SERMON V.

ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

ETERNITY AND IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.

I SAID, O MY GOD, TAKE ME NOT AWAY IN THE MIDST OF MY DAYS: THY YEARS ARE THROUGHOUT ALL GENERATIONS. OF OLD HAST THOU LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH; AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORK OF THY HANDS. THEY SHALL PERISH, BUT THOU SHALT ENDURE; YEA ALL OF THEM SHALL WAX OLD LIKE A GARMENT; AS A VESTURE SHALT THOU CHANGE THEM, AND THEY SHALL BE CHANGED: BUT THOU ART THE SAME, AND THY YEARS SHALL HAVE NO END.

PSALM CII, 24-27.

IN the preceding Discourses, I have evinced by such arguments as appear to me conclusive, the existence of God; considered the objections and schemes of Atheism, and the influence of those schemes on the understanding, heart, and life of man, compared with that of the Christian system; and examined the manner in which the Unity of God is presented to us by Reason, and by Revelation. I shall now proceed to consider such attributes of this great and glorious Being, as demand a particular discussion. Those which naturally claim our first attention, are his Eternity and Immutability ; subjects so intimately connected, as to be most advantageously considered together in the manner in which we find them in the text.

After a series of discouraging and distressing thoughts on his own troubles, and repeated supplications to God for deliverance and after various hopes and predictions, of the kindness of God to himself and to the Church, recited in the context; the Psalmist takes up his final consolation in the perfections, particularly in the power, wisdom, goodness, eternity, and immutability, of his Creator. In the text these are exhibited as certain proof, that the children of God shall endure for ever, and their seed be established before him. In the sublime language of this divine writer, the foundation of the earth and the formation of the heavens are presented to us as the handywork of Jehovah, who is considered as building the universe as a man erects his own habitation. With not less magnificence is the same wonderful Agent represented, as taking these heavens and folding them up, as a decayed garment is folded by its owner, and laying them aside as useless to any future purpose. In this imagery there is obviously a direct reference to the consummation of all things; when the present heavens and earth, being set on fire, shall be dissolved and flee away, and no place be found for them any more. Mutable in their own nature, and destined to temporary purposes only, they will be continued while their use continues, and then perish for ever. To this changing character of even these great and splendid works of his hands, the Psalmist studiously contrasts the character of God. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.'

In these words is presented to us, not only a direct assertion, but a highly poetical, sublime, and glorious exhibition, of the Eternity and Immutability of God, strongly impressed on the mind by the contrast which it forms to the vanishing character of these great works of his hands. The passage is indeed declared by the Apostle Paul, to be a description of the character and agency of the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person in the divine Trinity. But to us, who regard Christ as being unquestionably God, it has exactly the same import, as if applied to the Father, or to the Godhead at large. this light I shall therefore consider it, and proceed under its guidance to examine these illustrious attributes of the Creator.

In

I. God is Eternal; or in other words, his existence is with

out beginning or end.

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Of this doctrine the text is a direct assertion, and therefore a complete proof: but it is only one, among a vast multitude of such assertions in the Scriptures. No attribute of God is perhaps more frequently declared, more variously recited, or more universally diffused throughout the sacred pages. In the very first verse of Genesis it is said, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' He existed therefore, before the beginning of created things; or in other words, from everlasting. In the last chapter of the Apocalypse, Christ solemnly declares this character of himself; 'I am Alpha and Omega,' saith he, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last.' In the xcth Psalm and 2d verse, the divine writer exclaims, Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.' I lift my hand to heaven,' says God, Deut. xxxii. 40, and say, I live for ever.' 'I am;' that is, I exist alike in all times and places, in Eternity and Immensity. Jehovah and‘Jah;' that is, Existence illimitable by space or duration, are, you well know, the peculiar and incommunicable names of the Godhead; in accordance with which the Eternal God,' and the Everlasting God,' are current phraseology of the Scriptures. From this source then, it cannot be necessary to adduce any further proofs of the doctrine.

To this full evidence from the Scriptures, Reason subjoins her fullest attestations. That God existed before all things, has been heretofore, as I trust, sufficiently proved. The universe was plainly derived from him, the first or original Cause. Consequently he was uncaused, underived, and of course, from Eternity, or without beginning.

That God will for ever exist is plain also from Reason, beyond dispute. He cannot be supposed to terminate his own existence. Without insisting on the natural impossibility of this fact, it may be safely asserted to be morally impossible. The Being who has all good in his power, possession, and enjoyment, must be infinitely delighted with perpetual life, or existence. The contemplation of his perfections, designs, and works, the purpose of accomplishing eternally the supreme good of the universe, the manifestation of his infinite beauty,

glory and loveliness, to the intelligent system, for ever rising, enlarging, and improving, and the complete assurance, that all his pleasure will be accomplished, constitute at once an aggregate of happiness which must be regarded by him with immense complacency, and render his existence infinitely desirable in his own eyes.

It is scarcely necessary to observe, that creatures can in no way affect the existence or the happiness of God; for being absolutely dependent on him, they can be, and do, nothing, but what he permits. From these considerations it is plain, that God must continue to exist for ever.

II. God is Immutable.

By this I intend, that he is subject to no change in his manner of being, his perfections, thoughts, desires, purposes, or determinations.

This doctrine also is directly asserted in the text. They shall be changed; but thou art the same.' It is also declared in various other passages of the Scriptures. I am the Lord; I change not.' Mal. iii. 6. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.' Jam. i. 17. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' Heb. xiii. 8. In these passages we are taught, not only that there is no change in God; but no variableness, no capacity or possibility of change.

Of this doctrine also, Reason furnishes to him who admits the existence of an Intelligent Cause of all things, an absolute demonstration. God gave being to all things. Of course he contrived them all. Every being, and every event, which has been, is, or will be, together with all their qualities and operations, existed in his mind; or, in the beautiful language of David, were written in his book, and what day they should be fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.'* They can therefore furnish to him not a single new thought or idea. His thoughts were the cause of these beings and events. They therefore cannot be the cause of his thoughts. Hence it is manifest, that neither from himself, nor from his creatures, can God receive a single new thought. But if no change can

* Psalm cxxxix. 16, margin.

exist in his thoughts, it is obvious that none can exist in his desires, designs, or determinations. New desires must be originated, and new designs and determinations formed, if they should exist at all, in consequence of some new views of the mind in which they exist; some change in the object viewed, or in the manner in which the mind regards the object. As all the works of God are thus proved to have been, according to the declaration of St. James, Acts xv. 18, known unto him from the beginning;' it is evident, that no such change is possible to him. His desires, designs, and determinations, must therefore be precisely the same for ever.

From these considerations it follows, that the Eternity of God is a totally different thing from that which is ascribed to created, particularly to intelligent, beings. The Scriptures attribute Eternity in a certain sense to angels and men; but this is wholly unlike the Eternity of God. All creatures change incessantly; and no idea can be formed of their duration, but that of a continual succession of changes. Their thoughts, desires, purposes, and determinations, together with their existence, are, and can be, no other than a continued series of changes. God, on the contrary, is not, and cannot be, the subject of the least possible change. His Eternity is, of course, all one present time. To him there is no past, and no future; nothing old, and nothing new; nothing gone, and nothing Past and future are modes of created existence only; and have no application, no possible reference, to the Creator.

to come.

This glorious and sublime truth, though thus demonstrated by Reason, seems to have been first and alone communicated by Revelation. One day,' saith St. Peter, is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.' The Apostle does not here speak, as he has sometimes been supposed to speak, in comparative, but in absolute, language. He does not declare that, because the Eternity of God is such an amazing duration, a thousand years will be so lost in this abyss, as to be comparatively the same thing with one day. On the contrary he intended to declare what he actually declares ; that a thousand years are to God exactly the same thing with one day. In his existence there is no long, nor short duration; nothing fleeting, nothing successive. His duration is a mere and eternal Now. In our own existence, the clearest re