Part 24
II. The second thing, God is eternal. The Spirit of God in Scripture condescends to our capacities in signifying the eternity of God by days and years, which are terms belonging to time, whereby we measure it, Ps. cii. 27 ; but we must no more conceive that God is bounded or measured by time, and hath succession of days because of those expressions, than we can conclude him to have a body because members are ascribed to him in
Scripture, to help our conceptions of his glorious nature and operations.
Though years are ascribed to him, yet they are such as cannot be numbered, cannot be finished, since there is no proportion between the duration of God
and the years of men : ' The number of his years cannot be searched out, for he makes small the drops of water, they pour down rain according to
the vapour thereof,' Job xxxvi. 26, 27. The numbers of the drops of rain which have fallen in all parts of the earth since the creation of the world, if subtracted from the number of the years of God, would be found a small quantity, a mere nothing to the years of God. As all the nations in the world compared with God are but as the ' drop of a bucket, worse than no thing, than vanity,' Isa. xl. 15, so all the ages of the world, if compared with God, amount not to;; so much as the one hundred thousandth part of a minute. The minutes from the creation may be numbered, but the years of the duration of God, being infinite, are without measure.
As one day is to the life of man, so are a thousand years to the life of God, Ps. xc. 4. The Holy Ghost expresseth himself to the capacity of man, to give us some notion of an infinite duration, by a resemblance suited to the capacity of man.t If a thousand years be but as a day to the life of God, then as a year is to the life of man, so are three hundred sixty-five thousand years to the life of God ; and as seventy years are to the life of man, so are twenty-five millions four J hundred and fifty thousand years to the life of God. Yet still, since there is no proportion between time and eternity, we
* Gassend. | Amyrald, Trin. p. 44. J ' five.'— ED.
PS. XC. 2.] THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 355
must dart our thoughts beyond all those,- for years and days measure only the duration of created things, and of those only that are material and cor poreal, subject to the motion of the heavens, which makes days and years.
Sometimes this eternity is expressed by parts, as looking backward and forward, by the differences of time past, present, and to come, ' which was,
and is, and is to come.'f Though this might be spoken of anything in being, though but for an hour, it was the last minute, it is now, and it will be the next minute, yet the Holy Ghost would declare something proper to God, as including all parts of time ; he always was, is now, and always shall be ; it might always be said of him he was, and it may always be said of him he will be. There is no time when he began, no time when he shall cease. It cannot be said of a creature he always was, he always is what he was, and he always will be what he is ; but God always is what he was, and always will be what he is, so that it is a very significant expression of the eternity of God, as can be suited to our capacities.
1. His eternity is evident, by the name God gives himself: Exod. iii. 14,
' And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM ; thus rshalt thou say to the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.' This is the name whereby he is distinguished from all creatures. I AM is his proper name. This description being in the present tense, shews that his essence knows no past nor future. If it were lie was, it would intimate he were not now what he once was ; if it*vere he irill be, it would intimate he were not yet what he will be ; but / am; I am the only being, the root of all beings; he is there fore at the greatest distance from not being, and that is eternal ; so that is signifies his eternity, as well as his perfection and immutability. As / am speaks the want of no blessedness, so it speaks the want of no duration ; and therefore the French, wherever they find this word Jehovah in the Scrip ture, which we translate Lord, and Lord eternal, render it the Eternal, — I am always and immutably the same. The eternity of God is opposed to the volubility of time, which is extended into past, present, and to come.
Our time is but a small drop, as sand to all the atoms and small particles of which the world is made ; but God is an unbounded sea of being, — « I am that I am,' i.e. am infinite life. I have not that now which I had not for merly ; I shall not afterwards have that which I have not now. I am that in every moment which I was, and will be in all moments of time. Nothing can be added to me, nothing can be detracted from me. There is nothing superior to him which can detract from him, nothing desirable that can be added to him. Now if there were any4beginning and end of God, any succession in him, he could not be I am; I for in regard of what was past he would not be, in regard of what was to come he is not yet. And upon this account a heathen § argues well, of all creatures it may be said they were, or they will be, but of God it cannot be said anything else but Est, God is, because he fills an eternal duration. A creature cannot be said to be if it
be not yet, nor if it be not now, but hath been. ||
God only can be called I am ; all creatures have more of not being than being ; for every creature was nothing from eternity, before it was made something in time ; and if it be corruptible in its whole nature, it will be nothing to eternity after it hath been something in time ; and if it be not corruptible in its nature, as the angels, or in every part of its nature, as man in regard of his soul, yet it hath not properly a being, because it is depen-
* Daille, Vent. Sermons, Ser. i. sur. Ps. cii. 27, p. 21. f Rev. i. 8 iv. 8. Crellius weakens this argument, de Deo, cap. 18, p. 42,
1 Thes. Salmur., p. i. p. 145. Thes. 14. § Plutarch, de TE/ i. p. 462. 0 Perer. in Exod. iii. Disput. 13.
356 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
dent upon the pleasure of God to continue it, or deprive it of it ; and while it is, it is mutable, and all mutability is a mixture of not being. If God,
therefore, be properly I am, i.e. being, it follows that he'always was ; for if he were not always, he must, as was argued before, be produced by some other, or by himself. By another he could not, then he had not been God, but a creature; nor by himself, for then, as producing, he must be before himself, as produced ; he had been before he was. And he always will be, for being I am, having all being in himself, and the fountain of all being to everything else, how can he ever have his name changed to I am not?
2. God hath life in himself: John v. 26, ' The Father hath life in him
self.' He is the ' living God,' therefore ' stedfast* for ever,' Dan. vi. 26. He hath life by his essence, not by participation. He is a sun to give light and life to all creatures, but receives not light or life from anything, and therefore he hath an unlimited life ; not a drop of life, but a fountain ; not a spark of a limited life, but a life transcending all bounds. He hath life in himself ; all creatures have their life in him, and from him. He that hath life in himself doth necessarily exist, and could never be made to exist, for then he had not life in himself, but in that which made him to exist, and gave him life. What doth necessarily exist, therefore, exists from eternity ; what hath being of itself could never be produced in time, could not want being one moment, because it hath being from its essence, without influence of any efficient cause. When God pronounced his name, I am that I am, angels and men were in being ; the world had been created above two thou sand four hundred years.* Moses, to whom he then speaks, was in being ; yet God only is, because he only hath the fountain of being in himself, but all that they were was a rivulet from him. He hath from nothing else that he doth subsist ; everything else hath its subsistence from him as their root, as the beam from the sun, as the rivers and fountains from the sea. All
life is seated in God, as in its proper throne, in its most perfect purity. God is life ; it is in him originally, radically, therefore eternally. He is a pure act, nothing but vigour and act. He hath by his nature that life which others have by his grant ; whence the apostle saith, 1 Tim. vi. 16, not only
that he is immortal, but he ' hath immortality ' in a full possession, fee-
simple, not depending upon the will of another, but containing all things within himself. He that hath life in himself, and is from himself, cannot but be. He always was, because he received his being from no other, and none can take away that being which was not given by another.f If there were any space before he did exist, then there were something which made him to exist ; life would not then be in him, but in that which produced him into being. He could not then be God, but that other which gave him being would be God. And to say God sprung into being by chance, when we see nothing in the world that is brought forth by chance, but hath some cause of its existence, would be vain ; for since God is a being, chance, which is nothing, could not bring forth something; and by the same reason that he sprung up by chance, he might totally vanish by chance. What a strange notion of a God would this be, such a God that had no life in him self, but from chance.
Since he had life in himself, and that there was no cause of his existence, he can have no cause of his limitation, and can no more be determined to a time than he can to a place. What hath life in itself hath life without bounds, and can never desert it, nor be deprived of it ; so that he lives necessarily, and it is absolutely impossible that he should not live ; whereas
* Petav. Theol. Dogm., torn. i. lib. i. c. 6, sec. 6, 7. t Ainjrald, de Trinit., p. 48.
PS. XC. 2.] THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 357
all other things * live, and move, and have their being in him,' Acts xvii. 28 ; and as they live by his will, so they can return to nothing at his word. 3. If God were not eternal, he were not immutable in his nature. It is contrary to the nature of immutability to be without eternity ; for whatso ever begins, is changed, in its passing from not being to being. It began to be what it was not, and if it ends, it ceaseth to be what it was. It can not, therefore, be said to be God, if there were either beginning or ending
or succession in it : Mai. iii. 6, ' I am the Lord, I change not ;' Job xxxvii. 23, ' Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out.' God argues here, saith Calvin, from his unchangeable nature as Jehovah, to his immutability in his purpose. Had he not been eternal, there had been the greatest change, from nothing to something. A change of the essence is greater than a change of purpose. God is a sun, glittering always in the same glory; no growing up in youth, no passing on to age. If he were not without succession, standing in one point of eternity, there would be a change from past to present, from present to future. The eternity of God is a shield against all kind of mutability. If anything sprang up in the essence of God that was not there before, he could not be said to be either an eternal or an unchanged substance.
4. God could not be an infinitely perfect being, if he were not eternal. A finite duration is inconsistent with infinite perfection. Whatsoever is con tracted within the limits of time, cannot swallow up all perfections in itself. God hath an unsearchable perfection : ' Canst thou by searching find out God ? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? ' Job xi. 7. He cannot be found out, he is infinite, because he is incomprehensible. Incom prehensibility ariseth from an infinite perfection, which cannot be fathomed
by the short lines of man's understanding. His essence, in regard of its diffusion and in regard of its duration, is incomprehensible, as well as his action. If God, therefore, had beginning, he could not be infinite ; if not infinite, he did not possess the highest perfection, because a perfection might be conceived beyond it. If his being could fail, he were not perfect. Can that deserve the name of the highest perfection, which is capable of corrup tion and dissolution ? To be finite and limited is the greatest imperfection, for it consists in a denial of being. He could not be the most blessed being if he were not always so, and should not for ever remain to be so ; and whatsoever perfections he had, would be soured by the thoughts that in time they would cease, and so could not be pure perfections, because not perma
nent ; but he is ' blessed from everlasting to everlasting,' Ps. xli. 13. Had he a beginning, he could not have all perfection without limitation ; he would have been limited by that which gave him beginning ; that which gave him being would be God and not himself, and so more perfect than he. But since God is the most sovereign perfection, than which nothing can be ima gined perfecter by the most capacious understanding, he is certainly eternal ; being infinite, nothing can be added to him, nothing detracted from him.
5. God could not be omnipotent, almighty, if he were not eternal. The title of Almighty agrees not with a nature that had a beginning ; whatsoever hath a beginning was once nothing, and when it was nothing, could act no thing. Where there is no being, there is no power ; neither doth the title of Almighty agree with a perishing nature. He can do nothing to purpose, that cannot preserve himself against the outward force and violence of ene mies, or against the inward causes of corruption and dissolution. No account
is to be made of man, because ' his breath is in his nostrils,' Isa. ii. 22. Could a better account be made of God, if he were of the like condition ? He could not properly be almighty, that were not always mighty. If he be
358 CHAKNOCK'S WOEKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
omnipotent, nothing can impair him ; he that hath all power can have no hurt.* If he doth whatsoever he pleaseth, nothing can make him miserable, since misery consists in those things which happen against our will. The almightiness and eternity of God are linked together : « I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which was, and which
is, and which is to come, the Almighty,' Rev. i. 8. Almighty because eter nal, and eternal because almighty.
6. God would not be the first cause of all, if he were not eternal. But
he is « the first and the last,' Rev. i. 8 ; the first cause of all things, the last end of all things, f That which is the first cannot begin to be : it were not then the first. It cannot cease to be : whatsoever is dissolved, is dissolved into that whereof it doth consist, which was before it, and then it was not the first. { The world might not have been ; it was once nothing : it must have some cause to call it out of nothing. Nothing hath no power to make itself something ; there is a superior cause, by whose will and power it comes into being, and so gives all the creatures their distinct forms.
This power cannot but be eternal, it must be before the world ; the foun der must be before the foundation, § and his existence must be from eternity, or we must say nothing did exist from eternity. And if there were no being from eternity, there could not now be any being in time. What we see, and what we are, must arise from itself or some other. It cannot from itself. If anything made itself, it had a power to make itself ; it then had an active power before it had a being. It was something in regard of power, and was nothing in regard of existence, at the same time. Suppose it had a power to produce itself, this power must be conferred upon it by another ; and so the power of producing itself was not from itself, but from another. But if the power of being was from itself, why did it not produce itself before ? Why was it one moment out of being ? If there be any existence of things, it is necessary that that which was the first cause should exist from eternity. ||
Whatsoever was the immediate cause of the world, yet the first and chief cause, wherein we must rest, must have nothing before it ; if it had anything before it, it were not the first. He therefore that is the first cause must be without beginning, nothing must be before him. If he had a beginning from some other, he could not be the first principle and author of all things. If he be the first cause of all things, he must give himself a beginning, or to be from eternity. He could not give himself a beginning : whatsoever begins in time was nothing before, and when it was nothing, it could do nothing ; it could not give itself anything, for then it gave what it had not, and did what it could not. If he made himself in time, why did he not make him self before ? What hindered him ? It was either because he could not, or because he would not. If he could not, he always wanted power, and always would, unless it were bestowed upon him, and then he could not be said to be from himself. If he would not make himself before, then he might have made himself when he would : how had he the power of willing and nilling without a being ? Nothing cannot will or nill ; nothing hath no faculties. So that it is necessary to grant some eternal being, or run into inextricable labyrinths and mazes, t If we deny some eternal being, we must deny all being : our own being, the being of everything about us ; unconceivable absurdities will arise.
So then, if God were the cause of all things, he did exist before all things, and that from eternity.
* Voet. Natural. Theol., p. 310. $ Crelliua de Deo, cap. 18, p. 43. t Ficin. de Immort., lib. ii. cap. 5. || Petav.Theol. Dograat., torn, i.l.i. c. 10,11. Coccei Sum. Theol.
PS. XC. 2.] THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 359
III. The third thing is, eternity is only proper to God, and not communi cable. It is as great a madness to ascribe eternity to the creature, as to
deprive the Lord of the creature of eternity.* It is so proper to God, that when the apostle would prove the deity of Christ, he proves it by his immu
tability and eternity, as well as his creating power : * Thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail,' Heb. i. 10-12. The argument had no strength, if eternity belonged essentially to any but God ; and therefore he is said
1 only to have immortality,' 1 Tim. vi. 16. All other things receive their being from him, and can be deprived of their being by him. All things depend on him, he of none. All other things are like clothes, which would consume if God preserved them not. Immortality is appropriated to God,
i. e. an independent immortality. Angels and souls have an immortality, but by donation from God, not by their own essence ; dependent upon their Creator, not necessary in their own nature. God might have annihilated them after he had created them ; so that their duration cannot properly be called an eternity, it being extrinsecal to them, and depending upon the will of their Creator, by whom they may be extinguished. It is not an absolute and necessary, but a precarious, immortality. Whatsoever is not God, is tempo rary ; whatsoever is eternal, is God.
It is a contradiction to say a creature can be eternal : as nothing eternal is created, so nothing created is eternal. What is distinct from the nature of God cannot be eternal, eternity being the essence of God. Every crea ture, in the notion of a creature, speaks a dependence on some cause, and therefore cannot be eternal. As it is repugnant to the nature of God not to be eternal, so it is repugnant to the nature of a creature to be eternal ; for then a creature would be equal to the Creator, and the Creator, or the cause, would not be before the creature, or effect, \
It would be all one to admit many gods, as many eternals ; and all one to say God can be created, as to say a creature can be uncreated, which is to be eternal.
1. Creation is a producing something from nothing. What was once nothing, cannot therefore be eternal : [its] not being was eternal ; therefore its being could not be eternal, for it should be then before it was, and would be something when it was nothing. It is the nature of a creature to be nothing before it was created ; what was nothing before it was, cannot be equal with God in an eternity of duration.
2. There is no creature but is mutable, therefore not eternal. As it had
a change from nothing to something, so it may be changed from being to not being. If the creature were not mutable, it would be most perfect, and so would not be a creature, but God, for God only is most perfect. It is as much the essence of a creature to be mutable, as it is the essence of God to be immutable. Mutability and eternity are utterly inconsistent.
3. No creature is infinite, therefore not eternal. To be infinite in dura tion, is all one as to be infinite in essence. It is as reasonable to conceive
a creature immense, filling all places at once, as eternal, extended to all ages ; because neither can be without infiniteness, which is the property of the Deity. J A creature may as well be without bounds of place, as limitations of time.
4. No effect of an intellectual free agent, can be equal in duration to its cause. The production of natural agents are as ancient often as themselves : the sun produceth a beam as old in time as itself ; but who ever heard of a piece of wise workmanship as old as the wise artificer ? God produced a creature, not necessarily and naturally, as the sun doth a beam, but freely,
* Bapt. f Lessius de Perfect., lib. iv. cap. 2. J Ibid.
860 CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
as an intelligent agent. The sun was not necessary ; it might be or not be, according to the pleasure of God. A free act of the will is necessary to
precede in order of time, as the cause of such effects as are purely voluntary.* Those causes that act as soon as they exist, act naturally, necessarily, not freely, and cannot cease from acting.
But suppose a creature might have existed by the will of God from eter nity : yet, as some think, it could not be said, absolutely and in its own nature, to be eternal, because eternity was not of the essence of it. The creature could not be its own duration ; for though it were from eternity, it might not have been from eternity, because its existence depended upon the free will of God, who might have chose whether he would have created it or no.
God only is eternal, ' the first and the last, the beginning and the end,' who, as he subsisted before any creature had a being, so he will eternally subsist, if all creatures were reduced to nothing.
IV. Use. 1. Information.
(1.) If God be of an eternal duration, then Christ is God. Eternity is the
property of God, but it is ascribed to Christ : ' He is before all things,' Col. i. 17, i. e. all created things. He is therefore no creature ; and if no crea
ture, eternal. 'All things were created by him,' both in heaven and in earth,
angels as well as men, * whether they be thrones or dominions,' Col. i. 16. If all things were his creatures, then he is no creature ; if he were, all things were not created by him, or he must create himself.
He hath no difference of time, for he is ' the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,' Heb. xiii. 8 ; Rev. i. 8, ' He which is, and which was, and which is to come : ' the same with the name of God, / am, which signifies his eternity. He is no more to-day than he was yesterday, nor will be any other to-morrow than he is to-day ; and therefore Melchisedec, whose descent, birth and death, father and mother, beginning and end of days, are not upon record, was a type of the existence of Christ, without difference of time :
* Having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God,' Heb. vii. 3. The suppression of his birth and death was intended by the Holy Ghost as a type of the excellency of Christ's person in regard of his eternity, and the duration of his charge in regard of his priesthood. As there was an appearance of an eternity in the suppression of the race of Melchisedec, so there is a true eternity in the Son of God. How could the eternity of the Son of God be expressed by any resemblance so well, as by such a suppression of the beginning and end of this great person, different from the custom of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, who often records the generations and ends of holy men ; and why might not this, which was a kind of a shadow of eternity, be a representation of the true eternity of Christ, as well as the restoration of Isaac to his father without death, is said to be a figure of the resurrection of Christ after a real death.f Melchisedec is only mentioned once (without any record of his extraction), in his appear ance to Abraham after his victory, as if he came from heaven only for that action, and instantly disappeared again, as if he had been an eternal person.
And Christ himself hints his own eternity : ' I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world ; again I leave the world, and go to the Father,' John xvi. 28. He goes to the Father as he came from the Father ; he goes to the Father for everlasting, so he came from the Father from everlasting ; there is the same duration in coming forth from the Father as in returning to the Father. But more plainly, John xvii. 5, he speaks of a glory that
he ' had with the Father before the world was,' when there was no creature
* Crellius de Deo, cap. 18, p. 43. t Mestrsezat. in loc.
PS. XC. 2.] THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 3G1
in being ; this is an actual glory, and not only in decree ; for a decreed glory believers had, and why may not every one of them say the same words,
* Father, glorify me with that glory which I had with thee before the world was,' if it were only a glory in decree ? Nay, it may be said of every man, he was before the world was, because he was so in decree. Christ speaks of something peculiar to him, a glory in actual possession before the world was ; glorify me, embrace, honour me as thy Son, whereas I have now been in the eyes of the world handled disgracefully as a servant. If it were only in decree, why is not the like expression used of others in Scripture, as well as of Christ ? Why did he not use the same words for his disciples that were then with him, who had a glory in decree ? His eternity is also men tioned in the Old Testament ; * The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old,' Prov. viii. 22. If he were the work of God, he existed before himself if he existed before all the works of God ; it
is not so properly meant of the essential wisdom of God, since the discourse runs in the name of a person, and several passages there are which belong not so much to the essential wisdom of God, as ver. 13, ' The evil way and the froward mouth do I hate ;' which belongs rather to the holiness of God than to the essential wisdom of God ; besides, it is distinguished from Jehovah, as possessed by him and rejoicing before him. Yet plainer, Micah
v. 2, ' Out of thee,' i. e. Bethlehem, * shall he come forth to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting,' WD OVlJJ* * from the ways* of eternity.' There are two goings forth of Christ described, one from Bethlehem in the days of his incarnation, and another from eternity. The Holy Ghost adds after his prediction of his incarnation, his going out from everlasting, that none should doubt of his deity. If this going out from everlasting were only in the purpose of God, it might be said of David and of every creature. And in Isa. ix. he is particularly called the Everlasting, or eternal Father ; not the Father in the Trinity, but a father to us ; yet eternal, the Father of eternity. As he is ' the mighty God,' so he is ' the everlasting Father.' Can such a title be ascribed to any whose being depends upon the will of another, and may be dashed out at the pleasure of a superior ?
As the eternity of God is the ground of all religion, so the eternity of Christ is the ground of the Christian religion. Could our sins be perfectly expiated had he not an eternal divinity to answer for the offences committed against an eternal God ? Temporary sufferings had been of little validity, without an infiniteness and eternity in his person to add weight to his passion.
(2.) If God be eternal, he knows all things as present.-}- All things are present to him in his eternity ; for this is the notion of eternity, to be with out succession. If eternity be one indivisible point, and is not diffused into preceding and succeeding parts, then that which is known in it or by it is perceived without any succession, for knowledge is as the substance of the person knowing ; if that hath various actions and distinct from itself, then it understands things in differences of time as time presents them to view ;
but since God's being depends not upon the revolutions of time, so neither dothlhis knowledge ; it exceeds all motions of years and days, comprehends infinite spaces of past and future. God considers all things in his eternity in one simple knowledge, as if they were now acted before him : Acts xv. 18,
' Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world ;' an 'cuuvog, a seculo, from eternity. God's knowledge is co-eternal with him. If he knows that in time which he did not know from eternity, he would not be eternally perfect, since knowledge is the perfection of an intelligent nature.
* Qu. 'days'?— ED. t
362 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
(3.) How bold and foolish is it for a mortal creature to censure the counsels and actions of an eternal God, or be too curious in his inquisitions ? It is by the consideration of the unsearchable number of the years of God that Elihu checks too bold inquiries : ' Who hath enjoined him his way, or who can say thou hast wrought iniquity ? Behold, God is great, and we know
him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out,' Job xxxvi. 26 compared with ver. 23. Eternity sets God above our inquiries and censures. Infants of a day old are not able to understand the acts of wise and grey heads. Shall we, that are of so short a being and understanding as yesterday, presume to measure the motions of eternity by our scanty intellects ? we that cannot foresee an unexpected accident which falls in to blast a well laid design, and run a ship many leagues back from the intended harbour ? We cannot understand the reason of things we see done in time, the motions of the sea, the generation of rain, the nature of light, the sympathies and antipathies of the creatures ; and shall we dare to censure the actions of an eternal God, so infinitely beyond our reach ? The counsels of a boundless being are not to be scanned by the brain of a silly worm, that hath breathed but a few minutes in the world. Since eternity cannot be comprehended in time, it is not to be judged by a creature of time.
1 Let us remember to magnify his works which we behold,' because he is eternal, which is the exhortation of Elihu backed by this doctrine of God's eternity, Job xxxvi. 24, and not accuse any work of him who is the ancient of days, or presume to direct him of whose eternity we come infinitely short. Whenever therefore any unworthy notion of the counsels and works of God is suggested to us by Satan or our own corrupt hearts, let us look backward
to God's eternal and our own short duration, and silence ourselves with the same question wherewith God put a stop to the reasoning of Job, chap,
xxxviii. 4, « Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? ' and reprove ourselves for our curiosity, since we are of so short a standing, and were nothing when the eternal God laid the first stone of the world. .
(4.) What a folly and boldness is there in sin, since an eternal God is
offended thereby ! All sin is aggravated by God's eternity. The blackness of the heathen idolatry was in changing * the glory of the incorruptible God,' Rom. i. 23, erecting resemblances of him contrary to his immortal nature ; as if the eternal God, whose life is as unlimited as eternity, were like those creatures whose beings are measured by the short ell of time, which are of a corruptible nature, and daily passing on to corruption. They could not really deprive God of his glory and immortality, but they did in estimation. There is in the nature of every sin a tendency to reduce God to a not being. He that thinks unworthily of God, or acts unworthily towards him, doth (as much as in him lies) sully and destroy these two perfections of his, immuta bility and eternity. It is a carriage as if he were as contemptible as a creature that were but of yesterday, and shall not remain in being to-morrow. He that would put an end to God's glory by darkening it, would put an end to God's life by destroying it. He that should love a beast with as great an affection as he loves a man, contemns a rational creature, and he that loves a perishing thing with the same affection he should love an everlasting God, contemns his eternity ; he debaseth the duration of God below that of the world ; the low valuation of God speaks him, in his esteem, no better than withering grass, or a gourd, which lasts for a night ; and the creature, which possesses his affection, to be a good that lasts for ever. How foolish then is every sin, that tends to destroy a being that cannot destroy or desert himself ; a being, without whose eternity the sinner himself could not have had the capacity of a being, to affront him ! How base is that which would
PS. XC. 2.J THE ETEKNITY OF GOD. 363
not let the works of God remain in their established posture ! How much more base in not enduring the fountain and glory of all beings, that would not only put an end to the beauty of the world, but the eternity of God !
(5.) How dreadful is it to lie under the stroke of an eternal God ! His eternity is as great a terror to him that hates him, as it is a comfort to him
that loves him, because he is the ' living God, an everlasting king, the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation,' Jer. x. 10. Though God be least in their thoughts, and is made light of in the world, yet the thoughts of
God's eternity, when he comes to judge the world, shall make the slighters of him tremble. That the judge and punisher lives for ever is the greatest grievance to a soul in misery, and adds an unconceivable weight to it, above
what the infiniteness of God's executive power could do without that dura tion ; his eternity makes the punishment more dreadful than his power ; his power makes it sharp, but his eternity renders it perpetual; ever to endure is the sting at the end of every lash.
And how sad is it to think that God lays his eternity to pawn for the punishment of obstinate sinners, and engageth it by an oath, that he will
* whet his glittering sword,' that his ' hand shall take hold of judgment,' that he will ' render vengeance to his enemies, and a reward to them that hate him,' a reward proportioned to the greatness of their offences, and the glory of an eternal God ! Deut. xxxii. 40, 41, ' I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever ; ' i.e. as surely as I live for ever, I will whet my glit tering sword. As none can convey good with a perpetuity, so none can convey evil with such a lastingness as God. It is a great loss to lose a ship richly fraught in the bottom of the sea, never to be cast upon the shore ;
but how much greater is it to lose eternally a sovereign God,* which we were capable of eternally enjoying, and undergo an evil as durable as that God we slighted, and were in a possibility of avoiding ? The miseries of men after this life are not eased, but sharpened by the life and eternity of God.
Use 2. The second use is of comfort. What foundation of comfort can we
have in any of God's attributes, were it not for his infiniteness and eternity, though he be merciful, good, wise, faithful. What support could there be if they were perfections belonging to a corruptible God ? What hopes of a resurrection to happiness can we have, or of the duration of it, if that God that promised it were not immortal to continue it, as well as power ful to effect it ? His power were not almighty, if his duration were not eternal.
1. If God be eternal, his covenant will be so. It is founded upon the eternity of God ; the oath whereby he confirms it, is by his life. Since there is none greater than himself, he swears by himself, Heb. vi. 13, or by his own life, which he engageth, together with his eternity, for the full per formance, so that if he lives for ever, the covenant shall not be disannulled, it is an immutable counsel, ver. 16, 17. The immutability of his counsel follows the immutability of his nature. Immutability and eternity go hand in hand together. The promise of eternal life is as ancient as God himself in regard of the purpose of the promise, or in regard of the promise made to Christ for us : Titus i. 2, « Eternal life, which God promised before the
world began.' As it hath an ante-eternity, so it hath a post-eternity ; there fore the gospel, which is the new covenant published, is termed * the ever lasting gospel,' Rev. xiv. 6, which can no more be altered and perish than God can change and vanish into nothing. He can as little morally deny his truth as he can naturally desert his life. The covenant is there repre
sented in a green colour, to note its perpetual verdure. ' The rainbow,' the
* Qu. 'good'?— ED.
364 CHAEXOCK'S WOEKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
emblem of the covenant * about the throne, was like to an emerald,' a stone of a green colour, Itev. iv. 3; whereas the natural rainbow hath many colours, but this but one, to signify its eternity.
2. If God be eternal, he being our God in covenant, is an eternal good
and possession. * This God is our God for ever and ever,' Ps. xlviii. 14 ; he is a * dwelling place in all generations.' We shall traverse the world a while, and then arrive at the blessings Jacob wished for Joseph : ' The blessings of the everlasting hills,' Gen. xlix. 26. If an estate of a thousand
pound per annum render a man's life comfortable for a short time, how much more may the soul be swallowed up with joy in the enjoyment of the Creator, whose years never fail, who lives for ever to be enjoyed, and can
keep us in life for ever to enjoy him ! Death indeed will seize upon us by God's irreversille order, but the immortal Creator will make him disgorge his morsel, and land us in a glorious immortality, our souls at their dissolution, and our bodies at the resurrection ; after which they shall remain for ever, and employ the extent of that boundless eternity in the fruition of the sovereign and eternal God ; for it is impossible that the believer, who is united to the immortal God, that is from everlasting to everlasting, can ever perish ; for being in conjunction with him who is an ever flowing fountain of life, he cannot suffer him to remain in the jaws of death. While God is eternal, and always the same, it is not possible that those that partake of his spiritual life should not also partake of his eternal ; it is from the considera tion of the endlessness of the years of God that the church comforts herself,
that her ' children shall continue,' and * their seed be established for -ever,' Ps. cii. 27, 28. And from the eternity of God, Habakkuk, chap. i. ver. 12, concludes the eternity of believers, * Art thou not from everlasting, 0 Lord my God, my Holy One ? we shall not die, 0 Lord.' After they are retired from this world, they shall live for ever with God, without any change by the multitude of those imaginable years and ages that shall run for ever. It is that God that hath neither beginning nor end, that is our God, who hath not only immortality in himself, but immortality to give out to others. As he hath abundance of Spirit to quicken them, Mai. ii. 15, so he hath abundance of immortality to continue them. It is only in the consideration
of this a man can with wisdom say, ' Soul, take thy ease, thou hast goods
laid up for many years ; ' to say it of any other possession, is the greatest folly in the judgment of our Saviour, Lake xii. 19, 20. Mortality shall be swallowed up of immortality ; rivers of pleasure shall be for evermore. Death is a word never spoken there by any, never heard by any in that
possession of eternity ; it is for ever put out, as one of Christ's conquered enemies.
The happiness depends upon the presence of God, with whom believers shall be for ever present. Happiness cannot perish as long as God lives : he is the first and the last ; the first of all delights, nothing before him ; the last of all pleasures, nothing beyond him: a paradise of delights in every point, without a flaming sword.
3. The enjoyment of God will be as fresh and glorious after many ages as it was at first. God is eternal, and eternity knows no change ; there will then be the fullest possession, without any decay in the object enjoyed. There can be nothing past, nothing future ; time neither adds to it, nor detracts from it ; that infinite fulness of perfection which flourisheth in him now, will flourish eternally, without any discolouring of it in the least by those innumerable ages that shall run to eternity, much less any despoiling him of them. He is the same in his endless duration, Ps. cii. 27. As God is, so will the eternity of him be, without succession, without division.
PS. XC. 2.] THE ETEENITY OF GOD. 365
The fulness of joy will be always present ; without past to be thought of with regret for being gone, without future to be expected with tormenting desires. When we enjoy God, we enjoy him in his eternity without any flux, an entire possession of all together, without the passing away of pleasures that may be wished to return, or expectation of future joys which might be desired to hasten. Time is fluid, but eternity^is stable ; and after many ages, the joys will be as savoury and satisfying as if they had been but that moment
first tasted by our hungry appetites. When the glory of the Lord shall rise upon you, it shall be so far from ever setting, that after millions of years are expired, as numerous as the sands on the sea shore, the Sun, in the light of whose countenance you shall live, shall be as bright as at the first appear ance. He will be so far from ceasing to flow, that he will flow as strong, as full as at the first communication of himself in glory to the creature. God therefore, as sitting upon his throne of grace, and acting according to his covenant, is like a jasper stone, which is of a green colour, a colour always delightful, Rev. iv. 3 ; because God is always vigorous and flourish ing, a pure act of life, sparkling new and fresh rays of life and light to the creature, flourishing with a perpetual spring, and contenting the most capacious desire ; forming your interest, pleasure, and satisfaction with an infinite variety, without any change or succession. He will have variety to increase delights, and eternity to perpetuate them ; this will be the fruit of the enjoyment of an infinite, an eternal God. He is not a cistern, but a fountain, wherein water is always living, and never putrifies.
4. If God be eternal, here is a strong ground of comfort against all the
distresses of the church, and the threats of the church's enemies. God's abiding for ever is the plea Jeremiah makes for his return to his forsaken church : Lament, v. 19, ' Thou, 0 Lord, remain est for ever ; thy throne from
generation to generation.' The church is weak ; created things are easily cut off. What prop is there but that God that lives for ever ? What though Jerusalem lost its bulwarks, the temple were defaced, the land wasted, yet the God of Jerusalem sits upon an eternal throne, and from everlasting to everlasting there is no diminution of his power. The prophet
intimates in this complaint that it is not agreeable to God's eternity to for get his people, to whom he hath from eternity bore good will. In the
greatest confusions, the church's eyes are to be fixed upon the eternity of God's throne, where he sits as governor of the world. No creature can take any comfort in this perfection but the church ; other creatures depend upon God, but the church is united to him.
The first discovery of the name I AM, which signifies the divine eternity as well as immutability, was for the comfort of the oppressed Israelites in Egjrpt, Exod. iii. 14, 15 ; it was then published from the secret place of the Almighty, as the only strong cordial to refresh them. It hath not yet, it shall not ever lose its virtue in any of the miseries that have or shall suc
cessively befall the church ; it is a comfort as durable as the God whose name it is. He is still I AM, and the same to the church as he was then to his Israel. His spiritual Israel have a greater right to the glories of it than the carnal Israel could have. No oppression can be greater than theirs ; what was a comfort suited to that distress hath the same suitableness to every other oppression. It was not a temporary name, but a name for
ever, his ' memorial to all generations,' ver. 15, and reacheth to the church of the Gentiles, with whom he treats as the God of Abraham, ratifying that covenant by the Messiah, which he made with Abraham the father of the faithful.
The church's enemies are not to be feared ; they may * spring as the
366 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
grass,' but soon after do wither by their own inward principles of decay, or are cut down by the hand of God, Ps. xcii. 7-9. Tiny may be instruments of the anger of God, but they shall be scattered as the workers of iniquity,
by the hand of the Lord ' that is high for evermore,' ver. 8, and is engaged by his promise to preserve a church in the world. They may threaten, but their breath may vanish as soon as their threatenings are pronounced, for they carry their breath in no surer a place than their own nostrils, upon which the eternal God can put his hand, and sink them with all their rage. 'Do the prophets ' and the instructors of the church * live for ever ? ' Zech. i. 15. No. Shall, then, the adversaries and disturbers of the church live
for ever ? They shall vanish as a shadow ; their being depends upon the eternal God of the faithful, and the everlasting judge of the wicked. He that inhabits eternity is above them that inhabit mortality, and must,
whether they will or no, ' say to corruption, Thou art my father ; and to the worm, Thou art my Another, and my sister,' Job. xvii. 14. When they will act with a confidence as if they were living gods, he will not be mated, but evidence himself to be a living God above them. Why then should mortal
men be feared in their frowns, when an immortal God hath'promised protec tion in his word, and lives for ever to perform it ?
5. Hence follows another comfort; since God is eternal, he hath as much power as will to be as good as his word. His promises are established upon his eternity, and this perfection is a main ground of trust : Isa. xxvi. 4,
' Trust in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength,' D^D1?^ T)^ rniT JTQHis name is doubled, that name Jah and Jehovah, which was always the strength of his people, and not a single one, but the strength or rock of eternities ; not a failing, but an eternal truth and power ; that as his strength is eternal, so our trust in him should imitate his eternity in its perpetuity ; and therefore in the despondency of his people, as if God had forgot his promises and made no account of them, or his word, and were weary of doing good, he calls them to reflect on what they had heard of his eternity, which is attended with immutability, who hath an infiniteness of power to perform his will, and an infiniteness of understanding to judge of the right seasons of it, Isa. xl. 27, 28 ; his wisdom, will, truth, have always been, and will to eternity be, the same. He wants not life any more than love for ever to help us ; since his word is past, he will never fail us ; since his life continues, he can never be out of a capacity to relieve us ; and therefore, whenever we foolishly charge him by our distrustful thoughts, we forget his love, which made the promise, and his eternal life, which can accomplish it. As his word is the bottom of our trust, and his truth is the assurance of his sincerity, so his eternity is the assurance, of his ability to
perform. His ' word stands for ever,' Isa. xl. 8. A man may be my friend this day, and be in another world to-morrow ; and though he be never so sincere in his word, yet death snaps his life asunder, and forbids the execu tion. But as God cannot die, so he cannot lie, because he is the eternity
of Israel : 1 Sam. xv. 29, ' The strength of Israel will not lie nor repent,' n^3» perpetuity or eternity of Israel. Eternity implies immutability ; we could have no ground for our hopes if we knew him not to be longer lived than ourselves. The psalmist beats off our hands from trust in men, be cause ' their breath goes forth, they return to their earth, and in that day
their thoughts perish,' Ps. cxlvi. 3, 4. And if the God of Jacob were like them, what happiness could we have in making him our help ? As his sovereignty in giving precepts had not been a strong ground of obedience, without considering him as an eternal lawgiver, who could maintain his rights ; so his kindness in making the promises had not been a strong ground
PS. XC. 2.J THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 367
of confidence, without considering him as an eternal promiser, whose thoughts and whose life can never perish.* And this may be one reason why the Holy Ghost mentions so often the post-eternity of God, and so little his ante-eternity ; because that is the strongest foundation of our faith and hope, which respects chiefly that which is future, and not that which is past, yet, indeed, no assurance of his after-eternity can be had if his anteeternity be not certain. If he had a beginning, he may have an end ; and if he had a change in his nature, he might have in his counsels ; but since all the resolves of God are as himself is, eternal, and all the promises of God are the fruits of his counsel, therefore they cannot be changed. If he should change them for the better, he would not have been eternally wise, to know what was best ; if for the worse, he had not been eternally good or just. Men may break their promises, because they are made without foresight ; but God, that inhabits eternity, foreknows all things that shall be done under the sun, as if they had been then acting before him ; and nothing can intervene, or work a change in his resolves, because the least circumstances were eternally foreseen by him. Though there may be variations and changes to our sight, the winds may tack about, and every hour new and cross accidents happen, yet the eternal God, who is eternally true to his word, sits at the helm, and the winds and the waves obey him. And though he should defer
his promise a thousand years, yet he is * not slack,' 2 Peter iii. 8, 9, for he defers it but a day to his eternity ; and who would not with comfort stay a day in expectation of a considerable advantage ?
Use 3 is for exhortation. 1. To something which concerns us in ourselves. 2. To something which concerns us with respect to God. 1. To something which concerns us in ourselves. (1.) Let us be deeply affected with our sins long since committed. Though
they are past with us, they are in regard of God's eternity present with him ; there is no succession in eternity as there is in time. All things are before God at once ; our sins are before him, as if committed this moment, though committed long ago. As he is what he is in regard of duration, so he knows what he knows in regard of knowledge ; as he is not more than he was, nor shall not be any more than he is, so he always knew what he knows, and shall not cease to know what he now knows ; as himself, so his knowledge is one indivisible point of eternity. He knows nothing but what he did know from eternity ; he shall know no more for the future than he now knows. Our sins being present with him in his eternity, should be present
with us in regard of our remembrance of them, and sorrow for them. What though many years are lapsed, much time run out, and our iniquities almost
blotted out of our memory ! yet since a thousand years are in God's sight,
and in regard of his eternity, but as a day, — Ps. xc. 4, * A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the
night,' — they are before him ; for, suppose a man were as old as the world, above five thousand six hundred years, the sins committed five thousand years ago are, according to that rule, but as if they were committed five days ago, so that sixty-two years are but as an hour and a-half, and the sins committed forty years since are as if they were committed but this present hour. But if we will go further, and consider them but as a watch of the night, about three hours (for the night, consisting of twelve hours, was divided into set watches), then a thousand years are but as three hours in the sight of God, and then sins committed sixty years ago are but as if they were committed within this five minutes.
* Crellius de Deo. cap, 18, p, 44, 45.
368 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. 'P.s. XC. 2.
Let none of ns set light by the iniquities committed many years ago, and imagine that length of time can wipe out their guilt. No ; let us consider
them in relation to God's eternity, and excite an inward remorse, as if they had been but the birth of this moment.
(2.) Let the consideration of God's eternity abate our pride. This is the design of the verses following the text, the eternity of God being so suffi cient to make us understand our own nothingness, which ought to be one great end of man, especially as fallen. The eternity of God should make us as much disesteem ourselves, as the excellency of God made Job abhor himself, Job xlii. 5, 6. His excellency should humble us under a sense of our vanity, and his eternity under a Fense of the shortness of our dura tion. If man compares himself with other creatures, he may be too sen sible of his greatness ; but if he compares himself with God, he cannot but be sensible of his baseness.
[1.] In regard of our impotence to comprehend this eternity of God. How little do we know, how little can we know, of God's eternity ! We cannot fully conceive it, much less express it : we have a brutish under standing in all those things, as Agur said of himself, Prov. xxx. 7.
What is infinite and eternal cannot be comprehended by finite and tem porary creatures. If it could, it would not be infinite and eternal ; for to know a thing, is to know the extent and cause of it. It is repugnant to eternity to be known, because it hath no limits, no causes ; the most soaring understanding cannot have a proportionable understanding of it.* What disproportion is there between a drop of water and the sea, in their great ness and motion ! Yet by a drop we may arrive to a knowledge of the nature of the sea, which is a mass of drops joined together ; but the longest dura tion of times cannot make us know what eternity is, because there is no proportion between time and eternity. The years of God are as numberless as his thoughts, Ps. zl. 5, and our minds as far from reckoning the one as the other. If our understandings are too gross to comprehend the majesty of his infinite works, they are much more too short to comprehend the infiniteness of his eternity.
[2.] In regard of the vast disproportion of our duration to this duration of God.
First, We have more of not being than being. We were nothing from an unbegun eternity, and we might have been nothing to an endless eternity, had not God called us unto being ; and if he please, we may be nothing by a short annihilating word, as we were something by a creating word. As it
is the prerogative of God to be ' I am that I am,' so it is the property of a creature to be I am not what I am ; I am not by myself what I am, but by the indulgence of another. I was nothing formerly, I may be nothing again, unless be that is I am make me to subsist what I now am. Nothing is as much the title of the creature, as being is the title of God. Nothing
is so holy as God, because nothing hath being as God : 1 Sam. ii. 2, * There is none holy as the Lord ; for there is none besides thee.' Man's life is an image, a dream, which are next to nothing; and if compared with God, worse than nothing, a nullity as well as a vanity ; because ' with God only is the fountain of life,' Ps. mvi. 9. The creature is but a drop of life from him, dependent on him. A drop of water is a nothing, if compared with the vast conflux of waters, and numberless drops in the ocean.
How unworthy is it for dust and ashes, kneaded together in time, to strut against the Father of eternity ! Much more unworthy for that which is
* Charron. Vent. liv. i. chap. 5, p. 1 7, Ac.
Ps. XC. 2.] THE ETEKNITY OP GOD. 869
nothing, worse than nothing, to qnarrel with that which is only being, and equal himself with him that inhabits eternity.
Second!!/, What being we have, had a beginning. After an unaccount able eternity was run out, in the very dregs of time, a few years ago we were created, and made of the basest and vilest dross of the world, the slime and dust of the earth ; made of that wherewith birds build their nests ; made of that which creeping things make their habitation, and beasts trample upon. How monstrous is pride in such a creature, to aspire, as if he were the Father of eternity, and as eternal as God, and so his own eternity !
Thirdly, What being we have, is but of a short duration in regard of our life in this world. Our life is a constant change and flux: we remain not the same an entire day ; youth quickly succeeds childhood, and age as speedily treads upon the heels of youth ; there is a continual defluxion of minutes, as there is of sands in a glass. He is as a watch wound up at the beginning of his life, and from that time is running down till he comes to the bottom : some part of our lives is cut off every day, every minute. Life is but a moment, what is past cannot be recalled ; what is future cannot be insured. If we enjoy this moment, we have lost that which is past, and shall presently lose this by the next that is to come.
The short duration of men is set out in Scripture by such creatures as soon disappear : a worm, Job xxv. 6, that can scarce live a winter ; grass, that withers by the summer sun. Life is a flower soon withering, Job xiv. 2 ; a vapour soon vanishing, James iv. 14 ; a smoke soon disap pearing, Ps. cii. 8. The strongest man is but compacted dust, the fabric must moulder, the highest mountain falls and comes to nought. Time gives place to eternity ; we live now, and die to-morrow. Not a man, since the
world began, ever lived a day in God's sight ; for no man ever lived a thou sand years. The longest day of any man's life never amounted to twentyfour hours in the account of divine eternity. A life of so many hundred
years, with the addition ' he died,' makes up the greatest part of the history of the patriarchs, Gen. v. ; and since the life of man hath been curtailed, if any be in the world eighty years, he scarce properly lives sixty of them, since the fourth part of time is at least consumed in sleep.
A greater difference there is between the duration of God and that of a creature, than between the life of one for a minute, and the life of one that should live as many years as the whole globe of heaven and earth, if changed into papers, could contain figures. And this life, though but of short dura tion according to the period God hath determined, is easily cut off; the tivusure of life is deposited in a brittle vessel. A small stone hitting against
Nebuchadnezzar's statue will tumble it down into a poor and nasty grave ;
a grapestone, the bone of a fish, a small fly in the throat, a moist damp, are enough to destroy an earthly eternity, and reduce it to nothing.
What a nothing then is our shortness, if compared with God's eternity ! our frailty, with God's duration ! How humble then should perishing creatures be before an eternal God, with whom ' our days are as a hand'sbreadth, and our age as nothing' \ Ps. xxxix. 5. The angels, that have been of as long a duration as heaven and earth, tremble before him, the heavens melt at his presence ; and shall we, that are but of yesterday, approach a divine eternity with unhumbled souls, and offer the calves of our lips with the pride of devils, and stand upon our terms with him, without falling upon our laces, with a sense that we are but dust and ashes, and creatures of
time ? How easily it is to reason out man's humility, but how hard is it to reason man into it I
VOL. i. A a
370 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
(3.) Let the consideration of God's eternity take off our love and confi dence from the world, and the things thereof. The eternity of God reproaches a pursuit of the world, as preferring a momentary pleasure before an ever lasting God ; as though a temporal world could be a better supply than a God whose years never fail. Alas, what is this earth men are so greedy of, and will get, though by blood and sweat ! What is this whole earth, if we had the entire possession of it, if compared with the vast heavens, the seat of angels and blessed spirits ! It is but as an atom to the greatest moun tain, or a drop of dew to the immense ocean. How foolish is it to prefer a drop before the sea, or an atom before the world ! The earth is but a point to the sun, the sun with its whole orb but a little part of the heavens, com pared with the whole fabric. If a man had the possession of all those, there could be no comparison between those that have had a beginning, and shall have an end, and God, who is without either of them. Yet how many are there that make nothing of the divine eternity, and imagine an eternity of nothing J
[1.] The world hath been but of a short standing. It is not yet six thousand years since the foundations of it were laid, and therefore it cannot have a boundless excellency, as that God, who hath been from everlasting, doth possess. If Adam had lived to this day, and been as absolute lord of his posterity as he was of the other creatures, had it been a competent object to take up his heart, had he not been a madman to have preferred this little created pleasure before an everlasting, uncreated God ; a thing that had a dependent beginning, before that which had an independent eternity !