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ble and invisible worlds an impaffable gulph is fixed, an impenetrable chaẩm, through which one ray of celestial light cannot directly dart. All our information of things that are divine muft, therefore, be conveyed through an indirect channel: and, as we have seen human language capable of being transferred, by this Analogy, from material impreffions to mental fubjects, and of communicating the latter with certainty and precifion; fo, by a fimilar, but higher, transfer from things which are human, material or mental, to those which are divine, it is converted into an indirect, but certain, inftrument of this celestial communication. Through the medium of this necessary expedient alone, we are rendered capable of receiving the mysteries of religion, which, in condefcenfion to the apprehenfion and capacity of men, the Deity hath graciously and abundantly employed.

This

Vates facri Naturam Divinam fub humanis imaginibus adumbrant, eo quod illud neceffario poftulet humanæ mentis imbecillitas; eoque modo, ut quæ a rebus humanis ad Deum transferuntur, nunquam proprie accipi poffint. Semper remittitur intellectus ab umbra ad veritatem, neque in nuda hæret imagine, fed protinus quærit & inveftigat id quod

This Divine Analogy, fo neceffary to revelation, is founded, like the human, upon a fimilitude confifting in a permanent resemblance and correfpondent reality between the terref trial things and ideas, which are the direct objects of the human intellect, and those celestial truths, of which it can have no direct conception: and it is expreffed by transferring the words which ftand for the terrestrial things and the ideas to the celeftial truths; which words are to be understood in their plain and obvious, not figurative, fenfe. So that the comparison is founded on something real as well as fimilar; from which real fimilarity, as a principle, reason deduces a just and true correspondence.

By means of this, which forms the ANALOGICAL STYLE of Scripture, the eternal relations of the glorious inhabitants of heaven are

quod in Divina natura ei imagini eft Analogum; grandius quiddam & excelfius quam quod poffit plane concipere & apprehendere, fed quod animum metu quodam & admiratione percellit. Ea enim eft mentis noftræ ignorantia & cæcitas in Divinæ naturæ contemplatione, ut ejus notionem fimplicem & puram nullo modo poffimus attingere. Lowth. Præl. De S. P. Heb. xvi.

See the first volume, p. 56.

truly

truly and faithfully conveyed to us; those of Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft; their actions and operations of Creator, Redeemer, Mediator, and Sanctifier. All the other myfteries of our religion are, by this analogical medium, revealed to us, as far as the revealer thought neceffary, by their correspondent names and terms, as begotten, proceeding, and innumerable others; to inftance which, would lead me into a field of ample and interesting difquifition.

This language of analogy, thus real and permanent in its ufe, which forms the necefsary style of holy fcripture, however indirect, is clearly to be understood. When God is called the Father, in refpect of Christ the Son; what the Father is to the Son here according to the law of nature, that God is to Chrift by a fupernatural generation. The word Mediator, in its familiar ufe with men, means a person who, by interpofing his friendly offices, reconciles those who were at variance; and it is substituted by Analogy to represent Christ interpofing, in a fimilar way, between God and man. And, though the manner of his præternatural

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præternatural generation and alfo of his mediatorial interpofition be inconceivable by us, and perhaps ineffable; yet the word Son fully and clearly informs us of his relation to the Father, and that of Mediator, as clearly and certainly expreffes this comfortable truth-that, as one man reconciles two enemies, fo men are reconciled to God the Father by the ineftimable mediation of the Son.

Inftead of giving men new and fpiritual ideas of heavenly things, different from those they have by nature, and instead of using a spiritual language or mode of communication calculated directly to exprefs his heavenly truths, (which would be to change their nature at once, and to make them different beings, contrary to the divine intention), this Analogy takes men as they are, and only transfers their words and ideas from earthly to heavenly subjects: by which divine and wonderful expedient, "the invifible things of God," in the pointed expreffion of St. Paul, are clearly seen, being "understood by the things that are made."

Understanding both sides of the comparison, which are equally the objects of our fenfes or

Rom. i. 20.

reflection,

reflection, in human analogies, we can judge of the exact degree and proportion of the fimilitude: whereas, in this divine analogy, as we understand only one, that is, the earthly fide, we cannot judge of the fimilitude at all. But we have an equivalent, more than fufficient to anfwer this defect, in the veracity of Him, whose goodness hath vouchsafed us the supernatural communication, and whose wisdom hath judged it to be fufficient. Upon this we depend, that the refemblance is certain, incapable of deceiving us, though incomprehenfible by us. The fame benign and gracious Being, who hath fupplied us with senses by which we are not deceived, hath given us this diviner mode of information, and, fince it is as neceffary, and more important than they, it is as certain, as if we understood both fides of the fimilitude, or as if he had given us direct and adequate ideas of his celeftial truths by a mode of communication directly adapted to them. It presents us with clear and lively representations, and we instantly infer their correfpondent realities, relying, as we do, upon his truth and wifdom, and forming them, as we well may, into a foundation of our present faith and future hope.

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