Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

that God brought forth the children of Israel in the "self-same day" that he had promised, and that their sojourning in the land of Egypt was completely expired. But what a groaning time did the poor Israelites undergo! Their service was with rigour, their bondage was bitter, their oppression unsupportable, and the cruelty of their foes had arrived at that infernal pitch, as to plunge their helpless males into the river! At length, in this melancholy time, Moses was born; but this sad season was spun out till he was forty years old, before he hinted to his brethren that he it was that should deliver them. Yet this faint dawn of relief immediately disappears; Moses is no more to be seen or heard of in all the land of Egypt, and the night of sore affliction is protracted for another forty years. Now, what cogitations of heart, may I suppose, struggled all this time in the breasts of Jacob's sons, in the breast of Moses! Well he knew in what deplorable circumstances he had left his brethren, nor knew he how their bondage might be increased in his absence; yet, in the account of their glorious deliverance, he confesses that God was a God of truth, and that, however he seemed to delay, still his suffering people were brought forth from the iron furnace at the appointed time, and not a day later than the promise.

Have I, then, any reason to complain of days and months of delay? No; God has appointed a set time, and at the set time will remember me; and it well becomes me, though the time should seem long in my view, to wait with patience for it. God has in all ages so dealt with his people for the exercise of their graces: And these trials, like the instruments of the husbandman, breaking up the fallow-ground of their

heart, make them bring forth a plenteous crop of precious fruits, whence accrues an increase of glory to God, and unspeakable joy to their own souls, through the ages of eternity! and is not this more than all that can rise from the present and speedy performance of the promised blessing?

Then sit still, my soul, and calmly wait the end, wondering more that justly-deserved judgments are not immediately executed against thee, than that expected blessings are for a while withheld.

MEDITATION XCIII.

THE WORLD DEEP ROOTED IN THE AFFECTIONS.

Sailing near Malaga, May 9, 1759.

How often, when reading the history of the chil

dren of Israel going up out of Egypt, have I condemned their longing for the flesh-pots, and other things wherewith they had been entertained in the land of their bondage, when they had Canaan before them! But now I may turn from them, and leave my complaint upon myself, since guilty of the same sin. If my hopes are fixed in eternity, why take I pleasure in the things of time! Will I by profession seek after immortality, yet practically pursue dying vanities? O! when shall the world cease to allure me, cease to find reception in my soul? When shall the beautiful field, while I behold the better country, become as a barren wilderness to me; and the fine flower-garden, as the top of a rock that is neither plowed nor sown? When shall honour be to me as disagreeable as the din and confusion of great cities,

and fame as the tumultuous noise of an enraged mob, when the most part know not wherefore they are come together? When shall my well-informed judgment esteem riches no better than wild brier, whose single flower a-top is attended with innumerable prickles round about below? When shall I possess unenvied solitude, and retire into mine own breast, counting it an happiness neither much to know, or to be known, in a vain, a transitory world? Can an old man, who is half blind, and half deaf, be delighted with the harmony of sounds, the neatness and richness of attire, and the frolicsome amusements of youth? and should not the growth of grace (how sad my condition!) give a greater disrelish to the pleasures of the world, than the decays of nature? Henceforth may I use the world as not abusing either it or myself! How would it look in one sent express from his prince, on matters of the last importance, to sit down by the first pleasant grove he came to, and forget his dispatch, till the night had wrapt him up in darkness, when he could not pursue his journey? So I am on the express of salvation, by order of the Prince of the kings of the earth, who has commanded me to run while I have the light, and work while I have the day; not to quit my pilgrim-staff, ungird my loins, or forego my travelling posture, till got within the vail; nor to let my affections sit down on any thing below, lest the shadows of the everlasting evening be stretched out, and thickest darkness cover me! As men look on children, in all their gay imaginations and sportive jollity, with pity and disdain, so should I look on the grandeur of the world, which is more so, in comparison of diviner glories, of sublimer bliss.

But, when Israel came near the promised land, the pleasant inheritance, there was not one word of Egypt, and all its dishes; so, as a sign that I am drawing near the better country to inherit it for eternity, let the things of this world not once be named by me, as becomes an expectant of the vast reserve of love. O happy day! when all shall be tasteless and insipid but Christ; when this struggle between my carnal desires and renewed affections, shall issue in complete victory over the creature and its enchanting charms.

MEDITATION XCIV.

TRUE RICHES.

Gibraltar Mole, May 20, 1759.

WHAT, saint! dost thou complain of poverty? Dost thou cry out of want? If thou art poor in any thing, it is in thy views and apprehensions of thine inheritance, they are so shallow and confined. But, as God said to Abraham of his seed, so says he to thee of thy possessions, "See if thou canst count them all up." Knowest thou the measure of thine inheritance, or the breadth and boundary of thy kingdom? Survey the midnight-sky, and see the sparkling orbs above, these are all thine own; and if they can advantage thy soul, and bring about thy good, not one of them shall be withheld from thee, seeing thou art the King's son. Now, how rich art thou, if, as philosophers say, every twinkling star be a sun to dependent orbs that form their system? Canst thou, then, be cast down for a foot-breadth of this world below?

"But, Oh!" repliest thou," you would not talk at such a rate, did you know my troubles. Heaven is conscious that I am daily groaning under poverty and affliction, and that my thoughts are divided and distracted, while fear of miseries at one time assails me, and at another time hope in his mercy composes my mind: While now I would fain have confidence in the promise, and then am all anxiety about the providence. Now, if it were as thou sayest, why is all this befallen me? why is it thus with me?"

What, saint! thinkest thou that the promises are illusive words, or that God speaks ironically to his people? No, but with the sincerity of a true friend, with the affection of a tender father. It fares no otherwise with thee in all thy complaints, than with a young heir to a great estate, who is fed sparingly, and put under severer discipline than others who have not such great expectations. He is not able to comprehend the meaning of such hard usage, till he grows up, and then he finds himself possessed of a regular appetite, a fine state of health, and a vigorous constitution, as well as of an extensive inheritance, which gluttony and licentiousness in younger years might have destroyed. So thou, O saint! when grown up to the measure of a perfect man in Christ Jesus (for while in this world thou art but of yesterday, and knowest nothing) thou shalt see the excellent use of afflictions, and the noble design of keeping thee at a poor table of uncreated comforts, lest the satisfying of thy carnal appetite had sent leanness into thy soul.Then all his ways shall be made plain, which must remain unriddled till the mystery of providence be opened up in the light of glory. All things, then, are yours; and the earth and the fulness thereof, sun,

« ÎnapoiContinuă »