observation of one,[337] that the plain assertion of God’s being a
Spirit is found but once in the whole Bible, and that is in this place;
which may well be wondered at, because God is so often described
with hands, feet, eyes, and ears, in the form and figure of a man.
The spiritual nature of God is deducible from many places; but not
anywhere, as I remember, asserted _totidem verbis_, but in this text:
some allege that place (2 Cor. iii. 17), “The Lord is that Spirit,”
for the proof of it; but that seems to have a different sense: in the
text, the nature of God is described; in that place, the operations
of God in the gospel. “It is not the ministry of Moses, or that old
covenant, which communicates to you that Spirit it speaks of; but it
is the Lord Jesus, and the doctrine of the gospel delivered by him,
whereby this Spirit and liberty is dispensed to you; he opposes here
the liberty of the gospel to the servitude of the law;”[338] it is
from Christ that a divine virtue diffuseth itself by the gospel;
it is by him, not by the law, that we partake of that Spirit. The
spirituality of God is {a181} as evident as his being.[339] If
we grant that God is, we must necessarily grant that he cannot be
corporeal, because a body is of an imperfect nature. It will appear
incredible to any that acknowledge God the first Being and Creator of
all things, that he should be a massy, heavy body, and have eyes and
ears, feet and hands, as we have.――For the explication of it,
1. Spirit is taken various ways in Scripture. It signifies sometimes
an aërial substance, as Psalm xi. 6; a horrible tempest (Heb. a
spirit of tempest); sometimes the breath, which is a thin substance
(Gen. vi. 17): “All flesh, wherein is the breath of life” (Heb. spirit
of life). A thin substance, though it be material and corporeal, is
called spirit; and in the bodies of living creatures, that which is
the principle of their actions is called spirits, the animal and vital
spirits. And the finer parts extracted from plants and minerals we
call spirits, those volatile parts separated from that gross matter
wherein they were immersed, because they come nearest to the nature
of an incorporeal substance; and from this notion of the word, it is
translated to signify those substances that are purely immaterial, as
angels and the souls of men. Angels are called spirits (Psalm civ. 4):
“Who makes his angels spirits;”[340] and not only good angels are so
called, but evil angels (Mark i. 27); souls of men are called spirits
(Eccles. xii.); and the soul of Christ is called so (John xix. 30);
whence God is called “the God of the spirits of all flesh” (Numb. xxii.
16). And spirit is opposed to flesh (Isa. xxxi. 3): “The Egyptians
are flesh, and not spirit.” And our Saviour gives us the notion of
a spirit to be something above the nature of a body (Luke xxiv. 39),
“not having flesh and bones,” extended parts, loads of gross matter.
It is also taken for those things which are active and efficacious;
because activity is of the nature of a spirit: Caleb had another
spirit (Numb. xiv. 24), an active affection. The vehement motions
of sin are called spirit (Hos. iv. 12): “the spirit of whoredoms,”
in that sense that Prov. xxix. 11, “a fool utters all his mind,” all
his spirit; he knows not how to restrain the vehement motions of his
mind. So that the notion of a spirit is, that it is a fine, immaterial
substance, an active being, that acts itself and other things. A mere
body cannot act itself; as the body of man cannot move without the
soul, no more than a ship can move itself without wind and waves. So
God is called a Spirit, as being not a body, not having the greatness,
figure, thickness, or length of a body, wholly separate from anything
of flesh and matter. We find a principle within us nobler than that of
our bodies; and, therefore, we conceive the nature of God, according
to that which is more worthy in us, and not according to that which is
the vilest part of our natures. God is a most spiritual Spirit, more
spiritual than all angels, all souls.[341] As he exceeds all in the
nature of being, so he exceeds all in the nature of spirit: he hath
nothing gross, heavy, material, in his essence.
2. When we say God is a Spirit, it is to be understood by way of
negation. There are two ways of knowing or describing God: by way
of affirmation, affirming that of him by way of eminency, which is
excellent in the creature, as when we say God is wise, good; the {a182}
other, by way of negation, when we remove from God in our conceptions
what is tainted with imperfection in the creature.[342] The first
ascribes to him whatsoever is excellent; the other separates from
him whatsoever is imperfect. The first is like a limning, which adds
one color to another to make a comely picture; the other is like
a carving, which pares and cuts away whatsoever is superfluous, to
make a complete statue. This way of negation is more easy; we better
understand what God is not, than what he is; and most of our knowledge
of God is by this way; as when we say God is infinite, immense,
immutable, they are negatives; he hath no limits, is confined to
no place, admits of no change.[343] When we remove from him what is
inconsistent with his being, we do more strongly assert his being,
and know more of him when we elevate him above all, and above our own
capacity. And when we say God is a Spirit, it is a negation; he is
not a body; he consists not of various parts, extended one without
and beyond another. He is not a spirit, so as our souls are, to be
the form of any body; a spirit, not as angels and souls are, but
infinitely higher. We call him so, because, in regard of our weakness,
we have not any other term of excellency to express or conceive of
him by; we transfer it to God in honor, because spirit is the highest
excellency in our nature: yet we must apprehend God above any spirit,
since his nature is so great that he cannot be declared by human
speech, perceived by human sense, or conceived by human understanding.
II. The second thing, that “God is a Spirit.” Some among the heathens
imagined God to have a body;[344] some thought him to have a body
of air; some a heavenly body; some a human body;[345] and many of
them ascribed bodies to their gods, but bodies without blood, without
corruption, bodies made up of the finest and thinnest atoms; such
bodies, which, if compared with ours, were as no bodies. The Sadducees
also, who denied all spirits, and yet acknowledged a God, must
conclude him to be a body, and no spirit. Some among Christians have
been of that opinion. Tertullian is charged by some, and excused by
others; and some monks of Egypt were so fierce for this error, that
they attempted to kill one Theophilus, a bishop, for not being of
that judgment. But the wiser heathens were of another mind,[346] and
esteemed it an unholy thing to have such imaginations of God.[347]
And some Christians have thought God only to be free from anything of
body, because he is omnipresent, immutable, he is only incorporeal and
spiritual; all things else, even the angels, are clothed with bodies,
though of a neater matter, and a more active frame than ours; a pure
spiritual nature they allowed to no being but God. Scripture and
reason meet together to assert the spirituality of God. Had God had
the lineaments of a body, the Gentiles had not fallen under that
accusation of changing his glory into that of a corruptible man.[348]
This is signified by the name God gives himself (Exod. iii. 14): “I
am that I am;” a simple, pure, uncompounded {a183} being, without
any created mixture; as infinitely above the being of creatures as
above the conceptions of creatures (Job xxxvii. 23): “Touching the
Almighty, we cannot find him out.” He is so much a Spirit, that he
is the “Father of spirits” (Heb. xii. 9). The Almighty Father is not
of a nature inferior to his children. The soul is a spirit; it could
not else exert actions without the assistance of the body, as the act
of understanding itself, and its own nature, the act of willing, and
willing things against the incitements and interest of the body. It
could not else conceive of God, angels, and immaterial substances;
it could not else be so active, as with one glance to fetch a
compass from earth to heaven, and by a sudden motion, to elevate the
understanding from an earthly thought, to the thinking of things as
high as the highest heavens. If we have this opinion of our souls,
which, in the nobleness of their acts, surmount the body, without
which the body is but a dull inactive piece of clay, we must needs
have a higher conception of God, than to clog him with any matter,
though of a finer temper than ours: we must conceive of him by the
perfections of our souls, without the vileness of our bodies. If God
made man according to his image, we must raise our thoughts of God
according to the noblest part of that image, and imagine the exemplar
or copy not to come short, but to exceed the thing copied by it.
God were not the most excellent substance if he were not a Spirit.
Spiritual substances are more excellent than bodily; the soul of man
more excellent than other animals; angels more excellent than men.
They contain, in their own nature, whatsoever dignity there is in the
inferior creatures; God must have, therefore, an excellency above all
those, and, therefore, is entirely remote from the conditions of a
body. It is a gross conceit, therefore, to think that God is such a
spirit as the air is; for that is to be a body as the air is, though
it be a thin one; and if God were no more a spirit than that, or than
angels, he would not be the most simple being.[349] Yet some think
that the spiritual Deity was represented by the air in the ark of
the testament.[350] It was unlawful to represent him by any image
that God had prohibited. Everything about the ark had a particular
signification. The gold and other ornaments about it signified
something of Christ, but were unfit to represent the nature of God: a
thing purely invisible, and falling under nothing of sense, could not
represent him to the mind of man. The air in the ark was the fittest;
it represented the invisibility of God, air being imperceptible to our
eyes. Air diffuseth itself through all parts of the world; it glides
through secret passages into all creatures; it fills the space between
heaven and earth. There is no place wherein God is not present. To
evidence this,
1. If God were not a Spirit, he could not be Creator. All multitude
begins in, and is reduced to unity. As above multitude there is
an absolute unity, so above mixed creatures there is an absolute
simplicity. You cannot conceive number without conceiving the
beginning of it in that which was not number, viz. a unit. You cannot
conceive any mixture, but you must conceive some simple thing to
be the original and basis of it. The works of art done by {a184}
rational creatures have their foundation in something spiritual. Every
artificer, watchmaker, carpenter, hath a model in his own mind of the
work he designs to frame: the material and outward fabric is squared
according to an inward and spiritual idea. A spiritual idea speaks
a spiritual faculty as the subject of it. God could not have an idea
of that vast number of creatures he brought into being, if he had not
had a spiritual nature.[351] The wisdom whereby the world was created
could never be the fruit of a corporeal nature; such natures are
not capable of understanding and comprehending the things which are
within the compass of their nature, much less of producing them; and
therefore beasts which have only corporeal faculties move to objects
by the force of their sense, and have no knowledge of things as they
are comprehended by the understanding of man. All acts of wisdom speak
an intelligent and spiritual agent. The effects of wisdom, goodness,
power, are so great and admirable, that they bespeak him a more
perfect and eminent being than can possibly be beheld under a bodily
shape. Can a corporeal substance put “wisdom in the inward parts, and
give understanding to the heart?”[352]
2. If God were not a pure Spirit, he could not be one. If God had a
body, consisting of distinct members, as ours; or all of one nature,
as the water and air are, yet he were then capable of division, and
therefore could not be entirely one. Either those parts would be
finite or infinite: if finite, they are not parts of God; for to be
God and finite is a contradiction; if infinite, then there are as many
infinite as distinct members, and therefore as many Deities. Suppose
this body had all parts of the same nature, as air and water hath,
every little part of air is as much air as the greatest, and every
little part of water is as much water as the ocean; so every little
part of God would be as much God as the whole; as many particular
Deities to make up God, as little atoms to compose a body. What can be
more absurd? If God had a body like a human body, and were compounded
of body and soul, of substance and quality, he could not be the most
perfect unity; he would be made up of distinct parts, and those of
a distinct nature, as the members of a human body are. Where there
is the greatest unity, there must be the greatest simplicity; but God
is one. As he is free from any change, so he is void of any multitude
(Deut. vi. 4): “The Lord our God is one Lord.”
3. If God had a body as we have, he would not be invisible. Every
material thing is not visible: the air is a body yet invisible, but
it is sensible; the cooling quality of it is felt by us at every
breath, and we know it by our touch, which is the most material sense.
Everybody that hath members like to bodies, is visible; but God is
invisible.[353] The apostle reckons it amongst his other perfections
(1 Tim. i. 17): “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible.”
He is invisible to our sense, which beholds nothing but material
and colored things; and incomprehensible to our understanding, that
conceives nothing but what is finite. God is therefore a Spirit
incapable of being seen, and infinitely incapable of being understood.
{a185} If he be invisible, he is also spiritual. If he had a body, and
hid it from our eyes, he might be said not to be seen, but could not
be said to be invisible. When we say a thing is visible, we understand
that it hath such qualities which are the objects of sense, though we
may never see that which is in its own nature to be seen. God hath no
such qualities as fall under the perception of our sense. His works
are visible to us, but not his Godhead.[354] The nature of a human
body is to be seen and handled; Christ gives us such a description of
it (Luke xxiv. 39): “Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh
and bones as you see me have;” but man hath been so far from seeing
God, “that it is impossible he can see him” (1 Tim. vi. 16). There
is such a disproportion between an infinite object and a finite sense
and understanding, that it is utterly impossible either to behold or
comprehend him. But if God had a body more luminous and glorious than
that of the sun, he would be as well visible to us as the sun, though
the immensity of that light would dazzle our eyes, and forbid any
close inspection into him by the virtue of our sense. We have seen
the shape and figure of the sun, but “no man hath ever seen the shape
of God.”[355] If God had a body, he were visible, though he might not
perfectly and fully be seen by us;[356] as we see the heavens, though
we see not the extension, latitude, and greatness of them. Though
God hath manifested himself in a bodily shape (Gen. xviii. 1), and
elsewhere Jehovah appeared to Abraham, yet the substance of God was
not seen, no more than the substance of angels was seen in their
apparitions to men. A body was formed to be made visible by them, and
such actions done in that body, that spake the person that did them
to be of a higher eminency than a bare corporeal creature. Sometimes
a representation is made to the inward sense and imagination, as to
Micaiah,[357] and to Isaiah (vi. 1); but they saw not the essence of
God, but some images and figures of him proportioned to their sense
or imagination. The essence of God no man ever saw, nor can see. John
i. 18. Nor doth it follow that God hath a body,[358] because Jacob
is said to “see God face to face” (Gen. xxxii. 30); and Moses had the
like privilege (Deut. xxxiv. 10). This only signifies a fuller and
clearer manifestation of God by some representations offered to the
bodily sense, or rather to the inward spirit. For God tells Moses he
could not see his face (Exod. xxxiii. 20); and that none ever saw the
similitude of God (Deut. iv. 15). Were God a corporeal substance, he
might in some measure be seen by corporeal eyes.
4. If God were not a Spirit, he could not be infinite. All bodies are
of a finite nature; everybody is material, and every material thing
is terminated. The sun, a vast body, hath a bounded greatness; the
heavens, of a mighty bulk, yet have their limits. If God had a body he
must consist of parts, those parts would be bounded and limited, and
whatsoever is limited is of a finite virtue, and therefore below an
infinite nature. Reason therefore tells us, that the most excellent
nature, as God is, cannot be of a corporeal condition; because of the
limitation and other actions which belong to every {a186} body. God
is infinite, “for the heaven of heavens cannot contain him” (2 Chron.
ii. 6). The largest heavens, and those imaginary spaces beyond the
world, are no bounds to him. He hath an essence beyond the bounds of
the world, and cannot be included in the vastness of the heavens. If
God be infinite, then he can have no parts in him; if he had, they
must be finite or infinite: finite parts can never make up an infinite
being. A vessel of gold, of a pound weight, cannot be made of the
quantity of an ounce. Infinite parts they cannot be, because then
every part would be equal to the whole, as infinite as the whole,
which is contradictory. We see in all things every part is less than
the whole bulk that is composed of it; as every member of a man is
less than the whole body of man. If all the parts were finite, then
God in his essence were finite; and a finite God is not more excellent
than a creature: so that if God were not a Spirit, he could not be
infinite.
5. If God were not a Spirit, he could not be an independent being.
Whatsoever is compounded of many parts depends either essentially or
integrally upon those parts; as the essence of a man depends upon the
conjunction and union of his two main parts, his soul and body; when
they are separated, the essence of a man ceaseth: and the perfection
of a man depends upon every member of the body; so that if one be
wanting the perfection of the whole is wanting: as if a man hath lost
a limb, you call him not a perfect man, because that part is gone upon
which his perfection as an entire man did depend. If God therefore
had a body, the perfection of the Deity would depend upon every part
of that body; and the more parts he were compounded of, the more
his dependency would be multiplied according to the number of those
parts of the body: for that which is compounded of many parts is more
dependent than that which is compounded of fewer. And because God
would be a dependent being if he had a body, he could not be the first
being; for the compounding parts are in order of nature before that
which is compounded by them; as the soul and body are before the man
which results from the union of them. If God had parts and bodily
members as we have, or any composition, the essence of God would
result from those parts, and those parts be supposed to be before
God. For that which is a part, is before that whose part it is. As
in artificial things you may conceive it: all the parts of a watch
or clock are in time before that watch which is made by setting those
parts together. In natural things you must suppose the members of a
body framed before you can call it a man; so that the parts of this
body are before that which is constituted by them. We can conceive no
other of God, if he were not a pure, entire, unmixed Spirit. If he had
distinct parts, he would depend upon them; those parts would be before
him; his essence would be the effect of those distinct parts, and so
he would not be absolutely and entirely the first being; but he is so
(Isa. xliv. 6): “I am the first, and I am the last.” He is the first;
nothing is before him. Whereas, if he had bodily parts, and those
finite, it would follow, God is made up of those parts which are not
God; and that which is not God, is in order of nature before that
which is God. So that we see if God were not a Spirit he could not
be independent.
{a187} 6. If God were not a Spirit, he were not immutable and
unchangeable. His immutability depends upon his simplicity. He
is unchangeable in his essence, because he is a pure and unmixed
spiritual Being. Whatsoever is compounded of parts may be divided
into those parts, and resolved into those distinct parts which make
up and constitute the nature. Whatsoever is compounded is changeable
in its own nature, though it should never be changed. Adam, who was
constituted of body and soul, had he stood in innocence, had not died;
there had been no separation made between his soul and body whereof he
was constituted, and his body had not resolved into those principles
of dust from whence it was extracted. Yet in his own nature he was
dissoluble into those distinct parts whereof he was compounded; and so
the glorified saints in heaven, after the resurrection, and the happy
meeting of their souls and bodies in a new marriage knot, shall never
be dissolved; yet in their own nature they are mutable and dissoluble,
and cannot be otherwise, because they are made up of such distinct
parts that may be separated in their own nature, unless sustained by
the grace of God: they are immutable by will, the will of God, not
by nature. God is immutable by nature as well as will: as he hath
a necessary existence, so he hath a necessary unchangeableness (Mal.
iii. 6), “I, the Lord, change not.” He is as unchangeable in his
essence as in his veracity and faithfulness: they are perfections
belonging to his nature. But if he were not a pure Spirit, he could
not be immutable by nature.
7. If God were not a pure Spirit, he could not be omnipresent. He
is in heaven above, and the earth below;[359] he fills heaven and
earth.[360] The divine essence is at once in heaven and earth; but
it is impossible a body can be in two places at one and the same time.
Since God is everywhere, he must be spiritual. Had he a body, he could
not penetrate all things; he would be circumscribed in place. He could
not be everywhere but in parts, not in the whole; one member in one
place, and another in another; for to be confined to a particular
place, is the property of a body: but, since he is diffused through
the whole world, higher than heaven, deeper than hell, longer than the
earth, broader than the sea,[361] he hath not any corporeal matter.
If he had a body wherewith to fill heaven and earth, there could be no
body besides his own: it is the nature of bodies to bound one another,
and hinder the extending of one another. Two bodies cannot be in the
same place in the same point of earth: one excludes the other; and it
will follow hence that we are nothing, no substances, mere illusions;
there could be no place for anybody else.[362] If his body were as big
as the world, as it must be if with that he filled heaven and earth,
there would not be room for him to move a hand or a foot, or extend
a finger; for there would be no place remaining for the motion.