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deavours, and Weak indeed have those endeavours been, to give you a Juft Sense of the Great Articles of Faith, to Establish and Confirm you in the Stedfast Belief of them, and to guard you against the Fallacious Arguments, and Plaufible Infinuations of Unbelievers. But the PraEtical Duties of Religion have, much more Frequently, been the Subjects of my Difcourses; because these Duties are branch'd out into Greater Numbers and Varieties, than the Objects of Faith are; and the Temptations to Violate or Neglect them, more Numerous too; Snares ever furrounding us Without, and our own Hearts ever ready to betray us Within; every Circumftance of Life being attended with Peculiar Difficulties, and almost every Hour of Life bringing along with it Fresh Trials and Hazards: And yet, if amidft all thefe Multiplicities of Duties and Dangers, we should fail of performing Sincere and Univerfal Obedience, Faith cannot fave us.

But I cannot clofe my Miniftrations to you, without offering up my Humble and Earneft Prayer to God, that he may gracioufly

oufly Pardon the Imperfections attending them; and, that the Weakneffes and Defects of my Inftructions and Exhortations, offer'd to You, may be supplied by the All-fufficient Influences of the Holy Spirit upon You, guiding you into all Truth, Defending you against all Dangers and Temptations, and Adorning you with all Chriftian Graces; that You may be Victorious in your Spiritual Warfare, and finally attain to the Everlafting Manfions of the Bleffed Above. And the very God of Peace Sanctifie you wholly: And I pray God, your whole fpirit and foul and body be preferved blamelefs unto the Coming of our Lord Jefus

Christ.

To Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, three Perfons and One God, be afcribed all Honour and Praife, and Thankf giving, now henceforth and for e

vermore.

Ee 3

SERMON

422

SERMON XII.

The Omnipresence of God.

Being the last Sermon the AUTHOR
Preach'd; and Publish'd by his Direction.

JER. XXIII. Part of the 24th Verse. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth, faith the Lord?

HESE Words denote one of
the Peculiar, Incommunicable
Attributes of God; And if it

were not utterly Inconfiftent with Infi-
nity, to admit of Degrees, This Excel-
lency in the Divine Nature, at least ex-
cepting Eternity, might feem the most
Surprizing and Transcendent of Any.
There are in the Holy Angels, and in
Holy Men too, men Influenced and Go-
verned by the Divine Spirit, fair Images
of the Veracity, the Wisdom, the Good-.

ness,

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ness, the Mercy, and the Compaffion of God; which yet are all Infinite in Him: The vast measures of Power which are imparted to fome Creatures, efpecially to the Angelick Hoft, are fome Reprefentation of Omnipotence; That Steddiness of Soul, which is the Portion of Just men made Perfect, looks a little like the Immutability of God: But in All the Ranks and orders of Creatures there is fcarce any Semblance of Immenfity or Omniprefence to be found. Whilft we contemplate the Vastest even of Celeftial Bodies, the Evidence of their Magnitude is also the Evidence, that they are determined in their Extenfion; And there is nothing in them, nor in any created Being, which can fuggeft to us the Notion of Immensity, in like manner, as the notions, of Infinite Power, or Goodnefs, or fome other Perfections in the Deity, are Suggested by the Conceptions we have of fuch measures of thofe Attributes, as are from Him Graciously derived upon our felves. And as there are no footsteps or traces of this Divine Perfection to be found in the vifible World,

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'tis Therefore apt to fill our minds with the Higher admiration of the Great God, in whom alone it is found. But ftill 'tis in this, as in various other inftances of Things Wonderful in Themselves, that, though the Mode or Manner of it be very Abstruse, and Difficult, and Puzzling to our conceptions, yet the Certainty of the Thing is deducible from our Natural Notions of God, and that Deduction is plainly confirmed in his Holy Word; Do not I fill Heaven and Earth, faith the Lord? In difcourfing on which words, I fhall

I. First, Endeavour to Evince and Illuftrate the truth of this Propofition, that God is Omnipresent, and

II. Secondly, Draw fome Practical Inferences from it.

I. I fhall endeavour to Evince and Illuftrate the truth of this Propofition, that God is Omniprefent.

And the Evidence of this, arifing from our natural notions of God, will appear, in a few words, by confidering those other kinds of Prefence, which are oppofed to Immenfity, and are, by Metaphyfical Writers, reprefented under Terms,

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