could he have ever given so perfect a code of laws as those contained in the Ten Commandments ; and so complicated a system of ceremonial laws, that should shadow forth, in every particular, the work and offices of the Messiah, together with the privileges and enjoyments of his redeemed people? Or if we suppose a finite creature endued with wisdom sufficient for such a work (which yet cannot for a moment be imagined), it cannot be conceived that he should impose his own inventions on the world as a revelation from God : for if he was a good man, he would never have attempted so impiously to deceive the world ; nor, if he was wicked enough to execute so criminal a project, would he ever have given so lioly a law, which con- demned even the smallest approach to such impiety, and gave the perpetrator of it no hope of ever escaping the wrathful indignation of Almighty God. The miracles wrought by him are a farther confirmation of his divine mission, and of his being inspired of God to declare all which has been transmitted to us in his writings.
Respecting the prophets also, we may say, that their inspira- tion of God can admit of no doubt ; since it was not possible for them, if uninspired, so minutely and harmoniously to fore- tell so many events, which all came to pass agreeably to their predictions.]
The same may be said in reference to the writers of the New Testament —
[Whilst the Apostles and Evangelists always refer to the Old Testament as inspired of God, and declare, with one con- sent, that the writers of it delivered not mere sentiments of their own, but " spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost"*," they profess to be themselves inspired by that same Spirit, in all that they declare ; and they wrought miracles without number in confirmation of their word. In what they wrote indeed, they expressed themselves, each in his own pe- culiar style, as any other writers would have done : but in the matter of what they wrote, they were inspired of God ; and in the manner of expressing it they were preserved by that same Spirit from any error or mistake. So that of the whole Scrip- tures, both of the Old and New Testament, we may affirm, that God is the Author of them, and that every part of them lias been " given by inspiration from him."]
The Apostle proceeds to declare,
II. Their primary use —
This is expressed in four different terms; which
a 2 Pet. i. 19—21.