LECTURE II.

DIFFERENT MODES OF INSPIRATION.

HEB. I. 1, 2.

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds."

THE result of our inquiry into the force and bearing of the peculiar phraseology of Scripture in reference to the subject of inspiration, is this: that, in a general point of view, it embraces the entire range of influence supernaturally exerted in order to communicate to mankind the knowledge of truths, which they could not otherwise have acquired, together with a recognition of the diversified phenomena connected with the exertion of such influence, in so far as these phenomena form a legitimate object of investigation by the human mind. It now devolves upon us to examine the particular modes in which this extraordinary influence was vouchsafed, in order

LECT. II.

LECT. II. that we may obtain more distinct and particular conceptions of its operations and effects, and thus be led to admire "the manifold wisdom of God" conspicuously displayed in this, as in every other department of the Divine workmanship.

That the modes in which it pleased God to reveal his will, were various, is expressly declared in the words of the text. We are aware, indeed, that some very respectable modern commentators, such as Kuinoel and Dindorf, regard both the words here employed (Toλvμeрws and πολυτρόπως) as synonymous and expressive of the same thing, namely, the matter or doctrines contained in the ancient revelations; but it appears forced to refer either of them to the intrinsic nature of those divine disclosures itself, since what the apostle treats of is the diversified parts and modes in which they were made, which he contrasts with the manner in which God has revealed himself under the new economy. With respect to the former, they were effected not only in various parts or portions, according to the various exigencies of the church, a considerable period of time frequently intervening between them, but they were furnished by means or in ways greatly differing from each other.

Indeed, the term πоλυтрÓπws, which is commonly rendered "in divers or various manners" in the versions, is expressive of multiplicity as well as of diversity, and has accordingly been rendered by some, in many different ways. And

what is thus so explicity declared by the apostle LECT. II. must have been familiar to his readers, as it must still be to all who are in any degree conversant with the Scriptures of the Old Testament, almost every page of which affords proofs and illustrations of the fact. It would, however, be a palpable misconstruction of the text, and diametrically opposed to another fact, which appears no less obvious from the pages of the New Testament, to suppose, that it implies the absolute non-existence of diversity in the manner in which God has made known his. will to the church under the Christian dispensation. So far as concerns the several prophets on the one hand, and the one great Prophet, the Son of God, on the other, the antithesis is complete; and the exhibition of this antithesis seems to have been the grand, if not the sole aim of the writer. The circumstance of diversity relative to the ancient revelations is introduced, as it were, en passant, according to his constant and well-known manner of indulging in parenthetical additions, or touching upon minor topics, which caught his eye, but which have no immediate reference to the main point of his argument. Not only were the developments of the Divine will in the latter days not confined to the personal ministry of Christ, but were also made through the instrumentality of his apostles; but they were made in manners or modes nearly as "divers" as those in which that will had been revealed in ancient times. Of

LECT. II. this abundant evidence will be adduced as we

Immediate or direct

proceed.

From a collation of the statements furnished upon this subject in both divisions of the sacred volume, it will be found that the modes of Divine revelation, or the exertion of inspiring influence, which it pleased the Author of all wisdom to select, are the following:-direct internal suggestion; audible articulate sounds; the Urim and Thummim; dreams; visions; and the re-appearance of the departed.

Of these several modes, the first only is immediate, and is that which is generally considered to be inspiration in the strictest sense: the others are all mediate, consisting in the miraculous intervention of secondary causes, or certain applications of divinely interposed instrumentality by which the matters of revelation were conveyed to the minds of its chosen recipients.

That the servants of God were occasionally, inspiration. and some of them generally, the subjects of direct inspiration, is irrefragably proved by express testimonies of Scripture. In the proem to the sublime ode of David, with which his inspired poetical compositions terminate, he declares in reference to his general inspiration,

"The Spirit of the Lord speaketh in me;

And his word is upon my tongue." 2 Sam. xxiii. 2.

The parallelism here employed is not to be viewed as consisting of two synonymous members,

in which the same sentiment is taught without LECT. II. any difference of mode or degree; but is obviously of the class termed gradational, in which the idea introduced in the former member is continued, but amplified or diminished in the latter. The Psalmist first announces the source of his composition-the indwelling, extraordinary influence of the Spirit of Jehovah, by which he was supplied with inspired matter, without the intervention of mediate causes; and then he proceeds to describe the effect of such influence in the expression given to it in sacred song. The verse contains a statement in reference to his character as an organ of divine communications generally; having made which, he proceeds in the next to call our attention to a special communication, that had been made to him, in the way of intermediate agency, or by an audible voice, such as that by which, as we read in his history, he was often addressed by the Most High.

Other passages, in which the doctrine of immediate inspiration is distinctly taught, are the following:-Matt. x. 20.-" For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." 1 Pet. i. 11-" Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when he testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ." Gal. i. 15_" When it pleased God to reveal his Son in me." See also chap. ii. 2. In none of these instances is the instrumental sense admissible.