in sin that grace may abound ? God forbid." An inspired writer assures us that " the grace of God which bringeth sal- vation teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live righteously, soberly, and godly in this present world."
Let us then seek our righteousness in Christ alone ; but let us shew by our lives, that this doctrine of faith is indeed " a doctrine according to godliness."]
Jer. xxiii. 24. Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him ? saith the Lord. Do not I Jill heaven and earth ? saith the Lord.
MEN universally encourage themselves in sin, from the hopes of impunity. But they are under a fatal delusion : for however secret their iniquities may be, there is One who beholds them, with all their aggra- vating circumstances, and will bring them forth to the light, as grounds of his righteous indignation. The false prophets of old imagined that their pretensions to inspiration would subject them to no danger, pro- vided they could preserve appearances before men ; but God expostulates with them in the words before us, and appeals to their own consciences for a testi- mony against them. He appeals to them respecting the omnipresence of the Deity ; to which important subject we would now call your attention, I. In a way of rational inquiry —
The Heathen believed their gods to be confined to particular temples, or to certain districts3 : but can we imagine that Jehovah is thus limited ?
Consult reason —
[Is God the Creator of the world ? How then can he be absent from any part of it, seeing that he must have been present with the whole at the time he formed it ? Is he the Governor of the world? how then can he be limited to any place, since he must be every where, to direct and manage those events, which, without his superintending providence, would throw the universe into confusion. Is he God ? if he
a 1 Kings xx. 23.