mention of explicit injunctions to this effect, the sacred penmen were no doubt inwardly moved by the Spirit of God to compose those portions of the inspired record which they severally wrote.

It were vain to question, that, in forming their resolutions to write, a variety of circumstances may have exercised a subordinate influence on their minds. A man possessing the temper and qualifications, and placed in the situation of Moses, might naturally feel a strong inclination to narrate in a book the wonders he had learned and seen, and to put on record the complex body of laws and ordinances he had received for regulating the worship and practice of the Israelites. Suppose that the book of Job were penned by that renowned Patriarch himself, gratitude to God for the signal deliverance commanded for him, and a benevolent desire to communicate highly useful instruction to others, as well in future times as in his own age, may be conceived to have inclined him to compose a circumstantial account of his sufferings and patience, of the warm dispute betwixt himself and his three friends, and of that extraordinary interposition by which it was decided. An inclination of this sort, accordingly, is expressed, when, contemplating the character of his great Redeemer, and anticipating the glories of a blessed resurrection, he exclaims, "Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!"* David, from his early piety, and from his strong predilection for the charms of poetry and music, might feel disposed to prepare a large collection of Psalms and spiritual songs. To Solomon, as a profound thinker, and an attentive observer of human life, the idea of writing such a treatise as the Proverbs might readily occur. Apostles and Evangelists, impelled by that natural feeling which constrains us to publish uncommon occurrences, and urged by admiration for the character, the works, and the doctrine of Jesus, might deem it alike a duty and a pleasure to record, for the benefit of all succeeding generations, a faithful narrative of the wondrous "things they had seen and heard."† The Apostle John, having perused the Gospels written by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, might, from pious motives, consider it proper to supply some important particulars these Evangelists had omitted; more especially a variety of heavenly discourses delivered by the Saviour, relative to his own original dignity and mediatorial work.

The counsels and entreaties of other people, too, were calculated to suggest or confirm the design of writing. Caleb and Joshua, with the Elders of Israel, may be supposed to have solicited Moses to leave manuscripts behind him, containing an ample history of the divine procedure towards his countrymen, and an authentic account of the laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which they were enjoined to observe. With similar urgency, David and Solomon may have been requested by their contemporaries to furnish lasting memorials of their piety and wisdom. Theophilus, after reading the Gospel of Luke with heartfelt delight, might probably express a wish to that sacred biographer to see a history of the labours and sufferings of the Apostles, in the propagation of Christianity among Jews and Gentiles, prepared by his pen. The application made by the Corinthians to Paul to solve some interesting questions, as well as the unpleasant intelligence otherwise received regarding various irregularities which had prevailed amongst them, proved the occasion of his writing the first of his two invaluable Epistles to that church.* Circumstances, in short, that occurred with reference to different churches or individuals, with the correspondent feelings awakened in the minds of the writers, may have operated, to a great degree, as inducements to the composition of all the Apostolical Epistles.

In full consistency with all these admissions, and every similar concession, we firmly maintain, that the penmen of the Old and New Testament Scriptures were universally stirred up and determined by the Holy Spirit, to do what they repectively did, each in his own time, and in his own proportion, towards the completion of the sacred volume. The various occurrences that attracted their notice, the urgencies of human persuasion, and every external occasion of writing, were adjusted by a particular providence. Their own views and taste, inclinations and feelings, both as men and as saints, were wholly under the divine direction and control. Had not the Spirit been pleased to put it in their hearts, they could have entertained no holy desire to publish and record "the wonderful works of God." Their incipient thoughts of study and of publication would have altogether died away, if their purposes had not been immoveably established by superior influence. Their own modesty and timidity, or the cruel derision and alarming menaces of ungodly men, would, in many instances, have proved insuperable barriers to the open decla

* 1 Cor. i. 11, ch. vii. 1.

ration of the truth, both with the tongue and the pen, unless He who gave them their commission had, by his all-powerful energy, made them "an iron pillar and brazen walls," against which the most furious opposition could not prevail.*

"When the word was thus come to the Prophets," says Dr Owen," and God had spoken in them, it was not in their power to conceal it, the hand of the Lord being strong upon them. They were not now only on a general account to utter the truth they were made acquainted withal, and to speak the things they had heard and seen, which was their common preaching work, according to the analogy of what they had received, Acts, iv. 20; but also the very individual words that they had received were to be declared. When the word

was come to them, it was as a fire within them, that must be delivered, or it would consume them.-Psalm xxxix. 3; Jer. xx. 9; Amos iii. 8, chap. vii. 15, 16. So Jonah found his attempt to hide the word that he had received to be altogether vain."t

2. The inspired penmen seem, at least in writing their several proportions of the sacred records, to have been all endowed, in a greater or less degree, with a supernatural vigour of mind. Extraordinary mental capacities, we acknowledge, are far from affording decisive evidence either of piety or of inspiration. The God of nature has often conferred superior powers of intellect and imagination on men who have not been restrained from criminally perverting them to his dishonour; and for aught we know, he may, on some occasions, have imparted a temporary expansion of judgment or of fancy to ungodly persons, whose natural talents did not exceed mediocrity. It appears, however, to have been an usual effect of the gift of inspiration, that it invigorated and elevated the faculties of the individuals to whom it was vouchsafed.

All of them probably felt a moral elevation of soul, arising from a consciousness of the dignified character with which they were invested, as messengers of the Lord of Hosts, and infallible teachers of his will. This noble elevation is beautifully expressed in such passages as the following:-" Give ear, Ŏ ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain; my speech shall distil as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb,

* Jer. i. 18, 19.

Of the Divine Original, Authority, Self-evidencing Light, and Power of the Scriptures, chap. i. sec. 10.

and as the showers upon the grass."* "Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world; both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak of wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding."" Truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgressions, and to Israel his sins."+

In most of the inspired writers, the supernatural influence operating on them seems to have produced not merely a moral but also an intellectual energy, that rendered them capable of mental exertions, for which they were otherwise incompetent. The effect of this inspiration is particularly discernible in those lofty descriptions of the divine attributes and works that abound in the prophetical and devotional books; and which, in sublimity of thought and expression, transcend the highest efforts of human genius. Even the historical books of Scripture, however, supply unequivocal evidence of supernatural vigour. A celebrated author, after adverting to the time and circumstances in which the history of our Saviour's life was written by Matthew and John, "simple and illiterate men, who had never been accustomed to exercise their intellectual faculties," draws the following conclusion:-" A divine influence, therefore, must have been exerted, by which their memories and judgments were invigorated, and they were enabled to relate the discourses and miracles of their Master with fidelity, and in a manner the best fitted to impress the readers of their histories. The promise of the Holy Ghost to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever Christ had said unto them, proves, that in writing the Gospels their mental powers received from his agency new degrees of strength and capacity."§ Dr Owen, too, amongst the "immediate effects of the inspiration" experienced by holy men moved by the Holy Ghost, mentions, "first, the preparation and elevation of their intellectual faculties, their minds and understandings, wherein his revelations were to be received. He prepared them to receive the impressions he made upon them, and confirmed their memories to retain them.". "So a man tunes the strings of an instrument, that it may in a due manner receive the impressions of his finger, and give out the sound he intends." ||

Deut. xxxii. 1, 2..

† Ps. xlix. 1-3.

+ Micah iii. 8.

§ Lectures on Theology, by the late Rev. John Dick, D.D., lect. xi, pp. 197, 198.

Dr. Owen's Treatise on the Holy Spirit, book ii. chap. i. sec. 10.

3. All the sacred writers were not merely superintended, but infallibly enlightened and guided by the Spirit, in recording the will of God.

To obviate misconceptions regarding this illumination, and that nothing essential may be overlooked, two preliminary remarks must be here introduced. Let it be noticed, in the first place, that the sacred penmen were not all made acquainted with the divine will exactly in the same way. It pleased God to make them experience a considerable diversity in their mode of receiving the knowledge they were commissioned to impart to the church. Sometimes their attention was arrested by the sound of an audible and articulate voice. The voice of God was thus addressed to our first parents in Eden; to Noah, the second father of mankind, both before and after the deluge; to Moses, from the burning bush, and from the mercy-seat in the most holy place; and to John the Baptist on the banks of Jordan. At other times revelations were imparted to them in dreams, when their senses were locked up in sleep; or in visions, by which, though they continued awake, striking representations were made to the imagination or the senses. We have instances of the former in Jacob's interesting dream at Bethel, in the prophetic dreams of Joseph which provoked the envy of his brethren, and in the nocturnal communications which Paul repeatedly received.* Examples of the latter are supplied by Isaiah, in that august vision he had in the year of king Uzziah's death; by Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, and other ancient Prophets; and by none more copiously than the Apostle John in the mystical book of Revelation. Another mode was by the ministry of angels: as by the angels who warned Lot of the impending ruin of Sodom; by the angel Gabriel, who gave intelligence to Daniel regarding the precise time of the Messiah's coming in the flesh; and by the angels that appeared to Joseph and Mary, to the shepherds of Bethlehem, and to the pious females who made an early visit to the Saviour's tomb. The singular honour bestowed on Moses, who was indulged with more familiar intercourse with God than other ancient Prophets, ought not to be omitted. "If there be a Prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold." † The last mode of

Acts xvi. 9; ch. xviii. 9, 10, ch. xxiii, 11.

† Num. xii. 6-8.