the highest veneration and most profound submission and obedience are due' (Barrow, On the Creed). 'Our notion of Deitj',' says Bishop Pearson, 'doth expressly signify a Being or Nature of infinite perfection ; and the infinite perfection of a being or nature consists in this, that it be absolutely and essentially necessa- ry, an actual being of itself, and potential or causa- tive of all beings beside itself; independent from any other, upon which all things else depend, and bj' which all things else are governed' (Pearson, On the Creed). 'God is a Being,' saj's Lawson, 'and not any kind of being, but a substance which is the foundation of oth- er beings ; and not onl)^ a substance, but perfect. Yet many beings are perfect in their kind, yet limited and finite ; but God is absolutely, full}-, and ever}' wav in- finitely perfect, and therefore above spirits, above an- gels, who are perfect comparatively. God's infinite perfection includes all tlie attributes, even the most excellent. It excludes all dependency, borrowed ex- istence, composition, corruption, mortality, contingen- cy, ignorance, unrighteousness, weakness, misery, and all imperfections whatever. It includes necessity of being, independence^, perfect unity, simplicity, im- mensity, eternity, immortality ; the most perfect life, knowledge, wisdom, integrity, power, glory, bliss, and all these in the highest degree. We can not pierce into the secrets of this eternal Being. Our reason comprehends but little of him, and when it can proceed no farther faith comes in, and we believe far more than we can understand; and this our belief is not contrary to reason, but reason itself dictates unto us that we must believe far more of God than it can inform us of (Lawson, Theo-PoHtica^. To these we may add an ad- mirable passage from Sir Isaac Newton : ' The word God frequently signifies Lord, but every lord is not God: it is the dominion of a spiritual Being or Lord that constitutes God ; true dominion, true God ; su- preme, the Supreme ; feigned, the false god. From such true dominion it follows that the true God is liv- ing, intelligent, and powerful, and from his other per- fections that he is supreme, or supreme]}' perfect; he is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient ; that is, he endui'es from eternity to eternity, and is present from infinitj' to infinity. He governs all things that exist, and knows all things that are to be known ; he is not eternity or infinity, but eternal and infinite ; he is not duration or space, but he endures and is present — he endures alwaj's and is present everj' where ; he is omnipresent, not only virtually, but also substantially, for power without substance can not subsist. All things ai-e contained and move in him, but without any mutual passion ; he suffers nothing from the motions of bodies, nor do they undergo any resistance from his omnipresence. It is confessed that God exists neces- sarily, and by the same necessitj' he exists always and everj' where : hence also he must be perfectl}' similar, all eye, all ear, all arm, all the power of perceiving, understanding, and acting ; but after a manner not at all corporeal, after a manner not like that of men, after a manner wholly to us unknown. He is destitute of all body and all bodily shape, and therefore can not be seen, heard, or touched, nor ought he to lie worshipped under the representation of any thing corporeal. We have ideas of the attributes of God, but do not know the substance of even any thing ; we see only the fig- ures and colors of bodies, hear only sounds, touch onlj'' the outward surfaces, smell only odors, and taste tastes, and do not, cannot, by any sense or reflex act, know their inward substances, and much less can we have any notion of the substance of God. We know him by liis jiroperties and attributes.' " — Newton, Principia, ii, 311, ed. 1803; Watson, Instit. pt. ii, c. i.
VI. Dogmatical Treatment of the Doctrine of God. — 1. The exposition of the doctrine of God is the prov- ince of Theology proper, as distinguished from Anthro- pology, Sotei-iology , etc. See Theology. The doc- trine is set forth by writers on systematic theology
GOD
908-
GOD
according to their views of the relations of the subject to thi! other branches, but in general it constitutes the first topic treated, and is dis'ided very much as fol- lows :