286 NATURAL THEOLOGF. 



CHAPTER XXIY. 



OF THE NATURAL ATTRIBUTES OF THE LEITY 



It is an immense conclusion, that there is a God — a per- 

 ceiving, inteUigent, designing Being, at the head of creation, 

 and from whose will it proceeded. The attributes of such 

 a Being, suppose his reality to be proved, must be adequate 

 to the magnitude, extent, and multiplicity of his operations ; 

 which are not only vast beyond comparison with those per- 

 formed by any other power, but so far as respects our con- 

 ceptions of them, infinite, because they are unlimited on all 

 sides. 



Yet the contemplation of a nature so exalted, however 

 surely we arrive at the proof of its existence, overwhelms 

 our faculties. The mind feels its powers sink under the sub- 

 ject. One consequence of which is, that from painful abstrac- 

 tion the thoughts seek relief in sensible images ; whence 

 may be deduced the ancient and almost universal propen- 

 sity to idolatrous substitutions. They are the resources of a 

 laboring imagination. False religions usually fall in with 

 the natural propensity ; true religions, or such as have de- 

 rived themselves from the true, resist it. 



It is one of the advantages of the revelations which Ave 

 acknowledge, that while they reject idolatry with its many 

 pernicious accompaniments, they introduce the Deity to hu- 

 man apprehension under an idea more personal, more deter- 

 minate, more within its compass, than the theology of nature 

 can do. And this they do by representing him exclusively 

 under the relation in which he stands to ourselves ; and for 

 the most part, under some precise character, resulting from 

 that relation or from the history of his providences ; which 

 method suits the span of our intellects much better than the 

 universality which enters into the idea of God, as deduced 

 from the views of nature. AYhen, therefore, these repre 



