and metaphyficians have plunged, in their investigations of eternity, for making which their receipt is ufually this: They take of time a fufficient quantity, and, chopping it in fmall pieces, they difpofe them in imaginary lengths, which they diftinguifh by the names of minutes, hours, days, years and ages: then feeling in their own minds a power of multiplying these as often as they think fit, they heap millions upon millions ; and finding this power to be a machine, that may be worked backwards and forwards with equal facility, they extend their line both ways, and fo their eternity is compleated, and fit for ufe; they then divide if in the middle, and out of a single eternity they make two, as they term them, a parte ante, and a parte poft, each of which having one end, may be drawn out like a juggler's ribband as long as they pleafe. The contradictions so manifeft in this fyftem, fufficiently declare it's falfehood: For in adopting it we muft acknowledge, that each half of this eternity is equal to the whole; that in each the number of days cannot exceed that of the months, nor the months be more numerous, than the years,they being all alike infinite; that whether it commenced yesterday or. ren thousand years fince, the length, of its duration must be the fame; for the length depends not on the begin ning, but on the end; but that cannot be different, where there is no end at all; the abfurdity of all these propofitions is too glaring, to ftand in need of any refutation; for it is evident, that whatever contains parts, length, or numbers, can never be infinite; whatever had a beginning must have an end, becaufe beginning and ending are the modes of temporarye iftence; whathas no end could have no beginning, because both are equally inconfiftent with eternity. In truth, all these abfurdities arife from applying to eternity our ideas of time, which, being two modes of exiflence entirely different, bear not the leaft relation to each other: Time is in its mature finite and fucceffive; eternity infinite and inftantaneous; and therefore their properties are no more applicable to each other, than thofe of founds to colours, or of colours to founds; and we can no more form eternity out of time, than, by mixing red, blue and green, we can compole an anthem or an opera. 7thly. From hence appears the neceffity, in our confiderations of thefe fubjects, of keeping our ideas of thefe two modes of existence intirely and conftantly diftin&t, as they themselves are in nature: By which means we fhall prefently fweep away many of thofe theological and metaphyfical cob-webs, which now encumber and difgrace our moft learned libraries and cut fhort many impertinent inquiries concerning the creation of the univerfe, God's fore knowledge and predeftination, the præ exiftent and future Rate of fouls, the injuftice of eternal punishments, and the fleep of the foul, with numberless ethers of the fame kind, all derived from injudicioufly blending and confounding thefe two kinds of exiftence together, and applying notions and expreffions to one, which can only with propriety belong to the other. To enter largely into thefe abftrufe and intricate fubjects, would require a folio; I fhall therefore only fay one word or two to each. It has been frequently asked, why in which he did create it, and why he God created the universe at the time before the commencement of fo glofuffered millions of ages to pafs away rious a work? To this it may be replied with equal concifenefs and truth, that in fact no fuch ages ever did or could pass before it was crea all for neither the effence or actions red, nor was it created in any time at of God have the moft diftant relation to time; he has been pleased in his parts of his creation a temporal mode infinite wisdom, to beftow on fome derives its origin: To fuppofe time anof exiftence, and from this alone time tecedent to temporal exiftence, is to fuppofe effects to precede their caufes; and not lefs abfurd, than to imagine, that there could be perception before fenfative beings, or thought befare queftion proves the abfurdity of conintelligent beings exifted. This very neating time and eternity together; val with his existence, that exiftence for if God's power of creating is coe eternal, eternal, and that eternity only time extended; this evident contradi&tion follows, that God, though always equally able, yet in fact never could create any thing fo foon, but that he might have created it fooner; that is, in other words, that he never could create any thing as foon as he could. All this puzzle arifes from our foolifhly fuppofing, that eternal and temporal beings must act in a manner milar to each other: If we do any thing, it must be done at fome time or other; but God acts in ways as different from ours, as inconceivable to us; his ways are not like our ways, nor his thoughts like our thoughts One day is to him as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day; that is neither of them, with his manner of exifting, thinking or acting, have any connection whatever. All dif putes about God's fore knowledge and predeftination, are of the fame fpecies, and derive their birth entirely from the fame abfurd fuppofition Fore knowledge and predeftination imply fucceffion, and are relative to time, which has no relation to the effence or perception of the Creator of all things; and therefore, in the fenfe ufually applied to them, cannot with any propriety be attributed to him. He knows all things, and ordains all things; but as all things are equally prefent to the divine intuition, it is impoffible that he can fore know or predeftinate any thing. Of the fame kind are all queftions concerning the pre exiftent and future ftate of the foul, arifing likewife from confounding our ideas of these two modes of exiflence, temporal and eternal ; whenever the foul is.united with a body, perceiving all things by fucceffion through material organs, it acquires ideas of time, and can form none of existence unconnected with it; but whenever this union is diffolved, it probably returns again to its native mode of eternal exiftence, in which the whole circle of its perception being at once vifible, it has nothing further to do with time; it is neither old nor young, it lives no more in the feventeenth than in the feventh century, no nearer to the end than the Beginning of the world: All ideas of years and ages, of præ exiftence and futurity, of beginning and ending, will be totally obliterated; and poffibly it will be as incapable of forming any conceptions of time, as it is now of eternity. The foul therefore being quite unconnected with time, whenever it is unconnected with a body, cannot properly be said to exift in another time, either prior or pofterior, but only in another manner. Every argument alfo endeavouring to prove the injustice and difproportion of eternal punishments for temporal offences, is founded on the fame erroneous principles, and admit of the fame anfwer; that all computations of the magnitude of fuch punishments from their duration, by heaping years and ages upon each other, are abfurd, and inconfiftent with that flate in which they are to be infli&ed; crimes will there be punished according to the degrees of their malignity, but neither for a long or a fhort, or any time at all: For all punishments must be correfpondent to the ftate in which they are fuffered: In an eternal ftate, they must be eternal, in a temporal, they must be temporal; for it is equally impoffible, that a being can be punifhed for a time, where no time is, as that it should be punished everlaftingly in a ftate which itself cannot laft. As therefore, from the nature of things, this difpenfation is neceffary, it cannot be unjuft, and from the infinite wisdom and goodness of the author of nature, we may reasonably prefume that it cannot be difproportioned to its feveral objects. nonentity of time will ferve likewife to fettle a late ingenious controversy, and fhew, that, like most others of the kind, it is a difpute only upon words: This controverfy is concerning the freep of the foul; that is, whether it enters into a flate of happiness or mifery, immediately on its diffolution from the body, or remains in a state of profound infenfibility, till the general judgment; and then receives its finat fentence, and fuffers its execution; for if time is nothing but the thoughts and actions which pafs in it, the condition of the foul, whether it fleeps or not, will be exa&ly the fame; nor will the final fentence be one moment deferred by such a state of infenfibility, how long foever it may The continue; continue; for though during that period, many revolutions of the fun,and of empires may take place, many millions of thoughts and actions may pafs, which not only measure time, but create it; yet with regard to the foul fo fleeping, none of thefe; that is, no time will pals at all; and if no Dime intervenes, judgment, however remote with regard to the others, will as inftantly follow its diffolution, as if that had happened the precedent mo ment. But if, according the forego. ing principles, the foul in a feparate ftate, bears no relation to time, then no event in which it is there concerned can be before or after another, either nearer or farther from any period, from death or judgment, from the creation or diffolution of this planetary fyftem: This, we fee, muft at once put an end to all difputes on this subjeЯ, and render the use of foporifics entirely needlefs. After all that has been here advanced, I am not infenfible, that we are here fo confantly converfant with temporal ob jeas, and fo totally unacquainted with eternal, that few, very few will ever be able to abftract exiflence from time, or comprehend that any thing can exift out of, and unconnected with it: In vain should I fuggeft, that the various planets are peopled by the Divine wisdom, with a variety of beings, and even this terreftial globe with innumerable creatures, whofe fituations are fo different, that their manner of exiflence is quite unknown and incomprehenfible to each other. That millions inhabit the impenetrable receffes of the unfathomable ocean, who can no more form conceptions of any exiftence beyond the limits of their native element,than we ourselves can beyond the boundaries of time; and that therefore in reality, time may be no more neceffry to exiflence than water, though the mode of that exiftence we are unable to comprehend. But,I well know, these analogous arguments have little weight; the prejudice of education, the ftrength of habit, and the force of language, all formed on the fuppofed union of existence with time, will perfuade men to reject this hypothefis as vain and chimerical. To all bufy men, and men of business, to all jogging on in the beaten roads of profeffions, or fcrambling up the precipices of ambition; thefe confiderations muft appear unprofitable illufions, if not incomprehenfible nonfenfe; for to en deavour to convince a merchant fubfifting on long credit, a lawyer enriched by delay, a divine who has purchafed a next prefentation, a general who is in no hurry to fight, or a minifter whofe object is the continuance of his power, that time is nothing, is an arduous task, and very unlikely to be attended with fuccefs. Whoever defires to tafte or understand such abftracted fpeculations, muft leave for a while the noify buftle of wordly occu pations, and retire into the fequeftered hades of folitude and contemplation: From whence he will return certainly not richer, poffibly not wiser,but probably more fufceptible of amufement from his own company for want of better, and more able to draw entertainment from his own imagination which in his journey through life he will often find an acquifition not altogether inconfiderable. A hundred pounds. B. An additional part fixed to it, with a hole in the bottom, for the infertion of a pipe, which forms the communication between the cavity of the Balloon, and a (mall wooden keg of nine inches diameter, lined with a thin plate of iron. This keg is feen at the lower end of the pipe in this plate, it is pierced at the top for the reception of the pipe, and in its fide, for the introduction of the muzzle of a piftol. This piftol is to be loaded with fmall quantities of gunpowder, & may be difcharged as often as ten times in a minute, by which means the Balloon is fupplied with a fufficient quantity of vapour from burnt powder, to produce the neceffary rarefaction, and fuftain it IN EQUI LIBRIO. C. A cock, which fuffers the mat ter contained in the Balloon, to pafs out as occafion shall require. D. Th |