that if that volume should be destroyed, almost every passage might be found in their writings.

The language of the New Testament is just what we should suppose would have been written, by Jews, in Judea, in the age ascribed to that volume. It is Hebraistic Greek, and could not well have been written in any other day, and by none except persons, who had been educated in the religion of the Jews, and whose thoughts had been modelled according to the Hebrew language.

We have also catalogues, many of which can be traced back to the earliest ages of the Church. Shortly after the middle of the fourth century the Council of Laodicea gave a catalogue, agreeing with ours, with the exception of the book of Revelation. It is wrong to say that this Council gave us our Bible. We might as well hold that any modern religious association, that passes a vote in favor of the inspiration of the Scriptures, gives a Bible to the Churches they represent. It appears to be a fact, that of thirteen catalogues of the New Testament, given us by the Christian fathers, seven precisely accord with the books of our Bible; three of the others differ in nothing except in omitting the Revelation, and it is evident that two of the remaining admitted the authority of the books they do not mention in their catalogues, while none of them deny the authority of those they do not give.

We regard the conclusion therefore as irresistible, that the Bible that was printed, was identical with that used by the primitive Christians.

3. Let us now take our third step. The Old Testament of the primitive Church, was the Scriptures used by Christ and by his Apostles.

Christ and his Apostles are constantly referring to the Old Testament, as a book extant in their day. They make numerous quotations from this volume, which quotations do not essentially differ from the corresponding texts in our Bible.

The translations of the Old Testament Scriptures that existed in our Saviour's day, afford a most unequivocal proof of the existence of those writings. We have already referred to the Samaritan Pentateuch; the five books of Moses written in the ancient character of the Jews. Our present Hebrew character is the Chaldee which the Jews adopted in Babylon. The Samaritans held this Pentateuch as sacred, though they never received the Jewish Prophets into their canon. The Targums are a translation, and sometimes, but a mere paraphrase of the Old Testament, into the Chaldee language, which the Jews had learned while in Babylon, having, to a great extent, forgotten their mother tongue. These Targums were, probably, at first, given orally, as explanations and comments on the sacred text. It was not only necessary that the Jewish teachers should read in the book of the law of God distinctly, to the people, but they gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading."-(Neh. 8: 8.) gums were written at a very early age. them, at least, existed before the time of Christ, is evident from the fact that there was a demand for them on the part of the people, which the Jewish doctors would have been naturally inclined to supply; and this idea also accords with our most reliable history. The translation of the Old Testament, which we now call the Septuagint, was rendered into the Greek language for the convenience of

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those Jews scattered throughout the Roman empire, and had become more familiar with the Greek, than they were with the Hebrew. That this translation existed in the days of our Lord and his early disciples, and was used by them, is evident from the fact, that their quotations usually accord with the text of the Septuagint, more closely than with the Hebrew.

Here then we have, in the time of Christ, the Old Testament in Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, and the Pentateuch in the Samaritan; these four independent versions, and, undoubtedly, thousands of copies of each version, were scattered all over the civilized world.

Now we must either suppose, that, at some time between Christ and the Christian fathers, all these versions and copies were collected, and false ones put in their places, and palmed off upon Jews and Christians, as the veritable Old Testament, and that too, without causing the least excitement, or else we must admit that the Old Testament of the Christian fathers, was the Old Testament of Christ and his first disciples.

4. We now come to the fourth and last step in our argument. The Old Testament that existed in the days of the Saviour, must have contained the veritable history of the Jewish people, and the writings of the Jewish prophets.

There is no time between Christ and Moses, when we can imagine the Pentateuch to have been forged. Suppose some novel writer should forge a history of the United States, showing that our forefathers originally emigrated from New Zealand; that they fought desperate battles with

New Holland; that they were subsequently enslaved by the aboriginees of Mexico; that afterwards they canicd on an extensive trade in cotton with Greenland; and that we borrowed the custom of keeping the Sabbath, and of baptism, and the Lord's supper from the Chinese-Could such a history set aside our veritable history? Could it be received by our people, even had we no history except tradition? Such an account would, at a thousand points, contradict many reliable traditions; and then the simple fact that, like the book of Mormon, it would have no precursor, would be sufficient to secure for it a verdict of condemnation from every honest and sane mind.

Now had any prophet, in the days of Isaiah or Malachi, forged the Pentateuch, and the other books of the Old Testament, to say nothing of the uniformity of style which must have enstamped it with the seal of falsehood, it certainly would have been difficult, to have persuaded the Jews that their fathers, from the time ascribed to Abraham, had circumcised their children, kept the Sabbath, and the passover, taught their children the law, and observed all other forms of the Jewish ritual. However credulous the Jews might have been, this would have been impossible.

Every other book of the Old Testament, implies the previous existence of the Pentateuch. The most of them, quote from it, many of them refer it to Moses, and all make such incidental and apparently undesigned allusions to it, that no one can believe such allusions made in relation to a work that had no existence. Added to these proofs, we may observe that many of the most celebrated heathen writers of antiquity, refer to the writings of Moses. As we purpose in the course of these discourses to dwell

upon this subject more at length, we shall now present but a very few testimonies. Longinus, born B. C. 250, says: Moses "was no ordinary man, and as he conceived so he wrote." Numerius, of Syria, born B. C. 200, says: :"What is Plato but Moses speaking in the Attic dialect.” In like manner, the most famous enemies of Christianity, during the first two or three centuries, amongst whom were Porphyry and Julian, refer to the writings of Moses as his genuine productions. We therefore come to the conclusion that our present English version of the Bible, is the same volume which was first printed, and acknowledged by the early Christians; and that our Old Testament, which was used by Christ and his disciples, is the volume written by Moses and the Prophets, and contains the veritable history of the Jewish people.

Only one question now remains to be answered. Has this book been preserved so uncorrupt, that its character as a revelation, has not been affected? We reply, that much more care has been taken to preserve this book uncorrupt, than there has been to preserve Homer, Virgil, Anacreon, Demosthenese, or Cicero, and yet, no one supposes that either of these authors have been materially corrupted. Place the Bible then by their side, and give it a common trial with other ancient books. This is all we ask in its behalf.

The Jews ever kept a copy of the law deposited in the ark, the whole of which was read before all the people, at least every seventh year, (Deut. 31: 10, 11,) the King was specially commanded to make a copy for himself, and the the Jews observed the utmost carefulness in copying their