Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by

JOHN S. TAYLOR & CO.,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.

S. W. BENEDICT, PRINT.

314

INTRODUCTION

BY THE TRANSLATOR.

THE Spirit of God has breathed afresh upon the Churches of the Old World; and the principle of life is manifesting itself in a two-fold antagonism to the ancient superstition and the modern scepticism of Continental Europe. The new theologi. cal school in Geneva, founded in 1831, is an effect and an instrument of that renovation. Its existence was indispensable to the awakened churches of Switzerland; for, the city, church, and school of Calvin had abandoned the vital principles and facts of Calvin's religion.

Mr. S. R. L. Gaussen, our author, is Professor of Theology in this Evangelical Institution. He is an accomplished scholar, and an able writer; and we hail the productions of his pen, (several of which are appearing at this moment, in an English dress,) and those of his esteemed colleague, Mr. Merle D'Aubigné, as the promise to France, that she shall yet recover all, and even more than she lost by the Vandalism, that burned her Protestant citizens and her Protestant literature at the same stake.

Of this work, we merely deem it necessary to say, that it possesses a degree of vivacity, simplicity, and richness, which are but imperfectly represented in the translation. Of its contents, we would make some few remarks, by which the reader may be better prepared to approach the subject, and meet the author as he desires to be met. He does not propose to convince the sceptic; and yet there is much here, on which the doubter may profitably reflect. His great object is, to take the

Church off from her present, unsafe, indefensible and enfee. bling position, of a mixed, varying and indeterminate inspiration.

He has assumed a bold position, which has to us many of the essential signs of truth; simplicity, precision, consistency with itself and with the declarations of the Bible, and power to establish the mind in firm assurance. It is simple; and in tnis, is contrasted with that strange, confused, inapplicable theory, so prevalent in the church, in which we are told, that some parts of the Bible are formed by one modus operandi of the Spirit, and others by another; and from which we are left to infer, that some parts are more divine, and others more humanand yet we have no sure guide, when we would fly from the parts that are human, and rest on the pure word of God. Our author's position is precise-for it does not vascillate in a misty indefiniteness between an inspiration of the men and of their writings, as does the opposite theory. It comes directly to the book as an existence, as a thing, and says of it, this is inspired, all inspired, all equally so, all infallible. It is consistent with itself, for it asserts that the whole Bible is infallible and perfect; and then forbids human reason to pronounce any passage of the Bible unworthy of the Spirit of God. It is consistent with the Bible; for it admits and asserts that all that is written, (all Scripture) is given by inspiration of God. It is confirming; for he who believes this doctrine, takes up his Bible, saying, this is all true, all important, all worthy of God; not one jot or tittle of it can fail.

Again and again, have we asked, in reading this book, what do our learned writers on Inspiration propose to themselves, by adopting the subtile distinctions borrowed from Jewish Rabbins? There is, we admit, an intrinsic difficulty or mystery in the whole subject of Inspiration. But it respects totally the mode of the Spirit's influencing the minds of the writers. And if this Jewish theory of Inspiration had been adopted, merely in explanation of the psychology of the case-to inform us how the writers were affected in the composition of different parts of the sacred oracles, we should consider it to be as harmless and useless as a thousand other theories. But when it invades the text itself, and undertakes to classify the passages of the Bible, as partaking more or less of human infirmity, ignorance

or sinfulness, then we feel ourselves constrained to differ and to remonstrate. It may be replied, no; we simply propose to guard against exaggeration, and to prevent the exposure of the doctrine of Inspiration to contempt; we find passages manifestly above the reach of human faculties, even for their comprehension, much more for their composition; we find others again, mere recitals of trivial incidents, expressions of ordinary feelings, such as may be seen in a school-boy's letter to his friends; and we cannot believe that the Spirit of God equally dictated all these passages. Still, we reply with the author, if you merely undertake to speculate upon the state of the minds of the writers, confine your speculations there-but suffer us to return, and tell the people to rely on the fact, that every word of the original text is, in its place, an inspired word—that God secured it there, to make part of an infallible revelation.

A great excellence of this work, is the clearness of its distinction between the inspiration of the men, and that of the book. We believe, indeed, and its author believes, that the writers were inspired; that "holy men of God, were moved by the Holy Ghost," when they spake. But the fact of their inspiration is one thing, that of the book is another. And the perusal of this work has increased our conviction, that a semiinfidelity on a vital point, has crept into the Church; that the sense of the imperfection of the writers has imperceptibly diminished her reverence for the Scriptures.

There is a formidable objection to the theory of Inspiration, to which our author has not replied. His reason for not doing so, is, that he writes for believers, and not for sceptics. Yet, we fear, that many a devout student of the Bible, and many a sincere preacher of its truths, might discover lurking in his heart, this subtle objection; which, like the unobserved" worm i' the bud," is sometimes hindering a vigorous growth, sometimes corroding vital organs. The objection may be thus stated :--God's works are all perfect in one sense, and all his teachings are infallible. But the instant he employs man to teach his teachings to other men, there is introduced a new element, which at once destroys perfection and infallibility. This arises from two sources, the imperfection of man, and that of his language. If the conceptions or feelings of a man are employed, they must necessarily limit and mar the divine thought com

municated to him. And if man speaks to his fellows, in human language, he must use an imperfect medium, always more or less imperfectly comprehended.

This is the most subtile and imposing of all the objections which have attacked our faith in plenary inspiration. Our ground of defence is here; that God calls his word perfect, that a particle of it shall never fail; that no future changes, no progress of science, no unfolding of the complicated drama of human life shall ever change or modify one shade of its statements. This may not satisfy the unbeliever; yet even he may find a relief from his own dark and chilling speculations, in the fact, that God's instruments are perfect for his purposes, however unadapted to ours. Nature is an infallible teacher, none can deny; or, in other words, all God's works are perfect instructers. And this remains true, although men are constantly prone to misinterpret their meaning. It remains true, although men's senses are imperfect instruments for the reception of truth, and material substances are imperfect media for conveying a knowledge of spiritual truth. "The invisible (spiritual) things of him are clearly seen, being understood by the things (material as well as immaterial,) that are made."

It is enough then for us to believe, that he who has made nature a perfect teacher, has made his word so, likewise. And all we oppose, is, the confounding one twig, one leaf, one fibre of this wonderful production of divine goodness, with any thing man has made and marred. If a doubt still remains, because we have not produced an analogy on the main point, the essential imperfection of the language; consider, that you would have no such difficulty, if God were to speak to you by audible words in your own language. The words then and thus spoken, although they had separately come down to you from your rude Saxon ancestors, and although they are now variously and imperfectly used by men, would never be forgotten by you, never confounded with even the holiest words of the holiest uninspired men. This is the precise impression which we desire to see the Bible produce in all our hearts. When our eye rests on its page, when its words fall on our ear, let us receive it as the very voice of God.

The whole scope of our book is to secure that effect. And