Thirdly, This Omnipresence of God is simply necessary, not only for the preserving and upholding of his Creatures in their Beings and Operations, but necessary to our very Beings; for his own Essence is simple, and he cannot withdraw from, nor forsake any place, or any thing with which his presence now is. God cannot contract and lessen himself, nor gather up his Essence into a narrow room and compass; but as he is here in this very place which we now take up, so he must and will be ⟨p. 439⟩here to all Eternity. Nor is this any imperfection, as if God were not an Infinite Perfection and Excellence, for this flows from the immutability of his Nature and Essence; for should God remove himself, he were not altogether unchangeable, but with him there is neither change nor shadow of turning, Jam. 1. What the Heathens thought of this Immensity and Omnipresence of God, it is somewhat obscure, some of them confined him to Heaven, and were so far from affirming him present in all things, that they thought he took no care of any thing below, as being too mean and too unworthy for God to regard. This was the Opinion of the Epicureans, Acts 17.18. Others thought indeed, that the Care and Providence of God reached to these ordinary things, but not his Essence; and the ground of their Error was, because they thought it most befitting the Majesty of God, to sit only in Heaven, a glorious and a becoming place, and not to make himself so cheap and so common, as to be present with Men and the Vile Things of the World: But this is a weak Reason, as I shall show anon. Some others among the Heathens had righter Apprehensions ⟨p. 440⟩of this Divine Attribute; one of them, being to give a Description what God was, tells us most admirably, God was a Sphere, whose Centre was everywhere, and whose Circumference was no where. A raised apprehension of the Divine Nature in an Heathen. And another, being demanded what God was, made answer, That God is an Infinite Point, than which nothing can be said more (almost) or truer, to declare this Omnipresence of God. It is reported of Heraclitus the Philosopher, when his Friend came to visit him, being in an old rotten Hovel, Come in, come in, (saith he) for God is here. God is in the meanest Cottage as well as in the stateliest Palace; the poorest Beggar cohabits with God as well as the greatest Princes, for God is every-where present and sees all things.
Thirdly, This Omnipresence of God is simply necessary, not only for the preserving and upholding of his Creatures in their Beings and Operations, but necessary to our very Beings; for his own Essence is simple, and he cannot withdraw from, nor forsake any place, or any thing with which his presence now is. God cannot contract and lessen himself, nor gather up his Essence into a narrow room and compass; but as he is here in this very place which we now take up, so he must and will be ⟨p. 439⟩here to all Eternity. Nor is this any imperfection, as if God were not an Infinite Perfection and Excellence, for this flows from the immutability of his Nature and Essence; for should God remove himself, he were not altogether unchangeable, but with him there is neither change nor shadow of turning, Jam. 1. What the Heathens thought of this Immensity and Omnipresence of God, it is somewhat obscure, some of them confined him to Heaven, and were so far from affirming him present in all things, that they thought he took no care of any thing below, as being too mean and too unworthy for God to regard. This was the Opinion of the Epicureans, Acts 17.18. Others thought indeed, that the Care and Providence of God reached to these ordinary things, but not his Essence; and the ground of their Errour was, because they thought it most befitting the Majesty of God, to sit only in Heaven, a glorious and a becoming place, and not to make himself so cheap and so common, as to be present with Men and the Vile Things of the World: But this is a weak Reason, as I shall shew anon. Some others among the Heathens had righter Apprehensions ⟨p. 440⟩of this Divine Attribute; one of them, being to give a Description what God was, tells us most admirably, God was a Sphere, whose Center was everywhere, and whose Circumference was no where. A raised apprehension of the Divine Nature in an Heathen. And another, being demanded what God was, made answer, That God is an Infinite Point, than which nothing can be said more (almost) or truer, to declare this Omnipresence of God. It is reported of Heraclitus the Philosopher, when his Friend came to visit him, being in an old rotten Hovel, Come in, come in, (saith he) for God is here. God is in the meanest Cottage as well as in the stateliest Palace; the poorest Beggar cohabits with God as well as the greatest Princes, for God is every-where present and sees all things.
