Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/189

Rh The weakness and fear and trembling arose from the consciousness of a divine mission of life and death. And his fear of human persuasion came from the intuition of faith, which told him that divine faith must stand on divine truth, and that the wisdom of man is not the word of God. Human oratory may generate human faith. Divine truth has a sacramental power which converts the soul to God.

2. The Apostles spoke out of a fulness of light and of fervour which was special and incommunicable, and that fulness had two causes. The first was that they had seen the Incarnate Word. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life. For the life was manifested; and we have seen and do bear witness, and declare unto you the life eternal which was with the Father, and hath appeared unto us." "We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but having been made eye-witnesses of His majesty."

This gave to them a spiritual condition of mind