Superintendence and suggestion are words expressive of different modes of Divine inspiration; but their import is somewhat vague, and their application equivocal. Under the former phrase, nothing more may be meant than a Providential superintendence, or that common inspiration which is the fountain of all holy thoughts, and which directs all pious and upright endeavours. Many persons who in terms maintain the equal inspiration of all parts of Holy Writ, in explaining their ideas of inspiration, divest it altogether of a miraculous or prophetical character. Divine' assistance' is what every devout minister or writer invokes, and believes that he receives. Yet, in the following paragraphs, Dr. Woods uses language which would seem to imply, that such assistance only was required or enjoyed by some of the Old Testament writers.

The inspiration of a writer implies, that the instruction which he communicates is true. The author of the book of Job wished to shew, how a good man may be affected by long-continued afflictions; what mistakes he may make in judging of the divine administration; what impatience he may indulge; what a wrong construction others may put upon the conduct of God towards him; what gracious methods God may take to instruct and humble him; and how happy, in the end, is the effect of divine chastisements on the man who is upright in heart, and who enjoys divine teaching. The Holy Spirit prompted the writer to aim at these important ends, and, with a view to their accomplishment, to write a sacred poem, consisting chiefly of a dialogue between Job and his three friends, and of a solemn address to Job from the Creator and Sovereign of the world. The inspired writer was enabled to frame such a dialogue, and such an address from God, as should be agreeable to nature and truth, and convey with clearness and force, the most important knowledge respecting God This is what I mean, when I say, the Book of Job was

and man.

divinely inspired.

'As another example, take the Proverbs of Solomon. God saw it to be necessary to the highest improvement of men, that they should have, for constant use, a collection of maxims, or wise practical sayings, resulting from observation and experience. This was one of the modes of instruction, which God judged to be important to our welfare. He therefore moved and assisted Solomon to write a book of Proverbs, the greater part of which were probably suggested by his own experience, though some of them were doubtless in common use before. But in whatever way he became furnished with these maxims of divine truth, he selected and wrote them under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

As to the Prophets, the nature of the subject shews, that the Spirit of God not only guided them in committing their predictions to writing, but in a supernatural way made them acquainted with those events to which their predictions related.

In short, whether the writer was a prophet, an historian, or a teacher in any other form, the Divine Spirit assisted him to perform

VOL. VIII. -N.S.

T

his work ;-that assistance always having been adapted to the nature and circumstances of what the writer was to execute.' pp. 107, 108.

It is thus that writers of unquestioned orthodoxy, when they come to apply their notions and definitions of inspiration to the hagiographa of the Old Testament, reduce the nature of inspiration to such a degree of Divine assistance, as it is supposed the writer might need. Of what assistance, then, it might be asked, did the Author of the book of Esther stand in need? If this were all that is meant by a book's being divinely inspired, the Bible assuredly would not be the only divinely inspired book.

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'When we say, the Scriptures are divinely inspired, our mean'ing is,' says Dr. Woods, that the Divine Spirit guided the 'writers. Our meaning goes very far beyond this. We understand that the prophets and apostles were not merely prompted, and guided, and assisted, but specially commissioned, and miraculously qualified, to communicate the knowledge contained in the holy writings, and that of their commission and authority they were enabled to give such evidence as renders it impiety to doubt their claims. In what way their knowledge was suggested to their own minds, or how they were inspired, is nothing to us. We have only to do with the fact, and with its evidence. To speak of their requiring this sort of inspiration to record historical facts, and that sort to deliver doctrines and precepts, and a third sort to announce predictions, and a fourth sort to compose sacred hymns, appears to us solemn trifling. We admit, there are various degrees and kinds of inspiration; but we do not admit that those various kinds and degrees can belong to the same inspired individual; or that inspiration was imparted from time to time as it was needed, to make up the requisite competency for a particular work, and that we are to judge by the writing, what sort or degree of Divine assistance it required to produce it. We have no idea of bringing inspiration in this way to the test of a barometer. We conceive that the highest kind of inspiration was possessed by the apostles, and that this included every lower degree; that it was constant, not occasional, rendering them always infallible; that it was strictly supernatural; that, as such, it not only implies the truth of what they have communicated, but invests it with Divine authority. We say, the Gospel of St. Matthew and the Epistles to the Romans are divinely inspired, not because the Holy Spirit guided the evangelist and assisted the apostle, but because St. Matthew and St. Paul were endowed with plenary inspiration, and gave satisfactory evidence of their divine commission. In the same way, the inspiration of the books of Moses is attested by his Divine legation, and that of the prophetical books by the miraculous signature of the spirit of prophecy. If there is any book of the Old Testament which cannot be proved

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to have been written by a person prophetically inspired, we should deem it safer to content ourselves with the ample proofs we have of its authenticity, genuineness, and profitableness,' and of its Divine sanction, than to involve the whole subject of inspiration in confusion and ambiguity.

The following remarks are well deserving of attention.

We are not to assume, that the influence of inspiration upon the writers of Scripture was confined to the revelation of new truths.

In many instances, it may be as suitable and important that God should influence his servants to declare old truths as new ones, provided those old truths are as valuable as new ones, and as necessary to promote the best interests of man. Is not the supposition perfectly reasonable, that God may have as real an agency in moving his prophets to write truths with which they were before acquainted, and in affording them such guidance as to secure them against all fallibility, and render their communications exactly agreeable to his will, as in enabling them to write truths never before made known? Christ promised to give his apostles a heavenly Teacher, who should enable them rightly to perform every part of their office, and, among other things, to assist their memories. It seems to have been a principal object of that promised assistance of the Spirit, so to guide the apostles, that they should truly recollect the things which they had before seen and heard, and should infallibly, and in the best manner, communicate them, or necessary parts of them, both orally and by writing, for the benefit of others.

This principle, if well fixed in your minds, will be of great use in relieving you from needless difficulties respecting the inspiration of various parts of the Bible. There is much reason to think that the historical books of the Old Testament, generally, were composed either from traditions with which the writers were familiar, or from preexistent records. But what difficulty can this circumstance occasion, in regard to their inspiration? Was it not important that the Holy Spirit should assist the memories and other faculties of the writers, in making a suitable record of that with which they were already acquainted? Was it not important that he should so influence and guide them, that they should write just so much, and in just such a manner, as he saw to be best adapted to answer the ends of revelation? And what reason have we to suppose that they would ever have done all this, without divine guidance? If we examine the public addresses of the apostles which are recorded in the Scriptures, we shall find they were composed, for the most part, of facts, and arguments, and conclusions, which, in all probability, had been familiar to the apostles before. Be it so. Is there any difficulty in supposing that, in all such cases, the divine Spirit afforded them such direction, that they judged, with infallible wisdom, what was proper to be said, and spoke according to the will of God? Was not the Spirit promised for this very purpose? "Take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." The influence of the Spirit here promised, was not to be

limited to the revelation of things before unknown. He was to guide them in giving their testimony to truths which they had before learned, and to enable them to do it without any liability to error. He was to teach them both "how and what they should speak," in reference to any portion of divine truth which the occasion might demand. The same was necessary as to all parts of Scripture. For what human wisdom would be competent to determine, as divine wisdom does, what and how men should write for the benefit of all future ages? How widely different would be the judgement of any man now living, from the wisdom which presided over the writing of the Scriptures! If left to form an opinion on the subject, independently of what we know to be the decision of divine wisdom, would not every man think that various things included in the sacred volume, ought to have been omitted? As an instance, I might mention those naked histories of human weakness, folly, and impurity, at which common decency blushes, and which infidelity has so often made the subject of profane ridicule. God, who perfectly knows the nature of man, and all his wants and dangers, and how to promote his eternal interests in the best manner, doubtless saw that important ends would be answered by those parts of Scripture which we should have thought least calculated to do good. And I am fully persuaded that we can, in no way, account satisfactorily for the writing of such a book, by such men, or by any men, without the supposition of a special divine interference.'

pp. 21-24.

Upon the whole, we have been much pleased with this little treatise, and cordially recommend it to the perusal of our readers. At the same time, we must respectfully press the consideration of the suggestions we have offered, upon those readers best competent to follow out the inquiry. We should to be glad to see a philosophical Essay on Divine Inspiration in its widest sense, from the pen of some such writer (would there were many such !) as the Author of "Saturday Evening." But the Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures is a subject that ought to be kept distinct from all such inquiries; and there is still wanted a work that should place the historic evidence of its plenary and miraculous nature in the clearest and strongest light.

Art. V. Indian Recollections. By J. Statham. 12mo, pp. 468. Price 7s. 6d. London, 1832.

MR. Statham must be well known by name to many of our readers,

as having for many years laboured as a missionary in connexion with the Baptist Mission at Calcutta. He has published these Indian Recollections, in the hope of contributing to promote a warmer interest in the minds of his readers on behalf of the Missionary cause and India. The work, as the title will indicate, is desultory and miscellaneous, but will be found very amusing; and will afford to general readers much acceptable and

instructive information respecting the state of manners and customs in India. Upon some points, it will also supply a correction of mistakes and inaccuracies occurring in works of higher pretensions. The Author's appeal on behalf of the Indo British natives of our Eastern empire is especially deserving of attention. Many of this proscribed class are descended from, and bear the names of some of the best English families, and have received the most liberal education in England.'

Yet, these persons, the actual descendants of some of the greatest men who have ruled our territories in the East, are prohibited from entering either the military or civil service of the Honourable Company. Talents and courage are abundantly found among them; and they bitterly feel the wrong which British pride inflicts; and I believe, that, unless a tone of conciliation be used towards them, they will become the rulers of British India. There have been instances where, notwithstanding these cruel proscriptions, the energy of their minds has triumphed over every obstacle, and they have shone forth as comets in their devious courses amidst the regular orbits of the privileged Europeans around them. Colonel Skinner, for instance, though excluded, owing to his descent from a native mother, from serving in the East India Company's regular army, raised a corps of 8000 men, and distinguished himself in an eminent manner during a late war. For his intrepid and disinterested conduct, although rejected by the Company's service, he earned for himself the rank of a Lieutenant-Colonel in the King's Service, and obtained the cross of a Commander of the Bath. I have had many of their youth beneath my care, and can fully testify, that, in all particulars, as it regards mental energy, they are able to cope with our British youth: in fact, the first boys of all the classes in the different schools in Calcutta, were invariably Indo-Britons. Hitherto, the greater number of the countryborn young men have been employed as writers in the various offices of government, the warehouses of merchants, and offices of attorneys, &c.; but of late years, their rapidly increasing number has caused a great deal of anxiety among parents, how their sons should get employment.' It is certain that, from their rapid increase, they will soon unavoidably become either a dangerous foe to the British Government, or a powerful auxiliary and sure prop to the interests of Great Britain in the East; and this will rest on the manner in which they are treated when the Honourable Company's charter shall be renewed.' pp. 39-42.

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Mr. Statham expresses his conviction, that, at a future, yet not remote period,' the Indo-Britons will become the effective instruments of evangelizing India. The following remarks, it would be injustice to suppress, but we must refrain from com

ment.

The success which has attended the efforts of our Missionaries, although not so great as many sanguine minds have expected, yet has been much greater than those persons who are intimately acquainted with the Hindoo and Mussulman inhabitants of India could have