PREFACE. In closing the labours of the year 1850, the Editors of the Primitive Church Magazine commend them to the gracious acceptance of God, and to the kind consideration of their Christian brethren. They look back to the past with gratitude, and to the future with hope, adopting as their motto the language of the Psalmist,—"The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Israel is our refuge.” Although, as will be perceived from the accompanying Annual Address to their friends, the Editors are still intent on the improvement of their periodical as it regards materials and arrangement, yet have they in this day of fickle change and unholy compromise, no new doctrines to propound, and no old ones to retract or to modify. They prefer the old wine of the kingdom as it has come down to us from Christ and the apostles, to all the mixtures of modern apothecaries. They have endeavoured, and will endeavour to maintain with Christian meekness and firmness, "according to the ability God giveth," the glorious doctrines of grace, and the apostolical constitution of our churches. Most sincerely do the Editors of the Primitive Church Magazine ask for the prayers of their beloved brethren in the Lord, that they may be enabled to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and that they may be endued with wisdom from above, to promote just views on all those subjects which come before them. The scene is even now rapidly changing, error is shifting its ground from one position to another; but every change is bringing the conflict nearer, and at the present moment we seem to be entering on a new and arduous campaign. Christian brethren! "pray for us." Christian brethren co-operate with us. Christian brethren! share with us our toil and with us our gracious reward. Christian brethren! let us together seek the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us, and upon all the Lord's people during the year 1851. Christian brethren! let us be more than ever steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. communicated to the minds of the sacred writers. 1. The Scriptures themselves take notice of only one kind of inspiration, and represent it as extending to all the parts of Scripture,-to those which are historical and moral, as well as to those which are prophetical and doctrinal. The word prophecy is evidently used by Peter, when speaking on this subject, in a large sense, as including at once the prophetical, doctrinal, historical, and moral writings of the prophets; but he declares that "the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost:" 2 Pet. i. 21. 2. There must have been more than THE possibility of inspiration seems | the matter, but the words also were to be granted by all who profess to be Christians, though there is a great diversity of opinion with respect to its nature and degrees, as applied to the Scriptures. Some are of opinion that the inspiration of the Scriptures amounted to nothing more than a mere superintendence over the minds of the sacred writers, so as to prevent them from publishing gross errors. Others go a little farther, and maintain that, besides superintendence, the understandings of the several writers were enlarged, that their conceptions were elevated above the measure of ordinary men,-and that with their minds thus elevated, they were left to their own judgment both as to matter and words. The advocates of plenary inspiration, again, maintain that the Holy Spirit suggested to the minds of the persons inspired not only the matter to be communicated, but also the words in which the communication was to be made. A fourth party are for taking in all these supposed kinds of inspiration now mentioned; and they maintain that the sacred writers sometimes wrote under mere superintendence, sometimes under superintendence accompanied with a high elevation of conception, and at other times under divine suggestion, or what is called plenary inspiration, according to the nature of the subject on which they wrote. We are humbly of opinion, that inspiration, as employed in communicating the sacred oracles to men, is only of one kind, and that this is the inspiration of suggestion, according to which not only VOL. VII.-NO. LXXIII. an enlargement of the understanding and an elevation of conception in inspiration, since a great many of the things were such as could not have entered into the hearts of men or of angels, had they not been suggested to the mind by the divine Spirit. Of this description were the events foretold by the sacred writers many years before they took place, and the whole of the doctrines that relate to the supernatural plan of man's redemption. These doctrines are so deep and mysterious, that they were not fully understood by the inspired writers themselves, even when revealed; they could not therefore be the result of any process of thought in their minds, and must consequently have been communicated to them by the inspiration of suggestion. 3. For similar reasons we must insist for the suggestion not only of the ideas, B but also of the words of Scripture. To us it is altogether inconceivable how the sacred writers, who, like other men, were accustomed to think in words, could have the ideas suggested to their own minds except in words; or how they could have written intelligibly about future events, with which they could have had no previous acquaintance, and on doctrinal subjects far above their comprehension, had not the language as well as the matter been furnished to them by divine suggestion. The apostle Paul seems to put the matter beyond a doubt: "Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual :" 1 Cor. ii. 13. ral instruction, with regard to God's dispensations both of mercy and judgment, towards individuals and nations, as these dispensations are connected not merely with men's actions, but with the secret springs of their actions; and also to point out the tendencies which these actions have, not merely to affect the political and temporal, but also the spiritual and eternal interests of men, as subjects of the moral government of God. But if we consider the different colorings which different historians of the same age have given to the same actions, (though they came under their observation respectively,) when left to their own judgment and inclination, it is impossible for us to conceive how the actions recorded in sacred history could have been selected, the principles and motives from which they proceeded traced out, and their moral tendencies, as they affect not only the temporal destinies of nations, but the spiritual and eternal state of individuals, delineated, as they have been, by the sacred historians, had they not written by divine suggestion or plenary inspiration. 4. If what has been called the inspiration of superintendence and elevation, could in any case be deemed to have been sufficient, it must have been in cases where the sacred writers may be supposed to have had a prior acquaintance, from other sources, with the subjects on which they were called to write; such as subjects of morality and history. But even in these cases plenary inspi- We may add farther, that the typical, ration seems to have been absolutely prophetical, and even chronological wrinecessary. With regard to moral sub- tings of Moses and the prophets, pointed jects, it may be observed, that although uniformly to the person, offices, sufferthe remains of the law of nature fur-ings, and future glory of Christ, as the nish man with certain moral sentiments, yet, in his fallen state, his views of right and wrong are so dark and confused, that there is not perhaps any case in which plenary inspiration was more necessary than this, in order that man might be furnished with a perfect rule of duty. This seems to have been the judgment of God, which is always according to truth. Accordingly, in giving the decalogue to the church, which contains a summary of the whole duty of man, he did not employ the ordinary means of communicating his will to men, but spake it with his own mouth, and wrote it with his own finger upon two tables of stone. With respect to history, where the facts recorded may be supposed to have been known by the sacred writers, from their own observation, or from other authentic sources, it may be observed in general, that sacred history differs, in the main ends proposed by it, from profane history. One grand end proposed by sacred history is religious and mo magnet does to the pole. "To him gave all the prophets witness." But this could not have been the case had they been left to their own judgment in the choice either of matter or words; for it was after they had received these communications, and not before, that their judgment was employed in diligent search to find out their typical and prophetical references to this glorious person, and the period of his advent. "They searched diligently what what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow :" 1 Pet. i. 11. or Neither does the variety of style found throughout the Scriptures form, in our apprehension, any valid objection to the doctrine of plenary inspiration. Though the inspired penmen were under infallible direction both in regard to the sentiments to be communicated by them, and the phraseology best adapted to ex |