Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

They never saw God, and therefore know not how to believe such a Being; they cannot comprehend him. He would not be God, if he could fall within the narrow Model of an humane Understanding: He would not be infinite, if he were comprehensible, or to be terminated by our sight. How small a thing must that be which is seen by a bodily Eye, or grasped by a weak Mind? If God were visible or comprehensible, he would be limited: Shall it be a sufficient Demonstration from a blind man, that there is no fire in the Room, because he sees it not, though he feel the warmth of it? The knowledge of the effect is sufficient to conclude the existence of the cause. Who ever saw his own Life? Is it sufficient to deny a man lives, because he beholds not his Life, and only knows it by his motion? He never saw his own Soul, but knows he hath one by his thinking power: The Air renders it self sensible to Men in its Operations, yet was never seen by the eye.

They never saw God, and therefore know not how to believe such a Being; they cannot comprehend him. He would not be God, if he could fall within the narrow Model of an humane Understanding: He would not be infinite, if he were comprehensible, or to be terminated by our sight. How small a thing must that be which is seen by a bodily Eye, or graspt by a weak Mind? If God were visible or comprehensible, he would be limited: Shall it be a sufficient Demonstration from a blind man, that there is no fire in the Room, because he sees it not, though he feel the warmth of it? The knowledge of the effect is sufficient to conclude the existence of the cause. Who ever saw his own Life? Is it sufficient to deny a man lives, because he beholds not his Life, and only knows it by his motion? He never saw his own Soul, but knows he hath one by his thinking power: The Air renders it self sensible to Men in its Operations, yet was never seen by the eye.

If God should render Himself visible, they might question as well as now, whether that which was so visible, were God or some delusion. If he should appear glorious, we can as little behold him in his Majestic Glory, as an Owl can behold the Sun in its brightness; we should still but see him in his Effects, as we do the Sun by his Beams. If he should show a new Miracle, we should still see him but by his Works; so we see him in his Creatures, every one of which would be as great a Miracle as any can be wrought, to one that had the first prospect of them. To require to see God, is to require that which is impossible,