21. What is the argument on this subject drawn from the manner in which Christ and his apostles argue from the Old Testament as of final authority ?
Christ constantly quotes the old Testament, Matt, xxi., 13 ; xxii., 43. He declares that it can not be falsified, John vii., 23 ; x., 35 ; that the whole law must be fulfilled, Matt, v., 18 ; and all things also foretold concerning himself " in Moses, the prophets, and the psalms/' Luke xxiv., 44. The apostles habitually quote the Old Testament in the same manner, " That it might be ful- filled which was written,7' is with them a characteristic formula, Matt, i., 22 ; ii., 15, 17, 23 ; John xii., 38 ; xv., 25, etc. They all appeal to the words of Scripture as of final authority. This certainly proves infallibility.
22. What is the objection to the doctrine of inspiration drawn from the diversity of style and manner observable among the sev- eral sacred writings^ and the answer to it ?
It is an acknowledged fact that all of the national and sec- tional peculiarities and individual qualities and habits of each of the sacred writers appear in his work, because his natural facul- ties were freely exercised after their kind in its production. Some have argued from this fact that it is absurd to believe that those faculties could at the same time, and with reference to the same object, have been subject to any determinating divine influence.
However it may be with the Arminian, the Calvinist can find no special difficulty here. "We can not understand how the infin- ite Spirit acts upon the finite spirit in providence or in grace. The case of inspiration is so far forth precisely analogous. God works by means, from the beginning pre-adjusting the means to the end, and then concurrently directing them while they freely
76 INSPIKATION.
act to that end. God surely might as easily guide the free souls of men in spontaneously producing an infallible Scripture, as in spontaneously realizing in act the events foreordained in his eter- nal decree.
23. What is the objection to this doctrine drawn from the free manner in which the New Testament writers quote those of the Old Testament, and the answer to that objection ?
In a majority of instances the New Testament writers quote those of the Old Testament with perfect verbal accuracy. Some- times they quote the Septuagint version, when it conforms to the Hebrew ; at others they substitute a new version ; and at other times again they adhere to the Septuagint, when it differs from the Hebrew. In a number of instances, which however are compara- tively few, their quotations from the Old Testament are made very freely, and in apparent accommodation of the literal sense.
nationalistic interpreters have argued from this last class of quotations that it is impossible that both the Old Testament writer quoted from, and the New Testament writer quoting could have been the subjects of plenary inspiration, because, say they, if the ipsissima verba were infallible in the first instance, an infal- lible writer would have transferred them unchanged. But surely if a human author may quote himself freely, changing the expres- sion, and giving a new turn to his thought in order to adapt it the more perspicuously to his present purpose, the Holy Spirit may take the same liberty with his own. The same Spirit that rendered the Old Testament writers infallible in writing only pure truth, in the very form that suited his purpose then, has rendered the New Testament writers infallible in so using the old mate- rials, that while they elicit a new sense, they teach only the truth, the very truth moreover contemplated in the mind of God from the beginning, and they teach it with divine authority. — See Fair- bairn's Herm. Manual, Part III. Each instance of such quota- tion should be examined in detail, as Dr. Fairbairn has done.
24. Upon what principles are we to answer the objections founded upon the alleged discrepances between the sacred writers, and upon their alleged inaccuracies in matters of science ?
If either of these objections were founded on facts, it would
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clearly disprove the doctrine we maintain. That neither of them is founded on fact can be shown only by a detailed examination of each instance alleged. As a general principle it is evident —
1st. With regard to apparent discrepancies between the sacred writers, that nothing presents any difficulty short of a clear and direct contradiction. Different writers niay, of course, with per- fect accuracy represent different details of the same occurrence, or different views of the same fact, and different elements and rela- tions of the same great doctrine, as may best suit their several designs. Instead of this course proving inconsistency, it is pre- cisely God's plan for bringing the whole truth most fully and clearly to our knowledge.