Wesley Corpus

4. "Ere time began to be." -- But what is time It is not easy to say, as frequently as we have had the word in our mouth. We know not what it properly is. We cannot well tell how to define it. But is it not, in some sense, a fragment of eternity, broken off at both ends -- that portion of duration which commenced when the world began, which will continue as long as this world endures, and then expire for ever -- that portion of it, which is at present measured by the revolution of the sun and planets; lying (so to speak) between two eternities, that which is past, and that which is to come. But as soon as the heavens and the earth flee away from the face of Him that sitteth on the great white throne, time will be no more; but sink for ever into the ocean of eternity! 5. But by what means can a mortal man, the creature of a day, form any idea of eternity What can we find within the compass of nature to illustrate it by With what comparison shall we compare it What is there that bears any resemblance to it Does there not seem to be some sort of analogy between boundless duration and boundless space The great Creator, the infinite Spirit, inhabits both the one and the other. This is one of his peculiar prerogatives: "Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord" -- yea, not only the utmost regions of creation, but all the expanse of boundless space! Meantime, how many of the children of men may say, Lo, on a narrow neck of land, 'Midst two unbounded seas I stand, Secure, insensible! A point of time, a moments' space, Removes me to that heavenly place, Or shuts me up in hell!