MEDITATION CIX

UNDER THE DIRECT MERIDIAN.

Lat. O. W. Lon. 9, April 16, 1761.

STRETCHING towards the south, we are at last arrived at the true meridian, where our eyes need not travel through spacious skies, or journey towards the chambers of the south, to find the glorious Lord of day; seeing from the summit of the skies he shoots down his perpendicular beams, and gives the brightest day. This appearance would look strange in the northern isles, and therefore invites to some meditation. Then, as one that is always sailing to the south, though some. times he may be overtaken with calms, or contrary winds, yet sooner or later will reach the line; so the Christian that steers his course heavenward, though he may have many heavy obstructions, from without, and from within, as the contrary winds of strong temp-tation, the bursting squalls of inbred corruption, and the no less dangerous calms of spiritual sloth and carnal security, shall, in spite of all, reach the meridian of glory. Indeed, the poor sailor may perish before he can come to his port; but the believer, having his anchor within the vail, though earth and hell, and remaining sin, the worst of all the three, often threaten his ruin, shall safely arrive at the haven which he desires to sec, and then shall he remember the perils of his passage, and dangers of the sea, only in grateful songs to his divine Deliverer.

Never was I apparently so near the sun as now, and yet never did the sun seem so high above me: So it is with the Christian; the more he knows of God, and the nearer he is permitted to approach to his throne,

God is the higher in his esteem, and the more glorious in his adoring eye, while he is the lower in his own sight, yea, ready to sink into nothing while admitted to unclouded views of the divine majesty. And this, and this only, is the desirable situation below, when the soul, in deep humility, adores the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, wholly emptied of himself, and fully replenished with God.

Again, only under the meridian can I set my face every way, and look up and see the sun, because he shine's straight above my head, and all in the same latitude share the same amazing noon; so in the land of glory shall the Sun of righteousness shine in all the brightness of his uncreated beauty, into every soul, and be no more a rising, a setting, or a clouded sun, but eternally dwell in the full view of all his numerous adorers. The Deity, in his most ample revelations, in his most satisfying manifestations, shall fill all the higher house; yea, every entranced adorer sees God in one another, for seraphims and cherubims flame in his brightness; angels and archangels sing and shout in his day, and all the saints shine in his similitude. Nothing is there (for the fearful and final separation has taken place, O tremendous day!) but God and goodness, but innocence and peace, but sanctity and joy, but harmony and song, transport and delight, love and illumination.

Here our bright day has an enfeebling influence, and our high sun-beams almost insufferably hot; but there (O! shall such an one as I be ever there?) I shall bask in his noon-day beams, and share the efful gence of his inconceivable divinity, yet not dissolve into inactivity and death, but thereby be invigorated for the whole task of an eternal adorer !

Is this globe of light and ball of fire, so amazingly majestic, that heathen nations have given him divine honour as a God? then how incomprehensibly great, how ineffably glorious must Jehovah be, whose bare word spake such a beauty into being! and is my eternal noon to be by the brightness of his presence, the emanations of his love, and the glory of his power? yea, is even Jehovah himself to be my light and day, my life and bliss, my portion and song? what then, though some few dark nights intervene, since this day is on the wing, when my views shall all be bright, because in his light I shall see light clearly? O these transporting, these transforming views, that shall for ever entertain every enquiring, enlarged faculty of soul; Henceforth let my soul dwell by faith in endless noon, till over all my shades this endless noon prevail.

MEDITATION CX.

UNDER THE MERIDIAN, THE SUN AND MOON HIGH.

N. Latitude 5o. 35'. April 19, 1761.

WHEN the starry heavens engaged my attention in the northern climes, many of their bright inhabitants, and the moon herself, seemed low to me; but here, under the meridian, not only the sun but the moon in her proper hour possesses the summit of the sky, and the bright beauties which seemed to be in some depressed station, partake in the same exaitation. Now, is not this a lively picture of that happy and triumphant state that the militant church shall be exalted to at last? Christ is ascended up on high, not for himself (for as God he is over all blessed for ever) but as our representative,and in our name, that where he is,there

we may be also; and as his Father has a seat on his throne for his beloved Son, so has the Son promised that such as overcome shall sit with him in his throne; yea, every saint shall partake of his Redeemer's glory, for if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him ; and if we confess him, before an abandoned world, he will also confess us before assembled men and angels.

Then, although the moon suffer an eclipse, it is not to be thought that a planet is destroyed, for she shall yet reflect many a bright beam, and, to some parts of the world, run in an elevated orbit; so it is with saints in particular, and the church in general, they may be both low and little in the account of carnal men, but they are not the less noble in themselves, nor of smaller account with God. The certainty of this exalted state may well support us under the deepest abasements, for because he lives, we shall live also, and every member shall rejoice with his glorified Head. What though the saints now suffer under diversified trials, like the inhabitants of the frozen north,who have only a peep of day through the whole winter, but are har-. assed with one burst of tempests, one covering of snow, and one field of ice; since they may look a little forward, and see themselves placed in these happy regions where their divine Sun sheds eternal noon, and makes them shine forth as stars in the kingdom oftheir Father!

MEDITATION CXI.

A SQUALL OF RAIN, LIGHTNING, AND THUNDER.

April 20, 1761.

THE other day, when the meridian sun brightened a cloudless sky with amazing effulgence, and all round about was light and beauty, I did not dream that such a tremendous night would so soon ensue. The winds blowing with amazing vigor, the disquieted ocean roaring beneath, the glaring lightnings flashing over the whole heaven, the broken clouds pouring out floods of water, and the rolling thunders echoing the majesty of the Eternal, through the conscious void, make up the awful scene. So trouble and disappointment will often break in on the most beautiful prospect of sublunary felicity, and raise a hurricane amidst the most perfect calm. Hence, we should learn, amidst the possession or expectation of any created bliss, or temporal good, to hold all we have or hope for, at the kind hand of the Sovereign Disposer of all things, of whose conduct none of his saints could ever yet complain.

Again, if the least contest among the elements, produce such dreadful effects, how terrible must the state of sinners be, who wage eternal war with heaven, and shall have the arrows of the Almighty within them, the poison whereof drinketh up their soul!

No place or latitude can at times boast of so delightful a day, but at other times no place undergoes a more dismal night; so let churches in general, and saints in particular, stand in awe to sin, and beware of presuming on their privileges, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these; and, We have Abra

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