On the contrary, we feel it to be an advantage, that the divine light
emanating from the life of Jesus Christ, should reach us through an
artless and thoroughly human medium. It is no misfortune, in our
judgment, but quite the opposite, that 'we have this treasure in earthen
vessels.' Such traces on the pages of evangelic history as mark the
writers for men,--honest, faithful, competent, but yet verily and indeed
men,--bring their narrative much more closely home to our sympathies,
and set us upon a more ardent search for the spirit in its several
portions, than if the story had been written by the faultless pen of
some superior being.'
Mr. Miall then refers to the errors and discrepancies in the genealogies
prefixed to two of the lives of Christ, and says, 'They are accounted
for, in our view, by the humanity of the writers. We are not bound to
regard the genealogies as infallibly accurate, any more than we are
bound to regard the dialect of the writers as pure Greek. No essential
truth is affected by either, and that is enough.'
Mr. Miall further argues that intellectual infallibility was not
necessary, and was not to be looked for, in Paul, the great expounder of
the Gospel. And he adds, 'Taking the New Testament as a whole, we are
not disposed to deny, that it bears upon the face of it, many
indications that its several writers were not entirely exempt from
mental imperfection,--but we contend that the mental imperfection which
their works exhibit, is perfectly compatible with the communication to
men of infallible knowledge respecting God, His moral relations to us,
His purposes with regard to us, and the religious duties which these
things enforce on all who would attain eternal life.
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