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the intire system of matter under his direction SER M. to form and dispose of it at his pleasure, not IV. fubject to fuch impreffions from it, nor tied down to fuch a manner of acting upon it, as inferior fpirits are, by the limited condition of their nature, and by the constitution which he has appointed for them..

The notion of fome ancient philofophers, particularly the Stoics, that God is the foul of the world, was mean and unworthy of his high perfections. Tho' it imply'd an acknowledgment of the Divine Prefence in all parts of the universe, every where intelligent and governing the whole, and reprefented all, even the most different and the most distant parts of the world, as united together in one fyftem, under the care and direction of one sympathizing intelligent nature, which continually promotes the greatest abfolute good of the whole, (which was a noble fentiment much infifted on by fome of those learned men, and improv❜d by them to excellent practical purpofes;) yet that the Deity animates the Mundane fyftem in the fame manner that the human foul animates the human body, is too low a way of thinking concerning the supreme Being. For befides that it naturally leads one to imagine an independence of the world in its being, on the eternal fpirit, (as the human mind

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SER M.mind does not make its own body, nor has a power over its existence,) which probably was the erroneous opinion of fome of the ancients, and tends to limit the Divine absolute perfections and Presence to created nature; it carries in it fuch an idea of his fubjection to impreffions, and even uneafineffes arifing from the disorders of the world, as is inconfiftent with the infinite immutable excellence and happiness of his independent Being. Being. The notion of an eminent modern philosopher is much more just and reasonable, who, as the refult of his moft curious and excellent obfervations on the Divine counsel and power manifested in the system of the universe, fays, that the Deity imports the dominion of a spiritual Being over the world, not as his own body but as his fervants, intirely subject to his government *.

This leads us to confider the peculiar and tranfcendent excellence of God as a Spirit. Tho' fome inferior beings have the fame denomination, and are truly of a fpiritual nature, yet he is of an intirely different, and infinitely more perfect kind. There may be, for aught we know, as great a diverfity in the fpiritual, as in the material world; as many different fpecies of fpirits, that is, of beings which have no bodily fubftance, as there are * Sir Ifaac Newton, Schol. Gener.

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of vifible forms; and fome of them as much SERM, inferior to, as well as diftinct from others, as the lower kinds of life, perception and activity, are from dead and senseless matter itself. We must not therefore imagine, that we have form'd an adequate idea of God's nature, when we have prov'd him to be a spirit, and conceive of him as fuch; meaning by that name a living, intellectual and active being, effentially distinguish'd from corporeal fubstance. For tho' that is truly affirm'd of him in common with other fpirits, yet he excels all other, even intellectual natures, more than our fouls do the lowest inanimate beings.

There are two principal properties of spirit, intelligence and activity, which as I have shewn, must be attributed to the Deity; but they belong to him in an infinitely higher degree, and are exercis'd by him in a more perfect manner than by any dependent being. Tho' the common ufe of all languages afcribes to God the perceptions we are confcious of in ourselves, as feeing and hearing and remembrance'; nay, and the organs of fenfation, fuch as eyes and ears; yet fcarcely are there any fo ignorant as to understand thefe forms of fpeaking in a literal sense, but every one means by them the Divine most exact knowledge and difcernment of things, to which our low and

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SERM.imperfect manner of perceiving by corporeal IV. organs, bears fome analogy. He that made

the eye of man, to convey to him fuch a representation and knowledge of external objects as is not compleat and thoroughly comprehenfive of their nature, but accommodated to the purposes of our prefent ftate, and proportionate to the other imperfect faculties of the human mind; be, the Maker, fees, not in a ftrict and proper fenfe as we do, but underftands all things in a more eminent and perfect manner. He that made the ear, the inftrument by which are convey'd to us, the fentiments and defires of our fellow-creatures moving our affections; he, in a fuperior and more perfect way, knows and understands the fentiments and defires of all intelligent beings, whether conceiv'd only in the mind or exprefs'd by the mouth. In like manner as the human ftrength and power of operation are exerted by the means of arms and hands, these bodily organs are figuratively attributed to God to denote his Almighty power; tho' it is exercised by him in a quite different manner, which we cannot comprehend, but we are fure it is not like tedious and laborious human operation.,

In a special manner it is to be obferv'd, that many of the springs of action in embodied fpirits, fetting their powers at work, and which

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we are conscious of in ourselves, tho they are SER M. analogically attributed to the infinite eternal IV. Mind, yet do not properly belong to him. The wife Author of our conftitution has feen fit to mix in it, with fuperior faculties, fome lower appetites and paffions, which powerfully excite us to purfue the ends of our nature in the prefent imperfect ftate. Our minds are furnish'd with determinations which tend to the preservation of the body, and to the comfort and happiness of the animal life: We have defires and affections which rife no higher in their defign; and we have paffions which are excited by, and accompanied with certain motions in the body. But the divine purely fpiritual nature is infinitely above these infirmities. Some of the heathens were fo grofs as to think the gods capable of fenfual defires, and pleasure in the gratification of them; and perhaps there are others who imagine fomething like human paffions in the Deity, particularly the paffions of pity, hatred, anger and grief. Indeed the Scripture itself speaks of God's hating the wicked, of his bowels of compaffion mov'd for diftreffed creatures, and of his anger and grief. But thefe expreffions are only us❜d in the fame figurative manner of speaking as when the bodily organs of sense and motion are afcrib'd to him, and we should

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