ON THE ATTRIBUTES

OF GOD,

&c. &c.

I. THE SPIRITUALITY OF GOD.

IN WHAT SENSE GOD IS CALLED A SPIRIT.

"GOD is a Spirit.” That is, he hath nothing corporeal, no mixture of matter, not a visible substance, a bodily form. He is a spirit, not a bare spiritual substance, but an understanding, willing spirit, holy, wise, good, and just. God is called a spirit, as being not a body, not having the greatness, figure, thickness, or length of a body, wholly separate from any thing of flesh and matter. We find a principle within us nobler than that of our bodies; and therefore we conceive the nature of God, according to that which is more worthy in us, and not according to that which is the vilest part of our natures. God is a most spiritual spirit, more spiritual than all angels, all souls. As he exceeds all in the nature of being, so he exceeds all in the nature of spirit; he hath nothing gross, heavy, material in his essence.

B

GOD A PURE SPIRITUAL BEING.

And when we say God is a spirit, it is a negation; he is not a body; he consists not of various parts, extended one without and beyond another: he is not a spirit so as our souls are, to be the form of any body a spirit, not as angels and souls are, but infinitely higher; we call him so, because in regard of our weakness, we have not any other term of excellency to express or conceive of him by: we transfer it to God in honour, because spirit is the highest excellency in our nature: yet we must apprehend God above any spirit, since his nature is so great, that he cannot be declared by human speech, perceived by human sense, or conceived by human understanding.

God is invisible. The apostle reckons this amongst his other perfections. Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible. (1 Tim. i. 17.) He is invisible to our sense, which beholds nothing but material and coloured things; and incomprehensible to our understanding that conceives nothing but what is finite. God is therefore a spirit incapable of being seen, and infinitely incapable of being understood. If he be invisible, he is also spiritual. If he had a body, and hid it from our eyes, he might be said not to be seen, but could not be said to be invisible. When we say a thing is visible, we understand that it hath such qualities which are the object of sense, though we may never see that, which in its own nature is to be seen. God hath no such qualities as fall under the perception of our sense. His works are visible to us, but not his godhead. (Rom. 1. 20.) The nature of a human body is to be seen and handled. Christ gives us such a description of it, (Luke xxiv. 39,) Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not

flesh and bones as you see me have: but man hath been so far from seeing God, that it is impossible he can see him. (1 Tim. vi. 16.) There is such a disproportion between an infinite object and a finite understanding, that it is utterly impossible either to behold or comprehend him. But if God had a body more luminous and glorious than that of the sun, he would be as visible to us as the sun, though the immensity of that light would dazzle our eyes, and forbid any close inspection into him by the virtue of our sense. We have seen the shape and figure of the sun, but no man hath ever seen the shape of God. (John v. 37.) If God had a body he were visible, though he might not perfectly and fully be seen by us; as we see the heavens, though we see not the extension, latitude, and greatness of them. Though God hath manifested himself in a bodily shape, (Gen. xviii. 1,) and elsewhere, Jehovah appeared to Abraham; yet the substance of God was not seen, no more than the substance of angels was seen in their apparitions to men. A body was formed to be made visible by them, and such actions done in that body, that spake the person that did them to be of a higher eminence than a bare corporeal creature. Sometimes a representation is made to the inward sense and imagination, as to Micaiah, 1 Kings xxii. 19, and to Isaiah vi. 1. But they saw not the essence of God, but some images and figures of him proportioned to their sense or imagination. The essence of God no man ever saw, nor can see. (John i. 18.)

IMPOSSIBLE TO REPRESENT GOD BY ANY IMAGE.

It is impossible to fashion any image of God. If our more capacious souls cannot grasp his nature, our weaker sense cannot frame his image. It is more possible of the two, to comprehend him in our

minds, than to frame him in an image to our sense. He inhabits inaccessible light. As it is impossible for the eye of man to see him, it is impossible for the art of man to paint him upon walls, and carve him out of wood. None knows him but himself, none can describe him but himself. Can we draw a figure of our own souls, and express that part of ourselves, wherein we are most like to God? Can we extend this to any bodily figure and divide it into parts? How can we deal so with the original copy, whence the first draught of our souls was taken, and which is infinitely more spiritual than men or angels? No corporeal being can represent a spiritual substance; there is no proportion in nature between them. God is a simple, infinite, immense, eternal, invisible, incorruptible Being: a statue is a compounded, finite, limited, temporal, visible, and corruptible body. God is a living spirit; but a statue nor sees, nor hears, nor perceives any thing. But suppose God had a body, it is impossible to mould any image of it in the true glory of that body. Can the statue of an excellent monarch represent the majesty and air of his countenance, though made by the most skilful workman in the world? If God had a body in some measure suited to his excellency, were it possible for man to make an exact image of him, who cannot picture the light, heat, motion, magnitude, and dazzling property of the sun? The excellence of any corporeal nature of the least creature, the temper, instinct, artifice, all are beyond the power of art; much more is God.

HOW TO CONCEIVE OF GOD AS A SPIRIT.

We cannot have an adequate or suitable conception of God. He dwells in inaccessible light; inaccessible to the acuteness of our fancy, as well as

the weakness of our sense. If we could have thoughts of him, as high and excellent as his nature; our conceptions must be as infinite as his nature. All our imaginations of him cannot represent him, because every created species is finite; it cannot therefore represent to us a full and substantial notion of an infinite being. We cannot speak or think worthily enough of him, who is greater than our words, vaster than our understandings. Whatsoever we speak or think of God, is handed first to us by the notice we have of some perfection in the creature, and explains to us some particular excellence of God rather than the fulness of his essence. No creature, nor all creatures together, can furnish us with such a magnificent notion of God, as can give us a clear view of him. Yet God in his word is pleased to step below his own excellence, and point us to those excellences in his works, whereby we may ascend to the knowledge of those excellences which are in his nature. But the creatures, whence we draw our lessons being finite, and our understandings being finite, it is utterly impossible to have a notion of God commensurate to the immensity and spirituality of his being.

Since we cannot have a full notion of him, we should endeavour to make it as high and as pure as we can. Though we cannot conceive of God, but some corporeal representations or images in our minds will be conversant with us, as motes in the air when we look upon the heavens; yet our conception may and must rise higher: as when we see the draught of the heavens and earth in a globe, or a kingdom in a map, it helps our conceptions, but does not terminate them: we conceive them to be of a vast extent, far beyond that short description of them. So we should endeavour to refine every representation of God; to rise higher and higher, and have our apprehensions still more purified;