66 we

that the Spirit gave them utterance, and St. Paul, (who was not of the twelve) says speak of the things given us of God, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth."* Indeed the general necessity of the case must make evident the high degree of inspiration vouchsafed to the Scriptural writers: for if God meant by them to convey the knowledge of his works and his wonders, of himself and his dispensations, he would not have left it to human blindness to develope, and to human incapacity to collect it. Much of the matter chosen and many of the words actually used must have come from himself. No doubt when no extraordinary ability was required, no preternatural assistance was given the facts which might have come within his own knowledge the Historian might relate in his own words: the Psalmist might praise God after his own genius: the wise man after his own manner collect into Aphorisms the treasures of his experience. Nor is it to be contended that the Legislator of the Jews should speak to the people in the language of a philosophy not understood in his day, or that the writer of Epistles to convey general instruction should be considered as acting under a divine influence, when he inserts in them domestic directions as to his own private con

* 1 Corinthians ii. 13.

cerns. All that we may rest assured of is, that the inspired penmen were fully guarded against misleading those whom they were appointed to instruct, and that nothing necessary for God's purposes or profitable for man's salvation was suffered to be withheld, through the insufficiency of the instrument employed, or the messenger commissioned.

Many of the writers of the Old Testament were indeed men of exalted rank, of great talents, and of peculiar education: but consider how numerous these writers are-through what a series of years scattered—how various their modes of writing-how different their objects, their characters, their histories, their habits-and then say whether any thing but Divine suggestion and Divine superintendence could produce a harmony in the system which from all of them we are to collect. Here are laws and hymns and histories and allegories and prophecies and proverbs: here are works written with various views, under different stages of human society, by men, the predominant faculties of whose minds and the natural sources of whose information were various; and these works not only do not contradict each other, but by supplying mutual deficiencies, they lay before us the only consistent scheme of God's moral government ever furnished to the world. The writers of the New Testament were almost all men of

inferior rank in life, and of no improvement by education for such men it would have been impossible to speak as they did, but for the Spirit of the Father which spake in them. It was the Holy Spirit which brought to their remembrance the detailed conversations with their Lord in his life time, many of which at their first hearing they did not comprehend; in the same manner as the Prophets of old delivered at times communications of which they understood not in the full bearing, the accomplishment not taking place for centuries perhaps after the delivery of the prophecy. It was the Spirit which guided the Evangelists and Apostles into all truth: that truth, while it dwelt among them they did not know, in like manner as the rulers of Israel knew not that their law was but a type and their histories figurative of him. The records of the Apostles in their simplicity and candour exhibit all the genuine marks of veracity. They are consistent with each other without the least appearance of confederation: jointly they attest the miracles, the actions, and the sufferings of Christ, they furnish what shews in him the completion of prophecy and the fulfilling of the law. They expound the doctrine of man's redemption, they give the clearest view of God's system of mercy. Incapable themselves of methodising the narratives, of unfolding doctrines which were to take the

place of the religious opinions of the whole world, and of establishing foundations for arguments to convince and to convert all nations, of furnishing ample materials to explain difficulties and to refute objections, who will deny to the Apostles the fullest aids of the Spirit on an occasion, where a want of such assistance must have left them guides without sight, and teachers without understanding?

Freely as they received, freely they gave: and the heavenly treasure given by them our Church opens to you my brethren in words which all understand. As the Salvation of each is to be wrought out by himself, resting on the merits of Christ and performing the conditions required by him, he should be apprized of the conditions not by any comment but by the book itself; he should drink of the waters of life at the fountain-head; he should take of the bread from Heaven, direct from the hands of him who came down from Heaven to give it. Our Church therefore has so ordered, that the Bible be in each year read in the public service, by portions allotted to each day, one from the Old Testament, the other from the New. The Old Testament is gone through from the beginning of the year in the order with one exception, in which the books are placed; the Prophecies of Isaiah, who most distinctly delineated the character of the Mes

siah and dwelt on the glories of his kingdom are reserved to be read, near that season at which the Church celebrates his coming in the flesh. The book of Chronicles containing matter related before, and some chapters containing merely tables of names and genealogies are omitted, as are some other chapters or books of a mystical or allegorical nature which would have been little edifying without comment to a general congregation. The place of these is filled up by some Lessons read from what are called, the Apocryphal Scriptures; to which a place is assigned in your Bibles, though they be not considered as divinely inspired, and are therefore not to be resorted to as oracles of faith to establish doctrines or to settle controversies. Chapters from these are read merely "for example of life and instruction of manners,"* having in the first ages of Christianity been quoted with much respect. They were certainly written by persons who from an intimate acquaintance with the sacred treasure caught much of its spirit, and they furnished many splendid images of pious affection, and many brilliant passages of moral description. The New Testament is gone through at daily service three times in each year; the Gospels and Acts at morning and the Epistles at evening service. The book of Revelations, as too ob* Sixth Article of the Church of England.