THE

OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD.

JEREMIAH, xxiii, 23, 24.

Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? 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.

THERE

HERE is, perhaps, nothing with which a reflecting man is sooner impressed, than with a sense of his own ignorance. He finds that there is not an object that meets his eye, or a subject that occupies his mind, which he fully comprehends. He does not fully comprehend even the objects of sense. He knows that they exist; but with their essence, with the manner of their existence, he is totally unacquainted. The very structure of his own body, and the consti

tution of his own mind, are to him inexplicable mysteries. He knows that he is a compound of both; but to the intimate knowledge of the nature of either, he is an absolute stranger. The Father of

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lights' hath communicated to us that portion of light which is sufficient for directing our practice, while he hath been pleased to with-hold from us the full knowledge of any thing which is not requisite to the great ends of our being.

We need not wonder then at our ignorance of the adorable Supreme. If we cannot fully comprehend even the most common objects, is it at all surprising that the great God should exceed our comprehension? We know that he exists, and that he eternally exists; but how he exists, is what we might naturally expect to elude all our most anxious inquiries. We are too apt to consider the nature of his existence, as more or less similar to our own. But how immense is the difference between the one and the other! The existence of God transcends infinitely that of man, or any other created being. He exists, for instance, not like us, on a particular spot, and limited

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to a particular sphere: he exists everywhere he exists, at every instant, in every place: he is, at all times, equally present in every part of the infinite expansion of the universe. We cannot thus think of the divine presence without being filled with amazement. And yet what is now stated, is not more amazing than true.Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?-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.'

LET us consider, FIRST, what proof we have of the Omnipresence of God.-SECONDLY, how we should endeavour to conceive of it; and, LASTLY, Some of the conclusions that may be fairly drawn from this grand and interesting subject.

LET us consider, FIRST, what proof we have of the omnipresence of God.

IT has been proved, that the Being, whom we denominate God, is uncaused and hence, it foliows, must be unbounded.

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that his presence Had his presence

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any bounds, then it must have been physically possible for it to have exceeded these bounds. But when it is at all possible for any Being to have existed beyond the bounds within which he does exist, this evidently implies, that there has been some cause that has limited his bounds to what they actually are: for nothing can be plainer, than that whatever might, in any respect, have been otherwise than it is, must have had some cause that determined it to be what it really is. God, therefore, who has no cause, can have no limitation. Of consequence, his presence cannot be limited or local: it must be boundless and universal. He must exist everywhere, in the same manner that he exists anywhere. He must exist in all places; even throughout infinite space:-an idea, it must be confessed, altogether incomprehensible; but not more so than his existence itself:-an existence original and necessary :—without any possible beginning, and without any possible end.

THE Omnipresence of God, farther appears from considering him as the Creator of the universe. If he created all things,

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he must have been present with all things: and he must also be continually present with them; for what he originally created, he must continually preserve. No part of the universe can preserve itself, any more than it could, at first, make itself. once was nothing, and what once was nothing, may be nothing again. If, then it continue in existence: if it be preserved from returning to its original nothing, it must be preserved by its Creator.-If the universe could preserve itself, then it would be independent and self-existent, which is altogether incompatible with our notions of a creature. But if God not only created all things, but must, every moment, preserve all things, and if no power can act but where it is, then the presence of God must co-exist with universal nature. And as there can be set to nature no assignable bounds, we naturally infer that the divine presence is absolutely unbounded,—literally immense.

SUCH is the proof which we have of the omnipresence of God. Let us consider, SECONDLY, how we should conceive of it.