the prophet, and did not understand what he read, was not sent
4 ON CIirJSTIAN DOCTRTXE. [PKEFACE.
and kt iis ratlicr consider the fact that the Apostle Paul himself, although stricken down and admonished by the voice of God fi'om heaven, was yet sent to a man to receive the sacraments and be admitted into the Church ;^ and that
Cornelius the centurion, although an angel announced to him that his prayers were heard and his alms had in remembrance, was yet handed over to Peter for instruction, and not only received the sacraments from the apostle's hands, but was also instructed by him as to the proper objects of faith, hope, and love.^ And without doubt it was ijossillc to have done everything through the instrumentality of angels, but the condition of our race woidd have been much more degraded if Cod had not chosen to make use of men as the ministers of His word to their fellow-men. For how could that be true which is written, " The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are," ^ if God gave forth no oracles from His human temple, but communicated everything that He wished to be taught to men by voices from heaven, or through the ministration of angels ? Moreover, love itself, which binds men together in the bond of unity, would have no means of pouring soul into soul, and, as it were, mindini^j them one with another, if men never learnt anything from their fellow-men.
7. And we know that the eunuch who was reading Isaiah the prophet, and did not understand what he read, was not sent by the apostle to an angel, nor was it an angel who explained to him what he did not understand, nor was he inwardly illuminated by the grace of God Avithout the interposition of man ; on the contrary, at the suggestion of God, Philip, who
(lid understand the prophet, came to him, and sat with him, and in human words, and with a human tongue, opened to him the Scriptures.* Did not God talk with Moses, and yet he, with great wisdom and entire absence of jealous pride, accepted the plan of his father-in-law, a man of an alien race, for ruling and administering the afliiirs of the great nation entrusted to him ?^ For Moses knew that a wise plan, in whatever mind it might originate, was to be ascribed not to the man who devised it, but to Him who is the Truth, the unchangeable God.
AcUix. 3. 'Acts -X. ^ 1 Cor. iii. 17. AcU viii. 2G. 'Ex. xviii. 13.