hide or the mountains to cover us; rocks and mountains are themfelves diffolving; they can give neither shelter for our heads nor fupport for our feet!* In vain shall we folicit our friends to intercede ;-cur friends fall then be too deeply concerned for themselves to regard the caufe of others; and what, ah-what could patrons or friends avail, when, "the clement, the mediatorial hour” is now absolutely paffed and gone;—and we have not made him our interceffor, who would have been as mighty to fave and reward as he now is to punish and avenge? What too will diffembling profit us, or how can we expect to deceive him, whofe eyes are as a flame of fire, who pierceth into the heart's inmoft receis? Who will lay open before us the whole volume of our lives, and place in the univerfal view of all thofe thoughts, and words, and deeds of darkness, which in vain we secreted from the eyes of our fellow-creatures upon earth!-for who can efcape the eyes of Omnifcience? Can tongue exprefs, can heart conceive, the anguish which will rend our fouls, when the dire fentence of condemnation fhall pafs-a fentence from his lips, which breathe only mercy and love to the just;--and which we defpife, while calling to us upon earth, with the most pathetic invitations,-Come unto me, and I will give you reft! Aggravating circumftance! We have abufed his love! We might have been bleffed, eternally bleffed-But now the fatal moment is arrived, "Depart, ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,"f-is the dreadful malediction! No, my foul, through this Redeemer's never-changing love, we will hope, confidently hope, to avoid the horrors of this extreme difirefs! And, oh, that every Where, where for fhelter fhall the guilty fly? + Matthew xi. 28. Matthew xxv. 41. L 3 DR. YOUNG. foul foul of man would, with fuch compofed and folemn thought, meditate upon it, that joyful fongs of thankfulnefs only might on that day be heard: that with humble truft we might approach the Judge's throne, and find in him, not the Almighty Avenger,-but the Father, the Saviour and eternal Friend! What can equal the goodness of our God! or what could we defire more gracious at his hands, than that he fhould feat upon the tribunal of juftice that fon, that only begotten and beloved fon,* who once came to our earth, not to judge, but to be judged; who died for thofe finners, on whom he is now willing to confer an eternity of blifs! + Happy he, who, convinced of this sovereign grace, looks continually and ftedfaftly, with the eye of Faith, to that great day when the Saviour fhall come in the clouds!Then thall his fears be for ever removed, and all his anxious doubts fhall vanifh as the fmoke; then, with an accent of melodious fweetnefs, with a look diffuling love and joy ineffable, the great Redeemer fhall welcome him, together with all thofe who have been faithful unto death,-hall welcome them and fay, Come, ye blefed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world!-Nay, he thall vouchfafe to enumerate thofe general deeds of Chriftian benevolence, which fuch fouls have performed through their faith in him and not only enumerate but acknowledge them, as if they had been conferred upon himself, Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these my brethren, je did it unto me.‡ How forcible, how affectionate a motive to us, now in the day of our pilgrimage, to be diligent, continu * John v. 22. O may I breathe no longer, than I breathe My foul in praife to him, who gave my foul Cut thro' the fhades of hell, great love! by thee, Matthew xxv. 40. NIGHT THOUGHTS. ally ally and unweariedly diligent in all fuch acts and offices of love! Chrift will accept them, our Redeemer, our Judge, our Hope, and our All, will accept our tender charities to his members, and our fellow-creatures; will accept our works of faith, and labours of love,* as if we had been happy enough to have had an opportunity of performing them, even to his own perfon. And, publishing the grateful tidings to all around, he will allow us to partake of his triumph, and to enter, amidst his returning faints and angels, thofe regions of glory and peace, where we shall live with him, and enjoy everlafting happiness. But we will refer to our next Chapter what we have to add refpecting the peculiar bleffedness of that state, and the exquifite mifery referved for those who know not God, and who obey not the Gofpel of our Lord Jefus Chrift; who will be punished with everlasting deftruction, from the prefence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, t when he shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance; and when he fball come to be glorified in his faints, and to be admired in all them who believe in that day. A paffage of Scripture which cannot fail greatly to influence thofe who give it that attention which its importance deferves for who can think of everlafting deftruction, from the prefence of the Lord, and the glory of his power, without an anxious defire to avoid that deftruction, the very terror of which chills the heart. * Theffalonians i. 5. Proftrate, my contrite heart I rend; 2 Tim. i. 7. LORD ROSCOMMON. CHAP. CHAP. XX. And thefe fhall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. MATT. XXV. . 46. ETERNAL punishment! Eternal life! What awful words! What folemn events! Who can read them, and be unconcerned ! Who can think of them, and be indifferent to the momentous truths they impart ?Were our existence to terminate with the prefent paffing fcene, indulgence might be laudable, and every felfgratification right.* "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die: let us crown ourselves with rofe-buds; let none of us go without his part of our voluptuoufnefs ;” would then be the language of reafon and truth.—But eternity before us-confummately bleffed, or con ́ummately wretched-and death every moment fhaking his dart triumphantly over us, preparing to ftrike once and ftrike no more;-can it be poffible that any rational being fhould remain unfolicitous, and neglect to prepare for the important realities of eternity, while chafing, with unremitted ardor, the fugitive vanities of time and fenfe? Yet, alas! many beings, proud of their faculties, and boafting their fuperior reafon-are found, are daily found, immerfed in fin, and rivetted to the world;-heedlefs of God, of themfelves, and immortality! uninfluenced by every motive of gratitude, unmoved by every argument of intereft, to obey the voice of Religion and Truth, and If death was nothing, and nought after death! Whence first they fprung, then might the debauchee, BLAIR'S Grave. to to fecure the eternal falvation of their fouls! Oh, that they would indulge one ferious reflection; that they would condefcend awhile to meditate with us, on the miferable woe reserved for those who forget their God: -on the inexpreffible comforts which they fhall reap in joy, who love and ferve him. Think then, my fellow. creatures, oh! think of that awful day of which we spoke before*, and imagine, if you can, the horror which must feize the fouls of those who hear the dreadful fentence, Depart, ye curfed, into everlasting fire !-Driven from the prefence of God, which is itself complete and perfect joy; driven from the fociety of thofe beft loved friends, whofe kind remonftrances they would not hear on earth, and nowah! fatal feparation-now muft never, never more hear or behold! And driven thence-aggravating circumftance! even by the condemnation of that Lord of love, who, defirous to blefs and to fave, freely fhed even his own most precious blood, and as freely would have given them life, had they but humbly asked it.† And were not this, only this expulfion from God, from Chrift, from Heaven-of itfelf a hell fufficient, yet what horrors remain behind? They fhall be driven into the lake which burneth with fire and brimftone, whofe actual and infufferable tortures shall aggravate the mind's inward horror.-Oh! who can dwell with everlasting burnings! yet where, where shall one drop of water be found to cool the parched tongue? Who can dwell where devils and condemned fouls fhall mix their mutual and infulting taunts, and upbraidings? where there fhall be no fociety, but a fociety in common accufations, and where, every gentle paffion expelled, the tumultuous workings of defpairing minds fhall miferably confuse and diftract each other. In the laft Chapter. + Matthew xxiii. 37. ‡ Ifaiah xxxiii. 14. There |