ly unintelligible. How can any man con-SERM. ceive a permanent inftant, or which co-exifts VI. with a perpetually flowing duration? one might as well apprehend a mathematical point co-extended with a line, a furface and all dimenfions. And for the reasoning used to fupport this notion, it really proves no more than the weakness of our understandings, which cannot form a positive adequate idea of duraration without real or imagin'd limits, tho' we are fure there is an unchangeable existence, to which unlimited duration belongs. It is certainly reasonable however, as the Deity's manner and condition of Being is infinitely more perfect than ours, to understand his duration with as little variety in it as poffible, and as free from all the infirmities which cleave to our mutable nature. All things about us are in a perpetual flux; matter continually changing its form, and paffing into different states and conftitutions, by generation and corruption; our own bodies fo continually alter their compofition, that in a few years very little remains of the fame matter; as to our fouls, we know very little of their ef fence; it is confcioufnefs only which gives us an idea of perfonal identity, but in the exercise of our rational powers we find a very great variation. Our thoughts change, fo do our de SERM. fires and hopes, and all our other affections. VI. With great difficulty and uncertainty, and often not without mistakes, we endeavour to recollect what is past, and we look forward with anxiety, to unknown hereafter. All these are marks of imperfection, and it does not appear that any finite being can be altogether free from them. But it is not fo with the first Cause, the original, felf-fufficient and underived Fountain of Being, whofe effence cannot be capable of any alteration, nor do his powers and perfections vary with the changes of time. His omnipotence suffers no diminution by any oppofite force, no more than by a natural decay: The heavens were stretched out and the earth establish'd by the irresistible determination of his will, which the fcripture elegantly calls his command, intimating that the greatest works, even creation itself, are eafy to him; and this mighty ftrength remains in its full unimpair'd vigour, and whatever pleaseth him that he doth. His knowledge comprehends all things, paft, present and future, not as if all exifted at once, tho' they are at once in his view. There is a fucceffion in the objects, but not in his understanding, which suffers no change; things past and to come are as clear to his All-comprehending mind as the present. There can be no fuch thing in his perfect understanding as what we SER M. call remembrance, that is reviving former VI. images or impreffions, which are obscur'd or forgotten by new ones fucceeding in their place. For he sees through the whole compass of duration backwards, as well as to the utmoft bounds of present being, and he perceives the most distant futurity with the same clearness; known to him are all his works, and all the works of his creatures, which shall be, as well as those which are, and be fees the end from the beginning. There can therefore be no poffible alteration of his purposes and meafures, but his counfels fhall stand for ever, and the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Whatever changes there may be in the state of things without, according to the limited and imperfect condition of their nature, there is no change in his knowledge and counfels. One day is with him as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day*; not as if he did not fee the real difference between these unequal durations, but they do not affect him, either in his designs or his felicity,, as they do finite beings; for no unforeseen event can arrive, in the least to alter his condition or his designs. The intire fcheme of his adminiftration was form'd from everlasting, and the whole extent of futurity was at once in his view, fo that nothing * 2 Pet. iii. 8. SERM.nothing can poffibly happen unexpected, noVI. thing new which may surprise him; no fudden emotion can arife in his mind, no paffion, no painful defire, no uneafy hope, no anger, fear or forrow, but he poffeffes an eternally uniform and undisturb'd tranquillity. The creation of worlds, and difpofing them in beautiful order and harmony, the forming innumerable living intelligent beings, and communicating various pleasures to them, according to the feveral capacities he has given them; again, the convulfions of nature, wholly altering the form of fome parts of the creation, together with the great revolutions which fall out in the state of some rational creatures, whereby they, originally made for good and for happiness, become evil and miferable ;-all these things, and whatever other important changes arrive, which are amazing to limited minds, and must produce admiration with divers kinds of affections and feelings, yet pass under his eye, and under his direction,' without producing any alteration in his counfels or his happiness. They were all perfectly foreseen, just as they come to pass, without the least variation in any one circumftance, and all wifely adjusted in his eternal decrees. All this is easily intelligible, and neceffarily follows from the abfolute perfection of the Divine nature, nature, and it may be a confiftent explication SER M. of that fo much celebrated description of the VI. Divine eternity, that it is interminabilis vitæ, tota fimul et perfecta poffeffio; but to make it literally a standing perpetual NOW, comprehending all periods of duration, is what we can have no notion of. I come now Laftly, to draw fome practical inferences. The whole controverfy concerning the Being and Perfections of God, is of the greatest importance, to the purposes of forming mens tempers and directing their practice, and it is so regarded by all parties. The Atheists are warm in their oppofition, because they cannot help seeing what reverence and dutiful difpofitions, (which they are averse to, imagining or pretending that it is a fervile state of mind,) the Divine perfections demand, if once they are acknowledg'd; and the believers in God find themselves oblig❜d to contend with a hearty zeal for the respect due to his character. But there is no one attribute which appears more venerable than that of abfolute independent Eternity. Tho' it is but little we know of it, yet that little fills the mind with the greatest awe, and raises an idea of magnificence, unparallell'd in the whole circle of being. We find ourselves poffefs'd of an existence which is confin'd within very nar row |