The Inspiration of the Scriptures Author:Alexander Carson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ON HUMAN CERTIFICATES EXCELLENCY OF-THE SCEIPTUKES. Christians have discovered a great propensity to sanction the wisdom of God by the wisdom of men. The S... more »criptures, on the contrary, oppose these; and, instead of coveting the patronage of the wisdom of this world, they cast upon it the utmost contempt. So far, therefore, as Christians do otherwise they are carnal and walk as men. That the Scriptures are suited to the capacities of all men, and that they are the power of God to the salvation of the learned and wise as well as the unlearned and unwise or illiterate and ignorant, is a truth that reflects glory on them; yet that they should bo so agreeable to the natural taste of learned men as to recommend themselves to their constant perusal, is neither agreeable to fact nor to the nature of their contents, except these are grossly perverted and mistaken. These reflections mayfrequently occur from the writings of Christians; they are at present excited by some things in the article of Buck's Anecdotes, entitled the Scriptures. Speaking of the book of God, he says: " It is so sublime in its language, so noble in its doctrine, yet plain in its precepts, and excellent in its end, that the man must be ignorant and depraved indeed who lives without reading it." I acknowledge that there are many specimens of sublimity in the Scriptures, especially in the Old Testament, that it is impossible to find parallels in any of the writings of men; but it is equally true that there is much, especially in the language of the Apostles, that cannot bear the' test of criticism, according to the rules of human eloquence. I am convinced that the rhetorical excellencies of many parts of Scripture would recommend them to the admiration of the learned, were they to be found on any other subject, but f...« less