Terms, not very Familiar and obvious, but which do admit of an explication very Easy, and very useful too in the Illuftration of this Subject. Bodily Subftances are faid to be in Place Circumfcriptively, that is, their parts are anfwerable to, and confined by the limits of that Space in which they Subfift, and do exclude every other Body from it. Created Spirits are faid to be in Place Definitively, that is, they are fo determined to one Space, that they cannot at the fame time be in another; And yet it cannot be faid of Them, that their Parts are answerable to the Parts of Space containing them, because Spiritual Substances are void of Figure and Parts, and for that reason they admit of the Exiftence of other Subftances in the fame Space wherein themselves are confined.

Thus a Humane Soul exifts in the fame Space with a Humane Body. In one of these two ways all creatures do exist in Place, and That Being, which does not exist in Space according to either of them, must be Immense or Omniprefent; for there is no Poffibility of Subfiftence, but

in one of these three kinds of Prefence. As therefore 'tis demonftrable from our Natural notions of God that he is a Spirit, and that he is not a limited or Confined, but an Infinite Spirit, therefore neither of the two firft kinds of Prefence can belong to him, and by confequence he is Omnipresent. And as this feems intirely agreeable to our Reason, and clearest manner of Thinking; fo is the fame Confequence deducible from our natural notions of God, confidering him as Creatour. For, if every Created Being be the Immediate Effect of Himself; Then Himself is Present to every Created Being. And as Creation does evince this Attribute, fo does Confervation too. If he should withdraw his Support from Material Substances, their Diffolution must Immediately follow. For they are no more Capable of Sustaining than they are of Producing themselves. And this Refult of our natural notions is plainly Confirmed in Holy Scripture. For the Third Verfe of the First Chapter to the Hebrews does not only comprehend all Corporeal, but Spiritual Beings alfo: He upholdeth

All things by the Word of his Power: And there can be no room for Doubt, whether He, who by his own Immediate Arm upholdeth all Beings, be prefent in All Places. And, that he is declared by himself to be fo in the Text, is plain, because the Terms Heaven and Earth do comprehend the whole Creation, and are in this fense used elsewhere in Sundry places of Holy Scripture.

Accordingly, the Prophet Isaiah also does, under the ufe of the fame terms elegantly introduce the Almighty afferting to himself the fame Attribute; * Thus faith the Lord, the Heaven is my Throne, and the Earth is my Footstool; fignifying to us, that the Perfons of Earthly Princes are not more certainly present upon their Thrones, do not more certainly fill the Space from the Throne to the Footstool, than he himself is present in all places, or in all the Parts of the Universe.

Some Speculative writers have carried the Omnipresence of God into a ftill Higher Signification, intimating thereby, that he is not only present with every

Ifa. lxvi. 1.

Being in the World, but that he fills a Space which they apprehend to be beyond the limits of all Created Subftances, and not poffefs'd by any Being but Himfelf. For when we give our Thoughts the reins, and let them run freely through the Compafs of the Universe, till they advance as High as the Third Heavens, beyond which we do not know, that there is any Created Substance, or, till they advance as High as Thoughts are capable of advancing, they cannot at last so fix upon any point, as to exclude the conception of Space beyond it. This is ftyled Imaginary Space; and, if any such space there be, as it would perhaps be fomewhat Difficult to prove, that there is not, we cannot but believe that God is present There. And this notion feems to be favoured by the Holy Scripture, wherein we have an Acknowledgment made unto God of his Immenfity, under this Expreffion, * The Heaven, and heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee. If we fhould carry carry our Thoughts back as far as God's Existence in the

1 Kings viii. 27.

oment

moment Immediately preceding the Creation of Bodies, we might be apt to conceive, that there was then a Space wherein he himself, and himself alone Existed, and wherein he produced this vifible frame of things. And yet this is liable to fome Difficulties, which do not affect the notion of Imaginary Space, extended beyond Corporeal Subftances, and wherein God can, if he pleaseth, create other Worlds, by the fame uncontroulable Power, which produced the Heaven and the Earth. Thus may men raise and indulge their Pious Admiration, whilst they do, as far as their imperfect Capacities allow them, contemplate the Incomprehenfible Effence of God whofe Prefence admits of no Limitation. And furely an Unconfined, Unlimited Prefence of God muft be fignified by the Holy Pfalmift, in his Beautiful Expoftulation concerning this Point, Pfal. cxxxix. Whither Shall I go then from thy Spirit? Or, whither shall i flee from thy Prefence? If I afcend up into Heaven, thou art there; if I make my Bed in Hell, behold thou art the If I take the Wings of the Morn