3. It is comfort in respect of personal in- juries. It is the saint's lot to suffer; the head being crowned with thorns, the feet must not tread upon roses. If saints find a real purgatory, it is in this life; but this is their comfort, God sees what wrong is done to them ; the apple of his eye is touch- ed, and is not he sensible ? St. Paul was scourged by cruel hands, 1 Cor. xi 35., " Thrice was I beaten with rods ;" as if you should see a scullion whip the king's son. God beholds it, Exod. iii. 9., " I know their sorrows." The wicked make wounds in the backs of the saints, and then pour in vine- gar ; but God writes down their cruelty. Believers are ])art of Christ's mystical bo- dy ; and for every drop of a saint's blood spilt, God puts a drop of wrath in his vial.
4. Comfort to the church of God in ge- neral. If God be a God of knowledge, he sees all the plots of the enemies against Zion, and c; n make them prove abortive. The wicked are subtile, having borrowed their skill of the old serpent ; they dig deep to hide their counsels from God, but he sees them, and can easily counterwork them. The dragon is described with seven heads. Rev. xii. 3., to show how he plots against the church : but God is described with se- ven eyes, Zech. ii. 9., to shew that he sees all the blots and stratagems of the enemies ; and when they deal proudly, he can be above them. Come, saith Pharaoh, " let us deal wisely," Exod. i. 10.; and he never played the fool more than when he thought to deal wisely, Exod. xiv. 23., " In the morning- watch the Lord looked to the host of the Egyptians, by the jiillar of fire, and trou- bled the host." llow may this be as sap in the vine, and may comfort the church of God in her militant state ! The Lord hath an eye in all the councils and combi- nations of the enemy ; he sees them in their train, and can blow them up in their own mine.
OF THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
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OF THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
THE next attribute is, " God is eternal :" Ps. xc. 2., " From everlasting to everlast- insr tliou art God." The schoolmen dis- tinguish between avum et etenvan, to explain the notion of eternity. There is a threefold being: 1st, Such a being as had a begin- ning, and shall have an end : so all sensi- tive creatures, the beasts, fowls, fishes, — these at death are destroyed and return to dust, — tlieir being ends witli their life. 2d, Such a being as had a beginning, but shall have no end, as the angels and souls of men ; they are eternal a parte post, — tiiey abide for ever. 3d, Such a being as is without beginning, and without ending, and that is proper only to God. He' is semper existens, viz. from everlasting to everlast- ing ; it is God's title, a jewel of his crown : (1.) He is called " the king eternal," 1 lim. i, 17. (2.) Jchoi^ah, — a word that properly sets out (jiod's eternity, — a word so dread- ful, that the Jews trembled to name or read it, therefore used another word, Admuti, " Lord." Jehovah contains in it time past, present, and to come. Rev. i. 8., " Which is, and which was, and which is to come ;" it interprets the word Jehovah, — which ks, He subsists of himself, having a pure and independent being, — which teas, God only was before time, there is no searching into the records of eternity, — which is to come, his kingdom hath no end, his crown hath no successors, Heb. i. 8., " Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." The doubling of the word ratifies the certainty of it, as the doubling of Pharaoh's dream did. I shall prove that God only could be eternal, without beginning. Angels could not ; thev are but creatures, though spirits ; they were made, and therefore their beginning may be known, their antiquity may be searched into. If you ask, when they were created ? Some think before the world was; but not so, for what was before time was eternal, — the angels' first rise and original reacheth no higher than the beginning of the world. It is thought by the learned that the angels were made that day on which the heavens were made, Job xxxviii. 7., " When the
morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." St. Hierom, Gregory, and venerable Bede. understand it of the angels, when God laid the founda- tion-stone of the world, the angels being then created, did sing tiie anthems of joy and praise ; the angels could not be Ix'fore time, for what was before time was eternal. It is only proper to God to be eternal, — ■ without beginning. He is Alpha and Omega, — tiie first and the last. Rev. i. 8. No creature can write itself Alpha, that is only a llower of the crown of heaven, Exod. iii. 14., " J am that I am," viz. He who exists from and to eternity.