faith. For whom was grace intended if not for me? Are not the promises made to me? Is not my Maker in earnest, when he declareth he willeth my sanctification, and hath laid help on one that is mighty? I will therefore have no confidence in the flesh, but rejoice in the Lord, and the joy of the Lord shall be my strength. May I receive from above a pure, a humble, a benevolent, a heavenly mind!"

"Rose at half-past five, and walked a little before chapel, in a happy frame of mind. Endeavored to maintain affectionate thoughts of God as my Father, on awaking in the morning. Setting a watch over my first thoughts, and endeavoring to make them humble and devout, I find to be an excellent preparation for prayer, and a right spirit during the day. I was in a happy frame most of the day; towards the evening, from seeking to maintain this right state by my own strength, instead of giving it permanency by faith in Jesus, I grew tired and very insensible to most things. At chapel the sacred melody wafted my soul to heaven: the blessedness of heaven appeared so sweet, that the very possibility of losing it appeared terrible, and raised a little disquiet with my joy. After all, I had rather live in an humble, and dependent spirit, for then perceiving underneath me the everlasting arms, I can enjoy my security."-"Amid the joyous affections of this day, I quickly forgot my own worthlessness and helplessness, and thus looking off from

Jesus, found myself standing on slippery ground. But oh! the happiness of that state, where pride shall never intrude to make our joys an occasion of sorrow."

"Rose at six, and passed the morning in great tranquillity. Learnt by heart some of the three first chapters of Revelation. This is to me the most searching and alarming part of the Bible; yet now with humbling hope I trusted, that the censures of my Lord did not belong to me; except that those words, Rev. ii, 3,-For my name's sake thou hast labored and hast not fainted," were far too high a testimony for me to think of appropriating to myself; nevertheless I besought the Lord, that whatever I had been, I might now be perfect and complete in all the will of God.""Men frequently admire me, and I am pleased, but I abhor the pleasure I feel; oh! did they but know that my root is rottenness!"-"Heard Professor Farish preach at Trinity Church on Luke xii, 4, 5, and was deeply impressed with the reasonableness and necessity of the fear of God. Felt it to be a light matter to be judged of man's judgment; why have I not awful apprehensions of the glorious Being at all times? The particular promise -'him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out,' &c. dwelt a long time on my mind, and diffused an affectionate reverence of God."—"I see a great work before me now, namely the sub

duing and mortifying of my perverted will. What am I that I should dare to do my own will, even if I were not a sinner;—but now how plain, how reasonable to have the love of Christ constraining me to be his faithful willing servant, cheerfully taking up the cross he shall appoint me."-"Read some of Amos with Lowth. The reading of the Scriptures is to me one of the most delightful employments. One cannot but be charmed with the beauty of the imagery, while they never fail to inspire me with awful thoughts of God and his hatred of sin.""The reading of Baxter's Saint's Rest determined me to live more in heavenly meditation.”—“Walked by moonlight, and found it a sweet relief to my mind to think of God, and consider my ways before him. I was strongly impressed with the vanity of the world, and could not help wondering at the imperceptible operation of grace, which had enabled me to resign expectations of happiness from it."--"How frequently has my heart been refreshed, by the description in the Scriptures of the future glory of the Church, and the happiness of man hereafter."-"I felt the force of Baxter's observation, that if an angel had appointed to meet me, I should be full of awehow much more when I am about to meet God.", "In my usual prayer at noon, besought God to give me a heart to do his will.”—“For poor I interceded most earnestly, even with tears."

***

That one thus eminently watchful and holy, who, "counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord," should speak of himself in the strongest terms of self-condemnation, will appear incongruous to those only who forget that the prophet, who uttered in the presence of Jehovah the words of submissive devotion, "Here am I, send me," exclaimed at the same time, in the lowly language of contrition, "Woe is me, for I am undone, I am a man of pol luted lips;" and that it was when the Laodiceans ceased to know that they were "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked," that they became defective in zeal for the glory of their Savior. Whoever considers that tenderness of conscience is found always in an exact proportion to fervent desires after an entire conformity to the divine image, will be prepared to expect, and pleased to peruse, such humble confessions and sacred aspirations as Mr. Martyn's, which seem to bring us back to the days of Ephraim the Syrian and St. Augustine.-"The essence of Evangelical humiliation," observes the celebrated writer* on the Religious Affections, "consists in such humility as becomes a creature under a dispensation of grace, consisting in a mean esteem of himself as nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious, attended with a mortification of a disposition to

* Jonathan Edwards."

exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory. He that has much grace, apprehends much more than others that great height to which his love ought to ascend, and he sees better than others how little a way he has risen towards that height, and, therefore, estimating his love by the whole height of his duty, it appears astonishingly little and low in his eyes.-It most demonstrably appears that true grace is of that nature, that the more a person has of it with remaining corruption, the less does his goodness and holiness appear in proportion, not only to his past deformity, but to his present deformity, in the sin that now appears in his heart, and in the abominable effects of his highest affections and brightest experience."-What better comment can be found on these profoundly scriptural remarks of a divine, who stood singularly high in Mr. Martyn's estimation, than the self-abasing acknowledgments of his which follow?

"What a sink of corruption is the heart! and yet I can go from day to day in self-seeking and self-pleasing. Lord, shew me myself, nothing but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores, and teach me to live by faith on Christ my all."-"I fear the exemption from assaults, either external or internal, is either in itself a bad symptom of selfignorance, or leads to pride and self-seeking. Reveal to me the evil of my heart, O thou heartsearching God."