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immoderate fear, and love of any thing besides thee, is a clog to my love; and imperfect apprehensions of thy glorious self, deaden my love to thee. In what a melancholy case am I! It is death to live, and not to love; yet I live, and cannot love thee! I can love my friend, and hate mine enemy; but I cannot love my God, nor hate mine enmity. I can love what I think beautiful in the creature, with love more than meet; why then not love the Rose of heaven, the chiefest among ten thousand, who is altogether lovely, and whose love is, like himself, unchangeable! What makes the triumphant state so glorious, so deşirable, but because love is perfect without fear, their adorations without distractions, their conceptions bright without misapprehensions, and their praise without interruption, their knowledge clear without confusion, their vision perfect, their views fixed, and all their souls strengthened in God, replenished with God, and going out on God. Then, in loving thee, I might begin the felicity of eternity, and anticipate the bliss above. I will love thee for thyself, and thy saints for thy sake, for thy image shining in them. I will hate mine enmity against thee, grieve that I cannot love thee, and feel after thee, and wait for that day when I shall love thee as I would, because I shall see and enjoy thee as thou art.

MEDITATION LVII.

WRATH.

Spithead, Nov. 21, 1758. I HAVE hitherto had faint views of divine wrath, though I have indeed had frightful apprehensions of fire, a gloomy idea of the bottomless pit, and shock

ing thoughts of the state of the damned. But, there is one expression of our Saviour's, which gives me a clearer view of divine vengeance, than all the anguish of the damned can do. Observe the God-man, in whose mouth no guile was found, in whose face no personal guilt could stare, when suffering in our stead, carrying our sorrows, and bearing our grief. Although he knew he should triumph, and come off victorious, that he should see of the travail of his own soul, and be satisfied; and that, though he laid down his life, he should take it up again; yet see, when the flood-gates of divine vengeance are opening (the overflowings of whose waters were to thy very soul, O Immanuel !) and pouring out on him, how his soul, that is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, suffers in such a manner, that the blood, instead of keeping its wonted course, and flowing to support his heart, as if the frame of his holy human nature had been dissolving, breaks through the returning veins, forces a passage at every pore, and in great drops trickles down upon the ground! while he puts up a petition which I should never forget, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me !" Which is as if he had said, 'Couldst thou be glorified, justice satisfied, and the elect saved, any other way than by my drinking this tremendous cup, O let it be done! yet not my will, but thine be done.' Now, if thus the Son of God in our nature expressed himself under a sense of wrath, how dreadful, terrible, and intolerable must it be! What are streams of melted brimstone, floods of fire, utter darkness, the worm that never dies, the horrid gulph, the bottomless pit, the tormenting company of fiends and devils, but as it were vehicles to convey wrath into the damned? for the wrath of the

Almighty, of which the wicked must drink for ever, is something above and beyond all these! "Who knows the power of thy wrath?" "Who can stand if thou be angry?" How must guilt scream, when innocence itself cries out so! How must despair roar, when he that was heard in that he feared, expresses himself in such a manner !

Three things may remain my wonder, the compassion of the Father, the condescension of the Son, and the insensibility of the sinner. O, then, to be wise before instructed in the world of flames !

MEDITATION LVIII.

SENSIBLE COMMUNION WITH GOD SOMETIMES

ENJOYED.

Under sail, Dec. 27, 1758.

THOUGH there is not a child in the family of heaven but what has real fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, yet there are happy times and pleasant moments, when a divine intercourse is carried on between the soul and God. A carnal world ridicules the idea; and no wonder, for the "natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, because they are foolishness to him.”

Will not the saints of God confess, that communion with him is sometimes sensibly enjoyed; and that the enjoyment of it is a little heaven, glory in the bud, and a foretaste of their future felicity? Nor is this the effect of fancy, or an heated imagination; it proceeds from a nobler cause, even the sovereign kindness of the Father of mercies. Have not the

souls of his people (O that I could say, mine own!) been sometimes so refreshed with more than ordinary outlettings of his love, that they have longed for the eternal uninterrupted vision and enjoyment of himself? And when heaven has opened before them to let them look in, and see the glories of the better country, how have they trampled on the pleasures, and triumphed over the troubles of a present life!

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At three remarkable seasons God is pleased to hold communion with his people. First, Before affliction, to prepare them for it; as with Jacob in that memorable night when his angry brother was marching against him ;-and with Paul, who was bid to be of good cheer, for as he had testified at Jerusalem, so he should at Rome. Again, in the time of affliction, to support them under it; as when Moses was mourning and going heavily under Israel's grievous idolatry, then God spake face to face with him, as a man speaketh unto his friend; and he made his goodness to pass before him :-So Stephen's face, from heartfelt joy, shone like an angel's, amidst his foes, and near his death. And, thirdly, after some afflictive dispensations, and mournful providences: So the apostles, after they had been apprehended, examined, and severely threatened, are filled in an eminent manner with the Holy Ghost, while the place of their abode, as a symbol of the divine presence, is remarkably shaken.

Though all his saints are fed at his expense, yet sometimes they are allowed to sit in his presence, and feast with the King. And such a banquet makes the barren desert like the garden of God. It is only in the strength of heavenly meals, bestowed by the un

created Angel, that I travel to the mount of God.— Now, manifestations and communications do not entitle me to bliss, but are themselves a part of my bliss ; therefore I must not build upon them, but seek my standing in the righteousness of the Son of God:Even as a servant's being allowed provision will not prove him to be a son, yet the son abiding in the family of election and house of God, is always entitled to be fed, and is sometimes admitted to his Father's own table. If, then, Heaven is pleased, according to his divine sovereignty, to display his glory at times, in a more than ordinary effulgence, why should it be called enthusiasm and delusion? For my part, whoever be the sober wits, let me live and die in such delusion. But if thus the life of the least saint be like the life of an angel, in comparison of the happiest worldlings; and if the life of one saint so excel another's in walking near God (for it is thus that in the firmament of grace one star differeth from another star in glory;) and if the life of a saint sometimes, for a few moments, in comparison of his ordinary attainments, be like the life of a seraph, what must eternal, uninterrupted, full, and free communion be, in the highest heavens, where the new bottles will be able to hold the new wine of paradise ; and where the soul, capacitated in every power, shall be replenished with all the fulness of God?

Expire, ye protracted periods, and roll off, ye envious years, that I may join the adorers round the throne, and commence communion with the Highest in the holy place for the endless ages of eternity!

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