Pancatantra The Book of India s Folk Wisdom 11th

Edition Patrick Olivelle pdf download

https://ebookmeta.com/product/pancatantra-the-book-of-india-s-
folk-wisdom-11th-edition-patrick-olivelle/

Download more ebook from https://ebookmeta.com

OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS

PANCATANTRA

THE PA:'iC.-I. TANTRA, composed around 300 CE, is the most famous

book of animal 'folk' tales of India, a book that has had a greater

impact on "orld literature than possibly any other piece of Indian

Literature. Versions and translations of it exist in over fifty languages,

and Pancatantra stories have influenced ,\rabic and European
narrathe literature of the Middle Ages, including The Arabian Sights
and La Fontaine . Although story-telling is the primary

literary genre of the book, it has a serious purpose. It intends to

teach the Art of GO\unment through animal folk-tales interspersed

with gnomic\' erses, transporting the reader to the imaginary world

of talking animals and of animal kingdoms structured along the lines

of human societies.

PATRICK OLiVEl.LE is the Chair, Department of Asian Studies,

and Director, Center for Asian Studies, at the University of Texas at

Austin, where he is the Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions.

Among his recent publications are The Sil11!nyiisa Upanis,ads: Hindu

Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation (Oxford, 1992). The

A§rama

System: History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution (Oxford,

1993), and Rules and Regulations of Brahmanical Asceticism (State

University of New York Press, 1995). His translation of Upilnis.ads

was published in Oxford World's Classics in 1996 and won the 1998

A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation. This translation of

The Dharmasiitras was published in Oxford World's Classics in

1999.

OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS

For almost 100 years Oxford World's Classics have brought

readers closer to the world's great literature. Now with over 700

titles-from the 4, ooo-year-old myths 0/ Mesopotamia to the

twentieth century's greatest novels-the series makes available

lesser-known as well as celebrated writing.

The pocket-sized hardbacks o/the early years contained

introductions by Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Graham Greene,

and other literary figures which enriched the experience o/reading.

Today the series is recognized for its fine scholarship and

reliability in texts that span world literature, drama and poetry,

religion, philosophy and politics. Each edition includes perceptive

commentary and essential background information to meet the

changing needs o/readers.

OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS

Pancatantra

THE BOOK OF INDIA'S FOLK WISDOM

Translated from the Original Sanskrit by

PATRICK OLIVELLE

OXFORD

UNIVERSITY PRESS

OXFORD

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

Oxford Cniversity Press is a department of the University of Oxford.

It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research,

scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in

Oxford New York

Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta

Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong

Istanbul

Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai

!'\airobi Paris Sao Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw

with associated companies in Berlin Ihadan

Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press

in the UK and in certain other countries

Published in the United States

by Oxford University Press Inc., New York

© Patrick 01ivelle 1997

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

First published as a World's Classics paperback 1997

Reissued as an Oxford World's Classics paperback 1999

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any

means,

without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,

or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the
appropriate

reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction

outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights

Department,

Oxford Lniversity Press, at the address above

You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover

and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Data available

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Panchatantra. English.

Pai'icatantra: the book of India's folk wisdom / translated from

the original Sanskrit by Patrick Olivelle.

(Oxford world's classics)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

I. 0 livelle, Patrick. II. Title. Ill. Series.

PK374l.P3E5 1997 891'.2 3-dc21 97-2843

ISBN 0-19-283988-8 (paperback)

1 357910864 2

Typeset by Pure Tech India Ltd., Pondicherry, India

Printed in Great Britain by

Cox & Wyman Ltd.

Reading, Berkshire

PREFACE

THE inspiration for undertaking this translation of the Paiicatantra

came from the students in my first-year Sanskrit classes. Reading

and translating the Paiicatantra stories for and with them was

truly enjoyable; it also made me aware of the inadequacy of existing

translations. I gave serious thought to translating the entire
Paiicatantra after the publication of my Upani$ads in The

World!' Classics when Judith Luna was hunting for other Indian

classics for inclusion in the series. I want to thank Judith for her

kindness and humour and for making sure that my prose did not

degenerate into scholarly jargon.

Anne Feldhaus and Gregory Schopen read the introduction and

offered insightful criticisms and valuable suggestions. Over the

years both Anne and Gregory have read most of what I have written
and have pushed me constantly into thinking clearly and into looking
at texts from new perspectives. To both a big thank-you

for friendship and support. At an early stage in the preparation of

this translation Bette Rae Preus read Book I and returned the
typescript with red ink across every page. Her insightful criticisms of
my prose from the perspective of a writer who fortunately knows no
Sanskrit helped me take one more step from philological accuracy to
readable prose. At the very end of this

project Huberta Feldhaus, retired schoolteacher and grandma

extraordinaire to my daughter, read the entire translation. Merry

Burlingham, the South Asia Bibliographer at the library of the

University of Texas, has always been most generous with her

time and advice, obtaining for me books and journal articles from

libraries in the USA and abroad. To all these a heartfelt thank-you.

As usual, my wife Suman and my daughter Meera have shared

the labour of this translation in many and different ways- cups of

coffee brought to my computer desk, a loving and stable environment

conducive both to sustained thought and work and to

relaxation when needed. Suman also read the entire translation

and introduction several times and caught the frequent errors and

typos that I am so prone to make. To both Suman and Meera love

and thanks.
This page intentionally left blank

CONTENTS

Introduction

ix

Sources, Author, and Date

Structure and Content

XIV

The Characters of the P aiicatantra

xxi

The Political and Moral Philosophy of the P aiicatantra xxxi

Versions and Translations

xl

Note on the Translation

xlvi

Bibliography

xlviii
Guide to the Pronunciation of Sanskrit Words

Ii

PANCATANTRA

THE PRELUDE TO THE STORY

BOOK I: ON CAUSING DISSENSION AMONG ALLIES

Story 1: The Monkey That Pulled the Wedge

Story 2: The Jackal That Tried to Eat a Drum

18

Story 3: The Adventures of an Ascetic

22

Sub-Story 3.1: The Ascetic and the Rogue

22

Sub-Story 3.1.1: How the Battling Rams Killed

the Greedy Jackal

22

Sub-Story 3.2: A Weaver Cuts the Nose of a Bawd

23
Story 4: How the Crows Killed the Snake

27

Sub-Story 4.1: The Crab Cuts Off the Heron's Head

28

Story 5: The Hare That Outwitted the Lion

30

Story 6: How the Louse Got Killed Trying to be

Nice to a Bug

37

Story 7: How the Lion's Servants Got the Camel Killed

46

Story 8: How the Sandpiper Defeated the Ocean

50

Sub-Story 8.1: The Turtle and the Geese

51

Sub-Story 8.2: The Fate of Three Fish: Far-sighted,

Quick-witted, and Inevitable

52

Story 9: The Bird That Tried to Advise a Monkey

60
Story 10: Two Friends and Betrayed Trust

62

viii

Contents

Sub-Story 10.1: How the Mongooses Ate the

Heron's Chicks

64

Story 11: The Iron-Eating Mice

66

BOOK II: ON SECURING ALLIES

71

Story 1: The Ascetic and the Mouse

81

Sub-Story 1.1: The Woman Who Traded Sesame

for Sesame

83

Sub-Story 1.1.1: How the Greedy Jackal Died

Eating a Bowstring

84

Story 2: How Citranga Got Caught in a Trap

Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
 1. Universal with all creatures. He is present with all things by
his authority, because all things are subject to him: by his power,
because all things are sustained by him: by his knowledge, because
all things are naked before him. He is present in the world, as a king
is in all parts of his kingdom regally present: providentially present
with all, since his care extends to the meanest of his creatures. His
power reacheth all, and his knowledge pierceth all. As everything in
the world was created by God, so everything in the world is
preserved by God; and since preservation is not wholly distinct from
creation, it is necessary God should be present with everything while
he preserves it, as well as present with it when he created it. “Thou
preservest man and beast” (Ps. xxxvi. 6). “He upholds all things by
the word of his power” (Heb. i. 3). There is a virtue sustaining every
creature, that it may not fall back into that nothing from whence it
was elevated by the power of God. All those natural virtues we call
the principles of operation, are fountains springing from his
goodness and power; all things are acted and managed by him, as
well as preserved by him; and in this sense God is present with all
creatures; for whatsoever acts another, is present with that which it
acts, by sending forth some virtue and influence whereby it acts: if
free agents do not only live, but move in him and by him (Acts
xvii. 28), much more are the motions of other natural agents by a
virtue communicated to them, and upheld in them in the time of
their acting. This virtual presence of God is evident to our sense, a
presence we feel; his essential presence is evident in our reason.
This influential presence may be compared to that of the sun, which
though at so great a distance from the earth, is present in the air
and earth by its light, and within the earth by its influence in
concocting those metals which are in the bowels of it, without being
substantially either of them. God is thus so intimate with every
creature, that there is not the least particle of any creature, but the
marks of his power and goodness are seen in it, and his goodness
doth attend them, and is more swift in its effluxes than the
breakings out of light from the sun, which yet are more swift than
can be declared; but to say he is in the world only by his virtue, is to
acknowledge only the effects of his power and wisdom in the world,
that his eye sees all, his arm supports all, his goodness nourisheth
all, but himself and his essence at a distance from them;646 and so
the soul of man according to its measure would have in some kind a
more excellent manner of presence in the body, than God according
to the infiniteness of his Being with his creatures; for that doth not
only communicate life to the body, but is actually present with it,
and spreads its whole essence through the body and every member
of it. All grant, that God is efficaciously in every creek of the world;
but some say he is only substantially in heaven.

2. Limited to such subjects that are capacitated for this or that

kind of presence. Yet it is an omnipresence, because it is a presence
in all the subjects capacitated for it; thus there is a special
providential presence of God with some in assisting them when he
sets them on work as his instruments for some special service in the
world. As with Cyrus (Isa. xlv. 2), “I will go before thee;” and with
Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander, whom he protected and directed to
execute his counsels in the world; such a presence Judas and
others647 that shall not enjoy his glorious presence, had in the
working of miracles in the world. Besides,648 as there is an effective
presence of God with all creatures, because he produced them and
preserves them, so there is an objective presence of God with
rational creatures, because he offers himself to them to be known
and loved by them. He is near to wicked men in the offers of his
grace, “Call ye upon him while he is near” (Isa. lv. 6); besides, there
is a gracious presence of God with his people in whom he dwells and
makes his abode, as in a temple consecrated to him by the graces of
the Spirit. “We will come” (John xiv. 23), i. e. the Father and the
Son, and make our abode with him. He is present with all by the
presence of his Divinity, but only in his saints by a presence of a
gracious efficacy; he walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks,
and hath dignified the congregation of his people with the title of
Jehovah Shammah, “the Lord is there” (Ezek. xlviii. 35): “in Salem is
his tabernacle, and his dwelling‑place in Sion” (Ps. lxxvi. 2). As he
filled the tabernacle, so he doth the church with the signs of his
presence; this is not the presence wherewith he fills heaven and
earth. His Spirit is not bestowed upon all to reside in their hearts,
enlighten their minds, and bedew them with refreshing comforts.
When the Apostle speaks of God being “above all and through all”
(Eph. iv. 6), above all in his majesty, through all in his providence;
he doth not appropriate that as he doth what follows, “and in you
all;” in you all by a special grace; as God was specially present with
Christ by the grace of union, so he is specially present with his
people by the grace of regeneration. So there are several
manifestations of his presence; he hath a presence of glory in
heaven, whereby he comforts the saints; a presence of wrath in hell,
whereby he torments the damned; in heaven he is a God spreading
his beams of light; in hell, a God distributing his strokes of justice;
by the one he fills heaven; by the other he fills hell; by his
providence and essence he fills both heaven and earth.

Prop. III. There is an essential presence of God in the world. He

is not only everywhere by his power upholding the creatures, by his
wisdom understanding them, but by his essence containing them.
That anything is essentially present anywhere, it hath from God; God
is therefore much more present everywhere, for he cannot give that
which he hath not.

1. He is essentially present in all places.649 It is as reasonable to

think the essence of God to be everywhere as to be always.
Immensity is as rational as eternity. That indivisible essence which
reaches through all times may as well reach through all places. It is
more excellent to be always than to be everywhere; for to be always
in duration is intrinsical; to be everywhere is intrinsic. If the greater
belongs to God, why not the less? As all times are a moment to his
eternity, so all places are as a point to his essence. As he is larger
than all time, so he is vaster than all place. The nations of the world
are to him “as the dust of the balance” or “drop of a bucket” (Isa.
xl. 15). “The nations are accounted as the small dust.” The essence
of God may well be thought to be present everywhere with that
which is no more than a grain of dust to him, and in all those isles,
which, if put together, “are a very little thing” in his hand. Therefore,
saith a learned Jew,650 if a man were set in the highest heavens he
would not be nearer to the essence of God than if he were in the
centre of the earth. Why may not the presence of God in the world
be as noble as that of the soul in the body, which is generally
granted to be essentially in every part of the body of man, which is
but a little world, and animates every member by its actual
presence, though it exerts not the same operation in every part?651
The world is less to the Creator than the body to the soul, and needs
more the presence of God than the body needs the presence of the
soul. That glorious body of the sun visits every part of the habitable
earth in twenty‑four hours by its beams, which reaches the troughs
of the lowest valleys as well as the pinnacles of the highest
mountains; must we not acknowledge in the Creator of this sun an
infinite greater proportion of presence? Is it not as easy, with the
essence of God, to overspread the whole body of heaven and earth
as it is for the sun to pierce and diffuse itself through the whole air,
between it and the earth, and send up its light also as far to the
regions above? Do we not see something like it in sounds and
voices? Is not the same sound of a trumpet, or any other musical
instrument, at the first breaking out of a blast, in several places
within such a compass at the same time? Doth not every ear that
hears it receive alike the whole sound of it? And fragrant odors,
scented in several places at the same time, in the same manner; and
the organ proper for smelling takes in the same in every person
within the compass of it. How far is the noise of thunder heard alike
to every ear in places something distant from one another! And do
we daily find such a manner of presence in those things of so low a
concern, and not imagine a kind of presence of God greater than all
those? Is the sound of thunder, the voice of God as it is called,
everywhere in such a compass? and shall not the essence of an
infinite God be much more everywhere? Those that would confine
the essence of God only to heaven, and exclude it from the earth,
run into great inconveniences. It may be demanded whether he be
in one part of the heavens or in the whole vast body of them. If in
one part of them, his essence is bounded; if he moves from that part
he is mutable, for he changes a place wherein he was, for another
wherein he was not. If he be always fixed in one part of the
heavens, such a notion would render him little better than a living
statue.652 If he be in the whole heaven, why cannot his essence
possess a greater space than the whole heavens, which are so vast?
How comes he to be confined within the compass of that, since the
whole heaven compasseth the earth? If he be in the whole heaven
he is in places farther distant one from another than any part of the
earth can be from the heavens; since the earth is like a centre in the
midst of a circle, it must be nearer to every part of the circle than
some parts of the circle can be to one another. If, therefore, his
essence possesses the whole heavens, no reason can be rendered
why he doth not also possess the earth, since also the earth is but a
little point in comparison of the vastness of the heavens: if,
therefore, he be in every part of the heavens, why not in every part
of the earth? The Scripture is plain (Ps. cxxxix. 7‒9), “Whither shall
I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I fly from thy presence? If
I ascend up to heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell,
behold thou art there; if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell
in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me,
and thy right hand shall uphold me.” If he be in heaven, earth, hell,
sea, he fills all places with his presence. His presence is here
asserted in places the most distant from one another. All the places
then between heaven and earth are possessed by his presence. It is
not meant of his knowledge, for that the Psalmist had spoken of
before (ver. 2, 3), “Thou understandest my thoughts afar off; thou
art acquainted with all my ways:” besides, “thou art there;” not thy
wisdom or knowledge, but thou, thy essence, not only thy virtue.
For, having before spoken of his omniscience, he proves that such
knowledge could not be in God, unless he were present in his
essence in all places, so as to be excluded from none. He fills the
depths of hell, the extension of the earth, and the heights of the
heavens. When the Scripture mentions the power of God only, it
expresseth it by hand or arm; but when it mentions the Spirit of
God, and doth not intend the Third Person in the Trinity, it signifies
the nature and essence of God. And so here, when he saith,
“Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?” he adds, exegetically, “Whither
shall I fly from thy presence?” or (Heb.) “face:” and the face of God
in Scripture signifies the essence of God (Exod. xxxiii. 20, 23); “Thou
canst not see my face,” and “My face shall not be seen.” The effects
of his power, wisdom, and providence are seen, which are his back
parts, but not his face. The effects of his power and wisdom are
seen in the world, but his essence is invisible; and this the Psalmist
elegantly expresseth, Had I wings endued with as much quickness
as the first dawnings of the morning light, or the first darts of any
sunbeam that spreads itself through the hemisphere, and passeth
many miles in as short a space as I can think a thought, I should
find thy presence in all places before me, and could not fly out of the
infinite compass of thy essence.

2. “He is essentially present with all creatures.” If he be in all

places, it follows that he is with all creatures in those places; as he is
in heaven, so he is with all angels; as he is in hell, so he is with all
devils: as he is in the earth and sea, he is with all creatures
inhabiting those elements; as his essential presence was the ground
of the first being of things by creation, so it is the ground of the
continued being of things by conservation; as his essential presence
was the original, so it is the support of the existence of all the
creatures. What are all those magnificent expressions of his creative
virtue, but testimonies of his essential presence at the laying the
foundation of the world (Isa. xl. 12), “when he measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand, meted 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 balance?” He sets forth the
power and majesty of God in the creation and preservation of things,
and every expression testifies his presence with them. The waters
that were upon the face of the earth at first were no more than a
drop in the palm of a man’s hand, which in every part is touched by
his hand; and thus he is equally present with the blackest devils, as
well as the brightest angels; with the lowest dust, as well as with the
most sparkling sun. He is equally present with the damned and the
blessed, as he is an infinite Being, but not in regard of his goodness
and grace. He is equally present with the good and the bad, with the
scoffing Athenians, as well as the believing apostles, in regard of his
essence, but not in regard of the breathing of his divine virtues upon
them to make them like himself (Acts xvii. 27). “He is not far from
every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being.”
The apostle includes all; he tells them they should seek the Lord; the
Lord that they were to seek, is God essentially considered. We are,
indeed, to seek the perfections of God, that glitter in his works, but
to the end that they should direct us to the seeking of God himself in
his own nature and essence;653 and, therefore, what follows, “In him
we live,” is to be understood, not of his power and goodness,
perfections of his nature, distinguished according to our manner of
conception from his essence, but of the essential presence of God
with his creatures. If he had meant it of his efficacy in preserving us,
it had not been any proof of his nearness to us. Who would go about
to prove the body or substance of the sun to be near us because it
doth warm and enlighten us, when our sense evidenceth the
distance of it? We live in the beams of the sun, but we cannot be
said to live in the sun, which is so far distant from us. The
expression seems to be more emphatical than to intend any less
than his essential presence; but we live in him not only as the
efficient cause of our life, but as the foundation sustaining our lives
and motions, as if he were like air, diffused round about us; and we
move in him, as Austin saith, as a sponge in the sea, not containing
him, but being contained by him. He compasseth all, is
encompassed by none; he fills all, is comprehended by none. The
Creator contains the world, the world contains not the Creator; as
the hollow of the hand contains the water, the water in the hollow of
the hand contains not the hand; and therefore some have chose to
say, rather, that the world is in God, it lives and moves in him, than
that God is in the world. If all things thus live and move in him, then
he is present with everything that hath life and motion; and as long
as the devils and damned have life, and motion, and being, so long
is he with them; for whatsoever lives and moves, lives and moves in
him. This essential presence is,

(1.) Without any mixture. I fill heaven and earth; not, I am

mixed with heaven and earth: his essence is not mixed with the
creatures; it remains entire in itself. The sponge retains the nature of
a sponge, though encompassed by the sea, and moving in it; and
the sea still retains its own nature. God is most simple; his essence
therefore is not mixed with anything. The light of the sun is present
with the air, but not mixed with it; it remains light, and the air
remains air; the light of the sun is diffused through all the
hemisphere, it pierceth all transparent bodies, it seems to mix itself
with all things, yet remains unmixed and undivided; the light
remains light, and the air remains air; the air is not light, though it
be enlightened. Or, take this similitude: When many candles are
lighted up in a room, the light is all together, yet not mixed with one
another; every candle hath a particular light belonging to it, which
may be separated in a moment, by removing one candle from
another; but if they were mixed, they could not be separated, at
least so easily. God is not formally one with the world, or with any
creature in the world by his presence in it; nor can any creature in
the world, no, not the soul of man, or an angel, come to be
essentially one with God, though God be essentially present with it.

(2.) The essential presence is without any division of himself.

“I fill heaven and earth,” not part in heaven, and part in earth; I fill
one as well as the other: one part of his essence is not in one place,
and another part of his essence in another place, he would then be
changeable; for that part of his essence which were now in this
place, he might alter it to another, and place that part of his essence
which were in another place to this; but he is undivided everywhere.
As his eternity is one indivisible point, though in our conception we
divide it into past, present, and to come, so the whole world is as a
point to him, in regard of place, as before was said; it is as a small
dust, and grain of dust: it is impossible that one part of his essence
can be separated from another, for he is not a body, to have one
part separable from another. The light of the sun cannot be cut into
parts, it cannot be shut into any place and kept there, it is entire in
every place. Shall not God, who gives the light that power, be much
more present himself? Whatsoever hath parts is finite, but God is
infinite, therefore hath no parts of his essence. Besides, if there
were such a division of his being, he would not be the most simple
and uncompounded being, but would be made up of various parts;
he would not be a Spirit, for parts are evidences of composition; and
it could not be said that God is here or there, but only a part of God
here, and a part of God there. But he fills heaven and earth; he is as
much a God in the earth beneath as in heaven above (Deut. iv. 39);
entirely in all places, not by scraps and fragments of his essence.

(3.) This essential presence is not by multiplication. For that

which is infinite cannot multiply itself, or make itself more or greater
than it was.

(4.) This essential presence is not by extension or diffusion, as a

piece of gold may be beaten out to cover a large compass of
ground; no, if God should create millions of worlds he would be in
them all, not by stretching out his being, but by the infiniteness of
his being; not by a new growth of his being, but by the same
essence he had from eternity: upon the same reasons mentioned
before, his simplicity and indivisibility.

(5.) But totally. There is no space, not the least, wherein God is
not wholly, according to his essence, and wherein his whole
substance doth not exist; not a part of heaven can be designed
wherein the Creator is not wholly; as he is in one part of heaven, he
is in every part of heaven. Some kind of resemblance we may have
from the water of the sea, which fills the great space of the world,
and is diffused through all; yet the essence of water is in every drop
of water in the sea, as much as the whole; and the same quality of
water, though it comes short in quantity; and why shall we not allow
God a nobler way of presence without diffusion, as is in that? or take
this resemblance; since God likens himself to light in the Scripture,
“he covereth himself with light.”654 A crystal globe hung up in the air
hath light all about it, all within it, every part is pierced by it,
wherever you see the crystal you see the light; the light in one part
of the crystal cannot be distinguished from the light in the other
part; and the whole essence of light is in every part; and shall not
God be as much present with his creatures, as one creature can be
with another?655 God is totally everywhere by his own simple
substance.

Prop. IV. God is present beyond the world. He is within and

above all places, though places should be infinite in number; as he
was before and beyond all time, so he is above and beyond all place;
being from eternity before any real time, he must also be without as
well as within any real space; if God were only confined to the
world, he would be no more infinite in his essence than the world is
in quantity; as a moment cannot be conceived from eternity, wherein
God was not in being, so a space cannot be conceived in the mind of
man, wherein God is not present; he is not contained in the world
nor in the heavens (1 Kings viii. 27). “But will God indeed dwell on
the earth? Behold, the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee.”
Solomon wonders that God should appoint a temple to be erected to
him upon the earth, when he is not contained in the vast circuit of
the heavens; his essence is not straitened in the limits of any
created work; he is not contained in the heavens, i. e. in the manner
that he is there; but he is there in his essence, and therefore cannot
be contained there in his essence. If it should be meant only of his
power and providence, it would conclude also for his essence; if his
power and providence were infinite, his essence must be so too; for
the infiniteness of his essence is the ground of the infiniteness of his
power. It can never enter into any thought, that a finite essence can
have an infinite power, and that an infinite power can be without an
infinite essence; it cannot be meant of his providence, as if Solomon
should say, the heaven of heavens cannot contain thy providence;
for naming the heaven of heavens, that which encircles and bounds
the other parts of the world, he could not suppose a providence to
be exercised where there was no object to exercise it about; as no
creature is mentioned to be beyond the uttermost heaven, which he
calls here the heaven of heavens: besides, to understand it of his
providence, doth not consist with Solomon’s admiration: he wonders
that God, that hath so immense an essence, should dwell in a
temple made with hands; he could not so much wonder at his
providence in those things that immediately concern his worship.
Solomon plainly asserts this of God, That he was so far from being
bounded within the rich wall of the temple, which with so much cost
he had framed for the glory of his name, that the richer palace of
the heaven of heavens could not contain him; it is true, it could not
contain his power and wisdom, because his wisdom could contrive
other kind of worlds, and his power erect them. But doth the
meaning of that wise king reach no farther than this? Will the power
and wisdom of God reside on the earth? He was too wise to ask
such a question, since every object that his eyes met with in the
world resolved him, that the wisdom and power of God dwelt upon
the earth, and glittered in everything he had created; and reason
would assure him that the power that had framed this world, was
able to frame any more; but Solomon, considering the immensity of
God’s essence, wonders that God should order a house to be built
for him, as if he wanted roofs and coverings, and habitation, as
bodily creatures do. Will God indeed dwell in a temple, who hath an
essence so immense as not to be contained in the heaven of
heavens? It is not the heaven of heavens that can contain him, his
substance. Here he asserts the immensity of his essence, and his
presence not only in the heaven, but beyond the heavens; he that is
not contained in the heavens, as a man is in a chamber, is without,
and above, and beyond the heavens; it is not said, they do not
contain him, but it is impossible they should contain him; they
cannot contain him. It is impossible, then, but that he should be
above them; he that is without the compass of the world, is not
bounded by the limits of the world, as his power is not limited by the
things he hath made, but can create innumerable worlds, so can his
essence be in innumerable spaces; for as he hath power enough to
make more worlds, so he hath essence enough to fill them, and
therefore cannot be confined to what he hath already created;
innumerable worlds cannot be a sufficient place to contain God; he
can only be a sufficient place to himself;656 He that was before the
world, and place, and all things, was to himself a world, a place, and
everything:657 He is really out of the world in himself, as he was in
himself before the creation of the world: as because God was before
the foundation of the world, we conclude his eternity; so because he
is without the bounds of the world, we conclude his immensity, and
from thence his omnipresence. The world cannot be said to contain
him, since it was created by him; it cannot contain him now, who
was contained by nothing before the world was: as there was no
place to contain him before the world was, there can be no place to
contain him since the world was. God might create more worlds,
circular and round as this, and those could not be so contiguous, but
some spaces would be left between; as, take three round balls, lay
them as close as you can to one another, there will be some spaces
between; none would say but God would be in these spaces, as well
as in the world he had created, though there were nothing real and
positive in those spaces: why should we then exclude God from
those imaginary spaces without the world? God might also create
many worlds, and separate them by distances, that they might not
touch one another, but be at a great distance from one another; and
would not God fill them as well as he doth this? if so, he must also
fill the spaces between them; for if he were in all those worlds, and
not in the spaces between those worlds, his essence would be
divided; there would be gaps in it, his essence would be cut into
parts, and the distance between every part of his essence, would be
as great as the space between each world. The essence of God may
be conceived then well enough to be in all those infinite spaces
where he can erect new worlds.

I shall give one place more to prove both these propositions,

viz. that God is essentially in every part of the world, and essentially
above ours without the world (Isa. lxvi. 1): “The heaven is my
throne, and the earth is my footstool.” He is essentially in every part
of the world; he is in heaven and earth at the same time, as a man
is upon his throne and his footstool. God describes himself in a
human shape, accommodated to our capacity; as if he had his head
in heaven, and his feet on earth. Doth not his essence then, fill all
intermediate spaces between heaven and earth? As when the head
of a man is in the upper part of a room, and his feet upon the floor,
his body fills up the space between the head and his feet: this is
meant of the essence of God; it is a similitude drawn from kings
sitting upon the throne, and not their power and authority, but the
feet of their persons are supported by the footstool; so here it is not
meant only of the perfections of God, but the essence of God.
Besides, God seems to tax them with an erroneous conceit they had,
as though his essence were in the temple, and not in any part of the
world; therefore God makes an opposition between heaven and
earth, and the temple: “Where is the house that you built unto me?
and where is the place of my rest?” Had he understood it only of his
providence, it had not been anything against their mistake; for they
granted his providence to be not only in the temple, but in all parts
of the world. “Where is the house that you build to me;” to Me, not
to my power or providence, but think to include Me within those
walls. Again, it shows God to be above the heavens, if the heavens
be his throne; he sits upon them, and is above them, as kings are
above the thrones on which they sit. So it cannot be meant of his
providence, because no creature being without the sphere of the
heavens, there is nothing of the power and the providence of God
visible there, for there is nothing for him to employ his providence
about; for providence supposeth a creature in actual being; it must
be therefore meant of his essence, which is above the world and in
the world. And the like proof you may see (Job. xi. 7, 8), “It is as
high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, what canst
thou know? the measure thereof is longer than the earth, and
broader than the sea.” Where he intends the unsearchableness of
God’s wisdom, but proves it by the infiniteness of his essence, (Heb.)
“he is the height of the heavens,” he is the top of all the heavens; so
that, when you have begun at the lowest part, and traced him
through all the creatures, you will find his essence filling all the
creatures, to be at the top of the world, and infinitely beyond it.

Prop. V. This is the property of God, incommunicable to any

creature. As no creature can be eternal and immutable, so no
creature can be immense, because it cannot be infinite; nothing can
be of an infinite nature, and therefore nothing of an immense
presence but God. It cannot be communicated to the human nature
of Christ, though in union with the Divine;658 some indeed argue,
that Christ in regard of his human nature is everywhere, because he
sits at the right hand of God, and the right hand of God is
everywhere. His sitting at the right hand of God signifies his
exaltation, and cannot with any reason, be extended to such a kind
of arguing. “The hearts of kings are in the hand of God;” are the
hearts of kings everywhere, because God’s hand is everywhere? The
souls of the righteous are in the hand of God; is the soul, therefore,
of every righteous man everywhere in the world? The right hand of
God is from eternity; is the humanity of Christ, therefore, from
eternity, because it sits at the right hand of God? The right hand of
God made the world; did the humanity of Christ, therefore, make
heaven and earth? the humanity of Christ must then be confounded
with his divinity; be the same with it, not united to it. All creatures
are distinct from their Creator, and cannot inherit the properties
essential to his nature, as eternity, immensity, immutability,
omnipresence, omniscience; no angel, no soul, no creature can be in
all places at once; before they can be so they must be immense, and
so must cease to be creatures, and commence God; this is
impossible.

II. Reasons to prove God’s essential presence. Reason I.

Because he is infinite. As he is infinite, he is everywhere; as he is
simple, his whole essence is everywhere: for, in regard of his
infiniteness, he hath no bounds; in regard of his simplicity, he hath
no parts: and, therefore, those that deny God’s omnipresence,
though they pretend to own him infinite, must really conceive him
finite.
 1. God is infinite in his perfections. None can set bounds to
terminate the greatness and excellency of God (Ps. cxlv. 3): “His
greatness is unsearchable,” Sept. οὐκ ἔστι πέρας, there is no end, no
limitation. What hath no end is infinite; his power is infinite (Job
v. 9): “which doth great things and unsearchable;”—no end of those
things he is able to do. His wisdom infinite (Ps. cxlvii. 5); he
understands all things past, present, and to come; what is already
made, what is possible to be made. His duration infinite (Job
xxxvi. 26): “The number of his years cannot be searched out,”
ἀπέραντος. To make a finite thing of nothing is an argument of an
infinite virtue. Infinite power can only extract something out of the
barren womb of nothing; but all things were drawn forth by the
word of God, the heavens, and all the host of them; the sun, moon,
stars, the rich embellishments of the world, appeared in being “at
the breath of his mouth” (Ps. xxxiii. 6). The author, therefore, must
be infinite; and since nothing is the cause of God, or of any
perfection in him,—since he derives not his being, or the least spark
of his glorious nature, from anything without him,—he cannot be
limited in any part of his nature by anything without him; and,
indeed, the infiniteness of his power and his other perfections is
asserted by the prophet, when he tells us that “the nations are as a
drop of a bucket, or the dust of the balance, and less than nothing
and vanity” (Isa. xl. 15, 17), they are all so in regard of his power,
wisdom, &c. Conceive what a little thing a grain of dust or sand is to
all the dust that may be made by the rubbish of a house: what a
little thing the heap of the rubbish of a house is to the vast heap of
the rubbish of a whole city, such an one as London; how little that,
also, would be to the dust of a whole empire; how inconsiderable
that, also, to the dust of one quarter of the world, Europe or Asia;
how much less that, still, to the dust of the whole world! The whole
world is composed of an unconceivable number of atoms, and the
sea of an unconceivable number of drops; now what a little grain of
dust is in comparison to the dust of the whole world—a drop of
water from the sea, to all the drops remaining in the sea—that is the
whole world to God. Conceive it still less, a mere nothing, yet is it all
less than this in comparison of God; there can be nothing more
magnificently expressive of the infiniteness of God to a human
conception, than this expression of God himself in the prophet. In
the perfection of a creature, something still may be thought greater
to be added to it; but God containing all perfections in himself
formally, if they be mere perfections, and eminently, if they be but
perfections in the creature, mixed with imperfection, nothing can be
thought greater, and therefore every one of them is infinite.

2. If his perfections be infinite, his essence must be so. How

God can have infinite perfections, and a finite essence, is
unconceivable by a human or angelical understanding; an infinite
power, an infinite wisdom, an infinite duration, must needs speak an
infinite essence; since the infiniteness of his attributes is grounded
upon the infiniteness of his essence: to own infinite perfections in a
finite subject is contradictory. The manner of acting by his power,
and knowing by his wisdom, cannot exceed the manner of being by
his essence. His perfections flow from his essence, and the principle
must be of the same rank with what flows from it; and, if we
conceive his essence to be the cause of his perfections, it is utterly
impossible that an infinite effect should arise from a finite cause:
but, indeed, his perfections are his essence; for though we conceive
the essence of God as the subject, and the attributes of God as
faculties and qualities in that subject, according to our weak model,
who cannot conceive of an infinite God without some manner of
likeness to ourselves—who find understanding, and will, and power
in us distinct from our substance; yet truly and really there is no
distinction between his essence and attributes; one is inseparable
from the other. His power and wisdom are his essence; and
therefore to maintain God infinite in the one, and finite in the other,
is to make a monstrous god, and have an unreasonable notion of
the Deity; for there would be the greatest disproportion in his
nature, since there is no greater disproportion can possibly be
between one thing and another than there is between finite and
infinite. God must not only then be compounded, but have parts of
the greatest distance from one another in nature; but God, being the
most simple being without the least composition, both must be
equally infinite: if, then, his essence be not infinite, his power and
wisdom cannot be infinite, which is both against scripture and
reason. Again, how should his essence be finite, and his perfections
be infinite, since nothing out of himself gave them either the one or
the other?659 Again, either the essence can be infinite, or it cannot;
if it cannot, there must be some cause of that impossibility; that can
be nothing without him, because nothing without him can be as
powerful as himself, much less too powerful for him; nothing within
him can be an enemy to his highest perfection; since he is
necessarily what he is, he must be necessarily the most perfect
being, and therefore necessarily infinite, since to be something
infinitely is a greater perfection than to be something thing
finitely:660 if he can be infinite he is infinite, otherwise he could be
greater than he is, and so more blessed and more perfect than he is,
which is impossible: for being the most perfect Being, to whom
nothing can be added, he must needs be infinite.

3. If, therefore, God have an infinite essence, he hath an infinite

presence. An infinite essence cannot be contained in a finite place,
as those things which are finite have a bounded space wherein they
are; so that which is infinite hath an unbounded space; for, as
finiteness speaks limitedness, so infiniteness speaks unboundedness;
and if we grant to God an infinite duration, there is no difficulty in
acknowledging an infinite presence: indeed, the infiniteness of God
is a property belonging to him in regard of time and place; he is
bounded by no place, and limited to no time. Again, infinite essence
may as well be everywhere, as infinite power reaches everything; it
may as well be present with every being, as infinite power in its
working may be present with nothing to bring it into being. Where
God works by his power, he is present in his essence; because his
power and his essence cannot be separated; and therefore his
power, wisdom, goodness, cannot be anywhere where his essence is
not: his essence cannot be severed from his power, nor his power
from his essence; for the power of God is nothing but God acting,
and the wisdom of God nothing but God knowing. As the power of
God is always, so is his essence—as the power of God is
everywhere, so is his essence: whatsoever God is, he is alway, and
everywhere. To confine him to a place, is to measure his essence; as
to confine his actions, is to limit his power; his essence being no less
infinite than his power and his wisdom, can be no more bounded
than his power and wisdom; but they are not separable from his
essence, yea, they are his essence. If God did not fill the whole
world, he would be determined to some place, and excluded from
others; and so his substance would have bounds and limits, and
then something might be conceived greater than God; for we may
conceive that a creature may be made by God of so vast a greatness
as to fill the whole world, for the power of God is able to make a
body that should take up the whole space between heaven and
earth, and reach to every corner of it. But nothing can be conceived
by any creature greater than God; he exceeds all things, and is
exceeded by none. God, therefore, cannot be included in heaven,
nor included in the earth; cannot be contained in either of them; for,
if we should imagine them vaster than they are, yet still they would
be finite; and if his essence were contained in them, it could be no
more infinite than the world which contains it, as water is not of a
larger compass than the vessel which contains it. If the essence of
God were limited, either in the heavens or earth, it must needs be
finite, as the heaven and earth are; but there is no proportion
between finite and infinite; God, therefore, cannot be contained in
them. If there were an infinite body, that must be everywhere;
certainly, then, an infinite Spirit must be everywhere; unless we will
account him finite, we can render no reason why he should not be in
one creature as well as in another. If he be in heaven, which is his
creature, why can he not be in the earth, which is as well his
creature as the heavens?

Reason II. Because of the continual operation of God in the

world. This was one reason which made the heathen believe that
there was an infinite Spirit in the vast body of the world, acting in
everything, and producing those admirable motions which we see
everywhere in nature: that cause which acts in the most perfect
manner, is also in the most perfect manner present with its effects.

God preserves all, and therefore is in all; the apostle thought it

a good induction (Acts xvii. 27), “He is not far from us, for in him we
live.” For being as much as because, shows, that from his operation
he concluded his real presence with all: it is not, His virtue is not far
from every one of us, but He, his substance, himself; for, none that
acknowledge a God will deny the absence of the virtue of God from
any part of the world. He works in everything, everything lives and
works in him; therefore he is present with all:661 or rather, if things
live, they are in God, who gives them life. If things live, God is in
them, and gives them life; if things move, God is in them, and gives
them motion; if things have any being, God is in them, and gives
them being; if God withdraws himself, they presently lose their
being, and therefore some have compared the creature to the
impression of a seal upon the water, that cannot be preserved but by
the presence of the seal. As his presence was actual with what he
created, so his presence is actual with what preserves, since creation
and preservation do so little differ; if God creates things by his
essential presence, by the same he supports them; if his substance
cannot be disjoined from his preserving power, his power and
wisdom cannot be separated from his essence; where there are the
marks of the one, there is the presence of the other; for it is by his
essence that he is powerful and wise; no man can distinguish the
one from the other in a simple being; God doth not preserve and act
things by a virtue diffused from him. It may be demanded whether
that virtue be distinct from God; if it be not, it is then the essence of
God; if it be distinct it is a creature, and then it may be asked, how
that virtue which preserves other things, is preserved itself; it must
be ultimately resolved into the essence of God, or else there must be
a running in infinitum: or else,662 is that virtue of God a substance,
or not? Is it endued with understanding, or not? If it hath
understanding, how doth it differ from God? If it wants
understanding, can any imagine that the support of the world, the
guidance of all creatures, the wonders of nature, can be wrought,
preserved, managed by a virtue that hath nothing of understanding
in it? If it be not a substance, it can much less be able to produce
such excellent operations as the preserving all the kinds of things in
the world, and ordering them to perform such excellent ends; this
virtue is, therefore, God himself—the infinite power and wisdom of
God; and therefore, wheresoever the effects of these are seen in the
world, God is essentially present: some creatures, indeed, act at a
distance by a virtue diffused. But such a manner of acting comes
from a limitedness of nature, that such a nature cannot be
everywhere present and extend its substance to all parts. To act by a
virtue, speaks the subject finite, and it is a part of indigence: kings
act in their kingdoms by ministers and messengers, because they
cannot act otherwise; but God being infinitely perfect, works all
things in all immediately (1 Cor. xii. 6). Illumination, sanctification,
grace, &c., are the immediate works of God in the heart, and
immediate agents are present with what they do: it is an argument
of the greater perfection of a being, to know things immediately,
which are done in several places, than to know them at the second
hand by instruments; it is no less a perfection to be everywhere,
rather than to be tied to one place of action, and to act in other
places by instruments, for want of a power to act immediately itself.
God, indeed, acts by means and second causes in his providential
dispensations in the world, but this is not out of any defect of power
to work all immediately himself; but he thereby accommodates his
way of acting to the nature of the creature, and the order of things
which he hath settled in the world. And when he works by means,
he acts with those means, in those means, sustains their faculties
and virtues in them, concurs with them by his power; so that God’s
acting by means doth rather strengthen his essential presence than
weaken it, since there is a necessary dependence of the creatures
upon the Creator in their being and acting; and what they are, they
are by the power of God; what they act, they act in the power of
God, concurring with them; they have their motion in him as well as
their being: and where the power of God is, his essence is, because
they are inseparable; and so this omnipresence ariseth from the
simplicity of the nature of God; the more vast anything is, the less
confined. All that will acknowledge God so great, as to be able to
work all things by his will, without an essential presence, cannot
imagine him upon the same reason, so little as to be contained in,
and bounded by any place.

Reason III. Because of his supreme perfection. No perfection is

wanting to God; but an unbounded essence is a perfection; a limited
one is an imperfection. Though it be a perfection in a man to be
wise, yet it is an imperfection that his wisdom cannot rule all the
things that concern him; though it be a perfection to be present in a
place where his affairs lie, yet is it an imperfection that he cannot be
present everywhere in the midst of all his concerns; if any man could
be so, it would be universally owned as a prime perfection in him
above others: is that which would be a perfection in man to be
denied to God?663 as that which hath life is more perfect than that
which hath not life; and that which hath sense is more perfect than
that which hath only life as the plants have; and what hath reason,
is more perfect than that which hath only life and sense, as the
beasts have; so what is everywhere, is more perfect than that which
is bounded in some narrow confines: if a power of motion be more
excellent than to be bed‑rid, and swiftness in a creature be a more
excellent endowment than to be slow and snail‑like, then to be
everywhere without motion, is inconceivably a greater excellency
than to be everywhere successively by motion. God sets forth his
readiness to help his people and punish his enemies, or his
omnipresence, by swiftness, or “flying upon the wings of the wind”
(Ps. xviii. 10): the wind is in every part of the air, where it blows; it
cannot be said that it is in this or that point of the air where you feel
it, so as to exclude it from another part of the air where you are not;
it seems to possess all at once. If the Divine essence had any
bounds of place, it would be imperfect, as well as if it had bounds of
time; where anything hath limitation, it hath some defect in being;
and therefore if God were confined or concluded, he would be as
good as nothing in regard of infiniteness. Whence should this
restraint arise? there is no power above him to restrain him to a
certain space; if so, then he would not be God, but that power which
restrained him would be God: not from his own nature, for the being
everywhere implies no contradiction to his nature; if his own nature
determined him to a certain place, then if he removed from that
place, he would act against his nature; to conceive any such thing of
God is highly absurd. It cannot be thought God should voluntarily
impose any such restraint or confinement upon himself; this would
be to deny himself a perfection he might have; if God have not this
perfection, it is either because it is inconsistent with his nature; or,
because he cannot have it; or, because he will not. The former
cannot be; for if he hath impressed upon air and light a resemblance
of his excellency, to diffuse themselves and fill so vast a space, is
such an excellency inconsistent with the Creator more than the
creature? whatsoever perfection the creature hath, is eminently in
God. “Understand, O ye brutish among the people: and ye fools,
when will you be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?
he that formed the eye, shall he not see? he that teacheth man
knowledge, shall not he know?” (Ps. xciv. 8, 9.) By the same reason
he that hath given such a power to those creatures, air and light,
shall not he be much more filling all spaces of the world? It is so
clear a rule, that the Psalmist fixes a folly and brutishness upon
those that deny it; it is not therefore inconsistent with his nature, it
were not then a perfection but an imperfection; but whatsoever is an
excellency in creatures, cannot in a way of eminency be an
imperfection in God; if it be then a perfection, and God want it, it is
because he cannot have it; where, then, is his power? How can he
be then the fountain of his own Being? If he will not, where is his
love to his own nature and glory? since no creature would deny that
to itself which it can have, and is an excellency to it; God, therefore,
hath not only a power or fitness to be everywhere, but he is actually
everywhere.

Reason IV. Because of his immutability. If God did not fill all the
spaces of heaven and earth, but only possess one, yet it must be
acknowledged that God hath a power to move himself to another. It
were absurd to fix God in a part of the heavens, like a star in an orb,