by that image, is idolatry. Though the Israelites did not acknowledge
the calf to be God, nor intended a worship to any of the Egyptian
deities by it; but worshipped that God in it, who had so lately and
miraculously delivered them from a cruel servitude; and could not in
natural reason judge him to be clothed with a bodily shape, much less
to be like an ox that eateth grass; yet the apostle brings no less
a charge against them than that of idolatry (1 Cor. x. 7); he calls
them idolaters, who before that calf kept a feast to Jehovah, citing
Exod. xxxii. 5. Suppose we could make such an image of God as might
perfectly represent him; yet since God hath prohibited it, shall we
be wiser than God? He hath sufficiently manifested himself in his
works without images: He is seen in the creatures, more particularly
in the heavens, which declare his glory. His works are more excellent
representations of him, as being the works of his own hands, than
anything that is the product of the art of man. His glory sparkles in
the heavens, sun, moon, and stars, as being magnificent pieces of his
wisdom and power; yet the kissing the hand to the sun or the heavens,
as representatives of the {a196} excellency and majesty of God,
is idolatry in Scripture account, and a denial of God;[395] a
prostituting the glory of God to a creature. Either the worship is
terminated on the image itself, and then it is confessed by all to
be idolatry, because it is a giving that worship to a creature which
is the sole right of God, or not terminated in the image, but in
the object represented by it; it is then a foolish thing; we may as
well terminate our worship on the true object without, as with an
image.[396] An erected statue is no sign or symbol of God’s special
presence, as the ark, tabernacle, temple were. It is no part of divine
institution; has no authority of a command to support it; no cordial
of a promise to encourage it; and the image being infinitely distant
from, and below the majesty and spirituality of God, cannot constitute
one object of worship with him. To put a religious character upon any
image formed by the corrupt imagination of man, as a representation of
the invisible and spiritual Deity, is to think the Godhead to be like
silver and gold, or stone graven by art and man’s device.[397]
III. This doctrine will direct us in our conceptions of God, as a pure
perfect Spirit, than which nothing can be imagined more perfect, more
pure, more spiritual.
1. 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 excellency 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 excellency, and point us to those excellencies in his
works, whereby we may ascend to the knowledge of those excellencies
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. “God is not like to visible creatures, nor
is there any proportion between him and the most spiritual.”[398] We
cannot have a full notion of a spiritual nature, much less can we have
of God, who is a Spirit above spirits. No spirit can clearly represent
him: the angels, that are great spirits, are bounded in their extent,
finite in their being, and of a mutable nature. Yet though we cannot
have a suitable conception of God, we must not content ourselves
without any conception of him. It is our sin not to endeavor after
a true notion of {a197} him: it is our sin to rest in a mean and
low notion of him, when our reason tells us we are capable of having
higher: but if we ascend as high as we can, though we shall then
come short of a suitable notion of him, this is not our sin, but our
weakness. God is infinitely superior to the choicest conceptions, not
only of a sinner, but of a creature. If all conceptions of God below
the true nature of God were sin, there is not a holy angel in heaven
free from sin; because, though they are the most capacious creatures,
yet they cannot have such a notion of an infinite Being as is fully
suitable to his nature, unless they were infinite as he himself is.
2. But, however, we must by no means conceive of God under a human or
corporeal shape. Since we cannot have conceptions honorable enough for
his nature, we must take heed we entertain not any which may debase
his nature; though we cannot comprehend him as he is, we must be
careful not to fancy him to be what he is not. It is a vain thing to
conceive him with human lineaments: we must think higher of him than
to ascribe to him so mean a shape: we deny his spirituality when we
fancy him under such a form. He is spiritual, and between that which
is spiritual and that which is corporeal, there is no resemblance.[399]
Indeed, Daniel saw God in a human form (Dan. vii. 9): “The Ancient
of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hairs of
his head like pure wool:” he is described as coming to judgment; it
is not meant of Christ probably, because Christ (ver. 13) is called
the Son of Man coming near to the Ancient of days. This is not the
proper shape of God, for no man hath seen his shape. It was a vision
wherein such representations were made, as were accommodated to
the inward sense of Daniel; Daniel saw him in a rapture or ecstacy,
wherein outward senses are of no use. God is described, not as he is
in himself, of a human form, but in regard of his fitness to judge:
“white,” notes the purity and simplicity of the Divine nature;
“Ancient of days,” in regard of his eternity; “white hair,” in regard
of his prudence and wisdom, which is more eminent in age than youth,
and more fit to discern causes and to distinguish between right and
wrong. Visions are riddles, and must not be understood in a literal
sense. We are to watch against such determinate conceptions of God.
Vain imaginations do easily infest us; tinder will not sooner take
fire than our natures kindle into wrong notions of the Divine Majesty.
We are very apt to fashion a god like ourselves; we must therefore
look upon such representations of God, as accommodated to our weakness:
and no more think them to be literal descriptions of God, as he is in
himself, than we will think the image of the sun in the water, to be
the true sun in the heavens. We may, indeed, conceive of Christ as man,
who hath in heaven the vestment of our nature, and is _Deus figuratus_,
though we cannot conceive the godhead under a human shape.
1. To have such a fancy is to disparage and wrong God. A corporeal
fancy of God is as ridiculous in itself, and as injurious to God,
as a wooden statue. The caprices of our imagination are often
more mysterious than the images which are the works of art; it is
as irreligious {a198} to measure God’s essence by our line, his
perfections by our imperfections, as to measure his thoughts and
actings by the weakness and unworthiness of our own. This is to limit
an infinite essence, and pull him down to our scanty measures, and
render that which is unconceivably above us, equal with us. It is
impossible we can conceive God after the manner of a body, but we
must bring him down to the proportion of a body, which is to diminish
his glory, and stoop him below the dignity of his nature. God is a
pure Spirit, he hath nothing of the nature and tincture of a body;
whosoever, therefore, conceives of him as having a bodily form, though
he fancy the most beautiful and comely body, instead of owning his
dignity, detracts from the super‑eminent excellency of his nature and
blessedness. When men fancy God like themselves in their corporeal
nature, they will soon make a progress, and ascribe to him their
corrupt nature; and while they clothe him with their bodies, invest
him also in the infirmities of them. God is a jealous God, very
sensible of any disgrace, and will be as much incensed against an
inward idolatry as an outward: that command which forbade corporeal
images,[400] would not indulge carnal imaginations; since the nature
of God is as much wronged by unworthy images, erected in the fancy,
as by statues carved out of stone or metals: one as well as the other
is a deserting of our true spouse, and committing adultery; one with
a material image, and the other with a carnal notion of God. Since
God humbles himself to our apprehensions, we should not debase him
in thinking him to be that in his nature, which he makes only a
resemblance of himself to us.
2. To have such fancies of God, will obstruct and pollute our worship
of him. How is it possible to give him a right worship, of whom we
have so debasing a notion? We shall never think a corporeal deity
worthy of a dedication of our spirits. The hating instruction, and
casting God’s word behind the back, is charged upon the imagination
they had, that “God was such a one as themselves” (Psalm l. 17, 21).
Many of the wiser heathens did not judge their statues to be their
gods, or their gods to be like their statues; but suited them to
their politic designs; and judged them a good invention to keep people
within the bounds of obedience and devotion, by such visible figures
of them, which might imprint a reverence and fear of those gods upon
them; but these are false measures; a despised and undervalued God is
not an object of petition or affection. Who would address seriously
to a God he has low apprehensions of? The more raised thoughts we have
of him, the viler sense we shall have of ourselves; they would make us
humble and self‑abhorrent in our supplications to him (Job xlii. 6):
“wherefore I abhor myself,” &c.
3. Though we must not conceive of God, as of a human or corporeal
shape; yet we cannot think of God, without some reflection upon our
own being. We cannot conceive him to be an intelligent being, but we
must make some comparison between him and our own understanding nature
to come to a knowledge of him. Since we are enclosed in bodies, we
apprehend nothing but what comes in {a199} by sense, and what we in
some sort measure by sensible objects. And in the consideration of
those things which we desire to abstract from sense, we are fain to
make use of the assistance of sense and visible things: and therefore
when we frame the highest notion, there will be some similitude of
some corporeal thing in our fancy; and though we would spiritualize
our thoughts, and aim at a more abstracted and raised understanding,
yet there will be some dregs of matter sticking to our conceptions;
yet we still judge by argument and reasoning, what the thing is we
think of under those material images. A corporeal image will follow
us, as the shadow doth the body.[401] While we are in the body, and
surrounded with fleshly matter, we cannot think of things without some
help from corporeal representations: something of sense will interpose
itself in our purest conceptions of spiritual things;[402] for the
faculties which serve for contemplation, are either corporeal, as the
sense and fancy, or so allied to them, that nothing passes into them
but by the organs of the body; so that there is a natural inclination
to figure nothing but under a corporeal notion, till by an attentive
application of the mind and reason to the object thought upon, we
separate that which is bodily from that which is spiritual, and by
degrees ascend to that true notion of that we think upon, and would
have a due conception of in our mind. Therefore God tempers the
declaration of himself to our weakness, and the condition of our
natures. He condescends to our littleness and narrowness, when he
declares himself by the similitude of bodily members. As the light of
the sun is tempered, and diffuseth itself to our sense through the air
and vapors, that our weak eyes may not be too much dazzled with it;
without it we could not know or judge of the sun, because we could
have no use of our sense, which we must have before we can judge of
it in our understanding; so we are not able to conceive of spiritual
beings in the purity of their own nature, without such a temperament,
and such shadows to usher them into our minds. And therefore we find
the Spirit of God accommodates himself to our contracted and teddered
capacities, and uses such expressions of God as are suited to us in
this state of flesh wherein we are. And therefore because we cannot
apprehend God in the simplicity of his own being, and his undivided
essence, he draws the representations of himself from several
creatures and several actions of those creatures: as sometimes he is
said to be angry, to walk, to sit, to fly; not that we should rest in
such conceptions of him, but take our rise from this foundation, and
such perfections in the creatures, to mount up to a knowledge of God’s
nature by those several steps, and conceive of him by those divided
excellencies, because we cannot conceive of him in the purity of
his own essence. We cannot possibly think or speak of God, unless we
transfer the names of created perfections to him;[403] yet we are to
conceive of them in a higher manner when we apply them to the Divine
nature, than when we consider them in the several creatures formally,
exceeding those perfections and excellencies which are in the creature,
and in a more excellent manner: “as one saith, though {a200} we cannot
comprehend God without the help of such resemblances, yet we may,
without making an image of him; so that inability of ours excuseth
those apprehensions of him from any way offending against his Divine
nature.”[404] These are not notions so much suited to the nature of
God as the weakness of man. They are helps to our meditations, but
ought not to be formal conceptions of him. We may assist ourselves in
our apprehensions of him, by considering the subtilty and spirituality
of air; and considering the members of a body, without thinking him
to be air, or to have any corporeal member. Our reason tells us,
that whatsoever is a body, is limited and bounded; and the notion
of infiniteness and bodiliness, cannot agree and consist together:
and therefore what is offered by our fancy should be purified by our
reason.
4. Therefore we are to elevate and refine all our notions of God, and
spiritualize our conceptions of him. Every man is to have a conception
of God; therefore he ought to have one of the highest elevation. Since
we cannot have a full notion of him, we should endeavor 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
conceptions 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 doth not terminate them: we conceive them to be of a
vast extent, far beyond that short description of them. So we should
endeavor to refine every representation of God, to rise higher and
higher, and have our apprehensions still more purified; separating the
perfect from the imperfect, casting away the one, and greatening the
other; conceive him to be a Spirit diffused through all, containing
all, perceiving all. All the perfections of God are infinitely
elevated above the excellencies of the creatures; above whatsoever
can be conceived by the clearest and most piercing understanding.
The nature of God as a Spirit is infinitely superior to whatsoever
we can conceive perfect in the notion of a created spirit. Whatsoever
God is, he is infinitely so: he is infinite Wisdom, infinite Goodness,
infinite Knowledge, infinite Power, infinite Spirit; infinitely
distant from the weakness of creatures, infinitely mounted above
the excellencies of creatures: as easy to be known that he is,
as impossible to be comprehended what he is. Conceive of him as
excellent, without any imperfection; a Spirit without parts; great
without quantity; perfect without quality; everywhere without place;
powerful without members; understanding without ignorance; wise
without reasoning; light without darkness; infinitely more excelling
the beauty of all creatures, than the light in the sun, pure and
unviolated, exceeds the splendor of the sun dispersed and divided
through a cloudy and misty air: and when you have risen to the highest,
conceive him yet infinitely above all you can conceive of spirit,
and acknowledge the infirmity of your own minds. And whatsoever
conception comes into your minds, say, This is not God; God is more
than this: if I could conceive {a201} him, he were not God; for God
is incomprehensibly above whatsoever I can say, whatsoever I can think
and conceive of him.
_Inference 1._ If God be a Spirit, no corporeal thing can defile
him. Some bring an argument against the omnipresence of God, that it
is a disparagement to the Divine essence to be everywhere, in nasty
cottages as well as beautiful palaces and garnished temples. What
place can defile a spirit? Is light, which approaches to the nature of
spirit, polluted by shining upon a dunghill, or a sunbeam tainted by
darting upon a quagmire? Doth an angel contract any soil, by stepping
into a nasty prison to deliver Peter? What can steam from the most
noisome body to pollute the spiritual nature of God? As he is “of
purer eyes than to behold iniquity,”[405] so he is of a more spiritual
substance than to contract any physical pollution from the places
where he doth diffuse himself. Did our Saviour, who had a true body,
derive any taint from the lepers he touched, the diseases he cured, or
the devils he expelled? God is a pure Spirit; plungeth himself into no
filth; is dashed with no spot by being present with all bodies. Bodies
only receive defilement from bodies.
_Inference 2._ If God be a Spirit, he is active and communicative.
He is not clogged with heavy and sluggish matter, which is cause of
dulness and inactivity. The more subtle, thin, and approaching nearer
the nature of a spirit anything is, the more diffusive it is. Air
is a gliding substance; spreads itself through all regions, pierceth
into all bodies; it fills the space between heaven and earth; there is
nothing but partakes of the virtue of it. Light, which is an emblem of
spirit, insinuates itself into all places, refresheth all things. As
spirits are fuller, so they are more overflowing, more piercing, more
operative than bodies. The Egyptian horses were weak things, because
they were “flesh, and not spirit.”[406] The soul being a spirit,
conveys more to the body than the body can to it. What cannot so
great a spirit do for us? What cannot so great a spirit work in us?
God, being a spirit above all spirits, can pierce into the centre of
all spirits; make his way into the most secret recesses; stamp what
he pleases. It is no more to him to turn our spirits, than to make a
wilderness become waters, and speak a chaos into a beautiful frame of
heaven and earth. He can act our souls with infinite more ease than
our souls can act our bodies; he can fix in us what motions, frames,
inclinations he pleases; he can come and settle in our hearts with
all his treasures. It is an encouragement to confide in him, when
we petition him for spiritual blessings: as he is a spirit, he is
possessed with “spiritual blessings.”[407] A spirit delights to bestow
things suitable to its nature, as bodies do to communicate what is
agreeable to theirs. As he is a Father of spirits, we may go to him
for the welfare of our spirits; he being a Spirit, is as able to
repair our spirits as he was to create them. As he is a Spirit, he is
indefatigable in acting. The members of the body tire and flag; but
who ever heard of a soul wearied with being active? who ever heard of
a weary angel? In the purest simplicity, there is the greatest power,
the most efficacious goodness, the most reaching justice to affect
the spirit, that can insinuate itself everywhere {a202} to punish
wickedness without weariness, as well as to comfort goodness. God
is active, because he is spirit; and if we be like to God, the more
spiritual we are, the more active we shall be.
_Inference 3._ God being a Spirit, is immortal. His being immortal,
and being invisible, are joined together.[408] Spirits are in their
nature incorruptible; they can only perish by that hand that framed
them. Every compounded thing is subject to mutation; but God, being
a pure and simple Spirit, is without corruption, without any shadow
of change.[409] Where there is composition, there is some kind
of repugnancy of one part against the other; and where there is
repugnancy, there is a capability of dissolution. God, in regard of
his infinite spirituality, hath nothing in his own nature contrary
to it; can have nothing in himself which is not himself. The world
perishes; friends change and are dissolved; bodies moulder, because
they are mutable. God is a Spirit in the highest excellency and glory
of spirits; nothing is beyond him; nothing above him; no contrariety
within him. This is our comfort, if we devote ourselves to him;
this God is our God; this Spirit is our Spirit; this is our all,
our immutable, our incorruptible support; a Spirit that cannot die
and leave us.
_Inference 4._ If God be a Spirit, we see how we can only converse
with him by our spirits. Bodies and spirits are not suitable to one
another: we can only see, know, embrace a spirit with our spirits. He
judges not of us by our corporeal actions, nor our external devotions
by our masks and disguises: he fixes his eye upon the frame of the
heart, bends his ear to the groans of our spirits. He is not pleased
with outward pomp. He is not a body; therefore the beauty of temples,
delicacy of sacrifices, fumes of incense, are not grateful to him;
by those, or any external action, we have no communion with him.
A spirit, when broken, is his delightful sacrifice;[410] we must
therefore, have our spirits fitted for him, “be renewed in the spirit
of our minds,”[411] that we may be in a posture to live with him, and
have an intercourse with him. We can never be united to God but in
our spirits: bodies unite with bodies, spirits with spirits. The more
spiritual anything is, the more closely doth it unite. Air hath the
closest union; nothing meets together sooner than that, when the parts
are divided by the interposition of a body.
_Inference 5._ If God be a Spirit, he can only be the true
satisfaction of our spirits: spirit can only be filled with spirit:
content flows from likeness and suitableness. As we have a resemblance
to God in regard of the spiritual nature of our soul, so we can have
no satisfaction but in him. Spirit can no more be really satisfied
with that which is corporeal, than a beast can delight in the company
of an angel. Corporeal things can no more fill a hungry spirit, than
pure spirit can feed an hungry body. God, the highest Spirit, can only
reach out a full content to our spirits. Man is lord of the creation:
nothing below him can be fit for his converse; nothing above him
offers itself to his converse but God. We have no correspondence with
angels. The influence they have upon us, the protection they {a203}
afford us, is secret and undiscerned; but God, the highest Spirit,
offers himself to us in his Son, in his ordinances, is visible in
every creature, presents himself to us in every providence; to him
we must seek; in him we must rest. God had no rest from the creation
till he had made man; and man can have no rest in the creation till
he rests in God. God only is our dwelling place;[412] our souls should
only long for him:[413] our souls should only wait upon him. The
spirit of man never riseth to its original glory, till it be carried
up on the wings of faith and love to its original copy. The face
of the soul looks most beautiful, when it is turned to the face of
God, the Father of spirits; when the derived spirit is fixed upon
the original Spirit, drawing from it life and glory. Spirit is only
the receptacle of spirit. God, as Spirit, is our principle; we must
therefore live upon him. God, as Spirit, hath some resemblance to us
as his image; we must, therefore, only satisfy ourselves in him.