THE INSPIRATION 
 
 BIBLE 
 
 FIVE LECTURES, 
 
 DELIVERED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
 
 i*¥* 
 
 BY 
 
 CHR. WORDSWORTH^D.D. 
 
 BISHOP OP LINCOLN. 
 
 EIGHTH EDITION. 
 
 RIVINGTONS, 
 3Lontton, <%fortt, anU Cambridge. 
 

 LONDON : 
 
 GILBERT AND KIVINGTON, PEINTEBS, 
 
 ST. JOHN'S SQTJABE. 
 
 ciLU'UtU- 
 
 "\ 
 
 
 
PREFATORY NOTE TO THE 
 EIGHTH EDITION. 
 
 The following Lectures were delivered in West- 
 minster Abbey by the Author when Canon of 
 that church. Attacks on the Veracity and Inspira- 
 tion of Holy Scripture, which then startled and 
 shocked the Church, have now become more vio- 
 lent and frequent ; but they have strengthened the 
 faith of the devout student of Scripture, because 
 they are fulfilments of prophecies which he reads 
 in its pages ; and they make him resort with more 
 thankfulness and love to the testimony of Jesus 
 Christ, the Incarnate Word, who has set His seal 
 on the Written Word. 
 
 More than fourteen hundred years ago, St 
 Augustine 1 (when contending against the errors 
 
 1 S. Augustin. de Civ. Dei, lib. xi. c. 1. 3. " Ipsa Veritas, 
 Deus, Dei Filitts, Mediator Dei et hominum, Homo Christus 
 Jesus, prius per Prophetas, deinde per Se Ipstjm, postea per 
 Apostolos, quantum satis esse judicavit, locutus, etiam Sceip- 
 tttram condidit, quse Canonica appellatur, eminentissima? 
 auctoritatis, cui fidem habemus de iis rebus, quas ignorare non 
 eipedit, nee per nosmetipsos nosse idonei sumus." 
 
 S. Augustin. c. Faustum ii. c. 5. " Distincta est a postcri- 
 
iv Prefatory Note 
 
 of the Manichasans concerning Scripture, which 
 have been revived in the nineteenth century, 
 declared a fundamental truth, which ought to be 
 ever present to the mind of the Christian reader. 
 He affirmed that Christ, the Eternal Word of God 
 is the Giver of the Written Word, and that when 
 for our sakes He became Man, He set His seal 
 upon the Old Testament : and that after His 
 Ascension He enabled the Apostles and Evangel- 
 ists, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, — 
 whom He sent to them from Heaven, — to write 
 the New Testament ; and that He is ever present 
 with His Church Universal, and has sent the 
 Holy Ghost to abide with her for ever; and that 
 therefore the witness of the Church Universal to 
 the Genuineness, Veracity and Inspiration of Holy 
 Scripture is no other than the testimony of Christ, 
 the Son of God, and of God the Holy Ghost, the 
 Spirit of Life and Light. 
 
 The Ancient Christian Church represented this 
 
 oribus libiis excellentia Cakonios: auctoritatis Veteris et 
 Novi Testamenti, quae Apostolorum confirmata teruporibus, 
 per successiones Episcopates et propagations Bcclesiarum tan- 
 quam in sede quadam sublimiter coustituta est, cui serviat ononis 
 fidelis et phis Intellectus." 
 
 S. Augustine de Consens. Evangel, lib. i. cap. ult. also well 
 says, " Christus, Qui Prophetas ante Suam descensionem misit, 
 Ipse ct Apostolos post Suam ascensionem misit . . . ■ quicquid Ille 
 de Suis factis et dictis nos legere voluit, hoe scribendum illis 
 tanquam Suis manibus imperavit." 
 
to the Eighth Edition. y 
 
 great truth by works of Sacred Art. In the 
 Catacombs of Rome she displayed it in frescos 2 
 pourtraying Christ, seated on a throne, with an 
 Opened Book in His hand — the Bible— its pages 
 turned outward to the spectator. On His right 
 side and on the left, are two ccvpsce or scrinia, or 
 cylindrical caskets, containing rolls of papyri, — 
 the Volumes of the Old and New Testament. 
 Further beyond, on the right and left, are two 
 standing figures, representing the two Apostles, 
 St. Peter and St. Paul — the Apostles of the 
 Hebrew and Gentile Churches. By such pictures 
 as these she set forth the doctrine that it is 
 Christ Himself Who speaks in the Bible; and 
 that He also delivers the Bible by means of the 
 ministry of the Apostolic Church Universal to 
 the World. 
 
 It has been the design of the Author to develope 
 these truths in the following Lectures. 
 
 Risehohne, Epiphany, 1875. 
 
 2 Such a fresco may be seen engraved and described in 
 Dideon's " Iconographie Chretienne," p. 29, Paris 1843, who says, 
 " Ce monument date des premiers siecles de 1' figlise;" and in the 
 Rev. Wharton Marriott's " Vestiarium Christianum," Plate xii.and 
 p. 235, London, 1868. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Importance of the subject proposed 1 
 
 Attacks upon the Bible in ancient times .... 2 
 
 Prospects for the future 3 
 
 The last days will be days of unbelief ib. 
 
 Predictions in the Apocalypse ib. 
 
 Change of opinion in some quarters in England . . 4 
 
 What we mean by Inspiration 5 
 
 What it is not ib. 
 
 Compared to the Transfiguration ib. 
 
 Analogies between the Written Word and the Incarnate 
 
 Word 6 
 
 Inspiration and the Incarnation 7 
 
 The Writers of Scripture are channels of Divine Truth . 7, 8 
 The Holy Ghost is the Author of Prophecy, which came 
 
 through the Prophets 8 
 
 There are no Errors in the genuine, original^ text of the 
 
 Word of God 9, 10 
 
 Destructive consequences of the opposite statement; the 
 objection of a modern Sceptic to some recent theolo- 
 gical writers 11 
 
 The Bible is for peasants and children ; are they to reject 
 
 some parts of it, and accept others ? . . . . 12 
 Some of the most mysterious parts of the Bible were writ- 
 ten by the instrumentality of illiterate men ; would 
 this have been the case, if the writers were not to be 
 preserved from error by its Divine Author ? . 13 
 
viii Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 As men, the Writers of Scripture were fallible in practice. 14 
 But as writers of books, which have been received as Holy 
 Scripture by the Universal Church, which is the mys- 
 tical Body of Christ, they have not erred in writing . 15 
 Why they sometimes speak doubtingly .... 16 
 The language of Scripture is human, but is under Divine 
 
 guidance 17, 18 
 
 The Various Headings in the different Manuscripts of the 
 Hebrew and Greek Originals of the Old and New 
 Testaments, are no evidence of uncertainty ; but, on 
 the contrary, are the ground of confidence in the Text 
 of the Bible, which has been formed by the collations 
 
 of different Manuscripts 20 
 
 What is the true ground of belief in the Inspiration of the 
 
 Bible? 20 
 
 Is our private consciousness a sufficient ground ? . .20, 21 
 No; that is no argument to others; and not a safe one 
 
 to ourselves 21, 22 
 
 Different persons have different perceptions; and //"private 
 consciousness were to be admitted as a ground for 
 belief in the inspiration of a Book, we should have a 
 great variety of different and contradictory Books, 
 
 each admitted to be inspired 23 
 
 Calamitous results of this theory in foreign countries . 23, 24 
 It has now been developed in an infidel direction in England 25, 26 
 Present religious crisis in England 28 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 Recapitulation 30 
 
 Private consciousness is not sufficient to prove the Inspira- 
 tion of the Bible 31 
 
 Nor can Scripture itself alone prove its own Inspiration . ib. 
 What are the true grounds of belief in the Truth and 
 
 Inspiration of the Old Testament ? . . . . 32 
 
 1. Testimony of God, in the reception of the Old 
 Testament by the Jewish Church. 
 
Contents. 
 
 2. Testimony of Jesus Christ, the Sox of God, 
 
 receiving tbe Old Testament. 
 
 3. Testimony of God the Holt Ghost, in the Chris- 
 
 tian Church — receiving the Old Testament . 33 
 
 These propositions are now to be proved . . . . ib. 
 First then, it is to be shown that the Old Testament, which 
 is in our hands, is the same as tbe Old Testament in 
 
 the age of Christ 34 
 
 Proof of this 34,35 
 
 How did the Jews of our Lord's age regard the Old Testa- 
 ment ? 35, 36 
 
 As true and divine 36 
 
 Testimony of Josephus to this statement . . . . 36, 37 
 How were they persuaded, that tbe Old Testament as it was 
 
 in their age, was genuine, authentic, true, and divine? 38 
 Answer to this question ; from external evidence . . 39 
 
 And from internal 40 
 
 Original of the Pentateuch enshrined in tbe Holy of Holies 44 
 To be copied out by the Kings ..... 45 
 
 Inspiration of the Prophetical Books, how proved . . 47, 48 
 God's wonderful providence in making tbe Jews the guar- 
 dians of the Old Testament ..... ib. 
 
 Completion of the Canon of the Old Testament . . 49, 50 
 
 The external evidences of its truth and inspiration are con- 
 firmed by internal proofs . . . . . . 51 
 
 Reply to a sceptical objection, grounded on tbe rejection of 
 
 Christ by the Jews . . . . . . 51, 52 
 
 Argument in favour of the truth and inspiration of the Old 
 
 Testament, from the blindness and unbelief of the Jews 52 
 Recapitulation of the argument ..... 52, 53 
 
 The Testimony of God bearing witness in the Hebrew 
 Church to tbe Truth and Inspiration of the Old Testa- 
 ment is further confirmed by the witness of the Son of 
 God, and of God the Holy Ghost in the Christian 
 Church; and thus tbe belief in the truth and inspiration 
 of the Old Testament rests on the authority of the 
 Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity — 
 This proposition to be proved in the next Lectures . . 54 
 
x Contents. 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 On the Testimony of Jesus Christ to the Old Testament 56 
 
 First, it is to be shown that the four Gospels are true . ib. 
 
 Proof of their truth 57—60 
 
 Inferences from this proof: Cheist is God, and knows all 
 
 things, and came to bear witness to the Truth . . 61 
 
 How did He treat the Old Testament ? .... 63 
 
 He agreed with the Jews, who received the whole of it as 
 
 true, and as inspired 63, 64 
 
 Evidence of this 64, 65 
 
 Christ's testimony to the Old Testament at the Temptation 
 — and in the Synagogues, — in His public teaching; and 
 after His Resurrection 64—66 
 
 Allegations considered, (1) that Jesus Christ spoke only 
 " as a learned Jewish Rabbi ;" 
 
 and (2) that He " accommodated Himself to the popular 
 
 opinions of the Jews " 67, 68 
 
 Testimony of God the Holt Ghost to the truth and in- 
 spiration of the Old Testament 69 
 
 Appeal to the authority of Christ in reply to sceptical objec- 
 tions against portions of the Old Testament ; e. g. 
 
 From Geology and other physical sciences ; and from 
 
 Moral or Metaphysical speculations . . . 69 — 72 
 
 Moral use of difficulties in the Old Testament ; such as the 
 standing still of the Sun at the bidding of Joshua ; the 
 histories of Balaam, and Jonah, &c. Book of Daniel 73 — 76 
 
 We enjoy far greater advantages with regard to the Old 
 Testament than were possessed by the Jews; and our 
 responsibilities are proportional to our privileges . 77 
 
 Holy Scripture is set for our moral probation; and our 
 
 eternal happiness depends on our use of it . . 78, 80 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 What are the grounds of our belief in the Inspiration of the 
 
 'New Testament ?....... 81 
 
 It has been proved that the Gospels are true ... 83 
 
Contents. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 In those Gospels (proved to be true) we have certain decla- 
 rations from Christ (Who in those Gospels is shown to 
 be God) concerning the Church, which He has 
 founded 84 
 
 He promised to send the Holy Ghost to teach her all 
 things ; to guide her into all truth, and to abide with 
 her for ever ib. 
 
 The Apostles and Evangelists, being taught by the Holt 
 Ghost, wrote the Neio Testament ; which has been 
 received, as true and as divinely inspired, by the Holt 
 Ghost dwelling in the Universal Church, which is the 
 body of Christ, the Pillar and Ground of Truth ; and 
 is publicly read by her as of equal authority with the 
 Old Testament which Jesus Christ, the Sox of God, 
 received as true and inspired .... 84—86 
 
 Analogy in the means used by God for preserving and 
 
 authenticating both Testaments .... 86 
 
 Purposes served by the public reading of the New Tes- 
 tament in the Church 88 
 
 Why some smaller portions of the New Testament were 
 
 not received at once 90 
 
 The Church does not give authority to Scripture : but 
 bears witness that Scripture is given by inspiration of 
 God 92 
 
 Review of the reasons for which we receive Scripture, on 
 
 the testimony of the Church 92, 93 
 
 The wisdom of the Church of England in regard to this 
 
 question of Inspiration 93 
 
 Her principles contrasted with those of some other religious 
 
 bodies 93, 94 
 
 The Church Universal is the Candlestick in which the 
 
 Light of Scripture is placed by God .... 95 
 
 They who separate the Light from the Candlestick are in 
 
 danger of losing both ... ... 98 
 
 Moral requisites for receiving the Bible as true and inspired 99 
 
 The internal evidence of the truth and inspiration of the 
 
 Bible confirms the external ..... 101 
 
 Anticipations of a future State when Holt Scbiptuee 
 
 will be more fully understood 102 
 
xii Contents. 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Recapitulation of the argument in behalf of the truth and 
 
 inspiration of the Bible .... . 103 
 
 That argument is confirmed by the evidence of God's provi- 
 dential care of the Bible 106—109 
 
 Illustrated by reference to the history of the Bible in Eng- 
 land 110 
 
 The fulfilment of the Prophecies of the Bible also confirms 
 
 the proof of its truth and inspiration . - . 112 
 
 That proof is still further confirmed by the harmony of 
 
 the several parts of the Bible 113 
 
 The weakness of the instruments used in writing the Bible, 
 and the effects produced by their instrumentality, is a 
 further confirmation of the truth that the Bible is from 
 God . . . .114 
 
 The beneficial changes wrought in the world by the Bible 
 
 are also evidences of its divine origin . . 115 — 118 
 
 Testimony of the English Nation to the divine origin of 
 
 the Bible 119 
 
 Meditations on the truth and inspiration of the Bible, sug- 
 gested by the Abbey Church of Westminster . 120 — 122 
 
 Proofs of the divine power of the Holt Bible at death- 
 beds, and in the prospect of Eternity . . . 123 
 
 The Day of Judgment will prove the truth of the Bible . ib. 
 
 Conclusion ib. 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 1 Petee iii. 15. 
 
 Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asTcethyou 
 a reason of the hope that is in you. 
 
 I. 1. The hope that is in us as Christians rests 
 upon the belief that the Bible is the Word of God. 
 The works of the natural Creation declare His 
 Power, but they do not reveal to us the Mysteries 
 of Faith. Human Eeason could never have assured 
 us that sinners may obtain pardon through God's 
 mercy in a Redeemer, and that we may also obtain 
 spiritual grace, enabling us to do His Will. We 
 could never have discovered by our intellectual 
 faculties, that there is a Judgment to come, and a 
 Resurrection of the Body, and joys eternal in 
 heaven for those who believe and obey Him. 
 
 These are supernatural truths, and they are 
 revealed to us in the Bible, and in the Bible alone. 
 And by faith in these truths we are excited to do 
 our duty to God, our neighbour, and ourselves : 
 we are encouraged to suffer patiently, and to live 
 soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, 
 
 B 
 
2 Attach s upon the Bible in ancient times. 
 
 looking for thatblessed hope, and the glorious appear- 
 ing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ '. 
 Therefore the Apostle St. Paul says, Whatsoever 
 things were written aforetime were written for our 
 learning, that we through patience and comfort of the 
 Scriptures might have hope 2 , 
 
 2. Our spiritual Enemy knows, that belief in 
 the Inspiration of the Bible is the foundation of 
 all Christian faith and Christian virtue ; and that, if 
 " the belief in the authority of Scripture is shaken, 
 then Christian faith will falter, and if Christian 
 faith falters, then Christian love will fail 3 ," and 
 that the fabric of human Society will be dissolved, 
 and that men and nations will become victims of 
 his power, and be involved in confusion and ruin. 
 
 The Evil One has therefore been indefatigable 
 in his attempts to shake this foundation. In an- 
 cient days he enlisted Kings against the Bible. 
 He incited Antiochus Epiphanes to take up arms 
 against the Old Testament. He raised up the 
 Emperor Diocletian against the New. He engaged 
 sceptical philosophers, such as Celsus, Porphyry, 
 and Julian, in an intellectual campaign against 
 the Word of God. He beguiled some, who called 
 themselves Christians, to impugn the Bible. The 
 
 1 Titus ii. 12, 13. 2 Rom. xv. 4. 
 
 3 S. Azigustine de Doct. Christiana i. 41, " Titubabit fides, si 
 divinarum Scripturaruni vacillat auctoritas ; porrd, fide titubaute, 
 charitas et etiam ipsa languescet." And so Hooker (Ill.viii. 13) 
 says, " The main principle whereupon our belief of all things 
 therein contained dependeth, is that the Scriptures are the Oracles 
 of God." 
 
The last days ivill be days of unbelief . 3 
 
 Marcionites and the Manichaaans alleged that 
 the Old Testament is contrary to the New. 
 Other heretical Teachers rejected portions of both 
 Testaments, others distorted their meaning by 
 novel interpretations, and substituted their own 
 imaginations in the place of the Word of God. 
 
 The Church of God, with the Bible in her hands, 
 regards the past with thankfulness, and looks for- 
 ward to the future with hope. She knows that 
 the Holy Scriptures have already passed through 
 a severe ordeal ; and she is sure, that their Divine 
 Author, Who has never failed to protect them, 
 will defend them unto the end. She is persuaded 
 that all attacks upon the Bible will issue in its 
 victory, and will manifest more clearly that it is 
 the Word of God. 
 
 As the end of the world draws near, the Bible 
 may expect new conflicts, and may hope for new 
 conquests. The Bible will be treated as Christ 
 was treated by the World. The career of the 
 Written Word will be like that of the Incaenate { 
 Wo ed. It will have its Gethsemane, and its Cal- 
 vary; but it will have also its glorious Resurrection 
 and Ascension. Its prophecies concerning itself 
 will be fulfilled. The Two Witnesses will preach in 
 sackcloth 41 . That is, the Two Testaments will 
 preach in sorrow. They may seem to be dead ; but 
 they will revive and be caught up into heaven, 
 and all their foes will be confounded. The Enemy 
 
 4 See Rev. xi. 3, 4. The author begs leave to refer to the 
 exposition of that prophecy in his notes on the passage. 
 B 2 
 
4 Attacks on the Bible in the present age. 
 
 of Holy Scripture will rage more fiercely, in propor- 
 tion as his doom is nearer. He will make more 
 desperate assaults upon Holy Writ, knowing that 
 he hath but a sliort time 5 . But it will triumph, and 
 be glorified, and judge the world. (John xii. 48.) 
 
 3. England has hitherto stood high among the 
 Nations of the World, during some centuries, for 
 her reverent esteem of the Bible. But now a 
 change seems to be taking place. Persons emi- 
 nent for high position in our Schools of Learning 
 and in the Church, and exercising great influence, 
 have not hesitated to avow an opinion, that por- 
 tions of Holy Scripture are blemished by error, 
 and cannot have come from Him who is the 
 Truth. 
 
 Such affirmations as these require us to exa- 
 mine the grounds of our own belief in the 
 Inspiration of Holy Writ. And since it is our 
 duty to promote the temporal and eternal hap- 
 piness of others, as well as our own, we ought to 
 be prepared to give an answer to every one ivho asks 
 us a reason of the hope that is in us. 
 
 This then is the question before us — 
 
 By what reasons are we persuaded, and by what 
 arguments would we persuade others, that the 
 Bible is the Word of God ? 
 
 II. In dealing with this subject, let us first 
 explain what we mean when we say that the Scrip- 
 tures are inspired by God. 
 
 e Kev. xii. 12. 
 
What do ive mean by Inspiration ? 5 
 
 1. We do not intend thereby to affirm, that the 
 Writers of Holy Scripture were constrained to 
 write, without any volition or consciousness on 
 their part. David, singing the Psalms, was not 
 like the Harp in David's hand. It was a me- 
 chanical instrument, but he was a free agent. 
 The Holy Ghost inspired the writers of Holy Scrip- 
 ture. Holy men, says St. Peter 6 , spake, being moved 
 or borne along 7 by the Holy Ghost. All Scripture 
 is given by inspiration of God, says St. Paul 8 . It 
 is animated by His Divine breath 9 . But He did 
 not impair their moral and intellectual faculties, 
 nor destroy their personal identity. 
 
 Inspiration may be called a spiritual Trans- 
 figuration. At the Transfiguration of Christ on 
 the Holy Mount, as described in the Gospels, 
 Moses and Elias appeared in glory 10 . Moses the 
 Giver of the Law was there, and Elias the greatest 
 of the Prophets. They were transfigured. But 
 Moses retained his identity ; so did Elias. Moses 
 was still Moses, and Elias was still Elias. Each 
 was recognized by the Disciples, Peter, James, 
 and John. 
 
 So it is with the Writers of Holy Scripture. 
 
 e 2 Pet. i. 21. 
 
 * Qepofjievoi, carried along like a ship by the wind, or like a 
 vessel on a stream. In this text the Vatican Manuscript has 
 i\dhr)(rai> curb Qiov avdpanoi/i. e. mm cpakefrom God; and thi3 
 reading gives greater force to the assertion of their Divine In- 
 spiration. 
 
 8 2 Tim. iii. 16. 9 6e6irvev<TTos. 
 
 io Matt. xvii. 2, 3. Luke ix. 30, 31, Cf . 2 Pet. i. 18. 
 
6 Divine and Human Elements in the Bible. 
 
 Moses, when inspired, was raised above Moses 
 uninspired. St. Peter, St. John, and St. Paul, 
 when writing Holy Scripture, were lifted above 
 themselves by the power of the Holy Ghost. They 
 were raised above their own level, and that of this 
 lower world, and were placed as it were on a ' ' holy 
 mount." In Scripture, the Holy men, through 
 whose instrumentality we have received the Law, 
 the Prophecies, and the Gospels, are joined to- 
 gether with Christ, as it were, on a Mountain of 
 Transfiguration ; they are illumined by His 
 glorious light, and the cloud of His presence 
 overshadows them. But each of them retains his 
 identity, each shines in his own sphere : they are 
 spiritualized and glorified ; they are transfigured. 
 In the written Word of God there is a holy 
 union of human with divine, and we are not able 
 to draw the line, where what is human ends, and 
 what is divine begins. This union of human with 
 divine in the Written Word, bears some resemblance 
 to one of the greatest Mysteries of our faith, the 
 union of God with Man in the Incarnate Word. 
 The Inspiration of Scripture maybe compared to 
 the Incarnation of Christ. Jesus Christ is Em- 
 manuel, God with us l , God manifest in the flesh 2 . 
 The two Natures of God and Man are joined to- 
 gether in His One Person. But who can draw 
 the line, where God's nature ends, and where 
 Man's nature begins, in the Person of Christ ? 
 The union of God and Man in the Incarnate Word 
 1 Matt. i. 23. 2 1 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
Inspiration and the Incarnation compared. 7 
 
 is a Mystery. So is the union of the Divine ele- 
 ment with the human in the Written Word. In 
 both cases the Mystery baffles our powers of 
 analysis. In both cases the Mystery, like the 
 mid-day sun in the heavens, dazzles the eye with 
 its brightness ; we cannot gaze upon it. But, in 
 both cases also, the Mystery, like the Sun in the 
 heavens, enables us to see. All would be dim in 
 the spiritual world, without the light of the In- 
 carnate Word, and of the Written Word. And 
 in both cases it is the union of Divinity with 
 Humanity, which is the cause of spiritual light. 
 
 Let us illustrate this by another comparison. 
 Holy Scripture is God's Word written. The 
 things written are from God; all Scripture is 
 given by Inspiration of God. The fresh and 
 living Water of heavenly Truth issues from one 
 Source, and that Source is Divine ; but the water 
 flows in various streams. The Fountain is Divine, 
 the element is heavenly ; but the channels are 
 earthly, and the channels do not change the 
 essential quality of the water, but they modify its 
 direction and its course, and tinge it, as it were, 
 with the colour of the soil of the banks through 
 which the water flows. The heavenly water acts 
 upon the earthly margins of the streams ; and the 
 margins act upon the water ; they act and react 
 upon each other with a simultaneous and con- 
 current operation. Sometimes the Divine element 
 of Inspired Truth rushes vehemently in torrents 
 and in cataracts, in the impetuous fervour of St. 
 
8 The Word of God 
 
 Paul. Sometimes it diffuses itself, and sleeps in 
 calm and deep lakes, in the love and gentleness 
 of St. John. The Element is one and the same, 
 and Divine; the channels are different, and 
 human; the power of the one destroys not the 
 liberty of the other ; Divine Grace does not annul 
 the human intellect and will, though it is sug- 
 gestive, preventive, suppletory, auxiliary to them | 
 but the Divine Spirit, and the human Intellect 
 and Will, concur and act together in loving 
 harmony and joy. 
 
 2. In accordance with this statement it may be 
 remarked, that the prophecies of the Old Testa- 
 ment are described in Scripture as coming to us 
 through (Slo) the Prophets. This is the manner 
 in which the prophecies of the Old Testament are 
 quoted in the New 3 . The Holy Ghost is the 
 Author of the prophecies which are delivered by 
 the Prophets, He is the Everlasting Fountain; 
 the Prophecy is the living water, the Prophet is 
 the channel, through which it flows. 
 
 3. We afnrni, then, that there is a human ele- 
 ment in Holy Scripture ; but we assert also that 
 this human element is refined, sublimed, spi- 
 ritualized, and purified from the taint of human 
 error, in the Word of God. We are not among 
 those who say, that Holy Scripture is marred and 
 blemished by imperfections and inaccuracies. 
 We cannot concur with some who affirm that 
 there are historical inaccuracies in the Pentateuch 
 
 3 Matt. ii. 5. 15. 17. 23 ; iii. 3 ; iv. 14, &c. 
 
not blemished ivith human errors. 9 
 
 and in the Books of Joshua and the Judges, and 
 of Samuel. We cannot agree in the assertion 
 that the Holy Evangelist St. Matthew errs in his 
 exposition of the Prophecies recited in his first 
 and second chapters. We cannot allow that St. 
 Matthew and St. Luke are at variance with one 
 another in their narratives of the incidents of our 
 Lord's infancy; we cannot concede that St. Mark 
 errs when he says that David ate the shewbread 
 in the days of Abiathar the High Priest 4 . We 
 cannot admit, that St. Luke errs, in saying that 
 the Taxing at the Nativity took place in the time 
 of Cyrenius 5 . We cannot grant, that St. John 
 errs, when he says that the Chief Priests had not 
 eaten the Passover on the day of the Crucifixion 6 . 
 We cannot concede that either he 7 or St. Mark 8 
 errs in their record of the hour on which the 
 Crucifixion took place. We know that these 
 allegations may be, and have been refuted ; and 
 we deliberately state our conviction, that while 
 there are sundry varieties serving to complete the 
 Evangelical history, there is'no contradiction in it 9 . 
 Again ; we cannot concur with those who say 
 that there are historical mistakes in St. Stephen's 
 speech to the Hebrew Sanhedrim 1 ) and that there- 
 
 4 Mark ii. 26. 5 Luke ii. 2. 6 John xviii. 18. 
 
 7 John xix. 14. 8 Mark xv. 25. 
 
 9 Cp. JEuseb. Demonst. Evang. iii. 5, and 8. Augustine's trea- 
 tise De Consensu Evangelistarum, and the notes on these 
 passages in my edition of the Greek Testament. 
 
 1 See on Acts vii. Cp. the case of Deborah speaking of Jael : 
 and my notes at end of Judges iv. 
 
10 Inferences derived by Sceptics from the 
 
 fore the Author of the Acts of the Apostles errs 
 when he says that St. Stephen was full of the Roll/ 
 Ghost, and that no one could resist the wisdom and 
 the spirit by which he spake 2 . We cannot agree 
 with those who affirm that St. Paul erred 3 when 
 writing to the Thessalonians, and that he " enter- 
 tained and expressed a belief which the event did 
 not justify/' namely, that the Day of the Lord 
 would come while he himself was still alive. 
 
 Such assertions as these have been confidently 
 repeated, but have not been proved. 
 
 This is the declaration of the Apostles. Not 
 only the Writers of Holy Scripture are said by 
 them to be moved by the Holy Ghost 4 , but the 
 writing itself, every 5 part of the whole writing, is 
 described by St. Paul as inspired by God. The 
 Book is inspired, and therefore the Scriptures are 
 called living oracles 6 , and are represented as 
 speaking 7 , and as endued with foreknowledge 8 . 
 The Spirit of God animates them. They are 
 saturated and bathed with Divine Light. They 
 are Light. Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet, 
 and a Light unto my paths 9 . 
 
 2 Acts vi. 8—10. 
 
 3 1 Thess. iv. 15. So Dr. Arnold and " Essays and Reviews," 
 p. 346. 
 
 4 2 Pet. i. 21. 
 
 5 ndcra ypacpv (every Scripture is) Oeonpevcnos, divinely in- 
 spired. 2 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
 6 Acts vii. 38. 
 
 7 Mark xv. 28. John xix. 37. Rom. iv. 3; ix. 17; xi. 2. 
 Gal. iv. 30. 
 
 8 Gal. iii. 8. 9 Ps. cxix. 105. 
 
admission that there are Errors in the Word 1 1 
 of God. 
 
 We know that the Bible is for all ; it is for the 
 simplest peasant as well as for the wisest philo- 
 sopher ; it is able to make all men wise unto salva- 
 tion \ We cannot admit that the Bible is ble- 
 mished with errors, and that it is left for the 
 reader "to separate by his own skill " what is 
 erroneous in it from what is true. We know 
 that an unbeliever may justly challenge theolo- 
 gians who make such an admission as that ; and 
 that he may fairly encounter them with the 
 following language 2 : " A book cannot be said to 
 be inspired, or to carry with it the authority of 
 being God's Word, if only portions come from 
 Him, and there exists no plain and infallible sign 
 to indicate which those portions are ; and if the 
 same Writer may give us in one verse of the 
 Bible a revelation from the Most Sigh, and in the 
 next verse a blunder of his own. How can we be' 
 certain, that the very texts, upon which we rest 
 our doctrines and our hopes, are not the uninspired \ 
 portion ? What can be the meaning or nature of 
 an Inspiration to teach Truth, which does not 
 guarantee its recipient from teaching error ? " 
 
 4. In answer to such questions as these, we 
 affirm that the Bible is the Word of God, and 
 that it is not marred by human infirmities. We 
 do not imagine with some that the Bible is like a 
 Threshing-floor, on which wheat and chaff lie 
 
 1 2 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
 2 These words are quoted from a Volume entitled the " Creed 
 of Christendom," published by a sceptical writer. 
 
12 Language of S. Augustine on this subject. 
 
 
 mingled together, and that it is left for the readers 
 of the Bible — simple peasants and yoimg children 
 — to winnow and sift the wheat from the chaff by 
 the fan and sieve of their own intellects. We do 
 not suppose that the Bible is like a rude mass, 
 having threads and spangles of precious metal, 
 intertwisted and encrusted in a mineral bed, and 
 that it is the duty of those who take the Bible 
 into their hands to smelt the ore from the dross. 
 But we believe the Bible to be pure gold. Every 
 word of God is pure 3 . We adopt the words of one 
 of the wisest divines, S. Augustine 4 , — " Such is 
 the reverence I have learnt to pay to the Books of 
 Holy Scripture, and to those Books alone, that I 
 most firmly believe that none of those Writers has 
 ever fallen into any error in writing ; and if I find 
 any thing in Scripture which seems to me at vari- 
 ance with the truth, I conclude that either my copy 
 of the Bible is in fault, or that the translator has 
 
 3 Prov. xxx. 5. Cp. Ps. xii. 6 ; cxix. 140. 
 
 4 S. Augustine, Epist. ad Hieron. 82; cp. S.Irenceus iii. 1, and 
 iii. 5, where he speaks of the Apostles as having perfect knowledge 
 (perfectam agnitionem) and placed beyond the reach of all false- 
 hood (extra omne mendacium), and so Origen (in Matth. torn. xvi. 
 c. 12), " I believe that not a jot or a tittle of the Gospels is without 
 divine instruction ; and that the Gospels were written with the co- 
 operation of the Holy Ghost, aud that they who wrote them never 
 fell into an error." See also his Comment on John vi. c. IS ; and 
 Homil. in Num. xxvii. 1, where he says that in Holy Scripture 
 there is ' nihil otiosum/ and (Homil. in Jerem. xxxix.), •'* there is 
 nothing in Scripture which does not do its own proper work, it 
 men know how to use it." 
 
Holy Scripture not blemished with Error. 13 
 
 missed the sense, or that I have not rightly under- 
 stood it °." 
 
 5. Theologians who imagine that they can 
 maintain the Inspiration of the Bible, and yet 
 assert that the Bible is blemished by errors may 
 be desired to consider, that if the Holy Ghost, 
 Who inspired the Scriptures, had not intended to 
 preserve their writers from error, He would not 
 have employed such persons as He did in writing 
 the Scriptures. He would not have chosen un- 
 learned and ignorant men* ; but He would have 
 chosen the wise of this world to write the Bible. 
 He would not have chosen a Galileean fisherman, 
 a hundred years old, for such St. John was, to 
 write the evangelic record of the sublimest dis- 
 courses of Jesus Christ. And if that Galilgean 
 fisherman, and his brother Evangelists, being such 
 as they were, had not been preserved from error 
 by the Holy Ghost, according to Christ's promise, 
 that the Comforter would teach them all things 
 and guide them into all truth, and bring all things 
 to their remembrance whatsoever He had said to 
 them (John xiv. 26; xvi. 13), they must have 
 fallen into countless errors, and manifest con- 
 tradictions. But the Holy Spirit wisely made 
 choice of feeble instruments, in order that by 'the 
 weakness of the instruments, and by the perfec- 
 tion of the work done by their means, it might be 
 
 5 See also Soolcer's judgement on this subject in his Eccles. 
 Polity, II. viii. 6. 
 
 6 Acts iv. 13. 
 
li As men, the Writers of Holy Scripture were 
 fallible in practice ; 
 
 seen and acknowledged by all, that the excellency 
 of the Gospel written by their hands is not of 
 man, but of God 7 . 
 
 6. But while we thus affirm, that the Bible — 
 »• by which we mean the genuine text of the divine 
 original — is free from error, we do not mean to 
 assert that the persons, who were employed to 
 write the Bible, as Moses, the Prophets, and 
 Apostles, were not liable to err. As Writer*, they 
 were guided in writing, and were preserved from 
 error by the Spirit of Truth, Who inspired them; 
 but, as men, they were fallible in practice. They 
 confess this. We are men of like passions with 
 you 8 . In many things we offend all 9 . The un- 
 erring Word of God records the errors of the men, 
 by whose instrumentality the Word of God was 
 written. Moses relates his own sin for which he 
 was excluded from Canaan: and the Scripture 
 says that he spake unadvisedly with his lips 1 . 
 David the Psalmist laments the sins of David the 
 King 2 . St. Luke in the Acts relates that the 
 Evangelist St. Mark faltered for a season, and 
 that St. Paul strove with St. Barnabas concerning 
 him 3 . The unerring language of the Holy Spirit, 
 writing by St. Paul in Holy Scripture, relates 
 that St. Peter erred and walked not uprightly 4 . 
 
 7 2 Cor. iv. 7. Cp. JSuseb. Demonst. Evang. iii. 5. Hist. 
 Eccl. iii. 24. 
 
 8 Acts xiv. 15. 9 James iii. 2. 
 1 Deut. xxxii. 51. Ps. cvi. 33. 2 p s . y u 
 
 s Acts xx. 37—39. * Gal. ii. 11—14. 
 
But as Writers of Scripture they did not err lo 
 in writing. 
 
 We believe that St. Peter erred, because the Holy 
 Spirit, who cannot err, asserts by St. Paul in 
 Scripture that he did err 5 . But let us not con- 
 found the Writers with the men. And let us dis- 
 tinguish the Writings from the practice of those by 
 whose hands they were written. Men they were, 
 and being men, though holy men, they were liable 
 to err. But the Writings which God the Holy 
 Ghost dictated by their instrumentality, and which 
 h&vebeen received&s Holy Scripture by the Christian 
 Church Universal } which is the Body of Christ, the \ 
 Pillar and Ground of truth, are exempt from error. 
 And why ? Because in writing they had the gift 
 of the Holy Ghost, who taught them all things and 
 guided (hem into all truth. 6 And their words were 
 not such as mail's wisdom teacheth, hut which the 
 Holy Ghost teacheth ' ; and, as St. Peter says, they 
 spake being moved by the Holy Ghost 8 ; and the 
 Holy Ghost is the Spirit of truth 9 , and every 
 Scripture 1 , St. Paul declares, is given by inspiration ' 
 of God. The workmen were human, but the work 
 is divine. They had the treasure in earthen vessels 2 , 
 but the treasure itself is not earthly, but heavenly. 
 The Channels, through which the pure water of 
 Holy Scripture flows, are like the aqueducts of 
 brick stretching across the Eoman Campagna, 
 
 5 This is clearly stated by S. Augustine in his correspondence 
 with S. Jerome, Epist. xxviii. xl. and lxxxii. 
 
 e John xiv. 26 ; xvi. 13. 7 1 Cor. ii. 13. 
 
 s 2 Pet. i. 21. 9 John xiv. 17 ; xv. 26. 
 
 1 Traora ypacp-f), every Scripture (2 Tim. iii. 16). 
 
 2 2 Cor. iv. 7. 
 
16 Why the Writers of Scripture sometimes speak 
 douhtingly. 
 
 but the Water itself, which flows through them, 
 is living water of salvation, streaming forth from 
 the heavenly Hills, even from the pure well-spring 
 of the Wisdom and Love of God. 
 
 7. Here also we may advert to those who allege 
 that the language of the Apostles is not from God, 
 because they sometimes speak douhtingly. We 
 cannot concur in that statement. And why ? 
 Because Inspiration is not Omniscience; and doubt 
 is not error. The Holy Spirit did not change 
 the human writers into Divine beings. His aid 
 was given to the Writers of Scripture according 
 to the need. Sometimes it swelled the sails of 
 their minds with a vehement gale; and at other 
 times, when the oars of human toil, and the pilotage 
 of human prudence, nearly sufficed for the purpose, 
 would fan them only with a gentle breeze ; some- 
 times it was almost lulled. He allowed the Evan- 
 gelists to speak douhtingly in Scripture in some 
 minor matters, where doubt was not hurtful; such 
 as, for instance, in the capacity of the vessels of 
 Cana 3 , or in the number of furlongs which the 
 Apostles had rowed 4 . He allowed St. Paul to 
 avow, that whether he was in the body or out of 
 the body, when he was caught up into the third 
 heaven, he could not tell 5 ; and to say that he knows 
 not whether he baptized any besides those whom 
 he mentions 6 ; and He permitted him to express, 
 
 3 John ii. 6. 
 
 4 John vi. 19. Cp. xi. 18. Acts iv. 4. Luke ix. 23. 
 
 e 2 Cor. xii. 2. c 1 Cor. i. 16. 
 
Why the Writers of Scripture sometimes sj)eak 17 
 doubtingly. 
 
 doubts concerning the future 7 . He inspired them 
 to inform us of their doubts in these cases, in order 
 that, in those other more momentous and myste- 
 rious matters, wherein they express no doubt, we 
 may feel sure that they do not speak from them- 
 selves, but from God. 
 
 8. Again. Doubtless there is & perfect language 
 in heaven. But we may not allow ourselves to for- 
 get, that when God communicated the mysteries 
 of Eevelation to the world, in the pages of Holy 
 Scripture, He did not speak in the tongues of 
 Angels, nor did He create any new language, but 
 He used a language already in being, a language 
 formed by the ordinary intercourse of man with 
 man, a language spoken in senates and law-courts, 
 and streets and market-places of the world. Writ- 
 ing to men He used the language of men. The 
 medium by which He revealed the mysteries of 
 the Gospel, was ancient and human, but what He 
 revealed thereby was new and Divine. 
 
 It is with Scripture as with Christ's Tribute- 
 money 8 . The metallic ore, of which that money 
 was made, was from God, it was dug up in the 
 mine; and Christ by His miraculous power brought 
 up the sum paid, from the depths of the sea : but 
 the Coin itself, in which the sum was paid, had 
 been struck in Caesar's mint. So the substance oi 
 Scripture-Doctrine is from God. Its mysteries 
 
 7 Eora. xv. 24. 1 Cor. xvi. 5, 6. 2 Cor. i. 15-17. Phil. ii. 
 19. 1 Tim. iii. 14. 
 
 8 Matt. xvii. 24—27. 
 
18 The Language of Scripture is human, but is used 
 under divine guidance. 
 
 are brought up from the abysses of Diviue Wis- 
 dom. The words in which they are revealed, are 
 words employed by God, through the ministry of 
 inspired men. But the language, of which those 
 words form a part, was framed by man; it was 
 struck in a human mint; and like every thing 
 made by the hand of man, that language was 
 not free from imperfection : though doubtless the 
 words, when used by men under the guidance of 
 God, serve perfectly all the purposes, which God, 
 in using them, intended them to serve. Almighty 
 God did not destroy the writers' identity, He 
 did not annul their free-will, but He used the 
 writers aright. He did not create a new lan- 
 guage, but He used the old with Divine Wisdom 
 and Truth. 
 
 9. One more prefatory observation may be made 
 here. 
 
 It is sometimes alleged, that since the collation 
 of the different Manuscripts of the Old and New 
 Testament has brought to light an immense mul- 
 titude of Various Readings, amounting to some 
 hundreds of thousands, therefore, in this diversity 
 of authorities, even if an inspired Text, and fault- 
 less Original, did exist any where, it would be 
 impossible for us to find it out. 
 
 As to this objection from the multitude of 
 Various Readings, this is not an evidence of 
 uncertainty in the Sacred Text, but it is rather a 
 proof of its certainty. The words of the original 
 Scripture have been transcribed by human copy- 
 
Various Readings in the copies of Scripture no 19 
 evidence of uncertainty. 
 
 ists, and though it is certain that no single copy, 
 now existing, either of the Old or New Testament 
 in their original tongues, exhibits precisely ver- 
 batim et literatim what was written by the Pro- 
 phets and Apostles, yet it is also certain that, by 
 collation of the copies which have been preserved, 
 we have the Text of the Holy Scriptures in such 
 a form, as may be depended on for all that we 
 require, and that, in receiving that Text, we receive 
 the Oracles of God. 
 
 For, let us consider ; Whence does this multi- 
 tude of Various Readings arise ? From the multi- 
 tude of copies. And this multitude of copies is the 
 very thing which secures and proves the integrity 
 of the Text. If we had only a few copies, there 
 would be few Various Readings ; and if there 
 was only one copy, there would be no Various 
 Readings at all. But then we should only have 
 one witness to depend upon. But now we have 
 many thousand witnesses, and since these wit- 
 nesses do vary in some very slight, trivial, and 
 insignificant matters, such as the omission of a 
 word, or its transposition, or in a particle or con- 
 junction, we see that there is no collusion, no 
 conspiracy among the witnesses. And since they 
 agree in all substantial respects, we are sure that 
 their witness is true, and that the Text, obtained 
 by their aid, is correct ; that it is a faithful repre- 
 sentation for all needful purposes, of the Words 
 dictated to the Prophets, Apostles, and Evangel- 
 ists, by the Holy Spirit of God, 
 c 2 
 
20 What is the true ground for belief in the 
 
 Inspiration of the Bible ? 
 
 III. Let us now proceed to suppose that an 
 unbeliever were to address us, and ask for a reason 
 of the hope that is in us, when we assert our belief 
 that the Bible is the Word of God. 
 
 What answer should we give to that question ? 
 
 If that belief is sound, there must be a reason 
 for it. And since the Bible is for all — for the 
 poor as well as rich, for the simple as well as the 
 learned — and all are bound to believe its doc- 
 trines and obey its precepts, it is clear that the 
 answer to be given to this question ought to be 
 of such a kind, that all, however unlearned, may- 
 be able to give it, and that all to whom it is given 
 ought to be satisfied with it. 
 
 Suppose therefore that an unbeliever were to 
 ask you this question. " On what grounds do you 
 believe the Bible to be the Word of God V 3 
 
 1. Some persons have said, in reply to this 
 inquiry, that they themselves have an inward spi- 
 ritual illumination, by which they are enabled to 
 discern the Bible to be God's Word. The Spirit 
 in their hearts, they affirm, bears witness to the 
 Spirit in the Bible, and assures them that it is His 
 Word. 
 
 We do not deny the force of this answer in due 
 measure and degree. But is it adequate ? Is it 
 satisfactory ? 
 
 Doubtless every devout person will feel, in read- 
 ing the Bible, that he is reading no common 
 book ; he will feel his heart burn within him 
 (Luke xxiv. 32), with holy love and joy, when he 
 
Erroneous ground upon icliich some build their 21 
 belief in the Inspiration of the Bible. 
 
 listens to its words, and when he observes the 
 harmony of the various parts of the Bible, and its 
 adaptation to the needs of our nature, and the 
 fulfilment of its prophecies ; and when he reflects 
 on the moral and social benefits conferred by the 
 Bible on the world ; and when he meditates on 
 the wonderful dispensations of God's providence 
 in protecting and preserving the Bible 9 . Every 
 one who is enlightened with divine grace will feel 
 a strong persuasion that it is the Word of God. 
 
 2. But such considerations as these, important 
 as they are, would not suffice to convince an uiu 
 believer that the Bible is the Word of God. We 
 need some other aid. It cannot be truly said 
 by any man, that, if portions of the Bible were 
 interspersed with portions of an uninspired book, 
 — such as the Book of Ecclesiasticus or of Wisdom, 
 — and if, being thus blended together, they were 
 placed before him, he could, by his own internal 
 consciousness, discern and separate what is inspired 
 from what is uninspired 1 . 
 
 9 This is enlarged upon below, Lecture T. 
 
 1 Hooker says well on this point (Eccl. Pol. III. viii. 15) : — "I 
 doubt not but men of wisdom and judgment will grant, that the 
 Church, in this point especially (the Inspiration of Holy Scripture), 
 is furnished with reason, to stop the mouths of her impious adver- 
 saries ; and that as it were altogether bootless to allege against 
 them what the Spirit had taught us, so likewise that even to our 
 own selves it needeth caution and explication how the testimony of 
 the Spirit may be discerned, by what means it may be known; lest 
 men think that the Spirit of God doth testify those things which 
 the spirit of error suggesteth." 
 
 And Bishop Burnet (on the Vlth Article) judiciously observes ; 
 
22 Private Consciousness no safe ground for belief 
 in the Inspiration of the Bible. 
 
 We do well to believe the Inspiration of the 
 Bible. But let those who would build their belief 
 upon their own feelings, in this momentous matter, 
 be entreated to consider, whether they may not 
 be building on the sand, and whether they do not 
 need more solid arguments to persuade others. 
 Strong reasons are requisite to convince the 
 unbeliever that the whole Bible is the Word of God : 
 he will not be satisfied with assertions, he will re- 
 quire proofs. Our perceptions are no rule for him. 
 He will not ask for emotions, but evidences ; he 
 will require, not feelings, but facts. He may say 
 fco us, " You feel that the Bible is inspired, but I 
 have no such feeling ; and why should J be guided 
 by your feelings in receiving the Bible, rather than 
 you be swayed by my feelings in rejecting it ? 
 Besides, if I am to be influenced by men^s feelings, 
 I should have as many different Bibles as there 
 are different Religions. The Brahmin will tell 
 me that he feels a divine spirit speaking to him 
 
 In proof of the Inspiration of Holy Scripture "I will not urge that 
 of the testimony of the Spirit, which many have had recourse to : 
 this is only an argument to him that feels it, if it is one at all; 
 and therefore it proves nothing to another person ; besides, the 
 utmost that with reason can be made of this is, that a good man 
 feeling the very powerful effects of the Christian religion on his 
 own heart, -in the reforming his nature, and the calming his con- 
 science, together with those comforts that arise out of it, is con- 
 vinced in general of the whole of Christianity, by the happy effects 
 that it has upon his own mind ; but it does not from this appear, 
 how he should know that such looks and such passages in them 
 should come from a Divine original, or that he should be able to 
 distinguish tvhat is genuine in them from what is spurious." 
 
Origin and disastrous result of that Theory. 23 
 
 in the Vedas ; the Mahometan thinks that he 
 hears a divine voice in the Koran ; the Jew, who 
 recognizes a divine presence in the Old Testament, 
 denies its existence in the New. And even among 
 Christians, some 2 receive the Apocryphal Books, 
 such as the Books of Judith andTobit, as divinely 
 inspired, while others a do not own them as such. 
 If personal feelings and opinions, apart from 
 logical proofs, are to determine the matter, every 
 form of Religion may have a separate Bible, and 
 there can be no common standard, no uniform 
 Rule of Faith and Practice for all." 
 
 3. Consider, also, to what disastrous results this 
 reference to private feelings and opinions in the 
 question of Inspiration, has already led. 
 
 That theory was put forth by some pious men 
 at the Reformation in the sixteenth century. To 
 cite one of the greatest names of that time — 
 Martin Luther said that he himself could not 
 reconcile the doctrine of St. James with that of 
 St. Paul, on the subject of Justification, and that 
 therefore, inasmuch as he accepted the doctrine 
 of St. Paul, he must reject the Epistle of St. 
 James, which he called l ' an Epistle of straw." In 
 a similar temper he rejected the Book of Revela- 
 tion of St. John the Divine. He did not feel their 
 Inspiration; they were not congenial to his 
 opinions ; they did not approve themselves to his 
 mind. The Apostle St. Paul was inspired, because 
 
 2 Members of the Church of Rome. Concil. Trident. Sess. iv. 
 s The Church of England, Art. VI. 
 
24 Calamitous consequences of that Theory. 
 
 Martin Luther felt his inspiration ! But the 
 Apostles St. James and St. John were to wait for 
 an allowance of their Inspiration till the feelings 
 of Martin Luther should change ! There is reason 
 to believe that Luther lived long enough to rue 
 this rash and reckless presumption 4 . But this 
 example of arbitrary wilfulness, in dealing with 
 Holy Scripture, did great mischief. Other Re- 
 formers, and even entire Eeformed Churches 5 , — 
 happily not the Church of England 6 , — grounded 
 their recognition of Holy Scripture, and their 
 belief in its Inspiration, upon the foundation alone 
 of what they called the internal witness of the 
 Spirit in themselves. They resolved their belief 
 into a mere private intuition, and personal assur- 
 ance in their own hearts. They made themselves 
 the judges of God's Word. 
 
 Here was the root of the evil which has now 
 grown up into a tree and overshadows Europe 
 with darkness, and blights the vegetation beneath 
 it, and yields deadly fruit ; as may be seen in 
 " Essays and Reviews," and (I deeply regret to add) 
 in Bishop Colenso's and Dean Stanley's writings 
 on the Old Testament. They who rested their 
 belief in the Bible on such a basis as that, were 
 unable to defend the Bible against those who 
 assailed it. Their belief in the Bible was true, 
 but it rested on false grounds. It was built on 
 
 4 See Gerhardi Loci Theol. Appendix de Scr. Sacra, § 279 and 
 § 299. 5 Coofessio Belgica v. Confessio Gallicana iv. 
 
 6 See below, Lecture IV. 
 
Sceptical development of the Theory of private 25 
 consciousness. 
 
 the shifting quicksand of private opinion. As 
 ong as men agreed in feeling that inner Con- 
 sciousness which led them to acknowledge the 
 Truth and Inspiration of the Bible, so long the 
 unsoundness of the foundation did not manifestly 
 appear. But they were dwelling in a tottering 
 house ; and ere long- the storm came, and the 
 house fell. Persons arose after them, who 
 appealed to their own Consciousness, as a suffi- 
 cient reason for rejecting portions of the Bible. 
 And they who had received the Bible on the assur- 
 ance of their own supposed inner illumination, 
 were unable to give any reply to those who 
 rejected it on similar grounds. The inner Con- 
 sciousness of the one party was set against the 
 inner Consciousness of the other party. . . . And 
 who could arbitrate between them? 
 
 4. Thus in looking back to the history of 
 Christendom, we see that the erroneous principle 
 which was adopted by some pious men, in support 
 of the Bible, three centuries ago, has now been 
 applied by others to destroy the Bible. 
 
 Some recently published Volumes, contravening 
 the truth and inspiration of Scripture, which have 
 startled the religious mind of the English Public, 
 are only the natural fruit of the waywardness of 
 private opinion developed in a sceptical direction. 
 They have brought to the surface what has long 
 been lurking beneath it. But if we are not want- 
 ing to ourselves, great good may be the result. 
 
 Relying on what they call " the verifying 
 
26 Injurious effects of that Theory on the moral 
 influence of the Bible, 
 
 faculty " in their own minds, some impugn , the 
 veracity and genuineness of the Pentateuch, be- 
 cause they think that its records are inconsistent 
 with the results of scientific research, or because 
 they suppose its language to be posterior to the 
 age of Moses. Some reject the Book of Daniel, 
 because they imagine that its Prophecies were 
 subsequent to the events which it professes to 
 predict. Others will not receive the second 
 Epistle of St. Peter, because the style of that 
 Epistle differs from the First, and because they 
 think that both those Epistles could not have been 
 written by the same Author. 7 In short, there is 
 scarcely a single book in the Bible, which has not 
 now been called into question by men who are 
 swayed by their own feelings, and biassed by their 
 own private opinions. "The nature of the In- 
 spiration of Scripture," they say, " can only be 
 shown from the examination of Scripture *," and 
 whatever they find in the Bible congenial to them- 
 selves, whatever harmonizes with their own senti- 
 ments, that they believe to be inspired, and that 
 alone. Thus the divinity of the Bible is made 
 to depend on the fickleness of human caprice; 
 
 "> See ZTavernic7c' s Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 1836 — 
 1849, and Gueri/ce's Einleitung in das N. T., 1843. 
 
 8 " Essays and Reviews," p. 347. And again, " to the ques- 
 tion, 'What is inspiration ?' the first answer is, ' The idea which 
 we. gather from the study of it/ This is reconcileahle with varia- 
 tions in fact in the Gospels . . . with inaccuracies of language in 
 the Epistles of St. Paul." 
 
and on its right Interpretation. 27 
 
 and "unless God pleases man He is to be no 
 longer God 9 ." 
 
 The Genuineness and Inspiration of the Bible 
 as a whole being thus made matter of doubt, the 
 Bible itself is to be no longer the standard of 
 Faith and Practice, but the varying consciousness 
 of the individual is to be substituted in the place 
 of God's Holy Word. 
 
 There can be no uniform standard of Interpreta- 
 tion, upon such principles as these. The Bible 
 becomes like a "leaden rule/' which men may 
 bend aside according to their own will l . And 
 thus they fall under St. Peter's censure, who says 
 that they that are unlearned and unstable wrest the 
 (Scriptures to their own destruction 2 . 
 
 IV. This condition of things is fraught with 
 warning and instruction. It teaches us that it is not 
 enough to believe the truth, but that it is necessary 
 to believe it on right grounds. If Belief is made 
 to rest on a wrong foundation, it must give rise to 
 Unbelief. It is not enough to believe that the 
 Bible is God's written Word, but it is necessary 
 to be able to convince others that this proposition 
 is true. It is necessary (as St. Peter affirms) to 
 
 9 Nisi homini Deus placuerit, Deus non erit. — Tertullian, Apol. 
 c.5. 
 
 1 Or, in the language of Dryden, 
 
 " Their airy faith will no foundation find; 
 . The Word's a iveathercock to every wind." 
 
 2 2 Pet. iii. 16. 
 
28 Present religious crisis in England. 
 
 be always ready to give to every man that asketh 
 us a reason of the hope that is in us. 
 
 Let us examine ourselves, whether we are able 
 to do this. Let those who have hitherto built 
 their belief on the basis of private feelings and 
 opinions, be earnestly entreated to contemplate 
 the superstructure of error, which has now risen up 
 upon that basis. Let them be desired to recon- 
 sider their principles. The prevalence of Infi- 
 delity among us, the avowal of strange doctrines 
 concerning the Inspiration of the Bible, which is 
 the groundwork of all our hopes, imperatively 
 demand this at our hands. 
 
 England is now on her trial. Now is the crisis of 
 her religious life. If she has strength to eject the 
 poison which has been infused into her, she may 
 become more vigorous than before. But if not, 
 that poison will curdle in her veins, and her system 
 will be diseased, and a moral mortification will 
 ensue ; and England will be in a few years, what 
 some other Nations of Europe now are. 
 
 Let us consider calmly the signs of the times ; 
 let us endeavour, by God's grace, to maintain the 
 truth ; let us charitably and wisely labour to over- 
 come evil with good. Then we may be sure, that 
 the dangers, by which the Faith is now assailed, 
 will be occasions of new victories. Our difficulties 
 are God's opportunities. Our midnight is His 
 noon. Our trials may be our triumphs. They 
 may conduce to heal our unhappy differences and 
 dissensions, and to unite us all in the truth. 
 
Hopes for the future. 29 
 
 If the Bible is the unerring word of the Ever- 
 living God; if, as we believe, it is the Rule of Faith 
 and Practice ; if it is the Charter of our social 
 and national privileges upon earth, and of our 
 everlasting citizenship in heaven; if it is the Code, 
 by which we shall be judged at the Great Day ; 
 then we may be sure, that all attacks upon it will 
 one day recoil upon those who make them, like 
 the foam and spray dashed from the firm-set rock. 
 
 The violence of the storm will prove the strength 
 of the fortress, and will confirm our belief in its 
 impregnability, and in the faithfulness and power 
 of Him, whose Divine Eye is ever upon it, and 
 who shields it with the defence of His own 
 Almighty protection. And thus, though the sea 
 around us is tempestuous, and though the waters 
 thereof rage and swell, yet in His own appointed 
 time the rivers of the flood thereof mill make glad 
 the city of God 3 . 
 
 What is the true foundation on which the belief 
 of the Inspiration of Holy Scripture is to be built ? 
 and what are the reasons by which we may hope 
 to convince others, that the Bible, the whole Bible, 
 and nothing but the Bible, is the written Word of 
 God? 
 
 These questions will be considered in the fol- 
 lowing lectures. Let me entreat your prayers 
 for God's help in this work, for His honour and 
 glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 3 Ps. xlvi. 2, 3. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 Eomans iii. 1, 2. 
 
 What advantage then hath the Jew ? Much every way : chiefly, 
 because that unto them were committed the Oracles of God. 
 
 I. 1. In the last lecture we entered on the 
 inquiry, 
 
 "By what reasons are we persuaded, and by 
 what arguments would we persuade others, that 
 the Bible is the Word of God?" 
 
 It was then observed, that some persons have 
 replied to this question by saying, that they have 
 an inward illumination, by which they are enabled 
 to distinguish the Bible from all other books; 
 and they rest their belief in the Inspiration of the 
 Bible upon this private assurance. 
 
 But, as was then remarked, this assurance on 
 their part cannot exercise any influence on others. 
 Our belief in the Inspiration of the Bible can- 
 not induce an unbeliever to receive it as God's 
 Word. 
 
 It has also been already shown, that this appeal 
 
Recapitulation, 3 1 
 
 to private feelings and opinions, as the ground- 
 work of belief in the Bible, has led to unhappy 
 results. If we refer to our own feelings and 
 opinions as an adequate proof of its Inspira- 
 tion, we must not be surprised to find that other 
 persons refer to their feelings and opinions, in 
 disproof of it. 
 
 2. It is hardly necessary to say, that we cannot 
 prove from Scripture itself alone, that Scripture 
 is God's Word. The Holy Spirit says by St. Paul, 
 that all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God 1 . 
 But it must first be proved by arguments external 
 to Scripture, as well as by internal evidence deriv- 
 able from Scripture, that St. Paul himself, when 
 he wrote these words, wrote under the Inspiration 
 of God 2 . 
 
 II. Let us now open the Old Testament, and 
 let us proceed to enquire on what grounds are we 
 convinced, and by what proofs would we en- 
 deavour to persuade others, that the Old Testa* 
 ment is the Word of God ? 
 
 i 2 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
 2 See Hooker. I. xiv. 1. " Of tLings necessary, the very chiefest 
 is to know what books we are bound to esteem holy ; which point 
 is confessed impossible for Scripture itself to teach." And again, 
 II. iv. 2, " It is not the Word of God which doth or possibly can 
 assure us that we do well to think that is His Word ; for if any one 
 Book of Scripture did give testimony to all, yet still that Scripture 
 would require another to give credit to it; nor could we ever come 
 to any pause to rest our assurance this way ; so that unless beside 
 Scripture there were something that might assure us that we do 
 well, we could not think we do well, no not in being assured that 
 Scripture is a sacred and holy rule of well-doiug." 
 
32 What are the true grounds for belief in the 
 
 Inspiration of the Old Testament ? 
 
 1. First, we would reply, we receive the Old 
 Testament as inspired, on the testimony of God, 
 declared in the consent and practice of the Jewish 
 Nation, to which "were delivered 3 the Oracles of 
 God." The Ancient Jewish Church was the 
 divinely constituted Recipient and Guardian of 
 the Old Testament. Its testimony on this matter 
 is the testimony of God. 
 
 2. Secondly, we receive the Old Testament as 
 inspired, on the testimony of the Son of God, our 
 Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Cheist. 
 
 3. Thirdly, we receive the Old Testament as in- 
 spired, on the testimony of God the Holt Ghost, 
 testifying to its truth and inspiration, by the 
 mouth of the Holy Apostles, and by the consent 
 of the Christian Church, to which our Blessed 
 Lord promised to send the Holy Spirit "to teach 
 her all things" and to "guide her into all truth, 
 and to abide with her for ever*." 
 
 First, then, we receive the Old Testament as 
 inspired, on the testimony of Almighty God, de- 
 clared by the Jewish Nation. 
 
 III. Here we must begin by showing that the 
 Old Testament, as it now exists in our age, is the 
 
 3 St. Paul's words are iirKTrevO^cravra Xoyia, a stronger phrase 
 than that in our English Version. "They were entrusted with 
 the oracles of God." The Jews were the Trustees and Guardians 
 of the Old Testament; and our Lord and His Apostles acknow- 
 ledged that they were faithful to their trust, in guarding it from 
 alteration. 4 John xvi. 7. 13 ; xiv. 26. 
 
Integrity of the Text of the Old Testament, 33 
 how secured, and proved. 
 
 same as the Old Testament in the first century of 
 the Christian era : in other words, we must prove 
 its integrity, or identity. 
 
 Its identity may be proved from the fact, that 
 the Old Testament has heen publicly read both in 
 Jewish Synagogues 5 , and in Christian Churches 6 , 
 throughout the world, every week, from the first 
 century after Christ to the present day. 
 
 The multiplication of copies of the Old Tes- 
 tament, for the purposes of this weekly public 
 Eeading in the Jewish Synagogues on the Jewish 
 Sabbath, and in Christian Churches on the Lord's 
 Day, and this public Reading itself, have served 
 as providential guarantees for the preservation of 
 the Old Testament. 
 
 Even if any of the Jews had ever desired to 
 tamper with the Text of the Old Testament, they 
 would have been prevented from effecting such a 
 purpose by the diffusion of copies of the Old Tes- 
 tament — in the original Hebrew and m Translations 
 of it — such as the Chaldee, Syriac, and the Sep- 
 tuagint or Greek Version, and the Ancient Latin 
 Versions, and others 7 . Even if all the Jewish Syna- 
 gogues had conspired together to alter the Text 
 of the Old Testament, which is a thing incredible, 
 
 5 See on Acts xiii. 15 ; xv. 21. Josephus c. Apion. ii. p. 1072, 
 and the authorities in Vitringa's treatise De Synagoga Vetere, lib. 
 iii. pt. ii. c. 8, p. 961, ed. Franck. 1696. 
 
 6 See the authorities in Bingham's Antiquities, book xh\ 
 cli. iii. 
 
 ' Sec 8. Augustine's observation on this point, De Civitate Dei, 
 xv. c. 13. 
 
 D 
 
34 Integrity of the Text of the Old Testament, 
 how secured, and proved. 
 
 they would have been hindered and checked from 
 doing* so by the counteracting" vigilance of Chris- 
 tian Churches, guarding the Old Testament, and 
 publicly reading the Old Testament in all parts 
 of the civilized world. 
 
 And if, on the other side, any Christian Churches 
 had ever attempted to make any change in the 
 Old Testament, such an attempt would have been 
 exposed and frustrated by the Jews. 
 
 Thus we see, that under God's providential care 
 for the Old Testament, even the enmity of Jews 
 and Christians has been overruled for good; it 
 has been made instrumental in the preservation 
 of His Holy Word, and in assuring the world of 
 its integrity. 
 
 A Poet of old, speaking of a ship in a stormy 
 night, says, "that in such a time it is good to 
 have two Anchors cast out of the vessel/' one 
 anchor from the prow, the other at the stern, in 
 order that it may ride safely in the storm 8 . In 
 the tempests of the long night of many centuries, 
 the sacred vessel of Holy Scripture has been 
 moored securely on the two Anchors of the Jewish 
 Synagogue and of the Christian Church. 
 
 It is certain that the Old Testament, as it is now 
 in the hands of the Jews dispersed every where, 
 coincides with the Old Testament in the hands of 
 the Christian Churches diffused throughout the 
 world. 
 
 This coincidence is a proof, that the Old Testa- 
 
 s Pindar, Olyuip. vi. 172. 
 
With what reverence the Jews in our Lord's age 35 
 regarded the Old Testament ? 
 
 ment, which we have in our hands at this day, is 
 the same as the Old Testament in the first century 
 of the Christian era. 
 
 IV. Let us, therefore, now ascend in our 
 thoughts to the first century of the Christian era, 
 and imagine ourselves living then; and suppose 
 the case of pious Israelites, such, for example, as 
 an aged Simeon or a guileless Nathanael at that 
 time. 
 
 By what arguments would the religious Jews 
 of that age have been persuaded, and by what 
 evidence would they have sought to persuade 
 others, that the Old Testament which they had, 
 is inspired by God ? 
 
 1, Doubtless the first motive which impelled 
 the devout Israelite to acknowledge the Old Tes- 
 tament as divine, was the fact that he saw it set 
 apart from all other Books by the universal con- 
 sent and uniform practice of his own Nation, to 
 which God had vouchsafed wonderful marks of 
 His favour and blessing. 
 
 He saw the Books of the Old Testament treated 
 with pious reverence by the whole Hebrew people. 
 He beheld those Books treasured up with devout 
 care in the Synagogues, and brought forth, Sab- 
 bath after Sabbath, from the sacred chest in those 
 Synagogues ; he saw those Volumes unveiled and 
 unrolled with holy veneration; and before and 
 after the reading of those Writings, he heard the 
 accents of blessing and praise addressed to God 
 for the gift of those sacred Writings, and ho 
 d 2 
 
36 Josephus. 
 
 listened to their words recited with scrupulous 
 care, and venerated with religious awe 9 . 
 
 Every Jew, from his infancy, was thus im- 
 pressed with a belief in the Truth and Inspiration 
 of the Old Testament. 
 
 2. The feelings with which the pious Israelite 
 regarded the Old Testament are thus described by 
 a Writer living in the Apostolic age, who was 
 eminently qualified to bear witness on this subject. 
 That person is Josephus, the Jewish Historian, 
 one of the most learned Authors of that time, a 
 Pharisee, and of a priestly family, and descended 
 from the Asmonean Princes. He speaks of the 
 Old Testament as follows : l "We have not a mul- 
 titude of books at variance with one another," as 
 the Heathen have, " but we have only Twenty-two 
 Books:" (such was the reckoning of the Jews, by 
 whom several Books of the Old Testament were 
 counted as one; for instance, the Twelve Minor 
 Prophets were reckoned by them as one Book 2 , 
 and so, on the whole, their Twenty-two Books, 
 beginning with Genesis and ending with Malachi, 
 correspond to our Books of the Old Testament.) 
 1 ' We have only Twenty-two Books, which contain 
 
 ? The Jewish authorities, describing the forms and ceremonies 
 used in the Synagogues, at the reading of the Old Testament, may- 
 be seen in the Treatise of Yitringa, De Synagoga Vetere, lib. iii. 
 pt. ii. cap. 8, pp. 961 — 975. See also the account of the reading 
 of the Old Testament in the Synagogues, in Dean Prideaux's 
 Connexion, part i. book vi. on B.C. 445 — 433. 
 
 1 Josephus c. Apion. i. § 8. 
 
 2 See Up. Cosin on the Canon of Scripture, chap. ii. 
 
On what grounds did that reverence rest ? 37 
 
 the record of all time, and are the Books which 
 are rightly believed to be divine. Five of these 
 are the Books of Moses, which comprise our Laws, 
 and the history of the human race until the death 
 of Moses." 
 
 Josephus then proceeds to describe the other 
 Books of the Old Testament; and sums up his 
 account with these memorable words; — " We show 
 by our practice, what our belief is as to these 
 Books. For, although so long a time has elapsed 
 since they were written, yet no one has ever ven- 
 tured to make any addition to them, or to take 
 any thing from them, or to make any change in 
 them. And it is a principle innate in every Jew, 
 to regard these Books as Oracles of God, and to 
 cleave to them ; yea, and to die gladly for them. 33 
 
 Such, then, was the judgment of the Jewish 
 Nation concerning the Old Testament. 
 
 V. On what proofs did this judgment rest ? 
 How was the Jewish Nation convinced that the 
 Old Testament in its hands was genuine and had 
 not been tampered with and adulterated ? 
 
 How was it persuaded that it is true ? 
 
 How was it satisfied that it is inspired by God? 
 
 1. First, (as was before observed) the Diffusion 
 of those Books into all parts of the world, and 
 the weekly public Heading of them for many 
 centuries in Synagogues before the Christian era, 
 had secured their identity. The Translation also 
 of those Books into the Greek language 3 , and the 
 
 3 See Josephus, Antiquities xii. 2. 4 — 15. 
 
38 Integrity of the Old Testament, how secured. 
 
 multiplication of copies in that language was 
 another safeguard which preserved them from 
 being altered or tampered with. The formation 
 of Chaldee Paraphrases of the Old Testament 
 served also for a similar purpose. 
 
 2. Even the greatest national afflictions of the 
 Hebrew People had been made by Grod to subserve 
 His gracious purposes in guarding, preserving, and 
 disseminating His own Word, and in assuring the 
 world of its Integrity. 
 
 In the age of King Rehoboam, the son of Solo- 
 mon, Ten Tribes of Israel had revolted from the 
 House of Judah 4 , and they always remained sepa- 
 rate from the Two Tribes of Judah and Benjamin. 
 Israel and Judah were split asunder, and formed 
 two rival kingdoms. This was a great calamity, 
 but G od educed good from it : the one Kingdom 
 acted as a check on the other in the custody of 
 the Bible. Though these kingdoms were opposed, 
 to each other in other respects, yet they agreed 
 in receiving the same Bible. Thus under God 
 they co-operated in the guardianship of His Word. 
 
 If King Jeroboam and his successors on the 
 Throne of Israel, and the Ten Tribes who were 
 subject to them, had been able to convict the Two 
 Tribes of making any alteration in the Old Testa- 
 ment they would not have failed to do so. The 
 Kings of Israel, after its defection from Judah, 
 set up rival objects of worship at Dan and Beer- 
 sheba; and they would have drawn off more 
 4 1 Kings xii. 16—19. 
 
Integrity oj the Old Testament, how secured. 39 
 
 worshippers from Jerusalem to their own altars, 
 and have strengthened their own secular power, 
 if they could have alleged with truth that the Two 
 Tribes had been faithless to their trust, and had 
 tampered with the Word of God. And if, on their 
 side, the Ten Tribes had made any change in the 
 text of the Old Testament, the Two Tribes would 
 have raised their protest against such alteration. 
 
 The fact however is, that the Ten Tribes and 
 the Two Tribes, though severed from each other 
 by many religious jealousies, and political anti- 
 pathies, had one and the same Bible. Though 
 Ephraim envied Judah, and Judah vexed Ephraim 5 , 
 yet Ephraim and Judah agreed in receiving and 
 revering the same Scriptures. And though in 
 course of time the Ten Tribes were carried away 
 captive 6 beyond the Euphrates, and were scattered 
 abroad in Media and Persia, and also in Asia and 
 Egypt ; and though afterwards the Two Tribes 
 also were taken away 7 from their own home to 
 Babylon and to other cities of the East, yet all 
 the Twelve Tribes, wherever dispersed throughout 
 the world, were united as one man in the reading 
 of the same Scriptures ; and they have maintained 
 that union inviolate even to this hour 8 . 
 
 5 Isa. xi. 13. 6 2 Kings xvii. 6. 
 
 7 2 Kings xxiv. 10; xxv. 11. 20. 
 
 8 The case of the Samaritan Pentateuch affords no exception to 
 this statement. The Samaritans were foreigners (see Luke xvii. 
 18, and cp. Hengstenberg, Die Authentic des Pentateuches, p. 4), 
 and not Israelites. And the general agreement of the Samaritan 
 Pentateuch with the Hebrew affords a testimony to the 
 
 
40 Truth of the Old Testament, how proved. 
 
 3. This universal reception and public reading of 
 the Old Testament by the Jewish Nation is also a 
 proof of its historical Truth. 
 
 Consider the contents of the Old Testament. 
 Open the Bible. Examine the Pentateuch, or five 
 Books of Moses. They do not give a flattering 
 representation of the Hebrew Nation. On the 
 contrary, they exhibit it in a very unfavourable 
 light. They display the Israelites as rebelling 
 against God immediately after they had been 
 rescued from Egypt, and when He was doing 
 mighty works in their behalf, and showering down 
 favours upon them. If as some allege, the Author 
 of the Pentateuch had endeavoured to palm upon 
 the Hebrew Nation a fictitious account of mercies 
 that had never been vouchsafed to their fore- 
 fathers, and of miracles that had never been 
 wrought, he would have endeavoured to ingratiate 
 himself with the Nation, by giving a favourable 
 picture of the piety and virtue of their ancestors. 
 He would have said that all the People were so 
 astounded by the stupendous majesty of the 
 miracles, and were so affected by the gracious 
 
 integrity of the latter. See Bp. Walton, Prolegomena, cap xi., 
 and Dr. Bentley on Ereethinking, Remark xxvii. Dr. Mc Caul's 
 Examination of Bp. Colenso, p. 160. The allegation that there are 
 interpolations in the Pentateuch, which axe later than the age of 
 Moses, is carefully examined by Haverniek, § 134, pp. 541 — 9 
 of the original work, or pp 361, 362 of the English Translation, 
 1850. Cp. Hengstenberg, Die Authentic des Pentateuches, vol. ii. 
 pp. 179-333. 
 
Internal proof of the truth of the Old Testament. 41 
 
 beneficence of the mercies, that they were riveted 
 by them in unswerving obedience. 
 
 But no ; Moses displays to us the Hebrew Na- 
 tion as falling into idolatry in the wilderness, after 
 their deliverance from their enemies, and when 
 God was about to give them the Law from Mount 
 Sinai 9 . He exhibits them rebelling against God 
 at the very time when He was feeding them with 
 bread from heaven, and giving them water from 
 the rock l , and leading them with a pillar of fire 2 . 
 At the close of the forty years' sojourn in the 
 wilderness, just before his death, his testimony of 
 them is, Tlwu art a stiff-necked People. Ye have 
 been rebellious against the Lord, from the day that 
 I knew you 3 . The Pentateuch is a censure upon 
 Israel, it is a condemnation of the Hebrew Nation 
 for its idolatry and rebellion against God. 
 
 Can any man seriously imagine that such a 
 history as this would have been accepted by the 
 Hebrews as divine, if it had not been true ? 
 
 The Books of Moses also relate, that on account 
 of their sins, all the Israelites that came out of 
 Egypt, with the exception of two, were excluded 
 from the Land of Promise *. Thus the Author 
 frankly confesses the insufficiency of his own 
 guidance and government to bring them into that 
 Land, and implies a failure on his part. 
 
 9 Exod. xxxii. * Exod. xvi. 2 ; and xvii. 2. 
 
 2 Exod. xiv. 20. 
 
 3 Dent. ix. 6, 7. 24. May I be allowed to refer to ray notes on 
 this Chapter, which is very important in this light. 
 
 4 Dent. i. 35, 36. 38. 
 
42 Divine Origin of the Pentateuch, how avouched. 
 
 He also records his own sin, and his consequent 
 exclusion from Canaan 5 . He relates likewise 
 the sin of his brother Aaron 6 in making the 
 golden calf ; and the sin of his sister Miriam 7 in 
 murmuring against himself; and the sin of his 
 bro ther's sons Nadab and Abihu 8 , for which they 
 were destroyed by God ; and the sin of some of 
 his own Tribe, Korah and his company, for which 
 they were consumed by fire 9 . 
 
 Men are prone to speak well of themselves, and 
 to eulogize their own nation. No man is eager 
 to propagate calumnies and perpetuate slanders 
 against himself and his own family, and the 
 people committed to his rule. Nations are wont 
 to dress up their own History in terms flattering 
 to themselves. No Nation in the world has ever 
 adopted libels on itself, and publicly recited them 
 as true, and has venerated them as oracles of God. 
 If the Books of Moses are not true, the Author 
 of them would have been condemned by the Jews 
 as an impostor and a slanderer of the Nation, and 
 as a blasphemer of God, and his books would 
 have been consigned by them to perpetual in- 
 famy. 
 
 But the Hebrew People has accepted the Penta- 
 teuch as its own History written by inspiration of 
 God. It has publicly read it as such ever since it 
 was written. The great National yearly Festivals 
 
 5 Numb. xx. 12. 6 Exod. xxxii. 
 
 7 Numb. xii. 1. 8 Levit. x. 1. 
 
 6 Numb. xvi. 
 
Divine Origin of the Pentateuch, how avouched. 43 
 
 to which the Jews resorted from all parts of the' 
 world, were standing monuments of the historical V 
 veracity of the Pentateuch. The Passover, Pen- ' 
 tecost, and Tabernacles, at which the Pentateuch 
 was publicly read in the ears of all the people 
 every seventh year *, commemorated the wonderful 
 facts, recorded by Moses in the Pentateuch, and 
 bore witness to its truth. 
 
 Therefore we may justly conclude that the Pen- 
 tateuch is historically true. 
 
 4. The Israelite, being thus convinced of the 
 Integrity and Truth of the Pentateuch, would 
 next proceed to consider the proof of its Inspi- 
 ration. 
 
 In that true History he saw his own Nation set 
 apart by God, from ancient days, as a peculiar 
 People. He knew from that History that the 
 Tabernacle 2 in the wilderness had been fenced off 
 by God from other places. He knew that in that 
 Tabernacle there was a place distinguished from 
 the rest, and called the "Holy of Holies" He 
 knew that in the mysterious darkness of that 
 Holy of Holies, separated by the Veil, which hung 
 before it, was the Ark ; and, above the Ark, the . 
 Mercy Seat ; and on the Mercy Seat the Cheru- 
 bim, stretching their wings over it ; and that this 
 Mercy Seat was the Dwelling-place of God. 
 
 5. Observe now the visible and practical testi- 
 mony thus afforded by God Himself to the Inspi- 
 ration of the Old Testament. 
 
 i Deut. xxxi. 10. 2 Exod. xxv. 8—22 ; xxvi. 33. 
 
44 Original of the Pentateuch preserved in the Holy 
 of Holies. 
 
 As soon as the Pentateuch was written, He 
 commanded Moses that it should be placed in the 
 Holy of Holies, by the side of the Ark, the 
 Throne of God 3 . Remember what the Holy of 
 Holies was. It was the type and figure of heaven 
 itself*. And into it no one might enter, except 
 the High Priest, and he only once a year. By 
 placing therefore the Pentateuch there, God Him- 
 self has set apart that Book from all other books. 
 ■\ He enshrined it in His own Oracle. He conse- 
 crated it. The God of Truth Himself thus 
 avouched its veracity. The Omnipotent thus 
 ■ protected it. He received it under the shadow 
 of His Wings and made it safe under His feathers 5 . 
 The Holy One of Israel proclaimed its sanctity, 
 and acknowledged it as His own. 
 
 This book of the Law, treasured up in the 
 Holy of Holies, was the Original from which 
 Copies were to be made ; and it was the standard 
 by which those copies were to be revised and 
 verified. The sacred Original was to remain in 
 
 3 See Deut. xxxi. 9. 24—26. Josh. xxiv. 26. That this com- 
 mand concerned the whole Pentateuch is shown by HavernicJc, 
 Einleitung i. p. 19. The objection of some recent sceptical 
 writers (such as JDe Wette and others), alleging that this statement 
 is inconsistent with the assertion in 1 Kings viii. 9, that in Solo- 
 mon's days there was nothing in the Ark save the Two Tables of 
 stone, is refuted by the fact that the Law is not said in Deut. xxxi. 
 26, to be deposited in the Ark, but by the side of it. Cp. Josephus, 
 Antiq. viii. 4. 
 
 4 Heb. ix. 7—11. Bp. Pearson on the Creed, Art. V. 
 6 Ps. xci. 4. 
 
Original of the Pentateuch to be copied out by 4o 
 the Kings with their own hand. 
 
 the Most Hoi j Place. But the knowledge of its 
 contents was to be diffused every where. 
 
 6. In order still further to declare its divine 
 authority t Almighty God commanded that the 
 Kings of the Hebrew Nation, on their accession 
 to the throne, should make with their own hands 
 a copy of the Law from the Original that was 
 kept in the Holy of Holies 6 . Sovereigns were 
 to be its transcribers, and to keep the Law of 
 God always by their side, as the code and charter 
 of their government 7 . 
 
 This sacred Original was preserved in the 
 Tabernacle, and in the Temple, for many genera- 
 tions 8 ; and in all probability it was this Original, 
 which, having been rescued from the hands of 
 idolatrous Princes, and secreted in evil days, was 
 discovered in the Temple, in the days of the good 
 King Josiah 9 . It was the sight of that venerable 
 Volume, written by the great Lawgiver, and 
 the sound of the divine words recited from that 
 holy oracle, which affected the tender heart of 
 that pious youthful Prince with awe and peni- 
 tential sorrow for the sins of the People com- 
 mitted to his charge, and with godly fear of the 
 divine judgments hanging over their heads. 
 
 6 Deut. xvii. 18, 19. Josh. i. 8. 
 
 7 Cp. the remarks of Hciverniclc, Einleitung, § 139 of the 
 original, or § 35 of the English Translation. 
 
 8 See preceding page. 
 
 9 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14, 15. 2 Kings xxii. 8—10. See Bishop 
 Patrick and Dr. Kennicott on 2 Kings xxii. 8, and Edoernick's 
 Eialeitung, § 139, or § 35 of the English Translation. 
 
46 Divine Inspiration of the Prophetical Books of 
 the Old Testament. 
 
 7. The Truth of the Pentateuch being proved, 
 and its Inspiration being avouched, it follows as a 
 necessary consequence that the rest of the Old 
 Testament is also divinely inspired. 
 
 The Old Testament was called u the Law, and 
 the Prophets " and it is certain that all the Jews 
 regarded the Prophets as on a par with the Laiv. 
 They revered the Law and the Prophets as the 
 lively oracles of God. 
 
 Almighty God had commanded in the Law, 
 that if any man laid claim t*o be called a Prophet 
 of the Lord, and could not establish that claim, 
 he was to be put to death 2 . 
 
 Thus God had provided a safeguard against the 
 reception of any prophecy, which could not prove 
 its divine origin. And since the Prophetical Boohs 
 of the Old Testament were received universally by 
 the Hebrew Nation as of equal authority with the 
 Books of the Law, which were enshrined by God's 
 command in the Holy of Holies, and since God 
 Himself, Who was the Sovereign of the Nation, 
 did not censure that reception, but approved and 
 sanctioned it, this concurrent consent of God's 
 people is no other than the witness of God Him- 
 self to the Divine Authority of the Prophets. 
 
 Consider, also, that the Hebrew Prophets do 
 not natter the Hebrew People. They speak with 
 holy boldness, as Ambassadors of God, in stern 
 and severe language, and rebuke them for their 
 
 1 See Matt. xxii. 40. Luke xvi. 16. Acts xiii. 15. 
 
 2 Deut. xiii. 5; xviii. 20. Cp. Jer. xiv. 15. Zech. xiii. 3. 
 
Divine Inspiration of the Prophetical Books of 47 
 the Old Testament. 
 
 sins, and call them to repentance, and denounce 
 divine retribution upon them, unless they repent. 
 God's commission to them was, Cry aloud, spare 
 not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My 
 people their transgression, and the House of Jacob 
 their sins 3 . 
 
 Can it be supposed, that the Hebrew People 
 would have received such writings, and would 
 have revered them as of equal authority with the 
 Books of Moses, i. e. as inspired, unless they had 
 been constrained by the most cogent proofs to 
 acknowledge their divine authority ? No. They 
 would have treated them in the same scornful and 
 contumelious manner as the infatuated Jehoiakim, 
 sitting in his winter-house, with the fire burning 
 on the hearth, treated the Prophetic Poll of 
 Jeremiah 4 ; they would have cut them into shreds, 
 and destroyed them. But no : they did not dare 
 to do so. They received them ; they bowed their 
 heads before them with reverential awe, and 
 acknowledged them to be the oracles of God. 
 
 Thus even the sins of the Jews have been made 
 instrumental in proving the Inspiration of the 
 Old Testament. Their sins by which they broke 
 the commands contained in the Old Testament, 
 show that, if they had been able, they would have 
 rejected those Books by which their sins are 
 condemned. But they received them as divine. 
 They carry them every where in their hands. 
 Even to this day they wander about, a national 
 
 3 Isa. lviii. 1. * Jer. xxxvi. 22. 
 
48 Completion of the Canon of the Old Testament. 
 
 Cain, of nearly twenty centuries, having killed 
 their own brother Abel — the true Shepherd of 
 the sheep, Christ Jesus, — and bear about with 
 them the mark of God 5 . 
 
 8. Here also we have another proof that no 
 alteration has ever been made in the Old Testa- 
 ment. The Prophets of God rebuke the People 
 for their sins. But the Prophetical Books do not 
 contain a single syllable of reproof addressed to 
 the Jewish People for the sin of altering their 
 Scriptures. If the People had ever committed so 
 heinous a sin as that, it must have been noticed 
 by the Prophets. And since those books do not 
 give any hint that such alteration was ever 
 attempted, we may rest assured, that the Hebrew 
 Scriptures were preserved inviolate by the Hebrew 
 People. 
 
 VI. Let us now fix our eyes on the historical 
 epoch when those Scriptures were completed. 
 This was after the return of the Jews from 
 Babylon; in the time of Ezra, about 440 years 
 before Christ. 
 
 Almighty God then raised up holy men, who 
 revised the copies of the Old Testament, and were 
 commissioned to add some writings to them, and 
 to seal up the Scriptures, and to deliver them to 
 future ages. Ezra himself, the Priest of God and 
 Scribe 6 , was one of these ; and with him were the 
 prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, whose 
 5 Gen. iv. 15. 6 Ezra vii. 6. 10. 12. 
 
The external evidence of the Inspiration of the 49 
 Old Testament is confirmed by internal. 
 
 divine mission has been proved by the fulfilment 
 of their Prophecies. The sacred Volume was then 
 closed ". Malachi is called by the Jews " the Seal 
 of the Prophets." The voice of Prophecy ceased 
 with him, and it remained silent for four hundred 
 years, when it sounded forth again at the Coming 
 of Christ. 
 
 VII. The pious Israelite, who meditated on 
 these facts, would see strong reason to remain 
 stedfast in the belief of his forefathers, that the 
 Books of the Old Testament were given by In- 
 spiration of God. And the more he examined the 
 contents of those Scriptures, the more he would 
 be convinced that this belief is true. The beauty, 
 
 7 See Josephus c. Apion. i. § 8, and the assertions of the Hebrew 
 Rabbis in the Mishna, torn. iv. p. 409, eel. Surenhusii, Ainst. 
 1702, and Buxtorfii Tiberias, capp. x. and xi. pp. 90 — 99, ed. 
 Basil, 1665. Prideav.x's Connexion, part i. books v. vi. Bp. 
 JBeveridge on the Vlth Article, p. 271, ed. Oxf. 1810, and Hticer- 
 nick, Einleitung, § 8, pp. 27 — 38, and Dr. W. Lee on Inspiration, 
 p. 302. 
 
 Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi revised the copies, and 
 closed the Canon of the Old Testament. But the notion that Ezra 
 restored the Old Testament, after it had been destroyed, is au 
 apocryphal fable. Some ancient Christian Fathers are cited in 
 support of it. Irenceus iii. 21. Cp. Euseb. H. E. v. 8. Clemens 
 Alex. Strom, l.xxii. Tertullian de Cultu Mulier. c. 3. S.Jerome 
 c. Helvid. c.3. But they do not maintain it. The work De Mirab. 
 Script, (ii. 33) ascribed to S. Augustine, and quoted by some as 
 countenancing that fable, is spurious. The Christian Fathers bear 
 testimony to the genuine Jewish tradition that Ezra and the 
 Prophets with him revised and completed the Canon of the Old 
 Testament. 
 
50 Reply to the sceptical allegation grounded upon 
 
 majesty, and simplicity of the Hebrew Scriptures ; 
 their adaptation to the nature and needs of man- 
 kind ; the holiness of their precepts, the harmony 
 of all their parts, extending through a thousand 
 years, the fulfilment of their prophecies, the bless- 
 ings conferred on those who received and obeyed 
 them, would establish him more firmly in that 
 faith. 
 
 This faith of the ancient people of God is our 
 faith also : we receive the Old Testament from 
 the hands of those, to whom, as the Apostle says, 
 were committed the oracles of God. 
 
 VIII. A few words may be said here, in reply 
 to a sceptical objection. 
 
 " You say that you receive Moses, David, and 
 Isaiah, on the testimony of the Jews ; but did not 
 the Jews reject Jesus Christ ? What rational 
 ground/'' we are asked, " can you assign for dis- 
 regarding the decision of the Jews in the case of 
 Jesus, and accepting it submissively in the case of 
 Moses, David, and Isaiah 8 ? " 
 
 To this question it may be replied, that the 
 pious and devout Jews, who received Moses, 
 David, and Isaiah, did not reject Jesus Christ. 
 Nay rather, because they received the Prophets, 
 therefore they received Jesus Christ. Their lan- 
 guage was, We have found Him of Whom Moses 
 
 3 These words are transcribed from a Volume recently published 
 by a sceptical writer. 
 
the rejection of Christ by the Jews. 51 
 
 and the Prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth the 
 son of Joseph* . 
 
 True it is, that some Jews who held the Old 
 Testament iu their hands, but did not understand 
 the voices of the Prophets, which were read in their 
 synagogues every Sabbath day, fulfilled them in con- 
 demning Him l , and thus, even by their unbelief, 
 they proved the Truth and Inspiration of those 
 Prophets. For, those Prophets had foretold, that 
 many of the Jews, to whom the Prophecies con- 
 cerning Christ were delivered, would not under- 
 stand and believe them. For example, Isaiah 
 asks, when prophesying of Christ, Lord, who hath 
 believed our report 2 ? He anticipates unbelief. 
 Wonderful indeed it was, that the unbelieving 
 Jews fulfilled those Prophecies, by doing those 
 very things to Jesus Christ which those Prophecies 
 foretold that they would do 3 . Thus the Unbelief 
 of those who fulfilled those Prophecies by re- 
 jecting Christ, is an argument for the truth of 
 those Prophecies, and for the wisdom of those who 
 understood them and received Him. Their un- 
 belief strengthens our belief. 
 
 Indeed, here is another evidence of God's 
 Divine power in preserving the Scriptures, and 
 of Christ's truth, concerning whom those Scrip- 
 
 9 John i. 45. J Acts xiil. 27. 
 
 2 Isa. liii. 1. See St. John's comment on that passage of Isaiah, 
 John xii. 38 — 40. See also the prophecies on the blindness of the 
 Jews, Ps. lxix. 24. Isa. vi. 9. Cp. Acts xxviii. 26. 
 
 3 Acts siii. 27. 
 
 E 1 
 
52 Beply to the sceptical allegation grounded upon 
 
 tares speak. We Christians receive Jesus Christ 
 on the evidence of those Prophecies which are 
 guarded by Jews who reject Christ. Therefore 
 jit cannot be alleged by the adversaries of Chris- 
 tianity , that we have tampered with the docu- 
 ments by which we prove its truth. Those 
 documents come to us through the Jews. We 
 appeal to the Old Testament, which has been 
 preserved by them who hate us. The Jews in 
 their dispersion carry about with them and guard 
 carefully the Title-deeds of Christ Whom they 
 have crucified. From the words of Moses, David, 
 and Isaiah, in their hands, we prove the Divine 
 mission of Jesus Christ 4 . 
 
 IX. Let us now review what has been said. 
 As soon as the Pentateuch was written, God pro- 
 vided for its safe custody. He enshrined it in 
 the Holy of Holies, and placed it under the wings 
 of the Cherubim. Thus God Himself declared it 
 to be divine. That Book was a precious jewel set 
 in a holy casket by His hand. Copies were to be 
 made of it. Kings were to write them. " The 
 Holy Spirit spake by the Prophets" and added 
 their writings to the Law of Moses. The divine 
 Institution of the weekly Sabbath, and of the 
 
 4 This argument is eloquently urged by S. Justin Martyr, Cc- 
 hortat. ad Grsecos, cap. 13, and by S. Augustine in Psalm xl. and 
 lvi. Proferimus codices ab inimicis ut conf undamus alios inimicos. 
 Codicem portat Judseus, unde credat Cbristianus. Librarii nostri 
 Cacti sunt Judsei. See also his treatise c. Paustuin, xii. c. 13, and 
 De Unitate Ecclesise, c. 16. 
 
the rejection of Christ by the Jews. 53 
 
 yearly National Festivals, promoted the study of 
 the Law, and bare witness to its truth. The dis- 
 persion of the Levites as the Expositors of the 
 Law, throughout the Holy Land, and the raising 
 up of Prophets, who were God's Messengers, were 
 providential arrangements for preserving the Old 
 Testament, and for assuring the People of its 
 divine authority. The national calamities of the 
 Hebrew People were made subservient to the 
 same end. The dissolution of the Twelve Tribes 
 into two separate kingdoms, and the downfall of 
 those Kingdoms, and the dispersion of the Ten 
 Tribes and of the Two Tribes into all parts of the 
 world, where Synagogues were built for the read- 
 ing of the Scriptures on the Sabbath days, and 
 the universal consent of all those scattered Tribes, 
 receiving the same Bible and venerating it as the 
 Word of God, have also been instrumental in 
 guarding and diffusing the Old Testament, and 
 in guaranteeing its integrity and truth. 
 
 These divine dispensations are clear evidences 
 of design. They are witnesses of a providential 
 superintendence, watching over the Old Testa- 
 ment for fifteen hundred years from the days of 
 Moses to those of Christ. Almighty God speaks 
 by them, and proclaims the Integrity, the Truth, 
 and Inspiration of the Old Testament. 
 
 This testimony extends to the whole of the Old 
 Testament. It covers the entire Yolume. 
 
 That providential care has been also continued 
 from the age of Christ to this hour, — that is, for 
 
54 The testimony of God bearing witness in the 
 Hebrew Church to the Old Testament, fyc. 
 
 near two thousand years. Even the rejection of 
 Christ by the Jews, and their hostility to Chris- 
 tianity, have been made ministerial to the safe 
 custody of the Scriptures, and to the proof of their 
 Truth and Inspiration. 
 
 The care with which God has guarded the 
 Books of the Old Testament has not been relaxed 
 for a moment since they were written. He that 
 watcheth over them neither slumbers nor sleeps 5 . 
 ISTay rather, that providential care has manifested 
 itself more clearly in every successive age. 
 
 The Pentateuch, as soon as it was written, was 
 placed in the Holy of Holies, and was enshrined 
 under the wings of the Cherubim. 
 
 X. But we, who are Christians, do not stop here. 
 We have far stronger evidences of the genuine- 
 ness, veracity, and inspiration of the Books of 
 the Old Testament than were ever vouchsafed to 
 the Jeius. The whole of the Old Testament has 
 been placed under the protection of the In- 
 carnate Word. It is safe under the guardian- 
 ship of Jesus Christ, Who is the same yesterday, 
 and to-day P and for ever*. 
 
 This will be proved, with God's help, in the 
 following lecture. 
 
 s Pa. exxi. 4. e Hi b. xiii. 8. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 Luke iv. 14—17. 
 
 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee : and 
 there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about. 
 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. 
 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and 
 as His custom tvas, He ivent into the Synagogue on the Sabbath 
 day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto 
 Him the Book of the Prophet JEsaias. 
 
 On what grounds do we receive the whole of the 
 Old Testament as the Inspired Word of God ? 
 
 I. To this question an answer has been already 
 given; — We receive the whole of the Old Tes- 
 tament as such, on the authority of Grod Himself 
 speaking in the universal consent and practice of 
 His own People,, the Jews, to whom, as St. Paul 
 says, were committed the oracles of God *, that is to 
 say, who were entrusted with the guardianship of 
 the Books of the Old Testament. 
 
 II. But this is not all. We must now ascend to 
 a still higher point than this. We must proceed 
 to show, that this testimony to the Inspiration of 
 
 1 Rom. iii. 1. 
 

 £6 Testimony of Jesus Christ to the Inspiration of 
 the Old Testament. 
 
 the Old Testament is confirmed and verified by 
 the infallible witness of onr Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. The Incarnate Word Himself 
 sets His own divine seal on the Written Word. 
 The Son of God delivers to us all the Books of 
 i the Old Testament as the inspired Oracles of God. 
 He in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the God- 
 ' head, He who is the Power of God, and the Wis- 
 dom of God, He in whom are all the treasures of 
 wisdom and knowledge, He who is the Light of the 
 World, He who is the Way, the Truth, and the 
 Life, He Who is God, and by Whom all things 
 were made 2 , proclaims the truth and inspiration 
 of the Old Testament. 
 
 How, it may be asked, is this proposition 
 proved ? 
 
 How can it be shown, that we can appeal to 
 the testimony of the Son of God in support of our 
 belief in the Truth and Inspiration of the Old 
 Testament ? 
 
 III. To answer this question, we must first 
 show the historical truth of the New Testament. 
 
 Let us, then, begin with taking into our hands 
 the Four Gospels, which profess to relate the say- 
 ings, actions and sufferings of Jesus Christ. 
 
 1. We can prove by external testimony, that 
 these Four Gospels existed, in the same state as 
 that in which they now exist, at the end of the 
 first century of the Christian era, that is, nearly 
 
 2 Col. ii. 9. 1 Cor. i. 24. Col. ii. 3. John via. 12. John xiv. 6. 
 John i. 1—3. 
 
Proof of the truth of the Gospels, and consequently, 57 
 of Christ's divine authority. 
 
 1800 years ago. Ancient authors testify, that St. 
 John's Gospel was written at that time, and that 
 he acknowledged the truth of the other three 
 Gospels, — those of St. Matthew, St. Mark, and 
 St. Luke, — and added his own Gospel, to com- 
 plete the Evangelical History 3 . 
 
 2. We can prove by external evidence, that those 
 Gospels, completed by St. John, were received, 
 and were publicly read 4 as true histories by large 
 communities of men, who had the best opportuni- 
 ties of testing and knowing their truth ; namely, 
 by the Christians, and by the Christian Churches 
 which existed in primitive times. They would 
 not have read those Gospels in their public wor- 
 ship, unless they had believed them ; and they 
 would not have believed them unless they were 
 true. 
 
 We can show that those persons and Churches 
 could not have been deceived as to the credibility 
 of those Gospels. And they could not have de- 
 ceived others. They were plain men. Their ad- 
 versaries reproached them as having no learning, 
 wealth, or power. We can show that they had 
 
 3 See Clemens Alexandrin. ap. Euseb. vi. 15; cp. ~Enseh. iii. 
 24. Canon Muratorian. in Routh's Reliquife Sacrse, iv. p. 2. 
 Victorin. in Apocalyps. Bibl. Patr. Max. iii. 41. Theodor. Mop- 
 suest. in Catena ad Joann. in Dr. Mill's Greek Test. p. 198. 
 
 S. Irenceus iii. 1 ; iii. 11. 7— 9. See S. Justin Martyr, Apol. 
 i. 67. Cp. Westcott on the Canon of the New Test., p. 365 and p. 
 367: "No one at present will deny that they (the Gospels, &c.) 
 occupied the same position in the estimation of Christians in the 
 time of Irenseus (i. e. in the second century) as they hold now." 
 
58 Proof of the timth of the Gospels, 
 
 no earthly interest to serve in asserting the truth 
 of those Gospels. On the contrary, the assertion 
 of that truth exposed them to the loss of all 
 worldly things. They resisted all earthly tempta- 
 tions, they endured, cheerfully endured, all priva- 
 tions, sufferings, and torments for its sake 5 ; they 
 were stoned, beheaded, crucified, burnt, cast to 
 the wild beasts, as heathen historians testify; 
 these things, and more, they suffered in defence 
 of the Truth of the Four Gospels. 
 
 3. Now mark the result. 
 
 That self- same Power, the Power of Heathen, 
 Imperial Rome, which at first persecuted the 
 Christians, and beheaded the Christians, and 
 crucified the Christians, and cast the Christians to 
 wild beasts for asserting the truth of the 
 Gospels ; that very Power, that Roman Power, that 
 Heathen Power, that Imperial Power, that Power 
 
 5 Especially in the persecution under the Roman Emperor Dio- 
 cletian, A.D. 203, who endeavoured to destroy the copies of the 
 Christian Scriptures, and burnt many of those writings. See 
 JEuseb. Hist. Eccl. viii. 2. Lactant. de Mort. Persecutor, c. xii. 
 The Christians who were tempted by fear to surrender copies of 
 them to their heathen persecutors were called "traditores" by 
 their brethren. See the Passio of S. Felix in Balnzii Miscellanea 
 ii. p. 77. — Gieseler, Church Hist. § 55 and 56. Eov.th, Reliquiaj 
 Sacra?, torn. v. p. 341. " The holy Martyrs in their Acts (col- 
 lected by Euinart, Amst. 1713, see pp. 87. 89. 356, 357. 394) 
 proclaim in the presence of their Judges, that the Holy Books re- 
 ceived by the Chinstians at that time, — the Gospels aud the other 
 Books, — are revered by them, and are believed to be directly in- 
 spired, and are affectionately guarded by them unto death, and ara 
 not to be given up to any one." 
 
and consequently, of Christ's divine knowledge. 59 
 
 which then ruled the world, was at length 
 convinced of the Truth of the Four Gospels, which 
 were received as God's Word by the Christians. 
 That self-same Roman Power, the Queen and 
 Mistress of the World, was converted to the cause 
 of the Gospels. She publicly owned her conver- 
 sion ; she acknowledged that those whom she had 
 put to death as Christians, were Martyrs to the 
 Truth. She revered the memories of Peter and 
 Paul whom she had killed. She, who by the 
 force of arms had made the Nations of the world 
 to pass uuder her military yoke, humbly and 
 meekly bowed her own head beneath the mild 
 yoke of Christ. She changed her Heathen Tem- 
 ples into Christian Churches. And in those 
 Heathen Temples, when changed into Christian 
 Churches, the Four Gospels of Matthew and 
 Mark, Luke and John were thenceforth read as 
 true and divine histories. She placed those Four 
 Gospels upon Thrones in her own Council Cham- 
 bers 6 ; and the Cross of Jesus of Nazareth, who 
 had been crucified by the Roman Governor 
 Pontius Pilate, — yes, the Cross of Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, of obscure Nazareth in despised Galilee, — 
 dislodged the Roman Eagle from the military 
 standards of the Roman Legions, and was set on 
 
 6 The Emperor Constantine thus speaks in his oration to the i 
 Bishops at Nicsea : " The Gospels and the Apostolic writings and 
 the oracles of the ancient Prophets clearly teach us what to believe 
 of God. Let us receive the solution of the question before us from ' 
 the divinely inspired words (t/c twv Q^onvtiKxruii/ Koywu)." T/ieo- 
 doret, 1. 5. 
 
60 Proof of the truth of the Gospels, and consequently y 
 of Christ's divine knoivledge. 
 
 the Imperial Diadem of the Roman Masters of the 
 world. 
 
 These are facts as clear as the noonday sun. 
 And in the face of these facts, who can say that 
 the Four Gospels are not historically true ? 
 
 4. This proposition then being admitted, that 
 the Gospels are true, it follows, that there is such 
 a Person as Jesns Christ ; and that He did indeed 
 perform those wonderful works, which He is re- 
 lated in the Four Gospels to have done ; that in 
 the presence of multitudes, — many of them His 
 bitter enemies, — He healed the sick, cast out 
 devils, raised the dead; that He knew the thoughts 
 and searched the hearts of men, and foretold future 
 events ; that He rose again from the dead, and 
 ascended into heaven : in a word, that He dis- 
 played power, knowledge, and wisdom infinitely 
 greater than were ever shown by any of the chil- 
 dren of men ; and that He was indeed, what He 
 claimed to be, and what by His mighty and mer- 
 ciful works He proved Himself to be, — the Son 
 of the Living God, the Light of the World, the 
 Creator and Lord of all, coequal, coeternal with 
 the Father 7 . 
 
 5. This point being proved, let us bear in 
 mind, — as is evident from external testimony, — 
 that the Old Testament existed in our Lord's age, 
 in the same condition as that in which it exists 
 now. This has been already shewn in the last 
 lecture. 
 
 7 John viii. 12. 58; x. 30. 
 
Jesus Christ acknowledged all the Old Testament G\ 
 to be given by Inspiration of God. 
 
 The Jewish Nation of that age received the 
 wliole of the Old Testament, not as the word of 
 inan, but as the Word of God. They guarded 
 the sacred Text of the Old Testament with 
 scrupulous fidelity and unremitting vigilance ; 
 they read the Old Testament publicly, Sabbath 
 after Sabbath, throughout the year, in their 
 Synagogues, in almost all countries of the world 5 
 and, by reason of the multiplication of copies of 
 the Original and of Translations, that were 
 requisite for this general public reading of the 
 Old Testament in every clime, it was not possible 
 for any one to tamper with the Text of the Old 
 Testament, or to make any change in it, either by 
 interpolation or mutilation. 
 
 6. Such was the state of things before Christ's 
 Coming, and at His Coming into the world. And 
 ever since that time, the Text of the Old Testa- 
 ment has been guarded by the twofold, indepen- 
 dent, antagonistic custody of the Jewish Syna- 
 gogue and of the Christian Church ; so that we 
 may confidently say, that the Old Testament 
 which is now read in the Churches of England is 
 the same as the Old Testament which was read 
 in the Jewish Synagogues of our Lord's age. 
 The Old Testament in our hands is the same as 
 the Old Testament which was in the hands of 
 Jesus Cheist. 
 
 7. Contemplate therefore Jesus Christ holding 
 in His hands the Old Testament. How did Be 
 treat it ? He_, Who proved by His wonderful 
 
62 Jesus Christ acknowledged all the Old Testament 
 
 deeds and words that He was wiser than all the 
 children of men, He Who is our Divine Teacher, 
 the True Light which lighteth every man 8 , He in 
 Whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead, He 
 in "Whom are hid all treasures of wisdom and 
 knowledge 9 , He Who came into the world to bear 
 witness unto the truth, how did He treat the Old 
 Testament ? Did He treat it as " a common 
 book ? " Did He say that some parts of it are 
 inspired, and that other parts are not inspired ? 
 Did He say that some portions of it are genuine, 
 and that other portions are forged ? Did He say 
 that some of its contents are true, and that others 
 are false ? 
 
 The answer to these questions is easy. The 
 Jews guarded the Books of the Old Testament. 
 They read those Books in their Synagogues every 
 Sabbath, and they venerated all those Books, — 
 they revered every part of those Books, — as true, 
 as genuine, and as given by the inspiration of 
 God. To quote the words of their own writer, 
 Josephus 1 , it was "a principle innate in every 
 Jew to regard those Books as oracles of God, 
 and to cleave to them, yea, and to die gladly for 
 them/' 
 
 Now, how did our Blessed Lord treat this their 
 national belief in the Inspiration of the Old Tes- 
 tament ? 
 
 Did Christ censure the Jews for ascribing the 
 
 8 John i. 9 ; xix. 37. 9 Col. ii. 3. 9. 
 
 1 See above, pp. 36, 37. 
 
to be given by Inspiration of God. 63 
 
 Old Testament to God ? Did He blame them for 
 accepting every part of it as God's Word? If the 
 Old Testament is merely the word of man, or if 
 any portion of it is false, if any part of it is a 
 forgery, Christ would have reproved those who 
 attributed the whole of it to God. He, Who 
 was so zealous for His Father's honour that He 
 drove the buyers and sellers even from the outer 
 courts of His Father's House 2 , would have re- 
 buked those who ascribed the erring* words of 
 sinful man to the God of all Wisdom, Holiness, 
 and Truth. He would not have made Himself an 
 accomplice with those who put forth counterfeit 
 coin in the Name of the King of kings. He would 
 not have abetted those who stamped that adul- 
 terated coinage with the Divine image and super- 
 scription, and circulated it throughout the world. 
 The Son of God would have resented such an 
 ascription ; He would have denounced such an im- 
 putation, as a profane outrage and insult against 
 the awful majesty of God. 
 
 But hear what the Gospels relate of Christ. 
 
 Take, for instance, the chapter to which we 
 have referred at the beginning of this lecture — 
 the fourth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel. It begins 
 with the history of the Temptation. There our , /..J,-. 
 Lord defeats the Tempter with the sword of the 
 Spirit, which is the Word of God 3 . Thrice Satan 
 assailed Him, and thrice Christ foiled him with this 
 
 2 Matt. xxi. 10. Mark xi. 15. . Luke xix. 45. John ii. 15. 
 3 Enh. vi. 14. 
 
64 Jesus Christ acknowledged all the Old Testament 
 to be given by Inspiration of God. 
 
 weapon, "It is written V J It is remarkable that 
 the Son of God vanquished Satan by three verses 
 of the Pentateuch, that very part of Scripture 
 which is now disparaged by some among us 
 who profess themselves Masters of Israel. Would 
 Christ have used the Pentateuch in such a conflict 
 as that, and would Satan have fled before Him, if 
 that weapon had not been divine ? 
 
 But further, our Lord worked miracles ; and 
 preached in the Synagogues of Galilee. He came 
 to Nazareth. As His custom ivas, Re went into 
 the Synagogue on the Sabbath Day. He there stood 
 up to read. In those Synagogues the Books of 
 the Old Testament were delivered to Him as the 
 oracles of God, and He received them as such. 
 " To-day/'' He said, ' ' is this Scripture fulfilled in 
 your ears/' On another occasion He said, It is 
 easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of 
 the Law to fail 5 . Who then will venture to say 
 that the Pentateuch is blemished with error ? 
 And again, He declared that the Scripture cannot 
 be broken 6 , and that not a jot or tittle of the Law 
 would, pass away till all ivas fulfilled. Who then 
 will assert that it is weak and fragile ? The 
 Son of God, when on earth, communicated with 
 the Jews, Sabbath after Sabbath, in public wor- 
 ship; He took part with them in reading and 
 expounding the Scriptures of the Old Testament 
 as the inspired Word of God. Thus He declared 
 
 4 Luke i\\ 4. 8. 12. 5 Luke xvi. 17. Cp. Matt. v. 18. 
 
 G XvQrivai, JtLu x. 35. Matt. x. 18. 
 
The Son of God commands us to receive all the Old 65 
 Testament as the inspired Word of God. 
 
 that their belief in its Inspiration is true. He 
 required all to receive it. 
 
 8. To give, if possible, greater solemnity to this 
 declaration, Christ put it into the mouth of the 
 Father of the faithful, Abraham, the Representa- 
 tive of all true Israelites; He uttered it by the 
 voice of Abraham, removed from this world, and 
 dwelling in the blessed society of the spirits of 
 the departed, of Moses, and David, and Isaiah, 
 and all the Prophets. In the parable of Lazarus 
 and the Rich Man, in which our Lord uplifts the 
 veil which separates this world from the world of 
 spirits, Christ reveals to us Abraham, and He 
 makes Abraham speak that remarkable speech, 
 They, have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear 
 them. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets/ 
 neither will they be persuaded though one rose 
 from the dead 7 . Awfully solemn words, uttered 
 by the Lord of Life, speaking by Abraham, the 
 friend of God. They have Moses and the Prophets. 
 
 Who therefore of us, that entertains a blessed 
 hope that his own spirit may be carried by Angels 
 at his own death into Abraham's bosom, and be 
 there in peace with those who have departed in 
 the true faith and fear of God, will venture to deny 
 that the Books which the Jews regarded as the 
 Books of Moses and the Prophets, are not what 
 they believed them to be, — true, genuine, and 
 divine ? 
 
 9. Yet more, after that the Son of God Himself 
 
 7 Luke xvi. 29. 31. 
 
66 The Son of God commands us to receive all the Old 
 Testament as the inspired Word of God. 
 
 had overcome Death, and when, on the evening of 
 His glorious Resurrection, He walked with the 
 two disciples to Emmaus, and when, on that same 
 evening, He appeared to His Apostles, He appealed 
 to the Books of the Old Testament as true, and as 
 inspired by God; Beginning at Moses and all the 
 Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scrip- 
 hires the things concerning Himself 8 ; and He said, 
 These are the words which I spake unto you, that all 
 things must be fulfilled which were vjritten in the 
 Laiv of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the 
 Psalms, concerning Me 9 . 
 
 Thus then our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
 who is " God of God, Light of Light, Yery God 
 of Yery God," has pronounced His divine verdict 
 in behalf of the Truth, the Integrity, and In- 
 spiration of the Old Testament. And this divine 
 verdict, let us observe, applies to every part of the 
 Old Testament. It covers the whole; it applies 
 to every portion of all those Books which the 
 Jews received as Holy Scripture. 
 
 Therefore we may sum up by saying, that the 
 So^ T of God delivers to us the whole of the Old 
 Testament, and commands us to receive the whole 
 as the Word of the Living God. 
 
 10. This argument from Christ's acceptance of 
 the Old Testament is so strong, that they who 
 disparage the Old Testament have strained every 
 nerve to weaken it. They allege that Christ 
 
 8 Luke xxiv. 27. 9 Luke xxiv. 44. 
 
Reply to sceptical allegations against the authority 67 
 of Christ. 
 
 spoke only as a " learned Jewish Rabbi 1 ," or, that 
 He " accommodated Himself" to the popular belief 
 of the Jews, and did not declare His own opinions 
 concerning the Old Testament. 
 
 Surely the weakness of such allegations as 
 these, and (must we not say ?) their impiety, 
 leads us to recognize more clearly the force of 
 the argument from Christ's reception of the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 Did Jesus Christ speak only as a " learned 
 Rabbi?" Did any learned Rabbi ever say, as 
 Christ did, "I am- the Way, the Truth, and the 
 Life*," "land My Father are One z ?" Did any 
 learned Rabbi ever say, u Before Abraham was, I 
 am 4 ," and, "For this cause came I into the world 
 to bear witness unto the truth; every one that is 
 of the truth heareth My Voice' ?" Did any learned 
 Rabbi ever say, " I am the Light of the world? 6 " 
 Did any learned Rabbi ever say, " Heaven and 
 earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass 
 away'?" Did any learned Rabbi ever say, " I am 
 Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, 
 the First and the Last, the Almighty*?" And as 
 for accommodating Himself, as it is alleged, to 
 popular errors of the Jews, what a monstrous 
 proposition is that! Strange accommodation 
 
 1 Bishop Colenso on the Pentateuch, Pt. i. p. xxxi. Pt.ii. p. xvii. 
 Davidson's Introduction to the Old Testament, vol. i. p. 127. 
 
 2 John xiv. 6. 3 John x. 30. * John viii. 58. 
 5 John xviii. 37. 8 John viii. 12. ' Mark xiii. 31. 
 8 Rev. i. 8. 
 
 F 2 
 
fo> 
 
 68 The Holy Ghost bears witness to the truth and 
 inspiration of the Old Testament. 
 
 indeed ! Did not Jesus Christ denounce eight woes 
 against the Jews for their sins 9 ? and did they 
 not cry " Crucify Him, crucify Him?" because He 
 would not accommodate Himself to their popular 
 notions of a temporal and triumphant Messiah ? 
 
 Therefore we may confidently appeal to the 
 testimony of the Son of God, coequal and co- 
 eternal with the Father , as avouching the Truth 
 and Divine Inspiration of the Old Testament. 
 
 11. Nor is this all. Christ promised that after 
 His ascension He would send the Divine Com- 
 forter, God the Holy Ghost, to teach His Apos- 
 tles all things ; to guide them into all truth, to 
 dwell with them and to be in them 2 . 
 
 The Holy Apostles, being taught by the Holy 
 Spirit whom Christ sent down from heaven, de- 
 clared that the Old Testament is inspired by God. 
 Thus St. Peter speaks not only the opinion of his 
 own Nation, but utters the judgment of the Holt 
 Spirit, when he says of the Hebrew Prophets, 
 that Prophecy came not hy the will of man, but 
 that they spake what they spake, being borne along 
 by the Holy Ghost 3 ; and St. Paul says that he 
 believes all things ivhich are written in the haw and 
 the Prophets 4 , and he reminds Timothy that the 
 Scriptures which he had known from his child- 
 
 9 See Matt, xxiii. 13—39. » Luke xxiii. 21. 
 
 2 John xiv. 26 ; xvi. 7. 13 ; xiv. 16, 17. 3 2 Pet. i. 21. 
 
 4 Acts xxiv. 11. 
 
Appeal to the authority of Christ, in answer 69 
 to sceptical objections. 
 
 hood are holy, and are the things which are able* 
 to make him wise unto salvation through faith 
 that is in Christ Jesus; and he adds, that every 
 Scripture — that is, every part of Scripture — is 
 given by inspiration of God, or as the words signify, 
 is filled with the breath of God 6 . 
 
 This Apostolic testimony to the truth and in- 
 spiration of the Old Testament is the testimony of 
 God the Holt Ghost, who came from heaven to 
 teach the Apostles all things, and to guide them into 
 all truth. 
 
 TV. Let us now apply these things to ourselves 
 and to the circumstances of our own times. 
 
 1. Is the Old Testament true ? Is it from 
 heaven ? Is it all true ? Is it all inspired ? 
 These questions are now current among us. 
 Books are put into our hands, written, it would 
 seem, by shrewd men, distinguished by literary 
 attainments, and by philosophic calmness and 
 research, who appear to have inquired with 
 candour and impartiality into the evidences of the 
 Truth and Inspiration of the Old Testament, and 
 not to have been convinced that it is of divine /#> 
 origin. We hear it alleged by some, that it can! 
 
 5 ra 8uvdiJ.€va, " the things that are able/' 2 Tim. iii. 15. 
 Observe tbe definite Article. 
 
 6 The testimonies of the Ancient Fathers of the Church in suc- 
 cession after the Apostles, witnessing to the Inspiration of the Old 
 Testament, as well as the New, may be seen collected by Dr. South, 
 Reliquise Sacrse, vol. v. pp. 336—353, and by the Rev. Canon West- 
 cott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, pp. 383—418. 
 
70 Appeal to the authority of Christ, in answer 
 to sceptical objections. 
 
 be shown from investigations of Geologists, that 
 the physical phenomena of the Earth are incon- 
 sistent with the record of Creation in the Book of 
 Genesis. We hear it argued by others, who seem 
 to be proficients in the study of Morals and Meta- 
 physics, that to believe all mankind to have been 
 involved in guilt by the sin of Adam and Eve, 
 is not consistent with the reverence due to the 
 Justice and Benevolence of God : and that it is 
 derogatory to His Wisdom and Foresight, to 
 suppose that He should have destroyed His own 
 work of Creation by the general devastation of the 
 Flood. 
 
 What, again, they ask, are we to say of such 
 strange and incredible narratives as those which 
 are found in the Old Testament, such as the 
 standing still of the sun at the command of Joshua, 
 or concerning the speaking of Balaam's ass, and 
 the coming forth of the Prophet Jonah from the 
 whale's belly after three days ? What are we to 
 think of these things ? 
 
 Again, it is said by some persons of high 
 reputation among us, reviving the sceptical objec- 
 tions of Porphyry 7 which were exploded by S. 
 Jerome 3 fourteen hundred years ago, that the 
 prophecies of Daniel 9 bear marks of having been 
 
 " And of some Jews since our Lord's age, who perceive that 
 the Messiah must he already come, if Daniel is a Prophet. See 
 Sottinger,'Thesa.uv. Philol. p. 504. 
 
 8 See S. Jerome, Praefat. in Danielem, torn. iii. p. 1071, ed. 
 Benedict. Paris, 1704. 
 
 9 '■ Essays and Reviews," pp. 69. 76. 
 
Appeal to Christ in reply to sceptical objections. 71 
 
 composed after the events which they profess to 
 foretell, — and, in fact, are no prophecies at all. 
 
 2. To those who may make these, and all such 
 allegations as these, impugning the Truth, Ge- 
 nuineness, or Inspiration of the Old Testament, we 
 would put this question, — 
 
 Whom shall we believe, — you, or Jesus Christ ? 
 
 You allege, that there are certain things in the 
 Old Testament which you cannot reconcile with 
 results of your physical researches, or with your 
 moral and metaphysical theories ; and you there- 
 fore reject the Old Testament, and require us to 
 surrender it in deference to your authority. 
 
 But in this great question — in this most mo- 
 mentous question of eternal life or eternal death — 
 we ask again, Whom shall we believe, luhom shall 
 we follow ? You, or Jesus Christ ? Shall we 
 imagine that you, the creatures of a day, have a 
 clearer insight into the Laws of Nature, than He 
 who made the worlds 1 , and who controlled the 
 Laws of Nature by a word ? Shall we suppose 
 that you have more knowledge of the history and 
 structure of the Universe, than He who swayed 
 the Elements, and walked on the Sea, and calmed 
 the Storm, and made the Earth give up her dead, 
 and mounted on the clouds of Heaven ? Shall we 
 listen to those metaphysical theorists, who would 
 have us give up the Old Testament, which was 
 received as a Divine Book by Him who read the 
 heart, and knew what was in man, and foretold 
 1 John i. 3. Heb. i. 2. 
 
72 Moral uses of difficulties in Scripture. 
 
 things to come ? Shall we give credence to those 
 Moralists, who reject the Old Testament, which 
 was acknowledged to be God's Word by that 
 Divine Teacher of Moral Virtue who preached the 
 Sermon on the Mount; and whose Religion, 
 wherever it has been received, has emancipated 
 the Slave, and beautified Marriage, and has given 
 a grace and dignity to Woman, which she never 
 before possessed since she was Eve in Paradise, 
 and has opened a pure well-spring of blessing and 
 of joy in every Christian family, and prepares its 
 members, by the discipline of love on earth, for 
 the life of angels in heaven ? 
 
 In what appertains to the Word of God let 
 us not pretend to be wiser than the Son of God. 
 Let us not reject a single iota of the Old Testa- 
 ment, with frail and fallible children of men, but 
 reverently receive the whole with the Son of God. 
 
 He has delivered to us the Old Testament : He 
 who is now enthroned in glory commands us to 
 receive it. Alas ! for those who refuse Him that 
 speaheth from heaven 2 . For He has warned us 
 that he that believeth and is baptized shall he 
 saved, and he that helieveth not shall he damned 3 . 
 Inexpressibly awful words, uttered by the Judge 
 of all, who hath the Keys of Hell and Heath 4 . He 
 will one day he revealed in flaming fire taking 
 vengeance on them that obey not the Gospel 5 . And 
 then it will be seen by all, and it will be felt by 
 
 2 Heb. xii. 25. 3 Mark xvi. 16. 
 
 4 Rev. i. 18. 5 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. 
 
Moral uses of difficulties in Scripture. 73 
 
 the children of darkness, that while He is infinite 
 in mercy to all who believe and obey Him, yet to 
 all who do not believe Him, our God is a consuming 
 fire'. 
 
 3. Looking, then, to Christ holding the Old 
 Testament in his hands, we are not staggered by 
 any difficulties in it. We expect to find difficulties 
 in a Revelation from a Being like God to such a 
 creature as man. We even rejoice in these 
 difficulties. We do not fear them as enemies, but 
 welcome them as allies, and embrace them as 
 friends; for they are occasions of our growth in 
 grace. They exercise our humility. They are 
 the leaves and flowers of which our heavenly 
 crown is woven. They remind us of our own 
 weakness and ignorance, and of the power and 
 wisdom of Christ. They send us to Him, and to 
 the Gospel. They make us to go and sit down as 
 little children at the feet of Jesus Christ. 
 
 If we may so speak, before the Coming of 
 Christ into the world, there were many clouds 
 and mists which veiled the true sense of Scripture 
 from the sight. But many of those clouds and mists 
 have been now dispelled by the Gospel ; and the 
 time is coming when they will all be dispersed 
 by the glorious beams of the Sun of Righteousness, 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 4. Take, for instance, the standing still of the 
 sun at the command of Joshua. I have elsewhere 
 examined in detail the objections to this state- 
 's Heb. xii. 29. 
 
74 History of Joshua ; and of Balaam. 
 
 inent r . Let us remember that Joshua was a 
 type and figure of Jesus Christ. All his doings 
 have some reference to his great Antitype. 
 " There is scarcely an action of Joshua (says Bp. 
 Pearson), which is not clearly predictive of our 
 Saviour." That great miracle will hereafter be 
 seen to have a prophetic relation to Christ. This 
 will be manifest at the Great Day, when our 
 Jesus comes with His Armies of Angels to subdue 
 His enemies, and to settle His faithful soldiers 
 and servants in the heavenly Canaan. The Sun 
 will then stand still, the Moon will be stayed, the 
 whole system of the visible Universe will not be 
 dissolved, till Christ's Victory is complete. He 
 must reign till He hath put all enemies under His 
 feet. And when all things shall be subdued unto 
 Him, — then the heavens will pass away with a great 
 noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, 
 the earth also and the worlts that are therein shall 
 be burnt up. Then there will be a great sunset. 
 Then His Mediatorial Kingdom, which He has as 
 Jesus or Joshua, will be finished, then will the end 
 be, when He shall have put down all rule and all 
 authority and power : and God will be all in 
 all 8 . 
 
 5. Thus again, as to the history of Balaam. 
 It may be a difficulty to some. But it will re- 
 mind every Christian reader, that the Apostle of 
 Christ, St. Peter, who was enabled by Christ to 
 
 7 See the notes in my Commentary on Joshua x. 
 « 1 Cor. xv. 24—28. 
 
History of Balaam ; Jonah in the whale's belly. 75 
 
 heal the sick, and raise the dead, and to speak 
 with tongues 9 , and to discern the spirits, as in 
 the case of Ananias \ and to foretell the future, 
 has referred to the history of Balaam in the 
 second chapter of his second Epistle. The Holy 
 Spirit speaking by St. Peter accepts the history 
 of Balaam, and explains its inner meaning, and 
 reminds us how by that signal example, the Lord, 
 who opened the mouth of the ass, showed, that 
 even the most despised of the brute creatures are 
 wiser and more clear-sighted than a disobedient 
 Prophet, or a sceptical Philosopher. The dumb 
 ass speahing with man's voice, forbad the madness 
 of the Prophet 2 . 
 
 6. Thus also as to the history of Jonah in the 
 whale's belly. It may be a difficulty with some; 
 but in reading that history every Christian stu- 
 dent will recollect, that Jesus Christ has adopted 
 and authenticated that history, and has applied 
 and appropriated it to Himself. As Jonas ivas 
 three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so 
 (said Christ) shall the Son of Man be three days 
 and three nights in the heart of the earth 3 . The 
 Christian reader will observe, that Christ's re- 
 ference to the history of Jonah is interwoven 
 with Christ's prophecy concerning Himself; and 
 he will remember that Christ's word was proved 
 to be true by the fulfilment of that prophecy. 
 
 ,J Acts ii. 4; iii. 7; ix. 34. 40. 1 Acts v. 3. 
 
 - 2 Pet. ii. 16. May I refer to my notes on Num. xxii. ? 
 3 Matt. xii. 40. May I also refer to my notes on Jonah i. ? 
 
76 Booh of Daniel. 
 
 Christ was three days and three nights in the 
 heart of the earth ; and He then raised Himself. 
 Thus Christ's authorization of Jonah's history is 
 verified by the fulfilment of Christ's prophecy 
 concerning Himself, of Whom Jonah was a type. 
 Let us not read the history of Jonah by the 
 feeble glimmeriugs of a purblind sciolism, but by 
 the clear light of Christ's glorious Gospel, and 
 we shall see the proof of its truth in His Burial 
 and Resurrection. Thus these Scriptural diffi- 
 culties will be dissolved by a spiritual alchymy in 
 the crucible of faith. 
 
 7. Once more : the unbeliever alleges that the 
 prophecies of Daniel correspond so minutely with 
 the events that they profess to predict that they 
 must be posterior to those events. A strange 
 allegation ! As if there were any past or future 
 with God ! As if He, who spake by the Prophets, 
 does not see all things present at once ! It is 
 enough for us to know that the Book of Daniel, 
 as it is in our hands now, was in the hands of the 
 Jewish nation of our Lord's age; and was received 
 by them as inspired 4 ; and that what they re- 
 ceived as inspired was also received as such by 
 Jesus Christ. Indeed He expressly owns Daniel 
 as a prophet. " When ye shall see the abomina- 
 
 4 See the remarkable testimony of the Jewish historian Josephus, 
 Antiquities, book x. chapters 10 — 12. See also Maimonides, More 
 Nevochim, ii. 45, who says " Daniel, the Psalm?, &c, are all 
 written by the Holy Spirit." May I be allowed to refer here to 
 my Introduction and Notes to the Book of Daniel ? 
 
Christians enjoy greater advantages than the He- 77 
 brews, even with regard to the Hebrew Scriptures. 
 
 tion of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the Pro- 
 phet V — Daniel the Prophet may be no Pro- 
 phet to the unbeliever ; the book of Daniel may 
 be a forgery to the sceptic of the nineteenth 
 century ; but to us, my Christian friends, let him 
 be Daniel the Prophet; for he was Daniel the 
 Prophet to his own nation, he ivas " Daniel the 
 Prophet " to Jesus Christ. 
 
 V. Let us here acknowledge our own spiritual 
 privileges, and our cause for thankfulness to God. 
 The Jews of old were greatly favoured by Him, 
 but how much more favoured are we ! " What 
 advantage hath the Jew ?" asks the Apostle. 
 " Much every way/ 3 he replies, " chiefly because 
 unto them were committed the oracles of God." 
 And may we not much more say, ce What advan- 
 tage hath the Christian ? Much every way •" 
 even more than the Jew. For ive have a stronger 
 assurance of the Divine Inspiration of the He- 
 brew Scriptures than the Jews themselves had. 
 They received the Old Testament as inspired, on 
 the testimony of their forefathers ; but it is deli- 
 vered to us, as inspired, by the Son of God. 
 Here is an inexpressible comfort ; here indeed is 
 a joyful assurance, in days like these, of rebuke 
 and blasphemy. Here we have hope and peace 
 in the sorrows of life, and in the hour of death. 
 Our belief in the Truth and Inspiration of the Old 
 
 5 Matt. xxiv. 15. Mark xiii. 14. Dan. ix. 27 ; xii. 11. 
 
78 Moral uses of difficulties in Holy Scripture. 
 
 Testament, yes, of the ivJiole of the Old Testament, 
 rests on a foundation that can never be shaken. 
 It rests on the testimony of Christ. Therefore 
 we may dwell safely, and defy the storms raging 
 around us. Let the rain descend; let the floods 
 of Unbelief come, and the winds of false Doctrine 
 blow, and beat upon our house ; it will not fall, 
 for it is built upon a Rock 6 . It is built upon the 
 Rock of Ages 7 ; it is built upon Jesus Christ. It 
 is built on the testimony of God the Holy Ghost, 
 whom He sent to His Apostles, to teach them all 
 things, and to guide them into all truth. 
 
 VI. Finally, may we not say, that the written 
 Word of God is like the Incaenate Word Him- 
 self, — set for the fall, and also for the rising of 
 many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken 
 against 8 ? 
 
 Holy Scripture is set for our moral probation, 
 which supposes trial and difficulty. It exhibits 
 us to men and angels as we are. It displays 
 what manner of spirit ive are of 9 . It is a test 
 and touchstone of our fitness for heaven. It 
 proves, whether we have those moral habits and 
 tempers of mind, — that distrust of ourselves, and 
 that sense of our need of the light of the Holy 
 Ghost without which no man can hope to be able 
 to see the truth. It shows whether we possess 
 those dispositions of meekness and docility, and 
 
 6 Matt. vii. 24, 25. 7 Tsa. xxvi. 4. 
 
 a Luke ii. 34. 9 Luke ix. 55. 
 
§ Those difficulties will be cleared away from the 79 
 
 eyes of those who use them aright. 
 
 readiness to weigh evidence with candour and 
 fairness, without which no man is fit for the king- 
 dom of God \ 
 
 The difficulties in Scripture vanish into nothing, 
 when they are compared with the evidence in Us 
 favour; they are merely as dust in the balance, 
 when set against the difficulty, or rather the 
 moral impossibility, of resisting the testimony of 
 Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, to the truth 
 and inspiration of the Bible. They are like mole- 
 hills, when compared with that mountain. 
 
 Holy Scripture is set for our fall, — if we 
 proudly set up our own reason against divine 
 revelation, and in opposition to the testimony of 
 Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, and if, with a 
 partial eye to difficulties in single texts taken by 
 themselves, and without due regard to the general 
 scope of the whole, and to the divine evidence of 
 its Truth and Inspiration, we take occasion to 
 cavil at its contents, and deny its divine origin 
 and authority. And then our cavils will be our 
 punishment. They will be the recoil of cur own 
 sin against ourselves. They will provoke God 
 to withdraw His grace from us, and to leave 
 us to ourselves ; and then we shall be spiritually 
 blind. For how can we hope to see, without 
 Him Who is the Light ? 
 
 LLet those who carp at Holy Scripture be ear- 
 nestly and affectionately requested to consider 
 that by so doing they oppose themselves to Christ, 
 1 Luke ix. 62. 
 
80 Moral uses of difficulties in the Bible. 
 
 Who sets His Divine Seal upon Scripture. They 
 rebel against Him Who is God ; and Who is 
 their future Judge, and Who will determine their 
 sentence for ever according to their treatment of 
 His Word. (John xii. 48.) They make Scripture, 
 which is given to them for their joy and happi- 
 ness in this world and in eternity, — to be an 
 occasion to them of everlasting misery and shame ; 
 to be for their fall even into an abyss of perdition, 
 and into the bottomless pit, and the lake of fire, 
 which is the second death. (Rev. xx. 10, 14.) 
 
 But, on the other hand, thanks be to God, 
 Scripture is set for our rising, — for our rising to 
 heavenly glory, — if we use those difficulties 
 aright, and are led thereby to acknowledge the 
 weakness of our own faculties in their present 
 state, and our consequent need of divine grace ; 
 and to exercise humility, and to thank God for 
 what is 'perfectly clear in Holy Scripture ; and to 
 tarry the Lord's leisure, and to look forward with 
 patience, faith, and hope to that blessed time, 
 when all those difficulties will be dispersed, and 
 the film and mist, which now cloud our spiritual 
 vision, will be purged away; and we shall no 
 longer see, as now, through a glass darkly, but 
 shall see face to face, and know even as ive are 
 known 2 . 
 
 2 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 Luke xi. 33. 
 
 No man, token he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret 
 place, neither under a bushel, but on acandlesticlc, that they which 
 come in may see the light '. 
 
 We have been engaged in considering, what the 
 reasons are for belief in the Inspiration of the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 I. The subject now proposed for examination 
 is; — 
 
 On what grounds do we receive the New Testa- 
 ment as the Inspired Word of God ? 
 
 1. God is One, and Everlasting; and if the 
 New Testament is from Him, we may reasonably 
 anticipate, that the method employed by Him for 
 assuring us of the Inspiration of the New Testa- 
 ment, will, as far as the difference of circumstances 
 allows, be similar to that plan by which He has 
 assured us of the Inspiration of the Old. 
 
 2. When we were asked for the reasons of our 
 
 1 Cp. Matt. v. 15. Mark iv. 21. Luke viii. 16. 
 
 Q 
 
82 What are the grounds for belief 
 
 belief in the Inspiration of the Old Testament, our 
 answer was, — 
 
 First, we receive the Old Testament on the 
 authority of God Himself, speaking by the uni- 
 versal consent and practice of the Hebrew Nation, 
 to which, as the Apostle says, were committed the 
 Oracles of God *. 
 
 Next we proceeded to show, that when the Son 
 of God Himself came down from heaven, and 
 dwelt among us, He acknowledged the truth of 
 that belief in the Inspiration of the Old Testa- 
 ment. Our Blessed Lord declared His own con- 
 currence in, and pronounced His divine approval 
 of, this consent and practice of the Hebrew Nation, 
 receiving all the Books of the Old Testament, as 
 set apart from all other Volumes then existing in 
 the world, and as holy and divine Writings, dic- 
 tated by the Spirit of God. 
 
 Thirdly, when Jesus Christ had ascended into 
 heaven, He sent the Holy Ghost to teach His 
 Apostles all things, and to guide them into all 
 truth. And they, so taught and guided, received 
 the Old Testament as divine. 
 
 3. Our present assertion is, that Almighty God 
 has employed similar means for assuring us of the 
 Inspiration of the New Testament. 
 
 We affirm that the New Testament comes to 
 us principally and originally from Jesus Christ. 
 
 2 Rom. iii. 1. 
 
in the Inspiration of the New Testament ? 83 
 
 We look up to heaven with the eye of Faith, and 
 we see Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, en- 
 throned there in His glorious Majesty, and hold- 
 ing in His hands the Old and New Testaments, 
 and delivering to us both Testaments, as the 
 Word of the Living God. 
 
 4. In order to show the soundness of this belief, 
 we must revert to a proposition already proved in 
 a previous discourse, namely, that the Four Gos- 
 pels are historically true 3 . 
 
 That the Four Gospels are true, has been shown 
 from the facts, that the Gospels were publicly read 
 in Christian Churches in primitive times; and 
 that they who read them could not have been 
 deceived as to their veracity ; and that they died 
 gladly in defence of their Truth : and that even- 
 tually the Roman Empire, which at first had per- 
 secuted the Christians for belief in the Gospels, 
 was itself converted to Christianity, and received 
 the Gospels as true. 
 
 II. The truth of the Gospels being established, 
 it follows that the Son of God uttered those 
 sayings which He is related in the Gospels to 
 have spoken. 
 
 1. Among the declarations of Christ recorded 
 in the Gospels, we find the following : Upon this 
 Rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell 
 shall not prevail against it 4 . Lo, I am with you 
 alway, even unto the end of the world*. Christ 
 
 3 See above, pp. 57—60. 
 
 4 Matt. xvi. 18. 5 Matt, xxviii. 20, 
 
84 Our Lord promised to give supernatural Inspi- 
 ration to His disciples ; 
 
 promised to send the Holy Spirit to His disciples, 
 to guide them into all truth, and to abide ivith them 
 for ever. These things have I spoken unto you, 
 being yet present with you; but the Comforter, 
 which is the Holy Ghost, ivhom the Father vrill send 
 ■in My name, He shall teach you all things, and 
 bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I 
 have said unto you 6 . And, When He, the Spirit 
 of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth : 
 for He shall not speak of Himself ; but whatsoever 
 He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will 
 show you things to come 7 . I ivill pray the Father, 
 and He ivill give you another Comforter, that He 
 may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of 
 Truth 8 . And again, I will give you a mouth and 
 wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be 
 able to gainsay nor resist s . 
 
 The fulfilment of these promises of Christ is 
 avouched in the history of the Acts of the Apos- 
 tles l , the truth of which is proved by its recep- 
 tion and public reading in the primitive Churches 
 of Christendom. 
 
 2. Hence we may conclude, that Christ enabled 
 His Apostles and Evangelists to reveal super- 
 natural mysteries ; and that the words which they 
 have delivered to the Church for her perpetual 
 instruction in divine truth, and which have been 
 read as such in her public assemblies from their 
 
 6 John xiv. 25, 26. 7 John xvi. 13. 
 
 8 John xiv. 16. 9 Luke xxi. 15. 
 
 i Acts ii. 4. 
 
and He instituted the Church to be a Witness of 85 
 the Inspiration of the Scriptures lorilten by them. 
 
 age until now, are not words which, man's ivisdom 
 teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth \ 
 
 3. Next, we may deduce from Christ's words 
 just rehearsed, this inference — that He has insti- 
 tuted in the world a visible Society, called His 
 Church, to which He has promised His perpetual 
 presence and His Spirit, to lead it into all truth, 
 and to abide with it unto the end. 
 
 Accordingly, we find that the Apostle St. Paul, 
 having regard to Christ's promise of His continual 
 presence in His Church, calls her His Body ; and 
 meditating on His love to His Church, and her 
 dearness to Him, he speaks of her as united to 
 Christ in spiritual wedlock 3 ; and forasmuch as 
 she is quickened, and taught by God the Holy 
 Spirit dwelling in her, and publishing by her, as 
 by a living organ, His will and word, the Apostle 
 says, that she is the Ghurch of the Living God, the 
 Pillar and Ground of the Truth *. 
 
 We cannot say with some persons, that we re- 
 ceive the Scriptures as divine merely because we 
 know ivho their writers were, and that they were 
 good men full of the Holy Ghost, and that there- 
 fore whatever they wrote must be inspired of 
 God. 
 
 The truth is, we do not know, by ivhom some 
 of the Books of Scripture were written 5 ; and 
 
 2 1 Cor. ii. 13. 3 Eph. v. 23—32. 
 
 4 1 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
 5 E. g. the Books of Job, Judges, and others in the Old Testa- 
 ment. The Epistle to the Hebrews in the New Testament was, in 
 
86 Analogy in the means used by Almighty God 
 
 this uncertainty seems to have "been intended to 
 serve a providential purpose, in- order that we 
 might not attribute the authority of the Scrip- 
 tures to the men by whose instrumentality they 
 were written, but to God who wrote the Scriptures 
 by their hands. 
 
 We receive the Books of Holy Scripture on the 
 testimony of Jesus Chkist, the Son of God; 
 Who sent from heaven the Holy Ghost to teach 
 His Apostles all things (that is, all things neces- 
 sary to salvation), and to guide them into all 
 truth, and to abide for ever in His Church ; and 
 Who testifies to the Truth and Inspiration of 
 Holy Scripture by His Divine Witness in the 
 Church. 
 
 III. One of the principal offices of the Church 
 of God, ever since Scripture was written, has been 
 to guard Scripture, and to read it openly and 
 habitually to the people, and to authenticate it as 
 God's Word 6 . 
 
 1. We find, that as soon as the first Books of 
 Scripture — namely, the Books of Moses — were 
 written, they were deposited by God's command 
 
 all probability, written by St. Paul; but its inspiration is not only 
 probable^ but certain : because it is received, as inspired, by the 
 Universal Church of God. 
 
 Besides, the authorship of some smaller portions of the Gospels 
 may be matter of doubt : and this very circumstance brings out 
 more clearly the grounds on which our belief in their inspiration 
 rests. In proof of this, the Author begs leave to refer to his notes 
 on Mark xvi. 9 — 20, and on John vii. 53 ; viii. 1 — 11. 
 
 6 Cp. Hooker, V. xxii. 2. 
 
for preserving and authenticating both Testaments. 87 
 
 for safe custody, near the Ark 7 , in the Holy 
 of Holies ; and that they were ordered to be 
 read at the Feast of Tabernacles as His Holy 
 Word. 
 
 These commands of God were the first begin- 
 nings of a comprehensive Plan for the preserva- 
 tion of the Holy Scriptures, and for their publica- 
 tion to the world, and for the attestation of their 
 divine origin and authority, by external evidence 
 which all might see, and none could gainsay. 
 
 The ancient Hebrew Church read the Old Tes- 
 tament in the Synagogues, Sabbath after Sabbath, 
 year after year, and century after century, in all 
 parts of the world. It read the Old Testament 
 as inspired by God. 
 
 And when the Son of God came down from 
 heaven, He took part, as we have already seen s , 
 in this public reading of the Old Testament in the 
 Hebrew Synagogues ; He acknowledged the Old 
 Testament, which was there read, to be what the 
 ancient Hebrew Church believed and testified it 
 to be, — the unerring Word of God. 
 
 2. This providential arrangement for the guar- 
 dianship and authentication of God's Word, by 
 means of public Eeading, was maintained and 
 enlarged, from the time of the writing of the 
 first Books of the Old Testament until Christ's 
 First Advent ; and ever since that time it has 
 been growing and expanding itself throughout 
 
 " See above, pp. 44 — 47. s See above, pp. 62 — 66. 
 
88 
 
 Purposes served by the primitive public Reading 
 
 the world by the planting and propagation of 
 Christian Churches in distant lands ; and it will 
 continue to extend itself by the preaching of the 
 Gospel as a witness unto all Nations even unto the 
 end °, when Christ will come again to judge the 
 World. 
 
 This divinely-instituted plan of public Reading 
 comprehends within its range the New Testament, 
 as well as the Old ; and places the New Testament 
 on the same footing with the Old. This appears 
 from the history of the publication and preserva- 
 tion of the New Testament. 
 
 One of the most remarkable portions of the 
 New Testament in this particular respect, is that 
 which we have been reading in the Church during 
 the last week, namely, the First and Second 
 Epistles of St. Paul to the Church of Thessalonica. 
 These two Epistles were the first of all St. Paul's 
 Epistles, and were among the first written of all 
 the Books of the New Testament. 
 
 It is observable, that in the first of these two 
 Epistles to the Thessalonians, St. Paul gives a 
 solemn injunction, as follows : I charge, or adjure 
 you, by the Lord, that this Epistle be read unto all 
 the holy brethren l . That Epistle was to be read 
 openly in the Church. And in another Epistle, — 
 that to the Colossians, — St. Paul takes for granted 
 that it also would be read in the Church. He 
 thus speaks : Wlien this Epistle is read among you, 
 
 9 Matt, xxiv. 14. 1 1 Thess. v. 27. 
 
of the Boohs of the New Testament. 89 
 
 cause that it he read also in the Church of the 
 Laodiceans 2 . 
 
 What St. Paul required to be done to his own 
 Epistles, was done to all the Books of the New 
 Testament. They were received and read openly 
 and habitually on the Lord's Day, year after 
 year and century after century, in Christian 
 Churches, from primitive times 3 . 
 
 And with what feelings were they received and 
 read? Were they regarded as common writings? 
 No : certainly not. They were received and read 
 as the Word of God. They were reverently re- 
 ceived as such ; they were received and read as 
 Holy Scripture 4 ; they were read simultaneously 
 with the Books of the Old Testament. They were 
 read as equally inspired with the Books of Moses 
 and the Prophets 6 , which had been received by 
 Christ Himself, as the Word of the Living God. 
 
 Thus the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the Church 
 of God, bore witness to them, and testified that 
 they are the Oracles of God 6 . 
 
 2 Col. iv. 16. 3 See Bingham, Antiquities, XIV. ch. iii. 
 
 4 It is remarkable that the word Tpacpj], which simply means 
 writing, is reserved and appropriated in the New Testament 
 (where it occurs fifty times) to the sacred writings, i. e. to the 
 Holy Scriptures ; and marks the separation of the Scriptures 
 from all " common books," indeed, from all other writings in the 
 world ; just as in English the words Bible (i. e. booh:) and 
 Scripture (i.e. writing) have been consecrated for a like use. 
 
 5 See Bingham, Antiquities, XIV. ch. iii. 
 
 6 Cp. Hooker, V. xxii. 2 : " The reading of the Word of God 
 in open audience is the plainest evidence we have of the Church's 
 assent and acknowledgment that it is His Word." 
 
90 Some smaller portions of the New Testament were 
 not received at once by .all Churches. 
 
 3. Let us also consider this. The writers of 
 the New Testament lay claim to Inspiration. 
 Thus St. Paul says to the Corinthians, I trow 7 
 that I have the Spirit of God*. And, We speak 
 not in words which man's ivisdom teacheth, hut which 
 the Holy Ghost teacheth 9 . And he appeals to his 
 miracles wrought among them in proof of his 
 Inspiration. Truly the signs of an Apostle were 
 wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and 
 wonders, and mighty deeds 1 . 
 
 The Epistles of St. Paul, in which these words 
 occur, contain severe rebukes and censures of 
 those to whom these Epistles were sent. He re- 
 proves them as carnal, as tabes in Christ, and yet 
 puffed up 3 . Those persons were proud of their 
 intellectual and spiritual gifts ; and the reception of 
 those Epistles involved a condemnation of them- 
 selves. They would never have received those 
 Epistles as inspired, unless they had been con- 
 vinced, that the claims of the writer to Inspira- 
 tion were true. 
 
 The reception of all the Books of the New Tes- 
 tament as of equally divine authority, is a proof of 
 their Inspiration. 
 
 IV. But it may be asked, — 
 
 Are there not some portions of the New Testa- 
 ment which were not at first received universally 
 as the inspired Word of God ? 
 
 " Zokw. s 1 Cor. vii. 40. 
 
 9 1 Cor. ii. 13. * 2 Cor. xii. 12. 
 
 2 1 Cor. iii. 1—3 ; v. 2. 
 
Inferences to be derived from partial non-reception, 91 
 and subsequent universal reception, of those portions. 
 
 Yes, certainly there are. 
 
 The whole primitive Church received the Four 
 Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles, the Thir- 
 teen Epistles which bear the name of St. Paul, 
 and the First Epistle of St. Peter and of St. John. 
 These Books were universally received at once by 
 all Christendom, as soon as they were written. 
 
 But there are some few minor parts of the New 
 Testament, concerning which some particular 1 
 Churches at first suspended their judgment. 
 
 Such, for instance, was the Second Epistle of 
 St. Peter. Some Churches waited for a time, and 
 did not pronounce judgment upon that Epistle, 
 till they were fully persuaded of its genuineness 
 and inspiration. But, after careful examination, 
 they received it ; and eventually all Churches in 
 Christendom agreed in receiving all the Books of 
 the New Testament as the Word of God. 
 
 This very fact, that some of the Books of the 
 New Testament were not received by all at first, 
 is of great value. It proves the scrupulous care, 
 with which those Books were examined, before 
 they were received by the Church ; and the fact 
 also, that those Books, concerning which some 
 Churches doubted at first, were eventually received 
 by all Churches, proves that they were rightly 
 received. 
 
 Y. To this testimony of the Holy Ghost, dwell- 
 ing in the Catholic Church, receiving the whole 
 of the New Testament, we appeal in support of 
 our belief that all of it is the Word of God. 
 
92 Why we receive the witness of the Church Universal 
 to the Inspiration of Scripture. 
 
 Let us here obviate an objection. 
 
 Let it not be supposed, that we are of opinion 
 with some in the Church of Rome 3 , that the 
 Church can give authority to Scripture. No ; the 
 authority of Scripture comes from God, and God 
 alone. The light is not from the Candlestick, 
 but from the Candles ; it is not from the Church, 
 but from the Scriptures, which are the Candles 
 that Christ has lighted, and set in the Church. 
 But the Church testifies to the divine authority of 
 Scripture. John the Baptist was a shining 
 light 4 , and bore witness to Christ. That witness 
 was true ; for John was full of the Holy Ghost 5 
 Who spake by him. But John did not give any 
 authority to Christ. So the Church bears testi- 
 mony to Scripture, and we appeal to that tes- 
 timony as true : we appeal to it as the testimony 
 of Christ, and of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 And why ? Because Christ has said, that the 
 gates of hell shall never prevail against His Church 6 , 
 and that He will be ever with her, and will send 
 her the Holy Spirit to teach her all things, to guide 
 her into all truth, and to abide with her for ever "' . 
 
 If the New Testament, which the Universal 
 Church receives and reads as the Word of God, is 
 only the word of man ; if the Church of God has 
 not been led into truth in this vital matter; if th.Q 
 
 3 Whose assertions to this effect may be seen in the Author's 
 volume on the Canon of Scripture, p. 15. 
 
 4 \vxvos, a lamp. John v. 35. 5 Luke i. 15. 
 
 6 Matt. xvi. 18. "' John xiv. 16; xvi. 13. 
 
Providential course followed by the Church of 93 
 England in this matter. 
 
 whole Church of Christ has fallen into error in 
 this fundamental article concerning the Inspira- 
 tion of the New Testament, on which the fabric 
 of her faith, and hope, and charity is built, then — 
 we say it with all reverence — Christ's promise to 
 His Church has failed. He has not sent the Holy 
 Spirit to teach her all things, and to lead her into 
 all truth, and to abide with her for ever. 
 
 But, God forbid, my brethren, that any one 
 should imagine this ! 
 
 Christ is the Truth. He is the everlasting Yea 
 and Amen 8 . Heaven and earth will pass aivay, 
 but His words will not pass away 9 . Therefore 
 His promise of presence and guidance to His 
 Church has not failed. He speaks to us by her, 
 to whom He has sent His Spirit, and He assures 
 us by her voice and practice that all the Books 
 of the New Testament, which she reads as in- 
 spired, were given by the inspiration of God. 
 
 VI. Thanks be to God, the Church of England 
 was endued with wisdom, at her Reformation in 
 the sixteenth century, to build her belief, and her 
 people's belief, in the Inspiration of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, on this good foundation. 
 
 1. She did not say, — what some other religious 
 communities did say at that time l , — that men's 
 belief in the Inspiration of Scripture is to rest on 
 their own inner illumination, or personal con- 
 sciousness. She did not build her house on such 
 
 3 Rev. iii. 14. Cp. 2 Cor. i. 20. 9 Luke xxi. 33. 
 
 1 See above, pp. 23, 24. 
 
94 Calamitous consequences 
 
 a floating quicksand as that. No : she appealed 
 to the public judgment and concurrent practice 
 of the Church of Christ Universal. In her Sixth 
 Article 2 she says, "In the name of the Holy 
 Sceiptuee we do understand those Canonical 
 Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose 
 authority was never any doubt in the Church. 33 
 And because she well knew that there are some 
 few portions of the New Testament — such as the 
 Second Epistle of St. Peter, as already stated — 
 concerning which there were some doubts at first 
 in some Churches, but which were afterwards 
 universally received, without any doubt, by the 
 whole Catholic Church, she wisely adds, at the 
 close of the same Article : "All the Books of the 
 New Testament, as they are commonly received, we 
 do receive and account them canonical." 
 
 She also shows, what those Books are, by her 
 Authorized Version of the Bible, and by her 
 Calendar of Lessons of Holy Scripture, appointed 
 to be read daily throughout the year. 
 
 2. We cannot be too thankful, that the Church 
 of our beloved Country was mercifully preserved 
 from building on an unsound foundation in this 
 momentous matter. Three centuries have elapsed 
 since that Article was published ; and succeeding 
 
 2 In the Thirty -nine Articles of the Church of England " as 
 agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces 
 and the whole Clergy, in the Convocation holden at London in 
 the year 1562." 
 
of a different course. 95 
 
 years bear witness to the wisdom with which it 
 was framed. 
 
 We have seen, and now see,, that other religious 
 Communities, — particularly those foreign Pro- 
 testant Churches, — which did not build on this 
 foundation, but on the loose substructure of 
 private opinion, or personal feeling, in this great 
 question of Inspiration — have been, and are now, 
 buffeted and bewildered by the winds and storms 
 of Infidelity. They have separated Holy Scrip- 
 ture from the Church, which is the appointed 
 Keeper and Guardian of Scripture ; and therefore 
 they have almost forfeited Scripture. There is 
 scarcely any portion of the Bible, which has not 
 now been gainsaid and rejected by some of their 
 most eminent Teachers, relying with fond and 
 overweening conceit on their own private imagi- 
 nations, and dogmatizing rashly and recklessly 
 on God's Holy Word, with arbitrary wilfulness, 
 and disdainful contempt of Authority. They 
 declaim loudly against the Papacy, but many a 
 man among them sets up a private Popedom in 
 his own person, and claims spiritual supremacy 
 and infallibility for himself, and lords it over the 
 faith of men. This self-confident dictation of 
 crude, ill-digested opinions has engendered end- 
 less strife ; this irrational abuse of reason, and 
 injudicious perversion of private judgment, have 
 brought discredit upon Keason, and have been 
 disastrous to Faith. 
 
 3. Blessed be God, the Church of England has 
 
96 The Church is the Candlestick, 
 
 not been led astray by this fanatical spirit. She 
 has been enabled to discharge faithfully the duty 
 of a Church in the public reading of Holy Writ. 
 Blessed be God, she reads day by day, throughout 
 the year, several chapters of Holy Scripture to 
 the People in their mother tongue. Blessed also 
 be God, she builds her belief in the Inspiration 
 of Scripture on a sound foundation ; she builds it 
 on the testimony of Christ, speaking by His 
 Church to the world. 
 
 4. This method of proof has been dictated by 
 Christ Himself. No man, He says, when he hath 
 lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither 
 under a bushel, but on a Candlestick, that they 
 which come in may see the light. And again, He 
 said, No man lighteth a candle and covereth it 
 luith a vessel, or putteth it under a bed ; but setteth 
 it on a Candlestick, that they which enter in may 
 see the light. 
 
 Christ is the Light of the World 3 . He lighted 
 the candles of Holy Scripture, and He has put 
 them into the Candlestick of His Church, which is 
 appointed to guard and display the light of Holy 
 Scripture kindled by Christ. Therefore Christ 
 Himself, in the Book of Revelation, describes 
 a Church under the figure of a Candlestick 4 . 
 
 3 John viii. 12 ; ix. 5. 
 
 4 Kvxvia — properly a lamp-stand ; a term even more significant 
 of this office of the Church, than the English word candlestick ; 
 for the lamp is fed with oil, which is an appropriate emblem of 
 Holy Scripture, bestowed by the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Divine 
 unction and grace, illuminating the world. See Rev. i. 11 — 13. 
 
in which the Candles of Scripture are lighted 97 
 and set by Christ. 
 
 Observe those seven-branched Candlesticks 
 standing before the Altar of this Church. They 
 are now dark. And why ? Because they have 
 no candles in them. Such is a Church without 
 Scripture. It is dark; a Candlestick without 
 light. But put the Candles of Scripture into the 
 Candlestick of the Church, and all may see the 
 light. 
 
 Again, if you light the candles, but put them 
 into a vault or crypt 5 , or if you strew them on 
 the ground, the candles are of little use; they 
 soon go out. So, if you bury the Bible in the 
 crypt and vault of a dead language, it is of little 
 use. If you hide it from the people, it is of little 
 use. Or if you cover it with the bushel of secular 
 business, or put it beneath the bed of carnal in- 
 dulgence, it is of little use. 
 
 Or if, on the other hand, you scatter Bibles 
 about at random, and do not put them into the 
 Candlestick of the Church, they will be puffed 
 and blown about with every wind of doctrine, and 
 will flare and smoke, and soon go out. 
 
 We must have the Candles, and we must have 
 the Candlestick ; and the Candles must be put 
 into the Candlestick, and they will give light to 
 all. 
 
 Christ has lighted the Candles of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, and He has set them in the Candlestick of 
 His Church. Let us not separate the Candles 
 from the Candlestick, lest we derive no profit 
 5 Kpinrr-qv, the true reading in the text, Luke xi. 33. 
 
 H 
 
98 They icho separate the Bible from the Church, are in 
 peril of losing both the Bible and the Church. 
 
 from either. Let us not sever the Bible from the 
 Church, lest we lose both. 
 
 5. Look up to heaven. Behold Christ. He is 
 the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh 
 into the world 6 . He enlightened Moses, He en- 
 lightened the Prophets before His Incarnation ; 
 He enlightened the Apostles and Evangelists after 
 His Incarnation. He sent the Holy Ghost to 
 teach them all things, and to guide them into all 
 truth, and to bring to their remembrance whatsoever 
 Re had said unto them, and to diffuse the light of 
 the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make us 
 wise unto salvation through faith in Him 7 . 
 
 Christ, the Everlasting Woed, is the Author 
 and Giver of the written Word s . 
 
 6. Further, Christ is the Truth. He is the 
 Way, the Truth, and the Life 9 . He is the faith- 
 fid and true Witness \ He gave the Scriptures, 
 and also bears testimony to their Inspiration. 
 When He came down from Heaven and took our 
 flesh, He acknowledged all the Books of the Old 
 Testament to be given by Inspiration of God. 
 And after His ascension into heaven, He esta- 
 blished His Church, and sent the Holy Spirit to 
 
 6 John i. 9. 7 2 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
 b S. Augustine de Consens. Evangel, lib. i. cap. ult. well says, 
 (i Qui Prophetas ante Suam descensionem rnisit, Ipse et Apostolos 
 post Suam ascensionem misit . . . quicquid Ille de Suis factis et 
 dictis nos legere voluit, hoc scribendum illis tanquam Suis manibus 
 iniperavit." See also the passages quoted in the Preface to these 
 Lectures. 
 
 9 John xiv. 6. ' l Rev. iii. 14. 
 

 They who separate the Bible from the Church, are in 99 
 peril of losing loth the Bible and the Church. 
 
 teach her all things, and to guide her into all 
 truth, and to be for ever with her. The Holy 
 Ghost speaks in her, and by her, and declares by 
 her voice and practice, that the Scriptures of the 
 Old and New Testaments are the Word of the 
 Living God. 
 
 VII. Lastly, Christ gives the Holy Spirit to 
 all those who seek for Him aright. He punishes 
 ungodly men with spiritual blindness, so that 
 they cannot see the light shining in Holy Scrip- 
 ture. He chastises those who lead unholy lives, 
 who would quench the light of Scripture, if they 
 could, for it speaks to them of a Judgment to 
 come. He allows them to close their eyes, and 
 leaves them to themselves. Infidelity is the pun- 
 ishment which evil men inflict on themselves by 
 their sins. Every one that doeth evil hateth the 
 light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds 
 should be reproved 2 . Nor is it only carnal indul- 
 gence, or worldliness, which produce spiritual 
 blindness. Spiritual blindness often co-exists 
 with great mental endowments. It is engendered 
 by intellectual pride. God hides Himself from 
 the wise and prudent, but revealeth Himself unto 
 babes 3 . He resisteth the proud, but giveth grace 
 unto the humble 4 . They who carp and cavil at 
 Scripture, they who deny the truth and inspi- 
 ration of Scripture, do despite to the Holy Spirit 
 of God, who testifies to the divine authority of 
 
 2 John iii. 20. 3 Luke x. 21. 
 
 4 James iv. 6. 1 Pet. v. 5. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 Moral requisites for receiving the Bible. 
 
 Scripture. They grieve the Holy Ghost. They 
 provoke Him to leave them to themselves. And 
 how can they see without Him who is the Light ? 
 Their cavils against Scripture are precisely what 
 might be expected. They are proofs of the 
 blindness which is their chastisement for sinning 
 against God the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The angels of Christ's little ones see the face of 
 God . We must become as little children, if we 
 would behold Him, and see the wondrous things of 
 His Law 6 . In order that the mind may be clear, 
 the heart must be clean. We must seek for the 
 truth, not by proud disputations, but by loving 
 thoughts and words and deeds, by lowly reverence 
 on our knees. We must seek it by holiness of 
 life. If any man willeth to do God's will, he shall 
 also know of the doctnne 7 . If any man love God, 
 the same is known of God 8 , and is loved of God, 
 and God reveals Himself to him. Mysteries are 
 revealed unto the meek 9 . Them that are meek shall 
 He guide in judgment ; and such as are gentle, them 
 shall He learn His way \ 
 
 Is this temper yours ? Are these dispositions 
 yours ? Then, God knows, you will be enchanted 
 and enraptured with the beauty and loveliness of 
 Holy Scripture ; you will be transported with holy 
 ecstacy in hearing and reading it. It will sound 
 in your ears like heavenly music, chanted by the 
 quires of the Seraphim. By the aid of the Holy 
 
 5 Matt, xviii. 10. 6 Ps. cxix. 18. ' John vii. 17. 
 
 8 1 Cor. viii. 3. » Ecclus. iii. 19. i Ps. xxv. 8. 
 
 
External evidence confirmed by internal. 101 
 
 Spirit shed abroad in your hearts, in answer to your 
 prayers, you will see the work of the Spirit in the 
 Bible. You will say, Lord, how I love Thy Law, 
 all the day long is my study in it. I rejoice at Thy 
 Word as one that findeth great s}wil 2 . Thy testi- 
 monies are my delight and my counsellors 3 . More 
 to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine 
 gold, sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb 4 . 
 You will never be weary of admiring the har-^ 
 monious symmetry of all the parts of the Bible, 
 the unsullied holiness of its precepts, the exact 
 fulfilment of its prophecies, the tender gracious - 
 ness of its promises, the marvellous glory of its 
 revelations, displaying Christ the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness, illumining our dark nature with the brilliant 
 splendour of His light, and dwelling therein with 
 the Shechinah of His Presence, and pouring upon 
 it the riches of His grace, and preparing it for the 
 everlasting fruition of heavenly bliss. You will 
 never be tired of meditating on the wonderful 
 adaptation of the Scriptures to our nature and our 
 needs, to our cares and our sorrows, to our fears 
 and our hopes, to our temptations and our trials ; 
 you will never be satiated in contemplating the 
 manifold blessings which have been produced by 
 the Holy Scriptures in human hearts, and in 
 human households, and in cities, kingdoms, and 
 nations, wherever the Scriptures have been duly 
 received, loved, and obeyed. 
 
 2 Ps. cxix. 162. 3 p s> cx ix. 24. 97. 
 
 4 Ps. xix. 10. 
 
102 Anticipations of a future state. 
 
 Thus you will be confirmed, settled, and im- 
 moveably established in your belief, which Christ, 
 speaking in His Church, solemnly testifies to be 
 true, that all Scripture is given by Inspiration of 
 God 5 . And you may humbly believe and devoutly 
 hope, that, if you have profited aright by its 
 revelations upon earth, it will be your employment 
 and joy, in a future, eternal state of existence, to 
 have a fuller insight into those Mysteries, of which 
 the Scriptures speak, and which Angels desire to 
 look into 6 ; and to have an everlasting vision in 
 heaven, of the manifold wisdom of God. 
 
 5 2 Tim. iii. 16. 6 1 Pet. i. 12. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 2 Timothy iii. 16, 17. 
 
 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable 
 for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right- 
 eousness ; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly fur- 
 nished unto all good ivories. 
 
 T. Be ready always to give an answer to every man 
 that asketh yon a reason of the hope that is in you. 
 This is the precept of St. Peter 1 . The hope that 
 is in us, is grounded on a belief that the Bible is 
 the Word of God ; and the Apostle may therefore 
 be understood to require us to be ready always to 
 render to others an account of the reasons which 
 constrain us, and ought to persuade them, to 
 receive the Bible as God's Holy Word. 
 
 1. This being the case, we have in a previous 
 lecture 2 declared ourselves unable to agree with 
 those, who rest their belief in the Inspiration of 
 the Bible on their own personal assurance of its 
 Inspiration. Such an assurance, however satis- 
 factory to themselves, can have no influence with 
 1 1 Pet. iii. 15. 2 See above, pp. 20—21. 
 
104 Recapitulation. 
 
 other men; it will never bring an unbeliever to 
 acknowledge the Bible to be from God. 
 
 2. Besides, the history of the last three cen- 
 turies, and especially of our own age, has dis- 
 played the disastrous consequences of such a 
 method of dealing with this great question of 
 Inspiration. 
 
 The appeal to private feelings and assurances 
 was first employed in defence of the Bible; but it 
 has now been turned against it; and they who 
 rely on private feelings and personal assurances, 
 as their ground for believing the Bible, cannot 
 make any effectual reply to those who appeal to 
 their own private feelings and personal assurances 
 as their reason for rejecting it. 
 
 The dogmas of Private Judgment have produced 
 the doubts of Infidelity. The advantages which 
 have been given to Scepticism by that appeal to 
 personal feelings and private opinions, and the 
 baneful fruits which it is now bringing forth in 
 our own land, warn us most solemnly to consider 
 well our first principles. 
 
 3. We need something much more sound, solid, 
 and stable, than our own consciousness, to refute 
 the assaults of Unbelief, and to sustain our own 
 faith and that of others in the divine Inspiration 
 of the Bible ; and also, if God so will, to bring the 
 Sceptic and Unbeliever to acknowledge that all 
 Scripture is given by Inspiration of God. 
 
 4. It has been my endeavour to do something, 
 with God's help, in this great work of building up 
 
Recapitulation. 105 
 
 our old waste places, and raising up the foundations 
 of many generations* and repairing the breach that 
 has been made by some, who ought themselves to 
 be builders ; and with this aim and purpose, the 
 Discourses have been delivered on this subject 
 which have been lately addressed to you in this 
 place. 
 
 Eeasonable men require sound reasons for what 
 they do; and their assent to any proposition is 
 proportioned to the reasons given in support of 
 it; and the influence, which any proposition 
 exercises on their conduct, is also proportioned to 
 the conviction produced by those reasons in their 
 minds. 
 
 II. What, then, are our reasons for belief in 
 the Inspiration of Holy Scripture? 
 
 1. Our answer to this question, as you may 
 remember, was : We have the authority of Gop 
 Himself, declared to us in the uniform consent 
 and practice of His own People, acknowledging 
 the Old Testament to be His Word. We have 
 that acknowledgment authorized and confirmed 
 by the Son of JjtOD, when He came down from 
 heaven and dwelt among us. And for our belief 
 in the Inspiration of the New Testament as well 
 as of the Old, we have the testimony of the Son of 
 God, speaking by the voice of God the Holy 
 Ghost in the Church Universal, to which He has 
 promised His presence and His guidance, even to 
 the end. 
 
 3 Isa. lviii. 12. 
 
106 The previous proof of the Inspiration of the Bible 
 is confirmed by the evidence of God's care of the Bible. 
 
 2. The value of this testimony to the Inspira- 
 tion of Holy Scripture is its comprehensiveness 
 and universality. Other arguments apply with 
 greater or less force to portions of Holy Writ. 
 But this testimony extends to the ivhole Bible. It 
 covers the whole with a divine panoply. It 
 authenticates the whole as the Inspired Word of 
 God ; it proves, that all Scripture — every part of 
 Scripture — is given by Inspiration of God. 
 
 III. To this point in the argument we had 
 arrived in the last discourse. 
 
 Let us now proceed to observe, that the 
 strength of this general testimony of God the 
 Son, and of God the Holy Ghost, to the Inspira- 
 tion of Holy Scripture, is corroborated by other 
 subsequent considerations, which accrue with 
 cumulative force, and settle and stablish us more 
 firmly in the belief, that the Scriptures are the 
 Word of God. 
 
 What, then, are these considerations ? This 
 will be the subject of our present inquiry. 
 
 1. First, then, we are confirmed in our belief 
 of the Inspiration of the Bible by observing the 
 evidences of a providential design carried on 
 during many ages in succession, for protecting the 
 Bible, and for assuring us that Holy Scripture is 
 God's Word. 
 
 If the Bible were not His Word, it would be 
 nothing else than & forgery put forth in His name. 
 For, it professes to deliver a message from God, 
 and to give revelations of His nature and attri- 
 
God" s providential care of the Bible confirms it. 107 
 
 butes, and to unfold the liidden mysteries of the 
 spiritual world. 
 
 If , therefore, the Bible is not from God, it is a 
 counterfeit coin, bearing His impress : it is a 
 profane outrage against Him, and a fraudulent 
 imposture upon mankind. Consequently it would 
 be viewed with indignation by Him Who is a God 
 of justice and truth. 
 
 But look back upon the past. Ever since the 
 Bible was written, Almighty God has continued 
 to protect it. He-has Dever ceased to acknowledge 
 it as His own. ' When the first books of the Bible 
 — namely, the books of Moses — were written, He 
 received them under His divine guardianship in 
 the Holy of Holies 4 . In critical times, He has 
 ever interfered to save it. When the Old Testa- 
 ment was in peril of being lost, through the 
 corruption and idolatry of Princes, Priests and 
 People, He brought forth the original volume of 
 the Law from its sacred retreat in the days of 
 good King Josiah, who in his own name, and in 
 that of his people, proclaimed it to be the Word 
 of God 5 . 
 
 The subsequent dispersion of the Jeivs for 
 their sins was made ministerial, as we have 
 seen 6 , to the preservation and dissemination of 
 God's Holy Word in almpst all countries, where 
 Synagogues were erected by the Jews, in which 
 
 4 See above, pp. 44, 45. 5 See above, p. 45. 
 6 See above, pp. 38-40. 53, 54. 
 
108 God's care of the Bible confirms our belief. 
 
 the Old Testament was publicly read every Sab- 
 bath day. 
 
 Afterwards, in an evil time, Antiochus Epi- 
 phanes the King of Syria arose, and set up the 
 abomination of desolation in the Temple of God 
 at Jerusalem; and endeavoured to compel the 
 Jews to worship the gods of the Heathen; and 
 sent forth his own soldiers to destroy the copies 
 of the Old Testament, who rent in 'pieces the Books 
 of the Law uhich they found, and burnt them with 
 fire ; and whosoever ivas found with any such Book 
 was put to death by the King's command 7 . 
 
 In that critical juncture Almighty God inter- 
 posed to rescue His own Word, and the perse- 
 cuting King was suddenly cut off by a miserable 
 death 8 . 
 
 About a century and a half passed away, and 
 the Son of God came down from heaven. At that 
 time the Word of God was publicly read by the 
 Jews in the Synagogues of Palestine, and in 
 almost every city of the civilized world. But its 
 sense was overlaid and obscured by human tra- 
 ditions. The Son of God acknowledged the Old 
 Testament in the hands of the Jews. He owned 
 it to be God's Word. He showed His zeal for it 
 by sternly rebuking the Pharisees for making it 
 of none effect by their tradition 9 . But He never 
 rebuked them for receiving it as God's Word. 
 
 7 1 Mac. i. 54, 55—57. 
 
 s 1 Mac. vi. 12, 13. 16. 2 Mac. ix. 11—18. 28. 
 
 9 Matt. xv. 3. 6. 
 
Goers care for the Bible. 109 
 
 No : on the contrary, He joined with them in the 
 service of their Synagogues, and in reading and 
 expounding the Old Testament as God's Word 1 . 
 And His Apostles, and His Church after them, 
 beiug taught by the Holy Ghost, sent by the Son 
 of God, received the Old Testament as inspired by 
 God ; and commanded all men to receive it as 
 such. 
 
 At the beginning of the fourth century after 
 Christ, a fierce persecution arose against His 
 Church. The Emperor of the Roman World, 
 Diocletian, endeavoured to destroy the Bible. 
 He ordered diligent search to be made in all parts 
 of the Empire for copies of the New Testament 2 , 
 and commanded them to be burnt. But God 
 again interfered to save it. The sacred Bush ivas 
 burning, but it ivas not consumed, and God's voice 
 came forth from the midst of it 3 . In a few years 
 afterwards, He raised up another Sovereign of the 
 Roman World, Constantine, the first Emperor 
 who embraced Christianity; and by his royal 
 command copies of the Holy Scriptures were 
 multiplied, and Churches were built, in which 
 those Scriptures were read, as the Inspired Word 
 of God. 
 
 A thousand years passed away. Then was an 
 evil time for Holy Scripture. The Bible was not 
 dead ; but it was buried. It was entombed in the 
 
 See above, pp. 62—69. 2 Huseb. H. E. viii. 2. 
 
 3 Exod. iii. 2. 4. 
 
110 History of the Bible in England. 
 
 sepulchre of a dead language. Not to speak of 
 other lands, but only of our own, not a single 
 copy of the Bible existed at that time in England 
 in our tongue. But then arose John Wickliffe. 
 Five hundred years ago, he translated the Bible 
 into English 4 . In that age copies of the Bible 
 could only be had in manuscript; and four and 
 twenty years after his death it was. decreed 6 by 
 some in high place among us, that " no one 
 should hereafter translate any text into English, 
 and that no book of this kind should be read that 
 was composed by John Wickliffe." 
 
 There was then a famine of hearing GooVs 
 Word 6 in England. 
 
 But in fifty years' time, the art of Printing was 
 invented, and William Caxton set up his press at 
 Westminster 7 . And about the year 1526 William 
 Tyndal made and published in London his Trans- 
 lation of the Bible — the first Translation that ever 
 was printed in this land. The Author of this 
 Translation, and his coadjutor John Frith, died 
 nobly as Martyrs for the Faith; and the light 
 which they kindled has never been put out. Two 
 centuries and a half after the first Translation of 
 the Bible into English by Wickliffe, and about two 
 centuries and a half ago, — that is, in the year of 
 j our Lord 1611, — our own "Authorized Version '> 
 
 4 See Lewis, History of English Translations of the Bible., 
 pp. 18—27. Lond. 1739. 
 
 5 By Archbishop Arundel, in a Constitution at Oxford, 1408. 
 
 6 Amos viii. 11. ' a.d. 1474. 
 
History of the Bible in England. Ill 
 
 was published. That noble Translation was made 
 by a goodly company of pious and learned men, at 
 the head of whom stood a Dean of Westminster 8 ; 
 and by God's blessing on their labours, and on 
 those of others in this and other lands, especially 
 our religious Societies, the Holy Scriptures are 
 now diffused everywhere. Their sound is gone 
 out into all lands, and their ivords into the ends of 
 the world 9 . This is the Lord's doing, and it is 
 marvellous in our eyes l . 
 
 Surely these events, extending over a range of 
 more than three thousand years, afford practical 
 attestation from God Himself, that the Bible is 
 His Word. Surely they may inspire us with the 
 cheering assurance, that, however Satan may as- 
 sail it, God will protect it unto the end. 
 
 2. Another evidence of the Inspiration of Holy 
 Scripture is seen in the fulfilment of the Prophecies, 
 which are contained therein. God, and God alone, 
 can foresee the future. He challenges false gods 
 by saying, " Show us what shall happen, declare us 
 things for to come 2 .' 3 
 
 Let this test be applied to the Books of the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 Can any other writings in the world be named, 
 composed at such different times, in such different 
 places, and by the instrumentality of such dif- 
 
 8 Dean — afterwards Bishop — Andre wes. See Lewis's History 
 of the Translations of the Bible, p. 308. 
 
 9 Ps. xix. 4. * Ps. cxviii. 23. 
 2 Isa. xli. 22. 
 
] 12 The fulfilment of the Prophecies of Scripture 
 confirms the belief in its Inspiration. 
 
 f erent persons, as the Books of the Old Testament ; 
 and delivering snch a long series of Prophecies, as 
 those, for instance, which concern the Messiah, and 
 begin with the Book of Genesis, and end with that 
 of Malachi ; can any other writings be named, 
 containing Prophecies so minnte, so various, and 
 seemingly so contradictory — as, for example, those 
 which pre-annonnce a Messiah, suffering the most 
 shameful and agonizing death, and yet triumphing 
 as a mighty Conqueror, and reigning as a glorious 
 King — and all punctually fulfilled, fulfilled by the 
 agency of that very people — the Jews — who heard 
 those prophecies every Sabbath day in their Syna- 
 gogues ; and yet, as St. Paul says, fulfilled them 
 in condemning Him of whom those Prophecies 
 speak ? 
 
 Here, then, is another proof that the Books of 
 the Old Testament are animated by the breath of 
 God. 
 
 3. Consider also the wonderful symmetry of the 
 various parts of the Bible. 
 
 Its subject-matter reaches from the Creation to 
 the End of time. Its Books were written by dif- 
 ferent persons in distant ages and countries. And 
 yet how marvellously do they harmonize together ! 
 They are like Christ's vesture, woven without seam 3 . 
 They are like the wings of the Cherubim, as de- 
 scribed by Ezekiel, intertwined and interlaced 
 together \ The Jewish Doctors said that the 
 
 3 .John xix. 23. 4 Ezek. i. 9. 11, 12. 
 
The harmony of the various parts of the Bible 113 
 confirms the proof of its Inspiration. 
 
 words of the Pentateuch, make one word; and 
 there is a spiritual truth in the saying. The 
 Books of the Bible are all fitted together. The 
 Law prepares the way for the Prophets, and the 
 Prophets proclaim the Sanctity of the Law. The 
 New Testament lies hid in the Old Testament, and 
 the Old Testament is opened in the New. All the 
 Books of the Bible are joined together, and form 
 one Book. 
 
 No human design could have produced such a 
 result as this. It is the work of Him who sees all 
 things at a glance to the end from the beginning , 
 and with Whom one day is as a thousand years, and 
 a thousand years as one day 6 . 
 
 Here is another evidence that the Bible is from 
 God. 
 
 4. Let us also reflect what hind of persons they 
 were, who were employed to write the Bible. 
 
 The Bible, particularly the New Testament, pro- 
 fesses to unfold things hidden from the foundation 
 of the world '. The Gospels claim to be records of 
 the sayings of the Son of God, revealing the 
 secret Mysteries of His heavenly Kingdom. 
 And who were the persons chosen to write these 
 marvels ? Their enemies justly said that they 
 were unlearned and ignorant men 8 . True: such 
 they were in themselves, Publicans and Fishermen 
 of Galilee. Yet these unlearned and ignorant men 
 
 5 Isa. xlvi. 10. 6 2 Pet. iii. 8. 
 
 7 Matt. xiii. 35. s Acts iv. 13. 
 
 I 
 
114 Weakness of instruments used in writing the Bible, 
 and the work done thereby, prove its divine origin. 
 
 have become the Teachers of the World. They 
 are the Historians of the greatest deeds that ever 
 were done ; they are the Chroniclers of the wisest 
 sayings that were ever spoken, and they are the 
 utterers of the most heavenly Sermons that were 
 ever preached. And the World has received their 
 words, — has received them as divine. The Gos- 
 pels are read everywhere. God has evangelized 
 the learned and wise by means of the simple and 
 foolish ; and not the simple and foolish by means 
 of the learned and wise. As S. Augustine says, 
 " He caught the Orator by the Fisherman ; and 
 not the Fisherman by the Orator 9 ." 
 
 The greatest sages of this world — the Bacons 
 and Newtons, the Keplers and Pascals — have 
 deemed it their highest privilege to sit down as 
 little children at the feet of the holy Evangelists. 
 
 How could this be done ? 
 
 Certainly not by the writers themselves. Of 
 themselves they could do nothing. Their sufficiency 
 was of God \ But according to His promise, 
 Christ sent the Holy Ghost, to lead them into all 
 truth, and to bring all things to their remembrance, 
 whatsoever He had said to them. 
 
 He chose weak instruments for this mighty work 
 of evangelizing the world, in order that by the 
 weakness of the instruments chosen, and by the 
 
 9 Piscatorem de Oratore non lucratus estChristus, sed Oratorem 
 de Piscatore. S. Augustine, de Utilitate Jejunii ix., and Serm. 
 xliii. and Ixxxvii., and in Ps. cxlix. 
 
 i 2 Cor. iii. 5. 
 
The beneficial effects produced by the Bible llo 
 prove it to be of God. 
 
 greatness of the work done through their instru- 
 mentality, it might be evident to all, that the 
 work was not of them, but of God. The treasure 
 of heavenly truth was committed to earthen 
 vessels, in order that the excellency of the power 
 of the Gospel might be seen to be of God, and not 
 of men 2 . 
 
 5. Let us reflect also on the beneficent effects 
 produced by the Bible on the world. 
 
 Here is another proof that the Scriptures are 
 from God. The Bible speaks in God's name, and 
 professes to be God's Word. And if it is not in 
 fact what in name it professes to be, then it has 
 a lie in every page, and it is not from God, 
 but from the Evil One. Every plant, which My 
 Heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up, 
 says Christ 3 . And, A Tree is known by its fruits 4 . 
 
 What, then, have been the fruits of the Bible ? 
 
 Do they not show that the tree is a good tree, 
 that it is a tree of life, and that its leaves are for 
 the healing of the Nations 5 ? 
 
 This is the fact on which St. Paul insists, when 
 he says that All Scripture, or rather every Scrip-. 
 ture 6 , being divinely inspired, or inbreathed by 
 God, is also 7 profitable for doctrine, for reproof , for 
 correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the 
 man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished 
 
 2 2 Cor. iv. 7. 3 Matt. xv. 13. 
 
 4 Matt. vii. 16; xii. 33. Luke vi. 43. 5 Rev. xxii. 2. 
 
 6 Truaa ypacpT) i. e. Every portion of the Holy Book is inspired, 
 and forms a living portion of a living organic whole. 
 " no.'.; this -is probably the true reading of the text. 
 
 i 2 
 
116 The good effects produced by the Bible 
 
 prove it to be of God. 
 
 unto every good work. What is the condition of 
 men without it ? and what is their condition, 
 wherever they receive and obey it ? 
 
 The Bible, and the Bible alone, makes subjects 
 loyal to their Sovereigns, because it teaches them 
 that, in obeying their Sovereign, they are obeying 
 God, and will be rewarded hereafter by Him 8 . 
 The Bible, and the Bible alone, makes Sovereigns 
 rule rightly, because it reminds them that they 
 must render a strict account of their rule to the 
 King of kings. The Bible makes Judges and 
 Magistrates judge just judgment, because it tells 
 them, that they must one day stand before the 
 Judgment-seat of Christ. The Bible makes Mas- 
 ters kind to their Servants, because it declares to 
 all Masters, that they have a Master in heaven 9 . 
 The Bible makes Servants faithful to their Mas- 
 ters, because it assures all Servants that they are 
 Christ's freemen, and will receive a reward for 
 dutiful service, at the Great Day 1 . The Bible 
 persuades busy men to forego their business, and 
 makes tender women forget their tenderness, and 
 visit Prisons and Hospitals, and minister at the 
 bedside of the sick, and watch over the dying ; 
 because they know, that what they do to the least 
 of Christ's brethren on earth, they do it unto Him, 
 and that He will requite them for it at the Great 
 Day 2 . The Bible, and the Bible alone, unlocks the 
 
 8 Rom. xiii. 1—3. 9 Eph. vi. 9. Col. iv. 1. 
 
 i Eph. vi. 5. Col. iii. 22. Titus ii. 9. 1 Pet. ii. 18. 22. 
 2 Matt. xxr. 40, 
 
The beneficial effects produced by the Bible, in 117 
 nations and families, prove it to be of God. 
 
 fetters of the slave, and makes all men brethren in 
 Christ 3 . The Bible sends forth the Missionary to 
 heathen lands, to loose the chains of the soul. 
 The Bible, and the Bible alone, operates on the 
 mainspring of human actions — the heart. The 
 Bible makes men honest and just, kind and chari- 
 table in their thoughts and speeches, as well as in 
 their acts, because it teaches them, that all tilings 
 are naked and open to the eyes of Kim ivith Whom 
 they have to do 4 , and that He will bring to light 
 the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest 
 the counsels of the hearts . The Bible makes 
 Husbands and Wives faithful and loving to each 
 other, because it teaches, that Marriage was in- 
 stituted by God in Paradise, and that it represents 
 the spiritual union and wedlock between Christ 
 and His Church, and that whoever dishonours 
 Marriage desecrates a great Mystery 6 . The Bible 
 makes young men and young women live pure, 
 chaste, and holy lives, because it teaches them 
 that their bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, and 
 that whosoever defiles the Temple of God, him will 
 God destroy 7 , and that their bodies are members of 
 Christ, and are to be held in honour as such 8 ; 
 and that their bodies will be raised again from the 
 grave, and that they must then give an account 
 of the things done in the body 9 , and that, if they 
 
 3 Phiiem. 16. 4 Heb. iv. 13. 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. iv. 5. 6 Eph. v. 22—32. 
 
 i 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17; vi. 19. » 1 Cor. vi. 15. 1 Thess. iv. 4. 
 
 9 Eom ii. 6 : xiv. 12. 2 Cor. v. 10. 
 
118 The good effects produced by the Bible -prove it 
 to be of God. 
 
 have presented their bodies a living sacrifice to 
 God upon earth l , in holiness and pureness of 
 living, their bodies will rise from the grave, and 
 live hereafter in heaven, in everlasting health and 
 angelic beauty, and be made like unto Christ's 
 glorious body, according to the mighty working 
 whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Him- 
 self 2 . 
 
 What shall we say more? The Bible is the 
 fountain of all true Patriotism and Loyalty in 
 States ; it is the source of all true wisdom, sound 
 policy and equity in Senates, Council- chambers, 
 and Courts of Justice ; it is the spring of all true 
 discipline and obedience, and of all valour and 
 chivalry in Armies and Fleets, on the battle-field 
 and on the wide sea. It is the origin of all pro- 
 bity and integrity in Commerce and in Trade, in 
 Marts and in Shops, in Banking-houses and Ex 
 changes ; in the public resorts of men, and in the 
 secret silence of the heart. It is the pure unsul 
 lied fountain of all love and peace, happiness, 
 quietness, and joy, in families and households. 
 Wherever it is duly obeyed, it makes the desert of 
 the World to rejoice and blossom as the rose*. 
 
 These are the fruits of the Bible. Surely we 
 may conclude from them, that the Tree which 
 bears them has been planted by the hand of God, 
 and is watered by the dews and showers of His 
 Spirit, and is warmed by the sunshine of His 
 
 : Born. xii. 1. 2 Phil. iii. 21. 
 
 3 Isa. xxxv. 1. 
 
 ■- 
 
Testimony of the English Nation to the sanctity 119 
 of the Bible, at the Coronation of its Sovereigns. 
 
 grace; — that it is God's Tree, and will flourish 
 for evermore. 
 
 TV. Finally, let us look around. The place in 
 which we now are, is full of instruction. In this 
 ancient Minster, Kings and Queens are crowned : 
 and at their Coronation, that Sacred Yolume, the 
 Holy Biele, is taken from that Altar ; and that 
 Blessed Book is placed in the Monarch's hands, 
 with these solemn words, uttered by the public 
 Voice of the English Church and Nation, at that 
 august ceremonial 4 : — 
 
 u Our Gracious Sovereign ! we present you with 
 this Book, the most valuable thing that this world 
 affords. Here is Wisdom ; this is the Royal Law; 
 these are the lively Oracles of God. Blessed is he 
 that readeth, and they that keep the Words of 
 this Book ; that keep and do the things contained 
 in it. For these are the words of eternal Life, 
 able to make you wise and happy in this world, 
 nay, wise unto salvation; and so, happy for ever- 
 more, through faith which is in Christ Jesus ; to 
 whom be glory for ever. Amen." 
 
 Again look around. We are assembled here 
 to-day on the eve of a funeral — the funeral of the 
 venerated Mother of our beloved Queen. Medi- 
 tations on royal deaths, and on royal funerals, 
 find a proper place here. For here Kings and 
 
 4 See the " Form and Order of Coronation of the Kings and 
 Queens of Great Britain and Ireland, in the Abbey Church of 
 St. Peter, Westminster." 
 
120 Meditations on the Bible suggested by West- 
 minster Abbey. 
 
 Queens rest in their graves. Here Princes and 
 Nobles sleep in the dust. Here lie Statesmen 
 and Orators, Legislators and Judges, Philoso- 
 phers, Poets, and Historians, Captains and Con- 
 querors. 
 
 Now consider this. We have indeed disclaimed 
 the notion of some, that the feelings of man afford 
 an adequate evidence of the truth of God. But 
 heaven forbid that we should entertain a doubt that 
 the "W ord of God finds a genuine response in the 
 heart of man. What then shall we here say ? 
 
 At their last hour, when the shadows of death 
 were falling upon them, when the heart was beat- 
 ing feebly and faintly, and the hand could hardly 
 prop the drooping head, when the eyes were be- 
 ginning to be bedimmed with the cloud and mist 
 of mortality, where, then, was their stay and sup- 
 port ? At that awful hour, did the Sovereign find 
 any solid comfort in meditating on the vast extent 
 of his dominions, or on the long duration of his 
 reign ? No. Did the Princes and Nobles, who 
 here lie buried, derive any real consolation from 
 the splendour of their stately mansions, or the 
 beauty of their wide demesnes, or from their 
 patrician badges and titles, and the long line of 
 their ancestral dignities ? No : at that solemn 
 hour, all these were vanishing like a dream. Did 
 the Statesman obtain any comfortable assurance 
 from his political sagacity, or the Orator from his 
 brilliant eloquence ? No : these things were like 
 fading flowers. Did the Legislator or the Judge 
 
Proofs of the divine power of the Bible, as 121 
 contrasted with all human aids. 
 
 find any assistance in their Codes and Law Books ? 
 No : they themselves were summoned to Judg- 
 ment. Could the Philosopher solace himself with 
 musing on his Problems and Theories, or the Poet 
 with the remembrance of his songs ? No : these 
 ivere like a tale that is told". Could the Historian 
 procure peace for his soul from his records of past 
 ages ? No : he himself was passing away. Could 
 the seafaring Captain obtain a spiritual calm from 
 his long voyages to distant climes ? No : he must 
 now take another voyage to an unexplored region, 
 where no earthly chart or compass would guide 
 him. He must now set sail for Eternity. Did the 
 General or Admiral, — the heroes of many bat- 
 tles, — gather hope and joy for themselves from 
 their laurels gained in the conflicts of war ? No : 
 they must prepare now for a sharper struggle with 
 Spiritual Powers, against which the Artillery of 
 this world would be of no avail. But, had they, 
 then, no comfort in that hour of Death ? Misera- 
 ble, miserable indeed, if such was then the case ! 
 Had they no comfort ? And if they had, where was 
 it ? It was in the Bible. If they had believed its 
 doctrines, and had obeyed its precepts, and if they 
 had trusted in its promises, if they had lived and 
 fed on it as living bread from heaven, then there 
 was hope in their end. Then there was peace in 
 their death, through the might and mercy of Him 
 who died for them, and was buried, and over- 
 came, and rose again, and opened the kingdom 
 5 Ps. xc. 9. 
 
122 At the hour of Death, and in prospect of Eternity. 
 
 of heaven to all believers. Then, though they 
 walked through the valley and shadow of death, they 
 feared no evil, for He was with them*. Then they 
 fell asleep in peace, and in hope to awake with 
 joy. Then Death to them was Birth, — Birth to 
 endless life. Then they felt in their inmost 
 hearts, that belief in the inspiration of the Bible 
 — a belief based on the soundest reason — is able 
 to speak comfort to the soul. Then they realized 
 its power. Then it proved its virtue. Then they 
 knew that ivhatsoever had been loritten aforetime 
 had been written for their learning, that they through 
 patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have 
 hope 7 . Then they found, by personal experience, 
 that a few verses of the Bible, heard with the ear 
 of faith, are of more worth than crowns and 
 coronets; that they are of more value than all the 
 wealth and grandeur, all the mansions and estates, 
 all the eloquence and wisdom, all the genius and 
 science, all the triumphs and trophies, of this 
 world. Then they drank a refreshing stream of 
 heavenly peace and joy from such blessed words 
 as these, I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith 
 the Lord : he that believeth in Me, though he were 
 dead, yet shall he live : and he that liveth and be- 
 lieveth in Me shall never die 8 . Verily, verily, I 
 say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth 
 on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and 
 shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from 
 
 e Ps. xxiii. 4. 7 Roin. xv. 4. s John xi. 25, 26. 
 
The Day of Judgment will prove the truth of the 123 
 Bible. 
 
 death unto life 9 . Then they were able to say, 
 Death, where is thy sting ? Grave, where is 
 tliy Victory ? Thanhs be to God wlio giveth us the 
 Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ l . Then 
 there was divine music for them in those heavenly 
 words, I heard a voicefrom heaven, saying unto me, 
 Write, Blessed are the dead ivhich die in the Lord : 
 Even so, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their 
 labours 2 . 
 
 Brethren, may this support be ours, in our last 
 hour ! It will be ours, be sure, if we live and die 
 in the belief, that all Scripture is given by inspira- 
 tion of God. And hereafter, at the great and 
 dreadful Day, when the Elements shall melt with 
 fervent heat 3 , and when the Volume of this visible 
 Creation will no more be legible; when all the 
 fair characters now written in earth and sky upon 
 the pages of the book of Nature, will be effaced 
 and obliterated, and the heavens themselves ivill 
 depart as a scroll 4 , — then the Woed of God will 
 remain unchanged ; its letters are indelible, they 
 will endure for ever \ Heaven and earth shall pass 
 away, says Christ, but My Words shall not pass 
 aiuay 6 . Blessed, therefore, is he that heareth and 
 keepeth the sayings of that Booh 7 , blessed indeed is 
 he — blessed for evermore ! 
 
 9 John v. 24. 1 1 Cor. xv. 55. 
 
 2 Kev. xiv. 13. 3 2 Pet. iii. 10. 
 
 4 Isa. xxxiv. 4. Rev. vi. 14. b 1 Pet. i. 25. 
 
 6 Matt. xxiv. 35. 7 Rev. i. 3; xxii. 7. 
 

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