This reminds me of a beautiful passage in Plato. He says that the gods, particularly the chief good, the ineffable beauty, as he calls him, cannot be conceived of but by the understanding only, and by quitting sensible objects; that in order to contemplate the divinity, terrestrial ideas must be surmounted; that the eyes cannot see him; that the ears cannot hear him. A thought which Julian the apostate, a great admirer of that philosopher, so nobly expresses in his satire on the Cæsars. Thus every thing serves to establish our first principle, that God is a Spirit.

2. But to prove that God is a Spirit, and to prove that he occupies no place, at least as our imagination conceives, is, in our opinion, to establish the same thesis.

I know how difficult it is to make this consequence intelligible and clear, not only to those who have never been accustomed to meditation, and who are therefore more excusable for having confused ideas; but even to such as, having cultivated the sciences, are most intent on refining their ideas. I freely acknowledge, that after we have used our utmost efforts to rise above sense and matter, it will be extremely difficult to conceive the existence of a spirit, without conceiving it in a certain place. Yet, I think, whatever difficulty there may be in the system of those who maintain that an immaterial being cannot be in a place, properly so called, there are greater difficulties still in the opposite opinion for what is immaterial hath no parts; what hath no parts hath no form; what hath no form

hath no extension; what hath no extension can have no situation in place, properly so called. For what. is it to be in place? is it not to fill space, is it not to be adjusted with surrounding bodies? how adjust with surrounding bodies without parts? how consist of parts, without being corporeal? But if ye ascribe a real and proper extension to a spirit, every thought of that spirit would be a separate portion on that extension, as every part of the body is a separate portion of the whole body: every operation of spirit would be a modification of that extension, as every operation of body is a modification of body; and, were this the case, there would be no absurdity in saying that a thought is round, or square, or cubic, which is nothing less than the confounding of spirit with matter. Thus the idea which our imagination forms of the omnipresence of God, when it represents the essence of the Supreme Being filling infinite spaces, as we are lodged in our houses, is a false idea that ought to be carefully avoided.

II. What notions then must we form of the immensity of God? in what sense do we conceive that the infinite spirit is every where present? My brethren, the bounds of our knowledge are so strait, our sphere is so contracted, we have such imperfect ideas of spirits, even of our own spirits, and for a much stronger reason, of the Father of spirits, that no genius in the world, however exalted ye may suppose him, after his greatest efforts of meditation, can say to you, Thus far extend the attributes of God; behold a complete idea of his immensity and omnipresence. Yet, by the help of sound reason,

above all, by the aid of revelation, we may give you, if not complete, at least distinct ideas of the subject: it is possible, if not to indicate all the senses in which God is immense, at least to point out some: it is possible, if not to shew you all the truth, at least to discover it in part.

Let us not conceive the omnipresence of God as a particular attribute (if I may venture to say so) of the Deity, as goodness or wisdom, but as the extent or infinity of many others. The omnipresence of God is that universal property by which he communicates himself to all, diffuses himself through all, is the great director of all, or, to confine ourselves to more distinct ideas still, the infinite spirit is present in every place.

1. By a boundless knowledge. 2. By a general influence.

3. By an universal direction.

God is every where, because he seeth all, because he influenceth all, because he directeth all. This we must prove and establish. But if ye would judge rightly of what ye have heard, and of what ye may still hear, ye must remember that this subject hath no relation to your pleasure, nor to your policy, nor to any of those objects which occupy and fill your whole souls; and consequently, that if ye would follow us, ye must stretch your meditation, and go, as it were, out of yourselves.

1. The first idea of God's omnipresence is his omniscience. God is every where present, because he seeth all. This the prophet had principally in view. "O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known

me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, 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. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it," verses 1, 2, 3, &c. Then follow the words of our text: "Whither shall I go from thy spirit?" and so on.

Let us not then consider the Deity, after the example of the schoolmen, as a point fixed in the universality of beings. Let us consider the universality of beings as a point, and the Deity as an immense eye, which sees all that passes in that point, all that can possibly pass there; and which, by an all-animating intelligence, makes an exact combination of all the effects of matter, and of all the dispositions of spirit.

1. God knows all the effects of matter. An expert workman takes a parcel of matter proportioned to a work which he meditates, he makes divers wheels, disposes them properly, and sees, by the rules of his art, what must result from their assemblage. Suppose a sublime, exact genius, knowing how to go from principle to principle, and from consequence to consequence, after foreseeing what must result from two wheels joined together, should imagine a third, he will as certainly know what must result from a third, as from a first and second; after imagining a third, he may imagine a fourth, and properly arrange it with the rest in his imagin

ation; after a fourth a fifth, and so on to an endless number. Such a man could mathematically demonstrate, in an exact and infallible manner, what must result from a work composed of all these different wheels. Suppose farther, that this workman, having accurately considered the effects which would be produced on these wheels, by that subtil matter which in their whirlings continually surrounds them, and which, by its perpetual action and motion, chafes, wears, and dissolves all bodies; this workman would tell you, with the same exactness, how long each of these wheels would wear, and when the whole work would be consumed. Give this workman life and industry proportional to his imagination, furnish him with materials, proportional to his ideas, and he will produce a vast, immense work, all the different motions of which he can exactly combine; all the different effects of which he can evidently foresee. He will see, in what time motion will be communicated from the first of these wheels to the second, at what time the second will move the third, and so of the rest; he will foretell all their different motions, and all the effects which must result from their different combinations.

Hitherto this is only supposition, my brethren, but it is a supposition that conducts us to the most certain of all facts. This workman is God. God is this sublime, exact, infinite genius. He calls into being matter, without motion, and, in some sense, without form. He gives this matter form and motion. He makes a certain number of wheels, or rather he makes them without number. He disposes