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of frame, and turns our sober thinking into madness. 

 And if the vessels of the brain are intirely obstructed, 

 as in an apoplexy, we think not at all. How then 

 can we imagine,- that a pure spirit thinks f It knows 

 indeed ; but we cannot tell how : to be sure, not by 

 playing upon a set of material springs, exquisitely 

 wrought up into curious contexture for that purpose. 



It is because we have no idea of a spirit, that we 

 are naturally led ta express it by a negative ; to call 

 it an immaterial substance, or something that is not 

 matter ; something that is not any thing that we know ; 

 which forces us to conceive and express it in this im- 

 perfect manner. 



Yet it has been affirmed farther, that we have as 

 clear an idea of God himself, as we have of man ; 

 and that we are as ignorant of the essence of a man ; 

 as we are of the essence of God. Do we not then 

 know, that it is essential to man to be finite ? And 

 have we not a distinct idea of finiteness ] But who 

 has any idea of infinity, the essential attribute of God 1 

 7 Tis plain, we have not : and therefore we express it 

 by a negative " Without bound.-' 



Properly speaking, we have no idea of God. We 

 come to our knowledge of his very existence, not from 

 any idea of him, but from our reasoning, upon the 

 works of the visible creation. And hence, for want 

 of a simple and direct idea, we- form an indirect and 

 very complex notion of him. 



This we do in the best manner we can, by remo- 

 ving from him all the imperfections of the creature*, 



