"

both here and hereafter, if we refuse not to credit his oath. "This God is our God forever and ever; he is a dwelling place in all generations."* On this rock the church erects the edifice of her hope, as we read in the CII. Psalm, already quoted, "Thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee." And hence it is that the prophet Habakkuk exclaims, "Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God! mine holy one? we shall not die." Building on the same foundation, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone, all who have laid hold on the hope set before them, all who have set to their seals that God is true, all who have subscribed to the terms of the everlasting covenant, which is well ordered in all things, and sure, may say, with reference to the pleasures and blessings of the life to come, "soul, take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years," even for eternity.

In what do these goods, those blessings and pleasures consist? In the vision of God, "whose presence is fulness of joys, and at whose right hand there are pleasures forever more." Now, after ages spent in this beatifick state, its pursuits and gratifications will continue to interest, to occupy, and to charm, with as much life and power as when an entrance is at first administered into it. If God is eternal, the vision and fruition of him shall be eternal also. The bliss of Heaven is unconscious of termination. The flowers of Paradise never wither. The river of delights flows on with an even and unwasting current forever and ever. To the rising dead their light shall come, and the glory of the Lord shall arise upon them. Let ages on ages take their flight to join the years before creation; the sun of glory shall not set. Let millions of millions of ages retire into the same oblivion of departed time, the sun of glory shall still shine, and its light enlighten eternity. The truth of these things rests on the firm ground-work * Psalm, xlviii. 14.

†Psalm, cii. 27. 28.

+ Hab. i. 12.

of the everlasting covenant, established by HIM whose word is unchanging truth; who is the same throughout all generations; whose years fail not; who is the same yesterday, today, and forever; who only hath immortality; who from everlasting to everlasting, is God. Rejoice, then, in the Lord, ye righteous; and triumph in the consolations of his eternity.

THIRD. The consideration of God's eternity should check the risings of pride. How little do we know, how hittle can we know of this essential perfection of Deity? Our discourse on it resembles the babbling of children, and our conceptions of it are more feeble than the impressions made on the infantine understanding. How should this mental impotence humble us in the presence of God?

This consideration should check the risings of pride in another view. It should repress that presumption which aspires to sit in judgment on the ways of eternal providence. Known unto God are all his works, from the beginning of the world." But are they known unto us? No more than、 they are our works, and not his. Is our understanding infinite? Is our wisdom unsearchable? Are we acquainted with the natures, the associations, the tendencies, the sympathies and antipathies, so to speak, of all things? It is unnecessary to answer these questions. We are beings of yesterday, and know nothing."*

"We are beings of yesterday." It is here that the consideration of God's eternity is most powerful to repress the pride of man. Contrasted with him who liveth forever and ever; who never began to be, and whose existence shall never end; what are we who are beings of yesterday, whose foundation is in the dust, and who are crushed before the moth?" Is not our life, at its longest period, compared with the duration of our Maker's existence, of a proportion infinitely less than that of a drop of water to the collected waters of the universe? Infinitely less than that of a grain † Job, iv. 19.

* Job, viii. 9.

of sand to the collected matter of the universe? What is our life? A vapour-a smoke-a bubble that no sooner floats into view, than it bursts, and is no more. What is our life? A moment--a point of time-what is past of it cannot be recalled; what is future cannot be counted on; we enjoy the present instant, but lose the past, and shall immediately lose the present in the next that is to come. When did we begin to live? After incalculable years of pre-existing eternity had rolled on, while the place that now knows us, knew us not. How long shall we enjoy this life? A few score fleeting years, at most, and then the place that now knows us, shall know us no more.

And should not the brevity and frailty of our lives humble us in the presence of God, "with whom our days are as a hands-breadth, and our age as nothing? The angels, who are coeval with the Heavens and the earth, cover their faces before him, and cast their crowns at his feet. The Heavens melt, and the mountains flow down at his presence. And shall we, who are but of yesterday, lift up aspiring thoughts and vain imaginations towards him? O! Father of eternity! hide pride from our eyes, and clothe us with humility.

FOURTH.-The consideration of God's eternity should weaken our attachment to the world, and draw our affections from it. "I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say." Would reason lead you to prefer a temporal and perishing world, to an eternal God? What is this world, admitting that you had the entire possession of it, what is it to the Universe of worlds? An atom to the Andes. And what is the universe of worlds, but a created system that had a beginning and might have an end?. But God is from everlasting to everlasting-without beginning and without ending. He hath offered himself to be your God, your portion, and your exceeding joy. Which do you prefer? God who is eternal? or the world that perisheth? "Choose ye this day whom you will serve."

Six thousand years have not quite elapsed since the foun

dations of this world were laid. When they will be subverted, we know not. But if our great progenitor had lived to the present day, and had enjoyed as absolute and uncontrolled a sovereignty over his posterity as that which God gave him over the fish of the sea, and the fowl of the air, and every living thing that moveth upon the earth; would all this have sufficed to fill the desires of his soul? Would all this have given rest to his soul? Would he not, even on this supposition, have acted an irrational part, to prefer a created enjoyment of circumscribed duration, to the everlasting Creator of all things?

Marked with the lines of vanity, the fashion of this world passeth away. "A kingdom, with the glory of a throne, may be cut off in a morning."* And is this departing pageant to be preferred by the rational mind as the supreme object of affection, before the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth?

O! my brethren, let me persuade you to appreciate the sublimity of your vocation, that you may walk worthy of it; that you may live above this perishing world. You are born for immortality. Why should you grovel on the earth? Heirs of the eternal God; joint heirs with his eternal word made flesh; are not the vows of holy baptism on you, and is it not one of these vows that you will renounce the world? Let me prevail on you to withdraw your attachment from objects that will only deceive and disappoint you. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where the moth doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; .but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither the moth corrupts, nor thieves break through and steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Raise your affections to things above, where your Redeemer sitteth at the right hand of God. Judge ye rightly, that the time past of your lives may suffice to have had your conversation in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of

* Charnock. † Matt. vi. 19.-21.

EE

the flesh, and of the mind. "Walk by faith, and not by sight."* "Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

Now to the KING eternal, immortal, invisible; the only wise God, and our SAVIOUR: to the blessed and only Potentate, 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; be honour and power everlasting!—AMEN.