A41670:1262
A learned and very useful commentary on the whole epistle to the Hebrews wherein…
A learned and very useful commentary on the whole epistle to the Hebrews wherein every word and particle in the original is explained ... : being the substance of thirty years Wednesdays lectures at Black-fryers, London / by that holy and learned divine William Gouge ... : before which is prefixed a narrative of his life and death : whereunto is added two alphabetical tables ...A learned and very useful commentary on the whole epistle to the Hebrews wherein every word and particle in the original is explained ... : being the substance of thirty years Wednesdayes lectures at Black-fryers, London / by that holy and learned divine Wiliam Gouge ... : before which is prefixed a narrative of his life and death : whereunto is added two alphabeticall tables ...
London: printed by A.M. for Joshua Kirton, 1655
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
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 beginning, then first began to be, they were not before: therefore not eternal. But the Creator then being and making the world, was before the beginning, and had no beginning, therefore eternal: 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 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 beginning, 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 Son refutes Samosatenus, 1Macedonius, Arius, and other heretics, that denied the eternity of the Son of God; so the latter reference thereof to creatures, refutes Aristotle, and other Philosophers who held the world to be eternal, which is a point not only improbable but also impossible, for then should there be no creatures: A creature2 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 Eternal, 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 eternal in Adams time, and all that have been since added to the world, would make up more then infinite.