LECT. I. Divine truth, not merely for the benefit of those

Subject stated.

among whom it was established, but ultimately for the benefit of the whole world, the revelations of the will of God were embodied in written documents, and carefully preserved in the archives of the Hebrews, where they received such accessions of oracular matter as continued, from time to time, to be vouchsafed from heaven. To the sacred records thus delivered to the posterity of Abraham, have since been added those which appertain to the Christian economy; and both classes of books have been handed down to us, unimpaired, in any material degree, by the lapse of time, or the accidents of transcription, to which, in common with all other writings, they have been exposed.

It is to the revelations which it pleased the Deity at different periods to make to mankind, and to the influence exerted to secure the faithful deposition, in written forms, of those truths which he was pleased to ordain should be transmitted to future ages, that we here appropriate the term inspiration. We use it in a generic sense, and comprehend under it, not merely the particular species of Divine influence which was enjoyed by the sacred penmen, but the entire subject of revelation, or the various modes in which Jehovah employed supernatural agency for the purpose of disclosing his will.*

*See Note B.

of terms.

Before proceeding to investigate the nature LECT. I. and modes of inspiration as thus defined, it will Explanation be necessary to institute an inquiry into the import of certain terms and phrases which have been employed in reference to it, in order that we may be fully prepared to view it in the various aspects under which it is presented to our notice in the book of God.

of words

physical.

On examining the history of languages it is signification found that, during their most ancient periods, or originally in such as have undergone but little cultivation, the primitive signification of words is almost universally physical, being derived from external or sensible objects, the ideas of which have previously taken possession of the mind. Whatever signs there may have been in the primeval language, in which the first man held converse with his Maker, that were purely the result of intellectual conceptions, and in no manner originated by, or dependent upon any thing of a physical or sensible character; and how much soever these signs might have been augmented and improved upon, if the human mind had continued assiduously to cultivate intercourse with the spiritual world, nothing was more natural than the reduction of language to a gross subserviency to sense, in proportion as the mental powers became enslaved to secular pursuits, and the higher interests of the soul merged in those of corporeal or mere animal gratification. The mind becoming as it were identified with the external objects of

LECT. I. its choice, their influence over the ideas which it formed, and the various modes by which it gave expression to these ideas, could not but prove highly deteriorating.

In the state of degeneracy thus superinduced, mankind now naturally exist; and it is not till some mighty impulse has been exerted upon their minds, or certain habits of abstraction have been created, that an introversion of this order of things takes place. And even in a state of spiritual renovation, when the mind is occupied with the contemplation of invisible objects,— whether these objects embrace its own internal states and operations, or whether they embrace intellectual essences which are extrinsic to it,—it is next to impossible for it to rid itself of previously acquired sensible ideas, or to express itself, except through those vehicles of thought which owe their origin to something or other that has come under the cognizance of the senses, and to which, in consequence, it has become more or less strongly habituated. In proceeding to generalise and pursue trains of abstract thought, it is compelled, for the most part, to employ phraseology already in use, only transferring to it new and nobler ideas, on the principle of definite analogies, which are found to exist between these ideas and those of a physical complexion which it was originally adopted to express.

Nor did it seem proper to Infinite Wisdom, in making a revelation to mankind, to depart,

except in comparatively few instances, from the LECT. I. ordinary usage of language, as thus obtaining

among them.
In Holy Scripture words are
freely used in a metaphorical sense to denote
spiritual objects, which, in their primary accep-
tation, designate objects in the material world,
or purely sensible images and impressions. Of
this we are furnished with abundant proof by
the terms usually employed to describe our
present subject,-terms which are, for the most
part, borrowed from the analogy subsisting be-
tween the idea of wind or breath and that of
spirit, to express which, not only in Hebrew,
but in most of the ancient, and in many of the
modern languages, the same word is used. This
analogy appears chiefly to rest on the properties
of subtilty, invisibility, and vital energy, by
which both are characterized. Hence, in the
account given by Moses of the formation of
Adam, the language is so constructed, that while
it unquestionably indicates the infusion of vital
animal power by an act of the Creator analagous
to that of inspiration, or blowing into any ma-
terial subject; it also teaches the doctrine, that
at the same time, and by the same act, man be-
came possessed of a rational, intelligent nature.
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of

the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the "breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Gen. ii. 7.) In the Latin version of this passage the verb inspiravit occurs, which in the same

с

LECT. I version is also applied, in the passive voice, to describe the action of the Holy Spirit on the minds of the prophets, and the effect of such action in the production of the sacred Scriptures through their instrumentality.* In like manner the substantive inspiratio is employed to express that Divine influence by which intelligence is imparted to the human mind (Job xxxii. 8); and it is to the use of these terms in this ancient version we are to trace the derivation of the words inspire and inspiration in their appropriated theological import.

Theopneustia.

The Greek term θεοπνευστία, which divines generally use when treating scientifically of inspiration, is formed from the compound eóTVEVOTOS, which, in the authorised version, is rendered -"given by inspiration of God," (2 Tim. iii. 16); but which, according to its strict etymological import, signifies what is divinely breathed, or a certain divinely imparted property or quality, in consequence of which the subject of which it is predicated claims Divine authority. The word occurs nowhere besides in Scripture; nor has it been found in any of the earlier Greek writers, on which account it has been conjectured that it was formed by the Apostle, in order more definitely to express what he had to teach respecting the Divine origin of the sacred writings.

* 2 Pet. i. 21-Spiritu Sancto inspirati. 2 Tim. iii. 16— Omnis scriptura divinitus inspirata.