OF 



DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 



URATION is a word applied indiscriminately to the 

 existence of created beings, and to that of the Supreme 

 Being; but its signification, when applied to the former, is. 

 widely difterent from that which it bears when applied to 

 the latter. When applied to the former, it essentially in- 

 cludes a relation to succession : when applied to the latter, 

 it essentially excludes any relation to succession. It cannot 

 even be called permanent or continued existence, for, in such 

 expressions, a relation to succession is implied, during 

 which the existence is continued, repeated, or unaltered: 

 hence, no definition common to both can be given. We 

 must, therefore, separately mark what it denotes in each 



case. 



Duration, when applied to created beings, denotes co- 

 existence Avith succession. I say co-existence, because such 

 beings are said to last or endure only by comparison with 

 different parts of succession: a being, that existed only 

 for one instant, that is, the minutest portion of succession, 

 could not be said to have had any duration. Co-existence, 

 with two instants at least, is requisite. Hence Locke justly 

 observes, that we gain the idea (or rather notion) of dura- 



^'^'^.r.iuti in i^tMimJ > tion, 



