1 Proleg. ad Bibl. Polyglot.
2 Satis ergo est quod eadem salutaris doctrina quje fuit k Mose, prophetis, apos- tolis et evangelistis in suis a.lro'ypa(poit primum literis consignata, eadem omnino pariter in textibus Gr?eco et Hebraeo, et in translationibus cum veteribus, turn recentibus, clare certo et sufficienter inveniatur. Pariter illae omnes unk cum textibus Grajco et Hebrrco sunt et dici possunt autlieuticoe, sacrae, divinaa, ^iivnvffrot — respectu materia}, &c. Sunt in Scripturis multa alia non usque adeo scitu necesjaria, &c. (Cappel. Critic. Sac, lib. vi. cap. 5, § 10, 11.)
THE PKOPHETS INSPIRED BY THE HOLY GHOST. 803
understanding of men in all ages. In things of pure revelation — • whose knowledge depends solely on their revelation — it is not so. Nor is it enough to satisfy us, that the doctrmes mentioned are preserved entire ; every tittle and /wra in the Word of God must come under our care and consideration, as being, as such, from God. But of these things we shall treat afterward at large. Return we now to the apostle.
This <jrpo<priTsla ypccfrjg, this written prophecy, this Xoycg -r^opjjr/xo?, saith he, ihiag smXvasug ou y'mrcci — " is not of any private interpreta- tion.-" Some think that s'TriXhauig is put for l-rjjXi/cswg or svsXivdiMg, which, according to Hesychius, denotes afilation, inspiration, concep- tion within : so Calvin. In this sense, the importance of the words is the same with what I have already mentioned, viz., that the prophets had not their private conceptions, or self-fancied enthu- siasms, of the things they spake. To this interpretation assents Grotius. And I'TrrjXvascjg for It/Xuctsws is reckoned amongst the various lections that are gathered out of him, in the appendix to the Biblia Polygiotta. Thus IBlag smXvasMg ou ylvsrai is the other side of that usual expression, kvnXdiv Jt' I/^s 6 Xoyos, or rh TrnuiMot.. Camero con- tends for the retaining of sTiXvasug ; and justly. We begin a little too late to see whither men's bold conjectures, in correcting the original text of the Scriptures, are like to proceed. Here is no colour for a various lection. One copy, it seems, by Stephen, read diaXUsug, without ground, by an evident error ; and such mistakes are not to be allowed the name or place of various readings. But yet, says Camero, I'viXvaig is such a " resolution" and interpretation as is made by revelation. He adds, that in that sense stiXvuv is used by the LXX. in the business of Joseph's interpretation of Pharaoh's dream, (Gen. xl.,) which was by revelation. But indeed the word is not used in that chapter. However, he falls in with this sense — as do Calvin and Grotius — that idlag sTiXvffeug is not to be referred to our inter- pretation of the prophets, but to the way and manner of their receiv- ing the counsel and will of God.
And, indeed, Idlag km-iXuasug ou yhirai — ^taking hviXusig for an inter- pretation of the word of prophecy given out by \\Titing, as our trans- lation bears it — is an expression that can scarcely have any tolerable sense affixed unto it. Tmrai, or ou yhsrai^ relates here to '7rpo<pr}Tsia ypapi^g, and denotes the first giving out of the Word, not our after- consideration of its sense and meaning. And without this sense it stands in no coherence with, nor opposition to, the following sen- tence, which, by its causal connection to this, manifests that it ren- ders a reason of what is herein affiiined in the first place ; and in the latter — turning with the adversative aXXd — an opposition unto it : Oy yap '^sXyj/Mari avSput-zou rivs^dri irors ff^o^jjrs/a, aXX' uto Tlviv/J^arog ayiou
o04 THE DIVINE ORIGINAL OF SCRIPTURE.
pipofisvoi sXdXritrav aym 0£ol/ av&puiroi. — " For prophecy came not at any time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." What reason is in the first part of this verse why the Scripture is not of our private intei-pretation ? or what opposition in the latter to that assertion ? Nay, on that supposal, there is no tolerable correspondency of discourse in the whole irspio-xfi. But take the word to express the coming of the prophecy to the prophets themselves, and the sense is full and clear.
This, then, is the intention of the apostle : The prophecy which we have written— the Scripture^was not an issue of men's fancied enthu- siasms, not a product of their own minds and conceptions, not an inter- pretation of the will of God by the understanding of man — that is, of the prophets themselves. Neither their rational apprehensions, in- quiries, conceptions of fancy, or imaginations of their hearts, had any place in this business; no self-afflation, no rational meditation, managed at liberty by the understanding and will of men, had place herein.
Of this saith the apostle, ToDro vpurov yivusxovrsg' — " Knowing, judg- ing, and determining this in the first place : " " this is a principle to be owned and acknowledged by every one that will believe any thing else." Tivuffxu is not only to know, to perceive, to understand; but also to judge, own, and acknowledge. This, then, in our religion, is to be owned, acknowledged, submitted unto, as a principle, without further dispute. To discover the grounds of this submission and acknowledgment is the business of the ensuing discourse.