survey the bounds of creation, and see every place where the Almighty "Stopp'd his rapid wheels, and said, This be thy just circumference, O world?" Yea, shall we not be able to move, quick as thought, through the wide realms of uncreated light? Above all, the moment we step into eternity, shall we not feel ourselves swallowed up of Him who is in this and every place, who filleth heaven and earth? It is only the veil of flesh and blood which now hinders us from perceiving that the great Creator cannot but fill the whole immensity of space. He is every moment above us, beneath us, and on every side. Indeed, in this dark abode, this land of shadows, this region of sin and death, the thick cloud which is interposed between conceals him from our sight. But the veil will disappear, and he will appear, in unclouded majesty, "God over all, blessed for ever.”—Sermons, vol. ii, pp. 466-468. How exceeding little do we now know concerning the invisible world! And we should have known still less of it had it not pleased the Author of both worlds to give us more than natural light, to give us "his word to be a lantern to our feet, and a light in all our paths." And holy men of old, being assisted by his Spirit, have discovered many particulars of which otherwise we should have had no conception. And without revelation, how little certainty of invisible things did the wisest of men obtain! The small glimmerings of light which they had were merely conjectural. At best they were only a faint dim twilight, delivered from uncertain tradition; and so obscured by heathen fables that it was but one degree better than utter darkness. How uncertain the best of these conjectures was may easily be gathered from their own accounts. The most finished of all these accounts is that of the great Roman poet. Where observe how warily he begins with that apologetic preface, Sit mihi fas audita loqui? "May I be allowed to tell what I have heard?" And in the conclusion, lest any one should imagine he believed any of these accounts, he sends the relater of them out of hades, by the ivory gate, through which he had just informed us that only dreams and shadows pass-a very plain intimation that all which had gone before is to be looked upon as a dream! How little regard they had for all these conjectures, with regard to the invisible world, clearly appears from the words of his brother poet, who affirms, without any scruple, "Esse aliquos manes et subterranea regna Nec fieri credunt:" "That there are ghosts or realms below, not even a man of them now believes."-Sermons, vol. ii, p. 471. SECTION X. His Folly in choosing Sin. IN what condition are those immortal spirits who have made choice of a miserable eternity? I say, made choice; for it impossible this should be the lot of any creature but by his own act and deed. The day is coming when every soul will be constrained to acknowledge, in the sight of men and angels, 64 No dire decree of Thine did seal Or fix th' unalterable doom; Consign my unborn soul to hell, Or damn me from my mother's womb." In what condition will such a spirit be after the sentence is executed, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre pared for the devil and his angels ?" Suppose him to be just now plunged into "the lake of fire burning with brimstone," where "they have no rest day or night, but the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." Why, if we were only to be chained down one day, yea, one hour, in a lake of fire, how amazingly long would one day or one hour appear! I know not if it would not seem as a thousand years. But (astonishing thought!) after thousands of thousands, he has but just tasted of his bitter cup! After millions of millions, it will be no nearer the end than it was the moment it began! What then is he, how foolish, how mad, in how unutterable a degree of distraction, who, seeming to have the understanding of a man, deliberately prefers temporal things to eternal? who (allowing that absurd, impossible supposition, that wickedness is happiness-a supposition utterly contrary to all reason, as well as to matter of fact) prefers the happiness of a year, say a thousand years, to the happiness of eternity, in comparison of which a thousand ages are infinitely less than a year, a day, a moment? Especially when we take this into the consideration, (which, indeed, should never be forgotten,) that the refusing a happy eternity implies the choosing of a miserable eternity for there is not, cannot be, any medium between everlasting joy and everlasting pain. It is a vain thought which some have entertained, that death will put an end to the soul as well as to the body. It will put an end to neither the one nor the other: it will only alter the manner of their existence. But when the body "returns to the dust as it was, the spirit will return to God that gave it." Therefore, at the moment of death, it must be unspeakably happy, or unspeakably miserable: and that misery will never end. "Never! Where sinks the soul at that dread sound? How often would he who had made the wretched choice wish for the death both of his soul and body! It is not impossible that he might pray in some such manner as Dr. Young supposes :— "When I have writhed ten thousand years in fire; Yet this unspeakable folly, this unutterable madness, of preferring present things to eternal, is the disease of every man born into the world, while in his natural state. For such is the constitution of our nature, that as the eye sees only such a portion of space at once, so the mind sees only such a portion of time at once. And as all the space that lies beyond this is invisible to the eye, so all the time which lies beyond that compass is invisible to the mind. So that we do not perceive either the space or the time which is at a distance from us. The eye sees distinctly the space that is near it, with the objects which it contains: in like manner the mind sees distinctly those objects which are within such a distance of time. The eye does not see the beauties of China; they are at too great a distance there is too great a space between us and them; therefore we are not affected by them. They are as nothing to us it is just the same to us as if they had no being. For the same reason the mind does not see either the beauties or the terrors of eternity. We are not at all affected by them, because they are so distant from us. On this account it is that they appear to us nothing: just as if they had no existence. Meantime we are wholly taken up with things present, whether in time or space; and things appear less and less, as they are more and more distant from us, either in one respect or the other. And so it must be; such is the constitution of our nature; till nature is changed by almighty grace. But this is no manner of excuse for those who continue in their natural blindness to futurity; because a remedy for it is provided, which is found by all that seek it: yea, it is freely given to all that sincerely ask it.-Sermons, vol. ii, pp. 16-18. SECTION XI. Subject to Death. GOD has indeed provided for the execution of his own decree, in the very principles of our nature. It is well known the human body, when it comes into the world, consists of innumerable membranes exquisitely thin, that are filled with circulating fluids, to which the solid parts bear a very small proportion. Into the tubes, composed of these membranes, nourishment must be continually infused; otherwise life cannot continue, but will come to an end almost as soon as it is begun. And suppose this nourishment to be liquid, which, as it flows through those fine canals, continually enlarges them in all their dimensions; yet it contains innumerable solid particles, which continually adhere to the inner surface of the vessels through which they flow; so that in the same proportion as any vessel is enlarged, it is stiffened also. Thus the body grows firmer as it grows larger, from infancy to manhood. In twenty, five and twenty, or thirty years, it attains its full measure of firmness. Every part of the body is then stiffened to its full degree; as much earth adhering to all the vessels as gives the solidity they severally need to the nerves, arteries, veins, muscles, in order to exercise their functions in the most perfect manner. For twenty, or, it may be, thirty years following, although more and more particles of earth continually adhere to the inner surface of every vessel in the body, yet the stiffness caused thereby is hardly observable, and occasions little inconvenience. But after sixty years, (more or less, according to the natural constitution, and a thousand accidental cir |