his followers, to his own nation, and to the whole world. Many of those predictions have been accomplished: and some are still fulfilling before our own eyes.

We are thus irresistibly led to the conclusion, that a revelation has been made to man by Jesus Christ; and that what he taught has been faithfully recorded: consequently, that whatever was declared by Christ and his apostles, is indisputably true; and that, as far as they bear testimony, such testimony is sure.

4. Now the words of Christ and his apostles do bear testimony to another fact most important in the study of the sacred volume: that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God." Those books which are written by an apostle of Christ, ratified by the authority of his name, and introduced by the assertion of his apostolic character,f are, by that very assertion, impressed with the seal of inspiration. For the dignity of an apostle is invariably alleged to be greater than that of any other person, however highly favoured by inspiration of God.g

The same authority is ascribed to those

e 2 Tim. iii. 16.

f 1 Cor. i. 1. 2 Cor. i. 1. Eph. i. 1. Col. i. 1. 1 Tim. i. 1. 2 Tim. i. 1. Tit. i. 1-3. Gal. i. 1.

1 Cor. xii. 28. Eph. iv. 11.

But

books which are written by the apostles, even when the express assertion of this authority is not made. Christ himself, at several times, in the course of his ministry, promised his followers the assistance of the Holy Spirit. When he sent forth the twelve, and predicted the sufferings which they should undergo, he assured them that they should receive the aid of inspiration. "Ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. when they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.' On another occasion, Jesus made a similar promise to his disciples, in the presence of an innumerable multitude of people.' And he repeated it at a still subsequent period.* Neither was this promise confined to the particular circumstances in which it was made. Immediately before his death, our Saviour promised his apostles another Comforter, who should abide with them for ever, even the Spirit of truth; who should teach them all things, and bring all things to their remem

h Matt. x. 18-20.

i Luke xii. 11, 12.

k Mark xiii. 11. Luke xxi. 12 - 15.

"h

brance, whatsoever Christ had said unto them.1 These words most plainly promise the extraordinary gift of the Holy Spirit, to suggest to the minds of the apostles what they should speak.

The object of our Lord having been to encourage his apostles in publishing the Gospel, which was, in the first instance, to be performed by preaching, his words do not indeed prove that the same inspiration was extended to the writings of the apostles. Yet they afford a very strong presumption that the same divine superintendence, which regulated their words, did also operate upon their writings.

If we turn to the writings themselves, and enquire what claim to inspiration the apostles advance; we shall find them always speaking with authority, appearing not to think it necessary to prove their inspiration, but assuming it as an acknowledged fact; and incidentally making mention of it in the calm language of conscious truth. If indeed an apostle, in the exercise of his ministry, had occasion to write, we cannot conceive that he would hold a different doctrine, or that he could have received the knowledge of it in a different manner, from that which characterized his oral discourses. The memory of the apostles was

1 John xiv. 16—26.

strengthened, and their mental faculties enlarged, by the assistance of God's Holy Spirit: and we cannot conceive that they were deprived of that assistance, at the time when it would be most wanted, when they sat down to commit to writing the relation of facts, which they had so frequently delivered in the course of their inspired verbal preaching.

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Now we find St. Paul writing to the Corinthians, and making the fullest claim to divine inspiration in his teaching. "My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."m "We have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth: comparing spiritual things with spiritual."n We cannot doubt, knowing the words of the apostle to be the words of truth and soberness, that his speech was inspired. And the very misrepresentations of his adversaries forbid the supposition that his bodily presence was so weighty and powerful, but his letters comparatively weak; an hypo

thesis which must yet be supported by any one, who would regard the speech of the apostle as suggested by immediate inspiration, and his writings as produced by the unassisted powers, however great, of his own mind.

In another part of the same Epistle to the Corinthians, he appeals to those who possessed spiritual gifts, to acknowledge that the things which he wrote unto them were the commandments of God:p and he is most careful to notice those parts of his advice which were given as the result of his own judgment, or were in any degree doubtful, and those in which he spoke by divine command.q

St. Peter also, himself an apostle, expressly enumerates the writings of St. Paul among the other Scriptures,r evidently meaning by that term such as were divinely inspired. The consideration of passages such as these necessarily leads to the conclusion, that the writings of the apostles, which have been handed down to us in a state of general accuracy, and contain a true statement of all the facts which they relate, were also

P 1 Cor. xiv. 37,

2 Pet. iii. 16.

1 Cor. vii. 6, 10, 12, 25, 40. Divine authority appears to be here

ascribed to St. Paul's writings, whether the true reading of the passage is, ἐν οἷς ἐστι δυσνόητά τινα, οι ἐν αἷς.