mised felicity to the saints, and threatened vengeance to the wicked. The one is allowed with joy to draw water out of the wells of salvation, the other shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. To the one pertain all the exceeding great and precious promises, to the other all the threatenings of God. "The righteous hath hope in his death, but the wicked is driven away in his wickedness." The one shall enter into the joy of his Lord, but the anguish of his enemies shall prey on the other for ever. Heaven shall be the palace of those, hell the prison of these: And, while the one shall dwell through eternity with God, the other shall be driven away into everlasting darkness.

Thus, the righteous and wicked are separated in their life, and divided in their death; divided in their principles and practices, in their choice and joys, in their meditations and privileges, in their company and in their converse, in their fears and in their expectations, in their death, and through eternity itself.

Then, how much more excellent than his neighbour is the righteous! and how are the sons of Zion comparable to fine gold! As only among them, of all the human race, I can expect to spend eternity, so only among them, to spend the remainder of my time, in every tie and relation, is all the happiness of society that I desire below.

MEDITATION XX.

THE JUDGMENT OF SWEARERS, ACCORDING TO

EQUITY.

Lying off Normandy, June 15, 1758.

HOW justly will God, the righteous Judge, measure the purport of their imprecations into the bosomsof these blasphemers! They swear by God, and so they own the divinity they offend; but, they profane the sacred namie, and so offend the Deity they own. They damn the whole man, their soul, their blood, their cyes; and every part, even the whole man, shall be tormented. They sow the wind, for there is neither pleasure nor profit in any sense in swearing; and they shall reap the whirlwind, 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 them 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 choose to blaspheme through the whole of their time, and anguish shall cause them to blaspheme through a whole eternity. They despise the day of God's patience, but shall not escape the day of his judgment. What shall the blasphemer say, when tossing on the fiery billows, shrieking under consummate despair. O miserable state of intolerable torments, which I must endure! How shall I spend this eternity of pain! It was nothing to 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. I 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 damned for ever! The oaths and curses which I sowed in time, are now sprung up into 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 førever 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 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 hosannah's 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.