more will it be raised and elevated by thofe, in which is exerted the whole power of harmony! The fenfes are fa culties of the human foul, though they 'cannot be employed, during this our • vital union without proper inftruments in the body. Why therefore should we exclude the fatisfaction of thefe faculties, which we find by experience are inlets of great pleasure to the foul, 'from among thofe entertainments which. are to make up our happiness hereaf ter? Why fhould we fuppofe that our hearing and feeing will not be gratify'd with those objects which are most a "greeable to them, and which they cannot meet with in thefe lower regions of nature; objects, which neither eye bath feen, nor ear beard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive? I knew a man in Chrift (says St. Paul, speaking of himself) above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) fuch a one caught up to the third hea ven. And I knew fuch a man, (whether ← in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) how that he was caught up into paradife, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not poffible for a man to utter utter. By this is meant, that what he heard was fo infinitely different from any thing which he had heard in this world, that it was impoffible to exprefs it in fuch words as might convey a notion of it to his hearers. It is very natural for us to take delight in enquiries concerning any foreign Country, where we are fome time or other to make our abode; and as we all hope to be admitted into this glorious place, it is both a laudable and useful curiofity, to get what infor- ... mations we can of it, whilst we make ufe of revelation for our guide. When thefe everlasting doors fhall be open to us, we may be fure that the pleatures and beauties of this place will infinite✦ly transcend our prefent hopes and expectations, and that the glorious appearance of the throne of God, wil rife infinitely beyond whatever we are able to conceive of it. We might here: • entertain our felves with many other fpeculations on this fubject, from thofe feveral hints which we find of it in the holy fcriptures; as whether there may not be different manfions and apartments of glory, to Beings of different natures, whether as they excel one ano ⚫ another in perfection, they are not admitted nearer to the throne of the Almighty, and enjoy greater manifeftations of his prefence; whether there are not folemn times and occafions, when all the multitude of heaven celebrate the prefence of their Maker in more extraordinary forms of praise and adoration; as Adam, though he had • continued in a state of innocence, would, in the opinion of our Divines, have kept holy the Sabbath-day, in a more particular manner than any other of the feven. These, and the like fpeculations, we may very innocently indulge, fo long as we make ufe of them to infpire us with a defire of becoming. • inhabitants of this delightful place. I have in this, and in two foregoing. letters, treated on the moft ferious fubject that can employ the mind of man, the Omniprefence of the Deity; a * fubject which, if poffible, fhould never depart from, our meditations. We • have confidered the Divine Being, as he inhabits infinitude, as he dwells among his works, as he is prefent to the mind of man, and as he discovers himfelf in a more glorious manner among the regions of the Bleft. Such a con• fideration • fideration fhould be kept awake in us at all times, and in all places, and poffefs our minds with a perpetual awe and reverence. It fhould be interwoven with all our thoughts and perceptions, and become one with the consciousness of our own Being. It is not to be reflected on in the coldness of philofophy, but ought to fink us into the lowest proftration before him, who is fo aftonishingly great, wonderful • and holy. Affiduo labuntur tempora motu Non fecus ac flumen. Neque enim confiftere flumen, eft ; Fitque qued baud fuerat: momentaque cuncti novan tur. Ovid. Met. WE confider infinite space as an ex panfion without a circumference: We consider eternity, or infinite duration, as a line that has neither a beginning nor end. In our fpeculations of infinite space, we confider that particular place in which we exift, as a kind of center to the whole expanfion. In our Spe fpeculations of eternity, we confider the time which is present to us as the middle, which divides the whole line into two equal parts. For this reafon, many witty authors compare the present time to an Ifthmus or narrow neck of land, that rifes in the midst of an ocean, immeasurably diffufed on either fide of it. Philofophy, and indeed common fenfe, naturally throws eternity under two divifions; which we may call in English, that eternity which is past, and that eternity which is to come. The learned terms of æternitas à parte ante, and æternitas à parte poft, may be more amusing to the reader, but can have no other idea affixed to them than what is conveyed to us by those words, an eternity that is past, and an eternity that is to come. Each of thefe eternities is bounded at the one extreme; or, in other words, the former has an end, and the latter a beginning. Let us first of all confider that eternity which is paft, referving that which is to come for the fubject of another paper. The nature of this eternity is utterly inconceivable by the mind of man: Our reafon demonftrates to us that it has been, but at the fame time can frame no idea of it, but what is big with abfurdity and contra |