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in himself our human infirmities, and was doubtless capable of mistakes, but nevertheless was absolutely the "true and faithful witness;" so, is it at all unlikely that the human mold into which the truth of God is cast, should in like manner have the incidental defects that pertain to its humanity? And, as we feel the Saviour most sacredly near to us when we contemplate him as a man, of like passions with ourselves, so doubtless we will find a holy sympathy in the words of Scripture, in proportion as we recognize the human element intimately combined with the Divine. While, therefore, we claim and contend earnestly for the inspiration of the Bible, for a living and energizing spirit of truth diffused through and animating its pages, we delight also to recognize its human form, and to commune with its utterances as with the voice of a friend. Nor do we any the less reverence its lessons, because we suspect that it is not wholly raised above all human infirmities. In this we may be wrong; but if so, the error is one of the heart as well as of the understanding.

To dissent from this view of the case, would require more of the objector than may be at first apparent, and more, we presume, than many will be prepared to concede. If every word and sentence of the Bible must be held to be absolutely and infallibly correct, in order to entitle it to confidence as a rule of faith and morals, this demand applies not simply to the Bible as originally given to mankind, but rather to it as actually possessed by them. In that case all the media of communication must need have been wholly under the Divine direction, and the beast upon which the prophet rode could have served as well as the prophet himself for such a medium. So, too, the hand of the scribe must have been infallibly and mechanically directed, with no more active personal agency than has the automaton in its movements. So, also, must a mechanical Providence preserve and diffuse the sacred deposit, protecting manuscripts from all omissions and interpolations, and infallibly guiding the hands of translators to write in other languages the uncorrupted-that is, the verbally unmodified-truth. We do not object to all this as an impossibility, a priori, though we might do so; but as matter of fact, we know it is untrue, and we also see abundant reason why the Divine Providence should have chosen another method.

By the theory of inspiration we have indicated, and only by this, as we view the subject, are we able to maintain the position of evangelical Protestantism in its claims to a free and sufficient Bible, against the pretensions of Romanism on the one hand, and the cavils of rationalists and skeptics on the other. The Church of Rome

claims for itself an inspiration not unlike in character that sometimes claimed by Protestants for the Bible. Theirs, indeed, is less fixed and certain in its determinations, but it is more flexible and capable of adaptation, and is also replete with a more genial sympathy. But both alike pretend to a rigid and formal infallibility, a finished and consigned revelation, the one, as dwelling in the ecclesiastical organism, the other, as in the letter of the Scriptures. The present energy of the Spirit is constructively excluded by both, and an infallibility per se claimed in both cases. Accordingly, the papist submits his entire creed to the keeping of the Church, and from the lips of his spiritual instructor receives explicit direc tions in every emergency. Not so, however, the Protestant, who must draw his precepts from his Bible, in the exercise of his own private judgment. This, indeed, he may do, since the teachings of the Scriptures are, as to all things essential to life and godliness, exceedingly plain, provided he have confidence in the genuineness of the Bible as he possesses it. But if he concludes that absolute correctness in every point, great or small, is requisite to the credibility of the Bible, and at the same time learns that his is only an imperfectly rendered version of the Divinely dictated word, his faith will rest on an uncertain and unsatisfactory foundation.

Only a small portion of any people can become able Biblical scholars; and hence the great mass of Protestants can have only our imperfect vernacular versions of the Scriptures, which, on the ground assumed by the advocates of literal infallibility, are quite unreliable, as bases for religious opinions. On the contrary, we assume that the spirit and essence of Divine revelation does not reside in specific texts and sentences, but is diffused throughout the texture of the volume, and operates in the integrity of its power wherever a generally correct and comprehensive version of the Scriptures is used. "Jots" and "tittles" in the verbiage of the Bible are often changed, and yet the integrity of the sacred word is unimpaired. It is just now proclaimed to the Christian public of this country, that our good old English Bibles have become faulty and uncertain as copies of the authorized translation made and issued by royal authority; but we do not therefore conclude that hitherto we have been without any reliable rule of faith. Probably an absolutely correct copy of the Bible, considered literally, is not now in existence, and yet we glory, nevertheless, in Chillingworth's declaration, "THE BIBLE, THE BIBLE, is the religion of Protestants."

In conclusion, we rejoice in the new interest which this question. is eliciting. We anticipate much good from its examination. Christianity commends itself to man's intelligence in proportion to

the severity of the scrutiny to which its claims are subjected; and the Holy Scriptures "in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," rise in commanding dignity and authority, in proportion as they are submitted to fearless, but intelligent criticism. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever.

ART. VII.-WESLEY AS A MAN OF LITERATURE.

BETWEEN the advent of Methodism in Oxford in 1729, and the death of its founder in 1791, intervened sixty-two years. Mr. Wesley took his degree of Master of Arts in 1727, four months before the accession of George II. to the throne of England, who died in 1760, and was succeeded by George III. Neither of these princes ever opposed Mr. Wesley or his preachers, but rather rebuked those who opposed. While war was going on during the rise and progress of Methodism, and through the most of Mr. Wesley's public life, literature and the arts and sciences were, notwithstanding, cultivated in Great Britain. In this time the best English historians wrote, namely, Hume, Smollett, Robertson, and Gibbon. Mr. Wesley has some strictures on each, excepting the last. Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" was not all published until 1788, only three years before Mr. Wesley's death. We do not think he read it, or he would hardly have failed condemning the dignified and irreligious historian. Mr. Hutcheson was the principal writer on moral philosophy in the first half of the century, and Mr. Wesley contends again and again against his theories. Mr. Reid was the chief writer in the other half. English poetry was prospering in these times, which did not, however, bring forth either of our great poets. Still the poets, as Pope, Thomson, Young, Akenside, Gray, Goldsmith, were, if not of the highest, of a high and respectable class. Nor should Dr. Watts or Charles Wesley be omitted, being the only two notable religious poets of the age. The principal fictitious writers were Fielding, Richardson, and Smollett. The author of the great English Dictionary, as well as other works, Dr. Johnson, the English literary colossus, flourished in this period. When on his death-bed,

Mr. Wesley visited this great man, and conversed with him on the

things of God. The English theater was prospering, while the work of God was reviving. The great actors, Booth, Mrs. Cibber, Quin, Garrick, and Mrs. Bellamy, were in vogue. It seems that Mr. Garrick and Charles Wesley were well known to each other. When the Life of Mrs. Bellamy appeared, Mr. Wesley read it, and found the following anecdote, which the actress had been pleased to insert. Garrick was in Ireland, and when taking ship for England a lady presented him with a parcel, which he was not to open till he was at sea. When he did, he found Wesley's Hymns, which he immediately threw overboard. Mr. Wesley says: "I cannot believe it. I think Mr. Garrick had more sense. He knew my brother well; and he knew him to be not only far superior in learning, but in poetry, to Mr. Thomson and all his theatrical writers put together; none of them can equal him either in strong, nervous sense, or purity and elegance of language." Music in this period was greatly in favor. In it the great composers, Handel, Arne, Boyce, and the Earl of Mornington, flourished. In the spring of 1764 Mr. Wesley went to the performance of Mr. Arne's oratorio of Judith, which he pronounced very fine; but he strongly condemned singing the same words so often, and singing different words at the same time. In 1765 he heard the oratorio of Ruth, pronounced it exquisite music, and thought it "might possibly make an impression even upon rich and honorable sinners." When in Bristol, in 1750, he went to the cathedral to hear Mr. Handel's celebrated oratorio of the Messiah, and declares it exceeded his expectation, especially in several of the choruses. "I doubt," says he, "if that congregation was ever so serious at a sermon, as during this performance." Painting, too, was reviving in the English nation. Mr. Wesley himself sat to Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Romney. He also visited different private and public galleries, and passed his opinion very freely on the artists. The period of the public life of Mr. Burke was a stirring time, internally and externally, for the English nation. A Dr. Price reckoned (for there was no government census) that the people of England numbered between four and five millions. Mr. Wesley denied the computation, and believed the number was seven millions, at least. In this period the nation lost her American Colonies; but, on the other hand, she gained Canada, several of the West India islands, and the vast territory of India. Mr. Wesley was not an isolated man, confining himself to one calling, but he felt an interest in all public affairs, ever siding with the laws and the government. Still his main employment was to preach and call sinners to repentance. When not so engaged, directly or indirectly, his leisure was spent, according to the taste of a literary man, in reading and

writing books. We shall in this article show, first, a specimen of what books he read, adding some reflections; and secondly, lay down the thread of his own writings, interspersed with suitable observations. These two parts will show what kind of ideas he furnished his own mind with, and with what kind of ideas he supplied the minds of others.

BOOKS READ BY MR. WESLEY.

The books read by Mr. Wesley in his youth, and before the era of Methodism, there is no account of. The books which first assisted him to the knowledge and love of God were, in 1725, Bishop Taylor's "Rules of Holy Living and Dying," and "The Christian's Pattern; or, A Treatise on the Imitation of Christ," by the German monk, Thomas à Kempis.* In 1727 he was further assisted by Mr. Law's "Christian Perfection," and his "Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life." From 1733 to 1778 he thought he had read five or six hundred books. And before his conversion, in the years of his youth and education, doubtless his reading was very extensive and thorough, or he would not have been qualified for Fellow in Lincoln College, Oxford. However, our curiosity is not concerning his reading while a private person, but the books he read while in public life and engaged in the work, under God, of reforming the nation. We find that he read and noticed the following works from the year 1737 to 1751, the year of his marriage, namely:

The Mystic Divinity of Dionysius; Deficiency of Human Knowledge and Learning, by Dr. Edwards; Luther's Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians; Bishop Beveridge's Account of the Canons of the Councils; Works of Nicholas Machiavel; Mr. Law's Book on the New Birth; Bishop Bull's Harmonia Apostolica; The Account of the Synod of Dort, by Episcopius; Case of Michael Servetus, by John Calvin; Whitefield's Account of God's Dealings with his Soul; History of the Church, by Turretine; Lives of Philip and Mathew Henry; The Theologia Germanica; The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius; Laval's History of the Reformed Churches in France; Dr. Cheyne's Natural Method of Curing Diseases; Xenophon's Memorable Things of Socrates; Dr. Pitcairne on Medicine and the Mathematics; Jacob Behmen's Exposition of Genesis; Madame Guyon's Method of Prayer and the Spiritual Torrents; Life of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits; Middle

* He wrote as a motto upon his books: "I have sought for rest in all things, but could find it nowhere but in corners (that is praying) and in books."

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