on to the Jewish Scriptures, by the Hebrews; to both the Jewish and the Christian Scriptures by the disciples of Jesus; and, by general consent and estimation on their part, stood distinguished from all the other writings in the world—as being the product of God's own wisdom and will, instead of being either framed by the wisdom or brought into existence by the

will of man. Under this title thus understood, does our Saviour refer to them; and the sanction given in the New Testament to the Old Testament makes it in fact an easier task, to establish by argument the canonical authority of the whole Jewish scriptures, than that of some of the separate pieces which enter into the scriptures of Christians. Ερευνάτε τας γραφας, search the scriptures, saith the Lord to his countrymen-a direction as distinct and unequivocal to them, as search the Bible would be to us. On another occasion He said to the Jews Ου δύναται λυθήναι ή γραφή, Scripture cannot be broken-a term comprehensive of all and sundry that now enters into the Old Testament, and by which he homologates every distinct piece that enters into the Old Testament as at present constituted. Παση γραφη OEOTVEUGOS, all scripture is the breath and inspiration of God, said the apostle Paul; and this he affirmed to people who had no other understanding of the ygun, than just the very collection in all its parts from Genesis to Malachi that we have in our Bibles at this day. But we need not multiply quotations on a matter so obvious, as that, in the days of Christ and His apostles, this yea or ygapa formed the appropriate and universally recognised title of a volume, that was held to be the record of God's communications to the world. And then when the volume was augmented by additional communications from Him, and they too were admitted into the volume, the very title remained with it and served as a common designation to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. lt

is in one of Peter's epistles, where we receive the first notice of this extension; for there at least some of the epistles of Paul, that is as many as were in existence at the time when Peter wrote, are put on the same footing as the Old Testament its different parts being still τας λοιπας γραφας, thus placing these productions of Paul on a level with the Old Testament; and referring to them as parts of those writings which secundum excellentiam are styled a ygapai, or as we should express it-the αι γραφαί, Bible. This consecrated term then, authorized by our Saviour himself, as the one which distinguishes what we now receive as the Hebrew Scriptures, and extended by his immediate followers to what we now receive as the Christian Scriptures, till at length in the third century restricted to the very collection of pieces which make up our present canon, has, thus sanctioned in the days of highest and purest authority, been made ever since to rest exclusively on the book which in general understanding is the depository of God's communications to the world. This is our first advantage from the testimonies of that particular form which we are now considering. They lead

us to extend our respects and give our reliance to the whole volume of scripture.

9. There is a second advantage in this distinct and definite way by which there has been segregated a volume, under a title understood by all, as expressive of its being the word of God, in contradistinction to the word of man; and in this character recognised by Christ and the apostles in reference to the Old Testament--by the apostles

and first Christians in reference to the New. In regard to the former, there is no question that the canon of scripture as received by the Jews in the days of our Saviour, who has given them His express sanction, is identical in all its parts with our present Old Testament; and, in regard to the latter, there is a clear and broad line of division, between the writings which enter into our present New Testament, and all others pretending to a similar authority. Here then on the whole is a volume with a most distinct and declared barrier of separation thrown around it-all that is without, in the way of authorship, being esteemed as the product of human wisdom; all that is within being testified by the workers of miracles and the bearers of undoubted prophecies, to be the product of divine wisdom to be the scripture which cannot be broken, to be all given by inspiration of God. Thus was the Old Testament isolated and set apart, in this character of high authority, even the authority of heaven, by Jesus Christ and his immediate disciples; and thus also has the New Testament been in like manner signalized-and that just by as great a weight of testimony, as goes to accredit the miracles, and every thing else on which the divinity of our religion is upholden. We have the overbearing tradition of all ecclesiastical antiquity, for the sacred and separate character of a book, now stamped by the designation of the Bible; and if evidence like this is to be set aside, there remains little or no evidence, on which to base even the humblest of those pretensions, that the most meagre of nominal Christians ever

Grant then

advanced on the side of Christianity. of this gap, a title as restricted, and appropriate, and expressive of the general understanding then, that the book so designated was the word of God as the title scripture is now, and containing at that time all the pieces which enter into our scripture at present; that it held forth to the eyes of the Christian world, and has done so from the earliest ages of our religion, the book of God's revelation to man-what else could in these circumstances be the understanding of men, than that plainly within the limit of this book they held converse with that which emanated from God, whereas without this limit they held converse with but that which emanated from man? This book stood forth to the general sense and understanding of the faithful, peculiarized by this distinction, that it contained the words of God's wisdomwhereas all other books contained but the words of man's wisdom. It served the purpose of a most intelligible and easily recognised limit--when thus made to know, that, within the enclosure of a book thus signalized and singled forth, the ground was holy, and that the language addressed to them there was the language of heaven; whereas, without the enclosure, the ground was common, and its language was the language of earth. In such a state of matters, there could be no mistake and no misplacing of confidence. Men would know distinctly when it was that the words they were reading might be implicitly trusted as the words of God; and when it was that they might be judged or questioned as the words of a fellow