is the characteristic of all the saints:[34] whence the Holy Ghost cries out, Approach him not with a double heart.[35] That worldly wisdom is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be.[36] Its intoxication blinds men, and shuts their eyes to the light of divine revelation. They arrogate to themselves the exclusive privilege of learning and clear understanding: but the skepticism, the pitiful inconsistencies, and monstrous extravagances, which characterize their writings and discourses, make us blush to see so strong an alliance of ignorance and presumption; and lament that the human mind should be capable of falling into a state of so deplorable degeneracy. Among the fathers of the church we admire men the most learned of their age, the most penetrating and most judicious, and at the same time {147} the most holy and sincere; who, being endowed with true simplicity of heart, discovered in the mysteries of the cross the secrets of infinite wisdom, which they made their study, and the rule of their actions. Footnotes: 1. L. 2, adv. Julian, c. 8. 2. L. 2, adv. Rufin. p. 415. 3. In Isa. c. 60. 4. S. Hieron. in Catal. 5. L. 1, de Trin. p. 1-10. 6. Exod. iii. 14. 7. The contrary is certainly a mistake in Dr. Cave; for St. Jerom, writing against Jovinian, says, in {} p. 175, that though the church was sometimes obliged to make choice of married men for the priesthood, because virgins, or unmarried, could not always be found, they notwithstanding lived ever after continent. _Certe confiteris, non posse esse episcopum qui in episcopatu filios faciat: alioqui si deprehensus fuerit non quasi vir tenebitur, sed quasi adulter condemnabitur, ib_. And in his book against Vigilantius, p. 28, he observes, that in the churches of the East, in Egypt, and in the apostolic see of Rome, those only were made clergymen, who were virgins, or single; or if they were married, they ceased to live as husbands. _Aut virgines clericos accipiunt, aut contintes; aut si uxores habuerint, mariti esse desinunt_, p. 281. 8. S. Hilar. in Ps. 53, n. 8, in Ps. 67, p. 15, and Contant, Armon. in S. Hilar. in Psalmos, p. 165. 9. Ep. ad Laetam. 10. On the interpretation of certain obscure passages of the works of St. Hilary, see Dom Coutant, in an excellent preface to his edition of this father's works; also Witasse de Incarn. t. 2, &c. 11. Ep. 49, ad Paulinum, t. 4, p. 567. 12. Lib. 1, de Trinit. 13. Doubtless his love of prayer, and the assiduous application of his mind to that holy exercise, moved him to make the Psalms a main object of his sacred studies and meditation. His comments are elegant; though in them he dwells much on the literal sense, he neglects not the mystical and allegorical, every thing in these divine oracles being prophetic, as he takes notice, (in Ps. 142, n. 1.) Often he finds the immediate literal sense clear; in other