[389] Davison's _Discourses on Prophecy_,--p. 8.--The following passage is from Bp. Horsley's _Primary Charge to the Clergy of Rochester_, (1796,):--"The question in this case is not abstract,--what Reason _may have_ the ability to do. The question is upon a matter of fact,--_what she did_. Were these things, in point of fact, man's own discovery?--The sacred history is explicit that they were not. And notwithstanding the many useful lessons of Morality we find in the writings of the heathen sages,--the many eloquent discourses upon providence, and the immortality of the soul,--the many subtile disquisitions upon the great questions of necessity and moral freedom, upon fate and chance,--I am persuaded, that had it not been for the early communications of the Creator with mankind, Man never would have raised the conceptions of his mind to the idea of a God; he never would have dreamt of the immaterial principle within himself; and he never would have formed any general notions of Right and Wrong in the abstract; he would have had no Religion, perhaps no Morality.... The prudent dispensers of the Word will resort to Revelation for his first principles, as well as for more mysterious truths. He will not trust to philosophy for any discoveries. He will suffer philosophy to be nothing more than his assistant in the study of the inspired Word. She must herself be instructed by those lively oracles before she can be qualified to take part in the instruction of men. To lay the foundation of Revelation upon any previous discoveries of Reason, is in fact to make Reason the superior teacher. It is not improbable, that Idolatry itself had its first beginning in an early adoration of this phantom of Natural Religion,--the idol, in later ages, of impolitic metaphysical Divines."--_Charges_, pp. 50, 51.--Bp. Butler says the same thing, but more briefly, in his _Analogy_, P. II., c. ii.: also P. I., c. vi. SERMON IV.[390] * * * * * THE PLENARY INSPIRATION OF EVERY PART OF THE BIBLE, VINDICATED AND EXPLAINED.--NATURE OF INSPIRATION.--THE TEXT OF SCRIPTURE. * * * * * ST. JOHN xvii. 17. _Thy Word is Truth._ I thankfully avail myself of the opportunity which, unexpected and unsolicited, so soon presents itself, to proceed with the subject which was engaging our attention when I last occupied this place. Let me remind you of the nature of the present inquiry, and of the progress which we have already made.