volume of the holy writings, wherein the Pfalms carried the name of all the four, (either because firft placed, or as efteemed moft for the prophecies of the Meffiah,) viz. Pfalms, Proverbs, Ecclefiaftes, and Canticles '.

The modern divifion of the Old Teftament is into four parts: First, The Pentateuch, or five books of Mofes, as Genefis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Secondly, The hiftorical, books as Jofhua, Judges, &c. to the end of Either. Thirdly, The five poetical books, viz. Job, Pfalms, Proverbs, Ecclefiaftes, and Canticles. Fourthly, The prophets, Ifaiah, Jeremiah, &c. to the end of Malachi .

The other books are called Apocrypha, which word fignifies hidden writings. It is fuppofed they were fo called, becaufe their original is obfcure, and authority queftionable; but a perfon

learned in the Jewish authors gives another account which feems probable: He obferves, that the Jews termed thefe books that were not canonical (or not of divine authority) Ganuzim (which the Greeks rightly interpret apocrypha, or hidden;) because, to prevent an occafion of error in any that fhould read them, they were wont to keep them for a private ufe, or hide or bury them in the earth; whence their reckoning them in the number of fuch as were not divinely infpired, was expreffed by their being apocrypha, or hidden.

Thefe books contain the latter hiftory of the Jews, and many good exhortations and rules of manners; but are not of divine authority, because

r

Lightfoot Hor. in Luc. xxiv 44.

not

$ See what is faid Junius &

of the Hebrew poetry on the book of Pfalms. Tremellius fecundum veteres Chriftianos. faurus, Lib. II. ch. 2. fect. 1.

Hottinger, The

not written originally in the holy language, or Hebrew, by prophets or infpired perfons, but after the time of Artaxerxes Longimanus and Ezra, when the spirit of prophecy ceafed in the Jewish church; or, as Jofephus expreffes it, "For want of "the fucceffional line and defcent of the prophets, to "make them ftill more authentic and facred Neither were they inferted into the Canon of Holy Scripture by Ezra *.

There were more books once among the Jews than those hitherto mentioned, which related to their religion and government, and which are cited Num. xxi. 14. Job. x. 13. 1 Kings xi. 41. and elsewhere. But then, thofe which are preferved, are fufficient for the ufe of the church, otherwife the Divine Providence would not have fuffered the reft to be loft. Nor is the Canon of the Old Teftament deficient on that account, becaufe Chrift and his apoftles acquiefced therein as prefect, and as being entirely what was conftituted by Ezra as a prophet, and the reft of the great council in his time ".

The New Teftament is divided into three parts, First, The holy gofpel, containing the doctrine, life, and death of Chrift, &c. Secondly, The hiftory of the first preaching of the gofpel, and planting of the Christian church, in the Acts of the Apoftles. Thirdly, The writings of St. Paul, and fome other apofties; as the Epiftle to the Romans, Corinthians, and the reft to the end of the Revelation. The books of the Old and New Teftament above-mentioned, (except the Apocrypha)

W

L 2

Jofephus. ibid and Hottinger. ibid. a. p. 523.

are

* Ibid. Y Hottinger. Thefaur. lib. II. ch. ii. fe&t. 2. p. 439. Aş for the pretences of the Romh church, in defence of their new Trentine Canon, fee Bishop Cofin's Can. ch. i. 2, iii.

called canonical, from a Greek word fignifying a rule or limit measured out, as being a catalogue or lift of fuch books as contain the rule or meafure of faith.

As for the divifions of the Bible by chapters and verfes, we may note, in the first place, that the Jews were wont to divide the books of the law and the prophets, (which were read publicly in their fynagogues,) into fo many parts or fections called parafchal; and thofe again were fubdivided into leffer ones, called fedarim, for the convenient reading them in their fynagogues on the fabbath-days

And thefe fections fomewhat refemble our chapters, epiftles, and gofpels. Some of the ancient Chriftians had general titles, or cheif heads, to point out the contents of fuch a portion of holy fcripture, the like as in our Bibles are noted with a paragraph or note of divifion, thus T. But the divifions by chapters, fuch as we have now, except the Pfalms, was an invention of one Hugo, a cardinal, (who flourished about the year 1240,) for the ready finding the words and phrafes in the fcripture of the vulgar Latin Bible, by a concordance which he had compofed. About the year 1430, a Jewish Rabbi, Nathan, imitated that divifion by chapters in the Hebrew Bible, (for which he contrived a concordance) and improved it, by fubdividing the chapters of the Old Teftament into verfes: Which example was followed by Chriftians in the Latin Bibles of the Old Testament. Afterwards Robert Stephens, or Stephanus, a famous printer at Paris in France, and learned in the Greek

Z

Hottinger. Thefaur. lib. I. chap. ii. fect. 5. Num. 1. a Stichometriai Dr. Mills's Prolegom. p. 100.

xiii. 33.

Greek language, when he had compofed a concordance for the Greek Teftament, about the year 1546, taking a hint from the forementioned divifion of the chapters into verses of the Old Testament, made a like divifion of the chapters of the New Teftament into verfes alfo : Which divifion by chapters and verfes both of the Old and New Teftament ftill continues.

B

SECTION IX.

EFORE we enter upon the particular books of the holy fcripture, the following general rules may be observed for the interpretation thereof, viz. First general rule. The holy fcripture fpeaks with the tongue of the fons of men, as the ancient Jews expreffed it, that is, in condefcenfion to the common ufage and apprehenfions of men, even of the vulgar as well as the most learned, making ufe of popular expreffions, and forms of fpeech: For when God would vouchfafe to reveal himself to men, he must be fuppofed to comply with their language and manner of speaking.

1. Thus, according to the fentiments and expreffions among men, God is faid to repent that he had made man, and it grieved him at his heart. Not that God hath an heart or body, or can repent or grieve, as we do, for want of a forefight of

Præfatio Buxtorf. ad Concordantias Bibliorum Hebraicas, apud Dr. Prideaux's Old and New Teftament connected, part I. book 5. compare Hottinger. Thefaurus, lib. I. ch. ii. fect. 5. p. 223. Secundum linguam filiorum hominum, Maimon. Mor. Nevoch. part 1. chap. 26. Contra Celfum ad initium. * Cen. vi. 6.

Origen

of events, and the difappointments confequent thereon; but because, when men repent of an action, they would undo it; fo when God refolved to destroy fo many of mankind whom he had created, he is faid to repent, or to grieve that he had made them. So Chrift is faid to marvel at the Centurion's anfwer, because he feemed as one that doth fo: And God is faid to lead the Ifraelites forty years in the wilderness, that he might prove, and know them; because we often know things or perfons upon making trial. For want of obferving this rule, many paffages of fcripture, which feem to reprefent God like unto man, have occafioned a grofs and dangerous mistake, which ordinary readers have fometimes fallen into: Because they find human paffions, and the parts of a human body afcribed to God, they have been apt to imagine him like an old king fitting on his throne; whereas his glorious Majefty is infinite and incomprehenfible: And thofe paffages in holy scripture, which feem to reprefent God like unto men, are gracious condefcenfions to our frail capacities and understandings. For example, because we cannot apprehend how any one fhould fee and hear, without eyes and ears, therefore it is faid, the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry; not that he hath eyes, or a bɔdy, who is an infinite glorious fpirit, and hath given us the faculties of fight and hearing; and therefore cannot but difcern and know all things himfelf. But this is faid in condefcenfion to us, who fhould not otherwife comprehend God's knowledge and obfervation of mortal men. So that expreffion, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it

Mat. viii. 10.

• Deut. viii. 2.

cannot