exerting itself in acts of goodness, in a manner fuitable to propriety and rectitude.

Here a proper diftinction ought to be made between goodness and mercy. Though it is demonftrably certain, that the Supreme Being is infinite in goodness, we muft not imagine he is infinite in mercy. Because we can fuppofe innumerable cafes, in which mercy to particulars would imply a defect of goodnefs upon the whole. In fuch cafes, it is evident, that the greatest goodnefs, upon the whole, will appear in refufing mercy to particulars; not in granting it. We must therefore conclude, that mercy will certainly be refused to all fuch offenders, whom juftice and goodness to the whole require to be punished. Thus the Divine goodness is not bounded in its extent, but only regulated in its exertion by wisdom and juftice.

From the fame neceflity for concluding that the first caufe must be uniformly, and in all confiftent respects infinite, we mult conclude, that he is poffeffed of an infinite degree of power; it being evident, that power is a perfection, and preferable to weakness. Infinite power fignifies a power at all moments from eternity to eternity, and throughout all fpace, to produce or perform whatever does not either in the nature of the thing imply an exprefs contradiction, as making fomething to be, and not to be at the fame time, or oppofes fome of the other perfections of his nature, as the doing fomething unjuft, cruel, or foolish. And indeed all fach things are properly impoffibilities. Because it is altogether as impoffible that a Being unchangeably juft, good, and wife, fhould ever change fo as to act contrary to his effential character, as that a thing fhould be and not be at the fame time.

From the fame neceffity of concluding upon the uniform and univerfal infinity of the firft caufe, we cannot avoid concluding, that he is infinite in juflice and truth, it being felf-evident, that truth is a perfection, and preferable to falfehood. The Divine nature must be the very ftandard of truth; he must be entirely master of the exact state of all things, and of all their relations and connections; he muft fee the advantage of acting according

according to the true ftate of things, and the right flate of the cafe, rather than according to any falfe or fictitious one; and muft perceive, more generally and univerfally than any creature, that the confequence of univerfal truth must be univerfal order, perfection, and happiness; and of univerfal falfehood and deception, univerfal mifery and confufion.

If there be any other natural or moral perfections, for which we have no names, and of which we have no ideas, it is evident, not only that they must be in the Divine Nature; but that they muft exift in Him in an unlimited degree. Or, to speak properly, every poffible and confiftent perfection takes its origin from its being an attribute of the Divine Nature, and exifts by the fame original neceffity of nature, as the infinite mind itself, the fubftratum of all perfection, exifts. So that the neceffity of exiftence of the moral perfections of the Deity is the very fame as that of the natural. Try to annihilate space, or immenfity, in your mind; and you will find it impoflible. For it exifts neceffarily; and is an attribute of Deity. Try to annihilate the idea of rectitude in your mind; and you will find it equally impoffible; the idea of rectitude, as fomewhat real, will ftill return upon the understanding. Rectitude is therefore a neceffary attribute of Diety; and all the Divine moral attributes, of which we have any ideas, are only rectitude differently exerted. And the rectitude of the Divine Nature is the proper bafis and foundation of moral good in the difpofition or practice of every moral agent in the univerfe; or, in other words, virtue, in an intelligent and free creature, of whatever rank in the scale of being, is nothing else than a conformity of difpofition and practice to the neceffary, eternal, and unchangeable rectitude of the Divine Nature.

Of every pofitive fimple idea that can enter into our minds, it may be faid, that it is either fomething belonging to the Divine Nature (to speak according to our imperfect way) or it is a work of his, or of fome creature of his. We do not fay, God made immensity or space, duration or eternity, truth, benevolence, rectitude, and the reft. But these are clear, pofitive, fimple

ideas in our minds. Therefore they muft exift. But if they exift, and yet are not made by God, they must be neceffarily exiftent. Now we know, that nothing exifts neceffarily, but what is an attribute of Deity, that is, one of our imperfect and partial conceptions of his infinite nature, which ingroffes and fwallows up all poffible perfections.

It is

Though we have here treated of the perfections of the firft caufe feparately, and one after the other, we are not to form to ourselves an idea of the Supreme Being, as confifting of feparable or difcerpible parts, to be conceived of fingly, and independently on one another. In treating of the human mind, we fay it confifts of the faculties of understanding, will, memory, and fo forth. But this evidently conveys a falfe idea of a mind. the whole mind that understands, wills, loves, hates, remembers, fees, hears, and feels, and performs all the other functions of a living agent. And to conceive of its faculties as feparable from or independent on one another, is forming a very abfurd notion of mind which cannot be confidered as confifting of parts, or as capable of divifion. When we fay whatever is an attribute of Deity is a Deity itself, which is demonftrably true, we ought to understand it in the same manner as when we fay, that whatever is a faculty of the human mind is the mind itself. Thus, though immenfity alone, truth alone, infinite power or wifdom alone, though no one of thefe perfections alone is the full and complete idea of Diety, any more than understanding alone, will alone, or memory alone, is of the human mind, yet all the first, together with the other attributes, as they fubfift in the Divine mind, are Deity, and all the latter, with the other mental powers, are the human mind, and yet neither the former nor the latter can be conceived of as divifible or made up of parts.

As the neceffary exiftence and abfolute perfection of God render it proper and reafonable to afcribe to him the creation of the univerfe; fo his omniprefence, infinite power, and wifdom, make it reasonable to conclude that he can, with the utmost facility, without interruption, for infinite ages, conduct and govern both

the

the natural and moral world. Though the doctrine of Providence is found in the writings of the wife Heathens, and is therefore commonly confidered as a point of natural religion; yet, as revelation only fets it in a clear and fatisfactory light, I fhall put off what I have to say upon it to the fourth book.

Our being utterly incapable of forming any fhadow of an idea adequate to the true nature and effence of the Supreme Being, is no more an objection against the certainty of his exiftence, than the impoffibility of our conceiving of infinite beginningless duration, is against its reality. What our reafon compels us to admit, must not be rejected, because too big for our narrow minds to comprehend, nor indeed can we reject it, if we would.

Let us therefore do our utmost to conceive of the Supreme Being as the one independent, neceffarily-existent, unchangeable, eternal, immenfe, and univerfal mind, the foundation, or fubftratum of infinite fpace, duration, power, wisdom, goodness, juftice, and every other poffible perfection; without beginning, without end, without parts, bounds, limits, or defects; the caufe of all things, himself uncaufed; the preferver of all things, himfelf depending on no one; the upholder of all things, himself upheld by no one: from all moments of eternity, to all moments of eternity, enjoying the perfection of happinefs, without the poffibility of addition or diminution; before all, above all, and in all; poffeffing eternity and immenfity, so as to be at once and for ever fully mafler of every point of the one and moment of the other; pervading all matter, but unaffected by all matter; beftowing happiness on all, without receiving from any; pouring forth without measure his good gifts, but never diminishing his riches; let us in a word think of him as the All, the Whole, the Perfection of Perfection.

While we view his adorable excellences according to our limited and partial manner, let us take care not to conceive of him as made up of parts, who is the most perfect unity. While we confider, in fucceffion, his feveral attributes of power, wifdom, goodness, and the reft, let us take care not to form a complex or compounded idea of him, whofe effence is abfolutely pure

and

237 and fimple. We are not to think of various attributes, and then fuperadd the idea of God to them. The perfection or abstract of wifdom, power, goodness, and every other attribute, in one fimple idea, in the one Universal Mind, which fills infinitude, is the most perfect idea we can form of incomprehenfible Deity.

Here is a Deity truly worthy to be adored! What are the Jupiters and Junos of the Heathens to fuch a God? What is the common notion of the object of worship; a venerable perfonage fitting in heaven, and looking down upon the world below with a very acute and penetrating eye (which I doubt is the general notion among the unthinking part of Chriftians) what is fuch a God to the immenfe and unlimited nature we have been confidering!

SECT. II.

An Idea of the Divine Scheme in Creation. The happiness of confcious Beings, the only End for which they were brought into Exiftence. Happiness, its foundation. Univerfal Concurrence of all Beings with the Divine Scheme abfolutely necessary to univerfal Happiness.

O far we have gone upon a rational foundation in establishing the existence of God, and his being poffeffed of all poffible perfections. From the abfolute and unchangeable perfection and happiness of God, it appears, as obferved above, that his defign, in creating, muft have been, in confiftency with wifdom and rectitude, to produce and communicate happiness. This must be kept in view throughout the whole of the fcheme. When we think of the Creator as laying the plan of his universe, we must endeavour to enlarge our ideas fo, as to conceive properly of what would be worthy of an infinitely capacious and perfect mind, to project. No partial, unconnected, or inconfiftent defign would have fuited Infinite Wisdom. The work of a God must be great, uniform, and perfect. It must, in one word, be an Univerfe.

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