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 teach eth;" 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.

If, therefore, it be demanded of us, how this work of inspiration was accomplished in these men of God, we should answer, that we know not; that we need not to know. We receive the doctrine of regeneration, or the sanctification of a soul by the Holy Spirit, by faith of a like character. We believe that the Spirit enlightens, purifies, elevates, comforts, and subdues that soul; we acknowledge all these effects; we know and adore their causes; but we are ignorant of the means. Thus let it be with Inspiration.

Various Objections.

Three classes of persons, in these last times, without disavowing the Divinity of Christianity, and without pretending to object to the authority of the Scriptures, have felt themselves at liberty to reject this doctrine of complete inspiration.

The first of these disowns even the existence of this action of the Holy Spirit: the second has denied its universality; and the third its plenitude.

The first reject all miraculous inspiration, and will only concede to the sacred writers what Cicero attributes to the poets, "a divine action of nature, an inherent power, resembling the other vital agencies of nature. "

The second, while fully admitting the existence of a definite inspiration, will only acknowledge it in a portion of the sacred books. Some portions of the Scriptures are, according to them, from God; the remainder, the production of man.

The third class extend the notion of this inspiration to all parts of the Bible, but not in equal degree to all. According to their view, inspiration is universal, but unequal, often imperfect, accompanied with harmless errors, and meted out according to the nature of the passages, in very different measure; of which degree they constitute themselves more or less the judges.

Some have gone so far as to specify four degrees of divine inspiration.

An inspiration of supervision, as they term it, by virtue of which the sacred authors would have been preserved from any important error;—an inspiration of elevation, by which the Divine Spirit, in exalting the minds of men of God to the purest regions of truth, would have indirectly stamped the same characters of holiness and majesty upon their writings;—an inspiration of direction, under the most powerful influence of which, the sacred authors would have been directed of God, as to what they were to say, and upon what they were to be silent;—and, finally, an inspiration of suggestion, under which all the sentiments, and even the words, would have been given by God, by a still more direct and energetic operation of his Spirit.

All these distinctions are, in our view, chimerical; the Bible itself does not authorise them; the church, during the first eight centuries of the Christian era, knew nothing of them. We believe them to be erroneous, and fraught with evil.

Our design, in this work, as opposed to these systems, is to prove the EXISTENCE, UNIVERSALITY, and PLENITUDE of Divine Inspiration.

Our first question, therefore, is --Whether the Scriptures are the offspring of a divine and miraculous inspiration? We affirm that they are.

We have next to inquire, Whether the parts of Scripture which are divinely inspired, are so equally and entirely; or, in other words, whether God has provided in a certain, though mysterious, manner, that even the words of the sacred volume should be invariably what they ought to be, and that they contain nothing erroneous. This we assert to be the fact.

It is, however, necessary at the outset to make our selves understood. In maintaining that all Scripture is from God, we are far from intimating that man has no part in it. We shall again refer to this point more fully, but it is necessary briefly to notice it here. All the words of Scripture are the words of man, as they are also those of God. In a certain sense, the Epistle to the Romans is wholly and entirely a letter from Paul; and in a sense still higher, the Epistle to the Romans is wholly and entirely a letter from God.

The Divine power, in causing the Holy Scriptures to be written by inspired men, has almost uniformly put in operation their understandings, their wills, their recollections, and their individualities, as we shall presently show. Thus it is that God, willing to make known to his elect, in an everlasting record, the spiritual principles of the Divine will, during sixteen hundred years, employed priests, kings, warriors, shepherds, publicans, fishermen, scribes, and tent-makers; associating with the Word, in a mysterious manner, and according to his own wisdom, their affections and their faculties.

Such then is the Book of God. Its first line and its last, with all the instruction ( whether understood or not) which it contains, are by the same Author. Whatever the sacred penmen may have been—what ever their circumstances, their impressions, their comprehension of what they wrote, and the measure of their individuality brought into operation by this divine and mysterious power — they have all, with a faithful and directed hand, written in the same volume, under the guidance of the same Master, in whose estimation "a thousand years are as one day," and the result is — the Bible. Let us not lose our time, then, in vain questioning, but study the book. It is the word of Moses, of Amos, of John, and of Paul; but it is the thought of God, and the word of God. The Spirit of the Lord has spoken by me," say they, " and his word was on my tongue. "It is thou, Lord, who hast spoken by the mouth of David thy servant. " (2 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2; Acts iv. 25.)

It is therefore erroneous language to say: certain passages in the Bible are those of man, and others those of God. No; every verse therein, without exception, is of man, and they are also all, without exception, those of God.

It is, in fact, with Divine Inspiration as with efficacious grace. In the operations of the Holy Spirit, when causing the writing of the Scriptures, and in those of the same Spirit converting a soul, and directing it in the path of sanctification, the man is, in different respects, entirely active and entirely passive. God does everything, and man does everything; and we may say, with regard to both these works, what St. Paul said to the Philippians of one of them: "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do. " ( Phil. ii. 13. )

Thus we see, that in the Scriptures, the same operations are alternately attributed to God and to man. God converts, and it is man who is converted; God circumcises the heart, God gives a new heart, and it is man who is called to circumcise and make to himself a new heart; God producing all, and we acting all.

Such is then the word of God. It is God speaking in man, God speaking by man, God speaking as man, and God speaking for man! This we affirm; and this we shall seek to establish.

It may, however, be previously requisite to define this doctrine with more precision.

More precise Definition of the Doctrine of Inspiration.

We propose to establish the doctrine of Divine Inspiration under the following forms:

"The Scriptures are given, and guaranteed by God, even as regards their language;"" and, " the Scriptures do not contain any error.

By which we understand that they communicate all that they ought to communicate; and that they communicate only what they ought to communicate.

Now, how can this doctrine be established?—It shall be by the Scriptures, and by the Scriptures alone.

Having once admitted the Scriptures to be true, it is for themselves to inform us what they are; and when once they have vouched for their own inspiration of God, it is for themselves to inform us how they are inspired, and to what extent.

To seek to prove à priori their inspiration, by arguing upon the necessity of this miracle for the security of our faith, would be to reason feebly. To attempt, moreover, to establish the entire inspiration of the Scriptures upon the consideration of their beauty, uniform wisdom, their prophetic foreknowledge, and all those characteristics of Divinity which their pages exhibit, would be to rest upon reasoning, doubtless just, but contestable, or at least contested. It is, therefore, solely on the declarations of Holy Scripture that we are bound to stand. We have no other authority for the principles of our faith: and Divine Inspiration is one of those principles.

Nevertheless, let us here anticipate a misunderstanding. It might happen that some reader, unsettled about Christianity, mistaking our object, and thinking to find in this treatise arguments which will decide his mind, may find his expectations disappointed, and think himself justified in reproaching our argument as falsely reasoned, as if we were desirous of proving the inspiration of the Scriptures by the inspiration of the Scriptures. It is of consequence to undeceive any such. We have not penned these pages for the disciples of Porphyry, Voltaire, or Rousseau; and our object is not to prove that the Scriptures are worthy of faith. Others have done this. We address ourselves to men who respect the Scriptures, and who admit their veracity. It is to these we affirm, that, being true, they testify their own inspiration; and that, being inspired, they declare their being entirely inspired: whence we conclude that it must indeed be so.

This doctrine is, certainly, of all truths, one of the most simple and evident, to those who are subject to the testimony of the Scriptures. We may, doubtless, have heard modern theologians represent this doctrine as full of incertitude and difficulties; but men who have sought to study it only by the light of God's Word, have neither met with these difficulties, nor fallen into this incertitude. Nothing is more clearly or more frequently taught in Scripture, than its own inspiration. And thus, men of olden time were entirely unacquainted with the doubts and difficulties entertained by the doctors of our age. With them the Bible was from God, or was not from God. Antiquity presents, on this point, an admirable unanimity. But since the moderns, in imitation of the Talmudist Jews and rabbins of the middle age, have imagined learned distinctions between four or five different degrees of inspiration, who can be astonished that incertitude and difficulties multiply before them? They contest what the Scriptures teach, and they explain what they do not teach. We can under stand their perplexity; but the fault lies in their own temerity.

This testimony, which the Scriptures bear to their own inspiration, is so evident, that one might be astonished to witness, among Christians, diversities of opinion on a subject so well defined. The evil, however, is but too well explained by the power of prejudice. The minds of men, being already prepossessed with the objections which have been made, pervert the Scripture from its natural meaning, and endeavour to reconcile it with the difficulties which perplex them. They deny, in spite of the Scriptures, their full inspiration, as the Sadducees denied the resurrection, because they found the miracle inexplicable; but we must remind them that Jesus answered, "Ye do err, because YE KNOW NOT THE SCRIPTURES, NEITHER THE POWER OF GOD." (Mark xii. 24, 27.) It is therefore, on account of this too general disposition of the human mind, that we have judged it best not to set before the reader our scriptural proofs, until we have carried him through a closer examination of the objections which are opposed to us; and this will be the subject of the succeeding chapter.

The Individuality of the Sacred Writers.

The individuality of the sacred authors, deeply stamped upon the books which they have written, seems to many persons irreconcilable with a plenary inspiration. It is impossible ( they tell us) to read the Scriptures without being struck with the differences of language, thought, and style, which their authors severally exhibit. We are told the following conclusions must be drawn from the fact:

1. If it were God who alone and unceasingly spoke in the Scriptures, we should see, in their various parts, a uniformity which does not exist.

2. It must, therefore, be admitted, that two different powers have acted, at the same time, upon the sacred authors, whilst they composed the Scriptures,—the natural power of their individuality, and the miraculous power of inspiration.

3. From the conflict, or the concurrence, or the balanced action of these two powers, there must have resulted a variable and gradual inspiration; sometimes full, sometimes imperfect, and often even reduced to the feeble measure of a mere supervision.

4. The variable power of the Divine Spirit, in this united action, must have proportioned itself to the importance and difficulty of the matters treated of by the sacred author. It may even have abstained from interfering, where the judgment and memory of the writer could suffice, because God does not perform useless miracles.

All these hypotheses and conclusions suppose that there are, in the Scriptures, some passages devoid of importance, and others infected with errors.

It is, therefore, to this objection that we now reply.

1. We begin by declaring that we fully admit the alleged fact, while we wholly reject the false conclusions which are derived from it. So far are we from being unmindful of these human features, impressed throughout upon the sacred writings, that, on the contrary, it is with profound gratitude, and ever-increasing admiration, that we regard this living, actual, dramatic character, which shines with so much power and beauty throughout the Book of God. Yes (and we gladly, in this point, concur with the objectors), in one place we have the phraseology, accent, and voice of a Moses, in another, of St. John; here of Isaiah, there of Amos; here of Daniel, and there of Peter, Nehemiah, or Paul. We recognise, we hear, we see them; it is impossible to be mistaken. This fact we admit, we delight to contemplate it, we admire it greatly; and we see in it ( as we shall have occasion to reiterate) a proof of the divine wisdom which has indited the Scriptures.

2. Of what consequence, to the fact of Divine Inspiration, is the absence or the co -operation of the affections of the sacred writer? Cannot God either use or dispense with them? He who can give voice to a statue, can he not make a child of man speak according to his will? He who, by a dumb animal, rebuked the madness of a prophet, could he not convey to a prophet the sentiments or words which he judged best adapted to the plan of his revelations? He who called forth from the wall an inanimate hand to record the terrible denunciation, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN, could he not equally direct the intelligence of his apostle? Will you explain to us how the flow of ideas, recollections and emotions of the sacred writers would deprive them of any particle of their Inspiration; and will you tell us why this should not itself be one of its elements? Between the fact of individuality, and the conclusion which you would draw from it, there is an abyss, which your understanding can no more fathom in combating Divine Inspiration, than can ours in explaining it.

Was there not much individuality in the wicked Caiaphas, when, abandoning himself to the suggestions of his evil heart, full of bitter wrath, and having no thought of uttering the words of God, he exclaimed in the Jewish council: "Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people"? (Jno. xi. 49–51.) Surely we have abundant individuality in these words, and yet it is further written: "This spake he not of himself, but being high-priest that year," he unwittingly spoke as a prophet, proclaiming that Jesus should come to gather together the children of God that were scattered abroad."

Why, then, should not the same Spirit employ the devout affections of his saints to proclaim the words of God, as well as make use of the hypocritical and wicked thoughts of his most bitter enemies?

3. When it is objected to any passage, that the style of Moses, Luke, Ezekiel, or John, cannot, therefore, be that of God, it would seem to indicate that the operation of the Holy Ghost may be recognised by the cast of the sentences.

4. It must not be forgotten, that in the varied actings of God's sovereignty the employment of second causes is not excluded. On the contrary, it is in their subjection that He delights to display his infinite wisdom. In the field of creation He gives us vegetation by the combined employment of the elements,—of heat, humidity, electricity, air, light; and by the me chanical attraction and multiplied agency of capillary vessels and organs. In the field of providence He accomplishes the development of his vast designs by the unexpected concurrence of millions of human wills, alternately intelligent and submissive, or ignorant and rebellious. "Herod, Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel (all moved by various motives ), were gathered together," He tells us, "to do what his hand and his counsel determined before to be done. "

In the field of prophecy it is, also, in like manner, that He brings about the fulfilment of his predictions. For instance; long before the period of action, he pre pares a warlike prince in the mountains of Persia, and another in the heights of Media: and having designated the former by name two hundred years previously, he unites them, at the time determined, with ten other nations, against the Chaldean empire; he enables them to surmount a thousand obstacles, and, finally, brings them into the mighty Babylon, just at the expiration of the seventy years which had so long been assigned as the term of the Jewish captivity.

Even in the field of miracles, He is, moreover, pleased to employ second causes. He might here limit himself to saying, "Let it be," and it would be; but his purpose is, even in the employment of inferior agents, to show us that it is He alone who gives power to the weakest among them. To divide the Red Sea, He did not alone command Moses to lift up his rod and stretch out his hand over the waters; but He caused them to go back by a strong east wind, which blew all that night. To cure the man who was born blind, He makes clay and anoints his eyelids.

In the field of redemption, instead of converting a soul by a simple act of his will, He presents him with motives; He inclines him to read the gospel, and sends him the messengers of its glad tidings: and thus it is, that whilst it is He " who works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure, " it is He who "of his own will begets us by the word of truth. "

And why should it not be thus too in the field of Divine Inspiration? Why, when He sends his word, should He not put it into the understandings, hearts, and lives of his servants, as well as upon their lips? Why should He not associate their personality with the truths they reveal to us? Why should not their sentiments, history, and experience, be a part of their divinely-inspired testimony?

5. The extreme inconsequence of the use which is made of the objection to which we are replying, will further demonstrate its error. In fact, in order to deny the plenary inspiration of certain portions of Scripture, objectors lay stress upon the individuality therein exhibited; they nevertheless admit that other portions of the sacred writings, which bear this same character, have been given directly by God, even in their minutest details! Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the author of the Apocalypse, have all imprinted their peculiar style, features, manner, and character, on their prophecies, as manifestly as Luke, Mark, John, Paul, and Peter, can have done on their narratives or epistles. The objection, therefore, is not valid. If it prove any thing, it proves too much.

6. This objection, and the intermitting system of inspiration with which it is associated, has a three- fold character of complexity, rashness, and puerility.

Complexity, in that it supposes that the Divine agency, in preparing the Scriptures, was interrupted or weakened, according to the difficulty of a passage, or as its importance became diminished; and thus they make God alternately withdraw from or advance in the mind of the sacred writer, in the course of a chapter, or even of a few verses!

Rashness, for they have supposed that the importance of the Scriptures has demanded the exercise of human wisdom only, save in some of their passages.

Puerility, because they allege their fear of attributing useless miracles to God: as if the Holy Ghost, after having, as they admit, provided one portion of the Scriptures, would find less trouble in another portion by merely assisting the sacred penman in the way of enlightenment, or by leaving them to write under his superintendence alone!

7. This objection, which daringly classes the Scriptures as inspired, semi-inspired, and non -inspired, is in direct opposition to the Scriptures themselves. One portion of the Bible is by man, it is profanely affirmed, and another is from God. Nevertheless, hear the Bible itself: "ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD." Here is no exception. By what authority, then, does any one dare to make exceptions, when the Bible itself makes none?

Again, we are told that there are in the Scriptures a certain number of passages which could only have been penned under plenary inspiration; that there are others for which it would have sufficed that their authors had received eminent gifts; and others, again, which a man of very ordinary mind might have com posed.

This may be, but of what importance is the question? If "ALL Scripture" is "by inspiration of God," of what consequence, we repeat, is the question, that there are passages which, in your eyes, are more difficult or more important than others? The least of the disciples of Jesus might, doubtless, have given to us the 5th verse of the 11th chapter of John's gospel: "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." If, however, God himself declares to us his having dictated the entire Scriptures, who will venture to say that this5th verse of the 11th chapter of St. John is less from God than is the sublime language in which that gospel begins, and which describes to us the Eternal Word? Inspiration may, doubtless, be recognised in certain passages more clearly than in others; but it is not, on this account, less real in these latter than in the former.

In a word, if there were parts of the Bible without inspiration, it would no longer be the truth to say that the whole is divinely inspired. It would no longer be entirely the Word of God.

8. This fatal system of a graduated inspiration, is the offspring of irreverent disregard. It is because objectors almost always look for inspiration in the man, whilst it is in the book only that they should look for it. It is "ALL SCRIPTURE," it is all that is WRITTEN, which is inspired of God. We are not told how God has done it. It is solely attested to us that He has done it. This is what we are bound to believe, without reference to the means He has taken to accomplish it.

From this false point of view in which objectors choose to place themselves, for the consideration of the fact of inspiration, there result the three following delusions:

In the first place, in contemplating inspiration in the sacred author, they are naturally inclined to picture it to themselves as an extraordinary excitement in him, of which he is himself conscious, which sets him above himself, and which animates him, like the Pythian priestess, with an afflatus divinus — a poetic fire, easily recognised; so that when his words become simple, calm, and familiar, a difficulty is felt in attributing to him divine influence.

Again.—By viewing inspiration in the person, they have very naturally been led to impute to him different degrees of perfection, because they know that the sacred writers themselves received very various measures of illumination, and differed in personal holiness. But if we see inspiration in the book, instead of looking for it in the man, then only shall we recognise that it cannot be susceptible of degrees. A word is from God, or it is not from God. If it be from God, it cannot be so in two Whatever may have been the spiritual condition of the writer, if all his writings be divinely inspired, all his words are from God. Thus ways. it is (and it must be especially remarked ), that a Christian would no more hesitate than did the Saviour, to associate the writings of Solomon with those of Moses, and the gospel of Mark or Matthew with that of the disciple whom Jesus loved, or with the very words of the Son of God; "they are all alike from God."

Finally:—From considering inspiration in the writers instead of seeing it in the Scriptures, objectors have, by a third delusion, been naturally led to judge it absurd to suppose that God should miraculously reveal to a man that which the man already knew. On this account, they think themselves justified in denying the inspiration of those passages in which the sacred writers only relate what they have seen, and of those sentences which any man of sound mind might convey without inspiration.

But it would be altogether otherwise, could they see inspiration in that which is written; for then they would know that every line was directed by God, whether it related to things which the writer already knew, or to those of which he was ignorant.

Well! such is the Bible. It is not, as some venture to say, a book which God has charged men, previously enlightened, to write under his superintendence: it is a book which God has communicated to them; it is the Word of God: the Spirit of the Lord spake to its authors, and his words have proceeded from them.

9. The human individuality, which is so evident throughout the Scriptures, so far from leaving any stain, or being any mark of infirmity, stamps them, on the contrary, with divine beauty, and powerfully displays their inspiration.

We have asserted that it is God who speaks to us; but it is also man: it is man; but it is also God. Oh! admirable Word of my God! It has been made man in its way, like the Eternal Word. Yes, God has sent it down to us, full of grace and truth; similar to our words in every respect, error and sin excepted. Admirable and Divine Word!—but replete with humanity,—gracious Word of my God! Yes, in order that we might understand it, mortal lips must be employed to tell of human things; and to win us, the characteristics of our thought, and all the expression of our emotions, must be clothed upon, because God knoweth our frame. But let it be recognised as the Word of the Lord, "quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword," and the most simple among us, understanding it, can say like Cleopas and his companion: "Have we not felt our hearts burn within us, while it has spoken to us?"

How greatly does this abounding humanity, and all this personality with which the divinity of the Scriptures is invested, charm us; reminding us that the Saviour of our souls, whose touching voice they are, himself, although seated on high, where angels serve and for ever adore him, bears a human heart on the throne of God! Thus also they present to us not only that double character of variety and unity which has ever adorned all the other works of God, as Creator of heaven and earth; but moreover that intermingling of familiarity with authority, of sympathy with greatness, of practical details with mysterious majesty, and of humanity with divinity, which are manifested in all the dispensations of the same God, as the Redeemer and Shepherd of his church.

The Father of mercies, when speaking in his prophets, was pleased not only to employ their manner as well as their voice, their style as well as their pen, but also often to bring into use their faculties of judging and feeling.

Sometimes, to exhibit his divine sympathy, he has seen fit to combine their own recollections, their human convictions, their personal experience and devout emotions, in the words which he dictated to them; sometimes, for the purpose of manifesting his sovereign intervention, he has preferred to dispense with this unessential association of their memory, affections, and intelligence.

Such ought to be the Word of God—like Emmanuel—full of and truth; at once in the bosom of God and in the heart of man: powerful and sympathising; celestial and human; exalted, yet humble; imposing and familiar; God and man! This bears no resemblance to the God of the Rationalists. Like the disciples of Epicurus, they would banish the Divinity far from man, even to the third heaven; and their desire also is, that the Bible were removed thither too.

Studied under this aspect, and considered in this character, the Word of God has no equal; it offers to men of every age, place, and condition, surpassing and unfading attractions, which ever satisfy yet never satiate. In contrast with human productions, it interests and developes its momentous import, in pro portion as it is assiduously read. The more it is examined and re-examined, the more its greatness and sublimity unfold themselves, as if fresh leaves were daily added by some invisible and gracious hand! And hence it is, that both cultivated and simple minds which have long fed upon the Word, continue to hang upon it, as did others upon the lips of Jesus. They find its whole contents incomparable: at one time mighty as the sound of many waters; at another, sweet and gentle as the voice of a wife to her husband; but always " perfect, converting the soul, " and "making wise the simple."

To what book, in this respect, could you compare it? Place by its side the productions of Plato, Seneca, Aristotle, or Rousseau. Listen to Mahomet but for an hour. From the first word to the last, it is the unvarying note of the same trumpet; it is ever the cornet of Medina, sounding from the top of some minaret, mosque, or caparisoned camel; always the Sibylline oracles, piercing and merciless, in one continued tone of threatening and command—whether prescribing virtue, or dooming to death—always the same rude, forbidding voice, without feeling, familiarity, tears, soul, or sympathy.

But open the Bible, and hear it. Sometimes it is melodious with the songs of angels; but it is of angels visiting the children of Adam: at others, pouring forth the full tide of heaven's harmony, to cheer the heart of man and to awaken his conscience—in the shepherd's cot as in the palace, in the garrets of poverty as in the tents of the desert.

The Bible, in fact, instructs all conditions of men: it unmasks alike the humble and the great; revealing equally to both the love of God. It addresses itself to children, and it is often children who therein show us the way to heaven, and the majesty of the Lord. It addresses itself to shepherds; and it is often shepherds who are there presented to us, to reveal the character of God. It speaks to kings and scribes; and it is often they who therein teach us the misery of man, humility, confession, and prayer. Domestic scenes, compunctions of conscience, secret effusions of prayer, travels, pro verbs, outpourings of heart, the holy walk of a child of God, unveiled weaknesses, falls, restorations, inward experiences, parables, familiar epistles, theological expositions, sacred commentaries on some ancient Scripture, national chronicles, military annals, political developments, descriptions of God, portraits of angels, heavenly visions, practical exhortations, rules of life, solutions of mental difficulties, judgments of the Lord, sacred songs, predictions of the future, accounts anterior to creation, sublime odes, and poetic imagery all these by turns present themselves to our view in full and graceful variety, and the whole captivates us like the majesty of a temple. The Bible, from its first page to the last, was intended to associate with its sublime unity the undefinable and attractive features of a human-like, familiar, sympathetic, personal instruction.

But see, at the same time, what unity and what innumerable and harmonious combinations appear in this immense variety! Under manifold forms we have always the same truth presented to us; always man lost, and God in the character of a Saviour: always the first Adam driven from Eden, and losing the tree of life, and the second Adam with his ransomed ones re-entering Paradise, and finding again the tree of life; always the same cry in ten thousand tones— "O heart of man, return to thy God, for thy God pardons! Ye are in the abyss; escape out of it; a Saviour has descended into it. — He giveth holiness and life. "

"Can it be that a book at once so simple and so sublime is the work of men?" was a question put by a celebrated philosopher of the last century to his fellows. To this all its pages answer, No! for, throughout so many centuries, whichever of the sacred writers held the pen — king or shepherd, scribe or fisherman, priest or publican—everywhere we recognise the same Author. Though a thousand years may intervene, it is plainly the same Eternal Spirit which has conceived and presented the whole. Everywhere at Babylon as at Horeb, at Jerusalem as at Athens, at Rome as at Patmos—we find the same God described, the same world, the same men, the same angels, the same future, and the same heaven. Everywhere, whether it be a poet or a historian who addresses us, whether in the plains of the desert in the age of Pharaoh, or in the dungeons of the Capitol in the days of the Cæsars, —throughout the world, ruin; in man, condemnation and helplessness; in angels, sublimity, innocence, and love; in heaven, purity and happiness, the meeting of truth and goodness, and the embracings of justice and peace; the counsels of a God who pardoneth iniquity, transgression, and sin; and who, nevertheless, will not clear the guilty.

We therefore conclude that the numerous traces of humanity which are found in the Scriptures, so far from compromising their Inspiration, are but indications of their Divinity.