saying,"* &c." And Hilkiah the high-priest said, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord."t David "left before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, Asaph and his brethren, to minister before the ark continually, and to do according to all that is written in the law of the Lord which He commanded Israel." "Also Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of the Lord, by the hand of the priests, the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of the Lord, to offer the burnt-offerings of the Lord as it is written in the law of Moses." || "Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt-offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God."§ "As it is written in the book of Moses." ¶ " So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." "And they found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month." "On that day they read in the book of Moses, in the audience of the people."†† "Therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God." "As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us."‡‡ We could produce quotations 2 Kings xiv. 6. 1 Chr. xvi. 37–40. Ezra vi. 18. † 2 Kings xxii. 8. 2 Chr. xxiii. 18. equally express, but too numerous for insertion, that might be gathered from the New Testament.* These are the testimonies of different ages, taken from different books, and marking the existence and authority of a document entituled the book of the law or the book of Moses, in exceeding different periods of history-from the days of Joshua, bordering immediately on those of Moses, and at intervals downward to the age of Christ and His apostles. And what we have now alleged in behalf of the book of the law in cumulo, can also, as we shall see presently, be alleged of its individual parts. And it should be remarked, that each part shares in the benefit of such general testimonies, or testimonies in the gross, as have been just now adduced by us. A reference when made, not to a particular book, but to the book of the law, is an expression of confidence, an act of homage, done to the authority of the whole. quotation from any one of the five books in the Pentateuch, if given not as a quotation from that particular book, but as from the Pentateuch at large, speaks for the respect in which the whole Pentateuch was held. In the language of Scottish law, it homologates the whole record. If a reference to the book of Numbers be made in this way, the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, all participate in the advantage of A * Instead of exhibiting the words of these quotations in the text, let it be enough that we point out the places of them here. Mark xii. 19, 26. Luke ii. 23; x. 26; xvi. 29; xxiv. 27. John i. 45. Acts xv. 21; xxiv. 14. Rom. x. 5. 1 Cor. ix. 9. Gal. iii. 10. Add to these the whole substance and texture of the epistle to the Hebrews. it. But let us pursue this scriptural, this best of all evidence, for the canon of the Old Testament, more into its details. 11. Genesis.] The most satisfactory quotations are those which at once present the extract and name the book or the writer whence it is takenyet, without naming either book or writer, such may be the identity or even close resemblance of the words extracted, as to demonstate the reality of the quotation, and so to demonstrate the existence of the elder work at the time that the later work was produced. Even when the passage exhibited in proof of this does not amount to an extract, there may at least be an undoubted reference and allusion in it to the earlier publication. And there is a certain manner of introducing these quotations which demonstrates, not only the existence of the prior document, but the respect and religious authority in which it is held. The phrase "it is written," TTi yeygapμevov, when not accompanied with the mention of any book, is as much the appropriated phrase for indicating that the book referred to is a sacred one, as the term ygan is of scripture. And thus "behold it is written," is tantamount, saving when the book is specified and is known not to be canonical, is tantamount to "behold it is in scripture"—or we have it in scripture. And thus might we gather proofs out of the posterior scriptures, not for the existence only but for the divine authority of the book of Genesis. We shall only in the text instance from the Old Testament, the continuous allusion made to its contents, in the earlier half of the cv. Psalm. And we can only afford room for a very few of the many and decisive examples that might be adduced from the New Testament. "And man became a living soul," Gen. ii. 7. "And so it is written, The first man was made a living soul," 1 Cor. xv. 45.— "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh," Gen. ii. 24. "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh," Matt. xix. 5. This last may be considered as an express quotation-being ushered in by the question, "Have ye not read ?"" And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness," Gen. xv. 6. "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness," Rom. iv. 3. "For a father of many nations have I made thee,” Gen. xvii. 5. "As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations," Rom. iv. 17.-" Wherefore she said unto Abraham, cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac," Gen. xxi. 10. "Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman," Gal. iv. 30.-" And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, Gen. xxii. 18. "Saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed," Acts iii. 25.-To understand the force of those quotations where neither the book nor the author of it is named, it should be recollected that when the same history is retailed in books of very different ages, the coincidence between them forms a strong presumption that the one book is referred to in the other as strong as the improbability that the history, whether as it occurred or as it was told centuries before, could have been preserved by oral tradition. Hence the far greater likelihood that the histories, compendious though they be of the children of Israel in the book of Psalms, were taken from the Pentateuch, than transmitted verbally from ancient times. We should thus too appreciate the continuous allusion to Genesis, with several quotations from it, in the speech of Stephen, as recorded in the 7th chapter of Acts. In these and many like passages, do we find the scriptural rank of the book of Genesis or the legitimacy of its place in the canon clearly and fully acknowledged in the New Testament.* Gen. xxv. 2.-1 Chr. i. 32. xlvi. 6.-Josh. xxiv. 4. |