Of the Eternity of God
The next attribute is, God is Eternal (Psalm 90:2): From everlasting to everlasting you are God. The Schoolmen distinguish between Aevum and Eternum, to explain the notion of eternity. There is a threefold being: 1. Such a being as had a beginning, and shall have an end — so all sensitive creatures, the beasts, fowls, fishes; these at death are destroyed, and return to dust, their being ends with their life. 2. Such a being as had a beginning, but shall have no end; as the angels and souls of men; they are eternal, à parte post, they abide forever. 3. Such a being as is without beginning and without ending, and that is proper only to God. He is semper existens, namely, from everlasting to everlasting; it is God's title, a jewel of his crown. 1. He is called, The King Eternal (1 Timothy 1:17). 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 (Revelation 1:4): which is, and which was, and which is to come; it interprets the word Jehovah. Which is — He subsists of himself, having a pure independent being. Which was — God only was before time. There is no searching into the records of eternity. Which is to come — His kingdom has no end. His crown has no successors (Hebrews 1:8): Your Throne, O God, is forever and ever. The doubling of the word ratifies the certainty of it, as the doubling of Pharaoh's dreams did. I shall prove that God only could be eternal, without 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 reaches no higher than the beginning of the world. It is thought by the learned, that the angels were made that day on which the heavens were made (Job 38:7): When the morning stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy; Saint Hierom, Gregory, venerable Bede, understand it of the angels. When God laid the foundation stone of the world, the angels being then created, did sing the anthems of joy and praise. The angels could not be before time; for what was before time was eternal. It is only proper to God to be eternal, without beginning. He is Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last (Revelation 1:8). No creature can write itself Alpha, that is only a flower of the crown of heaven (Exodus 3:14): I am that I am; namely, he who exists from and to eternity.
Use 1. Here is thunder and lightning to the wicked; God is eternal, therefore the torments of the wicked are eternal. God lives forever, and as long as God lives, he will be punishing the damned — this, one would think, should be as that handwriting on the wall (Daniel 5:5), it should make their joints to be loosed, etc. The sinner takes liberty to sin, he breaks God's laws, like a wild beast that breaks over the hedge, and leaps into forbidden pasture: he sins with greediness (Ephesians 4:19), 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 has 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.
1. Without intermission; their pains shall be acute and sharp, and no relaxation; the fire shall not be slackened, or abated (Revelation 4:11): They have no rest day nor night: like one that has his joints stretched continually on the rack, and has no ease. Therefore the wrath of God is compared to a stream of brimstone (Isaiah 30:33). Why to a stream? Because a stream runs without intermission; it runs and does 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 has some ease: but the pains of hell are intense and violent, in summo gradu, the damned soul never says, I am now more at ease.
2. Without mixture. Hell is a place of pure justice. In this life God in anger remembers mercy, he mixes compassion with suffering (Deuteronomy 33:25): Asher's shoe was of iron, but his foot was dipped in oil. Affliction is the iron shoe, but mercy is mixed with it; here is the foot dipped in oil. But the torments of the damned have no mixture (Revelation 14:10): They shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture. No mixture of mercy. How is the cup of wrath said to be full of mixture (Psalm 75:8): The wine is red, it is full of mixture: yet in the Revelation it is said to be without mixture? It is full of mixture, that is, it is full of all the ingredients that may make it bitter. The worm, the fire, the curse of God, all these are bitter ingredients. It is a cup mixed; yet it is without mixture, namely, there shall be nothing to afford the least comfort, no mixture of mercy; so it is a cup without mixture. In the Sacrifice of Jealousy (Numbers 5:15), there was no oil put to it. So in the torments of the damned there is no oil of mercy to abate their sufferings.
3. Without cessation, eternal. The pleasures of sin are but for a season, but the torments of the wicked are forever. Sinners have a short feast, but a long reckoning. Origen erroneously thought that after a thousand years the damned should be released out of their misery: but the worm, the fire, the prison are all eternal (Revelation 14:11). The smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever. Poenae Gehennales puniunt, non finiunt, Prosper. Eternity is a sea without bottom and banks. After millions of years there's not one minute in eternity wasted; and the damned must be ever burning, but never consuming, always dying, but never dead (Revelation 9:6). They shall seek death, but shall not find it. The fire of hell is such as a multitude of tears will not quench it, length of time will not finish it; the vial of God's wrath will be always dropping upon a sinner. As long as God is eternal, he lives forever to be avenged upon the wicked. O Eternity, Eternity, who can fathom it? Mariners have their plummets to measure the depth of the sea; but what line or plummets shall we use to fathom the depth of eternity? The breath of the Lord kindles the infernal lake (Isaiah 30:33), and where shall we have engines or buckets to quench that fire? O Eternity! If all the body of the earth and sea were turned to sand, and all the air up to the starry heaven were nothing but sand, and a little bird should come every thousandth year, and fetch away in her bill but the tenth part of a grain of all that heap of sand, what a numberless number of years would be spent before that vast heap of sand would be fetched away; yet, if at the end of all that time the sinner might come out of hell (though long) yet there would be some hope: but this word 'ever' breaks the heart, 'The smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever.' What a terror this is to the wicked, enough to put them into a cold sweat, to think as long as God is eternal, he lives forever to be avenged upon sinners.
Question: Here a question may be raised — why sin that is committed in a short time should be punished eternally?
Response: We must hold with Saint Augustine, that God's judgment 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 sin is committed against an infinite essence, and no less than eternity of punishment can satisfy. Why is treason punished with confiscation and death, but because it is against the king's person, which is sacred; much more that offense which is against God's crown and dignity, is of a heinous and infinite nature, and cannot be satisfied with less than eternal punishment.
Use 2. Of comfort to the godly: God is eternal, therefore lives forever to reward the godly (Romans 2:7). To them who seek for glory and honor — eternal life. The people of God here are in a suffering condition (Acts 20:23). Bonds and afflictions abide me. The head being crowned with thorns, the feet must not tread upon roses. The wicked are clad in purple, and fare deliciously, while the godly suffer. Goats climb upon the high mountains, while Christ's sheep are in the valley of slaughter. But here is the comfort: God is eternal, and he has appointed eternal recompenses for the saints. In heaven are fresh delights, sweetness without surfeit. And that which is the crown and zenith of heaven's happiness is, it is eternal (1 John 2:25). Were there but the least suspicion that this glory must cease, it would much eclipse, indeed embitter it; but it is eternal. What angel can span eternity? An eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). The saints shall bathe themselves in the rivers of divine pleasure; and these rivers can never be dried up (Psalm 16:11). At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. This is the highest strain in the Apostle's rhetoric (1 Thessalonians 4:17): ever with the Lord. There is peace without trouble, ease without pain, glory without end — ever with the Lord. Let this comfort the saints in all their troubles: their sufferings are but short, but their reward is eternal. Eternity makes heaven to be heaven; it's the diamond in the ring. O blessed day that shall have no night! The sunlight 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 the Lord sets three crowns on his children — grace, comfort, and glory; and this crown is eternal (1 Peter 5:4). You shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away. The wicked have a never-dying worm, and the godly a never-fading crown. O how should this be a spur to virtue! How willing should we be to work for God? Though we had nothing here, God has time enough to reward his people; the crown of eternity shall be set upon their head.
Use 3. Of exhortation. 1. In general, study eternity. Our thoughts should chiefly run upon eternity. We are all for the present, something that may delight the senses. If we could have lived (as Augustine) — A cunabulis Mundi, from the infancy of the world to the world's old age — what were this? What is time measured with eternity? As the earth is but a small point to the heaven, so time is but, indeed scarce a minute to eternity; and then, what is this poor life, which crumbles away so fast! O think of eternity! Annos aeternos in mente habe. Brethren, we are every day traveling to eternity, and whether we wake or sleep, we are going our journey; some of us are upon the borders of eternity. O study the shortness of life, and the length of eternity!
2. More particularly: Think of God's Eternity and the soul's eternity. 1. Think of God's Eternity. He is the Ancient of Days, who was before all time. [illegible], Thales. There is a figurative description of God (Daniel 7:9): The Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool. His white garment with which he was clothed signified his majesty, his hair like the pure wool, his holiness, and the Ancient of Days his eternity. The thoughts of God's eternity would make us have high, adoring thoughts of God. We are apt to have mean, irreverent thoughts of him (Psalm 50:21): You thought I was such a one as yourself; weak and mortal. But if we would think of God's eternity, when all power ceases, he is King Eternal, his crown flourishes forever, who can make us happy or miserable forever — this would make us have adoring thoughts of God. Revelation 4:10: The twenty-four elders fell down before him that sat on the throne and worshiped him that lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne. The saints fall down, to signify by that humble posture, that they are not worthy to sit in God's presence. They fall down, and they worship him that lives forever — they do as it were kiss his feet. And they cast their crowns before the throne; they lay all their honor at his feet. Thus they show humble adoration to the Eternal Essence. Study God's eternity; it will make us adore where we cannot fathom. 2. Think of the soul's eternity. As God is eternal, so he has made us eternal. We are never-dying creatures; we are shortly entering upon an eternal state, either of happiness or misery. Have serious thoughts of this: Say, O my soul, which of these two eternities is likely to be your portion? I must shortly depart from here, and where then shall I go, to which of these eternities, either of glory or misery? The serious meditation of the eternal state we are to pass into would work strongly with us.
1. Thoughts of eternal torment are a good antidote against sin: Sin tempts with its pleasure, but when we think of eternity it may cool the intemperate heat of lust: Shall I, for the pleasure of sin for a season, endure eternal pain? Sin, like those locusts (Revelation 9:7), seems to have on its head a crown like gold, but it has in it a tail like a scorpion. Verse 10: And a sting in its tail, and this sting can never be plucked out. Shall I venture eternal wrath? Is sin committed so sweet, as lying in hell forever is bitter? This would make us fly from sin as Moses from the serpent.
2. The serious thoughts of eternal happiness would very much take us off from these worldly things; we should not esteem much of them: What are these sublunary things to eternity? They are quickly gone; they salute us and take their farewell. But I am to enter upon an everlasting estate: I hope to live with him who is eternal; what is the world to me? They who stand upon the top of the Alps, the great cities of Campania seem as small things in their eyes; so he who has his thoughts fixed on his eternal estate after this life, all these things seem as nothing in his eye. What is the glory of this world? How poor and contemptible compared with an eternal weight of glory? Aeternis inhianti in fastidio suns transito, Bern.
3. To conclude, the serious thoughts of an eternal estate, either of happiness or misery, would have a powerful influence upon whatever we take in hand: Every work we do promotes either a blessed or cursed eternity; every good action sets us a step nearer to an eternity of happiness, every bad action sets us a step nearer to an eternity of misery. O what influence would the thoughts of eternity have upon our religious duties! It would make us do them with all our might. A duty well performed lifts a Christian higher toward heaven, and sets a Christian a step nearer to a blessed eternity.
