fleets were in action the whole night, though ftill at anchor : we were at anchor two leagues from theni.

Soon we faw a thip of 74 guns and a frigate of 40 guns fet fire to and blown up, and a frigate of 36 guns run on thore by our fleet.-This afternoon two fhips of the line. and two frigates belonging to the enemy went to fea; the Audacious, a 74 gun thip came down and anchored clofe to us, to give us what help the could. We found our lofs to be 49 killed, and 148 wounded; and now we got up jury mafts and made the fhip fit for fea, but the is very much damaged, it will be well if the makes England. Eleven more men have died of their wounds fince the action, which makes the killed lift amount to 60.

We took and destroyed in all 11 fail of the line and two frigates. Our fleet confifted of 13 fail of the line, one 50 gun thip, and a brig. I have only fent you particulars concerning our own fhip, being what I faw, and the Lord be praised that I can give you this information, inftead of being cut off-Here, tir, you may admire the goodness of the Lord to me, who am not worthy of the leaft of his mercies: while I am from the Church of God, I hope the Lord will fulfill that promile to me, Ezek. i. 16. "Thus faith the Lord God, although I have caft them far off among the Heathen, and although I have fcattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little fanctuary in the countries where they shall come." I can truly fay, that i have feen as happy days in this fhip as ever I have feen in all my life; for I have feen the Lord's goodnefs and mercy following me in all my troubles, fo that I am obliged to confefs, from experience, that God is good to Ifrael; and while I live I hope never to forget it, for he has fulfilled that promite to me, Pfalm 1. 13. "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee." The Lord grant I may glorify him!

If I never come home, yet pray for me, for I fee myself fo weak, and feel myself to corrupt, that nothing but his Almighty arm can hold me up.-May the Lord of heaven and Earth keep the younger members of the church from falling as I have done-He is juft in banithing me from his ordinances, but yet I hope he will fulfill his promife to me, Ezek. xxxiv. 11 to 16. "For thus faith the Lord God, Behold I, even I, will both fearch my fheep and feck them out; as a fhepherd fecketh out his flock, &c.-I will feek that which was loft and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will Frengthen

ftrengthen that which was fick; but I will destroy the fat and the ftrong, I will feed them with judgment."-I trust you will join me in your prayers for it, and I have fome hope that the Lord will fulfil it in me, but he must be enquired of for these things. I fhould be glad to have public thanks offered for me the next Lord's Day after you receive this, for my late temporal falvation, on the 1ft and 2d of Auguft.-Now the Lord be with you and yours, and the houshold of Faith! Pray give my love to our paftor; am forry I have not heard from him, as a letter from him and you would be very acceptable to me and my brethren with me, who I believe are godly men and have been of great service to me; we are feven in number. Letters come often to this fhip, but none for me; yours was the laft I received dated December 97.-The Lord be with you and yours, and keep you in a land of liberty, there to enjoy the fruits of your labours and to fit under your own vine and fig tree, none making you afraid!-You know I am brought here by my own rafh and inconfiderate conduct; but I hope I fhall vet once more be brought to worship with you, and my family around me, in my own land; mean time I beg to be remembered to all my friends; fhall be glad to hear of their welfare, and that the Lord may be with them all is the prayer of

Yours fincerely,

J. W.

P. S. I have fent to none but you-therefore if you hear of my wife, or my father and mother, let them know I am yet fpared as a monument of mercy. We put into St. Auguftin's Bay, Sicily, September 16th and left it 21ft, so here we got water and fresh beef which we greatly wanted, as we were on fhort allowance and the wind not fair.

Dear fir, my dear children coft me many an unhappy hour; let me know where they are, and how they do: the Lord forgive me for leaving them!-Got fafe into Gibraltar 18th October after a very long and bad voyage; but the Lord, who orders all things, has brought us to port. We have been short of every thing fince the action, as you will fuppofe.

I believe this fhip will come to England foon, as fhe is a proper wreck.

ON

THE

ON UNION WITH CHRIST.

HE union of a believer with Chrift is fo intimate, fo unalterable, fo rich in privilege, fo powerful in influence, that it cannot be fully reprefented by any defcription or fimilitude taken from earthly things. The mind, like the fight, is incapable of apprehending a great object, without viewing it on different fides. To help our weakness the nature of this union is illuftrated in the fcripture by four comparifons, each throwing an additional light on the fubject, yet all falling fhort of the thing fignified.

In our natural ftate we are driven and toffed about by the changing winds of opinion and the waves of trouble, which hourly difturb and threaten us upon the uncertain fea of human life. But faith, uniting us to Chrift, fixes us on the Rock of Ages, as a fure foundation, where we ftand iminovcable, though ftorms and floods unite their ftrength and violence against us.

By nature we are feparated from the divine life, as branches broken off, withered, and fruitlefs; but faith ingrafts us into Chrift, the living Vine, from whom, as the root and ftock of all fulness, a conftant fupply of fap and influence is derived by all the myftical branches, enabling them to bring forth fruit unto God, and to preferve and abound therein.

By nature we are hateful and abominable in the fight of a holy God, and full of enmity and hatred towards each other. By faith, uniting us to Chrift, we have fellowship with the Father and the Son, and joint communion amongit ourfelves, even as the members of the fame body have each of them union, communion, and sympathy with the head, and with their fellow members.

In our natural ftate, we were caft out naked and deftitute, without pity and without help; but faith, uniting us to Chrift, interefts us in his righteoufnefs, his riches, and his honours. Our Redeemer is our hufband; our debts are paid, our fettlements fecured, and our names honourably changed. Thus the Lord Jefus in declaring himself the foundation, root, head, and hufband of his people, takes in all the ideas we can frame, of an intimate, vital, and inseparable union. Yet all these fall fhort of truth, and he has given us one farther fimilitude, of which we can by no means form a juft conception, till we fhall be brought to fee him as he is, in his kingdom-" That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they alfo may be one in us!"* ⚫ John xvii. 21. 4 E

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Well may we fay, what hath God wrought! How invio late is the fecurity, how incftimable the privilege, how inexpreffible the happiness of a believer! How much is he indebted to the grace of God! He was once afar off, but he is brought nigh to God by the blood of Chrift; he was once a child of wrath, but he is now an heir of everlafting falvation. How ftrong, then, are his obligations to walk worthy of God, who has called him "to glory and to virtue !" VIGILARIUS.

"M

THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST.

Y Kingdom is not of this world," favs Chrift; it is not like unto the kingdoms of this world, many of which thine in exterior grandcur. It is a fpiritual kingdom. All things that belong to it are spiritual, not worldly, and have not much influence to ftrike the carnal mind. Chrift himfelf, who is the Sovereign of this kingdom, when in the world, was not arrayed with grandeur, nor furrounded with exterior pomp like an earthly king; but on the contrary came cloathed with humility, and furrounded with poverty: hence it is faid by one of the Prophets, "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion; fhout, O Daughter of Jerufalem. Behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is juft, and having falvation, lowly, and riding upon an afs, and upon a colt the foal of an afs." How unlike to an earthly king was the Lord Jefus!" Though the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nefts, yet he had no where to lay his head." He appeared" without form or comeliness, as a root out of a dry ground," not to be defired.

His throne is not an earthly one, like thofe of worldly potentates, but divine and heavenly. "The Lord has prepared his throne in the heavens," and he is feated upon it, "to eftablifh it with juftice and judgment, world without end;" and from thence he featters his favours to the poor and needy.

His entigns of royalty are not fuch as the princes of this world wear; he has a fceptre, but not like theirs. A fceptre, denotes power and authority, and thefe the Lord Jefus poffeffes and exercifes over his people with gentleness: he rules by a fceptre, but it is the fceptre of his word and Spirit. I am not afhamed," fays the Apoftle, " of the gofpel of Chrift" Why? becaufe "it is the power of God unto falvation." This rod, or fceptre," the Lord has fent out of Zion," and to this thould we yield fubjection.

The

The fubjects of Chrift's kingdom are not carnal and worldly men, but men of nobler extraction. They are born from above, they are the children of God, who, fays the apostle John, "were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God: of his own will begat he us by the word of truth, which liveth and abideth for ever." Should not then all who pretend to be fubjects of this fpiritual kingdom, conduct themfelves as fpiritual men, raifing their affections to divine and fpiritual things?

The mode of adminiftration in Chrift's kingdom, is different from the adminiftration of the kingdoms of this world; it is a fpiritual adminiftration not conducted with carnal policy: nor are the fubjects thereof at any time forced to comply with its mandates, contrary to their wills, for the Lord makes his people willing as well as obedient “in the day of his power:" he works in them "to will" as well as "to do of his good pleafure:" he draws them with "the cords of love as with the bands of a man: not by might nor by power, but by the fpirit of the Lord," the adminiftration of King Jefus, brings every thing into sweet fubjection. The laws of this kingdom are allo fpiritual, and divine; human laws are neceffarily imperfect; but "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the foul; the statutes of the Lord are pure, making wife the timple ;" and they reach to the very thoughts of the heart, as well as outward actions.

The promifes which Zion's King makes to his fubjects are chiefly of a fpiritual kind; they are exceeding great and precious promifes; he promifes pardon, juftification, righteoufnefs, and everlafting life.

Who would not with to be a fubject of fuch a kingdom, to ferve the beft of kings, the King of heaven, who rules with juftice and equity, who is juft, merciful and kind, who preferves good order in his kingdom, and who will protect and defend his fubjects from all their enemies? Unto him be glory and honour for ever, Amen.

E. Y.

REFLECTIONS ON ISAIAH ii. 22. "Ceafe ye from Man whofe breath is in his noftrils." ISPLACED confidence, both as it refpects things of a temporal and of an eternal nature, is, of all the miflakes to which human nature is fubject, perhaps, the moft common, and, in its confequences, the moft fatal.

M'

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Not