(O could I antedate that day!) I shall even be refreshed with the perfection of my love, when I find it so spotless, vigorous, and divine, that not only I, but God, its glorious fountain, and eternal object, shall be pleased with my love; when its quality shall be suitable to that state of consummate perfection, its quantity such as replenishes the most enlarged powers of glorified souls, and its duration through all evermore.

Now, since thou art seen in all things, and canst not but be loved wherever thou art seen, how is it that I am not wholly taken up with thy love, and lost in transport and delight, in the divine survey of thine excellencies? Can a poor soul like mine not find sufficient matter for meditation, where a whole heaven of perfected adorers find enough for their most enlarged capacities through eternity, and to spare?

Now, here is the wonder, that God is not only lovely himself, and in all things whereby he reveals himself, but also permits, yea, commands me to love him, making my indispensable duty my daily privilege, and my highest privilege my daily duty.

All subjects may and ought to reverence and love their sovereigns, but some countries not only forbid, but make it penal, for any of the fair sex, though nobly born, to be espoused to their prince, and so of course forbid them to love him in the highest degree. But, O the condescension of the high and lofty One, the chiefest among ten thousand, that I may love him, and not be reproved, and kiss him, and not be despised! As he is the greatest, so is he the most generous of lovers, not only ever returning love for love, but for a spark returning a flame, and for a faint wish, some full expressions of captivating love; and as he is a noble, a none-such lover, so he does all things answerable to is divine character. His decrees are love: "I have

loved thee with an everlasting love;" his counsels are love, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold;" his cords are love, wherewith he draws; his rod is love, with which he corrects, for "whom he loves he chastens ;" his providences are pregnant with love; his promises are pure love; his name is love; his offices are love, for to teach and instruct, to plead and intercede, to lead, rule, and defend, to help and heal, to counsel and comfort, are certainly offices of love; his relations are love, a kinsman Redeemer, a friend, a brother, a father, an husband, are kindly names, and full of affection, especially in him; his banquet is a feast of love; his banner is a banner of love; his chariot is paved with love; and he himself is altogether lovely. May I, then, love such an amiable one with all the vigor of divine affection, and not be deemed audacious! May I claim the darling of heaven as mine, and maintain, with all the warmth of immortal love, "This is my Beloved, and this is my friend," and not be accounted an offender amongst all the enamoured adorers of the higher house!

But, O where shall I find, or whence fetch, a love worthy to be bestowed on this lover, who hath not his like on earth, or in heaven? O could I love thee like thy saints in the day of their espousals, glow like angels in their celestial ardors, and burn like seraphs in their deathless flames! O strange! may a worm of yesterday's production love the mighty One of eter nity? may a daily sinner presume to be a daily lover of him whose name is holy? may dust and ashes not only talk, but carry on a communication, an interchange of love, with the Father of spirits? Yes; for thou not only allowest me to love thee, but to know that I am loved of thee in an infinitely higher manner than Сс

I can love thee. Thine is the ocean, mine a drop from thy fulness; thine is the sun, mine a spark kindled in thy beams; thine is the eternal emanation of sovereign good-will, mine the reflection of heaven-born gratitude, for I love thee, because thou first lovedst me ; and as thou wast first, so art thou highest in thy love. It was much for thy saints, yea, was it not enough for them, and more than enough for me, to be loved like thine angels, archangels, thy seraphs, and all thy bright armies of light? yet thou hast loved them with a love above that; for in that matchless prayer (John, xvii.) pleading for the perfection of his spiritual seed, through union to him, the divine Redeemer says, "That the world may know," (and let all the world know it, repeats a ransomed worm) " that thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me !"

What a wonderful love is this! but what a worthless lover am I! O happy, thrice happy heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ! whom he invites to a seat with him on his throne! Surely, under a sense of so much love, and yet power to love so little, I should die, did I not wait for my removal to the region of love, where my powers of mind, enlarged and strengthened for the transports of eternity, shall be wholly exercised in love. O that divine freedom I wait for, that glorious liberty of immortal lovers that I pant after, where mine eye shall be all intuition of his glories, and mine ear all attention to the account of his excellencies! Surely, my song and soul shall be full of love to him! Yea, nothing but love, centering on him, and singing of him, with the highest degree of ardor, shall employ my every power for ever. And here, dear Lord, while I walk on the dark mountains, let it be regarded as a kind of love to think (since I cannot love thee as I should and would) how perfectly

I shall love thee in those blissful regions, in those days of future glory, and in thy heavenly presence; with what fresh ardour, and unknown delight, I shall adore the God of love, who is not only lovely altogether, but teems out full floods of love on the emmets of creation, and welcomes the trifling returns of love from the atoms of his footstool.

MEDITATION CXVI.

PROVIDENCE TO BE APPROVED OF.

Portsmouth Harbour, Oct. 31, 1761,

NOTHING is harder to attain to, than an entire resignation to the disposal of Providence; and in this very thing I condemn myself. But, O how absurd to quarrel with Heaven about one individual, if pleased with his conduct towards the totality of beings! Did I ever wish a reason why God sends his Gabriel on this or that message, and not some other of the bright armies of bliss? Durst I ever find fault with the immense distance of the stars or the huge magnitude of the sun? Did it ever give me uneasiness, though the Ottoman empire was a scene of revolutions, or a field of blood, or though nations nearer home underwent changes and war? But if any trying providences come home, I am up, if not in arms, yet in astonishment, at heaven, and wonder why God deals so and so! Now, God's right over, and propriety in me, is as full and sovereign as over any other of his creatures; and so should I be as well pleased with what he carves out for me, as I am with what he does for others. never complained of the age of the world in which I was born (nay, but have blessed God for it ;) and why

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should I, of the time of life that this or that event concerning me takes place? I pant after some things which in themselves are good, but God postpones them, as I think; but the truth is, the proper time of God's giving, and my receiving, is not come; and yet in the greatness of my folly, I grow impatient, like the husbandman, that for an early harvest, reaps corn not fully ripe.

Now, my will shall be swallowed up in thine, since I am more thy property than mine own. And as I would not direct Omniscience how to dispose of his armies of light, so will I never tell him how to deal with the inhabitants of his earth, though I make one of the number. Yet, O Most High! as thou wilt be inquired of by the seed of Jacob for these free mercies which thou wilt bestow, and even importuned (as once by wrestling Jacob) for blessings, and the performance of thy promises; so I implore thy divine interposition in my behalf, if it be thy holy will, and that thou wouldst bring me again to the place of the soles of thy feet, that I may hear blessings instead of blasphemy, and see thee in thy glory in thine own courts. Olet mine absent moments from Zion be numbered up, and finished; my wanderings counted, and completed; my company changed, and my song be to the God of my mercy in the courts of his holiness; and make me yet see some of the days of the Son of man, in commemorating the sufferings and death of my divine Redeemer! in thy tender mercy, hear, help, and give an answer of peace.

But, Lord, if thou shalt (and for thy glory I would fain live) be more glorified in my resignation to thy holy will, and my remaining in the state I am in, than my possessing all those things I long after, I roll

over on thee, and to thy disposal say, Amen.