Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

1. We have more of not being than being. We were nothing from an unbegun Eternity, and we might have been nothing to an endless Eternity, had not God called us into being; and if he please, we may be nothing by as short an annihilating word, as we were something by a Creating word. As it is the prerogative of God, to be, I am that I am; so it is the property of a Creature, to be, I am not what I am; I am not by my self what I am, but by the Indulgence of another. I was nothing formerly, I may be nothing again, unless he that is, I am, make me to subsist what I now am. Nothing is as much the title of the Creature, as Being is the title of God. Nothing is so holy as God, because nothing hath being as God.^* There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none besides thee. Mans life is an Image, a dream, which are next to nothing; and if compared with God, worse than nothing; a nullity as well as a vanity: Because with God only is the fountain of life. ^*The Creature is but a drop of life from him, dependent on him. A drop of water is a nothing, if compared with the vast conflux of waters, and numberless drops in the Ocean.

1. We have more of not being than being. We were nothing from an unbegun Eternity, and we might have been nothing to an endless Eternity, had not God call'd us into being; and if he please, we may be nothing by as short an annihilating word, as we were something by a Creating word. As it is the prerogative of God, to be, I am that I am; so it is the property of a Creature, to be, I am not what I am; I am not by my self what I am, but by the Indulgence of another. I was nothing formerly, I may be nothing again, unless he that is, I am, make me to subsist what I now am. Nothing is as much the title of the Creature, as Being is the title of God. Nothing is so holy as God, because nothing hath being as God.^* There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none besides thee. Mans life is an Image, a dream, which are next to nothing; and if compar'd with God, worse than nothing; a nullity as well as a vanity: Because with God only is the fountain of life. ^*The Creature is but a drop of life from him, dependent on him. A drop of water is a nothing, if compar'd with the vast conflux of waters, and numberless drops in the Ocean.