2. If I believe, is my faith dead? or is it a living faith, working by love, and bringing forth the fruits of righteousness?

3. Do I love God? "He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love ;" and love to God and man is the fulfilling of the whole law.

4. Do I love the saints, and esteem the poor but pious ones, more than all the pompous sons of vice? "He that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him."

5. Is it my desire, that in all things God may be glorified, though it were by my dishonour and loss?

6. Do I choose rather to be the proverb and reproach of all the ungodly among whom I dwell, than to advance one word against religion?

7. Do I hate sin in its profits and pleasures in myself and others, because God hates it, and it ruins souls?

8. Do I rejoice more in hope of the glory of God, than in view of possessing all that the world can afford?

9. Is the exercise of religious duties the secret delight of my soul?

10. Do I faithfully strive against all sin, and count the victory over one lust a greater conquest than the taking a city?

11. Am I entirely resigned to the will of God in all things, being not only contented, but comforted with his disposal, though sometimes not what I would wish?

12. Is death often in my mind, judgment and eternity in my meditation; and am I always studying to be mortified to sin, and crucified to the world, that I may live to Christ?

13. Is the word of God the light, life, comfort, fond, and inheritance of my soul, into which I daily seek and search?

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14. Is sin growing more and more my burden; and are my struggles after perfection more vigorous than before, and more constant?

15. Am I, through grace, ever searching my ways, examining mine actions, looking into my heart, and watching over myself?

16. Is my desire of life mostly to serve God, and not to enjoy the pleasures of sense, but to be useful even in the matters of religion?

17. Is communion with God the delight of my soul? and have I more joy in the fore-thoughts of that fruition which the saints expect, than in all present vanities?

18. Have I daily recourse to the fountain of purification to be washed from my filth, and to be accepted in the Beloved?

19. Do I remember Zion in her affliction, Jerusalem in her calamity, being filled with a zeal for the declarative glory of God?

20. Dare I venture my eternal welfare on his gracious word of promise, that whosoever believes in him shall be saved; and that no sin shall condemn the soul that casts itself on Christ?

21. Do I believe that the love of God is unchangeable, that his gifts and callings are without repentance, and that at all times he is it hand, nor will desert his own in their last moments?

If I could return an affirmative to each of these queries it would shew me to be in a happy state, at peace with God, and in some measure prepared for the other world, so that I might go with undaunted courage to the day of battle, and fearless tread the field of blood, leaning on Christ alone.

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MEDITATION XCI.

ON A GREAT STORM OF THUNDER, LIGHTNING, AND RAIN.

Lying off France, June 9, 1758.

DARK is the night, but dismal the flash that scatters the darkness. At times the whole heavens seems in a blaze, while material streams of fire twinkle in our astonished eye, and dart across the skies; then tremendous thunder roars, and whole clouds descend in heavy rain, while the noisy wind blows with impetuous force. Now, durst the atheist yet deny a God! Would not his conscience answer to the flames of fire, his troubled thoughts agree to the language of the thunder, that there is a Power above, that rules events below? When the night is so dark, the lightning so dreadful, the thunders so loud, and the rain so incessant, can any ascribe all to blind chance? Nay, the atheist himself must confess and tremble?

But, O sad effets of sin! what fills the pious soul with fear, and a secret sense of the power and greatness of God, drives the wicked into sin. They fear, but they swear; they are troubled, but they transgress. How terrible, then, will that day be, when the Judge shall come in flaming fire,to take vengeance on his foes! when flames shall dwell in ether, the skies be kindled, and cities, kingdoms and continents, be cast into the burning embrace! when thunders bursting from every cloud, around the whole sky, admit of no interval, but with one continued roar terrify all the nations, till silenced and lost in the sound of the last trumpet, which the dead, hitherto undisturbed, shall hear!

When fire and water in contention or elements at war are so terrible, how much more terrible must the God of nature be, when, arrayed in awful majesty, he comes to take vengeance on his enemies? Lest we forget his greatness, nature preaches to us, raging tempests and rending winds turn our remembrancers, flames of fire unfold our lesson before our eyes, and roaring thunders awaken our meditations. As in his temple every one talks of his glory, so in his tent (for which he has stretched out the heavens) every thing shews forth his power. Fire, rain, vapour, stormy wind, lightning, hail, snow, and thunder, praise him. Then, since in all things, I may see God, may my soul ever go out after him, and above all things see him in the face of Jesus, as reconciled, and speak ing peace to me!

MEDITATION XCII.

ON BEING INTERRUPTED IN SECRET PRAYER.

Lying off France, June 13, 1758.

NOTHING can still the agitation of my spirit, but the fore-thoughts of perfect and eternal liberty, into which the sons of God shall shortly be delivered. Little needs the world without, disturb our retired moments; there is enough within to distract our meditations. But, O thrice happy day, which is approaching on the out-stretched wings of the promise when I shall stand among a numerous throng of adorers, worshipping before the throne, with the eye of my soul fixed on him that sits thereon; and not one of the many thousands of eternity shall disturb my adorations. The eye of my mind, the flow of my

affection, and the Same of my love, shall eternally fix on the divine object, from whom none shall draw one thought away. Here my circumstance is doubly calamitous; for, though the busy throng should not break in on me, there is a throng of base distracting thoughts already within me, that will not be at rest; but there, as nothing shall disturb without, so nothing shall distract within. Not one trespassing thought, not one trifling idea, not a moment lost, nor one expression unbecoming the sacred subject, but all wrapt to the sublimest height of ecstacy; and every adoration of God, who is a Spirit, shall be in spirit and in truthshall be without intermission through an indefatigable immortality, without interruption through consummate perfection, without wearying through inconceivable joy and delight, and without end, through an eternal duration.

MEDITATION XCIII.

ON THE ARMOUR OF SOLDIERS.

Lying off Normandy, June 13, 1758.

WHEN I behold the warlike race, and their glittering arms, how well they are accoutred for the field of battle, at no less than royal expence; it puts me in mind of him who is Prince of the kings of the earth, and has an army maintained at much immenser cost, harnished with much diviner armour, engaged in a more bloody war, against more depserate foes, but, supported by Almighty strength, are assured of conquest and a crown at last.

How are these men burdened with instruments of war wherever they go, for a soldier is but a poor man