utter. By this is meant, that what he heard was fo infinitely different from any thing which he had heard in this world, that it was impoffible to exprefs it in 'fuch words as might convey a notion of it to his hearers.

6

It is very natural for us to take delight in enquiries concerning any foreign Country, where we are some 'time or other to make our abode; and as we all hope to be admitted into this glorious place, it is both a laudable and useful curiofity, to get what infor⚫mations we can of it, whilft we make ufe of revelation for our guide. When these everlasting doors fhall be open to us, we may be fure that the pleasures and beauties of this place will infinitely tranfcend our prefent hopes and expectations, and that the glorious appearance of the throne of God will rife infinitely beyond whatever we are able to conceive of it. We might here • entertain ourselves with many other fpeculations on this fubject, from those feveral hints which we find of it in the holy fcriptures; as whether there may not be different manfions, and apartments of glory, to Beings of different • natures; whether as they excel one

ano

⚫ another in perfection, they are not ad*mitted nearer to the throne of the Al

mighty, and enjoy greater manifeftations of his prefence; whether there are not • folemn times and occafions, when all the multitude of heaven celebrate the • prefence of their Maker in more extra⚫ ordinary forms of praise and adoration; as Adam, though he had continued in a ⚫ state of innocence, would, in the opinion of our Divines, have kept holy the • Sabbath-day, in a more particular man⚫ner than any other of the seven. Thefe, and the like fpeculations, we may very innocently indulge, fo long as we make ufe of them to infpire us with a defire of becoming inhabitants of this de⚫lightful place.

I have in this, and in two foregoing • letters treated on the most serious fubject that can employ the mind of man, the Omniprefence of the Deity; a fubject which, if poffible, fhould never depart from our meditations. We have confidered the divine Being, as he inhabits infinitude, as he dwells a" mong his works, as he is present to the • mind of man, and as he discovers himfelf in a more glorious manner among the regions of the Bleft. Such a con

• fideration

fideration fhould be kept awake in us at all times, and in all places, and poffefs our minds with a perpetual awe and reverence, it fhould be interwoven with all our thoughts and perceptions, and become one with the confcioufnefs of our own Being. It is not C to be reflected on in the coldnefs of philofophy, but ought to fink us into the lowest proftration before him, who is fo aftonishingly great, wonderful and holy."

Affiduo labuntur tempora motu

Non fecus ac flumen. Neque enim confiftere flumen, Nec levis hora poteft: fed ut unda impellitur undâ, Urgeturque prior venienti, urgetque priorem, Tempora fic fugiunt pariter, pariterque fequuntur; Et nova funt femper. Nam quod fuit ante, relictum eft;

Fitque quod haud fuerat: momentaque cun&a novanOvid. Met.

tur.

E confider infinite space as an expanfion

WE

Wannon without a circumference:

We confider eternity, or infinite duration, as a line that has neither a beginning nor end. In our fpeculations of infinite fpace, we confider that particular place in which we exift, as a kind of center to the whole expanfion. In our

fpe

fpeculations of eternity we confider the time which is prefent to us as the middle, which divides the whole line into two equal parts. For this reafon, many witty authors compare the prefent time to an Ifthmus or narrow neck of land, that rifes in the midft of an ocean, immeafurably diffused on either fide of it.

Philofophy, and indeed common fense, naturally throws eternity under two divifions; which we may call in English, that eternity which is paft, and that eternity which is to come. The learned terms of æternitas à parte ante, and eternitas à parte poft, may be more amufing to the reader, but can have no other idea affixed to them than what is conveyed to us by thofe words, an eternity that is paft, and an eternity that is to come. Each of thefe eternities is bounded at the one extreme; or, in other words, the former has an end, and the latter a beginning.

Let us firft of all confider that eternity which is paft, referving that which is to come for the fubject of another paper. The nature of this eternity is utterly inconceiveable by the mind of man: Our reafon demonftrates to us that it has been, but at the fame time can frame no idea of it, but what is big with abfurdity and

contra

contradiction. We can have no, other conception of any duration which is past, than that all of it was once prefent; and whatever was once prefent, is at fome certain distance from us; and whatever is at any certain diftance from us, be the distance never fo remote, cannot be eternity. The very notion of any duration's, being paft, implies that it was once prefent; for the idea of being once prefent, is actually included in the idea of its being paft. This therefore is a depth not to be founded by human understanding. We are fure that there has been an eternity, and yet contradict ourselves when we measure this eternity by any notion which we can frame of it.

If we go to the bottom of this matter, we fhall find, that the difficulties we meet with in our conceptions of eternity proceed from this fingle reafon, that we can have no other idea of any kind of duration, than that by which we ourfelves, and all other created Beings, do exift; which is, a fucceffive duration made up of past, prefent, and to come. There is nothing which exifts after this manner, all the parts of whose existence were not once actually prefent, and confequently may be reached by a certain

number