'234 OF THE PEESONALITY OF THE DEITT. 



" No man hath seen God at any time." And this, I be- 

 lieve, makes the great difficuhy. Now it is a difficulty 

 which chiefly arises from our not duly estimating the state 

 of our faculties. The Deity, it is true, is the object of 

 none of our senses ; but reflect what limited capacities an- 

 imal senses are. Many animals seem to have but one sense, 

 or perhaps two at the most, touch and taste. Ought such 

 an animal to conclude against the existence of odours, 

 sounds, and colours'? To another species is given the 

 sense of smelling. This is an advance in the knowledge 

 of the powers and properties of nature : but if this favour- 

 ed animal should infer from its superiority over the class 

 last described, that it perceived every thing which was per- 

 ceptible in nature, it is known to us, though perhaps not. 

 suspected by the animal itself, that it proceeded upon a 

 false and presumptuous estimate of its faculties. To an- 

 other is added the sense of hearing ; which lets in a class 

 of sensations entirely unconceived by the animal before 

 spoken of; not only distinct, but remote from any which it 

 had ever experienced, and greatly superior to them. Yet 

 this last animal has no more ground for believing that its 

 senses comprehend all things, and ail properties of things 

 which exist, than might have been claimed by the tribes of 

 animals beneath it ; for we know, that it is still possible to 

 possess another sense, that of sight, which shall disclose to 

 the percipient a new world. This fifth sense makes the 

 animal what the human animal is; but to infer that possi- 

 bility stops here, that either this fifth sense is the last 

 sense, or that the five comprehended all existence, is just 

 as unwarrantable a conclusion, as that which might have 

 been made by any of the different species w^hich possessed 

 fewer or even by that, if such there be, which possessed 

 only one. The conclusion of the one-sense animal, and 

 the conclusion of the five-sense animal, stand upon the 

 same authority. There may be more and other senses 

 than those which we have. There may be senses suited 

 to the perception of the powers, properties and substance 

 of spirits. These may belong to higher orders of rational 

 agents ; for there is not the smallest reason for supposing 

 that we are the highest, or that the scale of creation stops 

 with us. 



The great energies of nature are known to us only by 

 their effects. The substances which produce them, are as 

 much concealed from our senses as the divine essence it- 

 self Gravitation, though constantly present, though con- 



