sonings, and have been much struck at the similarity of their cavils and my own. Nay, I have seen their objections clothed in the very shape in which Satan formerly suggested them to my mind; and hence I knew who had taught them. May the Lord change their hearts, and give them to see their folly and their danger! O blessed Bible! may thy doctrines and promises continue to cheer and support me through this vale of tears; for I know by experience, that the Assyrians, the Jarebs of this world, cannot heal a troubled mind, nor cure a wounded soul. (Hosea, v. 13.)

To the best of my recollection, this sceptical state of mind lasted about half a year, when I gradually returned to reading the Bible (if it may be called reading;) for no sooner had the Lord driven Satan from this post, but he attacked me from another. No longer able to make me deny the Scriptures, he endeavoured to prevent my reading them, by injecting the most vile and horrid, the most impure and abominable thoughts into my mind whenever I opened that blessed book. It is utterly impossible that a second person can conceive to what length this snare was carried. Many a time did I shut up the Bible, as the only way of getting clear of what made me detest myself; for I found, that whenever I left off reading, I was

delivered from these abominable thoughts. So little did I know of Satan's devices, of my own heart, or of the way to escape the evils of the one or the other. While these conflicts were passing within my mind, and while I was sinning on deck and repenting below, making resolutions, and breaking them faster and faster, the Lord sent me one very striking personal call to turn and consider the madness of my ways.

Having anchored off the coast of Suffolk, a party went on shore to shoot wild-fowl. We had returned to the beach, waiting the arrival of the boat. The roar of noisy mirth had ceased, and I was at length become thoughtful; for I had greatly sinned against light and conscience that day. As I was pacing the shore, thirty or forty yards from the main body of my companions, one of them levelled his piece; I noticed him, and thought his aim was well adjusted for my head, if he had any design to shoot me. Scarcely had the thought crossed my mind before he fired: when, feeling my hat jerk, I took it off, and, to my surprise, found the contents of his piece had entered the crown, right in front; passed over the scalp of the head, and escaped through the back part of the hat! It appeared, on inquiry, that he had loaded with a pebblestone, the size of a musket-ball, which he foolishly supposed would fly to dust as soon as

it escaped the barrel of the piece. When I saw how near I had been to the eternal world, I could not but say, "This is surely the voice of God;" and under this impression I sat silent in the boat during the greater part of our way to the ship, a circumstance which one of my companions observed, and began to rally me on it, asking whether the thought of having been nearly shot had tied up my tongue. And now, does the reader imagine I honestly confessed the truth?-No! for, although I trembled at the recollection of the eye and hand of Omnipotence being so evidently about me, yet I trembled more at the prospect of human ridicule, and rather than endure the laugh of man for standing in awe of God, I ventured on another act of known sin, and positively denied that any such thought occupied my mind.

Such was my base ingratitude to a gracious Preserver, who still permitted me to live, an awful instance of this truth, that though "God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not;" at least not so as to be duly affected by the divine calls. But my heinous lie left a sting behind, which more than ever banished peace from my mind. I applied to the Bible with somewhat more attention than usual; but, alas! it was a sealed book, Egyptian darkness overshadowed my understanding, and fretfulness

and dissatisfaction (not repentance) filled my heart. Still I put on the hypocritical smile of cheerfulness in company, and passed for a happy fellow, while happiness was an entire stranger to my breast. My most comfortable hours were those in which the bustle and exertion of nautical duty prevented my thinking. In this state I passed more than two years in the D-, causing the Lord to serve with my sins, and wearying him with my iniquities.

I might lengthen out my remarks on his goodness, in covering my head in the day of battle, when so many fell; as well as, on three different occasions, preserving this ship from the most imminent danger of being wrecked, on the coast of Spain, and in the North Sea; but I refrain from doing it, lest so many repetitions should exhaust the patience of my readers. I will only observe, that, some time after I left the D-, she was lost, and more than five hundred souls perished with her! O that I could but feel as I ought to do in the retrospective view of so much mercy! But, alas! like David, I find my soul cleaves to the dust; and, like St. Paul, when I would do good-when I would "stretch forth the wings of love and arms of faith," evil in various shapes is present with me, and shortly I am found dwelling in the tents of Kedar, as before.

No. VII.

"I WILL SING OF MERCY AND JUDGMENT."

SWEET theme! thou hast smoothed down many a rugged portion of my way through this wilderness of sin-thou hast solaced me in many a past and gloomy hour! Henceforth, "when clouds and darkness are round about the throne of the Almighty," may I ever remember that 66 mercy and truth are the habitation of his seat." When at any time, "I walk in darkness and have no light," let the remembrance of past goodness cheer my drooping spirits, and strengthen my feeble knees! And, O thou gracious covenant God! who hast borne with me so long, do thou, from henceforth, enable me to follow thy dear Son as the good shepherd, although it be like the ewes big with young, limping, and in the rear of thy flock! Lead, O lead me, by thy merciful hand; enable me to endure unto the end, to arrive at thy fold, and to awake up after thy likeness; for then