by whom they were written; and as they ac- LECT. IX. knowledged no books to be of divine authority which they could not satisfactorily trace to inspiration, but proved all, and retained only those which stood the test, it behoves us to abide by their decision, and likewise receive them as divine. That they did thus acknowledge them is proved by the universal consent of unexceptionable witnesses from Papias and Irenæus downward: no suspicion was ever raised respecting the sacredness of their character: no doubt was ever entertained of their claims being tantamount to those conceded to the writings of the apostles.

The total result of our inquiry into the Canon of inspiration is this: That it never consisted of more, or other books than those which now compose our Bible; that these books were inserted in the canon as they were written, or as it was indubitably proved that they were the product of inspiring influence; that they were received as the oracles of God, or Divine Scriptures, by his church, which he had constituted the guardian of the truth; and that they have been transmitted to us in the original languages, and in numerous versions, most of which are independent vouchers for the integrity of the sacred volume.

CONCLUDING LECTURE.

THE CESSATION OF INSPIRATION.

1 COR. XIII. 8.

"Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away."

LECT. X. HAVING reviewed the various methods, which God was pleased to employ in affording positive revelations of his will to mankind, and shown that the sacred Scriptures now in our possession consist of such portions of these revelations, and other matters connected with them, as he chose should be transmitted for the infallible instruction and guidance of future ages, it remains that we inquire into the withdrawment of inspiring influence; and that we deduce a few practical inferences in improvement of the whole subject.

That inspiration should cease, when it had answered the purposes for which it was afforded, is a conclusion than which none can be more natural, because nothing is more in accordance

with the dictates of wisdom in reference to any LECT. X. agencies that may be called into operation, or

more in harmony with the whole tenor of the
Divine administration. That it actually did
cease, is a fact which no one will deny who has
consulted the annals of ecclesiastical history.
It is reluctantly admitted even by those who
charge the church with guilt in having lost it,
and who advocate not only the possibility but
the certainty of its restoration in these latter
days. That its cessation was anticipated, as an
event that would take place, is clearly taught in
the words we have just read. The object of
the apostle, in the chapter from which they are
taken, is to fix the attention of the Corinthian
church on the intrinsic superiority of Christian
love to all the miraculous gifts which he had
enumerated, and even to the graces of faith and
hope, though these are essential to salvation.
While he would not repress
the proper exercise
of those extraordinary endowments, but, on the
contrary, urges to the zealous improvement of
them, he shows that there is a principle of in-
comparably greater value, καθ ̓ ὑπερβολὴν ὁδὸν,
than the highest imaginable faculty of a purely
miraculous character ;—a principle, without the
possession of which the most splendid gifts
would be productive of no real personal benefit.

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Though I speak with the tongues of men and "of angels, and have not love, I am become "as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And

LECT. X.

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though I have the gift of prophecy, and "understand all mysteries and all knowledge; "and though I have all faith, so that I could "remove mountains, and have not love, I am "nothing." (Ver. 1, 2.) He then describes, with inimitable beauty and effect, the nature and characteristics of this love; and dwells especially on the circumstance of its perennity, with which he contrasts the temporary nature of the extraordinary supernatural endowments of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge.

That it is endowments of this description which the apostle has in view, and not ordinary teaching, the common use of language, or knowledge simply considered, is proved by the subjectmatter of his discourse, and the object at which he aims. The terms are obviously to be taken in the same sense in which he employs them in the preceding context. The question, however, may be raised: To what period is the cessation of miraculous influence here anticipated to be referred? Was it first to take place at the second coming of Christ, as Billroth and the modern Millenarians maintain? Or, was it to happen when the church had reached a state of maturity-in other words, when the Christian religion had been fully established by the ministry of the apostles and the apostolic men, on whom it had been conferred?

In order to make good the former of these positions, it must be proved, that it was the

definite purpose of Jehovah, that the extraordinary LECT. X. gifts of the Holy Spirit were to be permanent in the church, during the whole of the new dispensation. But no proof of any such purpose can be alleged either from the Old or the New Testament. In the prediction of the gift of tongues, Is. xxviii. 11, which the apostle quotes, 1 Cor. xiv. 21, no intimation is given respecting the period of its continuance. It may be said, indeed, that, as it is expressly stated in the latter passage to be for the conviction of unbelievers, it must be supposed to continue as long as there are any unbelievers to be convinced. But it is only necessary to consider the circumstances under which the apostle wrote, in order to perceive, that the conviction to be effected by the gift, had respect to the divine commission of the speakers, in the absence of all other criteria. It was designed to prove, at the moment, the celestial origin of the Christian faith to those foreigners under whose notice it was brought. It was a supernatural attestation to a new religion, which was not required after the general diffusion of Christian truth, or the complete exhibition of its evidences, when men of all nations having become converts, were qualified, without miraculous aid, to preach in the different languages which were spoken in them. Nor can the perpetuity of the endowments in question be proved from the prophecy, Joel ii. 28, 29, in which some of them are specifically mentioned. That

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