f so,
it must have acted before it was, which is a Contradiction.

_Secondly_, That therefore some Being must have existed from all
Eternity.

_Thirdly_, That whatever exists after the manner of created Beings, or
according to any Notions which we have of Existence, could not have
existed from Eternity.

_Fourthly_, That this eternal Being must therefore be the great Author
of Nature, _The Ancient of Days_, who, being at an infinite Distance in
his Perfections from all finite and created Beings, exists in a quite
different Manner from them, and in a Manner of which they can have no
Idea.

I know that several of the School-men, 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 stans_, a fixed Point; or, which is
as good Sense, an _Infinite Instance_; That nothing with Reference to
his Existence is either past or to come: To which the ingenious Mr.
_Cowley_ alludes in his Description of Heaven,

'Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an Eternal NOW does always last.'

For my own Part, I look upon these Propositions 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
self-contradictory. We cannot be too modest in our Disquisitions, when
we meditate on Him who is environed with so 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 some Being must necessarily have existed
from Eternity, so this Being does exist after an incomprehensible
manner, since it is impossible for a Being to have existed from Eternity
after our Manner or Notions of Existence. Revelation confirms these
natural Dictates of Reason in the Accounts which it gives us of the
Divine Existence, where it tells us, that he is the same Yesterday,
To-day, and for Ever; that he is the _Alpha_ and _Omega_, the Beginning
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 Expressions, we are
taught, that his Existence, with Relation to Time or Duration, is
infinitely different from the Existence of any of his Creatures, and
consequently that it is impossible for us