Part 29
It may be demanded whether that virtue be distinct from God ? If it be not, it is then the essence of God ; if it be distinct, it is a creature, and then it may be asked how that virtue which preserves other things is preserved itself ? It must be ultimately resolved into the essence of God, or else there must be a running in infinitum; or else,]; is that virtue of God a substance or not ? Is it endued with understanding or not ? If it hath understand ing, how doth it differ from God ? If it wants understanding, can any imagine that the support of the world, the guidance of all creatures, the wonders of nature, can be wrought, preserved, managed, by a virtue that hath nothing of understanding in it ? If it be not a substance, it can much less be able to produce such excellent operations as the preserving all the kinds of things in the world, and ordering them to perform such excellent ends ; this virtue is therefore God himself, the infinite power and wisdom of God ; and therefore wheresoever the effects of these are seen in the world, God is essentially present. Some creatures, indeed, act at a distance by a
* Pont. f Qu. ' water '?— ED. J Amyrald de Trinitat., p. 106, 107.
JEK. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 437
virtue diffused ; but such a manner of acting comes from a Hmitedness of nature, that such a nature cannot be everywhere present, and extend its
substance to all parts. To act by a virtue, 'speaks the subject finite, and it is a part of indigence. Kings act in their kingdoms by ministers and mes sengers, because they cannot act otherwise; but God, being infinitely perfect, 'works all things in all' immediately, 1 Cor. xii. 6. Illumination, sanctification, grace, &c., are the immediate works of God in the heart, and imme diate agents are present with what they do ; it is an argument of the greater perfection of a being to know things immediately which are done in several places, than to know them at the second hand by instruments. It is no less a perfection to be everywhere, rather than to be tied to one place of action, and to act in other places by instruments for want of a power to act imme diately itself. God indeed acts by means and second causes in his provi dential dispensations in the world, but this is not out of any defect of power to work all immediately himself; but he thereby accomodates his way of acting to the nature of the creature, and the order of things which he hath settled in the world. Arid when he works by means, he acts with those means, in those means, sustains their faculties and virtues in them, concurs
with them by his power, so that God's acting by means doth rather strengthen his essential presence than weaken it, since there is a necessary dependence of the creatures upon the Creator in their being and acting; and what they are, they are by the power of God ; what they act, they act in the power of God concurring with them. They have their motion in him as well as their being ; and where the power of God is, his essence is, because they are inseparable ; and so this omnipresence ariseth from the simplicity of the nature of God. The more vast anything is, the less confined. All that will acknowledge God so great as to be able to work all things by his will without an essential presence, cannot imagine him upon the same reason, go little as to be contained in and bounded by any place.
Reason 3. Because of his supreme perfection. No perfection is wanting to God ; but an unbounded essence is a perfec tion, a limited one is an imperfection. Though it be a perfection in a man to be wise, yet it is an imperfection that his wisdom cannot rule all the things that concern him ; though it be a perfection to be present in a place where his affairs lie, yet is it his imperfection that he cannot be present everywhere in the midst of all his concerns. If any man could be so, it would be universally owned as a prime perfection in him above others. Is that which would be a perfection in man to be denied to God ? * As that which hath life is more perfect than that which hath not life, and that which hath sense is more perfect than that which hath only life, as the plants have, and what hath reason is more perfect than that which hath only life and sense as the beasts have, so what is everywhere is more perfect than that which is bounded in some narrow confines. If a power of motion be more excellent than to be bed-rid, and swiftness in a creature be a more excellent endowment than to be slow and snail-like, then to be everywhere without motion is unconceivably a greater excellency than to be everywhere suc cessively by motion. God sets forth his readiness to help his people and punish his enemies ; or his omnipresence, by swiftness, or ' flying upon the wings of the wind,' Ps. xviii. 10. The wind is in every part of the air where it blows ; it cannot be said that it is in this or that point of the air where you feel it, so as to exclude it from another part of the air where you are not ; it seems to possess all at once.
If the divine essence had any bounds of place, it would be imperfect, as
* Amyrald de Trinitat., p. 74, 75.
438 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [JER. XXIII. 24.
well as if it had bounds of time; where anything hath limitation, it hath
some defect in being; and therefore, if God were confined or concluded, he would be as good as nothing in regard of infiniteness. Whence should this restraint arise ? There is no power above him to restrain him to a certain space ; if so, then he would not be God, but that power which restrained him would be God. Not from his own nature, for the being everywhere implies no contradiction to his nature ; if his own nature determined him to a certain place, then if he removed from that place, he would act against his nature. To conceive any such thing of God is highly absurd. It cannot be thought God should voluntarily impose any such restraint or confinement upon himself; this would be to deny himself a perfection he might have. If God have not this perfection, it is either because it is inconsistent with his nature, or because he cannot have it, or because he will not. The former cannot be ; for if he hath impressed upon air and light a resemblance of his excellency to# diffuse themselves and fill so vast a space, is such an excellency inconsistent with the Creator more than the creature ? What soever perfection the creature hath is eminently in God. Ps. xciv. 8, 9,
* Understand, 0 ye brutish among the people : and ye fools, when will you be wise ? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? he that formed the
eye, shall he not see ? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know ? ' By the same reason he that hath given such a power to those creatures, air and light, shall not he be much more filling all spaces of the world ? It is so clear a rule, that the psalmist fixes a folly and brutishness upon those that deny it. It is not therefore inconsistent with his nature ; it were not then a perfection, but an imperfection ; but whatsoever is an excellency in creatures, cannot in a way of eminency be an imperfection in God. If it be then a perfection, and God want it, it is because he cannot have it. Wliere, then, is his power ? How can he be then the fountain of his own being ? If he will not, where is his love to his own nature and glory? since no creature would deny that to itself which it can have and is an excellency to it. God therefore hath not only a power or fitness to be everywhere, but he is actually everywhere.
Reason 4. Because of his immutability. If God did not fill all the spaces of heaven and earth, but only possess one, yet it must be acknowledged that God hath a power to move himself to another. It were absurd to fix God in a part of the heavens, like a star in an orb, without a power of motion to another place. If he be, therefore, essentially in heaven, may he not be upon the earth if he please, and trans fer his substance from one place to another ? To say he cannot is to deny him a perfection, which he hath bestowed upon his creatures ; the angels, his messengers, are sometimes in heaven, sometimes on earth ; the eagles, meaner creatures, are sometimes in the air out of sight, sometimes upon the earth. If he doth move, therefore, and recede from one place and settle
in another, doth he not declare himself mutable by changing places, by being where he was not before, and in not being where he was before ? He would not fill heaven and earth at once, but successively ; no man can be said to fill a room that moves from one part of a room to another ; if, there fore, any in their imaginations stake God to the heavens, they render him less than his creatures ; if the}7 allow him a power of motion from one place to another, they conceive him changeable ; and, in either of them, they own him no greater than a finite and limited being ; limited to heaven, if they fix him there; limited to that space, to which they imagine him to move.
Reason 5. Because of his omnipotency. The Almightiness of God is a notion settled in the minds of all, that God
JER. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 489
can do whatsoever he pleases, everything that is not against the purity of his nature, and doth not imply a contradiction in itself ; he can therefore create millions of worlds greater than this, and millions of heavens greater than this heaven he hath already created ; if so, he is then in unconceivable spaces beyond this world, for his essence is not less and narrower than his power, and his power is not to be thought of a further extent than his essence ; he cannot be excluded therefore from those vast spaces where his power may fix those worlds if he please ; if so, it is no wonder that he should fill this world, and there is no reason to exclude God from the narrow space of this world, that is not contained in infinite spaces beyond the world. God is wheresoever he hath a power to act, but he hath a power to act everywhere in the world, everywhere out of the world ; he is therefore everywhere in the world, everywhere out of the world. Before this world was made, he had a power to make it in the space where now it stands. Was he not then unlimitedly where the world now is, before the world re ceived a being by his powerful word ? Why should he not then be in every part of the world now ? Can it be thought that God, who was immense before, should, after he had created the world, contract himself to the limits of one of his creatures, and tie himself to a particular place of his own creation, and be less after his creation than he was before ?
This might also be prosecuted by an argument from his eternity. What is eternal in duration is immense in essence ; the same reason which renders him eternal renders him immense ; that which proves him to be always will prove him to be everywhere.
III. The third thing is, propositions for the further clearing this doctrine from an}7 exceptions.
1. This truth is not weakened by the expressions in Scripture, where God is said to dwell in heaven, and in the temple.
(1.) He is, indeed, said to ' sit in heaven,' Ps. ii. 4, and to ' dwell on high,' Ps. cxiii. 5 ; but he is nowhere said to dwell only in the heavens, as confined to them. It is the court of his majestical presence, but not the
prison of his essence ; for when we are told that the « heaven is his throne,' Isa. Ixvi. 1, we are told with the same breath that the * earth is his foot stool. He dwells on high in regard of the excellency of his nature, but he is in all places in regard of the diffusion of his presence. The soul is essentially in all parts of the body, but it doth not exert the same opera tions in all ; the more noble discoveries of it are in the head and heart : in the head, where it exerciseth the chiefest senses for the enriching the under standing ; in the heart, where it vitally resides, and communicates life and motion to the rest of the body. It doth not understand with the foot or toe, though it be in all parts of the body it forms. And so God may be said to dwell in heaven, in regard of the more excellent and majestic repre sentation of himself, both to the creatures that inhabit the place, as angels and blessed spirits, and also in those marks of his greatness which he hath planted there, those spiritual natures which have a nobler stamp of God upon them, and those excellent bodies, as sun and stars, which as so many tapers light us to behold his glory, Ps. xix. 1, and astonish the minds of men when they gaze upon them. It is his court, where he hath the most solemn wor ship from his creatures, all his courtiers attending there with a pure love and glowing zeal. He reigns there in a special manner, without any oppo
sition to his government ; it is therefore called his * holy dwelling-place,' 2 Chron. iii. 27. The earth hath not that title, since sin cast a stain and a
ruining curse upon it ; the earth is not his throne, because his government
440 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [JER. XXIII. 24.
is opposed ; but heaven is none of Satan's precinct, and the rule of God is imcontradicted by the inhabitants of it. It is from thence also he hath given the greatest discoveries of himself; thence he sends the angels his mes sengers, his Son upon redemption, his Spirit for sanctification. From heaven his gifts drop down upon our heads, and his grace upon our hearts, James iii. 17 ; from thence the chiefest blessings of earth descend. The motions of the heavens fatten the earth, and the heavenly bodies are but stewards to the earthly comforts for man by their influence. Heaven is the richest, vastest, most stedfast and majestic part of the visible creation. It is there where he will at last manifest himself to his people in a full con junction of grace and glory, and be for ever open to his people in unin
terrupted expressions of goodness, and discoveries of his presence, as a reward of their labour and service ; and, in these respects, it may peculiarly be called his throne. And this doth no more hinder his essential presence in all parts of the earth, than it doth his gracious presence in all the hearts of his people. God is in heaven, in regard of the manifestation of his glory; in hell, by the expression of his justice ; in the earth, by the discoveries of his wisdom, power, patience, and compassion ; in his people, by the monu ments of his grace ; and in all, in regard of his substance.
(2.) He is said also to dwell in the ark and temple. It is called, Ps. xxvi. 8, * the habitation of his house, and the place where his honour
dwells;' and to dwell in Jerusalem, as in his holy mountain, 'the moun tain of the Lord of hosts,' Zech. viii. 3 ; in regard of publishing his oracles, answering their prayers, manifesting more of his goodness to the Israelites than to any other nation in the world ; erecting his true worship among them, which was not settled in any part of the world besides ; and his wor ship is principally intended in that psalm. The ark is the place where his honour dwells ; the worship of God is called the glory of God : ' They changed the glory of God into an image made like to corruptible men,' Rom. i. 23, i. e. they changed the worship of God into idolatry ; and to that also doth the place in Zechariah refer.
Now, because he is said to dwell in heaven, is he essentially only there ? Is he not as essentially in the temple and ark as he is in heaven, since there are as high expressions of his habitation there, as of his dwelling in heaven ? If he dwell only in heaven, how came he to dwell in the temple ? Both are asserted in Scripture, one as much as the other. If his dwelling in heaven did not hinder his dwelling in the ark, it could as little hinder the presence of his essence on the earth. To dwell in heaven and in one part of the earth at the same time, is all one as to dwell in all parts of heaven and all parts of earth. If he were in heaven, and in the ark and temple, it was the same essence in both, though not the same kind of manifestation of himself. If by his dwelling in heaven he meant his whole essence, why is it not also to be meant by his dwelling in the ark ? It was not sure part of his essence that was in heaven, and part of his essence that was on earth ; his essence would then be divided ; and can it be imagined that he would be in heaven and the ark at the same time, and not in the spaces between ? Could his essence be split into fragments, and a gap made in it, that two distinct spaces
should be filled by him, and all between be empty of him ? So that God's being, said to dwell in heaven, and in the temple, is so far from impairing the truth of his doctrine, that it more confirms and evidences it.
2. Nor do the expressions of God's coming to us, or departing from us, impair this doctrine of his omnipresence.
God is said to 'hide his face' from his people, Ps. x. 1, to be 'far from the wicked,' Prov. xv. 29 ; and the Gentiles are said to be ' afar off,' viz.,
JER. XXIII. 24.] GOB'S OMNIPRESENCE. 441
from God, Eph. ii. 17, and upon the manifestation of Christ, 'made near.' These must not be understood of any distance or nearness of his essence, for that is equally near to all persons and things, but of some other special
•way and manifestation of his presence. Thus God is said to be in believers by love, as they are in him: 1 John iv. 15, 'He that abides in love abides in God, and God in him.' He that loves is in the thing beloved ; and when two love one another, they are in one another. God is in a righteous man by a special grace, and far from the wicked in regard of such special works; and God is said to be in a place by a special manifestation, as when he was in the bush, Exod. iii., or manifesting his glory upon mount Sinai :
Exod. xxiv. 16, ' The glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai.' God is said to hide his face when he withdraws his comforting presence, disturbs the repose of our hearts, flasheth terror into our consciences, when he puts men under the smart of the cross, as though he had ordered his mercy utterly to depart from them, or when he doth withdraw his special assisting providence from us in our affairs. So he departed from Saul, when he withdrew his direction and protection from him in the concerns of his
government : 1 Sam. xvi. 14, ' The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul,' i. e. the spirit of government. God may be far from us in one respect, and near to us in another ; far from us in regard of comfort, yet near to us in regard of support, when his essential presence continues the same. This is a necessary consequent upon the infiniteness of God, the other is an act of the will of God ; so he was said to forsake Christ in regard of his obscuring his glory from his human nature and inflicting his wrath, though he was near to him in regard of his grace, and preserved him from contracting any spot in his sufferings. We do not say the sun is departed out of the heavens \vhen it is bemisted; it remains in the same part of the heavens, passes on its course, though its beams do not reach us by reason of the bar between us and it. The soul is in every part of the body in regard of its substance, and constantly in it, though it doth not act so sprightly and vigorously at one time as at another in one and the same member, and dis cover itself so sensibly in its operations ; so all the various effects of God towards the sons of men are but diverse operations of one and the same essence. He is far from us or near to us, as he is a judge or a benefactor. When he comes to punish, it notes, not the approach of his essence, but the stroke of his justice; when he comes to benefit, it is not by a new access of his essence, but an efflux of his grace. He departs from us when he leaves us to the frowns of his justice, he comes to us when he encircles us in the arms of his mercy ; but he was equally present with us in both dispensations in regard of his essence. And likewise God is said to come down — Gen. xi. 5, 'And the Lord came down to see the city' — when he doth some signal and wonderful works which attract the minds of men to the acknowledgment of a supreme power and providence in the world, who judged God absent and careless before.
3. Nor is the essential presence of God with all creatures any disparage ment to him. Since it was no disparagement to create the heaven and the earth, it is no disparagement to him to fill them. If he were essentially present with them when he created them, it is no dishonour to him to be essentially present with them to support them. If it were his glory to create them by his essence when they were nothing, can it be his disgrace to be present by his essence, since they are something, and something good, and very good in his eye ? Gen. i. 31, ' God saw everything, and behold it was very good,' or ' mighty good ;' all ordered to declare his goodness, wisdom, power, and to make him adorable to man, and therefore took com-
442 CHA.KNOCK'S WORKS. [JER. XXIII. 24.
placency in them. There is a harmony in all things, a combination in them for those glorious ends for which God created them ; and is it a disgrace for God to be present with his own harmonious composition ? Is it not a
musician's glory to touch with his fingers the treble, the least and tenderest string, as well as the strongest and greatest bass ? Hath not everything
some stamp of God's own being upon it, since he eminently contains in himself the perfections of all his works ? Whatsoever hath being hath a footstep of God upon it, who is all being. Everything in the earth is his footstool, having a mark of his foot upon it. All declare the being of God, because they had their being from God ; and will God account it any dis paragement to him to be present with that which confirms his being, and the glorious perfections of his nature to his intelligent creatures ? The
meanest things are not without their virtues, which may boast God's being the Creator of them, and rank them in the midst of his works of wisdom as well as power. Doth God debase himself to be present by his essence with the things he hath made, more than he doth to know them by his essence ? Is not the least thing known by him ? How ? Not by a faculty or act dis tinct from his essence, but by his essence itself. How is anything dis graceful to the essential presence of God, that is not disgraceful to his knowledge by his essence ? Besides, would God make anything that should be an invincible reason to him to part with his own infiniteness, by a contraction of his own essence into a less compass than before ? It was immense before, it had no bounds ; and woul^ God make a world that he would be ashamed to be present with, and continue it to the diminution and lessening of himself, rather than annihilate it to avoid the disparagement ? This were to impeach the wisdom of God, and cast a blemish upon his infinite understanding, that he knows not the consequences of his work, or is well contented to be impaired in the immensity of his own essence by it. No man thinks it a dishonour to light, a most excellent creature, to be pre sent with a toad or serpent ; and though there be an infinite disproportion between light, a creature, and the Father of lights, the Creator, yet* God, being a Spirit, knows how to be with bodies as if they were not bodies. And being jealous of his own honour, would not, could not, do anything that might impair it.
4. Nor will it follow, that because God is essentially everywhere, that everything is God. God is not everywhere by any conjunction, composi tion, or mixture with anything on earth. When light is in every part of a crystal globe, and encircles it close on every side, do they become one ? No ; the crystal remains what it is, and the light retains its own nature. God is not in us as a part of us, but as an efficient and preserving cause. It is not by his essential presence, but his efficacious presence, that he brings any person into a likeness to his own nature. God is so in his essence with things as to be distinct from them, as a cause from the effect, as a Creator different from the creature, preserving their nature, not com municating his own. His essence touches all, is in conjunction with none. Finite and infinite cannot be joined. He is not far from us, therefore near
to us; so near, that we ' live and move in him,' Acts xvii. 28. Nothing is God because it moves in him, any more than a fish in the sea is the sea, or a part of the sea, because it moves in it.f Doth a man that holds a thing in the hollow of his hand transform it by that action, and make it like his hand ? The soul and body are more straitly united than the essence of God is by his presence with any creature. The soul is in the body as a form in matter, and from their union doth arise a man ; yet in this near conjunc-
* Gassend. t Amyrald de Trinit., p. 99, 100.
JEE. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 443
tion both body and soul remain distinct. The soul is not the body, nor the body the soul; they both have distinct natures and essences. The body can never be changed into a soul, nor the soul into a body ; no more can God into the creature, or the creature into God. Fire is in heated iron, in every part of it, so that it seems to be nothing but fire ; yet is not
fire and iron the same thing ? But such a kind of arguing against God's omnipresence, that if God were essentially present everything would be God, would exclude him from heaven as well as from earth. By the same reason, since they acknowledge God essentially in heaven, the heaven where he is should be changed into the nature of God ; and by arguing against his presence in earth upon this ground, they run such an inconvenience, that they must own him to be nowhere, and that which is nowhere is nothing ! Doth the earth become God because God is essentially there, any more than the heavens, where God is acknowledged by all to be essentially present ?
Again, if where God is essentially, that must be God, then if they place God in a point of the heavens, not only that point must be God, but all the world, because if that point be God, because God is there, then the point touched by that point must be God, and so consequently as far as there are any points touched by one another. We live and move in God, so we live and move in the air ; we are no more God by that than we are mere air, because we breathe in it, and it enters into all the pores of our body ; nay, where there was a straiter union of the divine nature to the human in our
Saviour, yet the nature of both was distinct, and the humanity was not changed into the divinity, nor the divinity into the humanity.
5. Nor doth it follow, that because God is everywhere, therefore a creature may be worshipped without idolatry. Some of the heathens, who
acknowledged God's omnipresence, abused it to the countenancing idolatry; because God was resident in everything, they thought everything might be worshipped, and some have used it as an argument against this doctrine ;
the best doctrines may by men's corruption be drawn out into unreasonable and pernicious conclusions. Have you not met with any, that from the
doctrine of God's free mercy, and our Saviour's satisfactory death, have drawn poison to feed their lusts, and consume their souls ; a poison com posed by their own corruption, and not offered by those truths ? The apostle intimates to us, that some did, or at least were ready to be more lavish in sinning, because God was abundant in grace : Rom. vi. 1, 2,
* Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ?' ver. 1, ' Shall we sin, because we are not under the law but under grace ?' when he prevents an objection that he thought might be made by some ; but as to this case, since, though God be present in everything, yet everything retains its nature, distinct from the nature of God, therefore it is not to have a worship due to the excellency of God. As long as anything remains a creature, it is only to have the respect from us which is due to it in the rank of creatures. When a prince is present with his guard, or if he should go arm in arm with a peasant, is therefore the veneration and honour due to the prince to be paid to the peasant, or any of his guard ? Would the presence of the prince excuse it, or would it not rather aggravate it ? He acknowledged such a person equal to me, by giving him my rights, even in my sight. Though God dwelt in the temple, would not the Israelites have been accounted guilty of idolatry had they worshipped the images of the cherubims, or the ark, or the altar, as objects of worship, which were erected only as a means for his service ? Is there not as much reason to think God was as essentially present in the temple as in heaven, since the same expressions are used of the one and the other ? The sanctuary is called
444 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [JER. XXIII. 24.
the ' glorious high throne,' Jer. xvii. 12 ; and he is said to * dwell between the cherubims,' Ps. Ixxx. 1, i. e. the two cherubims that were at the two ends of the mercy-seat, appointed by God as the two sides of his throne in the sanctuary, Exod. xxv. 18, where he was to ' dwell,' ver. 8, and meet and
' commune with his people,' ver. 22. Could this excuse Manasseh's idolatry in bringing in a carved image into the house of God ? 2 Chron. xxxiii. 7. Had it been a good answer to the charge, God is present here, and therefore everything may be worshipped as God. If he be only essen tially in heaven, would it not be idolatry to direct a worship to the heavens,
o • any part of it as a due object, because of the presence of God there ? Though we look up to the heavens, where we pray and worship God, yet heaven is not the object of worship, the soul abstracts God from the creature.
6. Nor is God defiled by being present with those creatures which seem filthy to us. Nothing is filthy in the eje of God as his creature ; he could never else have pronounced all good ; whatsoever is filthy to us, yet as it is a creature, it owes itself to the power of God. His essence is no more defiled by being present with it, than his power by producing it. No creature is foul in itself, though it may seem so to us. Doth not an infant lie in a womb of filthiness and rottenness ? Yet is not the power of God
present with it, in « working it curiously in the lower parts of the earth ? ' Are his eyes defiled by 'seeing the substance when it is yet imperfect' ? Or his hand defiled by ' writing every member in his book ' ? Ps. cxxxix. 15, 16, Have not the vilest and most noisome things excellent medicinal virtues ? How are they endued with them ? How are those qualities pre served in them ? By anything without God or no ? Every artificer looks with pleasure upon the work he hath wrought with art and skill ; can his essence be defiled by being present with them, any more than it was in giving them such virtues, and preserving them in them ? God measures the heaven and the earth with his hand ; is his hand defiled by the evil influences of the planets, or the corporeal impurities of the earth ? Nothing can be filthy in the eye of God but sin, since everything else owes its being to him. What may appear deformed and unworthy to us, is not so to the Creator ; he sees beauty where we see deformity ; finds goodness where we behold what is nauseous to us. All creatures, being the effects of his power, may be the objects of his presence ; can any place be more foul than hell, if you take it either for the hell of the damned, or for the grave, where there
is rottenness ? yet there he is, Ps. cxxxix. 8. When Satan appeared before God, and spake with him, Job i. 7, could God contract any impurity by being present where that filthy spirit was, more impure than any corporeal, noisome, and defiling thing can be ? No ; God is purity to himself in the midst of noisomeness ; a heaven to himself in the midst of hell. Who ever heard of a sunbeam stained by shining upon a quagmire, any more than sweetened by breaking into a perfumed room !* Though the light shines upon pure and impure things, yet it mixes not itself with either of them ; so, though God be present with devils and wicked men, yet without any mixture, he is present with their essence to sustain and support it, not in their defection, wherein lies their defilement, and which is not a physical but a moral evil ; bodily filth can never touch an incorporeal substance.
Spirits are not present with us in the same manner that one body is pre sent with another; bodies can, by a touch only, defile bodies. Is the glory of an angel stained by being in a coal mine ? or could the angel that came
into the lions' den, to deliver Daniel, chap. vi. 22, be any more disturbed by the stench of the place, than he could be scratched by the paws or torn by
* Shelford of the Attributes, p. 170.
JER. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 445
the teeth of the beasts? Their spiritual nature secures them against any infec
tion, when they are ' ministering spirits' to persecuted believers in their nasty prisons, Acts xii. 7. The soul is straitly united with the body, but it is not made white or black by the whiteness or blackness of its habitation ; is it infected by the corporeal impurities of the body, while it continually dwells in a sea of filthy pollution ? If the body be cast into a common sewer, is the soul defiled by it ? Can a diseased body derive a contagion to the spirit that animates it ? Is it not often the purer by grace, the more the body is
infected by nature. Hezekiah's spirit was scarce ever more fervent with
God than when the sore, which some think to be a plaguesore, was upon him, Isa. xxxviii. 3. How can any corporeal filth impair the purity of the divine essence ? It may as well be said, that God is not present in battles and fights for his people, Joshua xxiii. 10, because he would not be dis turbed by the noise of cannons and clashing of swords, as that he is not pre sent in the world, because of the ill scents. Let us therefore conclude this
with the expression of a learned man of our own :* ' To deny the omnipre sence of God, because of ill scented places, is to measure God rather by the
nicety of sense than by the sagacity of reasoD.1
IV. Use. 1. Of information.
(1.) Christ hath a divine nature. As eternity 'and immutability, two incommunicable properties of the divine nature, are ascribed to Christ, so
also is this of omnipresence or immensity. John iii. 13, ' No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the
Son of man which is in heaven.' Not which was, but which is ; he comes from heaven by incarnation, and remains in heaven by his divinity. He was, while he spake to Nicodemus, locally on earth, in regard of his humanity, but in heaven according to his deity, as well as upon earth in the union of his divine and human nature. He descended upon earth, but he left not heaven; he was in the world before he came in the flesh. John i. 10, « He was in the world, and the world was made by him.' He was in the world, as the ' light that enlightens every man that comes into the world ;' in the
•world as God, before he was in the world as man. He was then in the world as a man, while he discoursed with Nicodemus, yet so that he was also in heaven as God. No creature but is bounded in place, either cir cumscribed as body or determined as spirit to be in one space, so as not to be in another at the same time ; to leave a place where they were, and possess a place where they were not. But Christ is so on earth, that at the same time he is in heaven ; he is therefore infinite. To be in heaven and earth at the same moment of time, is a property solely belonging to the Deity, wherein no creature can be a partner with him. ' He was in the world' before he came to the world, ' and the world was made by him,' John i. 10. His coming was not as the coming of angels, that leave heaven and begin to be on earth, where they were not before, but such a presence as can be ascribed only to God, who fills heaven and earth. Again, if all things were made by him, then he was present with all things which were made, for where there is a presence of power, there is also a presence of essence, and therefore he is still present ; for the right and power of con servation follows the power of creation. And according to this divine
nature he promiseth his presence with his church : * There am I in the midst of them,' Mat. xviii. 20. And ' I am with you alway, even to the end of the world,' chap, xxviii. 20, i. e. by his divinity ; for he had before * Dr More.
446 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. . [JER. XXIII. 24.
told them that they were not to have him alway with them, chap. xxvi. 11, i. e., according to his humanity; but in his divine nature he is present with,
and ' walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks.' If we understand it
of a presence by his Spirit in the midst of the church, doth it invalidate his essential presence ? No ; he is no less than the Spirit whom he sends, and therefore as little confined as the Spirit is, who dwells in every believer; and
this may also be inferred from John x. 30, * My Father and I are one;' not one by consent, though that be included, but one in power ; for he speaks not of their consent, but of their joint power in keeping his people. Where there is a unity of essence there is a unity of presence.
(2.) Here is a confirmation of the spiritual nature of God. If he were an infinite body, he could not fill heaven and earth, but with the exclusion of all creatures. Two bodies cannot be in the same space ; they may be near one another, but not in any of the same points together. A body bounded he hath not, for that would destroy his immensity ; he could not then fill heaven and earth, because a body cannot be at one and the same time in two different spaces ; but God doth not fill heaven at one time, and the earth at another, but both at the same time. Besides, a limited body cannot be said to fill the whole earth, but one particular space in the earth at a time. A body may fill the earth with its virtue, as the sun, but not with its substance. Nothing can be everywhere with a corporeal weight and mass ; |but God being infinite, is not tied to any part of the world, but pene trates all, and equally acts by his infinite power in all.
(3.) Here is an argument for providence. His presence is mentioned in the text, in order to his government of the affairs of the world. Is he every where, to be unconcerned with every thing ? Before the world had a being,
God was present with himself ; since the world hath a being, he is present with his creatures, to exercise his wisdom in the ordering, as he did his power in the production of them. As the knowledge of God is not a bare contemplation of a thing, so his presence is not a bare inspection into a thing. Were it an idle, careless, presence, it were a presence to no purpose, which cannot be imagined of God. Infinite power, goodness, and wisdom, being everywhere present with his essence, are never without their exercise. He never manifests any of his perfections, but the manifestation is full of some indulgence and benefit to his creatures. It cannot be supposed God should neglect those things, wherewith he is constantly present in a way of
efficiency and operation.* He is not everywhere without acting everywhere. Wherever his essence is, there is a power and virtue worthy of God every where dispensed. He governs by his presence what he made by his power,
and is present as an agent with all his works. His power and essence are together, to preserve them while he pleases, as his power and his essence are together to create them when he saw good to do it. Every creature hath a stamp of God, and his presence is necessary to keep the impression stand ing upon the creature. As all things are his works, they are the objects of his care ; and the wisdom he employed in framing them, will not suffer him to be careless of them. His presence with them, engageth him in honour not to be a negligent governor. His immensity fits him for government ; and where there is a fitness, there is an exercise of government, where there are objects for the exercise of it. He is worthy to have the universal rule of the world, he can be present in all places of his empire, there is nothing can be done by any of his subjects, but in his sight. As his eternity renders him king alway, so his immensity renders him king everywhere. If he were
only present in heaven, it might occasion a suspicion that he minded only * Cyril.
JEB. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 447
the things of heaven, and had no concern for things below that vast body ; but if he be present here, his presence hath a tendency to the government of those things with which he is present. We are all in him as fish in the sea ; and he bears all creatures in the womb of his providence, and the arms of his goodness. It is most certain that his presence with his people is far from being an idle one ; for when he promises to be with them, he
adds some special cordial, as, ' I will be with thee, and bless thee,' Gen. xxvi. 3, Jer. xv. 20. * I am with thee, and I will strengthen thee ; I will help thee, I will uphold thee,' Isa. xli. 10, 14. Infinite goodness will never countenance a negligent presence.
(4.) The omniscience of God is inferred from hence. If God be present everywhere, he must needs know what is done everywhere. It is for this end he proclaims himself a God filling heaven and earth, in the text. ' Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord ?' I have heard what the prophets say, that prophesy lies in my name. If I
fill heaven and earth, the most secret thing cannot be hid from my sight. An intelligent being cannot be everywhere present, and more intimate in everything, than it can be in itself; but he must know what is done without, what is thought within. Nothing can be obscure to him, who is in every part of the world, in every part of his creatures. Not a thought can start up but in his sight, who is present in the souls and minds of everything. How easy is it with him, to whose essence the world is but a point, to know
and observe everything done in this world, as any of us can know what is done in one point of place where we are present ? If light were an under standing being, it would behold and know everything done, where it diffuseth itself. God is light (as light in a crystal glass, all within it, all without it),
and is not ignorant of what is done within and without ; no ignorance can be fastened upon him who hath an universal presence.
Hence by the way we may take notice of the wonderful patience of God, who bears with so many provocations, not from a principle of ignorance, for he bears with sins that are committed near him, in his sight, sins that he
sees, and cannot but see.
(5.) Hence may be inferred the incomprehensibility of God. He that fills heaven and earth, cannot be contained in anything ; he fills the under standings of men, the understandings of angels, but is comprehended by neither ; it is a rashness to think to find out any bounds^of God ; there is no measuring of an infinite being ; if it were to be measured, it were not infinite ; but because it is infinite, it is not to be measured. God sits above the cherubims, Ezek. x. 1, above the fulness, above the brightness, not only of a human, but a created understanding. Nothing is more present than God,
yet nothing more hid'; .he is light, and yet obscurity ;* his perfections are visible, yet unsearchable ; we know there is an infinite God, but it surpasseth the compass of our minds ; we know there is no number so great, but another may be added to it ; but no man can put it in practice without losing him self in a maze of figures. What is the reason we comprehend not many, nay, most things in the world ? Partly from the excellency of the object, and partly from the imperfection of our understanding. How can we then comprehend God, who exceeds all, and is exceeded by none ; contains all, and is contained by none ; is above our understanding, as well as above our sense ; as considered in himself, infinite ; as considered in comparison with our understandings, incomprehensible ; who can with his eye measure the breadth, length, and depth of the sea, and at one cast view every dimension
of the heavens ! God is greater, and ' we cannot know him,' Job xxxvi. 25 ;
Tjs, Dionysius called God.
448 CHARJWCK'S WORKS. f JER. XXIII. 24.
he fills the understanding as he fills heaven and earth : yet is above the understanding as he is above heaven and earth. He is known by faith, enjoyed by love, but comprehended by no mind. God is not contained in that one syllable, God ; by it we apprehend an excellent and unlimited nature ; himself only understands himself, and can unveil himself.
(6.) How wonderful is God, and how nothing are creatures ! ' Ascribe the greatness to our God,' Deut. xxxii. 3. He is admirable in the considera tion of his power, in the extent of his understanding, and no less wonderful in the immensity of his essence ; that as Austin saith, he is in the world, yet not confined to it ; he is out of the world, yet not debarred from it ; he is above the world, yet not elevated by it ; he is below the world, yet not de pressed by it ; he is above all, equalled by none ; he is in all, not because he needs them, but they stand in need of him ; this, as well as eternity, makes a vast disproportion between God and the creature. The creature is bounded by a little space, and no space is so great as to bound the Creator. By this we may take a prospect of our own nothingness ; as in the considera
tion of God's holiness we are minded of our own impurity ; and in the thoughts of his wisdom have a view of our own folly ; and in the meditation of his power, have a sense of our weakness ; so his immensity should make us, according to our own nature, appear little in our own eyes. What little, little, little things are we to God ! Less than an atom in the beams of the sun; poor drops to a God that fills heaven and earth ; and yet dare we to strut against him, and dash ourselves against a rock. If the consideration of ourselves, in comparison with others, be apt to puff us up, the considera tion of ourselves, in comparison with God, will be sufficient to pull us down. If we consider him in the greatness of his essence, there is but little more proportion between him and us, than between being and not being, than between a drop and the ocean. How should we never think of God without a holy admiration of his greatness, and a deep sense of our own littleness ! and as the angels cover their faces before him, with what awe should creep ing worms come into his sight ! and since God fills heaven and earth with his presence, we should fill heaven and earth with his glory ; for this end he created angels to praise him in heaven, and men to worship him on earth, that the places he fills with his presence may be filled with his praise. We should be swallowed up in admiration of the immensity of God, as men are at the first sight of the sea, when they behold a mass of waters, without be holding the bounds, and immense depth of it.
(7.) How much is this attribute of God forgotten or contemned ! We pretend to believe him to be present everywhere, and yet many live as if he were present nowhere.
[1.] It is commonly forgotten, or not believed. All the extravagancies of men may be traced to the forgetfulness of this attribute as their spring. The first speech Adam spake in paradise after his fall, testified his unbelief of
this : Gen. iii. 10, ' I heard thy voice in the garden, and I hid myself;' his ear understood the voice of God, but his mind did not conclude the presence of God ; he thought the trees could shelter him from him, whose eye was present in the minutest parts of the earth ; he that thought after his sin, that he could hide himself from the presence of his justice, thought before that he could hicfe himself from the presence of his knowledge ; and being deceived in the one, he would try what would be the fruit of the other. In both he forgets, if not denies, this attribute ; either corrupt notions of God, or a slight belief of what in general men assent unto, gives birth to every sin. In all transgressions there is something of atheism : either denying the being of God, or a dash upon some perfection of God ; a not believing his noli-
JEK. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 449
ness to hate it, his truth that threatens, his justice to punish it, and hig presence to observe it. Though God be not afar off in his essence, he is
afar off in the apprehension of the sinner.* There is no wicked man, but if he be f an atheist, he is a heretic ; and to gratify his lust, will fancy him self to be out of the presence of his Judge. His reason tells him, God is present with him ; his lust presseth him to embrace the season of a sensual pleasure. He will forsake his reason, and prove a heretic, that he may be an undisturbed sinner ; and sins doubly both in the error of his mind and the vileness of bis practice ; he will conceit God with those in Job, chap
xxii. 14, * veiled with thick clouds,' and not able to pierce into the lower world ; as if his presence and cares were confined to celestial things, and the earth were too low a sphere for his essence to reach, at least with any credit. It is forgotten by good men, when they fear too much the designs
of their enemies ; ' Fear not, for I am with thee,' Isa. xliii. 5. If the pre sence of God be enough to strengthen against fear, then the prevailing of fear issues from our forgetfulness of it.
[2.] This attribute of God's omnipresence is for the most part con temned. When men will commit that in the presence of God, which they would be afraid or ashamed to do before the eye of man. Men do not prac tise that modesty before God, as before men. He that would restrain his
tongue out of fear of men's eye, will not restrain either his tongue or hands out of fear of God's. What is the language of this, but that God is not present with us, or his presence ought to be of less regard with us, and influence upon us, than that of a creature ? Ask the thief why he dares to steal ? Will he not answer, No eye sees him ? Ask the adulterer why he strips himself of his chastity, and invades the rights of another ? Will he not answer, No eye sees me ? Job xxiv. 15. He disguiseth himself to be unseen by man, but slights the all-seeing eye of God.| If only a man know them, they are in terror of the shadow of death, Job xxiv. 17 ; they are planet-struck, but stand unshaken at the presence of God. Is not this to account God as limited as man, as ignorant, as absenting, as if God were
something less than those things which restrain us ? It is a debasing God below a creature. If we can forbear sin from any awe of the presence of man, to whom we are equal in regard of nature ; or from the presence of a very mean man, to whom we are superior in regard of condition ; and not forbear it because we are within the ken of God, we respect him not only as our inferior, but inferior to the meanest man or child of his creation, in whose sight we would not commit the like action. It is to represent him as a sleepy, negligent, or careless God ; as though anything might be concealed from him, before whom the least fibres of the heart are anatomized and open, Heb. iv. 13, who sees as plainly midnight as noonday sins. Now this is a
high aggravation of sin. To break a king's laws in his sight is more bold than to violate them behind his back ; as it was Hainan's offence when he lay upon Esther's bed, to force the queen before the king's face. The least iniquity receives a high tincture from this ; and no sin can be little that is an affront in the face of God, and casting the filth of the creature before the eyes of his holiness, — as if a wife should commit adultery before her hus band's face, or a slave dishonour his master, and disobey his commands in his presence. And hath it not often been thus with us ? Have we not been disloyal to God in his sight, before his eyes, those pure eyes, that can not behold iniquity without anger and grief? Isa. Ixv. 12, 'Ye did evil before my eyes.' Nathan chargeth this home upon David : 2 Sam. xii. 9,
* Drexel. Nicet. lib. ii. cap. 10. J Drexel. Nicet. lib. ii. cap. 10. t Qu. ' be not ?'— ED. VOL. I. F f
450 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [JER. XXIII. 24.
' Thou hast despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight.' And David, in his repentance, reflects upon himself for it : Ps. li. 4, * Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.' I observed not thy presence ; I neglected thee while thy eye was upon me. And this consideration should sting our hearts in all our confessions of our crimes. Men will be afraid of the presence of others, whatsoever they think in their heart. How unworthily do we deal with God, in not giving him so much as an eye-service, which we do man ?
(8.) How terrible should the thoughts of this attribute be to sinners ! How foolish is it to imagine any hiding-place from the incomprehensible God, who fills and contains all things, and is present in every point of the world.* When men have shut the door, and made all darkness within, to meditate or commit a crime, they cannot in the most intricate recesses be sheltered from the presence of God. If they could separate themselves from their own shadows, they could not avoid his company, or be obscured from
his sight: Ps. cxxxix. 12, 'The darkness and light are both alike to him.' Hypocrites cannot disguise their sentiments from him ; he is in the most secret nook of their hearts. No thought is hid, no lust is secret, but the eye of God beholds this, and that, and the other. He is present with our heart when we imagine, with our hands when we act. We may exclude the sun from peeping into our solitudes, but not the eyes of God from beholding our actions. * The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and good,' Prov. xv. 3. -He lies in the depths of our souls, and sees afar off our designs before we have conceived them. He is in the greatest darkness, as well as the clearest light ; in the closest thought of the mind, as well as the openest expressions. Nothing can be hid from him; no, not in the
darkest cells or thickest walls. ' He compasseth our path' wherever we are, and ' is acquainted with all our ways,' Ps. cxxxix. 3. He is as much pre sent with wicked men to observe their sins, as he is to detest them. Where he is present in his essence, he is present in his attributes : his holiness to hate, and his justice to punish, if he please to speak the word. It is strange men should not be mindful of this, when their very sins themselves might put them in mind of his presence. Whence hast thbu the power to act ? Who preserves thy being, whereby thou art capable of committing that evil ? Is it not his essential presence that sustains us, and his arm that supports us ? And where can any man fly from his presence ? Not the vast regions of heaven could shelter a sinning angel from his eye. How was Adam ferreted out of his hiding-places in paradise ? Nor can we find the depths of the sea a sufficient covering to us. If we were with Jonah, closeted up in the belly of a whale ; if we had the wings of the morning, as quick a motion as the light at the dawning of the day, that doth in an instant surprise and overpower the regions of darkness, and could pass to the utmost parts of the earth or hell, there we should find him ; there his eye would be upon us, there would his hand lay hold of us, and lead us as a conqueror triumphing over a captive, Ps. cxxxix. 8—10. Nay, if we could leap out of the compass of heaven and earth, we should find as little reserves from him. He is without the world in those infinite spaces which the mind of man can imagine. In regard of his immensity, nothing in being can be distant from him, wheresoever it is.
Use 2 is for comfort. That God is present everywhere, is as much a comfort to a good man as it is a terror to a wicked one. He is everywhere for his people, not only by a necessa^ perfection of his nature, but an im mense diffusion of his goodness. He is in all creatures as their preserver,
* Quo fugis, Encelade ? Quascunque accesseris oras, Sub Jove semper eris.
JER. XXIII. 24.] GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 451 *
in the damned as their terror, in his people as their protector. He fills hell with his severity, heaven with his glory, his people with his grace. He is with his people as light in darkness, a fountain in a garden, as manna in the ark. God is in the world as a spring of preservation, in the church as his cabinet, a spring of grace and consolation. A man is present some times in his field, but more delightfully in his garden. A vineyard, as it hath more of cost, so more of care, and a watchful presence of the owner :
Isa. xxvii. 3, ' I the Lord do keep it,' viz., his vineyard ; ' I will water it every moment : lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.' As there is a presence of essence, which is natural, so there is a presence of grace, which
is federal, — a presenceby covenant, ' I will not leave thee,' I will be with thee ;' this latter depends upon the former. For take away the immensity of God, and you leave no foundation for his universal gracious presence with his people in all their emergencies, in all their hearts ; and, therefore, where he is present in his essence, he cannot be absent in his grace from them that fear him. It is from his filling heaven and earth he proves his knowledge of the designs of the false prophets ; and from the same topic may as well be inferred the employment of his power and grace for his people.
1. The omnipresence of God is comfort in all violent temptations. No fiery dart can be so present with us, as God is present both with that and the marksman. The most raging devils cannot be so near us as God is to us and them. He is present with his people, to relieve them ; and present with the devil, to manage him to his own holy purposes. So he was with Job, defeating his enemies, and bringing him triumphantly out of those pressing trials. This presence is such a terror that,, whatsoever the devil can despoil us of, he must leave this untouched.. He might scratch the apostle with a thorn, 2 Cor. xvii. 7, 9, but he could not rifle him of the pre sence of divine grace, which God promised him. He must prevail so far as
•to make God cease to be God, before he can make him to be distant from us ; and, while this cannot be, the devils and men can no more hinder the emanations of God to the soul, than a child can cut off the rays of the sun from embellishing the earth ; it is no mean support for a good man, at any time buffeted by a messenger of Satan, to think God stands near him, and
beholds how ill he is used. It would be a satisfaction to a king's favourite, in the midst of the violence some enemies might use to him upon a surprise, to understand that the king who loves him, stands behind a curtain, and through a hole sees the injuries he suffers ; and were the devil as considering as he
is malicious, he could not but be in great fear at God's being in the genera tion of the righteous, as his serpentine seed is : Ps. xiv. 6> ' There were they in great fear, for God is in the generation of the righteous.' 2. The omnipresence of God is a comfort in sharp afflictions. Good men have a comfort in this presence in their nasty prisons, oppressing tribunals ; in the overflowing waters or scorching flames, he is still with them, Isa. xliii. 2 ; and many times, by his presence, keeps the bush from consuming, when it seems to be all in a flame. In afflictions, God shews himself most present when friends are most absent : ' When my father and mother for sake me, then the Lord shall take me up,' Ps. xxvii. 10 ; then God will stoop and gather me into his protection ; Heb. * shall gather me,' alluding to those tribes that were to bring up the rear in the Israelites* march, to take care that none were left behind, and exposed to famine or wild beasts, by reason of some disease that disenabled them to keep pace with their brethren. He that is the sanctuary of his people in all calamities, is more present with them, to support them, than their adversaries can be present with them, to afflict them : Ps. xlvi. 2, ' A present help in the time of
452 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [J*EB. XXIII. 24.
trouble.' He is present with all things for this end ; though his presence be a necessary presence, in regard of the immensity of his nature, yet the end of this presence, in regard that it is for the good of his people, is a voluntary presence. It is for the good of man he is present in the lower world, and principally for the good of his people, for whose sake he keeps
up the world: 2 Chron. xvi.'9, 'His eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is
perfect towards him.' If he doth not deliver good men from afflictions, he will be so present as to manage them in them, as that his glory shall issue
from them, and their grace be brightened by them.* What a man was Paul, when he was lodged in a prison, or dragged to the courts of judicature; when he was torn with rods, or laden with chains! Then did he shew the greatest miracles, made the judge tremble upon the bench, and break the heart, though not the prison, of the jailor, — so power ful is the presence of God in the pressures of his people. This presence outweighs all other comforts, and is more valuableio a Christian than barns
of corn or cellars of wine can be to a covetous man, Ps. iv. 7. It was this
presence was David's cordial in the mutinying of his soldiers, 1 Sam. xxx. 6. What a comfort is this in exile, or a forced desertion of our habitations ! Good men may be banished from their country, but never from the presence of their protector ; ye cannot say of any corner of the earth, or of any dungeon in a prison, God is not here. If you were cast out of your country