Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

2. For the time of this generation, it hath neither beginning, middle, nor end, and therefore it is eternal before all worlds; this is one of the wonders of our Jesus, that the Father begetting, and the Son begotten, are coeternal. Wisdom in the book of Proverbs (which with one consent of all Divines is said to be Christ) affirmeth thus,¹ When there was no depths I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water; before the Mountains were settled, before the hills was, I was brought forth; while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world; when he prepared the heavens, I was there; when he set a compass upon the face of the depth, I was there. And a little before,² 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 world was; that is to say from eternity; for before the world was made, there was nothing but eternity. It may be alleged to the contrary, that the saying of God the Father, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, ³is expounded by Paul of the time of Christs resurrection. And we declare unto you glad tidings (saith Paul) how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second Psalm, thou art my Son, this •ay have I begotten thee. But we distinguish betwixt generation it self, and the manifestation or declaration of it. Jesus the Son of God from all eternity was begotten; but when he was incarnate, and especially when he was raised again from the dead, then was he mightily declared to be Gods Son by nature. And of this declaration or manifestation of his eternal generation is that of the Apostle understood.

2. For the time of this generation, it hath neither beginning, middle, nor end, and therefore it is eternal before all worlds; this is one of the wonders of our Jesus, that the Father begetting, and the Son begotten, are coeternal. Wisdom in the book of Proverbs (which with one consent of all Divines is said to be Christ) affirmeth thus,