CELESTIAL INTELLIGENCES. 417 



sonal visitation, or divine communication, even 

 the former, if possible, would probably be all 

 wonderful, but perfectly incomprehensible ; if \ve 

 understand so little of plain earthly things, what 

 probability is there that stranger things should 

 be intelligible to us? And the knowledge of 

 them the Almighty has ever withheld from 

 man, giving him neither science to explore, nor 

 faculty to conceive. Those holy men of old who 

 held communion with their Maker, if they ever 

 received intelligence of these things, have been 

 silent on the subject ; and though it is very pro- 

 bable that the companions and friends of the 

 Saviour, to whom he communicated so many hea- 

 venly truths, surrounded by celestial bodies gleam- 

 ing with splendour in such a region as that of 

 Judea, might inquire concerning them, yet have 

 they narrated nothing upon the subject : St. Paul, 

 caught up to the third heaven where he heard 

 such unspeakable things, yet thought it not lawful 

 to utter them; all intimating that it is neither 

 proper nor fitting that we should be acquainted with 

 such matters. The notion that the celestial bodies 

 held intelligence with and influenced the earth and 

 its productions was an early established belief, and 

 scarcely are two generations gone by since the uni- 

 versal connexion of the stars and planets with the 

 animal, vegetable, and mineral productions of our 

 globe was considered so predominant, that their 

 aspects were calculated, their favourable or baneful 

 ascendencies inspected, before any operation upon 



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