Section 14
The fourteenth subject of meditation, is, Meditate upon eternity; Some of the Ancients have compared it to an intellectual sphere, whose center is everywhere, and circumference nowhere. Eternity to the godly is a day which has no sun-setting, and to the wicked, a night which has no sun-rising. Eternity is a gulf which may swallow up all our thoughts: Meditate on that Scripture, Matthew 25.46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.
1. Meditate upon eternal punishment; the bitter cup the damned drink of shall never pass away from them. The sinner and the furnace shall never be parted. God's vial of wrath will be always dropping upon a wicked man. When you have reckoned up so many myriads and millions of years, nay, ages, as have passed the bounds of all Arithmetic, Eternity is not yet begun. This word EVER breaks the heart; Cogita centum millia annorum, cogita decies centena millia annorum, cogita mille milliones annorum, immo seculorum, nondum inchoasti aeternum, Cornelius a Lapide. Think of this all you that forget God. If the tree fall hell-ward, so it lies to all eternity, Poenae gehennales torquent non extorquent, puniunt non finiunt corpora. Prosper. Now is the time of God's long-suffering, 2 Peter 3.9 after death will be the time of the sinner's long-suffering, when he shall suffer the vengeance of Eternal fire, Jude 7.
Si Deus diceret damnatis impleatur terra arena minutissima, ita ut totus orbis hisce arenae granulis sit repleta à terra usque ad coelum Empyraeum; et millesimo quoque anno angelus veniat dematque ex hoc arenae cumulo unum granulum, eumque post tot millenarios annorum quot sunt granula ea exhauserit, liberabo vos a gehenna, O quam exultarent damnati at vero, post omnes hos millenarios restant alii, et alii millenarii, in infinitum, in aeternum. et ultra, Drexelius.
2. Meditate upon life eternal. The soul that is once landed at the heavenly shore is past all storms. The glorified soul shall be forever bathing itself in the rivers of pleasure, Psalm 16 last verse. This is that which makes heaven to be heaven, We shall be ever with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4.17. Augustine says; Lord I am content to suffer any pains and torments in this world, if I might see Thy face one day; but alas, were it only for a day, and then to be ejected heaven, it would rather be an aggravation of misery; but this word ever with the Lord, is very accumulative and makes up the garland of glory; A state of eternity is a state of security, O vita vitalis, vita sempiterna, et sempiterne beata, ubi gaudium sine merore, requies sine labore, sanitas sine languore, opes sine amissione, perpetuitas sine corruptione. Augustine Manuali chapter 7 de gaudio.
The meditation of eternity would, 1. Make us very serious in what we do. Zeuxis being asked, why he was so long about a picture, answered aeternitati pingo, I paint for eternity. The thoughts of an irreversible condition after this life, would make us pray and hear as for eternity. Vive Deo vive aeternitati.
2. The meditation of eternity, would make us overlook present things, as flitting and fading. What is the world to him that has eternity in his eye? 'Tis but minutissima pars puncti, which (as the Mathematicians say) is just nothing. He that thinks of eternity will despise the pleasures of sin for a season.
3. The meditation of eternity would be a means to keep us from envying the wicked's prosperity: Here they ruffle it in their silks, but what is this to eternity? As long as there is such a thing as eternity, God has time enough to reckon with all His enemies.
