they come in the shape of instruction, allusion, or example; whether addressed to the reason, the imagination, or the heart. The great principle of Faith, on which the whole fabric of the Gospel rests, and which mainly distinguishes it from the more obvious and tangible motives of the law, rendered it impossible to legislate, under the Gospel scheme, with the same formality and minuteness as under the Old Dispensation: it was a principle which, in action, was to adapt itself to each individual character, and could therefore be fully illustrated and enforced, only by examples and rules as various as there are diversities of the human mind. In this point of view, what St. Paul asserts of scripture in general is especially characteristic of the New Testament: it thus becomes "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."27

If, then, we have established our point, we have shewn that there are reasons for those changes, which, at first sight, appear to give a character of greater laxity to the new law as compared with the old-whether with regard to the priesthood, the alteration of the sabbath and other ordinances, or the strictly legal form of the law itself-reasons which shew, that the authority of the second law is not

27 II Tim. iii. 16, 17.

less strict and absolute, than that of the first. For it appears that the first pre-supposes, nay commands, the changes of the second; and thus not only sanctions such alterations, but gives to them all the force of the original statute. The text puts this notion in a striking point of view. It represents the Law as being itself a copy and transcript of the Gospel, as it already existed in the divine mindas being a distinct shadow, thrown forward from a pre-existing substance :-"See," saith he to Moses, when he was about to make the tabernacle, (an abstract expression for the Jewish economy)—" see that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the Mount." This is a consideration which appears to relieve the mind of much anxiety, when the New Testament evidence on some of the points above alluded to, is brought under discussion. We can then fall back upon the original constitution of the Mosaic Law, and argue from its acknowledged Plenary Authority to that of the New Testament, with a degree of confidence which grows stronger the more closely the connection between the Old Testament and the New is established. "What," says Justin Martyr, "is the Law? the Gospel predicted: What is the Gospel? the Law fulfilled."28 Or as Hooker expresses it: "The general end, both of Old and New, is one; the dif28 Quæst. et Resp. 101.

D

ference between them consisting in this, that the Old did make wise by teaching salvation through Christ that should come; the New, by teaching that Christ the Saviour is come, and that Jesus whom the Jews did crucify, and whom God did raise from the dead, is he."29

The question of Inspiration, on which, as we have already stated, a similar discrepancy exists between the records of the two Dispensations; and which is also, in itself, a subject not only of the deepest importance, but also involving much difference of opinion; will form matter for the succeeding Lecture. When we trust it will appear that the apostle's words may be taken in their widest and strongest acceptation—" All scripture is given by inspiration of God."

29 Book 1. § 14.

END OF LECTURE II.

LECTURE III.

INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE.

THE ARGUMENT.

IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT-QUESTION HERE CONFINED TO THE INSPIRATION OF THE WRITTEN WORD-DISTINCTION BETWEEN INSPIRED WRITINGS AND INSPIRED MEN-VERBAL THEORY ADVOCATEDVERBAL ACCURACY NECESSARY WHEN THE THING RECORDED WAS UNKNOWN OR UNINTELLIGIBLE TO THE WRITER-WORDS OF THE UTMOST MOMENT BECAUSE WE THINK IN THEM-VERBAL INSPIRATION AS NECESSARY FOR WRITING AS SPEAKING-INDISPENSABLE IN SOME CASES, THEREFORE POSSIBLE IN ALL-ENTIRE KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGES, IN SOME INSTANCES, THROUGH INSPIRATION-SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY TO VERBAL INSPIRATION--THE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS-AND OF LATER DIVINES-OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, FROM INELEGANCE OF STYLE-FROM DISCREPANCIES IN ACCOUNTS OF THE SAME TRANSACTION-FROM VARIOUS READINGS-ADVANTAGES ARISING FROM THE VERBAL THEORY-IMPORTANT POINTS OF FAITH OFTEN INVOLVED IN SINGLE WORDS-SOME MISCONSTRUCTIONS OF THE DOCTRINE GUARDED AGAINST-CONCLUSION.