MEDITATION XXIV.
MEDITATION XXIV.
ON KING'S ALLOWANCE.
May 19, 1748.
It is surprising, that government allows the youngest recruit the same kind and quantity of provisions that any man or any officer aboard can claim. Yet, it is no more than may be expected from royal generosity, since they, in their capacity, support the same cause, undergo the same hardships, rush into the same dangers, and expose their though young and tender, at the commandment, and for the honor of the King.
Even so, every child of grace that is born into the family of God, has the same ample right to all the heavenly blessings. No sooner is he a son, than he is an heir of all the fullness of the covenant. The young convert is allowed, by the King eternal, to plead the performance of all the promises, and to claim all the privileges that the aged saint can do.
Again, as nothing can be more pleasant, than to see early youth walking in the ways of holiness; so, often to such youth have bright manifestations of love, and large communications of grace, been given. And the love of espousals, and the kindness of youth, is a melting, a long remembered kindness. Have not some youth departed to be with Christ, with such a gale of glory on their spirits, that aged saints have been at once astonished and ashamed?
Have not some youths, who have suffered martyrdom for the name of Jesus, been so assisted with grace, that they despised reproach, and smiled in the face of danger—been so refreshed with foretastes of glory, that they could despise torment, and mount the scaffold with the same joy as if they had been going up the rounds of Jacob's ladder? And, have not some striplings on a death-bed had such a double portion of communion, that they could look on dissolution with delight, forbid their friends to pray for their recovery, and could meet their fatal moments with the same alacrity as a young prince going to the grand solemnity of his own coronation?