as much power as will to be as good as his word. His promises are
established upon his eternity; and his perfection is a main ground
of trust; “Trust in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is
everlasting strength” (Isa. xxvi. 4). ביה יהוה צור עולמים His 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. His wisdom,
will, truth, have always been, and will to eternity be the same
(Isa. xl. 27, 28). He wants not life, any more than love, forever
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 forever”
(ver. 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 execution. But as God cannot
die, so he cannot lie; because he is the eternity of Israel: “The
strength of Israel will not lie, nor repent,” נצח perpetuity, or
eternity of Israel (1 Sam. xv. 29). 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 {a301} off our hands from
trust in men, “because 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 of confidence,
without considering him as an eternal promiser, whose thoughts and
whose life can never perish.[578] 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 ante‑eternity 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 wind 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 Pet. 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._ 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 our regard of remembrance of them, and sorrow for them.
What though many years are lapsed, much time run out, {a302} 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――“A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday, when it
is past, and as a watch in the night” (Ps. xc. 4)――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 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.
Let none of us 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 sufficient 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 sense
of the shortness of our duration. If man compares himself with other
creatures, he may be too sensible of his greatness; but if he compares
himself with God, he cannot but be sensible of his baseness.
1st. 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 but a
brutish understanding in all those things, as Agur said of himself
(Prov. xxx. 7). What is infinite and eternal, cannot be comprehended
by finite and temporary creatures; if it could, it would not be
infinite and eternal;[579] 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 greatness 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 duration 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. xl. 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.
{a303} 2d. In regard of the vast disproportion of our duration to this
duration of God.
[1.] We have more of nothing than being. We were nothing from an
unbegun eternity, and we might have been nothing to an endless
eternity, had not God called us into being; and if he please we may
be nothing by as short an 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 he 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: “There is none holy as the Lord,
for there is none besides thee” (1 Sam. ii. 2). 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. xxxvi. 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 nothing, worse than nothing, to quarrel with that which is
only being, and equal himself with Him that inhabits eternity.
[2.] What being we have had a beginning. After an unaccountable
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!
[3.] What being we have is but of a short duration in regard of our
life in this world. Our life is in 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 ensured. 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 outlive a winter; grass, that withers by the summer
sun. Life is a “flower,” soon withering (Job xiv. 2); a “vapor,” soon
vanishing (James iv. 14); a “smoke,” soon disappearing (Ps. cii. 3).
The strongest man is but compacted dust; the fabric must moulder;
the highest mountain falls and comes to naught. Time gives place to
eternity; we live now, and die to‑morrow. {a304} Not a man since the
world began ever lived a day in God’s sight; for no man ever lived a
thousand years. The longest day of any man’s life never amounted to
twenty‑four 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 a short duration
according to the period God hath determined, is easily cut off; the
treasure 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 grape‑stone, 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’s breadth, 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
faces, with a sense that we are but dust and ashes, and creatures of
time? How easy is it to reason out man’s humility! but how hard is it
to reason man into it!
(3.) Let the consideration of God’s eternity take off our love and
confidence from the world, and the things thereof. The eternity of
God reproaches a pursuit of the world, as preferring a momentary
pleasure before an everlasting 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 mountain, or as 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 if
compared 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!
[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 {a305}
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?
[2.] The beauties of the world are transitory and perishing. The
whole world is nothing else but a fluid thing; the fashion of it is a
pageantry, “passing away” (1 Cor. vii. 31): though the glories of it
might be conceived greater than they are, yet they are not consistent,
but transient; there cannot be an entire enjoyment of them, because
they grow up and expire every moment, and slip away between our
fingers while we are using them. Have we not heard of God’s dispersing
the greatest empires like “chaff before a whirlwind,” or as “smoke out
of a chimney” (Hos. xiii. 3), which, though it appears as a compacted
cloud, as if it would choke the sun, is quickly scattered into several
parts of the air, and becomes invisible? Nettles have often been heirs
to stately palaces, as God threatens Israel (Hos. ix. 6). We cannot
promise ourselves over night anything the next day. A kingdom with
the glory of a throne may be cut off in a morning (Hos. x. 15). The
new wine may be taken from the mouth when the vintage is ripe; the
devouring locust may snatch away both the hopes of that and the
harvest (Joel i. 15); they are, therefore, things which are not, and
nothing cannot be a fit object for confidence or affection; “Wilt
thou set thy eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make
themselves wings” (Prov. xxiii. 5). They are not properly beings,
because they are not stable, but flitting. They are not, because they
may not be the next moment to us what they are this: they are but
cisterns, not springs, and broken cisterns, not sound and stable; no
solidity in their substance, nor stability in their duration. What
a foolish thing is it then, to prefer a transient felicity, a mere
nullity, before an eternal God! What a senseless thing would it be
in a man to prefer the map of a kingdom, which the hand of a child
can tear in pieces, before the kingdom shadowed by it! How much more
inexcusable is it to value things, that are so far from being eternal,
that they are not so much as dusky resemblances of an eternity. Were
the things of the world more glorious than they are, yet they are but
as a counterfeit sun in a cloud, which comes short of the true sun in
the heavens, both in glory and duration; and to esteem them before God,
is inconceivably baser, than if a man should value a party‑colored
bubble in the air, before a durable rock of diamonds. The comforts
of this world are as candles, that will end in a snuff; whereas the
felicity that flows from an eternal God, is like the sun, that shines
more and more to a perfect day.
[3.] They cannot therefore be fit for a soul, which was made to have
an interest in God’s eternity. The soul being of a perpetual nature,
was made for the fruition of an eternal good; without such a good it
can never be perfect. Perfection, that noble thing, riseth {a306} not
from anything in this world, nor is a title due to a soul while in
this world; it is then they are said to be made perfect, when they
arrive at that entire conjunction with the eternal God in another
life (Heb. xii. 23). The soul cannot be ennobled by an acquaintance
with these things, or established by a dependence on them; they cannot
confer what a rational nature should desire, or supply it with what
it wants. The soul hath a resemblance to God in a post‑eternity; why
should it be drawn aside by the blandishments of earthly things, to
neglect its true establishment, and lackey after the body, which is
but the shadow of the soul, and was made to follow it and serve it?
But while it busieth itself altogether in the concerns of a perishing
body, and seeks satisfaction in things that glide away, it becomes
rather a body than soul, descends below its nature, reproacheth that
God who hath imprinted upon it an image of his own eternity, and
loseth the comfort of the everlastingness of its Creator. How shall
the whole world, if our lives were as durable as that, be a happy
eternity to us, who have souls that shall survive all the delights of
it, which must fry in those flames that shall fire the whole frame of
nature at the general conflagration of the world? (2 Pet. iii. 10.)
[4.] Therefore let us provide for a happy interest in the eternity of
God. Man is made for an eternal state. The soul hath such a perfection
in its nature, that it is fit for eternity, and cannot display all
its operations but in eternity. To an eternity it must go, and live
as long as God himself lives. Things of a short duration are not
proportioned to a soul made for an eternal continuance; to see that it
be a comfortable eternity, is worth all our care. Man is a forecasting
creature, and considers not only the present, but the future too, in
his provisions for his family; and shall he disgrace his nature in
casting off all consideration of a future eternity? Get possession,
therefore, of the eternal God. “A portion in this life” is the lot
of those who shall be forever miserable (Ps. xvii. 14). But God,
“an everlasting portion,” is the lot of them that are designed for
happiness. “God is my portion forever” (Ps. lxxiii. 26). “Time is
short” (1 Cor. vii. 29). The whole time for which God designed this
building of the world, is of a little compass; it is a stage erected
for rational creatures to act their parts upon for a few thousand
years; the greatest part of which time is run out; and then shall time,
like a rivulet, fall into the sea of eternity, from whence it sprung.
As time is but a slip of eternity, so it will end in eternity; our
advantages consist in the present instant; what is past never promised
a return, and cannot be fetched back by all our vows. What is future,
we cannot promise ourselves to enjoy; we may be snatched away before
it comes. Every minute that passeth, speaks the fewer remaining,
till the time of death; and as we are every hour further from our
beginning, we are nearer our end. The child born this day grows up, to
grow nothing at last. In all ages there is “but a step between us and
death,” as David said of himself (1 Sam. xx. 3). The little time that
remains for the devil till the day of judgment, envenoms his wrath;
he rageth, because “his time is short” (Rev. xii. 12). The little time
that remains between this moment {a307} and our death, should quicken
our diligence to inherit the endless and unchangeable eternity of God.
[5.] Often meditate on the eternity of God. The holiness, power, and
eternity of God, are the fundamental articles of all religion, upon
which the whole body of it leans; his holiness for conformity to him,
his power and eternity for the support of faith and hope. The strong
and incessant cries of the four beasts, representing that christian
church, are “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is,
and is to come” (Rev. iv. 8). Though his power is intimated, yet the
chiefest are his holiness, three times expressed; and his eternity
which is repeated, “who lives forever and ever” (ver. 9). This ought
to be the constant practice in the church of the Gentiles, which
this book chiefly respects; the meditation of his converting grace
manifested to Paul, ravished the apostle’s heart; but not without
the triumphant consideration of his immortality and eternity, which
are the principal parts of the doxology: “Now unto the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever
and ever” (1 Tim. i. 15‒17). It could be no great transport to the
spirit, to consider him glorious without considering him immortal. The
unconfinedness of his perfections in regard of time, presents the soul
with matter of the greatest complacency. The happiness of our souls
depends upon his other attributes, but the perpetuity of it upon his
eternity. Is it a comfort to view his immense wisdom; his overflowing
goodness; his tender mercy; his unerring truth? What comfort were
there in any of those, if it were a wisdom that could be baffled; a
goodness that could be damped; a mercy that can expire; and a truth
that can perish with the subject of it? Without eternity, what were
all his other perfections, but as glorious, yet withering flowers;
a great, but a decaying beauty? By a frequent meditation of God’s
eternity, we should become more sensible of our own vanity and the
world’s triflingness; how nothing should ourselves; how nothing would
all other things appear in our eyes! how coldly should we desire them!
how feebly should we place any trust in them! Should we not think
ourselves worthy of contempt to dote upon a perishing glory, to expect
support from an arm of flesh, when there is an eternal beauty to
ravish us, an eternal arm to protect us? Asaph, when he considered God
“a portion forever,” thought nothing of the glories of the earth, or
the beauties of the created heavens, worth his appetite or complacency,
but “God” (Ps. lxxiii. 25, 26). Besides, an elevated frame of heart at
the consideration of God’s eternity, would batter down the strongholds
and engines of any temptation: a slight temptation will not know where
to find and catch hold of a soul high and hid in a meditation of it;
and if it doth, there will not be wanting from hence preservatives to
resist and conquer it. What transitory pleasures will not the thoughts
of God’s eternity stifle? When this work busieth a soul, it is too
great to suffer it to descend, to listen to a sleeveless errand from
hell or the world. The wanton allurements of the flesh will be put
off with indignation. The proffers of the world will be ridiculous
when they are cast into the balance with the eternity of God, which
sticking in our thoughts, we shall not be {a308} so easy a prey for
the fowler’s gin. Let us, therefore, often meditate upon this, but
not in a bare speculation, without engaging our affections, and making
every notion of the divine eternity end in a suitable impression
upon our hearts. This would be much like the disciples gazing upon
the heavens at the ascension of their Master, while they forgot the
practice of his orders (Acts i. 11). We may else find something of
the nature of God, and lose ourselves, not only in eternity, but to
eternity.
2. And hence the second part of the exhortation is, to something which
concerns us with a respect to God.
(1.) If God be eternal, how worthy is he of our choicest affections,
and strongest desires of communion with him! Is not everything to be
valued according to the greatness of its being! How, then, should we
love him, who is not only lovely in his nature, but eternally lovely;
having from everlasting all those perfections centered in himself,
which appear in time! If everything be lovely, by how much more
it partakes of the nature of God, who is the chief good; how much
more infinitely lovely is God, who is superior to all other goods,
and eternally so! Not a God of a few minutes, months, years, or
millions of years; not of the dregs of time or the top of time, but
of eternity; above time, inconceivably immense beyond time. The loving
him infinitely, perpetually, is an act of homage due to him for his
eternal excellency; we may give him the one, since our souls are
immortal, though we cannot the other, because they are finite. Since
he incloseth in himself all the excellencies of heaven and earth
forever, he should have an affection, not only of time in this world,
but of eternity in future; and if we did not owe him a love for what
we are by him, we owe him a love for what he is in himself; and more
for what he is, than for what he is to us. He is more worthy of our
affections because he is the eternal God, than because he is our
Creator; because he is more excellent in his nature, than in his
transient actions; the beams of his goodness to us, are to direct our
thoughts and affections to him; but his own eternal excellency ought
to be the ground and foundation of our affections to him. And truly,
since nothing but God is eternal, nothing but God is worth the loving;
and we do but a just right to our love, to pitch it upon that which
can always possess us and be possessed by us; upon an object that
cannot deceive our affection, and put it out of countenance by a
dissolution. And if our happiness consists in being like to God, we
should imitate him in loving him as he loves himself, and as long as
he loves himself; God cannot do more to himself than love himself;
he can make no addition to his essence, nor diminution from it. What
should we do less to an eternal Being, than to bestow affections upon
him, like his own to himself; since we can find nothing so durable as
himself, for which we should love it?