No Altar Was To Be Seen,
Or Any Other Sign That This Was A Place Where Mankind Assembled To
Adore The Almighty.
For the church itself, or properly that part of
it where they perform divine service, seems as it were a piece stuck
on or added to the main edifice, and is separated from the large
round empty space by an iron gate, or door.
Did the great
architects who adopted this style of building mean by this to say
that such a temple is most proper for the adoration of the Almighty?
If this was their aim, I can only say I admire the great temple of
nature, the azure vaulted sky, and the green carpet with which the
earth is spread. This is truly a large temple; but then there is in
it no void, no spot unappropriated, or unfulfilled, but everywhere
proofs in abundance of the presence of the Almighty. If, however,
mankind, in their honest ambition to worship the great God of
nature, in a style not wholly unsuitable to the great object of
their reverence, and in their humble efforts at magnificence, aim in
some degree to rival the magnificence of nature, particular pains
should be taken to hit on something that might atone for the
unavoidable loss of the animation and ampleness of nature; something
in short that should clearly indicate the true and appropriated
design and purpose of such a building. If, on the other hand, I
could be contented to consider St. Paul's merely as a work of art,
built as if merely to show the amazing extent of human powers, I
should certainly gaze at it with admiration and astonishment, but
then I wish rather to contemplate it with awe and veneration.
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