trines they delivered, the instructions they gave, the stories they recorded, the promises of Christ, the prophecies of Gospel-times they gave out and revealed, were not their own, not conceived in their minds, not formed by their reasonings, not retained in their memories from what they heard, not by any means beforehand comprehended by them, but werè all of them immediately from God; there being only a passive concurrence of their rational faculties in their reception.

2. God was so with them, and, by the Holy Ghost, so spake in them, as to their receiving of the word from him, and their delivering of it to others, by speaking or writing, as that they were not themselves enabled by any habitual light, knowledge, or conviction of truth, to declare his mind and will, but only acted, as they were immediately moved by him. Their tongue in what they said, or their hand in what they wrote, was no more at their own disposal, than the pen is, in the hand of an expert writer.

Hence, as far as their own personal concerns, as saints and believers, lay in them, they are said to make a diligent inquiry into the things which the "Spirit of Christ, that spake in them, did signify." Without this, though their visions were express, so that their eyes were said to be open, yet they understood them not. Therefore, also, they studied the writings and prophecies of one another: Dan. ix. 2. Thus they attained a saving, useful, habitual knowledge of the truths delivered by themselves and others, by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, through the study of the word, even as we. But as to the receiving of the word from God, as God

spake in them, they obtained nothing by study or meditation, by inquiry or reading. Whether we consider the matter or manner of what they received and delivered, they were but as an instrument of music, giving a sound according to the hand, intention, and skill of him that strikes it.

This is variously expressed. Generally it is said, the "word was" to this or that prophet, which we have rendered "the word came" unto them. Ezek. i. 3. it “came expressly;" it had a subsistence given to it, or an effectual in-being, by the Spirit's entering into him; ver. 14. Now this coming of the word to them, had oftentimes such a greatness and expression of the majesty of God upon it, as it filled them with dread and reverence of him, Hab. iii. 16. and also greatly affected even their outward man, Dan. viii. 27. But this dread and terror, was peculiar to the Old Testament. The Spirit, in the declaration of the New Testament, gave out his mind and will in a way of more liberty and glory, 2 Cor. iii. The expressness and immediacy of revelation was the same, but the manner of it related more to that glorious liberty, in fellowship and communion with the Father, to which believers had then an access provided them by Jesus Christ. So our Saviour tells his apostles, Matt. x. 20. "You are not the speakers" of what you deliver, as other men are, the imagination of whose hearts is the fountain of all that they speak; and he adds this reason, "The Spirit of the Father is he that speaketh in you." Thus the word that came to them, was a book which they took in and gave out, without any alteration of one tittle or syllable.

Moreover, when the word was thus come to the prophets, and God had spoken in them, it was not in their power to conceal it, the hand of the Lord being strong upon them. They were not only, on a general account, to utter the truth they were made acquainted with, and to speak the things they had heard and seen, which was their common preachingwork; but also the very individual words that they had received, were to be declared. When the word was come to them, it was as a fire within them, that must be delivered, or it would consume them, Psal. xxxix. 3. Jer. xx. 9. Amos iii. 8. vii. 15, 16. So Jonah found his attempt to hide the word that he had received, to be altogether vain.

Now, because these things are of great importance, and the foundation of all that follows; namely, the discovery that the word is come forth to us from God, without the least mixture or intervenience of any medium liable to fallibility, (as is the wisdom, truth, integrity, knowledge, and memory, of the best of all men,) I shall farther consider it from one full and eminent declaration thereof, given unto us, 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. The words of the Holy Ghost are, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

That which he speaks of is, the " Scripture," or written prophecy.

prophecy of

There were then traditions among the Jews, to whom Peter wrote, exalting themselves into competition with the written word, which not long after

got the title of an oral law, pretending to have its original from God. These the Apostle tacitly condemns; and also shows under what formality he considered that, which, ver. 19. he termed the "word of prophecy;" namely, as written. The written word, as such, is that whereof he speaks. Above fifty times is "the writing," or "the writings," in the New Testament, put absolutely for the word of God. And writing is so used in the Old, for the word of prophecy. The writing, or word written, is by inspiration from God. Not only the doctrine in it, but the writing itself, is so from him.

Hence, the providence of God hath manifested itself no less concerned in the preservation of the writings, than the doctrine contained in them. The writing itself, being the product of his own eternal counsel, for the preservation of the doctrine, after a sufficient discovery of the insufficiency of all other means for that purpose. And hence, the malice of Satan hath raged no less against the book, than the truth contained in it. The dealings of Antiochus, under the Old Testament, and of sundry persecuting emperors under the New, evince no less. And it was no less crime of old, to be "a betrayer of the book," than to be "a denier of the faith." It is true, we have not the autographs of Moses and the prophets, of the apostles and evangelists; but the copies which we have, contain every iota that was in them.

It is no doubt, but that, in the copies we now enjoy of the Old Testament, there are some diverse readings, or various lections. But yet we affirm, that the whole word of God, in every letter and

tittle, as given from him by inspiration, is preserved without corruption. Where there is any variety, it is always in things of less, indeed, of no importance. God, by his providence, preserving the whole entire, suffered this lesser variety to fall out, in the copies we have, for the quickening and exercising of our diligence, in our search into his word.

It is indeed a great relief against the inconvenience of corrupt translations, to consider, that, although some of them be bad enough, yet, if all the errors and mistakes that are to be found in all the rest, should be added to the worst of all, yet every necessary, saving, fundamental truth, would be found sufficiently testified to, therein. This prophecy of Scripture," this written prophecy, saith the Apostle, "is not of any private interpretation." Some think that "interpretation" is put for inspiration or conception. In this sense, the importance of the words is the same with what I have already mentioned; namely, that the prophets had not their private conceptions, or self-fancied enthusiasms, of the things they spake. This, then, is the intention of the Apostle; the prophecy which we have written, the Scripture, was not an issue of men's fancied enthusiasms; not a product of their own minds and conceptions; not an interpretation of the will of God, by the understanding of man, that is, of the prophets themselves; neither their rational apprehensions, inquiries, conceptions of fancy, or imaginations of their hearts, had any place in this business; no self-inafflation, no rational meditation, managed at liberty by the understanding and wills of men, had place therein.