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entitled to the Adorations and Praises of all in Heaven and Earth. The whole heavenly Host are reprefented as giving Glory, and Honour, and Thanks to him that liveth for ever and ever; and as saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. Rev. iv. 8. Let us join in the fame humble and devout Adorations, and make the Apoftle's Doxology ours. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invifible, the only wife God, be Honour and Glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

On

On the Eternity of God.

DISCOURSE V.

PSA L. XC. 2.

Before the Mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the Earth, or the World, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.

HE Eternity of God furnisheth a TH noble Subject for our Thoughts; and to affift you in Meditations upon it,

your

I endeavoured in a former, Difcourfe to confider the Representations that are made to us of the divine Eternity in these remarkable Words of the Pfalmift, and in several other Paffages of Holy Writ. It was shewn, that the Eternity of God fignifieth, ift, That he never had a Beginning of his Being or Existence: 2dly, That it is impoffible

impoffible he ever should have an End: 3dly, That he is always the fame, and that there is no proper Succeffion in his Being or Duration as there is in ours: And we concluded with this general Obfervation; That we may hence fee, how unable we are to comprehend God, and what Humility and Modesty becometh us in all our Researches and Enquiries into his infinite Nature, and into his divine Counfels.

I now proceed to make fome farther Reflections on this important Subject.

And firft, The Confideration of God's Eternity fhould excite in us the most admiring Thoughts of his unequalled Majefty and Glory, and fhould affect our Hearts with the deepest Sense of the infinite Distance there is between him and the most glorious and exalted of all created Beings. In all things that come under our Notice, we may obferve convincing Proofs of their having had a Beginning of their Exiftence. With regard to ourselves, we are conscious that it is but a few Years fince we came into Being. The fame must be said of the whole Race of Mankind, which, it is demonftrable, could not have been from everFafting upon this Earth. And there are many Things which plainly fhew, that they are comparatively but of a late Original. The Earth itself, the Sea, the Air, and all Things

that

that are therein, bear upon them the Characters of Mutability and Imperfection, which make it evident that they did not exist of themselves from everlasting. And the fame may be justly concluded concerning those glorious Bodies, which perform their Courses and Revolutions in the vaft Spaces around us: But when we rise beyond thefe Things to the great Author of the Univerfe; as we must acknowledge that he had an Existence before any Part of this vifible World (which is his Contrivance and Workmanfhip) was formed; fo we are naturally led to conclude, that he never had any Beginning of his Being. Let us pursue our Thoughts never so far through the Series of fubordinate Causes, we must unavoidably come at length to fomething which was itself uncaufed, and must therefore have been felf-exiftent, or have exifted neceffarily from everlasting. And whatsoever is thus felf-exiftent, muft be independent and felf-fufficient; was not beholden to any other for its Being or Perfection, fo there is no other on whom it can be fuppofed in any Cafe to depend. It fubfifteth wholly and only of itself, and standeth not in need of any foreign Affiftance or Support; and for the fame Reafon that it is felf-fufficient and independent, it is unchangeable too. That which

as it

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