Idolatry of the Bible (By Edward Irving) I

Edward Irving (1792-1834) is best known for his interest in eschatology and the gifts of the Spirit. He was, however, also a gifted preacher. Recently some things have been said about 'Idolatry of the Bible' at a certain blog. Irving had a few things to say on this matter.
The sermon 'Idolatry of the Bible' was part of a series on idolatry preached in Regent Square Church, London. It is found in volume IV of Irving's Collected Writings (London, 1865). These are some selected portions. Do not be put off by Irving's opening statement. Or by the fact that this is something of a space filler. Normal service will be resumed in January.


"It may make many to startle when I tell them that the first point upon which we are at present assailable, and where the enemy hath worked his mines the most effectually, is the Holy Scriptures itself, and that even now the worship of God is hindered among us by the worship of the Bible. Yet we need not start at such an announcement when we remember that the idolatry of the law is that which even now sealeth the bondage of the Jews, and that the law was inspired no less than the rest of the Scriptures, and contained within itself the warning of its own insufficiency to save the soul, no less than the book of the New Testament containeth within itself the declaration of its insufficiency to save the soul without the gracious aides of the Spirit of God..." Irving goes on to speak of the central place of the Bible in Protestantism, and Protestantism's victories won through the Bible.
"Now the book, never to be praised enough for these its mighty works unto us and to our fathers, doth contain within itself the safeguard against all idolatry, to which our fathers had dilligent respect, and from which if we their children do withdraw our eyes, it will become an idol to us as surely as the body of Moses would have become an idol to the children of Israel, had not the archangel Michael, our Prince, contested for it with Satan, who desired it for his craft, and prevailed to have it buried, no one of the camp knew where, and no one was able to discover. The safeguard against the idolatry of the word of God which it containeth within itself, is the assurance everywhere given that it is not profitable to any blessed uses save as the Spirit of God taketh it and useth it, and worketh with it effectually to the salvation of men and the redemption of the world... And it is the sound doctrine of all the Reformed Churches that the study of the word without the co-operation of the Spirit is as little able to produce spiritual life as the sight and study of the visible world is able of itself to beget intellectual life; and that as there is a mind given us of God for recieving the impressions of the sense and digesting them into the forms of understanding, so there is a spirit wrought within us by the Spirit of God for recieving the impressions of the word and digesting them into the forms of spiritual being."

(Pp 75-78) Next (God willing), Irving will tells us more about 'The Idolatry of the Bible'