In the vastness of the Ocean, we have also a lively Emblem of Eternity. Who can comprehend or measure the Ocean, but God? And who can comprehend Eternity, but he that is said to inhabit it? Isa. 57. 15. Though shallow Rivers may be drained and dried up, yet the Ocean cannot. And though these transitory Days, Months, and Years will at last expire and determine; yet Eternity shall not. O! it is a long World! and amazing Matter! What is Eternity, but a constant permanency of Persons and Things, in one and the same State and Condition for ever; putting them beyond all possibility of change? The Heathens were wont to shadow it by a Circle, or a Snake twisted round. It will be to all of us, either a perpetual Day or Night, which will not be measured by Watches, Hours, Minutes. And as it cannot be measured, so neither can it ever be diminished. When thousands of years are gone, there is not a minute less to come. Gerhard and Drexelius do both illustrate it by this known similitude: Suppose a Bird were to come once in a thousand years; to some vast Mountain of Sand, and carry away in her Bill one Sand in a thousand years; O what a vast time would it be, ere that immortal Bird, after that rate, had recovered the Mountain! and yet in time this might be done. For there would be still some diminution; but in Eternity there can be none. There be three things in Time, ⟨p. 9⟩which are not competent to Eternity: In Time there is a Succession, one Generation, Year, and Day passeth, and another comes; but Eternity is a fixed [now.] In Time there is a Diminution and wasting; the more is past, the less to come: But it is not so in Eternity. In time there is an Alteration of condition and states: A Man may be poor to day, and rich to morrow; sickly and diseased this week, and well the next; now in contempt, and anon in honour: But no change passes upon us in Eternity. As the Tree falls at Death and Judgment, so it lies for ever. If in Heaven, there thou art a Pillar, and shalt go forth no more, Rev. 3. 12. If in Hell, no Redemption thence, but the smoke of their torments ascendeth for ever and ever, Rev. 19. 3.
In the vastness of the Ocean, we have also a lively Emblem of Eternity. Who can comprehend or measure the Ocean, but God? And who can comprehend Eternity, but he that is said to inhabit it? Isa. 57. 15. Though shallow Rivers may be drained and dried up, yet the Ocean cannot. And though these transitory Days, Months, and Years will at last expire and determine; yet Eternity shall not. O! it is a long World! and amazing Matter! What is Eternity, but a constant permanency of Persons and Things, in one and the same State and Condition for ever; putting them beyond all possibility of change? The Heathens were wont to shadow it by a Cricle, or a Snake twisted round. It will be to all of us, either a perpetual Day or Night, which will not be measured by Watches, Hours, Minutes. And as it cannot be measured, so neither can it ever be diminished. When thousands of years are gone, there is not a minute less to come. Gerhard and Drexelius do both illustrate it by this known similitude: Suppose a Bird were to come once in a thousand years; to some vast Mountain of Sand, and carry away in her Bill one Sand in a thousand years; O what a vast time would it be, e're that immortal Bird, after that rate, had recovered the Mountain! and yet in time this might be done. For there would be still some diminution; but in Eternity there can be none. There be three things in Time, ⟨p. 9⟩which are not competent to Eternity: In Time there is a Succession, one Generation, Year, and Day passeth, and another comes; but Eternity is a fixed [now.] In Time there is a Diminution and wasting; the more is past, the less to come: But it is not so in Eternity. In time there is an Alteration of condition and states: A Man may be poor to day, and rich to morrow; sickly and diseased this week, and well the next; now in contempt, and anon in honour: But no change passes upon us in Eternity. As the Tree falls at Death and Judgment, so it lies for ever. If in Heaven, there thou art a Pillar, and shalt go forth no more, Rev. 3. 12. If in Hell, no Redemption thence, but the smoak of their torments ascendeth for ever and ever, Rev. 19. 3.
