Now this method,--(of which, as I will presently remind you, we possess a great many specimens,)--proves to be very extraordinary. It altogether establishes the fact that the Bible _is not to be interpreted "like any other book."_ That it _could_ not be so interpreted, might have been confidently anticipated beforehand, from the very fact of its Divine origin[449]. What I mean,--Since, "by the mouth of David," the HOLY GHOST is expressly declared by CHRIST and by St. Peter to have "spoken;" and since the Psalms collectively are described by St. Paul as the utterance of the HOLY GHOST; since Jeremiah's witness is said to be the witness of the HOLY GHOST; and the HOLY GHOST is actually said to have spoken by Isaiah; while the Spirit of CHRIST Himself, (St. Peter says,) dwelt in the Prophets:--in a word, since "holy men of GOD spake _as they were moved by_ the HOLY GHOST," and the provisions of the Mosaic Law are to the same HOLY GHOST by St. Paul emphatically ascribed[450];--stubborn _facts_, you are requested to observe, which Essayists may prudently suppress but which no Sophistry on earth can either evade or deny:--seeing, I say, that Holy Scripture is declared by inspired men to be the utterance of the Eternal God, it was to have been expected beforehand that its texture would bear witness to its Divine origin; and that, to interpret it "like any other book," would be to forget its extraordinary character. Interpret Sophocles and Plato, if you will, like any other book, for a very plain reason; but beware how you apply your purely human notions to the utterance of the Ancient of Days; for that utterance, enshrined in one particular volume, clearly makes that one volume essentially unlike any other volume in the world.