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SOME THOUGHTS ON 
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE 
 
 HOLY SCRIPTURES 
 
 BY ROBERT EDEN M. A. 
 
 (late fellow of corpus christi college oxford) 
 
 HONORARY CANON OF NORWICH AND VICAR OF WYMONDHAM 
 
 LONDON 
 
 BASIL MONTAGU PICKERING 
 
 196 PICCADILLY 
 
 1864 
 
 f 
 
$>$*£> 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 RELIMINARY . . i 
 
 Infpiration is acknowledged to be 
 
 a ' Reality : ' 
 While there are wide differences 
 of opinion about its Nature. 
 An intelligent (which alone can be a fatisfac- 
 tory) belief upon the fubjecl is not to be 
 brought about by contrivances. 
 Difbelief in the authority of Scripture is to be 
 
 explained upon fome broad principles. 
 We muff, give to ourfelves a c reafon ' of our 
 belief: this does not involve the fpirit of 
 4 rationalifm.' 
 The Bible has fpoken clearly upon the fubjecf 
 of Infpiration. 
 
iv Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Revelation and Inspiration . . 27 
 
 1 Credentials ' of the Bible, of all fubjects the 
 
 moft intereftlng : 
 Of which the c witnefs of the Spirit ' is 
 
 the ftrongeft evidence : and, next to this, 
 
 external confiderations. 
 Nature does not properly i reveal ; ' only 
 
 Hiftorical Facts do this. 
 Origin of the terms ' Revelation ' and c In- 
 
 fpiration : ' the latter expreffly Scriptural ; 
 
 (' Theopneuftos'). 
 Diftinction between the Infpiration of the 
 
 Writers, and their Writings, groundlefs. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Ordinary and Special Inspiration 48 
 
 The action of the Lord Jesus in l breathing 
 upon ' the Difciples, was fignificant of 
 c power from without.' 
 
 Infpiration, whether in the fenfe of ' intelli- 
 gence,' or of ' perfonal fan£tification,' does 
 not rife up to the idea as it attaches to the 
 Writers of the Books of the Bible : 
 
 But it is a queftion whether the laft can be 
 correctly faid to differ ' in kind ' from the 
 fecond. 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Mechanical Theory is Exploded 63 
 The confufed notions on the fubject. in which 
 
 men have fo long refted, are felt to be 
 
 unfatisfa£tory. 
 The c organic,' as, indeed, every theory, muft 
 
 be tried upon its own merits. 
 The Divine and Human elements combine, in 
 
 Infpiration ; but the former predominates. 
 The illuftration drawn from the action upon 
 
 the firings of a harp, by the player, is juft, 
 
 but may not be preffed too far. 
 The ' influence ' is a preferable term to the 
 
 1 controul ' of the Spirit, when His agency 
 
 in relation to the Scripture Writers is 
 
 fpoken of. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Scriptures were collected by Di- 
 vine Guidance : and, the Old Testa- 
 ment IS NOT OUT OF DATE . . 83 
 
 The c collection ' of the Books which were 
 to form the rule of the Church's Faith, 
 implied fpecial Divine guidance. 
 
vi Contents. 
 
 The Old Teftament has not done its work, 
 
 fo as to be no longer needed, (the contrary 
 
 opinion to which may be traced either to 
 
 philofophical or moral caufes); 
 But is of perpetual ufe, as appears from its 
 
 directly Chriftian character, 
 And becaufe it tells of deftinies of the Church 
 
 yet to be fulfilled. 
 That 4 Scripture ' mifapplies * Scripture,' is a 
 
 charge directly fubverfive of Infpiration ; 
 
 but is refuted by its own phrafeology. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Scripture asserts its own Inspira- 
 tion ...... 103 
 
 The Divine Authority of Scripture is eftab- 
 lifhed by external confiderations, and is 
 afferted by itfelf. 
 
 St. Paul's language (1 Cor. vii.), furnifhes no 
 handle to the notion of intermittent in- 
 fpiration : 
 
 But, on the contrary, ftrongly fupports the 
 other view. 
 
 This latter conclufion does not favour the 
 pretenfions of c criticifm,' the modern ufe 
 of which term is illegitimate. 
 
Contents. vii 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The term c Scripture ' is of Divine 
 Origin and Appointment . . 124. 
 
 A l commiflion to write,' implied either a 
 revelation of new truth, or fa£ts to be 
 recorded. 
 
 * Holy,' which is a Scriptural prefix, denotes 
 the dictation of the Holy Spirit, and fo 
 indicates ' authority; ' 
 
 A word which is ufed in fenfes which are to 
 be carefully diftinguifhed. As applied to 
 the ' Canon of Scripture,' it declares that 
 the claims of the Books which contain 
 what the Church is to believe, are con- 
 tained within themf elves. 
 
 This was the view of thofe who framed the 
 * Canon,' and is ever to be upheld. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The New Testament bears witness to 
 Divine " design " in the record of 
 
 THE FACTS OF THE Old . 1 44 
 
 The ufe of the Old Teftament in the New 
 was pre-ordained : 
 
viii Contents. 
 
 Which implies, alike, the truth, and the in- 
 fpiration, of the former : 
 
 And fhews that the latter is not an arbitrary- 
 Interpreter. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Qualifications for recording 
 God's Truth necessarily Superna- 
 tural . . . . . 151 
 
 Free-inquiry is not to be confounded with 
 either Free-thought, or Free-thinking : 
 
 The firft of which limits itfelf by the acknow- 
 ledgment of ' Infpiration,' while the latter 
 two are unreftrained. 
 
 Infpiration is fupernatural. 
 
 To defend the supernatural is the duty 
 to which the Church is at this moment 
 fpecially called, in oppofition to Ration- 
 alifm : 
 
 Which is to be met by boldly maintaining the 
 c felf-evidencing light ' of the Scriptures ; 
 
 And this, as given to the Church generally, 
 and alfo to the foul of each Believer. 
 
 Church-teftimony, and our obligations to it, 
 have been greatly exaggerated. Its place 
 and ufe, as thofe of Tradition, we admit, 
 provided that the pretenfions of each are 
 put forward modeftly. 
 
Contents. ix 
 
 CHAPTER IX, 
 
 Inspiration and Human Genius essen- 
 tially DIFFERENT . . . igO 
 
 The c falfe ' meafure of Infpiration is feen 
 when men firft decide of what fort it ought 
 to be ; the ' true,' when they commence 
 with an a priori admiffion of the authority 
 of Scripture to * decide ' that point. 
 
 * Infpiration ' is neither an intellectual attain- 
 ment, nor an exalted form of human 
 genius : but, alike in its fource and effe&s, 
 differs effentially from either. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 £ Extent ' of Inspiration as respects 
 the 'space ' 196 
 
 The general view of the import of the word 
 
 « Prophecy ' is very contracted. 
 A juft view of it, as St. Peter ufes the term, 
 
 fupplies a moft important argument for the 
 
 Infpiration of the whole Bible. 
 A ' Paraphrafe' and ' Comment' will ferve to 
 
 prefent what is confidered to be the true 
 
 meaning of St. Peter's words. 
 
x Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ' Extent ' of Inspiration, as respects 
 its Quality . . . 213 
 
 The eflential point in the whole inquiry is, 
 4 In what fenfe do we underftand the Scrip- 
 ture Writers to have been infpired ? ' 
 
 The verbal theory cannot be maintained, nor 
 is it required j fo that the ufe of hard names 
 toward thofe who differ from that view is 
 very blamable. 
 
 This theory receives no fupport from either 
 of three PafTages which are often adduced 
 as proving it. 
 
 * Grace ' and c Free-will ' may be thought to 
 illuftrate the cafe, by analogy. 
 
 Some other theories have been held, different 
 from each other, and not all of them in 
 themfelves equally objectionable ; all, how- 
 ever, inconfiftent with the idea of i full ' 
 infpiration. 
 
 The Scripture is, and does not merely include, 
 God's Word. The attempted diftin&ion 
 between c contains ' and c is co-extenfive 
 with,' is not new, but is utterly groundlefs. 
 
 Very important, however, is it to diftinguifh 
 between the ' efTence ' contained, and the 
 ' form ' which contains it. 
 
Contents. xi 
 
 4 All Scripture is God-breathed,' that is, there 
 is no portion of it which is not. 
 
 The Scripture is an infallible interpreter of, 
 and cannot mifapply, itfelf. To affert the 
 contrary, is a flat denial of its infpiration. 
 
 Scripture and Science, for their alleged dis- 
 crepancies, are not to be 'reconciled' by 
 accepting the theory of a " progreffive 
 revelation :" in fact, they have never 
 been at variance. 
 
 Time can fupply evidence in fupport of Re- 
 velation, which, in refpect of its Ends, is a 
 perfect Record. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Some Heads, of Admonition to one class, 
 of Encouragement to another . 260 
 
 If any are refolved to clofe their eyes againft 
 Infpiration, they can do fo, the proof being 
 efTentially and wholly * moral.' 
 
 But candid minds will be convinced of the 
 divinity of the Bible by the unity of its 
 fubjecT:, its fearching power, its exhauftlefs 
 refources, and the agreement of its diver- 
 fified elements. 
 
 That * the evil are mingled with the good,' 
 
xii Contents. 
 
 in Scripture-hiftory, places no difficulty in 
 the way of belief, fince Infpiration endorfes 
 only the Record, not neceflarily the cha- 
 racters recorded. 
 
 The abfence of any exprefs ftatement re- 
 fpe&ing Infpiration, from the authoritative 
 ftandards of a Church, proves nothing as 
 to what it holds. Its s implied ' belief is 
 fufficient for all, except merely technical, 
 purpofes. 
 
 A revival of belief cannot be looked for, 
 unlefs accompanied by a revival of primi- 
 tive fimplicity of mind. 
 
 Thofe who cannot reafon clofely upon the 
 fubjecl: of Bible-infpiration, may arrive at 
 practical fatisfaction, by looking at the 
 * effects ' of the Scriptures in the world ; 
 while All have reafon to be thankful that 
 God's meffage to man has come in the 
 enduring form of a 'written' Record. 
 

 PRELIMINARY. 
 
 NE of the Writers in a 
 Volume of unenviable 
 fame, after enumerating 
 the chief current ex- 
 planations of the term ' infpiration,' 
 has this remark : — " All perhaps err 
 in attempting to define what, though 
 real, is incapable of being denned in 
 an exact manner." 1 The admiffion 
 contained in this fentence, coming 
 
 1 " On the Interpretation of Scripture," 
 P- 345- 
 
 B 
 
2 Preliminary. 
 
 from fuch a quarter, is very valuable. 
 Infpiration is acknowledged to be a 
 reality. 
 
 The fame EfTayift refers to the 
 diftinctions of meaning which the 
 word has received, and afferts that 
 they have been " more numerous 
 than perhaps any other in the whole 
 of theology." This may be true : 
 and if fo, it indicates a fenfe of 
 the importance attaching to the 
 fubject itfelf, for it proves that many 
 minds have been directed to this 
 " reality" to determine its character ; 
 jufl as the variety of views concerning 
 church-organization implies a con- 
 viction that government of fome fort 
 is effential to the well-being of a re- 
 ligious body ; this again, being the 
 
Preliminary. 3 
 
 expreffion of afenfe of theprecioufnefs 
 of Christian doctrine, lince it can be 
 only for the fake of doctrine that the 
 queftion of order is of any moment. 
 Whence arifes this difagreement in 
 opinion about a thing which is 
 'real?' It muft be accounted for 
 by fome peculiarity in the form in 
 which it is taught. If there were 
 any fuch explicit ftatements of the 
 nature of infpiration, as there are 
 fure witnefTes of the fact, thefe would 
 preclude "all flrife:" fuch direct 
 ftatements, however, are not found. 
 " Infpiration," fays that fame Ef- 
 fayift who pronounces it to be 'real,' 
 " is a fact which we infer from the 
 fludy of Scripture, not of one por- 
 tion only, but of the whole." Now, 
 
4 Preliminary, 
 
 juft becaufe it is a conclufion drawn 
 from confiderations fcattered over fo 
 wide a field, and in their character 
 fo diverfified, will the notions ref- 
 pecting it, in ordinary minds, be 
 loofe and floating. They who can 
 generalize are the few. To traverfe 
 the wide territory of Scripture, and 
 from an almofl infinite variety of 
 materials, fuch as that which is 
 offered by the contents of the Old 
 and New Teftament, to feize the 
 features of infpiration, and to make 
 notes of them feparately in the 
 mind, fo that in their aggregate 
 they mail amount to a full afiur- 
 ance of the Divine authority of the 
 whole record, to fuch a tafk as this 
 it is only a few minds that are equal. 
 
Preliminary. 5 
 
 Hence the difficulty of framing a 
 definition in which all mail agree, 
 the number of clofe obfervers and 
 thinkers, in this cafe, being necerTa- 
 rily fo fmall. Strong and fatisfying 
 as is the evidence that fettles down 
 into the foul of him who with can- 
 dour and devoutnefs has read the 
 Bible throughout, it is yet made up 
 of particulars for the moil part fine 
 and impalpable ; or at leaft, far lefs 
 capable of becoming the fubjects of 
 touch than of feeling. This is, in- 
 deed, the peculiarity we mould ex- 
 pect to find in a religion which ad- 
 drerTes itfelf mainly to the affections ; 
 fo far, therefore, is it from being 
 true that the argument for Scriptural 
 infpiration fuffers from the lack of 
 
6 Preliminary. 
 
 evidence capable of being clafTed 
 under diftind: heads, that the very 
 genius of the religion of the Bible 
 would feem to make it impomble 
 that evidence of this fort mould be 
 afforded. 
 
 " The advice" faid to have " been 
 given to the theologian, that he 
 * mould take care of words, and leave 
 things to themfelves,'" whether ori- 
 ginally deligned to favour " thofe 
 who faid the fame thing and meant 
 another," or not, is, when rightly 
 applied, found. Take care of the 
 words, the chofen terms of the Holy 
 Ghofl ; and ' things/ the fubftances 
 of truth of which thofe words are 
 the figns, will be fafe. 
 
 " An exceffive importance" can- 
 
Preliminary. J 
 
 not be attributed to " the words 
 which the Holy Ghoft teacheth." 
 The want of a jealous adherence to 
 fuch words, is the ' error' which 
 has lain at the root of theological as 
 of other confufions. 
 
 But it would be a wrong inference 
 from the fewnefs, or even (were 
 fuch the cafe) the total abfence of 
 any fingle definitive abftract terms 
 in the Scriptures, that there were no 
 1 things' correfpondent to fuch terms. 
 Single terms gathering up into them- 
 felves the concentrated erTence of the 
 things to be reprefented, befit and 
 are to be demanded in natural fcience ; 
 but the genius of a revelation from 
 God, given ' in different portions 
 and different manners,' is of another 
 
8 Preliminary. 
 
 kind. * The Bible ' which, by the 
 very force of the term, we are accuf- 
 tomed to fpeak of as one book, is 
 really a collection of books quite in- 
 dependent of each other, written at 
 intervals of time, and by various 
 authors ; and the very lafl thing to 
 be looked for in a Volume fo com- 
 pofed, would be one or more fingle 
 terms meafuring with preciuon the 
 degree of guidance by the Spirit 
 which belonged equally to all the 
 books. It is, therefore, to the 
 * things' we rather look ; and fo 
 doing, may be fafely left to employ 
 the words that mall juftly exprefs 
 them. Take a jealous care of 
 ' words,' fo far as they are found 
 in or legitimately conftructed out 
 of Scripture ; and cultivate the fame 
 
Preliminary. g 
 
 candour in refpect of * things,' of 
 fubftances ; in other words, of truth : 
 and the refult which may be pre- 
 dicted as regards the prefent fubject 
 is, that Infpiration will be plainly read 
 in Scripture, alike by fingle words 
 and ftatements, and by the impreflion 
 {lamped upon the mind after the 
 ftudy of it as a whole. In this latter 
 refpect it will be analogous to " the 
 obfervance of the Sunday," of which 
 the Author of the EJfay, " Education 
 of the World," juftlyobferves that it 1 
 " has a Jironger hold on the minds 
 of all religious men, becaufe it pene- 
 trates the whole texture of the Old 
 Teftament." 
 
 Infpiration which is * really' fuch 
 
 1 P. 45- 
 
i o Preliminary. 
 
 muft exclude the idea of eflential 
 error. In the narratives there may 
 be, and are variations ; but, funda- 
 mental difcrepancies there are none : 
 fo that there is no neceffity for re- 
 ferring any differences which are 
 met with, to early " traditions;" a 
 word which takes the thoughts to 
 what is flippery and uncertain ; 
 whereas our reliance for the facts 
 of our Lord's hiftory refts either upon 
 eye-witneffes, or upon thofe who had 
 made the moil careful inquiry con- 
 cerning the facts which they re- 
 corded. " An exact fulfilment of 
 prophecy," when its ends are con- 
 fidered, will appear to be a necerlary 
 condition to our belief in its infpira- 
 tion : and fo " the abfence of fuch a 
 
Preliminary . 1 1 
 
 fulfilment" (could it be made out) 
 would be fatal to its claims as Divine. 
 But the cafe being that we can point 
 to prophecies unqueftionably fulfilled, 
 we fee herein our canons of inter- 
 pretation confirmed, and that we did 
 not "miftake the letter for the fpirit." 
 Upheld, however, and vindicated, 
 in each of thofe points of view in 
 which it may have been covertly 
 aiTailed, Infpiration might at laft be 
 made to yield its ground, if it could 
 be mown that the " very chiefeft of 
 the Apoftles," for the fupport of the 
 authority of whofe Writings it is 
 mainly alferted, has " helitated in 
 difficult cafes, and more than once 
 corrected himfelf." In the fame 
 degree, on the contrary, will our 
 
1 2 Preliminary. 
 
 belief in infpiration as * real ' be re- 
 arTured, if by any arguments it mall 
 be made to appear that the language 
 ufually alleged as that of * helitation ' 
 is fimply the reverfe, being the ex- 
 preffion of an undoubting confidence 
 that, ' he had the Spirit of God.' 
 
 But when it mail have been mown 
 that infpiration is no fiction, but a 
 folid and fubflantial thing; and, 
 when any misflatements or oblique 
 objections mall have been met by 
 replies, all that is necerlary will not 
 have been done, if there be mifcon- 
 ceptions of its nature. * Real' in it- 
 felf, and admitted to be fuch, the 
 belief in it may not be real : it can- 
 not be, if it be not intelligent. Now, 
 this end is not to be attained by con- 
 
Preliminary. 1 3 
 
 ceffions to the fceptical fpirit of the 
 day. An * intelligent' belief will 
 not be brought about by contrivances 
 to render the fubjed: ' intelligible.' 
 
 Upon thofe Writers who put forth 
 the dogma that " for any of the 
 higher or fupernatural views of in- 
 fpiration there is not any foundation 
 in the Gofpels or Epiftles," all at- 
 tempts to prefent a view of the in- 
 fpiration-fubjecl: that fhould be ad- 
 mitted as fatisfa&ory , would be thrown 
 away. To thefe, going the length, 
 as they do, of maintaining that "there 
 is no appearance in their Writings 
 that the Evangelifts or Apoftles had 
 any" fpecial " inward gift," we can 
 only reply, " Refrain from thefe 
 men, and let them alone, for, if this 
 
14 Preliminary. 
 
 counfel or this work be of men, it 
 will come to nought : but if it be of 
 God, ye cannot overthrow it, left 
 haply ye be found even to fight 
 againft God." God help the holders 
 of fuch opinions : for, with fuch 
 obliquity of mind it is hopelefs to 
 think of coping fuccefsfully. 
 
 In pairing, however, we would 
 obferve that there is yet needed, 
 from the pen of fome Chriftian 
 philofopher, an inquiry into the final 
 caufes of thofe ' departures from the 
 faith' which * the latter times,' and 
 our own very recent experience, 
 have witneifed. The Publications 
 in which thefe views are contained 
 have called forth many able replies, 
 in which the mifconception of facts, 
 
Preliminary. 1 5 
 
 the unfair arguments, and the pofi- 
 tive ignorance with which, in many 
 inftances, the authors are chargeable, 
 have been expofed. But we wifh 
 for fomething more : we mould be 
 glad to fee an analyfis of the cafe ; 
 to have the original and deeper work- 
 ings of the minds of the feveral 
 Authors laid open. What is the root 
 in the fouls of thofe who have made 
 thefe revolutionary attacks upon the 
 old Faith ? An anfwer to this quef- 
 tion would crown the labours of the 
 feveral Apologifts, by rendering them 
 permanently ufeful. 
 
 As a leading element in fuch an 
 inquiry, it will have to be borne in 
 mind, that the affaults upon the 
 authority of the Scriptures, as they 
 
1 6 Preliminary. 
 
 have been varied in their character, 
 fo have they not been peculiar to one 
 age or country : they have fprung 
 up in different centuries, and different 
 nations. In England, the Deifts ; 
 in Germany, the Rationalifts ; in 
 France, the anti-Chriftian philofo- 
 phers, have furnifhed inftances of 
 that fyflem of ' free thought,' and 
 ' free handling,' which has acquired 
 the name of ' Neology,' as being 
 altogether new and unheard-of in 
 the Church, until introduced in our 
 own Country, (for, its rife was among 
 ourfelves, and it went from us to the 
 Continent,) and in thofe nations. 
 It is, therefore, a phenomenon which 
 has to be accounted for upon fome 
 broad univerfal principles. 
 
Preliminary. 1 7 
 
 Now, juft as the human confci- 
 ence, as fuch, is the platform on 
 which the Gofpel takes its ftand, and 
 from which it makes its appeal 
 (" commending ourfelves to every 
 man's confcience in the light of God"), 
 fo, in the inftances, wherever found, 
 of the rejection of God's revealed 
 truth, the human heart, as fuch, we 
 believe to be the root of the difbelief. 
 Not indeed, that we would impute 
 to the Writers who have themfelves 
 fo freely ufed the liberty for which 
 they have pleaded, of " handling the 
 word of God" with freedom, that 
 pravity of heart which would lead 
 them to defire to get rid of the 
 authority of a book whofe moral re- 
 ftraints they difliked ; (this would be 
 
1 8 Preliminary. 
 
 to commit a wanton wrong againft 
 high-minded and unimpeachable in- 
 dividuals ;) but, the difbelief is that 
 of the heart, or the affections, as it 
 fprings out of a ftrong diflike to en- 
 tertain the idea of a fpiritual Being 
 in clofe contact with their own 
 fpirits, which is juft the idea of in- 
 fpiration as attaching to the Scrip- 
 tures. How far this refolution to 
 keep the " fupernatural" at bay is 
 the filent expreffion of the thought, 
 " I heard Thy voice, and I was 
 afraid, and I hid myfelf " (efpecially 
 fince it is often found in company 
 with a " miftaken creed, and the ab- 
 fence of true convictions of fin"), 
 may afford matter for consideration. 
 
Preliminary. 1 9 
 
 But, to offer (as fome have done), as 
 the folution, in all cafes where it 
 is feen, of the fhrinking from the 
 4 fupernatural,' a bad ftate of the 
 perfonal character, would be to in- 
 flict a manifeft wrong upon many of 
 the authors of thefe opinions, and to 
 be blind to the marks by which our 
 own day is favourably dirlinguifhed 
 from a preceding one in which free 
 fpeculationson religion wereput forth 
 in connexion with profane and licen- 
 tious principles. 
 
 " 1 The queftion of the * final 
 caufe' of the investigations which 
 
 1 Rev. Prebendary Griffith, M.A., Author 
 of" The Spiritual Life." 
 
20 Prelbninary. 
 
 are now fo eagerly profecuted, is a 
 deep and wide one. I could not, how- 
 ever, follow fome writers in affuming 
 moral delinquency to be at the bot- 
 tom of it ; for I think the prefent 
 age is honourably diftinguifhed from 
 thofe of Voltaire and of others, by 
 the fpirit in which inquiry puts 
 itfelf forth, and the honefty and 
 earneftnefs of purpofe which it dis- 
 plays. 
 
 " The fact is, that we are in a tran- 
 fition-ftate ; and are expofed to all 
 the evils of fuch a ftate. And I con- 
 fefs that I think much of this chal- 
 lenging is due to the extremes of 
 unwarranted affertion to which the 
 Church has been for fome years 
 drifting, on the great points of the 
 
Preliminary. 2 1 
 
 nature and extent of Biblical autho- 
 rity. And I fondly truft that the 
 ultimate refult will be the fettling 
 down of all Divines into a fafer, 
 becaufe truer and more juft theory." 
 The interests of truth as much 
 require that fatisfactory reafons 
 mould be furniihed to the reveren- 
 tial thinker for what he is afked to 
 believe, as that fufficient replies be 
 made to the cavils of the irreverent 
 fceptic. If men are to " hold," 
 whether " the Catholic faith," or 
 any other fundamental principles of 
 orthodox Chriftianity, they mull be 
 " ready, always, to give a reafon to" 
 themfehes " of the " belief " that is 
 in" them. Any thing fhort of this 
 is, not indeed neceflarily difbelief, 
 
22 Preliminary. 
 
 but it is unbelief; it is a merely 
 negative condition of mind, whereas 
 faith is politive ; the * holding ' 
 firmly proportions offered to its ac- 
 ceptance, from conviction of their 
 truth, upon reafonable evidence. It 
 is not * rationalifm' to demand a 
 reafon for belief. That term is 
 properly applied to the fyftem which 
 fhuts out miraculous agency, and re- 
 fufes to admit as true, whatever is not 
 explicable upon natural principles. 
 But, not only has a handle been 
 offered to the fceptic, but hindrances 
 put in the path of honeft believers, 
 by placing fome points of high mo- 
 ment (and of this clafs is the queftion 
 of ' Infpiration '), upon grounds 
 which more careful thought has 
 
Preliminary. 2 3 
 
 difcovered to be untenable. Suf- 
 fered, it may be for a very long time, 
 to reft on a foundation thus at laft 
 mown to be unfound, the claims of 
 truth, in any one branch of it, fuffer 
 damage, not in themfelves, but in the 
 eyes of the mallow and fuperficial, 
 who know not to diftin^uiih between 
 any weak arguments put forth in 
 fupport of truth, and truth itfelf. 
 The Church of Chrift, too, is injured, 
 by the advantage which its enemies 
 take of the occafion, if ever any one 
 of the props whereon the edifice has 
 refted is thought to have been ftruck 
 from under it. 
 
 " The determination of the limits 
 of what we mean by the infpiration 
 of the Bible" has been pronounced 
 
24 Preliminary. 
 
 to be one of thofe ftudies which 
 muft take the lead of all other." 
 
 Our * meaning' is already ' de- 
 termined' if ' the Bible' have itfelf 
 fpoken with fufficient clearnefs upon 
 the point. That It has fo fpoken, 
 not in any fharp definition (for that 
 is not its wont), but unequivocally, 
 it forms a part of our plan to prove. 
 
 Mofl: true is it that this < ftudy ' 
 belongs to a clafs which is entitled to 
 take precedence of all other. It 
 might be added that in that clafs it 
 ftands firft. Becaufe it is thus mo- 
 mentous, it is the delign of thefe 
 " Thoughts" to fuggeft to thofe 
 who may engage in the ftudy fome 
 diftinct ideas. Their aim is not to 
 diflodge any pofitive opinions which 
 
Preliminary. 25 
 
 may have been " ^eld in unthinking 
 acquiefcence," but to prefent fome 
 views lefs vague than thofe in which 
 even pious and " reverent" minds 
 have been content to reft. 
 
 1 Dr. Temple's " Eflay," p. 47. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Revelation and Infpiration : the 
 import of the 
 "Terms. 
 
 iRITTEN with the finger 
 of God." This was the au- 
 thoritative fanction which 
 accompanied the delivery 
 of the two Tables of Testimony, by the 
 Lord, to His minifter who was to con- 
 vey them to the people of Ifrael. This 
 fanction was, afterwards, appealed to by 
 Mofes, when he recapitulated the dealings 
 of God with that nation : and, however 
 
28 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 it may have been practically difregarded 
 by them, at any periods of their hiftory, 
 it has ever been reverentially acknow- 
 ledged. 
 
 Of thefe Tables copies without number 
 were made for the ufe of the People ; but 
 the original Exemplar was brought from 
 the Mount. 
 
 And, cc like unto it," analogous to 
 this cafe of the Decalogue, is that of the 
 entire Scriptures of the Old and New 
 Teftament. The channels of conveyance 
 through which the found has been brought 
 to our ears, have been many and various : 
 but it is as coming cc from the excellent 
 glory," that the " voice" commands the 
 attention of the univerfe of reafonable 
 beings. cc Hear, O heavens, and give 
 ear, O Earth, for the Lord hath fpoken." 
 
 The Divine origin of the Bible is the 
 ground on which every man who holds 
 that book in his hands ultimately refts. 
 If his heart confeffes to itfelf that in the 
 
Revelation and Infpiration. 29 
 
 Holy Scriptures it pofTerTes a treafure 
 " more precious than rubies," and that to 
 them c all the things that it can defire 
 are not to be compared,' it is becaufe of 
 the undoubting confidence which is cher- 
 ifhed that in thofe pages " God hath 
 fpoken." Very far from clear may be 
 the views which any man holds upon the 
 fubjecl: ; and farther ftill from precifion 
 the language he employs, if ever he is 
 heard to fpeak of Infpiration : but ftill, 
 there is the belief; deep in his mind, 
 however illogical the habit of it, lies the 
 confidence that the Book has " God for 
 its author ;" and only as relying on this 
 as being unquestionable, does he receive 
 the book as having " truth without any 
 mixture of error for its matter." 
 
 Now, to thofe who juftly fet this high 
 value upon the Bible, what inquiry can be 
 fo engaging, what fubjecl; of ftudy fo full 
 of intereft, as that which relates to its 
 credentials ? Next to the f witnefs of the 
 
30 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Spirit,' that private and perfonal afTurance 
 of the divinity of the Scriptures, which, 
 while by the cold fceptic it is, as an argu- 
 ment, rejected, is, by " the honeft and 
 good heart," embraced as the ftrongeft 
 argument on which it leans ; next to this 
 in worth, every thoughtful perfon will 
 admit, are all thofe reafons and confidera- 
 tions drawn from without, by which we 
 can fatisfy ourfelves that in thefe books 
 which make up the Volume we thus prize, 
 iC God has fent Letters to man." cc To 
 render a" philofophical " reafon" of the 
 matter, to this few will be able to attain ; 
 nor, indeed, is this neceflary : but, a point 
 will have been gained if fome apprehen- 
 fions of the fubject, a little lefs vague than 
 thofe generally met with, can be acquired. 
 
 There are certain Terms of current 
 ufe in Theology, which, however familiar 
 to divinity fludents, require to be ex- 
 plained. Some words have, in popular 
 
Revelation and Infpiration. 3 1 
 
 ufe, gone away from their original fenfe : 
 but this ought not to be the cafe with the 
 terms of theology, nor is it with that 
 fubjed regarded as a fcience. Foremoft 
 among the words which demand to be 
 thus defined, are " Revelation" and " In- 
 fpiration." 
 
 In referring to thefe terms, it would not 
 be pomble to invert the order, fo as to 
 fpeak of the latter firft, and of the former 
 in the fecond place ; and this, for reafons 
 which will appear as we go on. 
 
 Whence comes the word 1 " revela- 
 tion ?" We know that it is from the 
 
 Latin verb revelo, to draw back the veil, 
 to unveil, difclofe. Looking at the word 
 
 1 In the New Teftament drxuxxXvpis, Rom. xvi. 
 25. {vide Koppe on Eph. i. 1 7) ; a term, fays Jerome 
 on Gal. i. 1 2, peculiar to the Scriptures, found in 
 no Greek writer, but invented by the LXX, though 
 ufed afterwards by Porphyry and Plutarch. The 
 verb (dwoxxX-JvjTsiv) is common in Claffic Greek. 
 
3 2 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 in its ftructure, it fuggefts the act of un- 
 veiling ; but, its chief ufe in connection 
 with religion is to import the things dif- 
 clofed, the information communicated. 
 'Revelation' is ufed in theology for the 
 matters revealed. 
 
 Among all nations which have, in 
 any degree, emerged out of the favage 
 into the civilized ftate, there are to be 
 found opinions and traditions of a com- 
 munication between higher beings and 
 men. Often very rudely prefented, the 
 idea is yet found, and that univerfally. 
 All inquiry muft conduct us to the con- 
 viction that the finite £C cannot by fearching 
 find out " the infinite ; that c< man cannot, 
 by his natural powers, attain to the know- 
 ledge of his Maker." For although ex- 
 ternal Nature makes it plain that " God 
 is," and that He acts ; for, " the heavens 
 declare ( c declarant,' make clear) the glory 
 of God," the fupernatural mining forth 
 from the natural : although, too, in the 
 
Revelation and Inspiration. 33 
 
 world of thought, our knowledge and our 
 confcience in turn bear witnefs to higher 
 and deeper feelings than could fpring 
 from our own limited faculties ; yet thefe 
 are not our difcoveries of God, but, fo 
 far as they go, His difcoveries of Him- 
 felf to us. They are " the things which 
 do appear," and conftitute that which 
 "may be known of" God, by the ftudy 
 of His outward works, and inward work- 
 ings ; or, as philofophers would precifely 
 exprefs it, by the objective and fubjeclive 
 evidence He has given of Himfelf. 
 Now, this is juft what is meant by " Na- 
 tural Religion," an expreffion which, in 
 our lips,* if rightly employed, will ever 
 fignify, not what man eafily arrives at by 
 the exercife of his own faculties, but that 
 which God has made known in and by 
 Nature, as comprehending the world 
 without, and the world within us. 
 
 Now, none of all this is f Revelation/ 
 according to the proper intention of that 
 
34 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 word. It would be incorrecl: to fpeak of 
 the fun, moon, and ftars, and of the 
 human confcience, as f revealing' God. 
 True " God has/' in a fenfe, fC fpoken " 
 by the phenomena of the univerfe to the 
 fpirit of man, fo that " there is no fpeech 
 nor language" where "their voice" is 
 not cc heard," and by thofe that have ears 
 to hear, heard intelligently ; yet it is by 
 facts hiftorkally conveying to us His 
 " will concerning " us, that a c Revela- 
 tion,' in the true fenfe, is made. It is a 
 great error to contraft natural and re- 
 vealed religion, (as is fometimes appa- 
 rently done); but it is equally wrong to 
 confound them. <c The mighty God, 
 even the Lord, hath fpoken and called 
 the earth, from the rifing of the fun unto 
 the going down thereof," by a voice that 
 founds from that very rifing and fetting. 
 It is, however, <c out of Zion, the perfec- 
 tion of beauty," that cc the light of the 
 knowledge of the glory of God " " hath 
 
Revelation and Infpiration. 35 
 
 mined," peculiarly and pre-eminently. 
 Only in the communications He has been 
 pleafed to make of himfelf to the earlier 
 and the later Church, whether imme- 
 diately or by His instruments, has God 
 * revealed' Himfelf. 
 
 For, that great faying, " No man hath 
 feen God at any time : the only-begotten 
 Son which is in the bofom of the Father, 
 He hath declared Him," though found in 
 the Gofpel, did not begin to be true under 
 the Gofpel. Its language points this out; 
 " Who is in the bofom of the Father," 
 taking the thoughts at once to the words, 
 " Before Abraham was, I AM ; " and an- 
 nouncing the truth, that it is one and the 
 fame Divine Being who appeared and fpake 
 to Adam, to Abraham, to Mofes, and to 
 the Prophets, and who " was made flefh" 
 " for us men, and for our falvation," in 
 the perfon of "our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 The Eternal Word is the Revealer of 
 God, whether "in times paft, unto the 
 
36 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Fathers," or cc in thefe laft days, unto us." 
 By the agency of none other did God 
 declare, though, properly fpeaking, He 
 did not c reveal ' Himfelf in the <f things 
 which do appear " of the material world, 
 infomuch that they who liften not to this 
 teaching cc are without excufe." f f It was 
 the office of the Divine Word " (says 
 Athanafius), " who, by His peculiar pro- 
 vidence and fetting in order of the uni- 
 verfe, affords inftruftion concerning the 
 Father, to renew that fame instruction." 
 It will be {qqr that this view goes far 
 beyond the poet's fentiment of admiring 
 praife : 
 
 *' The fpacious firmament on high, 
 With all the blue ethereal Iky, 
 And fpangled heavens, a mining frame, 
 Their great Original proclaim : 
 
 " The unwearied fun, from day to day, 
 Doth his Creator's power difplay, 
 And publifhes to ev'ry land, 
 The work of an Almighty hand : 
 
Revelation and Infpiration. 37 
 
 with its added comment, when of the 
 moon, ftars, and planets, he fays : 
 
 " What, though no real voice nor found 
 Amidft their radiant orbs be found ; 
 In reafon's ear they all rejoice, 
 And utter forth a glorious voice ; 
 For ever finging as they fhine, 
 'The hand that made us is divine.' " 
 
 By all which he can only be understood 
 to convey, that every thoughtful beholder 
 of the celeftial fyftem muft come to the 
 concluiion, that God was its Maker. It 
 maintains that the Word, as Divine and 
 from eternity creative, and the Word, as 
 making direct fpoken communications to 
 man, is one and the fame ; the Logos, 
 "the manifeftative Utterer" of God's will. 
 Yet, it may not be faid ({imply becaufe 
 it would not be theologically correct to 
 fay), that the Creative Word f revealed ' 
 anything to man : only the Word fpeak- 
 ing did this. 
 
 Now, if the revelation made to Adam 
 
38 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 and to Abraham and to Mofes under 
 the earlier epochs, and in the perfon of 
 Jesus Christ under the later, was not 
 to be loft, it muft be preferved by fome 
 record made of it : in no other way can 
 we conceive of its being tranfmitted, 
 and becoming perpetual. Does any fuch 
 document prefent itfelf ? We know that 
 it does, in a volume exifting under the 
 title of l the Bible,' or, ' the Holy Scrip- 
 tures.' While the former of thefe familiar 
 terms fuggefts the pre-eminence of the 
 record in queftion, the latter afTerts the 
 direct connection of the cc Scriptures," of 
 the collective document, with God Him- 
 felf. The attribute " Holy" means this : 
 prefixed to certain writings, it claims 
 for them a fpecial, a proper relation- 
 fhip to the Holy Spirit, as their 
 Author. 
 
 And thus we are conducted to the 
 fubject of Infpiration. Here, too, it is 
 neceflary to inquire into the origin of the 
 
Revelation and Infpiration. 39 
 
 term. We are familiar with it, frequently 
 ufing it, or hearing it ufed ; and we attach 
 fome fenfe to it. 1 But whence has it 
 come? The etymology, or derivation of a 
 word will not always determine its fenfe : 
 it may, and generally will be a help to 
 that end, but it will not always of itfelf 
 fix its meaning ; for, a word may have 
 been fubjected to many influences which 
 affect its fignification. We cannot always 
 take a word to pieces, and having found 
 its original elements, decide what it does, 
 by arguing what, as fprung from fuch 
 and fuch fources, it ought to mean. 
 
 The word f infpiration,' like that al- 
 ready analyfed, comes (we know) from 
 the Latin, that is, immediately ; and fo, 
 regarded in its ftruclure, might, like ' re- 
 velation,' defcribe either the procefs, or 
 
 1 "Ufe and tradition have confecrated" this 
 word " to exprefs the reverence which all Chriftians 
 truly feel for the Old and New Teftaments.'' — 
 EJfay " On the Interpretation of Scripture," p. 344. 
 
40 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 the refult; but, juft as by that word are 
 ufually meant c the truths revealed/ fo 
 by the term now under confederation is 
 generally intended a quality or character- 
 iftic of the Bible. He who maintains the 
 infpiration of the Scriptures, is by all 
 underftood to teach that the Scriptures 
 are infpired. 
 
 But we come back to the queftion, 
 Whence the term? Its elements, we 
 are well aware, are Latin : Spiro, f to 
 breathe,' in, c into.' But, as the Latin is 
 not the original language of the Old 
 Teftament, or of the New, we muft 
 fearch yet further. So we mail find that 
 the warrant for the term c infpiration,' is 
 contained in a word in the Greek of the 
 New Teftament, which, while it embraces 
 the bafis-element (indeed, efTentially the 
 whole) of the term c infpiration,' includes 
 more, and that a moft important addition. 
 That word is c GoD-breathed.' So that, 
 while f infpiration' fpeaks of a f breathing 
 
Revelation and Infpiration. 41 
 
 into/ its original fays far more, and pro- 
 nounces concerning that to which it is 
 attached as the attribute, that it is 'of 
 God.' This is not, indeed, the only 
 parTage which afferts the Divine original 
 of the Scriptures, but in directnefs it 
 ftands alone, and is to that end fo explicit, 
 that if nothing but this were found in 
 the Bible on the point, we mould pofTefs, 
 in the words " All Scripture is God- 
 breathed," the moft ample affurance 
 upon a point of fundamental import- 
 ance. 
 
 For thoughtful and candid minds it 
 were enough to be able to gather fatisfac- 
 tion on this head, indireclly, and by in- 
 ference : but when it is remembered how 
 many minds are weak, and hefitating, not 
 to take into account all that clafs over 
 which prejudice cafts a cloud, it is to be 
 regarded as a momentous advantage, and 
 a ground of thankfulnefs that we pofTefs 
 a witnefs fo clear, fo unqualified, as that 
 
42 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 which the words now under our thoughts 
 furnifh. No ftudent of the Sacred Re- 
 cord, however much his perfonal convic- 
 tion may be made up of the c inward 
 witnefs' of the Spirit, however true it may 
 be that the evidence which is deeper! 
 lodged in his foul, and is there fail 
 riveted, even as the chain which ties the 
 fhip to the rock, is the felt adaptation of 
 God's Word to his foul's need ; there is 
 no fuch ftudent but will rejoice in that 
 dogma, {landing out like a headland in 
 the fea, fharp, bold, and patent to every 
 eye, " All Scripture is breathed of 
 God." 
 
 Such, then, is the origin, fuch the 
 authority of Scripture. But the very 
 term carries the mind on to the further 
 inquiry, 'Upon whom breathed ? ' The reply 
 to which has been already given, in effecl:, 
 when it was faid that God's Revelation 
 could become enduring, for the ufe of 
 the Church in all future generations, only 
 
Revelation and Infpiration. 43 
 
 in one way, namely, by being committed 
 to writing, this neceffarily implying 
 writers. 
 
 The penmen of the books which com- 
 pofe the Bible, then, are they into whom 
 God c breathed ' the qualifications, what- 
 ever they were, by the exercife of which 
 His will concerning man was to be made 
 known. 
 
 It may be thought unnecefTary to refer 
 to the ideas held by fome perfons on the 
 fubject of infpiration. Ideas, indeed, they 
 can fcarcely be called ; for, judging from 
 the language of by far the greater num- 
 ber of thofe who are ever heard to fpeak 
 on the point, the notions entertained are 
 moft vague, the apprehenfions mofl dim. 
 The term * infpired writers,' as ufed by 
 fuch, exprerTes juft what c facred writers,' 
 or, c the writers of the Old and New Tefta- 
 ment,'does. As employed by thefe perfons, 
 it merely points to the books, not to any 
 chara&eriftics which diftinguifhed the 
 
44 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 writers, 1 or their writings. This is clearly 
 a thoughtlefs employment of the term, 
 and, therefore, not calling for any notice, 
 except fo far as the habit of ufing words 
 without reflection has a pernicious influ- 
 ence upon the mind, by accuftoming it to 
 reft fatisfied with faint and general im- 
 pre (lions upon fubjects in which clearnefs 
 and precifion are all-important, and may 
 be attained. To which ill effects upon 
 the minds of thofe who allow themfelves 
 in the lax ufe of terms, may be added thofe 
 which are wrought upon the minds of 
 others who hear and readily acquiefce in 
 thofe lax ftatements, through the like in- 
 difpofition to fubjedl the mind to ftridt- 
 
 1 An undue degree of importance is affigned by 
 fome who treat of this fubjedl:, beween the infpira- 
 tion of the writers, and the infpiration of the 
 writings. Indeed, the diftindtion itfelf is one which 
 it is not very eafy to apprehend : for it is not of them 
 as ' men,' but as the 'pen-men ' of Holy Scripture 
 that we fpeak. If, as ' writers,' they were infpired, 
 furely fo were their ' writings.' 
 
Revelation and Infpiration. 45 
 
 nefs in its conceptions ; whereby the evil 
 is propagated, and, like a pebble caft into 
 the waters, fpreads itfelf to an almost 
 endlefs number of circles. 
 
 But, turning from this clafs, if we look 
 at thofe who do recognife in the term 
 fome reference to the condition of the 
 minds of the Writers, the utmoft indif- 
 tindtnefs will be found to prevail. Seldom 
 is it accompanied by anything beyond a 
 glimpfe of the belief that the framers of 
 the contents of the Bible were inftructed 
 and guided by God, in fome fenfe ; but in 
 what fenfe there feems to be no diftincl:- 
 nefs of idea. We can imagine fome of 
 this fort replying, f The fubjecl: is myf- 
 terious.' We admit that it is fuch in a 
 very high degree, and that the manner of 
 infpiration, how it was wrought in the 
 fouls of His " fervants the Prophets," 
 is of "the fecret things" that "belong 
 unto the Lord our God." But in this, 
 as in all other matters connected with 
 
46 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 religious belief, inquiry is not irreverent, 
 nay, is efTentially requifite, if our faith is 
 to be intelligent ; and unlefs it be fo, it 
 will be "nothing worth," merely nega- 
 tive, rather unbelief than belief. It is 
 not prefumptuous to examine into the 
 fenfe of terms which, if we were to hefi- 
 tate to employ in reipect of things facred, 
 our hesitation would immediately caufe 
 our orthodoxy to be fufpe&ed. So that 
 we may lawfully inquire into the meaning 
 of c infpiration,' as applied to the books 
 which make up the Bible, as there is, 
 unquestionably, no topic in the whole 
 compafs of theology which porTeffefs more 
 intereft than this. For, if the Scriptures 
 of the Old and New Testament come to 
 us as the charter of our falvation, if we 
 are taught that in them " the God of the 
 fpirits of all flefh " has fpoken to the 
 " reafonable foul " which He has formed, 
 it is impoffible to conceive of any fubject 
 that can more delightfully engage our 
 
Revelation and Infpiration. 47 
 
 thoughts, than that which relates to the 
 conditions under which thofe " holy men 
 of God," whom in their words and re- 
 cords we believe to have been "moved 
 by the Holy Ghost," did actually 
 c fpeak,' and write. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Ordinary and Special 
 Inspiration. 
 
 'HAT infpiration is eflen- 
 tially, may be regarded as 
 fettled in the term c God- 
 breathed,' that noble com- 
 pound, which, as if to keep the Church 
 always right in the main, upon fo vital a 
 point, the Holy Spirit (whofe own proper 
 Name is from the fame flock) has fupplied, 
 affixing it to the entire Scriptures ; for, 
 though it is by the Apoftle applied ftri&ly 
 only to the c Jewifh ' Scriptures, we muft 
 fuppofe that he claimed for the Chriftian 
 
Ordinary and Special Infpiration. 49 
 
 records no lefs an authority than he con- 
 ceded to the Hebrew Canon. The Spirit 
 of God imprefling, informing the natural 
 faculties, so as to produce a refult diftincT: 
 from, and beyond any that could have 
 followed the mere exercife of thofe facul- 
 ties ; that is what we have in our thoughts 
 when we fpeak of the authors of the 
 feveral books that make up the Bible 
 as being c infpired.' When " the Lord 
 God breathed into his noftrils the breath 
 of life, man became a living foul." When 
 He imparted to the fouls of certain perfons 
 the faculty of recording whether fome 
 new truths which He had communicated 
 to them only, or fome hiftorical fads 
 known to them either by the teftimony or 
 their own eyes, or of others on whom they 
 could rely, there was a Divine communi- 
 cation independent of, and beyond that 
 by which " man became a living foul," 
 peculiar to thofe on whom it was conferred, 
 and fpecial for the f accomplishment of 
 
50 Infptration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 the ends for which the agency of thofe 
 men rather than of any other had been 
 fele&ed. 
 
 Some help towards a clear perception 
 of this matter we may gain by fixing our 
 attention upon other places of Scripture, 
 with the occafions belonging to them, 
 where the fundamental elements of the 
 word f infpiration' are found. For, com- 
 parifon illuftrates : and we cannot err in 
 comparing the terms " not which man's 
 wifdom teacheth, but which the Holy 
 Ghoft teacheth." Now, we read in St. 
 John, that the Lord Jesus " breathed on 
 them" (the difciples), and faid, <f Receive 
 ye the Holy Ghoft," to c certify them by ' 
 that f fign of His Spirit ever being, not 
 only with,' but upon and in them, for the 
 work that lay before them, and to which 
 they were then ordained. Nor may we 
 doubt that, coincidently with that fign, 
 they were "endued with power." 
 
 But, it is the meaning of that action 
 
Ordinary and Special Infpiration. 5 1 
 
 of the Lord as illuftrative of the point 
 before us with which we are immediately- 
 concerned. The natural breath of Jesus 
 was not the Holy Ghoft, though (as has 
 been faid), it may have been accompanied 
 by that Divine gift. Far more important, 
 however, is it to dwell upon that which it 
 unquestionably was ; a fign offered to 
 their fenfes, a token which they faw and 
 felt, of ■power from without to " dwell 
 with" them, and to f c be in" them, whereby 
 they mould be enabled unto all the parts 
 of their work, whether to preach, or act, 
 or write. Carry, now, this thought (of 
 ( breathing-upon' as importing power), to 
 the " GoD-breathed" Scriptures, and you 
 are greatly aided in forming an idea of 
 that c infpiration' which we claim for the 
 Sacred Writers. cc Without " Christ, 
 f apart from ' Him and His Spirit, they 
 could <f do nothing" as inftruments for 
 the guiding of the Church " into all 
 truth:" while "through Christ," c who 
 
52 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 gave them inward power/ they could " do 
 all things " demanded by their miflion. 
 
 An influence defcending into the human 
 foul, mingling with its natural faculties, 
 and working fome refult which but for 
 that operation from without, could not 
 have been exhibited ; this, we conceive, 
 is the effential idea of Infpiration. 
 
 This would feem to be the fit place for 
 introducing a caution againft being mifled 
 by two ufes of the word c infpiration,' 
 which are by no means identical with the 
 fenfe in which it applies to the writers of 
 the books which compofe the Bible. The 
 one inftance is from the Scriptures, the 
 other is from the Englifh Liturgy. In 
 the 1 Book of Job are found the following 
 words : " But there is a fpirit in man, 
 and the infpiration of the Almighty giveth 
 them understanding." It is evident, from 
 the connection in which thefe words are 
 found, that no more was intended by them, 
 (and therefore that no more can be de- 
 
 1 Job xxxii. 8. 
 
Ordinary and Special Infpiration. 5 3 
 
 duced from them), than that the under- 
 standing which dwells in the foul of man, 
 and which is to be its guide, is a faculty 
 imparted to it by the Almighty, a direct 
 communication from God. Clearly, then, 
 would it be a mifreprefentation of their 
 meaning, were any to contend, from thefe 
 words, that Infpiration rifes no higher than 
 intelligence, and that every reafonable 
 man is infpired. 
 
 It would be eafy to fhow how illogical 
 is the procefs in any fuch method of ar- 
 guing, while yet we know that its un- 
 foundnefs offers no fecurity againfl: its being 
 confidently adopted by fome. A warn- 
 ing, therefore, againfl: being mifled by it 
 cannot be fuperfluous, when it is remem- 
 bered, that the admiflion of it as valid 
 would amount to a total overthrow of 
 Biblical infpiration, in that peculiar fenfe 
 in which we have ever been accuftomed 
 to think of it. 
 
 The other error againfl which a caution 
 
54 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 is needed, is that of fuppofing the infpira- 
 tion of which ordinary Chriftians are the 
 fubjects, and that of the Scripture-writers, 
 to be the fame. Neither is this to be 
 treated as a light mifconception : rather is 
 it a very ferious one, the odds to the 
 authority of the Bible being infinite. 
 God's " holy infpiration that we may 
 think thofe things that be good," and as 
 the power which is to cf cleanfe the thoughts 
 of our hearts, that we may perfectly love 
 Him, and worthily magnify His holy 
 Name," this is indifpenfable for all, for the 
 loweft and the higheft intellecl: alike ; for 
 the moft unlettered, as for the moll learned 
 member of the Chriftian congregation. 
 
 But, not even the higheft meafure of 
 perfonal fanctification would, of itfelf, 
 form a qualification for becoming an in- 
 fpired penman. We find fome who were 
 endued tf . with fingular gifts of the Holy 
 Ghoft," who were yet not called to the 
 talk of committing to writing any of thofe 
 
Ordinary and Special Infpiration. $$ 
 
 revelations and facts which were to make 
 up the future Canon of Scripture. Very 
 different (if we may judge from fome 
 modern fpeculations on this matter), might 
 have been the courfe purfued, had it been 
 left to man to felect, from the company 
 of them that believed, the perfons who 
 mould record God's Truth. The holieft 
 men would, probably, have been fixed 
 upon as therefore the fittefl: writers. But 
 the Lord "feeth not as man feeth ;" and, 
 befides holinefs of heart, there were re- 
 quired, in His unerring judgment, certain 
 endowments of mind, fuch as He had im- 
 planted in one and not in another, of the 
 true members of the ff houfehold of faith." 
 It is eafy to conceive that fome difciple 
 might be f f fteadfaft and unmoveable " in 
 the faith, and " abounding in the work of 
 the Lord," and yet lack thofe qualifications 
 of mind, and even of the general character, 
 the porTeflion of which was effential to the 
 tafk of committing to writing " the word 
 
56 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 of the Lord." Do we not fee how to 
 one man is given fwiftnefs of foot, fo that 
 he excels as a runner ; to another dexterity 
 of hand, fo that he becomes a fkilful me- 
 chanic ; and to a third, ability and aptnefs 
 of fome other and different form ; each 
 becoming, by virtue of his diftinctive 
 talent, ufeful in his place; while yet, neither 
 of them mould be able to write down the 
 principles of the art, or fcience, in which 
 he was an adept ? And fee we not, by 
 analogy, how there might well be eminent 
 goodnefs and devotednefs in fome or all 
 of "thofe men that companied with" the 
 Apoftles, " all the time that the Lord 
 Jesus went in and out among" them, while 
 yet there mould not be found, in the fame 
 men, the endowments that could make 
 them fuitable channels for conveying the 
 " mind of Chrift " to the Church ? 
 
 Obvious as fuch views may be to 
 reflecting minds, they are yet far from 
 being admitted by all arguers on this 
 
Ordinary and Special Infpiration. $j 
 
 Subject, while from not attending to the 
 diftindtion which has here been infifted on, 
 the moft ferious errors have followed. 
 For this reafon, it were to have been 
 wifhed that the fame word had not been 
 neceflary to denote the extraordinary and 
 the ordinary operation of the Holy Spirit. 
 The latter is truly defignated infpira- 
 tion ;' fo is the former : but, the dis- 
 tinction to be made, in fpeaking of thefe 
 two afpects of the Spirit's work, is fo 
 important as to have made a different 
 term moft defirable, could fuch have been 
 found. Some writers, indeed, have adop- 
 ted the word f theopneuftia,' as in itfelf 
 precife, and alfo marking the difference 
 in queftion. But, if it is undefirable to 
 difcard an eftablifhed term, it is the more 
 neceffary to define its meaning, and to 
 feparate its ufe in connection with one 
 clafs of objects, from the fenfe which it 
 properly bears when applied to another. 
 Of the remarks which have been made 
 
58 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 this is the fum. The Sacred Writers 
 were not fitted for their tafk, merely by 
 the pofTeflion of a high meafure of per- 
 fonal holinefs : nor were they difqualified 
 by reafon of the " weaknefs of" that 
 "mortal nature" which in common with 
 other men they inherited. Eminent 
 fanctity would not, of itfelf, bring up a 
 difciple of Chrift to the ftandard of 
 1 theopneuftia,' fo that he could, out of 
 the refources of a mind " renewed in 
 knowledge after the image of Him that 
 created him," write the word of God. 
 The moft fpiritual Ifraelite, under the 
 Old Covenant, and the moft faithful fol- 
 lower of the Lord Jesus Christ, under 
 the New, muft remain on this fide of the 
 line of demarcation that feparates the un- 
 infpired from the infpired, unlefs fome 
 new communication mail be made to their 
 minds, of " heavenly things" before un- 
 known, and a fpecial guidance vouchfafed, 
 fo as that they might fpeak and write of 
 
Ordinary and Special Infpiration. 59 
 
 the new truths imparted to them after an 
 infallible manner. On the other hand, 
 the prefence of flefhly infirmity would not 
 render them ineligible for becoming the 
 channels through which the purpofes of 
 God in Jesus Christ mould be made 
 known to the Church : for then, man 
 could never have been employed at all of 
 that end ; for, ff there is no man that" is 
 not fubjecT: to "like paffions" with the 
 reft of his race. His devotednefs to the 
 fervice of Christ, though an effential 
 prerequifite in his character, did not 
 qualify Paul for preaching " Christ's 
 Gofpel," or for writing his great Letter to 
 the Romans, any more than the fervent 
 zeal of Peter, or the affectionate attach- 
 ment of John to his Lord, qualified the 
 one and the other to compofe the Epiftles 
 they have left to the Church : rather was 
 it a diftind endowment, conferred on 
 them as it was not on other good men, 
 their fellow- believers, who were not 
 
60 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 c called to be Apoftles,' and penmen of 
 the Holy Ghoft. 
 
 And, here, for the fake of marking 
 by one compact term, (as is always con- 
 venient where it can be done without 
 injury to truth), the diftinction on 
 which we have dwelt, between ordinary 
 and fpecial infpiration, there might be a 
 temptation to adopt the language em- 
 ployed, even by fome able writers, and 
 to fay, that between the infpiration of 
 Prophets and Apoftles, on the one hand, 
 and that of ordinary members of the 
 Church, on the other, the difference is one 
 of kind. But is not this to be regarded 
 as an artificial refinement, rather than an 
 authorized diftin&ion ? and, does not the 
 Scripture refufe to be fo trammelled ? 
 When any lay it down as an axiom that 
 the work of the Holy Ghoft in the Sacred 
 Writers, c generically' differed from that 
 of which good men, now, are the fubjects, 
 do they not lay themfelves open to the 
 
Ordinary and Special Infpiration. 6 1 
 
 charge of too much fyftematizing, and of 
 travelling beyond the limits which the 
 Holy Ghoft Himfelf has prefcribed? 
 Divine truth will not bow to canons of 
 this fort, which may be juft in themfelves, 
 and are often neceflary inftruments for 
 coercing human thought when exercifed 
 upon " earthly things," but by which the 
 wifdom that hath come forth from the 
 bofom of God may not be fquared. Is 
 it necefTary, can it be thought lawful, to 
 attempt greater precifion on this point, 
 than that which the Holy Spirit Himfelf, 
 by the mouth of the Apoftle whom He 
 taught, has ufed in treating of this very 
 fubject ? The language employed, in the 
 place referred to, is moft exprefs : none 
 more dogmatic can be found in any part 
 of the Writings of the Apoftles. The 
 following is offered as a juft paraphrafe 
 of the paffage : f There are diftindtions 
 of endowments, but the fame Spirit : and, 
 diftinctions of fervices' (in which thefe 
 
62 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 endowments would find the fcope for 
 their exercife), c but the fame Lord : and 
 diftinctions in the effects wrought ; whilft 
 it is the fame God who worketh thefe 
 effects in all the pofTeffors of thefe en- 
 dowments. But while in all, the Spirit 
 manifefts Himfelf as the Author of the 
 effects wrought, He diftributes to each 
 perfon, feparately, as He will.' 
 
 Upon a point fo occult as this (as, indeed, 
 upon fome others of the fame high and 
 myfterious nature), it were both reverential 
 and fafe to keep ourfelves within the limits 
 which are indicated by Scripture itfelf when 
 thisfubject is treated of in its pages. Unlefs 
 we do fo, ours may be the fault of " in- 
 truding into thofe things which" we have 
 cc not feen," and of being f wife in our 
 own conceits.' Its teaching upon the 
 point before us feems to amount to this : 
 Both thofe who originally compofed, and 
 thofe who now fimply obey, the Bible, are 
 to be thought of as "taught of God ;" 
 but, each after a different manner. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Mechanical Theory is 
 Exploded. 
 
 HERE is nothing unreafon- 
 able in fuppofing that God 
 may have endowed certain 
 men with faculties peculiar 
 to them, becaufe he would employ them 
 as inftruments for making known His 
 purpofes to mankind. We fay 'faculties / 
 for it is clear to every reflecting perfon 
 that it is through the powers of the mind 
 infpiration acts. Another theory, indeed, 
 long prevailed, (if it was not rather a 
 
64 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 confufed ' notion ' than a clearly-defined 
 theory), that God caufed certain men 
 whom He feledted for that purpofe, to 
 write down a number of words which 
 He dictated. "With the few who ever 
 flopped to inquire what infpiration meant, 
 there was an <f unthinking acquiefcence " 
 in that view, which held the ground 
 without any rival almoft for ages ; while 
 in the lips of the many, the word 'in- 
 fpiration' merely expreffed an inward 
 reverence felt towards the Bible, as pof- 
 femng a character unlike any other book. 
 The clofer thought, however, which 
 this fubjecT: has received, if it has not 
 ifTued in a general agreement upon all 
 the points it includes, has at leaft ended 
 in men's minds being thoroughly dif- 
 fatisfied with thofe loofe opinions which 
 had fo long exifted. Thus much, at 
 leaft, is now feen, that to move the hands 
 was not to act upon the mind ; whereas 
 the old notion of infpiration began and 
 
The Mechanical Theory Exploded. 65 
 
 ended in attributing the former agency to 
 the Divine Author of the Scriptures, the 
 mental faculties of thofe whom He em- 
 ployed being in utter abeyance. Not 
 that a f doctrine ' to this effect was main- 
 tained ; there was no c doctrine ' at all ; 
 but the ideas that floated about upon 
 the fubject, as difcovered by the terms 
 ufed in talking and writing, refolved 
 themfelves into the fancy already alluded 
 to, properly defignated the mechanical 
 theory, inafmuch as it prefents man as a 
 f machine,' and nothing more. 
 
 There are, probably, not two minds in 
 the univerfe precifely alike in their con- 
 struction, as there are not two faces 
 alike, although every human countenance 
 is compofed of features phyfically the 
 fame. The difference between one face 
 and another is feen in the proportions of 
 the features, and in the manner in which 
 they are adjufted together. In one, fome 
 features predominate, fome are fubordi- 
 
66 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 nate ; fome ftand out, fome are fubdued : 
 and of this height and depreflion you 
 mall fee modifications carried out through 
 a long feries of faces, every one of which 
 might be called beautiful, and claim to 
 hold a place in a gallery of pictures, or 
 of bufts. Is not the cafe fuch and flmilar 
 in the world of mind ? and, if fo, why 
 may it not be true ; nay, is it not highly 
 probable that He who faid to Pharaoh, 
 fC For this have I raifed thee up, for to 
 mew in thee my power," may have, in 
 like manner, raifed up, for the exprefs 
 end of making them channels of commu- 
 nication between His own mind and the 
 minds of the whole family of man, certain 
 perfons whom He accordingly moulded 
 to that purpofe, as the potter fafhions the 
 clay in his hands, bringing out by his art 
 veffels of various fhapes and capacity, 
 fome which are deftined to higher ufes, 
 being therefore of finer material and more 
 exquifite workman (hip ? 
 
The Mechanical Theory Exploded. 6j 
 
 Such a view as this is inconfiftent with 
 that which (as has been already faid), fo 
 Jong prevailed ; rather, however, as a con- 
 fufed notion than a well-defined theory 
 of infpiration, that the Sacred Writers 
 were caufed to put down a number of 
 prefcribed words and fyllables, no other, 
 not any more or any lefs than thofe which 
 were appointed for them. By this fancy, 
 which fo long held the ground alone and 
 undifputed, man, though employed as 
 the inftrument, was wholly paffive, his 
 part being purely and merely c organic,' 
 according to the ftricT: fenfe of that 
 word, as framed from the Greek original 
 fignifying { a tool.' 
 
 This has been the favourite fyftem of 
 many religious minds ; or rather, language 
 to this effect is often heard to proceed 
 from perfons of that character. We 
 would think and fpeak honouringly of 
 them for their piety, but muft exprefs 
 our diffent from their ideas on this fub- 
 
68 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 ject. It is their very humility, their 
 defire ever to abafe the creature and to 
 exalt the Creator, that makes them cling 
 to a view which, probably, they have 
 never examined ; but, in their defire to 
 uphold the principle that cc all things are 
 of God," they reprefent Him as irra- 
 tionally ufing His rational creature. 
 
 This idea of infpiration can refer, in- 
 deed, for its fan6lion, to no lefs an autho- 
 rity than the pious and wife c Hooker ; ' ' 
 
 1 " They [the Prophets] neither fpake nor wrote 
 any word of their own, but uttered fyllable by 
 fyllable as the Spirit put it in their mouths, no 
 otherwife than the harp or the lute doth give a 
 found according to the difcretion of his hands that 
 holdeth and ftriketh it with ikill." — Serm. V. 4., 
 vol. iii. Works, Oxford, 1841. 
 
 " When fuch illuftrations are applied to men 
 as the agents of the Holy Spirit, we fhould 
 remember that the tone and quality of the note 
 depend as much upon the inftrument itfelf as upon 
 the hand which fweeps over its firings." — Pro- 
 fessor Lee's Donnellan Lettures on Infpiration, 
 p. 80. 
 
The Mechanical Theory Exploded. 69 
 
 but muft, neverthelefs, be examined upon 
 its own merits. The obvious fault in it 
 is that it feems to teach that God did not 
 
 The excellent and learned Bifhop Jewel, too, 
 went the fame length as Hooker, and even farther : 
 "There is no fentence, no claufe, no word, no 
 fyllable, no letter, but it is written for thy inftruc- 
 tion." — A Treatife of The Holy Scriptures : edition 
 1607, p. 37. 
 
 To thefe and other defervedly-high names we 
 owe deference, but not uninquiring fubmiffion. In- 
 deed, upon the prefent, and all points not deter- 
 minate^ laid down in the Word of God, we only 
 exercife " the liberty wherewith Christ hath made 
 us free," when to one who afks us to what 'fchool' 
 of religious opinion we belong, 
 ("Ac ne forte roges, quo me duce, quo Lare tuter? ") 
 we reply, 
 
 " Nullius addittus jurare in verba magiftri:" 
 
 taking good care, however, that our ftate of mind is 
 
 far from that defcribed in the following line : 
 
 "Quo me cunque rapit tempeftas, deferor hofpes ;" 
 
 Horace, Ep. i. i. 14-16. 
 
 " Carried about with every wind of doftrine." 
 
 "Whatever writers I may refer to," fays Arch- 
 bifhop Whately, " whether of fmall or of great repu- 
 tation, I do not mean to appeal to any as of decifive 
 
jo Infpiratio?i of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 ufe the mental faculties of the writers at 
 all, but fuperfeded them, " the human 
 agent contributing no more than the pen 
 of a fcribe ; in a word, he was the pen, 1 
 not the penman, of the Spirit." 
 
 If this theory be exploded, (for thought- 
 ful minds it never did nor ever can 
 fatisfy), it has to be confidered in what 
 manner the faculties of the minds of the 
 
 authority, or to adopt them as guides. Some of 
 them may be fuch as to create more or lefs of a 
 prefumption in favour of their opinions till fatisfac- 
 torily refuted. Others may fupply valuable tefti- 
 mony as to the prevailing opinions in their time, or 
 may fuggeft arguments which are to be judged of 
 according to their intrinfic weight : but I have 
 learned to ' call no man matter upon earth,' and to 
 make a final appeal to nothing but the records of 
 infpiration, and the force of juft reafoning." — 
 Preface to "EJJays on fome of the Peculiarities of 
 the Chrifiian Religion.'''' 
 
 1 "The mechanical, or verbal theory, however 
 pioufly intended, really had the effect of degrading the 
 Sacred Writers almoft into automatons." — Rev. A. 
 S. Farrar's Bampton Leclures. 
 
The Mechanical Theory Exploded. 7 1 
 
 Sacred Writers were enlifted for the work 
 they had to do. In what way, under 
 what conditions, were they made to exe- 
 cute their allotted tafk of conveying 
 God's truth to their fellow men ? Now, 
 in this it is clear that one of the two 
 elements, the divine and the human, muft 
 take the lead. Either the memory and 
 the judgment muft go firft, and the fug- 
 geftions of the Divine Spirit be made 
 fubordinate to them ; or, the latter muft 
 precede, the former following in fubjec- 
 tion to them. On the firft fuppofition 
 the work is, to all effects, a human pro- 
 duction, and its authority to be deter- 
 mined by the worth (at whatever efti- 
 mated), of the arguments which it con- 
 tains founded on reafon, the confeffedly 
 predominating, though not the exclufive 
 element : or, it is a fuperhuman book, a 
 Volume of authorfhip properly divine, 
 becaufe it originated in the Divine pur- 
 pofe to make a communication to man, 
 
7 2 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 the human mind being the channel 
 through which that truth was to be con- 
 veyed. Now, as no one for a moment 
 hefitates to admit that this latter is what 
 he means when he fpeaks of the c Word 
 of God,' fo all muft acknowledge that 
 the Divine influence muft prefide, and 
 the human agency be merely its fervant 
 and inftrument. Still, the human ele- 
 ment does work, as truly as the Divine. 
 
 We may venture to hint at an analogy 
 to this cafe, to be feen in the union of 
 the Godhead and the manhood, in the 
 perfon of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every 
 orthodox Chriftian knows into what a 
 herefy he would be inftantly precipitated, 
 were he to fuppofe, that of the two na- 
 tures which compofed His myfterious 
 Perfon, the human was the diftinguifhing 
 one, and that the Divine was f given by 
 meafure unto Him ; ' c the right faith ' 
 being c that we believe and confefs that ' 
 the Divine, which preceded even from 
 
The Mechanical Theory "Exploded. 73 
 
 eternity, did, for mediatorial ends, afTume 
 the human, the Eternal Son c taking the 
 manhood into God,' fo that the Perfon of 
 Christ was, as touching His Godhead, 
 equal, f as touching His manhood, inferior 
 to the Father.' And yet we hold that in 
 the manhood of Christ, all the faculties 
 of the human foul were in as full exercife 
 as they are in any of c us men ' who are 
 merely human, while all were penetrated 
 and infinitely illumined by the fC fullnefs 
 of the Godhead " which fC dwelt in Him 
 bodily." Does there not feem to be a 
 proportion (immeafurably as the cafes are 
 removed from each other) ; or, at leaft, 
 a likenefs, fuch a refemblance as ferves 
 to illuftrate the point before us, between 
 the union of the Divine and human 
 natures in the Perfon of Christ, and 
 that of the Divine Spirit and the human 
 faculties, in the cafe of thofe men whom 
 God called to the work of conveying 
 His truth to mankind? Both elements 
 
74 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 were prefent, the fupernatural and the 
 natural ; but the former prefided over and 
 controlled the work of which the latter 
 was to be the instrument. Nor do we 
 only fay that fo it was : we add, fo it muft 
 needs have been. Man was to be reached 
 through the medium of his affections : 
 1 " Speak thou with us, and we will hear," 
 faid the people to Mofes. If any man is 
 to be led to draw near and liften, the 
 fpeaker muft be a man like himfelf. As 
 he cannot endure the fight of God un- 
 veiled and direct, fo he cannot endure to 
 hear the words of God founding imme- 
 diately in his ears. Accordingly, the 
 medium can be none other than man, his 
 own fellow being : and if fo, then it muft 
 be the mind of his fellow that is to fpeak 
 to his own mind, the faculties being 
 allowed their full play, without any force 
 being employed to urge them forward, 
 or to keep them back. More than this ; 
 
 1 Exod. xx. 19. 
 
The Mechanical Theory Exploded. j$ 
 
 we cannot but fuppofe that each writer 
 was chofen and fent to the work given 
 him to do, becaufe the native mould of 
 his mind was juft that which the Divine 
 mind forefaw would exhibit the truth as 
 God willed that it mould be exhibited, the 
 type of mind of each writer having been 
 originally carl by the Infinite Mind itfelf. 
 Doubtlefs it was His f everlafting pur- 
 pofe ' to throw the truth which He would 
 make known to man as the c means of 
 his falvation,' into thofe forms of thought 
 and expreffion which belonged character- 
 iftically to each of thofe whom He em- 
 ployed, juft becaufe each truth fo con- 
 ceived, and fo uttered, would precifely 
 exprefs His will. He who once, in long 
 anticipation, faid ! " of Cyrus, He is my 
 fhepherd, and mall perform all my plea- 
 fure," had " conftantly decreed by His 
 fecret counfel," to raife up each of the 
 Evangelifts, and of the other New Tefta- 
 
 1 Ifaiah xliv. 28. 
 
J 6 Infpiratlon of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 ment writers, cc when the fulnefs of the 
 time" for their fervices fhould have 
 cc come." cc Before the foundations of 
 the world were laid," He faid of them 
 feverally, as of <c vefTels made to honour," 
 of Matthew and his fellow-hiftorians, and 
 in turn of Paul, and Peter, and John, 
 cc He is my fervant, and fhall perform all 
 my pleafure;" fhall conceive, and preach, 
 and write "the word of" My "falvation," 
 as I mail fill his mind, and move his 
 tongue, and guide his pen. 
 
 If it fhall feem to any that an operation 
 fo ftringent as this amounts to that very 
 mechanical agency againft which we have 
 been arguing, let him weigh well the two 
 cafes, and he will probably be brought to 
 fee how wide the difference is between 
 merely employing the lips or the fingers 
 of a man, to fpeak or to write down a 
 certain number of words and fyllables, 
 (dead figns as far as he the utterer or the 
 writer is concerned, however full of life 
 
The Mechanical Theory Exploded, jj 
 
 in refpect of their author) ; and, the en- 
 lifting of the rational foul of the fame 
 man as that which is to command the 
 fervices of the tongue and the hand. 
 f Why, there is all the difference in the 
 world,' as we mould fay in common 
 colloquial phrafe. For, think of the fteps. 
 The Spirit of God firft fills the mind, in- 
 forming and elevating it, without making 
 it pamVe. The mind, confcious of this 
 unufual illapfe of the Spirit, and of the 
 fpecial commirTion implied in it, (for con- 
 fcioufnefs of both thefe is an efTential 
 condition of infpiration), employs the 
 tongue as its inftrument to execute the 
 commanded fervice to the men of the 
 living generation, by crying in their ears, 
 "Thus faith the Lord;" or elfe, the 
 activity of the fingers to Cf take the roll 
 of a book, and write therein " the revela- 
 tion which had been made to it. 
 
 An intelligent, orderly procefs, this. 
 Not fo the other, which afferts that God 
 
y$ Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 fufpends the exercife of the reafon of the 
 perfon He employs, or, at leaft, fets it 
 afide for the time ; and making His own 
 Spirit an immediate agent, moves the 
 tongue or the hand of a man without any 
 concurrence of his own will, whereas, at 
 all other times, and for all other purpofes, 
 he is excited to fpeak or to write by the 
 confcious impulfe of his own will. Be- 
 tween the higheft degree of conftraint 
 which the Holy Spirit can be conceived 
 as exercinng upon the tongue and hand 
 through the mind of the writer, and upon 
 both independently of his mind, the dif- 
 ference is infinite. 
 
 Some of the early Christian writers 
 have adopted as illustrative of the opera- 
 tion of the Spirit of God upon man's 
 fpirit, in the matter of infpiration, the 
 action of one who plays f f upon a harp or 
 lyre, ftriking it with the plectrum." An 
 elegant poetical fancy, and, kept within 
 due limits, a juft illuftration : for there is 
 
The Mechanical Theory Exploded, 79 
 
 an analogy. We fhall, however, incur 
 danger of being mifled if we fo follow 
 the illuftration as to attribute utter fub- 
 ferviency to the human agent; an error 
 into which we might eafily fall by fixing 
 our eye upon the hand that ftrikes the 
 lyre, and feeing how entirely it commands 
 the firings, without equally remembering 
 that there is a mufical note proper to each 
 which cannot but be brought out when 
 fmitten by the plectrum. The hand of the 
 mufician and the natural found of the 
 fixings go together ; nay, he ftrikes them 
 in order to evoke the proper mufic of each. 
 Juft in this manner, (we hold,) did the 
 Spirit of God employ the natural facul- 
 ties, the powers which Himfelf had im- 
 planted, of the feveral men whom He 
 chofe to write the books of the Bible. 
 
 It was with this analogy in his thoughts 
 thatOrigen writes, ' f ' Scripture, as a whole, 
 
 1 Matt. v. 9. Tom. iii., p. 441, ed. Ben. Paris, 
 1733- 
 
80 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 is God's perfect and complete inftrument, 
 giving forth to thofe who wifh to learn its 
 one faving mufic, from many notes com- 
 bined, {tilling and restraining all Strivings 
 of the Evil One, as David's mufic calmed 
 the madnefs of Saul." 1 
 
 We may accept this beautiful image, 
 
 1 " All fuch illuftrations, no doubt, clearly recog- 
 nize a relatively pafiive ftate in the facred penmen ; 
 but they by no means imply that fuch a ftate in- 
 volved inattion or unconfcioufnefs. On the con- 
 trary, the decided manner in which the very writers 
 who have made ufe of the fimilitudes in queftion 
 oppofed the erroneous views as to Prophecy with 
 which they had to contend, proves how fenfibly 
 they felt the diftinftion which fubfifts between the 
 vibration of the firings of an inftrument of mufic, 
 and the pulfations of the human heart touched and 
 animated by the Spirit of God. Add to this, the 
 marked omiflion by the Fathers, where adopting the 
 language and the analogies employed by Philo, of 
 anyallufion to that fuppreflion of intellectual energy, 
 and of the exercife of reafon which, as we have feen, 
 was fo much infilled upon by the Jewifh philofo- 
 pher." — Professor Lee's Donnellan Lettures on 
 Infpiration, pp. 80, 81. 
 
The Mechanical Theory Exploded. 8 1 
 
 and derive much instruction from it, if 
 only we are careful to regulate its applica- 
 tion. If we prefs the fimilitude too far, 
 we fhall be Cf again entangled " in that 
 theory of mechanical infpiration, about 
 which all who give any ferious attention to 
 the queftion are now agreed that it is 
 auite untenable. 
 
 In the courfe of this argument, the 
 word c influence' has been ufed, in fpeak- 
 ing of the Spirit's working upon the 
 mind of one infpired. That term was 
 ufed advifedly, in preference to c controul,' 
 as denoting the ' flowing' of the mind of 
 God c into' the foul of the human inftru- 
 ment, as a ftream comes down from its 
 fpring-head into a channel prepared to 
 receive it, and along the bed of which it 
 runs ; whereas ( controul,' taking the 
 thoughts to the government which a 
 charioteer exercifes over the horfes which 
 he rules by the reins he holds in his 
 hands, would feem to lay the ftrefs upon 
 
82 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 the human instrumentality, and make the 
 mind of man to take the lead in the 
 matter of infpiration ; for the power of 
 the horfes is the main agent in the cafe of 
 the chariot, however it is moderated by 
 the Ikill of the guide. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Scriptures were collected by 
 Divine guidance: And^ the 
 Old Tejlament is not out of 
 date. 
 
 HERE is one branch of the 
 work of infpiration, one 
 afpedt of the cafe, which 
 is rarely dwelt upon by 
 thofe who treat of this fubject. Much has 
 been correctly faid concerning the fuper- 
 natural guidance of the writers in com- 
 pofing xh&irjeparate Works: of Matthew, 
 in penning his f Gofpel ; ' of Luke, in 
 1 fetting down in order ' the f Acts of the 
 Apoftles ; ' of Paul, and Peter, and John, 
 
84 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 in composing their refpective Epiftles. 
 Each, when he had conftru&ed his narra- 
 tive, or penned his apoftolic Letter, had 
 fulfilled his part. But how were all thefe 
 portions to be brought together, fo as to 
 form the total of that Truth by which the 
 Church, in the generations to come, was to 
 be taught ? There could be no fpontaneous 
 confluence of thefe feveral ftreams : they 
 could not unite without fome force from 
 without to bring them together, while 
 only in fuch union could they become the 
 material of the permanent Faith of the 
 Church. Unlefs, however, this cohefion 
 had been effected, where had been the 
 Faith of the Church ? To the infpiration 
 of the Holy Ghost muft be referred 
 this drawing together of the Angle parts 
 which mould make up the whole Canon, 
 the complete rule of the Church of 
 Christ; the method employed being the 
 fame as that by which the feparate Books 
 had been compofed, namely, a faculty 
 
Collected by Divine Guidance. 8 5 
 
 divinely imparted of difcriminating be- 
 tween the pretentions to infpiration of 
 thofe authors whofe writings were finally 
 admitted into the Canon, and thofe of 
 any others whofe books were rejected. 
 Of this confolidation of the parts, as well 
 as of the composition of each, it may be 
 truly faid, " This hath God wrought." 
 
 But here arifes the important queftion, 
 What was the precife nature of the guid- 
 ance of thofe men who collected together 
 the Books which make up the Canon ? 
 Was it infpiration of the firft, or of the 
 fecond order ; infpiration -proper, or in- 
 fpiration ordinary ? Was it fuch as dwelt 
 in the writers of the Books, or was it of 
 that fort which fome have pronounced to 
 be f generically ' unlike this, although (for 
 reafons already affigned) we have been 
 content to call it c different,' though, per- 
 haps, not c in kind'? Now St. John fays, 
 towards the end of his Gofpel, that 
 " many other figns truly did Jefus in the 
 
86 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 prefence of His difciples, which are not 
 written in this Book : but thefe are written 
 that ye might believe that Jesus is the 
 Christ, the Son of God : and that 
 believing, ye might have life through 
 His Name." If it be inquired, Why 
 were " thefe " (the evidences, probably, 
 of the reality of His refurrection being 
 here particularly intended ), " written," 
 and thofe " other " not : how came it to 
 pafs that thofe were left out of the re- 
 cord, and thefe included ? It is plain : 
 we have it from the Evangelift himfelf. 
 He paifed over certain " flgns " which 
 the Lord "did," with, as we muft fup- 
 pofe, their attendant difcourfes and doc- 
 trinal comments, fuch as had accompanied 
 the " fign " vouchfafed to Thomas ; while 
 he c wrote ' certain others. By what rule 
 guided, for the infertion and the exclu- 
 iion ? There can be no hesitation in 
 furnifhing the reply. That Apoftle had 
 "the mind of Christ" controlling his 
 
Collected by Divine Guidance. 87 
 
 own mind, working upon the faculty of 
 judgment, fo as that fome fads he mould 
 leave out of his narrative, and put in 
 others. If infallibility for choofing and 
 refufing might be found in any, furely it 
 may be looked for in him who was called 
 to be an Apoftle and Evangelift. 
 
 But, next to the fpecial direction which 
 was needed for one who, like St. John, 
 was to infert and omit from among the 
 doings of the Lord of the Church, and 
 on whofe infertions and omiffions was to 
 hinge the Faith of the Church to the end 
 of time, fo far as it was dependent upon 
 the document which he compofed ; next 
 to this, in order of importance, and de- 
 manding a divine difcrimination, was the 
 tafk to which they were called who 
 formed the colleffion of the Books that 
 mould make up the "Holy" (that is 
 the f infpired') "Scriptures;" and more 
 particularly, of the Books of the Old 
 Teftament. 
 
88 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 In the cafe of the Books of the New 
 Teftament, when their genuinenefs had 
 been afcertained, all was accomplished 
 that was necefTary to make out their 
 claim to a place in the Canon. Let it be 
 a fettled point that Matthew was indeed 
 the writer of the narrative which bears 
 his name, and there is no further queftion 
 to be determined ; for the Lord Himfelf 
 had c called Matthew from the receipt of 
 cuftom, to be an Apoftle and Evangelift.' 
 Let the authorfhip of the Epiftles to the 
 Romans, Corinthians, and Ephefians, be 
 fatisfa&orily afligned to St. Paul, and 
 thofe writings at once take their place as 
 part of the permanent c Rule' of the Faith 
 of the Church ; for an immediate com- 
 miffion from heaven had designated Paul 
 to be the Apoftle of the Gentiles. So, 
 too, it may be argued, in refpecl: of each 
 of the remaining hiftorical Books and 
 Letters of the New Teftament. Of each 
 the author was either an apoftle, or other- 
 
Collected by Divine Guidance. 89 
 
 wife clofely related to the Lord Jesus 
 and His miniftry. But the authorfhip, 
 and therefore the degree of authority 
 attaching to each of the Books of the Old 
 Teftament, was not fo obvious. Believing 
 that the "Pentateuch" bears the ftamp 
 of Heaven upon it, and that its credibility 
 as a profefTed hiftorical record is fully 
 made out, we muft yet perceive that the 
 proof of its Mofaic origin is not fo imme- 
 diate as that of the Books of the New 
 Teftament. The fame is true of the 
 remaining portions of the hiftorical Books 
 of the Old Scriptures. Searching inquiry 
 will conduct us to the fame conclufion as 
 they arrived at who firft affigned to thofe 
 writings the rank they hold. 
 
 But ftill it is c fearching inquiry ' only 
 that does this : the evidence does not lie 
 upon the furface. So that fomething 
 beyond common intelligence, fomething 
 more than mere unaftifted acutenefs of 
 mind, was neceflary to enable them, after 
 
90 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 fpreading open the literature of their own, 
 and of preceding generations, and more 
 particularly thofewritings which contained 
 the religious element, " to refufe the evil 
 and to choofe the good;" to diftinguifh 
 between the "precious" and the "vile;" 
 to difcriminate between <c the tares " and 
 " the wheat," gathering the latter into 
 God's ftorehoufe, to be, in combination 
 with the New Teftament, the food of 
 the Church for ever. 
 
 The faculty which was to judge, from 
 among the books which the world had 
 produced, which contained the Will of 
 God, and which did not anfwer the teft, 
 muft itfelf (we fay) have been nothing 
 fhort of c an' infpiration. Then, of what 
 nature was it ? If we adopt the diftinclion 
 which has been controverted in an earlier 
 part of thefe remarks, we muft affign the 
 collectors of the Books of the Old Tefta- 
 ment either to the upper divifion, making 
 them equal to the Apoftles and Evan- 
 
Co lie Bed by Divine Guidance, g i 
 
 gelifts ; or, to the lower, to take their 
 place with ordinary Chriftians ; an alter- 
 native which muft tend to ftrengthen our 
 dirTatisfaction with that common but, as 
 we venture to think, unwarranted divi- 
 fion. Endowments of the Spirit, very 
 little fhort of the higher!, were needed for 
 thofe whofe taik was to exercife C( a right 
 judgment " in fuch a queftion. 
 
 This divine difcernment which qualified 
 the f Fathers of the primitive age ' to 
 repudiate fome writings, and to ftamp 
 others as entitled to be thenceforward and 
 for ever the c rule ' of what mould be 
 believed, this was indeed the "verifying 
 faculty " for which fome contend ; by 
 which phrafe, however (as expounded by 
 the general views of the authors of it), 
 feems to be intended, man's opinion as the 
 tribunal to which that which calls itfelf 
 infpired is to be brought, to be there 
 tried as to how far it fquares with an idea 
 of fitnefs fet up in the human mind, of 
 
92 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 all things the moft intangible, and of 
 which no account can be rendered. 
 
 The foregoing remarks upon the in- 
 fpiration (whatever was its precife nature) 
 of thofe who collected the Books of the 
 Old Teftament, have been prompted by 
 perceiving the growing tendency to dis- 
 parage the Old Teftament, in writers of 
 this day, who fpeak of it as fomething 
 out of date, which has done its work, and 
 is now no longer needed by the Church. 
 
 The authors of thefe views allege that 
 whatever relates to God and to moral 
 duty, having been more completely fet 
 forth in the New Teftament than in the 
 Old, the latter has become, as a rule of 
 faith and duty, fuperfluous. Nay, fo far 
 have writers of this fchool gone, as to 
 pronounce cc the expreffions of the nobler 
 and purer heathenifm " equal to the pre- 
 cepts of the Old Teftament. The true 
 fecret of thefe opinions may lie in fome 
 
Old Teftament not out of Date. 93 
 
 caufes which are kept fecret; in Tome 
 motives which do not appear in the 
 reafons offered by the authors of them. 
 How far they are to be traced to the 
 notion that the whole of the religion in- 
 culcated in the Old Teftament is of a 
 coarfer grain than that taught in the New, 
 and that to make ufe of it now would 
 be to place ourfelves " again in bondage 
 to weak and beggarly elements," or to a 
 diflike of fome of the Chriftian doctrines 
 which acquire force from the fignificant 
 fervices of the Jewifh ritual, are points 
 worthy of consideration. It is, however, 
 with the fact that we are mainly con- 
 cerned : that is undeniable, and is to be 
 regarded as one of the worft fruits of 
 modern German criticifm. 
 
 If we may rapidly glance at the evi- 
 dence furnifhed by the New Teftament 
 to the perpetual authority of the Old, we 
 cannot but refer, firft, to the repeated 
 fanction given by the Lord Jesus to the 
 
94 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 ancient records, alike in His injunction 
 to " fearch " them as f teftifying of Him- 
 felf,' and in the many citations of them 
 in relation to His work. Next, to the 
 affertion made by no lefs than a Meffen- 
 ger from heaven, and which, though in 
 its ftri<5t terms it might feem to be limited 
 to the predictive portion of the Old 
 Teftament, to the c Prophets,' properly fo 
 called, muft be regarded as really taking 
 in the whole of the Old Teftament re- 
 velation; predictive intimations of the 
 Christ to come being, as we know, 
 found in its very earlieft portions ; " I 
 am thy fellow-fervant, and of thy bre- 
 thren that have the teftimony of Jesus; 
 for the teftimony of Jesus is the fpirit of 
 prophecy." 1 Of which paffage it is to be 
 noted that it is an inftance of the tranf- 
 pofition of the terms of a proportion, 
 the predicate being here placed before the 
 
 1 Revel, xix. 10. 
 
Old ¥ eft ament not out of Date. 95 
 
 fubjecl: ; a circumftance, however, which 
 does not alter the real relations of the 
 fentence. On this principle, the proper 
 logical form of the pafTage is, c The fpirit 
 of prophecy is the teftimony of Jesus ;' 
 that is, the characteriftic fenfe of prophecy 
 is the witnefs which it bears to Jesus. 
 
 It were endlefs to multiply proofs 
 from the New Teftament, of the point 
 before us. They are fo interwoven with 
 its whole texture, that if it mould be 
 attempted to diffever and draw them 
 away from the reft, the diflblution of the 
 Record itfelf would be the confequence. 
 The directly Chriftian character of the 
 writings of the Old Teftament, and, there- 
 fore, their perpetual ufe and authority, is 
 taught in thofe words of St. Paul to 
 Timothy, in which he reminds him of 
 the privilege he had from his earlieft 
 days enjoyed, in having iC known the 
 Holy Scriptures, which," he fays, c< are 
 able to make thee wife unto falvation, 
 
96 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 through faith which is in Christ Jesus." 1 
 For, the juft interpretation of thefe latter 
 words would feem to be, not that an 
 acquaintance with the ancient Scriptures, 
 Jupplemented by a belief in Christ, would 
 favingly enlighten him, but that this 
 blefled effect was to be looked for in the 
 ufe of them, through belief in Christ, to 
 whom " give all the Prophets witnefs." 
 
 Forbearing to add here any other 
 confiderations which, were they needed, 
 crowd upon us from the pages of the 
 New Teftament, it may be afked whether 
 it can be imagined, if our Lord enjoined 
 the Jews to " fearch the Scriptures" of 
 the Old Teftament, becauje they teftified 
 of Him, that it mould have been His 
 defign that fuch a permanent 'witnefs' to 
 Him as Cf The Christ, the Son of the 
 living God," mould be, at any period, 
 withdrawn from His Church ? The Old 
 
 1 2 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
Old Teftament not out of Date. 97 
 
 Teftament rauft be regarded, not in the 
 light of a fcaffolding to a building now 
 complete, but rather as an integral and 
 enduring portion of the edifice itfelf: 
 * enduring ' (and this conftitutes another 
 independent argument for the authority 
 of the Old Scriptures), becaufe containing 
 predictions of events yet to be accom- 
 plifhed, notices of certain deftinies of the 
 Chriftian Church which have yet to be 
 fulfilled ; fo that thofe writers who argue 
 as though the Old Teftament had done 
 its work, and mould now gracefully retire 
 from the fcene, proceed upon a falfe af- 
 fumption. The Old Teftament was, in- 
 deed, the meffenger which God the Father 
 c fent before the face' of His Son Jesus, 
 to f prepare His way before Him :' but, 
 unlike the perfonal forerunner of the 
 Lord, the Hallowed Volume of the Old 
 Covenant was not to " decreafe." cc x The 
 
 1 Acts iii. 21. 
 H 
 
98 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 heavens muft receive " Jesus Christ 
 fC until the times of reftitution of all 
 things, which God hath fpoken by the 
 mouth of all his holy prophets fince the 
 world began," are words which declare 
 that there are hidden in futurity (how 
 remote none can fay), events great and 
 organic, in which, when they come to 
 pafs, the Church will recognize what God 
 had fo c fpoken.' If fo, then muft the 
 Church be looking out for the fulfilment 
 of thefe promifes, with the Volume which 
 contains the cc holy prophets," ever open 
 in her hand. 
 
 The difpofition to lower the Old Tefta- 
 ment has manifefted itfelf in other forms 
 befide that which has been dwelt on. Of 
 thefe only one can be now mentioned. 
 A diftinclion has been drawn between the 
 c interpretation,' and the f application,' of 
 Scripture; the former word referring to 
 its s original meaning,' the latter to the 
 fenfe which certain paffages are made 
 
Old Tefiament not out of Date. 99 
 
 to bear, by thofe who have employed 
 them. 
 
 Now, if the cautions againft mifinter- 
 pretation had been confined to thofe 
 writers, in our own time, who f adapt to ' 
 their own c purpofe ' the words of a Pro- 
 phet or Evangelift, they might be regarded 
 as wholefome and, perhaps, necefTary ; for 
 there is a danger of inverting with Scrip- 
 tural fanction thofe fentiments which are 
 put forth in Scriptural language. A 
 fpurious authority may thus be gained 
 for party or private opinions upon any 
 fubject. 
 
 But, it feems to have been more than 
 hinted by fome writers, that even Scrip- 
 ture it/elf may mif apply Scripture : nay, 
 that fuch mifapplication is, in fact, found 
 in one place where an Evangelift declares 
 that the words of a Prophet had been 
 " fulfilled " in a recorded event in the in- 
 fancy of Jesus. 
 
 The real queftion which is raifed by 
 
ioo Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 the expreffion of fuch opinions is very 
 momentous. It is this. Are we to un- 
 derftand that the ufe made of the Old 
 Teftament in the New is a mere arbitrary 
 and ingenious ufe ? Or, that it is the 
 fenfe fuggefted and authorized by that 
 f f one Spirit " which dwelt in the writers 
 of both ? 
 
 We cannot conceal from ourfelves that 
 fuch a mode of arguing as that contained 
 in the criticifm referred to, involves a 
 denial of ' infpiration proper ' as attaching 
 to the Evangelifts ; for it reprefents them 
 as imaginative, fallible, and actually mif- 
 taken. Equally plain is it, (did this 
 occur to the author of the criticifm now 
 under review ? ) that if, in one parTage, the 
 words of a Prophet fo prefaced, may be 
 regarded as employed in a ' conventional ' 
 fenfe, fo may they in every other : and 
 that if nothing more than a c coincidence ' 
 could have been c intended,' the phrafe 
 employed is moft inappropriate, fince the 
 
Old Tejlament not out of Date. 101 
 
 words, " That it might be fulfilled," 
 whether we take them to exprefs a caufe, 
 or a confequence, declare unequivocally 
 that the paffage cited from the Old Tefta- 
 ment received its full accomplijhment in 
 the fact then being recorded. 
 
 The fame critics who maintain that 
 " the apprehenfion of the original meaning 
 of Scripture is inconfiftent with the re- 
 ception of a typical or conventional one," 
 involving (as has been mown), in the 
 charge of fuch inconfiftency, the Sacred 
 Historians themfelves, predict the arrival 
 of a £c time when educated men will be " 
 unable f to believe that' certain 'words' 
 which the Evangelift fpeaks of as <f ful- 
 filled" were "intended" by the Prophet 
 to refer to the fact in connection with 
 which they are cited. But, the race 
 of new interpreters whofe rife is thus 
 predicted, can fcarcely furpafs in erudi- 
 tion, or power of thought, thofe men 
 who in paft generations, and in our own, 
 
i o 2 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 have held, concerning the Old Teftament, 
 the belief, that it contains many pafTages 
 which had indeed a pofitive application to 
 perfons or events of the time when they 
 were firft uttered, but of which the deeper 
 import was to be understood when brought 
 out in the hiftory of the Gofpel Church. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Scripture ajjerts its own 
 Infpiration. 
 
 PROPOSITION which 
 may furprife many is, that 
 the main argument for the 
 fupport of Infpiration is to 
 be fought from the Scriptures themfelves. 
 fC Thou beareft record of Thyfelf ; Thy 
 record is not true," 1 objected the Jews to 
 our Lord, whofe reply is memorable : 
 " Though I bear record of Myfelf, My 
 record is true." So, and fimilarly, al- 
 
 1 John viii. 13, 14. 
 
1 04 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures, 
 
 though we claim for the Scriptures the 
 right to be heard on behalf of their own 
 divinity, we make no unreafonable de- 
 mand. It is to be borne in mind that 
 we do not, firft, merely hear the voice of 
 Scripture proclaiming its own infpiration, 
 and then call upon all men to fubmit to 
 its authority without any further inquiry 
 into its pretenfions. We do not fay, The 
 Bible declares that it is a communication 
 from Heaven, and that the authors of its 
 feveral Books are cc all " immediately 
 <f taught of God," fo that we have now 
 only to receive its doctrines as fuper- 
 natural revelations, and its hiftories as un- 
 queftionable facts. No fuch violence as 
 this is attempted to be done againft the 
 freedom of our faculties. We afliire 
 ourfelves, on independent grounds, that 
 the Books are truftworthy : and, then, in 
 the fecond place, we permit the writers 
 to fpeak of themfelves. The nrft rank 
 as evidence, is conceded to thofe argu- 
 
AJferted by tbemf elves. 105 
 
 ments by which the Books that are called 
 Holy Scripture are mown to be divine, 
 from considerations external to themfelves, 
 thofe which eftablifh their genuinenefs and 
 authenticity. Thefe arguments having 
 been heard, and their force admitted, we 
 may fairly and legitimately turn to the 
 record, and afk, cc What fayeft thou of 
 thyfelf?" In fuch a procedure we are 
 not chargeable with the error of c begging 
 the queftion ; ' for, the queftion of the 
 divine authority of the Scripture has been 
 eftablifhed upon, we do not fay higher 
 but, other and independent grounds : we 
 act modeftly, therefore, when we afk that 
 Scripture mall be heard, in the fecond 
 rank only, afTerting its own divinity. It 
 was after He had wrought miracles, and 
 Cf done many wonderful works," that our 
 Lord was heard claiming to be acknow- 
 ledged as having c come forth from the 
 Father/ and as being f one ' with the 
 f Father.' Even fo, the proofs that the 
 
1 06 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Books of the Bible were compofed by 
 their profeffed authors, and that their 
 contents may be relied upon as true, thefe 
 are, firft, prefented as the bafis of the pre- 
 tentions of the Scriptures ; and, cc when 
 men have well drunk " at thefe fprings of 
 conviction, cc then " is introduced not 
 cc that which is worfe," (on the contrary, 
 it is moft refrefhing and ftrengthening), 
 but that which might feem gracefully and 
 becomingly, as well as according to philo- 
 fophical order, to occupy the fecond place, 
 namely, the witnefs of Scripture itfelf to 
 its own infpiration. 
 
 Various and multiplied are the forms 
 in which that felf-atteftation is found: 
 none more clear and exprefs than thofe 
 words of the Lord Jesus, cc Search the 
 Scriptures, for in them ye your/elves hold, 
 that ye have eternal life, and they are they 
 which teftify of Me." 1 
 
 1 John v. 39. 
 
St. Paul does not hejitate. 107 
 
 But what, if in the Scriptures them- 
 felves fhall be found an admiffion that 
 not every thing they contain is to be re- 
 garded as infpired ; what fhall we then 
 fay ? Now, it is by no means to be con- 
 cluded that an objection of this fort muft 
 neceffarily proceed from a fceptical mind. 
 Candid and reverential readers have 
 thought that they have found reafon to 
 adopt views confiderably different from 
 what were their former opinions upon the 
 fubject of Infpiration, and from the cur- 
 rent belief; and this, from the language 
 of Scripture itfelf. They imagine they 
 find authority for this change, or diffent, 
 in the Apoftle Paul's instructions to the 
 Corinthian Church on the fubject of mar- 
 riage. 1 A clofer examination, however, 
 of this portion of Scripture than it has 
 received at the hands of many expofitors, 
 and of fome, it may be, even of thofe 
 
 1 1 Cor. vii. 
 
i o 8 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 whofe views of infpiration have become 
 relaxed through the ftudy of this paffage 
 in our Englifh verfion only, may ifTue 
 in the conviction that it not only lends 
 no countenance to the opinion that the 
 Apoftle here admits that he does not 
 fpeak with authority, as one fuper- 
 naturally guided, on the point before 
 him, but that it upholds that authority, 
 and exhibits the Apoftle as avowing his 
 confident belief that the counfel he offered 
 to the Corinthian Church in their prefent 
 difficulty was fuggefted by the Spirit of 
 God. 
 
 The Apoftle, in the place referred to, 
 is drawing a diftinction, not between his 
 own private opinion upon the matter in 
 queftion, and what were his infpired 
 teachings upon other points, whether of 
 doctrine or action ; but between his own 
 injunctions as an infpired Apoftle, and 
 the command originally given, and which 
 they to whom he wrote well knew to 
 
St. Paid does not hefitate. 109 
 
 have been fC given by the Lord." It 
 was an <c old commandment" that he 
 would prefs upon them, not a " new com- 
 mandment," now, for the firft time, iffuing 
 from himfelf. fC I fpeak this by permif- 
 fion, and not by way of commandment," 
 is a tranflation of the words which it 
 would perhaps be prefumptuous to pro- 
 nounce wrong : on the contrary, here, as 
 in not a few other places of the New 
 Teftament, we may perceive that the 
 tranflators rightly apprehended the {tn{e 
 of the original, and expreffed in forms of 
 words characteriftic of the ufe of the 
 Englifh language at that day, jufl what 
 we regard to be the true fenfe of the 
 pafTage. The Apoftle does not fay that 
 he has been permitted but not com- 
 manded by the Holy Ghost, to give 
 this advice ; but that this was fpoken 
 { by way of concejjion ' ' (to them in their 
 
 1 V. 6. "The prepofition xara points out, equally 
 
1 1 o Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 peculiar trials) and not c by way of in- 
 junction.' 
 
 But the difficulty feems to rife up 
 with greater force in fome fubfequent 
 places of the chapter. How are we to 
 explain what is found in the tenth, 
 twelfth, and twenty-fourth verfes, to fay 
 nothing of the laft words of the fortieth ? 
 Does not the Apoftle, in the two former 
 places, explicitly diftinguifh between f in- 
 fpired ' and c uninfpired,' in thofe verfes, 
 refpeclively : and tell us, in the one in- 
 
 in both cafes, the origin or author of the communica- 
 tions of which he fpeaks. The directions which he 
 had jult given, did not originate with himfelf. What 
 he wrote was the refult of a conceffion directly made 
 to him? by the Holy Spirit." — Divine Infpiration. 
 E. Henderson, D.D. ; Land. 1847, pp. 280, 281. 
 In the above paffage (from a valuable Treatife), 
 one particular is mif-ftated. The ' conceffion ' was 
 not ' made ' to the Apoftle : it was made to the 
 Corinthian Chriftians under their peculiar circum- 
 ftances ; and revealed to the Apoftle, who authori- 
 tatively communicated it to them. Perhaps the 
 Writer meant this. 
 
St. Paul does not helitate. 1 1 1 
 
 fiance, that the Spirit fpake by him, in 
 the other not ? The reply is, that it is 
 altogether a gratuitous arTumption to 
 make the Apoftle refer to the Holy 
 Spirit /peaking in him. Let thofe who 
 would rightly apprehend St. Paul's mean- 
 ing go a little lower, to the twenty-fifth 
 verfe, where he fays, cc I have no com- 
 mandment of the Lord ; " words in which 
 he is not heard to fay that he is without 
 any fpecial direction, any inward guidance 
 from Christ's Spirit, to give rules for 
 the guidance of the Church, but that 
 there is no definite commandment ever 
 uttered by the Lord Jesus, to which he 
 can refer the Corinthians as an authority 
 upon the matter in queftion, juft as he 
 could not point them to any fuch as ap- 
 plicable to the other cafes. The " not I, 
 but the Lord," of the tenth verfe might 
 therefore be thus paraphrafed : f I do not 
 offer, even as an infpired Apoftle, my 
 advice : your conduct in this cafe is de- 
 
112 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 termined by a higher authority, by the 
 recorded words of the Lord Jesus, which 
 he fpake in the days of his miniftry.' 
 
 But there is found, in the opinion of 
 fome perfons, a ftrong argument againft 
 the Apoftle's infallibility, in the laft words 
 of this chapter, in which he winds up his 
 advice upon the queftion fubmitted to 
 him. To the declaration of his "judg- 
 ment," he adds, " And I think alfo that 
 I have the Spirit of God." So it is in 
 our verfion : nor is the tranflation of the 
 original words to be impugned, or to be 
 thought of as inadequately reprefenting 
 the fenfe. Here, as in fome other places 
 where the rendering of the Greek might 
 appear fomewhat weak, or even erroneous, 
 it will f be found upon further considera- 
 tion ' that the tranflators employed the 
 word or phrafe in queftion, in the fenfe 
 which criticifm would affix to the original 
 expreffion, and that their Englifhing of it 
 fully meafures that fenfe according to the 
 
Sf. Paul does not hejitate. 1 1 3 
 
 import, in their day, of the words they 
 felected, though the ufe of the words, in 
 our time, be flightly different. For this, 
 however, we appeal confidently to all who 
 have the opportunity of examining the 
 point, that the word employed by the 
 Apoftle, and on which objectors fix, is fo 
 far from conveying the notion of hefita- 
 tion, or of a mere f opinion,' that it is a 
 firm ajjertion that he was divinely guided. 
 1 Now, I hold 1 that I, too, have the Spirit 
 
 1 A careful examination, in the Original, of the 
 following pafTages, by creating an afTurance that the 
 very oppojite of a mere opinion is defigned in the ufe, 
 by the facred writers, of the verb Zoku>, (to 'bold 
 as a fettled view ' of any fubjedl:), will fortify the 
 mind againft this dangerous fuggeftion of the enemies 
 of Infpiration. John v. 39, vf^sig doiceire : ' Your- 
 J elves bold,' &c. Matth. vi. 7. 'They hold' (as a 
 doctrine), &c. Luke xvii. 9. ' No, I hold,' 1 Cor. 
 viii. 2 ; iii. 18; 'If any one maintains that he is 
 wife.' So xiv. 37. and Philipp. iii. 4. Matth. iii. 9. 
 xvii. 25. xxi. 28. xxii. 27. Luke xiii. 2. x. 36. 
 xvi. 2. 1 Cor. iv. 9. x. 12. xii. 23. 2 Cor. xi. 16. 
 I 
 
114 Infpiration oSthe Holy Scriptures. 
 
 of God,' may be regarded as adequately 
 exhibiting the Apoftle's meaning ; which 
 words he is to be underftood as adding to 
 all that he had written, for the very pur- 
 pofe of giving weight to the immediately 
 preceding words, " after my judgment ;" 
 and of obviating the fuppoiition that, in 
 the ufe of that phrafe, he meant to claim 
 no more authority for the advice he had 
 juft offered, than fuch as would attach to 
 a private opinion. That he did demand 
 more is evident from the words them- 
 felves, which import much more than the 
 modern colloquial form, c as /think;' 
 or, f according to my view.' For, the 
 Englifh word " after," as here employed, 
 and agreeably to the principle above laid 
 down, has an emphatic fenfe. It does 
 not mean, c if any one is willing to take,' 
 but, c according to,' c in purfuance of,' 
 
 Galat. ii. z. iiocovo-i : £ perfons thought much of \ 
 6 held in eftimation ;' ii. 9. Heb. xii. 1 1. 
 
St. Paul does not hefitate. 115 
 
 c following,' and, in this fenfe, c after' 
 c She is happy if me fo abide,' following 
 therein, (not c my opinion ; ' that is not 
 the proper meaning of the term employed, 
 but,) my infpired decifion ; my grave and 
 deliberate judgment as an Apoftle of 
 Christ, upon the point in queftion ; c a 
 judgment which' (he had already faid, 
 v. 25,) ' I ' confidently f give, not as a 
 private opinion, but as the authoritative 
 counfel of one who has been fo gracioufly 
 dealt with by the Lord, as to be put 
 into the Apoftlefhip, and who thus claims 
 to be relied upon in giving a judgment.' 
 1 Now, / hold that I, too, as an Apoftle 1 
 of Christ, as one of that number to 
 
 1 One of the moft fatisfying evidences of the 
 Divine Authority of the contents of the ' Epiftles,' 
 is the word which meets us in the very outfet. 
 "Paul, an Apoftle;'''' Peter, an Apoftle of Jesus 
 Christ." The full credentials of infpiration are 
 here. On whom did the Lord promife to confer 
 the "Spirit of Truth?" Was it not upon the 
 
1 1 6 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 whom the Lord exprefsly promifed the 
 f Paracletos ' to f guide ' them c into all 
 truth ; though I have diftinguifhed be- 
 tween the original precepts given by the 
 Lord Himfelf, and my own decifions ; 
 I hold that I, too, poffefs the Spirit of 
 God, and am infallibly guided by that 
 Spirit whenever, as now, I write to a 
 Church upon points of faith, or duty, or 
 order.' 
 
 It has been thought important to at- 
 tempt to place this PafTage in a right 
 light, inafmuch as both by believers in, 
 arid opponents of, Scriptural Infpiration, 
 
 Apoftles ? and, for their work ? The fubjeft matter 
 of thefe Epiftles was chief among the " many things" 
 which He had to "fay unto" them. Therefore 
 the Church, in thefe Apoftolic Letters, poffeffes the 
 promifed fupplement to the Lord's perfonal miniftry. 
 It is a neceffary conclufion, from the words " an 
 Apoftle of Jesus Christ" being found prefixed to 
 the feveral i Epiftles,' that the document, in each 
 inftance, at the head of which they ftand, is Christ's 
 own meffage to the Church addreffed. 
 
St. Paul does not he/It ate, 117 
 
 by the reverent and the irreverent alike, 
 it is quoted as bearing unfavourably upon 
 that doctrine, againft which it prefents to 
 the former clafs, a real difficulty, and fur- 
 nifhes to the latter, a plaufible objection. 
 To have entered thus particularly into 
 the phrafeology which runs through this 
 argument will not be deemed fuperfluous 
 by thofe who are aware how continually 
 and confidently the Apoftle's language, in 
 this place, is referred to as not merely 
 giving 1 fupport to the opinions of thofe 
 who are in favour of a relaxed view of 
 infpiration, but as if it contained a direct 
 warning from himfelf, not to look for 
 Divine authority in all that he delivered. 
 If the remarks upon his words that have 
 now been offered are juft, they eftablifh 
 this conclufion, that fo far from relinquifh- 
 
 1 " It furnifhes the ordinary burden of all popular 
 reafoning againft any ftrifl view of Infpiration." — 
 Prof. Lee's Leftures, p. 291. 
 
1 1 8 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 ing his claim to be heard as an infpired 
 arbiter in the queftions he difcuffes, he 
 afferts fuch claim in the moft decisive 
 manner. 
 
 And, here, it may not be out of place 
 to advert to a modern ufe of the term 
 1 criticifm,' which feems quite inadmiffible; 
 beneath which, however, fome very dan- 
 gerous fpeculations have been introduced, 
 and have fought a fhield. None will dis- 
 pute that f criticifm ' (as the word has 
 ever, until recently, been underftood), is 
 the art of determining the merits of lite- 
 rary compositions : the c critic ' is the 
 perfon who proferTes to judge of thofe 
 pretentions ; the 'critique' is the effay 
 which embodies the judgment. But 
 ( criticifm,' as fuch, and properly, has 
 nothing to do with truth and falfehood. 
 He who criticifes a compofition in verfe, 
 refers to fome high ftandard of poetry ; 
 he who examines the merits of fome 
 popular harangue, tries it by the laws of 
 
Criticifm a perverted term. 1 1 9 
 
 oratory ; fuch reference to ftandards im- 
 plying an admiffion of the reality of the 
 fubjects therafelves. The critic remarks 
 upon fome particular performance, and 
 points out what he deems to be its beau- 
 ties and its faults ; but his comments are 
 confined to the ftyle and the ftructure, 
 at any rate to the circumftances of the 
 composition, and have properly nothing 
 to do with the fubjed matter : to examine 
 that belongs wholly to another inquiry. 
 But in our day, and very recently, we 
 have had cf free," nay, the very freeft 
 fC handling " of the matter of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, brought before us under the fpecious 
 title of c criticifm.' The facts upon which 
 the very being of Scripture, as God's 
 Truth, depends, are bidden to difappear 
 from the platform of Faith, upon the plea 
 that they cannot abide the canons of a 
 fifting ( criticifm.' Let the contents of 
 the « Holy Bible " be fubjected to the 
 moft fearching examination that folid 
 
: o Infpiration of the Holy Script 
 
 ures. 
 
 learning can apply ; but let not the engine 
 which is really defigned for the deftruc- 
 tion of the City of God be brought within 
 its walls under cover of a plaufible title 
 that mall lull fufpicion, and its falfity be 
 undifcovered, until the moft ferious mif- 
 chief has been wrought. No attainment 
 is more to be coveted, no habit more to 
 be cultivated, than of employing, upon 
 every fubjecl:, fuch language as exactly 
 meafures the occafion, fo that we mail not 
 fay too little, or too much ; not felecl 
 terms too ftrong, or too weak ; above all, 
 not mifreprefent the true nature of the 
 matter on which we fpeak or write. It 
 is, indeed, difficult to conceive how writers 
 pofTefTed of fo much keennefs, and who, 
 in the general ftructure of their Works, 
 are chara&erifed by lingular precifion in 
 the ufe of terms, and feem to have weighed 
 their words with the utmoft nicety, and 
 to have employed them with an aptnefs 
 that agrees with what was to have been 
 
Criticifm a perverted term. 1 2 1 
 
 anticipated from men of high education, 
 and habits of rigid thought ; it is not 
 eafy to underfland how fuch writers mould 
 have gone fo far away from the fair, the 
 accepted fenfe of any term, as to ufe the 
 word £ criticifm,' as they have throughout, 
 to defignate what is really, and what per- 
 fons of their fhrewdnefs could not but 
 have been confcious, was, a deftructive 
 procefs againft the fundamental truths of 
 Holy Scripture, as they have ever been 
 held and received. 
 
 This recent and unlawful application 
 of the term in queftion would feem to 
 have crept in through the French. For 
 inftance ; there is a Work by an author 
 who ranks under fC The Modern School 
 of Free Thought in the Proteftant Church 
 of France," in which are given his pecu- 
 liar views on Infpiration, the Bible, and 
 Sin, the title of which indicates the na- 
 ture of the contents, according to the ufe 
 of the word f critique,' in the original 
 
1 2 2 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 French ; whereas the fame word adopted 
 into our Englifh vocabulary, has always 
 been reftricted to mean, either a philo- 
 logical inquiry into the meaning of par- 
 ticular words and phrafes ; or, an examina- 
 tion, generally, into the merits of any 
 work as a literary composition. It rauft 
 be regarded, therefore, as a dangerous 
 innovation, to ufe this word freely and 
 repeatedly, when by it nothing lefs is 
 meant than to raife, in the nineteenth 
 century, the question of the truth or false- 
 hood (with a plain inclination to a verdidt 
 in favour of the latter view,) of thofe 
 things which for nearly two thoufand 
 years cc have been moil furely believed 
 among us." 
 
 If the f criticifm ' from which fuch im- 
 portant confequences to the juft inter- 
 pretation of Scripture ' are predicted, were 
 foundly applied to the paffages which 
 feem to be in the view of thofe writers 
 who fay that the Apoftle Cf hefitated in 
 
Criticifm a perverted term. 123 
 
 difficult cafes, and more than once cor- 
 rected himfelf ;" or who,, otherwife, make 
 him to have renounced his title to be re- 
 garded as infpired, it would, we think, 
 conduct them to a different conclufion. 
 They would difcover, that in the word, 
 or words, upon the Englifh rendering of 
 which they found their triumphant f dic- 
 tum,' that St. Paul confefTed his own 
 fallibility, is contained, not a faint opinion, 
 but on the contrary, a firm afTertion of his 
 being infpired ; and fo, that their anxiety 
 to relieve the Apoftle of the burden of 
 " honours thruft upon " him, by pious 
 but weak interpreters of his writings, is 
 fuperfluous and mifplaced. 
 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The term "Scripture" is of 
 
 Divine Origin and 
 
 Appointment. 
 
 T is a point which demands 
 to be borne in mind, as 
 furnifhing direct evidence 
 of the divine infallibility of 
 the Sacred Records, that the term by 
 which they are generally known is, itfelf, 
 infpired. 
 
 Collectively regarded, the Volume is 
 called "The Bible:" when its feveral 
 parts, as well as the fum of them, is what 
 is to be defcribed, the term employed is 
 
Scripture, an infpired term. 1 2 5 
 
 " The Holy Scriptures." Now, this 
 latter expreffion is neither a mere Englifh 
 phrafe, by which we of this nation rever- 
 entially defignate the writings of fC holy 
 men of God, who fpake as they were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost ;" nor is it 
 merely a very ancient expreffion which 
 has come down to us from the times of 
 the Apoftles, and which might naturally 
 have originated with the Chriftians of the 
 firft century feeking an appropriate term 
 for the completed Canon. It is far more 
 than this. It is expreflly of divine origin ; 
 and as fuch, invites our efpecial attention 
 to its import. The chofen term of the 
 Holy Ghost pofTefTes a high degree of 
 intereft and importance. Now, the phrafe 
 conducts us at once to that which the 
 Bible efTentially is. ' Scripture ' is the 
 writing-down of that which had a pre- 
 vious exiftence, and was to have a per- 
 manent ufe. Both thefe elements enter 
 into the idea of ' Scripture.' A revela- 
 
1 2 6 Infp iration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 tion had been given, or actions had been 
 done; otherwife there were nothing to 
 place upon record : the revelation and the 
 deeds were of lafting ufe ; otherwife to re- 
 cord them would have been fuperfluous. 
 
 There is found, in the Book of the 
 Prophet 1 Daniel, a paffage which illus- 
 trates and confirms this view. The angel 
 who inftructs him, when referring to cer- 
 tain predictions as being contained in the 
 books he was enabled to cc underftand," 
 fpeaks thus : " I will mew thee what is 
 noted in the Scripture of Truth :" remark- 
 able words, firft, as being found in the 
 Old Teftament ; and then, as defcribing a 
 written Prophecy ; in which point of 
 view they would feem equally to charac- 
 terize the predictions of the other pro- 
 phets. If we place by the fide of thefe 
 words of the divine meffenger who fpake 
 to Daniel, the firft words of the Apoca- 
 lypfe, light will be thrown upon the na- 
 
Scripture, an infpired term. i 27 
 
 ture of the prophetic writings. St. John 
 declares that he wrote the ' "record" of 
 2 "the revelation of Jesus Christ which 
 God gave unto him." In each inftance a 
 c miniftering fpirit ' is the medium of the 
 fupernatural communication ; in each the 
 receiver of it writes down what he has 
 received ; St. John informing us that it 
 was in confequence of repeated inftruc- 
 tions he did fo, and that the angel pro- 
 nounced, of the entire Record, " Thefe 
 are the true fayings of God." 
 
 We infer from thefe two parallel cafes, 
 that a f commiffion to write,' given to 
 men whether of the Old Teftament day, 
 or of the New, implied a revelation : in 
 other words, it was juft becaufe fuperna- 
 tural truth had been conveyed to their 
 minds, that they were to put it into 
 writing, it being 3 "revealed" unto them, 
 " that not unto themfelves, but unto us," 
 to the Church then and onwards, they 
 
 1 Rev. i. 1, 2. 2 Rev. xix. 9. 3 1 Pet. i. 12. 
 

 128 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 did minifter the things miraculoufly made 
 known to them. 
 
 The conclufion in which we reft is 
 fimply this ; that the word c Scripture,' 
 as found in the Bible, is a fignificant 
 term, neceffarily implying either a revela- 
 tion of new truth, or an impulfe to place 
 upon record deeds and words, and therein 
 afferting the infpiration of the Record itfelf. 
 
 In which conclufion we are confirmed, 
 when paffing on to the New Tefta- 
 ment, we find the fame word f Scrip- 
 ture' continually made ufe of by the 
 feveral writers of the hiftorical parts, and 
 by Christ Himfelf, with the addition, 
 in the Epiftles, of the remarkable word 
 £ holy,' as a prefix ; a word which imports 
 much more than the reverend eftimation 
 in which the ancient Scriptures were held, 
 much more than the expreffion £ hal- 
 lowed,' (alfo found) ; and denoting their 
 character as dictated by the Holy Spirit, 
 with the authority refulting therefrom. 
 
Authority of Canon, Internal. 129 
 
 This word authority, with the ufe of 
 which, in its connection with the Holy 
 Scriptures, we are fo familiar, requires 
 explanation. For, although not in itfelf 
 difficult when properly understood, fome 
 degree of confufion may attend it to 
 minds not accustomed to look into the 
 Ariel: fignification of words ; in which 
 fenfe, of courfe, they are proferTedly em- 
 ployed by writers on theological fub- 
 jects. 
 
 In the popular, or at leaft very fre- 
 quent ufe of the word, it conveys the 
 notion of a demand of obedience. Thus, a 
 father is faid to poffefs a natural < autho- 
 rity ' over his fon ; a matter exercifes the 
 like over his fervant ; and, generally, 
 thofe who are lawful governors, over the 
 governed. Of each of thefe, as being 
 under conftitutional rule, an unquestion- 
 ing fubmiffion is demanded. 
 
 But it is not exactly in this fenfe that 
 the word c authority ' is ufed, in its rela- 
 
 K 
 
i 30 Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 tion to the Holy Scriptures. They do, 
 indeed, demand to be cordially accepted, 
 and to hold the place of the rule of faith 
 and manners to the Church ; but this is 
 becaufe they commend themfelves to fuch 
 acceptance by the moft powerful con- 
 federations. Now, the grounds upon 
 which we of this day receive the Scrip- 
 tures, and hold ourfelves fC bound to 
 believe and to do all " that they teach, 
 are precifely the fame as thofe which 
 made them fuch a law to the early 
 Christian Church ; and it is, we conceive, 
 a great error to imagine that we take the 
 Scriptures as our rule, merely becaufe 
 we are historically afTured that the firfl: 
 Chriftians found fatisfadlory reafons for 
 accepting them as their rule. The 
 Church, in the centuries that fucceeded 
 the firfl:, down to this hour, and hence- 
 forward as long as its earthly exiftence 
 mail endure, accepts the Bible as its law, 
 becaufe the reafons which fatisfied the 
 
Authority of Canon, Internal, i 3 1 
 
 early Chriftians have convinced, and (it 
 may be prefumed), fhall ever convince 
 the judgments of each fucceffive genera- 
 tion of Chriftians. 
 
 What, then, were the considerations 
 that prevailed with the early Church to 
 receive the Scriptures ? There can be no 
 doubt that it was the internal evidence 
 that wrought moft powerfully upon the 
 primitive believers. They were not care- 
 lefs, or credulous, as refpects the teftimony 
 from without. Certain books were, from 
 the very beginning, and by general con- 
 fent, received among them. 1 A11 the 
 congregations, or churches, recognized 
 thefe as divinely given for the ufe of all, 
 and as free from error of any kind, while 
 over fome other writings, for a fpace of 
 
 1 " Communi femper conferfu ab omnibus Chrif- 
 tianis fuerunt fufcepta, et pro canonicis, hoc eft, 
 Divinis, indubiis, et ad ufum univerfalem Ecclefiarum 
 deftinatis, nee non omnis erroris in fide et quoad 
 mores expertibus agnita et ufurpata." — Weismann. 
 (v. inf. p. 134.) 
 
 
132 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 time, hung a degree of doubt ; not, 
 however, becaufe they were miftrufted as 
 divine, but only becaufe their authorfhip 
 was not clearly made out. It appears 
 that they were, neverthelefs, read in very 
 many of the churches, and admitted by 
 nearly all, though not as yet formally 
 fanclioned. This heiitation refpecling 
 fome, while others were undoubtingly 
 accepted, is a proof that the Canon of 
 Scripture which has come down to us, 
 was not formed by an eafy acquiefcence 
 on the part of thofe who compofed the 
 early Church ; and fhuts out the fufpicion 
 that thofe Christians who fixed the faith 
 of Chrift's Church, by fixing its records, 
 were pious, perhaps, but fuperftitious, or 
 eafily fatisfied. J It mews, inconteftably, 
 that they "earnestly" rifted the preten- 
 
 1 "All canonical Scripture is infpired ; and be- 
 caufe infpired, therefore canonical." — " Teftimonies 
 to the Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures" By Rev. A. 
 M'Caul, D.D., p. 44, Lond. 1862. 
 
Authority of Canon, Internal. 133 
 
 fions of that which afked to be a part of 
 the faith that mould be cc delivered to the 
 faints " of the " generations to come," 
 while, by fuch cautioufnefs, they only 
 ftamped with a deeper mark of certainty, 
 all thofe books to which their approving 
 feal ftands affixed. 
 
 Neverthelefs, as has been already faid, 
 the main reliance of thofe Chriftians 
 refted upon the marks they found within 
 the writings, of their contents having 
 < come forth from God.' Far from over- 
 looking the outer, they yet looked to the 
 inner evidence as their firm footing. 
 
 The language of the cc Gallican and 
 Weftminfter Confeffions" of the fix- 
 teenth and feventeenth centuries, (periods 
 removed by fo vaft an interval from 
 the time of the Apoftles,) in declaring 
 the chief grounds on which the Scrip- 
 tures were received as divine by the 
 Churches which thofe Confeffions repre- 
 fented, equally expreffies the warrant of 
 
134 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 the Church of this century, and of this 
 Nation, for accepting them. In perfect 
 harmony with the fentiments of thefe 
 4 Confeffions,' is the language of a valu- 
 able x Church Hiftorian, who, when giving 
 an account of the Canon, and of the care 
 fhewn by the Chriftians of the fecond 
 century in refpect of the Holy Scriptures, 
 has this remark, the title of the feclion 
 being " The Internal Unchangeable Au- 
 thority of the Scriptures." fC Thefe 
 writings of the Apoftles, which previoufly 
 pojfejfed, from God Him/elf, and His Spirit, 
 
 1 " Autoritas interna immutabilis." " Scripta haec 
 Apoftolica, quae jam a?itea a Deo ipfo et Spiritu 
 illius canonicam obtinuerunt autoritatem, hoc quoque 
 confilio et inftituto tradita flint fidelibus, ut agno- 
 fcerentur tanquam ypatpa) SeSrfvsvotoi, legerentur ad 
 publicam privatamque inftitutionem, atque autori- 
 tatem in tota Ecclefia Novi Teftamenti haberent 
 perpetuam atque univerfalem, cujus fidei et obfequio 
 nemo fe pofTet fubducere." — Weismann's " Intro- 
 duclio in Memorabilia Ecclejiajlica Hijioria Sacra 
 Nov. Tejl." Halae. Magdeburg, 1745. (Seel, xxiii. 
 " Hiftoria Canonis Scripture.") 
 
Authority of Canon, Internal, i 3 5 
 
 a canonical claim to be admitted into the 
 Church, were delivered to believers, with 
 this view, and for this purpofe, that 
 they might be acknowledged as Scriptures 
 given by infpiration of God, be read for 
 public and private instruction, and hold, 
 throughout the Church of the New Tefta- 
 ment, an authority which mould be per- 
 petual and univerfal, from a belief and 
 fubmiffion whereto none might with- 
 draw." Here, then, is the affertion of the 
 original ground on which refted the claim 
 of the Books of the New Teftament to 
 become the rule of faith to the Church : 
 they approved themfelves to the enlight- 
 ened perception of the Chriftians of that 
 day (many of whom, it is to be borne in 
 mind, had the beft means of knowing 
 what it was the Apoftles had perfonally 
 taught), as being divine. Thofe Chrif- 
 tians could fay, in the words of the 
 Samaritans, x " Now we believe, not 
 
 1 John iv. 42. 
 
136 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 becaufe of thy faying ; for we have 
 heard Him ourfelves, and know that 
 this is indeed the Chrift, the Saviour 
 of the world :" and we, their fuccefTors, 
 to whom has defcended the f depohV of 
 the Sacred Books, can adopt the fame 
 words, as furnifhing our anfwer to any 
 that would inquire of us why we receive 
 thofe Books. It is a matter of hiftory, open 
 to all, and unqueftionable, that at that 
 time, the Scriptures were received upon 
 the inward evidence of having been dic- 
 tated by the Holy Spirit. Cf So plain 
 is this even from the Sacred Writings 
 themfelves," adds the hiftorian above 
 quoted, 1 " and fo univerfally admitted by 
 
 1 In another paffage, the title of which is, " There 
 was never any need of a formal Ordinance to prove 
 this authority:" — " Tam aperta hsec flint ex ipfis 
 quoque Uteris facris, et ab omnibus fiatim agnita 
 fidelibus, ut nulla fynodo, nullis certaminibus aut 
 deliberationibus opus fuerit ad conftituendam legem 
 de recipiendis Scripturis ; fed reipfa, uno Spiritu 
 
Authority of Canon, Internal. 137 
 
 believers from the firft, that there was no 
 need of any Synod, of any difputes or 
 debates, in order to fet up a law con- 
 cerning thofe writings which were to be 
 received ; but by the real teaching of c One 
 Spirit, and with the agreement on all 
 hands of Christians continuing enlight- 
 ened and true, thofe Scriptures were 
 accepted as the ' oracles of God,' and fet 
 forth as binding upon, and for the inftruc- 
 tion of all. This kind of Church-tradition 
 we hold as of the higheft value, although 
 our belief, in religious matters, refts, 
 direSlly and immediately, upon the truth 
 and word, not of men, but of God 
 Himfelf." 
 
 <c There be men of cold and icy in- 
 
 docente, confentientibus undequaque Chriftianis illu- 
 minatis adhuc et veris, w$ Xoyia, Qsov fuerint re- 
 cepta, et ad obligationem ac inftitutionem omnium 
 propofita. Quod utique traditionis eccleiiafticce genus 
 maximi seftimamus, etiam fi fides Divina non homi- 
 num fed Dei ipfius fidei verboque direfte et proxime 
 innitatur." — Weismann, eodem loco. 
 
 
1 3 8 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 telledl who muft have everything proved 
 unto them." To minds of this order, 
 evidence of the fort juft adduced will 
 never be found fufficient ; it is moral and 
 internal, while it is of the effence of the 
 habit of fuch minds to ignore that de- 
 fcription of proof. It is better, then, that 
 we mould at once profefs our belief that 
 the Divine Head of the Church, whilfl: 
 providing that there mould be no lack of 
 authority from without, willed and de- 
 figned that the deepefr. and ftrongeft evi- 
 dence mould be that which comes from 
 within the Holy Books. This witnefs 
 was to the men of the early Church, and 
 is to thofe of the later, like the Spirit the 
 Author of the records, cc a well of water 
 fpringing up unto " their and our un- 
 fpeakable, unchangeable conviction. The 
 fingular veneration with which thofe 
 Books were, at the beginning, regarded, 
 and the recognition in them of a charac- 
 ter diftinct from and above the writings 
 
Authority of Canon, Internal. 139 
 
 of other <c faithful men," muft have been 
 fo imprefled upon the firft Christians by 
 the Spirit, and therefore by the will of 
 God. Very memorable is the faying of 
 Ignatius, in reply to thofe who ftrove 
 about fome minute matters conne&ed 
 with the mere words of Scripture ; and, 
 as he well knew, not from love to the 
 religion of Jesus Christ, but out of a 
 fpirit of contention againft cc the truth 
 of the Gofpel." "Jesus Christ is my 
 f Archives;' our uncorrupt cabinet is His 
 crofsj and His death, and His refurrec- 
 tion, and the c faith which is by Him,' 
 whereby I defire, through your prayer, 
 to be juftified." 
 
 If any one mould derive from thefe 
 words the impreffion that their author 
 undervalued the written record, or fup- 
 pofe that it was all one to the firfl Chrif- 
 tians whether they ufed pure or corrupted 
 copies of the Scriptures, or that they 
 1 Epift. ad Philad. 8 . 
 
140 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 were in any way carelefs about the pre- 
 fervation of the text, fuch an interpreter 
 would go far away from the mind of the 
 writer of that fentiment. His words 
 could never intimate that the Scripture, 
 and Christ, and His Spirit, might be 
 independent of each other. Rightly 
 underftood, the words of Ignatius are 
 very valuable ; they are the profeffion of 
 one who lived in the very infancy of the 
 Church, that its leading unqueftioned 
 fadls, as the objective part, and a faith 
 upon Christ wrought within the foul, 
 (as it had been in St. Peter's, whofe very 
 words, it is to be noted, that Father 
 employs), as the fubjective part; that 
 thefe were the ftaple, the permanent 
 grounds of the truft of a Christian. Nor 
 is it too much to add, as a corollary, that 
 if we could conceive of the pofTibility of 
 all the previous documents of the living 
 miniftry of the Apoftles of Christ, and 
 of their Letters to the Churches being 
 
Authority of Canon, Internal. 1 4 1 
 
 loft, while the hiftory of thofe facts was 
 preferved, there would be enough left 
 (according to the view of the venerable 
 author of the Epiftle to the Church in 
 Philadelphia), for the 'justification' of the 
 foul that fhould fpiritually embrace thefe 
 few truths. 
 
 But befldes the care of thofe flrft 
 Chriftians in maintaining the Scriptures, 
 and their eftimation of the perfon and 
 work of Christ as the central truths of 
 their faith, which being preferved intact, 
 all that was effential was fafe, (the mean- 
 ing, doubtlefs, of thofe words of the 
 ancient Father,) it is certain that the 
 Chriftians of that early period believed 
 that the Scriptures could become effica- 
 cious only by the light and teaching of 
 the Holy Spirit communicated to the 
 fouls of believers. If the teftimony of 
 antiquity is important and authoritative, 
 let the well-attefted convictions of good 
 men, who lived at the very head of the 
 
] 42 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 ftream, as it iffued from the Apoftles of 
 Christ, teach us "on whom the ends of 
 the world are come," that an infight into 
 the Scriptures is to be acquired by prayer 
 that the c door of light may be opened ' 
 to us ; for that the f perception ' of their 
 true fenfe is c given to none but to them 
 to whom God and Christ grant to 
 underftand them.' Now, if we candidly 
 liften to the authority of antiquity, we 
 mail be found f earneftly contending for 
 the ' fame principle. For if it was a true 
 principle then, it is fuch now, and always, 
 and muft be confeffed and upheld by 
 Chriftians of this and of every generation. 
 In the degree, too, in which the fpirit 
 that f exalts above meafure,' Reafon, as a 
 judge, may depreciate or deny fuch a rule 
 as this, and refufe, as unphilofophical, to 
 try the infpiration of the Scriptures by 
 the light of the Holy Spirit, on the 
 plea that this doclrine is a part of the 
 fyftem which is upon trial, and, there- 
 
Authority of Canon, Internal. 143 
 
 fore, that fuch a proceeding would in- 
 volve the error of a c petitio principii ; ' 
 juft in that degree to be held in honour 
 are thofe x Writers who have the courage 
 to maintain the obnoxious principle, when 
 they feel that it is not a circumftance 
 merely, nor an appendage, but forms an 
 organic truth of the Gofpel c wherein they 
 ftand.' 
 
 1 See Rev. E. A. Litton's valuable work, "Guide 
 to the Study of Holy Scripture:" chap, on "The 
 Interpretation of Scripture :" art. "Teaching of the 
 Holy Spirit." " To underftand an author who has 
 been infpired by the Holy Spirit to write, we need 
 ourfelves to be under the influence of the fame 
 Spirit." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The New Teftament bears witnefs 
 to Divine " defgn" in the re- 
 cord of the fa els of the Old. 
 
 OME very momentous quef- 
 tions have been agitated of 
 late, having an immediate 
 connection with the matter 
 now under confideration, which is (it will 
 be remembered), Is the Old Teftament, by 
 God's appointment, an infeparable portion 
 of the Truth He has left with the Church? 
 To thefe queftions the Scripture fhall fur- 
 nifh the reply. 
 
Pre-ordainedUfe of OldTeJi anient. 145 
 
 Cf *If we attribute to the details of the 
 Mofaic ritual a reference to the New 
 Teftament," a dangerous principle has 
 been cc conceded." But, then, it is <c if 
 we attribute to Scripture what it does not 
 itfelf claim, that this ill confequence will 
 refult. Very inftruclive is a 2 PafTage in 
 St. Paul, where he refers to the hiftory of 
 the Ifraelites in their journeyings, and fays 
 twice, that the things which befel them 
 were "enfamples." " Pre-ordained 'types ?" 
 or merely fuch by ff accommodation ?" an 
 Apoftle's accommodation, we know ; but, 
 ftill,fuch: clever adaptations, and no more? 
 
 " 3 Now thefe things which came to 
 pafs, are types to us," is the firft comment 
 given : and, fo far as thefe words go, no 
 more could be deduced from them than 
 that they are inftruclive inftances. But 
 when, prefently, this comment is repeated 
 with an amplification, we are explicitly 
 
 1 "Eflay," vii. p. 369. 2 1 Cor. x. 
 
 3 1 Cor. x. 6. 
 
 L 
 
146 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 taught the truth that though facts of the 
 Old covenant days, they are a part of that 
 permanent teaching which God has given 
 to the Church under the New Covenant. 
 s x Now all thefe things which befel them 
 are patterns' of God's retributive deal- 
 ings with men at all times ; ( and they 
 were made Scripture^ for a warning to us 
 on whom the final difpenfations have 
 lighted/ 
 
 It is not here aflerted that the primary 
 defign of God in the infliction of thefe 
 chaftifements was to create an example of 
 penal juftice ; (they did not, in this fenfe, 
 f happen unto them for enfamples ') : 
 but, that the confequences fo befalling 
 thofe with whom ff God was difpleafed," 
 as "the due reward of" their "deeds," 
 became permanent famples of His difplea- 
 fure againft, and His purpofe to punim 
 the like fins, always. Nor is it merely 
 
 1 1 Cor. x. 11. 
 
Pre-ordained Ufe of Old Teftament. 1 47 
 
 faid that from thefe records of God's re- 
 tributive dealings with Ifrael, inftructive 
 lerTons may be extracted by Christians, as 
 a Statefman reads the paft hiftory of na- 
 tions, and draws from it lerTons for his 
 policy ; but, that the things which f came 
 to pafs' are c patterns,' model-inftances, 
 to us of the Gofpel-day ; and that, in 
 order that they might actually become fo, 
 were by God's "determinate counfel" 
 written and handed down. And thus, the 
 warning inference, ccl Let him that holds 
 that he {lands " ( c trufting in names and 
 privileges') cc take heed left he fall," is to 
 be regarded not as the judicious conclu- 
 fion drawn by Paul, a pious follower of 
 Christ, intelligently reading the early 
 hiftory of his own nation, but without 
 " 2 any inward gift," and not cf fubject to 
 any power external" to him of an extra- 
 ordinary kind, but as the great caution of 
 the Holy Ghoft fpeaking in him, with a 
 
 1 1 Cor. x. 12. 2 "Effay," vii. p. 345. 
 
148 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 view to which ufe of the hiftory by the 
 future New Teftament Church, the pre- 
 fcient mind of God, ages before, caufed 
 thofe facts to be written in the c Book of 
 Exodus,' and elfewhere. 
 
 It has been truly urged that f f 1 the Old 
 Teftament will receive a different mean- 
 ing, accordingly as it is explained from 
 itfelf, or from the New." But, it is plain 
 that the explanation of it, (of much of it,) 
 from the New, is not an optional thing ; 
 and that the "types and ceremonies of 
 the Law," and (as in the Paffage which has 
 been enlarged upon), the fC facts of the 
 hiftory," are not {f affumed," but very 
 exprefsly declared to be " after a pattern" 
 (under the limitations of the fenfe which 
 has been affigned to the faying) fC corre- 
 fponding to the things that were to be in 
 the latter days." 
 
 The further queftion ftirred by this, 
 
 1 " EfTay," vii. p. 369. 
 
Its Explanation not Arbitrary. 149 
 
 namely, how we are to regard the inter- 
 pretation of the Old Teftament in the 
 New, whether as the "meaning of the 
 original text," or an adaptation of it to the 
 occafions of later times, does not, fo put, 
 prefent a fair alternative. Many " types 
 and ceremonies of the law," many facts 
 "and perfons of the hiftory," had a 
 real, pofitive, and (for the time then 
 being,) perfect meaning; a fignification and 
 ufe in themfelves. They had, alfo, a Cf pre- 
 deftined" ufe and meaning which was to be 
 brought out in the New Teftament Day. 
 In fome treatifes which have dealt with 
 this fubject of ff the relation between the 
 Old and New Teftaments," it is not very 
 eafy to determine (if, at leaft, it is for- 
 bidden to the reader to fpeculate upon the 
 c animus' of many remarks,) whether 
 what is faid is levelled againft New Tef- 
 tament commentators upon Old Tefta- 
 ment hiftories, or againft non-Scriptural 
 writers, of whom it was never pretended 
 
 
150 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 that they were infpired. A greater degree 
 of clearnefs in this refpect would have 
 faved to readers the pain which is felt, 
 when it is ambiguous whether the " inter- 
 preter's fancy," and fimilar phrafes, belong 
 to the Apoftles and Evangelifts,or to thofe 
 ingenious myftics who are reprefented as 
 " having read the Bible crofs-wife." 
 
 We are fatisfied to reft in the determi- 
 nation which Scripture itfelf makes of 
 the relation of its earlier and later parts. 
 
 Thefe confiderations are important far 
 beyond the circle of the particular events 
 to which the Apoftle refers. They prove 
 that the whole record into the texture of 
 which thofe hiftories are wrought, was 
 framed by the will, and under the govern- 
 ance of God. Are thofe alleged actions 
 of the Ifraelites true ? facts, real occur- 
 rences ? And, admitted to be fuch, have 
 they been correctly narrated ? If we affirm 
 both, then is the c Pentateuch' itfelf a 
 hiftory both true and infpired. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Qualifications for records 
 God's Truth necejfarily 
 Supernatural. 
 
 HE infpiration theory which, 
 becaufe it reprefents the 
 authors of the Books of 
 the Bible as fimple c ma- 
 chines ' in the hand of the Divine Spirit, 
 has, therefore, been fitly termed the me- 
 chanical, being difcarded, the question 
 will immediately arife in fome minds, 
 f What do you offer in its place ? ' In a 
 matter, however, fo delicate, becaufe fo 
 
1 5 2 Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 myfterious, the relations involved being 
 thofe which fubfift: between the mind of 
 God who fends a meffage, and the mind 
 of man the recipient of it, it is not to be 
 demanded that the place rendered vacant 
 by the difmiffal of one theory, mould at 
 once be filled up by fome other claiming 
 to be free from all poffible objection, and 
 complete. So far, indeed, is it from being 
 requifite that one who undertakes to treat 
 of this queftion, mould be prepared with 
 fome definite method to make room for 
 which the ground rauft have been fwept 
 clean, that we conceive it to be quite pof- 
 fible that two or more perfons may be met 
 with, equally found in the great funda- 
 mental articles of the Christian faith, who 
 yet entertain opinions upon this recondite 
 fubjecl: considerably differing from each 
 other. For, it is manifeftly impoflible, 
 upon a fubject fo peculiar in its nature, 
 and not exprefsly treated of in the Record 
 itfelf, to conftruct any theory that ihall 
 
Free Inquiry not Free Thought. 1 5 3 
 
 command univerfal affent. For the 
 f proof of the main organic truths of 
 the Catholic faith, we can point to 
 "moll: certain warrants of Holy Scrip- 
 ture : " but it is otherwife in the prefent 
 queftion, fo far as refpe<5ts any ont/yjlem. 
 There is a clafs of minds to whom it will 
 be a conclufive argument that c fuch and 
 fuch ' views were maintained by Chryfof- 
 tom and Jerome, and by the other Greek 
 and Latin Fathers, as alfo by the beft 
 Divines of the Reformed Church. Doubt- 
 lefs, fuch information mould have the 
 effect of leading Students of the Infpira- 
 tion queftion to be patient in their in- 
 quiries, and modeft in announcing their 
 conclusions. But feeing that even thofe 
 venerable Authorities framed their argu- 
 ments upon reafon and Scripture, it may 
 be permitted to thofe who enjoy the ufe 
 of the former, and have lying open before 
 them the page of the latter, to claim the 
 prerogative of Britons, (which they do 
 
154 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 not forfeit becaufe they are Chriftians), 
 and to exercife an independent judgment 
 upon this, as upon other topics connected 
 with religious belief: for, to think and 
 to exprefs his thoughts without reftraint, 
 is the right of a free-born man. 
 
 Freedom of inquiry upon points not 
 fettled by infpired authority, is to be 
 diftinguimed from either c free-thought,' 
 or f free- thinking;' the former of which 
 terms exprefTes the liberty claimed to 
 exercife an uncontrolled judgment upon 
 all fubjects, without exception, that can 
 be brought before the mind ; while the 
 latter has been (almoft technically) em- 
 ployed to mean c deifm,' and came into 
 being in the laft century. f Free-thought' 
 is a wider term, taking in, though not 
 particularizing, religion, an improve- 
 ment ' upon c Free-thinking ; ' both being 
 euphemifms invented to difguife the ob- 
 jects of each. 
 
 There are bounds within which in- 
 
Free Inquiry not Free Thought. 155 
 
 quirers upon this fubject muft acknow- 
 ledge themfelves as confined ; certain firft 
 principles which they are to hold faft, 
 and by which they are themfelves to be 
 held. The Advocate for the profecution, 
 in a recent c appeal ' in the matter of a 
 well-known Volume, was reported as de- 
 clining to be driven into a metaphyfical 
 difcuffion of the doctrine of infpiration ; 
 but contended that it was an influence 
 which conferred upon the books in which 
 it exifted, Cf a certain character different 
 from all other books." He declined, 
 alfo, to enter into queftions of historical 
 truth, or geographical difcovery, or fcien- 
 tific accuracy, confidering it Sufficient for 
 his purpofe to point out that the greater!; 
 latitude of criticifm was allowed to clergy- 
 men of the Church of England, limited 
 only by the prefence of infpiration, as 
 has been defcribed. He contended that, 
 in the cafe then under consideration, that 
 limit had been overftepped. A clergy- 
 
156 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 man might ufe his reafon to afcertain the 
 meaning of Scripture ; but, having afcer- 
 tained the meaning, he was bound by it. 
 To defcribe the Scripture as an expreffion 
 of devout reafon, or the written voice of 
 the congregation, was to reduce the Bible 
 to the level of other religious books which 
 had been written by Churchmen of influ- 
 ence from time to time. A plain com- 
 mon-fenfe ftatement of the queftion, in its 
 legal bearings ; amply fufficient for all 
 practical purpofes, and to which it need 
 only be added, that the rule it lays down 
 muft be regarded as applicable beyond 
 the ranks of the Body for whom it was 
 framed, and binding upon all alike, whe- 
 ther clergy, or laymen ; upon all, without 
 exception, who receive the Scriptures. 
 
 That Advocate took the courfe which 
 was profeflionally proper, not only in 
 confining his remarks to the limits within 
 which clergymen might exprefs their 
 opinions upon theological fubjects, but 
 
Infpiration is Supernatural. 1 57 
 
 alfo in not going beyond thofe broad and 
 general terms in fpeaking of Infpiration 
 itfelf. Such an account, however, is for 
 the clofe inveftigator infufficient. True, 
 the Bible is c fui generis ;' it ftands alone ; 
 but the point to be determined is, in what 
 its peculiarity confifts ; what are its dif- 
 tinguifhing marks as a Record. It is the 
 " 1 Word of God, and not of men ;" this 
 fundamental principle we afTume the in- 
 quirer to c embrace, and ever hold faft :' 
 the point on which he defires to be 
 refolved is this ; Through what chan- 
 nels, and under what conditions, precifely, 
 has this f word,' this mefTage from the 
 cc2 Moft High God," come to "us men?" 
 It is admitted that this communication 
 was made through the instrumentality of 
 "holy men who fpake as they were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost." Now, 
 fince that which they "fpake" was for 
 the perpetual ufe of the Church, we may, 
 1 1 Thefs. ii. 13. * Ads xvi. 17. 
 
158 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 we muft infer that when thofe chofen 
 inftruments of the Spirit proceeded to 
 commit to writing what had been re- 
 vealed to them, they wrote under the fame 
 Divine guidance. With the Books, then, 
 which make up the Bible fpread open be- 
 fore him, and fending his thoughts back 
 to the occafions when the feveral writers 
 "took in hand to fet forth in order a 
 declaration of thofe things which" ff God 
 had revealed unto them by His Spirit," 
 the candid inquirer would affure himfelf 
 as to the £ nature' and f extent ' of the in- 
 fpiration under which each wrote. The 
 fubftance of the revelation is placed beyond 
 the limits of fuch an inveftigation as we 
 are fuppofing. 
 
 In what did the infpiration attributed 
 to the Scriptures confift? and, How far did 
 it reach ? are queftions to which the moft 
 reverential ftudent of theology may be im- 
 agined as bending his anxious attention. 
 Now, if it is reafonable to expect that 
 
Inspiration is Supernatural, 159 
 
 God would impart fome knowledge to the 
 human mind by other than human means, 
 then the neceffity of infpiration is proved. 
 For, properly, Infpiration is not the truth 
 miraculoufly communicated to the mind, 
 but the qualification for fulfilling the 
 duty impofed upon the receiver of it ; 
 which was, to fpeak, or to write down, the 
 truth imparted ; or to do both. Now, the 
 foul of man is fo conftru&ed by cc God 
 who gave it," that it fends its thoughts 
 back to the paft, to know its own origin ; 
 and onwards to the future, to become 
 acquainted with its deftiny : and unlefs 
 thefe inquiries be fatisfied, it is miferable. 
 But on thefe fubje&s it has no innate 
 knowledge ; fo that, unlefs it was the 
 Divine purpofe to fend information upon 
 them to man, he would be in the condi- 
 tion of one created with great powers, 
 but deftitute of the means of exercifing 
 them. With a capacity for underftanding 
 the paft, and contemplating the future, 
 
1 60 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 upon the one and the other he would be 
 wholly in the dark. c I find myfelf ' (he 
 would fay) f to belong to a race concern- 
 ing whofe beginnings I would fain be in- 
 formed, but information I have none. I 
 have a confcioufnefs of my immortality, 
 of which I cannot be denuded ; but re- 
 fpecling the futurity which awaits me, I 
 am utterly devoid of light/ Thus reft- 
 lefs would the fpirit of man be, were it 
 not the purpofe of God to fend him that 
 information for which " his foul hath 
 appetite : " fo that we may juftly con- 
 clude, that unlefs God would leave the 
 higheft of His creatures in a worfe con- 
 dition than that in which He has placed 
 the lowefl, on which He has beftowed 
 inftincl: to guide them, He would impart 
 to him the knowledge which he craves. 
 
 Now, in no other way is it conceivable 
 that this end mould be accomplished, but 
 through the inftrumentality of men brought 
 beneath the influence of a Divine energy, 
 
Infpiration is Supernatural. 1 6 1 
 
 firft, difclqfing to them truths which they 
 could not otherwise have known, and then, 
 enabling them to record what had been 
 fo difclofed. Of thefe effects the former 
 would be f revelation/ the latter f infpira- 
 tion ;' a diftin<5tion which (though we be- 
 lieve it to be juft, and indeed neceflary 
 to be kept in view by thofe who would 
 poffefs clear ideas upon the fubject,) is not 
 effential to the main argument, the bafis 
 of which is a truth which has been uni- 
 formly believed by the Jewifh and Chrif- 
 tian Churches, from the very beginning 
 to the prefent day, that thoughts un- 
 attainable by the ordinary proceffes of 
 " reafon, experience, obfervation, and 
 aflbciation of ideas, or relative fuggef- 
 tion," thoughts refpefting the paft, pre- 
 fent, and future, were impreffed upon the 
 minds of certain men whom God raifed 
 up, firft, to receive thofe impreflions, and 
 then to tell them with the living voice 
 to the men of their own generation, and 
 
 M 
 
1 6 2 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 to commit them to writing, " that their 
 pofterity," to the end of time, "might 
 know" thofe truths, "and the children 
 which were yet unborn." 
 
 And thus we are conducted to that 
 which is the central idea, the eflential 
 point, in this whole queftion, the doctrine 
 of the 'Supernatural.' Here there can be 
 no conceflion ; there mull: be no ambi- 
 guity. The Church is called to different 
 forms of trial and of duty, at different 
 ftages of her hiftory. At this moment, 
 the fervice to which me is fummoned, 
 and in which her fidelity is to be 
 tefted, is to 1 defend the supernatural. 
 c Standing upon her watch, and fetting 
 
 1 " Chriftianity offers occafion for this oppofi- 
 tion " [of the human fpirit againft authority] " by 
 its inherent claims, independently of accidental 
 caufes ; for it afferts authority over religious belief, 
 in virtue of being a fupernatural communication 
 from God." — Rev. A. S. Farrar's Bampton LeBures, 
 " A Critical Hiftory of Free-Thought in reference 
 to the Chriftian Religion," i. pp. 1,2. 
 
Rationalifm, its Demands. 163 
 
 herfelf upon the tower,' me has, at a 
 preceding period, feen the fame enemy 
 me is now called upon to repel, making 
 his advance againft the walls. 
 
 In the eighteenth century, the German 
 Rationalifts and the Englifh Deifts com- 
 bined to refift the doctrine which had 
 been maintained in all ages by the Ca- 
 tholic Church, that, in and through the 
 Books of the c Bible,' as we have it, 
 "God has fpoken." The ('mifnamed) 
 Rationalifts do not deny that a revelation 
 has been granted, and that the Scriptures 
 i( contain " it, defigning, in the ufe of this 
 
 1 Private opinion is the fit name for this fyftem ; 
 for it has no principles whatever, and refers to no 
 ftandard. It is one form of the " ftruggle of the 
 human fpirit to free itfelf from the authority of the 
 Chriftian faith, the lefs violent of the two " fhapes 
 in which unbelief has manifefted itfelf. " In the firfl 
 great ftruggle of the human mind againft the Chrif- 
 tian religion, the action of reafon in criticifing its 
 claims affumed two forms, Gnofticifm, or Ration- 
 alifm, within the Church ; and Unbelief without." 
 
 
1 64 Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, 
 
 word, to eftablifh a diftinction between 
 the Word of God as contained in, and as 
 f co-extenfive with/ Scripture ; in other 
 words, to make out that not all that is 
 found in the Books which, collectively, 
 are known as s Scripture,' is God's 
 Word, but fome parts only; a diftinc- 
 tion unwarranted by Church ftandards, or 
 Writers, and, in itfelf, futile. " A mer- 
 chant mowing a fhip of his own, may 
 fay. All my fubftance is [contained] in 
 this fhip ; and yet never intend to deny 
 that his fhip is part of his fubftance, nor 
 yet to fay that his fhip is in itfelf." Such 
 was the clever anfwer of Chillingworth 
 when prefTed with a like objection by the 
 Romanifts: as an illuftration, it entirely 
 refutes this f fundamental theory ' of the 
 Rationalifts. 
 
 It is not a little remarkable how, from 
 different ftand-points, and with very dif- 
 ferent aims, the Romifh and Rationaliftic 
 Schools meet in an agreement to drag 
 
Rationalifm, its Demands. 165 
 
 down the pretenfions of Scripture ; the 
 one, to &t up Tradition, the other, Reafon. 
 But, ftrange to fay, they do not permit 
 thefe books to be accepted and explained 
 as other books are ; but they frame their 
 own ftandard of what might have been 
 expedited. Conftituting themfelves the 
 judges of what is "good and profitable 
 unto men," they bring in a new fenfe 
 which they term the c verifying faculty,' 
 a tefting power of an utterly irrefponfible 
 character, which is to qualify them c to 
 refufe the evil and to choofe the good,' 
 of the Biblical materials before them. 
 Admitting what they find in the Old and 
 New Teftament to conftitute a revelation, 
 in fome fenfe, and taken as a whole, they 
 eliminate certain portions which this in- 
 ward fecret meafure of what is fit rejects. 
 By a fquare thus arbitrarily framed, they 
 try the contents of the feveral Books of 
 the Bible ; and their reafon is to determine 
 how far the teaching found in them, 
 
1 6 6 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures, 
 
 whether it relate to the nature of God,, 
 or the profpedls of man, is true or falfe. 
 They feem to pervert and parody the 
 rule, " 1 To the law and to the teftimony," 
 and to fay, c To the human intellect, and 
 to the bar of reafon,' £c if they fpeak 
 not according to this word, it is becaufe 
 there is no light in them." You mufi: 
 fufpend your verdict, (fay they,) until 
 you have fifted the contents of the book 
 which folicits your approval. Your fub- 
 miffion is not to be yielded upon the 
 profeffion, by this Volume, of any c a 
 priori' claims. In a word, their motto 
 is, f No ^ffkntj no infpiration.' At this 
 door, were it opened wide, would come 
 in all the fchemes, fpeculations, and fancies, 
 and even herefies, that have ever propofed 
 themfelves in the ftead of the "faith 
 once delivered unto the faints." In this 
 form of Cf philofophy," if in any, is to be 
 
 1 Ifaiah viii. 20. 
 
Rationalifmi its Demands. 167 
 
 recognized the portrait of the <f thief and 
 the robber, which cometh not but for to 
 ileal, and to kill, and to deftroy;" and 
 if, eluding the vigilance of thofe who 
 mould keep the gate of the city of God, 
 he fhould gain an entrance, it may be 
 expected that he will proceed to the 
 citadel, and there make havoc of all that 
 is diflinclive and effential, in the Religion 
 of the Bible. 
 
 Now, it were poffible to go beyond 
 thefe rationaliftic-folk, and yet to come 
 fhort of a right belief in Scriptural infpi- 
 ration. c But, flop,' (I can imagine fome 
 one here interrupting, and faying,) f where 
 do you find the canon of right belief,' 
 on which you are fo confidently pro- 
 nouncing ? If the belief is ( right,' 
 then there is no more controverfy. Is it 
 a private dogma which you are about to 
 enunciate ? or, if not, what is its autho- 
 rity ? A mofl reafonable inquiry ; and, 
 in its confequences, very important : for, 
 
 
1 68 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 if the reply fhall be incontrovertible, then 
 the queftion, f What is infpiration ?' may- 
 be regarded as finally anfwered. 
 
 The meafure, then, of c right belief/ 
 which we are to hold in our hand, to try 
 any theory upon this fubjecl, is that which 
 the Scripture writers have framed. On 
 what account did they themfelves receive 
 and obey the facred books ? was it becaufe 
 all the contents of them were good, and 
 holy, and true ? they believed this fincerely ; 
 but this was not the proper ground on 
 which they went. They bore witnefs to 
 this point, that the whole and every part 
 of the Scripture l was given by Divine in- 
 fpiration. The Church in all ages has 
 maintained this. By f the Church ' (and 
 here we are committing ourfelves to fome- 
 thing like a definition ; of which, however, 
 we have f counted the cofV), we mean 
 
 1 " The fubjedl of the Revelation is received as 
 true becaufe Divine ; not merely regarded as Divine 
 becaufe perceived to be true."— -Farrar's Bampton 
 Leisures, i. 
 
Self-evidencing Light. 169 
 
 thofe who wrote the Scripture, and thofe 
 who believed in Christ through e their 
 word ; ' a defcription which will fatisfy all, 
 being that which the Lord Jesus Christ 
 gives of His Church. We know that 
 this witnefs is true. fC With thefe," (fays 
 Owen,) <cl l had rather venture my faith 
 and eternal condition, than with any fo- 
 ciety, any real or pretended Church what- 
 ever." To the profeffion contained in 
 thefe laft words, he who now quotes them 
 cordially fubfcribes, even as he agrees 
 with that Writer, that the Church (fo in- 
 terpreted,) was moft uncompromifing in 
 the point referred to. With this prece- 
 dent before our eyes, it were unlawful to 
 fall down to any inferior ftandard. To 
 receive the Scriptures upon any other, any 
 lower ground, is, as the fame writer has 
 faid, ff to compound the matter with the 
 world : " a remarkable expreffion, fuggeft- 
 
 1 "The Reafon of Faith."— Works of John 
 Owen, D.D. Lond. 1823. Vol. iii. p. 266. 
 
I jo Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 ing the thought that the attempt to try 
 the contents of the Bible at the bar of 
 human reafon before giving in an adhefion 
 to them, is effentially "of the world," 
 the growth of man's pride and preemp- 
 tion. The world fays, c I am ready to 
 allow, and to make ufe of this book, 
 provided that the grounds upon which I 
 accept it, have been settled ; if it be dis- 
 tinctly underftood on what footing I re- 
 ceive it, which is juft this, that having 
 read it throughout, I have come to the 
 conclufion that it teaches nothing but 
 what is found to be ' good and profitable 
 unto men.' In a word, c The Board' of 
 Reafon, having f fat' upon the claims of 
 the Scripture, gives its f Teftamur,' f Ex- 
 amined and Approved:' the candidate 
 has paired, is even clafTed ( f in Literis 
 humanioribus'), and has a c Degree' con- 
 ferred upon it. But the Church, which, 
 in this, and in all things, is to be our 
 guide; the Church as compofed of the 
 
Self-evidencing Light. 171 
 
 firft writers of Scripture, and the feed of 
 true believers, gave *no countenance to 
 this method. They have not left us an 
 example of patronizing God's eternal 
 truth. " 2 Becaufe our testimony among 
 you was believed:" did the Apoftle of 
 Christ only mean that they had regarded 
 him as a wife and good man, and fo had 
 liftened to his communications ? Do we 
 imagine him, at the end of the Epiftle to 
 the Romans, with its logical differtation 
 on f Righteoufnefs by Faith ;' or, the Firft 
 to the Corinthians, with its f great argu- 
 ment ' for the c refurrection of the body ;' 
 do we think of him as afking for the 
 approbation of the individuals who com- 
 pofed the Churches addreffed, and faying, 
 
 1 "Non enim ideo infpiratum aliquid divinitus 
 eft, quia poftea lit approbatum, fed ideo eft appro- 
 batum quia fuerat divinitus infpiratum." 
 
 " Cenfura Facultatum Sacra Theologize Lovan- 
 ienjis" a.d. 1586. 
 
 2 2Thefs. i. 10. 
 
IJ2 Infpiratton of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 as the Roman actor to the audience, at the 
 conclufion of the drama, " Vos -plaudit e ? " 
 So far from this, " he and Silvanus and 
 Timotheus, for ! this caufe thanked God 
 without ceafing, becaufe when the Church 
 of the ThefTalonians received the Word of 
 God which they heard of them, they accep- 
 ted it as (admitted it as being) not the word 
 of men, but, as it is in truth, the Word 
 of God." Nothing fhort of this rifes up 
 to the full fenfe of the tf witnefs" which 
 the Church of true believers in all ages 
 has given to the Scriptures. Wherein 
 lay the elTential guilt of thofe who in the 
 time of the Prophets, denied the infpira- 
 tion, and fpake of their teaching as 
 " 2 wind," and faid f The word is not 
 in them ? ' Was it not that in fuch re- 
 jection of c His words in their mouth ' 
 they had virtually " belied the Lord," 
 and faid, in effect, cc 3 Not he." To demur 
 
 1 I Thefs. ii. 13. 3 Jeremiah v. 13. 
 
 3 Jeremiah v. 12. 
 
Self-evidencing Light. 173 
 
 upon the admiflion of St. John's Epiftle 
 as of immediate Divine authority, is to 
 " J make God a liar ;" for it is to difbe- 
 lieve the "record that God gave of His 
 Son," as through the word of others, fo 
 by the pen of " His fervant John," at 
 that very moment when he was writing 
 his letter. Thefe two instances deferve 
 the mod earneft attention, for they exhibit 
 the refufal to acknowledge c the word 
 fpoken by Apoftles and Prophets,' as af- 
 fixing upon the recufants the very high 
 impiety of c making God a liar ;' the re- 
 jection of His Word given by His fer- 
 vants, being in each cafe fo characterized. 
 It is a truth which, perhaps, is not 
 vividly prefent to the minds of fome who 
 are occupied with this fubject, that the 
 Scriptures are to us, as the Apoftles were 
 to thofe to whom they preached in their 
 travels, and living miniftry. Not only do 
 they fupply the place of that perfonal 
 
 1 I John, v. 10. 
 
 
174 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 work ; not only are they intended to ac- 
 complish the fame end, that of bringing 
 men to c believe on Christ Jesus/ but 
 they Hand upon the very fame ground, 
 and prefent themfelves with the very fame 
 authority. Let us in imagination place 
 ourfelves on " 1 Mars' Hill," there with 
 the " men of Athens," hearing Paul (who 
 had cc2 feen Jesus Christ our Lord,") 
 call upon the people who flood before 
 him cc to repent : " then let us try to 
 realize the voice of the fame Paul now, 
 fpeaking to us the very words he ufed at 
 Athens, as we have them recorded in the 
 Book of the f Acls,' and faying, Receive 
 this cc not as the word of man, but as it 
 is in truth, the Word of God." What- 
 ever argument he and Peter can be fup- 
 pofed to have employed wherefore their 
 living teaching mould be received by ff all 
 men everywhere," applies to us with equal 
 
 1 Afts xvii. 22. 2 I Cor. ix. I. 
 
Self-evidencing Light, iy§ 
 
 cogency that we mould receive the Holy 
 Scriptures. For, it is the f record' itfelf 
 that comes to us with the Holy Spirit's 
 feal upon it ; and cc GoD-breathed" is the 
 infcription graven on it. Such, indeed, 
 is the dodtrine it contains, (for which alone 
 the c writing' is of any value) : fuch were 
 the men who penned it ; and, pre-eminent 
 among them, Paul, the author of this 
 memorable compound f ! Theopneuftos,' 
 (a word 2 peculiar to the Revelation,) the 
 chofen term of the Spirit to whom it refers : 
 but fuch, too, is the document itfelf, c the 
 Scripture.' Were men now to ftand up 
 in our congregations, or preach in our 
 ftreets, bringing with them credentials of 
 being c infpired,' in the high and proper 
 fenfe of that word, that is, of being im- 
 mediately taught of God, we fhould Men 
 to them with the moft profound attention. 
 
 1 2 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
 8 See Townsend's " Scriptural Communion with 
 God." Part i. p. 32. 
 
176 Infpiratlon of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 Precifely fuch is the {landing of the 
 Scriptures in the midft of the Church. 
 They are not one degree removed from 
 the writers of them, in their divinity. 
 ff Moved by the Holy Ghost were Paul 
 and Peter, when at Athens, or at Jerufalem, 
 they fpake unto the people. ImprerTed 
 " ' by the fame Spirit," and of co-ordinate 
 authority, are the record of their living 
 fermons, and the Letters which they wrote 
 to the Churches. 
 
 We claim, then, for the infpiration of the 
 Scriptures, the testimony of the Church ; 
 but we mean the Church of " all be- 
 lievers," (" Thanks be unto God for" 
 that thoroughly Scriptural phrafe, and for 
 the inheritance of that venerable hymn 
 in which it is enfhrined) ; Cf the Holy 
 Church throughout all the world," com- 
 pofed of fC 2 all who in every place call 
 upon the Name of Jesus Christ our 
 
 1 1 Cor. xii. 4. 2 I Cor. i. 2. 
 
Self- evidencing Light. ijy 
 
 Lord;" who have been cf fanctified in 
 Christ Jesus," and are therefore ' holy.' 
 Of the evidence that the Bible is the 
 Word of God, which itfelf fupplies, this 
 is a part ; but it is not the whole. fC l If 
 we receive the witnefs of" even infpired 
 ff men, the witnefs of God is greater ;" a 
 greater afliirance to the foul. Let any 
 call it enthufiafm if they pleafe, it muft 
 be firmly maintained that the true foun- 
 dation on which our acceptance of Scrip- 
 ture as God's Word muft reft, is the dis- 
 covery of its infpiration made to and by the 
 foul of each individual believer, and that 
 any other way than this is not God's way. 
 He has fpoken to the foul of man imme- 
 diately by His Spirit in the Word, 
 though He has employed a Prophet, or 
 an Apoftle, to be His amanuenfis ; and, 
 by the foul to which He thus direftly 
 fpeaks, it is His purpofe to be heard and 
 
 1 I John v. 9. 
 
 N 
 
178 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 recognized. And thus another important 
 queftion will have been fettled. The 
 f authority ' of the Scripture, its binding 
 claim upon our fubmirlion, depends upon 
 its 'perceived infpiration. Marvelloufly 
 exaggerated has been the weight attaching 
 to the Church's atteftation. External 
 teftimony, the fuffrages of early Councils 
 and Synods, is not without its value ; 
 nay, rather is it of great moment, within 
 juft limits : but the proper f authority ' is 
 that which arifes out of the Scriptures 
 themfelves to each ftudent of them. 
 When an infpired writer (and we know 
 that fuch c witnefs is true ') fays, concern- 
 ing a great proportion, that it is c Entitled 
 to belief, and claims to be received by 
 all,' he lays the ftrefs of his afTertion upon 
 the doctrine itfelf. But, to receive any 
 thing from a c Church ' as a Church, and 
 to repofe on this as our mainftay, is 
 
 1 1 Tim. i. 15. 
 
Self-evidencing Light. 179 
 
 to build upon a totally different bafis. 
 s Authority' over the human confcience 
 no proportion or fet of propositions can 
 poffibly porTefs, except fo far as they are 
 true, come they from what quarter of the 
 Univerfe they may. The Scripture, 
 " God's Word written," is true, becaufe 
 it has truth in itfelf. The meafure of its 
 truth is the meafure of its authority. 
 Now, it is abfolutely true, becaufe it 
 Cf proceeded and came forth from God." 
 It is, therefore, abfolutely authoritative. 
 Scripture c fits a queen,' over all human 
 minds and confciences fupreme. It can 
 make no lefs a claim, being effential 
 Truth, emanating from God Himfelf. 
 Nothing more is required to prove that it 
 needs not to be backed by any teftimony 
 from without. The confent of the 
 Church in its earlieft days, and in every 
 fubfequent age, is rather the tribute paid 
 to the majefty of truth, than the addition 
 by as much as a iingle grain to the 
 
1 8 o Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 certainty of Scripture : tcl l receive not 
 honour from men." 
 
 The written Word of God takes up 
 this ground as truly as did the Incarnate 
 Word. 2 The Bible mines by its own 
 light. An illuftration (it is fometimes 
 and truly urged,) is not an argument : 
 fome illuftrations, however, are fo ftriking 
 that they are as fatisfa&ory as logical 
 arguments. Now, it has been remarked, 
 that when the fun mines, no demonftration 
 is needed of the fact : the glorious bright- 
 nefs of the luminary is its own witnefs. 
 To produce evidence that the fun is 
 mining, were not only fuperfluous, but 
 the wilder!: folly. 
 
 Alike true, naturally and morally, is 
 the c dictum,' c whatfoever makes it/elf 
 
 1 John v. 41. 
 
 2 See a Work by Dr.T. Jackfon, (Dean of Peter- 
 borough, in the early part of the Seventeenth cen- 
 tury) : " The eternal truth of Scripture, and 
 Chrirtian belief thereon wholly depending, mani- 
 
 fefted by its own light." — London, 1673. 
 
Self-evidencing light. 1 8 1 
 
 manifeft is light.' As true (though not 
 the ftricT: logical converfe,) is the proposi- 
 tion, c whatever is light, properly and 
 effentially, makes it/elf manifeft.' ] "God 
 is light:" His truth has its rife in the 
 depths of His own Being ; and he poured 
 forth the rays of His effential light into 
 the f reafonable foul ' of prophets, and 
 evangelifts, and apoftles, when He re- 
 vealed to them His truth. It was His 
 light, and not their own brilliant genius, 
 which c ftione before men ' when they 
 fpake or wrote. Ifluing from that fpring, 
 and introduced into the mind of each 
 £ holy man of God,' the light was not 
 diminifhed or dimmed, or in any way 
 affected, by palling through the human 
 channel, but came forth from the lips, or 
 the pen of each, as pure and perfect as it 
 firft came forth from God. 
 2 "Bright effluence of bright efTence, increate;" 
 
 1 I John i. 5. 
 
 9 Milton's Paradife Loft, Book in. 5. 
 
1 8 2 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 this, the poet's defcription of the Perfonal, 
 is fcarcely lefs true of the written Word ; 
 "the moft eminent reflection of uncreated 
 light and excellencies." 
 
 This, then, is our conclufion. A 
 Record thus f born of God,' thus felf- 
 evidencing, has within itfelf a witnefs to 
 its own infallible infpiration, which ex- 
 tinguishes every other, even as the fun's 
 beams vanquifh. the light of a candle 
 found in the room which they enter ; fo 
 that it has been well faid that it matters 
 not how the Scripture has come to us, 
 whether by a child or a church ; by 
 accident, (were there fuch a caufe,) or by 
 tradition ; by confent of men voting it to 
 be Scripture, or by Providence ; to us it 
 has come, with convincing evidence con- 
 tained within itfelf, that " *God is in" it 
 " of a truth." To the fpecial providence 
 of God, no doubt, we owe it that the 
 
 1 i Cor. xiv. 25. 
 
Self-evidencing light. 183 
 
 Sacred Books have thus come to us, 
 hiftory proving that in this and other 
 lands, the fpirit of perfecution was hot 
 againft the authors, and would fain have 
 crufhed both them and their Works. 
 
 And, like as we owe no obligation to 
 the Church of the paft, fo, befides that 
 of being l cc a witnefs and keeper," a 
 truftee, we affign no importance to the 
 Church of the prefent day, as though it 
 upheld Scripture. When, in a Christian 
 fociety, " 2 the pure Word of God is 
 preached, and the Sacraments duly min- 
 iftered according to Chrift's ordinance;" 
 when its Cf 3 children " are f f found walk- 
 ing in truth," fuch a church is cc 4 holding 
 forth the word of life," exhibiting and 
 
 1 Twentieth "Article of Religion;" "Of the 
 Authority of the Church." 
 
 2 Nineteenth " Article of Religion ;" " Of the 
 Authority of the Church." 
 
 3 2 John, 4. 
 
 * Philipp. ii. 16. 
 
1 84 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 recommending, but not fanctioning, the 
 truth of God. Its tendency to produce 
 fuch refults, with the experience of them 
 in fact, is the legitimate, the real tefti- 
 mony to the divinity of Scripture : any 
 other is either artificial, or altogether fub- 
 ordinate. When minds are enlightened, 
 and confciences awakened, and c unruly 
 wills ordered,' by the miniftration of 
 God's Word, he who feels or fees fuch 
 effects is thereby led perfonally, intelli- 
 gently, unalterably, to Cf fet to his feal 
 that " Scripture, in its every part, is 
 " GoD-breathed." 
 
 The Florentine poet has a Angularly 
 appoflte pafTage, where St. Peter, quef- 
 tioning him concerning his faith, afks : 
 
 1 " And how didft thou obtain 
 The gem Co coftly whereon refts the ground 
 Of all the virtues ? " " That unftinted rain," 
 
 1 " Quefta cara gioia, 
 Sovra la quale ogni virtu ii fonda, 
 Onde ti venne ? Ed io : La larga ploia 
 
Church-tejiitnony exaggerated. 185 
 
 I anfwered, " Of God's Spirit, which is poured 
 O'er the New page and Ancient, doth fo plain 
 
 A fyllogifm, to prove me this, afford, 
 That every demonilration, to be told 
 
 Thereafter, would appear an edgelefs fword." 
 
 See how, more than five centuries and a 
 half ago, a mind of the higheft order 
 conferTes that the grace of the Holy 
 Spirit poured out upon the Writings 
 of the Old and New Teftament, had 
 wrought fo pointed a conviction of their 
 truth, that, in comparifon, all formal 
 demonftration feemed weak. 
 
 A general reprefentative AfTembly of 
 all the Churches in Christendom, (were 
 fuch a convention poffible), which mould 
 add its own fubfcription and feal, as a 
 
 Dello Spirito fanto, ch'e diffufa 
 In fu le vecchie e in fu le nuove cuioia 
 E fillogifmo, che la mi ha conchiufa 
 Acutamente, fi che in verfo d'ella 
 Ogni dimonftrazion mi pare ottufa." 
 — Dante: Del Paradifo, cant. 24*°. 89— g6. Tranf- 
 lation, by C. B. Cayley, B.A., London, 1854. 
 
 
1 8 6 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 Catholic Body, to thofe of all the parti- 
 cular Churches that have ever met, or 
 made f Declarations,' from the Apoftles' 
 day to the prefent hour, could not confer 
 upon the Scriptures the leaft particle of 
 authority : of this their intrinfic truth is 
 the fole and fufficient bafis. 
 
 cc 1 Matter, we would fee a fign from 
 Thee : " fuch is the demand of thofe, in 
 every generation, whofe characteristics are 
 the fame as theirs who firft made it. 
 But " there mail no fign be given," other 
 than that which the wifdom of God has 
 appointed. The £ felf-evidencing light of 
 the Scripture,' as it has been well termed, 
 is the true ground of belief in its infpira- 
 tion ; f true,' becaufe it is in this way 
 that it has "feemed good in" God's 
 " fight " to f give ' moral l aflurance unto 
 all men,' that in thefe Scriptures He 
 " 2 has fpoken. " c He that ' is thus 
 
 Matt. xii. 38, 39. 2 Heb. i. 1,2. 
 
Church-tejiimony exaggerated. 187 
 
 brought to c believe on the Son of God, 
 1 hath the witnefs in himfelfV not, how- 
 ever, any private whifper this, or fecret 
 difcovery made to the foul ; nor a fpiritual 
 operation unconnected with the ufe of 
 means, but the testimony of the Holy 
 Ghost, patent to, and to be judged of 
 by all, by a folid and enduring work in 
 the principles and the life of him who fo 
 believes. 
 
 It will be perceived that thefe views 
 are not in agreement with, nay, are 
 directly oppofed to fome which have 
 been put forth upon the fubject. A valu- 
 able Work, which has recently appeared, 
 has received only qualified praife from 
 fome critics, on the ground that it "omits 
 c the teftimony of the Church' to the in- 
 fpiration of Scripture, fuch outward tefti- 
 mony " being <f in point of fact, the main 
 bulwark of the true doctrine of infpira- 
 
 1 1 John v. 10. 
 
1 8 8 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 tion, to which other arguments appealing 
 to the reafon of the cafe are rather fup- 
 plementary." When the author of thefe 
 ftriclures goes on to ftate that the caufe 
 of Biblical-infpiration does not hang upon 
 fo precarious a thread as that of our 
 own inferences, from what we may have 
 difcovered of a fupernatural character in 
 the fadls recorded, but " rather " upon 
 this, that " we are told, upon competent 
 authority, that" the Scriptures "do come 
 from God," we mould gladly find his 
 meaning in " the teftimony of the Scrip- 
 tures to themfelves; or, in other words, 
 the account given of the nature and 
 channel of their meffage by men whofe 
 divine commiffion is already and indepen- 
 dently eftablifhed; the teftimony, above 
 all, both of the Apoftles and of our Lord 
 Himfelf, to the divine authority of the 
 Old Teftament, and fo, by analogy, of 
 the New alfo." But we are forbidden fo 
 to explain the language of the critique, 
 
Church-tejlimony exaggerated. 1 89 
 
 becaufe it explicitly afTerts that outward 
 teftimony is the true fupport of the pre- 
 tenfions of Scriptural infpiration ; a pro- 
 position which it has been the defign of 
 the preceding remarks to controvert. 
 
 External testimony (in which we in- 
 clude arguments of every kind not drawn 
 from "what is read" in the Scriptures 
 themfelves), is analogous to tradition. 
 Tradition is not an afTeflbr with Scripture 
 upon the throne of judgment, but fits in 
 a lower place ; and its voice is liftened 
 to, fo long as it preferves its diftance 
 refpectfully, fpeaks in a humble tone, 
 and is content to fuggeft modeftly what 
 may be, without prefuming to pronounce 
 what is, the meaning of any fentence that 
 is heard from the throne itfelf. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Infpiration and Human Genius 
 effentially different, 
 
 HE view juft exprefTed, that 
 by the light which mines 
 from the Scripture itfelf, 
 we difcover its infpiration ; 
 and the aflertion of the Rationalift, that 
 f f the nature of infpiration can only be 
 known by the examination of Scripture," 
 at the firft glance feem fo much alike, 
 that the author of the latter fentiment 
 (to employ his own phrafe), might be 
 1 fC ready to make hands with thofe who," 
 
 1 " Effay " vii. p. 344. 
 
Scriptures, howfalfely meafured. 191 
 
 he thinks, cf ufe the fame language with 
 himfelf." But more than cc a doubt in- 
 finuates itfelf," whether that language of 
 ours, in which he fancies that he fees 
 agreement with himfelf, do really contain 
 fuch agreement. We are fare it does 
 not, and that the difference between us is 
 wide. For it is one thing to affert that 
 the Book is a witnefs to its own infallible 
 infpiration ; another, that from an ex- 
 amination of the Book upon our own 
 principles, and with a f verifying faculty ' 
 " in our right hand " as our tf line and 
 plummet," we are to be the judges what 
 fort of infpiration is to be affigned to it. 
 
 The { freehandler ' of Scripture declines 
 to begin by afking whether it has faid any- 
 thing about itfelf, and its own authority : 
 this, he thinks, would be to prejudge the 
 queftion: he claims the right of determin- 
 ing how much or how little it ought to 
 fay. The Church, commencing from a 
 different point of view, and with an a -priori 
 
192 Scriptures , how truly meafured. 
 
 admiflion of Scripture authority, fearches 
 for any statements on the fubjecl: of in- 
 fpiration, and having found fuch, regards 
 the queftion, fo far at leaft as refpects the 
 fact, as determined. The religion re- 
 cognifes, and fo authenticates infpiration ; 
 and the evidence mines from the Book 
 itfelf : which latter truth fo far defcribes 
 the nature of infpiration as to indicate a 
 feature, an important peculiarity of it ; 
 but it flops fhort of any fuch account of 
 it as would reach to a definition, for 
 that mould contain the effence. Many 
 attempts have been made at defining in 
 this cafe, fome of which have come 
 nearer, fome have been farther off from 
 what would fully fatisfy our idea of 
 infpiration as the characterise of the 
 Bible. To one it fuggefts itfelf as the 
 imprefiion on the human mind, by a 
 Divine power, of a thought, or thoughts, 
 refpecting the paft, prefent, or future, 
 which it never could have obtained in 
 
Infpiration not an Attainment. 193 
 
 the ufual or human manner, by the ex- 
 ercife of its own faculties, or from the 
 information of others. 
 
 On a point of fuch delicacy and diffi- 
 culty, in which Scripture gives no help, 
 (for, while the fact is unqueftionably de- 
 clared, nothing is found about its condi- 
 tions, after a rigid logical manner), it 
 feems fafer not to venture upon a de- 
 finition at all, but to confine ourfelves 
 to that which will be, for all practical 
 purpofes, fufficient ; to offer an indirect 
 rather than a direct: account of the fub- 
 ject; to defcribe rather than attempt to 
 define it. 
 
 The grand fallacy (if it be no worfe, and 
 have not its origin in any moral caufes in 
 the fouls of the Authors), is, that infpira- 
 tion " differs merely in degree from human 
 genius." According to this theory, Paul 
 the Apoftle differed from the members 
 of either of the Churches to whom he 
 wrote, by poflefling ordinary endowments 
 o 
 
194 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 in a higher degree than they ; he flood 
 higheft in the fcale of common gifts. 
 Now, this we hold to be a moft ferious 
 1 untruth. Without any fpecial, any ex- 
 traordinary afliftance, Reafon may make 
 its greateft efforts, and Genius achieve its 
 moft fplendid difcoveries. Newton may 
 excogitate his immortal <c Principia," and 
 Shakefpeare his equally undying dramas. 
 Between the productions of thefe wonder- 
 ful minds, and infpiration, an infinite 
 cc gulf is fixed." We fpeak of infpira- 
 t\on-proper, not recognizing that employ- 
 ment of the word by which it is made to 
 fignify an exalted ft ate of the creative 
 faculty, fuch as produces poetry of the 
 higheft order, or, indeed, any other great 
 refult, whether of that which is ftriclly 
 called 'genius,' or of the ratiocinative 
 
 1 " St. Paul was infpired, no doubt ; fo was 
 Shakefpeare. He who fays this, intending no 
 quibble, declares that in his belief St. Paul was not 
 infpired at all." — Sermons by Rev. J. W. Burgon. 
 
Infpiration not an Attainment. 195 
 
 powers. The bleffing of Him from 
 whom <f cometh every good and perfect 
 gift," upon the mental faculties in their 
 ordinary, their normal condition, accom- 
 plices all of which the human mind is 
 capable. The fubjecl, indeed, is the 
 fame, in the ordinary and extraordinary 
 operations : in both cafes it is the foul of 
 man, the fame piece of Divine workman- 
 fhip which is wrought upon, though the 
 mode and the effect are, in each cafe, 
 efTentially different. 
 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 c Extent ' of Infpiration as 
 refpeSis the fpace. 
 
 HE foregoing remarks have 
 dealt with the queftion of 
 the c Nature' of infpiration, 
 negatively. A broad dif- 
 tindtion has been claimed between human 
 abilities, even in their higheft form and 
 cultivation, and the extraordinary imme- 
 diate communication from God of truth 
 which could not otherwife have been 
 known. By genius and ftudy man may 
 rife up to eminent achievements in the 
 
Infpiration , how far did it reach ? 197 
 
 one ; only by fpecial Divine interference 
 can he accomplish the refults of the 
 other. 
 
 The obfervations have not been other 
 than negative, becaufe anything more 
 would have anticipated that which now 
 comes on. Any pofitive Statements would 
 have run up into the queftion which is 
 next to be confidered, which is, the 
 * Extent ' of this fupernatural influence : 
 how far did it reach ? 
 
 Of this inquiry there are two afpects ; 
 or, at leaft, there are two views of c ex- 
 tent.' The one is, over what /pace did 
 it extend ? How much of what we find 
 in the Books of the Bible, is to be held 
 as infpired ? The other is, Of this in- 
 fpiration, what were the proper marks ? 
 In what did it confift ? 
 
 The former of thefe afpecls will here 
 occupy us. And, following the plan as 
 before, we may enquire whether the 
 Scriptures themfelves afFord us any help. 
 
 
198 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Here it will be neceffary to examine, 
 fomewhat particularly, their language in 
 one remarkable place ; the lafl two 
 verfes of the Firft chapter of the Second 
 Epiftle of St. Peter : " Knowing this 
 firft, that no prophecy of the Scripture is 
 of any private interpretation. For the 
 prophecy came not, in old time, by the 
 will of man, but holy men of God fpake 
 as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost." 
 
 Apart from one or two other critical 
 fuggeftions to be offered, not as we deem 
 unimportant, but yet fubordinate, the 
 true fenfe of the word "prophecy," as 
 found in the three concluding verfes, is 
 that on which we lay the main ftrefs. 
 For want of a juft apprehenfion of its 
 meaning, a moft important argument for 
 Biblical infpiration has fuffered lofs. The 
 general view of its import is very con- 
 tracted. {< Prophecy " is explained as 
 ' prediction,' and as that only, whereas, 
 
Contrasted notion of Prophecy. 1 9 9 
 
 a prophet, in the language of Scripture, 
 is one who fpeaks for God ; not in His 
 name merely, as an ambafTador fpeaks 
 c for ' the fovereign who fends him ; not 
 in His behalf, as an advocate c for ' his 
 client ; not in His ftead, as a Regent 
 acts in the realm c for ' the heir to the 
 throne, who is as yet a minor : but a 
 prophet is one who fpeaks c for' God, as 
 His inftrument. 
 
 Of the two elements which compofe the 
 word lf prophetes,' the former unquestion- 
 ably does, as its primary and proper fenfe, 
 mean c before:' but this meaning difap- 
 pears, or is modified, when it is com- 
 pounded with the other and fecond ele- 
 ment. Critics have afTerted that the firft 
 employment of this term was to denote 
 the interpreter of the predictions uttered in 
 the heathen temples, for which they ad- 
 duce authorities. But then, thofe prophets 
 
 1 Ttpotpirrjs 
 
200 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 were fo called, not as the authors, but as 
 the c tellers-forth ' to the people of the 
 meaning of the oracles. And if the word 
 c prophet ' was by the Greeks applied to 
 poets who, having begun by invoking 
 the Divine influence, were fuppofed to 
 write under the influence for which they 
 had prayed, yet it was as c uttering forth ' 
 their heaven-breathed thoughts that they 
 acquired the name. Prediction formed 
 no part of the tafk, whether of the 
 Delphic functionary, or of the Grecian 
 poet. In the cafe of the latter, it 
 might fometimes appear in the brief and 
 dark hints of the dramatic chorus ; but 
 it was there an accident, not a character- 
 iftic. 
 
 f A Prophet,' in the large and com- 
 prehenfive fenfe which the word bears in 
 Scripture, was one in whom the Spirit of 
 God had made a revelation of truth to 
 be communicated by the lips, or the pen, 
 of that man., It may have been either 
 
Contrasted notion of Prophecy. 201 
 
 prediction, or a warning meflage, or thefe 
 blended together : or, it may have been 
 an exact acquaintance with historical facts. 
 The Spirit, fpeaking firft * in,' and then 
 f by ' him to the people, conftituted him 
 a prophet. There was within him a 
 confcioufnefs of the fpecial entrance of the 
 Spirit into his foul, which was to him 
 the warrant, and an impulfe irrefiftibly 
 urging him, whether to c fpeak to the 
 people,' or to c write the words in a book.' 
 He c could not but fpeak the things 
 which he had heard.' 
 
 Any reader of the Old Teftament 
 throughout, whofe mind had not been 
 pre-occupied with the ufual limited accep- 
 tation of the word, could not fail to 
 underftand it in that large fenfe which 
 we have now claimed for it. The cc Pro- 
 phet " of whom the old Records tell, is 
 one who fpake concerning not only 
 <( things to come," but things belonging 
 to the paft, or his own time. The 
 
2 o 2 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 effence of his official character was that 
 God fpake in and by him. 1 
 
 There is an expreffion found in the 
 Gofpels, which fimply and compa&ly de- 
 clares the nature of infpiration, and is 
 worth a volume of arguments. Keeping 
 it in memory, and often turning to it, the 
 " way-faring men, though fools, mail not 
 err therein." To the book-learned, and 
 the unlettered, it is alike fufficient. We 
 refer to the oft-repeated formula, <f That 
 it might be fulfilled which was fpoken of 
 
 1 In this fenfe, writers nearly coeval with the 
 Old Teftament period underftood and freely em- 
 ployed the term. Jofephus does fo unequivocally, 
 in thefe words : " As to the time from the death of 
 Mofes until the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Periia, 
 who reigned after Xerxes, the prophets who were 
 after Mofes wrote down what was done in their 
 time, in thirteen books. . . . From Artaxerxes to 
 our own time, our hiftory has been written very 
 particularly, but hath not been efteemed worthy of 
 like faith with the former, becaufe there hath not 
 been an'exaft fucceffion of prophets" (infpired men) 
 "fince that time." — Contr. Apion. i. 8. 
 
 
"Of the Lord, by the Prophet." 203 
 
 the Lord by the Prophet." God fpeaks ; 
 f of/ in our tranflation, being, as we more 
 commonly fay, f by ; ' and pointing to the 
 &2/fr-element, to the Author : He fpeaks 
 f by,' that is, c through,' a man, the inftru- 
 mental-element. Compare herewith the 
 words of the Lord on fending Mofes ; 
 " x I will be with thy mouth : " and, as 
 clofely fimilar, thofe of the Apoftles, 
 when, quoting the Pfalm, they prayed ; 
 fc2 Thou art the God who haft made 
 heaven and earth, Who through the mouth 
 of Thy fervant David haft faid." Words 
 very remarkable for their full and explicit 
 afcription to God, as the immediate In- 
 fpirer of what had been fpoken, through 
 David, indeed, but only as the channel 
 for conveying them to man. It would 
 not be poflible to exaggerate the import- 
 ance of this oft-recurring phrafe, fo much 
 does it teach ; the reference to it at this 
 
 1 Exod. iv. 12. 2 Atts iv. 24, 25. 
 
2 o 4 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 place in the argument, having been made 
 with a fpecial view to the light it throws 
 upon the largenefs of the meaning of the 
 word c Prophet.' For, it is to be care- 
 fully noticed, that in many of the Books 
 to which that word, as found in the New 
 Teftament, points, no prediction what- 
 ever is found ; making it plain that the 
 term 'prophet' could not in that fenfe 
 have been applied to the writers of them, 
 by the Evangelifts. 
 
 The words of St. Peter, in his Firft 
 Epiftle, do undoubtedly refer to c predic- 
 tion : ' ccl The Prophets witneffed before- 
 hand the fufferings which were (to come) 
 upon Christ, and the confequent glories" 
 of His refurrection and exaltation : but, 
 they do not in any way militate againfl; 
 the interpretation claimed for "written 
 prophecy ;" a phrafe, (as we hold,) iden- 
 tical with, f 2 The whole of the Old Tef- 
 
 1 i Pet. i. 21. 
 
 2 As confirmatory of this view, compare Luke 
 
St. Peter's ufe of < Prophecy.' 205 
 
 tament-Record,' without any distinction 
 of the fubject-matter of its feveral books. 
 
 None will fuppofe that when, in terms 
 manifestly taken from St. Peter's words, 
 (in his Firft Epiftle,) the Nicene Creed 
 fays that the Holy Ghost <c fpake by 
 the Prophets," the aflertion is to be 
 underftood as limited to the properly- 
 predictive portion of their writings. 
 
 The term which, as ufed by Peter, is 
 thus mown to have covered the entire Old 
 Teftament, is by his cc x beloved brother 
 Paul," applied to the writers of the New. 
 
 Let this be well weighed, for we are 
 now on fpecially important ground ; fince, 
 if it be made good, we fhall poflefs, from 
 two Apoftles of Chrift, jointly, a tefbi- 
 mony to the infpiration of the whole 
 Bible : of the whole Old Teftament, in 
 explicit terms, by one ; and of the New, 
 
 xxiv. 27. (the eye being kept on the original), with 
 St. Peter's words, I Ep. i. II. 
 1 2 Pet. iii. 15. 
 
 
2 o 6 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 as implied, by the other. For, by a 
 comparifon of the fourth and fifth verfes 
 of the Third Chapter of the Epiftle to 
 the Ephefians, with the fifth and two fol- 
 lowing of the Sixteenth to the Romans, 
 it will be feen that all the Apoftles were 
 c prophets ; ' and that their Writings were 
 c prophetical writings ; ' the latter phrafe 
 anfwering exactly to that ufed by St. 
 Peter, in which, it has been mown, he 
 comprifed the whole of the Old Tefta- 
 ment. 
 
 Clofe infpection, here, will lead to the 
 conclufion that c Prophecy,' in its legiti- 
 mate, its proper {qi\(q, is The Total of 
 Scripture. 
 
 Great light will thus be {een breaking 
 in upon the PafTage in St. Peter already 
 indicated ; a portion of Scripture which 
 has engaged the careful thought of many 
 learned men, and of which, as bearing in 
 fo diredt a manner upon the queftion of 
 
St. Peter s ufe of ' Prophecy ' 207 
 
 Biblical Infpiration, it may be permitted 
 us to prefent a paraphrafe in its integrity, 
 and fo to take the fureft courfe for a right 
 understanding of the important argument 
 it contains. 
 
 s Now, we have what is more arTuring,' 
 (as a testimony to Christ as the Son of 
 God, which was the Subject of that voice 
 from heaven, but of which voice, though 
 attefted by myfelf and thofe who were 
 with me, you might either be doubtful, 
 or regard it as a precarious foundation 
 whereon to reft your faith, in fo important 
 a matter,) c the record of prophecy, which 
 deferves your moft earneft attention, as 
 being a light mining in a dark place, (this 
 world).' Omitting any paraphrafe of the 
 remainder of this verfe, as not efTential 
 to the argument, the following may con- 
 vey the fenfe of what remains of the 
 chapter : f Recognizing this as a firft 
 principle, that no prophecy of Scripture,' 
 
208 Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 (that is, no part of the Old Teftament 
 Writings,) f fprings from any private 
 refolution' (or difcovery). 
 
 f For it was not by ' (any) c will of man 
 that prophecy ' (the Old Teftament Scrip- 
 ture) c in old time was introduced ; but, 
 borne forward by the Holy Ghost,' (cer- 
 tain) c men fet apart by God (for that 
 fpecial purpofe, c infpired men') fpake,' 
 (and wrote). 
 
 A few words of comment upon the 
 Paflage fo paraphrafed. In the outfet of 
 his ftatements we are told, by an Apoftle 
 of Chrift, that he is about to enunciate a 
 fundamental f principle, to be fubmitted 
 to without further difpute.' What he 
 does fay, then, is an infpired axiom. 
 Now we know that upon a mathematical 
 axiom, the weightier!, fuperftructures are 
 raifed. Grant the firft principle, and all 
 is built up: everything then follows in 
 eafy order. Attempt, after that the edifice 
 of reafoning has been raifed, to withdraw 
 
Comment on St. Peter's Woi-ds. 209 
 
 that axiom from beneath, and the whole 
 building falls. Carry this analogy to the 
 particular Truth for the fake of which 
 the Apoftle demands that it be owned ; 
 and you will fee the immenfe importance 
 of the doctrine of Infpiration. St. Peter 
 tells us that it is a foundation-principle ; 
 the 'beginning;' the ftarting-point of all 
 right views upon any other matters. 
 
 • Of this confefTedly difficult paffage any 
 adequate 'criticifm would extend to an 
 
 1 I. TtpibTOv is equivalent to a'py/?- 2. ylverai 
 (not eon, with which the various explanations of 
 the Paffage all agree in confounding it), properly ex- 
 preffes 'origination.' 3. icS/ac eTriXvaeug is the 
 principal difficulty ; the ftridr. rendering of which, 
 perhaps, is 'private (or, uninfpired) refolution;'' the 
 words referring to the original Author of the irpo- 
 tyrjTsla, the 'Prophet' himfelf, not to the modern 
 interpreter ; although ufually, and almoft invariably, 
 they are fo explained, to the perverhon of the fenfe 
 as conclusively determined by the following member 
 of the fentence. To ' fpeaking by the impulfe of 
 the Holy Ghost,' in the latter claufe, is oppofed, 
 P 
 
2 1 o Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 inconvenient length. But, after all the 
 fuggeftions which have been offered as to 
 the meaning of the original words for 
 "private interpretation," their fenfe would 
 feem to be determined, beyond difpute, 
 by the latter member of the fentence. 
 What is the contradictory of the afTertion 
 that c infpired men ' c fpake as they were 
 fupernaturally moved ? ' Jure, this, that 
 when any fpake, it was as a c private' man, 
 in his ' individual' capacity. The Apoftle, 
 therefore, is here to be underftood, not as 
 forbidding " felf-interpretation," (the ex- 
 planation of any paffage as if it c flood 
 alone,' inftead of comparing it with other 
 
 ' prophefying out of their own hearts:' (Ezek.xiii. z). 
 
 4. QeXrifxan dvQpwwov, (compare John i. 1 3) human 
 will as contrafted with ' Divine communication.' 
 
 5. ay 101, 'facred' has, in the N. T., the peculiar 
 fenfe of * confecrated,' or ' fet apart by the fpecial 
 teaching and defignation of the Holy Ghojt. Ct. 
 Rom. i. 2, for this attribute as given to the writings 
 of the ' Prophets ' by name : and, v. 19, for ' Pro 
 phecy ' as announcing the Gofpeh 
 
Comment on St. Peter s Words. 211 
 
 ParTages ;) nor as laying down any rule 
 whatsoever, but as denying that any por- 
 tion of the cc Writings of the Prophets" 
 f had its origin in private opinion,' in any 
 views which the writers held, merely cc as 
 men." 
 
 This view of the meaning of the ori- 
 ginal of "private interpretation," (and 
 which the Translators may have defigned 
 to exprefs,) is fupported by 1 Owen. 
 " This, then," (fays that writer,) " is the 
 intention of the Apoftle : The Prophecy 
 which we have written, the Scripture, was 
 not an ijjTue of men's fancied enthufiafms ; 
 not a product of their own minds and con- 
 ceptions ; not an interpretation of the will 
 of God by the understanding of man, 
 that is, of the Prophets themf elves : neither 
 their rational appreheniions, inquiries, 
 conceptions of fancy, or imaginations of 
 their hearts, had any place in this bufinefs : 
 
 1 Vol. iv. p. 397. Works. Lond. 1823. 
 
212 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 no felf-afflation, no rational meditation, 
 s managed at liberty by the understanding 
 and wills of men,' had place herein." 
 
 Thus Scripture has, again, helped us in 
 our inquiry. We faw before how it afTerts 
 the faff of its own infpiration : now we 
 have heard it declare the compafs of 
 ground which that affertion includes. A 
 great point this to have reached. St. 
 Peter's Second Epiftle thus ftands out 
 before us inverted with peculiar intereft : 
 for, befides its other important announce- 
 ments refpecting the " Day of the Lord," 
 and " The New Heavens and New 
 Earth," it contains thefe two doctrines 
 bearing directly upon the main fubject ; 
 that St. Paul's Epiftles are an integral 
 portion of c the Scriptures : ' and, that the 
 whole of the Old Teftament is infpired. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 c Extent ' of Infpiration^ as 
 refpeEis its quality. 
 
 ff gnSl fHE queftion concerning the 
 c extent ' of Infpiration, in 
 its other afped, of quality, 
 may, perhaps, be more 
 fimply exprefTed thus : In what Jenfe do 
 we underftand the writers of the feveral 
 Books of the Bible to have been infpired ? 
 What do we attribute to them ? In attempt- 
 ing to furnifh an anfwer to this the efTen- 
 tial point in the whole inquiry, we are 
 quite alive to the difficulty, and, it may 
 be even faid, the refponnbility, which is 
 involved. Equally fure are we that it is 
 impoffible for the moft anxious thinker 
 
2 1 4 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 upon this, or any other fubjecl;, (thofe, 
 efpecially, on which the minds of men 
 have been excited by controverfy), fo 
 cautioufly to fhape his words, that they 
 mall defy mifinterpretation. 
 
 Now, thofe who have dealt with this 
 very difficult point (for it is, unqueftion- 
 ably, among the (C deep things of God "), 
 feem to range under two main divisions ; 
 thofe who contend for the words, and 
 thofe who are fatisfied to regard the Jub- 
 fiance, as having been infpired. Of thefe 
 theories, it may be faid, in pafling, J that 
 the former feems to be quite irreconcile- 
 able with the free exercife of their facul- 
 ties by the writers ; receives no fupport 
 from Scripture ; is not required by the 
 conditions of the cafe ; is inconfiftent 
 with the fact of the exiftence of various 
 readings ; and fubverts the authority of 
 tranflations for conveying the meaning of 
 
 1 See " Divine Infpiration," by E. Henderson, 
 D.D., Left. viii. 
 
Verbal Theory untenable. 215 
 
 the Scriptures, whereas Truth admits of 
 being conftrued. To thefe confiderations 
 let the following be added, that the theory 
 is, in fact, untrue. Different words are 
 ufed to defcribe the fame event ; and, 
 fometimes, in thofe words are involved 
 fmall difcrepancies in the matter referred 
 to, or in their afpect and relations to the 
 whole fubject. Now it is inconceiveable 
 that fuch diversity in the narrations mould 
 have exifted, if the words employed by 
 any one narrator of an event had been 
 exactly dictated by the Holy Spirit; for 
 then, any departure from that precife 
 formula would have been a departure 
 from the mind of the Spirit prefenting 
 the event or the doctrine after the one 
 manner which by the decifion of that in- 
 fallible Spirit would alone exhibit it in its 
 truth. When thefe feveral confiderations 
 are added together, they form a cumula- 
 tive argument againft the ( verbal theory,' 
 which it would feem impoffible to refift. 
 
2 1 6 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 But what neceffity is there for fyftematiz- 
 ing in the matter at all ? In its ftruclure, 
 as it comes to us, the Bible is the moft 
 unartificial of books. Why, then, mould 
 it be fubjecled to rigorous laws of any 
 kind, when we would account for the 
 method in which it was originally framed 
 by its Divine Author? 
 
 May we not be excufed from the obli- 
 gation to fubfcribe to the Procruftean 
 theory of verbalifm, or any other which 
 has been offered, and deal with the cafe as 
 it comes to us, upon fome fimple prin- 
 ciple, either fuch as would fatisfy us in 
 cc earthly things," or fuch as muft content 
 us when the fubject with which we deal 
 belongs to cc things " that are "heavenly?" 
 
 To put the matter then in the plainer!: 
 poffible form, we hold concerning Scrip- 
 tural infpiration, what would feem to be 
 the common fenfe view of the cafe, that 
 the Holy Spirit fo f guided and governed' 
 the minds of His fervants whom He raifed 
 
God's Truth above mere words. 217 
 
 up to write the feveral books which make 
 up the Bible, that what they jointly left 
 upon record mould convey all the truth 
 which it was God's purpofe to depofit 
 with His church, and mould be free from 
 aught which could miflead the foul. If 
 thefe points mould be fecured, the end 
 of Divine Revelation would be accom- 
 plished. But it is to be constantly borne 
 in mind, that it was His Truth which 
 " the Moft Mighty God " willed to com- 
 municate ; fomething which exifted be- 
 fore, and foared high above, and was to 
 outlaft, and, for all thefe reafons, was in- 
 dependent of, any forms of language 
 whatever ; and, if fo, then of the words, 
 and fyllables, and letters, of which all 
 language is compofed. It was through 
 the medium of language, indeed, that the 
 communications of the c Infinite ' were to 
 be made to the c Finite,' the mefTage of 
 the Creator fent down to the Creature. 
 But language itfelf is God's creature ; 
 
2 1 8 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 and He did not place Himfelf in bondage 
 to it. He employed it, as He did all the 
 other agencies He had created ; but ftill 
 only as an instrument ; as a means to an 
 end j that end being the impartation to 
 His reafonable and refponfible creature of 
 the knowledge of His will. Now, this 
 knowledge would be attained through 
 certain dealings with men and nations, 
 to be historically made known ; but, upon 
 a fcale of fuch breadth, and with features 
 fo large, as to be independent of words 
 regarded in their minutenefs, and to be 
 capable of being f c known and read of all 
 men." 
 
 Such a view of the end for which the 
 Bible was given to man does not open 
 the door for any uncertainty as to its con- 
 tents. The alleged fads are real occur- 
 rences : they are not fictions out of which 
 instructive lefTons are drawn, as c Morals' 
 out of c Fables : ' the things which " are 
 written for our admonition" did really 
 
No uncertainty here. 219 
 
 befal the "fathers" of the Hebrew people; 
 they are true hiftorical events, which 
 " came to pafs " in the life of the Ifraelites 
 before they came to us as precedents 
 ( f types ') of the way in which God would 
 always act under the like circumftances. 
 But frill, amid the diverfity of the oc- 
 casions, and with a leffon fpecifically dif- 
 ferent taught by each, they were placed 
 upon record with one general aim, "to 
 the intent that we mould not lufl: after 
 evil things, as they alfo lufted." This 
 was the warning inference to be deduced 
 from all the cafes ; while, in particular, 
 idolatry, wantonnefs, abufe of the long- 
 fuffering, and murmuring againft the dif- 
 penfations of God, were for ever rebuked 
 by the confequences they then entailed 
 upon thofe who were guilty of them. In 
 the Narratives, however, of the particu- 
 lars of the finful conduct fo punifhed, the 
 words were of lefs moment than the fads ; 
 and, if the latter mould be told in a 
 
220 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 manner fubftantially true, the former 
 would have done their office. To con- 
 tend that every fyllable and letter was 
 prefcribed to, and forced upon, the Pen- 
 tateuchal-hiftorian, by Divine Power, is 
 to infift upon that from which the mind 
 revolts as a violence done to the laws of 
 mind, and is a demand calculated to wake 
 up more inward fcepticifm, than it will 
 produce honeft belief. For, Cf doubt comes 
 in at the window, "not only" when inquiry 
 is denied at the door," but alfo, when 
 extravagant theories are thruft in as the 
 conditions of orthodoxy. Such a f golden 
 image' has, however, been fet up in the 
 verbal theory, by fome writers, and 
 obeifance to it demanded, in terms as 
 1 intolerant as thofe of the Babylonifh 
 monarch. l Whofo falleth not down and 
 worfhippeth' the c dicl:um ' that cc in com- 
 mitting the contents of the Bible to 
 writing, the penmen had all the terms im- 
 1 Dan. iii. 6. 
 
Verbalijis intolerant. 221 
 
 mediately fuppKed to them by the Holy- 
 Spirit," c mall the fame hour be call 
 into the ' infamy of f rejecting the doc- 
 trine of infpiration,' in fpite of the mod 
 explicit avowal of a " belief in its plenary 
 and infallible characters." Full credit 
 is given to the Authors alluded to, of 
 being " x very jealous for the Lord," no 
 lefs fo, poffibly, than the Prophet who 
 thought that { he only was left ' to main- 
 tain God's caufe. But, thefe good men 
 (though, as we muft think, not ftrong- 
 minded reafoners) may not affume that 
 becaufe they firmly hold a doctrine, there- 
 fore the afpect which it prefents to them 
 is the exclusively right one. We hold that 
 it is poffible to -i bow fubmimVely to the 
 authority of Scripture, without fubfcribing 
 to the opinion that its every word, and 
 
 1 I Kings xix. 10. 
 
 2 " Nee vero, id enim diligenter intelligi volo, 
 fuperftitione tollenda religio tollitur. " — Cic. De 
 Divinat. lib. ii. c. 72. 
 
222 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 {y liable, and letter, was prefcribed to the 
 penmen of it ; poffible to believe that the 
 Holy Spirit took pofTeflion of the facul- 
 ties of Mofes and Ezra, of Ifaiah and 
 Daniel, of Matthew and Paul, fo as to 
 make them the organs for conveying His 
 eternal truth to the Church, without admit- 
 ting that, at the fame time, He introduced 
 into their minds whole fentences in a form 
 as complete and fixed as the types in the 
 compofitor's frame, to which the printed 
 page is exactly to correfpond. We hope 
 that many may be regarded as honeft and 
 confident believers, who would decline to 
 affent to fuch a fcheme. 
 
 " l A\\ Scripture is GoD-breathed." This 
 afferts that the writings to which collec- 
 tively, we have, by long habit, given the 
 name of c Scripture,' and which, mentally, 
 we may think of as though they were 
 one Document, were penned, "or fanc- 
 tioned, by men who were under the 
 
 1 2 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
Three Pajfages Examined. 223 
 
 fpecial and extraordinary influence of the 
 Holy Spirit;" and that "they are the 
 refult of the exertion of this influence." 
 " 1 Every thing which was written afore- 
 time was " (fo) cc written for the end of 
 teaching us : " even a PafTage in the 
 Pfalms, the evangelical application of 
 which is to Christ, comes under this law ; 
 fo deeply ftruck are the roots, fo wide- 
 fpreading the branches, fo diverfified the 
 fruits, of Infpiration. But, neither of the 
 laft-cited PafTages, though forming jointly 
 a ftrong bulwark of that doctrine, affirms, 
 or can be fhewn to imply, that the minute 
 elements, ( words, and the particulars 
 which make up words), were fent to 
 the tongue and hand, in the fame manner 
 as was the fubftance of the truth to be 
 taught, to the thoughts, of thofe perfons 
 whom the Spirit employed. 
 
 In a review of PafTages which are fre- 
 quently claimed as fupporting the theory 
 1 Rom. xv. 4. 
 
224 Infpirattonofthe Holy Scriptures. 
 
 now being confidered, we may by no 
 means omit one of which it is maintained 
 that it exprefsly afferts verbal infpiration. 
 fC l Which things alfo we fpeak, not in the 
 words which man's wifdom teacheth, but 
 which the Holy Ghost teacheth." In 
 this fentence, following very nearly upon 
 thofe often mifapplied words, " Eye hath 
 not feen, nor ear heard, — but God hath 
 revealed them unto us by His Spirit," 
 St. Paul contrails the manner , as he had 
 juft contrafled the matter, of what he 
 taught, with the ftyle employed by the 
 fophifts and rhetoricians of Greece. As the 
 doctrines, fo the method of propounding 
 them, differed entirely, in the one cafe, 
 and the other. The "wifdom of this world" 
 was appropriately exhibited in correfpond- 
 ing c forms of language ; ' but, " God's 
 wifdom," which needed not, and refufed 
 fuch recommendation, was exprefTed in 
 the c ftyle which the Holy Ghost fug- 
 1 i Cor. ii. 13. 
 
Three Pajfages Examined. 225 
 
 gefted ' as mof!: befitting His own fuper- 
 human communications. 
 
 "Comparing fpiritual things" (fubftances 
 of truth) Cf with Spiritual," they would 
 learn the " mind of the Spirit," and ex- 
 prefs it in a manner that mould truly re- 
 prefent His defign. The ftrefs was not 
 laid upon the words and fyllables of man's 
 wifdom, but upon what lay beneath them 
 as either frivolous, or falfe : and fo, it is 
 not upon the words and fyllables com- 
 posing the language of the Spirit, upon 
 anything fo minute and microfcopic, that 
 the weight of the Apoflle's argument 
 refts, but upon the main ideas, the broad 
 truths, which the phrafes, whatever they 
 were in particular inftances, mould em- 
 body. And it may here be ftated, with- 
 out fear of difproof, that the term "words," 
 in the PafTage on which we have deemed 
 it important thus to comment at length, 
 does not properly fignify fingle, feparate 
 c words,' fuch as a vocabulary, or the 
 
226 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 dictionary of a language would furnifh. 
 The term c logos ' fets before the mind c a 
 reafon,' ' a principle,' fome c complex form 
 of thought,' the exponent of which will 
 be found rather in a combination of words 
 and phrafes than in thefe fingly taken. 
 
 Finally, in our endeavour to refcue the 
 term found in this thirteenth verfe, from 
 the fenfe of the f verbal theorifts,' we fee 
 the ftrongeft reafon of all in the employ- 
 ment of it in an earlier place in the fame 
 chapter. The Apoftle, in the fourth verfe, 
 aflerts that his 'addrefs and his preaching ' 
 had not been prefented to the Corinthians 
 f under the perfuafive forms of oratory ' 
 fo much ufed and fo greatly relied upon 
 by the Greek rhetoricians, but were of a 
 wholly different character.' Now, it is 
 very clear that the c perfuafivenefs ' re- 
 ferred to confirmed, not in the ufe of fingle 
 words, or choice phrafes merely, (though 
 doubtlefs it included both), but in the 
 whole artificial texture of their ftyle, and 
 
Grace no one Endowment. 227 
 
 in the impofing effect which eloquence fo 
 elaborated would produce. 
 
 A fimilar mifconception Teems to pre- 
 vail refpecting Infpiration, as is generally 
 found on the fubjedt of Grace. ' Grace' is 
 not any fingle beftowment ; it is not the 
 inftillation into the foul of any one faculty : 
 but God's gift emphatically fuch, as the 
 "Sufficient" fupplement of man's "weak- 
 nefs;" the "power of Christ refting upon 
 us," not in one form, but " according to our 
 feveral necefities." So, and flmilarly, God 
 infpired His fervants the Prophets and 
 Apoftles, not by bringing them all into a 
 condition of mind abfolutely one and the 
 fame, (how could this be the cafe, when 
 their circumftances and their tafks were 
 fo various ?), but by enabling them, each 
 for his particular work. 2 " Here and 
 there" (Bifhop Hinds obferves) " are 
 
 1 2 Cor. xii. 9. 
 
 2 " Early Chriftianity," Part n., Ch. iv., Note 56. 
 
228 Infpiration of the Holy Scr iptures . 
 
 marks of an infpiration which dictates to 
 the very letter ; but, ordinarily, it is only 
 a Divine fuperintendence, preventing 
 error or omiffion, and interpofing only 
 for that purpofe. God has enabled man 
 to record and to teach His Word, as He 
 has enabled him to do His will, not by 
 fuperfeding the ufe of his natural facul- 
 ties, but by aiding them." If there was 
 an entirely new revelation, the Divine 
 Spirit would imprefs the original powers 
 of the minds to be employed in commu- 
 nicating it, without fufpending them. If 
 prophecies which the utterers understood 
 but " in part," were to be recorded, the 
 Spirit would reftrain them from every 
 thing that was wrong, and fupply what 
 was defective. If hiftorical facts were to 
 be narrated; or, words exprefsly fpoken 
 by God as a meflage or other announce- 
 ment, to be communicated, memory 
 would be quickened, and f f every failure 
 or fault of it, miraculoufly remedied." 
 
 i 
 
Free Play of the Mind. 229 
 
 Nor is it denied that on many of thefe 
 occasions, (even when the cafe does not 
 necerTarily imply it), — the very words may 
 have been provided : doubtlefs they were 
 whenever it cc fo Teemed good " to the 
 Holy Ghost, whofe agents the writers 
 were. But our pofition is, that ordina- 
 rily it would not be fo, both becaufe fuch 
 minute dictation would interfere with the 
 free play of the mind, and alfo becaufe 
 it would be unnecefTary. When a great 
 moral philofopher, or a mailer in natural 
 fcience, has fettled in his mind the funda- 
 mental principles of fome fyftem which he 
 intends to put forth in a treatife, this 
 firft ftage (we may fuppofe), is fucceeded 
 by the arrangement, in his thoughts, 
 of the parts of the Work, according 
 to the relations of the fubjecT:. The 
 1 matter having been, in this way, com- 
 pletely forefeen, the words follow; not 
 
 l "Verbaque provifam rem non invita fequentur." 
 Hor. Ars Poetic a, v. 311. 
 
230 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 independently, but in the fame manner 
 as in a military expedition, the route 
 having been fixed, and the march com- 
 menced, by thofe in command, the fub- 
 ordinates follow, upon a road, marked 
 out for them, indeed, yet not paffively, 
 but with the free action of their feet, and 
 of their wills. They are l guided and 
 governed,' but not compelled. 
 
 Is there not fome analogy to be feen be- 
 tween this dodtrine of Infpiration, and that 
 of c Free-will ? ' 1 " We have no power 
 to do good works without the grace of 
 God by Christ preventing us that we 
 may have a good will, and working with 
 us, when we have that good will." Even 
 fo, to Infpiration are eflential two condi- 
 tions : the truth to be, by God's instru- 
 ments, communicated to man ; and, the 
 ability to communicate it: the one, and 
 the other, fupernatural. But, as the 
 " miraculous qualification for receiving a 
 1 X. Art. of Religion. 
 
Analogy in Free-will. 231 
 
 revelation, or other extraordinary know- 
 ledge imparted by God," was created in 
 harmony with the univerfal laws of mind, 
 fo the "qualifications for fulfilling the 
 courfe of duty arifing out of it," (that of 
 placing it upon record), were conferred in 
 a manner that did no violence to thofe 
 laws. The mind was not disturbed, nor 
 its ordinary workings interfered with, 
 when God's New Truth entered and 
 occupied it. Equally free was it left to 
 felect the phrafes, and their component 
 words, when that Truth was to be written 
 down. 
 
 The remarks which have hitherto been 
 made in connection with the fenfe in which 
 we fpeak of Bible Infpiration, have re- 
 ferred to the views entertained by fome 
 as they are found on the fide of c excefs.' 
 
 But, opinions are held and publifhed, 
 which appear both defe^iive, and very 
 mifchievous. Of this clafs the moft 
 glaring are thofe which would eliminate 
 
232 Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 from the Bible itfelf whole fections of 
 what lies there, and even entire Books, 
 by the application of the private, intan- 
 gible, irrefponfible rule called the f veri- 
 fying faculty,' on which fome obfervations 
 have already been offered. The parts of 
 Scripture which thefe perfons would caft 
 out are fuch as, in their judgment, lack 
 authority, or are intrinfically unworthy 
 to hold a place among the writings by 
 which the Church is to be taught what 
 "to believe and to do." The fubject 
 is very wide, and forbids more being 
 here faid on it than that we lcc receive 
 all the Books," as f c of the New Tefta- 
 ment," fo, too, of the Old, 2 f c as they are 
 commonly received;" underftanding by 
 this latter expreflion, not c becaufe they are 
 generally accepted,' but f in the number 
 and form in which they have been gene- 
 rally, by all the Chriftian world, ad- 
 
 1 VI. Art. of Religion. 
 
 2 " Ut vulgo recepti funt." — Lat. 
 
EcleBic Theories. 233 
 
 mitted:' "and account them canonical," 
 on the ground 1 already urged, that they 
 are entitled to be the fc2 binding Rules of 
 our faith and religion, in their own 
 nature." 
 
 It is afked by others, * May not The 
 Lord and His Apoftles have fometimes 
 fpoken, as it were, unofficially, fo that 
 their words, on thofe occafions, mould be 
 regarded as uninfpired ? Is there not a 
 parallel,' fay they, f in the conftitution of 
 fociety ? ' In the learned profeffions, we 
 expect that the Judge, when on the bench, 
 fhall order his words with precifion, be- 
 caufe he is then avowedly dealing with 
 Law. We look for the like from the 
 Phyfician, when he is holding a confulta- 
 tion with his medical brethren upon the 
 cafe of a patient, or addreffing a body of 
 
 1 Vide p. 134. 
 
 2 Bifhop Cofin's " Scholaftic Hiftory of the 
 Canon," (laft chapter) ; the italics, as given in the 
 text, being that author's. 
 
234 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 ftudents in the theatre of an hofpital ; as 
 alfo from a Minifter of religion, when he 
 is fpeaking either from the profeffor's 
 chair, or the pulpit. But each of thefe, 
 the judge, the phyfician, the clergyman, 
 performs many actions in which he is 
 not diftinguifhed from the other members 
 of fociety ; thofe, in fadl, of which every- 
 day life is made up. The common talk, 
 the hourly movements, of the firft, are 
 not judicial ; nor of the fecond, medical ; 
 nor of the laft, theological. 
 
 Is there not a proportion to this in the 
 cafe of the Apoftles, and their Infpiration? 
 
 The fact is admitted, but not the infer- 
 ence. If " there were many figns " (tokens 
 of His miraculous power, perhaps, more 
 efpecially), c< which Jesus did," of which 
 no record is left, how much more likely is 
 it that there were many actions of his life 
 which have not come down to us ? "But 
 thefe " which tc are written " admit of no 
 eclecticifm. No deed, no word, of the 
 
EckBic Theories. 235 
 
 Lord Jesus, which is found in the nar- 
 rative as we have it, is unminifterial. 
 The Holy Ghost made the felection, 
 when He f governed ' the judgment of 
 Matthew, or of John, to make that fe- 
 leclion from the actions and the fayings 
 of Jesus, the refult of which is found in 
 their records, and thofe of their fellow- 
 evangelifts. 
 
 There is yet another fuggeftion offered 
 by thofe who fpeculate upon the ' extent' to 
 which Infpiration reaches. Like that juft 
 considered, it does not imply any irreve- 
 rence, or awaken the fufpicion of a fecret 
 defire to reduce God's Book within as 
 narrow limits as poffible. Whatever may 
 be thought of it, whether it may be con- 
 sidered as a tenable opinion, or otherwife, 
 it is quite confident with a belief in re- 
 velation, and a general acknowledgment 
 of the Divine authority of the Scriptures. 
 It is fuggefted that Infpiration is not to 
 be regarded as extending over the whole 
 
236 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 field of the Bible, but as confined to thofe 
 parts of it which involve religious truth ; 
 what is properly and ftridtly fuch, doc- 
 trines and principles. 
 
 The mention of this theory feems to 
 give an opportunity of briefly adverting 
 to the fadl, that the feveral Views of In- 
 fpiration which have been recently put 
 forth amongft ourfelves, are not new: they 
 have prevailed at former periods in the 
 hiftory of the Church, and found, then, 
 as ftrong fupporters ranged under each, as 
 the fame opinions do now. 
 
 It appears that the ' c< belief in c full 
 infpiration ' was held from the earlieft 
 times, with a few exceptions, and, unin- 
 terruptedly, until the Twelfth Century." 
 Subfequently, there difcovered itfelf, in 
 the Seventeenth Century, in the Writers 
 of Germany and of France, — reprefented 
 refpeclively by Calixtus and Amyrault, — 
 
 1 See Rev A. S. Farrar's Bampton Leftures, 
 (viii.), Note 50. 
 
Old Opinions. 237 
 
 a tendency towards that very View of In- 
 fpiration which is now before us, as one of 
 the fuggeftions of our own day. It may 
 incline us to the cultivation of a tolerant 
 fpirit, thus to learn that opinions from 
 which our own judgment may, poflibly, 
 lead us to differ, have been held two cen- 
 turies ago by Chriftians of other countries, 
 whofe attention was thoughtfully fixed 
 upon the fubjects which excite fo ftrong 
 an intereft, at this very time, among our- 
 felves. Towards error upon fundamental 
 points, no examples taken from other 
 centuries and churches may make us in- 
 dulgent. " If the foundations be cart 
 down," what mail it avail to prove that 
 the undermining procefs began fome hun- 
 dreds of years ago ? But on queftions 
 which are plainly ' open,' it is a wholefome 
 difcipline for ourfelves, to reprefs the 
 " fpirit which dwelleth within us," which 
 " lufteth to " fubjugate all around us to 
 our own conclufions. 
 
238 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 That thefe words upon tolerance are 
 not a covert plea for our own adhefion 
 to the View in queftion, will yet be made 
 clear. 
 
 There remains to be noticed the theory 
 of thofe who maintain that there is no 
 line of demarcation at all, between the 
 Bible, and other books ; that it differs 
 from other Works that the world has ever 
 feen, in degree only. This School con- 
 tend that we muft not carry any notions 
 of our own about Infpiration, to the in- 
 terpretation of the Scriptures ; but that 
 our belief on this point muft be made up 
 of the impreflions we derive from the 
 ftudy of Scripture. They hold, too, 
 that Infpiration is the iC voice of the con- 
 gregation," not the voice of God to the 
 congregation, communicating His mind 
 upon things which had been " kept fecret 
 lince the world began," but which are 
 J " now made manifeft, and by the Scrip- 
 
 1 Rom. xvi. 2C, 26. 
 
Second l Opinion ' revived. 239 
 
 tures of the prophets, according to the 
 commandment of the everlafting God, 
 made known to all nations for the obe- 
 dience of faith." Thefe opinions, which 
 characterize the Rationalifm of Germany, 
 have re-appeared (by contact, probably,) 
 in the theological literature of our own 
 country ; c re-appeared,' for they origi- 
 nally began in England, and croffed from 
 us to the Continent. It will be feen that 
 this theory is in effect a denial of Infpi- 
 ration, if by that term is properly meant 
 Truth whofe original " feat is the bofom 
 of God," and which has been miracu- 
 lously brought to our world by the <c only- 
 begotten Son, who hath revealed Him." 
 {C Great" as is <c the gulf" between this 
 I aft fpeculation, and that named imme- 
 diately before it, the difficulty which that 
 (the fecond of the views referred to), pre- 
 fents, is of fuch a nature as is not lerTened 
 by the fact that it has been widely adopted 
 by many eminent and excellent writers in 
 
240 Infpirationofthe Holy Scriptures. 
 
 the Englifh Church. The method of 
 regarding the dodtrinal portion only of 
 the Scriptures as properly, or necefTarily, 
 infpired, feems to have had its origin in a 
 f prefTure from without/ on the part of 
 the deiftical writers, to which many feemed 
 to have yielded ; a fhort-flghted and un- 
 wife policy, as we of this day may be in- 
 clined to think, flnce the fpirit of unbelief 
 will never be fatisfied, but rather will take 
 courage from the conceflions made to its 
 demands, and never reft until it have cut 
 away from the Church every inch of the 
 ground whereon its faith ftands. To 
 fave the great ~Do5lrines of Revelation 
 from overthrow, (it may be), the deifti- 
 cal writers of that period were thus met 
 halfway ; while the views which they 
 were the occafion of introducing, have 
 found favour with many of our own time, 
 who are not only infinitely removed from 
 any fympathy with their loofe opinions, 
 but are to be ranked among the honeft 
 adherents to the true Faith. 
 
Scripture ' contains' God's Word. 241 
 
 But here feems to be the grand diffi- 
 culty. Who can fay in what part c doc- 
 trine ' is not contained ? Where is he to 
 be found, however cc mighty in the Scrip- 
 tures," who would encounter the refpon- 
 fible talk, beginning with the firft Book 
 of the Bible, and ending with the laft, of 
 making a felection of fuch parts as mould 
 be pronounced to teach or to involve 
 c doctrine,' with the implied decifion that 
 the remainder were undoftrinal ? Who 
 would venture to draw the line between 
 Chapters, (or other larger Sections), or 
 even Verfes, that do and do not contain, 
 and were or were not defigned to convey, 
 religious truth for the inftrudtion of the 
 Church, throughout its generations, for 
 ever ? Where is the member of the 
 Chriftian Church, who would gird him- 
 felf to fuch a tafk, even if all his fellows 
 would agree to commit it to him ? or, 
 What affembly of reprefentatives of all the 
 churches in Chriftendom would enter upon 
 
 R 
 
242 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 fuch an undertaking ? or, if rafh enough 
 to meet for fuch a purpofe, would not, as 
 the fulnefs of Holy Scripture opened 
 before them, f go out, one by one, being 
 convicted, by their own confcience,' of the 
 J prefumptuoufnefs of the project to which 
 they had committed themfelves? Who 
 can fay in what part of Scripture is not 
 contained fome Divinely-inferted truth, 
 or where fome celeftial ore does not lie 
 embedded ? 
 
 Our thoughts are here led on to another 
 theory 2 already touched on, but of a 
 character far too important, in its bearing 
 upon the queflion of the extent of Infpira- 
 tion, not to be more particularly noticed. 
 A diftinction has been attempted to be 
 fet up between the Word of God cc con- 
 
 1 " Periculofe plenum opus aleae 
 Tra&as ; et incedis per ignes 
 Suppofitos cineri dolofo." 
 
 Horat. Od. ii. I. 
 
 2 Page 163. 
 
Scripture 'contains' God's Word. 243 
 
 tained in," and that word as fC coextenfive 
 with " Holy Scripture. An old fubtilty, 
 refuted when firft propofed ; but not, on 
 that account, lefs acceptable to minds 
 whofe turn it would ferve, if, after two 
 hundred years, it could pafs undetected. 
 
 Of the proposition l£C Holy Scripture 
 containeth all things necefTary to falva- 
 tion," the more logically correct form, or 
 at leaft, that which more clearly exhibits 
 the defign of the framers of it, is, c All 
 things necefTary to falvation are contained 
 (comprifed) in Holy Scripture,' fo that 
 we need not, we may not, travel beyond 
 its borders for any necefTary truth. It has 
 been afTerted, of the formulary above 
 recited, that it does not deny but that 
 Holy Scripture cc may and does contain 
 many more things " than thofe necefTary 
 to falvation. The afTertion may be true. 
 But, apart from that formulary, and 
 
 1 Art. VI. 
 
244 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 irrefpectively of the limits prefcribed by 
 that or any other ecclefiaftical flandard, 
 we may determine the meaning of the 
 word c contained, 5 by the rule of popular 
 ufe. When we fpeak of the ' contents ' 
 of a vefTel, or of a cheft, what do we 
 intend ? Plainly, all that is within either. 
 The word in queftion is mifufed, if em- 
 ployed to fignify that God's Word is to 
 be found in different parts of the Bible, 
 but that not every portion of it is God's 
 Word ; that the gold ore is there for 
 thofe who know how to pick it out, but 
 that all is not gold. Hiftorical evidence 
 of the cleareft kind can be produced to 
 mew that the £l Word of God' is an 
 "expreffion commenfurate and convertible 
 with" the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 1 "Whatfoever is God's Word is Holy Scripture : 
 whatfoever is Holy Scripture is God's Word. They 
 are equivalent and convertible terms." — Teftimonies 
 to the Infpiration of the H. S. by the Rev. A. 
 M c Caul, D.D. p. 20. (Lond. 1862.) 
 
Tet, mere Words are not Ends. 245 
 
 It follows that the word c contains ' is 
 rightly ufed when by it is conveyed the 
 belief that every part of the Bible, with- 
 out any refervation, is God's Word; that 
 the Scriptures are entirely made up of 
 that Word. 
 
 As firmly, however, as we refift the 
 attempt to revive the mifinterpretation of 
 the word £ contained,' muft we maintain 
 the liberty of underftanding that term 
 otherwife than it is very commonly ac- 
 cepted and employed. The error referred 
 to is that of making the words them/elves 
 to be ends. Apparently this is done ; in 
 effect it is, unquestionably, by many 
 whofe veneration for God's Book we hold 
 in greater efteem than we do their judg- 
 ment. The latter faculty in thefe perfons 
 is at fault, in two points of view: they do 
 not difcriminate ; and, they do not forefee 
 confequences. They do not diftinguim 
 between the " ejfence " of truth, and the 
 form of words, in which it is f contained.' 
 
246 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 Much of what has been already faid upon 
 the f verbal-infpiration ' theory will fit 
 into this place ; for, the perfons contem- 
 plated are the fame ; the cafes, nearly fo : 
 fince it is for the fake of fentences which 
 the f words ' are to build up that the 
 verbalifts are fo jealous of the flngle 
 terms. But is not this queftion reducible 
 to fomething like certainty ? What is it 
 which prompts a man to conftruct a 
 number of flngle words into a fentence ? 
 Is it the affection he has for the words 
 themfelves ? any intereft he feels in them 
 as fpoken breath, or as written characters ? 
 Is it not that the mind has been vifited 
 by an c idea ' which it feeks to exprefs by 
 fymbols that mail reprefent that idea to 
 the minds of others? The man would 
 fhare his thoughts (many, and deep, it 
 may be), with others; and this he can only 
 do through fymbols as the communicating 
 medium. If this be the true account of 
 the matter, then muft we ever look be- 
 
Tet mere Words are not Ends. 247 
 
 neath the containing fhell for that which 
 it holds within. The body is for the 
 fpirit : now words embody thought. 
 1 " How needful to remember that the 
 'Word' of God lies in the eftkntmlfpirit 
 of the book, and not in its conventional 
 form." Nor are they alive to the con- 
 fequences which may be expected from 
 infilling upon it. <c For " (as the writer 
 juft cited remarks), " that theory tends to 
 alienate all thinking minds from religion 
 itfelf .... it clogs the Bible with a 
 fuffocating weight, by burdening it with 
 claims unthought of by itfelf, nay, con- 
 tradicted by the facts which lie upon the 
 furface of its pages." As the mind of 
 man finds an exponent of itfelf in the 
 words which either the lips fpeak, or the 
 
 1 " A Plea for Holy Scripture as the Treafure- 
 houfe of all-faving Truth : " by Thomas Griffith, 
 A.M. {v. p. 19). London: Macmillan and Co. 
 1864; in which the whole of this queftion is ably 
 and concifely treated. 
 
248 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 hand writes, but thofe words centre not in 
 themfelves, but in the idea which called 
 for their fervice, only to impart itfelf to 
 the minds of others, while the thought is 
 not fo tied to the words which offer them- 
 felves as that they could not by poffibility 
 have been clothed in other phrafe ; fo by 
 analogy rauft we hold that the Mind of 
 God, having His purpofes and will to 
 communicate to man, brought this to 
 pafs through tongues and pens which He 
 moved effectually, but to whofe language 
 (though regulated by Himfelf), — the fo- 
 vereign Spirit was not fo bound as that 
 no other feries of fentences, or combina- 
 tions of words making up any one fen- 
 tence, could have accomplished the end 
 for which He employed thofe intelligent 
 inftruments. 
 
 The remarks which have been made in 
 this and the former Chapter, have been in- 
 tended to furnifh an anfwer to the quef- 
 tion, f How far Infpiration extends.' But 
 
* Extent ' Jiated 'Explicitly . 249 
 
 it may be well not to leave the f doctrine ' 
 to be merely gathered from what has 
 been advanced, but to ftate it, fo far as is 
 poffible, in explicit terms. We hold that 
 Infpiration covers cc the whole face of the 
 ground " of Scripture ; and that there is 
 no book, nor any portion of any, of that 
 Collection of Documents which we know 
 as the " Holy Bible," of which it could 
 be faid, That part is to be excluded, or 
 may be excepted, from the infpired Word 
 of God. c Embracing writings of very 
 different kinds,' fome containing facts of 
 hiftory, fome fupernatural revelations, and 
 others whofe characterise title might 
 differ from either of thefe, whatever be 
 the fubject-matter peculiar to the feveral 
 books, we maintain that the entire Volume 
 familiarly known to us as "The Bible" 
 is properly and truly Divine ; and that 
 could each Book, as it lies there, find a 
 tongue, it would fay concerning itfelf, 
 " 1 1 proceeded forth, and came from God, 
 
 1 John viii. 42. 
 
250 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 neither came I of myfelf, but He fent 
 me" to contribute, in my place and pro- 
 portion, to that total of truth which it 
 was His will to communicate to Men, to 
 educate them for an immortal exiftence. 
 
 A few cautions have to be added. 
 
 Some writers difcover great anxiety to 
 "diftinguifh between the c interpretation ' 
 and the c application,' of Scripture." f Ap- 
 plication ' by whom ? Unqueftionably we 
 may not employ <f the words of God " in 
 any way not agreeable to the Mind of 
 God ; that is, to His defign in caufing 
 the words to be written. But that f ufe ' 
 of Scripture which we find in Scripture 
 itfelf, namely, of paffages in the tc Old " 
 by writers in the " New Teftament," is 
 not to be fpoken of as illegitimate c appli- 
 cation ; ' as an ingenious accommodation 
 of words to occafions foreign to thofe 
 which firft gave rife to them, and there- 
 fore deftitute of authority. Such an ac- 
 count of the matter involves a denial of 
 
Infpired ' Application . ' 251 
 
 Infpiration, and reduces the writers fo 
 employing the words to men of imagina- 
 tive minds, who, by the help of a lively 
 fancy, were {truck by a refemblance in 
 found where there was none in fenfe, and 
 hence perfuaded themfelves of a coinci- 
 dence (groundlefs, as it feems to the 
 c critics'), between the ancient and the new 
 occaflon; a fimilarity in words, but no more. 
 It is readily admitted that " the indis- 
 criminate ufe of Scripture " by thofe (non- 
 Scriptural) writers who force its language 
 into the fervice of their own arguments, 
 has tc a tendency to maintain erroneous 
 conclufions of every kind." But the dis- 
 tinction is broad between this cafe, and 
 that of the Scrtpture-writers y who make a 
 new ufe of what firft appeared in the Old 
 Teftament : and, unlefs we are prepared 
 to yield the claims of Infpiration over a 
 very wide portion of the field of Scrip- 
 ture, we mult ftand by them here. The 
 employment by the Apoftles and Evan- 
 
252 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 gelifts, of the language of the Pentateuch, 
 the Pfalms, and the Prophets, in other and 
 deeper fenfes than belonged to the words 
 in their original places, is a feature in 
 their writings fo prominent, and fo per- 
 vading the whole texture of them, as will 
 not admit of being explained away. A 
 believer in the Divine authority of the 
 Bible will recognize its divinity as very 
 remarkably mining forth in this pecu- 
 liarity. c ' Great is the God' of the Bible 
 feen to be, c in this :' His Truth f waxeth 
 not old.' 
 
 We muft beware, too, of looking 
 for the tefi of Infpiration in the accord- 
 ance of the Scriptures with the purer 
 light which fhall be found in man as 
 the world grows older. A notion of 
 this fort (not very clearly exprefTed, it is 
 true), is cherifhed in the mind, and forms 
 a part of the fyftem, of fome modern 
 
 1 Mayas Iv Tovtoiq Qso$, ov$e yrjpdtrKSi. 
 
 Soph. (Ed. Tyr. 871. 
 
Falfe Tejifor Scripture. 253 
 
 writers, who fpeak of the difcoveries of 
 God which the Bible contains, as deftined 
 to receive a teftimony from the improved 
 and ever-improving condition of man's 
 nature. Whence this exaltation of the 
 human character is to come, does not 
 appear ; but manifestly not through the 
 Bible as its fource. The old-fafhioned 
 doctrine has been that by means of Scrip- 
 ture truth, as God's infcrument, the human 
 character is to be enlightened and elevated. 
 But the method here referred to is alto- 
 gether different. We have, then, to make 
 our election between the two ; the Scrip- 
 ture as witnejfed to by a ( ihining light ' 
 in the human foul, (how kindled, and how 
 fed, we are not told), c mining more and 
 more unto ' fome vifionary f perfect day ' 
 in the hiftory of the human fpecies : and, 
 the Scripture, in the hand of the Holy 
 Spirit, its Author, as that by which the 
 pretentions of all other fchemes for en- 
 lightening man's mind are to be tried ; a 
 
254 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 method which makes the Divine Word 
 to c bear,' but not to c receive ' witnefs. 
 
 The mifts which, in the opinion of 
 fome perfons, furround c Infpiration/ will 
 (they affure us), c clear away if we admit 
 the principle of progreffive revelation/ 
 What is implied in this language concern- 
 ing the Book which contains the c revela- 
 tion ' as we have it, is quite clear. For, 
 fince c imperfection, and even error,' 
 attach to what is £ progreffive/ the in- 
 ference as refpects the Scriptures cannot 
 be concealed. But J we decline to be 
 c helped over the difficulty ' (if there be 
 any), in this way. It were hopelefs to 
 follow fceptical minds into theories of 
 c perfection ' or c truth : ' and even if we 
 could understand their c ideal ' of each, 
 we mould probably decide that it never 
 could be realized. 
 
 : Non tali auxilio 
 
 Tempus eget." — Virg. JEn. ii. 521, 2. 
 
Progrefs in " Revelation" 255 
 
 Nor has Infpiration any caufe to trem- 
 ble from fcientific difficulties. Let it be 
 granted that recent difcoveries in geology, 
 or afcertained facts of chemiftry, may be 
 only the pioneers and precurfors of other 
 and higher acquifitions in thefe fciences. 
 Yet the Bible has nothing to fear from 
 any developments of thefe branches of 
 knowledge, fince it contains no ftatement 
 connected with them which has ever been 
 difproved. The human element has never 
 been permitted fo to predominate as to be 
 the caufe of the introduction of what is 
 falfe into the Sacred Record. " Man " 
 has not been allowed to " have the upper 
 hand " to fuch an extent as this : his 
 natural faculties have been employed by 
 his Maker, and (as we believe), without 
 interfering with the liberty of his will ; 
 but ever in fubferviency to f truth,' both 
 as regards the main end of God's Reve- 
 lation, and the particulars which make it 
 up. It is not merely from a fenfe of what 
 
256 Infpirat ion of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 fome have termed c Divine-decorum,' that 
 we maintain that miftakes of fact cannot 
 be imputed to Scripture Writers, but from 
 a conviction that no error was committed 
 by them. The Bible is free from real 
 imperfection : and if ever the language of 
 the writers, when in their narratives they 
 touch on fcientific topics, feems to be at 
 variance with our fuller information on 
 fuch matters, the natural and fatisfactory 
 folution of the difficulty is to be found 
 in this truth, that, to them the true 
 theory, in each cafe, was not yet known ; 
 and that they defcribed what they 
 faw, or otherwife knew, in free and 
 popular language. " If fo, there is no 
 need of elaborate reconcilements of reve- 
 lation and fcience," fince they have not 
 been cc fevered " by even a ct temporary 
 mifunderftanding." We have not to wait 
 for an enlargement of the idea of Nature 
 to enlarge that of Revelation, as though 
 the terms of the latter mould have to be 
 
Time is even-handed. 2.$j 
 
 explained away in deference to the higher 
 authority of the former ; the mifty con- 
 ceptions of Bible-writers to give way to 
 the brighter light of the better informed 
 in our own day. If recent criticifm have 
 had a dream of " 1 obeifance" to be "made 
 to" its "fheaf" by the fheaves of the 
 Old Teftament historians ; or that cc the 
 fun, and the moon, and the eleven Stars," 
 the venerated Scripture Authorities who 
 have told us of cc interruptions in the 
 order of the world " on fome fpecial occa- 
 sions, will, hereafter, ff fee the providence 
 of God in" the ^^difturbed " order of it;" 
 in other words, if it is imagined by thofe 
 who prefs upon us the obligation of in- 
 quiring into the truth of alleged fads on 
 the ftri^.ft principles of investigation, 
 that Revelation will have to confefs itfelf 
 mistaken in fome matters which pious 
 people have been accustomed to accept as 
 literally true, before the overpowering 
 
 1 Gen. xxxv iii. 9. 
 S 
 
258 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures, 
 
 light cf of evidence or experiment," which 
 may hereafter break in upon us, it may 
 reprefs the confidence of fuch expectations 
 to remember that * Time can fupply more 
 materials for the fervice, not of thofe only 
 who refift the idea that any of the facts of 
 Scripture are Supernatural, but of thofe 
 alfo, who think it confiftent with the 
 foundefl philofophy to believe that the 
 1 emergency of a revelation ' might juftify 
 (even if to Omnipotence it cannot be 
 thought to have f compelled '), c occa- 
 fional ' extraordinary interpofition. 
 
 Faith is not oppofed to Reafon, nor 
 Revelation to Science : but Reafon, exer- 
 cifed within the limits of its juft province, 
 will fupport Faith ; and Science ex- 
 pounded by matters, and not by fciolifts, 
 will confirm Revelation. 
 
 With refpect to the fubftance of Scrip- 
 ture, Infpiration fets up no theory in 
 
 1 'Apapcu £' lit'ikdlitM 
 Mdprvpsg vofyw'fctT'oi. 
 
 Pindar. Olymp. 1. 
 
The Bible perfedi for its ' Ends' 259 
 
 oppofition to undeniable fads of hiftory 
 or philofophy, while in claiming the whole 
 field of the Bible, it merely afferts that 
 the total of the Bible comes to us with 
 God's feal appended to it, the continual 
 office of the Church being to extract, as it 
 may, by the promifed light of the Spirit, 
 the c profit' of " 'doctrine, reproof, cor- 
 rection, and inftrudtion in righteoufnefs." 
 
 When God had finished Creation, He 
 " 2 faw everything that He had made; 
 and behold, it was very good." 
 
 When He fealed His Son, at his bap- 
 tifm, to the work of Redemption, He 
 proclaimed by cc:f a voice from Heaven," 
 that ' in him He was well pleafed.' 
 
 So it is to be believed, that when He 
 looked upon the completed Record of 
 the Old and New Covenants, He decided 
 it to be, for the ends to which He had 
 appointed it, " perfect and entire, wanting 
 nothing." 
 
 1 2 Tim. iii. 16. 2 Gen. i. 31. 3 Matt. iii. 17. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Some Heads, of Admonition to 
 one clajs ; of Encouragement 
 to another. 
 
 N the arguments which have 
 been employed upon this 
 fubject, the clafs of perfons 
 which we have kept in view 
 has been that of candid and reverential 
 inquirers, rather than of profefTed oppo- 
 nents. 
 
 The remarks, however, which remain 
 will be directed principally to the latter 
 clafs. A few words will then follow for 
 
7? re/is on Moral Proof. 261 
 
 the fake of a very different defcription of 
 character, who ought not to be forgotten. 
 
 If any man is refolved to fhut his eyes 
 againft the Infpiration of the Scriptures, 
 until he has mathematical demonstration 
 of it, ihut they muft for ever remain. 
 For, there are Tome fubjecls which are, 
 from their very nature, incapable of being 
 fo proved. The evidence of them is en- 
 tirely moral; made up of a variety of 
 considerations which tell with great force 
 when taken together, but which, when 
 regarded iingly, may not feem to be of 
 any great moment. So far, there is truth 
 in the affertion that it is only by examining 
 Scripture that we can come to know the 
 nature of Infpiration ; that it is whatever 
 it is found to be, when the Books them- 
 
 1 rfeita,i$£upsvov yd§ efffiv hit) rotrovrov rdxpifies 
 hitiXfl'tsiv na9' eKa<rrov yevog, lif otrov yfov ti^dy- 
 ua,ro$ <$>6<ris £tfi$tx £rai ' — Aristot. Eth. N. 1. 3, 4. 
 
262 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 felves have been read through, and con- 
 sidered. With the c animus ' which un- 
 derlies fuch a caution as this, as originally 
 uttered, we are not here concerned. We 
 accept the principle it contains, in the 
 full confidence that it will lead out, not 
 to a lower, but a higher eftimate of Scrip- 
 tural Infpiration. Do not predetermine 
 the character of the Bible, is a rule which 
 will exclude injurious prejudices as much 
 as it will undue prepofTeflions. As no 
 conditions for entering upon the inquiry 
 can be more fair, fo none are more pro- 
 mising as to the refult. For, of the 
 myriads who from the time when the 
 Canon of Scripture was completed, to the 
 prefent hour, having read the Bible 
 throughout, have been thoroughly per- 
 fuaded of its Infpiration, how many, do 
 we fuppofe, began with any theory at all 
 in their minds ? The ff prejudication " 
 which opponents of Infpiration would 
 f refift ' had no place in their thoughts. 
 
The Jingle Subject is ' Religion.' 263 
 
 They began it, perhaps, (indeed it could 
 not be otherwife), under thofe feelings of 
 inherited reverence with which, in every 
 Christian, or at leaft, every Proteftant 
 country, the Scriptures are regarded. But 
 they ended with what was much deeper. 
 They felt, from the firft, a ftrong intereft 
 in the Volume, arifing out of its fubject, 
 fo clofely touching themfelves and their 
 eternal hopes. They were attracted to- 
 wards it, above all other Books, from 
 finding it wholly taken up with thefe 
 topics; that while the Writings which 
 compofed it differ from each other in 
 ftructure and ftyle, they have one com- 
 mon feature ; they all relate to God, and 
 mans foul. "God in Hiftory" is a 
 ftriking thought, and fact ; His hand dis- 
 cernible in all the events that have be- 
 fallen nations and individuals : but the 
 Bible goes beyond this ; its immediate 
 and proper fubj eel-matter to us is, God in 
 His relation to men ; God fpeaking to, 
 
264 Infpirationofthe Holy Scriptures. 
 
 or dealing with our race, directly : this is, 
 from the beginning to the end of it, the 
 characteristic feature of the Bible. 
 
 Now, this is one of the moral evidences 
 of the Divine origin of the Scriptures 
 which filently and fecretly makes its way 
 with the foul ; and has, in fact, "wrought " 
 thus fC effectually " with the countlefs 
 thoufands who, from the time that the 
 Sacred Writings were firft collected, to the 
 prefent hour, have c meditated therein day 
 and night.' 
 
 This ftealthy conviction of the divinity 
 of the Bible, arifing out of its de- 
 votednefs to the one interesting fubject, 
 has been strengthened by the perceived 
 adaptation of its truths to their own feel- 
 ings and wants. The cravings of their 
 immortal nature have been fatisfled. They 
 have found themfelves in communication 
 with a Mind that knew their own minds ; 
 they difcover that the " l Father of" their 
 
 1 Heb. xii. 9. 
 
Searching and Inexhanjlible . 265 
 
 "fpirits" has been fpeaking to them 
 throughout. The words have fo fearched 
 the inner chambers of their being, that 
 they cc believe and are fure " that they are 
 the Voice of f Him that made them,' 
 that they have come forth from "the 
 bofom of God." They could not but 
 conclude that the lock and the key which 
 they have found to fit its wards with fuch 
 exadtnefs, were the work of one and the 
 fame Artificer. 
 
 In this, too, does the candid mind dis- 
 cover a powerful evidence of the divinity 
 of the Scriptures, that they are inex- 
 hauftible. " 2 Whofoever drinketh of" the 
 fprings of human philofophy, or human 
 genius, fhall not only " thirft again," but 
 fhall find that the fprings themfelves run 
 dry ; whereas the fupplies which the Scrip- 
 tures yield are inceflant, and endlefs. The 
 
 2 . . . " Nee vox hominem fonat ''.... 
 Virg. JEn. i. 332. 
 2 John iv. 13. 
 
266 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 experience of thofe whofe lifetime has 
 been abforbed in the ftudy of them will 
 bear witnefs that when we fo fpeak of the 
 refources of the Bible, we ufe not the lan- 
 guage of figure, but cc of truth and fober- 
 nefs;" and that they are, literally, cc a like 
 a fpring of water whofe waters fail not." 
 To thefe instances of moral evidence 
 which the Bible furnifhes may be added 
 that of harmony found in diverfity. Shrewd 
 intimations are given by fome Writers, of 
 being anything but fatisrled by the facl: 
 that " 2 the Scripture obvioufly embraces 
 writings of very different kinds ; the book 
 of Either, for example, or the Song of 
 Solomon, as well as the Gofpel of St. 
 John." But what if that which is thus 
 reprefented as heterogeneous, be found to 
 exhibit an f c agreement of its parts in the 
 moll unfufpicious 3 manner ? " Then we 
 
 1 Is. lviii. II. 2 Effay vii. p. 347. 
 
 3 " Differtation on the Infpiration of the New 
 
Infpiration is of the * Writings.'' 267 
 
 have found a point of ftrength inftead of 
 weaknefs, in the diverfity of the contents 
 of the Scriptures. 
 
 The Authors alluded to feem to efpy 
 a drawback to the high pretenfions of the 
 Bible in cc the mixed good and evil of the 
 characters of the Old Teftament, which 
 neverthelefs does not exclude them from 
 the favour of God." Here, too, if we 
 miftake not, is a feature which tends to 
 create affurance rather than mifgiving. 
 Had the characters defcribed as enjoying 
 the Divine approbation been other than 
 what we find human nature at its beft 
 eftate, to be, we might well have been 
 vifited with miftruft as to their reality : 
 
 Teftament," by P. Doddridge, D.D. The imme- 
 diate application of thefe words by the Author is to 
 the New ' Teftament;' of which, however, he fays 
 juft after, that it is "in delightful harmony with 
 the Old ; " fo that his language may fairly be ad- 
 duced as teftifying to the harmony of the two Divi- 
 fions of the Bible. 
 
268 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 but we have prefented to us " 'men of like 
 paffions with" ourfelves, though in the 
 main Cf 2 perfect and upright, fearing God, 
 and efchewing evil ; " refpe<5ting whom, it 
 is to be borne in mind, that their cafes 
 are often introduced, not merely to fet 
 forth what they were in themfelves, but 
 as the occafion of noting God's dealings 
 with them, as types of His ways with the 
 like characters, in their mixed form, as they 
 mould always be. 
 
 For the clafs of Objectors whence thefe 
 f criticifms ' have fprung, compofed as it is 
 of perfons of acute minds, it is probably 
 unnecefTary to add a caution which 
 neverthelefs, for the fake of others, mail 
 here be inferted. We muft beware of 
 fuppofing that all the actions f recorded ' in 
 the Bible are fo faid to be infpired, as if 
 they were approved by the Author of the 
 Scriptures. Not all the doings of perfons 
 in the Old Teftament which are narrated, 
 
 1 Afts xiv. 15. 2 Job i. 1. 
 
Infpiration is of the ' Writings,' 269 
 
 are thereby commended. The words and 
 deeds of evil men are not therefore com- 
 mended by the Holy Spirit, becaufe 
 they have been made Scripture by Him ; 
 nor are the weaknefles of good men put 
 forth as points of excellence. In their 
 failings we are admonifhed, not what to 
 imitate, but what to avoid. The dis- 
 tinction which Logic furnifhes may here 
 be of fervice. We are not to look to the 
 matter of any narrative (whether it relate 
 to perfons, or actions, or facts), inde- 
 pendently of its conditions, as approved, 
 or difapproved by God. The form is that 
 with which alone we are concerned in the 
 queftion of Infpiration. " As they are 
 Scripture, thefe things are of God : " but 
 beyond this, nothing is, neceffarily, to be 
 concluded refpecting them. 
 
 It is the tafk left to the Church, (which 
 it cannot transfer to any imaginary infal- 
 lible Head, and for which it is enabled by 
 the promifed aid of the Holy Spirit, as 
 its peculiar endowment), to interpret the 
 
270 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Record aright. In this refpecl: the Scrip- 
 tures may be thought to have a fymbolic 
 reprefentation in the f c x net that was caft 
 into the fea, and gathered of every kind." 
 
 The Writers who deny the Infpiration 
 of the Scriptures, or who fo lower the 
 idea of Infpiration as to make what they 
 would admit to be fcarcely worth con- 
 tending for, mould alfo be reminded that 
 they achieve no triumph by a legal decifion 
 that the doctrine in queftion has not been 
 afferted in the Formularies of the Church. 
 If it can be fhewn that any " particular or 
 national Church " is without a c dogma ' 
 upon the point, fuch omiffion will neceffi- 
 tate their courfe to the Judges in a Court 
 of Law, where the " letter," rather than 
 the cc fpirit," muft be the recognized 
 meafure. But every candid perfon, every 
 feeker after truth, mull perceive that the 
 queftion of the real views of the Church 
 itfelf is not fo determined. Its c doctrine,' 
 
 1 Matt. xiii. 47. 
 
f ' No Article " proves nothing. 27 1 
 
 in a forenfic fenfe, is undoubtedly fettled, 
 when a judgment' founded upon the con- 
 fideration of what the Church has or has 
 not faid, c ex cathedra,' has been pro- 
 nounced : but its ' belief is not thus de- 
 fined. 
 
 The omiflion in the cc Articles of Reli- 
 gion " is eafily explained. On that fubjecl: 
 there was no controverfy, at the time they 
 were drawn up. Whatever other forms 
 of error fpringing from the " ' foes " 
 within the fc houfehold " required to be 
 combated, whatever other rocks and fhoals 
 called for the uplifting of a beacon-light, 
 this of the open or covert denial of Infpi- 
 ration was not one. No occafion, there- 
 fore, having arifen for an explicit c decla- 
 ration ' of the Church's view upon this 
 fubjecl:, we pofTefs none. 
 
 Yet who that (imply defired to afcertain 
 
 the mind of the Church of England upon 
 
 the matter of Infpiration, could fail to 
 
 arrive at it by ftudying its ftandard 
 
 1 Matt. x. 36. 
 
272 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 Authorities, and its Services? The former, 
 for the reafon already affigned, do not 
 c fettle ' the matter of Infpiration, to a liti- 
 gant ; to him, and for his purpofes, they 
 unqueftionably leave it open ; while to one 
 who, without any end to gain, and folely 
 for the fatisfaction of his own mind, in- 
 quires what the Church does really and 
 firmly hold refpecting Infpiration, the 
 fuller! aflurance will be furnifhed, if not 
 by what is faid, yet by what is aflumed, 
 in the language of the Formularies. We 
 need not go beyond the title of the " Sixth 
 Article," which fpeaks of " The Holy 
 Scriptures." Was this phrafe the inven- 
 tion of the Framers of the Articles ? or, 
 of the Church of the Middle Ages^? or, 
 even of the primitive Church ? Is it 
 ecclefiaftical at all ? and, not rather, Scrip- 
 tural, in its fource, and derived imme- 
 diately from the well-known x words of 
 
 1 2 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
' ' Holy " is ' Infpired. ' 273 
 
 St. Paul to Timothy, in which, introducing 
 the term cc Holy " as an attribute of the 
 ic Scriptures," he immediately expounds 
 it as equivalent to c God-breathed ? ' The 
 compilers of that ftatement, therefore, 
 drawing the Heading of the c Article' from 
 that PafTage, rauft be underftood as mean- 
 ing to affix their feal to the Apoftle's 
 afTertionofthelnfpirationoftheScriptures. 
 Unlefs, then, we are prepared to main- 
 tain that the Reformers were indebted for 
 the phrafe " The Holie Scriptures," to 
 their own wit, and had no eye to the 
 PafTage which we have alleged, we muft 
 hold, that after a manner moft eafy and 
 natural, yet quite conclufive as to its 
 defign, they fet up in this Formulary 
 (regard being had to the Title, and the 
 affirmation contained within the Article 
 itfelf, taken together), a qua/i-do£tr'm& of 
 Infpiration. This conclufion will be af- 
 fented to by any one who compares the 
 PafTage of St. Paul throughout, with the 
 
274 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 language of the 'Article;' the instruction 
 which is f effectual unto falvation ' being 
 the point dwelt upon in both. 
 
 The reafons which have been offered 
 as accounting for the abfence of any 
 exprefs mention of Infpiration, in the 
 dogmatic Statements of the Church now, 
 apply in a general fenfe to the Jews, 
 and the Primitive Church. There was 
 never any doubt among either upon the 
 point. Their notions may not have 
 been very fharply denned; but there is 
 abundant teftimony to prove that they 
 never admitted into the Canon any books 
 which they did not believe to be the 
 cc Books of God." Rationalift Divines 
 admit this ; and, by fuch admimon, prove 
 all for which we contend, fince if Infpira- 
 tion was nfine qua non to obtain for any 
 book a place in the c Rule of faith,' its 
 reality in the eftimation of thofe who 
 advanced it to fuch a rank, is as fully 
 eftablifhed, as if a c Declaration' refpecting 
 it had been drawn up and fubfcribed. 
 
' Rejioration of 'Belief :' 275 
 
 If all thefe considerations be allowed 
 their juft weight, they will ferve as a check 
 to the confidence of thofe Writers who per- 
 fuade themfelves (if, indeed, they do really 
 fo think), that becaufe a Church has not 
 faid formally, f I believe that the Scrip- 
 tures are infpired ' (eo nomine), it therefore 
 either does not fo believe, or is to be un- 
 derstood as designedly leaving Infpiration 
 an open question. 
 
 If it be true that there are f c figns that 
 the divifions of the Christian world are 
 beginning to pafs away," fuch a cheering 
 profpect muSt reft not upon a fuppofed 
 readinefs to receive a more c rational ' 
 method of dealing with the pretenfions of 
 Scripture, but upon a difpofition in Chrif- 
 tians to think lefs of mere feclional dif- 
 tinctions, and to unite in lc earnefily con- 
 tending for the faith which was once de- 
 livered unto the faints ' upon the old (but 
 not c antiquated ') principle, that the Scrip- 
 
 1 Jude 3. 
 
276 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures . 
 
 tures are the depofitory of that £ faith.' 
 The " reftoration of belief" (if, indeed, it 
 be decayed), is to be looked for. not by 
 removing any imagined incruftation with 
 which a weak acquiefcence in the notion 
 of fupernatural Infpiration had overlaid it, 
 but by a return to that ftate of mind 
 which led the unfophifiicated believers of 
 the early days to open their eyes and 
 their hearts to the evidences of the fpoken 
 and the written Word. For, thofe men 
 are not to be thought of as unreafoning 
 and credulous, but as no lefs competent 
 than any of the fhrewd people of our own 
 generation to x "judge of the doclrine 
 whether it" were cc of God," or not. The 
 2 " multitudes both of men and women " 
 who through the perfonal teaching of the 
 Apoftles "were" nrft "added to the 
 Lord " as " believers," and " continued 
 fteadfaftly in the doclrine" of "their 
 teachers," and were 3 c built up ' into 
 
 1 John vii. 17. 2 Afts v. 14. 3 A£ls i-x. 3. 
 
Rejioration of Candour. 277 
 
 enduring Churches by their Letters, began 
 and perfevered upon rational conviction. 
 The preaching of the Apoftles was 
 attended with a l c powerful demonftration 
 of the Spirit,' and their Letters were 
 confefTed to be 2fC weighty and powerful:" 
 both were addreffed to ferious and honeft- 
 minded men, and the effect is told in the 
 words, 3 " Therefore many of them be- 
 lieved." The reftoration of belief may 
 be expected to follow upon the reftoration 
 of Bercean candour. If this c golden age ' 
 of faith is to come back, the fign of its 
 return will be the fimplicity of mind 
 which marked the Chriftians who framed 
 the Canon of Scripture. They found, in 
 the Documents to which they were led to 
 fC fet to" their "feal," holy matter treated 
 in a heavenly manner. In the union of 
 thefe two features they faw cc a peculiar 
 character diftinguifhing thefe writings 
 
 1 1 Cor. ii. 4. 2 2 Cor. x. 10. 
 
 3 Afls xvii. 12. 
 
 T 2 
 
278 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 from all writings of a human original, 
 and manifefting them to be of God." 
 
 Were we to fhrink from profeffing our 
 belief that faving faith in the hearts of 
 individuals is the work of the Holy 
 Spirit fealing and witneffing to them 
 the truths of the Scripture, we mould 
 mow ourfelves "afhamed of Christ." 
 Not lefs untrue to our convictions mould 
 we be were we to hefitate to avow our 
 belief that the Infpiration of the Scripture 
 itfelf is to be known by difcerning God's 
 " work in His Word." His truth, jure, 
 becaufe it is His, and ftands fo related to 
 Him, imparts to the Word of His truth 
 an ineffable greatnefs and power, and 
 "draws the foul to agreement beyond" 
 the power of any cc fyftems of logic, or 
 mathematical demonftrations." If fo, then 
 
 1 Ufaris 7} vrtsp rag Xoyiv.&s psQSSous •rtjv vj/u%r y v 
 sis crvyxardQstnv e\kovo-cc, icicrris ov% rj yecvperpi- 
 kou$ dva.yy.ais, d\X' rj rou$ rov irvsL[j,aro$ evspysioug 
 syyivdpsvY). — S. BafriiiCafarece Arcbiep. Op. vol.i. 
 Paris, 1 72 1. Bened. (In Pfalm cxv.) 
 
Words of Encouragement. 279 
 
 muft the habit of mind which dwelt in 
 the early Church, and was to them as an 
 inward light, be revived in this our day, 
 and ftill form the qualification to enable 
 men to judge of Bible-infpiration, in this 
 the nineteenth century of the Chriftian 
 Church. If it mall bring upon us the 
 charge of arguing in a circle, or any other 
 imputation of weaknefs, we muft brave 
 thefe confequences, and hold to the prin- 
 ciple juft avowed, and be permitted to 
 remind the theological "critics" of this 
 generation, of the remark of one who 
 thought out all fuch matters with an in- 
 dependent mind, that c we are under an 
 intellectual, as well as moral difcipline, in 
 this world.' It is as much our duty 
 to deal candidly with the evidence which 
 is afforded us upon fubjects which do not 
 admit of any other, as it is to cc keep the 
 Commandments " of the Decalogue. 
 
 The reafonings which belong to fuch a 
 fubjecl as that which has now been treated, 
 
280 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 will be appreciated by ftudents in theo- 
 logy, rather than ordinary private Chrif- 
 tians. But thefe, too, are the tc fheep of 
 Christ, for whom He med His blood." 
 Left thefe mould be in danger of u taking 
 any hurt or hindrance by reafon of" the 
 fophiftries which are rife upon the fubject 
 of Bible-infpiration, a word of encourage- 
 ment ihall be added for their efpecial fake. 
 Let them l " not be fhaken in mind, or 
 troubled" by c objections' upon this myf- 
 terious fubjecl:. They may not fee their 
 way through all thefe, only becaufe their 
 minds have not been trained to clofe 
 thought. But 2cc a man may be fully 
 convinced of the truth of a matter, and 
 upon the ftrongeft reafons, and yet not 
 be able to anfwer all the difficulties which 
 may be raifed upon it." They may find 
 tranquillity by afking this fimple queftion, 
 and dwelling upon the anfwer to it, What 
 
 1 2 Thefs. ii. 2. 
 
 2 Bishop Butler: Durham Charge, 175 1. 
 
EjfeBs prove Infpiration. 281 
 
 is the end which the Scriptures propofe 
 and profefs to accomplifh ? It is to 
 1 "turn" men "from darknefs unto light ; 
 and from the power of Satan unto God." 
 Now, thefe effects they have moft unde- 
 niably produced, from the days that they 
 were firft heard of as " Scriptures," to the 
 prefent hour. This work they carry on 
 regularly in the world, by an invifible but 
 moft pofitive energy, which proves them 
 to contain, as inftruments, the " feed of 
 God," the fame work having gone on 
 through, and having furvived, the period 
 of the fceptical cavils againft Infpiration 
 of the laft Century, and going on, upon a 
 great fcale, in our own land, and through- 
 out Chriftendom, at this moment, in quiet 
 defiance of the oppofition which a new 
 fchool of theologians have attempted to 
 revive. 
 
 Upon the whole fubject, and as a 
 thought for all alike, whether learned or 
 
 1 Ads xviii. 10. 
 
282 Infpiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 unlettered Chriftians, What thanks do we 
 owe to God, that, for the knowledge that 
 He l cc hath given to us eternal life " we 
 are not left to uncertainties ; to catch 
 our afTurance upon a point fo infinitely- 
 momentous, from the 2 Sibylline leaves of 
 Tradition, or from any merely human 
 teftimony : but, that upon considerations 
 the moft weighty, and carrying convi&ion 
 to our judgments, we can reft in the con- 
 clufion, that in the Books of the Old and 
 New Teftaments which have come down 
 to us, God c hath 3 written to us the great 
 things of His Law,' and of His " glorious 
 Gofpel." 
 
 1 1 John v. 11. 
 
 2 .... " foliis tantum ne carmina manda, 
 Ne turbata volent rapidis ludibria ventis." 
 
 Virg. uEn. vi. 74. 
 
 3 Hof. viii. 12. 
 
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