ing his name, and from the fulness of their devout and grateful hearts to acknowledge and adore his supreme and universal dominion. The possessive pronoun, "our God," marks the peculiar and appropriating sense in which Jehovah was the God of Israel, in consequence of the explicit covenant subsisting between him and them. As Christians and the professing people of God, there is now the same covenant relation subsisting between him and ourselves. To us therefore the exhortation applies, "Ascribe ye greatness unto our God." Such ascriptions should proceed from hearts deeply impressed with a sense of his inconceivable greatness and glory, and affected, elevated, and warmed with the contemplation of him. We can hardly fail of being thus affected, if we think of his greatness in his BEING, PERFECTIONS, and WORKS.

I. In his BEING, or in its manner or duration, to whom may he be compared? The disparity between him and all other beings is infinite. They, as creatures, are the mere effects of his power. To suppose that they never might have been, or may cease to be, involves no contradiction. Once indeed they were not; and they now possess but a derived, dependent being, sustained solely by his power. But with respect to him, it is the peculiar and exclusive privilege of his nature to be self-existent and independent. The hypothesis of his not being, or ceasing to be, or being different from what he is, can, on no principle of reason, be admitted. In every

idea of him are included his eternity, his necessary self-existence, without beginning and without end. In thinking of other beings, we assign them an origin. We know ourselves to be but of yesterday, and that a few years since we were not. The earth itself was once without form and void; neither man nor angel existed. The universe had a beginning. To the fictitious deities of the heathen their worshippers admitted an origin; but with respect to the true God no supposition can be more absurd and contradictory. If you send your thoughts back into the dark regions of an eternity past, if you give imagination scope in figuring to itself millions and millions of ages prior to the birth of creation; in this attempt you make no approach towards the origin of that Being who is without beginning. If you look forward, and give fancy the same scope in traversing the regions of futurity; if you suppose all the revolutions predicted by prophecy to have passed, and, in addition to these, as many myriads of ages as there are particles of matter in the material system; still, your calculations fail to increase the duration of God. No finite number of ages can make any addition to his years. It cannot be said that he has existed longer now, than he had when he created the world.

For

"one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." years as one day." "Behold! God is

great, and we know him not." His days are not as the days of man, "neither can the number of his years be searched out." Before the day was, be

fore the mountains were brought forth, or he had formed the earth or the world, even from everlasting to everlasting he is God. Into what embarrassment and confusion do our thoughts run, while attempting thus to contemplate him! How is our understanding overwhelmed in its efforts to conceive of his infinity!

II. His greatness is equally incomprehensible in all and each of his PERFECTIONS. Other beings are circumscribed in some definite place. No creature can occupy two different and distant places at the same time. Within what narrow limits are we ourselves confined! This earth itself, though it contains all the nations of men, with innumerable other creatures, affording room amply sufficient for all, is yet but a speck or a point, compared with the immense spaces of the universe, always filled with the divine presence. God is neither included under any limits, nor excluded from any place or point in any direction through unbounded extension. "The heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him." "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." In humble adoration of his omnipresence, the Psalmist exclaims, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend 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 uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand hold me.”

As he is every where present, so he has all power. "Once have we heard this, yea twice, that power belongeth unto God." To his creatures he has imparted a degree of power sufficient for certain purposes pertaining to their accommodation and means of subsistence. Some little things can be done by them; but with him all things are possible, and nothing is too hard for him. Whatsoever the Lord pleaseth, that doth he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deep places, working all things after the counsel of his own will.

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This will is guided by an understanding strictly infinite, comprehending all things and events at the same instant. Whatever has been, is, or shall be, is always present to his view. Nothing is hidden from him or escapes his notice. He sees into all hearts, and discerns the most secret thoughts and purposes every human mind,-all things being naked and open to his inspection. From everlasting he has beheld the whole chain of events with all their relations and intermediate links, from the beginning of time through the extent of unbounded futurity. From this perfect knowledge results his unerring and consummate wisdom. "He hath established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his discretion." "Manifold are his works, and in wisdom hath he made them all." Whatever portion of knowledge and wisdom is exercised by creatures, is derived from him. It cometh down from the Father of lights, who giveth liberally to them who ask, and rightly improve his gifts.

His goodness is as great and unlimited as his other perfections. It is the chief glory of his nature and character. To the petition of Moses, " I beseech thee shew me thy glory," he graciously answers, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee,"-intimating this to be his glory. Compared with God, the best of finite beings are not worthy to be called good. Our Saviour tells us, " that there is none good but one, and that is God." His goodness is absolute, unmixed, underived, independent, and unbounded. It overflows the whole creation, and supplies the streams which convey happiness to the universe of creatures.

With his goodness as a moral perfection, are inseparably connected his truth and faithfulness. He is a God of truth, and it is not possible for him to alter the thing that is gone out of his lips. His word is settled in the heavens, and his faithfulness is unto all generations. Heaven and earth shall sooner pass away, than a word of his shall fall to the ground. In his other moral perfections, he is equally unchangeable and unrivalled. There are none holy as the Lord. He is also a just God, loving righteousness and hating iniquity, and who will by no means clear the guilty. At the same time his mercy is higher than the heavens, and his compassions fail not.

III. But as he is great in all the attributes of his nature and character; so is he in his WORKS, both of creation and providence. In these, the invisible