fhould fay; and if we have departed from this fimplicity, it was rather to confute error, than explain truth. The fimpleft ideas and the fimpleft expreffions are the beft, when we fpeak of the fimpleft of all beings; and the removing of all imperfections by negative propofitions is fafer than attempts, by affirmative ones, to explain what is incomprehenfible. Hence as there is a great difference between "infinite time, and the divine eternity; fo there is a total difference between infinite space, and the divine immenfity. Infinite space is an abstract idea of the manner according to which bodies exift by extenfion. Divine immenfity is the manner by which God exifts without extenfion. To say therefore that infinite space is the fenfory, organ, or medium in which, and by which God fees all things, is an unintelligible and dangerous way of fpeaking. It is faying that the abstract idea of a finite mind, is an abfolute attribute of the infinite mind. Hence we must neceffarily admit of two forts of substances; one that exifts without extenfion; and another with extenfion : one that is present to all beings entirely, indivisibly, and effentially, to the part, as to the whole. Another that exifts only by fucceffion and expanfion; by parcels, additions, and multiplications. These two manners of exifting are quite contrary, and incompatible attributes; and therefore must belong to quite different fubftances. For this reafon, for the future, we fhall call abfolute infinite, Mind, Intellect, or Spirit. Hence if it can be proved that God has a creating power; then it is plain that he may produce two forts of fubftances quite different and diftinct, one that exifts without extenfion, and the other with extenfion: the one immaterial, and the other material. The one must be like himfelf, a fimple, uncompounded, indivifible effence; the other a compound of many different substances, which though contiguous and similar yet may be divided and feparated; yea the one may be annihilated, annihilated, while the other exifts. And this is the first diftinction betwixt fpirit and body. Hence the idea of an extended, material fubftance, that is abfolutely indivifible, unfigurable, and unmoveable, is a perfect contradiction. Matter may be undivided, but it is not indivisible. It may be without any one particular, determinate figure we can imagine, but it is not unfigurable. It may be unmoved, but it is not unmoveable; for by its nature of an extended fubftance that exifts by diffufion of parts, these parts must be necessarily fufceptible of figure, divifion, and motion by a fuperior force capable to form, divide, and move them. Hence the first mystery of natural religion is that of the divine immenfity, or unextenfive exiftence: we see that it must be, but not how it is; this attribute is incomprehenfible, but not impoffible. It is inconceivable, but it is demonftrable. Now when we have demonftrated that a thing must be; we ought not to deny it purely and only, because we cannot conceive it adequately. The Unfearchableness of GOD's JUDGMENTS. How unfearchable are his Judgments, and his Ways paft finding out? Rom. xi. 33. THESE words are the clofe of a difputation, wherein St. Paul was engaged with the advocates of Judaifm, con cerning God's providence towards his ancient people, in rejecting the greateft part of them, upon their refufal to embrace the Chriftian doctrine; and in admitting the Gentile world to favour, upon its compliance with the overtures thereof, propofed in the gofpel. In this proceeding those infidels could not difcern God's hand, nor would allow fuch a difpenfation worthy of him, advancing feveral exceptions VOL. IX. against D T against it: God (faid they) having efpoufed and confecrated us to himself; having to our Fathers, in regard to their piety, made fo abfolute promises of benediction on their pofterity; how can it confift with his wifdom, with his juftice, with his fidelity, with his conftancy to abandon us? Doth not this dealing argue his former affections to have been misplaced; doth it not implead his ancient covenant; doth it not fupplant his own defigns, and unravel all that he for fo many ages hath been doing? Upon fuch accounts did this difpenfation appear very ftrange and fcandalous to them: but St. Paul, being infallibly affured of its truth, undertakes to vindicate it from all mifprifions, rendering a fair account of it, and affigning for it many fatisfactory reasons drawn from the general equity of the cafe, from the nature of God, his attributes, and his. relations to men; from the congruity of this proceeding to the tenor of God's providence, to his most ancient purposes, to the true intent of his promifes, to his exprefs declarations. and predictions; to the ftate of things in the world, and the preffing needs of all mankind: fuch reafons (I fay which I have not time explicitly to relate) doth the Apoftle produce in favour of this great difpenfation; which fufficed to clear it from all their objections; yet notwithstanding, after he had fteered his difcourfe through all thefe rocks he thought it fafe to caft anchor; winding up the conteft in the modest intimation, that whatever he could fay, might not perhaps exhaust the difficulty, that therefore in this and all fuch cases, for entire fatisfaction, we should have recourfe to the incomprehenfible wifdom of God, who frequently in the courfe of his providence. doth act upon grounds, and ordereth things in methods tranfcending our ability to difcover or trace: to confider fome caufes and reasons of which incomprehenfibility, and to ground thereon fome practical advices will be the fcope of my difcourfe. The reasons may be thefe : 1. As the dealings of wife men fometimes are founded upon maxims, and admit juftifications not obvious, nor penetrable by by vulgar minds, fo may God aft according to rules of wifdom. and juftice; which it may be impoffible by our faculties to apprehend. As there are natural modes of being and operation (fuch as God's neceffary fubfiftence, his production of things from nothing, his eternity without fucceffion, his immenfity without extenfion, his prefcience without neceffitation of events, his ever acting, but never changing, and the like) fo there may be prudential and moral rules of proceeding far above our reach; fo God himself tells us: As the heavens are higher than the earth, fo are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Some of them we may be incapable to know because of our finite nature; they being peculiar objects of divine wisdom, and not to be understood by any creature; for as God cannot impart the power of doing all things poffible, fo may he not cominunicate the faculty of knowing all things intelligible; that being indeed to ungod himself, or to deprive himself of his peerlefs fupremacy in wifdom; hence he is filed the only wife God; hence he chargeth the Angels with folly; hence the most illuminate Seraphims veil their faces before him. Other fuch rules we may not be able to perceive from the meanness of our nature, or our low rank among creatures; for beneath omnifcience there being innumerable forms of intelligence, in the lowest of these we fit, one remove from beafts; being endowed with capacities, fuitable to that inferior station, and to those meaner employments, for which we were defigned, and framed; whence our mind hath a pitch beyond which it cannot foar; and things clearly intelligible to more noble creatures, moving in a higher orb, may be dark and inexplicable to us: As an angel of God, Jo is my Lord the King, to difcern good and bad, was an expreffion importing this difference, how thofe glorious creatures overtop us in intellectual capacities, Alfo divers notions, not fimply paffing our capacity to know, we are not yet in condition to know, by reafon of our cir cumstances here, in this dark corner of things, to which we are confined, and wherein we lie under many disadvantages of attaining knowledge: he that is fhut up in a clofe place, and can only peep through chinks, who standeth in a valley, and hath his profpects intercepted, who is encompaffed with fogs who hath but a dufky light to view things by, whose eyes are weak or foul, how can he see much or far, how can he discern things remote, minute or fubtle, clearly and diftin&tly? Such is our cafe; our mind is pent up in the body, and looketh only through thofe clefts, by which objects ftrike our sense. Its intuition is limited within a very small compass; it refideth in an atmosphere of fancy, ftuffed with exhalations from temper, appetite, paffion, intereft; its light is fcant and faint (for fenfe and experience reach only fome few grofs matters of fact, light infufed, and revelation imparted to us, proceed in measures fixt by God) our ratiocination consequently from fuch principles must be very short and defective; nor are our minds ever thoroughly found or pure and defecate from prejudices; hence no wonder, that now we are wholly ignorant of divers great truths, or have but a glimmering notion of them, which we may, and hereafter fhall come fully and clearly to understand: fo that even Apoftles, the fecretaries of heaven, might fay, We know in part, and we prophesy in part; we now see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. In fine, thofe rules of equity or expedience, which we ufe in our transactions with one another (being derived from our original inclinations to like fome good things, or from notions ftamped on our foul, when God made us according to his image, from common experience, from any kind of rational collection, from the prefcription of God's word) if they be applied to the dealings of God, will be found very incongruous, or deficient; the cafe being vaftly altered from that infinite diftance in nature and ftate between God and us; and from |