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never fail while I am so near to him. This is joy unspeakable and a-kin to glory.

In short, this

6. Let us meditate also on the immensity of God, which I think is much better expressed by his omnipresence. God is wheresoever any creature is or can be; knowing immediately by his own presence all that belongs to them, all that they are or can be, all that they do or can do, all that concerns them, whether their sins or their virtues, their pains or their pleasures, their hopes or their fears. It implies also that he doth by his immediate power and influence support and govern all the creatures. immensity is nothing else but the infinite extent of his knowledge and his power, and it reaches to and beyond all places, as eternity reaches to and beyond all time. This the blessed above know and rejoice in, and take infinite satisfaction therein: Having God, as it were, surrounding them on all sides, so that they cannot be where he is not, he is ever present with his all-sufficiency ready to bestow on them all they wish or desire while he continues their God, i. e. for ever and ever. They are under the blessing of his eye, and the care of his hand, to guard them from every evil, and to secure their peace.

Let thy flesh or spirit be surrounded with ever so many thousand dangers, or enemies, they cannot do thee the least damage without his leave by force or by surprise while such an Almighty Being is all around thee: Nor hast thou reason to indulge any fear while the spring and ocean of all life, activity, and blessedness thus secures thee on every side. If

thou hast the evidences of his children on thee, thou possessest an eternal security of thy peace.

7. The sovereignty and dominion' of the blessed God is a further meditation and, pleasure which becomes and adorns the inhabitants of the heavenly world. There he reigns upon the throne of his glory, and the greater part of the territories which are subject to him are less in their view than our scanty powers of nature or perception can now apprehend, and a proportionable degree of pleasure is found with the saints above in these contemplations.

But in our present state of mortality our souls can only look through these lattices of flesh and blood, and make a few scanty and imperfect inferences from what they always see, and hear, and feel: And yet the glorious sovereignty and dominion of the blessed God may so penetrate the soul with a divine sense of it here on earth, as to raise up a heaven of wonder and joy within.

Adore him, O my soul, who surveys and rules all things which he has made with an absolute authority, and is for ever uncontroulable. How righteous a thing is it that he should give laws to all the beings which his hand hath formed, which his breath hath spoken into life, and especially that rank which his favour hath furnished with immortality? How just that he should be obeyed by every creature without the least reluctance or reserve, without a moment's delay, and that to all the length of their existence?

Submit to his government with pleasure, O my nature, and be all ye my powers of soul and body in

everlasting readiness to do whatsoever he requires, and to be whatsoever he appoints. Wilt thou have me, O Lord, lie under sickness or pain, wilt thou have me languish under weakness and confinement? I am at thy foot, I am for ever at thy disposal. Wilt thou have me active and vigorous in thy service? Lord, I am ready with utmost cheerfulness. Wilt thou confine me to painful idleness and long patience? Lord here I am, do with me what seemeth good unto thee, I am ready to serve thy purposes here, or thy orders in the unknown world of spirits, when thou shalt dissolve this mortal frame: I lay down these limbs in the dust of death at thy command: I venture into the regions of angels and unbodied minds at thy summons. I will be what thou wilt, I will go when thou wilt, I will dwell where thou wilt, for thou art always with mè, and I am entirely thine. I both rejoice and tremble at thy sovereignty and dominion over all. God cannot do injury to a creature who is so entirely his own property; God will not deal unkindly with a creature who is so sensible of his just dominion and supremacy, and which bows at the foot of his sovereignty with so much relish of satisfaction.

8. Let us next take notice of the perfect purity of the nature of God, his universal holiness, the rectitude of the divine nature manifested in all his thoughts, his works, and his words, all perfectly agreeable to the eternal rules of truth and righteousness, and at the furthest distance from every thing that is false and faulty, every thing that is or can be dishonour

able to so glorious a Being. Have we never seen God in this light, in the glory of his holiness, his universal rectitude, and the everlasting harmony of all his perfections in exact correspondence with all the notions we can have of truth and reason? And has not God appeared then as a glorious and lovely Being? And have we not at the same time beheld ourselves as unclean, and unholy creatures, in one part or other of our natures, ever ready to jar or fall out with some of the most pure and perfect rules of holiness, justice or truth? Have we not seen all our sins and iniquities in this light, with utmost abhorrence and highest hatred of them, and looked down upon ourselves with a deep and overwhelming sense of shame and displicence against our depraved and corrupted natures, and abased ourselves as Job does, in dust and ashes, and not daring to open our mouths before him? Job xlii. 6. "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, and I abhor myself in dust and ashes." The least spot or blemish of sin grows highly offensive and painful to the eyes of a saint in this situation.

Every little warping from truth in our conversation, every degree of insincerity or fraud becomes a smarting uneasiness to the mind in the remembrance of our past follies in the present state. There is the highest abhorrence of sin among all the heavenly inhabitants, and this sight of God in the beauties of his holiness, and his perfect rectitude, is an everlasting preservative to holy souls against the admission of an impure or unholy thought: And therefore some di

vines have supposed, that the angels at their first creation were put into a state of trial before they were admitted to this full sight of the beauty of God in his holiness, which would have secured them from the least thought or step towards apostacy.

O my soul, of what happy importance it is to thee to maintain, as long as possible, this sense of the purity, rectitude and perfection of the nature of the blessed God, "who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," with the least regard of approbation or allowance? And what infinite condescension is it in such a God to find out and appoint a way of grace, whereby such shameful polluted creatures as we are should ever be admitted into his presence to make the least address to his majesty, or to hope for his favour?

Besides, in this sublime view of the holiness of God, we shall not only love God better than ever, as we see him more amiable under this view of his glorious attributes, but we shall grow more sincere and fervent in our love to all that is holy, to every fellow Christian, to every saint in heaven and on earth: We shall not bear any estrangedness or alienation from those who have so much of the likeness of God in them. They will ever appear to be the "excellent of the earth, in whom is all our delight:" Their sup posed blemishes will vanish at the thought of their likeness to God in holiness: And especially our blessed Lord Jesus, the Son of God, will be most precious and all-glorious in our eyes as he is the most perfect image of his Father's holiness. There is nothing in

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