Bounty, an acknowledgment, you dare not deny his vaffal. But, O Redeemer, if thy divine eloquence was not able to overcome the Jews; what motives can I propose to convince Chriftians of thy love, and to bring them over to thy fervice? nothing can perfuade them but thy omnipotent grace; the fruit of all thy labours, and the purchase of thy facred blood. This kindness is common to our whole fpecies. But oh! how many engines does his unfpeakable goodness set at work, to draw each particular finner to grace? the beginning of our conversion precedes our free choice: God calls upon us before we can answer: he feeks, before we feek him: Nay, we cannot feek God, unless he first seeks us; nor, come to him, unless he prevents us. This firft call, this fearch, divines call preventing grace. We ftray from our duty, like a poor fheep in the wilderness: we entangle ourselves in a labyrinth of disorders; we tire in purfuit of unlawful pleasures. Yet we cannot weary out God's mercy, nor tire his patience. In the midst of our disorders, we hear a voice within us. How long, Oprodigal! wilt thou remain a rebel to thy intereft, and a traytor to the beft of Fathers, to the most powerful of Mafters, to the most se vere of Judges? Thy paft delights teach thee, the prefent pleasures will take wing: the world will fteal from under thy feet; and, when thou doft think to ftand fure, thou wilt find no bottom. But if thefe kind admonitions make no impreffion, he unlocks the bottomlefs pit, uncovers the lake of fire and brimstone, and then puts us this question: Who can dwell with everlasting burnings? Ifaiah xxxiii, 14. can live a prey to everlafting fire? If this terrible profpect foftens not our heart, he strikes us with a disease, stops all paffages to plea H 4 fure, fure, and turns life itself into a burthen: and to break these fools paradifes of the world, that cheat our eyes, to enchant our foul, he raises a mifunderftanding between us and the world. One misfortune treads on the heels of another: our estate finks; our projects miscarry; our defigns end in fmoak, and all our expectations in difappointment. Now we fee things in a clear light: all appears vanity, but virtue; all unworthy of our affection, but God. Then he enflames our will with a new grace, which breaks through all oppofition; and fo we return at last, with a fincere repentance, to the Paftor of our fouls. O dear Jefus! we have ftrayed like sheep: Seek thy fervant, that he may find thee. It is true, I have fhut my ears a hundred times, that I might not hear thee; and as often hardened my heart, that I might not obey thee; fo that I deferve no pity, no compaffion, no mercy. Had you treated me anfwerable to my deferts, I had now been groaning under the sentence of your juftice; but you defire repentance, not my ruin; and therefore let your grace at laft melt my obftinacy into forrow, and turn my dotage on the world, into a love of heaven. But when he has regained his loft sheep (a finner) he layeth it on his shoulders rejoying; and when he cometh home, be calleth together his friends (the faints in heaven and angels) and neighbours, faying to them; rejoyce with me; for I have found my fheep that was loft. O Father of mercy! why fuch joy for the converfion of a loft finner? art thou more rich, because he is found? more happy, because he will be so, if he perseveres? or would'st thou be miferable, if he were unfortunate? no, no, thy joy fprings from goodness, not from interest: from thy enemies happiness, not thy own. But if there be fo much joy in heaven at the converfion of a finner: methinks there fhould be fome on earth earth and if Chrift labours fo much, we should contribute by our prayers, by our alms, in fine, with all our abilities, to fo charitable a work. If alms, which only regard the body, blot out a multitude of fins; how many will these cancel, that are immediately given for the converfion of fouls? Oh! did we but understand the real value of a foul, we fhould be more careful to preferve our own, and contribute less to the damnation of our neighbours. The EPISTLE to the Rom. Chap. viii. Ver. 18. For I reckon, that the fufferings of this prefent time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifeftation of the fons of God. 20. For the creature was made fubject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath fubjected the fame in hope: 21. Because the creature itself alfo fhall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22. For we know that the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together, until now. 23. And not only they, but ourselves also which have the firft-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies. The MORAL REFLECTION. TH HE apoftle encourages the Roman converts, to fuffer, with patience and perfeverance, the perfecutions they lay under, upon confideration of the recompence our Saviour had told his difciples, Should Should be great; for great is your reward in beaven. Matth. v. 12. But St. Paul adds, that the reward will exceed our fufferings beyond all measure and proportion: The fufferings of this prefent time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which fhall be revealed in us. *The pain, fays St. Bernard, is drunk by drops; but the reward is a torrent, an impetuous river; a torrent of delight, a river of peace and glory. The pain is fhort, and ends with a moment; tranfit hora, tranfit pœna: but the reward is without change, without end. Say not therefore: Oh! my torment is long, and weighs heavy upon nature. + No labour is hard that gains heaven; no time is long that purchases a bappy eternity. To fee God, and in him all things; what knowledge! to love God, and in him all that is amiable; what pleafure! to enjoy him, and all that is estimable; what riches! to fear nothing; to defire no more for all eternity; what fecurity! what tranquillity! God rewards every one in proportion to his virtues, and measures the recompence to his deserts. Yet, as St. Bernard notes, this measure has no measure, and this proportion, to any thing that is created, has no proportion. Tell me, O God (continues the fame faint) what is this thou doft measure? it is nothing I have seen, touch'd, or tafted; yet I am fure, it tranfcends all that obliges fenfe, or falls within the compass of my imagination. I can imagine nothing greater, than this majestick pile we call the world. What a harmony, what a difcord! what a variety, what a change! and yet a conftancy in the change! what a ftedfaftness in motion! what an immutability in *Guttatim pæna bibitur: In remuneratione torrens eft voluptatis, et fluminis impetus: Torrens inundans lætitiæ; flumen gloriæ ; Aumen pacis. S. Bern. + Nullus labor durus videri debet, nullum longum tempus, quo gloria aternitatis acquiritur. S. Bern. continual continual mutations! for an almost infenfible part of the globe, what do we not do? nay what do we not fuffer? what an eagerness in the pursuit! what tranfport in the enjoyment! and yet, my God, all this, we so much admire and esteem, is but an entertainment in our banishment. Thou haft prepared it for thy enemies, as well as for thy friends: for those that love vanity, as well as for the followers of truth. If therefore thofe things, thou haft made for our contempt, are fo pleafing: what will that be, thou haft prepared for our efteem? if the place of our exile has fuch alluring charms, what fhall we enjoy in our own country? All we contemplate here, is but the effect of one Fiat: all we enjoy with fuch tranfport, only ferves to footh our fenfes; but in heaven we shall poffefs thyfelf; that is, all good: a good, that renders an infinite Being infinitely happy; and that to all eternity. This glory, my God, haft thou prepared for thofe that love thee. What comparison then between what I can fuffer, and the reward I fhall receive? Why then do we repine at a fhort pain, followed by fo long a recompence? Oh! fpare me not here, to reward me in heaven. GOSPEL of St. Luke. Chap. v. Verfe 1. And it came to pass, that as the people preffed upon him to hear the word of God, he flood by the lake of Genefareth: 2. And faw two fhips ftanding by the lake; but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. 3. And be entred into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land: and he fat down, and taught the people out of the foip. 4. Now |