u6 WHAT is INSPIRATION? [vn. 



the conception of a government of law and not of 

 caprice. So strong has this habit become that we 

 look with distrust upon any hypothesis which im- 

 plies a conception of Divine action as in any sense 

 local, or special, or transitory. 



The hypothesis of inspiration has been retained by 

 modern Protestant Christianity, chierly as a means 

 of accounting for the assumed infallibility or super- 

 natural excellence of the literature gathered together 

 in the canonical Scriptures. It is supposed that the 

 writers of these works were in some way instructed 

 by Divine action, so that their works are either en- 

 tirely true in every statement, or at least may claim 

 to be examined in accordance with different canons 

 of criticism from those which we feel bound to apply 

 to all other works. Now, this hypothesis most cer- 

 tainly implies a conception of Divine action as local, 

 special, and transitory ; and, in so far as it does this, 

 it bears the marks of that heathen mode of philoso- 

 phising which was current when Christian monotheism 

 arose, and which has incrusted Christianity with many 

 of its conceptions. It is obviously not an hypothesis 

 in accord with the very strict monotheism towards 

 which modern thought is so manifestly tending, and 

 it is not likely long to survive unless upheld by very 

 weighty evidence. Such evidence might be forth- 



