網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

MEDITATION CXVII.

BRIGHT VIEWS AND BOLD LANGUAGE ABOVE.

Under sail for Lisbon, Nov. 29, 1761.

OFTEN at the description of divine things, by a masterly pen, or a truly poetical genius, I have been. astonished, and admired the enlarged views of those, and their sublime thoughts, who, like myself, but dwelt in clay. Then said I, What must the songs of the new Jerusalem be, when a stanza or two, wrote by a poor mortal, labouring with corruption, and bewailing his ignorance of sacred things, yields so much pleasure and delight!

I shall, then, for a moment, suppose myself arrived at the regions of glory, and welcomed by the King eternal to the upper world: But how am I at once transported with the harmony of bliss, while I am indulged to look into the library of heaven, and read all the essays of eternity itself! First, then, a celestial canto spreads before me, whose majestic style astonishes, whose soft and flowing numbers ravish, which was sung by the morning-stars together, by all the sons of God, when the earth was created, And next, an inimitable song, composed by the first bards of light, and sung by part of the celestial choir, when the son of God condescended to be born. Then a triumphant anthem, sung and echoed round the whole court of heaven by all the hosts of light, when the Son of God ascended conqueror over all his foes, and sat down on high at the right hand of God. But the most amazing and inimitable piece, for abundance of subject, for excellency of matter, for beauty of expression, for ardency

of love, for intimacy of communion, and for refined and exalted thought, is the divine epithalamium, which, at the marriage supper of the Lamb, when the whole family of heaven is assembled to divide no more, shall be sung by every guest at the feast of love, at the table of bliss. Besides these, here are some reviving hymns, composed by angels rejoicing over repenting sinners. What exalted joy sparkles in that angelic composition over a penitent Manasses, and every returning prodigal! Gabriel, in this matchless ode, sings of the eternity of God, in such strains as would astonish all the bards of time;-in that, Raphael dwells on the trinity of persons;-white Michael celebrates the majesty and power of the Eternal, with such energy of thought as would darken the brightest wits the world ever saw. In another, a mighty seraph sings inimitably of sacred love, and all heaven echoes amen to his divine encomium. Yea, now every saint is a poet, every believer a bard; and O how sweet are the songs of the higher temple! how soft the harmony of eternal day! What hallelujahs rise from the angels of God! what hosannas from the church of the first born! What concord and symphony are in the songs above! how dark, compared to these, were the brightest descriptions of God I ever heard below! how dull my former ardours to those which now I feel! How faint and languid my love to what now kindles in my breast! Here is the refined expression, here the noble idea, here the exalted turn of thought, here the true sublime of divine poetry, and here the enlarged, the naked view of divine things, of heavenly glories, to embolden and enliven every song. Here we talk of God at his throne, and while we commend him, we behold the beauties of his face; while we exalt him, we enjoy him, and so can never cease extolling him.

But, alas! my dark views of future things convince me that I am still in the body. Yet great things I may expect in that state of perfection. And though now I cannot serve God, nor sing to God, as I would, and as I should, yet there is a day on the wing when I shall join the anthem of love, and, being loosed from all my present fetters, shall sing through eternity with the bards of paradise, "To him that loved us, that died for us, that rose again, and reigns on high, be honor and might, power and dominion, blessing and glory, for ever and ever, Amen."

[ocr errors]

MEDITATION CXVIII.

DECLINING YEARS.

River Tagus, at Lisbon, December 26, 1761.

HITHERTO I have looked upon myself as young, and coming to my best; but henceforth I shall consider myself as in my declining years. I am certain how long I have lived in the world, but quite uncertain how soon I must leave the world; and therefore should be preparing for my final departure, and daily be ripening for the regions of bliss.

Nothing would be a more forbidding prospect, than the verdure of spring to cloathe the fields in harvest; but nothing more pleasant, than to see maturity keep pace with the approach of autumn. So should I grow daily riper for the great harvest, as the time of ingathering draws daily nearer and nearer. Leaves are pleasant in the infant orchard, but fruits are expected from the full grown trees :-So in the young converts, the breathings of grace are sweet; but aged saints are expected to abound in fruits of righteousness. My

love, like Ezekiel's holy waters, the longer it runs, should rise the higher, and spread the wider, till lost in its divine ocean above. The longer we live with our friends, we grow better acquainted, more intimate with, and fonder of them; so the longer I enjoy communion with God, the more ardently should I breathe after uninterrupted communion with him. As my years decline, and my outward man wastes away, so should my graces bloom, and my inner man grow strong; and when it is almost dark night with my life, it should be bright noon with my expectations. O how pleasant is it, that the longer I live in the world, I rise the nigher to heaven! If I make progress in my spiritual pilgrimage, I will daily lose sight of the world and all its vanities, which is the wilderness I travel from, and will daily see more of the tops of the heavenly mountains, of the towers of the New Jerusalem, toward which I travel. A state of grace is a glorious condition at all times; but a growth in grace is a sweet proof and heavenly consequence of being in a state of grace. My affections should be more and more loosed from the creature, while the pins of my earthly tabernacle are loosening every day. I should at all times have my conversation in heaven, but especially when walking with one foot in the grave.

Now, though the period of three-score years seems far distant, yet, as there is not an hour of the day of life but the sun goes down at, so I should just walk as under a setting sun, seeing upon thousands at my age the shadows of an everlasting evening have fallen, who had as many pretensions to longevity as I. My walking with God will not shorten my span, but brighten my noon, and make my sun set with all the sweetness of a cloudless evening. Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and, in a manner, begun heaven upon

earth, so that he grew immortal, and ascended deathless to the very throne. O how pleasant is it to feed on the fruits of Paradise, while entering into the land of promise, and as it were, to be naturalized in the world of spirits, ere I go to dwell for ever there. A grey head, and a carnal worldly heart, is a wounding sight; but a young man, and an aged love, one in his prime, and all his graces flourishing, is comely to behold. Henceforth, be gone bewitching vanities, and all the enchantments of the world! the evening of my life is not to be trifled away with you. Death attends me, the grave awaits me, and eternity is at hand; therefore, may my purified affections, river-like, enlarge as they approach the ocean; and on the wings of faith and love, may I often fly to the hills of spices, where thy glories shed their beams. May I walk in the liberty of spiritual meditation in the land of bliss, that so death, when it comes, may have no more to do than lay my slumbering ashes in the silent grave, and let my soul remain a free inhabitant in her blessed abode.

« 上一頁繼續 »