cams_benton_b028_f003_025_009

Remarks [centered]

~ [centered]

1 We see the unreasonableness of Every approach to
Idolatry.

God's Spirituality renders him invisible.
Our senses observe only the forms in which he manifests
his perfections. He should be worshipped as one Spiritual,
& of course unseen; as One to a vast extent unapprehended
by our feeble minds, but yet well known to us in all the
great relations and actions that concern us as his creatures.

Spiritual & invisible he has no form nor
proportions, nor any possible resemblance to the most at-
-tenuated matter, or the most subtle fluid, or the most delicate
shade of coloring or hue. He can not be figured out nor
represented. Lights & shades – lines & angles – forms &
features belong not to Him – tell nothing about him. –
Creative imagination – inventive genius – art, skill, appli-
-cation – all, all, are vain, powerless, foolish. There can be
neither an adequate conception, nor a fit representation
of God. No image can be worthy of him – Every idol
must degrade him in our conceptions.

No chamber of imagery is a place
for Divine worship. Pictures & representations are too poor
for the hour of Spiritual Communion. What though
thro. [through] image & picture we look up to God for a time;
the danger is of looking erelong no further – then
of doing homage to some inferior being, & finally
adoring only the wood & stone of idolatry in all its
baseness & folly.