Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

^†One calls God a mind passing through the universal nature of things; Another, That he was an infinite and immense Air^*; Another, That it is as natural to think God is every where, as to think that God is: Hence they called God the Soul of the World; that as the Soul is in every part of the Body, to quicken it, so is God in every part of the World, to support it.

^†One calls God a mind passing through the universal nature of things; Another, That he was an infinite and immense Air^*; Another, That it is as natural to think God is every where, as to think that God is: Hence they call'd God the Soul of the World; that as the Soul is in every part of the Body, to quicken it, so is God in every part of the World, to support it.

1. †Vide Minut. Fel. p. 20.
2. *Plotia Enead 6. lib 5. cap 4.

And there are some resemblances of this in the World, though no Creature can fully resemble God in any one perfection; for then it would not be a Creature, but God. But Air and Light are some weak resemblances of it: Air is in all the spaces of the World, in the Pores of all Bodies, in the Bowels of the Earth, and extends it self from the lowest Earth, to the highest Regions; and the Heavens themselves are probably nothing else but a refined kind of Air; and Light diffuseth it self through the whole Air, and every part of it is truly Light, as every part of the Air is truly Air; and though they seem to be mingled together, yet they are distinct things, and not of the same Essence; so is the Essence of God in the whole World, not by diffusion as Air or Light; not mixed with any Creature; but remaining distinct from the Essence of any Created Being. Now when this hath been owned by men instructed only in the School of Nature, 'tis a greater shame to any acquainted with the Scripture to deny it. For the understanding of this, there shall be some Propositions premised in general.