Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

selves they should have given us so clear, particular, and perfectly consistent a detail of them as they have done. In this case it would have been little less than a miracle. Their memory must therefore have been extraordinarily assisted.

Now this is the kind of inspiration of which we are here speaking. The Holy Spirit kept a watch over them as they wrote, guarded them against the illusions of a warm and eccentric imagination, enabled them to state facts truly, to relate the circumstances of them accurately, and to range them in an orderly and consistent manner. To this purpose our Lord speaks when he promises his disciples, that the Holy Ghost should bring all things to their remembrance a. And here it should be observed, that this kind of inspiration did by no means preclude the natural and regular use of their own proper memory. The facts reported, of which they had been eyewitnesses, rose to their view in the manner they had beheld them, and struck them, it is probable, with the same sensations they felt at the time they happened.

Nor was it necessary to their being thus inspired that they should not be at liberty to use their own words, or to write in that style which was natural to them b. This I mention because it is evident that the inspired writers, particularly the evangelists, do differ in their style from each other. And it is also evident that in the writings of John there is a manifest sameness of style in his Gospel, Epistles, and Book of Revelation. Which Which may also be observed of the writings of Luke

and Paul.

But the objection grounded on this circumstance to the inspiration of Scripture is utterly inconclusive. As will appear

a John xiv. 26.

b" We grant," says Dr. Owen, "that they used their own abilities of mind and understanding in the choice of words and expressions. So the Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, Eccl. xii. 10. But the Holy Spirit, who is more intimate into the minds and skill of men than they are themselves, did so guide and operate in them, as that the words they fixed upon were as directly and certainly from him, as if they had been spoken to them by an audible voice."—Owen on the Spirit, Book II. Ch. I. Sect. 20.

if it be considered first of all, that in relating historical events the main business is, the stating them truly and accurately. To which purpose it is not necessary that other words should be dictated to the writer than he is accustomed to use, or that the natural and usual turn of his periods and phraseology should be overruled. It is enough that we are assured, by divine authority, that the facts which the evangelists relate are in every particular true, and may most surely be depended

upon.

It is further to be considered, that this variety of style observable in their writings, is so far from being an evidence that they were not inspired, in the sense we here understand the term inspiration, that it hath quite the contrary effect. For it seems to have been wisely so ordered by God that they should use their own words, to render the veracity and agreement of the several writers the more conspicuous. And after all, whatever difference there may be in their style, even admitting that there is more ease and elegance in one than in another, yet that which each uses is the fittest and best adapted to the purpose which infinite Wisdom proposed.

Hitherto we have considered this inspiration of Superintendency in reference to the historical part of Scripture, to which indeed it principally belongs. But it should be added, before we pass on, that this kind of influence was likewise exerted over the minds of the inspired writers in regard of every other part of Scripture, so that they were infallibly secured from uttering any thing that was not conformable to truth. Had any passion, predilection, or mistaken zeal tempted them to mingle their own doubtful reasonings or fond conceits with the doctrines, precepts, promises, and predictions they had in charge to deliver, this controlling influence would have held them back from the attempt. And indeed instances might be mentioned of some bad men who were divinely inspired, and who would have perverted the message they received from God, had they not by this influence been forcibly hindered from so doing. This was remarkable in the case of Balaam : The word that I shall speak unto thee, says the Lord, that thou shalt speak. And he himself says to Balak, All that the

Lord speaketh, that I must do a.—But it is time we now proceed,

2. To the kind of inspiration we mentioned, I mean that of Elevation.

This chiefly respects doctrinal truths, as the former does historical facts. Now it must strike every one, that in a book said to come from God it is natural to expect, that Perspicuity and Sublimity should mark the discoveries therein made of his will.

As to the former, perspicuity; the commands, promises, and threatnings of God's word, together with the many practical invitations, expostulations, and reasonings of it, are so clear and plain that he who runs may read; and the wayfaring man though a fool, has no cause to complain that occasion is given him to err, or that the trumpet gives an uncertain sound. But then the nature of some subjects, such as the mode of the divine subsistence, the administration of the supreme government, the operation of the Holy Spirit on intelligent minds, and the glories of a future world; the nature, I say, of these subjects is such that, considering the weakness of our faculties, they must necessarily be involved in more or less obscurity. Yet what we are required to believe respecting them is expressed in language clear and perspicuous. And here the influence of infallible inspiration is to be observed directing the writers of the Bible to such plain and unequivocal terms as best answer the purpose.

But what I have principally in view under this head, is sublimity-for which reason we call this kind of inspiration, Inspiration of Elevation. Now it is natural to expect that the writers of the Bible, in the devotional parts of it especially, should speak of God, of Christ, of the mystery of redemption, of a future world, and of the closing scenes of this, in exalted and sometimes rapturous and ecstatic language. Accordingly such language frequently occurs, in the book of Job, the Psalms, Isaiah, and the writings of the apostle Paul. Specimens might be produced the most noble that ever entered the cars or conceptions of mortal man. Two or three on

a Num. xxii. 35. xxiii. 26.

the first of these subjects, the Majesty of God, it may not be improper to mention.

How sublime the prophet Isaiah's description of the God of Israel, when opposing the divine character to that of Pagan deities! Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? And meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?-Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.-He sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; he stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in; he bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy one a.'

Who can hear the psalmist celebrating the praises of Jehovah, his Almighty deliverer, without acknowledging his language, as well as his devotion, to have been divinely inspired? -The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and came down and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place: his pavilion round about him were dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail-stones and coals

a Isa. xl. 12, 15-17, 22, 23, 25. `

of fire. The Lord thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hailstones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightenings, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered: at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nos→ trils. He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters a.'

To these passages let me add the prayer of the prophet Habakkuk 6.- O Lord, I have heard thy speech and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light, he had horns coming out of his hand, and there was the hiding of his power. Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. He stood, and measured the earth he beheld, and drove asunder the nations, and the

a Psal. xviii. 4-16. If this Psalm is to be considered as the Song of Messiah, the Son of David, in the day (as the title expresses it) when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Death or the Grave, as Mr. Pearce conjectures it should be, instead of Saul; if, I say, this interpretation is admitted, the scene here described gives us a most sublime idea of the triumphs of our great Emmanuel over death and the powers of darkness. The psalmist elsewhere speaking of what followed his resurrec tion, says-The chariots of God were twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord was among them as in Sinai, in the holy place. Then did he ascend on high, he led captivity captive; he received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them, Psal. lxviii. 17, 18. And now we are speaking of the victories of our Almighty Saviour, I cannot forbear adding that striking passage of the prophet Isaiah, lxiii. 1-4. Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat? I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.'

b Chap. iii. 2-13.

1

« AnteriorContinuar »