Wordsworth - Misc. (1879, V2) Biblical Inspiration

 We here post the Table of Contents of Vol 2 of C. Wordsworth's Miscellanies (1879), in which he presents a long and structured statement of Biblical Inspiration.  The TC of the volume provides a handy outline of his argument:


CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

I.  ON THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.

Ancient Fresco-painting, from the Roman Catacombs,
a symbolical representation of the doctrine concerning
the Inspiration of the Bible; and of the divine method
for diffusing and interpreting it .......................................1, 2

In considering this question we must begin
with proving the God head of Jesus Christ ..................... 2

To do this it is to be shown, first,
that the Gospels are true histories;
Next since the Gospels are true histories
it follows that Christ is God..............................................2,3
 
Next let us learn to behold Christ holding
in His hands the Old Testament,
And as avouching its Truth and Inspiration .................... 3
Evidence of this testimony of Christ to the
Old Testament Christ's guarantee to us ..........................3, 4

Of the Truth and Inspiration of the New Testament.........4, 5

What are the grounds of our reverence for the testimony of the
Church Universal to the Truth and Inspiration of the Bible.

What that testimony amounts to.
Summary of the argument . . . . . . . .5

Corroborative evidence
1. From God's providential care for the Bible ;
       Antiochus Epiphanes ; Diocletian ..............................6
       His care for the Bible in England ...............................8
2. From the fulfilment of the Prophecies in the Bible ......... 9
3. From the Continuity and Symmetry of the Bible ............10
4. From the class of persons employed in writing it ...........11
5. From the moral effects produced by the Bible ..............12

Moral uses of difficulties in the Bible ................................15
Conclusion ..........................................................................16



II.   ON THE INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE 

Need of this inquiry ....................................................17, 18
Historical reference to the methods applied (especially in Germany)
to the Interpretation of the Bible ..................................18

The Dogmatists and Confessionists ..................................18
Succeeded by the Pietists (Spener and others) ...............19
The Pietists, followed by the Eationalists ......................20
Theory of Accommodation ..............................................21

The relation of Kant's Philosophy to the Bible ...............22
Practical Reason, Moral sense, inner Consciousness,
proposed as Interpreters of the Bible (Semler) ...............22, 24

Rationalism superseded by Spiritualism (Strauss)
leading to Pantheism .......................................................25,26

History of Biblical Interpretation in Germany ........................27
Its theories derived from England
(Tindal, Woolston, Morgan, Toland) .......................................28

Practical inferences from this review (Bemet, Neander) . . 31
Resemblance of errors, old and new ..................................... 33
Almost every Heresy involves some truth ..............................33

What is the office of the Church as
the Guardian and Keeper of Scripture..................................33

What are the proper means for the Interpretation of the Bible . . 35

Conscience, what its office is (Sanderson) .........................35
Human Reason when used reasonably ........................35
Limits of its use ...............................................................36
Reason leads on to Faith .............................................37
Faith and Science  (Hooker) .........................................38, 39

Nature and the Bible, two Books of God (Lord Bacon) . . .39

Use of Biblical Criticism ..............................................40

...

Differences between a priori Infallibility
and a posteriori Inerrancy ...........................................90, 91

Why we reject the peculiar dogmas of Rome....................91

The Roman Church is not the Catholic Church ;
and the Romish Faith is not the Catholic Faith ..............92, 93

Our Catholic safeguards against Rome ........................... 91 93

 Analogy between the divine plan for assuring us of the Inspiration
of Scripture, and for guiding us in its Interpretation ............9
Recapitulation ......................................................................100

ON THE REVISION OF THE Authorized Version   ..........103  
Cautions and Suggestions with respect to it ................... 104