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 non 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 15:18: '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 distinguish 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. 90:2: 'Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.' His arms spanned both eternities. They are called 'the everlasting arms,' Deut. 33:27. 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. 6:16, '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, no they; and this because he is God. Ps. 102:24, 25 (which in the first of the Hebrews, is applied by Paul unto Christ): 'I said, O 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 foundations of the earth.' The word Lepanim,* ...
[* That is, 'לפּנים'—ED.]
...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 1:1, compared with Hebrews 1, where these words of the psalmist are cited. In John 1:1, 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 God created,' which notes out existence afore; and it is spoken in opposition to the world as made. So John 1:10, '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. 1:10, 'And thou, Lord, in the beginning 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 difference 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. 8:24, '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 as yet he had not made the earth,' &c. So on to Prov. 8:30, '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 Proverbs, is put for the person of Christ himself. So Luke 11:49, compared with Luke 7:34, 35, wherein Christ, speaking of himself, says in Luke 11:49, 'Therefore also said the Wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles,' &c. And in Luke 7:35, 'The Son of man is come eating and drinking, and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man,' &c. 'But Wisdom is justified of her children': so plainly affirming of himself, I myself am that Wisdom spoken of, which is justified of my children; and in Mat. 11:19, 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 1:29 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 17:5, 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* ...
[* Qu. 'wore?'—ED.]
...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 17:6. 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 John, 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 38:2, 3, God steps in from behind the hangings, as one that had, undiscerned, overheard Job's rantings and standings upon his points: 'Who is this,' says God, 'that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man,' if thou hast any mettle, or the spirit of a man in thee; and to confound thee, I will ask thee but one question: 'For I will demand of thee, and answer thou me but this one thing: where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. 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 Job 42:6, '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 knowledge 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 was then born?' Job 38:21. Thou art very old, Job, and of great standing, and 'the number of thy days is great,' as it follows there.
Now, if the creatures, or the souls of men, had really be 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 was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?' But such a question Christ hath prevented, and put out of question, saying Prov. 8:29. 'Then I was by him;' yea, and 'was his counsellor,' as Isa. 40:13. Both which are spoken there of Christ.
And whereas it is objected by those men, that in that Proverbs 8 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, [in] Prov. 8:31, 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 2:13, 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. Prov. 8:26 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, [in] Prov. 8:23, these his delights were afore the earth itself was.
And had there been, as then, any other existence of them but in foresight and decree, as the cause of that he delighted in them, he would much 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. 15:46, where, speaking of David's* ...
[*Qu. 'Adam's'?—ED.]
...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 afterwards 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.
