OMNIPOTENCE OF THE DEITY. 



19 



.onsider, what perpetual and incomprehensible 

 &amp;lt;nd powerful influence he exerts, what warmth 

 and beauty and activity he diffuses, not only 

 on the globe we inhabit, but over the more ex 

 tensive regions of surrounding worlds. His 

 energy extends to the utmost limits of the pla 

 netary system to the planet Herschel, which 

 revolves at the distance of 1,800 millions of 

 miles from his surface, and there he dispenses 

 light, and colour, and comfort, to all the beings 

 connected with that tar-distant orb, and to all the 

 moons wh ch roll around it. 



Hero the imagination begins to be overpower 

 ed and bewildered in its conceptions of magni 

 tude, when it has advanced scarcely a single step 

 in its excursions through the material world : 

 For it is highly probable that all the matter 

 contained within the limits of the solar system, 

 incomprehensible as its magnitude appears, bears 

 a smaller proportion to the whole mass of the 

 material universe, than a single grain of sand 

 to all the particles of matter contained in the 

 body of the sun and his attending planets. 



If we extend our views from the solar system 

 to the starry heavens, we have to penetrate, in 

 our imagination, a space which the swiftest ball 

 that was ever projected, though in perpetual mo 

 tion, would not traverse in ten hundred thousand 

 years. In those trackless regions of immensity, 

 we behold an assemblage of resplendent globes, 

 similar to the sun in size and in glory, and, 

 doubtless, accompanied with a retinue of worlds, 

 revolving, like our own, around their attractive 

 influence. The immense distance at which the 

 nearest stars are known to be placed, proves 

 that they are bodies of a prodigious size, not 

 inferior to our sun, and that they shine, not bv 

 reflected rays, but by their own native light. But 

 bodies encircled with such refulgent splendour 

 would be of little use in the economy of Jeho 

 vah s empire, unless surrounding worlds were 

 cheered by their benign influence, and enlight 

 ened by their beams. Every star is, therefore, 

 with good reason, concluded to be a sun, no less 

 spacious than ours, surrounded by a host of 

 planetary globes, which revolve around it as a 

 centre, and derive from it light, and heat, and 

 comfort. Nearly a thousand of these umina- 

 ries may be seen in a clear winter nigh , b, the 

 naked eye ; so that a mass of matter equal to 

 a thousand solar systems, or to thirteen hun 

 dred and twenty millions of globes of the size 

 of the earth, rnav be perceived, by every com 

 mon observer, in the canopy of heaven. But 

 all the celestial orbs which are perceived by 

 the unassisted sight, do not form the eighty- 

 thousandth part of those which may be descried 

 by the help of optical instruments. The tele 

 scope has enabled us to descry, in certain spaces 

 of the heavens, thousands of stars where the naked 

 *tye could scarcely discern twenty. The late 

 eeleb-ated astronomer, Dr. Herschel, has in- 

 34 



formed us, that, in the most crowded parts &amp;lt;ifthe 

 Milky-way, when exploring that region with his 

 best glasses, he has had fields of view which 

 contained no less than 588 stars, and these were 

 continued for many minutes: so that&quot; in one 

 quarter of an hour s time there passed no less 

 than one hundred and sixteen thousand start 

 through the field of view of his telescope.&quot; 



It has been computed, that nearly one hundred 

 millions of stars might be perceived by the mos f 

 perfect instruments, were all the regions of tha 

 sky thoroughly explored. And yet, all this, vast 

 assemblage of suns and worlds, \\hen compared 

 with what lies beyond the utmost boundaries of 

 human vision, in the immeasurable spaces of 

 creation, may be no more than as the smallest 

 particle of vapour to the immense ocean. Immea 

 surable regions of space lie beyond the utmost 

 limits of mortal view, into which even imagina 

 tion itself can scarcely penetrate, and which are, 

 doubtless, replenished with the operations of Di 

 vine Wisdom and Omnipotence. For, it cannot 

 be supposed, that a being so diminutive as man, 

 whose stature scarcely exceeds six feet who 

 vanishes from the sight at the distance of a 

 league whose whole habitation is invisible from 

 the nearest star whose powers of vision are so 

 imperfect, and whose mental faculties are so limit- 

 ted it cannot be supposed that man, who &quot; dwells 

 in tabernacles of clay, who is crushed before the 

 moth,&quot; and chained down, by the force of gra 

 vitation, to the surface of a small planet, should 

 be able to descry the utmost boundaries of the 

 empire of Him who fills immensity, and dwells in 

 &quot; light unapproachable.&quot; That portion of his 

 dominions, however which lies within the range 

 of our view, presents such a scene of magni 

 ficence and grandeur, as must fill the mind of 

 every reflecting person with astonishment and 

 reverence, and constrain him to exclaim, &quot; Great 

 is our Lord, and of great power, his under 

 standing is infinite.&quot; &quot; When I consider the 

 heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and 

 the stars which thou hast ordained what is 

 man that thou art mindful of him !&quot; ;( I have 

 heard of thee by hearing of the ear ;&quot; I have 

 listened to subtle disquisitions on thy character 

 and perfections and have beer, but little affect 

 ed, &quot; but now Vie eye seeth thee ; wherefore 

 I humble myseh, and repent in dust and ashes.&quot; 



In order to feel the full force of the impression 

 made by such contemplations, the mini must 

 pause at every step, in its excursions through 

 the boundless regions of material existence : for 

 it is not by a mere attention to the figures and 

 numbers by which the magnitudes of the great 

 bodies of the universe are expressed, thit we 

 arrive at the most distinct and ample concep 

 tions of objects so grand and overwhelming. 

 The mind, in its intellectual range, must dwell 

 on every individual scene it contemplates, and 

 on the various objects of which it is composed, 



