Another and far more respectable class of these complaints, is to be found in the honest confessions of men who, without the knowledge of the true God, were yet "feeling after him (+nλapnoavres, as men in the dark), if haply they might find him." We pity, and almost respect, the happy irony of Socrates, who, on being informed of his superior wisdom by the oracle, is represented in Plato's Apology as unable to divine its meaning, till he at last discovered that all were alike ignorant, but that he knew his own ignorance, and others knew not theirs. And what was his refuge? Divine inspiration. Xenophon relates of him as accompanied with a certain spiritual agency, to which he always had recourse as a superior and guiding providence and in the Alcibiades of Plato he is represented as warning his pupil to wait till he be instructed from some higher source : Περιμενειν έως αν τις μαθη (learn from another) ως δει προς θεός και προς ανθρωπος διακείσθαι. κ. τ. λ. (Platonis Op. Ficin. p. 43).--Admissions of the same kind are quoted both from the Greeks and Latins, and both before and after the Christian era, by the excellent Ellis, on "Knowledge of Divine Things from Revelation, and not from Reason and Nature." (See pp. 217, 235—8, 256, &c. Ed. 1811.) To which may be added the following passage, amongst other similar ones, from that strange medley of pure and corrupt philosophy, halfChristian and half-Pagan, the works of the courtly Seneca. Prope est a te Deus, tecum est, intus est. Ita dico, Lucili, sacer intra nos spiritus sedet, malorum bonorumque observator et custos; hic prout a nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse tractat. Bonus vir sine Deo nemo est....Ille dat consilia magnifica, et erecta. In unoquoque virorum bonorum (Quis Deus incertum est!) Complaint," Night I., for a far truer estimate of man as he is-"though sully'd and dishonour'd, still divine."-See, above all, the condescending and dignified use of the same term in Isai. xli. 14.

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habitat Deus." (Seneca Epistol. 41).-Again, in a curious disquisition on making proper requests in prayer: "Audacter Deum roga—′ come boldly '—nil illum de alieno rogaturus....Sic vive cum hominibus, tanquam Deus videat ; sic loquere cum Deo tanquam homines audiant." (Ep. 10).-How much of philosophy the heathen Seneca may have learned from the Christian Paul, with whom he was contemporary, and some say acquainted, is not necessary to the proof that great minds of every stamp have been found to acknowledge that their sufficiency is of God.

But, after all, very different, and far more consistent, wise, and manly, are the class of declarations proceeding from Christians themselves on the same point. Let us hear the immortal Hooker, with no mean diffidence of those rational powers which are committed to our trust for the wisest purposes, still expressing himself thus :—

"For whatsoever we may have hitherto taught, or shall hereafter, concerning the force of man's natural understanding, this we always desire withal to be understood, that there is no kind of faculty or power in man, or any other creature, which can rightly perform the functions allotted to it without perpetual aid and concurrence of that Supreme Cause of all things. The benefit whereof as oft as we cause God in his justice to withdraw, there can no other thing follow than that which the Apostle noteth,-even men endued with the light of reason to walk notwithstanding in the vanity of their mind, having their cogitations darkened, and being strangers from the life of God through the ignorance which is in them, because of the hardness of their hearts." (Eccles. Polit. lib. 1).—And again, in the same book, we find the following sublime passage on the approach of the human towards the Divine mind: Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man, to wade far into the doings of the Most High; whom

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although to know be life, and joy to make mention of his name, yet our soundest knowledge is, to know him not as indeed he is, neither can know him; and our safest eloquence concerning him, is our silence, when we confess without confession, that his glory is inexplicable, his greatness above our capacity and reach. He is above, and we upon earth; therefore it behoveth our words to be wary and few *."

Let us hear his great lay contemporary, Bacon, the reviver of modern science, and the champion of knowledge in that redoubted aphorism, "Scientia et potentia humana in idem coincidunt.” (Aphor. 3. de Interpretatione Natura et Regno Hominis, vol. viii. p. 1. 1803)— or, in plain English, "The sovereignty of man lieth hid in knowledge." (vol. ii. p. 126, "In praise of knowledge.")

"If we will truly consider it, the prerogative of God extendeth as well to the reason as to the will of man; so that as we are to obey his law, though we find a reluctation in our will; so we are to believe in his word, though we find a reluctation in our reason.... Howbeit, if we will truly consider it, more worthy it is to believe, than to know, as we now know. For in knowledge man's mind suffereth by [is subject to] sense; but in belief it suffereth by [is subject to] spirit, such one as he holdeth far more authorized than himself; and so suffereth from the worthier agent. Otherwise it is of the state of man glorified for then faith shall cease; and we shall know as we are known." (Advancement of Learning, book II., p. 221, vol. i.)—In another place he tells us, "We must enter the human kingdom of knowledge, as we enter the kingdom of heaven, by becoming as little children." (Vol. ii. p. 135). -But the most remarkable, I should say, of all tes

τον μεν εν ποιητην και πατέρα τέδε το παντός ευρείν τε έργον, και εύροντα, εις παντας αδύνατον λεγειν. Plato, Timæus, p. 526. Edit. Ficin.

timonies from this giant of intellect to the simplicity and humility of Christian belief, follows after his own noble confession of faith in his theological works, and is contained in a series of propositions, entitled “The Characters of a Believing Christian, in Paradoxes and seeming Contradictions." Of these, the following is the first, and a specimen of the rest: “I. A Christian is one that believes things his reason cannot comprehend; he hopes for things which neither he nor any man alive ever saw; he labours for that which he knoweth he shall never obtain *: yet in the issue his belief appears not to be false; his hope makes him not ashamed; his labour is not in vain." (Vol. ii. p. 494). Here is true philosophy surmounting the discoveries of rational and moral truth with their true apex, the glory of heavenly knowledge and Divine truth.

Passing over the names of Newton and Locke, as of sufficient notoriety for the language of wise and cautious humility; I might refer again to the majestic Barrow, of whom, as the mathematician need not be ashamed for his science, or the logician for his logic, so neither the divine for his theology. His sentiments on this subject, akin, like his mind, to those of Bacon, will be found at full length in his masterly "Defence of the Blessed Trinity," (vol. iii. fol. 1722). "The propositions," says he, "clearly delivered to us by God himself, are upon many accounts more unquestionably true, more credible, than the experiments of any sense, or principles of any science," &c. (p. 383).

As the discovery of the highest truth is beyond the reach of the unassisted human intellect, so that to receive it effectually into the heart we require assistance from above-δεόμεθα ξυναγωνισω θεω και συλλήπτορος (Max.

⚫ I suppose, Absolute perfection of character, and of resemblance to God.

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Tyr.) is a doctrine which might require a still further and very interesting class of authorities. But I must terminate too long a note, with a general reference, once more, to the full and conclusive testimony to the necessity of Divine revelation and Divine assistances by the before-mentioned author, Dr. Ellis," Knowledge of Divine Things," &c.; who challenges even Mr. Locke himself, and Dr. Clarke, to answer for some expressions on this point and appeals to the whole body of "learned primitive Christians" as necessary ever to be adduced for their "unanimity in this opinion, that the human intellect cannot apprehend Divine and supernatural truth without the assistance of a stronger light than that of nature and reason." (Ellis. p. 471. ed. 1811). It is highly satisfactory to know that the present eminent and venerable Bishop of Durham, Dr. Van Mildert, quotes with approbation, and sustains with the whole weight of his authoritative judgment, the sentiments of Dr. Ellis, in his Boyle Lectures on Infidelity, preached in 1802-1805*. To his Lordship's profound discourses, and highly valuable appendix in the second Edition, 1808, I beg leave to refer, for the most abundant confirmation of the sentiments I have very feebly endeavoured to elucidate, supported with the authority and in the words of some of the greatest writers in the language: particularly those of "Norris's Account

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"I have," says his Lordship, "made very frequent reference to Dr. Ellis's elaborate work, in the notes on this Lecture, from a desire to direct the reader's attention, in an especial manner, to so valuable a performance. It is now become scarce, and it is much to be wished that it were reprinted, and put into the hands of theological students, who would find it an admirable preservative against many prevailing errors of the present day. An abridgment of it was published as a pamphlet, by the same author, and entitled 'An Enquiry whence cometh Wisdom and Understanding to Man?' which has been reprinted in the Scholar armed,' and is an excellent tract. But the larger work deserves to be thoroughly studied."