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ized by the great majority of the household of faith. But in laying the foundations of a Christian church, and in rearing the munitions of its external security-the historical probation must be resorted to. They who "walk about Zion, and go round about her, telling the towers thereof, and marking well her bulwarks," speak to us chiefly of the historical or external evidence that leads to the determination of the scriptures. They again who consider and devise for the interior culture of her vineyard, for the work of her parishes, and the religion of her people, speak to us chiefly of that internal and experimental evidence, that finds development and effect in their afterward reading of the scriptures which have been put into their hands. By this process, the historical probation takes the precedency; the experimental follows it. It is the combination of these which forms the strength and the glory of Protestantism. By the first of them is made the glorious discovery of books, which, seen in the lights of erudition, shine upon us with evidence of a hundredfold greater splendour, than all the other literature and history of ancient times. By the second of them, the books thus presented to the church, when left to do their own proper work on the consciences of men, when their lessons are devoutly studied by the people and pressed home with unction and energy by an efficient clergy from the pulpits then, in the Christian wisdom and moral superiority of a well-trained peasantry, the glorious discovery is followed up by a still more glorious verification.

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 Micl aelis, 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 reIn neither instance is the heajection in the other. venly 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 philosophic 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 seraphic 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 What the learned could predict by

have seen.

one medium of proof, they, the unlearned, can now perceive by another medium of proof: and, in like manner, what the learned on the authority of one medium of proof, even the external evidence, pronounce to be scripture and of divine origin-the unlearned, by another medium of proof, might at length believe on the authority of their own observation. When once the manifestations of the internal evidence have taken effect on them, they might say with the Psalmist of old, "as we have heard so have we seen in the city of our God."*

20. There are very many who believe in the facts and objects of Astronomy, yet without any other evidence for them, than the testimony of scholars and scientific men. If told to go to an observatory, and, by means of the instruments there, to view the ring of Saturn or the satellites of Jupiter for themselves—there may be certain hypercritics, of kindred disposition with those who sustain the cause of our modern infidelity, and who might contend that ere they attained a warrantable belief in the reality of these objects, they must attain a scientific acquaintance with the medium of proof through which they are beheld. It might be easily shewn, however, that, without having mastered a single demonstration in optics, one might acquire, and on the very principles which enter into the education of the senses, the same confidence in the intimations of the telescope, that he has in the intimations of the eye. So that he who went to an observatory at the

Ps. xlviii. 8.

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