1. Infinity, in its original intention, attributed to space, duration, and number.
He that would know what kind of
idea it is to which we give the name of infinity, cannot do it better than by considering to what infinity is by the
mind more immediately attributed; and then how the mind comes to frame it.
Finite and infinite seem to me to be looked upon by the mind as the modes of quantity, and to be attributed
primarily in their first designation only to those things which have parts, and are capable of increase or diminution
by the addition or subtraction of any the least part: and such are the ideas of space, duration, and number, which
we have considered in the foregoing chapters. It is true, that we cannot but be assured, that the great God, of
whom and from whom are all things, is incomprehensibly infinite: but yet, when we apply to that first and
supreme Being our idea of infinite, in our weak and narrow thoughts, we do it primarily in respect to his duration
and ubiquity; and, I think, more figuratively to his power, wisdom, and goodness, and other attributes, which are
properly inexhaustible and incomprehensible, etc. For, when we call them infinite, we have no other idea of this
infinity but what carries with it some reflection on, and imitation of, that number or extent of the acts or objects of
God's power, wisdom, and goodness, which can never be supposed so great, or so many, which these attributes
will not always surmount and exceed, let us multiply them in our thoughts as far as we can, with all the infinity of
endless number. I do not pretend to say how these attributes are in God, who is infinitely beyond the reach of our
narrow capacities: they do, without doubt, contain in them all possible perfection: but this, I say, is our way of
conceiving them, and these our ideas of their infinity.
