When we violate the laws of righteousness, the is there. He influenceth sins, even the greatest sins. Witness Pharaoh, whose "heart he hardened," Exod. iv. 21. Witness Shimei, whom "the Lord bade to curse David," 2 Sam. xvi. 11. Witness what Isaiah said, "the Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst of Egypt," Isa. xix. 14. When magistrates, our earthly gods, consult and deliberate, he is there. He influenceth policy. It is he who "hath the hearts of kings in his hand, and turneth them as the rivers of water," Prov. xxi. 1. It is he who "giveth kings in his anger, and taketh them away in his wrath," Hos. xiii. 11. It is he who maketh "the Assyrian the rod of his anger," Isa. x. 5. "Herod and Pilate, the Gentiles and the people of Israel, did what his hand and his counsel determined before to be done," Acts iv. 27, 28. 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 pass," Job xiv. 5. "To God the Lord be long the issues from death," Ps. lxviii. 20. "He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth it up," 2 Sam. ii. 6. the He influences the least events as well as the most considerable. Not being fatigued with care of great things, he can occupy himself about the smallest without prejudice to the rest; "number the hairs of our heads," and not let even "a sparrow fall without his will," Matt. I. 29, 30. But, 3. When God communicates himself to all, when he thus acts on all, when he diffuseth himself thus through the whole, he relates all to his own designs, and makes all serve his own counsels: and this is our third idea of his immensity and omnipresence. God is present with all, because he directs all. Doth he call creatures into existence? it is to manifest his perfections. It is to have subjects on whom he may shower his favours; it is, as it were, to go out of himself, and to form through the whole universe a concert resounding the Creator's existence and glory. "For the inviable 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 showeth his handy-work. Day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard," Ps. xix. 1—3. Doth he preserve creatures? it is to answer his own designs, the depth of which no finite mind can fathom; but designs which we shall one day know, and admire his wisdom when we know them, as we adore it now, though we know them not. Doth he send plagues, wars, famines? it is to make these feel his justice who have abused his goodness, it is to avenge the violation of his law, the contempt of his gospel, the forgetting and the forsaking of the interest of his church. Doth he afford us prosperity? it is to "draw us with the bands of love," Hos. xi. 4; it is to reveal himself to us by that love which is his essence; it is to engage us to imitate him, who "never leaves himself without witness in doing good," Acts xiv. 17. Doth he impart knowledge to us? it is to discover the snares that surround us, the miseries that threaten us, the origin from which we sprang, the course of life that we should follow, and the end at which we should 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 abyss 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 send us error? it is to make us respect that truth we have resisted. Doth he abandon us to our vices? it is to punish us for some other vices which we have committed voluntarily and freely, so that, if we could comprehend it, his love for holiness 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 administer justice, to protect the widow and the orphan, to maintain order and religion. Yet, he often permits them to violate equity, to oppress their people, and to become the scourges of his anger. By them he frequently teacheth us how little account he makes of human grandeurs; seeing he bestows them sometimes upon unworthy men, upon men allured by voluptuousness, governed by ambition, and dazzled with their own glory; upon men who ridicule piety, sell their consciences, negotiate faith and religion, sacrificing the souls of their children to the infamous passions 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 his goodness and forbearance, to lead us to repentance," Rom. ii. 4. Doth he call us to die? it is to open those eternal books in which our actions are registered; it is to gather our souls into his bosom, "to bind them up in the bundle of life," 1 Sam. xxv. 29; to mix them with the ransomed armies of all "nations, tongues, and people," Rev. vii. 9. Such are our ideas of the omnipresence of God. Thus God seeth all, influenceth all, directeth all. In this sense we are to understand this magnificent language of Scripture. "Will God indeed dwell on the earth; behold the heaven, and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee," 1 Kings viii. 27. Thus saith the Lord, "The heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool. Where is the house that ye build unto me? do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?" Isa. lxvi. 1. "Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?" Jer. xxiii. 23, 24. This is what the heathens had a glimpse of, when they said, that God was a circle, the centre of which was every where, and its circumference no where. That all things were full of Jupiter. That he filled all his works. That, fly whither we would, we void, and gross, destitute of all the qualities with which our imagination clothes it, and which are proper to our souls. What ought we to conclude from this reflection? My brethren, have ye any idea of your dignity, and primitive grandeur? Have ye yet some few faint resem blances of beings formed in the Creator's image in a manner to matter, ye should deplore your misery, ye should groan under that necessity, which, in some sort, confounds your soul with a little dust; ye should sigh after that happy state in which your rapid, free, and unclogged souls shall meditate like themselves. This is the first duty that we would prescribe to you. were always before his eyes. This is what the followers of Mohammed meant, when they said, that where there were two persons, God made the third; where there were three God made the fourth. Above all, this was our prophet's meaning throughout the Psalm, a part of which we have explained. "O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou know-ye ought, feeble as ye are, confined as ye are est my down-sitting and mine up-rising, thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest 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 knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thy hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend 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 sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be a light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee," ver. 1, and following. But perhaps, during the course of this meditation, ye may have murmured at our presenting an object of which all the preaching in the world can give you but imperfect ideas. Suspend your judgments, we are going to show you whither this discourse, all glimmering as it is, ought to conduct you. Ye are going to see what salutary consequences follow our efforts, even the weak efforts that we have been making to explain the grandeur and omnipresence of God. Let us pass to the conclusion, the chief design of this discourse. 1. Our first reflection is on the difficulties that we meet with in fixing our minds on such subjects as we have been hearing. Ye have doubtless experienced, if ye have endeavoured to follow us, that ye are weary, and wander when ye would go beyond matter. Our minds find almost nothing real, where they meet with nothing sensible. As if the whole essence of beings were corporeal, the mind loses its way when it ceases to be directed by bodies, and it needs the help of imagination, to represent even those things which are not susceptible of images; and yet whatever is most grand and noble in the nature of beings is spirit. The sublimest objects, angels who are continually before God, seraphims who cover their faces in his presence, cherubims who are the ministers of his will, "thousand thousands which minister unto him, ten thousand times ten thousand which stand before him," Isa. vi. 2. Dan. vii. 10; what is most glorious in man, what elevates him above other animals, a soul made in the image of God himself; the Being of beings, the Sovereign Beauty; all these beings are spiritual, abstract, free from sense and matter. More over, what pleases and enchants us in bodies, even that comes from a subject, abstract, spiritual and incorporeal. Without your soul, aliments have no taste, flowers no smell, the earth no enamel, fire no heat, the stars no brilliancy, the sun no light. Matter of itself is 2. Our next reflection is on the majesty of our religion. That must certainly be thought the true religion which gives us the grandest ideas of God. Let our religion be judged by this rule. Where do we see the attributes of the Supreme Being placed in so clear a light? what can be more noble than this idea of God? what can be conceived more sublime than a Being whom nothing escapes, before whom "all things are naked and open," Heb. iv. 13.; who, by one single look, fully comprehends all beings past, present, and to come; all that do exist, all that possibly can exist? who thinks in the same instant, with equal facility on bodies and spirits, on all the dimensions of time and of matter? What more noble can be conceived than a Being who imparts himself to all, diffuses himself through all, influences all, gives life and motion to all? What can be conceived more noble than a Being who directs the conduct of the whole universe, who knows how to make all concur to his designs, who knows how to relate alike to the laws of order and equity, the virtues of the righteous, the vices of the wicked, the praises of the happy, the blasphemies of the victims sacrificed to his vengeance in hell? When we find in any heathen philosopher, amidst a thousand false notions, amidst a thousand wild imaginations, some few leaves of the flowers with which our Bibles are strewed, we are ready to cry a miracle, a miracle! we transmit these shreds of the Deity (if I may be allowed to speak so) to the most distant posterity, and these ideas, all maimed, and all defiled as they are, procure their authors an immortal reputation. On this principle, what respect, what veneration, what deference ought we to have for the patriarchs and the prophets, for the Evangelists and the apostles, who spoke of God in so sublime a manner! But be not surprised at their superiority over the great pagan geniuses; if the biblical writers, like them, had been guided only by human reason, like them they would have wandered too. If they spoke so nobly of God, it was because they had received that " spirit who searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God," 1 Cor. ii. 10. It was because "all Scripture was given by inspiration," 2 Tim. iii. 16. It was because "the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," 2 Pet. i. 21. 3. Make a third reflection. This grandeur of God removes the greatest stumbling-blocks that skeptics and infidels pretend to meet with in religion. It justifies all those dark mysteries 27. ways, but how little a portion is heard of him? which are above the comprehension of our "Canst thou by searching find out God? feeble reason. We would not make use of this Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? reflection to open a way for human fancies, and high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper to authorize every thing that is presented to us than hell, what canst thou know?” Job xi. 7. under the idea of the marvellous. All doctrines "He stretcheth out the north over the empty that are incomprehensible are not divine, nor place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. ought we to embrace any opinion merely be- He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, cause it is beyond our knowledge. But when the pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonisha religion, in other respects, hath good guaran-ed at his reproof. Lo, these are parts of his tees, when we have good arguments to prove that such a revelation comes from heaven, when we certainly know that it is God who speaks, ought we to be surprised if ideas of God, which comes so fully authenticated, absorb and confound us? I freely grant, that had I consulted my own reason only, I could not have discovered some mysteries of the gospel. Nevertheless, when I think on the grandeur of God, when I cast my eyes on that vast ocean, when I consider that immense all, nothing astonishes me, nothing stumbles me, nothing seems to me inadmissible, how incomprehensible soever it may be. When the subject is divine, I am ready to believe all, to admit all, to E receive all; provided I be convinced that it is God himself who speaks to me, or any one on his part. After this I am no more astonished that there are three distinct persons in one divine essence; one God, and yet a Father, a Son, and a Holy Ghost. After this I am no more astonished that God foresees all without forcing any; permits sin without forcing the sinner; ordains free and intelligent creatures to such and such ends, yet without destroying their intelligence, or their liberty. After this I am no more astonished, that the justice of God required a satisfaction proportional to his greatness, that his own love hath provided that satisfaction, and that God, from the abundance of his compassion, designed the mystery of an incarnate God; a mystery which angels admire while skeptics oppose; a mystery which absorbs human reason, but which fills all heaven with Songs of praise; a mystery which is the "great mystery," 1 Tim. iii. 16, by excellence, but the greatness of which nothing should make us reject, since religion proposeth it as the grand effort of the wisdom of the incomprehensible God, and commandeth us to receive it on the testimony of the incomprehensible God himself. Either religion must tell us nothing about God, or what it tells us must be beyond our capacities, and, in discovering even the borders of this immense ocean, it must needs exhibit a Vast extent in which our feeble eyes are lost. But what surprises me, what stumbles me, what frightens me, is to see a diminutive creature, a contemptible man, a little ray of light glimmering through a few feeble organs, controvert a point with the Supreme Being, oppose that Intelligence who sitteth at the helm of the world; question what he affirms, dispute what he determines, appeal from his decisions, and, even after God hath given evidence, reject all doctrines that are beyond his capacity. Enter into thy nothingness, mortal creature. What madness animates thee? How durst thou pretend, thou who art but a point, thou whose essence is but an atom, to measure thyself with the Supreme Being, with him who fills heaven and earth, with him whom "heaven, the heaven of heavens cannot contain?" 1 Kings viii. 4. But, my brethren, shall these be the only inferences from our text? shall we reap only speculations from this discourse? shall we only believe, admire, and exclaim? Ah! from this idea of God I see all the virtues issue which religion prescribes! If such be the grandeur of the God whom I adore, miserable wretch! what ought my repentance to be! I, a contemptible worm, I, a creature whom God could tread beneath his feet, and crush into dust by a single act of his will, I have rebelled against the great God, I have endeavoured to provoke him to jealousy, as if I had been stronger than he, 1 Cor. x. 22. I have insulted that Majesty which the angels of God adore; I have attacked God, with madness and boldness, on his throne, and in his empire. Is it possible to feel remorse too cutting for sins which the grandeur of the offended, and the littleness of the offender, make so very atrocious? 5. If such be the grandeur of God, what should our humility be! Grandees of the world, mortal divinities, who swell with vanity in the presence of God, oppose yourselves to the immense God. Behold his eternal ideas, his infinite knowledge, his general influence, his universal direction; enter his immense ocean of perfections and virtues, what are ye? a grain of dust, a point, an atom, a nothing! 6. If such be the grandeur of God, what ought our confidence to be! "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Rom. viii. 31. Poor creature, tossed about the world, as by so many winds, by hunger, by sickness, by persecution, by misery, by nakedness, by exile; fear not in a vessel of which God himself is the pilot. 7. But above all, if such be the grandeur of God, if God be every where present, what should our vigilance be! and, to return to the idea with which we began, what impression should this thought make on reasonable souls! | and rebellious. O may this idea produce conGod seeth me. "When thou wast under the trition and sorrow, a just remorse and a sound fig-tree," said Jesus Christ to Nathanael, "I conversion, a holy and a fervent communion, saw thee," John i. 48. See Eccles. ii. 23-25. crowned with graces and virtues. Happy, if, We do not know what Jesus Christ saw under after our examination, we have a new heart!! the fig-tree, nor is it necessary now to inquire: a heart agreeable to those eyes that search and but it was certainly something which, Na- try it! Happy, if, after our communion, after thanael was fully persuaded, no mortal eye had a new examination, we can say with the proseen. As soon, therefore, as Jesus Christ had phet, "O Lord, thou hast proved mine heart, a uttered these words, he believed, and said, thou hast tried me, and hast found nothing," "6 Rabbi, thou art the Christ, the son of the Ps. xvii. 3. So be it. To God be honour i living God." My brethren, God useth the and glory for ever. Amen. same language to each of you to-day: "when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee." Thou hypocrite, when, wrapped in veil of religion, embellished with exterior piety, thou concealedst an impious heart, and didst endeavour to impose on God and man, I saw thee, I penetrated all those labyrinths, I dissipated all those darknesses, I dived into all thy deep designs. Thou worldling, who, with a prudence truly infernal, hast the art of giving a beautiful tint to the most odious objects: who appearest not to hate thy neighbour, because thou dost not openly attack him; not to falsify thy promise, because thou hast the art of eluding it; not to oppress thy dependants, because thou knowest how to impose silence on them: I saw thee, when thou gavest those secret stabs, when thou didst receive bribes, and didst accumulate those wages of unrighteousness, which cry for vengeance against thee. Thou slave to sensuality, ashamed of thine excesses before the face of the sun, I saw thee, when, with bars and bolts, with obscurity and darkness, and complicated precautions, thou didst hide thyself from the eyes of men, file the temple of God, and make the members of Christ the members of a harlot," 1 Cor. vi. 15. "de My brethren, the discourses, which we usually preach to you, absorb your minds in a multitude of ideas. A collection of moral ideas, perhaps, confound instead of instructing you, and when we attempt to engage you in too many reflections, ye enter really into none. Behold an epitome of religion. Behold a morality in three words. Return to your houses, and every where carry this reflection with you, God seeth me, God seeth me. To all the wiles of the devil, to all the snares of the world, to all the baits of cupidity, oppose this reflection, God seeth me. If, clothed with a human form, he were always in your path, were he to follow you to every place, were he always before you with his majestic face, with eyes flashing with lightning, with looks inspiring terror, dare ye, before his august presence, give a loose to your passions? But ye have been hearing that his majestic face is every where, those sparkling eyes do inspect you in every place, those terrible looks do consider you every where. Particularly in the ensuing week, while ye are preparing for the Lord's supper, recollect this. Let each examine his own heart, and endeavour to search into his conscience, where he may discover so much weakness, so much corruption, so much hardness, so many unclean sources overflowing with so many excesses, and let this idea strike each of you, God seeth me. God seeth me, as I see myself, unclean, ungrateful, SERMON IV. THE GRANDEUR OF GOD. ISAIAH xl. 12-28. A 12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burntoffering. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will he liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation, chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved. Have ye not known? have E not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: that bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted, yea, they shall not be sown, yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel; My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? hast thou not known? hast thou not heard that the Lord is the everlasting God? ye THE words, the lofty words of the text, require two sorts of observations: The first are necessary to explain and confirm the prophet's | fying, to constitute the felicity of a creature - notions of God; the second to determine and to enforce his design in describing the Deity with so much pomp. The prophet's notions of God are diffused through all the verses of the text. "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure? Who hath weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Behold, the nations are as the drop of a bucket. Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers." The prophet's design in describing the Deity with so much magnificence is to discountenance idolatry, of which there are two sorts. The first, I call religious idolatry, which consists in rendering that religious worship to a !! creature, which is due to none but God. The second, I call moral idolatry, which consists in distrusting the promises of God in dangerous crises, and in expecting that assistance from men which cannot be expected from God. In order to discountenance idolatry in religion, the prophet contents himself with describing "The workman melteth a graven image, the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold.' it. For the purpose of discrediting idolatry in morals, he opposeth the grandeur of God to the most grand objects among men, I mean earthly kings. "God (saith the prophet) bringeth the princes to nothing, he shall blow upon them, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel; My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?" and so on. This subject may seem perhaps too copious for one discourse, however, it will not exceed the limits of this; and we will venture to detain you a moment before we attend to the matter, in remarking the manner, that is, the style of our prophet, and the expressive sublimity of our text. It is a composition, which not only surpasses the finest passages of the most celebrated profane authors, but perhaps exceeds the loftiest parts of the holy Scrip tures. "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Who hath meted out heaven with a span? Who hath comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure? Who hath weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? All nations before him are as the drop of a bucket. He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. He sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers." What loftiness of expression! the deference that we pay to the sacred writers is not founded on the beauty of their diction. They do not affect to come to us "with the enticing words of man's wisdom," 1 Cor. ii. 4. We cannot help observing, however, in some of their writings, the most perfect models of eloquence. God seems to have dispensed talents of this kind, in the same manner as he has sometimes bestowed temporal blessings of another kind. Riches and grandeurs are too mean, and too unsatisVOL. I.-9 formed in the image of God. Immortal men, who are called to participate felicity and glory with their God, are indifferent to the part which they act, during their short existence on the stage of time. To them it is a matter of very little importance, whether they occupy the highest or the lowest, the most conspicuous or the most obscure posts in society. It signifies but little to them, whether they ride in sumptuous equipages, or walk on foot. To them it is a matter of very little consequence, whether superb processions attend their funerals, or their bodies be laid in their graves without pomp or parade. Yet, when it pleases God to signalize any by gifts of this kind, he does it like a God, if ye will allow the expression, he does it so as to show that his mighty hands hold all that can contribute to ennoble and elevate mankind. Observe his munificence to Solomon. "I have given thee riches and glory," said the Lord to him, So that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee," I Kings iii. 12, 13. In virtue of this promise, God loaded Solomon with temporal blessings: he gave him all. In virtue of his promise, silver was no more esteemed than stones in Jerusalem," the capital of this favourite of heaven, "nor the cedars of Lebanon than the sycamore trees of the plain," 2 Chron. ix. 27. God has observed the same conduct to the heralds of religion, in regard to the talents that form an orator. The truths which they teach are too serious, and too interesting, to need the help of ornaments. The treasures of religion, which God commits to them are so valuable, that it is needless for us to examine whether they be presented to us "in earthen vessels," 2 Cor. iv. 7. But when the Holy Spirit deigns to distinguish any one of his servants by gifts of this kind, my God! with what a rich profusion hath he the power of doing it! He fires the orator's imagination with a flame altogether divine: he elevates his ideas to the least accessible region of the universe, and dictates language above mortal mouths. What kind of elocution can ye allege, of which the sacred authors have not given us the most perfect models? Is it the style proper for history? An historian must assume, it should seem, as many different forms of speaking, as there are different events in the subjects of his narration. And who ever gave such beautiful models of this style as Moses? Witness these words, which have acquired him the eulogium of a pagan critic:* "God said, Let there be light, and there was light," Gen. i. 3. Witness these, "Isaac said, My father; Abraham answered, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burntoffering," chap. xxii. 7, 8. Witness these words. "Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him, and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me: and * Longinus, sect. ix. |