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nearly seventy pages, to an argumentative consideration of the subject of Inspiration. This he does to greater advantage from the fact that he had in the preceding chapters cleared the ground for it. In conducting this argument he employs the catechetical manner, and by propounding and answering no less than forty-five questions, which seem to cover the whole ground of argument, he discusses the subject under almost every possible aspect in which it can be considered by human reason. We give the reader some idea of the author's manner in this chapter, by extracting three or four of these questions, together with their answers:

XVI. May much evil result from the doctrine, according to which the language of inspiration is only the human expression of a superhuman revelation, and, so to speak, but the natural reflection of a supernatural illumination?

It

There will ever result from it these two evils: either men will de. grade the oracles of God to a level with the words of saints; or they will elevate the latter to a level with the Scriptures. It is a baneful consequence, whose alternatives have been produced in all ages. is inevitable. All men, truly regenerated, being enlightened by the Holy Spirit, it follows, according to this doctrine, that they all possess, although in different degrees, the element of inspiration; so that according to the arbitrary idea which you may have formed of their spiritual state, you will be inevitably led one while to assimilate the sacred writers to them, at another, to elevate them to the rank of men inspired from on high.

XVII. Can you cite religious bodies, in which the former of these evils have been realized; I mean to say, in which men have been carried to the length of reducing the Scriptures to the level of the words of saints?

All the systems of the Protestant Doctors who suppose that there is some mixture of error in the sacred Scriptures are founded upon this doctrine,-from Semler and Ammon, to Eichhorn, Paulus, Gabler, Schuster and Restig; from De Wette, to the more respectful systems of Michaelis, Rosenmüller, Scaliger, Capel, John Le Clerc and Vossius. According to these systems, the divine light, by which the intelligence of the sacred writers was enlightened, might experience certain partial eclipses, by the inevitable effect of their natural infirmities, of a defect of memory, of an innocent ignorance, of a popular prejudice; so that their writings have retained the traces of it, and we can recognize the places where the shadows have fallen!

XVIII. Can you cite also some religious bodies in which the latter evil has occurred; I mean to say, in which, by having confounded inspiration with illumination, men have elevated saints and doctors to the rank of inspired men?

We may, above all, cite the Jews and the Latins (or Roman Catholics).

XIX. What have the Jews done?

They have considered the Rabbis of the ages succeeding the Dispersion, as endowed with an infallibility which has placed them on a level with (if not above) Moses and the Prophets. They have attributed, without doubt, a sort of inspiration to the sacred Scriptures; but they have forbidden to explain the oracles of God, otherwise than according to their traditions. They have called the immense body of these "commandments of men" the Oral Law, the Doctrine, or the Talmud, distinguishing it into the Mishna or Second Law, and the Gemara-complement or perfection. They have maintained that it was transmitted from God to Moses, from Moses to Joshua, from Joshua to the prophets, from the prophets to Ezra, from Ezra to the doctors of the Great Synagogue, and from them to the Rabbis Antigonus, Soccho, Shemaia, Hillel, Schammai; until at length Judah the Holy committed it to the Traditions, or Repetitions of the law, which, at a later day, together with their commentary or complement (the Gemara), have formed, at first, the Talmud of Jerusalem, and afterwards that of Babylon.

"One of the greatest obstacles which we meet among the Jews," says the Missionary Mac Caul," is their invincible prejudice in favor of their traditions and their commentaries; so that we cannot induce them to purchase our Bibles without notes or commentaries." "'* "The Law," say they, "is like salt; the Mishna, like pepper; the Talmuds, like aromatics." "The Scriptures are like water; the Mishna, like wine; and the Gemara like spiced-wine." "My son," says Rabbi Isaac, "learn to give more attention to the words of the scribes than to the words of the Law." "Turn your children," (said Rabbi Eleazer, on his death-bed, to his scholars who asked him respecting the way of life,) "turn your children from the study of the Bible, and place them at the feet of the wise men." 66 Learn, my son," says Rabbi Jacob, that the words of the scribes are more lovely than those of the prophets !!"'+ XX. And what has resulted from these enormities?

It has resulted, by this means, that millions and millions of immortal souls, though wandering throughout the earth, though weary and heavyladen, though despised and persecuted in every place, have carried about with them, into every nation of the earth, the book of the Old Testament, intact and complete, and have not ceased to read it, in the Hebrew, every Sabbath, in thousands and thousands of synagogues, during eighteen hundred years; without, however, discovering in it that Jewish Messiah whom we all adore, and to know whom would be from this day forth their deliverance, as it must one day be their happiness and their glory! Full well said Jesus unto them; "Ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your tradition."

XXI. And what have the Latins done?

They have considered the Fathers, the Popes, and the Councils of the successive ages of the Roman Church, as endowed with an infallibility which puts them on a level with (if not above) Jesus, the

* Letter from Warsaw, May 22d, 1827.

Talmud of Jerusalem.

Mark vii. 9, where the word reject, in the text, is better replaced by the word frustrate, in the margin of our English Bible.

prophets, and the apostles. They have, it is true, differed greatly, one from another, on the doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures; and the Faculties of Douay and Louvain, for example, resisted stoutly the opinion of the Jesuits, who were unwilling to recognize in the operation of the Holy Spirit, any thing more than a direction which preserved the sacred writers from error; but they have all forbidden to explain the sacred Scriptures otherwise than after the traditions. They have believed that they had the right to say, in all their Councils, as the apostles and prophets of Jerusalem : "It hath seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us." They have declared that it belonged to them to judge of the true sense of the Scriptures. They have called the immense body of these "commandments of men," the Oral Law, the Unwritten Traditions, the Unwritten Law. They have said that they were transmitted from God, and dictated by the mouth of Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit, by a continued succession. pp. 321-326.

We have not room to give further extracts from this interesting chapter. What we have given will enable the reader to form some idea of the original and striking manner in which the subject is discussed in the Socratic style.

The Sixth chapter relates to the Scriptural proof of the doctrine of Inspiration, and is divided into the following sections: 1. The whole Scripture is theopneustic, or inspired of God. 2. All the words of the Prophets were from God.

3. All the Scriptures of the Old Testament are prophetic. 4. All the words of the New Testament are prophetic.

5. The examples of the Apostles and of their Master attest that, in their estimation, all the words of the sacred Books were given from God.

This chapter, we need hardly inform the reader, is the most important one in the book. It contains, in the course of more than seventy pages, a thorough examination of every passage of the Scriptures which has a bearing on this subject. We have extended this article too far already to allow us to give any extracts from it, and it is not possible to give an abridgment of it in a few pages. We can only say that we have read it with the greatest satisfaction, and are entirely convinced that it settles the question of the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures. At least for ourselves, we cannot well see how any thing more conclusive could be advanced. We have never seen the testimony of the Saviour to the inspiration of the books of the Old Testament, nor the promise of the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit to his apostles so fully brought forward and made to bear on this subject, as is done in this chap

ter, and no view of the question could be stronger or more convincing.

The Seventh and last chapter is made up of a summary, or general view of the whole subject, and appropriate counsels to the reader, on the necessity of having right views of this important doctrine, and of so reading the Scriptures as to hear in them, and through them, the voice of our Heavenly Father, addressing us in one way and another, in every line of the sacred volume.

We do not see how any man can rise from the careful perusal of Professor Gaussen's book without having a more profound reverence for the Bible; or without uttering the prayer: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things in thy Law." Wonderful volume! in which truth is presented in a form adapted to every condition and capacity of the human mind;" containing," as Desmarets says, "fords for the lambs, and "deep waters where the elephants may swim.”

We do not agree with Professor Gaussen in all his positions as for instance, on the point of the second coming of the Saviour to reign personally on the earth,-nor do we suppose that his book might not be made more compact, better arranged in some respects, and more simple in its phraseology. Some improvements of this sort might, there is no doubt, be made in it. But take it all in all, we think it decidedly the best work on the subject which we have ever read. There is nothing in the English language which is comparable to it, unless it be the excellent work of the Rev. Dr. Henderson. But even that is not so entirely satisfactory to our minds as is the work of Professor Gaussen. We think that he nobly maintains the true doctrine on the subject of the inspiration of the Scriptures. It is the ground which, as he justly observes, was held, almost without exception, by the entire church during the first eight centuries. It was the doctrine of the greatest and best of the Reformers, as well as the most distinguished theologians who have trodden in their footsteps. "The Holy Spirit," says the illustrious Claude,*" employed the pen of the evangelists and of the apostles, of Moses and the prophets; he furnished them with the occasions of writing; he gave the desire and strength for it; the matter, the order, the economy, the expres sions are of his immediate inspiration and of his direction."

* Posthumous Works, Vol. IV. p. 228.

This sentence, from one of the brightest ornaments of the French Protestant Church, in a by-gone century, expresses, we apprehend, the truth on this subject.

We conclude this article with the expression of our sincere desire that Professor Gaussen will not permit his pen to remain long idle. There are many subjects, connected with the important department which he occupies in the new Theological Seminary at Geneva, which demand his attention and his labors. May he long live, in conjunction with his excellent colleagues, to render illustrious the Evangelical church of Geneva, and to recover for that city the glory which Farel, and Calvin, and Beza, and Francis Turretin and Pictet shed upon it in days of old.

A detailed history of the Progress, the Conflicts and Triumphs of the Truth, within the last twenty-five years, in that ancient city, where Pelagianism, Socinianism and Deism have so long prevailed, would make an interesting article for the Repository; and we think we may promise our readers that, with God's help, it shall before long be submitted to them.

ARTICLE V.

THE ANTEDILUVIAN CHRONOLOGY OF THE Bible.

A Discourse delivered before the Royal Society of Göttingen, July 5, 1768: by J. D. Michaelis.

Translated from the Latin, by Stephen Chase, Prof. of Math. in Dartmouth College, N. H.

NOTE BY THE EDITOR.

As introductory to his discussion, the learned author adverts to the attempt which has been made to reduce the lives of the patriarchs to the present standard of longevity. Some have contended that the years, which they are said to have spent on the earth, should be reckoned as so many months. According to this hypothesis, several of them must have become fathers at 5, 6 and 7 years of age. Besides, there is no place in ancient chronology, which can be regarded as the transition point from the monthly to the yearly mode of com

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