The Eternity of God is His infinite tenure of life. The life of God is nothing else but God; so it is incomprehensible, and can no more be represented in human words than the likeness of God can be painted in oils. For we can only conceive of existence as in time, and as having succession and duration, and we necessarily speak of all existence in corresponding language. Now, time and eternity are incommensurable terms. They are of analogous significance, as being the creature's tenure of life and God's; but they are the opposites of one another at every point. Eternity is first the simultaneous possession of life, whereas time is of successive instants. Eternity is neither past, present nor future. So St. Denis says that God never "was," for there is no past in His life; He never "will be" for there is no unrealized future before Him; and it is not to be said, in our sense, that He "is," for our present is a transient moment, gone before we enjoy its possession. However, on account of our imperfect grasp of the idea of Eternity, we are obliged to speak of God as if He had a successive life, with an indefinite past at one side "He always was;" an indefinite future at the other―"He always will be;" and a present like ours intermediate be tween the―"He is." In picturing Eternity to our minds we try to multiply durations till imagination ceases to grasp them; we think of God's existence as extending backwards and backwards out of sight and forward into the future, beyond the enormous periods of created existence. And yet all this is not the first factor of a true idea of eternity. It is even misleading, for it is an attempt to picture eternity by multiplying an element which is contradictory to eternity. Mortify your curiosity. "Seek not the things that are too high for thee, and search not into things above thy ability: . . . for it is not necessary for thee to see with thy eyes the things that are hid".
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