Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

By Mountains, some understand Angels, as being Creatures of a more elevated Nature: By Earth, they understand humane Nature, the Earth being the habitation of Men. There is no need to divert in this place, from the Letter to such a sense. ⟨p. 181⟩The description seems to be Poetical, and amounts to this; He neither began with the beginning of Time, nor will expire with the End of it:^* He did not begin when he made himself known to our Fathers; but his Being did precede the Creation of the World; before any created Being was formed, and any time settled.

By Mountains, some understand Angels, as being Creatures of a more elevated Nature: By Earth, they understand humane Nature, the Earth being the habitation of Men. There is no need to divert in this place, from the Letter to such a sense. ⟨p. 181⟩The description seems to be Poetical, and amounts to this; He neither began with the beginning of Time, nor will expire with the End of it:^* He did not begin when he made himself known to our Fathers; but his Being did precede the Creation of the World; before any created Being was formed, and any time setled.

1. *[Greek or Hebrew] Theodoret in loc.〈non-Latin alphabet〉 Theodoret in loc.

Before the Mountains were brought forth, Or before they were begotten or born; The word being used in those senses in Scripture; before they stood up higher than the rest of the earthly Mass God had created. It seems that Mountains were not casually cast up by the force of the Deluge, softening the Ground, and driving several parcels of it together, to grow up into a massy body, as the Sea doth the Sand in several places; but they were at first formed by God.