762 The Eternity of God, to their Heroes and Demons, whence come the Genealogies of their Gods ; yet the Supreme God , they look'd upon as without beginning and it is a good evidence, that this Perfe&ion doth clearly belong to God , that Epicurus, who had the loweft and meaneft conceptions of God , and robbed him of as many Perfections, as his imperfect Reafon would let him , yet is forced to attribute this to him. Tully de Nat. Deor. lib. a. faith to the Epicureans, ubi igitur veflram beatum CS' ,sternum quibus duobus verbis figniftcatis deem ? Where then is your happy andeternal Being , by which two Epithets you exprefs God? And Lucretius , who hath undertaken to reprefent to the World the Do&rine of Epicurus , gives this account of the Divine Nature. Ornnis enimperfe divdm natura neceffe ell - Immortali cavofumma cumpacefruatur. 'Tu abfolutely neceffary to the nature of the Gods , to pats an Eternity in profound peace and quiet. The Poets who had the wildeft Notions of God , yet they conftantly give them the title of cacipalos' the Heathen never mention the name of God with- out this Attribute , Dii immortales ! Immortal Gods ! was their ordinary excla- mation ;. and they fwear conflantly by this Attribute, deos teflor immortales; and to mention no more, Tully faith exprefly, Nos deum nifrfempiternum intelligere . qui poffumus ? How can we conceive of God, but as of an Eternal Being? Now the Reafon of this is evident , becaufe it would be the greateft imper- feáion we could attribute to his Being ; and the more perfect his Being were otherwife , the greater imperfection would it be for fuch a Being, to die ; fo excellent a Nature to ceafe to be ; it would be an infinite abafement to all his other Perfections ; his Power, and Wifdom, and Goodnefs, that thefe fhould all be perifhing. Nay it would hinder feveral of his Perfections , and contradi9 their very Being ; hisfelf-exiflence ; had he not always been , he had not been of himfelf; his neceffary exifience; for that is not neceffarily, which may at any time not be , or ceafe to be what it is ; and it would much abate the duty of the Creature ; we could not have that affurance of his promife, and that fecurity of the recompence of the next life , if the continuance of his Being, who fhould be the difpenfer of' them, were uncertain. Now thefe Abfurdities and Inconveniencies following from the denial of this Perfection toGod, is fufficientevidence that it belongs to him ; for Itold you, the Perfections of God cannot be proved by way of demonflration, but only by way of convitlion, by (hewing the Abfurdity of the contrary. II. From Scripture and Divine Revelation. There are innumerable places to this purpofe which fpeak of the Eternity of God Direlily, and by Cenfequence By Confequence thofe words, a, Peter 3. 8. One day with the Lord is as a thoufand years, and a thoufand years as one day ; which words , however Interpreters have troubled themfelves about them being afraid of a contradiction in them , yet the plain meaning of them is this, that fuck is the infinite duration of God, that all meafures of time bear no proportion to it ; for that this is the plain mean- ing, appears by the go Pfalm, out of which they are cited, for a thoufandyears in thyfight are but as ye/lerclay, when it ispall, andas a watch in the night ; that is, as the time paft, as a fewHours flept away, förthat is the meaning of a watch in the night, that is as nothing. Now St. Peter's Converfion of the words, one day is as a thoufand years, anda thoufandyears as one clay, only hgnifies this ; that the longeft duration of time is fo inconfiderable to God, that it is as the fhorteft, that is, bears no proportion to theEternity of God. - But Direlily, the Scripture frequently mentions this Attribute : He's called the Everlafling God, Gen. 24. 33. The Eternal God, Deat. 33.17. and which is to the fame purpofe, he that inhabiteth Eternity, Ifa. 47. 15. And this as it is attribu- ted to him in refpect of his Being, fo in refpect of all his other Perfections, Pfal. 103. 17. The mercy of the Lord is from everlafling, to everlafling. Rom. r. zo. his eternal Power. z Tim.- z. 17. the King Eternal. Thofe Doxologies which ' the
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