a third are mere infidels. All worship some God, but how few the true God, how very few, the true God in truth! O, then, that God would have respect to his covenant, because the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of horrid cruelty! When shall the darkness that covers the nations, the gross darkness that covers the people, be dispelled by the light of the glorious gospel of the Son of God? When shall Jehovah, as his special and spiritual inheritance, take all nations? Shall satan continue to take kingdoms captive at his will? Shall the destroyer of the Gentiles ruin precious souls without number? Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations? Let not the curse devour the earth, and them that dwell thereon. When shall the name of Jew and Gentile be lost in that of Christian, and Christians become the true worshippers of the Father, the followers of the Lamb? When shall that reviving acclamation charm the ears of all the expectants, of the sacred conquest, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever?" Hasten the time when the Lord of universal nature shall bestow this general benediction, saying, Blessed be Asia and Africa, my people, America, the work of mine hands, and Europe, with her Isles, mine inheritance.

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MEDITATION LXVII.

ON REACHING A PORT AFTER BEING LONG AT SEA.

Gibraltar Bay, Feb. 21, 1759.

NOW we have reached the desired haven, when patience was almost worn out, and we had been long sported with by the unfavourable gale. Among the baffling winds we spent at least thrice the time that might have brought us hither; but now, when safely moored, the dark reflections fly, and the disagreeableness of our passage decreases, through joy that we are come so safe to an anchor: the very difficulties that overtook us on the ocean make our coming to harbour afford us greater pleasure, than if a favourable wind in a few days had wafted us hither.

Even so, when the saints of God reach the happy shore, it shall, as it were, heighten the joys of the higher house, that they dwelt in the house of mourning; soften their rest, that they were tossed on a stormy ocean; brighten the heavenly vision, that they have seen scenes of affliction; swell their delight and complacency, that their life was full of disappointment and pain; and sweeten these rivers of pleasures, that they have drank the waters of Mara. Here the troubled sailor in a storm is afraid of shipwreck every moment; but the saint may be assured, (why then, O saints! so much doubting ?) that he shall safely arrive at Immanuel's coast, in spite of all the storms that attack, and tempests that attend him by the way. Courage, then, my soul, and weather out the squalls, and endure the bitterest blasts that can blow against thee, triumphing in this one consideration, that eternal veracity is engaged for thy security. The storms that now beset

thee are but transient, and also bounded; but the rest and peace, the felicity and joys, that are reserved for thee, are eternal, immense, and passing all understanding.

MEDITATION LXVIII.

ON A MAN THAT DIED BY LIQUOR.

Under sail, Mediterranean, March 6, 1759.

IN how many things is it possible for man to transgress? Not a blessing but he can turn into a curse; not a mercy but he can suck misery from it, and, by excess, the means of life become the occasion of death. How sad an use make we of the creature, when it renders us incapable of serving our Creator; which is the case, not only with the drunkard and glutton, but with the carnal-minded man, who surfeits on the cares and riches of this world!

This demented wretch, this poor fellow-creature, tried his strength to his own destruction, and was a more cruel suicide or self-murderer, than if he had given himself a mortal wound; for then he might have died awake, and with the exercise of his reason, but now he undergoes the last, the most tremendous change asleep, and totally deprived of the use of reason! He drank till he dropped down in a dead sleep, out of which it was impossible to awake him (for death was in it) till plunged into the world of spirits. But how terrible to die in such a condition! If any dreams, reflection, or remembrance of former things, could penetrate his profound slumber, his deep sleep, he would believe himself to be still among his compan

ions, drinking the other glass, and quaffing it out merrily among his mess-mates. But O how inconceivably

astonished, and terribly surprised, to find himself disembodied, and in his sober wits, pannelled before the awful tribunal, and hear the final sentence passed! Fain would he recoil into the body which he lately left, but the union is dissolved, the tie is broken, and he is thenceforth an inhabitant in the world of spirits! Perhaps he dreamed, while the fiery spirits were burning up his vitals, that he was drinking at some cooling stream; but how disappointed to find his first draught the wine of the fierceness of the wrath of God, poured out without the least mixture of mercy! The last words he spoke were oaths, but how would it strike with terror to hear the belching of consummate despair! While he felt himself at once surrounded with the howlings of Tophet, the blasphemies of the damned, and all the groans and yellings of the burning pit, what tongue can tell, what heart conceive what he must feel?

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Indeed the thoughtless rabble seemed somewhat amazed at this uncommon death; but how superficial is their concern while they continue the very same excesses which proved fatal to their fellow-creature! But however much amazed man may be at this manner of the soul's going out of the body into eternity, in such a doleful case, in such a melancholy condition, the whole graceless world die for though they can talk to men, and have their eye, their ear, their tongue, in a word, the use of all their senses, and the exercise of their reason to the last, yet their souls, with respect to spiritual things, and communion with God, are as fast asleep, as deadly and deeply intoxicated with the juice of the vine of Sodom, even the draughts of sin and pleasure, as this poor man that died with too much liquor; and shall be equally astonished, terrified, tormented, when awaked in the world of spirits..

MEDITATION LXIX.

THE EARTH, A GLOBE.

Under sail, Mediterranean, March 13, 1759. WHEREVER I sail, the earth is still beneath my feet, and the heaven is still above my head; which shows the madness of man's desire, that has no limits, when its object is every where circumscribed. It is not for a kingdom exalted above the hills, that the contending nations now are at war; it is but for a footbreadth of dust, a province, an island, or a frontier town, that tribes are slaughtered, and nations are undone. Were there nothing better than this earth, no wonder if we sought to extend our possession in the earth. It would be excusable for avarice to seek to the ends of the world, if there the golden mountains arched above our heads with all their sparkling veins; but still this idol of mankind lies buried in ore, and deep in the bowels of the earth, that it may not affect our ambitious eye; and still the heavens bend above us, to attract the soaring principle essential to the human soul. But as man despises what he should esteem, and doats on what he should abhor, seeking the creature more than the Creator, who is himself blessed for ever, and makes all that seek him blessed; God, in a way of judgment, "has set the world in the hearts of the sons of men." Hence their whole chase, study, and endeavour, is for the world, which, though in great abundance abtained, connot satisfy us; yet, believing that an addition to what we already have, will afford that satisfaction which we are conscious we want, our chase is perpetuated, and we are still disappointed. But how poor an heart-full have we who em