Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

^*The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Foot-stool. He is Essentially in every part of the World; he is in Heaven and Earth at the same time; as a man is upon his Throne and his Foot-stool. God describes himself in a Human Shape, accommodated to our Capacity; as if he had his Head in Heaven and his Feet on Earth; doth not his Essence then fill all intermediate spaces between Heaven and Earth? as when the head of a man is in the upper part of a Room, and his Feet upon the floor, his body fills up the space between the Head and his Feet; this is meant of the Essence of God, 'tis a Similitude drawn from Kings sitting upon the Throne, and not their Power and Authority, but the Feet of their persons are supported by the Foot-stool; so here it is not meant only of the Perfections of God, but the Essence of God: Besides, God seems to tax them with an erroneous conceit they had, as tho' his Essence were in the Temple, and not in any part of the World; therefore God makes an Opposition between Heaven and Earth, and the Temple; Where is the House that you built unto me? and where is the place of my Rest? Had he understood it only of his Providence, it had not been any thing against their mistake; for they granted his Providence to be not only in the Temple, but in all parts of the World? Where is the House that you Build to me; to Me, not to my Power or Providence, but think to include Me within those Walls.

1. *Isa. 66.1.

Again, It shows God to be above the Heavens, if the Heavens be his Throne; he sits upon them, and is above them as Kings are above the Thrones on which they sit; so it cannot be meant of his Providence, because no Creature being without the Sphere of the Heavens, there is nothing of the Power and the Providence of God visible there; for there is nothing for him to employ his Providence about. For Providence supposeth a Creature in actual being; It must be therefore meant of his Essence, which is above the world, and in the world.