which cannot limit his being and attributes. Nothing can exclude the presence of his essence; for he is not only nearus, but in us. "In him we live, and move, and have our being." In consequence of his filling all space, he is not only nearer us than the air that surrounds us, but far nearer us than it is possible for us to cònceive. All creatures have their being in him, and at the same time his essence remains unmixed with that of any creature, As no place can be without God, so no place can compass and contain him. It was his influential presence that gave being to the universe at first, and it is his influential presence that sustains it. While all things exist in him, the space which all existences occupy is but a point in the vast infinitude which he fills. What is the wide creation to him " who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?"

It was this idea of the immensity of God, and of his being present unmixed and undivided in every part of the boundless extent of space, that made Solomon admire his condescension in deigning to make the most magnificent temple the place of his glory. "Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded!" Being spiritual and uncompounded in his nature and essence, he is without parts, and cannot be divided he is present everywhere, in the world and beyond it, not by diffusion, but himself in his all-perfect nature and attributes. In his omnipresence, he is "high as the

heaven, what canst thou do? Deeper than hell, what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea."

The omnipresence of God is necessarily implied in his infinite perfection. If there be no perfection wanting in a being who is infinitely perfect, and if it be a perfection to be present everywhere, and at the same time;-to be present everywhere, not successively by motion, but without motion,-then it follows that the all-perfect God is omnipresent. Infinite in himself, what power is there without him to bound his nature and essence to time or space; or can we conceive that he would voluntarily place any restraint on himself? Immutable in his being and perfections, it cannot be said of him, that there is any place in heaven or in earth, or in the boundless void of space from which he is absent; or, that he moves from one place to another. Almighty in his power, what is there to limit him in creating and in peopling many millions of worlds through an eternity to come? And must not he who forms be present at the formation of the works which he makes, and continue to be present to direct and uphold them? This was the induction of the Apostle, when persuading the Athenians of the omnipresence of God. He is not far from every one of us; "for in him we live, and move, and have our being. If we have life, and breath, and all things, he from whom we receive them, must be in us and around us." We are placed on a theatre on which we, and every thing about us, are exhibiting the presence of God in all the power and benignity of his nature-and if we are not yet admitted into the place of his peculiar glory,

we are allowed constantly to witness the excellence of his working, and the wisdom of his counsels.

The idolatrous heathens were ignorant of the omnipresence of God as they were of his other perfections: the phenomena of nature they ascribed to the influence of their local deities; they were supposed to preside over certain regions of the air, or the earth, or the sea, over hills and valleys, over groves and fountains, and rivers. Nor did they think it derogatory to conceive that they might be occasionally absent from those very places to which their power was confined. Hence, the keen irony of the prophet addressed to the worshippers of Baal,-irony founded on the notions which the worshippers entertained of their deity. "Cry aloud: for he is a God; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass, when mid-day was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded." Hence, also, when the Syrians were defeated by the Israelites, they ascribed the superiority of their enemies to the local influence of the deities which they supposed them to worship. "Their gods are gods of the hills, therefore, they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they." Nor were some of the Jews much more enlightened, who conceived that the presence of God was confined to the land of Canaan, or to the temple at Jerusalem. To

them the reproof was administered: "Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord."

Thus does it appear that God is everywhere present-present in the full and indivisible perfection of his nature to uphold all things-present in heaven to communicate higher degrees of happiness and glory→→ present with his church and people on earth to impart the blessings of his grace, and present with the wicked in his justice and power. Nor is this doctrine at all opposed by the expressions in scripture which ascribe a local residence to God, and which represent him as moving out of his place, departing from us, or coming towards us. Heaven is called his dwelling-place, on account of the glorious representation which he gives of himself to the angels and the spirits which there surround him; because of the unmingled love and happiness of the worshippers; and because it is from thence he sends his messengers to announce his counsels and his will. Zion of old, because it was consecrated to his worship, and the spot on which the visible tokens of his gracious presence and glory were constantly to rest, was called the habitation of his house, and the place where his honour dwells. "The Lord hath chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell; for I have desired it." He dwells gloriously in heaven in the full perfection of his nature, and he dwells graciously with his church on earth with the

same fulness of perfection, though not with the same manifestation of it; and with equal fulness, though not for the same ends, nor with the same discoveries of himself, does he fill, in the infinity and indivisibility of his essence and attributes, every part of boundless space.

The expressions in scripture which ascribe motion to God, are used, not only in condescension to our weakness, but with a peculiar significancy in reference to us. What can be more calculated to impress us with a sense of the mighty power of God, and of his omnipresence, than the description of the Psalmist ? "He bowed the heavens also, and came down, and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, he did fly on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him, his thick clouds passed, hail-stones, and coals of fire." When he is said to be far from the wicked-to hide his face from his people-to be near unto all that call upon him-to rend the heavens and come downto come down to see the city,the meaning of the expressions is obvious to every one, and especially to every one who is in the least acquainted with revelation.

We are every moment, then, wherever we go, in the presence of the God of infinite perfection. We cannot look on the firmament with all its glories, without beholding his living agency guiding and sustaining unnumbered and distant worlds amid all their movements. We cannot survey the changes of nature, the