Welsh Journals

Graviora. 577 In fine, have I a single reason for believing implicitly any one doctrine or fact, great or small, as from God, ex¬ cepting those repeated statements in that most " credible and authentic of all books," which, if they claim a divine origin at all* do so for the Holy Scriptures as a whole, without any distinction of doctrinal and historical, essen¬ tial and non-essential! I confess / have none; and, though it is not fair to tie other minds down to all your own in¬ ferences, I advise every one who contends for partial or graduated inspiration to consider whether he can infer any thing short of this—that we possess not a single text which is binding on our consciences, any further than we, in our fallible judgment, may deem it (at the moment, with perfect liberty to change our minds the next moment,) worthy of God! Per contra, when Jesus tells us that man shalllive'by "every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," does He mean only certain parts of the Old Tes¬ tament whence he is quoting, and which he elsewhere endorses as a whole? (Luke xxiv. 44.) If not, let us, beloved brethren of every and of no denomination, contend, in sober, calm earnest, for every part of it, as for our lives. Farewell. Inspiration. ( Continued from page 552.^ I may refer my readers, as well as that esteemed friend, to what I have already said respecting the so-called " unimportant portions of Scripture," No. VI. p. 270, and I would now further remark that the only claim of any class, literary, scientific, or rude, is just to have a distinction clearly made out between what God has said and what * Read them, e.g., Mark xii. 16, xiii. 2; Acts i. 16, xviii. 25; 1 Cor. ii. 15; Heb. iii. 7, x. 15; I Peter i. 2; 11 Peter i. 20, 21 ; and search for others. 39