judiciously remarks,-"The inspiration pleaded for, extends to all the books of the sacred scriptures, and to all the writers of them, and principal speakers introduced in them; and though all that is contained in them is not of God, or inspired by him,— as the quotations from heathen writers, the words of Satan, the speeches of bad men, and even of good men, in which some things not right are said of God, as by Job and his three friends; yet the writers of the books in which these sayings are, were under divine impulse, inspiration and direction, to commit these several things to writing; partly for the truth of historical facts, and partly to show the malice of devils and wicked men, as well as the weakness and frailty of good men, and all for our caution and instruction." *

Every one must, therefore, perceive the great importance of discriminating between what the inspired writers teach, and what is only contained in their books, of the objectionable sentiments of the wicked. On this subject the Hon. Robert Boyle observes :—“We must carefully distinguish betwixt what the scripture itself says, and what is only said in the scripture. For we must not look on the Bible as an oration of God to men, or as a body of laws, like our English statute book, wherein it is the legislator that all the way speaks to the people; but as a collection of composures of very differing sorts, and written at very distant times; and of such composures, that though the 'holy men of God' were acted upon by the Holy Spirit, who both ex

*Commentary on the Bible, preface. Vol. i., p. 6.

cited and assisted them in penning the scripture, yet there are many others, besides the author and the penmen, introduced speaking there. For, besides the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, the Four Evangelists, the Acts of the Apostles, and other parts of scripture that are evidently historical, and wont to be so called, there are in the other books many passages that deserve the same name; and many others, wherein, though they be not mere narratives of things done, many sayings and expressions are recorded that either belong not to the Author of the scripture, or must be looked upon as such wherein his secretaries personate others."

Divine inspiration belongs to the whole of the sacred scriptures, as they had been collected, and as they were received by the Jews at the time of the ministry of Jesus Christ. They received his sanction and commendation, as of divine authority. Hence Dr. Doddridge remarks :—“The inspiration, and consequently the genuineness and credibility of the Old Testament may be certainly inferred from that of the New, because our Lord and his apostles were so far from charging the Scribes and Pharisees (who on all proper occasions are freely censured) with having introduced into the sacred volume any merely human composition; that, on the contrary they not only recommend a diligent and constant perusal of these scriptures as of the greatest importance to men's eternal happiness, but speak of them as divine oracles, and as written by the extraordinary

influence of the Holy Spirit upon the minds of the authors."*

Receiving the books of the Old Testament which relate so peculiarly to the limited and temporary forms of religion ordained for the Israelites, to have been written under the divine inspiration, we cannot but conclude the same of the scriptures which form the New Testament. There appears the stronger reason to admit the inspiration of these books, as they contain the unalterable institutions of the blessed Redeemer, designed for all nations of mankind, down to the end of the world. This blessing of infallible guidance and direction, our Saviour promised to his apostles when he declared that "the Holy Spirit should teach them all things, guide them into all truth, and remain with them for ever." (John xiv. 26; xvi. 13.) They were miraculously endowed with the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, according to the Saviour's promise, on the day of Pentecost, when they were at once qualified to preach salvation by Christ, not only in their native language, but "in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." (Acts ii. 4.)

What a demonstration of their divine inspiration do we behold in men of the humblest rank, as the apostles were, some Galilean fishermen, who, in consequence of the wonderful unction of the Holy Ghost, were enabled to speak with the utmost propriety and fluency, expounding the ancient prophe

* Postscript to Essay on Inspiration, in Commentary, pp. 963, 964.

cies in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Coptic, Persic and various other languages, the rudiments of which they had never learned!

These divine endowments, miraculously imparted to them, enabled them to execute their high commission, not only in preaching the gospel in all languages of the nations among whom they fulfilled their missionary labours, but in writing the sacred books of the New Testament. They confirmed the truth and divinity of the promises of Christ; and, while we reflect upon those distinguished men, as the divinely appointed instructors of all nations, and consider their perfect harmony in the doctrines which they delivered, if we admit the genuineness and authority of the books ascribed to them, we must possess the strongest assurance that the writers of the New Testament were directed by the inspiration of God.

Divine inspiration, however, it is to be remembered, belongs only to the original Hebrew and Greek scriptures. Yet translations are invaluable, and their worth depends on their agreement with the original writings. On this subject, Dr. Gill remarks" Inspiration is to be understood of the scriptures as in the original languages in which they were written, and not of translations; unless it could be thought that the translators of the Bible into the several languages of the nations into which it has been translated, were under the divine inspiration also in translating, and were directed of God to the use of words by which they have rendered the original; but this is not reasonable to suppose.

The books of the Old Testament were written chiefly in the Hebrew language, except some few passages in Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezra and Esther, in the Chaldee language, and the New Testament in Greek; in which languages only they can be reckoned canonical and authentic; for this is like the charters and diplomas of princes, the wills or testaments of men, or any deed made by them; only the original exemplar is authentic, and not translations, and transcriptions, and copies of them, though ever so perfect ; and to the Bible, in its original languages, is every translation to be brought, and by it to be examined, tried and judged, and to be corrected and amended; and if this was not the case, we should have no certain and infallible rule to go by; for it must be either all the translations together, or some one of them; not all of them, because they agree not in all things; nor one, for then the contest would be between one nation and another, which it should be, whether English, Dutch, French, &c.; and could one be agreed upon, it could not be read and understood by all; so the Papists, they plead for their Vulgate Latin version, which has been decreed authentic by the Council of Trent, though it abounds with innumerable errors and mistakes."*

Divine inspiration, moreover, cannot be claimed for the successive transcribers of the original scriptures. Various omissions and differences have been found in the numerous manuscripts that exist of the divine books, and this fact has opened a vast field for the labours of learned critics. For perfect accu*Body of Divinity. Vol. i., pp. 18, 19.