The evidences of this inclination are found in every portion of our lives. But we shall notice only two.

1. Our conduct. Because we lay our plans, and execute them, without any reference to God. In forming a scheme of wealth, ease, or honor, how few have any respect to the approbation of the Divine Being! Or in executing our plans, even when they are virtuous, how few look for success to the blessings of heaven!

2. We call not on God in prayer. If we did believe in the actual, and personal presence of God, and his continual agency in human affairs, it would be the clearest dictate of reason to make known our requests to him in prayer, in order to obtain his favor. Of course we should lay plans, and execute them, only when and in the manner he approves. The notorious fact, then, that men generally live most of their lives without the habit of prayer, establishes the conclusion, that we are strongly inclined, by nature, to exclude the presence and superintendency of the Divine Being from the world and the affairs of men.

The causes of this inclination, waiving the consideration of the native enmity of the human heart to God, are,

1. The invisibility of the Divine Being. Accustomed to think only by means of those impressions which we receive through our bodily senses, we are inclined to forget, or rather are almost incompetent, in our natural state, to conceive clearly of the omnipresence of God, because we see him not. Hence, at first, we ignorantly and involuntarily, and afterward habitually, exclude the presence of the Divine Being from the world.

2. The imposition of our senses on our minds. Accustomed to see effect follow cause when we act, we conclude ourselves the remotest and only agents. And observing that the effects partake of the complexion of their causes, we suppose there is something like an unalterable con nection and dependence between them. Hence, following implicitly the dictates of our bodily senses, we, as Paul says, "walk after the flesh," forgetting the power that established, sustains, and controls the connection between cause and effect. Thus we exclude the superintendency of the Divine Being from the affairs of men.

From the text we learn,

II. The infinite goodness of God in condescending to dwell" in very deed on the earth among men," and in superintending their affairs. But in what sense may God be said to dwell on the earth?

1. Some suppose the Divine Being present only by the regular operations of the laws of nature; by an inherent energy with which he has impressed matter. This opinion, when more fully developed, is this:the Divine Being, having created and organized the world, gave to all its parts and relations life and motion, by causing the Spirit to brood over it, as it were, by incubation. That these, life and motion, were thus

rendered equal in duration with the world, or matter; and operate without reduction or increase of force, or derangement of tendency. Thus the world, abstractly, may be considered as a piece of mechanism, and with the addition of the laws of nature, a piece of mechanism in motion, which continues until the action is either spent or deranged, without the interference of the Maker; yet the wisdom, power, and skill of the Maker may be said to be present, though he himself be far distant. In this manner some reason in regard to the Divine Being, and thus exclude him from the world. I scarcely need proceed to show the defects of this hypothesis of the presence of God in the world. I may only suggest, first: it is defective, because we can not conceive of energy remaining impressed, and active, on matter, and the original source of that energy be completely separated, and remain detached from it. It is impossible for us to conceive of an effect continuing, when the cause has ceased. Therefore, as the impressed energy, constituting the laws of nature, was the effect of an action of the Divine Being (implying his contact with, and operation on, every particle of matter receiving the energy), this action having ceased, the effect must have ceased also. But this is contrary to the experience and observation of every day. Secondly: this hypothesis is defective, when compared with the nature and perfections of the Divine Being. Every enlightened mind conceives of God as possessing, necessarily, all possible perfections. Of these perfections, omniscience is one. But omniscience is founded on his personal omnipresence; as a being can not actually know, of himself, what does not come within his own personal observation. Consequently, if the Divine Being were not personally present, he could not know of an absent transaction, or a distant operation of the laws of nature, except by information derived from another; and if there were such information thus obtained, he would then be dependent on the being who gave it, for his knowledge of the event; which dependence destroys the idea of the perfections of the Divine Being. And, in the possible event, that there were no being present to obtain the information by observation, the Divine Being might never be conscious of such an action, or event; and thus it would appear that the knowledge of God might be limited, and, of course, the whole series of events might, in all and each of their parts, be but imperfectly known to him. Thus we see, that the hypothesis of God being present only by the regular operations of the laws of nature, is at variance with the nature and perfections of God.

2. Some suppose that the laws of nature are, in fact, only the continual exercise of his energy, through all parts of the universe; and thus understand the omnipresence of God to be the continual presence of his energy, giving life, action, and direction to all things which exist.

This hypothesis differs but little from the foregoing. The principal difference is this: it admits a modified connection between the Divine

Being and the world. It supposes that he, from the place of his proper abode, exerts a continual influence on physical and moral existences; but does not suppose his actual personal presence. It is liable to most of the objections which may be urged against the preceding opinion. And, in addition, it is liable to another serious objection, to wit: it limits the abode, and confines the personal presence of the Divine Being; and thus deprives him of his personal immensity; and this deprivation destroys the idea of a perfect divinity. Moreover, as this hypothesis attaches the idea of locality to the Almighty, it must, of course, attach the idea of distance, in regard to the objects on which he operates by his energy. And as we can not conceive of any power operating that is not affected by the distance or space, through which it operates (that is, increasing as the distance or space decreases, and decreasing in the same proportion, as the distance or space increases), so we may not only conceive the distance or space between an object and the source from whence the operating energy emanates, to be so great as to modify the force of the energy, but even to be removed beyond it; and thus place bounds to the exercise of the Almighty's power, and, of course, deprive him of his omnipresence, which would destroy the proper idea of God.

3. Without denying the existence of the laws of nature; or objecting to the opinion of those (on this point) who suppose that the laws of nature are the continual and universal exertion of the divine energy, the true idea of the omnipresence of God may be completed, by adding to these laws, or this energy, the personal, universal, and continual presence of the Almighty, as a perfect and intelligent Being, in all possible places or spaces at the same time. It should be distinctly understood, that the Almighty is not present, in all possible places or spaces, every moment of time, by a diffusion of his essence; for this would imply divisibility; which is inconsistent with the character of God; but his essence, or substance, that is to say, himself as he is, is in every possible place or space, every moment, precisely as if he were in but one place or space; and he is in any one place or space precisely as if he were in no other. Thus is he in hell as truly as in heaven: and in the earth, and in the planets, and fixed stars, and all the worlds, as in this world; and if there be empty space, where there is no created ex istence under any modification whatever, still God is there, as he is amid the glories of heaven.

With this view of the omnipresence of God, the existence and phenomena of all worlds, and systems of worlds, may be satisfactorily explained. Conceiving rightly of the character and perfections of the Divine Being, we find him competent to all, so soon as we conceive him everywhere present, personally, and perfectly as a Being. Looking through all orders, classes, genera, and species of existences, operations, and actions, they are perfectly intelligible when referred to the continual presence of the Almighty. Are starry worlds seen existing in

different parts of the heavens? God is there, sustaining their existence Is a little microscopic insect seen in the dust, or in the down of a peach, or in a drop of water? God is there, sustaining its existence. Are planetary worlds seen revolving in their orbits harmoniously and steadily? God is in each, giving it motion and direction. Do the tides of the oceans act perpetually, and periodically? God is in them, to give their impulses, and to assign their times and bounds. Do we see the principle of vitality active in every substance-in earth, air, water, fire-and under every modification of form, size, density, color, celerity, direction, and force of motion ? God is present to give efficiency and direction to this principle of vitality. Do we look into the mineral world, and observe an internal action continually kept up among the integrant particles of bodies, operating according to the laws of crystallization, and thus producing the most beautiful objects, and in an innumerable variety of primary and secondary forms? God is present to give, and keep up, the energy and direction of each operation, on each seperate particle. Do we examine the vegetable world, and see the unnumbered kinds and species, from the hugest tree, descending to the microscopic blade, stamina, or even vegetative dust of flowers-do we see them assuming all possible forms, and varieties of colors, and emitting all conceivable odors, from the most offensive to the most agree. able; do we look into the principle, machinery, and process of vegetable life, and see all the tubes and juices, having regular forms, dimensions, and directions, and definite qualities, as taste, smell, color, acidity, sweetness, density, etc.-astonished at the action, and results, we imagine (and possibly correctly) that vegetables, like animals, must have a heart, veins, arteries, nerves, digestive and productive organs, etc.

And when we see all these principles and organs operating, toiling, and laboring in the swelling bud, striving for birth, then blooming, fading, decaying, and again appearing in the following spring, with all the energies and principles we have seen apparently terminate in decaywhen we see all this system of vegetable life operating for thousands of years, without derangement of tendency, season, or use, or reduction of force-what solution of this series of wonders can be given? The doctrine of the text gives a satisfactory answer. God is present, to do, of himself, all these wondrous things; and men, seeing the effects, and not the cause, say, These are the operations of the laws of nature; when they are, in truth, the works of a present Deity. Yes, the great and universal Operator is personally present, performing his wonders, in the hand of a little child, when it holds a swelling rose-bud in the act of bursting into bloom. How near does this bring God to us! Not only does it compel us to admit that he is everywhere, but that he is every. where at the same time, operating, directing, superintending, and observing all things. We are constrained to say:

"THESE, as they change, almighty Father, these
Are but the VARIED GOD. The rolling year
Is full of thee."

Or, with a still more extensive and appropriate view, he

"Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,

Glows in the stars, blossoms in the trees;

Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent."

It is to be supposed that the foregoing reflections on the inferior existences and phenomena of nature, have produced a permanent and efficient conviction of perpetually-present Deity. What, then, would we feel, were we to ascend into the superior orders and classes of animal and intellectual existences and phenomena ? Here we acknowledge our incompetency, in common with all who have approached the subject. The celebrated GALEN is said to have fallen on his knees, in wondrous astonishment and adoration, upon contemplating the wisdom, power, and goodness displayed in forming a human body. What, then, must be the emotions of an enlightened intellect, when it ascends into the regions of the principles, materials, and machinery of thought, and examines its powers and action? Mute and motionless with astonishment, wonder, and delight, he contemplates the operations of mind, while it analyzes intricate and complex matters, and combines the simple elements of whole theories, or ranges of thought, marking the development to conviction and demonstration; until the observing intellect itself becomes joyously conscious of a similar existence, and of similar powers, from feeling the same operations and faculties active in himself. His thoughts immediately rush upon his own heart, and with them comes the full and clear conviction, that the power and wisdom of God only could have formed such a thing as INTELLECT; and that his perpetual personal presence and agency only are competent to keep up perpetual intellectual action. Awful thought! How, then, can the mind resist the conviction, that God is not only present with each person, but actually in possession of his heart, his mind, his thoughts-nay, the very springs and materials of his thoughts, or even the indefinite, and almost indetectable emotions of his mind!

Such is the true doctrine of the omnipresence of Jehovah. Let us, then, proceed to inquire how men should be affected by this doctrine.

In the first place, they should be resigned to the dispensations of divine providence in the world, whether they regard a captive or a king, an insect or an empire.

This doctrine of resignation to all the dispensations of God's providence and will, is a pleasing part of the Christian's creed, and is founded on this plain deduction from his omnipresence, viz.: That God attends