sensibility, that we are deaf to the great and univerfal voice of nature. Thou art every where about us, andwithin us; but we wander from ourfelves, become ftrangers to our own fouls, and do not apprehend thy prefence. O thou, who art the eternal fountain of light and beauty, who art the ancient of days, without beginning and without end; O thou, who art the life of all that truly live, those can never fail to find thee, who feek for thee within themselves. But alas the very gifts which thou beftoweft upon us, do fo em-ploy our thoughts, that they hinder us from perceiving the hand which conveys them to us. We live by thee, and yet we live without thinking on thee, but, O Lord, what is life in the ignorance of thee? A dead inactive piece of matter, a flower that withers, a river that glides away, a palace that haftens to its ruin, a picture made up of fading colours, a mass of fhining ore, ftrike our imaginations, and make us fenfible of their existence. We regard them as objects capable of giving us pleasure, not confidering that thou conveyeft through them all the pleafure which we imagine they give us. Such vain empty objects that are only the fhadows of being, are proportioned to our low and groveling thoughts. That beauty which thou haft poured out on thy creation, is as a veil which hides thee from our eyes. As thou art a Being too pure and exalted to pafs through our fenfes, thou art not regarded by men, who have debafed their nature, and have made themselves like the beafts that perish. infatuated are they, that, notwithstanding they know, what is wisdom and virtue, which have neither found, nor colour, nor finell, nor taste, nor figure, nor any. other fenfible quality, they can doubt of thy existence, because thou art not apprehended by the groffer organs of.fenfe. Wretches that we are! We confider fhadows as realities, and truth as a phantom. That which is nothing, is all to us, and that which is all, appears to us nothing. What do we fee in all nature but thee, O my God! Thou, and only thou, appeareft in every. thing. When I confider thee, O Lord, I am swallowed up, and lost in contemplation of thee.

So

Every

g befides thee, even my own exiftence, vanishes and difappears in the contemplation of thee. I am loft to myself, and fall into nothing, when I think on thee. The man who does not fee thee, has beheld nothing; he who does not taste thee, has a relish of nothing. His being is vain, and his life but a dream. Set up thyfelf, O Lord, fet up thyfelf that we may behold thee. As wax confumes before the fire, and as the smoke is driven away, fo let thine enemies vanish out of thy prefence. How unhappy is that foul who, without the fenfe of thee, has no God, no hope, no comfort, to fupport him! But how happy the man who fearches, fighs, and thirfts after thee! But he only is fully happy on whom thou lifteft up the light of thy countenance, whofe tears thou haft wiped away, and who enjoys in thy loving kindness the completion of all his defires. How long, how long, O Lord, fhall I wait for that day, when I fhall poffefs, in thy prefence, fulness of joy, and pleafures for evermore? O my God, in this pleafing hope, my bones rejoice and cry out, Who is like unto thee? My heart melts away, and my foul faints within me, when I look up to thee, who art the God of my life, and my portion to all eternity."

GUARDIAN, Vol. I. No. 69. I will make no apology for preferring this letter, and the extract following, to any thing elfe which I could poflibly infert.

SIR,

Cambridge, May 31.

"YOU having been pleased to take notice of what you conceived excellent in fome of our English divines, I have here prefumed to fend a fpecimen, which, if I am not mistaken, may, for acuteness of judgment, ornament of fpeech, and true fublime, compare with any of the choiceft writings of the ancient fathers or doctors of the church, who lived nearest to the Apostles' times. The fubject is no lefs than that of God himself; and the defign, befides doing fome honour to our nation, is to fhew, by a fresh example, to

what a height and strength of thought a perfon, who appears not to be by nature endued with the quickest parts, may arrive through a fincere and fteady practice of the chriftian religion, I mean as taught and administered in the church of England: Which will, at the fame time, prove that the force of fpiritual affiftance is not at all abated by length of time, or the iniquity of mankind; but that if men were not wanting to themselves, and (as our excellent author (peaks) could but be perfuaded to conform to our church rules, they might still live as the primitive Chriftians did, and come fhort of none of thofe eminent faints for virtue and holiness. The author from whom this collection is made, is Bishop Beveridge, Vol. 2. Serm. PHILOTHEUS.

In treating upon that paffage in the book of Exodus, where Mofes being ordered to lead the children of Ifrael out of Egypt, he afked God what name he fhould mention Him by to that people, in order to difpofe them to obey him; and God answered, I am, that I am; and bade him tell them, I'am hath fent me unto you: The admirable author thus difcourfes; God having been pleafed to reveal himself to us under this name or title, I am, that I am, he thereby fuggefts to us, that he would not have us apprehend of Him, as of any particular or limited being, but as a Being in general, or the Being of all Beings; who giveth being to, and therefore exercifeth authority over all things in the world. He did not anfwer Mofes, I am the great, the living, the true, the everlasting God; he did not fay I am the Almighty Creator, Preferver and Governor of the whole world, but I am, that I am: Intimating; that Mofes defired fuch a name of God as might fully defcribe his nature as in itfelf, wich is a thing impoffible, there being no words to be found in any language, whereby to exprefs the glory of an infinite Being, especially so as that finite creatures fhould be able fully to conceive it. Yet, however, in these words he is pleafed to acquaint us what kind of thoughts he would have us entertain of him: Infomuch that could we but rightly apprehend what is

under and intended by them, we should efs have as high and true conceptions of God! it is poffible for any creatures to have-The anfwer given fuggefts farther to us thefe following notions of the most high God, First, that he is one Being existing in and of himself: His unity is implied in that he faith, I; his existence in that he faith I am; his fence in and of himself, in that he faith I am, that I am, that is, I am in and of myself, not receiving any thing from, nor depending upon any other-The fame expreflion implies, that as God is only one, fo that he is a muft pure and fimple being; for here, we fee, he admits nothing into the manifeftation of himself but pure effence, faying, lam, that I am, that is, being itself, without any mixture, or compofition. And therefore we muft not conceive of God, as made up of feveral parts, or faculties, or ingredients, but only as one, who is that he is, and whatsoever is in him is himself: And although we read of several properties attributed to him in fcripture, as wildem, goodness, juftice, &c. we must not apprehend them to be feveral powers, habits or qualities, as they are in us; for as they are in God, they are neither diftinguished from one another, nor from his nature or effence, in whom they are faid to be. In whom, I fay they are faid to be: For to speak properly, they are not in him, but are his very effence or nature felf; which acting feverally upon feveral obje&s, feems to us to act from feveral properties or perfections in him; whereas all the difference is only in our different apprehenfions of the fame thing. God in himself is a moft fimple and pure act, and therefore cannot have any thing in him but what is that most fimple and pure act ifelf; which feeing it bringeth upon every. creature, what it deferves, we conceive of it as of feveral divine perfections in the fame Almighty Being. Whereas God, whose understanding is infinite as himfelf, doth not apprehend himself under the diftinct notions of wisdom, or goodness, or juftice, or the like, but only as Jehovah : And therefore, in this place he doth not fay, I am rvife, or juft; or good, but fimply, I am, that I am.

Having thus offered a fomething towards the explication of the first of these myfterious fayings in the anfwer God made to Mojes, when he defigned to encourage him to lead his people out of Egypt, he proceeds to confider the other, whereby God calls himfelf abfolutely I am. Concerning which he takes notice, That though I am be commonly a verb of the first person, yet it is here used as a noun fubftantive, or proper name, and is the nominative cafe to another verb of the third person in these words, I am haib fent me unto you. A ftrange expreffion! But when God fpeaks of himfelf, he cannot be confined to grammar rules, being infinitely above and beyond the reach of all languages in the world. And therefore it is no wonder that when he would reveal himself, he goes out of our common way of speaking one to another, and expreffeth himfelf in a way peculiar to himself, and such as is suitable and proper to his own nature and glory.

"Hence therefore, as when he 1peaks of himself and his own eternal effence, he faith, I am, that I am; fo when he fpeaks of himself, with reference to his creatures, and efpecially to his people, he faith, I um. He doth not fay I am their light, their life, their guide, their strength, or tower, but only I am: He fets as it were his hand eto a blank, that his people may write under it what they please that is good for them.

As if he fhould

fay, Are they weak, I am frength. Are they poor, I am riches. Are they in trouble, I am comfort. Are they fick, I am health. Are they dying, I am life. Have they nothing, I am all things. I am wifdom and power, I am juftice and mercy, I am grace and goodness, I am glory, beauty, holineis, eminency, fupereminency, perfection, allfufficiency, eternity, Jehovah, I am. Whatfoever is fuitable to their nature, or convenient for them in their feveral conditions, that Iam: Whatsoever is amiable in itself, or defirable unto them, that I am. Whatsoever is pure and holy, whatfoever is great and pleafant, whatsoever is good or needful to make men happy, that i am. So that, in short, God here represents himfelf unto us as an universal good, and leaves us to