all be repaired at the general resurrection, every defect supplied, every loss restored; and the body complete in all its parts, sound and youthful, beautiful and gay, shall then, together with the soul, be clothed with everlasting health and immortality. So happy shall all the saints be at that day; but though all shall be happy, yet will not they all be equally so; their blisses then will hold proportion to their graces now; and one star differs from another star in that glory, because the merciful King of glory rewards every man according to his works.

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MEDITATION XLVI.

The Almighty Power of God.

THY mighty hand, O God, at all times and upon all occasions the same, created angels in heaven, and worms upon earth; nor was the one of these operations less a demonstration of thy omnipotence than the other. For as no hand but thine could give being to creatures so noble as the angels, so none but thine could frame the vilest insect. Thine only could spread out the firmament, thine only could produce the least spire of grass: thine only could fashion these wonderful bodies of ours, thine only make the least hair of our heads white or black: for to that power which knows no bounds, all things are not only possible, but are equally so.

To thee there is the same difficulty in making a worm, as an angel; to thee the same ease in creating the whole heaven, as a single leaf; the colouring a hair, and compacting a body, are the same thing, and the Almighty finds no difference between hanging the earth upon the waters, and supporting the waters by dry ground. Whatever pleased him, was done in heaven and in earth, and in the sea, and in all deep places; and done exactly as it pleased him. He made them all, and me among the rest, according to the excellency of his wisdom and skill, and power, and good pleasure. Thy hand, hadst thou thought fit, could have made me a stone, or a bird, or a serpent, or any of the brutal kind; but such was thy goodness that it would not. If

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then, I would be satisfied why I am none of these, but a creature by far more excellent than all these; no other answer can be returned to that question but this, that thy wondrous goodness was pleased thus to order it, and that it did thus order without any consideration on my part to deserve, or any way incline thee to grant me such preference above the creatures of lower attainments, and less honourable station.

How shall I therefore praise thee, most mighty Lord? How shall I be able to contribute to thy glory, who could contribute nothing to my own existence? Let thy own works magnify thee, according to the greatness and multitude of thy power and mercies. Thy praise is too vast to be comprehended by thought, expressed by words, or heard by any mortal ear. These all are finite, and pass away; but thy glory is infinite, and the praise of it endureth for ever. Our thoughts begin, and soon come to an end; our words form different sounds, and vanish into air; our ear receives impression of those sounds, and quickly loses them again; but thy praise is fixed, and abideth to all eternity.

What mortal man then is sufficient to tell thy noble acts, or set forth all thy praise? He praises thee indeed, who acknowledges himself unable to praise thee. We only praise thee in, and by thyself, and all our praise is in thee. Then have we true praise, when thou approvest thy own works in us. When we seek it from any other, we lose true praise; for that is transitory, thine eternal; and as oft as the transitory is grasped at, the eternal slips away from us. Let me therefore love and seek thee alone, from whom is true and lasting praise. Give me thyself, and so shall I be able to praise

thee; for, what am I without thee, but dust and ashes, a dead dog, a loathsome carcase; and how should death and corruption praise the God of the spirits of all flesh, that inhabiteth eternity?

Can darkness praise light, and death life? Yet such is the difference between thee and me. Thou art light, I am darkness: Thou art life, I am death: Thou an eternal substance, I vanity and nothing. And can a mortal man, who to-day is, and to-morrow is not, praise him that endures the same for ever? Can rottenness and worms add to the glory of the great God? Can he that is conceived and born and brought up in sin, praise that holiness whose pure eyes cannot behold iniquity? No, my God, let thy own incomprehensible power and wisdom, and goodness, thy boundless mercy and unspeakable clemency, let these, for these alone are qualified to set forth thy praises; even that almighty power, and infinite love, by which thou hast created me to natural, and regenerated me to spiritual life, O God, the life of my soul.

I will therefore rejoice under the shadow of thy wings, and hope in thy goodness, which first gave me being. Thy bounty made me, let it also help me; preserve that creature which thy goodness made, from perishing in its own wickedness and misery. For how am I the better for being made, if I be suffered to sink into my own corruption? Hast thou, my God, created man for nought? Despise not then the work of thy own hands; but govern and preserve it. Thou madest me out of nothing, and if thou leavest me destitute of thy protection, I shall quickly return to nothing. For as I was not, when thou first commandest me into being, so unless thou be pleased to assist and sup

port me, there is that principle of destruction in me, which will soon make me not to be again.

Help me, therefore, thou God of my life, that I perish not. Hadst thou not made me, I had never been at all: because thou madest me, I am what I am; but if thou preserve me not, I am no more. Let then that love, which prevailed with thee to give me being, prevail also for the governance and preservation of that being. Save what thou hast created, and complete thy mercy; for better were it never to have created me, than to create me for sin and destruction. The benefit I ask is not less than that vouchsafed already: thy love is still the same, for thou hatest nothing that thou hast made, and art the same kind God, even love itself. Thy hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither thine ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but my iniquities have separated me and my God, between darkness and light; between the shadow of death and life; between falsehood and truth; between my perishing and thy enduring and everlasting sub

stance.

These are the thick shades of night, with which I am encompassed in the dark dungeon of this mortal body, till the day dawn, and the day-star arise in my heart. O that thy powerful voice would issue that irresistible command, Let there be light! so should darkness disperse from off the face of the deep, so the dry land appear, and bring forth abundantly, the green herb, and the fruit of righteousness after his kind. O Father of life, leave me not under the power of wicked imaginations, nor give me a proud look: but turn away from thy servant an haughty mind and vain concupiscence, and possess my heart with thy grace, that I may serve and