magnitude; neither of which is conceivable." And it is plain, that if he regarded either part of your instruction, by itself, and was not careful to limit and explain it by the other, he would be utterly misled; for he would suppose Seeing to be much more like some one of the other senses than it really is. But if he were careful to attend to the whole, together, and to consider that two things may be very much alike in one respect, and yet very different in others,' and that the same thing may be compared to several others which are themselves quite unlike, and may resemble one of these things in one respect, and another, in another, and in some respects again may differ from all of them, he would acquire, a faint, indeed, and indistinct notion of Sight, but as far as it went, not an incorrect one: for he would understand that Sight in one respect corresponds, or is analogous, to Smelling and Hearing, inasmuch as it extends to distant objects; and again, in another respect, to Touch, inasmuch as it gives an idea of shape and size; that it differs from each of these respectively in the circumstance wherein it agrees with the

1 See King's Discourse on Predestination.

other; and that it differs in many points from both. So that by interpreting each of these analogies in such a manner as to be reconcileable with the other, he would be using the best means to avoid misunderstanding either, and to attain the most perfect knowledge which his natural deficiency would allow. For if you attempted, beyond this, to give him any distinct and precise knowledge of the nature of light and colours, you would be more likely to confuse and mislead, than to instruct him.

The circumstance that the knowledge conveyed to us in Scripture, in many cases, is not merely incomplete in degree, but, being conveyed to us by Figures, is also different in kind from that more direct and perfect knowledge which we may hope hereafter to attain, is alluded to, perhaps, in that expression of Paul's respecting the glorified state; "whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away:" we might have expected him, perhaps, to promise rather an increase and extension of our knowledge; but it appeared to him probably that the knowledge we now possess concerning several points not fully comprehensible to us, is so utterly different in kind, from

that which is reserved for us, that the change might more properly be called an entire vanishing of the notions we are at present able to form, and a substitution of others in their place. In like manner, if we suppose a blind man who had been instructed in the way just described, to obtain Sight, all those faint analogical notions of Seeing, which we may conceive him to have formed, would fade away from his mind, and be succeeded by others incomparably more direct and clear.m

Meanwhile our care must be, during our state of trial here below, not to imagine our knowledge more complete than it is; nor to expect from the Scriptures such information as they were not meant to supply." We must not study

m See the interesting and valuable account of a boy born blind and couched by Mr. Chesselden, extracted from the Philosophical Transactions, by Mr. H. Mayo, in his Physiology, p. 163.

n

"Has the reader ever attempted to state to himself distinctly, what he understands by the term revelation, meaning a revelation of the Divine-nature? Neither the voice, the vision, the dream, nor the instinct can be said to be God. All are evidently vehicles, and modes of communicating his messages to man. 'Him no man hath seen at any time.' Suppose, then, we wished to convey a description of an object

T

them as designed to convey, as it were, in terms of art, the speculative truths of philosophy; but must seek, in the first instance at least, and with the greatest diligence, such truths as are relative

of sight to one born blind; (for that is our condition in relation to the Divine-nature;) he may perhaps be made to receive some indistinct idea of it through his sense of hearing; and the vehicle of this revelation, as it may be termed, would be a voice. Some contrivance may be afterwards invented which should convey to him the same description, by submitting to his touch figures representing it, or, as is done in some asylums, by letters and words strongly impressed, so as to be distinctly felt. If it had so happened, that he was at length favoured with the gift of sight, (as occurred with some in the miraculous period of the Church,) that same description might be set before his eyes in a painting. Meanwhile, suppose him never yet to have witnessed the object itself, thus variously represented. He would then have become acquainted with it in three distinct ways, and have been enabled to improve and to apply his knowledge of it by means of each; still, he would hardly be absurd enough to make either of these assertions,

"1. That the sounds, the figures, the writing, or the painting, were the very thing described.

"2. That the variety in the mode of conveying the description implied any corresponding distinction in that one object, the idea of which was thus variously communicated to him.”HINDS'S History of the Rise and Progress of Christianity. Vol. I. pp. 295, 296.

to man, and practical ;-nor must we allow ourselves, in any case, to interpret strongly all the texts which seem to offer themselves on one side, while we explain away all that are on the other side; as if, on the ground that they are not to be taken literally, we were thence authorized to affix to them any signification whatever that may chance to suit our views: but we must endeavour honestly to reconcile Scripture with itself, and thus to avail ourselves of that mode of instruction which our Divine Teacher has thought best for us. So shall we be enabled, through divine help, to avoid, or to diminish, many of the difficulties which presumptuous speculators, or partial and prejudiced inquirers, have to encounter in the Scriptures: we shall find them "able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus."