SERMONS, &c.

On the Omnipresence of God.

PSALM CXXXIX. 7.

Whither fhall I go from thy Spirit? or whither fhall I flee from thy prefence?

WHEN ignorant mortals attempt to think and fpeak concerning the nature of the one infinite and eternal Deity, what can be expected but that their conceptions fhould be feeble, and their reprefentations inadequate? If there be myfteries in the smallest particle of matter, which the most perfect human understanding cannot unfold, who can wonder that we cannot find out the Almighty to perfection? VOL. I. Self

B

Self-existence, infinity, and eternity, are ideas too vaft for the human intellect to comprehend: fuch knowledge is too wonderful for us; it is high, we cannot attain unto it. It furely requires no extraordinary share of modefty to acknowledge, that there may exist an Intelligent Being, whofe nature is underived, whose duration is eternal, and whofe prefence is univerfal, although the manner in which fuch a Being exifts be to us wholly unknown.

That fuch a Being doth exift, and that he is endued with every poffible perfection, the frame and conftitution of nature fully demonftrate. The marks of active intelligence force themfelves upon our obfervation wherever we turn our eyes, and leave us no room to doubt that the univerfe is the work of an almighty and most skilful Architect, who founded the earth by his wifdom, and ftretched out the heavens by his understanding. And the fame arguments which prove the ex

istence

iftence of this great Being, likewife evince his univerfal prefence. A few words may fuffice to explain the grounds of this great article of our faith; for they are obvious to every understanding, and univerfally acknowledged to be conclufive. Our great business is to imprefs upon our minds fuch a conviction of this important truth as shall render it habitually influential upon our conduct.

We observe in nature an immenfe variety of operations continually carrying on, which are the manifeft effects of power and wisdom, and which therefore neceffarily fuppofe the presence of a wife and powerful Agent. If all nature be full of aftonishing effects of fkill and energy, all nature must be full of God. Motion

is

every where obferved, throughout the material world, to follow certain fettled laws, and to be fo conducted as to answer the wifeft ends. What can we infer from these appearances, but the continual agency of an intelligent and powerful Deity?

B 2

Deity? Since fimilar effects are every where produced from fimilar caufes, there must be an intelligent Being every where prefent, who preferves the uniformity and harmony of nature. We cannot form a more philofophical idea of the laws of nature, than to confider them as the eftablished manner in which the Deity executes the purposes of his wifdom.

And if a power be univerfally exerted to preferve the order of nature, it is evident that the Being in whom this power refides must be every where present. The Eternal mind, on whom all nature depends who caufes the revolutions of day and night, fummer and winter-who fupports the whole animal and intellectual world in that beautiful regularity which he at first established-who infpires all nature with life and joy-muft fill the univerfe with his prefence. All things remain as they were from the beginning, because all nature is animated by a wife, powerful, and good Being, who ordereth

all

all things according to the counfel of his

will.

Nor is there any thing in the fuppofition of the univerfal prefence and perpetual agency of the Supreme Being inconfiftent either with his dignity or his felicity. Men, who measure great things by fmall, may be ready to imagine it beneath the majesty of the Lord of All, to concern himself in the minute affairs of the creation, or to fuppofe that it would be an interruption of his felicity to be perpetually employed in conducting the operations of nature. But it is abfurd to suppose that an all-powerful Being can be wearied by labour, or that it is unworthy of the excellent nature of Deity to be ever active in fupporting and bleffing the creatures which his goodness inclined him to form.

The univerfal prefence of an Intelligent mind, neceffarily includes the idea of univerfal knowledge. That great Being, who fills every portion of space, Fauft at the fame time be intimately acB 3 quainted