Transcribed from the 1877 Hatchards edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org INSPIRATION: ITS NATURE AND EXTENT. * * * * * BY THE REV. E. HOARE, VICAR OF TRINITY, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, AND HONORARY CANON OF CANTERBURY. * * * * * Second Edition. * * * * * LONDON: HATCHARDS, PICCADILLY. 1877. * * * * * LONDON: PRINTED BY JOHN STRANGEWAYS, Castle St. Leicester Sq. * * * * * CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 THE DIVINE ELEMENT 7 THE HUMAN ELEMENT 32 THE COMBINATION 37 DIFFICULTIES 44 INTRODUCTION. IT is quite impossible to over-estimate the deep importance of this great subject, for on our conclusions respecting it must depend our confidence in all the great mysteries of the Gospel. There is a sphere within which the human mind is capable of astonishing achievement, and I would be the last to undervalue human intellect. It has done vast things already, and is doing great things now. But there is a limit beyond which it has no power to pass; a world in which it has no means of investigation; an unseen kingdom which lies quite outside its range. Yet, though unseen, this kingdom is all important; and, though an undiscovered country, it is one in which we are all most deeply concerned, for we are all rapidly hastening thither, and He who is our Father, our Creator, our Redeemer, our Lord, our life, is the great and unseen Head of it. Thus, no science can ever inform us as to the nature of the Godhead, the plan of salvation, or eternal life; and it is altogether unphilosophical and unscientific to attempt to reduce such subjects to the ordinary rules of science and philosophy. God’s plan of salvation can only be known from God Himself; so that, if He has not imparted to us all needful knowledge respecting it, there is no human power that can ever supply the deficiency, and we must live and die convinced of the soul’s immortality, but still in utter ignorance of the plan which God has arranged for its safety. Hence the inexpressible value of the inspired word of Scripture. It is the communication from God to man respecting the deep things of the unseen world. It supplies that which lies beyond the reach of human investigation, and gives us exactly that information which dying man requires. It unfolds to us the eternal nature of God, and the plan of