The nothingness of the creature, and the all-sufficiency of God. That is a great lesson indeed, and mightily useful to us throughout the whole spiritual life. First, It is a notion which the scripture much delighteth in, to represent God as all and the creature as nothing. At first, when Moses inquired God’s distinctive name, God giveth him no other but I AM : Exod. iii. 14, ‘And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and I AM hath sent me unto you.’ Â What thing is there under the cope of heaven that cannot say ‘I am that I am’ ? The least worm hath its own being; but this, as God’s distinctive name, implieth that he encloseth all being within himself. Secondly, The creature is nothing: Isa. xl. 17, ‘All nations before him are nothing ; they are accounted less than nothing, and vanity;’ Dan. iv. 35, ‘ The inhabitants of the world are reputed before him as nothing.’ All created beings must vanish out of our sight when we think of God.
–Thomas Manton
The All-ness of God
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