” Sometimes they assert this matter as a thing they know, and are assured of “I know,” says Job, “that no thought can be withholden from thee. If we look into the Old Testament, we shall find, that the testimony of all the prophets is in perfect correspondence with those words of David, “The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. But, to proceed on surer ground, let us notice the declarations of holy men, and especially of God himself, respecting this point. [One would suppose that reason itself might discern the point in question: for, if God be not every where present, how can he either govern, or judge, the world? His creatures, if removed from the sphere of his observation, would be independent of him: and, if withdrawn from his sight, would cease to feel any responsibility for their actions since, being ignorant of what they did, he would be altogether unqualified to pass upon them any sentence of condemnation or acquittal. In discoursing on his words we shall shew,
In the words before us, Solomon not only affirms it, but declares, that God is actively employed throughout the whole universe in inspecting the ways of men. The Scriptures place this matter beyond a doubt: every page of the inspired volume either expressly asserts the omnipresence of God, or takes it for granted as an unquestionable truth. But this absurd idea arose from their polytheism and vanishes the very instant we confess the true God. The heathens indeed, who worshipped a multitude of gods, assigned to each his proper limits, conceiving that they who could exert their power in the hills, were destitute of power in the neighbouring valleys. THE omnipresence of the Deity is plain and obvious to all, who have learned to acknowledge the unity of God. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
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