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THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



a conception of his invisible attributes. But as 

 they had a direct tendency to debase the mind, 

 and to obscure the glory of the Divinity, in pro 

 cess of time they began to be regarded by the 

 ignorsnt multitude as the very gods themselves, 

 which they were at first intended to represent ; 

 and that tribute of adoration was paid to the 

 symbol itself, which was originally intended to 

 be given to the invisible God, through this sensi 

 ble medium. And, when we contemplate kings 

 and princes, poets and philosophers, heroes and 

 sages, &quot; young men and virgins, old men and 

 children,&quot; whole provinces, nations, and conti 

 nents, prostrating themselves before the shrine of 

 such despicable and abominable idols, and the 

 idea of the true God almost banished from the 

 world, we have reason to feel ashamed, and to 

 be deeply humbled, that we belong to a race of 

 intelligences that have thus so grossly prostituted 

 their rational and moral powers. 



The only natural image or representation of 

 God which is set before us for our contemplation, 

 is, the boundless universe which his hands have 

 formed ; and his moral image is displayed in the 

 laws which he has published, in the movements 

 of his providence, and in the face of Jesus Christ 

 his Son, who is &quot; the image of the invisible God, 

 and the brightness of his glory.&quot; All these exhi 

 bitions of the Divine Majesty, we are command 

 ed to study, to contemplate, and admire ; and it 

 is essentially requisite in order to our acquiring 

 correct and comprehensive views of the object of 

 our adoration, that no one of these displays of the 

 Divinity should be overlooked, or thrown into 

 the shade. There are some Christians, who 

 imagine, they may acquire a competent know 

 ledge of the character of God, although they 

 should never spend a single moment in contem 

 plating his perfections as displayed in his visible 

 works. Tn regard to such, I hesitate not to af 

 firm, that they are, to a certain extent, idolaters, 

 and remain wilful idolaters, contented with the 

 most inadequate and grovelling conceptions of 

 the Deity, so long as they refuse to contemplate, 

 with fixed attention, and with intelligence, the 

 operations of his hands. If a man s ideas never 

 extend beyond the bounds of his visible horizon, 

 or beyond the limits of the country in which he 

 resides, and if, at the same time, he has over 

 looked the most striking displays of divine wis 

 dom and goodness within these bounds his con 

 ceptions of the Divine Being himself, will nearly 

 correspond with the conceptions he forms of his 

 works. If his views be even confined within the 

 limits of the globe on which he dwells, his con 

 ceptions of God will still be grovelling, distorted, 

 and imperfect. And, therefore, the idea which 

 such an individual forms to himself of God, may 

 be inferior to that which is due to one of the 

 higher orders of created intelligences. And, if 

 o, he has only an image of a creature in his 

 wind, instead of a comprehensive conception of 



the Groat Creator. We have too much reason 

 to believe, that there are multitudes in the reli 

 gious world, who pass for enlightened Christians, 

 whose ideas of the Supreme Ruler of the uni 

 verse do not rise beyond the conceptions we 

 ought to form of the powers and capacities of 

 Gabriel the archangel, or of one of the highest 

 order of the seraphim. 



We can never expect, from the very nature of 

 things, to be able to explore the depths of Jeho 

 vah s essence, or to comprehend the whole range 

 of his dominions and government. But, a large 

 portion of his operations lies open to our inspec 

 tion ; and it is from an enlightened contempla 

 tion of what is presented to our view in the visi 

 ble universe, that we are to form our conceptions 

 of the grandeur of the Eternal Mind. For, it 

 may be admitted as an axiom, both in natural 

 and revealed theology, that our conceptions of 

 God will nearly correspond with the conceptions 

 we acquire of the nature and extent of his opera 

 tions. In the universe around us, we perceive 

 an image of his infinity, in so far as a finite 

 and material existence can adumbrate the attri 

 butes of an Infinite and Invisible Existence. 

 When we lift our eyes towards the midnight sky, 

 we behold a thousand suns diffusing their splen 

 dours from regions of space immeasurably dis 

 tant. When we apply a telescope to any 

 portion of this vast concave, we perceive thou 

 sands more which the unasisted eye cannot 

 discern. When we increase the magnifying 

 powers of the instrument, we descry numerous 

 orbs of light, stretching still farther into the un 

 fathomable depths of space ; so that there appear 

 no limits to the scene of creating power. When 

 the eye of reason penetrates beyond all that is 

 visible through the most powerful telescopes, it 

 contemplates a boundless region teeming with 

 other resplendent suns and systems, whose num 

 ber and magnificence overwhelm the imagina 

 tion ; so that no limit can be set to the excursions 

 of the intellect when it wings its flight over the 

 wide empire of Jehovah. Over all this vast 

 assemblage of material splendour, over its move 

 ments, and over all the diversified ranks of intel 

 ligence it supports, God eternally and unchange 

 ably presides. He is an Infinite Being ; and 

 in this immense universe which he has opened 

 to our view, he has given us an image of his 

 infinity, which corresponds with the perfections 

 which the inspired writers ascribe to him and 

 without a contemplation of which, the mind must 

 have a very unworthy and circumscribed idea of 

 the attributes of the Eternal Mind. Even in 

 many of the objects which surround us in this 

 lower world, we perceive an image of the infinity 

 of the Creator particularly in those living 

 worlds which are contained in a few drops of 

 water, some of the inhabitants of which are 

 several hundreds of thousands of times smaHer 

 than the least grain of sand. To the contempla- 



