§. 129 Of Christs Eternity.
THE Eternity of this Lord is further set out in this phrase, In the beginning;* 1.1 namely, in the beginning of time; so as that which was before that beginning, was without beginning, properly eternall. Thus is the eternity of God manifested in the very first word of the holy Bible, Gen. 1. 1. and the eternity also of the Son of God, Ioh. 1. 1. He that in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, was be∣fore that foundation was laid, and before that beginning; In that respect saith the Sonne of God of himself, The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old: I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was, &c. Pro. 8. 22, 23. &c.
As the eternity of the Creator is by this phrase in the beginning intended, so the plain contrary concerning creatures is expressed; Creatures being made in the be∣ginning, then first began to be, they were not before: therefore not eternall. But the Creator then being and making the world, was before the beginning, and had no beginning, therefore eternall: Here then is manifested the difference betwixt the Creator and creatures, in reference to the beginning: The Creator then was even as he was before: He did not then begin to be, but manifested himself to be what he was before; But creatures then began to be what they were not before.
As the former reference of this phrase in the beginning to the Sonne refutes Sa∣mosatenus,* 1.2 Macedonius, Arius, and other hereticks, that denied the eternity of the Sonne of God; so the latter reference thereof to creatures, refutes Aristotle, and other Philosophers who held the world to be eternall, which is a point not only im∣probable but also impossible, for then should there be no creatures: A creature* 1.3 cannot be but created, If no creature then all a Creator; even one and the same with God himself; Eternity and unity are convertible terms; There can be but one Eternall, as there is but one Almighty, one Infinite; yet from that position of the worlds eternity, there would be more then one infinite. For there must be an infinite number of souls of men and other things, if the world were eternall in A∣dams time, and all that have been since added to the world, would make up more then infinite.
That grosse errour of the worlds eternity is so expresse against the light of na∣ture, as by many solid Arguments drawn from naturall principles, other Heathen Philosophers have refuted it.
There were other▪ Heretiques who had this conceit, that the matter of the Ele∣ments of which the world was made, was not made of God, but was coeternal with God. This conceit of the Eternity of prima materia, the first matter out of which