world to come. The man of business will be loth to lose a change-hour for any trifling amusement; and the soul that would be busy for eternity, should look on every hour as his last hour, and should avoid excess of sloth and slumber. Vain amusements, impertinent employments, are cruel moths of time; and time is to be husbanded, though worlds should be squandered away. As the jeweller deals with gold, so must I with time; he is careful about the filings, and loses nothing; so should I about the smallest divisions of time, the hour, the minute, the moment.It never made a dying person's bed thorny, that, by a bad bargain, he lost such and such a sum; but mispent time has made the dying moments of many dişmal beyond expression.

8. To be rich in the world to come, I must have an intense love towards God and heavenly things.The men that love the world, pant after the dust of the world, and spare no pains to be rich in the world. A man will never toil himself to gather what he despises; so, unless I prefer heavenly things to earthly, I shall never seek to fill my treasure with invisible excellencies, "He that loveth silver," says the wise man, "shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase." But he that loveth God shall be satisfied with God, and entranced with the exuberant fulness of the covenant.

9. To be rich indeed at last, I must endeavour to maintain communion with God now. To have fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, in all his divine fulness, his glorious perfections, and his gracious ways, is the most enriching course that I can carry on below. Every moment of divine intercourse would be sinking another, sum in the bank of

།

heaven, so that I should be wondrous rich at last. He that quits the Indies for Europe, sends his treasures before him; then, though he be poor at his departure from the one country, yet he is rich on his arrival at the other; so, well were it with me, if I could detach my thoughts and meditations, my care and affections, my joy and delight, my hope and expectation, from this perishing world, and centre them on the invisible world.

10. In a word, to abound in all things in the better country, I must make God my all in all, and just sit down and wonder at the overflowing treasure, till my mouldering clay let my immortal soul fly hence to commence immensely rich in heaven, in the possession of his infinite self, world without end.

MEDITATION CXXVI.

REVENGE REJECTED.

Oct. 12, 1771.

find the man who When we are on

SUCH is the corruption of human nature, such is the weakness of grace in this imperfect state, that, though the most part of Christians can act the Christian in some things, it is rare to can act the Christian in all things. ly spectators of the conduct of others, it is easy to prescribe, like an apostle, and enforce the golden rules of the gospel; but, when it toucheth our very selves, we are troubled. A beam can lie concealed in our own eye, while a mote is clearly seen in our neighbour's. I am a man, a sinner; and to guard against sinful sallies of passion is the design of this

meditation; since, being a man, I must expect to suffer from one hand or other; and being a sinful man, under my sufferings I may sin.

The malice I have an eye to is causeless, cruel, rivetted, and unrelenting, so that my natural spirits boil at the remembrance, and breathe retaliation to the guilty. But the character of the Christian is meekness, and the person who expects to arrive at heaven, must have his conversation in heaven, even while dwelling on the confines, and contending with the fire brands of hell.

The precept and example of the King of saints shall ever be my pattern in the militant state. "Love your enemies," says the non-such Teacher; and 'let me heal his ear, that lost it while leading on the unhallowed crowd to apprehend me as a thief,' says the divine Redeemer. These are lessons worthy of a God to give, and worthy of all the sons of God to imitate. The military hero, under the eye and by the command of his prince, scales walls, takes cities, runs in the face of danger, and defies death itself; and so the Christian hero, prompted by the presence and the precept of Heaven, should study to conquer self, and all is won. hood," says an apostle; I hear all the saints add Amen, for "we know that we are passed from death to life, because we love the brethren." But "love your enemies," (I feel corrupt nature reluctant !) is the I say of the great Apostle and High Priest of our profession; and to do so would prove, not only that we are passed from death to life, but that grace is very lively.

"Love the brother

It is a shame for me to take so far amiss, or dwell so much on, what a fellow-creature, who is on the

same level, or only a little superior to me, has done to me, and yet never reflect on my offence against God, who is infinitely exalted above me, beyond conception and thought. If I am injured, the law is broken; if the law is broken, God is dishonoured; and that God is dishonoured, and not that I am injured, should be the cause of my sorrow, and the burden of my soul. He cannot greatly offend against me, though he should spue out his bitterest malice; for it matters not, though the potsherds of the earth, while striving with the potsherds of the earth, should go all to shivers; but I shall greatly offend against God, who is over all, blessed for ever, if I render evil for evil, since he has expressly forbidden it.

How often have I wasted precious time, by revolving in my mind all the aggravations of my injurious treatment, forgetful that every day I have offended God in a much greater degree! forgetful, also, that I have daily received from him such tender mercies as might make me forget all the mischief that my fellow-creatures could do to me. That malice must owe its birth to hell, that could wish the hated persons condemned to everlasting flames; and I aver, that there is not a saint on the footstool, but can wish his greatest enemy a share in the common salvation, and a mansion in the highest heavens. How mean, how inconsistent, then, to wish him a kingdom and a crown, and yet that he may have a thorn in his foot (trouble in person, family, character, or estate) while travelling thither.

ed.

"Follow peace with all men," enemies not exceptThough some individuals break this command with respect to me, yet I am not less bound to observe it towards them. Moreover, why should I,

who have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, peace of conscience, and shall shortly enter into an eternity of peace, have an uproar of war kindled in all the powers of my soul, by the impotent bravadoes of a worm? Suppose there is nothing engaging, nothing amiable about my opponent, that can make me love him for his own sake, yet I am to love him for God's sake, because by God commanded so to do. "God is love ;" this the whole creation knows, while his sun shines on the evil and the good, and his rain falls on the just and the unjust; and “he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God." Shall any temptation, shall any unjust usage, provoke me from my high abode to sit down on the dunghill of anger and revenge? Whenever I cease to dwell in love, and to be all love to friends and foes (no matter how they have used me) then I cease to dwell in God. And this is as if a royal personage should descend from his throne, and wade to his arm-pits in a puddle to pursue a fly, or kill a frog. With what a strange appearance would he again ascend his throne ! And how shall I return from a worse situation to my divine dwelling-place?

Again, have I never received any favours or benefits from him? or, have there never been acts of friendship between us? Why, then, is all this forgot in the heat of my wrath? It should be my study, and would be my glory, never to forget a kindness, never to remember an injury. This may be called a mean spirit by the world, but I am sure it is the spirit of Christianity. Moreover, can I suppose myself so perfect, as to receive so much il! usage, and return none? Then, if I have said or done aught amiss in the excess of my passion, as no doubt I have, should