Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

If he had meant it of his efficacy in preserving us, it had not been any proof of his nearness to us. Who would go about to prove the body or substance of the Sun to be near us because it doth warm and enlighten us, when our sense evidenceth the distance of it? We live in the beams of the Sun, but we cannot be said to live in the Sun, which is so far distant from us. The Expression seems to be more emphatical than to intend any less than his Essential Presence: But we live in him not only as the efficient cause of our Life, but as the foundation sustaining our lives and motions, as if he were like Air, diffused round about us. And we move in him, as Austin saith, as a Sponge in the Sea, not containing him, but being contained by him: He compasseth all, is encompassed by none; he fills all, is comprehended by none. The Creator contains the World, the World contains not the Creator: As the hollow of the hand contains the water, the water in the hollow of the hand contains not the hand; and therefore some have chose to say rather, That the World is in God, it lives and moves in him, than that God is in the World: If all things thus live and move in him, then he is present with every hing that hath Life, and Motion; and as long as the Devils and Damned have life, and motion, and being, so long is he with them; for whatsoever lives and moves, lives and moves in him.

If he had meant it of his efficacy in preserving us, it had not been any proof of his nearness to us. Who would go about to prove the body or substance of the Sun to be near us because it doth warm and enlighten us, when our sense evidenceth the distance of it? We live in the beams of the Sun, but we cannot be said to live in the Sun, which is so far distant from us. The Expression seems to be more emphatical than to intend any less than his Essential Presence: But we live in him not only as the efficient cause of our Life, but as the foundation sustaining our lives and motions, as if he were like Air, diffused round about us. And we move in him, as Austin saith, as a Spunge in the Sea, not containing him, but being contained by him: He compasseth all, is encompass'd by none; he fills all, is comprehended by none. The Creator contains the World, the World contains not the Creator: As the hollow of the hand contains the water, the water in the hollow of the hand contains not the hand; and therefore some have chose to say rather, That the World is in God, it lives and moves in him, than that God is in the World: If all things thus live and move in him, then he is present with every hing that hath Life, and Motion; and as long as the Devils and Damned have life, and motion, and being, so long is he with them; for whatsoever lives and moves, lives and moves in him.