deliberately reassert my belief, that there is not one of the Psalms of this Book, which can be shown, from the internal evidence of its contents, to be older than Ps.lxviii. If Mr. PEROWNE will produce such a Jehovistic Psalm,—I say not out of Book I, but out of any one of the Five Books,-and will point out the decisive evidence of its greater antiquity, I shall gladly consider his reasoning, and modify, if necessary, my own present judgment accordingly.

(6) This general assertion, that all critics 'regard the Psalms of Book I as the earliest in the collection,' is obviously capable of different meanings. What it would seem to say--and what it should mean, to support Mr. PEROWNE's argument, -is, that all critics' of any note regard all the Psalms of Book I as older than any others in the whole collection. Yet Mr. PEROWNE cannot possibly mean this, since he himself says of xxii, on p.99, that although, 'according to the inscription this is one of David's Psalms,' yet' we know of no circumstances in his life to which it can possibly be referred,' and 'the most probable view of it is, that it was composed by one of the exiles during the Babylonish Captivity!' He says also of xxv and xxxiv, on p.117, that they 'probably both belong to the later period of the history-perhaps, to the time of the exile'; as to xxviii, he observes, p.128, 'HITZIG thinks that Jeremiah, and EWALD suggests that Josiah, may have been the author of the Psalm'; and so as to xxxi, he writes, p.139, 'On the whole it reminds us more of some parts of Jeremiah than of any other of the O.T. writings ... Hence EWALD and HITZIG have concluded that the Psalm was written by Jeremiah'; and again as to xl he says, p.183, EWALD thinks that the prominence given to the 'roll of the book,' in v.7, is an indication that it was written about the time of Josiah's Reformation. Thus six, at least, of the Psalms of Book I are ascribed by eminent critics to a very late date, and three by Mr. PEROWNE himself to a time after the Captivity: and he must be well aware that many other Psalms of Book I are assigned by HUPFELD, EWALD, HITZIG, or OLSHAUSEN, to similar late dates. At any rate, the reader will see that the mere fact of a Psalm being found in Book I does not in any way prove that it is older in date than those of Book II.

9. Mr. PEROWNE's general statement, however, must be reduced to this, that there are some Psalms of Book I which are regarded by [? all or some] critics as 'the earliest in the collection.' If he would point out one such a Psalm, and state the decisive evidence which it affords of its own extreme antiquity, I should gladly, as I have said, examine with all due care that evidence, and admit, if convinced by it, that I am mistaken. But Mr. PEROWNE'S statement will be reduced to still smaller dimensions when the reader considers the following series of remarks made by himself upon the Psalms of Book I.

Ps.i, 'There is not much in the Psalm itself which helps us to assign it to any particular period of history,' p.2;

Ps.ii might be ascribed to the time of David, or Solomon, or Ahaz, perhaps to David, p.5;

Ps.iii, according to the Title, was composed by David, when he fled from his son Absalom; and there is nothing in the language of the Psalm to contradict this. True, there is no allusion to Absalom &c.,' p.11;

Ps.iv 'may probably be assigned to the same author as Ps.iii,' p.11;

Ps.v, 'David (if the Psalm be his), &c.,' p.17;

Ps.vi 'is said to be a Psalm of David, and there is no reason to question it, although at the same time there is nothing in it to guide us, &c.,' p.21;

Ps.vii, 'there is no reason to doubt that David was (as stated in the superscription) the author of the Psalm,' p.24 ;

Ps.viii, a Psalm of David-written by him, perhaps, when yet a youth. or if composed in later years, &c.,' p.28;

Ps.ix 'has been regarded by many as a song of victory, composed, perhaps, by David, &c.,' p.32 ;

Ps.x, 'it is impossible to say to what period of Jewish history the Psalm is to be referred,' p.37:

Ps.xi is so short and so general that it is not easy to see to what circumstances in David's life it should be referred,' p.44;

Ps.xii 'may be one of David's Psalms: but there is nothing in the circumstances, so far as we know them, of his history, which can lead us to associate the Psalm with any particular event,' p.47;

Ps.xiii, 'In this Psalm we see a servant of God, &c.,' (no date assigned), p.50; Ps.xiv, 'There is nothing in the Psalm which can lead us to fix its date or authorship precisely,' p.53;

Ps.xv 'is supposed to have been written on the occasion of the removal of the Ark to Zion ... On the other hand, the name 'holy mountain,' v.1, as applied to Zion, would rather suggest a later date,' p.57 ;

Ps.xvi is merely assumed to be David's without a word of proof, p.60;

Ps.xvii 'may be, as the inscription states, a Psalm of David, and if so, &c.,' p.69; Ps.xix is again assumed to be David's without proof of any kind, p.86;

Ps.xx, 'Some would refer this Psalm to the time of David's war with the Syrians and Ammonites; but obviously it would apply to other circumstances equally well,' p.92;

Ps.xxi, no date assigned, p.95;

Ps.xxii, 'the correct view is probably that this Psalm was composed by one of the exiles during the Babylonish Captivity,' p.99 ;

Ps.xxiii was most probably written [by David] in advanced years';

Ps.xxv was 'perhaps, written after the exile,' p.117;

Ps.xxvi 'furnishes no direct evidence as to its date,' p.121;

Ps.xxvii, 'like the last and the one which follow, may very probably be referred to the time of Absalom's rebellion,' p.124;

Ps.xxviii,- HITZIG thinks that Jeremiah, and EWALD suggests that Josiah, may have been the author of the Psalm. But these are guesses which have little to recommend them; and there is no valid reason why we should reject the traditional Title which gives the Psalm to David,' p.128;

Ps.xxix, nothing said about the date, p.132;

Ps.xxx,-' perhaps, if the inscription is trustworthy, it refers to the house which David built, &c.,' p.135;

Ps.xxxi 'reminds us more of some parts of Jeremiah than of any other of the

O.T. writings... Hence EWALD and HITZIG have concluded that the Psalm was written by Jeremiah,' p.139;

Ps.xxxii is assumed to be David's without proof of any kind, p.144;

Ps.xxxiii-'even tradition is silent as to the authorship and the occasion for which it was composed,' p.149;

Ps xxxiv was, 'perhaps, written after the exile,' p.117;

Ps.xxxv, 'if it be, as the inscription tells us, a Psalm of David, &c. I confess, however, that the Psalm does not seem to me to be David's,' p.155;

Ps.xxxvi 'is not so distinct in its features that we can assign it to any particular occasion in the life of David, or associate it with any definite period of Jewish history,' p.163;

Ps.xxxvii-nothing said about the date: [being an alphabetical Psalm, it would probably have been, like Ps.xxv and xxxiv, 'perhaps written after the exile,' p.117 ;] Ps.xxxviii-nothing said about the date, p.173;

Ps.xxxix-nothing said about the date, p.101;

...

Ps.xl-Whether David was the author of this Psalm we can hardly hope now to decide. We cannot pretend to point to any circumstance in his life to which it undoubtedly refers. EWALD thinks . . . that it was written about the time of Josiah's Reformation,' p.183;

Ps.xli-nothing said about the date, p.190.

In fact, out of the forty-one Psalms of Book I there are only two, xviii,xxiv, as to whose date Mr. PEROWNE pronounces at all definitely; while, with respect to the thirty-nine others, in the case of thirteen he is either altogether silent, three he assigns to a date after the Captivity, and most of the rest he assumes to be of David's age, merely because of their Titles, though of these Titles he says, p.cxi,— 'They are not of any necessary authority, and their value must be weighed and tested by the usual critical processes.'

And so Bishop BROWNE says of some of these Titles, Elohistic Psalms, p.64,— 'These superscriptions are, probably, of no authority whatever.'

10. After the above, I confess, I am at a loss to understand what Mr. PEROWNE means to imply, by saying that I have scarcely noticed' the Psalms of this Book. What more has he said about them—that is, about the age of their composition— than I myself have said? For I have written as follows in Part II:

...

Ps.ii 'is not ascribed to David by any Title, but is generally attributed to him. It is very possible that in the last years of David's life, &c.,' p.327; Ps.iii -HENGSTENBERG and LUTHER agree that this Psalm 'must have been written at a later date' than David's flight from Absalom, p.324;

Ps.vii-'there is nothing in this Psalm to decide the question,' as to its date,

p.324;

P's.xiv-'these changes may have been made by David himself: but if so, &c.,'

p.327;

Ps.xvii 'may be David's, as the Title implies,' p.396;

Ps.xviii, 'if written by David at all, was written at the close of his life, as HENGSTENBERG says,' p.325;

Ps.xx and Ps.xxi 'appear to have been composed for David by one of the devout persons of that time,' p.317;

Ps.xxx, 'according to HENGSTENBERG, was written in the sixty-eighth year of David's life,' p.325;

Ps.xxxv 'is ascribed to David, and may have been written by him at the time of Absalom's rebellion,' p.396;

Ps.xxxvi 'may have been written by David, according to the Title,' p.396 Ps.xxxviii 'is ascribed to David, and if written by him, &c.,' p.327; Ps.xl-'it is possible that David, in the latter days of his life, &c.,' p.327; Ps.xli, 'if written by David, must have been written at the time when he fled from Absalom,' p.327.

11. The result of my own examination, however, was stated by me in (II.448) as follows:

'There is not a single Jehovistic Psalm, which there is any reasonable ground for assigning to the earlier part of David's life. Even admitting many Jehovistic Psalms to be David's on the uncertain warrant of their Titles only, yet all of these may be assigned, and some of them must be assigned, to the latter part of his reign, at the time of, or after, the rebellion of Absalom.'

Is it not plain that Mr. PEROWNE's own statements above-quoted confirm in the most decisive manner the above conclusion, with respect to all the Psalms of Book I, except two, xviii and xxiv? Yet the first of these two is ascribed by him (in accordance with my own statement) to the latter part of David's reign, since he writes about it as follows, p.75:

'The inscription, which informs us that this hymn was composed towards the close of David's life, is confirmed by the fact, &c.'

Thus there remains to be considered only one solitary exception to the correctness of my own statement, even on Mr. PEROWNE'S Own showing, viz. Ps.xxiv, which, Mr. PEROWNE says, p.113

'Was in all probability composed and sung on the occasion of the removal of the Ark from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David in Mount Zion.'

12. Let me first say that there is nothing in my view as to the later introduction of the name Jehovah,' that would prevent my adopting the above conclusion of Mr. PEROWNE himself with respect to this Psalm. In Ps.lxviii, which (as I believe) was really written for this very occasion, 'Jehovah' is used four times. It is quite conceivable, therefore, that some Psalmist of that age might have written, as in this Psalm, 'The earth is Jehovah's,' 'Who shall ascend into the mountain of Jehovah?' 'Who is the King of Glory? Jehovah, strong and mighty, Jehovah, mighty in battle!' But certainly the same writer who composed Ps.lxviii (E.31, A.7, J.4,) would hardly have written at the very same time the Psalm before us (E.1, J.6). Nor is there anything in the Psalm to fix it to this occasion. The notion of Mr. PEROWNE, p.114, that

'The verses which declare the character of Jehovah's true worshippers ['he that is clean of hands and pure of heart, who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, neither hath sworn deceitfully,' v.4]—may perhaps have been suggested by the death

of Uzzah!'-might justly, as it seems to me, be called 'extravagant.' But the reference in v.9 to the 'gates' and 'everlasting doors' surely indicates the Temple rather than the Tabernacle-the time of Solomon or afterwards, rather than that of David. Accordingly HUPFELD and De WETTE suggest that it was composed for the occasion of the Dedication of the Temple, for which it was in every way suitable; and the former says, II.p.56, 'scarcely any other occasion can be seen for it.' So, too, HITZIG, I.p.142, and OLSHAUSEN, p.131, reject the supposition of this Psalm's having any reference to the Tabernacle.

13. (7) Returning now to Mr. PEROWNE's observations, quoted above in (7), I remark that the first part of this statement (7), if true, supports my view; but I demur altogether to the latter. There are many Jehovistic Psalms, indeed, ascribed by their Titles to David, which, if really his, may have been written in the earlier part of his life. But they may not be his at all, and, if his, they may have been written towards the close of his life. Not a single Jehovistic Psalm in the whole collection, I repeat, can be produced, as I believe, which clear internal evidence shows to be David's, and to have been written by him in his earlier years, or at an earlier date than Ps.lxviii.

14. (8) As to these three Psalms, xlvi-xlviii, Mr. PEROWNE says, p.224,

'I am inclined to think that they all celebrate the same event, the sudden and miraculous destruction of the army of Sennacherib under the walls of Jerusalem. ... DELITZSCH (following HENGSTENBERG) refers this and the two following Psalms to the victory of Jehoshaphat over the allied forces of the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, recorded in 2Ch.xx.'

And again he writes, p.230,

'I see no reason why this Psalm (xlvii) should not have been composed after the defeat of Sennacherib.'

My own view is expressed in (II.382) as follows:

'xlvi (E.7,J.3), xlvii(E.8,J.2),xlviii (E.8,J.2), appear to have been written upon days of rejoicing for some great victory, such as those that were gained by Joab and David himself over the very formidable confederacy of Syria and Ammon, about which we read in 28.x. On these occasions, probably, the king went in procession to the Tabernacle on Mount Zion, to return thanks to God. The 'kings assembled,' Ps.xlviii.4, may have been those referred to in 2S.x.6,8,15,16,19. On Joab's return from the first, and David's from the second, of these victories,-when 'all the kings that were servants to Hadarezer, saw that they were smitten before Israel, and made peace with Israel, and served them,' v.19,-these Psalms may have been written.'

I still adhere to the above view as being quite as probable as that which Mr. PEROWNE is 'inclined' to maintain.

15. OLSHAUSEN writes on xlvi as follows, p.205:

'The state of affairs, lying at the basis of Ps.xlvi, is in general clear. Mighty conflicts, which even threatened Jerusalem with danger, had shaken whole kingdoms: but the Lord has preserved His holy city, and brought the wars to an end. This state of affairs might be explained out of more than one period of Israelitish