_Whole Nations have escaped the curse of Child-birth, which God seems to pronounce upon the whole sex._] This is attested by M. _Mountaigne_. _Les doleurs de l'enfantiment par les medicins, et par Dieu mesme estimees grandes, et que nous passons avec tant de Ceremonies, il y a des nations entieres qui ne'n fuit nul conte. l. 1, des Ess. c. 14_. _Sect 11. Pag. 19._ _Who can speak of_ Eternity _without a Solœcism, or think thereof without an Extasie?_ Time _we may comprehend_, etc.] Touching the difference betwixt _Eternity_ and _Time_, there have been great disputes amongst Philosophers; some affirming it to be no more than _duration perpetual consisting of parts_; and others (to which opinion, it appears by what follows in this Section, the Author adheres) affirmed (to use the Authors Phrase) that it hath no distinction of Tenses, but is according to _Boetius_ (_lib. 5, consol. pros. 6_), his definition, _interminabilis vitæ tota simul et perfecta possessio_. For me, _non nostrum est tantas componere lites_. I shall only observe what each of them hath to say against the other. Say those of the first opinion against those that follow _Boetius_ his definition, That definition was taken by _Boetius_ out of _Plato's Timæus_, and is otherwise applyed, though not by _Boetius_, yet by those that follow him, than ever _Plato_ intended it; for he did not take it in the Abstract, but in the Concrete, for an _eternal thing_, _a Divine substance_, by which he meant _God_, or his _Anima mundi_: and this he did, to the intent to establish this truth, That no mutation can befal the Divine Majesty, as it doth to things subject to generation and corruption; and that _Plato_ there intended not to define or describe any _species_ of duration: and they say that it is impossible to understand any such _species_ of duration that is (according to the Authors expression) but one _permanent point_. Now that which those that follow _Boetius_ urge against the other definition is, they say, it doth not at all difference _Eternity_ from the nature of _Time_; for they say if it be composed of many _Nunc's_, or many instants, by the addition of one more it is still encreased; and by that means _Infinity_ or _Eternity_ is not included, nor ought more than _Time_. For this, see Mr. _White_, _de dial. mundo, Dial. 3. Nod. 4_. _Indeed he only is_, etc.] This the Author infers from the words of God to _Moses_, _I am that I am_; and this to distinguish him from all others, who (he saith) have and shall be: but those that are learned in the _Hebrew_, do affirm that the words in that place (_Exod. 3_) do not signifie, _Ego sum qui sum, et qui est_, etc. but _Ero qui ero, et qui erit_, etc. _vid Gassend. in animad. Epicur. Physiolog._ _Sect. 12. Pag. 20._