Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

A greater difference there is between the duration of God, and that of a Creature, than between the life of one for a minute, and the life of one that should live as many years as the whole globe of Heaven and Earth, if changed into papers, could contain figures: And this life, tho but of a short duration according to the period God hath determined, is easily cut off; the treasure of life is deposited in a brittle vessel: A small stone hitting against Nebuchadnezzars Statue, will tumble it down into a poor and nasty grave: A Grape stone, the bone of a fish, a small fly in the throat, a moist damp are enough to destroy an Earthly Eternity, and reduce it to nothing.

What a Nothing then is our shortness, if compared with Gods Eternity? Our frailty, with Gods duration? How humble then should perishing Creatures be before an Eternal God, with whom our days are as a hands breadth, and our age as nothing? ^*The Angels that have been of as long a duration as Heaven and Earth, tremble before him; the Heavens melt at his presence; and shall we that are but of yesterday, approach a Divine Eternity with unhumbled Souls, and offer the Calves of our lips with the pride of Devils, and stand upon our terms with him, without falling upon our faces, with a sense that we are but dust and ashes, and Creatures of time? How easily is it to reason out mans humility, but how hard is it to reason man into it?

1. *Psal. 39 5.

3. Let the consideration of Gods Eternity take off our love and confidence from the world, and the things thereof. The Eternity of God reproaches a pursuit of the world, as preferring a momentary pleasure before an everlasting God; as tho a temporal world could be a better supply, than a God whose years never fail. Alas! what is this Earth, men are so greedy of, and will get, tho by blood and sweat? What is this whole Earth, if we had the entire possession of it, if compared with the vast Heavens, the seat of Angels and blessed Spirits? Tis but as an Atom to the greatest Mountain, or as a drop of dew to the immense Ocean. How foolish is it, to prefer a drop before the Sea, or an Atom before the world? The Earth is but a point to the Sun; the Sun with its whole Orb, but a little part of the Heavens, if compared with the whole Fabric. If a man had the possession of all those, there could be no comparison between those that have had a beginning, and shall have an end, and God who is without either of them. Yet, how many are there, that make nothing of the divine Eternity, and imagine an Eternity of nothing?