sand years are spent! and yet these cannot diminish the eternal duration one moment! And, as my portion, even after all that I shall have seen, adored, and enjoyed, will remain full and overflowing, being infinite; so the time of possession, communion, and enjoyment, even after ages of bliss are elapsed, will always continue the same, being eternal.

MEDITATION CV.

BAD COMPANY.

Hamoaze, January 11, 1761.

SOMETIMES our situation may be solitary, our friends being cut off from us by death, or we from them by distance; or our company may be such for a while as that the safety of our souls forbids us to converse with it. It is become customary with us to complain of this, and to cry out for the communion of the saints; and indeed it must be owned, that as iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the face of a man his friend. Yet, if grace is at work to find God in every circumstance, even this prejudice may be turned into a spiritual advantage; for, alas! I may fondly meet with my friends, and freely talk with them, and yet Christ have little of the conversation, though the kind Author of our bliss should often be the subject of our discourse; but when my company is such that I shun to sit with them, then I dweil alone, and seek after communion with God himself; and while faith gets a view of his divine love, and dazzling perfections, I can never want matter for meditation.

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Thus the right improvement of a cross, which in itself is heavy and afflicting, even sojourning in Mesech with the sons of consummate folly, may produce the greatest blessing, even communion with the Most High. And, though I am not to expect a voice from heaven to carry on a dialogue with me, yet, by his spirit speaking in the scriptures, and breathing on my soul, I may converse with God, and talk of the glories of the world to come. Yea, this situation, though in itself mournful, is not barren of useful instructions; for I learn, 1. What a pleasant place the church and Zion of God is, where saints may talk together of redeeming love, till their hearts burn within them. 2. That the expectants of the better country are too shy to tell to one another what God hath done for their souls, that all may give him praise. 3. That one Christian is readier to receive hurt from the wordly and carnal discourse of another, than from the belchings of the profane; for this drives him to God, but the other, though not to his profit, gains upon him by its seeming innocence. 4. That no confusion or confinement can hinder the rightly-exercised soul from walking at large in the promise, and with God. I may have neither field nor garden to walk into, and yet walk over the fields of bliss, and take a tour through the paradise of God; my situation may, in a great measure, forbid the use of my voice in my devotions, yet I may cry and be heard in the highest heavens. 5. To admire and adore the goodness of God that turns all things to the believer's advantage, who, when associated with men that seem incarnate devils, may entertain heavenly meditation, and maintain communion with the God of angels. 6. To put a proper estimate on the saints; to choose all the members of my family of such; and to be ready to break off other themes,

and begin the divine subject among them. And, 7. To look forward to that day when the wicked shall fall off round about us, as the falling leaves from a frostbitten tree, and we shall rise to dwell among glorious angels, and perfected saints, where we shall talk of him and to him for ever, and not a wretch break in to mar our dearest, our divinest theme.

MEDITATION CVI.

ON GOING BEYOND THE LINE.

Plymouth Sound, March 14, 1761.

COMMANDED by our Sovereign, with cheerfulness we leave our native land, and pursue our course through raging and extensive oceans, to unknown climes abroad, though we may meet with enemies, be overtaken with diseases, and must pant beneath a scorching sun. Why then, O my soul! afraid, at thy heavenly Sovereign's command, to pass the line of time into the wide ocean of eternity, and unknown worlds above, seeing thou hast his divine promise for thy protection in the hour of death, and the sure hope of a non-such friend before thee, who is Lord of all the unknown regions of glory?

The saint should even rejoice in the prospect of death, which turns out to his immense, his everlasting gain; for here he may have little or nothing, there is his inheritance; here he may be an exile, there he is at home; here a stranger, there among his friends; here often mourning without the sun, but there eternally with God.

One, from the large quantity of stores and provisions of all kinds which is brought aboard, might well

conclude we were not designed for channel-service, but for some distant part of the world: O! then, seeing I have such a long voyage before me, and must live in worlds to come, how is my soul provided? whạt have I in hand, what have I in hope? have I the promise, and Christ in the promise in hand? and its full accomplishment in the full enjoyment of him in hope? Were I only to coast on the shores of time, die like the beasts, and be no more, to be unprovided would not be a crime. But to launch into cternity without the provision proper for an immortal soul, is more desperate madness than for ships to sail to the farthest Indies without bread, wood and water.

It affects me a little to go abroad, and not know if ever I shall return to my native land, or see a friend I have in life; but faith's enlarged view shall dissipate the gloom, for the sun shines as brightly on the other side of the line as this; the stars twinkle alike richly in all quarters; and heaven, surrounding the whole globe, is alike near to all places; yea, God being every where present, he that lives in him cannot be divided from him, or die out of him, by distance from his country and his friends, but at the hour of dissolution shall go to be for ever with the Lord, where he shall be allowed the nearest approaches, and most intimate communion with him that dwells in light inaccessible and full of glory.

MEDITATION CVII.

ON A POPISH PROCESSION, TO PREVENT THE RETURN OF AN EARTHQUAKE.

Madeira, April 2, 1761.

OF all curses, those that are spiritual are most terrible; and none more dismal than to be given up to strong delusions to believe a lie. Do these men think that the Deity is like children, pleased with pomp, and novelty, and show? When the power of religion decayed in the soul, it came more and more into bodily exercises, which profit little, and into external forms and farces. Will a few boys, creeping on their hands and feet, before you through the streets, make the heart-searching God believe you are truly humbled? do ye substitute the walking bare-footed along a stony cause-way, in the room of walking with God by faith? imagine ye to avert divine wrath by gently whipping your naked bodies? or are such touches of the flesh equal to a real sorrow for, and turning from sin? Think ye God has ceased to be a spirit, and no more demands to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, but, like the idols of old, with the fooleries of men? Are the graces of the Holy Ghost converted into bodily gestures? and can your being veiled in a mournful manner deceive him who seeth through the thick darkness? Think ye, the carrying a piece of wood, in the form of a cross, through your city, will awe the earthquake into eternal silence? or will God look down propitious on the image of your saint and patroness which ye have made in breach of his own express command? Our blessings must come through