Of that which we affirm in this matter this is the sum: God, who in his own being and essence is infinite and immense, is, by reason thereof, present in and to the whole creation equally, — not by a diffusion of his substance, or mixture with other things, heaven or earth, in or upon them, but by an inconceivable indistancy of essence to all things, — though he exert his power and manifest his glory in one place more than another ; as in heaven, in Zion, at the ark, etc.
That this is the doctrine of the Scriptures in the places before mentioned needs no great pains to evince. In that, 1 Kings viii.
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27, the desisrn of Solomon in the words gives lidit to the substance of what he asserted. He had newly, with labour, cost, charge, and wisdom, none of them to be paralleled in the Avorld, built a temple for the worship of God. The house being large and exceedingly glorious, the apprehensions of all the nations round about (that looked on, and considered the work he had in hand) concerning the nature and being of God being gross, carnal, and superstitious, them- selves ansvverably worshipping those who by nature were not God, and his own people of Israel exceedingly prone to the same abomi- nation, lest any should suppose that he had thoughts of including the essence of God in the house that he had built, he clears himself in this confession of his faith fi'om all such imaginations, affirming that though indeed God would dwell on the earth, yet he was so far from being limited unto or circumscribed in the house that he had built, that "the heaven and the heaven of heavens," any space what- ever that could be imagined, the highest heaven, could not, " cannot contain him ; " so far is he from having a certain place in heaven Avhere he should reside, in distinction from other places where he is not. "He is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath," Josh. ii. 11. That which the temple of God was built imto, that " the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain." Now, the temple was built to the being of God, to God as God : so Acts vii. 47, " But Solomon built him an house ;" liim, — that is, the Most High, — " who dwelleth not," is not circumscribed, " in temples made with hands," verse 48.
That of Ps. cxxxix. 7-10 is no less evident ; the presence or face of God is expressly affirmed to be everywhere : " Whither shall I go from thy face ? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there : if I go into hell, behold, thou art there." As God is affirmed to be in hea- ven, so everywhere else ; now that he is in heaven, in respect of his essence and being, is not questioned.
Neither can that of the prophet Isaiah, chap. Ixvi. 1, be otherwise understood but as an ascribing of an ubiquity to God, and a presence in heaven and earth : " Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my foot- stool." The words are metaphorical, and in that way expressive of the presence of a person ; and so God is present in heaven and earth. That the earth should be his footstool, and yet himself be so incon- ceivably distant from it as the heaven is from the earth (an expres- sion chosen by himself to set out the greatest distance imaginable), is not readily to be apprehended. " He is not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being," Acts xvii. 27, 28.
The testimony v.'hich God gives to this his perfection in Jer. xxiii. 23, 24j is not to be avoided; more than what is here spoken by God himself as to his omnipresence we cannot, we desire not to speak : "Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him?
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saitli the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." Still where mention is made of the presence of God, there heaven and earth (which two are comprehensive of, and usually put for the whole creation) are mentioned; and herein he is neither to be thought afar off nor near, being equally present everywhere, in the hidden places as in heaven ; that is, he is not distant from any thing or place, though he take up no place, but is nigh all things, by the infiniteness and existence of his being.
From what is also known of the nature of God, his attributes and perfections, the truth delivered may be farther argued and confirmed ; as, —
1. God is absolutely perfect ; whatever is of perfection is to be as- cribed to him : otherwise he could neither be absolutely self-sufficient, all-sufficient, nor eternally blessed in himself He is absolutely perfect, inasmuch as no perfection is wanting to him, and comparatively above all that we can conceive or apprehend of j)erfection. If, then, ubiquity or omnipresence be a perfection, it no less necessarily belongs to God than it does to be perfectly good and blessed. That this is a perfection is evident from its contrary. To be limited, to be circumscribed, is an imperfection, and argues weakness. We commonly say, we would do such a thing in such a place could we be present unto it, and are grieved and troubled that we cannot be so. That it should be so is an imperfection attending the limitedness of our natures. Unless we will ascribe the like to God, his omnipresence is to be acknowledged. If every perfection, then, be in God (and if every perfection be not in any, he is not God), this is not to be denied to him.