our knowledge of Him is chiefly negative; of whom we know, not so much what He is, as what He is not, it is difficult to make even a steady object of thought. Now, we believe that God is a spirit; but we have a very faint notion of the nature of a Spirit, except that it is not a body. God is eternal; but we are bewildered with the very idea of Eternity, of which we only know that it is without beginning, and without end: we say, that the divine attributes are infinite; i. e. not bounded, unlimited. And even where our knowledge of God extends beyond mere negatives, we cannot but perceive, on attentive reflection, that the attributes assigned to the Deity must, in reality, be such, in Him, as the ordinary sense of those same terms, when applied to men, can but very faintly shadow out. But the difficulty is still greater, when we attempt to set our affections on this awful and inconceivable Being;-to address, as a tender parent, Him, who has formed out of nothing, and could annihilate in a moment, countless myriads, perhaps, of worlds besides our own; and to whom "the

b See note (G) at the end of this Essay.

b

nations are but as the drop of a bucket, and the small dust of a balance;"-to offer our tribute of praise and obedience, to Him who can neither be benefited nor hurt by us;-to implore favour and deprecate punishment, from Him who has no passions, or wants, as we have ;-to confess our sins, before Him who is exempt not only from all sin, but from all human infirmities and temptations; and, in short, to hold spiritual intercourse, with one with whom we can have no sympathy, and of whom we can with difficulty form any clear conception.

And this difficulty is not diminished, but rather increased, in proportion as man advances in refinement of notions, in cultivation of intellect, and in habits of profound philosophical reflection; and thus becomes less gross in his ideas of the Supreme Being. To the dull and puerile understandings of a semi-barbarous nation, such as the Israelites at the time of Moses, many of the circumstances just mentioned would be less likely to occur, than to those of a more enlightened people; and an habitual and practical piety would accordingly have been more easy of attainment by them, while favoured, as they were, with frequent

sensible divine interpositions of various kinds, and continually addressed by prophets in the name of the Lord, Jehovah, the tutelary God of their nation, than for men of more enlarged minds, and more thoughtful habits, not favoured with the Gospel-revelation.

These impediments to devotion, it is probable, the Apostle John had in mind, when he said, "No man hath seen God at any time;" and that he conceived the "declaration" of God, by Jesus Christ, was calculated not, indeed, wholly to remove these impediments, but so far to moderate and lower them, as to leave no insuperable difficulty to a willing mind.

§4. To the causes which have been enumerated, it is to be attributed, that the religion of those who are called philosophers,-whose speculations respecting the Deity have been accounted the most refined and exalted, has always been cold and heartless in its devotion; or rather has been nearly destitute of devotion altogether.

On the other hand, the great mass of mankind, from the same cause, have, in all ages and countries, shown a disposition to address their prayers,

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not to the Supreme Creator immediately, but to some angel, demi-god, subordinate deity, or saint, (as is the practice of the Romish Church), whom they suppose to approach more to their own nature, to form a sort of connecting link between God and man, and to perform for them the office of Intercessor. Thus, while the one class are altogether wanting in affectionate devotion, the other direct it to an improper object; giving that worship to the creature which is due only to the Creator.

A preventive for both these faults is provided, in that manifestation of God in Jesus Christ, which affords us such a display of the divine attributes, as, though very faint and imperfect, is yet the best calculated, considering what human nature is, to lead our affections to God. When Christ fed a multitude with five loaves, He made not indeed a greater, or a more benevolent display of power, than He does in supporting, from day to day, so many millions of men and other animals as the universe contains: but it was an instance far better calculated to make an impression on men's minds of his goodness and parental care. I speak not now of this miracle as an evidence of

his pretensions; for that purpose would have been answered as well by a miracle of destruction; but of the peculiar beneficent character of it. So, also, in healing the sick, raising the dead, and preaching to the people; though these are not greater acts of power and goodness than the creation of the world and all things in it, yet they are what the minds of most men at least, can more steadily dwell upon, and which, therefore, are the most likely to affect the heart.

Many, it is true, of the qualities which our Lord displayed, such as his patience under provocation, and fortitude against pain and danger, are such as can belong to Him in his human nature alone, and can present us but a very faint shadow of the attributes of God, considered as such; but still these are attributes of one and the same Person, in whom we believe the Divine and Human Natures to have been united; though we can no more comprehend that union, than we can that of the human soul and body; and they are well fitted to fix our affections on that Person. And if any one should contend, by drawing nice metaphysical distinctions, that this is not properly to be called the love of God, it is at least the nearest