Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

IV. And lastly, Let us consider the eternity of the whole, the everlasting continuance of the miserable state of the damned in hell.

First, If I could, I should show what eternity is, I mean, the creature's eternity. But who can measure the waters of the ocean, or who can tell you the days, years, and ages of eternity, which are infinitely more than the drops of the ocean? None can comprehend eternity, but the eternal God. Eternity is an ocean, whereof we will never see the shore; it is a deep, where we can find no bottom; a labyrinth, from whence we cannot extricate ourselves, and where we shall ever lose the door. There are two things one may say of it, (1.) It has a beginning. God's eternity has no beginning, but the creature's eternity has. Sometime there was no lake of fire; and those who have been there, for some thousand of years, were once, in time, as we now are. But (2.) It shall never have an end. The first who entered into the eternity of woe, is as far from the end of it, as the last, who shall go thither, will be at his entry. They who have launched out furthest into that ocean, are as far from land, as they were the first moment they went into it: and thousands of ages after this, they will be as far from it as ever: Wherefore, eternity, which is before us, is a duration that hath a beginning, but no end. It is a beginning without a middle, a beginning without an end. After millions of years past in it, still it is a beginning. God's wrath in hell, will ever be the wrath to come. But there is no middle in eternity. When millions of ages are past in eternity, what is past bears no proportion of what is to come; no not so much as one drop of water, falling from the tip of one's finger, bears to all the waters of the ocean. There is no end of it▪ while God is, it shall be. It is an entry without an out-gate, a continual succession of ages, a glass always running, which shall never run out.

First, If I could, I should shew what eternity is, I mean, the creature's eternity. But who can measure the waters of the occean, or who can tell you the days, years, and ages of eternity, which are infinitely more than the drops of the occean? None can comprehend eternity, but the eternal God. Eternity is an occean, whereof we will never see the shore; it is a deep, where we can find no bottom; a labyrinth, from whence we cannot extricate ourselves, and where we shall ever lose the door. There are two things one may say of it, (1.) It has a beginning. God's eternity has no beginning, but the creature's eternity has. Sometime there was no lake of fire; and those who have been there, for some thousand of years, were once, in time, as we now are. But (2.) It shall never have an end. The first who entered into the eternity of woe, is as far from the end of it, as the last, who shall go thither, will be at his entry. They who have launched out furthest into that occean, are as far from land, as they were the first moment they went into it: and thousands of ages after this, they will be as far from it as ever: Wherefore, eternity, which is before us, is a duration that hath a beginning, but no end. It is a beginning without a middle, a beginning without an end. After millions of years past in it, still it is a beginning. God's wrath in hell, will ever be the wrath to come. But there is no middle in eternity. When millions of ages are past in eternity, what is past bears no proportion of what is to come; no not so much as one drop of water, falling from the tip of one's finger, bears to all the waters of the occean. There is no end of it while God is, it shall be. It is an entry without an out-gate, a continual succession of ages, a glass always running, which shall never run out.