4. That God showeth himself as an eternal being, both as a governor and beneflictor.
[1.] As a governor. His eternity is seen in his government, in
394 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. XCIII.
threatening eternal miseiy to the wicked, and appointing eternal happiness to the godly: Mat. xxv. 46, ' These shall go away into ever- lasting pnnishment, and tlie righteous into life everlasting.' The joj^s of the bk^ssed are everlasting ; there shall never be a change of nor interruption in their happiness, but after millions of years they are to continue in this life as if it were the first moment. Thy crown will be thy crown for ever ; thy kingdom thy kingdom for ever ; this glory will be thy glory for ever ; thy God will be thy God, and thy Christ, for ever. We affect the continuance of this life, though it be a. life of pain and misery : ' Skin for skin, and all a man hath, he will give for his life.' Oh, how much more valuable should this eternal life be, which is a life of uninterrupted joy and felicity ! On the other side, the punishment is everlasting, the loss is eternal, the wicked are everlastingly deprived of the favour of God. The disciples wept when Paul said, 'Ye shall see my face no more.' Oh, how much more terrible will it be to be banished everlastingly out of God's presence ! Mat. xxv. 41. Besides, the pain will be eternal, as well as the loss. This worm never dieth, this fire shall never be quenched, Mark ix. 44. Neither heaven nor hell hath any period or end, either of them are eternal. Now this way God ruleth and governeth the creature, as becoming his infinite and eternal majesty. The laws of kings and parliaments can reach no further than some temporal punishment ; their highest pain is the killing of the body ; their highest reward is some vanishing and fading honour, or perishing riches ; but God's law concerneth our everlasting estate, our eternal well or ill-being ; eternal life or eternal death is wrapped up in these commandments. These are rewards suitable to the eternal majesty of the lawgiver ; and if thou do evil there is an eternal loss of heaven, and an eternal sense of the wrath of God. If you believe and obey the gospel there is eternal salvation provided for you ; for Christ is ' the author of eternal salva- tion unto all them that obey him,' Heb. v. 9.
[2.] As a benefactor he showeth himself also an eternal being. There is a double beneficial goodness of God — common and special. His common goodness runneth in the channel of creation and common providence ; his special goodness in the channel of redemption and renovation by Christ.
(1.) He is a benefactor to all men ; he hath given them an immortal spirit that shall abide for evermore : Eccles. xii. 7, ' The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God that gave it.' There is an immortal soul that dwelleth in a mortal body. The body was made of corruptible principles, was dust in its composition. It is true, God can annihilate it ; but the soul, as it is a spirit, hath no corruptible principles in it ; it is a thing that cannot be killed or destroyed by any created power. Now this divine spark, which cannot be quenched, is a pledge and effect of God's eternity; for he that giveth immortality certainly is immortal himself: nothing can give what it hath not. And besides, because our souls are immersed and sunk into matter, and forget their divine original, therefore God by the blessings of his providence seeks to raise them up to look after this supreme and spiritual being, and giveth us all kind of comforts and mercies, whose creatures we are, ' that we may seek the Lord, if haply
VeR. 89.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 395
we may feel after him, and find liim,' Acts xvii. 27 ; tliat we may own him as the first cause or father of lights, by whom this spark was kindled in us ; or seek him as the cliief good, in whom alone this rest- less soul of ours can find contentment and satisfaction.
(2.) He is a benefactor in a way of grace and recovery by Christ. This also sets forth his eternity. The first rise and bottom cause of all this grace and favour that stirred and set all the causes on work which concurred to it, was God's everlasting 15ve, John iii. 16. And Christ saith, Prov. viii. 31, 'I was set up from everlasting;' and this ' grace Avas given us in Christ before the world began,' 2 Tim. i. 9. Before the foundation of tlie world was laid this business was trans- acted with Christ for our benefit. And then the way how it was brought about, it was by an everlasting redemption, Heb. ix. 12, of an eternal force, value, and efficacy. And the grace wrought in us ; it is called ' incorruptible seed,' 1 Peter i. 23. There is an eternal prin- ciple in our hearts, and that is the reason why a believer is so often said to have eternal life abiding in him, because of the beginning, seed, and principle of it that is sown in his heart ; and the comfort and fruit of it that we have here is called 'everlasting consolation,' 2 Thes. ii. 16, 'He hath loved us, and given us everlasting consolation, and good hope, through grace.' It is not bottomed on any poor fading thing, but on matters of an eternal duration ; the happiness itself is the eternal fruition of the ever-blessed Grod : 1 Thes. iv. 17, ' We shall be ever with the Lord.' So that we are made eternal also both in body and soul ; whence you see how abundantly God discovereth his eternal being, in all his gifts and graces by Christ.