15 September 2015 A.D. Louis Gaussen’s Divine Inspiration of Scripture
15 September 2015 A.D. Louis
Gaussen’s Divine Inspiration of Scripture
H/t
to Andy Underhile for mining this from Louis Gaussen’s classic on the doctrine
of Scriptures.
Underhile, Andy. “It is Scripture Itself, Not The
Authors, That Are the Subjects of Inspiration.” Contra Mundum. 15 Sept 2015. http://andycontramundum.blogspot.com/2015/09/it-is-scripture-itself-not-authors-that.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FDofecr+%28Contra+Mundum%29.
Accessed 15 Sept 2015.
It Is Scripture Itself, Not The Authors, That Are
The Subjects Of Inspiration
“This miraculous operation of the Holy Spirit had
not for its object the sacred writers, who were only his instruments, and who
were soon to pass away; but its object was the sacred books themselves, which
were destined to reveal to the Church from age to age, the immutable counsels
of God.
“The influence which was exercised upon these men,
and of which they themselves were conscious in very different degrees, has
never been defined to us. Nothing authorizes us to explain it. The Scriptures
themselves have never presented to us its mode or its measure as an object of
study. They speak of it always incidentally; they never connect our piety with
it. That alone which they propose as the object of our faith is the inspiration
of their word; is the divinity of their books; between these they make no
difference.
“Their word, say they, is theopneustic; their books are
of God, whether they recount the mysteries of a past anterior to the creation,
or those of a future posterior to the return of the Son of Man; the eternal
counsels of the most High, the secrets of the human heart, or the deep things
of God; whether they give utterance to their own emotions or record their own
recollections, relate contemporaneous events, copy genealogies or make extracts
from inspired documents; their writings are inspired; their statements are
directed by heaven; it is always God who speaks, who relates, ordains or
reveals by their mouth, and who, to accomplish it, employs their personality in
different degrees. For 'the Spirit of the Lord was upon them, and his word upon
their tongue.' And if it is always the word of man, because it is always men
who utter it, it is likewise always the word of God, for it is always God that
superintends, guides and employs them. They give their narrations, their
doctrines, or their precepts, 'not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Spirit teacheth.' And it is thus that God has constituted
himself not only the voucher of all these facts, the author of all these
ordinances, and the revealer of all these truths, but that also he has caused
them to be given to the Church in the precise order, measure and terms which he
has judged most conducive to his heavenly design.”
Louis Gaussen (1790 – 1863), Theopneusty; or, The
Plenary Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, English edition of 1843, pages
34-35
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