Excerpt from The Nature and Extent of Divine Inspiration: As Stated by the Writers, and Deduced From the Facts, of the New Testament The utmost variety of Opinion has been maintained re specting the nature and degree of the inspiration under the influence of which the New Testament has been composed. Have such Opinions the foundation of certainty, or are they mere assumptions based on uncertain evidence? On what principles have these theories been assumed? Many of them are founded on considerations supposed to arise out of the probabilities or the necessities of the case. It is not even pretended that the greater portion of such Opinions are the result of careful inquiry into the facts presented by the pages of the New Testament: they are based on mere grounds of supposed antecedent probability. Now universal experience has proved that, except within the region of strict demonstration, the principles of induction are the only safe guides to truth in every department of human knowledge. Why should not those principles be applied to the New Testament Scriptures, with a view to ascertain from those Scriptures themselves the nature of the inspiration under the influence of which they have been written? Mere assertions and theories applied to the study of the natural universe have led those employing them, not to the discovery of truth, but into endless mazes of error. Why should assumptions and theories, which have been utterly discarded as guides to truth in every matter of inferior mo ment, be still retained as the only safe modes of determining the nature of the inspiration under the influence of which the New Testament Scriptures have been composed? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.