SERM. AND, that I may render this Truth more VII. useful and inftructive, I fhall endeavour to shew, I. WHAT we mean, when we say that II. I SHALL make Proof of this Article of III. I SHALL confider what Influence the Belief of this Attribute of God ought to have on our Lives and Converfations. And, I. I SHALL confider what we mean, when we fay that God is omniprefent. THE Omniprefence of God is an Article of our Faith, which, we confefs, is incomprehenfible; God's Effence is infinite, and cannot be comprehended in our finite Understandings, and therefore we ought, every one of us, to fay with the Pfalmift, Pf.cxlv.3. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praifed; and his Greatness is unfearchable. YET, though we cannot comprehend the Omniprefence of God, or pofitively define wherein it confifts, or frame an adequate Notion of it; yet, if we profefs our Belief of it, we muft frame fome Notion or other of it, though very imperfect; and it is our Duty to endeavour to to obtain as plain and intelligible a No-SERM. tion of it, as the abftrufe Nature of the VII. Subject is capable of. We ought to confider what Light God has afforded us from the Principles of Reason, and what Revelation he has made of this Divine Attribute in the Holy Scriptures. If we feriously contemplate this Matter, we shall find, that the Holy Scriptures make Mention of a two-fold Prefence of God, the one general, the other more particular. By the particular Prefence of God we are to understand, thofe extraordinary Manifestations which God is pleased to make of himself to fome Perfons, in fome Places, and at fome particular Times and Seafons. Thus God was prefent with Mofes in the Bush, with the People of Ifrael in the Cloud; thus he is prefent in Heaven by the Manifeftations of his Glory; in his Church, and in the Heart of every good and pious Chriftian, by the Gifts and Graces of his Holy Spirit. THIS is not that Prefence of God defcribed to us in the Text, because it is limited and bounded to particular Objects, and, by Confequence, finite, and is only the Effect of that general and effential Prefence of God, which equally exifts SERM. in all Places, and is communicated to all VII. Things. And this is three-fold: 1. GOD is prefent in all Places, and with all Things, by his Knowledge; he knows whatsoever is done in the World, he beholds every Thing, though tranfacted in the fartheft Parts of the Earth, or in the clofeft Retirements; nay, he is a Difcerner of the hidden Thoughts and Intents of the Heart; neither is there any Creature that is not manifeft in his Sight: But all Things are naked and opened to the Eyes of him, with whom we Heb. iv. have to do. 12, 13. 2. GOD is omniprefent by his Power and Operation; he, who at firft created all Things, ftill preferves and upholds them, rules and governs them, and manages them all as beft fecures the Ends of his Government, and brings about the wife Designs of his over- ruling Providence; it is in him we live, and move, and As xvii. have our Being. 28. 3. GOD is omniprefent effentially, his Being is diffused through the Universe, and though he is not circumfcribed and limited by any determinate Place, as all created Beings are, yet there is no Place in which he is not. The Manner, how he is thus prefent, cannot be comprehend ed ed by our limited Conceptions; and, SERM. though we could comprehend it, yet we VII. fhould want Words to exprefs it by. II. AND therefore I proceed, Secondly, to make Proof of this Article of our Faith; and this I might eafily perform by producing what both Jews and Heathens, the antient Philofophers and our modern Reasoners, have said on this Subject; but I fhall rather apply my Thoughts to what I find revealed in the Holy Scriptures, as containing Arguments fuitable to all Capacities, which being feriously confidered, and frequently thought on, will make every one wife unto Salvation. And, 1. I SHALL begin with the Words immediately following the Text, in which the Pfalmift gives an Anfwer to the Queftion propofed, Whither fhall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither fhall I flee from thy Prefence? And then he reckons up all the Places which a vain and wicked Man can fancy to himself, to be a secure Retreat from the Anger of God, Heaven, Earth, the Sea, and even Hell itself; and yet after all he concludes, that God is prefent in all those Places, and that there is no Poffibility of concealing qurfelves from his all-feeing Eye: If I afcend up L 3 into SERM. into Heaven, thou art there; if I make my VII. Bed in Hell, behold, thou art there; if I take the Wings of the Morning, and dwell in the uttermoft Parts of the Sea, even there fhall thy Hand lead me, and thy right Hand Jhall hold me. And that, by this Prefence of God in all thefe Places, is meant God's effential Prefence, and not his Prefence by his Power and Knowledge, is plain, because these Words are brought in by the Pfalmift, as an Argument to prove that Ver. 2. Propofition, that God knows the Heart of Man, and understands their Thoughts afar off; and this he proves, because God is prefent in all Places, and must needs see and take Notice of them. Ch. lxvi. 1. ye IN like Manner, in the Prophet Ifaiah, we find God himself thus arguing: Thus faith the Lord, The Heaven is my Throne, and the Earth is my Foot-ftool; and therefore he demands, in the Verfes immediately following, Where is the Houfe that build unto me? and Where is the Place of my Reft? As if he should have said, That it was a vain and foolish Thing for the Jews to imagine that God's Being was confined to that Temple which they had built, or that, because they were the ресиliar People of God, therefore God had took up |