The Divine Life, Treatise 1 · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV.
3. THe Immensity of God (which is the next Attribute to be considered) must have this Effect upon thy soul: 1. The Infinite God that is everywhere comprehending all places and things, and comprehended by none, must raise admiring reverent thoughts in the soul of the believer We wonder at the Magnitude of the Sun and the Heavens, and of the whole Creation; But when we begin to think what is beyond the Heavens, and all created Being, we are at a kind of loss. Why it is God that is in all, and above all, and beyond all, and beneath all: and where there is no place because no Creature, there is God; And if thy thoughts should imagine millions of millions of miles beyond all place and measure, all is but God, and go as far as thou canst in thy thoughts and thou canst not go beyond him. Reverently admire the Immensity of God. The world and all the Creatures in it, are not to God so much as a sand or atome is to all the world. The point of a needle is more to all the world, then the world to God. For between that which is Finite, and that which is Infinite, there is no comparison. Isa. 40. 12, 15, 17. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? and meated out Heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a ballance?—Behold the Nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the ballance… ▪ behold he taketh up the Iles as a very little thing,—All Nations before him are as nothing: and they are counted to him less then Nothing and Vanity.]
2. From this Greatness and Immensity of God also thy soul must reverently stay all its busie, bold enquiries, and know that God is to us and to every creature Imcomprehensible. If thou couldst fathome or measure him, and know his Greatness by a comprehensive knowledge, he were not God. A Creature can comprehend nothing but a Creature. You may know God, but not comprehend him; As your foot treadeth on the earth, but doth not cover all the earth. The Sea is not the Sea, if you can hold it in a spoon. Thou canst not comprehend the Sun which thou seest, and by which thou seest all things else, nor the sea, or earth, no nor a worm or pile of grass: Thy understanding knoweth not all that God hath put into any the least of these; Thou art a stranger to thy self, and to somewhat in every part of thy self, both body and soul. And thinkest thou to comprehend God, that perfectly comprehendest nothing? Stop then thy overbold enquiries, and remember that thou art a shallow finite worm, and God is Infinite. First, reach to comprehend the Heaven and Earth and whole Creation, before thou think of Comprehending him, to whom the world is nothing, or vanity, or so small a dust, or drop, or point. [Job. 37. 1, 5. saith Elihu, At this my heart trembleth, and is moved out of his place: Hear attentively the Noise of his Voice,—God thundereth marvelously with his Voice; great things doth he which we cannot comprehend] How then should we comprehend himself? When God pleadeth his cause with Job himself, what doth he but convince him of his Infiniteness and absoluteness, even from the greatness of his works, which are beyond our reach and yet are as nothing to himself! Should he take the busie enquirer in hand, but as he did begin with Job, 38. 1, 2. &c. [Who is this that darkeneth Counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me, &c.] alas, how soon would he non-plus and confound us? and make us say as Job. 40. 4. [Behold I am vile! what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth: Once have I spoken, but I will not answer; yea twice, but I will proceed no further.] Indeed there is mentioned Eph. 3. 11. The Saints comprehending the dimensions of the Love of Christ, but as the next verse saith, it passeth knowledge; so comprehending there signifieth no more, but a knowing according to our Measure; an attainment of what we are capable to attain; nay nor all that neither, but such a prevalent knowledge of the Love of Christ as is common to all the Saints; As there is nothing more visible then the Sun, and yet no visible being less comprehended by the sight; so is there nothing more Intelligible then God (for he is All in all things) and yet nothing so Incomprehensible to the mind that knoweth him. It satisfieth me not to be Ignorant of God, nor to know so little as I know, nor to be short of the measure that I am capable of; but it satisfieth me to be uncapable of comprehending him; or else I must be unsatisfied because I am not God. O the presumptuous arrogancy of those men, if I may call them men, that dare prate about the Infinite God such things as never were revealed to them, in his works or word? and dare pretend to measure him by their shallow understandings, and question, if not deny and censure, that of God which they cannot reach! and sooner suspect the word that doth reveal him, then their muddy brains that should better conceive of him! Saith Elihu Job 36. 26. [Behold God is Great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.] Though the Knowledge of him be our Life Eternal, yet we know him not by any full and adequate conception. We know an Infinite God, and therefore with an Excellent Knowledge objectively considered; but with a poor degree and kind of Knowledge next to none, as to the act; and it is a thousand thousand fold more that we know not of him, then that we know: For ineeed there is no comparison to be here made.
3. The immensity of God as it proveth him incomprehensible, so it containeth his Omnipresence; And therefore should continually affect us as men that believe that God stands by them. As we would compose our thoughts, and minds and passions, if we saw (were it possible) the Lord stand over us, so should we now labour to compose them. As we would restrain and use our tongues, and order our behaviour if we saw his Majesty, so should we do now when we know that he is with us. An eye servant will work hard in his masters presence, what ever he doth behind his back. Bestir thee then Christian, for God stands by; In him we live and move and have our Being, Act. 17. 28. Loyter not till thou canst truly say that God is gone or absent from thee; sin not by wilfulness or negligence till thou canst say, thou art behind his back. Alass that we should have no more awakened serious souls and no more fervent lively prayers, and no more serious holy speech, and no more careful heavenly lives, when we stand before the living God, and do all in his sight, and speak all in his hearing? O why should sense so much affect us, and faith, and Knowledge work no more? we can be awed with the presence of a man, and would not do before a Prince, what most men do before the Lord. Yea other things affect us when we see them not; and shall not God? But of this more anon.
4. The Immensity of God assureth us much of his Alsufficiency. He that is everywhere, is easily able to hear all prayers, to help us in all straits, to supply all wants, to punish all sins. A Blasphemous conceit of God as Finite▪ and as absent from us, is one of the causes of our distrust. He that doth distrust an absent friend, as thinking he may forget him, or neglect him, will trust him when he is with him; cannot he hear thee, and pitty thee and help thee that is still with thee? O what an awe is this to the careless! what a support to faith! what a quickener to duty! what a comfort to the afflicted troubled soul! God is in thy poor cottage, Christian, and well acquainted with thy wants. God is at thy bedside when thou are sick, and nearer thee then the nearest of thy friends. What wouldst thou do in want or pain if God stood by? wouldst thou not Pray and Trust him if thou sawest him? so do though thou see him not, for he is surely there.
5. The Immensity and Infinite Greatness of God assureth us of his Particular Providence. Some blasphemous Infidels imagine that he hath only a General Providence, and hath left all to some inferiour powers, and medleth not with particular things himself: They think that as he hath left it to the Sun to illuminate the world, so hath he left all other inferiour things and events to nature or inferior causes; and that he doth not himself regard, observe, reward or punish the thoughts, and words, and wayes of men. And all this is because they consider not the Immensity or Infinite Greatness of the Lord. Its true, that God hath framed the Nature of all things, and delighteth to maintain and use the frame of second causes which he hath made; and will not easily and ordinarily work against or without this order of causes: But it is as true and certain both that sometimes he maketh use of Miracles, and that in the very course of natural causes he is able to exercise a particular Providence, as well as without them by himself alone. The Creature doth nothing but by him. All things move as he first moveth them, in their natural agency. His wisdom guideth, his will intendeth, and commandeth; his Power moveth and disposeth all. The Sun would not shine, if he were not the light of it; and he is no less himself the Light of the world, then if he did illuminate it without a Sun. God is never the further off▪ because the Creatures are near us; nor never the less in the effect, because he useth a second cause, then if there were no second cause at all. What influence second causes have upon the souls of men, he hath for the most part kept unknown to us; But that himself disposeth of us and all things after the counsel of his own will, is beyond all question. Can he that is most neerly present with thy thoughts, be regardless of them? can he be regardless of thy words and wayes that is with thee and seeth and heareth all? If thou believe not that he is as verily with thee as thou art there thy self, thou art then an Atheist. If thou believe him not to be Infinite, thou believest him not to be God. It is not God that can be absent, limited or finite. And if thou be not such a senseless Atheist, but knowest that God is everywhere, how is it possible thou shouldst doubt of his care or observance or particular providence about every thing? No child is scarce so foolish that will think his Father cares not what he saith or doth, when he stands before him. Wouldst thou doubt of Gods particular providence, whether he regard thy heart, and talke and practice, if thou didst see him with thee? sure it is scarce possible. Why then dost thou question it when thou knowest that he is with thee? If thou be an Atheist and knowest not, look about thee on the world, and bethink thee whether stones, and trees, and earth, whether beasts, or birds or men do make themselves; If they do, thou were best uphold thy self, and be not sick, and do not die. If thou madest thy self, thou canst sure preserve thy self; But if any thing else made thee and all these lower things, either it was somewhat greater or less then they▪ either something better or worse then they. If less, or worse, how could it make them Greater or Better then it self? Can any thing give that which it hath not? If it must needs be Greater and Better then the Creatures, then as it must be Wiser than they, and more Holy, Gracious and Just then they, so must it be more comprehensive then all they. Whoever made this earth, is certainly greater then the earth, or else he should give it more than he had to give. And if he be Greater, he must be present: If thou shouldst be so vain as to account any other higher thing the Maker of this world▪ that is not God, thou must ascribe also a sufficiency to that maker, to exercise a particular providence, and moreover be put to consider who did make that Maker. Nothing therefore is more certain even to Reason it self, then the Maker of the world must be Greater then the world, and therefore present with all the world; and therefore must observe and regard all the world. When thou canst find out a thought, or word, or deed that was not done in the presence of God, or any creature that is not in his presence, then believe and spare not that he seeth it not, or regardeth it not; yea and that it hath no being. O blind Atheists! you see the Sun before your eyes, which enlightneth all the upper part of the earth at once; even millions of millions see all by its light; and yet do you doubt whether God beholds and regards and provides for all at once! Tell me, if God had never a Creature to look to in all the world but thee, wouldst thou believe that he would regard thy heart, and words, and wayes, or not? If he would, why not now, as well as then! Is he not as sufficient for thee, and as really present with thee, as if he had no other creature else? If all men in the world were dead save one, would the Sun any more illuminate that one then now it doth? Maist thou not see as well by the light of it now, as if it had never another to enlighten? And dost thou see a Creature do so much, and wilt thou not believe as much of the Creator? If thou think us worms too low for God so exactly to observe, thou maist as well think that we are too low for him to Create, or preserve; and then who made us and preserveth us? Doth not the sun enlighten the smallest bird, and crawling vermine, as well as the greatest prince on earth? Doth it withhold its light from any Creature that can see, and say, I will not shine on things so base? And wilt thou more restrain the Infinite God that is the Maker, Light, and Life of all? It is he that filleth all in all▪ Eph. 1. 23. The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him, 1 King. 8. 27. and is he absent from thee? He doth beset thee before and behind, and layeth his hand upon thee; Whither wilt thou go from his spirit, or whither wilt thou fly from his presence? If thou ascend up into Heaven, he is there; If thou make thy bed in Hell, thou wilt feel him there; If thou take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea, even there shalt thou find him to be to thee as thou art, Psal. 139. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10. Thou maist think with sinful Adam and Eve, Gen. 3. 8. to hide thy self from the presence of the Lord: But thou wilt quickly find that he observeth thee; and be sure thy sin will find thee out, Numb. 32. 23. Thou maist with Cain be turned out of the Gracious presence of God, Gen. 4. 16. and cast out of his Church and Mercy; and with the damned thou maist be turned out of the presence of his blessedness and glory: but thou shalt never be out of his essential presence, nor so escape the presence of his Justice, Job 1. 12. & 2. 7. It is the presence of his Grace where the upright are promised here to dwell, Psal. 140. 13. and out of which they fear lest they be cast, Psal. 51. 11. [Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy spirit from me] And it is the presence where is fulness of Joy, which they aspire after, Psal. 16. 11. But there is also a presence that the earth shall tremble at, Psal. 114. 7. and that the wicked shall perish at, Psal. 68. 2. so that a particular Providence must be remembred by them that believe and remember the Immensity of God.