MEDITATION LVIII.
MEDITATION LVIII.
THE NATURAL MAN INSENSIBLE OF MERCY.
Portsmouth Harbor, November 1, 1758.
Did men look but a little towards God, and into themselves, it would be their wisdom. But true wisdom can never shine where saving grace does not dwell. There are some men astonishingly saved from deadly dangers.
They are standing monuments of singular mercy, when numbers were dropping down around them, when instruments of death were rattling thick about them, like the hail from the thunder-cloud, and bullets falling like drops of rain—and yet they are preserved safe among the dying crowd. And there are others who have still a more narrow escape—for a bullet breaks one of their bones—which might have cut the thread of their life. Or a sword wounds an extremity—which might have pierced the heart and dislodged the soul.
Through the whole war, they have a kindly remembrance of their singular preservation, and God's special mercy to them. But, O chilling thought! how soon do these very people forget their great deliverer, show not the least gratitude to God—but return to sin, and proceed from evil to worse! Had any other soldier been a means of their preservation, they had displayed so much gratitude as never to forget it.
But it was God who preserved them—and they display so much of the sinner, the abandoned sinner, as never to remember it, never to acknowledge it! They pursue their sinful practices, as if their life had at first been given, and preserved when in danger—for no other purpose than to run into wickedness.
These men are the enemies of God. They have been hungry and he has fed them. They have been thirsty and he has given them water to drink. They have been in disease, and he has recovered them. They have been in danger, and he has preserved them. Therefore, if they continue still his enemies—he will heap coals of fire on their head, while his kindness shall be renowned forever. Where God's mercies have no effect—his judgments shall without fail have most terrible effect at last. Since I am a child of many mercies, may gratitude write them, in indelible characters, on the table of my heart!
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