Chapter II
The creatures were not from eternity existing in God.
Some Platonic divines have fancied the creatures to have been existent
in God, and with God, from eternity ; and their creation to have been but God s putting them forth of himself into a visibility, who yet when they thus lay hid, were then in as true a way of being as now they are.
I will not enter into that controversy which the schoolmen have stirred, whether a creature might have been from eternity or no.
Only first we say, that it is an incommunicable attribute of God, that he inhabits eternity, as it imports ; that he both dwelt himself alone from
eternity, when there were none of these made things to dwell in, or with
him, no heavens or earth to fill ; as also, that he is eternity alone to
himself, and dwelt in himself.
We do thus far acknowledge, that all things were in God s foreknowledge and decree ; in esse volito, as Aquinas speaks. So also in Acts xv. 18 : Known unto God are all his works from the beginning. And to say that all things were in God virtually (as they would mince it, and distin
guish upon it) is but to say they have a being in the power of God, as worms have in the sun, which it will bring forth to-morrow ; and so all
things that never were, and that never shall be, but were and remain mere
possibilia, things only possible, may be said to be in God. But to the point
itself.
Eternity in God, and the creatures being in time, is made a vast and
broad distinction between God and them. Ps. xc. 2 : Before the mountains
were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth, even from ever
lasting to everlasting, thou art God. His arms spanned both eternities.
They are called the everlasting arms, Deut. xxxiii. 27. Whereas the best
of creatures have but half an eternity, they are to everlasting, but not from
everlasting. This is proper to God only, in opposition to the creatures,
for it was before they were brought forth. And their being to everlasting
is derived from God, for of him it is said, 1 Tim. vi. 16, Who only hath
immortality, that is, of himself.
2. Upon the same account it is made the difference between Christ and
the creatures, that he is from eternity, not they ; and this because he
is God. Ps. cii. 24, 25 (which, in the first of the Hebrews, is applied by Paul unto Christ)
: I said, my God, take me not away in the midst of my days
: thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast thou laid
the foundations of the earth. Others read it, before thou laidst the foun
dations of the earth. The word Lepanim* or of old, refers to the words
afore, thus, Thy years are throughout all generations, afore thou laidst
the foundations of the earth. And here also is found a general opposition to all creatures ; for as he had mentioned the earth, so he mentions the
heavens, as it follows, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. Now
the heavens and the earth comprehend all.
Again, 3dly, This very same difference and distinction of the creatures and Christ is held forth in John i. 1, compared with Hebrews i., where
these words of the psalmist are cited. In John i. ver. 1, shewing Christ s
peculiar dignity, and his being God, he says, He was in the beginning
the same beginning which Moses meant, when he said, In the beginning That is, D OB
1 ?- ED.
OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK I.
God created, which notes out existence afore ; and it is spoken in oppo sition to the world as made. So ver. 10, the world was made by him ; which that in that first of the Hebrews fully clears and explains, answering both to John and the psalmist : Heb. i. 10,
< And thou, Lord, in the begin ning hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands; that is, he was so in the beginning of the making of all things whatsoever, so as to be the founder of them, and therefore existing afore them. In which place of John, two things are said of him in differ ence from creatures : first, that he was with God before, which the creatures were not, nor existent in him as he was ; and further, secondly, much less were they God before, as he was, but they all were made by him. Add to this (to shew it was his peculiar privilege above the creation, that he thus was with God) that in Prov. viii. ver. 24,
< When there was no depths, I was brought forth ; when there was no fountains abounding with water : before the mountains were settled ; before the hills was I brought forth : while asjet he had not made the earth, &c. So on to the 30th verse, Then was I with him as one brought up with him. This Wisdom makes her boast of, as a prerogative no creature had ; and Wisdom, in the Proverbs, is put for the person of Christ himself. So Luke xi. 49, compared with Luke vii. 34, 35, wherein Christ, speaking of himself, says in that llth chap. 49, Therefore also said the Wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, &c. And in Luke vii. 35 he expressly says, This Wisdom is he who was the Son of man; ver. 84,
< The Son "of man is come eating and drinking, and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, &c. But Wisdom is jus tified of her children : so plainly affirming of himself, I myself am that Wisdom spoken of, which is justified of my children ; and in Mat. xi. 19, he says the same. And that speech,
< The Wisdom of God said, I will send prophets and apostles, &c., as it must refer in general to some speech or other, somewhere in the Old Testament, uttered by one that takes on him to be a person, as the I imports, and that person styled the Wisdom of God, so particularly it refers unto what Wisdom had said of herself in the book of the Proverbs, chap, i., from ver. 29 to the end, of
< sending forth preachers, by whom she utters her voice in the streets, and cries in the chief places of concourse. And when our Saviour Christ speaks of that union which he had with the Father in that his prayer, John xvii., he"says, that he had a glory with the Father before the world was ; and this he makes a peculiar privilege of himself, as being then a person who was then
existing, and so were* that glory afore God the Father. Whereas, if all the elect had existed in God actually then, as well as Christ, this had not been peculiar unto him ; and yet there also he speaks of their existence in God s decree and election, Thine they were, John xvii. 6. And, therefore, what he says of himself, of the glory that he had before the world was, must be spoken by reason of an existence besides that which he had in decree, which existence the elect had not.
Thirdly, By this God doth set forth his own greatness to humble Job, and in him the whole creation ; and how poor a Job doth he make of him ! And if that God himself should speak unto these blasphemers of our days, as he did to Job there, how would they instantly shake and tremble, and fall to nothing, unless he supported them ! You have Job xxxviii. 2, 3, God steps in from behind the hangings, as one that had, undiscerned, over heard Job s routings and standings upon his points : Who is this, says God,
< that darkens counsel by words without knowledge ? Gird up now * Qu. wore ? ED.
CHAP. II.] OF THEIR STATE BY CEEATION. 9
thy loins like a man, if thou hast any mettle, or the spirit of a man in
: For I will demand of thee, and answer thou me but this one thing
thee ; and to confound thee, I will ask thee but one question
: Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? declare, if thou hast under
standing. Nay ; canst thou tell who hath laid the measures thereof ? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations
thereof fastened? or who hath laid the corner-stone thereof? God
hereby shook up Job so, and gave him such a rattling, and yet appeared not as he is in himself, but speaks all this out of a whirlwind, which he
took to cover him. And the issue with Job of all this was, as in
chap. xlii. 6, I abhor myself in dust and ashes. You see this once and
first query, which is home to the point in hand, and point-blank, as we say,
against that wicked opinion, which asserts all things to be co-eternal with
God. These God chose out of all other weapons, to overthrow Job with ; Where wert thou ? Alas ! thou hadst no being then, much less know
ledge of these things. But according to this wretched opinion, risen up in these days, if true, Job might have answered boldly,
* I was with thee, and I was in thee, and in a happier state of union with thee than I am in now : not in a state of union with flesh and blood, but one in spirit with
thee. Ay, indeed, says God (speaking ironically to him), Knowest thou
it, because thou wast then born? ver. 21. Thou art very old, Job, and
* the number of thy days is great, as it follows there.
of great standing, and
Now, if the creatures, or the souls of men, had really been existent in
God, and as truly as Christ himself, as to his existence, no otherwise than
they affirm themselves to have been, then God might as well have said to
Christ, Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? But
such a question Christ hath prevented, and put out of question, saying, Prov. viii. 29. Then I was by him ; yea, and was his counsellor, as
Isa. xl. 13. Both which are spoken there of Christ. And whereas it is objected by those men, that in that Proverbs viii. it is
also affirmed, that the sons of men, who were his elect, did then exist in
God, in a sportful life in God, together with Christ, because it is said,
ver. 81, that he was rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth : and, it
follows, my delights were with the sons of men ; and that therefore,
though men did not exist under the appearance of flesh and blood as now,
yet they were existing in spirit in him and with him ; and that they being
put out of God, into the veil of flesh and blood, therefore it was that
Christ came forth from God after them, and took flesh and blood also ; for
so they apply that of the Hebrews ii. 13, 14. The answer is clear, that it proves the clear contrary out of the very
text ; for Christ s rejoicing then is said to have been ^ in the habitable
parts of his earth. Therefore it must be meant of men as inhabiting the
earth, and not as existing with him from eternity. Yer. 26 of Prov. viii.
tells us that they were not then made. Hence, therefore, ^his rejoicing in them must necessarily be spoken in respect of the foresight of what
they should be, and so as existing afore the world, but in God s decree, in
respect of what he would after make them to be, and thereby presented to him beforehand as foreviewing what those children should be whom God
hath given to him, when once they should come to inhabit this earth ; and
such, to be sure, they were not actually then, for he expressly saith, ver. 23,
these his delights were afore the earth itself was.
And had there been, as then, any other existence of them but in fore
sight and decree, as the cause of that he delighted in them, he would much
10 OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK I.
rather have mentioned that as the object of his present delight, than this other which was so long after to come, when they should inhabit and dwell here on earth below. And if all } had been in God before in being, why then all might pray as well as Christ, Glorify us with that glory we had with thee before the world was ; and then they might say of themselves, even as Christ saith of himself, You shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before.
And then likewise, that had not been true which the apostle says, 1 Cor. xv. 46, where, speaking of David s* creation, he says, That was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards, that which is
spiritual; whereas, had they had an existence in God in spirit before the world was, then he had first been that which is spiritual, and after wards that which is natural.
And then, again, that benefit of creation, which yet we are taught to
praise God so much for, had been a worsting of the condition of these elect
ones, a shooting them out of a spiritual condition into a natural, without any sin of theirs.