These writers at times, after the fashion of the older prophets, affirm that they speak with divine authority; but they also as expressly disclaim such authority in other places. St. Paul is sure, in one matter referred to him, of the mind of God, and writes:
"Unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord," etc.[2]
Immediately after he writes, as having no such assurance:
"To the rest speak I, not to the Lord."[3]
Later on in the same letter he is so uncertain as to add to his judgment:
"And I think also that I have the spirit of God."[4]
Again, in the same connection, being conscious of no divine authorization, he gives his own opinion as such:
"Now, concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give my judgment."[5]
Eighteen hundred years after he wrote, men insist that they know more about St. Paul's inspirations than he did himself. Against his modest, cautious discriminations, our doctors set up their theory of the Bible, clothe all his utterances with the divine authority, and honor him with an infallibility which he explicitly disclaims.
The New Testament writers use language which seems, to our theory-spectacled eyes, to ascribe an infallible inspiration to the Old Testament books. But the words have no such weight. The Epistle to the Hebrews opens with the words: