278 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



can know anything, we can know these attributes 

 when we see them. But the extent, the limits 

 of such attributes must be determined by their 

 effects; our knowledge of their limits by 

 what we see of the effects. Nor is any extent, 

 any amount of power and goodness improbable 

 beforehand : we know that these must be great, 

 we cannot tell how great. We should not expect 

 beforehand to find them bounded ; and therefore 

 when the boundless prospect opens before us, we 

 may be bewildered, but we have no reason to 

 be shaken in our conviction of the reality of the 

 cause from which their effects proceed : we may 

 feel ourselves incapable of following the train of 

 thought, and may stop, but we have no rational 

 motive for quitting the point which we have thus 

 attained in tracing the Divine Perfections. 



On the contrary, those magnitudes and pro- 

 portions which leave our powers of conception 

 far behind ; that ever-expanding view which is 

 brought before us, of the scale and mechanism, 

 the riches and magnificence, the population and 

 activity of the universe ; may reasonably serve, 

 not to disturb, but to enlarge and elevate our 

 conceptions of the Maker and Master of all ; to 

 feed an ever-growing admiration of His wonder- 

 ful nature ; and to excite a desire to be able to 

 contemplate more steadily and conceive less 

 inadequately the scheme of his government and 

 the operation of his power. 



