show our gratitude to the Most High, by pampering perishing clay. God will not be praised over our cups; then his name is often blasphemed. Such a practice is consistent in an idolatrous Belshazzar and his guests, towards gods who neither see nor hear, but he who is a Spirit will be spiritually honored.

A back-look on my life, may hinder carnal mirth on its commencement. Sin and vanity twisting with every day of my life, should make me consider on my birthday with more enlarged views than the sons of sense can take, how I have fallen from the noble end for which I was created, how I have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, I who have an immortal soul within me, that shall live to eternity,

One thing, however, I should consider, that since I came into this world, many thousands of my contemporaries have gone into the unseen world. The spreading forest of my acquaintance is fearfully thinned by the felling axe of death. It is a chilling thought, that so many of my companions, who lately made a figure in the gay world, are now wrapt up in an eternal gloom. Many of my school-fellows and comrades, of my friends and neighbors, are now no more; yea, into my father's family, since I made one of the number, death, though not a stranger before, has made five desolating visits, besides the redoubled blows, that made me fatherless and motherless; and though, in unbounded goodness, I survive, yet all these occurrences cry to me, that I also in a little must remove, and be no more.

In this contracted span, there are not many now who reach three-score years; yet, at such a calculation, my sun is at his height, my day arrived at noon; and shall I not yet put away the follies of youth, when I know not but my sun may go down at noon, never more to rise? Then henceforth may I be the man, yea, more,

the Christian, and spend every year as my last, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, laying hold on every opportunity to do good, observing the conduct of Providence towards me, and doubling my diligence in the duties of religion. And, as I am drawing nearer the unseen world, so by thinking the oftener on it, I should prepare the better for it. And as noon is succeeded by night, so, with loins girt, and lamp burning, I should expect the evening of death, and the coming of my great Master, rather astonished that the shadows are not sooner stretched out, than surprised, as being unprepared, that they are stretched out so soon.

MEDITATION XCVI.

TIME PAST NEVER RETURNS.

Under sail, June 16, 1758.

FOOLISH man thinks he is born to live to himself, and that he is lord of his own time, to spend it as he pleases; but, alas! he is mistaken, for he should live to God, and spend his time to his glory. How watchful, then, on a double account, should I be over my time; first, because I cannot recal it when past; I cannot bring again my childish years, or fetch back my more advanced days. Now, on the sea, I cannot recal the time I spent on land; nor, when at land again, this time I spend at sea; yea, I cannot lengthen out the minute, or make the passing moment lie too, till I finish the sentence. I cannot say to time, as Joshua once did to the sun, "Stand thou still," for it is in continual progression. The sand-glass of my life pours down night and day; and though the gradual waste scems trifling, yet how soon shall the last sand be run, and

not a dust left! and then there is no turning of the glass again.

Secondly, As time cannot be recalled, so the things done in time cannot be disannulled. I cannot undo my deeds, unspeak my words, and unthink my thoughts. It would be less galling, did time fly off in a blank; but it is full of records, for as it is always on flight, so the soul is never idle, but is at work night and day, which we little think of. How would it mitigate our mournful reflections, if we could getour wicked deeds undone, and our bad actions annihilated! but still they are actions once done, and stand on record, to shew either the mercy of God when we are pardoned, or to condemn us when we are judged. I said, time past never returns, and so it never does, for us to mend what we have done amiss; but mispent time is present to torment the wicked through eternity.

How cautious should I be in spending time which is so precious, and on which so much depends! The past is entirely lost, the present is on the wing, and the future is uncertain. The past is mine no more, the future never may be mine, and the present is mine but for a moment. In the time past I can do nothing, as it is already fled; in the time present I can do little, as it is on the wing; and in the time to come, as it lies concealed, I know not what I may do. So then the present breathing, this very twinkling, the single moment, and naked now, is mine without the least appendix of time past or to come, but in reflection on the one, and expectation of the other. The present only is mine, which, while I use, wasteth, while I possess, passeth away. In a little the angel shall lift up his hand to heaven, and swear, by him that liveth for ever and ever, that time shall be no more. And as past time never returns, so the works I leave unfinished in time,

cannot be wrought out in eternity. The foolish virgins will find no oil to buy in the other world; no acceptable repentance in the pit; no work nor device in the silent grave.

I see, then, that every moment of time is of great consequence to one on whose time eternity depends. O to spend that well which is so valuable, till acquitted in mercy at the end of time! Now, as time passes not to return, so all the things of time pass, both troubles and pleasures, never to return; but to render eternity, in all its beatific excellencies, a state of truest and sublimest happiness, it is a permanent, present, and abiding duration, and eternal now, that knows no after state, no futurity, or succession of revolving periods. Then, may it be my happiness, that when time passes from me, never to return, and eternity of glory, to consummate my bliss, may be present with me, never to pass away!

MEDITATION XCVII.

ON SHIPS STEERING DIFFERENT COURSES WITH THE

SAME WIND.

Under sail, June 10, 1758.

IT is surprising that one wind should carry ships to the different points of the compass, even to quite opposite points; but this is owing to the setting of the sails, and steering of the helm.

And is it not more surprising, that the same wind that forwards the saints heavenward, should drive the wicked nearer hell? If the godly have their fair wind of prosperity, then, like Jacob, they confess their

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smallness, and that God has done all for them; or, like David, come and sit before God, and pour out the cbulations of a greatful heart; or if the saints (which is frequently the case) are tossed with the rough wind of adversity, then they hear the rod, and who hath appointed it, turn to him that smiteth them, and see that it is good that they have been afflicted, avowing, with that eminent saint, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." But the wicked, if full, forget God, and wax wanton; if they have no changes, they fear not God; if Heaven bestows plenty on them, they consume it on their lusts; nor does adversity with them, mend the matter, for, like Ahaz, in their distress they trespass yet more against the Lord; and, like the remnant of the Jews who were mad on idolatry, that very sin for which their land was laid desolate and their temple burnt, while suffering for sin, they continue in sin. The same crucified Jesus is a stumbling-block to the Jews, and to the Greeks foolishness, but the power of God, and the wisdom of God, to the true Christian. The ordinances of grace soften and improve the saints for glory, but harden and prepare the sinners for wrath. The patience of God leads the one daily to repentance, the other to presumption. The terrors of the Lord deter the first from sinning, but drive the last to despair.

Hence they may live together in one house, enjoy the same privileges, share in the same common mercies, rest in the same tranquility, and be partakers of the same outward comforts and happiness; or be visited with the same trials, walk under the same cross, drink of the same cup of adversity, and share the same afflictions; and yet out of both conditions the one shall extract food and medicine, the other poison