cams_benton_b028_f003_025_010

(2) [centered]

To him that saith So "I fill Heaven & Earth – to what
likeness will ye compare me!" how insufferable &
odious must all heathenism & all that approaches to it!
If they forsake not their abominations – how soon must
his justice speed its work & sweep them away! How
soon must all the abettors of idolatry feel the weight of
his aim & shrivel & shrink before the awful revela-
-tion of his glory!

2. How unsatisfying is that sort of philosophy that
makes God only a conception – an idea – something in
the mind – with no real, personal existence!

"In men's minds – says one of the Philosophers of
our time – is the highest manifestations of God. – God recognises [recognizes]
himself best in human reason wh. [which] is a consciousness of God."
God is the idea of all ideas. The doctrine of the being of God
is no other than that of the revelation of himself in the idea
of him. God exists only as kn. [knowledge] – & it thIs very kn. [knowledge]
which is his existence. – We may therefore say "God exists as
an idea." Thus we have man lifted into a sort of Deity
& God only an exercise of his mind or a dream of his fancy.
Thus we have no God personal & infinite & glorious – &
in his place only a barren finite thought –. Of course there
is no reality for such a being as God – he is lost sight of.
The whole is Atheism bare, bald, sheer, downright atheism
all but the name. There is no such thing as moral gov^t [government] –
as sin – as evil – as good – Everything is nothing &
nothing is every thing – & something & nothing are one! ~
How vain a thing is our human philosophy!