eternal by nature, he is nothing more than the earth: God the Word was in existence, and the earth was in existence. In the one case, however, he was in the beginning, not made, eternally existing, whereas the earth was in existence after being made. The lawgiver, note, did not say, Now, the earth was, prior to his saying, In the beginning God made heaven and earth: first he made and then it was. We are aware, then, that these matters of detail seem tedious to the minds of the general run of people,