Sermon 93

Psalm 119:89 For ever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven.

These words are usually rendered as making but one proposition, but the accent Athnah shows there are two branches; the one, asserting the eternity of God; the other, the constancy and permanency of his word. Thus, 1. For ever are you, O Lord. 2. Your word is settled in the heavens. So the Syriac version reads it; and Geierus, and after him others prove and approve this reading. And so this verse and the following do the better correspond one with another, if we observe beginning and ending; As you are for ever, O Lord, and your faithfulness to all generations, which are exactly parallel. And then the last clauses; Your word is settled in the heavens, You have established the earth, and it abides. And it implies as God is eternal, so is his word, and has an emblem and fit representation both in heaven and in earth: in heaven, in the constant motion of the heavenly bodies: in earth, in the consistency and permanency thereof. That as his word does stand fast in heaven, so does his faithfulness on earth, where the afflictions of the godly seem to contradict it.

1. Of the first clause; You are for ever, O Jehovah.

1. That Jehovah is the one, only, eternal, and everlasting God. What eternity is, passes our skill exactly to define: as we understand it, it is the duration of a being, that is without a beginning and end. Duration is a continual tract of being. And eternal duration implies an immutable and unterminable abode in being. So it is here:

First, it is an infinite, unterminable duration, without beginning or ending. Psalm 90:2. From everlasting to everlasting you are God. God never was nothing, never shall be nothing. All the generations past were, but now are not. We heretofore were not; but now are. God is the beginning and end of all things, yet himself without beginning or end. He had an infinite, incomprehensible being, before any part of the world was framed, and will remain the same still, when the world shall be no more. The soul, in viewing God, is enclosed between infiniteness before, and infiniteness behind; and which way soever it looks, it sees infiniteness round about it.

Secondly, immutable: as without beginning and end, so without any change. Psalm 102:25-27. Of old you have laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you shall endure, yes, all of them shall wax old like a garment: as a vesture shall you change them, and they shall be changed. But you are the same, and your years shall have no end. God from the mount of eternity, beholds all the successions and changes of the creature; but he is not changed, his nature is one and the same from everlasting to everlasting. We change every day; we are not that today which we were yesterday; we have left some part of our life behind us, which is gone, and cannot be recovered; and our duration lessens every day, but God abides for ever one and the same, though all things be in continual flux and motion about him.

2. Now that God is eternal, I shall prove by Scripture and reason.

First, by Scripture. Genesis 21:33. Abraham called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. The gods of the nations were upstart gods, but lately found out, and soon destroyed; but he is the eternal God, who ever was, and is, and ever will be. Job 36:26. Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. He speaks of God's eternity, in such terms as man is capable of; for God's being is not to be measured by days and years, but so we express it for our understanding; for his duration is far above our reach and capacity: So Isaiah 57:15. God is said to inhabit eternity. Thus the Scripture proposes God's eternity as matter of our faith, reverence, and admiration.

2ndly, by reason. Because the perfection of the first cause requires that his duration should be without beginning or ending, or which is all one, eternal. He is Jehovah, that has his being from himself; and all other things have their being after him, and from him. Something must be eternal, or else there would be nothing made. It is certain that if there had been a time when nothing was, there never would be any thing; for something cannot come out of nothing, therefore we must stop in some first cause, and eternal being.

3. That eternity belongs to God, is to be seen in all his attributes; for if God be eternal, his wisdom, power and goodness are eternal also.

First, his wisdom is eternal; for all things are present to the knowledge of God; things come to our knowledge successively, some before, and some after. We see and know things according to their duration and existence. We compute by days, and years, yesterday, tomorrow, last year, and next year; one generation passes, and another comes; but in God's understanding, there is no succession of before and after. Known to God are all his works from the beginning (Acts 15:18). God that does all things in time, knew them all before time, otherwise his knowledge was not infinite and eternal; they are all present to his understanding. Hence is that expression, 2 Peter 3:8. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. All those differences of duration, which to the creatures are longer or shorter, are all alike to God; for all things are constantly present to God, and under his view and prospect. Indeed the Lord is pleased to condescend to our shallow capacities, and to give us leave to express his duration in our own terms, while he calls himself yesterday, today, and for ever (Hebrews 13:8). And Revelation 1:4. From him which is, which was, and which is to come. Yet in proper speaking, God always is; I am, is his name; and all things to him are present, either past, present, or to come; time has no succession to him, he beholds at once, what is not at once, but at several times: there is nothing past to him, to come to him, but all present. He knows the end of all things, before he gives them a beginning.

2ndly, His power is eternal: therefore it is said (Romans 1:20) that his eternal power and Godhead is clearly understood from the creation of the world, and seen in the things that are made; how could else so many things be educed out of nothing, and still kept from returning into their original nothing, if there were not an infinite and eternal power then, and still at work? So (Isaiah 26:4), Trust you in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. We may depend upon him, for his arm is never dried up, nor does his strength fail; there is no wrinkle upon the brow of eternity, God is where he was at first; he continues forever a God of infinite power, able to save those that trust in him.

3rdly, His goodness and mercy — they are eternal. Psalm 136 — it is often repeated, For the mercy of the Lord endures forever. It is true à parte antè, his mercy did not begin of late, but was towards us, before we or the world were; from all eternity we were thought upon, that he might do us good himself. It is said, With an everlasting love have I loved you, and therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you (Jeremiah 31:3). Whoever God draws to himself in time, he loved them before all time; and à parte post it holds good, his love and affection continues the same, and shall do forever; he is not weary of doing good, nor is his mercy spent; you have both. (Psalm 103:17) The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him. The mercy was decreed and prepared before the beginning of the world, and we shall have the fruits and effects of it, when the world shall be no more. It was from everlasting; for God foreseeing the fall of Adam, provided us a remedy in Christ; and having all lapsed mankind in his prospect and view, did out of his free love choose some (while others are passed by) to life and salvation by Christ. That God did from eternity decree and purpose this, is manifest, because he does in time effect it, otherwise he should not work all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11), or else his will would be mutable, willing that in time, which he willed not from eternity; whereas in him there is no variableness, or shadow of turning. And that his mercy is to everlasting, appears, because he does in time convert and sanctify them, and so brings them to glory and blessedness; for the eternal God will make his people eternally happy with himself.

4. That God shows himself as an eternal being, both as a governor, and benefactor.

First, as a governor. His eternity is seen in his government, in threatening eternal misery to the wicked, and appointing eternal happiness to the godly. (Matthew 25:46) These shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life everlasting. The joys of the blessed are everlasting, there shall never be a change of, nor an interruption in their happiness; but after millions of years, they are to continue in this life as if it were the first moment. Your crown will be your crown forever. Your kingdom, your kingdom forever. This glory will be your glory forever. Your God will be your God, and your Christ forever. We affect the continuance of this life, though it be a life of pain and misery: Skin for skin, and all a man has, 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 favor of God. The disciples wept, when Paul said, You shall see my face no more. Oh, how much more terrible will it be, to be banished everlastingly out of God's presence (Matthew 25:41)! Besides, the pain will be eternal, as well as the loss. This worm never dies, this fire shall never be quenched (Mark 9:44). Neither Heaven nor Hell has any period or end, either of them are eternal. Now this way God rules and governs 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 honor, or perishing riches: but God's law concerns 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 law-giver. And if you 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 salvation to all them that obey him (Hebrews 5:9).

2ndly, as a benefactor, he shows himself also an eternal being. There is a double beneficial goodness of God, common and special. His common goodness runs 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 has given them an immortal spirit, that shall abide forevermore. (Ecclesiastes 12:7) The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God that gave it. There is an immortal soul, that dwells 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, has 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 gives immortality, certainly is immortal himself: nothing can give what it has 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 gives us all kind of comforts and mercies, whose creatures we are, that we may seek the Lord, if perhaps we may feel after him, and find him (Acts 17:27). That 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 chief good, in whom alone this restless 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 favor, that stirred and set all the causes on work which concurred to it, was God's everlasting love (John 3:16). And Christ says (Proverbs 8:31), I was set up from everlasting; and this grace was given us in Christ, before the world began (2 Timothy 1:9). Before the foundation of the world was laid, this business was transacted with Christ for our benefit; and then the way how it was brought about, it was by an everlasting redemption (Hebrews 9:12), of an eternal force, value and efficacy; and the grace wrought in us: it is called incorruptible seed (1 Peter 1:23). There is an eternal principle 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 Thessalonians 2:16). He has 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 God. (1 Thessalonians 4:17) We shall be ever with the Lord. So that we are made eternal also both in body and soul; from which you see how abundantly God discovers his eternal being, in all his gifts and graces by Christ.

5 When the creatures are spoken of as eternal, it must be understood it is a communicated, dependent, half-eternity, and so no derogation to this perfection, which is proper to God.

First, it is communicated to us; for originally God only has immortality (1 Timothy 6:16). We have it by derivation, God has it originally in himself, and from himself. God dispenses and measures out the duration and continuance of all other things, their races and stages, when they shall begin, and when they shall end. And that immortality which the angels and the souls of men have, it is ascribed to us by participation; we have it from God, because he was pleased to give it to us.

Secondly, it is a dependent eternity, for every moment we depend upon God; if he take away his Spirit we are gone, man or angel. We assert the immortality of the soul, because it has not the principles of corruption in it, as the body has; but yet we cannot, must not cut off the dependence upon the first cause and fountain of being; in his hand is the breath of all living, and he is often called the God of your life, and the God of the spirits of all flesh. It is but a half-eternity; we sometimes were not, God is from everlasting to everlasting; but we are appointed to eternal life, and time was when we lay in the womb of nothing; we are but of yesterday, poor upstarts, that had but an existence and a new being given us of God; if he will lengthen it out; and continue it to all eternity; it is not such an eternity as he has, but a half-eternity; not an eternity without beginning, but only without ending.

6. This eternity of God is not seriously and sufficiently enough thought of, and improved, till it lessen all other things in our opinion and estimation of them, and affection to them. Two things should especially be lessened; the time we spend in the world, and the things that we enjoy in the world.

First, the time we spend in the world. Alas! what is this to God's eternity! (Psalm 39:5) Behold, you have made my days as a handbreadth, and my age is nothing before you. Whether our days be spent in prosperity or adversity, they are but short, a handbreadth, a mere nothing, compared with God's eternity. (Psalm 90:4) A thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday, when it is past, or as a watch in the night. A thousand years, compared to eternity, are but as a drop spilt, and left in the ocean; or as time insensibly past over in sleep. Forty, fifty, or seventy years, seems a great time with us, yet with God who is infinite, ten thousand years is no considerable space, but a very short and small duration.

Secondly, as time, so the things of the world. (2 Corinthians 4:18) The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. They are short as to continuance and use. As to continuance, he calls the honors and delight of Pharaoh's Court (Hebrews 11:25), the pleasures of sin for a season. Whatever is temporal, a man may see the end of it; be it evil; a man in the deep waters is not discouraged, as long as he can see banks; but in eternity there are neither banks nor bottom: if good (Psalm 119:96), I have seen an end of all perfection. The most shining glory will shortly be burnt out to a snuff, it wastes every day. Eternity makes good things infinitely good, and evil things infinitely evil. If it be temporal, whatever pains us, is but a flea-biting to eternal torments. Whatever pleases or delights, it is but a may game to eternal joys; so for use too, it is but for a season (Deuteronomy 23:24), the Law gave an indulgence to eat of his neighbor's grapes for refreshment; but you shall not put any in your vessel. (1 Timothy 6:7) For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. The Manna was useful and refreshing when used in the day, but if kept all night it perished, and was useless. It was useful in the Wilderness; but ceases when they came to Canaan.

Uses are many. First comfort to the godly, for their own particular. He is an eternal God that orders and guides all things, that he may bring them to their eternal felicity, and will in time admit them into it. (Psalm 48:14) For this God is our God, for ever and ever: and he will be our guide even to death. After death he will be their God still; death does not put an end to this relation; for God is Abraham's God, when he is dead [reconstructed: Matthew 22:32]. God is the same still, both in himself, and to those that believe in him: he will constantly guide them all the days of their life, and after death receive us to the everlasting enjoyment of himself, and revive our dust. Oh what a blessedness is this to have an interest in such an eternal God!

2. As to the community and society to which they belong, God's eternity is the church's stability, and so it is urged in Scripture (Malachi 3:6): "For I am the Lord, I change not: therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed." Psalm 102:27-28: "You are the same, and your years shall have no end. The children of your servants shall continue." So when the flourishing of the wicked is spoken of, when they spring as grass (Psalm 92:8): "But you, O Lord, are most high for evermore." If they be high, God is higher, and they are but upstarts to him; their power is of a late rise, and short continuance. So Psalm 93:2: "Your throne is established of old, you are from everlasting." God's throne is as eternal as his being. So Lamentations 3:17: "You, O Lord, remain forever: and your throne from generation to generation." Is the life of your enemies long? God endures forever. Is their power great? It is but dependent; God had power before them, and will have power when they shall be no more.

Second Use: Is terror to the wicked. Hebrews 10:31: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." They may out-live other enemies, but they cannot out-live God, who abides forever, to avenge his quarrel against them; and judge you, if his controversy against them be not just, since they are such impious fools and brutes, as that they prefer the creature before the Creator; and choose temporal things, rather than everlasting; and prefer earth before heaven; and the satisfaction of their bodily lusts, before the saving of their souls. Can you blame God of any injustice, in dooming them to everlasting misery? What part of the punishment would you have relaxed? the loss, or the pain? The loss is double, of God's favor, or their natural comforts. Would you have God admit those to the sight and everlasting fruition of himself, who never cared for him? Or return again to their natural comforts, that they may eternally run riot with them, or abuse them to an occasion of the flesh? Or is it the pain? Would you have God take off that, when the sin and impenitent obstinacy does still continue? Since they preferred a temporal good, before that which is eternal; and would sell their birthright for one morsel of meat (Hebrews 12:16), how just is it for God to make them everlastingly to lie under the fruits and effects of their own evil choice!

Third Use: Is to press us to seek after the everlasting fruition of this blessed and ever glorious God, because many live as if they had never heard of things eternal; most live as if they did not believe any such thing; the best do not improve those things as they ought: therefore I shall a little insist upon a quickening exhortation, to stir you up to seek an eternal happiness in God.

1. As we are reasonable creatures, we were made for eternity; for God has given us an immortal spirit, and there is no proportion between an immortal soul and temporal things; it cannot be content with anything that shall have an end, for then we may survive our happiness; if we had souls that would perish, it would be more excusable to look after things that perish. What will you do when your souls shall be turned out of doors? when you fail (Luke 16:9)? To what region will the poor, shiftless, harborless soul betake itself when you die? All your thoughts, that concern the present world, perish; and if you did perish too, it were no such great matter: but you shall live; and what will you have to comfort yourselves, if you have not an interest in the eternal God, in whose hands will you be, if you have slighted him while you were upon earth, and the eternal happiness he offers to us? And could not find enough in God and his eternal salvation, to take off your hearts from the pleasures and vanities of the world? Can you expect that he will favor you, and be kind to you?

2. Eternity is made known to us Christians, and clearly set before us in the doctrine of the Gospel. 2 Timothy 1:10: He has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Nature has but guesses at it, the law but shadows; but here it is clearly, certainly, and fully revealed. You know that you have an eternal God to please, and an infinite and eternal reward to expect: the whole drift of our religion is to call us off from time to eternity, from this world to a better. Christ came not to settle us here in a state of prosperity, nor to make this world our rest and portion, but to draw us up to God and heaven.

3. The same religion shows that we are already involved in an eternal misery, and stand under a sentence binding us over to the curse and everlasting wrath of God. John 3:18: "He that believes not, is condemned already: and this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness more than light, because their deeds are evil." God has offered life and immortality to them, who have so miserably lost it, and involved their souls in eternal death. Therefore if we know what it is to be liable to the wrath of an eternal God, and to be interested in the hopes of eternal glory, we should awaken and be more serious in a business of such concern.

4. You will shortly be summoned to give an account (Luke 16:2): "You have received so much from me, such riches, honors, parts, sufficiencies, such invitations to draw you home to me, what will you answer?" Indeed, there is not only a little time between you and judgment, but a little time between you and execution; nothing but the slender thread of a frail life, which is soon fretted asunder; and will you, can you sleep in sin so near eternity, and laugh and dance over the brink of hell? You cannot soon enough flee from wrath to come.

5. Consider what poor deluded wretches, who are in that everlasting estate, would give, if they might be trusted with a little time again, that they might provide for eternity; how happy would they think themselves, if God would but try them once more? If careless creatures would but anticipate the thoughts of another world, how soon would they discern their mistake; how miserably will you bewail yourselves, when you have lost eternity for poor temporal trifles. What comfort will it be to you, that you have been merry here, lived in pomp and ease, when you must endure the wrath of God for evermore, and wish for any allay of your torments. Luke 16:24. Father Abraham have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. It is better to believe, than try; provide against it, than try.

6. If you be Christians indeed, you have not the spirit of this world. Christianity, as it is acted by us, is but the exercise of faith, hope, and love. Now the eternal fruition of God, is the matter that all these graces are conversant about. Faith believes that there is an eternal being, and that our happiness lies in the fruition of him (Hebrews 11:6). Love is that which levels, and directs all our actions to this blessed end, that we may see God, and enjoy him as our portion and felicity. Psalm 73:25. Whom have I in heaven but you? and there is none upon earth I desire beside you. Our desires are after him, our delights in him, it is our work to please him, our happiness to enjoy him. The truth of his eternal being, is the object of our faith; so the apprehension of him as our chief good and felicity, is the object of our love, so as he is capable of being enjoyed; and our participated eternity is the object of our faith, this is the end of all our desires and labors, and the expectation of this fortifies us against all the difficulties of our pilgrimage, and so directs us what to mind, be, and do. 2 Corinthians 5:9. Therefore we labor, that whether present, or absent, we may be accepted of the Lord.

Directions. What shall we do?

Direct. 1. Meditate often and seriously of eternity. There is a great deal of profit gotten by this meditation; nothing does more promote the great ends of the gospel, than this meditation.

1. For Christ; nothing makes Christ precious, but serious thoughts of eternity, he being the only means to deliver us from wrath to come, which is the great evil of the other state; and procure for us the eternal enjoyment of God, which is the good of that estate. Psalm 84:11. He is a sun and a shield, and no good thing will he withhold from them that live uprightly. You can make a shift without Christ in this world, you are by ordinary means well provided against the evils of this life, and well fortified with the good things thereof; but in death, Christ will be to you gain and advantage.

2. It would promote the great change. What will make a proud man humble, a vain man serious, a covetous worldling heavenly, a wicked man a good man? Let him think of eternity, where only the humble, the heavenly, are favored and accepted (2 Corinthians 3:11).

3. What would check temptations, either from the pleasures, riches, or honors of the world? These are not eternal riches, nor eternal pleasures, nor eternal honors; transitory things are not our business, nor our scope (Hebrews 11:25).

4. What would quicken diligence, and put life into our endeavors, but the meditation of eternity? Every thing should be labored for that has an everlastingness in it, the travel of your souls should be laid out upon those things. Isaiah 55:2. Therefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not? So John 6:27. Labor not for the meat that perishes, but that which endures to life everlasting. Surely serious diligence is necessary: Shall I trifle away that time, which I am to improve for eternity?

Direct. 2. Let the enjoyment of an eternal God be your end and scope. 2 Corinthians 4:18. While we look not to things which are seen, but to things that are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. When you have set eternal things before you, then make your choice; on the one side, there are eternal joys, on the other eternal torments. Now vain pleasures lead to the one, solid godliness to the other. By the neglect of God, you run the hazard of a miserable eternity: by the choice of God for your Lord, and portion, you get an interest in a blessed eternity: only let me warn you,

1. To choose end and means together. Matthew 7:13-14. Enter you in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go in there: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it. They must be coupled, both quicken each other, the intention of the end quickens to a diligent pursuit and an earnest use of means; and the use of means, will sooner give you to understand what your condition will be, than a bare reflection upon the end.

2. Do not confound principal and subordinate means, so as one should jostle out the other. The primary means of going to the Father is Christ. John 14:6. Jesus says to him, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life: no man comes to the Father, but by me. The secondary means is holiness. Hebrews 12:24. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.

Direct. 3. Be resolvedly true to your end, which is the enjoyment of God, and that will quicken you the more, and direct you; for the end is both our measure, and our motive. In short, do all things from eternal principles, to eternal ends; the eternal principle is the grace of the Spirit; the eternal end is the pleasing, glorifying, and enjoying of God. Philippians 1:11. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God. Actions carried on from eternal principles, according to an eternal rule, for an eternal end, cannot miscarry.