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. "Tell us not in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream; For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real, life is earnest, And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, But to act that each to-morrow Let us then be up and doing, With our hearts to heaven elate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labour and to wait." November 26, 1850. THE EDITORS. THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH MAGAZINE. No. 73. JANUARY, 1850. ON THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 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. 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. 2. There must have been more than 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 |