I am to enrich my foul with folid and everlasting treasure? O that ever a fenfual luft fhould be more operative in them than the love of God in me! O my foul, thou doft not lay out thy ftrength and earneftness for heaven with any proportion to what they do for the world. I have indeed higher motives, and a furer reward than they: but as I have an advantage above them herein, fo they have an advantage above me in the ftrength and entireness of the principle by which they are acted. What they do for the world, they do it with all their might; they have no contrary principle to oppose them; their thoughts, ftrength, and affections are entirely carried in one channel; but I find "a law in my members warring against the law of "my mind;" I muft ftrive through a thoufand difficulties and contradictions to the discharge of a duty. O my God! shall not my heart be more enlarged in zeal, love, and delight in thee, than theirs are after their lufts? Olet me once find it fo. Again, is the creature fo vain and unftable? Then why are my affections fo hot and eager after it? And why am I fo apt to doat upon its beauty, especially when God is ftaining all its pride and glory! Jer. xlv. 5, 6. Surely it is unbecoming the fpirit of a Chriftitian at any time, but at fuch a time we may fay of it, as Hufhai of Ahithophel's counfel," It is not good at this time." O that my spirit were raised above them, and my converfation more in heaven! O that like that angel, Rev. x. 1, 2. which came down from heaven, and fet one foot upon the fea, and another upon the earth, having a crown upon his head, fo I might fet one foot upon all the cares, fears, and terrors of the world, and another upon all the tempting fplendor and glory of the world, treading both underfoot in the duft, and crowning myself with nothing but fpiritual excellencies and glory! J THE POEM. UDGE in thyself, O Christian! is it meet To fet thy heart on what beasts set their feet? You dig for drofs with mattocks made of gold. Or like the filly bird that to her neft With fuch delight, what if it were a rofe? TH CHAP. XVIII. Like hungry lions, waves for finners gape: OBSERVATION. HE waves of the fea are fometimes raised by God's commiffion, to be executioners of his threatenings upon finners. When Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord to Tarfhish, the text faith, "The Lord fent out a great wind into the fea, and there was a mighty "tempeft, fo that the fhip was like to be broken," Jonah i. 4. Thefe were God's bailiffs to arrest the run-away prophet. And Pfal. cxlviii. 8. The ftormy winds are faid to fulfil his word; not only his word of command, in rifing when God bids them, but his word of threatening alfo. And hence it is called a destroying wind, Jer. li. 1. and a stormy wind in God's fury, Ezek. xiii. 13. APPLICATION. If these be the executioners of God's threatenings, how fad then is their condition that put forth to fea under the guilt of all their fins? O, if God should commiffionate the winds to go after and arrest thee for all thou owest him, where art thou then? How dare you put forth under the power of a divine threat, before all be cleared betwixt God and thee? Sins in fcripture are called debts, Matth. vi. 12. They are debts to God; not that we owe them to him, or ought to fin, but metonymically, because they render the finner obnoxious to God's judgments, even as pecuniary debts oblige him that hath not wherewith to pay, to fuffer punishment. All finners must undergo the curfe, either in their own person, according to the express letter of the law, Gen. ii. 17. Gal. iii. 10. or their furety, according to the tacit intent of the law, manifested to be the mind of the lawgiver, Gen. iii. 13, 14. Now he that by faith hath intereft in this furety, hath his difcharge, his quietus eft, fealed in the blood of Chrift; all procefs at law, or from the law, is ftopt, Rom. viii. 1. But if thou be an impenitent, perfifting finner, thy debt remains upon thine own fcore, "And be fure thy fin will find thee out, wherever thou goeft," Numb. xxxii. 23. i. e. God's revenging hand for fin will be upon thee: Thou mayeft lofe the fight and memory of thy fins, but they lofe not the fight of thee; they follow after, as the hound doth the fleeting game upon the fçent, till they have fetched thee up: And then confider, "How fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the "living God," Heb. x. 31. How foon may a ftorm arrest, and bring thee before the bar of God? REFLECTION. O my foul, what a cafe art thou in, if this be fo? Are not all thy fins yet upon thine own score? Haft not thou made light of Chrift, and that precious blood of his, and hitherto perfifted in thy rebellion against him? And what can the iffue of this be at laft, but ruin? There is abundant mercy indeed for returning finners; but the gofpel speaks of none for perfifting and impenitent finners. And though many who are going on in their fins are overtaken by grace, yet there is no grace promifed to fuch as go on in fin. O! if God fhould arreft me by the next storm, and call me to an account for all that I owe him, I must then lie in the prifon of hell to all eternity; for I can never pay the debt; nay, all the angels in heaven cannot fatisfy for it. Being chriftless, I am under all the curfes in the book of God; a child of Hagar. Lord pity and fpare me a little longer! O discover thy Chrift unto me, and give me faith in his blood, and then thou art fully fatisfied at once, and I discharged for ever. O require not the debt at my hand, for then thou wilt never be fatisfied, nor I acquitted. What profit, Lord, is there in my blood! O my foul, make hafte to this Chrift, thy refuge city; thou knoweft not how foon the avenger of blood may overtake thee. THE POEM. HY fins are debts, God puts them to account; THE Canft tell, poor wretch, to what thy debts amount? Into his vials God doth alfo pour Proportionable wrath: Thou feeft it not ; A drop of wrath runs in. Soul, look about! This dreadful office. O then reftlefs be, The fum is great, but if a Chrift thou get, IN CHAP. XIX. To fave the fhip, rich lading's caft away OBSERVATION. N ftorms and diftreffes at sea, the richest commodities are cast overboard; they stand not upon it, when life and all is in jeopardy and hazard, Jonah i. 5. The mariners caft forth the wares that were in the fhip into the fea, to lighten it. And, Acts xxvii. 18, 19. they caft out the very tacklings of the fhip. How highly foever men prize fuch commodities, yet reafon tells them, it were better thefe fhould perifh, than life. Satan himself could fay, Job i. "Skin for skin, and all that a man hath will he give for his life." APPLICATION. And furely, it is every way as highly reasonable, that men should mortify, caft out, and cut off their deareft lufts, rather than their immortal fouls should fink and perish in the ftorm of God's wrath. Life indeed is a precious treasure, and highly valued by men: You know what Solomon faith, Ecclef. ix. 4. That "a living dog is better than "a dead lion." And we find men willing to part with their eftates, limbs, or any outward comfort for the prefervation of it. The woman in the gospel spent all she had on the phyficians for her health, a degree below life. Some men indeed do much overvalue their lives, and part with Chrift and peace of confcience for it; but he that thus faves it, fhall lofe. Now if life be fo much worth, what then is the foul worth? Alas! life is but a "vapour, which appeareth for a "little while, and then vanifheth away," Jam. iv. 14. Life indeed is more worth than all the world, but my foul is more worth than ten thousand lives. Nature teacheth you to value the first so high, and grace should teach you to value the fecond much higher, Matth. xix. 20. Now here is the cafe: Either you must part with your fins, or with your fouls; if thefe be not caft out, both muft fink together." If ye live after the flesh, ye muft die," Rom. viii. 13. God faith to you in this cafe, as to Ahab, when he fpared Benhadad, 1 Kings xx. 42. "Because thou haft let go a man whom God "hath appointed to deftruction, therefore thy life fhall go for his "life." Guilt will raife a ftorm of wrath, as Jonah did, if not caft out. "If REFLECTION. And muft fin or the foul perish? Muft my life, yea, my eternal life go for it if I spare it? O then let me not be cruel to mine own foul in fparing my fin; O my foul, this foolish pity and cruel indulgence will be thy ruin: If I fpare it, God hath faid, "He will not fpare me," Deut. xxvi. 20. It is true the pains of mortification are tharp, but yet is eafier than the pains of hell. To cut off a right hand, or pluck out a right eye is hard; but to have my foul cut off eternally from God is harder. Is it as eafy (O my foul!) to burn for them in hell, as to mortify them on earth? Surely, it is "profita«ble for me, that one member perish, rather than that all be caft in"to hell," Matth. v. 24. I fee the merchant willing to part with rich wares if embarked with them in a ftorm: And thofe that have gangrened legs or arms, willingly ftretch them out to be cut off to preferve life: And thall I be willing to endure no difficulties for my foul? Chrift reckoned fouls worth his blood: And is it not worth my selfdenial? Lord, let me not warm a fnake in my bofom, that will at laft fting me to the heart. THE POEM. HY foul's the fhip, its lading is its lufts, TH God's judgments, ftormy winds, and dang’rous gufts; |