ly Ghost." 2 Peter 1:21.

According to the received chronology, Moses wrote the book of
Deuteronomy about 1451 B.C, and Malachi, the last of the
prophets, wrote about 397 B.C. The difference, then, between the
time of these two authors is 1054 years; or say, in round
numbers, about 1000 years. From Moses to the anointing of David
is, according to the shorter chronology, 388 years; and from
Moses to the composition of the books of Kings, nearly nine
centuries. From Joel to Malachi we must assume a period of about
400 years, within which space our present prophetical books were
composed. The earlier of the psalms written by David differ in
time from those composed at the close of the captivity by about
530 years. Let the reader who has been in the habit of passing
from one book of the Bible to another, as if both belonged to
the same age, ponder well the meaning of these figures. They
confirm the arguments already adduced (ch. 12, No. 4) that the
unity of Scripture has its ground not in human concert, but in
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

4. The books of the Old Testament have been differently classified and
arranged. But in no system of distribution has the chronological order
been strictly observed.

(A.) _The Jewish classification and arrangement_ is as follows. They
first distribute the books of the Old Testament into three great
classes, the _Law_, the _Prophets_, and the _Writings_; that is, the
canonical writings not included in the other two divisions--the
_Hagiographa_ (_holy writings_), as they are commonly designated at the
present day.

The _Law_ is then subdivided into five books, as we now have them; for
the names of which see the introduction to the Pentateuch. Chap. 19, No.
1.

With reference to this five-fold division of the Law, the Rabbins call
it _the five-fifths of the Law_, each book being reckoned as one-fifth.
This term answers to the word _Pentateuch_, that is, _the five-fold
book_. Chap. 9, beginning.

The _second_ great class consists of the so-called _Prophets_. These are
first divided into the _former_ and the _latter_ Prophets. The former
Prophets consist of the historical books: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and
Kings, in the order named. The latter comprise the prophetical books in
the stricter sense of the word, with the exception of Daniel; and these
are subdivided into the _greater_ and the _less_. The greater Pr