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In all these particulars the argument in favour of the genuineness and authenticity of the Scriptures , taken in their place * on a survey of ancient writings in general , is striking and conclusive . Mr . Taylor properly ob ^ serves , " Whenever it is said that the events recorded in the four Gospels are prei . sented to us in a form purposely adapted to exercise our faith , it should always be added , by way of illustrating the exact meaning of the words , that the events recorded by Thucydides and Tacitus are also presented to us in a
form adapted to exercise our faith . Yet it would evidently be more exactly proper to say , that this sort of evidence is adapted to give exercise to reason , for faith has no part in things which lie within the known boundaries of the mundane system . And facts , intelligible in themselves , are , when duly attested in conformity with the ordinary principles of evidence , as much a part of the mundane system as th ! e most familiar transactions of common life . " - * " To one who affected to question the received account of the death of Julius Csesar , we should not say , ' You want faith / but , * You want common
sense . " As an historical and literary question , then , Mr . Taylor ' s object , most successfully pursued , is to shew , that the argument as it regards Christianity is distinguished from others of a like nature by nothing , unless it be the multiplicity and the force of the evidences it presents . To ask for proofs of the facts recorded in the Gospels , and of their authenticity , and to leave the events of the same or preceding times unquestioned and unexamined , is an
impertinence , he contends , which the advocates of Christianity should never submit to , much less encourage , by a tacit acknowledgment that the evidence in the one case needs some sort of candour , or of easiness or willingness to be persuided , which is not asked by the other . The Gospels demand a verdict according to the evidence , in a firmer tone than any other ancient histories that can be put to the bar of common sense , and that verdict must be in their favour , unless the rejector has previously determined that no evidence can prove them , on the principle , that the supposition of the resurrection of the dead ( which is the centre fact affirmed in these books , and
which must bear all the burden of the argument ) offers a greater outrage to reason than the rejection of the clearest and fullest evidence that history has ever accumulated , or , in short , that it is " a thing incredible that God should raise the dead . "
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AjiT . IV . —Hie Plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures asserted , and the Principles of their Cdtnposition investigated . By the Rev . S . Noble . London . 1825 . On the subject of the inspiration of the Scriptures , it is well known that three different views have been adopted by those who agree in deriving from them the rule of their feith and practice . The first is what is commonly called plenary inspiration ; which maintains that every word , all the most minUte , and ( if we may he allowed to say 00 ) trivial passages were
immediately dictated by the Holy Spirit ; the second allows that matters of small moment may have been left to the discretion of the writers , but that all important matters ! all arguments and statements of doctrine , were inspired ; while * third party contends that prophecies and other passages , which are expressly delivered as proceeding mreotly 4 fcom God , are to be received as of divine authority—but that the historical books are to be considered merely as
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Re mew . — -Noble on the Inspiration of the Scriptures . 52 $
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1827, page 523, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1798/page/51/
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