the worlds; the origin of man, his original purity and uprightness, his soul made in the image of God; the history of the entrance of sin and death into the world; the two paradisiacal institutions of the Sabbath and Marriage.

While, then, the seal set to the document by our Lord and His Apostles stamps these communications as unering verities, the nature of the truths themselves leaves no alternative but to conclude, that they were written under the Inspiration of God.

3. These same transcendental truths appear in other parts of Scripture; and it is possible, that in treating of them there, an objector to Inspiration might deny the inference which I have drawn. But here there is no room for such denial; here they appear for the first time. And, consequently, though it might be pretended regarding other parts of Scripture containing them, that there the statements were bonowed, and that therefore these portions could not carry with them their own evidence of inspiration, any more than any ordinary human composition quoting the same, here there can be no doubt. Here is the original source and fountain, from which all subsequent information regarding them is drawn. These are the very documents, to which the prophets for 4,000 years, and our Lord Himself and His Apostles at the end of that long period pointed, as a true source and fountain of information.

It is difficult to suggest what stronger evidence could have been given than this, short of a voice from heaven which every ear could hear in every age. But even then, no doubt, the hesitations of unbelief would darken the testimony; and it would still in a way be true, that if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. A celebrated infidel once declared, that if Christianity were true it would have been recorded in unmistakeable characters upon the heavens, that none might have room to doubt in so important a matter. But he was met by the query, whether this was the case in natural religion: whether it is not by patient inquiry and diligent examination of evidence, which the works of God and our conscience supply, that the first principles of natural religion are discovered and believed in. So of Christianity so of Inspiration. We must weigh the evidence; for it is upon evidence alone that we can determine.

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It flows as a natural corollary from what has gone before, that in these Chapters there is no admixture of error of any kind, no inaccuracies arising from human ignorance and infirmity. For all is from God; and therefore bears His stamp. When the Maker of the world becomes an Author, it is to be expected that His word would be as perfect as His works. He who has all ideas, all language, all creation at His command-from whom all laws take their rule

to whom the past, the present, and the future are all one, with all their occurrences-needs not to stoop to human imperfections in conveying His thoughts or the knowledge of His acts and works, even to the most ignorant and illiterate.

Some have conceived that in darker ages, ere the mind of man had unfolded itself to the varied wonders of the world around and in him which modern science has disclosed, a necessity existed for veiling truth in terms, not solely ambiguous and obscure, but imperfect, and even, in some instances, of doubtful verity, to meet the ignorance and prejudice of the times.

But to the Infinite, the Omniscient, the Almighty, it is as easy to select terms which are in themselves correct, as words of inferior force-terms which will need no reforming hand to suit them to the endless changes which time unfolds, and which keener search and increasing light unceasingly add to the sum of human knowledge.

At the same time we must not shut our eyes to the obvious scope and purpose of the communications made to us in Holy Scripture, lest we should be looking for information which it was never intended we should find; for it has been well said,* that the Scriptures are a record of the moral destinies of man, and therefore altogether unconnected with any

* Sedgwick's Discourse on the Studies of the University Cambridge.

32 INSPIRATION OF THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS, ETC.

exposition of the phenomena of the natural world, and the laws by which material things are held together." Besides this, as God here speaks to us in the language of men, the usages of language must be expected.

What we contend for is, that the Scriptures, as being inspired by God, must be free from all error. Where terms are used and facts are affirmed, which belong even to the natural world alone, they are in no instance wrong, they involve no error; though they may communicate no philosophic truth and teach no physical law. We may have to modify our interpretations, to cast aside long cherished prejudices with which in our ignorance we and our forefathers have long enveloped and perverted the language of Scripture; but in the midst of all this (as I shall attempt to show in the next chapter), Holy Scripture rises intact, and still stands forth as the infallible Word of God, without blemish and without defect.

CHAPTER II.

SCRIPTURE, WHEN RIGHTLY INTERPRETED, AND SCIENCE ARE NOT OPPOSED TO EACH OTHER.

THE Book of Nature and the Word of God emanate from the same infallible Author, and therefore cannot be at variance. But man is a fallible interpreter ; and by mistaking one or both of these Divine records, he forces them too often into unnatural conflict.

Reason, when combined with a humble mind and a patient spirit, is man's highest endowment. By it he can scale the heavens, and unravel the mysterious ties which unite matter to matter in all its combinations; and can trace the secret and silent operation of its laws. Thus furnished, he can weigh and appreciate the claims of truth, as revealed from heaven or produced from the evolutions of the human mind; and can reject the evil and choose the good. But deprived of these valuable accessories, this noble gift is converted into a snare, and too often blinds and infatuates him in the midst of prejudice, and hurries him to conclusions from which he is compelled, with pain and shame, to retrace his steps.

It is my intention to enumerate the principal

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