ty that is needed. The intimate relation of Luke to the
apostle Paul has been already sufficiently shown. We have good ground
for believing that he was with him when he wrote both the gospel and the
book of Acts. The intimate connection of Mark with the apostle Peter is
shown by the unanimous testimony of the primitive churches, and is
confirmed, moreover, by an examination of the peculiarities of his
gospel. In entire harmony with the position of these two evangelists is
the character of their writings. They never assume the office of
independent teachers, but restrict themselves to a careful record of the
works and words of Christ and his apostles.

5. A final argument for the inspiration of the books of the New
Testament, whether written by apostles or their companions, may be drawn
from their general character, as contrasted with that of the writings
which remain to us from the age next succeeding that of the apostles.
The more one studies the two classes of writings in connection, the
deeper will be his conviction of the distance by which they are
separated from each other. The descent from the majesty and power of the
apostolic writings to the best of those which belong to the following
age is sudden and very great. Only by a slow process did Christian
literature afterwards rise to a higher position through the leavening
influence of the gospel upon Christian society, and especially upon
Christian education. The contrast now under consideration is
particularly important in our judgment of those books which, like the
second epistle of Peter, are sustained by a less amount of external
evidence. Though we cannot decide on the inspiration of a book simply
from the character of its contents, we may be helped in our judgment by
comparing these, on the one hand, with writings acknowledged to be
apostolic, and on the other, with writings which we know to be of the
following age.

6. The inspiration of the sacred writers was _plenary_ in the sense that
they received from the Holy Spirit all the illumination and guidance
which they needed to preserve them from error in the work committed to
them. With regard to the degree and mode of this influence in the case
of different books, it is not necessary to raise any abstract questions.
That Paul might make to the Galatians a statement of his visits to
Jerusalem and the discussions connected with them, Galatians, chaps. 1,
2, or might give an account of his conversion before ki