grace where thou canst not; he of a saint's blood spilt, God puts can see grace hid under corruption, as the stars may be hid under a cloud. God can see that holiness in thee which thou canst not discern in thyself; he can spy the flower of grace in thee, though overtopped with weeds, 1 Kings xiv. 13., "Because there is in him some good thing." God sees some good thing in his people when they can see no good in themselves; and though they judge themselves, he will give them an absolution. a drop of wrath in his vial. 4. Comfort to the church of God in general. If God be a God of knowledge, he sees all the plots. of the enemies against Zion, and can 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 3. It is comfort in respect of against the church: but God is personal injuries. It is the saint's described with seven eyes, Zech. lot to suffer; the head being ii. 9., to shew that he sees all the crowned with thorns, the feet blots and stratagems of the enemust not tread upon roses. If mies; and when they deal proudsaints find a real purgatory, it is ly, he can be above them. Come, in this life; but this is their saith Pharaoh, " let us deal wisecomfort, God sees what wrong is ly," Exod. i. 10; and he never done to them; the apple of his played the fool more than when eye is touched, and is not he he thought to deal wisely, Exod. sensible? St. Paul was scourged xiv. 23., " In the morning-watch by cruel hands, 1 Cor. xi. 35., the Lord looketh to the host of "Thrice was I beaten with rods;" the Egyptians, by the pillar of as if you should see a scullion fire, and troubled the host." How whip the king's son. God beholds may this be as sap in the vine, it, Exod. iii. 9., " I know their and may comfort the church of sorrows." The wicked make God in her militant state! The wounds in the backs of the saints, Lord hath an eye in all the counand then pour in vinegar; but cils and combinations of the eneGod writes down their cruelty. my; he sees them in their train, Believers are part of Christ's mys- and can blow them up in their tical body; and for every drop own mine. OF THE ETERNITY OF GOD. THE next attribute is, "God fowls, fishes, these at death are is eternal;" Ps. xc. 2., "From destroyed and return to dust,everlasting to everlasting thou art their being ends with their life. God." The schoolmen distin- 2d, Such a being as had a beginguish between ævum et eternum, ning, but shall have no end, as to explain the notion of eternity. the angels and souls of men; they There is a threefold being: 1st, are eternal, a parte post, they Such a being as had a beginning, abide for ever. 3d, Such a being and shall have an end: so all as is without beginning, and sensitive creatures, the beasts, without ending, and that is proper only to God. He is semper sing the anthems of joy and existens, viz. from everlasting to praise; the angels could not be everlasting; it is God's title, a jewel of his crown: (1.) He is called "the king eternal," 1 Tim. i. 17. (2.) Jehovah, a word that properly sets out God's eternity, -a word so dreadful, that the Jews trembled to name or read it, therefore used another word, Adonai, "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 is, He subsists of himself, having a pure and the wicked are eternal. God before time, for what was before lives for ever; and as long as God independent being, which was, 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, with-19, as if he thought he could not sin fast enough. But remember, this is one of God's names, Eternal; and as long as God is eternal, he hath time enough to reckon with all his enemies. To make sinners tremble, let them think of these three things: the torments of the damned are without intermission, - without mixture, and eternal. out beginning. Angels could not; they 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 1. Without intermission. Their the beginning of the world. It pains shall be acute and sharp, is thought by the learned that and no relaxation; the fire shall the angels were made that day not be slackened or abated, Rev. on which the heavens were made, xiv. 11., They have no rest Job. xxxviii. 7., "When the day nor night;" like one that morning stars sang together, and hath his joints stretched continuall the sons of God shouted for ally on the rack, and hath no joy." St. Hierom, Gregory, and venerable Bede, understand it of the angels, when God laid the foundation-stone of the world, the angels being then created, did ease; therefore the wrath of God is compared to a stream of brimstone, Isa. xxx. 33. Why to a stream? Because a stream runs without intermission ; it runs, and doth not stop; so God's wrath runs like a stream, and pours out without any intermission. In the pains of this life, there is some abatement and intermission; the fever abates, after a fit of the stone, the patient thought that after a thousand hath some ease,-but the pains of years the damned should be rehell are intense and violent, in leased out of their misery: but summo gradu; the damned soul the worm, the fire, the prison, never saith, "I am now more at -are all eternal, Rev. xiv. 11., "The smoke of their torment 3. Without cessation, eternal. The pleasures of sin are but for a season, but the torments of the wicked are for ever. Sinners have a short feast, but a long reckoning. Origen erroneously ease." 2. Without mixture. Hell is ascendeth for ever and ever." a place of pure justice. In this Pœnæ gehennales punint, non life, God in anger remembers finunt, PROSPER. Eternity is a mercy; he mixeth compassion sea without bottom and banks. with suffering, Deut. xxxiii. 25. After millions of years, there is Asher's shoe was of iron, but his not one minute in eternity wasted; foot was dipt in oil. Affliction is and the damned must be ever the iron-shoe, but mercy is burning, but never consuming,mixed with it; here is the foot always dying, but never dead: dipt in oil. But the torments of Rev. ix. 6., "They shall seek the damned have no mixture: death, but shall not find it." The Rev. xiv. 10., "The same shall fire of hell is such as multitudes drink of the wine of the wrath of of tears will not quench it, God, which is poured out with--length of time will not finish out mixture." No mixture of it, the vial of God's wrath will mercy. How is the cup of wrath be always dropping upon a sinsaid to be full of mixture, Ps. ner. As long as God is eternal, lxxv. 8., "For in the hand of the he lives to be revenged upon the Lord there is a cup, and the wine wicked. O ETERNITY! ETERis red; it is full of mixture, and NITY! who can fathom it ? he poureth out of the same; but Mariners have their plummets to the dregs thereof all the wicked measure the depths of the sea; of the earth shall wring them out but what line or plummet shall and drink them." Yet in the we use to fathom the depth of Revelation it is said to be without eternity? The breath of the mixture. It is full of mixture, Lord kindles the infernal lake, that is, it is full of all the ingre- Isa. xxx. 33.; and where shall dients that may make it bitter; we have engines or buckets to the worm, the fire, the curse quench that fire? O ETERof God, all these are bitter in- NITY! If all the body of the gredients. It is a cup mixed, yet earth and sea were turned to sand, it is without mixture, viz. there and all the air up to the starry shall be nothing to afford the least heaven were nothing but sand, comfort, no mixture of mercy; and a little bird should come so it is a cup without mixture. every thousand years and fetch In the sacrifice of jealousy, away in her bill but the tenth Numb. v. 15., there was no oil part of a grain of all that heap of put to it; so, in the torments of sand, what a numberless number the damned, there is no oil of of years would be spent before mercy to abate their sufferings. that vast heap of sand would be fetched away? Yet, if at the end | are in the valley of slaughter. of all that time, the sinner might But here is the comfort: God is come out of hell (though long), eternal, and he hath appointed yet there would be some hope: eternal recompenses for the saints, but this word EVER, breaks the in heaven are fresh delights, heart! "The smoke of their sweetness without surfeit, and torment ascendeth up for ever that which is the crown and and ever." What a terror is this zenith of heaven's happiness, is, to the wicked, enough to put them into a cold sweat, to think, as long as God is eternal, he lives for ever to be avenged upon sinners! Quest. Here a question may be moved, Why sin that is committed in a short time should be punished eternally? it is eternal,' 1 John ii. 25. Were there but the least suspicion that this glory must cease, it would much eclipse, yea, embitter it; but it is eternal. What angel can span eternity? 2 Cor. iv. 17., "An eternal weight of glory." The saints shall bathe themselves in the rivers of divine pleasure; and these rivers can never be dried up, Ps. xvi. 11., "At thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." This is the Elah, the highest strain in the apostle's rhetoric, 1 Thess. iv. 17., " Ever with the Lord." There is peace Ans. We must hold with St. Augustine, "that God's judgments on the wicked,-occulta esse possunt, injusta esse non possunt, may be secret, but never unjust." The reason why sin committed in a short time is eternally punished, is, because every without trouble, -ease without sin is committed against an infi- pain,-glory without end,-"ever nite essence, and no less than eter- with the Lord." Let this comnity of punishment can satisfy. fort the saints in all their troubles; Why is treason punished with their sufferings are but short, confiscation and death, but be- but their reward is eternal. cause it is against the king's person, which is sacred: much more that offence which is against God's crown and dignity is of an heinous and infinite nature, and cannot be satisfied with less than eternal punishment. Use 2d. Of comfort to the godly. God is eternal, therefore, lives for ever to reward the godly, Rom. ii. 7., " To them who seek Eternity makes heaven to be heaven; 'tis the diamond in the ring. O blessed day that shall have no night! The sun-light of glory shall rise upon the soul, and never set! O blessed spring, that shall have no autumn, or fall of the leaf! The Roman emperors have three crowns set upon their heads, the first of iron, the second of silver, the third of gold: so for glory and honour, eternal the Lord sets three crowns upon life." The people of God here his children, - grace, -comfort, are in a suffering condition: Acts -and glory. And this crown is xx. 23., "Bonds and afflictions eternal, 1 Peter v. 4., “Ye shall abide me." The head being receive a crown of glory that crowned with thorns, the feet fadeth not away." The wicked must not tread upon roses. The have a never-dying worm, and wicked are clad in purple and fare the godly a never-fading crown. deliciously, while the godly O how should this be a spur to suffer. Goats climb upon high virtue! How willing should we mountains, while Christ's sheep be to work for God! Though fall down before him that sits upon the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever; and cast their crowns before the throne." The saints fall down, we had nothing here, God hath -when all power ceaseth, he is time enough to reward his people; King eternal, his crown flouthe crown of eternity shall be set risheth for ever, who can make upon their head. us happy or miserable for ever, Use 3d. Of exhortation. 1. -this would make us have adorIn general, study eternity. Our ing thoughts of God. Rev. iv. thoughts should chiefly run upon 10., "The four and twenty elders eternity. We all wish for the present, something that may delight the senses. If we could have lived, as Augustine saith, a cunabulis mundi, from the infancy of the world to the world's to signify by that humble posture, old age, what were this? What that they are not worthy to sit in is time measured with eternity? God's presence. They fall down As the earth is but a small po point and they worship him that liveth to the heaven, so time is but, nay for ever and ever; they do as scarce a minute to eternity! And it were kiss his feet. And they then, what is this poor life which cast their crowns before the crumbles away so fast? O think throne; they lay all their honour of eternity! Annos æternos in at his feet; thus they shew hummente habe! Brethren, we are ble adoration to the eternal esevery day travelling to eternity; sence. Study God's eternity, it and whether we wake or sleep, will make us adore where we we are going our journey; some cannot fathom. (2.) Think of of us are upon the borders of the soul's eternity. As God is eternity. O study the shortness eternal, so he hath made us of life and length of eternity! eternal. We are never-dying my soul, which of these two eternities is like to be thy portion? I must shortly depart hence, and whither then shall I go, to which of these eternities, either of glory or misery? The serious 2. More particularly; think of creatures; we are shortly enterGod's eternity and the soul's eter-ing upon an eternal state, either nity. (1.) Think of God's eter- of happiness or misery. Have nity. He is "the Ancient of serious thoughts of this: say, O days," who was before all time. There is a figurative description of God, Dan. vii. 9., "The Ancient of days did sit, whose garnent was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool." His white garment, meditation of the eternal state wherewith he was clothed, signi- we are to pass into, would work fied his majesty; his hair, like strongly with us.-1. Thoughts the pure wool, his holiness; and of eternal torments are a good 'the ancient of days,' his eter- antidote against sin; sin tempts nity. The thought of God's eter- with its pleasure; but, when we nity should make us have high think of eternity, it may cool the adoring thoughts of God. We intemperate heat of lust. Shall I, are apt to have mean, irreverent for the pleasure of sin for a seathoughts of him: Ps. 1., 21., son, endure eternal pain? Sin, "Thou thoughtest I was alto- like those locusts, Rev. ix. 7., gether such an one as thyself;" seems to have on its head a crown weak and mortal, but if we like gold, but it hath in it a tail would think of God's eternity, like a scorpion, v. 10., and a |