confined to the being and qualities of sensible objects; and his understanding is bounded by the nature of those ideas which are thus offered to his perception: without revelation, therefore, what idea could he have of an eternal existence ? The most extravagant dreams, the highest flights of fancy, are only combinations of such ideas as have before been present to the mind. How then shall man conceive the attributes and nature of the Deity? Thus bound to the earth which he inhabits, how shall he form his conception of omnipotence and eternity? So inconceivable is the idea of infinitude, that we cannot express it without a contradiction of terms. In speaking of the infinite power of God, metaphysicians qualify it with language which destroys its omnipotency. God, they say, can do all things which do not imply a contradiction! "Such knowledge is too wonderful for us; it is too high, we cannot attain unto it." The utmost exertion of our mental powers in such a conception, ends in the combination of ideas of material objects, already known to the mind. We may, in imagination, " see God in the clouds, or hear him in the wind;" we may picture Him flying on the cherubim, or bowing the heavens and coming down; but still imagination will give to the mind only some of those vivid but material forms, with which natural objects had supplied it.

As our intellectual faculties are not capable of discovering such a wonderful Being, neither are they desired to find Him out to perfection: they are only desired to receive Him as he has been pleased to reveal Himself: and unless "his doctrine had dropped as rain, and his speech distilled as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass, his name had never been published, nor greatness ascribed unto our God;" but through His eternal Spirit He hath revealed to us "the things which He hath prepared for them that love Him;" and this revelation is addressed to our understanding, in such language and in such figures, as are fit objects for its confined powers, whether submitted to our reason or to our faith.

When the glory of God appeared to Moses, to the people, to the high-priest, and to Saul, it assumed the semblance of a flame. The urim and thummim, which beamed a miraculous splendor, was composed of precious stones. In Jacob's dream, a ladder connected a material heavens with the earth. Our blessed Lord compared the action of the Holy Spirit, with the wind that bloweth where it listeth; and when He himself was transfigured, "His face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was bright as the light, and a bright cloud overshadowed Him." When Christ ascended from the earth,

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we are simply told that He was changed; at the last day we shall also be changed into "like glory." We are saved by faith; yet we shall be judged for works. And to him that overcometh, "I," says the Almighty, "will be his God, and he shall be my son."

The Scriptures represent the Deity as being awfully mysterious; "For I am a great king, saith the Lord of Hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen;" yet, at the same time, they picture him so benevolent, so merciful, so full of goodness, great kindness, and longsuffering, that whilst we tremble at His might, we desire His mercy; whilst we fear His wrath, we long for His love: but not content to take His mercy and His love as they are declared unto us, we mould them into such forms as suit our own apprehensions and necessities. But, instead of addressing the imagination, the Scriptures speak to the heart through the understanding.

God is from everlasting; and all our conjectures respecting His being are ended. He is eternal; hence our immortality through the promise is assured, because He is omnipotent, and therefore can perform that promise. In the same manner the several attributes of the Deity, whilst in themselves sublime objects of faith, are to be understood, so far as they reveal, direct, and explain to us, the necessity, the means, and

the end of our redemption.* But when we lose sight of this great purpose, and indulge in conjectures, or ignorantly presume upon our notions of infinite wisdom and mercy; and, like the Syrian, expect God to save us according to our notions of salvation; we exclude ourselves from all the blessings and benefits of the revealed wisdom and mercy of God.

Men cry, God is infinite in goodness, and therefore will extend His mercy unto us: His mercy is also infinite, He will, therefore, not be extreme to mark what is done amiss; nor to punish with the severity of His wrath our light and trifling offences. That God is of great goodness and mercy is true: but we are not left to fill up the measure of His mercy, according to our vicious necessities. Like all His other attributes, His mercy is fixed in His own nature; and therefore unapproachable by our comprehension; but the method of its administration is fully revealed in the scriptures; generally in the redemption of the world, and particularly in the offer of pardon and grace to such individuals as will, in God's appointed time, enter in at the door which he has opened, which door is Christ. The duty of thus receiving the mercy of God, is imperative upon us; and ignorance or neglect of it, is at our eternal peril; for the

* Vide Magee on the Atonement, vol.i. p. 28. 3d edit. + John, x. 9.

Lord Jesus "shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God -."

The eternity, the omnipresence, the omniscience, and the omnipotence of the Deity, fill us with magnificent thoughts; they burden the mind with the vastness of their imagery; and seem to draw it beyond itself. "He inhabiteth eternity." “Whither shall I flee from thy presence?.... if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me." "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." knoweth all things." This immensity of thought. places each attribute far beyond the reach of human intellect; we cannot attain unto it; but the understanding does reason no violence, in giving up the conceptions to the province of faith.

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But if the understanding cannot comprehend the vast idea of an infinite Being, what then becomes of the language of the schools, the quod est necessaria; sive per se? the rɛλelorns ? " It is written (of God himself), I will destroy the wisdom of the wise."

It appears to be the design of the revealed word, by the declaration of ONE GOD, to correct the absurdities into which the world had fallen, through its natural blindness to spiritual things, respecting the being, the nature, and the number