This I believe by my own dear experience,—that the more tranquilly an inquirer takes up the Bible as he would any other body of ancient writings, the livelier and steadier will be his impressions of its superiority to all other books, till at length all other books and all other knowledge will be valuable in his eyes in proportion as they help him to a better understanding of his Bible. Difficulty after difficulty has been overcome from the time that I began to study the Scriptures with free and unboding spirit, under the conviction that my faith in the Incarnate Word and his Gospel was secure, whatever the result might be;—the difficulties that still remain being so few and insignificant in my own estimation, that I have less personal interest in the question than many of those who will most dogmatically condemn me for presuming to make a question of it.
So much for scholars—for men of like education and pursuits as myself. With respect to Christians generally, I object to the consequence drawn from the Doctrine rather than to the Doctrine itself;—a consequence not only deducible from the premises, but actually and imperiously deduced; according to which every man that can but read is to sit down to the consecutive and connected perusal of the Bible under the expectation and assurance that the whole is within his comprehension, and that, unaided by note or comment, catechism or liturgical preparation, he is to find out for himself what he is bound to believe and practise, and that whatever he conscientiously understands by what he reads, is to be his religion. For he has found it in his Bible, and the Bible is the Religion of Protestants!
Would I then withhold the Bible from the Cottager and the Artisan?—Heaven forfend! The fairest flower that ever clomb up a cottage window is not so fair a sight to my eyes, as the Bible gleaming through the lower panes. Let it but be read as by such men it used to be read; when they came to it as to a ground covered with manna, even the bread which the Lord had given for his people to eat; where he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating. They came to it as to a treasure-house of Scriptures; each visitant taking what was precious and leaving as precious for others;—Yea, more, says our worthy old Church-historian, Fuller, where "the same man at several times may in his apprehension prefer several Scriptures as best, formerly most affected with one place, for the present more delighted with another, and afterwards, conceiving comfort therein not so clear, choose other places as more pregnant and pertinent to his purpose. Thus God orders it, that divers men, (and perhaps the same man at divers times) make use of all his gifts, gleaning and gathering comfort, as it is scattered through the whole field of the Scripture."
Farewell.
[180] It is remarkable that both parties might appeal to the same text of St. Paul,—πασα γραφη θεοπνευστος και ωφελιμος προς διδασκαλιαν, κ τ. λ. (2 Tim. iii. 16), which favours the one or the other opinion accordingly as the words are construed; and which, again, is the more probable construction, depends in great measure on the preference given to one or other of two different readings, the one having and the other omitting the conjunction copulative και.
[The English version is:—All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable, &c. And in this rendering of the original the English is countenanced by the established Version of the Dutch Reformed Church:—Alle de Schrift is van Godt ingegeven, ende is nuttigh, &c. And by Diodati:—Tutta la Scrittura è divinamente inspirata, e utile, &c. And by Martin:—Toute l'Ecriture est divinement inspirée, et profitable, &c. And by Beza:—Tota Scriptura divinitus est inspirata, et utilis, &c.
The other rendering is supported by the Vulgate:—Omnis Scriptura, divinitus inspirata, utilis est ad, &c. By Luther:—Denn alle Schrift von Gott eingegeben, ist nütse zur, &c. And by Calmet:—Toute l'Ecriture, qui est inspirée de Dieu, est utile, &c. And by the common Spanish translation:—Toda Escritura, divinamente inspirada, es util para enseñar, &c. This is also the rendering of the Syriac (Pesch.) and two Arabic Versions, and is followed by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and most of the Fathers. See the note in Griesbach. Tertullian represents the sense thus:—Legimus, Omnem Scripturam, ædificationi habilem, divinitus inspirari. De Habit. Mul. c. iii. Origen has it several times, Θεοπνευστος ουσα, ωφελιμος εστι, and once as in the received text.—H. N. C.]
LETTER VII.
You are now, my dear Friend, in possession of my whole mind on this point,—one thing only excepted which has weighed with me more than all the rest, and which I have therefore reserved for my concluding Letter. This is the impelling principle, or way of thinking, which I have in most instances noticed in the assertors of what I have ventured to call Bibliolatry, and which I believe to be the main ground of its prevalence at this time, and among men whose religious views are any thing rather than enthusiastic. And I here take occasion to declare, that my conviction of the danger and injury of this principle was and is my chief motive for bringing the Doctrine itself into question;—the main error of which consists in the confounding of two distinct conceptions, revelation by the Eternal Word, and actuation of the Holy Spirit. The former indeed is not always or necessarily united with the latter—the prophecy of Balaam is an instance of the contrary,—but yet being ordinarily, and only not always, so united, the term, Inspiration, has acquired a double sense.
First, the term is used in the sense of Information miraculously communicated by voice or vision; and secondly, where without any sensible addition or infusion, the writer or speaker uses and applies his existing gifts of power and knowledge under the predisposing, aiding, and directing actuation of God's Holy Spirit. Now—between the first sense, that is, inspired revelation, and the highest degree of that grace and communion with the Spirit, which the Church under all circumstances, and every regenerate member of the Church of Christ, is permitted to hope, and instructed to pray, for—there is a positive difference of kind,—a chasm, the pretended overleaping of which constitutes imposture, or betrays insanity. Of the first kind are the Law and the Prophets, no jot or tittle of which can pass unfulfilled, and the substance and last interpretation of which passes not away; for they wrote of Christ, and shadowed out the everlasting Gospel. But with regard to the second, neither the holy writers—the so called Hagiographi—themselves, nor any fair interpretations of Scripture, assert any such absolute diversity, or enjoin the belief of any greater difference of degree, than the experience of the Christian World, grounded on, and growing with, the comparison of these Scriptures with other works holden in honour by the Churches, has established. And this difference I admit; and doubt not that it has in every generation been rendered evident to as many as read these Scriptures under the gracious influence of the spirit in which they were written.