was instrumentally needful for His glory-Satan's defeat, and man's blessing. Holy men of old, and, in later times, Peter and Paul, were, at times, inspired to say things which were inspired; but, also! they were able and did say, and do, things at times, which were not inspired. I have to judge Peter and Paul's conduct in every way by their doctrine as written. Holy men of God were divinely moved to write a divinely inspired record of Satan's antagonistic conduct to the Gospel; of man's treacherous dealing against God; and of God's grace, works, and purpose. For the thing written about is not necessarily of God, because the writer is inspired, and his writing inspired too. A record may be pure inspiration; it may be through a movement of inspiration in a man, who is, however, a man of like passions as ourselves; and the subject treated of may be of that which is most antagonistic to God, as the world, the flesh, and Satan, All, alas! all this we wanted. All Scripture is inspired of God. If God had been pleased to write the Bible, as He wrote the two tables which Moses brake, there could have been no doubt that "God's book" would have been a correct name for it, just as "God's tables" was a correct name for the two tables of the Law (Ex. xxxii. 15, 16). The tables themselves and the writing were both God's in this case. These were they which Moses brake (Ex. xxxiv. 1). But the second edition of the tables of the Law was not less God's when written, and had not less authority and weight than had the first. They were prepared by Moses, but written upon by God (Ex. xxxiv. 1; Deut. x. 1-4). They were a divinely accredited transcript of ⚫ Gracious as the gift of prophets was, it called for great exercise of soul on the hearers' part; for there were false prophets also, and man might add to what the Lord gave to the prophet (Deut.xiii. 1-5; xviii. 19—22; 1 Kings xiii. 18; Mat. vii. 15). But Scripture gave the measure in a fixed permanent form. The inspiration was fixed, and in man's language, and remained. The Lord called His people to judge who were true prophets, and what was prophecy. The Scripture is the standard by which God judges man; and that makes all the difference. the Divine mind upon the subject then in hand, as much as were the first. Just so, though God did not write with His own finger the Bible, the book was God's book; the writing was divinely-breathed, and it was thus a divinely accredited transcript of the Divine mind upon the subject in hand, quite as much so as if His own finger had traced it on a rock, and that rock was before us. It is clear, both as to a Moses and a Paul, that they were fallible men; it is clear, too, that they did speak at times unadvisedly with their lips: but God not only revealed to them thoughts of His own, but also inspired them to write; and, not only that, but inspired the writing. I rest on this, because I find so few mark the importance of the differences alluded to. I could not say of a Moses or of a Paul, that he was the perfect transcript of one single truth in God (that can be said only of Him, the Son of Man, who is the truth); but of Scripture, given by a Paul or a Moses, I can say, This is as much and as purely the transcript of the Divine mind, as if the finger of God had written it. If God thus wrote, through the instrumentality of man, about Satan, or the world, or man, the record is divine: the subjects treated of might be (as I said, and as we wanted God's explanation of) such as were in violent opposition, as Satan, or a system in which man can intoxicate himself with the pleasures of sin, which are but for a season (and so sin away the day of grace), as the world, or man, in his imbecility, vibrating between opposite influences, yet, like a stone rolled down a hill or cast into a pit, always descending, as man's flesh subjects in insubjection to God, yet of which He has given a divine exposition in the past, present and future of their histories. As we have seen, revelation may be without any in A crowd of questions may here enter, as to the difference of the modes of the Spirit in inditing infallible truth through a fallible medium; but they really have nothing to do with the question at issue, viz. Is a divinely inspired writing a faithful transcript of the divine mind, so far as it goes; and, therefore, I leave them for the present. spiration: also, as in the case of a Balaam and an Agabus, power The distinction, then, between revelation, inspiration, and scripture, with its infallibility, is evident. A remark or two more on this part of our subject may suffice. One has said, "All scripture, then, is given by inspiration of God. Yet some scripture, but by no means all, is given by revelation of God." If I look at Peter-a godly Jew, fearing God, and listening, perhaps, like Timothy, to Jewish scripture from childhood; inquiring about Messiah, and then following Him as a disciple-he saw and heard the blessed Master and, all the circumstances through which they passed. meets me. If I turn from Peter's case to Paul's, what a difference He had been a bitter persecutor, ignorant of God, and a blasphemer of Christ-but all was revealed directly to him by Christ in ascension-glory. Then if I think of myself-with nothing but God and the word H of His grace: no sight, no hearing of the Lord as a man upon earth; no open vision, no fresh revelation; but the means of all my blessing found in God and the word of His grace-I see no difficulty in tracing vast differences in the modes of God's dealing-differences, too, which throw light upon the distinctions of revelation, inspiration, and the characteristic of the word of the Lord, in the light in which we have looked at it. I would now turn to consider my subject in a somewhat different connection. There are several deeply important purposes connected with the revealed mind of God. 1st. The revelation of it was and is the vindication of the divine glory in a world of sin; 2ndly, the committing of the oracles of God to a people, however formed upon earth, constituted an intelligible ground of responsibility; 3rdly, the application by divine power of His word, is His means of connecting man with Him in blessing for time and for eternity. 1st. By the word of the Lord not only were the heavens made, but, it was by the word of the Lord that Adam's charter of blessing was fixed, and that the continuance of blessing was made to hinge upon his continued subjection and obedience to that word so spoken. But, while the higher parts of the testimony were thus fixed by the word of the Lord, there was also that-a creation all around-which rendered a testimony to Him in His eternal power and God-head, in the very works which He had previously called into being. When, however, sin had entered through man's disobedience, the creation-testimony did not suffice any longer. It would not have been per se, even in its best estate, a sufficient testimony for God Himself when dealing with sinners; and man's rebellion against God left the creation, in a measure, under the power of one who was an enemy; and the conscience of man, when estranged from God, could find no answer in creation to the new need which sin had created. There was, in truth, nothing the voice of which could meet the sinner's need. When God announced that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent, there was intro duced in this word that which vindicated God fully in His new work, and in the circumstances. It had a testimony, too, in it, before principalities and powers, which spake to man of that purpose of God in redemption, which alone could meet the sinner's need. It was a word spoken by God and spoken to the serpent, though in the presence of man, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Gen. iii. 15). Now this was the germ of that which is the perfect vindication of God and Godhead under the new circumstances, both in itself and in the way of putting it forth; it contained everything that man needed as to his position and self; and it presented that which could give blessing. That God could pass by what had just occurred, was impossible. Creation told of His eternal power and Godhead; His truthfulness was pledged by the word of warning which He had spoken to Adam. He might have vindicated Himself against this new inroad of His adversary the devil, by putting forth destroying power. But He was God; and He drew His motives from within Himself. He had plans and counsels of displaying the exceeding riches of His grace, which would not have been answered by destroying judgments: He took up the question as one of controversy with Satan. Man had lost, thrown up, the first place in that scene-yielded it to Satan. The seed of the woman whom Satan had beguiled should bruise the serpent's head. Ĥere was a vindication of Himself before all intelligences. Satan, the destroyer and the liar, should find the destruction of his power and the vanity of his own lie, through a feeble one whom he had betrayed to destruction by a lie, and should himself work out his own destruction. The Paradise made to display the eternal power of Godhead in a creation placed by the Word of God under Adam, but which Adam had betrayed, Satan should he allowed to turn to a trap and a snare in which to cage himself. Man had sunk to a place of zero. He must now choose between God and Satan. If he listened to |