rt from and ignorant of future
human actions. All of which we will illustrate from Scripture....

The style of the prophecy also varied according to the eloquence of the
individual prophet. The prophecies of Ezekiel and Amos are not written
in a cultivated style like those of Isaiah and Nahum, but more rudely.
Any Hebrew scholar who wishes to inquire into this point more closely,
and compares chapters of the different prophets treating of the same
subject, will find that God has no particular style in speaking, but,
according to the learning and capacity of the prophet, is cultivated,
compressed, severe, untutored, prolixed or obscure....

Every one has been strangely hasty in affirming that the prophets knew
everything within the scope of human intellect; and, although certain
passages of Scripture plainly affirm that the prophets were in certain
respects ignorant, such persons would rather say that they do not
understand the passages than admit that there was anything which the
prophets did not know; or else they try to wrest the Scriptural words
away from their evident meaning.

If either of these proceedings is allowable we may as well shut our
Bibles, for vainly shall we attempt to prove anything from them if their
plainest passages may be classed among obscure and impenetrable
mysteries, or if we may put any interpretation on them which we fancy.
For instance, nothing is more clear in the Bible than that Joshua, and
perhaps also the author who wrote his history, thought that the sun
revolves round the earth, and that the earth is fixed, and further that
the sun for a certain period remained still. Many, who will not admit
any movement in the heavenly bodies, explain away the passage till it
seems to mean something quite different; others, who have learned to
philosophize more correctly, and understand that the earth moves while
the sun is still, or at any rate does not revolve round the earth, try
with all their might to wrest this meaning from Scripture, though
plainly nothing of the sort is intended. Such quibblers excite my
wonder! Are we, forsooth, bound to believe that Joshua the soldier was a
learned astronomer? or that a miracle could not be revealed to him, or
that the light of the sun could not remain longer than usual above the
horizon, without his knowing the cause? To me both alternatives appear
ridiculous, and therefore I would rather say that Joshua was ignorant of
the true cause of the lengthened