Note 120 — Concerning that which is Eternal, for the Purpose of demonstrating the Eternity of the World.

The reader must not be surprised to find that among infinites, some are more infinite than others. For as among beings some are truer than others, and possess more of real being in proportion as they approach nearer to being itself; at the same time that they are all in a certain respect beings: so infinites possess more of infinity, as they approach nearer to the infinite itself. Thus for instance eternity possesses infinity more truly than time, though time also is infinite; because the infinity of eternity, is a stable indivisible life, but the infinity of time consists in an unceasing progression, or as it were an unwearied pursuit of infinity, which it can alone obtain in an extended and partible manner. And this difference among infinites extends even to matter itself, which is the most degraded and abject of all infinites, because it is infinite only in the most dormant capacity.