Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_000.lzh/D_009.TXT

Text File | 1994-07-14 | 7KB | 133 lines

Ctt~,P. II.                                  OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.                                                                  9

15. in which he might set an example to his servants, in
after times, to Write what might be suggested to them by
him; that it might remain to be read: it is enough, that they
were bid to write what he delivered to them, as Moses and
others were ordered to do, Deut. xxxi. 19. Jet. xxx. 2.
Hub. h. 2. Rev. i. 11, 19. and what was ordered by the
Lord to be written, it is the same as if it was written by
himself; and especially since .th, e penmen wrote as they
were directed, dictated and inspired by him, and "spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost ;" for they did not
speak and write of their own head, and out of their own
brains, nor according to their will, and when and what they
pleased; but according to the will of God, and what he
suggested to them, and when he inspired them, 2 Pet. i. 21.
Secondly, _Not all that is contained in the scriptures is
of God. Some are the words of others; yea, some are the
speeches of Satan, and very bad ones too; as when he
suggested that Job was not a sincere worshipper of God;
and requested he might have leave to do an injury both to
his property and to his. person, Job i. 9, 10, 11. and ii.
4, 5, 6. So when he tempted our Lord, and moved him
to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple,
and destroy himself; and not succeeding in that, urged
him to fall down and worship him, Matt. iv. 5, 9. But
now the penmen of these books, in which these speeche. s
are, were moved and directed by the Lord to commit
them to writing; so that though they themselves are not
the word of God; yet that they are written, and are on
record, is of God; and which was directed to, and done,
to shew the malice, pride, blasphemy, and impiety, of
that wicked spirit. There are also speeches of bad men,
as of Cain, Pharaoh, and others, or-dered to be written,
to discover the more the corruption of human,nature:
and even of good men, as of Moses, David, Jonah, and
particularly the friends of Job, and their long discourses,
m which they said not that which was right of God, as
Job did; and he himself did not say in every speech of
his what was right of God; though he said more, and
what was righter, than they did ;-and yet these speeches
are on record, by divine order, to prove matters of fact,
to shew the weaknesses and frailties of the best of men.
Some of the writers of thee scriptures, as Moses, and the
historical ones, being eye and ear-witnesses of many things
they wrote, could have wrote them of their own know-
ledge, and out of their own memories; and others they
might take out of diaries, annals, and journals, of their
own and former times; yet in all they wrote, they were
under the impulse and direction of God; what to leave,
and what to take and insert into their writings, and trans-
mit to posterity. So that all they wrote may be truly
said to be by divine authority. In the writings and dis-
courses of the apostle Paul, are several quotations out
of heathen authors; one out of Aratus, when he was
discoursing before the wise men at Athens; as certain,
says he, of your own poets have said, for we are also his
offspring, Acts xvii. 28. Another out of Menunder;
Evil communications corrupt good manners, 1 Cor. xv.
33. And another out of Epimenides, a poet of Crete,
a testimony of his against the Cretians, who said they
were, always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies; which were
produced ad horninure, for greater conviction; and which
he was directed to quote and write in his epistles and dis-
courses, for that reason. So that though the words are

not of God, yet that they were quoted and written, was
of God.
Thirdly, Let it be observed, that not the matter of the
Scriptures only, but the very words in which they are
written are of God. Some who are not for organical
inspiration, as they call it, think that the sacred Writers
were only furnished of God with matter, and had general
ideas of things given them, and were left to clothe them
with their own words, and to use their own style; which
they suppose accounts for the difference of style to be
observed in them: but if this was the case, as it some-
times is with men, that they have clear and satisfactory
ideas of things in their own minds, and yet are at a loss
for proper words to express and convey the sense of them
to others; so it might be with the sacred writers, if words
were not suggested to them, as well as matter;. and
then we should be left at an uncertainty about the real
sense of the holy Spirit, if not led into a wrong one; it
.seems, therefore, most agreeable, that words also, as well
as matter, were given by divine inspiration: and as for
difference of style, as it was easy with God to direct to
the use of proper words, so he could accommodate him-
self to the style such persons were wont to use, and which
was natural to them, and agreeable to their genius and
circumstances; and this may be confirmed from the testi-
monies of the writers themselves: says David, one of the
writers of the Old Testament, The Spirit ?f the Lord
spake by me, and his word was in my tong.ue, 2 Sam. xxiii.
And the apostle Paul speaks of himself, and other
spired apostles of the New Testament, Which things,
says he, we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teatbeth, 1 Cor. ii. 13.
and it is the writing,-or the word of God as written, that
is, by inspiration of God, 2 Tim. iii. 16. But then,
Fourthly, This is to be understood of the Scriptures,
as in the original languages in which they were written,
and not of translations; unless it could be thought, that
the translators of the Bible into the several languages of
the nations into which it has been translated, were under
the divine inspiration also in translating, and were directed
of God to the use of words they have rendered the
original by; but this is not reasonable to suppose. The
books of the Old Testament were written chiefly in the
Hebrew language, unless some few passages in Jeremiah,
Daniel, Ezra, and Esther, in the Chaldee language; and
the New Testament in Greek: in which languages they
can only be reckoned canonical and authentic; for this
is like the charters and diplomas of princes; the wills
or testaments of men; or any deeds made by them; only
the original exemplar is authentic; and not translations,
and transcriptions, and copies of them, though ever so
perfect: and to the Bible, in its original languages, is
every translation to be brought, and by it to be examined,
tried and judged, and to be corrected and amended: and
if this was not the case, we should have no certain and
infallible rule to go by; for it must be either a{l the trans-
lations together, or some one of them; not all of them,
because they agree not in all things: not one; for then
the contest would be between one nation and another
which it should be, whether English, Dutch, French, &c.
and could one be agreed upon, it could not be read and
understood by all: so the papists, they plead for their
vulgate Latin version; which has been decreed authentic
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