OMNIPOTENCE OF THE DEITY. 



the foundation of all religious worship and obe- 

 Jzence. But. in order to venerate God aright, we 

 must know him : and, in order to acquire the 

 true knowledge of him, we must contemplate him 

 throught the medium of those works and dispen 

 sations, bv which he displays the glories of his 

 nature to the inhabitants of our world. I have 

 already exhibited a few specimens of the stupen 

 dous operations of his power, in that portion of 

 the system of the universe which lies open to our 

 inspection ; and there is surely no mind in which 

 the least spark of piety exists, but must feel 

 strong emotions of reverence and awe, at the 

 thought of that Almighty and Incomprehensible 

 Being, who imnels the huge masses of the pla 

 netary globes witn so amazing a rapidity through 

 the sky, and who has diversified the voids of 

 space with so vast an assemblage of magnificent 

 worlds. Even those manifestations of Deity 

 which are confined to the globe we inhabit, when 

 attentively considered, are calculated to rouse 

 even .he unthinking mind, to astonishment and 

 awe. The lofty mountains, and expansive plains, 

 the mass of water in the mighty ocean, the thun 

 ders rolling along the sky, the lightnings flashing 

 from cloud to cloud, the hurricane and the tem 

 pest, the volcano vomiting rivers of fire, and the 

 earthquake shaking kingdoms, and levelling cities 

 with the ground all proclaim the Majesty of 

 Him, by whom the elements of nature are ar 

 ranged and directed, and seem to address the sons 

 of men in language like this : &quot; The Lord 

 reigneth, he is clothed with majesty ; at his wrath 

 the earth trembles ; a fire goeth before him, and 

 burneth up his enemies.&quot; &quot; Let all the earth 

 fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world 

 stand in awe of him.&quot; 



There is one reason, among others, why the 

 bulk of mankind feel so little veneration of God, 

 and that is, that they seldom contemplate, with 

 fixed attention, &quot; the operations of his hands.&quot; 

 If we wish to cherish this sublime sentiment in 

 our hearts, we must familiarize our minds to 

 frequent excursions over all those scenes of 

 Creation and Providence, which the volume of 

 nature, and the volume of inspiration unfold to 

 view. We must endeavour to assist our concep 

 tions of the grandeur of these objects, by every dis 

 covery which has been or may yet be made, and 

 by every mode of illustration by which a sublime 

 and comprehensive idea of the particular object of 

 contemplation may be obtained. If we would 

 wish to acquire some definite, though imperfect, 

 conception of the physical extent of the universe, 

 our minds might be assisted by such illustrations 

 as the following : Light flies from the sun with 

 a velocity of nearly two hundred thousand 

 miles in a moment of time, or, about 1,400,000 

 times swifter than the motion of a cannon ball : 

 Suppose that one of the highest order of intelli 

 gences is endowed with a power of rapid motion 

 superior to that of light, and with a corresponding 



degree of intellectual energy ; that he has been 

 flying without intermission, from one province of 

 creation to another, for six thousand years, and 

 will continue the same rapid course for a thousand 

 millions of years to come ; it is highly probable, 

 if not absolutely certain, thai, at the end of this 

 vast tour, he would have advanced no further than 

 &quot; the suburbs of creation&quot; and that all the mag 

 nificent systems of material and intellectual be 

 ings he had surveyed, during his rapid flight, 

 and for such a length of ages, bear no more pro 

 portion to the whole Empire of Omnipotence, 

 than the smallest grain of sand does to all the 

 particles of matter of the same size contained in 

 ten thousand worlds. Nor need we entertain 

 the least fear, that the idea of the extent of the 

 Creator s power, conveyed by such a representa 

 tion, exceeds the bounds of reality. On the other 

 hand, it must fall almost infinitely short of it. 

 For, as the poet has justly observed 



&quot; Can man conceive beyond what God can do .&quot; 



Were a seraph, in prosecuting the tour of 

 creation in the manner now stated, ever to arrive 

 at a limit beyond which no farther displays of the 

 Divinity could be perceived, the thought would 

 overwhelm his faculties with unutterable anguish 

 and horror: he would feel, that he had now, in 

 some measure, comprehended all the plans and 

 operations of Omnipotence, and that no farther 

 manifestation of the Divine glory remained to be 

 explored. But we may rest assured, that this 

 can never happen in the case of any created in 

 telligence. We have every reason to believe, 

 both from the nature of an Infinite Being, and 

 from the vast extent of creation already explored, 

 that the immense, mass of material existence, and 

 the endless variety of sensitive and intellectual 

 beings with which the universe is replenished, are 

 intended by Jehovah to present to his rational off 

 spring a shadow, an emblem, or a representation, 

 (in sjo far as finite extended existence can be a 

 representation,) of the Infinite Perfections of his 

 nature, which would otherwise have remained for 

 ever impalpable to all subordinate intelligence. 



In this rnanner,then, might we occasionally exer 

 cise our minds on the grand and diversified objects 

 which the universe exhibits ; and in proportion as 

 we enlarge the sphere of our contemplations, in a 

 similar proportion will our views of God himself 

 be extended, and a correspond ing sentiment of ve 

 neration impressed upon the mind. For the soul 

 of man cannot venerate a mere abstract being, that 

 was never manifested through a sensible medium, . 

 however many lofty terms may be used to describe 

 his perfections. It venerates that Ineffable Being, 

 who conceals himself behind the scenes of Crea- 

 tion,through the medium of the visible displays he 

 exhibits of his Power, Wisdom, and Beneficence, 

 in the Economy of Nature, and in the Record* 

 of Revelation. Before the universe was formed 

 Jehovah existed alone, possessed of every attri- 



