But, in the first place, it is to be recollected that he did not collect the meaning and bearing of the Old Testament Scriptures from induction, and study only. He was,—by the hypothesis,—an inspired Writer. The same Holy Spirit who taught the authors of the Old Testament what to deliver, taught him, in turn, how to explain their words. By direct Revelation, he perceived the intention of a text, and at once bore witness to it. Thus St. Paul says of our Lord,—"He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying,—'I will declare Thy Name unto My brethren, in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto Thee.' And again,—'I will put my trust in Him.' And again,—'Behold I and the children which God hath given Me[581].'" Now, "the Apostles quoted such places as these from the Psalms and Isaiah, not as they were gathered by any certain reason, but as revealed to them by the Holy Spirit, to be principally spoken of Christ. This understanding the mysteries of God in the Old Testament, being a special gift of the Holy Ghost[582],—of the truth of which interpretations, the same Spirit, without any necessary demonstration thereof, bore witness also to their auditors and converts; and by miracles manifested the persons thus expounding them herein to be infallible[583]."
To quote the language of a thoughtful writer of more recent date,—"Inspired teaching,—explain it how we may,—seems comparatively indifferent to (what seems to us so peculiarly important) close logical connexion, and the intellectual symmetry of doctrines.... The necessity of confuting gainsayers, at times forced one of the greatest of Christ's inspired servants, St. Paul, to prosecute continuous argument; yet even with him, how abrupt are the transitions, how intricate the connexion, how much is conveyed by assumptions such as Inspiration alone can make, without any violation of the canons of reasoning,—for with it alone assertion is argument.... The same may be said of some passages of St. John, supposed to have been similarly occasioned. Inspiration has ever left to human Reason the filling up of its outlines, the careful connexion of its more isolated truths. The two are, as the lightning of Heaven, brilliant, penetrating, far-flashing, abrupt,—compared with the feebler but continuous illumination of some earthly beacon[584]."
"In a train of inspired Seasoning," (as the same writer elsewhere remarks,) "each new premiss may have been supernaturally communicated; and thus, in point of fact, the inspired reasoner but connects the different threads of the Divine Counsels; exemplifies how 'deep answereth to deep' in the mysteries of Revelation; and presents, in one connected train of argument, those words of God which had been uttered 'at sundry times and in divers manners[585]'"
To conclude.—There is no such thing as inconsequential Reasoning to be met with in the writings of St. Paul[586]—no such thing as arbitrary Accommodation of the Old Testament Scriptures, in the New:—though not a few have thought it; and the language of many more writers, Papist as well as Protestant, is calculated to convey the same mischievous impression[587]. The hypothesis is as unworthy of ourselves,—with our boasted critical resources and many appliances of varied learning,—as it is derogatory to the Sacred Oracles to which it is applied. It is a deadly blow, aimed at the very Inspiration of Scripture itself; for it pretends to discover a human element only, where we have a right to expect a Divine one: an irresponsible dictum, when we listened for the voice of the Spirit; the hand of man, where we depended on finding the very Finger of God! We come to the blessed pages, for Divinity, and we are put off with Rhetoric. We come for bread, and the critics we speak of offer us a stone.
I will not detain you any longer. No apology can be needed for the subject which has been engaging our attention[588]. Those who watch "the signs of the times" attentively, will bear me witness that unbelief is one fearful note of the coming age. The self-same principle, working in different classes of minds, produces results diametrically different: but it is still the same principle which is at work. Unbelief is no less the cause why so many have forsaken the Church of their Fathers, to run after the blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits of the Church of Rome,—than it is the parent of that shallow Rationalism which unhappily is now so popular among us.... Intimations of what is to be hereafter, may be every now and then detected. At intervals, hoarse sounds, from a distance, are known to smite upon the listening ear; signals of the coming danger,—sure harbingers of the approaching storm.—Holy Scripture is the stronghold against which the Enemy will make his assault, assuredly: nor can we employ ourselves better than by building one another up in reverence for its Inspired Oracles: opposing to the crafts of the Evil One the simplicity of a child-like faith; and resolutely refusing to see less than God, in God's Word!
This must be the preacher's apology for disputing where he would rather adore; for discussing the Revelations of Scripture, instead of feeding upon them; especially at this holy Season when the Apostle's exhortation finds an echo in all our services:—the mouth, engaged in the constant confession that Jesus is the Lord,—the heart, filled with the thought of Him, who as at this time died for our sins, and rose again for our Justification.
God grant us grace,—at this and every other time,—so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve Him in pureness of living and truth: through the merits of the same His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord!
FOOTNOTES:
[526] Preached at St. Mary-the-Virgin, April 27, 1851.
[527] See above, [pp. 55-7].