Testament must have discovered that the phrase "the law and the prophets" denotes the sacred books of the Jews; and every unprejudiced reader must perceive that the Saviour in this declaration recognises them as an infallible standard, by which he was willing that his own pretensions should be rigidly tried. On another occasion he charges those who reject him with not having the word of God abiding in them, because they believed not in him whom God the Father had sent to them; and then he immediately adds-" Search the Scriptures; for in them ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me."* Here are several things to be noticed. In the first place, the Scriptures of the Jews, which did not abide in them through their unbelief, are distinctly recognised as the word of God. In the * John v. 38, 39, 45. second place, they are appealed to as a testimony from God concerning Christ, rendering all those Jews inexcusable who rejected him. And, in the third place, they are spoken of emphatically as the writings, evidently including them all, and leaving no room to dispute the divine origin of their diction any more than the doctrines they contained. On many occasions, Jesus spake of the sacred books of the Jews as divinely authoritative writings. "He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."* "If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God."+ "Jesus saith unto them, did ye never read in the Scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the * John vii. 38. + John x. 35, 36. err, Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?"* "Jesus answered and said unto them, ye do not knowing the Scriptures." "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be ?" "I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the Scripture must be fulfilled." Now what are we to gather from this species of reference? Why, two things-first, that there is not the shadow of a doubt upon the inspiration of any part of a document to which the infallible Teacher made such implicit and authoritative allusion; and, second, that simply considered as writings, the books thus referred to are the product of God's immediate inspiration. Where is there any thing like a surmise that there is not as much authority in the writings as in the thoughts and ideas which they convey? *Matt. xxi. 42. + Matt. xxii. 29. S Mark xiv. 49. To the testimony of our Lord may be added that of his Apostles, who bore his commission, and who wrought stupendous miracles in his name. "All Scripture," said Paul to Timothy, "is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, &c." Now, granting that the rendering of Grotius, "all divinely inspired Scripture is even profitable, &c." is the correct one, it is perfectly clear that the context mainly, if not exclusively, restricts the Apostle's declaration to the Old Testament Scriptures, those sacred writings which Timothy had known from his infancy. The whole Scripture, in the knowledge of which this young evangelist had been trained, is here said to be given by inspiration of God; that is, breathed by him into the minds of those holy men who were divinely and infallibly gifted to hand it forth to the church. The Apostle Peter, when speaking of the office and end of prophecy, as "a light that shineth in a dark place," asserts, that "no prophecy of the * 2 Tim. iii. 16. Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."* I cannot help thinking that an unprejudiced expositor would regard this as a distinct affirmation of the inspiration of the prophecies, both as it respects their matter and manner. As to their matter, they were not the result of any private impulse, and as to their manner, "holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The prophets are also represented, by the same Apostle, as searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify, when it testified before-hand the sufferings * 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. + Dr. Doddridge's paraphrase is as follows:-" Knowing this first, as a matter of chief importance, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private impulse," or original: "For prophecy was not brought of old to the minds of those that uttered it by the will of man; they could not work themselves up to the attainment of this extraordinary gift, nor divinely foretel what they themselves desired, and whenever they pleased; but holy men of God, whom he honoured with that important work, spake [as they were] borne on by the Holy Spirit; and they were only his organs in declaring to the people what he was disposed to suggest to them." |