At least if it appear more pious and
respectful (as it really is) still to retain these terms, when we
mention the Supreme Being, we ought to acknowledge, that their
meaning, in that case, is totally incomprehensible; and that the
infirmities of our nature do not permit us to reach any ideas
which in the least correspond to the ineffable sublimity of the
Divine attributes.
* * * *
PART 4
It seems strange to me, said C/LEANTHES\, that you, D/EMEA\,
who are so sincere in the cause of religion, should still
maintain the mysterious, incomprehensible nature of the Deity,
and should insist so strenuously that he has no manner of
likeness or resemblance to human creatures. The Deity, I can
readily allow, possesses many powers and attributes of which we
can have no comprehension: But if our ideas, so far as they go,
be not just, and adequate, and correspondent to his real nature,
I know not what there is in this subject worth insisting on. Is
the name, without any meaning, of such mighty importance? Or how
do you mystics, who maintain the absolute incomprehensibility of
the Deity, differ from Sceptics or Atheists, who assert, that the
first cause of all is unknown and unintelligible? Their temerity
must be very great, if, after rejecting the production by a mind,
I mean a mind resembling the human, (for I know of no other,)
they pretend to assign, with certainty, any other specific
intelligible cause: And their conscience must be very scrupulous
indeed, if they refuse to call the universal unknown cause a God
or Deity; and to bestow on him as many sublime eulogies and
unmeaning epithets as you shall please to require of them.
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