inspired writings of the Old Testament. They are endowed with an exuberant supply of miraculous gifts according to the promise of their Lord. They are accompanied in their progress in promulgating the gospel, with incessant demonstrations of the Holy Ghost. They are not merely authentic and credible witnesses; they are persons divinely authorized, divinely gifted, divinely inspired. All this we now take for admitted, because it has been fully and distinctly proved. If, therefore, they use such language as manifestly asserts a direct and plenary inspiration in all their epistles; if they claim the implicit obedience of mankind to their instructions as to the direct word of God, we cannot doubt that they were assisted and conducted by the full superintendence and suggestions of the Holy Ghost.

We begin, then, with the first letter addressed by the College of Apostles to the Brethren of the Gentiles. This brief address on a temporary subject, will give us a pledge of what aid they received in their writings designed for every age. In the course, then, of this short letter, they use, without any mark of its being an unexpected circumstance, these words, for it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us. Then the apostolical epistles are inspired by the

Holy Ghost.

Open, in the next place, the first of the epistles to the churches generally, to the Romans for instance; what is the authority which it assumes? How does it begin and close? Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an Apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name; grace be to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle, you see, is separated unto the gospel; he receives, not only the apostleship, but grace for that apostleship; all nations are required to receive with implicit faith his instructions; every word he writes is as from Christ himself. And how doth he conclude his epistle? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen. Now unto him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the

mystery which was kept secret since the world began; but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of the faith. To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen. Now what I ask is, whether any errors whatever can for a moment be supposed to exist in an epistle, written, let me remind you, by one filled with the extraordinary illumination of the Holy Ghost, sustained with the word of knowledge and of wisdom, endowed with the power of working miracles; and who thus appeals to the only wise God to confirm the doctrines which he had received by revelation, and had promulgated, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for the conversion of the world? I ask whether this language does not fully sustain and render certain the fact of that plenary inspiration which our preceding arguments established?

We open the next epistle, that to the Corinthians; what is the language of that sacred composition? What its authority? Whence its source? The apostle begins-My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. He then goes on to declare, that his doctrine was the wisdom of God in a mystery-that God had revealed it to him by his Spirit—that it was what none of the princes of this world knew; but what he had received from the Spirit, with which he had been inspired, that he might know the things that were freely given to him of God. Can any language imply a divine inspiration, if this does not? Can we suppose, that all this revelation and communication of the Spirit was not sufficient to enable the apostle by an infallible instruction, to place the faith of his converts, in every particular, however minute, relating to Christianity, on the footing he expressly states-not the wisdom of men, but the power of God? But, to remove all possibility of doubt, the apostle declares this in terms which cannot be misunderstood, 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; or as some would

render it, adapting spiritual expressions to spiritual things. And then in the close of the chapter, when with a noble freedom, in a consciousness of the distinguished character he bore, he had put the question to the whole world, Who hath known the mind of the Lord? He triumphantly adds, But we have the mind of Christ.

These are specimens of the assertion of direct inspiration, extending even to the words in which he was to convey the divine message. But observe, next, the authority with which he brings every pretence to the test, and proposes the admission of his inspiration, as the proof of the possession of spiritual gifts, and denounces miraculous judgments on the disobedient. If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write unto you, are the commandments of the Lord. I told you before, and now tell you, as if I were present, and being absent, now I write unto them which heretofore have sinned, and to all others, that if 1 come again, I will not spare, since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you ward is not weak, but is mighty in

you.

Notice, further, the carefulness and conscientiousness of the apostle in the discharge of his function, so that if on any point he had no special communication, he avowed it, and thus doubly confirmed the full inspiration of all the rest of his writings. But I speak this by permission, not by commandment. Unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord. To the rest speak I, not the Lord. Concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord.

Again, the solemn adjuration to the Galatians to adhere strictly to his instructions and doctrine, demands our especial attention. On a particular point of external discipline, such as the marriage of Christian converts under certain cases, he had received no injunction, and he mentions the exception. But on all the truths of the Christian revelation, he had received the most positive and plenary commandment. When he approaches the doctrines of Christianity, how does he speak? I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you unto the grace of Christ, unto another gospel-Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other

gospel to you than that which we have preached unto you, lei him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel to you than that ye have received, let him be accursed—I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me, was not after man; for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ—It pleased God to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles. Now to what purpose is all this, if the epistle which it contains, and which proceeds to correct the errors that had crept into the church, was itself fallible and uninspired?

But I will no longer press quotations, which may be multiplied to any extent.

To pass on to the writings of St. John. What, I ask, is the import of such passages as the following, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life-That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you-The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth. you all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, abide in him-Believe not every Spirit, but try the Spirits whether they be of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world-We are of God: he that knoweth God, heareth us; he that is not of God, heareth not us; hereby know we the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of error-I testify to every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book. I will not insult the understanding of any hearer, by asking him, whether such declarations are consistent with a fallible and intermixed representation of the Christian faith? Or whether each of them does not imply, as the apostles were divinely commissioned, an inspired and absolutely perfect exposition of that faith?

Nothing can be added, I think, to this accumulated proof, except

IV. The uniform testimony of THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH from the time of the contemporaries of the apostles. I should not, indeed, adduce this as an independent proof of the inspiration of the New Testament. The testimony of the first ages of Christianity to the authenticity and credibility of the sacred books is incontrovertible, because this rested on plain matters of fact, which took place under their own eyes, and where they could not be mistaken. But the inspiration of scripture is a doctrine or sentiment, so far as the Fathers are concerned, and not a fact of which they were eye-witnesses. Still, if their testimony to the belief of the universal church on this subject is distinct and uniform, it must be allowed to have great weight in confirmation of the arguments deduced from the Holy Scriptures; just as, in the contrary case, if their uniform testimony were, that the first Christians did not account the New Testament inspired, we should naturally be led to examine with more care our previous conclusions. The testimony of the Fathers against or beside the scriptures, is to be at once rejected; but their evidence in concurrence with the scriptures, is, under certain circumstances, of great importance. And what were they more likely to know, than whether the New Testament was accounted to be written by the apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, or not? Was not this the first point which would be considered as fundamental in the propagation of Christianity? Would they not begin with ascertaining the infallible correctness and truth of the sacred books?

What, then, do the Fathers declare as to the opinion of the church in the first centuries, on the subject of the inspiration of the scriptures?

1. First, as the sacred writers of the New Testament cited passages from the Old Testament with the solemn title of SCRIPTURE, without any addition, as expressive of the inspiration of the books of the Jewish canon; so the Christian Fathers, coeval with the apostles, constantly quote the writings of the New Testament under the same name.