ful gestures! what lamentable howlings! what doleful bewailings! what preposterous complaints! what despairing expressions! what agonizing groans! what intolerable horror! what gnawing anguish ! what starings of guilt! what roarings of awakened conscience! and what horrible blasphemies against the divine Judge himself, shall they be subject to, and employed in, in that tremendous day! How will they call to the hills to hide them, and run to be lost in the ruins of the tumbling rocks, but in vain!

But whence will these spectres coine, these trembling ones be gathered? From another world? Ah! they are even of these gay and gallant ones, who now walk the round of life, jocund and unconcerned, and ignorant of godly sorrow! but who shall then be overwhelmed, and that for ever, with a grief too vast for language to express, too tremendous and unintelligible for conception to apprehend; but such as every son of man, in the time of hope, the place of repentance, and day of grace, should study to escape: for even Bedlam, compared to them, is an house of soberwitted men! Who knows the power of thy wrath? Who knows it but the damned? And yet they know it not, for an eternity of torment is but teaching them the agonizing lesson. Who dares to know it, but the bold, the blind, the head-strong sinner, who never puts the question to himself that concerns him most, and might awake him, "Who of us can dwell with devouring fire? who with everlasting burnings? How shall we escape the wrath to come?”

R

MANY

MEDITATION LXXVIII.

MERCIES ABUSED.

Gibraltar Bay, March 1, 1759.

are the mercies we receive from heaven; but it is shocking to think how we convert these mercies into an occasion of sin, and make them the cause of awful miseries. By the senses of the body the soul is wounded (and yet the loss of any one sense is a sensible affliction ;) while our eyes, which should look right on, and by which we may search the scriptures of truth, are full of adultery, and used only in conveying vain objects to our mind; while our ears, that should hear the sound of the everlasting gospel, the words of life, take in only blasphemies, backbitings, evil reports, impure discourse, vain janglings and contentions; and, alas! are entertained therewith: While our lips and tongues, that should move only to mutual edification, are employed in detraction and slander, and dwell on profane and trifling themes; and while our feet, that should carry us to the house of God, and about our lawful affairs, run only to mischief, and are swift in the ways of wickedness.

Moreover, we abuse common mercies also, turning a full table into gluttony and drunkenness; competency into excess; plenty into extravagance; apparel into pride; station into vain show; confidence into arrogance; riches into presumption; honour into haughtiness; and power into oppression. Yea, we also abuse mercies of a more noble nature, while we employ our wisdom in wrangling, our parts in perverse disputings, our attainments in ostentation, and

our knowledge in emulation. Finally, in every thing we offend: while under afflictions, we are faithless; in trials, distrust the promise; and when disappointed, despond. Of deliverance, we are forgetful; in prosperity, secure; in sickness, sullen or stupid; and in health, full of levity, and a delight in earthly things. Thus, by the abuse of mercies, we turn the grace of God into wantonness.

Surely the mercies of the Most High are above all his works, and fill the earth. He continues to bestow those very mercies on us, which we so much abuse, when he might at once strike us blind, dumb, and deaf; when he might at once blow upon our blessings, and cause our table-comforts to decay; when he might tread us in the mire of adversity, and cause the waters of affliction to flow over our heads; when he might blast our judgment, sense, and reason, and, turning us into idiots, make us objects of pity to all; and when he might hide his countenance, and make us go mourning without the sun. To him, whose mercies know no bound, let our praises know no end.

MEDITATION LXXIX.

THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

Gibraltar Bay, March 2, 1759.

To forgive our enemies, and forget the injuries

which have been done us, is a noble, though very difficult duty; and from the opposition it meets with from within, I find that it is above the natural man to perform. Nature would make less resistance to it, if it were less godlike and divine. There are some

men who have done me injuries in more respects than one; and, alas! I find that I can scarcely recollect their names without these injuries, though done to me years ago, presenting themselves as if they had happened yesterday. This shows the rancour of my mind, and the deep impressions such things make there, while the mercies of the Most High are shamefully forgotten. But now let me compose my mind, and reconcile it to the duties of Christianity.

The whole law hangs on this, to love God and my neighbour, and if I love the one, I shall love the other: but if I love not him whom I have seen, how can I love him whom I have not seen? Now, my neighbour is not he who does me benign actions, for such the worst of sinners love and regard, but every one of the human race round about me. Whatsoever they do to me, that cannot loose a relation that is indissolvable. When they defame me, I must speak well of them; when they revile me, I must intreat. Though they would starve me, I must feed their hunger; though they strip me, I must kindly clothe their nakedness; though they curse, I must bless; though they persecute, I must pray; and though they rise up in war against me, yet when they yield themselves prisoners, and so become suppliants for mercy, I must not slay them, but preserve them alive, protect them, pour oil into their wounds, and supply their necessities. Yet this universal forgiveness is not, by a too extensive clemency, to oppose the exercise of justice in respect of murderers, nor infringe the moral law with regard to those that should die. But, alas! instead of being in danger of erring on this, I am on the opposite extreme; for while I should for

give what they do against me, and pray for forgiveness of that whereby they have sinned against God, I neither forgive them myself, nor seek forgiveness from heaven to them.

Now, if I should thus behave with the men of the world, how should I behave with the saints, who are the excellent ones of the earth? However they may deal with me in this world, that cannot loose the tie, or dissolve the brotherhood, which is firm in him of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Can a trivial difference break a bond that is firmer than flesh and blood? They can never much harm me in worldly things, who are for Christ in spiritual; and though the old man between us should fall out, yet the new man shall ever be friends. If the con-tention between corruption and corruption be so sharp, that conversation for a time is broken off, yet I shall talk with them in my love, and embrace them in mine affection; and we will only esteem one another like friends separated for a time, who will have greater joy at meeting. Here we are in the body, and therefore should bear one another's burdens. We cannot live like angels in this imperfect state; why then should I catch like a serpent at the failings of others? Will the hand refuse to feed the mouth, because the foot has stumbled? Is it comely for the members of one body to fall a-jarring with one an-other? Is it comely for one to cast off some Christian duties, because another Christian has some failings? Would to God all the world were the friends of Christ, though they were my foes; then should I love them, and delight in them: for when the sanctified ones are all assembled before the throne, there eternal harmony shall reign, concord and amity pre