the incorrect copies, the only way would be to take the copies, such as they were, and by examining them among themselves, to restore if possible the original readings. To this end the page as set up by the first compositor would be the most helpful, and would undoubtedly be the nearest to the MS. It would therefore be important to trace the genealogy of these printed copies. If the MS. copy had been put into the hands of more than one compositor, the page as set up by each of these would be a separate and important witness; the united testimony of such pages would lead one to something like a certainty as to the original reading. This may serve to illustrate the causes and character of various readings, and the mode of critically dealing with them." How can we avoid recognising here the powerful intervention of God in this unanimous agreement of all the religious societies of the East and of the West? Everywhere the same Scriptures. What a distance separates in their worship Christians from Jews! and, notwithstanding, enter our schools, examine our Hebrew Testaments, then go into their synagogues, ask of their Rabbies their sacred rolls, you will there find the same books, without the difference of a letter! What a distance separates the reformed Christians from the sectaries of Rome! Yet you will find in our respective schools the same Greek Testament, without the difference of an iota. Again, what a distance separates the Latin church from the Greek church, which also calls itself the catholic, but orthodox apostolic, daughter of Antioch, condemning the Romans as rebel and schismatic sons! and yet ask of one and the other their sacred texts, neither will you find any difference here. There are no variations to make two schools; they will bring forward the same manuscripts; priests and popes, Munich and Moscow, will give you the same testimony. We were then to have amongst us, Greeks, Romanists, and Protestants, the same sacred book of the New Testament, without the difference of a single iota. We come then once more to the conclusion, that not only was Scripture inspired at the time when God caused it to be written, but that this word, which was inspired eighteen centuries ago, is now in our possession; and that moreover, holding the sacred text in one hand, and all the readings which science has collected from hundreds of manuscripts in the other, we can exclaim with gratitude, "I now hold in my hands the eternal word of my God!" Concerning Errors of Reasoning, or in the Doctrine of Holy Scripture. We will leave the Various Readings, say some opposers, and admit that the sacred text may be regarded as the original language of the prophets and apostles; but in this text we are compelled to recognise the leaven of human weakness. We meet with irrelevant or inconclusive reasonings, inapt quotations, popular superstitions, prejudices, and other infirmities resulting from the ignorance of the times and condition of those who wrote. Such being the traces of infirmity which are apparent in Scripture, it is impossible, say some, for us to acknowledge an inspiration in the details of their language. The experience of every age, and especially of later times, has sufficiently demonstrated, that before an impartial examination all these difficulties vanish; light is thrown upon what appeared obscure; and eventually inconceivable harmony and beauty, such as the human mind never had conceived, stand revealed in the Word of God, to the manifestation of which even objections are made subservient. What is an object of doubt today, may by further study become a motive of faith to-morrow; and what is to-day a subject of perplexity, may to-morrow be converted into proof. We do not hesitate to assert that, on hearing such objections, we feel at once two opposite emotions— those of sorrow and of satisfaction: of sorrow, to see men who acknowledge the Bible to be a revelation. from God, not fearing to advance against it the most serious accusations; and of satisfaction, in considering how forcibly such language on their part helps to confirm the doctrine which we are defending. 66 The divinity, expediency, wisdom, or utility of such and such passages of Scripture is not understood, and on this account their inspiration is denied. Is this an argument which can have any real value, we will not say in our eyes, but in your own? Who are you? Keep thy foot (feeble child of man) when thou goest into the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they consider not that they do evil.-God is in heaven, and thou upon earth." (Eccles. v. 1, 2.) Who are you who thus sit in judgment upon the oracles of God? Scripture has itself forewarned us, that it would be to some "a stumblingblock, and to others foolishness;" that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God;" that "he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. ii. 14.) Man must take his proper position as a weak, ignorant, and depraved creature! He cannot understand God until he has humbled himself. Is an argument not well sustained because you fail to apprehend it?-is a doctrine a prejudice because you do not concur in it?-a quotation void of force because you do not understand its true sense? What would remain in our world if God had left us only what you can explain? The emperors of Rome, unable to understand either the life or the faith of the martyrs, threw them to be torn of beasts in the amphitheatre, or cast them into the Tiber. So they expose to scorn what they cannot understand, and have condemned. Might the author here venture to state his own ex perience? He calls to mind with equal humiliation and gratitude his first and last impressions of the Epistles of St. Paul. In his youth he was enabled to acknowledge that the Bible was from God; but he could not then comprehend the doctrines it inculcated. He wished to respect the apostolic records, because he saw by other traits that the inimitable impress of the Most High God was upon them; but a secret perplexity agitated his mind as he perused them, and led him to consult other books. St. Paul appeared to him to reason falsely, to speak ambiguously, to avoid coming to the point by his constant circumlocution, and to speak altogether in a different way to that in which we might ourselves have expressed it. But as soon as Divine grace had revealed this doctrine of the righteousness of faith, which is the bright and effulgent glory of the Scripture, then every word became light, harmony, and life; the arguments of the apostle became transparent, his ideas profound and practical, -all his epistles "the power of God unto salvation." He then saw abundant proofs of Divinity break forth in the very portions of Scripture which had so long perplexed him, and he could exclaim with the joy of a discovery, and with lively gratitude and praise, on finding the hitherto silent chords within vibrate in unison with the Divine word, "Yes, my God, thy Scriptures are throughout divinely inspired!" Errors alleged to be in the Narratives, and We will begin by acknowledging that, if it were true that there are erroneous facts and contradictory narratives in the Holy Scriptures, we must renounce the defence of their plenary inspiration. But we can make no such admission. These pretended errors do not exist. the numerous attacks levelled We admit that, among at the most minute details of the narratives in the sacred books, there are some which at first sight may occasion a little perplexity; but on a closer examination these difficulties explain themselves and vanish. Of these we shall give some examples, taking care to select them from among those which the adversaries of a plenary inspiration appear to have regarded as the most insurmountable. It is very easy to say, generally and peremptorily, that there are contradictions in the Bible; and it often happens that unreflecting though pious Christians, indisposed to the trouble of close examination, suffer their notions of inspiration to become relaxed, before on the one hand they have sufficiently examined the general testimony of Scripture on this point, or on the other the nature of the objections which have been opposed to it. They have thus been found seeking in their own minds, rather than in the Bible, a mitigated system of inspiration, which can be reconciled with the pretended existence of errors in the Word of God. This was in the sixteenth century the doctrine of Socinus, Castalio, and of some others; but it was at the time strenuously opposed by all pious men. One whose labours and reputation we otherwise honour, has not scrupled to say in his Lectures, that "all is not equally inspired in the Holy Bible, and that if error in the details of evangelical narratives were not admitted, their explanation would involve inextricable difficulties." And what examples does he give to justify such assertions? He quotes two of the passages which we shall presently review;-the first, relative to the two blind men of Jericho; and the second, to the taxing under Cyrenius. The reader may therefore judge of the facility with which the testimony borne by the Scriptures themselves to their own entire inspiration is abandoned. We shall now present some examples, both of the contradictions which objectors think they can oppose to us, and of the causes of the rashness with which they |