name of the Lord, the everlasting God.' The gods of the nations were upstart gods, but lately found out and soon destroyed ; but he is the eternal God, who ever was, and is, and ever will be : Job xxxvi. 26, ' Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.' He speaketh of God's eternity in such terms as man is capable of ; for God's being is not to be measured by days and years, but so we express it for our understanding, for his duration is far above our reach and capacity. So Isa. Ivii. 15, God is said to ' inhabit eternity.' Thus the scripture propounds God's- eternity as matter of our faith, reverence, and admiration.
[2.] By reason, because the perfection of the first cause requiretli that his duration should be without beginning or ending, or, which is all one, eternal. He is Jehovah, that hath his being from himself, and all other things have their being after him and from him. Some- thing must be eternal, or else there would be nothing made. It is certain that if there had been a time when nothing was, there never would be anything, for something cannot come out of nothing ; there- fore we must stop in some first cause and eternal being.
3. That eternity belongeth to God is to be seen in all his attributes ; for if God be eternal, his wisdom, power, and goodness are eternal also.
[1.] His wisdom is eternal, for all things are present to the know- ledge of God. Things come to our knowledge successively, some before, and some after. We see and know things according to their duration and existence. We compute by days and years, yesterday, to-morrow, last year, and next year. One generation passeth and another cometh, but in God's understanding there is no succession of before and after : ' Known to God are all his works from tlie beginning,' Acts XV. ]8. God, that doth all things in time, knew them all before time, otherwise his knowledge was not infinite and eternal ; they are all present to his understanding. Hence is that expression : 2 Peter iii. 8, ' One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.' All those differences of duration, which to the
Ver. 89.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 393
creatures are longer or shorter, are all alike to God ; for all things are constantly present to God, and under his view and prospect. Indeed the Lord is pleased to condescend to our shallow capacities, and to give us leave to express his duration in our own terms, whilst he calleth himself ' Yesterday, to-day, and for ever,' Heb. xiii. 8 ; and Kev. i. 4, ' From him which is, which was, and which is to come/ Yet in proper speaking, God always is. I am is his name ; and all things to him are present, either past, present, or to come. Time hath no succession to him : he beholdeth at once what is not at once, but at several times ; there is nothing past to him, to come to him, but all present. He knoweth the end of all tilings before he giveth them a beginning.
[2.] His power is eternal ; therefore it is said, Rom. i. 20, that his eternal power and godhead is clearly understood from the creation of the world, and seen in the things that are made. How else could so many things be educed out of nothing, and still kept from returning into their orisjinal nothing, if there were not an infinite and eternal power then and still at work ? So Isa. xxvi. 4, ' Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.' We may depend upon him, for his arm is never dried up, nor doth his strength fail ; there is no wrinkle upon the brow of eternity. God is where he was at first ; he continueth for ever a God of infinite power, able to save those that trust in him.
[3.] His goodness and mercy are eternal : Ps. cxxxvi., it is often repeated, ' For the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever.' It is true a parte ante — his mercy did not begin of late, but was towards us before we or the world were ; from all eternity we were thought upon, that he might do us good himself. It is said, ' With an everlasting love have I loved thee, and therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn thee,' Jer. xxxi. 3. Whomsoever God draweth to himself in time, he loved them before all time. And a parte post it holdeth good; his love and affection continueth the same, and shall do for ever ; he is not weary of doing good, nor is his mercy spent. You have both, Ps. ciii. 17, ' The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him.' The mercy was decreed and prepared before the beginning of the world, and we shall have the fruits and effects of it when the world shall be no more. It was from everlasting ; for God, foreseeing the fall of Adam, provided us a remedy in Christ ; and having all lapsed in his prospect and view, did out of his free love choose some, whilst others are passed by, to life and salva- tion by Christ. That God did from eternity decree and purpose this is manifest, because he doth in time effect it, otherwise he should not ' work all things according to the counsel of his will,' Eph. i. 11, or else his will would be mutable, willing that in time which he willed not from eternity ; whereas in him there is no variableness or shadow of turning. And that his mercy is to everlasting appeareth because he doth in time convert and sanctify them, and so bring them to glory and blessedness ; for the eternal God will make his people eternally happy with himself.