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prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them," Ezra v. 1. "In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord, by Haggai the prophet, unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying," Haggai i. 1. "In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah the son of Barachiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying," Zech. i. 1.*

23. Esther.] This book is by many ascribed to Mordecai; and he must certainly have been the original writer of, at least, some of its contents. See Esther ix. 20, 27. Its being said that he "wrote these things," may possibly be an ascription of the whole book, or at least the greater part of it, to him. We have no very satisfactory or decisive references to this book from other parts of scripture. Its canonical authority rests on the circumstance, of its having been canonized by the Jews; and by many of the Christian fathers, as well as the council of Laodicea. We cannot

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assign for it much of that particular evidence, which we have been employed in accumulating, for the benefit of all the books which go before it. But it shares with them in the general arguments adduced at the beginning of this chapter to which might be added, the certain chaste and simple dignity, which is characteristic of all the canonical writings; and by which they stand remarkably contrasted with the legendary and untasteful style that often breaks forth in the writings, even of the best of the Apocryphists.

24. Job.] We now enter on the books called poetical-all of which, along with certain others, are ranked by the Jews among the Hagiographa. Should any be led by this to imagine a lower degree of inspiration for these books-then, to countervail this injury, it is certain that, in favour of most of them, we have the greatest amount of scriptural, which, we repute, is the greatest amount of the best sort of evidence. The depositions of the New Testament to the Psalms, and the prophecies of Daniel, are greatly more than a counterpoise to any mischief which might be apprehended for certain of the Old Testament scriptures, from the fanciful distinctions of the later Hebrews-a distinction, after all, that proceeds more on some imaginary difference in the mode of inspiration, than on any difference in the qualities of the products-the properties of absolute authority and trueness being ascribed, without exception, by the Jews, to one and all of their scriptures. And we are not to conceive, because the interval between Esther and Isaiah in our

Bible is filled up by the books called poetical, that these comprise all the sacred poetry to be found in the Old Testament. The fifteenth chapter of Exodus the song of Moses in Deuteronomy, and of Deborah and Hannah in the books of Judges and Samuel-the lamentation of David over Saul and Jonathan, with those other effusions of his in the seventh chapter of 2 Samuel, and the sixteenth of 1 Chronicles-beside the many enrapt compositions of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Habakkuk, and others are all in the strain and spirit of highest poetry. That such a mode of composition is not inconsistent with the purposes of revelation, is obvious from the repeated sanctions given. in scripture both to music and poetry-as in the service of the temple-and even in the New Testament, where we are recommended to the use of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; and thus to make melody in our hearts to the Lord. The book of Job, however, is the first of those books, in the order of our Bible, to the whole of which the designation of poetical is given. His character as an inspired man seems to be decisively attested, both by Ezekiel and James-particularly the former, when he ranks him with the patriarch Noah and the prophet Daniel. "Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God," Ezekiel xiv. 14, and again in verse 20. "Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord," James v. 11-a testimony which seems to establish the literal truth of the history, in opposi

tion to those who conceive it to be a mere dramatic representation. But whatever uncertainties may attach to the man, it is enough for our purpose, that we have evidence for the book. And, beside the exscriptural evidence, which it shares in equally with all the others, there is enough to establish the canonical authority of the book of Job, in the testimonies of the sacred writers. Of these, the one we should single out as the most distinct and decisive, is that by Paul in the first epistle to the Corinthians. "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness," Job v. 13. "For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness," 1 Cor. iii. 19. St. Paul tells us of this passage that "it is written"-or, which is tantamount to this, that, "we have it in scripture"-thus making the book of Job from which the quotation is taken, part and parcel of scripture.*

See furthor-
Job i. 7.-1 Pet. 5. 8.
i. 21.-Eccl. v. 15.
1 Tim. vi. 7.
iii. 3.-Jer. xx. 14.
iv. 8.-Prov. xxii. 8.
Hos. x. 13.

iv. 9.-Is. xxx. 33.
v. 12.-Ps. xxxii. 10.
v. 14. Deut. xxviii. 29.
v. 16.-Ps. cvii. 42.
v. 17.-Prov. iii. 12.
Heb. xii. 5.
v. 18.-1 Sam. ii. 6.
Hos. vi. 1.
vi. 4.-Ps. xxxviii. 2.
vii. 17.-Ps. viii. 4.

cxliv. 3.
viii. 9.-1 Chr. xxix. 15.
Ps. cxliv. 4.

viii, 13.-Prov. x. 28.

Job ix. 9.-Amos v. 8.
xiii. 26.-Ps. xxv. 7.

χίν. 4.

li. 5. cxxxix. 2, 3.

χίν. 16.
xv. 8.-Rom. xi. 34.
xv. 35.-Ps. vii. 14.
Is. lix. 4.
xix. 19.-Ps. xli. 9.
lv. 13, 14.
xix. 29.-Rom. xiii. 4.
xxi.-Ps. lxxiv.

xxi. 5.-Mic. vii. 16.
xxi. 30.-Prov. xvi. 4.
xxii. 19.-Ps. cvii. 42.
xxii. 29.-James iv. 10
1 Pet. v. 6.
xxvi. 6.-Prov. xv. 11.
xxvii. 8.-Matt. xvi. 26.
xxvii. 15.-Ps. lxxviii. 64.

xxviii. 15.-Prov. ii. 13, 14.
viii. 10, 11, 19.

25. Psalms.] The fulness of the evidence becomes now oppressive to him who has undertaken the office, at once to exhibit and condense it. Never were the existence, and the contents, and even in some instances the order and arrangement of any ancient book more decisively established by the testimony of succeeding books, than is this collection of sacred poems by the various writers of the New Testament-and that by numerous undoubted citations often accompanied with an express statement, both of the work from whence they have been taken, and of the author of the work. One cannot doubt, from the frequent use of these compositions in the service of the temple, of the frequent multiplication of their copies (to be found, therefore in many hands) from the autograph that was deposited there. We have already, in § 9, given a few instances of the recognition of the Psalms by Christ and His Apostles; but we crave the indulgence of our readers, if both in this book and in that of Isaiah, we shall present a more copious collection of these, than some perhaps may have the patience to examine. "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against

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Job xxviii. 15.—Prov. xvi. 16. Job xxxv. 7.-Rom. xi. 35. xxviii. 28.-Ps. cxi. 10.

xxxvi. 11, 12.-Is. i. 19, 20. xxxviii. 4.-Ps. civ. 5.

xxxviii. 10.-Prov. viii. 29. xxxviii. 41.-Ps. cxlvii. 9.

xxxi. 6.-Prov. v. 21.

xxxiii. 20.-Ps. cvii. 18.

xxxix. 30.

XXXV. 7.

xvi. 2.

Matt. vi. 26. χχίν. 28. Luke xvii. 37.

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