Canft thou by fearching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto Perfection?

I

OB in the foregoing Chapter, car

ried the Juftification of his Integri

ty fo far, that he feem'd to entrench somewhat rudely on the Justice of Providence; Zophar therefore to repress this Infolence, and vindicate the Divine Honor, lays before him the Incomprehenfibleneẞ and Majesty of God. That this is a proper Topick to awe the Rafhness, and to chaftife the Pride of Man, is evident from hence, that God himself makes use of it to this End, Chap. 38. Then God answered fob out of the whirlwind, and faid, who is this that darkeneth Counsel by words without knowledge where waft thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? &c.

And if ever it were neceffary to pof

fefs our Minds with a due Sence of the

Meanness

Meanneß of Man, and the Majefty of God, 'tis now; now, when Luxury and Hypocrifie, Looseness and Corruption do not more openly infult and affront the Morals, than Atheism and Infidelity the Faith of Chriftianity; now, when Scepticism, Herefie and Impiety aflault our Religion with all the Artillery of Judaism, Arrianifm, Photinianifm, Turcifm: now, when bold Men trample under foot all Mysteries, and under colour of advancing free and impartial Reafon, do in effect cashier Revelation. Never therefore was it more neceffary than now to put the Queftion in my Text, and to invite the World to confider the Confequences naturally flowing from it. 'Tis a Question which implies its own Answer, Canft thou by fearching find out God? Canft thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? i. c. 'Tis paft all Controversie thou canst not. The Sense then of the Words is easily refolved into this Propofition: That God is incomprehenfible. I will therefore,

1. Affert and illuftrate this Doctrine in my Text, and then

2. Make two or three Inferences from it.

1. That

1. That God is incomprehenfible. This is an Article of the Athanafian Creed; and if univerfal Tradition may be allowed to weigh any thing, there is no Do&trine in our Religion can lay a fairer Claim to it; but it needs derive no Strength from Human Authority, being afferted in almost so many Words in my Text, and either in exprefs Terms, or immediate, neceffary, and obvious Consequence, in innumerable others; and I think all Men who have not abandon'd their Modesty, with their Faith, must confefs, that with respect to human Ca pacity, infinite and incomprehenfible are Terms almoft equivalent, and confequently whoever attributes the one to God must be obliged not to deny the other. All this being clear, I fhall not fo much labour to prove, as to illustrate, and unfold this Doctrine.

The Heathens painted their Demiurgus, to whom they affign'd Eternity, for a Companion in pitchy Darkness, retired within a Cave, which their Poets thus describe:

Eft ignota procul mentique impervia noftræ Vix adeunda Diis Not intimating by this, that they had no knowledge at all of God amongst

em

'em, but that the Perfections of the Divine Nature, were too vaft, too high, too deep, what fhall I fay, too myfterious for human Minds, nay for Angels to fearch out. 'Twas this notion made the Philofopher exact fo much Modefty and Reverence in all Difcourfes on Divine Things, which Seneca commends as a wife and great Thought.

Now all this was probably borrowed from Mofes and the Prophets, how near foever God was to Ifrael, yet would not he endure that they should approach too near to Mount Sinai to gaze, Exodus xix. 21. And how familiarly foever God would be confulted by Mofes, yet when he defired to see his Glory, Chap. 33. God faid unto him, Verse 20. thou canst not fee my face. And Verfe 23. Thou shalt

Jee my back parts but my face shall not be

feen. To the fame purpofe is that of the Prophet, Verily thou art a God that hideft thy felf, O God of Ifrael our Saviour, Ifai. xlv. 15. and that of Solomon, the Lord faid that he would dwell in the thick darkne, 1 Kings viii. 12. Under the Gospel indeed the Son of God is faid to have revealed God to us, John 1. 18. but yet even this Revelation must not be supposed to have exhausted all the Depths and Myfte

ries of the God head; for notwithstanding this Revelation, we as yet fee but as through a Glaß darkly, we know but in part, and prophefie in part, 1 Cor. xiii. 9. He is reveal'd to us, as he was in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire to Ifrael, to guide our feet into Canaan, not to entertain our Curiofity; that is, he is fufficiently revealed in order to Holineß and WorShip, but no further? for in all other Respects, if under the Old Testament, he made Darkneẞ his Pavilion, under the New, he dwells in Light inacceffible.

To advance to Particulars; If in the God head we gaze and pry too boldly into Eternal Generation and Proceffion, and the ineffable Unity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, it will but dazle and confound our weak Faculties; as far as the Scripture is plain, we may, and must advance, namely, that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, and yet there are not three Gods, but one God; if we content not our felves here, without a Philofophical Account of the mysterious and inexplicable Unity and Diftinction of Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, we fhall be more like to lose our felves than find out an incomprehenfible Truth. All human Explicati