sight, with some liftings up of head towards the light of Israel, who can yet open a door of hope in the valley of the shadow of death.

13, 14, 15, and 16, Were spent in pain and lowness; but not without some lookings to the great Physician of soul and body, "who, himself, took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." The nights have been so exceedingly distressing, through acute pains of the rheumatism, that a religious exercise upon my bed has been impeded by them; but however, "to will has been present with me ;" and the Lord is gracious to accept according to that which a man hath, even according to the ability which He affordeth, from whom every good gift cometh.

19. First day. Our well-beloved friends S. E. and G. D. having an evening meeting at Horslydown, although absent in body through indisposition, I was desirous of being present in spirit; in the invisible fellowship by which the children of God, however scattered abroad, are gathered together in one. The following portions of scripture were immediately opened, and impressed upon my mind, with a degree of strength and clearness, viz. "I will bring the blind by a way that they know not, and in paths which they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." “I will go before thee, and break in pieces the gates. of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron; and

20.

I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and the hidden riches of secret places." When barely read or repeated, how ineffectual are even the words contained in the bible; but when they are opened by their divine Original, they are as honey from the rock; yea, sweeter than the honey-comb. This day I was informed of the decease of my dear and worthy friend Thomas Hartley, who departed this life the 10th instant. I had been personally acquainted with him for more than nine years we were very dissimilar in our natural dispositions, and in our sentiments respecting various points; in others, we were firmly united; our union being more in the spirit, than the letter; the inward, than the outward. He was a man of unaffected piety, great sincerity, and exquisite sensibility; deeply suffering under a sense of his own defects in particular, and of the depravity of fallen nature in the general; following a crucified Saviour in the regeneration, according to his measure there is abundant cause for a comfortable hope, that he now rests from his labours, "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary

are at rest."

23. The awful declaration which was formerly pronounced, "I tell ye, I know ye not, whence ye are; depart from me all ye workers of iniquity," being impressed on my mind, caused trembling of spirit.

25. The great mystery of godliness ought to be ever before us. This day, being set apart for

the commemoration of the birth of Christ, "when the word was made flesh," when he took upon him not the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham; it may recal our attention to that stupendous transaction of divine love. Nevertheless, the superstitious observation of days and times. being introduced in the apostacy, it is our duty to maintain a testimony against it, in the "meekness of wisdom :" an inward exercise was supported in weakness.

31. I received a lively and sensible letter from M. P. it afforded some consolation to my disconsolate mind, that some remain, who are travelling together with me, under a sense of their imperfections, and shortness of having attained to "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

r.

FIRST MONTH, 1785.

"Great is the mystery of godliness;" the riches of the glory of this mystery, is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, with the apostolic epistles, are a faithful declaration of the gospel; which is the power of God unto salvation," of poor, naked, starving, undone sinners in themselves; who, as our ancient friend John Crook justly observes,

seeing their own righteousness to be a filthy thing, are the proper subjects of Christ's righteousness, which is not attainable by any creaturely

skill or self-imputation; but only by the applica tory gift of divine grace, and through that living faith, which works by love to the purifying of the heart." Upon this holy thing, ought we to be attending continually, in our meetings and out of them, at all times and in all places; that the pearl of everlasting price may be found within, as "treasure in our earthen vessels;" that Christ "may be formed in us, and we completed in him, who is the head of all principality and power :". the purport of the above being opened upon my bed, and fastened as a nail in a sure place, the same is recorded. Towards evening my brook became dry, and the savour of the above opening was removed.

6. This day was passed pretty comfortably, under some distant perceptions of the divine presence, in which only is life and comfort.

9. First day. How dreadful is a prayerless state! when the poor soul is left naked and wounded, a prey to the indignant propensities of fallen nature, and separate from the salutary rays of a Mediator. To some, by these memoirs, though true, I may be judged a deceiver; others may judge me to be a weak and unsteady man; very unfit to teach others. "He that is ready to slip with his feet, is as a lamp despised in the thought of him who is at ease:" but let such who possess fortitude and resignation, consider those who are swallowed up of overmuch sorrow, and learn what that meaneth, "I will have mercy, and

not sacrifice;" "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." And O! may the reality of righteousness and peace, and not a bare semblance of them, be multiplied and abound among us, that the Lord of Hosts may become a spirit of "strength to them, that turn the battle to the gate."

13.

In the morning on my bed, the desire of my soul was towards the Messenger of the covenant," and that He might suddenly come to his temple, who is as a purifier of silver, and as the fuller's soap."

15. We were visited by our dear and worthy friends S. E. and G. D. who, in their religious exercises, were enabled to reach to the oppressed seed, which " is pressed down as a cart with sheaves."

18. After having been, for many weeks, confined by the rheumatism, I was enabled to attend the week-day meeting at Horslydown; but when there, instead of the tribute of praise for the manifold preservations which had been vouchsafed, heaviness was the clothing of my spirit; and the awful inquiry was suggested, "despisest thou the riches of that goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering," which should lead thee to repentance? Nevertheless, there was a something of a waiting on the Lord in the way of his judgments, and of a solemnity which was as a song in the night.

23. First day. Reading some memoirs of the cruel sufferings inflicted by the magistrates and