what the mind seems to have the power easily to effect, this earthly clog prevents. The exile from home feels this true "When I think of my dear native land, But, alas! recollection at hand, Soon hurries me back to despair." No impediment like this, no check to the free accomplishment of every volition, retards the awful step of Deity. The power he possesses of being wherever his mind is conscious, and as he knows all things, he must be every where present. In heaven above he is displaying his majesty and glory; in the great deep his wonders strike our imagination; the hills and fertile valleys rejoice in his presence; the human heart exults, for wherever it properly exercises itself it finds and feels that God is there. In all events he may be seen, in all places he may, by his spiritual agency, be traced; and in every house set apart for his worship, over this spacious earth, he is there to accept and bless those who worship him in spirit and in truth. Forgive me, O thou infinitely good Spirit, if I have ever lost sight of this thine universal presence; if I have ever doubted that thou wouldst hear, or that thou wouldst bless; if I have ever been so inattentive to my privileges as to be negligent in the devotion I paid to thee, from the belief that "thou hidest thy face and art afar off." And, O forgive me, if I have sinned, presuming that what men cannot see, would be hidden from thee, who knowest all things. This wonderful and mysterious spiritual nature of God can be subject to no change. Those accidents which affect our existence cannot in any way reach an existence devoid of matter, formed by no accession or accretion of parts. An existence purely spiritual is in its nature, as opposed to one mortal and corporeal, "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." If we contemplate ourselves, what changes do we observe in the different parts of our lives! How we differ in age from what we were in youth! How much controul over our character and habits has the state of our health, or the period of our life, or the circumstances which affect our outward lot, or the accidents which unfit or fit us. for pursuits formerly alien to our capacities and desires! We know not what we shall be, from knowing what we at present are. We augur favourably or unfavourably of our future selves, from some omen of good, or presage of evil, in ourselves at the present time; but circumstances which affect us change our hopes and fears, and something new, not dreaded nor hoped for, renders our anticipations vain. As we are frail, so every thing that concerns us is uncertain; as we are corporeal, so are we liable to perpetual change and alteration; and what cir cumstance is there that cannot affect a frame which makes us accessible in every part to impres sions of pleasure or pain? The avenues of all the senses are the inlets of attacks which may affect our peace, injure or improve our health, alter our opinions and wishes, obscure or enlighten our perceptions, make us wiser and more intellectual, or sink us in ignorance and sensuality. The nature of Deity, as spiritual, is far removed from all these contingencies, and can suffer no change. It was, and is, it must be always perfect. And hence, when, in accommodation to the feeble conceptions of mankind, a human form is ascribed to God, it is always represented as of unlimited capacity, extent, and power, to convey to us what must be the nature of God himself—unchangeably perfect, in all the attributes of underived existence, and in all the unlimited agency of his infinite wisdom and power. The spirituality of the Divine nature exempts that Infinite Being who possesses it from all animal passions and affections. Of this exemption the Heathens had no just conceptions, and in the descriptions of their gods, they subject them to all the consequences and actions of those passions which often exercise undue controul over the human understanding, and which almost always mix their influence more or less with the whole of our conduct in life. The great struggle of human life is to bring all these affections under the guidance and dominion of reason. How many grow weary at the first attempt, and never gain that dominion without which good character cannot be formed, and an useful part in life cannot be acted! Subject to the caprice of inclination, how uncertain will all human purposes be; and stimulated solely by a regard to our own gratification, how culpably selfish will they become! Who has escaped the conduct which is to be condemned, or the pressing importunity of inclinations which ought not to be indulged, or the partial behaviour to which misguided affections prompt? Who has not found reason at times thwarted by passion, and understanding biassed by affection too permanent and powerful to be over-ruled? This is a mark of our frailty, and happy is it for us when good principles possess such power as not to permit us to hurt the feelings of others, or in any way to injure them to gratify ourselves; still happier we, if that controul be established that we can do right and act justly to all men, even our enemies, and not suffer the partiality of affection to warp the equity of our decisions between man and man. But all this difficulty and all this consequent imperfection cannot be a part of the Divine character and nature. Pure and perfect reason, unobscured, unclouded by passion and affection, unbiassed by any impulses, uninfluenced by any extraneous consideration, sways the Divine conduct and dwells eternally in the Divine mind. What affections can exist in spiritual existence may be attributed to God; but none can, but what are perfectly consistent with the dictates of infinite wisdom, goodness, justice, and mercy. And if it be possible to draw any conclusion in our reasoning on the purposes of heaven from these attributes of his moral nature, they cannot be overturned by any expressions used in the Bible to accommodate our imperfection, in which passions at variance with these attributes are ascribed to the Infinite Mind. In such expressions the writer, be he who he may, speaks after the manner of men, and this can never justly and strictly apply to the conduct of God. More confidently may our next observation be maintained, that this spirituality of God exempts him from all imperfection and sin. All the records of true religion assert the sinless purity and the unalterable perfection of the Deity. In thus confidently speaking, they utter a truth which our minds, if enlightened to understand the evidence on which it rests, will most cordially approve. And reason can often establish and confirm that which it was not at first equal to find out. Temptation can never assail where deception cannot take place. All sin is folly, at variance with right reason, with sound understanding, with just views and just conclusions; and to be deceived is characteristic of that weakness and frailty which belong to created natures, and especially to those beings whose union with a mortal body necessarily subjects them to mistakes, errors, and often to transgression. The history of most lives of most human beings, were it faithfully drawn up, with an intimate knowledge of all that has passed in their minds, of all the dan |