Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

1. How God is eternal, or in what respects he is so. Eternity is a Negative Attribute, and is a denying of God any measures of time, as Immensity is a denying of him any bounds of place; As Immensity is the diffusion of his Essence, so Eternity is the duration of his Essence: And when we say God is eternal, we exclude from him all possibility of beginning and ending, all flux and change: As the Essence of God cannot be bounded by any place, so it is not to be limited by any time; as it is his Immensity to be every where, so it is his Eternity to be alway.^* As created things are said to be somewhere in regard of place, and to be present, past or future, in regard of time; so the Creator in regard of place, is everywhere; in regard of time, is semper: ^*His duration is as endless, as his Essence is boundless; He always was and always will be, and will no more have an End than he had a Beginning; and this is an excellency belonging to the Supreme Being:^* As his Essence comprehends all beings and exceeds them, and his Immensity surmounts all places; so his Eternity comprehends all times, all durations, and infinitely excels them.

1. How God is eternal, or in what respects he is so. Eternity is a Negative Attribute, and is a denying of God any measures of time, as Immensity is a denying of him any bounds of place; As Immensity is the diffusion of his Essence, so Eternity is the duration of his Essence: And when we say God is eternal, we exclude from him all possibility of beginning and ending, all flux and change: As the Essence of God cannot be bounded by any place, so it is not to be limited by any time; as it is his Immensity to be every where, so it is his Eternity to be alway.^* As created things are said to be somewhere in regard of place, and to be present, past or future, in regard of time; so the Creator in regard of place, is everywhere; in regard of time, is semper: ^*His duration is as endless, as his Essence is boundless; He always was and always will be, and will no more have an End than he had a Begininng; and this is an excellency belonging to the Supream Being: