PROLEGOMENA. CXlll. 



beings less than God, is, under certain modifi- 

 cations, going on everywhere throughout the 

 universe. For though the Saints now in heaven, 

 whose intercession we implore, were merely human 

 beings, who inhabited this world like ourselves, 

 yet the Blessed Trinity and the attributes of the 

 Godhead, the functions of the Father, Son, 

 and Holy Ghost, must be everywhere ; and God, 

 whom we regard as a boundless Ocean of Creative 

 Intelligence, may be always creating, judging, 

 and redeeming souls throughout eternal space, 

 and preparing them for an eternity of reward . And 

 what an immensely grand idea of heaven does 

 this give us ! Not that we know anything about 

 it ; only, as analogy is the foundation of the con- 

 jecture that the stars are inhabited, so the same 

 analogy would induce us to regard their inhabi- 

 tants as subject to similar laws of God. I mention 

 these ideas merely to show the emptiness of such 

 speculations ; and to induce men to return to 

 the wisdom of their forefathers. For wisdom 

 indeed must that mode of tiiinking be which 

 produced such stupendous works of charity and 

 of art, as Christianity did of old, before the silly 

 philosophy of the few, and the consequent 

 wretchedness of the many, came into fashion. 

 For whether we view sceptical philosophy, con- 

 centrated in the mad orgies of the French Revo- 

 lution, when the learned ended in a mutual cutting 



