1. Divine inspiration was not only occasional, or conferred in some particular instances, with a design to amuse the world, or confirm some doctrines which were altogether new, impure, and subversive of the divine glory in some ages thereof, when men were universally degenerate, and had cast off God and religion; but it was continued in the church for many ages, when they evidently appeared to be the peculiar objects of the divine regard; and therefore, 2. God would never have suffered the devil, in such circumstances of time and things, to have deluded the world, and that in such a degree, as that he should be the author of that rule of faith, which he designed to make use of to propagate his interest therein; so that his people should be beholden to their grand enemy for those doctrines which were transmitted by inspiration. 3. Satan would have acted against his own interest, should he have inspired men to propagate a religion, which has a direct tendency to overthrow his own kingdom; in which instance, as our Saviour observes, _His kingdom would be divided against itself_, Matth. xii. 25, 26. As it is contrary to the wisdom and holiness of God to suffer it, so Satan could never have done it out of choice, and he has too much subtilty to do it through mistake; therefore the inspired writers could not be imposed on by any infernal spirit. And to this we may add, that this could not be done by a good angel; for if such a one had pretended herein to have imitated, or as it were, usurped the throne of God, he would not have deserved the character of a good angel; therefore it follows, that they could not have been inspired by any but God himself. Having considered that the penmen of scripture have faithfully transmitted to us what they received by divine inspiration, we must now take notice of some things which are alleged by those who endeavour not only to depreciate, but overthrow the divine authority of the sacred writings, when they allege that they were only inspired, as to the substance or general idea of what they committed to writing, and were left to express the things contained therein in their own words, which, as they suppose, hath occasioned some contradictions, which they pretend to be found therein, arising from the treachery of their memories, or the unfitness of their style, to express what had been communicated to them. This they found on the difference of style observed in the various books thereof; as some are written in an elegant and lofty style, others clouded with mystical and dark expressions; some are more plain, others are laid down in an argumentative way; all which differing ways of speaking they suppose agreeable to the character of the inspired writers thereof: so that, though the matter contains in it something divine, the words and phrases, in which it is delivered can hardly be reckoned so.