XXXVIII. GOD'S ETERNITY CONSIDERED, IN REFERENCE TO THE SUSPENSION OF HIS PROMISED PURPOSES. 2 PET. iii. 8.—But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.* THAT spirit of prophecy with which the holy apostles were endowed enabled them to foretel the principal defections from the Christian faith which should distinguish the last days,-the papal superstition and infidel impiety. We have long witnessed the fulfilment of both these predictions: the gross idolatry, cruel edicts, and tyrannical claims of the Church of Rome have been for ages promulgated; and now that superstition appears to be in its dotage, and falling fast into decay, a new progeny has arisen-a scoffing, infidel spirit. They founded their disbelief of Christ's coming to destroy the world, to judge the wicked, and to reward his servants, on the pretended uniformity of the course of nature. No event which bears any resemblance to that which the gospel foretels, they pretend, has ever taken place. In affirming this, the apostle charges them with "wilful ignorance" [of the destruction of the world by water.] He then proceeds to declare that the heavens, which at present subsist, are reserved for a similar catastrophe, and are doomed to undergo a more signal overthrow. Nor can any argument be deduced against the certain accomplishment of the divine declarations, from the seeming length of the time during which their execution is delayed: since "one day is with God as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." In attempting to improve these words, we shall, I. Endeavour to illustrate their import, and establish the truth of the proposition which they contain. II. Show to what particular uses the truth which they exhibit may be applied. I. Let us attempt to illustrate the assertion, "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." It is necessary, in order to enter into the sense and meaning of the apostle in these words, to consider on what occasion they were introduced. They are designed as an answer to the objections which irreligious scoffers advance against the certainty of the accomplishment of the divine declarations, founded on its long delay. Impatient and shortsighted mortals are apt to suppose that what is delayed long will never * Preached at Leicester, Sunday, January 6th, 1811; the first Sunday in the new year. take place; that an evil which has been long apprehended, but through a series of ages has never actually taken place, need be dreaded no more, but may be safely classed among the phantoms of a vain terror. In reply to this, the apostle states that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years;" and that long and short, when applied to a part of duration, are not the same in his apprehension as ours: that what appears a long time to us does not appear so to him, whose estimate is so different, and whose views are so much more extended. A thousand years seem to us a very long period, but in his eyes appear extremely short; they are but as a day. This idea of the different apprehension which God has of time from what we possess, is exhibited in several passages of Scripture: “A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night."* To the same purpose spake the royal Psalmist, in the 39th Psalm: "Make me know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee." 1. Every portion of duration is something real, and has a true and proper existence; but the epithets great and small, when applied to this (as well as to any thing else), are merely comparative. They necessarily imply a comparison of one quantity with another, without which they can never be applied with justice; for what is great compared with one quantity becomes, at the same moment, little when compared with another, and vice versa. Thus, fourscore years are at present considered as a great age; but would not have been called so before the [general deluge]. That age is now styled great with propriety, because it is so compared with the usual term of life, which is considerably less; and, for an opposite reason, it would before the flood have been styled small, because it would have been so compared with the average term of human life at that period, which was much greater. We should consider fifty years as forming a very large portion of human life; but the same number of years in the history of an empire would be justly considered small. Thus is the same quantity either great or small as you place it by the side of something much inferior to it in magnitude, or much superior. 2. Hence it results that absolute greatness belongs only to what is infinite; for whatever falls short of this, however great it may appear, its supposed greatness is entirely owing to the incidental absence of another object that is greater. It may be, it will be, infallibly reduced to insignificance, the moment it comes into comparison with that which is so prodigiously superior to it. The 3. In duration, absolute greatness belongs only to eternity. epithet great, or whatever other is most expressive of the profoundest astonishment, is, with the utmost propriety, applied to that unfathomable abyss. Incapable of being placed in any light, or brought, even by imagination, into any comparison which should reduce it to insignifi cance, it asserts its pre-eminence, and vindicates its majesty, in all places and [times], in all the possible varieties of being, or combinations of thought. 4. We must then conceive that He who has subsisted throughout eternal ages; who knows no "beginning of days, nor end of years;" who possesses eternity; to whom all its parts (if we may be allowed so to speak) are continually open, both past and future; must have a very different apprehension of that inconsiderable portion of it we call time, from creatures who are acquainted with no other. His apprehension, we may easily conceive, will be, in this respect, very different; and that what to us appears a large portion will in his eyes appear very inconsiderable. Nor let any one here object, and say it must appear as it is, and, therefore there is no reason to suppose it appears to him different from what it does to us. No doubt it appears to him exactly as it is. His apprehensions are, unquestionably, agreeable to the nature of things; but it does not follow from thence that it must appear in the same light as it does to us: and if there may be a difference, it is surely the highest presumption to make ourselves the standard. That each portion of duration appears to him real we admit; we are not contending for its being annihilated in his view. Something it is, and something it appears, unquestionably, in his eyes, who views things as they are; but this is far from proving that a limited portion of duration must appear to him of the same precise magnitude as it does in our eyes. We know, by experience, how susceptible we are of a diversity of apprehension in this respect; and that at some periods, and in some situations, the same portion of time appears much longer than at others. In circumstances of extreme misery, the moments seem to linger, and the lapse of time is slow. How long would a few minutes appear passed in excruciating torment! In a season of anxious expectation, which has a portion of misery in it, the same effect is experienced in a lower degree. On the contrary, in a state of enjoyment the hours seem to take wings, and we are but little sensible of the progress of time. When the mind is fully engaged on a delightful subject, when the attention is deeply absorbed in a pleasing train of reflection, we become scarcely conscious that any space of time has elapsed. We must infer from hence that perfect happiness diminishes inconceivably the impression of time; as, on the contrary, intense misery increases it. Among all the conceptions we form of the Supreme Being, there is none the propriety of which we can less doubt than of his perfect happiness; nor have any who have believed on him failed to ascribe to him this perfection in the highest possible degree. He is styled in Scripture "the blessed and only Potentate," the happy God: and as he is the fountain of all happiness to his creatures, it resides in him as in its utmost plenitude-as in its proper seat. If his gracious presence is such a perpetual spring of felicity; if it is at "his right-hand there are pleasures for evermore;" how much must he enjoy every moment in the contemplation of his perfections, in the survey of his works and designs, and in the possession of his consciousness of his supreme dominion and transcendent excellence, his unutterable and unbounded felicity! Conceive, then, of a Being absolutely independent, and existing from eternity; in the enjoyment of infinite happiness, always master of his purpose, never perplexed with difficulty, never agitated with anxious expectation, resting on his own all-sufficiency, and viewing with complacency each attribute of his infinite fulness. What, then, is an age in his view, compared to what it is in the eyes of mortals? Surely with such a Being "one day must be as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Admiration is in most instances the offspring of ignorance; at least, it implies a limitation of the views: so that an object shall appear great in the contemplation of one man, which, to another of more elevated and capacious powers, shall appear small and inconsiderable. But, to an infinite understanding, nothing can appear great that does not partake of its own infinity. The Supreme Mind, and that alone, grasps eternity, possesses it every moment. He not only comprehends, but constitutes, eternal duration, by enduring "from everlasting to everlasting;" for there could be no eternal duration if something did not always endure: we cannot conceive of its existence but as a mode of being, and that being is God. The measure by which he estimates time is, consequently, quite different from that which we are compelled to apply in its contemplation. We measure one portion of duration by another; he measures time by eternity. How inconceivably different must be the apprehension arising from these different methods of considering it! In attempting to form a conception of endless duration, we are under the necessity of accumulating ages upon ages, and multiplying millions of ages into millions; accompanied with this conviction, that we have arrived no nearer to an adequate comprehension of it; that there remains beyond us an infinitely larger space than we have travelled over. To his view it is every moment present: to him it is familiar, as his element, his habitation; and from that stupendous elevation he looks down upon the scenes of time and the lapse of ages. These reflections may assist us to conceive how to him one day must necessarily be as "a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." II. The use to which the doctrine of the text may be applied. 1. It removes the ground of objection against the fulfilment of the divine declarations arising from the accomplishment being long delayed. If some time is to be allotted for preparation, some space for operation, it surely belongs to God to determine of what extent it should be ; this, perhaps, you will admit. But why so long a space? But in whose eyes is it long? In yours, who are but the creatures of a day, who are, from the narrowness of your views, liable to perpetual illusions and deception? or in God's? And, amid this diversity of apprehension, can you hesitate in deciding which is correct? No slackness in his purpose is then to be imputed to him, according to what men account slackness; no unsteadiness in his resolution, no revolution of his determination. Nothing is to be concluded in favour of the impunity of prosperous vice, nor of the final neglect of oppressed and afflicted piety. The prosperity of the wicked is but for a moment: "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading like a green bay-tree: yet I passed by, and he was not; yea, I sought him out, but he could not be found." 2. It accounts for the peculiar cast of Scripture language when employed in announcing the coming of Christ, and the end of all things. 3. Though we cannot immediately change our senses, let us endeavour to conform our ideas and convictions to the dictates of Infallible Wisdom on this subject. Let us consider the whole duration of things here as very short. The more we drink into the spirit of the Scriptures, the more will this be the case. XXXIX. THE LORD'S-DAY COMMEMORATIVE OF CHRIST'S PSALM CXviii. 24.-This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. THIS Psalm appears to have been composed on David's accession to the dominion over all Israel; when he had subdued his enemies around, and completely established himself as a great and victorious prince. It was probably set to music on the anniversary of David's coronation. That was a most joyful event. As a very important passage in [this Psalm] is applied to Christ, both by himself and his apostles, no doubt can be entertained of its referring, in its fullest and sublimest sense, to the person and kingdom of the Redeemer. In this light I shall consider it in the following discourse: and as the Lord'sday is appointed to commemorate the resurrection of our Saviour, at which his kingdom commenced, I shall endeavour to invite your attention to those sources of religious joy which are opened by that event. The event which this day is designed to celebrate is calculated to afford joy on the following accounts: I. On this day the purchase of our redemption was completed. In order to render the salvation of sinners consistent with the holiness and justice of the Divine nature, some great moral expedient became necessary. The expedient which the Divine Wisdom adopted was the substitution of the Son of God in the room of sinners; who freely consented to assume our nature, and to sustain those sufferings which VOL. III.-N |