The Omnipresence of God!

Ezekiel Hopkins, 1633-1690

Psalm 139:7-12, "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You."

THESE words declare to us the glorious attribute of God's Immensity or Omnipresence, set forth in most elegant and lofty terms; as if the Prophet would mitigate that dread which might well seize upon as, from the consideration of the terrible majesty of God being so near us, by the sweetness and flourishing of the expression, Where shall I go from your Spirit? This question does not imply, that David was indeed contriving how to make an escape from God; nor pondering with himself in what forlorn corner of the world he might lie obscure, where the presence of God should never apprehend him: but this interrogation serves for a vehement assertion: where shall I go? that is no place where I can go, or where I can imagine to go, but your Spirit and your Presence will be with me. Where shall I go from they Spirit? that is, either from you, who are a spirit, and so can pierce and penetrate me; be as truly and essentially in the very affections and marrow of my soul, as my soul is intimately and essentially in my body: from your Spirits; that is, from your knowledge and your power; your knowledge to desert and observe me, your power to uphold or to crush me.

In whatever dark corner or cavern I should muffle myself, yet your presence is so universal, that it would find me out; for it stretched itself from Heaven to Hell: If I make my bed in Hell. By Hell, here, may be meant the Grave, which is often so called to Scripture; as Acts 2:27; Psalm 16:10. You will not leave my soul in Hell, neither will you suffer your Holy One to see corruption; (a prophecy concerning the resurrection of Christ from the grave:) that is, you will not leave my person in the grave: so it is interpreted verse 31 when it is said, that his soul was not left in Hell, neither did his flesh see corruption: Genesis 37:35. Jacob, speaking concerning the supposed death of his son Joseph, says, I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning: there, and Job 17:13 that word which we translate the grave, we here translate Hell: "Now," says the Prophet, "though I should go down to the grave, and be covered from the sight, and forgotten out of the mind and thoughts of men; yet you are there, and observe every dust how it molders and crumbles away: my body cannot be more in the grave, than you are there." If we take Hell for the Place of the Damned, God's presence is there likewise: one would think, if from any place God would exclude himself, it should be from since his presence is sufficient to make a Heaven any where; but, so infinite is his unlimited being, that, when the body is in the grave and the soul in Hell, yet then is God present, both with the soul and with the body: If I make my bed in Hell, that is, "If I cover myself never so close and draw the curtains of the thickest darkness round about me; if my body should lie in the deepest entrails of the earth, and my soul be enrapt about with a winding-sheet of smoke and flames; yet you are there, and your presence would soon find me out:" Job 26:6. Hell is naked before him, and destruction has no covering: yes, the Apostle tells us, 2 Thessalonians 1:9 that the wicked, in Hell, shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power: that is, not only that their punishment shall be to be separated from the presence of the Lord; but, look how they are said to be punished from the glory of his power, so likewise are they to be punished from his presence: their destruction shall be from the glory of his power; that is, his power in inflicting most dreadful punishments upon them, and his power in sustaining them under those punishments, when with one hand the Lord shall hold them up in Hell, and lift up the other as high as Heaven to give them redoubled strokes of everlasting vengeance: so, likewise, they shall be punished from the presence of the Lord; that is, God himself will be present in Hell to torment and punish them, that, at the very same time that he shall be a cherishing God in Heaven, he will be a tormenting God in Hell: because, in them, he has established his two great thrones; the one of his mercy, the other of his justice.

But yet, possibly, there may be found some neglected place here below, where God has no such concernment to be present, as he has to be present in Heaven and in Hell. Now, says the Psalmist, verses 9, 10. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall your hand lead me, and your right-hand shall hold me. Wings of the Morning is an elegant metaphor; and, by them, we may conjecture is meant the sun-beams: called Wings, because of their swift and speedy motion; making their passage so sudden and so instantaneous, as that they do prevent the observation of the eye; called the Wings of the Morning, because the dawn of the morning comes flying in upon these wings of the sun, and brings light along with it; and, by beating and fanning of these wings, scatters the darkness before it. "Now" says the Psalmist, "if I could pluck these wings of the morning, the sun-beams; if I could imp my own shoulders with them; if I should fly as far and as swift as light, even in an instant, to the uttermost parts of the sea; yes, if in my flight I could spy out some solitary rock, so formidable and dismal as if we might almost call in question whether ever a Providence had been there; if I could pitch there on the top of it, where never anything had made its abode, but coldness, thunders, and tempests: yet there shall your hand lead me, and your right-hand shall hold me."

Thus you see the text declares this Ubiquity and Omnipresence of God, both in Heaven and earth and Hell, and in all places and in all things.

I shall, first, handle this point doctrinally; and, then, practically. Observing this method, I shall,

Lay down some Positions.

Demonstrate the truth of them, by some cogent and convincing Arguments.

Answer some Objections, which may be made against the Omnipresence of God.

Make some Improvement of this point.

I. I am to lay down some POSITIONS.

POSITION i. GOD IS INTIMATELY AND ESSENTIALLY IN ALL PARTS AND PLACES OF THE WORLD.

Yes, this presence, being essential, is also necessary; so that it is simply impossible, that God should not be wherever the creature is. By the World, I mean whatever was at the beginning created by the power of God; the heavens, the air, the earth and sea, and all things visible and invisible: God is with them and in them all.

There are Three things briefly to be touched upon here.

1. That God is intimately present with the creatures.

He passes through their very beings and inward parts; he is in the very center of their essence; and this flows from the spirituality of his essence. From hence it is, that it is impossible that he should be excluded; out of the most close compacted being. Bodies cannot thus enter one another, because of their gross and material substances; they can only stand without, and knock for admission: they cannot enter into the substance one of another: water, when sucked up by a sponge, does not pass into the substantial part of it; but only fills up those caverns and hollow pores, which were before filled with air: the air we breathe in cannot enter into the substance of our bodies; but only into those pores and hollow recesses, which are by nature fitted to receive it; so of all other corporeal beings. But spirits are not tied up to this law: the soul of man, because it is a spirit, resides not only in the empty void spaces of the body, but also in the midst of the most solid and substantial part of it: angels who are a degree of spiritual beings above the soul, cannot be excluded from being present in the most condensed bodies; and we know not how often they are in us; we know not how often they pass through us, nor how many of them are now present with us: we read of no less than a legion, which is six thousand, that quartered themselves together in one possessed person, Mark 5:9: then, certainly God, between whom and the angels there is infinitely more distance than between angels and bodies, cannot possibly be shut out of any being, but diffuses himself to every part of his creatures.

2. God is not only intimately present with his creatures, because as he is a spirit he passes through the most inmost part of them, but he is intimately present with all his creatures at once.

And, therein, is his presence distinguished from the presence of angels. They, indeed, pass from one to another, and be one in another: they may, possibly, stretch and dilate themselves to a great compass; but they cannot stretch themselves to an ubiquitariness, to be in all beings at once: if an angel suddenly dart himself from one point of the heavens, through the center of the earth, to an opposite point of the heavens, and by a motion of insinuation, without impelling or driving the air before him, yet he is not in Heaven and earth at once; but, when he is in one place, he ceases to be in another. But it is not so with God, for he is everywhere and in all things at once forever: therefore God asks us, Do not I fill Heaven and earth? Jeremiah 23:24: he is so in them, as that he does not leave any one place void or empty of himself; for, were there any places where God were not, then it could not be properly said to be filled with him.

3. 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 anything, 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 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; with him, there is neither change nor shadow of turning: James. 1:17; What the Heathens thought of this Immensity and Omnipresence of God 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 anything 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 these 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 of this divine attribute: one of them, being to give a description what God was, tells us most admirably, "God is a sphere; whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is no where:" a raised apprehension of the divine nature in a 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," says 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 everywhere present and sees all things.

POSITION ii. GOD IS NOT ONLY PRESENT IN THE WORLD, BUT HE IS INFINITELY EXISTENT ALSO WITHOUT THE WORLD, AND BEYOND ALL THINGS BUT HIMSELF.

He is in all that vast tract of nothing, which we can imagine, and beyond the highest heavens. What reason can say for this, I shall anon show. In the mean time, see that one positive place of Scripture, 1 Kings 8:27. Behold, the Heaven, and Heaven of heavens, cannot contain him: and if God be not contained in them, certainly he then must be infinitely beyond and above them: he surmounts the Heaven of heavens, that is, the very highest and uppermost heavens, which Paul calls the third Heaven: 2 Corinthians 12:2 that glorious place, in which God does most specially manifest himself, and will do to all eternity. The Scripture tells us, that, though the Heaven of the glorified angels and saints be the place in which God will especially manifest his presence, yet it is not that place unto which God will or does confine his presence: Isaiah. 66:1, 2. Thus says the Lord, The Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; where is the house that you build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things has my hand made; as if God should have said, "Do not think to cloister me up within the walls of the Temple: no; I am set upon the highest heavens, as upon my throne; and they are all under me, and I am exalted far above them." Many such glorious expressions there are of God's infiniteness and immensity scattered up and down the Scripture, which I shall not now spend time to recollect The Scripture, you see, owns it for a truth, that God is infinite in his essence, beyond the whole world: which is one of those divine properties, the possibility whereof it poseth reason to conceive; that since, beyond the world there is nothing, God should exist there. But, though reason cannot apprehend it, yet from reason, as well as from Scripture, it appears it must be so.

POSITION iii. AS GOD EXISTS EVERYWHERE, SO ALL AND WHOLE GOD EXISTS EVERYWHERE. So that all God is here, and all God is there, and all God is in every place and in everything.

This is, indeed, a great and most inconceivable mystery: but yet it must needs be so; because God is indivisible and simple, and not compounded of parts: and, therefore, wherever there is any of God's essence, there is all his essence; otherwise, part of his essence would be here, and part there, and part of it elsewhere, which would be utterly repugnant to the simple and uncompounded nature of God. God's attributes are his essence: now there is no where, where God is, but there are all his attributes; and, therefore, where God is, there is all his essence. He is a spirit, most wise, most powerful, most just, and the like; here, and there, as well as in Heaven above. Yes, and what is more, to the astonishment of reason, than all this, God is everywhere omnipresent, and in every place. And, though it be common to all spiritual beings, because they have no parts, to have a totality in the whole and a totality in every part: (indeed it is expressed in the Schools, that spirits are all in the whole, and all in every part;) yet, herein, God has a peculiar way of subsisting from other spirits, that not only his essence alone is in every part of the world, but also his presence is in all and every part of the world; so that God is everywhere present: which is beyond the reach of our apprehensions; yet it is undoubtedly true, for God's omnipresence being that attribute which belongs to him, he is present everywhere and in all things.

II. Now for the rational DEMONSTRATIONS, whereby it may be evinced, that God is omnipresent.

i. That God is PRESENT EVERYWHERE IN THIS WORLD I shall make good by these arguments:

1. From his unchangeableness.

If there be any place where God is not, then God may be there, because he is omnipotent; but if God may be there, where he is not actually also, then it must be by motion to that place: but it is impossible that God should be able to move from one place to another, because he is immutable: therefore, hence it clearly fellows, that there is no place, where God is not, and where he was not from all eternity.

2. It may be demonstrated, that God is omnipresent from his preservation of all things in their beings.

God is present with whatever he preserves: but he preserves everything in its being: therefore he is present everywhere. There is required as great a power to preserve creatures from falling back into their first nothing, as there was to make them at first out of nothing; for preservation, as the philosopher speaks, is nothing else but a continued and a prolonged creation: now he cannot create anything at a distance from it, because no creature is fit to convey a creative action, and because also whatever virtue or power is in God it is his essence: therefore, if he create or preserve by his power, he creates and preserves immediately by his essence, and so his essence must be whatever his operations are.

ii. But God exists not only in the world, but INFINITELY BEYOND THE WORLD ALSO. That may be demonstrated,

From the Infiniteness of his Nature and Essence.

From the Infiniteness of his Perfections.

From his Almighty Power: and

From his Eternity.

1. From the Infiniteness of God's Nature or Essence.

That nature, which is infinite, cannot be bounded or limited: but God's nature is infinite: therefore, it cannot be bounded. But if God were only present in the world, and did not exist infinitely beyond it, then his being and nature could not be infinite as a spirit is infinite: therefore, if God should be included in the world, he would also be but infinite as the world.

2. From the Infiniteness of his Perfections, we may argue thus:

That, which is infinitely perfect, must be infinitely great: but God is infinitely perfect; so that there is no perfection, which we can imagine, but is eminently in God: therefore he must be infinitely great; so as there can be no space which we can imagine, but he must be present in it. But we can imagine an infinite space beyond this world: therefore God is there; because there is no perfection imaginable, which God has not. Whatever is infinitely perfect, must be infinitely great; as appears from this, because the greater a thing is, the more perfect it is of that same kind, as a great piece of gold is more excellent than a less: and, therefore, from this perfection of God, it appears, that he is everywhere, he being all perfection.

3. As it is demonstrated from God's infiniteness and perfection, so likewise from his Almighty Power.

God can create another world greater than this, even in that imaginary space, which we can conceive beyond this world: therefore, certainly, God is now existent there.

4. God's omnipresence may be argued from the Eternity of God.

God was infinitely existent before the creation of the world; since he is eternal, and the world but temporal: the world has stood only but some few thousands of years, and before the creation of the world there was nothing but God, and God existed eternally in himself: therefore, though beyond this world there be nothing, yet God will be there actually existing in that same imaginary space beyond this world, as he did exist in an imaginary space before this world was created.

Thus I have done with the Propositions, and the confirmation of them by rational Arguments; those things, which relate to the philosophical part of the text, for informing the judgment in the notion of that stupendous attribute of God's Omnipresence.

III. I shall now come to answer some OBJECTIONS.

Objection: i. The first is taken from those Scriptures, where it seems to be implied, that God moves from place to place: as in Genesis 18:21 where the Lord says, concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me: and, in Hebrews 3:3 it is said, God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran, etc.

"Now these places, which speak of going to and departing from places, seem to oppose God's ubiquity; because motion is inconsistent with God's omnipresence."

I answer: These and the like Scriptures are not to be taken properly and literally; but as accommodated to our capacity and conception: even as parents, when they speak to their little children, will sometimes lisp and babble their language; so God oftentimes condescends to us in speaking our language, for the declaring of those things which are far above our reach. But you will say, "How are such places to be understood?" I answer: When God is said to come unto or to depart from any place or person, nothing else must be understood thereby, but a declaring or not declaring of himself to be present. As men, when they manifest themselves present, do it by moving hither or thither: so God, to accommodate himself thereunto, when he manifests his presence any where, tells us, that he goes thither; and, when that manifestation ceases, he tells us he departs thence; though he was always there present, both before and after that manifestations. So that these expressions used in the Scripture, concerning God, though spoken after the manner of men, yet must be understood after the manner of God, that is, with a suitableness and conformity to his Infinite Essence.

Objection: ii. "The Scripture tells us, that hereafter in Heaven we shall see God as he is: but is not that impossible? If God be an omnipresent God, we shall not be able to comprehend him, because we shall not ourselves be infinite in Heaven: and, if man be still finite, how then can he comprehend what is infinite; since infinite is comprehended of nothing, but which is infinite?"

I answer: Such Scriptures are not to be understood, as if the capacities of angels, much less of men, are or ever shall be wide and capacious enough to contain the infinite greatness of God: no; his omnipresence is not comprehended by angels themselves, nor shall be by man forever. But they must be understood comparatively: our vision and sight of God, here, is but through a glass darkly; but, in Heaven, it shall be with so much more brightness and clearness, that, comparison of the obscure and glimmering way whereby we know God here, it may be called a seeing of him face to face, and knowing him as we are known by him; though, to speak in absolute propriety of speech, these things are not possible to any creature.

OBJECT iii. "It may seem no small disparagement to God to be everywhere present. What! for the Glorious Majesty of God to be present in such vile and filthy places, as are here upon earth?"

To this I answer,

1. God does not think it any disparagement to him, nor think it unworthy of him, to know and make all these, which we call vile and filthy places: why then should we think it unworthy of him to be present there?

2. God is a Spirit, and is not capable of any pollution or defilement from any vile or filthy things. The sun-beams are no more tainted by shining on a dunghill, than they are by shining on a bed of spices: no more can God be sullied by being present in filthy sinks, (to speak with reverence,) than to be in the glorious heavens; because he is a spirit, and his essence is not subject to any taints from the creature.

3. The vilest things, that are, have still a being, that is good in their own kind; and as well-pleasing to God, as those things, which we put a greater value and esteem upon.

4. It reflects no more dishonor upon God, to be present with the vilest creatures, than to be present with the noblest and highest; because the angels are at an infinite distance from God. There is a greater disproportion between God and the angels, than there is between the vilest worm and an angel: all are at an infinite distance to his glory and majesty.

Thus much, for the Objections.

IV. APPLICATION

USE i. Is God thus infinitely present everywhere, and thus in and with all his creatures? then WHAT AN ENCOURAGEMENT IS HERE UNTO PRAYER!

You can not say, "Alas! I now pray; but how shall God hear? He is in Heaven above, and I am on earth below, many thousands of miles distant from his presence: how then shall my weak whisperings, that can scarce reach the walls of my own closet, ever be able to reach his ear?" No, God's, essential presence is with you, wherever you are, as he is in Heaven itself; and God is all ear: he can understand the silent motions of your lips everywhere: yes, he can understand the secret motions of your heart. When Hannah prayed for her son Samuel, Eli, the priest of God, thought her gesture did proceed from a distempered head, and not from a holy heart: but God was present with her lips; and that prayer, which was thought by the priest of God to be but a dumb show, yet to God himself was powerful rhetoric and as loud as thunder in his ears. The Scripture generally intimates, that all our prayers shall be directed to God in Heaven: so Solomon prayed, 1 Kings 8:32. Then hear you in Heaven, etc: and it is again expressed, in the 30th verse: so, that most excellent composure, which Christ taught his disciples, in the beginning of it, Our Father, in Heaven, gives our thoughts a lift to Heaven.

Now this does not imply, that God does nowhere hear our prayers, but only in Heaven.

But how, then? Why is this phrase used? For these Two reasons:

1. Because Heaven is the most glorious place: there God, especially, has established his Throne of Grace, and sits upon it.

Now, because it is most glorious and majestic, and since God is there to hear the suits and receive petitions which are offered up by all his servants here on earth, therefore the Scripture directs us to that most glorious and celestial place: Hear you in Heaven. Hence we have that expression, Acts 10:4. Your prayers and your alms are come up for a memorial before God. Certainly, if our prayers should not be heard until they come to Heaven, they are so weak and faint, that they would be out of breath by the way, and not be able then to speak for themselves. But, yet, God speaks in us by his Spirit, and keeps alive the sense of his majesty upon our hearts, that he would not have us think it to be a mean and trivial thing to have our prayers heard: therefore he represents himself to us arrayed in all his glory.

2. Our prayers are directed to God in Heaven, because, though he hears them wherever they be uttered; yet he nowhere hears them with acceptance, but in Heaven only.

Our prayers are accepted by God, because they are heard in Heaven. Your prayers are not accepted by God, because God hears them upon earth; as they are heard in your closet, or as they are heard in your heart; but only as they are heard in Heaven: and the reason is, because prayers are acceptable, only as they are presented before God in the mediation and intercession of Jesus Christ: he must mingle them with the incense of his merits, before they can ascend up before God as a sweet savor. Now Christ performs his Mediatory Office nowhere but in Heaven: for though, as God, he be everywhere present, as the Father is, and therefore hears your prayers wherever they be put up; yet, as Mediator, they are only heard in Heaven by him; and he hears no prayers, but the prayers of his people, as he is Mediator: and, therefore, it is no comfort to you, that Christ hears your prayers, as he is God only, for so he does and cannot but do it; unless he hears your prayers, likewise, as he is Mediator. Now Christ, as he is Mediator, is God Man; for, as he wrought out our salvation in both natures, so he still continues to mediate for us in both natures: and, since the human nature is only in Heaven, therefore it follows, he performs the mediatory office only in Heaven. Now it is the mediatorship of Christ alone, that makes all our prayers and duties acceptable to God himself: therefore it concerns us still to pray, "Lord, hear us in Heaven. It is in vain, that you hear me on earth, unless you hear in Heaven too. My prayers cannot be heard acceptably, unless you hear them twice. You hear my prayers on earth; not a word of my tongue but you hear: but what will it avail your servant, unless you hear my prayers a second time repeated over to you in the intercession and mediation of Jesus Christ in Heaven?" And therefore, says Solomon, 1 Kings 8:34. Hear you in Heaven, and forgive: when God shall only hear on earth, he will be so far from forgiving, that he will be avenged; but, when he hears our prayers in Heaven, through the mediation of Christ, then he is inclined to forgive and pardon us. Hence we find, that the Jews prayed towards the temple, which was a type of Heaven; and the altar and incense and mercy-seat in this temple were types of Christ, who is now in Heaven: and therefore Daniel, when in Babylon, prayed, his window being open towards Jerusalem, towards the temple; as if no prayer were acceptable to God, but what was heard in Heaven: so Jonah, when he was in the belly of the whale, Jonah 2:7. My prayer came in unto you, into your holy temple: Jonah was a strong orator, when he was in the slimy paunch of the whale; yes, but God was there, and God heard him there; but yet his prayer would have been as filthy as his person, if God had not heard him elsewhere than in the belly of the whale: My prayer came in unto you, into your holy temple; that is, God heard him in Heaven: and, therefore, though the breath of Jonah could have no sweetness, yet the prayer that he breathed forth came up as incense and a sweet perfume before God as it came into the holy temple. Thus God hears the prayers of his in Heaven; but the prayers of the wicked he hears only upon earth: he hears them when they speak them, but God never hears their prayers in the mediation of Christ; but the prayers of his own people he hears on earth as he is an omnipresent and omnipotent God, and he hears them in Heaven as he is a gracious and reconciled Father. If you do but whisper your prayer, God will hear it: that, which is but whispered on earth, rings and echoes in the Court of Heaven; and, if Christ speaks your prayers over to God, they become so loud, that God cannot stop his ears against them. The voice of prayer is not like other voices: the further they reach, the weaker your grow: no; that voice, which is so weak that it cannot be heard beyond the compass of your closet, yet when it is put forth in prayer, fills all Heaven with its sound.

"But where is the encouragement unto prayer in all this?" If you do belong to God, you may have great encouragement to prayer from the consideration of his Omnipresence: for, because of this, there is no prayer of a child of God but shall be heard in Heaven though it be uttered in secret. For consider, that though Christ, as Man, is only in Heaven; yet Christ, as God, is everywhere present, and hears the prayers of all men in the world. Those, who are wicked, he regards no further; but gives them the hearing: but, for his own, he regards their prayers, and presents what he hears from them to God in Heaven. Christ makes his omniscience and omnipresence to be subservient to the work of his mediatorship. One of his offices is, to be a faithful High-Priest and an Advocate to God for us; and Christ, being such an advocate as hears all the suits and all the causes of his clients, we may be assured, that there is not one prayer, which God hears on earth from us, but he hears it also in Heaven, through Christ.

It was a notable scoff of Elijah to Baal's priests, 1 Kings 18:27. Cry aloud; for he is a God, etc. perhaps he sleeps and must be awaked: as if he should say, "You serve an unworthy God, that cannot hear those, who pray unto him! And, indeed, how should he do so, that is not omnipresent? He is talking, or he is pursuing, or traveling; Cry! Cry aloud! and, perhaps, if he sleeps, that will awaken him. But, though you should cry never so loud, though your cry should reach from earth to Heaven, he would be silent: such a God as yours could never hear." And, therefore, when Elijah himself came to pray, verse 36, the text does not tell us he cried aloud, but that he came near; but, when Baal's priests roared and howled, like distracted men, and cut themselves in an idolatrous manner, Baal is not prevailed with to hear them. Now, Elijah came near; that is, he came in a calm and sedate manner, and poured out his fervent composure to God; as knowing, that that God, whom he prayed to, is present everywhere.

The voice in prayer is necessary, upon a Threefold account:

(1) As it is that, which God requires should be employed in his service: for this is the great end why our tongues were given to us, that, by them, we might bless and serve God: James 3:9.

(2) When, in private, it may be a help and means to raise up our own affections and devotions, then the voice is requisite; keeping it still within the bounds of decency or privacy.

(3) In our joining also with others, it is a help likewise to raise and quicken their affections.

Otherwise, were it not for these three reasons, the voice is no more necessary to make known our wants to God, than it is to make them known to our own hearts; for God is always in us and with us, and knows what we have need of before we ask it.

USE ii. As the consideration of God's omnipresence should encourage us in prayer, as knowing that God certainly hears us; so it should AFFECT US WITH A HOLY AWE AND REVERENCE OF GOD, in all our prayers and duties, and in the whole course of our lives and conversations.

Certainly, it is an excellent meditation, to prepare our hearts to duty, and to compose them in duty, to be much pondering the Omnipresence of God: to think that I am with God: he is present in the room with me, even in the congregation with me, and likewise in my closet, and in all my converse and dealings in the world. How can it be possible for that man to be frothy and vain, who keeps this thought alive in his heart? If the presence of some earthly person strike an awe in our hearts when we come before them, how much more should the consideration of God's presence affect us with a holy fear! suppose an angel should fly in the midst of us, who are here present, with a rushing and dazzling glory, how would it make all our hearts beat and throb within us! it would make us soon abandon all those vain thoughts, which now we feed upon; those thoughts, which eat out the heart and life of duty. How much more should it affect us and fill us with holy fear, that that God is now and always in the midst of us, whose glory stains and sullies the beauty and extinguishes the light of angels! Oh! that God, who is always present with us, should be worshiped and served with a holy fear, and remembered with the greatest veneration.

Now, to imprint this the more deeply, I shall suggest two or three particulars.

1. Because God is in all things, therefore he sees and knows all things.

The omniscience of God is grounded upon his omnipresence: Jer. 23:24. Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him? says the Lord. Do not I fill Heaven and earth? says the Lord. Nothing in Heaven or earth can be hid or concealed from God's eye: Hebrews 4:13. All things are naked and opened before the Lord. There is no corner so retired, so shady, so dark, no gulf so deep, that can hide anything from the piercing discovery of his eye. He knows our thoughts, those nimble and those spiritual things, which are so quick in their flight that they cannot be seized upon by any creature in the world; God knows them: the Devil cannot know them, nor can an angel know them; yet God discerns our thoughts more clearly than we can discern the faces of one another: he sees our thoughts afar off, as the Psalmist tells us: he sees our thoughts in their first conception, when they first begin to heave in our breasts: he knows the least windings and turning of our souls. Now would not this compose us to a habitual and holy awe of God, to be continually thinking, that, whatever we do, God's eye is now upon us? Let every one say within himself, "Wherever I am, or whatever I do, I am in the presence of the Holy God, who takes notice of all my carriages: there is not a glance of my eye, but his eye observes it: there is not an irreverent or unseemly gesture, but he takes notice of it: not a thought of mine can escape, but he knows that thought: and he knows my down-lying and up-rising, etc. Let this consideration season your lives and conversations: be still pondering in your minds, that, whatever you are doing, his eye is upon you, and he is present with you.

2. Consider, that God not only sees into all you do, but he sees it to that very end that he may examine and search into it.

He does not only behold you with a common and indifferent look; but with a searching, watchful, and inquisitive eye: he pries into the reasons, the motives, the ends of all your actions. Psalm 11:4 it is said, The Lord's throne is in Heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. Revelation 1:14 where Christ is described, it is said, his eyes are as a flame of fire: you know the property of fire is, to search and make trial of those things, which are exposed unto it, and to separate the dross from the pure metal: so, God's eye is like fire, to try and examine the actions of men: he knows and discerns how much your very purest duties have in them of mixture and base ends of formality, hypocrisy, distractedness, and deadness: he sees through all your specious pretenses, that which you cast as a mist before the eyes of men, when yet you are but a juggler in religion: all your tricks and sleights of outward profession, all those things that you use to cozen and delude men withal, cannot possibly impose upon him: he is a God, that can look through all those fig-leaves of outward profession, and discern the nakedness of your duties through them.

3. God tries all your cases and actions, in order to an eternal judgment and sentence to be passed upon them.

This consideration might damp the stoutest sinner's heart in the whole world. Believe it, Sirs, God does not only see your ways, but he sees them so as to remember them against you another day: though you have forgot what you have thought, and what you have spoken, and what you have done; yet God forever remembers it, and at that day he will sadly recall all these things again to your remembrance. Oh! that therefore this might prevail with you, so to do everything, as being now already under the eye of God, and as shortly to be under his doom and sentence! If God should send an angel to stand at our backs, and tell us, whatever we are doing, this action of ours we must be judged for; it should make us as fearful of sinning, as that angel himself. True, we have no such monitor; but our conscience performs to us the same office; therefore, charge it upon your consciences, that they still put you in mind of God; that he sees you; that he will judge you; and that he always looks upon you, and writes down in those eternal leaves of his memorial-book, whatever proceeds from you, either in the duties of religion or in the actions of your ordinary course and conversation: therefore, because he is omnipresent and sees all things, stand in awe of his omniscience; whereby he sees whatever we do, and whereby he will try and judge us at the Last Day.