If the son be of the same substance and nature as the father, an eternity of being is one part of his nature; therefore no time can be assign’d for this divine geniture, and it must be what we call eternal. Or perhaps we may express it as well by saying, it was before eternity; or that he is coeval with the almighty father. In this same sense _Proclus de patriarch._ uses the word προαιώνιος, _præeternus_. For tho’ ’tis impossible that creation, whether of material or immaterial beings, should be coeval with God; yet, if the son be of the same nature with the father, which must be granted, then ’tis impossible to be otherwise, than that the son of God should be coeval with the father. If goodness be, as it were, the essence of God, then he can have no happiness but in the exercise of that goodness. We must not say, as many are apt to do, that he was always and infinitely happy, in reflecting upon his own being and infinite perfections, in the idea of himself. This is no exercise of goodness, unless we allow this idea of himself which he produces, to be a being without him, or distinct from himself; and that is granting what we contend for. A true and exact idea of himself is the _logos_ of the ancients, the first-born of the first cause. And this is the meaning of what the eastern and all other philosophers assert, “that it was necessary for unity to make an evolution of itself, and multiply; it was necessary for good to communicate itself. There could be no time before then, for then he would be an imperfect unity, and may as well be termed a cypher, which of itself can never produce any thing.” Agreeable to this doctrine, _Philo in_ II. _de monarchiis_, writes, “the _logos_ is the express image of God, and by whom all the whole world was made.” It would be senseless to think here, he meant only the wisdom of the supreme, the reason, the cunning of God, a quality, not a personality. What difficulty here is in the thing, arises merely from the weakness of our conceptions, and in being conversant only with ordinary generation. A son of ours is of the same nature as his father. His father was begat in time, therefore the son the like. Not so in divine generation. But as the father is from eternity, so is the son. This only difference there is, or rather distinction; the father is self-existent, and unoriginate; the son is of the father.