DISCOURSE XV.

THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF INSPIRATION, ILLUSTRATED FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST. PAUL.

2 PETER, CHAP. III.-VERSE 15.

Even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you.

CONCERNING the kind and degree of that wisdom which was given to the first teachers of Christianity, many difficult questions have been proposed: but how many and how difficult soever they be, there are found men hardy enough to offer answers to them all out of their own preconceived opinions. The old philosophers. struck with admiration of their eminent masters and teachers, used to say, that Jupiter, were he to speak Greek, would imitate the copiousness of Plato, and that the Muses conversed in the sweet language of Xenophon and these Christians, no less presumptuous than the heathens, fancy themselves able to determine of what kind the discourses must be which are written in heaven; or what degree of perfection. we may expect to find in pieces dictated by the Holy Spirit, or composed under his direction. Having formed to themselves an idea of excellency in writing, they presume that the. method, the sentiments, and the language of every inspired book must perfectly correspond to it. But they, who agree in the theory, differ widely in the application of it. Some of them, men commendable rather for pious zeal than for critical judgment or great learning, seriously maintain, that every part of the sacred volume is accurate, elegant, magnificent; that St. Paul, in particular, surpasses the wisest philosophers of

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Greece in abundance and weight of matter; the most eloquent of its orators in sublimity of conception and expression: and this superiority they suppose cannot be disputed, if the divine origin of the writings be allowed; whilst another, of a more refined taste, who excels no less in an easy and polished style, than he is deficient in just reasoning and sound theology, represents the books of the New Testament as abounding with barbarous idioms, and, on the whole, so awkwardly put together, that they may easily be believed to be the productions of illiterate fishermen or mean mechanics; but he cannot persuade himself that they are in any degree suitable to our notions of the Supreme Being, or to that absolute perfection which is essential to his nature, and evidently impressed on all his works and hence he would infer, that the influence of the Holy Spirit on the minds of the apostles was occasional only, and that he did not constantly guide their judgment or inspire their language. Which of these opinions is more remote from the truth, is a question of curiosity rather than of importance; since the errors, though they run to opposite conclusions, spring from the same mistaken method of reasoning; and that a method, which, to whatever subject it is applied, is fruitful of falsehood. You know very well into what difficulties and mistakes men betrayed themselves in the study of nature, when, instead of laying the foundations of their philosophy in experience, they formed imaginary systems, and endeavored to adapt the works of God to these fictions; nor can it have escaped your notice, how vain would be an attempt to deduce from our ideas of God's attributes the plan of his moral government: but when, in these two great subjects of inquiry, we begin with experiments and observations, we soon discover, both in the natural and moral world, proofs of consummate wisdom; and, as our knowlege increases, these proofs become clearer, and more numerous. In the study of revelation, men are liable to the like errors, and may avoid them by the like caution. When, from their own notions of propriety and rectitude, they presume to decide what ought to be the means used by the Deity, in the communication of his will to mankind; they decide questions, of which nature has not, in any degree, enabled them to judge; and, therefore, it is no wonder that the

expectations they form are seldom answered by the events. They expect that the commands of God should be conveyed in none but the clearest and most elegant of all writings: with equal reason might they suppose, that every one, originally commissioned to preach the gospel, must have had a fuller and sweeter voice, a more commanding or more captivating presence and aspect, than ever graced any other orator, or forced the attention and won the affections of an audience. They expect that the relations of our Saviour's life and miracles should be the fullest and most precise of all narratives. Just as wisely have others pretended, that the miracles themselves ought all to have been performed, as some indeed were, in the most public places, at times of the greatest concourse, and with circumstances that must command universal assent; and as reasonably might it be alleged, that truths so momentous as the doctrines of Christianity ought not to have been concealed from any individual of any age or nation. Thus may men frame numberless conclusions about divine revelation, all derived from the same kind of principles; every one of which is wholly unsupported, some evidently contradicted, by history and experience.

From these alone our inquiries should all begin. By searching the Scriptures, we should endeavor to discover what have been the methods of Providence in promulgating and preserving the knowlege of Christianity. When our reasoning is thus grounded on facts, not on speculations, we shall be in no danger either of mistaking human workmanship for divine; or of questioning the authority of a divine messenger, because his habit is of human texture.

As an example of this method of inquiry, I intend to consider, at present, the Epistles of St. Paul, and to compare them, as far as the limits of this discourse will allow, with the circumstances of his education and conversion; from which comparison it will appear, I think, indisputably, that the wisdom contained in them was given him from above, and, very probably, that the style and composition was his own.

But, here let it be first observed, that every question concerning the inspiration of Scripture is a question among Christians only, not between them and unbelievers. Till a man is

convinced that our religion came originally from God, he is not concerned to inquire about the conveyance of it to after ages: and in vain should we attempt to prove to him that the books containing it were inspired, before he has learned by whom those books were written, and admits the authors to be credible witnesses of the facts they relate. We are therefore to presume, as matters already established, the divine mission of Jesus Christ, the genuineness of the Scriptures, and the truth of the history delivered in them. In this history St. Paul appears at first a warm opposer of Christianity, and an open persecutor of all who professed it; but he is suddenly and miraculously converted, and changed, at once, from a declared enemy, not, as might have been expected, to a disciple, but to a teacher of our religion. He does not set himself to inquire what this new doctrine is; he confers not with any of those who were apostles before him, nor condescends to be instructed by them in the way of salvation; but, before he sees any one of them, or is known by face to the Christians in Judea, he assumes the character and office of an apostle.* But how did he learn the doctrines which he undertook to teach? Let him answer for himself: I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me, is not after men; for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.'+ And again he styles himself an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father.' The doctrines of Christianity, and his appointment to be a preacher of it, were immediately revealed to him; or, as the same thing may be otherwise expressed, his knowlege of them was inspired for there seems to be no intelligible distinction between original revelation and inspiration. That supernatural knowlege may be communicated to the human mind in various manners, we have no reason to deny ; but, the manners being all unknown to us, we can distinguish the gifts of the Spirit only by their effects. When one man was enabled to speak many languages, another to prophesy, another to understand mysteries, or the obscure passages of the Old Testament, the diversity of the celestial gifts was evident; but Ib. ver. 1.

* Gal. i. 11.

+ Ib. ver. 16, &c.

when the knowlege impressed was the same, we are able to conceive no difference in the impression. Whether we say, that the new doctrines were revealed or inspired, the meaning is exactly the same. They, whose understandings were furnished by the Holy Spirit with more than human knowlege, were inspired: they, who committed such knowlege to writing, made inspired books. To St. Paul, as the account of his conduct on his conversion, and his own express declarations manifestly prove, were the doctrines of Christianity revealed from heaven. This was the wisdom, with which he wrote his epistles: the word wisdom' is here used by St. Peter, as it is frequently by St. Paul himself, for the knowlege of the gospel. The other apostles likewise were taught of God: for, though they conversed with our Saviour on earth, yet he referred them to another instructor, whom he would send amongst them; and it was not till after the descent of the Holy Ghost, that they fully comprehended their Master's purpose, or the true nature of his religion. If then St. Paul did not learn the Christian system from the other apostles, nor they from Christ, but both he and they received it immediately by the operations of God's Spirit; it is evident, that the doctrines they preached, and the books they wrote, were inspired: but the author must have had some very different notion of inspiration, if indeed he had any distinct notion of it, who has maintained, that its influence on the minds of the apostles was not permanent, but transitory; adapted only to special occasions, and, when these were served, presently suspended or withdrawn. The natural faculties of the human mind enable it to retain the knowlege it has once acquired, especially if that knowlege be clear and important. None could be more important, or more justly claim attention, than the suggestions of the Holy Spirit; and there is no reason to believe, that they were either obscure in themselves, or destructive of a man's natural faculties: but, as long as the memory retained the divine communications, so long did the inspiration continue; and this, we may presume, was usually as long as the apostles lived. It must indeed be acknowleged, (and hence may have arisen the error we are speaking of) that they who were favored with the illuminations of the Spirit, did not all immediately understand the whole scheme of Christianity.