Chap. 9. PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOVERIES. 385

10. This idea is so far from giving any just ground of com-plaint, that it accounts for the necessary existence of space, ina way worthy of the Deity, and suggests the noble improve-ment we may make of this doctrine, which lies so plain andopen before us. Sir Isaac Newton is so far from representingthe Deity as present in space by diffusion (as some have ad-vanced very unjustly) that he expresty tells us * there are fuc-cestive parts in duration, and co-existent parts in space. Butthat neither are found in the foul or principle of thoughtwhich is in man ; and that far less can they be found in thedivine substance. As man is one and the fame in all the pe-riods of his life, and thro' all the variety of sensations andpassions to which he is subject ; much more must we allowthe supreme Deity to be one and the fame in all time, and inall space, free from change and external influence. He adds,that the Deity is present every where, non per virtutemsolamfed etiam per subjiantiam , fed modo prorsus incorporeo , modonobis penitus ignoto. It is plain, therefore, that he was farfrom meaning that the Deity was present every where by the dif-fusson of his substance, as a body is present, in space by having•its parts diffused in it. Nor is it surprizing that we should beat a loss to give a satisfactory account of the manner of God’s•omnipresence. Our knowledge of things penetrates not into theirsubstance : we perceive only their figure, colour, external sur-face, and the effects they have upon us, but no fense, or act ofreflection, discovers to us their substance ; and much less is thedivine substance known to us. As a blind man knows not

* Partes dantur sutceflivæ in duratione, coexistentes in spatio, neutræ in personaiiominis feu principio ejus cogitante ; et multo minus in fubstantia cogitante Dei.Omnis homo quatenus res sentiens, est unus & idem homo durante vita fua in omni-bus & fmguiis senfuum organis. Deus est unus & idem Deus semper & ubique,ibid.

colours,

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