“His duration is as endless as His essence is boundless” by Stephen Charnock

“Eternity is a negative attribute and is a denying of God any measures of time, as immensity is a denying of him any bounds of place.

As immensity is the diffusion of his essence, so eternity is the duration of his essence, and when we say God is eternal, we exclude from him all possibility of beginning and ending, all flux and change.

As the essence of God cannot be bounded by any place, so it is not to be limited by any time. As it is his immensity to be everywhere, so it is his eternity to be always.

As created things are said to be somewhere in regard of place, and to be present, past, or future in regard of time, so the Creator in regard of place is everywhere, in regard of time, is semper [“always”].

His duration is as endless as his essence is boundless: he always was and always will be, and will no more have an end than he had a beginning; and this is an excellency belonging to the supreme being.

As his essence comprehends all beings and exceeds them, and his immensity surmounts all places, so his eternity comprehends all times, all durations, and infinitely excels them.”

–Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, ed. Mark Jones, Updated and Unabridged, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022), 1: 418-419.