Chap. XIX. AN TIE NT METAPHYSICS. 259 



Platonics of later times, without exception, fuch as Plotinus, Porphyry, 

 Jamblichus, and Proclus. For all thefe maintained, that the univerfc 

 was an eternal emanation of an Eternal Being, to whofe eflence, ener- 

 gy, and that principal energy of production and prefervation, belongs ; 

 nor could they conceive a time when the wifdom and goodnefs of God 

 were not manifefled in the works of creation. 



I know this dodrine of the eternity of the world is generally^ 

 thought to be adyerfe to the account of the civ'^ation given by Mofes. 

 But 1 fay, imOi That, though the truth of revelation muft neceifarily^ 

 be founded upon natural jeliglon, and the belief of the exigence of a 

 God, it is not proper that a philofophlcal fyftera of Theifm fliould be 

 built upon revelation. 2^(9, It is not at all necefiary {q to interpret the 

 tvords of Mofes ; for the Scripture, in fpeaking of the ads of Divine 

 power, iifes a language fuited to the capacity of men, as might be 

 proved by very many examples. Now, as all the produdions, we are 

 acquainted with, are in time, and exift pofterlor to their caulVs ; and, 

 as. it is difficult, and, I believe, to many people, impoffible, to con- 

 ceive a thing produced by another thing, as its caufe, and yet co-eter- 

 nal with that caufe, Mofes, fpeaking afrer the manner of men, makes 

 the world to be produced, like the other produdions we fee, in time. 

 And, in like manner, the Pfalmift, fpeaking of the -Meffiah, makes 

 God fay, * Thou art n-.y Son, this day I have begotten thee;' though I 

 hold no man to be a Chriftian, and not even a perfed Theift, who dves 

 not believe in the eternity of the Second Perfon of the Trinity ; and, 

 ' 1 hat he was begotten from everlafting of the Father,' according to the 

 language of the Church of England. And I think the moft dangerous 

 here(y in the Chriftian Church was that of Arius, who m.iintaiued, 

 'That lime was when he was not*.' And it is Plato, ipeaking in the 

 fame manner, hi the Timaeus^ of the protiudioii ut tlic world, that has 

 led lome modern philoioptiers to think that he believed the production 



of it to be temporary t' 



K k 2 Lufllyy 



* His expreflion was, jjv, ot« oy« »j». 



t Thi- roticn of the tenipoiaiy produclion of the world was no older th. ii tlu; fe- 

 cond or third century; and began among the ChnlLuint), niiftakin^, as 1 tn.i.k. the 



fen fa 



