358 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



as to form an idea of a being who is invariably the fame, both as to 

 fubftance, and as to qualities and energies,whofe effence confifts in ac- 

 tion, and who can never fufFer or be moved, and who had no begin- 

 ning, nor can have any end, then we (hould clearly perceive, that, to 

 fuch a being, it is impofTible to apply time ; for, how can infinite du- 

 ration be meafured ? or, how can any part of thai duration be diftin- 

 guifhed from another, when all of it is the fame, without any change 

 or fucceflion of any kind ? Of a Being of fuch immutable perfedion, 

 it may, indeed, be faid, in one fenl'e, that yrjlerday^ to-day, and for- 

 ever, are the fame ; but it is only in a figurative fenfe ; for, v;e are not 

 to imagine it to be poflible by nature, that thcfe three periods of time 

 (hould be accumulated and united into one ; but, we are to underftand, 

 that the famenefs and uniformity of the exigence of this Being is 

 fuch, that no diftindion of time can be applied to it. 



It is of the more importance to conceive the Deity thus unextended 

 as to Time, that we fliall thereby be better enabled to conceive him 

 likewife unextended as to parts, place, and fpace. Betwixt thefe two 

 there is a very great connexion, as is moft acutely and ingenioufly ob- 

 ferved by Plotinus, a philofopher of as great depth as, I believe, any 

 that ever lived ; fometimes of much greater depth than I can fathom. 

 He has faid, that, as we cannot conceive the Deity to be ftretched out 

 in Time, and divided into paft, prefent, and future ; fo, neither can we 

 conceive him to be extended in parts different from one another, and 

 differently fituatcd, and, by confequcnce, feparable *. In fliort, we 

 cannot conceive the Deity to be magnitude, that is, compofed of an 

 infinite number of magnitudes f. 



Thus, 



» See the paflage quoted by Cudworthj p. 781. 



t See alfo Simplicius's defcription of body or magnitude, Mi^ie-rH fn> a^xui « <r«««- 

 Tixij evc-im irxctt «XA<yv uX^Xx^ov rvi fit^iut xM/ttvA-c. In Arift. Phyf. p. 3. And Plotinus 

 fays fomewhere, that body is «>.a« ^ttsr' «a/». This is the beft account I have ever met 



v.'ith, 



