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    human testimony , and as depending for the whole of their authority on the high credibility which we justly ascribe to them from the approved sanctity and veracity of the . writers . There is no good reason , it is alleged , to suppose that the Jewish history was written in a different manner from that of any other nation , and we therefore ascribe it to writers who used ( and on the whole successfully used ) all the means in their power to render their works as acceptable and credible as possible . There are , it is true , more

    just and noble sentiments respecting the Divine character and human duties in the Jewish Scriptures than in the productions of any Heathen author ; such sentiments we rightly conclude to have been divinely communicated ; and their influence upon the feelings and character of the writers would naturally lead to the choice of appropriate expressions , and diffuse a sublime beauty over their general style ; but it does not hence follow that the precise terms in which they expressed themselves were , in all cases , of supernatural origin .

    In favour of this opinion they urge the difficulties which attend the other views of the subject from the contradictions which not unfrequently occur . These are , indeed , of trifling moment , and relate chiefly to those minor circumstantial details upon which independent witnesses are generally found to differ , while they agree in the substance of narratives ; and , therefore , so long as we consider the relation on the footing of human testimony , they add to its credibility , but are utterly inconsistent with the notion that every word is divinely inspired .

    . The author of the work before us is disposed to maintain the doctrine of plenary inspiration in its fullest extent ; not that he is insensible to the difficulties attendant upon this scheme , so long as we adhere to the literal interpretation . But he contends that we may derive from our knowledge of the Divine perfections a previous estimate of the character which must belong to a composition that has God for its author , and hence he endeavours to shew , by a series of very elaborate but tediously prolix and diffuse illustrations , that we are not in any instance to rest in the literal sense , that this is only a vehicle for the conveyance of a spiritual meaning , and that the apparent contradictions in the letter are only admitted in order the more

    completely to adapt it to the spirit which lurks behind , and of which it is the representative . The obvious objection to this and to all other schemes of a spiritual interpretation is , that in the absence of any authorized key , the admission of such a principle affords unbounded scope for the exercise of imagination in devising parabolical senses for the plainest and simplest passages ; and the

    author of this work is very far indeed from furnishing an exception to the remark . We much doubt whether many of those who contend for the plenary inspiration of Scripture would be satisfied to place their favourite doctrine on the precarious footing provided by such visionary speculations , and are inclined to suspect that the impression most commonly left upon the

    reader ' s mind by the perusal of these Lectures , will be a strong persuasion that a doctrine requiring for its establishment the admission of a system of interpretation which forbids us to rest in the obvious sense of the plainest and simplest passage , and converts the whole Bible into a book of riddles , cannot possibly be true . In the preface we are somewhat surprised to encounter a representation of the usual mode of establishing the credibility of revelation on the evidence of miracles , which has , to say the least of it , a suspicious appearance . The argument of the ' Christiah advocate , Mr . Noble thinks , is more fitted to silence than to Satisfy even an ingenuous inquirer : '' - ,. t ' - .,..-. ¦ ,

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    524 , Review . —Noble on the Inspiration of the Scriptures .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1827, page 524, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1798/page/52/