None of those texts of Scripture where mention is made of God's being in heaven are, in the coherence and dependence of speech wherein they lie, suited or intended at all to give answer to this question, or any like it, concerning the presence of God or his actual existence in any place, but only in respect of some dispensa- tions of God and works of his, whose fountain and original he would have us to consider in himself, and to come forth from him there where in an eminent manner he manifests his glory. God is, I say, in none of the places by him urged said to be in heaven in respect of his essence or being, nor is it the intention of the Holy Ghost in any of them to declare the manner of God's essential presence and existence in reference to all or any place ; but only by the way of eminency, in respect of manifestations of himself and operations from his glorious presence, doth he so speak of him. And, indeed, in those expressions, heaven doth not so much signify a place as a thing, or at least a place in reference to the things there done, or the peculiar manifestations of the glory of God there; so that if these places should be made use of as to the proof of the figment in- sinuated, the argument from them would be a non causa pro causa. The reason why God is said to be in heaven is, not because his es- sence is included in a certain place so called, but because of the more eminent manifestations of his glory there, and the regard which he requires to be had of him manifesting his glory as the first cause and author of all the works which outwardly are of him.
3. God is said to be in heaven in an especial manner, because he hath assigned that as the place of the saints' expectation of that enjoyment and eternal fruition of himself which he hath promised
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to bless them withal; but for the limiting of his essence to a certain place in heaven, the Scriptures, as we shall see, know nothing, yea, expressly and positively affirm the contrary.
Let us all, then, supply our catechumens, in the room of Mr B.'s, with this qviestion, expressly leading to the things inqidred after : —
What says the Scripture concerning the essence and presence of God ? is it confined and limited to a certain place, or is he in- finitely and equally present everyivhere?
Alls. "The Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath," Joshua ii. IL "But will God indeed dwell on the earth ? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?" 1 Kings viii. 27. "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there : if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there," etc., Ps. cxxxix. 7-1 0. " The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool," Isa. Ixvi. 1, Acts vii. 47, 48. "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him ? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth ? saith the Lord," Jer. xxiii. 23, 24.
It is of the ubiquity and omnipresence of God that these places expressly treat ; and whereas it was manifested before that the ex- pression of God being in heaven doth not at all speak to the abomi- nation which Mr B. would insinuate thereby, the naked rehearsal of those testimonies, so directly asserting and ascribing to the Almighty an infinite, unlimited presence, and that in direct opposi- tion to the gross apprehension of his being confined to a certain place in heaven, is abundantly sufficient to deliver the thoughts and minds of men from any entanglements that Mr B.'s questions and answers (for though it be the word of the Scripture he insists upon, yet tnale dum recitas incipit esse tuum) might lead them into. On that account no more need be added ; but yet this occasion being administered, that truth itself, concerning the omnipresence or ubiquity of God, may be farther cleared and confirmed.
Through the prejudices and ignorance of men, it is inquired whether God be so present in any certain place as not to be also equally elsewhere, everywhere?
Place has been commonly defined to be " superficies corporis ambientis." Because of sundry inextricable difficulties and the impos- sibility of suiting it to every place, this definition is now generally decried. That now commonly received is more natural, suited to the natures of things, and obvious to the understanding. A place is "spatium corporis susceptivum," — any space wherein a body may be received and contained. The first consideration of it is as to its fitness and aptness so to receive any body : so it is in the imagina-
92 VINDICIJE EVANGELIC^.
tion only. The second, as to its actual existence, being filled with that body which it is apt to receive : so may we imagine innumer- able spaces in heaven which are apt and able to receive the bodies of the saints, and which actually shall be filled with them when they sball be translated thereunto by the power of God.