are living in ignorance of almost all that the Bible contains, and in the neglect of every saving benefit which the Son of God died to procure? Do they believe that God is ever around them, and ever sees them, who enter into his house with thoughtlessness of heart, and with irreverence of manner, and who, amid the solemnities of his worship, are careless and trifling, and whose affections all the while are busied in going after the creature, to the entire neglect of the Creator, who is blessed for evermore?" Be not deceived; for God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. His eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves."

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CHAPTER IV.

THE ETERNITY AND IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.

THE eternity of God implies his immutability, while his immutability pre-supposes his eternity. They are not so much attributes of the divine nature, as modes in which the divine nature and all its attributes exist. The sacred writers generally state them together, as being necessarily involved, the one in the other, and as belonging essentially and exclusively to God. "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works 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. See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me: I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever."

That something has existed from eternity, it seems impossible for even atheism to deny. That that which has existed from eternity is the all-perfect, independent, and glorious God, is not less certain, from the evidence both of reason and of revelation. His existence is an eternal duration-an eternal duration which had no beginning, and which can have no end. All that is now in being, has either received its being from some external cause, or has been produced from nothing, or possesses necessary and self-existence.

But no being that derives its existence from another can be eternal, since the cause from which its origin proceeds must be antecedent to itself. The absurdity of supposing that what now is, has been produced by chance, or accident, or nothing, is self-evident. We are, therefore, reduced to the conclusion, that there has been from eternity an independent Being, who has received his existence from no one; who has originally and necessarily life in himself,-whose being is the only reason why any thing exists, and the only source of life to all that lives,-who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto: whom no man hath seen, nor can see.

Time, which is a section of eternity, has a beginning and an end: eternity has neither. It is an infinite and immutable duration, comprehending in itself all years, all ages, all periods. Time is like a river, constantly gliding along, and swallowed up in the sea: eternity is like an ocean that never changes its place, and is always one water. This eternity is so filled by the ever-blessed God, as to be inhabited by him. As by his presence he fills all space, so by his presence he fills all eternity. His essence and nature are boundless; his duration is always. His creatures may obtain immortality, as they obtain their being from him, but such an immortality is neither necessary nor essential to them, and may be taken away, when the God, from whom it is received, designs it; but he who exists by himself, must exist always and necessarily the same. The duration of God, existing

always, without beginning and without end, is his eternity; and eternity is the glory of each of his perfections as well as of his being.

The eternity of God implies that he is without beginning. This, indeed, follows from his existing necessarily, and of himself: it also follows from his being the creator of all things. The wisdom and power displayed in his works must, of course, have existed before these works were made; they existed, therefore, when there was nothing in being but God. However far we may stretch our thoughts into the duration that is past, we find that it is impossible for us to imagine a period when this duration began, or to date from thence the being of God. As we cannot know the Almighty unto perfection, when attempting to form adequate conceptions of his omnipresence in filling the immensity of space that has no limits; neither can we comprehend him, when we think of him without beginning, and as filling, in the glory and immutability of his nature and essence, the past eternity. Notwithstanding this difficulty, the Apostle states that the Eternity of God is an obvious inference from a slight survey of the works of nature. The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.

As the eternity of God implies that he is without beginning, so does it imply that he is without end. He continues always the same without variableness, or a shadow of turning. In his nature there is no weakness; there is without him no power to control

him-no wisdom to circumvent him, and therefore he remains, in his perfection and all-sufficiency from everlasting to everlasting, God. In condescension to our weakness, his eternity is represented in Scripture by days and years, the periods by which we measure time. All the ages of time are, to a duration without beginning and without end, infinitely less than a moment when compared to the life of man." A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” But there is no proportion between what is finite and what is infinite; between what is marked in its commencement and termination, and what has no limit in either. "Behold God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. He is the Lord God Almighty, which always was, and always is, and always is to come.”

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The eternity of God is expressed by the name which God gives himself;-a name expressive of unchangeable and self existence, and by which he is distinguished from all his creatures. God said unto Moses, "I am that I am; thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you." We, and all creatures, are every moment subject to change; there is a succession of matter necessary to repair the waste of our bodies, and it is by thought succeeding thought in our minds that we acquire wisdom: and, thus, as our time passes away there is to us a real distinction between the past, the present, and the future. But God is always and immutably the same, possessing the same perfection and blessedness which he had from everlasting, and continuing invariably to