neither an _object_ nor a _subject_, and though, all eyes, all ears, all
brains, all arms, all feeling, all intelligence, and all action, he is
_totally unknown to us_. If Christians allow this to be a true
description of the God they worship, we wish to understand how they can
love Him so vehemently as they affect to do--or how they can pay any
other than _lip_ homage to so mysterious a Deity? It is usual for slaves
to feign an affection for their masters that they do not, cannot
feel--but that believers in a God should imagine that he who 'searcheth
all hearts,' can be ignorant of what is passing in theirs, or make the
tremendous mistake of supposing that their _lip homage_, or interested
expressions of love, are not _properly_ appreciated by the Most High
God, and 'Universal Emperor,' is indeed very strange. To overreach or
deceive a God who created the heavens and the earth, is altogether
beyond the power of puny mortals. Let not therefore those who bend the
knee, while the heart is unbent, and raise the voice of thankful
devotion, while all within is frost and barrenness, fancy they have
stolen a march upon their Deity; for surely _if_ the lord liveth, he
judgeth rightly of these things. But it were vain to expect that those
who think God is related to his creatures as a despot is related to his
slaves, will hope to please that God by aught save paltry, cringing, and
dishonestly despicable practices. Yet, no other than a despotic God has
the great Newton taught us to adore--no other than mere slaves of such a
God, has he taught us to deem ourselves. So much for the Theism of
Europe's chief religious philosopher. Turn we now to the Theism of
Dr. Samuel Clarke.

He wrote a book about the being and attributes of God, in which he
endeavoured to establish, first, that 'something has existed from all
eternity;' second, that 'there has existed from eternity some one
unchangeable and independent Being;' third, that 'such unchangeable and