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But there is another historical fact, still more interesting, to the knowledge of which, these sixteen verses which have been called useless, lead us by the most striking features. See, in the very details of these short salutations, by what humble instruments, and yet with what expansion, the gospel had in so short a time, established itself in the mighty Rome. No apostle had put his foot there,* and yet see what had been already the progress of the word of God, through the labors of merely travelers, artisans, merchants, women, slaves and freed men who happened to be at Rome! Already had Jesus Christ disciples there, even in the palaces of the Jewish princes who resided near the imperial court, and even among the pagans who served nearest the person of Nero. St. Paul requests that among other Christians, they would salute from him, first, "those of the household of Aristobulus," and secondly, "those of the household of Narcissus, who were in the Lord." Now, the first of these great personages was the brother of Agrippa the great, and of the impure Herodias; the second was the powerful favorite of the emperor Claudius. Agrippina did not cause his death, until the close of the year 54.

Ah! let every one who calls himself a Christian, renounce for ever, those rash systems, in which man lifts himself against the words of the Scriptures, to dispute their propriety; in which he dares to take away from God's Bible such a passage, such a sentence, to make of it (as least as to that passage or that sentence), a human Bible ; and in which he makes himself responsible likewise for all the rashness of the boldest scholars, who imitate in respect to a whole book, his treatment of a single verse. What idea has he of the sacred writers, when he imagines them capable of the gross folly of mingling

Rom. i. 11, 13, 14, 15; xv. 20.

their own oracles with the oracles of the Almighty? We recollect an insane man, a pensioner of our hospitals, whose hand-writing was still so good, that a minister of Geneva employed him to transcribe his sermons. Conceive of the confusion of the minister, when in receiving his manuscripts, he found that this unfortunate man had imagined he could enrich every page by adding his own thoughts. Yet the distance between a lunatic and a minister, be he holy as Daniel, and sublime as Isaiah, is less than between Daniel or Isaiah and Eternal Wisdom!

Arrived then, thus far, we would, before proceeding any farther, recommend to our readers, to observe in using sacred criticism, three precautions, the importance and necessity of which, the doctrine of inspiration should make them feel.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE USE OF SACRED CRITICISM, IN ITS RELATIONS TO THEOPNEUSTY.

We would be understood. Far from us be the thought of casting the least disparagement on the labors of this useful science! We honor them, on the contrary; we call them necessary; we study them; we consider all the ministers of the gospel bound to know them, and we believe that the Christian church owes them the highest gratitude. Sacred criticism is a noble science. It is so by its object: to study the history of the sacred text, its canons, its manuscripts, its versions, its witnesses and its innumerable quoters ;-it is so by its services: how many triumphs gained over infidelity, how many objections put to silence, how many miserable doubts for ever dissipated! -it is so by its history: how many eminent men have consecrated to it either the devotion of a pious life, or the powers of the finest genius! it is so, finally, by its im mense labors which no one perhaps can estimate, if he has not studied it.

God preserve us then from ever opposing faith to science; faith, which lives upon the truth, to science which seeks it; faith, which goes directly to the hand of God to seize it, to science which seeks it more indirectly else. where, and which often finds it! Every thing that is true in one place, is in preëstablished harmony with that

which is true in another and higher place. Faith knows then at once, and before having seen any thing, that every truth will render it testimony. If then, every true science, whatever, is always the friend of faith, sacred criticism is more than its friend; it is almost its relative. But if it is honorable, useful, necessary, it is all that, only so long as it remains true and keeps its place. So far as it does not abandon the sphere assigned it, it is worthy of our respect; but as soon as it does wander, it must be restrained; it is then no more a science, it is a crazy divination. Now, as it has three temptations to quit this sphere, we therefore desire to recommend here three precautions to the young men who study it.

SECTION I-SACRED CRITICISM IS A SCHOLAR, AND NOT A
JUDGE.

In the first place, critical science is no longer in its own place, when, instead of being a scholar, it wishes to be a judge; when, in place of collecting the divine oracles, it composes them, decomposes them, canonizes them, uncanonizes them; and when it makes itself oracular!

Then it tends to nothing less than to overthrow faith from its foundation. This we are going to show.

Employ your reason, your time and all the resources of your genius to assure yourself if the book which is put into your hands, under the name of the Bible, contains in fact the very oracles of God, whose first deposite was confided, under the divine providence, to the Jews*, and of which the second deposite, under the same guardianship, was remitted to the universal church from the apostolic times. Assure yourselves then, whether this book is authentic, and whether the copyists have not altered it. All this labor is legitimate, rational, honorable; it has been

* Romans iii. 1, 2.

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abundantly done by others before you; but if the investigations of others have not satisfied you, resume them, peruse them, instruct us; and all the churches of God will thank you for it. But after all this labor, but when you have well established that the Bible is an authentic book, but when science and reason have clearly showed you that the unquestionable seals of the Almighty God are attached to it, and that He has there placed his divine signature, then hear what science and reason loudly proclaim to us; then, sons of men, hear God; then, sursùm oculi, flexi poplites, sursùm corda! then, bow the knee! lift the heart on high, in reverence, and in humiliation! Then science and reason have no longer to judge, but to receive; no longer to pronounce sentence, but to comprehend. It is still a task, and it is a science, if you please; but it is no more the same; it is the science of comprehending and of submitting.

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But if, on the contrary, after receiving the Bible as an authentic book, your wisdom pretends to constitute itself the judge of its contents; if, from this book, which calls itself inspired, and which declares that it will judge you yourself at the last day, it dares to retrench any thing; if, sitting, as the angels in the last judgment,* to draw up book of God on the banks of science, to gather the good into its vessels, and to cast away the bad, it pretends there to distinguish the thought of God from that of man; if, for example, to cite only one case of a thousand, it dares to deny, with Michaëlis, that the two first chapters of Saint Matthew are from God, because it does not approve their Scriptural quotations; then, to deny the inspiration of Mark, and that of Luke, because it has found them, it says, contradictory to St. Matthew ;* in a word, if it thinks it

* Matthew xiii. 48.

† Introduction to N. T. by Michaëlis, t. 2, p. 17; t. 1, p. 206

to 214.

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