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| How We are to Understand God’s Promise of Life Eternal, Which Was Uttered Before the ‘Eternal Times.’
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Chapter 16.—How We are to
Understand God’s Promise of Life Eternal, Which Was Uttered
Before the “Eternal Times.”
I own that I do not know what ages
passed before the human race was created, yet I have no doubt that
no created thing is co-eternal with the Creator. But even the
apostle speaks of time as eternal, and this with reference, not to
the future, but, which is more surprising, to the past. For he
says, “In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie
promised before the eternal times, but hath
in due times
manifested His word.”553
| 553 Titus i. 2, 3. Augustin
here follows the version of Jerome, and not the Vulgate. Comp.
Contra Priscill. 6, and de Gen. c. Man. iv.
4. | You see he says that in the past
there have been eternal times, which, however, were not co-eternal
with God. And since God before these eternal times not only
existed, but also, “promised” life eternal, which He manifested
in its own times (that is to say, in due times), what else is this
than His word? For this is life eternal. But then, how did He
promise; for the promise was made to men, and yet they had no
existence before eternal times? Does this not mean that, in His
own eternity, and in His co-eternal word, that which was to be in
its own time was already predestined and fixed?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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