Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

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^*. 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 every where in Heaven and Earth, as light is every where in the air, and air every where in the World. Hence the Schools use the term repletivè for the presence of God.

It cannot be imagin'd, 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^*. 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 every where in Heaven and Earth, as light is every where in the air, and air every where in the World. Hence the Schools use the term repletivè for the presence of God.

1. *Suarez.

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 every where by his Authority, that he fills all the Cities and Countries of his Dominions. [I, do not I fill^*?] 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 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 the 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.