In the vastness of the ocean, we have also a lively emblem of eter- nity. Who can comprehend or measure the ocean, but God ? And who can comprehend eternity but he that is said to inhahit itf Isa. Ivii. 5. 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 word ! and amazing matter ! what is eternity but a con- stant 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 grain in a thousand years ; O what a vast time would it be ere that immortal bird, after that rate, should carry off the mountain ! and yet in time this might be done. For there would still be some diminution; but in eternity there can be none. There be three things in time, 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 [tioz^']. In time there is a diminution and wasting, the more is past, the less is 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 changes pass 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. iii. 12. If in hell, no redemption thence, but the smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever. Rev. xix. 3.
And is the mercy of God like the great deep, an ocean that none can fathom.? What unspeakable comfort is this to me.'^ may the par- doned soul say. Did Israel sing a song, when the Lord had over- whelmed their corporeal enemies in the seas ? And shall not I break forth into his praises, who hath drowned all my sins in the depth of
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mercy ? O my soul, bless thou the Lord, and let his high praises ever be in thy mouth. Mayest thou not say, that he hath gone to as high an extent and degree of mercy in pardoning thee as ever he did in any ? O my God, who is hke unto thee ! that pardoneth ini- quity, transgresion and sin. What mercy, but the mercy of a God, could cover such abomination as mine ?
But O! what terrible reflections will conscience make from hence, unto all despisers of mercy, when the sinner's eyes come to be opened too late for mercy, to do them good ! We have heard indeed, that the king of heaven was a merciful king, but we would make no address to him, whilst that sceptre was stretched out. We heard of balm in Gilead, and a physician there, that was able and willing t cure all our wounds, but we would not commit ourselves to him. We read, that the arms of Christ were open to embrace and receive us, but we would not. O unparalleled folly ! O soul-destroying madness ! Now the womb of mercy is shut up, and shall bring forth no more mercies to me for ever. Now the gates of grace are shut, and no cries can open them.
Mercy acted its part, and is gone off the stage : and now justice enters the scene, and will be glorified for ever upon me. How often did I hear the bowels of compassion sounding in the gospel for me ? But my hard and impenitent he^rt could not relent ; and now, if it could, it is too late. I am now past out of the ocean of mercy, into the ocean of eternity, where I am fixed in the midst of endless misery, and shall never hear the voice of mercy more !
O dreadful eternity ! O soul-confounding word ! Aa ocean in- deed, to which this ocean is but as a drop ; for in thee no soul shall see either bank or bottom. If I lie but one night under strong pains of body, how tedious doth that night seem ! And how do I tell the clock, and wish for day ! In the world I might have had life, and would not. And now, how fain would I have death, but cannot ? How quick were my sins in execution ? And how long is their punishment in duration ? O ! how shall I dwell with everlasting burnings ^ Oh that God would but vouchsafe one treaty more with me ! But alas, all tenders and treaties are now at an end with me. On earth peace, Luke ii. 13. but none in hell. O my soul ! consider these things ; come, let us debate this matter seriously, before we launch out into this ocean.
▼ ▼ HO from some high rais'd tower views the ground. His heart doth tremble, and his head goes round ; Even so my soul, whilst it doth view and think On this eternity, upon whose brink It borders, stands amazed, and doth crv, 0 boundless ! bottomless eternity !
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The scourge of hell, whose very lash doth rend The damned souls in twain : What ! never end P The more thereon they ponder, think, and pore, The more, poor wretches, still they howl and roar. Ah ! though more years in torments we should lie. Than sands are on the shores, or in the sky Are twinkling stars ; yet this gives some relief ! The hope of ending. Ah ! but here's the grief ! A thousand years in torments past and gone, Ten thousand more afresh are coming on ; And when these thousands all their course have run. The end's no more than when it first begun. Come then, my soul, let us discourse together This weighty point, and tell me plainly whether You for these short-livM joys, that come and go, Will plunge yourself and me in endless woe. Resolve the question quickly, do not dream More time away. I^o, in an hasty stream We swiftly pass, and shortly we shall be Ingulphed both in this eternity.
Witlnn these smooth Jkcd seas strange creatures craid ; But in man's heart Jar stranger than them all.