y kind of
Duration, than that by which we our selves, and all other created
Beings, do exist; which is, a successive Duration made up of past,
present, and to come. There is nothing which exists after this Manner,
all the Parts of whose Existence were not once actually present, and
consequently may be reached by a certain Number of Years applied to it.
We may ascend as high as we please, and employ our Being to that
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 same time we are sure, that whatever
was once present 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 say, that any thing may be actually present in any Part of
infinite Space, which does not lye at a certain Distance from us, as
that any Part of infinite Duration was once actually present, and does
not also lye at some determined Distance from us. The Distance in both
Cases may be immeasurable and indefinite as to our Faculties, but our
Reason tells us that it cannot be so in it self. Here therefore is that
Difficulty which Human Understanding is not capable of surmounting. We
are sure that something must have existed from Eternity, and are at the
same 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 this Thought in his own
Mind, to follow in such an abstracted 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
Demonstrations which lead us to this great Truth, I do not think we
ought to lay aside any Proofs in this Matter which the Light of Reason
has suggested to us, especially when it is such a one as has been urged
by Men famous for their Penetration and Force of Understanding, and
which appears altogether conclusive to those who will be at the Pains to
examine it.

Having thus considered that Eternity which is past, according to the
best Idea we can frame of it, I shall now draw up those several 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 Philosopher in this great
Point.

_First_, It is certain that no Being could have made it self; for i