Part 28
stood in the counsel of the Lord ?' Are they acquainted with the secrets of God more than we ? Who have the word of the Lord, if we have not ? Or
it may be a continuation of God's admonition. Believe not those prophets ; for who of them have been acquainted with the secrets of God ? or by what means should they learn his counsel ? No ; assure yourselves, ' a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind : it shall fall
grievously upon the head of the wicked,' ver. 19. A whirlwind shall come from Babylon ; it is just at the door, and shall not be blown over ; it shall fall with a witness upon the wicked people, and the deceiving prophets, and sweep them together into captivity. For, ver. 20, ' the anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the
thoughts of his heart.' My fury shall not be a childish fury, that quickly languisheth, but shall accomplish whatsoever I threaten, and burn so hot,
as not to be cool till I have satisfied my vengeance ; * in the latter days ye
shall consider it perfectly,' ver. 20, when the storm shall beat upon you ; you shall then know, that the calamities shall answer the words you have heard. When the conqueror shall waste your grounds, demolish your houses, and manacle your hands, then shall you consider it, and have the wishes of fools, that you had had your eyes in your heads before ; you shall then know the falseness of your guides, and the truth of my prophets, and discern who stood in the counsel of the Lord, and subscribe to the messages I havo sent you.
JEB. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 421
Some understand this not only of the Babylonish captivity, but refer it to
the time of Christ, and the false doctrine of men's own righteousness in oppo sition to the righteousness of God, understanding this verse to be partly a threatening of wrath, which shall end in an advantage to the Jews, who shall in the latter time consider the falseness of their notions about a legal right eousness, and so make it a promise ; they shall then know the intent of the Scripture, and in the latter days, the latter end of the world, when time
shall be n^ar the rolling up, they shall reflect upon themselves, * they shall look upon him whom they have pierced :' and till these latter days, they shall be hardened, and believe nothing of evangelical truths.
Now God denieth that he sent those prophets : ver. 21, ' I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran ; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophe
sied.' They have intruded themselves without a commission from me, what soever their brags are. The reason to prove it is ver. 22, « If they had stood in my counsel,' if they had been instructed and inspired by me, ' they would have caused my people to hear my words ;' they would have regulated themselves according to my word, ' and have turned them from their evil way ;' i. e., endeavoured to shake down their false confidences of peace, and make them sensible of their false notions of me and my ways. Now, because those false prophets could not be so impudent as to boast, that they prophe sied in the name of God, when they had not commission from him, unless they had some secret sentiment that they and their intentions were hid from
the knowledge and eye of God, he adds, ver. 23, ' Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall
not see him ?' Have I not the power of seeing and knowing what they do, what they design, what they think ? Why should I not have such a power,
since ' I fill heaven and earth' by my essence ? ' Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off ?' He excludes here the doctrine of those that excluded the providence of God from extending itself to the inferior things of the earth ; which error was ancient, as ancient as the time of Job, as appears
by their opinion, that, God's eyes were hood-winked and muffled by the thickness of the clouds, and could not pierce through their dark and dense
body : « Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not,' Job xxii. 14.
Some * refer it to time. Do you imagine me a God new framed like your idols, beginning a little time ago, and not existing before the foundation of
the world, yea, from eternity ? ' a God afar off,' further than your acutest understandings can reach ? I am of a longer standing, and you ought to know my majesty. But it rather refers to place than time. Do you think I do not behold everything in the earth as well as in heaven. Am I locked up within the walls of my palace, and cannot peep out to behold the things done in the world ? or that I am so linked to pleasure in the place of my glory, as earthly kings are in their courts, that I have no mind or leisure to take notice of the carriages of men upon earth ? God doth not say he was afar off, but only gives an account of the inward thoughts of their minds, or at least of the language expressed by their actions.
The interrogation carries in it a strong affirmation, and assures us more
of God's care, and the folly of men in not considering it : ' Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off ? Can any hide himself in secret places ? ' Heb., ' in hiddenness,' in the deepest cells. What ! are you besotted by your base lusts, that you think me a God careless, ignorant, blind, that I can see nothing but as a purblind man what is very near my eye ? Are you so out of your wits, that you imagine you can deceive me ? Do not all your behaviours speak such a sentiment to lie secret in your heart, though
* Minister, Vatablus, Castalio, (Ecolamp.
422 . CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [JER. XXIII. 24.
not formed into a full conception, yet testified by your actions ? No, you are much mistaken ; it is impossible but that I should see and know all things, since I am present with all things, and am not at a greater distance from the things on earth than from the things in heaven, for I fill all that vast fabric which is divided into those two parts of heaven and earth ; and he that hath such an infinite essence cannot be distant, cannot be ignorant ; nothing can be far from his eyes, since everything is so near to his essence.
So that it is an elegant expression of the omniscience of God, and a strong argument for it. He asserts, first, the universality of his knowledge ; but lest they should mistake, and confine his presence only to heaven, he adds, that he ' fills heaven and earth.' I do not see things so, as if I were in one place and the things seen in another, as it is with man ; but whatsoever I see, I see not without myself, because every corner of heaven and earth is filled by me. He that fills all must needs see and know all.
And indeed men that question the knowledge of God would be more con vinced by the doctrine of his immediate presence with them. And this seems to be the design and manner of arguing in this place. Nothing is remote from my knowledge, because nothing is distant from my presence.
' I fill heaven and earth.' He doth not say, I am in heaven and earth, but I fill heaven and earth; i. e., say some,* with my knowledge, others with my authority or my power. But,
1. The word filling cannot properly be referred to the act of understand ing and will. A presence by knowledge is to be granted, but to say such a presence fills a place, is an improper speech. Knowledge is not enough to constitute a presence.
A man at London knows there is such a city as Paris, and knows many things in it ; can he be concluded therefore to be present in Paris, or fill any place there, or be present with the things he knows there ? If I know anything to be distant from me, how can it be present with me ? for by knowing it to be distant I know it not to be present. Besides, filling heaven and earth is distinguished here from knowing or seeing. His pre sence is rendered as an argument to prove his knowledge. Now, a propo sition, and the proof of that proposition, are distinct, and not the same.
It cannot be imagined that God should prove idem per idem, as we say ; for what would be the import of the speech then, I know all things, I see all things, because I know and see all things ? f The Holy Ghost here accommodates himself to the capacity of men, because we know that a man sees and knows that which is done where he is corporally present ; so he proves that God knows all things that are done in the most secret caverns of the heart, because he is everywhere in heaven and earth, as light is every where in the air, and air everywhere in the world. Hence the schools use the term repletive for the presence of God.
2. Nor by filling of heaven and earth is meant his authority and power. It would be improperly said of a king, that in regard of the government of his kingdom, is everywhere by his authority, that he fills all the cities and
countries of his dominions. ' I, do not I fill ? ' J That I notes the essence of God, as distinguished according to our capacity, from the perfections pertaining to his essence, and is in reason better referred to the substance of God than to those things we conceive as attributes in him. Besides, were it meant only of his authority or power, the argument would not run well. I see all things, because my authority and power fills heaven and earth. Power doth not always rightly infer knowledge, no, not in a rational
* Turn perspicacia, turn efficacia. — Grot. J Amyrald, de Trinitate, p. 37. t Suarez.
JER. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 423
agent. Many things in a kingdom are done by the authority of the king, that never arrive to the knowledge of the king ; many things in us are done by the power of our souls, which yet we have not a distinct knowledge of in our understandings. There are many motions in sleep, by virtue of the soul informing the body, that we have not so much as a simple knowledge of in our minds. Knowledge is not rightly inferred from power, or power from knowledge.
By filling heaven and earth is meant therefore a filling it with his essence. No place can be imagined that is deprived of the presence of God, and there fore when the Scripture anywhere speaks of the presence of God, it joins heaven and earth together. He so fills them, that there is no place without him. We do not say a vessel is full so long as there is any space to con tain more. Not a part of heaven nor a part of earth, but the whole heaven, the whole earth, at one and the same time. If he were only in one part of heaven, or one part of earth, nay, if there were any part of heaven or any part of earth void of him, he could not be said to fill them. I fill heaven and earth ; not a part of me fills one place and another part of me fills an other, but I, God, fill heaven and earth, I am whole God filling the heaven and whole God filling the earth. I till heaven, and yet fill earth ; I fill earth and yet fill heaven, and fill heaven and earth at one and the same time.
God fills his own works, a heathen philosopher saith.*
Here is then a description of God's presence. 1. By power: Am I not a God afar off ? a God in the extension of his arm.
2. By knowledge : Shall I not see them ? 3. By essence : as an undeniable ground for inferring the two former, I fill heaven and earth.
Doct. God is essentially everywhere present in heaven and earth. If God be, he must be somewhere ; that which is nowhere is nothing. Since God is, he is in the world ; not in one part of it, for then he were circumscribed by it. If in the world, and only there, though it be a great space, he were also limited. Somef therefore said, God was everywhere, and nowhere. Nowhere ; i. e. not bounded by any place, nor receiving from any place anything for his preservation or sustainment. He is every where, because no creature, either body or spirit, can exclude the presence of his essence ; for he is not only near, but in everything : Acts xvii. 28,
' In him we live, and move, and have our being.' Not absent from any thing, but so present with them, that they live and move in him, and move more in God than in the air or earth wherein they are ; nearer to us than our flesh to our bones, than the air to our breath. He cannot be far from them that live and have every motion in him. The apostle doth not say by him, but in him, to shew the inwardness of his presence.
As eternity is the perfection whereby he hath neither beginning nor end, immutability is the perfection whereby he hath neither increase nor diminu tion, so immensity or omnipresence is that whereby he hath neither bounds nor limitation. As he is in all time, yet so as to be above time, so is he in all places, yet so as to be above limitation by any place. It was a good expression of a heathen to illustrate this, that God is a sphere or circle, whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere. His meaning was, that the essence of God was indivisible, i.e. could not be divided. It can not be said, here and there the lines of it terminate ; it is like a line drawn out in infinite spaces, that no point can be conceived where its length and
breadth ends. The sea is a vast mass of waters, yet to that it is said,
* Seneca, de Benefic. lib. iv. cap. 8, Ipse opus suum implet. f Clirysostom.
424 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [JER. XXIII. 24.
' Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further.' But it cannot be said of God's essence, Hitherto it reaches, and no further ; here it is, and there it is not. It is plain that God is thus immense, because he is infinite; we have reason and Scripture to assent to it, though we cannot conceive it. We know that God is eternal, though eternity is too great to be measured by the short line of a created understanding. We cannot conceive the vastness and glory of the heavens, much less that which is so great as to fill
heaven and earth; yea, 'not to be contained in the heaven of heavens,' 1 Kings viii. 27. Things are said to be present, or in a place. 1. Circumscriptive, as circumscribed. This belongs to things that have quantity, as bodies that are encompassed by that place wherein they are ; and a body fills but one particular space wherein it is, and the space is com mensurate to every part of it, and every member hath a distinct place. The hand is not in the same particular space that the foot or head is.
2. Definitive, which belongs to angels and spirits, which are said to be in a point, yet so as that they cannot be said to be in another at the same time.
3. Eepleiive^ filling all places ; this belongs only to God. As he is not measured by time, so he is not limited by place. A body or spirit, because finite, fills but one space ; God, because infinite, fills all, yet so as not to be contained in them, as wine and water is in a vessel. He is from the height of the heaven to the bottom of the deeps, in every point of the world, and in the whole circle of it, yet not limited by it, but beyond it.
Now this hath been acknowledged by the wisest in the world.
Some indeed had other notions of God. The more ignorant sort of the Jews confined him to the temple.* And God intimates that they had such a thought, when he asserts his presence in heaven and earth, in opposition
to the temple they built as his house and * the place of his rest.'f And the idolaters among them thought their gods might be at a distance from them, which Elias intimates in the scoff he puts upon them : 1 Kings xviii. 27,
' Cry aloud, for he is a god,' meaning Baal ; * either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey ; ' and they follow his advice, and cried
' louder,' ver. 28, whereby it is evident they looked not on it as a mock, but as a truth. And the Syrians called the God of Israel the god of the hills, as though his presence were fixed there, and not in the valleys, 1 Kings xx. 23 ; and their own gods in the valleys, and not in the mountains. They fancied every god to have a particular dominion and presence in one place, and not in another, and bounded the territories of their gods as they did those of their princes. J And some thought him tied to, and shut up in, their temples and groves wherein they worshipped him. § Some of them thought God to be confined to heaven, and therefore sacrificed upon the highest mountains, that the steam might ascend nearer heaven, and their
praises be heard better in those places wrhich were nearest to the habitation of God. But the wiser Jews acknowledged it, and therefore called God place, || whereby they denoted his immensity ; he was not contained in any place ; every part of the world subsists by him. He was a place to himself, greater than anything made by him. And the wiser heathens acknowledged it also.
One \ calls God a mind passing through the universal nature of things ; another, that he was an infinite and immense air ;** another, that it is as
* Jerome on Isa. Ixvi. 1. J Med. Diatrib., vol. i. p. 71, 72. t Hammond on Mat. vi. 7. \ Dought Analec. excurs. 61. 113.
|| QpDGrot, upon Matt. v. 16. Mares, contra Volk. lib. i. cap. 27, p. 494. 1 Vide Mirnit. Fel. p. 20. ** Plotin. Enead vi. lib. v. cap. 4.
JER. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 425
natural to think God is everywhere, as to think that God is. Hence they called God the soul of the world ; that as the soul is in every part of the body to quicken it, so is God in every part of the world to support it.
And there are some resemblances of this in the world, though no creature can fully resemble God in any one perfection ; for then it would not be a creature, but God. But air and light are some weak resemblances of it. Air is in all the spaces of the world, in the pores of all bodies, in the bowels of the earth, and extends itself from the lowest earth to the highest regions, and the heavens themselves are probably nothing else but a refined kind of air ; and light diffuseth itself through the whole air, and every part of it is truly light, as every part of the air is truly air ; and though they seem to be mingled together, yet they are distinct things, and not of the same essence. So is the essence of God in the whole world, not by diffusion as air or light, not mixed with any creature, but remaining distinct from the essence of any created being. Now when this hath been owned by men instructed only in the school of nature, it is a greater shame to any acquainted with the Scrip ture to deny it. For the understanding of this, there shall be some propo sitions premised in general.
Prop. 1. This is negatively to be understood. Our knowledge of God is most by withdrawing from him, or denying to him, in our conception, any weaknesses or imperfections in the creature. As the infiniteness of God is a denial of limitation of being, so immensity, or omnipresence, is a denial of limitation of place. And when we say God is totus in every place, we must understand it thus, that he is not everywhere by parts, as bodies are, as air and light are. He is everywhere, *. e. his nature hath no bounds ; he is not tied to any place as the creature is, who, when he is present in one place, is absent from another. As no place can be without God, so no place can compass and contain him.
Prop. 2. There is an influential omnipresence of God.
(1.) Universal, with all creatures. He is present with all things by his authority, because all things are subject to him ; by his power, because all things are sustained by him ; by his knowledge, because all things are naked before him. He is present in the world, as a king is in all parts of his king dom regally present ; providentially present with all, since his care extends to the meanest of his creatures. His power reacheth all, and his knowledge pierce th all.
As everything in the world was created by God, so everything in the world is preserved by God ; and since preservation is not wholly distinct from crea tion, it is necessary God should be present with everything while he preserves
it, as well as present with it when he created it : ' Thou preservest man and
beast,' Ps. xxxvi. 6 ; he « upholds all things by the word of his power,' Heb. i. 3. There is a virtue sustaining every creature, that it may not fall back into that nothing from whence it was elevated by the power of God. All those natural virtues we call the principles of operation, are fountains spring ing from his goodness and power, all things are acted and managed by him, as well as preserved by him ; and in this sense God is present with all crea tures, for whatsoever acts another is present with that which it acts, by send ing forth some virtue and influence whereby it acts. If free agents do not
only « live,' but « move in him,' and by him, Acts xvii. 28, much more are the motions of other natural agents, by a virtue communicated to them, and upheld in them in the time of their acting. This virtual presence of God is evident to our sense, a presence we feel ; his essential presence is evident in our reason. This influential presence may be compared to that of the sun, which, though at so great a distance from the earth, is present in the air and
426 CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [JER. XXIII. 24.
earth by its light, and within the earth by its influence in concocting those metals which are in the bowels of it, without being substantially either of them. God is thus so intimate with every creature, that there is not the least particle of any creature, but the marks of his power and goodness are seen in it, and his goodness doth attend them, and is more swift in its effluxes than the breaking out of light from the sun, which yet are more swift than can be declared ; but to say he is in the world only by his virtue, is to acknowledge only the effects of his power and wisdom in the world, that his eye sees all, his arm supports all, his goodness nourisheth all, but himself and his essence at a distance from them.* And so the soul of man, accord ing to its measure, would have in some kind a more excellent manner of presence in the body than God, according to the infiniteness of his being with his creatures ; for that doth not only communicate life to the body, but is actually present with it, and spreads its whole essence through the body and every member of it. All grant that God is efficaciously in every creek of the world, but some say he is only substantially in heaven.
(2.) Limited to such subjects that are capacitated for this or 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 instru ments 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, that shall not enjoy his glorious presence, had in the work ing of miracles in the world : Mat. vii. 22, ' In thy name we have done many wonderful works.' Besides, 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.f He is 'near to wicked men in the offers of grace : Isa. Iv. 6, ' Call ye upon him while he is near ;' 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,' i. e. the Father and the Son, * and make our abode with him,' John xiv. 23. He is present with all by the presence of his divinity, but only in his saints by the presence of a gracious efficacy ; he walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks, and hath dignified the con gregation of his people with the title of Jehovah Shammah, ' the Lord is there,' Ezek. xlviii. 85 ; 'In Salem is his tabernacle, and his dwellingplace in Sion,' Ps. Ixxvi. 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 com
forts. When the apostle speaks of God's 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 regenera tion. So there are several manifestations of his presence : he hath a pre sence 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 beam of light ; in hell, a God distributing his strokes of jus tice ; by the one he fills heaven, by the other he fills hell ; by his providence and essence he fills both heaven and earth.
* Zanch. f Cajetan in Aquin. part i. qu. 8, artic. 3.
JEB. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPKESENCE. 427
Prop. 3. 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.* 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 bo always, than to be everywhere ; for to be always in duration is intrinsecal, to be everywhere is extrinsic : 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: the nations are accounted as the small dust,' Isa. xl. 15. 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,f 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 ? J 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 twentyfour 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 odours scented in several places at the same time, in the same manner, and the organ proper for smelling takes in the same in every per son 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 an infinite God be much more every where ? 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. §
* Ficin. I Ficin. t Maimonid. \ Hornbeck, Soun. part i. p. 303.
428 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [JER. XXIII. 24.
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 com parison 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 pre sence : 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 understandeth 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 men tions 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, 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 sunbeam that spreads itself through the hemisphere, and passes 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 infi nite 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 is he 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 ? ' 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
JEE. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPEESENCE. 429
in a balance,' Isa. xl. 12 ; 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 virtue 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 perfec tions 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."* 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, sus taining 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 sea, not containing him, but being contained by him. He compasseth all, is encom passed by none ; he fills all, is comprehended by none. The Creator con tains 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.
But now 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 it is not mixed with any thing. 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 altogether, yet not mixed with one another; every
* Amyrald. fie Trinit.
430 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [JER. XXIII. 24.
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 him self ? 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, 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 the light in the
Scripture : ' He covereth himself with light,' Ps. civ. 2 ; 1 John i. 5, ' God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.' 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 pre-
JEB. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 431
sent with his creatures as one creature can be with another ?* God is totally everywhere by his own simple substance.
Prop. 4. 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 con ceived 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 con
tained 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 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 heaven 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 wor
ship. 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 many 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 * Bernard.
432 CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [JEK. XXIII. 24.
' 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;* he that was before the world, and place, and all things, was to himself a world, a place, and everything.f He is really out 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.
I shall give one place more to prove both these propositions, viz. that God is essentially in every part of the world, and essentially above ours without
the world : Isa. Ixvi. 1, * The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my foot stool.' He is essentially in every part of the world ; he is in heaven and earth at the same time, as a man is upon his throne and his footstool. God describes himself in a human shape, accommodated to our capacity, as if he had his head in heaven and his feet on earth ; doth not his essence then fill all intermediate spaces between heaven and earth ? As when the head of a man is in the upper part of a room, and his feet upon the floor, his body fills up the space between the head and his feet, this is meant of the essence of God ; it is a similitude drawn from kings sitting upon the throne, and not their power and authority, but the feet of their persons, are supported by the footstool ; so here it is not meant only of the perfections of God, but the essence of God. Besides, God seems to tax them with an erroneous conceit they had, as though his essence were in the temple, and not in any part of the world, therefore God makes an opposition between heaven, and earth, and the temple : * Where is the house that you built unto me ? and where is the place of my rest ?' Had he understood it only of his providence, it had not been anything against their mistake, for they granted his providence to be not only in the temple, but in all parts of the
* Pelav. t Maccor. loc. commun. cap. xix, p. 153.
JER. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 433
world. ' Where is the house that you build to me ? ' to ME, not to my power or providence, but think to include me within those walls ?
Again, it shews God to be above the heavens, if the heavens be his throne ; he sits upon them, and is above them as kings are above the thrones on which they sit ; so it cannot be meant of his providence, because, no creature being without the sphere of the heavens, there is nothing of the power and the providence of God visible there, for there is nothing for him to employ his providence about ; for providence supposeth a creature in actual being ; it must be therefore meant of his essence, which is above the world, and in the world.
And the like proof you may see, Job xi. 7, 8, * It is as high as heaven,
what canst 'thou do? 'deeper than hell, what canst thou know? the measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea ; ' where he in tends the unsearchableness of God's wisdom, but proves it by the infiniteness of his essence; Heb. ' He is the height of the heavens,' he is the top of all the heavens ; so that when you have begun at the lowest part, and traced him through all the creatures, you will find his essence filling all the creatures to be at the top of the world, and infinitely beyond it.
Prop. 5. This is the property of God, incommunicable to any creature. As no creature can be eternal and immutable, so no creature can be immense, because it cannot be infinite ; nothing can be of an infinite nature, and therefore nothing of an immense presence but God. It cannot be communi cated to the human nature of Christ, though in union with the divine.* Some indeed argue that Christ, in regard of his human nature, is every where, because he sits at the right hand of God, and the right hand of God is everywhere. His sitting at the right hand of God signifies his exaltation,
and cannot with any reason be extended to such a kind of arguing. * The hearts of kings are in the hand of God:' are the hearts of kings everywhere, because God's hand is everywhere ? The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God ; is the soul therefore of every righteous man everywhere in the world ? The right hand of God is from eternity ; is the humanity of Christ therefore from eternity, because it sits at the right hand of God ? The right hand of God made the world ; did the humanity of Christ therefore make heaven and earth ? The humanity of Christ must then be confounded with his divinity, be the same with it, not united to it. All creatures are dis tinct from their Creator, and cannot inherit the properties essential to his nature, as eternity, immensity, immutability, omnipresence, omniscience. No angel, no soul, no creature can be in all places at once ; before they can be so, they must be immense, and so must cease to be creatures, and com mence God. This is impossible.
II. Reasons to prove God's essential presence. Reason 1. Because he is infinite. As he is infinite, lie is everywhere ; as
he is simple, his whole essence is everywhere ; for in regard of his infiniteness, he hath no bounds ; in regard of his simplicity, he hath no parts ;
and therefore those that deny God's omnipresence, though they pretend to own him infinite, must really conceive him finite.
1. God is infinite in his perfections. None can set bounds to terminate
the greatness and excellency of God : ' his greatness is unsearchable,' Ps. cxlv. 3 ; Sept., o\Jx lt-i n&gag, there is no end, no limitation. What hath no end is infinite ; his power is infinite : Job v. 9, ' Which doth great things and unsearchable,' no end of those things he is able to do. His wisdom infinite, Ps. cxlvii. 5 ; he understands all things, past, present, and to come,
* Rivet, Ps. ex. p. 301, coL 2.
* VOL. I. E 6
434 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [JER. XXIII. 24.
•what is already made, what is possible to be made ; his duration infinite : Job xxxvi. 26, ' The number of his years cannot be searched out,' aKsoavroc. To make a finite thing of nothing is an argument of an infinite virtue. In finite power can only extract something out of the barren womb of nothing, but all things were drawn forth by the word of God, the heavens and all tho host of them. The sun, moon, stars, the rich embellishments of the world,
appeared in being « at the breath of his mouth,' Ps. xxxiii. 6. The author therefore must be infinite. And since nothing is the cause of God, or of any perfection in him, since he derives not his being, or the least spark of his glorious nature, from anything without him, he cannot be limited in any
part of his nature by anything without him ; and indeed the infiniteness of his power and his other perfections is asserted by the prophet, when he tells
us that ' the nations are as a drop of a bucket, or the dust of the balance, and less than nothing, and vanity,' Isa. xl. 15, 17. They are all so in regard of his power, wisdom, &c. Conceive what a little thing a grain of dust or sand is to all the dust that may be made by the rubbish of a house ; what a little thing the heap of the rubbish of a house is to the vast heap of the rubbish of a whole city, such a one as London ; how little that also would be to the dust of a whole empire ; how inconsiderable that also to the dust of one quarter of the world, Europe or Asia ; how much less that still to the dust of the whole world. The whole world is composed of an uncon ceivable number of atoms, and the sea of an unconceivable number of drops ; now what a little grain of dust is in comparison of the dust of the whole world, a drop of water from the sea to all the drops remaining in the sea, that is the whole world to God. Conceive it still less, a mere nothing, yet is it all less than this in comparison of God. There can be nothing more magnificently expressive of the infiniteness of God to a human conception than this expression of God himself in the prophet.
In the perfection of a creature, something still may be thought greater to be added to it, but God containing all perfections in himself formally, if they be mere perfections, and eminently, if they be but perfections in the creature mixed with imperfection, nothing can be thought greater, and therefore every one of them is infinite.
2. If his perfections be infinite, his essence must be so. How God can have infinite perfections and a finite essence is unconceivable by a human
or angelical understanding. An infinite power, an infinite wisdom, an in finite duration, must needs speak an infinite essence, since the infiniteness of his attributes is grounded upon the infiniteness of his essence. To own infinite perfections in a finite subject is contradictory. The manner of act ing by his power, and knowing by his wisdom, cannot exceed the manner of being by his essence. His perfections flow from his essence, and the prin ciple must be of the same rank with what flows from it ; and if we conceive his essence to be the cause of his perfections, it is utterly impossible that an infinite effect should arise from a finite cause ; but indeed his perfections are his essence ; for though we conceive the essence of God as the subject, and the attributes of God as faculties and qualities in that subject, according to our weak model, who cannot conceive of an infinite God without some manner of likeness to ourselves ; who find understanding, and will, and power in us distinct from our substance, yet truly and really there is no dis tinction between his essence and attributes ; one is inseparable from the other. His power and wisdom are his essence ; and therefore to maintain God infinite in the one and finite in the other, is to make a monstrous God, and have an unreasonable notion of the Deity; for there would be the greatest disproportion in his nature, since there is no greater disproportion
JER. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 435
can possibly be between one thing and another than there is between finite and infinite. God must not only then be compounded, but have parts of the greatest distance from one another in nature ; but God being the most simple being, without the least composition, both must be equally infinite. If, then, his essence be not infinite, his power and wisdom cannot be infinite, which is both against Scripture and reason.
Again, how should his essence be finite and his perfections be infinite, since nothing out of himself gave them, either the one or the other ?
Again, either the essence can be infinite, or it cannot;* if it cannot, there must be some cause of that impossibility. That can be nothing without him, because nothing without him can be as powerful as himself, much less too powerful for him. Nothing within him can be an enemy to his highest perfection ; since he is necessarily what he is, he must be necessarily the most perfect being, and therefore necessarily infinite ; since to be something infinitely is a greater perfection than to be something finitely, f If he can be infinite, he is infinite, otherwise he could be greater than he is, and so more blessed and more perfect than he is, which is impossible ; for being the most perfect being, to whom nothing can be added, he must needs be infinite.
If, therefore, God have an infinite essence, he hath an infinite presence. An infinite essence cannot be contained in a finite place ; as those things which are finite have a bounded space wherein they are, so that which is infinite hath an unbounded space ; for as finiteness speaks limitedness, so infiniteness speaks unboundedness. And if we grant to God an infinite duration, there is no difficulty in acknowledging an infinite presence. In deed, the infiniteness of God is a property belonging to him in regard of time and place ; he is bounded by no place, and limited tono time.
Again, infinite essence may as well be everywhere, as infinite power reach everything ; it may as well be present with every being, as infinite power in its working may be present with nothing to bring it into being. Where God works by his power, he is present in his essence, because his power and his essence cannot be separated, and therefore his power, wisdom, good ness, cannot be anywhere where his essence is not. His essence cannot be severed from his power, nor his power from his essence ; for the power of God is nothing but God acting, and the wisdom of God nothing but God knowing. As the power of God is always, so is his essence ; as the power of God is everywhere, so is his essence. Whatsoever God is, he is alway, and everywhere. To confine him to a place is to measure his essence, as to confine his actions is to limit his power. His essence being no less in finite than his power and his wisdom, can be no more bounded than his power and wisdom ; but they are not separable from his essence, yea, they are his essence. If God did not fill the whole world, he would be deter mined to some place, and excluded from others, and so his substance would have bounds and limits, and then something might be conceived greater than
God ; for we may conceive that a creature may be made by God of so vast a greatness as to fill the whole world ; for the power of God is able to make a body that should take up the whole space between heaven and earth, and reach to every corner of it. But nothing can be conceived by any creature greater than God ; he exceeds all things, and is exceeded by none. God therefore cannot be included in heaven, nor included in the earth ; cannot be contained in either of them ; for if we should imagine them vaster than they are, yet still they would be finite ; and if his essence were contained
* Amyrald de Trinitat, p. 89. t Deus est actus purus et nullam habet potentiam passivam.
436 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [JsB. XXIII. 24.
in them, it could be no more infinite than the world which contains it, aa water is not of a larger compass than the vessel which contains it. If the essence of God were limited either in the heavens or earth, it must needs be finite, as the heavens and earth are ; but there is no proportion between finite and infinite; God therefore cannot be contained in them. If there were an infinite body, that must be everywhere ; certainly, then, an infinite spirit must be everywhere. Unless we will account him finite, we can render no reason why he should not be in one creature as well as in another. If he be in heaven, which is his creature, why can he not be in the earth, which is as well his creature as the heavens?
Reason 2. Because of the continual operation of God in the world. This was one reason made the heathen believe that there was an infinite spirit in the vast body of the world, acting in everything, and producing those admir able motions which we see everywhere in nature. The cause which acts in the most perfect manner, is also in the most perfect manner present with its effects.
God preserves all, and therefore is in all. The apostle thought it a good
induction, * He is not far from us: for in him we live,' Acts xvii. 27. For being as much as because, shews that from his operation he concluded his real presence with all. It is not his virtue is not far from every one of us, but he, his substance, himself; for none that acknowledge a God will deny the absence of the virtue of God from any part of the world. He works in everything, everything works and lives in him ; therefore he is present with
all,* or rather, if things live, they are in God, who gives them life. If things live, God is in them, and gives them life ; if things move, God is in them, and gives them motion ; if things have any being, God is in them, and gives them being; if God withdraws himself, they presently lose their being ; and therefore some have compared the creature to the impression of a seal upon the wafer, f that cannot be preserved but by the presence of the seal. As his presence was actual with what he created, so his presence is actual with what he preserves, since creation and preservation do so little differ ; if God creates things by his essential presence, by the same he sup ports them. If his substance cannot be disjoined from his preserving power, his power and wisdom cannot be separated from his essence ; where there are the marks of the one, there is the presence of the other ; for it is by his essence that he is powerful and wise ; no man can distinguish the one from the other in a simple being. God doth not preserve and act things by a virtue diffused from him.