"[212]
The special defender of these views of the visible Church, the late Dr.
Thomas Arnold, of Rugby, was a man of great industry, profound
erudition, and extraordinary power and tact in the management of youth.
His sermons, delivered to his pupils at Rugby, were short, and usually
written just before delivery in the school-chapel on Sabbath
afternoons.[213] He interested himself in all questions of reform,
education, politics, and literature. But he is best known as one of the
leaders of the Broad Church, and in this light his theological opinions
may be considered a fair sample of the theology adopted by that party in
its earlier and purer days. With him, inspiration is not equivalent to a
communication of the divine perfections. Paul expected the world would
come to an end in the generation then existing. The Scripture narratives
are not only about divine things, but are themselves divinely framed and
superintended. Inspiration does not raise a man above his own time, nor
make him, even in respect to that which he utters when inspired, perfect
in goodness and wisdom; but it so overrules his language that it shall
contain a meaning more than his own mind was conscious of, and thus give
to it a character of divinity, and a power of perpetual
application.
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