Imatges de pàgina
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dwells upon it continually with fecret joy, and contemplates it with unfpeakable fatisfaction: objects, on the other hand, which are either indifferent, or difguftful to us, we naturally avoid when abfent, and when prefent defpife; those whom we have no love or value for, may talk to us for a long time without being heard; affociate and converfe with us, and at the very time be neither feen nor regarded by us; and in the fame manner, he who loveth God, and he only, can behold him: the beft means therefore of bringing him to our fight, is to referve a place for him in our hearts; whilft he that either contemns, or ftands in dread of, will always fhut his eyes against

him.

The cafe then is plainly and indisputably thus: God is to be feen in every thing that is around us, heard in the voice of every creature, felt in every motion, and read, in fhort in every page of the great volume of the univerfe; but men are weak, perverfe, obftinate, blind; fome are unable, fome are unwilling, thousands are totally indifferent about seeing him.

The foolish man hath not the inclination; the guilty man hath not the courage to look up to him; ambition dazzles our eyes, pleafure blinds, riches impair and weaken them. Thofe who are in the purfuit of folly, do not with to fee that God who would retard them in their courfe; and thofe who have already overtaken it, are very unwilling to behold a being who would punifh them for it. But

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what is ftill more extraordinary, is, that the fame man who difbelieves, or is infenfible of his prefence at one time, will yet be very wil. ling to acknowledge it at another; when we are engaged in the commiffion of fin, we endeavour to remove him as far from us as poffible; but when we are oppreffed by calamities, which perhaps are the confequences of that fin, we expect to find him near, and ready to relieve us: we would have him blind to our faults, but not to our neceffities; his eyes fhut on our iniquities, but his ears open to our prayers; always abfent, in fhort, when we dread his difpleafure, and always prefent when we stand in need of his protection.

But let us turn our eyes from the confideration of those motives which induce men to difpute the omnifcience of God, towards the advantages which will refult to us from the conviction of this important truth.

When the eye of the mafter is over the fervant, he is for the most part dutiful and obedient; he is cautious of offending, fedulous to pleafe, and ready to ferve and oblige him; but no fooner is he left at liberty, and the mafter departed from him, but the fervant waxeth flothful and remifs, neglects his bufinefs, and becomes by degrees utterly unconcerned about his intereft or fuccefs.

And again, Whilft the child is under the tuition, and under the infpection of his parents, he is feldom guilty of very heinous crimes, or flagrant enormities; he hath an awe and veneration of them, which ferves to

direct his conduct, and preferves him from the fnares of vice which are spread round about him: but if he chances, like the prodigal, to leave his father, guide, and directors, he greatly deviates into the paths of error, and finks into mifery and ruin.

Let us then apply the confideration to the matter here before us: Is not God the great Lord and Mafter, the general parent and protector of all mankind? and are we not every one of us his children and fervants? Hath he not graciously condefcended to guide us through this dangerous life, where we are befet with fnares on every fide, and walk, as Solomon fays, as it were on the battlements of the city? Is he not therefore always with us? Earthly maf ters we know may be tyrannical and oppref five; earthly parents, partial and unjust; if willing, they may not be able, and if able, not always willing to direct our footsteps aright; they cannot be always prefent, and may very easily be fnatched from us: but God. can, and will, and must be always prefent with us: nothing can divide or difunite us from this great patron, parent, mafter; neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things prefent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any creature fhall be able to Jeparate us from the love of God, which is in Chrift Jefus our Lord.

When we confider how very few of our actions will stand the teft of human examination, or bear the fcrutiny and narrow infpection even of our fellow creatures, how can we

bear

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bear the thought of laying them open to our great Creator?

What must be the alarming terrors of the guilty, when he reflects, that amongst all those evil actions which he hath committed; all the idle, profane, impious words which he hath uttered; all the loofe and finful thoughts which he hath encouraged; there is not one but that thou O Lord knoweft them altogether? when he comes to reflect, that whilft he took fo much pains to conceal his crimes from the eyes of mortals, thofe of God were all the while bent and fixed with indignation upon him?

That God, therefore, is about our path, and about our bed, and Spieth out all our ways, is one of thofe few invariable truths which it is in our power to attain, and which we fhould conftantly keep in our minds; because a steady and habitual fenfe of the divine prefence, could not fail of extending its influence over our conduct and behaviour, and whilft it procured us every comfort and bleffing in this life, would recommend us alfo to the divine favour and approbation in the next.

Would the liar dare to affert and fupport any notorious abfolute falfehood to promote his intereft and fuccefs in the world, were he confcious at the fame time, that the ear of God were listening to him?

Would the evil fpeaker venture to afperfe and calumniate his abfent friend, if he imagined that the Father of Truth were at that very moment before him?

Would the fpoiler, the ruffian, the murderer,

ever dare to execute their bloody purposes; would they encourage themselves with the delufive hopes of concealment and impunity; would they rely on the darkness of the night to fhelter and preferve them; did they confider, themselves and their actions as open to the eyes of that all-feeing God, with whom, as David fays, the night is as clear as the day, and to whom the darkness and light are both alike?

But laftly, As the omniprefence and omnifcience of God, muft, when seriously reflected on, be the moft afflicting terror which the bad man can feel; fo doth it open to the good and religious, a profpect of unfpeakable joy and felicity.

How great a fatisfaction muft it be to the good and virtuous man, to reflect, that though he is afperfed and calumniated by the cruel and malicious, there is a candid and impartial judge, to whom he may appeal for the uprightnefs of his intention, and the integrity of his heart; that there is an eye, beholding him, which doth not fee through the falfe glafs of prejudice, nor the deceitful medium of felflove?

He is about our path; can we defire a better guide and director in it? He is about our bed; and who is fo fit to watch over our flumbers, and guard our repofe, as that Being, who himself doth neither flumber nor fleep? He Spieth out all our ways; and can we wish for a nobler protector than that almighty, benevolent Power, who is always watchful for our

fafety,

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