AMPLITUDE OF THE DIVINE EMPIRE. 



139 



divine displeasure ? In this point of view, the 

 following passage deserves a serious considera 

 tion : &quot; Because they regard not the works of 

 the Lord, nor the operations of his hands, he shall 

 destroy tnem, and not build them up.&quot; We have 

 no hesitation in admitting, that persons may have 

 obtained salvation who never saw more of the 

 sacred writings than what is contained in the 

 gospel of Mark, or in one of Paul s epistles ; 

 but what would we say of the man who had ac 

 cess to all the revelations of heaven we now pos 

 sess, and yH confined his attention solely to a 

 chapter or two in the N ew Testament, and would 

 aot deign to look into any other part of the in 

 spired volume ? We should not hesitate at once 

 to pronounce that such a person was grossly de 

 ficient in his duty, and devoid of that reverence 

 and submission which are due to the oracles of 

 God. And, if it be admitted, that the person 

 who has access to the bible, and who refuses to 

 peruse its important contents, is guilty of a cri 

 minal neglect, we do not see how the man, who 

 has free access to the other volume of God s re 

 velation, and views it as a matter of mere indif 

 ference whether he looks into into it or not, can 

 be deemed, in this respect, entirely innocent. 

 If it be understood, that we shall be judged ac 

 cording to the light and privileges we enjoy, and 

 the use we make of them, in our improvement 

 in the knowledge of God we would deem it a 

 hazardous position for any one to support, that 

 &quot; inattention to the visible glories of the kingdom 

 of God, and to the declaration of his wonders 

 among the people, is a matter either of indiffer 

 ence or of trivial importance.&quot; 



For, let it be considered, further that on the 

 extent of our views respecting the universal king 

 dom of God depends our conceptions of the ma 

 jesty and glory of the Creator himself. We be 

 come acquainted with the nature of God, only in 

 so far as he has manifested himself to us by ex 

 ternal operations,* and in so far as we form just 

 conceptions of these operations. If we conceive 

 his empire as included within the bounds of 

 eighty or ninety thousand miles, our conceptions 

 of the Sovereign of that empire will be circum 

 scribed within nearly the same limits. The mind 

 of every reasonable man must, indeed, admit the 

 abstract proposition, &quot; That the Divine Being 

 is infinite, and, consequently, fills all space with 

 his presence.&quot; But. this infinity, in our view, 

 is nothing more than a vague conception of empty 

 space, extending a little way beyond the sphere 

 of his visible operations. The mind must have 

 some material, visible, or tangible objects to rest 

 upon, and to guide it in its excursions, when it 

 would attempt to form the most definite and com 

 prehensive conceptions of an infinite, eternal, 

 and invisible existence. For however much we 



* Hen I include the manifestations of Deity, as 

 exhibited both in divine revelation, and in the sys 

 tem of nature. 



may talk about purely spiritual ideas, it is quite 

 evident, from the nature of things, and from the 

 very constitution of man, that we can have no 

 ideas at all without the intervention of sensible 

 objects. And, therefore, if we would wish to form 

 the most sublime conceptions of God himself, 

 we must endeavour, in the first place, to take the 

 most extensive views which science and revela 

 tion exhibit, of his vast dominions. We must 

 endeavour to form some adequate idea of the 

 wide extent of the globe on which we dwell, its 

 diversified scenery, and the numerous tribes of 

 human beings, and other animated existences, 

 visible and invisible, which people its different 

 provinces. We must explore the vist regions of 

 the planetary system, and compaie the bulk of 

 the earth, large as it is, with some of those 

 more magnificent globes, which would contain a 

 thousand worlds as large as ours. We must 

 next wing our way, in imagination, over a space 

 which a cannon-ball, flying five hundred mile? 

 every hour, would not traverse in ten hundred 

 thousand years, till we arrive at the nearest fixed 

 stars, and find ourselves in the centre of thou 

 sands of systems and worlds, arranged at im 

 measurable distances from one another. We 

 must pass from one nebula, or cluster of systems, 

 to another ; continuing our excursions as far as 

 th eye or the telescope can direct our view ; 

 and, when the aid of artificial instruments begins 

 to fail, our imagination must still take its flight 

 far beyond the boundaries of mortal vision, and 

 add system to system, and nebula to nebula, 

 through the boundless regions of space, till we 

 arrive at the grand centre of the universe, the 

 throne of God, around which all worlds and 

 beings revolve, where &quot;thousands thousands&quot; of 

 bright intelligences &quot; minister to Him, and ten 

 thousand times ten thousand stand before him.&quot; 

 We must, consider all this magnificent assem 

 blage of objects, not merely as so many masses 

 of inert matter, or as a grand raree-show, to 

 dazzle the eyes of a few hundreds of human 

 spectators, but as destined for purposes worthy 

 of the plans and the intelligence of Him who is 

 &quot; the only wise God,&quot; as peopled with nume 

 rous orders of intelligent beings, whose physical 

 and moral economy is superintended and direct 

 ed by Him, who, at the same time, rules amidst 

 the tumults of human revolutions, and governs 

 the living myriads which people a drop of water. 

 In this way, then, do we come to acquire the 

 most extensive views of tne amplitude and glory 

 of the kingdom of the Most High ; and it is only 

 by the same process of thought that we can ever 

 attain the most exalted conceptions of the attri 

 butes of its almighty Sovereign. For our views of 

 the Sovereign of the universe must always corres 

 pond with our views of the extent and magnifi 

 cence of those dominions which sprung from his 

 creating hand, and over which he every moment 

 presides. His essence must (or ever remain im- 



