In every step of the inquiry, we are compelled to feel and acknowledge the immeasurable disproportion between the size of the object and the capacity of the human mind. We may try to abstract the notions of time, of space, and of matter, which so closely adhere to all the perceptions of our experimental knowledge; but as soon as we presume to reason of infinite substance, or spiritual generation; as often as we deduce any _positive_ conclusions from a _negative_ idea, we are involved in darkness, perplexity, and inevitable contradiction. [180] Recurrence to the New Testament doctrine of God, and a comparison of it with the doctrine of Deity set forth in the Nicean and Athanasian creeds, will exhibit the wide departure--the absolute apostasy--that has taken place in respect of this most fundamental of all doctrines of religion--the doctrine of God. Truly "Christians" have denied the Lord that bought them, [181] and turned literally to fables. They have enthroned a conception of a negative idea of "being," which can stand in no possible relationship to man, nor man to it; and to this they ascribe divine attributes and give it title, knee and adoration which belong to God alone. Small wonder that the angel whom John saw flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to commit to the earth in the hour of God's judgment, in the last days, should cry aloud to the inhabitants of the earth, saying, "Fear God and give glory to Him; * * * * and worship Him that made {LXXXIX} heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters" [182]--small wonder, I repeat, that such should be part of this great message, for truly the whole world had departed from the worship of the true and living God. _The Church of Christ Displaced by the Churches of Men_.