Section 1. Omnipresence of God.

(a) In General. God is omnipresent; He operates in all things; He has wrought all our works in us.

(b) Agentic Omnipresence. God is in all things; not, indeed, as part of their essence, nor as an accident, but as an agent is present to that upon which it works.

1. For an agent must be joined to that wherein it acts immediately and touch it by its power; hence it is proved that the thing moved and the mover must be joined together.
2. Now since God is very being by His own essence, created being must be His proper effect; as to ignite is the proper effect of fire. Now God causes this effect in things not only when they first begin to be, but as long as they are preserved in being; as light is caused in the air by the sun as long as the air remains illuminated.
3. Therefore as long as a thing has being, God must be present to it, according to its mode of being. But being is innermost in each thing and most fundamentally inherent in all things since it is formal in respect of everything found in a thing, as was shown previously (section 1 relative of the preceding article). Hence it must be that God is in all things, and innermostly.

(c) Supremacy and Omnipresence. God is above all things by the excellence of His nature; nevertheless, He is in all things as the cause of the being of all things; as was shown above in this section.

(d) God's Containment of Things. Although corporeal things are said to be in another as in that which contains them, nevertheless, spiritual things contain those things in which they are; as the soul contains the body. Hence also God is in things containing them; nevertheless, by a certain similitude to corporeal things, it is said that all things are in God; inasmuch as they are contained by Him.

(e) Closeness, Distance of God. No action of an agent, however powerful it may be, acts at a distance, except through a medium. But it belongs to the great power of God that He acts immediately in all things. Hence nothing is distant from Him, as if it could be without God in itself. But things are distant from God by the unlikeness to Him in nature or grace; as also He is above all by the excellence of His own nature.

(f) Presence Regarding Demons and Deformity. In the demons there is their nature which is from God, and also the deformity of sin which is not from Him; therefore, it is not to be absolutely conceded that God is in the demons, except with the addition, inasmuch as they are beings. But in things not deformed in their nature, we must say absolutely that God is.

Section 2. God Being Everywhere.

(a) In General. God fills heaven and earth.

(b) Places.

1. Since place is a thing, to be in place can be understood in a twofold sense; A) either by way of other things—that is, as one thing is said to be in another no matter how; and thus the accidents of a place are in place; B) or by a way proper to place; and thus things placed are in a place.
2. Now in both these senses, in some way God is in every place; and this is to be everywhere.

(c) Giving Existence; God's Filling Every Place.

1. First, as He is in all things giving them being, power and operation; so He is in every place as giving it existence and locative power.
2. Again, things placed are in place, inasmuch as they fill place; and God fills every place; not, indeed, like a body, for a body is said to fill place inasmuch as it excludes the co-presence of another body; whereas by God being in a place, others are not thereby excluded from it; indeed, by the very fact that He gives being to the things that fill every place, He Himself fills every place.

Section 3. God's Omnipresence by essence, presence and power.

(a) In General. God by a common mode is in all things by His presence, power and substance; still He is present more familiarly in some by grace.

(b) Manner of God's Presence.

1. God is said to be in a thing in two ways; A) in one way after the manner of an efficient cause; and thus He is in all things created by Him; B) in another way he is in things as the object of operation is in the operator; and this is proper to the operations of the soul, according as the thing known is in the one who knows; and the thing desired in the one desiring.
2. In this second way God is especially in the rational creature which knows and loves Him actually or habitually. And because the rational creature possesses this prerogative by grace, as will be shown later (article 11 of this chapter). He is thus in the saints by grace.

(c) Power of Omnipresence.

1. But how He is in other things created by Him, may be considered from human affairs. A king, for example, is said to be in the whole kingdom by his power, although he is not everywhere present. Again a thing is said to be by its presence in other things which are subject to its inspection; as things in a house are said to be present to anyone, who nevertheless may not be in substance in every part of the house.
2. Lastly, a thing is said to be by way of substance or essence in that place in which its substance may be.
3. Now there were some who said that spiritual and incorporeal things were subject to the divine power; but that visible and corporeal things were subject to the power of a contrary principle. Therefore against these it is necessary to say that God is in all things by His power.

(d) Extension of God's Presence. But others, though they believed that all things were subject to the divine power, still did not allow that divine providence extended to these inferior bodies, and in the person of these it is said, He walks about the poles of the heavens; and He does not consider our things. Against these it is necessary to say that God is in all things by His presence.

(e) Essence of God's Creation. Further, others said that, although all things are subject to God's providence, still all things are not immediately created by God; but that He immediately created the first creatures, and these created the others. Against these it is necessary to say that He is in all things by His essence.

(f) Power, Presence, Essence. Therefore, God is in all things by His power, inasmuch as all things are subject to His power; He is by His presence in all things, as all things are bare and open to His eyes; He is in all things by His essence, inasmuch as He is present to all as the cause of their being.

Section 4. God's Sole Possession of Omnipresence.

(a) In General. To be everywhere primarily and absolutely, is proper to God.

(b) Nature of Possessing Omnipresence.

1. Wholeness. Now to be everywhere primarily is said of that which in its whole self is everywhere; for if a thing were everywhere according to its parts in different places, it would not be primarily everywhere, forasmuch as what belongs to anything according to part does not belong to it primarily; thus if a man has white teeth, whiteness belongs primarily not to the man but to his teeth.
2. Necessity of Being. But a thing is everywhere absolutely when it does not belong to it to be everywhere accidentally, that is, merely on some supposition; as a grain of millet would be everywhere, supposing that no other body existed. It belongs therefore to a thing to be everywhere absolutely when, on any supposition, it must be everywhere; and this properly belongs to God alone. For whatever number of places be supposed, even if an infinite number be supposed besides what already exist, it would be necessary that God should be in all of them; for nothing can exist except by Him.
3. Belonging. Therefore to be everywhere primarily and absolutely belongs to God and is proper to Him: because whatever number of places be supposed to exist, God must be in all of them, not as to a part of Him, but as to His very self.