SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF THE THEOPNEUSTY.

Let us then open the Bible. What does it say of its own inspiration?

Section I.—ALL SCRIPTURE IS THEOPNEUSTIC.

We shall begin by quoting again this passage so often repeated (2 Tim. iii. 16:) all holy Scripture is Theopneustic, that is to say, all is given by the Spirit or by the breath of God.

We have showed that this sentence admits neither of exception nor of restriction.

It admits not of exception; it is the whole Scripture, all that is written, (πᾶσα γραφή) that is to say, the thoughts that

have already put on the clothing of language. It admits of no restriction; all Scripture is so far a work of God, that it is represented to us as given by the breath of God, in the same manner as the word of a man is given by the breath of his mouth. The prophet is the mouth of the Most High. ‘The import of this declaration of St. Paul remains the same in both constructions of his language; whether we place, as our version does, the affirmation of the phrase upon the word θεόπνευστος (divinely inspired), the verb understood (all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable, &c.;) or make θεόπνευστος only a determinative adjective, and confine the verb of affirmation to the following words, (all Scripture given by inspiration of God, is profitable, &c.) This last construction would give even more force than the former, to the Apostle’s declaration. For then, his proposition, necessarily referring to the Holy letters, (τά ἴερα γράμματα) of which he had just spoken, would suppose as an admitted and incontestible principle, that to call them Holy letters, is to indicate thereby, that they are writings inspired by God.

It will be well however to draw this same truth from some other declaration of our sacred books.

Section II.—ALL THE WORDS OF THE PROPHETS ARE GIVEN BY GOD.

St. Peter, in his Second Epistle, at the close of the first chapter, speaks thus; “knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scriptures is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

Remark, on this passage:

1. That it here refers to written revelations, προφητεία γραφῆς,:

2. That those who have given them to us, are called holy men of God;

3. That never (ού πότε) did any one of these writings come by the impulse or the government of the will of man;

4. That those holy men were impelled and borne by the Holy Spirit, when they wrote and spoke;

5. Finally, that these writings are called, prophecy.

Before advancing farther, it will be well to determine with precision, the Scripture meaning of these words; prophecy, to prophesy, prophet, (גביא) because this knowledge is indispensable to our investigation, and also throws great light over the whole question.

Varied and inaccurate meanings have been generally attached to the Bible term prophet, but an attentive examination of the passages in which it is used, will soon convince us that, in the Scriptures, it always designates—a man whose lips utter the word of God.

Among the Greeks, those who were first called by this name, were the interpreters and organs of the prophecies spoken in the temples (ἐξηγητής ἕνθεων μαντείων). This use of the term is eloquently expressed by a passage from Plato, in his Timæus.¹ The most celebrated prophets of pagan antiquity were those of Delphos. They conducted the pythoness, to the tripod, and were themselves commissioned to interpret and digest the oracles of their God. And it was afterward only by an extension of this first meaning, that the name of prophet was given by the Greeks to the poets, who, beginning their songs by the invocation of Apollo and the muses, were supposed to utter the language of the gods, and to speak under their inspiration.

A prophet, in the Bible, is then, a man in whose mouth God puts the word he would cause to be spoken to man; and it was also in allusion to the plenitude of this sense, that God said to Moses; “I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet;” (Exod. ii. 1,) as he had before said, (chap. iv. verse 16,) “He shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.”

Listen to the prophets in the Scriptures, as they testify of the Spirit which caused them to speak, and of the divine authority of their language. You will ever hear from them the same definition of their office and of their inspiration. They speak; it is true, their voice is heard; their frame is agitated, their very soul is often moved; but their words proceed not from themselves alone; they are at the same time, the words of the Most High. “The mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken; the Most High hath spoken,” say they unceasingly.² “I will open my mouth in the midst of them,” says the Lord to his servant Ezekiel. “The spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue,” said the royal psalmist,³ “Hear the word of the Lord.” It is thus that the prophets announce their messages⁴. ‘‘'The word of the Lord was then upon me,” say they often. ‘The word of God came unto Shemaiah;” “The word of God came to Matthew. The word came unto John in the wilderness.⁵ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord; the word that was given to Jeremiah; the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi;⁶ the word of the Lord that came unto Hosea;⁷ in the second year of Darius the king, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet;” this word descended on the men of God when it would, and often in the most unlooked for manner. Thus God, when he sent Moses, said to him; “I will be thy mouth;”⁸ and when he made Balaam speak, he “put his word,” it is written, “in the mouth of Balaam.”⁹ Thus the apostles, making, in their prayer, a quotation from David, express themselves in these words; it is thou Lord, who HAST SPOKEN by the MOUTH of David thy servant.¹⁰ And St. Peter addressing the multitude of disciples: ‘‘men and brethren, it must needs be that this Scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy spirit hath before spoken, BY THE MOUTH of David, concerning Judas.”¹¹ Thus, the same apostle, declared to the people of Jerusalem, in Solomon’s porch; “But those things which God BEFORE HAD SHOWED BY THE MOUTH OF ALL HIS PROPHETS, &c.¹²

To the Apostles, then, David in all his songs, and all the prophets in their writings, whatever may have been the pious emotions of their souls, were but the mouth of the Holy Spirit. It was David, WHO SPOKE; they were the prophets WHO ANNOUNCED, but it was God also WHO SPOKE BY THE MOUTH of David, his servant; it was God WHO HAD ANNOUNCED BY THE MOUTH of all his prophets. And let this expression so often repeated in the Gospels, and so conclusive, be carefully examined in the Greek: “in order that that might be fulfilled which was spoken OF THE LORD, BY THE PROPHET (ὑπό τοῦ κυρίου ΔΙΑ τοῦ προφήτου,) saying,”¹³ . . . It is in a sense altogether analogous, that the Holy Scriptures give the name of prophets to the lying imposters among the Gentiles, in the temples of the false gods; whether they were vulgar cheats, falsely pretending to divine visions; or were really the mouth of an occult power, of a wicked angel, and of a spirit of Python.¹⁴

And it is still in the same sense, that St. Paul in quoting a verse from Epimenides, poet, priest, and divine, among the Cretans, called him one of their prophets; because all the Greeks consulted him as an oracle; and Nicias went, on the part of the Athenians, to take him from Crete, to purify their city; and Aristotle, Strabo,¹⁵ Suidas¹⁶ and Diogenes Laertius,¹⁷ tell us that he pretended to announce the future, and to discover unknown things.

From all these quotations, it remains thus established, that in the language of the Scriptures, the prophecies are “words of God, put into the mouth of men.” It is thus then, by an evident abuse, that, in the vulgar language, some pretend to understand by this word, only a miraculous prediction. The prophets could reveal the past as well as the future: they denounced the judgments of God, they interpreted his word; they sang his praises; they consoled his people; they exhorted souls to holiness; they rendered testimony to Jesus Christ. And as no prophecy came by the will of man;¹⁸ a prophet as we have already given to understand, was a prophet only by intervals, and as the spirit made him speak. (Acts, ii. 4.)

A man prophesied sometimes without anticipating it, sometimes again, without knowing it, and sometimes even without willing it.

I have said, without anticipating it; and often even at the very moment when he might be least expecting it. Such was the old prophet of Bethel. (1 Kings, xiii. 20.) I have said; without knowing it; such was Caiaphas. (John, xi. 51). I have finally said; without willing it. Such was Balaam, when wishing three times to curse Israel, he was thrice unable to utter any thing but blessings. (Numbers, xxiii. xxiv.)

We will give other examples of it, to complete the demonstration of what a prophecy is in general, and thus to arrive at a more full comprehension of the extent of the action of God in that which St. Peter calls written prophecy. (προφητείαν γραφῆς.)

We read in Numbers, xi. 25 to 29; that as soon as the Lord had caused the Spirit to rest on the seventy elders, “they prophesied;” but (it is added) “they did not continue.” The Spirit came upon them in an unexpected moment; and after he had thus “spoken by them,” and his word had been upon their tongue,” (2 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2), they preserved no longer any thing of this miraculous gift, and were prophets only a day.

We read, in the 1st book of Samuel, (chap. x.) with what unexpected power, the spirit of the Lord seized the young King Saul, at the moment when, seeking his father’s asses, he met a company of prophets, who were coming down from the holy place: “What has happened to the son of Kish? they asked one another. Is Saul also among the prophets?”

We read in the eleventh chapter, something still more striking—Saul sends men to Rama ‘to seize David; but immediately when they have met Samuel and the assembly of the prophets over whom he presided, the Spirit of ' the Lord comes upon these men of war; and “they also become prophets.” Saul sends others; and “they also prophesy.” Finally, Saul himself goes, “and he also prophesies, all that day and night, before Samuel.” The Spirit of God, it is said, CAME UPON HIM.” But it is particularly, by an attentive study of the twelfth and fourteenth chapters of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, that we arrive at the exact knowledge of what was the divine, and what the human action in the prophecy.

The apostle there lays down rules to the Corinthian Church, for the right employment of this miraculous gift. His counsel will shed great light on this important subject. The following facts will at once be recognised in this passage.

1. The Holy Spirit, at that time, conferred a great variety of gifts upon believers, for the general good (xii. '7; 10); to one, that of miracles; to another, that of healing; to another, the discerning of spirits; to another, the use of foreign languages, which the speaker himself did not understand, while uttering them; to another, the power of interpreting them; and to another, that of prophesying, that is, of speaking in his own language, words dictated by God

2. One and the same Spirit distributed the divers miraculous powers at his own pleasure.¹⁹

3. These gifts were a just subject of zeal and christian ambition (ζῆλοῢτε, 1 Cor. xiv. 1, 39). But the gift which they were to regard as most desirable, was that of prophesying; for they might speak an unknown tongue, without edifying any one;-and this miracle was rather useful to unbelievers than to believers; whilst the gift of prophesying edified, exhorted and consoled (1 Cor. xiv. 1-3).

4. This prophecy, that is to say, these words that descended miraculously upon the lips which the Holy Spirit had chosen for such an office, this prophecy put on very different forms. Sometimes an instruction; sometimes a revelation; sometimes too it was a miraculous interpretation of that which others had miraculously spoken in foreign tongues.²⁰

5. ‘There was evidently in these prophecies, a work of man and a work of God. They were the words of the Holy Spirit; but they were also the words of the prophet. It was God who spake; but in men, but by men, but for men; and you would there have found the sound of their voice; perhaps too the habitual turn of their style; perhaps. too, allusions to their personal experience, to their present position, to their individuality.

6. These miraculous facts-were continued in the primitive church during the long career of the apostles. Saint Paul, who wrote the letter to the Corinthians, twenty years after the death of Jesus Christ, speaks to them of these gifts as of a common and habitual order of things, which had existed then for sometime among them, and was still to continue.

7. The prophets, although they were the mouth of God, to announce his words, were yet not absolutely passive, while they were prophesying.;

“The spirits of the ‘prophets, says St. Paul, are subject to the prophets,” (1 Cor. xiv. 32): that is to say; that the men of God, while the prophetical word was upon their lips, could yet prevent the utterance of it, by the repressive action of their own will; almost as a man suspends, when he chooses, the otherwise almost involuntary course of his respiration. Thus, for example, if some revelation came down upon one who was sitting in the assembly, “the first who was speaking, must cease, and be re-seated to give place to him.”

Let us now apply these principles-and these facts to the prophecy of Scripture (τῇ προῶητείᾴ γραφῆς), and to the passage of St. Peter, for the exposition of which, we have brought them forward.

“No prophecy of the Scripture, he says, is of any private interpretation; for the prophecy came not in old ~ time, by the will of man; (2 Peter i. 21), but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

See then the full and entire inspiration of the Scriptures clearly established by the apostle; see the Scriptures compared to those prophecies which we have just been defining. They “came not by the will of man,” they were entirely dictated by the Holy Spirit; they give the very words ‘of God; they are entirely (ἔνθεος and θεόπνευᾶτος) given by the breath of God. Who would then dare, after such declarations, to maintain, that the expressions in the Scriptures are not inspired? They. are WRITTEN PROPHECIES (πᾶσα προφητεία γραφῆς). One only difficulty can then be presented to our conclusion. The testimony and the reasoning upon which it rests, are so conclusive, that there is no escape but by this objection: we agree it may be said, that the written prophecy (προφητεία πραφῆς) has without contradiction, been composed by that power of the Holy Spirit, which operated in the prophets; but the rest of the book, as also the Epistles, the Gospels and Acts, the Proverbs, the book of Kings, and so many others purely historical, have no claim to be placed in the same rank.

Let us then stop here; and before replying, let us see first, how far our argument has been carried.

It should already be admitted, that at least all that part of the Bible called PROPHECY, whatever it may be, was completely dictated by God; so that the very words as well as the thoughts, were given by him.

But then, who will allow us to establish a distinction between any one book whatever, and the other books of the Bible? Is not every thing in it given” by prophecy? Yes, without doubt, every thing there. is equally dictated by God; this we are now to prove.

Section III.—ALL THE SCRIPTURES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT ARE PROPHETIC.

And first; all the Scriptures are indiscriminately called, THE WORD OF GOD. This title at once by itself, would be sufficient to show us that, if Isaiah commenced his prophecies by inviting the heavens and the earth to hear, because the Lord hath spoken; (Isa. i. 2,) the same summons should address us from all the books of the Bible; because they are all called, “the Word of God.” “Hear, O heavens, and thou earth, attend; for the Lord hath spoken!”

We can no where find a single passage which permits us to detach one of its parts from the others, as less divine than they. To, say, that the entire book “is the word of God;” is it not to attest that the very phrases of which it is composed, were; dictated by him?

Now the entire Bible is not only named the “word of God” (ὀ λόγος τοῦ. θεοῦ); it is called without distinction, THE ORACLES OF GOD (τᾶ λόγοεα τοῦ θεοῦ). (Romans iii. 2.) Who does not know what the oracles were, in the opinions of the ancients? Was there then a single word which could express more absolutely a complete and verbal inspiration? And as if this term employed by St. Paul, did not suffice, we again hear Stephen, “filled with the Holy Ghost,”’ call them LIVING ORACLES (λόγια ζῶντα); “Moses, says he, received the living oracles, to give them to us.” (Acts vii. 38.) All the Scriptures, without-exception, are then a continued word of God; they are his miraculous voice; they are written prophecies, and his living oracles. Which of their different parts would you then dare to retrench? The apostles often divide them into two parts, when they call them “Moses and the Prophets.” Jesus Christ divided them into three parts²¹ when he said to his apostles, “All things which are written concerning me in Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, must be fulfilled.” From this division, in which our Lord conformed to the language of his time, the Old Testament was composed of these three parts; Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms; as the New Testament consists of the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles and the Apocalypse. Which then of these parts of the Old Testament, or which of these four parts of the New, would you dare to separate from the prophetic Scriptures (προφητείας γραφῆς) or from the inspired word (ἕνθεοῦ λόγου—γραφῆς θεόπνευστοῦ)?

Would it be Moses? But what is there more holy or more divine in all the Old Testament, than the writings of that man of God? He was so great a prophet, that his holy books are placed above all the rest, and are called by way of distinction, THE LAW. He was so fully a prophet, that another prophet, in speaking of his books alone, said: * The law of the Lord is perfect; (Ps. xix. 7,) the words of the Lord are pure words; they are silver refined in a furnace, seven times purified.” (Ps. xii. 6). He was so much a prophet, that he compares himself to nothing less than the Son of God. It is this Moses, who said to the children of Israel: “The Lord our God will raise you up a PROPHET LIKE UNTO ME, from among your brethren; hear him.” (Acts vii. 37)! He was so much a prophet, that he was accustomed to preface his orders with these words: “Thus saith the Lord.” He was so much a prophet, that God had said to him: “Who hath made man’s mouth, or who maketh the dumb, . . . have not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.” (Exod. iv. 11, 12). He was finally, so much a prophet, that it is written: “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel, whom the Lord knew face to face.” (Deut. xxxiv. 10.)

What other part of the Old Testament would you exclude from the prophetic Scriptures? Would it be the second; that which Jesus Christ calls the Prophets, and which comprehends all the Old Testament except Moses and the Psalms, and sometimes includes even the Psalms? It is worthy of remark that Jesus Christ, and the apostles, and all the people, habitually applied the title of Prophets, to all the authors of the Old Testament. Their habitual designation of the entire Scriptures was: ‘‘ Moses and the Prophets.” (Luke xxiv. 25, 27, 44. Matt. v. 17; vii. 12; xi. 13; xii. 40. Luke xvi. 16, 29, 37; xx. 42. Acts i. 20; iii. 20; x. 5; &c. &c.) Jesus Christ called all their books, the Prophets. They were prophets. Joshua then was as fully a prophet of the Lord as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Daniel and all the others, even to Malachi. All of them wrote then the prophetic writings (προφητείαν γραφῆς); all of them wrote the words of which St. Peter tells us: “that none of them spoke by the will of man;” all those (ἴερα γράμματα), those “Holy letters,” which the apostle declares, “divinely inspired.”²² The Lord said of them all, as of Jeremiah: “Lo, I have put. my words in thy  mouth;”²³ and of Ezekiel: “Son of man, go, and speak my words to them, speak to them, and say to. them, that the Lord, the Eternal HATH THUS SPOKEN!”²⁴

And that all the phrases, all the words were given them by God, is shown clearly by a fact stated more than once, and which the study of their writings places before our eyes; to wit, that they were charged with transmitting to the Church, oracles whose meaning remained still veiled to them. Daniel, for example, declares more than once, that he was unable to seize the prophetical sense of the words that he uttered or wrote.²⁵ The types, imprinted by God on all the events of the primitive history, could not be recognised, until many ages after the existence of the men charged with relating to us their features; and the Holy Spirit declares to us, that the prophets, after having written their holy pages, applied themselves to study them with the most respectful attention, as they had done the other Scriptures, searching WHAT THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, which was in them, DID SIGNIFY, when he foretold the sufferings of Christ.”²⁶ Do you see them, those men of God, bowed over their own writings? They are there meditating the words of God and the thoughts of God. Are you astonished at it, since they have just been writing for the elect of the earth, and for the principalities and powers of heaven,²⁷ the doctrines and the glories of the Son of God; and since they are “things into which the angels desire to look”?.

‘So much for Moses and the Prophets; but can you say it of the Psalms? Were they less given by the spirit of prophecy, than all the rest? Are not the authors of the Psalms always called prophets?²⁸ And if they are sometimes, like Moses, distinguished from the other prophets, is it not evidently in order to assign them a more eminent place? David was a prophet. (Acts ii. 3.) Hear him himself tell what he is: “The Spirit of the Lord has SPOKEN BY ME,” says he, “and HIS WORD WAS UPON MY TONGUE.” (2 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2.) Whatever David wrote, even his least words, were written by him, “SPEAKING BY THE HOLY SPIRIT,” says our Lord, (Mark xii. 36.) The Apostles also, in quoting him, in their prayer, have taken pains to say: “That must be fulfilled which was spoken by the Holy Ghost through the mouth of David.’ (Acts i. 16.) “Who, by the mouth of thy servant David, hast said,” (Acts iv. 25.) What do I say? The Psalms were, to such a degree, dictated by the Holy Spirit, that the Jews, and that Jesus Christ himself, called them by the. name of the Law:²⁹ all their words made law: their least words were of God. ‘Is it not written in YOUR LAW?” said Jesus Christ, in quoting them; and in quoting them even for one single word, as we shall presently be called to show.

All the Old Testament is then, in the scriptural sense of that expression, a PROPHETIC WRITING. (προφητεία γραφῆς.) It is then plenarily inspired of God; since, according to the testimony of Zacharias, “it is God who hath spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began;”³⁰ “and since,” according to Peter, “the prophecy came not, in old time, by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”³¹

It is true that, as yet, the preceding arguments, and the testimonies on which they are founded, directly regard only the Old Testament; and it may, perhaps, be objected, that we have thus far proved nothing for the New. We shall commence, before replying, by asking if it is probable that the Lord would have given successive revelations to his people, and that, at the same time, the most recent and the most important of these revelations should be inferior to the first?

We will ask, if it would be rational to imagine that the first Testament, which contained only “the shadow of things to come,” could have been dictated by God, in all its contents, while the second Testament, which presents to us the great object, the substance of the shadows, and which describe to us the works, the character, the person, and the very words of the Son of God, should be less inspired than the other. We will ask if it can be believed that the Epistles and the Gospels, destined to revoke many of the ordinances of Moses and the prophets, should be less divine than Moses and the prophets; and that the Old Testament should be entirely a word of God, whilst it was to be displaced, or, at least, modified and consummated, by a book, partly the word of man, and partly the word of God!

But there is no necessity for resorting to these powerful inductions, to establish the prophetical inspiration of the Gospel, and even its superiority to Moses and the prophets.

Section IV.—ALL THE SCRIPTURES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT ARE PROPHETICAL.

The Scripture, in its constant language, places the writers of the New Testament in the same rank with the prophets of the Old; and even, when it establishes any difference between al it is always to place those that came last,” above the first, as far as one word of God is superior (not in divinity, certainly, not in dignity, but in authority,) to the word which has preceded it.

Let the following passage of the Apostle Peter be particularly noticed. It is very important, as it shows us that, in the life-time of the Apostles, the book of the New Testament was already almost entirely formed, to make one alone with that of the Old. It was twenty or thirty years after the Pentecost, that St. Peter was pleased to quote “ALL the Epistles of Paul, his well beloved brother;” and that he spoke of them as “sacred writings,” which, already in his day, made part of the Holy Letters (ἴέ ρων γράμματων,) and were to be classed “with the rest of the Scriptures, (ὡς και τας λοιπὰς γράφας.) He assigns them the same rank; and he declares to them, that “ignorant men could not pervert them, but to their own destruction.”

We quote this ‘important passage, “Even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you; as also in ALL HIS EPISTLES, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable, wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction.”³²

The Apostle in the second verse of the same chapter, had already represented himself and his fellow-apostles as occupying the same rank and invested with the same authority as the sacred writers of the old Testament, when he had said, “Remember the words which were before spoken by the HOLY PROPHETS, and the commandments which you have received from us APOSTLES of the Lord and Savior.” The writings of the Apostles were then, whatever those of the Old Testament were; and since the latter are a WRITTEN PROPHECY, that is to say, a word entirely God’s, the former are nothing less.

But we have said, the Scripture goes farther, in “ihe rank which it assigns to the writers of the New Covenant.

It teaches us to consider them as even superior to those of the ancient, by the importance of their mission, by the glory of the promises, which were made to them, by the greatness of the gifts conferred upon them, and finally by the eminence of the rank which is assigned them.

1. Let us first compare their mission with that of the ancient prophets; and we shall quickly see, by that alone, that their inspiration could not be inferior to that of their predecessors.

When Jesus sent forth the Apostles whom he had chosen, he said to them: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen,”³³ “Ye shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”³⁴ Peace be unto you; as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.³⁵

Such was their mission. They were the immediate envoys (άποστόλοι) of the Son of God; they went to all the nations; they had the assurance that their Master would be always present with the testimony which they were to render of him in the Holy Scriptures. Did they then need less inspiration when going to the very extremities of the earth, than the prophets needed in going to Israel;—when making disciples of all the nations, than the prophets in instructing only the Jews? Had they not to promulgate all the doctrines, all the ordinances and all the mysteries of the kingdom of God? Had they not to carry the keys of the kingdom of heaven, so that whatever they should bind or unbind on earth,³⁶ should be bound or unbound in heaven? Had not Jesus Christ conferred the Holy Spirit on them, expressly in order that whosesoever sins they should remit or retain, should be remitted or retained? Had he not breathed upon them, saying; “Receive ye the Holy Ghost?” Had they not revealed the unheard of character of the Word made flesh, and of the Creator stooping to assume the form of a creature, and even to die upon a cross? Had they not to repeat his inimitable words? Had they not to fulfil upon the earth, the miraculous, in transmissible functions of his representatives and of his ambassadors, as though it were Christ who spoke by them?³⁷ Were they not called to such a glory, that in the last and great regeneration, “‘when the S on of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, they also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”?³⁸ If then the prophetical spirit was necessary to the first men—of God, in order to present the Messiah under shadows; was it not much more so to them, to produce him in the light of his actual life, and to set him forth as crucified in the midst of us;³⁹ so that whosoever rejects them, rejects him, and whosoever receives them receives him?”⁴⁰ Judge then from all these features of their mission, what must have been the inspiration of the New Testament, compared with that of the Old; and say if, whilst this was entirely and totally prophetic, that of the New could have been inferior to it.

II. But this is not all: let us again hear the promises which have been made to them, for the accomplishment of such a work. Words cannot declare it more forcibly. These promises were especially addressed to them on three great occasions: first, when they were sent for the first time to preach the kingdom of God;⁴¹ in the second place, when Jesus himself delivered public discourses upon the gospel, before an immense crowd, assembled by myriads around him;⁴² in the third place, when he uttered his last denunciation against Jerusalem and the Jews.⁴³

“But when they deliver you up, take no thought HOW or WHAT (πῶς ή τὶ) ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is NOT YE that speak, but the SPIRIT of your father which speaketh in you.” “And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates and powers, take ye no thought, HOW OR WHAT ye shall answer, or WHAT ye shall say. For the Holy Ghost shall teach you IN THE SAME HOUR, what ye ought to say.” “Take no thought beforehand, what ye shall speak, NEITHER DO YE PREMEDITATE; but WHATSOEVER shall be GIVEN you in that hour, that speak ye; for it is NOT YE THAT SPEAK, but the Holy Ghost.”

On these different occasions, the Lord gives his disciples the assurance, that the most entire inspiration should control their language, in the most difficult and important moments of their ministry. When they should have to speak to princes, they were to exercise no solicitude; they were not even to think upon it; because there should be then immediately given them of God, not only the things, which they should have to say, but also the words with which they should express them; not only τὶ but πῶς λαλήσονται. (Matt. x. 19, 20.) They were to rely entirely upon him; this should be given them by Jesus; it should be given them in the same hour; it should be given them in such a way, and in such a plenitude, that then they might be able to say, it is No MORE THEY, but the Holy Spirit, the SPIRIT OF THEIR FATHER speaking IN THEM; and that then also, it was not only wisdom that could not be gainsaid, which was given them; it was A MOUTH!⁴⁴

“Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before, what ye shall answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.”

Then, (as with the ancient prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,) it should be the Holy Spirit, who should speak by them, as ‘God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began.”⁴⁵ In one sense, it would indeed be they who would speak; but it would be the Holy Spirit, (Luke xii. 12,) who should teach them, in that same instant; what to say; so that in another sense, it would be the Spirit himself, speaking by their lips.

We ask if it was possible, in any language, to express more absolutely the most entire inspiration, and to declare with more precision, that the words themselves were then guaranteed of God, and given to the Apostles.

It is very true that, in these promises, reference is not directly made to the aid which the apostles were to receive as writers, but rather to that which they were to expect, when they should have to appear before priests, before governors, and before kings. But is it not sufficiently evident that, if the most entire inspiration was insured them, for temporary occasions,⁴⁶ to stop the mouths of some wicked men, to avert the dangers of the day, and to secure interests of the smallest importance; yet if it was promised them, that then the very words of their reply should be given them, by a calm, powerful, but inexplicable operation of the Holy Spirit; is it not abundantly evident, that the same aid could not be refused to these same men, when they should have, like the ancient prophets, to continue the book of the oracles of God, to transmit to all ages the laws of the kingdom of heaven; to describe the glories of Jesus Christ, and the scenes of eternity? Could any one imagine that the very men who, before Ananias, or Festus, or Nero, were so much “the mouth of the Holy Spirit,” that then “it was no more they that spake, but the Spirit;” should become, when writing “the eternal gospel,” ordinary beings, merely enlightened, stripped of their former inspiration, speaking no more by the Holy Spirit, and employing thenceforward, only the words dictated by human wisdom? (θελήματι άνθρώπου, καί ἔν διδακτοῖς ἀνθρωπίνης σοφίας λογοις.)⁴⁷ It is inadmissible.

III. See them commencing their apostolic ministry on the day of Pentecost; see what gifts they receive. Tongues of fire descend on their heads; they are filled with the Holy Spirit; they come down from their upper chamber, and all the people hear them proclaim, in fifteen different languages, the wonderful works of God; AS THE SPIRIT GIVES THEM UTTERANCE⁴⁸ they speak THE WORD or GOD (ἐλάλουν τόν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ.)⁴⁹ Surely, then, the words of these unknown tongues must have been given them, as well as the things, the expression as well as the thought, the τί as well as the πῶς. (Matt. x. 19; Luke xii. 11.) Can we then suppose that the Spirit would have taken the pains to dictate thus to them all they should say, for preaching at the corners of the streets, for words which passed with their breath, and which reached, at ‘most, only some thousands of men, whilst these very men, when they afterwards came to write, for all the ages of the Church, the “living oracles of God,” should see. themselves deprived of their former aid? Can we suppose, that after having been greater than the ancient prophets, in order to preach in the public place; they were less than these prophets, and became ordinary men, when they took up the pen to complete the book of the prophecies, to write their Gospels, their Epistles, and the book of their Revelations? The inconsistency and inadmissibility of such a supposition is manifest.

4. But we have something to say here, still more simple and more peremptory: we mean to speak of the rank assigned them; and we shall be able to confine ourselves to this single fact, after having spoken of the prophets of the Old Testament. It is, that the Apostles were all PROPHETS, and more than PROPHETS. ‘Their writings are then, WRITTEN PROPHECIES (προφητεικαί γραφαι), as much as, and more than those of the Old Testament; and we are thus led to conclude yet once more; that all Scripture, in the New Testament, as in the Old, is inspired of God, even in its least parts.

I have said that the Apostles were all prophets. They declare so frequently. But, not to multiply quotations needlessly, we content ourselves here with an appeal to the two following passages of St. Paul.

The first is addressed to the Ephesians (iii, 4,5,): ‘In the few words WHICH I WROTE afore, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy APOSTLES and Prophets by his Spirit.”

It is then clearly manifest here: the apostle and prophet Paul, the apostles and prophets Matthew, John, Jude, Peter, James, have received, by the Spirit, the revelation of the mystery of Christ, and they have written of it AS PROPHETS.

It is still of the same mystery and of the writings of the same prophets, that the same Apostle is speaking, in the second of the passages I have referred to; In mean, in the res chapter of his Epistle to the Romans.⁵⁰

“Now to Him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ (according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret ile the world began, but is now made manifest, and by the SCRIPTURES OF THE PROPHETS or prophetic Writings;) (διά τε γραφῶν προφήτικῶν), according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith; to God the only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ, for ever, Amen.”

Behold then again, the authors of the New Testament named PROPHETS; behold their writings called PROPHETIC WRITINGS (γραφαί. προφητικαί), which is the synoneme of Peter’s προφητεια γραφῆς. And since we have already recognised that no prophecy ever came from the personal and private will of him that attested it; but that it was, as moved by the Holy Ghost, that holy men of God spoke; the prophets of the New Testament have then spoken, as those of the Old, and according to the commandment of the Eternal God. They were all prophets.⁵¹

But even that is not enough; for, we have said they were MORE THAN PROPHETS. “This is a remark of the learned Michaëlis.⁵² In spite of his loose principles on the inspiration of a part of the New Testament, this observation has not escaped him. It is clear, according to him, from the context, that, in the sentence of Jesus Christ upon John the Baptist (Matt. xi. 9-11), the words great and least of the 11th verse, apply only to the name of prophet, which precedes them in the 9th verse; so that Jesus Christ there declares that if John the Baptist is the greatest of the prophets—if he is even more than a prophet—the least of the prophets of the New Testament is still greater than John the Baptist, that is to say, greater than the greatest of the prophets of the Old Testament.⁵³

Moreover, this superiority of the Apostles and Prophets of the New Testament, is more than once attested to us in the apostolical writings. Wherever the various offices established in the churches are spoken of, the Apostles are placed before the Prophets. Thus, for example, in a very remarkable passage of his 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, where he aims to shew the gradation of excellence and dignity of the various miraculous powers bestowed by God on the primitive Church, the Apostle Paul thus expresses himself: ‘‘ God hath set some in the church, first, APOSTLES; secondarily, PROPHETS; thirdly, TEACHERS; after that, miracles; then gifts of healing, helps, government, diversities of tongues.”⁵⁴

In the 4th chapter of his Epistle to the Ephesians, at the 11th verse, he again places the apostles ABOVE the prophets.

In the 2d chapter, 20th verse, he calls them APOSTLES and PROPHETS. And in the 14th chapter of 1st Corinthians, he places himself ABOVE the prophets whom God had just raised up in that church. He desires that each of them, if he has truly obtained the Holy Spirit, should employ the gifts he has received, to recognise in Paul’s words, God’s commandments; and he is so impressed with the assurance that what he writes is dictated by the inspiration of God, that after having given ORDERS to the churches, and having closed them with words which nothing but the highest inspiration can authorize, Thus I ordain in all the Churches; he does more; he goes on to rank himself ABOVE THE PROPHETS; or rather, he himself as as a prophet, summons the spirit of prophecy in them, to recognise the words of Paul as the words of the Lord;°‘and he closes with these remarkable words: “What! CAME the word of God out FROM YOU? or came it unto you only? If any man THINK himself to be a PROPHET, OF SPIRITUAL,⁵⁵ let him acknowledge that the things that I WRITE UNTO YOU, are the COMMANDMENTS of the LORD.”

The Apostles’ writings are then, (as those of the ancient prophets), “commandments of the Eternal God;” they are “written prophecies, (προφητεία γραφῆς)” as much as the Psalms, Moses, and the Prophets, (Luke xxiv. 44); and all their authors might then say with Paul: CHRIST SPEAKETH BY ME, (2 Cor. xiii. 3; 1 Thess. 11, 13); my word is. the word of God, and my discourses are taught me by the Holy Spirit, (1 Cor. ii. 13); just as. David, before them, had said: “The Spirit of the Lord hath spoken by me, and his word was upon my tongue.”⁵⁶

Hear them too, when they themselves tell us what they are. Would it be possible to declare more clearly than they have done, that the words as well as the subject were given them by God? “As to us,” they say, “we have the mind of Christ, (1 Cor. ii. 16); “for this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received THE WORD OF GOD which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but (as it is in truth) THE WORD OF GOD.” (1 Thess. ii, 13.) ‘He, therefore, that despiseth, despiseth NOT MAN, but God, who also hath given unto us his Holy Spirit.” (1 Thess. iv. 8.) Such finally, then, is the word of the New Testament. It is like that of the Old, a word of prophets, and of greater prophets even than those who preceded them; so that, for example, as Michaëlis has very well remarked,⁵⁷ an Epistle, which commences with the words: “Paul, an APOSTLE of Jesus Christ,”⁵⁸ thereby attests to us more strongly, its Divine authority and prophetic inspiration, than did even the writings of the most illustrious prophets of the Old Testament, when they opened their messages with these words: “Thus saith the Lord;⁵⁹ the vision of Isaiah; the word that Isaiah saw;⁶⁰ the word of Jeremiah, to whom came the word of the Lord;⁶¹ hear the word of the Lord;”—or other analogous expressions. And if there is, in the New Testament, a book in which similar inscriptions are not found, its theopneusty is no more thereby compromised than that of such or such a book of the Old Testament (the second or ninety-fifth Psalm, for example), which, although the name of the prophet who wrote them is not inscribed, are none the less quoted as divine, by Jesus Christ and his apostles.⁶²

It may have been sometimes objected, that Luke and Mark were not, properly speaking, apostles, and that consequently, they had not received the same inspiration as the other sacred writers of the New Testament. They were not apostles, it is true; but they certainly were prophets; and they were even greater than the greatest under the Old Testament. (Luke, vii, 28, 30.)

Without here insisting on the ancient traditions⁶³ which say of both, that they were of the number of the seventy disciples whom Jesus first sent out to preach through Judea, or at least of the hundred and twenty on whom descended flames of the Holy Spirit, on the day of Pentecost, do we not know that the apostles had received the power of conferring, by the laying on of hands, miraculous gifts on all who had believed, and that they used this power in all the countries and in all the cities whither they went? And since Luke and Mark were the companions in labor, that Paul and Peter chose from among so many other prophets, is it not sufficiently manifest that these two apostles must have called down upon such associates, the gifts which they elsewhere bestowed upon so many other believers? Do we not see Peter and John first going down to Samaria, in order to confer these gifts on the believers of that city; then afterwards Peter coming to pour them out at Caesarea, upon all the pagans who had heard the word, in the house of Cornelius the captain.⁶⁴ Do we not see St. Paul bestowing them abundantly upon the faithful of Corinth, upon those of Ephesus, and upon those of Rome?⁶⁵ Do we not see him, before employing his dear son Timothy as a fellow laborer, bringing down upon him spiritual powers.⁶⁶ And is it not sufficiently evident that Peter must have done as much for his dear son Mark,⁶⁷ as Paul for his companion Luke?⁶⁸ Silas, whom Paul had taken to accompany him, (as he took Luke also, and John, surnamed Mark,) was a prophet in Jerusalem.⁶⁹ The prophets abounded in all these primitive churches. Many, we see, went down from Jerusalem to Antioch; there were a great number of them at Corinth; Judas and Silas were such in Jerusalem; Agabus was such in Judea; four virgins, still young, daughters of Philip the evangelist, were such in Caesarea;⁷⁰ and we see in the Church of Antioch, many believers who were prophets and teachers;⁷¹ among others, Barnabas (the first companion of Paul,) Simeon, Manahem, Saul of Tarsus himself, and finally that Lucius of Cyrene, who is supposed to be the Lucius whom Paul (in his epistle to the Romans) calls his kinsman,⁷² and whom (in his epistle to the Colossians) he names Luke the physician:⁷³ in a word, that St. Luke, whom the ancient Fathers have indifferently named Lucas, Lucius, and Lucanus..

It becomes then sufficiently evident, from the facts, that St. Luke and St. Mark were at least in the rank of those prophets whom the Lord had raised up in such great numbers in all the churches of the Jews and Gentiles; and that from among all the others, they were chosen by the Holy Spirit, to write, with the apostles, three of the sacred books of the New Testament.

But still further (and let it be well remarked), this prophetic authority of St. Mark and of St. Luke is very far from resting on mere suppositions. It is founded upon the very testimony of the apostles of Jesus Christ. It must not be forgotten, that it was under the protracted government of those men of God, that the divine canon of the Scriptures of the New Testament was collected and transmitted to all the. Churches. By a remarkable effect of the Providence of God, the life of the greater part of the apostles was extended to a great number of years. St. Peter and St. Paul edified the Church of God for more than thirty-four years after the resurrection of their. Master. St. John continued his ministry, in the province of Asia; in the heart of the Roman Empire, for even more than thirty years yet after their death. The book of Acts, which was written by St. Luke after his Gospel,⁷⁴ had been already long circulated among the churches, (I mean at least ten years) before the martyrdom of St. Paul.

Now St. Paul, long even before going to Rome, had already made the gospel to abound from Jerusalem-to Illyrium;⁷⁵ the apostles were in continual correspondence with the christians of every country; they were every day overwhelmed by the care of all the churches.⁷⁶ St. Peter, in his second letter, written to the universal Church of God, spoke to: them already of ALL THE EPISTLES of St. Paul, as incorporated with the Old Testament. And for more than half a century, all the christian churches were formed and guided under the superintendence of those men of God.

It is then, with the assent and under the prophetic government of those apostles commissioned to bind. and to unbind, and to be, after Christ, the twelve foundations of the universal Church, that the canon of the Scriptures was formed; and that the new people of God received its “living oracles,” to transmit them to us.⁷⁷ And it is thus that the gospel of Luke, that of Mark, and the book of the Acts, have been received by common consent, under the same titles, and with the same submission as the apostolic books of Matthew, of Paul, of Peter and of John. ‘These books have then for us the same authority as all the others; and we are called to receive them equally, “not as the word of men, but, as they are in truth, the word of God, which effectually works in all those that believe.”⁷⁸

We trust that these reflections will suffice to show how unfounded is the distinction, which Michaëlis⁷⁹ and other German writers have pretended to establish, in regard to inspiration, between these two Evangelists and the other writers of the New Testament. It even appears to us, that it is for the very purpose of preventing any such supposition, that Luke has taken pains to place at the head of his Gospel, the four verses which constitute its preface. In fact, you there see him placing the certainty and divinity of his history in strong contrast with the uncertainty and human character of the narrations which a great number of persons (πολλοί) had undertaken to compose (έπεχειρησαν ἀναταξαοθαι), upon the evangelical facts, facts (adds he) RENDERED perfectly certain among us, that is to say, among the Apostles and Prophets of the New Testament (των πεπληρᾶφορημένων ἐν ήμῖνπραγμάτων): the original word signifying the greatest degree of certainty; as may be seen, (Rom. iv. 2i—xiv. 5, 2. 1 Tim. iv. 5, 17). It seemed good also, adds St. Luke, having had perfect understanding of all things, from the very first, (from on high) to write unto thee in order.⁸⁰

St. Luke had obtained this knowledge from ABOVE; that is, by “the wisdom which cometh from on high and which had been given to him.” It is very true that this last expression in this passage, is ordinarily understood to mean from the beginning, and as if, instead of the word ἄνωθεν (from on high), we had the same word απ’ αρχῆς (from the beginning), which is in the second verse. But it has appeared to us that the opinion of Erasmus, of Gomar, of Henry, or Lightfoot, and of other commentators, should be preferred as more natural, and that we must here take the word ἄνωθεν in the same sense in which St. John and St. James have employed it, where they have said: “Every good gift cometh from above (James i. 7); thou shouldst have no power over me, except it were given thee from on high (John xix. 11); except a man be born again (from on high), he cannot see the kingdom of God (John iii. 3); the wisdom which cometh from above is first pure.” (James iii. 15-17).

The prophet Luke had then obtained from on high, an exact knowledge of all things which Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day he was taken up.

At the same time, whatever rendering of these words is preferred, it is by other arguments that we have shewed how Luke and Mark were prophets; and how their writings, transmitted to the church by the authority of the Apostles, are themselves incorporated with those of the Apostles, as well as with all the other prophetic books of the eternal word of God.

Observe then precisely how far our argument has conducted us, and what the very authority of the Holy Scriptures has led us to recognise. It is first; that the Theopneusty of the words of the prophets was entire; that the Holy Spirit spake by them, and that the word of the Lord was upon their tongue. It is again—that all that has been written in the Bible, having been written by prophecy, all the sacred books are Holy Letters (ἴερα γράμματα) written prophecies (προφητεια γραφῆς), and Scriptures divinely inspired (γραφαι θεόπνευστάι). Every thing then is of God.

In the meantime, let, it be remembered (we wish to repeat it once more here, although we have already had more than one occasion to say it), that it is not necessary to suppose, among the prophets of the Old or of the New Testament, a state of excitement and of enthusiasm which carried them out of themselves: we must, on the contrary, guard against such a thought. The ancient church attached so great importance to this principle, that, under the reign of the Emperor Commodus, according to Eusebius, Miltiades, the illustrious author of a christian Apology, “composed a book expressly to establish” against Montanus and the false prophets of Phrygia, “that the true prophets ought to be masters of themselves, and ought not to speak in ecstacy.”⁸¹ The power of God was exercised upon them, without taking them entirely out of their ordinary state. “The spirits of the prophets,” says St. Paul, “are subject to the prophets.”⁸² Their intellectual faculties were then directed, and not suspended. They knew, they felt, they willed, they remembered, they comprehended, they approved. They could say, “it hath seemed to me good to write;” and as the apostles, “it hath seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit to write.”⁸³ And then the words were given to them as well as the thoughts; for, after all, words are but second thoughts, which relate to the language, and which make from it select expressions.⁸⁴ It is no easier and no more difficult to explain the gift of the one than that of the others.

Yet there is something in reference to the Theopneusty, in the Holy Scriptures, which to us is still more impressive, if it be possible, than all the declarations of the apostles and of Jesus Christ himself; it is their examples.

Section V.—THE EXAMPLES OF THE APOSTLES AND OF THEIR MASTERS ATTEST THAT, FOR THEM, ALL THE WORDS OF THE HOLY BOOKS ARE GIVEN BY GOD.

Let it first be remembered what use the apostles themselves make of the-word of God, and in what terms they quote it. See how then, they not only content themselves with saying, “God says;⁸⁵ the Holy Spirit has said;⁸⁶ God says by suck a prophet;”⁸⁷ but see also when they quote it, how they esteem its least parts; with what respect they speak of it; with what attention they consider each of its words; with what religious assurance they often insist on one single word, to deduce from it the most serious consequences and the most fundamental doctrines.

For ourselves, we must avow, nothing impresses us so strongly as this consideration; nothing has produced in our soul so intimate and so powerful a confidence in the entire theopneusty of the Scriptures.

The preceding reasonings and the testimonies appear to us sufficient to carry conviction to all attentive minds; but we feel that, if we had a personal necessity of confirming our faith upon this truth, we should not go so far to seek our reasons; it would be sufficient for us to inquire, how the apostles of God esteemed the Holy Scriptures. Was it, in their opinion, inspired; was its language inspired? What, for example, did Saint Paul think of it? For we have no pretensions to be more enlightened theologians than those twelve men. We abide by the dogmatics of St. Peter, and the exegesis of St. Paul; and of all the systems on the inspiration of the Scriptures, it is theirs which we are determined to prefer.

Hear the apostle Paul, when he quotes them, and when he comments on them. He then discusses their smallest expressions. Often, in order to draw from them the most important conclusions, he makes use of arguments which would be treated as puerile or absurd, if we had employed them before the doctors of the Socinian school. Such a respect for the words of the text, if we should be guilty of it, would send us back to the XVIth century, to its rude orthodoxy, to its superannuated theology. Remark with what reverence the apostle pauses at the least expression ; with what confident expectation of the Church’s submission, he there points out the employment of such a word. in preference to any other with what investigation and cordiality he presses out bath word of it between his. hands, even to the last drop.

Out of the multitude of examples which we might produce, let us for brevity’s sake, confine ourselves to the Epistle to the Hebrews.

See in chapter xi. v. 8, how, after having quoted these words, “Thou hast put all things under his feet,” the sacred author reasons from the authority of the word all.

See, in the 11th verse, how, in quoting the xxii. Psalm, he reasons from this word, my brethren, to derive from it the human nature which the Son of God was to assume.

See, in chapter xii. v. 27, how, in quoting the prophet Haggai, he reasons from the employment of this word; once. “Yet once.”

See, in verses 5, 6,'7,.8 and 9, with what expansion he reasons from these words, “my son,” from the 3d chap. of Proverbs: ‘My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord.”

See, in chap. x. how, in citing the xl. Psalm, he reasons from the words, “Lo! I come,” opposed to the words, “Thou wouldest not.”

See, in chap. viii. v. 8 to 13, how, in quoting Jeremiah xxxi. 31, he argues from the word new.

See, in chapter iii. v. 7 to 19, and iv. 1 to 11, with what earnestness, in quoting the XCVth Psalm, he argues from the word “to-day,” from the words “I have sworn,” and especially from the words “my rest,” illustrated by this other word of Genesis, “And God rested the seventh day.”

See, in v. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, how he reasons from these words “servant” and “house,” borrowed from Numbers: “My servant Moses, who is faithful in all my house.”

See, above all, in chapter x. the use which he makes successively of all the words of the CXth Psalm; observe how he takes up each expression, one after the other, to deduce from it the highest doctrines; “The Lord hath sworn;” ‘he hath sworn by himself; “thou art a priest;” “thou art a priest forever;” “thou art a priest after the order of Melchizedec; “of Melchizedec king of Zedec; “and of Melchizedec king of Salem.” The exposition of the doctrines contained in each one of these words, fills-three chapters, the 5th, 6th, and 7th.

But I stop here. Is it possible not to conclude from such examples, that, for the holy apostle Paul, the Scriptures were inspired of God, even to the least important expressions? Let each of us then rank himself in the school of this man, “to whom was given the understanding of the mystery of Christ by the Spirit of God, as to a holy apostle and prophet.⁸⁹ We must, of necessity, either hold him for an enthusiast, and reject in his person the testimony of the holy Bible; or receive, with him, the precious and fruitful doctrine of the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures.

O! ye, who shall read these lines, in what school will ye then sit down? in that ‘of the apostles, or in that of the doctors of our age? “If any man shall take away from the words of this book (I testify, says St. John,) God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” “And, if (says St. Paul) any man preach any other Gospel, let him be accursed.”⁹⁰

But again, let us leave the apostles, (prophets as they were, sent of God to establish his kingdom, pillars of the Church, mouths of the Holy Spirit, ambassadors of Jesus Christ;) let us leave them, for the moment, as if they were still too much enveloped in their Jewish traditions, and in their rustic prejudices; let us go to the Master. Let us ask him how he esteemed the Scriptures. ‘This is the great question. The testimonies which we have just cited, are peremptory, without doubt; and the doctrine of a full and entire Theopneusty is as clearly taught in the Scriptures, as perhaps the resurrection of the dead; that alone is enough for us; but, notwithstanding, we will still avow it, here is an argument which renders all others superfluous to us:—How did Jesus Christ quote the Bible? what did he think of the letter of the Scriptures? what use did he make of it, he who is its object and inspirer, its beginning and its end, its first and its last—he, whose Holy Spirit, says St. Peter, animated all the prophets of the Old Testament—(1 Pet. ii. 11,) he, who was in heaven in the bosom of the Father, at the same time that he was seen here below, conversing among us, and preaching the Gospel to the poor? I am asked, what do you think of the Holy Letters? I reply, what did my Master think of them? how did he quote them? what use did he make of them? what were their least parts to him?

Oh! tell them thyself, Eternal Wisdom, uncreated Word, Judge of judges! and whilst we are going to repeat to them here the declarations of thy mouth, show them that majesty in which the Scriptures appeared to thee, that perfection which thou didst recognise in them, that permanence, above all, which thou. hast assigned to their least iota, and which shall make them survive even the universe, after the heavens and the earth shall have passed!

We shall not hesitate to say it: when we hear the Son of God quote the Scriptures, everything is said for us upon their theopneusty; we have no need of any other testimony. All the declarations of the Bible are equally divine, without doubt; but this example of the Savior of the world has told us all in a moment. This proof requires no protracted nor profound research: the hand of a little child seizes it as powerfully as that of a man of learning. If any doubt should then assail your soul, let it turn to the Lord of lords; let it see him kneeling before the Scriptures!

Follow Jesus, in the days of his flesh. With what grave and tender respect he constantly holds in his hands the “volume of the book,” to quote all its parts, and to point out its least verses.;

See how a word, a single word, whether of a song, or of a historical book, has for him the authority of a law. Observe with what confident submission he receives all the Scriptures, without even disputing their sacred canon; because he knows that salvation is of the Jews,” and that, under the infallible providence of God, “the oracles of God were committed to them.” What do I say; that he receives them? from his cradle to his tomb, and from his resurrection from the tomb to his disappearance in the clouds, what does he carry everywhere with him; in the desert, in the temple, in the synagogue? What does he still quote, in his resurrection-body, at the moment when already the heavens are about to exclaim, “Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates, and let the King of glory enter”? It is the Bible; it is ever the Bible; it is Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets: he quotes them, he explains them; but how? it is verse by verse; it is word” after word!

In what a frightful and painful contrast, after such a spectacle, do those misguided men present themselves to us, who, in our day, dare to judge, to contradict, and to try to mutilate the Scriptures!

We tremble, when we have followed with our eyes the Son of Man, commanding the elements, stilling the tempest, and bursting the sepulchre, whilst, filled with so profound a respect for the sacred volume, he declared that he was to return one day, to judge, from this book, the living and the dead; we tremble, and our heart bleeds, when afterwards, crossing the threshold of a ‘rationalist academy, we there see, seated in his professoral chair, a poor mortal, a learned, miserable sinner, responsible, handling, without reverence, the word of his God; when we follow him accomplishing this wretched task before young men eager for instruction, as future guides of an entire people, capable of so much good, if you lead them to the high places of faith, and of so much evil, if you train them to the contempt of those Scriptures which they are one day to preach! With what peremptory decision they exhibit the phantasmagoria of their hypotheses; they retrench, they add, they commend, they condemn; they pity the simplicity, which, reading the Bible as Jesus Christ read it, attaches itself, like him, to all the words, and can find no error in the word of God; they decide what interpolations or what retrenchments, (which Jesus Christ never suspected,) the holy Scriptures must have undergone; they purify the chapters which they have not understood; they point out mistakes in them, reasonings badly conducted or badly concluded, prejudices, imprudences, vulgar errors!

God forgive me for being obliged to write the words of this frightful dilemma; (but the alternative is inevitable!) Either Jesus Christ exaggerated and reasoned badly, when he thus quoted the Scriptures, or these imprudent and unhappy men, ignorantly blaspheme their divine majesty. It pains us to write these lines. God is our witness that we would willingly have withheld them, and then have blotted them out; but, we hesitate not to say with a profound feeling, it is in obedience, it is in charity, that they have been written. Alas! in a few years, these professors and their pupils will be sleeping in the same tomb; they must wither like the grass; but then not a tittle of this divine book shall have passed away; and as surely as the Bible is truth, and as it has changed the face of the world, so surely shall we see the Son of Man returning upon the clouds of Heaven, and “judging by this eternal word, the secret thoughts of men.”⁹¹

“All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man ‘is as the flower of grass: the grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away; but the word of God abideth forever; and this is the word which is preached unto us;” it is this word which shall judge us. Now then, we are about to finish our proof, in reviewing, under this aspect, the ministry of Jesus Christ. Let us follow him from the age of twelve years to his descent into the tomb, or rather to his disappearance in the clouds; and, in all the course of this incomparable career, let us see what the Scriptures were for Him, who “upholdeth all things by the word of his power.”

See him first, at the age of twelve years. He has grown, as a human child, in wisdom and in stature; he is in the midst of the doctors, in the temple of Jerusalem; he ravishes, by his answers those who hear him; for “he knew, said one, the Scriptures without having studied them.”⁹²

See him, when he has commenced his ministry; behold him filled with the Holy Ghost; he is led to the desert, there to sustain, like the first Adam in Eden, a mysterious combat with the powers of darkness. The impure spirit dares to approach him, to overthrow him; but how shall the Son of God repel him; he who has come to destroy the works of Satan! only by the Bible. His sole weapon, in those encounters, the sword of the Spirit, in his divine hands, shall be the Bible. He shall quote, three times, the book of Deuteronomy.⁹³ At each new temptation, he, the Word made flesh, shall defend himself by a sentence of the oracles of God, and even by a sentence whose entire force lies in the employment of a single word, or of two words; first, of these words, (ἄρτῳ μόνῳ) bread alone;—then of these words; Thou shalt not tempt the Lord (όυκ εκπεειράσεες Κύριον).—then finally, of these two words; (θεὸν προςκυνήσεις) thou shalt worship God.

What an example for us! All his answer, all his defence, is this: “It is written;” “get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written;’—and as soon as the terrible and mysterious combat is closed, angels draw nigh to serve. him.

But, observe, again, that such is for the Son of Man, the authority of each word of the Scriptures, that the foul spirit himself, that being so mighty in wickedness, who knows what all the words of the Bible are in his eyes, does not imagine a surer means of conquering his will, than citing to him (but at the same time distorting it) a verse of the xci. Psalm; and immediately Jesus Christ, to confound him, is content to reply again, “It is written.”

See how his sacerdotal ministry commenced; by the employment of the Scriptures. And see how his prophetic ministry is opened, immediately afterwards; by the employment of the Scriptures.

Let us again follow him, as engaged in his work, he goes from place to place, to do good; always enlisting in his poverty his creating power, for imparting comfort to others, never to himself. He speaks, and it is done; he casts out devils; he calms the tempests; he awakens the dead. But, in the midst of all these grandeurs, see how he estimates the Scriptures. The word is ever with him. He bears it with respect, not in his hands, (he knows it thoroughly), but in his memory and in his incomparable heart.-Behold him, when he speaks of it. When he unrols the sacred volume, it is as if he were opening the window of heaven, to make us hear the voice of Jehovah. With what reverence, with what submission he expounds them, he comments on them, he quotes them word after word! Behold his entire employment; to heal and ‘to preach the Scriptures; as afterward, to die, and to accomplish the Scriptures!

Behold him who comes, “as he was wont,” into a synagogue, on a Sabbath day; “for he taught in their congregations,” it is said.⁹⁴ He enters that of Nazareth. What will he do there; he, “the Eternal Wisdom, possessed by Jehovah in the beginning of his way, before his works of old, brought forth before the mountains were settled, before the hills?⁹⁵ He shall rise to take the Bible; he shall open at Isaiah; he shall there read a few sentences; then, having closed the book, he shall sit down; and, as all eyes are fixed on him, he shall say, “This day, is this Scripture fulfilled in your hearing.”⁹⁶

See him, journeying through Galilee. What does he there? He is still holding in his hands, the volume of the book; and he is explaining it line after line, word after word; he holds up its most important expressions for our respect, as he would the law of “the Ten Commandments, pronounced on Sinai.”

See him again in Jerusalem, before the pool of Bethsaida; what is he urging on the people? ‘Search the Scriptures!” (John v.)

See him in the holy place, in the midst of which he had dared to exclaim, “There is one here greater than the holy place,” (Matt. xii. 26), Follow him before the Sadducees and Pharisees, whilst he alternately reproves them in these words, “It is written,” as he had done to Satan.

Hear him replying to the Sadducees who denied the resurrection of the body. How does he refute them 2 By A SINGLE WORD from a HISTORICAL passage of the Bible; by a single verb in the present tense, instead of the same verb in the past tense. “Ye err,” said he to them, “not KNOWING THE SCRIPTURES. Have ye not read what God has declared to you, saying: I am the God of Abraham?” Thus he proved to them the doctrine of the resurrection. God, upon Mount Sinai, four hundred years after the death of Abraham, said to Moses; not, “I was,” but “I am the God of Abraham; I am so now, אנוכי אלחי אכרחמ which the Holy Spirit renders: Ἔγώ είμι ό Θεὸς-Αβραάμ. There is then a resurrection; for God is not the God of some handful of dust, the God of the dead, the God of non-entity; he is the God of the living. “These men are then living with God.”⁹⁷

See him afterwards before the Pharisees. It is still by the letter of the word that he confounds them.

Some of them had already followed him to the borders of Judea, beyond Jordan, and had come to question him

on the subject of marriage and divorce. What might Jesus Christ have done? He could surely have replied from his own authority, and have given his own laws. Is he not the King of kings and Lord of lords? But no} it is to the Bible he again appeals, to found here a doctrine; it is to the simple words, taken from an entirely historical passage of Genesis: Have ye nor reap, that He who made them from the beginning, made them male and female; so that they are no more twain, but one flesh? What then God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.⁹⁸

But hear, above all, when in the temple, he would prove to other Pharisees, by the Scriptures, the divinity of the expected Messiah. He again insisted here, to demonstrate it, upon the use of A SINGLE WORD, which he was about to take from the book of the Psalms. “If the Messiah,” said he to them, “is the Son of David, how did David, BY THE SPIRIT, call him Lord? when he says, (in Ps. cx.); the Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his Son?” ⁹⁹

Why was there not some one of the Pharisees suggesting the ready reply which modern times have furnished: What! do you pretend to insist on a single word, and more, upon a term borrowed from a poetry eminently lyrical, in which the royal Psalmist may, without injury, have employed a too vivid construction, exaggerated expressions, and words which he doubtless had not then logically weighed in his mind, before casting them into his verse Would you follow the at once fanatical and servile method of a minute interpretation of each expression? Would you adore even to the letter of the Scriptures? Would you construct an entire doctrine upon a word?

Yes, I will, replies Jesus Christ; yes, I will support myself upon a word; because this word is of God, and because with one word he created the light. To cut all your objections short, I declare to you, that IT IS BY THE SPIRIT, that David wrote all the words of his Songs; and I ask you how, if the Messiah is his Son, David, BY THE SPIRIT, can call him his Lord, when he says: “the Lord said to my Lord”?

Students of the word of God, and you especially who are to be its ministers, and who, in order to prepare yourselves for preaching it, wish first to have received it into a good and honest heart, see what each saying, each word of the book of God was for our Master. Go, then, and do likewise!,

But still farther. Hear him again, even on his cross. He was there pouring out his soul an offering for sin; all his bones were out of joint; he poured himself out like water; his heart was melted. like wax within him; his tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth;¹⁰⁰ he was about rendering up his spirit to his Father. But what did he first’? He would gather all his remaining strength, to repeat a psalm which the Church of Israel had sung for a thousand years in her religious festivals, and which spoke successively all her griefs and all her prayers: “Eli, Eli, lamma Sabachthani!” (My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?) He did yet more: hear him. There remained yet in the Scriptures one unfulfilled word; they must yet give him vinegar upon that cross; the Holy Spirit had declared it a thousand years before, in the lxixth Psalm. “After this, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus-said, I thirst. And when Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished! and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.”¹⁰¹

Had David known whilst he was saying this 69th Psalm upon Shoshannim, and the 22d upon Ajeleth, the prophetical sense of each one of these words; of these hands and feet pierced, of this gaul poured out, of this vinegar, of these garments divided, of this robe taken by lot, of this mocking multitude, wagging the head and shooting out the lip? To us it matters little whether he understood it or not; the Holy Spirit at least understood it; and David was speaking by the Spirit, Jesus tells us. The heavens and the earth must pass; but there is not in this book a jot or tittle that can remain unaccomplished (John x, 35; xii. 34.)

Yet there is something still more striking, if it be possible. Jesus Christ rises from the tomb; he has vanquished death; he is about to return to the Father, to resume that glory which he had with the Father, before the world was. Follow him then in these rapid moments which he yet bestows on the earth. What words are to fall from his reinimated lips? They are words from the Holy Scriptures. Still he quotes them; he explains them; he preaches them still. See him. first upon the road to Emmaus, journeying with Cleopas and his friend; afterwards, in the upper chamber; and still later upon the borders of the lake. What does he? he expounds the sacred books he begins at Moses, and continues through all the Prophets and the Psalms; he shows them what has been said concerning himself, in all the Scriptures; he opens their understandings, that they may comprehend; he makes their hearts burn while he opens up the Scriptures.¹⁰²

But we have not finished. All these quotations show us what the Holy Bible was to Him in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, (Col. ii. 3,) and by whom all things consist. (Col. i.1.) But let us hear again, upon the letter of the Scriptures, two declarations and one final example of our Lord.

“It is easier, says he, for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tittle (κεραὶα) of the law to fail;”¹⁰³ and, by the law, Jesus Christ understood the body of the Scriptures, and, even more particularly the book of the Psalms.¹⁰⁴

What word could we imagine, which should express with more precision and more force, the principle that we defend, I mean, the authority, the entire theopneusty, and. the permanence, of all the parts and of the very letter of the Scriptures? Students of the word of God, behold the theology of your Master. Be then theologians after his pattern; have the same Bible with the Son of God!

But let us hear yet another declaration. Our Lord made it in his Sermon on the Mount.

“Until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or tittle shall pass from the Law. (Matt. v.18.) All the words of the Scriptures, even to the smallest letter and the smallest part of a letter, are then, equivalent to the words of Jesus Christ; for he has also said; The heavens and the earth shall one day pass away, but my words shall not pass. (Luke xxi-33.)

Men who combat these doctrines, demand of us if we dare pretend that the Holy Scriptures are a law of God, even in its words, as a hysop or an oak is a work of God, even to its leaves. We reply, with all the Fathers of the Church, Yes; or rather, Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Master, lifts his hands towards heaven, and replies; Yes, even in its “words; even to (ιῶτα ἐν, ἥ μία κεραία) a single iota, or a single fragment of a letter!”

But, after these two declarations, let us finally consider a last example of our Lord, which we have not yet adduced.

It is still Jesus Christ who is going to quote the Scriptures, but in claiming, for their least word, such an authority, that we are obliged to rank him in the number of the most ardent partisans of the verbal inspiration, and that we think, that in searching through the writings of our most rigidly orthodox divines, there cannot be found the example of respect for the letter of the Scriptures and for the plentitude of their theopneusty carried farther.

It was on a day in winter, as Jesus was walking in the temple under the colonnade of the Eastern portico; the Jews surrounded him; and he then said to them (John x. 27); “I give eternal life to my sheep; they shall never. perish; no one shall pluck them out of my hand; I and the Father are one.” They were astonished at such language; but he became still more startling, until finally the Jews, crying out against the blasphemy, brought stones to. kill him, and said to him: “We stone thee, because being man, thou makest thyself God.”¹⁰⁵

We would now call particular attention to the different features of the answer of Jesus Christ. He is about to quote one word taken from a hymn, and he: is about to found all his doctrine on this single word; for “he made himself equal with God,” says John in another place (v. 18). In order to sustain the sublimest and most mysterious of his doctrines, to legitimate his most unheard-of pretension, he supports himself on a word of the Psalm Ixxxii. But, remark it well; before pronouncing this word, he is careful to interrupt himself; he pauses in a solemn parenthesis, and exclaims with authority: “and the Scriptures cannot be broken” (και ού δὺνατᾶι λυθῆναι ἡ γράφη)!

Has this been sufficiently regarded? Not only is the Lord’s argument here entirely founded upon the use made of a single word by the Psalmist; and not only is he going to erect on this single term, the most astounding of his doctrines; but also, in quoting thus the book of Psalms, to make us better comprehend, that in his view, the book is entirely a writing of the Holy Spirit, in which each word must serve to us as a law, Jesus calls it by the name of Law, and he says to the Jews: “Is it not written in your law, I have said ye are gods?” These words are placed in the middle of a song; they might seem to have escaped from the unreflecting fervor of the prophet Asaph, or from the ardent strain of his poetry. And if the plenary inspiration of all that is written were not admitted, we should be tempted to tax them with indiscretion, since the imprudent. use which the Psalmist might have made of them, might have led the people to practices, condemned in other parts of the word of God, and to idolatrous thoughts. Why then, yet once more, was there not found there, in Solomon’s porch, some rationalist scribe of the Jewish universities, to say to him: “Lord, you cannot justify yourself by this expression?” The use which Asaph made of it, could have been neither deliberate nor proper. Although inspired in the thoughts of his piety, he certainly did not weigh his smallest word, with a minute forethought of the use which might be made of them a thousand years afterwards. It would then be imprudent to pretend to insist on them. But now, observe how our Lord prevents the profane temerity of such an evasion. Behold him: he recollects himself with solemnity; he had just pronounced concerning himself words ye would be blasphemous in the mouth of an archangel: ‘1 and the Father are one;” but he interrupts himself, and as soon as he has said: “Is it not written in your law, I have said, ye are gods”; he pauses, and fixing his eyes authoritatively upon the doctors who surround him, he exclaims: “AND THE SCRIPTURES CANNOT BE BROKEN.” As if he had said: “Beware! there is not in the sacred books, a single word which can be reproved, nor one single word which can be neglected. That which I quote to you from the lxxxii Psalm, is traced by the hand which made the heavens. If then he would give the name of gods to men, inasmuch as they are christs, (anointed) and types of the true Christ, of the anointed, and in taking care at the same time immediately to suggest, “that they died as men;” how much more appropriate is this name to me “the Father of eternity,¹⁰⁶ the Immanuel, the man-God, the Messiah, who do the works of my Father, and what the Father hath marked with his seal?”

We will then ask here of every serious reader, (and our argument, it should be well observed, is entirely independent of the orthodox meaning or of the Socinian meaning which may be given to these words of Jesus Christ); we will ask; is it possible to admit that the being who makes such a use of the Scriptures, DOES NOT BELIEVE IN THEIR PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION? And if he had believed that the words of the Bible had been left to-the free choice and to the pious fantasies of the sacred writers, would he ever have broached the idea of founding such arguments upon the employment of such a word? The Lord Jesus, our Savior and our Judge, believed then in the most complete inspiration of the Scriptures; and, for him, the first rule of all hermeneutics, and the beginning of all exegesis, was this simple maxim, applied to the least expressions of the written word: “AND THE SCRIPTURES CANNOT BE BROKEN.”

Let the Prince of life, the light of the world, then rank us all in his school! What he has believed, let us receive. What he has respected, let us respect. This book, to all the words of which he has submitted his heart as a Savior, and all the thoughts of his holy humanity, let us press it to our diseased hearts, and submit to it all the thoughts of our fallen humanity. Let us seek God there in the least passages; let us plunge into it every day all the roots of our being, as the tree planted near the running waters, which gives its fruit in its season, and whose leaf never fades. Let us be, in a word, as the righteous man of the Psalms, ‘“who takes his delight in the law of the Lord, so that he meditates therein day and night.” Then the Holy Spirit, who wrote it, word after word, in his eternal book, will write it also, with his almighty fingers, upon the table of our hearts; and will there make us comprehend with efficacy these words of God our Savior: “Be thou healed, and be thou saved; go, son, thy sins are forgiven thee; thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace! All things are possible to him that believeth.”.

1) T, ix. Chap. Bipont., p. 392,

2) Mic. iv. 4.—Jer. ix. 12; xiii. 13; xxx. 4; 1.1; li, 12—Isa. viii. 11.—Amos, iii; 1.—Deut. xviii. 21, 22,

3) 2 Sam. xxxiii. 1. 2.

4) Isa. xxviii. 14.

5)1 King, xxi 22; 1 Chr. xvii. 3; Luke, iii. 2.

6) Jer. xi. 15 xiii. 1; xxi. 1; xxv. 13 xxvi.1; xxvii. 1; xxx.1; and frequently elsewhere.—See Isa. i. 2; Jer. i. 1, 2, 9, 14; Ezek. iii. 4, 10, 11; Hos. i. 1, 2;. Malachi, i. 9; &c.

7) Hos. a. 1, 2.

8) Exod. iv. 12, 15.

9) ἐνέβαλεν (οί lxx.) Num. xxiii. 5.

10) Acts, iv. 25. ‘

11) Acts, i. 16.

12) Acts, iii. 18,

13) Mat. i. 22; ii, 5, 15, 23; xiii. 35; xxi. 4; xxviii. 35.

14) Acts, xv. 6. See 1Sam. xxviii. 7. 1 Chron. x. 13, Levit. xix. 26, 31; xx. 26, 27. Isa. viii. 19.

15) Geogr. lib. x.

16) In voce, (Ετὶμεν.) ,

17) Vita Epimen.

18) 2 Peter, i. 21.

19) Verse 2. See also Eph. iv. 7; Act xix, 1-6,

20) Verses 26, 31, and Sam. x. 6; xviii, 10.

21) Luke xxiv. 44.

22) 2 Tim, iii. 15.

23) Jer. i. 1, 2, 9.

24) Ezek. iv. 10, 11.

25) Dan. xii. 4, 8,9; viii. 27; x. 8, 21.

26) 1 Peter i. 10, 11, 12.

27) Eph. iii. 10, 11.

28) Matt. xiii. 35; for Asaph, Ps. lxxviii.

29) John x. 35; xii. 34.

30) Luke i. 7.

31) 2 Peter i. 21. See also Matt. i. 21; xxii, 43; Mark xii. 36.

32) 2 Peter iii, 15, 16.

33) Matt. xxviii, 19, 20.

34) Acts i, 8,

35) John xx, 21.

36) Matt. xviii. 18, xvi, 19.

37) 2 Cor.v, 20;

38) Matt, xix. 28:

39) Gal. iii. 1,

40) Luke x, 16; Matt. x, 40.

41) Matt, x. 19, 02.

42) Luke xii, 12.

43) Mark xiii. 11. Luke xxi. 14, 15.

44) Matt. x. 20. Mark xiii. 11. Luke xxi. 14, 15.

45) Acts iii, 21. Luke i. 17.

46) 2 Pet. i. 21. 1 Cor. ii. 13.

47) 2 Pet. i. 21; 1 Cor. ii, 13.

48) Acts ii. 2.

49) Acts iv. 31.

50) Rom. xvi. 25-27.

51) See again Luke xi. 49.—Eph. ii. 20; iii. 5; iv. 11.—Gal. i, 12,—1 Pet. i. 12.—1 Cor. xi, 23.—1-Thess. ii. 15.

52) Introd., t. I. p. 118, French edit.

53) Ibid, and Luke vii. 28-30.

54) 1 Cor. xii. 28.

55) Πνιυμανικος. 1 Cor. xiv. 37.—See too xv. 45, and Jude 19.

56) 2 Sam. xxiii. 2.

57) Introd. tom. 1, p. 118, 119, &c. French Edit.

58) Rom. i. 1; Gal. i. 1; 1 Cor. i. 1, &c.; 1 Pet. i. 1; 2 Pet. i. 1.

59) Isai. lvi. 1.; xliii, 1, et passim.

60) Isai. i. 1; ii. 1, et alibi.

61) Jer. i. 1, 2.;

62) Acts iv. 25; xiii. 33; Heb, i. 5; iii. 7, 17; v. 5; iv. 3, 7.;

63) Epiphan., Hæres., 51 and others.—Orig., De rectà in Deum fide.—Doroth, in synopsi.—Procop. Diacon., apud Bolland., 25 april.

64) Acts viii. 15, 17; x, 45.

65) Acts xix. 6, 7. 1 Cor. xii. 28; xiv—Rom. i. 11; xv. 19, 29.

66) 1 Tim. iv, 14.—2 Tim. i. 6.

67) 1 Pet. v. 13.

68) Acts xiii, 13 xvi. 10; xxvii. 1.—Rom. xvi. 21.—Col. iv. 14,——2 Tim. iv. 11.—Phil. 24. 2 Cor. viii. 18.

69) Act. xv. 32.

70) Act. xi. 38.—1 Cor. xii. 19, 20; xiv. 31, 39.—Act. xi. 28; xvi. 9, 10.

71) Act. xiii. 1, 2,.

72) Rom. xvi. 21.

73) Col. iv. 14,

74) Acts i. 1.

75) Rom. xv. 19.

76) 2 Cor. xi. 28.

77) Acts vii. 38.—Rom. iii. 2.

78) 1 Thes. ii. 13.

79) Introd. tome i. p. 112 to 129 ed. Eng.

80) Παρακολουθηκότι.·—Thus Demosthenes, de Corona, t. 53: Παρακωλουοηκὼς τοῖς πράγμασιν ἀπ’ ἄρχῆς.—Theophrast., Char. Proem., 4; Σὸν δέχπαρακολουθῆσαῐ καὶ ἐιδῆσαι, ὲι ὀρθῶς λέγω.——Josephus, in the first lines of his book against Appion, opposes this same word, τόν παρακολουθηκότα (diligenter assecutum), to τῷ πυνθανομένῳ (sciscitanti ab aliis).

81) Hist. Ecel., lib. iv. chap. 17.—Ἐν ᾧ ὰποὁείκνυσι περὶ τοῦ μηδεῖι ὓ Προφήτην ἐν ἐκστάσει λαλεῖν. —See too Nieeph., lib. iv. c. 24.—See the same principles in Tertullian (against Marcion, lib. iv. chap. 22); in Epiphanius (Adv. hæreses, lib, ii. hæres., 48, e. 3); in Jerome (Proemium in Nahum.); in Basil the Great (Commentary on Isa. proem., 5).

82) 1 Cor. xiv. 32.

83) Act. i. 3; xv. 28.

84) We have translated our author here literally, because he has not expressed himself clearly; and it is the only sentence of his book which has appeared to us obscure. If we may intrude our own explanation, we would state that we think his views might be thus expressed: ‘The words were given as well as the thoughts; for, after all, the words, that is the enunciation of the thoughts, is also the product of a second effort of the mind after it has conceived the thought; an effort which relates to the language, and which consists in choosing from it appropriate expressions.” A friend has furnished us this illustration of the author’s idea,. Imagine these holy men commanded to contemplate a building, and to make an exact representation of it to men; and at the same time, plates engraved with a perfect image of it were given them; their sole duty-being to paint them. That is plenary inspiration. The building of the house was the first effort of the architect, and the representation of it was the second effort of the same mind. None but God could construct the building; none but he could copy it infallibly. And he has done it.

85) Eph. iv. 8; Heb. i. 8.

86) Act. xiii. 16; xxviii. 25; Heb. iii. 1; x. 15, and elsewhere.

87) Rom. ix. 25.

89) Eph. iii. 4, 5.

90) Rev. xxii. 18. Gal. i. 8, 10.

91) Rom: ii. 16. John xii. 48, Matt., xxv. 31

92) John vii. 13, 15,

93) Deut. viii. 3; vii. 16; vi. 13; x. 20—Matt. iv, 1-11.

94) Luke iv. 15, 16.

95) Prov. viii. 22, 25.

96) Luke, iv. 21.

97) Matt. xxii, 31, 32.

98) Gen. i. 27; ii, 24; Matt. xix. 4, 5, 6.

99) Matt. xxii. 43.

100) Psalm xxii. 16-18.

101) John xix, 28-30.

102) Luke xxiv. 2744,

103) Luke xvi. 17.

104) 1 John x. 34; xii. 34.

105) John x. 27, et. seq.

106) Isa, ix. 5; vii. 14. John vi. 27.