The Doctrine of GOD's Omniprefence Whither shall I go from thy fpirit, or whither fball I flee from thy prefence? If I afcend up into heaven, thou art there, if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there, if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the ut- (1) SERMON I. The Being of GoD prov'd from the Rom. i. 19, 20. Because that which may be known of God, is manifeft in them, for God hath fhewed it unto them. For the invifible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly feen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead. T HE mind of man, by attending to its SER M. own conftitution, and to the ftate and appearances of the world, is naturally led to an inquiry concerning the origin and causes of things, the proper measures of its own conduct, with the confequences of them, and to future events as far as it can attain the knowledge of them: that is, to an inquiry concerning God and religion. When a man, endued with all the vital, fenfitive, and intellectual powers which belong to his nature, and arrived at the perfect exercise of VOL. I. them, A I. SERM. them, with a competent knowledge of himI. felf, and the various relations and ufes of things about him; when, I fay, he deliberately views the obvious face of nature; when he beholds the vast expanse of heaven, the glorious light of the fun, and by it a numberless multitude of other objects, many of which, he knows, by his fenfes, his appetites, his affections and experience, are in different ways useful to him and to each other; reflecting at the fame time on his own being, his various powers and perceptions, one would think he could scarcely avoid fuch enquiries as these," Whence am I, and by what power pro"duc'd? Whence all thefe beings with "which I fee myself surrounded? As I have no other knowledge of my existence, nor any other way to judge of its duration, than "by conscious perception, I must conclude, "that fome time ago I was not, for I had " no confcioufnefs nor perception of any thing. How then is this wonderful tran"fition from non-existence into being to be "accounted for? Is it to be attributed to a fuperior designing caufe? and has that "fame mighty intelligent cause form'd all " those other beings I perceive, which by "their appearances feem to be related to each other and to me, fo as to make up one "intire |