SECTION 5 Whether a Newness of Being Belongs to the Nature of Creation

1. There are two ways to consider the eternity of the world: the one focussing on the world’s substance, the other on its motion. The latter sort of consideration is proper to physics and so should be passed over in the present science – even though we will not be able to avoid mentioning it below when we demonstrate that God exists and that there cannot be an infinite regress among efficient causes, regardless of whether they are ordered per se or per accidens. On the other hand, the former sort of consideration is proper to metaphysics, since it pertains to the causing of beings insofar as they are beings; and it is necessary for clarifying the nature of creation and so fits nicely into the present discussion.