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with its rays to the termination o f his course. That light, no doubt, is too much obscured by his acts o f faithlessness and negligence, but never more will it leave him altogether. “ His path,” says the wise man, “ is like the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day” (P rov. 4:18). "When it 'pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, to reveal his Son in me” (Gal. 1 :15), he preserves to the end the knowledge o f the mystery o f Jesus Cftrist, and can at all times set. forth its truths and its glories. As it was not flesh and blood that had revealed these things to him, but the Father (Matt. 16:17), that unction which he received from the Holy One (1 John 2:20, 27) abides in him, says St. John, and he needs not that any man teach him ; but as the same anointing teacheth him o f all things, and is truth, so, even as he hath been taught by it, he will remain in it. Illumination, therefore, abideth on the faithful ; but it is not so with miraculous gifts, nor with the divine inspiration, which is one o f those gifts (1 Cor. 14:1; Acts 19:6). As for miraculous gifts, they were always' intermittent with the men o f god, if we except the only man who “ received not the Spirit by measure” (John 3 :34). The Apos tle Paul, for example, who at one time restored Eutychus to life, and by whom God wrought such special miracles (Acts 19 :11, 12), at other times could not relieve his colleague Trophimus or his beloved Epaphroditus, or his son Timothy (2 Tim. 4:20; Philip. 2:27; 1 Tim. 5:23). It is the same with inspiration which is only the most excellent o f miraculous gifts. In the Lord’s prophets, it was exerted only by intervals. The prophets, and even the Apos tles, who (as we shall show) were proph ets, and more than prophets (Eph. 3:4, 5; 4:11 ; Rom. 16:25-27), did not prophesy as often as they-pleased. Inspiration was sent to them by intervals ; it came upon them according as the Holy Ghost saw fit to give it to them (Acts 2 :4) ; for “never did prophecy come by the will o f man,” says St. Peter (2 Peter 1:2 1 ); “but holy men o f God spake as they were moved by the
their narratives. But the Church, in her faith, looks much higher than this: to her the intelligence o f the writers is imperfectly known, and a matter o f comparative indif ference—what she does know is x their inspiration. It is never in the breast o f the prophet that she goes to look for its source; it is in that o f her God. “ Christ speaks in me,” says St. Paul, “ and God hath spoken to our fathers in the prophets” (2 Cor. 13:3; Heb. 1:1). “Why look ye so earnestly on us,” say to her all the sacred writers, “ as though by our own power' or holiness we had done this work?” (Acts 3:12). Look upwards. XI. If there exist, then, between these two spiritual graces o f illumination and inspiration a specific difference, in. what must we say that it consists ?| Though you should find it impossible to say what that difference is, you would not the less be obliged by the preceding rea sons to declare that it does exist. In order to be able fuliy to reply to this question, it were necessary that you should know the nature and the mode o f both these gifts; whereas the Holy Ghost has never explain ed it to us, either how He infuses God’s thoughts into the understanding o f a believer, or how He puts God’s words into the mouth o f a prophet. Nevertheless, we can here point out two essential characters by which these two operations o f the Holy Ghost have always shown themselves to be distinct:. the one o f these characters relates to their duration, the oth e r, to their measure. /I n point o f duration, illumination is con tinuous, whereas inspiration is intermittent. In point o f measure, illumination admits of degrees, whereas inspiration does not admit o f them. A PERMANENT WORK X II. What are we to understand by saying that illumination is continuous, and inspiration intermittent ? The illumination o f a believer by the Holy Ghost is a permanent work. Having commenced for him on the day o f his new birth, it goes on increasing, and attends him
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