case, to our first parents. Something must have been supplied as a substitute. If they needed no such special aid, then it follows that we have more than we need; and if we have no more than we need, and they needed the same, then some special means were necessary to provide it. To make such special aid necessary, we need not suppose that the first human pair were formed babes. Let it be admitted that they were made with full dimensions, and with the strength of manhood; yet they needed instruction as to the use they were to make of their powers. They needed some special communications as to the purpose of their existence, and the modes of securing it. What is now furnished us by natural means, must have been furnished them, by means supernatural or special. Let the needed knowledge be given them in the form. of a superior instinct, or by special impressions produced on the brain, or by dreams and visions, or by any other means, the result is the same;-It is a revelation. The necessity of a revelation, at that time, is, therefore, an obvious and well sustained conclusion. How often revelations should be made, and how long continued in the world, can be judged of better by Him who made us, and knows all our needs, than by any other being.

33, Sundry theories have been put forth concerning the inspiration of the Scriptures. The two extreme theories are the following:-One theory regards every word of the book as immediately dictated by the Divine Spirit, so as to exclude all errors from the record; the other finds in the Bible, no inspiration but such as has been common to men in all ages of the world. It is obvious that the truth lies somewhere between these two extremes; but WHERE between them, it may be difficult to determine.

34. The ground we take, is, that inspiration cannot be affirmed of the language of the Bible. This is

made evident from the many imperfections of language found in the book. The composition of its several parts is evidently the work of men; and of men, too, in an age of the world when literature and science were far behind the present age. Again, a difference in style is observable in the several writers; and the style is found to vary, not only with the temper and disposition of the writer, but with the habits and prevailing intelligence of the age when he wrote. These circumstances are not consistent with the doctrine of verbal inspiration.

35. Again; if Moses, for example, was inspired to write the five books ascribed to him, in such a way as to secure the work from all mistakes, we ask for a reason for this, that does not apply, with equal force, to other things for which no such claim is put forth. Doubtless if he was so inspired, it was to keep those who should read his writings, from imbibing errors concerning the matters communicated. Not conceiv ing any other reason possible, we shall take this to be the one adopted. But would such inspiration secure the object? These books were soon to pass into other hands, and the inspired author could not always retain them. Besides, if more than one copy of the inspired book was to exist, the second must be transcribed from the first, and so on, indefinitely; and this work of transcribing would be attended by mistakes, unless the copyists were also inspired, which we believe no one has yet maintained. Farther than this, the inspired original would not always last. If it were not lost or destroyed, it would at length waste away and disappear; and then none but imperfect and uninspired copies would remain.

36. Again; no one at the present day, that acknowledges the truth of revelation, doubts that the Bible was intended for universal use. It must, then, not only be copied from the first written volume, but it must be translated into other languages; and it is

just as important as necessary, to guard men from the errors of a bad translation, as those of a faulty copy. If the original intention was to give men an exact knowledge of divine things, and without any alloy of error, the means of protection, one would suppose, should be continued, and the translations and copies both be placed under the guidance of the Divine Spirit; and as such is not the case, and no one assumes that it is, it occurs to us that the design of God has been mistaken as to the first record. We can conceive of no reason why that should be absolutely infallible that does not apply as well to the copies and translations made from it.

37. There is still another consideration that has some weight with us. Men, constituted and circumstanced as they are, would not all read and understand the Bible alike if every copy in use were infallibly correct; and if they understood it differently, some of them must be in error; and thus the original inspiration would fail of its purpose. There is but one conceivable way to secure such a purpose, and that is, by an inspiration that shall not only make the first record correct, but that shall secure the infallible accuracy of all copies and translations; and, indeed, that shall give an infallible understanding to all readers of the record. But were it desirable to secure the purpose here contemplated, an immediate inspiration to every man, without the record, would be a more natural and consistent method. It was then, no part of the Divine plan, to give us a revelation that should be miraculously protected from error.

38. The book has been subjected to the usual accidents to which other books are exposed, with such exceptions only, (important, to be sure,) as would. arise from the character of the book, and the circumstances of the people and times through which it has come down to us. The book has always been regarded with feelings of peculiar sacredness; and this

has thrown around it an additional protection over other books; and in this, as in many other things, even superstition has had its beneficial tendencies. There have been, also, many sects and parties, all claiming its authority; and this has led to the same result, as no one party could make any alteration in the book without exposure from the rest; and if any alteration occurred, by mistake or design, the great number of copies in the world would aid the work of correction. With these exceptions, and perhaps some others, we say the Bible has been subjected to the common fortune of other books. It was written by human hands as much as any other work. By human hands it has been transcribed and printed. It has been translated by men of fallible understanding. It was written on perishable materials, and like other books, is subject to decay.

39. The inspiration of the Bible relates to its principles, (we mean such as are there expressly referred to God as their author,) and not to its verbal records; and while the latter are subject to imperfection and decay, the former have never been impaired by the revolutions of the world, and will remain, though the world should pass away. That the Bible contains many divine communications, no one can doubt who admits its authority or truth in any respect. The error that Christians have too generally fallen into, (now being followed, as we might expect, by the opposite extreme, ) is to ascribe to the Bible what it does not claim, and thereby to weaken its evidences in the view of intelligent and inquiring minds.

40. As examples of its divine communications, as coming within the sphere of our present investigations, we place the creation of the world, more especially the order observed in the creative process, so exactly corresponding with the discoveries of modern science; for we cannot see how men could have learned these things in the early days of the world

without divine aid; since, as far back as we can trace the Bible record, the most profound ignorance has prevailed among men in regard to those sciences that throw light upon this subject. The coming deluge, and the means of preservation, must have been announced to Noah in like manner. The moral principles inculcated in the beautiful allegory of Eden, could have been made known at first only by a divine revelation, for they are even now but imperfectly comprehended by the wisest of men. The announcement that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, the sense of which we cannot well mistake, contains a sentiment that could not have been known without divine aid. The same remark will apply to the promise to Abraham, that in his seed all the families and nations of the earth should be blessed. That Jesus Christ was the seed of Abraham, we all know; and that his religion is destined to bless the world, none can doubt. A promise, therefore, so far-reaching, both in respect to time and space; and one which, for thousands of years, the merest accident might have defeated, can have emanated from no other source than a divine Omnis cience, that could take in the whole history of the world at one view, and a divine benevolence to plan its redemption and salvation.

41. Let it be added here, that no age before the present one has furnished such strong proofs of the inspiration of these announcements, though found in the oldest book in existence, as are now presented before us in the condition of the world, so plainly indicating the triumph of good over evil, and the blessing of the race through Jesus Christ. We are, indeed, farther from the time the book was written, but we are nearer to the fulfilment of its announcements, and are, therefore, made more sure of its truth. Hence, we add, that the objection sometimes urged against the Bible, that its records, the more ancient