t was never concocted until after the lapse of
several centuries of the Christian era. Both philosophy and nature are
as capable of establishing the evidence of God's existence as the
Scriptures themselves. The idea we have of God is due to prejudice and
education. The mass of the Rationalists said, with Lichtenberg, that
instead of God making man after his image, man had made God after his
human image.

DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. The Rationalists were fond of reasoning by
analogy, and they used that method of argument freely in their
discussions on the inspiration of the Scriptures. God never pursues the
plan of operating immediately upon nature. His laws are the mediate
measures by which he communicates with man. Gravitation is an instrument
he employs for the control of the material world. Thus, in some way,
does God impress upon man's mind all that he wishes to reveal, without
any necessity of direct inspiration. The doctrine was, therefore,
rejected because there was no need of it, and from this step it was easy
to assume the position that there is no inspiration. This the
Rationalists did assume. "Grant inspiration," said they, "and you bind
us down to the belief that all the contents of the Scriptures are true.
You force us to believe what our reason does not comprehend. The
doctrine of inspiration opens the floodgate for the belief of a mass of
mythical stuff which we will no more grant to be historically true than
Niebuhr will admit the validity of the legends of early Rome." The poets
of every land have enjoyed a sort of rhapsody when in their highest
flights. This rhapsody or ecstasy is all that these idolaters of reason
will concede. Doederlein's views of inspiration were much more elevated
than those held by many of his _confreres_; but he too speaks of
poetical excitement, and draws a line of distinction between the
inspired and uninspired parts of Scripture. But Ammon represents this
subject better than Doederlein. It was his opinion that the idea of a
mediate divine instruction is applicable to all human knowledge. He
rejects the notion peculiar to revelation. Inspiration cannot for a
moment be accepted as an immediate divine impression, because it would
compromise the supremacy of reason, and destroy man's intellectual and
moral liberty. The diversity of style perceptible in the writers of the
Scriptures is a proof that they were not influenced by immediate
inspiration. "These writers themselves," say the