tily merry without forgetting God, and turning all religion out of doors: that times of thanksgiv ing fhall not be, (with me) only times of flesh pleafing, nor facred feafons my ungodlieft opportunities, nor holy days the profaneft of all the year. But my rejoicing fhall be before the Lord, and under the fhadow of his wings. Not that I am rambled from him, but in the bleffed Mediator brought nigh to him, and got in with him. My meditation of him fhall be sweet, and I will joy in God, through our Lord Jefus Chrift. Yea, he himself fhall be more, and dearer to me, than all else in the world, that ever can tempt and please me. O may I still delight myself in him, and render all due praises to him; yea, blefling and honour, and glory and power, and falvation and thanksgiving, to the Lord my God, for ever and ever.

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SHA

HALL I only crave at thy hands, and not thankfully acknowledge what I have already "received from thee, O my gracious Father! when "all poffible thanks and praise that I am able to "render, is a debt which I am every way bound "to pay to the, Lord of my life, the God of all

my mercies! but O! what acknowledgement can "I ever make, fufficient for fuch riches of grace as "I have found, to bear down before it still all the regard of my unworthinefs; and ftill goes on to oblige me with renewed favours every day and hour; not only without any of my defervings; "but notwithstanding all my great and manifold "provocations? my God! I can but recount and "own thy gifts: yea, I cannot fhew forth all thy "praife: I cannot praise thee at all, as thy mercies "do deferve: nor doft thou need any of my praif"ing to add to thy glory: but I do need it, to

"raise my heart, and to offer at fomewhat towards "the discharge of my debt. Unto thee, O God, " do I give thanks, unto thee do I give thanks. "And, not unto me, Lord, not unto me, but to "thy name be all the glory, now and for ever. "Amen."

MEDITATION XXI.

Of enmity against God.

HEN I confider with myself how infinitely

W good, and altogether lovely is the bleffed

God, without any thing at all amifs, defective, or exceptionable in him; and fo every way compleat and sweet, and perfect, and inviting, I cannot but wonder, my foul, that there fhould be any fuch thing as an enemy of his to be found in the world. For goodness, even commands love; and when we know it, we cannot chufe but love it. But, when I hear the account given by God's word, and fee it fo commonly exemplified in the courfe of this world, how man is not only fallen from the Lord, but fallen out with him, and has got a corrupt venomous nature, a perverse will, and a defperately wicked heart. There is no withstanding the open evidence, and fad proof that comes in fo faft: what a generation of vipers, fpiteful at all real good, haters of God, and enemies of the Lord, this prefent evil world fwarms and abounds with, And, O! that I had at home within myfelf, no feeds of this enmity fo apt to be sprouting out, in taking petts at Heaven, and friving with my Maker, cenfuring his ways, quarrelling his Word, and refifting the Holy Spirit of God.

I find in fcripture, that men are by nature the children of wrath, and enemies in their minds through evil works. The grand enemy of God and goodness has been tampering with them, and gained them over to his party. He has foured and poisoned even the whole mafs, and not a member of mankind that escaped him, but carries an old grudge that ftill lies at the bottom, and is never healed before converfion, nor then perfectly cured neither. In fome the malice lurks more clandeftine, and they carry fo fair, as to pafs in the tale of friends, and fhew love with their mouth; though they are but back-friends, and ill-willers at the root. (Manet alta mente repoftum) The ferpents covered with painted skins, have yet their ftings to strike in upon occafion. And fo cold and heartless are they, to efpouse the caufe of the Lord, that, when they are no more with him, he reckons them against him, for he is no stranger to the grumbling within, let it be lodged never fo deep in the heart. And though they fhew demure abroad, yet the making a god of their belly, and giving their minds to earthly things, proves them enemies to the crofs of Chrift. For, whofoever will be the friend of the world, makes himself the enemy of God; yea, but the carnal mind harboured within, is enmity against him.

But in fome it breaks out more notoriously, and they throw off the vifors, to fhew themfelves barefaced oppofers; and how far they are from any peace and accommodation with the Majefty of heaven, at whom they have taken fuch implacable offence, and against whom they carry fuch a bitter deadly fpleen. And that, as he is the holy Lawgiver, who hampers and galls them with his precepts; and fo limits and reftrains them, that they cannot ftir a step as they would. O! how does this enrage and mad the lufts and paffions, that will neVOL. I.

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ver

ver endure to be fo curbed and controuled! how do they ftomach and spite him; because he will not leave them to themtelves, to be, and do as they please, but obliges them to live by the rules, which, it is death to them, but to think of being under! and alfo, as he is the righteous Judge, who will one day take account of their obedience to his laws; and bring them to answer for all their contempt of his authority, and all their rebellion against his Majefty, and will not warp from punctual juftice in any one's favour. They like him ftill fo much the worse, and are the more desperately out with him, because he will not be partial in their cafe; nor fpare them when they lie at his mercy, feeing they would not take quarter at his hands in his time, and upon his terms. O! how is he then hated by them, that he is too big for them? and let the judge be never fo good in himself, they fwell and gnash their teeth at him, as the worst enemy they have in the world, because he will do juftice upon them, and render to them according to their works. When they look through the bloody fpectacles of their guilt; and fee nothing but the fcarlet robe, and all the frightful indications of their own condemnation: hence arifes, not only their trembling before him, but their indignation against him.

And this makes them carry towards God, as men ufually do to their enemies, even to keep off from him, and care not how little they have to do with him; to fhew themfelves fo averfe and listless, to do any fervice for him, and rather plotting and ftriving to hinder what pleases him, to hurt his cause, and vex his fervants; fcarce affording him a good word themselves, nor caring to hear others fpeak in his favour. But when religion lofes, and his honour is eclipfed, and his Spirit grieved, and all abomination not only paffes unpunifhed, but grows rampant, (for being countenanced and applauded)

plauded) then erecting their crefts and plumes, as if they had got a victory over Heaven, and had nothing to do but rejoice, and fwagger, and triumph,

Thus fool-hardy wretches take up the cudgels to fight with their glorious Maker, and Judge eternal. They think themselves too goodly to be his bumble fervants; and the conteft between them and the Lord is, whofe will fhall ftand? whether he or they fhall carry it, and get the better. And their meetings and exceffes are to them, like a fort of facraments, by which they mufter their forces, and bind themselves to one another, and fo ftrengthen their caufe and party. And in the pot valour, what care they for God, or Chrift, or any thing that ftands in the way of their riot? what is the ballowed feason to them? fhall fuch as they be bound like fneaks to the religious attendance, and come and wait upon their enemy? they do not owe him fo much service. And what ufe can they find of his name, but to blafpheme and pollute its honour; of which he has declared himself fo jealous and tender; and to take that for a kind of inftruction, how to vent their malice, where it may be most keenly refented? when they come to underftand, which is the apple of God's eye, and what he will take moft heinoufly, as the worft affront they could tell how to offer then have at that, fetting their mouth against Heaven, to let fly at the beft of beings. And is not this enmity with a witness all over? what have fuch to do with his Word and holy things; but only to fpend upon them their fcoffs and drollery, and fo to make themselves merry? like the brave champions that dare ftrike at all, and fuch wits of the edge, that can handle the keeneft edge-tools, to fool and jeft their fouls out of heaven, and play and laugh themselves into endless weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

O thou