3. These gifts were a just subject of zeal and christian ambition (λourɛ, 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.*

*

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

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

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 (τη προφητεία 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 Scrip tures 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 (v0eos and Оεóлvεvσtos) 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 objec. tion we agree it may be said, that the written prophecy (лontela пans) 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" (ó hóyos to≈ 0ɛov); it is called without distinction, THE ORACLES OF GOD (Tá hóуiα To Oɛou). (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 (λóɣia ¿õvτα); 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 parts * 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 (ἔνθεοῦ λόγου—γραφῆς θεόπνευστου) ?

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 * Luke xxiv. 44.

children of Israel: "The Lord our God will raise you up a FROPHET 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 (дo¶ntɛlav roagñs); all of them wrote the words of which St. Peter tells us : "that none of them spoke by the will of man ;" all those (l'ɛga roάuuara), those "Holy letters," which the apostle declares, "divinely inspired."* The Lord said of them all, as of Jeremiah: "Lo, I have put my words in thy

* 2 Tim. iii. 15.