was in it, the Heavens, the Earth, the Stars, and whatsoever was between them above them, or beneath them, was all his Work and Creation, and posterior to him in Nature, if not in Time.  As, if you take any Body whatsoever in your Hand, and then move your Hand, the Body will without doubt follow the Motion of your Hand, with such a Motion as shall be posterior to it in Nature, tho’ not in Time, because they both began together:  So all this World is caus’d and created by this Agent out of Time, Whose Command is, when he would have any thing done, BE, and it is.

Sec. 58.  And when he perceiv’d that all things which did exist were his Workmanship, he look’d them over again, considering attentively the Power of the Efficient, and admiring the Wonderfulness of the Workmanship, and such accurate Wisdom, and subtil Knowledge.  And there appear’d to him in the most minute Creatures (much more in the greater) such Footsteps of Wisdom, and Wonders of the Work of Creation, that he was swallow’d up with Admiration, and fully assur’d that these things could not proceed from any other, than a Voluntary Agent of infinite Perfection, nay, that was above all Perfection; such an one, to whom the Weight of the least Atom was not unknown, whether in Heaven or Earth; no, nor any other thing, whether lesser or greater than it.

Sec.. 59.  Then he consider’d all the kinds of Animals, and how this Agent had given such a Fabrick of Body to every one of them, and then taught them how to use it.  For if he had not directed them to apply those Limbs which he had given them, to those respective Uses for which they were design’d, they would have been so far from being of any Service that they would rather have been a Burden.  From whence he knew, that the Creator of the World was supereminently Bountiful, and exceedingly Gracious.  And then when he perceiv’d among the Creatures, any that had Beauty, Perfection, Strength, or Excellency of any kind whatever, he consider’d with himself, and knew that it all flow’d from that Voluntary Agent, (whose Name be praised) and from his Essence and Operation.  And he knew, that what the Agent had in his own Nature, was greater than that, [which he saw in the Creatures,] more perfect and compleat, more beautiful and glorious, and more lasting; and that there was no proportion between the one and the other.  Neither did he cease to prosecute this Search, till he had run through all the Attributes of Perfection, and found that they were all in this Agent, and all flow’d from him; and that he was most worthy to have them all ascrib’d to him, above all the Creatures which were describ’d by them.

Sec. 60.  In like manner he enquir’d into all the Attributes of Imperfection, and perceiv’d that the Maker of the World was free from them all:  And how was it possible for him to be otherwise, since the Notion of Imperfection is nothing but mere Privation, or what depends upon it?  And how can he any way partake of Privation, who is very Essence, and cannot but exist; who gives Being to every thing that exists, and besides whom there is no Existence?  But HE is the Being, HE is the Absoluteness, HE the Beauty, HE the Glory, HE the Power, HE the Knowledge, HE is HE, and besides Him all things are subject to perishing[19].