of their State by Creation. any 'way imaginable, whereby to have exprelfed the diflahce of God arid the~~ Creature, which lhould have cafl them down lower than thiS ofbcmg lefs than Ch•p. ,. nothing God would have exprcfl it thereby ; But take them barely as Crea- ~ ttrres, ahd you cannr.ot [peak lower of. t bem. Oh the infinite Height and depth of God, which Zopb.•r fpeaksof, Job.I J, 8. to whom the Creatures are lefs t han Nothing. . '· -,, , Our Divines t11erefore reckon not God in point of Aritbmetick ,_together with us; they cafl not God and us, into the lame Numbering. The'y do not fay of him , that be is Vmu , or One; though he be thefirfl, and great One, and fo go on to Number the reil of things: No, they fuffer not· Creatures to bear or fuflain•the repute ~nd account ot NuJTiber after btm; or w)1en be IS fpo– keno[ They fay of him, t hat he is V11ictJS, the only One, that flands apJrt by himfclf out of all Aritbmetick ; l as his tranfcendent being comes not un– der out Log ick : ) which is in effed: the fame that God by the Prophet Ijaiah fpeaks, Our acuterCommentators on thofe paffages in Chapters the jd, 4th, 5th (wherein God fets himfelf out alone the true God , I am Jehovah, m1d there i; 1to1!e etje; thn·e is 110 God bejidrs me: I am the jirfl, and thr tafl: And the like to thefe , which you find up and down in t ho(e ( Chiipters) do -ob(erve, that though his difpute, or rather an over-difpuring difcovcry of his Creatures, be pitcht for the confulion of the Idol Gods of Heathens, thot yet his arguings do rife higher thanfimply againfl thofe Idols, t heir,Peing Gods : But involves in the confuration thereof, t hat as Creatures , theyT~ad no Being, SecG't.l'" ; 0 much lefs as Gods. Thus Chap, 43· 10. compared With Verf. 1 j. Brfore tht the E'gNfh. day was , I am hr; and therefore acc~rdingly flill mentions his Name .Jcho- ~~~;~:: on the vah, hiS Name that affures wholly the Name of Berng to htm; and as ofthem, fpeaks up and down of his being the Creator, and Former of rhem, as meerly out of Nothing; and will you take them, and make Gods of them ? Thus his Argument lies: And when inChapt, 45'· 5'- ( as in the conclufion of that Difcourk) he fpeaks thus , Ver[, s, 6, 7. I am the Lord, twd there i; 11011e rl(r ; there u >to God brjides me: I girded thee though thouhafl 11ot known me; That they may know from the ripl1g of the Sun, _a_nd from the Wefl, that there is nont bejides me: I am the Lord, and there ts no1u e/(r: I form the tt;ght, and Create dark1tejs; I make peace, and CreaU ev•l : I the L ord do all theft things :He manifeflly points the dint of his Speech in relation to them as Creatures; and not as Gods only fet up by Men. And he was the Creotor of al l things, who only had therefore being in himfelf; and fo did, or made all thofe things: As his faying is, Verf. 7· And that therefore there was not only no God befides him, but that their Gods (as Creatures) had no being but he alone , whofe Name was being, or .7thovah. As to fuch a fenfe as this, I un· derfland the order of thofe words in Vrrf. s. (taking in all thefe things that fland rouod about it) I am ,7ehovah, md 1101Jt elfe; there is 110 Godbefides me: That the forepart of that Speech is applied to the Point ofBeing and Exiflence: I am .7ehovah, that is, Being it felfonly, and none elfe. For then over and above befides , he adds , There is no God befides me; that is, no Creature [Is ] no GGd to be fure belides him. So ao their fwelliog words ufed of rhe Creatures to be fliled [All things J belides him, cloth in reality, and eff,·Cl: come butjufl to the fame account as if you would fet down a multitude of Cy: · phers apart by themfelves, and then fay of the account of them, there is ~ Million, or·many Thoufaods of them; which is a vaft Number in found of words, and reacheth a long way in Figures; but yet flill they are but a Milfi· on of Cyphers; and what comes that to? Even to jufl Nothing; becaufe there is not fo much as one real Number of their rank or kind, to fet afore them. All and every Creature being Nullius Numeri, as we fay, bearing no account; all of them make not fo much as nn Unite, an One in truth; but thev are empty Sbadows, appearances of Bting: All , and every one of them. ' To apply all this to humble you as Creatures : Look as this falfe and fitlitiou• Name of Idols their being Gods, is but an impofed, .and equivocal titfe;where· as an Idol is really Nothing: r Cor,8.4,5, We /wow that a11 Idol u t10thi11g i11 tht World, ar.dthat there is ttont other God but o11e: For thottgh thrre 6e that arecdiled Gods, whet fur i11 Htavm or;, Eartb, (as tbrre be Gods mauy, D and
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