GOD 



GOD 



sions to be more enlightened than others, 

 and from their affecting to be able to 

 bring back mankind to the knowledge of 

 the true God. The opinions held by these 

 people have not been completely ascer- 

 tained; they were fond of speculation, 

 and like many of the gnostics of modern 

 times, held public worship and positive 

 institutions in little esteem. 



GOAL, or GAOL. See GAOfc. 



GOAT, in zoology. See CAPRA. These 

 animals require scarcely any thing to 

 keep them. Their milk is esteemed the 

 greatest nourisher of all liquids, women's 

 milk excepted, and very comfortable to 

 the stomach. The young kids also are 

 very good for the table, and may be ma- 

 naged in all respects like lambs. 



GOAT'S beard, in botany. See TRAGO- 

 FOGOX. 



GOAT -sucker . See CAPRIMTTLGI^. These 

 birds are regarded by the American Indi- 

 ans as very ominous. They believe that 

 goat-suckers were not known in their 

 country till the English had made depre- 

 dation upon it, and that they are, in fact, 

 the departed spirits of the murdered Indi- 

 ans. In Carolina the lower class of people 

 look upon them as birds of ill omen, and 

 are gloomy, and almost melancholy, if one 

 alights on the house or near the door, 

 and begins its call, which they will some- 

 times do even on the very threshold, 

 imagining that it is a sure prognostic of 

 the death of one of the family. 



GOBIUS, the goby, in natural history, 

 a genus of fishes of the order Thoracici. 

 Generic character : head small ; eyes ap- 

 proximated, with two punctures between 

 them ; gill membrane, four-rayed, ven- 

 tral fins united into a funnel-like oval ; 

 dorsal fins two. There are twenty-five 

 species, of which we shall notice the fol- 

 lowing. G. niger, or the black goby, is 

 about six inches in length. It inhabits 

 the Mediterranean and North Seas, and 

 often, in summer, when it deposits its 

 spawn, enters the mouths of rivers for 

 that purpose. It is eaten, but not highly 

 valued. The ventral fins unite into a spe- 

 cies of funnel, by which this fish is said 

 often to attach itself almost inseparably to 

 stones and rocks. It lies chiefly under 

 stones ; and its food consists of worms, in- 

 8%cts, and the young of small fishes. For 

 another species, the lanceolated goby, 

 see Pisces, Plate IV. fig. 4. 



GOD, fieus, the Supreme Being, the 

 first cause or creator of the universe, and 

 the only true object of religious worship, 

 The Hebrews called him Jehovah ; which 

 name they never pronounced, but used 



instead of it the words Adonai, or Elo- 

 him. 



God, says Sir Isaac Newton, is a rela- 

 tive term, and has respect to servants. 

 It denotes, indeed, an eternal, infinite, 

 absolutely perfect being : but such a be- 

 ing, without dominion, would' not he God. 

 The word God, frequently signifies lord,* 

 but every lord is not God. The domi- 

 nion of. a spiritual being, or lord, consti- 

 tutes God ; true dominion, true God. 

 From such true dominion it follows, that 

 the true God is living, intelligent, and 

 powerful ; and from his other perfec- 

 tions, that he is supreme, or supremely 

 perfect. He is eternal and infinite ; om- 

 nipotent and omniscient ; that is, he en- 

 dures from eternity to eternity, and is 

 present from infinity to infinity He go- 

 verns all things that exist, and knows all 

 things that are to be known. He 5s not 

 eternity or infinity, but eternal and infi- 

 nite. He is not duration and space, but 

 he endures and is present; he endures 

 always, and is present every where ; and 

 by existing always and every where, con- 

 stitutes the very things we call duration 

 and space, eternity and infinity. He is 

 omnipresent, not only virtually, but sub- 

 stantially; for power without substance 

 cannot subsist. All things are contained 

 and move in him, but without any mutual 

 passion ; that is, he suffers nothing- from 

 the motions of bodies, nor do they under- 

 go any resistance from his omnipresence. 



It is confessed, that God exists neces- 

 sarily ; and by the same necessity he 

 exists always and every where. Hence 

 also he must be perfectly similar; all 

 eye, all ear, all brain, all arm, all percep- 

 tion, intelligence, and action ; but after a 

 manner not at all corporeal, not at all like 

 men ; after a manner altogether unknown 

 to us. He is destitute of all body and 

 bodily shape, and therefore cannot be 

 seen, heard, or touched; nor ought to 

 be worshipped under the representation 

 of any thing corporeal. We know him. 

 only by his properties, or attributes, by 

 the most wise and excellent structure of 

 things, and by final causes ; but we adore 

 and worship him only on account of his 

 dominion : for God, setting aside domi- 

 nion, providence, and final causes, is no- 

 thing but fate and nature. 



The plain argument, says Mr. Maclau- 

 rin, for the existence of the deity, obvi- 

 ous to all, and carrying irresistible con- 

 viction with it, is from the evident con- 

 trivance and fitness of things for one 

 another, which we meet with throughout 

 all parts of the universe. There is no 



