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communicate nothing- so precious , glorious , blessed as himself . To bold intellectual and moral affinity with theStfpreme Being , to partake his spirit , to be his children by derivations of kindred excellence , to bear a growing conformity to the perfection which we adore , —this is a felicity which obscures and annihilates all other sroocL
« M " It is only in proportion to this likeness that we can enjoy either God or the universe . That God can be known and enjoyed only through sympathy or kindred attributes ,, is a doctrine which even Gentile philosophy discerned ^ That the pure in heart can alone see and commune with the pure Divinity , was the sublime instruction of ancient sages as well as of inspired prophets . It is indeed the lesson of daily experience . To understand a great and good being , we must have the seeds of the same excellence . How quickly , by what an instinct , do accordant minds recognize one another ! No attraction is so powerful as that which subsists between the truly wise , and good ; whilst the brightest excellence is lost on those who have nothing congenial m their
own breasts . God becomes a real being to us , in proportion as his own nature is unfolded within us . To a man who is growing in the likeness of God , faith begins even here to change into vision . He carries within him * self a proof of a Deity , which can only be understood by experience- He more than believes , he feels the Divine presence ; and gradually rises to an intercourse with his Maker , to which it is not irreverent to apply the name of friendship and intimacy . The Apostle John intended to express this truth , when he tells us that he , in whom a principle of divine charity or benevolence has become a habit and life , * dwells in God , and God in him /
" It is plain , too , that likeness to God is the true and only preparation for the enjoyment of the universe . In proportion as we approach and resemble the mind of God , we are brought into harmony with the creation ^ for , in that proportion , we possess the principles from which the universe sprung y we carry within ourselves the perfections of which its beauty , magnificence , order , benevolent adaptations , and boundless purposes , are the results and manifestations . God unfolds himself in his works to a kindred mind . It is
possible , that the brevity of these hints may expose to the charge of mysticism , what seems to me the calmest and clearest truth . I think , however , that every reflecting man will feel , that likeness to God must be a principle of sympath y or accordance with his creation ; for the ereation is a birth and shining forth of the Divine Mind , a work through which his spirit breathes .
In proportion : as we receive this spirit , we possess within ourselves the explanation of what we see . We discern more and more of God in every thing , from the frail flower to the everlasting stars . Even in evil , that dark cloud which hangs over the creation , we discern rays of light and hope , and gradually come to see in suffering and temptation proofs and instruments of the sublimest purposes of Wisdom and Love . "—Pp . 3—7 .
This is most beautiful . —Dr . C . proceeds farther to argue that our possession of a nature allied at least to the Divinity may be proved from the very mode in which we obtain our ideas of God . " Whence /* says he , " come the conceptions which we include under that august name ? Whence do we derive our knowledge of the attributes and perfections which constitute the Supreme Being ? I answer , we derive them from our own souls . The divine attributes are first developed in ourselves , and thence transferred to the Creator . The idea of God , sublime and awful 1
as it is , ia the idea of our own spiritual nature , purifiedand enlarged to infinity . In ourselves are the elements of the Divinity . God then does not sustuin a figurative resemblance to man . It is the jesemblanee of a parent to a child , the likeness of a kindred nature . * * * * * "The same is true of God ' s goodness . How do W understand this , but l > y the principle of love implanted in the human heart ? Whence is it , that tiia divine attribute is so faintly comprehended , but from the feeble develop-
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Channing ' s Ditcourie . 31
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 91, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/19/
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