390 FORGIVENESS, OF SIN. his hands; and is no less gloriously subsisting where they are not. God is where heaven and earth are not, no less than where they are; where there is no place, no space, real or imaginary, God is, for place and ima- gination have nothing to do with immensity; and he is present every where in the creation : where I am writ- ing, where you are reading; he is present with you. The thoughts of men's hearts for the most part are, that God, as to his essence, is in heaven only : and it is well if some think he is there, seeing they live and act as if there were neither God nor devil but them- selves. But, on these apprehensions, such thoughts are ready secretly to arise and effectually to prevail, as are expressed, "How doth God know l can he judge through the dark l Thick clouds are as a covering unto him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of the heavens." Job, 22 : 13, 14. Apprehensions of God's dis- tance from men harden them in their ways : but he is Il around them ; God is every where ; and a man may, on all occasions, say with Jacob, " God is in this place, and I knew it nbt." Let the soul, then, who is thus called to wait on God, exercise itself with thoughts about this immensity of his nature and being. Compre- hend it, fully understand it we never can ; but the con- sideration of it will impress such awe of his greatness upon our hearts that we shall learn to tremble before him, and be willing to wait for him in all things. 3. Thoughts of the holiness of God, or the infinite purity of this eternal immense Being, are singularly useful to the same end. This is what Eliphaz affirms that he received by vision, to reply to the complaint and impatience of Job. After he has declared his vision
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