A parte ante, A parte post. These terms are used to denote respectively the two notions of eternity in the past and eternity in the future. These notions involve contradiction, inasmuch as the thought of eternity involves the illimitable, and the present constitutes a limit both to the past and the future. For the former, if we mean by the past eternity, infinite time, we make it impossible that the present or any given moment should ever be arrived at. For the latter, as we must start from the present, we must substitute for the idea of eternity that of an endless future.
This contradiction results from giving eternity the definition of infinite time, whereas it means independence of time, a state in which all is alike present, a state which can never be that of the creature, who can be endued with immortality, but cannot, like the high and the lofty One, inhabit eternity. The constant present of the latter has been entitled the nunc stans of eternity.
