70 LELIA. 



And on the clouds that o'er her spirits hung, 

 The dawn of faith a glimmering brightness flung, 

 Till one wide burst of glory fill'd her mind, 

 And in her heart the living God was shrined ! 



1 " Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas 

 Regumque times." Horace. 



2 The utter ignorance exhibited by the wisest of the heathen philosophers as to 

 the nature and attributes of God, are proofs what little aid reason can lend us in 

 acquiring a correct knowledge of divine things. The Epicureans indeed taught that 

 the gods (if there were such beings) enjoyed a life of ease and idleness, and were 

 entirely free from all interest as to humanity ; for that they neither made the world, 

 nor did they in any way care about it. " De deorum immortalitate nemo dubitavit : 

 quod autem aeternum beatumque sit, id non habere ipsum negotii quicquam, nee ex- 

 hibere alteri : itaque neque ira neque gratia teneri, quod, quae talia essent, imbecilis 

 essent omnia." Epicurus in Cic. lib. i. de Nat. Deorum. They also taught as a. 

 corollary from the above, that the world was produced by fortuitous causes, and that 

 the idea of providence was a mere philosophical dream. Upon these strange opi- 

 nions Cicero very finely remarks : " Sed quis credit ex atomorum concursione fortuita 

 hujus mundi pulcherrimum ornatum esse perfectum ? An cum machinatione quadam 

 aliquid moveri videmus, ut spheram ut horas, ut alia permulta, non dubitamus quin 

 sint opera ilia rationis ? Cum autem impetum coeli cum admirabili celeritate moveri, 

 vertique videamus, constantissime conficientem vicissitudines anniversarias cum smnmfi 

 salute, et conversatione rerum omnium, dubitamus quin ea non solum fiant, sed etiam 

 excellenti quadam divinaque ratione ? Quod si mundos efficere potest concursus 

 Atomorum, cur Porticum, cur Templum, cur Domum non potest, quae sunt minus 

 operosa, et multo quidem faciliora." De Natur. Deor. lib. ii. They called their gods 

 proud and imperious, and appear especially to have wished to banish the instinctive 

 feeling, which every man has within him, of an overruling and ever-watchful God. 

 " Dum Deum rerum authorem facitis, imposuistis in cervicibus nostris dorninum 

 sempiternum, quern dies et noctestimuerimus. Quis enim non timeat omnia providen- 

 tem, etcogitantem et anhnadvertentem, et omnia ad se pertinere putantem, curiosum 

 et plenum negotii Deum." Velleius in Cic. lib. i. The highest efforts of heathen phi- 

 losophising thus aimed at making man an irresponsible agent. How different is the 

 doctrine of our Saviour! a Christian's hope, and a Christian's consolation, being, that 

 his God is ever near him, and ever attentive to his actions. The abstract ideas of the 

 ancient Roman and Greek writers as to the Divinity were occasionally very sublime ; 

 but these had never any influence upon the popular mind, nor did they change the 

 practice of those who conceived them. Thus it was a fine saying of one of the an- 

 cients, when asked what God was, " quia quanto diutius considero, tanta mihi res 

 videtur obscurior ! " and it bears a strong resemblance to a celebrated passage in St. 

 Augustine : " Certe hoc est Deus, quod et cum dicitur, non potest dici ; cum aesti- 

 matur, non potest aestimari ; cum comparator, non potest comparari ; cum definitur, ipszi 

 definitione crescit." 



