him; fo that inftead of minding his kind Invitation, he had like to have killed him for his Pains. The Hamadryad was fo provoked at her own Difappointment, and the ill Ufage of her Meffenger, that the deprived Rhacus of the Ufe of his Limbs. However, fays the Story, he was not fo much a Cripple, but he made a fhift to cut down the Tree, and confquently to fell his • Miftrefs.

Affiduo labuntur tempora motu

Non fecus ac flumen. Neque enim confiftere flumen,
Nec levis hora poteft: fed ut unda impellitur unda,
Urgeturque prior venienti, urgetque priorem,
Tempora fic fugiunt pariter, pariterque fequuntur;
Et nova funt femper. Nam quod fuit ante, relictum eft ;
Fitque quod haud fuerat: momentaque cun&ta novantur.
Ov. Met.

The following Difcourfe comes from the fame Hand with the Effays upon Infinitude.

W

E confider infinite Space as an Expanfion without a Circumference: We confider Eternity, or infinite Duration, as a Line that has neither a Beginning not an End. In our Speculations of infinite Space, we confider that particular Place in which we exift," as a kind of Centre to the whole Expanfion. In our Speculations of Eternity, we confider the Time which is prefent to us as the Middle, which divides the whole Line into two equal Parts. For this Reafon, many witty Authors compare the prefent Time to an Ifthmus or narrow Neck of Land, that rifes in the midst of an Ocean,. immeafurably diffufed on either Side of it.

PHILO

1

PHILOSOPHY, and indeed common Senfe, naturally throws Eternity under two Divifions; which we may call in Engli, that Eternity which is paft, and that Eternity which is to come. The learned Terms of Æternitas a Parte ante, and Æternitas a Parte poft, may be more amufing to the Reader, but can have no other Idea affixed to them than what is conveyed to us by thofe Words, an Eternity that is paft, and an Eternity that is to come. Each of thefe Eternities is bounded at the one Extream; or, in other Words, the former has an End, and the latter a Beginning,

LET us first of all confider that Eternity which is past, referving that which is to come for the Subject of another Paper. The Nature of this Eternity is utterly inconceivable by the Mind of Man: Our Reafon demonftrates to us that it has been, but at the fame Time can frame no Idea of it, but what is big with Abfurdity and Contradiction. We can have no other Conception of any Duration which is paft, than that all of it was once prefent; and whatever was once prefent, is at fome certain Distance from us, and whatever is at any certain Distance from us, be the Distance never fo remote, cannot be Eternity. The very Notion of any Duration's being paft, implies that it was once prefent; for the Idea of being once prefent, is actually included in the Idea of its being paft. This therefore is a Depth not to be founded by human Understanding. We are fure that there has been an Eternity, and yet contradict our felves when we measure this Eternity by any Notion which we can frame of it.

If we go to the Bottom of this Matter, we fhall find, that the Difficulties we meet with in our Conceptions of Eternity proceed from this fingle Reafon, that we can have no other Idea of any kind of Duration, than that by which we our felves, and all other created Beings, do exift; which is, a fucceffive Duration made up of past, prefent, and to come. There is nothing which exifts after this Manner, all the Parts of whofe Exiftence were not once actually prefent, and confequently may be reached by a certain Number of Years applied to it. We may afcend as high as we please, and employ our Being to that

Eternity

Eternity which is to come, in adding Millions of Years to Millions of Years, and we can never come up to any Fountain Head of Duration, to any Beginning in Eternity: But at the fame Time we are fure, that whatever was once prefent does lye within the Reach of Numbers, though perhaps we can never be able to put enough of them together for that Purpose. We may as well fay, that any Thing may be actually prefent in any Part of infinite Space, which does not lye at a certain Distance from us, that any Part of infinite Duration was once actually prefent, and does not alfo lye at some determined Diftance from us. The Distance in both Cafes may be immeasurable and indefinitive as to our Faculties, but our Reafon tells us that it cannot be fo in itfelf. Here therefore is that Difficulty which human Underftanding is not capable of furmounting. We are fure that fomething must have existed from Eternity, and are at the fame Time unable to conceive, that any Thing which exists, according to our Notion of Existence, can have existed from Eternity.

IT is hard for a Reader, who has not rolled the Thought in his own Mind, to follow in fuch an abftracted Speculation; but I have been the longer on it, because I think it is a demonstrative Argument of the Being and Eternity of a God: And tho' there are many other Demonftrations which lead us to this great Truth, I do not think we ought to lay afide any Proofs in this Matter which the Light of Reafon has fuggefted to us, especially when it is fuch a one as has been urged by Men famous for their Penetration, and Force of Understanding, and which appears altogether conclufive to those who will be at the Pains to examine it.

HAVING thus confidered that Eternity which is paft, according to the best Idea we can frame of it, I fhall now draw up thofe feveral Articles on this Subject which are dictated to us by the Light of Reason, and which may be looked upon as the Creed of a Philofopher in this great Point.

FIRST,

FIRST, It is certain that no Being could have made itfelf; for if fo, it must have acted before it was, which is a Contradiction.

SECONDLY, That therefore fome Being must have exifted from all Eternity.

THIRDLY, That whatever exifts after the manner of created Beings, or according to any Notions which we have of Exiítence, could not have exifted from Eternity.

FOURTHLY, That this eternal Being muft therefore be the great Author of Nature, The Ancient of Days, who, being at an infinite Diftance in his Perfections from all finite and created Beings, exifts in a quite different manner from them, and in a manner of which they can have no Idea.

I know that feveral of the Schoolmen, who would not be thought ignorant of any Thing, have pretended to explain the Manner of God's Existence, by telling us, That he comprehends infinite Duration in every Moment; That Eternity is with him a Punctum ftans, a fixed Point; or, which is as good Sense, an Infinite Inftance; That nothing with Reference to his Existence, is either paft or to come: To which the ingenious Mr. Corley alludes in his Defcription of Heaven,

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal NOW does always laft.

FOR my own Part, I look upon these Propofitions as Words that have no Ideas annexed to them; and think Men had better own their Ignorance, than advance Doctrines by which they mean nothing, and which indeed are felf-contradictory. We cannot be too modeft in our Difquifitions, when we meditate on Him who is environed with fo much Glory and Perfection, who is the Source of Being, the Fountain of all that Existence which we and his whole Creation derive from him. Let us therefore with the utmost Humility acknowledge, that as fome Being must neceffarily have exifted from Eternity, fo this Being does exift after an incomprehenfible Manner, fince it is im

poffible

poffible for a Being to have existed from Eternity after our Manner or Notions of Exiftence. Revelation confirms thefe natural Dictates of Reafon in the Accounts which it gives us of the Divine Exiftence, where it tells us, that he is the fame Yefterday, To day, and for Ever; that he is the Alpha and Omega, the Reginning and the Ending; that a thousand Years are with him as one Day, and one Day as a thousand Years; by which and the like Expreffions, we are taught, that his Existence, with relation to Time or Duration, is infinitely different from the Existence of any of his Creatures, and confequently that it is impoffible for us to frame any adequate Conceptions of it.

IN the firft Revelation which he makes of his own Being, he entitles himself, I am that I am; and when Mofes defires to know what Name he fhall give him in his Embaffy to Pharaoh, he bids him fay that I am hath fent you. Our great Creator by this Revelation of himfelf, does in a manner exclude every Thing elfe from a real Existence, and distinguishes himself from his Creatures, as the only Being which truly and really exifts. The ancient Platonick Notion, which was drawn from Speculations of Eternity, wonderfully agrees with this Revelation which God has made of himself. There is nothing, fay they, which in Reality exifts, whofe Exiftence, as we call it, is pieced up of past, prefent, and to come. Such a flitting and fucceffive Exiftence is rather a Shadow of Exiftence, and fomething which is like it, than Existence itself. He only properly exifts, whofe Exiftence is intirely prefent; that is, in other Words, who exifts in the most perfect Manner, and in fuch a Manner as we have no Idea of.

I fhall conclude this Speculation with one useful Inference. How can we fufficiently proftrate ourselves and fall down before our Maker, when we confider that ineffable Goodness and Wisdom which contrived this Exiftence for finite Natures? What must be the Overflowings of that Good-will, which prompted our Creator to adapt Existence to Beings, in whom it is not necessary? Efpecially when we confider that he himself was before in the compleat Poffeffion of Existence and of Happiness,

and