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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 -— ^ '^ \ < I the Pentateuch was, with very trifling exceptions, written by Moses, nothing that modern destructive criticism has been able to adduce need make us doubt. And that Moses was a prophet cannot be denied in face of the express language of Scripture, " And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved" — Hos. xii. 13. And the whole record of his legislation and life bears ample testimony to the sobriety of the statement with which it is closed, "There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face" — Deut. xxxiv. 10. That the second division, which is expressly called "the prophets" by Jesus Christ, was written by prophets can scarcely be suc- cessfully denied. What God said to Jeremiah might have been said from any of them from Joshua down- wards, " Lo, I have put my words in thy mouth." — Jer. i. 9. Shall we then refuse to acknowledge the prophetic character of that division named from its first book, the Psalms ? The apostle Peter expressly testifies that David was a prophet. Acts. ii. 30, and he affirms that the Scriptures must needs be fulfilled which the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David, Acts i. 16. It is true that we cannot adduce direct evidence that all parts of the Hagiographa, as this division was frequently calj^ed, were written by pro- phets; but we find that Asaph and Daniel are both ranked by our Lord as prophets. Matt. xiii. 35, and Matt. xxiv. 1 5, while in Hebrews iii. 7, 9, an anony- mous Psalm is ascribed to the Holy Ghost. And not only are the Proverbs <5r Solomon repeatedly quoted in the New Testament with usual formula, " it is writ- ten" (Rom. iii. 15, and Rom. xii. 19, 20), but once in terms that show that the words are the very words of God, James iv. 10. To this we may add the fact that the Apostle Paul, on one occasion, refers to the Old Testament Scriptures generally under the title of " the i6 prophetic Scriptures" — Rom. xvi. 26. It was doubtless very largely due to the evidence for the prophetic authorship of the books of the Old Testament that the Jews, in the time of our Lord, beheved universally in their inspiration. (2.) The writers of the Old Testament repeatedly use language which involves a direct claim to inspiration. This claim is advanced in many forms, and in terms so general that no reason can be assigned why it should be restricted to any particular portion of their writings. How often do we find such language employed by them in reference to their own statements as this: "The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it," ** Thus saith the Lord^," " Hear the word of the Lord?" Nearly all the prophets, again and again, employ phraseology which indicates that the Lord spoke by them. "The vision which Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." " The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, " Jere- miah, what seest thou ?" " The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel, the priest, the son of Buzi," etc. " The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea." " The word of the Lord that came to Micah." And almost the entire legislation of Moses has the Divine authorship stamped upon its language with equal distinctness. As we read the Pentateuch we encounter continually the words, " And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying." It is true that there are books of the Old Testament in which no such direct claims to inspiration as we have cited are put forth. But there is a silent tone of authority pervading even these which is compatible only with the idea of their • inspiration. In addition to this, the fact that they were written in the Sacred Collection, which the Is- raelites guarded with such jealous care, is itself a tacit claim to the same character as distinguished the other portions of the ancient canon. If the writers '7 who put forward these claims are regarded as the credible historians of a supernatural revelation, we cannot avoid the conclusion that a very large portion of the Old Testament was given by inspiration of God. 3. Advancing now another step, we remark, that the testimony of the New Testament establishes the inspir- ation of the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures, This includes the testimony of Christ Himself, which, with all who admit His divine character and mission, should be decisive. It includes also the testimony of the writers of the New Testament, which has a two- fold character and value:— (i) It may be regarded as presenting the doctrine of their Master at second- hand, and (2) it may be viewed as the credible record of a supernatural revelation of which they were the recipients. In order that the full force of this argu- ment may be felt we must bear in mind the contrast between the treatment accorded to the Old Testament Scriptures by Christ and the writers of the New Testa- ment, and that which flows naturally from any of the modified theories of inspiration. All these theories deny the infallible truth and divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, and they are introduced expressly to account for the presence of an undefined and undefin- able amount of error in the sacred page. It is evident that no man who had embraced any of these theories could legicimately treat the Scriptures as an infallible standard of faith and life. He might appeal to them as investing with a high degree of probability the sen- timents which they sanctioned. He might quote them with much confidence for their leading facts, and per- haps also for their more prominent doctrines; but that he should ever build upon the mere form of their phraseology, or draw inferences from what is implied as well as what is expressed, would be impossible, (i.) Now it is to be observed that in all the quotations made by Christ and the writers of the New Testament 2 i8 from the Old, there is no reserve made for error, no attempt made to distinguish divine truth from human mistakes. The Old Testament Scriptures are quoted, by our Lord and His Apostles just as they are quoted to-day, by those who believe in their plenary inspira- tion. "It is written" was deemed by our Lord a sufficient answer to the temptations of Satan, the cavils of Scribes and Pharisees, and the doubts of His own Disciples. It never occurred to him that a thing might be written in Scripture, and after all be a mere blunder. His mind is never haunted with the terrible uncertainty resulting from such a notion. He ever deals with the Old Testament in the spirit of His own maxim, "The Scriptures cannot be broken." The same style of quotation characterizes the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists. They never question the infallible truth or divine authority of the ancient Scriptures. On the contrary, they take for granted that "the Scriptures must be fulfilled;" and they con- stantly appeal to them as a decisive standard of truth and duty. If, therefore, the writers of the New Tes- tament are regarded either as fair exponents of the mind of Christ, or as the credible historians of a true revelation from God, their testimony to the inspiration of the Old Testament is conclusive. Had the quota- tions and references made by our Lord been few, the thought might have found entrance that, in some un- accountable manner, the historian had forgotten the words of his Master, but when we discover that the quotations made by Christ Himself may be counted by scores, and that they are recorded not by one, but by four evangelists, then every principle of historical evidence must be overthrown, if our Lord did not sanction the plenary inspiration of the Old Testament. And when we add to this, that in all the quotations made from the Old Testament Scriptures in the New, — quotations numbered, not by scores, but by hundreds. < 19 the writers uniformly appeal to ihem as to an infal- lible standard, what can be thought of the modesty of a writer who ventures to declare, "that the prevailing popular view of the authority, the inspiration, and the infallibility of the Bible has been superstitiousjy attached to it?" It is a superstition which we share with Christ and His Apostles. This argument gathers additional force from the consideration that Christ and His apostles addressed a people who already be- lieved in the plenary inspiration of the Old Testament, and who must have understood them as endorsing that dogma. That such was the belief of the Jews, in the time of Christ, is put beyond dispute by the lan- guage of the writers of the Apocrypha, and by the express testimony of Philo and Josephus. — Vide Lee on Insp. p. 63-68. We may, indeed, be reminded that the Jews also attached a superstitious reverence and authority to traditions. But did our Lord use language fitted to foster the delusion? On the con- trary, we find these traditions denounced in the sever- est terms, while the law, in its purity, was vindicated from the false glosses wherewith it had been overlaid* But did our Lord ever charge the Jews with super- stitious reverence for the Holy Scriptures? Did he ever denounce them for their Bibliolatry? Nay, verily, the very gravamen of his charge against them was that they had made void the Word through their traditions: Mark vii. 15; Matt. xv. 6. (2.) The ex- press statements of Christ, and of the writers of the New Testament, prove the plenary inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets ; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled:" Matt. V. 17, 18. No one surely can imagine that our Lord, in using such language, did not imply His belief / 20 in the plenary inspiration of the Old Testament. He expressly calls the Scriptures, which the Jews had made void through their traditions, "The Word of God." We find Him grounding an argument upon a single word, and that used in an uncommon sense, because, "the Scriptures cannot be broken." "If He called them gods to whom the Word of God came, and the Scriptures cannot be broken :" John x. 3$. He recognizes the usual threefold division of the books of the Old Testament, and attributes the same unerring truth to their contents, "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms con- cerning Me :" Luke xxiv. 44. In the New Testament the ancient Scriptures are, on several occasions, re- ferred to as, " the oracles of God," terms which indicate that "they are in word, as well as in sense, divine communications." In 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17, the Apostle Paul, whose remarkable conversion and general char- acter stamp him certainly as a credible witness of a supernatural revelation, declares expressly, that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profit- able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in- struction in righteousness," etc. Alford and Ellicott propose, in a somewhat hesitating manner, to translate the words "every divinely inspired Scripture is also profitable," but even this harsh rendering does not affect the argument, for the reference must still be to the Holy Scriptures spoken of in the previous verse, which Timothy had known from childhood. Accord- ing to the ordinary translation, Paul asserts categori- cally.the inspiration of all Scripture, and according to the other, he mentions it as a thing which is to be taken for granted and proceeded upon. According to either view, Paul must be held as sanctioning the idea that Divine inspiration is a common property of the Old 91 Testament Scriptures. We are aware that an attempt has been made to evade the force of this testimony by translating the words, "every writing divinely inspired is als » profitable," etc. But not only does this repre- sent the Apostle as introducing a statement entirely irrelevant to the matter in hand, but also as using the word graphe (Scripture) in a sense of which there is no example in the New Testament. For of the fifty times in which the word occurs, either in the singular or the plural, in the New Testament, it is used in all save two, unless we except this text, as a kind of proper name for the Old Testament. The two exceptions are significant. The one is where Peter applies the word to St. Paul's Epistle, along with the other Scriptures, 2 Peter iii. 16. The other is an instance of a similar kind, where Paul quotes two passages, one from the Old Testament and the other from the New, under the common title of Scripture. That the word graphe was used as a kind of proper noun in the New Testament, like our word Scripture, admits of no question. It was employed usually to denote the sacred writings of the Old Testa- ment, although at the date of this epistle, the usus loquendi had become so far modified, as to admit of the application of the word to the canonical writings of the New Testament. The testimony of 2 Peter i. 20, 21, is in some respects more decisive: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." What language could more clearly assert the plenary inspiration of the Old Testament? After reading these explicit testimonies from Christ and the writers of the New Testament, which might have been greatly multiplied, it seems a phenomenon which demands explanation, that an Oxford professor could deliberately write, that "for any of the higher or supernatural views of inspira- RBB Hllii«lt*ifW*WUta ■nil^-tiri 22 tion there is no foundation in the Gospels or Epistles." (3.) Christ and the writers of theNewTestamentyi?2/«^ arguments upon the very words of the Old Testament in a manner which demonstrated their belief in its in- spiration. The answer which our Lord returned to the cavils of the Sadducees in reference to the resur- rection of the dead, is a striking example in point. He refutes their objection by an appeal to the fact that long after the death of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God had, in His words to Moses, represented himself as the God of these patriarchs, and our Lord reasons that as God is not the God of the dead but of the living, they must be still alive. The whole force of this argument is based on the precise collocation of words employed in Ex. iii. 6 : " I am the God of Abra- ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Now suppose a Sadducee had replied, as one of his modern successors doubtless would, that Moses was left to his ov, n powers to record, as best he could, facts with which he was personally cognizant, and that by a slip of memory he had no doubt substituted the idea of the present for the past, and that the words really used by Jehovah probably were, "I was the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," what would have become of the argument, " God is not the God of the dead but of the living?" And if the Scriptures are not so inspired as to be characterized by infallible truth and divine authority, what possible answer could be returned to such a rejoinder? On the same occa- sion, our Lord silenced the Pharisees by an argument founded on the use of the personal pronoun " my," in one of the Psalms, — an argument depending entirely on the unerring accuracy with which the Psalm is worded: Matt. xxii. 41. We have seen also that he reasons from an uncommon sense attached, in one of the Psalms to the word "gods," because "the Scrip- 23 tures cannot be broi:en :" John x. 35. And the Apos- tle Paul is so fully convinced of the plenary inspiration of the ancient canon that he bases an argument, in Gal. iii. 16, on the distinction between the singular and the plural, in an Old Testament promise. The man- ner in which Old Testament predictions are verified by Christ and His apostles, as fulfilled, opens up a very interesting line of evidence, on which we cannot enter. 4. The inspiration of the New Testament is sustained by evidence not less satisfactory. Those who admit the plenary inspiration of the Old Testament, are not likely to question the infallible truth and divine authority of the New. The tendency, in certain quar- ters, is rather in the opposite direction. The presump- tive argument in favour of the inspiration of the New Testament is certainly stronger than that which pre- pares us to welcome the inspiration of the Old. For, not only is there the general presumption that God, having given to men a supernatural revelation, will ensure them the full benefit of tne gift by enshrining it in a correct record, but there is another springing from the character of the later revelation. If any re- velation is deemed worthy of an inspired record, surely it must be that, so full and perfect, which has been introduced in these last days by God's Son from Heaven. But passing to the evidence, we discover, as we examine the New Testament, (i) that the writers claim co-ordinate authority with those of the Old Testament. Not only does the same calm tone of authority pervade their writings, but we find the Apostle Peter combining in the same sentence the words of the prophets and the commandments of the apostles, as equally entitled to the thoughtful submis- sion of Christians — "That ye may be mindful of the words that were spoken before of the holy prophets, and of the commandruents of us the apostles of the i I it myntMKa M 24 Lord and Saviour:" 2 Pet. iii. 2. In the same chap- ter Peter ranks the epistles of Paul with the other Scriptures, as possessed of the same essential cl arac- ter and authority. "Even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you ; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things ; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are un- learned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction:" 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16. What language could more clearly claim co-ordinate authority for Paul's epistles and the Old Testament? It is indeed highly probable that, as Peter regarded Paul's epistles as Scripture, he included in "the other Scriptures" all the canonical books of the New Testa- ment, written at the date of this epistle, or nearly the whole of the New Testament. In i Tim. v. 18, Paul ranks as Scripture two passages, the one from the Old Testament, and the other found only in the Gospels — Matt. X. 10, and Luke x. 7. (2,) The apostolic authorship of the greater part of the books of the New Testament proves their inspira- tion. All the writers of the New Testament, except Mark and Luke, were apostles. And the writings of these evangelists were unquestionably received into the canon, while the Church was under the superin- tendence of the apostles, and at a period when it was richly endowed with miraculous gifts, and, among others, with " the discerning of spirits " {vide i Cor. xii. Id, and i Cor. xiv. 37), and we cannot believe that, if the other books of the New Testament were inspired, these could have been accepted as canonical, unless the Church had regarded them as clothed with the same authority. Indeed, the placing of them by common consent in the canon is itself evidence that they were viewed as of equal authority with the other sacred writings. . !< i I 25 < t What is the authority due to the writings of the Apostles? As in the case of prophets, this depends on their gifts. What were the gifts of an apostle? We believe that the New Testament warrants us in answering, infallibility in teaching and ruling, and the power of conferring the Holy Ghost in his miraculous bestowments. These were the gifts essential to the office, without which a man could no more be an apostle than he could be a prophet without inspira- tion. The very name, apostles^ by which Jesus de- signated the twelve, indicates that they bore a very special commission from Him. And when we associ- ate this, as has been done by Christ Himself, with His own title as " the sent of God," or, as Paul expresses it, " the apostle and high priest of our profession," it indicates an analogy between the relation they sustain to him, as his duly qualified and accredited represent- atives in the world, and that which he sustained to the Father. Hence he could say, " As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you," John xx. 21. In the first commission which He gave to His apostles. He assured them of the miraculous aid of the Holy Spirit to qualify them for their work. " For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you," Matt. x. 17, 20. And in John's Gospel, i6th chapter, where we have the fullest intimations of the endowments to be granted to the Apostles, we find that the Spirit is promised to them as a spirit of truth, to bring Christ's words to remembrance, to teach them all things, to lead them into all truth, and to show them things to come. And these remarkable gifts were promised, not for a special season, but to abide with them permanently. And as peculiar gifts were necessary for their work, they were strictly forbidden attempting to discharge the special functions of their office, until these promises were fulfilled. They were commanded to tarry in Jerusalem, until they were "en- 26 dued with power from on high," Luke xxiv. 49. Per- haps, however, the nature of the gifts promised can be best seen in the actual history of the Apostles, and in the claims which they themselves put forth. To these claims we must now pass. (3.) The c/ai'ms which the Apostles put forth imply in- spiration. Here it should be noted, at the outset, that the Apostles claim, as might be expected, equal authority for their spoken and written words, and for both they demand the right which infallible truth and divine authority alone possess to control, without re- serve, the faith and life of Christians. " Therefore, brethren," Paul writes, "stand fast, and hold the tra- ditions which ye have been taught, whether by Word or our epistle : " 2 Thess. ii. 1 5. See also i Cor. xv. I, and John xx. 31. Accepting the writers of the New Testament as credible witnesses of divine revelation, what idea do we gain of the guidance under which they wrote, and of the authority due to their words? Paul, writing of the truths which he made known to men, says, " But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." " Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teach- eth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." — i Cor. ii. 10, 13. Would it not be well for Morell and those who affirm that Apostles made no pretensions to any inspiration, save that which sprang from their spiritual development and intimate acquaintance with Christ, to inform us, what terms Paul could have employed to set forth his plenary inspiration more clear and pre- cise than he has used, when he declares that he spoke what God had revealed to him by His Spirit, " not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.?" Again, in the same epistle, F\ul writes, " If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the 27 things which I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord : " i Cor. xiv. 37. So confident is Paul of his inspiration that he makes the acceptance of it the virtual test by which a professed prophet is to be tried. The apostle John does the same: " He that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us:" I John iv. 6. No one in reading these passages with unbiased mind, can fail to admit that these apos- tles regarded their words as clothed with infallible truth and divine authority. In writing to the Thessa- lonians, Paul employs language which throws no un- certain light upon his inspiration: " For this cause, also, thank we God, without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which efifectually worketh also in you that believe:" i Thess. ii. 13; vide also Gal. i. 6-12; I Thess. iv. i, 2, 8, 15. Peter represents himself and his fellow-apostles as preaching the gospel under the guidance of the same Spirit which animated the an- cient prophets, when they foretold the coming and the work of Christ. *' Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified be- forehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things that are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven:" (i Peter i. 10-13; vide also 2 Peter iii. 2, 15-16). The Book of Revela- tion which closes the New Testament canon, was not only written by an apostle, possessed, as such, of the gift of infallibility as a teacher, but the contents of the book give clear indications that John regarded it as an '^ 28 inspired production. The apostle was ** in the Spirit " when the record opens: (Chap. i. 10). He had a special commission from the Lord to write the book. " Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be here- after:" (Chap. i. 19). ""It is repeatedly styled pro- phecy, and the respect and reverence due to aii in- spired production — to a work which is at onceperfec. and divine — are claimed for it. " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear, the words of this pro- phecy and keep those things that are written therein: (Chap. i. 3). " Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book : " (Chap. xxii. 10). The closing sanc- tions with which the integrity of the book is guarded harmonize alone with the idea of its infallible truth and divine authority : " For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this work, if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book ; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book:" (Chap. xxii. 18-19). If the Apocalypse was written under such super- natural guidance that God is truly its author, respon- s;' !■ for its entire contents, if any alteration must ": r .barily mar its divine beauty and destroy its per- ..c I ji , then we can see a fitness in these tremendous sanctions. But if the book, however excellent, is a mere human production, compassed about with the imperfections of all purely human work, could John, or any sane man with a remnant of a moral nature in him, believe that the Most High will make bare his arm to blot out of the book of life the man who shall take away some of its deformities, or that He will add to him the plagues written in this 29 }> book, should he venture to remove from it real defects? We have only touched very slightly on the evidence which the Scriptures supply of their own mspiration. We have not referred to what is, in some respects, the most valuable of all the evidences — to those marks of di- vinity everywhere stamped on the sacred volume, " whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God." Enough, however, has been adduced to show that the prevailing view of the authority, in- spiration, and infallibility of the Bible has not been superstitiously attached to it, but that on the contrary, a fair examination of the statements and phenomena of the Scriptures, leads legitimately to the conviction, in which the Christian Church has rested from the be- ginning, that in these books we have a supernatural record of a supernatural revelation. III. Before discussing either inspiration, ox the objec- tions to it^wQ require to determine our theological where- abouts, in order that we may attend to one thing at a time. Inspiration, as we have already shown, does not come legitimately before us, nor has it, indeed, any meaning for us, until we have reached the convic- tion not only that there is a personal God, but that he has made a supernatural revelation of himself to man- kind of which we have a record in the Bible, which is historically trustworthy. We should not, therefore, at this stage, be required to examine any objection based on a denial of the possibihty of the supernatural, or involving a rejection of the credibihty of the sacred writers. These points are supposed to be^settled, be- fore we take up the precise degree of authority due to the Holy Scripture?. Time will not suffice to discuss, in detail, all the objections which come more legiti- mately under our consideration. It is, however, of importance to observe that a careful consideration of the doctrine of inspiration, which we have endeavored Til 30 to state and defend, obviates completely a large por- tion of them. We have presented it as involving a twofold authorship throughout of the sacred books. The Scriptures are at once all of man and all of God. When God gave us a revelation, what he employed was not a human hand to write down his words, or a scribe to transfer mechanically to paper what was given him. He employed a man— a man in all the fulness of his powers of memory, imagination, conscience, desires, and affections, with all his acquired literary polish, or native rudeness and vigour, as the case might be — to write in all the freedom of ordinary au- thorship. This human authorship was no mere fic- tion; it was as real as the divine. The books, there- fore, are at once all human and all divine. It is evi- dent that all the objections urged so commonly against the inspiration of Scripture, drawn from the individual- ity of the writers, fall to the ground as soon as this view is understood. In like manner, all objections springing from the expression, on the part of the sa- cred writers, of personal feelings or beliefs, or from appeals to their own knowledge or veracity, disappear the moment it is seen that the book is at once per- fectly human and perfectly divine. And certainly no one who understood this view could gravely bring for- ward, as has been done by Guizot, {Vide Meds. on Christianity, p. 175) mere grammatical or literary de- fects, as inconsistent with the plenary inspiration of the writers of the Bible. We are satisfied that these de- fects have been greatly multiplied and magnified by certain writers, according to their preconceived no- tions, but we have no special interest in denying their existence. A man's literary culture, be it less or more, is just as much a part of himself as his memory, im- agination, or reason. When God selected a channel through which His revelation might be given to the race. He took a whole man that he might speak as he 31 ' was moved by the Holy Ghost. Inspiration was not de- signed to secure for men a model of literary excellence, but to assure them of an unerring exhibition of truth. And no defect, which is not inconsistent with the in- fallible truth and divine authority of the Holy Scrip- tures, can impinge on their inspiration. The view presented anticipates all the objections arising from the variety of expression employed by different histor- ians in narrating the same facts, and from the diversity of conception under which the writers of Scripture exhibit the same truths. These are necessary mani- festations of the human element. And so long as the variations are not such as would trench upon truth in an ordinary writer, they are not inconsistent with in- spiration. A discourse may be reported verbatim^ or it may be condensed and embodied in other words. But so long as the truth, which is not to be identified with the v/ords in which it is set forth, is not interfer- ed with, neither historical nor inspired truth is marred by the change. If a writer professed to report the exact words of a speaker and failed to do so, it would be inconsistent with truth; but where no such profes- sion is made, all we have a right to expect is the substance of what was said. It is surprising to find a writer, at once so learned and candid as Alford, decrying what he calls "verbal inspiration," under the idea that it implies "that every word and phrase was absolutely and separately true:" Proleg., ch. i. 6. We have seen very extreme, and, as we think, very foolish, statements made in connec- tion with what is called verbal inspiration, but we have never encountered a writer who takes the extreme position, which Alford has described. We have never met an author who holds that Satan's words, "Ye shall not surely die," or the words of the servant, in the parable, " I knew thee that thou art an hard master," or the words of Job's friends, which are cited only to 32 be condemned, are "absolutely and separately true." Such an idea could certainly never have entered the mind of one who had apprehended the doctrine we have advanced. Whatever is consistent with perfect truth in an ordinary writer, is consistent with it in an inspired writer. And no one, surely, would impeach the truth of the narrative of a trial, because it contains the sworn testimony of a false witness. It is only when it is supposed that inspiration deprived the sacred writings of their human characteristics, that such a notion has any plausibility. The very highest doctrine of inspiration which we have ever seen, save in the caricatures of opponents, does not imply any interference with the individuality of the writer, or with his liberty to use the ordinary modes and forms of speech, at their current value. It guards him, in his writing, against the perverting influence of ignorance and bias, but binds him to no cast-iron mode of ex- pressing his ideas. A very simple negative test of inspiration may be given. Suppose all ignorance, prejudice, and bias in reference to the matter treated of, and so far as it is dealt with, absent from the mind of an uninspired writer, then ask yourself would his narrative neces- sarily be different from what you find in Scripture.? If so, provided your judgment is correct, the Scripture account cannot be inspired. Or, to take a concrete example : Imagine the four Evangelists apart from inspiration, in actual possession of the very inscription placed over the cross, written, not as Alford says, with apparent bias, in Greek, but as "John assures us,'' in Hebrew and Greek and Latin, and imagine these Evangelists free from all defect, or bias which could warp their judgments, and then ask yourself, would their narratives be necessarily different from what we find them.? If they could not have written as they have, then, uf course, we must fall back on some lower ' %^ ' 33 view of inspiration. But if ordinary authors, so en- dowed with perfect knowledge of the fact, and free from mental and moral defect, might have written such narratives, as we find in the pages of the four Evangel- ists, then there is nothing in these variations incon- sistent with the most complete inspiration. The popular objection against the inspiration of the Bible, based on the fact that its writers do not use scientific terms, in their references to nature, disappears when it is understood that they were at liberty to use language with the same freedom as other authors. When it is said that the sacred writers, in speaking of the sun standing still on one noted occasion, and of his rising and setting daily, expressly contradict the facts of science, it is strange the objectors do not dis- cover themselves, with unpleasant frequency, contra- dicting the facts of science when they speak of sunrise and sunset. It is stranger still, that they have never observed that the most noted men of science are quite as much guilty of the contradiction, as the sacred penmen. We turn to one of our greatest American astronomers, and on the first page of his book, we read, "On the approach of the sun to the horizon in the early dawn, his coming is announced by the grey east- ern twilight." On the next page, "While this motion continues, the sun at noon, when culminating on the meridian, reaches each day a point less elevated above the horizon, and the diurnal arc or daily path describ-. ed by the sun grows shorter and shorter :" (Mitchell's Pop. Astron., p. i, 2.) And must we believe that this astronomer was in profound ignorance of the element- ary principles of that science to which he had devoted his life, because, like other people, he speaks of "the daily path described by the sun.?" Sir J. Herschel does not hesitate to write : " The sun, which at a con- siderable altitude always appears round, assumes as it approaches the horizon a flattened or oval outUne:" ,<*V.' Jf ' "^fP""' t "«' f" ■" , tr p" l|M « f _ ij II 11 ( 1 I j ^1 v\ 34 Outlines of Astron., p. 34. If inspiration involves, as we have endeavoured to show, a two-fold authorship throughout of the Holy Scriptures, so that they are at once completely human and perfectly divine, no ob- jection can be more futile than that which is based on the fact that the sacred writers use popular language in the ordinary sense in which it is employed by mankind at large, and even by our highest scientific authorities. '»» r /, 4 \ '»» r