=1. Freedom under Inspiration.=--Faussett has this to say of
man's agency under the influence of inspiration:--"Inspiration
does not divest the writers of their several individualities of
style, just as the inspired teachers in the early Church were not
passive machines in prophesying (I Cor. xiv, 32). 'Where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty' (II Cor. iii, 17). Their
will became one with God's will; His Spirit acted on their
spirit, so that their individuality had full play in the sphere
of His inspiration. As to religious truths, the collective
Scriptures have unity of authorship; as to other matters, their
authorship is palpably as manifold as the writers. The variety is
human, the unity Divine. If the four evangelists were mere
machines, narrating the same events in the same order and words,
they would cease to be independent witnesses. Their very
discrepancies (only _seeming_ ones) disprove collusion.... The
slight variations in the decalogue between Exo. xx and its
repetition Deut. v, and in Ps. xviii compared with II Sam. xxii,
in Ps. xiv compared with Ps. liii, and in New Testament
quotations of Old Testament (sometimes from the Septuagint, which
varies from the Hebrew, sometimes from neither in every word),
all prove the spirit-produced independence of the sacred writers,
who, under Divine guidance and sanction, presented on different
occasions the same substantial truths under different aspects,
the one complementing the other."--_Bible Cyclopedia_, A. R.
Faussett, p. 308.
=2. The Doctrine of no Further Revelation, New and False.=--"The
history of the people of God, from the earliest ages, shows that
_continued revelation_ was the only way by which they could
possibly learn all their duties, or God's will concerning them.
They never once thought that the revelations given to previous
generations were sufficient to guide them into every duty. A
doctrine which rejects new revelation is a new doctrine, invented
by the devil and his agents during the second century after
Christ; it is a doctrine in direct opposition to the one believed
in and enjoyed by the saints in all ages. Now, to subvert and do
away a doctrine four thousand years old, and introduce a new one
in its stead can only be done by divine authority.... As the
doctrine, then, of continued revelation is one that was always
believed by the saints, it ought not to be required of any man to
prove the necessity of the continuation of such a doctrine. If it
were a new doctrine, never before introduced into the world, it
would become necessary to establish its divine origin; but
inasmuch as it is only the continuation of an old doctrine,
established thousands of years ago, and which has never ceased to
be believed and enjoyed by the saints, it would be the greatest
presumption to call it in question at this late period; and hence
it would seem almost superfluous to undertake to prove the
necessity of its continuance. Instead of being required to do
this, all people have the right to call upon the new-revelation
deniers of the last seventeen centuries to bring forward their
strong reasonings and testimonies for breaking in upon the
long-established order of heaven, and introducing a new doctrine
so entirely different from the old. If they wish their new
doctrine to be believed, let them demonstrate it to be of divine
origin, or else all people will be justified in rejecting it, and
clinging to the old."--Orson Pratt, _Divine Authenticity of the
Book of Mormon_, I (2) 15, 16.
=3. Inspiration a Sure Guide.=--"Inspiration has been defined to
be the 'actuating energy of the Holy Spirit, in whatever degree
or manner it may have been exercised, guided by which the human
agents chosen by God have officially proclaimed his will by word
of mouth or have committed to writing the several portions of the
Bible.' By _plenary inspiration_ we mean that this energy was so
fully and perfectly exercised, as to make the teaching of the
sacred writers to be, in the most literal sense of the words,
God's teaching, as proceeding from him, truly expressing his
mind, and bearing with it the sanction of his authority. By
_verbal inspiration_ we mean that this energy was not exhausted
in suggesting to the writers the matter of Scripture, and then
leaving them to themselves to convey, in their own manner and
after an exclusively human sort, what had been supernaturally
suggested; but that they were assisted and guided in the
conveyance of the truth received.... When the doctrine of plenary
and verbal inspiration is thus disentangled from the
misapprehensions which have been entertained of it, it presents
in no point of view any just ground of objection. It is
consistent with all the conclusions relative to the Word which
modern scholarship has succeeded in establishing; for the dreams
of the 'higher criticism' are little more than the vagaries of
arbitrary caprice; and it is much to be regretted that they have
been honored with a deference wholly undeserved, and have been
rashly placed side by side with the valuable and precious results
of genuine criticism. These results, in many respects, point
decisively in the direction of plenary inspiration, when the
doctrine itself is rightly understood, as supplying the only
consistent and logical ground on which the authority of the
canonical writings can be safely based."--Cassell's _Bible
Dictionary_, pp. 559, 561.
=4.= "Is it unreasonable, is it unphilosophical, thus to look for
additional light and knowledge? Shall religion be the one
department of human thought and effort in which progression is
impossible? What would we say of the chemist, the astronomer, the
physicist, or the geologist, who would proclaim that no further
discovery or revelation of scientific truth is possible, or who
would declare that the only occupation open to students of
science is to con the books of by-gone times and to apply the
principles long ago made known, for none others shall ever be
discovered? The chief motive impelling to research and
investigation is the conviction that to knowledge and wisdom
there is no end. 'Mormonism' affirms that all wisdom is of God,
that the halo of his glory is intelligence, and that man has not
yet learned all there is to learn of him and his ways. We hold
that the doctrine of continuous revelation from God is not less
philosophical and scientific than scriptural."--_The Philosophy
of "Mormonism._" The Author, in _Improvement Era_, Vol. iv, p.
468.