This is an excerpt from pp. 61-63 of the first volume of his 3-volume systematic theology, A Compendium of Christian Theology. The full 3-volume systematic theology can be accessed here.
THE EXHIBITION OF GOD AND OF HIS ATTRIBUTES IN REVELATION
Another class of the credentials of revelation is found in
its exhibition of the Divine attributes, displayed in the tokens
of the presence of God generally, and particularly
in the supernatural order of miracles, prophecy, and
inspiration as including both, which everywhere reigns.
These are not so much notes and qualities of revelation
as the fabric of the revelation itself; and have always been,
whether separately or combined, the strong enforcement of
its claims upon attention and acceptance.
REVELATION SUPERNATURAL
God is a Personal Presence in the whole economy of revealed
truth. But He is not present in the same sense as that in which
He is immanent in the world: revelation is, has ever been and
must ever be, a supernatural order, blending with the natural,
and moving on harmoniously with it in general, whilst exhibiting
most essential differences. But here it is necessary to define
terms, or rather to remind ourselves of their conventional relations.
1. There is a sense in which the natural order of things—that is
the constitution of nature as governed by certain fixed physical
and metaphysical laws—must always be touched if not pervaded
by the supernatural, that is, by what is not matter of our constant
experience. The invisible world, and all interventions from the
spiritual world, are supernatural. Hence it follows that the
introduction of man into this system of things was a supernatural
intervention; and all revelations of the unseen in the constitution
of his nature are supernatural; and all evidences of the presence
and glory of God in the universe as seen by man are supernatural.
2. This then being granted, there is a sense also in which the
great economy to which the Bible bears witness is in a
preeminent sense supernatural. From beginning to end—that is,
from the first intimation of a coming Redeemer to His final
manifestation with final and eternal truth upon His lips—all has been
beyond and above the nature of man’s ordinary experience. All
has been one vast and never-ceasing demonstration of God moving
among men and supernaturally operating in human affairs. His
wonderful works pervade the whole, though only on occasions
bursting into what we call Miracle. They have displayed His
presence in His own immediate acts, or in acts above nature
performed by the instrumentality of His creatures. They have
displayed His one design in tho communication of knowledge
concerning it to His ministers in Prophecy. They have displayed
His wisdom in the preservation, through men raised up to be
objects of Inspiration, of the continuous record of His revealed
economy of salvation. Thus the laws of the supernatural operation
have been threefold. Miracle is the intervention of the
Supreme Power in the established course of nature. The Creator
put all things under the control of general law, but it is manifest
that He is excepted which did put all things under it (1 Cor 15:27).
His personal authority is not a violation of law, nor a suspension of it,
but the introduction of a new and sufficient cause of any effect He would
produce. Prophecy is the intervention of the supreme knowledge,
imparted to man independently of the ordinary laws of
knowing: whether for the purpose of uttering new truth, or of
foretelling what, to all but God, is contingent in the future.
Inspiration is that supernatural intervention of the Divine
wisdom by which the miracle of prophecy is made permanent in
the organic unity of Scripture. Now these are all of the
essence of revelation: they combine in every part of it. The
Scriptures, or Revelation, or the Christian faith—these three are
one—have exhibited one vast and permanent miracle, one great
prophecy ever in course of fulfilment, and one great result of
inspiration.
3. These three may be regarded as one great continuous Miracle, One
and one great body of credentials commending to us the Scriptures
of revelation. But these credentials for faith must have their own
evidences for reason. As they belong to the supernatural order
they must be received by faith. They imply, indeed
they assert, the being of God, and His intervention for objects,
and in a manner, before which reason sinks confounded. But as
facts recorded and humanly attested, they must be received on
evidence which is trustworthy and amenable to the tests of
trustworthiness. These two must combine; just as in all things
pertaining to religion, faith and reason must unite: being reconciled
when they differ, and blended into the harmony of certitude.
In examining these several evidences of God in revelation each
must be viewed as distinct. But, in considering them as credentials
of one great scheme professedly the revelation of a God
Whose existence is admitted, we are not under the necessity of
examining at length the question which touches their abstract
possibility in a philosophical point of view. We regard them as
the internal demonstrations of Scripture, and have only to ask
what their force and meaning are as credentials, and to prove
that no condition of such credentials is wanting.
