I. SERM. fined to a fingle planet, beyond which they can only roam in fancy, nor limited to a few fleeting years of exiftence, the greater part of which must be employed in providing for the wants of the body; they are not chilled by defpondence, fired by rage, or blinded by prejudice; all local extenfion is theirs to explore, and an eternity is before them; they have no appetites that call aloud for gratification, nor paffions that will fcarcely be controlled. But in what language can we clothe our conceptions of the FATHER OF SPIRITS? Irresistible in power, for He Spake, and it was done *; unbounded in wisdom, for He knoweth all things; infinite in goodness, for look how high the heaven is in comparison of the earth, fo great is his mercy alfo towards them that fear him ‡; unchangeable in his effence, for God is the fame yefter * Pfalm xxxiii. 9. † John iii. 20. day, I. day, to-day, and for ever*; uninfluenced SERM. by those motives which fway mankind, he makes the unalterable obligations of justice, mercy, and truth, the only rule of his government; and though he knows no law but his own will, he cannot, from the excellency of his nature, do any thing cruel or unjust. Every one must have obferved that, in the holy fcriptures, epithets are fometimes prefixed to the name of GOD, and actions afcribed to him, which, faith the objector, are utterly inconfiftent with a spiritual and unchangeable Being; fuch as, The Lord thy God is a jealous God†.—It repented the Lord that he had made man, and it grieved him at his heart ‡.—And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart §.-Awake, why Sleepest thou, O Lord .-Bow down thine ear to me ¶-with many other expreffions *Heb. xiii. 8. § Exod. xi. 10. + Exod. xx. 5. + Gen. vi. 6. ¶ Pfal. xxxi. 2. of I. SERM. of the fame kind. But can the OMNIPOTENT be jealous? Can the immutable CREATOR repent, and feel that fenfation of forrow which his weak creatures experience? Will the ALL-MERCIFUL harden the hearts of his people, and preclude them from penitence? Hath the GREAT SPIRIT affections, paffions, bodily organs ?-Grofs must be our ideas of our Maker, if we take thefe paffages in a literal fenfe, and afcribe to the Deity the feelings and imperfections of man: But, fince we can only delineate what we know, and judge of those things which are not seen, by those things which are feen, fince none can form any conception of what they have never beheld, but by comparing it with fomething familiar to their observation, we are obliged, when we fpeak of fuperior beings, to describe their actions in the fame words in which we describe the actions of mortals; and, as no man bath feen God at any time, nor been connected with any creature more exalted I. exalted than himself, his fancy clothes the SERM. Creator in a human form. When we would represent the glory of his habitation, our ideas are borrowed from terrestrial splendor; we fuppofe him feated on a golden throne, while millions of vaffals pay homage to him, and every thing, to which mankind have affixed the ideas of great and magnificent, furrounds him; yet this is but the resemblance of an earthly monarch: Nor, when our imagination paints him as the punisher of the wicked, do we ceafe to confider him as a corporeal agent; for we image to ourselves an avenging Ruler, grafping his lightnings and rolling his thunder, directing the tempeft and controlling the elements. Thus the expreffions made ufe of by the prophets, which ascribe bodily organs and human paffions to the Deity, were not felected by choice, but adopted through neceffity. The Jews, who were a coarse and I. SERM. and unlettered people, could not have understood refined fpeculations on the divine effence; and, indeed, when the Almighty is reprefented as an agent, we must use nearly the fame terms to the most cultivated; for human language can only describe human actions; the tongue of a finite and imperfect creature, cannot describe an infinite and invifible GoD. But our conceptions of Him, perhaps, will rife much higher than our words can exprefs; and nothing will fo enlarge the mind as frequent meditation on that great and immortal SPIRIT, in whom we live, and move, and have our being. This cannot be confidered as a dull and taftelefs duty, fit only for cloistered priests, or aged devotees; fince it produces the highest gratification which the foul is capable of receiving. The nobleft pleasure we feel arifes from the beauty, magnificence, or fublimity of the object before us: Every thing that |