out of Sion the loveliness of His beauty," Ps. xlix. i. This Divine beauty is so great that all the blessed saints and angels in heaven are enraptured with inexpressible delight in the contemplation of it, and the enjoyment of it makes God Himself infinitely and essentially happy. Hence the Scripture says: "O taste and see how sweet the Lord is; blessed is the man that hopeth in Him," Ps. lxxxiii. 9. " They shall be inebriated with the plenty of Thy house, and Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy pleasures; for with Thee is the fountain of life, and in Thy light we shall see light," Ps. xxxv. 9. " O how great is the multitude of Thy sweetness, O Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee! . . . Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy face," Ps. xxx. 20, 21.
Q. 15. What do you mean when you say God is eternal?
A. I mean that God had no beginning, and will have no end; that He always was, is, and ever will be; for " thus sayeth the High and the Eminent who inhabiteth eternity," Isa. lvii. 15. "Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail," Heb. i. 12. "I am the first and the last, — and behold I live for ever and ever," Rev. i. 17.
Q. 16. Had God no beginning?
A. No; God is a self-existent, necessary Being; from Himself alone, and wholly independent on any other; and therefore never had, nor could have, any beginning, but must have been from all eternity. Hence He says of Himself to Moses, "I am who am; thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, He who is hath sent me to you," Exod. iii. 14. In order to show that He alone is essentially, and that all things else are a mere nothing in comparison to Him, according to that text, " Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as
