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ания

UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

DIARY

OF

ALEXANDER JAFFRAY.

CHAPTER I.

THE DESIGN OF ALEXANDER JAFFRAY IN RECORDING HIS RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE THE WAY OF THE LORD WITH HIM IN HIS YOUTHFUL DAYS, AND THE SINS AND VANITY OF YOUTH-RESPECTING HIS CONVERSION, WITH THE GROUND OF HIS HOPE ON THIS POINT-HIS EXERCISES OF SPIRIT, IN DESIRE OF MORE FULL ASSURANCE, AND VICTORY OVER SIN-THE DUTY OF WRESTLING WITH CHEERFULNESS AGAINST CORRUPTION.

A JOURNAL OF DIARY, wherein some things are observed, making appear the wonderful goodness of God in way of Providence towards me, and my unthankfulness and unanswerable walking; serving for the further humbling of my heart, and the engaging thereof to him for ever.

JEREMIAH, XXX. 21.—“ For who is this that engageth his heart to approach unto me, saith the Lord ?”

ISAIAH, Ixiv. 7.-" There is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee," &c.

AMONG Some confused thoughts I have had on these Scriptures, this was one:-that, for the better stirring up and engaging the heart to approach unto God, it might be useful for a believer to be very punctual in observing all the passages of Divine Providence [that concern] him, and those related to him, for whom he is making daily supplications and putting up petitions; and that these, for the better remembering

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of them, be written down and often perused. So, the Lord appointed Moses, Exod. xvii. 14, for a memorial of Amalek's destruction, to write it in a book, that it might be rehearsed to Joshua. It is observable here, that it was Joshua who was general when Amalek was defeated, and yet it must be written in a book, to be rehearsed to Joshua. Why? Because God would have him hereby engaged, upon every remembrance of this victory; and lest it should be forgotten, it must be written. The like charge he gives them in Deut. iv. 9, and vi. 12. And how is their forgetfulness laid to their charge, Psal. lxxviii. 11, 42, and cvi. 7, 13, 21;-they forgat their Saviour, who had done great things in Egypt.

My thoughts having stayed a little upon this subject, I resolved to set down, shortly, what I could attain to remember of the Lord's dispensations towards me, both of mercies and corrections; having weakly sought of him, that this means may be blessed, and prove effectual for the engaging of my barren and backsliding heart to him, never to depart from him any more!

What was his way and goodness towards me in my younger days, so slothful and sluggish have I been, that little or nothing else I remember, only if I may say with the Psalmist, xxii. 10, “I was cast upon thee from the womb thou art my God from my mother's belly!"-and, praise to him! that by him I was "fearfully and wonderfully made," Psal. cxxxix. 14, and that he slew me not there, [as Jeremiah expresses himself,] xx. 17. It is a part of the misery of children, that they are incapable of observing God's goodness to them in their younger years. But, much more are they miserable in this, that not only then,

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