On the Nature of God. ino}!es but little -of its own being ; I befeech you confider the difference between God and the creature in this, when (I fay)heeis a-prefent being, that is fet forth in the words I am; I fay the creature injoyes but very little of its own be-- ing;why,becaufe whatfoever is pafl,it cannot injoy,andwhat- foever is to come it injoyes not ; now all that it Both inoy of it felf, it is only what it bath at an inilant, this prefent irrllanr what it hath,that it may be faid to be ; but now with God there is nothing pall , there is nothing to come ; there is nothing pafl,I fay,in refpe& of Gods beeing, there is no- thing to come,but his beefing is alwayes prefent,he alwayes faith, l am; therefore Chrill fpeaking of his Divine Nature, in 3ahn 8.58. faith bee, Before Abraham was, lam; Chrift i5ìv AC;axec ` doth not fay, 1 was before 4braham was, no, but before Ytiewai, Abraham was, I am. Certainly this had been no good English to have fpoken of any creature ; If any man íhovld fay thus, Before fuch a thing was, l am ; if any An- gel should fay fo , this were no proper fpeech ; but Chrifl faith fo, Before Abraham was, I am, becaufe Chrifl in re- gard of his Divine Nature bath no fucceffion of beeing at all ; wee cannot fay that God bath fo many years added to him lince the world began , God was as eternal before the world was, as bee is now, or ever íhall bee ; it cannot bee faid that bee was, nor will bee, but alwayes it may be Paid l am ; I am, was, and will bee, the difference of time, it is in refpec' of the creature , not in refpea of God , and that is the reafon of thofe phrafes in Scripture, That a s pet g thoufand years with God are Ns one day, and one day as a thoufand years ; There is no difference of time with God at all : And that is the fecond thing, therefore bee alone is excellent. Thirdly , This beeing of God it is is all places. His ex- cellency it is every where throughout the world , and that, firff, Not virtually only, God is not in every place onely Feter,pnefenter virtually by his power, that is, bee works in every place,but Deus bic 67. bee is in every place effentially.Secondly,God ,snot in every ubiquepotexter place bJ motion, from one place t$ another, and fogradxally ois in
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