It was a strange delightful melting of heart over a sweet child, gone home to our own father and God. to be consummately happy.

In the morning the Rev. Mr. P. and Mr. A. came in. Mr. P. prayed. The parents and I spent much time musing over and feasting our eyes with the lovely relic, which seemed to brighten in beauty as it lay, waiting the company to convey it to its parent earth.

It is done-finished-the soul with God, the body in the tomb. It is all well-yes, our Covenant God, thou dost all things well. I firmly believe thy mercy is over all thy works. Goodness, mercy, yea, loving kindness has marked thy every step. I believe it now. I shall see it soon.

Now, our God, follow this bereavement with thy purifying, sanctifying grace. O, enable us all to search and try our ways. Lead our souls into a knowledge of the secret corruptions of our hearts, that we may confess and mourn over them, wash in the blood of Christ, be pardoned, restored, and get a great victory. O enable, through life, to abide in Christ; to keep close to thee transacting all our affairs with thee, before they come into the view of the world. Let thy wisdom and thy Spirit, in connexion with thy providences, be our counsellors. O keep us in a dependent frame of mind, humble and watchful. Strip us of all self-confidence. May we at the same time be strong in the Lord, and the power of thy might; rejoicing in thee, the God of our salvation, the strength of our heart, and our portion for ever. Glory, glory, glory to Father, Son, and blessed Spirit. Amen, and Amen.

December 21, 1801.

It is my earnest desire to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is my desire to love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength, and with all my mind, and to love my neighbour as myself, so as to do to him whatever I could expect from Christian principles in him, on an exchange of circumstances.

It is my desire to give all diligence to add to my faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness charity, that these things being in me and abounding, I may be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I desire to grow in grace day by day, to profit by every ordinance of God's appointing, and by every providence; and I pray, Lord, I pray, that thou wouldst grant me my desire, so as that I may become more spiritual, more discerning in the Scriptures, more fruitful in good works: that thou mayest increase also my humility. Open to my view more of the extent and spirituality of thy divine law; the majesty, purity, holiness, of thy nature; the exceeding sinfulness of sin; the hidden corruptions of my own heart, and my inability to search them out, and to crucify them; give me also more just views of my past life, that I may ever be convinced that I am, what I really am, the very chief of sinners, and the least of all saints: and that it is entirely of Grace, that I am what I am. O make out this promise to me; I will table it in thine own words: Ezekiel xvi. 62. I will establish my Covenant with thee: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. I confess myself the character described in the two

foregoing chapters; and though thou hast chastened me ten thousand times less than my iniquities deserve, even by the constitution of the New Covenant, thou hast chastened me. Now, O Lord, most merciful, and gracious, who pardonest iniquity, transgression, and sin, for thy name's sake, do to and for me as thou hast said.—I will establish my Covenant with thee: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God. Amen.

August, 1802.

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EZEKIEL XX. 32. And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that you say, we will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone. Verse 35, And I will bring you into the wilderness, and there will I plead with you, face to face: 36, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God; and I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the Covenant. Verse 43, And shall remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled, and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight, for all your evils that ye have committed, and ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake; not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings. O O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God. It is good, yes, Lord, it is all good; too often have we said we will be as the heathen, to serve wood and stone. Often hast thou chastened, often have we confessed, often resolved that we would walk more softly, more tenderly, more circumspectly before thee. But, alas! when thy

hand is removed, when thou healest us, and restorest to us health, comfort, and our pleasant things, we wax fat and kick, nestle in our comfort, abuse thy gifts, and lose sight of the giver. Alas, Lord! thus it must ever be with us, when we keep not near to thee; we cannot walk one step alone without stumbling. Thou knowest these naturally wicked hearts, that they are deceiful above all things, they betray us before we are aware. Blessed, ever blessed, be our God for his well ordered Covenant! Blessed for the discipline of it!

O Lord, we are again in the wilderness, and under thy chastising rod: for weeks past, we have eaten no pleasant bread; thy rod is still suspended over our pleasant, our dear child; the streams of life ebb, he sickens, he dies, if thou interfere not. But the issues from death are in thy hand, and our eyes are towards thee. In vain are all means, all medicines, if thou infuse not the healing virtue. Thy weeping servants seek the healing virtue from thy waters, thy seas, thy purer air. All nature is in thy hand, and ministers thy pleasure; to some conveying health, to some disease. An herb fresh from our mother earth, to be boiled in simple milk, as the figs for Hezekiah's boils, has been proposed by a weak woman: O let this prove the appointed mean, or direct and point out that which thou wilt bless, and let our hearts and tongues give the glory to thee. We deserve this bereavement ; but, Lord, what do we not deserve? Even according to the constitution of the Covenant of Grace, and consistent with thy pardoning, saving, mercy, and all thy long suffering; wert thou to take vengeance on our inventions, by exercising all thy threatened chastisements; should we ever be out of the furnace? but even in this view, thou never hast dealt with us as our

iniquities deserved. He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger for ever. Thou hast in thousands of instances, cast our sins behind thy back, into the midst of the sea; blotted them out, to remember them no more for ever. Thy ways are not as our ways, nor thy thoughts as our thoughts. We may plead, deal not with us as we sin: but according to the multitude of thy mercies, blot out our transgressions. Pardon our iniquity, for it is very great. Affliction is appointed, but it is in measure, when it shooteth forth, O debate with it, and according to thy promise, Stay thy rough wind, in the day of thine east wind. Lord, say it is enough, give the blessing, and by this measure shall iniquity be purged, and the fruit be to take away sin. All means are alike in thy hand, and any measure. In holy sovereignty and consummate wisdom, thou afflictest, and in thy hand afflictions yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness: the hearts of thy people are melted, and they sing of mercy and of judgment, and glorify thy name. But, O Lord, a look such as thou gavest to Peter, will melt our hearts, and restore our backsliding souls. The announcing our pardon by the same power, will make them overflow with love. If thou but call us by name as thou didst a great sinner at thy sepulchre, with the same power, we shall recognize our Saviour, and worship him.

O Lord, our God, ever faithful to thy promises, thou hast said, whatsoever ye ask in my name, believing that ye receive, I will do it. O Lord, I ask not the life of this child on this ground. I have through life asked one thing of thee, and that will I seek to obtain, while life and breath remain, and reason and grace, I will seek it; seek it with importunity, holding fast by thy promise to do it, and believing that it shall be according