as the divine will of the good excels all animal volition. By such volition the gods, being gracious and merciful, infuse abundant light on those who are engaged in theurgic exercises, calling their souls to them, and giving them an union with themselves; accustoming them, even when they are in the body, to be separate from the body, and to be carried to their eternal and intelligible principle. What I say, appears from facts to be the safety of the soul. For in seeing these happy visions, the soul changes its animal life, and acts with another energy; and seeing things in their true light, he no longer considers himself as a man. For after quitting his proper life, he becomes possessed of the most happy energy of the gods." *

Plato himself is always referred to, as having taught this method of the ascent of the soul to God, or the chief good. But though what he has said on the subject may have led to this mysterious business, it falls far short of it. Treating of beauty, in his dialogue entitled The Banquet, he says, we may pass from particular beautiful objects in nature to beauty in the abstract, and this he describes as the same thing with good in the abstract, or the first principle of all things, in the contemplation of which consists the highest happiness of man. Having described this progress at large, he says, in Mr. Sydenham's translation,

"Here is to be found, if any where, the happy life, the ultimate object of desire, to man. It is to live for ever in beholding this consummate beauty, the sight of which, if ever you attain it, will appear not to be in gold, nor in magnificent attire, nor in beautiful youths or damsels. With such, however, at present, many of you are so entirely taken up, and with the sight of them so absolutely charmed, that you would rejoice to spend your whole lives, were it possible, in the presence of those enchanting objects, with out any thoughts of eating or drinking, but feasting your eyes only with their beauty, and living always in the bare sight of it. If this be so, what effect think you, would the

Αυτοφανης γαρ τις εςι και αυτοτελης, ἡ δια των κλησεων ελλαμψις, πορρω τε τα καθελκεσθαι αφέςηκε, δια της θείας τε ενέργειας και τελειότητα προεισιν εις το εμφανές, και τοσετῳ προεχει της εκέσια κινησεως, ὅσον ἡ τάγαθε θεια βέλησις της προαιρετικής ὑπερεχει ζωης· δια της τοιαύτης εν βέλησεως, αφθόνως οι θεοι το φως επιλαμπεσιν, ευμενείς οντες και έλεῳ τοις θεέργοις, τας τε ψυχας αυτών εις ἑαυτες ανακαλέμενοι, και την ένωσιν αυταις της προς ἑαυτές χορηγόντες, εθίζοντες τε αυτας και ετι εν σώματι εσας αφίσασθαι των σωμάτων, επι τε την αΐδιον και νοητην ἑαυτων αρχην περιάγεσθαι. Δηλον δε και απ' αυτών των εργων å νυνι φαμεν είναι της ψυχης σωτηριον εν γαρ τῷ θεωρείν τα μακάρια θεάματα, ή ψυχη αλλην ζωην αλλατίεται, και ἑτεραν ενεργειαν ενεργει, και εδ' άνθρωπος είναι ήγειται, το τε ορθως ήγεμενη πολλακις δε και την εαυτης αφεισα ζωην, την μακα ριωτάτην των θεων ενεργειαν ήλλαξατο. Jamb. de Myster. Sect. i. C. xii. p. 23. (Ρ.)

sight of beauty itself have upon a man, were he to see it pure and genuine, not corrupted and stained all over with the mixture of flesh and colours, and much more of like perishing and fading trash; but were able to view that divine essence, the beautiful itself, in its own simplicity of form? Think you that the life of such a man would be contemptible or mean; of the man who always directed his eye towards the right object, who looked always at real beauty, and was conversant with it continually? Perceive you not that, in beholding the beautiful, with that eye with which alone it is possible to behold it, thus and thus only could a man ever attain to generate not the images or semblance of virtue, as not having his intimate commerce with an image or a semblance, but virtue true, real, and substantial, from the converse and embraces of that which is real and true? Thus begetting true virtue, and bringing her up till she is grown mature, he would become a favourite of the gods, and at length would be, if any man ever be, himself one of the immortals." Those who can admire these things, should not complain of Jacob Behmen.

This wild enthusiastic notion of an union to God, to be obtained by contemplation, austerity, and a particular discipline, was eagerly embraced by many speculating Christians, and contributed greatly to that turn for mysticism, which infected such great numbers in former times, and which infects many even to this day. It likewise contributed to that fondness for solitude, and abstraction from the world, which gave rise to the establishment of hermits and monks. The language of many Christians has been much the same with the following of Jamblichus, who describes "a two-fold state of man, one in which we are all soul, and being out of the body are raised aloft, and dwell with the universal and immaterial gods; and another state in which we are bound by the shell of the body, so

ει και

Ενταυθα το βιε, ω φιλε Σωκρατες (εφη ή Μαντινικη ξενη) είπερ πε αλλοθι, βιωίον ανθρώπῳ, θεωμένῳ αυτο το καλον· ὁ εαν ποτε ιδης, ου κατα χρυσον τε και εσθητα και τες καλος παίδας τε και νεανίσκες δόξει σοι ειναι· δυς νυν όρων εκπεπληξαι, και έτοιμος συ, και αλλοι πολλοι δρωνίες τα παιδικα, και ξύνοντες αει αυτοις, είπως διοντ' ην, μητε εσθίειν, μήτε πινειν, άλλα θεασθαι μονον και ξυνειναι τι δη τα (εφη) οιόμεθα, ἐν τῷ γενοιτο αυτο το καλον ιδειν ειλικρινες, καθαρον, αμικίον, αλλά μη αναπλεων σαρκών τε ανθρωπινων και χρωμαίων, και αλλης πολλής φλυάριας θνητης, αλλ' αυτο το θείον, καλον δύναιτο μονεῖδες κατιδειν αρ' οιει (εφη) φαύλον βιον γιγνεσθαι εκείσε βλέποντος ανθρωπε, και εκείνο ὁ δει θεωμενο, και ξυνοντος αυτῷ· ἡ ουκ ενθυμη (εφη) ότι ενταυθα αυτῷ μοναχο γενησεται, ὁρωντι ᾧ ὁρατον το καλον, τικτειν ουκ είδωλα αρετης, άτε ουκ ειδωλο εφαπτομένῳ, αλλ' αληθή, άτε το αληθές εφαπτομένῳ τεκόντι δε αρετην αληθη, και θρεψαμένῳ, ὑπαρχει θεοφιλει γενέσθαι, και, είπερ τῷ αλλῳ ανθρώπῳ, αθανατῳ και εκείνῳ. Convivium, p. 331, Ed. Gen. (P.)

as to be confined by matter, and to be, as it were, wholly corporeal."*

Clemens Alexandrinus says, after Plato, that he who contemplates ideas, will live as a god among men; that nous is the place of ideas, and is God. †

If this account of the doctrine of the Platonists, with respect to God and nature, does not give my readers complete satisfaction, it will not be in my power to do it. The passages which I have selected from Plotinus, and others, dark as they may appear, are really some of the clearest in all their writings, the bulk of which may be denominated darkness that may be felt. The writings of the schoolmen, which have been so much ridiculed on account of their obscurity and idle distinctions, are day-light compared to those of these Platonists. I only desire any man of tolerable sense, who has a competent knowledge of the Greek language, and who may be disposed to think there is too much severity in this censure, to spend a single day upon Plotinus, Jamblichus, or Proclus. If he leave them without having his own mind very much beclouded, (of which there is some danger,) I am confident that he will agree with me in my opinion concerning them.

In passing this censure on the writings of these Platonists, I am far from wishing to suggest a low opinion of the understandings of the men. I believe, that with respect to their intellectual powers, they were equal to any metaphysicians of the present age, or of any other; and so certainly was Thomas Aquinas, and many of the schoolmen. But mankind had not then attained to the first elements of metaphysical knowledge, which is now indeed in a very imperfect state, much behind many other branches of knowledge; and what poor work would Newton himself have made, if he had been set to read before he had learned half his letters! As the mere art of reading is perhaps attained with more difficulty than any thing that we learn subsequent to it, so we may say that it cost the world more pains and thought to acquire the very elements of philosophical and metaphysical knowledge, than it did to

ΣΚΕΨΟΜΕΘΑ δη το μετα τελο συμφώνως τοις προειρημένοις, και την ἡμεῖεραν διπλην καταςασιν· ὅτε μεν γαρ όλη ψυχη γινομεθα, και εσμεν εξω το σωματος, μετεώροι τε των μεθ' όλων των αυλων θεων μετεωροπολεμεν ότε δ' αν δεδεμεθα εν τῷ ο ρεωδει σωματι, και από της ύλης κατεχόμεθα, και εσμεν σωματοειδεις. Sect. v. C. xv. p. 130. (Ρ.)

δε

+ Εικότως εν και Πλατων τον των ιδεων θεωρητικον θεον εν ανθρωποις ζήσεσθαι φησι· νας χώρα ιδεων νες bed. Strom. L. iv. p. 537. (P.)

See Vol. IX. pp. 387, 466.

make the most shining discoveries afterwards. I am far, therefore, from despising the men who laboured under such great disadvantages; but I own that I do despise those who, neglecting, and affecting to despise, the greater light of the present day, involve themselves, and endeavour to involve others, in the darkness which overspread the world two thousand years ago.

Having thus represented what I apprehend Platonism to have been, I shall in the next place endeavour to shew how thick a shade from this mass of darkness was thrown upon the Jewish religion in Philo, and the Christian in the writings of the early fathers. In the mean time, this view of that system of philosophy which was most admired at the time of the promulgation of Christianity, a system made use of to support a religion still more absurd than itself, debasing the faculties and corrupting the morals of men, may serve to make us more thankful for the pure light of the gospel, which the Father of lights was pleased in the fulness of time to send, in order to disperse that gross and baneful darkness.

A fuller display of Platonism, in a translation of the writings of Plotinus, Jamblichus, and Proclus, (if it were possible to exhibit such wretched nonsense in any modern language, *) would contribute still more to make Christianity appear to its proper advantage. And indeed, to do it justice, it ought to be compared with that system of knowledge which human reason had actually produced at the time of its promulgation, and not with that which the reason of man (first put into a right track by itself) has been able to produce in the space of two thousand years since that tiine.

CHAPTER VIII.

Of the Platonism of Philo.

It has been seen that, among the Heathen Platonists, we have found no uniform and serious personification of the divine nous, or logos, so that it could be considered as a distinct intelligent person, but only strong figures, and a

See "Proclus's Commentaries, with a History of the Restoration of the Platonic Theology, by the later Platonists; and a Translation of Proclus's Theological Elements, by Thomas Taylor, 1792." Also, "The Five Books of Plotinus, translated by Thomas Taylor, 1794."

↑ Vol. II. 1786.

dark, enigmatical description of the ideas, or the supposed place of ideas in the Divine mind, constituting what they called the intelligible world, or the world to be perceived by the mind, and not by the senses; and which was an exemplar or pattern of the visible world. Upon the whole, it may be asserted, that the Platonists themselves proceeded no farther than to what may be called a strongly figurative personification of the divine intellect, considered as distinct either from the Divine Being himself, or those more excellent qualities from which he was denominated the good; so that it cannot be said that, if the Platonists had been seriously interrogated concerning their real opinion, they would have answered that the good, and his nous, or logos, were two distinct intelligent persons, each having ideas, and being capable of reasoning and acting, though their language, literally interpreted, will occasionally bear that

construction.

.ממרא of the Chaldee

In Philo, a Jew of Alexandria, who was contemporary with the apostles, we find something more nearly approaching to a real personification of the logos, a term which is much more frequent with him than with the Platonists themselves; and indeed it was observed, that what they called nous, the barbarians called logos, which is a literal translation Philo says so much concerning ideas and the intelligible world, and is withal so eloquent, that it has been justly observed, "either that Plato philonized, or that Philo platonized;" but he was far from advancing so far as the platonizing Christians. However, though he did not, like them, make a permanent intelligent person of the divine logos, he made an occasional one of it, making it the visible medium of all the communications of God to man, that by which he both made the world, and also conversed with the patriarchs of the Old Testament.

It will be seen that Philo's own ideas were far from being clear or consistent, but he is much less confused than the proper Heathen Platonists, and he sometimes exhibits a Platonism of a simple and less figurative kind. Thus, after observing that "an architect constructs a building after an idea which he has previously formed of it in his mind," he says, "in like manner, we must judge concerning God, who, intending to build a magnificent city, first devised the plan of it, from which he formed the visible world,

Τόσο τον δ' αυτον τοις Ἑλληνιςαις παρασχειν θαύμα της εν τοις λόγοις δυναμεως, ὡς και λέγειν αυτές, η Πλατων φιλωνίζει η Φίλων πλατωνίζει. Phot. Bib. Sect. cv. p. 278. (P.)