266 UNITY OF SYSTEM. 



ted or fixed for ever; or millions of years may be concentrated in one 

 moment, or one moment may be expanded to millions of years, according 

 to the extent of space and to the quickness with which it is traversed. 

 And to a being who is always the same in all epochs and in all places, 

 or in eternity and infinity; all time and all space are alike present. 



"Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, 

 But an eternal now does always last." 



The future, as will appear is the sequel, being wholly ordained, and 

 foreseen, and arranged in systematic accordance with the past. Taking 

 this Earth, or any other sphere, or the whole visible creation as a cen- 

 tre, space can in some degree be imagined as widening around on all 

 sides infinitely, and as including both height and depth; the latter words 

 like sun-rising and sun-setting, being deceptive, and only used as conven- 

 tional terms. Reflections on the continual circles in which the aspects 

 of creation since its beginning, or for millions of years, have been 

 expanding in space with the speed of more than a million of miles in 

 one minute may tend to enlarge the mind, but these extensions do not 

 properly form a part of infinity, for their progress can never diminish it, 

 and, having had a beginning, their bounds must always be definite and 

 limited. But with regard to a Being who possesses infinity, it is obvious 

 that all the past and all the future are ever present, and that the present 

 never will pass away. — 2 Peter, iii, 8. 



Infinity before creation is manifestly incomprehensible to man, creation 

 being the basis or support on which the mind rests in thought. 



"Je ne vois qu'un grand cerele oU se pud non regard, 

 Dont le centre est partout, et les bords nullo part." 



A future eternity and infinity, being accompanied by a future visible 

 and eternal creation, is apparently more comprehensible than a preceding 

 eternity and infinity; for though the term millions may be applied mil- 

 lions of times to the past epochs and to the extent of the present 

 creation, still its beginning and its bounds shew that it does not form 

 part of or diminish eternity and infinity. In the number of atoms, or 

 of grains of sand, the words millions of millions of millions might be 

 repeated millions of times; yet the number has its limits, and therefore 

 the cessation of one atom will make it less; but no length of time or 

 extent of space can make any difference in eternity or in infinity. 



The incapacity of the mind is not more apparent when it cannot grasp 

 the whole system of creation, than when it despises the most minute 

 objects of created life. It was before observed that all the past time 

 may again be comparatively present, and that all the extent of creation 



