You think to be tortured with fire is miserable, and to be so eternally is miserable; but there is something more, every instant you shall be in misery, there shall be a kind of infiniteness, because you shall by your thoughts bring whatsoever is to come, and put it upon the present moment, and nothing can swallow up a mans spirit so much as this, if he understands eternity. Now then a gracious heart that knows this, that knows what the consequence of eternity is, cannot be satisfied, except it hath made good provision for eternity; whatsoever it enjoys for the present, cannot satisfy the soul, unless it hath made good provision for that which it understands, to be of such infinite consequence as it is. A soul that understands ⟨p. 319⟩the consequence of eternity, sees it as an infinite Ocean, that it is launching into, and must for ever swim in: Now if a man were to go a voyage in the vast Ocean, that he must go thousands of miles, could he be content that he had made provision of such a Vessel, that he could make shift to get over some narrow water with? so it is here; yea, this similitude comes short of the expression of the folly of any that knows any thing concerning eternity, to think to satisfy themselves in any thing that is but for a season; for any thing that is but for a season, let it be for as long a season as you will, if it were for Methuselahs season, that is but as some small Brook, and what is this to the going of many thousand miles in the infinite vast Ocean? and therefore a gracious heart knowing the vastness of it, except it hath made some provision for it, can never be quieted with what it can enjoy for a season.
You think to be tortured with fire is miserable, and to be so eternally is miserable; but there is something more, every instant you shall be in misery, there shall be a kinde of infiniteness, because you shall by your thoughts bring whatsoever is to come, and put it upon the present moment, and nothing can swallow up a mans spirit so much as this, if he understands eternity. Now then a gracious heart that knows this, that knows what the consequence of eternity is, cannot be satisfied, except it hath made good provision for eternity; whatsoever it enjoys for the present, cannot satisfie the soul, unless it hath made good provision for that which it understands, to be of such infinite consequence as it is. A soul that understands ⟨p. 319⟩the consequence of eternity, sees it as an infinite Ocean, that it is lanching into, and must for ever swim in: Now if a man were to go a voyage in the vast Ocean, that he must go thousands of miles, could he be content that he had made provision of such a Vessel, that he could make shift to get over some narrow water with? so it is here; yea, this similitude comes short of the expression of the folly of any that knows any thing concerning eternity, to think to satisfie themselves in any thing that is but for a season; for any thing that is but for a season, let it be for as long a season as you will, if it were for Methuselahs season, that is but as some small Brook, and what is this to the going of many thousand miles in the infinite vast Ocean? and therefore a gracious heart knowing the vastness of it, except it hath made some provision for it, can never be quieted with what it can enjoy for a season.
