seek it diligently, and death, come as it will, shall only remove us to a blessed eternity, where earthquakes, and thunders, and lightnings, and whatever else makes the heart of mortal man tremble, shall affright us no more. Let us be warned that this is not our rest, and seek the better country. To which the Lord of his mercy conduct us all for Jesus Christ's sake.

SERMON XI.

THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD.

Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord: do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? Jer. xxiii, 24.

WHILE I think upon God, my brethren, wonder seizes me, I am lost in the depth of his perfections. I reach to comprehend him, but I cannot prevail. I sink, I fall back, at the unsearchableness of his glorious nature. We see what he is not, but what he is, how mighty, holy, righteous, how he liveth for ever, and filleth all things-such knowledge is too wonderful for us, we cannot attain unto it. Alas, what is man! Shrink into nothing thou son of the dust, thou thing of a day, thou creature of a span long. Say what art thou, mortal man? In thy best estate, of strength, health, and vigour, what art thou? What art thou in comparison of all those thou seest here? And what then in respect of all that live this day in a thousand kingdoms, over the face of the earth? And what are all these to that cumbrous globe the earth? Yet that earth is but a speck, a little twinkling star in regard of the hosts of heaven; if reduced to nothing, its place would not be found wanting! What art thou

you,

then vain man in comparison of God, who filleth heaven and earth? How insignificant art thou; how beneath all notice! O that ever such a thing should be proud! I would you should see some of the least dazzling parts of God, that you might know yourselves. I would make some shadows of his glory pass before that impressed with a solemn awe of the fearful God, ye might remember yourselves and humble your souls in the dust, and return unto the Lord. Some former discourses have engaged your attention to the power, the holiness, the eternity of God; and now I mean to shew you that this almighty, eternal, sin-hating God, is ever with you, the witness of all you do, privy to all your thoughts, and perfectly acquainted with every word of your tongue. Can any hide him

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self in secret places, that I shall not see him, saith the Lord; do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?"

The immensity or infiniteness of God is meant of his nature and being; that he is infinite in direct opposition to the nature of all creatures, who are finite in respect both of time and place, inasmuch as they, in their very nature, are measured by time and place, whereas God is measured by neither, by reason of his infinite nature. Yet though God be infinite, as being neither confined by time or place, yet his infiniteness doth most strictly belong to his omnipresence, or being every where.

To give you some apprehension, and what I study more, impression of the divine presence, I observe,

I. All creatures are in some place, in which place they evidently are, and cannot be in another at the

But

same time. This is the case with men, and with angels and spirits; they are not in two different places, cannot be in heaven and earth at once. God is every where at once, he filleth heaven and earth; he is not so in heaven that he is not also in earth, nor so in earth that he is not also in heaven, but so in both that he filleth them both, yet is confined to neither. David illustrates this in an enumeration of the most distant places, "Whither shall I flee from thy presence? Shall I go up to heaven? Thou art there. Shall I make my bed in hell? Thou art there also. Shall I take the wings of the morning (the rays of the rising sun, for these are the wings of the morning) and fly with them, and upon them, to the uttermost parts of the sea and earth into which they dart their light? Still there shall thy hand lead me, for there too thou art." Nay, but not only is God in places of the utmost distance, saith the psalmist, but most intimately so :-" he knoweth my downsitting and uprising, my path and my ways, he understandeth my words and my thoughts. Darkness cannot hide me from him; his presence is as it were, a hand laid upon me, which holds me, which I cannot escape; I am beset by him, behind and before." It is the very nature of God to be in all places at once, and to be with all creatures at once. "In him we live and move and have our being." He is the life of all, which he could not be, unless in

his nature, he were

There is not an

with all, through all, and in all. angel in heaven, nor a devil in hell, who is not filled by God's powerful presence, for he filleth all things, and upholdeth all things. Yea, so unsearchable is

the immensity of God, that while he is in all creatures, he is above and beyond them all. "Behold," saith Solomon, "the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee." The expanse of heaven is but a little speck, in comparison of the vastness of God. Yet,

II. That we may not conceive any gross apprehensions of God's presence, it may be remarked, that though God be every where, and filleth all things, yet he is not so every where as if he were a great body, one part of which filleth heaven, and another earth. "Do not I fill the heaven and the earth?" The same I AM filleth the heaven, that filleth the earth. In an inconceivable manner he is with us, in all the fulness of his divinity; while also in the very same fulness, he is every where in and beyond the world. "Who can by searching find out God?" We are lost, we cannot reach unto the comprehension of that glorious truth, that the great God is every where at once, filleth and therefore upholdeth all things, and that with all the fulness of the Godhead, so that it may be said to, and of every thing in the universe, the eternal, almighty, gracious, glorious God is with thee, near thee, thou art, thou livest in him.

He

III. Though God be thus every where, yet he is not where seen and manifest. The manifestations every of God are diverse from his essential presence. is working at all times and in all places: seeing it is in him that we live, move, and are; yet as to manifestations, this is as he will. Declarations of his presence there are enough every where; but the opening of himself is to the hearts of men upon