suffered more than any other, under Charles II, because they professed the principles of religious liberty." Jeremy Taylor says, "Freedom of conscience, unlimited freedom of mind, was from the first the trophy of the Baptists." Our own Washington used words just as affectionate; and in August, 1789, at the request of the Baptists, he recommended to Congress that amendment to the Constitution which says that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof." Bancroft, our great historian, and Judge Story, our great jurist, speak of us in the same manner. I can assure you that we never blush, when we remember that Milton and Bunyan, Sir Harry Vane and John Hampden, and Roger Williams, were all Baptist laymen. Nor when we think that John Gill and Andrew Fuller, Adoniram Judson and William Carey, Robert Hall and Charles Spurgeon, Horatio Hackett and Thomas Conant, were Baptist missionaries, scholars and ministers. And as to other denominations; I only wish that we used the Bible more in public worship, as Episcopalians do; that we had as learned a ministry as our Presbyterian brethren have-as much pathos and zeal as our Methodist brethren-as much simplicity as the Society of Friends-and as much selfsacrifice as the Roman Catholics-and a good deal more heart-felt religion than either we or they have at present. God knows I love them all, and if they

would stop scolding us, and pray for us twice where they speak unkindly of us once, they would be happier and we should be better. God bless them all, I say. Amen.

THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.

BY REV. J. B. JETER, D. D., RICHMOND, VA.

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God."-2 Timo thy iii. 16.

There are among theologians various theories of inspiration; but we shall notice only two of them. One is that God communicated his truth to the minds of his servants, prophets and apostles, and they retained it in their memories, and expounded it in their discourses by the use of their natural faculties, without divine aid or supervision. The other--. that generally held by evangelical Christians-is that God not only communicated truth to the minds of his servants, but exercised over them an influence by which they were enabled to reveal it, by speech or writing, without any mistake, and in the manner best suited to secure the end of the revelation. It is to the examination of these theories that our article is devoted.

That God can inspire men to reveal his truth infallibly to the world, it is atheistic to deny. That plenary inspiration seems necessary to secure the end of the avowed purpose of the Scriptures-that men may believe in Christ, and by believing secure

everlasting life-can hardly be questioned. Still it must be conceded, that not only the reality, but the measure and manner of the inspiration of the Scriptures, must be learned from their own testimony. What do they teach on the subject? Did their writers claim to be divinely inspired? Did they assume to be partially or fully inspired? Did they say or do anything incompatible with their full inspiration? We should come to the Scriptures, with childlike docility, to learn what they teach on these points.

Moses was the first of the inspired writers. His inspiration is proved by the present condition of the Jews, accurately described in Deut. xxviii. The manner of his inspiration is given in xviii. 18. The Lord said unto Moses: "I will raise them up a prophet like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him." The prophecy relates to the Messiah, and he was to have the words of God put into his mouth, and in this plenary inspiration was to be like unto Moses. David, the Psalmist, said: "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue." 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. "The Lord spake thus to me, and instructed me," is the language of Isa. viii. 11. His prophecies were a mere reiteration of the words of the Lord: "Thus saith the Lord, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone," etc., xxviii. 16. Jeremiah begins one of his prophe

cies in these words: "The word that the Lord spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet." 50:7. In many other passages, he claimed that his words were the words of the Lord. ix. 11, xiii. 15, etc. Amos professed to speak the very words of God: "Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O house of Israel." iii. 1. Micah closes a prophecy with the words: "The mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it." iv. 4. "The Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak." Num. xxiii. 5.

It would be easy to multiply quotations of this kind; but if the above passages do not establish the fact that the writers of the Old Testament claimed plenary inspiration, it is impossible for language to do it. God spoke by the prophets. In a sense their words were their own; but in a higher, truer sense they were the words of God. There was no possibility for them to err in their words, unless God could be mistaken.

When Christ appeared in the world, the writings of Moses and the prophets, called, by way of eminence, the Scriptures, were held in high estimation among the Jews. How did Christ respect them? He was "God manifest in the flesh," and knew perfectly their origin, history, contents and authority. He treated them with the greatest reverence; and never uttered a word to indicate that he deemed them