SIR,

si verbo audacia detur,

Non metuam magni dixiffe palatia Cœli

Ov. Mef,

I Confidered in my two laft letters that awful and tremendous subject, the Ubiquity or Omnipresence of the Divine Being. I have fhewn that he is equally prefent in all places throughout the whole extent of infinite space. This doctrine is so agreable to reason, ⚫ that we meet with it in the writings of the enlightened Heathens, as I might fhew at large, were it not already • done by other hands. But though the Deity be thus effentially prefent through all the immenfity of space, there is one part of it in which he discovers himself in • a most transcendent and visible glory. This is that < place which is marked in Scripture, under the different appellations of " paradife, the third heaven, the throne of God and the habitation of his glory." It is here where the glorified Body of our Saviour refides, and where all the celeftial hierarchies, and the innu• merable hofts of angels, are reprefented as perpetually furrounding the feat of God with hallelujahs and hymns of praife. This is that prefence of God which fome of the divines call his glorious, and others his majestic prefence. He is indeed as effentially prefent in all other places as in this, but it is here where he refides in a fenfible magnificence, and in the midft of thofe fplendours 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 you look into Homer, that is, the most an cient of the Greek writers, you fee the Supreme powers feated in the heavens, and encompaffed with inferior Deities, among whom the Muses are represented as finging inceffantly about his throne. Who does not here fee the main ftrokes and outlines of this great truth

• we

we are speaking of? The fame doctrine is fhadowed ⚫ out in many other heathen authors, though at the fame time, like feveral other revealed truths, dashed and adulterated with a mixture of fables and human inventions. But to pafs over the notions of the Greeks and Romans, thofe more enlightened parts of the Pagan world, we * find there is fcarce a people among the late difcovered nations who are not trained up in an opinion, that heaven is the habitation of the divinity whom they • worthip.

As in Solomon's temple there was the Sanctum Sanctorum, in which a vifible glory appeared among the figures of the cherubims, and into which none but the high-prieft himself was permitted to enter, after having made an atonement for the fins of the people; fo, if we confider the whole creation as one great temple, there is in it this Holy of Holier, into which the High-prieft of our falvation entered, and took his place among angels, and archangels, after having made a propitiation for the fins of mankind.

With how much skill muft the throne of God be erected? With what glorious defigns is that habitation beautified, which is contrived and built by him who infpired Hiram with wifdom? How great must be the majefty of that place, where the whole art of creation has been employed, and where God has chofen to fhew himself in the moft magnificent manner; what must be the architecture of infinite power under the direction of <infinite wisdom; a fpirit cannot but be transported after an ineffable manner, with the fight of thofe objects, which were made to affect him by that Being who knows the inward frame of a foul, and how to please and ravifh it in all its moft fecret'powers, and faculties. It is to this majeftic prefence of God we may ap ply thofe beautiful expreffions in Holy Writ: "Be"hold even to the moon, and it fhineth not; yea, the ❝ftars are not pure in his fight." The light of the fun, and all the glories of the world in which we live, are but as weak and fickly glimmerings, or rather dark,

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nefs

nefs itself, in comparison of those splendours which encompafs the throne of God.

There is

As the glory of this place is tranfcendant beyond imagination, fo probably is the extent of it. light behind light, and glory within glory. How far that space may reach, in which God thus appears in perfect majefty, we cannot poffibly conceive. Though it is not infinite, it may be indefinite; and though not • immeasurable in itself, it may be fo with regard to any 'created eye or imagination. If he has made these lower regions of matter fo inconceivably wide and magnificent for the habitation of mortal and perishable Beings, how great may we fuppofe the courts of his house to be, where he makes his refidence in a more especial manner, and displays himself in the fulness of his glory, among an innumerable company of angels, and spirits ⚫ of just men made perfect?

"This is certain, that our imaginations cannot be raised 'too high, when we think of a place where omnipotence ⚫ and omniscience have so signally exerted themselves, because they are able to produce a fcene infinitely more great and glorious than what we are able to imagine. It is not impoffible but, at the confummation of all things, thefe outward apartments of nature, which are now fuited to those beings who inhabit them, may be taken in and added to that glorious place of which I am here fpeaking, and by that means made a proper habitation for beings who were exempt from mortality, and cleared of their imperfections: for fo the Scripture feems to intimate, when it speaks of new heavens and of a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

I have only confidered this glorious place, with regard to the fight and imagination, though it is highly probable that our other fenfes may here likewife enjoy their highest gratification. There is nothing which more ravifhes and tranfports the foul, than harmony: and we have great reason to believe, from the defcriptions of this place in Holy Scripture, that this is one of the entertainments of it. And if the foul of man can • be

be fo wonderfully affected with those strains of mufic, ⚫ which human art is capable of producing, how much < more will it be raised and elevated by thofe in which is exerted the whole power of harmony! the fenfes are faculties of the human foul, though they cannot be em⚫ployed, during this our vital union, without proper inAtruments in the body. Why, therefore, fhould we exclude the fatisfaction of these faculties, which we find by experience are inlets of great pleasure to the foul, from among thofe entertainments which are to make up our happiness hereafter? Why should we fuppofe that our hearing and feeing will not be gratified with thofe objects which are most agreeable to them, and which they cannot meet with in thefe lower regions of nature; objects," which neither eye hath feen nor <ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man

to conceive; I knew a man in Chrift (fays St. Paul, "fpeaking of himself) above fourteen years ago (whe"ther in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the "body, I cannot tell : God knoweth) fuch a one caught "c up to the third heaven. And I knew fuch a man,

(whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot "tell: God knoweth) how that he was caught up into "paradife, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not "poffible for a man to utter." By this is meant, that what he had heard was fo infinitely different from any thing which he had heard in this world, that it was impoffible to exprefs it in fuch words as might convey a notion of it to his hearers.

It is very natural for us to take delight in enquirics ⚫ concerning any foreign country, where we are fome time or other to make our abode; and as we all hope to be admitted into this glorious place, it is both a laudable and useful curiofity, to get what information we can of < it, whilft we make ufe of revelation for our guide. When thefe everlasting doors fhall be open to us, we may be fure that the pleasures and beauties of this place will infinitely tranfcend our prefent hopes and expectations, and that the glorious appearance of the throne of God

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' will

will rise infinitely beyond whatever we are able to conceive of it. We might here entertain ourselves with many other fpeculations on this fubject from those feve⚫ral hints which we find of it in the Holy Scriptures; as whether there may not be different manfions, and apartments of glory, to beings of different natures; whether as they excel one another in perfection, they are not admitted nearer to the throne of the Almighty, and enjoy greater manifeftations of his prefence; whether there are not folemn times and occafions when all the multitude of heaven celebrate the prefence of their Maker in more extraordinary forms of praife and adoʼration; as Adam, though he had continued in a state of • innocence, would, in the opinion of our divines, have

kept holy the Sabbath-day, in a more particular man· ner than any other of the feven. Thefe, and the like • speculations, we may very innocently indulge, fo long as we make use of them, to infpire us with a defire of becoming inhabitants of this delightful place.

I have in this, and in two foregoing letters, treated on the moft ferious fubject that can employ the mind of man, the omniprefence of the Deity; a fubje&t which, if poffible, thould never depart from our meditations. We have confidered the divine Being, as he inhabits infinitude, as he dwells among his works, as he is prefent to the mind of man, and as he discovers himself in a more glorious manner among the regions of the bleft. Such a confideration fhould be kept awake in us at all times, and in all places, and poffefs our minds with a perpetual awe and reverence; it fhould be interwoven with all our thoughts and perceptions, and become one with the confcioufnefs of our own Being. It is not to be reflected on in the coldness of philofophy, but ought to fink us into the lowest proftration before him, who is fo aftonishingly great, wonderful, • and holy!'

Affiduo