inspired; and that what they spoke or wrote was the fruit of this inspiration. Of Peter, for example, when arraigned with the other apostles before the Jewish council, it is said: "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel," etc.1 We 'suppose it will be conceded by all that it was not primarily the words which Peter uttered, but Peter himself, that was filled with the Holy Ghost. And if the man Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost, undoubtedly he was plenarily inspired. How now about the address which followed? shall we assume for this a second and distinct inspiration, or shall we say that the address flowed directly out of the inspiration that filled Peter's soul? The latter supposition alone is simple and natural. It would be an exceedingly awkward as well as gratuitous assumption to suppose that the plenary inspiration which dwelt in the apostle's spirit helped him not one jot or tittle in the address which followed; but that, by a new and different sort of inspiration, this address was inspired into him. The case was not essentially different when Peter wrote his two epistles; since there is no warrant for assuming one kind of inspiration for spoken, and another for written words. Could not the man who spoke with divine authority because he was full of the Holy Ghost, write with divine authority for the same reason? We adhere, therefore, to the common view which represents the seat of inspiration to be in the souls of the sacred writers.

As to the extent of application which is given, in common usage, to the term "inspiration," it may be remarked that it is applied in a general way to all those modes of revelation which were made to the prophets and apostles in a subjective form, that is, to their inward sense; dreams and visions included. Thus it might be said that the revelation made in the form of a vision to Abraham, concerning the future bondage of his seed in Egypt and their deliverance thence;2 in a dream to Joseph of Herod's intention to

1 Acts iv. 8. VOL. XXIX. No. 115.

55

2 Gen. xv.

destroy the infant Jesus;1 and in a trance to Peter respecting the abolition of the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles 2- that these and similar revelations were given by inspiration of God. But the term "inspiration" is especially appropriate to that immediate inward illumination of the Holy Spirit by which the knowledge of new truth was communicated, or the proper significance and use of old truth; so that, in either case, the subjects of inspiration spoke or wrote according to the mind of the Spirit, and consequently without error. This may be made plain by a few illustrations.

Pharaoh's two dreams contained an important revelation respecting the future of Egypt; but it was a revelation that needed an inspired interpreter, such as it found in Joseph.3 We are not to conceive of Joseph as giving the interpretation by shrewd conjecture, nor according to any principles which he had learned from the magicians and wise men of Egypt. He spoke by the immediate inward illumination of the Holy Ghost; that is, he spoke by inspiration, as he had previously done in the case of the dreams of Pharaoh's two officers.4 When, again, Elisha said to the false Gehazi: "Went not my heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee?"5 he spoke from the immediate knowledge which the Holy Ghost had imparted to him; and when he further added: "The leprosy, therefore, of Naaman shall cleave unto thee and unto thy seed forever," he uttered this sentence in the full consciousness that the Divine Spirit from whom he had received it would carry it, as he did, into immediate execution. So Peter, looking upon Ananias received by immediate revelation from God the knowledge of his falsehood and hypocrisy. By the same immediate knowledge, so far as we have any means of judging, the apostle Paul wrote: "Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep; but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the 8 Gen. xli. 62 Kings v. 26 sq.

1 Matt. ii. 13.

4 Gen. xl.

2 Acts X.

trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." 1

As an example of the illumination of the mind in respect to truth already known, we may specify the case of Daniel, who writes: "I, Daniel, understood by the books 2 the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem."3 For, though Daniel understood by means of the writings of a previous prophet, it was under the illumination and guidance of the Holy Ghost. Another notable example is furnished in the opening words of Peter's address on the day of Pentecost: "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh," etc. Peter saw, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, that here was the fulfilment of the words of Joel. Many like examples might be added; but these are sufficient for our purpose.

Inspiration in the examples above adduced had reference to special ends. The mind of the speaker or writer was illuminated by the Holy Spirit in respect to particular truths, new or old. But we must assume, as has been shown in a previous number,5 a general illumination and guidance -- a constant indwelling of the Holy Ghost-by which the writers of the historical books of the New Testament, not less than the authors of the Epistles, were enabled continuously to see and express the mind of the Spirit without error. The Apostle John, for example, takes up his pen in his old age (as is commonly believed) to write a narrative of our Lord's life. He has been for many years a preacher of the gospel, under the full inspiration of the Spirit. Into that narrative he introduces many sublime doctrines concerning our Lord's

11 Cor. xv. 51, 52.

2 In Heb.

2, in or by the books. The expression is naturally understood of a collection of sacred writings, among which were found those of Jeremiah. See Delitzsch in loco.

8 Dan. ix. 2.

4 Acts ii. 16 seq.

See Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. xxviii. pp. 642, 643.

person and offices, alongside of many plain statements of what he has himself witnessed. So far as the authority of his writings is concerned, it is to us a matter of indifference whether he then for the first time received new revelations concerning his Master's person and offices, and the true import of the events which he recorded, or whether (as is most probable) these were all truths with which he had long been familiar. In either case, he writes as one who is conscious of enjoying, not casually and at intervals, but as a permanent gift, the plenary illumination of the Holy Spirit; so that all his statements, whether they relate to doctrines or to matters of history, come to us alike with the sanction of God.

The same view we take of the inspiration of the apostles when writing their Epistles. We are far from denying that they may have received, in the progress of their work, special revelations from God. On this point, affirmation and negation would be alike out of place. We can only say, that, if such special revelations were needed to make their writings complete according to the mind of the Spirit, they were given. But we must assume that when the apostle Paul (to take a particular case) sat down to write his Epistle to the Romans, he had, under the supernatural illumination of the Holy Ghost in connection with the revelations made to him by Christ, a clear and full view of the great doctrines of grace which he proceeded to unfold, as well as of the practical duties which cluster around them. He certainly did not need a special revelation that he might come to the conclusion, from the premises which he employed, "that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law "2; or might lay down the principle: "There is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God." His inspiration was not doled out to him, moment by moment, as he proceeded; but he had it as a permanent gift, bestowed upon him in connection with his apostolic office, and it covered fully the whole ground traversed by him. We are

3

Rom. xiii. 1.

not to infer that, when he says: "To the rest speak I, not the Lord," he is less inspired than when he says: "Unto the married I command-yet not I, but the Lord." 2 We have shown, in a previous number, that the difference lies not in his inspiration, but in the matter under consideration. In the one case, Christ had given a positive command; in the other, he had left the believer free to act according to his own judgment. The apostle, accordingly, gives, in the one case, his advice; in the other, the positive command of the Lord; and both alike under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Surely, an apostle might give advice by inspiration, as well as enjoin obedience to Christ's positive legislation.

A large part of the sacred volume consists of narratives of events well known to the writers, or drawn from authentic sources accessible to them. We suppose that here the inspiration of the writers consisted largely – -we say largely, not exclusively in such a full illumination and guidance of the Holy Spirit as gave them a right view of the end proposed to be accomplished, and enabled them to select the right materials, to give to them the right form, and to present them in the right spirit, free from passion, prejudice, and error. We attempt not here to discriminate nicely between different kinds of inspiration. We remark, summarily, that the inspired writers were men, not machines, and that they had whatever help they needed, both in kind and degree, that they might write according to the mind of the Spirit.

Meaning of the Term Plenary Inspiration.

The word "plenary" means "full." "Full, entire, complete," is the definition given by Webster. An inspiration, then, that is "full, entire, complete," is plenary, whatever be its mode. To assume that no inspiration can be full, except that in which the very words, in their number and order, are infused into the writer's mind, is to beg the question at issue, and to limit the Holy Spirit in a most unwarrantable manner. Here the prophet's question is very

11 Cor. vii. 12. 21 Cor. vii. 10.

8 See Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. xxviii. p. 644.