NATURAL THEOLOGY. 83 



sality, of his operations. Where he acts, he is : 

 and where he is, he perceives. The wisdom of the 

 Deity, as testified in the works of creation, surpas- 

 ses all idea we have of wisdom, drawn from the 

 highest intellectual operations of the highest class 

 of intelligent beings with whom we are acquainted; 

 and, which is of the chief importance to us, what- 

 ever be its compass or extent, which it is evident- 

 ly impossible that we should be able to determine, 

 it must be adequate to the conduct of that order 

 of things under which we live. And this is 

 enough. It is of very inferior consequence, by 

 what terms we express our notion, or rather our 

 admiration, of this attribute. The terms, which 

 the piety and the usage of language have render- 

 ed habitual to us, may be as proper as any other. 

 We can trace this attribute much beyond what is 

 necessary for any conclusion to which we have 

 occasion to apply it. The degree of knowledge 

 and power requisite for the formation of created 

 fiature cannot, with respect to us, be distinguished 

 from infinite.'" 

 The divine "omnipresence" stands, in natural 



18 It is not perhaps quite correct to state that " infinite^' as ap- 

 plied to the Deity, means only a degree of power or wisdom be- 

 yond all comparison greater than any such qualities possessed by 

 ourselves ; and that this term, as well as " o?nni;}ofence," is merely a 

 superlative. Those words also designate the existence of the at- 

 tributes in such a degree, that any extent whatever of them beint? 

 either presented to our observation, or conceived by our imno-ina- 

 tion, the Deity possesses them in a still greater degree — a det^ree 

 to which our conception can affix no bounds. 



