of praise. This
is that presence of God which some of the divines call his glorious, and
others his majestic presence.

3. He is indeed as essentially present in all other places as in this;
but it is here where he resides in a sensible magnificence, and in the
midst of all these splendors 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.

4. If you look into _Homer_, that is, the most ancient of the _Greek_
writers, you see the Supreme power seated in the heavens, and
encompassed with inferior deities, among whom the muses are represented
as singing incessantly about his throne. Who does not here see the main
strokes and outlines of this great truth we are speaking of?

5. The same doctrine is shadowed out in many other heathen authors,
though at the same time, like several other revealed truths, dashed and
adulterated with a mixture of fables and human inventions. But to pass
over the notions of the _Greeks_ and _Romans_, those more enlightened
parts of the pagan world, we find there is scarce a people among the
late discovered nations who are not trained up in an opinion that heaven
is the habitation of the divinity whom they worship.

6. As in _Solomon's_ temple there was the _Sanctum Sanctorum_, in which
a visible glory appeared among the figures of the cherubims, and into
which none but the high-priest himself was permitted to enter, after
having made an atonement for the sins of the people; so, if we consider
this whole creation as one great temple, there is in it the Holy of
Holies, into which the high-priest of our salvation entered, and took
his place among angels and archangels, after having made a propitiation
for the sins of mankind.

7. With how much skill must the throne of God be erected? With what
glorious designs is that habitation beautified, which is contrived and
built by him who inspired _Hiram_ with wisdom? How great must be the
majesty of that place, where the whole art of creation has been
employed, and where God has chosen to shew himself in the most
magnificent manner? What must be the architecture of infinite power
under the direction of divine wisdom? A spirit cannot but be transported
after an ineffable manner