is principles, it will be found that he must retire, and hide
himself from the light of revelation.

Thirdly, the above passage seems to present a very strange view of the
Divine proceedings. According to that view, it appears that the Almighty
tried the method of teaching by precept in the Old Testament, and the
experiment failed. For precepts may be so easily evaded, that every one
in the Mosaic code was violated by the Pharisees. Hence, the method of
teaching by precept was laid aside in the New Testament, and the better
method of teaching by principle was adopted. Such is the conclusion to
which we must come, if we adopt the reasoning of Dr. Wayland. But we
cannot adopt his reasoning; since we should then have to believe that
the experiment made in the Old Testament proved a failure, and that its
Divine Author, having grown wiser by experience, improved upon his
former method.

The truth is, that the method of the one Testament is the same as that
of the other. In both, the method of teaching by precept is adopted; by
precepts of greater and of lesser generality. Dr. Wayland's principle is
merely a general or comprehensive precept; and his precept is merely a
specific or limited principle. The distinction he makes between them,
and the use he makes of this distinction, only reflect discredit upon
the wisdom and consistency of the Divine Author of revelation.

A third account which Dr. Wayland gives of the silence of the New
Testament respecting the sin of slavery, is as follows: "If this form of
wrong had been singled out from all the others, and had alone been
treated preceptively, the whole system would have been vitiated. We
should have been authorized to inquire why were not similar precepts in
other cases delivered? and if they were not delivered, we should have
been at liberty to conclude that they were intentionally omitted, and
that the acts which they would have forbidden are innocent." Very well.
But idolatry, polygamy, divorce, is each and every one singled out, and
forbidden by precept, in the New Testament. Slavery alone is passed over
in silence. Hence, according to the principle of Dr. Wayland himself, we
are at liberty to conclude that a precept forbidding slavery was
"intentionally omitted," and that slavery itself "is innocent."

Each one of these reasons is not only exceedingly weak in itself, but it
is inconsistent with the others. For if a precept forbidding slavery
were purposely omitted, in