unlocks the fetters, and knocks off the chains, and gives them perfect liberty: but with the wicked it is not so, for if grace deliver them not, death only seals their slavery, and shuts them up in the prison of the bottomless pit. Oh! melancholy truth, that Satan's slaves should be so many, and so content with their sad condition, though death and hell attend its latter end.

MEDITATION LXXV.

QUARANTINE.

Under sail near Sardinia, April 21. 1759. IT is a laudable practice among these nations, to make all ships, that come from places where the plague now and then appears, perform quarantine; and during that time to forbid their own people all correspondence with the suspected crews. If it is commendable to be careful of the welfare of a nation, how culpable is that church that receives or keeps in her communion persons immoral in their life, or unsound in the faith! How dangerous in private persons, who pretend to be religious, to contract acquaintance, intimacy, or friendship with men of loose morals or libertine principles! O my soul! come not thou into their secret, into their society! How cautious should we be to mingle in the company of the wicked, where we are sure to suffer one way or other! And our care herein ought to extend to all the connections of life. Would I live in the same city with men dying daily of infectious diseases? would I admit into my house persons to serve me, if la

bouring under the plague? and would I take into my bosom that person, in other respects however amiable and dear, if full of the pestilence? How agreeable, then, to have the fearers of God, the citizens of Zion, for the men of my city! to have Christ's free men for servants in my family! and such as have an interest in Christ for my nearest connections!

Some suttlers adventure along-side, and sell for an extravagant price such things as we want, and cannot go ashore to purchase; they pretend not to touch us but at arm's length, and with a board too, to reach out the commodity, and receive the money: Even so, men for the love of gain will go. every length; will risk only the peace, but the salvation of their sous, for a temporal advantage. O to see things in their proper light, and not put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter; time in the place of eternity, and eternity in the place of time; the creature in the room of God, and give God no room at all!

The longed-for day arrives, when the officers of health inspect the crew, pronounce us clean, and permit us to come ashore; and then we mingle in every company, appear in every place: Even so, when Jesus, in that memorable day, a day longed for by the lovers of his name, acquits his saints before an assembled world, they shall rise to heaven, walk the streets of glory, mingle with angels, and dwell for ever with God.

MEDITATION LXXVI:

THE NEEDLE.

May 5. 1759.

Of what excellent use is the compass to the mariner in his course from one country to another! It is his guide over the trackless ocean, so that the darkness of the night shortens not his sail, nor turns him out of the way. By this he reaches the remotest part of the world, and adventures out into the unmeasurable main. By this the trading na tions stand and flourish, and kingdoms share mutually the commodities of one another. Even such is the everlasting gospel, such the word of God, to the rational world. By this we reap the blessings of paradise, and are enriched with the productions of the better country. By that mariners plow the wide ocean; by this we launch into unbounded eternity itself.

The usefulness of the needle, rises from the mag netic virtue with which it is impregnated, and which makes it point always to the pole; so the excellency of the scripture is, that it came not by the will of men, but holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; and therefore it leads all who will attend to its instructions only out to God. Now, as one piece of metal, capable of receiving the magnetical influence, will communicate it to another piece of the same metal; yet, whatever way the virtue is received, when properly sus pended, it points not to the load-stone, but to the true pole; so the scriptures and the ordinances never teach men to rest in them, but to rise to

God, the chief good, and ultimate end of all; and to this purpose all inspiration points, and all teaching and preaching tend.

How deplorable were a ship at sea without its compass! and no less so were the world wanting revelation, without which they could not find the haven of glory. What, then, must the misery of those nations be, who sit in gross darkness! and the cruelty of those who will not let the poor people look into the words of eternal life!

But, alas! for all this noble assistant of navigation, how many ships perish in storms, or mistake their reckonings, and are dashed on rocks! Even so, in the Christian world, for all this divine guide, how many make shipwreck of a good conscience, perish amidst the storms of temptation, in the dark night of defection, and, by opposing error to truth, dash against immoveable rocks, and are lost for ever.

The load-stone is in no respect so useful to the seaman, as the scriptures to the Christian, by which errors are discovered, dangers disclosed, doubts discussed, darkness dispelled, and our eternal concerns laid open to our view. They are our cloud that covers us in the desart, a light to our path, our companion by the way, our counsellors, and our song in the house of our pilgrimage.

The compass is of little or no use at home, when we take up our fixed residence, and pass no more from shore to shore, from pole to pole: So, when the saints arrive at heaven, and take up their last abode in the divine presence, of gospel-ordinances and the scriptures they shall stand in need

no more.

But again, how does that needle give a lively idea of the soul that is truly united to Christ! it

seeks its centre, and the saint says to his soul, "Return to thy rest, O my soul!" Take the compass to whatever part of the world you please, still it turns to the pole; so the saints, in all conditions, and in all places, still seek to Christ; and like the Jews in captivity, who prayed with their faces toward Jerusalem, so the saints in their pilgrimage have their faces towards Zion, their hearts heavenward, their conversation in heaven.

Indeed it is possible to toss the needle from its pole, but see in what confused motion it agitates, and never rests till it has reached the centre again; so the spouse may miss her Beloved, but she rests not seeking him every where, and asking at every one she meets, "Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?" nor gives over the inquiry, till she find him, and, with all the vehemency of divine affection, embraces him in the arms of her soul, with a resolution never to let him go again.

The attractive power in the magnet is a secret in nature, for no visible change is in the needle more than before; it is by the effects that we know it has been touched by the load-stone, in its attracting and being attracted, and turning to the pole : So the new birth, the spiritual union between Christ and the soul, is an unsearchable mystery that no finite creature can explain; for there is a glorious change made in the man, yet the man is not changed; he continues still a man, human, frail, changeable, mortal, possessed of the same feelings, powers, passions; only they are all directed into a noble channel, and by this the change is

known.

Finally, (to add no more), as the needle is always in a tremulous motion, though pointing towards its pole, because of the restless ocean on