Evidences of Christianity Author:Joseph Addison Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ADDITIONAL DISCOURSES. SECTION I. Of God, and his Attributes. Qui mare et terras, variisque mundum Temperat horis ? Unde nil majus generator ipso ; ... more »Nee viget quicquam simile, aut secundum. Hob. Od. 12. lib. I. v. 15. Who guides below, and rules above ? The great Disposer and the mighty King : Than he none greater, next him none, That can be, is, or was ; Supreme he singly fills the throne. Creech. Simonides being asked by Dionysius the tyrant, what God was, desired a day's time to consider of it before he made his reply : when the day was expired, he desired two days ; and afterwards, instead of returning his answer, demanded still double time to consider of it. This great poet and philosopher, the more he contemplated the nature of the Deity, found that he waded but the more out of his depth, and that he lost himself in the thought, instead of finding an end of it. If we consider the idea which wise men, by the light of reason, have framed of the Divine Being, it amounts to this : that he has in him all the perfection of a spiritual nature ; and since we have no notion of any kind of spiritual perfectionbut what we discover in our own souls, we join in- jmitude to each kind of these perfections, and what is a faculty in a human soul, becomes an attribute in God. We exist in place and time,—the Divine Being fills the immensity of space with his presence, and inhabits eternity. We are possessed of a little power and a little knowledge,— the Divine Being is almighty and omniscient. In short, by adding infinity to any kind of perfection we enjoy, and by joining all these different kinds of perfections in one being, we form our idea of the great Sovereign of nature. Though every one who thinks must have made this observation, I shall produce Mr. Locke...« less