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NOTES.

A, p. 431. Although, in the text, all inquiry is waived with respect to the reasons for which our blessed Saviour himself wrote no part of the New Testament, the following observations on this point, quoted from Dr Dwight's Theology, well deserve the attention of the reader. They are introduced by that able and original writer in a discourse containing a series of reasons, for which the Apostles and their inspired coadjutors were employed, "in the Divine Economy of Redemption," to bear testimony to Christ. We extract part of what he says on the second reason assigned, and the entire illustration of the sixth:

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2dly. Because the Apostles survived the Ascension of Christ.

"From this circumstance many advantages were derived of very great importance. Had Christ written the whole Gospel, that is, all which he can be supposed to have written, and written it at the only time when he can reasonably be imagined to have written it; not a small nor unimportant part of the things pertaining to his own history and discourses, as we now find them in the Gospels properly so called, must have been lost to the world. The account must, I think, have been closed antecedently to the institution of the Lord's Supper; for, from the commencement of the celebration of the passover preceding it, he does not appear to have had any opportunity of writing at all. Of course, the celebration of this passover; the institution of the eucharist; his washing the disciples' feet, and his instructions on that occasion; his consolatory discourses; his intercessory prayer; his agony in the garden; the treachery of Judas; his trial, condemnation, death, and burial; his resurrection; his subsequent appearances to his disciples; and his final ascension to the heavens; together with all the things connected with them, could have found no place in the Gospel. But these constitute a large part of the objects of our faith, the means of our instruction, and the rules of our duty. I need not observe that these, also, are objects of the utmost consequence to every man who reads the Gospel; essential parts of the dispensation; without which the system would be broken and lame; without which the most important inquiries of the mind could never be satisfied; and without which the chief wants of the probationer for eternal life could never be supplied.

"Further, Christ uttered a number of predictions which were not fulfilled during his life, nor intended to be; but which, according to the nature of his declarations, were to be fulfilled soon after his ascension. Among these were his prophecies concerning the descent of the Holy Ghost at the day of Pentecost; the success of the Apostles in preaching the Gospel; the miracles which they were to accomplish; the sufferings which they were to undergo; and the extensive establishment of the Church, by their preaching, among the nations of men. All these prophecies are of such a nature, that the mind of every reader would unavoidably demand an account of their fulfilment. Had no such account been given, as, if the Gospel had been finished by Christ, must have been the fact; the omission would have been perceived by every reader to be an unhappy chasm

in the history of the Church, which nothing could successfully fill up, and about which there would have arisen many doubts, perplexities, and distresses."

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Finally, the whole history of the Church contained in the Acts of the Apostles, would, in this case, have been lost to the Christian world. No part of the Word of God is, in many respects, more filled with instruction, or consolation, than this book. The doctrines which it contains are of the highest importance for their wisdom; the precepts for their plainness and excellence; the examples for their number, their variety, and their adaptation to the different circumstances and characters of Christians. The history of this book, also, is of the greatest value for its edifying and instructive nature; for the satisfaction which it furnishes concerning the state of the Church at that interesting period; for the life, sufferings, and deliverances, the preaching and success of the Apostles, the opposition which they met, and the causes which produced it; the sufferings, patience, and perseverance, the errors and faults, of the first converts; the progress of Christianity, and the extension of the Church; together with a multitude of other things interwoven with these. How useful, how necessary these things are to instruct, edify, and comfort every Christian, particularly every minister, I need not explain; nor need I observe that, in a Gospel written by our Saviour, they could have had no place."– (Vol. i. Ser. 49, pp. 396-398. Glasgow edition, 1821).

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"6thly. Because the Gospel, in its present form, is far more useful to mankind than if it had been written by one person, on one occasion, and in one manner. By the Gospel, here, I mean the whole New Testament. Christ, I acknowledge, could have written it, if he had pleased, in the very form, nay, in the very words in which it is now written. would have been a plain and gross absurdity for Christ to have written a history, such as the Acts of the Apostles, or such as that of the events immediately preceding and succeeding his own death, concerning facts which had not yet happened; or Epistles to Churches not yet in being, concerning business, duties, and dangers, of which no vestige had hitherto appeared to have existed. It is not, therefore, irreverent or improper to say that Christ could not, so far as we can conceive, have written the New Testament in its present form, without palpable improprieties, inwoven in the very nature of the work.

"In its present form, the Gospel is far more useful than it would have been, if written in the manner which I have supposed, in many respects. It is in a much greater degree composed of facts; unless, indeed, the same facts had been communicated in prediction. In the historical form in which they now appear, they are much more easily and strongly realized; more readily believed; more capable of being substantiated by evidence; and more powerfully felt, than if they had been only predicted. The Epistles are also, in a great proportion of instances, written on subjects of real business; and for that reason are more easily proved to be genuine, are far more interesting, and far more instructive, than would otherwise have been possible. Their different dates continue the indubitable history of the Church through a considerable period; and furnish us with a number of very important facts, which we could not otherwise obtain. Their directions to Churches in different countries present us, also, with the extension and state of the Church in different parts of the world at that time. The business, concerning which they were written, occasions a display of the difficulties, doubts, errors, temptations, controversies, and backslidings; the faith, comforts, hopes, repentance, brotherly love, piety,

and general excellence, of the Christians to whom they were addressed. These are the peculiarly interesting circumstances of all other Christians. The instructions, therefore, the exhortations, commands, reproofs, encouragements, and consolations, addressed to these Churches, are to all other Christians, as to them, the very best means of reformation, improvement, and comfort.

"The examples of the Apostles, which, in a Gospel completed by Christ, could not have been recorded, are among the most edifying, as well as most interesting, parts of the sacred Canon.

"The variety of form and manner, now introduced into the New Testament, is attended with peculiar advantages. It renders the Scriptures far more pleasing. A greater number of persons will read them. All who read them will read them oftener, and will more deeply feel their contents. It renders them far more instructive. In consequence of the various application of the doctrines and precepts to so many different concerns of mankind, clearer views are given of their extent and comprehensiveness. By a comparison, also, of the different passages thus written with each other, as they are thus written with a various reference and application, new truths are obviously, as well as certainly, inferred from them, almost without any limitation of their number. The truths, also, which are thus inferred, are always important, and frequently of very great importance. By this variety of manner, application, and inference, the Scriptures are always new, improving, and delightful; and exhibit incontrovertible evidence of Divine wisdom, in the manner in which God has directed them to be written, as well as in the wonderful and glorious things which they contain." (Vol. i. Ser. 49, pp. 400, 401).

B, p. 466. It seems proper to quote here the following passage from the Westminster Confession of Faith, chap. i. § 8. The reader will observe that its statements are entirely accordant with the views expressed in the text, relative as well to the authority of the Scriptures in the original languages, as to the necessity and usefulness of faithful Transla

tions:

"The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which, at the time of the writing of it, was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentical; so as, in all controversies of religion, the Church is finally to appeal unto them. But because these original tongues are not known to all the people of God, who have right unto and interest in the Scriptures, and are commanded, in the fear of God, to read and search them;‡ therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation into which they come,§ that the word of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may worship him in an acceptable manner;|| and, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, may have hope."¶

C, p. 478. For an ample and satisfactory illustration of the importance of the two passages of Paul's Epistles to Timothy, adverted to in the text, we cheerfully refer the reader to the works of ROBERT HALDANE, Esq.-The Evidence and Authority of Divine Revelation, vol. i, ch. v. pp. 173-186, 2d edition; The Books of the Old and New Testaments proved to be Canonical, pp. 127-142, 4th ed.

Mat. v. 18.

Is. viii. 20; Acts v. 15; John v. 39, 46. § 1 Cor. xiv. 6, 9, 11, 12, 24, 27, 28. Col. iii. 16.

John v. 39.

Rom. xv. 4.

The same passages are vindicated in a Review of Noble on the Inspiration of the Scriptures, which appeared in the CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTOR, vol. XXV, for the year 1826, pp. 109, 110. After noticing 2 Tim. iv. 13, and recommending Bishop Bull's Sermon on that text, the reviewer proceeds to refute the reasoning founded on the other passage, in the following

terms:

"Another text relied on in support of this argument is 1 Tim. v. 23, 'Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities.' Now, are we to suppose that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul with peptic precepts for Timothy? Even if there were nothing more in the verse, we shall presently produce an argument which, we hope, will render a reasonable man cautious how he rejects it. But we may first remind our readers that the Faustinians, and some other ancient heretics, carried their notion of the unlawfulness of tasting wine to such a length as to pass the cup in the eucharist. Now we may well suppose such a dialogue as the following to have taken place between an orthodox disciple and one of the heretics:

Orth. You seem to have no good reason for your rigid abstinence from wine, since drunkenness is no more an argument against drinking, than gluttony is against eating; and every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused that is received with thankfulness.'

'Her.-True; the juice of the grape is indeed the work of God, but the process by which it is manufactured into wine, makes it the work of man.'

'Orth.--But our Saviour changed water into wine, for the accommodation of a marriage party.'

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Her.-True; but that was under the Jewish dispensation.'

'Orth. Well, then, here is a text from which there seems to be no evasion-Paul advises Timothy to use wine.'

"And what will the heretic reply to this? If, with the open candour of a manly mind, he allows the argument to be decisive, then the religious use of the text is clearly taught; or if, with the incorrigible madness of unconvincible and unconvertible fanaticism, he exclaim, "O argument! argument! the Lord rebuke thee, O argument!'-still the force of the text is proved. But if, with many of the learned, the wise and the good, he reply that the Apostle, in penning this passage, cannot be supposed to have been under the influence of inspiration, we must then demand farther explanations. We call for some general rule, some fixed principle, by which we may determine when the Apostles wrote by inspiration, and when they did not; when we may consider their writings as infallible rules of faith and practice, and when we may safely set them aside as not proceeding from the Spirit of God, nor having any relation to us or our affairs. If you take one stone out of this temple, however unimportant or superfluous a one it may appear to be, where is the lapidation to stop? If one or two particular texts, such as those that we have now been considering, were expunged from the Bible, perhaps we might not deeply feel the loss; but if the principle be once admitted, we see no limit that can be assigned to it, till it has shaken our faith in inspiration altogether, and fairly launched us again in the wide ocean of uncertainty and doubt, without a compass and without a helm."

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P. 479. Mr Haldane, in his Appendix to his excellent treatise on the Evidence and Authority of Divine Revelation (vol. ii. pp. 497–506), as also at the close of his small volume on Verbal Inspiration (pp. 197– 207), has collected a great number of "Extracts on the Verbal Inspira

tion of the Scriptures, from the Works of eminent Christian Writers." He very properly disclaims giving them "in the way of authority," and says "they are introduced in opposition to the assertions of those who speak as if the verbal inspiration of the Bible were a novel doctrine." These extracts are taken from the following authors, namely, IRENEUS, ORIGEN, FRANCIS TURRETINE, MAESTRICHT, CALVIN, MARCKIUS, CLAUDE, HOOKER, the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE, Dr JOHN OWEN, ESTIUS, the Theologians in the University of DOUAY, and Bishop JEWELL.

To these quotations we may here add a few passages, to the same effect, from several other writers of celebrity.

"Let it be observed," says Dr GILL, "that not the matter of the Scriptures only, but the very words in which they are written, are of God.” -Complete Body of Divinity, vol. i. p. 172.

Dr RIDGLEY expresses warm disapprobation of those writers who allege of the sacred penmen, that they were only inspired as to the substance or general idea of what they committed to writing, and were left to express the things contained therein, in their own words; which, as they suppose, has occasioned some contradictions." "If this account of Scripture be true," he adds, "it would hardly deserve to be called the word of God." -Body of Divinity, pp. 18, 19.

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The very words they wrote," says the worthy THOMAS BOSTON, of Ettrick, "were from Him. The Apostles spoke the very words of the Holy Ghost, and far more wrote so, 1 Cor. ii. 13. And therefore God is said to speak by and in the holy penmen, 2 Sam. xxiii. 2; Luke i. 70; Acts i. 16. He did not give them the matter to put in their own words, but put the words in their hearts too; but in a manner suited to their native style. And truly it is hard to conceive how the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures could reach the end without it, seeing so much depends on the suitable expressing of matter."— Illustration of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, vol. i. p. 71.

That excellent man, the Rev. JOHN BROWN of Haddington, expresses his views on this topic in the following terms:-"Some distinguish this inspiration of the Holy Ghost into SUGGESTION, which infallibly directed them, in the declaration of things secret, mysterious, and future;-and SuPERINTENDENCY, which secured them against gross blunders in representing that which they knew before-leaving them to express their thoughts in the manner they judged best. But, if such superintendency be admitted, as the whole of inspiration in lesser matters (1) Thousands of things, which we, from plain language of Scripture apprehended to be true, may be nothing but blunders of less importance. (2) The most peremptory, clear, and certain testimonies of the Holy Ghost, may be easily rejected, under pretence that they are lesser blunders of penmen. (3) If the penmen had been left to the choice of their words, the meaning of Scripture must be altogether uncertain. The Prophets and Apostles might have had very proper ideas, and yet their words be very improper to express and convey them to us. Erroneous persons may pretend, whenever they please, that such words of Scripture are not proper to express the inspired ideas, and substitute others, which they judge more meet, in their stead." -Compendious View of Natural and Revealed Religion, book i. ch. 3, § 7, p. 78.

Omitting similar statements that might be cited from individual writers, we may notice Dr MARSH's general account of the prevailing opinions in Germany on this point. He mentions that the inspiration of words as well as ideas was held by most of the German divines in the seventeenth century, and by many in the eighteenth.- Translation of Michaelis's Introduction, vol. i. ch. 3, § 1, notes.

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