might be the more gloriously opened as a fountain, not only to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but to the whole race of Adam, for sin and uncleanness.

30. This day being the summer assizes, the judge came in. I am likely soon to appear before the Judge of the whole earth; at so important a crisis, some are ready to say, we have faith, and others, we have works; I can boast of neither, but can only say, "Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief;" thou canst fulfil all the good pleasure of thy goodness, and the work of faith with power; thy mercy reacheth the depth of misery; righteousness and strength are with thee, and one day is as a thousand years.

EIGHTH MONTH, 1781.

8. The following aspirations were attendant; Lord, spare me yet a little longer, that I may obtain an increase of strength and faith in thee; the work is thine: reform also my exterior conduct, shew forth my faith by my works; "Instead of the thorn may the myrtle appear." Let thy works praise thee, and thy long suffering be salvation.

25. Some feelings after the meekness and gentleness which are in Christ Jesus, were this day attendant. I read divers accounts of such, who, near the conclusion of their lives, obtained

an evidence of peace with God, through Jesus Christ.

31. After a deeply-exercising night, in which the alarm of death was as loud within, as the tempest without, I wrote out a fresh copy of my will, which I design to get speedily executed. I have nothing to boast of, but many backslidings bitterly to bewail; nevertheless, since I have possessed some outward substance, I have been desirous to expend it in the most equitable manner I could, and that my fellow-creatures, both professor and profane, might partake of the benefit; and my own reputation, as an individual, hath been pretty much absorbed in the consideration of my religious profession, that none might have any cause to reproach the blessed truth, as having a narrow, illiberal, and selfish tendency.

NINTH MONTH, 1781.

12. I was attended with pain of body and lowness of mind: a distinction betwixt the life of faith and the life of sense, was the object of my meditation. I have lived more than three-score years too much after the bias of my senses, at least, in those things that are esteemed innocent by men. "The life that I now live," said the blessed apostle, "is by the faith of the Son of God:" almost daily desires after the experience thereof, hath attended for more than forty years; yet I

remain to this day too great a stranger to the full enjoyment of that "life which is hid with Christ in God." O may I daily experience an increase in it that when he, who is the life of his people, shall appear, I also may appear with him.

14. It hath long been my judgment, that the circulating of reports which, in any wise, have a tendency to depreciate others, is inconsistent with our Christian duty; the mortifying our natural propensities, in that respect, is certainly a branch of the Cross of Christ, and compatible with his spirit and precepts. Great, indeed, even in this particular, is the prevalence of the law in the members, against that of the mind, and of corrupt propensity over a more rightly informed judgment.

25. Having been for some time past pretty much confined, I had an opportunity of perusing some tracts, lately published, written by my long acquainted friend Joseph Phipps; in which our religious sentiments concerning baptism, Christian communion, silent waiting, oaths, fasting, and rejoicing, are stated and supported. The great error of the Calvinists, and those called remonstrants, or predestinarians and free-willers, hath been in endeavouring to reduce the deep mysteries of the incorruptible God, into an image or system made in the likeness, and after the manner of corruptible men; and so seeking, by the arts and devices of their own hearts, to elucidate the ways and works of an infinite Creator, by those of finite creatures :-a most vain and fruitless effort, replete with ab

surdity, and inconsistent with the express declaration of the Lord Jehovah, "Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon;""for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord; for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

TENTH MONTH, 1781.

9. Being, contrary to my knowledge, nominated to attend the meeting for sufferings, as one of the committee of the yearly meeting, in considering and digesting the Book of Extracts, containing rules and advices relative to our religious society, I went from Hartford to London.

ELEVENTH MONTH, 1781.

6. This day the committee on the Book of Extracts was dissolved for the present, having sat from the 19th of last month inclusively. I was enabled to attend pretty closely; my lips were generally sealed in silence, but some inward exercise of spirit was at times experienced for the revival of the law and the testimony, that Zion

might be redeemed by judgment, and established in righteousness. How good is it for brethren to dwell together in unity, and to be preserved from anger, wrath, clamour, envy, and evil-speaking; which favours were measurably experienced in the course of the foregoing service. Thanks to the God of Peace, and Master of Assemblies, to whom the glory of every good word and work belongs, now and for ever.

20. Myself and wife dined at Youngsbury: after dinner I had some discourse with D. Barclay concerning that excellent man and skilful minister of Christ, his grandfather, and the elaborate Apo-logy he wrote for the true Christian Divinity: his memory I much esteem for the evangelical testimonies contained in that work, and the distinctions between the doctrines of truth and Calvinistical and Pelagian errors. May none, professing with us, forsake the fountain of living waters," who thus speaketh; "If any man is athirst, let him come unto me and drink," and turn not aside to the corrupted channels of carnal reason and crea--turely power; for if so, "the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark," when the Lord shall shake terribly the earth, and exalt his only-begotten Son, as the refuge of the poor, and "strong hold of the daughter of Zion."

22. I read the 3d and 4th chapters of the prophet Daniel; in the former, there appears a striking instance of the tyranny of despotic princes, in the person of the king of Babylon, his unreason