Manner which we are not able diftinctly to conceive; and to which the Meafures of our temporary tranfient Duration cannot be properly applied: We exist by Parcels, and in fucceffive Moments; we partly existed Yesterday, partly do exift To-day, and partly fhall exift To-morrow. But he ever filleth the whole boundless Duration, and is completely adequate to it; hence he is faid to inhabit Eternity, If. lvii. 15. And indeed, it is he that by exifting always constitutes Eternity; which, properly fpeaking, is nothing else but the Duration of his infinite Being. He equally enjoyeth it all, and hath the full entire Poffeffion of a moft

perfect and endless Life. He was never younger, and never fhall be older than he always is; it cannot be faid that he is older now, than he was before the Creation of the World, notwithstanding the many Ages which have paffed fince: For these Terms of older and younger, may be applied to Creatures that are in a continual Succeffion, but not to that most stable and unchangeable Being. He is indeed in Scripture called the Antient of Days, and Years are fometimes afcribed to him; but we are not to take these Things strictly and literally. This manner of Expreffion is fometimes made ufe of in a Way of Accommodation to our Weakness, because we can really form no

Conception

Conception of any Duration, but what is to be computed by Days and Years like our own; but it is most proper to fay of God in all the various Points of Duration, He is. This is fignified by that moft venerable Character which he appropriateth to himself, and which hath been already mentioned, I am that I am; or, as the Septuagint renders it, I am he that is.' And in the Words of the Text, it is not merely faid, Thou waft God from everlasting, and thou shalt be God to everlasting, but from everlafting to everlasting thou art God. Such a manner of fpeaking would feem very harsh and abfurd if applied to any finite fucceffive Being, but is very proper when applied to the ftable, unfucceffive Duration of the eternal God.

I should now come to what I principally intended in the Choice of this Subject, and that is, to make fome useful Reflections upon it. I cannot infift particularly at present upon them, but fhall content myfelf with this general Obfervation: That we may hence fee how unable we are to comprehend God; and what Modefty and Humility becometh us in all our Researches and Enquiries into his adorable Nature, and into his divine Counfels. I know nothing more proper to humble the Pride of human Reason, and give a Check to that Prefumption

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Prefumption which pretendeth to grafp Infinity itself, than feriously to contemplate the Eternity of God. Nothing is more certain, and yet nothing is more incomprehenfible, than the divine Eternity. It is undeniably evident that fomething must have been from Eternity; this is as evident as that any thing now is. any thing now is. The Atheift himself is forced to acknowledge this, whether he will or no; and being unwilling to own a most wife, and intelligent, and infinitely perfect Cause of all things, most abfurdly afcribeth Eternity and Self-exiftence to dull, fenfelefs, unactive Matter. But Eternity, though it is what we must of Neceffity acknowledge, is what we are abfolutely unable to conceive. How should Creatures that live by Parcels, and in a continual Succeffion, form a just Idea of an infinite, unfucceffive Duration? We can conceive of it no otherwife than as a Series of Days and Years following one another; and yet there is no proper Succeffion of Days and Years in the divine Eternity. For Years and Days, or any Number of them that can be supposed, is finite, and therefore cannot bear any Proportion to that which is infinite, as Eternity evidently is. If we endeavour to turn our Thoughts to the vaft Duration before we ourselves had a Being, we shall find that

an

an Eternity or infinite Duration is past already, according to our Manner; for if it were only a finite Duration that is past, it would be poffible to come to the Beginning of it, and confequently to come to the Beginning of Eternity, which is a manifeft Contradiction; and yet to fay that an Eternity or infinite Duration is already past, is in effect to fuppofe Bounds to that which hath no Bounds, and fo the Suppofition destroys itself. I mention these Things, to fhew how uncapable fuch Creatures as we are, temporary, precarious, contingent Beings, who are but just started up into Existence, are to form a juft and adequate Idea of that infinite and eternal Jehovah, who from everlafting to everlasting existeth neceffarily of himself, by the peculiar Prerogative of his own moft perfect Nature. It appeareth by this, and other Inftances which might be mentioned, that natural Religion as it is ufually called, hath its Mysteries, as well as revealed. None of those that are accounted the Mysteries of the Christian Religion, (if we confider them as they are taught in the facred Writings), are attended with greater Difficulties, than this of God's Eternity. Let us turn our Thoughts never fo many ways, we shall not find it poffible for us to form any Notion of it, but what involveth in it seeming

feeming Inconfiftencies, and is liable to Difficulties which we are not able to account for And yet the Man that should pretend to deny the Eternity of God, because he cannot diftinctly conceive or explain it, would only render himself ridiculous. Let this therefore teach us to think and speak of the great God, with the profoundest Humility and Reverence. On fuch Occafions we should call to mind that Question of Zophar, Canft thou by Searching find out God? Canft thou find out the Almighty unto Perfection? Job xi. 7. Shall we pretend to deny every Thing concerning him, which we are not able clearly to comprehend, and thus presume to reduce the infinite Jehovah to the Model of our scanty Intellect? Shall we take upon us to cenfure the Counfels of the Eternal, we who are but of Yesterday, and know Nothing? That Question of the Almighty to Job, fhould filence each vain prefumptuous Mortal: Where waft thou when I laid the Foundation of the Earth? Declare if thou baft Understanding. Job xxxviii. 4. Surely then it becometh us all to fall down before the Eternal with the deepest Proftration of Soul. All God's Perfections are as himself, eternal. This fpreadeth Infinity through his whole Nature and Attributes: Under this Character of eternal he is particularly

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