8.  The principle upon which the canon of the Old Testament was formed is not doubtful.  No books were admitted into it but those written by prophets or prophetical men.  As under the New Testament the reception or rejection of a book as canonical was determined by the writer’s relation to Christ, so was it under the Old by his relation to the theocracy.  The highest relation was held by Moses, its mediator.  He accordingly had the prophetical spirit in the fullest measure:  “If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.  My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.  With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold.”  Numb. 12:6-8.  The next place was held by prophets expressly called and commissioned by God, some of whom also, as Samuel, administered the affairs of the theocracy.  Finally, there were the pious rulers whom God placed at the head of the covenant people, and endowed with the spirit of prophecy, such as David, Solomon, and Ezra.  To no class of men besides those just mentioned do the Jewish rabbins ascribe the authorship of any book of the Old Testament, and in this respect their judgment is undoubtedly right.

9.  The inspiration of the books of the Old Testament is everywhere assumed by our Lord and his apostles; for they argue from them as possessing divine authority.  “What is written in the law?” “What saith the scripture?” “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me;” “This scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost spake before concerning Judas;” “The scripture cannot be broken”—­all these and other similar forms of expression contain the full testimony of our Lord and his apostles to the truth elsewhere expressly affirmed of the Old Testament, that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God,” 2 Tim. 3:16, and that “the prophecy came not in the old time by the will of man:  but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:21.  When the Saviour asks the Pharisees in reference to Psalm 110, “How then doth David in spirit call him Lord?” he manifestly does not mean that this particular psalm alone was written “in spirit,” that is, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; but he ascribes to it the character which belongs to the entire book, in common with the rest of Scripture, in accordance with the express testimony of David:  “The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.” 2 Sam. 23:2.

CHAPTER XII.

EVIDENCES INTERNAL AND EXPERIMENTAL.