Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

3. Nor is the Essential Presence of God with all Creatures any disparagement to him. Since it was no disparagement to Create the Heaven and the Earth, 'tis no disparagement to him to him to fill them; if he were Essentially present with them when he created them, 'tis no dishonour to him to be Essential present with them, to support them; if it were his Glory to Create them by his Essence, when they were nothing; Can it be his disgrace to be present by his Essence, since they are something, and something good, and very good in his Eye^*? God saw every thing, ⟨p. 259⟩and behold it was very good; or mighty good; all ordered to declare his Goodness, Wisdom, Power, and to make him adorable to man, and therefore took complacency in them: There is a Harmony in all things, a Combination in them for those glorious Ends for which God Created them; and is it a disgrace for God to be present with his own Harmonious composition? Is it not a Musicians Glory to touch with his fingers the Treble, the least and tenderest string, as well as the strongest and greatest Base? Hath not every thing some Stamp of Gods own Being upon it, since he eminently contains in himself the Perfections of all his Works? whatsoever hath Being, hath a Foot-step of God upon it, who is all Being; every thing in the Earth is his Foot-Stool, having a mark of his Foot upon it; all declare the Being of God, because they had their Being from God; and will God account it any disparagement to him to be present with that which confirms his Being, and the glorious Perfections of his nature to his intelligent Creatures? the meanest things are not without their Virtues, which may boast Gods being the Creator of them; and rank them in the midst of his Works of Wisdom as well as Power. Doth God debase himself to be present by his Essence, with the things he hath made, more than he doth to know them by his Essence? Is not the least thing known by him? How? not by a faculty or act distinct from his Essence; but by his Essence it self: How is any thing disgraceful to the Essential Presence of God, that is not disgraceful to his Knowledge by his Essence? Besides, would God make any thing that should be an invincible reason to him to part with his own infiniteness, by a contraction of his own Essence into a less compass than before? it was Immense before, it had no bounds;

3. Nor is the Essential Presence of God with all Creatures any disparagement to him. Since it was no disparagement to Create the Heaven and the Earth, 'tis no disparagement to him to him to fill them; if he were Essentially present with them when he created them, 'tis no dishonour to him to be Essentiall present with them, to support them; if it were his Glory to Create them by his Essence, when they were nothing; Can it be his disgrace to be present by his Essence, since they are something, and something good, and very good in his Eye