SECTION XXVII.

The OMNIPRESENCE of God a Doctrine univerfally allowed; but how is God. every where prefent but by his Spirit, which is the HOLY GHOST?

THEY

MARC ANTONIN,

HEY who maintain, if there be any fuch, that God having, about eighteen hundred years ago, fignified his will to mankind, has ever fince that time withdrawn his agency from the human mind, do, in effect, deny the omnipresence, and with it the omniscience, providence, and goodness of the Deity. But what say the scriptures? HE IS NOT FAR FROM

EVERY ONE OF US; FOR IN HIM WE LIVE, AND MOVE, AND HAVE OUR BEING *.

* A&s, xvii. 27.

But

But is it to believed, that when he is thus intimately prefent with us, he either cannot, or will not, influence our fentiments? Why is he thus prefent? or why fhould he confine his agency over us to a LITTLE BOOK, in a foreign and dead language, which many never fee at all, which more cannot read, and which few can perfectly understand; and concerning the literal meaning of the most important DOCTRINAL parts of which, the most learned and judicious are to this hour divided in opinion?

The heathens had more enlarged and worthier ideas of the divine nature. They indeed believed in fupernatural agency on

* Ipfe Deus HUMANO GENERI miniftrat ; ubique et omnibus præfto eft.-God himself admirifters to the human race; he is prefent every where, and to every SENECA EPIST.

man.

Quocunque te flexeris, ibi illum videbis occurrentem tibi. Nihil ab illo vacat. Opus fuum ipfe implet.Whichever way you turn, you will meet God. Nothing is without him. He fills his own work completely. SENEC. DE BENEFIC. Lib. 4. Cap. 8.

the

the mind of man; though they difgraced their belief by the abfurdities of polytheifm. Every part of the universe was peopled by them, with fupernatural agents, and the moft distinguished among them believed their virtuous fentiments inspired, and their good actions directed by a tutelar deity. I dwell not upon the inftance of Socrates's Demon *; and I only mention the topic,

to

* It is worth while, however, to infert the following fine paffage from Plato, in which Socrates afferts the neceffity of Supernatural agency, in removing a dark CLOUD from the human mind, previously to its being able to learn how to regulate conduct, either towards gods or men. Reason, till this dark cloud fhould be removed by divine Providence, he thought incapable of discovering either moral or divine truth with certainty.

S. ̓Αναγκαῖον ἐν ἐσι περιμένειν ἕως ἂν τις μάθη ὡς δὲν πρὸς θεὸς καὶ πρὸς ἀνθρωπες διακείσθαι. Α. Πότε ἦν παρ βέςαι ὁ χρόνια ἦτ©, ὦ Σώκαλες; κτίς ὁ παιδέυσων; ΣΩΚΡ. Οὗτός ἐσιν ὦ μέλει περὶ σὲν ἀλλὰ δικές μοι, ὥσπερ τῷ Διομήδει φησὶ τὴν ̓Αθηνῶν ὍμηρΘ. ἀπὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἀφελειν τὴν ̓ΑΚΛΥΝ,

Οφ ̓ ἔν γιγνώσκοι ἠμὲν θεὸν ἠδὲ καὶ ἄνδρα,

ὕτω καὶ σε δεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς ψυχῆς πρῶτον ἀφελόνια τὴν ̓ΑΚΛΥΝ, ἣ νῦν παρᾶσα τυγχάνει, τηληνικαῦτ ̓ ἤδη προσφέρειν δι ὧν μέλλεις

γνώσεσθαι

to prove that the doctrine is not likely to be very UNREASONABLE, fince it was maintained by men who are acknowledged to have been fingularly endowed with the rational faculty.

The omnipotence, omniprefence, and omniscience of God were strenuously

γνώσεσθαι ἡμὲν σε κακὸν ηδὲ καὶ ἐσθλόν νῦν μὲν γὰρ εκ εν μοι δοκῆς δυνηθεῖναι. Platonis Alcibiades II. prope Finem.--(Socrates and Alcibiades difcourfe.) S. It is neceffary then to wait till one is informed how one ought to behave, both in religious and focial duties, to God and to men,-A. O Socrates, when will that time come, and who fhall teach me ?-S. EVEN HE WHO CARETH FOR You; but it appears to me, as Homer reprefents Minerva removing a dark cloud from the eyes of Diomed, that he might diftinguish gods from men in the battle, so he who CARETH FOR YOU must first remove the dark cloud from your mind, which now hangs over it, and then you will ufe those means by which you may know" the good from "ill," which, in your prefent ftate, you feem to me unable to distinguish.

The philofopher feems to have feen the neceffity of divine revelation, and to have predicted the illu-. mination of the Spirit of God.

maintained,

maintained, not only by the wifest of the heathens, but the most learned and rationalof chriftian divines; among whom was Dr. Samuel Clarke, a man by conftitution and ftudies as far removed from enthufiafm, as it is poffible to conceive. But the omniprefence of God being allowed as a true doctrine, it will not be difficult to believe his agency on the human mind by fupernatural impreffion. The difficulty would be to believe that the divine Spirit could be PRESENT always and every where with us, and yet never act upon us,

but leave the moral world, after the writing of the New Teftament, to depend on the fidelity of tranflations, the interpretations of fallible men, the preaching and teaching of fcholars, deriving all they know from dictionaries, and differing continually even on fuch doctrines as conftitute the very corner-ftones of the whole fabric.

The doctrine of God's total inaction, in the moral and intellectual world, is irreli