The Exclusive Claims of David's Psalms

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855. Excerpt: ... APPENDIX. Note A.--Page 15. WJiether the Psalms, in a Translation, can be considered Inspired Psalms. "The preference of a human to a divine Book of Psalms, has forced the advocates of that preference, to assume a position, that deprives the Church of God at large of his Word, as the ground of faith, except those of her members who may be learned in the original tongues, in which the Scriptures were first written. For, if as faithful a version of the Bible, as can be obtained, has no claim to be called the Word of God, as some suppose, then the faith of the great majority of saints, in every age, has been built on a sandy foundation, the word of man.--McMaster's "Apology," Ballston-Spa, 1818, pp. 118, 119. "There neither is nor can be any such thing as the inspired forms of the Psalms in our language, unless an immediate revelation were made in that language: it is not possible to retain the words and phrases of the original in any translation; as a prophet is to speak in the language which is suggested to him, his words are justly called the words of the Holy Ghost; but whenever a translation of that subject is made into any other language, the words of the language into which it is translated, are no more the words of the Holy Ghost, than Greek is English."--Black's "Examination," quotedby Anderson, pp. 82, 83. "My objection to the principle, that we are exclusively restricted to the use of the Psalms, is this: that if they cannot with propriety be used by us in their original form, they cannot have been intended to be used by us in our Psalmody; but my opponent says--If they are not fit for our use, we can make them fit for it; which does not at all meet the objection. I allow that we can distil them, and separate the spirit from the grosser materials ...