revealed His will in the Bible. The opponent of the truth, whatever be his mode of attack, may prove how "hard it is to kick against the pricks," and the soul who has tremblingly fled for refuge to the hope set before him in the Gospel, may be shown such proofs of the finger of the living God in all that is written, that his confidence shall be greatly strengthened, and his heart say with David, "I rejoice at thy Word as one that findeth great spoil." May the blessing of Him "who giveth understanding in all things" rest upon the work! All the Scriptures of the Old Testament are Prophetical All the Scriptures of the New Testament are Prophetical The Examples of the Apostles and of their Master attest Sacred Criticism the Doorway of the Temple, not the God of it 170 174 185 THE DIVINE AND COMPLETE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. THE object of this Treatise is, by the help of God, and on the sole authority of his Word, to set forth, defend, and establish the Christian doctrine of the Divine, complete Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. CHAPTER I. DEFINITION OF INSPIRATION. THIS term is given to the mysterious power exercised by the Divine Spirit on the authors of the writings of the Old and New Testaments, to enable them to compose that which the Church of God has received from their hands. "All Scripture," says an apostle, "is inspired of God." Inspiration is not a system; it is a fact: and this fact, like all other events of the history of redemption, is one of the doctrines of our faith. The Inspiration is in the Writing, not in the Writer. It is, however, necessary to observe, that the miraculous operation of the Holy Ghost had not for its object the sacred writers, who were only its instruments, and would soon pass away; but it had for its object the sacred writings themselves, which were appointed to reveal to the church, throughout all time, the counsels of God, which abide for ever. The power, then, which operated in these men of God, and which they themselves experienced in very different degrees, has not been defined to us. There is not any thing to authorise our explaining it. Scripture never presents to us either its mode or its measure, as an object of study. What it proposes to our faith is, simply, the inspiration of their word-the divinity of the book which these men have written. In this respect, it establishes no difference between them. Their word, it assures us, is inspired; their book is of God. Whether they record mysteries antecedent to creation, or those of a futurity more remote than the return of the Son of Man; or the eternal counsels of the Most High; the secrets of the heart of man, or the deep things of God: whether they describe their own. emotions, speak of things from recollection, or repeat what has been noted by contemporaries: whether they copy genealogies, or extract from uninspired documents; their writing is inspired: what they pen is dictated from on high: it is always God who speaks, who relates, ordains, or reveals by their mouth, and who, for this purpose, employs, in various degrees, their personality; for it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue." But if the words are always those of men, because they are written by men, they are, also, always those of God, because it is God who oversees, employs, and guides them. The narrations, doctrines, and commandments, are not given in "the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth;" and thus it is that God has not only constituted himself the guarantee of all those facts, the author of all those ordinances, and the revealer of all those truths, but he has, moreover, given them to his church in the order, measure, and terms, which he has judged to be best adapted to his heavenly purpose. |