can, to orthodoxy, finding between
that extreme and rationalism a middle way which offers a resting-place to
faith. The numerous changes which criticism presents are not a symptom of
soundness. The writer is far indeed from thinking that every question
connected with the books of Scripture is finally settled; but the majority
undoubtedly are, though several already fixed by great scholars continue
to be opened up afresh. He does not profess to adopt the phase of
criticism which is fashionable at the moment; it is enough to state what
approves itself to his judgment, and to hold it fast amid the
contrarieties of conjecture or the cravings of curiosity. Present
excrescences or aberrations of belief will have their day and disappear.
Large portions of the Pentateuch will cease to be consigned to a
post-exile time, and the gospels of Matthew and Luke will again be counted
the chief sources of Mark's. It will also be acknowledged that the first
as it now exists, is of much later origin than the fall of Jerusalem. Nor
will there be so great anxiety to show that Justin Martyr was acquainted
with the fourth gospel, and owed his Logos-doctrine chiefly to it. The
difference of ten or twenty years in the date of a gospel will not be
considered of essential importance in estimating its character.

The present edition has been revised throughout and several parts
re-written. The author hopes that it will be found still more worthy of
the favor with which the first was received.

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

As introductory to the following dissertation, I shall explain and define
certain terms that frequently occur in it, especially _canon_,
_apocryphal_, _ecclesiastical_, and the like. A right apprehension of
these will make the observations advanced respecting the canon and its
formation plainer. The words have not been taken in the same sense by all,
a fact that obscures their sense. They have been employed more or less
vaguely by different writers. Varying ideas have been attached to them.

The Greek original of _canon_(1) means primarily a straight rod or pole;
and metaphorically, what serves to keep a thing upright or straight, a
_rule_. In the New Testament it occurs in Gal. vi. 16 and 2 Cor. x. 13,
15, 16, signifying in the former, a measure; in the latter, what is
measured, a _district_. But we have now to do with its ecclesiastical use.
There are three opinions as to the origin of its application to the
writings