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 the 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. [1]

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 Perfection but what we discover in our own Souls, we
joyn Infinitude to each kind of these Perfections, and what is a Faculty
in an 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 joyning 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's_ Authority to the same purpose, out of his Essay on
Human Understanding.

'If we examine the _Idea_ we have of the incomprehensible Supreme
Being, we shall find, that we come by it the same way; and that the
complex _Ideas_ we have both of God and separate Spirits, are made up
of the simple _Ideas_ we receive from _Reflection: v. g._ having from
what we experiment in our selves, got the _Ideas_ of Existence and
Duration, of Knowledge and Power, of Pleasure and Happiness, and of
several other Qualities and Powers, which it is better to have, than
to be without; when we would frame an _Idea_ the most suitable we can
to the Supreme Being, we enlarge every one of these with our _Idea_ of
Infinity; and so putting them together, make our Complex _Idea of
God_.' [2]

It is not impossible that there may be many kinds of Spiritual
Perfection, besides those which are lodged in an human Soul; but it is
impossible that we should have Ideas of any kinds of Perfection, except
those of which we have some small Rays and short imperfect Strokes in
our selves. It would be therefore a very high Presumption to determine
whether the Supream Bei