Eternity. See A parte ante and A parte post.
Eternity has been said to be «a negative idea expressed by a positive sense. It supposes a present existence, and denies a beginning or an end of that existence.»(1) I cannot admit this. No doubt the word denotes negation of beginning or end, but this is but part of its meaning.
Every term is negative of something, for every term excludes something. In this point of view eternity denotes the negation not only of a beginning or an end, but of a succession in time altogether. But it is a serious error to regard it as merely or mainly a negation. That which is beyond the possibility of measurement may nevertheless make a very positive impression upon us, all the more positive according to Barrow and Cudworth on that very account. And the mystery which man forbodes when
«He names the name Eternity»
is surely no negation except of the Nature in which he can nowhere find
«That type of Perfect in his mind.»
The stedfast and enduring presence of all things to Him Who inhabiteth eternity has been called, as we have seen, the nunc stans of eternity, and it is of this that many commentators understand the «this day have I begotten Thee» of the Second Psalm.
The thought of eternity is necessarily involved in that of God’s absolute Being and perfection, and the French Protestant version of the Scriptures translates not unfelicitously the I Am Who Am (2) that was uttered from the burning bush, by Je suis l’Eternal.
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(1) FLEMING, Vocabulary of Phil., in voc.
(2) Not I am that I am, as in our present version.