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to the motives whence they proceed: the motive is that which determines the action in his sight, and his judgement is always according to truth. 'By him actions are weighed." While we are continually liable to be mistaken, and our judgements and censures, often rash and misplaced, are always uncertain; his eye pierces the thickest shades of darkness. The gloom of midnight and the splendour of noon are only distinctions with respect to us; in regard to him, there is no difference: "With him the night shineth as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to him." There can

be no folly therefore so great as for a creature to attempt to conceal himself from the inspection and scrutiny of his Maker. He is within us: “in him we live, and move, and have our being." We need no other proof that he knows the secrets of the heart, than that he is present with its most hidden recesses. Hence, in the Psalm already referred to, the Psalmist infers his infinite cognizance of his creatures, from the fact of his incessant and intimate presence with them. The infinite knowledge which God has of his works, is indeed inseparably connected with this part of his character. As the Infinite Spirit-the great Father of spiritshe is the source of all the intelligence and wisdom which exist in created spirits. He must be perfectly acquainted with all the operations and results of all other minds, since he has constituted them, and they are entirely the effect of his own intelligence and wisdom. When the heathen world lost sight of the spirituality of God, they also lost sight of

his omniscience; and after gradually sinking lower in proportion as they receded farther from that view of his character, their notions of him became at length so debased that they invested him with a corporeal form. The spirituality of the divine nature, having been attested by the Saviour, and made one of the principles of his religion, has raised the conceptions of the human mind far beyond what the greatest philosophers could previously attain; and enabled children to surpass in both spiritual and intellectual illumination, the sages of pagan antiquity.

V. The doctrine of the spirituality of the divine nature establishes a most intimate relation between him and all his intelligent creatures: it becomes a bond of the most subtle union between himself and the intellectual part of the creation.

He stands in close and intimate relation to all creatures their dependence on him is absolute, their subjection to him constant and incessant ; but in a special manner is he the Father of spirits. The relation between father and child is very intimate, but that between God and man is much more so. An earthly parent is but the instrument, God is the author of our existence; one is the father of the flesh; the other of the spirit. In proportion as the spirit is the most important part of human nature, this relation which we sustain to God is most essential, interesting, and extensive. The body connects us with the material universe around us; the soul connects us immediately with

the Deity. At death, the body returns to the earth, its native element; "the spirit returns to God that gave it." The body has a tendency to separate us from God, by the dissimilarity of its nature; the soul, on the contrary, unites us again to him, by means of those principles and faculties which, though infinitely inferior, are of a character congenial with his own. The body is the production of God, the soul is his image.

To estrange ourselves from God is therefore to be guilty of a new and most enormous kind of offence it is forgetting our proper parent;-losing our great portion, the very source of our existence. To love him, to seek union with him in the closest manner possible, is to return to our proper original,-to seek Him from whom all our powers are derived, and by whom alone they can be sustained in time, and must be consummated and completed in eternity. If you were to see a person manifest no desire for the presence of an earthly parent, you would be shocked at the spectacle, and would be ready to represent him as a prodigy of ingratitude. How much more would it affect a wellconstituted mind to behold a creature seeking estrangement from his Heavenly Parent-living in forgetfulness of Him. This would appear matter of the greatest astonishment, were men to withdraw themselves from sensible objects, and retire into their own minds, for the purpose of serious reflection. The prophet calls on heaven and earth to sympathize with him in this emotion: "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord

hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.”*

VI. The spirituality of the divine nature renders him capable of the exalted prerogative of being the satisfying portion, the supreme good of all intelligent beings.

It is in consequence of being a spirit, that he is properly fitted to be the Supreme Good; not merely the dispenser of those outward benefits which gratify the corporeal appetites, and sustain our transitory state in this world; not only the author, but the immediate source, the very element of our happiness-in consequence of those properties of his nature which are congenial with our own. Many are willing to acknowledge their dependence on the power and providence of God for those good things the possession of which the world calls happiness, such as riches, honours, pleasures; they expect to be made happy by means of his influence over inferior creatures, exerted in putting things in a train for that purpose. But the devout man ascends to God himself, as the source and spring of happiness, in the contemplation of whom, and in whose friendship and love, consists eternal life: he regards him as the highest good, the source of felicity to the intelligent universe, the very principle of good. The Psalmist recognized the Divine Being under this character, and he has been so recognized by the faithful in every age and every nation; "The Lord is my portion, saith my soul,

* Isaiah i. 2.

therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him."* We find holy men casting their eyes round upon all that is in heaven and on earth.... then collecting all into one great aggregate, and solemnly relinquishing the whole, trampling it in the dust, in order to ascend to God, and rest in his love. "Whom," says the Psalmist, "have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee; my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. My soul thirsteth for God, my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." To know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, this, this is life eternal. The Divine Being not only sustains towards us the character of a governor, ruling our wills by his holy law, but is also the chief object of our affections; and we never know him aright till we feel thus towards him, till we obey him from the heart, perceiving in him that which is suited to the nature of our immortal minds, and resting in him as our eternal and unchanging portion. If you do not ascend as high as this, you will never find any rest for your soul, you will wander through eternity restless and unsatisfied: "The height will say, It is not in me; and the depth, It is not in me;" and every voice will answer us with scorn unless we listen to that which now issues from the secret presence of the Almighty; "acquaint thyself with me, and be at peace. All that we can derive from creatures is

* Lam. iii. 24, 25. Psalm lxxiii. 25, 26.