did what his hand and his counfel determined before to be done," Acts iv. 27, 28.

1

When we live, when we die, he is there. He influenceth life and death. Man's days are determined, the number of his months are with him, he has appointed his bounds that he cannot pafs," Job xiv. 5. "To God the Lord belongs the iffues from death," Pfal. Ixviii. 20. bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up,” 1 Sam. ii. 6.

"He

He influences the leaft events, as well as the moft confiderable. Not being fatigued with the care of great things, he can occupy himself about the fmalleft without prejudice to the reft; number the hairs of our beads, and not let even a sparrow fall without his will, Matt. x..29, 30.

But, 3. When God communicates himself to all, when he thus acts on all, when he diffufeth himself thus through the whole, he conne&s all with his own defigns, and makes all ferve his own counfels: and this is our third idea of his immenfity and omniprefence. God is prefent

with all, because he directs all. Both he call the creatures into existence? it is to manifeft his perfections. It is to have fubjects on whom he may fhower his favours; it is, as it were, to go out of himself, and to form through the whole univerfe a concert refounding the Creator's exiftence and glory. "For the invifible things of God, even his eternal power and godhead, are understood by the things that are made," Rom. i. 20. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament fheweth his handy-work. Day unto day uttereth fpeech, night unto night fheweth knowledge. There is no fpeech nor language where their voice is not heard," Pfal. xix. 1, 2, 3.

Doth he preserve his creatures? it is to answer his own defigns, the depth of which no finite mind can fathom; but defigns which we shall

one

one day know, and admire his wifdom when we know them, as we adore it now, though we know them not.

Doth he fend plagues, wars, famines? it is to make thofe feel his justice who have abufed his goodness; it is to avenge the violation of his law, the contempt of his gofpel, the forgetting and forfaking of the intereft of his church.

Doth he afford us profperity ? it is to draw us with the bands of love, Hofea xi. 4. it is to reveal himself to us by that love which is his elfence; it is to engage us to imitate him, who never leaves himself without witness in doing good, Acts xiv. 17,

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Doth he impart knowledge to us? it is to dif cover the fnares that furround us, the miferies that threaten us, the origin from which we fprang, the courfe of life we fhould follow, and the end at which we fhould aim.

Doth he communicate virtues? it is to animate us in our race; it is to convince us that there is a mighty arm to raise us from the abys into which our natural corruption hath plunged us; it is that we may work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that God worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure, Phil. ii. 12, 13.

Doth he fend us error? it is to make us refpect that truth which we have refifted.

Doth he abandon us to our vices? it is to punifh us for fome other vices which we have committed voluntarily and freely; fo that, if we could comprehend it, his love for holinefs never appears more clearly, than when he abandons men to vice in this manner.

Doth he raise up kings? it is always to oblige them to adminifter juftice, to protect the widow and the orphan, to maintain order and religion. Yet he often permits them to violate equity, to opprefs their people, and to become the fcourges

of

of his anger. By them he frequently teachet us how little account be makes of human grandeurs, feeing he bestows them fometimes upon. unworthy men, upon men allured by voluptuoufnefs, governed by ambition, and dazzled with their own glory, upon men who ridicule piety, fell their confciences, negociate faith and religion, facrificing the fouls of their children to the infamous paffions that govern themselves.

Doth he prolong our life? it is because he is long suffering to us, 2 Pet. iii. 9. it is because he opens in our favour the riches of bis goodness and forbearance, to lead us to repentance, Rom. ii. 4.

Doth he call us to die? it is to open thofe eternal books in which our actions are registered;. it is to gather our fouls into his bofom, to bind them up in the bundle of life, 1 Sam. xxv. 29. to mix them with the ranfomed armies of all na tions, tongues, and people, Rev. vii. 9.

Such are our ideas of the omniprefence of God. Thus God feeth all, influenceth all, directeth all. In this fenfe we are to understand this magnificent language of fcripture, "Will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee," 1 Kings viii. 27. "Thus faith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footftool," Ifa. Ixvi. 1. "Where is the houfe that ye build unto me? do not I fill heaven and earth? faith the Lord.. Am I God at hand, and not afar off? Can any hide himfelf in fecret places that I fhall not fec him?" Jer. xxiii. 23, 24. This is what the heathens had a glimpse of, when they faid, that God was circle, the centre of which was every where, and its circumference no where. all things were full of Jupiter. That he filled all his works. That, fly whither we would, we were always before his eyes. This is what the follow ers of Mahomet meant, when they faid, that where

That

where there were two perfons, God made the third; where there were three, God made the fourth. Above all, this was our prophet's meaning throughout the Pfalm, a part of which we have explained. "O Lord, thou haft fearched me and known me. Thou knowest my downfitting and mine up-rifing, thou understandeft my thoughts afar off. Thou compaffeft my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knoweft it altogether. Thou haft befet me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, I cannot attain unto it. Whither fhall I go from thy fpirit? or whither fhall I flee from thy prefence? If I afcend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the fea; even there fhall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand fhall hold me. If I fay, Surely the darkness fhall cover me; night fhall be light about me. Yea, the darknefs hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to thee," ver. 1, &c.

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even the

But perhaps, during the courfe of this meditation, you may have murmured at our presenting an object, of which all the preaching in the world can give you only imperfect ideas. Sufpend your judgments; we are going to fhew you whither this difcourfe, all glimmering as it is, ought to conduct you. We are going to fee what falutary confequences follow our efforts, even the weak efforts that we have been making, to explain the grandeur and omniprefence of God. Let us pafs to the conclufron, the chief defign of this dif course.

1. Our first reflection is on the difficulties we meet with in fixing our minds on such subjects

as we have been hearing.

You have doubtlefs experienced, if you have endeavoured to follow s, that you are weary, and wander when you would go beyond matter. Our minds find almoft nothing real, where they meet with nothing fen fible. As if the whole effence of beings were corporeal, the mind lofeth its way when it ceafeth to be directed by bodies, and it needs the help of imagination to reprefent even thofe things which are not fufceptible of images; and yet whatever is molt grand and noble in the nature of beings, is fpirit. The fublimeft objects, angels who are continually before God, seraphims who cover their faces in his prefence, Ifa. vi. 2. cher

bims who are the minifters of his will, thousand thousands which minister unto him, ten thousand times ten thousand which stand before him, Dan. vii. 10. what is moft glorious in man, what ele vates him above other animals, a foul made in the image of God himself, the Being of beings,~, the Sovereign Beauty; all thefe beings are fpir itual, abstract, free from fenfe and matter. Moreover, what pleafes and enchants us in bodies, even that comes from a fubject abstract, fpiritual and corporeal. Without your foul, aliments have no tafte, flowers no fmell, the earth no enamel, fire no heat, the stars no brilliancy, the fun no light. Matter of itself is void, and grofs, deftitute of all the qualities with which our imagination clothes it, and which are proper to our fouls. What ought we to conclude from this reflection? My brethren, have you no idea of your dignity, and primitive grandeur ?

Have

you not even yet fome faint refemblances of beings formed in the Creator's image? You ought, feeble as you are, confined as you are in a manner to matter, you fhould deplore your mifery; you should groan under that neceffity, which, in fome fort, confounds your fouls with a little duft; you fhould figh after that happy ftate in