holding her gates closed in the midst of the people, and at the same time, throwing among them from the windows, doubts and impieties, to evidence the existing measure of her indifference; until, finally, she sinks into scandalous conduct, either in attacking doctrines, in denying the integrity or the inspiration of certain books, or in audaciously giving the lie to the facts they an

nounce.

And let no one imagine that the entire people do not quickly feel so great an evil. They suffer from it, even in their temporal interests; and their very national existence is endangered by it. In degrading the religion of a people, you debase their morals, you take away their moral life. Every thing in a nation may be measured by one standard; the height of their heaven. If their heaven is low, every thing here on earth feels its debasing influences; everything at once becomes more limited and more grovelling; the future becomes more circumscribed; patriotism is materialized; generous traditions are engulfed; the moral sense becomes effeminated; the wor ship of self is alone exalted, and all conservative principles depart, one after another.

We then conclude, on the one hand, that there exists the most intimate union, not only between the happiness of a people and their religion, but between their religion and true theology; and, on the other hand, that if it was always highly proper that this science should teach for all and before all, never was this character more necessary to it than in treating of the doctrine which is now to engage our attention. It is the doctrine of doctrines-the doctrine which teaches us all the others, and by virtue of which alone they are doctrines; the doctrine which is to the soul of the believer what the air is to his lungs-necessary for his birth, growth, and perseverance in the Christian life.

Under the inspiration, then, of this twofold thought, this book has been written.

Every thing in it, I trust, will show my serious desire to render it useful to Christians of every class.

To this end, I have cast off all the forms of the schools. Without renouncing entirely quotations from ancient languages, I have yet used them sparingly. In exhibiting the admirable unanimity of Christian antiquity on this question, I have confined myself to general facts. In disposing the order of the chapters, I have neglected the ordinary rules of the didactic, to follow those of the popular logic; which commences by presenting the objections, and closes with the proofs. In a word, when it has been found necessary to treat the different questions which relate to the subject, and which ought to be found here, for the full presentation of the doctrine, I have referred them all to a special chapter. And there, too, I have gone against the advice of some friends, in employing a mode which seems to them out of harmony with the general tone of the book; but to me, seems to make the clear and rapid comprehension of the subject more easy.

It is then under this simple and practical form, that in presenting this book to the Church of God, I am happy in being able to recommend it to the blessing of Him who preached in the streets, and who thus characterized his own ministry, "the gospel is preached to the poor!"

Happy, if these pages confirm, in the simplicity and blessedness of their faith, those Christians who, though unlettered, have already believed, through the Scriptures, in the full inspiration of the Scriptures! Happy, if some burdened and weary souls are led to hear more attentively that God who speaks to them in every line of the holy Book! Happy, if by our words, some travelers, (like the pilgrim Jacob, by the stone of Bethel,) after having reposed their wearied spirits with too much indifference

on this book of God, should at last come to recognize this mysterious ladder which rises thence to heaven, and by which alone the messages of grace can descend upon their souls, and their prayers go up to God! May I urge them, in their turn, to pour out upon this sacred object the oil of their gratitude and joy, and learn to exclaim, "Surely the Lord is here-it is the house of God-it is the gate of heaven!"

For myself, I say it fearlessly, in prosecuting this work I have often been constrained to give thanks to God for having called me to it; for I have there seen more than once, the divine majesty fill with its splendor, the entire temple of the Scriptures; I have seen all the threads of that coarse garment, with which the Son of Man was clothed, become suddenly such as no fuller on earth could make them; I have often seen this book illuminated by the glory of God, and every word appear radiant. In fine, I have felt what we always experience in sustaining a cause which is holy and true; it is, that it grows the more in truth and majesty, the more you contemplate it. My God, grant that I may love this word, and possess it as fully as thou hast taught me to admire it!

"All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth; but the word of our God endureth for ever, and it is this word which is preached unto us.”

THEOPNEUSTY,

OR

FULL INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

Our design in this book, by the help of God and the alone authority of his word, is, to expound, defend and establish the Christian doctrine of inspiration.

CHAPTER I.

DEFINITION OF THEOPNEUSTY.

THIS term expresses the mysterious power which the Divine Spirit exercises over the authors of the writings of the Old and New Testaments, to make them compose them, just such as the Church has received them from their hands. "All Scripture," an Apostle said, "is theopneustic."*

This Greek expression, perhaps was new, even among the Greeks, at the time when St. Paul used it. Yet, if this term was not employed by the idolatrous Greeks, it was used by the hellenistic Jews.

Josephus,† the historian, cotemporary with St. Paul, employs a very similar term, in his first book against Appion, when, in speaking of all the prophets "who compos2 Tim. iii. 15. Theopneust would be more exact, but less euphonic.

*

† P. 1036, edit. Aurel. Allobr. 1611.