of God and His worship. A heathen writer asserts that, Pythagorus transferred many things from the Jewish institutions into his own philosophy, and styles him the imitator of the Jewish dogmas; and it is certain from the testimony of Hermippus, as quoted by Selden and Grotius, that Pythagorus dwelt among the Jews and must necessarily have been familiar with their religion. Another heathen writer was often heard to ask the question, "What is Plato but Moses atticizing?" And who can doubt but the lo on of this philosopher, was borrowed from the I AM of Moses; and that his nous logos and psuke cosmo, clearly refer to the Word and the Spirit, by whom, as he learned from the Old Testament, the world was made. Thus it is evident from the few examples cited, and these are not all that might be adduced in proof of the position, that in the vast domain of spiritual truth, reason can never assert its claims to the power of discovery. All it can do, is to seize upon existing facts, and from these facts proceed to argue and establish its conclusions.

Nor is it the province of our intellectual faculties to judge in matters of religious faith with

how little a

an authoritative power of dictation-rejecting what may be inexplicable to reason, and receiving only what is "perfectly consentaneous with reason." There is much of deep mystery in revelation. GOD, considered both in Himself and in His operations, is a mystery stretching far beyond the sublimest power of finite reason. "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection." Job. xi. 7. And of His operations, may we not exclaim with the same inspired penman, "Lo these are parts of His ways; but portion is heard of Him?" xxvi. 14. Christ, too, is the "great mystery of godliness." Whether His complex person is regarded-the union of the divine and human natures in one ;-or whether we look at His work-His obedience and death constituting a full Atonement to Divine Justice in behalf of the sins of His people, it must be acknowledged a depth too profound for human thought adequately to fathom. What can poor finite reason accomplish here? What beams can its feeble flickering light cast upon this world of mystery? And if ever it stands forth invested in its own native impotence, it is when

it sits in judgment upon the doctrines and facts of revelation, discarding or retaining such only as are intelligible to its dwarfish capacity. "Which things," says the Apostle," the Angels desire to look into." Mark his expressions! He represents not these celestial beings of purity and intellect, as scaling the heights and diving into the depths of redemption's mystery-but "which things the Angels desire,” scarcely dare, but "desire to look into." And yet for fallen and unrenewed mind to sit in judgment upon God's truth, can only be exceeded in its temerity by the depravity which prompts it.

If the truth of God, in its doctrines and facts, is a mystery incomprehensible to unrenewed reason, what shall we say of the truth as experienced in the heart? If reason cannot understand the vast frame-work of truth, how can it comprehend the secret power by which it operates? The very fact, that, to be understood, it must be experienced, accounts for the difficulty. The transforming operation of the Holy Spirit upon the mind,-giving it a new bias, new inclinations; turning its darkness into light, and kindling its enmity into love. The life of God

in the soul, creating the man anew in Christ Jesus,-that life which is hidden, ever productive of a holy life that is seen,-its hopes and its fears; its defeats and its triumphs-the causes which operate to deaden it, and the spiritual nourishment by which it is supported, all, all is incomprehensible to human reason. Truly "the world knoweth us not."

It will be perceived then, that we readily admit that, in the revelation of God, there is much that towers above human reason, but which is yet perfectly agreeable to the very reason it transcends. Is it then, we ask, the province of our intellectual faculties to pronounce with a dictatorial and authoratative tone, what matters of religious faith shall be received and what rejected? By no means. There are mysteries in the world of mind which philosophy cannot unravel, why not reject them? There are mysteries in the physical world, with which reason cannot cope, why not reject them? Our being too is a mystery, why not, on the same grounds, reject it, and deny our very existence? We assert then, that the proper jurisdiction of our reason in matters of faith and of Divine revela

tion, does not extend so far, as that a doctrine should be rejected, merely because it is interlaced with difficulties which our intellectual faculties cannot unravel.

It is important that we devote a moment to an enquiry into the cause of this incapacity of reason in its natural state, to comprehend spiritual and experimental truth. The cause is, the corruption and perversion of our reason by sin. Sin has impaired our mental facultiesenslaved, clouded, and debased our reason. On this account, and on this only, the door is closed which leads into the great arcanum of spiritual and experimental truth. This view perfectly accounts with the spiritual delineation of man by nature. We open God's Word, and it declares, that since the fall, the nature of man has been corrupt, and his reason blind;-his understanding darkened, and his heart, the seat of his affections, polluted. "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." Eph. iv. 18. "That upon the face of the whole earth there is none that understandeth and seeketh after