1!.0 Of the Creatures, and the Condition ~ 1. That afore any Creature was, he dwelt alone, that is evident; For they BooK I. not being or exif\mg , he mufi needs h~ve had an Eter11ity paf/, alone to him. V"'V""'o.' felf, which he fays he dwelt in, and no Creature with him: Not only, there . was nootbrr God witb him (as Mojes) but no Creature with him ( as So/o. mofl) Prov. 8. from I'er{: 1-j. to p. So that what was faid of Ifraet, thatthey were a people that dweit alo11e, 'IJeut. B· 28. the fame may be faid ofthe God of Ifi'ael; he was utterly without all SO<;iety of any Creature. . And fecondly, it is all one after he hath made the Creatures; he fltll dwels The Jev·s c.ll in his own Eternity, apart by himfelf. It is one of the Attributes which Paul I;'"' "'''?"• gives him, 1Tim. 6. t6. Who otlfy bath immortality, df!Jelf111g iiJ th(. fight :,~'(;• 1~;~;"[~ wbJCb no Mmt amapproach u11to ; And therefore you fee 10 ljm, 66. that fince himfdf. "" he bath made l'leaven nod Earth, how yet he fpenks of the whole Creation . own c~nt« Wherewi/J yeji11dme aplace for my rtjl? which imports, that fince he mad~ ;;.:,"~,:},~;~~' the World he dwels by himfelfapart in the fa~e Ete~nity he did : His ~!laking of Creatures, was not to add or to enlarge hts dwelling, that he mtght mhabit more commodioufly, (as it is with Man, whofe Perfo" is one thing, and whofe Houje is another;) No; Their Building is not a new piece of an Houfe to him , who alone inhabits Eternity, that is, himfelf. 'Tis true, that now he hath made all thefe things, if he lbould not be e– very where, where any of them are, and through them a/J, as Paul's phrafe is, Ephe[. 4• he lhould not be God, the immenfe God ; l fill Heaven mul Earth, faith he,Jerem. 2~, 24. feeing tlley are made, he fills them alfo: Yet fo, as !till he is not beholding to them for room or place: As th' Son filleth the Air, but i! not beholding to it for the place it affords it, but the .\ir to the Sun that fills it. Thirdly, that he inhabittth Eter11ity, fhews that he pojJeJfeth att things in himfelf; for himfelf is his own Eternity to himfelf; and that Eternity being an boufc to himfelf, is furnilhed with all things within himfelf: He went not then out of himfelf for any thing; nor needs he yet to do fo, as Atls •7· 2S· Ht 1lteds 1rot any thi1rg: But was abundantly fupplied with all things within him– felf , as a great Man in his own Houfe; whofe glory it is to have all things fuf· ficiently about him therein and therewith. Fourthly, that he inhabiteth Eternity imports that his being is fo infinite, a~ he fills the immenfe expanfe of all or both Eternities in one Moment. He comprehends and compaffeth the whole, and all within himfel!, and extends himfelf thorough it all; he is the King of Ages, that is of the courfes of Times, 1 Tim,t, 17.and foasaKing bath all Ages as fubjed:s always extant afore him. In the 4oth of Ifai. it is faidhe Jpanneth the Heaven>; and it is a goor;l grafp that you will fay; but that isfpoken only of a thing that is now at pre· lent exifling; bur in 'Deuttr. H•27• ye read, he hathevtriaf/i1Jg .Arms; a right arm to inviron Eternity, a parte a11r., Eternity pa!t; and another that to come: And fo incircles both Eternities, pafi and to come, without fucceffion of time to him: Eternity is but a moment to him : a.: ,J, ttte1'nitatu,as the Schoolmen [peak: For he comprehends it within the Arms ofhis infinitely extenfive being: As he fubfifis not in place, per partes, fo nor in Time by parts. He runs not through a Time Ptljf, Prefmt, and to come. His duration, is not mea· fured by the differences of Time: For then it might be faid, as toTime to come, he M yet i4 11ot. By the fame Reafon that ath~u[t~nd-years.are but 114 one day to hrm; by the fame you may fay, that Etermty 1s but one mfiant. [He inha· 6ites] that is poffeffeth even the whole Continually ; he builds not one part of his Eternity in one Age, and another part in another, fo as that he lhould dwell in it by piece-meal and fucceffively : Nor yet removes he his habitation, as men that have great Houfes do, from one part of their Houfe, as in Win· ier ( fuppofe) and to another in Summer, and the other part fianding empty the while: No, but from Eternity to eternity, is but one intire individual,and 'theri,ilofo· cornpleat Houfe for the whole of him at once to fill; who is fulnefs of being in ~~: ;~~~~~d the intenfenefs "f Perfed:ion.. And hence he eojoyeth all ble~ednefs in an .in. doth ""' <- fiant; not as we, one part thts moment, and another p•ece m another, whtch .,.,~, x.•if'<' when put together, do make a compleat happinefs, but in a fucce11i· u ;r/f'v• on. Fifthly
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=