they are sometimes covered for your sake, you will behold there a majestic light; for, like Moses, they descend from the sacred mount, and bring to you the tables of testimony in their hands! There, where you feared darkness, you have found light; there, where an objection has been started, God produces a fresh witness of the truth; where a doubt had existed, he puts an assurance.

So far as this seventh objection is concerned, we find difficulties converted into proofs of the inspiration of the sacred volume; and we see in the light of this and of many other facts, that every page gives evidence that the entire Bible is the word of God.

Let us listen to another and the last objection.

SECTION VIII.—THE VERY ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ST. PAUL.

We are sometimes told, that it would be superfluous to dispute the fact of the partial and interrupted inspiration of the Scriptures, since even the Apostle Paul has plainly decided the question. Has he not been ever careful to distinguish between those passages which he uttered by inspiration, and those advanced in his own name, as a Christian? Does he not, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, express very clearly, three several times, this distinction, in answer to different questions addressed to him. on the subject of marriage?

And first, in the 25th verse of the 7th chapter, when he says; "Now concerning virgins, I have NO COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD; yet I give my JUDGMENT, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful." Then in the 10th verse, where he writes; "C unto the married I command, (YET NOT I, BUT THE LORD ;) let not the wife depart from her husband, and let not the husband put away his wife." And finally, in the 12th verse he adds; "but to the rest speak I, NOT THE LORD; if any brother

hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him; let him not put her away," &c. It is then easily seen by these three sentences, that there are passages in the epistle of this apostle, that are of Paul, and other passages which are of God; that is to say, inspired passages, and passages uninspired.

The answer is obvious, When the objectionable passages are more closely examined, it will be found that they cannot be adduced as proof against the doctrine of a full inspiration.

Far from limiting the divinity of apostolic language, these verses, on the contrary, speak as only the fullest and most sovereign inspiration could authorize. St. Paul could speak thus, only by placing his epistles, if I may so say, as St. Peter has done (2 Peter iii. 6,) ON THE LEVEL with THE OTHER sacred writings: nay, we must say; ABOVE THEM, (inasmuch as we there hear a more recent and binding expression of the will of our Lord.) Let us examine this point. What does the apostle of Jesus Christ seek in this chapter? He there treats of three cases of conscience; concerning one of them, God has commanded nothing and interdicted nothing. "So then he that giveth her in marriage, doth well. I speak this by PERMISSION, and not of commandment, but as an apostle I give from the Lord, merely counsel; and he is careful to add in the fortieth verse; I think also that I have the Spirit of the Lord." The Lord would leave you free herein, says the apostle; he will place no snare in your path; and if you care not to follow the general advice that is given to you, you violate no commandment, and commit no sin; only, "he that marrieth, doeth well; he that marrieth not, doeth better."

In regard to the other case however, be careful; FOR HERE
He has already made
IS A COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD.
known his will (Matt. v. 31, 32; Mal. ii. 24,) and I have

nothing new to declare unto you. ment and Jesus Christ have spoken.

But the Old Testa

It is NOT therefore

I, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, it is the LORD, who already has made known his will unto you. "And unto

the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord; let not the wife depart from her husband, and let not the husband put away his wife." (v. 10, 11.)

For the third case, that of the brother who finds himself bound to an unbelieving wife; you had a commandment from the Lord in the Old Testament. I come to revoke it, and I think also that I have the spirit of the Lord. I abolish then the former commandment, and am charged to replace it by a contrary order. It is not the Lord (v. 12) who forbids you to put away an unbelieving wife; it is "I, Paul an Apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead."

-the

We see then, with the clearness of noon-day:Apostle instead of appealing to the ancient word of the Lord, revokes it, to replace it by a contrary order; so that this passage, very far from weakening the inspiration, confirms it strongly; since it would have been nothing less than an outrageous blasphemy, if the Apostle had not felt, that in using this language, he was the mouth of God; and if he had dared to say by his own authority" It is not the Lord, it is I. I, myself tell you, and not the Lord: if any man have an unbelieving wife, let him not send her away." The Lord had given a contrary commandment. (Deut. viii. 3; 1 Kings xi. 2.)

We must then acknowledge that these verses of St. Paul, far from authorizing the supposition of any mingling of human wisdom in the Scriptures of the New Testament; are there to attest that, in their epistles and in the most familiar details of their epistles, the Apostles were the mouth of God, and ranked themselves not only as suc

cessors of Moses and the ancient Prophets, but even above them; as a second message from God must supersede that which was before it, and as the New Testament must surpass the Old, if not in excellence, at least in authority.

We have heard some oppose our doctrine yet again, by citing as an acknowledgment of the intermission and imperfection of his inspiration, those words of St. Paul; in which, after having related to the Corinthians his rapture to the third heaven, he adds: "whether in the body ""* Can it or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth.' be supposed, say they, that the Holy Spirit was ignorant how this miracle was accomplished? Such a passage must be from Paul, and not from God.

We answer that, although the Holy Spirit was not ig norant of it, Paul was; and that the Holy Spirit chose that Paul should inform us of his own ignorance. Shall we forget that God has always employed the personality of the Sacred writers, in the Sacred Scriptures, to reveal himself to us; and it is thus that he has ever chosen to instruct his Church? When David speaking by the Spirit, cries in the Psalms, that he knows his transgressions, that his sin is continually before him,-and that he was conceived in sin; it is surely not the Holy Spirit who knows his own transgressions, and whose sin is continually before him; but it is the Holy Spirit who for our sakes, has put the language of repentance in the heart and on the lips of his humiliated prophet. It is in a sense analogous to this, "whether it were in the body, that he made St. Paul say: I know not; God knows.'

We have not yet examined all these objections. Three now remain, which we would rather call evasions; because instead of resting as do the others, on some argument or facts; they are rather systems, by which a portion of the Scriptures is withdrawn from the divine influence of Theopneusty. It remains for us to investigate them.

* 2 Cor. xii. 4.

CHAPTER III.

EXAMINATION OF THE EVASIONS.

SEVERAL Systems of exceptions have been proposed. Some, while they admit that the thoughts of the Scriptures have been given by God; maintain notwithstanding, that the style and the expressions are human ;-others have excluded from inspiration, the purely historical books ;others again have wished to exclude certain details, which to them appear too vulgar and too unedifying to be attributed to the Holy Spirit.

SECTION I.-COULD INSPIRATION REGARD THE THOUGHTS,
WITHOUT EXTENDING ALSO TO THE LANGUAGE ?

The prophets and apostles, say some, in writing their sacred books, were inspired in thought, without doubt; but we must believe that they were then left to themselves in the choice of language; the ideas were given by God, and the expression by man.

The task of the sacred writers, resembles somewhat that of a man, to whom very highly colored pictures are presented in quick succession; while he is bidden to describe them, just so far as his eye may have rested on them. It is thus that the Holy Spirit may have presented sacred truths to the minds of the evangelists and prophets, leaving them only the care of expressing them; and this manner of conceiving of their labor, it is added, will account satisfactorily for the diversities of style that their writings present.