Methinks I shall go all my days, at times, in the bitterness of my soul. Ah! we took sweet counsel together, and walked together to the house of God; but all is over. As he said on his dying bed, 'I have done with that life.' Alas! he has done his all with us."

Here he inserts a copy of verses, very tender and pathetic, but inferior as to poetical correctness to some which he wrote on subsequent occasions. I therefore insert only the concluding stanza.

9 O righteous Lord, thy sov'reignty we own;

His life, and all our lives, to thee resign;

What if to chasten us, and him to crown,
Thou hast decreed-our wills subdue to thine.

"Ah! woe is me: I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. My heart is ready to sink beneath it's load. More bad conduct among my brethren. The Lord have mercy on them and me! Surely I labour in vain, and spend my strength for nought. All my warnings, instructions, reproofs, &c. whether in or out

of the pulpit, seem to have none effect."

(5.) Observations on Books, and on Theological Subjects.

Aug. 16, 1780.-Some savour to-day in reading Edwards on the Affections."

"30.-1 found my soul drawn out in love to poor souls, while reading Millar's account

of Elliott's labours among the North American Indians, and their effect on those poor barbarous savages. I found also a suspicion that we shackle ourselves too much in our addresses to sinners; that we have bewildered and lost ourselves by taking the decrees of God as rules of action. Surely Peter and Paul never felt such scruples in their addresses as we do. They addressed their hearers as men-fallen men: as we should warn and admonish persons who were blind, and on the brink of some dreadful precipice. Their work seemed plain before them. O that mine might be so before me."

Here we see the first workings of compassionate feelings of heart, which at length led him so happily out of the entanglements of False Calvinism, and excited him to such exertions for the salvation of the heathen.

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Sept. 11.-Much affected this morning in reading Edwards's thoughts on evangelical humility, in his treatise on the Affections. Surely there are many that will be found wanting in the great day. Lord, is it I?

"Nov. 4.-How apt are we to think ourselves rather pitiable than blameable for having such remains of corruption in us. Perhaps one cause of this may be our viewing sin in us as an army, or something we have to oppose and press through. These ideas are good, provided we remember that they are figurative,

and that this army is nothing external, but internal; and that the opposition is not like that wherein the combatant's inclination is all one way, but he finds himself overcome wholly against his will: were this the case, we should be wholly pitiable. But it is as if a debtor were going to pay his creditor; but by the way found great struggles, whether he should go forward, and behave like an honest man, or whether he should turn aside, and spend his money in riot and luxury. In this case, he certainly ought to have had no struggle, nor to have made a moment's scruple. Neither ought we to make a moment's scruple about loving the Lord with all our hearts, and refraining wholly from sinning against him. We may, indeed, be pitiable with respect to each other; but in the sight of God we are wholly blameable.

"A hard heart is a symptom of distance between God and us. As the Lord is nigh to those who are of a broken heart, so he is far from those who are of a hard heart.

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March 29, 1780.-I have been reading in Josephus, the bloody reign of Herod. What pain is it to read those narrations, where truth and virtue fell to the ground, and were finally overcome. Methinks it helps to enhance the idea of heaven, that this is a world where these shall everlastingly triumph.

"Oct. 30.-I cannot help lamenting in reading in Mosheim's Church History, how

soon and how much was the religion of Jesus corrupted from it's primitive simplicity.

"June 23, 1781.-Some delight in reading Mosheim's History of the Reformation.Several times in the day had pleasant feelings on dying in the Lord.

"26.-Have been reading Mosheim's History, Cent. XIII. and XIV. to-day. Really I am sick in reading so much about monks, meadicant friars, &c. I could have wished the history had more answered to it's title-a history of the church: but it seems little else than a history of locusts.

"29.-Some sacred delight in reading more of Mosheim, on the coming forth of those champions of the Reformation, Luther, Melancthon, Zuinglius, Calvin, &c. into the field. I think I feel their generous fervour in the cause of God and truth. How were the arms of their hands made strong by the mighty God of Jacob!

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July 3.-I was taken up to-day in reading Mosheim, whose partial account of the English Baptists would lead me to indulge a better opinion of various sects who have been

deemed heretics.

"Was very ill to-night, but felt tenderhearted and earnest in prayer.

"Aug. 16.-In reading Dr. Owen, the end of predestination seemed sweet to me; namely, conformity to the image of God's dear Son.

"Nov. 14.-My mind to-day seems bewildered. The lives of some poets have taken up my thoughts. The grandeur and stretch of thought in their writings seems rather to flatten my mind towards the simple truths of Christianity. But, alas! what am 1 after? what am I admiring? Pompous trifles! Great souls employed in dressing atoms! O religion, thy joys are substantial and sincere.-When shall I wake and find myself where nothing else shall attract the soul?"

Much more that is very good might have been extracted, but chiefly such things as are common to all Christians.