thought, I could not but reflect on that little infignificant figure which I myfelf bore amid the immenfity of God's works.

Were the fun, which enlightens this part of the creation, with all the hoft of planetary worlds that move about him, utterly extinguifhed and annihilated; they would not be miffed more than a grain of fand upon the fea-fhore. The space they poffefs is fo exceedingly little in comparison of the whole, that it would fcarce make a blank in the creation. The chafm would be imperceptible to an eye, that could take in the whole compass of nature, and pass from one end of the creation to the other; as it is poffible there may be fuch a fenfe in ourfelves hereafter, or in creatures which are at prefent more exalted than ourfelves. We fee many ftars by the help of glaffes, which we do not difcover with our naked eyes; and the finer our telescopes are, the more ftill are our dif coveries. Huygenius carries this thought fo far, that he does not think it impoffible there may be ftars whofe light is not yet travelled down to us fince their first creation. There is no queftion but the

universe

universe has certain bounds fet to it; but when we confider that it is the work of infinite power, prompted by infinite goodness, with an infinite fpace to exert itfelf in, how can our imagination fet any bounds to it?

To return therefore to my first thought, I could not but look upon myself with secret horror, as a Being that was not worth the smallest regard of one who had fo great a work under his care and superintendency. I was afraid of being overlooked amidst the immenfity of nature, and loft among that infinite variety of creatures, which in all probability fwarm through all these immeafurable regions of

matter.

In order to recover myself from this mortifying thought, I confidered that it took its rife from thofe narrow conceptions, which we are apt to entertain of the Divine Nature. We ourselves cannot attend to many different objects at the fame time. If we are careful to infpect fome things, we muft of course neglect others. This imperfection which we obferve in ourselves, is an imperfection that cleaves in fome degree to creatures of the higheft capacities, as they

are

are Creatures, that is, Beings of finite and limited natures. every created Peing is tain measure of space,

The prefence of confined to a cerand confequently

his obfervation is ftinted to a certain number of objects. The sphere in which we move, and act, and understand, is of a wider circumference to one creature than another, according as we rife one above another in the fcale of exiftence. But the wideft of these our spheres has its circumference. When therefore we reflect on the divine nature, we are fo ufed and accustomed to this imperfection in ourselves, that we cannot forbear in fome measure afcribing it to him in whom there is no fhadow of imperfection. Our reafon indeed affures us that his attributes are infinite, but the poornefs of our conceptions is fuch, that it cannot forbear setting bounds to every thing it contemplates, till our reafon comes again to our fuccour, and throws down all those little prejudices which rise in us unawares, and are natural to the mind of

man.

We fhall therefore utterly extinguish this melancholy thought, of our being overlooked by our maker, in the multi

plicity

plicity of his works, and the infinity of those objects among which he seems to be inceffantly employed, if we confider, in the first place, that he is Omniprefent, and, in the fecond, that he is Omniscient.

If we confider him in his Omniprefence His Being paffes through, actuates, and fupports the whole Frame of nature. His creation, and every part of it, is full of him. There is nothing he has made, that is either fo diftant, fo little, or fo inconfiderable, which he does not effentially inhabit. His fubftance is within the fubftance of every Being, whether material or immaterial, and as intimately prefent to it, as that Being is to itfelf. It would be an imperfection in him, were he able to remove out of one place into another, or to withdraw himself from any thing he has created, or from any part of that space which is diffufed and fpread abroad to infinity.. In fhort, to fpeak of him in the language of the old philofopher, he is a Being whose center is every where, and his circumference no where.

In the fecond place, he is Omniscient as well as Omniprefent. His Omniscience

indeed neceffarily and naturally flows from his Omniprefence; he cannot but be conscious of every motion that arises in the whole material world, which he thus effentially pervades, and of every thought that is ftirring in the intellectual world, to every part of which he is thus intimately united. Several moralifts have confidered the creation as the temple of God, which he has built with his own hands, and which is filled with his prefence. Others have confidered infinite fpace as the receptacle, or rather the habitation of the Almighty: But the nobleft and moft exalted way of confidering this infinite space is that of Sir Ifaac Newton, who calls it the Senforium of the Godhead. Brutes and men have their Sensoriola, or little Senforiums, by, which they apprehend the prefence and perceive the actions of a few objects, that lie contiguous to them Their knowledge and obfervation turns within a very narrow circle. But as God Almighty cannot but perceive and know every thing in which he refides, infinite fpace gives room to infinite knowledge, and is, as it were, an organ to Omniscience.

Were