' Some persons (as * one well notes) are afar off, Eph. ii. 23. i. e.
* touched with no care of religion : some come near, but never enter
* as semi-converts. See Matth. xii. 34. Others enter, but with great
* difficulty, they are saved as by fire, 1 Cor. iii. 13. Make an hard ' shift. But then there are some that go in with full sail before the
* wind, and have an abundant entrance ; they go triumphing out of
* the world." Ah ! when we come into the narrow channel, at the very point of entrance into life, the soul is then in the most serious frame: all things look with a new face; conscience scans our evi- dence most critically ; then, also, Satan falls upon us, and makes his sorest assaults and batteries. It is the last encounter ; if they escape him now, they are gone out of his reach for ever : and if he cannot hinder their salvation, yet if he can but cloud their evening, and make them go groaning and howling out of the world, he reaches another end by it, even to confirm and prejudice the wicked, and weaken the hands of others that are looking; towards religion.
If this be so, how inevitable is my perdition, may the careless soul say ? If they that strive so much, and go so far, yet perish at last ; and if the righteous themselves are scarcely saved, then where shall such
* Mant on on Jude, p. 119.
NAVIGATION SPIRITUALIZED. * ZS9
au uncpodly creature as I appear ? O Lord ! if they that have made reUffion their business, and have been many years pursuing a work of mortification, have gone mourning after the Lord Jesus, and walked humbly with God ; yet if some of these have such an hard tuo- at last, then what will become of such a vain, sensual, careless, flesh-pleasing wretch as I have been ?
Again, Do saints find it so strait an entrance ? Then, though I have well grounded hopes of safe arrival at last ; yet let me look to it, that 1 do not increase the difficulty. Ah ! they are the things that are now done, or omitted, that put conscience into such an agony then ; for then it comes to review the life with the most seri- ous eye. O let me not stick my death-bed full of thorns, against I come to lie down upon it. O that I may turn to the wall in that hour, as Hezekiah did, 2 Kings xx. 2, 3. and say, " Remember " now, O Lord, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with " a perfect heart,'^ &:c.
-A-FTER a tedious passage, saints descry
The glorious shore, salvation being nigh :
Death's long-boat's launched, ready to set ashore
Their panting souls. O how they tug at oar.
Longing to be at rest ! but then they find
The hardest tug of all is yet behind.
Just at the harbour's mouth they see the wreck
Of souls there cast away, and driven back.
A world of dang'rous rocks before it lie ;
The harbour's barr'd, and now the winds blow high ;
Thoughts now arise, fears multiply apace ;
All things above them have another face.
Life blazes, just like an expirnig light,
The soul's upon the lip prepar'd for flight.
Death, till the resurrection, tears and rends,
Out of each other's arms two parting friends.
The soul and body. Ah ! but more than so.
The devil falls upon them ere they go.
With new temptations, back'd witli all his pow'r.
And scruples kept on purpose for that hour.
This IS the last encounter, now, or never ;
If he succeedeth now, they're gone for ever.
Thus in they put, with hardship at the last.
As ships out of a storm, nor sail, nor mast :
Yet some go in before a wind, and have
Their streamer of assurance, flying brave.
Lord, give me easier entrance, if thou please ;
Or if I may not there arrive with ease,
Yet I beseech thee, set me safe ashore,
Tho' stormy winds at harbour's mouth should roar.
SDO A NEW COMPASS FOR SEAMEN ; OR,
How glad are seamen when they make the shore ? And saintSf no less, when all their danger'^s d*er.
HAT joy is there among seamen, when at last, after a tedi- ous and dangerous voyage, they descry land, and see the desired haven before them ? Then they turn out of their loathed cabins, and come upon open deck with much joy. Psal. cvii. 30. " Then " they are glad, because they be quiet : So he bringeth them to '* their desired haven." Now they can reflect with comfort upon the many dangers they have past, Olim haec memhiisse Juvabit ; it is sweet to recount them.
But O what a transcendent joy, yea, ravishing, will over-run the hearts of saints, when, after so many conflicts, temptations, and afflic- tions, they arrive in glory, and are harboured in heaven, where they shall rest for ever ! 2 Thess. i. 7. The scripture saith, " They shall " sing the song of Moses, and of the Lamb," Rev. xv. 3. The song of Moses was a triumphant song composed for the celebration of that glorious deliverance at the red sea. The saints are now fluctuating upon a troublesome and tempestuous sea ; their hearts sometimes ready to sink, and die within them, at the apprehension of so many and great dangers and difficulties. Many a hard storm they ride out, and iiiany straits and troubles they here encounter with, but at last they arrive at their desired and long-expected haven, and then heaven rings and resounds with their joyful acclamations. And how can it be otherwise, when as soon as ever they set foot upon that glorious shore, Christ himself meets and receives them with a " Come " ye blessed of my Father," Matth. xxv. 34. O joyful voice ! O much desired word ! saith Parseus, what tribulation would not a man undergo for this word's sake !
Besides, then they are perfectly freed from all evils, whether of sin or suffering, and perfectly filled with all desired good. Now they shall join with that great assembly, in the high praises of God. O what a day will this be ! If (said a * worthy divine) Diagoras died away with an excess of joy, whilst he embraced his three sons that were crowned as victors in the Olympic games in one day : and good old Simeon, when he saw Christ but in a body subject to the infir- mities of our nature, cried out, " Now let thy servant depart in " peace ;" what unspeakable joy will it be to the saints, to behold Christ in his glory, and see their godly relations also (to whose con- version, perhaps, they have been instrumental) all crowned, in one day, with everlasting diadems of bliss ! and if the stars did, as Ig-
• Morning Exercise, p, 651,
XAVIGATION SPIRITUALIZED. ^91
natius saith, make a choir, as it were, about that star that appeared at Christ's incarnation, and there is such joy in heaven at the con- version of a sinner ; no wonder then, the morning stars sing together, and the sons of God shout for joy, when the general assembly meet in heaven. O how will the arches of heaven ring and echo, when the high praises of God shall be in the mouth of such a congre- gation ! then shall the saints be joyful in glory, and sing aloud upon their beds of everlasting rest.