THE KING’S BUSINESS
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receive the Gospel from any man, but by a revelation from Jesus Christ (Gal. 1 :12, 16; 1 Cor. 15:3). W ROTE W ITH W ISDOM He wrote “ all his epistles,” St. Peter tells u s '( 2 Peter 3:15, 16), not only in words taught by the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. 2:13), as had been the other Scripturfes (o f thé Old Testament), but according to. a wis dom which had been given to him (2 Peter 3:15, 16). He had the knowledge o f the mystery o f Christ (Eph. 3 :3 ). Jesus Christ had promised to give His disciples not only “a mouth, but wisddm to testify o f Him” (Luke 21:15). David, when he seemed to speak only o f himself in the Psalms, knew that it was o f the Messiah that his words were to be understood : “ Being a prophet, and knowing that o f the fruit o f his loins, according to the flesh, God would raise up Christ to sit on his throne” (Acts 2:30). X. Why, then, should we not say that divine inspiration is- but illumination in its most exalted and abundant measure? ' W e must beware o f saying so; for thus we should have but a narrow, confused, contingent and constantly fluctuating idea o f inspiration. In fact— 1. God, who often conjoined those two gifts in one man, often also saw fit to dis join them, in order that He might give us to understand that they essentially differ, the one from the other, and that, when united, they are independent. Every true Christian has the Holy Ghost (1 John 2:20, 27; Jer. 31:34; John 6:45), but every Christian is not inspired, and such a one w.ho utters the words o f God, may not have received either life-giving affections or life-giving light. 2. It may be demonstrated by a great many examples, that the one o f these gifts was not the measure o f the other ; and that the divine inspiration o f the prophets did not observe the ratio o f their knowledge, any more than that o f their holiness. D IV INE INSP IRAT ION 3. Far, indeed, from the one o f those gifts being the measure o i the other, one may even say that divine inspiration appeared all the more strikingly the more
that the illumination o f the sacred writer remained in arrear o f his inspiration. When you behold the very prophets, who were most enlightened by God’s Spirit, bending over their own pages'after having written them, and endeavoring to comprehend the meaning which thé Spirit in them had caused them to express, it should become manifest to you that their divine inspira tion was independent o f their illumination. 4. Even supposing the prophet’s illumi nation raised to its utmost pitch, still it did not reach the altitude o f the diving idea, arid there might be much more meaning in the word dictated to them than the prophet was yet cognizant of. David, doubtless, in hymning his psalms,, knew (Acts 2:30) that they referred to “ Him who was to be born Of his loins, to sit upon his throne forever.” Most o f the prophets, like Abraham their father, saw the day o f Christ, and when they saw it, were glad (John 8:56) ; they searched what the Spirit o f Christ, which was in them, did signify, when it testified beforehand o f the sufferings o f the Mes siah, and the glory that should follow ( 1 Peter 1:11). Yet notwithstanding all this, our Lord attests _to us that the simplest Christian, the least (in knowledge) in the Kingdom o f God, knows more on that sub ject than the greatest o f the prophets (Matt. 11:11). 5. These gifts differ frofn each other in essential characters, which we will pres ently describe. FA ITH IN THE WORDS 6. Finally, it is always the inspiration of the book that is presented to us as an object Of faith, never the inward state o f him who writes it. His knowledge or ignorance nowise effects the confidence I owe-to his words ; and my soul ought ever to look not so much to the lights o f his understanding as to the God o f all holiness, who speaks to me by his mouth. The Saviour desired, it fis true, that most o f those who related His history should also have been witnesses o f what they related. This was, no doubt, in order that the world might listen to them with the greater confidence, and might not start reasonable doubts as to the truth of
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