denial, his perseverance, and his flaming zeal for God, were exemplary indeed.

This morning a whale played round the ship for an hour and a half: it was a noble sight! And after him an innumerable company of porpoises. How manifold are thy works, O God!

Friday, Oct. 1. I devoted the morning to fasting and prayer, and found some degree of refreshment, and a sacred longing after more fervency and activity in the service of my God.

Saturday, 2. Hitherto the wind had not blown from any one of the sixteen eastern points of the compass, but now a brisk gale from the east carries us directly to our point. We are about three hundred and fifty leagues from Bristol, but probably have not sailed in all fewer than seven hundred.

I am entering on the works of Virgil. Indeed I can say in a much better sense than the poet,

"Deus nobis hæc otia fecit,

Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus."*

Sunday, 3. Brother Vasey this morning described to the sailors the tremendous transactions of the day of judgment; and in the afternoon I endeavoured to make them sensible of the necessity of being born again. They gave apparent attention, and that is all I can say. We also distributed among them, the Word to a Sailor.

Monday, 4. I have finished the life of David Brainerd. The most surprising circumstance in the whole I think is this, that the great work, which, (by the blessing of God) he wrought among the Indians, was all done through the medium of an interpreter. We are come about four hundred leagues.

*Which may be thus translated:-" God has provided for us these sweet hours of retirement: and he shall be my God for ever."

Tuesday, 5. I have just finished the Confessional, and believe the author does not speak without reason in his observations concerning national churches, that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world; that in proportion to the degrees of union which subsist between the church and state, religion is liable to be secularized, and made the tool of sinister and ambitious men.

Wednesday, 6. I devoted this morning to fasting and prayer. It was a good time. O that I never may lose any thing I gain in the divine life.

Thursday, 7. In the morning we had a perfect calm, and the Captain spread all his sails; the consequence of which was, that a sudden squall attacking us at dinner time, our main-mast was very near being snapt in two. The mate has been just informing me, that during the squall, and the amazing bustle in which they were, not a single oath was heard among the sailors. So far hath God wrought! We are above five hundred leagues on our voyage.

Friday, 8. I devoted the morning to fasting and prayer, and reading the scriptures, and found it a truly profitable time.

Sunday, 10. Brothers Whatcoat and Vasey preached to the sailors, and I expounded in the evening; but, alas! I do not perceive that we reach their hearts, though they now attend morning and evening on the week days.

Friday, 15. I set apart this morning for fasting and prayer, as I did also last Wednesday, and found it a refreshing season to my soul. For many days we had contrary winds till yesterday ; but within these two days we have made a considerable progress.

Sunday, 17. Two dolphins visited our ship, and immediately the sailors brought out their spear and lines. I knew not whether I should oppose

them or not on account of the day: but as the difficulty I should have to convince them of the sin would be very great, and as they now consent to have public worship three times on the Lord'sday, I forbore for this time, hoping to bring them in gradually. They killed one of them with the spear, and we are to dine upon it tomorrow. It is more like a salmon than any other fish I know. We have sailed about seven hundred leagues.

Monday, 18. I have waded through Bishop Hoadley's Treatises on Conformity and Episcopacy; five hundred and sixty-six pages octavo. He is a powerful reasoner, but is, I believe, wrong in his premises. However he is very candid: in one place he allows the truth of St. Jerom's account of the Presbyters of Alexandria, who, as Jerom informs us, elected their own bishops for two hundred years, from the time of St. Mark to the time of Dionysius. In another place he makes this grand concession, viz.-" I think not an uninterrupted line of succession of regularly ordained bishops necessary."-page 489. In several other places he grants that there may be cases of necessity, which may justify a Presbyterian ordination. But he really seems to prove one thing, that it was the universal practice of the church, from the latter end of the lives of the Apostles to the time of the Reformation, to invest the power of ordination in a superior church-officer to the Presbyters, whom the church, soon after the death of the Apostles, called bishop by way of eminence.

Thursday, 21. I finished the pastorals of Virgil, which, notwithstanding their many exceptionable passages, by a kind of magic power, conveyed me to fields, and groves, and purling brooks, and painted before my eyes all the feigned beauties of Arcadia and would have almost persuaded me

that it is possible to be happy without God. How.ever, they served now and then to unbend the powers of the mind.

Friday, 22. This day being set apart for fasting and prayer, as also Wednesday last, I finished St. Austin's Meditations. Certainly he was a good and great man, however false zeal might sometimes have led him astray. We were now visited by a sparrow, which informed us we were not a great way from land. It probably came from Newfoundland.

My brethren and I spend two hours, or thereabouts, in reading together in the evenings. The Captain and his son, and the mate, sometimes listen with great attention.

The Lord has, I trust, now given us one soul among the sailors, that of Richard Hare. His mother lived in Stepney, near London, and was a member of our society. I believe he is in a measure awakened, blessed be God, by our ministry.

Saturday, 23. Infidels have objected to that passage in the Psalms, The sun shall not burn thee by day, neither the moon by night; but Virgil has taken a much greater licence where he says, "Ne tenues pluvia, rapidive potentia Solis

Acrior, aut Boreæ penetrabile frigus adurat."*

Sunday, 24. I never in my life saw so beautiful a sky as this morning, a little before sun-rise-so delightful a mixture of colours, and so fine a fretwork. I do not wonder that the poor heathens worship the sun. During our afternoon service, and whilst I preached my farewel sermon, the people listened with great attention; and now, I think, I am free from their blood. This afternoon we spoke a brig bound for London.

* May the thin rain, or the stronger power of the rapid sun, or the penetrating cold of the north-east wind, never burn you.

Sunday, 31. Contrary to our expectation we are still at sea, and brothers Whatcoat and Vaseypreached. I have entered again on my Greek Testament. What a precious thing is the word of God!

Wednesday, Nov. 3. We are safely arrived at New-York, praised be God, after a very agreeable voyage. We enquired for the Methodist preaching-house, and a gentleman, who, as I afterwards found, had no sort of connexion with us, led us to our friend Sands, with whom we make our abode in a most comfortable manner. I have opened Mr. Wesley's plan to brother Dickens, the travelling preacher stationed at this place, and he highly approves of it, says that all the preachers most earnestly long for such a regulation, and that Mr. Asbury he is sure will agree to it. He presses me most earnestly to make it public, because, as he most justly argues, Mr. Wesley has determined the point, and therefore it is not to be investigated, but complied with. By the reports of some who lately came from Europe, or by some means or other, the whole country has been, as it were, expecting, and Mr. Asbury looking out for me for some time. This evening I preached on the kingdom of God within, to a serious little congregation, the notice being very short.

Thursday, 4. In the morning I preached onAs the hart panteth for the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God: and had very near as many, I think, as on the evening before.

Friday, 5. I enford on the people, in the morning, the example of the Rechabites: last night, the necessity of being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. In the afternoon I set off for Philadelphia.

Saturday, 6. I arrived at Philadelphia, and was received most kindly by brother Baker, merchant, in Market-Street.