Part 23
the presence of God : Ps. v. 7, ' I will come into thy house in the multitude
of thy mercies.' When the blessed God is so kind as to give us access to his majesty, do we not undervalue his kindness when we deal uncivilly with him, and deny him the choicest part of ourselves ? It is a contempt of his sovereignty, as our spirits are due to him by nature ; a contempt of his goodness, as our spirits are due to him by gratitude ! How abusive a carriage is it to make use of his mercy to encourage our impudence, that should excite our fear and reverence ! How unworthy would it be for an
JOHN IV. 24.] SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 837
indigent debtor to bring to his indulgent creditor an empty purse instead of payment! When God holds out his golden sceptre to encourage our approaches to him, stands ready to give us the pardon of sin and full felicity, the best things he hath, is it a fit requital of his kindness to give him a formal outside only, a shadow of religion, to have the heart overswayed with other thoughts and affections, as if all his proffers were so con temptible as to deserve only a slight at our hands ? It is a contempt of the love and kindness of God.
(10.) It is against the sufficiency and fulness of God. When we give God our bodies and the creature our spirits, it intimates a conceit that there is more content to be had in the creature than in God blessed for ever, that the waters in the cistern are sweeter than those in the fountain. Is not this
a practical giving God the lie, and denying those promises wherein he hath declared the satisfaction he can give to the spirit, as he is the God of the spirits of all flesh ?
If we did imagine the excellency and loveliness of God were worthy to be the ultimate object of our affections, the heart would attend more closely upon him, and be terminated in him ; did we believe God to be all-sufficient, full of grace and goodness, a tender Father, not willing to forsake his own, willing as well as able to supply their wants, the heart would not so lamely attend upon him, and would not upon every impertinency be diverted from him. There is much of a wrong notion of God, and a predominancy of the world above him in the heart, when we can more savourly relish the thoughts of low inferior things than heavenly, and let our spirits upon, every trifling occasion be fugitives from him. It is a testimony that we make not God our chiefest good. If apprehensions of his excellency did possess our souls, they would be fastened on him, glued to him ; we should not listen to that rabble of foolish thoughts that steal our hearts so often from him. Were our breathings after God as strong as the pantings of the hart after the water brooks, we should be like that creature, not diverted in our course by every puddle. Were God the predominant satisfactory object in our eye, he would carry our whole soul along with him.
When our spirits readily retreat from God in worship upon every giddy motion, it is a kind of repentance that ever we did come near him, and implies that there is a fuller satisfaction, and more attractive excellency, in that which doth so easily divert us, than in that God to whose worship we did pretend to address ourselves ; it is as if, when we were petitioning a prince, we should immediately turn about, and make request to one of his guard, as though so mean a person were more able to give us the boon we want, than the sovereign is.
2. Consideration by way of motive. To have our spirits off from God in worship is a bad sign. It was not so in innocence. The heart of Adam could cleave to God ; the law of God was engraven upon him ; he could apply himself to the fulfilling of it without any twinkling ; there was no folly and vanity in his mind, no independency in his thoughts, no duty was his burden ; for there was in him a proneness to, and delight in, all the duties of worship. It is the fall hath distempered us, and the more unwieldiness there is in our spirits, the more carnal our affections are in worship, the more evidence there is of the strength of that revolted state.
(1.) It argues much corruption in the heart. As by the eructations of the stomach we may judge of the windiness and foulness of it, so by the inordinate motions of our minds and hearts we may judge of the weakness of its complexion. A strength of sin is evidenced by the eruptions and ebullitions of it in worship, when they are more sudden, numerous, and
VOL. i. y
338 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [JOHN IV. 24.
vigorous than the motions of grace. When the heart is apt like tinder to
catch fire from Satan, it is a sign of much combustible matter suitable to his temptation. Were not corruption strong, the soul could not turn so easily from God when it is in his presence, and hath advantageous oppor tunity to create a fear and awe of God in it ; such base fruit could not sprout up so suddenly were there not much sap and juice in the root of sin.
What communion with a living root can be evidenced without exercises of an inward life ! That Spirit, which is a well of living waters in a gracious heart, will be especially springing up when it is before God.
(2.) It shews much affection to earthly things, and little to heavenly. There must needs be an inordinate affection to earthly things, when upon every slight solicitation we can part with God, and turn the back upon a service glorious for him, and advantageous for ourselves, to wed our hearts to some idle fancy that signifies nothing. How can we be said to entertain God in our affections, when we give him not the precedency in our understandings, but let «very trifle jostle the sense of God out of our minds ? Were our hearts fully determined to spiritual things, such vanities could not seat themselves in our understandings, and divide our spirits from God. Were our hearts balanced with a love to God, the world could never steal our hearts so much from his worship, but his worship would draw our hearts to it.
It shews a base neutrality in the greatest concernments, a halting between God and Baal, a contrariety between affection and conscience, when natural conscience presses a man to duties of worship, and his other affections pull him back, draw him to carnal objects, and make him slight that whereby
he may honour God. God argues the profaneness of the Jews' hearts from the wickedness they brought into his house and acted there : Jer. xxiii.,
'Yea, in my house,' that is, my worship, 'I found their wickedness,' saith the Lord. Carnality in worship is a kind of an idolatrous frame ; when the heart is renewed, idols are cast to the moles and the bats, Isa. ii. 20.
(3.) It shews much hypocrisy to have our spirits off from God. The mouth speaks, and the carriage pretends, what the heart doth not think ; there is a dissent of the heart from the pretence of the body.
Instability is a sure sign of hypocrisy. Double thoughts argue a double heart. The wicked are compared to chaff, Ps. i. 4, for the uncertain and various motions of their minds by the least wind of fancy. The least motion of a carnal object diverts the spirit from God, as the scent of carrion doth the raven from the flight it was set upon.
The people of God are called God's spouse, and God calls himself their husband ; whereby is noted the most intimate union of the soul with God, and that there ought to be the highest love and affection to him, and faith fulness in his worship ; but when the heart doth start from him in worship, it is a sign of the unstedfastness of it with God, and a disrelish of any communion with him. It is as God complains of the Israelites, a going
awhoring after our own imaginations.
As grace respects God as the object of worship, so it looks most upon God in approaching to him. Where there is a likeness and love, there is a desire of converse and intimacy ; if there be no spiritual entwining about God in our worship, it is a sign there is no likeness to him, no true sense of him, no renewed image of God in us. Every living image will move strongly to join itself with its original copy, and be glad, with Jacob, to sit steadily in those chariots that shall convey him to his beloved Joseph.
Motive 3. Consider the danger of a carnal worship.
(1.) We lose the comfort of worship. The soul is a great gainer when it offers a spiritual worship, and as great a loser when it is unfaithful with God.
JOHN IV. 24. J SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 839
Treachery and perfidiousness hinder commerce among men, so doth hypo crisy in its own nature communion with God. God never promised any thing to the carcass, but to the spirit of worship. God hath no obligation upon him by any word of his, to reward us with himself, when wo perform it not to himself. When we give an outside worship, we have only the out side of an ordinance. We can expect no kernel, when we give God only the shell. He that only licks the outside of the glass can never be refreshed with the rich cordial enclosed within. A cold and lazy formality will make God to withdraw the light of his countenance, and not shine with any delightful communications upon our souls ; but if we come before him with a liveliness of affections, and steadiness of heart, he will draw the veil, and cause his glory to display itself before us. An humble praying Christian, and a warm affectionate Christian in worship, will soon find a God who is delighted with such frames, and cannot long withhold himself from the soul. When our hearts are inflamed with love to him in worship, it is a prepara tion for some act of love on his part, whereby he intends further to gratify
us. When John was ' in the Spirit on the Lord's day,' — that is, in spiritual employment, and meditation, and other duties, — he had that 'great revelation of what should happen to the church in all ages, Rev. i. 10. His being in the Spirit, intimates his ordinary course on that day, and not any extraordi nary act in him, though it was followed with an extraordinary discovery of
God to him. When he was thus engaged, he ' heard a voice behind him.' God doth not require of us spirituality in worship to advantage himself, but that we might be prepared to be advantaged by him. If we have a clear and well disposed eye, it is not a benefit to the sun, but fits us to receive benefits from his beams. Worship is an act that perfects our own souls ; they are then most widened by spiritual frames, to receive the influence of
divine blessings, as an eye most opened receives the fruit of the sun's light better than the eye that is shut. The communications of God are more or less, according as our spiritual frames are more or less in our worship. God will not give his blessings to unsuitable hearts. What a nasty vessel is a carnal heart for a spiritual communication ! The chief end of every duty enjoined by God is to have communion with him ; and therefore it is called a drawing near to God. It is impossible, therefore, that the outward part of any duty can answer the end of God in his institution. It is not a bodily appearance or gesture whereby men can have communion with God, but by the impressions of the heart and reflections of the heart upon God. Without this, all the rich streams of grace will run beside us, and the growth of the
soul be hindered and impaired. ' A diligent hand makes rich,' saith the wise man ; a diligent heart in spiritual worship brings in rich incomes to the humble and spiritual soul.
(2.) It renders the worship not only unacceptable, but abominable to God. It makes our gold to become dross, it soils our duties, and bespots our souls. A carnal and unsteady frame shews an indifferency of spirit at best ; and lukewarmness is as ungrateful to God as heavy and nauseous meat is to the stomach ; he ' spues them out of his mouth,' Rev. iii. 16. As our gracious God doth overlook infirmities where intentions are good, and endeavours serious and strong, so he loathes the services where the frames are stark naught: Ps. Ixvi. 18, * If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer.' Lukewarm and indifferent services stink in the nostrils of God. The heart seems to loathe God, when it starts from him upon every occasion, when it is unwilling to employ itself about and stick close to him ; and can God be pleased with such a frame ? The more of the heart and spirit is in any service, the more real goodness there is in it, and the more
340 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. f JOHN IV. 24.
savoury it is to God ; the less of the heart and spirit, the less of goodness, and the more nauseous to God, who loves righteousness and * truth in the inward parts,' Ps. li. 9. And therefore infinite goodness and holiness can not but hate worship presented to him with deceitful, carnal, and flitting affections. They must be more nauseous to God than a putrified carcass can be to man ; they are the profanings of that which should be the habi tation of the spirit ; they make the spirit, the seat of duty, a filthy dung hill, and are as loathsome to God as money-changers in the temple were to our Saviour.
We see the evil of carnal frames, and the necessity and benefit of spiritual frames. For further help in this last, let us practise these following directions :
Direct. 1. Keep up spiritual frames out of worship. To avoid low affec tions, we must keep our hearts as much as we can in a settled elevation. If we admit unworthy dispositions at one time, we shall not easily be rid of them at another. * As he that would not be bitten with gnats in the night, must keep his windows shut in the day : when they are once entered, it is not easy to expel them ; in which respect, one adviseth, to be such
out of worship as we would be in worship. If we mix spiritual affections with our worldly employments, worldly affections will not mingle themselves so easily with our heavenly engagements. If our hearts be spiritual in our outward calling, they will scarce be carnal in our religious service. If we
4 walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh,' Gal. v. 16. A spiritual walk in the day will hinder carnal lustings in worship. The fire was to be kept alive upon the altar when sacrifices were not offered, from morning till night, from night till morning, as well as in the very time of
sacrifice. A spiritual life and vigour out of worship, would render it at its season sweet and easy, and preserve a spontaneity and preparedness to it, and make it both natural and pleasant to us.
Anything that doth unhinge and discompose our spirits, is inconsistent with religious services, which are to be performed with the greatest sedateness and gravity. All irregular passions disturb the serenity of the spirit, and open the door for Satan. Saith the apostle, ' Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil,' Eph. iv. 26, 27. Where wrath breaks the lock, the devil will quickly be over the threshold ; and though they be allayed, yet they leave the heart some time after, like the sea, rolling and swelling after the storm is ceased.
Mixture with ill company leaves a tincture upon us in worship. Ephraim's allying himself with the Gentiles, bred an indifferency in religion : Hosea
vii. 8, Ephraim ' hath mixed with the people ;' ' Ephraim is a cake not turned.' It will make our hearts, and consequently our services, half dough, as well as half baked. These and the like make the Holy Spirit withdraw himself, and then the soul lies like a wind-bound vessel, and can make no way. When the sun departs from us, it carries its beams away with it ; then doth ' darkness spread itself over the earth, and the beasts of the forests creep out,' Ps. civ. 20. When the Spirit withdraws a while from a good man, it carries away (though not habitual, yet) much of the exciting and assisting grace ; and then carnal dispositions perk up themselves from the bosom of natural corruption. To be spiritual in worship, we must bar the door at other times against that which is contrary to it. As he that would not be infected with a contagious disease, carries some preservative about with him, and inures himself to good scents.
To this end, be much in secret ejaculations to God ; these are the purest
* Fitzherbert, Pol. in Relig., part ii. cap. 19, sect. 12.
JOHN IV. 24.] SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 841
flights of the soul, that have more of fervour and less of carnality ; they pre serve a liveliness in the spirit, and make it more fit to perform solemn stated worship with greater freedom and activity. A constant use of this would make our whole lives, lives of worship. As frequent sinful acts strengthen habits of sin, so frequent religious acts strengthen habits of grace.
Direct. 2. Excite and exercise particularly a love to God, and dependence on him.
Love is a commanding affection, a uniting grace ; it draws all the facul ties of the soul to one centre. The soul that loves God, when it hath to do with him, is bound to the beloved object : it can mind nothing else during such impressions. When the affection is set to the worship of God, every
thing the soul hath will be bestowed upon it ; as David's disposition was to the temple, 1 Chron. xxix. 3. Carnal frames, like the fowls, will be light ing upon the sacrifice, but not when it is inflamed. Though the scent of the flesh invite them, yet the heat of the fire drives them to their distance. A flaming love will singe the flies that endeavour to interrupt and disturb us. The happiness of heaven consists in a full attraction of the soul to God, by his glorious influence upon it. There will be such a diffusion of his goodness throughout the souls of the blessed, as will unite the affections per fectly to him. These affections, which are scattered here, will be there gathered into one flame, moving to him, and centering in him. There fore the more of a heavenly frame possesses our affections here, the more settled and uniform will our hearts be in all their motions to God, and ope rations about him.
Excite a dependence on him : Prov. xvi. 3, * Commit thy works to the
Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.' Let us go out in God's strength, and not in our own ; vain is the help of man in anything, and vain is the help of the heart. It is through God only we can do valiantly in spiritual concerns as well as temporal ; the want of this makes but slight impressions upon the spirit.
Direct. 3. Nourish right conceptions of the majesty of God in your minds. Let us consider, that we are drawing to God, the most amiable object, the best of beings, worthy of infinite honour, and highly meriting the highest affections we can give ; a God that made the world by a word ; that upholds the great frame of heaven and earth ; a majesty above the conceptions of angels ; who uses not his power to strike us to our deserved punishment, but his love and bounty to allure us ; a God that gave all the creatures to serve us, and can in a trice make them as much our enemies as he hath now made them our servants. Let us view him in his greatness, and in his goodness, that our hearts may have a true value of the worship of so great a majesty, and count it the most worthy employment with all diligence to attend upon him. When we have a fear of God, it will make our worship serious ; when we have a joy in God, it will make our worship durable. Our
affections will be raised, when we represent God in the most reverential, endearing, and obliging circumstances. We honour the majesty of God, when we consider him with due reverence, according to the greatness and perfection of his works ; and in this reverence of his majesty doth worship chiefly consist. Low thoughts of God will make low frames in us before him. If we thought God an infinite glorious Spirit, how would our hearts be lower than our knees in his presence ! How humbly, how believingly pleading is the psalmist, when he considers God to be without comparison
in the heavens ; to whom none of the sons of the mighty can be likened ; when there was none like to him in strength or faithfulness round about,
Ps. Ixxxix. 6-8. We should have also deep impressions of the omniscience
342 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [JOHN IV. 24.
of God ; and remember we have to deal with a God that searcheth the heart and trieth the reins ; to whom the most secret temper is as visible as the loudest words are audible ; that though man judges by outward expres sions, God judges by inward affections. As the law of God regulates the inward frames of the heart, so the eye of God pitches upon the inward in tentions of the soul. If God were visibly present with us, should we not
approach to him with strong affections, summon our spirits to attend upon him, behave ourselves modestly before him ? Let us consider, he is as really present with us, as if he were visible to us ; let us therefore preserve a strong sense of the presence of God. No man but one out of his wits, when he were in the presence of a prince, and-! making a speech to him, would break off at every period, and run after the catching of butterflies. Kemember in all worship you are before the Lord, to whom all things are open and naked.
Direct. 4. Let us take heed of inordinate desires after the world. As the
world steals away a man's heart from the word, so it doth from all other worship ; ' it chokes the word,' Mat. xiii. 27 ; it stifles all the spiritual breathings after God in every duty. The edge of the soul is blunted by it,
and made too dull for such sublime exercises. The apostle's rule in prayer, 1 Peter iv. 7, when he joins ' sobriety' with ' watching unto prayer,' is of concern in all worship, sobriety in the pursuit and use of all worldly things. A man drunk with worldly fumes cannot watch, cannot be heavenly, affec tionate, spiritual in service. There is a magnetic force in the earth, to hinder our flights to heaven. Birds, when they take their first flights from the earth, have more flutterings of their wings, than when they are mounted
further in the air, and got more without the sphere of the earth's attractive ness ; the motion of their wings is more steady, that you can scarce perceive them stir ; they move like a ship with a full gale. The world is a clog upon the soul, and a bar to spiritual frames. It is as hard to elevate the heart to God in the midst of a hurry of worldly affairs, as it is difficult to meditate when we are near a great noise of waters falling from a precipice, or in the midst of a volley of muskets. Their clayey affections bemire the heart, and make it unfit for such high flights it is to take in worship. There fore get your hearts clear from worldly thoughts and desires, if you would be more spiritual in worship.
Direct. 5. Let us be deeply sensible of our present wants, and the sup plies we may meet with in worship. Cold affections to the things we would
have, will grow cooler. Weakness of desire for the communications in worship, will freeze our hearts at the time of worship, and make way for vain and foolish diversions. A beggar that is ready to perish, and knows he is next door to ruin, will not slightly and dully beg an alms, and will not be diverted from his importunity by every slight call, or the moving of an atom in the air. Is it pardon we would have ? Let us apprehend the blackness of sin, with the aggravations of it as it respects God ; let us be deeply sen sible of the want of pardon and worth of mercy, and get our affections into such a frame as a condemned man would do. Let us consider, that as we
are now at the throne of God's grace, we shall shortly be at the bar of God's justice ; and if the soul should be forlorn there, how fixedly and earnestly
would it plead for mercy ! Let us endeavour to stir up the same affections now, which we have seen some dying men have, and which we suppose de
spairing souls would have done at God's tribunal.* We must be sensible that the life or death of our souls depends upon worship. Would we not be ashamed to be ridiculous in our carriage while we are eating ? and shall
* Guliel. Paris, Rhetor. Divin. cap. xxvi. p. 350, col. i.
JOHN IV. 24.] SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 843
we not be ashamed to be cold or garish before God, when the salvation of our souls, as well as the honour of God, is concerned ? If we did see the heaps of sins, the eternity of punishment due to them ; if we did see an angry and offended judge ; if we did see the riches of mercy, the glorious outgoings of God in the sanctuary, the blessed doles he gives out to men when they spiritually attend upon him : both the one and the other would make us perform our duties humbly, sincerely, earnestly, and affectionately,
and wait upon him with our whole souls, 'to have misery averted and mercy bestowed. Let our sense of this be encouraged by the consideration of our
Saviour presenting his merits. With what affection doth he present his merits, his blood shed upon the cross now in heaven ! And shall our hearts be cold and frozen, flitting and unsteady, when his affections are so
much concerned ? Christ doth not present any man's case and duties with out a sense of his wants, and shall we have none of our own ?
Let me add this : let us affect our hearts with a sense of what supplies we have met with in former worship. The delightful remembrance of what converse we have had with God in former worship, would spiritualise our
hearts for the present worship. Had Peter a view of Christ's glory in the mount fresh in his thoughts, he would not so easily have turned his back upon his master. Nor would the Israelites have been at leisure for their idolatry, had they preserved the sense of the majesty of God discovered in his late thunders from mount Sinai.
Direct. 6. If anything intrudes that may choke the worship, cast it speedily out. We cannot hinder Satan and our own corruption from pre senting coolers to us, but we may hinder the success of them. We cannot hinder the gnats from buzzing about us when we are in our business, but we may prevent them from settling upon us. A man that is running on a con siderable errand, will shun all unnecessary discourse that may make him forget or loiter in his business. What though there may be something offered that is good in itself ; yet if it hath a tendency to despoil God of his honour, and ourselves of the spiritual intentness in worship, send it away. Those that weed a field tof corn, examine not the nature and particular virtues of the weeds, but consider only how they choke the corn, to which the native juice of the soil is designed. Consider what you are about ; and if anything interpose that may divert you, or cool your affections in your present worship, cast it out.
Direct. 7. As to private worship, let us lay hold of the most melting opportunities and frames. When we find our hearts in a more than ordi nary spiritual frame, let us look upon it as a call from God to attend him.
Such impressions and motions are God's voice, inviting us into communion with him in some particular act of worship, and promising us some success
in it. When the psalmist had a secret motion to seek God's face, and com plied with it, Ps. xxvii. 8, the issue is the encouragement of his heart, which breaks out into an exhortation to others to be of good courage, and wait on the Lord, ver. 13, 14, « Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart ; wait, I say, on the Lord.' One blow will do more on the iron when it is hot, than a hundred when it is cold. Melted metals may be stamped with any impression ; but once
hardened, will with difficulty be brought into the figure we intend.* Direct. 8. Let us examine ourselves at the end of every act of worship, and chide ourselves for any carnality we perceive in them. Let us take a review of them, and examine the reason, Why art thou so low and carnal, 0 my soul ? as David did of his disquietedness : Ps. xlii. 5, ' Why art * Reynolds.
344 CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [JOHN IV. 24.
thou cast down, 0 my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ?' If any unworthy frames have surprised us in worship, let us seek them out after worship ; call them to the bar ; make an exact scrutiny into the causes of them, that we may prevent their incursions another time ; let our pulses beat quick, by way of anger and indignation, against them. This would be a repairing what hath been amiss ; otherwise they may grow, and clog an after worship more than they did a former. Daily examination is an anti dote against the temptations of the following day, and constant examination of ourselves after duty is a preservative against vain encroachments in fol lowing duties ; and upon the finding them out, let us apply the blood of Christ by faith for our cure, and draw strength from the death of Christ for the conquest of them, and let us also be humbled for them. God lifts up the humble. When we are humbled for our carnal frames in one duty, we ehall find ourselves by the grace of God more elevated in the next.
A DISCOURSE UPON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth
and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. — PSALM XC. 2.
THE title of this psalm is a prayer ; the author, Moses. Some think not only this, but the ten following psalms were composed by him. The titlo wherewith he is dignified is « the man of God,' as also in Dout. xxxiii. 1 : one inspired by him, to be his interpreter, and deliver his oracles; one particularly directed by him ; one who, as a servant, did diligently employ
himself in his Master's business, and acted for the glory of God.* He was the minister of the Old Testament, and the prophet of the New.t
There are two parts of this psalm.
1. A complaint of the frailty of man's life in general, ver. 3-6 ; and then a particular complaint of the condition of the church, ver. 8— 10. J
2. A prayer, ver. 12. But before he speaks of the shortness of human life, he fortifies them by the consideration of the refuge they had and should find in God : ver. 1,
* Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.' We have had no settled abode in the earth since the time of Abraham's being called out from Ur of the Chaldees. We have had Canaan in a promise, we have it not yet in possession ; we have been exposed to the cruelties of an oppressing enemy, and the in commodities of a desert wilderness ; we have wanted the fruits of the earth, but not the dews of heaven. « Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.' Abraham was under thy conduct, Isaac and Jacob under thy care. Their posterity were multiplied by thee, and that under their oppressions. Thou hast been our shield against dangers, our security in the times of trouble. When we were pursued to the Bed sea, it was not a creature delivered us ; and when we feared the pinching of our bowels in the desert, it was not a creature rained manna upon us. Thou hast been our dwelling-place ; thou hast kept open house for us, sheltered us against storms, and preserved us from mischief, as a house doth an inhabitant from wind and weather, and that not in one or two, but in all generations. Some think an allusion is here made to the ark, to which they were to have recourse in all emergencies. Our refuge and defence have not been from created things ; not from the ark, but from the God of the ark.
* Coccei in loc. t Austin in loc. J Pareus in loc.
346 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
Observe,
1. God is a perpetual refuge and security to his people. His providence is not confined to one generation ; it is not one age only that tastes of his bounty and compassion. His eye never yet slept, nor hath he suffered the little ship of his church to be swallowed up, though it hath been tossed upon the waves. He hath always been an haven to preserve us, a house to secure us. He hath always had compassions to pity us, and power to pro tect us. He hath had a face to shine, when the world hath had an angry
countenance to frown.* He brought Enoch home by an extraordinary translation from a brutish world ; and when he was resolved to reckon with men for their brutish lives, he lodged Noah, the Phoenix of the world, in an ark, and kept him alive as a spark in the midst of many waters, whereby to
rekindle a church in the world. In all generations he is a dwelling-place, to secure his people here, or entertain them above.
His providence is not wearied, nor his care fainting. He never wanted
will to relieve us, for ' he hath been our refuge ; ' nor ever can want power to support us, for he is a God ' from everlasting to everlasting.' The church never wanted a pilot to steer her, and a rock to shelter her, and dash in pieces the waves which threaten her.
2. How worthy is it to remember former benefits, when we come to beg
for new ! Never were the records of God's mercies so exactly revised as when his people have stood in need of new editions of his power. How necessary are our wants to stir us up to pay the rent of thankfulness in arrear ! He renders himself doubly unworthy of the mercies he wants, that doth not gratefully acknowledge the mercies he hath received. God scarce promised any deliverance to the Israelites, and they in their distress scarce prayed for any deliverance, but that from Egypt was mentioned on both sides : by God to encourage them, and by them to acknowledge their con fidence in him. The greater our dangers, the more we should call to mind
God's former kindness. We are not only thankfully to acknowledge the mercies bestowed upon our persons, or in our age, but those of former times. Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.
Moses was not living in the former generations, yet he appropriates the former mercies to the present age. Mercies as well as generations proceed out of the loins of those that have gone before. All mankind are but one Adam, the whole church but one body.
In the second verse he backs his former consideration.
1. By the greatness of his power in forming the world.
2. By the boundlessness of his duration ; * from everlasting to everlast
ing.' As thou hast been our dwelling-place, and expended upon us the strength of thy power and riches of thy love, so we have no reason to doubt the continuance on thy part, if we be not wanting on our parts ; for the vast mountains and fruitful earth are the works of thy hands, and there is less power requisite for our relief than there was for their creation ; and though so much strength hath been upon various occasions manifested, yet thy arm
is not weakened ; for * from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.'f Thou hast always been God, and no time can be assigned as the begin ning of thy being. J The mountains are not of so long a standing as thy self ; they are the effects of thy power, and therefore cannot be equal to thy duration. Since they are effects, they suppose a precedency of their cause. If we would look back, we can reach no further than the beginning of the creation, and account the years from the first foundation of the world ; but after that we must lose ourselves in the abyss of eternity. We have no
* Theodoret in loc. t ^N, strong. \ Amyrald. in loc.
PS. XC. 2.] THE ETEKNITY OP GOD. 347
clue to guide our thoughts ; we can see no bounds in thy eternity ; but as for man, he traverseth the world a few days, and by thy order, pronounced concerning all men, returns to the dust, and moulders into the grave.
By mountains some understand angels, as being creatures of a more elevated nature ; by earth they understand human nature, the earth being the habitation of men. There is no need to divert in this place from the letter to such a sense. The description seems to be poetical, and amounts to this : he neither began with the beginning of time, nor will expire with the end of it.* He did not begin when he made himself known to our fathers, but his being did precede the creation of the world, before any created being was formed, and any time settled.
' Before the mountains were brought forth,' or before they were begotten or born, the word being used in those senses in Scripture; before they stood up higher than the rest of the earthly mass God had created. It seems that mountains were not casually cast up by the force of the deluge softening the ground, and driving several parcels of it together, to grow up into a massy body, as the sea doth the sand in several places, but they were at first formed by God.
The eternity of God is here described.
1. In his priority ' before the world.' 2. In the extension of his duration : « From everlasting to everlasting thou
art God.' He was before the world, yet he neither began nor ends. He is not a temporary, but an eternal God. It takes in both parts of eternity, what was before the creation of the world, and what is after. Though the eternity of God be one permanent state without succession, yet the Spirit of God, suiting himself to the weakness of our conception, divides it into two parts, one past before the foundation of the world, another to come after the destruction of the world ; as he did exist before all ages, and as he will exist after all ages.
Many truths lie couched in the verse. 1. The world had a beginning of being. It was not from eternity; it was once nothing. Had it been of a very long duration, some records would have remained of some memorable actions done of a longer date than any extant.
2. The world owes its being to the creating power of God. ' Thou hadst
formed it' out of nothing into^being. Thou, that is, God. It could not spring into being of itself : it was nothing ; it must have a former.
3. God was in being before the world. The cause must be before the
effect ; that Word which gives being must be before 4that which receives being.
4. This Being was from eternity : ' from everlasting.' 5. This Being shall endure to eternity : « to everlasting.' 6. There is but one God, one Eternal : ' From everlasting to everlasting thou art God.' None else but one hath the property of eternity; the gods of the heathen cannot lay claim to it.
Doct. God is of an eternal duration. The eternity of God is the founda tion of the stability of the covenant, the great comfort of a Christian. The design of God in Scripture is to set forth his dealing with men in the way of a covenant. The priority of God before all things begins the Bible : 'In the beginning God created,' Gen. i. I. His covenant can have no foundation but in his duration before and after the world.f And Moses here mentions his eternity, not only with respect to the essence of God, but to his federal providence ; as he is the dwelling-place of his people in all
xa/ arg>.gyr»jro£, Theodoret in loc. t Calv. in loc.
348 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
generations. The duration of God for ever is more spoken of in Scripture than his eternity a parte ante, though that is the foundation of all the com fort we can take from his immortality. If he had a beginning, he might have an end, and so all our happiness, hope, and being would expire with him ; but the Scripture sometimes takes notice of his being without begin ning as well as without end : « Thou art from everlasting,' Ps. xciii. 2 ;
* Blessed be God from everlasting to everlasting,' Ps. xli. 13 ; 'I was set up from everlasting,' Prov. viii. 23. If his wisdom were from everlasting, him self was from everlasting. Whether we understand it of Christ the Son of God, or of the essential wisdom of God, it is all one to the present purpose. The wisdom of God supposeth the essence of God, as habits in creatures suppose the being of some power or faculty as their subject. The wisdom of God supposeth mind and understanding, essence and substance.
The notion of eternity is difficult, as Austin said of time : * If no man will ask me the question what time is, I know well enough what it is ; but if any ask me what it is, I know not how to explain it. So may I say of eternity ; it is easy in the word pronounced, but hardly understood, and more hardly expressed ; it is better expressed by negative than positive words.
Though we cannot comprehend eternity, yet we may comprehend that there is an eternity ; as though we cannot comprehend the essence of God, what he is, yet we may comprehend that he is ; we may understand the notion of his existence, though we cannot understand the infiniteness of his nature. Yet we may better understand eternity than infiniteness ; we can better conceive a time with the addition of numberless days and years, than imagine a being without bounds ; whence the apostle joins his eternity with
his power : ' His eternal power and Godhead,' Rom. i. 20 ; because, next to the power of God apprehended in the creature, we come necessarily, by reasoning, to acknowledge the eternity of God. He that hath an incompre hensible power, must needs have an eternity of nature. His power is most sensible in the creatures to the eye of man, and his eternity easily from thence deducible by the reason of man.
1. Eternity is a perpetual duration, which hath neither beginning nor end. Time hath both. Those things we say are in time, that have beginning, grow up by degrees, have succession of parts. Eternity is contrary to time, and is therefore a permanent and immutable state, a perfect possession of life without any variation. It comprehends in itself all years, all ages, all periods of ages. It never begins ! It endures after every duration of time, and never ceaseth. It doth as much outrun time as it went before the be ginning of it. Time supposeth something before it, but there can be nothing before eternity ; it were not then eternity. Time hath a continual succes sion ; the former time passeth away, and another succeeds ; the last year is not this year, nor this year the next. We must conceive of eternity con trary to the notion of time. As the nature of time consists in the succession of parts, so the nature of eternity in an infinite immutable duration. f Eter nity and time differ as the sea and rivers ; the sea never changes place, and is always one water, but the rivers glide along, and are swallowed up in the sea ; so is time by eternity.
A thing is said to be eternal, or everlasting rather, in Scripture,
2. When it is of a long duration, though it will have an end ; when it hath no measures of time determined to it. So circumcision is said to be in
the flesh ' for an everlasting covenant,' Gen. xvii. 14 ; not purely everlast ing, but so long as that administration of the covenant should endure.
And so when a servant would not leave his master, but would have his
* Consul, lib. ii. Confes. 15. t Moulin. Cor. i., Ser. 2, p. 52.
PS. XC. 2.] THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 349
ear bored, it is said he should be a servant 'for ever,' Dent. xv. 17; i. e., till the jubilee, which was every fiftieth year. So the meat-offering they were to offer is said to be perpetual, Lev. vi. 20. Canaan is said to be given to Abraham for an everlasting possession, Gen. xvii. 8, whenas the Jews are expelled from Canaan, which is given a prey to the barbarous nations. Indeed, circumcision was not everlasting, yet the substance of the covenant, whereof this was a sign, viz., that God would be the God of believers, endures for ever; and that circumcision of the heart which was signified by circumcision of the flesh, shall remain for ever in the kingdom of glory. It was not so much the lasting of the sign, as of the thing signi fied by it, and the covenant sealed by it. The sign had its abolition, so that the apostle is so peremptory in it, that he asserts that if any went about to establish it, he excluded himself from a participation of Christ, Gal. v. 2. The sacrifices were to be perpetual, in regard of the thing signi fied by them, viz., the death of Christ, which was to endure in the efficacy of it. And the passover was to be for ever, Exod. xii. 24, in regard of the redemption signified by it, which was to be of everlasting remembrance. Canaan was to be an everlasting possession in regard of the glory of heaven typified, to be for ever conferred upon the spiritual seed of Abraham.
3. When a thing hath no end, though it hath a beginning. So angels and souls are everlasting ; though their being shall never cease, yet there was a time when their being began. They were nothing before they were something, though they shall never be nothing again, but shall live in end less happiness or misery.
But that properly is eternal that hath neither beginning nor end; and thus eternity is a property of God. In this doctrine I shall shew,
I. How God is eternal, or in what respects eternity is his property. II. That he is eternal, and must needs be so. III. That eternity is only proper to God, and not common to him with any creature.
IV. The use.
I. How God is eternal, or in what respects he is so. Eternity is a nega tive attribute, and is a denying of God any measures of time, as immensity is a denying of him any bounds of place; as immensity is the diffusion of his essence, so eternity is the duration of his essence; and when we say
God is eternal, we exclude from him all possibility of beginning and ending, all flux and change. As the essence of God cannot be bounded by any place, so it is not to be limited by any time; as it is his immensity to be
everywhere, so it is his eternity to be always. As created things are said to be somewhere in regard of place, and to be present, past, or future in regard of time, so the Creator in regard of place is everywhere, in regard
of time is semper* His duration is as endless as his essence is boundless ; he always was and always will be, and will no more have an end than he had a beginning; and this is an excellency belonging to the Supreme Being.f As his essence comprehends all beings and exceeds them, and his immensity surmounts all places, so his eternity comprehends all times, all durations, and infinitely excels them.J
1. God is without beginning.
'In the beginning God created' the world,' Gen. i. 1. God was then before the beginning of it; and what point can be set wherein God began, if he were before the beginning of created things ? God was without beginning, though all other things had time and beginning from him. As
* Gassend. t Crellius, de Deo, cap. xviii. p. 41. \ Lingend, torn. ii. p. 4Q6.
850 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
unity is before all numbers, so is God before all his creatures. Abraham
called upon the name of the ' everlasting God,' Q^J ^, Gen. xxi. 33, the eternal God. It is opposed to heathen gods, which were but of yester day, new coined, and so new ; but the eternal God was before the world was made. In that sense it is to be understood : Rom. xvi. 26, * The mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the command of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of
faith.' The gospel is not preached by the command of a new and tem porary God, but of that God that was before all ages. Though the mani festation of it be in time, yet the purpose and resolve of it was from eternity.
If there were decrees before the foundation of the world, there was a decreer before the foundation of the world. Before the foundation of the world he loved Christ as a mediator, John xvii. 24 ; a foreordination of him was before the foundation of the world, Eph. i. 4. A choice of men, and therefore a chooser before the foundation of the world ; a ' grace given in Christ before the world began,' 2 Tim. i. 9, and therefore a donor of that grace. From those places, saith Crellius, it appears that God was before the foundation of the world ; but they do not assert an absolute eternity. But to be before all creatures, is equivalent to his being from eternity.* Time began with the foundation of the world, but God being before time, could have no beginning in time ; before the beginning of the creation and the beginning of time, there could be nothing but eternity, nothing but what was uncreated, that is, nothing but what was without beginning. To be in time, is to have a beginning; to be before all time, is never to have a beginning, but always to be ; for as between the Creator and creatures there is no medium, so between time and eternity there is no medium. It is as easily deduced that he that was before all creatures is eternal, as he that made all creatures is God ; if he had a beginning, he must have it from another, or from himself. If from another, that from whom he received his being would be better than he, so more a God than he. He cannot be God that is not supreme, he cannot be supreme that owes his being to the
power of another. He would not be said * only to have immortality' as he
is, 1 Tim. vi. 16, if he had it dependent upon another; nor could *he have a beginning from himself. If he had given beginning to himself, then he was once nothing, there was a time when he was not ; if he was not, how could he be the cause of himself? It is impossible for any to give a beginning and being to itself; if it acts, it must exist, and so exist before it existed. A thing would exist as a cause before it existed as an effect. He that is not cannot be the cause that he is. If therefore God doth exist, and hath not his being from another, he must exist from eternity. There fore when we say God is of and from himself, we mean not that God gave being to himself; but it is negatively to be understood, that he hath no cause of existence without himself.
Whatsoever number of millions of millions of years we can imagine before the creation of the world, yet God was infinitely before those ; he is there
fore called ' the Ancient of days,' Dan. vii. 9, as being before all days and time, and eminently containing in himself all times and ages. Though indeed God cannot properly be called ancient, that will testify that he is decaying, and shortly will not be ; no more than he can be called young, which would signify that he was not long before. All created things are new and fresh, but no creature can find out any beginning of God. It is impossible there should be any beginning of him.
* Coccei, Sum. Theol. p. 48 ; Gerhard, Exeges. cap. Ixixvi. 4, p. 266.
PS. XC. 2.] THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 851
2. God is without end. He always was, always is, and always will bo what he is. He remains always the same in being ; so far from any change, that no shadow of it can touch him, James i. 17. He will continue in being as long as he hath already enjoyed it ; and if we could add never so many millions of years together, we are still as far from an end as from a
beginning, for 'the Lord shall endure for ever,' Ps. ix. 7. As it is impos sible he should not be, being from all eternity, so it is impossible that he should not be to all eternity. The Scripture is most plentiful in testi monies of this eternity of God, d parte post, or after the creation of the world. He is said to ' live for ever,' Rev. iv. 9, 10. The earth shall perish, but God shall endure for ever, and his years shall have no end, Ps. cii. 27. Plants and animals grow up from small beginnings, arrive to their full growth and decline again, and have always remarkable alterations in their nature ; but there is no declination in God by all the revolutions of time. Hence some think the incorruptibility of the Deity was signified by the Shittim or cedar wood, whereof the ark was made, it being of an incor ruptible nature, Exod. xxv. 10.
That which had no beginning of duration can never have an end, or any interruptions in it. Since God never depended upon any, what should make him cease to be what eternally he hath been, or put a stop to the continuance of his perfections ? He cannot will his own destruction ; that is against universal nature in all things to cease from being, if they can preserve themselves. He cannot desert his own being, because he cannot but love himself as the best and chiefest good. The reason that anything decays, is either its own native weakness, or superior power of something
contrary to it.* There is no weakness in the nature of God that can intro duce any corruption, because he is infinitely simple, without any mixture. Nor can he be overpowered by anything else ; a weaker cannot hurt him, and a stronger than he there cannot be. Nor can he be outwitted or cir cumvented, because of his infinite wisdom. As he received his being from none, so he cannot be deprived of it by any. As he doth necessarily exist, so he doth necessarily always exist. This indeed is the property of God ; nothing so proper to him as always to be. Whatsoever perfection any being hath, if it be not eternal it is not divine. God only is immortal,f 1 Tim. vi. 16 ; he only is so by a necessity of nature. Angels, souls, and bodies too, after the resurrection, shall be immortal ; not by nature but grant; they are subject to return to nothing, if that word that raised them from nothing should speak them into nothing again. It is as easy with God to strip them of it as to invest them with it; nay, it is impossible but that they should perish, if God should withdraw his power from preserving them, which he exerted in creating them. But God is immovably fixed in his own being, that as none gave him his life, so none can deprive him of his life, or the least particle of it. Not a jot of the happiness and life which
God infinitely possesses can be lost; it will be as durable to everlasting as it hath been possessed from everlasting.
3. There is no succession in God. God is without succession or change;
it is a part of eternity: 'From everlasting to everlasting he is God,' i.e. the same. God doth not only always remain in being, but he always remains
the same in that being: 'Thou art the same,' Ps. cii. 27. The being of creatures is successive, the being of God is permanent, and remains entire with all its perfections, unchanged in an infinite duration. Indeed, the first notion of eternity is to be without beginning and end, which notes to us the duration of a being in regard of its existence; but to have no succession,
Crellius, de Deo, cap. xviii. p. 41. t Daille in loc.
352 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
nothing first or last, notes rather the perfection of a being in regard of its essence.
The creatures are in a perpetual flux ; something is acquired, or some thing lost, every day. A man is the same in regard of existence when he is a man as he was when he was a child, but there is a new succession of quantities and qualities in him. Every day he acquires something till he comes to his maturity, every day he loseth something till he comes to his period. A man is not the same at night that he was in the morning, something is expired and something is added ; every day there is a change in his age, a change in his substance, a change in his accidents ; but God hath his whole being in one and the same point or moment of eternity. He receives nothing as an addition to what he was before, he loseth nothing of what he was before ; he is always the same excellency and perfection in
the same infiniteness as ever. His ' years do not fail,' Heb. i. 12 ; his years do not come and go as others do, there is not this day, to-morrow, or yesterday with him. As nothing is past or future with him in regard of knowledge, but all things are present, so nothing is past or future in regard of his essence. He is not in his essence this day what he was not before,
or will be the next day and year what he is not now.* All his perfections are most perfect in him every moment, before all ages, after all ages. As he hath his whole essence undivided in every place, as well as in immense space, so he hath all his being in one moment of time, as well as in infinite intervals of time.f Some illustrate the difference between eternity and time by the similitude of a tree or a rock standing upon the side of a river or shore of the sea ; the tree stands, always the same and unmoved, while the waters of the river glide along at the foot. The flux is in the river, but the tree acquires nothing but a diverse respect and relation of presence to the various parts of the river as they flow. The waters of the river press on, and push forward one another, and what the river hath this minute it hath not the same the next; so are all sublunary things in a continual flux. And though the angels have no substantial change, yet they have an acci dental, for the actions of the angels this day are not the same individual actions which they performed yesterday; but in God there is no change, he always remains the same.
Of a creature it may be said, he was, or he is, or he shall be. J Of God it cannot be said but only he is ; he is what he always was, and he is what he always will be ; whereas a creature is what he was not, and will be what he is not now. As it may be said of the flame of a candle, it is flame, but it is not the same individual flame as was before, nor is it the same that will be presently after ; there is a continual dissolution of it into air, and a con tinual supply for the generation of more ; while it continues it may be said there is a flame, yet not entirely one, but in a succession of parts : so of a man it may be said, he is in a succession of parts ; but he is not the same that he was, and will not be the same that he is. But God is the same without any succession of parts, and of time ; of him it may be said, he is ; he is no more now than he was, and he shall be no more hereafter than he is. God possesses a firm and absolute being, always constant to himself ; § he sees all things sliding under him in a continual variation ; he beholds the revolutions in the world without any change of his most glori ous and immoveable nature. All other things pass from one state to
* Lessius, de perfect, divin. lib. iv. cap. 1. t Gamacheus in Aquin. part i. qu. 10, cap. 1. j Gassend, torn. i. ; Physic, sec. i. 1. 2, c. 7, p. 223. § Daille, Melange de Sermons, p. 252.
PS. XC. 2.] THE ETEENITY OF GOD. 853
another, from their original to their eclipse, and destruction ; but God possesses his being in one indivisible point, having neither beginning, end, nor middle.
(1.) There is no succession in the knowledge of God. The variety of successions and changes in the world make no succession or new objects in the divine mind, for all things are present to him from eternity in regard of his knowledge, though they are not actually present in the world in regard of their existence. He doth not know one thing now and another anon,
he sees all things at once : * Known unto God are all things from the be ginning of the world,' Acts xv. 18, but in their true order of succession, as they lie in the eternal counsel of God, to be brought forth in time. Though there be a succession and order of things as they are wrought, yet there is no succession in God in regard of his knowledge of them. God knows the things that shall be wrought, and the order of them in their being brought upon the stage of the world ; yet both the things and the order he knows by one act. Though all things be present with God, yet they are present in him in the order of their appearance in the world, and not so present with him as if they should be wrought at once. The death of Christ was to pre cede his resurrection in order of time ; there is a succession in this ; both at once are known by God, yet the act of his knowledge is not exercised about Christ as dying and rising at the same time, so that there is succes
sion in things when there is no succession in God's knowledge of them. Since God knows time, he knows all things as they are in time ; he doth not know all things to be at once, though he knows at once what is, has been, and will be. All things are past, present, and to come in regard of their existence ; but there is not past, present, and to come in regard of
God's knowledge of them,* because he sees and knows not by any other but by himself ; he is his own light by which he sees, his own glass wherein he sees ; beholding himself, he beholds all things.
(2.) There is no succession in the decrees of God. He doth not decree this now which he decreed not before, for as his works were known from the beginning of the world, so his works were decreed from the beginning of the world ; as they are known at once, so they are decreed at once ; there is a succession in the execution of them, first grace, then glory ; but the purpose of God for the bestowing of both was in one and the same moment of eternity : Eph. i. 4, ' He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy ; ' the choice of Christ, and the choice of some in him to be holy, and to be happy, were before the foundation of the world. It is by the eternal counsel of God all things appear in time ; they
appear in their order, according to the counsel and will of God, from eternity. The redemption of the world is after the creation of the world, but the decree whereby the world was created, and whereby it was redeemed, was from eternity.
(3.) God is his own eternity. He is not eternal by grant, and the dis posal of any other, but by nature and essence. The eternity of God is nothing else but the duration of God, and the duration of God is nothing
else but his existence enduring, existentia durans.* If eternity were any thing distinct from God, and not of the essence of God, then there would be something which was not God necessary to perfect God. As immortality is the great perfection of a rational creature, so eternity is the choice perfec tion of God, yea, the gloss and lustre of all others. Every perfection would be imperfect if it were not always a perfection.
God is essentially whatsoever he is, and there is nothing in God but his
* Parisiensis. t Calov. Socinian. VOL. I. Z
354 CHAKNOCK'S WOEKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
essence. Duration or continuance in being in creatures differs from their being, for they might exist but for one instant, in which case they may be said to have being, but not duration, because all duration includes prius et posterius. All creatures may cease from being, if it be the pleasure of God ;
they are not therefore durable by their essence, and therefore are not their own duration, no more than they are their own existence ; and though some creatures, as angels and souls, may be called everlasting, as a perpetual life is communicated to them by God, yet they can never be called their own eternity, because such a duration is not simply necessary nor essential to them, but accidental, depending upon the pleasure of another ; there is nothing in their nature that can hinder them from losing it, if God, from whom they received it, should design to take it away ; but as God is his
own necessity of existing, so he is in his own duration in existing.* As he doth necessarily exist by himself, so he will always necessarily exist by himself.
(4.) Hence all the perfections of God are eternal. In regard of the divine eternity, all things in God are eternal : his power, mercy, wisdom, justice, knowledge. God himself were not eternal if any of his perfections,
which are essential to him, were not eternal also ; he had not else been a perfect God from all eternity, and so his whole self had not been eternal. If anything belonging to the nature of a thing be wanting, it cannot be said to be that thing which it ought to be ; if anything requisite to the nature of God had been wanting one moment, he could not have been said to be an eternal God.