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essentially present in all other places as in this; but it is here where he 
resides in a sensible magnificence, and in the midst of all those splendors 
which can affect the imagination of created beings. 
It is very remarkable that this opinion of God Almighty’s presence in 
heaven, whether discovered by the light of nature, or by a general tradition 
from our first parents, prevails among all the nations of the world, whatsoever 
different notions they entertain of the Godhead . If yon look into Homer, 
that is, the most ancient of the Greek writers, you see the supreme power 
seated in the heavens, and encompassed with inferior deities, among whom 
the muses are represented as singing incessantly about his throne. Who 
does not see here the main strokes and outlines of this great truth we are 
speaking of? The same doctrine is shadowed out in many other heathen 
authors, though at the same time, like several other revealed truths, dashed 
and adulterated with a mixture of fables and human inventions. But to 
pass over the notions of the Greeks and Romans, those more enlightened 
parts of the pagan world, we find there is scarce a people among the late 
discovered nations, who are not trained up in an opinion that heaven is the 
habitation of the divinity whom they worship. 
As in Solomon’s temple there was the Sanctum Sanctorum , in which a 
visible glory appeared among the figures of the cherubims, and into which 
none but the high-priest himself was permitted to enter, after having made 
an atonement for the sins of the people; so if we consider this whole 
creation as one great temple, there is in it the Holy of Holies , into which the 
high priest of our salvation entered, and took his place among angels and 
archangels, after having made a propitiation for the sins of mankind. 
With how much skill must the throne of God be erected? With what 
glorious designs is that habitation beautified, which is contrived and built 
by him who inspired Hiram with wisdom? How great must be the 
majesty of that place, where the whole art of creation has been employed, 
and where God has chosen to shew himself in the most magnificent 
manner? What must be the architecture of infinite power under the 
direction of infinite wisdom? A spirit cannot but be transpoited aftei an 
ineffable manner with the sight of those objects, which were made to affect 
him by that Being who knows the inward frame of a soul, and how to 
please and ravish it in all its most secret powers and faculties. It is to this 
majestic presence of God, we may apply those beautiful expressions in holy 
writ: “ Behold, even the moon , and it shineth not ; yea the stars are not pure 
