or little or nothing we understand;" yea, if more knowing men than any of these abounded in ac knowledgements of their own ignorance, Asaph, "So foolish was I and ignorant; I was as a beast before thee."* Agur, "Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy."+ So true is that of our great apostle, "If any man think that he knows any thing, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know."‡ $5. Next follows the third dimension, which is longitude, in this expression," The measure thereof is longer than the earth." For the bet ter stating whereof let it be considered, that whereas the word here translated measure relateth not to extension only, but also to duration, and the earth hath a double longitude, one of space, the other of continuance; which the scrip→ ture taketh special notice of in other texts, as in that of Ecclesiastes, "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever." I conceive the latter may here be alluded to, viz. the earth's long continuance, as in some low proportion fit to resemble that everlasting duration of God, which cannot be adequately represented by any creature. Sure I am by the Ancient of days in Da *Psalm 1xxiii. 22, + Proverbs xxx. 23. § Eccles. 1. 4. niel the eternal Jehovah is described;* by length of days in wisdom's right hand,† (of which in the Proverbs,) many interpreters understand the blessings of eternity; and this very place of Job is expounded by Gregory in this sense. His words are, Terrâ longior, quia creaturæ modum perennitate suæ æternitatis excedit.‡ All creatures had an original, all but some few shall have a dissolution. Of the Creator, and of him only is that of the Psalmist verified," From everlasting to everlasting thou art God." He gave beginning to all things, but he was himself without beginning;|| is the end for which all things were made, but himself without end. The best of men, alas! are but of yesterday, and know not where they shall be to-morrow, according to that of Bildad, "We are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow." His being God from everlasting to everlasting, should encourage us to walk in the way everlasting, "** having this "everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,++" that he will "save us with an everlasting salvation; because he wanteth neither power to effect it, for his "strength is everlasting ;"SS nor will, for his mercy is so too, as David *Daniel vii. 9. 13. Proverbs iii. 16. Greg. Moral. lib. x. cap. 7. ¶ Job viii. 9. ** Psalm cxxxix. last. ++ 2 Thess. ii. 16. testifieth, "The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him.*" § 6. The more to blame were some overweening sons of Adam for daring to assume unto themselves, and ascribe to other persons and things this incommunicable perfection of God. Of old the heathenish people of Rome were wont to style their emperors, yea and their city Eternal. Concerning which practice of theirs, two ancient writers, Hierome and Prosper interpret those names of blasphemy mentioned in the Revelation. They accounted such no less than blasphemers as called Rome the Eternal City, and saluted the emperor thereof by the title of your Eternity. A thing usually done among them. Yea, this Calenture had taken the brains of some even amongst the Christian emperors: so exceedingly contagious are words and examples that contain blasphemy in them. Ammianus Marcellinus reporteth of Constantius an Arian Prince, that being puft up by the ostentation of his flatterers, § and the prosperous success of his affairs, he was come to that height of ..... Psalm ciii. 17. + Rev. xiii. 1, 5. In fronte purpuratæ meretricis scriptum est nomen blas phemiæ, id est. Romæ Æternæ. Hierom. ad Algusiam quæst. Eterna cum dicitur quæ temporalis est, utique nomen est blasphemiæ. Cum supplices dicunt, Altaribus vestris, Perennitati vestræ, &c. Prosp. de prædic. et promiss. in Dimid. temp. cap. 7. Ammian. Marcel, innitio, lib. 5. insolence as to presume he should never die, and in his writings to style himself Our Eternity, His words are these, Immunem se deinde fore ab omni mortalitatis incommodo fidenter existimans, confestim á justitia declinavit itá intemperanter, ut (æternitatem meam) aliquoties subjeceret ipse dictando. Yea, Justinian himself feared not to say concerning some of his edicts, nostra sanxit æternitas.* EXERCITATION VIII. Divine immensity shadowed out by the breadth of the sea. Divine Omnipresence cleared and vindicated. The proposal hereof as an antidote against sinning in secret. Five practi cal corollaries from the greatness of God in ge neral. §1. THE fourth dimension is still behind in that clause," broader than the sea." It may be thought to relate unto divine omnipresence, and immensity; which is, though not set forth to the life, yet some way shadowed out by the breadth of the sea. In that the vast ocean stretcheth its arms far and near, (so we call them arms of the sea) to the embracing of certain shores, very much distant each from other; and is in that Vide Contem. politic. lib. 7. cap. 4. § 3. respect in a manner omnipresent with the seve ral parts of the earth, to which it is united in one globe. So, and much more than so, the immensity of God's essence is such as to render him actually, and at all times present with every creature in the upper and lower world; for which cause he is said "to fill the heaven and the earth."* To a certain philosopher, who asked one of our profession, Where is God? the Chris tian answered, Let me first understand from thee where he is not, † to intimate his being present every where. Which he is, not only by his power and providence, as some would confine it, but also by his essence, according to the true meaning of that which Paul said at Athens concerning God," He is not far from every one of us. For in him we live, and move, and haye our being." He said not (as Chrysostome observed) By him we live and move, but in him ;§ to note the intimacy of his presence, and that with all sorts of things, whether they be such as have life, or motion without life, or barely being without motion. Yea, where ever they be, whether in heaven or earth, or hell, as the Psalmist expressly, "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art * Jeremiah xxiii. 24. + Apud John Gerhard, in Exeges. page 797. in quarto. Acts xvii. 27. 28. § Ουκ επε δι' αύτε ἀλλ' ὁ εγγύτερον ηνμ, εν αυτώ. Chrys. homil. 38. in Act. Apost. |