It does not seem necessary to continue this his torical sketch any further. From the beginning of the fifth century the Canon of the New Testament was fixed in the churches ; and any divergencies from the standard thus exhibited, made either by churches or individuals in later times, are to be viewed as mere utterances of opinion, and carry with them no evidential authority.
rr. With the external evidence thus furnished in favour of the sacred Canon, the internal fully accords. In the Old Testament all is in keeping with the assumption that its books were written by Jews, sustaining the character, surrounded by the circumstances, and living at the time ascribed to their authors ; or if any apparent discrepancies have been found in any of them, they are of such a kind as further inquiry has served to explain and reconcile. The literary peculiarities of the New Testament, its language, its idioms, its style, its allusions, all are accordant with the hypothesis that its authors were exactly what they profess to have been—Jews converted to Christianity, and living at the commencement of the Christian era. Of both Testaments the theological and ethical systems are substantially in harmony ; whilst all that they con tain tends to one grand result—the manifestation of the power and perfection of Deity, and the re storation of man to the image, service, and love of his Creator. The conclusion from the whole facts of the case can be none other than that the Bible is entitled to that implicit and undivided reverence which it demands, as the only divinely appointed Canon of religious truth and duty.
12. Besides the Introductions to the critico-his torical study of Scripture, the following works may with advantage be consulted on the subject of the Canon :—Cosins, Scholastical History of Me Canon, 4to London, 1657, 1672 ; Du Pin, History of the Canon and Writer.> of the Books of the Old and New Test. 2 vols. folio, London, 1699-170o ; Ens, Bibliotheca Sacra. sive Diatribe de Librorum Nov. Test. Canon, 12mo Amstcl. 1710 ; Lardner, Cre dibility of the Gospel History, Works, vol. i.–vi., 8vo, edit. ; Stosch, Comment. Hist. Crib. de Libb. Nov. Test. Canon, 8vo Francof. ad Viadrum, 1755 ; Schmid, Hist. ,Antiq. et Vindicatio Canonis V. et N. Test. Svo, Lips. 1775 ; Mill, Proleg. in Nov. Test. Pars Prima, Oxon, 1707 ; Jones, New and Full Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the New Test. 3 vols. 8vo ; Paley, Hone Pauline; ; Alexander, Canon of the Old and New Test. ascer tained, 12mo Princeton, U. S. 1826, London, r828 ; Stuart, Critical Hist. and Defence of tl2e O. T. Canon, Lond. 1849 ; Westcott, General Sur vey of the History of the Canon of the N. T., Camb. 1855 ; Kirchhofer, Quel1ensanmzlung zur Gesch. des N. T. Canons, Zurich, 1844 ; Art. ICanon, by Oehler and Landerer in Herzog's Real Encycloptedie.—W. L. A.