with his presence; but there is no corner of space so small, no atom of matter so despised and little, but God, the Infinite, is there.[1]
Now, to push the inquiry nearer the point. The Nature or Substance of God, as represented by our Idea of him, is divisible or not divisible. If infinite he must be indivisible, a part of God cannot be in this point of space, and another in that; his Power in the sun, his Wisdom in the moon, and his Justice in the earth. He must be wholly, vitally, essentially present, as much in one point as in another point, or all points; as essentially present in each point at any one moment of time as at any other or all moments of time. He is there not idly present but actively, as much now as at creation. Divine omnipotence can neither slumber nor sleep. Was God but transiently active in Matter at creation, his action now passed away? From the Idea of him it follows that He is immanent in the world, however much he also transcends the world. “Our Father worketh hitherto,” and for this reason Nature works, and so has done since its creation. There is no spot the foot of hoary Time has trod on, but it is instinct with God's activity. He is the ground of Nature; what is permanent in the passing; what is real in the apparent. All Nature then is but an exhibition of God to the senses; the veil of smoke on which his shadow falls; the dew-drop in which the heaven of his magnificence is poorly imaged. The Sun is but a sparkle of his splendour. Endless and without beginning flows forth the stream of divine influence that encircles and possesses the all of things. From God it comes, to God it goes. The material world is perpetual growth; a continual transfiguration, renewal that never ceases. Is this without God? Is it not because God, who is ever the same, flows into it without end? It is the fulness of God that flows into the crystal of the rock, the juices of the plant, the life of the emmet and the elephant. He penetrates and pervades the World. All things are full of Him, who surrounds the sun, the stars, the universe itself; “goes through all lands, the expanse of oceans, and the profound Heaven.”[2]
- ↑ See the judicious remarks of Lord Brougham, Dialogue on Instinct, Dial. II., near the end. Dr Palfrey, in his Dudleian Lecture, attributes only a qualified omnipresence to the Deity.
- ↑ Virgil, Georgic IV. 222. See many passages cited by Cudworth, Chap. IV. § 31, p. 664, et seq., 455, et seq.; and the passages collected from Tschaleddin
