The plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures

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The John M. Krebs Donatio,,.

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THE

PLENARY INSPIRATION

HOLY SCRIPTURES.

BY ELEAZAR LORD.

NEW-YORK:
M. W. DODD, No. 506 BROADWAY.

1857.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 185V, by

ELEAZAR LORD,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New-York.

John A. Gray, Printer and Stereotyper,

16 & 18 Jacob St., Fire-Proof Buildings.

TO
THE REV. JOHN C. BRIGHAM, D.D.,

Senior Secretary of the American Bible Society:
My Dear Friend:

I inscribe this volume to you, not merely as a token of personal
esteem, but also as an expression of the regard which I entertain for
your services in the official station which, during five-and-thhty years,
you have occupied, in devising and maturing the measures, and extend-
ing and guiding the operations of the National Society for publishing
and disseminating, throughout this and in foreign lands, the great
charter of faith and life — the Holy "Word of God.

It is now about twenty years sinco, on removing from the city to
this place, I ceased to act as one of the Publishing Committee of that
noble Institution. Its progress in the interim — the enlargement of its
operations, its matured and conservative character, its hold on the con-
fidence of the country and the world, its relations to the well-being, to
the education, the principles, the thoughts, the words, and to the faith,
the conduct, and the immortal hopes of millions of the past and tho
passing generation — how intimately has your position connected you
with all this ! And what a significance of purpose, of tendencies, and
of results, must a life so occupied have to one whose intellectual and
moral convictions, faith and consciousness, unite in the irrefragable
certainty that tho Holy Scriptures are, " in truth, tho "Word of God."

I would not, even by implication, commit you to any errors or defects
in the ensuing pages. It suffices me to know that you hold tho plenary
Divine inspiration of tho Bible as a foundation principle, both of all
effective and saving faith in its contents, and of all true Christian

IV

efforts to disseminate it, as well as of the obligation of every one who
has that sacred Book, to aid in furnishing it to others, and of their
obligation to study and obey it. This foundation principle is, however,
assailed by imposing and specious objections. How, it is asked, can
the Scriptures, written, as they are, in the language, styles, and idioms
of men, be properly declared to be the iafallible Word of God ? If I
have done any thing towards a satisfactory solution of this chief diffi-
culty, I shall not doubt of your agreeing with me in the main positions
which I have advanced, as well as in the cardinal doctrine which I
endeavor to defend, whether my auxiliary reasonings and illustrations
do, or do not, in all respects meet your approbation.

"Wishing you yet many years of uninterrupted service in your wonted
and genial post,

I am faithfully yours,

E. LORD.
Piermont, Rockland Co., N. T.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The views which are exhibited in the ensuing pages, concerning
the nature and effect of Inspiration, differ widely from the theories
which have hitherto prevailed. It is shown, or at least attempted to
be shown, from the sacred oracles, and from the constitution, experi-
ence and consciousness of man, that language is exclusively the me-
dium and instrument of thought ; that the conveyance of thoughts from
one mind to another necessarily includes a vocal utterance, or a trans-
fer, by inspiration or otherwise, of the words which express them ;
that inspiration is affirmed, not of the sacred writers personally, but of
what they wrote ; that we think in words, receive the thoughts of
others in their words, intellectually conceive thoughts, are conscious of
them, remember them, and express them, only in words and signs
equivalent to vocal articulations ; and that words intelligibly and
legitimately used, necessarily and perfectly signify and express tho
thoughts conceived in them : and it is therefore argued, that the inspir-
ation of the Divine thoughts into the minds of the sacred writers
necessarily comprised the inspiration of the words by which they were
rendered intelligently conscious of the thoughts conveyed, and which
they wrote as they received them ; that on this ground, that which
they wrote is in fact, and is therefore expressly denominated the "Word
of God ; and that what they wrote was inspired in the language of
common life, and in the style and idioms of the respective writers, to
the end that they and their unlearned readers might correctly under-
stand it ; and that, when translated into the like phraseology of differ-
ent nations, it might be level to the capacity and within the compre-
hension of the common people.
Pierjiont, September^ 1856.

CONTENTS.

■ ♦♦-

CHAPTER I.
The State op the Question, 9

CHAPTER H.
Preliminary Observations, 13

CHAPTER m.
The Nature op Inspiration, 62

CHAPTER TV.
Vocal and "Written Language, 68

CHAPTER V.
The Origin op Language, 69

CHAPTER VI.
The Nature and Reality op Inspiration, illustrated by
Reference to the Scriptures, 86

CHAPTER VII.
The Inspiration op the "Words of Scripture into the Minds
op the Sacred Penmen, expressly taught by Them —
Their Styles and Idioms — The Personal Teachings op
the Great Revealer, 95

CHAPTER VIII.
Words necessarh^y and perfectly express the Thoughts
conceived in them, 135

viii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.
Nature and Office of Types, 170

CHAPTER X.
Thoughts remembered only in Words, .... 173

CHAPTER XL
The Figurative Use of "Words, . . . . " . .177

CHAPTER XH.
False Theory concerning Language — That "Words repre-
sent Things instead of Thoughts — Primary Beliefs —
Consciousness, 185

CHAPTER XLU.
Practical Bearings of the Subject, 211

CHAPTER XIV.
The English Version of the Scriptures, .... 235

CHAPTER XV.
Concluding Observations, 240

CHAPTER I.

THE STATE OF THE QUESTION.

No question concerning Eevealed Keligion is of
higher importance in itself, or in its bearings at the
present time, than that which immediately respects the
plenary Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. What is
the nature of that Inspiration by which the Divine
thoughts are so conveyed to man and so expressed in
human language, that the words of the sacred Text are
the words of God ? This is the question. The solu-
tion of it requires, as well with respect to any one as
to any other portion of what is contained in the In-
spired volume, such an exposition of the nature and
effects of the Inspiration, as shall perfectly reconcile
the fact, that the words as inscribed by the sacred pen-
men, are the words of God, with the fact, that the writ-
ing consists of the ordinary language in the peculiar
style and idioms of the respective writers.

That faith in the Divine Inspiration, authority, and
infallibility of the Holy Scriptures, which is connected
with eternal life, has, from age to age, been uniformly
held, by the heirs of salvation ; and would have been
in like manner, and as firmly held, had the nature and

10 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

mode of Inspiration never been subjected to anj theo-
logical or philosophical disquisition. Of that faith the
Scriptures themselves supply those grounds and evi-
dences which Divinely enlightened minds and regene-
rated hearts perceive and embrace, with intuitive and
perfect conviction. Discussions of the subject, therefore,
have had reference chiefly to another class — to skep-
tics, or to those having but an unsettled, historical or
speculative belief — to present to their view such rational
considerations, and such historical, or other evidences,
as might obviate objections, and induce conviction, that
the Scriptures were inspired. To that class who are
supposed, generally, at least, to admit that the Scrip-
tures contain many facts and doctrines which man could
not discover, and which, therefore, must have been re-
vealed, and, if revealed, must have been inspired, it
has been deemed to be of great importance to show
what is the nature, mode, and extent of that Inspira-
tion which is affirmed of the sacred oracles. This
question naturally presented itself in connection with
the fact, that the Scriptures were written at different
periods of time, by men of different countries, and of
various degrees of education and intelligence, and writ-
ten in the peculiar styles of the different writers.
Moreover, in the discussion of the subject, it has been
taken for granted, that it was the writers personally,
instead of that which they wrote, which was alleged to
be inspired. Hence, as their writings contained some
things which were level to their capacity, and within
their previous knowledge, and other things which
were previously unknown and above their capacity,
different kinds and degrees of Inspiration have been

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 11

imagined, as being most likely to account for the vari-
ous contents and styles of the sacred Text.

Thus, an inspiration of super intendency has been sup-
posed, whereby the minds of the writers were pre-
served from error in recording what was familiarly known
to them, or within the scope of their natural faculties.
Next an inspiration of elevation, by which the natural
faculties were excited and invigorated ; and then an
inspiration of suggestion, whereby they were enabled to
conceive of things which were previously unknown,
and undiscoverable. To these, indeed, some add an
inspiration of direction; but they do not treat of it as
differing essentially from superintendence. See Home,
Doddridge, Pye Smith, Dick, Daniel "Wilson, Hender-
son, Michaelis, Grotius, and a host of others besides the
Kabbinical doctors.

It is not necessary at present, to take any further
notice of these fancied distinctions, than to observe,
that they have not been shown to have any foundation
in the Scriptures themselves ; which on the contrary,
indicate but one kind and degree of inspiration ; and
that they create, but do not remove any real or sup-
posed difficulties. The distinction made by some, be-
tween Inspiration and Kevelation, is irrelevant and
nugatory ; since, had any thing been revealed which
was not also inspired, who could determine what was
inspired, and what not? If the whole was inspired,
how can it elucidate the nature or mode of inspiration
to treat of some portions of the matter as superna-
tural ly revealed, and of other portions as within the
previous knowledge of the writers ? But so far as wc
know, or can infer from the Scriptures themselves,

12 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

every distinct Kevelation was expressed in words ; and
all the words of Scripture were inspired into the minds
of the writers.

In general, and especially wherever rationalistic cri-
ticism and philosophical idealism and pantheism are
dominant, the utmost vagueness of language, confusion
of thought, and inconsistency of doctrine, are exhibited
concerning the nature, reality, extent, and results of
Inspiration. Those generally who have discussed the
subject, seem to have directed their attention to the
objections which they felt called upon to meet, or to
the preconceived theories which they desired to sup-
port, rather than to the nature and the inherent and
necessary demands and implications of the subject it-
self.

Such, then, briefly, is the state of the question, as
exhibited in the principal publications relating to it,
both in this and other countries. Some, indeed, as
Gausen, Haldane, and Carson, maintain the plenary
inspiration, and consequent binding authority of the
entire volume of canonical Scriptures, on the ground
of their own testimony, that " all Scripture is given by
inspiration of God ;" but they do not so discuss the
nature and mode of inspiration as satisfactorily to obvi-
ate the distinctions above referred to. There is, there-
fore, occasion for a further elucidation of the subject.
It needs to be shown that the nature and mode of in-
spiration were such as to preclude variety of kinds and
degrees, and establish the conclusion that every portion
of the original text was alike inspired, and is, therefore,
with strict propriety, denominated the Word of God,
and the infallible and only rule of faith and life.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 13

CHAPTER II.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

With the inspired volume of Scripture in our hands,
we are in a condition to judge what was necessary in
the case of a Divine Revelation, bj what has actually
been communicated. Were we without a knowledge
of that volume, we should be utterly incapable of con-
ceiving, as the wisest of the heathen from age to age
have shown themselves to be, of any one of its essen-
tial truths concerning the perfections and government
of the Creator, the invisible world, the moral relations
and duties of man, his condition as a sinner, the method
of salvation, or the retributions of eternity ; and equal-
ly incompetent to discover the way in which such truths
might be revealed. But with the Scriptures in our
possession, we are made aware of the vehicle of Reve-
lation— human language, the ordinary fixed and per-
manent language of common life ; and of the instru-
ments employed in communicating the divine thoughts
in that language — holy men selected and qualified for
the purpose. With these two preliminaries we are also
made aware of what the Divine Wisdom deemed it pro-
per to include in the volume which was to be the infal-

14 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

lible rule of faith and life — a point which none but the
Omniscient Being could possibly determine. And we
find the contents as varied as the phenomena of human
experience are on the one hand, and as the superhuman
existences, facts, and relations of the invisible world are
on the other. To the extent perhaps of two thirds of
the entire contents of the volume, the original text
consists of words which had been audibly spoken by
the Revealer to the writers. Intimately collocated and
intermingled with these are passages of several distinct
classes : 1. Passages- consisting of words which are de-
clared to have been spoken by good men, by angels, by
bad men, and by Satan. With respect to these, whe-
ther truthful and correct in sentiment or otherwise, it
is the fact only of their having been spoken, that is
authenticated by their insertion in the sacred books.
2. Historical and biographical narratives, in which
actual events, acts, and sayings, whether good or bad,
are recorded, and thereby the reality of their occur-
rence is certified. 3. "Whatever of poetry or prose
was inspired without the previous or coincident occur-
rence of vocal utterance.

These varied contents conclusively manifest what it
was necessary to include in a revelation from God to
man, and in what relations the facts and doctrines of
Scripture should be communicated to him ; while the
vehicle employed, the language of his ordinary life,
implies that his constitution, mental and physical, was
perfectly adapted to that mode of receiving divine in-
struction. With these considerations, and the facts
and doctrines of the actual revelation in view, we may
safely assert, as what with the same knowledge would

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 15

be felt grior to an actual revelation, and as preliminary
to an inquiry into the nature and mode of inspiration :

1. That a revelation of the mind and will of God was
a natural and first necessity to man.

2. That the requisite matter of revelation, compris-
ing supernatural truths in their due relations to the facts
of human experience and consciousness, faith and life,
could not, in any degree, be discovered by man.

8. That the vehicle employed in a revelation must
be such as infallibly to convey the Divine thoughts
to men ; and that human language, therefore, in its
ordinary use and acceptation is perfectly adapted to
that office : for otherwise, in a case of such infinite
concern, some other means would have been employed.

4. That the manner of conveying to men the thoughts
of the Divine Mind, in words, according to their cur-
rent and familiar signification, must of necessity be
like that of conveying in words the thoughts of one
man to the mind of another : that is, in accordance
with man's mental and physical constitution, and his
mode of conceiving and expressing his own thoughts
in words. A Divine revelation expressed in words,
must be conveyed to the minds of the writers in a way
agreeable to the laws of their minds in order to their
understanding and intelligibly writing what was re-
vealed.

5. That in every particular the contents of a revela-
tion, the mode of communicating them, and the times,
circumstances, and connections in which they should
be committed to writing, must be determined exclu-
sively by the llevcaler himself.

6. That as the supernatural doctrines and facts,

16 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

which in their due connection with the history, agency,
and character of man, would constitute the Scriptures,
were confessedly undiscoverable by men, or by any cre-
ated beings, and, therefore, must be from God, their
own testimony as to their authorship and authenticity
would be entitled to be implicitly relied on. Those
facts and doctrines would be as conclusive evidence of
their Divine original, as the visible works of creation
and Providence are of the existence of a creator and
ruler of the world,

7. That a Divine revelation would exhibit this evi-
dence in the successive portions of the whole ; and by
their correlation in respect to covenants, promises, and
predictions, and their fulfillments, and by the superna-
tural facts and doctrines common to the several parts,
the evidence would establish the claims alike of all the
parts as inseparable, involved in each other, and consti-
tuting one consistent and perfected work.

8. That He who created man, knew beforehand that
a revelation expressed in words, and written, would be
indispensable, and He therefore gave to man a consti-
tution and faculties perfectly adapted to his reception
of such a Revelation. Hence He said to Moses : " Who
hath made man's mouth ? or who maketh the dumb,
or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind ? Have not I, Je-
hovah? Now, therefore, go, and I will be with thy
mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say."

9. That every portion of the Holy Scriptures must
have been given by Inspiration of God, for the same
reasons that any part or portion was so given — that is,
for reasons founded in the nature of the case, the ob-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 17

jects of an infallible rule of faith and life, and the
incompetency of man.

10. That the nature and mode of Inspiration must,
therefore, be such as to constitute what is written, the
infallible word of God ; the narratives and facts of
ordinary human experience, equally with the original
Eevelations ; the historical, equally with the doctrinal ;
the figurative, equally with the literal passages ; and
those most strikingly characterized as of the style and
idiom of the writers, equally with all other passages.

11. Tbat all the contents of a volume so provided,
must be consistent and harmonious throughout ; so
that to suppose the contrary, would be as absurd a con-
tradiction as to say that the laws of Nature are not uni-
versal, because man has not discovered their applica-
tion to all the phenomena of Nature.

12. That the objections of skeptics and errorists, to
particular narratives, illustrations, styles, and idioms
of Scripture, betray the same depravity and ignorance,
which lead them to reject the peculiar doctrines re-
vealed immediately from God in words of His own
selection.

From the stand point afforded by these considera-
tions, we may apprehend the nature of that Inspira-
tion which is affirmed of the Holy Scriptures.

It is obviously necessary to any useful discussion of
this subject that what is meant by inspiration should
be clearly understood. In the present discussion that
term is employed strictly in the sense hereafter to be
more fully illustrated, as a Divine act by which
thoughts were conveyed to the minds of the sacred
writers. This, as is properly signified by the term

18 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

itself, and is plainly taught in the Scriptures, is held to
be its true and only meaning, to the exclusion not only
of all theories of different kinds and degrees of Divine
inspiration, but also of the prevalent notion that inspi-
ration was an influence exerted on the faculties of the
prophets elevating, superintending, and guiding them.
According to this view, that which the Prophets and
Apostles wrote was " given," imparted, conveyed to
them by inspiration, in distinction from their capacity
of discernment or comprehension being increased so as
to enable them to discover the things to be written ;
and being so given, it was both congruous and neces-
sary that it should be conveyed in words and idioms
familiar to those who received it, level to their capacity,
adapted to their intellectual habits, and their personal
circumstances, that in the natural exercise of their
faculties, they might comprehend and duly commit it
to writing. It is the effect of the act of Inspiration
that we are to consider, not the mode in which the
Divine efficiency was exerted. And in whatever mode
the Divine agency was exerted, the effect produced by
it was the reception and intelligent consciousness on
the part of the writers, of the truths to be committed
to writing, and in the styles, idioms, and collocations
in which they were to be incribed in alphabetic
characters. /Subjectively, the writers received these
communications, without any option, volition, or action
on their part. Actively, they exercised their natural
faculties, voluntarily and intelligently, in committing
to writing what they were conscious of having received
by inspiration. Their subjective relation in receiving
by inspiration what they were to write, and as they

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 19

were to write it, was the same as in hearing what was
audibly spoken to be vocally repeated by them. In
the one case they uttered, as they were often expressly
commanded to do, the very words which they heard ;
in the other, they wrote what they internally heard,
received, became conscious of by inspiration. In the
one case their voluntary agency was exerted only in
speaking ; in the other only in writing. There ap-
pears to be no ground to suppose that their natural
faculties were in any degree interfered with in either
case ; or that they were any otherwise affected or ex-
ercised than if the words which they wrote had been
spoken to them by one of their fellow-men.

By the terms Nature and mode of Inspiration, a re-
ference is not intended to the manner of the Divine
act, or the mode in which the Divine agency was ex-
erted, in the act of inspiring thoughts into the minds of
the sacred writers. That is wholly inscrutable to us.
As in respect to the Divine act which regenerates the
soul, we know not how it is exerted, but that it is ex-
erted, we know by the effects produced ; so in respect
to Inspiration, the mode of the Divine agency is not
known, but the fact of its being exerted is known by
the effect produced, namely, the conveyance of thoughts
to the intelligent consciousness of the sacred writers ;
and the question is, Whether the inspiring act con-
veyed the thoughts in the words which were to be
written, or without words ? If with the words, then
the prophet would be conscious of the words and
thoughts together, as in case of thoughts audibly ex-
pressed to him in words. He would conceive and
comprehend the thoughts in those words, ns he con-

20 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

ceives of and comprehends all other thoughts in words ;
would be able, therefore, to commit those words to writ-
ing ; and when written, as when received by inspira-
tion, they would be infallibly the words of God. But
if the thoughts were inspired without words, then the
prophet could not be conscious of them in the natural
and ordinary way as in other instances of receiving
thoughts ; since men are not conscious of uninspired
thoughts apart from words. It is according to man's
constitution, a law of his mind, that he should be con-
scious of thoughts only as he is conscious of the words
which express them ; a further Divine act, an act sus-
pending that law, would therefore be necessary, by
which he should be made conscious of inspired thoughts
without words ; and still a further Divine act infallibly
guiding him to the choice of the proper words.

Such several and distinct acts are not to be supposed,
without evidence, of which there is none within our
reach. For the effect of Inspiration as made known
to us, was the reception by the sacred writers of the
inspired thoughts ; Inspiration being a Divine act by
which thoughts are breathed — transmitted — conveyed
to the intelligent consciousness of those who were to
write them in words. There is no apparent reason
why the inspiring act should not convey the thoughts
in the words in which they were to be written, so
that the recipient should be conscious at once of the
thoughts in the words which it behooved him to write.
And that such was the effect of the Divine act of In-
spiration, is evident from a variety of considerations.

1. It was that which is called the Scriptures — the

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 21

writings, the words which were written by the Sacred
Penmen, that was given by inspiration. (2 Tim. 3 : 16.)

2. The words as written were the infallible words of
God ; which implies that they were conveyed by Him
to the writers with the thoughts, so that they could in-
telligently conceive the thoughts in the words, and
commit them to writing. To suppose them after re-
ceiving the thoughts by inspiration, to select the words
under the guidance of a Divine influence, is to suppose
a joint agency in the selection ; in which case the
words would not be exclusively the words of God.

3. The necessity of an inspiration of the words to be
written, must have been as absolute as that of an in-
spiration of the thoughts to be expressed in writing ;
at least, in innumerable instances — such as those in
which words previously unknown to the writer were
required, and those in predictions which required typi-
cal, figurative, or symbolic representations. So in
very numerous instances where words are written
which are said to have been spoken at times and places
at which the writers were not present ; and cases like
that of the prophecy of Enoch recorded by the Apostle
Jude. In all such cases it would seem to be indubit-
able that the words must have been inspired.

4. Though Inspiration was an immediate super-
natural work of God ; it is abundantly evident that it
did not suspend or counteract any law, function, or
faculty of the human mind. The Prophets and Apos-
tles when vocally uttering what they were at the same
time receiving by inspiration, had the ordinary use of
all their faculties ; and equally so when uttering the
same in alphabetic characters.

22 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

5. In all other instances thoughts conveyed from one
mind to another are conveyed in words, or signs equiv-
alent to vocal articulations ; and there does not appear
to be any thing in the nature of the case to justify the
supposition that the conveyance of thoughts by inspir-
ation is an exception to the general rule.

6. It is inconceivable that thoughts should be con-
veyed into the mind of man by inspiration without
words, so that he could conceive them without words,
and select words whereby to express them, unless the
act of Inspiration suspended the natural exercise of his
faculties of conception and consciousness, and caused a
supernatural consciousness, and power of conception,
which would be incompatible with the necessary exer-
cise of those and other faculties in the selection of
words. For in the natural exercise of his powers he
can neither conceive nor be conscious of thoughts apart
from words ; and any Divine guidance of him as a ra-
tional agent in the selection of words, must be a
guidance of the natural and rational exercise of his
faculties.

If it is a law of our nature that we can intellectually
conceive thoughts and receive thoughts from others, so
as to be conscious of and remember them only in
words, then we may with confidence conclude, that both
thoughts and words were conveyed by inspiration ; and
this accordingly is, in various ways, taught and implied
in every part of the Scriptures. To those of the Apos-
tles who were disciples and heard the words of the
Lord Jesus, it was promised, that in the exercise of
their peculiar office, the Spirit should bring to their re-
membrance whatever he had said unto them — that is,

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 23

should inspire into their minds — render them renew-
edl y conscious of the same words which they had heard
spoken, or of the same thoughts in equivalent words.
Paul who, not having been a disciple, had not heard
those words, was caught up to Paradise to receive reve-
lations of the Gospel directly from the Lord. It was
the peculiarity of their office that, in the exercise of it,
they spoke and wrote only what was given them by
inspiration. The things which they were to testify
were communicated to them by inspiration ; and they
testified them not in words of their own selection, but
in the words which the Holy Ghost taught them.
(1 Cor. 2.) When accused and brought before magis-
trates, they were expressly forbidden to premeditate
what they should say. " Take no thought beforehand
what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate ; but
whatsoever shall be given you in that hour [more
strictly, in that moment] that speak ye ; for it is not ye
that speak, but the Holy Ghost." (Mark 13.) " Take ye
no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what
ye shall say : For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in
the same hour [moment] what ye ought to say." (Luke
12.) In these and all other statements and allusions to
the subject, the supposition that those who received Di-
vine communications by inspiration, had any agency in
selecting the words to express those communications,
is precluded. The Holy Ghost spake by them, by
David and the prophets, as His instruments. His word
was on their tongues. The Divine act of Inspiration
did not contravene or disturb the exercise of their
natural faculties or the laws which governed them, but
was in harmony with them. They acted rationally

24 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

and voluntarily in speaking the inspired words, and in
"writing them.

If the reader doubts as to the alleged law of man's
nature, and imagines that he receives, conceives, is con-
scious of and remembers thoughts independently of
words, let him prove it by telling vocally or by
writing what those thoughts are. It is a matter
for his consciousness to decide ; not a matter to
be proved to him by argument. If he has a dis-
tinct consciousness of thinking or having thoughts
upon any subject whatever, otherwise, in fact or
degree, than as he is conscious of conceiving those
thoughts in words — conceiving particular words as the
vesture, vehicle, instrument, adjunct, necessary matrix
or condition, of the thoughts — conceiving the thoughts
and words together — conceiving and being conscious
of the thoughts, in manner and degree, only as he con-
ceives and is conscious of that which signifies them,
and which, whether silently articulated or expressed
by vocal utterance, or by written characters, we call
words ; then may he demur and hesitate as to whether
the law in question is a law of our nature. But in that
case, since it is indubitable that, as a general rule, we
conceive and are conscious of our thoughts in words,
he ought to be able to specify what thoughts he has,
that are not subject to that rule. And that, no doubt,
he will be able to do if he has a distinct consciousness
of them. And he will be able to tell whether he con-
ceives those particular excepted thoughts in that or-
derly succession which is necessary to constitute intelli-
gible sentences, or whether he conceives them without
that condition, and determines the succession by the

OF THE HOLY SClUFfURES. 25

collocation of the words which he selects as the means
of expressing them in sentences, propositions, deduc-
tions, questions, affirmations, and the like.

If the reader can not discern to his own entire satis-
faction, whether or not he does, or by possibility can,
think independently of words, he nevertheless may
readily perceive that, as to the general rule, he does
not. lie may perceive this in all instances in which
he is distinctly conscious of particular thoughts, and
therefore, so far as he has the clear testimony of con-
sciousness, he may conclude that such is the general
rule.

It may not be possible to demonstrate that we think
only in words and in signs equivalent to words; while
on the contrary it is undoubtedly impossible to prove
that we do, or can, think independently of words, for
we have no consciousness of thinking, except in words.
But, considering the importance of the question, Whe-
ther it is a law of our intellectual constitution, that
every cogitative act includes, as its medium and instru-
ment, the words which express the thoughts conceived?
some farther observations may be permitted on this
point.

The particular words employed in the construction
of sentences, and all that concerns the arrangement of
them, and their relations, imply that wc conceive the
thoughts in those words in the orderly succession in
which they are disposed. Thus the qualifying words,
the particles, the parenthetical and elliptical expressions,
the comparisons, the interrogatories, hyperboles, affirm-
ations, negations, and all other modifications of cxprcs-

26 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

sion in sentences, imply that the words are not selected
and arranged after the thoughts are conceived.

The thought conveyed in a perfect sentence, is that
thought only as it is defined, limited, qualified, by the
particular words employed and collocated as they are
when the sentence is written To conceive the thought,
therefore, is to conceive all that constitutes it a thought
as expressed in writing. To conceive it without words
would in effect be the same as to conceive it in words
duly arranged as when written. As conceived with-
out words it must, in order to express it, be written in
the same words that it would be written in, were it
conceived in words. Accordingly we are no sooner
conscious of the thoughts than we are conscious of the
words. There is, therefore, nothing gained by suppos-
ing that we do, or can, think without words. The in-
ference from such a supposition would be, at most, only
that we first conceive our thoughts independently of
words, and that being to no practical purpose, then se-
lect the verbal expressions, and conceive the same
thoughts in words, to the end that we may be conscious
of them, remember them, and express them to others.

But such a supposition is incredible, since there can
be no conceivable relation between words, and thoughts
conceived independently of words ; so that it would be
impossible without omniscience or a miracle, to select
words proper for thoughts which we were not conscious
of, and could not be conscious of without the words.

The difficulty might be illustrated by referring to
sentences characterized by ellipses, parentheses, a tro-
pical or deflected use of words, types, allegories, para-
bles, symbolic acts, qualifying words and particles. It

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 27

is, at least of all cultivated languages, a feature due to
the inconceivable rapidity of thought, that in proportion
as they are cultivated and expressive, they exhibit the
fewest possible words for the expression of particular
thoughts, omitting such as the scope of the sentence
would naturally supply without injury to the thought
to be expressed ; and inserting such parenthetically as,
in the connection, would serve the purpose of an inde-
pendent sentence, or of extended circumlocutions in the
text. This feature of spoken and written language is
as noticeable in tongues which are most affluent of
words, as in those which are least so. For in the most
copious there are no words which do not express par-
ticular thoughts, or shades of thought, and for which
those who are masters of them have not thoughts to be
expressed ; and in those tongues which have fewer
words, the thoughts of those who use them are equally
restricted. In either case the rapidity of thought may
be equal, and equally give rise to ellipses and parenthe-
ses, tropes, emblems, and other illustrative or modify-
ing expressions.

But did we conceive thoughts independently of
words, and then by a more slow and deliberate, or at
least by a distinct process select the words to be spoken
or written, several things, in addition to such concep-
tions, would naturally be implied. 1. It would be ne-
cessary to establish a relation between our words and
our thoughts, so as to render one the exact counter-
part and correlate of the other. 2. It would be ne
oessary in every sentence to decide, whether in order
to a perfect expression of the thought, any ellipsis, pa-
renthesis, trope, comparison, qualifying term, negative

28 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

or affirmative, definite or indefinite particle, was de-
manded and admissible. This would require that all the
words of a sentence should be mentally reviewed, the
force of each, its relations to the others, and to the
thought to be conveyed by the sentence, carefully con-
sidered, along with the question, whether the intro-
duction or the omission of any qualifying words or
phrases, or any change of words, or of the arrangement
of them, would help or mar the sense. The process of
selecting and adjusting the words of a sentence, so as
correctly to express a particular thought, would be like
attempting to translate a sentence, written in our native
tongue, into a language foreign to us, with no other
guide or assistance than that of a dictionary; or it
would be like an attempt so to arrange arithmetical
figures as to express unknown and indefinite quantities.
For if thoughts exist independently of words, and
there is no normal and necessary connection and rela-
tion between them, they must be, in regard to any
manner of expressing them, wholly indefinite. There
is no fixed rule by which to tell what they are, no cor-
relate, no standard by which to measure them. And
if words have each a definite meaning, the selection and
adjustment of them so as to express particular thoughts,
with which they have previously no connection, must be
like that of determining unknown and indefinite quan-
tities and proportions by an adjustment of the figures
of arithmetic^ or like selecting and adjusting sounds so
as to constitute to the ear the melody of an unknown
tune. For it is undoubtedly true that, if we in any
manner conceive or have thoughts independently of
words, we are not conscious of them ; and while we

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 29

are not conscious of them, a conscious selection of
words whereby to express them, must be a selection to
express what is unknown to us.

To say, on supposition that we think independently
of words, that there is, nevertheless, and must be, a re-
lation and connection of our words when selected, with
our thoughts as we conceive them, is to give up the
point in debate. For either that connection is coeval
with the thoughts or is of subsequent and artificial ori-
gin. If coeval, then the conception of the thoughts
and the words is identical. , If not coeval, and founded
in the very nature of thought and language, then the
connection supposed is not a necessary connection —
neither necessary to the existence of the thoughts, nor
the cause of our being conscious of and remembering
them.

That consciousness of thoughts in words which we
have when we conceive particular thoughts, is renewed
— reproduced — by the act which we call recollecting or
remembering. It is that which we were formerly con-
scious of that we remember ; and that includes the
words as invariably and as perfectly as it includes the
thoughts remembered — which implies that the two are
connected, not by an artificial, casual, or uncertain re-
lation, but inherently and indissolubly, as necessary
correlates and concomitants. Our experience and con-
sciousness of agreeable or of painful sensations and
emotions, may have a present connection with our
thoughts ; but when we recollect those agreeable or
painful affections, the original sensations are not repro-
duced, but only a consciousness of the words and the
thoughts, which they originally occasioned. The joy

30 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

and the pain are not renewed as sensations or emotions,
but only our original thoughts of them, and the words
which signified them. But invariably, in remembering
our past thoughts, we remember the words which were
identified with them.

It is worthy of remark as corroborating the fact that
we think only in words, not only that in dreams as re-
collected, there is a distinct remembrance of the words
in which successive thoughts passed through the mind,
as of words spoken by the dreamer, or words spoken
by others to him ; but that, in the case of persons who,
from total deafness, converse by signs made with the
fingers or otherwise, they dream of persons conversing
with them, conveying thoughts to them, not by vocal
utterances, but only by exhibiting the signs which
were of familiar use to them. Those signs are to them,
as the medium and instrument of thought, what words
are to those who are exempt from deafness. Such per-
sons do not dream of hearing sounds ; and those who
lose their sight, and are long blind, do not dream of
visible objects. Particular instances, illustrating facts
like these, are given by writers on intellectual philo-
sophy. Dr. Gregory, as quoted by Abercrombie, men-
tions that thoughts which sometimes occurred to him
in dreams, and even the particular expressions in which
they were conveyed, appeared to him afterward, when
awake, so just in point of reasoning and illustration,
and so good in point of language, that he has used them
in his college lectures and in his writings. Another
instance is that of a lawyer, to whom a very perplexing
case was made clear in a dream, during which he rose
from his bed, and having a desk at hand, wrote out

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 31

the solution at length. On awaking he remembered
the dream, but had no recollection that he had written
it, till he discovered the manuscript in his desk. Facts
of this nature go far to demonstrate practically, that in
all distinct thoughts and trains of thought, words are
the coincident medium and vehicle.

To satisfy the demands of this discussion, however,
that we do not think independently of words, is suffi-
ciently manifest from the consideration, that we re-
member our thoughts only in the words in which we
conceive them ; and that in those words we shall con-
tinue to remember them while memory lasts, both in
the present and in the future life. Our entire respon-
sibility as moral agents seems to require this. It is
essential to our consciousness of personal identity, and
to the process and the issues of the final judgment, and
hence the bearing of this view of language — of concep-
tion in the mind, and reception from without, of
thoughts in words, and of the consciousness and me-
mory of them only in words — on the state of the soul
of each individual, as to his consciousness of guilt or
the contrary in the present life, and after death, is highly
significant For if thoughts can be remembered only
in words, if a recollection of the words necessarily re-
calls the thoughts, so that the mind is unavoidably
conscious of them, and if an entire oblivion, or non-re-
collection of the words precludes a renewed conscious-
ness of the thoughts which had been conceived and en-
shrined in them, then the phenomena of which we are
conscious with respect to our past experience, thoughts,
words, acts, feelings, and consciousness of guilt, or the
contrary, in connection with them, are accounted for.

32 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

We are conscious of our past states of mind, whether
good or evil, only as we remember the words in which
we thought of them when they occurred ; and there-
fore we are conscious of the sinfulness of past acts, feel-
ings, and emotions, no farther than they are distinctly
recalled in the words in which we think of them.

Hence when a sinner is awakened to perceive the
corruption and wickedness of his heart, and the sinful-
ness of all his thoughts, feelings, and actions, his me-
mory is quickened to recall his former experience, and
especially the most corrupt and flagrant, though long-
forgotten instances of his conduct. So when regener-
ated, and during the ensuing conflict to the close of
life, he is conscious of the states of mind which have
transpired, of the evil acts, thoughts, and affections on
the one hand, and of the holy and obedient ones on
the other, only as they are recalled to memory in words.

Such being the law of our minds, and such our ex-
perience in the present life, the Scriptures very clearly
forewarn us, that such, by the permanence of that law,
will be the experience of men after death. In the
righteous there will be such oblivion of the transgres-
sions of their former lives, as is implied in their being
blotted out, and as will consist with their perfect and un-
interrupted bliss. They will realize in their experience
that He, to whom their guilt was imputed, had done a
perfect work, and made them in respect to the law
which they had transgressed, and to their consciousness
of guilt, as though they had never sinned. The un-
righteous, on the other hand, with their memories freed
from all obstructions, and quickened to the utmost,

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 33

will forever be conscious of all their evil thoughts,
words, and agencies.

With respect to the particular subject of the present
inquiry, that of the conveyance by Inspiration of
thoughts, in and by means of words, to the minds of the
sacred writers, let it be observed : that thoughts con
vcyed from one human mind to another, are invariably
conveyed in words, or signs equivalent to articulate
utterances ; and they are received, comprehended, and
rendered matter of consciousness, only so far as the
words or signs are consciously recognized and under-
stood. The same is true of all the communications
from angelic beings to men, of which we have any re-
cord; and likewise of those from Satan. In what
ways he can affect the feelings and emotions of men, is
another question. But when he conveys any distinct
thoughts to the human mind, he does it, so far as we
know, only in words and their equivalents. Thus by
means of words he conveyed his thoughts to Eve ; and
so to the false prophets. And there seems to be no
room for a question, but that in all the thoughts re-
ceived from those beings, and equally in all the thoughts
conveyed by man to them, or conceived respecting
them, words are the invariable medium. Such is the
constitution of things — such the law of man's nature.

It is thus plain and palpable, that man in the ordi-
nary exercise of all his intellectual and rational facul- .
ties, can and does receive thoughts from other created
intelligences, in and by means of words. Does not this
law obtain likewise in respect to the thoughts conveyed
by inspiration from God? That it does, is the only
conclusion which the facts and analogies known to us
2*

34 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

can justify. There is no known fact or apparent reason
to justify a contrary supposition. Since the thoughts
of one created intelligence can be conveyed to another
by means of words, it is certain that the thoughts
of the Infinite Intelligence may be so conveyed ; and
since the conveyance of thoughts in words from one
man to another does not infringe, but is in harmony
with the laws of his intelligent nature, it is plain that
the conveyance of the Divine thoughts in words by in-
spiration, may be in harmony with those laws.

All intellectual conceptions include the words, or
equivalent signs, by which they are intelligibly ex-
pressed ; and they are necessarily expressed in the
words or signs in which they are conceived. To sup-
pose that they can be vocally expressed in any other
than the words in which he who expresses conceives
them, is as absurd as to suppose that he can convey
them by writing words which have a different and con-
trary meaning; and to say that he can think them
without words, is no less absurd than to say that he
can express them in writing without writing words.
Sensations and emotions, in so far as they occur and
exist independently of words, occur and exist indepen-
dently of thought. But whatever the subjects of
thought may be, whether physical or intellectual, geo-
metrical figures or arithmetical proportions, facts or
fictions, history or biography, moral precepts or reli-
gious doctrines, there are no distinct thoughts of them
of which men are conscious, except in words, and words
which when spoken or written express them to others.

Words, vocally articulated, or silently conceived and
realized to the consciousness, are conditions, vehicles,

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 35

instruments of thought Without them there is no
consciousness of thought Uttering them is thinking
nloud. A knowledge of words, or of signs equivalent
in significance to words, is a condition precedent to the
exercise of the power of thinking. Hence the necessity
of teaching the meaning of words and signs to children.
They first learn the meaning of signs, gestures, ex-
pressive looks ; next that of sounds, vocal articulations,
particular words, exclamations, interrogations, com-
mands, phrases, sentences. These being associated with
the thoughts which they are employed to convey, they
remember. By recalling and reasoning from these
they learn to think. The more their knowledge of
words is extended, the more they are enabled to exer-
cise the power of thinking.

Our consciousness and experience wholly forbid the
supposition that the choice of words succeeds instead
of being identical with the conception of thought. We
have no consciousness of thought separately from
words, or independently of them. We receive no
thoughts by means of the vocal articulations, or the
writings of others, except in words of which we pre-
viously understand the meaning. And if our con-
sciousness is to be relied on, we no more, after intel-
lectually conceiving a thought, select the word or words
in which we become conscious of it, than after receiv-
ing the thoughts of another person by hearing his voice,
or reading what he has written, we select the words in
which we become conscious of the thoughts so received.
We therefore conclude that without a proper miracle,
the Divine thoughts conveyed into the minds of the
prophets by inspiration, were of necessity conveyed in

36 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

the very words which they wrote ; that they were con-
scious of those thoughts in those words, and that they
no more selected those words than their readers select
the words in which they receive the thoughts which
are expressed in Scripture.

It may be worth the further observation that, viewed
in another light, the sujjposition that thoughts without
words were inspired into the minds of the sacred
writers, and that the task of selecting the words they
were to write to express those thoughts, was left to
them, is in the last degree preposterous and incredible.
For from the nature of the inspired thoughts, the rev-
elations, doctrines, precepts, promises, threatenings,
predictions, covenants, the selection of words to express
the exact meaning and shade of meaning intended to be
conveyed, would as truly require omniscience as an
original conception of the thoughts themselves without
any Divine inspiration. No conceivable amount of
guidance, short of a proper miracle, could supersede
this difficulty. For, to say nothing of the necessity of
a miracle to render them conscious of the thoughts
without words, it is obvious that such a consciousness
could be no guide to them in the choice of words. Be-
ing exclusive of words, it could have no relation to
them. They would be left to invent or to appropriate
words without any rule to govern or assist them, to ex-
press meanings upon which the hopes and destinies of
men were to be suspended.

That they could not possibly have had a clearer con-
ception of the thoughts without words than with, must
be allowed, or we must conclude that in the words
selected their conceptions are but imperfectly conveyed.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 37

But suppose them to have had as clear conceptions as
their words convey, since their conceptions and their
consciousness of the thoughts were exclusive of words,
what but omniscience could enable them to select such
words as should infallibly convey precisely those con-
ceptions to their uninspired fellow-men ? Suppose
even that the thoughts as conceived by them without
words, were conceived in the same orderly, grammati-
cal succession which marks the exhibition of them in
the written Scriptures ; that their non-verbal concep-
tions included the necessary distinctions of modes and
tenses, interrogatories, exclamations, questions and
answers, quotations and parentheses, figures and sym-
bols, what, short of omniscience, could enable them to
meet the verbal demands of such conceptions, to select
such words in such relations to each other, as infallibly
and perfectly to convey the thoughts conceived ? Is
it not apparent that the slightest imperfection, either in
the choice or in the collocation of the words, might be
fatal to the record as a rule of life ; and that the writers
could give no evidence or assurance that the concep-
tions conveyed by their words were precisely the same
with those which they had been conscious of without
words ?

The case is wholly different when once the inspired
thoughts have been committed to writing; for the
words actually employed confessedly express all that
is pretended to have been revealed and inspired. The
thoughts are conceived by the reader, in the words,
and according to his knowledge and understanding of
the words. The words are the medium of the thong] 1 1 s,
and when the thoughts are perfectly conceived in the

38 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

words, lie who so conceives them can express them in
other words which he perfectly understands, whether
in his native or in a foreign tongue. He has a rule to
govern him which is as adequate to the case as any
law of his intellectual nature. He is conscious of the
coincidence and identity of the thoughts and words.

The Divine act of inspiration, as is intended to be
shown hereafter, was not proj)erly miraculous. It did
not suspend or counteract any law of the human mind.
But, according to the constitution and laws of the mind,
the conveyance of thoughts from one man to another
necessarily requires the conveyance of the words by
which the thoughts are expressed. If, therefore, the
act of inspiration was not a miracle, the insj)ired
thoughts must have been conveyed in the words which
express them.

If the act of inspiration were a miracle, suspending
that law of the mind by which we conceive, receive
from others, are conscious of, and remember thoughts
only in words — and conveying thoughts without words,
then, as no man in the natural exercise of his faculties
is either conscious of or remembers thoughts apart from
words, we must conclude that the sacred writers were
not intelligently conscious of the thoughts which were
conveyed to their minds by inspiration, or that their
consciousness of them, independently of words, was
miraculous. If they had no consciousness of the in-
spired thoughts, then, of course, their agency could not
have been exercised in the selection of words expressive
of them. If their consciousness of them was miracu-
lous, then the natural exercise of their faculties was
superseded, and could not have been employed in a

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 39

selection of words. The selection, like the conscious-
ness, must have been supernatural — miraculous ; not
the effect of human, but of Divine agency. Nothing,
therefore, is gained by such a supposition, nor was
there any occasion for any such miracle. The natural
and ordinary way of conveying thoughts from one
mind to another, is by means of words. If men can
convey their thoughts to each other by the instrumen-
tality of words, what can possibly hinder the Divine
Being from conveying his thoughts to man by the same
means? Suffice it, at present, to add that it is not
more indubitably certain that the Scriptures contain
revelations from God, than that they were verbally ex-
pressed and conveyed in the words which were written
to express them. Such, manifestly, was the case with
all those portions of Scripture which are expressly de-
clared to have been audibly spoken to the sacred
Writers by the Divine Revealer. That the other por-
tions were inspired into the minds of the writers in the
words which they wrote, will, it is presumed, be ren-
dered evident in the ensuing pages.

This view obviates the principal objections which
embarrass the prevalent theories. According to these
theories there is a difficulty, not hitherto surmounted,
as to how or on what infallible ground the words of
the sacred Text are, in the Scriptures themselves, de-
clared to be the words of God. If they were selected
by men — if man's agency was in any degree exerted in
their selection, how are they the exclusive and infalli-
ble words of God ? It is not a conclusive or satisfac-
tory answer to this question to say that they were in-
fallibly guided. For supposing them to have been so

40 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

guided, if the act of selecting the words was their act,
then the words selected were their words. Moreover,
where do the Scriptures teach us, or give so much as a
hint concerning any such guidance, or any act or pro-
cess by which words of man's selection ceased to be
his and were adopted or constituted to be the words of
God?

No theory upon the subject can be conclusive and
satisfactory which does not exhibit as the effect of in-
spiration, infallibility in thought and language. This
result may indeed seem to be attained, by saying that
the sacred penmen were guided both in thought and
language by the Holy Spirit, so as to be in such a sense
His organs, that what they said He said. This would
indeed express substantially the result which the case
requires ; and if they were so guided, the production of
the result would seem to be accounted for. But where
is the proof of any such guidance of the human facul-
ties in the conception of the necessary thoughts, and in
the selection of the necessary words ? Is there any
scriptural proof of it — or any semblance of proof other
than that of an inference from the supposed necessity
of the case ? The passages, John 16 : 13, " The Spirit
will guide, you into all truth," and 14 : 26, " He shall
bring all tilings to your remembrance" need only to be
read with the context to show that they express no
proof of the point in question ; but on the contrary,
that the guidance promised was not to enable them to
discover truth, or to select words, but to insure their
being taught by having all things brought to their re-
membrance, which Christ had spoken, and their recep-
tion of all truth which should be spoken and shown to

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 41

them by the Spirit. Thus : " The Holy Ghost whom
the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you
all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you." "When He, the
Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all
truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatso-
ever He shall hear, that shall He speak ; and He will show
you things to come. He shall glorify Me : for He shall
receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All
things that the Father hath are Mine : therefore said I,
that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you."
These Scriptures plainly show, that all that the Apostles
were to know, speak, and write as the word of God,
was to be conveyed — inspired — into their minds by the
Spirit in the words previously spoken by Christ, and
recalled to their remembrance by the aid of Inspiration,
and the words to be spoken — inspired — conveyed into
their minds by the Spirit, as the words of God which
He, the Spirit, was commissioned to take, receive, and
speak of the things of Christ. The selection of what
was to be spoken by the Spirit is expressly referred to
Him. An infallible guidance to the selection, either of
thoughts or words, can be supposed only on the as-
sumption that Inspiration is affirmed of the sacred
writers personally, instead of being affirmed solely of
what they wrote. No two things can be more distinct
and different from each other than these two, and no-
thing can be more evident from the Scriptures them-
selves, than that it was what the sacred penmen wrote
that was inspired into their minds. And if they were
indebted to inspiration for the thoughts which were to
be expressed in writing, the fact that the written words

42 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

are the words of God, is not a premise from which it
follows that they were infallibly guided, in the exercise
of their faculties, to the selection of the words, or that
they exercised their faculties at all in the selection, in-
stead of being wholly indebted to inspiration for the
words as well as for the thoughts.

Concerning the notion so generally prevalent, that
the effect of inspiration was an effect on the intellectual
faculties of the sacred writers, instead of being the con-
veyance of thoughts into their minds, some further ob-
servations may be permitted in this place. And first,
it is confidently averred that the Scriptures themselves
afford no indication whatever that there was more than
one kind or degree of inspiration ; and second, that no
conceivable influence on the finite natural faculties of
man could enable him to discover and originate the
conception of the leading truths of revelation. Those
truths must undoubtedly have been communicated to
him from the Infinite Intelligence, in order to his
conceiving, or attaining any conception of them. Hence
the Apostle's argument touching the counsels and pur-
poses of God, which man never did nor could discover,
that " God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit ;"
and his illustration : u For what man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ?
even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the
Spirit of God." To which he adds, that those other-
wise inscrutable things were freely given to them by
the Spirit of God, and that they spoke them in the
words which the Spirit taught them. (1 Cor. 2.) Thus,
to specify no other instances, it is clear that the pur-
poses of God concerning the salvation of men by a

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 43

Divine Redeemer, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the
doctrines of the resurrection, a final judgment, and eter-
nal retributions, must have been revealed and con-
veyed to man by Inspiration ; and if the rest of the
contents of the Bible were not all inspired in the same
way, then there was more than one kind of inspiration,
or else those contents were not all inspired in any way.

How universally it has been taken for granted that
the Divine inspiration which is affirmed of the holy
Scriptures, was an influence on the faculties and capa-
cities of men, may be seen by referring to the various
works of theologians, commentators, essayists, and
philosophers, which discuss or allude to the subject,
from the period of the Reformation to the present time.
It is solely on the basis of this mistaken notion that
different kinds and degrees of inspiration have been
imagined. This notion, of course, pervades the theo-
ries and expositions of all the rationalistic writers, and
is essential to them. One of the latest and ablest of
them, Mr. Morell, in his "Philosophy of Religion,"
maintains expressly that "inspiration is only a higher
potency of what every man possesses to some degree :"
that is, a more or less developed or excited intellectual,
intuitional, and emotional consciousness of religious
truths. Every man, it is assumed, has such conscious-
ness to some degree. To have it to a higher than the
ordinary or natural degree, is to be inspired. It is in-
spiration that distinguishes poets and geniuses from
other men ; and in like manner distinguishes religious
teachers — the sacred writers.

On the other hand, Doctor Dick, a Scotch Presby-
terian minister, in his " Essay on the Inspiration of the

44 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

Holy Scriptures," says: "I define Inspiration to be
such an influence of the Holy Ghost on the understand-
ings, imaginations, memories, and other mental powers of
the writers of the Sacred Books, as perfectly qualified them
for communicating to the world the knowledge of the
will of God."

The distinction made in support of their views, by
those who imagine different degrees and kinds of in-
spiration, between the doctrinal and the historical and
other matter of the Scriptures, is entirely gratuitous.
The facts and doctrines are so interwoven, so dependent
on each other, and often, in respect to the thoughts con-
veyed, so identical, as to render it impossible to estab-
lish such a distinction. Often, indeed, the most im-
portant doctrines are contained in verbal statements of
fact ; as in the first chapter of Genesis, and in the his-
torical narratives of the incarnation, death, and resur-
rection of Christ. They are misled, as in respect to
infallible guidance, by supposing the inspiration to be
affirmed of the Sacred Penmen, as if it were an influ-
ence exerted on their faculties, instead of being affirmed
solely of what was inspired into their minds, and
written by them.

An error no less prevalent, is that of supposing man
to have been the inventor and architect of language ;
a notion which, among other things, implies that he
had, prior to the invention, the power of thinking and
of expressing his thoughts without words.

With these are associated a variety of kindred no-
tions, such as that ideas are images impressed on the
mind, and held independently of words ; that words
are merely the signs of things, and are necessarily of

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 45

defective and uncertain significance ; and that the figu-
rative use of words is regulated by no law, and is pe-
culiarly liable to misconstruction and uncertainty of
meaning.

That language was a primeval gift ; that thinking is
possible only in words as the medium, instrument, and
vehicle of thought ; that we conceive thoughts intel-
lectually, receive thoughts from others, are conscious
of them, and retain them in the memory as we express
them vocally and in writing, only in words ; that the
conveyance of thoughts into the mind by inspiration,
necessarily includes the inspiration of words ; that in-
spiration is affirmed in the Scriptures of the words
which constitute the writing ; that words necessarily
and perfectly express the thoughts conceived in them,
and that it is their office to represent thoughts, and not
things : to discuss and illustrate these propositions, and
others connected with them, and their relations to the
infallible authority of the word of God, and to the in-
tellectual and physical constitution, faculties, acts, and
consciousness of man, is the object of the ensuing
pages.

A few words may be necessary concerning the object
to be aimed at, in a discussion of this subject. The
special object to be had in view, is not to' prove and
illustrate the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures for
the conviction of those who believe with the heart unto
righteousness. They already have the highest possible
conviction, from the witness of the Holy Spirit with
their spirits to the effects wrought in them through the
instrumentality of the inspired and written word.
They are conscious of the coincidence produced be-

46 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

tween their natures — their primary beliefs — and the
truths of Scripture; and between the feelings and
emotions of their renewed hearts and the 'word of
faith' which the Spirit employs. The Divine light
and authority of Scripture are realized to them. A
Divine self-evidencing radiance beams from the sacred
page upon their understandings and their hearts. The
word of God has, by the Divine influence, been ren-
dered quick and powerful in them. They are ' taught
of God.' The Spirit teaches them, not by new reve-
lations, but by causing them to discern, believe, and
obey, the truths already revealed; not by creating
new intellectual faculties, but by quickening, rectify-
ing, and illuminating their previously blinded and
perverted faculties.

But the special object to be aimed at, is the rational
conviction of those who are not so taught ; and who,
from ignorance and prejudice, or from false principles,
are in a state of doubt and indifference, or of aversion
and opposition. It requires to be made manifest to
such, that the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures is
proved by evidences which reason can not countervail.

In the exhibition of these evidences, it must be as-
sumed that certain truths relating to God and to man
are admitted by those who are addressed. To men
who profess to be atheists, and to infidels and deists,
who deny that the Scriptures contain revelations from
God, and deny that man needs either a Saviour from
sin, or any inspired rule of faith and life, it would be
futile to address an argument on this subject. Those
who are addressed must be supposed to believe in the
existence of God, his moral perfections, and his rela-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 47

tion to man as a moral and accountable creature ; and
to believe in the fallen state of man, his incapacity to
discover the most essential religious truths, and that
the Bible contains truths of fact and doctrine which,
had they not been given by inspiration, could not be
discovered or conceived.

To all such, the question is : Whether the Scriptures
are the word of God, so given by inspiration as to be
of Divine authority, and binding on the faith and con-
science of man ? If so, what is the nature and effect
of the Divine act of inspiration ? Did that act convey
the inspired truths in the words, idioms, and phrases of
the sacred text as written by the prophets and apostles ?
Did this take place with reference to the entire volume
of Scripture? In considering these questions, it is
properly deemed to be admitted and incontrovertible,
that the Scriptures do in fact contain Revelations from
God which were recorded by the sacred writers.

Again, with respect to the miraculous character of
inspiration, something needs to be said in these preli-
minary notices. A proper scriptural miracle, is an
immediate act of God, producing effects which are
both supernatural and contra-natural. Inspiration is
an immediate act of God producing supernatural, but
not contra-natural effects. It is, therefore, not a proper
miracle, but is miraculous only as it transcends nature
and the agency of second causes. In this respect it
may with propriety be classed with that Divine act, the
effect of which is the renovation of the human soul ;
and that which, without any visible or mediate agency,
caused the chains to fall from Peter's hands, and the
iron gate of his prison to fly open; and many others

48 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

recorded in Scripture : acts above the powers of man
and of Nature, supernatural and Divine, but which did
not suspend or contravene any laws of Nature, but
were exerted in conformity with those laws. For it
does not appear that the Divine act of inspiration sus-
pended or counteracted any law, function, or faculty
of the human mind. That act, on the contrary, ap-
pears to have been exerted in concurrence with the
natural exercise of the rational faculties of men — with
their way of receiving thoughts from their fellow-men,
conceiving them in words, and becoming intelligently
conscious of them. Doubtless the sacred writers had
an intelligent consciousness of the inspired thoughts
which they were to express in writing ; and in com- m
mitting them to writing, exercised their faculties in the
ordinary way. And since their consciousness of them
was, for aught that appears, like that of all other
thoughts, the fact that those thoughts were conveyed
to them by inspiration, can afford no ground to con-
clude that the act of conveying them suspended or
counteracted any law of their minds. That act, how-
ever, was supernatural and Divine ; for nothing but the
immediate exertion of the Divine efficiency could con-
vey to them thoughts, doctrines, facts, previously
known only to God, and in their nature undiscover-
able by man.

Let it further be observed, that the term Scripture is
employed to signify all that is written in the sacred
volume. The received canon is established upon such
ample grounds of authority, that" we are as much
bound to receive each and every of the Sacred Books
as of Divine inspiration and authority, as any one

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 49

of them. The Books then extant were collectively
distinguished by our Lord and his apostles, as the
Scriptures, the Holy Scriptures, the Oracles of God,
the Word of God — which phrases were well understood
to signify what had been given by Inspiration. By the
successors of the Apostles, after the New Testament
Canon had been completed, the entire volume was dis-
tinguished by the phrases quoted above, and others of
the same comprehensive import — as the Divine Scrip-
tures, the Divine Oracles, the Sacred Scriptures, the
Divine "Word, the Scriptures of the Lord, the Old and
New Testaments. The several Books which constitute
the present canon were enumerated, those of the Old
Testament by Jewish writers, and those both of the
Old and New by several of the early Christian writers.
Those of both Testaments were, shortly after the apos-
tolic age, collected into a distinct volume, which was
called the Book of Scripture — the Ancient and New
Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments. See Lardner,
Home's Introduction, and authorities quoted by Paley.
Lastly, considering the acknowledged necessity of a
revelation from God to man, and the nature of the
facts and doctrines which the Scriptures contain, it is
obvious and reasonable to assume, that their Divine
Author had a specific purpose and plan to be exhibited
and accomplished by their publication ; and that He
inspired and caused to be written such, and only such
things, as in the view of Infinite Wisdom were neces-
sary to the perfect accomplishment of that plan. And
since the Bible as a whole has the unqualified sanction
both of Divine and human testimony, as being the
word of God, given by inspiration, every part of its
3

50 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

contents is consistent with the rest, and equally derives
its authority from Him by its inspiration. When,
therefore, it is claimed for the Scriptures collectively
that they are the word of God, much more is claimed
for them than that they were written by His direction,
or by His direction and assistance ; as in the case of
any writings claimed to be the writings of a particular
man, much more is meant than that they were written
by his direction and assistance. It is claimed that they
express in his own words and on his own authority the
thoughts which he intended to express, whether in the
mechanical process of writing he employed an amanu-
ensis or not. Less than this would not constitute him
the author, and render him absolutely and unavoidably
responsible. It is, therefore, in this sense claimed for
the Scriptures as the word of God, that the particular
thoughts which He intended should be expressed, were
inspired into the minds of the sacred writers in the
words which He intended should be employed to ex-
press them ; and that they involve His infinite and im-
mutable authority, and consequently are a perfect rule
of faith and life. If every part of the original text is
not in this sense His word, then it can not be deter-
mined which part, if any, is His word, in any such sense
as indisputably to involve His authority and be bind-
ing on man's conscience. But if every part of it is
His word, then every part of it was given by His in-
spiration, and He must have determined, in respect to
every particular word and sentence, what should be
written and published as His word. Whether portions
of its histories, biographies, facts, precepts, observations,
were or were not previously known to the writers,

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 51

could, in this relation, make no difference. For if any
words of the text were inserted on man's authority and
discretion — inserted without being inspired of God, it
can not be claimed for them, that they are His words.
They may be just and true in their import, but they
can not be known to be so on the authority and as the
words of God. In respect to what He determined to
include in the sacred volume, it could be of no conse-
quence what particulars the writers were acquainted
with before. Thus with reference, for example, to the
Four Gospels. The particulars recorded by Matthew
and John, were for the most part previously within their
personal knowledge ; while that was not the case with
Mark and Luke. But who will pretend that the words
and sentences which were written by the two last, were
any more or otherwise inspired, than those which were
written by the two first-named Evangelists ? So with
respect to the Book of Genesis, of which no item of the
contents could have been previously within the personal
knowledge of Moses. Whatever traditions may have
been handed down through a period of twenty five
himdred years, we may confidently assert that many of
the things contained in that Book, could have been
communicated to him only by immediate inspiration ;
and it would be a violent and incredible presumption
to suppose that, for the rest of the contents, he relied
on tradition. Even had ample traditions existed among
the Hebrews in their Egyptian bondage, it is a far
more incredible supposition, that he was infallibly
guided to make a selection from them, and a selection
of words by which to express them, than that he re-
1 them in their proper order and connections, by
immediate verbal inspiration.

52 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

CHAPTER III.

THE NATURE OF INSPIRATION.

The Holy Scriptures claim to be the word of God,
on the ground that they were inspired by Him. Their
inspiration, therefore, must have been of a nature to
justify that designation. Their being given by inspir-
ation, proves that they verbally express His thoughts
in the words which constitute the writing. Large por-
tions of them consist of words which are declared to
have been audibly spoken by Him. Of those portions,
the inspiration, whether coincident with the vocal ut-
terance, or the result of a Divine act recalling and re-
newing to the intelligent consciousness of the Prophets,
what they had heard, must have included the words
which had been audibly articulated. The Divine act
of inspiration, whatever may have characterized it in
other respects, conveyed to their minds His thoughts
in His words ; and, therefore, the words which they
wrote, are His. All that we can discern, or are con-
cerned to know of the nature of that act, is thus shown
by the effect produced — the conveyance of thoughts in
words. The portions of Scripture above referred to,
are admitted by all who believe in any inspiration, to

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 53

have been inspired ; and if, in respect to them, the in-
spiring act conveyed the thoughts in the words by which
they are expressed in the original text, then, to that
extent we discern the nature and effect of inspiration,
and have ground on which to ascribe the same effect to
the inspiration of the rest of Scripture — the inspiration
of all that the Divine Wisdom saw fit to include and
cause to be written in the sacred volume.

Such an effect is accordingly signified by the word
inspiration. That word is the same in English as in
French, and signifies " the act of breathing into any
thing — the infusion of ideas into the mind by the Holy
Spirit." The Hebrew word is rendered : " Inspiration —
breathing into — the breath of the Lord." The Greek,
" Divinely inspired." The meaning of the word as
applied to the Holy Scriptures, is founded on the ana-
logy between the impulsion of air from without, into
the body, and the conveyance of thoughts from with-
out into the mind.

Thoughts conceived in the mind may be compared
to material forms seen by the eye. They are conceived
in words, as visible objects are seen in their proper
form and outline. By means of words the mind is
conscious of particular thoughts ; as by means of their
distinct forms we distinguish and are conscious of see-
ing particular objects. Words are the medium and in-
strument of thought. Thoughts audibly expressed to a
prophet would be conveyed to his mind conjointly with
the words, and his reception of them would result from
his understanding the words uttered. And thoughts
conveyed to his mind by Divine inspiration must of
necessity be conveyed in words in order to his being

54 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

conscious of receiving them : for no man is conscious
of thinking or of receiving, holding, comprehending,
or remembering distinct thoughts, disconnected from
the words which, if expressed, vocally or in writing,
would distinctly represent them.

The visual perception of a person or a statue, pro-
duces in the mind an effect like that of reading or
hearing the names of those objects. The visible ob-
ject in the one case, is to the mind what the vocal sound
and written word are in the other. The same thought
results in each case comcidently with the perception.
But that thought does not arise except as it is intel-
lectually conceived in words ; nor does the mind other-
wise become conscious of it, or remember it. The pro-
duction in the mind of an equivalent result — the intel-
ligent consciousness of particular thoughts — is the pur-
pose and effect of inspiration. And since thought can
not transcend consciousness, and we are conscious of
thoughts only in words, inspiration must of necessity
convey words with thoughts, or it would convey no-
thing of which the recipient could be conscious.

Divine inspiration is the act of God, by which He con-
veyed to the minds of the sacred writers the thoughts which
they were to express in the Holy Scriptures. And inas-
much as He alone could determine what thoughts should
be expressed, and as man could not in the rational and
ordinary exercise of his faculties receive inspired or
other thoughts otherwise than as they are conceived in
words, it follows that He conveyed to them by Inspira-
tion what they wrote — the thoughts in the words by
which they are expressed.

The word Eevelation appropriately signifies the com-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 55

munication of truth from God to men. To reveal, is
to disclose, discover, make known. The Hebrew word
signifies to uncover, to disclose, or make manifest by acts
and events, and to reveal, disclose, communicate truths
to the mind by words or signs. Thus in the history of
Samuel : it is said when Jehovah first called him, that
the word of the Lord was not yet revealed to him ; and
subsequently, that " the Lord revealed Himself to Sam-
uel in Shiloh, by the word of the Lord." Again :
" Now the Lord had told — revealed to — Samuel in his
ear, a day before Saul came, saying, To-morrow
about this time, I will send thee a man." David, after
receiving a special revelation from God, by the mouth
of Nathan, says : "And now, 0 Lord God, the word
that Thou hast spoken concerning Thy servant and con-
cerning his house, establish it forever. . . For Thou,
O Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to Thy
servant, saying, I will build thee an house." Isaiah
says : " It was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of
Hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from
you till ye die, saith the Lord God of Hosts." Sure-
ly, says Amos, "the Lord God will do nothing but
He revealeih His secret unto His servants the prophets."
"A tale-bearer revealeih secrets " — that is, by speaking
words. " The secret things belong unto the Lord our
God ; but those things which are revealed^ belong unto
us and to our children forever, that we may keep all
the words of this law."

The Greek word is of similar import, signifying the
communication of thoughts by words audibly uttered,
by causing a verbal conception of them in dreams, or
by the instrumentality of external signs and manifest-

56 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

ations. The wise men were warned of God in a dream,
That they should not return to Herod. " It was re-
vealed unto Simeon, by the Holy Ghost, that he should
not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ."
" Moses was admonished of God, when he was about
to make the tabernaele : For See, saith He, that thou
make all things according to the pattern showed to
thee in the mount." " Noah was warned of God, of
things not seen as yet." He received revelations in
words audibly spoken. " If they escaped not who re-
fused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we
escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh from
heaven." The things which man could not discover,
God hath " revealed unto us by His Spirit." The mys-
tery of Christ " is now revealed unto the holy apostles
and prophets by the Spirit, That the Gentiles should
be fellow-heirs, and of the same body." " Unto the
prophets it was revealed, that, not unto themselves, but
unto us they did minister."

In both Testaments wherever the words which are
translated, reveal, revealed, revelation, are applied to
any thing contained in the Scriptures, distinct verbal
communications are referred to. Often it is expressly
said that the very words which were employed by the
revealing Spirit, were the words which are written ;
and there is no reasonable ground to conclude that such
was not the case uniformly. On the contrary, the con-
clusion that the words which were inspired by the
Spirit, were the very words which the Sacred Penmen
wrote, is justified by the declared usage in numerous
instances, and with respect to the rest, by the nature
of inspiration as a Divine act conveying thoughts to

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 57

the minds of the Sacred Penmen to be by them ex-
pressed in writing ; by the parallel usage of the pro-
phets and apostles in speaking the words which had
been spoken to them, or inspired into their minds ; by
the fact that often the thoughts were such as they were
incapable of selecting words to express ; and in a word,
by every consideration relating to the subject.

3*

58 THE PLENAEY INSPIKATION

CHAPTER IV.

VOCAL AND WKITTEN LANGUAGE.

Thought is conceived and expressed in words, and
equivalent signs, as its medium, instrument, and repre-
sentative, in a variety of ways.

1st. By all tlie articulate vocal sounds, which consti-
tute spoken language.

2d. By all those significant acts and gestures which
are employed in place of spoken and written words.

3d. By picture writing — in which thoughts are re-
presented by pictures, which have a metaphorical im-
port— the leading circumstance in a subject being por-
trayed to indicate or express the whole.

4th. By hieroglyphics, which represent spoken words,
syllables, and letters — to read or interpret which, is to
utter the words — the vocal sounds — which they re-
spectively represent.

A large class of hieroglyphics represented particular
words ; another class denoted thoughts which were
easily associated with each other, by analogy or re-
semblance. But into whatever classes the simple and
the more complex hieroglyphics may be distributed,
they were all representations of spoken words, sylla-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTUKES. 59

bles, or letters, and were read like other kinds of writ-
ing, as representing vocal sounds. It is obvious, in-
deed, from the nature of the subject, that the charac-
ters employed in hieroglyphic writing, were employed
for the same purpose and to the same effect, as the let-
ters and words of alphabetic writing. For those cha-
racters were employed to express such thoughts only
as the writer could express vocally, in words ; since
to read them, their force and meaning must first be
understood in the vulgar tongue, as the reading of
them must of necessity be the utterance of words of
corresponding import, in like manner as in reading
Greek or Latin into English. To suppose that hiero-
glyphics stood for things, and not for words, or rather
for thoughts as words do, is to suppose, in opposition to
experience, that they can not be read in the words of
ordinary language, and that men can think and ex-
press their thoughts to others without words.

5th. By arbitrary marks to which a specific meaning
and pronunciation are assigned, as in the instance of
the Chinese written characters, which, though not
alphabetic, are representative of vocal sounds.

6th. By every species of alphabetic writing.

These several methods of writing are alike in this,
that they represent spoken words, so that the reading of
what is written, is simply a repetition or utterance of
the vocal sounds which the writing represents. Such,
indeed, in its relation to thought, is the only office of
writing ; notwithstanding that most of the characters
in picture writing, and many of those in hieroglyphic,
are in their form suggestive of the meaning which they
are intended to express. Spoken words, are audible

60 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

\houghts. Pictures, hieroglyphics, and alphabetic marks,
are visible thoughts.

When men express themselves orally, it is by utter-
ing the words in which they conceive their thoughts.
When they express their thoughts by any species of
writing, it is by alphabetic or other marks, which re-
present the words in which they think. If they indi-
cate their meaning by gestures or significant acts, it is
by such as are adapted, and understood, like words, to
represent their thoughts. And it is no less true that
thoughts in the mind, which are not in any manner
expressed, are, at least so far as we are conscious of
them, silently articulated or clothed in words. Inter-
nal sensations and emotions may arise without any con-
sciousness of the words by which they might be de-
scribed. But no one can exercise his mind in think-
ing of any thing within or without, real or imaginary,
without being conscious of the words which he would
employ, were he audibly to express his thoughts.
Even in dreams and visions the thoughts are conceived
and embodied in the words in which they are after-
wards remembered ; as are all the thoughts of what-
ever kind, that are treasured up in the memory. They
are distinctly remembered and recalled, no further than
the words are in which they were originally conceived.

In addition to the foregoing sketch of the modes in
which men receive and express their thoughts, by
vocal sounds, significant acts, and alphabetic or other
writing, a reference is due to representative symbols ;
which are of frequent occurrence in the prophetic
Scriptures, as representing, on the ground of analogy
or resemblance, agents, acts, and effects of a different

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 61

nature and sphere from themselves. Agents and phe-
nomena which are perceptible by the senses, are em-
ployed as symbols to represent other agents and phe-
nomena, which are in some respect analogous. The
revelation conveyed by these means, is neither received
by the prophet, nor expressed by him in words, but is
signified by the things symbolized. He sees the sym-
bol literally, or in prophetic vision, and discerns its cha-
racteristics, and from their analogy to those of the
object symbolized, infers what is intended to be fore-
shown. In writing, he employs words in their literal
sense, not to express what is revealed, but merely to
describe the symbol as it appeared to his senses.

There is an analogy between the office of words as
the instrument of thought, and that of light as the in-
strument of vision, and of air as the instrument of hear-
ing. The power of seeing exists, but in the absence
of light is dormant. The presence of light is a condi-
tion of the exercise of the visual faculty. Light is
to the act by which the mind perceives external ob-
jects, what words are to the act of thinking, and air to
the act of hearing. By means of light we become con-
scious of seeing, through the medium of the eye. By
means of air we become conscious of hearing, through
the ear. So by means of words we become conscious
of thinking, and by means of the vocal organs and of
writing, of expressing our thoughts audibly and visibly
to ourselves and others.

That capability of the soul by which we see and in
the act of seeing distinguish the forms and colors of ex-
ternal objects, and by which in hearing we distinguish
particular sounds, is the same with that by which the

62 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

soul in thinking distinguishes its successive thoughts
by a necessary condition and adjunct of thought which
renders us conscious of what we think, and which we
express by vocal articulations. As we are conscious
of seeing only as we are conscious of distinguishing
particular forms and colors, and of hearing only as
we are conscious of distinguishing particular sounds ;
so we are conscious of thinking only as we are con-
scious of that discriminating adjunct of thought,
which, by means of the vocal organs, we render
audible in words. Insomuch, that our experience
and consciousness being the only test, we can no more
think without that adjunct, which as we are conscious
of it and express it audibly, constitutes our words,
than we can see and hear without distinguishing colors
and sounds.

If it be asked how, by what process, or at what stage
of the process of thinking, does the mind supply that
contingent of thought, which, when realized to the
consciousness, and when articulated, constitutes lan-
guage ? — let him answer who can tell how, by what
process and at what stage, the mind discriminates
forms, colors, sounds, relations, proportions, and other
qualities? Such discrimination accompanies and is
essential to the acts of seeing and hearing ; but is in
no degree due to the mechanical structure, capacity, or
operation of the visual and auditory organs. Infinite
varieties of figures, colors, sounds, relations, propor-
tions, qualities, and numbers, exist externally, which
as soon as they are brought to the notice of the mind,
are perfectly discriminated and distinguished from each
other, so that we are no sooner conscious of noticing

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 63

them than we are conscious of the discrimination. If a
definition be desired of that adjunct, concomitant, me-
dium and vehicle of thought, of which we are con-
scious when we think — a definition explaining what it
is prior to any mental or vocal articulation, but which
when silently cognized, and when vocally expressed, is
articulate language, let him answer who can, consist-
ently with his own consciousness — if it be not a suffi-
cient and satisfactory answer to say, that it is that
which, when we are conscious of what we think, and
when we vocally express our thoughts, constitutes our
language — words, commensurate, in significance, and
in respect to our consciousness, with our thoughts. If
it be asked, how is that basis of silent, and of vocal
articulation, of which we are conscious when we think,
originated or produced? Here in turn, the querist
may with propriety be asked, how is thought itself
originated, or produced ? — and how will he define what
thought is abstractly from words ? — and how does it
happen that thoughts can be expressed in words ? But
while we can no more define what thought is, distinct
and independent of words, than we can be conscious of
thinking without at the same time being conscious of
the words which, when silently or audibly articulated,
express our thoughts, the supply of words answerable
to all the thoughts of which we are conscious, is satis-
factorily accounted for, by the fact that we previously
learn the words, their forms, sounds, and meanings, and
retain them in memory and subject to the power which
we exercise in thinking. This is matter of uniform
and universal experience, and as well with reference to
adults as to children. There may be great variety in

64 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

the appropriation and use of words ; but there is no
conscious thinking without a previous knowledge of
words competent to be the medium, and when articu-
lated to express our every thought.

Such then is man's constitution that a knowledge
and use of words is necessary to his exercise of the
power of thinking. This feature of his mental consti-
tution is, with reference to his social existence and re-
lations, associated with his vocal organs, and his power
of employing them in the audible enunciation of words,
and also his power of visibly expressing them in writ-
ing.

Hence the necessity of teaching children the meaning
of words in order to their exercising the power of
thought ; the sound of words in order to the vocal ex-
pression, and writing, in order to the visible repre-
sentation of their thoughts.

Our primary knowledge begins with sensations ;
which require certain conditions of the bodily organs.
But thinking, reasoning, reflection, are supersensuous,
a product of the mind under appropriate conditions.
The conditions may, in different individuals, exist im-
perfectly and in as different degrees as the power of
thought is exercised by different persons. A deaf and
blind mute may have other sensations than those which
depend on sight and hearing ; and in comparing, think-
ing, and reasoning upon them, may substitute some
species of signs in place of words. But the variety
and compass of his thoughts will necessarily be and
without other helps, will ever continue to be, very
limited. A merely deaf mute is at less disadvantage.
A child who hears and sees, but is not taught the

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 65

meaning and sound of words, will remain a child in
respect to his power of thinking. When a deaf mute
is taught by signs and gestures as a substitute for the
vocal utterance of words, the signs, like picture writ-
ing, hieroglyphics, and all arbitrary characters, are to
him the instrument of thinking. They supply the
place, and to their limited extent, fulfill the office of
words, and the pupil's power of thinking keeps pace
with his acquisitions.

These observations might be illustrated and confirmed
in a variety of ways. Let it suffice at present to refer
to the office and exercise of memory. It is the office
of memory to retain and recall past thoughts. But as
has already been remarked, such thoughts are remem-
bered in the words which originally contained them.
There is no distinct memory of past thoughts but in
conjunction with the words belonging to them. If, as
some may imagine, the mind has thoughts in infancy
or advanced life, prior to its consciousness of any cor-
responding words or signs, such thoughts are not with-
in the grasp of memory ; and if they exist, they can
not be reasoned from to invalidate what has been ad-
vanced respecting the thinking of which we are con-
scious, and which we remember by virtue of the words
which are its vehicle.

Words are articulate vocal sounds — letters written or
printed, which represent a sound, or combination of
sounds. A letter, is a mark, or character, written,
printed, engraved, or painted ; used as the representa-
tive of a sound, or of an articulation of the human or-
gans of speech. Articulation, is the forming of words
by the human voice, uttering articulate sounds, distinct

66 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

syllables or words. To speak, is to express thoughts
by words.

The faculty of uttering significant articulate sounds,
of enunciating words by the voice as expressions of
thought to others, is founded in the constitution of
man ; a faculty involving the concurrent action of
physical organs and mental powers, like that of hear-
ing and distinguishing vocal sounds by the ear, and
that of seeing and discriminating the forms, dimen-
sions, and colors, of external objects by the eye.
Those significant articulate sounds which constitute
words, and which when vocally uttered express
thoughts, are to our consciousness of thinking or of
the thoughts expressed, and to all distinct thoughts of
which we are conscious, what visible objects, and audi-
ble sounds are to the sensations of seeing and hearing.
They have the same relation to the faculty of thinking,
which visible objects have to the faculty of seeing, and
audible sounds to the faculty of hearing; insomuch
that thinking can no more take place without words,
than seeing where there are no visible objects, and
hearing where there are no audible sounds. The
power of thinking, considered simply as an intellectual
power, is exercised by means of the instrumentality of
words : as the power of visual perception is exercised
by means of the eye, and that of auricular perception
by means of the ear.

Hence word and Uiought often signify identically the
same. ' The Lord put a word in Baalam's niouth.
Take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put in
thy mouth. I will put my words in his mouth. The
Lord said unto Jeremiah, Behold I have put my

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 67

words in thy mouth.' These and many similar pas-
sages of Scripture denote the communication of
thoughts by inspiration in the words, by which the re-
cipient was to express them. And since in all other
instances of Divine Inspiration, equally with these a
supernatural influence was requisite, there is nothing
in the nature of the case, adverse to the belief that in
every instance, words in conjunction with thoughts
were inspired.

Language in the comprehensive sense above refe'rred
to, is, by the constitution of man, the means of realiz-
ing to his own intelligent consciousness, and of exhibit-
ing to his fellow-men, precisely what his thoughts are ;
and in the latter particular sustains a relation to hearers
and readers, somewhat similar to that which the works
of creation and providence sustain as evidences of the
Being, wisdom, and agency of the Creator and Ruler of
the world. Each individual man is surrounded by other
individuals, distinct from himself. His thoughts are
made known to them by means of language spoken
and written ; and they are thus made known with the
same precision as they are known to himself by con-
sciousness. Words, when a man speaks or writes
them truly to express what he is conscious of thinking,
convey to the hearer or reader as exactly and per-
fectly what he thinks, as it exists in his own mind ;
and to that effect accordingly they are understood.
This is not less true of all the words of a language
when intelligently spoken, than it is universally ad-
mitted to be in respect to particular classes of words,
such as the names of persons and things, and designa-
tions of qualities, acts, characteristics, and events.

68 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

Even when men deceive, the words which they employ
to convey a falsehood or a lie, are as much the instru-
ment of the thoughts which they express, as if they
were not falsely intended. "As he thinketh in his
heart, so is he — Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts."
By their words men are to be justified, and by their
words they are to be condemned.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 69

CHAPTER V.

THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE.

The question whether the gift of language was ori-
ginally conferred on man by his Creator, or whether he
was left to invent, and by slow degrees acquire the use
of words, has been much discussed. The latter notion
assumes that the first man was as an infant in respect to
the power of thinking and expressing his thoughts;
that the race continued long in ignorance and barbar-
ism ; and that at length, necessity led to the invention
and use of language.

These assumptions are inconsistent with man's con-
stitution, by which words are necessary to thought,
with his primeval necessities, and with the inspired re-
cord. Such thinking as the invention of language im-
plies presupposes, indeed, the actual knowledge and use
of words. To his very first thought upon the subject,
a coincident word must have been necessary, not only
in order to his being conscious of it as a thought, but to
his remembering it so as to combine it with a second.
But being, from the moment of his creation, mature and
perfect in other respects, it is impossible that he should
have been as an infant in respect to his power of think-

70 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

ing and expressing his thoughts. His necessities as an
adult required the immediate use of language ; and ac-
cordingly, that the knowledge and use of words were
imparted to him by his Creator at the outset of his ex-
istence, is rendered evident in the first and second chap-
ters of Genesis ; where, in immediate connection with
the announcement of his creation, Divine commands are
addressed to him, which, as appears from the context,
he clearly understood ; and where the record of his
naming the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air,
and his announcement concerning Eve, evince that he
rightly understood the meaning and use of words.
That the words by which he named the inferior crea-
tures were inspired into his mind with the thoughts
which they expressed, is indicated by the fact that the
names which he gave them were significant of their
natures or of their chief characteristics. In the third
chapter, a knowledge of the meaning and use of words,
both on the part of Adam and that of Eve, is shown by
their answers to the interrogatories which were ad-
dressed to them ; and in the fourth and ensuing chap-
ters, the same knowledge and use is exhibited in re-
spect to Cain and Abel, and to others succeeding them.
Adam was created, not an infant, but a man ; and
as such, doubtless, was as perfectly endowed with the
gift of speech as with the other gifts of an adult, which
qualified him for his station, relations, and responsi-
bilities as a rational, social, and accountable being.
The Scripture narrative, accordingly, represents him as
speaking and acting as a man from the first ; as speak-
ing the same language as that employed by the Creator,
in giving names to light and darkness, to the firma-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 71

ment, the earth, the sea, and other visible objects, and
in His commands and instructions to the primitive
pair and their descendants. That language, therefore,
which was so used prior to the creation of Adam, and
waa used by him and his successors, and was written
by Job, and by Moses and the prophets, was not in-
vented by man ; and the sacred history shows that the
progenitors of the race did not learn it by slow degrees
like children, but were gifted with it from the first as
perfectly as any of their descendants have been by gra-
dual acquisition.

During the antediluvian period, and up to the date
of the dispersion, " the whole earth was of one language
and of one speech." The descendants of Noah had
settled in Babylon, and probably in other countries
distant from Canaan. In Egypt, which was contigu-
ous to Canaan, the tongue of the Patriarchs would seem
to have been continued; for when Abraham visited
that country, Pharaoh and the people understood and
spoke the same language with him. The same is im-
plied also in the intercourse of Jacob, Joseph, Moses,
and others with subsequent kings. Whether the Egyp-
tians wrote the Hebrew language then, or at any pe-
riod, is not now known. Job, however, who is sup-
posed to have been contemporary with Abraham, wrote
it, and in a style not inferior to that of Moses. Pro-
bably others did the same long anterior to the use of
hieroglyphs; and it is certain that the Egyptians used
alphabetic writing — the epistolic — contemporaneously
with their use of hieroglyphs.

Prior to the dispersion, all the inhabitants of the earth
were of one language and of one speech — literally, were

72 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

of one lip and one word — had one mode of articulation,
and spoke the same words. The confusion of tongues
which ensued was, probably, the effect of such a change
in the articulation of the words previously common to
them all, as to cause various and to different parties,
unintelligible pronunciations. This, as the tribes and
families were dispersed and " scattered abroad upon
the face of all the earth," would result in a diversity of
languages, differing more or less widely from each
other, in vocal sound, in orthography, and in the al-
phabetic letters, syllables, and words, or other chiro-
graphic characters. This would involve nothing like
the origination of any new language ; but only changes
in that which preexisted. Those who lived at the pe-
riod of the dispersion knew the signification of the
words previously in use, and either continued to use
the same with a different pronunciation, or others in
place of them with the same meaning, but so different
in sound when spoken, and in orthography and chiro-
graphic characters when written, as to make it a differ-
ent language, which, being taught to their children,
would be perpetuated.

Thus the variety of languages which immediately
ensued upon the dispersion would naturally result with-
out the otherwise necessary lapse of years, or ages, for
a new invention. The subsequent changes, like that
from ancient to modern Greek, and from Latin to Ital-
ian, are not such as to require the supposition that any
new or original language has ever been devised by man,
And, accordingly, no historical notice exists of any
people without a language, or of any people that ori-
ginated one ; though in every, language particular

OF THE HOLY B0BIFTUBE3. 73

words arc dropped from use, new words are introduced,
and the signification of some words has undergone a
partial or a total change. And it deserves to be re-
marked, as strongly implying the origin of all the dif-
ferent languages from one primitive stock, that the al-
phabets of the different nations not only resemble each
other, but, for the most part, are the same with the
Hebrew in respect to the order, power, and even the
forms of the letters.

The fact that in all languages the letters are nearly
the same, while the sounds are different, coincides with
the supposition that the confusion of tongues resulted
from a change of pronunciation.

There are some three thousand languages spoken on
the earth, between which there is so much of resem-
blance and affinity as to induce the conclusion that
they are all varieties of one original tongue. In ortho-
epy and orthography they greatly differ ; and it is strik-
ing to observe to what an extent the difference in these
respects is in accordance with the natural effects of cli-
mate, employments, and the predominant objects of
thought. In the torrid zone, where the vocal organs
are highly and uniformly flexible, the language is soft,
melodious, and surcharged with vowels. In colder
zones, and increasingly towards the polar regions, it is
harsh and guttural. By the effect of climate, of expos-
ure, of new employments, and of new objects of atten-
tion, it may well be supposed that the vocal organs and
utterances of families and tribes that migrated in any
direction at and after the dispersion recorded in Gene-
sis, were sufficiently affected to account for the varie-
ties not caused by that event.
3

74 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

The fact that foreign words are adopted and incor-
porated with our language is in evidence that words
are simply the vehicle and representative of thought.
For they are adopted not as signifying things, or as
sounds to which we may assign a meaning, but solely
for the sake of the thoughts which they convey.
Hence, as nearly as possible, words entire, in their pre-
vious form and sound, are transferred by those who
know the thoughts which they express, and who can
not so soon or so well express the same thoughts by
new -coined words of different form and sound. Thus,
in our version of the Scriptures many Hebrew and
Greek words are transferred, because they expressed
thoughts which could not be perfectly conceived or ex-
pressed in any existing English words. Being trans-
ferred, and by usage being understood as conveying
the thoughts which they expressed in the original
tongues, it would be easy to show, and is indeed obvious,
that no substitution of English, or other words, could
now be made perfectly to express the same thoughts.

There is in Pritchard's Physiology a very forcible
argument to show that the Hebrew was the parent of
the Semitic tongues, and as compared with the other
dialects of that family, and still more, as compared
with the languages of the Japhetic and other races, ex-
hibits proofs that it was not, as they evidently were,
the growth of accidental and gradual accretion, that its
very framework displays a deep conception and design,
in its dissyllabic roots, of which the three consonants
express the abstract meaning — the essential or leading
sense or import, while all the relations of ideas to past
and future time, to personal agency or passion, the pos-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 75

sible or real, and even the differences of nouns and
verbs, are denoted by changes in the interior vowels,
which the words themselves were obviously intended
in their original formation or construction to undergo :
a contrivance which implies a conception and previous
contemplation of all that words, when invented, can
be thought capable of expressing !

Now since, from a comparison of the several ancient
languages the inference is unavoidable that the Hebrew
was the primeval tongue, and since that has in its struc-
ture certain proofs of perfection and of design which are
wanting to the other tongues, and is free from the im-
perfections which characterize them, it is a just conclu-
sion that the Hebrew was a gift to man at his creation,
and not a product in any degree of his contrivance, or
of that of any of his descendants.

The knowledge and use of words then, was imparted
to the primitive pair as an endowment no less neces-
sary to man as a thinking and social being, than light
was to his seeing, and sound to his hearing. But since
words, as the instruments of thinking, and vehicle of
thought, consist of syllables and letters, the earliest
writing is most likely to have been by means of alpha-
betic characters, as corresponding most perfectly to the
sounds of letters and syllables and their combinations,
to the organic succession of thoughts, and to the indis-
pensable rules of grammar. Moreover, the primitive
language, like other primeval endowments, may safely
be presumed to have been perfect ; and therefore, as it
was alphabetic, that the earliest chirographic represent-
ations of it, were made in alphabetic characters, which
arc in every respect more perfect than picture writing,

76 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

hieroglyphs, or unsyllabic marks. This, taking the
Hebrew, in the absence of all evidence to the contrary,
and all but positive demonstration in its favor, to have
baen the primeval tongue, is confirmed by the fact that
all the proper names recorded by Moses as of antedilu-
vian appropriation, are purely Hebraic ; while the
most ancient writings, those of Job, and Moses, are in
the alphabetic characters of that language. And
though imagined by some, to have been otherwise than
copious in words, that language must be acknowledged
to have been far more affluent and various than all the
systems of picture writing, hieroglyphs, and unsyllabic
marks put together ; especially with reference to the
great themes to which it is applied.

All the difficulties which philosophers and theorists
have conjured up on this subject, are founded in the
fanciful assumptions above mentioned — that the race
was originally launched upon its career, in a condition
of infantile ignorance and barbarism, and that the first
step in the invention of language, was made, in some
quarters, by picture writing, in others, by hieroglyphs,
and in still others, by unsyllabic marks. The first of
these assumptions, as has been shown, is at war with
the Sacred Kecord. The others imply, what is absurd,
that men in their efforts to invent language, attempted
to communicate their thoughts to each other by pic-
tures, hieroglyphs, and marks, before they conversed
by vocally uttering their thoughts in words. Whereas
• it is not more certain that they think in words, than
that they must possess words prior to such thinking as
they aim to represent by pictures, hieroglyphs, and
marks. But if they have words, and employ them as

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 77

the vehicle of their thoughts, they have the power
which none ever failed to exercise, of expressing them
by the voice in advance of any species of writing.
And since words are alphabetic and syllabic, the first,
most natural, and most perfect mode of representing
them on paper, must needs have been by alphabetic
characters.

In the nature of the case, therefore, picture writing
is an evidence of the greatest paucity of words, and
equally an evidence of extreme ignorance and degene-
racy. Hieroglyphs and non-alphabetic marks, imply
the same things in a less degree, and alphabetic cha-
racters in a far less degree than either. And that such
was the course of things, and the relative place of these
several methods, is evident from the facts, that the
Mexicans were in the use of a spoken language con-
temporaneously with their use of pictures; that the
Egyptians had a spoken language shortly after the dis-
persion, and prior, no doubt, to their use of hiero-
glyphs ; and that the Chinese have a spoken, as well
as a non-alphabetic written language. And it may,
without hesitation, be concluded, that the Mexicans
had recourse to pictures, and the Chinese to arbitrary
marks, because of their ignorance of any alphabet ;
and that the Egpptians employed hieroglyphs either
for the same reason, or for purposes of secresy. For
to suppose any race or class of people to have in use a
spoken language, commensurate, as of course it would
be, to all their thoughts, and then to suppose them to
invent, as a means of recording their thoughts, a sys-
tem of hieroglyphs which, according to the theory here
opposed, stood for things and not for words, and which

78 THE PLENAEY INSPIRATION

on any view could have represented but a part of what
was expressed in their articulate language, implies
either that they had no knowledge of any alphabet, or
that their object was concealment.

Language, as the instrument of thought, being an
original gift from the Creator, and commensurate in
copiousness and significance, with the thoughts to be
expressed, and as perfect as the faculties of seeing and
hearing, would doubtless have continued without
change, had man continued in his primeval state. The
scriptural is the only historical, and the only rational
account we have of the occasion of its becoming cor-
rupt. To the rebellious conduct of fallen man, the
confusion of speech and the consequent variety of dis-
similar tongues is directly ascribed ; and to the depra-
vity and wickedness of man all the perversions and
corruptions of language are to be traced.

To the preceding observations concerning the origin
of language, and the Hebrew as the primeval tongue,
it is in point to refer to the knowledge and use of lan-
guage by angelic beings. That those intelligences have
the faculty of speech, is shown both in the Old and
New Testaments, by numerous records of what they
said. They spoke the same language as the men whom
they addressed, or who heard their voices ; and often
concerning things not within their own experience or
previous knowledge, and which required words which
they could not have invented. The patriarchs, pro-
phets, and others under the ancient dispensation, un-
derstood them. The language which they used, was
the same with that which Moses spoke and wrote, in
respect to vocal sounds, articulation, and significance.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 79

lie quotes their words, represents that their voices
were heard, and their meaning understood. In the
New Testament, their words are quoted in the Greek
tongue, in which, in the Apocalypse, they are repre-
sented as uniting with the redeemed, and the unfallen
hosts in heaven, in doxologies and hymns of praise.
They were bearers of Divine messages to men, inter-
preters of prophetic symbols — see Daniel and Bevela-
tion — and exercised a ministry towards the heirs of
salvation, which required the knowledge and use of
words.

In every view of the case, it is plain, that had not
language been a primeval gift, no intercourse could
have taken place between man and his Creator, till the
mute and helpless infant, forced by his physical neces-
sities, had performed a transcendent and unrivalled
wonder, by inventing words whereby both to give ut-
terance to his own thoughts, and to receive divine in-
struction. But even then, the pressure of physical
wants would not have prompted the invention of words
for which he had no answerable thoughts — words ex-
pressive of what he was to believe concerning Grod, and
what duties were required of him — words as necessa-
rily to be inspired into his mind by the Author of his
being, as the thoughts conveyed by revelation con-
cerning things not within the observation of his senses.
The fact, therefore, that Divine revelations are made
in words, and convey thoughts which man is utterly
incompetent to discover, demonstrates that language
was not of man's invention.

The theories of Harris, (Hermes,) Monboddo, Astle,
and others, who assume that man was as speechless as

80 TIIE PLENARY INSPIRATION

an infant, till he invented a language for himself, ac-
cordingly involve, in respect to all the details of his
progress, the most preposterous suppositions. For
those theories, notwithstanding that they contemplate
man as continuing in his infantile condition of ignor-
ance and helplessness up to the time of his success in
the invention of language, nevertheless suppose him to
have foreseen the fitness and competency of words to
enable him to distinguish different things and express
different thoughts ; which implies as much intelligence
and discernment concerning the powers of letters, their
organic formation, the combination of them in the
formation of syllables, and of syllables in the forma-
tion of words, and all that belongs to the {mrts of
speech and the relations of the words required to form
intelligible sentences, as he would have after he had
completed his invention ; and, indeed, as much think-
ing and as real a knowledge of words beforehand, as
it was the object of his invention to supply. But when
the infant had invented letters, articulation, syllables,
words, and grammar, he would have accomplished no-
thing to his purpose — according to these theories — till
he had assembled a convention of all the infants of his
time, to discuss what he had done and to agree on the
meaning to be affixed to the respective words of his
vocabulary. On the assumption that such a conven-
tion of mute imbeciles was held, to affix a meaning to
sounds before they employed them as words, it might
be reasonable to conclude that they woidd pass resolu-
tions in the very terms employed by the writers above
referred to — whose theories to that extent, may have a
claim to be respected: such as, that " articulate voices

OF THE HOLY SCKIPTURES. 81

are the first advances towards the formation of lan-
guage." And that, " It being difficult to convey new
ideas by sounds alone, and man being by nature imi-
tative, therefore, an invention of writing is necessary."
And at that stage of their progress they would be
likely to resolve that pictures would in the nature of
things, be the most perfect kind of writing, because
pictures would naturally stand for things themselves,
and visibly represent them.

The notion that man commenced his career in an
infantile state, and slowly groped his way to the use of
speech, in a condition far inferior, as it must have been
to that of animals, with their natural instincts, and
their sensational language, has assisted to give a color
of plausibility to the no less preposterous notion, that
on account of his ignorance and barbarism, Divine
revelations were so long deferred, and then given at in-
tervals, as by his progress in knowledge and civiliza-
tion he became prepared to receive them ; a notion
which implies that, until he had prepared himself by
the invention of language, to receive a revelation, he
had no moral character, and was subject to no moral
government ; that the Creator had no claims upon him
as an accountable creature, and took no measures to
instruct, assist, or restrain him. "What the first reve-
lations might have been upon this theory, or of what use
they could have been till they embraced every thing-
essential to be known by man, in order to his faith and
obedience, no one can tell. The bare statement of a
supposition that the Creator made a revelation to the
first man, or to any of his descendants, which did not
convey the essential truths to be believed, and enjoin
4*

82 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

the essential duties to be performed, is sufficient to re-
fute it. Any thing short of that, would be as incon-
sistent with the character of the Being to be worship-
ped and obeyed, as with the relations, necessities, and
duties of man. If as a creature naturally ignorant,
yet rational and responsible, man needed a revelation,
he needed it as urgently at the outset of his existence
as at any later period ; and if there were reasons why
the Divine goodness should at any period teach him
what it was essential to him to know, and what he
could not otherwise learn, those reasons must have
been as imperative at the beginning, as at any subse-
quent stage of his existence.

Closely allied to the notion above referred to, that
revelations from the Creator depended upon man's prior
invention of language and improvement in civilization,
is the no less absurd notion that man was left, in his
natural state as a creature, to discover the doctrines and
practise the duties of natural religion, as well as to in-
vent a language. But whoever considers what natural
religion is — that it involves right apprehensions of the
nature and perfections of the Divine Being, and of our
relations to Him, and to one another, and enjoins cer-
tain duties towards Him, our fellow-creatures, and our-
selves, must be convinced that a discovery of its teach-
ings implies omniscience as truly as any thing con-
tained in the written Scriptures. Those teachings re-
quired not only to be correct, but to be authoritative,
and to be comprehensive and ample enough for the
guidance of men in their worship, in their social rela-
tions, and as subjects of the Divine Government. From
the nature of the case, therefore, whether men were

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 83

originally ignorant and barbarous or not, the conclu-
sion is unavoidable, that those teachings never origi-
nated with them, but were imparted by the omniscient
Creator and Kulcr of men. They accordingly com-
prise nothing which is not more clearly taught in the
written Scriptures. Having been imparted to the pro-
genitors of the race when called to act in their prime-
val relations, and having been, with many added truths
concerning the fallen condition of the race, familiar to
Noah and his contemporaries, they have been preserved
even among pagans, with more or less distinctness,
down to the present day. To those to whom the writ-
ten Scriptures were not imparted, the truths of natural
religion handed down by tradition from age to age,
have, in proportion as they have been retained, formed
the rule of natural conscience, and the sanction of na-
tural law and government. The superadded and pe-
culiar teachings of the written Scriptures, relate not to
man in his original and natural state, but to his altered
and peculiar character and exigencies as a fallen crea-
ture, and to the method of his recovery ; so that they
contain all the earlier oral revelations which belong to
natural religion, and new revelations vouchsafed and
written from time to time, as the dispensations of the
redemptive scheme were carried forward.

If now we turn to the introductory portion of the
written word, which records the creation of man and
gives sketches of his history down to the exodus from
Egypt, we find in those brief recitals the doctrines and
injunctions of natural religion concerning God, and
concerning man in his personal, social, and civil rela-
tions, clearly recognized and expressed, in connection

84 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

with doctrines and predictions superadded to the pri-
meval and natural system, and relating to the method
of his redemption. We find that Adam received oral
instructions prior to his fall, and that after that event,
further communications were made personally to him,
to Abel, Enoch, Noah, and others ; and that Abraham
and other patriarchs were directly taught by the great
Kevealer, the peculiar truths of revealed, in distinction
from natural religion, so that their faith was the same,
and of like efficacy, with that of the apostles and fol-
lowers of Christ.

The reason, therefore, why it was at sundry times,
and in divers manners that God spake in times past to
the fathers by the prophets, and at a later period by
His Son, the Scriptures as written in successive por-
tions, was not founded in the nature or the primeval
condition of man, his original ignorance, his defect of
language, his barbarism, or in any thing concerning
his progress from infancy to a mature and cultivated
state and character. If a Divine Revelation was ever
to be made to him, he was as capable of receiving it at
one time as at any other ; for doubtless He who made
man's mouth, could put words into it at His pleasure.
And if the first chapters of Genesis were inspired, it is
past all question that Divine Revelations were made to
him before, and to him and his descendants immedi-
ately, and from time to time, after the fall. The insti-
tutions of the Sabbath day, and of marriage, those
concerning the means of subsistence, dominion over
inferior creatures, the conditions of continued residence
in Eden, the ritual of piacular sacrifices and of accept-
able faith, homage, and obedience — these were coeval

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 85

with the first clays and years of man's existence. In-
deed all such revelations, instructions, and institutions,
were then known, as were requisite to the formation
of some of the chief model characters of the Bible, as
signalized and held up for imitation in the New Testa-
ment ; as that of Abel, the second son of Adam, who
" obtained witness that he was righteous, God testify-
ing of his gifts, and who being dead, yet speaketh ;"
that of Enoch, a prophet, the seventh from Adam, who
" before his translation had this testimony, that he
pleased God ;" and that of Noah, the tenth from Adam,
who walked with God, and was an " heir of the right-
eousness which is by faith."

THE PLENAEY INSPIRATION

CHAPTER VI.

THE NATURE AND REALITY OF INSPIRATION ILLUS-
TRATED BY REFERENCES TO THE SCRIPTURES.

Both the reality and nature of Inspiration are
strikingly exhibited in the commencement of the
sacred volume. Of the first chapter of Genesis,
sixteen verses consist wholly or chiefly of what is
recorded as having been spoken by the Creator ;
twelve verses relate what was done by Him, and the
immediate effects of His acts; and the three remain-
ing verses merely record the occurrence of the success-
ive days. All the words of this chapter, equally with
those of them which are declared to have been spoken
by the Creator at the time, and as He proceeded with
the work of creation, must have been inspired into the
mind of Moses as he wrote them ; for otherwise he
could not possibly know what words had been so
spoken, or what particular things were done, or what
was the order and succession of the acts recorded.
And if Adam, as the subsequent narrative implies, un-
derstood those words, the knowledge of them must
have been conveyed to him by an immediate inspira-
tion of thoughts in words. For twenty-seven of the
verses relate to what was said and done prior to his

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 87

existence ; so that no being but the Creator Himself
could possibly, then or afterwards, impart to him or to
others, a knowledge of the sounds, or of the meaning
of those words. The three verses which succeed the
t w< nty-seventh are expressly addressed to him, and must
have been understood by him ; for they command him
to replenish and subdue the earth, and invest him with
dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air,
and every living thing that moveth on the earth ; and
instruct him as to the herbs and fruits which he was to
subsist on, and the herbs by which the inferior animals
were to be sustained. They express not only the
names of visible objects — as the earth, the sea, fish,
fowls, animals, trees, herbs, seeds, etc., but various acts
and conditions — blessing, fruitful, multiply, replenish,
subdue, dominion over, living, moving, creeping, bear-
ing, fruit, yielding, giving, life, living. Doubtless
when he first heard the sound of these words he must
have been enabled to comprehend the meaning of them
in the connections and relations in which they are re-
corded. They were spoken to him immediately after
he became a living soul. They prescribed to him
what he was to do, and what relation he was to sustain
to the inferior creation. He was created in the imago
of God, who announced before He created him that he
should have dominion over all the earth with its teem-
ing races. To suppose that the words were not audi
bly spoken, would be to deny the authenticity of the
record. To suppose that he did not understand them,
would be to impute folly to the Creator in speaking
them. To suppose that the thoughts expressed wore
conveyed to him without the words, would be to con-

88 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

tradict that law by which rational creatures are con-
scious of thinking and communicating their thoughts
to one another in words. But if the words were spoken,
and if Adam understood them, then he did not invent
the language, nor learn it by slow degrees like a child,
but, as an adult of mature faculties, was endowed with
a comprehensive and accurate knowledge of all the
words uttered in his hearing, and all that he had from
time to time occasion to use. The first words spoken
to him by the Creator, undoubtedly conveyed a defi-
nite and intelligible meaning, which on hearing the
vocal utterance, he could not mistake. In thinking of
that meaning afterwards, he would necessarily think in
the words which had been spoken ; for if those were the
first words uttered in his hearing, he could then have
had no knowledge of other and equivalent words. The
conveyance of the thoughts with the words into his
mind must have been equivalent in effect and in re-
spect to his faculties and his mode of receiving and be-
ing conscious of thoughts, to the conveyance of the
same thoughts and words into the mind of Moses, by
Inspiration.

Such accurate knowledge, on his part, of the sounds,
meanings, and uses of words, is indubitably evident
from the ensuing narrative, in the second and third
chapters, where among other things, are recorded the
apostasy of man and the consequences of it, which are
attested by all history — the sin, which brought death,
degradation, and misery in its train, and gave occasion
to the subsequent revelations, to the work of redemp-
tion, and to the institutions of religion.

That Adam clearly understood the terms of the pro-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 89

hibition which he transgressed, the meaning of the
words spoken to him after his transgression, the curse
pronounced upon the earth, the denunciation of sorrow,
toil, and death upon himself, the reason of his expul-
sion from the garden, and the words which in his
altered condition, he then employed for the first time,
must undoubtedly be admitted, or the whole record
must be rejected as a fable, and the historical and ac-
tual condition of the race must be regarded as an inex-
plicable mystery.

In like manner, in the fourth chapter, the words
spoken by Jehovah to Cain, are shown to have been
correctly understood by him, by the words which he
uttered in reply ; though from the peculiarity of the
matters referred to, most of the words employed on the
occasion, must have been spoken then for the first time.

It is reasonable to suppose that the earliest descend-
ants of Adam were instructed by him in respect to the
sounds and significations of all the words brought to
his knowledge ; and that as new subjects and occasions
arose in the experience of particular individuals, de-
manding the use of new words, the requisite knowledge
of them was imparted. This accordingly is indicated
in numerous instances. Thus Enoch, the seventh from
Adam, prophesied of times and events long future,
" Saying," as quoted by Jude, " Behold the Lord
cometh with ten thousand of his saints," etc., using
words, doubtless which he neither learned from his con-
temporaries, nor invented himself. Noah received
particular verbal revelations concerning the Deluge
and the Ark, in words for which there had been no pre-
vious occasion, but which he was enabled to under-

90 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

stand. So with Abraham, Moses, and the prophets.
When Moses objected to being sent to Pharaoh to
deliver the messages of Jehovah, that he was slow of
speech and not a man of words, "Jehovah said unto
him, Who hath made man's mouth ? — go and I will be
with thj mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say —
and thou shalt speak unto Aaron, and put words into
his mouth, and I will be with thy mouth, and with his
mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do — and
thou shalt be to him instead of God." The method of
revelations, and of imparting the knowledge of words,
is thus illustrated. The verbal communications were
to be made by Jehovah to Moses, and by Moses to
Aaron.

Besides the great facts, doctrines, commands, promises,
and predictions of the Bible which are expressed in the
words of the Revealer, and together constitute the larger
part of the inspired Scriptures, there are numerous in-
stances of particular verbal directions respecting the con-
duct of individuals, classes, and communities of men,
under novel circumstances, and when charged with new
and peculiar duties. Thus, particular verbal directions
were repeatedly given to Abaham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses,
Joshua, David, and many others, which to a greater or
less extent undoubtedly required words not previously
known to them, but which it was necessary that they
should comprehend. The entire ritual of the Levitical
service was detailed to Moses in words, and by liim
written out for the guidance of the Priests, the Levites,
and the congregation. All the details concerning the
form, dimensions, materials, workmanship, and furni-
ture of the Tabernacle, were in like manner verbally

OF THE HOLY SCEIPTURES. 91

expressed to Moses and written down by him. Those
details involved the use of a great variety of new
words ; to understand which, so as to execute the sev-
eral parts of the work, in exact conformity with the
directions, 'wisdom, understanding, and knowledge,
were imparted by the Spirit of God, to Bezaleel and
Aholiab, in particular, and to every wise-hearted man,
in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom,' to execute
what was prescribed. At the close of these instruc-
tions— Exod. 25-31 — Jehovah gave to Moses " two
tables of stone, written with the finger of God." " The
writing was the writing of God, graven upon the two
tables."

That alphabetic writing was then in use among the
Hebrews, and was understood by the people generally,
may be gathered, not only from this example, in which
the vocal sounds uttered from Mount Sinai in their
hearing, were represented in writing on the Tables for
general and permanent use, but from earlier notices.
At the close of the laws and ordinances which were
proclaimed from Sinai — Exod. 20-24 — Moses, it is
said, " wrote all the words of the Lord." In chap.
17 : 14, The Lord said to Moses, " Write this for a memo-
rial in a book." The Signet of Judah, mentioned
Gen. 38, was, doubtless, like other signets, engraved,
and bore, at least, the initials of his name ; by which
its ownership was determined. — See Exod. 28 and 39.
The expressions of Job, chap. 19 : 23, 24 : "Oh! that my
words were now written — that they were graven with
an iron pen — in the rock forever" — imply the use of
writing in the patriarchal age, of which, indeed, the
Book of Job itself is a notable evidence. And the

92 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

word translated Book, Gen. 5 : 1, indicates by its use
elsewhere, that the genealogy was recorded at the time
referred to.

Again : the minute description 1 Chron. 28, of the
temple to be erected by Solomon, and of the materials
of all its furniture, is an instance of the introduction
of new words by inspiration. David gave to Solomon
the patterns of all that " he had by the Spirit, of the
courts," and in "all this, said David"' — after specifying
the particulars — "the Lord made me understand in writ-
ing, by His hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern."
Probably he immediately wrote down the details, as
the Spirit inspired the words of the description into
his mind and moved him to write.

These examples are in accordance with the earliest
intimations in secular history respecting the use of
words : namely, that they represented through the eye,
when written, the vocal sounds audibly enunciated as
expressions of thought. When a word was written, it
was that to the eye which articulate sound was to the
ear ; and articulate sound was to the ear what the word
unspoken was to the mind, as the instrument of
thought.

Hence the order in which thinking, speaking, and
the several kinds of writing succeeded each other.
First : learning the sounds and meanings of words by
hearing. Second: consciously thinking in words. Third:
the articulate vocal utterance of words. Fourth : the
writing of the words in alphabetic characters. Fifth :
the representation of them by significant acts. Sixth :
the representation of them by unsyllabic marks and
hieroglyphs ; and Seventh : by pictorial representations.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 93

Man, as created, was perfect. But without the power
of articulate speech, he would be no more perfect as an
intelligent being, than animals would be without eyes
and ears. His mind was so constituted that he can
think ; and his vocal organs were so constituted that
he can speak. But he can no more think, except in
words, than he can articulate intelligible words which
express no thoughts. lie was so constituted as to re-
ceive thoughts in words, by hearing, by reading, and
by inspiration — to be conscious of them — to remember
them — to express by vocal articulation the words re-
ceived— to conceive thoughts in words, and by speak-
ing and writing to convey them to others. But origi-
nally, as now, words were prerequisite to his conception
of thoughts ; his first words and thoughts, therefore,
must have been imparted to him by inspiration.

When we open our eyes upon an object, a tree, for
example, a perfect daguerreotype of it is depicted on
the retina, with which the mind is in immediate con-
tact. That reflected image is an indispensable condi-
tion of perception by sight. When we hear the name of
the object there is an impression on the tympanum,
equivalent in effect to the image on the retina. When,
without seeing it or hearing its name, we think of the
object, the intellectual conception is embodied in the
word by which it is named — the articulate vocal sound
which had vibrated on the ear. When we write or
read the name, the same intellectual effect results as
from the visual image on the retina, and the vocal
articulation combined.

Thus the senses are organically instrumental to the
cogitations of the intellect. But inasmuch as we are

94 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

not conscious of the image depicted on the retina, and
therefore, though it be in immediate contact with the
mind, we can not recall it by memory ; and inasmuch
as sight depends on the presence of light and of visible
objects, which conditions are often wanting ; it is not
by that image that the intellect conceives thoughts, but
by words, of which we are conscious, which we re-
member, and which, when we speak or write, convey
our thoughts to others. The act of thinking, accord-
ingly, both in adults and in children, involves a pre-
vious knowledge and recollection of words — words
learned by oral or literary instruction, or received by
inspiration — as the medium and instrument of thought.
We see things indeed, but seeing is not thinking. "We
think of what we see in the words which describe it.
When we see a new object — a plant or an animal — of
which we neither know the nature nor the name, we
think of it in words which assign it to some class or
species, or words which describe it as unknown, and
merely signify our ignorance.

Illustrations of the nature and reality of Divine In-
spiration, similar to those which have been adduced,
might easily be cited, were it deemed to be necessary,
from every part of the writings of the Prophets and of
the Apostles and Evangelists.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 95

CHAPTER VII.

THE INSPIRATION OF THE WORDS OF SCRIPTURE INTO
THE MINDS OF THE SACRED WRITERS EXPRESSLY
TAUGHT BY THEM — THEIR STYLES AND IDIOMS — THE
PERSONAL TEACHINGS OF MESSIAH THE GREAT RE-
VEALER.

The great commission of our Lord to His Apostles,
enjoined them to teach to others only what He com-
manded. Go ye and teach all nations — to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you. (Matt. 28.)
But He had inculcated and prescribed His doctrines
and commands in words spoken to them ; and what
He now enjoins is equivalent to saying : Gro and teach
all nations all the words ye have heard from Me. Sub-
sequently, John 14, He promised them that the Holy
Spirit should teach them all things, and bring all things to
their remembrance, whatsoever He had spoken unto them.
But those things as spoken by Him included the words
which He uttered, and could not be brought to their
remembrance, or taught to others, disconnected from
the words. To the like effect, He said on another occa-
sion, John 12 : He that rejectelh Me, and receiveth not
Mi/ nords, hath one that judgelh him. The Word that I
have spoken, the same shall judge him in the hst day ;

96 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

which clearly implies, that the words as spoken by
Him and understood by the people, correctly and per-
fectly expressed and conveyed to them His meaning,
His thoughts, doctrines, commands : and equally, when
His words, taught by the Holy Spirit, brought to their
remembrance, inspired into their minds, and spoken,
or written by them, and when as written they are
preached by His ministers to the end of the world.
Again, Luke 10, He that heareth you heareth Me. That
is, he that heareth you, heareth My words spoken by
you, which correctly express My thoughts. From all
which we may gather, that whenever the Spirit in-
spired into the minds of the Apostles different words
from those which are recorded as having been spoken
by Christ to express the same thoughts, they are no
less His words than if they had been so recorded. It
was the office of the Holy Spirit to convey His words
to them by inspiration. When He, the Spirit of Truth,
is come, He will guide you into all truth ; for He shall
not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear that
shall He speak. (John 14.) Accordingly they were ad-
monished, when persecuted and brought before magis-
trates— Take no thought beforehand what ye shall
speak, neither do ye premeditate, but whatsoever shall
be given you in that hour, that speak ye ; for it is not
ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. Mark 13. — The
Holy Ghost shall teach you, in the same hour, what ye
ought to say. Luke 12. — It is not ye that speak, but
the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you. Matt.
10. — I will give you a mouth and wisdom, etc. Luke
21. — The Holy Spirit was by their mouth to speak the
words of God, as we elsewhere read, that God hath

OF TIIE HOLY SCBIPTUBES. 97

spoken by the mouth of all His Holy prophets since the
world began. (Acts 3. Luke 1.)

This inspiration of words was realized by the Ajjos-
tles in preaching and testifying the Gospel. They
spoke, not in words of their own selection, not in (fie
words which man's wisdom leacheth, but in the words
ivhich die Holy Ghost teacheth. (1 Cor. 2.) This general
declaration imports that the words which they spoke
in preaching were on all occasions the words of God
inspired into their minds. Thus, on the day of Pente-
cost, they spake as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2.)
The things which had been spoken by Christ, and
which were to be brought to their remembrance by the
Spirit, must have been recalled by inspiration ; for
they were originally spoken in Syriac, whereas they
were written, and therefore must have been inspired in
Greek.

From the foregoing observations we gather that In-
spiration comprised a correct conception of the mean-
ing, the form, and the sound of the words in which the
thoughts imparted were conveyed ; the words being
necessary to a consciousness of the thoughts, their
sound to a vocal enunciation, and their form to a re-
presentation of them by writing.

Such, obviously, must have been the case with re-
spect to prophecies, instructions, and announcements,
when first imparted by inspiration. And such must
necessarily have been the case with whatever was in-
spired and written or spoken; for the writers could
not be conscious of the thoughts independently of the
words, nor write the words without knowing their
form, anymore than they could speak them without

98 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

knowing their sound. Accordingly those upon whom
the gift of tongues was bestowed, spoke as the Spirit
gave them utterance, the words which were inspired
into their minds, and of which they clearly understood
the meaning and the sound. But their utterance of
those words conveyed no thoughts to hearers of a differ-
ent language, till they were interpreted into equivalent
words of their language, of which they knew the mean-
ing, the sound, and the form, so that they possessed
them as the vehicle of the thoughts, and could speak
them, write them, and recall them to remembrance.
(1 Cor. 14.)

This view of the nature and mode of Inspiration,
the process by which the Scriptures, the words written,
were given by inspiration of God, obviates the objec-
tion sometimes made, that the difference between the
style of one sacred writer from that of another implies
that the respective penmen were left to select their own
words. They were not all qualified by education and
other endowments to comprehend, think, speak, and
write in the same words ; and therefore words suited
to their education and capacity, words in which they
could readily conceive, and be conscious of the thoughts
intended to be expressed, were inspired into their
minds ; into some, words of an ornate and poetical cast,
and into others the plainest and most simple words in
common use. This objection, as is elsewhere observed,
•proceeds upon the groundless assumption that Inspira-
tion is affirmed of the writers, instead of that which
they wrote — the Scripture, the words written.

In respect to these particulars, there appears no
ground of difference between the mode in which revela-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 99

tions were made to men by inspiration, and the mode
in which the knowledge of particular facts or truths
is communicated by one man to another. Should a
learned and eloquent man impart such knowledge to a
man of similar learning and eloquence, he would em-
ploy words suited to his education and style of speak-
ing ; and if to a man of but ordinary gifts and attain-
ments, he would employ only common and simple
words. But he could not in either case impart such
knowledge by conveying his thoughts into another's
mind disconnected from their appropriate words, or
visible signs equivalent to words. He must speak or
write the words in which he thinks, by which he is
conscious of the thoughts to be imparted, and by means
of which they are retained in his memory. So a short
but very important portion of the Scriptures, after
having been audibly spoken to the whole congregation
of Israel, was written on tablets of stone by the finger
of God. A very large portion, comprising all that
could not be discovered by man, and much besides
which could not have been within the personal know-
ledge of the writers, is recorded in the very words which
had been spoken by the Divine Revealer.

With respect to the diverse styles of the sacred pen-
men, it may be observed :

1. That the marked differences in their styles, cor-
respond to the differences in the education, literary
qualifications, employments, and habits of thought and
expression, of the different writers. Some were priests,
trained in the Levitical schools, and familiar with the
sacred writings of their times, and with all the doc-
trines and services of their religion. Some were ex-

100 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

pressly educated to be prophets ; others were magis-
trates and kings, endowed with the various knowledge
and culture required by their official stations. And some
were men taken from the secular walks of life, and
furnished only with the ordinary education which their
stations and pursuits required. Thus of the prophets,
Amos was from among the herdmen. " I was no pro-
phet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an
herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit." (Chap. 7.)
And of the Evangelists, Matthew was a tax-gatherer,
and Peter a fisherman. On the other hand, Moses was
learned in all the wisdom of Egypt. David, Solomon,
and Isaiah were amply endowed with various know-
ledge and with the gifts of eloquence and poetry, and
Paul was skilled in the Greek and Hebrew learning of
his day.

2. Those provisions in the constitution of man by
which we think, are conscious of, and remember and
express our thoughts, in words, imply that the same
process takes place in the inspiration of Divine truths
into the mind, as in the communication of divine or
other truths from one human mind to another ; that is,
in conjunction with and by the instrumentality of
words. The sacred writers were undoubtedly conscious
of the thoughts which were inspired into their minds,
and which they expressed in words by writing ; and
if the laws of the human mind, in respect to percep-
tion and consciousness, were not suspended by the
inspiration of thoughts into their minds, they could
have been conscious of the inspired thoughts only in
words.

3. It was therefore necessary to their understanding

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 101

and comprehending the thoughts of which they were
conscious, that they should be inspired in words which
by their education, tastes, habits, employments, and
official stations, were known and familiar to them ; for
they could not intelligently comprehend and be con-
scious of the thoughts any farther than they under-
stood and were conscious of the words.

4. Accordingly, there are similar differences in the
styles of what is recorded by the different writers, as
having been audibly spoken by the Divine Kevealer,
as in the styles of the historical narratives or other
matter connected with what was spoken ; from which
it is apparent that words equally within the knowledge
and familiar use of the writers, were employed in both
cases.

5. The reason, consequently, why the styles of the
different writers, differ from each other, arises not from
the fact that what they wrote was inspired, nor from
the nature or mode of inspiration, nor yet from the
nature of the subjects to which the inspired thoughts
relate ; but wholly from the circumstance that the
thoughts conveyed must necessarily be inspired in
words familiar to the writers, because they could re-
ceive, understand, and be conscious of the inspired
thoughts only in words which were previously known
and familiar to them. Accordingly it happens, both
in the prophets and the evangelists, that in some in
stances the same thoughts are expressed by different
writers in different words, and in other instances in the
same words. In short, conformably to the constitu-
tion of the mind and the laws of thought and conscious-
ness, the same thing appears to have happened, so far

102 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

as the style is concerned, which would have taken
place had the inspired thoughts been conveyed from
one human being to another, or had they been the
thoughts uninspired of the respective writers.

This may be illustrated by reference to the Gospels
and the writers of them. 1st. There ia satisfactorjr
evidence that they were written at successive periods
in the order in which they are now arranged. 2d.
There is evidence, also, that the successive writers,
after Matthew, were familiar with what their predeces-
sors had written. 3d. Each G-ospel contains many
things not contained in either of the others, and omits
many things as likely to have been known to the re-
spective writers as those which they insert. 4th. The
omissions and additions are alike indicative of the pe-
culiarities of character, education, and pursuits or em-
ployments of the respective writers, and of the descrip-
tion of readers which they appear to have had im-
mediately in view. Thus Matthew records what was
peculiarly suitable to the Jews during the earliest
period of the new dispensation ; beginning with the
genealogy of Jesus, the Christ, giving a minute account
of his nativity, and of the ministry of John the Bap-
tist ; relating those acts and miracles of Christ which
had been predicted of him, and quoting the prophecies
of the previous dispensation, in proof of his Messiah-
ship. At the same time, his marked Hebraic idioms,
his grouping of kindred subjects together without re-
gard to their chronological order, and other peculiari-
ties, distinguish his style from that of the other Evan-
gelists. Considering his personal character, therefore,
and the immediate objects of the Grospel first to be

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 103

published, it is sufficiently obvious, that, out of the
great mass of facts, discourses, miraculous cure3, para-
bles, narratives, and predictions which transpired, and
were to be recorded by one or other of the Evangelists,
those which were specially selected, and inspired into
his mind, to be written by him, were such only as the
occasion immediately required, and were inspired in
words, idioms, and phrases, suitable to his peculiar
habit and style of thinking.

Mark appears to have had more previous literary
culture and various knowledge, than Matthew, and to
have written with a view to Greek and other Gentile
readers. His Gospel, while it contained the facts and
doctrines essentially necessary to be known by such
readers, supposing them to have been ignorant of its
predecessor, had, for the Jews, the requisites of a sup-
plement to Matthew's. It omits the genealogies, and cer-
tain of the parables and other matters which were of
special significance to the Jews. While, on the other
Ikii id, it specifies individuals by their names, and ex-
plains many things more circumstantially and minutely
than its precursor. Its style, as compared with that of
Matthew, is precise, laconic, and abrupt.

Luke, the beloved physician, must be recognized as
a Greek of an accurate, logical, and comprehensive
mind, systematically trained in the learning of his
time, and of his profession, and writing for his own
class of Gentiles as well as for the readers of all time.
The peculiarities of his style — writing as he did, not as a
personal witness of what he relates, but as an historian —
as well as of his topics, illustrations, and medical allu-
sions, are, like the peculiarities of the subjects and style

101 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

of John, apparent to every reader as in striking contrast
to wliat liad been written by Matthew and Mark. Even
wliere they severally mention the same events or sayings^
there is often a different collocation of words, a greater
or less degree of amplification or particularity, or a
diversity in some other respect without disparagement
of the scope and meaning of the thoughts expressed,
yet plainly indicating that what each of them was in-
spired to write, was inspired into his mind in his own
accustomed style and phraseology, and that the topics
were selected by the Omniscient Spirit with reference
to the immediate and special objects of the respective
Gospels.

If what the Evangelists were to utter in their preach-
ing, and when brought before magistrates, was to be
in the words of the Holy Ghost speaking in them, how
much more when they wrote for the infallible guidance
of the faith and life of the Church in after ages ? If
when they preached and testified, the inspired words
which they uttered were of their accustomed and fa-
miliar style, and therefore adapted to the usage and
comprehension of their hearers, what wonder can there
be that the same peculiarities of style should mark
their writings ? If the thoughts they were to express
by vocal utterance were inspired into their minds in
words already common and familiar, why should not
the thoughts they were to express in writing be inspired
into their minds in the same words ? If the thoughts
were inspire! in ivords, which is the only inspiration
indicated in the Scriptures, or which can be defined
and shown to be consistent with the intelligent exercise
and consciousness of men's minds, they must have been

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 105

inspired in words which, in style and idiom, were natu-
ral and familiar to the writers. And the significance
of the foregoing interrogatories becomes pointed and
resistless, when it is considered that the words of Christ
Himself, as expressly quoted by the Evangelists, are
marked by the same colloqual peculiarities as those
which are recorded in immediate connection with
them.

There was the same reason why the thoughts which
were inspired into the minds of the sacred writers
should be inspired in words and idioms to which, by
education and habit, they were accustomed, as why
they should be inspired in a tongue known to the re-
spective penmen : and not in a tongue previously un-
known both to them and to those for whom their
writings were immediately intended; namely, that
what they wrote might be immediately and perfectly
understood. Had Jehovah spoken to the patriarchs,
to Moses, to the children of Israel, and to the prophets,
in any other than the words, phrases, and peculiar
idioms in common use, he would have been but little,
if any better, understood, than if he had spoken in a
tongue foreign to his hearers : and so, also, had Christ
spoken in any other than the colloquial phrase and
manner in common use. It is a fact that the sacred
oracles are written in such words of human and fami-
liar use ; and if that is supposed to constitute an ob-
jection to their plenary verbal inspiration, it is obvi-
ously a far stronger objection to a suggestive, supervi-
sory, or other inspiration, which left the choice of words
in any degree to the discretion of men. For in the one
case the selection made by Omniscient Wisdom must

106 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

liave been such as infallibly to convey the meaning : while
in the other, as far as the writers exercised any discretion
in the choice of words, there must be fallibility and un-
certainty. To suppose them to have been so superin-
tended as to insure their selection of the best possible
words, those which would perfectly and infallibly con-
vey the thoughts intended to be expressed, is to sup-
pose nothing less than that the words which they wrote
were inspired into their minds to convey to them the
thoughts which they were to express in writing.

The penmen of the Holy Scriptures wrote what was
inspired into their minds to be written. Their volun-
tary and responsible agency in the matter was simply
that of penmen. What they wrote depended not on
them, either in respect to the matter, its truth or its
authority. They wrote as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost. The Spirit spake by them. They wrote
in their own characteristic styles, not merely because
they were not competent voluntarily and intelligently
to write in any other, but because, in order to their in-
telligent and voluntary agency in writing, and that
what they wrote might be readily and correctly under-
stood, the words, in the styles which characterize the
compositions, were inspired into their minds. The
thoughts were inspired in those words, in which they
were conscious of the thoughts, and which, of necessity,
therefore, they wrote.

Such plenary inspiration of the words which were
spoken and written by the Apostles, is evident both
from express declarations, and from the nature of their
office. The power of working miracles was not the
distinctive characteristic of their office. That power

OF THE HOLY BCMPTUBES. 107

was exercised on particular occasions, by men who
were not apostles. It was, by the imposition of their
hands, conferred on others. That which was peculiar
to their office, and which distinguished them as Apos-
tles, was, that invariably what they spoke and wrote
was Divinely inspired and infallible as the rule of
faith and life. Their teachings were, by virtue of this
plenary and infallible inspiration, of the same binding-
authority on all churches and for all time, as if they
had been audibly announced by their ascended Lord.
Therefore they spoke and wrote not in words of man's
wisdom or selection, but in the words which the Holy
Ghost taught them. Nothing short of this — God
speaking by them — could possibly render their teach-
ings, commands, and decisions binding on the con-
sciences of men. Nothing different from this could in-
vest their words with Divine authority, and constitute
them the infallible words of God.

It has been regarded by most writers as of extreme
difficulty to account for it, that the thoughts which
were previously known to the sacred writers, were
inspired, or needed to be inspired, into their minds at
the time when they recorded them ; which must have
taken place if all Scripture is given by inspiration.
"What necessity could there have been of a Divine in-
spiration of those thoughts into their minds, or of in-
spiring their minds to conceive those thoughts? If
they were already conscious of them, what more could
be necessary than that they should honestly commit
them to writing? And if in respect to those thoughts
a Divine inspiration took place, why were they inspi red
in the styles in which the writers were previously con-
scious of them?

108 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

This difficulty, we apprehend, arises altogether from
an erroneous view of the nature and subject of inspir-
ation; as if it were the- writers, instead of what they
■wrote, that was inspired. They wrote that, and only
that, which was inspired into their minds to be written ;
and equally, whether it was in part, or wholly, or in no
degree, known to them before. They must have
known innumerable things which they did not write ;
and things concerning the same subjects. It was not
necessary to the ends to be answered by the Scriptures,
that all the particulars known to them should be writ-
ten. The Inspiring Spirit selected such as were neces-
sary, omitting others. And in this He did precisely
what He would have done, had none of the things
been previously known to the writers, or within their
personal observation and experience : as in the case of
Moses, with respect to the entire retrospective history
contained in Genesis — not one of the things comprised
in that history could have been within his personal ob-
servation, or known to him, unless by oral tradition,
and without absolute certainty. Nor can it be doubted
but that folios might have been filled with other de-
tails upon the same subjects. What he records is but
a brief selection inspired into his mind out of an inde-
finite mass of facts and details. But such a selection
in either of the cases referred to is inconceivable, ex-
cept by an inspiration of the selected thoughts into the
minds of the writers. A miracle, indeed, may be im-
agined, by which they should forget all that they knew
before, except the selected thoughts ; but that would
not suffice : it would not make it absolutely certain
that the thoughts not forgotten were conceived correct-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 109

ly and remembered perfectly by them ; or that they
were retained so as to be written in the necessary con-
nection with each other.

The reason, in relation to others than themselves
and their immediate constituents, why the Holy Spirit
inspired into the minds of the sacred writers in their
wonted styles, the thoughts with which they were pre-
viously familiar, was the same, no doubt, with that for
which He inspired revealed thoughts which were not
previously known to them, in the same styles, namely,
because they were natural to the conceptions and modes
of thinking and expression of mankind in all countries
and all times. The written Scriptures were designed
not peculiarly for the learned, but for all classes of
men ; of whom the unlearned are the vast majority.
The simple language of ordinary life, of which the
style and phraseology are as much alike as the necessi-
ties and the thoughts, was therefore necessary. To
have rejected that and adopted any other style would
have been to defeat the object of inspiration. The
languages in common use among all nations, b^ing in
style substantially alike, a revelation, to answer its
purpose, to be understood, to meet the common want,
and to be translatable from " the originals into other
tongues," must of necessity, with respect to one portion
of its matter as well as of another, be inspired and
written in the ordinary words, styles, and phrases of
those who received and wrote it.

The same course of remark as that above concerning
the selection of thoughts out of the mass of what was
previously known to the sacred writers, is in like
manner applicable to the selection of historical facts

110 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

and genealogies, in different canonical books, from
other works then extant which were not received into
the canon. In the books of Kings, for instance, l:tlie
book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah," and
that of "the Kings of Israel," are frequently mentioned
as containing "the rest of the acts," of successive kings
— the acts, namely, which were not selected for inser-
tion in the Inspired Scriptures. Solomon spake three
thousand proverbs, and his Songs were a thousand
and five. Of his Proverbs, a portion only are selected ;
and but two of the Psalms are ascribed to him. The
acts of David are said to be written " in the book of
Samuel, the book of Nathan, and the book of Gad ; "
and the acts of Solomon "in the book of Nathan, the
prophecy of Ahijah, and in the visions of Iddo:" from
which sources, doubtless, particular selections were in-
spired. " All Israel were reckoned by genealogies ;
and behold they were written in the book of the Kings
of Israel and Judah." (1 Chron. 9.) From those records
the genealogies in this book of Scripture were selected.
The prophets wrote what was expressly inspired into
their minds to be written. Out of all the materials of
Jewish history, public and private, the Divine wisdom
required certain things to be written — certain things
which had been recorded in the secular annals or
national chronicles of the kings ; while many other
things in those' records were omitted ; and certain
things also from the private personal history of indi-
viduals. The particulars so selected, were in the view
of Omniscience, necessary to be contained in the author-
itative Book of Scripture; and as matters of fact,
actual events, a true report of what was said and done,

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. Ill

whether in itself right or wrong, were inspired into the
minds of the prophets to be written. As so written
they are the words of God, as they constitute a record
of real facts and events in words inspired by Him.

Those who object to the idea that the words of Scrip-
ture were inspired with the thoughts, regard it as es-
pecially preposterous to suppose that the order and
grammatical arrangement of the words were Divinely
prescribed. But surely a little consideration must con-
vince every one : 1st. That whatever thoughts were
inspired into a prophet's mind, must have been couch-
ed in words, in order to be consciously received by
him. And if every one does not perceive the absolute
necessity of this in every possible instance, all must ad-
mit that necessity in a vast multitude of cases where no
fitting words were previously known to the Prophets ;
and in other cases where a choice by the sacred pen-
men from among a diversity of words was impossible
— as in proper names, numbers, proportions, qualities,
dates, affirmations, negations, and the like. 2d. That
the thoughts could not possibl}r, in any case, be intelli-
gibly conveyed otherwise than in a due and orderly
succession — that succession which is exhibited in the
due collocation and grammatical arrangement of the
words when written. 3d. That such orderly succes-
sion and grammatical arrangement of the words of the
sacred text was as necessary to be prescribed as the
words themselves, or as the thoughts which they ex-
pressed : for in no possible case perhaps, or not in one
out of a thousand instances, would a different order
and arrangement of the words of the text convey pre-
cisely the same meaning as that which was adopted.

112 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

In most cases the meaning would be materially affect-
ed by a change in the collocations and relations of the
words. In many cases the meaning would be wholly
different ; and in every instance the slightest change
would modify or obscure the sense. The object of a
particular collocation and grammatical arrangement of
the words of a sentence is to convey intelligibly and
perfectly the thoughts and shades of thought intended
to be expressed. And accordingly there are, in the
nature and structure of language, the several parts of
speech, and the varieties of change in respect to per-
son, number, case, mode, tense, and other requisites to
the expression of every variety and shade of thought.
To these, in the selection and collocation of words in
spoken or written sentences, particular attention is in-
dispensable.

Suppose, for example, that two men were equally
familiar with the facts relating to a particular subject —
the biography of an individual ; that the details of such
biography fully written out would fill a massive folio ;
that a selection from the mass of materials might be
comprised in a thin octavo ; and that in order to pro-
duce such an abridgment, one of them should act as
penman while the other dictated the words to be writ-
ten ; the result obviously would be a work expressing
the thoughts of the party dictating, and in the words
selected and collocated by him. The writer would
have no agency, either in the selection of the thoughts,
or in the selection or the arrangement of the words.
To suppose him to write other words in place of those
dictated, or to change the collocation of the words,
would be to suppose him to be guilty of treachery and
falsehood.

OF THE nOLY SCRIPTURES. 113

When connected thoughts are conveyed by inspira-
tion, as when conveyed by vocal sounds, or written
characters, they must necessarily be adjusted conforma-
bly to the laws and habits of the mind that is to re-
ceive and be rendered conscious of them. Such ad-
justment is as necessary to intelligible speech, and to
the intelligent reception of thoughts, however conveyed,
as a due succession of notes in instrumental music, and
is, by practice, rendered as easy and spontaneous in
the one case as in the other. " There are innumerable
motions of the fingers upon the stops or keys of an in-
strument, which must be directed in one particular
train or succession. There is only one arrangement
of those motions that is right, while there are ten
thousand that are wrong, and would spoil the music.
The musician thinks not in the least of the arrange-
ment of those motions ; he has a distinct idea of the
tune, and wills to play it. The motions of the fingers
arrange themselves so as to answer his intention. In
like manner when a man speaks upon a subject with
which he is acquainted, there is a certain arrangement
of his thoughts and words necessary to make his dis-
course sensible, pertinent, and grammatical. In every
sentence, there are more rules of grammar, logic, and
rhetoric, that may be transgressed, than there are
words and letters. He speaks without thinking of any
of those rules, and yet observes them all, as if they
were all in his eye." (Reid, Essay IV.) Doubtless the
constitution, laws, and habits of the human mind, ren-
der such precision of arrangement as necessary in the
case of inspired, as in that of uninspired thoughts and
words.

114 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

The inspiration which is affirmed of the Scriptures —
that of words with the thoughts represented by them —
is in harmony with our intellectual constitution, and
with those laws conformably to which we think, are
conscious of our thoughts, and remember and express
them. We are constituted to think in words, to receive
thoughts by hearing and by reading words, to express
them by articulating words; and in like manner to
receive thoughts by the inspiration of words. The
miracle of Divine Inspiration does not contravene the
laws of our intellectual being. It conveys intelli-
gence to the mind in words of which the recipient be-
comes conscious by the inspiration of them, whether
with or without the adventitious circumstance of an
audible utterance of the words by the inspirer, or that
of causing intellectual visions or dreams. That the in-
telligence is conveyed in words of which the mind is
rendered conscious, in accordance with the laws by
which it becomes conscious of all other thoughts as
they are conceived in words, and as they are heard
when spoken, and read when written, is evident from the
fact, that the sacred penmen when receiving by inspir-
ation what they were moved and commanded to speak
and write, were in a state perfectly to apprehend the
meaning of the words inspired, to be conscious of them,
to remember them, and to commit them to writing. In
all but one particular the process appears to be identical
with that by which, in the ordinary exercise of our
intellectual and physical organs, we receive intelligence
in words, from one another ; the exception being, that
revealed intelligence in words, the Holy Scriptures,
the words of God, were inspired into the mind of the

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 115

recipient, not at his will, or by the will or agency of
any other creature, but immediately by the omniscient
Creator, Lawgiver, and Judge of men ; and therefor* sth< • v
are His words, and involve His infinite authority. The
too common practice of referring to the different books
of the sacred canon, as if the writers were the sole, or
the responsible, authors of them, and of quoting Moses,
the Prophets, and the Apostles, as teaching this or that,
is neither countenanced by the Scriptures themselves,
nor consistent with their claims. The several writers
were authors in no higher sense, than that of being
penmen of words inspired into their minds — words, in-
deed, of which, when inspired, they were intelligently
conscious, but which were not of their selection. And
accordingly when reference is made in Scripture to
what was written by particular persons, especially
when the reference is made to particular facts or doc-
trines, it is introduced by phraseology, like the follow-
ing : " Thus saith the Lord ; " " Men and brethren, this
Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the
Holy Ghost, by the mouth of David spake before con-
cerning Judas." (Acts 1. See also 4 : 24 ; 7 : 6, etc.)
The fact that the inspiration by which the Scriptures
were given, conveyed into the minds of the sacred
writers the words they were to inscribe, and, so far as
the words were conveyed by an audible voice, in a
manner analogous to that in which men convey intelli-
gence to one another, by articulate vocal expressions,
is illustrated by the familiar personal intercourse and
conversation of the Great Revealer, with patriarchs and
prophets before, and with His apostles after, his incar-
nation, and by the collocation of His words with thoa ■

116 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

of men in the sacred narratives. He who is tlie one
only Mediator between God and man, wlio came down
from heaven and took man's nature into union with
His person — the image, representative, Eevealer, Word
of God, as really exercised His mediatorial office under
the ancient as He does under the present dispensation.
He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
By Him, and to subserve His purposes of manifesta-
tion, providence, and grace, all things in heaven and
earth were created and are upheld and governed. In
His official Person, and in the similitude of His human
nature, He appeared visibly to the first parents of the
race, to the patriarchs, to Moses, and to the prophets,
and instructed and conversed with them in their ac-
customed language. Under one or other of His titles
as recorded by Moses, He was recognized and wor-
shipped by them, as Creator, moral and providential
Ruler, and mediatorial Administrator in all the rela-
tions of God to the human race. In His visible appear-
ances, particularly, He was announced as Malach Je-
hovah, the Messenger Jehovah — the official mediatorial
Person, as designated, anointed, and sent of the Father —
not as the angel or an angel of Jehovah, according to
the Massoretic construction. In this representative
character He administered the visible theocracy, con-
ducted the children of Israel out of Egypt, gave the
Law at Sinai, prescribed the Levitical services, talked
with Moses, and spoke to all the prophets since the
world began. When He became incarnate, He asso-
ciated familiarly with His disciples, instructed them,
conversed with them, and referred them to the Hebrew
oracles as testifying of Him. " Search the Scriptures ;

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 117

for in them ye think ye have eternal life ; and they are
they which testify of Me. Had ye believed Moses ye
would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me. Begin-
ning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto
them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Him-
self. These are the words which I spoke unto you —
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in
the Law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the
Psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He their under-
standings, that they might understand the Scriptures."
In these and in all similar references, both by Him
and by the Apostles, it is evident that the wards of the
sacred oracles infallibly expressed the thoughts of the
Revealer who inspired them. On that fact His own in-
tegrity, the authority of His mission, and the salvation
and eternal life of His hearers depended. He spoke
and conveyed His thoughts to them in the same man-
ner as they spoke and conveyed their thoughts to Him
and to one another, and there is the same evidence that
they understood and received His thoughts, that there
is that He understood and received theirs. Both His
and their words, of question and answer, being inspired
into the minds of the sacred penmen, are written as a
part of Scripture, and are interspersed in the narratives
of events. In numerous instances of His personal ap-
pearance, during the ancient dispensation under the
above and other designations, the occasion required His
special interposition, and the imposing influence of His
presence, in giving instructions and commands to par-
ticular persons, or in controlling impending events. On
such occasions the words which were spoken by him,
and the replies which were made, are recorded as alike

118 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

conveying the thoughts of the speakers. Evidently
the words spoken were alike vocally articulated, and
were employed according to their received significa-
tion. Thus among the instances of His appearance
and conversation with Abraham, that recorded Gen.
18, may be referred to, when he announced His pur-
pose to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He revealed
His otherwise inscrutable purpose, in the words which
He spoke. It nearly concerned the relatives of the
Patriarch; and the colloquy which ensued demon-
strates by its import and by the particulars referred to,
that the words employed conveyed perfectly and in one
and the same way, the thoughts of the respective par-
ties. So His appearance to Moses in the burning bush,
and the continuance of it in the cloudy pillar, during
the journeyings of the Israelites for forty years, was
attended by a succession of new and peculiar revela-
tions intimately connected with the circumstances, and
with the civil and religious interests and agency of the
tribes, the record of which by Moses shows indubitably
that the thoughts of the several speakers were con-
veyed in the same way and with equal precision, by
their words. It was at His command, and under His
eye, that Moses wrote, and deposited the writings, un-
der His sanction, in the side of the Ark of the Cove-
nant. Instead of citing particular instances of His per-
sonally speaking to Moses and directing him as His
servant in all that was done, each chapter and para-
graph of the four last books of the Pentateuch must be
referred to.

In his administration of the ancient economy — the
visible Theocracy — he exercised the offices of Prophet,

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 119

Priest, and King, and of necessity gave verbal direc-
tions to magistrates, prophets, and all in every relation
■who were subject to him. On the death of Moses,
M Jehovah spake unto Joshua" — directed him to enter
the promised land, and to observe the law, and not to
turn from it to the right hand or to the left. " As I
was with Moses, so will I be with thee. This book of
the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou
Shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou ma}rest
observe to do according to all that is written therein."
(Josh. 1.) After the passage of the Jordan, He who
appeared to Moses in the bush, appeared to Joshua in
the form of a man, with a drawn sword in his hand,
and said : " See, I have given into thine hand Jericho."
(Josh. 5.) Subsequently, He gave him express verbal
directions in every emergency. At the close of his
career, the people covenanted to serve Jehovah and to
obey His voice, "and Joshua wrote these words in the
book of the law of God," and he set up a stone as a
memorial, " and said unto all the people, Behold this
stone shall be a witness unto us ; for it hath heard all
the words of the Lord, which he spake unto us." (Josh.
24.) This very significant act implied the utmost re-
gard for all the words which Jehovah had srjoken, and
which were written to express and perpetuate His
thoughts to all generations.

From the death of Joshua to the reign of Saul, the
history is fraught with visible manifestations, miracu-
lous interpositions, and specific verbal directions. At
the commencement of that period " the children of
Israel asked the Lord, saying: Who shall go up for
us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them ?

120 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

And the Lord said, Judah shall go up, and the Lord
was with Judah." (Judges 1.)

The tribes having failed to extirpate idolatry, and
rebuke and alarm being necessary to them, " The Mes-
senger Jehovah came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and
said : ' I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have
brought you into the land which I sware unto your
fathers ; and I said I will never break my covenant,
but ye have not obeyed my voice. Why have ye done
this?'" "And it came to pass when the Messenger
Jehovah spake these words unto all the children of Is-
rael, that the people lifted up their voice and wept."
(Chap. 2.) The poignant words which He uttered on
that occasion, like those announced from Sinai, affected
the people at the time ; but their apostasy to idolatry
which had already begun, was not arrested, and a series
of calamities ensued.

When oppressed by the Midianites, " The Lord sent
a prophet unto the children of Israel, who said unto
them : ' Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought
you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the
house of bondage, but ye have not obeyed my voice.' "
"And the Messenger Jehovah appeared unto Gideon,
and said unto him : ' The Lord is with thee.' " Gideon
saw Him " face to face," and received from Him minute
verbal instructions, commands, and answers to his re-
quests, confirmed by miracle, during the events which
ensued. The passages which were audibly spoken, are
of such import, and occur in such connections, as to
demonstrate that the penman of the narrative must
have written the precise words which were uttered ;
which, therefore, must have been inspired into his mind

OF THE UOLY SCJRIPTUBEB. 121

with the other words of the composition. (Judges
6:7,8.)

On the occasion of raising up Jephtha as His instru-
ment in delivering the children of Israel from the
Ammonites, after they had " cried unto Him, saying,
We have sinned against thee," " the Lord said unto
the children of Israel, Did I not deliver you from the
Egyptians?" In the subsequent recital Jehovah is
appealed to as the witness and arbiter of events. " The
Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephtha ; and the Lord
delivered the Ammonites into his hands." (Judges
10: 11.)

To provide a Nazarite through whom His miraculous
power should be exhibited against the Philistines, the
Messenger Jehovah appeared to Manoah and his wife,
promised them a son, and gave particular directions
concerning him ; which special announcements on His
part, and their replies, are doubtless recorded in the
original words. (Judges 13.)

Prior to the war upon the tribe of Benjamin, the
children of Israel "asked counsel of God, and said,
"Which of us shall go up first to the battle — and Jeho-
vah said, Judah shall go up first." After the first, and
also after the second battle, in which many of them
were slain, they fasted and worshipped, and "inquired
of the Lord, saying, Shall I yet go out to battle against
the children of Benjamin, or shall I cease ? And the
Lord said, Go up ; for to-morrow I will deliver them
into thine hand." (Judges 20.) In this and in other
instances, the record of the words of Jehovah, in con-
nection with that of the extraordinary agencies and
events by which they were fulfilled, leaves no room for
0

122 TIIE PLENARY INSPIRATION

any other conclusion than that the words in both
instances were inspired into the minds of the writers.

In the history of Samuel, in repeated instances, the
words spoken to him by Jehovah, are so interwoven
with the events narrated, and often so essential as pre-
dicting or forming the basis of them, as to imply that
all the words of the record were equally inspired, and
equally employed in their ordinary signification.

Thus the prediction, chap. 3d, concerning the house
of Eli : " And the Lord said to Samuel, I will do a
thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one
that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform
against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning
his house." The next ensuing chapters record the
extraordinary events by which this was accomplished.

When the people desired a king, "the Lord said
unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in
all that they say unto thee ; for they have not rejected
thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not
reign over them." " Yet protest solemnly unto them,
and show them the manner of the king that shall reign
over them. And Samuel told all the words of the
Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. And
Samuel heard all the words of the people," in answer
to his description of the king, " and he rehearsed them
in the ears of the Lord." (Chap. 8.) Next follows the
record of what preceded the anointing of Saul to be
king. " Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear, a
day before Saul came, To-morrow, about this time, I
will send thee a man out of the tribe of Benjamin,
and thou shalt anoint him. And when Samuel saw
Saul, the Lord said unto him, Behold the man whom

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 123

I spake to thee of." Having anointed him, he described
to him the incidents he should meet with on his way
home, all of which " came to pass that day." " And
Samuel called the people together unto the Lord," that
is, to the tabernacle in which His presence was mani-
fested, and said: " Present yourselves before the Lord
by your tribes." When Saul of the tribe of Benjamin
had been taken, " he could not be found. Therefore
they inquired of the Lord further, if the man should
yet come thither. And the Lord answered, Behold he
hath hid himself among the stuff. And they fetched
him thence ; and Samuel said to all the people, See ye
him whom the Lord hath chosen. Then Samuel told
the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it
in a book, and laid it up before the Lord." (Chap.
9 : 10.)

In the 12th chapter, Samuel briefly rehearses to the
people the events of preceding years, and the righteous
acts of Jehovah to them and their fathers ; in which he
quotes the words which had been spoken on particular
occasions.

From the structure and scope of the history of Joshua
and the Judges — the narrative being made up of the
words spoken by Jehovah, those spoken by the princi-
pal actors in the scenes described, and the acts and
events to which the quoted words relate, in their
natural and chronological connection with each other —
the inference is unavoidable, that all the words as
written, were used according to their ordinary and well-
understood signification, and were all alike inspired
into the minds of the sacred penmen. This inference,
indeed, could not be more obvious or more striking

12-i THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

were all the words of the history recorded as having
been audibly spoken. In the progress of the history
there are prophetic passages intermixed with the narra-
tive of passing events. The triumphal Song of De-
borah, and the Song of Hannah, like that of Moses at
the Eed Sea, and that near the close of his ministry,
from all which quotations are made elsewhere in Scrip-
ture, were without doubt verbally inspired. And
throughout the narratives in question, the relation of
the words which were spoken, to those collocated in
connection with them, and the perfect congruity and
consistency between them, render it incredible and
absurd to suppose that some of the sentences and parts
of sentences which are written were verbally inspired,
and that the rest were left to the discretion of the
writers.

To the history of David a very brief notice only is
requisite ; while that of the subsequent kings is suffi-
ciently referred to in what relate to the prophets. In
his last words, David himself says : " The Spirit of the
Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue."
(2 Sam. 23.) The passages in his history in which
Jehovah is represented as speaking to him directly and
through His prophets, directing his conduct, and hear-
ing and answering his requests, are too numerous to be
specified. His Psalms bear indubitable marks of ver-
bal inspiration. Their inspired and canonical authority
are abundantly recognized and attested in the New
Testament, both by the Saviour and the Apostles.
They are in a large degree prophetic ; and in many of
them, in one official relation or another, the Messiah

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 125

spoke by him of his future humiliation, sufferings, tri-
umph, and reign.

The Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel consist
almost wholly of passages which are introduced by
such formulas, as " Thus saith the Lord — The word of
the Lord came unto me saying — The Lord said unto
me — The Lord spake, said, or hath spoken — Speak
Thou, say Thou," etc., which occur some seven hundred
times, as introductory to successive paragraphs.

The Book of Daniel in its prophetic announcements,
its record of miraculous interpositions, and its historical
details, is fraught with evidence of its verbal inspira-
tion.

Nebuchadnezzar's dream concerning the four con-
secutive kingdoms, is a striking instance. His thoughts
came into his mind upon his bed, what should come to
pass thereafter ; but having forgotten their vehicle, he
retained no distinct remembrance of them. His spirit
was troubled. He summoned the astrologers, the ma-
gicians, and the soothsayers, but they confessed their
utter inability to tell him what he had dreamed. The
God of heaven, who revealeth secrets, revealed this
secret to Daniel in a night vision. When, in the words
which were inspired into his mind, he expressed the
thoughts which Nebuchadnezzar in his dream had
conceived in the same words, the king remembered,
and was so conscious of them as the same words, that
he fell on his face, and said to Daniel : " Of a truth it
is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings,
and a Revealer of secrets." (Dan. 2.) Instances equally
decisive of verbal inspiration - are exhibited in the
prophecies which were conveyed to him, and in his

126 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

record of the verbal interpretations which were ex-
pressed by the angel Gabriel.

The lesser' prophets all expressly signify that what
they wrote was the Word of Jehovah. Thus : " The
beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. — Then
said the Lord unto me — Hear the word of the Lord, ye
children of Israel." — " The word of the Lord that came
to Joel " — " The words of Amos, which he saw con-
cerning Israel — Thus saith the Lord — Hear this word
that the Lord hath spoken against you — Hear thou the
word of the Lord." — " The vision of Obadiah. Thus
saith the Lord God " — " The word of the Lord came
unto Jonah — The word of the Lord came unto Jonah
the second time." — "The word of the Lord that
came to Micah — Thus saith the Lord — Hear now
what the Lord saith" — "The book of the vision of
Naham — Thus saith the Lord." — " The burden which
Habbakuk saw — The Lord said, "Write the vision and
make it plain upon tables — O Lord, I have heard Thy
speech and was afraid." — " The Word of the Lord which
came unto Zephaniah" — " Then came the word of the
Lord by Haggai the prophet — Then spake Haggai, the
Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto the peo-
ple, saying — Thus saith the Lord of Hosts — Again
the word of the Lord came unto Haggai" — "In the
eighth month came the word of the Lord unto Zecha-
riah the prophet, saying — In the eleventh month came
the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, saying — Moreover,
the word of the Lord came unto me saying — Thus saith
the Lord of Hosts," etc — " The burden of the word of
the Lord to Israel by Malachi."

Thus nearly the whole of the writings of Moses, the

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 127

Psalmists, and the Prophets, consist of words declared
to have been spoken by Jehovah, to the writers, and
words spoken by men whom the writers expressly
mention ; which words are so collocated and intermin-
gled with such other words as were necessary to the
progress of the narrative, as to demonstrate that they
were all inspired into the minds of the writers. Thus
" God at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets " — and in
later days, " by His Son, whom He appointed heir of
all things, and by whom He made the worlds." — "Holy
men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
— "All Scripture was given by Inspiration of God."

Of the prophets to whom he spoke, near fifty in
number are mentioned by name, or otherwise personally
referred to ; besides whom a succession of High Priests
received responses from the Sacred Oracle. A citation
of some incidental references to them, is due to the
subject. " The Lord heard the voice of Elijah ; and
the soul of the child came into him again, and he re-
vived ; and Elijah delivered him to his mother. And
she said to him, Now by this I know that thou art a
man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth,
is truth." (1 Kings 17.) "And the Lord spake by His
servants the prophets, saying," (2 Kings 21 : 10.)
"And the Lord sent against Jehoiakim bands of Chal-
dees, according to the word of the Lord which He spake
by His servants the prophets." (2 Kings 24 : 2.)
" Many years didst thou forbear them, and testifledst
against them by Thy Spirit in Thy prophets.'1'' (Neh.
9 : 30.) " Since the day that your fathers came forth
out of the land of Egypt unto this day, T have even

128 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

sent unto you all My servants the prophets — yet they
hearkened not unto Me." (Jer. 7 : 25.) "The Lord hath
sent unto you all His servants the prophets, yet ye
have not hearkened unto Me, saith the Lord ; ye have
not heard My words." (Jer. 25 : 4, 7, 8.) " Because
they have not hearkened to My words, saith the Lord,
which I sent unto them by My servants the prophets."
(Jer. 29 : 19.) " Thus saith the Lord God : Art thou
he of whom i" have spoken in old time by My servants
the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days,
many years, that I would bring thee against them ?"
(Ezek. 38 : 17.) "Neither have we obeyed the voice of
the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set
before us by His servants the prophets." (Dan. 9 : 10.)
" I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have mul-
tiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry
of the prophets." (nosea 12 : 10.) " Surely the Lord
God will do nothing but He revealeth His secret unto
His servants the prophets — The Lord God hath spok-
en, who can but prophesy." (Amos 3:7.) " Should
ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the
former prophets?" (Zech. 7 : 7,) "the words which
the Lord of Hosts hath sent in His Spirit by the former
prophets?" (Verse 12.) "As He spake by the mouth
of His holy prophets, which have been since the world
began." (Luke 1 : 70.) " They Lave Moses and the
prophets — let them hear them ; if they hear not Moses
and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though
one rose from the dead." (Luke 16.) " O fools, and
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have
spoken — Beginning at Moses, and all the prophets,
He expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures, the

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 129

tilings concerning Himself." (Luke 24.) " "We have
found Him of whom Moses in the Law, and the pro-
phets did write, Jesus of Nazareth." (John 1.) "Those
things which God before had showed by the mouth of
all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He hath so
fulfilled. All the prophets from Samuel, and those
that follow after, as many as have spoken, have like-
wise foretold of these days." (Acts 3.) " To Him
give all the proj3hets witness." (Acts 10.) " Believ-
ing all things which are written in the Law and in the
prophets." (Acts 24.) " Witnessing both to small
and great, saying none other things than those which
the prophets and Moses did say should come." (Acts
26.) " Persuading them concerning Jesus, both out
of the Law of Moses, and out of the prophets." (Acts
28.) "The Gospel of God, which He had promised
afore by nis prophets in the Holy Scriptures." (Rom. 1.)
" The righteousness of God, without the Law, is mani-
fested, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets."
(Rom. 3.) " But now is made manifest, and by the
Scriptures of the prophets." (Rom. 16.) "And are
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."
(Eph. 2.) " Take my brethren the prophets, who have
spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example."
(James 5.) " That in the days of the voice of the
seventh Angel, the mystery of God should be finished,
as He hath declared to His servants the prophets."
(Rev. 10.)

These, and all similar testimonies, proceed upon the
certainty that the words which the prophets wrote,
were the words of God, and that they were understood

130 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

in the days of the evangelists and apostles, precisely
as they were when originally inspired and written.
The Scriptures accordingly claim to be the Word of
God. They claim to be infallible and imperishable.
The word of the Lord endureth forever. Till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass
from the Law, till all be fulfilled. My words shall
not pass away. The word that I have spoken, the
same shall judge him in the last day. Forever, 0
Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. The counsel of
the Lord standeth forever ; the thoughts of His heart,
to all generations.

Again, if reference be made to particular classes of
passages, the conclusion is unavoidable, that they are
word for word as they were audibly spoken by Jeho-
vah to the Sacred Penmen, or verbally inspired into
their minds by the Holy Spirit. As, 1st. The confes-
sions, supplications, deprecations, fears, hopes, prayers,
thanksgivings, praises, joys, sorrows, of holy men.
2d. All prophetic passages, and all notices of their ful-
fillment. 3d. All narratives of miraculous interposi-
tions, and the occasions and consequences of them.
4th. All recitals of the infliction of judgments and ca-
lamities upon individuals and nations, and the circum-
stances, reasons, and results of them ; as in the case of
the Deluge, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,
the plagues of Egypt, the curse pronounced upon the
whole race in their first parents, that inflicted upon
Cain, that upon Ham and his descendants, that upon
Achan, and others, in every period of the Theocratic
rule. 5. All descriptions and denunciations of Idola-
try, and of other crimes and abominations ; all biogra-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 131

phical notices of individuals, good and bad ; all state-
ments of their motives, acts, virtues, and crimes ; all
statements relating to angels, good and bad, to Satan,
to the invisible world, to heaven, to the place of retri-
bution, to time, and to eternity.

The words of Scripture must necessarily be the
infallible words of God, if they involve Ilis authority
in any degree. For they express His thoughts, His
purposes, counsels, covenants, laws, promises. They
describe his acts, as Creator, Euler, and Eedecmer,
express the rules by which He deals with men, and the
grounds and reasons of His conduct. They relate to
the execution of one comprehensive plan, which in-
volves His glory and the well-being of the universe.
They prescribe the conduct of men in their relations as
accountable and immortal creatures. They relate to
the events of time, and to the retributions of eternity.
On obedience to them, life and death are suspended.
" Set your hearts unto all the words which I testifiy
among you this day, which ye shall command your
children to observe to do all the words of this Law." —
" I have set before thee this day, life and good, and
death and evil, in that I command thee to love the
Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His
commandments, and His statutes, and His judgments,
that thou mayest live." (Deut.)

The historical, as well as the didactic and prophetic
parts of the Scriptures, relate to covenants which were
sanctioned by the oath of Jehovah, and the fulfillment
of which involves the agency and destiny of men ; to
a particular covenant which is everlasting, and is or-
dered in all things and sure ; and to promises which,

132 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

as yet, are but partially fulfilled. Hence the homo-
geneousness and consistency of the several parts, though
written at different periods ; and the fact that they con-
tain not a single expression inconsistent with their
claim of plenary verbal inspiration. They had one
omniscient and immutable Author, who alone com-
prehended the details of His plan, and the natures and
relations of all things, and, therefore, could determine
what should be inspired and written. His whole pro-
cedure in the creation and government of the world and
of the universe, is a manifestation of Himself, of His
perfections, prerogatives, and rights on the one hand, and
of the natures, dispositions, and conduct of creatures on
the other. The words which He has inspired, relate to
things comprised in this scheme of manifestation, and
are as infallible expressions of His thoughts, as His works
are of His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, good-
ness, and truth. Hence the transactions and events
which are mentioned in Scripture, are represented to
be according to His word, or fulfillments of His word.
" Christ died and was buried, and rose again, according
to the Scriptures. — The Scriptures must be fulfilled. — •
The Scripture can not be broken. — The Scripture saith
unto Pharaoh: Even for this same purpose have I
raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee,
and that my name might be declared throughout all
the earth. — Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor
the power of God."

In all that relates to His own acts and purposes, all
that relates to His moral laws, commands, precepts, and
prohibitions — all that relates to the work of redemp-
tion, to the Church, and to the future state, and equally,

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTUKES. 133

in all things connected with these, His words must be
as infallible as He Himself is. Accordingly all good is
bestowed in fulfillment of His words of promise and
grace ; and all evils are inflicted for disobedience to
II is words.

Again, the words of Scripture, are the sword of the
Spirit in changing men from darkness to light, subdu-
ing their wills, enlightening and sanctifying them ; and
they are the words through which faith is exercised
by men. " The sword of the Spirit is the word of
God." " The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but
especially the preaching of the word, an effectual
means of convincing and converting sinners, and of
building them up in holiness and comfort, through
faith unto salvation." (Catechism.) " The word of God
is quick and powerful, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart." (Rom. 8.) " Except a man
be born of the Spirit, he can not enter into the king-
dom of God. — It is the Spirit that quickeneth — the
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they
are life. — Of His own will begat He us with the word
of truth. — Now ye are clean through the ivord which
I have spoken unto you. — Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. — The righteousness
which is of faith, speaketh on this wise — The word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thine heart : that
is the word of faith which we preach : that if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt be-
lieve in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, man
belie veth unto righteousness ; and with the mouth,
confession is made unto salvation." — "Justifying Faith

134 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner bj
the Spirit and word of God," etc. (Ass. Catechism.)
" The seed is the word of God — the sower soweth the
word — they that hear and keep it, bring forth fruit." —
" I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou
gavest me out of the world— and they have kept Thy
word — I pray for them — neither pray I for these alone ;
but for them also which shall believe on Me through
their word." (John 17.) " Christ loved the Church,
and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of' water by the word. — We
thank God without ceasing, because, when ye received
the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it
not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word
of God, which effectually worketh also in you that
believe."

All this, and all that relates either to the Divine or
to human agency in the salvation of men, implies that
the words of Scripture, which men are to believe in
order to their being justified and sanctified, endure for-
ever, and are infallible : insomuch that no other than
the originals, and words which express the same
thoughts into which the originals may be translated,
will subserve the agency of the Spirit, or the exercise
of faith. For such words only express the thoughts
of the Kevealer, concerning the things to which the
agency of the Spirit relates, and those which men are
to believe ; and those things are forever the same, un-
der all dispensations. Faith, justification, and sanctili-
cation are ever the same. Abraham believed God —
the words of God — and was justified; he obeyed His
words, and was sanctified ; his faith is the pattern of
that of believers in everv asre.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 135

CHAPTER VIII.

WORDS NECESSARILY AND PERFECTLY REPRESENT AND
EXPRESS THE THOUGHTS CONCEIVED IN THEM.

Because words are the constituted instrument and
vehicle of thought, and we conceive thoughts in words,
and not without or independently of them, they neces-
sarily and perfectly express the thoughts conceived in
them. As conceived, they represent to the intellect,
as when written to the eye, and when spoken to the
ear, all that we are conscious of in the act of thinking.
Sensations, feelings, and emotions are subject to no fixed
or uniform rules. But words are regulated and re-
stricted in their office. As the vehicle and representa-
tive of thought, they are its perfect counterpart and
correlate. As well might one pretend to see objects
which do not exist, or are not visible, and which,
therefore, he can not be conscious of seeing — or to hear
sounds which he is not conscious of hearing — as to pre-
tend that he has thoughts of which he is not conscious,
or which differ in kind or degree from those of which
their vehicle makes him conscious. "Words exist
solely to be the instrument and medium of thought,
as the visibility of objects exists that they may be seen,

136 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

and the audibility of sounds that they may be heard._
If successive acts of seeing the same identical objects
so as perfectly to distinguish them, were not uniform
and certain, the power of seeing, so far from fulfilling
its purpose, would but mislead and confuse. If suc-
cessive sounds were not so heard as uniformly and per-
fectly to distinguish one sound from another, the power
of hearing, instead of guiding, would confound us. So
as to the power of thinking. If the vehicle of thought
were not necessarily, uniformly, and perfectly commen-
surate with the thoughts conceived, we could have no
certainty as to what our thoughts were. Whether as
to thoughts intellectually conceived in words, or thoughts
vocally expressed to us by our fellow-men, it is plain
that we can no further comprehend and be conscious
of them, than the words employed perfectly represent
and express them. All that we know, in either case, is
the meaning of the words employed in each particular
instance. Hence the necessity of learning the meaning
of words in order to conceive in them the thoughts
which they represent and are intended to express, and
to understand by them the thoughts of others who
speak or write them. No man receives the thoughts
of another, if expressed in a tongue foreign to him ;
nor can he conceive thoughts which in his own or other
tongues are represented only by words unknown to
him.

Now inspiration, as its effects show, comprised a
correct conception of the meaning, the form, and the
sounds of the words in which the inspired thoughts
were conveyed, so that the sacred writers were rendered
conscious of the thoughts, and were qualified to con-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 137

ceive them iu the same -words, and to express them
intelligibly and perfectly by speaking and by writing.
Their words, therefore, necessarily represented and ex-
pressed the thoughts of which they were made con-
scious by inspiration. And if they expressed the
thoughts at all, they must have expressed them per-
fectly ; for they were the vehicles and correlates of the
thoughts, and all that they knew of the thoughts they
were made conscious of by the words.

This will readily be granted with respect to the
words which are recorded as having been spoken by
the Most High, Creator, Lawgiver, Euler, and Re-
deemer of men. For if those words do not perfectly
express the thoughts which He intended to convey
and to have us conceive in them, then we can not be
certain that we know what His thoughts are upon any
subject, and can not regard the Scriptures as His
word. They are not a revelation unless they really
convey His thoughts to us ; and if they do not per-
fectly and infallibly convey them, we are, as truly as
the heathen, in darkness concerning our relations to
Him, what we are to believe, and what duties He re-
quires of us. But if they do so express and convey
His thoughts, then we must conclude that the words
written in connection with them in the Scriptures, per-
fectly express the thoughts which they represent ; for
the two classes are intimately intermingled, equally
significant and intelligible, equally necessary to the
scope and meaning of sentences and paragraphs, and
of necessity from their purport and relations, must
have been alike inspired into the minds of the writers.

The words employed in the Scriptures, excepting

138 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

those which conveyed thoughts previously unknown to
men, are such as were in common use at the time, and
of which the meaning was perfectly understood ; which
implies that as used in Scripture they perfectly express
the thoughts which they there represent ; for they
largely refer to the objects and affairs of common life,
and to be intelligible, must have been used according
to the common acceptation on which all faith and con-
fidence among men depended. On the other hand, the
words employed to convey thoughts previously un-
known to the writers, both those which were entirely
new, and those which were previously in familiar use,
are employed in conformity with the same laws of lan-
guage as the words which convey thoughts previously
known. New and old words are intimately collocated
and connected with each other in the composition.
And the fact that such new words to express new
thoughts, were, in the connections in which they are
written, audibly spoken or expressly inspired by the
Divine Eevealer, is conclusive evidence that they per-
fectly expressed His thoughts.

By far the greater part, comprising several large
classes of the words employed by the sacred penmen,
indubitably and perfectly expressed the thoughts which
they represented, for they related to things which have
undergone no change, and which, accordingly, they
still exactly represent. Such are the names and desig-
nations of the Divine Being ; the terms by which His
attributes, acts, purposes, predictions, laws, and pro-
mises are expressed ; the proper names of men, of
places, and of innumerable things animate and inani-
mate ; the relations, faculties, acts, and duties of men ;

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 139

numbers, proportions, relations, and qualities of things ;
sin, holiness, repentance, faith, and other moral quali-
ties and distinctions ; love, joy, sorrow, ease, pain, and
other emotions and sensations. In short, all the words
which relate to the creation, the nature, the acts, the
moral condition, and the experience of man, and all
that relate to the Divine Being and His acts ; and all
likewise that relate to the invisible world, to death, to
the resurrection, to the judgment, to a future existence,
to the holy and to fallen angels. If these words,
which essentially constitute the Scriptures, did not, as
inspired, perfectly express and convey to those who
knew their meaning, the exact thoughts which they
represented and were intended to convey ; then we
have no certainty that we know the truth in any par-
ticular concerning the Divine Being, or the subjects of
either of the classes of words above referred to. For
if the thoughts which these words represent are not
precisely the thoughts of Ilim who inspired them, then
they do not reveal His thoughts. If any one of the
classes referred to, that which relates to the Divine
Being, or that which relates to the invisible world, do
not truly represent His thoughts, then we can have no
evidence that any of the other classes truly represent
His thoughts, and no part of the Scriptures can, with
propriety, be called His word.

A revelation from God is a communication of His
thoughts in such manner that they may be intelligently
apprehended and understood by man. A revelation
when audibly spoken, or when committed to writing,
must be expressed in words, and in words which intel-
ligibly and definitely express and convey the thoughts

140 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

which they arc employed to represent and reveal. For
otherwise they either would reveal nothing or no one
could determine what they revealed. The language
employed must, therefore, have preexisted with a defi-
nite meanirig corresponding to the thoughts to be ex-
pressed, and with such rules of usage and construction
as to render it intelligible : or it must have been mira-
culously formed and appropriated to its office when
first employed as a medium of instruction to man, and
a knowledge of its meaning must at the same time have
been imparted to him. The language first spoken to
man, was spoken by his Creator, and, therefore, be-
yond a doubt, perfectly expressed His thoughts. It
may have preexisted. It may have been the language
of His eternal counsels, as it was of His subsequent
counsels and covenants. It may have been spoken to
angels and by them, as it afterwards was. It may have
been as perfect as an expression of the thoughts repre-
sented by it, and in all other respects, as the marks or
figures of mathematical notation, are for the purpose
for which they exist, or as the diatonic scale in music
is for the expression of melodious sounds. The num-
ber of possible mathematical figures and arithmetical
combinations is limited. The number of distinct mu-
sical notes and musical sounds is limited. The number
of letters and of articulate alphabetic sounds is also
limited. These, and their combinations in words, are as
susceptible of having a fixed and definite signification,
as they are of distinct articulate pronunciation, or as
arithmetical figures are of denoting distinct and defi-
nite numbers, or as a gamut is of representing distinct
musical sounds. And the rules according to which

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 141

syllables, words, and sentences are formed, so as to
express grammatically and perfectly the thoughts
which they represent, are inherently and necessarily as
uniform and imperative as the rules by which figures
are combined to express different numbers, quantities,
or proportions, and as the rules by which musical
notes and vocal sounds are combined to express differ-
ent musical tones. Some thoughts can neither be con-
ceived nor expressed directly and without circumlo-
cution, in any other than a single word. Thus the
word ten alone expresses the simple thought of that
aggregate of units, as the word one does that of a sin-
gle unit. So of a very large proportion of the objects
of our senses, and of their qualities and relations.
Such arc the root words of every language. But deri-
vations, expressions of complex or modified thoughts
are often represented by one or more synonyms, or
approximately synonymous words, of which some
are more and some less comprehensive of the thought
to be expressed in particular instances. The reason
why particular words, and not others, are employed as
numerals, is precisely the same as the reason why par-
ticular words and not others are employed to express
other facts and truths of every description. It is
usage, in every instance, that determines the appropri-
ation and significance of particular words. By usage
they are known and understood to express particular
thoughts. Our thoughts of numbers — mathematical
truths — may be more definite and invariable than our
thoughts of moral truths; but it is in no degree owing
to the words selected to express them, but wholly to
the degree of our knowledge, the applicability and in-

142 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

fluence of our primary beliefs, and tlie greater or less
clearness of our conceptions.

Mr. Locke, so far as he is consistent with himself in
his speculations, treats of ideas as quite distinct and
different from thoughts — an idea being, as defined by
him, " "Whatsoever is the object of the understanding,
when a man thinks." But when he comes to consider
numbers, he is forced to perceive that we think of them,
and can think of them, only in words, and that the in-
tellectual power of numeration, in the case of each and
every individual, is absolutely bounded by his know-
ledge of the words used to signify numbers. He cites,
in illustration of this, the case of uncivilized men
whom Tie had examined, who " could reckon very well
to twenty, but could not by any means count to one
thousand, because their language being scanty, and ac-
commodated only to the few necessaries of a needy,
simple life, unacquainted either with trade or mathe-
matics, had no words in it to stand for a thousand, so
that, when they were discoursed with of those greater
numbers, they would show the hairs of their head to
express a great multitude, which they could not num-
ber ; which inability, I suppose, proceeded from their

want of names And I doubt not but we

ourselves might distinctly number in words a great deal
further than we usually do, would we find out but
some fit denominations to signify them by." (Book 2,
§§ 5, 6.) Had the author perceived the same thing and
reasoned in the same way, concerning all the subjects
of his inquiry, his Essay might have been free from
its objectionable doctrines, and productive only of a
wholesome influence. Neither the savage nor the civ-

OF THE HOLY BOBIPTUBBB. 143

ilized have any distinct thoughts either of numbers or
of any thing else, any further than they have a know-
ledge of words in which to conceive and by which to
express their thoughts.

The design and adaptation of the vocal organs to
be exercised in speaking, of the auditory organs to
be exercised in hearing, and of the visual in seeing,
are founded in the physical and mental constitution of
man. Those organs are alike perfect as instruments of
receiving and imparting intelligence. The effects of
their exercise are the results of their organization, and
are uniform. Words spoken as certainly and necessa-
rily convey the thoughts which they signify as the
hearing of them proves the utterance of articulate
sounds, or as the seeing of physical objects proves the
reality of their visible presence. In a word, there can,
in the nature of the case, be no less reason why lan-
guage should correspond perfectly in significance to the
thoughts represented by it, and why the intellectual
conception and consciousness of thoughts by means of
words unspoken and unwritten should be precisely the
same as when occasioned by hearing the words vocally
pronounced, or reading them in print ; than why the
same external objects as seen at different times, under
the same conditions, should appear to be precisely the
same. Uniformity of effect is as necessary and as
important in the one case as in the other. Words, ac-
cordingly, are by the purpose and appointment of the
Creator in the organization and constitution of man,
the necessary medium, representative, and instrument
of thought ; and they perfectly fulfill their office.

Nevertheless there are not wanting those who inia-

144 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

gine that they have thoughts •which they can not ex-
press in words, while others with equal reason, profess
to see while their eyes are closed and bandaged, and
to see things in the interior or on the opposite side of
the globe, and to hear voices where there are no audi-
ble sounds. The writings of the first of these classes
are designed to show that words are wholly incompe-
tent to express some thoughts, and insufficient perfectly
to express any. Yet they labor hard to convey their
own thoughts to their fellow-mortals, by this inadequate
and fallacious medium. And though they necessarily
fail to furnish any evidence that they have any thoughts
which they have not words to express, they exhibit a
degree of skill in using words in such a way as to sig-
nify nothing, and thereby subject themselves to the
obloquy of not being understood. Were their theory
true, we must needs conclude that the whole race had
from the beginning been insane in supposing that
they had understood each other's thoughts by their
words ; while any attempt to instruct men orally or by
books, must, of course, be fruitless, and an effort made
under the sway of the hallucination, to show that the
theory is true, must be set down as merely ridiculous.

It is obviously quite as necessary to man in respect
to all his relations, interests, responsibilities, and duties,
that his words, as intellectually conceived, and as
spoken and written, should perfectly represent his
thoughts and all of them, as that his sight should per-
fectly distinguish all the objects of vision, and his hear-
ing all articulate sounds.

If it were not a provision of his constitution, a law
of his physical and mental organization, that each par-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 145

ticular sound, intonation, and musical note should be
heard and uniformly distinguished from all other
sounds ; and that each visible object should, under the
same conditions, be seen and uniformly distinguished
from all other visible objects, man could not exist.
And if it were not an inherent law of his constitution,
that his words should express his thoughts so as per-
fectly to represent them, he could not exist as a moral
and social being. Nay, since he is conscious of think-
ing only in words, if his words were not the exact
measure and real pattern and matrix of all his thoughts,
his consciousness could afford no certainty as to what
he was thinking Of.

The absurdity of a contrary theory may be illus-
trated by supposing that the same external objects did
not always appear to the eye to be the same ; that the
human person, for example, as seen at successive inter-
vals, appeared, now in its natural form, then in that of
a quadruped, a reptile, or a vegetable; or that the
same sounds did not uniformly strike the car so as to
be distinguished as the same j that musical chords had
the effect of discords, vocal articulation, that of undis-
tinguishable noises, without meaning, alternately with
that of distinct and significant sounds. Such, accord-
ingly, is the argument and illustration in the inspired
words written by the Apostle Paul, 1 Cor. 14 : 1-33 —
the grounds of which are that God is not the author of
confusion, and that, according to the nature and con-
stitution of things as ordained by Him, words represent
thoughts, and are to be spoken in such a language or
so interpreted, as to convey the thoughts to those who
hear. tlThinga without life <.ii>'ii"i sound, whether pipe
7

146 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

or harp, unless they give a difference to the notes, both in
tone and in time, how shall it be known what is piped or
harped ? Such unmeaning sounds are a fit image of
unintelligible language, both in their nature and in
their effe.ts. And therefore if the trumpet, instead of
sounding those notes whose meaning is understood bj
the soldiers, shall give an unknown sound, who in that
case will prepare himself for battle? So also ye, when ye
speak by inspiration in your public assemblies, unless
toith the tongue ye utter intelligible speech, hoiv shad it be
known what is spoken t Therefore, however important
the things ye speak may be, ye xcill be speaking into the
air, like madmen. There are no doubt as many kinds of
languages used in the world as ye speak, and none of them is
without signification to those who are acquainted with
them. Nevertheless, if I do not knoiv the meaning of the
language that is uttered, I shall be to the person who
speaketh a foreigner," etc. (Macknight's paraphrase.)
The intellectual as well as the physical capacities of
man are limited; and the modes in which they are
exercised and manifested are likewise limited. The
modes in which he perceives external objects, the
modes in which he manifests his thoughts, and the
objects of perception and thought are limited. By
means of five senses all his perceptions of external
objects take place. By means of language, and signs,
all the manifestations of his thoughts to others are
effected. But there is order and congruity between his
senses and their objects, and his thoughts and the
means by which he expresses them. Those qualities
of objects which are perceptible through the senses,
correspond in species and in distinctness from each

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 147

other, to the senses appropriated to them ; and for each
distinct thought, there is a distinct word or sign, which
is known to those who intelligibly express their
thoughts.

The objects of perception and thought are limited, in
number, variety, and all those characteristics which are
perceptible to us, and of which we have words to ex-
press our thoughts. Of large classes of them, indeed)
the limit, at least in respect to our capacity, is fixed in
the constitution which the Creator originally establish-
ed, and so fixed as to be conclusively ascertained by
us. Thus we are so constituted as to be capable of
uttering by the voice and distinguishing by the ear,
only forty different articulate sounds ; nor is it possible
for us to conceive in thoughts, or describe in words any
other simple or elementary sounds. So of the distinct
colors which we perceive by the eye ; and the elements
into which all physical substances are resolvable by
chemical analysis. Whether with a visual organ of
greater capacity other distinct colors would be percepti-
ble, or whether with greater powers of analysis the
elements in which our chemistry terminates would be
further resolvable, is more than we know.

The same may be observed of other departments of
knowledge — as of that, for example, of the elements and
axioms of arithmetical and mathematical knowledge, and
that of geometrical figures. All these are as perfectly
distinct from each other, as are the numbers one and
two ; they are the objects invariably of the same dis-
tinct thoughts; we have distinct words whereby to ex-
press them ; we can think of them, not apart from, but
only in connection with those words, as we hear them

118 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

pronounced, read them as figured or written, silently
recall them to remembrance, or give them vocal utter-
ance. And we can no more think of any of those
elements or figures apart from the words by which Ave
express them, than we can conceive in thought or ex-
press in words other and wholly different numbers, re-
lations, axioms, and figures.

The question is not whether there are in the realms
of nature, objects of sense, which our senses are neither
designed nor competent to perceive ? — nor whether the
intellect of a created being is of a nature to be capable
of thinking without any coincident use, instrumentality,
or knowledge of words? — but, whether man, physi-
cally and mentally constituted and circumstanced as he
is, ever actually has or can have, any distinct thoughts,
any intellectual perceptions or cognitions, original or re-
membered, apart from words ? If he has, and yet can
not express them in words, then he can not be con-
scious of them himself, nor remember them, nor give
any sort of evidence that he has them. For no one
consciously thinks, compares or reasons in silence,
otherwise than in words, as when he speaks or writes
his thoughts ; nor ever consciously remembers thoughts
disconnected from words. If such thoughts arc
imagined to exist, then they must be fancied to have
the same relative place, with those objects of sense, if
there be such, which our senses can not discover.

To characterize such inexpressible thoughts as un-
spoken is to attempt to describe by words what, by the
supposition, we have no words to represent ; and is like
attempting to describe sensations supposed to be pro-
duced by external objects which are beyond the reach

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 149

of our senses. The fallacy arises from the mistaken
notion — to which reference is hereafter more particu-
larly to be made — that words stand for things, instead
of simply and exclusively representing thoughts. It is
the sole office of words to be the medium of thoughts,
intellectually, vocally, and in writing ; and they fulfill
that office perfectly in respect to all the thoughts of
which we are conscious. If, like sensations, they sig-
fied only tilings, it might be necessary to imagine a vast
store-house of thoughts which, owing to their incom-
petence and the unfitness of our vocabulary, could not
be expressed. Whereas we have words for all our
thoughts, which are as perfect as our thoughts are, and
will convey our meaning to others who understand the
words as precisely and fully as we comprehend it our-
selves. He who has clear and precise thoughts, will
as certainly have words whereby to convey them to
others with clearness and precision, as he who has
perfect organs of vision will be, perfectly to see and
distinguish visible objects; or as he whose auditory or-
gans are perfect, will be, perfectly to hear and distin-
guish audible sounds. And it would be every whit as
rational to suppose that the objects which we see and
the sounds which we hear were not what those organs
were constituted and intended to perceive, as to sup-
pose that our words, the vocal utterances of our
thoughts, did not signify and express them. He who
complains that he has not words to express his thoughts,
does but confess that he lacks the thoughts themselves,
or has them only in a confused, indeterminate, and un-
intelligible state.

It has been argued that a verbal expression of our

150 THE PLENARY- INSPIRATION

thoughts concerning colors, sounds, or other objects of
sensational perception, to those who have never expe-
rienced the corresponding sensations, fails to convey to
them ideas of colors, sounds, etc., and therefore that
language is imperfect and inadequate. But it does not
follow that because the vocal utterance of words does
not fulfill the peculiar office of seeing and hearing, and
other senses, therefore it does not perfectly fulfill its own
peculiar office. It is not pretended that words represent
colors, or sounds, or sensations. It is their office to re-
present and express thoughts, and that they perfectly ac-
complish. For example : the word blue is the name of
a color of which we attain a knowledge only by sight.
The word thunder is the name of a sound which we
know by hearing. The word pain is the name of a
sensation which we know by suffering it. "When we
have experienced what these names denote, and learned
what they are employed to signify, we think of the
several sensations in the words appropriated to them
respectively. When we utter those words in the hear-
ing of those who from their own experience understand
them, they perfectly convey our thoughts. To utter
them to those who have had no such experience is but
the same as to utter them to persons who are deaf,
dumb, and paralytic ; and is to no more purpose as an
argument in opposition to the perfect sufficiency of
words to express our thoughts, than it would be to say
that because the blind and deaf can not see and hear,
therefore the organs of sight and hearing are not per-
fect and adequate to their object. It is those only who
take words to be the signs of things, who imagine them
to be inadequate to their office, because they do not

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 151

convey the sensations of sounds and colors, as well as
the thoughts which the names of those sensations re-
present. Words, as truly as our senses, are instru-
ments or channels of information, the one concerning
our thoughts, the other concerning external objects.
It is not the part of either of them to supersede or to
perform the office of the other.

The soul acts and is acted on through the organs of
the body. The senses are its instruments, in relation
to the external world. The visual and auditory organs
are among its instruments of perception, and sensation,
which precede our thoughts concerning those phenome-
na. The vocal organs are the instruments of express-
ing thoughts in words. Words are the instruments by
which the soul thinks and is conscious of its thoughts.
The difference between these instrumentalities lies in
tli is, that those which are merely physical organizations,
as the eye and ear, produce their effects mechanically
and without an intervention of the will. The open eye
in the presence of visible objects,_secs, whether the will
consents or not. Whereas the act of thinking proceeds
directly from the will, and involves responsibility
which attaches to the words employed to signify and
express the thoughts, and by using which the act of
the soul in thinking is exerted. Hence the certainty
that words are the instruments, the constituted and
necessary vehicle of all our thoughts. Our responsi-
bility begins with the act of the will, which is realized
to the soul in a consciousness of what, when expressed
by the vocal organs, we call words. The act of the
will, the thought, and the consciousness of it in a form
equivalent to the mind to a verbal expression of it to

152 THE PLENARY INSINUATION

the ear, are coincident. Hence successive thoughts are
the result of successive acts of the will ; and we are
conscious of them in the order of that succession, as
when we give them vocal utterance. We can no more
think of two distinct objects or the names of them at
the same time, than we can pronounce those names
simultaneously. The exercise of the will is, therefore,
as necessary to the production of any one thought as to
that of any other, and as necessary to the production of
each successive thought as the exercise of the vocal
organs is to each successive vocal expression. We not
only remember thoughts in the words by which they
were expressed, but we remember them in the syllabic
succession of vocal utterance.

Because words which we employ as names of sensi-
ble objects do not express all the particular thoughts
we have concerning the natures, qualities, relations, and
uses of those objects, those words are alleged by some
to be imperfect and inadequate ; as though they would,
if perfect, express, respectively, not one, only, but
scores of distinct thoughts. But it might, on the same
ground, and with equal reason, be alleged that the
visual organ is imperfect, since to see an object is to
see only its outline or surface, not its internal structure
and qualities. It is on the contrary a perfection of
language corresponding to perfection in the exercise of
the intellect according to its constitution, and perfec-
tion in the vocal organs and their exercise, that words
represent only the distinct thoughts which they are
expressly employed to signify ; some to represent the
thoughts which are signified by the names of objects ;
others, those which relate to the natures, qualities, and

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 158

other particulars of those objects. For thus it is that
words are made to represent distinctly all the thoughts
we have. Our intellectual constitution is such that, on
the one hand, all those objects of any particular class,
which are generally alike, or in one or more respects
identical, however numerous and diverse the details,
are comprehensible under one name — that is, one word,
while the diversities and details are distinguishable by
other words ; and on the other hand, all our intel-
lectual notions, to whatever they relate, are conceived
by us in words which are already known to us in some
physical or mental relation, and which we appropriate
to new conceptions ; or are conveyed to us by words
spoken or written, which we hear or read.

Thus is our knowledge regulated in its acquisition,
and limited in extent. Words result from our mental
and physical constitution as thinking and speaking,
seeing and hearing do. To imagine that we know any
tiling which we have not words to express, is equiva-
lent to imagining that we hear sounds which are not au-
dible, and perceive in matter what is beyond the reach
of our senses. "We can no more conceive intellectually
of any thing without words, than we can see without
visual or hear without auditory organs. It may per-
tain to our constitution that the thoughts which result
from our involuntary sensations, should excite the in-
tellect and the will to conceive thoughts other than
those which it is the province of sensation to originate.
The power to think and to conceive new thoughts,
may thus be put in operation by the enginery and
prior action of the senses ; and the thoughts so con-
ceived may comprise what some denominate intuitions ;
7*

154 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

but however that may be, and from whatever influ-
ence they may result, they are spontaneously and inva-
riably conceived in words, and words whose significa-
tion is of course identical with the thoughts of which
they are thus the matrix, and which they perfectly re-
present and express when sj)oken and written.

Intellect is a part of our nature, and as a created
organism is as perfect as any of the adjunct organs of
sense. It operates organically according to its nature,
as the organs of sense do according to theirs. That
intellectually to conceive thoughts in words therefore,
and not otherwise, should be a result of organization —
a law of intellectual action, is no more remarkable,
than that distinct and diverse sensations of sight should
be a result of the organic structure and operation of the
eye. The connection of the will with thoughts and
words intellectually conceived, and with the feelings
which they excite gives them their moral character
and significance. The difference between the ortho-
graphy and the vocal sounds of the words in different
languages which represent and express the same
thoughts, originates, not in the intellectual organism in
conceiving thoughts in words, but in the antecedent
and accustomed articulations of the words of the re-
spective languages. Hence words inspired into the
mind of a Greek, conveying though ts to be understood
and to be spoken and written by him, will be in sound,
articulation, and orthography, Greek words. If he be
individually familiar with but few and simple words,
the inspired words will be the same, or correspond in
simplicity with those previously known to him. And
here lies the ground of confidence in translations. As

OF THE HOLY SCKIPTUliES. 155

the words originally inspired perfectly conveyed the
thoughts which they were intended to express, so the
words of equivalent signification, in the same connec-
tions in other languages, when substituted for the origi-
nals, will perfectly convey the same thoughts : accord-
ing to the example, 1 Cor. 14, where the words of
those who spoke in tongues unknown to the audience,
were to be translated by others by the articulation of
equivalent words which the hearers understood. In
like manner with respect to uninspired words : men of
different nations conceive the same precise thoughts in
the peculiar words of their respective tongues ; and
possess themselves of each other's thoughts by each
substituting his own for the foreign words of the
other.

It is undoubtedly true that the words which we cm-
ploy in our intellectual conceptions are, for the most
part, the same, or derivatives from the same, which
were previously in use in relation to sensational per •
ceptions and objects of sense ; and hence the secondary
significations, which are founded in real or conceived
analogies, and the figurative and poetical use of words,
and those intellectual visions of agents, objects, acts,
aud effects, in which analogous things are symbolically
represented.

The most respectable attempt which we have met
with to prove the imperfection of language, by argument
and. induction, is exhibited by Mr. Dugald Stewart in
that part of his Philosophical Essays, in which he re-
futes t lie peculiar notions of Mr. Home Tooke: where he
endeavors to show that words spoken or written, in-
stead of being the vehicle by which the thoughts of the

156 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

speaker or writer are conveyed to the hearer, do but
serve the insignificant purpose of stimulating his mind
to think. Presuming that this acute and practised
writer has done the best that could be done, to estab-
lish, or, at least, to impart a degree of plausibility to
the view which he adopts, and that he has, however,
succeeded, notwithstanding the imperfection which he
ascribes to language, in conveying his own thoughts to
his readers by means of the words which he employs ;
we deem it worth the while to examine what he says.
We can not help surmising, however, at the outset,
that he had not, in this instance, a perfectly clear con-
ception of the import and relations of what he said ;
and that the special view which he took of the office
and effect of words, was induced by his zeal to subvert
the erroneous theories of the writers whom he opposed.
The leading proposition in the first series of his Essays,
is, that we have many primary beliefs, notions, or ideas,
the suggestion of which to the mind, is occasioned, not
by sensation or consciousness, or by any external influ-
ence, but by the exercise of certain of our mental facul-
ties. These ideas he seems to have conceived of
as existing independently of words ; a delusive and
futile abstraction, precisely on a level with that of con-
ceiving of geometrical problems independently of lines,
curves, and angles. To treat of those ideas as things
having a potential existence before we are conscious of
them, is to transcend the bounds of consciousness, and
utter words without significance. No sooner do they
exist as thoughts than we are conscious of them ; but
we are conscious of them only in and by means of the
words which express and represent them. That there

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTUltES. 157

is in the constitution of the mind a foundation, capacity,
susceptibility, of experiencing those normal beliefs, con-
victions, intuitions, of being excited to think those
thoughts and of actually thinking them, is as plain as
that there is a foundation for feeling sensations, hear-
ing audible sounds, and seeing visible objects. But
when we think either of sensations or intuitions, words
are the matrix and vehicle of our thoughts.

The fallacy pertaining to this disquisition, which
arises from his partial view of what we are actually
conscious of, clings to his refutation of the philological
speculations of Mr. Tooke ; and if it did not occasion,
it forms a principal element of all his observations con-
cerning the imperfection of language.

" Wc speak." he says, l: of communicating, by means of words, our
ideas and our feelings to others ; and wo seldom reflect sufficiently on
the latitude with which this metaphorical (?) phrase ought to be under-
stood. The truth is, that, even in conversing on the plainest and moat
familiar subjects, however full and circumstantial our statements may
be, the words which we employ, if examined with accuracy, will be
found to do nothing more than to suggest -hints to our hearers, leaving
by far the principal part of the process of interpretation to be performed
by the mind itself. In this respect, the effect of words bears some re-
semblance to tho stimulus given to the memory and imagination, by an
outline or a shadow, exhibiting tho profile of a countenance familiar to
tho senses. ... In reading, for example, tho enunciation of a pro-
position, we are apt to fancy, that for every word contained in it, thcro
is an idea presented to the understanding; from the combination and
comparison of which ideas, results the act of the mind called judgment.
So different is all this from the fact, that our words, when examined
separately, arc often as completely insignificant as the letters of which
they are composed; deriving their meaning solely from the connection,
or relation, in which they stand to others. Of this a very obvious ex-
ample occurs, in tho case of terms which have a variety of acceptations,
and of which the import, in every particular application, must be cl»1-
lect 'I from tho whole sentence of which they form a part."

158 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

Having alleged this necessity of comprehending the
words of a sentence according to their import in the
connection and relation to each other in which they
are arranged, in order to express the thought which
they are intended to convey, as an inherent imperfec-
tion of language, he goes on to say that the imperfec-
tion is great and palpable in proportion as the words
of a sentence are, in their arrangement, more or less
capable of being transposed ; and greatest of all when
complex or abstract notions are to be spoken of.
Thus:

"In reading, accordingly, the most perspicuous discussions, in which
such notions form the subject of the argument, little instruction is re-
ceived, till we have made the reasonings our own, by revolving the steps
again and again in our thoughts. The fact is, that, in cases of this
sort, the function of language is not so much to convey knowledge
(according to the common phrase) from one mind to another; as to
bring two minds into the same train of thinking ; and to confine them
as nearly as possible to the same track. Many authors have spoken of
the wonderful mechanism of speech; but none has hitherto attended to
the far more wonderful mechanism which it puts into action behind the
scene."

We humbly conceive that the difficulty which Mr.
Stewart regarded as an imperfection in language, is
in fact in no degree of that nature, but arises wholly
from ignorance, negligence, or other defects in speak-
ers and writers and in hearers and readers. He who
conceives thoughts clearly, and utters them distinctly
in the words in which he conceives them, does all that
is needful on his part to convey them to other minds.
lie expresses his own thoughts as he conceives them,
in the words which signify them to his own conscious-
ness, and which, understood as he understands them,

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 159

are their exact echo and representative to others. The
difficulty, or ground of alleged imperfection, lies, not
in any inherent or real imperfection in language as the
vehicle of thought; but wholly in the fact, that from
e lucation and habit, from different degrees of know-
ledge as to the usage and the proper and received sig-
nification of words, or from prejudice, partisanship,
or other causes which influence their understandings
and their wills, speakers and hearers, readers and writers,
do not uniformly and upon all subjects, understand the
same words, however arranged and related, as signify-
ing the same thoughts. A writer who, upon a subject
which is equally well understood by all his readers,
and equally familiar to them as a subject of daily con-
versation, employs only such words as are in familiar
and constant use respecting it, will, in those words, per-
fectly convey his thoughts to his readers. He will
convey them in the words in which he conceives them,
and for the reason that they are perfectly signified by
those words as he understands them ; and for the same
reason they will receive them in those words.

Accordingly upon all the subjects and in all the in-
stances, in which it is impossible for the reader to dif-
fer from the writer as to the signification of the words
which he employs to express his thoughts — as proper
names ; local, topical, geographical, national, and other
designations; legal, theological, political, scientific,
philosophical, technical, and professional terms ; num-
bers, proportions, qualities, weights, measures, etc.,
ptc. ; they understand his words, in the connections ami
relations in which he employs them, in the same sense
with him, and he perfectly conveys his 'thoughts to

\

160 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

them in the words in which both lie and they alike
conceive them.

But upon other subjects, in other instances, and in
every case, just in proportion as the reader is deficient
of knowledge of the appropriation, usage, and meaning
of the words employed by a writer, the writer by the
use of those words will fail to convey his thoughts to
such reader; and this we apprehend is what Mr.
Stewart erroneously treats as an imperfection of lan-
guage. The argument of this generally lucid and ele-
gant writer, proceeds upon the assumption, that if
language were not inherently and necessarily imper-
fect, it would convey the thoughts of a writer as per-
fectly to a reader who did not understand and compre-
hend the signification, arrangement, and relations of the
words employed by him, as to one who did, or to one
who by patiently revolving and studying the words of
a sentence, upon a complex, abstract, or otherwise ob-
scure and difficult subject, should at length fully attain
the thoughts of the writer. As well might he argue,
that if man's eyes, the instruments of his visual per-
ceptions, were not imperfect, he would discern objects
that were shrouded in darkness, as clearly as he could
discern the same or other objects in broad daylight ;
and that the function of the eye was not so much to
convey knowledge of the object seen, as to excite and
stimulate the visual faculty. Language, correctly un-
derstood and used, is, as the medium of thought, as
perfect, as is the eye as the medium of vision ; and
were men's knowledge and use of it as perfect as the
organic action of the eye, they would universally think
alike, and upon abstruse as well as upon plain and

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 161

familiar subjects, would perfectly convey their thoughts
to each other by their words ; and, notwithstanding the
extreme diversity in the degrees of their knowledge of
words, it is certain that, generally, and in respect to all
matters of familiar thought and experience, they do
actually think alike, and, by their words, do perfectly
express and convey their thoughts to each other. To
assert the contrary is to contradict the experience and
consciousness of all classes of men. Were the con-
trary true, the affairs of domestic, social, and political
life could not go on : the enactment and publication of
laws, the terms of contracts, the execution of deeds
and wills, the testimony of witnesses, the verdicts of
juries, the decisions of courts, would determine no-
thing. Speaking and writing would, as really in one
case as in another, be the greatest of all absurdities.
It could not with certainty be known by the words of
a sentence whether it expressed an affirmative or a
negative, a premise or an induction, a question or an
answer.

Mr. Locke admits that, to understand each other,
men must understand and use words alike. But in-
stead of holding that ideas or thoughts are conveyed
from one mind to another by words, he contends that
it is the design and end of speech to excite thought in
other minds, and assumes that if the hearer under-
stands the words of the speaker just as he does, they
will excite him to cogitate the same thoughts. This,
however, amounts to much more than merely exciting
the hearer's mind to think. It amounts to no less than
saying, that if men understand each other's words alike,
each will perfectly convey his thoughts to the other by

162 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

his words, and not merely excite the other's mind to
think, and so bring two minds, as Mr. Stewart has it,
into the same train of thinking. On their theory, it
would be impossible to give a reason why it is neces-
sary for speaker and hearer to understand words alike.
If the end or effect of speaking is, not to convey ideas,
but only to excite the hearer to think, why should par-
ticular words which they understand alike be neces-
sary ? According to the theory those words would not
convey any thoughts whatever, and could, therefore,
furnish no clue by which to determine, or even to
guess, what the ideas of the speaker were. How,
then, could they ' bring two minds into the same train
of thinking, and put them upon the same track ' ? It
is plainly impossible that they should have any such
effect, unless they embodied the same definite concep-
tions in the minds of those who understood them alike,
and actually conveyed the thoughts of one mind to
another. Accordingly, the cases to which Mr. Locke,
Mr. Stewart, and others, apply this theory, by way of
illustrating and upholding their notions of the imper-
fection of language, are exclusively cases in which,
from ignorance or prejudice, men, whether upon sim-
ple or upon complex and abstract subjects, do not
understand the same things by the same words. Were
they equally instructed and equally candid, the alleged
imperfection of language would disappear. The fault
would be perceived to be not an imperfection of lan-
guage, but a defect of education and use. No one, it
is presumed, will deny that each man perfectly under-
stands his own thoughts by his words. His words,
therefore, as he understands them, perfectly signify his

OF THE HOLY SCKIPTUEES. 163

thoughts to his own consciousness. The same words,
understood as he understands them, will as perfectly
signify the same thoughts to the intelligent conscious
ness of another man. And, therefore, if they converse
together, each using words as they both understand
them, will by his words perfectly convey his thoughts
to the other. If this were not absolutely true in fact
and in universal experience, instruction, education,
science, philosophy, theology would be unmeaning
terms ; speaking, writing, reading, would be futile and
absurd.

Mr. Locke's Essay, Book 3d, " Of "Words or Lan-
guage," proceeds upon the assumption that words stand
for things or for ideas, as defined by him to be the ob-
jects of the understanding when a man thinks ; and
that language is imperfect in the same degree that
words fail to signify the nature or essence, and the
modes, qualities, and characteristics of the things to
which they relate. It would be tedious, and perhaps
useless, to add any thing to what has already been said
in opposition to these notions. Undoubtedly they lie
at the foundation of all the past and present theories
of the inherent and necessary imperfection of lan-
guage; and they are so deeply rooted in the systems
of metaphysics, and have so long held an undisputed
sway in the schools of literature and philosophy, that
if a bare statement of their erroneousness, and of the
impossibilities and absurdities which they involve, does
not suffice to confute them, a more formal and extended
confutation is required than the limits of the present
volume will permit.

It is not more certain that man exists, than that he

16-i THE PLENARY INSPIRATION"

thinks, and is conscious of and expresses his thoughts
in words. As he exists, he is a compound creature,
comprising soul and body. As such a creature, lie
thinks and acts organically. He thinks organically in
that orderly grammatical succession which is exhibited
in spoken and written sentences. He thinks organically
in the words which constitute such sentences. He is con-
scious of his thoughts in those words, and not otherwise.
His knowledge of the meaning of the words is prerequi-
site to his thinking. He is, therefore, taught the mean-
ing of the words which are necessary in his infancy, and
afterwards such as are necessary to his wants, his occu-
pations, his duties, station, profession, or inclination.
He thinks by a law of his nature which governs alike
the succession of his thoughts and the succession of
the words in which he thinks. To his consciousness
his words, as intellectually conceived, are his thoughts.
As spoken, his words are his thoughts audibly uttered.
As written, his words are his thoughts visibly ex-
pressed. By the words which he speaks and writes he
is known to others, precisely as he knows himself by
the words which he consciously thinks. Language is
just as necessary a condition of his thinking as light is
of his seeing, and sound of his hearing. He was con-
stituted to think in words, and only by means of words
as truly and exclusively as he was constituted to see
only by means of light and to hear only by means of
sound. His capacity of thinking is dormant without
words, or equivalent signs, and is bounded by his
knowledge of words ; as his capacity of seeing is dor-
mant without light, and of hearing without sound.
His capacity of thinking is enlarged by additions to his

OF THE HOLY SCRIPT UHES. 165

knowledge of words, as his capacities of seeing and
hearing are enlarged by artificial aids and facilities.

These observations might easily be confirmed and
illustrated to any extent, by particular reference to the
experience of individuals and communities, and to the
effects of classical, scientific, and professional studies,
as well as the effects of instruction in the nursery and
in the common schools and seminaries. In every de-
partment and condition of life, those have the greatest
power of thinking on given subjects, who have attained
the most extensive and most accurate knowledge of
words relating to them; because, as they acquire a
knowledge of the words pertaining to any subject, they
acquire the thoughts which those words convey, and
are enabled to think the same thoughts in the same
words. It is unphilosophical and absurd to speak of
what they learn as a knowledge of things, separate and
distinct from their knowledge of words. Beyond the
narrow range of their senses, they know nothing of
tlungs any further than they know the meaning of the
words which define and describe them. They think
what they have been taught and in the words in which
they were taught. Men of the same class, condition,
habits, employments, and religion, have for the most
part only the same thoughts, and employ only the
same words. New thoughts are propagated among
them only as new words are devised by them or intro-
duced from without.

These remarks may suffice as an answer to the theo-
ries which for many years have been propagated by
the leading German authors concerning the origin,
office, and relations of language ; among which that

166 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

of W. von Humboldt contains, perhaps, more glimpses
of truth and of common-sense, than any of the rest.
Their extreme proclivity to treat every question scien-
tifically, leads them into vague, artificial, and bewilder-
ing generalizations, in which they lose themselves, and
vainly waste their energies and their time in essays to
explain what is inexplicable and make known what is
unknowable, while they forget or neglect what is clearly
within the sphere of our consciousness, observation, and
experience. They discuss not the facts of individual
experience, but the inscrutable causes of all the pheno-
mena of language, upon theories assum d to be of uni-
versal application, while their rationalistic and Panthe-
istic notions of revelation, inspiration, and religion,
exclude from them the lights, restraints, and aids of the
infallible word of God.

Those metaphysical writers who endeavor to main-
tain the uncertainty of language, as though there was
in the nature of the case no ground of certainty that
the same words when used by different individuals
concerning the same subjects and under the same cir-
cumstances, expressed the same thoughts and conveyed
the same meaning, not only stultify themselves by
using words to convey their own thoughts to others,
but contradict experience. Men do, in fact, convey
their thoughts, truly and perfectly, to each other by
their words. "When they employ words dishonestly,
the words nevertheless import the same to the hearer
or reader as if they were honestly used. The dishon-
esty does not affect the proper meaning of the words.
It lies further back in the intention of the speaker. It
is easy to assert, as such writers do, that no two indi-

OF THE IIOLY SCRIPTURES. 167

viduals attach precisely the same meaning to the same
words ; but the assertion is a baseless assumption if
made with any reference to individuals who have
equally accurate knowledge of the meaning of words,
and are at the same time equally honest. If they think
the same thoughts, it is impossible that they should
think them otherwise than in words understood accord-
ing to their knowledge of their meaning. With re-
spect to various classes of words — as proper names,
numbers, proportions, qualities — they necessarily repre-
sent the same thoughts invariably to different indivi-
duals ; but as representatives of thought those classes
of words owe their established and uniform signifi-
cance to the same reason as all other words ; the reason,
namely, that they are employed, taught, spoken, and
written, as the representatives of particular thoughts.

All thoughts of which we have any consciousness
or any knowledge whatever, are signified, expressed,
represented, by words. Thinking, reasoning, reflect-
ing, inventing, associating, remembering, every exer-
cise of the intellect, presupposes language. An exer-
cise of the intellect apart from language, can no more
be conceived of, than arithmetic can be conceived of
without numbers, or a substance without qualities, joy
without emotion, colors without sight, hearing without
sound.

It is evil communications that corrupt good manners.
It is because they convey false, corrupt, debasing, de-
moralizing, impious, blasphemous thoughts, that cor-
rupt, seductive, immoral, impious books, are injurious
and destructive. If they did not actually convey the
thoughts, in the words which constitute them, the

168 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

words would signify nothing. If the words as read
and heard did not express the thoughts to the reader
and hearer, they would express no meaning and could
exert no influence. They would have no tendency or
adaptation to excite or give rise to particular evil
thoughts, or to any thoughts, good or bad, and would
be used without purpose or effect. "Were they not as
truly the medium and vehicle by which the thoughts
of one mind are transferred to another, as air is the
medium and vehicle of sound, it would be as futile to
employ them, as to attempt to produce sounds in a
vacuum. The arrangement and combination of letters
which constitute written words, constitute what is de-
signated by that term, simply because that arrangement
and combination signifies and expresses particular
thoughts. What we call words, are such in no other
sense, and to no other effect, than as they are used, ar-
ticulated and written to signify, express, and convey
particular thoughts.

It is wholly owing to false theories of the origin,
nature, and use of language, that speculative men,
philologists, and philosophers, treat of it as inherently
and necessarily imperfect, ambiguous, and deceptive.
As the vehicle of thought, words are in fact and neces-
sarily as perfect as the conceptions of thought are, or
as the thoughts conceived are. For all that is conceived
as thought, is conceived in words as its embodiment
and vehicle. All that we are conscious of as thought,
we are conscious of in the words in which it is con-
ceived. Thoughts and words are correlates. Words
are the moulds of thoughts. All that is remembered of
thoughts is remembered in words. All that is or can

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 169

be expressed of thoughts is expressed in articulate words
or equivalent signs.

As the instrument of thinking and of expressing
thoughts to others, words are as perfectly adapted, as
adequate, and as reliable, as the faculty of thinking is.
We neither know nor are conscious of any thing, that
we have not words to express as clearly and definitely
as we know or are conscious of it. It is not the fault
of language that men are ignorant of it, or that they
corrupt, pervert, or abuse it. It is not any inherent
or necessary imperfection of words that deceives men,
leads them to adopt false principles, or excites their
prejudice or their passions.

Language is what the Creator of men has provided
for them as the medium and instrument of thought —
the medium through which He communicates His
thoughts to them, and they their thoughts to Him and
to one another. As intellectual, moral, and social
beings, it is as necessary, as adequate, and as reliable
as any of their natural faculties, sensational or rational,
physical or mental. To suppose the contrary, consid-
ering the peculiar functions and purposes of this instru-
ment, would be to impeach the wisdom and goodness
of the Creator, and to assume that man neither has,
nor can have, any infallible rule of faith and life, or
any indubitable certainty either as to his own thoughts,
or as to the thoughts of his fellow-creatures.

170 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

CHAPTER IX.

NATURE AND OFFICE OF TYPES.

It is because the words of Scripture have not been
taken to signify simply and exactly the thoughts which
they express in the connections in which they are em-
ployed, that fanciful and preposterous theories and
systems of figurative, typical, and symbolic construc-
tion, have been predicated on them. Thus, whatever
in the historical or prophetical records of the Old Tes-
tament presents any points of real or seeming analogy
with any thing under the Christian dispensation, is as-
sumed by many to be typical of such analogous things.
And to meet the very formidable absurdity of suppos-
ing that the words of the original record conveyed no
intelligible meaning, till the appearance, ages after, of
the things typified, this class of interpreters ascribe to
the words a double sense ; one, that of the same words
in their ordinary acceptation, the other a tropical or
spiritual sense, according to which they may signify-
any thing that can be imagined.

Thus, on the ground that some of the official per
sons, and their acts, and the objects and effects of them,
as described in the Old Testament, were typical of re-
sembling persons, acts, and effects in the New, it is

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 171

gratuitously assumed that every thing set forth in the
one, whether ritual, ceremonial, historical, or predictive,
typified something analogous in the other. This may
be one degree short of the system which regards all
the phenomena of the earth and its inhabitants, as ex-
act copies of corresponding things in the heavens ; but
it involves the supposition that the words of Scripture
have one superficial, earth-born, vulgar meaning ac-
cording to the letter, and beneath that, a deep, occult,
spiritual meaning.

Now it is the nature and office of a type, visibly to
foreshadow something resembling itself in nature and
sphere, and either as a whole, or in some particular
and important respect. The types of the Old Testament
briefly expressed in a visible and impressive manner,
what it would have required many words to express
with equal effect. Like symbols, they were employed
on the principles of analogy, and as substitutes for
words ; but they were not prophetic like symbols.
Being illustrative personations, acts, and rites substi-
tuted for words, it was essential to their use as types,
that the things signified should be known and under-
stood beforehand. Otherwise they would be the me-
dium or representative of no intelligence, and could
not serve as substitutes for words, any more than a
picture could represent as real an object which did not
exist. They were accordingly used as types, not on
account of any thing inherent in them, but solely by
the Divine appointment ; and were connected with the
tabernacle and its ritual and services, which were in all
respects of special Divine institution. It was their ob-
ject by visible exhibition and action, to impress upon

172 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

the worshippers the most important truths of their reli-
gion, and to excite the exercise of their faith in them ;
truths which had been revealed, and were understood
by the people. Thus, that Christ would appear in
human nature, execute the office of a Priest, offer Him-
self a sacrifice for sin by the shedding of His own
blood, and fulfill all that belonged to His office, had
been revealed, and was understood ; and obviously, it
was just as necessary that those truths should be cor-
rectly understood beforehand, in order to their being
represented by types in a manner intelligible to the
worshippers, as in order to their being intelligibly and
correctly expressed in words, and just as necessary that
the official agency of the Jewish high priest, and every
thing that had a typical reference, should be consti-
tuted a type by Divine appointment, in order to their
correctly representing those truths, as that the truths
themselves should be originally inspired. The appoint-
ment of certain persons, acts, and things, to typify cer-
tain specific acts and things which had been revealed,
and on which the faith of the worshippers rested, was
a mode of expressing revealed truths equivalent to an
expression of them in words. For men, therefore, to
treat as typical, any thing which had not that office by
Divine appointment, would be an error like that of
substituting words of their own choosing, in place of
the original words of inspiration.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 173

CHAPTER X.

THOUGHTS REMEMBERED ONLY IN" WORDS.

It is the office of memory, to renew our former
thoughts, by recalling the words in which we con-
ceived and expressed them. We remember them only
as we remember the words. We can no more remem-
ber than we can originally be conscious of them, apart
from the words. Such is our experience, not only
when in health, but when affected by diseases which
intensify the power of recollection, or by which it is
wholly or partially suspended. A case is known, for
example, of a literary man, who, by the effect of dis-
ease, lost all recollection of what he had learned. By
degrees he regained the names of the familiar objects
of sense, as they are learned by a child. As he reco-
vered his health, he learned the alphabet anew, and
applied himself to the study of syllables and words,
when suddenly all that he had formerly learnt in seve-
ral languages, was instantly restored to him, so that
he could speak, read, and write all the words previ-
ously within his knowledge. In another instance, the
power of recollection was so enlarged that the thoughts
and words relating to the experience of a life of many
years, were rendered consciously present in a moment
of time.

174 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

Every one knows that, when relating a story, re-
peating what he has heard or read, or stating a propo-
sition, if he has forgotten some words — names of per-
sons, or places, numbers, technical or qualifying terms —
he is at a stand ; he can not recall the thoughts with-
out the lost words, and wanting them, his whole narra-
tive, recital, or statement, may be rendered senseless,
or false. He can not substitute another name for that
of the hero or agent to whom his narrative relates.
Another name would not express the thoughts of the
forgotten original, and would not identify the person.
On the contrary, it would be a fiction, a deception, or
a falsehood. Even if he remembered some of the at-
tributes of the man in question, they would not iden-
tify him. They would be such as belong to other men ;
whereas the name distinguishes him as an individual.

The necessary conditions of thinking are, under-
standing, will, language, and consciousness. Its aux-
iliaries are, external objects, organs of perception, vo-
cal sounds, written words, and internal sensations, emo-
tions, feelings, memory. Thinking itself, is the exer-
cise of the understanding under the influence of the
will, through the instrumentality of words, and with
the cognizance of consciousness. Just in proportion,
therefore, as any man is endowed with those condi-
tions, and supplied with those auxiliaries, he is capaci-
tated to think, and to express his thoughts intelligibly
and perfectly to others. But the cogitative exercise of
the understanding takes place only in accordance with
our intellectual constitution and physical organization,
and with the laws of the understanding and of lan-
guage. That exercise, at first, and at every stage of

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 175

progress, is subject to those laws. In children, the
conditions are but incipient. By experience of the
external and internal auxiliaries, and by acquiring a
knowledge of words, the understanding and the power
of thinking are gradually, and may be indefinitely en-
larged. Without acquiring a knowledge of word- as
instruments of thought and speech, the man would
not emerge from the state of infancy. His constitu-
tion and organization as a cogitative being, would be
as truly in vain, if he lacked a knowledge of words, as
if he lacked understanding. Doubtless Adam could
not have acquired a knowledge of words in the same
way that his descendants do. Bat his existence did
not, like theirs, commence with infancy, and being in
all other respects a mature man, and needing immedi-
ately the language of that state, it is safe to conclude
that lie " who made man's mouth " — speech, organ of
speech — imparted to him at once the requisite know-
ledge of words, as to those at a later period who had
the gift of tongues and of the interpretation of them ;
and was " with his mouth, and taught him what to
say," as He did to Moses.

It is owing to the organic structure of language, the
vocal sounds, the syllables, the words, their distinctions
and relations in the parts of speech, and to the relation of
thoughts to words as their instruments, that our thoughts
are conceived, remembered, and expressed, in an order-
ly and intelligible succession. The intellect and the
instrument, the mental power and the machinery, are
adapted to each other, and made to work together.
But the machinery can work only according to its or-
ganization, and to that, therefore, the cogitative action

176 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

of the intellect is conformed. We not only think in
words, but we think successively, according to the or-
ganic demands of oral and written language, which
are fixed and uniform : and but for this organic instru-
mentality, for aught that is or can be known to us, our
thoughts, instead of an orderly and intelligible succes-
sion, would, though conceived in words, be a mere
chaos of successive sounds.

To this organic instrumentality, in its relation to me-
mory, is to be referred the exercise of the intellectual
power of associating thoughts which in some respect
resemble or are analogous to each other. The con-
sciousness of our present thoughts in the words by
which we are rendered conscious of them prompts the
recollection of resembling and analogous thoughts and
words. The thoughts so recalled and associated, and
which are commonly regarded as the product of a dis-
tinct suggestive faculty, are those of similitude, contrast,
or correlation, and contiguity with respect to time and
place. On the view above given of the office of words
and of the memory of thoughts in words, they require,
when they involve similitudes, no distinct faculty, any
more than the present consciousness and recollection of
any thoughts in the orderly succession of the words
which represent them.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 177

CHAPTER XI.

THE FIGURATIVE USE OF WORDS.

The figurative use of words, is the result of our
organic mode of conceiving thoughts in words. Our
words, for the most part, are primarily those which
were earliest required and employed to signify our
thoughts of things within the observation of our senses.
But we naturally and easily appropriate them to ex-
press whatever thoughts we intellectually conceive of
things of other kinds which have in some respect a
real or an apparent resemblance. Such secondary
analogical appropriations, are termed figurative, and
are rendered obvious by the connections in which they
occur. Thus we say of a bird on the wing, that it
flies. Its progress, and the operation of its wings, we
perceive by our sense of sight. Our thought of its
movement, we express by the word flies. The resem-
blance between that movement, and that of a ship un-
der sail, and that of a cloud impelled by the wind, is
such, that we intelligibly and forcibly express our
thought of the movements of the ship and the cloud,
by saying, (lie ship flies, and the cloud flies. Such second-
ary and figurative use of words is as much a result of
our intellectual and physical constitution, or to speak

8*

178 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

more after tlie fashion of the day, as much the result
of a law, as is our discernment of resemblances in cer-
tain particulars, between things which in other respects
are wholly dissimilar ; or as that our modes of sensa-
tional perception, are different from our modes of intel-
lectually conceiving things which are not objects of
sensation. Analogies and resemblances are as safe and
as competent grounds for the secondary and figurative
use of words, as the information of the senses is for the
primary and literal signification and use of the same
words. The figurative use of words, therefore, is no
more the offspring of conventional agreement, or human
fancy or contrivance, than is their primary and literal
use. Nor is the use and meaning in the one case any
less intelligible than in the other. Accordingly the
languages of different nations in proportion to their
verbal affluence, are as much alike in respect to the
figurative use of words, as the different peoples are in
respect to their thoughts of the objects of sense, and the
resemblances and differences of things.

Words being the intellectual medium, and, when
articulated, the vocal expression of thought, are used
according to their organic succession as instruments,
and according to the references of the thoughts which
they signify to the natures, qualities, and conditions of
the things to which they relate. Their organic succes-
sion is realized in the orderly collocation of the sylla-
bles and words of sentences, as their references are dis-
criminated by the parts of speech. Accordingly all
languages have not only the same parts of speech, but
essentially the same grammatical declensions, modes,
and tenses, so that all the modifications of thought, cor--

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 179

responding to the diverse natures, qualities, and condi-
tions of the things we perceive by our senses, and
those which we intellectually conceive, are expressed
by deflections from the primary signification and refer-
ence of our words, and by moods, tenses, etc., to a se-
condary and figurative signification. This orderly pro-
cess is uniform and universal, in all languages, whether
vocal only, or both vocal and written ; and for the
reason, that by the constitution of man, he thinks in
words, and words which express his thoughts as per-
fectly as he conceives them ; and, therefore, whatever
may be his native tongue, his words correspond to his
deflected and modified thoughts.

Such being the law of the intellect in thinking, of
our vocal organs in articulating, and of the auditory
organs in hearing, according to which we think in
words which are perfect moulds and expressions of our
thoughts, we of course think in words corresponding
as perfectly to any one class of our thoughts as to any
other ; to our thoughts of simple entities, properties,
qualities, affirmations, negations, acts, conditions, and
to their comparative resemblances and shades of differ-
ence. Hence the figurative appropriation and use of
words to represent by resemblance something else than
that which they primarily and literally signify. This
use of words is as easily learnt by children as the pri-
mary or literal meaning is, and is as necessarily a part of
the first lessons taught them in speaking and reading.
It is a perfection of language, resulting from the action
of the intellect, and the vocal organs, under the control
of the will, and from the mechanical perceptions and
discriminations of the organs of sense. It is a perfect

180 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

tion by which the same words, the same articulate
sounds, are made to express the different shades of
thought in differing relations ; and thereby supersedes
the necessity of innumerable other words and circum-
locutions which would otherwise be indispensable.
The figurative use of words is not only common to all
languages, but it largely pervades and characterizes
them all, and as well with reference to secular as to
sacred subjects ; and for the reason that to the same ex-
tent the thoughts which are conceived and expressed
in words, by the people of different countries, are
thoughts of the same resemblances, analogies, compar-
isons, substitutions, and allegorical representations.

It is therefore apparent why, conformably to the
intellectual and physical constitution, organization,
capacities, and wants of man, words should be in-
spired into the minds of the sacred writers as they are
used literally or figuratively, in ordinary speech and
writing. There was the same reason for this as for
inspiring the different kinds of words which belong to
the different parts of speech, words in their inflected
forms, and root words and their derivatives. The
thoughts to be expressed could neither be conceived
nor inspired, in any other way, any more than the
same or other thoughts can now be otherwise conceived
and expressed by uninspired men. The different parts
of speech, and the different kinds, forms, and inflec-
tions of words, no more depend on the will or con-
trivance of man, than the different articulate sounds of
which the vocal organs are capable, or the nature and
variety of thoughts of which the intellect is capable.
The words and thoughts are coeval and coincident ;

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 181

spoken words are audible thoughts. "We are so con-
stituted, that it is impossible to convey thoughts from
one mind to another, except by words, and signs equi-
valent to articulate vocal sounds. And, therefore,
whatever thoughts were conveyed by inspiration so as
to be received and understood by men, were of neces-
sity conveyed in words as they are literally or figur-
atively used in ordinary speech and writing.

Language consists mainly of three classes of words —
nouns, adjectives, and verbs, which follow each other
in the order of our experience of sensational and intel-
lectual observation and thought. The child first sees
external objects, and hears and remembers their names.
When they are out of sight he thinks of them in the
words which are their names. Next he observes their
qualities, and learns the qualifying words — adjectives —
which express, discriminate, and limit them. Then he
observes their actions, and learns their names — verbs —
and their various applications with respect to time and
other relations. The primary use of these several
classes of words in their direct application or reference,
is denominated their literal use. In their earliest form
they are significantly described as root words ; which
like the roots of a tree are prolific of offshoots, deriva-
tives, formed by changes of termination, and by prefix-
ing or suffixing letters or syllables. In the English
and other languages of equal copiousness, the deriva-
tives are many times as numerous as the roots.

The differences between nouns, adjectives, and verbs
are founded not in any thing in the words themselves,
but in the differences between the thoughts which they
represent; and the figurative use of them is founded,

182 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

not in any respect in the words nor in the subjects to
which they relate, but in the resemblances between dif-
ferent thoughts, or thoughts of different subjects, acts,
events, conditions, etc. When we say a bird flies,
we use the verb in its primary and literal sense.
When we say a ship flies, we use the verb in a
secondary, deflected, or figured sense. There is a
resemblance between the thought of motion in the
one case and in the other. But it is not natural to
a ship to fly, and to say that it flies is to say that its
motion resembles that of a bird on the wing. When
a word is used figuratively, it is used to repre-
sent a resemblance. A figure in rhetoric is a use of
words in which their ordinary signification is deflected
to express a resemblance. When we think of the mo-
tion of a bird flying in the air, we are conscious that
its movement is real and natural, and we express our
thoughts literally and exactly, by saying that it flies.
When we think of the motion of a ship under sail, we
are conscious that its movement is real and appropriate
to the nature of the ship and the element on which it
floats, and we express our thoughts literally and exact-
ly by saying, that it sails. But there is a resemblance
between the motion of the ship and that of the bird.
And to express our thought of the ship's motion in a
gale more forcibly than we can by the ordinary literal
term, sails, we transfer our thought of the bird's mo-
tion, and say the ship flies.

These observations apply substantially to all the
other figures of speech, as well as to the metaphor in
the foregoing instance: to the comparison which merely
affirms the likeness of one thing to another: to the

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 183

metononry which, applies the proper name of one thing
to another which is in some respect similar or intimate-
ly connected ; to the synecdoche, which -applies the
designation of part of a thing to the whole, or the
name of the whole to a part, and so of the rest. They
are all founded in resemblance in some particular or
degree. The resemblances exist independently of
words. They are subjects of thought ; and the man-
ner of expressing our thoughts of them, by the de-
flected or figurative use of words primarily and liter-
ally used to express our thoughts of analogous or re-
sembling things, involves no necessary confusion or
difficulty.

The imagination, the compound faculty of thinking
and feeling, the intellectual and emotional powers con-
jointly exercised, may disport itself poetically with the
resemblances in question, and with the figurative appro-
priation and use of words. But so long as it does not
violate its own legitimate office, it will only render
more intelligible and impressive, as well as more ornate
and elegant, the thoughts expressed both in its literal
and its figurative use of words.

In reference to the main subject of inquiry, it is ap-
parent from these observations, that the inspiration into
the minds of the sacred penmen, of words as they are
figuratively used, is as necessary to convey the thoughts
which they signify when so employed, and for the con-
veyance of which no other device has been discovered
or can be conceived, as the inspiration of the same or
other words to signify the simplest and most literal
thoughts. Our intellectual, sensational, and voeal
faculties are adapted to it. Our constitution, and the

184 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

nature and office of thoughts and -words, equally de-
mand it ; since we have figurative as well as literal
thoughts which are intimately connected and blended
with each other. And beyond a question, if either
class of thoughts or of words to represent and express
them, were to be left to man's contrivance and selec-
tion, it would be the literal and not the figurative.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 185

CHAPTER XII.

FALSE THEORY CONCERNING LANGUAGE, TOAT WORDS
REPRESENT THINGS INSTEAD OF THOUGHTS — PRIMA-
RY BELIEFS — CONSCIOUSNESS.

A principal fallacy which prevails concerning lan-
guage, consists in supposing it to be the office of words
to signify and represent things, instead of regarding it
as their sole office to signify and represent thoughts.
This erroneous supposition resulted very naturally from
the prevalent theory concerning the origin of language
as heretofore alluded to. On the assumptions, that
man was at his creation as an infant; that the race con-
tinued in a state of barbarism till necessity compelled
them to invent words whereby to signify their wants
and wishes to each other ; that the nature of their
wants while in a state of barbarism, prompted them
only to invent names for those things which were im-
mediate objects of their senses ; that those names
turned out to be root words, from which all the other
words of their language were derived ; that the signi-
ficance of the derivations was to be determined by
ascertaining the significance of the root words ; and
that each tribe and nation invented a language for
itself, and slowly emerged from mute and helpless ignor-

186 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

ance, some to the intelligence of picture writing, some
to the dignity of unsyllabie marks, and some to the
mysteries of hieroglyphs: on these assumptions it
would be natural to infer that the root words, and by
consequence and etymology that all words were merely
signs of things. But every one of these assumptions
is as palpably inconsistent with the nature and destiny
of man as a thinking, voluntary, and accountable
agent, as with the inspired words of God which inform
us of man's creation, and of his primitive character
and relations, and his acts and their issues.

The meanings affixed to words are the thoughts
which the words are employed to express, and which
we are conscious of and articulate, as representing the
thoughts. Beyond that, words have in no degree a
representative character. To suppose them to stand
for things instead of thoughts, would be to exclude
the thoughts which it is their nature and office to ex-
press. To constitute one thing the natural or constant
sign or representative of another, there must be some
correlative relation or connection. But no such rela-
tion in nature or by necessity exists between tilings
and words. Things exist wholly independent of
words. All things that are discoverable by our senses
are discoverable without the aid of words. But when
discovered, we can think of them only in words, by
which, silently to our consciousness and audibly by
vocal articulation, the words represent our thoughts as
by a constitutional and uniform relation, and necessary
connection. Accordingly, when the words are spoken
or written, they signify the same thoughts to others as
to ourselves.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 187

The only color of plausibility apparent in the theory
in question arises from the circumstance that the first
words which children require and learn, are the names
of those physical things which are the immediate ob-
jects of their senses. But it does not follow that
because those words are the names of things, therefore
it is their object to represent the things instead of the
thoughts of the learner concerning them. They per-
fectly represent the thoughts, but they have no resem-
blance whatever to the things. They can be learned,
and for the most part, as the child advances, are learned
without his seeing or otherwise sensibly perceiving the
things of which they are the names. As his thoughts
multiply he learns new words, and as his stock of
words is augmented his thoughts increase. Were his
acquisition of words limited to the things perceived by
his senses, he would never be able to speak or read a
grammatical sentence. The very names of his senses,
his affections, and emotions, and the qualities, peculiar-
ities, conditions, relations, causes, uses, and effects of
every thing external not within the observation of his
senses, and every thing intellectual, moral, and spirit-
ual would be entirely hidden from him, or be so dimly
and confusedly indicated by uncertain prototypes ;uid
analogies as to confound his efforts. To imagine him
to invent words even for the most familiar physical
things before he had thoughts of them, would be ab-
surd ; and if he had thoughts to be expressed when ho
invented them, they would, of course, represent the
thoughts by which they were prompted rather than
the things to which the thoughts referred. But were
it granted that some words stood for things, it is clear

188 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

that no variety of things or sensations could ever sug-
gest or occasion the variety of words and the variety
of their forms as parts of speech, and their declensions,
moods, and tenses, which are required by connected
thought, and grammatical expression. This orderly
variety presupposes intellectual and organic laws as
governing the formation of words, and undoubtedly it
is in order to the perfect conception and expression of
every variety and modification of thought, that the
vocal organs under the influence of the understanding
and the will, express the articulations, intonations, and
inflections which constitute and discriminate the entire
variety of words in each particular language. The
process implies foresight, intention, and organic action.
The writers who regard words as signs of things, lose
themselves in a labyrinth of factitious terms and dis-
tinctions. They begin by treating words as primarily
mere sounds, like those naturally made by animals
which have no verbal or acquired significance. But
words are no further like those natural sounds, than
they are like whistling and coughing. On the contrary,
words are articulate sounds, of which animals are inca-
pable ; sounds of which the articulation is the effect,
conjointly, of the intellect, the will, and the vocal or-
gans, exerted purposely to express the thoughts which
it is their office respectively to embody and convey.
They involve intelligence, discrimination, and design,
and have a particular significance to the consciousness
of the utterer, before he articulates them. He utters
them to express not mere sounds, but to express the
thoughts previously couched in them in his mind. To
say that they owe their signification to conventional

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 189

agreement is nonsense, if any thing more is meant by
that than that those who use the same words use them
at different times to express the same thoughts, for the
reason that they have the same thoughts to express,
and not for the reason that any convention of men ever
agreed upon a meaning to be affixed to unmeaning
sounds. The articulation of words preceded the possi-
bility of any such convention. Children learn to arti-
culate and to express their thoughts in words, by hear-
ing others articulate, and learning from them the mean-
ing of the words which they utter, so that they can
think the same thoughts in the same words.

Those writers instead of regarding words as organic
utterances indissolubly connected with thoughts from
the earliest exercise of the mind in thinking, and the
earliest exercise of the vocal organs in articulation, re-
gard them as sounds invented by men, to which, by
lifter agreement, they annex a meaning to signify par-
ticular tilings. Hence their notion of their uncertainty
and insufficiency. Because the meaning so annexed to
particular words — that is, sounds — does not signify all
that belongs to particular things, their names, natures,
qualities, acts, conditions, and effects, and all that the
imagination can conceive respecting them, they regard
them as imperfect and uncertain, and fancy themselves
to be at liberty, and to be competent, to remedy the
defect by annexing further meanings and varying the
signification. Or else, on the other hand, they treat
them as inherently dubious and inadequate, and fancy
an arcana of meanings in things which the intellect
perceives or imagines, but which words, owing to their
paucity and the limited and imperfect meanings which

190 THE PLKNAEY INSPIRATION

have been annexed to them, are incompetent to ex-
press. Thus Mr. Locke : " The names of substances
would be much more useful, and propositions made in
them, much more certain, were the real essences of
substances the ideas in our minds, which those words
signified. And it is for want of those real essences,
that our words convey so little knowledge or certainty
in our discourses about them ; and, therefore, the mind
to remove that imperfection as much as it can, makes
them, by a secret supposition, to stand for a thing hav-
ing that real essence, as if thereby it made some nearer
approaches to it." (Book 3, chap. 10.) Thes^ non-
verbal, unspoken meanings are supposed to lie beneath
those which our words signify. "What they are, of
course can not be told. Were we but conscious of
them in thought, we should undoubtedly have words
whereby distinctly to express them, as we have for all
other thoughts. Were they founded in feelings or
emotions, we should think of them in words as we do
in all other instances. In their nature, probably, they
are either mythical or figurative in the sense in which
it is so common with commentators to treat the words
of our language when they are used in Scripture with-
out a fig lire.

But suppose it to be true that there is in the objects
of sensation something which our senses do not report
to us so that we can express it in existing words, or in
any possible words ; and something in the like predic-
ament also, in our internal feelings, and in our intel-
lectual cogitations, of what imaginable use could it be
to us to be certified of that fact, any more than to be
certified that there are metals in the bowels of the earth

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTUKKS. 191

which can not be detected by our senses, and creatures
in the stars whose thoughts and feelings are such as
our words are inadequate to describe ? All we can say
concerning such occult, nameless, and imperceptible
things, is that, by the supposition, they exist. That
thought we have words to express.- Beyond that we
know nothing of such supposed things. We are not
conscious of them, for we have words to express every
thing of which we are distinctly conscious. They can
have no possible connection with our practical conduct,
or our obligations ; for if they had, we should be con-
scious of them and act voluntarily in relation to them.
To fancy that we have intellectual apprehensions and
thoughts of them, is but to indicate a state of mind like
that in which some fancy that they hear inaudible
sounds and see things without light, or which are be-
yond the range of vision. Yet what years and folios,
from age to age, have been wasted in evading and
explaining away the realities of our organic, constitu-
tional, conscious, and responsible existence, actions, and
relations, by the light of things unknown to us, and
which are beneath or above the province and power of
language ! Language, created to be as perfect and re- '
liable a medium and exponent of our thoughts as the
eye is of sights, and the ear of sounds, how has it been
perverted and stultified by the reveries of false phi-
losophy and the cravings of lawless imagination I"

What theories and speculations have ruled the world,
in opposition to the Scriptures, and in contradiction to
the consciousness of men !

Our consciousness of what exists and takes place
within us, is the ground of all our intellectual and

192 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

moral convictions and beliefs. Our consciousness,
though it includes involuntary sensations and feelings,
rests not in those auxiliaries of the intellect ; but cen-
tres itself upon the thoughts, the distinct successive cog-
itations, which are connected with the will, and for which
therefore we are responsible. Back of these cogitations
is the soul, the cogitative agent, with its intellectual and
executive power of thinking and willing, and those
inherent, constitutional principles, or beliefs, which are
the basis of all acquired knowledge — the prerequisite
condition, as truly as any attribute of the soul, of all
cogitative exercise of the intellect. They are that in
the nature and constitution of the soul, without which
thinking would have no point from which to start — no
basis on which to rest ; reasoning no absolute, indubi-
table, undemonstrable first truths from which to ad-
vance, or in which to terminate ; belief no insurmount-
able barriers ; consciousness and volition no rule of
discrimination. Thinking, reasoning, belief, and con-
sciousness, proceed upon them, as existing, admitted,
and incontrovertible. Without them as its platform,
the intellect could not distinctly and with confident
certainty cogitate any thing. They are to cogitation
what the axioms of mathematics are to the science built
upon them — foundation truths without which the super-
structure could not be erected. And they coexist with
that in our constitution which makes words the matrix
and medium of our thoughts, to enable us to conceive,
express, and remember them.

Among these constitutional intuitions, is that by
which the mind, in view of a known law or standard,
decides, as by a necassary and resistless impulse, that

OF THE HOLY SCBIPTUBES. 193

its voluntary cogitations and acts are good or bad, and
thereby affords indubitable evidence that we are re-
sponsible for our thoughts as well as for our acts, be-
cause they equally involve the concurrent agency of
the will. To the working of such a constitution, and
in order to our consciousness of what we think as well
as of what we do, words are an indispensable adjunct
and instrument; and they are therefore provided or
attainable, to an extent and in such forms as to be
commensurate to all our thoughts. In harmony with
all the parts of our being, organic and voluntary, in-
tellectual, physical, and moral ; they are essential con-
ditions of our existence as moral, social, and account-
able creatures, and directly concern our relations to
the Creator, to spiritual and material things, and to one
another. And they are accordingly the medium, not
only of our own thoughts, but the vehicle selected by
Infinite Wisdom for the revelation of His will to us.
To distrust them as such medium, and treat them as
inadequate to their office, is not less preposterous and
is far more criminal, than to distrust the adequacy of
the visual organ for its purpose, and to set at naught
the testimony of our senses.

The organ of vision performs a single peculiar func-
tion, that of seeing external objects ; the ear also, and
the other organs of sensation, each has a single peculiar
function. But the action of the cogitative agent, to
which these isolated and restricted organs are in their
limited sphere auxiliary, is by means of words far
more extended and comprehensive. By the senses
certain informations are received into the mind so as to
be objects of thought. But by means of words all our

9

194 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

thoughts are conceived, realized to our consciousness,
remembered and reproduced, audibly expressed and
heard, committed to writing and read, and repeated,
re-written, and re-remembered, by those who hear and
read them. Their instrumentality is thus pervading
and permanent. Words are to the soul, in respect to
all its cogitations, in their inception, and in the con-
sciousness, and recollection, and the vocal and written
expression of them, what light is to the visual and
sound to the auditory organ.

The body with its organs is the physical instrument
of the soul for certain purposes of the present life,
among which the education of the mind and heart is
the principal. In this, in all respects, and at every
step, words are the instruments of the understanding
and the will. As the body grows, and as the informa-
tions of sensational experience are multiplied, the ex-
ercise of thought advances, and words are a growing
necessity; and the acquisition, use, and memory of
them keeps pace with the progress of every branch of
knowledge.

The soul is an organism separable from the body,
and as such has constitutionally certain intuitive per-
ceptions and principles which, like elements and vital-
ity, are at the base of all intellectual and voluntary
exercises of the mind, and which will survive the shock
of death and all changes of the material organs. Among
these are such propositions as, "I exist" — "a first
cause, a self-existent, an infinite, a God, exists."
These affirmative axioms and the correlate negations,
like the axioms of mathematics to the intellect, are to
the soul native organic beliefs, as necessarily prerequi-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 195

site to thinking, reasoning, and reflecting, as that pri-
mordial faculty which we call the understanding.

They are of the nature of the soul, as holiness is of
the nature of unfallen creatures and of renewed man —
a basis and prerequisite of right action ; a basis on
which cogitation proceeds and volition arbitrates and
determines. By their nature, if unstifled and unper-
verted, they are a test of right and wrong in all that
we think and do. But cogitation founded on them
takes place only by the instrumentality of words as its
medium and vehicle. "Words, therefore, are as neces-
sary to a being formed to think, as the eye is to one
formed to see ; and those who articulate words intelli-
gently and honestly, as perfectly express their thoughts,
as those perfectly discern visible objects who open their
eyes. And but for the confusion which in metaphysics
and philosophy has arisen from the notion that words
represent things instead of thoughts, the Divine institu-
tion, office, purpose, and use of words would have been
better understood ; innumerable errors would have
been precluded ; plenary verbal inspiration of the
Scriptures would have been perceived to be necessary
from the nature and office of language and the constitu-
tion of man ; no words would be treated as figurative
which did not denote a figure and express a deflected
meaning ; and no man would be satisfied with the
fancy, that particular words signified thoughts which
they did not express, nor excuse himself by pretending
that he verily thought one thing while his words ex-
pressed another.

Unhappily the great effort of a large succession of
writers has been, under cover of their notion of the

196 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

human origin, imperfection, inadequacy, and uncer-
tainty of language, their total ignorance of the nature
of figures, the blinding inspirations of false philosophy,
and the deceitfulness and corruption of their hearts —
to unsettle and pervert the meaning of words, and
destroy all confidence in language.

In all our reasonings concerning the soul we must
regard it as an entity possessing the attributes necessary
to all the phenomena exhibited in its acts under the
conditions and in the relations in which it exists. Now
one of its conditions is that of union with an organized
physical body, and among its relations are those to the
Creator, to other human creatures, and to the external
world. In order to its action relatively to external
thiDgs, the eye, the ear, and other physical organs are
its instruments. In order to its action of thought,
volition, reflection, memory, and consciousness, in its
relations to its Creator, Benefactor, Lawgiver, Ke-
deemer, and Judge, and to its fellow-creatures, words
are the constituted medium and instrument ; and for
the ends intended to be answered by them, they are no
less perfect than the senses are for their respective
offices. Hence in our relations to God, His commands
and instructions are expressed to us in words ; and all
our thoughts towards Him, our thoughts of reverence,
adoration, confidence, and love, of obligations and du-
ties, of gratitude and praise, of supplication and thanks-
giving, are conceived and expressed in words. By
words we impart our thoughts to each other, and by
the inspiration of words the Divine thoughts were con-
veyed to the sacred penmen.

Their mission is coextensive with cogitation in all

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 197

the conditions and relations of rational creatures.
They are the constituted medium of intercourse be-
tween heaven and earth, and between men remote from
each other, as well as when locally near on earth. The
transmissions of intelligence by post and by electric
subserviency, is the transmission of thoughts in words.
They are the vehicle of collective thought, of compacts,
covenants, treaties, laws, judicial trials, testimony ; of
associated action in societies, in churches, and in eccle-
siastical and political bodies. They are the test of in-
tegrity and character. By their words men are to be
justified, and by their words they are to be condemned.
The whole number of languages is reckoned at about
three thousand. Of these the English is supposed to
be the most copious, having about eighty thousand
words. But the number of radical words does not
exceed about seven or eight to the hundred, the re-
mainder being formed by joining roots together and by
derivation. Now the manner in which this vast dis-
proportion of compounds and derivatives to roots is
effected, necessitates the conclusion that they were not
devised to represent things, but were required only to
express new and modified thoughts by new and modi-
fied articulations of vocal sounds, extending to all the*
varieties, and marking all the resemblances and shades
of thought. To imagine them, and the derivatives
especially, which are by far the most numerous class
in the vocabulary, to have been devised, and a mean-
ing assigned to them to represent such varieties and
diversities of things, is simply absurd. For, to assign
no other reason, they are formed by the annexation of
prefixes and suffixes to the root words, in a systematic

198 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

and orderly manner in perfect accordance with the
organic operation of our intellectual and physical con-
stitution, and so as to express number, gender, case,
tense, and person, which are not sensible properties of
things, but requisites and products of thought and lan-
guage.

The fallacy of one leading class of writers on what
they are pleased to call the phibsophy of language, and
on the etymologies of the English tongue, arises, as is
observed above, from their assumption that language is
of human contrivance — that words were first employed,
like pictures, as representative of things, and that their
subsequent and present significance is legitimate and
correct only so far as it coincides or is identical with
the original signification. Such is the basis of the in-
genious speculations of Mr. Home Tooke. Whereas,
on the contrary, since it is the office of words to ex-
press thoughts, the question with respect to particular
words is, what thoughts they are now employed to ex-
press, not what the same words, or their roots, were
originally employed to signify. Nothing can be more
obvious than that a particular word may perfectly ex-
press a certain thought at one period, and as perfectly
express a different thought, or shade of thought, at
another period. The etymology of words may illus-
trate the progress of transition in their use, and thereby
often illustrate the progress or decline of thoughts, and
of knowledge, ignorance, and error, but can be no
criterion of the propriety with which particular words
are used to express different thoughts at different
periods. And hence we may infer the infinite import-
ance of the infallibility of the words of Scripture. The

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 199

thoughts which they express are unchangeably the
same, and therefore behoove ever to be expressed in the
same words.

The fallacy of another system — that of Locke and
his followers — arises from the assumptions, that our
sources of knowledge are limited to sensation and re-
flection, and that ideas, which he holds to be the objects
of thought, are images of external things existing in
our minds and impressing them ; which assumptions,
besides finally resolving every thing into mere con-
sciousness of the ideas or operations of the mind, and
inevitably resulting in idealism, made no provision for
those primary intuitions and beliefs which are native
to the mind and are bases of its action ; nor for the
knowledge conveyed in the words of Divine inspira-
tion. It is apparent that according to this theory,
language must be defective and uncertain to the same
extent that the images or copies of external existences
which are assumed to subsist in the mind, fail to cor-
respond to the natures, modes, and relations of the
things which they are assumed to represent.

According to the theories of Aristotle, Des Cartes,
Locke, and their followers, ideas formed and existing
in the mind, were images, phantasms of things ex-
ternal to the mind, and as such were the immediate
objects of thought, and the medium by which the per-
ception, real or imaginary, of external objects is
effected. They seem not to have considered that in
such a relation thought and knowledge — conscious
thought and conscious knowledge — arc identical. That
which we think of an external object, is that which we
have learned, and conceived, and know concerning it.

200 TIIE PLENARY INSPIRATION

If we know nothing of a particular external object,
we can have no thoughts concerning it, nor concerning
any representative image of it in the mind : we can
not be conscious of such image, nor can it exist, or be
the object of thought or the medium of perception.
For that which we previously know of an external
object, must be the basis of the supposed image, and
must precede the formation of it. The object itself,
therefore, must have been the immediate object of
thought, before it was possible for the mind to fabri-
cate the image. Such image, then, could not be the
medium of such prior thought, and if formed, could
not supersede the object itself as the immediate object
of thought.

In their discussions they more or less confounded
thoughts and what they denominated ideas ; and they
seem to have mistaken what they called ideas, for what
the mind is conscious of by the conception of thoughts
in words. They overlooked the office and relations of
words as the medium, instrument, and representative
of thought. If, instead of taking it for granted that
there can be no thoughts without the supposed ideal
images as their medium, they had realized that there can
be no thoughts except in words as their medium, their
speculations would have been relieved from their first
and chiefest difficulty, and might have been in har-
mony with our experience and our consciousness.
They would have held that what we actually perceive
by means of our senses, must ' as really and certainty
exist as we exist and have the capacity of perception.
The Peripatetic, instead of saying, ' I perceive the
form of an object which comes directly from it, and

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES 201

makes an impression upon my mind, as a seal makes
an impression upon wax ; ' and the Cartesian, instead
of saying, ' I perceive an image, form, or idea of the
object, in my own mind,' would respectively say, • I
perceive the object itself, by means of the senses which
are a part of my nature and constitution for that very
purpose.' And on the other hand, instead of saying.
' We think immediately of the ideal images in our
minds,' they would say, '"We think immediately of the
objects themselves which we have perceived by our
senses ; but we think in words which, though they are
not images of external objects, and have no resem-
blance or relation to them, are the necessary medium
and instrument of thought, and perfectly signify, ex-
press, and convey, all our thoughts upon each and every
subject.'

These erroneous theories have exerted a powerful
and enduring sway, notwithstanding their palpable in-
consistency with facts and with all practical experi-
ence in the use of language. They have been rendered
current by the authority of names, and by the suffrages
of teachers and writers, given without examination or
suspicion. That they are erroneous, unfounded, and
in a very high degree injurious, however, scarcely
needs to be more than stated to be felt and acknow-
ledged. For not only are the words of speakers and
writers consciously and solely employed to express
their thoughts, but for the most part they have no
reference whatever to visible or other objects of the
senses. And it seems impossible that they should be
imagined to represent things, except upon the footing
of idealism, which assumes that things themselves

0*

202 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

have no existence out of the mind. The definitions of
words in our dictionaries, which are given to express
and illustrate the thoughts represented by the respect-
ive words, are not descriptions of things, but expres-
sions of the same thoughts in different but equivalent
words. Words may describe things by expressing our
thoughts concerning them; but material forms and
pictures only can stand as their representatives.

It is in the high province of metaphysics to treat of
the properties and affections of all beings. In relation
to the human mind, however, the range of inquiry
and observation is limited to that of which the mind
itself is conscious. But in this department of meta-
physical investigation, the writers seem, from first to
last, to have overlooked the fact, that we are as con-
scious of words, and of thoughts only in words, as we
are of sensations ; and that we remember our thoughts,
and equally our sensations, only in the words by which
we express them to others. The Aristotelian and
Cartesian doctrine which ruled in the schools of learn-
ing more than two thousand years, that our ideas are
copies of external things impressed on our minds by
sensation, as seals are impressed on wax, seems to have
wholly diverted the attention of philosophers and on-
tologists from words of which we are conscious as the
element and condition of thought, to an imaginary
notion of which no one is or can be conscious.

Undoubtedly, except by constitutional intuition, and
Divine inspiration, we neither know nor can know any
thing of mind, but by its own consciousness. We are
conscious of sensations by means of our senses. We
are conscious of thoughts by means of words. Such

OP THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 203

consciousness is common to all, and as much and as
reliably within the observation of one as of another.
It is not, like matter, a subject of experiment and ana-
lysis; and is realized not by scientific inquiry, but by
intellectual observation. It may be the subject of ob-
servation more, indefinitely, to some than to others;
but the truth of whatever may be said respecting the
mind, must be determined by an appeal to conscious-
ness. And hence may be seen the admirable wisdom
and goodness of the Creator, in providing words as the
medium of conscious and responsible thought, whereby
each individual is a microcosm, a world in himself, in-
dependently of the learning of philosophers and the
theories and systems of science : conditioned to be a
rational and accountable agent, independently of all
other created agents ; and capable of receiving, by in-
spired words, the knowledge of things out of and far
above the natural sphere of his personal consciousness.
The first, and by far the most important, problem
in mental philosophy, relates to our constitutional intu-
itions, or those primary principles, which are as much
of the nature of the soul, as understanding, will, or any
of its constitutional properties. That those constitu-
tional principles, or beliefs, exist, are among the condi-
tions precedent to cogitation, and are realized and felt
to be authoritative coincidently with the cogitative and
responsible exercises of the mind, is undeniable, and
is generally acknowledged. Nor is it any more in-
credible or wonderful that they should be of the nature
of a thinking and responsible agent, than that the ca-
pacity of feeling, thinking, and willing should be of
the nature of such an agent, and be realized and mani-

204 THE PLENARY IXSPIRATIOX

fested from the first dawn of experience. Like latent
heat in matter which becomes sensible by experiment,
they are in the constitution of the soul, to be realized
by the exercise of its faculties ; as understanding, will,
and other faculties, are of the nature of the soul, and
are realized by the rational exercise of its powers.
They are involuntary, spontaneous, necessary convic-
tions, feelings, beliefs, arising in such variety and in
such relations as are demanded by the voluntary acts
of the mind : the elements and groundwork of cogita-
tion. These primordial facts, feelings, beliefs, are ele-
ments of our mental constitution and conditions of our
acquired knowledge, and must, therefore, be regarded
by us as ultimate and true. For if not so regarded,
then no fact of which we are conscious, can for that
reason be held to be true, and we, therefore, can have
no certainty that any thing is true.

The congruity of these original principles, as being
of the nature of the soul, with the acquisition of know-
ledge by instruction, and the concurrent exercise of the
understanding and the will, in thinking and reasoning,
both corroborates and illustrates the reality of their
existence, their indispensableness, and their sponta-
neity. They are in harmony with the earliest intel-
lectual perceptions in children, as the mechanism of the
eye i» preadjusted and in harmony with their earliest
visual perceptions. Without that preexistence and
adjustment of the visual organ, the access of light and
of physical objects would be in vain. Without the
preexistence and spontaneous coaction of these origins]
principles, the access of excitements to think, reflect,
and reason, would be ineffectual. Their spontaneous

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 205

realization and harmony with the first intellectual per-
ceptions, accords with the synthetic, which, in distinc-
tion from the analytic, is the natural and necessary
mode of primary instruction. In effect they arc to the
mind, what optical p readjustment is to the eye: and
as the most simple and familiar objects only, are first
observed and discriminated by the visual faculty, so
the simplest facts of sensation, which, as subjects of
thought, imply certain preexistent and necessary facts
or principles, are those first brought to the notice of
the intellect. As the progress of instruction and ex-
perience supplies new thoughts, their antecedent cor-
relates are spontaneously evolved.

The doctrine of second causes, which unavoidably
results from the Scripture doctrine, concerning The
First Cause, involves what is asserted of the existence,
operation, and relations of these original principles. All
created existences are the product of the First Cause.
But, in creatures, all operations and changes which are
not supernatural, proceed from the laws and forces of
dependent causation which belongs to their constitution
as creatures. Thus the laws and forces of matter are
causes, not merely antecedents, of their uniform and
appropriate effects. Their existence is manifested by
the effects which, under the proper conditions, they
uniformly produce. Their limited potency, and the
uniformity of their effects, prove that they are of the
nature of matter ; so that, so far a3 we know or can
conceive, matter, organized physical substances, do not
and can not exist without them. Free agents also are
causes of appropriate effects under the proper condi-
tions. The effects which are realized to their con-

206 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

sciousness by the free exercise of their agency in think-
ing, demonstrate to them the existence of these inherent
principles of their nature. For it is only in the act of
thinking, that they have any consciousness of these na-
tive principles, facts, and beliefs. Thinking sponta-
neously causes this consciousness, and the further con-
sciousness or perception, of the agreement or disagree-
ment of their thoughts with those constitutional prin-
ciples. The effects thus caused at pleasure by a
dependent free agent demonstrate the existence in his
nature of the principles in question.

But the existence of these primary beliefs proves, on
the one hand, that we do not acquire all our knowledge
from sensation ; and on the other, that words are the
true exponent, vehicle, and measure of our conscious
thoughts; whether they be thoughts which originate
in our own minds, or thoughts conveyed to us by our
fellow-men, or in the words of inspiration. For they
attest the coincidence between the thoughts of which
we are conscious and the words in which they are con-
ceived by us, and by which we receive them from or
express them to others. Without extrinsic proof or
verbal demonstration, we necessarily believe the identity
of our thoughts with the meaning of the words in
which we conceive them, or by which they are con-
veyed to us. The Cartesian postulate, ' I think, there-
fore, I exist,' asserts a fact, namely, that we are con-
scious of thought. But we are not more conscious
of that fact than we are of the word by which we ex-
press it. The correlation of the fact and word, and the
inference I exist, are intuitions, beliefs, coeval with the
premise, and necessary concomitants of it, existing in

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 207

the mind antecedently to any formal statement or in-
duction.

Our perception of an external object of sensation is
immediately attended not only by a consciousness that
we perceive that object, but by a conscious knowledge
that the object perceived is separate and distinct from
ourselves. That knowledge is the awakened intuitive
response of the soul, and includes the reality and the
externality of the object, and its distinctness from other
objects; and it embodies itself, or is conceived in
words, and is at once a basis of reasoning, induction, and
action. Sensation, which evermore precedes the per-
ception of external objects, is thus auxiliary to intel-
lectual perception and consciousness. It furnishes a
point of information, a key-note, answerable to which
the constitutional principles, the normal beliefs of the
soul, concerning what relates to the object perceived,
become subjects of consciousness. The same is true
equally of intellectual conceptions. Every sensational
perception, and every intellectual conception, implies
certain correlate or necessary truths, which it does not
express or comprise ; but of which the soul becomes
immediately conscious. Our conscious, intuitive belief
of the externality of physical objects, is as unequivocal,
and of course as much to be relied on, as our conscious-
ness that we perceive those objects. But our sensa-
tional perception of such objects does not include their
externality. That, and other things which may be pre-
dicated of them, and equally of intellectual conceptions,
is an intuition of which the mind becomes conscious as
perceptions take place.

Now that the soul should be endowed with such

208 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

original principles, cognitions, beliefs, and become con-
scious of them when prompted by sensational or intel-
lectual perceptions, is in no degree more remarkable
than that it should be so constituted as to conceive par-
ticular thoughts, and to perceive particular objects, or
than that it should have the normal capacity of per-
ceiving under appropriate conditions, the qualities of
right and wrong in moral actions, and of experienc-
ing consequent emotions corresponding to its moral
judgments. The very notion of an intelligent rational
agent, implies the endowments or powers in question.
They are of man's nature as an intellectual, rational,
and moral being. Among all these normal cognitions
there is nothing more incredible or mysterious than
what every one is conscious of in his intuitive beliefs,
that part of a thing is not equal to the whole, that an
effect must have a cause, a contrivance a contriver, a
creature a creator.

But our perceptions of external objects which are
consequent on sensations, our intellectual conceptions,
the emotions awakened by them, and our primary be-
liefs in connection with all these mental exercises, are
realized to our consciousness in words, and not other-
wise, that- is, in words mentally or orally articulated.
"Words are their medium and vesture, the condition of
their being remembered, and the vehicle by which
alone they can be expressed to others. It is the office
of words, therefore, to represent the thoughts of which
we are conscious, and not their office to represent the
external physical objects of sensation, which are out of
the sphere of our consciousness, and which are per-
ceived by the mind only through the organic instru-
mentality of the senses.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 209

That in the constitution of the soul, by reason of
which we are conscious of thought, is that by reason
of which we arc coi'ncidently conscious of the words in
which our thoughts are contained, and of their corre-
lation and indentity of significance. It results spon-
taneously from the nature, constitution, capacity of the
soul that we should be conscious of words when we
think, as we are conscious of light when we open our
eyes, and of articulate sounds when words are audibly
spoken or read in our hearing. Such consciousness is
the ground, or prerequisite condition of our under-
standing, discriminating, and comprehending any thing,
internal or external. Hence, without further disqui-
sition in this direction, we may perceive the absolute
necessity of the joint inspiration of thoughts and
words.

Revelation is addressed not to a particular faculty
of our minds, but to our whole nature as rational and
accountable agents. It consists of facts and laws, in-
junctions and prohibitions, instructions and illustrations,
challenging instant faith and obedience on our part
When these are presented to the mind in words, our
intellectual and moral nature responds to their reality
and truth as verbally expressed, in like manner and
for the same reason that the dormant constitutional be-
liefs of those to whom no Divine revelation is made in
words, are quickened and rendered efficient so as to
subject them to moral obligation, and render their dis-
obedience inexcusable, when they behold the works of
creation which intelligibly manifest the invisible things,
even the eternal power and Godhead of the Creator.
(Rom. 1 : 20.)

210 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

It is of the nature of the soul, and in order to its
action as a moral agent, to have various capacities, sus-
ceptibilities and powers, all of which, like his senses,
.are dormant till excited by some appropriate instru-
mentality. This is equally manifest in the education
of children, and in the experience of adults. But
when quickened they spontaneously attest the corre-
lation and congruity of that which they deliver with
that which excites them. The correlation of words
and thoughts is thus attested ; and therefore inspired
thoughts imply inspired words, and demonstrate the
importance of the words employed as the matrix and
counterpart of the thoughts conveyed. And since
words are naturally the instrument of thought and of
intercourse among men, since they are the vehicle of
revelation, and of intercourse between man and his
Creator, and since the thoughts which he conceives and
is conscious of in words during the present life, he is to
remember in the future, we may infer that words are
forever to be the medium and instrument of his
thoughts.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 211

CHAPTER XIII.

PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF THE SUBJECT — PERVERSION'S
OF LANGUAGE.

The bearing, on the instruction of the young,
of what has been advanced concerning the ministry
of words, is too obvious to require any extended
illustration. It is not only of the first importance to
teach them the exact meaning of words, that they may
ever after serve as stereotype patterns of their thoughts ;
but to teach them especially, those words which imme-
diately concern their highest relations as accountable
creatures, their obligations and duties, their spiritual
and eternal interests. Such words indelibly printed on
the memory, are as beacons and landmarks. They form
the nucleus of association, the waiting handmaid and
instrument of thought. They are to be taught not
merely as the means of present instruction and impres-
sion, but that they may have a fixed and permanent
lodgment in the understanding, be remembered and re-
called, and taught by each one to his sons and his sons'
sons. Such is declared by Moses to have been the
purpose of the announcements at Sinai, amidst the
most imposing and awakening external circumstances.
" Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently,

212 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen,
and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy
life : but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons :
specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord
thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather
Me the people together, and I will make them hear
My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the
days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they
may teach their children. And ye came near and
stood under the mountain ; and the mountain burned
with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness,
clouds, and thick darkness. And the Lord spake
unto you out of the midst of the fire : Ye heard the
voice of the words, but saw no similitude : only ye
heard a voice. And He declared unto you His cove-
nant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten
commandments : and He wrote them upon two tables
of stone." (Deut. 4.) Again: " These words which
I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart : and
thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house,
and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou
liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou
shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they
shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou
shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on
thy gates." (Deut. 6.)

Conformably to this view of the importance of the
verbal instruction of the young, and in addition to the
special and inperative injunction upon parents, the
tribe of Levi was set apart to study, explain, and copy
the words of the Law, and distributed among the other

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 213

tribes to teach them. The priests and judges were to
learn them thoroughly. The kings were each to write
a copy of them, and to read them all the days of their
lives ; and it is said prospectively of those who should
turn from transgression : " My spirit that is upon thee,
and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not
depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy
seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the
Lord, from henceforth and forever." (Isa. 59.)

The same observations are in like manner appli-
cable to verbal formularies, creeds, and confessions,
as to particular words. The Scriptures consist of
words which " principally teach, what man is to be-
lieve concerning God, and what duties God requires of
man ;" and brief summaries of what they teach, in
statements, and propositions in sentences in which par-
ticular words are combined in grammatical form and
succession, are no less necessary and important to be
taught, understood, and remembered, than any parti-
ticular words in their special relations. The sacred
oracles accordingly abound in brief statements or pro-
positions which are to be believed, and in brief and
emphatic precepts, and rules of life, like the Ten Com-
mandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and all the di-
dactic portions of both Testaments ; from a collection and
summary of which the "Westminster Confession and Ca-
techism, and all other evangelical creeds and confessions,
are formed. They comprehensively fulfill the office of
words, as the medium of associated thoughts ; and their
use is sanctioned in Scripture both directly and by the
quotation in the New of particular formularies from the
Old. " The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and

214 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

in thy heart ; that is, the word of faith which we
preach : that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salva-
tion." (Rom. 10.) " God is a Spirit and they that
worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
— There is one God, and one Mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. — Christ died for our
sins, and rose again for our justification. — Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. — The
just shall live by faith. — We shall all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ." These are examples of
Scripture formularies, in the sense referred to. But,
even on the most essential points of doctrine, they are,
in the sacred record, so frequently repeated in different
connections, that a summary of them, like that of the
"Westminster Assembly, may be said to be equally ne-
cessary, commendable and advantageous. Like the
formula of baptism, and the hallelujahs, and doxolo-
gies of true worshippers both on earth and in heaven,
they concisely represent connected thoughts on the
most exalted subjects.

What the Scriptures teach they teach in the words
which were inspired and written. They teach nothing
beyond that. They have no spiritual or concealed
meaning. Those words intelligibly conveyed the in-
tended thoughts. Hence the great importance every-
where attached in Scripture to the original words, as
being all alike inspired, and of Divine authority. To
add to them or detract from them was to incur an ana-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 215

thema. " Every word of God is pure — add thou not
to 1 lis words lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a
liar." (Prov. 30.) " 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 awa}r
from the words of the book of this prophecy, God
shall take away his part out of the book of life."
(Eev. 22.)

The original words were the standard, as infallibly
expressing the meaning of the Revealer. To teach and
understand this meaning correctly, was therefore of the
first importance ; and it is of no less importance now
than at any former period, and no less important in
translations than it was to those to whom the originals
were vernacular. The translator who correctly under-
stands the words of the originals, and the equivalent
words of his version, may convey the same thoughts
with the latter which were inspired with the former.
It follows from the nature and office of words, as the
moulds and instruments of thought, that words in one
tongue — words articulated in one manner — may as per-
fectly as those of any other tongue, express the same
thoughts ; and that words perfectly synonymous with
others in the same language, may be substituted for
each other, without necessary or essential disparage-
ment to the thoughts to be conveyed.

Hence the various readings which are discovered
by comparison of manuscript copies of the originals are
practically of no consideration ; since, though numer-
ous in the later copies, they are fewer in those of older
date ; and in every instance, the substituted word is
shown by collation with the corresponding word in other

216 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

and older copies, in the same and other places, to be of
equivalent signification, or at least to differ more in
sound than in sense ; that is, the various readings, so
far as new words are introduced, are translations of the
original words, into other words of the same language ;
occasioned probably by inadvertence, the copyist hav-
ing the true thought expressed it in a parallel instead
of the original word. Most of the variations between
different copies are of letters only ; but neither in re-
spect to them, nor to those of words, is there any evi-
dence of corrupt design or of collusion, on the part of
copyists ; separated as they were in time and place, and
independent of each other. Even the manuscripts
which are least esteemed, contain every doctrine of
faith, every moral precept, and every important his-
torical fact, that is found in the best, and nothing of a
contrary and inconsistent nature. Hence the consist-
ency of our Saviour and His Apostles, when quoting
from the Old Testament, in sometimes using the version
of the Seventy, as conveying in those cases, the
thoughts of the original, and being familiar, probably,
to their hearers and readers, instead of always directly
translating from the Hebrew into Syriac, or into Greek.
A faithful translation of the Scriptures from the
original text into another language, may, to the reader
who correctly understands that language, have the
same authority as the original had to those to whom
that was vernacular. A faithful translation expresses
the thoughts of the original in the words of the version.
The translator must correctly conceive the inspired
thoughts both in the words of the text and in the words of
his version. To him, therefore, they will have the same

OF THE IIOLY SCRIPTURES. 217

authority in the one as in the other. If he so under-
stands the original words as correctly to conceive the
thoughts in them, his reader can so understand the
words of his version as to conceive the thoughts in
those words, as correctly as the translator could con-
ceive and understand them in the original words.

The words are as truly the vehicle of the thoughts
in the one case as in the other. The question as to the
words is, whether they correctly signify and express
the thoughts. If the translator is competent, and selects
the projDer words, they can not fail to express and con-
vey the thoughts to the same effect and with the same
authority as the original. If he fails to do this, or is
charged with having failed, and controvery ensues, ap-
peal is made to the original text, to determine whether
in that he rightly conceived the inspired thought, or
whether he misconceived it, and therefore failed to
substitute the proper word to convey that thought in
his translation. Inspiration is no more necessary to a
faithful translator, than it was to a right understanding
of the original text by those who were contemporary
with the sacred writers and spoke the same language.

The preceding observations concerning the import-
ance of teaching the meaning of words of truth, as the
vehicle of right thoughts, suggest the obligation and im-
portance of witholding the young from hearing or read-
ing impious and corrupt words, which are the vehicle
of evil thoughts.

All the corruptions and perversions of language have
resulted from the apostasy of man. His heart being
alienated and corrupt, every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart became evil. Out of the heart,

10

218 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

proceed evil thoughts. Evil thoughts require perverted
and corrupt words ; and in so far as such words are
learnt by hearing and reading, they convey the
thoughts to the understandings of the learners. Evil
communications corrupt good manners. Profanity,
impurity, lying, deceiving, hatred, malice, cruelty, and
all the forms of internal and external wickedness, have
words which distinctively express them. The perver-
sion of words to a false, immoral, and corrupt use, like
heresies and false theories, proceeds from the father of
lies, who, when he speaketh a lie, speaketh of his own.
Evil words with evil thoughts are of the inspiration of
the evil one, who was a lying spirit in the mouth of
the false prophets, who tempted Ananias and Sapphira,
and put it into the heart of Judas to betray his Master.
The first thought of murder doubtless came to Cain
from that wicked one, who was a murderer from the
beginning ; as the first thought of the primeval trans-
gression was directly of his suggestion. New forms of
wickedness, subsequently, are treated as of his device
and instigation — idolatry and the abominations asso-
ciated with it — witchcraft, sorcery, divinations, magic,
and the like; violence, persecution, war; falsehood,
detraction, intolerance, tyranny, and all evil principles
and passions. All these things, and their qualities, and
the acts to which they relate, have verbal designations
and terms of qualification and action, which are per-
verted from their primeval signification and use, or are
devised for their purpose as instruments of evil
thoughts ; by means of which the prince of the power
of the air rules in the hearts of the children of disobe-
dience. In his vocabulary are treasured up and pre-

OF THE HOLY. SCRIPTURES. 219

served all the evil thoughts of fallen creatures of an-
cient and modern times ; as in the words of truth and
virtue, are embalmed the thoughts of wisdom and
goodness. In both instances the thoughts of success-
ive generations are conceived, remembered, and ex-
pressed, as the meaning of the words — the knowledge
of the instruments — is attained by hearing or reading.
But as the hearts of all are corrupt and infested with
evil propensities and passions, the words of evil are
most congenial and most welcome to them, and gain
the firmest lodgment in the memory, and are most
easily quickened and recalled to recollection.

The perversion of words originally truthful and
virtuous in their signification, to corrupt and immoral
uses, and the introduction of new words of good or bad
significance, or merely as instruments of increasing
knowledge in science and arts, are rapid and easy under
some circumstances, and under others slow and diffi-
cult. The intellectual and physical constitution and
organization of man, involves a like capacity of form-
ing new words — new vocal articulations — as of con-
ceiving new thoughts. The power of naming all the
objects of sensation and of thought, and of expressing
their relations and their agencies, is lodged in the con-
stitution of man, to be exercised according to his exi-
gencies and the objects which engross his attention.
Thus as the Greeks and Romans emerged from ignor-
ance and barbarism to civilization and refinement, and
with the progress of their military conquests, advanced
in commerce and arts, in literature and science, and in
wealth and luxury, their objects of thought were vastly
multiplied, and their language was proportionably en-

220 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

riched with new formed and ajDpropriate words. When
the Pagan nations of the Roman empire were first
taught the knowledge of Christianity, the adoption of
its peculiar words, for which they had no equivalents,
or the formation of new ones, in their place, was indis-
pensable to their reception and expression of its
thoughts. And in modern times, the discoveries and
culture of new sciences and arts — as chemistry, geology,
electricity, the use of steam — demanded new words for
new thoughts, concerning objects, relations, and agencies
which were before unknown. The supply of such de-
mand, is a necessity ; and results from man's intellectual
and physical organization, his endowments and exigen-
cies as a rational being, as his seeing new objects results
from their exposure, under appropriate conditions, to
his faculty of vision.

Without such exigencies and stimulants, man, as
history testifies of the Egyptians, the Persians, Greeks,
and other once cultivated nations, degenerates in all
respects, and as he declines in respect to the objects of
his attention and pursuit, his thoughts decline, and the
words in which they were conceived and expressed are
dropped and forgotten ; and if the vocal articulation of
his words is not essentially changed, his retained and
current language becomes meagre and debased.

In a quiet and stationary condition of things among
a people whose language is already cultivated and
affluent, scarcely any thing is more difficult than to in-
troduce and give currency and authority to new words
in place of those already sanctioned by good usage ;
and for the reason that no exigency is felt to de-
mand it.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 221

Language is, in respect to the articulation, pronun-
ciation, orthography, and signification of words at any
given period, just what is taught at that period, to
those who speak and write it. It is an acquisition ;
and as entirely the effect of instruction and study to
one as another. All alike must learn the alphabet, the
syllables, the vocal expression, pronunciation, spelling,
signification, reading. As they learn these things,
they learn the thoughts signified by the words which
they spell, pronounce, and read. The thoughts and
words are thus associated and remembered together.
New thoughts are learnt as the signification of new
words. As the stock of remembered thoughts and
words is augmented, the power of voluntary thought
is enlarged so as ever to be coextensive with the pre-
viously acquired knowledge of words.

Hence if the teaching is not in all respects essentially
the same at one period as at another, the result will bo
manifest in the improved or the degenerated state of
the language. Thus the English language has been
greatly changed and improved in all respects, since.
Danish, Swedish, German, French, Spanish, Latin,
Greek, and other foreign words first began to be en-
grafted upon the original Saxon basis ; while the Saxon
words of the present vocabulary, which were at first
and still are sufficient for the thoughts then and now
expressed by them, have been unproved in orthography
and pronunciation. Nearly one third of the whole
number of words which now compose the language,
are Saxon. They comprise the words in common use
relating to visible and sensible objects, to sensations and
emotions, to families, homes, employments, wants, rela-

222 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

tions, and duties of religious, social, and practical life.
Hence in our version of the Scriptures from the nature
of the things referred to, most of the words are Saxon ;
and being largely monosyllabic, and for the most part
euphonious, and by their form and usage remarkably
expressive and adapted perfectly to convey the
thoughts of the original text, they can not by a new
English version, be replaced, to any considerable ex-
tent, by other Saxon words, or by Anglicised words en-
grafted from foreign tongues. Few of the ingrafts, in-
deed, relate to the same things and express the same
thoughts as the Saxon words, and therefore the latter
retain their place in common use ; and before a new
version can dispense with them and substitute others, a
corresponding vocabulary of new and synonymous
words must be adopted, preferred, and established by
usage, in place of the now sufficient, expressive, and
unrivalled Saxon.

The question whether a word is the synonym — has
the same signification — of another, depends wholly
upon the prior question, Whether as used upon the
same subject, in the same connection, and in the same
prosaic, poetical, learned, or colloquial style, it con-
veys precisely the same thought. With this question
etymology can have nothing whatever to do. It is
simply a question of fact as to usage. Etymology may
or may not be in accordance with usage ; it can not
govern the use of words, any more than it can originate
and determine the thoughts to be expressed. A trans-
lator to do justice to his author by his version, must
convey his author's thoughts in words which as clearly
express them, as the words employed by the author him-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 223

self. He must therefore clearly conceive the thoughts
in the words of the original and in the words in width
he expresses them, and must therefore understand the
words of the original as the author understood and
used them, and must understand the words which he
substitutes in the sense prescribed by usage as the au-
thor himself would do, were he to translate his own
work, and express his own recorded thoughts in the
words of another tongue.

Without pursuing the illustrations which these brief
suggestions invite, it may suffice to notice, as bearing
directly upon our theme, the manner in which inspired
words of the first importance, have, in some quarters,
been perverted, and in others, have passed into desu-
etude and oblivion : namely, by a change in men's
thoughts, induced by the adoption of philosophical,
mctapl^sical, or other speculations, theories, heresies,
and errors, in derogation of the words of Scripture,
and in opposition to their meaning.

Thus the words, impute, imputed, imputation, which,
with reference to the doctrine of Justification, represent,
as used in Scripture, the same thoughts in the same
relations, which they represent in the Westminster
Catechisms and Confessions, where they are of the most
prominent and vital importance. Yet, who does not
know that in some quarters, many of the churches and
their teachers, whose ancestors held to those and to all
the scriptural words of those formularies, and who
themselves retain the Assembly's Catechism as the
symbol of their faith — the use of these words is repu-
diated by some, and perverted by others ? — their thoughts
concerning justification having been changed by their

224 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

theories and speculations, from those conveyed by the
concise and simple words of Scripture, to such as, in
their view, explain the mode of what they suppose to
be meant by justification. Some repudiate these words
as implying a transfer of personal qualities and cha-
racter ; some because they do not imply an infusion of
righteousness, or include the act of believing, or any
acts of obedience in the righteousness by which men
are justified. Others, again, conceive of justification
not as simply a gracious act on the part of God, but as
a work wrought in those who are justified, which they
confound with sanctification.

All these extraneous and speculative notions, are in-
compatible with the verbal Scripture doctrine of justi-
fication, " wherein God imputes the righteousness of
Christ to sinners, reckons His perfect obedience and
satisfaction to their account, and, pardoning their sins,
accepts and accounts their persons righteous in His
sight ; they cordially receiving and resting on Christ
and His righteousness by faith." Those, therefore,
who adopt these notions, reject the thoughts con
veyed by the words in question, and with them, repu-
diate the words ; and to be consistent, rej ect the thoughts
conveyed by other allied or collateral words of Scrip-
ture relating to the fall of man and the imputation of
guilt to his descendants, etc., and with them repudiate
or pervert such other words. And in this manner, all
defections, heresies, and controversies, begin with new
thoughts, and a use of corresponding words, and a re-
nunciation of their former thoughts with the words
which were their medium and instrument.

So with respect to those who from the earliest in-

OP THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 225

structions imparted to them, received and adopted false
sentiments, whether concerning religion or any other
subject. The words, or the perverted use of the words
in which their erroneous thoughts are conceived and
expressed, must be renounced or rectified, if their er-
roneous sentiments are ever renounced, and correct
ones adopted. Men learn what they are taught, whe-
ther it be true or false, by receiving and adopting as
their own, the thoughts of their teachers, in the words
by which they express them. The words and thoughts
adhere together. As remembered, they are identical.
To uproot, dislodge, and replace them with others, is
difficult, as all experience shows, in proportion as the
subjects to which they relate, are deemed to be im-
portant.

How strikingly is this illustrated in the case of the
Jews, as disclosed in the New Testament Scriptures, and
in their history down to the present day I They had
adopted false notions concerning the Person, character,
offices, works, and kingdom of the Messiah, and equal-
ly concerning the teachings of the law and the pro-
phets, the import of the Levitical institutions, and their
own character and responsibilities. The defection was
all but universal. They scarcely used any of the words
of their own Scriptures to express the thoughts which
they were inspired to convey. They made void the
Law by their traditions, and by the glosses and per-
versions of the Eabbies. And so inveterate was their
adherence to their unscriptural notions, and to the per-
verted use of scriptural words by which they expressed
them, that no appeals to their understandings and con-
sciences, no quotations from their sacred books, nor

10*

226 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

any exhibitions of miraculous jjower, had any effect
to correct their understandings and change their
thoughts. They seemed not to comprehend the plain-
est things which were spoken to them by Christ Him-
self. " Why do ye not understand My speech ? even
because ye can not hear My word ;" that is, will not
understand and receive My testimony ; will not receive
My thoughts in place of your own. The false con-
structions, traditions, and perversions of that period,
survived the destruction of Jerusalem, and the cala-
mities and persecutions of the Jewish people among all
nations, and are cherished by them to the present day.
The false and perverse uses of words in establishing
and perpetuating the delusions, impostures, and here-
sies of the Mohammedan and the Romish systems, are
no less conspicuous. Time has not cured them. No
learning, philosophy, philology, or criticism, has had
any effect to rectify them. The fulfillment of particu-
lar prophecies .has failed to modify or correct them ;
for being fixed and sustained in their minds by their
false notions of language and of the things which they
imagine to be represented by the words of Scripture as
they employ them, Mohammedans and Romanists, like
the Jews who still adhere to their ancient and heredi-
tary constructions, can no more understand a prophecy
after, than before its fulfillment. Their thoughts being
wrong, their words, of course, perfectly correspond to
them ; and until their thoughts are changed, their per-
verted use of words will maintain its resistless sway.

Up to the present hour, notwithstanding all that has
been done in the names of philology, criticism, and
the philosophy of language, the leading themes of con-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 227

troversy concerning theological questions, and espe-
cially those which depend on the prophetic portions of
the Scriptures, are treated by the vast majority, as
though the construction of figurative language and of
symbols was to be governed by no fixed and certain
rules whatever ; as though the preconceived theory of
each writer was his rule ; and as though each man was
at perfect liberty, not only to use the words of Scrip-
ture so as to support his peculiar theor}', but also at
liberty to treat all the words and the persons, acts and
events to which they relate, as allegorical, typical, or
figurative, according to the demands of his speculation.
Such assumptions and liberties are not adventured, and
would not be tolerated in relation to secular subjects.
They are taken and allowed only with the Holy Scrip-
tures ; and they evidently proceed on the assumptions,
that language is in its nature, imperfect, changeable,
and uncertain ; that inspiration does not and can not
transcend these defects ; and that nothing more is meant
by inspiration itself, than such superintendence, eleva-
tion, and suggestion, as left the fallible writers to choose
out of their own vocabulary of imperfect words, such
as were most in accordance with their degree of know-
ledge and judgment. Hence, omitting particular refer-
ence to the inconsistent doctrines and beliefs of the
different religious communities and sects ; the specta-
cle of conflicting theories and commentaries concern-
ing the millennium, and whether it be past, or yet
future, the restoration of the Jewish people, and vari-
ous other subjects of prophetic revelation : insomuch
that even the ablest and most learned men sit down
in despair of arriving at any certainty, or content

228 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

themselves with conjectures corresponding with their
preconceived theories, and with their philosophical and
philological systems. That out of the millions who
bear the Christian name, all do not take this course
with respect to the doctrines which are essential to sal-
vation, is owing, doubtless, to spiritual illuminations
and convictions, which affect and guide their con-
sciences, and grace which rectifies their hearts and
wills ; and, in those who are not thus changed, is owing
to the instructions which they receive, and the form-
ularies of doctrine which they adopt. But with respect
to other scriptural subjects than these essential doc-
trines, even this class equally with the sects and mul-
titudes who reject or pervert those essential doctrines,
are at a non plus, or in doubt and uncertainty as to
what the Scriptures teach ; owing wholly, or mostly,
it must be concluded, to the notions which they cherish
concerning the origin and office of language, and the
nature, authority, and purpose of Divine inspiration.

The bearings of the doctrine of plenary verbal in-
spiration on the method of teaching Theology, and
on preaching, are obvious. Scriptural Theology con-
sists in a correct understanding of the meaning of the
inspired words of Scripture in the connections in which
they are written, concerning the existence, character,
and attributes of God, His purposes, covenants, laws,
and government, the doctrines we are to believe, and
the duties we are to perform. All that we can truly
know or safely teach concerning these things, is ex-
pressed in those inspired words, or infallibly deduci-
ble from them ; and, therefore, they were inspired and
written, and are of Divine authority and infallible.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 229

The j express God's thoughts in words spoken and in-
spired by Him. To teach their meaning, is the first
and principal duty of the Theological instructor. To
learn, meditate, remember, and cleave to their meaning
as to life, is the essential duty of the student. If he
fails in that, whatever else he may learn, he fails in the
one thing needful — the knowledge of immutable truth,
the Theology of the Bible, the Word of God.

Definitions, catechisms, and text books, are therefore
of the first necessity in teaching Scriptural Theology.
They are to the student, what spelling-books and lex-
icons are to the school boy ; helps to the meaning of
the words, which express what we are to understand,
believe, and do.

Accordingly the history of the Church may be con-
fidently appealed to as showing, that in proportion as
this method has been departed from, doctrinal errors
and practical heresies have prevailed. All departures
from this method proceed upon some false theory.
Those which attempt to subject the Theology of the
Bible to the rules of human science, and those which
construe it by the teachings of philosophy and science
falsely so called, or by any pantheistic or other theory
of human wisdom, are most conspicuous and prolific
of evil.

In like manner, it is the office and business of the
minister, to preach the Word — the inspired word of
God ; not in the words of man's wisdom, but in the
authoritative and infallible words of Scripture. All
the examples and injunctions recorded in the sacred
oracles, are to this effect ; and for the plain reason that
those words are of Divine authority, and it is the truth

230 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

as expressed in tliem, that the Hoty Spirit makes effect-
ual in the conviction, conversion, and salvation of men
through faith. It is not only truth alone which lie
employs, but the Truth, as it is expressed in the words
which He inspired, and in equivalent words of trans-
lations. Hence the Saviour's prayer : " Sanctify them
through Thy truth ; Thy word is truth." " The sword
of the Spirit is the word of God. — The entrance of Thy
word giveth light. — The Word of the Lord endureth
forever. — And this is the word which by the Gospel is
preached unto you."

In philosophy, logic, mathematics, chemistry, and
other sciences, a careful and thorough study of names,
verbal definitions, axioms, rules, and principles, is in-
dispensable. No progress whatever can be made with-
out it. So in morals and theology. What would be
thought of the man who should pretend to understand
and expound the ethics of Aristotle, or those of any
other author, without first possessing himself of the
thoughts expressed in the root words, terms, and defini
tions of the system ? But this preliminary process is
as much more necessary in theology as the subject is
more important. And we are accordingly furnished
in the inspired words of Scripture, with an indubitable
basis of certainty. The words, the root terms and
phrases, the formulas, the commands, the affirmations,
the negations, express thoughts which change not, and
which no thoughts or theories of man can abrogate.
Those infallible thoughts are everywhere consistent ;
and though the chiefest of them are interspersed in
narratives, biographies, and predictions, they form a
connected chain of first truths which constitute tlieo-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 231

logy. To learn, understand, and think those thoughts,
so that they shall as truly be the thoughts of the learn-
er as they were by inspiration the thoughts of the writ-
ers, is to learn and be qualified to expound theology.
Without such learning, no man is any better qualified
to teach or preach theology, than to expound the civil
code, the doctrines of philosophy, the institutes of me-
dicine, the theorems of geometry, or the principles of
any science, while ignorant of their fundamental max-
ims, definitions, and technical terms. Both teacher
and learner may take much for granted, and hang their
faith loosely on the sleeves of others ; but the thoughts
conveyed in the words of Scripture, will not be theirs,
and "abide in them," (John 15 : 4-8,) "the ingrafted
word," (James 1 : 21,) in a way to make them conscious
of them as their thoughts. It is irrelevant and in vain
to say that the necessity of such learning may be obvi-
ated in teachers and people by their being divinely
illuminated and taught of God. For men are taught
of God, not by new revelations or renewed inspirations ;
but only by means of the inspired words of Scripture.
They are the instruments of illumination, spiritual dis-
cernment, sanctification, faith ; and for the teaching of
them, transferring them into the minds of hearers, so
that the Spirit may employ them as instruments, God
hath instituted the ministry of the word.

The Scriptures are comprehensively a testimony, to
be believed and obeyed. " Set your hearts unto all the
words which I testify among you this day, which ye
shall command your children to observe to do all the
words of this law." (Deut. 32.) "The ministry which
I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel

232 TEH PLENARY INSPIRATION

of the grace of God." (Acts 24.) " When they had
testified and preached the word of the Lord." (Acts 8.)
" There is one God, and one Mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a
ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Tim. 2.)
"Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ." (Acts 20.) "I came declaring unto
you the testimony of God." (1 Cor. 2.) " John bare
record of the word of God, and of the testimony of
Jesus Christ." (Rev. 1 : 2.) " The testimony of Jesus
is the spirit of prophecy." (Rev. 19.) " Blessed are
they that keep His testimonies. Concerning Thy testi-
monies, I have known of old that Thou hast founded
them forever." (Ps. 119.)

Now it was because they testified, and steadfastly ad-
hered to, the infallible words of Scripture, that the
prophets, apostles, and martyrs were persecuted and
slain. They unresistingly suffered torments and death
rather than deny or swerve from the words of Scrip-
ture. " They were slain for the word of God, and for the
testimony which they held." (Rev. 6.) And the like
is yet to happen. " The Gospel of the Kingdom shall
be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations ; and then shall the end come." (Matt. 24.) In
the vision of that period, John " saw the souls of them
that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the
word of God, and which had not worshipped the
beast." (Rev. 20.) " "When the witnesses shall have
finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out
of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and
shall overcome them, and kill them."

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 233

The fact that under the ancient and present dispens-
ations, hundreds and thousands of the most enlight-
ened and holiest of men have, from the hands of the
worst, suffered the greatest torments, and death itself,
in testimony of their faith in the word of God, demon-
strates that His word is infallible, and "liveth and
abideth forever." No higher evidence could be ex-
hibited to us that He who inspired the words of Scrip-
ture will maintain and vindicate them ; and that those
who receive them as His words, and believe and obey
them, will adhere to them even unto death.

It is perhaps less frequently expressed than it is felt
to be a disadvantage, that the Protestant denominations
did not all retain a liturgical service, so far at least, as
to provide for a reading of the Scriptures in the public
assemblies weekly in such portions, or lessons, as to
comprise the whole periodically ; the congregation with
Bibles in their hands, at the same time silently reading
what the minister audibly pronounced, and listening at
intervals to his exposition of particular passages, and
definition of particular words. This method is recom-
mended not only by its social influence and its relation
to the responsibilities of the people, but still more as
giving to the Inspired Word the prominence due to it
in the devotions of the Church. Its propriety is obvi-
ous. It is fully sanctioned by the usage of the Jewish
Church in the synagogue assemblies. It tends to fix
the attention and to bring the minds of those assembled
into immediate contact with all the words of God; and
affords a most needful opportunity for appropriate eluci-
dations and definitions, for the lack of which many,
perhaps most of the members of congregations, gene

234 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

rally remain through life without acquiring any clear
idea of the meaning of the most important words
of Scripture. The defect has in part been supplied in
the Scottish Church, by catechetical and expository
exercises. But on this side of the water, at least, it
exists without abatement, and owing perhaps to the
engrossing cares and the peculiar circumstances, and
the mental as well as social habits of the people, is be-
coming more and more apparent. The systematic
reading of the Holy Scriptures, which forms so con-
spicuous a feature in the services of the Episcopal
churches, can neither be witnessed nor contemplated
without a decided conviction of its propriety and of its
practical utility. It is read as the authoritative word
of God, and as challenging consent and self-application
on the part of the hearer — the voice of God to the
people assembled to hear it.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTUKES. 235

CHAPTER XIV.

THE ENGLISH VERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES.

Our English Bible is generally accounted the best
version of the original texts that has ever been accom-
plished. For this, two principal reasons may be sug-
gested. First. The English language is regarded as
more copious in words, and especially of such words as
are required in the translation, than any other tongue.
Second. The authors of the version in common use, not
only had the advantage of the labors of several earlier
English translations, but they were themselves well
versed in the knowledge of the original tongues, as
well as of their own, and, what is not less important,
were sound in doctrine and distinguished for their
personal faith and holiness. No higher evidence could
well exist of the ability and fidelity of their labors,
than the fact that their version superseded those which
preceded it, and that it has maintained its hold on the
confidence and esteem of all classes and denominations
of men of the Anglo-Saxon race for two hundred and
fifty years. As a whole, and in respect to the essen-
tial qualities of a version, no unbiased and competent
judge believes it susceptible of material improvement.

236 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

Its defects are such as are incident to every living
tongue in the course of so long a period, such as arise
from grammatical usage, from the obsoleteness of some
words, a change of meaning in the use of others, and a
demand for euphemisms in the place of certain words
and phrases.

The authors of that version so apprehended and re-
ceived the thoughts conveyed in the original words, as
to conceive them in equivalent English words in cor-
responding collocations. Of this there are two very
sufficient evidences. First. That of their character as
holy men, spiritually enlightened, taught of God.
Second. The fact that the holiest men who have suc-
ceeded them, and who have most thoroughly compared
their version with the originals, have, with one voice,
borne testimony to the fidelity of the translation : in-
somuch, that while it might be easy in some cases to
suggest in place of the words adopted by the translators,
other words of equal, and in some instances of superior
fitness, every man competent to compare the originals
with the English, may safely be challenged to point
out any passage in which any important fact or doc-
trine is expressed, which would be materially improved
by a substitution of new words. The instances in
which improvement might appear to be most practica-
ble, where any fact or doctrine is concerned, are not
such as affect any denominational question between
those who receive the Bible as the supreme rule of
faith and practice. They are instances in which,
owing probably to the prevalence of Eabbinical con-
structions on some points afc the period of the ver-
sion, the import of certain words in some connections

OF THE HOLY SCKIPTURES. 237

failed to be apprehended, while the import of the
same words in other connections was perfectly ex-
pressed. Thus some Hebrew words and phrases,
which, either from their connections, or from citations
of them in the New Testament, appear to have been
employed as official designations of the Messiah, were
not in every instance so regarded, or were so rendered
as to make their reference less significant and conspicu-
ous than it might be. Of these the word translated
angel is an instance; which frequently occurs as a
name of office equivalent to messenger, and is employed
interchangeably with the name Jehovah. Compare
Exod. 3 : 2,4 ; 14 : 19, 24, 26 ; 20 : 2 ; Judges 2:1-3;
6 : 12, 22, etc., with Malachi 3:1; Acts 7 : 38.

The language of the present version is so generally
correct and perspicuous, so well adapted to the subjects,
and so faithful a counterpart of the original, as abso-
lutely to preclude the production and reception of a
different version in Anglo-Saxon words. The slight
amendments above mentioned, however, with refer-
ence to obsolete words, and words of which time has
changed the significance or propriety, might be per-
mitted not only without injury, but with advantage.
They would involve no greater responsibility than
marginal readings and explanatory notes.

Considering the version as established by its intrinsic
excellence, and by the verdict of time, a somewhat
different arrangement of its contents is desirable, after
the manner of Townshend's Edition, founded on Light-
foot's Chronicle; by distributing the contents into
paragraphs instead of chapters ; arranging them more
nearly in chronological succession ; disposing the poeti-

238 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

cal portions in parallelisms; and distinguishing the
words recorded as having been spoken, by marks of
quotation. The advantages of such an arrangement
to every class of readers can hardly fail to be obvious.
It would render the book more readable and more in-
telligible ; and there can be no valid objection to it
any more than to summaries of contents, marginal
references, and explanatory notes, or to perfection in
paper and typography.

The recent collation, under the direction of the
Managers of the American Bible Society, of different
editions of the English Bible, and production of a
text as nearly as possible like that of the transla-
tors of 1611, deserves the emphatic and grateful
commendation of the Society and of all good men.
They have, under the guidance of appropriate rules,
corrected the typographical and other variations from
the earliest standard edition, and reproduced what,
properly understood, is " the Authorized Version." In
the brief and modest Report of the Committee to
whom this arduous and responsible duty was referred,
the necessity of the collation is sufficiently exhibited ;
and whether we consider the obligation imposed upon
the Managers by the Constitution — which requires
them to publish in English only the Authorized Ver-
sion— that of 1611 — or consider the established catholic,
conservative, and consistent character of the Society —
which commands the confidence equally of all denomi-
nations— the collation, which they have accomplished,
must be acknowledged to have been an imperative and
in all respects, an appropriate duty. If any thing,
relating to the important service which they have ren-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 239

dered, challenges regret, it is, that the only public and
responsible organization in this hemisphere, that could
with propriety and with assured confidence, undertake
such a service, had not been authorized to extend the
revision to words which have become obsolete, and
words in place of which usage and propriety demand
a substitution of appropriate and inoffensive euphem-
isms.

240 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

CHAPTER XV.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.

On the foregoing view of the nature and effects of
Divine inspiration, the Holy Scriptures afford, both in
matter and manner, ample ground of rational convic-
tion to the skeptical and to all other classes of men,
that they are from God. Evidence of their Divine
authorship and authority, is manifest in every part of
their contents, and in their relations to the constitution,
condition, and experience of man ; showing them to
be the infallible word of God, inspired by Him into
the minds of holy men, in language which they under-
stood and were qualified to write.

Hence their infinite superiority to all uninspired
compositions. In comparison with them, all the re-
mains of antiquity relating to subjects in any degree
similar, are puerile and foolish. The world by its
wisdom, knows not God. The highest efforts and at-
tainments of Grecian and Koman sages, exhibited only
groping ignorance and imbecility, in contrast with the
inspired oracles. The Apocrypha, the spurious gos-
pels and epistles, the Koran, the writings of Mormon,
and other impostors, the annals of Idolatry, the specu-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 241

lations of Infidelity, the arrogations, prescriptions, and
legends of the Romish Hierarchy, show what fallen
man is able to accomplish in respect to religious doc-
trines, faith, and practice.

The fact that the Divine thoughts were conveyed to
the intelligent consciousness of the sacred writers, by
inspiration in words, is in harmony with the fact that
we think, are conscious of our thoughts, remember
and express them, and receive the thoughts of others,
only in words. The Divine act of inspiration is in
harmony with the laws of human thought and con-
sciousness. Its -effects are commensurate to the wants
both of the most ignorant and the most learned of
men. They are realized to men agreeably to their
constitution as thinking, voluntary, and accountable
creatures. They coincide with the consciousness and
experience of men.

The objects which the Scriptures are designed to
answer are such as to imply their verbal inspiration.
They presuppose the existence of an Almighty Creator
and Ruler of the world ; that man is a rational and
accountable creature ; that there is a natural and a
moral system of things, conformably to which the re-
lations and responsibilities of creatures are adjusted ;
that in those relations man is subject to natural and
moral laws ; that he is a proper subject of Divine com-
mands, directions, control, and discipline ; and that in
every particular he needs instruction as to what he
should believe concerning God, and what duties are in-
cumbent upon him : and among the objects to be
answered by them are :
11

242 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

1. That of announcing the names and designations,
the nature, perfections, prerogatives, and rights of
God.

2d. That of declaring His counsels and purposes.

8d. That of showing what are the relations and
duties of men towards Him and towards each other.

4th. That of prescribing the mode in which they are
to worship Him.

5th. That of prohibiting all acts, feelings, and
thoughts which are contrary to his Law.

6th. That of apprising men of the existence, agency,
and malice of Satan.

7th. That of revealing the Eedeemer, His offices and
acts.

8th. That of foreshowing the resurrection of the
dead, the final judgment, and the allotments of the
righteous and the wicked in eternity.

Now these objects are such as to require all the pre-
cision and certainty, as well as all the authority with
which the Scriptures could be invested by a verbal
inspiration.

The leading truths of the Bible imply their verbal
inspiration.

1. Because, being undiscoverable by man, it was
necessary that they should be so communicated as to
be clearly and correctly understood. But they can be
so understood, so brought to his consciousness only in
words. Such is undeniably the case after they are
written, and such, as far as our consciousness testifies,
must have been the case with those to whom they
were first revealed. The fact that they are recorded

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 243

in words is evidence that the first conception of them
by the writers was a conception of them in words.
For they must have learned the fact that any truth un-
known to them before, was revealed or inspired into
thtir minds by their consciousness ; in order to which
the words which expressed and conveyed the truth,
must have been inspired.

2. Because they could not select words to express a
truth of which they had not the same conception and
consciousness before as after the time when a selection
would be necessary.

Of the leading truths of the Bible, which imply that
they must have been originally conveyed in words, the
following are examples. — God is a Spirit, infinite, eter-
nal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power,
holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. — God created the
heavens and the earth. — Christ died for our sins and
rose for our justification. — There will be a resurrection
of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. — It is in-
conceivable that the thoughts expressed by these words
should have been originally conveyed to the mind
without words.

The true foundation of faith is not reason or any
thing conceived or imagined by men, but the testimony
of God. But that testimony is known only in the
words in which it is recorded. These words, therefore,
are His words. Otherwise, we could not know that
they conveyed His testimony. That which He testi-
fies, asserts, declares, and on which faith rests, is that
which He speaks intelligibly to us — His thoughts ex-
pressed, conveyed. As the testimony of a human

244 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

witness is known only as it is expressed in words, and
faith in it is faith in the thoughts which are expressed
and conveyed by the words, so in this case. The
Scriptures accordingly everywhere teach us that the
patriarchs, prophets, and others believed the verbal an-
nouncements, the verbal promises, the words of God ;
not His thoughts abstractly or independently of words,
not any conceptions of theirs as to what His thoughts
were apart from the words in which they are written.
The words which the Apostles preached were the words
of faith, the words to be believed, the testimony of
God. Their hearers were not left in any uncertainty —
they were not to ascend to heaven above nor to descend
to the depths below to ascertain what they were to be-
lieve concerning Christ : the word which expressed the
testimony on which their faith was to rest, was nigh
them, spoken, written. "What they had to do was to
hear, to hear the word of God, by which faith cometh.

The Scriptures contemplate man as a fallen, erring
creature. He who gave the Scriptures by inspiration,
knew perfectly the nature of man, as a fallen creature,
the corruption of his heart, his evil propensities, the
temptations to which he would be exposed, the antago-
nism of Satan, the tendencies and effects of all moral
influence, all the circumstances in which he would be
placed, and all the phenomena and issues of his present
and future existence. He therefore inspired at sundry
times, and in matter and form, just what the case re-
quired under the administration which he was to exer-
cise over the dependent universe, and the successive
generations of free human agents. More or less, or at

OF THE nOLY SCRIPTURES. 245

least, the permanent record of more or less, would not
have suited this comprehensive scheme. It would not
have suited that part of the scheme which relates to
the free agency of men, nor the relations of that part
to the intelligences of the rest of the universe. Had
the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah known all
that was given by revelation and inspiration at later
periods they would have been subject to an amount of
moral influence, which, all the other influences affect-
ing them, remaining as before, would have restrained,
modified, and changed their outward conduct. Had
those who crucified the Lord of Glory, known who He
was and understood the nature of His mission, they
would in like manner have been restrained. So in re-
spect to the different orders of spiritual beings, the
principalities and powers of the heavenly world, to
whom it was the eternal purpose of God to make
known through Jesus Christ His manifold wisdom in
His administration of all things in their appointed con-
nection with and relation to the redemption of the
Church. Had those things been communicated to
those spiritual beings prior to the events comprised in
the work of redemption, or otherwise than as the
events occurred, and as the persons and agencies of the
redeemed were manifested and successive revelations
were made to them, it is evident that the influence of
such knowledge, and proportionably the measures of
the Divine administration towards those beings, must
have been quite different from what has actually taken
place. By the system which was adopted, they were
kept in a continual state of inquiry and solicitude to
enlarge their knowledge of God and of His purposes as

246 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

disclosed by His progressive administration. They
continued to be attentive spectators of events, and par-
ticipated in them more or less by their own agency
towards the heirs of salvation. Hence the turning
point in every individual's destiny, if saved, being his
conversion, when they perceive decisive evidence of
that event in an individual, there is joy in heaven
among the angels of God.

If the Holy Scriptures are the infallible rule of faith
and life, then, of course, they contain but one category
of doctrines to be believed. As there 'can be but one
infallible rule, there can be no contrariety of doctrine
within that rule. And as the doctrines to be believed
are expressed in words, the words must infallibly ex-
press them. The words, therefore, are of the same
authority as the doctrines which they express. All
that we know of the Bible as a rule, and of the doc-
trines comprised in the rule, we know by the words of
which the Bible consists. The words enshrine and ex-
press the doctrines. And if the doctrines owe their
Divine authority and infallibility to their inspiration,
so must the words, for they are inseparable, and must
stand or fall together. This, in connection with the
fact that the doctrines involve inscrutable and awful
mysteries, far above the judgments of common-sense,
and beyond the province of philosophical explanation,
implies that the words which express them were inspired
that they might be infallible exponents of the rule.

To adduce the judgments of common-sense, or the
doctrines of speculative science and philosophy, in op-
position to the words of Scripture as they are employed

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 247

to convey the inspired thoughts, is to exalt human
above the Divine wisdom, and to deny both the reality
and necessity of inspiration and revelation. The doc-
trines of Scripture are what the words of Scripture
signify them to be, and they are nothing, more or less,
but that. To say that the Scriptures are the rule of
faith, is to say that the words of Scripture in the sense
and connection in which they are used, are the rule ;
for the words as written are the Scriptures, and they
signify, as written, all that the Scriptures signify. To
set the words aside, to misconstrue them, to inflate or
enervate their import, to allege the exaggerations of
feeling and emotion, the demands of common-sense,
the discoveries of science, the ignorance of the sacred
writers, and the want of elevation in their religions
consciousness ; or by any other means to deny or im-
peach the exclusive authority of the words of Scrip-
ture, as expressing the infallible rule, is, in terms, or in
effect, to say that there is no rule, that the Scriptures
are in no sense infallible, that religion consists in what
religionists call religious feeling, independently of
verbal systems and conflicting creeds, and that all the
diversified theories, philosophies, creeds, and rituals,
are reconcilable and consistent with each other.

The Scriptures are the declared and authenticated
testimony of the Omniscient Creator and Kuler of men,
as to what is truth ; and to suppose that lie has given
any more explicit, more advanced, or different testi-
mony in the nature of man, in the rocks and fossils of
the earth, or in any department of the physical, intel-
lectual, or moral systems, is to suppose no less than
that He has given no explicit, intelligible, reliable, and

248 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

ultimate testimony, standard, or rule whatever. For
if the words of Scripture which He has caused to be
written are not an intelligible and conclusive expression
of His testimony, how can any of the manifestations
made in any of His other works be demonstrated or
conceived to be such ? If the Scriptures, which are
designed and adapted to instruct all classes and descrip-
tions of men, are not intelligible, authoritative, and
conclusive, who can believe that the teachings, on moral
subjects, of any of the phenomena of nature, even to
the few who can pretend to study or understand them,
are explicit, authoritative, and final ? The Scriptures
are complete. Nothing is to be added to them. No
condition of things, no progress of events, no new
" developments," no possible exigencies of the fallen
race can occur for which they are not sufficient. But
who can set bounds to the discoveries of practical and
the deliverances of speculative science and philosophy ?
And if in advance, and therefore in derogation of the
Scriptures, they teach any moral or religious truths,
who can tell what they are yet to disclose, and what
reliance can be placed on their teachings, till the end of
time arrests the progress of discovery and speculation ?
There is as wide a diiference between the two sources
of instruction, as there is between the Creator and
creatures. The one is the immediate act of God inspir-
ing His thoughts into the minds of the sacred penmen,
and causing them to be expressed in writing. The
other is the self-moved agency and enterprise of fallen
creatures. The one is the fountain of infinite wisdom
and goodness. The other is the turbid rivulet of human
intellect. And as to the instruction derived from these

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 249

sources ; from one it is given in a medium common and
accessible to all mankind. From the other it is attain-
able only by the few to whom science and philosophy
are familiar.

The German critics and commentators, and their
English disciples and imitators, under color of reason
and philosophy, deal with the contents of the Bible,
especially the historical, poetical, aphoristic, and illus-
trative portions of it, as though they were inserted at
the discretion and on the responsibility, and as express-
ing only the wisdom and knowledge, such as it was, of
the sacred writers. They, with more or less of reserve,
allow that there are interspersed among these diversi-
fied contents, revelations from God. But even the
superhuman truths which they may regard as revela-
tions, they do not conceive of simply as they are signi-
fied by the words of the text. They seem to conceive
of them as of an invisible and impalpable essence — an
essence not to be condensed and enshrined in such
imperfect and vulgar receptacles as words. Words
may serve the purpose of hints, more or less significant
of what those ethereal truths are ; while reason, phi-
losophy, and imagination must expound those hints.
The contents being for the most part regarded as merely
of hurnan origin, these critics labor to discover the rea-
son or motive which induced the writers to insert them ;
and whenever they seem to imply any thing miracu-
lous, supernatural, unphilosophiual, or improbable,
they ascribe it to the ignorance, prejudice, superstition,
or perverted imagination of the writer. They wholly
mistake the matter. The reasons and motives which
they assign are inadequate, and even absurd, when the
11*

250 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

discernible relation and connection of what at succes-
sive and widely separated periods was written by
Moses, the prophets, and the apostles, is discovered to be
harmonious and necessary to the covenants, the course
of Divine dispensations in the administration of them,
and the unmistakable issues of the entire scheme of
Providence and redemption.

The fact that the distinct parts of each successive
book of Scripture were inspired and written on occa-
sions which immediately called for them — the distinct
instructions, exhortations, commands, promises, threat-
enings, to individuals, families, communities, churches ;
the histories, biographies, miracles, judgments, deliver-
ances ; the predictions of future events, and records of
events which had been previously foretold, is in evi-
dence : 1. That the instruction not only of those then
living, but of men in analogous circumstances ever
after, was intended. The inspired words, being the
medium of intended moral influences, were adapted to
all men on occasions and in circumstances in any de-
gree similar to those by which they were originally
called for. The words of God are, in relation to His
system of moral and spiritual influences and effects
upon men, like the ordinances and operations of His
providence in the natural world. Both are alike ap-
pointed, and are matter of special dispensation with
reference to foreseen results in His government of the
world. Man's wisdom, volition, and agency, are not
more absolutely excluded from all participation with
His, in determining the ordinances and directing the
operations of His providence, than they are from all

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 251

participation in determining the thoughts to be ex-
pressed in His word, and the effects to be produced by
it. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways My ways, saith Jehovah. For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways [of
providence] higher than your ways, and My thoughts
[in My word] than your thoughts. For as the rain
cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth
not thither, but wateretli the earth, and maketh it
bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower
and bread to the eater [may fulfill appointed and spe-
cific ends] : so shall My word be that goeth forth out
of My mouth : it shall not return unto Me void, but it
shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall pros-
per in the thing whereto I sent it."

2d. That the thoughts and feelings, responsibilities
and duties of all men in like circumstances are similar ;
and therefore the words, idioms, and styles of Scripture
were adapted to all mankind.

Hence the circumstance that so large a portion of
the contents consists of minute details of the personal
experience and history of individuals in every variety
of relations, and of maxims for the regulation of life
and the discrimination of character. The experience
of individuals, verbally expressed, is made the means
of instructing, encouraging, warning, and guiding their
successors in all time. But the appropriation of it to
those ends, implies the inspiration of the words. No-
thing short of this could insure its perfect accuracy,
give it authority, and make it a rule of conscience.
The records of such experience are fraught with doc-
trine and precept. They exhibit causes and results.

252 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

They show what is in man's heart, disclose his motives,
define his faith. They are mirrors. He who looks
into them will, in one respect or another, see himself.
They illustrate the Divine administration of law, of
providence, and of grace, and show how all in like
circumstances and of like conduct will be dealt with.
Thus the faith, conduct, and experience of Abraham,
Moses, the Israelites, David, and others, are, in the
New Testament, referred to as examples for the in-
struction and admonition of their successors. The
instructions which they convey, and which involve the
vital connection between doctrines, precepts, faith, and
practice, are expressed in the inspired words, and are
therefore authoritative and safe.

These suggestions may be illustrated by a reference
to those books of the Old Testament canon, which
those who imagine different degrees of inspiration, and
exclude from their theories the inspiration of words,
regard as of limited and doubtful authority, or reject
as unintelligible and useless. The book of Ecclesiastes
is of this class, and may be referred to as an example.
If this book, divided as in the common version, into
chapters and verses, with no indication of its plan and
scope as a whole, be read as a succession of desultory
observations, it may appear to contain inconsistent, ir-
relevant, and erroneous sentiments. But let the reader
be aware that it is indubitably of the canon of inspired
Scriptures ; that it was written by Solomon after his
prolonged experience of vanity in endeavoring to de-
rive happiness, satisfaction, and contentment from
worldly possessions, pursuits, and indulgencies, and
after his repentance and reformation ; that the design

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 253

was to show by his experience the utter folly of seek-
ing happiness in the ways which he had so vainly tried,
to dissuade men from earthly pursuits and pleasur
means of real and lasting good, and to induce them to
fear God and keep His commandments, which are exhib-
ited as the only true wisdom, that is, true religion of 1 nan,
with reference both to the present and the future life.

Viewed in this light, the book is composed on a
regular and well digested plan. The writer lays down
his premises, referring wholly or mainly to his own
experience in the iirst six chapters ; showing the vanity
of all earthly conditions, occupations, and pleasures,
as means of happiness to rational, dying, and immortal
man. Then, as the only means of attaining the su-
preme good, he asserts and illustrates in the ensuing chap-
ters the nature, excellence, and invariable benefits,
temporal and eternal, of ivisdom, or true religion. In
the progress of this, as, indeed, to some extent, in the
first division of the book, he incidentally notices the
objections of cavillers, and occasionally such collateral
topics as the method of instruction and reasoning of his
time naturally suggested. But the scope, plan, and
tendency of the piece as a whole, though obscured in
some particulars by imperfect translations, can not be
mistaken by an intelligent reader. Nor can such a
reader be at any loss to conceive that just such a book
should have been required, Divinely inspired, and writ-
ten near the close of Solomon's life. The early pari
of his reign was distinguished by many special tokens
of Divine favor. " He sat on the throne of Jehovah,"
as king over all Israel, in place of David, at the culmi-
nating period of the theocracy. To him was assigned

254: THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

the erection of the temple. On two occasions Jehovah
appeared to him, heard his requests, and blessed him.
In respect to his knowledge and wisdom, the success of
his affairs, and the peace, prosperity, and glory of Lis
kingdom, he was greatly favored of God. His history
and fame in these respects was widely known, and the
disgrace of his defection to idolatry and worldliness
was perhaps not less notorious. Degeneracy and cor-
ruption were at the same time in progress among the
people, promoted, no doubt, in a large degree by his
example. "When he was awakened from his folly to a
better state of mind, it was fit that he should be called
to testify against the prevalent and fatal delusions of
worldliness and pleasure, to contrast it with the nature
and effects of true wisdom, and to recommend true
religion as the only means of present and future happi-
ness ; and to inculcate these lessons in a way most
likely to arrest attention, by citing his own extended
and melancholy experience, appealing to the observa-
tions and feelings of those whom he taught, and assert-
ing the moral government and universal providence of
God, the accountability, frailty, and dependence of man,
the certainty of a future judgment and retribution, and
other apposite truths of revealed religion.

Here was a most ample, diversified public experi-
ment, made by the wisest man and greatest monarch
of the world, who had control of all the means of grati-
fying his tastes and wishes. ' He gave his heart . . .
to know madness and folly . . . "Whatsoever his eyes
desired he kept it not from them. He withheld not his
heart from any joy.' He exhausted the resources of
studious ingenuity, art, and fashion ; and proved them

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 255

all to be alike unsatisfying and vain. But the humili-
ating lessons which he had learned, and his final testi-
mony to the transcendent excellence of true wisdom,
would have been lost to others, of that and of succeed-
ing ages, but for the composition of this book. And if
the book was not verbally inspired, its teachings can
have no conscience-binding authority, nor can its words
be taken as the sword of the Spirit in arresting and
converting those who are in danger of perishing in
courses like those from which Solomon was recovered.

There are many things exhibited in the Holy Scrip-
tures— many comprehensive and essential truths con-
cerning social and political, invisible and spiritual con-
ditions, relations, operations, and effects — clear and
adequate conceptions of which could not be conveyed
to the human mind by mere verbal statements, apart
from human experience, and without such associations
and contrasts of thought and diction as are pictured in
personal biographies, and in allegories, parables, types,
and representative symbols : concerning all which it is
apparent that the truths which are taught — modified
and limited as they are by the lights and shadows,
what is omitted and what is expressed, in the verbal
portraitures — could not be conveyed to the mind
without the words which are employed in the text.
And it is no less apparent that the truths intended to
be conveyed by these emblematic associations could
not be apprehended or conceived until the words neces-
sary to indicate and enshrine them were conceived and
understood. If, then, the truths were inspired into ihe
minds of the sacred writers, the words also must at the

256 THE PLENARY INSILRaTION

same time have been inspired. To suppose that the
writers selected the words, is to suppose them to select
words to express thoughts fully, of which previously
they had but a half-formed conception ; words to sup-
ply some essential feature of the thoughts, or some in-
crement of limitation.

These methods of expressing specific leading truths
by associating and grouping particular thoughts in
words which otherwise arranged would not exj3ress the
same truths, proceed upon the ground of analogy and
resemblance in such specified or manifest particulars, as
are necessary to indicate the truths intended to be con-
veyed. The words employed in forming the picture,
indicate the particular thoughts, facts, characteristics,
analogies, or resemblances which, as grouped in the
portraiture, convey the intended truth.

The Divine revelations and inspirations were made
to the prophets, generally, with the accompaniment, or
in immediate connection with, the audible utterance of
words, heard and understood in the same way as the
vocal utterances of one man are heard and understood
by another. But in other instances, the Divine
thoughts in words were as effectually conveyed to their
intelligent consciousness, without any extrinsic accom-
paniment, by a simple inbreathing of the verbal
thoughts which they were to write. In still other in-
stances the sacred writers received the Divine commu-
nications, the thoughts, in the words which they were
to write, when in the state denoted by the term Vision — ■
a state, so far as the senses and the will were concerned,
like that of sleep. Of this a brief notice is require^.

The Hebrew words translated vision, where Divine

OF THE HOLT BCBIPT1 RES. 257

communications to the prophets as recorded in Scrip-
ture, are referred to, signify the Bame us the word a -
ing, in the same connections ; meaning the intellectual

perception and consciousness, whether when awake or
asleep, of what was verbally communicated to them by
inspiration, and was by them written. In this relation
it is often synonymous with the terms word and burden,
signifying the intellectual perception and consciousness
of the thoughts verbally revealed and inspired in
words. Thus : " The vision of Isaiah . . . which he
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem ; [namely] . . .
Hear, 0 heavens, and give ear, O earth, for Jehovah
hath spoken/' " The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith
the Lord God concerning Edom." "The burden of
Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amos did see." " The
burdan which Ilabbakuk the prophet did see." " The
word that Isaiah the Son of Amos saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem." "The words of Amos . . .
which he saw concerning Israel." " Then Thou spakest
in vision to thy Iloly One, and saidst, I have laid help
upon one that is mighty."

The revelations and inspirations referred to under
these terms, were evidently made in words or in
equivalent signs or symbols. The thoughts conveyed
to the prophets were realized to their consciousness in
words, in a manner equivalent to seeing them in writ-
ing, and in some cases in a manner equivalent to hear-
ing the words spoken, and seeing the scenes, agents,
and events described. In all instances of receiving
such communications, the prophets were passive. As
in dreams, their power of volition was quiescent
Their power of conceiving thoughts in words, how-

258 THE PLENAEY INSPIRATION

ever, and of remembering them, was not impaired.
Their intellectual conceptions were, perhaps, more
vivid when asleep than when awake. What was con-
veyed to them by inspiration when asleep, and without
the power of voluntarily selecting words, was realized
to their consciousness and remembered in words. What
occurred differed from what occurs in ordinary dreams,
in this, that the thoughts of which they became conscious
were conveyed to them by the Divine act of inspiration.

So, in the New Testament, a vision and seeing, in
the sense above defined — perceiving and being con-
scious of thoughts verbally inspired in words — are of
like import. Thus at the transfiguration, the disci-
ples, though " heavy with sleep," were conscious of
what was said by Moses and Elias : but " as they came
down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying,
tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man be
risen again from the dead." Cornelius "saw in a
vision ... an angel of God coming in to him and say-
ing, Cornelius." Peter, in a trance— a state in which
the senses are suspended — saw a vision. " There came
a voice to him." ..." And the voice spake unto him
again the second time." ..." He doubted what this
vision which he had seen should mean." . . "While he
thought on the vision, the spirit said unto him, Behold
three men seek thee." (Acts 10.) A vision appeared
to Paul in the night. " There stood a man of Mace-
donia and prayed him, saying, Come over into Mace-
donia and help us." (Acts 16.) " Then spake the
Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid,
but speak, and hold not thy peace." (Acts 18.)

It seems to be quite evident, from these examples,

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 259

that a prophetic vision means the reception of thoughts
in words by inspiration ; and that besides the thoughts
and words which are recorded as having been expressed
and heard, in cases where agents or phenomena are re-
ferred to as if seen by the natural eye, the thoughts
which a sight of them by that organ would suggest,
were also verbally inspired.

The notion that a prophetic vision, or seeing a
vision, denotes that the prophet was in a state of men-
tal ecstasy enabling him to foresee events, and to con-
ceive thoughts previously unknown, does not appear
to have a shadow of foundation in the Scriptures. On
the contrary, so far from the prophets being excited, or
under any afflatus, it would seem, that in the case in
question, they were either in a state of sleep, like that
of men who dream, or, if awake, that their senses were
suspended, and their will inactive, while the free exer-
cise of their intellectual powers was continued.

The study of words is the study of our intellectual
and moral being. The power of thinking is as the
knowledge of words. Correct thinking implies an
accurate knowledge of the vehicle of thought. Teach-
ing words, is teaching thoughts, conveying intelligence,
qualifying the mind to think. Hence a right know-
ledge of words, as the moulds and vehicles of right
thoughts, is necessary to right decisions of conscience.
For the decisions of conscience are convictions, feelings
of the mind, which result from a comparison of our
acts with the rules of right and wrong, which we have
adopted. The rule or standard does not exist in the
mind independently of our perception and knowledge
of law, truth, and the words of truth ; for if it did, all
men's consciences would invariably decide alike, where-

260 THE PLENAEY INSPIRATION

as those men whose standard is wrong, are as con-
scientious in doing wrong, as those are, in doing right,
whose standard is correct. If the standard is wrong, or
if no standard is perceived and known, the decisions
of conscience will be wrong, or there will be no sense
of right and wrong in the case. But a correct know-
ledge of words is requisite to the perception and know-
ledge of the true standard of comparison, in every
given case. To meet the exigencies of men in this re-
lation, the standard must be infallible. It must be such
as the Supreme Arbiter of right and wrong alone can
furnish. His words, therefore, which express the in-
fallible standard, must be rightly understood, in order
that the results of comparison, the decisions of con-
science, may be according to truth.

The popular objections to some things contained in
the Scriptures, as being beneath the dignity of the
Divine Being, being of little, and of mere temporary
importance in themselves, or being inconsistent with
refined and cultivated taste, proceed partly upon the
assumption that our version of the original words con-
veys to us in every idiomatic and other particular, ex-
actly the same impressions which the original words
conveyed to those who were contemporary with the
revelations, and whose habits, manners, tastes, modes
of thought, education, governments, institutions, cli-
mates, employments, were widely different from ours ;
and partly upon the presumption that apart from the
changes effected by time in the words of our version,
the objectors are competent judges not only as to what
words should be used in a revelation, but as to what
thoughts, in a biography of fallen men, and in narra-

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 261

tives of particular events, might be necessary and pro-
per to be expressed. An examination of the topics,
details, and. words, which are objected to, made in view
of the occasions and objects of particular revelations,
and with a tolerable knowledge of their direct or his-
torical connection with the great train of dispensations,
covenants, institutions, promises, predictions, provi-
dences, disciplinary dealings, manifestations of right-
eousness, exhibitions of human character, and histori-
cal fidelity and consistency, will, to honest and unpre-
judiced minds, remove the imagined difficulties. But
even if they could not be removed by any investiga-
tion which is possible at this distance of time, it would
not follow from their being offensive to man's wisdom,
and distasteful to his sentimentalism, that they were
not founded on ample reasons which were apparent
when they were originally written. In general, an
impartial inquirer can not fail to discover that the
things which he had inconsiderately regarded as trivial,
Lad such relative bearing and importance, as to forbid
their being dispensed with ; and that what appeared
trivial to his limited vision, was in its relations like the
key-stone of an arch. Thus the mention of the flagrant
sins, delinquencies, and defects of holy men, often cast
a flood of light upon the most important doctrines
concerning the corruption of men's hearts, and the
grounds and methods of their recovery, justification,
sanctification, ami final deliverance. So with respect
to the record of particular acts, depravities, and cor-
ruptions of wicked men. And in general, it may be
said, that if fallen men in the relations which they sus-
tain, were to be instructed concerning their own cha-

262 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

racters and abominations, so that the thoughts of their
hearts should be revealed to themselves, in contrast
with the character and laws of God, then the colloquial
and familiar words employed by the Searcher of hearts
to describe them, were of indispensable necessity.

It has been objected that the Scriptures include what
is recorded as having been spoken — whether true or
false in itself — by Satan, and by false prophets, and
other bad, as well as by good men. The histori-
cal fact of such portions having been spoken in the
words and connections in which they are recorded, is
indeed thus verified, in like manner as are the state-
ments of other historical facts. What was said by
such persons is doubtless recorded in their words and
their idiom ; and being in effect but quotations, neces-
sary to the progress and intelligibility of historical nar-
ratives, presents no ground of objection to the plenary
verbal inspiration of all that is contained in the sacred
volume. The true question respecting the inspiration
and infallible authority of the Scriptures is : Whether
that which is written was Divinely inspired into the
minds of the writers, and is therefore the word of God ?
That can not be denied without disproving the genuine-
ness and authenticity of the entire volume. It is not
the object of inspiration, even with respect to those
historical facts, proverbial sayings, and other matters
which might be within the personal knowledge of the
writers, merely to record what was true, but to authen-
ticate by Divine authority as true, historically or other-
wise, what is written. Had the insertion of such his-
torical facts, narratives, sayings, propositions, genealo-
gies, and other secular and familiar things, depended

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 263

at all upon the discretion of the writers, they might
have extended the record indefinitely, they might have
made a different selection, and, supposing them to have
been honest, they might have been mistaken in some
things, and written what was partly or wholly errone-
ous, and thereby have discredited the entire vol ume.
As it is, the entire volume, and every part of it, is au-
thentic and credible, because it was given by inspir-
ation of God.

The language of Scripture, with its idioms and col-
loquialisms, is preeminently the language of common-
sense — expressing the unsophisticated conceptions, af-
fections, and intuitions of the common mind concern-
ing all matters of ordinary experience. And it is so,
first, because the thoughts of mankind concerning those
matters are universally alike ; and second, because the
Scriptures were intended for the instruction of all man-
kind. The thoughts of all being alike, the language,
the style, the words, idioms, phrases, correspond with
the apprehensions, feelings, circumstances, wants, de-
sires, hopes, fears, of the different peoples of the earth.
It is the language of Nature, applied to the moral re-
lations, wants, and experiences of man ; and, therefore,
is employed by the Infinite Intelligence for the instruc-
tion of man, in those relations. To suppose it to be
so employed in a different manner, by different rules,
or with different significations, from those common to
it as used by men, would be impious and absurd : and
all that so-called criticism which seeks a hidden sense,
a latent meaning, a preternatural reference — which finds
figures where there is nothing figurative, and mystery
where the sense is plain, is but an offshoot of depraved

264 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

affections and perverted reason. Such criticism begins
and ends in the wisdom of this world, which is fool-
ishness— in the philosophy, which is science, falsely so
called.

If men intellectually conceive, receive from others,
are conscious of, remember, and express their thoughts
in words — if a knowledge of words is an indispensable
adjunct and condition of thought — if their words are
commensurate with their thoughts in variety and sig-
nificance— if their words perfectly express the thoughts
of which they are conscious — if a knowledge of words
is attainable by all who are capable of thinking, by in-
struction, study, hearing the speech, and reading the
writings of others — then is the fact of inspiration as
little chargeable with mystery, as the fact that the
thoughts of men are expressed to each other by vocal
utterances. The same effect is produced in the two
cases : namely, the conveyance of thoughts in words
into the minds of men ; and unless the creature can do
in this relation, what the Creator can not do, He who
made man with his intellectual, organic, and voluntary
powers, can speak to him in words, can endow him with
the knowledge of words, and convey thoughts in words
into his mind. This He has done in the language,
style, and manner of those to whom He spoke so as to
be understood by them, and by whom He speaks in-
telligibly to us.

The inspiration of the Scriptures accordingly, is that
exercise of the official agency of the Holy Spirit by
which thoughts in the words which perfectly expressed
them, were conveyed to the minds and intelligent
consciousness of the sacred penmen to be written, and

OF THE HOLY SCBEPTUBES. 265

by which at the same time they were moved to write
them. That agency extended alike to all the words
which were so written, and determined the grammati-
cal forms, collocations, and arrangements of them. It
was not enough that the Prophets and Apostles heard
the voice of Jehovah, expressing thoughts in articulate
words. Moses on two occasions of forty days' continu-
ance in the Mount, may have heard much which the
Spirit did not move him to write. The conversation
with Moses and Elias on the Mount of Transfiguration
is not recorded. Paul, when caught up. to the third
heaven, heard words which he was not commissioned
to write. One prediction of Enoch is recorded by the
Apostle Jude. Scores of others by early and later
prophets, may have been spoken, and served their pur-
pose without being comprised in the written oracles.
It belonged to the official work of the Holy Spirit in
the successive dispensations, to select the thoughts and
words which were to be expressed in the sacred writ-
ings, to inspire them into the minds of the writers, and
to move the writers to record them in their order, con-
nection, idiom, and style. Accordingly, the words
which were written, are characterized by Zechariah as
" the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in His
Spirit by the former prophets." As the Spirit gave
them utterance, the Apostles spake the words which
the Spirit taught them. All that they spoke in their
official character, whether in preaching or as witnesses,
was inspired into their minds. The Spirit spoke in
them as other holy men spake, and wrote as they were
moved by the noly Ghost. If such verbal inspiration
was necessary in any instance, it was for the same

12

266 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

reason necessary in every instance of speaking and
writing what is comprised in the Sacred Oracles. If it
was necessary to infallible accuracy in writing what
had been audibly communicated by Jehovah, it could
not have been less necessary to infallible accuracy in
biographical and historical narratives.

It needs not to be proved that He who created man
and endowed him with intellect and with the power of
speech, could, at pleasure, convey His thoughts into
the minds of men in words selected by Him and intel-
ligible to them. Such prerogative on His part might
safely be affirmed, had no exercise of it ever been ex-
hibited. But He has exercised it. He has spoken in
the intelligible and familiar words and idioms of men,
and in those words and idioms inspired His thoughts
into the minds of the holy men whom He employed
to write them for the instruction of the whole race.
This, as is manifest from the sacred writings, and from
the constitution of man, He has done in accordance
with those laws of the mind by which men think, re-
ceive thoughts from others, are conscious of them, re-
member and express them in words which they under-
stand.

The nature and mode of Divine revelations and in-
spirations are thus seen to be characterized by the same
simplicity and naturalness as the other works of God.
They are as perfectly suited to their end — the convey-
ance of thoughts from God to man — and as perfectly
in harmony with the constitution and faculties of men,
as is their mode of conveying their thoughts to one
another. As men receive and become conscious of
each other's thoughts only as they arc expressed in

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 267

words, so the Divine thoughts are inspired into their
minds and realized to their consciousness in words.
To imagine the sacred writers to have been, like hea-
then priestesses, themselves inspired to conceive the
Divine thoughts, and to have been subject to different
degrees of inspiration, as the subject was or was not
previously within their knowledge, is as absurd a-; to
suppose men to be capable of discovering and being
conscious of the thoughts of each other without their
being expressed in words. And to suppose on a sub-
ject of such infinite importance as the communication
of the Divine will to man as the rule of his faith and
life, that the thoughts were inspired without the words
is as preposterous as to imagine the sentence of a judi-
cial tribunal in a case of life and death to be conveyed
in thoughts without words. It is manifestly as incon-
sistent with the Divine perfections, the nature and im-
portance of the things to be communicated, the wants
of man, and every thing involved in the case, to sup-
pose that the selection of the words of Scripture was
left to the discretion of the sacred writers, as to sup-
pose that the thoughts to be expressed were left to their
discretion.

The view which has been exhibited in these pages
of the nature, mode, and effect of Divine inspiration,
determines on the one hand that the written Scriptures
contain all the inspired truths which the Divine Wis-
dom required to be recorded for the infallible instruc-
tion and guidance of men — the rule of faith and life,
binding on the conscience and sufficient to all the ends
to be answered ; and equally determines on the other
hand, the absurdity and impiety of relying on Tradi-

268 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

tions, whether Patristic or Komish, as rules of faith or
ractice. They have not in this relation, a single cha-
racteristic of infallibility or of conscience-binding
authority. They are at best but the fallible dicta of
uninspired, often of unenlightened, unholy, inconsist-
tent, erring men. In so far as they coincide with what
is written in the Inspired Oracles, they are superfluous.
In so far as they transcend what is written, they are cor-
rupt and impious. They are as utterly unnecessary as
they are incompetent to establish any doctrine ; and
whatever they teach beyond what is taught in the in-
spired word, is in the nature of the case without author-
ity. They proceed upon the infidel assumptions, that
the Holy Scriptures are insufficient, defective, inexpli-
cit, unintelligible, and that fallible men are entitled to
supply its defects and act the part of lawgivers to the
Church, and arbiters of human destiny. But on the
contrary, the words of Scripture being inspired of God,
convey His infallible thoughts, and all that Infinite
Wisdom deemed to be necessary, and are exclusively
the rule of faith and life. Hence, throughout the
Scriptures, the words of God — sjDoken, inspired, writ-
ten— are the ground, warrant, test, and limit of saving-
faith and acceptable obedience. Abraham staggered
not at the verbal promise of God, but believed it, and
obeyed the verbal directions expressed to him. He
regarded the words of God, and the oath by which he
confirmed them, as alike immutable, and, therefore, like
all who follow in his steps, he had that hope of accept-
ance and eternal life, which, as an anchor of the soul,
is both sure and steadfast, being fixed in the place

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 269

within the veil, where Jesus on their account ha
tered. (Ileb. 6.)

The distinctive terms of Scriptural theology are
evidences and exponents of the divinely constituted
ministry of words. According to our view, for exam-
ple, the Divine names, designations, attributes, and
works, when first made known, were so announced and
inspired as to convey in the words the exact thoughts
and meanings which they were intended to signify, and
to fix and perpetuate them in the memory and speech
of men. The thoughts were understood and remem-
bered, as they were embodied, and expressed, and real-
ized to the consciousness in the words. The words
once received as the medium and vehicle of the
thoughts, would be lodged in the memory to be re-
called as the fixed and perfect moulds of the thoughts
originally cast and transmitted in them. They could
signify only the thoughts of which they had been the
vehicle. To repeat and teach them to others, would
be to express and convey the original thoughts. A
reexpression of them by Adam to his children, and by
them to their descendants, would equally perpetuate
the thoughts and words in their original completeness
and precision, till ignorance, evil influences, and false
teaching vitiated the conception of the thoughts, and
perverted the appropriation of the words.

The same observations will apply generally to all
concrete and to abstract terms, and to the historical,
tropical, and antithetical appropriation of words; to
the perversions of which, from their original purpose
and use, so as to make them the vehicles of erroneous
and vitiated thoughts, are to be ascribed all false theo-

270 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

ries of ethics and religion, and all that, in the antago-
nism of Satan and his messengers, of which language is
the instrument.

In our view of the relation of words to thoughts, it
is no ways surprising that besides the classes of parti-
cular words formerly referred to as being the exclusive
vehicles of the particular thoughts which they express,
all the important facts, propositions, doctrines, formu-
laries of faith, doxologies, invocations, thanksgivings,
predictions, precepts, and threatenings recorded in the
Scriptures, are expressed in sentences in which the
collocation of the words is such as absolutely to pre-
clude any transposition, without marring or changing
the sense, or sacrificing brevity and distinctness by cir-
cumlocutions and qualifying terms ; and in general,
and perhaps without exception, it may be said, that
the particular words employed and collocated as they
are in such sentences, can no more be exchanged for
other words, than the arrangement of the original
words can be changed without sacrificing the thoughts
which they convey. This is alike true of the original
texts according to the idioms, grammar, and usage of
their respective languages, and of our own and other
faithful translations. Of this, a few examples only
need to be adduced. The first sentence in the Book
of Genesis, which expresses a foundation fact of re-
vealed religion, is an instance. The comprehensive,
precise, and perfect thought, and each particular, shade,
qualification, and relation comprised in the general
thought expressed, can not be perfectly conceived by
the intellect or expressed to the ear and the intelligent
consciousness of the hearer or reader, in any other

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURI. 271

Hebrew or English words, or in the same words differ-
ently collocated from those of the existing texts. Let
the reader, with a competent knowledge of Hebrew
and English words and idioms, make trial of this sen-
tence. He will encounter difficulties in proportion as
he comprehends the main thought of the sentence as
such, the occasion and purpose of its announcement, its
relation to what follows in the chapter, its relation to
the time when, of the action affirmed, and to the objects
of the action, the necessity of its being precisely and
unequivocally expressed as a first principle, a founda-
tion truth, the corner stone of the entire edifice of rev-
elation, are essential facts concerning the origin of the
material universe, and all dependent existences in the
will and power of God, as contradistinguished from idol
deities and creatures ; and as the basis of the assertion and
exercise of his prerogatives and rights as Lawgiver,
moral and providential Eulcr, and Judge of men, and
as the ground of His claims to their obedience and
submission. "Which of the words of the sentence can
he dispense with ? Which can he exchange for other
words that will perfectly supply the place of the origi-
nals ? Which can he transpose without damage to the
euphony, the required order, mould, and sequence of
conception, and the completeness, compactness, and un-
equivocalness of the thought ? Doubtless the words of
the sentence might be arranged in several different
ways without a violation of grammar, but in no other
way than that in which they arc arranged in the texts,
will they convey precisely, and neither more nor less,
than tli'' same meaning.

The like observations are applicable to the following

272 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

and equally to numberless other Scripture seutences
from a just consideration of which and the grounds of
analogy and inference which they afford, we may confi-
dently assert : 1st. That the words of the Hebrew and
Greek texts could not be translated into other Hebrew
and Greek words so as to convey precisely and exclus-
ively the thoughts and shades of thought in the same
connections and relations, and with the same limita-
tions and implications which the existing texts convey,
for these words perfectly expressed the thoughts, and
were selected by the Spirit for that reason and in pre-
ference to all other words. And 2d. That the words
of our English version, so far as they perfectly express
the thoughts of the originals, can not be changed for
other English words so as perfectly to express the
same thoughts. For the translators as clearly conceived
those thoughts in the words of their version as in the
original words, and employed the words in which they
so conceived the thoughts in preference, and to the ex-
clusion of other words. Hence the ill success of all
attempts hitherto, and the hopelessness of all future
attempts to produce and give currency to new transla-
tions of the text generally, or even to particular por-
tions of it, or more than obsolete and occasional words.
" God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him, must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. — The heavens de-
clare the glory of God and the firmament showeth
His handy work. — The law of the Lord is perfect, con-
verting the soul. — The earth is the Lord's and the full-
ness thereof. — Thou shalt not kill. — The soul that sin-
neth,.it shall die. — That Christ died for our sins, accord-
ing to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 273

He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve
etc. — God so loved the world that lie gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever bclieveth in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. — He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. — The law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from
the law of sin and death. — As many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they arc the sons of God. — O the depth
of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God ! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His
ways past finding out. — Of Him, and through Him,
and to Him are all things ; to whom be glory forever.
Amen. — Now the God of patience and consolation
grant you to be like-minded one toward another accord-
ing to Christ Jesus — "Who is gone into heaven and is
on the right hand of God ; angels, and authorities, and
powers being made subject unto Him."

The exact meaning of words as they are used in
sentences is fixed by their collocation, whereby their
relation to the thought conveyed by the sentence,
and their connection and relation to the other words
of the sentence which in one respect or another qual-
ify the thought, necessarily determine the precise
thought intended to be expressed. Many writers ac-
cordingly have perceived that in all cases of words
which have more than one meaning, or which, as used
in different connections and in relation to different sub-
jects, have different significations, the intended mean-
ing is that which is rendered necessary by their collo-
cations in particular instances. Thus Erneeti
Morus, as rendered by Stuart, teach that every word
12*

274 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

must have a meaning, which is determined by usage ;
that the exact meaning in different instances, as fixed
by usage, results necessarily from the connection and
arrangement or collocation of words in sentences ; and
that those err who assign many meanings to a word at
the same time and in the same place. This is an ap-
proximation to what the case involves. What needs
to be added is, that the mind itself, in willing to ex-
press particular thoughts which it conceives in words,
and in the act of thinking fixes the collocation of the
words, and thereby determines what the usage itself
must necessarily be, or exemplifies the rule by which
the conception of the same precise thought by differ-
ent persons necessitates the same collocation of the
words.

It was apparent to the authors just referred to, as it
has been, and is, to many others, that language must
in itself involve the means of certainty as to its mean-
ing. Hence the maxims of Ernesti that — " The sense
of words depends on the usus loquendV — "That the
grammatical sense is the only true one" — and "That
language can be properly interpreted only in a philo-
logical way." On the first of these, that the sense of
words depends on the usus loquendi — he says : " This
must be the case, because the sense of words is conven-
tional, and regulated wholly by usage. Usage then
being understood, the sense of words is of course un-
derstood." This is good as far as it goes. But there
is something back of usage which controls that and
makes it as uniform as the particular thoughts are
which are expressed by different persons. The voli-
tion and act of the mind in thinking and in expressing

OF THE IIOLY SCRIPTURES. 27 o

its thoughts in the words in which it conceives them,
as certainly limits and fixes the meaning of the words
and the ground or rule of usage, as it prescribes the
verbs, nouns, and other parts of speech, and the num-
ber, case, gender, mood, tense, and other particulars
which are comprised in each sentence.

Just in proportion, or degree, that men clearly con-
ceive their thoughts, they conceive and express them
in words which clearly and precisely signify and con-
vey them. Their words are their thoughts made visi-
ble. The particular words which they use are neces-
sary to the precise thoughts which they conceive. The
writer recalls several elucidations of this which have
fallen under his own observation, a particular reference
to one or two of which may be more to the present
purpose than a general allusion to the great authors
who, in metaphysics and philosophy, have, at different
periods, so effectually conveyed their thoughts in their
words as thereby to rule the world. At an interview
with the late Rev. Robert Hall, in 1817, pursuant to a
request from Rev. Dr. Ebenczer Porter, (himself a good
example of lucid thought and diction,) I asked Mr.
Hall whether it was his custom to write his discourses
before he preached them. He replied that he wholly
eschewed that practice. I asked him how it was, then,
that he could perfectly remember, and afterwards com-
mit to writing, the very words he had used in preach-
ing ? He said that it was his habit to premeditate and
fix in due order in his mind, the leading and the sub-
ordinate thoughts which he intended to express, and
that he could not express those thoughts, naturally and
without difficulty, by any other words than those which

276 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

he used in speaking — retaining the thoughts therefore,
he had no difficulty in remembering the words, if he
had occasion afterwards to write them. Such were
the terms of the explanation. The reader can judge
how far it would have been more complete, had an-
other aspect of the subject engaged his attention, and
had he said: "In premeditating, speaking, and writ-
ing, I naturally and of course, employ certain words,
because it is in those words that I conceive the thoughts
which I desire and purpose to express ; and should I
use other words, I should not express those thoughts."
This is really implied in the answer which he gave ; as
it was in the brief review and criticism, which, in the
course of the interview, he expressed, of several Ameri-
can writers, whom he had attentive^ read. Of one
of these, whose themes were of the highest possible
interest, he said : " He fails to give his leading thoughts
and topics their due relative conspicuity ; he exhibits a
succession of cascades, but no cataracts — his march,
though onward, is in the measured monotony of a dead
level." Supposing this to be a just observation, it im-
plies that the author in question did not, in writing,
adhere to the words in which he naturally and freely
first conceived his thoughts, but was restrained by Lis
notions of rhetoric and taste, and in the act of compo-
sition labored to translate his thoughts into other less
varied and less expressive words. Of another author
he said: "His thoughts are stifled and buried in an
endless multitude of words." To illustrate this, he
referred to a visit he had then recently received from
Dr. John M. Mason, when the conversation turned on
the theological writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 277

centuries. Dr. Mason extolled Dr. Owen as the prince
and model; and, as the climax of his eulogy, said:
" He dug deep." To which, said Mr. Hall, " I answer-
ed, that if he did, it came up muddy ;" that is, con-
fi- '1 and obscured by excess of words.

Some years after this occurrence, being at Washing-
ton while Mr. Webster was a member of the House of
Representatives, I called on him one morning shortly
before the regular hour of the daily session. He had
just been requested to draw up an amendment to a bill
then under discussion. The subject was so new, and
so complieated in its relations to existing statutes, that,
as I afterwards learnt, it had for several weeks baffled
the efforts of the proper committee. After some desul-
tory conversation, he desired me to take a pen and
write what he had occasion to prepare before going to
the House. I accordingly wrote his words and points of
interpunction as he slowly dictated, till I had filled
three pages of letter paper. He then asked me to read
it over, which I did without vocally announcing
punctuation. He asked whether at the end of a
certain clause I had placed a comma or a semicolon.
On being answered, without farther question, or even
reading the paper himself, he said, That will do — that
is right. The House being now in session, he went
immediately thither, holding the paper in his hand.
On entering the Hall — the debate having just com-
menced— he at once offered the amendment, which was
read, accepted, and without opposition or the alteration
of a word or point, was incorporated in the bill and
passed. I afterwards repeatedly examined that com-
position without being able to detect an Instance in

278 THE PLENARY INSPIKATION

which a word could be dropped and replaced by an-
other, or be transposed, or subjected to any modifica-
tion as a part of speech, without palpably vitiating the
sense — as palpably, I may say, as the results of an
arithmetical calculation would be vitiated by a change
or transposition of the elementary figures. Let the
reader imagine the subject to have had immediate con-
nection with the public revenue of the country ; to
have involved a privilege directly affecting the con-
trol of the officers of the Customs over commodities
subject to impost, and to have touched on the one
hand, points distinctly prominent in existing statutes,
and on the other, points in which frauds, evasions, jea-
lousies, and litigation had become familiar ; and he may
conceive what comprehensive and exact knowledge of
existing laws, what knowledge of words and of legal
terms and constructions, what knowledge of human
nature as requiring, and as capable of statutory re-
straint, what clear conceptions of thoughts in words
which perfectly expressed them, and words so collo-
cated as unmistakably to define and fix their sense,
were implied in such an impromptu effusion.

The power by which we think, and choose the sub-
ject of thought at pleasure, and by which we express
our thoughts in words, recalls to memory and collo-
cates the words in which we think. The process of
thinking (where words are not immediately received
by hearing or reading) includes the memory, selection,
appropriation, and collocation of the requisite words.
Were that process audible, we should hear the words
(sounds) which, when vocally pronounced, express our
thoughts to others ; as, in the most rapid elocution of

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 279

an impassioned speaker his words are beard all but
simultaneously with bis conception of tbe thoughts
which they express ; as, also, whether sleeping or
awake, we are conscious, not by succession, but simul-
taneously, of our thoughts and of the words which em-
body and contain them ; and, as we remember our
thoughts and words, not separately, but conjointly, as
if inseparable and identical. Nor is this any more
mysterious or incredible, than that we should have the
power of thinking, of conceiving thoughts in an orderly
succession conformably to the grammatical collocation
of words in sentences, and to the literal or deflected
use of words and the relations of time, case, and num-
ber ; or than that we should have the power of ex-
pressing our thoughts vocally in words, however sup-
plied, or of representing them by writing.

Every provision of man's constitution as realized to
his own consciousness, and as revealed in his percep-
tion and experience of external things, implies a sub-
sistence of which those provisions are attributes, and
which is adequate to all the phenomena of thought, per-
ception, intuition, emotion, memory, consciousness, and
voluntary action ; and demonstrates that he was created
to be a thinking, social, and accountable agent, and
was therefore endowed with the prerequisites and con-
ditions of thought and of expression. How he exer-
cises his faculties in thinking, and thinking in words
only ; how many provisions of his constitution are
tasked in that exercise ; how through his vocal organs
he is enabled to express a variety of different sounds
in articulating syllables, and in musical notes, and to
utter at will any one of those sounds in distinction

280 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

from the rest, or all of them in regular succession ; or
what the relation is between those sounds and the
thoughts which he intelligibly and perfectly expresses
by them, and how they originate and indissolubly
adhere together, as he is conscious of them, and as he
remembers and vocally expresses them? — these and
a thousand similar questions can be answered only by
the omniscient and all-perfect Creator.

There is, then, in the constitution of man, a capacity
or basis for the knowledge and use of language, as
being essential to his social existence, and to his moral
and religious character, relations, and duties. Lan-
guage is a condition of his being as a thinking, volun-
tary agent, and has its elements in his constitution and
organization. Hence the limited number of sounds
and articulations of which he is capable, and the power
of selecting, appropriating, and collocating those
sounds in the process of thought. The power by
which he thinks, is the same power by which, at the
same time, he selects and collocates the sounds required
as the instrument of present thoughts, and gives them
the form in which he is silently conscious of them, and
in which he articulates them by vocal expression.
This constituent of the process of thinking is a neces-
sary coaction of the soul. It belongs to the thinking
faculty in its connection with the primitive constitu-
tional cognitions and intuitions of the soul. Hence the
instantaneousness of the coaction and of our conscious-
ness of what we think ; and the fact that invariably we
are conscious of thinking in words ; and the further
fact, that in learning language and acquiring new
thoughts, we of necessity first learn the meaning of

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 281

the words in which they are expressed vocally •
writing. We can no more receive new thoughts, from
dead or living tongues, without first learning the sig-
nification of the words in which they are expn
than we can think and be conscious of our thoughts
independently of words.

Now, the source of corruption, in the selection and
use of words, is in the perversion of the will and
the perversion or repression of the native cognitions
and beliefs ; as happens in all cases in which, the
will being corrupt, and the cherished standard of
right and wrong being erroneous, the decisions of con-
science are on the side of error. And as in all such
cases language is assumed to be defective, equivocal,
and uncertain; and the laws of spoken and written
language are disregarded : so on the other hand, when
the will is renewed and rectified, and Divine truths
concerning the perfections and works of the Creator
and llcdeemcr are presented to the awakened mind,
perceptions, not predicable of the intellect alone, of
Divine beauty, excellency, and glory, in those perfec-
tions and works, are discerned and realized to the con-
sciousness. In the regeneration of men, accordingly,
the soul, the subsistence which underlies intellectual
perception, emotion, and consciousness, is the Bubjecl
of that Divine illumination, and that effective influ-
ence of the Holy Spirit which, employing Divine truth
as its only instrument, changes the heart, opens tin-
eyes of the mind, rouses its dormant or perverted intu-
itions and beliefs, purities the springs of action, sub-
dues and rectifies the will, and thus engenders new
affections, new apprehensions of truth, new tastes and

282 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

feelings, new hopes, desires, and aspirations ; and on
the one hand, new perceptions of the beauty, excel-
lency, and glory of Divine realities, of holiness, of
righteousness, of the moral law, of the Gospel, of the
Divine perfections, of the person, the love, and all the
offices and works of Christ ; and on the other, new
views and feelings concerning the guilt of sin and the
misery and just condemnation of sinners.

It is hence obvious, that a revelation of the Divine
thoughts in words is in harmony with the intellectual
and moral nature of man ; that the inspired words must
infallibly convey the thoughts intended to be revealed,
since it is truth only as revealed in Scripture which
is Divinely employed in the illumination and regene-
ration of men; and that the true meaning of the
words of Scripture must of necessity, in order to the
requisite change, be rightly understood, that men may
conceive and be conscious of the revealed thoughts, in
the words with which they were inspired.

The process above indicated is accordingly implied,
in those passages of Scripture which affirm of man in
his natural state, that he is dead in trespasses and sins ;
that his state is that of one in darkness, blindness,
under the dominion of evil, led captive by Satan ; that
his mind, understanding, heart, will, are darkened,
blinded, corrupted, hardened, carnal, reprobate : and
those passages which speak of men being turned
from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan
unto God, of the eyes of their understanding being en-
lightened, of their being born again of the Spirit by
the Word, of their being taught of God, renewed in His
image, and brought from hating to love and obey llim.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 288

The manner of this change is in some respects de-
scribed. God, who commanded the light to shine out
of darkness, shines in their hearts, to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. The eyes of their understanding being en-
lightened, they know what is the hope of His calling,
and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in
the saints, and beholding in the Inspired Word, as in
a glass, the glory of the Lord, they are changed into
the same image, from glory to glory, as by the spirit of
the Lord.

Let those who imagine that too much stress is laid
on the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, consider,
that in respect to creatures, words are the medium of
moral influence: they are the medium of Satan's influ-
ence. By words he deceived the first parents of the
race. By words he essayed to tempt the second Adam.
By l}'ing and deceitful words, enticing words of man's
wisdom, words of craft and subtlety, he instigated the
false philosophies, false doctrines, false worships, idola-
tries, witchcrafts, blasphemies, and impieties of all past
times. So now. Throughout the realms of Atheism,
Pantheism, Deism, Romanism, Paganism, Mohammed-
ism, by his influence, verbal dogmas, formulas, pre-
scriptions, define the faith, excite the zeal, and inflame
the hopes and fears, the passions and emotions of the
devotees. At present in the regions of Protestantism,
as if to precipitate a crisis, the leading forms of specula-
tive error and delusion seem to be ranging themselves
under two principal banners; that of Monistic panthi -
ism, and that rising exhalation which lias for its dei
native, the 'positive philosophy:' and as if to signalize

284 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION.

the subtlety and craft of Satan, these two forms are, in
their principles, postulates, and reasonings, wholly an-
tagonist to each other, while they issue alike in un-
qualified atheism ; so that those who are revolted, by
the unmasked denial of a God, in the positive philoso-
phy, and its rejection, as unknowable and unreal, of all
existences and all phenomena which are not percepti-
ble by the senses, may be deceived and caught by the
mask of perverted words and conceited faith, which
slightly veils the atheism of the other. Under these
banners the conflict against Truth is plainly manifest,
both in some churches, and in the literary, socialistic,
and humanitarian worlds, in false theories of liberty,
equality, fraternity, human rights, government, faith,
and morality, and in the excitements, agitations, and
fanaticisms which aim to subvert the institutions and
cast off the restraints both of natural and revealed re-
ligion, and to abolish those of political and social or-
ganizations.

There is a large class of critics and readers, whose
religious hopes are founded in their social relations
with some form of Protestantism, who hold that those
important religious truths of the Bible which they
conceive to have been inspired are not only extant and
objects of contemplation independently of words —
whether the words of the Sacred Text or others — but
exempt from liability to be affected by any words.
They are, in the phrase of such critics, ' word-trans-
cending ideas, whose golden light is not incarnated in
the corruptibilities of perishing syllables,' but is spiritu-
ally inspired ; and that inspiration is deemed to be
common to all who apprehend or receive the truths.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 285

They are imagined to discern or conceive those truths
which they deem to be essentially religious, by spiritual
intuition, illumination, or inspiration, such as poets and
novelists exhibit.

This conceit, of course, brings all that they suppose
to be essential or peculiar to revealed religion, within
their personal control. For their spiritual intuitions
being subject to no verbal restraints, are simply such
emotions, feelings, fancies, as arise from the state of
their hearts, and may be as indefinitely various and
contradictory as their notions and likes or dislikes
upon other subjects. The words of Scripture may in
some instances seem to express the supposed inspired
truths as far as human language can do it, and in other
instances may wholly fail ; but language, whether in
or out of Scripture, is no certain exponent or criterion
of them. They are fancied to be independent of words.
What they are, therefore, each one must determine for
himself, by his own inward light. As they are not
conceived in words, they can not with any certaim v
be verbally expressed. Though assumed to be con-
tained in the Scriptures, the words of Scripture are in
no respect essential to them: 'An inspiration,' say
they, ' attaches to these truths as they are delivered in
the Scriptures : but that inspiration attaches not to the
words and phrases of Scripture.' How, then, it is ob-
vious to ask, do they know, of on what ground do they
believe, that the truths in question were inspired ?
IIow, indeed, do they know that the truths which they
supposed to have been inspired, are contained in the
Bible, if the words of the text do not express them
exactly and perfectly? — and express those particular
truths in distinction from all others?

286 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

The bald assumption of this theory is, that the words
of the original text did not with certainty, absolute
certainty, or any specific degree of certainty, express
the so-called inspired truths. The reasons assigned
for this assumption are : 1st. That words are variable,
corruptible, evanescent — ■ neither capable, safe, nor
durable repositories of such important truths. 2d. That
if the words of the text do actually contain the inspired
truths, then the words are as truly inspired as the
truths themselves, and therefore, it must be held that
translators, or the words employed by translators, must
be inspired, in order to their being regarded as contain-
ing and expressing the inspired truths.

Such reasoning deserves a moment's attention, only
as showing on what grounds those who reject the ple-
nary inspiration of the sacred writings, can be content
to risk their hopes.

1st. It is obvious to remark, that if the words of the
original Text of Scripture did not explicitly and infal-
libly represent and convey the inspired truths, then
we can not determine from the Bible, what any of those
truths were. Every man is shut up to his own inward
light, spiritual inspiration, or intuition. The words of
the Bible are no criterion of what was Divinely In-
spired. The Bible is no Eule of faith and life to him.
It can not aid him, or be of use to him. It can not but
mislead him.

2d. If the words of the text do not perfectly and
infallibly express those truths, then no other words
can be relied on to express them. If the Bible con-
tains certain inspired truths, and if the words written
to express them by those whom the Omniscient Spirit

OF TIIE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 287

employed to write them, do not truly and infallibly
express the truths, and for the reason that language ifl
unstable and incompetent, then surely no words se-
lected by other men, can so express those truths ; and
therefore, they can not be stated in words; and there-
fore, can not be contained in the Bible. One man can
not tell another what those truths are. He can not in
words convey his own conceptions of them. A Christ-
ian "man can not tell a heathen what they are. Of
course all who flatter themselves that they know what
those truths are, must imagine that they know them
by some kind of inspiration without words, and their
faith must rest not on the Divine authority, but on
their own inward personal inspiration.

3d. On this ground it is plain that translations from
the original, however accurately and faithfully made,
can neither have any authority, nor be of any use to-
wards a discovery of the truths in question. The
words of a translation can no more convey those truths
than the words of the original. Translations are, in-
deed, but mockery and nonsense. Moreover, the same
conclusion respecting the uncertainty and inadequacv
of language, is as applicable to all other books, as to
the Bible. If the words employed do not express with
certainty the inspired truths which they purport to
convey, then the words of a secular history, a statute
law, or an oral discourse between individuals, can not
be regarded as expressing what they are employed to
express. That which men have always taken to be
the instrument of conveying their thoughts to each
other, is a mere deception. What they write, and
what they say, docs not, nay, can not express their

288 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

thoughts to one another. They know each other's
thoughts only as they know inspired truths, by a silent
internal inspiration. Their eyes, ears, and vocal or-
gans, are alike superfluous, useless, or injurious.

4th. On the contrary, it is precisely and solely be-
cause the words, idioms, and grammatical arrangements
of the original texts, perfectly and infallibly express
the inspired truths contained in the Bible, that unin-
spired versions — translations into the equivalent words,
phrases, and collocations of other tongues, express the
same truths, and have authority in proportion to their
fidelity. The words of the originals are an infallible
standard ; and such is the perfection of language as the
instrument and vehicle of thought, that when the ori-
ginal words are so well understood that the thoughts
which they convey are clearly conceived in them, and
the equivalent words of the version so well under-
stood that the same thoughts are clearly conceived in
them, the latter words will as perfectly convey those
thoughts to those to whom those words are vernacular,
as the originals conveyed the same to those who spoke
the original tongues, and were contemporary with the
sacred writers. If the translator, from incompetency,
or from dishonesty, does not select words which as
clearly express the same thoughts as the original words,
then his version is so far imperfect and erroneous. He
needs more instruction and more integrity ; but he no
more needs inspiration to enable him to convey in the
words of another tongue, the thoughts expressed in
Greek and Hebrew words, than a scholar needs inspir-
ation to enable him to express in English the thoughts
conveyed in Latin by Thucydides, or than a child needs

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 289

to be inspired to understand the simplest monosyllables
of the parent. The fact, therefore, that the Greek
Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Latin Vul-
gate, or any other version, does not in every particular
express precisely the thoughts which the original words
express, is no proof, either that the original words do
not perfectly and infallibly express the inspired thoughts,
<>r that Inspiration is necessary to the clear expression
of those thoughts in other tongues.

All the piquant and puerile things which have been
written to impeach the plenary inspiration and Divine
authority of the Scriptures, on the ground of the im-
perfection of human language, are alike offensive for
the ignorance, the sinister motives, and the hypocrisy
which they betray. 'If,' says the expositor who affects
to think independently of words, ' if the words of the
original texts were Divinely inspired, and therefore in-
fallibly expressed the inspired thoughts of Scripture,
then, 1st, the countless translators of the Bible, and of
particular books, chapters, verses, and words, must be
in like manner inspired, or it will be impossible to dis-
tinguish correct from false translations ; and, 2d, the
translators must be inspired to distinguish between
genuine and false readings of the original texts ; and,
3d, every reader of translations must be inspired to
select the most correct translation, and to distinguish
between what is, and what is not correct in the version
of his native tongue.' Now all this is as preposterous
as to say that words have no meaning ; that it is not
their nature and office to express thoughts ; and that
the pretended expositor does not employ words to ex-
press his own thoughts. What he says, is equivalent

13

290 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

to saying that the defects of a translation, or copy,
can not be detected by comparing it with the original ;
for when pressed by the authority of the collators of
the originals, he is forced to admit that the various
readings nowhere convey a different sense. They are
designed, honest, or inadvertent substitutions of equi-
valent for original words. The copyist, having a clear
conception of the inspired thoughts in the words he
was to copy, occasionally wrote synonymous words in
place of those in his text, and to that extent became a
translator.

All theoretical and practical deviations from truth,
begin and are nourished by deviations in thought and
in the words in which thoughts are conceived and ex-
pressed. They are essentially violations of truth — lies.
No lie is of the truth. He who thinks truth, necessa-
rily thinks it in words which express it as perfectly as
the thought exists in the mind. Thought can not
transcend consciousness. We are conscious of thoughts
and conceive, derive, remember, and express them, only
in the words which are their exact pattern, medium,
vehicle, and representative.

Those writers, therefore, who found their heresies
upon false notions of language, assuming that words
are signs of things, and, with respect to all but a few
of the objects of sense, are inadequate, uncertain, em-
ployed figuratively without any known or conceivable
reason, but at random, merely to adapt themselves to
the countless variety of real and imaginary things and
their qualities and relations, are either unconscious of
what they do, or are deliberate violaters of truth.
"Words are neither signs of things, nor merely signs of

OF THE HOLY SCIUPTUKES. 291

thought. They are the matrix and vesture of thought ;
and hence the inspired words of Scripture, which per-
fectly expressed the Eevealer's thoughts, arc as infalli-
ble as the thoughts which they express.

Those writers also who derive their theology not
from the written Scriptures, but from their own emo-
tions, intuitions, feelings, experience, who treat the
words of Scripture as words of fallible and uncertain
speculation, to be construed according to fancy by an
old, or by the newest system of philosophy, and make
their inward experience the standard of faith, are equal-
ly violators of truth, under strong delusion to believe
a lie. For their emotional experience can be no fur-
ther religious and Christian than it conforms to truth
as revealed in Scripture ; and none of their emotions,
no part of such religious experience precedes, but in-
dubitably is the consequence of the perception or ap-
prehension of Scripture truths. The standard, there-
fore, is of necessity in the truths perceived, and not in
the emotions which are awakened by the perception.
But.those truths which are perceived and which excite
corresponding religious emotions, are expressed in the
inspired words of Scripture, and are, therefore, an in-
fallible standard of faith and life. They change not,
and no man can be guiltless, who adds to or takes from
the words in which they were inspired.

The Scriptures, therefore, if received as at all in-
spired, and of Divine authority, must be received as
wholly inspired, and of infallible authority as the rule
of faith and life. There is no medium. If they . • I
not wholly inspired, and equally of absolute authority,
there would be no infallible standard to appeal to. If

292 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

any portion of them was uninspired and without in-
fallible Divine authority, no conclusive evidence could
be exhibited to show that every portion of them was
not of that character ; and no two men would be found
to agree as to any particular concerning faith and life,
and no one could quote them as final against any error.
They were given by the Creator and Judge of men, to
be an infallible rule of faith and life, and on them as
such, the present welfare and eternal destiny of men
depend. It being impossible from the natures and ca-
pacities of creatures, and especially fallen creatures, for
them to discover or give authority to their truths, the
Creator Himself inspired them into the minds of those
whom He commanded to write them. He inspired
them in a manner consistent with the nature, constitu-
tion, capacities, and circumstances of man, employing
the vehicle which men are gifted to employ, in their
intercourse with Him, and with one another ; words,
by which His thoughts are realized to their conscious-
ness, as by words they become conscious of, remember,
and express their own thoughts. They intelligibly
express His thoughts, and for the most part, in words
by which He had vocally uttered them to the Sacred
Penmen, or to others. They perfectly involve His in-
finite authority, for they record the laws, covenants,
promises, injunctions, prohibitions, announced by Him
for the government of men, and according to which
He administers His government and providence over
men. They are sanctioned by the entire history of
His providence and grace, by miracles, by predictions
and their fulfillment, and by the facts and experience
of human history. They contain His declarations that .

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 293

they are His word, that they were inspired by Him,
that His Spirit spake by the writers, that they an in-
fallible, that their authority can not be annulled, thai
they endure forever, and that a cordial reception and
belief of them, and obedience to them, is the condition
of acceptable homage to Him, and of the attainment
of the blessings of salvation and eternal life. "Well,
therefore, may fallen man, ignorant, corrupt, and in-
competent as he is, subject to so many errors, concern -
ing himself, and every thing around him, enthralled
by so many prejudices, evil affections, and blinding
influences : well may he impute to his own defect of
knowledge and discernment the difficulties which a
prurient and factitious criticism may suggest concern-
ing the contents, phraseology, and arrangement of the
sacred text, and view as unfounded, or as insignificant
and harmless, the alleged discrepancies in letters, syl-
lables, and words.

If the original words of the sacred text were not
inspired with the thoughts which were inspired, there
seems to be no alternative to the conclusion that the
text is no infallible standard of what was revealed;
and that our faith at best, rests, to what extent we
know not, on fallible human authority. For we are
nowhere expressly taught that such an influence was
exerted on the minds of the writers as infallibly to
secure them from error in the selection of words. The
inference that they were so secured, may be deemed a
necessary, and therefore, a credible inference from the
conviction otherwise arrived at, that the inspired truths
of Scripture as expressed in the text, are of infallible
authority. But that inference is short of what the case

294 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

admits of, and of what a case of such importance would
seem most emphatically to demand. Such an inference,
as the ground of our confidence and faith, is accordingly
seen to be superfluous and uncalled for, when we consider
that but one kind and degree of inspiration is affirmed
in the Scriptures themselves, and that the inspiration
which they announce, is affirmed not of the men who
wrote, but of that which they wrote — the words which
they committed to writing. All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved to speak by the Holy Ghost. The Spirit
spake by the prophets. Such are the inspired attest-
ations of the Scriptures themselves.

Moreover, let it be again observed, if language is an
uncertain and inadequate medium of revelation — as the
partisans of unscriptural theories and constructions are
obliged to maintain — and if the inspired words do not
perfectly express the thoughts intended to be revealed,
then we must of necessity depend on the fallible reason,
and the uncertain and conflicting vagaries and conjec-
tures of men. But if the inspired words are as perfect a
medium of the inspired and infallible thoughts which
they are employed to express, as the uninspired words
of men are to express the thoughts which they actually
conceive in them, and of which they are conscious as
being the exact measure, counterpart, and echo of their
thoughts, and in which only they perfectly remember,
articulate, and reveal to others what they think, then
we have as solid and unfailing ground of confidence in
the infallibility of the Scriptures, as we have of any
thing of which we are conscious. Accordingly, the
1st article of the Westminster Confession, sec. 4, that

OF THE UOLY BCRIPT1 ELES. 295

" The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it
ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon
the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon
God, the author thereof; and, therefore, it is to be re-
ceived, because it is the word of God ;" and, sec. 2,
that the canonical books collectively, "are given 1>\
inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life:"
plainly teaches, that the words of the original texts
were inspired, and were infallible as the medium of
the thoughts revealed.

Accordingly the Bible claims to be, and is a perfect
rule of faith and life : perfect in respect to its compre-
hensiveness and sufficiency for all exigencies and con-
ditions ; perfect as containing the infallible thoughts
of the Divine Eevealer in words which perfectly ex-
pressed those thoughts. As a rule of faith and life, it
is absolutely necessary to man in all his moral relati< his,
and all that concerns acceptable, worship of the true
God and the practical duties of morality and religion.
That man is wholly incompetent to originate or 1 1
ver such a rule, is demonstrated by the entire history
and present condition of the race. To suppose him
competent to discover a rule perfect and authoritative
in any degree, would be, indeed, to suppose him om-
niscient. Even with the aid of those traditions of na-
tural religion, which have been retained by the pagan
nations, they have declined in the utmost degree from
the doctrines of that system, and in no instance have
thev, or any single philosopher among them, suce-
in discovering any thing beyond those doctrines. The
primeval revelation included, all the doctrines and in-
stitutions which are, or can properly be comprised in

296 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

natural theology — the system necessary to man as such,
irrespective of his apostasy, and of the means of his
renovation and redemption ; and also, the doctrine-,
ritual, and faith which were necessary to acceptable
worship. Abel, Enoch, Noah, and others, embraced
and obeyed both systems. The great mass of the ante-
diluvian population, following the example of Cain,
who was of the wicked one, rejected the latter of the
two, and violated or perverted every dictate of the
former. " God saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. — The
earth was filled with violence — all flesh had corrupted
his way upon the earth. — And God said, I will destroy
them with the earth."

From the rise of idolatry, which, after the deluge,
was rebuked by the confusion of tongues, the Gentile
nations rejecting the primitive faith, worship, and obe-
dience as taught by Noah — a preacher and an heir of
righteousness— and receiving no further oral, and no
written revelations, sinned against the truths and obli-
gations of natural religion, which were perpetuated
amongst them. A sketch of their progress in corrup-
tion and wickedness is given in the first three chapters
of the Epistle to the Komans. They were without the
written law, by which the Jew was to be judged ; but
they retained the oral law of the natural system, or
enough of its truths concerning the attributes of the
one true God, the Creator, providential ruler, and be-
nefactor, and concerning their own obligations, to ren-
der their wickedness inexcusable. For thus knowing
God, "they glorified Him not as God, neither were

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 297

thankful ; but became vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened. Professing them-
selves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the
glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made
like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed
beasts, and creeping things." Those truths of the na-
tural system which, being unmistakabl y reechoed by
their constitutional beliefs, were a law to them, they
" held in unrighteousness ;" and being not like the Jews
under the written law, perished under the law which
they violated. So far as the Gentiles did in obedience
to the natural law, things which are also enjoined in
the written Scriptures, they were a law to themselves.
(Rom. 2 : 14.) To that extent they acted as if the na-
tural law — the truths of which met to the same extent
a corresponding response from their constitutional feel-
ings and beliefs — were written in their hearts ; their
consciences consequently bearing witness; their thoughts
or judgments, on comparing the truths so perceived
and attested with their actions — accused, or else ex-
cused the acts in question.

So far, then, as relates to the pagan world, it is evi-
dent that man has shown himself to be wholly incom-
petent to invent or discover a rule of acceptable faith
and worship, or of the practical virtues and duties of
life.

The same is no less true of all the sects of Philoso-
phers who have access to the written Scriptures, but
who reject, or labor to supersede them. That this is
true of the partisans of what is comprehensively
termed the German philosophy, no man who believes
the Scriptures, will for a moment doubt. The leading
13*

298 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

systems indicated by that general term, are the The-
istic, the idealistic, and the pantheistic — of which the
latter is held in several forms, differing more or less
from each other. The Theist assumes the existence of
an eternal God, the Creator, existing independently of
His works of creation, and holds more or less the
truths of natural Theology, but rejects the Scriptures
and all supernatural revelations. The Idealist ignores
an external revelation equally with all other external
phenomena. The Pantheist imagines that the universe
is God, or that nature and man are God, in so far as He
is manifested as having life and consciousness. But
neither of them teaches any system or rule of faith,
worship, or practical obedience ; much less any thing
in advance of the Scriptures as a rule, or any thing
susceptible of practical observance. . On the contrary,
they are but visionary subtleties and delusions, for it
is notorious and of necessity that the Idealist acts and
speaks as though he fully believed in the existence of
matter ; and the Pantheist, in equal antagonism to his
philosophy, as though he was a conscious person, dis-
tinct from God.

The philosophers of these and other unscriptural
systems discuss the subject of the soul, under the name
of intellect, as though in its nature it comprised nothing
but what is indicated by that term. Of the intellect
accordingly they predicate perception, cogitation, and
consciousness, as if those phenomena described and ex-
hausted the powers of the perceiving, thinking, and con-
scious agent; or as if the soul was nothing beyond
what those phenomena exhibit it to be. In their efforts
at abstraction they lose sight of the substance from

OF THE UOLV SCBIPTURES. 299

which they abstract, and dissever the intellect and its
phenomena from the agent to which they belong ; as
a man would describe a watch by its exterior pheno-
mena, without taking cognizance of the main spring,
and its relations to all the interior machinery.

The Scriptures contemplate and address man as a
being, an agent, endowed not only with the faculties
and powers of perceiving, dunking, and being con-
scious, but with those which make him a moral and
responsible agent, accountable to God as his creator,
lawgiver, and benefactor ; subject to His law and to
His providence, susceptible of sensations from external
objects, and of emotions from mental perceptions ; ca-
pable of progress indefinitely in the exercise of his
powers as an agent, incapable of thinking, feeling, or
acting, in opposition to the laws of his own constitu-
tion, and destined to exist forever, as a distinct, acting,
conscious, accountable being.

These philosophers, on the other hand, contemplate
man, either as a phenomenon with relations only to
external nature and his fellow-creatures; as a pheno-
menon which includes in itself — in each individual's con-
scious perceptions — all that is meant by external things
of whatever nature ; or as a part, in common with all
material and other phenomena of nature, of what tiny
call God. In so far as they are not governed by ;|
practical faith in opposition to their speculative the
they arc but a step, if so much, from saying, there is
no God. Their systems followed out, subvert and ex-
clude all religion and all morality. Mystified and I'd
astray by false and perverted thought-, they employ
words perversely to express what scarce one in a mil-

300 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

lion of the human race can comprehend. And yet, by
the craft of Satan working in the imaginations and pas-
sions of men, the dogmas which they profess to educe
from their theories, are widely received, not only by
the ignorant and reckless, but even by educated men,
ministers and others who profess to hold in reverence
the oracles of the omniscient and infallible Teacher. It
is between these theories, as the loftiest, acutest, and
best of mere human speculations, or these and more
vulgar and palpable forms of infidelity, on the one hand,
and the word of God as the rule of faith and life on
the other, that men are to choose, for a guide in the
present and the endless future life.

On the questions of right and wrong, morality and
religion, faith and worship, life and death, man needs,
in the most absolute sense, an infallible standard. It is
not enough that he believes particular statements, pro-
positions, or doctrines, and believes them to be in some
sense revealed. To meet the exigencies of his case,
they must be infallibly true, and if denied, it must be
practicable to show that they are of that character, and
that they are expressly revealed and of Divine author-
ity. When the awakened and anxious inquirer arrives
at this conviction, nothing short of express verbal in-
spiration will afford him the satisfaction and confi-
dence which he requires. Then the specious and de-
lusive assumption on which many a system of false
ethics, false logic, and false theology are founded, will
be renounced : the assumption namely, that language
being of human device, is an imperfect vehicle of reve-
lation, and therefore being capable of various and di-
verse meanings, must be construed according to the

OF THE HOLY BGBIPTUBES. 301

reason, judgment, feelings, or theory of the expositor.
Nor will the view taken by the soundest of those who
believe the Scriptures to be inspired and infallible,
fully satisfy the inquirer: namely that — waiving the
question of mode in the transmission of Divine truths
and of verbally representing them in writing, so far, at
Least, as concerns the choice of wordfr—such an influ-
ence was exerted on the minds of the sacred penmm, as to
secure them from error. For how could they be perfectly
secured from error, unless the very words they were
to write were inspired into their minds, and unless
those words perfectly expressed the thoughts which
were intended to be revealed ? With these conditions,
indeed, the claim of infallibility is irresistible.* But
without them there is room for uncertainty. Some-
thing is felt to be wanting. For in the nature of the
case, it was as indispensable that the writers should be
infallibly secured against error in their verbal expres-.
sion of the truths revealed, as that they should be so
secured against error in their perception of the truths
themselves. If it be possible to imagine an influence
which would accomplish this, without inspiring the
words with the thoughts, into the minds of the Bacred
writers in styles and idioms corresponding to their
habits of thought and expression, it is nevertheless in-
comprehensible and unsatisfactory. Nor does such a
supposition commend itself as relieving any difficulty.
For beyond a question, it would be as easy to such a
Divine influence to inspire the proper words,
would be infallibly to secure the writers error

in selecting them.

The necessity of a Divine Revelation, and all the

302 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

ends to be answered by the Scriptures as we have
them, authorize us to conclude that had God dispensed
with human agency altogether in committing them to
writing, and written every chapter and verse with His
own hand, as lie did the Ten Commandments, He
would have written them on the same occasions, for
the immediate local use of the same parties, and there-
fore in the same styles and idioms, that He inspired
and caused them to be written by the Prophets and
Apostles. They were, in the view of His wisdom, ne-
cessary in successive portions on those diverse occa-
sions, and therefore at divers times He inspired them
into the minds of the sacred writers. To answer their
immediate purpose, and ultimately their purpose to the
common mind of the whole race, they were necessary
in the styles and idioms in which He inspired them,
and therefore had He written the whole of them, He
.would have written them in those styles and idioms.
Accordingly, to the very large extent that they are a
verbal record of what He spoke, they show that He
spoke them at the times and in the words, styles, and
idioms, in which He inspired and caused them to be
written. The necessity and reasonableness of this view
of the matter is apparent from the consideration that
the Scriptures as written, to be the infallible rule of
faith and life, must be the authoritative word of God ex-
pressed in styles and idioms which men were qualified
to understand. A Divine Eevelation to fulfill the
purpose of the Scriptures, must of course be made
in human language, and in the language of those to
whom successive portions were addressed, and, for the
same reason, in the words, styles, and idioms with

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 303

which they were familiar. Whether written by the
instrumentality of men, or immediately by the finger
of God, could therefore make no difference in these
respects. And to have specifically the m< mil inlluencc
and effect which the Scriptures, as the infallible rule of
faith and life, must be assumed to be designed to have,
they must, however written, be, in respect to language,
style, and every other particular, precisely what they
are. For, as they actually arc, they are perfectly
adapted to have precisely that kind and degree of
moral influence and effect which they were designed to
have upon the minds of those who read them — thos i
who read them carelessly and at random, those who
read, study, and meditate them seriously and devoutly,
those who have the least and those who have hi
and the highest advantages of literary education, those
in every stage and condition of life — in prosperity and
adversity, in health and sickness, joy and sorrow, soli-
tude and society, under salutary external influences and
the contrary. Of every individual of all classes of
men from age to age, who read and hear the Scriptures,
the moral character and destiny are to be determined
by their conformity or non-conformity to what the
Scriptures teach and enjoin. The moral quality of
their dispositions and their actions, their faith and life,
is to be decided by comparison with the written word.
Now if, as they are actually written, they are perfectly
adapted to produce such results upon all classes and
conditions of men, under an omniscient administration
of perfect rectitude, then the ends to be answered re-
quire them to be precisely as they are in respect to
language, style, and idiom, as well as with respe

304 THE PLENARY INSPIRATION

the thoughts which they convey. Had they been dif-
ferent from what they are in any of those particulars, it
is apparent that they would not have been adapted and
adequate to produce all the influences and effects, un-
der all circumstances, upon all classes and conditions
of men, that they, as actually written, are designed
and fitted to produce.

Had they been written in other than the identical
words of the original text ; had the words been col-
located differently ; had the styles and idioms been dif-
ferent ; had they been otherwise composed than in ac-
cordance with the ordinary laws and usage of human
language ; had they excluded the figurative use of
words ; had any portion of them been omitted, or any
thing additional been included in them, it is an obvious
and just conclusion, that they would not on the various
descriptions of readers, or on any reader, have pro-
duced, perfectly and exclusively, the same effects,
which, as actually writteu, they are designed and
adapted to produce.

The force of these considerations is not inferior to
that of any other considerations touching the matter or
manner of a Divine Kevelation and infallible rule of
faith and life ; nor are they less vital to what most ob-
viously pertains to free agency in men, to moral law
and government, moral influence, moral actions, and
moral responsibilities and retributions. Whoever con-
siders the normal condition of the soul of every indi-
vidual of the fallen race — its capacities and suscepti-
bilities, its necessities and propensities, its relations and
its obligations ; and considers the necessary tendency
and effect on the sentiments, feelings, and emotions,

OP THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 805

perceptions, volitions, and acts, of every instrument of
moral influence, of every thought, every word, e
sensation, of reflection, consciousness, and memory, of
error, prejudice, and passion, of ignorance, bad example,
and bad habit, perverseness of will, obstinacy, and i
lessness — will perceive the force of these considerations
as clearly as he can perceive the effects of good and bad
moral influences in forming the actual characters of
different men as they advance in life. And if the
Scriptures are the occasions and instruments of moral
influence, and the tests of moral character and d
then it is necessary to suppose that the infinite wisdom
and rectitude of the Creator and moral Governor of
men, prescribed in every respect, and every jot und
tittle, the matter and manner of what they contain. 11'
they are His rule of governing and judging men, His
perfections require that they should be what the)' are —
His word, given by Ilis inspiration — an infallible rule
of faith and life.

It is the author's purpose, should there appear to be
occasion, to add to this another volume, to contain
further elucidations of the leading and of some subor-
dinate topics, and a notice of the recent work of Pro-
fessor Lee, of Dublin, on The Inspiration of Holy
Scripture.

INDEX.

Analogy between conceiving thoughts by means of words, and

seeing objects by means of light, hearing by means of sound,
etc., 53, 54, 61, 62, 93, 94, etc.
Apostles, peculiarity of their office, 107.

B

Beliefs, our primary, 192, 197, 203-209.
Bearings of the discussion on education, 211-217, 228-231.
Bible, the leading truths of, imply their inspiration, 242.
Bible, our English version of, 235.

C

Confusion of tongues — its nature and results, 72.

Consciousness, 191, 192, etc.

Collocation of the words of the inspired Scriptures, 26, 37, 112,

256, 366, 367, 270, 271.
Climates, effect of, on language, 73.
Causes, of second, 205.

D

Dispersion of mankind, effects of climate on language, 72.
Dick quoted, 43.

E

Ecclesiastes, the book of, its plan and design, 352-366.

Error, speculative, leading forms of, 298.

Etymology, not a test of the present us* and meaning "I" words,

198.
Education, bearings of the treatise on, 211-217, 838-381.
Krnesti, quoted, 378, 274.

308 INDEX.

Figurative use of words, 177-184.

Fallacies respecting language, 198-200.

Faith, the foundation of, the testimony of God, 243.

, the Scriptures infallible rule of, 246.

, true, founded on the words of God, 243, 244;

G

German critics and commentators, 249.

, philosophy, theistic, idealistic, and pantheistic, 297-300.

H

Harris (Hermes) Monboddo, Astle, etc., quoted as to origin of
language, 79.

I

Inspiration, different degrees of, as generally imagined, 11, 43, 44.

, defined, 17, 18, 52, 54, 246, 264, 265.

, meaning of the term, 20, 53.

, affirmed of what is written, not of the sacred writers, 18,

21, 42.

, mode of the divine act of, not known, 19.

, effect of, the conveyance of thoughts in words, 1 9-22.

, suspended no law, faculty, or function of the mind, 21,

23, 38, 39.

, not a proper miracle, 47.

, supernatural and Divine, 48.

, nature and reality of, illustrated by references to the

Scriptures, 86-92, 97, 98.

, of the words of Scripture, taught by them, 95-134.

, of the styles and idioms of Scripture, 18, 98, 99-105.

, false theory concerning, 284-287.

Language, man not the inventor of, 44, 69-72, 79.

, theory that it was invented by man examined, 69-85.

, a primeval gift, 45, 69, 79.

INDEX. 301*

Language, vocal and written, conceived and expressed in words
and signs in a variety of ways, 68-61.

, Hebrew, the primitive, 70, 74-78, 84.

, its imperfection and uncertainty, not a result of its na-
ture, but of ignorance, prejudice, and perversion, L4&-149,
162-189.

, false theories of, that words represent things instead of

thoughts, 44, 185-201.

, perversions of, 217-231.

, actually conveys the thoughts of one mind to another,

159-1G9.

, of the Scriptures, that of common-sense, 2G3.

Law of men's nature to think in words, 20-24.
Locke, quoted, 142, 190, 199.

M

Messiah, the, the great Revcalcr, 114-129.

Macknight, quoted, 146.

Metaphysics, 202.

Miracle, a proper, both super-natural and coH^/vi-natural, 47.

Monboddo, referred to, 79.

Morell, quoted, 43.

N

Natural Religion, not discovered by man, 82-84.

Objects of the present discussion, 45, 46.
Observations, concluding, 240-305.

Pritchard, quoted to show that the Hebrew was the primitive

language, 74.
Perversions of language, 217-231.
Primary beliefs, 192-195, 199-201, 203-210.

310 INDEX.

R

Revelation, signification of the term, 54—57.

, distinction between, and inspiration, irrelevant to the

nature of inspiration, 11.

Revealer, the Mediator, Malach Jehovah, 115-129.

, his personal appearance and intercourse with the patri-
archs and Moses, and the apostles, 115-117.

, his verbal communications with Joshua, the prophets,

etc., 119-129.

S

Scriptures, the, the contents, vehicle, and implications of, 13-17.

, the words of, not selected after the thoughts were in-
spired, 26-28, 35, 39.

, the words of, not selected by men under guidance, 40, 41.

, the term signifies all that is written in the sacred vol-
ume, 48.

, the leading truths of, imply their inspiration, 242.

, purpose and plan of their Divine author, 49, 132.

, superiority of, to human compositions, 240.

, objects to be answered by, 241, 242.

, what is meant by the claim that they are the word of

God, 50, 51.

, a testimony to be believed, 231, 232, 247.

, the English version of, 235-239.

, reading of, in public worship, 233, 234.

, the leading truths of, imply their verbal inspiration, 242.

, contemplate man as a fallen creature, 244.

, the infallible rule of faith, 246, 267, 291.

•, inspired and written as occasions required, 250.

, to be the instruments of specific results, 250, 251.

•, idioms and styles of, adapted to all mankind, 99-109, 251.

, medium of moral influence on all who read them, and

adapted to all mankind, 250, 251, 303-305.

, popular objections to, 39, 260, 262.

, faith founded on the words of, 243.

, language of, that of common-sense, 263.

INDEX. 311

Scriptures, contain all that the Divine wisdom permitted and in-
spired, 13-15, 49, 207.

, a perfect rule of faith and life, 246, 295, 298.

Stewart, Mr. Dugald, quoted, 165, 157, 158.
Soul, the, tta capacities, eta, 196,907-809.
Saxon words in our version, 221, 222.

Thoughts, that by a law of our nature, we conceive intellectually,
receive from others, are conscious of, remember and express
thoughts only in words and equivalent signs, 22 — illustrated,
23-31, 34, etc.

, conceived and expressed in words and signs, in several

ways, 58-61.

, remembered only in words, 29-31, 65, 173-176.

, realised to our consciousness only in words, 67, etc.

, inspired in words, 23, 33, etc.

, conceived and remembered only in words, 20-32, etc.

Translations, requisites of, and why reliable, 216, 217, 298, 270-
272, 288.

Types, nature and office of, 170-172.

, signify and represent truths already known, 172.

, of divine appointment, 172.

Version of the Scriptures, the English, 235.

, why not susceptible of improvement, 222, 236.

W

"Words, the instrument, medium, representative of thought-, 29,
23, 35, 53.

, inspired and spoken by the Spirit, 28, 86, B6, 96-98,

110-112.

, inspired in due connection and relation, 1 1 1-1 18.

, inspired, infallible, 131-134.

, the previous knowledge of, necessary to thinking 86, 64,

66, etc.

312 INDEX.

Words, the study of, the study of our intellectual and moral be-
ing, 259.

, a due collocation of, necessary to the exact expression of

thoughts, 20, 37, 112, 255, 256, 267, 270, 271.

, not signs of things, but vehicles and representatives of

thoughts, 44.

, inspiration of, implied, 250.

, necessarily and perfectly express the thoughts conceived

in them, 45, 67, 135-169.

, the exact meaning of, determined by the collocation,

273-275.

, of Scripture not selected by man, 40, 41, 256.

, figurative use of, 177-184.

-, represent thoughts, not things, 185-201.
-, perversions of, 217-231.

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