ETERNITY

An attribute of the Deity, the existence of whom is without beginning or end. It is the immediate consequence of the self-existenco which we attribute to him. Being the cause of all things, he is himself independent of any cause. Eternity being infinite. Is inconceivable by our finite understandings; at the same time, we cannot imagine an infinite being to exist without it. There is a distinction made between an anterior and a posier i or eternity. The latter belongs to creatures whom God proposes to preserve^ for ever; the former to himself alone. We suppose God to exist without parts, and also without succe ion. It is an inconsistency in atheism to suppose a succe ion of generations from an anterior eternity: nothing that is succe ive can be actually infinite and eternal. [s. 432]