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wind, whose truth is disappointment and pain. They sin in sport, but God hears in earnest, and will punish in zeal. They call on God profanely at every word, and God hears, and will answer in wrath. They swear, and forget, but God has sworn that he will remember. That which they think adds beauty to their speech, and vigour to their words, shall indeed add anguish to their grief, and strength to their torments. They are not weary in blaspheming, so as to cease from it, therefore they shall be weary in bewailing themselves, but never cease. They chuse to blaspheme through the whole of their time, and anguish shall cause them blaspheme through a whole eternity. They despise the day of God's patience, but shall not escape the day of his judgement. What shall the blasphemer say, when tossing on the fiery bil. lows, shrieking under consummate despair! 0 miserable state of intolerable torments, which I must endure! How shall I spend this eternity of pain! It was nothing for me in time to hear others curse and blaspheme, and to join in the infernal dialect myself; and now I am encircled with unceasing blasphemies, from all the legions of fallen angels, from all the millions of miserable sinners, suffering under infinite vengeance; and I mingle in the uproar, and join in the terrible tumult against the throne of God, although dreadfully tortured in my rebellion. Then curses accented every sentence; now every sentence is one continued curse. thought God was altogether such an one as myself, and that he would never remember my oaths, which I never minded, nor call me to account for committing what I made no account of. Damn me, damn me, was always on my tongue, and I am

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damned for ever! The oaths and curses which I sowed in time, are now sprung up in bitter bewailings, and eternal blasphemings. As I took pleasure in cursing, so it is come unto me, but with inexpressible pain. O eternity, eternity, how long?"

This is, indeed, the last, but lamentable end of profane swearers, who shall confess the equity of God in their torments; nor let the petty swearer think that he shall escape with impunity, since the supreme Judge has said, that whatsoever is more than yea, or nay, is evil.

But, as the wicked shall be answered in their ways, so shall the righteous be in theirs. All their imperfect attainments, longings, wrestlings, hopes, desires, prayers, meditations, tears, godly sorrows, spiritual joys, and the seeds of every other grace, shall come to a comfortable conclusion at last. Now they serve God with weakness; but then they shall enjoy him with a vigorous immortality. They sow in tears, and go weeping heavenward, but shall possess him in a triumphant state, where sorrow and sighing shall for ever flee away.

MEDITATION XXI.

THINKING ON A DEAD FRIEND.

Spithead, May 10. 1758.

A MELANCHOLY gloom had well nigh spread its midnight shades over my brooding mind, when thinking on a dead friend, whom I represented to myself as no more; but, all on a sudden, a sacred sentence beamed refreshful on my soul, “That all live unto God."

Let me then borrow a similitude, and suppose that my friends and I live under the government of a great king, who has vast dominions, and who has chosen for his royal residence a pleasant, but remote province, where his palace stands, and where he keeps court, shewing himself in kingly glory, and excellent majesty, while we live, compared to the royal country, in a howling wilderness, a dry and thirsty land, but still under the sceptre and protection of the King. And farther, let me suppose, that this great King (which would be stupendous condescension in him) had conceived such a regard for my friends, that he had given his royal word, that he would send a noble guard, so soon as he thought fit, and fetch them home to himself, that he might bestow on every one of them, not a dukedom, but a kingdom, a crown, and excellent majesty. Now, would I storm at the guard, or murmur at their errand? Yea, would not I rather give the messengers an hearty welcome, and bless their august sovereign; and the more so if I had the royal promise also of being myself transported thither?

Then, is there any promise like his, whose counsel stands fast, and whose faithfulness cannot fail? Is there any guard like that of heavenly angels? or any happiness like the celestial felicity? And, if these things be so, is not the state of the dead happy beyond conception that die in Jesus? Now the glory of my departed friend infinitely transcends the blaze of created grandeur. Mortality is put off, and immortality put on; their house is not of this building, and so not of this frame, nor on this foundation, but eternal in the heavens. Upon the above supposition, my friend and

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his kingly patron might fall out, as nothing is more fickle than royal favour; but here, there is no fear of his falling from the favour of the Prince of life, because he rests in his love for ever, which kindles gratitude and love in the saints through endless day. In such a place, and in such a condition, would I not wish all my friends? Here we live to die, but there they live to reign! Though to human nature a little regulated sorrow may be allowed, yet that boundless glory, and eternal bliss, which, to the highest degree, my departed friend enjoys, forbid me to bewail him to any great degree, or lament him as lost who is found of God, or as dead who never could be said till now to live. Why should my sad reflections terminate on his crumbling clay, and not rather rise to meditate how his active soul is incessantly employed in the hosannahs of the higher house, and unweariedly exercised in beholding and blessing Jehovah and the Lamb and thus convert my pensive thoughts into a Christian preparation for the same blessed passage to the same blessed place.

MEDITATION XXII.

THE UNION BETWEEN CHRIST AND BELIEVERS.

Spithead, May 14. 1758.

THERE is an union between Christ and be lievers, that every metaphor falls short of. No relation so near as he: The friend may prove false, the brother betray the brother, parents cast off the relation, and husband and wife be separated. Three strong figures hold forth this union, that of the

tree and his branches, the head and his members, and eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. Now, what we eat and drink mixes with the mass of blood, and is so intimately assimilated with the fluids, that no power can separate it again; so, when by faith I receive the Son of God, and eat his flesh, and drink his blood, my soul partakes of the divine nature, till every power is holy, every affection heavenly, and till the life of Christ is made manifest in my body.

After this union, the soul and Christ cannot be separated; death may send the soul out of the body, but cannot send Christ out of the soul: And hereupon follows a commonness of interest. Christ renews the will, sanctifies the affections, enlightens the understanding, and claims the whole soul for his temple; yea more, he showers down his mercies, numbers his crosses, weighs his afflictions, wherewith he himself is also afflicted, and bears his sorrows. And all of Christ is the soul's; his righteousness, his love, his joy, his pardon, his mercy, kindness, and compassion; his protection, direction, and conduct; his favour, his power, and sympathy, his light, and glory, his crown, and throne, his felicity, and his eternity and life. Thus the soul lives in Christ, and he in the soul. Their life is divinely interwoven ; 66 you in me, and I in you." Hence, because he lives, they shall live also. Husband and wife must lose their relation by death; the branches may be cut off from the root, and the head, that sympathises with all, may lose some of its members: but he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit, and a spirit can never be divided.

This mysterious union is bliss begun on earth,

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