Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

4. God could not be an infinitely perfect Being, if he were not eternal. A finite duration is inconsistent with infinite perfection. Whatsoever is contracted within the limits of time, cannot swallow up all perfections in it self. God hath an unsearchable perfection.^* Canst thou by searching find out God; canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? He cannot be found out, He is infinite, because he is incomprehensible: Incomprehensibility ariseth from an infinite perfection, which cannot be fathomed by the short line of Man's Understanding: His Essence in regard of its diffusion, and in regard of its duration, is incomprehensible as well as his action: If God therefore had beginning, he could not be infinite; if not infinite, he did not possess the highest perfection, because a perfection might be conceived beyond it; If his Being could fail, he were not perfect: Can that deserve the name of the highest perfection, which is capable of corruption and dissolution? To be finite and limited, is the greatest imperfection, for it consists in a denial of being. He could not be the most blessed Being, if he were not always so, and should not for ever remain to be so; and whatsoever perfections he had, would be soured by the thoughts, that in time they would cease; and so could not be pure perfections, because not permanent; But He is blessed from everlasting to everlasting. ^*Had he a beginning, he could not have all perfection without limitation; he would have been limited by that which gave him beginning; that which gave him being would be God, and not himself, and so more perfect than he: But since God is the most sovereign perfection, than which nothing can be imagined perfecter by the most capacious understanding, He is certainly eternal; being infinite, nothing can be added to him, nothing detracted from him.

4. God could not be an infinitely perfect Being, if he were not eternal. A finite duration is inconsistent with infinite perfection. Whatsoever is contracted within the limits of time, cannot swallow up all perfections in it self. God hath an unsearchable perfection.^* Canst thou by searching find out God; canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? He cannot be found out, He is infinite, because he is incomprehensible: Incomprehensibility ariseth from an infinite perfection, which cannot be fathom'd by the short line of Man's Understanding: His Essence in regard of its diffusion, and in regard of its duration, is incomprehensible as well as his action: If God therefore had beginning, he could not be infinite; if not infinite, he did not possess the highest perfection, because a perfection might be conceived beyond it; If his Being could fail, he were not perfect: Can that deserve the name of the highest perfection, which is capable of corruption and dissolution? To be finite and limited, is the greatest imperfection, for it consists in a denial of being. He could not be the most blessed Being, if he were not always so, and should not for ever remain to be so; and whatsoever perfections he had, would be sowred by the thoughts, that in time they would cease; and so could not be pure perfections, because not permanent; But He is blessed from everlasting to everlasting.