網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

A CONTRIBUTION

TOWARDS AN ARGUMENT FOR THE PLENARY

INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE,

DERIVED FROM ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND

ASSYRIAN REMAINS

PRESERVED IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM,

PROVING THE MINUTE HISTORICAL ACCURACY OF THE
SCRIPTURES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

No one has stated more briefly and sententiously the nature of the three kinds of evidence, relating to the religion of Christ, than the apostle Peter (2 Peter, i. 16-21).

I." We have not followed cunningly-devised fables

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

when

. . but were eye-witnesses of his majesty there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory,

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we" (that is the three witnesses of our Lord's transfiguration, Peter, James, and John his brother, Mat. xvii. 1)" were with him in the holy mount."

II.—“ WE have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto YE do well that ye take heed, as unto a light

that shineth in a dark place.”

Testimony of the three witnesses

eye and ear of

in one place, at one time, which

testimony, to

absent persons

then and there

after, would be
"tradition" only.

Testimony of

Prophets.
"Holy men of

old spoke as they

were moved by the Holy Spirit."

[blocks in formation]

"Marvel not that

I said unto you,

Ye must be born

again." John ii. 7. See inter

cat. 2 Cor. v. 17.

Cowper's Olney
Lace-maker,' the

III." Until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in hearts,"

your

It is evident from this passage-many others might be cited-that the apostle, who received, from the Saviour Himself, commands to "feed" his "lambs" and "sheep,” distinctly announces, through the Holy Spirit, that the third evidence is more powerful than the second, and the second than the first: melancholy thought! that many professing Christians have reversed, and do reverse, the process and in this way it is, that so many "teach as doctrines the commandments" (traditionally delivered to them) " of men."

"In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every type of a faithful truth be established;" and though the persons, who

Christian, com

pared with the witty Voltaire.

Paley's Horæ Paulinæ,' 1790. 'Voyage and

Shipwreck of St.

Paul,' by James
Smith, Esq.,
F.R.S., of Jordan
Hill, 1848.

never had an unbelieving doubt,

are very happy, like the Olney lace-maker, who

knew, and knew no more, her Bible true-

A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew,

and require no such evidence of the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures; yet it is well, it is in fact commanded, that we give "to any man who asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us."

6

Books of evidence have multiplied, just as the Church got light. Paley's Hora Paulina,' with Mr. Smith's Shipwreck of the Apostle Paul,' are two books so filled with minute proofs of internal evidence of accuracy in the Acts and in the writings of St. Paul, that careless men, who peruse them, are without excuse, so undeniable are the proofs.

Those who believe that "every hair of" their "head is numbered," and that "not a sparrow falleth to the ground

without our Father," and who "consider the lilies of the field how they grow," and also that all things are under the control of, and ordered by, "Him with whom we have to do," do or will also acknowledge that He who, for our instruction, made his servant write, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. iii. 16), —that He, we repeat, had a reason why Egyptian kings, dukes of Edom, and minute particulars about the Assyrian monarchs, and the manners (domestic and warlike) of their subjects, should be so fully recorded,—had a reason why the river that "went out of Eden" should be so particularly described as dividing "into four heads," -had a reason why "the dwelling of the sons of Joktan" (Gen. x. 30) should be so particularly defined, --had a reason for recording (Gen. x. 8-12), " And Cush begat Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in the earth: he was a mighty hunter before the Lord; wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And THE BEGINNING of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah; the same is a great city,"—mark the precision; mark the minute particularity of names in all passages of the Bible, from the boundary of Eden to the wanderings of the Israelites-from the names of the dukes of Edom and their cities to the passage, "Now Bethany was nigh to Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off," and to the minute description of the ship and voyage of the apostle Paul.

No Christian can doubt that He who, by his Spirit, inspired men to write the Scriptures, committed unto the Jews the keeping of the Old Testament, and placed the curse

[blocks in formation]
« 上一頁繼續 »