Several things I should mourn over; as, the hardness of my heart; my ignorance of God; my lukewarmness in the matters of his glory; the prevalency of sin; my want of love; my promptitude to revenge; my complacency in created enjoyments; a carnal mind and tongue; and carelessness about the concerns of the unseen world and abroad the world, I should mourn over the degeneracy of the times; the corruption of morals; the abounding of iniquity; the trampling on truth; and the adorning of the temple of error; which, if attacked, an outcry is made, Great is the light of nature, the power of free will, and the excellency of morality, the goddess of the universe.

Several things I should prefer to others; as, the glory of God to all; his honour to my credit; and his love more than my own life :—and I should grieve more at the sins of others, than for mine own sorrows, and count my sins a heavier burden than my afflictions. I should esteem the promise of eternal life more than the possession of all created things, and inward joy more than outward peace.

And, finally, in the midst of all, several things should cause me to rejoice; as that God governs all things; that all things shall work for his glory, and the good of his people; that righteousness shall dwell in the earth, and sin as ashamed stop its mouth; that grace shall be perfected; conquest crown the wrestler; and love be blown into a flame, when eternal life is the portion of the soul, and God is all in all in heaven, where vision shall be without the glass, fruition above measure, communion inconceivably and divinely near, knowledge full, and the saints (in the highest perfection that creatures can attain unto)

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made partakers of the divine nature! Now, what joy may it afford, that the glory of this day, the dawning of eternal glory, is not very far away?

MEDITATION XX.

UNIVERSAL IMPROVEMENT.

As there is not a moment of time but I must account for, so there is nothing that happens me but I should improve. Miseries I should improve, to remind me or my pedigree, that my first father hath sinned; mercies, in admiring the fountain whence, and the freeness with which they flow; prosperity, in cheerful devotion; adversity, in consideration; riches, in charity; poverty, in contentment; opportunity of revenge, in a frank forgiveness, and doing good for ill; evil company, in raising my estimate of the saints of God; loss of relations in loosening my affections from the creature, raising them to the immortal world, and remembering my latter end; sickness, in preparing for my change; health, in a cheerful performance of Christian, relative, and social duties; knowledge, in trying all, and holding fast that which is best; crosses and losses, in learning the vanity of the world; answers of prayer, in returns of praise; delays, in patience; disappointment, in resignation; changes in my lot, in submission; the uproar of kingdoms, in remembering that God rules the nations, and stills the tumults of the people; temptation to sin, in flying to the grace of God; distrusting self, and improving the promise; the falsifying friend, in adoring the faithfulness of God; strife and discord in church or state, in admir

ing the happy state; when the adorers are one before the throne; manifestation, in humility: desertion, in holy diligence; correction, in amendment; gifts, for edification; time, for eternity; grace, for glory; and my soul in all her faculties, for God.

MEDITATION XXI.

THE SOUL'S ENLARGEMENT ON HIGH.

1757.

HERE the soul, confined to clay, is like a royal personage in prison, whose grand attendance is not seen, because he cannot come abroad. While this heavenborn excellency is here below, wisdom differs but a little from folly; understanding is but a few degrees removed from ignorance; and all the mental powers are feeble. But O the enlargement of the soul on high! This map of future glories, now folded up in flesh, shall be extended in breadth and length above. How penetrating then shall wisdom be! how active every power! how vigorous the flame of love! how enlarged the understanding! and how beautiful in the heights of glory shall the whole soul appear! Here, the child of grace, who was glad of a seat on the threshold of the temple, and could with joy have been but a door-keeper in the house of God, shall not only be a pillar in the temple above, but shall be a living temple, in which the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, shall condescend to dwell, and fill for ever with his glory! O transcending bliss! to be dignified with such an inhabitant, who will write, in let

ters of immutable love, "This is my rest, here will I dwell for ever, for I desire it, and delight in it." Yea, in fine, the soul which would be content to shine as the least star in the firmament of glory, shall, in the visions of God, be extended to a transparent heaven, and spread into a cloudless sky, in which all the perfections of God shall sparkle like the stars, and the graces of the Holy Spirit, like so many planets, shall roll round the Sun of righteousness, eager to approach his assimilating beams, his vivifying rays; while he, the sum and source of bliss, fixed in his love in the centre of the soul, shall spread his quickening flames to every corner of the heart. No more vexations, like vapours exhaled by the heat of righteous indignation, shall fill my atmosphere with the suffocating fogs of anguish, or fall in showers of sorrow that end in streams of briny tears. Thunders and tempests there no more molest, where all is tranquillity; no eclipse, where all is light; no shadow, where all is illumination; no evening, where all is everlasting day.

This sky, spread out by the fingers of redeeming love, this new-created heaven, is not only beauteous like a molten looking-glass, but shall be strong to stand for ever; and then, and there, O how shall union be strengthened, assimilation increased! How shall joy heighten, wisdom grow, knowledge ripen, communion be most free, and ecstacy and rapture swell, fill, and overflow for evermore!

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MEDITATION XXII.

AFFLICTION THE LOT OF SAINTS BELOW.

May 13 & 19, 1757.

WHILE I am mortal, I must taste of the waters of Mara, drink of the cup of adversity, and swim the tempestuous ocean. It is the perfection of angels, that they could never know the pathos of mental disquiet, or the pangs of anguish; and it is the happiness of departed saints, to obtain joy for mourning, a crown for crosses, and to forget their misery, if not wholly, yet to remember it as waters, once swelled to a dreadful flood, but that now for ever flow away. It is, then, the misery of the sons of men, only while here, to be, as it were, a mark set up for the arrows of tribulation, and to be engaged in constant war, and in perpetual broils; but it is the privilege of the Christian soldier to wear the shield of faith, with which he shall be able to quench the fiery darts of satan, and to ward off the sling-stones of tribulation which pelt him from every quarter. How, then, may I triumph under all my afflictions, if I consider,

1. That they come from God, whatever be the instrument: "Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised; thou hast afflicted me in faithfulness."

2. That they are out of love: "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."

3. That they are for my good: "Fathers of our flesh chastise us for their pleasure, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness."

4. That they are for the exercise of grace, even of that noble grace of faith: "When I am afraid I will