, "Every word of God is pure:

The portion of the Scriptures called the Law is guarded: — "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it." Deut. iv. 2. xii. 32.

In the next division, sometimes called the Hagiographa, it is written, "Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." Prov. xxx. 16. The last part of this threatening is infinitely more terrible than the first; for transgressors may be, reproved, and yet find mercy, but "all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Rev. xxi. 8.

In the prophetical writings, a similar warning is again repeated. They are closed with an intimation, that no more prophets were to be sent, till the forerunner of Jehovah, who was to come suddenly to his temple, should appear. Israel is then commanded to regard that revelation which had been made to Moses, concerning Jesus, which the Prophets had been commissioned to illustrate, but not to alter: "Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb, for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments." Mal. iv. 4.

As, at the conclusion of the Old Testament, where the attention of the people of Israel is called to the first appearance of the Son of God, the Saviour, they are instructed that the prophetic testimony to him is finished; so, at the conclusion of the New Testament, where the attention of all men is directed to his second coming, as the final Judge, the canon of Scripture is closed, and a solemn and most awful warning is given, neither to add to it, nor to take from it: "I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this book." Rev. xxii. 18, 19. This passage, so similar to the others above cited, is, for the same reasons for which it is applicable to the Book of Revelation, applicable to the whole inspired volume.

In the references that have been made above to many passages of Scripture, to which more of a similar import might have been added, the complete plenary inspiration by which both Prophets and Apostles spoke and wrote, has, by their own DECLARATIONS, been unanswerably established. Whatever they recorded, they recorded by the Spirit of God. Whether they spoke in their own tongue, or in tongues which they had not learned; or whether they uttered prophecies which they understood, or concerning which they acknowledged, "I heard, but I understood not;" still they spoke or wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And if we have seen that even the Divine Redeemer himself, who is over all, God blessed forever, when acting as the Father's servant in his mediatorial character, spoke, as he declares, not of himself, but the words of Him that sent him; and that the Holy Ghost, in his office of Comforter, was not to speak of himself, but to speak whatsoever he should hear; — is it to be presumed that Prophets and Apostles should ever have been left to choose of themselves the words which they have recorded in the Scriptures?

The words, then, which the Prophets and Apostles recorded, were the words of God, — Christ spake in them, — they were the words which the Holy Ghost taught. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Eph. vi. 17. "It is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword." Heb. iv. 12. This word was put into the mouths of the Prophets and Apostles; and therefore their words and commandments have all the authority of the words and commandments of God. "I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy Prophets, and of the commandment of us the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour." 2 Pet. iii. 1, 2. The term inspiration loses its meaning when an attempt is made to divide it between God and man. In what an endless perplexity would any man be involved, who was called upon to give to each degree of inspiration, under which it has been supposed the Bible is written, that portion which belongs to it! Let any one undertake the task, and he will soon find that he is building upon the sand. Yet such an attempt should have been made by those daring innovators, be they ancient or modern, who have represented the sacred volume as a motley performance, — part of it written under an inspiration Of SUGGESTION or REVELATION, — part of it under an inspiration of DIRECTION,—part of it under an inspiration of ELEVATION, — part of it under an inspiration of SUPERINTENDENCE, — and part of it under NO inspiration at all!