is to be acquired by the means of thefe Paftimes, or that a Man imagines any true Beatitude lies in the Money he may win at play, or in the Hare that he hunts; he would not accept of it if it were offered him. It is not the foft and lazy Poffeffion of a thing, which fuffers us to confider our unhappy Condition, that we feek, but it is the Buftle that puts by the Thoughts of this Condition.

AGAIN, Thefe Divertisements, of which Men frame their Happiness, are not only mean and low, but are alfo falfe and deceitful; for instead of freeing us from our Ills, they do but only hide them from our fight for a while, and by this hiding, hinder us from ftriving to be truly rid of them: Thus, by a ftrange Contradiction in Nature, it comes to pafs, that a Man's Uneafinefs in this World, by which he fuffers fo much Pain, proves to be, in fome meafure, his greatest Good, fince it is more powerful than any thing else, to make him feek out for a perfect Cure, and that a Man's Pleasure, which he ⚫ reckons to be his chief Good, proves to be quite ⚫ the contrary, because beyond all things it puts him by the endeavouring to get a Remedy for his Ills; both the one and the other fhew us unquestionable • Marks of Man's Mifery and Corruption, and of his Excellency withal; for the whole Grounds of his Un⚫eafiness, that fend him in queft after fuch a Multitude of bufying Employments, comes from any Idea that remains in him, of his loft Happiness; which miffing in himself, he vainly feeks for in exterior things, ⚫ without being ever fatisfied; for it is not to be found either in us, or in any Creature, but in GOD ALONE.

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Friday,

N° 664.

Friday, April 15..

Confummatum eft.

This faid,

The Son of God bows down his awful Head,
Languid and pale clofes his facred Eyes,

And in loud Groans breathes forth his Soul, and dies.

Samber's Poem on the Paffion.

UCH is the Make of Man, that it is not in the

Poffibility of the greatest Barbarian that ever

put a Difgrace on the tender Parts of Human Nature, and banish'd from his Bofom an univerfal Senfe of Gratitude, not to have an inward Meaning ever before by him unfelt and unknown; if any body, to whom he had always been a falfe Friend, and by whom he had been efteem'd a real one, had been exposed to the Stroke of Death, to ward the Blow from himself. Among all the Creatures that ever deform'd the Stamps of Heaven, that ever deform'd the Images of an Almighty Maker, and degraded the Lords of the Universe into worse than what was made for their use, the Savages of the Field, this Monster of Ingratitude never yet appeared. When a Man of Power that has been the cruelest Tyrant and Tormentor of all his Fellow Mortals, whom the Lots of Fortune have thrown below him, and hath made his whole Life one continual Study to perplex them; I fay, when fuch a Man of Power has paid the common Debt of Nature, his Anger ceases with his Life, and they have both generally one common Period. In fuch a great Miscreant's Life-time, they that would perhaps have torn him by piece meal, will let him lie quiet and peaceful in his cold Grave, leave his Body to the Appetite of the

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Worms,

Worms, and with his Soul a fafe Deliverance, before he receives a Sentence that is eternally irreversible.

YETI know not how it happens, that it is not more ftrange than it is true, that he who is the Maker of the Universe, and with one Fiat bid Nothing be the fpacious World in which we now inhabit, and that hath done every thing imaginable for us, that is Good, that is Noble and Great, has attracted fo little of our Affections.

BUT if on any day, on this furely, he may challenge all the Powers of our Souls to be very active in exerting themselves to fhew towards him their immenfe Love, moft grateful Thanksgiving, and infinite Adoration. For on this day, that Lord who gave to this Land to exift, who bid the Rivers to flow, and gave the great Ocean its Boundaries, that ftretch'd forth the Sky like a Curtain, that order'd Night and Day to fucceed each other, and appointed to the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, their luminous Courses; after having furrounded his Divine Aseity, with as paffive a Cafe of Flesh as ever mortal Exiftence was invested with, he fuffer'd and underwent Death it felf to redeem us from it: which had otherwife been everlastingly our Portion, for the Original Sin, in the black Guilt of which our firft Parents had involv'd us all, and which only the Blood of the Lamb of God could wash away. Ingrateful Man! not to reverence and adore the God that made thee with his own Hands, to his own Image and Likenefs; moft Ingrateful! not to love thy Chrift who redeem'd thee with his Blood. Hear, and learn from me, one day at least in the Year, fome more ferious and pious Reflexions than will bear reading at other times with thee, that may cure thy Ingratitude.

LET us place the Son of the Almighty before our Eyes, in his feveral Sufferings, and view the Man God in the various Stations of Torment and Affliction. Behold him in the Garden of Olives, feiz'd with Fear and Trembling, and torn from the Arms of Confolation ; fo violent is his Agony, that from his Sacred Body big Drops of Water and Drops of Blood trickle down like Sweat; he prays to pass away from his Lips

this

this Chalice; but he adds, Nevertheless let thy Will be done, not mine.

O my Jesus! how painful muft your Paffion itself be to you, when the bare Representation of it put you into a Sweat, a Sweat of Blood! O how difficult was it for you to drink the Chalice of our Iniquities I How is Mankind obliged unto you, that thus you would charge your felf with their Infirmities, in or⚫der to reinveft them with the Strength of your Grace: Yet, yet, alas, tho' you combated with the Infirmi'ties of all Mankind upon you, we yield when we ' have the Power of God, ready offered to our Affis

tance.

WHAT ought then to be Aspirations of a Chriftian, when he has a Chalice of Humiliation offered him, which to the Spirit of Man is bitter. Let him fay, Lord, take this away from my Lips: However, thy Will be done, not mine. To all fharp Accidents, even those that the Blood of Man rifes at, and Nature uses to fly from with Horror, let us learn, from the Example of Chrift, to make this Anfwer with the utmoft Refignation, Thy Will be done, not mine.

LET us walk with him from hence, and fee the Creator receive a Blow in his Face from his Creature, without fo much as a Sign of Anger or Refentment. Let the Heroes of the World learn from hence that the trueft Valour of a Christian, is Patience and Longanimity.

THE next Place we may visit him at, is at Herod's, and there we may fee the Author of Wisdom made a Fool of, and Barabbas is by the Jews preferr'd before him. Thus Jesus the Word and Wisdom of God, will ever pass for Folly among the great Ones of this World, as the firft was trampled below the feet of the laft and lowest of Mankind. Mortal, whoe'er thou art that art fo unjustly thrown down, never fo meanly below thy Rank, is the Place of thy God unworthy to contain • thee?

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HERE he is whipt; and no fooner is he gone, but behold him at another Stand, with a Crown of Thorns upon his Head; from thence, fee him marching with that heavy Crofs upon his Shoulders, on which he is

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shortly

fhortly to be facrificed; and now, lo, he is arrived at the last great Stand, where he is to be facrificed! He is now at the Top of the Mount Calvary! Now they ftretch him on the Crofs! Now they nail my Redeemer's Hands! Now they nail my Saviour's Feet! There he hangs upon the Crofs! and there, upon him, hangs the whole Weight of all the Sins of the World !

GO up, my Soul, be truly and bravely Chriftian, go up and comfort him. Suffer in thy Heart the Cross with him, burft it with Sorrow, and die with him! O tender holy Lamb, facrificed for the Sins of Men! O Sacrifice of Juftice and Mercy, Thou Lord of Lords! Thou King of Kings! What doft thou do upon that Crofs between two Thieves? Is that a Place for thee? Is that thy Throne? Defcend, Lord, and the Jews will believe in thee. All the World will ftand in Horror of the Cross, every body will fhun it, and there will not be found a Perfon that will fuffer Death upon it. Oh, as you are the Son of God, defcend not thence, but accomplish by your Death all the Prophefies, accomplifh all the Sacrifices of the old Law, accomplish all the Defigns of thy Almighty Father, and all the Inclinations of thy boundless Charity; finifh the great Work of our Safety and Redemption. Alas! of a fudden the Skies are darken'd, the Veil of the Temple cut afunder, the Tombs burst open, and give up their Dead, Univerfal Nature is in Labour and Convulfions; no wonder, for now the God of Nature fuffers. The Author of Breath is refigning his own. I heard him groan out thus, 'Tis done, 'tis finish'd! and accordingly 'twas done, 'twas finifh'd, for the only-begotten Son of God expir'd.

AS of all Entertainments that are proper for this day, I can't recommend any thing fo good as that part of the Chriftian Hero which treats on it; which as it is the most pious, fo it is the most witty Production of the incomparable Sir Richard Steel.

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Monday,