Still, on the one definite point, 'Is the Bible divinely
inspired according to the theory of divine inspiration laid down by
certain theologians,' the Christian will be beaten out and out,--he will
not only be confuted, but confounded, dishonored, and utterly routed.
The Bible and Christianity will receive an undeserved wound, and
infidelity will have an undeserved triumph; and many a poor young man
whose leanings were towards the Bible, and who would have liked its
advocate to triumph, will be disheartened, distressed, embarrassed,
distracted, and perhaps undone.
The true doctrine of Scripture inspiration, or of Scripture authority,
is about as applicable to the common version, and to honest Christian
translations generally, and to all the manuscripts, and to all the
printed Greek and Hebrew Bibles, as it would be to the lost originals if
they could be recovered. There is divine inspiration enough in the
poorest translation of the Scriptures, and in the most imperfect Greek
and Hebrew transcript of them ever made, to place the Bible above all
the books on earth, as a means of enlightening, regenerating,
comforting, and saving mankind. But in none of its forms is the Bible so
inspired, as to make it what the unauthorized, fanciful, impossible
theories of certain dreamy, or proud, presumptuous, and overbearing
theologians require it to be.
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