Presence in a place is the actual existence of a person in his place, or, as logicians speak, in his uhi, that is, answering the inquiry after him where he is. Though all bodies are in certain places, yet per- sons only are said to be present in them. Other things have not pro- perly a presence to be ascribed to them ; they are in their proper places, bxit we do not say they are present in or to their places.
This being the general description of a place and the presence of any therein, it is evident that properly it cannot be spoken at all of God that he is in one place or other, for he is not a body that should fill up the space of its receipt, nor yet in all places, taking the word properly, for so one essence can be but in one place ; and if the word should properly be ascribed to God in any sense, it would deprive him of all his infinite perfections.
It is farther said that there be three ways of the presence of any in reference to a place or places. Some are so in a place as to be circumscribed therein in respect of their parts and dimensions, such are their length, breadth, and depth : so doth one part of them fit one part of the place wherein they are, and the whole the whole ; so are all solid bodies in a place ; so is a man, his whole body in his whole place, his head in one part of it, his arms in another. Some are so conceived to be in a place as that, in relation to it, it may be said of them that they are there in it so as not to he anywhere else, though they have not parts and dimensions filling the place whei'ein they are, nor are punctually circumscribed with a local space : such is the presence of angels and spirits to the places wherein they are, being not infinite or immense. These are so in some certain place as not to be at the same time, wherein they are so, without it, or elsewhere, or in any other place. And this is proper to all finite, immaterial sub- stances, that are so in a place as not to occupy and fill up that space wherein they are. In respect of place, God is immense, and indis- tant to all things and places, absent from nothing, no place, contained in none ; present to all by and in his infinite essence and being, ex- erting his power variously, in any or all places, as he pleaseth, revealing and manifesting his glory more or less, as it seemeth good to him.
Of this omnipresence of God, two things are usually inquired after:
1. The thing itself, or the demonstration that he is so omnipresent;
2. The manner of it, or the manifestation and declaring hoiu he is so present. Of this latter, perhaps, sundry things have been over curi- ously and nicely by some disputed, though, upon a thorough search, their disputes may not appear altogether useless. The schoolmen's
OF THE NATURE OF GOD. 93
distinctions of God's being in a place repletiv^, immensivb, impletiv^, super excedenter, consei'vativ^, attinctiv^, manifestativ^, etc., have, some of them at least, foundation in the Scriptures and right reason. That which seems most obnoxious to exception is their assertion of God to be everywhere present, instar puncti; but the sense of that and its intendment is, to express how God is not in a place, rather than how he is. He is not in a place as quantitive bodies, that have the dimensions attending them. Neither could his presence in. heaven, by those who shut him up there, be any otherwise conceived, until they were relieved by the rare notions of Mr. B. concerning the distinct places of his right hand and left. But it is not at all about the manner of God's presence that I am occasioned to speak, but only of the thing itself They who say he is in heaven only speak as to the thing, and not as to the manner of it. When we say he is everywhere, our assertion is also to be interpreted as to that only ; the manner of his presence being purely of a philosophi- cal consideration, his presence itself divinely revealed, and necessarily attending his divine perfections; yea, it is an essential property of God. The properties of God are either absolute or relative. The absolute properties of God are such as may be considered without the supposition of any thing else whatever, towards which their energy and efficacy should be exerted. His relative are such as, in their egress and exercise, respect some things in the creatures, though they naturally and eternally reside in God. Of the first sort is God's immensity ; it is an absolute property of his nature and being. For God to be immense, infinite, unbounded, unlimited, is as necessary to him as to be God ; that is, it is of his essential perfection so to be. The ubiquity of God, or his presence to all things and persons, is a relative property of God ; for to say that God is present in and to all things supposes those things to be. Indeed, the ubiquity of God is the habitude of his immensity to the creation. Supposing the creatures, the world that is, God is by reason of his immensity in- distant to them all; or if more worlds be supposed (as all tilings possible to the po.vver of God without any absurdity may be sup- posed), on the same account as he is omnipresent in reference to the present world, he would be so to them and all that is in tliem.