the rod; I had heard her earnestly wish for deliverance from sin, and when death approached, she was more than satisfied; said she had been a great sinner, but she had a great Saviour; praised him, and thanked him, for all his dealings with her for hedging her in, for chastising her; and even prayed that sin and corruption might be destroyed if the body should be dissolved to effect it. The Lord fulfilled her desire, and I may add, mine. He lifted upon her the light of his countenance; revived her languid graces; increased her faith and hope; loosed her from earthly concerns; and made her rejoice in the stability of his Covenant, and to sing, "all is well, all is well, good is the will of the Lord. I did rejoice, I do rejoice; but, O Lord, thou knowest my frame; she was my pleasant companion, my affec tionate child my soul feels a want. O fill it up with more of thy presence; give yet more communications of thyself.

We are yet one in Christ our head; united in him: and although she shall not return unto me, I shall go to her, and then our communion will be more full, more delightful, as it will be perfectly free from sin. Christ shall be our bond of union, and we shall be fully under the influence of it.

Let me then gird up the loins of my mind, and set forward to serve my day and generation, to finish my course. The Lord will perfect what concerns me, and when it shall please him, he will unclothe me, break down these prison walls, and admit me into the happy society of his redeemed and glorified members: then 'shall he wipe away all tears from my eyes,' and I shall taste the joys which are at his right hand, and be satisfied for evermore.

January 3, 1796. PHILIPPIANS, iv. 4. Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.'

Be careful for nothing, but in every thing, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which

passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.'

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Christ Jesus!-what does not this name comprehend! · He is mine, and all is mine. I do rejoice in the Lord, yea, more or less I rejoice always. This heart of mine is sensible to every human affliction; my tears flow often and fast: I weep for myself, and still more for others but in these very moments of heart-wringing bitterness, there is a secret joy, that my Jesus is near that he sees, knows, and pities. That he is Jehovah as well as Jesus, could have prevented the affliction under which I groan; but for my good, and the good of those near and dear to me, he suffered it, or prepared it. The good of his people is connected with his glory; they cannot be separated therefore, Father, glorify thy name; I rejoice, and will rejoice. The Lord can remove, and will remove the affliction, the moment it has answered the gracious purpose for which it was I would not wish it one moment sooner. While it lies heavy, he is my Almighty friend, my rest, my staff of support.

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In time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion ; in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock,' PSALM xxvii. 5.

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped, therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; with my song I will praise him,' and in his strength, and by his grace, let' my moderation be known unto all men.' My Lord is at hand; at hand to support, at hand to overrule, at hand to deliver. Therefore I rejoice always.

Blessed be God for the heart-easing, heart-soothing privilege, of casting all my cares upon him, and for the blessed assurance that he careth for me and mine: that he allows, invites, yea, commands me to be careful for nothing, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, to let my request be made known unto him, who is man, and touched with the feeling of our infirmities, (Jesus wept,) and God, the Almighty God, to support, overrule, deliver Therefore my heart rejoiceth always.

May 28, 1796. This is the anniversary of my dear Jessie's birth, no more to call us together on earth; but I yet remember it, as a day in which our God was merciful to me, and made me the mother of an heir of salvation. I bless, I praise, my covenant God, who enabled me to dedicate her to him before she was born, and to ask only one thing for her, as for myself, even an interest in his great salvation, leaving it to him to order the means, time, and manner, as of her natural birth, and ripening age, so of her spiritual birth, and ripening for glory; he accepted the charge, and he has finished the work, to his own glory, to her eternal happiness, and my joy and comfort. I have witnessed remaining corruption fighting hard against her, and bringing her again and again into captivity to the law of sin and death, warring against her.' I have witnessed the rod of God lie heavy upon her, according to the tenor of the Covenant, when she forsook his laws and went astray :' when she walked not in his judgments, but wandered from his way, he visited her faults with rods, and her sins with chastisements, but his loving kindness he never took from her (though he often hid it,) nor altered the word which he had spoken, that he would never leave her, never forsake her; that in due time he would deliver her from all her enemies. I witnessed her desires to be delivered from the world, and the body, and taken home to the bosom of her God; since that appeared at times, the only way she could be delivered from sin. I witnessed her lamenting her unfruitfulness, her unsteadiness I heard her exclaim, " Oh, what a sinner! what a great sinner!" and "Oh, what a Saviour! O the goodness of God in hedging me in, and saving me from myself; his covenant stands fast, it is established, it is sure." I witnessed a God pardoning sin, yet taking vengeance on inventions. I witnessed the sinner, after being sixteen years in the school of Christ, (taught by his ministers, and most effectually by his rod,) taking shelter in 'the city of refuge,' in the atonement of God's providing, and in a surety righteousness,' and finishing her struggles with "all is well!" my heart echoed, and does

echo, and will to all eternity," all is well." Glory to God, sing not unto her, not unto me, not unto any creature, but to God be the glory,' that she is now delivered from a body of sin and death, and made meet to be a partaker with the saints in light.' HALLELUJAH.

June, 1796.

PSALM CXXII. 'I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.'

The house of the Lord-whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord,' to seek his face, to learn his will, to taste his love, to behold his glory, to enjoy God as their own God, and reconciled Father.

Lord! let my heart be warmed more towards thy house; I have sought and found thee in thy sanctuary, read thy providences, and been taught thy will; I have tasted thy love, and beheld thy glory; I have enjoyed thy presence as my own reconciled Father in Christ Jesus; I have been satisfied with thy goodness, as with marrow and fatness, and yet how cold and languid at times, how little desire to return, how small my expectations, how wandering my imagination! how do I sit before thee as thy people, and my heart with the fool's eyes at the ends of the earth! Lord, I would blush and be ashamed, were a fellow mortal to see my heart at times. I may hide my eyes from viewing vanity, but the evil lies within. Lord, thou knowest the cause for all I have heard, seen, tasted, and handled of the word of life, I am still of myself an empty vessel, unable to speak a good word or think a good thought. Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord. Quicken me according to thy word; turn thou away my eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken me in thy way then shall I run in the way of thy commandments, when thou hast enlarged my heart.'

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The house of God-the owner, the builder, and maker Is God, and it is his peculiar treasure. Christ is the foundation, and chief corner stone, and his house are we, built upon him, cemented together a spiritual building : the foundation cannot fail, the corner stone can never give way; neither can we fall to pieces, or be separated from him.

The house of God— Jerusalem, Zion, the rest of God, where he delights to dwell,' where he will for ever stay; the house of God, the Church, yea, the body of Christ : Christ the head, his people the church, his members; whose life is in him, and derived from him; and because he lives, we shall live also. Lord, enlarge my understanding, to comprehend more and more of the height and depth, length and breadth of the love of Christ, which passeth all understanding. Open my eyes to behold wondrous things in thy law,' (Gospel.) I am as yet but a babe: Glory to God that I am what I am; a babe in Christ. I shall be nourished with life and strength from my divine Head; educated and nurtured by the blessings of the new covenant. I shall arrive at that perfection of stature appointed; and stand in my lot at the latter day. Amen.

May 16, 1796.

PSALM 1XXXIX. 30. If his children forsake my laws, and walk not in my judgments: if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes; nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from them, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail; my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.' Amen. Blessed promise! O, it is a well ordered Covenant, and it is sure. Of all the provisions of the Covenant, this has been to my soul among the most comfortable. Thanks be to God for the discipline of the Covenant; often has it been administered. Thou knowest, and I know in part how necessarily, although I shall not know, nor understand all, until that blessed rod shall have perfected its correction, and shall never more be lifted up.

Many ups and downs has thy servant experienced in this vale of tears; many tears have watered these now aged cheeks; in variety of ways hast thou stricken, and at times stripe has followed stripe, but mercy and love accompanied every one of them. I bless thee; O I praise thee, that I have seldom received a stripe but I had with it a token of love. Sin was embittered, a Sa