that perfect and omnipresent Being, which we know He is, if He could be, as God, in one place more than in any other; because imperfectibility would be implied in the supposition that aught could by possibility be diminished from any o God's attributes; for He could not, in degree, be so perfect in that part where He was less, as in that part where He was more present; so that, as the infinite God, He cannot be susceptible of any mutation, either as to degree, place, or condition. Immutability is one of God's essential attributes; and, if He were capable of, or subject to change, he could not be God; because, to be God, He must be the immutable as well as the omnipresent One, and this is the meaning of the Psalmist's inspired declaration :

"O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising; thou understandest my thoughts afar of Thou compassest my path, and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For he is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast

behind and before, and laid thine hand Swoh knowledge is too wonderful for gh, I cannot attain unto it. Whither from thy Spirit? or whither shall I he presence? If I ascend up into

heaven thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."

Nor is it to be supposed that this doctrine at all interferes with another important, though it may be a subordinate truth-viz., that God manifests this universal presence in His dispensations to man, both as respects occasion and place, more sensibly at one time than another; inasmuch as such especial manifestation can have reference only to man as a finite creature, and, therefore, within the conditions of time and place, out of which in truth he can have no existence; and, therefore, such outward and occasional demonstrations of God's more immediate presence are not to be regarded in connection with His own being, but only in relation to His manifestation to the creature. Indeed, God's omnipresence, as of necessity, is as essential an attribute of an infinite being, as limitation, which necessarily involves place and condition, is that of a finite being. An

* Luvs my uvrsting and mine mang; fu miesands my Doughs EJE # Tun congasses my paci, and my ying suri, auf an amined raì i ny WAYS ku time a un a word igne, i ja O Lost, ton kaow gether. Thou hast Brang me befod and before, and held thine band vyn ne. Bach knowledge is too wonderful for *a, Aalga, I cannot attzin CEO it. Whither vall I go from thy Spirit! or whither shall I The hom dy presence? If I ascend up int。

heaven thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."

Nor is it to be supposed that this doctrine at all interferes with another important, though it may be a subordinate truth-viz., that God manifests this universal presence in His dispensations to man, both as respects occasion and place, more sensibly at one time than another; inasmuch as such especial manifestation can have reference only to man as a finite creature, and, therefore, within the conditions of time and place, out of which in truth he can have no existence; and, therefore, such outward and occasional demonstrations of God's more immediate presence are not to be regarded in connection with His own being, but only in relation to His manifestation to the creature. Indeed, God's omnipresence, as of necessity, is as essential an attribute of an infinite being, as limitation, which necessarily involves place and condition, is that of a finite being. An

infinite and insuperable distance must ever exist between God and the creature; and its vast disproportions can only be expressed, and even then, most inadequately, by apparent paradoxes: so that, whilst God can neither be added to, or diminished from—because essentially the Immutable One--the creature, because as essentially mutable, must ever be changing; and that man is susceptible of transformation constitutes his supreme felicity, because "we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. iii. 18). But this glorious assimilation to the infinite perfections of God, though it shall ever be progressing in the redeemed through the countless ages of eternity, yet, paradoxical as it may appear, the glorified creature shall ever be at an equal distance from attaining to it-ever growing, yet never full-grown-increasing in perfection, yet never perfected-ever transforming, yet never attaining higher than to a likeness of those incomprehensible, immutable perfections which can alone be found in that Godhead who dwelleth in light inaccessible and full of glory, which no man can approach unto, and whom no man hath seen, or can see.

The superiority of spirit over matter, to which