For instance, it is insisted that the "sea-monsters" of the second group
included _sirenia_ and _cetacea_ (dugongs, manatees, and whales,
dolphins, &c.), which are mammals. In that case a portion of the command
would not have been obeyed--a number of the designed forms would have
been kept in abeyance--for a long time. And the same is still more true
if bats--a highly placed group of mammals--were included in "winged
fowl."
But both these interpretations are distinctly arbitrary, incapable of
holding good, and also entirely ignore the conditions of a Revelation.
The narrative is not discussed or defended as an ordinary secular
narrative, which is true according to the _writer's uninspired intention
or the state of his personal knowledge_. It is defended as a Revelation.
The distinction is as obvious as it is important, directly a moment's
consideration is accorded.
If we assume, for a moment, that God _did_ (on any theory whatever of
Inspiration) instruct, direct, or enable the writer in making the
record, then it is obvious that the writer either put down what he saw
in a vision, or what was in some other manner borne on his mind. In any
case, he could have had no critical knowledge, and no historical
knowledge as an eye-witness, of the actual facts; and he may very well
therefore have used language the full meaning of which he did not
apprehend.
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