that kind of presence. Yet it is an omnipresence, because it is
a presence in all the subjects capacitated for it; thus there is
a special providential presence of God with some in assisting them
when he sets them on work as his instruments for some special service
in the world. As with Cyrus (Isa. xlv. 2), “I will go before thee;”
and with Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander, whom he protected and directed
to execute his counsels in the world; such a presence Judas and
others[647] that shall not enjoy his glorious presence, had in
the working of miracles in the world. Besides,[648] as there is an
effective presence of God with all creatures, because he produced
them and preserves them, so there is an objective presence of God with
rational creatures, because he offers himself to them to be known and
loved by them. He is near to wicked men in the offers of his grace,
“Call ye upon him while he is near” (Isa. lv. 6); besides, there is a
gracious presence of God with his people in whom he dwells and makes
his abode, as in a temple consecrated to him by the graces of the
Spirit. “We will come” (John xiv. 23), _i. e._ the Father and the Son,
and make our abode with him. He is present with all by the presence
of his Divinity, but only in his saints by a presence of a gracious
efficacy; he walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks, and hath
dignified the congregation of his people with the title of Jehovah
Shammah, “the Lord is there” (Ezek. xlviii. 35): “in Salem is his
tabernacle, and his dwelling‑place in Sion” (Ps. lxxvi. 2). As he
filled the tabernacle, so he doth the church with the signs of his
presence; this is not the presence wherewith he fills heaven and
earth. His Spirit is not bestowed upon all to reside in their hearts,
enlighten their minds, and bedew them with refreshing comforts. When
the Apostle speaks of God being “above all and through all” (Eph.
iv. 6), above all in his majesty, through all in his providence;
he doth not appropriate that as he doth what follows, “and in you
all;” in you all by a special grace; as God was specially present
with Christ by the grace of union, so he is specially present
with his people by the grace of regeneration. So there are several
manifestations of his presence; he hath a presence of glory in heaven,
whereby he comforts the saints; a presence of wrath in hell, whereby
he torments the damned; in heaven he is a God spreading his beams of
light; in hell, a God distributing his strokes of justice; by the one
he fills heaven; by the other he fills hell; by his providence and
essence he fills both heaven and earth.
{a371} _Prop. III._ There is an essential presence of God in the
world. He is not only everywhere by his power upholding the creatures,
by his wisdom understanding them, but by his essence containing them.
That anything is essentially present anywhere, it hath from God; God
is therefore much more present everywhere, for he cannot give that
which he hath not.
1. He is essentially present in all places.[649] It is as reasonable
to think the essence of God to be everywhere as to be always.
Immensity is as rational as eternity. That indivisible essence which
reaches through all times may as well reach through all places. It is
more excellent to be always than to be everywhere; for to be always in
duration is intrinsical; to be everywhere is intrinsic. If the greater
belongs to God, why not the less? As all times are a moment to his
eternity, so all places are as a point to his essence. As he is larger
than all time, so he is vaster than all place. The nations of the
world are to him “as the dust of the balance” or “drop of a bucket”
(Isa. xl. 15). “The nations are accounted as the small dust.” The
essence of God may well be thought to be present everywhere with
that which is no more than a grain of dust to him, and in all those
isles, which, if put together, “are a very little thing” in his hand.
Therefore, saith a learned Jew,[650] if a man were set in the highest
heavens he would not be nearer to the essence of God than if he were
in the centre of the earth. Why may not the presence of God in the
world be as noble as that of the soul in the body, which is generally
granted to be essentially in every part of the body of man, which is
but a little world, and animates every member by its actual presence,
though it exerts not the same operation in every part?[651] The world
is less to the Creator than the body to the soul, and needs more the
presence of God than the body needs the presence of the soul. That
glorious body of the sun visits every part of the habitable earth
in twenty‑four hours by its beams, which reaches the troughs of the
lowest valleys as well as the pinnacles of the highest mountains;
must we not acknowledge in the Creator of this sun an infinite greater
proportion of presence? Is it not as easy, with the essence of God,
to overspread the whole body of heaven and earth as it is for the sun
to pierce and diffuse itself through the whole air, between it and the
earth, and send up its light also as far to the regions above? Do we
not see something like it in sounds and voices? Is not the same sound
of a trumpet, or any other musical instrument, at the first breaking
out of a blast, in several places within such a compass at the same
time? Doth not every ear that hears it receive alike the whole sound
of it? And fragrant odors, scented in several places at the same time,
in the same manner; and the organ proper for smelling takes in the
same in every person within the compass of it. How far is the noise
of thunder heard alike to every ear in places something distant from
one another! And do we daily find such a manner of presence in those
things of so low a concern, and not imagine a kind of presence of God
greater than all those? Is the sound of thunder, the voice of God as
it is called, everywhere in such a compass? and shall not the essence
of {a372} an infinite God be much more everywhere? Those that would
confine the essence of God only to heaven, and exclude it from the
earth, run into great inconveniences. It may be demanded whether he
be in one part of the heavens or in the whole vast body of them. If
in one part of them, his essence is bounded; if he moves from that
part he is mutable, for he changes a place wherein he was, for another
wherein he was not. If he be always fixed in one part of the heavens,
such a notion would render him little better than a living statue.[652]
If he be in the whole heaven, why cannot his essence possess a greater
space than the whole heavens, which are so vast? How comes he to be
confined within the compass of that, since the whole heaven compasseth
the earth? If he be in the whole heaven he is in places farther
distant one from another than any part of the earth can be from the
heavens; since the earth is like a centre in the midst of a circle,
it must be nearer to every part of the circle than some parts of the
circle can be to one another. If, therefore, his essence possesses the
whole heavens, no reason can be rendered why he doth not also possess
the earth, since also the earth is but a little point in comparison of
the vastness of the heavens: if, therefore, he be in every part of the
heavens, why not in every part of the earth? The Scripture is plain
(Ps. cxxxix. 7‒9), “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither
shall I fly from thy presence? If I ascend up to heaven, thou art
there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there; if I take
the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall uphold me.
” If he be in heaven, earth, hell, sea, he fills all places with his
presence. His presence is here asserted in places the most distant
from one another. All the places then between heaven and earth are
possessed by his presence. It is not meant of his knowledge, for that
the Psalmist had spoken of before (ver. 2, 3), “Thou understandest
my thoughts afar off; thou art acquainted with all my ways:” besides,
“thou art there;” not thy wisdom or knowledge, but thou, thy essence,
not only thy virtue. For, having before spoken of his omniscience, he
proves that such knowledge could not be in God, unless he were present
in his essence in all places, so as to be excluded from none. He fills
the depths of hell, the extension of the earth, and the heights of
the heavens. When the Scripture mentions the power of God only, it
expresseth it by hand or arm; but when it mentions the Spirit of God,
and doth not intend the Third Person in the Trinity, it signifies
the nature and essence of God. And so here, when he saith, “Whither
shall I go from thy Spirit?” he adds, exegetically, “Whither shall
I fly from thy presence?” or (Heb.) “face: ” and the face of God in
Scripture signifies the essence of God (Exod. xxxiii. 20, 23); “Thou
canst not see my face,” and “My face shall not be seen.” The effects
of his power, wisdom, and providence are seen, which are his back
parts, but not his face. The effects of his power and wisdom are seen
in the world, but his essence is invisible; and this the Psalmist
elegantly expresseth, Had I wings endued with as much quickness as the
first dawnings of the morning light, or the first darts of any {a373}
sunbeam that spreads itself through the hemisphere, and passeth many
miles in as short a space as I can think a thought, I should find
thy presence in all places before me, and could not fly out of the
infinite compass of thy essence.
2. “He is essentially present with all creatures.” If he be in all
places, it follows that he is with all creatures in those places;
as he is in heaven, so he is with all angels; as he is in hell, so
he is with all devils: as he is in the earth and sea, he is with all
creatures inhabiting those elements; as his essential presence was the
ground of the first being of things by creation, so it is the ground
of the continued being of things by conservation; as his essential
presence was the original, so it is the support of the existence of
all the creatures. What are all those magnificent expressions of his
creative virtue, but testimonies of his essential presence at the
laying the foundation of the world (Isa. xl. 12), “when he measured
the waters in the hollow of his hand, meted out heaven with the span,
and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the
mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?” He sets forth the
power and majesty of God in the creation and preservation of things,
and every expression testifies his presence with them. The waters that
were upon the face of the earth at first were no more than a drop in
the palm of a man’s hand, which in every part is touched by his hand;
and thus he is equally present with the blackest devils, as well as
the brightest angels; with the lowest dust, as well as with the most
sparkling sun. He is equally present with the damned and the blessed,
as he is an infinite Being, but not in regard of his goodness and
grace. He is equally present with the good and the bad, with the
scoffing Athenians, as well as the believing apostles, in regard of
his essence, but not in regard of the breathing of his divine virtues
upon them to make them like himself (Acts xvii. 27). “He is not far
from every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our
being.” The apostle includes all; he tells them they should seek the
Lord; the Lord that they were to seek, is God essentially considered.
We are, indeed, to seek the perfections of God, that glitter in his
works, but to the end that they should direct us to the seeking of
God himself in his own nature and essence;[653] and, therefore, what
follows, “In him we live,” is to be understood, not of his power and
goodness, perfections of his nature, distinguished according to our
manner of conception from his essence, but of the essential presence
of God with his creatures. If he had meant it of his efficacy in
preserving us, it had not been any proof of his nearness to us. Who
would go about to prove the body or substance of the sun to be near us
because it doth warm and enlighten us, when our sense evidenceth the
distance of it? We live in the beams of the sun, but we cannot be said
to live in the sun, which is so far distant from us. The expression
seems to be more emphatical than to intend any less than his essential
presence; but we live in him not only as the efficient cause of our
life, but as the foundation sustaining our lives and motions, as if he
were like air, diffused round about us; and we move in him, as Austin
saith, as a sponge in the {a374} sea, not containing him, but being
contained by him. He compasseth all, is encompassed by none; he fills
all, is comprehended by none. The Creator contains the world, the
world contains not the Creator; as the hollow of the hand contains the
water, the water in the hollow of the hand contains not the hand; and
therefore some have chose to say, rather, that the world is in God, it
lives and moves in him, than that God is in the world. If all things
thus live and move in him, then he is present with everything that
hath life and motion; and as long as the devils and damned have life,
and motion, and being, so long is he with them; for whatsoever lives
and moves, lives and moves in him. This essential presence is,
(1.) Without any mixture. I fill heaven and earth; not, I am mixed
with heaven and earth: his essence is not mixed with the creatures;
it remains entire in itself. The sponge retains the nature of a sponge,
though encompassed by the sea, and moving in it; and the sea still
retains its own nature. God is most simple; his essence therefore is
not mixed with anything. The light of the sun is present with the air,
but not mixed with it; it remains light, and the air remains air; the
light of the sun is diffused through all the hemisphere, it pierceth
all transparent bodies, it seems to mix itself with all things, yet
remains unmixed and undivided; the light remains light, and the air
remains air; the air is not light, though it be enlightened. Or, take
this similitude: When many candles are lighted up in a room, the light
is all together, yet not mixed with one another; every candle hath a
particular light belonging to it, which may be separated in a moment,
by removing one candle from another; but if they were mixed, they
could not be separated, at least so easily. God is not formally one
with the world, or with any creature in the world by his presence in
it; nor can any creature in the world, no, not the soul of man, or an
angel, come to be essentially one with God, though God be essentially
present with it.
(2.) The essential presence is without any division of himself. “I
fill heaven and earth,” not part in heaven, and part in earth; I fill
one as well as the other: one part of his essence is not in one place,
and another part of his essence in another place, he would then be
changeable; for that part of his essence which were now in this place,
he might alter it to another, and place that part of his essence which
were in another place to this; but he is undivided everywhere. As his
eternity is one indivisible point, though in our conception we divide
it into past, present, and to come, so the whole world is as a point
to him, in regard of place, as before was said; it is as a small dust,
and grain of dust: it is impossible that one part of his essence can
be separated from another, for he is not a body, to have one part
separable from another. The light of the sun cannot be cut into parts,
it cannot be shut into any place and kept there, it is entire in
every place. Shall not God, who gives the light that power, be much
more present himself? Whatsoever hath parts is finite, but God is
infinite, therefore hath no parts of his essence. Besides, if there
were such a division of his being, he would not be the most simple and
uncompounded being, but would be made up of various parts; he would
not be a Spirit, for parts are evidences of composition; {a375} and
it could not be said that God is here or there, but only a part of God
here, and a part of God there. But he fills heaven and earth; he is
as much a God in the earth beneath as in heaven above (Deut. iv. 39);
entirely in all places, not by scraps and fragments of his essence.
(3.) This essential presence is not by multiplication. For that which
is infinite cannot multiply itself, or make itself more or greater
than it was.
(4.) This essential presence is not by extension or diffusion, as a
piece of gold may be beaten out to cover a large compass of ground;
no, if God should create millions of worlds he would be in them all,
not by stretching out his being, but by the infiniteness of his being;
not by a new growth of his being, but by the same essence he had from
eternity: upon the same reasons mentioned before, his simplicity and
indivisibility.
(5.) But totally. There is no space, not the least, wherein God is not
wholly, according to his essence, and wherein his whole substance doth
not exist; not a part of heaven can be designed wherein the Creator
is not wholly; as he is in one part of heaven, he is in every part of
heaven. Some kind of resemblance we may have from the water of the sea,
which fills the great space of the world, and is diffused through all;
yet the essence of water is in every drop of water in the sea, as much
as the whole; and the same quality of water, though it comes short
in quantity; and why shall we not allow God a nobler way of presence
without diffusion, as is in that? or take this resemblance; since God
likens himself to light in the Scripture, “he covereth himself with
light.”[654] A crystal globe hung up in the air hath light all about
it, all within it, every part is pierced by it, wherever you see
the crystal you see the light; the light in one part of the crystal
cannot be distinguished from the light in the other part; and the
whole essence of light is in every part; and shall not God be as much
present with his creatures, as one creature can be with another?[655]
God is totally everywhere by his own simple substance.
_Prop. IV._ God is present beyond the world. He is within and above
all places, though places should be infinite in number; as he was
before and beyond all time, so he is above and beyond all place; being
from eternity before any real time, he must also be without as well
as within any real space; if God were only confined to the world, he
would be no more infinite in his essence than the world is in quantity;
as a moment cannot be conceived from eternity, wherein God was not in
being, so a space cannot be conceived in the mind of man, wherein God
is not present; he is not contained in the world nor in the heavens
(1 Kings viii. 27). “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold,
the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee.” Solomon wonders that God
should appoint a temple to be erected to him upon the earth, when he
is not contained in the vast circuit of the heavens; his essence is
not straitened in the limits of any created work; he is not contained
in the heavens, _i. e._ in the manner that he is there; but he is
there in his essence, and therefore cannot be contained {a376} there
in his essence. If it should be meant only of his power and providence,
it would conclude also for his essence; if his power and providence
were infinite, his essence must be so too; for the infiniteness of his
essence is the ground of the infiniteness of his power. It can never
enter into any thought, that a finite essence can have an infinite
power, and that an infinite power can be without an infinite essence;
it cannot be meant of his providence, as if Solomon should say, the
heaven of heavens cannot contain thy providence; for naming the heaven
of heavens, that which encircles and bounds the other parts of the
world, he could not suppose a providence to be exercised where there
was no object to exercise it about; as no creature is mentioned to be
beyond the uttermost heaven, which he calls here the heaven of heavens:
besides, to understand it of his providence, doth not consist with
Solomon’s admiration: he wonders that God, that hath so immense an
essence, should dwell in a temple made with hands; he could not so
much wonder at his providence in those things that immediately concern
his worship. Solomon plainly asserts this of God, That he was so far
from being bounded within the rich wall of the temple, which with so
much cost he had framed for the glory of his name, that the richer
palace of the heaven of heavens could not contain him; it is true,
it could not contain his power and wisdom, because his wisdom could
contrive other kind of worlds, and his power erect them. But doth the
meaning of that wise king reach no farther than this? Will the power
and wisdom of God reside on the earth? He was too wise to ask such
a question, since every object that his eyes met with in the world
resolved him, that the wisdom and power of God dwelt upon the earth,
and glittered in everything he had created; and reason would assure
him that the power that had framed this world, was able to frame any
more; but Solomon, considering the immensity of God’s essence, wonders
that God should order a house to be built for him, as if he wanted
roofs and coverings, and habitation, as bodily creatures do. Will God
indeed dwell in a temple, who hath an essence so immense as not to be
contained in the heaven of heavens? It is not the heaven of heavens
that can contain him, his substance. Here he asserts the immensity of
his essence, and his presence not only in the heaven, but beyond the
heavens; he that is not contained in the heavens, as a man is in a
chamber, is without, and above, and beyond the heavens; it is not said,
they do not contain him, but it is impossible they should contain him;
they cannot contain him. It is impossible, then, but that he should
be above them; he that is without the compass of the world, is not
bounded by the limits of the world, as his power is not limited by
the things he hath made, but can create innumerable worlds, so can his
essence be in innumerable spaces; for as he hath power enough to make
more worlds, so he hath essence enough to fill them, and therefore
cannot be confined to what he hath already created; innumerable
worlds cannot be a sufficient place to contain God; he can only be
a sufficient place to himself;[656] He that was before the world,
and place, and all things, was to himself a world, a place, and
everything:[657] He is really out {a377} of the world in himself,
as he was in himself before the creation of the world: as because
God was before the foundation of the world, we conclude his eternity;
so because he is without the bounds of the world, we conclude his
immensity, and from thence his omnipresence. The world cannot be said
to contain him, since it was created by him; it cannot contain him
now, who was contained by nothing before the world was: as there was
no place to contain him before the world was, there can be no place
to contain him since the world was. God might create more worlds,
circular and round as this, and those could not be so contiguous,
but some spaces would be left between; as, take three round balls,
lay them as close as you can to one another, there will be some spaces
between; none would say but God would be in these spaces, as well
as in the world he had created, though there were nothing real and
positive in those spaces: why should we then exclude God from those
imaginary spaces without the world? God might also create many worlds,
and separate them by distances, that they might not touch one another,
but be at a great distance from one another; and would not God fill
them as well as he doth this? if so, he must also fill the spaces
between them; for if he were in all those worlds, and not in the
spaces between those worlds, his essence would be divided; there would
be gaps in it, his essence would be cut into parts, and the distance
between every part of his essence, would be as great as the space
between each world. The essence of God may be conceived then well
enough to be in all those infinite spaces where he can erect new
worlds.